by Mina Carter
“Just hold on for a moment… Iliona Graham,” she answered the call, her expression focused. “Seriously? Oh for heaven’s sake… okay, I need you to look on the system and call Gage Hunter. He’s the alpha for the local unicorn herd. Yes… I said unicorn herd… tell him we have one of his youngsters down at Frankie’s Coffee Shop and to get his ass down here yesterday.”
Clicking the call off, she looked up at Baby, her expression serious. “You up for your first assignment?”
Chapter 2
Iliona led them through a kitchen filled with ubiquitous stainless steel and out of a back door into an alleyway. Plunged from bright artificial light into near darkness, Baby blinked to adjust her vision.
Her dragon hissed in warning as the scent of a predator filled her nostrils, wrapped around the sharper, cleaner scent of human fear and the deeper, warm to burning wood scent that always warned her when the half-demon Rat was near.
She shot a hand out to grab Iliona’s arm, pulling the human woman behind her as she assessed the situation. The first scent, that of the predator, pulled at her memory. She knew she’d never smelled it before, every experience since she’d awoken in this time carefully catalogued and stored in her mind, but somehow she knew it.
Ignoring Iliona’s small jump of surprise, she looked into the alleyway.
What she saw, however, was not at all what she expected.
Rat stood at the bottom of the steps, one hand on the shoulder of a human girl. Not unusual, even if her lip wanted to curl back and release a small growl of jealousy from her dragon. She beat it down, a stern mental reminder to the beast that Rat was not theirs. Never would be. Dragons and demons didn’t mix. Ever.
The fact that Rat was singing, and the girl was swaying from side to side as she danced, stilled the sound unuttered in the back of her throat. Movement caught her attention and her gaze shot past them to the creature slinking toward them, low to the ground. Her lips curled back from her teeth for an entirely different reason.
The size of a large dog, white fur matted with blood and other fluids, its bright red eyes were focused on the two in front of it. A long, equine-like head would have been cute, apart from the twisted, gore-covered horn in the center of its forehead and the lethal sharp teeth stacked in its open mouth.
Unicorn.
A hiss of recognition escaped her gritted teeth and she shoved Iliona even further behind her. Because of her nature, Baby saw both the illusion the unicorn was projecting—that of the tiny, cute little unicorn from myth and legend, with a gleaming white coat, flowing mane and shining horn—as well as the matted, gore-covered reality.
In an instant, she realized the problem. Alone, she or Rat would have had no problem dealing with the creature, but the presence of humans in the alley complicated matters.
“Iliona, back inside. Now!” she ordered in a firm voice, one hand still on the woman’s arm so she didn’t do something stupid, like rush toward the unicorn to embrace it.
That was how it hunted, luring its prey in with visions of beauty and purity and then tearing them apart. The only defense a human had against it was innocence, and since Iliona was pregnant… yeah, innocence of that type had left the building long ago.
Iliona chuckled, drawing Baby’s attention. For a moment something washed over her skin, like her human skin was a mask for something else. Something… harder. She winked, amusement in her eyes.
“Don’t worry. I’m immune to it.”
Baby nodded. Even though Iliona’s scent said she was human, Baby was the first to admit she didn’t understand everything about this new time she found herself in. During her time asleep she’d been able to ride in the backs of human minds, but not the mind of anyone with paranormal blood, so her knowledge of the world beyond the human was spotty at best. What Iliona truly was, Baby didn’t know, but she trusted the woman’s word and let her go.
Stepping forward, she slid between the human girl Rat had ahold of and the unicorn. Instantly, its gaze locked onto her as it pulled its lips back from its teeth in a silent snarl. She controlled the need to bare her own teeth, the warning of a predator to a predator, and started to dance.
The unicorn’s lips slowly relaxed and it blinked, watching her movement like a snake that had been hypnotized. Behind her, she heard Iliona slowly ease the human girl away. She kept up her dance, adding her voice softly to Rat’s as he sang.
