Devil May Care: A Muse Urban Fantasy (The Veil Series Book 2)

by DaCosta, Pippa

  Coleman gestured inside the Old City Hall courtyard. I followed, grateful to step away from the crowd and shelter in the relatively serene surroundings. The Benjamin Franklin statue gave us his habitually stern bronze expression.

  “Thank you,” I said to Coleman, taking a seat at one of the bistro tables, “for calling, I mean.”

  “Thanks for taking the call. I know you’ve been... busy.” He sat opposite me, placed his coffee down, and spread the newspaper beside it. A picture of Akil adorned the front page, his charming smile and bright intelligent eyes all the more striking in black and white. The headline read: Better The Devil You Know. I’d heard the radio interviews, seen the news reports. Akil had somehow managed to come out of this smelling like roses. He could have vanished after the dragon-demon incident, but instead he’d deliberately buttered up the press, playing the demon hero. The demons could have a worse ambassador. At least Akil could pull off the human act with flawless precision. He wasn’t likely to start drooling and discarding his human vessel in front of the cameras. But exactly why he’d stepped up as the spokesperson for the demon community, I had yet to figure out. Whatever the reason, it wouldn’t be without cost.

  “You know this guy?” Coleman asked. He’d watched my gaze linger on the front page story.

  I shrugged my shoulder as nonchalantly as I could, then winced as the wound flared up. “In passing.”

  “He’s flavor of the month.” Coleman scratched at his cheek and leaned back in the chair. “Saves the city from a freak snowstorm and manages to single-handedly protect us from a demon the size of a jumbo jet.”

  Not even the Institute could cover up that smoking gun. The news was rife with reports of the netherworld, avoiding the name Hell presumably because of its negative connotations. The world was changing, the truth about demons unraveling at the seams.

  “Yeah, what a hero.” Akil had been basking in the limelight while I’d been hiding in the shadows, trying to figure out what I was supposed to do next.

  Coleman waited for me to fill the quiet with some sort of explanation. When I didn’t, he said, “I was there, Muse. I know what you did. Not only that, I’ve seen pictures of you...” he made a gesture with his hand, groping for the right explanation, “...both of you.” He leaned closer. “So far, you’ve managed to keep your head down. I’m trying to keep it that way by filtering out the pictures of what you really are. Some have gone viral on social media sites. There’s nothing I can do about that, but you’re mostly out of the spotlight. For now.”

  I sipped my scalding hot coffee through its plastic lid. “Thanks.”

  He watched me closely, the way cops do, reading everything on my face, in my posture. “I could use your help. I’ve tried to talk to Adam Harper, but my calls are blocked. Ryder’s number isn’t working. The people in this city, they don’t trust the Institute. They’re turning to us. At a time like this, they want to believe we know what we’re doing... and we don’t.” He sighed and shook his head. “Muse... it was a dragon. A goddamn dragon...”

  “Well, technically, it was a Larkwrari demon, probably the original source of the dragons from folklore. They roam freely in the netherworld. They’re pretty rare, actually. Most are killed before they reach maturity. You can trace most myths and legends back to the netherworld.”

  “This is what I’m talking about. The Institute has clammed up; they’re not talking, at least not to me. We have no idea what’s going on. The demon that murdered those women and attacked Detective Hill, has it been dealt with?” Coleman’s gaze hardened.

  “How is she?” I asked tightly.

  “Amanda’s okay. She’s taking some time… Wants to quit. I’ve told her to take a vacation.” Coleman waited. “Well? Did you get the sick bastard?”

  I closed my eyes, toxic memories invading my thoughts. My chest tightened, and my heart kicked up the tempo. I felt him, Damien. His oily residue smothered my heart as it beat in my chest. “He’s gone,” I lied. His essence, or the tumor he’d infected me with, pulsated inside of me and showed no sign of fading. If anything, it was getting worse. The nights were the most difficult. He was there, all around me, inside me. I could feel the reach of his element, even smell his ozone scent like shorted electrical cables. Sleep, when it did come, was a fitful medley of nightmarish images and insidious urges.

