I ran down the stairs, my heart in my throat. He wasn’t moving. Trent was a badass on the king’s blood. I’d seen him take crazy damage and get his ass up a couple of minutes later.

I’d never once seen the man so still. Even in his sleep, he moved, but now he was completely still and I realized if he was dead, a part of me would be, too.

My wolf was howling inside as I dropped to my knees. “Please get Donovan.”

Zack stared down as though he wasn’t sure what to say. “Kelsey…”

I shook my head and put my hands on Trent. He was still warm. He wasn’t icy cold yet and that meant someone could bring him back. “Get Donovan now.”

Zack turned and ran back up the stairs.

What the hell had happened? Neil wasn’t anywhere near as strong as Trent. God, I could barely recognize his face. I smoothed back his hair. It was matted with blood. I tried not to think about the hole in his chest.

“Don’t cry.”

I breathed a long sigh of relief at the sound of his tortured voice and let my head drop down to his. “Don’t fucking die.”

His body shuddered under my hand. “Bossy woman.”

I sniffled, trying not to give over to the need to wail. “Well, I was told to have you at dinner at the proper time or Gray will get his panties in a wad and he’ll probably serve us both salads or something.”

“He’ll probably serve me poison, baby. Fuck, that hurt.”

“What happened? Stop trying to move.”

He groaned and lay back. “It was Neil, but it wasn’t. There was a flash of light and then Neil wasn’t himself. He was the creature I remembered from all those years ago. I tried to stop him. He tried to pull out my heart. And now we’re here. Kelsey, something touched me. Not Neil, something else. It burned me from the inside out. I have no idea how I’m still alive.”

I was sure it was the king’s blood. I reached for his hand. His whole body was limp in my arms. “Hold on. Donovan will be here soon. It’s going to be okay.”

I knew I should be trying to find Neil, trying to identify this new threat, but all I cared about in that moment was making sure my almost lover lived. I lay down beside him, gently running my hands where I could. I didn’t care that I was getting covered in blood. All that mattered was my instinct in the moment. It told me to put hands on him, to give him the comfort of knowing he wasn’t alone.

I needed the comfort of knowing he was still breathing.

“Kelsey?”

“Hush, it’s okay. You’re going to be okay.”

“Loved you the moment I saw you. Knew it was you. Had almost given up.”

Tears made my vision go hazy. He wouldn’t be saying these things if he didn’t think he was dying. “You hold on.”

“No matter how pissed Gray is, I won’t leave. You need me.”

“Damn straight. So don’t die.”

“Hated that damn vampire.”

It was good to know that male jealousy was alive and well, even as I was fairly certain I could see his heart from that hole in his chest. “Please rest, Trent.”

The door above came open and Donovan raced down.

“What the fuck happened?” He rolled up his sleeve and I watched as his fangs grew large.

It was an easy thing to put together in the end. Why else would Nemcox kill Larissa for her “loose lips”? She didn’t work for him. From what I could tell, she didn’t know the demon. Yet he’d shown up just as she was going to start talking.

I was dealing with a “stolen” weapon that came from the Heaven plane and a light that felt endless.

“I think an angel attacked Trent,” I said quietly. I sat up and maneuvered so his head was in my lap. “I think an angel is controlling Neil, and I definitely think one of the angels is working with Nemcox, though I’m not sure he understands what’s really going on. He seemed extremely upset that someone was using the connection to control Neil.”

Donovan got to one knee and bit into his own wrist. “Come on, buddy. No time to do this in a proper, manly way. You’re taking it straight from the tap today.”

Trent frowned.

I looked down at him. “You will drink that blood and you will do it right fucking now, mister.”

Trent growled, but when Donovan put his wrist down, he took the blood. Donovan winced as Trent’s fangs came out and sank in, digging deeper.

Donovan’s eyes tightened as he seemed intent to focus on something else. “Why would an angel care about whether or not I renew our contracts with the demons?”

