Blaze

by Suzanne Wright

  “Try it again,” he ordered. She did. “Again. Again. You’re moving your arms at the same time.”

  “I know,” she grumbled. “It’s because the wings feel like another set. It’s hard to keep my arms still.”

  “You need to learn, or it will massively affect your balance when you’re in the air.”

  “Tell me something I don’t know.”

  He swooped in and kissed her hard. “You’re cute when you’re agitated.” She always made him think of a hissing, spitting kitten when she was in this mood. His sphinx muttered something under her breath, but Knox didn’t hear it over the shriek of a predatory bird. “Flap your wings, but still don’t lift from the ground. I want you to practice flapping them without moving your arms.” She did extremely well… for all of twelve seconds. “You’re moving your arms again.”

  She sighed. “I know.”

  Her little pout made his demon chuckle. Knox grabbed her fisted hands and held them at her sides. “Now try again. You need to be able to feel how separate the wings are from your arms.” She gently beat her wings over and over, never looking away from him… as if drawing strength from him. “Good, you can stop now.”

  With a sigh of relief, she stopped. Her back and shoulder muscles were aching already, but she didn’t complain.

  “You did well. Now see if you can do it without me holding your hands.”

  Nodding, she stuffed her hands in her pockets.

  “That’s not much different from me holding your hands,” he pointed out, amused.

  “Don’t care. I’m sick of flapping my arms like an idiot.” Keeping her hands in her pockets, she flapped her wings several times until… “I can differentiate them from my arms now. The difference is subtle. Like one set is much lighter than the other. Who would have thought gossamer wings could feel heavy?”

  “They might not feel so heavy once you get used to them. Now tell me the truth. When you practice with Khloë, do you fly or do you soar?”

  “Soar,” she admitted solemnly.

  His mouth twitched. “Thought so.” He moved closer, asking, “Out of interest, is there any grace about it?”

  “None whatsoever.”

  He kissed her. “We’ll fix that, but not today. A mistake a lot of people make when learning to fly is that they don’t first learn to hover. If you fall, you’ll be hurt. But if you know how to put on the brakes and hover, you’ll be able to stop yourself from hitting the ground.”

  She cocked her head. “Huh. I never thought of it that way.”

  “Most demons don’t, because they’re not so much interested in learning the mechanics of flying; they just want to delve straight into the exciting part. Then they get hurt and wonder why. So, though it’s not going to be at all exciting, I want you to learn to hover first.”

  “I’m good with that.” Falling to her death did not sound fun.

  “I need you to ascend a few feet off the ground. This time you’re going to need to use a little force when you flap your wings or they’re not going to lift you.”

  She closed her eyes, shutting out all other stimuli, and concentrated on that heavy weight she could feel extending from her back. She tensed the muscles there as hard as she could, and then she let them go – it was like pulling on an elastic band and then releasing it with a snap. Her wings lifted her nicely, but then she landed right back on her feet, almost slipping on the uneven ground.

  “Good girl. That was a nice, neat ascent.” The descent was clumsy, but not entirely her fault. “This time, don’t pause in flapping your wings, but don’t try to lift higher. Just beat them gently but fast.”

  “Okay.” She did as he instructed. “Hey, I’m doing it.” Then she lost her rhythm, and her feet touched the ground. “Well, I was.”

  “The point is that you can do it. Now, do it again. I know it’s boring, but it’s important. I’m not teaching you how to fly until I know you’re not going to hit the ground like a dart.” He kept her there for at least an hour, trying different exercises, until pain strained her features. “We’ll end the lesson here. You’ve done enough.”

  Yawning, she did a very feline stretch and winced. “My back is killing me.”

  “I know, baby, but it will get easier. Tuck your wings back in. I know it’ll hurt, but you have to learn to push past the pain so you can control them.” Her wings folded and then sort of melted into her skin. “Good girl.” He lifted her, and she lazily curled her arms around his neck. Flames erupted around them, licking at their skin, as he pyroported them home.

  In their bedroom, he put her to bed and kissed her forehead. “Rest, baby. I’ll be back soon.” She mumbled something incoherent and rolled onto her stomach.

  Knox walked through the house, going straight to the living area. His four sentinels were relaxing on the sofas; waiting for him, just as they’d been instructed to do.

  “How did Harper do?” asked Larkin.

  “Better than I did on my first real lesson,” Knox replied truthfully. “Any sign of Crow?”

  Tanner shook his head, legs crossed at the ankles. “But he has to be close. It’s safe to say he’ll come for you.”

  “What did Jonas and Alethea want?” Levi asked.

