by Mila Young
I can’t wait a moment longer. It’s been so long since we’ve had a bit of good news, and if Aria’s wound gives any hint as to how their excursion went, I’m guessing Cain needs a bit of a spirit lift.
I’m about to open my mouth when Elias steps forward.
“We found the collector’s new lair,” he says with a wolfish grin.
Motherfucker beat me to it.
“Well, really I found it,” I retort. “Elias almost ran straight into the harbor and froze his balls off chasing a bird.”
He growls at me, but I shrug it off.
Like always, Cain is unamused by our antics. “And? Did you get the relics?”
“No. Not exactly,” I reply and instantly see annoyance flash in his eyes. “But we know where they are,” I add quickly. “They’re in the next town. Dawson. In some of Captain Seabox’s storage containers.”
“The place by the harbor?” Aria asks.
Elias nods. “We found Mordecai spying on us. We chased him there.”
“And after some clever recon work by yours truly, I found out that he rented twenty of those big metal boxes to ship his treasures to France. A mobile lair this time, more or less.”
Cain walks to his favorite spot near the fireplace and leans against the mantel, lost in thought. He’s so predictable that way. “When does the ship depart?”
“Friday.”
“That gives us some time,” he muses.
“Time?” Elias repeats gruffly. “What do we need time for? Aria is here now. She can help us find the relics and—”
“No.” Cain’s reply is quick and sharp, taking everyone off guard.
Cain’s been obsessed with finding the harp’s pieces since we stepped foot on Earth, and now that we have three of them in our sights, he wants to wait? What the heck happened in Missouri? The Cain I know would never turn down a chance to hunt down a relic. It’s almost like he came back a different man.
His head swings Aria’s way and his expression softens. It’s then that I realize, in the light of the fireplace, that there are shadows under his eyes. His cheeks are sunken in, and there’s a hunch to his normally pulled back shoulders.
Yeah. Something definitely happened in Missouri.
“Aria, maybe you should go rest some,” he suggests. “We both had a bit too much excitement.”
Even his tone with her has changed. Eased.
Something unsaid seems to pass between them.
“I’ll tell them,” he assures her. “You don’t need to worry yourself about it. It’s okay. Go.”
I expect her to protest as usual, but instead she sighs and says “Okay.” With that, she turns and leaves us without a fuss.
What in the world?
I walk over to the doorway and peek out. I wait until she disappears up the second flight of stairs before spinning around and confronting Cain again.
“Okay, please explain to me what’s going on here. What did we miss?”
Cain lets out a long breath and rubs his forehead. “I don’t even know where to start.”
“At the beginning would be best,” I say. “Come on. Out with it.”
Elias leans back against the wall across the room, waiting.
Cain waits a long moment, and then, looking grim, he starts. “We stopped in Illinois, at the hospital written on the receipt Aria had found at her foster father’s. I meant for it to be an olive branch of sorts, but what we found wasn’t as consoling.”
Cain would think of going to an abandoned hospital as a romantic gesture. I fight the urge to roll my eyes. The man is hopeless.
“What did you find there?” Elias asks.
“Her name on a list of abandoned children,” he replies. “She was devastated.”
“So she was born there and then later abandoned?” I question.
“It appears so.”
“Sounds familiar,” I grumble under my breath.
“Anyway,” he says, trying to get us back on topic, “that wasn’t even the worst of it.”
Elias runs a hand through his tangled hair. “Shit.”
Cain turns fully to us, his entire figure darkened by the fire at his back. “The entire mission for the spine was a plot to steal Aria.”
My breath freezes in my chest, and I almost choke on the pure shock of his words. For a moment, I wonder if I even heard him right.
“A trap?” Elias asks before me as I sputter and try to regain myself. “Was it Freeman?”
“No,” Cain replies. “We found him dead in the bushes. Drained.”
When I can finally speak again, I say, “Blood drained, like from a vampire? Or…”
“Soul drained,” Cain says.
