by Anthology
He was an idiot.
His door slammed shut.
“You go home,” I told Piper in a low, urgent voice. “You need to go. There’s no help for him now. I can look after myself, but you don’t need any part of this. You have to leave.”
She gave me a death stare. “We look after each other at clubs, Jaelyn. We made a pact, remember? No way in fucking hell am I going to let you go into a place like that without someone watching your back. But it doesn’t matter—we aren’t going. We’re getting out of here. Come on. Get out of the car.”
She did exactly that and slammed the door behind her.
“I hate when couples have domestics in public,” Noah said grumpily, yanking his door handle to open it. “It’s awkward as fuck.”
“No shit, right?” Bo said, hanging back for a moment. “Still, what the fuck is Jack talking about? We can’t force girls into a club if they don’t want to go. I don’t want to be involved in this, bro.”
Noah hesitated, glancing first at Bo and then at me. His eyes sparked with something like protectiveness. He nodded.
“Yeah. This isn’t cool,” he said. “Bo and I will walk you girls down the way a bit and wait for you to get an Uber, okay? I don’t know what Jack is smoking, but no way can he drag you girls into the club if you don't want to go. I have no idea why you wouldn’t be dying to go to this party, but wrong is wrong.”
My heart got a little squishy. I smiled at him. “Thanks, that’s really kind of you.”
Too bad it was a moot point. Emeric was playing some sort of game. I’d always been the little mouse to his cat. He’d gone this far, and he wasn’t going to let me uber my way out.
Steeling my courage, I took a deep breath.
“Jack is obviously dead to me, but it’s fine. I’ll go. I really didn’t want to spend my last Halloween here trying to avoid an ex, but whatever. Here we are.”
“Ah yeah. Fuck exes.” Bo shook his head. “I hear that so hard. I got one stalking me, leaving me hate mail and all this shit. You cheat on a girl two times…”
I stared at him for a moment, then nodded in commiseration because I wasn’t sure what else to do. He was entirely serious.
“Let’s go,” Jack said from outside Noah’s door, impatience clear in his voice.
“Well if she’s in…” A smile graced Noah’s wide face, and he stepped out of the SUV. I slid across the seat and ignored Jack’s reaching hand.
“No. Seriously.” Piper crowded me the second I stepped foot on the sidewalk.
Valets waited nearby, two behind a little booth wearing red jackets with little horns on the pockets, and one beside the SUV waiting for the keys. Their hard gazes zipped by me, not sticking for even a moment, as though I held very little importance. Anywhere else and that would be totally normal. Here? That alone gave them away. They were expecting this SUV and me in it.
Another deep breath and I grabbed Piper's arm.
“Come on. It’s fine. I’ll confront my ex-boyfriend. It’s really not the big deal Jack is making it out to be.”
“Um…hello whiplash. What is this?” Piper squinted as she looked at me. “Since when do you go quietly?”
“I’m not going quietly. I’m arming for battle.”
Her eyebrows pinched together in confusion as I walked us toward the main entrance, her sexy little cat tail swaying behind a mostly not-there black cat Halloween costume.
I adjusted my wire halo. What a perfect year for me to have worn the sexy angel costume.
Jack caught up with us, bumping off my other arm. A line of people dressed in Halloween attire waited behind a red velvet rope at one side of the door, two and three deep and stretching away to the left and around the side of the building. Only a portion of them would be admitted, the privilege of going to the best dressed and best looking—the best prey.
Demons did like their sport.
I stopped as we neared the red carpet leading to the grand front entrance.
“Jack, you may walk behind me,” I said, power infusing my words.
He shuffled back before he knew his feet were moving.
For all his posturing, he didn’t belong here.
I did.
Partially, anyway. My mother had wanted to piss off her family by bringing my dad, a drunk mortal, around to parties. It worked, especially when she found out she was accidentally pregnant. Having a half-mortal baby just wasn’t done.
