by M F Adele
We ended our call, and I dragged my fae with me to wait for them. It took Dolyn and company twenty minutes to get to the lodge after wrapping up the disposal.
I was sitting on the stairs of the porch, propped up between Vaughn’s legs as he ran his fingers through my hair.
The incubus stopped in front of us, and I rolled my eyes at his appearance.
“There’s blood on your face.”
“Yeah, the fae punched me in the mouth.”
I pulled Vaughn up, directing Dolyn and his friends back to our cabin.
“What fae?”
“The one we killed at Sloane’s house.”
Vaughn stumbled over his feet, his eyes widening in surprise. He leaned forward, angling his head like he’d misheard Dolyn. “Was it a winter fae?”
“I don’t know. I didn’t ask him.”
“I think so,” the other demon hybrid admitted. “He threw ice at me.”
I grimaced as Vaughn pinched the bridge of his nose. “Where did you take the body?”
“To Lira. The hellhounds were pretty excited about it.”
The third guy snorted. “I’ll never understand how something so ferocious looking is so fucking nice.”
We continued up the path, and Dolyn introduced Vaughn and me to his friends. I knew the one guy was a necromancer, but I was curious about the other. He was some kind of shifter, but not an animal.
“What are you?”
“That’s rude.”
“I’m rude.”
He smirked. “Your reputation makes you sound scarier than you appear.”
“I don’t want to look scary. What are you?”
“Skinwalker. And before you ask, this is my skin.”
I nodded. That would have been my next question.
Stopping at the edge of the yard, I watched Ripley interact with Briggs and Baylor on the porch of Jack’s cabin. The fact that she could smile after all the bullshit was a fucking miracle.
“I’m not saying that she’s a delicate flower or anything, but be nice to her. She’s been through a version of hell that she didn’t want to speak about with me in the room. She grew up with Briggs and his brother, so she’s comfortable with them.”
I kept trying to talk to Dolyn, but his attention kept straying to Ripley. He used his left hand to rub at the center of his chest.
“Dolyn? Are you listening to me?”
“Huh? Oh, yeah, sure.”
“Does your chest hurt?” I asked him, but I had a feeling that I already knew the answer to that.
He couldn't keep his eyes off of Ripley, and neither could Ozlo. She seemed to be having the same problem as she spoke to Briggs and Baylor.
“It feels a little strange, yes,” Ozlo admitted.
“Like a tugging feeling, or like you’ve been punched?” Stone inquired. “Use your words.”
“Why do you ask?” Dolyn narrowed his eyes at my demon.
I swatted at his hand, knocking it away from his chest. “That's what a mate bond feels like.”
“Are you fucking with me right now?” Ozlo stared at me for about three seconds in stunned silence before turning back to Ripley.
“Lo, what do you mean?”
“Honestly, I cannot believe I'm saying this.” I rubbed at my temples. “But if your chest started hurting when you got near Ripley, then she’s most likely your mate.”
Dolyn stared at me like I had lost my mind—which wasn’t anything unusual—but I had never seen the incubus so unsure about talking to a female before. It was halfway between comical and pathetic.
“Uhm… Are you sure?”
“Yes, I’m sure. I can give you a memory of what it felt like for me. That might help you understand a little better.”
I held my hand up, stopping him from replying. “But listen to me when I say this, she has been through hell, and you are not to touch her, either of you, until she is ready and more than willing. I will remove parts of your body if you make that girl uncomfortable.”
“Lo. I think you know me better than that.” Dolyn retorted.
“I do. But I wanted to give a formal warning. I will also be letting Hyde know. So if either of you does anything stupid, she has my full permission to harm you.”
“Do not tell her that,” Dolyn pleaded. “She will look for any little opening to bring me some pain right now. She is very mad at me.”
Ozlo kicked at the ground as he bit his lips together, and Arwen chuckled.
“What did you do to piss Hyde off?” the necromancer asked.
