I stepped around Laran with a huff, striding down the hallway. Moira stood in the doorway, bent over at the waist, laughing so hard she swayed sideways and bumped into me. I rolled my eyes and grabbed her arm, hauling her into the bedroom behind me before slamming the door shut. It wouldn’t keep the Horsemen away forever, but it might give me a few minutes reprieve.

The door pounded behind me.

“For the love of—” I cracked the door, but Julian was the one I least expected to find.

“Ruby, I know this must be—”

“Five minutes. Can I have five fucking minutes to myself?” I snapped. Julian didn’t flinch, and he didn’t leave.

“With the transition starting in—”

“Rysten said I had forty-eight hours. I’m asking for five minutes.” Refusing to back down, I held his gaze before it turned glacial and impassive.

“Fine.” The muscle in his jaw ticked. I moved to shut the door, but he caught it with his hand. “If I hear anything—”

“Five. Minutes,” I repeated, pushing against the door. It didn’t budge until he pulled away, giving me a tight nod as he did.

The door clicked shut and I turned, leaning back and resting my head against it. Staring at the ceiling, I finally got the nerve to say, “What am I going to do?”

“Same thing you always do,” Moira said. I rocked my body forward, pushing off the door. My gaze dropped to my best friend as I cocked an eyebrow in her direction, silently asking what that was. She pursed her lips and said one word. “Survive.”

Bandit walked over to me and tugged my jeans. I leaned over and scooped him up in my arms, walking over to sit on the white feather comforter. Moira joined us, sprawling out beside me.

“I’m scared,” I whispered into his fur. He purred, nuzzling against me.

“Of course you are,” she scoffed. “I’d be worried if you weren’t.” Moira arched up to tuck both her arms behind her head like she didn’t have a care in the world. She did, but it was only my empathic abilities and years of watching her that told me so. “But you have me,” she continued, very self-important-like. “And the trash panda and the Horsemen. At least part of them, when they’re not trying to fuck you.” She snickered and Bandit let out this god-awful rasping sound. I splayed a hand over my forehead, swiping it down my face, letting out an exasperated sigh.

“That’s what I’m worried about,” I muttered. “What if the Horsemen can’t stop me? What if—” I paused, steeling myself to tell her the truth. To say my next words. “What if the beast emerges and I end up killing everyone in New Orleans?”

Moira seemed to ruminate on her response, sucking the air between her teeth before replying, “I don’t think it will come to that.”

I squinted at the ceiling, tilting my head. “How do you figure that?”

“Two reasons. The first is that all four of those lazy fuckers have a raging hard-on for you. I thought Julian was going to bend your ass over and fuck you there when you started growling at them all come-hither-like on your hands and knees,” she chuckled again.

“I did not—”

“Oh yes you did,” she smirked, wagging her finger. “Save the modesty for someone else. You’ve been my best friend for over ten years. I know what you’re like when you get horny and can’t fuck. Hello, welcome to the past five years.”

I rolled my eyes, arching to grab the pillow from underneath me to chuck it at her face. She caught it without missing a beat.

“The second reason,” she said with exaggerated slowness, “is because you’re a succubus that’s been starving for over five years. Something tells me your transition is going to be one hell of show.” She grinned, the blue pentagrams in her eyes swirling around mischievously.

“Please tell me you are not planning to watch—”

“Fuck no.” She made a gagging noise that descended into giggles. “I love you, Rubes, but you’re like my sister. Your transition is one porno I am not interested in watching. If I want to get it on, Bourbon Street isn’t far.”

Bourbon Street. The one place on this continent that you could throw a rock blindfolded and be more likely to hit a demon than a human. Only three blocks from Hell’s Gates, it was practically overrun with our kind. Which meant it wasn’t safe for me or for her, not with those glowing blue-branded eyes.

She wore the Devil’s mark, and if her glamour slipped for even a second, it was all over. The world would know that a new soul carried that name.

“Please tell me you’re not planning on going down to Bourbon Street with everything that’s going on…” I said. She inclined her head and wariness permeated the air. “Moira, you can’t be serious.” She let out a sigh.

“I wouldn’t say planning is the right word. More like considering my options,” she defended. “It’s not like anyone is going to cross over until you transition. Once you fully hit it, that could be weeks. It would be a shame for me to miss out on the chance before we left earth…”

I know she didn’t mean for it to come across like she was guilt-tripping me, but her subtle reminder pulled at my heartstrings. Both because this is entirely on me, and because I almost lost her once. Despite that, she chose to follow me, and not just to the ends of this world, but to another world entirely.

I sat up, ignoring Bandit’s protests as I moved him aside and embraced her, wrapping my arms around her petite frame. “I’m not going to tell you what you can and can’t do. I just worry about you,” I whispered into her dark green hair. She smelled like mint and spring.

“I know.” She wrapped her arms around my waist, holding me tight against her. “It’s the same for me. I’ve never worried about anyone or anything in my life until you, and I’m not even getting some,” she grumbled. “Which is why I’m thinking about it, but my mind isn’t made up. You know I’d never do anything that puts you in danger.”

