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Devon sighed long and loud. “Would it be a baby hippo, by any chance?”
Piper felt her brow furrow. “Yes. I feel like I’m missing something. What am I missing?”
“The pure idiocy that runs in her veins.” Folding her arms, Devon turned to Khloë. “You know Keenan will kill you if you get a tattoo of a cock, right?”
Piper drew back. “Whoa, a cock?”
Khloë raised her shoulders. “Fritz looks different than the average baby hippo—”
“Because it’s not a hippo,” said Devon.
Khloë’s lips flattened. “Not an ‘it,’ a ‘he.’”
“And a symptom of your insanity.”
Piper looked at the imp. “Did you really think I’d tattoo a dick on you?”
“Well, you do cute, whimsical, funny stuff,” said Khloë. “As for Keenan, he wouldn’t mind.”
“Uh, yeah, he would,” Devon insisted. “Because unlike you, he’s normal.”
“I’m telling you, he’d be fine with it. As long as it was a sketch of his cock, anyway. Although, really, I’d struggle to fit it on the back of my shoulder.” The imp ran her finger along her inner forearm. “Maybe I could have it done here.”
Devon looked close to pulling on her hair. “Can you not be a fucking weirdo?”
“Can you not go take a shit?”
“Khloë.”
“Well,” Raini began, fast approaching with a wide smile on her face, “we’ll be closing for lunch in a minute, someone needs to go pick up our deli order.”
“I’ll do it,” Piper volunteered.
Raini cocked her head, making her pink-streaked blonde ponytail dance to the side. “You sure?”
Piper righted her leather chair. “Yeah, I don’t mind.” It would be a good thing, actually. Because whenever the studio was empty of clients for even a few moments, one or all of the girls would bring up Levi and start singing his praises.
She got the message—he was the shit, and Piper should just bond with him already.
In all honesty, Piper was increasingly warming to the idea. She simply didn’t feel comfortable discussing it with a bunch of people she barely knew who were also incredibly biased where he was concerned. It was sweet that they were so loyal to and supportive of him, though. She liked that.
Piper left the studio and headed to the nearby deli. Delicious scents smothered her as she walked inside. Piper bypassed the long queue and crossed to the side of the checkout counter. She smiled at the young male there. “Hi, I’m here to pick up an order for Urban Ink.”
He scanned the bags on the shelf before stopping at one and peering at the receipt stapled to it. “Order’s almost ready,” he told her. “It’ll be another two minutes. Take a seat if you like.”
Deciding she might as well use the timeslot to answer the call of nature that was bugging her bladder, she headed for the restroom. Pushing open a heavy door, she entered a narrow hallway that led to her destination. Inside, she did her business and then exited—
Knife.
It seemed to appear out of nowhere and head right for her chest.
Piper abruptly leaned to the side, but a blazing punch of fire lanced through her shoulder. She sharply sucked in a pained breath, shock jolting her system like a bolt of electricity. Stumbling backwards, she could only stare at the blade sticking out of her body. Warm blood pooled to the surface and wet her tee.
A cruel, masculine chuckle came from a few feet in front of her … yet there was no one in sight.
Leaping to action, Piper launched several hellfire orbs in quick succession. Two hit the fire exit door up ahead. Three crashed into what appeared to be thin air.
There was a grunt. A curse. A growl. The sizzling of blistering flesh.
Ha. She conjured another orb—
“Fucking bitch.”
A hard impact slammed into her temple. Another landed on her jaw. She staggered, blinking hard, a ringing sound filling her ears, and the flaming orb in her hand fizzled out. Enraged, her demon hissed and spat and lost its shit.
The blade was mercilessly yanked out of Piper’s shoulder.
She cried out, the abrupt pain snapping her out of her daze. Son of a fucker. Oh, she was gonna cut a bitch up.
“Bastard.” Piper blindly tossed one crackling ball of hellfire after another.
More grunts. More sizzling. Even better, the knife hit the floor with a clang.
Her demon grimly smiled. Piper moved fast, slamming her foot down on the blade before an invisible hand could snatch it up.
Another masculine curse.
Ignoring the throbbing in her shoulder and the warm blood trickling down her arm, Piper emitted a haze of hellfire bullets from her hand. Some crashed into her invisible attacker, wrenching pained grunts out of him, while others whizzed by and smashed into walls.
Curses rang through the air yet again.
She dropped fast, nabbed the knife, and swiped out. A voice hissed. Cloth tore. Dots of warm blood slapped her skin.
Piper stood and darted backwards before any upcoming punches could land. Then she followed up the move with yet another scorching hot orb. There was an oof of pain this time, and then came the sound of feet hammering the wooden floor as the fucker fled. The fire exit door swung open, and the footfalls quickly faded.
