33. Dani

I've never seen Ashe so angry before, but the mix of emotions that emanated from her now were nearly suffocating. As she glares between the vampire and her demon aunt with a look that would kill any mortal, I lean in to Marco. “What did Nadia do to her?”

The bear shrugs, though I can tell by the worry lines that creased his brow that he was just as concerned for her as I was. “Demons are known for rooting around people's minds and manipulating their deepest thoughts. Memories, secrets, nightmares, dreams. None of it's safe from a demon's gaze. It's why they're feared in our world. Yours, too, if people found out about them.”

“Is that what she was doing? Rooting around in Ashe's brain?” As invasive as that sounds, I couldn't help but wish that I had that kind of power. What I wouldn't give to read the redhead's mind, to know what she was thinking in the moments we've shared. Or what she was feeling.

“I don't know. I've never met a demon before, much less seen what they can do. But I'd be happy to never see another one again as long as I live.”

“You mean you've never met Nadia before today?”

“No. Ashe only ever mentioned her a few times. Demons are hunted by the Tribunal so I figure that makes Ashe's position a bit, well, complicated. She'd try to keep her existence a secret as long as she can.”

'It's because of Nadia that she joined the Reapers.' I turn my gaze back to the three supernaturals as they continue to stare each other down. Marco had mentioned last night that Ashe was protective. How far would she go to protect the demon who raised her?

“So that's why Ashe joined the Reapers?” I look back at the bear. “To protect Nadia's existence from the Tribunal?”

Marco nods.

“So you knew about her, then, before we came here. You knew Nadia was a demon and you didn't say anything.”

He flinches at the accusation in my tone, his lips twitching as guilt tugged at the corners of his mouth. “It wasn't my secret to tell, Dani.”

“You people and your fucking secrets.” I roll my eyes. Now I understood Ashe's frustration. “Look, I'm not mad, okay? But a little forewarning would've been nice.”

“I know, and I'm sorry.” He lifts a brow, green eyes searching my own as a thought crosses his mind. “How'd you know, though?”

“Know what?”

“That she's a demon. You knew before anyone said anything, before she admitted it earlier. Did Ashe say something to you?”

“No, not until after she introduced us.” But wasn't it obvious? Her glowing eyes were almost a dead giveaway that she wasn't human! “You mean you couldn't tell?”

Marco shakes his head. “The skins they wear hide their true form and what it doesn't hide they cover up with enchanted objects, like the glasses Nadia wears to conceal her eyes. You wouldn't know that Nadia was a demon unless she wanted you to know.”

I sit back, sinking into the sofa as an uneasy silence settles over us once more. I know what I saw. Even before Ashe explained the skin she wore, even before I confronted her aunt on my own suspicions. I knew in my gut from the moment I first met her that Nadia was a demon.

How could I—?

“How could you keep something like this from me, aantee?” Ashe asks, her voice low as it cuts through my thoughts. “For six hundred years you lied. I expected as much from Cat, but not from you!”

“It did not seem relevant to tell you before now.” Nadia leans forward and grabs one of the hoses from the glass pipe in the center of the table. “We are fortunate that it took them this long to find you at all.”

Ashe scoffs, her glower unwavering. “You were going to kill me anyway. I'd hardly call that a stroke of luck.”

“Well we didn't, darling,” Catalina drawls, her tone laced with boredom. “So please, spare us the dramatics.”

“Your birth threw the entire balance on its head that night,” Nadia continues as she opens a packet of soggy herbs and sprinkles them into a bowl. I notice small black cubes of charcoal sitting on a hot plate next to her and my stomach drops. I saw Monica indulge in smoking hookah on several occasions and I didn't much care for the smell then. Was Nadia really about to smoke it now? “These tears in the Veil started the moment you were both pulled from your witch mother's womb. We feared that killing you then would only make things worse.”

Both? I glance at Ashe, whose glare was still fixated on Nadia. Did she not hear what I just heard? Did I imagine it?

“Good to know that my life means so much to you two. Should I be thankful that you decided to spare an infant for the sake of keeping the fucking balance from breaking?” Her jaw was clenched so tight that I could see the muscles in her neck throbbing from the strain.

