Darkblood Prison - G.K. DeRosa Page 0,79

us out of here.” I was fairly sure I could land in the right spot this time. Underground couldn’t make it that much harder, right?

He huffed out a frustrated breath. “I think we’ll have to risk it.”

“Thanks for the vote of confidence,” I deadpanned. “But I like that after only one time I already have you wrapped around my little finger.” I shot him a playful wink as I raised my pinkie, a big smile splitting my lips.

Talon grabbed my hand and spun me into his chest. His lips captured mine before I could squeal in protest. When he finally released me, his expression grew serious. “I know you can do it. The guys are counting on us.”

I nodded quickly and called to my power. “Next stop, West 90th Street.”

Chapter Twenty-Nine

“Yes!” I fist-pumped the air when my eyes landed on the correct street sign in the Upper West Side. “I did it!”

Talon wrapped his arm around my shoulders and kissed my temple. “Didn’t doubt it for a minute.” He shot me a very un-Talon-like wink. “Now, it’s the old brownstone at the end of the block. Last I heard, Dallas and Hayden were stuck on the top floor, and the demons were congregating on the lower levels.”

“Okay, so what do we do?”

“You think you can conjure up a cloaking spell?”

That was one thing I was confident I could do. “Yup, no problem.”

“Do it. We’ll sneak in, get the lay of the land and find the others.”

The pale purple glow of my tattoo caught my eye. She was ready for action. Muttering the words of the cloaking spell, I expanded the mystical orb to include my dragon bodyguard. I was sure I was staring at him with heart eyes, but I couldn’t help myself. After everything we’d been through, I didn’t even get a second to bask in the afterglow.

“Ready?” The urgency in Talon’s hushed voice brought me back to the present.

“Fully cloaked and ready, boss.”

His mouth curled into a beaming smile, and my heart flip-flopped. “I could get used to that.”

“Don’t.” I booped him on the nose and yanked him down the sidewalk. “Do we even know what we’re walking into?”

“It was supposed to be a routine mission. Some lower level demon took residence in a human household and was manipulating its hosts. The SIA caught scent of the demon when a series of murders occurred in the neighborhood. They were gruesome and rather ritualistic in nature.”

My stomach twisted. I knew there were some nasty Underworlders out there, but I never realized the grisly details. “That’s terrible.”

“Yeah,” Talon muttered. “Anyway, Dallas and Hayden seemed to have stumbled upon an entire den of them, not just lower level scum either.”

We crept in silence for the last few yards until we reached the dilapidated brownstone on the corner. Unlike its pristine neighbors, the old townhouse had seen better days. The disintegrating cement steps led up to a dented wooden door, barely hanging on by broken hinges. Graffiti splotched the crumbling brick walls and cracked glass spiderwebbed across the dingy windows.

I took a step toward the staircase, but Talon’s arm slapped across my chest. “Let’s go in through the back. The guys are on the second floor.” He started walking through the narrow passageway between the two houses.

“How do you know?”

“That was the last communication we received so we have to assume it’s still correct.”

Hmm. “I could try searching for them, like mentally.”

His dark brows knitted.

“I don’t think my new magical power only applies to you.” I hadn’t had much time to think about it, but I had heard Delacroix’s goons, and the director of the SIA too. Maybe I just needed to open my mind to others.

A flash of something like sadness streaked across his face before it returned to normal. Or maybe I’d imagined it. “You’re right. You should try.”

I squeezed my eyes shut and visualized Dallas’s beaming smile with those gleaming white teeth, and Hayden’s golden blonde hair and irreverent comments. Nothing. “Dammit!” I hissed.

Talon’s strong hands gripped my shoulders. “I know you can do this, Azara. Try again.”

I blew out a breath and shook out my shoulders, releasing the tension. With Talon so close, his thoughts practically jumped at me.

I can’t fail them. If anything happens to them, I’ll never forgive myself.

I opened my eyes and met Talon’s anxious ones. “We’ll find them, don’t worry.” Searching deep within my core, I found the center of my magic, the tendrils of power coating my insides. Closing my eyes once more,