Angel appeared behind her just as she was about to take off her shirt. “We need to talk.”
Angry that he couldn’t leave her alone for ten damn minutes, she ripped her shirt off over her head anyhow, not caring what he saw. She’d been wandering around the forest naked. It didn’t matter at this point and she needed a shower. Now.
“Then you can talk while I shower,” she said, throwing her clothes straight in the trash.
“If her guardian dies, Evangeline will become completely unmanageable,” Angel said testily, following her into the shower and hovering above the soap dish. He kept his head turned slightly away as if he cared about her modesty. She knew better. He didn’t care about anything except himself.
“She’s not going to die. Ceri said she can heal her, without a hospital, just like you wanted,” she replied before dunking her head under the hot water. It stung, but she reveled in it. Needed it. She groped blindly for the shampoo, then poured a large amount into her hand.
“She needs to be monitored closely. We can’t risk any complications,” Angel insisted.
Amber leaned her head out of the flow of water and slathered the shampoo into her hair, scrubbing furiously. “Ceri is not going to let the woman die. Stop harping on it.”
The demon snorted and mumbled something she couldn’t understand, then said, “You have no idea what’s at stake here.”
“Are you going to explain it?” Amber asked, peeking one eye at him.
The demon sneered at her. “No.”
She rolled her eyes and began rinsing out the shampoo. The water swirling around her feet was pink from all the blood. The need to vomit roiled up in her gut and she squeezed her eyes shut again, breathing through her nose. Her enhanced senses weren’t helping right now. She could smell it like it was fresh, and she hated it.
“Who is this girl anyhow?” she asked as she lathered up the rag.
“You don’t need to ––”
“Just answer the damn question. I already know she’s part demon, and part angel, so that cat’s out of the bag.”
He grew in size, filling up one corner of the shower. His burning eyes fixed on her face. “You don’t get to demand anything. Not after that stunt you pulled. You’re lucky I’ve left you alive. I’ll tell you what to do, and you will obey. That’s the bargain.”
Turning away she began scrubbing at the blood again. She wished she could scrub away the demon mark. Or punch Angel in the face.
He vanished, finally, and she slumped against the wall of the shower. Tears burned at the back of her eyes but she didn’t deserve to cry. This was all happening because she thought it was the only choice she had. It had been her choice.
Everyone was waiting for her to come out and explain herself and fix everything. She didn't want to. She wanted to curl up in bed and hide but she couldn't. That was never an option for her.
Straightening back up, she finished scrubbing off all the blood and sweat, then climbed out of the shower. She could break down when this was all over, but until then, she had to put her pack first.
Chapter 22
GENEVIEVE
Genevieve sat on the couch with Captain Jack and watched the argument unfolding in front of her. She’d been furious they’d gone off on some half-cocked rescue mission without her, but now that she knew why…well, she was still furious.
Derek was yelling at Amber, for the third time, that it was total crap she’d let him come out here to start a business without telling him about the whole demon mark thing.
“I would have still come but I can’t believe you’d keep something like that from me!” he said, slamming his fist onto the coffee table for emphasis.
“I was trying to figure out what it meant!” Amber shouted back.
Ceri finally stood. “Both of you, just shut up.”
Genevieve raised a brow at her tone. Little Miss Sunshine was angry too. That meant things were probably about to get ugly. She glanced at Tommy. He was hiding in the kitchen with Woggy trying to ignore the whole argument.
“Amber, is there anything else you haven’t told the pack?” Ceri asked, crossing her arms.
Their alpha’s face reddened to match her hair. “No,” she ground out.
“Alright. Then enough with the whole conversation. The two of you can argue about it later. We have a severely injured woman and an unconscious, half-demon, half-angel teenaged girl to worry about. Along with a sorcerer who has apparently already killed one alpha werewolf.” Ceri, looking exhausted, sat down on the couch next to her and crossed her arms.