Behind them footsteps faded until the sound of the cafe door told her the two women were free and clear. Not wanting to call the unicorn’s attention to the fleeing women, she didn’t look. Instead she pulled away from Rat a little, satisfied when the creature’s attention stayed with her.
She didn’t miss Rat’s small grunt of surprise, nor the scent of his interest filling the air around them.
“You’re a virgin,” the big half-demon said.
She snorted and added another sway of her hips. “Way to go, Captain Obvious. What part of ‘asleep for generations’ did you not understand?”
The scent of fire and brimstone strengthened in the air and the unicorn, padding toward Baby as she moved to the side, stopped. Its fanged muzzle wavered between the two of them. She swore under her breath. It scented Rat’s lust and obvious lack of innocence.
“For scales’ sake,” she snapped without taking her eyes off the unicorn. “Get ahold of yourself unless you want that thing gnawing on you. Come on, sweet thing,” she crooned to the predator in front of her. “You want to come play with me? You know you do.”
* * *
Rat had met many crazy women in his time, but not one of them would take on a Reem this size. Yet Baby faced it down without batting an eyelid. She was nuts. Beautiful, but crazy as a loon.
He was forced to hold himself still as she walked forward. Controlling his lust wasn’t an issue. Any desire fled under fear as she put herself in range of one of the most unusual and sneaky predators in the known world.
Sure, he knew she had her own, far more dangerous form—one that could roast the unicorn and snap him up as a crispy-fried snack—but all the primitive male part of his brain saw was the delicate woman putting herself in harm’s way. The need to protect her exploded through him, stopping him between one step and the next.
He was a demon and a pixie. Neither race was known for its protective nature. They were possessive, yes, but in a “strongest wins” way rather than a “protect the innocent” sort of way. They were also selfish, he realized suddenly, the epiphany unsettling.
“Do something.”
The soft order snapped him out of his reverie and he sidled behind the enraptured unicorn. As such, he was perfectly placed to raise his hands and call to the demon part of his nature, summoning fire and brimstone as Baby reached for the shadows that made the alley their home.
With graceful movements of her hands, she wove a net of darkness above the Reem. Realizing what she was doing, Rat slid his fire around her shadows, strengthening the magical net. A shiver rolled down his spine as her shadows responded to him, sliding and stroking against his fire in an almost feline manner. Seductive. Sensual.
Keep your focus. The soft mental chide in the back of his mind made him growl in annoyance with himself as much as a reply when he realized he’d gotten distracted again. The scent of his desire filled the alley once more.
It’s your fault, he threw back along the same mental pathway. He’d heard dragons could communicate mentally with anyone they chose, but he’d never experienced it himself.
Not many of us would knowingly open our minds to a demon, she told him, and he kicked himself for not realizing she could also read his mind.
Only when you’re broadcasting so loudly a dragonling straight out of the egg could pick up your thoughts. There was a hint of laughter in her voice and he gritted his teeth, tightening his fire about her darkness with a quick jerk.
You know what they say about playing with fire, don’t you? he asked silkily, his attention on the net as they tightened it around the young u
nicorn. It had no clue what they were doing, all its attention on the beautiful, innocent woman in front of it.
What’s that? He could practically hear her eyebrow winging up with her words.
He grinned and a lick of fire detached itself from the shadows behind her, curling against her pert ass like a caress. She gasped, the sound audible this time.
Play with fire and you might just get burned.
She didn’t need to chuckle for him to pick up on her amusement. It tainted the very air around her as she yanked suddenly on her shadows, the Reem squealing as she trapped it in an iron hold. As she did, his fire flared, casting a huge shadow on the wall behind her. It wasn’t that of the tall, slender woman she appeared to be. Instead, it was massive and winged, a tail rising high like a scorpion.
Oh don’t you know, darling? Dragon’s don’t get burned. We DO the burning!
“Oh, well done!”
