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CHAPTER TWO
KOLDO SPENT THE REST of the night digging through the heav-
enly archives kept on every human ever to live and learned
several interesting tidbits about the blonde and the redhead.
The comatose girl was Laila Lane, and the other one, the one
he wished to observe, was Nicola Lane. They were twenty-
three-year-old twins, with Nicola being older by two min-
utes, and unmarried.
So young. Too young.
The two were identical. The only reason Laila had blond
hair was because she’d bleached it, hoping to be “unique.”
The girls had no other family, and relied only on each other.
Their parents had died in a car accident five years before.
Koldo left the library and flashed to Laila’s hospital room.
Once again Nicola was nowhere to be seen. But he wasn’t
worried. According to the gossiping nurses, she came every
day. He had only to wait.
He strode to the edge of the bed. This time, the Most
High’s gift was not in operation, so, when he looked, he saw
the blonde rather than the demon hiding under her skin.
The sight was almost as bad.
GENA SHOWALTER 33
Her hair was dry, thin and matted. There were bruises
under her eyes, and her lips were chapped. Her skin was se-
verely yellowed, her liver obviously shutting down.
She wouldn’t last much longer.
The Water of Life was a powerful liquid capable of repair-
ing the most damaged human flesh, and the only thing ca-
pable of saving her. It would also rid her of the demon. But
her thoughts, words and actions would influence its contin-
ued success.
The grzech could return to her and try again to poison her.
So, even if Koldo fed her the Water, she would have to learn
to fight the forces of evil—and then actually fight. Was she
willing to engage in any kind of battle?
Maybe. Maybe not. Either way, Koldo wasn’t willing to
suffer and sacrifice, and he would have to do so to even ap-
proach the shoreline of the River of Life. First, he would be
whipped. Second, he would be forced to give up something
precious to him. Last time he’d relinquished his hair. And
there was no telling what he would be asked to give up next.
His ability to flash? His captive mother?
Never!
The practice had not been created by the Most High, and
wasn’t even supported by Him. But Germanus refused to
end “a tradition that had been with their kind since the be-
ginning,” as a means of proving the depth of their determi-
nation. So, once again free will prevailed and the practice
continued year by year. Koldo saw no way around it.
The room’s only door opened suddenly, and Nicola stepped
inside. Koldo straightened, and even tensed at the sight of
her. He frowned. His body had only ever reacted this way
before battle. Why was this happening with her?
At least she had no idea he was there. He was in the spiri-
34 BEAUTY AWAKENED
have to recover. I won’t allow anything else. I’m the big sis-
ter, and you have to do whatever I tell you to do. Nothing
else is acceptable.”
Gaze locked on Koldo, Righty bent down and whispered
into her ear. Spreading poison.
The color drained from her cheeks.
Lefty squeezed her shoulder, and she slumped forward, as
though some of her energy had evaporated in a puff of smoke.
She stopped talking victory, and went back to discuss-
ing her day.
Koldo rubbed the back of his neck. What had just hap-
pened was a prime example of the life she had probably al-
ways led, pulling herself up only to be knocked down again.
Well, no more.
His body tensed all over again, preparing for war. But this
was different than what he’d felt when Nicola had first en-
tered the room. There was no sense of anticipation, no hint
of excitement. He just wanted to flat-out raze his enemy into
the ground.
He held out his hand and summoned a sword of fire—an-
other gift every Sent One received from the Most High. One
he always had a right to use.
Righty and Lefty jolted to attention, gnarled wings pop-
ping from their backs.
“You sure you want to do this?” Righty asked with a glee-
ful smile. The horns on the creature’s head grew…grew…
becoming monstrous ivory towers. Fangs stretched between
his lips, extending past his jaw. “You’ll walk away, but you’ll
be in pieces.”
The same grotesque transformation overtook Lefty, little
sparks of fire flashing underneath his scales.
Koldo didn’t bother with a response. He simply launched
GENA SHOWALTER 37
forward, blade arcing through the air. The two demons flew
apart, moving out of harm’s way. He expected the action and
went low as he landed, twisting to the right. Flames slicked
over Righty’s thigh.
The demon grunted from the pain, the scent of burned
hair filling the room.
Koldo jumped up, kicking a leg forward and a leg back-
ward, nailing both of his opponents at the same time. He
landed, and they recovered enough to leap at him, punching.
He blocked one, but purposely took the other’s abuse, grab-
bing on to Lefty’s arm and holding tight as he used the ap-
pendage as leverage to swing up both of his legs into Righty’s
throat with a brutal slam slam of his booted feet. Then he
flipped Lefty over and tossed him to his back to stomp on
the creature’s face. Bone crunched, suddenly a jigsaw puzzle
that needed to be put back together.
Before the second stomp, Lefty rolled to his feet and
bounded on the bed—the females utterly unaware—and,
without pausing to consider a wiser way, slammed into
Koldo’s back. A long, thick tail wound around his middle,
squeezing. The hook on the end sliced all the way to Kol-
do’s intestines.
Lefty raised sharpened claws, intending to slash through
his windpipe, but Koldo flashed to the other side of the bed.
The moment he landed, he leaned forward and grabbed the
end of the creature’s tail, jerking and spinning Lefty’s en-
tire body.
As the fiend careened forward, Koldo flashed behind him
and swung his sword. The demon tried to dodge, but wasn’t
fast enough. Fire met scales and bone, and scales and bone
immediately lost. The demon’s arm detached, spraying black
blood over the floor.
38 BEAUTY AWAKENED