He swallowed. “Why?”
“Because my demon wants to play with you too,” Knox said softly, “and I’ve decided to let it.”
The hunter’s face went devoid of all color. Well, who’d want to deal with an entity as dark and psychopathic as Knox’s?
“It often gets carried away when it comes to torture,” Knox went on. “But there’s a possibility that it will get bored quicker if it has the answers it needs. I say ‘possibility’ because there’s really no knowing for sure. If you’d prefer to take your chances, that’s fine too. Either way, you’ll be in pain and you’ll die – this is a win-win situation for me. So, you can tell me what I wish to know immediately, suffer horribly for a little while and then die… or you can tell me what I wish to know eventually, suffer horribly a hell of a lot longer, and then die.” Knox twirled the ball of hellfire. “Now, I’ll ask again. Who hired you?”
The hunter opened his mouth and talked.
CHAPTER THREE
Harper woke to the smells of coffee, bagel, and cream cheese. She didn’t move or open her eyes, but Knox must have sensed that she was awake because the tapping on his laptop keyboard stopped. Fingers then brushed her hair aside and he pressed a kiss to her temple.
“Morning, baby.”
“Morning,” she mumbled into the plump pillow. “What time is it?”
“Seven. You had a good, long sleep. It was a relief. You haven’t been sleeping well lately.”
Taking stock of herself, she realized that her wings had melted into her back, which meant they were healed. She also realized that someone – most likely Knox – had slipped a T-shirt on her while she slept.
Opening her eyes, she found him propped up against his pillows on his side of the massive bed, laptop resting on the legs that were stretched out in front of him. “What did the hunter have to say?”
“I’ll tell you all about it while you eat. Sit up.”
But she was just so comfortable. The deluxe mattress and super-soft bedding made her feel like she was wrapped in a cloud. The hedonistic luxury wasn’t confined to the bed. The whole room was lavish with the high-quality furnishings, rare imported flooring, a huge-ass closet, and the balcony, which was more like a patio with a small pool. Knox did like his comforts.
His finger traced the shell of her ear. “Up.”
“Do I really have to?” she whined.
His lips twitched. “Yes, or your breakfast will go cold.” He closed his laptop and set it on the nightstand. “Then Meg will lecture you again for not eating well.”
It was understandable, Knox thought, that her sleep cycle and appetite was off. Almost dying at the hands of dark practitioners and then again at the hands of a near-rogue demon would shake up anyone. To be responsible for your half-brother’s death, even if he did completely deserve to die, would tug on the strings of a heart that felt as deeply as Harper’s did. “Come on, baby, sit up.”
“Okay,” she mumbled, struggling into an upright position. He kissed her. Softly. Gently. Carefully. Harper shot him a scowl. “I’m not a spun-glass princess.”
He smiled. “No, you’re definitely not that.” He placed a tray of food over her lap. “Eat.”
Just to annoy him, she sipped at her coffee first. Her demon grinned when his eyes narrowed. It didn’t like being treated like it was fragile either. “So, what did the hunter say?”
Knox waited until she bit into her bagel before he spoke. “They were sent an anonymous, encrypted email with a substantial offer if they could get their hands on your wings.”
“So we can’t trace the email?”
“No. It self-deleted a short time after it was opened.”
“Clever.” And terribly inconvenient, she thought with a frown. “How were they supposed to contact this person once they had my wings?”
“They weren’t. Their instructions were to leave your wings at a certain destination – a warehouse not far from here – where their cash would be waiting. Once they were gone, someone would come forward to grab the wings. If they didn’t appear on time, no cash.”
“What time exactly were they supposed to turn up at the drop-off point?”
“Eight pm – I hadn’t even begun interrogating him at that time.” Knox twirled a strand of her hair around his finger. “Keenan and Larkin went to the warehouse anyway and looked around, but they found no sign of anyone.”
“Shit.” She bit hard into her bagel. She figured it wasn’t fair to take her anger out on the pastry, but what was done was done.
“They were also given strict instructions not to kill you.”
Harper blinked. “Really?”
“This person wanted your wings, but they didn’t want you dead. They were allegedly very adamant about that in their email.”
“Any thoughts on why this would be important to them?”
Knox shrugged. “It could be simply that they believe I truly can call on the flames of hell and they didn’t want me to unleash those flames out of grief. After all, what use are your wings to them if the world itself no longer exists?”
Harper would like to say that, no, he wouldn’t go as far as to destroy the world if she died. But a demon who lost its mate was a dangerous creature, and if that particular demon was powerful enough to very effortlessly annihilate the world, why wouldn’t it?
A rogue archdemon had almost done it once before, which was why Lucifer – or Lou, as he liked to be called – agreed to keep the breed in hell. But since he hadn’t agreed to round up any archdemons who might still be roaming the planet, he’d left Knox exactly where he was – no doubt pleased about the loophole. The guy was whacked.
