place is empty.
“Right behind you,” Solomon replies in his trademark grumpy voice. “Somehow, Isadora and I wound up all the way in the hotel’s pool area. Go figure.” He watches the warlocks suspiciously.
“What’s the plan? Head to the dead witch’s lair and wait for Ashmedai to come?” I ask.
“If what the Nightingale prince said is true, we need the Taluah Mirror to lure the demon into a trap.”
Fuck. Rikkon’s disguise has been gone for a while if the warlocks know what he is. If he’s compromised, so is Vivienne. Lucca won’t be happy about that.
“That’s the most moronic idea I’ve heard tonight. Just set the trap in the mirror’s current location. The demon knows it’s in Elena’s apartment. If you move it, he’ll be expecting a trap,” Solomon pipes up.
Damn. Solomon is fun to hang out with when he’s doling out insults to other people instead of me.
“We’re wasting time here, and I’m not convinced it wasn’t on purpose,” the High Witch snaps, watching the two warlocks like a hawk.
Yeah, I’m beginning to believe we might not have the same end goal here. Solomon and the High Witch head for the elevator. I let the duo follow close behind them, while I hold Aurora back.
“We need to keep an eye on those two,” I tell her.
“Agreed. Their purpose in life is to hunt down demons. They won’t hesitate to kill Niko if it means catching Ashmedai.”
“We need a plan in case they go rogue on us.”
“Each warlock carries an athame powered by a special jeweled stone that grants them the ability to kill demons or send them back to hell. If they try to kill Niko to get to Ashmedai, I need that weapon.”
I nod. “You got it, babe.” Aurora’s eyes narrow, and quickly, I realize my error. “Sorry, I forgot.”
“Come on. They’ll leave without us.”
“Let them. We’ll take the stairs. It’s faster.”
“For you maybe, but—”
“Jump on, love. I’ll get us there in the blink of an eye.”
She grimaces but does as I ask. Even though we’re in the middle of a crisis, the feel of her body pressed against my back awakens the beast. My cock twitches in my pants, proving that it definitely operates apart from my brain.
“Ready?” I ask in a voice tight with need.
“Yeah. If you drop me, you’re dead.”
“Woman, I take serious offense to what you just said.” Before I take off, I glance at the rest of our party about to enter the elevator. “See you up there.”
I don’t run as fast as I can, afraid that Aurora might get sick. We make it to the top floor faster than any elevator could, though. I’m about to push the door to the hallway open when Aurora pinches my shoulders.
“Sax, wait. Can’t you feel it?”
“Feel what?”
“This awful sensation that something terribly evil awaits us on the other side of this door.”
I let her down, and with the loss of the contact between our bodies, it makes it easier for me to home in my senses on our surroundings. Cold dread licks the back of my neck, giving me goose bumps. At the same time, depressing thoughts sneak into my mind, bringing forth images from my past I wish to forget.
I gasp when Kari’s mangled body appears in front of me like a scene from a horror movie.
“What’s wrong?” Aurora steps in front of me, watching me with round eyes.
“It’s … I do feel the wrongness in the air now. Let me go first.”
With my katana at the ready and my body wound tight, I push the heavy metal door open, getting blasted immediately by the stench of rotten eggs. Other than the smell and the feeling of doom hanging in the air, nothing looks amiss. I step into the hallway carefully, and only when I deem it safe enough, I let Aurora through.
“Elena’s penthouse is to the right.”
“Okay, stay behind me.”
The closer we get to it, the stronger the stink becomes. But confirmation that Ashmedai has beaten us to the place awaits us when we find her apartment door ajar. How in the world did the demon get here so quickly? Aurora makes a motion to enter, but I stop her.
“We should wait for the others.”
“But Niko…”
“I know, my love. But we’ve confirmed my katana is useless against Ashmedai and you haven’t recovered your strength yet.”
It pains me to wait, but my need to protect Aurora is the most important thing right now. For once, I don’t act recklessly like I normally do.
The ping of