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His eyes widened, and a flash of ice-blue fire flared around swelling pupils. An invisible tug of something dangerous and powerful pulled at my chest, trying to get inside. I stared back, maintaining a blank expression.

“You think you know Zodiac?” he asked, his voice a growl. “You will never know him.”

I wanted to deny it, to claim I knew Zee as well as anyone, but it would have been a lie. “I know what matters.”

He barked a loud, ostentatious laugh. “Fuck me, aren’t you cute. What matters is that he gets back here and spreads his cheeks for the highest bidder.”

“If he wanted to be here, he would be⁠—”

“Who’s the suit, your vampire daddy?” Sebastien asked, talking over me and then visually devouring Reynard.

Reynard simmered too—his anger spritzing my skin and making the tiny hairs at the nape of my neck rise. Did Reynard have a limit? Would he snap? It had only taken Zee raising his voice in the hotel bar for Reynard to lose it before. And maybe I’d lose it too . . . But I couldn’t. Not here. I’d already made one too many mistakes in Demontown, and could not afford another so soon.

“You’re not a very nice person are you?” I said.

“Nice?” Sebastien snapped his sharp teeth together. “There’s no money in nice, sweet cheeks. You know what there is money in? Sex. Dirty, no-holds-barred, fuck-you-up sex. If you want that, I can make an exception, since you’re both so bottled up it won’t take much for you to blow your loads. But let me tell you, Adam Vex”—he laughed my name as though it were a joke—“nobody takes my property. Zodiac is mine.” He strode close and peered down, wings spread, horns gleaming, teeth exposed in a grin. “He was sold to me, he belongs to me, he’s mine as sure as those chains around his neck. Understand, fucknuts?”

I stared into his pale blue eyes, having to tilt my head back, since he was so much taller. One day, I was going to come back here and show Sebastien how nobody owned Zodiac. But not today. I turned on my heel. “I’ve seen enough.”

“That offer remains!” Sebastien called. “You two can fuck each other to death, since suckers like that sort of thing. I’ll watch.”

The door slammed behind us. We climbed into the car, and Reynard told the driver to hurry downtown for our meeting with Gideon Cain, when all I really wanted to do was race back to my room and shower the rage off.

“The more I am forced to interact with demons, the more I despise them,” Reynard said.

I couldn’t really argue. Sebastien had been horrible. No wonder when I’d offered Zee a chance at safety, he’d jumped at it. Yet, he still sometimes came back. He’d returned to Razorsedge two nights ago, when he thought I’d used him. Punishing himself. And Sebastien had welcomed him with open arms.

It hurt, knowing Sebastien was Zee’s safety net, when I’d hoped I was.

“Please tell me that wasn’t a waste of time, and you learned something of use in there?”

“I did, and I’m sorry. He was out of line. You didn’t deserve that.”

“How do you know what I deserve, Adam?”

“I just meant . . .” He was still angry, which was fair. I shouldn’t have brought him to Runo with no warning. “Never mind. Sorry.”

“There’s no need to apologize for trying to help a friend,” Reynard said softly. Perhaps he understood a little more of Zee’s world now too, and a little more of Zee.

But if Zodiac wasn’t in Runo with Sebastien, and he wasn’t at the hotel, where was he?

A murder, Claymore missing, and what if Zodiac was missing now too? If Reynard was right, we were about to meet the man who might be behind all of the strange goings-on.

Hopefully, it went better than the meeting with Sebastien.

CHAPTER 9

With just a few blocks to go, the traffic snarled up. I sat back, and tapped my fingers on my knee. Reynard and I hadn’t spoken since Runo. I’d probably traumatized him, which had not been my intention, since he did appear to want to help. “May I, uh . . . borrow your phone?”

“My phone?”

“You do have one?”

“You don’t?”

“No, I’ve never really gotten on with them.”

He reached inside his jacket. “How do you stay in touch with family and friends?”