Her nose wrinkled, and she almost gagged. They smelled of dirt and rot and … death. As she took in their weathered clothing and decaying bodies, she was sure as shit that they were already dead.
Well, fuckadoodledo.
The stout one grunted. The teenage corpse gargled a weird sound. Not that they were communicating—no independent thoughts drifted through their brains. They were both fully controlled by their puppet master.
In any other circumstance, Khloé would have plunged her mind into that of her enemy and taken the wheel. She could control most minds with minimal effort, but she couldn’t control the dead. Only a demon with the power of necrokinesis could do that.
She could take on two reanimated corpses—they’d be unable to use whatever demonic abilities they’d possessed when alive. But Enoch might be able to attack her with some of his abilities just by looking at her through the eyes of his puppets. That wasn’t good.
The dead teen suddenly jerked back, his back bowing. Then his body snapped straight, and a long breath rattled out of him. “I know you’re in here, Khloé,” he said, his voice rough and garbled. “You can’t hide for long.”
True. But she’d never intended to hide, only to observe; to study her enemy.
She dropped onto the back of the teen. Her weight was enough to send him to his knees, no doubt due to how rickety his bones were. Wicked fast, she lifted her hand and sent a powerful wave of electric fire soaring at the stout corpse. Flickering and crackling, the flames whipped him so hard he crashed into the wall.
She slapped her hands on the teen’s head and emitted yet more electric fire; it buzzed and sparked beneath her palms. She might not be able to take control of his mind, but she could sure as shit fry it so that the corpse was useless to its master.
A hard, white-hot impact slammed into the back of her shoulder, barely missing her wings and knocking the breath from her lungs. Hellfire orb.
Gritting her teeth against the agony of her skin blistering and burning, she stood and whipped around. The stout corpse was still convulsing as shockwaves of electric fire moved through it, but her power clearly hadn’t hurt Enoch, because he was still able to attack her via the corpse.
Just then, another ball of hellfire appeared in its hand. It appeared too late, though, because she’d conjured an orb of her own. She tossed it at the corpse’s face, blinding it, cutting off Enoch’s ability to see and hurt her. Seconds later, it slumped, and she knew the necromancing piece of shit had withdrawn from its mind.
Her shoulders dropped as she looked from one corpse to the other. Neither was a pretty sight—the teen’s mush-for-brains was trickling out of his ears, mouth, and nose; the face of the other guy was blistering, charring, and peeling away, courtesy of the hellfire.
Speaking of blistering skin …
She peeked at the injury on the back of her shoulder. It was ugly and raw, but it wasn’t very deep. Thankfully, she was a fast healer, so it should be gone within the hour.
She psychically reached out to touch Ciaran’s mind. Bro, I got a problem here—meet me in my bedroom.
A male mind slid against hers. Are you going to ask me for a condom again?
She snickered. No. I’m going to ask you to help me get rid of a couple of corpses.
It took mere seconds for her brother to appear. After hearing her story and losing his ever-loving mind, he teleported Jolene and two of her sentinels, Orrin and Mitch, to the house. While her grandmother and the sentinels examined the bodies, Khloé told them what happened.
“You should have called for help sooner,” clipped Ciaran, standing in the doorway of her bedroom, his jaw clenched, his arms folded across his chest.
Khloé blinked. “Why?”
He gritted his teeth. “Because you were up against a Lazarus demon and two corpses, why else?”
“I’ve been up against worse.” It was the truth. “Besides, I figured I could take them. He was able to attack me with hellfire orbs through them, but he didn’t toss any of those black, smoky orbs.”
“There’ll be limits as to what he can do through his puppets,” Jolene told her.
“I don’t recognize either of the bodies; they definitely weren’t from our lair,” said Orrin.
Jolene cursed. “So Enoch’s now targeting the cemeteries of other lairs.”
“He might be hoping the disappearances of the bodies will be reported and that you’ll then somehow be held responsible for it all,” Mitch suggested.
