more than ready to see him try.
The shrill wail of sirens cut through the air: our signal that time was running short. Logan caught my eye across the room, and we both headed for the closest exit. Not all the vamps and bears were dead, but that was all right. They’d look like humans again by the time the cops busted their way in, and we’d be long gone.
On my way out the back, I glanced toward the splashing of red and blue as it tore down the street behind me. At first, only one patrol unit showed up to the scene, and I contemplated sticking around for a while to keep an eye on their activities. Then a whole caravan of others materialized at the end of the road.
Quietly, I melted into the shadows. Observation would have to be another day. Secretly, I was relieved, because it meant I could separate Seth and Veronica faster.
But that relief didn’t last beyond the first step through the door. I smelled it immediately, that unique aroma I knew so well. Musk, and sweat, and the scent of a woman, mixed with the demon’s sickening stench of brimstone.
At that moment, he appeared at the top of the staircase. I knew I was too late. He had already done that for which I had privately sworn to destroy him. And Veronica was somewhere up there—even still in his bed—tainted. Deflowered by a demon.
“You are a dead man, Seth,” I whispered.
Chapter 16
Logan
I could hear Orion and Seth shouting up on the next floor. Nothing new about that—it hardly ever took long for them to be at each other’s throats. But this was a new record even for them. Orion had barely been inside the front door before the chaos began. And from the sounds of it, the show wasn’t stopping anytime soon.
“Why don’t you kill me, then?” Seth roared. “Seems like you want to, so come on! You know I never turn down a fight!” He laughed, and then a shattering crash shook the house’s frame. I wondered what kind of scene I might find the next time I walked through the upper floor. It wouldn’t be the first time one of their skirmishes had torn the place apart.
If Orion was dignifying Seth’s outbursts with responses, I couldn’t hear them. His anger took a different shape than the demon’s, perhaps unsurprisingly. Orion’s rage was more like mine: quiet, seething, and running deep. Though the two were temporary allies, they had never been friends. I thought the likelihood of them eventually parting on benevolent terms was slim to none.
Another crash rattled the window. Seth laughed again. I could see him in my mind’s eye, head thrown back, grinning mouth ajar. He delighted in this type of discord for discord’s sake. Never was he happier than when Orion was pissed. And this time, Orion was pissed.
I knew why, of course. Anyone with eyes in their head could have deduced the way he felt about the girl with the pink hair. Before that night, he hadn’t ever struck me as the type to keep those kinds of trophies, but there was no denying that he saw something in her.
Was it the same hazy familiarity I had seen in the moments prior to bringing her forward? The thought that Orion and I might have more in common never crossed my mind. I was uninterested in him, aside from our working relationship, and as far as I knew, the feeling was mutual. But we had this mutual curiosity about the girl.
Normally, if push came to shove, I’d be the one to back down without question. It was rarely a good idea to get on Orion’s bad side, and after all the time and effort I’d already invested in his endeavors, I was committed to seeing things through. A moment of hollow triumph simply wasn’t worth the risk of loss.
The entrance of the mysterious girl had changed my perspective, however. Her presence awakened a long-dormant curiosity the likes of which I had long since assumed I would never feel again. She made me dive reluctantly down into my past and bring up memories from those depths. Memories of a time less dark and barren.
Ironically, they were the same memories Orion had tapped to secure my pledge of temporary loyalty. Now they both seized upon that hidden longing, the ache of regret. In her bright, pretty face, I saw the life I had lost in order to gain the burden of the