“Do the police know about the attack today?” Genevieve asked, speaking for the first time since they’d gotten home. She hadn’t been able to get a word in edgewise once Amber and Derek had started arguing.
Amber rubbed her hand over her face. “The police weren’t there when we arrived, so I doubt it.”
“Is there any reason we can’t report it to the police? Or that you didn’t call the police when you got there?” she asked, raising a brow.
Amber shook her head. “We didn’t have much time to find the girl. Now, I have to protect her and the older woman.”
“Protect them until what?” Genevieve asked.
Amber looked at her, brows furrowed. “What do you mean?”
“Protect them is super vague. There’s no end to it. How long do you have to protect them?”
Amber turned to her right, facing no one. “Well?”
Everyone looked at the blank space uncomfortably. Only Amber could see or hear the demon most of the time. And right now, she didn’t like what it was saying.
“I think you’re lying,” Amber said, crossing her arms.
“I want to talk to this demon,” Genevieve said, frustrated at being left on the outside of all this. Everyone else had been here when the demon had appeared. She was the only one that hadn’t seen it. The others all seemed to be afraid of it, but she knew a little something about demons. Theoretically.
They had a reputation for murder and mayhem, but when you looked at actual events of a demon appearing, the facts showed something different. Sometimes bad things happened, but sometimes they didn’t.
Amber flinched, her hand flying to her chest. The air next to her twisted and a shadow grew, enveloping that corner of the room.
Horns extended from the creature’s head. Its face was a cross between a bull and a dragon. Smoke curled from its nostrils and mouth, which was curled into a menacing, fiery grin. His dark form seemed to suck all the light from the room. “Speak then, mortal.”
Everyone else took a step back, but Genevieve rolled her eyes. If it was trying to intimidate her, then it needed something from them. Badly. That was something she’d learned from Donovan. They still hadn’t found out why the dead alpha had needed Amber’s power, but he had desperately wanted it for some reason.
“How can Amber fulfill the bargain she made with you and have your mark removed?” Genevieve asked, walking slowly toward the creature until she was standing beside Amber. It seemed that the demon was taking something from her in order to appear like this. She couldn’t feel anything odd in the pack bond but that was probably because Amber wasn’t pulling on it.
The demon shrank until he was more or less her same height and began to float around her. She let him, choosing instead to inspect her nails. She wasn’t concerned about him being at her back.
“As I told her, I need her to protect the girl,” the demon said.
“And as I said, that’s too vague. You have to be more specific, and it has to be possible for her to succeed, therefore, there has to be a way to measure that success. What is she protecting the girl from? And for how long?” Genevieve asked, placing a hand on Amber’s shoulder. Immediately, the pack bond grew in her chest. She let it draw strength from her and give it to her alpha. Of course, Amber-the-stubborn had been holding back doing so.
The demon sneered at her. “You don’t get to negotiate for her. Amber has to do it herself.”
; “I can negotiate for her if she asks me to,” Genevieve said, gently squeezing Amber’s shoulder to prompt her.
“I want her to,” Amber said, glaring at the demon. “You haven’t exactly been straight with me.”
The demon changed shape. His smoky form was dressed in a suit, but his head remained the same. “You are very bossy. I guess I shouldn’t expect any less from a lawyer.”
Genevieve snorted. He had no idea. “What do you want?”
“Someone is trying to kill Evangeline,” the demon said, striking a relaxed pose. “I will consider the obligation of the mark fulfilled if Amber can find out who, stop them, and ensure Evangeline’s safety until that is done.”
“Do you already know who is trying to kill Evangeline?” she asked, narrowing her eyes at the demon.
A smirk lifted the corner of his mouth. “No, not for sure.”
“Who do you suspect is behind it?”
“The angels.”
Genevieve pinched the bridge of her nose and held back a sigh, with effort. “Sarcasm isn’t helpful.”
“Who said I was being sarcastic?”
