Page 119 of Daman

“Yeah? Well, at least I didn’t get myself trapped inside a ring for a few thousand years.” Close enough to hit him, I swung at his head. He jumped back, but the sickle-like curve of the sword clipped the edge of his wing. Drops of red colored the snow, just a few trickles but enough to add fuel to the fire when I said, “So youdobleed. Another reason Lucifer is better than you. We weren’t able to hurt him.”

“I’m tired of your mouth!”

Asa thrust his sword at my abdomen, and I rotated my body to dodge it. I wasn’t quick enough. The blade cut into my side.

“Daman!” Warrin kicked Phoenix in the chest 300-style, sending the demon flying, and rushed over to me.

“I’m okay. It’s just a scratch.” One that hurt like hell, but I’d leave that out. No reason to worry him even more.

I never expected what happened next.

Asa grabbed Warrin by his nape and yanked him away from me, resting the sharp edge of his sword at my mate’s neck. Victory gleamed in his eyes. “Oh, that’s beautiful. Your fear. Will I kill him right here? Will it be quick, or will I drag it out, making you watch as he bleeds out in the snow?”

He had a celestial blade. If he sliced Warrin’s throat, I wouldn’t be able to heal him.

“Get your hands off him,” I snarled. When Bellamy stepped toward Asa from the side, Asa dug the blade a bit into Warrin’s neck. I flung out a hand to my brother, my stomach turning at the thin line of blood. “Stop, Bell!”

“We need to leave,” Phoenix interjected, blood trickling from a wound in his temple and more along his arms. They instantly started to heal. “Belphegor found the key-keeper.”

Fuck.What was worse in that moment? Them being so close to getting the one key that could set fire to the celestial realm… or staring into Warrin’s eyes as a sharp blade was pressed to his throat?

The answer came with a single thought:Let it all burn.I’d rather the entire world fall to ruin than watch him die.

Perhaps I was a villain after all.

“Fuck, D,”Bellamy told me telepathically.“This is bad. They can’t get that key.”

“Go help Gusion and the others.”

“And leave you here?”he asked.

“Yes.”

Bellamy squared his jaw.“No. I’m not leaving you.”

“Fucking stubborn asshole.”

“I thought that’s what you loved about me.”

Warrin showed no fear as we held eye contact, though there was a softness in his gaze. One meant for me. My heart wept as more blood ran down his neck.

Gusion had said the souls of fallen angels had a special place in the underworld waiting for them when they kicked the bucket. If my brothers and I shared that same fate and our souls were destined to burn for all eternity, I’d never see Warrin again once we left this world.

This life was all we had together.

Asa caught a droplet of Warrin’s blood on his finger and lifted it to his lips, eyes briefly closing. “Mm. Your mate tastes delicious.”

“Mine.”Envy roared inside of me, and I trembled from the force of it.“He’s mine. All of him.”

Fallen angels, like vampires, had to drink blood to survive. It was a sign of the cursed. The damned. Nephilim didn’t need it to survive, but we enjoyed the taste. It was an aphrodisiac to us. I hated that Asa had tasted even a drop of my husband’s blood.

“Kill me instead,” I told Asa. His smile grew. “I’m the one who pissed you off. Plus, you said yourself if you want his army of ten thousand strong to follow you, you need him by your side.”

“Oh, you’ll die tonight,” Asa said. “But it won’t be by my hand.”

He sunk his teeth into Warrin’s throat.

Warrin gasped, and his eyes blew wide. I rushed toward him but was knocked aside by Phoenix. Bellamy then tackled the demon. Everything happened so damn fast. What did Asa mean when he said it wouldn’t be by his hand? What did biting my mate have anything to do with that?