Lucien didn’t want to be fascinated by this creature or these revelations, but he couldn’t help it. For years, he’d questioned why killing innocents mutated and changed them into monsters in such a way, and now they were finally discovering some of the answers to his questions.
The human part of their DNA gave them their humanity, but when the demon part of their DNA took over, that humanity vanished.
“There’s also this,” Ronan said.
He nodded to Saber again, who stepped forward, lifted the chair, and plopped it into the sun once more. A cry issued from the creature; it thrashed against the chains as its flesh sizzled again.
Saber lifted the chair and returned it to the shadows as Logan once again doused the flames with the blanket. Shoulders heaving, spittle flew from the demon’s lips when it bared its fangs and jerked against the chains.
Lucien was about to ask what else there was when Ronan turned the chair, and the demon’s back was to him. Its thrashing movements caused it to pull away from the chair and gave Lucien a good view of its spine through the slats.
Lucien’s jaw almost dropped when he spotted the red and black color of the demon’s spine seeping across its back. That color, spreading throughout its flesh, changed it from nearly translucent to one filled with red and black. He’d seen that same color do the same thing to his friends. He’d also seen it take over his body the other night.
Lucien didn’t know what caused the color to emerge, or why it infused him with a rush of strength when it did, but it happened to purebloods when a need to protect their mate or rage consumed them. Seeing that color on this thing made him realize how close they were to the demon part of themselves.
“Shit,” he muttered.
“That about sums it up,” Nathan said.
Lucien glanced back at the door as the sun dipped toward the horizon. They still had a couple of hours of the day left, but it was slipping away too fast.
“This thing isn’t going to tell us anything more,” Killean said.
“So, what we do?” Willow asked.
“We destroy it,” Logan said.
“It’s time,” Ronan said.
Saber gripped the back of the chair but set it down again when Ronan lifted his hand to halt him. Ronan turned to Willow.
“If you’re up for it, I think we should see what the sword will do to this thing,” he said.
Willow pulled the sword free again. “I’m up for it.”
Declan stepped in front of her when she started toward the demon. She stopped before she walked into him and lifted her chin to gaze quizzically up at him.
“Wait a second,” Declan said. “You have no idea what will happen if you use that sword against it.”
“And that’s why I have to do this.”
Declan glanced at Ronan before focusing on her again. “No, you don’t.”
Lucien lifted his eyebrows at Declan’s blatant disregard for Ronan’s suggestion, but he didn’t blame him. He wouldn’t have allowed Callie to take such a risk either, and Ronan had left this decision up to Willow.
Willow rested her hand on Declan’s arm and gave it a gentle squeeze. “Yes, I do, and you know it.”
Declan glanced between her, the demon, and back again. “Willow—”
“You don’t have to watch, but you know this has to happen. I was given the sword for a reason; we’ve discovered some of that reason, but we have to learn if there is more to it. If it works against demons, like it works against Savages, that means it’s a more powerful weapon than we realized. These demons are stronger than us, Declan; we need this.”
“You’re putting yourself in danger when you don’t have to.”
“I put myself in danger every day; we all do. If I were anyone else, you wouldn’t try to stop this, but because I’m your mate, you’re letting your emotions cloud your judgment. Now, please get out of my way and let me do what has to be done.”
Declan’s hands fisted, and Lucien heard his teeth grinding together while he remained rigid in front of her. When the demon started laughing again, it took everything Lucien had not to kick its fangs down its throat.
“It will be okay,” Willow said. “The sword chose to stay with me over this thing. It belongs to me.”
Though the words were meant to soothe, they didn’t lessen Declan’s rigid stance as he stepped out of her way. He remained staring at the wall while Willow strode toward the demon. When she stopped in front of the creature, Declan finally turned away from the wall to face her.
Willow and the demon stared at each other for a long moment. Hatred blazed from the creature’s eyes while Willow kept the tip of the sword pointed at the ground. Her head bowed over the blade as she inhaled a deep breath.
Then she lifted the sword and, with a skilled lunge, plunged it into the demon’s belly. The blow typically wasn’t a mortal one for any vampire, but the sword had changed the rules.
The demon’s jaw clenched, and white fire burned from its eyes. Red fissures raced out from where the sword’s blade embedded inside it. Those fissures spread across its pale skin and raced up to its throat and face.
The jewel in the hilt glowed so brightly that Lucien turned his head away from it. He lifted a hand to shield his eyes and blinked against its brilliance while he watched the demon.
Red and orange flames erupting from its eye sockets replaced the white fire in its eyes. The fire licked toward the demon’s skull before more flames erupted from its mouth. Declan lurched forward and grasped Willow’s arm, but she didn’t step away.
Its body exploded into ashes that sprayed the room. The fine coating of its remains plastered the walls, and them, like blood spraying from a severed artery.
Lucien wiped the ashes from his eyes as he spit away the fine bits clinging to his lips. When he cleared his eyes, he discovered his friends were all coated in the gray substance. Their eyes were the only color emanating from them as they blinked away the remains of the demon, and tried to register what happened.
The squeak of the door sliding open drew his attention to it a second before he spotted Callie and the other mates standing there with their mouths hanging ajar. The glow of the jewel must have drawn them back to the room.
Still standing in front of the chair, and more coated in remains than the rest of them, Willow clasped the hilt in both hands and lowered the sword tip to rest it against the ground. She wiped ash away from her mouth before speaking.
“Next time, I’ll know to duck,” she said.
“Fuck next time,” Declan snarled.
But they all knew there would be a next time. The sword was far too powerful not to wield it as a weapon against their enemies.
No one spoke as the demon’s remains floated through the air and settled on the ground.