“He didn’t protect you,” he growled. “You could have been hurt.”
“I did protect her!” Dan threw up his hands. “I can’t believe a goddamn demon is berating me for how I raised my own daughter. I spent the first three years of her life perfecting a binding spell that trapped all her Nephilim powers and made her completely human. Even if someone tasted her blood, they would taste nothing but human. Her lifespan, human. Why do you think you never realized what she is? No one can detect her as long as she remains under the binding.”
“You put a spell on our daughter and you never told me?” Jacqui asked in a hollow voice. She was staring at Dan like she’d never seen him before. Eva knew the feeling.
“I couldn’t. It was for your own protection.”
Ash’s eyes narrowed. “Explain how she has the Sight, then.”
“She didn’t used to. I know that for a fact because I tested it when she was young.” Dan dragged a hand down his face. “Evidently, the repression of that ability only worked to a point. I guess having a bunch of demons standing right in front of her was enough to snap her out of it.”
“How does the binding break?”
“As if I’d tell you that.”
“She consumed my blood,” Ash said, which seemed a random thing to say.
Except Dan went white as a sheet. “No.”
“Yes. She had to in order to travel through the gate to get here, since I believed she was human.”
“I didn’t think of that.” He cursed. “Of course she did.”
Eva frowned. “Why is that relevant?”
“Blood is usually the catalyst in powerful magic,” Ash explained. “I didn’t know you were under a protection spell, or I never would have risked giving you mine.”
“Right.” Her dad rolled his eyes. “More likely, you’re salivating at the chance to get your hands on her. Until now, no one knew of her existence but me, and I intend to keep it that way.”
Eva dragged her hands down her face. Her logical mind wasn’t ready to accept that she was some freaky hybrid thing that was hunted by angels and demons alike. She’d barely come to terms with Ash being supernatural, and now she’d suddenly joined the club.
But she didn’t have a choice but to accept it, did she? Not after what had happened back at the house.
Whathadhappened? She’d snapped that wrought-iron banister like a twig, that was what. She had the handcuff still dangling from her wrist to prove it.
This is who you really are, the dark whisper inside of her said. Finally, it was content, and that dissociated feeling was gone. She no longer felt separate from herself, like the missing piece of the Eva puzzle had finally been put in its place.
It was such a subtle shift, she might never have noticed it if that damned feeling hadn’t haunted her her entire life. But now that it was gone, she felt whole, and she couldn’t regret it even if it meant she was in danger.
“Explain how to break the binding,” Ash growled at Dan.
“No. As long as it’s intact, her blood has no value to you.”
But how could it be intact if she’d snapped the banister? She certainly hadn’t done anything like that before. And why would she suddenly feel whole if nothing had changed?
“Tell me so I can protect her in the future as you failed to do,” Ash said.
“You have no future. There’s no way I’m letting you go knowing what she is.”
“You’re not touching him!” Eva snapped, beyond done with the threats. “And I want to know how the binding breaks because I deserve to have that important information about my own damn life!”
Dan’s grimace was properly remorseful. When he spoke, this time, he addressed his daughter. “You’re right, Eva, and I’m sorry. As you guessed, the catalyst is demon blood. But it’s two-sided. Not only do you have to drink demon blood, but a demon also has to consume your blood. And the catch is, it has to be the same demon, and it has to be within a twenty-four hour period. A blood swap, going both ways. I assumed you’d be safe because what were the odds you’d go around swapping blood with people?”
Well, that explains it.Eva stared at Raum and Belial. Raum and Belial stared back.
Ash relaxed visibly. “I haven’t consumed her blood. She’s safe.”
Dan breathed a sigh of relief.
