“You ready to go?”

Layla considered other ways she could procrastinate the inevitable separation from Hunter, but she’d already walked as slowly as she could back for two things she’d supposedly forgotten, re-done her makeup, and gone to the bathroom twice. It hadn’t all been intentional, but her every instinct told her to stay put.

“Yes,” she said reluctantly.

“It won’t be that long,” Cord said, seeing the morose look she shot toward Hunter. “A day or two at most.”

“Yeah.” A day or two without seeing Hunter’s eyes seemed pretty long.

“You’ll have fun. Penny is great.” Sophie smiled encouragingly. Layla realized she had to look pretty sad if even Sophie had been moved to sympathy. Apparently it wasn’t enough to let Hunter go with her, though.

“Okay, then. I’ll see you.”

“Bye, Layla!”

“Good luck.”

She shared one last long look with Hunter before getting into the car with Cord.

They drove in silence for a while, the only noise being the voice of the GPS giving occasional directions, but once they were on the highway, even that noise ceased.

Layla fiddled with the radio, trying to think of something to say. Though she’d spent many hours talking to Hunter, she didn’t know any of the other demons that well, and found the silence awkward.

“Oh, stop being so sad,” he said after a few minutes had passed. “You’ll be back to him soon enough,” Cord offered, sounding both amused and exasperated.

“How…how much do you know?”

“Enough. Hunter hasn’t said much, but it’s obvious in the way he looks at you.”

“Apparently it’s obvious to Sophie, as well.”

“Not as much as you’d think. When you don’t want to see something, your mind is closed to it. People have a tendency to see what they want to see. That being said, I’m fairly sure that Sophie has noticed something.”

“Yeah, I know. But what about you? Have you met anyone yet?”

“Not yet. In all honesty, it’s a long shot. We’d all love to have mates, but none of us really expected to find them up here, let alone so soon. Anyway, I’ve never heard of a witch and a demon being mates before. If I am going to find someone, it likely won’t be when I’m only hanging around witches,” he finished, chuckling.

Conversation flowed easily from there, and they spent the remainder of the drive chatting, mostly about Hunter. Layla wanted to know everything about him. Cord filled her in on some of the more lighthearted stories from Hunter’s past, though she got the impression he wasn’t revealing anything Hunter might want to tell her himself.

When they arrived at the correct address in Miami, Penny was waiting for them. The address they’d been given seemed to be a hotel—and a fancy one, at that.

“You must be Layla.”

“Yes, nice to meet you.”

Penny gave her a hug and gave Cord a thoroughly mistrustful look. It didn’t seem to bother him.

“Come on in. I’ll get you set up in your room, and then we can talk.”

Layla allowed herself to be led to a luxurious room on the top level.

“I own this place,” Penny explained. “It’s useful for when we have visitors, and we always put them up here.”

“It’s…amazing,” Layla said, still marveling that Penny owned the whole hotel.

“You’re in the room next door,” Penny told Cord without looking at him.

“Actually, I’ll need to be in the same room as Layla if I’m to protect her properly. I’ll take the couch.”

Penny’s horrified expression didn’t ease at all with his promise of sleeping on the couch, and Layla began to understand what Hunter had said about Sophie’s coven being more progressive.

“It’s fine,” she assured Penny. “They’ve been staying with us back in Orlando. He’s right that it’ll be safer with him close by. There’s already been an attempt on one of our coven members. We don’t want to take any chances.”

“But…but they surely aren’t staying in the same rooms as you back at your coven’s base?”

“No,” Layla lied, thinking of her nights with Hunter.

“This is too unsecure an area,” Cord explained. “We’ve secured the whole house; they have wards at all of the entrances. This is a hotel. Anyone could walk down this corridor, and your elevators don’t even have keycard access. I can only secure this room.”

Penny didn’t seem able to get around the logic of this, but she still didn’t look happy. “Well, if you’re sure you’re okay with it?” she asked uncertainly.

“I’m fine. Really,” Layla promised.

“Well, all right. Anyway, you can go guard the door while we’re talking,” she shot at Cord, still not looking at him.

“His name is Cord.” There was an edge to Layla’s voice now. “He’s here protecting me, and he needs to hear what you have to say, as well. He and his team are trying to find the killer to make it safe for all of us.”

This time, Penny didn’t budge. “I don’t feel comfortable talking in front of a demon.”

Layla glared back at her. “I’m just going to tell him what we’ve said anyway. He needs to know. It’s his job.”

