I watched as my blood dripped in between his lips and . . . nothing.
The agonizingly long minutes slipped by and nothing happened.
Then, my eyes bulged when I saw that the blood had begun to seep out from the side of his mouth. It was as if his body was rejecting it entirely.
Panic exploded through me.
No! I needed him to drink it!
Desperation blinding my senses, I lifted my fingers again to give him more of my blood. If I injected a large portion of my blood into his mouth, then there was a chance that at least one single drop would make it through his system and—
“You should be more careful with where you flaunt that blood of yours,” warned a stoic voice from behind me. “You don’t know if a Demon will be close by to take advantage of your idiocy.”
I whipped around and found Lyna standing beside the window that overlooked the hospital gardens. She was wearing another one of her black dresses and she looked more pissed than ever.
My eyes bloomed with hope. Despite fearing her company, I also found comfort in her presence. I had been stuck in the biblical world with an unconscious Demon and it was a welcome relief to be in the company of someone else who was from the biblical world—someone else who could help fix all of this.
In that desperate moment, Lyna couldn’t have appeared more like an Angel to me.
The Demon’s cold gray eyes ran over me for a full second before she shifted her attention to Eclipse. “Hasn’t he told you that your blood will bear no effect on him?”
“I was just—”
“You thought it would be one of those fictional miracles where you’d be able to cure him?” she interjected coolly. The inflection in her voice swam with mockery.
“He won’t wake up,” I said numbly, taking no offense to the manner in which she was speaking to me. I was too distracted by my concern for Eclipse. “I don’t know what to do.” My eyes landed on his sleeping state. “The doctors can’t fathom what could be wrong with him.”
Lyna’s lips curled up tersely. To her, I was stating the obvious. “Of course they wouldn’t be able to.”
Undeterred by her abrasive tone, I continued to stare at her, my pale face imploring her for assistance. This was far beyond my area of expertise; it was far beyond my level of understanding.
“What’s wrong with him, Lyna? Why won’t he wake up? Why is he like this?”
A dreary exhalation escaped from her as she folded her arms across her chest. Her eyes scrutinized me, challenging me to use my own deductive reasoning skills to figure out what happened to Eclipse.
“What happened to his father?” she drawled in boredom.
I tilted my head at her, my brows inverting down. I regarded Eclipse and then turned back to her. “Eclipse is hibernating?”
She blinked in confirmation.
“For extremely powerful Demons, when their powers are at an absolute minimum, their bodies protect themselves by shutting down and going into hibernation mode. Under the hibernation state, the last percentage of their power is preserved. It is only in this state that their powers can be renewed.” She let out a sigh. “It should be noted that Demons rarely wake up from hibernation unless they have enough recuperated power to do so. Due largely to the fact that Eclipse is a Dimmed Demon, it is no surprise that he has fallen into hibernation mode. It is also no surprise that it’ll take him millenniums to wake up, if he ever does.”
Her judgmental eyes burned a hole into me.
“Which brings the question back to you, you useless doormat. Why the hell were you trying to stick your blood into him? Didn’t you stop to consider that other Demons could be close by? That they could sense your blood and not only come to kill you, but Eclipse as well? Did you not consider how much danger you’ve put him in?”
Shame for my own carelessness engulfed me.
I was so blinded by my desperation to wake him up that I hadn’t even considered this threat—that some Demon could’ve been close by, sensed my blood, and came for us. With Eclipse unable to defend himself, we were sitting ducks.
“I—”
“Ah yes, your silly human logic was just hoping for a miracle, correct?” she sneered again. Another icy smirk curved on her mouth. “Surely, Eclipse must’ve impressed onto you that your blood is useless to someone like him?”
“He did, but I was desperate,” I explained shakily. “I didn’t know what to do. I just wanted to do something to help—”
“Or is your puny human brain too small to comprehend such a simple fact?”
That insult was the final straw. I felt like a volcano, bottling aggression up and taking in all her insults. In real life, I would be too spineless to stand up to her. But this wasn’t real life. This was another reality and the sadist within me had had it with this bitch.
She called me a doormat.
I would show her what kind of doormat I was.
Before I could register what had happened, my legs took off. Instead of standing beside Eclipse, I was in front of Lyna, standing on a chair with the pocketknife pressed firmly against her neck. There was an indentation in the area where the blade touched her neck. One simple thrust from me and her throat would slice apart at my will.
“Listen up, you goddamn witch,” I snapped, sick of her superiority complex.
I was already mentally fucked up with all that had transpired. I didn’t need her to screw with me even further.
I glared down at her, my hand steady as I held the knife to her throat.
“I’ve just had three of the most awful days of my life. I have fought Demons left and right, and I’ve had to confront a goddamn past that I’ve tried to avoid all my life. I am pissed, exhausted, and livid beyond imagination. It doesn’t help that the only one who can help me find the missing piece of my soul is in a fucking coma.”
I pressed the knife closer to her neck, the razor already cutting through a layer of flesh. My gaze on her was lethal and merciless.
