Embers

by Suzanne Wright

  “She’s not safe with you,” Drew gritted out. “I’d rather she was safe than happy. And if I’m going to lose her to someone, it should be to someone who deserves her. Someone who I know will care for her and give her what she needs. You’re not that person. Never will be. I don’t know how the fuck you managed to make her care for you—”

  Knox laughed, and it was a dark sound that made the hellcat tense. “Don’t lie, Clarke. You think I somehow manipulated her into believing she loves me. I’m guessing you haven’t shared that belief with her. She’d have slapped you for thinking her so weak-minded.”

  “She’s not weak-minded, but she’s soft inside. She wants to be loved. You know that, and you’ve played on it.”

  “The only person who’s been manipulating Harper is you.” Knox stepped closer to him. “You know she finds it difficult to believe that people can truly love her and will stick around, and you played on that. Only it didn’t work, did it? She’s secure in what I feel for her. But if you’d tried that in the beginning when I very first met Harper, it might just have worked.” A smug smile tugged at Knox’s mouth. “I suppose that only makes it worse for you that Jolene insisted on you being kept in the dark about my presence in her life. How very sad.”

  Clarke sneered. “She would have chosen me if I’d come for her back then.”

  Knox laughed again, and there was a hint of genuine humor in it this time. “You really do enjoy deluding yourself, don’t you? Perhaps I should pity you. It must be difficult to have a mind that simply can’t deal with reality and has invented its own version of it. You’ve not only blinded yourself to what Harper feels for me, you’ve blinded yourself to why you’re so intent on separating her from me. Do stop with the pretense that you’re doing what’s best for her. Oh, you do want Harper safe, that’s true. But you mostly want her away from me because you’re jealous that she loves me and not you.”

  Clarke shook his head. “It’s not—”

  “Lie to yourself if you must, but I’ve been in your mind. When you get down to the bottom of all the bullshit in your head, Clarke, you can clearly see that this is just a very simple case of jealousy. But then, people have been doing extreme things out of jealousy since the beginning of time, haven’t they? It’s a very potent emotion.” Something that Knox hadn’t truly experienced until recently. “And it only makes it worse for you that I can offer her things you can’t. It also annoys you that, power-wise, my dick is a hell of a lot bigger than yours. You know you’re nothing close to my equal, and you hate that.”

  Hands curling into fists, Drew pointlessly struggled against Knox’s psychic grip.

  “I’d like to say that, in your shoes, I would walk away and let her enjoy the happiness she’d found with another, but I’m not sure if that’s true,” said Knox. “I know I’m a ruthless bastard. Whereas you … you truly believe yourself to be a good, honorable person. But wouldn’t a good, honorable person tip their hat and walk away in such a situation?”

  Drew ceased struggling and lifted his chin. “If you’re going to kill me, get it over with.”

  “I’m not going to kill you.” Because Tanner had been right. It would impact Harper’s life. Clarke was nothing to her, and he needed to stay nothing to her. Knox didn’t want any of her thoughts centered on the hellcat. But Knox couldn’t guarantee that he’d have the same restraint if such a thing happened again.

  Experimentally, Knox shot a laser of hellfire out of his finger. He saw understanding light Clarke’s eyes. “I gave you the chance to get rid of it yourself.” With his psychic hands, Knox twisted Drew, slammed him face-first into the wall, and held him there. “This shouldn’t take long. But I won’t lie to you, Clarke, my demon wants me to make it last. And, well, I’ve decided to give it what it wants.” Knox tore open the back of the hellcat’s shirt. “Do feel free to scream.”

  Drew hissed. “Do your worst.”

  “I will.” Knox was quite sure the hellcat meant to suffer in silence. But the moment Knox honed that laser of hellfire onto the tattoo, Drew screamed.

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  Fire thundered to life in front of her. Harper looked up from the sofa, where she was embellishing her new jeans with rhinestones and diamantes. There was Knox; body stiff, shoulders square, dark stare fixed on her.

