CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Ana insisted on tagging along and refused to be coddled. The stubborn stare she gave Eva reminded Eva too much of herself, which was why she found herself saying yes before she could change her mind. Eva took a big dagger from her knife collection, then a smaller gun, and off the three of them went, tracking down the demon as they were pretty sure the creature followed Peter the moment he stepped out of the house.
Eva’s niece offered no explanation as to why Peter needed to go out, and while Eva wanted to interrogate Ana, there was no denying one fact: she was just a kid despite being a volatile vampire, and there was no point interrogating a kid who had nothing but fear snapping in her eyes at the moment. It was stark and brightening her eyes with unshed tears, an expression that Eva had never, ever seen in her.
And it was obvious that she was blaming herself for sleeping early and not watching over her brother.
Raz was quiet beside her, which brought to the surface Eva’s own guilt for being too consumed with her feelings and the kiss to notice anything odd happening right away. Like him, she could have easily detected that the demon presence was gone—but there she was, kissing a man who wasn’t a man and admittedly getting more turned on than she was supposed to. Now, the demon might have already gotten to Peter, and there was no one to blame but the adults who should have been responsible enough to know better.
But Eva pushed it out of her mind, knowing it wasn’t going to help. Instead, she took Ana’s hand in hers, surprising the little girl enough that her head snapped up in shock. Eva gripped her small fingers tight. Then she squeezed hard, not saying anything as they walked faster and verged on a run.
A few seconds later, Ana returned the gesture.
“They’re close,” Raz warned beside her. He wasn’t looking at them, but she was sure he saw everything.
Eva nodded her head and let Ana go, following as the vampire indicated with his hand and they turned away from the streets and into a forest area, which was dark but teeming with animal life. The demon’s presence was ripe here, seeping into Eva’s skin and making her shiver involuntarily at the darkness she felt in it. But it didn’t grow stronger, which meant that the demon was no longer here but they were close.
They went beyond the forest onto another road, then past that, too. Eva’s neck prickled as the presence pulsed more steadily now, and soon they found the destination they were looking for.
The smashed chains of the baseball field’s gate confirmed her suspicion. Eva opened the gate wider, letting Raz and Ana slip in before she followed. She gripped the dagger tighter and pressed her hand on the gun in her pocket, knowing she was in for a sight as horrible as the one in the alley.
They got to the open area, and she stopped.
No, it wasn’t as horrible as the alley—it was ten times worse.
There were dead bodies piled up in the middle—not just two, but so plenty that the scent that permeated the air sent her stomach heaving. Beside her, Raz was calm as he surveyed the scene, though his jaw was clenched tight. Ana trembled, her eyes flaring with a hunger that she obviously tried to push down as she fisted her hands.
Eva couldn’t help counting it in her head. Eleven. One of them moved, and someone slipped out from between the pile, covered from head to toe in blood and munching relentlessly on a piece of torn limb.
Bile rose in her throat as she stared at Peter.
Almost immediately, she took a step forward, then managed to control herself before she could fully walk towards him. But Ana didn’t have the same instinct, launching herself right at him and worriedly calling out his name. It was Raz who took hold of the girl’s arm, keeping her in place.
At the mention of his name, Peter’s head snapped up, revealing black orbs for eyes similar to the demon. Her heart stopped as every memory came back, from the dead boy in the forest to the dead dog on her porch. The kids claimed they hadn’t done what happened in the alley, because that was the demon’s work.
But they didn’t claim the same on all the others.
She didn’t mean it, Peter had said. And Ana had said nothing…because she was covering up for her brother.
The puzzle clicked into place.
Peter kept staring at them, blood dripping from his fangs and his claws, which again resembled that of a demon in the way they irregularly curved out. She tried to search for any humanity left, but she found none. Dismayed, Eva turned to Ana.
“What is he, Ana?”
Ana looked at her defiantly, still struggling from Raz’s hold. Then her face crumpled, and the tears that she’d been holding back finally came.
“He’s my half-brother,” she whispered, her voice trembling. “He’s half-vampire like me. His other half…”
“His other half is me.”
The familiar sweet voice had all their heads snapping in that direction, where they found the female demon standing right beside Peter, her hands on his shoulders. The familiarity of the gesture answered questions again, those that Ana wasn’t able to voice out.
“He was doing so good,” Ana said in a small voice. “I was…he was trying to control himself…”
A subtle, sharp breath came out from Raz. “You knew, Ana?”
Ana nodded. “He can’t help it. But he’s trying to stop the urge to kill.”
“You’ve turned him into a weakling,” the demon snapped. “Do you know what a half-Greater-demon and half-vampire could do to the world?”
“It could destroy it,” Raz replied softly, his expression hardening. “Was that your purpose, demon?”
The demon laughed, a high, tinkling sound that sent the air shivering and had Eva mesmerized. She shook the feeling off, listening as the demon explained how this had all been an accident, but had turned out to be the greatest creation on earth—and with more creatures like Peter, who could hide his demon presence well, then the opportunity for the demon’s kind would grow, allowing them to finally take the reins from the vampires and the shifters.
The demon suddenly stopped talking, smiling at them brilliantly. She removed her hand from Peter’s shoulders, patting his head.
“Get your hand away from him,” Eva growled.
The demon turned her smile in Eva’s direction. “If you say so,” she said softly. She leaned down. “Peter, kill them all.”
Then she was stepping away.
Everything happened at the same time. Peter’s head snapped up, zoning in on her. Eva readied her dagger.
“I’ll handle him,” she said to Raz.
Then Raz was gone, a blur as he went after the Greater demon. Eva never took her eyes off Peter, readying herself—but she wasn’t ready enough as Peter turned to the side just as she pushed the dagger at his stomach, where it could only injure him.
Then Peter was jumping her from behind, and they both crashed on the ground with a thud.
Eva fought him off, shocked by the strength that he’d been hiding. She got a slash in his stomach, growing afraid that she was hurting him. But it didn’t stop Peter as he clawed at her repeatedly, and a certain knowledge flew in her head and smacked her in the face.
He wasn’t going to stop until he killed her.
It stopped as soon as it came, and Eva heard Ana shouting at Peter to stop. Then there was the sound of a scuffle, one Eva couldn’t see as blood dripped from her forehead and covered her vision. She wiped it off and ignored the pain, standing back up with effort. She grabbed her dagger again and took out her gun, turning in the direction of the sounds.
The sight that greeted her when her eyesight was finally back was one she would carry in her memories forever.
Ana was lying on the ground, her head twisted at an unnatural angle. Her eyes stared into Eva’s, no longer sparkling with life. A hand fisted itself on Eva’s heart as she watched Peter tear off Ana’s hand and eat it.
With a sob, Eva pointed the gun in his direction and fired. He ran again in her direction, but his mouth was full, giving her the chance to fire three more times—all aimed at his chest and all hitting him squarely. Then, when he leaped at her, she finished it off with a dagger to his stomach, saying sorry over and over again as he went limp against her and finally stumbled to the ground.
Tears freely flowing now, Eva’s knees gave in on her. Then she crawled in Ana’s direction and grieved for the child.