AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Odd, Max thought.
The rusted bells hanging above the door to Witchlight chimed. Max reached for his gun as everyone turned to see who was entering, but he quickly abandoned the movement when he recognized the raven-haired girl and the brawny werewolf on her heels.
“Are you for real?” Max growled.
Sabrine, dressed in her AA uniform, skipped toward them with a grin on her face. Behind her was Logan Sands, looking like he’d got dragged out of bed minutes ago. The yawn that was stretching his mouth so wide you could see all his teeth was proof of that.
“Is that who you were texting?” Max said to Dallas, pointing at the half-witch, half-werewolf who looked way too happy to be here. Now, he had more people to babysit. Darien was adamant about keeping Blue’s presence on the downlow, but Dallas evidently didn’t care about that. She’d pissed Darien off so many times since they’d met, it was a miracle he hadn’t barred her from entering Hell’s Gate.
Beaming, Dallas put an arm around Sabrine’s shoulders. They rested their heads together in a look-how-cute-we-are gesture. “Told you I was texting a friend,” Dallas said.
“I asked you not to tell anyone what we’re doing.”
“Sabrine doesn’t fit into the whole anyone category, Max. You should know that by now.” And Dallas never listened to anyone, but apparently, he hadn’t figured that out either.
“I want to help,” Sabrine said, lifting her chin. “Besides, I’m good at stuff like this.”
“She is,” Dallas agreed, nodding emphatically.
Max rolled his eyes. “Whatever. But no more helpers. Got it?”
“Got it,” they both said at the same time, their voices mingling.
They got to work on translating again. Logan wasn’t good with this type of work either, so he and Max stood nearby, watching as the others flipped pages and scribbled on notepads.
Max was wrapped up in a conversation with Logan about the House of the Blood Rose when Dallas spoke, addressing the group.
“Guys,” she said.
“Emilie hasn’t contacted Chrysantha since Kalendae,” Logan was saying. “Chrys keeps wanting to check up on her at the Blood Rose, but a wolf can’t exactly walk up to the front door—”
Dallas shouted, “Guys!”
She had everyone’s attention then. They turned to face her, dropping the conversations they were having, pens freezing on paper.
“We might have a problem.” She clicked something on her phone screen, and then flipped the device around so they could see.
There was a photograph of a girl’s face on it. Her shoulder-length hair was light blue, her eyes electric teal. She was staring at the camera without smiling, her gaze shooting hatred through the screen.
“Is this you?” she asked Blue.
It was. She was a wanted criminal, her mugshot posted all over websites worldwide.
What made it worse, she had a price on her head. A big one.
11
Being inside the Devil’s Advocate brought back a slew of memories. While some of those memories—the much more recent ones—were a wet dream come true, most of the others were…not so great. And that was putting it lightly.
It was too early in the day for the place to be packed to full capacity, but that didn’t make it any more inviting. There was more air to breathe, sure, but the reality remained: this place was a cesspool. An ugly building in dire need of bulldozing. But Darien had plans for this cesspool. Plans that didn’t involve a bulldozer.
At least, not yet.
“Think Baylor’s expecting us?” Ivy chirped as they made their way down the staircase that led to the mist-covered dance floor. She held onto the railing, fingers melting through the frost coating the surface.
“He’s probably been having nightmares of me turning up for days now,” Darien laughed. Baylor would’ve been one of the first to hear of Randal’s death. By now, it had to be spreading like wildfire that would soon reach the ears of every Darkslayer house in the city, if it hadn’t already. After what he planned to do here today, the chances of that information reaching them would skyrocket.
Darien didn’t allow himself to think about that. That was a problem for another day. Not to mention the fact that no one knew exactly how the crime lord and his group of miscreants had died.
