Page 122 of White Hot Kiss
“Absolutely not!” his father thundered. “We are not working with a demon.”
“Father—”
“No, Zayne.” Abbot prowled to the door and stopped. Anger mottled his cheeks. “That is a path I am not willing to go down for any reason. History has proved that doing so ends in treachery.”
I knew then that no matter what Roth could do, or any demon, for that matter, Abbot’s views would never change. They were too deeply rooted in him, to the point of blind bigotry. Nothing short of a miracle would change his beliefs. Most Wardens were like that, especially the older ones.
My gaze fell to Zayne. He wasn’t ready to let it go. “Layla’s life is in danger. So are the lives of thousands, if not millions, of humans.”
“As if I don’t know that?” Abbot crossed the room in a flash, stopping in front of his son. “Is it desperate times call for desperate measures? We’ve been here before, on the brink of the world falling apart. This is nothing new. And trusting a demon will only aid in that destruction.”
“It’s not going to happen.” Geoff stood, placing his hands on his hips. “We’ve seen firsthand what trusting a demon will do.”
“That we have.” Abbot looked at me over his shoulder, his expression unreadable. “After all, Elijah foolishly trusted a demon once before.”
“What?” I laughed. “Elijah would kill himself before he trusted a demon.”
Abbot faced me fully. “Now he would, and he has good reason for his caution. A little over seventeen years ago he made the mistake of trusting one—a demon who claimed that she would rather be dead than be what she was. No one but Elijah knows the whole story, but one thing is certain. He lay with her, and in the end the demon got what she wanted.”
I opened my mouth, then clamped it shut. A cold wind swept down my spine. Denials formed on the tip of my tongue but no words came out.
“The demon he trusted was Lilith,” Abbot said. “And because Elijah trusted her, he helped create the one thing that could destroy the world. You.”
24
I’d never been the passing-out kind before, but I almost kissed the floor after that little bomb was dropped. Shaken and a whole lot disturbed, I sat back down.
“Elijah’s her father?” Shock colored Zayne’s tone. “You have got to be kidding me.”
“I am not.” Abbot took a weary breath. “He didn’t know the demon was Lilith until we found Layla in the foster home years later.”
I blinked slowly, but the room wouldn’t come into focus. “He knew I was his daughter?”
“He did.”
“But he...he hates me.” I sank back into the floral cushions. “He’s always hated me.” The moment the words left my mouth, I finally understood why. “God, I must’ve reminded him...”
“Of his lapse in judgment?” Abbot came to my side, his voice low. “He could never reconcile the part of you that was him.”
My head spun. “Didn’t he want to kill me when you all found me?”
Abbot looked away.
I sucked in an unsteady breath. “He did. Wow. I don’t even...” My eyes searched Abbot’s face for an answer. “You stopped him from killing me and you knew he was my father?”
Again, Abbot said nothing. It was Geoff who stepped forward. “The scar Elijah carries is not from a demon. Abbot stopped him that night and took you in. After all, you carry a Warden’s blood in you.”
“Oh, my God...” I shook my head. “This is...”
Too much.
Everyone’s eyes were on me, a mixture of surprise and pity. It was too much, learning all this and not having a moment to really let it sink in without an audience.
I stood and blindly made my way around Abbot. Someone called my name, but I didn’t stop until I was in my bedroom.
Sitting down on my bed, I stared at the spot on my wall. Nothing else seemed to matter at that moment. Elijah was my father—the Warden who hated me with the power of a thousand suns; the very same Warden who wanted me dead. He’d probably ordered Petr to kill me.
Oh, my God...