“If it helps, we don't regret our decision. I've grown rather fond of your company over the years.”

“More like fond of feeding on her,” I mutter under my breath. I don't miss Catalina's smirk and I know she heard me, but I don't care. I want her to know how much I hate what she does. Not that I think she would particularly care about my feelings on it, and she might even enjoy how it affects me, but at least she'd know.

“So, what, I'm like a fucking princess now, is that it? I'm supposed to rule over demons?” Ashe laughs, a dry and bitter sound. I watch as her fists clench and unclench, the veins in her hands pulsating with the anger that burned inside her, and my heart cracks. This couldn't be easy for her.

“You may be the spawn of royalty, love, but you're also half human. Demons will not bow to your will, not when the ring binds you to it and to the will of whomever wears it.” Catalina hums thoughtfully as her eyes flick across the table to me and I flinch under her gaze. “How fortunate for us that the ring fell into such . . . incompetent hands.”

My throat tightens. This bitch. But at least that explains why the harpies backed off. Nervously, I run the pad of my thumb over the silver band. I never told Ashe, mostly because I couldn't explain it myself, but as I was yelling at them to leave us alone I felt a small part of me ebb away, as if calling upon the ring's power had cost me a little piece of my soul.

But that was crazy. Ashe said the ring would protect me, that it wouldn't let me get hurt. She had no reason to lie and I had no reason to think that she would. Besides, I never felt that kind of pull whenever I commanded her and it seemed pointless to me if the same device that witches created to attain power would only end up killing them when they used it. No, last night's events had just worked me up is all. My adrenaline was pumping in overdrive and I fell pretty hard when that harpy dropped me.

The soul ring wasn't going to kill me. Right?

“They've come after you before, these fanatics.” The vampire turns her eyes once more to Ashe, her lips set in a fine line. “Once when you didn't burn to death in France, then again when you nearly lost control in your grief over Emelie's death. Protecting the secret of your existence hasn't exactly been easy for us over the years.” She presses a hand to her head, fingernails digging into her temple as she sighs. “You nearly exposed yourself last time. Nadia, too. I thought conscripting you to serve the Tribunal as just one more cambion under their thumb would further that protection. I hoped that the closer you were being watched, the less inclined you'd be to indulge your demon half and the farther we'd all be from anyone discovering your true origins. But it seems that trouble has a nasty habit of following you around.”

“Who are they?” I know it's not my place to ask, but I can't help my curiosity. Whether they like it or not, because of the soul ring I was involved in this now. My life was at stake just as much as hers was. I needed to know the sort of dangers I was up against!

“Answer her,” Ashe growls when I'm met with only blank stares.

Catalina's lips twitch in agitation and I don't even bother fighting off my own smirk. “That night didn't exactly go as planned. Nadia was able to sneak in and steal you away, but a tear in the Veil opened up right as our Reapers moved in for the kill. Between the fire that broke out and the wraiths that came through, some of the witches no doubt escaped the slaughter. Their knowledge of that night, regardless of how hard the Tribunal has tried to erase it from history, undoubtedly survived. I'm sure their descendants are just as eager to finish what their ancestors started.”

“Their ritual was not as successful as they had hoped,” Nadia interjects. “Only one of you survived—”

“Nadia, please,” Catalina scolds as she grabs a second hose from the hookah. “Haven't you said enough already?”

Ashe's eyes spark. “There's more?”

Nadia offers Ashe the hose in her hand as she places the coals on top of the hookah. An earthy aroma fills the room and I crinkle my nose. “Here. This will calm your mind.”

“I'm fine.” Her tone is low, dangerous, and my skin prickles as I think back to our moment earlier in the bedroom.

'You should be afraid of what I could do to you.'

Was she going to lash out? Was she going to lose control?

“The anger flowing through you like liquid fire and staining your aura red says otherwise.” Nadia's voice is calm as she stares Ashe down and I can't help but wonder how many times they've done this before. “Smoke the hashish and control your temper, chhotee juganoo, before it controls you.”

“Tell me what else you're hiding first.”

