Chapter Nineteen
THEA
The door banged open and Cam came striding through in all his glory. For a moment, Thea's world stopped. Everything stopped.
Tall and muscular, his body was wired and tense, his muscles tight and his wings ruffled. He was ready to fight.
A tiny seed of emotion blossomed in Thea's stomach, and it expanded throughout her body, branches and tendrils twisted and clawed from inside to her outer extremities. She gasped as a wave of emotion crashed through her, and suddenly she could feel. She was awake.
"Cam?" She stared at him, once again amazed by his beauty. When she first met him, he had looked exactly the same, except he hadn’t looked at her the way he was looking at her now, with that intense gaze that told her she was the only thing that mattered to him. "Cam, are you really here?"
"I'm here, Elithea," he said. His smoky-gray eyes pierced her. "And I'm not going anywhere without you."
Relief washed through her, quickly followed by appreciation and love for the angel who had shown up to support her time and time again. Her need for him rose wildly, fighting for acknowledgment and she had to accept it—she loved him.
Thea stared at him as his eyes swept the room and returned to hers. In his stormy gaze, she saw only love, fierce love for her, and hope and protectiveness. He was here to protect her and she had been pushing him away. Guilt and shame rose quickly. All the things he had seen her do… And he was still here, trying to save her. He must be in pain, isn't that what the Dominion League said? Angels experience pain in the Demon Realm, and he had chosen to come here after her. He had awakened her.
"Focus," her mother said.
Thea frowned. Her mother was trying to reinsert her hold on her emotions, but she couldn't, not with Cam in the room. And suddenly all the memories came flooding back. She realized all that her mother made her do, and she almost choked in horror.
"Why did you make me do all this?" Thea hissed at her mother, glaring at her as her fists curled. "You made me… drain people. Murder angels." Her mouth dropped and she turned to Cam. "Asteroth!"
Cam took a step towards her, but Oriah held up a hand. "Don't move, Camael," Oriah warned. "I can hurt her before you have the chance to get to me."
Cam tensed and then glanced around the room, shock and horror filtered into his face.
“This is a shielded room,” Oriah said, tilting he head as she watched him. “It’s protected from angelic energy. You cannot draw from the Stream in here.”
Cam’s mouth tightened and his nostrils flared.
"Why are you doing this!" Thea yelled, realizing her mother still had some control over her body. "You made out like you had such good reasons for leaving me, but you made me do things that no mother should make her child do."
Oriah looked desperate. "I had to. You're trained now, you're safe. There’s no reason for me to exist here in the Demon Realm. I had to make you strong enough so you could come down here without feeling the pain."
"Why?"
"I don't want this existence, Thea," Oriah said, tiredness in her voice. "I don't want to be alive without your father. I want to die and I need you for that."
"You want me to kill you?" Thea asked, in disbelief. "That's what all of this for was for? You want to die, and you made me kill other beings to get that?"
Oriah stepped towards her, pain her eyes. "You're the only one who can do it—you're the only person I truly love who could come here. I had to make you strong enough to do it."
Thea suddenly remembered what Cam told her during training; demons suffer in hell, forever in a painful state, unless they are killed by someone they truly love, in which case they simply perish into oblivion. Her mother wanted oblivion.
"Why didn't you come to the human world if you wanted her to kill you?" Cam asked. "Why put her through all of this?"
"I cannot leave here," Oriah said, looking down at her hands. "I am a slave to my mate, and he will never allow me to enter the human world, not after I tricked demons into taking me. And anyway, I wouldn’t look like this in the human world." She glanced at Cam. “When was the last time you stopped to have a chat with a Legion demon?”
"Demons can mate?" Thea's asked, in wonder.
"Yes, but it's not like how angels mate," Oriah said. "If a lower-class demon is mated to a higher-class demon, the higher-class demon controls their mate."
"What demon class are you?"
Oriah held her gaze. "Legion."
"There is no higher than you then, is there?"
Cam made a noise in the back of his throat. "The Devourer," he breathed. "You're mated to the Devourer?"
Oriah nodded and Thea gasped.
"I cannot continue my existence like this,” Oriah pleaded. “You must understand, Thea. I was willing to give up my life to make sure that you were safe, but now that you can look after yourself, I don't need to live this way. It is a horrifying existence. Every day is torture. And I have only ever been willing to endure it for you."
