He didn’t answer. But she was right.
“You’ll never hurt me. I’ve known that for as long as I’ve known you.”
“How did you know that?”
She shrugged. “Instinct. A woman knows who to be wary of.”
“Didn’t work so well for your mother.” He bit back an oath as soon as he’d said it, wishing he wasn’t such an insensitive bastard. Then again, he was who he was and Angie would have to learn to deal with that if she was going to be with him.
“I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said that. I’m an ass.”
A shadow crossed her face, and she nodded. “Yes, you are. But you always say what’s on your mind, and I love that about you. Don’t worry about hurting my feelings. I want to know what you’re thinking.” She smiled again. “Besides, I’m not my mother. And you’re not a demon in disguise.”
If only he could be sure of that. “Oh, I don’t know. I’ve carried plenty of demons inside me over the years.”
She laid her palm on his cheek. “It’s not the same thing. I know you, inside and out. I know what you’re capable of. Yes, you have violence in your past, and it’s part of who you are. But you’ll never hurt me. Not the way your father hurt your mother, the way he hurt you.”
He took her palm and kissed it. “I love you.”
She breathed deeply, then her face went serious. “Then take me to my sister.”
“I can’t. It’s not safe for you.”
“So everyone keeps telling me.” She pushed away from him and sat up. “Don’t you understand that I can help her? I can find her. I can find the black diamond. I might be the only one who can. I’ll bet you and I are the only ones.”
Curious, Ryder propped himself up on one elbow. “Why do you say that?”
“Can’t you sense it?”
“Sense what?”
“The black diamond. It’s like we’re a part of it.”
He’d been so busy dealing with Angie, he wasn’t sensing anything. “I’m not sure what you’re talking about.”
She crossed her legs and faced him, taking his hands in hers. “Tap into your feelings. You touched the black diamond back at the caves in Australia, just like I did. It somehow. . links us to it. I know it does. We have a connection with it. As soon as it came back to life, I felt it.”
“Sorry, darlin’, but I’ve got nothing.”
“You’re not trying hard enough. Think about the black diamond. Visualize it. I know you can feel it, just like I can.”
She pulled at his hands until he sat up and faced her. “Okay, I’ll give it a try.”
“Focus on how it felt when you touched it back at the caves. Remember how alive it was?”
He did remember that. “It glowed. Almost like it had a living pulse inside it.”
Her eyes lit up. “Yes! That’s it exactly. And now the diamond is alive again. And it’s calling to us.”
Ryder thought about the diamond, tried to visualize its whereabouts, tried to connect with it, and came up empty. He shook his head. “Sorry, babe, I’ve got nothing but a void here.”
“Dammit. I can feel it. Why can’t you?”
He knew why. “You’re half demon, Angie. You’re connected to the Sons of Darkness, and so is the black diamond. That’s why you’re getting signals from it.”
She blinked, then nodded. “That would make sense.”
He studied her expression, looking for signs of upset. But she only seemed to be analyzing. “Are you okay?”
“Yes. I’m fine. I’m just trying to figure this out. So maybe I am of use to the Sons of Darkness after all.”
“Which is what I’ve been trying to tell you. That’s why you couldn’t go on the expedition to find your sister. The Sons of Darkness want you back.”
“Which is why we should go there. It’ll give them something to concentrate on other than the hunters. They’ll want me, they want to keep Isabelle, they want to protect the black diamond. Trying to get to me, keep her, and protect the diamond forces them to divvy up their concentration so they can’t focus on one thing alone.”
What she said made sense. It was logical. And it was damn hard to argue with logic.
“Besides, I can find Izzy.”
“How?”
“I have a connection to my sister, one I’ve never felt as strongly as I did when I was stuck in that room. It was like the instant she put her hands on the black diamond, I knew it.”
He saw the stress in her face, the worry.
“She’s gone dark, Ryder.” She laid her hand on her stomach. “It sickens me to feel the evil swirling around inside her. I have to help her.”
“Damn,” Ryder said, lowering his head.
“It’s not your fault. I knew this would happen. It’s my fault. I shouldn’t have run with the black diamond back in Australia. I screwed it up from the very beginning. I thought I was protecting her, and all I did was put her in a position to be taken, and the diamond along with her.”
“It’s no one’s fault,” Ryder said. “Placing blame isn’t going to get her back. And nothing is set in stone. You’ve taught me that. Everything can be changed.”
She smiled at him. “True enough.”
“So first we have to find her and the black diamond, and ensure its destruction.”
“I can find Izzy. I’m. . hooked into her right now, experiencing these weird sensations attributed to her. But I know it’s her, and I know I can find her.”
Ryder knew he was going to get his ass skewered over this, but sometimes the right decision wasn’t always. . the right choice.
“Get dressed. Let’s move.”
She leaped across the bed and threw her arms around his neck, planting a long kiss on his lips. When she pulled back, she said, “Thank you for believing in me.”
She had believed in him when he hadn’t believed in himself. He owed her. “You’ve got ten minutes.”
She leaped off the bed and threw open the door, her feet pounding down the hall. “I’ll be ready.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
They had set up inside the church, the safest place until they figured out where they were going, since Lou ascertained there would be no way the demons would step inside the sanctity of the church itself. For some reason, either the grounds weren’t considered holy or the demons had managed to make that area their own, but the church itself? There were several ancient holy artifacts in there, so the demons weren’t going to go inside. They’d never last long enough to launch a decent attack inside.
After Michael explained the situation, an appalled Father Vintaldi told the hunters the entire grounds were theirs. They could dig everything up except the cemetery if they wanted to, he’d told them.
Dalton felt bad for the old priest. Father Vintaldi said he felt responsible for the demons taking Angelique. Like he should have known they were there, that the demons would take her.