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

by DaCosta, Pippa

  I finished off a few stragglers with some well-aimed fireballs and then jogged down the street, shaking off my demon with each step, returning to my normal, if slightly disheveled state. When I finally found the girl curled tightly into the crook of an old tree, I was myself again, complete with blood splatters.

  I saw the whites of her eyes and tried to offer her my best, most friendly smile. In the distance, sirens announced the arrival of the authorities, and no doubt the Institute would be included in that response. I crouched down and offered her my hand.

  “It’s okay. The man who brought you to me, Akil—he was right. I’ll keep you safe, but you gotta stay close to me.”

  She blinked and hugged her bunny.

  I needed to get back to my apartment where the symbols would hide us both from demons. If I could get home and clean up the mess waiting for me, then maybe the girl might open up and explain just what the freakin’ hell was going on. I’d call Akil too. I had no idea what he expected me to do that he couldn’t, and his ‘do the right thing’ explanation wouldn’t cut it.

  “What’s your name?”

  She blinked again, and her lips tightened. She didn’t trust me, and I couldn’t blame her. I had no idea what she’d witnessed with Akil, but given the fifteen minutes we’d spent together, I’d have a hard time trusting anyone if I was her.

  “Shall we do this properly?” I shuffled a bit closer. “My human name is Charlie, but my real name is Muse.” I held out my hand, inviting her to shake it.

  “That’s a funny name.” A slight netherworldly accent slurred her words.

  “Yeah, a not-so-funny guy gave it to me.”

  “I have a funny name too.”

  “Oh, and what’s your name?”

  “Dawn.” She held out her rabbit. “This is Missus Floppy.”

  “Dawn is a lovely name.” I shook Floppy’s paw and then Dawn’s tiny, cold hand. “I’m very pleased to meet you both. Would you like to meet my cat, Jonesy? He loves tickles behind his ears.”

  Dawn clutched her bunny against her chest once more and smiled. “Okay, Miss Muse.”

  Excerpt - Chapter Two

  Adam only left the safety of the Institute complex when the world was about to end or I was involved. I wasn’t surprised when he filed in behind the clean up crew. I leaned against the kitchen cabinets, arms crossed, watching the blue-overall-clad Institute employees surround the dead demon in the middle of my lounge and set about removing its carcass and copious amounts of drying blood from my apartment.

  Adam gave the room a visual assessment, his gaze lingering on the framed symbols as though inspecting them for any errors. He took his time, observing his crew doing what they did best. He would look at me when necessary, not before. While I waited, I watched him, knowing he could feel my gaze crawl over him. A substantial man, both in demeanor and presence, he dressed casually in blue jeans and a blue-striped shirt. Suits weren’t him, despite spending the majority of his days behind a desk. His graying hair should have been too long for a man of his middle-years, but he somehow made it look distinguished. His fawn colored eyes instantly disarmed anyone who didn’t know him. He’d smile and ask you how your day was, right before he went for the jugular. He and I didn’t get along.

  Finally, after five minutes of rising tension, Adam turned those deceptively warm eyes on me. “I assume you’re the fire demon who ran down the street in plain sight of half a dozen CCTV cameras and upward of fifty witnesses?”

  Usually, he’d wait until he had me in his office before laying down the Institute law. Tonight, I was getting the no-holds-barred treatment.

  Jonesy sat next to me on the kitchen counter, twitching tail dangling over the edge. My cat was an excellent judge of character.

  “Would you prefer I let the flock of hunter demons eat the unsuspecting commuters?”

  “I’d prefer discretion, Muse.”

  One of the blue-suit guys moved toward my bedroom. I tensed. “Nothing in there. It’s all out here.” The guy glanced at Adam, who nodded, and returned to the tacky pool of dark blood spreading across my floor.

  Adam arched an eyebrow and crossed the room to my kitchenette. “I’m loath to think you’re hiding something from us.”

  “There’s nothing left to hide, Adam.” I made a point of meeting his stare. He wouldn’t think I was laying it on thick. This was how we always danced.

  “Have you heard from Stefan?”

  Now, I did flick my gaze away. “No.”

  “David Ryder?”

  “No.”

  Stefan and Ryder had vanished after the event at Boston Gardens, and it remained an open wound between myself and the Institute. In fact, I believed Adam only kept me on to see if either Stefan or Ryder resurfaced around me. They hadn’t. The last time I’d seen Stefan, he’d accused me of killing his sister. He thought I’d deliberately drugged him to subdue his demon and believed I’d sided with his nemesis, Akil. I’d left Stefan with Ryder as he struggled to contain his demon half, and I’d helped Akil drive the Larkwrari demon back through the tear in the veil. Ryder would keep Stefan safe. Either that, or Stefan would lash out and kill him. Given the madness that had come over Stefan since his lengthy stay in the netherworld, I hadn’t ruled it out. That thought—among many others —kept me awake at night.

