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Raini bit her lip. Since waking this morning, she’d replayed the event over and over in her mind, dissecting every little thing that happened. “If Tanner hadn’t bumped into me and made me stumble into Knox exactly when I did, I don’t believe the dagger would have hit me.”
“What about afterward? Did the demon look annoyed that the blade had missed its target?”
“Not from what I saw, no. But that doesn’t mean he aimed for me. It only means he either hid his frustration or just figured he’d sell whatever abilities I had and then come back for Knox another time.”
Jolene’s shoulders relaxed. “Then it doesn’t seem that your secret is out.”
“I don’t see how it could be—we’ve all gone through great pains to keep it. Few people know about it.”
“But even one person knowing is one too many, given how our lair would react.” Jolene sighed. “It makes more sense that Knox was the intended target. But be careful all the same.”
“I will.”
Jolene slanted her head. “Have you told Maddox what you can do?”
“No.”
“You don’t trust him?”
“Not fully, no. He … I don’t think he’s as cruel as he seems. I think his coldness is more of a byproduct of what he is. And I don’t think he’d ever physically hurt me. But he’s only loyal to the demons within his lair.”
“Then it’s better if you don’t spill your secrets.” Jolene lifted a brow. “Be aware that Maddox is a highly perceptive person. If anyone will see through the harmless front you present to the world, it’s him.”
Oh, Raini knew that well. It worried her a whole lot. Really, it didn’t so much matter if the world at large knew about the gift she sought to hide. No, it was her lair who needed to be kept in the dark, because they’d react seriously badly if they ever learned what she could do.
Lachlan had helped her develop a lot of “talents” from an early age, such as how to hotwire a car, pickpocket like a pro, and spot an undercover cop. But when her final preternatural gift developed, his priority changed from—essentially—making her into a petty criminal to ensuring she knew how to blend; how to be someone who didn’t draw attention to themselves. Which wasn’t easy, considering she was a succubus.
It had meant not involving herself in the “family business.” Not becoming a sentinel or a member of the Force, even if she’d have made a damn good one. It had meant going her own way; seeming normal. Easygoing. Relatively innocuous. Even boring—demons never paid attention to anything boring.
Lachlan had instructed her not to flaunt the “life skills” he’d taught her. He’d encouraged her to allow people to underestimate her and to let them believe they had her all figured out.
Raini had put all her father’s lessons into practice and, in doing so, she’d become someone who only really made an impact with her appearance. In actual fact, it benefited her that people often only saw the surface and never looked deeper.
“He so far hasn’t prodded me with personal questions,” said Raini. “Which suggests he’s done what he does best and compiled a dossier on me.”
Jolene nodded. “If he’s not asking questions, it’s because he thinks he knows all he needs to know. He’ll have been surprised that you were strong enough to wrench your power back out of that dagger, though, so he might be wondering if the picture he has of you in his head is truly accurate.”
“Oh, he’ll wonder. But even if he suspects I have a gift I haven’t revealed—something that isn’t uncommon for demons—he’ll never suspect I can do what I can do. As long as that doesn’t change, all will be fine.”
Taking a swig from his whiskey tumbler, Maddox didn’t break eye-contact with the man sitting opposite him. There were different angelic breeds—five, if what Maddox had heard was correct. All were powerful, but not all had wings or halos. The weakest was the most common breed; they were quite simply referred to as angels.
Viper was definitely not a common angel. Power glimmered in his hard eyes, dripped from his low-pitched voice, and surrounding him like a full-body, invisible halo.
The three “brothers” he’d brought along to the meeting, all of whom stood behind the sofa on which their president sat, weren’t common angels either. Maddox couldn’t get a handle on what breed they were. But Viper? Oh yeah, he was an archangel all right. A supremely powerful one. Which made Maddox believe that one of the Seven truly had fallen. And he’d brought some friends with him when he fell.
No one really outside the upper realm knew how the process of “falling” truly worked. Some thought it was a literal fall. Some thought it was metaphorical. Others believed it was no more than a simple decision to leave.
