And was rewarded by one of Alec’s warm, dazzling grins. “We’re all eager for some Lotte time. There isn’t quite enough snarling on the courts without you.”
“Hey…”
Alec twisted away from my punch—and only narrowly evaded colliding with a physician.
“It’s the truth.” He threw his hands up, the epitome of innocence. Then burst out laughing. “Maybe we could do a recording of you barking out commands. I’m sure Rihard would appreciate it.”
“Or we could do a recording of me taking your ass down for the whole Zentrum to see. I’m pretty sure they would appreciate that.”
“You wouldn’t.”
“Want to bet on it, Koch?” I took a step towards him, menace and amusement dripping from my tone.
“You still take bribes in pizza, yeah?” He scratched the back of his head.
“And coffee. And Paulaner. Lots and lots of Paulaner.”
Alec lifted his gaze to the ceiling and sighed. “Fine.”
Satisfied, I marched on, though not before I heard him mutter, “Ruthless Freundenbergers.”
He was more right than he knew.
Once we made our way down to the first subterranean level, memories swept through me in a flurry of good and bad. So much had happened here. So much of my life was entwined with the Zentrum.
But for the first time, the compound didn’t feel like home.
I didn’t feel like I was home.
“Alec…” I halted mid-step.
He shook his head, effectively silencing me. “Whatever it is, Lotte, it can wait. Right now, all I want you to think about is how we’re going to show those kids us old-timers still have what it takes.” He pressed a kiss to my cheek. “Go get dressed. I need to check in with Felix, see if he managed to move one of my afternoon appointments. Wouldn’t want to cut our time together short.”
I smiled at him, then watched him stride back down the corridor until his athletic form disappeared out of sight. Letting out a soft sigh, I pushed inside the locker room.
The scent of sweat, deodorant, and a touch of clay lingered in the air, along with something I couldn’t quite place. The door swung shut behind me, and I headed towards my usual locker, determined to do precisely what Alec had said.
Live in the moment.
I ran through a few combinations in my head as I neared my rarely used—but now that I was officeless, vital—locker. With the lack of practice, we would probably need to adapt our game a bit. While I didn’t doubt Alec and I would be just as attuned to one another as always, I couldn’t place the same faith in the relationship between my intention and the actual execution of my shots.
No risks.
Still, a smile tugged on my lips at the thought of truly returning to the basics. To that solid reliability that ruled doubles.
Yeah, I needed that in my life.
After swinging the bag off my shoulder, I placed it on the floor. I pulled out my bundled clothes, but before I even managed to open the locker and stuff them inside, awareness prickled the nape of my neck.
And it wasn’t the good kind.
I spun on my heel.
Several demons manifested in a half circle around me, blocking off the rest of the room. Then started closing in.
Fuck.
“What do you want?” I growled and dropped the clothes on the floor.
None of them was gentleman enough to answer. I exhaled. Fine with me.
I swooped low, snatched my bag off the ground, and swung it at the nearest demon. The green-haired bastard went down with a grunt, as did his unsuspecting buddy, but the third was ready. He blocked my attack with a muscular arm while another ripped the bag from my grip. I threw myself to the side, slid across the cool tiles, and lashed out with one leg to kick the demon blocking my path straight in his balls. The instant his agony caressed my ears, I pushed up and sprinted for the door.
I didn’t get far.
A hand wrapped around my wrist mid-step and tugged me back. Hard. The precious second it took me to regain my footing was all the fuckers needed.
Something crashed in the background, but I was too busy bucking and kicking, trying to get the fuck away to see what. The demon I’d snagged in the balls threw himself at me with resentment etching deep grooves into his angular features.
Tough luck.
I bit the hand still holding me captive with my human teeth, then head-butted the demon, profoundly sorry I couldn’t get another kick in and make sure the asshole never reproduced. Still riding that thought, I ducked under a blow and vaulted across the bench, taking a reedy demon down with me before I sprang to my feet again. My breaths came out in sharp rasps, but there was no respite in sight.
It seemed that for every small step I made forward, the assholes threw me a whole fucking mile back.
I swerved and blocked, attacked and pushed for advantages, utilizing everything I’d learned during my early werewolf years, as well as the techniques Dopfer had introduced me to. But the demons…
They were hardly even winded.
And for the life of me, I couldn’t call up my flames.
Couldn’t unleash the single damn thing that might have helped me break through the wall of bodies that kept getting up regardless of how many times I knocked them on their asses.
More grunts rose from the background, followed by the slap of flesh against flesh. Someone was fighting on my side. If only I could buy myself some time…
Just as I saw an opening, a demon my senses hadn’t picked up on in time caught me in his grip. Alec’s furious voice rang out through the space, but it was faint.
Then faded entirely when the demon forced my body apart.
Twenty-Five
I managed to pull myself together enough while we were speeding in particle form so that when my very corporeal feet touched the ground, I was ready to lash out.
What I hadn’t counted on, however, was the sight stopping me short.
Shadow World.
I was in the Shadow World.
