Personal Demons by Lisa Desrochers

Author:Lisa Desrochers [Desrochers, Lisa]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: Juvenile Fiction, Fantasy & Magic, Girls & Women
ISBN: 9781429942812
Google: c7toNIMsl1YC
Amazon: 0765328089
Publisher: Tor Teen
Published: 2010-09-13T16:00:00+00:00

14

The Devil Takes His Due

LUC

After what happened yesterday with Avaira, this has been the most confusing day of my entire pathetic existence. Sitting next to Frannie in English—wanting to say something, to touch her—was torture to rival the flames of the Fiery Pit. The rest of the day she avoided me, and rightly so. But just at the final bell, when she glanced at me . . . the look in her eyes nearly killed me.

Last night was a living Hell. Thinking about her. Needing to see her. I followed Gabriel when he dropped her off at her house and spent all night there, in my car, as usual. It took everything I had not to climb her tree and push through her window. I’ve been back and forth all day, because I still have no clue what I’m doing. The one thing I am sure of is that I need to protect her from Belias—for a lot of reasons.

Who would have ever thought it? Me, the great protector. It’s almost laughable.

But I can’t let Belias have her. Frannie is my assignment, and, in addition to really not wanting to burn in the Fiery Pit, my pride won’t let me fail. If she’s that important, I want credit for her soul. My bigger reason, though, is that I know how Belias works, and I can’t stand the thought of him touching her, of her soul being bound to him—a filthy incubus. A shudder racks me as my mind shows me what I don’t want to see—the image of her, with him, like that.

No!

It’s not going to happen. I’d rather Gabriel won.

Because I love her.

That’s got to be what this feeling is—the giddy rush I feel when I look at her, the way all my insides scream when I think about Belias taking her, the insatiable need I have to be with her. How is that possible? There’s no crying in baseball and no love in Hell. It’s just the rules. You could say it’s against our religion, more or less. It flies in the face of everything we are.

But it’s there, and it’s real, and there’s nothing I can do about it. Which means I need to protect her from me too. If I take her the way I want to, she’ll belong to Hell, but not to me. She’s got Sight. King Lucifer will use her until her soul is nothing but an empty husk, then slough her off with the rest of the Shades. I’ve seen it time and time again. She’ll be dead in every way: body and soul.

I’ve never questioned an assignment before. It’s not my place. Most mortals deserve what they get. But Frannie’s different. I wasn’t lying when I told her I’d never met anyone like her. She doesn’t deserve that fate.

I watch her bolt out of last-period government, and a big part of me wants to chase her down, wrap my arms around her, and make everything okay. But the truth is that there is no way for me to do that, because I’m what’s not okay—me and my brethren.

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