by M F Adele
Sloane snorted as Dolyn Drake came into view. The incubus was flanked by the men we met yesterday. The skinwalker, Ozlo, and the djinn, Tiago. Upon closer inspection, I realized that the man across the yard was the necromancer, Arwen.
Dolyn opened his mouth to speak, and Sloane raised her hand.
“No. Do not start. Wait your turn. Stay the fuck over there.”
“Gods, Lo. We came to apolo—”
“No,” she repeated, cutting him off as she turned to Palmer. “Mute him, please.”
Jack cackled as she returned her fingertips to her temples, and she mumbled, “Mute that asshole too. He’s not going to be any help.”
“Don’t you—” Dolyn started, his mouth moving but no more sound coming out.
Palmer shrugged, chuckling as they fumed at him.
“This is childish, Hyland,” Arwen commented. “We could have talked about this like adults.”
I couldn’t recall a time when I’d seen Hyde as angry as she currently was.
She lunged at the male, and I cringed at the amount of the damage she could do to him. Her succubus powers were impressive, but from what I’d heard, her basilisk was mean.
Novak flashed forward to catch her, wrapping his arm around her waist. She screamed and thrashed, fighting against the vampire’s hold as she attempted to pry his hand away from her midsection. Hyde’s head bounced when he readjusted his grip.
“Palmer?” Sloane prompted, grimacing with her request. “Would you mute them all, please?”
Silence descended upon the yard, several glares cast in Palmer’s direction. He pointed to our mate, a smirk firmly in place on his face.
The mage gave zero fucks about pissing them off, though.
“Now that everyone is listening,” Sloane began, glancing at the purple sky as she watched the beginnings of the sunrise. “Briggs, would you take Ripley inside to get some clothes?”
“Whatever you say, Barbie,” he rumbled, grunting when the panther shoved past him.
“Novak, keep Hyde on the porch,” Sloane commanded. “If you can. She’s a slippery bitch when she’s mad, so don’t take your eyes off of her.”
He groaned, tightening his hold on the petite succubus. “Is she worse than drunk Jack?”
Hyde twisted her head to wink at the vampire, a savage grin splitting her face as she kicked at his feet with each step he took.
I turned my attention to the group of guys across from Sloane, observing the darkness roll over Arwen’s features.
I couldn’t be sure if he was pissed about the way Novak was man-handling Hyde or just the touching in general. But I decided to watch his reactions. I didn’t like the hostility he was exuding.
“Vaughn? Would you go with him? He’s going to need your help. The necromancer has epically pissed her off.”
The fae nodded, narrowing his eyes at the other males. He had a newly acquired soft spot for Hyde, but it was a soft spot nonetheless. I’d seen him protect Blaire fiercely, and I knew he’d do the same for the tiny succubus.
Sloane motioned for Palmer, Stone, and me to follow her as she ate up the distance to Dolyn and the other three males. They glared at her in varying degrees of annoyance and fury.
Her steps didn’t falter as she smoothed her hand down the front of her shirt—the fae’s shirt.
She pointed her index finger at Arwen, the vivid red nail sharp enough to kill a man. “You first. Listen closely because I’ll only explain this once.”
He nodded, glowering when she smiled at him.
“Hyland Drake might be your mate, but she is not your property. I have killed more people for her than you can fathom. I will not so much as blink over adding your name to that list if she asks it of me. Do you understand?”
Once again, he nodded.
She tilted her head as we heard the door to the cabin open, listening to Briggs grumble as he and Ripley came back outside. Then she swung her attention from the necromancer to the trio.
“Fantastic. Now for the three of you.”
The djinn rolled his eyes, getting an elbow to both sides of his ribs from Dolyn and the skinwalker.
Sloane narrowed her gaze on her childhood friend, and the temperature around us heated to an uncomfortable temperature.
“You were asked to protect her, not smother her. There is a big fucking difference. I don’t care if she’s your mate. She deserves space and peace after the shit she’s been through.