“Possibly.” Jolene planted her hands on her hips. “I’m going to kill the bastard when I find him. And I will find him.”
“Did you manage to locate David Shore?” asked Khloé.
“Yes. He lives in Nebraska, but he’s on a business trip at the moment. We’ll have to wait a few days before we can pay him a visit.”
Orrin looked at Khloé. “Enoch likes to finish the jobs he started—it’s a matter of pride for him. He’ll be both embarrassed and furious that you thwarted him. He’s not going to let it slide, and I doubt it’ll be long before he strikes again. We had members of the Force watching your house, but they were distracted when two cars collided further up the street. They ran over to assist.”
“Enoch probably staged it,” said Jolene.
“It seems likely.” Rubbing her aching head, Khloé asked, “Hey, Grams, do you know if Enoch can dream-walk? I think he visited me in my dream, because it seems an awfully big coincidence that I just dreamed of him telling me that he’ll not only kill me but use my corpse to hurt you all in the name of revenge … then something woke me up, and I realized that I wasn’t alone in the house.”
“It sounds as if he can indeed dream-walk, but I can’t say for sure,” replied Jolene.
Well, that wasn’t good. “Can he hurt me through my dreams?”
“No. But he may be able to alter your dreams or drag you into a deeper sleep.”
Khloé felt her brows draw together as she remembered how the air in the dream had thickened and weighed her down. “I think he tried to do that tonight.”
“He most likely hoped to lure you into such a deep sleep that his puppets wouldn’t wake you.”
“Well, it didn’t work.”
“Probably because you’re resistant to most forms of mental manipulation. But he can hurt you in other ways, so be prepared for him. Have you told Teague what’s been going on?”
“Not yet. I was going to wait until he returned from his trip.”
“I’d call him and fill him in, if I were you. There’s a chance he could find out through the demonic grapevine, and then he’d be upset that you kept it from him. Plus, he has a right to know. And you’d want him to contact you if the situation was reversed.”
True, true. “Fine. I’ll call him tomorrow.”
Ciaran planted his feet. “I’ll move in here for a while and stay in one of your spare bedrooms so I can teleport you out of here if anything happens.”
Oh the hell no. She loved her brother, she truly did, but he was a nightmare for her to live with. Mostly because he ate like a horse, never tidied up after himself, “borrowed” her stuff, and thought he could tell her what to do.
“You can teleport to me in the blink of an eye—that means you don’t need to stay here,” Khloé pointed out.
“That would be true if I could trust that you’ll call me for help straight away, but I can’t,” said Ciaran. “You’d rather take him on alone than pull me into a dangerous situation.”
“Yeah, well, you pull the same shit with me.”
“Which is why both of you are going to promise me here and now that you will telepathically call out for help if Enoch attacks,” said Jolene. “Consider it an order.”
Ciaran let out a sigh. “I promise.”
Khloé hesitated, twisting her mouth.
Jolene took a step toward her, her expression grave. “Enoch wouldn’t just kill you, Khloé. He made it very clear that he means to reanimate your corpse and send you after someone you love. Do you rea
lly want that?”
Khloé exhaled heavily. No, she didn’t. “I promise I’ll send out a telepathic call for help if Enoch makes another move.”
“Good. Now let’s get you cleaned up.”
CHAPTER SEVEN
Just as the studio’s lunch break began, a hand thumped on Khloé’s desk. Looking up from the appointment book, she found Harper standing there, her expression tight.
The sphinx folded her arms. “Do you know how frustrating it is that passive-aggressiveness goes right over your head?”
Khloé blinked. “Huh?”
“I’ve been glaring at you for hours, and you haven’t once commented on it.”
“Oh.”
Devon sighed. “Just ask her what’s wrong, Khloé.”
Putting down her pen, Khloé asked, “What’s wrong?”
“You didn’t call me last night after Enoch sent dead people to your house—that’s what’s wrong,” said Harper.
