Deidre's Death (#2, Rhyn Eternal) Read Online Free PDF

replied with some
offense. “We are the same person.”
    “In some ways, maybe,” he allowed. “The
tumor is gone?”
    “Yes.”
    Her first thought was that he wasn’t buying
it. His gaze remained steady.
    “Turn around.”
    She frowned. “Why?”
    “I want to make sure you’re my mate and not
a shape-shifter demon.”
    “Do I look like a demon?” she
retorted.
    “You can show me your marking, or I can hold
you down and look myself,” he warned.
    “You wouldn’t …”
    Gabriel shifted towards her. Deidre sprang
back.
    “Okay,” she said, uncomfortable with the
idea she had no control whatsoever over the man before her. He
didn’t answer to her anymore, as he had for thousands of years.
    Did she expect him to?
    Confused, she turned her back to him and
pulled her shirt up to expose the marking. Gabriel placed a large
hand on her back. She gasped, the heat and energy of his touch
making her shiver. Fully splayed, it would almost cover the width
of her petite frame. The thought of letting him run those hands
wherever he wanted thrilled the human in her and terrified the
former goddess.
    She pushed her shirt down and moved away to
break contact, facing him again when half the bed was between
them.
    “Just when things seem to be going well,” he
said and stood. Fire flashed in his eyes.
    “What’s wrong?” she asked uncertainly.
    He crossed his arms, dark gaze hard,
towering in the bedroom that suddenly felt too small for her.
    “What’s wrong,” he repeated. “Do you have
any idea what he could’ve done to you?”
    She was quiet.
    “Why the fuck couldn’t you come to me
first?”
    She flushed and looked away. She’d seen him
upset but never angry. Neither she nor human-Deidre thought to
involve Gabriel in their plans. They were more alike than Deidre
realized; they both sought out Darkyn for quiet deals they hoped
would result in ending up with Gabriel. Only one of them made it
out of Hell, though.
    “My mate trusts the Dark One over me to help
her. It’s a shitty way to start things off.” Furious, he started
towards the door.
    Deidre swallowed hard, wanting to chase
after him but unsettled by his anger and the changes in him. She
waited her whole life for this moment, and all she was able to do
was watch him leave her. The human emotions were crippling the cold
logic that brought her to this point. She couldn’t lose him now,
because of human weakness!
    “Gabriel, wait!” she called.
    He stopped at the door but didn’t turn.
    “Where are you going?” she asked.
    “To do my job. Right now, I need to kill
some demons.”
    “I thought … I thought this would make you
happy.”
    “You know what would make me happy,
Deidre?”
    “What?”
    “Being able to trust my own mate. Neither
Deidre ever understood that.”
    She stared after him. She had to say
something to keep him from leaving her, but she was too stunned. He
waited. She screamed at herself silently, afraid he meant to walk
out the door forever.
    “Did that go the way you expected?” he asked
quietly.
    “N…no,” she whispered.
    “Last night you were ready to trust me. What
happened?”
    Deidre thought back, struggling to remember
what human-Deidre felt, if not the events. Gabriel had held her on
the beach. They’d sat for hours, until human-Deidre’s distress
faded and turned first to disbelief then hope then resolve. It was
the same sequence Deidre went through before making the private
deal with the demon lord, the one that resulted in her
reincarnation and condemned human-Deidre to become the mate of the
Dark One.
    “I knew Darkyn could give me a second chance
with you,” she said. “Clean slate.”
    “Everything would be different – better,
perfect – overnight.”
    “Yes.”
    “Did it work?”
    “I don’t know.”
    “I wouldn’t be walking out right now if it
did.”
    She sighed. Her eyes grew blurry, and hot
wetness slid down her cheeks. Deidre touched them, surprised to
find they were tears. She’d