Chapter Two
Boom. Thunk. Boom. Thunk.
Zena Night Raines covered her ears and stared out the sliding glass doors of the townhouse terrace. Across the broad expanse of Hudson, Nyack wore its late spring coat of fifty shades of green. An amazing view—if not for the construction barges, derricks, and pile drivers arrayed like monstrous steel aliens on the both sides of the Tappan Zee Bridge linking Tarrytown and Sleepy Hollow to Rockland County. Machinery raising such a hella din, her eyes crossed. It was worse even than the churning bowels of Duyvil Tand, the demon stronghold hidden beneath the Catskills, from which she and Bhyrne had recently escaped.
She raised her arm with the intent of throwing an electrical charge to jam up the mechanisms, then thought about the possibility of knocking out power on both sides of the river. Her sister, Lily, had inadvertently done that once…during a particularly enthusiastic and frisky amorous session with her honey, Campbell, while celebrating their high school prom night.
She couldn’t risk an outage. Not in her delicate condition. And especially not when her mate, a fine, fire-sex demon male in his prime, was doing whatever he was doing on the computer, a thought that nearly sent her into an uncharacteristic fit of giggles. For all Bhyrne resembled a mortal man when out and about among the humans in Sleepy Hollow—albeit an extremely large, hunky and hot-as-sin version—his acceptance of modern devices remained, well, so eighteenth century. She could tolerate him playing Worlds of Warcraft or Call of Duty or some such thing. But he’d better not be doing another interview with that Bunny creature, the succubus version of Entertainment Tonight, Access Hollywood, and TMZ, who splattered her flirtatious snark all over the Decadent Publishing and 1Night Stand blogs. Not that Zena ever looked at those things herself. She didn’t need to. She and Bhyrne were that much of a success story.
Turning her back on the mid-river racket, she headed toward Bhyrne’s den to surprise him, her barefooted steps silent on the thick carpet. He remained so engrossed by the images on the screen he failed to note her advance, which allowed her to creep up behind him. Sliding her hands over his broad shoulders, up the column of his neck, she nibbled on his ear lobe.
In an instant, he’d snatched her above her growing middle and settled her on his lap, nuzzling her in turn. “What’s up, princess?”
She sighed. “The noise level. It’s killing me. Can’t be good for junior.”
He rubbed a hand possessively over her belly and offered her a sinful smile, worthy of a fire-sex demon. “Something to be said for breedspawn, huh?”
“Oh. Yeah. Something.” She returned his grin. When Bhyrne had gone through the fire demon mating phase a few months back, he’d been a sizzling, raging, fucking inferno, keeping her glued to him in bed, toes curled, eyes-crossed, mind-blown, limp and satisfied. “Like a smokin’ hot male and off-the-chart sex. When do you think you’ll go into heat again?”
“How about we get our first little demon settled in the world?”
Zena nodded, but said, “Not here though.”
“I thought you liked Sleepy Hollow? You’re near your sisters and their mates. People are used to odd things going bump in the night here. We fit right in. It’s a great place to raise a blazelet.”
“Yes, but not with the pile drivers in the river going boom during the day. They’re driving me mad, Bhyrne. We’ve gotta get out of this townhouse. It’s kissing the shoreline. Too close to the construction. The bridge work will go on for years. And…spacious as this place is, it’s gonna get too cramped soon, anyway.”
“Agreed. We need a house. As soon as I get the security agency set up.”
“Is that what you’ve been doing?”
“Was. But then I got a freaky e-mail from Max.” He tilted the monitor screen toward her and she scanned the pixels.
Her jaw dropped as she read the bizarre letter Max had attached. Except for Bhyrne’s cousin, Max Raines, the erotic artist and fire-sex demon mated to her sister, Dagney, Bhyrne had no family. At least, none anyone knew about. As a boy, he’d lived on the streets, scrapping and clawing his way up through the ranks of the Succubus Queen’s guard, until he’d become Velda’s most elite enforcer. He’d discovered the connection to Max only relatively recently, in the last century or so. And did not otherwise know much about his distant past.
Bhyrne had been such a loner before Madame Eve had hooked him up with Zena, but had so longed to belong. Now, it thrilled him to have a family of his own. She wouldn’t stand for anyone hurting her mate and vowed fierce payback against anyone who tried.
“You have me,” she murmured, stroking the back of his neck. “And our little blazelet. We’re your family. And Max and Dag; Lily and Campbell. Would be great if someone else is out there somewhere. But…don’t get your hopes up, babe. There’s a lot we don’t know.”
“I know, Z. My first thought was, some guy sees one of Max’s sexy paintings in a magazine, in Paris of all places, has the same last name, maybe wants to cash in on Max’s fame. Or infamy. Whatever. Maybe he’s after a payday.”
“But?”
“But Max doesn’t think so. And there’s no one more reclusive and suspicious than Max. And the way the guy describes himself…like he’s some kind of spook, for real. Not just his nickname. Some secret agency that only goes by initials, if you read between the lines. He says he’s a Raines—Spokane Raines.”
“Spokane? Like the city in Washington state?” Zena’s eyebrows knitted. “Have you ever been there?”
“Don’t think so. But doesn’t seem like this guy’s got any real connection, either. He wrote this from overseas. Doesn’t seem to understand the powers he has. Thinks he’s sick. Poisoned, maybe. A lot of weird shit for an e-mail from a total stranger. Like he’s…exhausted. Played out. No family. Lost. Like I was, until I found you.”
“You want to invite him here?”
“I do.” He nodded. “Maybe I’m reading too much into this, but I think he’s adrift. Looking to retire from whatever clandestine service he’s with. If he’s got mad skills like that, like he must have in his line of work, he could be an asset to our new security agency.” He paused, then added, “Not to mention the family.”
Bhyrne clicked the attachment Max had e-mailed. A photo filled the screen. Zena sucked in her breath.
“Oh, my freakin’ goddess.” The resemblance to her love—and to Max for that matter—shattered any doubt. She could have been staring at a picture of her mate. Or his twin.
Bhyrne’s steely eyes lightened. As Max said of his own eyes when the rampaging fire-demon within didn’t turn them fiery red, they were the color of “dirty snow.” Her mate turned back to her, his face ablaze with hope. “What if…what if I have a brother?”