I dont know how long we stood there. He didnt ask again. He stared at me out of those deep-blue eyes, so vivid in his calm face, and I fought the chill that swept over me. If I gave in thered be no hope, though I couldnt begin to define what I was hoping for.
You are wiser than this, he said finally. You know I am your enemy, and it would take very little to kill you. Instead of antagonizing me, you should be trying to soften me up.
Soft was never a word I would use for Azazel. He was lean, strong, all harsh planes and angles. I didnt think hed ever be soft at the wrong time.
Color flooded my face at the thought. Why was I thinking of sex when I looked at this man? If he wasnt human, he might not even be sexual. And even if he was, it had nothing to do with me. I wasnt turned on by someone who wanted me dead.
But unfortunately, he had a point. I shouldnt be antagonizing him. I should be meek and submissive and maybe hed let me go again. But I didnt move. Not this time.
To my shock, the merest glimmer of a smile danced across his mouth and then was gone as soon as it appeared. Your choice.
And everything went dark.
I had felt this before: being crushed in an unbreakable hold, the scent of warm male and the ocean surrounding me. I didnt struggleI remembered it would hurt more if I fought. I held still in the dark, blinding embrace, trying to register everything.
It was crazy, but it felt as if I were flying. Soaring through clouds and space and time, and it felt glorious. Ridiculous, because I hated the very idea of flying. Right now I was simply cocooned in something, my imagination going wild. But I breathed in deeply, the scent of his skin and the sea breeze in my nostrils, and I gave in to the pleasure of it, letting my will dissolve.
HE SOARED UPWARD,
THE DEMON wrapped tight against him. She didnt fight him this time, which made things more difficult. He was better off fighting her. He could feel her head tucked against his shoulder, feel her warm, moist breath against his skin. If she struggled he could drop her, forget about her, and who knew where and when she would surface? But surface she would. Killing a demon wasnt that easy, even for him.
It hadnt taken long to find herin truth, hed always been aware of her, ready for the day when he could finish what hed started. Letting her live was unacceptable.
He still didnt know why hed changed his mind, gone back for her a year and a half ago. Maybe it was the simple fact that Sarah would have hated what hed done. Even so long after her death, her gentle influence fought against his more bloody-minded instincts.
And bloody-minded was the term. The Lilith could bleedhe remembered that. Remembered the torn flesh of her wrists and ankles, which hed healed after he pulled her out of there. He could make her bleed again, and this time no misguided charity would stop him. He wouldnt have thought there was a charitable bone in his body.
He would take her to the Dark City and, if it came to that, hand her over to the Truth Breakers to find out all her secrets. He would have no choice but to expose himself to her temptation, and he would prove to himself that he could resist her. He would mourn Sarah forever. She was the wife of his eternal banishment. The Lilith was a murderous whore.
No matter what she believed, he couldnt afford to let himself forget that essential truth.
CHAPTER SIX
I OPENED MY EYES, BLINKED, THEN closed them tightly again. There was something wrong with my vision. Something wrong with my mind as well. My heart raced with remembered fear, and I took deep, slow breaths, willing calm back. I was lying on a bed, and déjà vu swept over me. This had all happened before. Where was Azazel?
I opened my eyes again, slowly, then sat up and looked around me. I was in a bedroom, large, luxurious, with a high ceiling, heavy old furniture, and what looked like a marble floor. I couldnt be sure, because the room was leached of color. Everything was a strange sepia tone, like an ancient photograph. I looked down at my body, and breathed a sigh of relief. I was in full color, my jeans the same faded indigo as when Id put them on, my sneakers a dirty white, my arms their normal lightly tanned skin color. Some odd memory made me reach up to my hair. It was the same, long and thick, and I pulled a strand into sight. The same red Id become accustomed to.
I stroked the coverlet beneath me. It was thick and velvety, despite its gray-brown appearance. Someone must have a really strange decorating sense, to have chosen everything in these colorless shades. Even the marble. I slid off the high bed, and the floor was hard beneath my feet. Was there such a thing as brown marble, or had they painted it?
But I knew paint was too easy an answer. I knew what Id find when I opened the door, when I pushed the heavy beige curtains away from the tall windows, beige curtains that something told me ought to be pure white.
I turned the knob, hoping for some Wizard of Oz effect of the bright colors of Munchkinland beyond the door. Instead it was another sepia-toned room. No sign of Azazel, and I breathed an involuntary sigh of relief. There were the same tall windows covered with heavy curtains, and I didnt want to go look. But I was made of tougher stuff than that, and if I was here I might as well know what I was facing. I crossed the room and pushed the curtains aside, then stood there, frozen, staring out into the city.