“Both.” Four sets of eyes are on me again and I suddenly realize that I said that out loud. Heat flushes my cheeks as I swallow the lump forming in my throat. “You, um, you said both earlier. That they were both pulled from her . . .” I couldn't bring myself to say the words. But they knew what I meant.

“Curiously perceptive, indeed,” Nadia muses as she sits back and takes a drag from the pipe in her hand. Smoke wafts from between her lips as she exhales slowly, her eyes never leaving my gaze as she adds, “It is true, two cambions were born that night. One forged in a union of fire and wind, the other by earth and water. The elements in their purest form, ancient powers locked inside mortal vessels. Pulled from their immortal thrones by the witches' magic and caged behind flesh and bone.”

It feels like all the air was sucked right out of the room. You could hear a pin drop in the silent vacuum that was left behind.

Marco shifts next to me. “I don't like where this is going,” he whispers in my ear. “If anything happens, Dani, stay close to me.”

I shared in his concern. The air was changing, I could feel it. An electricity hummed in the thickness around us, lurking just beneath the earthy aroma of whatever Nadia was smoking as if waiting for a spark to light the fuse. Like the moment before a powder keg goes off.

“I-I had a . . .”

“A sibling, yes.” Nadia takes another puff as she swivels her head in Ashe's direction. “Your mother gave birth to twins, an unexpected result of the spell they cast during your conception. The magic that created you saw fit to split you in the womb, dividing the power that the witches sought.”

“Magic is funny that way, I suppose.” Catalina chuckles as she inhales from her pipe, her chocolate eyes glazing over for a moment. “Never quite working out the way a witch intends it to.”

Ashe grits her teeth with such force I'm surprised her jaw doesn't crack from the pressure, and the temperature in the room continues to climb. “What happened?” she manages to choke out, biting back the fire that burned in her throat. “What happened to my . . . to the other . . . ?”

“Stillborn, thankfully, which makes you the last barrier to the Veil breaking.” Catalina blows a puff of pungent smoke from her nose as she leans forward, her callous words cutting through the air like the serrated edge of a knife. “Keeping you in line has been taxing enough without adding a second child into the mix. Though if it did survive its birth, the outcome may have been different for you—”

The redhead is out of her seat and across the room before I can blink, a hand wrapped tightly around Catalina's neck as she slams her back into the wall. The marbled plaster fractures under the force of the blow, the glossy white surface rippling with waves of blue from her fiery glow.

“Ashe!”

I nearly jump out of my skin as Marco presses his large arm across my front, pinning me against the couch before I can push myself to my feet. “Don't!” he snarls. “This is between them!”

“I can't just do nothing!”

“Stay out of it, Dani!” A low growl rumbles in his chest and I can hear his bones cracking as his muscles contract.

Jesus, was he shifting again? I saw him like this last night, when I thought he was going to face off against Ashe in the woods, but he later told me that he was holding back his transformation. If he let his inner beast out only a little, he had said, then he could still maintain control. Could he do so now with so much chaotic energy charging the air, and would it be enough to stop whatever was about to happen?

I can stop it. I glance down at the soul ring. It twinkles under the florescent lights, taunting me to say the words.

“I can tell her to calm down.” My voice is soft, barely a whisper as I weigh the repercussions in my mind. “She'll listen to me.”

“And have her turn her anger on you?”

I can barely understand him with a mouth full of sharp teeth, but his point hits home all the same. She had been livid after the ring's magic wore off last time and had almost lashed out at me for it. Would the magic be enough to keep her from lashing out at me now if I commanded her again?

How could he expect me to just sit by and not try to stop it, though? Ashe looked about ready to murder Catalina right in Nadia's living room! I didn't really care for the devil woman, but if she was going to die then I didn't want it to be by Ashe's hand. If someone didn't stop her then she was going to regret what happens next and she didn't need one more goddamn regret hanging over her head!

But Marco wasn't relenting and Nadia seemed indifferent as she takes another puff from the hookah pipe. What is wrong with these people!

