He blinked in question.
“Your other form. Show me.”
If she was going to do this again, she wasn’t going to be in denial. She wasn’t going to pretend he was something he wasn’t.
Right now, his enormous, red-skinned form lived in her hazy memory like a nightmare. She still couldn’t quite reconcile the man in front of her with that form, and she knew she needed to if she was going to give into... whatever was happening between them. She still wasn’t ready to define it.
“Eva...”
“I want to see.”
He hesitated, searching her gaze. She couldn’t give him the assurance he probably sought. She couldn’t guarantee that she wouldn’t flinch away from him in fear. In fact, she probably would. A part of her wanted a chilling reminder of what he was because shewantedit to scare her away.
There were so many reasons not to get involved with him, so many reasons it was a terrible idea to start a doomed relationship with a supernatural being from Hell that was destined to spend the rest of his immortal life on the run. Maybe seeing that terrifying, red-skinned form again would be the wake-up call that she needed.
And maybe Ash understood that, because his expression changed. That open, earnest, slightly hungry look shifted to one of acceptance with a hint of sadness. She loved how easily she could read him. She probably understood what he was feeling better than he did.
But then... she watched as the black of his pupils bled out until it filled both of his eyes. And he wasn’t quite so harmless anymore.
In fact, he was frightening. Deadly. She sucked in a breath at the sight of that void-like blackness staring down at her.
And then she gasped again when a sharp, black claw curved out from the thumb still pressed against her lower lip. He started to drop his hand, but she caught his wrist and lifted it to study.
His hands were still those gorgeous piano-player hands. Long fingered and elegant, with strong veins on the backs. But the claws that curved from the tips of his fingers were decidedly impractical for playing an instrument and definitely made more for ripping out someone’s throat.
The artist was gone; this was the demon. The killer. The thought sent a chill through her.
As if to emphasize her point, she watched as the hand she held in her grasp suddenly morphed to a deep, blood red. Startled, she dropped it and looked up, back into his face, only to find the change to his skin had taken over his whole body.
Her breath caught, and her heart started to pound. She was truly staring at a supernatural being that shouldn’t exist. But he did exist, and the proof was right before her eyes.
He wasn’t human.
He wasn’t fucking human.
Yes, she’d seen Ash fight the Hunter, and she’d seen Belial burst into flames. Yes, Ash and his brothers had told her about the supernatural world, about angels and demons and Nephilim and Watchers and demon hunters and ancient battles.
But here and now was when the last shred of her denial and disbelief finally fell away.
She waited for the fear and panic to hit.
It didn’t.
All of this was really fucking real and it was happening to her, and it was happening right now. And she would never be the same again. The entire course of her life had altered, and she didn’t know what that meant yet.
But she did know she didn’t want to go back.
That empty feeling, that sense of longing, that confused, baseless searching... Maybe this was where it had always been leading. Maybe she’d had an intuitive sense that this was real all along, and that was why she’d always felt like some part of her was missing.
She didn’t believe ignorance was bliss. Ignorance was ignorance, and she would much rather know and face hard facts than live in the dark.
Ash was still missing his wings, she realized. And his horns. And his height. He’d been enormous before: as tall as Belial. She was glad he held off on the remaining changes, however. She wasn’t sure she could handle everything at once.
“Eva,” he said softly. His voice hadn’t changed, but she remembered it being deeper when he was bigger, which made sense. “Say something.”
She took a breath.
And then she whispered, “Kiss me,” before she lost her nerve.