Lou was also rather insistent that Knox get Harper pregnant fast. Ever since a rogue demon had claimed to have had a vision that they’d produce a child that would destroy demonkind, Lou had badgered Knox to impregnate her. He also wanted them to call the baby Lucifer. So not gonna happen.
“Keenan will be obtaining the names of the main wing collectors, since they’re the likeliest suspects at this point,” said Knox. “I’ll pay each of them a visit if I have to, but I will find out who sent the hunters after you.”
“I’m guessing you don’t want me to come along.”
No, Knox didn’t. He wanted her far away from any who might covet her wings. He chose his words carefully, knowing she didn’t like to feel coddled. “Demons like things that are pretty and shiny. These demons might be innocent of coveting your wings, but if I put you in their sights, their interest could then turn to you.”
Harper really couldn’t deny that, which kind of annoyed her.
“On another note, Larkin and Keenan have removed the corpse from your office and cleaned up the blood.”
“Tell them I said thank you.” She hadn’t been looking forward to facing the mess.
“They felt helpless seeing you hurt, so they were actually happy that there was something they could do for you. They’re enraged by what happened. You should know that Tanner is shouldering some of the responsibility.”
She groaned. “He has no reason to. Yes, he’s my bodyguard, but we gave him the night off, since I was getting a ride with you and Levi. He can’t possibly blame himself for not being there when there was absolutely no reason why he should have been.”
“Well, he is. And nothing I’ve said has made him feel differently.”
“I’ll talk with him about it later.” She took a sip of her coffee. “Now, why don’t you tell me what it was that made you cut our telepathic conversation short yesterday.”
“Or maybe we could watch T.V. for a while.” Grabbing the remote, he switched it on.
“Knox.”
He sighed. “For the first time in months, you’re eating properly. I don’t want that to stop.”
“I’ll keep eating, I swear.” To prove it, she took another bite of her bagel. “Come on, tell me.”
He took in a long breath. “Carla, Bray, and Kellen are leaving the lair.”
“I see,” said
Harper, her tone even. Given Carla was her mother, that should have hit her where it hurt, right? It didn’t. They’d never had a relationship. When Harper’s father, Lucian, rejected Carla as both his mate and his anchor, something inside the woman had just broken. Her attempt to abort Harper had failed, as had her request for an incantor – a demon capable of using magick – to trap Harper’s soul in a bottle. Jolene had paid Carla to give birth to Harper, at which point the imps had taken her in.
Such cruelty was a perfect example of just how unstable a demon could become if they lost their mate. Still, Carla’s pain was no excuse. If the things Roan told Harper right before he tried to kill her were true, Carla was still somewhat twisted. One thing that Harper knew for sure was that Carla – being self-centered, petty, and hurtful – would never play a positive part in her life, so what was the point of her being in it?
“I can’t say it’s unexpected.” In fact, Harper was surprised they’d remained there this long. “I mean, who’d want to answer to the person who killed their son?”
“You’re also a person who was almost killed by their son,” replied Knox. “Roan conspired against all the US Primes, not just you.”
“But Carla and Bray don’t want to believe that.”
“No, they don’t. They’re leaving Vegas altogether.” Knox was glad of that, but he kept his satisfaction out of his voice. “They’ve bought a house in Washington.”
“I guess it makes sense that they’d want to be far away from me.”
“I take it that Kellen still hasn’t returned any of your calls,” he said, referring to her other half-brother.
“Not a one.” The teen had initially reached out to Harper, hoping to have a relationship with her, but he had a habit of shutting her out whenever things became strained between her and his immediate family. “I’ve kind of… um… given up.”
“Because you’re not a sucker for punishment.” Knox didn’t add that there wasn’t a chance he’d let Kellen try to squeeze his way back into Harper’s life. He’d warned the kid once before that him pulling away from Harper again wouldn’t be tolerated; he wasn’t fucking kidding. He wouldn’t allow anyone to play with her feelings that way.
Knox curled a hand around her chin and turned her face to his. “Don’t let them hurt you, baby.” He rubbed his thumb over her lower lip. “You can’t change that they resent you for Roan’s death, but you can change that you’re letting them make you feel bad about it.”
“It’s not that I feel bad about it,” said Harper. She’d never liked Roan, and she’d never once thought there was a chance that they could have any kind of sibling relationship, but she also hadn’t thought she’d ever have to kill him. Technically, it was her demon who’d done the deed, but the demon was part of her soul, and that meant Harper shared the responsibility.
Her demon hadn’t simply killed him. She’d coldly toyed with him before tossing him into the flames of hell – flames she’d somehow been able to conjure since they had, for lack of a better word, “birthed” her wings.
