“Stop!”
She cups her ear. “What?”
“Don’t come any closer.”
“Don’t commit to any closure?” she yells back.
“Dammit, stop!”
“Damishop? Is that German?”
You have to be kidding me. Why’s this shit always happen to me? “Stop walking.”
She cocks her head. “What?”
“I can hear you just fine, are you fucking deaf?” I shout.
“No, I’m not dead!”
“Want me to kill her?” Havoc growls.
I wave him back. “Hold up… I think it’s Lanni, but why she wouldn’t just walk up and go, ‘Hey, guys. It’s Lanni. I’m in a different body, so don’t shoot me,’ I have no fucking idea.” I sigh as Havoc scrutinizes her.
“It does seem suspicious.”
“Lanni?” I ask.
She gives me a huge smile. “Yeah?”
“How are we supposed to know it’s you?”.
Her head cocks to the side. “What?” She gets within a few feet of us before stopping. “Oh! When I get in a new body everything takes a bit to get used to. Right now, you sound like you’re in a tunnel. I didn’t like Geoff’s body. It was icky and he had a little dicky. Ha ha! I’m hilarious. Why are you staring at me like that? Ew, are you fetishizing me?”
I wave at Havoc like she might have forgotten that I have no interest at all in “fetishizing” her. “I want to know you’re really Lanni.”
“Okay…” She thinks about it for a moment. “You’re wearing clothes.”
“I am.”
“If you were wearing an illusion, I could have been able to tell! See?”
Way more people than just Lanni know about this. Especially after the me-showing-up-naked mishap. “Let’s try something else.”
“Alright. I’ve seen your penis. I can tell you what size it is.”
“I can too!” Marco shouts.
Havoc turns on him and Marco stills. “What was that?”
“I thought… you needed help,” he says, then he kicks a rock around with his shoe.
He knows what he did, but he also has a brain big enough to be aware that Havoc wouldn’t mind crushing it. It’s amazing, really.
“Lanni, tell me about the first time we met.”
She seems to think about it for a moment before her eyes get really wide. “Ah! Yes, I saw you and then I tried to kill you!”
“Perfect,” I say. “Let’s go.”
“Where was I during this?” Havoc asks.
“You were laughing, remember? You laughed so hard you spilled your soup?”
“That was Lanni?”
“Yes.”
“Huh!” Then he tries to hide his grin.
“Lanni, how’d you end up in Geoff’s body?” I ask.
“He came in and thought he could kill me. I’m not sure if he was wanting my magic or what, but the moment he cut into me, I threw my magic at him, and somehow, I was suddenly in his body. I took off for the door and slammed it in place. He was staggering around, which would have been the perfect opportunity to kill him seeing as he wasn’t used to the body, but I was also struggling with his body. I’d never gone into a body like that, and I don’t know how I did.”
“Maybe it’s because his body was dead for so long?” Havoc suggests.
Lanni nods. “That could be! But there was something wrong with the body, so I left it and took this one. I think we should go before they notice us.”
I agree with her, so I put an illusion on everyone and move them back toward the vehicles. It takes us a while to get home because I need to make sure we’re not being followed, but we eventually make it back.
Chapter Twelve
“What are we going to do after this?” I ask Havoc as I step into the bathroom where he has the shower running. He’s standing just outside, stripping off his last piece of clothing.
“Like… us or the rest of this bullshit?” he asks.
“Us. I want to talk just about us.” I walk up to him and lean against his bare body.
“Take a shower with me?”
“Sure. I’m too tired to wash myself. Dying, then using magic like that makes one very tired.”
He pulls back enough that he can slide my shirt off. “Let’s… do something with just us.”
There’s a loud meow and scratching on the door as Menace decides he’s either going to shred his way through the door, or I’m going to let him in.
“How about us and Menace?” I ask.
Havoc narrows his eyes like he’s offended by this question. “Why do you like that thing?”
I reach back and open the door enough the cat can slip in. “Look at that face.”
Menace promptly sits down, lifts a paw, and starts licking it as he extends his razor-sharp claws.
Havoc makes a strange noise that is not quite disbelief but something close. “You realize he’s looking me in the eyes while doing that, right? He wants to murder me and keep you to himself.”
“He wouldn’t,” I say as Havoc tosses my shirt on top of the cat monster.
The cat yowls and shreds my shirt as I sigh.
“I guess I didn’t need that shirt,” I grumble.
“Good. I like you shirtless better. Good job, cat. Shred his underwear too.”
“No, thank you. Be good.” I push my pants and underwear down before kicking them far away from the cat. Havoc pulls me into the shower, and I sink against him as the hot water beats down on us. I could sleep for hours like this, tucked in Havoc’s arms, warmth surrounding me.
“What if we go on a trip somewhere, like to Disney or something so we know we’re not getting caught up in some disaster?” Havoc suggests.
That sounds like a nice idea. “I could do Disney. There are no weapons or anything allowed in that place. It’ll be so peaceful.”
“Then when you come back here, you’ll be rejuvenated enough to rise as the best boss ever and control your district so they bow down to you everywhere you go!”
I crane my neck back from his shoulder to give him a good look. “Um. No?”
