“Trent, I need you to get Neil up to the penthouse for me.” I felt like a lion tamer who suddenly found himself caught between two predators.

Roberts might look like a sweet club kid, but he turned into a killer lizard capable of taking down unstoppable demons. So I was proceeding with caution. In Nemcox’s case, I wanted to keep the body count down. Nemcox could be easily killed. Well, the body he was currently inhabiting could be killed. He would merely come back in another and I would be left with cleanup duty.

“I’m not leaving you alone here.” Trent did move toward the door. “But I’ll talk to him.”

For a moment I thought Roberts would be the reasonable one. He stood there staring, but not making the move that would bring him close to his ex-captor. Then as Trent started to open the door, the wolf made a decision and charged in.

“You have no right to be here.” Roberts stopped short of getting in arm’s length of the demon. “None. You’ve been forbidden all Council spaces.” He looked toward Trent. “How is he doing this? We have the place warded against possessed beings.”

That was totally my fault. “They’re down for a couple of hours while I have a meeting with some hell lords. I’m sorry about this. Why don’t you let Trent take you up to the penthouse? I promise this will be over in a few hours and he’ll be gone again.”

“You look tired, love.” Nemcox hadn’t moved an inch and his eyes never left Roberts. “That man isn’t taking care of you properly.”

Roberts ignored my very reasonable solution to the problem. “Like you took care of me, you disgusting piece of shit?”

The demon flushed but held his ground. “I generally prefer sweetheart or lover. And I took excellent care of you. Tell me something, can you feel our connection? Is it warm on your body?”

Neil frowned. “Nothing about you makes me warm.”

“That tattoo does. I know it does. You lied to me back then,” Nemcox insisted. “You lied because you were punishing me, but I know what it does to you. That dragon is our bond, Neil. That dragon is a piece of your soul and it knows its mate. Don’t fight it anymore, puppy.”

Neil stopped, his face going blank. “The dragon knows its mate? What does that mean? I thought it was nothing but a way to control me.”

“It’s so much more.” Nemcox took a step toward him, but stopped when Neil nearly jumped back. “It’s magic. Yes, I can give you power through it, but that’s not why I had you marked. You wouldn’t believe me that we belong together. You fought me so hard in those first days. I thought I would lose you. So I gave you the dragon. It’s both a power conduit and portal to your soul. You and the dragon are one. What the dragon wants and needs is the same as you. Stop fighting it. Come home to me. It’s been so long.”

Neil looked over to Gray. “Is what he’s saying true? Kelsey says you have one, too.”

Gray nodded. “Yes. It was given to me when I was thirteen and it’s grown with me ever since. It’s how demonkind gives power to their loved ones, though I suspect my brother might have cheated a bit. My dragon allows me to take demonic form, but I don’t lose my self-control.”

“He wasn’t doing anything interesting with his self-control,” Nemcox complained.

Neil ignored him. “How does it work? If the person can control me, does that mean the dragon recognizes him as our mate?”

“Not at all,” Gray replied. “Have you honestly never felt your dragon move?”

“Of course he has.” Nemcox folded his arms over his chest, staring at his former victim. “We lived together for years. He’s stubborn and he won’t give me an inch.”

Gray frowned. “You never touched his dragon?”

“Of course I did,” his brother insisted. “I touched him all the time. I gave it every bit of my affection. He’s the one who withheld. He’s the one who’s lying about never feeling the connection. Do you know how hard it is to love someone as much as I love him and to have him deny the truth? He even made me doubt it at times.”

Oh, but there was no doubting the connection. “Gray, let me touch your dragon. I can show him what happens when the connection is real.”

Gray’s expression had gone stark as he looked at his brother. “You don’t know? Brother, Kelsey feels when my dragon moves. He comes to life under her hand. Sometimes he glows a bit when she’s around.”

Neil’s knees hit the floor and he covered his face with his hands.

My stomach dropped and I moved toward him. Trent was already on one knee, his hand on Neil’s back.

“It’s okay,” Trent was saying. “You don’t have to do what some tattoo says. If you think I’ll let him take you, that any one of us would allow him to take you again, you’re wrong. Never again. I swear.”

I wondered if it was too late to make leaving Neil Roberts alone for all of eternity part of my contract because I felt so much for him in that moment. He hadn’t understood what the tattoo meant and I could understand how devastating that would be if the “one” the dragon responded to was the epitome of everything evil. It was something sweet to me because Gray and I fit, because we loved each other. Somehow that dragon responding to me made things feel right. But what if I hated him or he hated me? What if we were trapped by some insane tattoo? I had to believe that because I didn’t want to live in a world where Neil Roberts’s destined soul mate was the same man who’d violated him for years.

“I won’t let him take you,” I vowed. “No matter what the tattoo says.”

Neil’s face came up and he was smiling. It was the most brilliant smile I’d ever seen on his handsome face. “I didn’t understand. I tried to shove it down, but it’s a part of me. It really is.”

“Yes.” Nemcox breathed the word like an answered prayer, a benediction. “Yes, listen to the dragon. He knows the truth.”

“He does,” Neil agreed. “Which is why I feel him move when my husband touches me.” Neil laughed, a joyous sound. “I force it down, but every time Chad comes near me, it feels warm. I don’t let him touch me there because it feels weird, but now I get it. There’s nothing wrong with me. This thing that he put on me, it’s not his. It’s mine. He forced it on me, but I can make it mine. It wants to be mine and it loves who I love.”

“I watched that dragon protect Zoey once,” Trent said quietly. “There was no reason for you to change in that moment except the dragon on your soul loved Zoey and couldn’t bear to see her hurt.”