It was getting a little hot in there. I know this sounds weird because I was watching my half-dead almost-boyfriend being saved by drinking another guy’s blood, but you kind of have to be there to get it. There’s something about the act of sharing blood that’s physical, even sexual. I was sure if they’d had a choice, Donovan would have drained some of that blood into a thermos and passed it over, but we needed to move fast. Trent’s hand came out, his fingers winding around mine, and I could feel him getting stronger.

“According to Marcus, if the plane fails to balance itself, Heaven will do it for us,” I said. “What if we’re dealing with a faction of Heaven that doesn’t like the lower planes? They’ve been out of the action for a long time.”

Trent finally let his head fall back. He looked past tired, but he was going to live. “Thank you, Your Highness. If it helps at all, I think I got a good swipe in on the bastard. Neil was in front of me and I couldn’t see whoever showed up behind me, but I swiped back and I know I caught him with my claws.”

“If it was an angel, then I’m not sure if those claws of yours are going to do much damage.” Donovan straightened up. “Owens, we need to go. I have the address. We don’t have much time.”

Zack had moved in behind me. My uncle’s arms went around me and I found myself caged in. “Daniel, do it now.”

Trent got to his feet with a low groan. “What are you doing, Zack?”

I had a suspicion. I went still in my uncle’s arms. Zack takes the king’s blood, too, and it makes him super strong. Probably not stronger than me, but we were in close quarters and I didn’t want to end up throwing him down fifteen flights of stairs. Of course, I also had zero plans to let him do what I thought he was going to do.

“I’m saving my niece. Daniel, I’ll hold her. I can do it. All she needs is a little of your blood in her system,” Zack explained, his voice tight.

Yep, we were back to that. I got ready to make my move. I would kick back and get out of his hold before Trent could help him. Trent had been right there in the “rah, rah let’s hold Kelsey down and feed her vampire blood so she can’t make her own mistakes” club.

Trent’s skin was far paler than normal as he looked at me. “You sure you want to do this, baby?”

“I fucking don’t want to do this.” Trent and I were about to have our first real fight, and it would be a doozy.

He shook his head. “I mean you think you have to sign this contract. You have reasons you need to keep this option open?”

I nodded, not sure what was going on here.

“Daniel,” Zack insisted.

Trent turned and placed his body in front of mine. “Over my dead body, Your Highness.”

Daniel put a hand on Trent’s shoulder. “You are a far quicker learner than I was, man. And Zack, I will never force her to do anything again. She is my trusted Nex Apparatus. If she says she’s got her reasons, then I’m going to honor them. Now I need her to put her life on the line so we can try to save some halfling demon neither one of us has ever met. Let’s go.”

“Daniel, she’s my niece,” Zack said, but his hands loosened.

“And she’s one of the smartest, strongest women I’ve ever met. She’ll get out of this. Trust her, Zack.” Donovan moved up the stairs. “We have to go.”

I looked at Trent. “I thought you were going to make me do it.”

He leaned over, letting his forehead find mine. “I won’t put you in a cage, Kelsey. Ever. I was scared of losing you, but you aren’t a safe woman to love. Probably wouldn’t love you if you were. Now go and fuck that angel up, babe. I’ll deal with your uncle and I’ll make damn sure Gray isn’t serving us salad tonight.” He hugged me tight before stepping back. “Go.”

He loved me.

He fucking loved me.

I wasn’t even sure what to do or say. I simply ran up after Donovan, who seemed to be going to the top of the building. My mind was whirling.

Trent loved me. He’d loved me from the moment he’d seen me. It would have been nice if he hadn’t maybe been such an ass then. Except now I could see he hadn’t. He’d done everything he could to get to know me.

I got to the top of the building. Donovan stood there, the wind whipping through his hair.

“You never assigned him to follow me, did you?” I yelled the question because it was pretty loud up here and he hadn’t even started up the helicopter yet.

The big bird that was one of Quinn’s favorite toys sat on the landing site. I’d never flown in a chopper before. I hoped we would have somewhere to land.