“Careful, Ashe,” Catalina rasps, grimacing as the grip around her throat tightens. “I'm all for getting frisky, but this isn't the time or the place for such fun—”

“How about I rip out your lying tongue, instead.” The hollow timbre of her voice sounds eerily familiar, like I heard it once in a dream, and my gut wrenches. “How does that sound for fun, Cat?” The vampire lurches forward with bared fangs but Ashe pins her firmly against the wall, her arm shaking as she struggles to hold Catalina at bay. “Trying to put me to sleep again?” She tsks mockingly. “Desperation's not a good look on you.”

“Let's not fight, love. I only want a kiss.”

Smoke seeps out from between Ashe's fingers as the fire churning in her veins intensifies. The faint stench of burning flesh assaults my nose as it mingles with the hookah smoke and I feel sick as I stare at the demon standing in Ashe's body. Blue flames flicker in her eyes as heat radiates from her, igniting the stale air and reminding me of the first night I had summoned her. The first time I got a glimpse at what she truly was.

Her muscles grew taught, shoulders squared back as she unfurled her anger with lethal poise. Her auburn hair whirls about her, caressing her chiseled cheekbones as smoke slithers across her alabaster skin, tracing the painted chains as it curled up her arms and through the burn holes that dotted her shirt.

Such raw fury. Such ethereal beauty. Dear God, she was as enchanting as she was deadly. Would her rage smite us all down until we were nothing more than ashes at her feet?

“Darling,” Catalina moans breathlessly, and I'm beside myself. She was possibly the only woman alive who could make a near-death experience sound sexy. I hate her all the more for it. “You should really sleep off this anger before it eats you alive.”

As if that was her unspoken cue, Nadia materializes next to the smoldering redhead and places a firm hand on her shoulder. Ashe whips her head around, her blue fire meeting the crackle of white lightning, but before she could so much as flinch Nadia leans in and presses a hand against either side of Ashe's head. Arcs of white light spark from the tips of her fingers, the electric tendrils burrowing into Ashe's temples and the redhead growls in pain.

“Sleep.”

Ashe gnashes her teeth as her hold on Catalina loosens slightly, the flames dancing in her eyes flaring wildly as the tattoo shimmers across her skin. Her veins pulsate, casting the silver metal seeping from her pores in a ghastly blue glow, and for the first time since their struggle Catalina's eyes widen.

Even without looking, Ashe seems to notice the change in Catalina's composure and a wicked smirk lights up her ghostly face. “I c-can smell your fear, Cat,” she says, the emptiness in her words vibrating against the pain that racked her body. A chain slinks around the arm holding Catalina in place, silver glinting in the light of her fire as it encircles the vampire's throat. Ashe flicks her gaze toward me and our eyes meet for only an instant, but it was long enough to turn my blood to ice. “I wonder how good it tastes.”

“For God's sake, Nadia, knock her out!”

Nadia increases her efforts, her glare boring into Ashe's own as white-hot electricity crackles from her palms. “Sleep!”

Ashe's shoulders finally slump under the weight of Nadia's influence. The Reaper's mark recedes back into her arm as the smoke billowing from her pores dissipates. Her grip relaxes, the fury burning beneath her skin fading like a snuffed flame as her eyes roll up into the back of her head and she crumples to the floor.

Catalina coughs, her stiletto heels clicking on the tile as she massages her neck. “Well you certainly took your sweet time, didn't you?”

“She has not been this upset since Emelie's death,” Nadia says. “Her mind was not so easy to tame this time. I do not think it will survive should she lose control like that again.”

My stomach knots. What did that mean? Would her mind really break if she lost control of her rage? Was her demon half feeding on it?

Catalina hums. “Then let's make sure she doesn't.”

Marco releases me from his binding hold as his jaw snaps back into place and his muscles relax. I cringe at the sound. “You didn't help matters, Catalina,” he pants, wiping a sheen of sweat from his brow as he leans back. “Did you have to go and piss her off?”

“I was only telling her what she asked to hear. I warned her about the dangers of knowing the truth.”

I'm not sure if the shock of what just transpired was finally wearing off or if Catalina's carefree attitude was rubbing me the wrong way, but I can't bite back my vexation any longer. “How can you act so heartless about this? Don't you have any empathy for how she must feel?”

