by Lexi Blake
“New girl, huh?” The demon’s shirt was off and he had a girl on a leash trailing behind him. She didn’t look terribly upset to be on a leash. I wondered how much she was getting paid. I hoped it was a lot.
“This one is for my brother.” Matt attempted to dismiss him with an imperious wave of his hand.
“Oh, it’s you,” the man said, bowing at the waist. “I didn’t recognize you, My Lord. His Lordship has enough pretty brunettes, don’t you think? This one looks practically angelic. That’s really not his style.”
“I’ll decide what my style is, Kall,” Gray snarled at the smaller demon. “Go away and don’t look at her again or we’ll have a problem. Do you understand?”
Kall bowed from his waist again, his head down as he murmured, “Yes, My Lord.”
Kall slunk away, pulling his girl behind him.
Gray turned to Matt, his face tight. “Explain yourself, brother. How dare you bring her here.”
Matt’s eyes had rounded as though shocked at our reception. “I thought you would be thrilled, brother. This is the woman who caused you such distress, is it not? Here she is. I didn’t even have to threaten her. The moment she heard you were in trouble, she was scrambling to get here to you. There’s no doubt she still cares for you. You know I can’t stand to see lovers kept apart. I know the feeling too well myself.”
“I’m not in trouble.” Gray finally turned my way, his eyes starting past my knees and working their way up. I felt his gaze like a caress along my flesh.
The woman who had previously had her head in Gray’s lap crawled across the room and attached herself to his leg.
“Don’t leave, master,” she begged prettily.
Gray shook his head, staring down like he’d already forgotten she existed and wasn’t pleased to be reminded. “Go. Now.”
He pointed to the elevators and she crawled off, her head hung low.
It was a disgusting display, and I wondered if that wouldn’t have been me had I stayed with him. “Well, if you’re not in trouble, then I’ll feel free to get on with my life, Sloane. Matt, where are my clothes?”
The demon with the upper-crust British accent waved his hand. “Probably in the incinerator by now.”
“What?”
He gave a negligent half shrug. “Well, they didn’t suit you, dear. It looks like some old man picked them out, perhaps trying to de-tart his ‘much too young for him’ girlfriend.”
Matt apparently didn’t like my current lover. That was no reason for him to leave me without pants. “You asshole. How am I supposed to get home in this?”
“That’s your problem, dear. I’ve done my level best to help. You can’t expect me to solve all of your problems.” Matt’s mouth turned up in a slow smile. “And now my date for the evening is here.”
A thin, young man with curly blond hair and blue eyes was walking toward us. He kept his eyes downcast and sank to his knees when he reached us. “My Lord, how may I serve you this evening?”
Matt studied the young man, his lips thinning as he reached out to touch his hair. “I’ll think of something, Tristan. And tell the colorist your hair should be a bit lighter to get it perfect.”
Tristan didn’t look up, merely kept his head down. “Of course.”
“Come along, now. I know public sex is all the rage here, but I prefer a bit of discretion. I’m going to take my sweet puppy somewhere private to play our games.” Matt’s face turned serious as he regarded Gray. “I’m making do tonight, brother, as I have every night for the last ten bloody years. The object of your affection is in your grasp. I suggest you don’t let her go.”
With that I was left alone with the man who had lied to me. I was left alone with the first man I ever loved. With the man I couldn’t get out of my head.
“You’re supposed to be in Italy.” Gray made it sound like an accusation.
“I just got back yesterday.” I really wished I had more clothes on. There was something super weird about standing around a foreign place wearing thigh highs, a bra, and a thong. It was a little like a nightmare I used to have. I noticed that the man Gray had been talking to was watching us now.
“So it only took you twenty-four hours to get into serious trouble,” Gray complained.
It wasn’t how I expected the reunion to go. I was the injured party. I was the one who had come to save him even though he’d treated me like crap. The least I expected was some gratitude. “I’m on a case.”
“That’s your excuse for everything, sweetheart,” Gray said flatly.
