by Callie Rose
When Seattle swirled into my peripheral, all I got was the impression of asphalt before I came crashing down on top of Kingston and Xero on top of me. Everyone else fell too, a tangled ball of arms and legs.
Kingston wheezed. “Squishing the lizard—squishing the lizard!”
“Squishing all the lizards,” Kai groaned. He was flat on his back, legs spread, with Hannah jammed between them and Jayce pinning her there.
“Oh, God! I’m so, so sorry,” Hannah gasped. “Jayce, can you move?”
“Not until Xero does.”
“Working on it,” Xero grunted irritably. His arm was caught under my thigh, which was pinned under his torso.
“Hold on… I think I can…”
Groaning, I shifted my thigh up just enough for him to pull his arm out and roll off. The rest of us managed to get untangled in another minute or two, then we all stood up and shook off.
“Lucky thing we landed in an alley,” Jayce said with a grin. “Can you imagine if we’d been seen?”
“Um—look.” Hannah’s whisper trembled slightly, as did the finger she pointed.
I turned around to find a homeless man staring at us with huge blue eyes.
“Um—I can explain,” I began, but the man lifted a hand.
“Nope, nope, no explanations!” His voice was wheezy and sharp. “Last time something explained, I was throwed in the looney bin. Not again, nope. Don’t like the chicken, it’s dry, no seasoning in the looney bin. Salt makes you crazy, you know, you demons and aliens and whatever do what you do, don’t need no Gavriel’s nobody telling me nothing about no underworld. I didn’t see nothing.”
What?
His words punched me in the chest. Most of what he’d said was a jumbled mess of gibberish, but…
“How do you know that name?”
The man stood up shakily and started pushing his cart down the alley. “Don’t know nothing ’bout nothing. Good day, figments.”
“Wait, you can’t just—”
“I said good day!” The man flipped his blanket like a cloak and scurried away with his cart.
“Holy shit. I don’t like the sound of that.” Kai’s eyes narrowed as he gazed at the man’s retreating back.
“Gavriel’s PR team must be working overtime,” Kingston said. “Spreading fear through humanity. The sooner we figure out where he’s coming through for his big attack and get the Custodians on board, the better.”
“How are we going to do that?” Hannah asked. “Figure out where he’s coming through, I mean.”
“We could ask the Custodians for help,” Jayce suggested doubtfully.
I shook my head. “We shouldn’t even talk to them until we have more information. Until we can give them something concrete and actionable—and even then, I don’t know if we’ll be able to make them listen. They’re supposed to kill us on sight, remember? We need another option. Dru isn’t even a safe bet, honestly. I don’t think he’d kill us, but he probably won’t help us.”
“My place,” Kingston said abruptly. “I haven’t spoken with my team in a while, but I don’t think they would have gotten themselves caught. They should still be with my company.”
“Great, so let’s port there,” Xero said. “We’ve been standing here too long already.”
“No porting.” Hannah shook her head firmly. “The Custodians will be able to sense the magic signature, and I’d bet that they can pick up on the banish mark too.”
“Then we definitely need to move right fucking now,” Kai said, his body tensing as he glanced around the alley like it was about to become overrun with Custodians. “We’ll figure it out on the way.”
Stepping out of the alley and onto the street was a shock. We were in my old neighborhood, and everything was obscenely normal. The same shops I used to go to were open and bustling with business. The same faces moved through their work days, utterly ignorant of the impending apocalypse. It was more unsettling than I would have thought.
“Oh look, Piper, it’s the bar!” Several minutes later, Hannah pointed across the street. “We met outside of it right before we were both turned,” she told the guys.
“I wonder if that means there’s a pattern of fallen activity in this area,” I said, trying to shake off the shell-shocked feeling of being back here. “We should move faster. And deliberately. Anybody have any ideas on how to get to Kingston’s place without attracting Custodian attention? I mean, I’m assuming it isn’t close enough for us to walk to.”
Kingston shook his head, then snapped his fingers. “I’m an idiot.”