  When I opened my eyes, the bright courtyard and the bustling people all helped calm the panic threatening to spill over me. My hand trembled around my Starbucks cup.

  “Did you find out who was helping him?” Coleman persisted.

  He noticed me wince, but by the steel hardness of his eyes he clearly wasn’t going to let me get away with not answering. I sighed. “Yes. It was... Stefan’s sister. Adam left me some messages. They found notes in her apartment– diary entries. She’d summoned Damien, my owner, thinking he would take me back to the netherworld. She had witnessed the power I could wield a few months ago. It scared her.” I fluttered my eyes closed, a headache building. “She thought I was going to lose it and kill her father. She knew I hated him. I think, maybe, she was trying to do the right thing by getting rid of me.” The sad thing was, she was probably right. Not so long ago, I would have killed Adam, and I was volatile, dangerous. “She couldn’t have known how sick Damien is – was. Once he knew I was alive, he came through the veil, sought out Nica, promising her news of her brother if she told him a few things about the Institute. Things quickly spiraled out of her control.”

  I found myself waiting for Coleman’s opinion, like waiting for the verdict at a trial.

  “You look like you’re shouldering a lot of the blame. But it sure sounds like it wasn’t your fault, Charlie.”

  I nodded, not wanting to get into it with him, or anyone. “It’s over.” For everyone else it was. But not for me.

  Coleman nodded, “Only, it’s not is it...”

  I flicked my eyes to his. “What do you mean?”

  “The Institute has gone over our heads,” he explained.

  I struggled to anchor my thoughts in the moment and rubbed my eyes. I was so damn tired...

  “They’re talking to the government, which means nothing to me and my guys on the streets.”

  I sucked in air through my nose and rolled my shoulders. “They’re our best hope at holding back the tide.” As much as I disagreed with their tactics, there really wasn’t an alternative.

  Coleman didn’t budge an inch. “I want you to be my consultant.” He noticed me flinch. “Nothing formal. Just be there when I call.”

  I hid the creeping sense of anxiety by taking sips of coffee. “I’m just a half-blood caught between two worlds. I don’t know much. In the pecking order of demons, I’m right at the bottom.” I should sit Akil down and demand answers, but that would mean I’d have to actually spend time with him, and I didn’t trust myself. Your father is the Prince of Lust… I shivered.

  Coleman’s eyes narrowed on me. “You know this demon, Akil Vitalis. You know more than me, more than anyone outside the Institute. We’re fighting blind, Muse, and don’t tell me this isn’t a fight because we both know different.”

  I had enough to worry about without dragging Coleman into the mix. A hideous parasite sucked on my soul. Wherever Stefan was, he thought me a traitor and hated me for what he saw as a complete betrayal of his trust, not to mention blaming me for the death of his sister. The Institute was breathing down my neck. My father, Asmodeus, had issued the demon equivalent of an arrest warrant and sent Levi to scoop me up and carry me home, while Akil, well, Akil had been conspicuous in his absence, but would have no doubt decided I was his new best friend because, in demon terms, I could recharge his batteries and then some. I had enough on my plate without Coleman calling me for demon advice every time a citizen got spooked by the demon-next-door.

  “I can’t.”

  “I’m not asking for much. I just need someone to go to for answers, Muse.” Coleman eyes pinched, fine lines deepening. “In the four days since the Gar
den event, we’ve had hundreds of calls. Things like a demon’s kidnapped my son, or a demon broke into my house—”

  “Impossible, higher demons need an invite to enter someone’s home. They can wander freely in public places or communal buildings, but there’s something about a home that repels them. Unless it’s a lesser demon; they can pretty much go anywhere, but they’re rare on this side of the veil. They have to be summoned here and controlled. They can’t come through on their own.”

  “What type was the dragon?”

  “Lesser.”

  “That sure looked like it was coming through on its own.”

  “That was because Stefan held the veil open too long. It’s unlikely to happen again.”

  Coleman gave me an open palmed gesture and a pained expression, as if to say, “There you go. See what I mean?”

  I placed my takeaway coffee cup carefully on the table and leaned back. “You must have someone in Boston PD who’s researched demons.”

