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Pulling back, Harper licked her lower lip. “We were at Jolene’s tea party. The kids were all sitting in the dining room with Ciaran, watching the clown that Jolene hired.” She gestured at the sentinels, adding, “The three of us were stood in the hallway just outside the room—we could see Asher clearly. We heard the bouncy castle burst outside, so we ran out into the yard. Thinking back, it seems likely that someone burst it to distract us. Asher’s mind touched mine. I knew he wanted me for something, so I went to him. And there was this woman.”
“A woman?”
“She looked like me. Exactly like me. Either it was a shape-shifting demon or my fucking doppelgänger. She was cooing to him and saying it was time to go home, probably hoping he’d think it was me and then lower the shield he’d wrapped round himself.”
Knox’s demon snorted. Their son would never be so gullible, infant or not.
“When she saw me, she let out this weird surge of ice cold energy that froze everything and everyone in the room. Asher’s shield must have protected hi
m from it. It didn’t work on me either, so she conjured a wind that flung me into the hall. I managed to get inside the room before a sheet of frost built across the doorway. But the frost blocked the others from getting inside to help.”
“I bashed it with every bit of strength in my body while others hurled orbs of hellfire at it,” Tanner cut in. “It didn’t even weaken.”
Harper plucked at her clothes. She felt so hot and edgy that the cotton chafed her skin and made her feel smothered. “I flew at her, dealt her some soul-deep pain, stabbed her with my blade and … I don’t know if I killed her. She just faded right in front of me and then disappeared.”
A familiar mind slid against Knox’s. Is everything all right? asked Levi, his sentinel and personal bodyguard. Knox had left him outside the conference room at the hotel where he’d held his business meeting.
No, it’s not. Knox quickly explained what had happened, pausing only when Levi bit out several curses. Relay the situation to Larkin, Knox continued, referring to his fourth sentinel. I’ll meet you in my office within the hotel soon. Knox couldn’t ask Levi to leave without him. It was important that Knox was seen to be both coming and going from places or it would raise questions.
Breaking his connection with Levi, Knox smoothed his hand over Harper’s shoulder and down her arm. “Where are you hurt?”
“I whacked my head on the wall and scraped my side on the frost.” She shrugged, as if it were nothing.
“Let me see.” He peeled up her T-shirt, finding an ugly slash on her side, and ground his teeth. “Looks more like someone slashed at you with a razor blade.” The she-demon would die for that alone—but not until he was done “punishing” her, if he ever would be done.
“It doesn’t matter. What matters is that someone tried to snatch Asher.”
“Firstly, you very much do matter—never say that again.” Probing her head gently, Knox found a lump, but she barely winced. “Secondly, you should have called me.”
“I wasn’t thinking of anything other than getting to Asher. I fucked up, I know—”
“You didn’t fuck up. It was only natural that your thoughts were only of Asher.” He squeezed her nape. “You did good.”
Her shoulders slumped a little. “No, I didn’t, and we both know it.”
He could see that she was awaiting judgment. “You think I should blame you?”
“I left him.”
“I left him,” said Keenan glumly.
“We all left him,” clipped Tanner. “The bitch who tried to take him fucked with the bouncy castle to distract us. We fell for it.”
Knox dug into Asher’s bag and pulled out a wet wipe. He gently cleaned the blood from her temple and then carefully dabbed the cut on her side. Later, they’d shower together, and he would properly clean the wounds and baby her until it drove her so crazy that her needless guilt was drowned out by irritation. First … “I need to see Jolene’s dining room. I might pick something up.”
Harper lifted her chin. “I’m coming with you.” She didn’t want to leave Asher, but she needed to see for herself that the other children were okay.
“Me, too,” said Tanner. “If I can detect the bitch’s scent, I may be able to track her. And I need to get the car anyway.”
“We’ll all go,” declared Knox. What he wanted most was to see Asher. To touch him. Hold him. Assure himself that he was okay. But Knox didn’t want to go to his son while in this state. Anger was riding him hard, taunting him with the cutting impulse to hurt and mangle and avenge. Making it worse, his demon continued to seethe, demanding vengeance, pushing at Knox to hunt the bitch who’d tried to take Asher and had made Harper bleed.
The only thing currently keeping it from surging to the surface and taking control was, quite simply, Harper’s nearness. She was an anchor to both Knox and his demon in every way that counted. In that sense, she had more control over the demon than Knox did. It was calmer and much better behaved when Harper was close by. It detested parting from her, and it quickly became bored and restless without her.
Knox couldn’t claim to need her any less than the entity did. Control was important to him. Essential. Not just due to the scars his childhood left on him, but because he had to keep a tight hold on his abilities and his inner demon. If Harper was taken from him, that control would eviscerate, and all hell would quite literally break loose.
He wouldn’t simply hunt and destroy those responsible for her death. That wouldn’t satisfy him. Vengeance wouldn’t be enough for him or his demon. The entity would want the freedom to do exactly what it was born to do—wreak havoc and chaos. Knox would give it that freedom, and an immense amount of destruction and death would follow.
In that sense, Knox’s emotional stability rested on her. He hated that she had to bear the weight of it, but there was no changing it. She’d been his one vulnerability until Asher came along. Now Knox had two, and both had been threatened today.
