Touched by Death: (Sins of The Fallen book 3)

The days go by so slowly. I’m withering away, vaguely wondering where Daemon is but also relieved that he’s not in class. It’s difficult enough to be around them all the time.

The reek of fear and blood in the cafeteria never gets any easier to handle, but I soon learn to tune it out. I haven’t dared feed on anyone here. Just the thought of luring the darkness inside me to the surface has my heart galloping uncomfortably in my chest. Instead, I force the hunger back down.

I need to find someone willing to let me feed on them. Someone safe.

“Don’t leave me alone in here again,” I say to Dmitriy with my eyes closed and my head resting back against the cold stone walls as his shadow falls over me. I’ve grown used to his woodsy smell these last couple of days.

His dark chuckle pulls a small smile from my own lips, and I open my eyes to look at him. Blood stains his bottom lip, but he makes no move to wipe it clean. Instead, he lowers himself down beside me and kicks his ankle up on his knee. With his arm outstretched behind me, he scans the cafeteria. “You can’t hide behind me forever. They’ll corner you sooner or later.”

“They can always try,” I mutter, clutching my aching stomach.

Dmitriy notices, his brows pulling low. “When was the last time you fed?”

My eyes lock with Ronan’s across the cafeteria, where he sits on top of a table with his elbows on his thighs and his feet on a chair. His brown eyes burn into me from beneath his dark lashes before he breaks eye contact to greet a male student, who clasps him on the shoulder. I study the stranger. Like other angels here, his wings end just above the back of his knee. Unlike mine, which trail the floor. I keep them tucked, but it’s hard to hide their impressive size. I’m not blind to the male attention it brings, much to Dmitriy’s amusement.

The guy loves nothing more than to slide his arm around my shoulders and bare his incisors at other males. It’s a game to him, and he chuckles every time they scurry away like frightened mice.

“Look…” Dmitriy turns his body to face me. “You need to keep your strength up. With wings like that”—he gestures at them pressed up uncomfortably against the wall behind me—“you’re bound to draw the wrong kind of attention.”

The look I give him is deadpan. “Like you.”

His laugh starts out slow, a soft chuckle at first that soon morphs into something deep and rich. Cupping my chin, he jostles me playfully. “Yes, like me. Why are you here, angel? You should stay far away if you know what’s good for you.”

Unable to stop a smile from dancing across my lips, I bat him off. “You’re the lesser of two evils. I’d rather deal with you than the three of them.” I fall silent, relaxing back against the cold wall. Dmitriy stays quiet beside me, but the heat of his gaze burns the side of my face. His soft touch follows as he tucks my hair behind my ear.

Picking at my nail polish and scraping it off from the corner of my thumbnail, I ask, “Do you know where Daemon is?”

“No.”

My teeth destroy my bottom lip while his fingers trace the shell of my ear. I don’t question why he’s touching me like this or why he’s being kind to me. In a world where cruelty is your ally, I feel so fucking lost and welcome having a friend.

It’s foolish—I know it is. When I killed Oliver and escaped Eden, I had a plan and a purpose in mind. Now I’m stuck here with no clue about who I am or why I’m here.This text is property of Nô/velD/rama.Org.

“But I do know that he’ll come back for you.”

I scoff, avoiding his probing gaze.

“He will,” he reassures me, cupping my chin and bringing my eyes to his. I couldn’t look away even if I wanted to. I’m reeled in by the darkness in his eyes, the whisper of a promise to make me forget and take the pain away.

Why does he look so much like Daemon but also not? Why do I tingle in forbidden places when his breath licks at my lips like the ghosting of a promised kiss?

I lean away from his touch, then rise to my feet. “I need to go.”

His hand flies out and encircles my wrist. “I’m sorry.”

My eyes fall to where his fingers burn my skin. I’m hurting. That’s why my heart responds to the regret staring back at me.

“I didn’t mean to make you uncomfortable.”

I jump at the sound of a throat clearing behind me, and Dmitriy’s eyes darken before he releases me and relaxes back. “Alaric,” he drawls, stretching his arm out over the back of the bench. I stand frozen in place with my breath caught in my throat. I don’t dare turn around.

“She’s claimed by Daemon.”

Dmitriy raises one eyebrow and pretends to scan the cafeteria. “Daemon isn’t here.”