“You’re still stewing over that? I thought we dealt with this earlier.” Really, there hadn’t seemed a need to disturb all her girls with news of something they could do nothing about. “It’s not like you found out days later. Jolene called you this morning and brought you up to speed. Raini didn’t find out about it until this morning either, since it took a few hours for the news to fully circulate through the lair.”
Khloé was guessing that Harper had shared it with her mate and sentinels, because Keenan earlier telepathically ranted at Khloé for not telling him herself. She’d snickered and then slammed a mental door on him. The guy would never learn.
“That’s not the point,” said Harper. “What happened was some major shit. I should have heard it from you immediately after it happened, not hours later from Grams.”
“She hadn’t given me permission to mention it to anyone outside the lair.”
“But I’m your cousin! Your favorite cousin.”
“You don’t tell me everything that goes on in your lair.” Harper spluttered. “Yeah, well …”
“Stop being a whiny bitch.”
“Hey!”
“Raini and Devon got over me not calling them last night.”
“No, they didn’t, which is why they’ve been scowling at you all morning.”
Khloé felt her nose wrinkle. “They have? Really?”
“Oh my God.”
Shrugging one shoulder, Khloé turned to head to the break room. “Well, if you guys are so pissed, you probably won’t want to hear what happened between me and Keenan before Enoch came.”
Just like that, she was surrounded by all three women, causing her to halt.
“You let him feed from you?” asked Devon, her green eyes twinkling. “Was it good? It was good, wasn’t it?”
“I expected him to drop the whole thing now that he’d made his point that he wasn’t an alcoholic,” said Raini. “He’s just always been so determined to keep his hands off you. Then again, I don’t suppose he needed to touch you to make you come.”
“He did make you come, right?” asked Harper. “He didn’t leave you hanging to be a prick or anything?”
“Oh, he made me come,” replied Khloé. “Four times, in fact.”
Devon’s mouth dropped open. “Four times? You let him feed from you four—Oh my god, you slept with him, didn’t you?”
“On my hallway floor.”
Raini puffed out a breath. “Wow. Then what happened?”
“Then he left.”
“He left?” echoed Harper, her brows lowering. “Like … just got dressed and walked out?”
“Pretty much,” replied Khloé. “A few words were exchanged here and there. I wasn’t offended or anything. He made it clear beforehand that it’d only be a one-time thing.”
Harper studied her face. “And you’re good with that? Because you look and sound good with it, but this is Keenan we’re talking about. You like him a lot.”
“I do,” Khloé admitted. “But neither him nor I do relationships, as you well know.”
“What if he wants a repeat of last night?”
“He won’t get one.” Khloé wasn’t going to risk that he could slip through her defenses and wangle his way under her skin. He wouldn’t purposely do it, but he had the potential to because, as Harper had pointed out, Khloé liked him a lot. Which was rather unfortunate. “Well, are we eating lunch or what? I’m starving.” She shrugged past them and headed to the break room.
“Oh no, you can’t just close a door on a conversation like that,” protested Devon, trailing after her. “You haven’t told us what it’s like to be fed on by an incubus yet! Enquiring minds want to know.”
Khloé crossed her eyes. No beings were more curious than hellcats.
In between bites of lunch, she told them a little more about what happened the previous night and answered each of Devon’s nosy-ass questions. Once their break was over, Khloé returned to her desk and spent yet more hours talking with clients, booking appointments, and supplying the girls with coffee when need be.
It wasn’t easy to power through it all when her muscles ached, her body felt weak, and the strange chill still hadn’t left her bones. All she wanted was to go home and crash.
Ten minutes before the studio was due to close, while she was busy tidying her desk, Knox swanned in with Asher balanced on his hip. Levi followed them inside … as did Keenan.
They all nodded at Tanner, who sat on the sofa, waiting for Devon. Keenan’s hooded, watchful eyes fixed on Khloé, focusing on her so intently her nerves went a little haywire.