“You can wait outside, Cord.”

Layla sighed, but gestured to Cord that it was okay for him to leave them alone. She considered reprimanding Penny for her backward attitude—after all, Cord was just trying to help. Penny was a high priestess, though, and Layla wasn’t sure that she should get into a fight with her so early on.

Penny relaxed considerably once Cord left the room and called downstairs for some tea and cake.

“So, Layla, tell me about yourself.”

Layla kept it brief, giving a short outline about having found out only recently that she was a witch and joining Sophie’s coven. She left Hunter’s name out of it entirely. She didn’t need another high priestess on her case about him.

“What about your family? Your maternal line, I mean?”

“I never knew any of my family except my mother. Hunt—I mean, Sophie and the others, think that my grandmother turned her back on being a witch and never told my mother. My mom isn’t a witch, so she never knew to tell me anything.”

“Do you know anything about your father?” Penny asked, her wide eyes betraying the same surprise that Layla’s own coven had felt upon meeting her.

“No, just that he wasn’t human. I don’t know anything else. My mother would never talk about him. She said he left before I was born.”

Penny kept looking at her in a strange, thoughtful way.

“What is it?”

“I sensed you were different,” she mused, seemingly almost to herself. “Of course, you’re a halfling, but I think I know a little more than that. I believe I know the identity of your father, actually.”

“What? Who is he?” Layla’s heart suddenly blazed with excitement. She’d wondered so many times over the years who her father could be. She’d all but given up hope on ever finding him until recently, enough so that even thinking of magically locating him hadn’t seemed like an unlikely option.

“His name is Claw. He’s a demon.” Penny looked apologetic, almost as though she expected Layla to burst out into tears.

“That’s amazing! How do you know? Where can I find him?”

Clearly taken aback, Penny hastily composed herself and sat back in her seat, nearly as if she felt the need to distance herself from Layla’s strange reaction. “Unfortunately, no one does, at least not that I know of. He hasn’t been seen for years. As for how I know, I heard a rumor a demon had taken up with a witch-skip about eighteen years ago.

“But even though your mom wasn’t a witch, it’s still exceedingly rare for a demon to be with anyone vaguely related to witches. I’m sure you know some of the complications we’ve had with them by now. It seems too rare an occurrence to be a coincidence. Of course, I can’t be one hundred percent sure, but I have to believe that Claw is your father.”

Layla was grinning from ear to ear. Maybe Penny didn’t know where he was, but witches and demons didn’t exactly have close ties. Layla couldn’t wait to ask Cord. Surely, one of the demons would know where she could find him.

“Are you okay?” Penny asked gently, still looking at Layla as though she would break.

Layla suddenly realized what was wrong and almost laughed at Penny’s cautious expression. “I don’t care that I’m half-demon,” she said. With Penny clearly struggling to hide her dismay, Layla started to get annoyed. “It’s who I am, who I was born. It’s not something I had any control over, any more than you got to choose who your father was. You surely don’t expect me to be ashamed of who I am?”

“No, of course not,” Penny said quickly, looking slightly abashed. “Of course, it’s not your fault.”

“Nor is it shameful.” Layla wondered where all this confidence she felt was coming from. She usually didn’t speak up like this, to anyone.

“So tell me what progress the demons have made in finding the killer?” Penny still said ‘demons’ as though the word tasted bad in her mouth, but Layla tried not to let it bother her.

She gave Penny a rundown of everything that had happened. Penny even reluctantly admitted that it was a good thing Phoenix had been there when Rose was attacked.

“Well, it seems that whoever the killer is, they’ve targeted Florida for now,” Penny surmised after another few moments had passed.

“Maybe not, actually. Sophie said I should warn you that they may be on the move again. The demons nearly caught them, and they might have been scared off, at least for now.”

“We’ll double the wards. I’m not losing another coven member. What is it that we can do for you? Does your coven need assistance?”

“No, Sophie just sent me to give you the message.”

“Why would you need to come in person? Not that I’m not delighted to meet you, don’t get me wrong! I’d even love it if you could stay on a bit longer and get to know my coven. But why not just send me an email or call me?”

“Sophie said that those kinds of communications may not be secure,” Layla offered half-heartedly; she only half-believed the excuse herself.

“She’s right, but it wouldn’t have been that hard to set up a magical barrier around a certain email address. They don’t last forever, but we’ve used them before when we needed to exchange confidential information.”