Thea rubbed her forehead, trying to make sense of the conflicting emotions fighting for dominance within her. On one hand, all of her mother's choices seemed to have been made for the right reasons; she tried to make things easier for Dad, she tried to protect Thea, she made sure the Angel Realm knew about her. And yet all that pain and death inflicted on others just to get Thea the Demon Realm—it was overly extreme. She looked up at her mother and saw that raw emotion in her eyes again. "Oriah, you made me kill Cam's father. You made me drain a beautiful human who has been my sister all my life. I cannot ignore that."
Cam kept his eyes on her, a trace of confusion in them.
"I know," Oriah said, a small smile on her face. "If you hate me, kill me. You don't have to love me for me to love you, Thea. I never expected you to feel anything for me."
"Is that why you did it?" Thea asked, annoyance raging through her. "So I would be upset with you? I’ve already been upset with you since I found out you were alive! No one needed to die."
“Tell her the truth,” Cam demanded, his deep voice reverberating around the room. “You had demons helping her to drain humans—they shielded her from angels and kept the humans she attacked out of sight. Are you saying they all knew you were bringing her here to help you die?”
Oriah’s smile faded. “I had to tell them something so they would help get her strong enough,” she snapped.
“What did you tell them?” Thea asked.
“Why are you still holding her captive if you want her to kill you anyway?” Cam said over her, fury in his eyes. “You have manipulated her the whole way—and you’re still controlling her!”
“I need her to do it,” Oriah replied, desperately. “I couldn’t risk that she would say no.”
“And how did you get control?” Thea asked, almost hesitantly.
Oriah looked between them, her face hard, and then sighed. “As the Devourer’s mate, I have a direct connection with all the Legion demons. When I started hearing your name among them, I was worried they had found you. I soon realized that Cam was on an assignment and that you were important to him, so I watched and listened very carefully for any chance to get a message to you. When he cut you, I took advantage of my connection to Legion blood to latch onto your subconscious. It was better than I could have imagined because I had direct contact with you. I just couldn’t chance that you’d say no.” She paused, taking a breath. “I explored your mind through your dreams, learning your tolerance for violence and the weaknesses in your mental and emotional state. As I grew more powerful, I began to make suggestions that affected your mood and mind. I deadened your feelings and got you to a state of living on autopilot.” She threw a hostile glance at Cam. “And then you came along and almost destroyed my hold on her by pulling her out of my grip and putting her in a dreamless state when you had sex with her.”
Thea glanced at Cam but he was staring at Oriah, a bitter snarl on his face.
“I had to move quickly after that,” Oriah said. “I suppressed your feelings as much as I could and heightened your hostility when you interrogated the demon. That gave me enough momentum to take over your mind and drain your friend. From the moment you took human energy, I gained full control.”
“I cannot believe you’re her mother,” Cam spat. “You are disgusting.”
“I did what I had to do,” Oriah glowered. “If you hadn’t cut her, I never would’ve had a chance, so the blame lies closer to you than me. You’re lucky it was me instead of—” She stopped and glanced toward one side of the room, as though she heard something. "Legion are coming," she warned, her tone urgent. "Please, Thea. Kill me now. Please! You have to do it now."
Thea froze, gazing into her mother's blue-gray eyes and unable to look away.
"I’ll do it," Cam said. "Let her go. Release her completely and I will kill you. You don't deserve oblivion; you will go to hell and you will suffer there for eternity but at least you won’t be here."
Thea dragged her eyes away from her mother to look at Cam. Thank god he was there. He was experienced in killing Legion and could kill her mother easily. A flash of memory ran through her mind of seeing him fight in the alley, but this time it didn't make her nervous, it made her relieved.
Oriah shook her head. "Being mated to the Devourer has made me too powerful," she said. "If you tried to kill me, and failed, he would be alerted instantly. Only Thea will be able to do it without risking her life."
"I don't fail," Cam snarled.
Oriah smiled at him. "Yes, I know. But you have never faced a demon mated to the Devourer before."
"Doesn't he know what's going on here right now?" Thea asked, nervously.
"No," Oriah said. "He has many interests in the human world. This is happening too quickly to catch his attention. But he will learn of it shortly, and you need to kill me and leave before he comes." She looked at Thea expectantly. "What are you going to do?"