The Demon’s Prince [Milson Valley 9] - Siren Publishing Classic ManLove

by Jo Penn

  E laughed. “Jax is a good guy. I know he hates guarding Emile because he finds it mind numbingly boring and would rather follow Dominic around. Emile is usually in meetings. These days he is assigned to Ryder, Dominic, and Marco. Drake won’t tolerate Jax being around, too much of an Alpha conflict, nor will Baron. Sebastian and Jax are often together. I know he’s best friends with Ryder and Kirsten. So, how are things going? We getting a drink tonight?”

  “Yes, yes, drink with Eber this evening. I have a lot of work to catch up on. And let Jax in before he causes the building to self-destruct.” Emile walked into the living room studying a tablet.

  Supernatural hearing was handy.

  Vinn glared at the tablet and his mate. Where the fuck had the tablet come from? And he wasn’t very happy that Emile would just shoo him out to have a drink. At least the mate could go with Vinn!

  “Good. I will see you at nine.” Eber hung up.

  Hanging up the phone and pressing a button on the security system, Vinn turned and growled at his mate.

  “What work do you have?”

  “I have sent you a schedule. I do not enjoy working with Jax. He irritates me.”

  Jax stormed in. “I irritate you because I don’t take any shit. Nor do I get thrown aside with those red herrings you always set up, unlike Kieron and his group.”

  There was the mention of Kieron Jennings again. Vinn was definitely going to look into the Jennings, in particular, Kieron and Crysta. They were too close to his mate, always around. Like Vicus said earlier, coincidences were suspicious.

  Emile hissed at the other lion shifter. “Go, I have no time for you.”

  “You never do, Emile, and my Gods! Are you done making me sit through the most boring fucking meetings in the universe just to pay me back for making sure you stay alive?!”

  Vinn decided to intervene. “Let’s—”

  “You annoy me, Jaxton Turner.” Emile turned up his nose and flopped elegantly into a chair. “You are dismissed. Run along. I will be sure to tell Baron how you, yet again, could not adequately protect me.”

  Jax curled his top lip and bristled. Vinn stepped in front of his mate and crossed his arms over his chest, staring hard at the bodyguard. The man huffed and stomped around a few moments before the tension left him.

  “You’ve been called into an urgent Alliance meeting, Your Highness,” Jax said with exaggerated haughtiness.

  “I am well aware, Jax. Unlike you, I am a well-respected member of the Alliance board and am notified immediately when my presence is required.” Emile didn’t look up from his tablet.

  Vinn tried, he really did, but the laughter escaped, especially at how Jax was stifling a curse and glaring at Vinn like it was his fault. Obviously there was a bit a feud going on between the pair.

  “What?” Vinn demanded.

  “I’ll be waiting in the hall during these meetings from now on. You get to sit in with your mate.”

  “Fine by me.”

  Jax grinned slowly. “Oh, you’re in for a treat, buddy. Well, we should go. Come on, cousin, let’s get a move on.”

  Emile hissed. “Now you say we are cousins when for the last decade you deny such a relationship? No, I will come when I am ready.”

  “He’s difficult,” Jax whispered. “You’ll hear how difficult Ace is, and Trent is worse, but you ask any of the bodyguards, and they’ll tell you Lincoln is the easiest, your mate is the worst.”

  Vinn could see that. “Cousin?”

  He sniffed deeply and detected a similar scent between the pair. Definitely related. He sniffed again and recognized the family line, which made sense considering both Emile and Jax were lion shifters. Jax was a cousin on the Queen’s side.

  “Oh? I am the worst? And should I mention two of those bodyguards are assigned to protect you, Jaxton?”

  “No! You were never to mention that! Jeez! I’m the bodyguard! I’m in charge of the guards! Dammit, Emile, you can’t go telling people, or I’m just going to look like a doofus pretending to be something he’s not.” Jax threw his hands in the air and stormed toward the door. “I’ll wait in the lobby.”

  Emile glanced up once Jax was gone. “It appears I must attend an important meeting. Shall we?”

  Oh yeah, the mate just loved to cause discord.

  Chapter Nine

  Vinn had never been so bored in his life.