“That’s not important, and she’s temperamental. She gets it from Sloane.”
I scoffed. “If she’s mad at you, it’s because you’ve done something dumb. Did you take her staff away, or did you run off a new boyfriend?”
Dolyn mumbled, “I may have done both.”
“Why does that not surprise me?”
“Are you going to introduce us to her? I don’t even know her name.”
“Her name is Ripley.”
Dolyn swaggered off without another word. Ozlo walked a little slower behind the incubus, his steps full of trepidation. He clearly wasn’t enthusiastic about meeting his mate. I thought she might feel the same way, though.
I leaned against Stone, watching the spectacle in front of us unfold when the door to Jack’s cabin swung open forcefully. Blaire stomped out, cussing someone rather creatively.
She made it down the stairs and a few feet away before she turned on the man behind her.
“You can’t just fucking blink into existence in someone’s bedroom, Tiago.”
“I had no way of knowing what was going on. But I found out some new information, and I came to tell you.”
“Buy a fucking cell phone,” she yelled at him.
He gave her a brilliant smile, and if she had something to throw at him, she would have. “Okay. I will buy a cell phone if that will make you happy.”
“It would make me very godsdamn happy if you would call before you showed up,” she growled at him.
When she didn’t stop glaring at him, he changed the subject.
“Where’s your brother? I haven’t seen him in ages.”
“Ask his mate. She’s right over there. But don’t leave until you tell me what you came to tell me.”
“Novak? Novak has a mate?”
Blaire snickered. “I said the same thing when I found out.”
He nodded thoughtfully. “I’m glad Novak is here because I have some news about his neighbor.”
That piqued my interest. But so did Tiago bouncing his eyes from Ripley to Dolyn and Ozlo.
“You have got to be kidding me,” I whispered to myself.
“Are they—” Briggs started before shaking his head. “I don’t—”
“I think that’s what’s happening,” I interrupted, nodding my head in. “They’re mates.”
“Which neighbor?” Stone questioned.
Tiago shrugged. “The fae-mage.”
Vaughn shook his head. “There’s no fae or fae hybrid in that building. I would know.”
“Yes, there is.”
“Who?”
“Annette Moore. Do you know her?”
Palmer narrowed his eyes, nodding. “Yeah... She’s the old lady who brings us cookies.”
“No. Her father is Alric Moore. She’s not an old woman at all. Well,” Tiago tilted his head in consideration. “She is very old, but she doesn’t normally look like that.”
My guys were stunned into silence.
I tipped my head back to laugh.
“Gods. Can this shit get any more twisted?”
“Don’t say that,” York warned quietly.
I glanced at Briggs, repeating the question he’d asked me Thursday night. “What changed between the beginning of May and the middle?”
“We all went out of town,” Stone answered. “Briggs was camping, Palmer went to Northern Ireland to visit his family, I was gone to a conference. Novak and Vaughn were home.”
; “Not really,” Novak corrected. “I was in and out. Vaughn came with me to a couple of gigs on the weekends.”
Novak tilted his head, scrunching his brows together. “Except for the weekend we met Sloane. I left that Thursday night, and I wasn’t supposed to come back until that Sunday.”
“You all came home early,” Vaughn commented.
“What does that have to do with this Annette woman being a fae-mage?” Jack inquired.
Briggs turned to me. “You never felt anything?”
I shook my head. “Nothing. Not when we were in the same building and none of the times that I was in CBP.”
“None?” Palmer’s brow was creased with confusion. “How many times were ye at CBP before ya met Vaughn?”
“At least a dozen times, maybe more.”
Ripley approached, frowning as she cut into our conversation.
“Sorry. Uhm, are you guys going back to the warehouse? I need to go back before we leave for the Underworld.”
“Why are you going to the Underworld?”
She curled her lip up as she widened her eyes. “Who are you?”
“Tiago.”