Elias and I exchange confused glances.
“But that means… a demon,” Elias says.
Cain nods before turning to me, and my veins ice over with dread. Not just any demon. “Maverick.”
Elias’s eyes widen. “Aria’s in serious trouble.”
“We all are,” Cain replies.
“Did you tell her?” I ask. “Aria?”
“I don’t know if it’s my brother for sure,” he says, “but that’s the only conclusion I can come to at the moment. Once I find out more and am absolutely sure, I’ll tell her. There’s no need to cause her more panic and worry than she already has.”
I guess that is true, although keeping things from her when her life is on the line doesn’t seem right, either.
Elias snorts. “Sending you halfway across the country on some wild goose chase has Maverick written all over it to me.”
“A hundred percent,” I agree. That slimeball was always overcomplicating things just to enjoy the show. “I should have been tipped off by it being supposedly found in a swamp. That’s the snake’s natural habitat.”
Cain continues to rub his forehead like he has one bad headache brewing. Honestly, I wouldn’t be surprised if he did. “Funny you put it that way—he hired snake shifters to ambush us.”
I pretend to shiver to show my disgust of their kind.
Snake shifters. Creepy fuckers.
“I assumed the ambush had been for me, but they wanted her,” Cain goes on. “Once it was discovered I was bringing her along, whoever it was must have changed their plans.”
“I hope you tore those slithering assholes apart,” Elias growls.
“Aria got hurt, as you saw. There wasn’t much I could do without endangering her life further.”
I pause, a smile forming. “Look at you. Caring about a living soul. A woman, no less.”
“We need her,” he says immediately, but I’ve known him long enough to see through his tricks.
“Uh huh.”
He clenches his jaw.
Elias doesn’t care about any of this. He wants to know about the fight. “How did you get out of there?”
“Sayah saved us.”
“Sayah…” Elias’s brow wrinkles in confusion.
“Her shadow,” he explains. “That’s the name she gave her.”
“It’s… a ‘her’...?” Elias asks.
Cain’s gaze hardens. “We’re getting off topic. The fact of the matter is her shadow escaped her again without her control. Sayah rose like a monster, as tall as the trees, and spoke somehow. It was enough to scare off the rest of the shifters, but Aria was almost left unconscious from it.”
I run a hand over my face. “So some escaped.”
His body stiffens with anger, and it’s enough to answer my question.
“So that means Maverick knows about Aria’s shadow,” Elias says. It’s what we’re all thinking.
“And about the harp,” Cain adds.
“Fuck!” Elias punches the wall hard enough to rattle the picture frames.
This is bad.
“What do we do now?” I ask Cain, unsure where we’re supposed to go from here. Looks like our good news wasn’t good enough to overshadow the shitshow Aria and Cain experienced on their trip.
“We ready ourselves for another potential s
howdown with a dragon,” he replies. “We’ll worry about Maverick after.”
“The ship leaves in three days,” Elias reminds us. “It needs to be before then.”
Cain nods in agreement. “Yes. That should be enough time to collect some souls and build up our strength. This time, we won’t be taken by surprise. We can’t fail.”
“And what about Aria?” I ask, thinking of the mysterious woman staying in the bedroom upstairs.
“She needs to rest now. She’s been through a lot.”
I blink and switch on my power. Like an infrared detector, I can see a person’s sexual energy. If a person has been intimate recently, it will come back the strongest. A brilliant shade of red. Virgins or people lacking in the sex department are a cool, sad, blue color, and there are different colors for everything in between. I can sense a person’s hunger, their desire, as well as the overall sexual tension of a room.
On Cain, a deep red surrounds him. Not the brightest it can be, like when I saw him after his and Aria’s little romp in his office, but a sexually charged aura just the same. He might not have gotten his rocks off during their trip, but he definitely came close.
