Burn

by Suzanne Wright

  “I’d say it’s Isla,” declared Keenan. “She always seems to know too much about what’s going on. She could have put a plant in every lair, not just ours.”

  “It could just as easily be one of the other Primes doing a little spying,” said Larkin. “Knowledge is power.”

  “Maybe,” said Levi, “but I think Harper’s right. I think dark practitioners hired her. It really would explain a lot.”

  “If that’s true, she’s a lot more dangerous than we thought.” Larkin crossed one leg over the other. “She’ll have many connections to many of our enemies.”

  “The way I see it, we have two options.” Tanner leaned forward, bracing his elbows on his thighs. “We can put a bounty on her head or we can act like she’s still fooling us.”

  Knox thought about it for a few moments. “We’ll try the latter, see if it brings her home. If she doesn’t appear in a couple of days, we resort to the first option. In the meantime, find out who the goddamn bitch really is.”

  Once the sentinels left, Knox turned to Harper, twisting fully in his seat to face her. “You okay?”

  She exhaled heavily. “It’s a relief to know that I haven’t been warring with my half-sister. But I don’t exactly like the alternative – dealing with dark practitioners isn’t fun, and they seem to want me dead.”

  Knox tugged her closer. “They’re trying to get to me…which means Kendra – or whoever the hell she is – is actually right; you’re being targeted because of me.”

  “I’m being targeted because they’re thick as pig shit and probably have a crazy idea that if they can weaken you enough, they can contain you and then use you to fuel their spells,” she corrected.

  Maybe. They wouldn’t be the first to assume they could capture and use Knox for something.

  “You didn’t start shit with them. They came at you.”

  “And they’re using you to come at me, which isn’t at all acceptable to me.” They thought that hurting her would hurt him. It would. He wasn’t sure when she’d become so important to him, but she was so deep under his skin there was no getting her out. When a demon fell, it was quick and hard and intense. He’d never thought to experience it. Hadn’t imagined it was possible for another person to be so vital to him. He didn’t fear it, though. He welcomed it. Knew he’d forever want this little sphinx with him.

  He’d always thought that to need someone would make him vulnerable. Now Knox knew differently. Yes, Harper had power over him, but he knew she’d never abuse that power. He could trust her with it, just as she trusted him with the same power he had over her. He’d tried to lure her to him using various manipulation tactics, and all the while he’d been unknowingly falling for this she-demon. “Levi’s right; you’re my weakness.”

  Harper frowned, confused but knowing one thing: “I don’t like the sound of that.”

  “Control is essential to me, Harper. Essential for many reasons. If anything happened to you, if you were taken from me, that control would be gone. What I did to Riordan and his followers…that would be nothing compared to what I’d do if someone took your life.”

  If he thought he was scaring her, he was wrong. “You think I wouldn’t seek vengeance if anything happened to you?” Harper fisted her hand in his shirt. “I’d make sure the bastards got whatever they deserved.”

  He cocked his head. “You would, wouldn’t you?”

  “Duh.” How could that surprise him?

  “That’s the thing, though, baby. You’d track down and punish the person or people responsible, and you’d give them what they deserved. But you’d stop there. Even with your demon riding you hard, you’d hold back.”

  “You have enough control to hold back your demon.”

  He smiled wanly, refusing to lie to her. “Baby, I wouldn’t want to. I’d make them all pay. But I wouldn’t stop there. It wouldn’t be enough. Not for me, not for my demon. So many would die, so much would be destroyed.” It had to be a hard weight for her to carry. “You need to live.”

  As his gaze held hers, Harper sensed that – maybe only subconsciously – he expected some level of rejection here. Maybe he thought his admission would spook or repel her. Hell, maybe it should have. But although it left her a little off-balance to know she was so important to someone, it also thrilled her. He said she’d given him one thing no one else ever had: total acceptance. Well, he’d given her something no one else ever had: the feeling of being indispensable to someone.

  When Harper straddled him, curled her arms around his neck, and melted into his chest, Knox tucked her head under his chin. She fit right there, like it was exactly where she belonged. He smoothed his hands up and down her back, sensing she was offering the reassurance that she still accepted him and his demon just as they were.