“No?”His eyebrows furrow. “Really?”
“Yes, really!”
“Well, that’s disappointing, if I’m being honest. You’re so powerful, Miles. What if you just take over the next district and then another and then another?” he asks hopefully.
“I was actually thinking that I’m not very good at this boss district stuff and was hoping someone else would take over. Like I’ll still be around to help protect the place, but maybe I could find someone more… capable. Maybe Johnson?”
Havoc reels back like he’s disgusted. “A human?”
I narrow my eyes at the outburst. “I’m a human.”
“Yeah, but he’s like human human.”
“Yeah, but he’s smart and probably knows how to actually run things. I mean, he helps run the department.”
His shoulders deflate. “But… power… world domination, you know, that kind of stuff.”
I grin at him. “Why do you think I need to have that?”
“Because I want everyone to see how powerful and amazing you are.”
“You do realize that I don’t lose my power working at the café, right? I’m still plenty powerful there.”
“Hmm…. I suppose.”
I snort. “Do you want to run it?”
He raises an eyebrow. “No one would ever let a demon run a district.”
“I could make it happen if you wanted to.”
He shakes his head. “Nah, I’m not much for that kind of stuff. I just want to crush skulls, threaten people, and look at your naked tush.”
“Do you see why we’re not meant to run anything?” I ask with laugh.
“Nope, not seeing that at all. I think we’d be amazing, but yeah, maybe we should leave it to someone who’s into the whole ‘protect the city’ nonsense.”
“Yuck. What nonsense.”
He snickers. “We’ll just be aweso
me the way we are, alright? We know in our hearts that we are the best of the best.”
I kiss him before draping my arms over his shoulders. “We don’t need anyone to tell us any differently. We’re just automatically awesome.”
“Honestly… as much as I’ve always wanted you to rise to your potential in society, I now kind of want to keep you in a box, so really, I’m not upset at all about this idea. Seeing you in danger and knowing what could happen to you… I can’t tell you what went through me when Geoff killed you and Etienne was struggling to bring you back. I can’t describe the panic I felt and the fear that you were gone from me. After I led them off and hid until it was safe to leave, I broke down and cried. Me. A demon. Sobbing. It was disgusting. Snot, tears, all of it. Because there were moments that felt like an eternity where I thought I lost you. I thought that I was going to have to face the world without you. And in that moment, I thought about walking right out and letting Geoff kill me because I don’t know that I could keep on moving without you. We’ve been together for so long that I now feel like I know nothing but you. If you were ever to leave me… I just couldn’t do it.”
I squeeze him tighter. I feel awful about not instantly going with Etienne. I hadn’t thought about the pain it was causing Havoc because I’d been too wound up in my own self-hate. “I’m so sorry I did that to you. I didn’t think. I just get caught up in feeling like I should be punished for what I did.”
“Should I be punished for all the people I was forced to kill by heartless masters?”
I shake my head. “No, of course not.”
“Then why do you feel like you should?”
I want to say that he doesn’t understand, but I know he does. “I don’t know, Havoc. I try not to. And I’m better now. Since facing those people, I think I’ve come to terms with it because I told them that it wasn’t perfect, but I was going to kill the man who did this to them. So after I take his life and keep him from ever hurting again, I feel like I’ll truly be at peace with myself. I’ll trust myself.”
Havoc kisses my forehead. “Okay. And I will be by your side to make sure we stop him. Can we use that to atone for our wrongdoings? Will stopping him fix it?”
“It might not make everything perfect, but I believe it’ll set us on the right track to live for ourselves.”
“Then that’s what we must do. And after that, we’ll stay on this path of being good people,” he decides.
“As long as you’re beside me, this is the only path I want to be on.”
Havoc kisses me softly as I rest my head against his shoulder. How can this man understand me so well? I suppose our years together have made our relationship grow. But I feel like this past year, we’ve grown more than the hundreds of years we’ve been companions.
“We need a new plan,” Johnson says.
I look across the table at him. “A new plan? We didn’t have one to start with.”
“We need a plan.”
The whole group of us are gathered around the table. There aren’t enough chairs, so some people, like Iya, Badrick, and Baron, are standing. I’m sitting on a chair with Yoko, and both of us have one ass cheek falling off.
“What if,” Iya says, “we just ask him nicely?”
There are a lot of snorts about that one. “Ask him nicely to murder us? Because that’s the only thing he’s going to agree to ‘nicely’ do,” Havoc says.
“Sorry that Iya wants to make friends and not enemies,” Iya says as he folds his arms over his broad chest and huffs.
“That’s very… admirable of you, Iya, but I don’t think Geoff’s going to listen,” I explain. “His whole… thing is to murder all of us.”
“What if you draw him to the old house and we’ll be waiting for him?” Nicco asks.
I look over at Nicco, who’s been creeping in the corner. Creeping enough that I hadn’t even noticed him standing there. “You mean the main house? But Geoff knows that house stupidly well. It’s his house,” I say.
Nicco slowly nods. “Yes, but the house’s magic resonates with you. There is a lot of untapped magic in the grounds from years of use. It’s where this all started with you and him. It’s where he sacrificed uncountable victims.”