  “Yeah, we do, but how do we filter the myth from the fact? The Institute jumped on anything remotely demon and took it out our hands. Now, things are getting hotter, and we need someone on our side.”

  “I don’t cope very well with responsibility. I’ve got demons on my back who would rather slit my throat than let me walk free. I can’t guarantee I’m going to be here tomorrow, so I certainly can’t guarantee I’m going to be of any help to you.”

  He mused on my words for a while and watched the people seated at the tables around us. “I don’t understand your world, Muse. I don’t really understand what you are, and I don’t like what I don’t understand. I’m not the only one. How long do you think it will be before people take matters into their own hands?”

  I didn’t want to tell him the demons would win, but it was the truth. The Institute had knowledge and was learning fast but was in its infancy compared to the ageless creatures just a veil away. Thankfully, higher demons worked alone, but should the Princes decide to take a closer look this side of the veil and pool their resources... It didn’t bear thinking about. There were those who said at the beginning of all things, the netherworld was like the human world, twin worlds conceived at the same moment, but over time the demons corrupted the netherworld. They could do the same again here, and the Institute wouldn’t know what hit them.

  What was it Akil had said? The netherworld was changing. Dammit, I needed answers from him. He wouldn’t give them up freely.

  “Okay,” I said. “But I’m not making any guarantees. Don’t get all bent out of shape if you call and I don’t answer.” I glanced at the front page of the newspaper. “I’ve got my own crap to deal with.”

  Coleman didn’t smile, but he did nod appreciatively. “It works both ways. All right, I may not know what I’m dealing with, but if I can ever help you with your... problems, I will. Just ask.”

  I held out my hand, and Coleman gave it an agreeable shake. “Deal,” I said flatly.

  He smiled and leaned in closer. “So tell me about Akil Vitalis.”

  Epilogue

  “Stefan, man, I’m freezin’ my balls off out ‘ere – would you come in already?”

  I close my eyes. This Ryder will leave soon; I will make sure of that. My mind is quiet, my thoughts glassy, like the lake in front of me. I absorb my surroundings. The wind hisses through the pine trees and howls across the water. The chill bites my lips. I taste winter on my tongue, even though summer reigns. She is here. I can call winter’s brittle embrace to me. The White Mountains slumber nearby. I sense the latent reservoir of permafrost. The veil strums the air, unseen by mortal eyes, but I do not need weak mortal eyes to see the membrane between worlds. One gesture, one thoughtful stroke of intent, and the limitless power of the netherworld is mine.

  I lick my lips. Ice cracks beneath my tongue. My clothes harden beneath a crisp layer of ice. Human flesh is soft, vulnerable, a hindrance. Ice hardens. Protects. Slices. Burns. I hear ice cracking around me, snapping, hissing, breathing, living. It expands with my every breath. It yearns for freedom. As do I.

  I draw in breath, and with it, chaos swells. My mind stirs. Thoughts spark alive. My body burns. I laugh. The wind toys with the sound. My laughter rolls and tumbles in the air, flirting with fresh snowflakes.

  I open my eyes. The lake is captured in ice. I feel the blanket of pressure push down on the water, sinking deeper. I can freeze the liquid to the darkest depths and drive the ice into the bedrock. I suffocate the water. I smile. Ice cracks, the sound ricochets like gunshots. Ice groans like a lover writhing beneath my touch.

  Muse.

  A memory upset my thoughts. I growl and throw it back at the human inside my mind. He fights. He wants freedom. I know that want. He suffers like I did. No more. I am free.

  I slide my gaze left. The pine trees stand like brittle stalagmites, reaching toward a pregnant snow-laden sky. Snow flurries dance around me. I smile. They are my children.

  I hold out my hands and watch the flakes hurry to my summons. They kiss my flesh. My skin shimmers where they caress me. I laugh and fling my arms open, casting them away. They twirl and flip and fly. They are free…

  My wings chime. Ah, I am whole. I roll my shoulders, and my feathers sing a melody. I flex my back and stretch my wings wide, curling the tips so that I might admire their perfection. I am ice. I am glacial. I am frostborn. I am chaos.

