by A. K. Koonce
“Yes.” I speak flatly through my clenched teeth.
“You trust me enough to tell you the truth?”
“Yes.”
“I hadn’t realized we were so close, Miss Vega,” the demon says casually as the shine of his glowing sapphire eyes catches mine.
“Tell me who killed Kyra!” I fling my hand through the veil with tension splaying my fingers wide as I aim for what I hope is his throat.
But nothing except for cold ice stabbing into my flesh meets me on the other side. It prickles and stings my bones with vengeance. My scream washes through the colors, waving the blue and white and silver together like a building tsunami.
A calm touch wraps around my hand. His warmth burns through the cold, like numbing pain settling in.
“Our relationship requires blind trust, Miss Vega. A vow of eternal trust.” His whisper washes over the back of my hand as a kiss seals itself there delicately. “Do you understand?”
A gasp cuts from my throat as tears openly trickle down my eyes.
“I trust you,” I grind out. “Tell me,” I whisper on a shaking breath.
I’ll suffer through this pain. Even if this magic slices through flesh and bone, I’d be willing to sacrifice so much more to find Kyra’s justice after all that I ignored when she was alive and needed me the most.
An unclear cutting smile lines through the water of magic that lies between the demon and I.
“A vow so deep should be commiserated,” he whispers like a snake slithering through the shadows.
Hard breaths and desperate beats of my heart are all I can hear for a moment as I stare at him with pleading eyes.
“Please,” I whisper once more.
A cackle of laughter and the warmth of a fire burns up my arm as he pulls himself against me. Instead, I fall headfirst into the veil. A swoosh of magic fills my ears. Thousands of slicing sensations stab into my neck and face, yet still he pulls me closer. My feet stagger, but I fight him off enough to stay partially grounded.
The world around me is a colorless void of white, silver, and a hint of ice blue. And the man standing at the center of it is the same. His flame blue eyes stare curiously into mine. Messy hair the color of bright blue gemstones hangs over his brow as he looks down on me with a hooded gaze. Tall white horns rise up from his temples in a terrifyingly beautiful arch.
“You’re powerful, for a human,” the demon whispers strangely. “Bewitching too,” he adds. He speaks like he’s afraid he might break me if he leans any closer.
Yet he does. He leans down, his hair skims over my cheek as his breath tingles over my ear. “Most delightful of all,” he pauses as he gazes at me from the corner of his mischievous eyes, “your soul is now a part of mine!”
And then he slams his lips into mine.
He tastes like Hell and candy. Like smoke and sugar. Like a deadly, deadly mistake.
I pull back from him, my hands clutching onto his as I shove him away. My palm snaps across his cheek just as my knee comes up fast. My foot connects with his groin, but he grabs me there. He holds me close and as I stumble back, he follows.
My ass hits the floor with a thump of discomfort slamming all through my body as his heavy weight collides into me. His smooth chest glows in the darkness. Symbols like nothing I’ve ever seen before slash over up his arms and down the center of his chest like a glowing neon sign. Black, tattered pants cling to his waist where even more swirling letters dash down the hard lines of his hips.
Color kisses his pale skin now. But oddly, his eyes and hair still retain that shimmering gemstone color. He holds himself up with his arms braced on either side of me as he stares into my eyes like I’m the most enchanting thing he has ever gazed upon.
“Tell me!” I repeat once again on a ragged breath.
I don’t give a single fuck about this demon. I don’t care that I’ve released him without a single understanding as to how or why.
He made a vow, and now he’s going to tell me everything.
Right now.
“Kyra didn’t love Rival. Rival felt guilt toward Kyra, and she chose to put up with him for some reason.” He speaks factually as his fingers brush my hair back from my face.
I bat his hand away.
“Did Rival kill her? Did he? Tell me!”
“I only know what people tell me. What they ask of me.”
I blink up at him.
No one’s going to flat out confess. I understand that.
I get it.
I just—I need more answers.
“Rival once asked me where to hide a dead body. And about the best way to cover up a murder.” The demon sits up slowly.
My hands shake across the cold floor as I push myself up as well.
“He buried someone in a used grave just between the front of the house and the rear. And then he bought time to avoid any investigations.” He tries to search my face as he speaks, but I’m already standing and running for the door.
Kyra’s here! Her body was just carelessly buried on top of a stranger’s. And the man who brought me here to help her, he’s really just hiding her for as long as possible.
Twenty
Kira
My bare feet fly over the floor so fast that the sounds of cracking floor tile calls after the wake of my footfalls. I’m up the stairs and rounding the door to Rival’s library room in mere moments. The old books are perfectly in place along his floor to ceiling shelves. A half empty glass of blood sits abandoned on the fireplace mantel.
And the book I tried to hide so carefully lies open to my scribbled note of paper on his desk.
Acessa
Polite. But is she hiding something?
Aston Cardence
Has the strength and the arrogance but his drive isn’t there. The boy has all the aspirations of a browning banana.
Pavel
…physically unfit.
Rival Royale
A lover is the first suspect.
He threatened me, twice.
Has the motive. And the ability.
