“Ourdrug enterprise. And as for the things I did and why I did them… Let’s not confuse survival with loyalty, shall we?”
“Saint—”
“I’ve got unfinished business with the warlord of Midnight,” he snapped. “Leave it.”
Saint had unfinished business? I nearly snorted.
Weallhad unfinished business. Midnight wasn’t exactly the kind of place that let you tie up loose ends, say your goodbyes, and fuck off to the next chapter in your happy little life.
As far as I knew, Saint, Hudson, and I were the only bastards who’d ever left at all, and the things we had to do to escape… I fought back a shiver. It wasn’t just the drug smuggling. Leaving that place might’ve saved our lives, but it broke something inside each of us I was pretty sure we’d never be able to put back together again.
Hudson still didn’t speak, not that he ever did in Midnight. But now, he disappeared into himself for days at a time, not eating, not sleeping. I kept waiting for the night he’d hop on his motorcycle, head out on the interstate, and disappear forever.
Since we got back, I hadn’t been able to sleep more than an hour a night either, the nightmares too fucking close. Too real. And don’t even get me started on the headaches.
And Saint… No matter how many pills he swallowed, no matter how much blood he drank, no matter how much fae pussy he chased, that poor fuck was as twisted up now as I’d ever seen him in Midnight.
Yes, the three of us had called ourselves blood brothers once. Bonded for life.
But life in Midnight turned out to be a lot shorter than we expected, and now we were here, facing an entirely different reality.
Most of the time, I still wasn’t sure we’d made the right call leaving that fucking place.
“Besides,” Saint said now, “taking Keradoc off the board could be a lucrative move for the entire operation.”
“How do you figure?”
“Within the instability lies the opportunity.” He scratched his jaw, considering. “A power vacuum would leave room to maneuver some of our people into influential political positions. Positions we could leverage to get more resources. More products—I’m talking stuff beyond D2. Midnight is a veritable blank check, Jax. Onewecould write and cash.”
“Sure.” I huffed out a laugh. “Less a juicy cut for the middlemen.”
Aside from Keradoc and his extended family, an elite group of dark fae sorcerers and witches were all that remained of the pureblood Midnight fae. As purebloods, they could travel freely between Midnight and our realm, no portal spells or dark bargains necessary. They were easily bought, completely amoral, and notoriously honorable in that honor-among-thieves sort of way—perfect combination for drug smugglers.
Thosewere our so-called people. The ones who’d aided and abetted our escape. They’d been helping us move product and payment between realms ever since, and so far, it’d worked out.
But the only reason we had to move product at all was to keep those dark fae happy. As long as the drugs and money kept flowing, they’d ensure no one ever looked too hard for the three monsters who’d supposedly slipped through Midnight’s cracks.
Payoffs made the world go round—it was as true in Midnight as it was here in NOLA.
“Or,” I said, “we could try to buy our way out of this shit and find a legitimate way to live out the rest of our miserable immortalities.”
“Go legit? A one-eyed demon, a mute shifter, and a strung-out vampire-fae mutt who can’t get through a day without a stiff drink or a handful of little black pills?” Saint laughed. “Sorry, but I think our straight-and-narrow days are over.”
“They don’t have to be.”
“Face it, brother. We’re falling from grace like meteorites hurtling to earth. Might as well enjoy the spoils on the way down.” Saint leaned his head back against the couch and sighed. He was motionless for so long, I wondered if the Devil’s Dream had finally taken hold. But after a few long moments of silence, he sat up again and said, “I need you with me on this, Jax.”
“Yes, you do.”
“If you won’t take the money, what the fuck do you want?”
“Ican’ttake the money,” I said. The asshole fucking knew it, too. He’d saved my life getting me out of that shithole, and I still owed him for it. Only reason I still worked for him—otherwise I’d be halfway around the world by now, as far away fromSaint Elianas I could get.
Demons were notorious for making deals, and when it came to the desperate and depraved, we held all the bargaining power. But on the rare occasion a demon found himself on the receiving end of a favor? Fuck. Carrying debts of any sort—financial, emotional, physical, even just implied—chipped away at our power. The longer it took us to crawl out from under it, the weaker our ties to our physical bodies became, until one day we found ourselves smoked to oblivion, no chance of re-spawning.
I’d lost enough of my natural-born demon mojo in Midnight. I couldn’t afford to lose any more just because Saint wanted to ease his conscience with a payoff.
“How about a little honesty instead?” I offered.
