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What, he thought she’d tried battling them herself for a short while? “No. They burst through the door after I finished in the bathroom. I telepathed you mere moments later. But thanks for assuming I broke my promise.”
He closed his eyes and let out a long breath. “I didn’t assume that, I just—”
“Forget it, it’s not important right now. Grams, I don’t recognize any of these people. Do you?”
“No, none.” Jolene licked her lower lip. “You know, I’m glad Enoch’s not easy to kill. Because it will be glorious to hurt him badly over and over and over … and not have to worry that he’ll die too soon. Don’t you agree?”
Khloé pursed her lips. “Actually, I kind of do.”
Since no one could stand the putrid stench a moment longer, they all got the hell out of there and walked to Jolene’s house. They gathered around the Prime’s kitchen island as she barked orders down the phone to her sentinels. Ciaran, Beck, and a few others soon arrived.
Khloé almost fell off her stool when Harper, Knox, and Levi showed up. Apparently, Keenan had telepathically filled them in on what had happened—something he hadn’t cared to share with the rest of the class. She shot him a glare, but he only stared at her, his jaw clenched so tightly shut she figured he had to be in pain.
He was being uncharacteristically quiet, which was a tell-tale sign that his black temper was riding him hard. He never trusted himself to speak when he was so exponentially pissed.
Knox and Levi kept flicking him looks, as if waiting for him to blow, while Harper launched into an “Enoch needs to die” tirade. The whole time, the sphinx patted Khloé’s back gently … like she was traumatized or something.
Khloé batted her hand away. “I’m fine.”
Harper glowered at her. “I’ll be the judge of that.”
“Why?”
“Because.”
Khloé rolled her eyes. “All my injuries are healing, so stop stressing.”
“Did anyone think to try stabbing Enoch’s shield with the blade?” Knox asked no one in particular.
Having ended her call, Jolene said, “I tried. It didn’t work. Are you sure it will permanently kill him?”
“Absolutely positive,” replied Knox.
“But it’s useless to us if he won’t surface,” Ciaran pointed out.
Beck began handing out steaming mugs of coffee. “He’s going to keep coming after you, Khloé. And he’ll probably send even more corpses next time.”
“Maybe,” she said, cradling a hot cup with both hands. “I challenged him to come at me directly.”
“He won’t do that,” said Beck. “Using corpses is a low-risk method of attack for him—he’ll keep on doing it until you’re dead.”
“You shouldn’t be alone at your house anymore, Khloé,” said Ciaran. “He’s attacked you there twice now. Either I move in with you, or you move in with me.”
Not going to happen. “We’d kill each other within forty-eight hours. You know that. And I’m not staying with anyone else either. I can think of something better.”
Harper folded her arms across her chest. “Such as?”
“Staying in one of the Underground hotels.” Khloé sipped at her coffee. “Enoch doesn’t seem willing to come after me in person. If he sends corpses to the Underground, they’ll be destroyed by the doormen. He could pay someone to teleport them down there, yes, but they’d be seen and obliterated by any demons who came across them. Enoch will have to then come for me himself. So not only will staying in an Underground hotel help keep me safe, it’ll help bring him out into the open.”
Levi blinked. “That is a good plan. And it might just work. If nothing else, you’ll be safe from his zombie friends there.”
“Knox and I have a penthouse suite in the hotel across the road from Urban Ink,” said Harper, her arms slipping to her sides. “You could stay there until all this blows over.”
“Works for me.” Khloé had been to the penthouse several times. She and the girls mostly went there just to change from work clothes into dresses-worthy-of-a-bar-crawl before having a girls’ night out.
“I’ll be staying there with you,” Keenan told her, his voice still glacier cold.
Yeah, she’d figured he’d say that. She’d have demanded the same if their situations were reversed. “Fine,” said Khloé. Sex on tap sounded good to her.
“I like the idea of you staying in the penthouse,” said Jolene. “Even if Enoch manages to slip past the doormen guarding the entrance of the Underground, he’ll have a hell of a time bypassing the hotel’s security and gaining access to the penthouse. Even I had trouble breaking into it.”
Harper glared at Jolene. “You broke into my penthouse?”
Jolene gave an unapologetic shrug. “I was merely testing the security measures.”
Harper opened her mouth wide, looking like she might verbally lay into the woman, but then she shook her head and turned back to Khloé. “Knox and I will get you settled there before we head home. I won’t be able to relax until I know you’re safe.”
