by Sophie Stern
“That’s quite the story,” Daisy murmurs.
“That’s not the half of it,” I say. “My other sister was five years older than me. So, she remembered my parents a little bit, but neither one of us remembered our folks as much as Jasmine did. That was my oldest sister. Jasmine. And my other sister was called Hope.”
“That’s a pretty name.”
“It’s the perfect name,” I agree. “My parents were killed by vamps when we were small. I was only five years old when it happened. They were out to dinner. Jasmine was home with us babysitting. The vamps found our house after Mom and Dad died. I guess they pulled the address from their ID cards.”
Daisy groans, and I know what she’s thinking.
“I know,” I tell her. “That’s why I never carry anything with my address on it.”
She shakes her head. “I’m sorry about what happened.”
“Me too. When they came to the house, Jasmine hid us. She made us be quiet. She brought us up to the attic and we stayed there for days. During the daytime, when the vamps were asleep, Jasmine would sneak down and get food. At first, she thought she could outwait them. She thought they would leave. Eventually, she realized they were there to stay.”
“What did she do?”
“The only thing she could,” I say. I still feel sick when I think about the story. I don’t remember this happening, and I don’t remember staying in the attic. I have no idea how Jasmine managed to keep two little kids quiet for a fucking week. Maybe she drugged us. Either that, or we were scared enough that we stayed silent. I’m not sure. “She sneaked downstairs during the day when they were resting. She slaughtered them.”
Daisy gasps, but I keep talking, eager to get it all out. It’s more than that, though. I need to get this out. I’ve never talked about what happened to my family. I’ve never talked about where I came from. Even when my sisters were here, I never talked about it. None of us did.
Well, except for Hope. She’s the one who told me the story. She’s the one who explained where I came from. I had few memories from that time. Hope was able to fill in the blanks when Jasmine wasn’t willing to talk. Jasmine was the one who was quiet, jaded. She watched over us like a mother hen. She was always cautious, always worried. Her thoughts were consumed with wondering whether we were okay, whether she was doing a good job.
“We took what we could from the vampires. There was some money and a few weapons. Jasmine knew the house was done. We couldn’t stay there.”
“Once vampires have lived in a place, others can scent it.”
“Yeah, exactly. When the vamps didn’t go back to their friends or family or whoever they spent time with, their buddies would come sniffing. None of us wanted to be there when that happened.”
“Where did you go?”
“We came here,” I motion to the awful fucking sewers we’re crawling through. “You’d be surprised at how many places there are down here to hide and stay in.”
I try not to think about how many nights we sat up, unable to sleep because of the strange noises in the sewer. Every time someone walked on the road above us, we’d be able to hear it. Anytime a car passed by, we’d tense. It was horrifying and scary, especially for three little girls who had no business being down in the sewers.
The only good thing was that there were no rats.
The vampires had already scared them all away.
“You lived down here?”
“Only for a little while,” I say. “But I still remember it. The first thing Jasmine taught us was how to stay out of sight. She said that was key. This was when the unrest first began, before Derek was officially in charge.”
“Before there was a leader,” Daisy nods. “Things were a little crazy.”
“Civil unrest, fights, the works. Derek is a major dick, but he definitely created an organized society. I’ll give him that.”
We walk for awhile and finally, Daisy asks.
“What happened after the sewers?”
“Jasmine found people we could stay with. Other humans. We stayed with them for a few years, living in a little colony of sorts.” It was more like a compound, but I don’t want to say that. The place we lived wasn’t all bad, but it was secure.
Mostly.
“That sounds...idyllic.”
“It was safe for a long time. Then one day, suddenly, it wasn’t.”
“The vamps came.”
“When my sister killed the vampires living in our house, she didn’t know she should burn the entire building down to mask our scents. Hope and I had been in the attic long enough that our scents had faded from the house, but Jasmine’s scent was fresh. She had been angry when she killed the vamps. Her emotions had been strong, filling the house, and the vampires who came to the house later were able to smell her. They tracked her. It took them years, but they finally found her. They killed everyone in the colony.”
“Except for you.”
“Except for me.”
“Where were you?”
Where was I?
That’s a very good question, and one I’m not proud to admit.
“I was out losing my virginity,” I tell her. I don’t look over at her. I can’t bear to see whatever emotion plays on her face when I say the words. Judgment? I can handle that. Pity? Not so much.
“Ouch.”
“Yep.”
I’ll never forgive myself. I thought it was better to sneak off with Colton Banks than to stay home and help out around the house. We’d been making out in secret for weeks and my teenage hormones finally got the best of me. We’d figured out a way to get out of the little compound we lived in and sneak off into the woods. We’d returned hours later sweaty and sated, only to find a bloodbath that waited for us.
Colton ran away screaming and I never saw him again.
Me?
I wanted revenge.
Then again, revenge is a vicious circle. Vampires killed my parents, so Jasmine killed them. Then vampires killed Jasmine to get back at her. Now I want to kill those vampires. If I went after the vampires again, I would just be continuing the circle of violence, of evil.
So, I decided to do something else.
I decided to get strong.