My mother wasn’t just any type of demon, either. She belonged to the class of princes and princesses, powerful as hell and morally ambiguous, meaning they could be either “good” or “bad.” There were plenty of both.
With her family threatening to kick her out of their organization, she gave my father a choice—take the child or kill the child. It made no difference to her. She was done with it. It being me, obviously.
It was pretty clear which side of the good/bad line she resided on.
My dad didn’t let her kill me—I’d give him that—and he even moved to find a better job. But his other life choices were less than solid. He married a woman who hated kids and then got himself fired by drinking on the job.
Looking for money, he found the local demon organization and asked for help. Or so Emeric had told me five years ago. Knowing my dad, he was probably hoping he could give me back to my biological mother.
There was just one problem—demon organizations are a lot like companies. There are many of them, and they operate independently of each other. Because Dad had moved, the organization he’d visited wasn't the same as the one my biological mother belonged to. They were competing organizations, in fact, which was the only reason the local demons were interested in me. They would either get a powerful demonic princess they could use or a powerless mortal they could dangle in front of my mother’s family as an embarrassment and a joke.
Either way, I'd be a pawn.
They wouldn’t know which fate would be mine until my power either came in at sixteen or it didn’t. Until then, they gave my father a deal: they’d buy me from him and appoint him as my custodian. He’d get a stipend for raising me, and when I was of age, he’d hand me over.
That deal had been signed when I was eight. I remembered it acutely. A golden blade covered in symbols had sliced red across my forearm. I’d watched sparkling crimson well up from the cut and then spill over, dripping down into a dancing magical flame. Power had squeezed me like a vise, cementing my status as owned.
It would’ve been so much better for me if I’d made all that up when locked in a basement.
Dad died before my power could develop, though, and demons didn’t seem in the habit of monitoring mortal children, even ones with potential. I’d slipped through the cracks. I had remained free.
Until Emeric.
The grand entrance of the club beckoned us, and I knew Emeric waited within its depths. Lights blared and blinked from the building. Neon shone down. Loud house music thumped from within.
I started forward again, aiming for the middle set of three double doors, the VIP entrance. Two steps led up to a small porch with columns around it. A large demon hulked on either side, both of them dressed in chic tailored suits, looking for all the world like normal men as they watched us approach.
My fake satin dress swished around my upper thighs as I ascended the first step.
“Are you sure about this?” Piper said on a release of breath, looking around the area with wide eyes. “This is…swank.”
I didn’t think she’d meant to say the last bit out loud. I knew she wouldn’t like what happened next.
On the porch, I stepped between the bouncers and stopped.
“You may enter, Ms. Von Brandt,” the one on the right said, his aura swirling around him, crystalizing his disguise. I could see beneath the magic, though, an ability that had come with my power—the power that had materialized at sixteen. Two shiny onyx horns curled up from his temples and nearly lined his skull. Red pulsed out from around his pupils, separating his vivid green i
rises from the black. A tail hung between his legs and flicked in sudden unease at our exchange. The rest was him. His type didn’t have scales or spout fire or have fingers that turned into claws.
I didn’t know how to make an aura. Thankfully I didn’t have to. While I didn’t look much like my father, I had solidly human attributes. No tail. No horns. Thank fuck, like Emeric, no scales.
“I need to speak to Dormetrian,” I said. “I assume he’s on hand?”
The breath left Jack in a loud whoosh. Dormetrian was Emeric’s second-in-command. He oversaw all their vast operations. Jack’s boss would be well down the ladder compared to the heavyweight we were about to meet.
I’d met Dormetrian several times by now. Most notably, every year when he brought the invitation by hand and waited for my response. He never had a visceral reaction when I told him fuck no.
The tail flicked again, twice. These guys were trained to be stoic. For him to react like this meant he was severely uncomfortable. That was not good news.
“Of course. Please, follow me.”