“Not once,” Donovan yelled back. “That was his own stalkery idea. Come on. We’re going to have to move fast.”

I jogged to him, wondering if we were waiting for a pilot. “Is Quinn on his way up? How exactly do you intend to land that sucker? Tell me we’re not jumping out.”

His arm went around my middle and for a minute I thought he’d tricked me. “Not jumping. Just flying. Hold on.”

Worse. It was so much worse than jumping out of a perfectly good helicopter.

Donovan took off and I heard my own girly scream because wolves were not built for flight, and neither were humans or Hunters or any of the other things I could possibly be.

I closed my eyes because the ground was way too far away.

“Finally found something that scares you?” Donovan chuckled. “Don’t flip out. I haven’t lost anyone yet. And please, if you’re going to puke…please don’t puke.”

I kept my eyes closed and thought of better things.

Like the fact that Trent was going to let me sign my soul away to Hell and never see me again.

Because he trusted me.

He let Donovan fly me into danger without any lecture other than to say he loved me.

He let me risk my life.

Because he trusted me.

I felt something settle deep inside me, something warm and secure.

Yes, letting me endanger my immortal soul was the single most romantic thing anyone had ever done for me.

I forced back my fear and opened my eyes. It took me a second, but I was ready to fly.

 

* * * *

 

Donovan’s version of flying sucked, but he did manage a decent landing. My stomach was in my throat, but I felt so much better when there was ground beneath my feet. I found myself standing in the backyard of what looked like a mini mansion. There was a big pool with a fountain in front of me and it looked like an outdoor kitchen to my left. The massive two-story house looked like a Colonial.

It was perfectly quiet. That house looked like nothing bad had ever happened there.

Donovan strode forward toward the back door. A large wrought iron and glass door led into the house. “His name is something terrifically unpronounceable, but he goes by Ben.”

“Let’s hope he’s still breathing because two halflings from the same family could be hard for a clan to take. What could they do?” I followed behind Donovan. At one point in time he’d been a thief, so I figured he had a way to get that door open if it was locked.

He did. He pulled it off its hinges and tossed it to the side like it weighed nothing. “They could cause a lot of flack for me when I try to negotiate. They could even deny negotiating at all unless the Council appoints a new leader. They couldn’t take my crown, but they could force the Council to strip some of my powers. I would be placed in the position of giving up that power or letting the contracts lapse completely and risk all-out war. Which you so recently pointed out would be a bad idea.”

I was starting to wonder if that wasn’t the whole point of this exercise. The question was why would Nemcox want to help some angels go all postal on the Earth plane? I fully intended to find out the answer to that question because Papa Sloane wasn’t an apocalypse junkie. He liked the status quo. He certainly didn’t want to go to war with the Heaven plane, from what I could tell, and historically, Nemcox did his papa’s bidding.

As I followed behind Donovan, the questions were playing through my head. Why would a demon like Nemcox play nice with an angel? Was he lying about not knowing what was happening with Neil Roberts? Or was Nemcox being played as a pawn, too?

The floor under me shook and rattled and there was a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach.

“No! What are you doing here? Get out of my house.” A masculine voice was shouting.

Donovan took the stairs two at a time, but suddenly there was a terrible white light and he stopped.

My vision went fuzzy. There was something about the light. It made me physically ill, as though it could reach out and touch places that shouldn’t be touched. Like my insides. Donovan had frozen in front of me and I smelled something burning. I watched in horror as I realized it was him. The light touched him and where it did, his skin charred and blackened.

I moved in because while the light made me want to vomit, I didn’t go up in flames merely from walking into it. That made this my fight and not the king’s. “Get back downstairs!”

His eyes were closed, but he took a step back.

I forced myself up those stairs, every step an agony. I could hear a weird humming. The light and the sound acted as a wall, attempting to bar me from moving forward. It was like moving through thick sand, but I kept on going. One step and then another. And another.

