Page 152 of Lover Forbidden
“Tell me what exactly.” She couldn’t breathe, she couldn’t breathe, she couldn’t— “Oh, God, that was why you weren’t surprised about the fight behind this building. Or why I never had a car. Or why I had a shadow apartment. It was why you never bothered to ask me out during the day… or put out any questions about my life. Youknewwhat I was.”
“I’m sorry—”
A sudden surge of rage helped with the whole chills thing. “Oh, you can fuck off with that—”
“You lied, too.” He shook his head sharply as a distant banging sounded out. “I didn’t see you volunteering what you were or avoiding me because you thought I was human. I’ll accept what I did was wrong, but don’t pretend you weren’t keeping your own secrets for your own reasons.”
Lyric exhaled in a rush. “No, you’re not going to put this back on me—”
“You told me you weren’t looking for anything. So what were my obligations exactly.”
She marched over to him. “You’re the son of the Omega. You are myenemy.”
“Grandson,” he said levelly. “To be accurate. And don’t confuse me with my parents or my bloodline. I have lived my own life, away from their shit, for the majority of my adult—”
“Yourmahmen. The demon, Devina, is your…”
The world started spinning so she threw out an arm to steady herself—and when he tried to help her, she recoiled away from his touch. This wasnotthe magic she’d had in mind, this wasnotwhat she’d—
“You’re pure evil,” she hissed. “And you mask yourself in the world. You’re worse thaneverythingI’ve been trying to get away from. You’re a violent, murderous illusion—”
“When have Ieverhurt you!”
“Now! You’re hurting menow!” Abruptly, she slapped both handsover her mouth as her stomach rolled. “Oh, God… I had sex with you. You came inside of me—”
As that muffled banging continued, Dev squeezed his lids closed like she’d stabbed him in the chest.
“I can’t do this,” she mumbled. “I can’t—I’ve got to get out of here, I have to—”
Just as she went to take a step back, something locked on to her ankle, and she felt a searing pain. As she yelped and looked down, blood welled through the hem of her blue jeans—
Laughter bubbled up from thelesserwho, for some reason, was right at her feet. Even with a broken neck, it had managed to drag its body over and wield a knife with enough strength to cut her to the bone.
With a roar, Dev bared his front teeth. No fangs, but the fury was real. “You fucking bastard—”
On the attack, he dematerialized onto the slayer, tore the knife out of that grip, wielded it over his head—
With a fresh wave of lurching nausea, Lyric fell to the floor, her hands going to the wound and all the blood.
Annnnnnnd that was when L.W. broke into the apartment by shattering the door. In a split second, she caught a glance of the wavy distortion she’d seen right before Dev’s eye color had registered for the very first time, and she knew L.W. had somehow penetrated through the spell or whatever the barrier was. And then right behind him, out in the hall, she saw that Shuli and Rhamp were dealing with an elderly woman holding a tray of food.
Except then the door mystically re-formed, as if it had never been hit by that powerful shoulder.
Before she could say a thing, the heir to the throne looked down at her and across at Dev. The roar that came out of the male next was surely something that everybody in the building heard—maybe all of Caldwell. But there was no stopping L.W., stopping any of this.
With two running leaps, he slammed into Dev, spun him around, and shoved him into the wall. Forcing Dev’s arm back, he made him drop the knife.
From out of her swirling confusion, she groaned. “He’s not human, he’s—”
Right beside her, at floor level, thelesserlocked eyes with her and that demented smile came back. And he had something else in his hand.
Lyric told herself to pull it together and focus—
As another rhythmic thumping started to sound out at the door, the gun in the slayer’s hand came into sharp focus.
Thelesserdidn’t point it at her.
It smiled even wider and swung the weapon around. At L.W.