Jayce grinned. “Agreed, but why?”
The dragon shifter ignored him. “I can just call for the jet,” he said. Then he scowled. “Damn it, my phone. You guys don’t… no, of course you don’t have phones. We need to find a phone.”
“There used to be a pay phone at the little grocery store up the street,” Hannah said. “I don’t know if it’s still there, but we can check.”
We followed her up a side street. As we moved, an uneasy feeling settled in the pit of my stomach.
At first I thought it was because the last time I’d been on that street, I’d been running from a monster—but after a while I realized that it was because we were getting close to Colin’s place. We passed the spot where my car had broken down that day, and I wondered how long it had sat there before getting jacked.
Kai nudged my shoulder. “Hey, you okay?”
“I’m fine. My ex lives around here somewhere. I was just… remembering.”
The toffee-skinned man beside me adopted a super casual posture. “Miss him?”
I grinned, a snort-laugh bursting out of me. “Not even a little bit. He’s a complete douchebag. Besides, how could I miss him when I have you guys?”
“Good point.” Kai took my hand and squeezed it briefly, sending warmth sparking up my arm.
“There it is.” Hannah pointed as we approached a small grocery story on the corner. A pay phone stood outside, with a piece of paper duct taped to the bottom of it.
“Out of order,” Kingston read. “Looks like it’s been out of order for years. Shit. I guess I can ask inside. You guys wait out here, or they’ll think we’re robbing the place.”
“Why would they think that?” Hannah asked, her eyes wide.
“Look at us.” I shook my head. “We’re pretty intimidating. I think humans could feel the power coming from us, and even if they missed that, we definitely don’t fit in. These damned clothes make us stand out too much. We look like we escaped from a mental institution.”
“I mean, we kinda did,” Jayce said with a grin. “It runs like one, and it’s full of crazy people.”
Kingston went inside and was back out a few minutes later. “Made the call,” he said. “We have to meet the jet at Boeing Field. How far is it?”
“It’s like a twenty minute drive that way,” Hannah said, pointing. “So, like an hour or two to walk, I guess?”
“The jet will land in an hour and a half,” Kingston said. “Let’s get walking.”
It was almost an out-of-body experience, walking the streets of Seattle. So much had happened since the last time I’d been here, it almost felt like walking through a movie set.
I used to believe that this was all there was. Concrete and steel, humans and dumb animals. No afterlife, no magic, and certainly no demons.
But there I was, a demon myself, taking a break from magic just long enough to power up and find it again.
Surreal.
Not quite as surreal as literally running into Colin though.
I had my head turned, about to say something to Xero, and slammed tits-first into someone who smelled like Axe body wash had barfed all over a cologne counter. There was only one person in either world who could conjure up that delightful scent.
I wrinkled my nose and took a step back as he whirled around, already furious that his precious personal space had been invaded.
“Excuse you—” He broke off, gaping. “P
iper?”
“Yup. Move.”
I wasn’t in the mood to deal with this asshole right now. I definitely hadn’t ever expected to see him again, and I had been one hundred percent okay with that.
He pasted on what he probably thought was a seductive grin and stepped toward me, apparently forgetting that the last time we’d seen each other, he’d been literally inside another woman.
“Damn, I’ve missed that. Remember how you used to boss me around? Harder Colin, faster Colin, come—whoa, back off, buddy!”
Kai had shoved himself into the narrow space between me and Colin and was staring him down. Silent, but oh, so very deadly.
“You back off. Buddy.” Xero moved in on my other side, pulling himself up to his full, considerable height.
Colin looked up at him and swallowed hard. “Uh, Piper? Who are these guys?”
“Who’s asking?” Kingston stepped up behind me, wrapping his arms around me, his dragon possessiveness practically pouring out of him like a physical force. Even his body seemed to be giving off extra heat, as if fire were raging inside him.
Jayce grabbed my hand, stepping up to my other side and squaring his shoulders, looking meaner than I’d thought him capable of.
“I believe the lady asked you to move.”