A sobbing sound caught in my ears and then I realized I was on the second floor. There was a massive ball of light in the middle of the room I found myself in. It glowed and shimmered, and all that sound and blinding glare was coming from there as though it was a massive spotlight, a perpetual flashbang that never calmed down.

I made out a figure beyond. Two, really. There was a fight going on but I wouldn’t be able to help because that light and sound dragged at me.

Somewhere in the background I heard a scream, a crash.

The sound pulsed at me, making my bones shake. I was blind in that light, seeing only the vaguest outline of the center.

I had to turn off the light. If I didn’t, I would die and soon. My eyes were failing me. My ears could barely handle the sounds.

So shut them off and trust your wolf. Trust your nose.

Trent was there in my head. He’d been pushing me over and over to get more in touch with my wolfy instincts.

I stopped trying to fight my way in by sight. I stilled and took a deep breath, letting the scents flow over my senses.

At first it was completely chaotic. I couldn’t tell what I was smelling. Sunshine. Water. Grass. They overwhelmed me as though they were some sort of perfume meant to mask everything else. But I could go deeper. I could peel back the layers that covered the world around me. I let myself catalogue those initial smells and then shoved them aside, looking for the deeper truth.

Blood. I could smell blood. Blood and something odd. It was a scent from childhood, slightly vanilla. It was so evocative I could feel the dough in my hands, hear my brothers laugh as we pushed it through the toys. Our grandfather had given us a set for Christmas. The barber shop. I would use my hands to press the dough in and then we would cut the “hair” with big plastic scissors.

That was my scent. It was in exactly one place and that was the center of the light. That was the scent I would use to find my off switch.

I kept my eyes closed. I didn’t need them. I followed that scent and let my instincts lead me. They told me when I was close, where I should hit. It was almost like I was in a trance. My fist came back and I put everything I had into it. Pain flared from my hand up through my arm as I made contact and the light completely snuffed out.

The cessation of light and sound seemed to stop everything in the room. It was like a curtain had been pulled down and I could see the truth again.

I was in what appeared to be a massive gameroom. As my eyes were able to focus, I could see a pool table and a big bar. It looked like there was a massive TV on the wall across from me.

And I wasn’t alone.

My vision was still adjusting when I realized one of those blobby blurs that was stalking around the room was coming right at me.

There was a loud thwack as I felt something hit me hard, sending me to the floor. I found myself looking up into glowing, alien eyes and a familiar face. Neil Roberts was on top of me, snarling down. I wasn’t dealing with a wolf though. Nope. While I could see that it was Roberts’s face, it was changed. His eyes were red and his face had stretched slightly, giving him a lean look. He growled and I could see jagged teeth.

And those teeth were coming right at my throat.

My ears were still ringing, my eyesight a bit on the foggy side, but I had to keep those nasty teeth from ripping my throat out. I punched up, catching him on the jaw. The force didn’t dislodge him, but it did give me enough space to bring my knee up. Hard.

He groaned on top of me and proved that even in some weird lizard form, Neil Roberts was still a male.

He moved and something fell from his hand, clattering to the floor.

“He’s going to kill us all,” a voice was saying. It came from somewhere in the distance.

I rolled away, getting to my feet and cursing the fact that Donovan hadn’t stopped long enough for me to pick up Gladys. Or any kind of weapon. I’d spent most of the day in the Council rooms and those were weapon-free zones. The only thing I could find to try to take down a possessed werewolf/dragon demony thing was a pool cue. Sure that worked for Buffy on many an occasion, but I generally prefer my weapons to be, well, actual weapons.

“Please save me.”

I glanced to my left and realized our potential victim was still alive and cowering. I didn’t blame him. He’d probably been hanging out, having some supper and playing video games when the light of all Heaven invaded and spat out a lizard creature. That would make most people flip their shit a little.

I glanced back, looking toward Neil, but that was when I noticed what he’d dropped.

The sword. It was sitting on the floor behind Neil. All he had to do was turn and pick it up, but his eyes were on his prey.

“Stay back, Ben.” I thought that was what Donovan had called him.

