Free Torn (Demon Kissed #3) by H.M. Ward Page A

you’re headed towards. We have to use a different one. Shannon will gut you the second you walk through the tomb.” I shivered, and was about to tell him that I didn’t think she could have gotten back so quickly, but Collin cut me off. “Sorry, but you have to realize what you’re dealing with. Shannon is going to be everything she was—times a hundred. If she was good at something before, now she is going to be unbelievably fantastic. And if her job is to kill you, then you have to avoid her. Take no chances. There are no more near-misses, not with her. If you see her again, you have to realize that one of you is not walking away alive. If you see her again, kill her before she kills you.”
    I nodded. This is what my life had come to. It made me feel sick inside that Shannon had turned on me. I didn’t want to think about it. If I could live the rest of my life without seeing her again, that would be okay. But the odds of that happened weren’t good. Even with the poison in my chest.
    Collin pulled me to my feet, explaining, “ Valefar leave the Underworld through various portals. Once you know where they are, you can effonate there, and then pass through them. The living and the dead aren’t supposed to mingle, and that includes us. I mean, me…and the Valefar. The angels went to great lengths to keep us separated from your world. But there are a few doors they didn’t seal, because they didn’t know of them.” He winked at me. I wondered if he would have told me the portals locations if he knew there was an angel hiding out in Hell. An angel who would seal the portals. All of them.
    I asked, “So, Valefar get around down here by effonating and then passing through a portal? We can’t just effonate directly in or out of Hell?” He nodded. “But once we go through the portal, Valefar can effonate through the Underworld, just like they do above? They can go anywhere?” He nodded again. That must be why I never saw Valefar walking around down here. They didn’t have to. And it avoided unnecessary unpleasantness with demon birds, dragons, and psychotic Valefar if they effonated. “Then why don’t we just effonate to a portal?”
    He replied, “We can’t. The only portal you’ve ever seen is the one you came through to get down here. It’s not safe to use that one again, and you can get to the other locations because you’ve never seen them,” he paused gazing at me. “Besides, I’m not letting you out of my sight.”
    I smiled at him. I wasn’t sure what’d he do. I asked, “So, you’ll come with me?”
    His eyebrows pinched together and he gave me a look that made me know that he thought my question was strange. “Yes. Why wouldn’t I?”
    I shrugged. “Just wasn’t sure because of the way things happened before.” I wasn’t sure if Collin knew that Kreturus had been in him or not. He never acknowledged that he was possessed, and during the time we were apart, well—it was possible that Kreturus left him. Or Kreturus could still be in there, but I couldn’t sense the old demon. Even during that kiss, there was no trace of the ancient evil. It was just Collin and his icy hot kisses that I felt.
    He turned me towards him, “Ivy, I’ll do everything I can to protect you, but I have to tell you something. Kreturus and I have a past. He’s targeting me, and not just because of you. When we were in New York, I told you that I made a bargain with him—my soul for yours.” Collin held my shoulders, but couldn’t meet my eyes, “That was the deal. I told you that I’d do anything to escape my life as a Valefar. I wanted my soul back. Kreturus promised me I would have it. Since demons have a tendency to lie and not follow through on their promises, I demanded part of my soul before I began looking for you. Kreturus gave it to me.”
    I couldn’t believe what Collin was telling me. Kreturus had given him part of his soul? That meant Valefar could be restored! That meant that I could