The vampire shrugs dismissively and I feel my anger spike. Did she really care so little for how this may have affected Ashe? Jesus, she was just told that she had a twin and how she was a pawn in some ancient witch order's scheme for world domination or something. And the two people she trusted more than anything had lied to her about it for centuries! I wouldn't blame her for wanting to burn down the world after learning that!

“Sometimes the lies we're told are easier to digest, sweetling.”

This was going nowhere. With a huff, I rise from my seat and cautiously approach Ashe's side. I know Nadia told her to sleep, but with how quickly she went down I needed to make sure for my own peace of mind that she didn't just drop dead.

“She sleeps now,” Nadia confirms as I kneel down. “I took away her rage. She will be calm when she awakes.”

I hate that I know what that means. “You mean you fed on her.”

“I eased her pain.”

I brush a strand of hair from her face, letting my fingers caress her cheek as I watch her chest rise and fall in steady rhythm. She looked peaceful now, but would that peace last when she wakes up?

“She'll still remember everything, though, won't she? She'll remember the truth and . . . and why she almost lost control?”

There's a pause as my words hang in the air. Nervously, I bite my lip as I wait. Then, with about as much empathy in her tone as Catalina showed earlier, Nadia says, “I can take away her memory, if that is what you ask.”

“Rooting around in people's minds,” I wonder aloud as my eyes trace the singed outlines of the holes in her clothing. “Would ignorance really be so bad?”

“Dani,” Marco warns. I can hear him shuffle to his feet behind me and a small smile tugs at my mouth. Ever the protector. “Think about what you're saying. That's not something to play around with!”

“Did you not see what I saw, Marco? That wasn't Ashe!” I had felt the change in her, I could hear it in her voice. It was the same voice I heard in my dream a few nights ago of the demon wearing Ashe's skin. Is that what she could become if she gave in to the fire she's always trying so hard to control? Is that what she was so afraid of?

“This is her mind, Dani. You don't know what could happen if—”

“Would you rather it break from the weight of knowing what we just learned?” I keep my gaze level with his as I work through rationalizing this decision. “It was enough to push her over the edge once already. It'll be worse when she wakes up and relives it all over again!”

I couldn't even believe I was suggesting it, but the more I pictured her standing here with her hand around Catalina's throat as blue fire threatened to engulf her, the more resolute I felt that this was the only way. If knowing the truth unleashed her rage and set her demon free, then maybe hiding it would keep her sanity. It would keep her human.

“Think about what you're doing if you go through with this.”

Marco places a gentle hand on my shoulder but it only serves to rile me up even more. All these goddamn secrets were going to get someone killed one of these days! “Favors are the currency of your world, right? Well you owe me for lying about Rose.”

Guilt flickers across his face as he visibly flinches. “That was different—”

“Your lie cost James his life and nearly cost Rose hers. At least I'm trying to save a life, even if that means saving her from herself!”

The bear drops his hand, his eyes lingering on me for a moment before he slowly nods. “Fine. I keep this secret for you, though, and we're even. I won't do this for you again.”

I bite back a grimace as I meet Catalina's curious stare. “'The lies we're told are easier to digest,' right?” I feel sick that I was actually agreeing with that devil, but if forgetting the truth meant saving her then I was willing to take that chance. “She can't remember what happened here. Your betrayal, her dead twin, demon kings, any of it. She can't remember the truth.”

“On that we can agree.” Catalina appraises me with renewed interest and my skin crawls. “You're just full of delightful little surprises, aren't you?”

“I just want what's best for her. I'd like to think that you feel the same.” But as I turn my gaze to the redhead sleeping peacefully on the floor, blissfully unaware of what we were planning, I can't help but feel the steely fingers of guilt twist my insides.

I was frightened at what she could become, of the demon she carried within her. But I was more afraid of her losing herself, of losing the person I know she is to the monster she secretly fears. In that moment I knew that I'd do anything to keep that version of her alive, even if I had to lie.

I just hope that I'm making the right decision.

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A/N: Oh no, Dani, don't you know you shouldn't make deals with devils?! You better hope Ashe doesn't find out!

Do you agree with Dani's decision? Let me know! And don't forget to vote if you're enjoying the story! :)