Tears welled in my eyes and I fucking hated that. Only Gray ever made me lose control. That mask was coming in handy. I should have been happy. He was making it easy on me. I could go home to Marcus and cuddle up and know that I was in the right place with the right man. The time I spent with Gray had been a huge mistake. “Then it can be my excuse for leaving. I can see you have everything under control here, Sloane. I won’t bother you again.”
His hand wrapped around my upper arm and he drew me close to his body. Every inch of my skin came to life the second he touched me.
“You bother me every second of every day, Kelsey mine, and it’s far too late for you to leave.” He pulled me into the confines of his muscular arms. His mouth went straight to my ear and he whispered. “I’m undercover, sweetheart, and now you are, too. You know how to play this role. Keep your mouth closed and look submissive. Please don’t fight me on this. I’m trying to keep you safe. You have no idea what you’ve gotten into. Play along with me and I’ll explain everything in a while.”
I nodded. I knew exactly what he wanted. I was capable of keeping my mouth shut when the occasion called for it. I’d been in the business long enough to know that listening was way more important than talking.
“You’re a sight for sore eyes, gorgeous.” His hands slid along the curve of my hip. “I missed you, Kelsey mine.” He tensed, and I knew he was aware we were no longer alone. “Come along, sweetheart.”
Gray turned with my hand in his. He acted surprised to see the tall, thin man standing behind him. I had a glimpse of what I could only call a walking cadaver. His cheeks were hollow, his arms bony. The dude could stand to eat a cheeseburger. Or four.
Gray pulled me to his side and bowed his head. “Your Grace, I apologize for the interruption. My brother brought me a gift. I was…excited at the prospect.”
I felt my fingers tighten around Gray’s and he responded with a reassuring squeeze. He knew exactly what had me freaked. There’s a hierarchy in the demon world. Marcus had given me many lessons on how the demon world worked. Much like the feudal system, there were serfs and nobles. Gray’s father was a bigwig in that world, so he and his brother were referred to as “My Lord” by lesser demons. The fact that Gray had called this demon “Your Grace” meant he was even higher than Gray’s father. This demon was a duke. He probably got called into meetings with the big cheese himself. He was not someone I wanted to mess with at this stage of my career. I hadn’t come up against even one baby demon, much less a duke.
The duke gave me an appraising look. I could practically feel his gaze crawling over me like a spider with icy cold limbs making his way across my flesh. “Well, Lord Sloane, I can certainly see where she would catch your interest. She’s very pretty, but to me she looks a bit like all the rest. You must widen your repertoire. Some people are saying you’ve gone a bit soft. You were involved with someone last year?”
Gray tensed but his voice was slightly rueful. “Yes, I was. She was a werewolf.”
So they didn’t know who I was. That was a point in my favor and Gray’s. It would probably look bad for him to have been involved with the king’s Nex Apparatus. People are wary once they realize you have a nickname that translates to death machine. It doesn’t have the same appeal as Cuddles or Snooki Bear.
The duke laughed lightly. “You do like a challenge. You’ll have to tell me the story some time. I can see it has not had a happy ending or you wouldn’t be in her
e with a different brunette every night.” The duke reached out to touch me. Though it went against every instinct I possessed, I stood still and compliant. The touch of a single finger chilled me. I shivered despite the warmth of the room. “Perhaps you can help our Lord Sloane. He plays with the girls every night, but has yet to fuck a single one. I rather think he needs a good fuck.”
“Don’t we all, Your Grace.” Gray gestured to the couch he had formerly occupied. “Could we continue our discussion? I find myself anxious to get business out of the way.”
The duke smiled. It was creepy. It was one of those smiles people get right before they slit your throat. His hair was long and completely white. It wasn’t so much a color in and of itself. It was more like the complete absence of color. It appeared soft, like if I touched it, it would dissolve. Those ethereal strands brushed the middle of his back. I’d only needed the briefest glance to see that his eyes were an icy blue. He held out his hand and I found myself following Gray back to the couch. I knew what I was supposed to do and began to sink down around his ankles.
