by G. Bailey
My throat burns, and I throw it back at him, glaring. “You meant to give someone water when you made them nearly choke!”
“I will remember that, and you just wasted expensive demon vodka,” he responds with a smirk. “I’m not sharing with you again.”
I can’t place his accent, maybe it’s a little Scottish, but it’s unusual. Actually, as I stare at the wolf shifter, I can’t quite place what pack he is from. He is definitely not a Stormfire wolf, that’s for sure. So it means he must be from one of the other two packs. He’s not from Caeli because I just recognise them, and he doesn’t have that feel to him. That means he must be from the Rivermare pack or the Terraseeker Pack. I’ll be able to tell for sure when he shifts because of his colour. My wolf’s senses smell something like seawater in his hair, making me think of Rivermare. They’re blue wolves and they’re fast swimmers, and as far as I know, most of them are blonde.
His eyes lock on mine once more. “You can sit down. I’m not throwing you under the bus.”
Hesitantly, I settle back down, my appetite gone. “I have no idea what you’re talking about with this alpha. I’m just here for the trials. You’ve got the wrong girl.”
He smirks at my bluff. “No. I don’t.” He leans forward, pinging the strand of my hair that was once white. “You can dye that white piece in your hair, girl, but it’s not hiding anything real. See, I share an old love interest with the alpha, and we all hear that he’s looking for some wee girl with a white streak in her hair. A wolf who smells like snow. Like Caeli. The reward is pretty high. In fact, if I outed you right now to his son, I would be rich for the rest of my life.”
“Don’t be a dick,” I growl, throwing a nervous glance around to make sure no one is listening.
Fortunately, everyone seems too busy getting drunk to pay us any attention. It doesn’t stop my heart from thrashing, though.
I glare at the male slouched in front of me. “That monster murdered my parents and tried to kill me for nothing. I never got to say goodbye. Do you have any idea what that is like?”
He stares at me with an intensity I don’t know what to do with. “Aye, I do.” We fall into silence until he laughs. “You’re something special, girl. Did you ever learn that calling someone a dick before you’re about to plead with them isn’t a good idea?”
I rest back in my chair. “If you were going to hand me in, you just would have done it. What’s the point of coming over and telling me?”
“You’re smarter than you appear,” he says, resting his hands behind his back. “I have no interest in giving the alpha what he wants when all he does is take from the world. And nonetheless, I’m not exactly meant to be here either.”
“What does that mean?”
“My name is Alaric.” A smirk curls his lip. “Look at that, Autumn, we both have fake names that start with A. It’s like the Crescent Mother brought us together.”
“Why are you hiding?” I ask, ignoring his comment about our goddess. I fail to see why she’d bring a shameless, albeit handsome, blackmailer into my life.
“Secrets, darling.” He winks at me. “We can share yours but not mine.”
I just manage to keep my temper from seeping out. I don’t want this asshole to see he’s getting under my skin. “What do you want from me?” I demand instead, my tone only slightly harsh.
The male thinks for a moment, then he says, “I need someone to have my back, and there’s no better person than you, the other person hiding here. And in exchange, I’ll have your back and not tell anyone you’re here.” He lowers his voice and leans closer until his masculine, watery cool scent washes over me. “Fun deal, right? We could even add in some special benefits, if you like. I’m not opposed to that.”
“Well, I am. And I already have someone watching my back,” I counter, feeling breathless for all the wrong reasons.
“You mean the half-demon who’s been kicked out twice in these trials? Did he ever mention the reasons why he’s failed the trials twice?” He pauses and smirks when he finds the answer in my expression. “He’s a deadly fighter. Quick as can be, close friends with the prince, too. Doesn’t it make you wonder what exactly he did?”
In all honesty, it has, but I choose to lie. “No.”
“Trust me, it’s bad,” the male whispers, once more grinning at me. “Makes you and I seem like goddamn angels.”
“I thought you were the guy with the secrets?” I counter.
“Be a good girl and come when I tell you,” he warns me in a voice laced with dark promise. “Because otherwise, I’m giving in your secret as a distraction for my escape.”
“Fuck you,” I growl at him.
He leans in closer, until our faces are inches away. He really is flawless. “Not yet, but I do have a weakness for redheads.”
With that, he stands. I glance away for a second, feeling someone’s eyes on me. I start when I see the prince and Caspian are talking, both of them watching us, making it clear their conversation is about me. When I look over, Alaric or whatever his real name is has gone. I search around to see he has completely disappeared.
“What did I say about talking to people, songbird?” Caspian demands when he walks over a few seconds later. “Let alone flirting with a wolf who looks deadly as fuck.”
“Night, Caspian,” I reply, walking around him. “You’re right, parties are not my scene.”
I feel Caspian’s eyes on me, as much as I feel the prince’s as I pass by him on my way back to my room. Dove is right, there are too many guys in the DHT, and it turns out I need to watch my back around every single one of them.
Everyone here has secrets.
But only mine will get me killed.
Chapter 11
Eziel
“Well, well, well. Would you look at that?” I mutter.
“At what, Your Majesty?” Aamon drawls, his nose buried in the ancient book he’s always carrying around with him.