  “Need I remind you, we have authority over your living arrangements and career?”

  I ground my teeth. Hate is such a strong word. I liked to think myself incapable of true hate, but I was only half-human, and my demon hated Adam Harper with every netherworldy cell in her body. It was only because I’d made a deal with Ryder not to torch the Institute or spontaneously ignite Adam that I’d refrained from doing both.

  “Why were the hunter demons here?” he asked.

  I shrugged. That was a good question, and the sudden change of direction caught me off guard. “They must have been sent by someone who knew where I lived.”

  “Wouldn’t your protection symbols hide you from any such threat?” He nodded toward my framed prints with the swirling interwoven markings.

  He was right. Those symbols kept me off the demon radar. “What can I say? They found me. I dealt with it.”

  Any number of demons could have sent the hunters after me. Demons despised my half-blood nature, detested Enforcers, and had all taken my general lack of willingness to die as an affront to their demon egos. Hell, even Akil had sent demon-nasties after me in the past, although he appeared to have resolved his homicidal tendencies since I’d literally sucked the life out of him. My immortal brother could have sent them, but I’d learned assassins weren’t his style. Valenti was more likely to run me through with a sword. He liked his sibling-rivalry up close and personal.

  I shuddered and shoved thoughts of my half-brother to the back of my mind. Of all the crap I had to deal with, I really didn’t need the specter of Val occupying my thoughts.

  Besides, the hunters hadn’t been after me. They’d wanted the girl, and Akil had led them straight here. Adam wasn’t to know that, so I played dumb and shouldered the blame.

  He waited for me to offer up some sort of explanation that he was happy with, but when it became clear after several minutes of silence, that I had no intention of elaborating, he made his excuses to leave. “Next time, Muse, dial down the fires from hell. I have enough trouble trying to manage demon sightings all over the city. I don’t need one of my Enforcers in the headlines, especially a hybrid.”

  “Yes boss,” I grumbled with zero conviction.

  It took the Institute team an hour to wipe my lounge clean. Glad to see the back of them, I hurried them out the door with the disinfectant still drying and immediately checked on Dawn. She sat perched on the end of my bed, legs dangling over the edge and didn’t look as though she’d moved since I’d told her to stay-put and stay quiet.

  “Who was that?” She followed close behind me as I returned to my now-spotless lounge.

  “They’re not the type of people you want to
be getting involved with, given their history with half bloods.” I glanced down at Dawn. She stood inside my personal space, peering up at me, Missus Floppy loose in her hand. “That is what you are, right?”

  “What’s a half blood?”

  Okay, we really needed to talk. “Are you hungry?” I asked with a smile.

  She nodded.

  “Chill out on the couch, and I’ll make us some food.” She skewed her wary gaze to the couch, regarding it suspiciously. “Sit. It won’t bite.”

  She crossed the lounge with tight steps and hitched herself onto the couch. Curling herself into a tight ball, she sunk into the cushions as though hoping they’d swallow her up.

  I flicked on the TV and channel surfed to something non-offensive, watching Dawn’s eyes widen to absorb the images.

  I checked my fridge for food and found it distinctly lacking. I couldn’t cook. I’d tried it once. Or rather, Akil had attempted to teach me, but I’d struggled with the whole idea of heating up a stove when I could use my element. Needless to say, toast is flammable, and eggs explode when heated using chaos energy. Who knew? Akil had found it highly amusing while I’d considered myself a failure. Things had changed since then, but I still shied away from cooking.

  Two microwave meals it was then.

  “You’re safe here, Dawn.” I prepared the frozen meals. “As long as you stay inside these markings, the demons can’t find you.”

  “They did before.”

  I glanced back at her. She was watching a wildlife program about chipmunks, overlaid with dramatic music. “The symbols only work on higher demons, the big guys with conscious thoughts. Some of the lesser ones can still get through, if they know what they’re looking for. Plus, I left the window open. Don’t do that. It gives them an in. Same with the front door. So we just have to stay here until we figure out what’s going on.”

  The microwave pinged. I managed to turn the desiccated peas, carrots and shoe-leather meat onto plates so they looked partially edible and carried them over to Dawn.

  She didn’t bother with cutlery and dove right in with her fingers.

