Demon's Vengeance The Complete - Jocelynn Drake Page 0,38

I made when I left. God knows I gave him plenty of opportunities over the years, but he hid the truth, protecting me. It’s time I returned the favor.”

“But you’re a target,” she whispered. “Because of who you are, you’ll always be a target.”

I tightened my hold on her hand. “It’ll pass. We’re just in a bad time right now. Things will settle down soon.”

I hoped I was right. God, I needed to be right about this. The past year had been pretty damn crazy. Between the Grim Reaper, Simon, Reave, the Ivory Towers, and even the incident with the Wild Hunt this past fall, we were constantly rushing from one disaster to the next. Every time I thought things were going to go back to normal, something new popped up to drag me back into the thick of things.

“Would you mind if I lay down for a little while? I’m starting to get a headache,” Trixie asked, already pushing to her feet.

“No.” I hovered close as I followed her to my bedroom. I remained in the doorway, watching as she kicked off her shoes and slid under the blankets.

Trixie was nearly as tall as me and had always been this beacon of shining light and strength, but something had changed recently so that now she felt so much smaller and more vulnerable to me. When she was hunted by her brother, she’d been afraid and hurting, but there had always been an underlying strength and a fire of determination. Something had put out that fire and I was starting to suspect that it was me.

Refusing to let her go without a fight, I started forward with the intention of climbing into bed with her when my cell phone started vibrating in my back pocket. Trixie graced me with a weak smile, indicating that it was okay that I answer it before I joined her.

Stepping out of the bedroom, I paced to the living room. “What?” I snapped into the phone. Any distraction that took me from Trixie was unwelcome, but I was also hoping for some kind of good news that might lift her spirits.

“Well, aren’t you just a chipper fellow?” Serah mocked.

“I’m a little busy at the moment. What’s up?”

“I talked to a friend at the station. They haven’t been able to get anything from the blood and they’re very doubtful that they ever will. However, they seem to think they might be able to identify all the ingredients for the potion. I was wondering if that would help you in tracking the killer.”

I frowned at the sliding glass doors, watching the haggard man glaring back at me in my reflection. I looked like shit. “I don’t know. I don’t think so, but it doesn’t hurt. Have they found anything in Kyle’s records that identifies who his most recent clients were?”

“No. The man kept horrible records. It also looks like the killer might have been smart enough to grab any identifying paperwork before she left. They’re still digging.”

“I would—” Trixie’s scream halted the words in my throat and squeezed my heart in a vise. Instantly dropping the phone, I raced to my bedroom.

I stopped on the threshold of the room to find a goblin struggling to pick up Trixie as she fought him while a second goblin was climbing in the window. They’d followed me. I’d been so focused on getting home to Trixie that I hadn’t noticed that I was being tailed by goblins. Scooping up one of the hard-soled shoes I wore while out with Gideon, I launched it at the goblin climbing in the window. It smashed into his ugly face, knocking him back so that he was hanging by his claws on the window frame.

The other goblin roared in pain as Trixie plunged her fingers into his eyes. He released her to cover his face, but she couldn’t escape because her legs were tangled up in the blankets still. Leaping over her onto the bed, I grabbed the goblin by his large pointed ears and threw him into his companion in the window. Their collision knocked the one in the window loose. His scream echoed through the silent night as he fell three stories to the parking lot below.

The goblin who had attacked Trixie snarled at me as he threw one leg out the window. “You started this war when you attacked us! You stole members of my clan. I will take her from you.”

I jumped down to the floor, keeping my body positioned