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I held up a hand. “I’m not here to fight.”
“Whyareyou here?”
“Aren’t you going to offer me a drink?”
Ray pulled a face. “Sure. Emrick, would you like a nice tall glass of tell-me-why-the-fuck-you’re-here?”
I wasn’t in the mood for her shit. “It’s time to pay back the favor you owe me.”
“I don’t owe you shit.” Ray kept her voice level and calm while Ilsa shouted,“Fuck you,”from behind me. Bonding with a demon had made her into a loose cannon. From the way I remember it, Ilsa used to be the level-headed one.
“I need you to track someone for me…” I kept talking as though she hadn’t responded, “… a demon.”
“So find yourself a bounty hunter.”
Stepping closer to Ray, she stood her ground, but her eyes flashed yellow in irritation as I invaded her space. “I’m askingyou.”
My anger was bubbling beneath the surface. I had something that needed doing so I could stop thinking about it. There was too much going on with the business and within me to deal with right now. I’d spend the best part of the decade in a state of perpetual numbness, allowing only the strength of my anger at the injustice of my falling to carry me through.
Then all this shit with a traitor, and on top of that,shehad come along and insisted there was more within me.
Had Cara seen something there, or was she only hoping? Another pathetic human trying to see the best in everyone. She had the darkness within her, something in her past I had yet to unravel. Maybe she was hoping if someone like me could be saved, then she could be too.
Maybe she was trying to redeem her own shit by saving me.
“Who are they?” Ray asked, crossing her arms over her ample chest.
“How the fuck am I supposed to know?” The words exploded from me as I threw my arms up in the air. “I just need to know who tainted her, so I can kill them,” I growled out, pushing the words through clenched teeth.
Ilsa had gone silent, and Ray’s eyebrows were raised.
“Wha—”
“You fucking demons…” When I got into Ray’s space again, Ilsa growled but kept her distance for now. Ray hissed at me as I jammed a finger against her chest. “You think you can do whatever the fuck you like, don’t you? You fuck, fight, kill, and party withoutanyconsequence. You think you can take justanybodyyou want! Demons took everything from me, and you can’t haveher!”
She simply watched me as I heaved through the breaths, each one that filled my lungs was painful. Ray’s expression had softened, and she had dropped her arms to her sides, not even looking at where I was touching her, still pointing my finger against her chest in accusation, trembling slightly with the rage that threatened to consume me whole. I was barely holding on as it was.
“All right,” she said. “You’re going to have to explain that little outburst.”
Ilsa side-stepped me as if I were poisonous when I stormed past and dropped myself onto the couch.
Perhaps I was.
Ray sat next to me in what I thought was a bold move. If she weren’t afraid of me anymore, I’d need to do something to change that. I couldn’t lose grip on the world I had built because one woman had gotten into my head.
“She fucked a demon, I can taste it on her. Yourstinkfucking lingers.” I glanced at her out of the corner of my eye, and she seemed unaffected by my insult.
“What does he mean?” Ilsa asked.
“Demons’ leave a mark, like a scent, because of our pheromones. It’s pretty potent. Humans won’t notice it but other demons…” she glanced at me, “… or angels will.”
“Do I have it?”
Ray stared at her partner, lust flashing in her eyes. “Oh yeah, my scent is all over you. A demon or angel would smell you a mile away.” She turned back to me. “But you said she fucked him… how long ago? Could’ve been years, right?”
I lifted a shoulder, not willing to commit to an answer. She was right. The scent was so faint, it was barely there. But itwasthere.
Fucking demons.
