by Ashur Rose
She sagged against the bar. Everything about her was defeated. Her posture, her spirit, her holey fishnet stockings…everything. Christ, she had to move. She’d have to pack up and move again. Another town. Another start. A crummy job. An even crummier apartment. More demons. More running. More hiding… Dammit, would it ever stop?
Something poked her shoulder.
“Lil.” She turned around. Brad was behind the bar gesturing to three beers. “What’re you zonked out on? These beers ain’t gonna run themselves. You plan on doing some work or nah?”
Lilith swallowed. Could she ask? Could she fix her mouth to ask Brad to run the beers to table ninety-three so she could run out the back door?
He waved his hand in front of her face. “Earth to fucking Lil,” Brad said.
She rolled her eyes at him. Brad could be such an asshole. But in all fairness, she kind of forced it out of him. “Yeah. I got it.”
She grabbed a server tray from behind the bar and loaded the beers on top. On the walk over she knew she would have to cut this night short. She didn’t know how she would afford to move again without her tips from tonight, but she would have to make due. No way could she continue in this city. Screw that.
The demon seemed deep in conversation with those men. They were just as engrossed. So much so that they paid her no mind when she placed the napkins on the table and sat the beers down on top. She couldn’t recall a time a demon was this close and wasn’t trying to rip out her throat and it struck her as very odd when it didn’t happen.
“Anything else?” Her voice was low considering the loudness of the music. All intentional. She didn’t want to be heard. But the guy with the dreads and scarred knuckles waved her over. She walked around the table, paying very close attention to the demon who wasn’t paying any attention to her. Without looking at her, the blond dug into his pockets and took out a wad of bills wedged between his first and second fingers.
The second she saw the money she knew it was too much. “I’ll be right back with your change,” she said.
“Keep it.”
Lilith scrunched her brows. Walking away with her tray tucked under her arms, she counted the money on her way to the bar.
“Eighty. One hundred. One ten. Holy shit. A hundred and twenty dollars.” For $10.50 in beers? she thought. Well at least she didn’t have to worry about serving them anymore. She may not have been a waitress long, but she could take a hint. Anyone who left a tip that big this early into their service didn’t want to be bothered. But what on earth did that demon want with those men? Not that she was the least bit offended, but why wasn’t it remotely interested in her?
She chewed her bottom lip. A nasty habit she resorted to in stressful situations or when she was nervous. Something wasn’t right and those guys could be in trouble. She couldn’t bolt knowing that she’d allowed someone to be harmed. The guy tipped her well enough to be left alone, and Lilith was more than happy to oblige, but she’d be damned if her conscience insisted otherwise.
Damn. Sometimes she wished she could snatch out that inner voice and throw it in front of a speeding truck. Maybe then she would have had the common sense not to turn around and head back to table ninety-three.
CHAPTER TEN
IAIN
IAIN MADE IT BACK to the table in worse shape than he’d been in when he’d left. On top of that, the scent of black currant was stronger here. He was all too sure now that he was imagining things—some trick of the mind and senses brought on by his starvation. He had never been so eager to feed in his life and the demon sitting in front of him looked like free lunch. If it weren’t for the intel they needed, Iain’s hands would be at its chest culling the damn thing’s insides out.
Did you find her? Raze sent.
“No,” Iain answered. The scent was so heady and his hunger so overwhelming that he forgot that he should’ve answered telepathically.
You can use one of my subs tonight, Raze offered.
Iain nodded, trying his best to catch up with the conversation after missing so much of it.
“The key you spoke of earlier, where are the shades focusing their efforts to locate it?” Raze asked.
The shade leaned in closer. “Here. The key hasn’t been known to stay in one place for long. But their attempts at finding it are focused here in this city.”
Steele shifted in his seat. “Who’s heading the search? We’ve killed all of Zorn’s flunkies.”
“All but one.” The shade stared at Raze. “His son still lives.”
Steele folded his arms to his chest and pressed his lips into a hard line.
Cree strangled his beer by the neck and took a hard swig. “You don’t say,” he said, slamming the bottle down on the table and cutting a hard glance at Raze.
Iain felt in that moment Raze might kill Cree. Or at least his morphing aura said so. They all knew of the mistake Raze had made all those years ago. The opportunity he’d let slip away. Raze wasn’t the merciful type but it was he who had allowed Zorn’s little bastard to still draw breath—a phenomenon that baffled Iain, Cree and Steele to this day. At any rate, the colossal fuckup hadn’t bitten them in the ass…until now.
Iain watched as Raze controlled his breaths. “What does this key look like?” he managed.
“That I do not know. The key can assume any form. It could be anything.”
Iain’s body stiffened; the hairs on his neck stood firm, his senses sharpened to the point that the air around him felt supremely electric against his skin. Painful even. So did the bulge threatening to rip through the crotch of his jeans. If Iain hadn’t been so irrational from hunger, he would have continued to ignore what he’d been preparing to scour the city for tonight. But there was no denying it. Only one thing could affect him in such a way.
