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I dip my head as a tingle of excitement runs down my spine. “No, Master.” With my chin still pressed to my chest, I ask, “What will she become?”
“It matters not. What matters is that she cannot remain human.” He rises from his chair—a throne with beautiful black feathers decorating its back.
As he paces the room, his body catches the muted light from the window. His skin becomes almost translucent. I can see his veins, his heart, his organs. I can see all of him.
The thud, thud, thud of his heartbeat fills my ears and makes me moisten my lips.
“Bring him to me. Ragnor. He must be told. We have little time.”
My eyes widen. I skip to him and bounce on the balls of my feet. I want to touch him. I want to put my hands on his skin just so I know what he feels like. “Why, Master? What are you planning?”
Slowly, my king extends a long, gnarled finger and tweaks it beneath my chin. It is razor sharp and draws blood from my neck. It trickles down my throat. He watches it, then licks his lips with a thick, gray tongue. He lowers his head and draws his tongue from my chest up to my chin.
I sigh and rock into his touch.
When he stops, stars are sparkling in my eyes.
“Did you think we would stay in this wretched town forever?” he snarls. “Eve, you and I are going to rule the world. Not just Phoenix Falls. The World.”
“But the S.D.B.—”
The King opens his mouth and laughs. A swarm of black flies spring from it and surge up toward the swirling ceiling. He continues to laugh. Thunder rumbles through the sky and rocks the mansion. Lightning crackles. Darkness, and death, and evil vibrate inside me.
“They are children,” he says. “Their defenses cannot stop me.”
I frown, and he catches it.
Grabbing me hard this time, squeezing my throat so my head becomes fuzzy and my breath shallow. “When the beasts are hungry enough. When my demon kin are so desperate for human blood they are ready to turn on one another; that’s when we will break free.” He stares into my soul, filling it with daggers of ice. “Not long now, Eve. Not long now.”
20
TANNER
Kole is sleeping. The only thing that seems to settle the ache inside him is sleep. Thankfully, Rev and I mixed up a serum that knocks him out pretty fast.
He’s in the bedroom, Rev’s bedroom, but we left the door ajar.
“You don’t trust him?” Luther asks, handing me a mug of coffee. I look at his hand. He’s holding a coffee cup too, but his is laced with whiskey.
“When he’s like this, I don’t think he can trust himself.” I look toward the darkening window. Sam has been gone for hours. He snuck out when we were restraining Kole. “It’ll be dark soon,” I say, turning to glance at Rev.
She nods and moves to the window, pulling down the blinds then dimming the lights. She checks her watch. “We’ll give Sam until sunset, but then I’m locking the door,” she says.
Ironically, while demons can walk straight through our shields and barriers, they find doors a little trickier.
“If Mack were here, he might know what’s different about the S.D.B.’s spell,” I say as I wrap my hands around my mug. “The demons can’t cross it. They can’t get out of town.”
Rev looks at Luther, but he shrugs and takes a long sip of his drink. “Don’t ask me,” he says. “I’ve been through every spell in my arsenal. Licensed and unlicensed. None of them work. We saw that last night.” He rubs his arm. It’s still angry and red from where a Farquuze demon tried to claw its way into the building. If Sarah hadn’t remembered they hate salt, we’d have all been demon food before the night was out. Sadly for Luther, in order to prevent the wound becoming infected, we had to enact the literal definition of rubbing salt in the wound.
“Could Mack have any spells you don’t? He was higher up in the Bureau, and he was sheriff,” Rev points out.
Luther shoots her a disgruntled stare. “Doubt it,” he snaps. “In fact, it wouldn’t surprise me if the S.D.B. hadn’t turned to their darker contacts to create this particular shield.”
“You think they’re using dark magick?” Sarah asks. She’s sitting at the kitchen table, hands knitted together, brow furrowed. Every now and then, she casts a furtive glance at the door in case Sam is about to walk back in.
“I can’t see how else they’d be keeping the demons in Phoenix Falls.” Luther rubs his palm over his closely shaved head. We’re all a little more disheveled than we were a few weeks ago. Not much time for a grooming routine when your town’s going to hell in a hand cart.
“Do you think any escaped?” I ask, sitting down opposite Sarah and leaning onto my elbows.
