Every Last Breath (The Dark Elements #3)(43)
Author: Jennifer L. Armentrout

That was kind of hard to let go of.

“What is he doing here?” Roth queried, and although the question sounded like he was asking about the weather, I knew he wasn’t nearly that calm.

Abbot walked to the front, his clan—even his son—sticking close to his side. His gaze drifted over Roth, and he barely managed to keep the contempt off his face, but then he was looking at me, and all the hard lines of his granite face softened. “Layla, I—”

“Don’t.” The one word that burst out surprised me. “Don’t apologize. A handful of words don’t make up for what you did.”

He drew himself up to his full height. “I know nothing I say will ever erase any of what happened, but I… I regret the role I played in it all.”

The role he played? To me, he’d been the freaking captain leading the Kill Layla parade down Main Street.

Abbot wasn’t done. “You were mine to raise and protect. I failed you.”

“Yes, you did,” Roth replied. “I won’t, but here’s the thing, and this message goes out to everyone. She doesn’t need protection. Not anymore.”

I got all warm and fuzzy upon hearing that, but the smug feeling quickly evaporated when my gaze caught Zayne’s and he looked away without so much as a glimmer of any emotion.

“I’ve heard from my son that you are…something else.” Abbot spoke directly to me. “That you do not look like us anymore.”

“I’m not like you.” My hands curled into fists and Robin started to get antsy. “Turns out, I was never a demon.” That got Zayne’s attention and an emotion out of him. Surprise. “Yeah, I have some demonic abilities, but… Well, does any of that matter?”

“No,” Zayne answered, shocking me. “It never mattered before. Not to any of us. It doesn’t matter now.”

There was a tugging sensation in the general vicinity of my heart.

“You said that you have a lead on the Lilin.” Nicolai spoke up, always the peacekeeper of the bunch. “That it may be holed up with the Church of God’s Children?”

Roth was eyeing Abbot like he wanted to rip the Warden’s head off, and he would’ve, back on the night I had been captured, if I hadn’t stopped him. “Yes. Layla and I are going to check it out and if the Lilin is there, we’re going to need backup.”

“That’s why we’re here,” Dez responded. “You tell us what you want us to do. This is your show.”

Abbot’s shoulders hunched, and it was obvious that he wasn’t happy with that decision. Roth looked smug as he said, “We need you all to stay close by. If things get hairy, you’ll know.”

“How is that?” Nicolai asked.

One side of Roth’s lips curved up. “Nitro. Off.”

My gaze shot to him as the tiny black cloud appeared before him. It dropped to the rooftop, and then rapidly pieced together, forming a tiny kitten.

Zayne shook his head. “What is it with you and runts of the litter?”

“Patience, Stony, patience.”

Before Roth finished those words, the little ankle biter increased before our eyes. Frail shoulders expanding into powerful hunches. The back lengthened into thick muscles covered by sleek white fur. What started off as a soft growl turned into a menacing, reverberating snarl that raised the hair along the back of my neck.

Nitro looked like a panther, if panthers were white.

Goodness.

“Nitro will let you know if things get out of control,” Roth explained. “It will be obvious.”

I couldn’t stop staring at the cat. It plopped its butt down, its pink tongue moving over its teeth. It looked hungry, and the Wardens looked very, very unhappy, especially when it coughed out what sounded suspiciously like a laugh.

Roth turned to me. “Ready?”

“Yep.” The blade was tucked into my boot, just like Roth had his. We walked to the ledge overlooking the alley below. The fastest way down was to jump. Roth shifted quickly, tucking his wings back so he didn’t knock me off the edge with them.

Knowing that all eyes were on us, I allowed my own shift to take place. My skin buzzed with the change, and it was like finally waking up after being asleep for days when it happened. My wings unfurled, arcing high above me, the feathers tickled by the wind.

Someone murmured an expletive behind us, and it sounded a lot like Abbot. I glanced at Roth and grinned.

“Meet you down there,” he said, and jumped.

“Show-off,” I muttered.