“It’s not me I’m worried about.”

A knock at the door interrupted us and I growled under my breath. Moira clutched me tighter, shaking with silent laughter as the door swung open.

“Ruby, love, I hate to break this up, but Allistair will be here shortly and we need to talk about how you want to do this.”

I could only assume he meant go through the transition, to which I didn’t have an answer. Still, I unclasped myself from Moira and followed him back out into the living room.

He took a seat in the lone armchair across the room, shooting me an apologetic look. I briefly wondered if his distance was because of our unexplainable make-out session earlier, or the shattered trust we’d yet to mend from Moira’s kidnapping. Judging by Julian’s turned back as he faced the glass wall, arms clasped behind him, I could only guess it was some of both.

I took a step towards Laran who sat on the black leather loveseat, freezing when his eyes swept up—hot, heated, and cautious. It was that last one that gave me pause.

“Is something wrong here?” I asked, my voice coming out a bit sharper than I intended, a hint of the beast inside me creeping through. She was not happy with him. Neither of us understood why he, out of any of them, would be wary with us.

He was branded.

He was ours.

A heavy fog formed around him, seemingly coming from nowhere. Red as human blood, frothing and foaming as it poured outward from him. I blinked, narrowing my eyes as I cocked my head.

“I asked you a question, Laran.” It was not my voice that came out, this was sultry and smooth. Layered with seduction and fire, the words seemed to settle over him. His eyes went wholly black, blotting out any trace of white. My lips parted as heat circled through me, shooting up my veins to that aching place in my core. A pounding started in my head.

I took another step towards him, only mildly aware of the outside voices speaking words that didn’t matter. Laran clenched his hands as if trying to restrain himself. From what, I didn’t know, but the pounding urged me closer, pushing me towards him.

I moved to stand directly between his legs, reaching forward through the fog—

Strong hands wrapped around my waist, yanking me back, pulling me away from him. From my—

“Snap out of it, Ruby,” a voice, rough and thick with desire, whispered in my ear. I stepped back into something solid. My lips parted on their own accord, tasting the air around me. Lust and heat. Darkness and shadows. Cold so chilling that it ignited a burning desire going down my lungs, straight to that place between my thighs.

The body behind me stayed still as the dead, neither pulling me closer nor releasing me to the world. Like he was having trouble making up his mind. I reached my arms up and around behind me, gripping his shoulders. My fingers trailed across his taut muscles, sweeping up the bare skin of his neck, and twining around short locks of hair that I knew would be white. I gave a sharp tug, smiling as a growl escaped his composure.

The hands at my waist tightened, almost painfully so, but he did not budge.

“Do not test me,” Death whispered in my ear. His lips were chilled as they brushed down the nape of my neck and up again. He inhaled deeply and I shuddered in delight. “Hell’s heir, you may be, but no one courts Death unless they wish to submit.”

My control was already hanging on by a very thin thread. The image that swept through my mind of him dominating me snapped it entirely. The beast pushed forward and ground my hips back into the hard erection that pressed against me.

The breath hissed between his teeth.

“Death, you may be, but you will kneel all the same,” my beast replied. Her version of kneel looked nothing like what most imagined. She didn’t just want his submission. She wanted his adoration, his devotion, his very fucking soul.

Her idea of Death kneeling ended with his face between my thighs and my mark branded on his fucking cock.

Oh man, I was so utterly screwed.

But I couldn’t bring myself to stop it.

Heat burned through me like a building inferno. Pounding. Beating. Pushing me towards something that I didn’t fully understand. I pushed back, running my ass over the length of him—

Crack!

I blinked. Not that I was opposed to pain, but I found it rather unexpected. My vision cleared, and it was not Death or any of the Horsemen standing in front of me, but Moira.

She arched one dark green eyebrow, her arms folded over her chest smugly.

“I know you are horny as fuck right now, but there is a time and place, and it is not in front of my not-so-virgin eyes. Get it together, Rubes.”

My beast blinked at her.

“Did you just slap me?” the beast asked, frowning in confusion. Moira didn’t back down.

“Yes. You’re a thirsty bitch. I get it. But I need you to hold yourself together just a little bit longer.” The beast looked at her, tilting my head, the pounding in my veins easing for just a moment. “For me. Can you do it for me?” she asked quietly. Not pleading, because Moira never begged. Instead, she was demanding of the beast what no one else in this room could.

Because they were not our tether. The one who kept us together when all else failed.

And for her, we would do anything.

The beast reached out with our hand and swept a stray lock of her dark green hair aside. Intimate, but not sexual in any way.

“For you, who has protected her always. Be warned: very soon I will not be able to stop.” Our head rose as she locked eyes with Laran who sat several feet behind Moira, watching me intensely, his gaze dark. “I will claim all my mates before we return home.”

With that she receded, leaving me clammy and confused.

I didn’t even have time to register the voice behind me before the bright spots in my vision exploded. The world went white as sleep found me, but the fire inside did not abate.

Not even sleep could save me from my infernal torment…or desires.