Embers

by Suzanne Wright

  Knox combed his fingers all the way through her hair and settled his hands on her upper arms. “I had some questions that I suspected she could answer.”

  “About what?”

  “Devon’s brother.”

  Harper frowned. “Why the interest in him?”

  “I don’t like that he wants what’s mine. He does, Harper; don’t deny it.”

  Honestly, she still found it difficult to accept that Drew felt that way. But after the way he’d acted earlier, she’d reached one conclusion. “Okay, it’s possible that he doesn’t want me to be with you out of some misplaced concern. But Drew is totally focused on his own life—”

  “Which was why Jolene told him to stay away from you until he was prepared to step up to the plate and give you what you needed.”

  Harper tilted her head. “She told you that?”

  “Yes.”

  While it was the kind of thing Jolene would do, it was still hard for Harper to imagine Drew giving that much of a shit about her. “Well, he didn’t step up, which tells you all you need to know. If he’d really wanted me as much as you think he does, he wouldn’t have stayed in Cuba.” There. That proved her point perfectly.

  Sliding his hand around her neck, Knox gently breezed his thumb up the column of her throat. “Baby, he has a tattoo of a sphinx between his shoulder blades. A sphinx with no wings. Lying with a hellcat.”

  It took a moment for those words to truly sink in. Harper’s demon hissed, beyond enraged that another male would brand himself for it that way. “Seriously?”

  “Do I look like I’m fucking kidding?”

  “Wait, how do you know?”

  “He likes to hang up pictures of himself doing extreme sports. Levi saw the tattoo on one of the photos when he visited Clarke’s shack.”

  She decided not to ask what Levi had been doing in Drew’s home. “You said the tattoo is on his back, right? Maybe that sort of represents him turning his back on what he once wanted and putting it behind him or something. I’ve had clients who want tattoos that remind them of what they’re keeping in their past.”

  Knox slowly shook his head. “The hellcat was snuggled up to the sphinx protectively.”

  She swallowed. “There are other sphinxes out there.”

  “With no wings? Come on, Harper, accept the fucking facts. Why are you searching for reasons that I might be wrong?”

  “It just doesn’t make sense to me. Plus, I don’t want you to kill my friend’s brother.” Even if the little bastard had marked himself for her, like he was under the impression she’d be his to claim whenever he was ready for it.

  “I will if he tries to take you from me.” Knox curled his hand around her chin and pulled her close. “Speak to Devon. Tell her to talk to her brother and keep him away from you. I’ve told Jolene to do the same and to make sure he gets rid of that fucking tattoo. Because nothing—not even you, baby—will keep him safe from me if he tries stealing you from me.”

  “That’s dumb and immature. I had to deal with Alethea and countless other women trying to lure you away, but I didn’t kill any of them.” She’d toyed with them, sure, but that was all.

  He did a slow blink. “Dumb and immature?”

  “Yeah.”

  Stroking his thumb over her jaw, Knox cocked his head. “You still underestimate your importance to me, don’t you? I’m beginning to think you always will.”

  “No, I don’t. But I also don’t see why you can’t show the same restraint others do when people have a thing for their partners.”

  “I could show that restraint, Harper. I have more patience and self-control than most—I’d never otherwise maintain dominance over my demon. But if Clarke pushes this or refuses to have the tattoo removed, I won’t want to show such restraint. I’ll want to kill him. My demon will want his blood. And I don’t have your goodness or mercy. So if you want Drew to live, talk to Devon and ensure that she makes him see reason.” Knox’s eyes narrowed. “What did he say to you earlier?”

  Not willing to feed his anger, Harper kept her answer vague. “He was asking if I missed working at the studio and if I worried that Asher would have my weaknesses. I asked if he’d found his anchor—just general shit.”

  “What else?”

  She sighed. “He expressed his surprise that I’d gotten involved with my own anchor. Asked if it bothered me that there were so many women in your past.”

