“He’s recovering from the assault better than expected, considering PC-Thirty-Four is subduing his demonic nature.”
My jaw ached. Terrible pressure throbbed in my head. They could have killed him. Had they used etched bullets, they’d have destroyed his human avatar. Akil, as I knew him, would have died. Mammon would have lived. He was truly immortal. But I didn’t care about Mammon. I cared for Akil more than I’d realized. They’d taken him from me. He was mine, and the Institute had ripped him out of my arms. Worse, they’d defiled a Prince of Hell. A demon growl rumbled up my throat.
Adam’s eyes widened. “Do I need to be concerned about you, Muse?”
“I’d be concerned about your affairs, Adam. Best get that last will and testament written up while you’re still breathing.” They had no idea what they’d captured. Akil wasn’t just another demon. He was chaos eternal, a force of nature. They’d corked a tornado in a bottle. “You’re an idiot. You all are. You had a Prince of Hell working toward the same goals as you—a direct link to the others—and you’ve managed to royally fuck it up. After what you’ve done to him, he’ll never help you. You won’t get anything out of him. You might as well let him go before he escapes. Which he will. Trust me.” I looked around the bar and allowed my stewing anger to raise my voice. “You’re all as good as dead. You just don’t know it yet.”
A dozen enforcers glared back at me. They hated me. All of them. Fine. I was done with them, with everything and everyone. Ryder didn’t even look over. I got a great view of his back and knew exactly where I stood with him. I shook my head at Adam. “Don’t come crawling back to me, Adam, when you have the princes breathing down your neck. It’s over. I can’t help you any more.”
He nodded, not the least bit concerned. He would be.
CHAPTER THREE
L acy perched on the arm of my couch, one leg levered so she could rest her arm over her knee while holding her tub of ice cream. My cat, Jonesy, had curled up on a cushion beside her. Lacy occasionally reached down to give him a tickle while I explained how the Institute were shooting themselves in the proverbial foot. After leaving Stone’s Throw, I’d driven back to my apartment like a bat out of hell, checking my mirrors the whole time for Institute tails. Rage burned through me, and with it, the fire inside bubbled and fizzed. My demon paced. The psychotic bastard suffocating my heart throbbed like a raw wound. Lacy had knocked on my door five minutes after I’d gotten in. There was a rumor on the net, suggesting Akil Vitalis had been apprehended by the Institute. Lacy was a member of his online fan club. One look at my face told her the rumor was true. Hence the ice cream.
I stabbed my spoon into my partially melted ice cream and scooped out a large helping. I told myself the ice cream helped temper the heat swirling inside me. “To make it worse, he thinks I had something to do with his capture.”
Lacy gaped. “Did you?”
“Hell, no. I do have some sense of self preservation.”
“Well, that’s cool then. He’ll figure it out.” She shrugged the shoulder poking out of her baggy, black-and-white-striped top.
It was sweet, the way she thought she knew Akil. I’d spent much of my adult life with him, and I still couldn’t figure him out. But I’d come to appreciate Lacy’s outlook on life. She had a take-no-prisoners attitude unless one of those prisoners happened to be Akil. She’d happily take him prisoner. Ever since he’d coerced his way into her apartment and she’d been introduced to the temptation personified that is Akil, she’d grilled me for information about the netherworld and demons. A self-confessed member of Equal Rights for Demons, she flew the demon flag. I’d given her some framed protection symbols to keep the less-than-friendly demons out and taught her the finer points of demon etiquette. In other words, I’d shown her where their sensitive parts were should she need to make a quick exit. She was willing to believe that not all demons were bad. I was still trying to teach her that not many were good.
I wiggled the tip of my spoon in my tub of ice cream. “I er… I asked him to free me of the