I decided to get smart.
I decided to move on.
“You’re brave, you know,” Daisy says. “Most people aren’t that courageous when they lose everything.”
Calculated words for someone who just lost it all.
“Daisy, the next few days are going to suck. It’s going to hurt, and you might want to cry or kill or punch something. I’m here for you. I’ll be with you, okay? You aren’t going through this alone.” She looks at me and nods. She doesn’t smile, but she nods.
An acknowledgement.
I’ll take it.
We keep walking until the sewers curve. We turn a few times and walk some more. Our legs are sore and tired by the time we near our apartment.
“I’m surprised you managed to find it,” she says. “I’m guessing it’s been a few years since you lived down here.”
“Only a few,” I say. “But some things you never lose.”
We keep walking and finally, once I’ve located a street that’s safe to emerge on, I stop.
“We’re a few blocks away. Just in case we’re being followed, which we’re not, but you can never be too sure. We’ll climb out and walk the rest of the way. Are you ready?”
“No,” she shakes her head. “But I don’t have a choice.”
We climb up the narrow ladder and push the grate aside. Then we climb up onto the empty street. The sun is starting to rise and there’s no one else in sight. Now is the time when humans generally start to come out. At least, the ones of us that are left. Most of the city is a mixture of magic users, fallen angels, and demons. There are a few shifters sprinkled in there, too.
The humans tend to stay with their own on the edges of town.
“Come on,” I say. We walk over to the building and move to o
ne side. The first-floor doors are all blocked off and barred. There’s a small fire escape, though. I jump up and grab the bottom rung to pull myself to the little landing. Then I reach down and help Daisy do the same. We climb a ladder on the outside of the building to the third floor. Then we enter and close the window behind us. We’re inside an empty apartment now. The entire building is empty, actually, except for our apartment. We make our way silently through this one, go into the hallway, and take the stairs up two more flights to the fifth floor. Then we’re there.
We’re home free.
We’re back.
I sigh and reach for the keys to the studio. Pulling them from my pocket, I unlock the door, push it open, and walk inside.
We aren’t alone, though.
Fuck.
I forgot about the man I saved earlier in the evening, and judging by Daisy’s small gasp, she did, too. He’s standing in the center of the room. Both laptops are open and unlocked. Fuck. What kind of damage has this guy done? He turns when he sees us and smiles viciously.
“Hello, ladies.”
That’s when I see something I hadn’t noticed before in the darkness.
In my haste to save him, I’d thought he was a human, but the tell-tale flash of silver and yellow in his eyes reveal that he’s anything but.
In fact, I’d say it’s safe to say that this man is absolutely, completely, one-hundred-percent demon.
Fuck.
Chapter Six
Harrison
“Ladies,” I say, repeating myself. The blonde girl closes the door behind them and locks it, ignoring me entirely. The other one looks at me warily and sits down. I know now that their names are Daisy and Amy and that they are, together, a couple of unstoppable thieves.
From what I can tell, Zax isn’t actually a part of their operation, but Daisy has some sort of relationship with him. They really should do a better job keeping their laptops locked.
“Busy evening?” I say, but still, neither girl responds. It’s as if I’m a ghost.
Apparently, their meeting didn’t go as well as they planned.
Daisy moves to sit on the daybed while the other girl, Amy, goes to the kitchen and gets a glass of water. Amy brings the water out, hands it to Daisy, and motions for her to lay back on the bed. I don’t know what happened tonight, but I know that whatever they were doing didn’t go according to plan and it certainly didn’t end well. They’re both acting like whatever they went through was fucking hell, so I think it’s safe to assume it was a nightmare.
My savior finally turns to me.
“How are you feeling?” Amy asks, acknowledging my presence. She doesn’t seem happy to see me. I’m not sure why I had hoped that she would. She did save me, after all. I guess I thought that maybe she’d be a little excited to see the person she rescued making a miraculous recovery.
Then again, maybe not.
“I’m alive,” I say carefully. “Thanks to you.”
“I can see you’ve been busy,” she says, jerking her head toward the laptops. “Why don’t you sit down? You need to rest.”
Confused, I do what she says. I’m not sure why I’m listening to her or why I’m taking orders from a human, but there’s a first time for everything. Besides, Amy doesn’t seem like she’s in the mood to be messed with.
Daisy is lying on the bed, but she’s staring at the ceiling and her eyes are wide open. She’s completely spacing out.
“What’s wrong with her?” I ask Amy quietly.
“She was just betrayed by her husband. He murdered her kid, was secretly a villain, and tried to kill her, too.”
What the fuck?
“Was?” I manage to ask. She used past tense.
“I killed him,” Amy says. Her eyes are hollow, though, and her voice is strained and sad. She didn’t hold back. She gave me a totally, completely honest answer. It was more than I could have hoped for and it surprised me more than a little bit.
Amy looks dirty and tired and worn. I have literally nothing to offer her to take away the pain of her night, so instead of trying to do anything else, I step forward and hold my arms out awkwardly.
She stares at me.
“Are you trying to give me a hug, demon?”
Oh, so she knows.