“These guys,” Ripley said to me, pointing at Dolyn, Ozlo, and Tiago. “It’s—”
“A mate bond.”
She nodded. “Fuck. That’s what I thought.”
19
Novak
Saturday, June 6th
Early Evening
I’d been friends with Tiago for years. Longer than I’d been friends with Vaughn... And I’d never seen him have that lost puppy look on his face. He was crazy about Blaire, but he was watching Ripley like she was the most fascinating thing in the room.
I guess she was to him.
“Hey, man. You good?”
He grimaced, nodding his head. “I’m confused.”
I sniggered at him. “About which part, Tiago?”
“I came to talk to Blaire about your neighbor. Then I find out she has mates. You don’t want to know what I saw; I’ll be knocking on her door from now on... But then, I walk outside after your sister and I’m instantly drawn to a shifter? She’s not a djinn, Novak. I don’t understand.”
“Do you think you’re maybe looking too far into this?”
“I could be,” he admitted hesitantly. “It’s just weird. Djinn are like druids. We don’t ever find mates. We just settle, pick the partner we can tolerate, and then wait for the cycle to begin.”
“What cycle?”
Palmer sighed. “Ye know, there are these things called books… And they have all kinds of fun facts in them.”
“What fucking cycle?” I repeated to the mage.
“The mating cycles. There’s a reason why you don’t see many kids around. The latest mating cycle started five years ago. It’ll last for another five years, and then there will be a lull. No children conceived or born for another decade.
“Some species go longer than that in between. Fae and Dragons, for example, can procreate for fifteen years out of every five decades. When we get to the Fae realm, we won’t see anyone under the age of fifteen.”
I felt my eyebrows rise. He was right; I didn’t know shit about that. I held my hands out, needing a moment to process what he was talking about.
“So…” I started before pausing. “What you’re saying is that I didn’t need to be as careful as I’ve been?”
He rolled his eyes. “No, that’s not what I said. We don’t know if it works the same with humans, but with a mate, there are times where it’s easier to—why are we talkin’ about this?”
I shrugged. “I’m just curious now.”
“Do you even want kids? I’ve never heard you mention them or seen you interact with them.”
Tiago chuckled when I gagged.
“No, no. Definitely not. I mean, maybe in like a century... but no. What the fuck am I saying? No. Mmm, maybe. No. Probably not.”
“Ya broke him, Tiago,” Palmer whispered.
“Holy shit. I have a headache,” I muttered. “I hate you so bad for bringing that up. Why did I listen? Fuck. Why did I ask?”
“Because you were curious,” Tiago mocked.
“I want to hit you,” I hissed at him. “But I won’t because I’m worried that my mate might kill you.”
He eyed Trouble as she spoke to Jack and Dolyn. She looked small between the two of them and dare I say harmless?
“She looks nice. What’s the catch? Neither one of you do nice.”
Palmer and I cackled. The mage slapped Tiago on the shoulder, shaking his head.
“She made Novak be responsible,” Palmer teased.
“Get fucked, Mage.”
“No, really.” Tiago arched a brow at us, and we wheezed through our laughter.
I widened my eyes, stage-whispering, “She’s the Devil.”
“Are you—Are you in trouble?”
“Yes. Loads of trouble. That’s what I call her.”
“Be serious for a second, please. Do you need to disappear? Should I be concerned?”
Palmer nodded conspiratorially. “She’s crazy. She’d find us.”
Tiago marched straight to Sloane, Palmer and I trailing behind him as we tried not to giggle like children. It was so fun to fuck with the djinn, but he’d get us back for this somehow.
“You’re crazy, and they’re in trouble.”
Sloane blinked at him several times with a stunned grin on her face. Palmer bit his lips together, and I wrapped my hand over my mouth as my shoulders shook.
“How are they in trouble exactly?”
“You. You are the trouble.”
