“It is odd, though, that they’d suddenly be looking for him now.” Tobias stands and walks to the sideboard against one wall, returning a moment later with his tablet.
I cuddle closer to Emil, who slips his arm around my shoulders. “What are you doing?”
“Checking the news.” Tobias settles back into his chair, his fingers moving over the screen.
I glance at Emil. “We have a news channel?”
He brushes a cool finger over my cheekbone. “He’s checking human news.”
“Why?”
“Because humans report everything that happens in their world.” Kellen kicks his feet back up on the coffee table. “They know nothing about being secretive. Everything is just out there for everyone to see. It’s why many of us were called back to the demon plane. There’s only so many tabloid reports of a swamp monster people can make before the government starts to pay attention.”
“Bigfoot almost got us all pulled back to the demon plane a few years ago.” Emil rubs my shoulder in soothing circles. “It’s a good thing humans are really determined to not see what’s right in front of them.”
“Ah.” Tobias’s quiet grunt pulls our attention back to him. “Well, this isn’t good.”
I shove my feet under Tac’s warm bulk and scoot to the edge of my seat. “What happened?”
Tobias glances at us, his eyes fathomless pools of darkness. “They dug up Domnall’s body.”
“They what?” Julian leaps to his feet. “You buried him under concrete. There was no sign of him left.”
“They’re tearing down the storage facility.” Tobias skims through more of the article. “They were digging out an underground parking area when they found him, along with all the Hunter bodies. They’re hypothesizing it’s a burial ground for the mafia.”
“Why was his body still there?” I rise from the couch to walk over to Tobias. “Shouldn’t it have disintegrated by now?”
Demon’s corporeal bodies aren’t like humans. They’re fueled by our energy, so once the energy is gone, they dissolve.
“Not with his energy trapped here.” Julian rakes his fingers through his hair. “Did they find his head, too? Did they put his body parts back together?”
My eyes widen in shock. “They can’t do that, right? We kill killed him. He’s not coming back.”
“It’s been too long for his energy to still be lingering. And there’s no heart.” Tobias glances up from his tablet to look at Julian. “You took that with you.”
Face pale, he nods. “It’s on my desk at HelloHell Delivery.”
Tobias rises, along with Emil and Kellen. “We need to make that disappear before someone comes looking for it. If the higher-ups have Domnall’s body, they can trace yours and Adie’s energy sources from it, which is why they called you in for questioning. But that only tells them he had contact with you, which we can argue was for energy dumping. The heart, though, is damning.”
“I told you, you shouldn’t have kept it,” Philip hisses as he stands and pulls his van keys from his pocket.
Julian glares at him. “It reminded me he was dead.”
I shiver in understanding. Domnall only used me as a dumping ground once, and it scarred me. I can’t imagine what it did to Julian after being on the receiving end for years. He needs therapy, but demons don’t have that. We’re a race where only the strong survive and having a mental breakdown just isn’t acceptable.
I go to Julian, wrapping my arms around him. Fine tremors travel through his body as he holds me back, his arms tighter than they need to be, like he’s afraid he’ll fall apart if I don’t anchor him in place. Of everyone in the room, only I know what Julian experienced.
It builds a bond between us that didn’t exist before. Shared horror of having our natures turned against us. Of having the energy we need to survive transformed into a forest fire of ash and sludge that tries to burn its way out from the inside.
Julian takes a shuddering breath before he releases me. “Come on, let’s go get that heart and give it a proper burial.”
It’s well after business hours when we arrive at HelloHell Delivery. We took two cars, Julian and Philip in one while I crammed in with Emil, Tobias, and Kellen in my old beater. We park at the curb, the rest of the sidewalk empty of vehicles. At this time of night, the business district is virtually a ghost town.
On the way here, the storm from earlier returned, and raindrops pelt the windshield. The perfect kind of night for a clandestine destruction