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“Collateral damage,” she whispered again. “I understand now.”

“What are you talking about?”

“That dismembered arm wasn’t the arm of an adult.”

Those were my thoughts.

Mythoughts.

My back stiffened under her touch, and when I pulled away, she loosened her grip slightly, but not entirely, as if she was afraid I would leave. It took a lot of strength not to. I didn’t want to think about what she had said, let alone talk about it. Looking down at her and swallowing heavily, I wiped her tears away with my thumb.

“How did you know about that?” I muttered.

“I saw it.”

“I don’t understand.”

“When I tasted your blood, I saw it. Snippets of a memory like it was my own.”

“Of all the memories you could see…” I squeezed my eyes shut, turning away from her.

“We don’t choose. If they’re strong or prominent memories, they stand out. But always negative ones. Fear, sadness, regret.” She released a shuddering sigh. “Back home, it helps when I’m figuring out how to…”

“Torture someone?”

She bit her lip. “Yeah.”

Demon.

The word still played in my mind, but looking at her now, I saw her differently. I saw a being trying her best to fit into a world where she didn’t belong, trying to find the balance between the rules of the world and her personal boundaries.

It sounded like someone else I knew.

Ray withdrew one arm from around me long enough to angrily swipe away at the moisture on her cheeks. As she hugged me again, I sighed into her touch as she began tracing her fingers up and down my spine.

“I understand now,” Ray repeated, and I nodded against her neck. The concerns I had expressed to her, why I had tried to get her to stop what she was doing all along, she understood. Because when you cause destruction, innocents get caught in the crossfire. People in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Collateral damage.

A term that sounded too official and cold for what it truly meant.

I never would’ve thought I’d connect with another human on this level.

And I certainly never thought I could connect with a demon.

But apparently, we were exactly what we needed for each other.

How the fuck did that happen?

Strapping a few spare blades to my torso, I pulled my t-shirt down over the bandages. If I got patted down again, there’d be no way they would miss the arsenal of weapons I carried, but something told me this wasn’t going to be the same setup Emrick had.

Ray apparently agreed by the way she kept the blades strapped to the outside of her leather pants.

It looked fuckinghot.

Danger and sex appeal.

I was well beyond wondering what must be wrong with me to consider being with someone like her, knowing what she was. It wasn’t news my taste in partners was fucked-up, and usually resulted in destructive relationships that benefited no one.