Not Afanasiy’s lair, which had become almost like a second home, but a massive fucking chamber teeming with more demons than I thought possible for a single place to hold. I felt their presence at my back, spotted them lingering by the walls in the periphery of my vision. Some corporeal, some not.
My skin crawled as my senses struggled to adjust to the massive amount of energy cloying the air.
But it was the small dais erected right up ahead that truly commanded my attention.
A stunning female demon that looked no older than thirty but carried the complex scent of someone ancient sat on an ornate chair I could call no less than a throne. Brilliant red hair spilled down her shoulders and curled over her breasts the lavish white-and-silver gown did its best to show off. Even if it hadn’t been for the familiar figure standing beside her like a damn guard dog, I would have known who she was in a heartbeat.
Raya.
I stuffed down the rancid embers of hurt burning my insides and focused on the coiling anger instead. That I could use.
With a forceful twist of my body, I shrugged off my snatchers, then met their liege’s gaze.
Where Voit’s eyes were a warm green that always reflected even the smallest shift in his mood, Raya’s were cold, revealing nothing. I ignored the goose bumps unfurling down my skin.
Raya rose from her throne. “I have been wanting to meet you for a long time, Lotte.”
Her demonic audience didn’t move, though the rush of excitement sent their energy signatures swirling through the space. Great. They were enjoying this.
“And why would that be?” My snappiness leaked into my tone, but I was really too pissed off to be bothered by showing just how badly she’d gotten to me.
Although Raya’s lips formed the proper shape, I could hardly call the expression a smile. “You are a little like us now, are you not? You have demon fire.”
My gaze automatically drifted to the stoic Afanasiy on her right. With his hair braided d
own his back, there was nothing to distract me from the way his mouth was pulled into a thin, hard line. Nothing to divert my attention from his resolute staring into the distance—a fucking statue of power and muscle, backing up his liege.
Pain raked my insides, and I nearly doubled over as something within me broke.
I’d wanted to accept the mating bond.
And the bastard wouldn’t even look at me.
As if sensing my discomfort, his gaze flickered to the hurt undoubtedly written on my face, then away again.
I swallowed. Had he been the one to tell Raya?
No, I hadn’t had the chance to speak with him about my fire-starting tendencies. But that meant…
“Have you been spying on me?” I hissed.
My demon guards moved closer—wise, since I was ready to start ripping throats out—but Raya called them off with a wave of her hand.
“How could we not?” She arched an amused eyebrow. “You were changed in that laboratory. We did offer you a place here, but you chose your agent over us. The Interspecies Crimes and Relations Agency might have the facilities, the scientists”—her eyes glistened coolly—“but they are not demons. They can’t know the power like we do.”
While her words were pragmatic, the intent I sensed lurking beneath was anything but.
Raya didn’t give a fuck about my well-being. Or that of the world if my abilities went out of hand.
She wanted me.
Which made her no better than Kauer or the Frankensteinian fucks behind the lab. Raya might not have done the deed, but she was all too willing to reap the benefits.
Same. Fucking. Shit.
I crossed my arms and glared at her. “If you had people watching me, why didn’t they interfere?”
“Against your half-demon attacker?” She softened a tightly wound red curl with her fingers. “You seemed to be handling yourself quite well.”
Afanasiy flinched at her words, obviously hearing of my brawl for the first time. But it really didn’t matter. The distance between us spoke volumes of where his loyalties lay.
“I wasn’t talking about my attacker.” I took a step forward, the guards around me tensing, yet refraining from interfering—still under orders. “I was talking about the fact that I couldn’t put out the demon fire. That I had no fucking idea how to control it. Where were your ass-kissing stalkers of subjects then?”
This time, Afanasiy’s grimace was painfully visible.
A worthless part of me hoped he would intervene. Stand up for me. Tell Raya to fuck off for playing with my safety.
But he didn’t move from his post. Guarding his sovereign like a good little pup.
“Fuck this shit.” I looked from him back to Raya. “You might mean something in the Shadow World, but you’re nothing in my realm. The realm you kidnapped me from,” I seethed. “What gives you the fucking right? You should be grateful I don’t bring the full force of ICRA down on you. I’m betting they wouldn’t mind getting their hands on a few demons with delusions of grandeur.”
“You’re a demon, too, Lotte.” Raya tried to keep her voice neutral, but anger frayed its edges.
“Like fuck I am.”
“You belong in the Shadow World. With us.” She strode forward, though stayed within the perimeter of the dais. Within reach of Afanasiy. It only made me want to snap her neck that much more. “What will happen when your powers grow? When it’s not just demon fire burning at your fingertips? We could help you master them.”
I snorted. “Yeah? In exchange for what?”
“Your allegiance.”
Laughter exploded from my chest—the sound was humorless, dry, and conveyed more than a little of just how fed up I was with her bullshit.
I inhaled deeply to put a stopper on whatever the fuck wanted to burst forward. We weren’t done yet.
“You want my allegiance after this?” I gestured to my lovely jailers, eyebrows raised. “You’re out of your fucking mind.”
“She’s right,” a voice called out from behind, matching my anger perfectly.