  “So, you’re back,” she said, keeping her tone even and resisting the urge to ask if Drew was dead.

  “It would seem so,” Knox said silkily, pouring himself a gin and tonic.

  Choosing to ignore that snippy response, she took another rhinestone from the box at her side. When Knox had disappeared with Drew, she’d wanted to reach out and try to calm him, but she’d worried that if she showed any concern for Drew’s welfare it would only anger Knox further. While she couldn’t find it in her to give much of a rat’s ass about the hellcat after the shit he’d pulled, she couldn’t feel good about anything that would upset Devon.

  Having glued the rhinestone onto the back pocket of her jeans, Harper reached for another. The box also contained crystals, gems, beads, sequins, sash, lace, and other appliques. She’d started personalizing her clothing when she lived with Lucian. They traveled light and weren’t always able to afford new clothes. At those times, Harper would simply revamp her old ones.

  She’d decided to work on her new jeans because she’d needed a distraction. She’d needed to think about something other than whether she’d have to explain to her friend that her older brother was dead. Mostly, though, she’d needed something to stop her from stressing over what Drew had said about Asher. None of it could be true. None of it.

  “The hellcat’s alive,” Knox told her, sensing she wanted to know. He’d dumped Clarke on Jolene’s doorstep; trembling, teeth chattering, sweat and blood gleaming on his back—and minus a series of memories, including the one of Knox’s ability to pyroport. And Knox felt absolutely no remorse for it.

  He’d given Clarke enough warnings. The male’s sister had warned him. His own Prime had warned him. Still, Clarke had ignored them all. It wasn’t like the hellcat was unaware of Knox’s merciless nature. He’d known what he was risking. If he’d thought that Harper would save him from Knox, he’d thought wrong.

  Hiding her relief in case he misinterpreted it as her caring for Drew, Harper said, “I’m guessing the tattoo is gone.”

  “You guessed correctly.” Knox took a swig from his tumbler. He’d exorcised much of his anger when he “toyed” with the hellcat. But as he looked down at his calm and collected mate, who didn’t appear in the slightest bit remorseful, he felt that anger building once again. “You should have called for me when you realized that Jolene and Drew had played you. At the very least, you should have walked out of that bedroom.”

  From the way he was glaring at her, looking all self-righteous, it was clear to Harper that he expected her to feel guilty. While he had reason to be upset, she refused to feel shamefaced when she’d only been trying to fix the complicated situation they were in. It wasn’t like she’d arranged some kind of secret meeting with Drew, was it?

  She was betting there had been numerous times when Knox had been alone with women who coveted him. She hadn’t freaked out on him, and it pissed her off that he was looking at her like she’d cheated on him or something.

  Feigning calm, Harper rummaged through her box in search of a tiny skull head. “I decided to hear him out because I wanted him gone. This whole thing isn’t just hurting you, Knox, it’s hurting Devon. I wanted to save you both that pain.”

  “It didn’t work, did it?” Knox clipped. “Drew had no intention of leaving Vegas, Harper. He simply wanted an opportunity to convince you to leave me.”

  “Well, I know that now. But I didn’t then.”

  “Would you even have told me about it if Tanner hadn’t already done so?”

  “Of course I would have told you—I had nothing to hide.” Putting her jeans aside, Harper crossed her legs and folded her arms. “I also have nothing to prove or justify, so you c
an stop looking at me like I somehow betrayed you.”

  But that was exactly what Knox felt: betrayed. “I told you that I didn’t want you near him. I made that very clear. And what did you do? You had a private conversation with him in your old bedroom. I swear, Harper, if I ever hear that you’re alone with him again—”

  “Don’t threaten me,” she hissed. Bristling, her inner demon unfurled and pushed against Harper’s skin, ready to jump in and defend her.

  “I’m not threatening you,” he said, voice low. “I’m making the situation abundantly clear, since it seems that you haven’t listened to a single word I fucking said on this. I didn’t kill Clarke just now for the simple reason that I don’t want him on your mind or to impact your life. But I only have so much restraint in me. If he tries to get you alone again, I will kill him.”

