Cian must have sensed it, too, because he inched forward before catching himself. He muttered something under his breath that I didn’t understand but faintly reminded me of Gaelic, then forced some of the tension from his shoulders. As the air around him calmed, so did Liva’s panting.
I stood perfectly frozen, observing the scene. Liva’s face relaxed as if Cian were somehow shouldering some of the burden. I thought I saw a hint of a smile curling up in the corners of her lips, but before the expression could settle, Liva slumped down on the loveseat.
In a blur of movement, Cian was by her side. He caught his mate before her head hit the pillow, then cradled her in his arms, the look on his face a blend of concern and pride. Once again, the unfathomable depths of the bond between mates rendered me speechless.
Cian placed an affectionate kiss on Liva’s temple, then helped her straighten up, but didn’t let go.
“I know.” Liva tipped her head back and laughed. A broken, bitter, yet hopeful sound. “I know who’s really behind the attack. And why.” She dropped her gaze to the pendant smeared with her blood. “This thing right here”—she looked up at me—“holds a demon’s essence.”
Despite the residual shakiness from the experience plaguing my body, not to mention the shock that accompanied the revelation, I couldn’t help but laugh when Liva refused to divulge any more information until she received her obligatory glass of wine. Although glass was an understatement. That damn thing must have fit an entire bottle.
Cian never left her side on the couch—except to evanesce for the wine, of course—and Liva drank deeply, color returning to her cheeks and lips, although the worn lines around her eyes remained.
“So, a demon’s essence,” I said slowly to test the waters. “Why would Melina have a demon’s essence hidden in her apartment?”
“Because she put it there.” Amusement flavored Liva’s voice, nearly overriding the exhaustion.
I blinked. “She what?”
Liva cleared her throat and gulped down more wine. Her gaze slipped to the pendant now resting on the table between us. Knowing what it was, I couldn’t help but be attuned to its ominous presence, to the almost imperceptible hum of energy coming from it—something I felt, rather than heard.
Possibly because I wasn’t that unlike it any longer.
I’d seen my fire, but who knew how deep my involuntary venture into the demonic truly went?
I clamped down on the thought just as Liva said, “The pendant was a recent acquisition, but it is Melina’s. And with the demonic essence trapped inside…” She shook her head, blonde hair tumbling over her shoulders, then looked at Cian. “Remember that first time I accidentally touched one of your relics?”
His fingers mapped out a gentle course up and down her arm. “I remember how pissed you were that I hadn’t told you I was a High Lord.”
“Insufferable Fae.” She huffed but sank even more firmly into his embrace. “My powers reacted differently then, and given that vicious little thing”—she tipped her chin in the pendant’s direction—“is a magical container, the experience was…”
“Painful?” I offered.
“But also a lot more insightful than any plain object could ever be. I saw both of them. Melina and the demon. Felt their thoughts, their desires…and fears. The demon, he stalked your friend.”
“Fuck…”
Why hadn’t Melina turned to anyone for help? It wasn’t like we were without connections to the Shadow World… Then again, she had always been a private person.
Stubborn, too, when she wanted it.
I let loose a long breath, preparing myself for what was to come. “So what happened?”
Liva poured herself another generous measure of wine. “Melina refused the demon,” she said quietly, but low anger burned beneath her words. “She kept refusing him. The backstory was a bit muddied, but I got the feeling the bastard had wanted her for her Vila blood. He was enchanted by it, only not in a lovestruck way. More like…obsessed.
“Melina was aware he was lurking around, always watching, waiting, so she reached out to the black market and bought the pendant. She suspected the fucker wouldn’t give up regardless of how many times she turned him down. So she decided to be ready when he upped the game.”
A low growl trickled from my lips. “The asshole confronted her?”
This demon would be a kill I’d relish for a lifetime. Possibly even after.
“Worse,” Liva’s voice rang out, and this time, there was nothing hiding the poison. “He tried to force the bond on her.”
“The mating bond?” Cian asked, his outrage matching her wrath. “It’s sacred.”
“Not to everyone.” Power crackled around her. She reeled it in after a few sips of wine. “But it wasn’t what you and I share.” Briefly, she cupped Cian’s face, then returned her attention to me. “It was the type of bond designed to enslave. The kind only the lowest demonic scum would enforce in this day and age. Demons might not have the best rep exactly, as we’re made of darkness rather than light, but none of us would want to link ourselves to someone who didn’t want it. Someone who wasn’t equal.
“But that was precisely the plan the bastard had in store for Melina. She would be his, and his alone, with him acting as her master. But”—a smile teased the corners of her lips, though there was nothing warm about it—“he hadn’t counted on Melina’s resourcefulness. So when they came face-to-face, when he thrust his power at her, wanting to bind her, she bound him instead. To the locket.”
I frowned as my mind tried to wrap around something that kept slipping away. “You said essence… So it isn’t really him locked in there, is it?”
“No.” She flashed me a chilling grin. “But it is what matters most.”
Understanding rushed through me. Of course.
“His power. She took his power.”