  He was a dark breed that had no right to walk the Earth. But he didn’t hate what he was. Quite the opposite, Knox liked the power, the rush, and the added strength. He liked the control that it allowed him to maintain. Liked that he never felt vulnerable. He accepted the creature inside him that had protected and saved him when no one else would. Knox hadn’t expected that anyone else would ever accept the entity, though. He’d never thought they should. He hadn’t asked it of Harper, but she’d done it anyway. She’d also accepted Knox, brutal bastard though he was. She was a total wonder to him.

  “You could beg me to let you go, but I wouldn’t.” He’d told her before that he didn’t intend to give her freedom, but he needed her to understand how utterly serious he was. If she chose to leave, he’d find a way to make her want to stay.

  Harper pulled back to look him dead in the eye. “Okay, first of all, I only beg in the bedroom – and that’s on rare occasions. Don’t think I’ll ever do it under any other circumstances. Second of all, I’ll never be anyone’s captive; no one can keep me anywhere that I don’t want to be.” She was an imp for all intents and purposes, she could escape from anywhere. “Lastly, if you majorly fuck up and hurt me badly – like cheating on me, for instance – I’m gone, Thorne. But if you mean you still expect me to go based purely on what breed you are, I’m pissed that you think so little of me.”

  For a moment, Knox couldn’t speak. Her reactions threw him every time. “Let’s address all those responses, shall we? It’s true that you beg in the bedroom occasionally. I happen to enjoy it. However, I’d never expect you to beg me for anything; if you ever want something, you’ll have it. Except, of course, your freedom. As for your next point, it wasn’t a good idea on your part to use the word ‘captive’ – that has all kinds of sexual fantasies running through my head. So be prepared for the consequences, and remember you only have yourself to blame.”

  When she would have spoken, Knox put a finger to her mouth. “Thirdly, I’d never betray you or purposely hurt you. You’re mine to care for, and you’ll never be anything but cared for. And the idea that I might ever want another woman is just plain fucking stupid anyway. Lastly, I don’t think little of you. If I did, I wouldn’t want you as a mate, would I? But the fact is that I’ll be a difficult person to be with. Controlling, possessive, selfish, highly sexual, inexperienced with emotional intimacy, and I always want what I want exactly when I want it. I’ve told you before, I don’t have a lot of good in me. You’re not getting a very good deal here, baby.”

  “Oh, and I’m some kind of innocent, perfect maiden?” She’d be bored if she was, to be honest. “Let’s look at a little thing called ‘reality.’ Everybody has flaws, Knox. No one is easy to be with. I don’t think you actually realize just how crazy I’m going to make you. I’m impossible to control, I have a bad temper, I curse like nobody’s motherfucking business, and I’m – quite often deliberately – annoying. I’m also stingy with trust, and I’m uncomfortable when people buy me shit or even just be nice to me. Even I know that’s just weird. I don’t exactly have a lot of experience with emotional intimacy either. But you accept all my shit just like I accept yours. That’s how it works.”

  She sat up s
traighter as she added, voice hard, “And if you are still paranoid that I’ll leave when you finally pull your big boy pants up and tell me what you are, I’m gonna get cranky. It won’t matter because I care about you, and whatever breed you are doesn’t change you. And now I’m blushing because I blurted out the last part. I blame you for that.”

  Knox pressed a soft kiss to her mouth. “I already knew you cared. You wouldn’t have taken me as your mate if you didn’t. Demons don’t take mates unless they care.”

  She folded her arms over her chest. “That’s a real poor way of saying you care about me too, you know.”

  It was. “You won’t hear pretty words from me often,” he felt compelled to warn her.

  “I know that.” He was charismatic, but he wasn’t a flatterer when it came to feelings that had any depth. He suffered from emotional poverty almost as bad as his demon. “I don’t expect to hear them and I’m not going to crave them. Compliments and pretty words make me blush, which I don’t like to do, because it’s just embarrassing. All I’m asking is that you don’t pretend that you don’t care out of some kind of masculine pride.”