So many of the things my father had said to me mere hours before came back to me. “The dragon isn’t your enemy. It’s one more piece of you. Accept him and all the strength he can bring you. Accept him and you might be able to come to terms with what happened to you all those years ago.”

The demon shook his head, tears running down his face. “You’re lying again. How long do you have to punish me?”

Neil wiped his eyes and stood up. “I don’t. I don’t have to punish you at all. I don’t have to punish myself.” He turned to me. “I’m ready, Kelsey. I want to try the spell again. I’m ready to remember everything. I’m not scared now.” He put his hand on his side as though soothing the tattoo. “Chad will be there with me and we can get through anything together.”

I nodded. At least I might get to complete my last case before my descent into Hell. Closure was a good thing. “I’ll let Liv know. We can try again after sunset.”

Neil turned back, looking his assailant right in the eye. “I’m not afraid of you anymore, and you need to understand that the next time you try to have me do your dirty work for you, I’m going to fight. I’m going to fight you as hard as I can. I won’t kill for you again.”

“Kill for me?” Nemcox managed to look genuinely confused.

“I’m not stupid.” Neil moved to the door, never taking his eyes off Nemcox, as though the demon would make a move at any moment. He backed up. “You’ve been using me for weeks to take out your father’s rivals. Is that why you had me murder those demons? I don’t care. I won’t do it again.”

He finally turned and stalked out of the room.

“Trent, I need you to watch him.” It didn’t feel right to have him walk off alone.

Trent’s jaw tightened. “I think I should stay with you.”

“Please. Let me handle this. Make sure Neil gets upstairs safely and then you can run back down here and save me from myself.”

Gray looked up, his eyes weary. “I’ll make sure she doesn’t sign anything while you’re gone. I promise.”

“I’ll hold you to that,” Trent said before starting for the door.

“And it would be nice if you put on a shirt.” Gray looked over at his brother. “I’m sorry, Nem. I didn’t realize you hadn’t felt his dragon under your hand.”

Nemcox shook his head. “It’s something Neil is doing. And he’s lying about the vampire. There’s no way the dragon responds to him. I placed that seal on him. I did it. He’s mine.”

Gray’s eyes were sympathetic as he looked at Nemcox. “No, brother. It doesn’t work that way. You can place the mark, but it’s Neil’s soul. You can’t affect it. You know a soul is sacrosanct. His soul informs the dragon. They’re one. The dragon will love who his soul loves. I wish it could be different for you. I know how much you care for him.”

Nemcox turned to Gray, his eyes flashing red. “I love him. He’s mine. Don’t make less of my love than I would of your own. Do you understand what I’m doing for you, Grayson? I’m saving you a world of heartache. I’m giving you the one woman who feeds your soul. Why can’t you support me taking the man who feeds mine?”

“Because he doesn’t return your love, brother. It’s different. I would stand up to Father if that was the problem. I would stand beside you and take what punishment would come, but this is different.”

Nemcox rounded on Gray, hissing his way like a scalded snake. It made Gray start.

“It is no different. This is and always has been your problem, my weakling brother. We are royal. They are chattel. What we want, it belongs to us by right of birth and power. You want this to be soft and sweet but it is not and you will understand when you are with us fully.” Nemcox turned to me. “If you don’t sign that contract by midnight tomorrow our deal is done and I will speak with the spawn and he will know what to do. Enjoy your final night of freedom, whore. From here on you will understand what it means to serve your demon master. Grayson, if you don’t want her alone, you’ll come home early and of your own accord.”

When he strode out of the room, his movements were odd. Normally the demon was polished and perfect. No one would ever suspect he wasn’t exactly what he looked like—a human. But now the body he was riding had stiffened, shoulders hunching forward and back with each step. His legs moved in an odd glide, the tip of his toes coming down first.

Like they were cloven hooves.

I caught a flash of red eyes gleaming my way before he disappeared down the hall.

Gray had gone a bit ashen and I wondered if he’d seen this side of his brother before or if Nemcox had been careful. I knew Gray understood on an intellectual level that his brother was a full-born demon, but Nemcox seemed to have a unique way of allowing those around him to forget what he was capable of.

“I’m sorry, Kelsey.” Gray sat back, seemingly weary. “You have to forgive him.”

Yes, this was the trouble with Gray and his family. “No, I don’t. He raped Neil Roberts for years.”

Gray shook his head. “We don’t know that.”

“Oh, we do. I think I’ll choose to believe Neil.”

“Because he’s a wolf and not a demon?”

I thought that was obvious. “Yes.”

Gray stood, his expression going grim. “Well, I can see I chose well then. I’ll leave you to Trent.”

It took all I had not to scream my frustration. “You’ll sit back down and stop acting like a butt-hurt idiot.”

That seemed to stop him in his tracks. He stared at me for a moment and then the faintest hint of a smile lit his face. “Butt-hurt? This is a thing now?”

I waved him off, turning to look out the windows. Dusk was settling in over the city, a veil descending. “It’s been around for a while. You’re too hoity-toity to know it.”

I felt him move in behind me, his hands cupping my shoulders. “Hoity-toity? I don’t feel that way. I’ve been staying in youth hostels across the world. Jacob isn’t big on five-star hotels. Says he can’t find real people in them.”

His lips brushed the top of my head and I couldn’t help but sigh and lean back into him. “I’m sorry you had to ask your father to bring you here.”

He was quiet for a moment. “I told you to beware the spawn. This has something to do with the wizard. My brother’s ties to him run deep. He’s out there in the world, studying and learning. I don’t trust him the way Nem does. What does my brother have on you?”

I shook my head. “Something so important I won’t even tell you.”

His arms moved around me, encircling me. “What are we going to do, Kelsey Mine?”

I had absolutely no idea.

As the night fell, I stood in his arms, the silence my only answer.