“Oh my gods,” Blaire stammered. “Tiago. Sloane is great. Novak and Palmer are assholes. They’re fucking with you because you take everything so literally, and they knew you’d say something. Sloane isn’t crazy.”
Trouble shrugged. “I mean, I am a little bit.”
“We all are in one way or another, the genie included. Don’t let his beach bum appearance fool you,” my sister retorted.
“Oh, I’m not.” Trouble pointed at the djinn. “He’s plotting my murder.”
Tiago narrowed his eyes at my mate. “This is true.”
“It’s going to take more than a dagger to keep me down.”
“I’ll manage.”
She grinned, tilting her head to the left as she looked him up and down. “Whatever you say.”
Blaire sighed before glaring at Palmer and me. “You just can’t help yourselves, can you? You are forever stirring some pot of bullshit.”
“Go,” she shooed us. “Get busy.”
“I’m taking two of those strikes away,” Sloane called to Palmer. “The count is no longer four.”
“We’ll see, Love.” He flashed her a brilliant smile. “I have a feelin’ you’ll be back to four before midnight on Sunday.”
She didn’t bother arguing with the mage. She gave him a smug smile, grabbing Blaire and Ripley as she stepped into the Void.
“I don’t know if she’s going to prove you wrong or double that count for fun.”
“Is there a way she can do both? Because that’d be my guess,” Briggs commented. “Also... They’re gone. Are we following or nah?”
I felt a tingling tug in my chest before I could answer. Having Trouble summon us was a strange sensation to me, but I smiled as I pushed myself to my mate through the Void.
As I focused on her, I worried about York too. I didn’t want him to be here, and honestly, I didn’t think he needed to be. But even though the druid had been quiet, I knew he wouldn't stay at the cabin.
I understood the whole facing your demon thing, but he had literal demons to destroy his mental demons.
Sloane had talked Ripley into seeking haven in the Underworld for a week or two with Hyland and Dolyn. The panther was a little paranoid, and we couldn’t figure out why—other than all the shit she’d just been through.
There was more to it than that, though.
Sloane was sure that she needed someone to w
atch her back for a little while. And Trouble didn’t mind doing that, but she knew we’d be too busy to really give Ripley the security she needed right now.
I couldn’t disagree, and after spending some time with Dolyn, I knew the demon would probably be the perfect man for the job. He had a fucked up reputation in the Underworld. I didn’t see anyone making it past him to get to Ripley.
Trouble and Blaire had taken to her awfully quickly, and my mate was positive that Hyde was going to love her.
We were all a little terrified of having so many bloodthirsty women in one group. Not that I could call Ripley bloodthirsty, because I didn’t know yet.
Yet being the keyword.
Trouble, Blaire, and Hyde?
Yeah, they were vicious.
I swung my gaze from the ladies to the doorway leading outside. Stone had left it open when he ventured out, but I wasn’t interested in seeing the exterior of the monstrosity until it was time to burn it down.
I was sure we could find something flammable around here, or we could look in the surrounding buildings. Either way, it wouldn’t take the demon and me long to have this whole building lit up. And I was looking forward to a little chaos and destruction.
I’d burned a couple of things down before, but nothing this big.
Out of all the times that I’d been arrested, I couldn’t recall a time that I’d been charged with arson. I’d ask Vaughn about it, though.
He was too worried about the fae that Dolyn had killed. From past experience, I understood why. But I was seriously excited to see how Trouble would react to the bounty hunters.
It had taken them long enough to track him this time.
I wondered how much fun Sloane would have with them if they laid a finger on her fae…
The inside of the warehouse was creepy as fuck now that I knew the things that happened inside. The offices were so plain that it amped up that unease. Every creak, squeak, or groan felt ominous and dark even with all the extra bodies in here.
The extra bodies with us.
Fuck.
The live people.
“No,” Briggs said to Trouble as they walked into the room I was in. “They would have left a paper trail somewhere. That’s just the kind of shit they did.”