  Knox slipped his hands in the pockets of his pants. “They know about Crow. It would seem that Roan is strolling around the Underground with pictures of Carla, asking if anyone has seen her. He’s also falsely claiming that Crow is rogue, which could very well have the demon killed on sight by someone who isn’t aware of the truth. I need you to pay him a visit for me, Keenan. Express my displeasure and make him see reason.”

  The incubus nodded. “He and I will have a little chat.”

  Levi spoke then. “Jonas just wanted to ask you about Crow?”

  “He came to my office to offer his help in tracking Crow,” said Knox.

  “So it wasn’t a business meeting,” began Keenan, “but he didn’t invite Harper?”

  Knox relaxed on one of the two half-moon sofas. “Harper has a theory that our mating isn’t being taken seriously.”

  “I’d have to agree with her,” said Tanner. “Don’t get me wrong, the lair is happy for you and they want Harper as co-Prime. Not even Roan’s little rumors changed that. I think they believe you want the mating to be a permanent thing; I think they just also have trouble believing it will be.”

  Levi nodded. “You’ve been a solitary creature for a very, very long time, Knox. They’re not used to seeing someone so deeply enmeshed in your life. The longer you’re with Harper, the more real it will seem to them.”

  “The shindig will go a long way to proving this is serious to you,” said Tanner.

  Knox gave him a put-out look. “Now you’re calling it a shindig too?” And why did his demon find it so amusing?

  “Sorry,” said Tanner, though he didn’t look it. “I’m used to hearing Harper call it that.”

  Leaning forward, Levi loosely clasped his hands. “There’s something you need to consider, Knox. Our lair wants this mating to be real, but I don’t think the other Primes will.”

  “Neither do I,” said Knox. “They feared me enough when I ruled alone. Having someone at my side will make me seem more of a threat.”

  Larkin toyed with her long braid. “It will shock them that you’re prepared to share what power you have.”

  “But that’s not a bad thing,” said Levi. “Part of the reason people fear you is that they don’t understand you or what motivates you. You’re strong enough to rule our kind, but you have no wish to. That alone baffles them. People fear what they don’t understand.”

  “I don’t think they’ll have any success understanding Harper, either.” Keenan took a long swig from his flask. “I mean, she’s not at all impressed at the benefits she has from being your mate.”

  Knox draped his arms over the back of the sofa. “Harper likes to earn what she has. Things that have been given to her – even the gifts she was born with – don’t have as much value to her.
She’ll keep, use, and appreciate these things. But she gains more satisfaction in owning something if she somehow earned it.”

  “Ah,” said Keenan. “I can respect that.”

  “You might want to know that Bray and Roan have told the rest of the lair about the vision Crow claimed to have,” said Larkin. “Most are blowing it off – they’ve been around demons in Crow’s state of mind before; they know that ‘the end of the world’ claims are pretty typical. Others are uneasy about it, but I don’t think any of them truly believe there’ll be an evil baby born to destroy us. Oh, and Bray and Roan are also calling for Crow to be shot down while he’s shattering rather than given medical help.”

  That pissed Knox off. “Unless it’s necessary to save the life of another, I have no wish to kill someone who’s so ill they don’t know what they’re doing.” Regardless of what some believed, Knox didn’t like to kill for the mere sake of it. His demon… well, that was another matter.

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  Pinching the bridge of his nose, Knox released a bored sigh. He glanced at his watch. Ten minutes, and then the meeting would be over. Still, he didn’t want to spend another ten minutes of his life listening to a heated debate between two human business associates. He had better and more important things to do. His demon was becoming more and more restless by the minute.

  He was thinking about reaching out to Harper, knowing the sound of her voice would settle his demon, when he felt Levi’s mind slide against his.

  Knox, you need to get out here, said the sentinel. We have an emergency situation.

  Knox and his demon instantly went on high alert and a surge of adrenalin spiked through them. He quickly excused himself and left the conference room of the hotel to find Levi waiting outside. “Harper?” he asked, heart pounding.

  Levi shook his head, lips tight. “Crow’s in the building.”

  Son of a bitch. It had been merely five days since Crow disappeared with Carla. They had all been waiting impatiently for him to act. “Where exactly in the building?”

  “Probably still in the lobby,” replied Levi.

  Knox turned toward the lobby, intent on tracking Crow down, but Levi grabbed his arm.

  “You can’t go out there, Knox. He’ll conjure a weapon and start shooting at you – people could get caught in the crossfire. That’s if he doesn’t just conjure balls of hellfire and hurl them at you. I don’t have to tell you that would be bad on a number of levels.”