  “A rhetorical question that would remind you of something that causes you pain,” mused Knox. “Now that I’m dealing with Drew, I understand just how much hurt it actually caused you to be around women from my past. Before this, I could only guess.” Splaying his hands on her back, Knox pulled her closer. “But, see, none of them meant anything to me. I suspect Drew did mean something to you, though. That’s hard for me to stomach.”

  “I never loved him or anything. I had a crush on him as a teenager, and I always thought he was a decent guy. That’s it.”

  “But if he’d stepped up to the plate as Jolene wanted him to, you probably would have given him a chance.” Not that it would have stopped Knox from having her. He hadn’t lied to her—he would have done whatever it took to have her, even if it meant somehow luring her away from another male. She did something to him. Fed something in him. Breathed life into his world. He couldn’t be without her.

  Harper shook her head. “You’re forgetting just how opposed I was to dating demons. I fought you even harder because you were also my anchor. Not that it got me anywhere,” she grumbled. “Bottom line: I don’t want Drew. Nothing he says or does could make me leave you. Why is that funny?” He was giving her one of those highly amused, “you’re so ridiculously cute” smiles that held a hint of condescension.

  Brushing his mouth over hers, Knox lifted a brow. “You think I’d let you leave?”

  “I could totally leave if I wanted to. You insist on ignoring my warnings about just how terrifying I can be when in berserker mode. It takes a lot for me to really lose my shit. But when I do, I do it in a spectacular fashion. Seriously, people have fled in fear when faced with—stop laughing at me.”

  Shoulders shaking, Knox captured her face between her hands. “Only you could melt my mood when it’s so foul.” He kissed her, poured himself into her. Sipped and nipped and bit, alternating between gentle and rough. Then, grabbing a handful of her hair, he snatched her head back and traced the shape of her mouth with his tongue. “Mine.”

  Fisting his shirt, she swallowed. “Yours. Just as you’re mine.”

  He dipped his head as he kissed his way down her neck. “Bed.”

  “Bed,” she agreed.

  Harper wrinkled her nose. The smell of the citrus air freshener was so strong, it almost burned her nostrils. The last time the Primes had gathered in this very conference room was to discuss the issue of her being hexed—something that it later transpired had been thanks to Nutty Nora. As she’d been pregnant at the time, Harper had stayed at home and missed the meeting. This time, however, she sat at Knox’s side, her elbows propped on the long, smooth glass table.

  She was also watching each of the Primes carefully. All looked grim aside from Thatcher. He kept sliding uneasy looks at the others, cheeks flushed with self-consciousness. He had to know that many of the whispers circulating the table were about him and his recent relationship with Alethea. He had to feel the suspicious glances aimed his way. To his credit, though, he jutted out his chin in a “fuck you all” gesture.

  Dario, too, was on the receiving end of many suspicious looks. Considering that he was the most obvious suspect due to his grandmother being one of the Horsemen, it wasn’t in the least bit surprising. Unlike Thatcher, he didn’t appear dour. Nor was he displaying any “fuck you” language. No, he seemed intent on ignoring the attention and was in fact chatting amiably with Malden.

  If Jonas had been there, he probably would have defended Thatcher against the whispers. Harper had been present when Knox called the encantado early that morning to rem
ind him of the meeting. Jonas had reiterated that he had no interest in attending.

  “Shame Asher couldn’t be here,” said Jolene, beside her. “He’d have melted all this tension easily.”

  Sitting on Jolene’s left, Martina nodded. “He’d have had them laughing.”

  Just thinking of Asher made her tense. Intellectually, she knew he’d be fine with Keenan and Larkin, but that didn’t stop her from worrying. Although Harper hadn’t wanted to leave Asher, there was no way she’d take him to a meeting where Thatcher and Dario were present. In her mind, one of them was most likely to be the Horseman.

  She’d wanted Tanner to stay with Asher too, but the hellhound had just stared at her patiently. As her bodyguard, he went where she went … which was why he was currently stood behind her chair just as Levi was stood behind Knox’s. Both were on guard, much like Jolene’s anchor, Beck, who stood on Tanner’s other side.

  “I had to sneak out in case Asher accidentally cuffed me to him again,” Harper told her grandmother and Martina.