The signs were all there. I just didn’t recognize them in the man who was supposed to care about my sister. Even more innocent people have died because I refused to see him clearly.
And every second that passes is another opportunity for him to strike.
I stride out of the empty room. My chest collides hard with someone else.
“Slow down!” Prey looks me up and down and though there’s hatred in the hard pull of his brow and lips, his gaze is soft as he apprises me. There’s love and concern written all over his moody little face.
I just don’t have any time to care at the moment.
I shove past him, but he grips my wrist and pulls me close.
“We need to talk,” he says.
“I have to go.” I shake him off, but still he clings to me.
“I just. I’m sorr—”
“Rival killed Kyra!” I shriek just to get it through his thick skull that something more important than his arrogant feelings is happening right now.
His mouth falls open hard. “No,” he whispers slowly.
It’s only then that I see Prey for who he really is. He’s been belittled and shoved down by all these superiors… and yet he continues to trust them without question. The confusion and disbelief in his features tells me I’m threatening the foundation of his existence here.
And I know he won’t be the only one who feels that way if I call Rival out.
Will the High Council stand by his side? Will they cover for a murderer? A rapist? A monster?
Prey is still staring at me with wide, uncertain eyes when I slip my hand out of his and keep going.
I’m through the quiet dining hall in a matter of seconds. Acessa’s assistant, Blyke passes a look my way, but he doesn’t comment on my messy hair or dirty feet as I search the room. He eats alone, but there’s something else about the young vampire…
Every drink from his wine glass is a stiff and proper motion. A nervou
s tension expels from him in waves that I can feel in my own chest.
Why do I sense him in that way?
Whose magic is bouncing around me at this moment?
I shake the thought away, but before I dash out of the room an even more nervous voice rings out in a stutter.
“Y-ess, there have been two more human murders in the Chicago area, Ma’am,” Pavel says with a shake of his frail hand as he walks side-by-side with a tall, regal looking woman.
Her fiery hair is so vibrant that it matches her tight red dress impeccably. Her smooth pace and the casual click of her designer heels steals all of my attention.
Councilwoman Zavia!
Her piercing gaze zeros in on myself as well.
“Have there been any more within our walls?” she asks in a flowing velvety accent.
“None within the Crimson City. Creature Control have not been allowed within here without your approval, Ma’am.” Pavel too pauses his thoughts when his attention falls on me.
“Where are your shoes, Vega?” Zavia asks as her stare becomes rather deeply concerned for my black and dusty feet.
My toes lift and scrunch awkwardly as if I can hide them away somehow.
Do I say it? Do I out Rival? And say what, exactly? That he killed me? What would they do to a human snooping around their High Council?
“I found out my favorite red bottoms are a fake. I’m boycotting until I can make a trip back to Italy myself.” I flip my tangled hair back from my face, and it’s then that I realize I’m sweating bullets.
I’m burning up, actually. I swipe at my brow and moisture appears along the back of my hand. Not only that, but… Two small but solid points poke out from against my temples.
Are those… Are those horns?
Fuck.
What in the name of Lucifer is happening to me right now?
Don’t act human. Don’t act human. Don’t act human.
My lips tremble, but I shove a stiff smile in place.
I turn, and swiftly but casually stride out of the room.
“Vega?” Zavia calls after me.
I walk faster.
“Vega?”
And then I’m running.
Her yell echoes after me, but everything passes by in a streak of dark blurring colors. I don’t even consciously think about where I’m going.
I just run. I keep going for so long that the stuffy warmth of the house falls away, and cold night air kisses my face.
Damp grass flicks along my ankles as I walk, slowing my pace the moment gray stones come into view. Hundreds of them are spread out before me beneath the light of the full moon.
One of them belongs to Kyra now.
She’s buried here in a used grave. She’s been laid to rest among so, so many forgotten tombs.
But ultimately, she’s all alone out here.
My heart is so warm it feels like fire within my chest. That warmth falls low and hard as I think about everything Kyra went through without me. Without anyone by her side.
I thought I came here searching for her killer. Maybe I was really searching for her.
Like I should have done two years ago.
My knees give out and hit hard against the wet ground. The breeze picks up, but no matter how much it flings my blonde hair across my face, I can’t see anything except the darkness surrounding each and every pale stone.
“Get up, Miss Vega!” A deep tone commands.
I blink away the wetness in my eyes, but I remain seated in a heap of too many regrets.
A smooth shoulder bumps against mine as he slides down against my side. And then the Demon Prince is also kneeling in the dirt beside me.
“You didn’t kill her,” he whispers.
I shake my head slowly and a wetness splatters over my cheeks. I peer up at the heavy gray clouds hanging among the bright white moon.
“But you know who did.” I feel him staring at me. “You’re powerful, Miss Vega,” he whispers manically against my hair.
A shiver shakes through my core as his hot breath trickles down my neck.
“You know who killed her,” he repeats as he pushes back my hair behind my ear and whispers intimately, like an ocean breeze caressing my skin. “So get up and fucking annihilate the man who hurt her! Who hurt you.”
