Page 46 of The Human Element (The Human Element Collection #1)

Lorelei

Lorelei’s screaming continued, and she turned to Daemon, who was already flying into action.

He flew towards the biggest demon Lorelei had ever seen, and with all his strength, catapulted himself, kicking the creature in the face.

It let out a deafening roar, stumbling backwards and falling to the ground.

Lorelei watched as the beast's hands dropped Samuel’s unconscious body.

Daemon left the demon riling on the ground, howling and holding his face at the tremendous damage Daemon inflicted on his cheek.

Daemon dropped down and caught Samuel inches before he hit the ground, and flew back towards Lorelei with him in his arms. The tremendous creature got to its feet and gave one last menacing look before heading in the opposite direction, like he'd been called away.

She watched as he held Samuel so closely, so gently. She hadn't expected that he would come to care so much for him. For her brother.

How had fate brought them together in this way and then viciously rip it out from her grasp so quickly? Before she even had time to enjoy it—before she had more time with him, to actually be his sister. Tears welled in her eyes and she couldn't believe what all had happened.

Daemon laid Samuel at her feet and she crouched down, lifted his head, and wrapped her arms tightly around him, sobbing.

“Please, Samuel, please wake up!”

Lorelei’s heart was breaking; it hadn’t felt this much loss since the death of her beloved father. She already felt alone before, and now without even the kindness of time to allow her to heal before losing another she loved dearly, she was utterly alone again.

She looked pleadingly at Daemon.

“Please, do something.”

Daemon shook his head, kneeling down to Samuel and inspecting him all over.

“I can’t. His wounds are too great; demon anatomy is different, and they don't respond to our magic the same way humans do. It wouldn't be so simple.”

Daemon’s eyes wanted to tell her he was sorry—that he knew how much it would hurt her if she lost Samuel, too.

But before he could speak again, he looked around the chaos of entangled limbs, wings, and snarling teeth towards the far end of the field where what looked like a lighthouse was standing—blissfully untouched—a beacon of white salvation.

Raphael.

Just as she had seen him back in Inverness, Raphael appeared to act as though he was seemingly unaware of the madness going on around him.

Completely out of place in the bloody, mud-flying mess of the fight between the angels and demons.

Just when Lorelei thought that he was possibly standing in his own dimension where he couldn’t be touched, a rapidly approaching demon with several sets of eyes, that of a spider’s, came barreling towards him at a speed Lorelei was sure couldn’t be possible if she had not seen Daemon do something similar on more than one occasion.

When Lorelei felt she needed to scream to warn Raphael, with a single hand outstretched from him, he caught the demon’s face, its bone-thin arms with razor hooks for fingers slashing at him with a need that was only fueled by the smile Raphael gave him, as he was able to keep the creature from landing a single blow of his unruly talons.

With a single squeeze, the demon’s head turned to jelly and dripped between his fingers; the rest of its body dropped to the ground in one quick smack.

Looking more annoyed by the dreadful mess of his hands than anything else, he waved the blood and brain-matter-covered hand and in a flash it was clean, as if the terror Lorelei just witnessed hadn’t happened at all.

Within moments, Raphael shot for the sky and landed nearby.

A foot tapping at the ground impatiently.

Finally looking away to Daemon, who had stood without her noticing, she continued clutching Samuel’s limp body closer to her. An aching in her chest was starting to take over, and she watched Daemon continue to look at Raphael.

Please, please don’t.

She wondered if she was in such a state of exhaustion and despair that she had actually spoken the words out loud. But when Daemon didn’t look her way, she realized that her heart must have known what he was about to say next.

“Lorelei, I need to speak with Raphael.”

“But why? Look at us! We need to get out of here, Daemon!”

Kneeling down once again, he came closer to her and held her hand, rubbing the back of it with his thumb like he typically did when he knew she was in distress.

It sent that familiar tingle through her veins that did, in fact, make her shoulders ease.

He kissed her forehead and she sighed in relief.

It seemed crazy and absolutely maddening that in the midst of this literal throat-ripping battle, she could still be made feel so safe by him.

But Lorelei would always trust him. Always.

“I promise, I won’t be long."

Nodding, she relished the feeling of her hand in his until the connection was broken and she was left with an empty feeling she couldn’t quite place.

This didn’t feel right. Something was even worse than the fact they were surrounded by such a horrible sight.

The feeling was deeper, in the pit of her stomach.

She thought she might be sick. It festered inside her and if it wasn’t for the tangible feel of Samuel tucked in her arms, she wasn’t sure she’d be able to hold back a panic attack.

The feelings that rose as she watched Daemon walk away, like she’d never see him again, or he’d lose his way back to her; was all her mind could imagine.

Thinking she could easily be sick, she took a deep breath and cuddled Samuel closer to her body.

Watching each painstakingly lonely step Daemon took further away from her, the more she yearned to run and pull him back to her.

She knew she had no further strength to even stand, and decided to table a conversation with him later about leaving her in the midst of a god-forsaken battle.

The sun was already beginning to rise again, the air getting cooler, the storm clouds were dissipating.

She held Samuel and looked down at his face, bruised and cut up.

She had no idea what he endured while they were in the Records, but it looked like far more than he should’ve had to.

She cuddled him tighter, and spoke barely above a whisper.

“Don’t worry, Sam. It’s going to be okay. You’ll be okay, we all will be…okay..”

She hesitated, unsure she believed her own words. She stared longingly at the unimaginably real pair of angels standing in the distance and shivered.

But she knew it wasn’t from the cold.