MY BODY FEELS NORMAL again. It’s fully healed by the time the sun begins to rise in the sky. I find the blinding light extremely irritating this morning. All I want to do is find a place to lie low, but I need to find Yuki first. She’s still in the city, but she’s kept away from me, just like I ordered her too. She’s staying at a ritzy hotel. I can sense her on one of the upper floors.
I don’t care if any humans witness my sorry state—if there are even any around. The world feels so quiet as I enter the building and ride the elevator until I’ve reached the sixth floor. Then I walk past door after door until I feel Yuki’s presence on the other side of room 610. Impatiently, I rap my knuckles against the polished wood.
“Yuki,” I say her name so she won’t have any doubts about who’s outside.
The door opens wide a moment later, revealing Yuki and exposing me to the entirety of her slight form. The silky nightgown she wears hides almost nothing. It doesn’t take much to imagine what’s underneath the luxurious fabric, especially since I’ve seen it all more times than I can count.
I walk past her and close the door behind me. I feel her fingers trail across my back.
“That didn’t take long,” she comments. “Your clothes look awful. Are you hurt?”
I turn around and catch her face in my hands. “Do I look hurt?”
She manages a little shake of her head. “It seems you’re as full of life essence as ever, but something’s troubling you.”
She’s as perceptive as always. I bring my hands back down to my sides and sigh.
“There was a team of angels,” I say. “They actually came to save those hunters from the demons tearing apart their base.”
“That’s…”
“Unheard of?”
“Yes. Did you kill them?”
“If I had killed them, I’d have much more life essence than I do now. No. I didn’t kill them. I didn’t kill a single one of them.”
Yuki scowls.
“I’m slipping. My power is fading. My anger is fading,” I confess.
“What are you saying?”
I avoid her gaze, but I don’t say anything else. I can’t say anything else because it doesn’t matter. My beast’s infatuation with Tasia doesn’t matter. Attempting to stay close to her means death, staying away from her means death. If Helena won’t help me, the angels have already won, and part of me feels relieved.