My feet push up and I’m standing just as the rain pours down over me. It soaks through my dress and even the deluge of cold water doesn’t cool my burning flesh.
I look up at the dark sky. The beauty of it is all around me, but I can see is him instead.
Aston sits on the roof and watches over me like an angel who knows what sin I’m about to commit. He knows me deeply. I feel him in my mind like a calming thought among all the chaos.
He feels good.
He’s the encouragement I need right now. Even as I turn toward the front house and spot a true monster within the night.
Rival Royale comes forward out of the darkness like a shadow coming to life. He holds something sprawled across his arms. His black suit is stained with a darker color across his chest and sleeves. That’s because he’s covered in Acessa’s blood.
She lies limply in his arms, her head has fallen back with her mouth hanging wide open. Her long arms dangle against him, jostling with every step he takes. His dark eyes meet the rage in mine.
“You killed her!” I seethe.
He shakes his head slowly.
“I found her out front. She was facedown just two yards from the steps of the house.” He keeps talking, but his words are an empty sound within my mind.
The excuses he gives for Acessa don’t register.
Instead I cut him off.
“How did you kill Kyra!?” My flashing eyes burn into him so hard it feels like pure hellfire sizzling through my skull.
His dangerous gaze narrows as he carefully lies Acessa on the ground like she means nothing to him. Like she is nothing.
“How did the demon get out?” He looks over my shoulder at the man I feel standing just behind me.
“There’s a demon out?” The Demon Prince echoes with exaggerated terror.
But I don’t dare look away.
“Was it an accident? Why kill her two years after?” I step closer, water seeping over my toes from the puddle that’s growing with every heavy drop that falls from the sky. It drenches and cools me, despite the heat that’s flaming wilder within my chest.
“I didn’t kill her!” Rival growls out.
“You’re a shitty liar!” My fingers dig into my palms, nails biting into my flesh one by one. “You killed her, and you’ll kill me the moment I’m not of use to you. You fucki—”
His weight crashes into me. Water sprays up around us as he pummels me into the grass.
“Stop talkin’!” Rival grinds out through his clenched teeth. His hands dig into my wrists as he brings them up high above my head. “You’re fooking reckless. Your research, your fooking words, even your fooking pussy is reckless! Mating with men who have no use for a human.” He shakes his head hard, casting drops of cold water across my cheek as he bites his words out an inch away from my face.
Slick fingers dig into my hands, but still I shove against him, fling him off just for him to come right back down with the strength of ten men binding me in place. He’s like a force of gravity all on his own. He outweighs me with far too much power. It’s too intense. Too much…
The snapping sound in my wrist sends a shrieking cry hurling up my throat as tears stream down my wet cheeks.
And then he’s gone. The press of his hands locking over mine is jerked away and the splatter of mud across my neck is felt just as Rival crashes into the earth.
“Don’t you ever touch her like that!” Aston growls just before his head slams down. Another cracking sound echoes through the air as Aston’s skull crashes into Rival’s.
Both men groan, but Aston retreats with a flash of blurring colors. “Run!” Aston waves me off as he watches Rival slowly stand with newfound anger lining his face.
I peer around. The demon sits on a worn grave with his palm under his chin as he animatedly watches me. Prey stands at the door, rain washing over him as he looks from me to Rival and then back to me again.
But he never takes a single step forward.
My body shakes as all the fiery coals burning through my veins fire up at once.
“I suggest you step back, Mr. Cardence,” The Demon Prince instructs as he picks distractedly at his manicured nails. “Miss Vega has a vendetta to appease. You wouldn’t want to get any blood on those fine skinny jeans of yours.” His lips curl as he looks up at Aston’s apparel. “After this, I think we’ll be in need of a new wardrobe. Miss Vega, once you’ve disposed of Mr. Royale, can we go shopping?”
“It’s late. The stores are closed,” Aston answers breathlessly like, that’s the real problem at this moment.
“Shut up! All of you!” Rival points at the two of them, but keeps his gaze locked on me. “I didn’t kill Acessa. I wouldn’t have hurt Kyra! I—”
“Don’t you dare say you loved her.” The pain in my wrist is numb and forgotten as I take a step closer.
“I didn’t,” he whispers, the moon light gleaming in his steely eyes like a deadly weapon.
And I can’t listen to another word out of his fucking mouth.
I don’t feel anything. The air in the night is gone. The rain disappears. Everything falls away as I move so fast my body never takes a single step, but I disappear in a mist of shimmering crimson colors. Then I land with my hand around his neck in the very next instant. My nails sink into his throat as I lift him ever so slowly from the ground. His shoes kick against my shins as he rises over me. The light of the moon creates a halo around his handsome features. I don’t know why my heart dips and dives and burns as I stare up at him with far too many emotions coursing through me.
“Kira!” Rival grunts, and the simple sound of my name feels tainted and scarred against his lips.
He was supposed to be her friend.
His hands wrap around mine as I squeeze harder against his windpipe. I fling him down and I’m on top of him in a matter of seconds. My nails poise over his dirty suit jacket. Before I can press into him, his leg comes up fast and hard. He tangles around me. Pain sears through my skull as I hit the ground head first.