  “You don’t think you’re overreacting just a little?”

  “Overreacting?” Knox’s hands curled. “He wants to take you from me.”

  “Just like Alethea and plenty of other women wanted to take you from me.”

  “If you’d wanted to kill them for it, you would have had every right. An ‘overreaction’ is the very last thing I would have called it. You chose to deal with it in a different way—I respected that decision, even though I hated what their actions did to you.”

  “But you didn’t order them to stay away from you, did you?” Raising her chin in challenge, Harper rose from the sofa. “You expect me to stay clear of Drew, but I’m sure there were times when Isla or Alethea or other women that wanted to get in your pants went to see you at one of your offices. I’ll bet you didn’t tell them to fuck off and keep their distance. Am I right?” He didn’t respond, but she knew she was right. “Thought so. You certainly never called out to me, so why the fuck would you expect me to call out to you? It’s not like Drew’s a physical threat to me.”

  “Those situations were different.”

  Her inner demon curled its upper lip in disgust. “Really? How? You knew the women wanted you; you knew they wanted me out of the picture, but you didn’t call out to me or send them on their way immediately. No, you knew you could deal with those situations alone, so you did. How is that any different from what I did?”

  “For one thing, I didn’t have them in my old fucking bedroom.”

  “Like them being in your office makes much of a difference. You fucked me in there not long ago so, yeah, you don’t get to use that one.”

  He advanced on her, closing the distance between them, and pushed into her personal space. “How many times did you imagine those women touching me or vice versa, Harper? Hurt, didn’t it? You didn’t want those pictures in your head, but your imagination went wild on you. What if those pictures hadn’t simply been your imagination at work? What if they had been actual memories that belonged to those women and you knew exactly what I did to them and what they did to me? How well would you have dealt with that?”

  Not well at all. Harper would have hated having that shit in her head, but she’d like to think that she wouldn’t have made Knox suffer for it. “Look, I’m sorry you have Drew’s memories—”

  “They’re no longer his memories.”

  “What does that mean?”

  “It means I erased them. He no longer remembers what you taste like, how your pussy feels around his fingers, how your breasts felt in his hands, or what you look and sound like when you come.” Knox had thoroughly enjoyed snipping each thread of memory. Drew also had no memory of his reservations about Asher. As long as the hellcat didn’t come into contact with Asher again, Drew never would. “That drunken encounter no longer has a place in his mind.”

  It kind of scared Harper that he could completely erase an event from a person’s mind. It made her extremely grateful that she had tough psychic shields that he couldn’t penetrate without shredding his own psyche.

  “If Jolene has any sense, she’ll put him on a plane tomorrow and he’ll be gone. But maybe you’re not relieved by that. Maybe you like the attention he gives you. Maybe you even want him.”

  Her head jerked back. For a moment, words failed Harper. “Repeat that.” It was a dare. Although he didn’t repeat it, he gave her a look that said he meant every fucking word. An angry flush heated her cheeks. “You son of a bitch.”

  “Why else would you willingly be alone with him?”

  “I already told you why, so stop with this crap. I won’t pay for your pointless jealousy. I’ve given you no reason not to trust me.”

  “Except that you were in a bedroom with another man.”

  “Fully dressed. Arguing, because he’d called our son ‘unnatural’ and claimed that he wasn’t a sphinx. I’m assuming he said the same thing to you, since you don’t look surprised by that.”

  “Yes, he did. But we’re not talking about Asher, we’re talking about you.”

  Harper froze. There had been a brief flash of something in his eyes just then that made a tingling sensation creep up her neck and face. “You were always careful about what you said whenever I mentioned how relieved the Primes were that Asher was a sphinx. You never once referred to him as a sphinx. And whenever Jolene made jokes about how much trouble baby sphinxes were, you never said a word. Just smiled absently or changed the subject.”

  Knox said nothing. Just casually tossed back the rest of his gin and tonic.

