“Easy as that, huh?”
“More or less,” he says. Then adds, “Accompanied with some groveling of course. And it won’t hurt to tell her how beautiful she is.”
“Is that what won you Locklyn? Compliments?”
“You’ll have to ask her that,” he quips, and then grins.
“That’s not happening.”
Talon laughs, and the sound loosens something in my chest.
“Listen, at the end of the day, if she’s your person, you’ll find your way with her. Not to say the road to get there won’t be bumpy, but hang in there.”
I take a deep breath, letting his advice sink in, turning it over to decide if I agree with it or not. I want to, but it’s hard to shake the fear that I’m going to lose her—either from finding out about my history with Locklyn or to the demon determined to have her—even before we’ve really had a chance to begin.
“Buck up,” Talon says. “You’re a catch. You’re not too horrible to look at. At least a six with good lighting. You’ve got a solid jawline and questionable judgment. Apparently, that’s in.”
I roll my eyes. “Thanks, I think.”
“You’ve got this,” he says.
And because I can’t help myself, I ask, “Are you going to offer to hug me now?”
It seems like he actually considers it, even though it’s clearly a joke. “I feel like to solidify our new bromance, I might need to.”
“Try it and I’ll break your nose.”
Talon barks out a laugh, and despite myself I feel a little lighter than I did before he forced the conversation. Maybe everything is going to be all right after all.
“I’m never opening a portal back to the creature world.” To punctuate his point, Cassian leaves the room, slamming the door behind him.
I share a weary look with Talon. My jaw is still aching after Talon, true to his word, decked me when we got out of the car. For some reason, it actually made me feel better. But Cassian is our problem right now.
The vampire only created the portal to the human world to get away from the Society. After Cassian appeared when Locklyn destroyed Shadow Striker in Central Park, he was semi-comatose. We brought him back with us to the creature world, hoping the Society would take him, which they did, but as he recovered from his imprisonment within Shadow Striker, they too treated him like a prisoner.
I understand where they were coming from. Even though he was only a shell of his former self, he was still the Vampire King, the creature who tried to take over his world, even if that was over two thousand years ago.
Cassian says he was seduced by Shadow Striker’s power, but it’s still a hard pill to swallow. Because of him, the gates between the worlds were closed and the Arcane Society was formed in order to prevent a multi-world apocalypse. Which they managed to thwart until Kerrim got his hands on the blasted dagger and used Locklyn to kick off a series of events we’re still trying to stop.
All to say: I get why the Society was careful with Cassian. What I don’t agree with is that when he tried to tell them about the threat that still existed—that the demon who created Shadow Striker was now released and more dangerous than ever—they ignored him.
But I didn’t.
And thank the Creator I didn’t, because if I had never come to the human world to warn the Order about the demon and let them know about Haven, there’s no doubt in my mind that by now the demon would have the power it needs to become fully corporeal, and Haven would already be dead.
The thought alone makes me go cold inside, and so I force it from my mind.
“How do you want to handle this?” Talon asks.
“Let me talk to him alone,” I offer.
Talon nods. “Be my guest. Yell if he tries to eat you,” he says, and then disappears into the tiny kitchen around the corner.
I scrub a hand over my face, the stubble on my cheeks and chin rough against my palm. I don’t know what I’m going to say to get Cassian to agree to help us. I don’t have leverage like I did before. He helped me, and I helped him.
Even though we’ve been roommates for the last few months, I’d hardly call us close. For the most part, I hardly saw the guy. It’s not like I can find much common ground with him. He might look like he’s in his late thirties, but he’s really a two-thousand-year-old vampire, and I’m a dragon shifter in my twenties. But I’m not leaving this place until he’s on board, because getting Haven to the creature world is the only way I can think to protect her. And failure isn’t an option.
I don’t bother knocking. I walk straight into the bedroom, the only one in the apartment. I crashed on a pull-out couch in the living room. He owes me for that. It was lumpy and too short, but it was clear Cassian needed his space and was here more than I was. I really only came back to the apartment to sleep, having spent most of my time at the Order’s headquarters, searching for Haven.