Ever since Aria walked through our door, he’s been sporting a lot more reds than ever before. It’s a good color on him, if I do say so myself. Although he hates when I read him like this. Does that stop me? Absolutely not. I enjoy teasing him too much.
But it seems like each of us has taken a liking to our little guest, and more than in a contractual way. We’ve each spent time with her, intimately or not, and, I daresay, cared for her at some point. I know I talked to Elias about keeping this fun and civil between us four, but it’s strange that each of us are feeling things other than lust. Elias may have been in love once, but I never thought it possible for me to want anything from a woman besides her body. As an incubus, it isn’t in my nature.
It makes me wonder if Cain or Elias have ever considered the same thing.
“Do either of you think it’s strange that we all care about Aria in one way or another?” I ask against the tense silence clogging up the room.
From both Cain and Elias’s stunned expressions, it’s clear they weren’t expecting me to say such a thing, but when that surprise turns to deep thought, I know I’ve struck a chord.
“I mean, besides the sex,” I clarify. “Is anyone else liking the idea of her being here? Her being with us?”
Tensing, Elias looks over at Cain, hoping he’ll be the first to answer.
Cain hesitates, choosing his words carefully. Like always. “I… think her being here will be beneficial, yes.”
I give him a bored look. “That’s not what I meant, and you know it.”
“I told you already,” Elias replies through clenched teeth. “I will never make that mistake again.” He’s talking about Serena, of course.
I wave my hands and shake my head. “I’m not going that far. I’m merely wondering if it seems odd to you that we’ve all taken an interest.”
“I don’t think so,” Cain responds in his normal stand-offish way. “She’s been with us for some time now.”
“And she’s beautiful,” Elias chimes in.
Cain agrees. “And the darkness inside her reminds us of home, too—whatever it really is. It’s like having a piece of Hell here on Earth with us.”
Well, when they put it like that…
“It’s just another sign that we’ve been living too long together on this plane. Our tastes are starting to overlap,” Elias says with confidence.
I bark a laugh. “Now that’s a disturbing thought.”
“Let’s not think too hard into something that doesn’t matter in the long run,” Cain instructs and heads for the door. “I’m going to call Ramos and see whose soul contract is up so we can feed and be ready for whatever fight is coming our way.”
“Good idea,” I reply. “Because it’s sure to be a doozy, and no offense, but you look like shit.”
He doesn’t comment, only walks out, leaving me and Elias behind. I glance at him, see the conflict warring on his face, and I know he’s thinking the same thing I am.
Is there something more to us being enthralled with Aria? Or is it truly nothing, like we want to believe?
Honestly, I really don’t know.
ARIA
It’s hard to not wonder if what happened between Cain and I means as much to him as it does me. I’m sitting on the edge of my bed, stroking Cassiel, unable to sleep. I’ve been up since dawn trying to figure out what I am doing by letting myself have feelings for these demons.
They are unlike anything I expected. Don’t get me wrong, they are still assholes and dominant, but I’m starting to see a side to them that makes me rethink the whole ‘leaving them’ thing. And that there is a massive mistake when I know what’s at stake.
Me ending up in freaking Hell.
I set Cassiel on the floor, and he pounces on the bouncy balls Dorian arranged for the little boy. I pace, unsure what the right thing to do is. An unease coils in my gut at the attraction I have for the demons.
On top of that, I feel a rising pressure deep inside me… Sayah’s been stirring ever since she came out at the swamp. She is terrifying, and to have her inside me, being so unpredictable, scares me.
Unable to stand another second in my room and needing fresh air, I slip out into the corridor, leaving Cassiel inside to keep playing. Most of the time he sleeps anyway, seeing as he’s still a kitten.
There are no guards, which makes me ecstatic, and I hurry down the hall on silent steps. Past the paintings of devilish acts, I rush downstairs and make my way to the back door where I’m less likely to be spotted.
