AllFreeNovel
Share Us
He stared at the tiny space between her and the demon prince she intended to interrogate. “Stay safe,” he told her. With that, he ran toward Mina and her sisters.
Time crept for Joelle in a slow-motion fog. The humans scattering in a mass panic, the flash of cameras popping in rapid fire, police rushing to control the crowd or toward the hotel, security ordering the members of Witch’s Bane off the stage and to a safe location? It all seemed hazy compared to the clarity of the nightmarish scent filling what had been salt-filled air stained only by pollution and exhaust. She wanted to cover her face so she could block it out, to yell for Noxx to come out and face her crimes instead of terrorizing them from a distance, to wish away the night since the moment she’d left Alexei’s side in the ballroom.
“Come on,” her demon prince urged. “Let’s get you to safety.”
“More locked doors,” she whispered. Would she forever have to hide away like she was the guilty one? Because she’d had the misfortune of being the baby that Noxx had chosen to kidnap?
“No more jails or towers for you. No more locked doors, I promise, and promises carry weight for my people. I won’t ever break one that I make to you.”
Wow. His demanding voice had her going warm despite the chill. “All right.”
He glanced to Nita, who texted with one hand and held the other over the butt of a gun. “Alys dismantled the earlier threats. She’ll be waiting for your call to meet you at the car. Go.”
The woman didn’t hesitate. She took off, raising the phone to her ear as she ran.
Firetrucks with wailing sirens sped on scene, fighting to make it past the blockades and paparazzi swarming the spectacle.
“Shall we?” The urgency in Alexei’s tone belied his calm expression. He gestured to the streets away from the madness, toward the winding coastline, city lights, and mountains in the distance.
She weighed her options. She wanted to be independent, to take action, to ask the difficult questions that might get answers whether she was ready to accept the consequences or not. For starters, she intended to find out what Nita had meant with her comments about believing that Alexei might be her fated mate. “If I go with you, I need answers to questions you might not want me to ask.”
“I’ll give you whatever information I can, and I’ll take you wherever you want to go as long as you’ll let me get you away from here.”
She tested what he’d said earlier, planning to hold him to his word no matter what unpleasantness it might cause between them. “You promise?”
“I do.” He gave the vow with the confidence of a man who could grant her wish, and the fierceness in his voice matched the memories she’d had of him as the warrior unleashing his wings.
“Then let’s go.” She took his hand in her firm grip, determined to push him past whatever pretty little labeled box he’d put her in.Angel, princess, rescued…victim. The last nagged at her. She wouldn’t let herself be a victim again.
“Our ride will be waiting around the corner.” He waved his fingers in a beckoning motion toward the crowd. Confused, she stared at the party goers that she had assumed to be humans—extras for the television show given the glittery makeup and fancy clothes. Even now that she could observe them in the tight knot they formed around her and Alexei, she didn’t notice any outward signs of them being supernatural. Except as they turned into a narrow alleyway, the group took on the precise coordination of a military unit with the lethal grace of predators who had hidden in plain sight.
Monsters, Noxx had called them, saying demon hybrids each carried a mark of their wickedness from scales to horns, tails to fangs, forked tongues or skin abnormalities like the redness that stretched across her brother’s back. Except to Joelle’s healing powers, his markings had never felt good or evil. They’d simply been part of him. Worse, the tattoos Noxx had put over his “demon mark” had been wards to keep his dragon leashed. The marks hadn’t been demon-related at all; they’d been the manifestation of his wings.
Wings like Alexei’s. Gods, how she wanted her own.
What would it take to convince him to show her those gorgeous creations again? She watched the way he moved, the authority in his stride, the way he stood taller and bigger than his guards. They wouldn’t be able to protect him if Noxx had a sniper on the roof. The thought made Joelle walk faster, hold tighter to him.
Suspicion flooded her at the two SUVs parked near the end of the alley. The Order used custom vehicles like those to travel between locations. She’d been forced into the backseat of several, the door locks not working from the inside. Had they found her? Worse, had she put Alexei in danger by simply refusing to leave with Josh?
A man pushed away from the lead SUV. “We’ve mapped the quickest exit and can be away from the police presence in less than five minutes.” His clipped voice, his posture, his suit—all screamed bodyguard. He rushed to get the rear door for her, holding it open for Alexei to follow her inside. “Sound good?”
“Yes, Eddie.” Alexei looked to her. “Where to first?”
She had no idea. Other than the priestesses’ home in New Orleans, her brother’s penthouse in downtown Los Angeles, and the long-ago day in Moscow, she’d only seen slivers of the world from her captivity. Here, her demon prince offered her the freedom to decide her destination, a chance to goanywhere, and she didn’t know what to say. So much for exerting her independence. She thought of the movies she’d binged in the last few weeks with superhero women, the novels she’d read starring fearless heroines.
Wrapping borrowed courage from their stories around her like an invisible cloak, she said, “Surprise me.”
ChapterSeven
Alexei settled against the backseat of his armored SUV, wondering how to surprise a woman who did nothingbutsurprise him. Her bravery when he’d rescued her, her unshakeable determination to get whatever had been in those damn archives, her contacting his goblin queen cousin, then showing up with his pain-bringer sister who scared everyone who’d heard of her reputation—everything Joelle did shocked the hell out of him.
Him. The unshakeable, unflappable, terrifying enforcer for the Maronov dynasty.
Yet here she sat next to him, hanging on to his hand as if he had earned the right to touch her. She wore his much-too-big-for-her jacket wrapped around her, not seeming to mind the way the sleeves hung too long no matter how many times she shoved them upward. Her hair—an impossible mix of colors from bronze to an almost metallic gold with silver and copper streaks—tumbled loose to brush against the leather of the seats. How would it look against his pillows? Not that he should indulge the fantasy. Still, his place would be the safest location he could take her, and he could ask her questions about the park in Moscow and the spell book he’d kept.
“Home,” he told the driver, not remembering his name since he hadn’t worked with him before. The barely-out-of-high-school teen with a baby face, acne, and unruly hair had recently moved with his human mom from Northern California. While the demon hybrid horde might have a bad reputation with the other supernaturals, they offered new homes and jobs for widows and kids of anyone who’d served the king. He would need to remember to ask if his temporary driver had been briefed on the education and advancement options for young hybrids.
Eddie, his guard and closest friend, sat in the passenger seat. He cut a look his direction as if pleased Alexei had decided to take someone to his actual house and not one of the hotels he owned. The man’s triumphant grin hinted that he’d either decided to cheer on his prince’s newfound personal life or he’d won a bet about the possible relationship.