He fucking knows I hate when he uses that title.
I ignore him and keep my focus on the female walking away. The wolf my father is hunting just so happens to be the pretty little wolf I’ve been thinking about all week.
Lilith Thornblood.
I never would’ve guessed she’s the one my old man’s searching for. He wants her blood, but from the moment she entered my courtyard, I’ve wanted to kiss her. Now I want to know exactly why she’s on my father’s shit list, and then I’ll not only kiss her, but claim her as my own. I’ve been itching for a fight with my father for years. The fact that she was able to escape from him is enough to pique my interest in her. But managing to hide in plain sight amongst his own damn pack?
Now that takes guts.
Real fucking guts.
Only a female brave enough to do that can be my mate.
She thinks she has nothing left to lose if Father finds her. From the way she looked at Caspian, she has more to lose than she thinks. Taking that away from her is the kind of shit my father gets off on. He’ll kill Caspian just to get to her. There’s no way I’m going to let that happen. As much as the wolf pisses me off sometimes, I’ve grown to like him. Caspian is one of the only shifters in this realm I can trust with my life.
I drag my attention from Caspian over to the Rivermare wolf sitting by the buffet table. Out of all the demon hunters vying for the trophy, Alaric’s shown great promise in his mission. Already he’s top of the leader board, and he doesn’t even have a partner. However, I’ve watched him closely since he made his blood oath to me, and one thing I’ve noticed is he’s watching Lilith as closely as I am whenever she’s near. He’s as drawn to the female as I am, unable to keep her from his thoughts.
From his every waking moment.
My wolf instincts are to protect the female and keep her out of my father’s sight. If there’s to be a fight for her within this den of wolves, I intend on winning no matter what it takes. Lilith and I have much more in common than I thought.
I turn away and head to my r
ooms, feeling eyes watching me from the shadows the second I step in.
“You might as well come out.” I sigh, turning around and leaning against my desk. The shadows in the corner shimmer before the shape of a man breaks out of the darkness.
“Your Highness,” he hisses out.
My father’s demon pet is a sneaky fuck of a creature, and I hate him. The snake demon, a rare demon who can move through shadows and likes to eat humans, loved to torture me as a young pup.
But this pup grew up. The only reason I haven’t removed his demon head is because he can be so easily bribed.
“Tell me,” I demand.
His snake-like brown eyes glow. “Your father has declared war on every pack in the world if they are found to be hiding Lilith Thornblood.”
I smirk. So he has no idea she is in Stormfire. Brilliant. “Good. The other packs should fear us.”
“May I take my leave?” he asks.
My power fills the room as I watch the demon pet scurry back into the shadows before disappearing from my presence. Lilith has changed Hell, and she might be the key to taking down my father.
How lucky it is that she has dropped right into my lap?
Chapter 12
Lilith Thornblood
My grey eyes stare back at me as I peer at myself in the mirror, struggling once again to come to terms with all the secrets in my life. I scarcely recognise myself anymore. My eyes don’t hold any answers to my internal struggle, nor does my stare down with myself, but eventually I look away.
I finish braiding my hair so it falls to the right side of my head before getting dressed in the small bathroom. I walk out of the room to find Caspian there, glaring at me.
“Do you have to use all the hot water every single morning?”
“I may have saved you some,” I lie.
He stares down at me. Grumpy eyes and messy bedhead hair really suit Caspian. “I’m tired of having cold showers.”
“Maybe you shouldn’t sleep in.”
I slip past him. He growls at me, slams the door behind him, and I try not to laugh. I do feel bad about using all the hot water up, but in my defence, it is only hot for a few minutes. The plumbing in this realm sure isn’t great.
I go back to my room, planning to continue reading the book on demons, when suddenly something hits the window. Wondering what the hell that was, I stare at the window, seeing nothing different about it at all.
Did I imagine the noise?
It’s not like hard things can actually fall from the tree above unless it has fiery acorns that I’m not aware of. I’m pretty sure I would have heard about flying acorns hitting people’s heads by now. Suddenly something invisible hits the glass, and then again, again, until unexpectedly there’s a black smoke appearing in the middle of the glass. Something burns itself into existence from the smoke, almost looking like tiny bits of wood until it forms an envelope. I stare at the black envelope stuck to the inside of my window and carefully tiptoe over to it. I’ve seen weird shit, but never have I seen magic like this. Flames softly flicker around the edges of the letter, but not exactly burning as I pull it off the glass and it’s cold to the touch. I look outside, seeing nothing but the usual DHT courtyard before opening it. The letter inside is black with fancy silver writing.
I turn it over and search the envelope, finding nothing else written on it. Who the hell just sent this to me? It has to be a demon because this is demonic magic for sure. Why would a demon be helping me? This makes no sense.
I bite down on my lip and stare at the note, trying to come up with an idea on what I should do about it. One thing is for certain, I’m not following this advice. I have too many enemies, and for all I know, breaking the horns of some unknown foe would end with me blowing up.
That would be just my luck.