  The chair felt like concrete, and the current speaker had a voice like a drone. Vinn had heard the type at supermarkets talking about some item or other on sale and wanted to put the creature out of its misery, and his. Emile sat with elegant casualness listening with inattentiveness. Vinn wanted to grab his mate, snarl at the speaker, and storm out of there but knew he’d end up with blue balls and a headache if he dared something as drastic as that, so he leaned against the wall cursing Jax who was waiting in the hall.

  He’d snorted a few times at some of the comments, glared at nearly every one of the meeting attendees, and threatened to dislocate three jaws. Emile enjoyed his behavior immensely, no one else did. Not everyone was a shithead in need of a good hit to the head with a bat. Some were relatively decent. There was one, though, that Vinn was beginning to get really pissed off with. The woman was fawning over Emile and ignoring the fact Vinn was sitting just behind his mate and glaring at her.

  After two hours, Vinn was really beginning to see how Jax could say Emile was the worst to have to guard. Having to sit in these meetings was boring. Sure, they discussed important shit and came to a lot of decisions, helped a lot of creatures, but hell! They dragged it out. While Emile had to be diplomatic and keep good relations with others, Vinn didn’t.

  Rising, he walked over to the table and leaned over Emile. “Why are we still here?”

  Everything on the meeting agenda had been addressed an hour ago. Since then, there had been arguing, accusations, gossip, and quite a bit of ass licking while vying for position and, stupidly, popularity. Vinn was over it.

  Emile glanced up at Vinn. “Azrael wished to discuss his racehorses, my mate.”

  Vinn turned his attention to the creature across the table and let the fires inside him show in his eyes. “Yeah? Want me to take an interest in your racehorses?”

  “Oh…ah, well, no, no thank you…the man looked panicked.

  “We’re out of here.”

  “Excuse me ladies, gentlemen.” Emile stood, Vinn stepping back.

  Outside the room, they found Jax chatting up a female who, by the looks, wanted to devour the lion shifter. Vinn felt twitchy just looking at her. His top lip curled back, and he hissed at her. With a shriek, the woman ran off.

  “What the hell was that?” Jax demanded. “Don’t take it out on me just because you were stuck in one of Emile’s meetings. I warned you—”

  “She was a black widow spider shifter,” Vinn told the aggravated man and helped Emile with his coat.

  “Really?” Jax’s jaw dropped. “Holy shit. She smelt like spider shifter but…”

  “Let’s go.” Vinn eyed up Aston security who had followed him everywhere today. As that wasn’t uncommon, he tolerated them. What amused him was the standoff between Aston security and Sanchez bodyguards. “Problems?”

  “I’m not bothered.” Jax shrugged. “Let’s go before Emile is called into another meeting.”

  That galvanized Vinn. He grabbed his mate’s hand and shuffled the man out of the High Council building. As they made their way to the carpark, he came to the firm decision he would put an end to the next meeting Emile was involved in once the agenda points were agreed upon. He hated all the chit chatting and one-upping and wasn’t about to hang around for it next time.

  In the car, Emile was on the phone busy updating his many assistants and arguing with them about schedules. Eber called and asked Vinn to drop in at the estate. He had the new weapon ready for Vinn to test and they both agreed testing should be done somewhere isolated. As the pride’s compound had a lot of forests, it was perfect.

  “You
are very close to Eber,” Emile commented as the gates opened to the estate.

  “Yeah, and Macario.” Vinn drove through and parked outside the large garages. “You’re close to your triplets.”

  “Hmm. But you, Eber, and Macario are not blood-related.”

  “Means nothing. They’re my family, my brothers,” Vinn said firmly. He wasn’t sure Emile would understand considering his mate had many siblings and two brothers who were his triplets.

  “Lincoln is one of my favorite brothers,” Emile murmured, his dark blue eyes sweeping over the garages. “I do not like to say we are not blood-related. It…feels wrong, for though they say blood is thicker than water, I do not always find this to be true. If one of my cousins were to do something that harmed Lincoln, I would be very harsh to punish.”

  Vinn leaned over and sniffed his mate. “You get it, mate. Doesn’t mean you don’t love your family, just means you love all of them. Family is family, blood or not. You get to choose.”