At the new male voice and the sound of slow clapping, the hackles on the back of Rat’s neck went up. He whirled around, all instincts on alert, to see an unfamiliar man walking toward them from the opposite end of the alley.
No, walk was the wrong word. Rat had to stop his lip curling back from his teeth. This guy didn’t walk. He sauntered toward them, like he was on some fancy catwalk in Paris or Milan. He seemed to have dressed for that part as well. Where Rat was dressed for a stakeout in a grubby alley with jeans and a leather jacket, the other man was all silk shirt under expensive tailoring and Italian leather shoes.
Rat extended his darker senses. The guy was also a wolf in sheep’s clothing. Or rather, a unicorn.
“A very clever move from a woman whose intelligence obviously matches her great beauty,” he said, totally ignoring Rat to walk past and offer his hand to Baby. Rat bit back his snarl, all his instincts demanding he get between the two of them and stop the other man from touching Baby.
The only thing that stopped him was the fact she’d probably rip his spine out and beat him with it.
But the snarl in the back of his throat trickled free when, rather than shaking her offered hand, the suave newcomer lifted it and laid a gentle kiss across her knuckles. What got Rat wasn’t the physical contact, even though that was bad enough. No, it was the soft smile on her lips and the gentle flush high on her cheeks. Jealousy exploded through him, going on a rampage through his blood like a werewolf during its first full moon.
“Gage Hunter,” tall, dark and well-dressed murmured over her hand, paused in the middle of a half bow. He seemed entranced by Baby, a look of fascination on his face.
But Rat wasn’t the only one pissed off by Gage’s arrival. The captured Reem snarled and threw itself against its magic-wrought cage, trying to break free. Its squeal of challenge made Gage turn. His eyes flashed red and the short roar he gave sounded wrong from his human throat. The youngster fell silent, backing up as far as it could in its net.
Rat’s gaze flicked back to the other two, pleased to see that Baby had taken the opportunity to step out of Gage’s reach. Her whole demeanor said she was aware he was just as much a predator as the one they’d captured. Infinitely more so.
Gage registered the difference as well and sighed.
“Well, thank you for finding him. I’ll take it from here.”
He bowed, and, with a snap of his fingers, both he and the juvenile Reem disappeared into thin air.
* * *
She would never understand men. Or demons. Or demon men.
Especially demon men.
Okay, maybe just one demon man.
A few hours later, Baby sat in the rec room on the third floor of the PPA building, a mug of coffee in hand and a few of the nearby bakery’s best pastries piled on a plate balanced in her lap to celebrate her first successful mission as a PPA operative.
“You brought in a Reem…” Lola, one of the PPA’s werewolves, whistled between her teeth. “That’s like… real hardcore.”
“Well, our Baby is totally badass,” chimed in Marion from reception. A hag, she was currently in her hideous form but no one batted an eyelid. Marion was… Marion. She had her quirks just like the rest of them, and Baby was pleased that she felt comfortable enough to show them all her nonhuman side.
Baby smiled as the group of women around her all chattered away happily. They’d accepted her into the fold almost immediately. It had surprised her but the curious glances she often got from them when they thought she wasn’t looking told her they were intrigued about another shadow-dragon on the payroll. Not just another shadow-dragon, but the stray edges of the thoughts she caught without intending to said they were curious about a female shadow-dragon.
There was Chase of course, but since the first time the PPA had encountered her, she’d appeared to be working with an evil sorcerer… they were taking a little time to warm up to her, despite the fact she was mated to Duke, one of the other shadow-dragons on the payroll.
But, amidst all the camaraderie, her thoughts kept sliding back to Rat.
He hadn’t spoken to her when Gage had left, simply stalked off and back into the coffee shop where Iliona and the girl were. By the time she’d made it in there a couple of minutes later, taking the time to track down the remains of the unicorn’s “meals” and incinerate them so they didn’t traumatize any passersby, he was already gone.
“He’s so grrrrrr… but fuck, I deffo wouldn’t kick him outta bed!” Lola exclaimed. “Demons are supposed to be awesome in the sack. Aren’t they?”