I needed that sword.

“I have no intention of moving ever again,” he managed to say. “Is this what killed Les? How horrible.”

Roberts was back on his feet, and it was super easy to see the dude was pissed. His hands had formed long claws he swiped out with. I jumped back, barely managing to avoid those talons.

“Neil Roberts!” I yelled his name, hoping to get some kind of hint of recognition.

He stopped, his whole body going still as a statue.

I stilled, too, unwilling to make a move. “Your name is Neil Roberts and you don’t want to do this.”

“No, you don’t, buddy,” Ben added.

Neil’s head turned and he hissed, as though he’d remembered what he was supposed to be doing. He took off across the room, claws fully out. And that was when I realized he wasn’t running to the cringing halfling. He was trying to get to the sword.

There was another body in the room, but whoever it was, he was on the floor and unmoving. I couldn’t deal with him until I incapacitated Roberts.

Which would be hard because I couldn’t kill him. Let me tell you something, battle is way easier when all options are on the table. Maiming and killing are perfectly valid battle plans, but taking down the dude who’s trying to murder you without harming a hair on his head is a lot trickier.

They might have to forgive me for a little maiming. He was a wolf under all that lizardy goodness, so he should survive.

I hoped.

All I knew was I needed to get to that sword before he did because I was definitely certain that I wouldn’t survive getting cleaved in two by the Sword of Justice.

He was far closer to it than I was, and I knew there was zero chance that I got to it first if I left this to a foot race. So I used what I had. I reared back, full-on Olympic athlete javelin style, and sent that pool cue flying.

If you’ve got a normal amount of strength, this move will do nothing but piss off whoever you threw a pool cue at, but I’m far stronger than that and I get even better when I let my arm change. I felt it tighten the way it always did when it transformed. I suddenly sported shiny demon skin on my dominant arm.

That was probably why the pool cue struck Roberts hard and sank into the flesh under his left shoulder blade.

A loud howl split the air, but I ignored it because I needed that damn sword. I ran for it, leaning over to grip it. I felt it singe my hands but for some reason it didn’t burn into me the way I would have thought. I could hold it. It wasn’t comfortable, but I had it.

Roberts pulled the pool cue out of his body and turned on me.

“Neil? Baby? Please don’t do this,” a new voice said.

Chad Thomas stood in the doorway and I realized night had fallen. The vamp wasn’t even wearing shoes. He was normally a goth vision in leather or denim. He looked oddly young and somewhat vulnerable wearing a pair of pajama bottoms and a plain white T-shirt. His hair was twelve kinds of fucked up and I realized that was probably because Donovan had flown his ass here, and he hadn’t done it slow. He must have gone easy with me and I wondered exactly how fast that man could fly.

Roberts stopped, his body doing that creepy statue thing again. It was so weird because while he wasn’t moving, I could feel the menace coming off of him. He might not be moving at the moment, but when he decided to, he would go quickly, and I would be dead if I wasn’t careful.

“Baby, you don’t have to give in to this.” Chad Thomas started to move in.

Donovan put a hand out. It was a kind of gross, bloody hand, but it seemed to still be functional. Donovan’s body showed signs of what that light had done to him. His skin was burned in some places, and it was obvious he was taking his time to heal. Still, Donovan stood tall and steady. If he was in pain, I couldn’t tell. “You can’t get close to him when he’s in this state.”

“Then why the hell am I here?” Chad stepped out of Donovan’s easy reach. “He’s my husband and I’m not going to leave him like this. Neil, baby, it’s me and I love you. I’m here. You can fight this.”

A low hissing sound emanated from Roberts, though he hadn’t moved at all.

“Do you think I should run now?” At some point in time, Ben had decided to take cover behind me. Like right behind me. I could feel him standing there. From the brief glimpse I’d gotten, he was much smaller than his recently deceased brother. He reminded me a bit of Harry Potter with his round glasses, youthful looks, and slightly shaggy brown hair.