The door creaks when I open it, and I cringe, glancing over my shoulder. No one is rushing after me, but I realize that if I were to run away on foot, I wouldn’t get far. Not after I’ve seen how remote this mansion is, and then there’s Elias tracking me down. Maybe that’s why they no longer have guards outside my door.
A cool breeze finds me as I step outside and onto the grounds. I walk deeper across the yard, the grass still wet with dew, birds singing in the distance. It is beautiful out here so early in the morning. So peaceful.
I close my eyes for a moment and take a deep inhale, trying to calm myself, to drive all the thoughts out of my head so I stop feeling like I’m suffocating from the inside out.
The sun warms my face when a faint tickle crosses my nose. The touch is as delicate as a cobweb. I slide open my eyes when something white catches my attention from the edge of the woods to my right. I twist around to find the white figure standing where he’d been the last time I saw him from my bedroom window. A shiver runs down my spine that I didn’t see him there before.
There’s something startling to be this close to him. He’s wearing a white sleeveless tunic and pale blue jeans, arms hanging by his sides, and he’s looking at me. Like the last time I saw him, there is an almost ethereal aura about him as though he’s glowing… or maybe that’s the effect of the sunlight rising behind him. His white hair is short around the sides and back of his head, longer across the front, sweeping over his brow.
I’m stunned, frozen on the spot, and for the life of me, I can’t help but feel like maybe he is an angel. It’s ridiculous, but an excitement stirs in my stomach to meet such a celestial being. But what is he doing here of all places?
He inclines his head in my direction and waves for me to join him.
I stiffen, my heart thumping in my chest. Something inside me is drawn to move closer to him, but as tempting as his invitation is, I shake my head and turn to head back to the house. I’ve learned my lesson of trusting strangers.
The crunch of foliage behind me has me turning around quickly.
He’s there, feet away.
I flinch with the shock shuddering through me, recoiling. “W-who are you?”
He doesn’t move to grab me, but shoves his hands into the pockets of his jeans and leans on one leg, the corners of his mouth c
urling upward. So close to him, I am completely taken off guard by how fast he moved… then there’s his sheer beauty. That’s what I notice first. It’s not a word I’d often use to describe a man, but he has an interesting look that is both rugged and beautiful. Sharp cheekbones with a delicate nose, a strong jawline, and dark brown eyes with golden flecks in them. He has the longest lashes, making me jealous, as I can’t even achieve that look with mascara. He reminds me of a prince from an old fairy tale, too perfect to be real.
“Delicate little thing, you don’t need to fear me,” he says with a voice so sinfully dark I’m not sure it belongs to the angelic figure before me.
“Are you an angel?” I murmur, unable to stop looking at him in awe. He may not be as broad in size as the demons, but he’s tall and still powerful, his strong muscles flexing across his thick biceps. Who the hell is he?
“I want to help you control the darkness inside you.” His gaze glimmers with an anticipation that echoes within me.
I blink at him, letting his words swirl on my mind. Sayah? He knows about her? Curiosity floods me. If he’s offering some insight into what Sayah is, how to control her, I am all ears.
“I’m listening.” I swallow the boulder in my throat, torn between stepping farther away from him and grilling him with questions. Why is he here? To save me? Is Sayah so dark that an angel feels the need to approach me about her?
A strange trepidation crawls up the back of my legs, and I hate that feeling. Hate how my pulse races. Hate that I can’t make myself leave him when he promises me answers I crave.
“I feel the darkness staining your soul. I can help.”
The way he says that makes me partially wonder if he’s referring to the demons in my life and the influence they’ve had over me. Is that his intention? Finding out more about them?
When I don’t respond, he says, “You want help or not?”
A strange sensation washes over me when he looks at me so deeply—he might very well be staring into my soul. With it, a fear bubbles deep in my core, a trepidation that if I don’t stop Sayah, she will be the end of me and everyone close to me. And here I am, not even giving the possibility of saving myself a chance.