Layla silently ground her teeth. When she got back, she and Sophie were going to have words.

“Though, I suppose it’s best to avoid using magic if you can,” Penny mused. “Driving may be longer, but at least it doesn’t have unforeseen side effects. What’s your stipulation?”

“I don’t know yet. Sophie says it sometimes takes a bit of time to manifest for new witches.”

“She’s right. Enjoy the restriction-free time while it lasts, though I’m sure Sophie will have impressed upon you how essential it is to be careful until you know everything.”

“Only about a million times,” Layla said, smiling wryly. “I’m not to use any magic on this trip, unless it’s a matter of life and death. She still wants to supervise.”

“Wise decision. Though, why not stay a while? We could show you a thing or two. That’s a common practice in training new witches, sending them to other covens for a while. It sometimes helps to have a variety of different teaching styles.”

Layla considered how to phrase her answer without letting on too much to Penny. As far as she was concerned, she’d given the witch her message, and if she hadn’t thought it would upset her host, she’d have been driving back to Hunter that very night. She already missed him.

“I’d love to do that sometime,” she said honestly. With Hunter at my side. “I just don’t think this is the right time. With everything that’s going on, I think I need to be with my coven right now.”

Penny nodded approvingly. “Of course, you’re right. Perhaps you could rest up for a few days and then head back.”

Layla bit her lip. She’d been hoping to leave first thing in the morning. Not that she didn’t like Penny, but she was eager to be back in Hunter’s arms.

“Maybe, but there’s also the hunt to think of—the demons are still hoping for something to come from their investigation, and having Cord there could help,” she said. Still, she knew she might have to stay another day before going back. She didn’t want to hurt Penny’s feelings, after all, and it would be interesting to meet another coven. She wondered how similar they were to hers.

“I’ll leave you to clean up and get some rest, then. There’s a pool on the ground floor and a casino in the west wing. If you don’t feel like going out, the restaurant downstairs serves a mean lasagna.”

“Thanks, I’ll keep that in mind.”

Penny stood politely aside for Cord as he entered, and he closed the door behind her.

“I don’t know him,” Cord said regretfully.

“What?”

“Your father, Claw. I’ve heard of him, but never met him, and I have no idea where he could be. I’m sorry.”

“You heard all that?”

“I guess Penny forgot that we have heightened senses.”

Layla smiled, even though she was disappointed to hear Cord couldn’t tell her more about this Claw. “Well, that saves us some time. Do you think the others may know him?”

“Hunter might. He travelled the underworld extensively before he teamed up with us. And I think Fisher still has a few contacts he could reach out to, if you’d like.”

“That would be great! Let me talk to Hunter first, though. I think we may need to stay here tomorrow. I can’t exactly explain to Penny why I want to rush home.”

“No, I doubt that would go down too well.”

“So, what do you want to do? There’ a pool and—oh, of course, you heard it all.”

“Somehow, I don’t think those offers were extended to me. I’ll try out the room service, but I can follow along so that you can go and have fun if you really want to go out.”

Perhaps if Hunter were there, Layla would have done just that. She’d have liked to try out the pool with him. Maybe another time.

“I’ll do the same. Tell room service I want lasagna?”

Cord nodded and started calling for room service. Layla looked at her phone hopefully and brightened when she saw three messages from Hunter, asking how she was and if everything was going well.

Instead of replying, she called him.

“Hello.”

“Can you talk?”

“Hang on.”

There was brief noise in the background. “Yes, I can talk. How are you?”

“Missing you,” Layla admitted.

“Me, too. How did things go so far?”

Layla gave him a brief rundown, but was more eager to hear about what was happening back home. Fortunately, nothing much. The killer definitely seemed to have moved on for the time being.

They talked for almost half an hour, only stopping when room service came and Layla needed to help Cord work out human money. It was quite hilarious, and she wished she’d snapped a shot of his face to show to Hunter. Layla desperately wanted to ask Hunter if he knew Claw, but just wasn’t sure whether it made sense to do so over the phone. She’d have the chance soon, she promised herself.

After dinner, they had a quiet night in and spent the evening in companionable silence. Layla found that she liked Cord. She could see him being in her life, which was definitely a good thing since she knew he and Hunter were close.

A few moments after she’d lain down to sleep, her phone pinged, and she smiled when she saw another message from Hunter.

“I’ll see you sooner than you think.”

“I hope so,” Layla replied. She put the phone away and turned out the lights, still smiling.