Don't Let Them Catch You

22• Clever Girls.

"Speak your mind."

Amos' tone was flat as he regarded Aura with an unreadable expression.

"Is that really necessary when you can hear my thoughts?" Aura sighed leaning against the wall beside her bed.

"I'm giving you the option to choose what you want me to know," he responded.

Aura glanced at him from the corner of her eye, too tired to care as he slowly lowered himself to sit beside her feet.

Alone in her room, he'd revealed himself to her again. She didn't know if she would ever get used to the sight of him...

Clearing her thoughts Aura blushed furiously and burned her gaze through her hands. Focusing instead on how she'd ended up back in her room.

Tanya found the Alpha in no time. When he got to the scene, Aura didn't need to have her powers to feel the agony that ripped through his core, despite his impressive ability to stay collected. He merely stood there for a few moments in silence before coming toward the mate he shunned and crouched by her head, pausing to tentatively stroke her short hair.

'Leave.' He'd said, his voice was quiet. The angel had barely stepped through the threshold when the alpha ordered her to return to her room and stay there.

Aura did as she was told, but she didn't miss the crack in his voice. Her heart broke for him.

Rayne.... though she was by far among the least pleasant of people to be around, she didn't deserve to be mutilated. To have her entrails scattered on the ground like that.

The angel took a sharp intake of breath and closed her eyes. "Despite the person she was... I don't ... she didn't... there is something humiliating about having your body parts scattered and insides loose like that."

"But you would do that to a demon?" Amos countered, leaning back on his elbows. "If given the chance you would do the same thing to a devil."

Aura paused. "But they don't deserve mercy in death—"

"Says who?" Amos interrupted. The storm in his eyes seemed to intensify as they pierced through hers with a silent question he didn't say. "Rayne, if given the option could be no better than a lower demon. She had... perverse interests and an unsettling thirst for blood. Of course she has part of their heritage somewhere along her bloodline due to what she is but regardless, what makes her worthy of a dignified death, yet not a creature of hell?"

"Demons are soulless, emotionless beasts-"

"Are they?" He interrupted again.

"We're talking about the same thing right?" She asked, her features scrunching.

Amos shrugged, "I believe anyone is capable of love. No matter how bad they might seem as individuals, that shows presence of soul and emotion."

She wanted to argue with him, refusing to believe that the people who tore her home apart were capable of love. "Even those who slaughtered thousands of innocents?"

Amos looked away. "We're no better Hakkeesee. We've killed too."

All life is equal, was something her father would say to her, years ago.

In her core, Aura understood. She could argue as much as she wanted but deep down she knew.

All were capable of love, whether it be over something minuscule, or something important. But then, who was she to judge who's love mattered more.

It wasn't her place.

"They have done terrible things, to be where they are now," Amos continued, referring to the damned, "But it's not up to us to decide what someone deserves in death. As a warrior, I kill because it's my duty, there may be times where I desire nothing more than to deliver a treacherous death but that doesn't mean it's right. Again, I'm not always prone to doing the right thing."