  “Careful, it’s hot.” She didn’t seem to care. Eyes darting between chipmunks and her plate of food, she tucked in as though I’d served her a gourmet meal. I watched her closely, finding myself transfixed by this quiet little girl. Why did Akil have her? What had happened to him? Why leave her with me? Why were the hunters after her? I wanted to demand answers from her, but I wasn’t that heartless. The interrogation could wait.

  I reached out and swept a lock of her curly hair behind her ear. A trickle of my element seeped outward, as it sometimes did around demons. It happened often enough that I barely noticed it. It wasn’t invasive, just a curious touch, but Dawn jerked back and glared at me as though I’d slapped her.

  I snatched my hand back. “It’s okay.” I’d felt a little stirring of the energy slumbering inside her. She was a half blood. Had she been full-demon, my skin would have crawled by now, plus she wouldn’t have been able to enter my apartment. Now that I’d sensed the power in her, I knew for certain she was like me. “We’re the same, you and me.”

  “The man who saved me, he says you’re strong.”

  He would, I thought. Demons only care for power, and considering Akil was the Prince of Greed, he liked nothing better than overflowing chaotic energies. “He saved you?”

  She blinked. “He told me not to tell you.”

  That sounded more like Akil. I smiled. “It’s okay. You can trust me.”

  She shook her head, ringlets bobbing. I wasn’t going to push it. Not yet. But I needed answers. If Akil was using this little girl to get to me, I’d take my overflowing chaotic energies and use them to go nuclear on his ass.

  “Do you think you can trust Akil?”

  She shook her head. Good girl. “He’s strong too.” Her eyes unfocused, and what little color she had drained from her face. “I don’t want to go back,” she whispered.

  “You don’t have to go anywhere you don’t want to. I promise you that.” I took her dainty hand in mine and gave it a squeeze. She squeezed back, eyes glistening. There were memories in my head just like hers. I knew what it meant to be a half blood abomination among demons. If Dawn had endured half of what I’d been subjected to, she was lucky to be alive, never mind coherent.

  The parasitic demon knotted around my heart tightened. I sucked in a sharp breath, tugging my hand from Dawn’s to clench it against my chest. It never let me forget its existence.

  My cell phone rang, providing a welcome distraction from the hideous creature hitching a ride inside me. I left Dawn watching the chipmunks and answered the call.

  “Charlie, it’s Detective Coleman.” His fast footfalls punctuated the background drone of traffic. A car door slammed. “Dead demon call just came in. I’m about to head down to a penthouse in Battery Wharf to seal it off—the usual—and thought you’d want to know.”

  “Hey,” I drawled. “I’m fine. Thanks for asking.” Coleman worked homicide at Boston PD, but he also got burdened with cases of suspected demon involvement. I was on his speed dial as the phone-a-friend for anything suspiciously inhuman. “Why would I want to know?” Battery Wharf was an exclusive luxury apartment complex. Not somewhere you’d expect a demon to turn up dead, but things were changing. Demons were everywhere, so the press said.

  “Well, for one, you’re the Institute, and I’m obliged to tell the Institute when one of your ki— when a demon turns up dead.”

  I caught that little slip of the tongue but let it go. “Noted. And?”

  “You’re acquainted with the apartment owner. Akil Vitalis.”

  * * *

  Darkest Before Dawn, out now. Sign up to my mailing list for news about release dates and to receive your free ebook of ‘Wings Of Hope’ The Veil Series Prequel. Click here.

  Want More?

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  www.theveilseries.co.uk

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  About the Author

  Born in Tonbridge, Kent in 1979, Pippa's family moved to the South West of England where she grew up among the dramatic moorland and sweeping coastlands of Devon & Cornwall. With a family history brimming with intrigue, complete with Gypsy angst on one side and Jewish survivors on another, she has the ability to draw from a patchwork of ancestry and use it as the inspiration for her writing. Happily married and the mother of two little girls, she resides on the Devon & Cornwall border.

  “Do get in touch. I’m always chatting on Twitter and Goodreads, and I’d love to hear from you.”

  Contact Pippa here:

  @pippadacosta

  pippadacosta

  www.pippadacosta.com

  pippadacosta@btinternet.com

  Also by Pippa DaCosta

  The Veil Series

  Wings Of Hope (prequel novella)

  Beyond The Veil

  Devil May Care

  Darkest Before Dawn

  Drowning In The Dark (Coming early 2015)

  Devon Hurst Series

  Hunted

  Within (Coming soon)

  Acknowledgments

  To the fans of the first book, Beyond The Veil: Thank you so much for joining me on Muse’s journey. Your heartfelt reactions to Muse and her story made all the difference and kept me writing into the wee hours.

  To my still-suffering husband:

  You married a writer; sorry about that.

   

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