Colin’s eyes darted from face to face. I could see the gears in his brain slowly grinding out an answer. He stuttered nonsense for a minute, then covered it up with a smirk.
“Oh, I get it. They’re your boyfriends? All of them? Ha. Fucking hypocrite. Better watch yourselves, guys. This one’ll beat the shit out of you for even looking at another girl, even though she’s got four of you.”
The guys puffed up protectively around me, and Kai took half a step forward. Colin shrank into himself and turned a pleasing shade of gray. I put a hand on Kai’s arm and looked my stupid ex dead in the eye.
“Yeah, here’s the thing, Colin. I’ll never have to worry about that. Because these four men? They show me every day that they don’t want anyone but me. And yeah, they all agree to share me, but they know I don’t want anyone but them. It’s a little thing called trust. You should try it sometime.”
Then I tossed my hair and started walking, still surrounded by my men, leaving him slack-jawed behind us.
God, what a creep. I can’t believe I ever let him touch me.
“You traded up, Pipes,” Kingston said, sneering over his shoulder at Colin. “What a douchebag.”
“I mean, she didn’t just trade up to a douchebag,” Jayce said, patting Kingston’s back. “She has the rest of us too. Oh, wait, you meant that the guy back there is the douchebag, didn’t you?”
“You know I did, jackass.”
“No, no, I’m not a jackass, Kingston. I’m a hellhound, remember?”
“You’re annoying, is what you are.”
Jayce grinned. “God, it’s good to be back on earth!”
A lady walking by with her dog gave him a funny look.
I poked Jayce in the ribs. “Say that a little louder, man. I don’t think they heard you in Tacoma.”
“Sorry. I can’t help it. The sun is yellow and the grass is green and there are people everywhere.”
“For now,” Xero reminded him somberly. “Won’t stay that way long if we don’t stop Gavriel.”
Jayce’s face fell, then his blue eyes brightened fiercely. “The sun will still be yellow,” he said. “Ain’t shit Gavriel can do about that. No matter what, we won’t let him fuck this place up entirely.”
Ugh, he was so good I couldn’t even stand it. I just wanted to squeeze him until his head popped off. He was like a freaking Labrador, just tromping along, all stubbornly happy and loyal and shit. I couldn’t bear the thought of Gavriel ruining earth for him. It would be sadder than taking Christmas away from a toddler.
My chest burned with a pleasant ache, and I rubbed at it absently.
Damn it. I’m so fucking done for.
My succubus power had bound me to these men. But it was all the time I had spent with them since the moment we first bonded, the peeks into their souls that I’d gotten and the moments we’d shared, that had made me fall in love with them.
And I really was in love with them.
Fully, head over heels, flying-off-the-cliff-with-no-parachute in love with them.
Now I just had to make sure we lived long enough for our happily ever after.
Chapter Eighteen
The jet was waiting for us when we got to the airfield. It was a sleek silver bird which had an emerald green stripe down its side the exact color of Kingston’s eyes. I looked from it to him and back again, my eyebrow creeping steadily upward.
“Was that on purpose?” I finally asked.
The tips of his ears turned pink. “It was originally my dad’s jet,” he said.
“So is that a no, or is the jet your real father?”
“My father is my real father,” he said, rolling those gorgeous green eyes. “Just get on the damn plane, will you?”
I laughed and did as he said. But I almost fell down when I stepped inside.
“Mahogany? Is that real? How much extra weight does it add to this thing?”
“It’s a thin veneer,” Kingston said impatiently. “Will you please sit down?”
“With pleasure!” I scrunched down in one of the oversized leather chairs, sighing happily as the thick cushions hugged my body. “Oh my God, Kingston, why did you ever leave this plane?”
“It’s a lot more comfortable for you than it is for a dragon in mid-transition.” He made a face at the memory and sat down across from me.
“Dude! This was your escape plan? Here I was just running down Hollywood Boulevard on four legs while you were basking in the lap of luxury.” Jayce tutted his tongue. “For shame.”