  “You suspect that Asher might not be a sphinx, don’t you? You motherfucker, you do. And you said nothing.” Her demon bared her teeth in the same fury that bubbled through Harper’s veins. It lunged to the surface and glared at him. “You had no right to keep such a thing from us. It’s time you got off your high horse and stopped trying to make her hurt as you hurt. I will put you through a world of pain if you do not.”

  If the entity glaring at him had lived within anyone other than his mate, Knox probably would have laughed. No one had ever taken him on and lived to tell the tale, but he would never retaliate against Harper or her demon; he’d never hurt them. In that sense, they had the upper hand. They wouldn’t even need to engage him in a fight—one touch would have him writhing in soul-deep agony. And while he didn’t believe Harper could stomach harming Knox any more than he could stomach harming her, he didn’t doubt that her fierce and protective inner demon would do whatever it took to shield or avenge Harper—even cause him pain.

  As if satisfied that its warning had been heard loud and clear, the entity subsided. Then Harper was once again sneering at him. “You don’t even see anything wrong with the fact that you didn’t share this with me, do you?”

  “We’re not done talking about Clarke.”

  “Oh, we’re done with that,” Harper said, knowing he was stalling for time. “We’re totally done with it. Unless it’s more important to you than our son?”

  He didn’t answer. He returned to the small bar and refilled his glass.

  “How long, Knox? How long have you suspected Asher isn’t a sphinx?”

  “A while. As you know, each demonic breed has an ‘air’ to it. A sort of psychic scent which makes it possible for people to sense what breed of demon they’re facing. That doesn’t mean that all hellhounds smell the same, of course. Similar, yes, but not the same because each person’s psychic scent is that little bit different. Yours is very subtle and elusive, so it’s not simple to ‘read’. It took me a good few minutes to detect that you were a sphinx.” Glass full once again, Knox turned to face her. “Like you, Asher has the air of a sphinx. Like yours, that air isn’t so easy to read.”

  “Yeah, he takes after me that way. Lucian’s air is subtle too. I really don’t see where you’re going with this.”

  Knox took a swig of his gin and tonic. “Maybe it’s because I’ve walked the Earth a very long time and so have a lot of experience at it, or maybe it’s just something that comes naturally to me, but I can read airs much better than most. I can pick a psychic scent apart and find each individual note.”

  “Fascinating. But I still don’t see where
this is going.”

  “As your anchor, someone who’s psychically bound to you, I know your psychic scent better than anyone else ever could or ever will, Harper. I know every single delicate note to it. And, as Asher’s father and someone who’s touched his mind hundreds of times, I also know every note to his.” Knox took a step toward her. “There are no variations between yours and his. Not a single one. You don’t just have similar psychic scents; you have the exact same one.”

  Harper’s breath caught in her throat. “That’s not possible. Maybe he’s able to mimic psychic scents. My cousin can do it. It’s not an uncommon ability, and it certainly doesn’t have to mean that Asher’s not a sphinx.”

  “But does your cousin mimic one particular scent twenty-four/ seven? Is it something he even could do?”

  Probably not, but Harper shrugged. “If anyone could do it, Asher could. And just because he’s mimicking me doesn’t mean he’s not a sphinx.”

  “Which is why I only suspect it. The fact is that demons don’t birth hybrids. A demon is either like their mother or like their father. Asher’s not an archdemon. Can’t be an archdemon, since we’re not born from wombs. If he’s not a sphinx, I don’t see what else he could be. The more abilities he shows, the more clues I have. Individually, the powers tell me nothing. Collectively, they form a picture. So far, I’m still unsure of just what the picture could be.”

  Stomach hardening, she swallowed back bile. “What about the black smudge?”

  “I didn’t know about that until Clarke mentioned it. He thinks it indicates that Asher isn’t a natural breed of demon. He’s wrong.” Knox swirled his glass and then sipped at his drink. “It’s a veil. A psychic shadow. Its presence could suggest that Asher’s inner demon is disguising itself. I’ve met demons who can cloak themselves. It’s an extremely rare ability, but it’s not limited to a particular breed.”