“If she wanted attention, then she would seek one of you out, or maybe all three of you. Creeping on her and overcrowding her is not okay. Tread carefully. I’m learning that she’s quite feisty; so should you guys.”
Dolyn released a deep breath, nodding his head slowly as he accepted what Sloane was telling them.
“I look forward to getting to know you three, and Dolyn will likely agree when I say that can go one of two ways. We can all be cordial to each other, possibly even friends, or I can make your life a living heaven. I have been looking for new subjects to experiment on; my usual tactics are getting boring. But I’d prefer not to go that route with you.”
The incubus grinned at her, shaking his head, and she leaned a little closer.
“Once you get your shit sorted with your mate, I have some questions, D.”
He raised a brow, pointing to his mouth, and Sloane scoffed.
“I’m living for the silence around here. Are you going to be a dick if Palmer unmutes you?”
His head bounced as he shrugged, not giving her an answer, but she knew him well enough to know that Dolyn Drake was his own breed of asshole.
Stone stepped into Arwen’s line of sight, his eyes intense as he stared the necromancer down.
“Not everyone can talk out their problems when they’re mad and still think rationally. You like space when you’re overwhelmed, and so does she. That’s why she came to Sloane, Arwen. She wasn’t being childish; she was trying to calm down before she did something that she would regret. Being here didn’t just offer her a safe place to decompress; it offered you one too.”
“Hyde is fine. Those are her friends.” Stone circled his finger around to encompass the large group of people sitting quietly in the yard.
Palmer shook his head. “We’re her friends. You really have no idea how protected the tiny succubus is, do you?”
The necromancer closed his eyes, taking a deep breath to settle himself.
Sloane gave the mage a half-smile, and he unmuted the guys in front of us. It took them a minute to find their voices. Then Dolyn grinned wryly at my mate.
“We were being overbearing assholes, weren't we?” Dolyn bounced his finger between himself and Ripley’s other two mates.
“And she doesn’t deserve that,” Lo reiterated, flattening her mouth as she quirked a brow at the incubus.
“I hate it when you’re logical.” The incubus rolled his eyes skyward as he confessed, “I’d much rather you be violent.”
“I wasn’t doing anything,” Ozlo stated.
Tiago snorted. “Right. Creeping from room to room while you silently observe her is nothing.”
Dolyn rubbed his right hand over the short-cropped hair on top of his head. “Cut it out. All three of us made her feel uncomfortable, and we need to fix it.”
“Listen, I have an idea. Okay? Maybe it will help calm Hyde and Ripley down.” She pursed her lips as she surveyed the large group around us.
“What are you thinking, Sweetheart?”
“Let’s just hang out. The sun has risen, everyone is too keyed up to rest, so let’s start a fire.”
The djinn brushed his fingers along his jaw. “And we need wood, yes?”
“No,” Stone told him. “We don’t.”
Sloane strode across the yard, heading straight for Grim. The reaper gave her an unamused look when she started talking to him.
“Oh, shit,” she uttered, smiling apologetically at Blaire and her mates. “Palmer, can you unmute everyone now?”
“Sure thing, Love.”
“So, a bonfire?” Grim asked, picking up where Lo left off.
She pointed to the center of the yard. “There. Would you mind putting up a barrier?”
When Grim nodded in agreement, she flounced away, hellfire waiting in her palm. She kicked away some decaying leaves, dropping the flames onto the ground before backing away to stoke them higher.
Blankets appeared on the ground as the reaper built his hazy gray dome around us. Having the soundproof barrier in place would make talking less worrisome. Now we didn't have to consider anyone overhearing us.
Ripley studied Grim intently before questioning him. “Is it rude for me to ask what you are?”
“Not when asked so nicely,” he acknowledged, winking at her before tipping his chin. “I’m a grim reaper.”
She pursed her lips, tilting her head as she examined the unassuming man.
I leaned closer to Grim. “She doesn’t believe you. Show her your scythe.”
“You keep your scythe on you? I can’t imagine it fits in your pocket.”
Grim rolled his lips in, shrugging as he held his hand out. “It’s a part of me.”