He led us into the large entryway with marble floors, columns, fantastic woodwork on the ceiling, and too many bouncers. There hadn’t been this many last time, as though this year they were expecting trouble.
Was I that trouble? I might have the magic, but I still didn’t know much about using it.
We walked through a small side door that blended into the wall, then curved down a hall, and were escorted into a plush waiting room. The bouncer stood at the door for us all to go through, nodded, and closed the door behind us.
“Okay…firstly, wow,” Piper said, studying the oil paintings on the wall. “Swank doesn’t even begin to cover this place. It’s like a freaking museum.”
“This place is sweet,” Noah said with a boyish smile, sitting down on the brown leather couch.
“Why are we here?” Jack asked with a closed-down expression, not looking at anything but me. “How do you know Dormetrian?”
“How much detail did they give you on your assignment?” I stayed by the door. I hadn’t seen this room before, but it didn’t matter. It wasn’t as fine as Emeric’s suite. That I had seen plenty of, while not noticing much of it at all. He’d taken my whole focus.
“Just that…” He shook his head, his expression troubled. “They want to talk to you about a low-level assignment. I figured you’d…” He glanced around at the others. “I figured you’d joined the organization and were trying to shirk your duties…or something. They just told me to get you in through the door, and suggested it wouldn’t be hard if Piper was going.”
“And look, they were right. Congratulations.”
“But—”
Jack cut off as the door opened.
A slight man entered the room. He wasn’t much taller than me, middle five feet, with loose limbs, a pleasant smile, and eyes you didn’t want to look into for an extended period of time. His horns were short and stubby, filed to mere nubs so that his enemies couldn’t grab them in a fight, and his canines extended down past the rest of his teeth. Dormetrian was the type of demon who’d likely inspired the myth of vampires. He enjoyed consuming blood straight from the veins of his victims, though he didn’t require it for sustenance. No, he liked to taste his enemies as they died.
This guy was not the “good” kind, either.
He gave me a once over. “Ms. Von Brandt. To what do I owe the pleasure?”
“I have a special request.”
“Of course.” He inclined his head slightly.
“Have someone take Piper out of here.”
“No!” Piper said. “I’m staying with you. We talked about this.”
Dormetrian flicked his hand, and her words dried up. Her mouth kept moving, and when no sound came, her eyes increased in size. She reached for her mouth, wondering what was happening.
“You better not have stolen her breath,” I said quickly, my animosity rising.
“Of course not, Ms. Von Brandt. Merely her words. Something you would know if you’d been training as you ought. I am aware of what she means to you. She will come to no harm. Where would you like her taken?”
“Wherever she wants to go, as long as it’s not here. If she goes to another party, give her a sexy escort. She and Jack are done.”
Jack jerked as though struck. He opened his mouth to say something, only to shut it again when he caught Dormetrian’s gaze on him. It was the first wise thing he’d done all night.
“As you wish,” Dormetrian said, bowing slightly.
“We talked about this, remember? It’s inappropriate for you to say that to me. You’re not my Wesley, and I’m not your Buttercup.”
He stared for a solid beat, death in his eyes. “Of course.”
I grinned, knowing full well I annoyed the shit out of him and he couldn’t do a damn thing about it. Not while his boss had an interest in my well-being. And given Emeric needed me for his grand plans, I was safe in my taunting of his second-in-command.
“Make Jack leave, too,” I said, “but if he goes near Piper again, kill him. Sorry Pipe, but this crossed a line. Also, his involvement with this place will change him. It’s best to say goodbye now, eternally if necessary.”
As far as my being good or bad…if you couldn’t beat ‘em, as they said…
“And the other two?” Dormetrian asked.
“Let them stay and enjoy themselves. Get them goodie bags. Piper too.”
“Of course. Will that be all?”
I hesitated. “Emeric knows I’m here?”
“He was alerted the moment you stepped out of the SUV,” Dormetrian said without inflection.
