My Immortal (Seven Deadly Sins #1)(67)
Author: Erin McCarthy

"Want to try me?"

No, he didn’t want to risk it. "Fine, you win. Does that make you happy?"

Marley was clinging to his side in her tank top and thong panties. Damien yanked his shirt off over his head and handed it to her. "Here, put this on. Go ahead back and wait for me in the garçonnier. Lock the door behind you. I’ll be there in five minutes."

She nodded, eyes huge with fear, and she took the shirt from him, fingers trembling slightly. "You’ll be okay?"

He smiled at her and kissed her lightly. "I’ll be fine. Rosa and I understand each other." He patted her backside gently. "Go on."

She nodded, pulled the shirt on, tugging it over her butt, and walked quickly, glancing back over her shoulder. The bush to her left burst into flames and she skittered away from it. Damien started toward her, but it fizzled out and Marley kept going.

"Nice, real nice," he told Rosa.

She shot him a look of pure gleeful triumph as she twitched Marley’s skirt around on the ground with the toe of her sandal. "Expensive label. That’s too bad."

"Going to pay me back for it?"

"Oh, you bought the skirt. I should have guessed. That girl doesn’t have the taste to buy something this nice. How sweet of you. But then you were always good to your whores."

She was trying to get a rise out of him, and damn it, it was working. Damien forced himself to take a deep breath. "What would you like to discuss, my dear? Obviously it’s something urgent if you felt the need to play fire starter."

"Don’t mock me. You’re already on my shit-list. I’m serious. I’d love an excuse to burn this house to the ground."

Why did Damien suddenly feel like that wouldn’t be a bad thing? It sometimes felt like Rosa de Montana held him captive as much as the Grigori did. "Don’t be so damn sensitive. Since when do you take a little ribbing so seriously? I thought we were better friends than that." Rosa looked volatile enough that he felt the need to defuse her anger.

"Friends?" She laughed. "That may be stretching it. What we are is two sides of a coin, a mirror to the other, male and female versions of the same person. But the one huge difference between us is that I accept who I am, and you fight it over and over, and you exhaust the hell out of me."

"Then let me go. If I’m such a burden to you, just cut me loose, resign me to hell, let me return to the vulnerability of mortality," It was futile to ask, but he had to. He would give anything to be just a man again.

"You’d like that, I know, but the thing is I can’t do that. But there is a way for you to gain your freedom."

"How?" She was toying with him, he was certain, but a small part of him still hoped, still ached to have an answer.

"Like I’m going to tell you. You have to work it out yourself."

"You mean by getting someone to take my place. That’s what Anna did, isn’t it?" At one time he had been desperate enough to try that, and had rationalized Anna wanted what he offered, which she had. But it hadn’t been right, he knew that, and he wouldn’t do it again, under any circumstances.

"Yes, that’s what she did, but there is another way."

"How?"

"Come on, I can’t spell it out for you. That would be too easy. You have to get enlightened and shit… you know, seek the answer in the obvious and you’ll find peace." Her anger seemed to have dissipated, and she flicked his arm with her finger in amusement. "Look inside yourself, dummy. That’s the way these things always work."

"You’re joking." She sounded like a f**king fortune cookie.

"Dead serious." Rosa crossed her finger over her heart. "But that’s not what I came to tell you."

"No?" This conversation was only frustrating him. Damien struggled for patience.

"Nope. I meant to tell you he’s here, you know."

"Who?" It wasn’t like Rosa to talk in obscurities. That was Anna’s specialty.

"My father."

Damien had to admit, that shocked him. As far as he knew, he’d never met the demon to which he was enslaved. "Where? In the house? Who is he with?"

"You’re cute when you’re being stupid. He’s with Marley’s sister."

"With Lizzie?" Damien was astonished, but equally amazed he hadn’t seen this coming before. "Oh, shit, Rosa. None of this was a coincidence, was it?"

"Now you’re finally catching on."

His mind was racing, forcing the pieces into the puzzle. "You and Anna gave the letters to Marley, didn’t you?"

Her eyes gleamed, black with shiny flecks of gold. "Duh."

"Why?"

"That’s for me to know, and you to find out."

His temper flared. "Cut the cutesy shit. You’re not a fifteen-year-old schoolgirl. What do you want? What does your rather want with Lizzie?"

"I can’t tell you! Not because I don’t want to, but because I can’t. Don’t you get it? You’ll have to figure it out yourself."

What he needed to do was go to Marley and then find her sister. "Fine, whatever. I wouldn’t expect you to do something for someone other than yourself."

Her shoulders slumped and she took his hand, wiggled it back and forth. "Don’t do that, don’t be mad at me. I care about you. You know you’re like family to me." She grinned. "Kissing cousins. But seriously, I care about you. I never meant to hurt you. I never meant for Marie to kill herself. I thought she’d say yes, not drink a bunch of poison."

Damien felt everything inside go ice cold. "What do you mean?" he asked in a steely voice, extracting his hand from Rosa’s. "Yes to what?"

"I offered her the chance to save you and the baby. All she had to do was offer herself to my father. It was a good bargain, I thought she’d take it, and everyone would be happy."

"The baby? She was enceinte?" Pain ripped through him, tearing open wounds he’d thought were long since healed.

"You didn’t know about the baby?" Rosa asked in astonishment. Then she said, "Oops. Sorry." She made a whoopsie face, like she’d just accidentally revealed a surprise party, not that his wife had been pregnant when she’d killed herself.

Everything made much more sense, though, why Marie had done what she had. She would have rejected the idea of sleeping with a demon, even if it meant death to escape it. In that regard, she had been a much stronger person than him.

He should have known, he should have protected Marie, his child. Like he needed to protect Marley now.

The truth came to him in a flash. This was his punishment, once again. The punishment of lust. He started to run.