“No,” Gray said sternly. He indicated his lap and pulled me close when I hesitated. “When I give an order, you follow it, sweetheart. Unless you would prefer I redden that pretty ass of yours in front of the room.”
I wanted to slap him silly. Only like one percent of me was curious about the spanking part…but in private, of course. I nodded my assent, not wanting the duke to even hear my voice. The less he remembered about me, the better. I was already thinking about how I would cover this whole thing up. I didn’t like to think of the lecture I would get from Donovan if he found out I spent the evening in the presence of a duke of Hell while wearing a thong and thigh highs, being publicly petted by a man he’d warned me to stay away from. I was fairly certain it wasn’t the image the king wanted his law enforcement head to portray. In the end, I decided it was best to do what I always tended to do with the king. I would lie through my teeth.
“You’ll get used to the lieutenant. He’s got a thing about discipline,” the duke laughed. He took a long drink of what looked like Scotch or whiskey. “I have a feeling about this one, Sloane. She’s different.”
Gray shrugged. He was playing it cool, but his hands slid across my skin as though they couldn’t help themselves. He pressed his nose against my throat, breathing in deeply. His senses weren’t a wolf’s, but they were at least as good as a vampire’s. I had no doubt he’d caught a scent he didn’t like. As Marcus had spent the better part of an hour wrapped around me not too long ago, I could bet what I smelled like to Gray. His hand tightened on my leg. “I don’t know about that, Your Grace. In the end they’re all the same—just little girls with daddy issues.”
Yep. I was going to beat the shit out of him when I got out of this.
“Perhaps.” The duke sighed as a half-naked servant pressed a cigar into his hand. He lit the stub and the demon breathed in the aroma deeply. “Now, let’s dispense with all the boring courtesies. Please call me Julius, and I’ll call you Sloane.”
“As you wish, Julius,” Gray replied cooly. “We were talking about distribution, if I recall.”
“So you believe you can move my product more efficiently?” Julius asked.
My ears were now fully engaged. Alan had mentioned this Julius person earlier. I was sure the product he referred to was the same thing that turned lazy Alan into a crazy psycho killer. I would love to get my hands on some of that shit.
“You’re doing a good job with the club downstairs,” Gray allowed. “It’s an excellent way to bring in the outliers, so to speak. There are plenty of supes out there who prefer to remain off the king’s radar. The minute you step into Ether, you’re on it. However, you’re severely limiting your clientele if you only disperse Brimstone here.”
Julius Winter smiled and leaned back, crossing one long leg over his knee. “Tell me something, Sloane, have you tried my product?”
Gray’s face split in a humorless grin. “No. Would it even have an effect on me?”
“You might get some high off of it,” Winter said. “Other than that, I doubt it. I try it from time to time to check the quality. I have a human company formulating the drug. I find it so much neater than operating in a trailer somewhere. If the human authorities ask, Bellacorp has all the paperwork to prove it’s an experimental drug. Unfortunately, they cannot handle my distribution.”
“Do you have any idea how many supes I deal with on a regular basis?” Gray asked, playing with my knee. “I handle the dregs, but I also deal with the power players.”
“I’ve been told the so-called power players on this plane aren’t fond of you, Lieutenant,” Winter said with raised eyebrows. “I like the idea of having law enforcement on the team, but I worry about your effectiveness. Arresting the king’s boy toy on a regular basis hasn’t made you popular.”
I bit my lip because the idea of Quinn being Donovan’s plaything was super funny.
“I’ve left Quinn alone for the last couple of months,” Gray replied. “I’m done trying to play good cop. It doesn’t work with that crowd. Look, we all know the king is going to cancel our contracts when they come up. It’s time to figure out which side we’re on.”
“And you’ve decided to come back into the fold?” Winter sounded suspicious.
Gray leaned forward. His blue eyes were almost purple now. “Being good’s gotten me nowhere. I’m done fighting my nature. When Donovan cancels the contracts between our people, fighting will break loose. When the war comes, I will be at my father’s side.”