“I don’t care if you’re more powerful than me. If you continue to piss me off, then I will fight you and I will make sure to do a number on you before you kill me. My sadism may be a flaw in my human world, but in your biblical world, I know it’s one of the biggest advantages I could have. Now stop taunting me. I may be soft-spoken and polite, but you know that I wouldn’t hesitate to stab you in the throat. Does your puny, immortal-sized brain comprehend that?”
I swallowed tightly, sparing an anxious glance at Eclipse.
“Now help me help him,” I pleaded, cooling down and coming back to reason. As liberating as it felt to tell her off, she remained my only hope. I didn’t want to alienate her entirely. So with an even and polite voice, I lowered the knife, stepped down from the chair, and diplomatically added, “Please.”
The whole time as I held my knife to her throat, Lyna’s face was void of emotions. I could’ve sworn she was ready to rip my head off for having the audacity to threaten her. To my surprise, instead of killing me, an impressed smirk slid across her face.
“Took you long enough to show your sadistic side, little human,” she stated in an entertained voice. The small cut on her neck healed instantly. She appraised me like I was an enigma—like there was more to me than what met the eyes.
I inhaled deeply, maintaining composure. My rashness and stupidity aside, I still had more important matters to focus on. “Can you help him, Lyna?”
She smiled coolly, her face becoming serious as well. Although her superiority complex was far from gone, at least my status with her went up a notch with the unexpected bitch-fit I threw.
“I can’t help him directly because I’m not capable of doing so,” she began airily, casting a glance at Eclipse before locking eyes with me. “But I can help you indirectly by sending you to the very place where you can find help: Sloth’s dorm in Seoul. If there’s anyone who can help Eclipse, it’s his brother.”
I nodded encouragingly, urging her to do it. I became confused when she remained placid, not eve
n moving a muscle to help. I peered at her strangely before noticing the devious smile edged against her red lips.
I knew that smile.
It was a calculating one, it was a cunning one, and it was a scheming one. It was one that wanted an exchange for my desperation.
“How desperate are you for him to wake up?”
I scrutinized her with disgust. I already knew what she wanted from me. “You want to make a deal with me?”
Lyna was unfazed by the revulsion on my face. She tipped her head at me, her features free of decipherable emotions.
“Do you want to help him now or do you want to wait several millenniums for him to stir from his sleep?” She evaluated his hibernating state. “Better hurry, Grace. The longer you wait, the harder it will be to wake him up.”
I bit my lower lip, glancing at Eclipse before staring up at her in helplessness. The answer was simple to me. My veil lifted on my birthday, which was coming up soon. I needed him with me now.
“What . . .” I began cautiously, every part of me aware that it was a mistake to entertain the idea of making a deal with her. This was going to be something I’d regret, but what other options did I have? I didn’t have millenniums to spare when I was doomed to die in this lifetime. My ultimate goal was to die as a human being with her entire soul intact, and Eclipse was the only one who could help me with that. “What is the deal?”
“Do not fall in love with him.”
I had to do a double take because the ludicrousness of her “deal” was too stupid for someone of my intelligence to comprehend. “Excuse me?”
She hurled an annoyed look in my direction. “Did I stutter?”
She did not stutter, but my mind was stuttering. I was the six-year-old murderer and a Source with the most coveted soul of the millennium. Instead of forcing me to make some earthshattering deal that would benefit her power-wise, she chose to make this frivolous deal instead?
“What kind of deal is that?” I critiqued, unable to silence my thoughts.
“My deal,” she answered flatly. There was conviction in her eyes, one that told me that she had been wanting to make this deal with me for some time.
“Why would you make a deal like this?”
“Perhaps I’m being altruistic,” she evaded, folding her arms across her chest. “Dark Majesties are the worst ones to fall for. Only a fool would willingly drink their poison.”
Her visage grew serious, warning, and almost . . . regretful? The mysterious relationship between her and Pride slid into my circuit of thoughts. My eyes instinctively floated over the knife scar on her face.
“You’re speaking from experience?” I asked without thinking.
Venom exploded on her face. It scared me so much that I recoiled back in fear. She wasn’t annoyed enough to kill me for threatening her with the knife, but she was certainly annoyed enough to kill me for not knowing my place.
I held both hands up as my way of saying that I wouldn’t ask her any more personal questions.
I immediately went back to what we were talking about.
“Look, I don’t know if you’ve forgotten an important fact, but I’m as selfish and sadistic as they come. My attraction for Eclipse is strictly physical. There’s no possible way I’d fall in love with him.”
“Yes, I am aware of this,” she responded carefully, assessing me from head to toe. “You’re very immune to the typical human emotions. Regardless, you’re still human. This means that the lineage of Adam and Eve is still pumping through you. You’re still a liability.” She smirked. “This deal is merely an insurance policy. I’m sure that your puny brain is intelligent enough to not fall for a Demon. However, just in case you do become stupid, this deal will keep you from performing the moronic act.”
I shot her an inquisitive expression. I was intrigued by the implication behind her words. “What will happen if I break it?”