Forced to simply watch as her demon raged and destroyed, high on that power… Harper would never forget how that felt. The demon had wanted to avenge Harper. It had wanted to make Roan and his co-conspirator feel as helpless as they’d made her feel. What her demon hadn’t realized was that its actions had left her feeling utterly powerless too.
She wasn’t upset with her demon. The entity didn’t think the way she did, didn’t “feel” as she did. There was absolutely no point in expecting it to account for any emotional hurt its actions might have caused.
To the demon, it was all very simple: Roan had intended to kill her, therefore he had to die.
Harper understood that, but it still wasn’t easy to accept that she was partly at fault for her half-brother’s death because, dammit, she wasn’t made of stone. So, yeah, maybe she hadn’t slept so well for a while and maybe her appetite had suffered. But that was partly because… “I don’t feel guilty about his death. I feel guilty that I don’t actually regret what me and my demon did that night. It was him or me – I value my life more than I did his. Still, he was my half-brother.” She should feel bad about it.
“Only in a biological sense. He was never once a brother to you, Harper. He never had a kind word to say about you, he repeatedly did things to hurt you, and then he fucking tried to kill you. The imps are your family. He was never a part of it.”
Her demon fully agreed. Harper sighed. “You’re right.”
“I’m always right, baby. You’re just taking a while to realize that.”
She chuckled. “Really?”
“Yes, really. Now finish your breakfast.” He turned up the volume on the T.V., hoping it might distract her from her thoughts. He was about to grab his laptop and finish answering his emails, but the news reporter’s words snatched his attention.
“… when police arrested her this morning after the fire, she told them she’d put her son in the oven because he was a changeling. She allegedly believes that her own child was taken by fairies who left her their child in exchange. Neighbors described Lipton as pleasant and helpful, but they also claimed she was very cold towards her son. Thankfully, the boy was able to escape the house and was relatively unharmed.”
Harper scowled. “She tried burning her son in the oven? That’s sick.”
“Parents claiming their children were changelings was once a common thing,” Knox told her. “Mostly, it was a claim made by people whose children had disorders or developmental disabilities. It was said that in order to identify a changeling and undo the switch, you had to do things such as hit, whip, or burn the child in the oven. Some parents used it as an excuse for murdering their own child.”
Harper gaped. “And they got away with it?”
“Shockingly, yes.” He grabbed his cell from the nightstand and dialed a familiar number. When the demon answered after the second ring, Knox asked, “I saw the news. Anything I need to know?” He wasn’t entirely surprised by the response. “All right. I’ll be at your home in an hour.” Ending the call, he said to Harper, “That was Wyatt Sanders.”
“The detective?”
“Yes.” Wyatt was also one of the demons in their lair. “It would seem that the little boy is a demon.”
Her mouth fell open again. “You mean to tell me that there’s truly such a thing as changelings?”
“There was once upon a time,” he said, rising from the bed. “They were the days before DNA tests could be done.”
Putting the tray aside, she followed him into the walk-in closet. “Seriously?”
Selecting a fresh suit, Knox began to unbutton his shirt. “It didn’t happen very often. When it did, it mostly happened with cambions. As they’re half-human, their inner demons can sometimes lie dormant, making them more or less human. It was considered a kindness to let them be raised in the human world, where they would be fairly normal, than in the brutal world of demons, where they would be considered weak.”
Her response faded into the back of her mind as she watched his muscles fluidly bunching and rippling beneath all that sleek skin. No one had the right to look that good. Seriously. There was no fat whatsoever on that body. He was power and strength and exuded an alpha energy that gave her goosebumps. She just wanted to trace those abs with her tongue —
A low growl rumbled out of him. “You can’t look at me like that, baby. If I thought you could deal with just how hard I need to fuck you, I’d be in you right now.” Knox couldn’t give her soft and slow right then. Not when her fear-filled scream still haunted his mind and a fierce need still beat at him. “But later, when you’ve had time to properly recuperate, I’ll have you.”
“Fascinating,” she said dryly, irritated that he spoke like she was some delicate flower that needed careful handling. If she didn’t know he was still a little shaken after what happened, she’d give him a bucket load of shit for it. Today, she’d cut him some slack.
Taking a seat on the leather sofa in th
e center of the closet, she said, “Back to the changeling thing… I can understand why it might be considered a kindness for weak cambions, but it wasn’t a kindness to the human children.”
Knox slipped on a fresh shirt and began to button it. “Demons were only permitted to exchange the child for one who was so ill that there was no way they’d live.”
Well, that wasn’t so bad. “You said it isn’t done anymore, but Wyatt claims that the kid is one of us.”
“Yes. And I have every intention of finding out who dared to leave a changeling without my knowledge or permission.”
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