Demon ∞ l.h.

∞ Chapter Twenty Six ∞

∞

"Michael!" I gasp. I couldn't help myself, my eyes roamed over his tall figure, drinking in the sight of him. He hadn't changed. He was still wearing those damned skinny jeans and ripped band shirts, his hair wild as ever – only it was a white blonde rather than the black I had last seen on him.

"Eve." His voice was monotonous, only a small amount of surprise leaking through his tone. The clear, glassy green of his eyes, so familiar to me, looked distant and unemotional.

"What are you doing here?" The question slips past my lips before I can stop it. The corner of his mouth twitches upwards.

"I think the question you're really meaning to ask is 'how are you alive?' but I'll answer both anyway." The voice is Michael's...but it isn't his... Michael's words are-were- always soft and flowy, the volume pitching whenever he got excited. But his voice now? So cold and monotonous, biting each word out like it hurt him to speak to me.

"Damn it, Eve! I told you to stay in your room!" Luke's voice seems far away, like I was underwater unable to hear him properly. I ignore Luke, unable to focus on him. Not when my dead ex-fiancé is standing in front of me, clearly still alive.

"But you died?" I almost cringe at the softness of my voice. I felt weak in comparison to the two men standing before me – both of whom stood well over six foot.

"Peaches, surely you of all people know that death hasn't stopped someone from living." The sound of my old nickname is like a stab in my heart – coming from this new Michael only makes it worse. I flinch away from the pain, turning it into anger.

"I watched you die!" I screech, "For the second time! I watched you put a fucking gun to your head and pull the trigger!" He doesn't even flinch at the volume of my voice, merely blinking uninterestedly at me. "Do you know what I went through?"

"Brother, I think it is time that you should leave." Luke's hostile voice echoed between us. Wait a second. Brother? I glanced at Luke in surprise, but he wasn't looking at me. He was glaring at Michael, with a look of pure hatred and betrayal, his hands clenched into fists at his sides.

"Brother?" I ask, momentarily distracted. I shake my head. "It doesn't matter. I want to know why you are alive? How?" I point my finger viciously at Michael. I fight the urge to go and stand beside Luke, suddenly wishing for the comfort of his protective arms.

"Eve, what you have to understand is that what is dead, should stay dead. You and I were in a car crash together, when we were what? Sixteen? I died, as did my mother. And you-"

"That's enough, Michael." Luke's voice is sharp, and I could only imagined how dark his eyes were. But Michael ignores the blonde man once more.

"You brought me back to life several months later, using black magic. That stupid witch of your grandmother taught you how to summon a demon, and you made a crossroads deal. You dragged me from death and dragged me back to the land of the living."

"What was I supposed to do? I loved you! How was I supposed to live without you?" I felt a tear drip down my cheek, but I didn't lift a hand to wipe it away.

"People live without the ones they love everyday, Eve. You're human, so time would have healed the wound – but you never gave it time, and you didn't try to move on. You wallowed in your own misery, and refused to let me go."

"You're right, I am human." I defend. "And humans make mistakes, that is what make us human."

"You. That's what makes you human." Michael interrupts, rolling his eyes. The action is so familiar I almost laugh. "I am not human, Eve, I'm an angel."