“I will burn you alive,” she told me impassively, her expression challenging me to fuck around with her. When she detected the doubt in my eyes, she added, “I am powerful enough to bypass your veil without help, Source. Even Eclipse, when he is at his full power, cannot manage such a feat.” She stepped forward, towering over me. I found myself freezing in trepidation as she came closer to me. “I know that you fear me, but your fear will never equate to what you will feel when you break a deal with me. You do not want to know my wrath, I’ll tell you that much.”
I blinked slowly, not understanding why I was stalling on making the deal.
“Why won’t you help him?” I tried to ask instead. “Aren’t you supposed to watch over him?”
“Because I am livid with him and his idiocy on this trip!” she snapped as only an older sister could when pissed off at her younger brother. She took a moment to close her eyes to calm herself down before she opened them again. Her composure regained, she serenely said, “I will deal with him when he wakes up. Since I have you alone, I might as well take out the anger I have for him on you.” She exhaled edgily, her face impatient. “What do you say, little human? Do we have a deal or should I leave and let Eclipse fall deeper into his hibernation?”
“Yeah,” I replied quickly, panicking at the thought of Lyna leaving us. Pushing the apprehensiveness aside, I said, “Yeah, deal. I’m not going to fall for him. If I fall in love with him, then you can burn me alive. ”
She nodded with satisfaction, pleased with my concurrence. “You have no one else to blame but yourself if you do.”
I rolled my eyes. My own impatience was beginning to surface. It was as if she was telling a priest to not have sex with a prostitute. It was idiotic. I knew what was expected of me. I would never fall for a Demon. It was against all the bylaws of nature, as well as my better rationale, to do so.
“How about we start, Lyna?”
She heaved a sigh before a bowl of liquid—that looked suspiciously like oil—appeared in her palm. “Give me your hand.”
I clenched my fists together, keeping them protectively pressed against my chest. “What are you going to do to it?”
“Dip your hand in oil and then light it.”
I blinked at her, stupefied by what she so casually stated. “Are you serious?”
Her expression turned intolerant. “Do I look like someone who’s capable of joking?”
No, you look like someone who would laugh at me when my body is burning alive, I wanted to retort.
Had I met her weeks before, I would have run out of the room screaming in fear. Alas, a new era had begun in my life. Unfortunately for me, insanity was the name of this new era.
“I couldn’t wait to get rid of him weeks ago,” I said tightly, finding it ironic that I wanted to save him so much. In resignation, I timidly extended my hand to her.
“Funny,” she murmured as she dipped my hand into the bowl of oil. “Weeks ago, he was saying the same thing about you.”
She turned my hand palm up, oil dripping freely from it and spilling over the tiles. Before I could properly digest her response, an orb of fire materialized several centimeters above the palm of my oily hand. The orb hovered like a bubble with sparks of red fire spitting out from it. As sounds of crackling fire filled my ears, the fiery orb started to lower itself onto my palm.
Then, something strange happened: my body started to move on its own accord.
While my mind commanded it not to, my palm was seized with the inability to do anything but ease the orb of fire closer and closer to my lips. Next thing I knew, I had tucked the ball of fire into my mouth. The instant I swallowed it, an inferno of fire and light devoured me. The quietness of the hospital room was replaced with the sounds of people chattering, cars whizzing by, horns blaring, and rain sprinkling.
My eyes bloomed when I processed that I was now standing in the middle of a busy sidewalk where people were bumping into me left and right. I looked at the hand that was once immersed with oil and saw that the knife wound on my finger was healed. Still in a slight daze, I surveyed the street and pro
mptly recognized this as the area of the college campus where Sloth resided.
Relief washed over me. I was glad that I didn’t burn alive and thankful that Lyna came through for me.
“Thanks, Lyna,” I whispered to the misty air before I barreled through the crowd.
“And yet when you walk into the room . . .”
15: Luxuria
With rain trickling over me, I pulled my pink infinity scarf over my head and sped towards the dorm. Other students had unlocked the main entrance, so I was able to slide through the door just as it was about to slam shut. I made a beeline for the stairs, not stopping until I reached the sixth floor. Once the pungent smell of drugs, alcohol, and puke began to bombard my senses from Sloth’s floor, I pushed open the door and hurried down the corridor. My eyes locked on the triple dorm room that was at the end of the hall.
Fighting past the cloud of smoke, I ran into the room and searched for Sloth. His beanbag chair was empty, but his “friends” were still there, looking as pathetic as ever. They were all lying on the dirty floor, teetering between the realm of consciousness and unconsciousness.
“Ex-excuse me,” I said to the dozen boys and girls in the room. My voice shook with fatigue. I tried to hide my critical judgment of them while I spoke. “Where’s your roommate?”
They did not deign to look at me as they drank their alcohol.
“Out,” they replied sluggishly.
“Where?”
“At a restaurant . . .”
It took all my willpower to not kick them for being unhelpful. Maintaining my poise, I persisted and asked, “Do you know where?”
They fell asleep before they could answer, and I felt the hysteria assail me. If Sloth wasn’t in his dorm, then how on earth was I supposed to find him? I didn’t have his number or any other means of contacting him. The only way was to run into every restaurant on the street until I found him. The ineptitude of this “plan” taunted me. Regardless, desperate times called for desperate measures. Lyna had failed me. It was now up to me to find Sloth.