He looked at her as if she was crazy. “What are you talking about?”
“You.” She punched him in the chest. “I’m sick of you. Your bad attitude. You act like I’m such a pain in your ass. Such a burden. Fine. I’ll do you a favor. I’m no longer your responsibility. I can take care of myself.” She limped toward the front door, hoping she wasn’t leaving a trail of dirt in her wake.
“Selene, stop.”
She continued to the door. She’d never been treated so badly in her life and didn’t have to put up with this.
“Seraphine.”
Neeman’s voice made her stop with her hand on the door. He stood so close to her that his cool breath fell on her exposed shoulder. He’d never used her real name.
“I’m sorry.”
She turned and gave him her best ‘get lost’ glare.
He shoved his hands in his pockets and shifted from foot to foot. “Look, I’m not good with this stuff.”
She crossed her arms over her chest. “What stuff?”
“You. Females. Relationships.”
“Is that what we’re having now? A relationship?”
“Not like that,” he said. “I’m... I’m not good with people in general. I don’t do personal.” His eyes were pained and sincere. What did she say? She’d never done relationships either.
“Selene, where are you going?” Mason called down the stairs. He walked toward her and Neeman backed up a pace. “What’s going on?”
“Nothing. I was just leaning here because I heard folks will be coming home soon and I figured I’d be considerate and open the door for them. Oh and because my foot’s broken.”
“Broken?” He looked around. “Where’s Doc?”
“I sent William for him.”
“Come on,” said Mason. “Let’s get you a room so you can clean up and rest.” He moved to help her.
“I’ll take her,” said Neeman. “Better that we don’t get more people speculating about the two of you.”
“Good point.”
Neeman scooped her into his arms and carried her up the stairs.
She tried not to like the feel of security she got from his embrace, his strong, hard muscles moving around her body, cocooning her from harm. He’d said he wasn’t good at relationships, but what was their relationship?
“Up there.” Mason pointed to a set of stairs up to the third floor.
“Mason.” Neeman’s voice was a warning. “You do know whose room that is—”
“I’ll work it out,” he said without turning around.
They headed up a narrow staircase and down a small hallway to a large wooden door.
Mason took a key from the top of the door jamb. The door creaked as it opened to reveal a dark, musty room. They walked into a sitting room and Neeman set her on a couch.
Mason looked around and rubbed his neck with his hand. “I’ll make sure Doc gets up here. I’ll tell Danika that it’ll be a few minutes before we can meet and have food sent up. When you’re feeling up to it, come down and we’ll talk.”
Neeman nodded. Mason handed him the key and turned to leave.
“Mason?” she called.
He turned.
“Are you okay?”
He shook his head. “No. Not at all.”
The stricken look on his face hit her in the gut. Whatever was going on between him and Danika, it wasn’t good.
Mason left and closed the door. Neeman set the key on a glass top coffee table and glanced around. A stiff sofa sat facing a dead fireplace. The baby blue velvet sofa was flanked by two matching plush chairs. Bookshelves stood along one wall and the opposite wall held French doors that led to a bedroom.
She took off her purse and tossed it next to the key. “Whose room is this?”
Neeman looked at her, clenching and unclenching his fists. “It used to belong to a traitor.”
“A traitor?”
“Danika’s uncle Chase tried to kill her.”
Something pricked in her memory, but she couldn’t figure out what it was through her haze of pain.
“So tell me.” Neeman took a seat in an overstuffed chair. “Why did you do it?”
“Do what?”
“Kill that demon, Rex.”
She swallowed hard and looked at her hands. She picked at the black stains under her nails, flicking the dried blood to the floor.
In light of what had happened, killing him to keep her whereabouts from her father was as dumb as if she’d sent up a beacon announcing herself.
She looked over his shoulder to the door, remembering every sensation, every thought as she’d pressed her hands into Rex’s skin.
“Mason told you that he’s my brother.”
“I don’t understand how that’s possible because his mother was killed when he was young.”
“His mother Pia and my mother Yelena were half sisters. Pia’s father, my grandfather, was fae and her mother was demon. They didn’t marry and Pia’s mother abandoned her. Her father lied to save his reputation and told everyone that Pia was half human not half demon. He married my grandmother, and they had Yelena, my mother.”
“So they had different mothers but the same father?”
“Yes. Our mothers both have fae in them. But the fae only see those who have pure fae blood as worthy.” Memories of being tied to the stone altar had her pressing her fingertips into her temples.
“Are you okay?”
She waved him off. “Yes. So, anyway, Mason’s mom learned the truth about herself and ran away to find her demon birth mother. My mother followed her to the demon world. But once my mother got there she was seduced by Mason’s father, my father, just as Mason’s mother had been. So Mason is three-quarters demon and the heir to our father’s throne. My mother was full fae, so I am only half demon, half fae.” She paused to make sure he understood what she’d said.
“So, you and Mason are sibling cousins.”
She smiled. “Basically.”
He continued to process the information.
