Page 105 of Ravaged By a Devil

I turn around on my heel and walk back down the stairs, every step feeling like I’m dragging a ton of lead. I sit down on the bottom step of the main staircase in the dark, staring at the floorboards, completely heartbroken, feeling a hollow, agonizing ache I’ve never known in my entire life.

Soft footsteps echo from the top of the stairs, coming down slowly.

I don't look up, even as a pair of bare feet comes to a stop right in front of me on the step below.

"You know," Alexis's voice breaks through the silence, light and warm with a teasing edge. "For a man who runs an entire city, you really jump to conclusions fast."

I slowly lift my head. She’s standing there looking down at me, a soft, amused smile playing on her lips.

"I'm not packing to leave, Cain," she says gently, stepping down until she’s sitting right beside me on the wooden step. "I'm just moving the rest of my things out of the guest room and bringing them into your bedroom. Where I belong."

I stare at her, my stunned brain struggling to process her words. "You... you're not leaving?"

"I already chose to stay with you long before Nolan took me," she reminds me, her voice dropping into something deeply soft and steady as she reaches out, taking my cold hand in hers. "Killing Nolan didn't change that. Nothing has changed."

"I thought..." I swallow hard, my voice sounding rough and broken in the quiet hallway. "When you asked about Milly going back home... I thought you were asking because you wanted to go back with her. That you were done with me."

Alexis lets out a small, fond sigh, shaking her head. "I'm never leaving you, Cain. Ever."

The absolute certainty in her eyes undoes every barrier I’ve spent my entire life building. I look at her—at the woman who saw the blood on my hands and still looked at me like I was worth saving.

"I love you, Alexis," I confess, the words tearing out of my chest, raw and unpolished. "I’ve spent my whole damn life believing I was only useful for one thing—the weapon my family sent out to kill people. A monster to do the dirty work. But you... you made me want something beyond that. You made me want a life."

Alexis raises her hand, her warm fingers gently cupping my jaw, her eyes shining in the dim light of the foyer.

"I love you too, Cain," she whispers fiercely, pressing her forehead against mine. "I love all of you. Including the dark parts, including the scars, and including the parts of you that you think make you impossible to love."

She slides over onto my lap, wrapping her legs around my waist and burying her face in the crook of my neck. I wrap my arms tightly around her back, burying my nose in her hair, breathing her in as if she’s the only air left in the room.

"I never wanted to fall in love with you, Cain," she murmurs soft against my skin, her fingers tracing the quiet line of my jaw. "In the beginning, I was terrified of you. I thought you were just like all the bad men I encountered early in my life."

My body goes rigid, a sudden, cold tension settling over my shoulders, but she holds me tight, keeping me grounded against her chest.

"When I was younger, my stepbrother molested me," she whispers, the pain in her voice raw, stripped raw and bare in the dark foyer. "I ran away from home when I was sixteen with nothing to my name. Grandma Milly was the only family member who believed me, the only one I could truly trust. She became the person who protected me until I started protecting her, the only person I ever let close enough to care for."

She pulls back just enough to look me straight in the eyes, her gaze soft, wet with unshed tears, but completely unwavering.

"Because of everything that happened to me back then, I'm terrified of being watched, cornered, or controlled," she admits quietly. "That's why it was so hard for me to let you in at first. Every time you set guards around me or tried to keep me contained, every alarm bell in my head went off."

She reaches up, her warm palms gently cupping both sides of my face, forcing me to look into the depths of her soul.

"But you’re different, Cain," she breathes, her voice rising with a fierce, unwavering conviction. "You never controlled me. You protected me. You’re my protector, Cain. You’re my savior. I love you beyond words."

Every wall inside me crumbles into ash. The weight of every sin I’ve ever committed fades away under the heat of her touch.

I don't offer her words. Words aren't enough for what she just handed me.

I lean in and answer her with a kiss—deep, slow, and full of a reverence that vows to spend the rest of my life making sure no one ever makes her feel cornered again.

Later that night, the bedroom is completely still, bathed in the quiet ink of the late hours. Alexis is sound asleep in my arms, her skin warm against mine, her hand resting over my heart.

My phone buzzes against the wood of the nightstand, the screen illuminating the dark. I reach over gently, careful not to disturb her, and slide the phone off the table. A single text message sits on the lock screen.

Ezekiel: Come to Eden. Now.

Groaning under my breath, I carefully slip my arm out from beneath her shoulders. I press a soft, lingering kiss to her temple, pulling the heavy duvet up over her shoulders to make sure she’s properly covered and warm before I slide out of bed.

I pull on a jacket, check the guards, and slip out of the house into the night air.