“Someone tried to kill me tonight. Me and Piper,” I mentally communicated to the boy. He wasn’t truly a servant, but close enough. He’d traded his will for power. His freedom for more magic. Ultimately, it was his decency he gave up. In letting me into his mind, I was privy to things about the witch that I never would have allowed if the roles were reversed and it was Piper I was asked to spy on—but that was humans for you. Their greed ran deep, supernatural or not. At their core, they were human, and therefore fallible.
“Is Nat alright?” he asked, anxiety edging his mind instantly.
“She’s fine, but I need you to go to the pier and see if you can find any residual magic and trace it. Keep your head down. Don’t attract attention. Have you heard anything in the Underworld about this?”
I knew he hadn’t. He would have reported otherwise. Our bargain and the magic that formed it would have compelled him. Still, something wasn’t adding up, and I felt the need to ask.
“No, nothing. People are still focused on Lucifer missing.”
As was I. My brother didn’t just simply disappear without a trace. Just like dinner boats didn’t just explode. Something was going on. Pieces were being moved on a board, but the game itself was evading me.
“Let me know if that changes.”
“Of course,” came his immediate reply.
I sipped at my scotch. Savoring the salty brine undertones for a few suspended moments. While this flesh was not like my previous form, it had some pleasures on its own. I could see why Lucifer was able to make a life here and enjoy it.
The human weakness was its own flesh.
Just as a demon’s was its soul.
I set the glass aside and made my way toward the shower, needing one after the dip I took in the lake. I paused at the second bedroom and stuck my head inside.
Bree Fallon lay utterly unconscious, her light brown hair spilling over the pillow. Her limbs were exactly as I’d left them. It was only the bauble around her neck that Piper had paid for with all their family savings that kept her body alive and muscles from wasting into atrophy.
Convinced she was undisturbed, I pulled away and closed the door behind me.
I stripped the disgusting water-soaked clothes from my body as I walked. Peeling the layers of fabric from my skin until I was naked outside the shower. I stepped in and flipped the water on, unflinching against the cold spray.
It cooled my blood. The need to hunt down the fuckers that dared put my atma at risk. The desire to kill anyone involved. But most importantly, my urge to go to Piper.
She didn’t need me, I knew that. My woman was strong. She had a soul of blood and fire. An iron will. A mean streak that few could survive.
Piper the woman held strong against the bond, even as her walls were starting to crack. Piper the demon was another case entirely, though she didn’t seem to realize it.
I wanted them both, just as I wanted the second exchange.
But first, I needed to find the fuckers involved, because if there was one thing I knew about my atma—it’s that she would be out for blood regardless of what I said.
4
I tossed and turned in my sleep, stuck in a place that existed between exhaustion and restlessness. My legs twisted in the sheets, and my hands skimmed the surface of the bed aimlessly. I was too hot. Too cold. Too tired to rise, but too wired to actually rest.
In the back of my mind, I sensed a presence watching me. It was dark and shadowy. It stayed out of my dreams, dancing just around the edge of my mind, ever-present but unseen. In another time, another place, I might have thought myself paranoid. That I was imagining things. I’d entered two blood exchanges with two different demons, though, and I wasn’t imagining shit.
It was only on the cusp of waking that the entity drifted closer, never taking form, but making itself known.
He didn’t say anything, seeming content to simply occupy the same headspace as me. Even if only for a moment.
I want Bree back, I thought into the void.
My eyes opened as a response came from everywhere and nowhere at once.
Be careful. I’ll come to you when I know it’s safe.
I groaned.
Safe. It was a stupid word. A meaningless use of four letters. Safety was an illusion, one only the powerful could afford to be ignorant in. Being raised human, even if I wasn’t one anymore, meant I didn’t believe in such pretty delusions.
I could die walking down the road at the wrong time in the wrong place.
There was no fucking way I was letting a threat that was maybe targeting me, stop me from getting out there and finding my sister—especially when Ronan didn’t seem in any hurry now that he had me right where he wanted.
I rolled over, groaning lightly when my joints popped. The sky was still a hazy shade of gray blue. Clear, but early. The sun wasn’t even completely out, but it would be soon.
I dragged myself out of bed despite the pounding in my right temple begging me to stay. Cool air fanned the skin that my skimpy tank top did little to cover. I ran a hand down my arm, over the goosebumps, as I padded barefoot across the wood floors to the half dresser. It only took me a second to fish out a pair of loose black pants and a long-sleeved shirt. My sports bra was a harder find, and when I did, it was still damp from the unplanned swim I took the night before. I dropped the sopping material to the floor in favor of the only other bra I had that didn’t smell like mold and lake water. Changing quickly, I slipped out of my room, AKA Nathalie’s official guest room, and down the hall to pee and brush my teeth. Once my mouth tasted like grainy mint toothpaste, I headed back down the hall, my footsteps near silent on the wood floors. It was early enough Nathalie hadn’t risen yet, and from the little bit I really knew of her schedule, I had a feeling she wouldn’t for a while yet.
I paused by the front door to put on socks and a new pair of sneakers Nat had bought me in her big shopping binge a few days prior. I was severely lacking in clothing due to the move from my old apartment to the cabin, and then here. When on the run, you take the bare essentials. While a few things like my beloved turtlenecks and underwear had made it, things like shoes and such were a goner. Being rich as fuck as she was, Nathalie went on an online shopping binge—a luxury only the wealthy could afford. Even the internet was a luxury. She bought me everything she deemed I needed, from sneakers to leather jackets to lingerie.
I shook my head, thinking of the lace bits she’d presented to me, so proud of herself.
Both cups combined might hold up my left tit, but that’s it. While sexy, their functionality left a lot to be desired. She insisted I needed sexy things, though, just in case a demon or two needed seducing.
I rolled my eyes, thinking about how she told me that when all the boxes arrived later that afternoon. Because she hadn’t asked my permission, I didn’t feel as guilty accepting them from her. Besides, one of us was loaded, and the other wasn’t. The fact she even had access to the internet at all spoke to that. There was a time when anyone and everyone could access it, but after the Magic Wars, everything became more expensive. Electricity and electronics were already a luxury item, they just became a sign of wealth as well. Cell phones dropped off when magic was so prevalent, and nothing was secure. The ordinary person had to buy shit at a supermarket or know a guy these days. But not Nat, no, she had certain privileges. Money and magic being the most obvious.