“Pia disappeared from the demon world. My mother had me open a rift so we could come here to find Pia and Mason, but it was too late. Pia had already been killed. We followed Mason’s trail for years before finding him.”
“So why did you kill Rex?”
She sucked in a breath. “Like Mason, I too have an inner beast. She isn’t as strong as his, but she is deadly. Her name is Seraphine. When we got here, my mother caged her with a magick amulet. My fae side is strong and I was able to bind her in the fae realm, but it’s hard here. So many things set her off. The sights, sounds, smells. I’d forgotten about that. How strong she is. How hard it is to keep her under control without the amulet.”
“What about where you were before?”
“When my mother took me to the fae world after the outbreak, the fae elders didn’t want us. They said my mother had been spoiled. They said I was ‘Diabolus Enim Hypocritæ’. The devil’s spawn. She was desperate to stay. She let the High Elder have me. When I rejected him, he kept me for months testing me. Torturing me. He said it was to ensure that I could keep my demon half locked away.”
“But you had the amulet.”
She caught his gaze. “Like I said, that was his excuse.”
“They hurt you.” His voice held a hard edge.
She swallowed. “Here she’s stronger and I weaker. My mother taught me about chi and how to use it, harness it, before she made me the amulet. I haven’t had to worry about Seraphine in so long...”
“Stop talking about me like I didn’t just save your life.”
“The amulet my mother made me didn’t make it through the portal.” She was silent for a minute. “Last night my skull was pounding and then I heard her, in my head. I woke up and I had absorbed too much energy at the club. I needed to release the magick or I risked her becoming too strong and taking over again.”
“So that’s why your eyes turn purple.” Ne
eman said.
She massaged her temples with her fingers.
“Her eyes are purple, yes. I went to see Rex. I was only going to hurt him. I needed to release my magick to weaken her. But he started talking and telling me all the things he’d done to those vamp women. Even then, I walked away, until he threatened to tell my father where Mason and I were. He said they already knew we were here. That if I was here, Mason had to be here.” She stared off, unable to look at Neeman anymore. “I lost it.” Tears leaked from her eyes. “But it was all for naught anyway. He’d already told the others where I was.”
“How could he? He was in the compound.”
She swiped at her cheeks with the hem of her shirt in an effort to not get any demon blood on her face.
“Demons of the same race have a connection. It gets weaker the farther apart they are, but they do have one. It’s used for hunting purposes mostly. But if he concentrated hard enough and long enough, he could send them a signal.”
“Is that what you did with Mason?”
She glanced at him. “How did you know?”
“After the meeting, he was in pain and told us to get to the compound right before the explosion.”
Fatigue overcame her. She nodded and then yawned.
“I think I’ll close my eyes till the doctor gets here.”
“Maybe we should prop that foot up.” He stood and crossed to her.
“Mmmhmmm.” She closed her eyes and drifted off.
* * * *
Neeman closed the door and met Doc in the hall. “She’s sleeping.”
“I heard the girl may have a broken foot.”
“She does, but she’s resting at the moment so it can wait.”
Doc shook his head and stomped back down the stair muttering about respect and listening and why did he bother.
The old Vampire made Neeman smile. Doc had patched him up more times than he cared to remember.
Neeman continued down the stairs and headed across the landing toward Danika’s sitting room. The shouts that drifted through the crack in the door made him shy away.
“You should have told me, Mason. You should’ve been honest with me about the demon sighting,” yelled Danika.
“I told you. I wanted to make sure first. I didn’t want to worry you with everything—”
“Not you too, Mason. I can take the male chauvinistic crap from the Vampires in my society, but not you. I need you on my side. I couldn’t bear it if you didn’t believe in me as well.”
The voices lowered.
“You know that’s not what I mean. I believe in you more than anything. I just know that you have a lot on your plate right now and I wanted to help.”
“I do have a lot going on, but I’m a coven lord. I always have a lot on my plate. It’s my life. The way I want it.”
“Okay. Okay,” Mason’s voice softened. “I’m sorry. I just don’t like people trying to push you around and Chase is still out there and I know the stress you’ve been under.”
The talking stopped for a moment and then Mason said, “Come here. Let me help you feel better.”
She laughed. “Stop. Don’t do that when I’m so—” She sucked in a sharp breath and moaned.
“I love you, Danika. You are mine and I’m yours. I will always protect you.”
“Mason, I love you too.”
Neeman turned and headed for the stairs, embarrassment fluttered through him.
* * * *
Neeman spent the next hour with William organizing the trackers into rooms. They took a new section of the barracks that no humans were occupying yet. The human tracking students bunked in with the human slaves.
Word had spread about the demons and the demolition of the compound. Neeman tried not to think about what they were going to do now. The Tracking Squad had lost close to half a dozen men in the compound demise. And two humans. It had taken years to assemble such a good group. He didn’t know how long it would take to gather another one. There were two other squads in the states under his control. If a coven war broke out, he’d need to call them to Chicago and possibly call in all the retired trackers as well. If he did that, he might be able to get fifty to a hundred trackers, each worth ten regular Vampires.