Liva nodded and set her glass aside. “Melina nearly siphoned him dry. I felt it—how his essence fled from his flesh. The bastard is a shell with a single ember of his power left. That’s what’s keeping him alive. But it won’t sustain him for long. Besides”—another cool smile complemented the glint in her eyes—“the Shadow World can be a harsh place for someone without their strength.”
“That’s why he sent his half-demon lackey to beat-up Melina but not kill her,” I muttered, more to myself than to add to the conversation.
Liva picked up on my train of thought regardless. “Without the pendant, the fucker can never be restored. And if Melina had died…”
“Right.” Bye-bye power. Although with the state he’d left her in, the bastard had definitely been toeing the line “So the lackey came back, searching for the pendant once things cooled down, but ran into me instead.”
I’d never thought I’d be grateful for ending up in a fight, but if I had to choose between a few bruises and the bastard getting his master’s essence back, the answer was obvious.
He might have missed the container the first time around, but if I’d picked up on its malevolent presence, given time the lackey would have too.
“We can keep the pendant here until you finish this, Lotte,” Cian offered. “There’s no fucking way anyone is getting through our defenses.”
“Are you sure? I don’t know how long it’ll take,” I admitted, but Cian was having none of that.
Dropping another kiss on Liva’s temple, he grabbed the container, stuffed it in its plastic bag, then evanesced. Well, that certainly sorted that problem out.
Just one last thing I needed…
“Can you give me a description of the bastard who stalked Melina?” I asked Liva who was clearly as amused as I was with Cian’s abrupt disappearing act. “Maybe ICRA has a record on him, or someone from the Shadow World knows who he is.”
She chuckled. “I’m from the Shadow World, too, remember?”
Of course. Seeing how at home she was in Faery, it was easy to forget that she, like Lena, originated from the demonic realm.
�
�I don’t know where you can find him,” she purred, “but having a name would probably help, right?”
I might have been flying a little when Cian dropped me off in my realm. While Liva hadn’t recognized the half-demon lackey, that was only a minor inconvenience.
Not only did I have a description of the fucker who tried to bind Melina, I knew his name.
Svinimir.
Without wasting any time, I rang Isa.
“Where are you?” I asked the instant I heard her voice.
“Closing in on your violent friend,” she answered coolly, although I could sense a hint of excitement there.
Excitement my own body echoed.
“He took corporeal form not far from the house. Our trackers picked up the scent.”
I climbed into my rental and started the engine. “Where?”
Isa gave me an address that wasn’t too far away from Melina’s as the onboard navigation system confirmed. By the looks of it, it was a small industrial area a few blocks behind Albtraum where chances of someone batting an eye at a beat-up demon were slim.
“I’ll be there in ten.”
The call disconnected, and I slammed my foot on the pedal, forcing the car on. With the evening spilling across town, the traffic was fairly light. Faster than I thought possible, the houses receded, giving way to gray, bland buildings, dilapidated warehouses, chain-link fences, and rusty containers scattered at irregular intervals across the truck-filled parking lots.
I phoned Isa again when I didn’t spot any visible flurry of activity, but the vampire wasn’t answering.
Shit.
What if the half-demon hadn’t been alone?”
I pulled into an empty space, killed the engine, then sprinted outside. The sickly yellow light cast shadows across the asphalt but failed to illuminate any figures. I closed my eyes, sucking in deep lungfuls of air.
Contrary to the ghost town it was now, there were numerous scents of employees who’d left for the day embedded in the currents. I pushed them aside, searching for the one I knew.
After another deep inhale, Isa’s trademark fragrance prickled at the edges of my awareness. Unfortunately, the only reason I sensed it was thanks to a rogue gust of air zigzagging between the buildings. Isa was downwind, which made pinpointing her exact location next to impossible.
I padded in the general direction of where she should be, cursing under my breath. The shadows were thicker in this part of the industrial zone, clustering together like conspirators. I kept my gaze pinned on the dark spots, my hackles rising.
Something wasn’t right.
A shade moved to my left. I turned in time to see it separate itself from the rest of the inky dark.
Separate, and lighten, until I was staring at a pair of piercing green eyes that gleamed as brightly as the fangs contrasting against full, luscious lips.
Isa cocked her head to the side and pinned me with the full weight of that terrifying gaze.
“No demon fire this time, Lotte?”
Twenty-Four
“You gave your attacker quite a scare, darling wolf,” Isa said coolly. Her heels tapped out a sharp beat as she approached. “No wonder he fled, seeing power that much greater than his own. He was almost relieved when we picked him up.”
I opened my mouth, but no words came out.
Fuck. It was bad enough that Isa knew I’d been keeping secrets from her. I didn’t even want to think what ICRA planned to do with the mutated experiment I’d turned into once word spread. Somehow I doubted my contracted three years would be the end of our involvement.
“I was the one who apprehended him,” she continued, studying my face as if all the turmoil thrashing inside me was written plainly there. Probably was, too. “The other agents don’t know about your ability.”
“Yet,” I whispered into the night.
A dangerous smile played on Isa’s lips. “The half-demon wasn’t exactly talkative after I bashed his teeth in.”