  Emile smiled. “I do like how you think, Vinncent. I find your ways very attractive.”

  Vinn growled as he smelt his mate’s arousal. Yeah, Emile was very much about mental when it came to attraction, though that didn’t mean he didn’t also respond to the physical.

  “Vinn!” Blazh tapped the window.

  Vinn grunted, growled a little at being interrupted when he was about to love on his mate a little, then turned to look out the car window and shooed Blazh back so he could open the door. Eber strode over and passed Vinn a locked box.

  “Find an isolated location in the compound, secure it, and call me so we can test that beauty. Blazh, go back inside.”

  Blazh nodded vigorously, grinning. “Can I come test it, too?”

  Hell no! Vinn knew the hyper sprite wouldn’t be able to sit still and Vinn and Eber would probably be batting felines away who thought the cub was a delectable little morsel.

  “No. Inside,” Eber ordered.

  Blazh pouted. “But I’m going across the road to hang out with Archie. Lacy said I could.”

  Lord, the cub sounded eight instead of in his twenties. Vinn decided to let Eber handle this and secured the lock box beside his belongings in the back seat, then with a wave got back in his car and drove out the gates. Turning onto the lane as the gates closed behind him, Vinn was momentarily distracted by the speed of the vehicle coming up behind him. The security SUV that was assigned to follow them everywhere had been directly behind them, but now a beaten to hell car was moving fast and didn’t give security an opportunity to pull out onto the lane directly behind Vinn’s car. Sensing a bad situation was about to happen, Vinn hit the alarm button on his dash and glanced across at his mate.

  “Seatbelt on and stay down. There’s a gun under your seat and another in the glovebox.”

  Emile looked over his shoulder quickly then reached for the weapon beneath the passenger seat. Vinn grabbed the gun he kept tucked in the door of the car.

  The knowledge his mate was in danger was crippling at first, Vinn wanting to hide Emile away from anything that placed him at risk, but then from deep inside the fires were lit and anger, fierce and destructive, replaced the fear. No one would harm his mate. No one threatened and put Emile in danger without paying a very high price.

  Fire lit Vinn’s silver eyes. “Hold on, mate.”

  Time to meet the threat head one.

  With one hand on the steering wheel, the other holding a Glock, Vinn spun his hotted up Camaro three-sixty and slammed on the brake.

  “Your plan?” Emile asked calmly, checking the other Glock’s ammunition.

  “Kill them all.”

  “I see. First, I suggest we keep one alive to interrogate.”

  Vinn fumed as he watched the batted car slam on its own brakes a few meters in front of them. It was a stand-off.

  “I can do that.”

  “Aston and Durand's security are surrounding us.”

  “Stay here.”

  Vinn climbed out of the car and, with super speed, raced to the batted purple and blue car and, with a roar, grabbed hold of the passenger door and flipped the old Toyota over onto its roof. Creatures scrambled out like rats scurrying away from a fight, Vinn grabbing the nearest one and tossing the woman to Aston security to hold onto and interrogate. The others were his to play with.

  Demons hadn’t just been targeted by Renegades and Hunters due to their being rare and creatures wanting to take their gifts. No, they were targeted and eliminated because they were such a high threat. Right at the beginning of the fight, Renegades orchestrated sneak attacks to wipe out the strongest threat against them because even one demon could derail an entire troupe.

  Stomping one creature beneath his big biker boot as he walked by, Vinn fixed his gaze on another and watched the reptile shifter burst into flames, screaming in agony as he combusted from the inside out, before exploding in ash. Leaning down, Vinn scooped up the nearest creature, ignoring a sharp pain in his right shoulder. Wrapping a hand around the man’s neck, he hissed, smoke covering them both. A second later he dropped the smoking, dead creature and side kicked the last person from the car, a witch who shot out magic from her hands.

  Vinn leaped to the side to avoid being hit by whatever spell she cast and blinked in surprise as the witch gasped, eyes widened in shock and pain, and blood trickling from a wound in her throat that had appeared. He quirked a brow at his mate, Emile frowning at his tailored pant leg, fingers brushing lightly. The witch dropped to her knees, gurgling. She reached behind her head and tugged a sleek, lean dagger from the back of her neck. Security rushed over and cuffed her.