Instead of jumping, I sort of walked off the ledge and empty space immediately reached up to grab me. Gravity was a beast. The alley raced toward me, and I let my wings spread out, slowing the descent.

I landed in a crouch, propping up to find myself at eye level with an old man with a dirty, unshaven face.

“Holy mother,” he gasped, stumbling back against the wall and then sliding down it, clutching his brown bag to his chest.

I winced as my wings folded in, disappearing. “Whoops?”

Roth chuckled, back to his human form, as he reached down, taking my hand. I sent the poor man an apologetic look, and then we hurried around the side of the building to the main street. My heart was thumping as we joined the thin crowd on the sidewalks.

“I hope that doesn’t count as exposure,” I said as we crossed the street.

He squeezed my hand. “I really think the Alphas have bigger problems to deal with right now.” Then he shrugged. “And seriously, you should’ve seen the look on the man’s face when he saw me. That was kind of funny.”

I shook my head, but a little grin peeked through. Roth was in a far better mood than he had been immediately after the witches had left with Bambi. Distracting himself with what lay ahead was working for him and it was a strange thing to be grateful for, but I was.

“There it is,” I said, two buildings down from the building housing the Church.

He arched a dark brow as he studied the four-story structure. “Have the windows always been like that?”

I nodded as a door to the building we stood in front of opened. A blast of music and laughter followed the young man out. His aura was a sea-moss green, swirling smoothly as he hunkered down in his jacket, heading in the opposite direction. “Yeah,” I answered. “They’ve always had the windows covered from the inside so you couldn’t see anything. It just adds to the shadiness, doesn’t it?”

He snorted. “Remember the guy who threw holy water on you?”

I rolled my eyes. “Not something I’d forget.”

“I really hope he’s in there.”

“Oh dear,” I murmured.

“You know what I just thought of?”

I looked at him. “What?”

Some of the mischievous sparkle was back in his amber gaze. “I didn’t get to deflower you in my Porsche.”

“Oh my God.” I gaped at him. “What in the world made you think of that right now?”

“It’s called multitasking.” He winked. “And I still plan on breaking that baby in, just so you know.”

“You’re ridiculous.” Slipping my hand free, I started toward the building and the grin I was rocking faded like an old memory as soon as we neared the door. “Do you feel that?”

“Feels like home.”

I ignored that, because I’d been to Hell, and Hell didn’t even feel like this—like a gallon of oil had been dumped over our heads. Walking was like pushing through slime. It was thick in the air, a heavy evil that had to be what the witches had been talking about, and never in my life had I felt anything like this.

Roth edged around me, reaching the handle of the door. “Locked.” He twisted sharply, like he’d done in the basement of the school when we’d been hunting down the source of a very rotten, demonic smell, snapping the lock while hitting it with a dose of not so heavenly heat. “And unlocked.”

The moment he opened the door, the smell about knocked us back a good three feet.

“Oh my God.” I smacked my hand over my mouth, clamping down on my gag reflex as I glanced around the dimly lit lobby.

“Jesus,” muttered Roth, his lips peeling back in a grimace.

The scent was that of meat left out too long mixed with something I couldn’t quite place. Worse than sulfur or a dirty back alley in the city. Carefully, I lowered my hand, trying to not breathe through my nose. If the smell was any indication, things were really, really bad here.

Behind the vacant receptionist desk, there was a huge banner hanging. Crudely drawn Wardens, who looked more like overgrown bats than gargoyles, were on either side of the words THE END IS NIGH.

“So cliché.” Roth started around the desk, toward double, windowless doors. “You’d think they’d come up with something new.”

I followed, disappointed that the smell was getting worse. “But the end is nigh.”

“You—” he glanced over his shoulder at me as he reached the double doors “—are adorable.”

I would’ve smiled at that, but the doors had opened, and all I could do was press my lips together to keep from hurling all over Roth’s back.

Candles were everywhere, casting a flickering, soft light throughout a large atrium-style room that had been converted into a place where sermons would be held, complete with pews and the chancel, a raised platform.