Page 26 of Capturing Sin

Or pray for divine intervention.

I forced a smile, feigning confidence. “I’ll keep you safe.”

She quirked a crimson brow. “Or…you could just let me go.” She stepped forward and strangled the bars separating us. “My name is Eve. I’m just another idiot who trusted the wrong bastard with her heart. Like you. I don’t belong here. I’ve never hurt a single human, and I don’t even want to, unless you count said bastard, who sold me out to you lunatics.” She winced, as if realising the casual insult might have consequences. “No offence.”

My jaw clenched at the desperation leaking from her every pore. There was every chance she didn’t deserve this. Every chance she’d never hurt anyone.

But how could I know for sure?

Either way, I was in no position to save her. I couldn’t even save myself.

My throat squeezed like the collar my uncle had on me was tangible. “I…can’t.”

Her brows furrowed. “Can’t? Or won’t?”

Guilt lathered over my skin, sticky like honey. I backed up a step, my breathing coming quicker as my conscience warred with logic.

“Standing by and letting it happen is as bad as holding the knife,” she murmured, hope guttering out in her eyes.

Her words raked through my chest like claws.

She didn’t understand though.

Terror iced my veins at the memory of speeding down winding country lanes with a 4x4 truck on my tail, gaining on me, praying to whoever might listen that nothing came the other way. The moment Leo’s bumper slammed my rear tyre, sending me careening into a ditch.

I’d tried to escape in the dead of night, alone and with no sign I was going to run, and it still hadn’t been enough. Leo had still hauled me from the wreckage, back under my uncle’s thumb.

I swallowed hard, my voice coming out as a strangled whisper. “You might be the one behind bars, but you’re not the only one caged.”

Her eyes softened, making her look even younger. “Then come with me. If you can’t escape the hunters here on earth, I can take you to hell. It’s nothing like your stories of fire and torture. It’s a stunning world, not that different from this one. My king will offer you sanctuary if you’re a victim too.”

But was I? I’d killed more demons than I could count. The chances that they all deserved their fate were slim. Statistics and probability called me an unhinged serial killer.

Even a retired hunter would be a target there.

“I’ll come back,” I blurted, turning from the sympathy I didn’t deserve and taking the stifling guilt with me as I fled the room.

The long corridor stretched in both directions as I hurried back to Cara’s lab, empty-handed. My supposed mentor was going to chew me out for forgetting her requested tools, but I didn’t have the heart to face Eve again.

Cara’s lab door was a plain white, as sterile as the walls trying to close in on me, interrupted by a small, reinforced window at roughly head height.

I didn’t bother to peer in, just shoved the handle in and walked inside like I belonged. “I couldn’t find those extra tweezers.”

The lab was a carbon copy of all the others except for my tiny one with the parasite. A holding cell lurked at the back, shiny bars glinting. A workbench dominated the centre, and more counters and equipment lined the outer edges of the room.

Cara straightened in her seat at the table, pinning me with a stern glare. “Fine. You’re lucky I had extra compounds to analyse today instead of sampling.” She jerked her pointed chin at the demon bound to a steel table on one side of the room. “For your tardiness, feed it and put it back.”

Tight smile in place, I nodded. “Sure thing, Cara. See you tomorrow.”

A muscle ticked in her jaw at my use of her first name, but she’d given up on correcting me in the first week of my so-called training. Calling her Dr Smythe felt a little too close to respecting her chosen profession as a deranged sociopath with a penchant for torture.

She put the slide she’d been examining into the box with the others, clicking it shut and storing it in the temperature-controlled unit under the counter. Gathering her things, she swept out of the room, flat loafers clacking obnoxiously with each step.

The moment the door snicked shut behind her, I let out a relieved breath.

“So, Doc, what have you got for me today?” a hoarse voice asked.

I looked over, finally letting myself absorb the nauseating sight that was Cara’s longest test subject.

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