Placing the note into my drawer underneath my underwear, I remind myself to talk to Caspian about the letter later. I know I can trust Caspian, or at least I think I can. Either way, I don’t want to have him on high alert for my problems when we are going on a demon hunt today.
Caspian comes out of the shower, fully dressed in black clothes that fit his toned body too well. I go into the living room and straight to the weapon couch. He is ready to go as I clip two daggers to my thighs and one gun on a holster before pulling on my new black coat that falls to below my knees and does up with a silver clip in the centre. It hides all my weapons, and according to Dove, it makes me look hot.
The coat has the bonus of being fire and bulletproof, thanks to demonic magic.
“That coat suits you,” Caspian comments, running a hand through his wet hair. He grabs a sword and slides it into the hold on his back. Damn, he is sexy when he is strapping a million weapons on his body. With a click of his fingers, the weapons disappear in front of my eyes.
“How do you do that?”
He smirks. “I dated this demon. She had a few tricks and was happy to share them with me.”
“Gross,” I mutter. “Never mind, I don’t want to know. It’s cool, anyway.”
“Maybe one day I will share,” he taunts, stretching his arms out. “Or you’ll be dead. Who knows?”
“Let’s get a demon to hunt. The board is updated today, and there might be something good. We should go before the good hunts are picked by the others,” I say, ignoring his attempt to wind me up.
“I have a mission for us. I picked it up earlier,” he claims, crossing his arms.
“How did you have time for that? You’ve just woke up,” I reply. “I watched you come out of your room, eat half the kitchen, and then shower. There is no way you got downstairs to the board to get a hunt.”
“The mission board doesn’t have this one on it,” he responds. “It’s a level three, and I heard about it at the bar last night. We are hunting enough points to get us to the top of the leader board.”
“That sounds dangerous and deadly, Caspian,” I warn him. “Considering this is my second mission, I hoped we could hunt a level one or maybe two.”
He shrugs. “I’ll be doing all the work. I don’t know why you’re so bothered.”
“Hey, that’s not fair. I helped you out on the last mission!” I shout, but he is already walking away to the door.
“You shot yourself in the face and nearly drowned,” he reminds me.
“You’re such an ass!” I shout after him, and he laughs as he opens our front door.
Grumbling under my breath, I chase after Caspian until I get outside the building where he slows down a bit. We head right for the massive tree branch where there is a ley line portal glowing brightly. Several hunters walk in and out of it. Caspian grabs my hand and pulls me into it, not saying out loud where we’re going.
We reappear at the bottom of a broken stone staircase in a field of flames. The portal out of Hell is not one I’ve been to and I wonder if this is the top realm in Hell as there is nothing but flames. Several people are walking in and out the portal above us as we climb the many steps to the top. Caspian holds my hand tightly in his, making it clear he isn’t letting go. He’s only holding my hand to make sure he doesn’t lose me, and it’s annoying how he is still treating me like I’m Leo’s little sister and not an adult. I’m not the teenager I once was.
My breath is sucked out of my lungs when we go straight through the portal, which is much easier than it ever has been before, and we step out into a very busy city. The bustling sounds fill my senses, everything from cars whizzing past, incessant chatter, distant sirens, to how it smells like coffee and humans.
We walk down a staircase away from the portal, I glance up to see the Eiffel Tower in the distance, stretching above the buildings surrounding us. Paris? Wow. Okay, this is pretty cool. We’re in some sort of massive pathway for both cars and humans to walk across, in front of a building which is labelled as a hotel in big glowing letters across the front. I turn back only to see stairs leading to nothing but a concrete wall, and the humans around us don’t even glance its way.
They don’t see it. That’s amazing.
There’s an enormous courtyard with a waterfall right behind the stairs, and this place, the shape of the buildings, the balconies and everything reminds me of Hell—especially the prince’s realm.
“Do you think the French stole their style from Hell?” I question.
He laughs as he glances around. “Yes, definitely, considering one of their kings was literally a shapeshifting demon.”
“What?”
“Did you not know that?” he asks, leaning closer, his shoulder brushing against my chest. “Don’t even get me started on the werewolf genes in the royals of England.”
“Holy shit,” I mutter. “We really are everywhere.”
Caspian chuckles and he walks towards the hotel, tugging me along. I hate to ruin the kinda pleasant moment between us but I do anyway as I make him stop and he lets my hand go.
“Look, you’re going to have to debrief me a little bit on this hunt,” I say. “Though I appreciate the random and amazing facts about the royal families. That was pretty cool.”
He peers back with a sigh, leaning against a green telephone box. “What do you want to know?”
“What are we going up against?” I ask, putting my hands on my hips.
Caspian flicks his chin in the direction of the hotel. “A wendigo has made this place its new home.”
“A wendi-what-now?” I try to search my brain for information on them, but I just can’t remember seeing them in the demon book. I do have a few pages left to read, though. Figures it’ll probably be listed there.
When he sees my confusion, he pulls me inside the telephone box. Several people buzz past us, not paying us any attention. The box is too small for two people, leaving our bodies pressed together as he leans over me. I have no clue where to place my hands, but Caspian does. He puts them on the glass panels near my hips, boxing me in.