Winter’s long fingers tapped against the cushion. “I dined with your father a week ago. He’s convinced. He says you’ve been practicing your talents. He’s pleased with your progress. You saved him a lot of trouble by pointing out the men on his staff who were plotting to betray him.”
“If we’re going to take down the vampires, we can’t continue to fight among ourselves,” Gray said. “We have to band together if we’re going to win.”
Winter regarded Gray and seemed to come to a decision. “I agree with you, Sloane. We won’t win the coming battles if we continue to war with each other. I think you and your brother can help me. You boys make a good team. Your rough masculinity along with his gentler hand could prove formidable. I’ll think on this and meet with you again. I would like to introduce you to my human partner. Come to dinner the day after tomorrow. Bring your brother and perhaps your lovely submissive.”
Gray nodded as the duke rose. He let Gray know he could remain seated with a graceful gesture of his hand. He completely ignored me. “And Sloane, I heard a rumor that Vorenus is back in town.”
Gray frowned. “I can confirm that for you, sir. He’s definitely here in Dallas.”
Winter sighed. “I’d rather hoped the rift between the king and Vorenus could be made permanent.”
“He’s an academic,” Gray said. “His mental powers don’t work on our kind.”
“Spoken like a child, Sloane. Don’t underestimate the academics. They might not be as strong as the warrior classes, but no vampire has held power without their support. If you separate the king from the academics, his reign will be a short one. If we manage to dethrone Donovan, the vampires will be in utter chaos.” Winter was quiet for a moment, his hands steepling as he thought. “The rift was because of the king’s daughter, correct?”
“I believe so,” Gray replied.
I went still because this might not be about the case I was on, but I was interested. I’d never had the reasons for the fight between Marcus and the king fully explained to me.
“Yes,” Winter said. “The girl is a companion. I seem to recall some prophecy about Marcus and a girl of the queen’s line. Try to discover what you can about this. If we can use the child to get Vorenus out of the coming fight, it would be to our betterment. Perhaps if the girl went missing, the king would blame the academic. It wouldn’t be the first time a vampire stole the companion he wanted. We will discuss it further. I’ll see you
on Sunday evening.”
Gray nodded his assent and the duke walked off. The minute the elevator closed behind him, Gray stood and set me on my wobbly feet. I felt sick at the thought of…all of it. There really was a war coming, and the demons weren’t planning on playing fair. I was staggered at the thought of what an all-out demon war would mean to the plane. Humans would be caught in the middle, and once they realized what was happening, no place would ever be safe again. Supernatural creatures might be stronger than humans by far. Even weak supes can take out a human without much trouble. Single humans, even a group, were easy to deal with. But if we were exposed, we would be dealing with roughly three billion people who weren’t known for welcoming new ideas with open arms. They tended to use bullets, and our strength wouldn’t save us.
I wasn’t going to be able to lie to the king this time. I stared up at the man I’d been engaged to and wondered if we would be on opposite sides in the coming war.
“Don’t look at me like that,” he said under his breath. A servant approached. “I’m going to need a privacy room. Which one is available?”
The servant pulled out a set of keys and handed one to the lieutenant. Gray dismissed him and pulled me along. I supposed this was the part of the evening when he yelled at me. It was a recurring theme with the men in my life. I seriously needed some more girlfriends.
Gray slammed the door shut and immediately put a finger to his mouth. He let his eyes move around the room to let me know we were being listened to and potentially watched. “Get undressed, sweetheart.”
I stared at him, my eyes wide. I wasn’t willing to fuck him to cover up my presence here. I might be stupid, but I wasn’t throwing away everything I had with Marcus so Gray could look good on camera.
Gray’s mouth firmed stubbornly. He never did like to have his authority questioned. “We’ll take a shower before we start.”
He wanted to talk where we couldn’t be heard. I frowned and gave him a no-funny-business look as I unhooked my bra. Gray’s eyes were dark as he shrugged out of his shirt. The tattoo on his chest had been added to. The dragon seemed longer than it had a couple of months ago.
