Hers

Chapter Twenty-Seven

Chapter Twenty-Seven

            Sam was standing on my front porch when Ace drove up.  I could see the disappointment in his eyes, even as he tried to cover it up.  Ace and I sat in the Mustang for a while longer, staring out at Sam who looked treacherously calm as he glared back at Ace.

            “We’ll have to face him sooner or later,” I said to Ace who scoffed.

            “Scared of what your Angel Boy will say?”  He asked.  There was a hesitation, a tension that made me keep my mouth shut.  “You know, you don’t have to listen to him.  It could be me you run with, I’ll even let you keep your evil side, I kind of like it.”

            “Stop,” I scolded, shooting him a pointed look.  “Sam’s always been there to help me, even after I became this monster.”

            “You are a lot of things, Lilly Owens, but a monster is not one of them.”

            “What I am is wrong.  I don’t deserve to be damned for something I had no control over, Sam sees that, and he’s helping me fix what you destroyed,” I bit back at Ace.

            His jaw tightened, but he knew I was right.  He was the one that took me into the office, even after he knew it was a gate to Hell.  He was the one who left me alone with Satan.  He was the one that had been trying to damn me from the moment he stepped foot into town.

            Sensing that the conversation was over, I put my hand on the door lever and pulled to no avail.  Ace rolled his eyes and let out a long sigh before climbing out of the car.  He walked along to my side and unlocked the door from the outside.

            He opened the door and held his hand out for me to get out.  I rejected it, and stood on my own.

            “Well, look there,” Ace said with a smirk that was just inches away from my face.  “I opened a door for you.”

            A smile tugged the corner of my mouth.  “There’s a first time for everything, I suppose.”

            I went to step around him, but he didn’t move.  I glanced up into his heavy, blue eyes that were scanning me with a new found curiosity.  The attraction that had been in place before was only magnified now.  I felt the sparks jumping between us, setting my nerves on fire, and scalding my skin.

            “I didn’t destroy you, Lilly.  I set you free.  You are now, exactly who you were supposed to be all along.”  He stared down at me, but flickered his gaze to Sam for a fraction of a second.  “Don’t let him be the one to destroy you.”

            “I’m only setting things back the way they were supposed to be,” Sam called to Ace as he made his way down the steps.

            Ace’s jaw tightened and he stepped away from me and just a step closer to the Angel of Death.

            “I know you’re planning on sedating that bitch Lilith that’s trying to take control over Lilly,” Ace bit back at Sam.

            “Something woke Lilly’s evil up, but I’m sure you knew that,” Sam said calmly.  “She was never meant to be a demon, Asmodeus, you know that.  Lilly was going to be the one to end the cycle, that’s why you woke the evil.”

            “There’s something coming after her, and if you want her to survive, you’ll let me teach her to control her succubus side, harness its power,” Ace begged.