  He could have taken the out she’d just given him, vowed to simply not put on a façade, but that wasn’t who he was. She deserved better. “I’ve been around for centuries. I became jaded, empty, lonely – but at least they were feelings of some sort. Over the past year, I was growing…numb. There wasn’t much that truly mattered to me anymore. You changed that. You matter. So much that you’re a vulnerability, a weakness. But I’m keeping you.”

  Knox framed her face with his hands. “Nothing is more important to me than you. And I’ll kill anyone who tries to take you from me. What you have to live with is that you have more control over my demon than I do, because it will annihilate everything in its path if anything bad were to happen to you. I wouldn’t be able to hold it back even if I wanted to.” He waited impatiently for her to speak, for her blank expression to give away something of what she was—

  “Is this the part where I flee in terror? I’m not sure. Give me a hint.” With a snort, she rolled her eyes. “I think you’re forgetting just how much control you have over my demon. You’re its mate, which means that if you’re hurt, it won’t give a flying fuck about anything but avenging you. And as much as I’d like to say my conscience would speak up and I’d then try to rein in the demon, I’m not so sure I would. I’d be a wreck at the time, because you’re just as important to me. I don’t like having a weakness, it’s actually pissing me off. But you’re stuck with me.”

  For a moment, there was utter silence. She opened her mouth to speak, and suddenly she was being kissed like he needed her taste to survive. He plundered, consumed, dominated. She felt herself getting wet, felt her nerve endings all—

  They broke apart at the sound of someone clearing their throat.

  “Mr. Thorne,” called Dan, “I believe the fax you’re waiting for has just arrived in your office.”

  Knox inhaled deeply. “Thanks, Dan.” Brushing her hair away from her face, Knox kissed her once more. “I’ll be back soon.”

  She couldn’t help but ogle his epic ass as he strode out of the room. Her demon wanted to bite it, and the idea truly did have its appeal. Maybe later. She picked up the jeans she was working on and went back to revamping them.

  “Skeleton heads? Nice.”

  The unfamiliar and unexpected voice made her jerk in panic and instinctively strike out with a punch to the jaw. They hit the ground with a thud, out cold. As she realized who it was, she winced. “Oh, shit.”

  “Um, Knox. I kind of just knocked the Devil unconscious.”

  Knox’s head snapped up from the fax he was reading to stare at Harper. “Repeat that.”

  “He surprised me,” she said defensively. “My power rushed straight to my hands, so when I sucker-punched him, he fell like a sack of spuds.”

  Knox strode out of his office and into the living area with his mate in tow. And there was Lucifer himself, sprawled on the floor. Harper’s power delivered at close range with such a harsh impact had obviously struck his soul so hard, his mind had clapped out.

  “It is him, right?” asked Harper, chewing on her thumb. “I mean, I haven’t seen him since I was a kid.”

  “It’s him,” Knox confirmed. “You saw him when you were a child?”

  “He came to Jolene’s house to yell at her for something, so she fed him some cookies as an apology. Of course, they were drugged and made him high as a kite. He stripped down to his boxers and sang Baby Got Back.”

  Knox couldn’t help but smile. “Is that why he loathes your grandmother?”

  “No, but that incident kind of fed the hate. Although I think, on one level, he actually admired the cunningness of it.” Seeing him as a child, she’d been taken aback to discover it was Lucifer. Like now, he’d been dressed in casual, almost scruffy clothes and a baseball cap. “He’s gonna be pissed at me.”

  “Even if he is, he won’t hurt you.”

  “He won’t?” She wasn’t convinced.

  “No, because he’ll have to deal with me if he does.” According to many human religions, Lucifer ruled hell. Not really. Lucifer moved to hell after he left heaven, he brought some order to the place, and he issued an open invitation for any soul to enter upon their death. There were many worse things in hell than Lucifer.

  A slight psychic slap from Knox was enough to wake him. Eyelids fluttering, Lucifer groaned. “That hurt.” In a blink, he was upright, looking at Harper curiously. “Soul-deep pain, huh? Never got hit by that before. I like to try new things.”

  “Why are you here?” Knox asked bluntly.