My eyes threaten to fall shut when Alaric’s heat burns my back. He towers behind me, achingly familiar. “Touch her again, and it’ll be the last fucking thing you do.”

Without thinking it through, I spin around and shove him back. “I decide who gets to touch me. Not you, and certainly not Daemon.”

Alaric kills the small distance in less than two steps, his lips brushing against the shell of my ear when he whispers, “You’re smarter than this.”

“Than what?”

“He’s playing games.”

My feet retreat a step. “And you’re not? All this time, Daemon was betrothed to Dariana.”

“It’s complicated,” he grits out, hands fisting rhythmically at his sides. He wants to reach for me but holds himself back.

“Complicated,” I echo. My throat bobs on a painful swallow as I allow myself a second to bask in his masculine perfection. The way his dark hair falls over his brows, and the glint in his stormy eyes as he holds himself back from grabbing me and punishing me with his lethal touch that would see all of my defenses crumble.

Since when did I become so fucking scared? Where has my fight gone? I don’t like this new version of me. “Leave,” I demand, gesturing to Ronan and Dariana across the room. “Your friends are waiting for you.”

His conflicted eyes skate past me to Dmitriy on the bench and then back. “If you think this is over, you’re wrong.”

“Run along now,” Dmitriy taunts behind me, and I fight the urge to growl at him.

Snarling, Alaric bares his teeth. “Watch it!” Then he’s gone, walking back across the cafeteria. I’m left a weak, panting mess that’s two seconds away from collapsing in a heap.

I somehow manage to sit back down and grip the edge of the seat. “You’re right,” I say to Dmitriy. “I need to feed.”

His warm touch strokes soothing circles on the spot between my wings. “What do you need?”

My eyes find his over my shoulder. “I need to visit the human world.”

It’s bad news to go there. I should stay in Hell and not entertain the darkness inside me. If I feed, I’ll not only nourish myself, but the monster, too. It’s growing restless, and the only way to keep it leashed is to keep myself weak.

But if I’m weak, I can’t keep up my defenses against them. And as I lift my gaze to find Alaric and Ronan watching me, I know I have no other choice. I must protect my fragile heart.

RONAN

“I hate this,” Dariana mutters, looking over her shoulder at the little witch across the cafeteria where she sits with Dmitriy. “I hate that he thinks he can just piss all over our territory like that.”

“I thought you didn’t trust her,” I point out lazily as I straighten up and fish a packet of cigarettes from my pocket. It’s frowned upon to smoke in here, but it’s not like anyone can tell us off. I light one up and blow out a cloud of smoke.

Dariana wafts it away with her dainty hand. “I didn’t. But that was before Lucifer kidnapped his own son to teach him a lesson.”

“What changed?” Alaric asks, hands in his pockets and his gaze locked on Aurelia.

As I bring the filter to my lips and inhale a deep breath, she says, “Everything.”

Smoke pours from my lips as I chuckle. “Everything?”

She jumps up next to me on the table and pulls her skirt down to cover more of her bare thighs before snatching the cigarette from between my lips. She takes a drag and blows the smoke right in my face, then responds, “If she’d been working with Amenadiel like we thought, she wouldn’t avoid us like the plague after finding out about the betrothal.”

I mull over her words, then shrug when she hands the cigarette back. “It’s a little too late now.”

A disbelieving sound escapes her plump lips and then she turns away from me to face the little witch. “It’s never too fucking late. Besides, whether she likes it or not, she belongs to us. If she doesn’t want to be ours, well…” Her cruel smile coaxes mine out to dance with hers. “Then we’ll just have to steal her choice and break her down, little by little, until she begs us to touch her.”

Nudging her with my shoulder, I smirk. “I like your evil side.”

“Screw that,” Alaric mutters. “She doesn’t have a choice to begin with. If she thinks she can hide behind Dmitriy, she’s in for a rude awakening.”

“We need Daemon back,” Dariana mumbles, resting her head on my shoulder. “I’m so fucking worried about him.”

“Don’t be.”

She ignores me. “He was always larger than life. To see him dragged away to the cellars… the blood left behind on the marble floor…”

“He’ll be fine,” I say reassuringly. “Daemon will always bounce back. It’s what he does.”

I wish I could believe my own words. While I know Lucifer won’t kill his own son, he’s a psychopath who singlehandedly birthed Hell and the separation from God. There’s not a kind bone in his body. If Daemon doesn’t willingly submit to his father, then Lucifer will break him until he’s in pieces before putting him together like a patchwork quilt. It may look pretty, but the pieces will never fit right again.

