Page 80 of Underworld
He passed close by, but not close enough to touch.
I needed to touch him for my powers to work their best, but I was already affecting him now that he’d dropped his guard.
I couldfeelit.
“Instead of being the devil’s hound, I’ll be yours. Are those the terms, princess? Do you want my soul, too?”
Men.
“No.” I huffed out a breath. “I don’t care what you do with your soul, if you even have one.”
He flicked me a look and snarled.
“Hell, maybe I should find anewVirtue,” I pressed. “You spent a year tormenting the others. Why would I want you after that? Andwhydid you torment them?”
“You're changing the subject.” Irritation underscored every word.
“I want to knowwhy,” I demanded. “I want to hear it from you.”
“I’m a rage demon, little angel.” He gave me a cruel smile. “That’s what I do.”
“No.” Shaking my head, I glared at him. “It’s more than that. You could have tormented anyone, why them?”
“Because I knew you'd come back for them.” He faced me across the platform, wings spread and chin lifted in arrogance. “After I had stripped away all the falsehoods you've dressed them up with, after I brought out their true rage and their lack of faith, you’d come back and see they weren’t worthy of you.”
“That didn’t work out so well, did it?” I curled my lip. “And what do you care? You don’t seem to want anything to do with me.”
He made a dismissive motion with his hand.
“I don’t get it. What do youcare?” I pressed. “Do you want me to think you’re so muchbetterthan them?Youpushed into my mind, invaded my thoughts when I was with Logan. You had no right to do that.” Even now anger and shame twisted inside me and my face flushed from the memory.
He stalked closer, face tightening with anger.
“But I’m your Virtue, as you keep telling me. Don’t I have a right to you just as much as your pathetic wolf?”
“Not until Igiveyou those rights!” I fired back at him.
He went rigid. “You could have pushed me away. You didn’t. You want what I can give you, Lily. The things I can give you that no other can.”
Again, shame twisted inside me. Shame… and an insidious voice that whispered Cole wasn’t entirely wrong.
Sensing my hesitation, he grinned. “Don’t play the victim when all I did was walk through the dooryouopened.”
The rage in me roared to life.
I tried to fight it, because I could feel his influence working that rage like clay.
“You calledme,” he reminded me, his voice a silken rasp. “I have no power over you that you haven’t already given me.” He let his gaze trace over my face, then lower before he finally met my eyes again and smirked. “As they say, careful what you wish for, little angel.”
That smirk set me over the edge and I lunged at him.
A second too late, I saw the gleam of victory in his eyes and knew I’d been played.
The trap snapped shut, a magical barrier rising up to pin me in place. I couldn’t slow my forward momentum, though, and I didn’t try, slamming my fist into Cole’s jaw with all the strength I had.
He flew back, slamming into a column. A crack raced up the middle of it.
Cole didn’t seem to care. He sat there, staring at me as he laughed.