William shoved his phone in his pocket and rubbed his forehead as he walked in from the barracks.
“Something wrong?” Neeman asked.
William gave him a bland smile. “Slave troubles.”
“You have a slave?”
“No.” William waved his hand. “Evan is being returned again.”
“The one with blond hair and a bad attitude? Didn’t we just drop her off to a businessman south of Chicago two weeks ago?”
“That would be her. Unfortunately, I’m going to need you to go pick her up once more.”
“Doesn’t this make the fifth time?”
“Sixth and I’m afraid if Danika has her way, this’ll be her last.” William ran his hands over his face.
“What will you do with her?”
William shrugged. “I have no clue. We’ve never had a slave so hell-bent on destroying us that they disrupt every house they go to by trying to rally the other slaves into mutiny.”
“That’s the last thing we need right now, on top of everything else.”
“Exactly.”
“Let me make sure everyone is settled and I’ll go get her.”
“It can wait.” William waved his hand. “Let’s figure these other problems out tonight. Tomorrow evening we can arrange her pick up.”
Neeman nodded and headed to the third floor. Between Selene and Evan, Danika might just go insane, having two women as stubborn as herself in Coven House.
Chapter 14
“All righty young lady, I’m going to need to examine your foot.” Doc set down his bag on the coffee table.
The pain had intensified while she’d napped and Selene had awoken with enough magick to do a small pain relief spell. It wouldn’t last long though. While sleeping, all her previous spells had completely dissolved away. In the fae realm, it had been easier to hang onto the magick, even while sleeping, due to the magick in the things around her. But here she had to suck magick out of everything like blood.
Neeman stood by the door, his arms crossed over his chest. She tried to sit up.
“You don’t need to move.” Doc’s wrinkled face looked doughy, but his eyes were sharp and alert. She wondered how old he was. He moved to her propped-up foot and examined it.
“It’s significantly swollen. You’ve been walking on it, I take it?”
Neeman looked away.
“I got some help moving around, but I didn’t think it was broken,” she said.
Neeman looked back at her and shook his head.
Nice. That’s what she got for trying to cover his ass?
“Well, we should wrap it up and find you a pair of crutches. Unless...” He looked at her with a knowing gaze.
“I can heal it myself, when my magick recharges.”
He nodded. “Then I think the best thing you can do is take a bath and make sure to wash the abrasions and then sleep. I can bandage you up if you wish.”
“That won’t be necessary, thank you.”
Doc nodded and grabbed his things and looked at Neeman. “Should I call for a house slave? She’s going to need help bathing.”
“I’ll make sure she has help.”
“I’ll let Danika know she can’t be moved before tomorrow. She needs to rest.”
“Thanks, Doc.” Neeman opened the door and let the old Vampire out. Neeman stood in the doorway looking down the hall before closing the door and setting his forehead on it for a minute.
Why did he keep offering to help her? She obviously caused him distress, but for whatever reason he continued to stick by her side and make sure she was taken care of.
“You don’t need to help me. I can take a bath myself,” she said.
He turne
d to her, his face expressionless and his tone flat. “Not with that foot you can’t. You may not be able to feel it, but if you walk on it you’ll make it worse.”
She rose from the couch. “Trust me, I’ve been through worse and I can heal it up fine when I’m recharged.”
He was at her side in a breath. His eyes flashed. “Don’t be stubborn about this. You need help. If you don’t want me, I can go get one of the female house slaves.”
He was offering to bathe her, to rub her naked body with a wet cloth.
“I guess it wouldn’t be too terrible to have you scrub my lady parts. You are going to give me a sponge bath, aren’t you?”
A smile crossed his face and he shook his head.
“Oh my goodness! Did you just smile at me?” She gasped.
The smile snapped away as quick as a flash of lightning, leaving her wondering if she’d even really seen it.
“Don’t get used to it.”
“Oh I won’t.” She snorted. “I think that one almost broke your face.”
He chuckled and it warmed her inside. Again he looked like the old photos she’d seen. Especially the one from his surfer days. She imagined him with skin kissed tan from the sun. His hair textured from the salt water, sand clinging to his dripping wet body.
Her heart fluttered and she bit the inside of her cheek and looked away. Her gaze lit on the coffee table.
“By the way.” She grabbed her purse, pulled out the small wooden box, and handed it to him.
He turned it over in his hand. “What’s this?”
“I got it for you before we ran to the arena. I thought it might be...important.”
He ran his thumb over the surface of the small box and recognition dawned on his face.
“I had to shrink it to be able to carry it, but I promise everything in there is fine and when I am recharged enough, I’ll make it bigger again.”
He looked at her, his expression conflicted. “Thank you,” he managed. “I... Thank you.”
She shrugged, her cheeks heated and she looked away. “It’s no biggie.”
He caressed her cheek and persuaded her to look directly in his eyes. “It’s big to me.”
Her chest tightened and she licked her lips, unable to think of something to say. How did he do that to her? He made her weak with desire. Something her mother had taught her never to give in to.
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