  Jolene cackled. “That will tickle me for a long time.” That’s a very distinct mark on your neck.

  Harper resisted the urge to touch the bite. Knox had been rough with her in the shower that morning. It was part of that whole “you’re mine and don’t forget it” message he felt the need to drum into her brain on a daily basis. Basically, his possessive nature was live and electric due to Drew’s behavior, and she was seeing the ass-end of it.

  I’m assuming Knox told you about Drew’s tattoo, Jolene added.

  Harper shifted awkwardly in her seat. Her demon’s upper lip curled at the reminder of the tattoo. Yep, Knox told me. I keep thinking that maybe Levi didn’t see the tattoo clearly on the picture.

  Oh, he saw it clearly. I had Drew show it to me. She sighed. The boy always was reckless.

  Mouth quirking, Harper said, That boy is in his late thirties.

  He won’t live to see his forties if he doesn’t do as I ordered.

  Grabbing the pitcher, Harper poured some iced water into a glass. What did you order?

  For him to allow Raini to remove the stupid tattoo and for him to return to Cuba earlier than he’d planned.

  I spoke to Devon and told her about it all. She’s sad to think that he could be hurting, but she also thinks he and I weren’t “meant to be”. She said she’ll talk to him.

  Jolene gave a curt nod of approval. He listens to Devon.

  Beneath the table, Knox gently squeezed Harper’s thigh. Who are you talking to? As her anchor, he could feel the echoes of her telepathic conversations but couldn’t understand the words. The same applied to her when the situation was reversed.

  Grams, Harper replied simply before sipping at her water. Are you kicking this meeting off or what?

  Yes, I’d say it’s time. Knox’s demon wanted it over and done with. Despite that the others in the room held plenty of power, it had little respect for them. Mostly because of how they’d treated Harper. In their eyes, she was somewhat beneath them in that she wasn’t from a powerful lair, didn’t have a high-ranking or well-paid job, was an imp for all intents and purposes, and was part of a family that was notoriously criminal.

  Knox agreed with Levi that people didn’t truly look down on imps. Instead, they were wary of them. Daring, sly, wild, and uncontrollable, imps were wild cards, especially Wallis imps. They always retaliated, and they were never subtle about it. In any case, other breeds of demon tended to look upon imps as inferior. Not that it bothered them—imps took delight in irritating people.

  For a while, the other Primes hadn’t taken Knox and Harper’s mating seriously, finding it much too difficult to comprehend that Knox would bind himself to a Wallis. Also, it was rare for Primes to mate, particularly since demons didn’t like to share power, so they’d been shocked by the mating.

  Knox had come to believe that the Primes also hadn’t wanted to take the mating seriously, since a ruling pair—particularly a pair as strong as Harper and Knox—was far more powerful than a single Prime. He was enough of a threat as it was.

  Keep a careful watch on Thatcher and Dario, Knox told his sentinels. Breaking the connection with them, he loudly cleared his throat. All eyes moved to Knox, and the low voices fell silent. The only noise in the room was the steady hum of the air conditioning. The tension was palpable, and he knew it wouldn’t take much for an argument to ensue. He’d picked up enough thoughts filtering through weak shields to know that many suspected either Thatcher or Dario was the remaining Horseman.

  “Unless you’ve been living under a rock,” began Knox, “I’m sure you’ve guessed what prompted me to call for this meeting. Jonas is too mired in grief to attend, which is probably for the best since his gifts won’t be very stable while he’s grieving. Would I be right in presuming that you all saw the YouTube clip?”

  “The whole world saw it,” said Mila. “Including humans.”

  “Luckily, most of the human population sneers at the possibility of anything preternatural,” said Jolene. “Plenty of comments were left about the clip, most of which went along the lines of ‘terrible special effects’ and ‘bad acting’.”

  “But some names were mentioned—particularly those of the other Horsemen,” Mila pointed out. “Alethea’s killer also mentioned you, Knox.”