  “You’re fuckin’ dead if you don’t release Stefan.”

  This man. This Ryder.

  Ryder-run!

  He means something to my human. He has a gun to my head. My human knows guns. He knows this one. It will shatter my skull should this Ryder fire. I am not immortal. Not yet.

  I could freeze the weapon before he pulls the trigger. I could freeze the man before he draws breath to threaten me again.

  My human fights me. He does not wish this Ryder dead. He has lost much. My mind stirs. My thoughts shatter. My human comes. He is strong. I have not yet won. I will. I release… I go… I am caged, but I pace. I am hungry. I want. I need. I am chaos and chaos will not be controlled.

  “Stefan…” Ryder drawls. “We have a problem.”

  * * *

  To be continued in ‘Darkest Before Dawn, #3 The Veil Series’. Click here to visit Amazon & buy.

  If you enjoyed ‘Devil May Care’ please take a few moments to leave a review on Amazon by clicking here. Your reviews really do matter to authors, even if you just leave a few words.

  Read on for an excerpt from Darkest Before Dawn #3 The Veil Series.

  Excerpt - Chapter One

  Excerpt from Darkest Before Dawn ~ Book 3 The Veil Series:

  Excerpt - Chapter one

  It’s not every night a bloodied and disheveled Prince of Hell shows up on my doorstep with an orphan girl, demanding I keep her safe before vanishing into thin air. But that’s exactly what happened when I first met Dawn.

  I’d worked up a sweat scrubbing demon blood out of my suede boots. The day hadn’t gone well. My work as a freelance Enforcer had seemed like a great idea at the time, especially the ‘free’ part. The Institute had answers I needed, but I was beginning to feel more and more like their blunt instrument. Demons hear Enforcer and don’t want to sit and talk about their options. I killed more demons than I talked down, and being half-demon myself, my choice of profession gnawed away at my resolve. I was having a crisis, which was part of the reason I was scrubbing my boots with all the gusto of someone trying to wipe clean a guilty conscience.

  Jonesy, my cat, wove around my ankles, determined to distract me, but it was the delectable voice of the Prince of Greed that finally caught my attention. I flicked my hair out of my eyes, tossed my ruined boot and scrub brush into the kitchen sink, and glared across the lounge at the TV.

  On screen, Akil had poured all of his raw masculinity and charisma into a relaxed posture at the end of a plush crimson couch. He’d dressed impeccably in a dark suit that probably cost the same as a year’s rent for my new apartment. He hadn’t
aged a day in the fifteen years I’d known him and still managed to pull off the slick thirty-something routine with masterful perfection. Never mind that he was an immortal chaos demon, spat out of creation at the same time as the earth. Nobody cared about that. All they saw was a professional businessman who had an answer for everything and could charm the scales off a snake.

  “Not all demons are good, of course.” He smiled, and the woman interviewing him raised her plucked eyebrows. “That wasn’t what I was implying. I wanted to merely stress that demons are as varied and diverse as people.” Whatever he’d been asked, he wasn’t in the least perturbed. You couldn’t ruffle his princely feathers as easily as that. I should know. I’d ruffled his feathers—or rather, his leathery, lava-veined wings—once or twice.

  Akil’s host drew a tight smile across her lips. “What about yourself?” She uncrossed her shapely legs, shuffled back in her high-backed seat, and then re-crossed her legs again. A murmur rippled through the unseen audience. Akil’s smile hitched up at one corner, and a few feminine jeers from the audience lifted the mood. The host smiled and tucked her hair behind her ear. “Well? Everyone wants to know why you decided to come forward as the spokesperson for the demon community.”

  “Jenny.” He purred her name like it was forbidden. I arched an eyebrow as Jenny squirmed in her seat. “It was necessary. Someone had to do something. Things couldn’t go on as they were. The good people of Boston need answers. They need to know we’re not terrifying monsters, just... misunderstood.”

  I snorted a laugh.

  Jenny glanced at her audience and back to Akil. “Many of us here have seen the rather blurry news footage of you protecting Boston from the... Lah-Kar–”