Butterflies swarmed my belly. I nodded and turned toward the door. I was here now. Emeric apparently wanted a piece of my mind, and he was going to get it.
“And Ms. Von Brandt?” Dormetrian said.
I turned back with my hand on the doorknob.
“He will greatly enjoy your costume. Very fitting.”
I tightened my lips but didn’t respond. It was time to go to war.
3
The club felt pulsing and alive as I walked through it. Lights flashed in multiple colors, highlighting tables, flaring across the various dance floors, and shimmering along the nude bodies of the demons dancing within golden birdcages hanging from the ceiling. On the dance floors, glitter sparkled from bare shoulders and the curve of breasts. A man wearing a beast mask passed by, his cut abs oiled up, leading down to furry trunks. A woman followed in a rainbow bathing suit and a Mardi Gras mask. Clearly, she hadn’t felt like putting a lot of effort into a costume.
I headed toward Emeric’s reserved table in the back corner of the first floor. My heart rattled in my chest, and excitement wound through my middle. I hated him—even more so the position he’d put me in by claiming ownership of me—but five years hadn’t dulled the memory of his lips on my heated skin.
People laughed and smiled within their dark booths. Glasses touched lips, and hands touched thighs. I’d half hoped to find him before he found me, but his VIP corner booth, behind a heavy velvet rope and a curtain of dangling magical beads, was empty. If the wrong person tried to part those beads, they would fry from the inside out. Their death would be undocumented, and their body would never be found. How Emeric’s minions managed that with so many witnesses, I didn’t know. I also didn’t know how the curtain would react to me tonight. I wouldn’t be venturing in to find out.
On my other side, the dance floor throbbed in time to the music. Bodies gyrated, their limbs entwined and their hips grinding against each other. Smoke from a fog machine curled through the pink and purple haze.
My magic gave a mighty throb. With a gasp, I slapped my hand to my chest, as though that would stop the call.
I looked around wildly. My magic had gone off without warning, which meant one thing: Emeric was close. Watching me, probably. Stalking me, like a predator.
Emeric was my soul-mirror.
Humans had changed the term into
soulmate sometime in the distant past. They’d changed the meaning of it, too. The original version wasn’t all hearts and flowers. Not in Emeric’s and my case, anyway.
Every demon had a mirror to their power, maybe several, but that person was hard to find, apparently. Most never did. Soul-mirrors possessed the exact same magical type and power level. Magic would originate from one party, hit the other, and then bounce back. Then back to the other. Back again. It would grow with each pass, making both parties stronger. If they had a bond.
To establish a bond, they had to give themselves to each other freely. The bond was deep, intimate, sexual, and it was forever.
Without that bond, the power might bounce back once, maybe twice, but then it would fizzle. Without the bond, neither party grew stronger.
Emeric wanted me to accept our bond so we ascended beyond the level of prince and princess.
There were only a couple of others on the king and queen power scale elsewhere in the world, and none in the United States. He’d greatly increase his reach and the size of his organization. He just needed me to get on board.
Given that he’d done everything he could to cockblock me from leaving this town for the past five years, including denying me credit, blocking my attempts to get better jobs, or transfer to out-of-state colleges, he could go to hell. Realistically or fictionally. Not to mention he dealt in dirty deeds and shady shit. If there was a poster child for the morally defunct, it was him.
“Hey!” A man sauntered over doing the White Man’s Overbite, a sort of off-beat shimmy with his arms tucked to his chest, his shoulders bouncing and his feet kind of shuffling. “Wanna dance?”
A large male demon stepped out of the crowd. He had dark skin, a red devil mask, and his real horns and tail were on display. Demons didn’t have to hide on Halloween. It’s why they went all out with their parties for it.
The male demon reached a thick arm out and grabbed the guy by his sweat-drenched T-shirt. He yanked him back and then away, tossing him into a cluster of standing tables and making him roll across the floor in a series of flopping limbs.
