Page 41 of Deathless
Rori nodded, a smile touching her lips. “Well, I hope you two are together for as long as it makes you both happy.”
Footsteps crunching over the ground made both of our heads snap to the side.
“Paloma, there you are.” Santos approached with a big smile of relief on his face. “Torr and I have been looking for you.” Once he realized who she was standing with, his smile disappeared and he hurried to her side. “What’s going on?”
“Nothing.”
“Nothing.”
Rori and I blurted out the word at the same time, only making ourselves look more suspicious.
“We were just talking.” She turned into him, accepting being tucked under his arm and leaning against his chest, closer than she had been with me.
“Talking?” he repeated like he’d never heard bigger bullshit in his life. “Youtwo?”
“Yes,” Rori insisted with a glance back at me. “We’re actually getting along alright. Aren’t we, Hudson?”
“Yeah,” I agreed, nodding my head under Santos’ hard glare. “I don’t mean any harm to her, or anyone.”
“Then why is there a fucking gun right there?” Santos jerked his chin at the forgotten weapon lying next to its removed ammo on the railing.
“I brought it,” Rori said before I could answer.
Santos looked at her, his confusion mounting. “Why?”
Rori opened her mouth to answer just as someone pushed the sliding door open behind me and Devin’s husky voice floated to me.
“The hell are you doing out here?” One arm came around my waist, the other over my shoulder to stroke my chest. His teeth had just barely nipped my shoulder when he noticed Santos and Rori. “Hey guys. What’s going on?” He went stiff when he too noticed the gun and clip of ammo. “Whatthe hellis going on?”
“It doesn’t fucking matter.” The voice came from Rori, but it wasn’t her speaking.
She pushed Santos away with so much force that he lost his balance, windmilling his arms and eventually landing on his ass.
He returned to his feet just as Rori turned her gaze on me. Devin’s grip tightened around me as he muttered, “Fuck,” in my ear.
Fuck was right. Rori’s eyes had gone completely black, no irises or sclera visible at all.
“Oh, now she’s fighting me hard.” The strange voice from Rori laughed. “Making quite a racket up here.” She tapped an index finger against her temple. “So protective over thesemen, that’s her biggest flaw. But don’t worry. I’ll make herperfect.”
“Shit,” Santos gasped. “It’s taking over her.”
“Hey!” Torr was jogging toward us now, and I didn’t know if that was a good or bad thing for the deity gaining control of Rori. “You found her.” He slowed, confusion hitting him as he took in me, Devin, Santos, and then Rori’s demonic black eyes.
“You were right,” Santos told him quickly. “She’s being possessed.”
Out of nowhere, Rori crumpled to a heap like a marionette whose strings had been cut. Santos and Torr ran toward her, and Devin released me to do the same. Her eyes, their normal dark green color, snapped open with a gasp of breath.
“You have to get away from me,” she said in a panicked rush. “All of you, everyone. Get them out of here. She’s taking control of me, and I can’t stop her!”
“We’re not leaving you,” Torr insisted. “We can keep you restrained. We can—”
“That won’t work!” Rori screamed in his face. “You can’t win against a god! Get everyone to safety before she makes me kill you all.”
“There has to be something—” Santos started.
“Yes! Killing me,” Rori cried. “I came here to ask Hudson to do that, but he wouldn’t, and now it’s too fucking late.” She stared straight at Torr, darkness creeping into her eyes before she blinked the inky blackness away. “If you love me at all, you will either shoot me right now or get the hell away. Those are the only ways we keep going.”
“Hudson.” Devin took hold of my arm, his feet moving like he was trying to lead me away.