Pinpricks of awareness swept over her skin, and memories of last night crawled all over her. Memories of his mouth crushing hers, of his fingers thrusting inside her, of his hands gripping her thighs tight to hold her still for his possession. Oh, and he had taken complete possession of her.
Being the sole focus of all that raw sexuality had been superhot. And, damn, he’d been good with those hands. His tongue was equally skilled. And he certainly knew how to use that weapon of mass destruction in his jeans.
Seeing the hard set of his jaw and the flinty look in his eyes, she knew he was still pissed that she hadn’t informed him of last night’s incident. Ha, what fun. She could see that he was gasping to give her one of his “you need to be more careful and should have called me” lectures. But he’d never do it while outsiders were around, and there was currently one client still left in the studio.
“The auditions for pornos are outside and on your far right,” she said.
He ground his teeth so hard it was audible. “You do know you’re insane, right?”
“Insane people don’t know they’re insane.”
Flames swallowed the pen in her hand, making it disappear. More flames burst out of Asher’s palm, and then he was holding her pen.
Unable to stifle a smile, Khloé headed to her baby cousin. “Give it back, mister. That’s not yours.”
He offered her the pen, his eyes smiling.
“Good boy,” said Khloé, taking it back. He reached for her, flexing his little fists, so she took him into her arms. “You’re ridiculously adorable, you know.”
Harper put her hands on her hips. “How come he so easily obeys you?”
“He knows he can’t handle this much crazy yet.”
Levi snickered. “Can’t argue with that.”
Asher pointed to the vending machine. “Candy.”
“You want candy? I can make that happen.” Khloé crossed to the machine and bumped the side of it with her fist. Instantly, it whirred to life and dropped a Hershey’s bar.
“I do it,” said Asher. He smacked the machine with his little hand, frowning when nothing happened. He huffed. “Gossake!”
Knowing it was his way of saying, “For God’s sake,” she had to laugh. Noticing that Harper didn’t find it so amusing, Khloé said, “At least he’s not spouting swear words.” Yet.
Flames engulfed a bag of chips inside the machine, and then that same bag of chips appeared in a burst of fire
… right in Asher’s open hand. His face lit up, and he let out one of his infectious giggles. “Mama, look!”
“I see, I see.” Smiling, Harper took him from Khloé and nuzzled his neck. “Want to sit on the big chair again while you eat your ill-gotten goods? You guys wouldn’t believe how many times a day he uses his gifts to steal shit from people. It makes Grams so proud,” Harper added, rolling her eyes.
“He might be a sphinx like his mom,” began Raini, “but he’s an imp in his soul.”
Khloé nodded. “And don’t we all just think that’s fabulous?” she said, completely serious. Everyone stared at her. Frowning, she lifted her shoulders. “What?”
*
“Thank you, Meg,” Knox said to the Hispanic she-demon as she cleared the dining room table, piling dishes and silverware onto a tray.
Meg inclined her head with a fond smile and then left the room. She’d worked at Knox’s estate for years and did everything from housekeeping to watching over Asher.
Full to his stomach, Keenan leaned back in his chair. He was always guaranteed a gourmet meal if he ate at Knox and Harper’s home. Meg was a damn good cook.
With its spacious rooms, high ceilings, chandeliers, and bulletproof blue-tinted windows, the modern piece of architecture was the height of luxury. It wasn’t showy or pretentious, though. It had both charm and warmth. Still, it wasn’t until Harper came along and added personal touches to the place that it truly felt like a home.
She was currently upstairs with Asher, intending to give him a bath before putting him to bed. The toy car he’d left on the table had disappeared in a burst of flames a few moments ago, so he’d obviously called for it. The kid was a hoot.
Eying Keenan, Knox picked up his half-empty glass. “So … you slept with Khloé.”
Keenan didn’t let his expression change. “Did I?”
“It was obvious to me just by the way you were looking at her earlier, but that’s only because I know you so well.” Knox sipped his wine. “Was it merely a one-night stand?”
Keenan cast a quick look at the closed dining room door. He was a private person and didn’t like airing his personal business.
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