And he’d be damned if she hadn’t walked right up to him.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
LILITH
LILITH CLUTCHED HER LARGE tip in her hand and took the final steps to the table. She didn’t know how, but she needed to distract those men away from the demon. She’d have to have a good excuse for getting them to move. Seeing them conversing so deeply, the idea struck her to offer them a quiet room in back—the rooms the dancers used to give private shows. If she could get them moving in that direction, she could corner the demon and force it out. A touch of her speak should be more than persuading.
As she was about to proposition the blond who’d tipped her, a well-muscled hand wrapped around her forearm. In her haste, she hadn’t noticed the chair that was empty a moment ago was now occupied. She followed the hand up a leather-covered arm to his face. His gaze was fixed ruthless and hungry. She couldn’t believe it.
The man who haunted her dreams was now staring her straight in the face.
Shit.
“Lilith,” she heard him say.
He remembered her name?
Double shit.
Lilith jerked her arm back, but his grip tightened. He stood. Was he this tall last time? She snatched her arm again and broke free, though she couldn’t help feeling that he’d let her go.
She backed away from the table, bumping into dancers and customers. She stumbled but quickly recovered, pushing through the crowd at a run-walk pace as he advanced toward her.
“Everything okay, Lil?” she heard Shelby calling out to her from the stage. She’d stopped dancing, which caused a group of hungry-eyed patrons to turn in her direction.
“I’m cool.” Lilith’s voice was a wobbly wreck. She peeped over her shoulder at the huge guy working his way through the club. Damn it, he just knocked someone down. “I’m good,” she said and waved Shelby off, hoping she’d go back to working the crowd.
She reached the entrance, where Big D frisked people.
“You know employees don’t use the front entrance, Lil,” he said.
“S’kay. Just need some air.” She didn’t want to involve Big D. As big as Big D was, she knew the guy chasing her was powerful. She remembered what he’d done
to those demons. His type of strength wasn’t human and Big D didn’t stand a chance against him. “Five minutes. Just five minutes.”
Five extremely long minutes. When she hit that door, she didn’t have any intention of coming back.
She hurried outside and smack into sidewalk traffic. The rain soaked every inch of her not covered by her skimpy uniform. She ran in her heels, avoiding the cracks and holes in the pavement. She had to make it to the church to fade out. She checked behind her and sure enough, just as she’d started to put a little distance between her and the club, his massiveness collided into passersby as he pursued her.
She sped up and forced her heart back down her throat. All her blood left her limbs and fled to her core. Her hands were going numb, which had never happened before. She peeked behind her and caught his blurred shape again. Close. He was so close. Her stomach felt like it was dragging on the ground behind her. She’d been scared before but not like this. Usually Lilith could handle her problems with her speak. But she wasn’t sure if her speak would work on him.
She cut a hard right, falling as her heel wedged itself in a crack. She didn’t waste a breath on the pain and left the wrecked stiletto on the sidewalk as she limped into an alley. Despite the hundreds of alleys in this city, she’d had to pick the one without a rear exit to the next street over. A solid brick wall blocked the way in front of her. When she turned around, she saw that he blocked the way back.
Great.
His hands were balled at his side, his chest heaving up and down. Rain dripped from the tips of his hair, nose, and chin. He looked murderous—handsomely murderous.
“I’m not here to hurt you,” he said.
“Stay back,” Lilith yelled. She was having a hard time drawing in breaths. Her ankle throbbed. She hopped on one leg for balance, splashing nasty alley water on her legs. “Just…stay back.”
He stepped forward.
He was blocking her exit. There was a fire escape splitting the distance between them, but her ankle wouldn’t let her make it there in time. She was running out of options. Her only way of getting out of this mess was fading. And she knew that risked bringing demons near. “Don’t make me do something I don’t wanna do,” she told him.
“I want to talk,” he insisted.
She paused. She wanted to talk too, wanted an explanation of the other night, but she couldn’t risk it.
“I’m not—” She let out a moan as pain shot up her ankle. “I’m not interested,” she said.
He ignored her completely. Aside from demons, she’d never seen such determination before. He stalked toward her, eyes locked on her face. She felt his stare like fingers caressing her wet skin. There was something tangible about his gaze and she was almost tempted to stay. Almost.
She shook her head, willing the idiotic thought away. He was dangerously close with no intent of turning back. Damn him, she thought.
She closed her eyes, for a moment envisioning the graveyard near her apartment. When she opened them again, his hand was near her wrist.
CHAPTER TWELVE
IAIN
IAIN WRAPPED HIS HANDS around her wrist, or where her wrist should have been. He looked around at the empty alley where a moment before his pure had been. She’d disappeared from in front of him as she had at the church. The only thing rooting Iain to the reality of what had happened was her lingering scent.
This woman, he thought, rubbing his hand through his wet hair. This fucking woman. He’d never been so frustrated and fascinated at the same time. He thought of his next angle when a pain deep inside his chest knocked the air out of him.
He leaned against the brick wall for support. His body shook as he struggled to hold himself upright.
He needed to feed as much as he needed his pure. He’d reached his critical point almost a week before. He needed something to hold him over, to stabilize him.
“Phyrss, have mercy.” He sighed.