“I wasn’t basking,” Kingston argued. “How could I? I was green!”
“Green things bask,” Hannah pointed out. “Snakes, lizards, dragons…”
“Okay, junior encyclopedia, I get the picture.” My shifter mate crossed his legs and sighed. “It’s not like that was a fun trip for me.”
“I bet you went on a lot of fun trips in your day though,” Xero said, eyeing a cupboard which looked as if it could house an entire bar. “What kind of parties do you rich kids throw in these planes?”
“It’s not a party plane.” Despite his faux-grumpy demeanor, Kingston seemed to be enjoying himself. “Those are bigger, and have stripper poles all down the middle.”
“Wait, for real?” Jayce looked way too excited about that. I poked his side, and he grinned, grabbing my finger and biting it gently.
“No, you idiot.” Kingston arched a brow at him. “Who’s going to pole dance in a jet? One bad bout of turbulence, and you’ve got a dead stripper.”
“Plenty of storage space,” Kai said, glancing at the cupboards which lined the high ceiling.
Hannah gave him a wary look. “You can’t store dead strippers in the overhead bins, Kai.”
He did a double take, laughed once, then frowned. “What the fuck, Hannah?”
“Oh, were you not responding to Kingston?”
“I wasn’t even listening to Kingston.” He narrowed his eyes, turning a little in his seat. “Kingston, how many dead strippers do you store in here? Is that like rich kid carpooling or something?”
The dragon shifter groaned and buried his face in his hands. “You guys all suck.”
I laughed. “Yup. And some of us are pretty damn good at it.”
His ears turned red again, which got me giggling. It was going to be a fun ride. I felt giddy and almost weightless. Jayce was right; being back on earth was amazing.
“You know, even though we’re flying in what appears to be the annual salary of a small country, it still feels almost—quaint,” I said, drawing in a deep, contented breath. I gazed out the window and watched the clouds roll by.
“I know what you mean.” Hannah pulled her bottom lip between her teeth. “My grandma took me to thi
s Amish town once, and it felt like this. Like I’ve gotten so used to doing things faster, faster, faster—and going back to the old fashioned way is sort of a novelty.”
“It’s a nice break,” Jayce said. “Honestly, I’ve never gotten used to portals. I like to see where I am when I’m going where I’m going. All that jumping through space seems like a waste of a trip, you know? It was always the best part of traveling for me—to see the way the world flowed into different parts of itself so seamlessly. Well… mostly seamlessly.”
I cocked my head at him. “Mostly?”
He shook his head and gave me a slightly haunted look. “Utah’s weird, man.” He turned to Kingston, his eyes wide. “We aren’t going to Utah, are we?”
“No. We’re going to my place in Toronto.”
“Whoa! Toronto?” Xero looked at Kingston sideways.
“Toronto is in Canada,” Jayce said, sounding legitimately confused.
“Yes, very good. Next week, we’ll teach you where Washington, DC, is,” Kingston shot back.
“You’re telling me that you, Capitalist Scroogerton the Third, are Canadian?” Kai tried and failed to hide a grin.
“What about it? What’s wrong with Canada?”
“Nothing at all,” Hannah said around a cascade of giggles. “Canada is precious. We’re in shock that you hail from there, is all.”
“Why, because I don’t drink maple syrup or say ‘eh’ after everything? Damn, you guys. Damn. And you got on my case for asking what Xero’s parents did for a living. Double standards much?”
Nobody could answer him. We were all laughing too hard. When I finally recovered myself, I shook my head at him. “Pretty sure it’s because Canada has that polite, nice, stereotype thing going for it. You, babe, are neither polite nor nice.”
“I’m nice to people who deserve it.” He huffed a breath. “Besides, Toronto is like a minute from the border. It’s practically New York. The attitude is bound to seep.”
“Toronto is practically Buffalo, and Buffalo is basically Canada,” I corrected. “I went there once and everybody was so nice I had to call my doctor and make sure I wasn’t dying.”
