Book 1 - Page 39 (1/2)

no cavalry would be arriving.

As I struggled with Daniel, the dark-haired daimon dropped down in front of me. With his hands resting on his knees and the lazy smile splayed across his face, he looked like he was about to talk about the weather with me.

He was that casual.

“What’s going on here?”

Daniel released me at the sound of my mother’s sharp and angry voice. I struggled to my feet, twisting toward her. I couldn’t help the mixture of terror and love coursing through me. She stood in the doorway, surveying the damage with a critical eye. I only saw the glamour. I couldn’t see her true form.

I was so screwed.

“Eric?” She directed her scowl at the dark-haired one.

“Your daughter… she’s not happy with the current state of things.”

I couldn’t pul my eyes off of her as she stepped over a piece of broken wood. “My daughter better not have one hair on her head missing.”

Eric glanced over at Daniel. “Her hair is perfectly fine.

She’s fine. So is the other half-blood.”

“Oh. Yes.” She turned to Caleb. “I remember him. Is he your boyfriend, Lexie? Sweet of him to tag along either way. Stupid, but sweet.”

“Mom.” My voice cracked.

She turned to me with a smile—a big, beautiful smile.

“Lexie?”

“Please… ” I swal owed. “Please let Caleb go.”

She tsked and shook her head. “I cannot al ow that.”

My insides twisted. “Please. He… just, please.”

“Baby, I can’t. I need him.” She reached out and brushed back my hair, the way she used to. I flinched, and she frowned. “I knew you would come. I know you. The guilt and the fear would eat at you. What I didn’t plan on was him, but I’m not mad. See? He’s going to stay.”

“You could let him go.” My chin trembled.

Her hand drifted down my cheek. “I can’t. He’s going to ensure that you cooperate with me. If you do everything I tel you to do, he’l live through this. I won’t let them kil him or turn him.”

I wasn’t stupid enough to be hopeful. There was catch, probably a big and terrible one.

She stepped away, turning her attention to the two male daimons. “What have you told her?”

Eric’s chin came up. “Nothing.”

My mother nodded. Her voice was the same, but I realized as she talked, it lacked what actual y had made it hers. There was no softness in it, no emotion. It was hard, flat—not hers. “Good.” She faced me once more. “I want you to understand one thing, Lexie. I love you very, very much.”

I blinked, backing against the wal . Her words hurt more than any physical blow could. “How can you love me?

You’re a daimon.”

“I’m stil your mother,” she replied in the same flat tone,

“and you stil love me. That’s why you didn’t kil me when you had the chance.”

An act and truth I was already regretting, but looking at her now, I could only see her—Mom. I closed my eyes, wil ing myself to see the daimon, the monster inside of her.

When I opened my eyes, she was stil the same.

Her lips twisted into a smile. “You can’t go back to the Covenant. I cannot al ow that. I have to keep you away from there. Permanently.”

My gaze fel to Caleb. Daniel inched his way closer to him. “Why?” I could keep my cool as long as the b.a.s.t.a.r.d didn’t touch him again.

“I need to keep you away from the Apol yon.”

I blinked, not expecting that. “What?”

“He wil take everything from you. Your power, your gifts

—everything. He is the First, Lexie. Whether he knows it or not, he wil drain everything from you so he can become the G.o.d Kil er. There wil be nothing left of you when he is done.

The Council—they know this. They don’t care. Al they want is the G.o.d Kil er, but Thanatos wil never al ow that to happen.”

I backed up, shaking my head. Mom was utterly crazy.

“They don’t care what it wil do to you. I can’t al ow that.

Do you understand?” She stalked forward, coming to a stop in front of me. “That’s why I must do this. I must turn you into a daimon.”

The room spun and for a moment, I thought I would pa.s.s out.

“I have no other choice.” She caught my hand, pul ing it to where her heart beat. She held it there. “As a daimon, you wil be faster and stronger than you are now. You wil be immune to t.i.tanium. You wil have great power… when you turn eighteen you wil be unstoppable.”

“No.” I pul ed my hand back. “No!”

“You have no idea what you are saying ‘no’ to. I thought I lived before, but now I am truly living.” She held her free hand in front of my face, wriggling her fingers once, then twice. A tiny spark flew from her fingertips, and then her entire hand was on fire.

I jerked back, but her grip increased on my hand.

“Fire, Lexie. I could barely control the air element as a pure-blood, but as a daimon, I can control fire.”

“But you’re kil ing people! How does that make it okay?”

“You get used to it.” She shrugged dismissively. “You’l get used to it.”

My blood froze in my veins. “You sound… freaking insane.”