With a silent curse, he dragged the coverlet over her, felt the air chill … and realized her eyes were now open. But it wasn’t Raini looking at him, it was her demon. And he could see the agitation in those obsidian eyes.
He slanted his head. “You’re not very happy with me, are you?”
“You think you can control the bond’s call if you control her,” it said, its tone flat and cold. “You are wrong. You are also wrong if you believe she is truly under your control. She has too much fire for that—she just hasn’t let you see it yet. But if you push her too hard, she will push back. Harder. Then you will finally see what you have so far failed to realize.”
“And what’s that?”
The demon smirked. “She can kill you easier than she can breathe.” It then retreated, and those eyelids fell closed once more.
Hector sidled up to him. “What do you think it meant by that?”
Maddox pursed his lips. “I have no idea.”
“Do you think it was bluffing?”
“What I think … is that my anchor has secrets.” But then, so did Maddox.
CHAPTER FOUR
Listening to her father rant the next morning, Raini sighed. She loved the man. She truly did. He was fucking extra. But she really had no idea why he insisted on proclaiming himself “laidback.” No imp was laidback. Hell, they didn’t know the meaning of the word.
Imps were bold, wild, daring, and delightfully uninhibited. And “in the name of the sanctity of retaliation,” which was a phrase her father Lachlan commonly used, they always hit back. You often didn’t know how or when they’d do it, you just knew it wouldn’t be subtle. So the one thing that was always guaranteed to set them off was when they didn’t know the identity of the person they needed to strike back at. Hence Lachlan venting his ass off while pacing up and down in front of her fireplace.
It didn’t matter to Lachlan or any of her other relatives that Raini hadn’t been the intended target of last night’s clusterfuck. Nope. They still intended to shit fury on the person responsible. She’d anticipated that, of course, so she hadn’t been shocked when she came downstairs to find a bunch of people helping themselves to coffee and food—sadly, Demi had brought Dwain along. Something that seemed to annoy Jolene almost as much as it did Raini.
There was one thing Maddox must have forgotten when he’d had Raini’s security system installed—no system was imp-proof. Nu-uh. They could get in and out of pretty much any building, and you’d never even know they’d been there. They left no trace of themselves behind. Though … her uncle Bram had been known to take a dump in the houses he’d robbed over the years. Usually right on top of a bed. Just because.
The Campbell imps were a small branch within her lair. Unlike Lachlan, who’d mated Raini’s succubae mother Evangeline, most of the Campbells were shacked up with Wallis imps. The two lineages had blended well. Probably because neither let little things like legalities get in the way of anything they wanted to do. Ethics were no real barrier either.
To be fair, some did run official businesses. Lachlan’s bank heist days were behind him now, so he ran a mechanic shop with his three brothers. He also sold ill-gotten goods via the shop’s back door, but they didn’t talk about that.
Maddox’s mind touched hers, pulling her out of her thoughts. How are you feeling? he asked.
Okay, she replied. Thanks for healing me.
Get some rest today. It wasn’t advice. It was a firm order. I’ll see you later tonight.
Raini felt her brow crease. I thought … well, I thought you’d consider last night our monthly meet.
You thought wrong. His mind slid softly against hers, and then it was gone.
“You’re not listening to me, are you?”
Blinking, Raini looked up at her father, who’d finally stopped pacing. “I’ll admit, I kind of zoned out partway through your rant. Look, I get that you’re upset, but I’m fine.”
He glowered at her. “You say that like it makes everything okay. It doesn’t. You were stabbed—”
“By accident.”
“—had your power stripped from you—”
“Temporarily.”
“—and might have bled out if you hadn’t been healed.”
Raini felt her face scrunch up. “I wouldn’t go that far. It was a bad injury, but I would have recovered. I just recovered a lot faster because of Maddox.”
“At least he’s good for something,” Lachlan sniped. “Where is he anyway? He should be here. With you.”
“He’s probably making enquiries about the dagger,” Jolene cut in, lounging in an armchair. “Hopefully he’s able to unearth information I wasn’t able to find.”
“Hopefully,” said Raini, still disappointed by Jolene’s earlier announcement that, according to her sources, the dagger had been wiped of any magickal “fingerprint,” so there was no way to tell who enchanted it—something Levi’s incantor-friend apparently confirmed.
“Maddox is an expert at gathering intel,” said Jolene. “If there’s anything more to be found about that dagger, such as where it was purchased and who by, he’ll uncover it.”
“Assuming he gives a shit,” muttered Demi. She widened her eyes when everyone looked at her. “What? It’s not like he embraced the psi-bond, is it?”
“But he does look out for your sister, in his way,” said Evangeline, sitting beside Raini on the sofa. “He’s involved in her life to some degree, Demi. Her safety clearly matters to him.”
Demi snorted. “Her safety? Really? She’d be safer anchored, considering that would prevent her from turning rogue. He isn’t exactly bothered by that, is he?”
Well no, no, he wasn’t. But Raini would really rather her sister didn’t take such joy in pointing that out.
“I heard a lot of bad things about Maddox Quentin,” said Dwain, speaking for the first time. “Really bad things. Maybe you’re better off without him, Raini.”
Jolene sniffed at Dwain, dismissive. “I don’t believe there’ll be any ‘without him.’ Maddox is not going to walk away from Raini—I sensed that for myself last night.”
“That good ole succubae allure at work, huh,” said Dwain, the tiniest edge to his tone. “Doesn’t seem fair to either of you,” he added, directing a sympathetic smile at Raini. That sympathy wasn’t present in his eyes, though. No, his gaze held a hint of something ugly.
See, that was the thing. When a succubae snare lost its hold on a person, they were often left feeling angry and hateful, because who would like that they’d been unnaturally compelled to want someone so badly?
Dwain was right on one thing, though. It wasn’t fair on Maddox that he was preternaturally driven to keep her close, just as it wasn’t fair on Raini, because she couldn’t change what she was.
“I don’t believe Maddox is ensnared,” said Jolene, her brow creased. “He’s exhibited no signs of being obsessed with her. If he was, he wouldn’t be able to go without seeing her for long periods of time.”