The bones of his fingers came into view as the handle of his scythe formed in his grasp. Ripley stepped closer, her fingers extended to touch him before she pulled back.
“He won’t bite,” Dolyn teased.
“I bite,” she warned him.
“I’m kind of into that.” The incubus gave her a brilliant smile, causing her to roll her green eyes.
Sloane shot me a happy smile from where she was lounging against Palmer. She was relieved to see the panther interacting with everyone. And if she were honest, she'd say she was pleased that Dolyn was relaxing around his mate.
Ripley dragged her finger carefully over the blade of Grim’s scythe and then touched the knuckles of his bony fingers. She nodded her head thoughtfully as she turned wide eyes to Dolyn.
“This is normal for you guys? I’ve never been around so many different supernaturals.”
“This is normal for us,” he assured her. “Sloane, Jack, and I have been friends since we were children. They’re family.”
The incubus glanced around the dome, turning back to his mate as he said, “They’re all family.”
“And is anyone in this family worried about smoke inhalation?”
He chuckled at the snark in her voice. “That’s hellfire in its purest form.”
“How does that change anything? Where there’s fire, there’s smoke.”
“That hellfire is straight from the Devil’s hand. Was there smoke when Hyde held the flame in her hand?”
She shook her head.
“A few of us have been marked by the Devil,” he explained, calling a small flame into his palm. “This isn’t part of my inherited powers. It was gifted to me and would burn without her mark, same for anyone here.”
Sloane waggled her brows at the panther. “You wanna touch it.”
“I don’t want to be burned, but thanks.”
“Let me see your hand.”
Ripley tentatively placed her hand in Sloane’s, watching as my mate’s finger traced across her palm. The circle appeared first, then the pentagram, followed by the goat’s head, and the roman numeral for three.
As the hellish seal disappeared into the panther’s skin, Lo placed a tiny flame in the center of Ripley’s hand.
“Now, close your fist,” Sloane instructed. “You can use that flame to call anyone with the Devil’s mark. Almost everyone inside this dome has one, and I’ll make sure the others have one before I leave. Hyde can give you a crash-course on how to call people.”
Hyland stopped whispering to Arwen, chiming in from across the fire, “I’ll show you when we get back to Stars. You’ll pick it up quickly.”
“O-okay,” the panther stammered, her gaze bouncing over all of us before she focused on her hand again.
I observed as she opened and closed her fist, frowning as nothing happened the first two attempts. A spark lit her palm briefly on the third try, and after a few more, she was able to recall the flame Sloane had given her.
Dolyn tore his gaze from his mate, raising a brow. “What did you need to ask me earlier, Lo?”
“Oh. Were you able to find anything on those bullets or the gun that Franklin brought you?”
“Yeah. The bullets were coated with different potions, but that’s probably not surprising. Hyde was able to trace the gun back to Louisiana. It was registered to Hildi E. Commons.”
Sloane shook her head. “I don’t know who that is.”
“Of course you don’t,” Hyde remarked, grinning ear-to-ear. “That’s not a real person. I looked everywhere for dear Hildi, and she doesn’t exist.”
“Then why are you smiling at me like that.”
“Because Dolyn owes me a new pair of shoes.”
The incubus gripped the back of his neck. “There’s no way you’ve figured out—Fuck. You figured it out. Who is it?”
Hyde’s expression morphed into a grimace. “It took me a couple days of looking into the people closest to the Kings, but yeah. I figured it out. Hildi E. Commons is an anagram for Dominic Holmes.”
Blaire sat up quickly, glancing from Novak to Sloane. “That doesn’t add up. You said that Taylor Caplin called Kadence Moore in front of you. She’s the one who compelled him to shoot you.”
“That doesn’t mean that the gun came from Kade; just that it touched her hands at some point.” Novak furrowed his brow as he worked through his thoughts.
“It doesn’t not add up,” Lo murmured, her eyes far away as she pieced the information together.