Etienne leans forward from where he’s sitting on Leo’s leg. “You’re talking about the dead people from the river?”
I nod. “Yes. Most of them died right there on that land.”
Etienne looks thoughtful. “I’m not a necromancer, but there is the possibility of me calling up their aid to help us. Many have not passed on because of the way they died. If they have a shot at taking him down, I assure you, they’ll lend their magic and their help,” Etienne says confidently.
I look over at Havoc, trusting his opinion most of all.
Havoc reaches under the table and squeezes my leg. “It’s our best hope, I believe. I think we should head there now so everyone has enough time to get prepared. He probably has someone watching the place, so we won’t have long, but we can hope it’s long enough.”
I nod before looking around at all of the people who’ve gathered here to help us. “I agree. But let me say something before we do this. All of you have stuck with us for so long and we’re very grateful for the help. We’re truly lucky to have you guys beside us, to call you guys friends. I couldn’t ask for anything more. That means that none of you are expected to go with us. We don’t know what we’re facing. We don’t know if we’ll beat him in seconds or he’ll annihilate us in seconds, and we have to be prepared for that. Only do what you know you can accomplish, because I can’t lose any of you.”
Everyone’s quiet as they let the gravity of the situation soak in. I wish things were different, but sadly, this is the only choice we’ve been given.
Etienne catches my eyes. “I will stand with you until the end. This is partially my fault, so I’ll see it through.”
“If Etienne is with you, you’ll have my help,” Leo says.
Evan leans into the table. “This is my battle too. I was with you the first time we defeated him; I’ll be with you the second and hopefully last.”
They continue to hand out their support until everyone in the room assures me that they will be by my side the moment we face Geoff and they will help me bring him down.
I pray and hope that when Geoff takes his final breath, all of them will still be by my side.
I set a hand on Havoc’s and squeeze it tightly. He looks at me and gives me a smile.
We have our army.
Now we just need to win the war.
Chapter Thirteen
When we reach the house that Geoff raised me in, I stare at it in distaste. Because of the magic wound through the walls, it looks the same as it did those hundreds of years ago when I fled with a demon by my side.
“Ready?” Havoc asks.
“Yes,” I say, and I begin to set up with the others.
We spend all day setting up traps while Etienne lies in the middle of the grass talking to the thing inside him as his horse grazes around him. I can feel the magic bustling around him, but I don’t bother to ask what he’s doing so I don’t disrupt him. I feel it’s best to just let him be.
I have my demons on lookout, since I know Geoff will likely figure out that we’re here.
As it grows dark, everyone slows down. Even Etienne gets up in search of Leo.
“I think that’s all we can do for tonight,” Jacob says. Since he’s also a mage, we worked together to create spells and barriers. Even though he seems to think my methods of demon summoning and dark magic are a bit… risky and idiotic, he appears genuinely interested in them and asks me about it as we work.
I look around and notice Havoc is missing from the team. “Why don’t we get some sleep so we’re ready for when he attacks?” I suggest.
Everyone agrees and heads toward the house where I have Nicco show them where to stay, since it’s more his house than mine at this point. He’s lived here for quite a while, but he watches the house, so
it works for me.
I head inside and reach for my bond to Havoc. It tells me he’s downstairs, so I walk over to the door leading into the basement. I set my hand on the doorknob as I think of all the times I longingly looked at this door. I could only venture down it when Geoff was away or asleep.
If he caught me going down it, he would beat me, but it didn’t deter me. Nothing could because Havoc was down there. And as a child, I associated him with freedom. He was so strong. He didn’t cry when Geoff abused him. Instead, he defiantly faced him.
I slowly walk down the stairs I haven’t been down since the day I escaped all those years ago. Once on the floor, I turn and see Havoc sitting in the circle he was once bound to.
The memories hit me hard as I stare at him in the same spot he’d always be in every time I came down. His hands would be shackled and red. He’d pace that small circle and snip at me until he began to like me. Even then, he pretended he hated me, although it was clear he didn’t.
“Why are you sitting in that horrid spot?” I ask as I walk over to him.
“Just thinking.”
“About?” I ask.
“Everything. About what will happen if we win. What will happen if we lose. How this,” he waves around him, “was the only thing I had for years. That and watching you grow up. You always stayed optimistic even through all of that and I couldn’t fathom why, but I also couldn’t stop eagerly waiting for you to show up. I hated that I began to trust you, a mage. But look at where this horrid circle has led me. All those years in this tiny circle were worth it just to end up with you.” He reaches out to me. “Do you think we’ll finally get our happy ending after this is all over?”
“We fucking better. No more dark mage dickheads.”
He grins as I set my hand in his and let him pull me down into the circle with him. I remember the first time I stepped into the circle, knowing very well that he might kill me yet doing it anyway. Was it that I didn’t care if I died or was it that I trusted him? He threatened my trust quite often throughout the years, but he is a demon. And he’d been mistreated his entire life. It just took him a long fucking time to realize that I’m not going to ruin his life. He pulls me onto his lap and runs his fingers down my side as his mouth finds my own. His lips part and I feel his tongue brush against mine before it tangles with it.
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