A moment passed before he was able to come back to himself. He settled against the wall and drew in a couple of much-needed breaths. He took a step toward the alley’s entrance when he heard the low breathing of something behind him. Even in the rain and his current condition, his senses didn’t fail him. He turned toward the sound and found the black mass peering at him from a shadowed corner of the alley. He couldn’t believe it. A shade. He walked toward it, a delicious grin stretched across his face. It might as well have been a fucking lake in the middle of the desert. He’d never known Phyrss to respond so kindly to the Banes, especially after she’d banished them. But here she had answered his prayer, had provided him with nourishment. Perhaps they weren’t so hated after all.
The shade stepped out from the shadows, prepared to attack. The creature was well-built. Iain saw the contrasted color of marred flesh against its aura, which hinted that it had survived a battle or two. All indications that its essence wasn’t young or weak. It wasn’t the most impressive shade Iain had seen, but it would do.
As the shade leapt toward him, he caught it midflight and slammed the creature’s body to the ground. He struggled through his weakness to keep it pinned. With his palm already positioned on its chest, Iain pressed his weight into it. He felt its essence recoil from his touch. But Iain’s touch would not be denied. He called its essence to him, demanded it. The cull began and the creature squealed in pain. Iain covered its mouth, careful to keep passersby away from his dealings. As its essence started to flow, Iain felt strength enter his body and fill his spectra. He hadn’t culled in so long that if it weren’t for him pressing all his weight against the shade’s chest, he surely would have broken the connection by now.
As the last of the shade’s essence entered his body, Iain removed his hand and sat on his haunches. It took him a moment to regain his composure. He stirred a bit as he came to his feet. He flexed and balled his fists, feeling his strength renewed. He looked down on the shade. Its corpse was already decomposing and would be nothing but a black puddle once it was done. Leaving it in the alley, he headed back to the club. He needed to find where his pure lived. Someone there was going to tell him. He didn’t know or care who it would be. They were going to tell him what he wanted to know. He only hoped he wouldn’t have to beat it out of them.
Iain rounded the block and pushed through the line at the club’s door. There was a red mass blocking his way.
“Whoa, whoa, whoa! Where’s your writstband?” the mass asked.
Iain pulled back the arm of his leather jacket, exposing the purple bracelet that was placed on him when he’d entered the club the first time.
“Now,” the male said, “you may go.”
Iain nodded and entered the club. He went straight to his brothers’ table. They were all there except for the shade.
“Fuck’s wrong with you?” Steele asked. “Since when did you start chasing ass?”
Since she happened to be his pure, Raze reached. Am I correct?
Iain could only nod. There was no denying it. His brother could read his thoughts, and Lilith had been the only thing pervading them when he’d come back. But he couldn’t admit that to Steele and Cree. Not until he got her sorted out.
“Your ass would be posey over some fucking human,” Steele said.
Iain cut a glance at his brother. He heard his heart hammering in his ears. Had he clenched his jaw any tighter, he would have ground his fangs into dull stumps. He felt his face contorting and his claws elongating. He didn’t give a shit that he was in a club full of women or that he’d just challenged his brother by morphing Dryg. Not one of them had gone through what he had, least of all Steele, who would never know.
“Watch your mouth, scagi.”
Steele’s aura until that point had been mellow and hadn’t reached beyond his body, but there it was rising to the ceiling with his anger. Iain knew of Steele’s recklessness and temper; his brother wasn’t a pushover—far fucking from it. But Iain wouldn’t shy away from a brawl either and sensed Steele knew this.
Steele s
mirked at Iain and took the last swig of his beer. Before he stood, he tossed the empty to the floor. Steele walked by, shoving his middle finger in Iain’s face while addressing his other brothers. “Fuck this noise; I’m out. You pussies call me when you’re ready to summon Phyrss.”
When Steele left, Iain morphed back into his human features. He tamped down his battle spectra, which Steele had roused, and looked at the rest of his brothers, confused. “We’re summoning Phyrss?”
“She doesn’t like to be made slight of. We’re asking her permission to locate and destroy the key. This could get us back home—back to our realm,” Raze said.
If they were summoning Phyrss, it stood to reason that he should be there to ask for her blessing to covenant his pure. Although she’d made her dislike for the Banes known throughout Empyrean, and had even cursed his brothers, Phyrss had shown Iain great favor tonight by providing him with that shade when he’d called for her mercy.
But there he was getting ahead of himself. In order to ask for permission to covenant, he needed to have his pure with him. Something she made increasingly difficult by disappearing.
“Don’t worry about Phyrss, Iain. Your head’s not in the game right now,” Cree added.
“I’m still effective—”
Cree clasped the back of Iain’s neck, looking him squarely in the eyes with nothing but deep respect. “What’s understood doesn’t need to be explained. We wouldn’t ask you away from finding your pure when you’re so close. Go handle your business. We should be able to hold things down until then. Besides, we won’t be summoning Phyrss for a few days.”
Iain watched the rest of his brothers cross the club and leave through the entrance. He brought his gaze back around the crowd and caught sight of a woman stepping down from the stage. It was the same woman his pure had stopped to talk to when she’d fled from him earlier.