I close my eyes, hiding the coloring of my eyes.
“Is this better?” I whisper.
“I still know what you are.”
I keep my eyes closed.
“And I still know that your night sucked. Let me hug you,” I say.
I wait a long minute. Okay, maybe it’s two. I wait and wait and finally, eventually, I hear her moving forward. She steps forward and wraps her arms around me tightly. She squeezes me and I try not to grimace from the pain. A small snort of laughter from Daisy lets me know I’m doing a terrible job.
Amy smells fantastic. She’s soft and gentle as she holds me. Or maybe I’m holding her. I can’t really tell. Either way, it’s been a long time since I hugged anyone, much less a human. I think I may have forgotten how to do it.
But I sort of love it.
If this was any other night, any other time, I’d be aroused and excited, but that’s not what tonight is. Tonight, something terrible has happened to me, to them, to Zax, maybe. I close my eyes and try to push away thoughts of everything else except for Amy and the way I want to run my fingers through her hair.
What the fuck is wrong with me?
After an eternity, she speaks.
“What’s your name?”
“Harrison.”
“I’m Amy.”
“I know.”
Now she’s the one snorting.
“Of course, you do. You went through our computers. You probably know more about Daisy than I do.”
“That’s not fair,” Daisy says.
“It’s true,” I say. “I know a lot about both of you now. And no, it’s not fair, but I’m not going to apologize, either. I wanted to know who you were. Now I know.”
“And what about you?” Amy pulls back and looks up at me. “Do I get to know who you are? Why those vamps wanted you? Are you going to tell me any of that?”
“Sure,” I say. “But why don’t you go take a shower first? Then we can talk.”
Amy steps back and frowns.
“Are you telling me I smell bad?” She asks.
“Amy, you smell like a fucking sewer,” Daisy says. “Just go.”
“You aren’t any better,” Amy grumbles. Then she looks at me. “And what about you?”
“Me? I have good hygiene. I showered while you all were out.”
Amy glares at me, but she heads toward the bathroom, closes the door, and locks it.
Then I’m alone with Daisy, who is instantly on her feet. She strides across the room, pulls a knife from her sleeve, and holds it to my throat. I don’t move. I’m not threatened by her at all. I could escape from this “hold” at any moment, but I’m going to let her get this out of her system. She’s scared, and I don’t blame her. Whatever happened to them tonight fucked with them both.
“Don’t hurt her,” Daisy says.
“Excuse me?”
“I saw the way you were looking at her, demon.”
“It’s Harrison.”
She shakes her head. “I don’t care what your name is. I don’t care why she felt like she had to save you.” Then she pops the knife back in her sleeve. “Amy doesn’t date demons,” Daisy says. I just stare at her. Then Daisy mutters. “Amy doesn’t date anyone.”
She moves to the little kitchen area and starts washing her hands.
“He was a bad man, you know,” I say. “Your husband.”
“Yeah,” Daisy says. She doesn’t turn around. “I know.”
“I worked with him until tonight.”
Daisy spins around. Her eyes narrow. “What?”
“That’s why those vamps were beating me up,” I say loudly. Amy might think she’s sneaky, but we both know she’s not in the shower. She’s in the bathroom
with her ear pressed up against the door. She’s eating this up because she wants to know who I am, what I am, and where I came from. Well, I’m happy to tell her, and it all starts now.
“Tell me,” Daisy grits out, but her voice is pained.
“I’m sorry about what he did,” I say. “I didn’t know how evil he was until today.”
“Say it.”
“I worked for him as a tech expert,” I say. “I arranged things for him. If he needed video coverage of an area, I could set that up. If he needed something hacked or encrypted, I was his guy.”
“Why tonight? What changed?”
“Tonight, he asked me to kill someone for him,” I say. “Another employee. I refused.”
Daisy sighs. “So, he did it himself, didn’t he?”
“Yeah,” I say, swallowing hard. “The kid was only 20. He fucked up big time. Zax was trying to overthrow Derek. He wanted to take over as lord of the city. He didn’t care what it cost him. The kid was supposed to do recon. Get some intel. He was spotted and brought some vamps to the tech center. We put them down easily enough, but that wasn’t good enough for Zax. He wanted the kid punished.”
“And when you wouldn’t do it, he wanted to punish you.”
“Exactly. And I don’t know if you know this, but fallen angels are really fucking terrifying.”
“I hadn’t noticed,” Daisy says dryly.
“Well, I didn’t realize he had vamps on his payroll. I made it eight blocks before they caught me. Lucky for me, your friend came along with the fucking Sword of Edith. How’d she manage to get that, anyway?”
Daisy sighs. Again. “It’s a long fucking story.”
Finally, I hear the shower turn on. I motion around us.
“In case you hadn’t noticed, I seem to have an abundance of time.”
Daisy smiles gently.
“All right, then, settle down. I’ll start from the beginning.”
Chapter Seven
Amy
It’s really not fair that there’s a hot demon in my house on the worst night of my life. Who would have thought that out of all the people in the world, I would come across a guy who was both sexy and dangerous? And on a night when my world seemed to be completely coming apart?