My breath hitched in my throat. Isa did what?
I blinked, thinking I must have misheard her, but the arched eyebrow and pointed look said otherwise. Isa really had silenced him so the others wouldn’t learn of my abilities.
Only the Ice Queen of Fang never did anything without an agenda.
“Why?” I buttoned my coat as wind whipped at my body. “Why would you help me when knowledge like that would plant me firmly in ICRA’s grasp? Isn’t that what you wanted all along?”
Annoyance fluttered across her features. She closed the remaining distance between us, green eyes drilling into mine.
“Have you already forgotten our talk at Fürstenfeldbruck?” she snapped. “When I refused to let you sign the contract without giving it some serious thought?”
I flinched. I had forgotten. But only because one kind deed couldn’t just overwrite the past.
When I didn’t reply, Isa cast me a look that might have been her equivalent of an eye roll.
“Yes, I want you to become a full-time agent. But”—a hint of fang gleamed under the faint yellow light—“I want you to come to us of your own accord. To use your skills and your new power to fight the good fight. If the demonic essence that was forced into your body has started to reshape you, it changes everything.”
No shit. I sighed and rubbed my hands down my arms, though the bone-deep chill didn’t abate.
“I’m not just a werewolf with connections to the outside world any longer, right?”
“Precisely.” Isa angled her head in a silent command and started walking across the fatigued asphalt back towards the illuminated section. I hurried to catch up, then fell in step with her just as the winds ratcheted up again. “You’re a formidable power, Lotte. Or at least have the potential of becoming one. If others at ICRA learn this, they will chain you. Not just to the Agency, but to themselves.” A humorless laugh left her lips. “And I know just how well that went down the last time.”
“I’m really not one for rules, am I?” I said dryly.
“Rules?” She glanced sideways. “No, I don’t think you have a problem with rules. I think your issue lies with people trying to bend you to their will.”
Her honesty surprised me almost as much as the truth. Because Isa was right. Even before Melina, when it had been Christian who had lost his life after Schultz, the Zentrum’s former CEO, had slipped him Nill just to get the kid out of the way, I was more than willing to take initiative. To step out of my comfort zone and do what was right. As long as I was the one calling the shots.
But back then, Isa had opted for threats.
We both knew how well that had turned out.
“So what now?” I asked.
“Now we keep your secret.” She stopped and turned to face me when we reached my car. “I’ll call in someone to muddy the demon’s memory if I have to, but I promise I will buy you as much time as I can.”
“I don’t mean to sound ungrateful, but what good will that do me? From where I’m standing, it sounds like the end result will be the same.”
Me at ICRA’s beck and call.
Isa tipped her head towards the sky, then slowly let out a coiling breath. A touch of something that might have been regret shadowed her features but was gone when she looked at me once more.
“Not if you sign a contract on your own terms.”
I frowned. “What do you mean?”
“There are certain blood-based agreements that cannot be breached.” She leaned against the hood of the car, hands tucked in her coat pockets. “While you would be irrevocably tied to ICRA, yes, not even the director general could change the terms once you signed them.”
“Hence the additional time,” I whispered, understanding what Isa wasn’t saying out loud.
I could buy myself some freedom. Protection, too.
By giving ICRA my life.
Isa’s kindness didn’t end there. After I gave her Svinimir’s name and description, she told me to take the evening, as well as the entire next day off. With the wild
ride that had been my days ever since I was released from quarantine, I really didn’t object.
Afanasiy was still caught up in Shadow World business, so after a night of restless sleep and a lot of cursing myself for feeling so fucking hollow just because my demon wasn’t there, I called up Alec for a match. Breaking a sweat out on the court seemed like the surest way to maintain my sanity. And maybe…maybe I would even tell Alec about my new flammability over lunch.
He would freak out, sure. But he would talk to me, too.
When I arrived at the Olympiapark Tennis-Zentrum, however, all my fears and the oppressive darkness faded, replaced by a wide grin that stretched across my face.
Alec wasn’t the only one waiting in the atrium.
“We thought you might like to return to the roots,” he said, motioning to Selma and Rihard who offered matching waves. The three of them looked thick as thieves.
“Wouldn’t miss a match with you for the world,” Rihard said, then clamped one hand down on Alec’s shoulder. “And this way I get to not only kick your ass,”—he met my gaze briefly before tipping his head to the right—“but his, too. It’ll be such a delight to bring you two to your knees.”
“As long as ICRA doesn’t lock you up for threatening one of theirs,” Selma muttered, but barely concealed the humor in her voice.
I chuckled. Not so thick, then.
“Just let me change, and you’ll see this liaison isn’t so rusty that she couldn’t take a cheeky cub.” Or so I hoped.
Rihard had really upped his game in my absence. He wasn’t just grand slam material.
He was winning material.
“You can start warming up.” I faked a smirk. “I’m sure you’ll need it, kid. Alec?”
He fell in step with me while the cubs scurried off and threw one arm around my shoulders to pull me in a quick hug.
“You really do know how to cheer a were up, huh?” I smiled.
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