  Grinding his teeth, Knox nodded. He wanted Crow badly, but exposing the existence of their kind to humans wasn’t on Knox’s agenda. Even his demon, eager to get a grip on Crow, understood the importance of discretion.

  Knox did a U-turn and prowled to the security office. “When did he get here?”

  “No more than a minute ago,” said Levi, keeping pace with him. “He got out of a cab and walked right through the front door, bold as you please. The doormen recognized him, but they didn’t stop him; they contacted me.” Just as Knox had instructed them to do in the event that Crow ever showed up.

  Inside the security office, Knox scanned the monitors as he asked the guard, “Where is Crow now?”

  Matt, a demon from their lair, pointed at one of the monitors. “The lobby. Looks like he wants to use the private elevator.”

  Knox moved closer, watching as Crow – hair disheveled, clothes wrinkled, face set into a hard mask, and skin sweaty from the heatwave that had come out of nowhere – repeatedly jabbed the button for the elevator that headed to the penthouse. It was where Knox stayed whenever he spent the night at the hotel. “It’s impossible to use that elevator without a keycard.”

  “Members of the Force are on standby. Want them to apprehend him?” asked Levi.

  Knox nodded. “Tell them to take him down and to do it fast. Then they need to drag him out of sight of humans so he can be teleported away.” As the sentinel telepathically repeated his orders, Knox frowned as Crow started punching the elevator doors in sheer frustration.

  “His eyes aren’t pure black,” said Matt. “He’s not rogue.”

  “But he’s not entirely rational either,” Levi pointed out. “Look at him. It’s not even occurring to him that his actions could attract attention.”

  “That’s because he’s too focused on getting to me,” said Knox. Crow had walked right into the hotel like he belonged here, a man on a mission. And that mission was clearly more important to him than being caught.

  “Oh shit,” muttered Matt as a female member of the human hotel staff tentatively approached Crow. Whatever she said made him whirl on her, every line of his body tense. Then he made a mad dash for the exit.

  Knox swore. “She spooked him.”

  Before Crow could reach the door, a demon barreled into him from either side. They struggled to keep hold of Crow – he was manic and thrashing wildly, shouting obscenities. The humans recoiled from him, huddling against the walls and the reception desk. Then Crow stilled and inhaled deeply, and the demon holding him suddenly wilted.

  “He’s draining him,” said Knox, jaw tight. Feeding on the psi-energy was not only weakening the demon; it was strengthening Crow. The moment the demon’s grip loosened, Crow freed himself and pointed a hand at the other demon – a hand that was suddenly holding a revolver. And then he fired. The guard dived aside, dodging the bullet, and the humans all screamed and squatted on the ground. Crow raced out of the hotel.

  “Someone needs to stop him now.” Knox shifted his vision to the camera that monitored the entrance… just in time to see Crow point the gun at a cab driver, yelling at him to get out the car. Four members of the Force appeared, but they instantly froze as they saw him aiming at a human. The cab driver obeyed, but Crow still shot him in the leg before leaping into the vehicle and disappearing with a screech of tires.

  Shit. “Call an ambulance.” Knox barely resisted slamming his hand on the desk. Clenching his fists, he took a deep breath. Control. He needed to maintain control. But it wasn’t easy when his demon was growling and pressuring him to give into the urge to personally hunt the bastard down.

  “Members of the Force are in pursuit of Crow,” said Levi. “He made a mistake coming here today. He’ll be caught.”

  Matt shook his head in disbelief as he slumped in his chair. “The Crow I know would never shoot an innocent bystander like that.”

  “He’s not the Crow you know anymore.” So close. They’d been so fucking close to detaining him.

  “If he can shoot a human for no good reason,” began Matt, “I don’t think there’s much hope for Carla Hayden.”

  Knox wished he could deny that, but she served no purpose for Crow. He had no reason to keep her alive and no issue at all with shooting people without cause. As such, it was entirely possible that Carla was already dead. If not, she probably would be soon enough.

  “I was hoping I could speak with Harper.”

  She had to be hearing things. Or maybe the buzzing of the tattoo gun was affecting her hearing, because there was surely no way that bitch was here, at her place of work. But as Harper turned it was to find that, yep, the freaking dolphin was standing at the reception desk. Her demon curled her lip in distaste.

  “She’s busy right now,” Khloë told her.

  Alethea smiled pleasantly. “It’ll just take a minute.”

  Turning, Khloë raised a questioning brow at Harper.

  With an exasperated sigh, Harper turned to her client – a demon who was also Khloë’s twin. “I’ll be right back.”