  Lucifer blinked at him. “I heard you’d taken a mate. I’m too cynical to believe it, but I was curious.” He smiled. “I like her. She surprised me. That doesn’t happen a lot.”

  Knox snickered. Lucifer didn’t like anyone. Abrasive, blunt, and offensive, he was a social nightmare. He was also psychotic and came with a child-like sense of entitlement, a love of sarcasm, and a propensity to constantly switch from one emotional state to another.

  Lucifer turned back to Harper. “I didn’t even catch your name.”

  She gave him a nod. “I’m Harper.”

  “Call me Lou. You remind me of someone.” He clicked his fingers several times, deep in thought. “Are you a Connell?”

  Harper couldn’t help grinning, anticipating his reaction. “No. I’m a Wallis.”

  His cheeriness died away as his jaw clenched. “A Wallis?”

  Retaking her seat, Harper nodded. “Jolene’s granddaughter, actually.”

  He shuddered. “That woman. Sneaky. Scheming. Vicious. Qualities I usually admire.”

  “She snorts when you give her orders, doesn’t she?” asked Knox.

  “Every time,” growled Lou.

  Knox could understand his frustration. “It’s in the genes.”

  Lou studied Harper closely. “You’re a sphinx. I’m guessing then that you’re Lucian’s daughter.” Lou sat beside Harper and began nosing in her box of appliques. With a muffled curse, he started moving some of them around.

  She frowned. “What are you doing?”

  “You’re getting them mixed up.” He sounded genuinely agitated. “See, you’ve got rhinestones over there with the sequins.”

  Oh, yeah, Jolene had once mentioned he was a little OCD. “Does my grandmother still send you chain letters?”

  He growled again. “Yes. She knows I can’t break them. It’s bad luck.”

  Harper shook her head. “Not really. It’s called OCD and—”

  “Yes, yes, so my psychiatrist tells me.”

  “You have a shrink?”

  “Apparently, I have some repressed anger and unresolved abandonment issues after my experiences with God.” An element of vulnerability entered his tone as he continued, “You know from your experiences with Carla and Lucian – that kind of thing leaves its mark on a person, doesn’t it? It hurts right to the core.”

&
nbsp; This conversation was becoming way too surreal for Harper. “I really don’t know how to process you.”

  With a grunt, Lou looked up at Knox. “Have you told her what you are yet?”

  Knox narrowed his eyes. “Not yet.”

  Lou rubbed his hands together, suddenly excited. “Ooh, the suspense.”

  “Lou,” drawled Knox, not trusting the guy to not simply blurt out the truth.

  “Fine, fine.” And now he was back to somber. “So, I heard your mate here is having some trouble.”

  Knox explained the recent goings on. “We’re either dealing with dark practitioners, Isla Ross, or Carla Hayden.”

  “I don’t like Carla.” Lou grimaced. “She’s very mercurial, it’s annoying.”

  Pot, kettle, black, thought Harper. “I think dark practitioners are responsible.” She looked at Knox. “You still think there’s a good chance it’s Isla, don’t you?”

  Knox shrugged. “She’s twisted enough to do all this.”

  “That’s true,” agreed Lou, nodding a few times.

  “I’ve heard rumors about her renting out demons from her lair to dark practitioners,” Knox told him. “Only someone losing their hold on their demon or just sick in the head would do that.”

  “Maybe she smokes crack,” Lou suggested.

  Ignoring that idea, Harper spoke to Knox. “I can’t understand why she’d take the risk of renting them out like that, knowing her own kind could turn on her for it. Something must be fucking with her head.”

  “Could be crack,” said Lou.

  Knox also ignored him. “I know it makes little sense; that’s why I’ve always doubted the rumors,” he told Harper. “But, like I said, she’s cold and power-hungry enough to do it. She wasn’t always like that. Something changed her.”

  Lou swept out a hand. “Adding support to my ‘crack’ theory.”

  Exasperated, Harper burst out, “Oh my God.”

  Lou frowned at her. “Can we leave him out of this please?”

  Knox blinked in surprise. “You said ‘please.’ Snappy or not, you used manners.”