he? Why hadn’t he fought? Why didn’t he summon Mammon? He’d once told me seven hundred enforcers wouldn’t be enough to take him down.
The crowd of special-ops parted. My knees buckled. Akil lay on his side, shredded clothes dark with blood. His glassy gaze stared into the middle-distance, seeing nothing. Blood dribbled from his parted lips. This couldn’t be. My demon surged forward, driving a growl ahead of her and out of me.
Ryder turned to me. “Don’t even think of bringing her to the party, Muse.” He thumbed over his shoulder at the snipers above. I saw them and followed their aim and saw the red fireflies dancing on my chest. “Unless you want your demon packed away for another day.”
He glanced back, smiled, and nodded. “Job well done, everyone. Bag him, and let’s get outtah here.”
“You killed him, ” I snarled, battling with the terrible desire to spill fire into my veins and burn everyone in the alley—to turn them to ash and dance with their remains in the breeze. It was insane, but that didn’t make the thought any less appealing. “He was helping us drive the demons back.” I clamped my teeth together, hissing each breath between them even as I felt my fangs lengthen. “Why do this?”
Ryder finally looked at me and saw me, not another demon getting in his way, but me—once his friend. “Look.” He lowered his voice. “He ain’t dead. He’s just chock-full of PC-Thirty-Four and a bit beaten up. He’ll be so angry he could spit nails, for sure, but he won’t be able to do a damn thing about it.”
They’d drugged Akil. They’d drugged a Prince of Hell. Panic speared through me. “Give him the antidote. Now. Before he comes ’round. Let him go. Do that, and you’ll live. Otherwise, Ryder, when he wakes and realizes what you’ve done, you’re a dead man. And not just you, everyone here. Shit, maybe the whole city, for all I know. Don’t risk it. Walk away now. Tell Adam you failed.”
Ryder beamed and backed up. “Hell, no. This is the best night of my life.” He nodded in the direction of Akil’s lifeless body. “That bastard deserves everything he gets, and now we have him. Happy days, Muse.” He winked and patted a passing fellow enforcer on the shoulder.
“Ryder! Don’t do this. You’ll get them all killed. You can still make it right!” I kicked at the mountain of a man to my right, stomped on his instep, and tried to clamp my sharp teeth down onto the hand gripping my shoulder. Ryder grumbled a warning. Screw him. I snapped my head back, impacted with something soft on the outside and bony inside, heard one of them spit a curse, and drove my elbow back. The blow, when it came, cracked across the back of my skull and sent me spiraling into darkness.
CHAPTER TWO
Ben Stone eyed me from behind his bar. His hands busily drying glasses. “Bit early for whiskey, Charley.”
“Bite me, Ben. I’ve had a rough night.” I eased my sore body onto a barstool. “What time does Adam get here?”
“Seven-ish.” He still eyed me like a stepbrother trying to decide whether he should care or not. “I serve coffee now. With real beans. Maybe you’d prefer caffeine to alcohol?”
“No offense, but the syrup you serve isn’t coffee.” I glared. He really didn’t want to push me. “I tried to take down a demon last night when he decided to wipe an alley floor with me and sharpen his claws on my insides. I then promptly had my Prince of Hell lover shot to shreds in front of me by my ex-friend and intend to speak with said ex-friend’s boss in about”—I checked the clock on the wall behind the bar— “ten minutes. So would you just cut me some slack, and serve me a drink? I’m a big girl. I can handle whiskey at seven a.m.”
“That’s what I’m worried about.”
“Your conscience is clear. You said your bit. Now, where’s my drink?” Yes, I was being short with him. He didn’t deserve it, but I’d had virtually zero sleep. I felt as though I’d been put through the wringer. Somewhere, a Prince of Hell was fuming at the hands of the Institute. If he hadn’t laid waste to their base of operations yet, he would soon. I had to find him. Fast. Adam was getting an earful the second he stepped through the Stone’s Throw’s doors.