he got back to Vegas.
“The portal is gone.” Brigette was staring at the big hole in the ground, her expression one of disbelief.
Levet cleared his throat. He’d hadn’t fully thought through the danger of tossing a fireball after the fleeing brownie. Styx’s mate Darcy often told him that he needed to think before he acted, but it seemed a wasted opportunity. How did you know how anything was going to turn out until after it was over?
He would have missed some spectacular adventures if he stopped to think what might happen.
“Oui.” He scratched the tip of his snout. “But on the bright side, the brownie is also gone.”
“Bright side?” The Were whirled around, her hands balled into tight fists. “There is no bright side.”
“Of course there is,” Levet protested. Really, werewolves could be so crabby. It had to be all that hot blood pumping through their veins. He spread his arms wide, offering his best smile. “You wanted to be out of the bulla, and here we are.”
She refused to properly appreciate his awesome efforts. Or even his smile.
“Yeah, stuck in a strange dimension with a jinn.” She glanced around the empty desert as if expecting the powerful creature to pop out of a nearby dune. “Perfect.”
“The jinn is unfortunate,” Levet had to agree. “But if we are careful, it is possible we will survive.”
She blinked. “That’s your bright side?”
“It’s better than always being a gloomy butt.” He dropped his arms, studying the tight line of her jaw as she struggled to contain her temper. “Does nothing make you happy?”
She released a growl. “Certainly not being stranded in the middle of a desert.”
“That is not an answer. What will make you happy, Brigette?”
She flinched, as if his soft words had rubbed against a raw nerve. “I don’t know,” she admitted. “I thought power would fill the hole inside me.”
“There is only one thing that can fill that hole.”
She pointed a warning finger in his face. “Don’t say it.”
“Love.”
“I told you not to say it,” she snapped.
Levet lifted his hand in a helpless gesture. “It is true.”
Brigette turned, gazing blindly over the rolling sand. “I was loved.”
“Not by yourself.”
She snorted, her lips twisting into a self-derisive smile. “I loved myself. Too much.”
Most demons no doubt would agree with the female. She’d sacrificed her home, her family, and her pack all for the promise of power. How could she be anything but a selfish bitch?
Levet, however, wasn’t so easily fooled.
“Non. You judged yourself so lacking you destroyed everything in an effort to prove yourself worthy.”
She made a small, choked sound. As if she’d almost swallowed her tongue. “How could you possibly know what I felt?”
“Because I did the same.”
“You made a deal with an evil spirit to destroy your clan?”
He shook his head. “Not precisely, but I have occasionally rushed into situations that were not entirely safe.”
She pointedly glanced toward the gaping hole in the sand. “Occasionally?”
Levet heroically ignored her mocking tones. The female had not had the best life. She’d been infected by an evil spirit, sacrificed her family, and then ended up in a dungeon. It was no wonder she was a gloomy gussy. Hmm. That didn’t seem right. He shrugged.
“I have a need to prove I am as heroic as any other demon,” Levet confessed.
He didn’t like revealing his secret lack of confidence, not to anyone. The world depended on his bubbling enthusiasm. But this female was clearly in need of a pep talk. And since he was the only one available, he had to do his duty.
Perhaps sensing they shared more in common than she wanted to admit, Brigette’s anger drained away and she held up her hands in a gesture of defeat.
“What are we supposed to do now?”
“We find a portal,” Levet told her.
“Can you sense one?”
“In that direction. But…” He wrinkled his nose.
Brigette rolled her eyes. “Let me guess. That’s where the jinn is?”
“Oui.”
“Nothing else?”
Levet closed his eyes, allowing his senses to spread through the desert. The power of the distant jinn was like a tidal wave, beating against him and making it almost impossible to determine if there was any other magic in the dimension.
At last he firmly shook his head. “Non.”
“Damn.” Brigette narrowed her eyes against the blinding blaze of the overhead sun. “What about Chaaya? Is she here?”
“I do not sense her or the leech.”
“I suppose that’s one small miracle,” Brigette muttered in resigned tones.
“Do not fear.” Levet reached up to pat her hand. “I will distract the jinn and then you can