Page 44 of Stalked By Pestilence
“I’m all about perks.” I pulled away and searched her face.
I was in shock, probably. Maybe I’d never come out of shock since I was attacked by a demon. A week was hardly enough time to digest a supernatural alt-verse. But tonight, I just felt numb. Maybe a little bit broken. And it probably meant I liked him more than I thought I did.
Everything was hitting me all at once. It was a lot. I’d both lost my best friend and gotten her back without even knowing it. I couldn’t settle the emotion inside my chest at the thought I’d nearly lost her forever. That if she hadn’t figured something supernatural out, she’d just be…gone.
A tear broke away and slid down my face. “But seriously, Ash, you died and didn’t fucking tell me? What the hell?”
Her laughter lacked the usual feeling as she swiped away my renegade tear. “Would you have really believed me if you didn’t know about all of this?”
She made a fine point. I’d also struggled with how to tell her that the end of the world was nigh and I was in a fight to stop it. It sounded very holier-than-thou of me, or rather, very street corner crazy dude of me. But it was essentially how I saw it before my savior turned out to be my enemy. Now I wasn’t too sure what the fuck I was doing.
The craziest part about all of this was that my head and heart were screaming what I had with Zelus was more than that. That he hadn’t been out to take my soul. He could’ve killed me this entire time, so why wait? Why not do it that first night after we fucked? Was I really just a game to him? A means to an end, literally? It didn’t feel that way, and I couldn’t kick the thought that something wasn’t adding up.
I stared at my friend, holding her hands like a lifeline. “Why hasn’t he killed me yet?”
Her face fell, at a loss. “Thanatos mentioned the Horsemen have to ripen our souls before they can deliver them. Something like that, anyway. Maybe he’s been waiting for that.”
“Ripen? Ew, gross. What the fuck does that mean?”
She shrugged. “Not sure. He never explainedthat part.”
“So that’s what all this was?” I gestured at nothing in particular. “A mating dance for death?”
It didn’t feel right. Something still nagged at me. I’d read total honesty from him earlier. But maybe that was the part of me that was still hung up on Zelus.
Her lips kicked up at the fun new spin I’d taken on their pre-apocalyptic actions. “I think so. It’s hard to know with Zelus.”
“You’ve met him before. You said he tried to kill you?” I probed, uncomfortable with the idea that a guy I’d been very close to falling for had hurt my best friend. Not sure how I’d do it, but I’d kill him myself once my head started working better.
Before she could answer, Thanatos was back and hovering nearby. He appeared the same way Zelus did, out of fucking nothing. My pulse took a serious hit, but otherwise I didn’t react.
His expression was pensive. “He mentioned a demon and refuses to leave.”
Asha growled and a sudden darkness overtook the room. Death powers, I guess. My bestie had been scary as shit when she was human, but as Death? Watch out world.
“That bastard can go fuck right off. He’s not getting anywhere near my best friend. This so-called demon shit is probably just another attempt to weasel his way into her life.”
Thanatos ghosted over and knelt by her side. “I’ve known him a long time, little raven. Not once has he shown this much anger or determination to protect anyone. It’s not in his nature. I think we need to heed his words. She’s clearly been marked for Hell.”
I hadn’t expected him to defend Zelus after what he’d done to Asha. “You believe him?”
His eyes lifted to mine, no longer a pale blue but a startling white instead. “I do.”
Asha grumbled under her breath. “So he can use her soul to start the apocalypse, right?”
It was hard to hear it said again in so many words, that what I’d been feeling for him was one-sided. That again, I was deceived by someone I’d put my trust in. That Zelus was just another man who’d betrayed me in a long list of them.
I swallowed to clear the burning in my throat.
But Thanatos said something neither of us expected. “I can’t be sure.”
Glancing at him like he was crazy, Asha huffed in annoyance. “What does that even mean, Than? He tried to kill me, and he’s been hellbent on finding his Counter Soul this whole damn time.”
His eyes darkened at the mention of her nearly dying, and I got the feeling he wanted revenge for it. But the emotion bled away and he brushed Asha’s face with his knuckles, nothing but love in his eyes.
I wasn’t even the least bit surprised that my girl would have a powerful being like Death falling for her. She was a goddamn prize.
“Counter Souls are meant to be humanity’s last defense against their demise,” he explained. “They were put between us and the apocalypse for a reason, though we still don’t know what that reason is. We could only theorize about them before now, so what we do know is limited to our interactions.”