  “That was pretty damn impressive.” Eber, Vicus, and Crown Prince Misha Durand of the vampires joined Vinn. “Emile has excellent precision.”

  “It is his gift. Plus he rarely gets ruffled by any situation,” Misha commented. “Congratulations on your mateship, Vinncent.” Misha smiled at Vicus. “I am happy to interrogate, if you wish, Vicus.”

  “You would take my fun, Misha?” Vicus looked questioningly at the vampire.

  Misha smirked. “Very well, I will share the interrogation with you.”

  Vinn watched the very attractive, stuck up vampire wander over to his mate, who seemed to be distracted by something on his right pant leg. Knowing Emile was safe, Vinn returned his attention to the creatures that had been coming after them in the car and, brushing passed Vicus and Eber, strode over to where security held a scared looking rodent shifter. He wasn’t one to wait to interrogate.

  Staring the creature dead in the eye, Vinn hissed a demon spell, the shifter choking and gagging from the harsh effects of Vinn’s magic.

  “Are you a Renegade?” he growled.

  “No.”

  Vinn frowned. “Hunter?”

  Stranger things happened than a creature becoming a Hunter, who were normally regular humans who stalked and killed paranormals.

  “No.”

  “Fine,” he snarled. “Why did you follow my mate and me? What were you planning to do?”

  “We were paid to kidnap the demon and lion prince, unharmed if possible. If not, damage the demon only.”

  Well fuck! Vinn wrapped a large hand around the creature’s throat and squeezed.

  “Who ordered this?”

  “I dunno. The job came through our handler.”

  “Crims for hire,” Eber grumbled beside Vinn.

  “Ask what they were told to do with the demon and lion prince once kidnapped,” Vicus ordered.

  Vinn grunted the question. He didn't like any of this. Though he was always a target for Renegades, Hunters, and anyone else wanting to take out a demon, coming after his mate made him want to burn everyone.

  The hired shifter didn’t have much more to say. They were recruited, as said, to kidnap the demon and lion prince, harm only the demon if necessary, and take them to a particular address where they would be left in the secure basement. Vicus used his gift of reading memories and found no further information.

&nb
sp; Security from the Aston estate and Durand coven had cleaned up the purple and blue car while Alliance soldiers investigated the scene and arrested those left alive. During this, Vinn kept a close eye on his mate and everyone around them, not liking Emile out in the open but this was a private lane with no other properties but the estate and coven surrounding. It was reasonably safe, especially with security and soldiers patrolling.

  Joining his mate, who was seated with Crown Prince Misha, Misha’s second Gwen, Archie, Dominic, Chane, Tyler and his mate Constantin, Vinn was subjected to inquisitive looks and a half dozen questions.

  “Great performance, Vinn!” Tyler applauded.

  “I wonder if I can roast creatures,” Constantin, the beautiful little human with djinn biology, mused, brown eyes bright. “Can you teach me?”

  “What? No! No roasting anyone,” Tyler scolded. “That’s it, your training is canceled—”

  “You can’t do that.” Con stood and glared at his mate, hands planted on slim hips. “You wanna try and tell me what to do, buddy? Hmm? Let’s see how that goes for you.”

  Vinn paused for a moment, studying the small djinn. He had been training Constantin, as had Dimitri, yet neither of them could help bring out Con’s gift. At this stage, it seemed the prince mate only had the djinn ability to transport himself and others. But they may have overlooked an important fact while trying different ways to encourage Con’s gift. Djinn used nature around them, and fire was nature.

  Vinn was a fire demon. Most fire demons had specific talents with fire. Some fire demons could produce sparks, others had fire coming out of their hands. Vinn could look at a creature, dozens of them at once, and burn them from the inside out. He could cover them in smoke and suffocate them, roast them alive, make them combust.

  “You’re in for it now,” Archie whispered loudly to Tyler, who was arguing with his mate.

  “Young’un, Tyler’s probably right, we should stop training for a while,” Vinn stated harshly.