  “Only by surname,” he said. “As such, I doubt it will be linked to me. Even if it was, the human authorities will hardly believe there’s a death to investigate—people don’t set others on fire and melt their corpse, do they? Not in the human world.”

  Pausing, Knox ran his gaze over each of the Primes. “If anyone here wishes to do as the Horseman asked and step down from their position, say so now.” When no one spoke, Knox gave a satisfied nod.

  Malden sighed. “Although I’d investigated the matter of the Horsemen, I’d held out hope that they didn’t exist. Just the idea that demons might band together with plans to overthrow the Primes is bad enough. That such demons would also think to take you on means they’re either powerful, delusional, or utterly stupid.”

  “Alethea’s killer was powerful,” said Mila.

  Thatcher sighed. “I suppose I’m a suspect, just as I was a suspect during our last meeting.”

  Knox’s eyes slammed on him. “At this point, Thatcher, everyone’s a suspect.”

  “I watched that YouTube video several times before it was taken down,” said Dario. “It seems obvious to me that Alethea knew her killer.”

  Knox nodded, watching the other Prime carefully. “He broadcasted her murder to create fear and panic and anger. But it was a mistake on his part, because he also gave us clues about his identity. For instance, we now know he’s able to steal or replicate a person’s voice. We know he’s male. Caucasian. Well-built. We know he somehow knew Alethea—he said she was in his way.”

  Eyes narrowed in thought, Raul rubbed at his chin. “She may well have figured out that he was the last of the Horsemen. That seems the likeliest scenario.”

  “Alethea disappeared months before her death,” said another Prime. “Do you think he held her captive all that time? If so, why? And why not kill her right away?”

  “I don’t believe she was his prisoner,” said Jolene. “She looked rumpled, but not dirty or malnourished or beaten. Her make-up was close to perfect. Wherever she was all that time, it wasn’t a prison of any sort.” There were murmurs of agreement.

  “I spoke at length with Jonas,” said Knox. “Alethea was acting quite secretive before she went missing. Wouldn’t even tell him who she was associating with at the time.”

  “I thought she was with Thatcher,” a voice piped up from the opposite end of the table.

  “Only for a short time,” Thatcher told him. “It was nothing serious. Just a bit of fun.”

  “Maybe you didn’t want that fun to end and so you punished her,” that same Prime accused.

  Thatcher sniffed at him. “If you’re going to insist on playing Devil’s advocate, at least offer more i
nteresting theories. If you must know, it was I who ended the relationship. It was obvious that she was seeing someone else. I don’t demand commitment from my sexual partners, but I do demand exclusivity.” His eyes scanned the room. “Perhaps you’ve all forgotten that I aided Knox in reaching his mate before Nora could kill her. If I were one of the Horsemen, surely I wouldn’t have helped him. I notice none of you are pointing fingers at Dario, even though he’s a likely suspect.”

  Dario’s brow slowly rose. “You do enjoy throwing accusations at others to divert attention from yourself, don’t you?”

  He’s right on that one, Harper said to Knox.

  Knox gave her an almost imperceptible nod. It’s a technique Thatcher often uses.

  “Nora was your grandmother,” Thatcher said to Dario. “You were close, from what I heard. I find it difficult to believe that you hadn’t sensed that she had such grand plans. And you were of absolutely no help when Knox asked where she might have taken Harper.”

  “Because I had no idea,” Dario ground out, cheeks flushing.

  Ignoring that, Thatcher added, “And let’s not forget that you were also one of the Primes who campaigned to be the US Monarch, just as Isla did.”

  Dario’s face hardened. “Malden also wanted the position, if you remember.”

  Malden tossed him a sour look. “Thank you, Dario, for shifting the suspicion so nicely onto me.”

  “I don’t believe you are the Horseman, Malden,” Dario told him. “I’m merely pointing out that my campaign to be a Monarch shouldn’t be an indication of guilt. I also didn’t associate with Alethea.”

  “Ah, but Jonas said she was being secretive before her disappearance,” said another Prime. “I don’t suppose either you or Thatcher have the power to steal or replicate people’s voices, do you?”