She looked up at him, suspicious. “Why the hell would angels try to kill someone?”
“There was a half angel at the house when we got there. He was working with the sorcerer,” Ceri said, speaking up for the first time since the demon had appeared. “And the girl is half angel.”
The demon turned his attention to Ceri. “Who told you that?”
“No one had to, I sensed it when I was protecting her from the sorcerer’s spell. She’s half angel, and half demon,” Ceri said, walking toward them. “Which shouldn’t be possible, but I know it’s true. Is that why you’re protecting her?”
The demon snorted and turned back to Genevieve. “You know as much about who is trying to kill Evangeline as I do. My offer remains the same, and is more than fair. Take it, or leave it.”
“We’ll accept it on one condition,” Genevieve said, stepping up to the demon to make sure he understood she was serious. “You help in any and every way you can, and share any new information you discover about who is trying to kill Evangeline with us.”
The demon stared at her, and she got the sense he would have set her on fire if he could have. Lucky for her, he couldn’t.
“It’s a deal.” He moved in closer, his red eyes flickering with dark amusement. “You looked good as a demon, by the way.”
He must have been here on Halloween, watching them. She leaned away from him. “Stop being creepy.”
The demon vanished and it felt like a weight had been lifted from the room. Amber groaned, bracing her hand against the wall so she could stay upright. “I hate that,” she muttered, rubbing the spot on her chest where the demon mark must be.
Genevieve walked toward her and stood over her alpha, hands on hips. “I can’t believe you didn’t tell us you made a deal with a demon. But what really makes me mad, is that you didn’t even try to negotiate with him. You were just going to let him walk all over you!”
Amber squinted at her. “I didn’t know it was negotiable!”
“Everything is negotiable,” she said, crossing her arms. “Also, my parents and my sister are coming over for dinner tomorrow evening to meet all of you. I don’t want them to have even the slightest clue that something weird is going on,” she said, glaring at each of her pack mates in turn, finishing with her alpha. “My sister is nosy. She’s going to ask intrusive questions if she thinks anything might be amiss.”
Amber looked worried. “This isn’t really a good time, can they come some other week?”
“No,” Genevieve said, crossing her arms. ”That will worry them.”
Chapter 23
CERI
Demon. The word repeated over and over in Ceri’s mind. She should have noticed sooner. Magic that dark should have been apparent, but she hadn’t sensed it at all.
She smoothed her hair back with angry strokes and bound it into a loose bun on top of her head. A few curls spilled out, tickling the back of her neck. For a split second, she was tempted to shave it all off. She took a steadying breath, then grabbed her supplies.
The girl’s guardian, a woman named Eloise Berger, was injured, but not enough that required a hospital, luckily. She’d treated her share of smoke inhalation –– witches tended to get into all sorts of trouble as kids, and telling their parents they were hurt meant getting grounded –– and it had been simple to fix once they were somewhere safe.
She’d sedated the woman simply so she didn’t have to deal with her, but now they needed to wake her up. Ceri wanted a couple of minutes alone with her before she called Amber in. She needed to know if the girl was a danger.
Coming out of the sedation, she’d be loopy, and more likely to be honest. Ceri made sure her bedroom door was shut then knelt by the cot they’d made from a few blankets they’d found in a closet. She pressed her hands tightly together and spoke the words for silence and privacy. The sounds from outside her room became muted and she felt the spell press around her. Until she broke it, the pack wouldn’t be able to eavesdrop on her. They’d only hear muffled sounds.
She unstoppered the bottle of Perk Up and waved it under Eloise’s nose. The woman’s eyes flew open and she jerked with a gasp.
“Shhh, calm down,” Ceri said, pressing her back against the blankets to keep her from hurting her ribs any worse. “You’re safe. The girl is safe.”
Eloise’s eyes were wide with confusion as she looked around the room. “What happened?” Her voice was hoarse and thready.