“Daemon will be back soon,” I murmur, bringing the filter to my lips. The embers crackle in the silence as I nod to myself. “He will.”

“The hell?” Alaric straightens, watching the little witch and Dmitriy exit the cafeteria. “Where are they going?”

“Beats me.” I jump down from the table, crush the cigarette beneath my boot, and set off after them. “But I’m finding out.”

We keep a safe distance away, too intrigued to let ourselves be known just yet. The little angel weaves through bodies ahead of Dmitriy, who follows behind like a lazy cat while making no secret of checking her out. It makes my fucking blood boil.

They exit the academy and set off into the sky, their impressive wings slicing through the silvery moonlight.

“Well, color me intrigued,” I say, bending my knees and shooting up into the sky. The cool air caresses my feathers as my wings unfold from my back.

We keep low, flying in and out of the treetops to keep hidden from view while keeping them in our sights.

“They’re about to enter the human world,” Alaric points out as we near the border.

“She’s hunting.” Dariana flies past me, her long hair moving in the wind.

“Why not drink from the girls in the cafeteria?”

“Unless she wants to hide the monster in her that comes out every time she feeds,” I muse, giving a hard sweep of my wings to propel me forward. My cheeks burn from the icy breeze, but all that soon changes when we cross the border. The air turns milder and more damp. It sticks to my skin, curling the ends of my hair.

“Where the hell is she going?”

“Beats me.”

We follow them until they finally descend to the ground and set off walking toward a remote village.

My shoes sink into the soft, tall grass, and I flex my wings once, stretching them out before tucking them back in and cracking my neck. While Aurelia traveled this far to hunt humans, we’re here to hunt her.

I take in the paddock and the lone horse asleep in the distance. A white, weathered farmhouse stretches tall to our left with all the lights out in the windows. Beside it, a parked, green tractor has seen better days. Tufts of grass and an abandoned tire lead the way to the dilapidated porch, where a swing chair creaks in the wind.

Dariana is the first one to set off, her short skirt sliding over her thighs with every silent step. “Come on, boys. What are you waiting for? I don’t know about you, but I’m curious to see what trouble she’s about to get herself into.”

Rolling my shoulders back, I follow, equally intrigued to find out what she has planned.

“Shit, I think I stepped in something,” Alaric complains, rubbing his shoe on the grass.

“Stop being such a baby.” Dariana quickens her steps until she reaches the fence. With a flap of her wings, she lands softly on the other side.

Alaric is still whining about the horse shit on his shoe when we finally reach the road. There’s a small pub up ahead, and all my senses are homed in on it. The little angel is in there, eyeing up the human men.

Irritation gnaws at me when I think about her with anyone else. Human or not.

It amused me when Daemon was jealous, but now I’m experiencing the same annoyance. It pricks at my skin, an annoying sensation in the pit of my stomach and at the back of my neck that can’t be ignored. I scratch at it, but it’s still there, demanding I grab her in a chokehold and shake some fucking sense into her.

“Remember,” Dariana quips, sensing my thoughts. “It’s part of the hunt. You can’t lose your temper and slaughter everyone in the pub, alright? Daemon isn’t here to bail us out, and his father won’t take kindly to us being obsessed with her, too.”

“Fuck that,” I bite out. “If she touches another man, I’ll kill him myself. I don’t give a shit if he’s human and has a tiny dick.”

“Maybe her choice of man is a human with a massive dick. Maybe it trumps yours in siz—”

Teeth gritted, I clamp my hand over her mouth to shut her up.

“Or maybe,” Alaric starts, flashing a smile, “her choice of meal is a big-breasted woman with a tight cunt.”

Dari is on him in a flash, wings and teeth bared as she tackles him to the ground. His booming laughter echoes in the silent night while he fights her off before climbing on top of her and restraining her wrists. With his knees on either side of her thighs, he flashes a sinful yet teasing smile and snaps his teeth at her. “Fiery.”

“Fuck you!” she hisses like a coiled serpent.

He jumps to his feet and helps her up with his outreached hand.

“You play fucking dirty.”

“Well…” He nudges her with his shoulder. “You can’t go slaughtering everyone in the pub if you get jealous.”

With a final snort, she speeds ahead, leaving us to exchange amused looks.