“Kade was pushing the drug. She’s dead now, and there’s still an issue with rogues in Baton Rouge. The numbers should have dwindled, but they haven’t. At best, they’re steady. At worst, they’re climbing. And Dominic’s mind has been filled with static, so he either knows who else is behind it or it’s him.”
“Okay,” Blaire drawled, nodding her head. “I’ll look into it when we leave here.”
“Franklin is pretty positive that the death at the pharmaceutical company tied into Kade and the Moore family too. He has copies of her finances, and there was a significant withdrawal that corresponds with a deposit from one of the employees.”
Sloane peeked at the fae before picking back up. “Susan Harris confessed to David Preston’s murder last week, so she’s in jail. But there’s no physical way she could have torn his body apart. He’d been ripped, limb from limb, not cut up.”
Novak gagged. “I can not wash my hands enough to get that scene out of my head.”
“That bad?” Dolyn asked, genuinely concerned.
“You have no idea.”
Vaughn scoffed. “He’s not having flashbacks of the blood and gore. He touched the dick.”
The vampire groaned, his whole body shivering. “I fucking hate you right now.”
The fae ignored him. “So Susan Harris confessed? She’s an alcoholic, but I can’t imagine her being able to do something so brutal.”
“Whoa. Back up,” Blaire interjected. “You can’t just skip over something like that. What do mean by he touched the dick? You touched a dead man’s dick, Novak?”
“What? No. I mean, not intentionally. Godsdamnit, Vaughn.” He ran his fingers through his hair, glaring at the smug fae.
“Franklin told us to grab his cell phone, and the poor guy’s dismembered dick was on top of it. When I tried to pick it up—the phone, not the dick—yeah. Not my proudest moment.”
Vaughn cupped his hands around his mouth, stage-whispering to Blaire across the fire, “He squealed. It was fucking amazing. Read my mind.”
While Blaire wheezed through her laughter, Jack glanced around us, studying the outside of the cloudy gray dome.
“Lo?”
“Hmm,” she responded, blinking herself out of her wandering thoughts.
“Where are the hellhounds and Pete? I know you brought them, but I haven’t seen them in a few days.”
“I was worried they wouldn’t handle the challenges well, and I didn’t want them to interfere. So I asked Franklin to take them home on Thursday while he was here.”
The hellsteed stood, moving closer to Sloane before he collapsed onto the ground beside her.
“I haven’t been able to find any summer fae, but I did hear back from my mer friend. He’s heading to the druid’s realm later this week to look for some family members. The mer and some of the other species in the fae realm have been hiding with the druids.”
“I bet it’s chaos there. My mom is probably loving it,” I muttered to myself.
Jack gazed thoughtfully into the flames, muttering, “Also, I realized something the other day, and it’s probably not the best time to bring it up... But I think you’ve been using my powers. For as long as I can remember, we’ve both used that black smoke.
“That’s not just a demonic power. That’s a hellsteed trait, and I don’t know why it never occurred to me. You use it all the time, without even thinking about it. It’s not like shadow jumping. Maybe a few other types have something similar, but I haven’t seen any.”
Vaughn leaned over me to speak to Sloane and Jack.
“I noticed something the other day, too, and I’ve been wondering if you’ve ever seen it.”
Jack furrowed his brows. “What is it?”
“Lo pulled me into her thoughts while we were at the pack party, and I realized that she has two very distinct colors to her mental essence. I don’t know enough about it to do more than speculate. But when she became agitated, her presence went from a pinkish color to rolling black clouds.
“I’m thinking that’s her demon alter making an appearance. Though, I’m curious if you, Grim, or Dolyn have ever seen it happening.”
“Ah,” Sloane said, bouncing her head. “I can explain that. Sort of.”
She pursed her lips, pulling Jack, Vaughn, and me into her mind as she spoke. When I closed my eyes, I could see the pink wall that the fae was talking about. The edges were blotted with swirling, black ink, like blood mixing with water.
“This is what happens with hybrids of demons and angels. Papi’s mind is similar but more intense. The two halves war with each other constantly. They don’t blend like other hybrid mixtures.”