Envy (Dark Waters Book 1)

Chapter Sixteen:

"Octavio, I need you to move up a bit, okay?" Priscilla's hands gently tugged at the tattered shirt around my chest. Sitting in the backseat of Gabriel's car, there wasn't much room. But he'd said it when he first saw me, and right before we left—I was bleeding and needed it taken care of. And the longer I stood around listening to shit I couldn't understand, the more I bled out and the weaker I felt.

Priscilla was trying to fix that.

I glanced at her but complied. She had a small box with fresh bandages and alcohol pads. I needed her more than I could admit. And it hurt because I felt like a joke. For those around me to know the cracks in my past, present, and very being... I wasn't sure how to behave.

"Okay, let me know if this hurts." Priscilla gave me a weak smile as she peeled off the first set of bandages. It hurt, but not much. I hissed in discomfort but arched and allowed her the space to do what she needed. "Some of these don't look as bad..." she whispered, brushing her hands over my skin. "Some look better than earlier. Do you heal fast?" She blinked at me.

"He's a demon, Priscilla," Gabriel grumbled from the front seat, "they heal."

Again with his irritation. I got it; I was the enemy. I was probably the main reason Priscilla's soul had been appointed a guardian angel. Gabriel of all angels, for darkness' sake.

But I had good intentions. Once I realized it was Priscilla's soul I needed to kill, I, for one, couldn't do it. And two, I'd settled on protecting her because I knew the others would come. Eventually.

"If you knew he'd heal fast, why did you make such a fuss about his bleeding." Priscilla narrowed her eyes. "You had me worried over here."

"You always worry," he mumbled as he turned the car onto the next street. He glanced at her through the rearview mirror. "You worried about the baby squirrels next door for days. So yeah, you'd worry. But he was bleeding."

"But he's healing," she said quietly.

"Excuse me for forgetting how fast they heal." Leaning back in his driver's seat, Gabriel shrugged. "I don't make it my business to know a demon's health."

"Well, you should," she hissed before looking back at me. Her face instantly changed, and I immediately felt her rays of light. "I'm sorry for how I acted at my place. I'm not like that, and now it's super weird, and—"

"It's not weird." When she pressed up against my ribs to tighten the fresh bandage, I hissed and closed my eyes. I said what I felt. I knew what she was reacting to; our souls connected and merged a long time ago, and being next to her, kissing her, had to bring that back. It brought those feelings back for me. "I felt it, too."

They never left you, Octavio. You thought about her every day and felt her constantly, right?

A deep red spread over her light brown cheeks. She couldn't look me in the eye. Turning her head, she bit her lip. "I um, well shit," she smirked. "I wasn't expecting that answer."

"Could you both not do this in my car, please." Gabriel looked at us through the rearview mirror. His gaze settled on my reflection. "If you're here, you must stay alive until I figure this out. How many demons have tried to hunt you?"

Priscilla tugged at the bandage again. This time it hurt. I clenched my jaw to keep from yelping and looked at Gabriel. "Three," I said. "And you killed one."

"Right." He turned onto another street, slowly approaching a brick building with no windows. "Greed wasn't as tough as I thought he'd be. Who were the other ones?"

I glanced out the side window behind Priscilla's head. I'd been so focused on how she managed to clean my wounds without missing a beat, I hadn't noticed the intense energy Gabriel was driving to. The building was covered with it, emitting a pure light from every brick in its wall. I licked my bottom lip as Gabriel parked the car, leaned over his driver's seat, and asked me again, "Who were the other demons, Envy?"