Voit crossed the chamber, footsteps booming off the high stone walls. He was pissed—something that showed in his energy, scent, and on his face alike. He placed himself firmly between his mother and me.
Though I thought I wasn’t even capable of it any longer, warmth swelled in my chest, the deeply rooted gratitude that could only come of pack standing together.
“Mother, I told you I would speak with Lotte,” he sneered, “when the time was right. And what do you do? You manhandle her. Throw her in front of your fucking inquisition.”
The muscles in his shoulders bunched. Power crackled off his skin and manifested in sparks of red fire. The display was staggeringly different from the Voit I was used to, and yet it was him, that care and concern that had always been there. Only augmented to a dangerous level.
Raya, however, didn’t seem fazed. “And pray tell me, Voitsekh, when would the right time be? She’s already exhibiting—”
“Oh, I don’t know,” Voit yelled, “maybe after she caught the bastard that nearly killed her friend? After she had a chance to take a fucking breath?”
His mother advanced, but Voit turned to me and grabbed my hand. “Come on. We’re getting the fuck out of here.”
He shot Afanasiy a poisonous look, then led me past the demons that parted like water and through the ornate gates—right into the heart of the Shadow World.
Through Lena and Afanasiy, I’d heard stories about this realm of shadows. But knowing something was insubstantial and experiencing it firsthand were two very different things.
Unlike the chamber where Raya held court, nothing here even remotely resembled my world.
Save for the path beneath our feet—which I felt more than saw—my surroundings consisted of wispy shadows ranging from gray to pitch-black. With the different quality of the air where energy ruled over scent and the lack of any known sounds, the damn setting was more than a touch frightening. But with Voit’s hand warm in mine, knowing he wouldn’t let me come to harm, I could also appreciate its beauty.
Because it was. Beautiful.
Once I attuned myself to the absence of everything I’d come to consider as normal, I noticed a peculiar sense of serenity dominated the reality here. The calmness of an eternal night.
And much like the night, the Shadow World struck me as vast. A space designed for the purity of particles.
Endless.
Free.
But as Raya’s voice crept back into my mind, I knew it was a lie.
There was no freedom here in this wispy landscape, regardless of how much my heart might wish it.
Voit didn’t say a thing as he led me down a narrow, curving path towards one of the ghostly buildings. Up close, the shadows parted to reveal a drop of gold before his fingers wrapped around the handle and he ushered me inside.
I’d half expected to find myself in his lair, but instead, the room that opened up before me was…not a room at all.
My breath fled from my lungs as I took in the domed courtyard, the light gray backdrop of the stones easing the unexpected assault of colors coming from the trees and bushes scattered throughout, illuminated by artificial light that felt no less real than our sun.
As far as I could tell, we were the only people here, although someone in particle form might be lurking about with us being none the wiser.
Or not.
My gaze narrowed as I felt a brush of power—Voit searching for representatives of his kin. Once the electric charge faded in the air, the tension fled from his shoulders. He took me to a polished stone bench resting beneath a birch tree.
“I’m sorry,” he said. His eyes were haunted when he looked at me. “I’m so, so sorry, Lotte.”
“Voit, it’s not your fault.”
He raked his hand through his short black hair. “I should have warned you what my mother was planning. But—I guess I believed she’d listen to me for once. And you had so much on your plate already w
ith Melina…”
“You came through when it mattered the most,” I said and gave him a lopsided smile.
Voit, however, wasn’t convinced.
A phantom wind rustled the birch’s leaves, more than likely powered by the turmoil leaking from the demon slumped beside me.
I took his hands in mine and squeezed. “Look, I admit I could’ve done without this shit. But Raya’s speech offered a few answers, as well.”
Answers I didn’t want but was nevertheless glad to hear.
“If my power”—the word felt odd on my tongue—“really does continue to grow, it won’t catch me off guard now.”
Gaze resting on the greenery around us, Voit blew out a breath, then sat up straighter. The rustling calmed.
“My mother’s right, you know, about you needing us. Not in the way she so gracefully proposed,” he snarled the two words, “but you are at least part demon. And every demon needs a court behind them.”
I cocked my head to the side. “Like werewolves supposedly need a pack. I don’t have that, either, and things turned out just fine.”
“But you do have it,” Voit said silently. “Alec. Your family. Even your brothers’ pack acts like an extension to your own. It might not be conventional, but it’s there. A safety net to fall back on. Support when things get rough. And, well, demons tend to be a bit more ruthless by nature. Our courts are what keep us in line. We can’t fight among ourselves without starting a war, and don’t even get me started on how fast that would happen if it weren’t for our respective lieges keeping the hotheads leashed.”
“So you’re saying”—I leaned back, not quite so at ease any longer—“I should bind myself to your mother?”
Voit shook his head, but whatever words were on the tip of his tongue never sounded through the air as two burly-looking demons burst through the door.
Twenty-Six
“We’re under Raya’s orders to bring you back to the throne room,” the mountain of a demon on the left said as he kept walking towards us, boots thudding heavily against the stone.
The other fingered the sword strapped to his side.
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