Baby looked up from her study of the pastries, trying to decide which of the gooey morsels of deliciousness to eat first. Whichever she chose, she was going to end up a sticky mess. Belatedly, she realized she was the focus of attention.
“Why are you all looking at me?”
Lola waggled her eyebrows. The rest of them were a sea of expectant faces all looking at her eagerly like social piranhas eyeing up their next meal of juicy gossip.
“You and Rat,” a girl at the back supplied. Another werewolf, Baby thought, although it was hard to get a read on her scent with so many people in such a small space. “The way he looks at you, there ain’t no way you two ain’t done it.”
Baby gave her a level look—a dragon’s look. At least three of the women surrounding her sucked in a breath and backed up. Prey species. Always skittish, especially around dragons.
“I brought in a unicorn?” she reminded them.
“Yeah, so… ohhh!” The woman’s eyes widened as she made the connection between unicorns and sex… or lack of it. “So you two haven’t…”
She thrust two fingers of one hand into a loop made by the thumb and first finger of the other.
Baby shook her head.
“Not Rat. Not anyone.”
Sheesh, how embarrassing was it to have to explain that one to the class?
The crowd of women around her blinked so hard, she could practically hear their eyelids scraping over their eyeballs. Then Lola spoke up, obviously for the hive mind.
“Woah, girl, we need to get you laid. Stat.”
Chapter 3
Rat had never been so angry in all his life. Not even when his brother on his pixie side had tried to knife him at Christmas dinner one year. It wouldn’t have been so bad apart from the fact he’d been six and his brother ten years older…and their mother found it amusing.
Bitch. There was a reason he’d left the barrow, never to return. And it hadn’t been because he’d burned it to the ground.
That, though, had been angry. Now he was furious—a fury so intense that he’d almost popped a horn right there in the alley. He’d stalked away before he could do something stupid. Like kiss the breath out of that bloody stubborn flame-haired dragoness.
“Fucking pain in my ass,” he grumbled, the sound ending in a snarl as he kicked at a loose flagstone on the sidewalk.
She was a beautiful pain in the ass, but a pain in the ass all the same. He couldn’t remember when a woman had frustrated him so much. Ever.
Collar popped to s
top the chill wind, he shoved his hands deeply in his jacket pockets as he walked. The sun wasn’t yet down, but the cold of approaching winter conspired with the oncoming night to drop the temperature. Of course, he could pull power from his demon half to warm him, but he didn’t like the reminder of what he was. He didn’t like the reminder of who he was.
Because it was bad. Worse than bad. Because his father was a demon, but not just any demon. He was a demon king. And not just any demon king, he was the Demon King.
That was one fact Rat kept off his official file with the PPA. Despite his mixed blood, he wasn’t a prince of one of the minor hells. He was Prince of all of them. Raterrenh Di Lakai Telosa, son of Lakai. Prince of the Night and Shadows, Lord of the Seventh Gate and all the minor hells below. A fact that totally made him badass demon royalty.
Which would be impressive if his family wasn’t dysfunctional. He’d lost count of the times his father had tried to have him killed. It seemed the old man viewed sending assassins every once in a while as an act of affection.
His mother was, if possible, even less affectionate. A pixie warlady with a fearsome reputation, she considered Rat little more than an unfortunate accident, and most of the time she seemed surprised he hadn’t died in childhood.
With family like that, who needed enemies?
It was that time of afternoon, sliding into early evening, that the office crowds were escaping their cubicles of confinement in droves to head home. With his head down, Rat melted into the crowd unseen and headed home.
The well-kept streets of the inner city gave way to less populated and decidedly more dilapidated ones. Old factories and shops sat cheek by jowl with abandoned tenement buildings. Windows were boarded up, graffiti scrawled across walls to mark gang territories. Rat didn’t bother with the gangs. Human, werewolf or pixie, most knew him by sight and made sure to give him a wide berth.