“You were attacked by someone. Your house burned down, but somehow you and your…daughter ended up in the woods. My alpha has a demon mark. He sent us to find you and the girl, and protect you.”
Eloise instantly relaxed. Her eyes fluttered shut and she covered her face with her hands. “Oh, thank goodness.”
Ceri sat back, completely surprised by her reaction. Normally saying demon wasn’t cause for an ‘oh thank goodness’.
“You, uh, know this demon?” she asked.
“Of course,” Eloise said, dropping her hands. “He’s Evangeline’s uncle.” She said it so casually. She had no idea what this demon really was, or how dangerous he could be.
“Has Evangeline ever hurt anyone?”
Eloise’s eyes narrowed and she pressed her lips into a thin line. “No, and she wouldn’t. She is harmless.”
“How can you be sure?”
“Because I know her. I raised her from a baby. I taught her how to walk and how to read. She used to rescue insects that got into the house and carry them out to the garden. Wouldn’t let me squash them. She’s a good girl.”
The door opened and Amber walked in. Ceri subtly canceled the muffling spell and nodded toward her alpha.
"Eloise, this is Amber. She is the one that rescued you," Ceri said as Amber sat down on the bed on the other side of Eloise.
"The demon mentioned you. He said a red-headed woman would help me," Eloise said with a smile. "Where is Evangeline? Is she okay?"
"Yeah, she's upstairs. I'll bring her to see you in a few minutes," Amber said, returning the woman's smile tensely. "Do you have any idea who attacked you?"
"They were humans, at least the one that got in the house." Eloise's hands shook slightly in her lap. "I knew they'd come one day, but I didn't think it'd be so soon."
"You knew they'd come one day?" Amber asked, her brows drawing together in confusion.
"Not them specifically, but someone. I've been so careful to make sure no one found out what Evangeline is. I never let her go out at night, she never had friends. Kadrithan told me that there have been others like her, and they’d all been killed. None of them made it past infancy, but they hid Evangeline better. They'd learned from their mistakes."
Ceri sat back in shock. How many had there been? Were they conducting some kind of experiment?
“Kadrithan…is that the demon’s name?”
Eloise nodded. “It’s not his rea
l name I suspect. Not the one you’d use to summon him, but it’s the name he gave me.”
"How long have you been raising Evangeline?" Amber asked.
"Since she was a baby."
"Did the demon give her to you?"
Eloise nodded. "He’s been with us since I found the girl. She was laying in the woods outside my house still covered in afterbirth. I have no idea how she got there, but he asked me to care for her."
“You have a demon mark, what deal did you make with him?” Amber asked, crossing her arms.
Eloise blushed, the color stark on her otherwise pale face. “Money. He gave me money in exchange for caring for her. My husband had died and I was about to lose the house.” She looked up, meeting both their gazes. “I loved her right away though, treated her like my own child. I didn’t care about the money, but I needed it. I needed it to care for her and to pay the bills.”
Ceri sighed, brushing her hair back again. The wind had tangled it hopelessly and it was a huge mess now. She couldn’t blame the woman for taking the money, and she obviously did care for Evangeline. It was just…the girl was a demon. At least half a demon.
She considered herself open-minded and non-judgmental, but demons and sorcerers were the exceptions. The things sorcerers did were evil and wrong. She’d always believed that demons not only committed evil acts, but were evil. Inherently.
“And that’s all the demon wanted? For you to care for Evangeline?” Ceri asked finally.
Eloise nodded. “Care for her and keep her safe. And, of course, keep the secret. I’ve had to be strict with her because of that, and she hasn’t been able to make many friends. I always regretted that, but there was no way around it.”
“Why not? Were you worried she’d tell someone?” Amber asked.
“Not exactly. When it’s daytime, Evangeline looks like a normal, pretty girl. When the sun sets though, she…changes. Physically. If anyone were to see here at night it would be obvious she was a demon.”
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