Conah steered me into the musty, warm confines of the tavern and then wrapped his arm around my waist possessively, pulling me against him.
“Where do you think you’re going, woman,” he said boisterously. “You stay close.”
“Get off me.” I pulled away, glaring at him. “You don’t own me.”
“I paid good coin for you.”
“Fuck you. You can have your coin. I’m sure there are better demons in this place than the likes of you who’d willingly set me free.”
I looked about, zeroing in on the table to the left of the door, the one that housed Mammon’s men. They were dressed in black, cloaked, and trying to look inconspicuous, which made them stand out even more.
“You there!” I strode over to the table. “You’ll help me, won’t you?” I pouted prettily and fluttered my lashes at the nearest demon. His stern gaze softened a little. “Please, don’t let him take me. He has no idea how to please a woman.”
The demon’s companion nudged him.
These demons had no clue who Conah was. He wasn’t in the public eye like Azazel, and his features weren’t as distinctive as Keon’s.
“Please.” I made a grab for the demon closest to me and Conah hauled me back against his chest, wrapping his arms around me and nuzzling my neck.
“You’re mine.” There was a growl to his tone that sent a delicious shock through me.
Even though I knew this was an act, my body obviously hadn’t gotten the memo because it reacted to his proximity like a moth to a flame by leaning into him.
Conah gripped me tighter, punishingly, reminding me what role I needed to play.
I gasped and pulled away from him. “Please,” I pleaded with the demons at the table.
According to Conah, most demon males were instinctually programmed to protect females. Yeah, they could be chauvinistic at times, but females were prized, and the reasoning was that these rogues that worked for Mammon wouldn’t be able to turn their backs on a demon female in need.
Sure enough, two of them pushed back their seats and stood. “Let go of her,” one of them said.
The other pulled out a dagger. “Or we’ll make you.”
Conah gave me a squeeze as if to say, it’s on now, and then he released me and stepped around me to face the demons.
“Oh?” he said. “You think you can take what’s mine?” He drew his sword, obsidian and gleaming, and then grabbed my arm and tugged me behind him. “Come and get it.”
This was the part I didn’t like. The part where Conah took on six demons. But this was where part two of the plan came into play.
As the demons attacked Conah, I turned, grabbed a clay jug, and slammed it into another patron’s head. He was huge, red-eyed, and pissed, and as he leaped to his feet with a growl, I shoved him into the table behind him. It started a ripple effect, and suddenly, everyone was on their feet, and the place was one big brawl.
I rushed to the door and flung it open. “Fight!”
I caught sight of movement by the carriage parked a few meters away, and then demons were rushing toward the tavern.
I backed up, eyes scanning the room, which was now in an uproar, to spot Conah blade to blade with one of Mammon’s demons. I ducked through the fray, dodging fists to reach him. I came up between the two guys and punched the demon in the face.
His head whipped back, and Conah grabbed him and hauled him toward the exit. Shit, the other demons were pouring in. I shoved Conah against the wall. Pressing him to it while the rest of Mammon’s men joined the brawl.
Fuck, it was as if the aggression was contagious, or maybe these demons just needed a reason, any reason, to kick ass.
The demon I’d punched groaned, coming to.
“Shit,” Conah said. “Move.”
We dragged the demon out of the tavern and into the night.
Keon was by one of the carriages, the one with no windows and huge wheels.
“I can’t get in,” he said. “My daggers won’t cut it.”
My scythe flared to life as I strode toward the contraption. We had minutes, if that, before the demons realized the brawl was a distraction.
My blade arced toward the carriage, but before I could slice it open, the wall cracked outward and blinding light seared my eyes. I blinked away the dots in