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“And I did that brilliantly, if you ask me. She’s alive, breathing, glaring. Seems safe enough to me.”
Kase stared at Grant with the sort of flat, expressionless look I’d grown used to, which was funny because his sharp words betrayed him. He was not happy, no matter how hard he tried to look as if he didn’t care.
So, I decided to try to distract him with what we’d learned, rather than let him stew abouthowwe had learned it. “Olin said whatever took him over smelled of brimstone and hellfire.”
Kase stilled, tilting his head. “Can you trust what he told you?”
“I think so. I…” I closed my mouth for a moment, trying to figure out what had happened, what I’d done. How was I supposed to explain something I didn’t understand? “Ifeltthe shadow. It was an echo of what I felt when I relived Rachel’s last hours, the thing in the room. When I touched Olin, that shadow retreated at first.” I shook my head. “Or maybe I shoved it back, I’m not sure. That’s why Olin could talk, just for a minute, before it took over again. It washimin that moment, not whatever controlled him. He was telling the truth.”
“Brimstone and hellfire mean the underworld,” Hunter said from behind me.
Kase and Grant turned their attentionto Hunter, but neither reacted. Kase was the one to speak. “I take it you’re the hellhound she mentioned?”
“The one and only.” Hunter plopped on the couch beside Grant as if the two were old buddies.
“And why exactly are you here? Your sort tends to stick to your own realm.”
Hunter nodded toward me. “She caused a bit of a problem when that whole ‘reaching for a soul that wasn’t there’ thing happened. That sort of event gets attention, tells me something is out of balance. So, here I am to figure it out.”
Kase huffed softly, as though he didn’t care for the idea but could say nothing about it. “Well, as an expert in the underworld, do you have anything useful to add?” Kase’s words were strained and annoyed.
Hunter shrugged, as if he didn’t notice the animosity. “Clearly whatever it is comes from my realm.Whatit is—fuck if I know. Could be any higher-level demon, but whatever it is isn’t anything to take lightly. Playing with the free will of beings from this realm is a serious feat, especially without remaining there. You’ve got your typical incubi who can create lust. You’ve got rage demons who can drive people mad, but they have to be in the area to affect anything. Whatever this is seems able to plant some sort of seed of themselves in the victim and control them despite being long gone. That is nothing to fuck with.”
Kase shook his head. “Well, that isn’t useful at all.”
Before Hunter could respond, the front door opened and in walked Troy. Ihadgiven him permission already, hadn’t I?
These wards seemed less and less useful as time went on. I needed to start revoking permission as soon as people left.
Thank you for coming by, nice to see you, get the fuck out until I decide I want to see you again.
He took one look at me, then turned his gaze on Kase. “Youput her in danger!”
“From what I heard,yourpeople forced her to do a job that will include getting close to a crazed wolf. Do you have room to talk?”
“She wasn’t attacked by a vampire because of me.”
“How do you even know about that?” I crossed my arms, a bit annoyed to havefourmen keeping extraordinarily close tabs on me.
Troy looked at me, the same hard edge in his gaze. It seemed he didnotcare for me being in danger. “You stink of burnt vampire and you’re favoring your left side. It doesn’t take much to put it together.” He twisted to fight with Kase, probably because it wasn’t like he could throttle me. “You need to leave her alone.”
“She isn’t yours.”
“Yeah, she really is. She doesn’t need to wear my bite for it to be true.”
Kase’s eyes flashed red, a signal that his temper wasn’t perfect. “If you even think about putting a claiming bite on her…”
“Then what? Because I don’t see one from you on her, either.”
The two edged closer, and the guise of being civilized humans fell away.
Kase’s movements became slow and smooth, more like a snake than a human. His eyes were rimmed in red and his expression was one that promised pain. Meanwhile, Troy was no better. His eyes brightened, the silver almost glowing. His hands opened and closed, the bones cracking, and he seemed impossibly larger, as though he’d already started to change.
I really didn’t care about their dick-measuring competition, especially because, in the end, they were using me like some chew toy and neither had actually tried to impress or romance me at all.
At least Hunter had given me a few orgasms. These lazy freeloaders hadn’t even done that!
Troy moved first. Even in the moment before everything went crazy, I knew he’d lunged first, striking Kase with a level of power that made me glad I was not in the middle.