“I think that would be a mistake.” We needed to treat the threat in front of us like a snake waiting to strike. As long as we were still, he couldn’t seem to figure out which way to move. There were so many of us in the room. His intended victim was behind me, Donovan and Chad Thomas flanked him to the left, and a few feet beyond lay the body of whoever had brought that light to the fight.

I had a bad feeling about what I would find when I finally got to that body. Something about that scent had been familiar.

We were all still, all waiting to see which way Roberts would go.

Or perhaps without the light to lead him, he wasn’t sure what to do. He needed a push.

At some point in time his shirt had torn and it hung in rags on his body. I could see glimpses of the tattoo that had started all this trouble.

“I’m afraid Chad’s right, Your Highness.” I kept my eyes firmly on the threat in front of me. “I think he needs to get his hands on Neil. He needs to touch that dragon. Neil figured something out earlier today. The dragon is a part of him and the dragon recognizes its soul mate. He’s suppressed it because he was afraid, but the dragon responds to you, Chad. I think if we can make that connection, can form the bond between the two of you, it will be harder for outside forces to take him over.”

“If Chad survives getting close to him.” Donovan seemed intent on being the Negative Nell of our group.

“So when the dude in the PJs gets close to the crazy lizard dude, that’s when I should run?” Ben asked.

“Only if you want him to catch you,” I replied. “I need you to pretend like you’re in Jurassic Park and he’s the T-rex who can’t see you if you don’t move. Can you do that for me, Ben? Can you play the still and quiet game for me?”

He went totally silent, proving he could.

“Talk to him, Chad.” I needed to get this over with because I wasn’t sure our other friend wouldn’t wake up and flash that heavenly light around again. If it was as powerful as before and hit Donovan unaware, I wasn’t sure I wouldn’t lose him. I couldn’t be the chick who got the king killed. It looks bad on a resume. “You have to connect to him.”

Chad took a step forward and Roberts pivoted, his head tilting and taking in the man moving close to him. Chad’s hands came out and he stopped. “Baby, it’s me. We need to talk because you promised me breakfast in bed this evening. Do you remember? We stayed up late last night and watched Game of Thrones and we made out on the couch and you swore that when I woke up, you would be there.”

Roberts’s hands started shaking slightly. I could see where the blood dripped from the wounds there. It was where he’d held the sword that should have killed Ben.

Chad took another step. “Do you have any idea how long I’ve wanted to touch you? Touch that part of you. I know you hate it and you think it’s a sign of what that demon did to you, but I think that tat on your side is the sexiest thing I’ve ever seen. When I close my eyes and the dawn takes me, I dream about touching it, feeling it pulse under my hand because it’s mine. Because you’re mine. Not because I took you but because you gave yourself to me in love and passion and because our souls were born to be together.”

The claws on Roberts’s hands started to recede.

Another step and Chad could almost touch him. “I love all of you, Neil Roberts. Every inch of your flesh. Every part of your soul. Come back to me.”

A single tear rolled from his red eyes and I knew we had him.

“Touch him,” I said. “Put your hands right on that tat, Chad. Let it know you accept it. If it’s anything at all like Gray’s, it’s been waiting and wanting, and I think the dragon’s need might break through whatever’s controlling your husband right now.”

I saw Donovan tense, as though ready to step in at any second, but Chad didn’t hesitate. He strode up to Neil and slid his hand through the slits of the shirt Neil was wearing. Neil’s whole body tensed and then seemed to relax, the red in his eyes receding along with those nasty teeth and claws.

“I can feel it,” Chad said with a wondrous look on his face. “I can feel it move. It’s happy.”

“Chad?” Neil shook his head and now he cried freely. “I heard you. I could hear you.”

They held on to each other, clinging like the lovers they were.

Donovan took a deep breath and the whole room seemed to settle, the tension fleeing.

“Can I run now?” Ben asked.

Ben was starting to be a pain in my ass. I turned and faced him. “No, you can thank me and the king and you can come back to Council headquarters so this can’t happen again.”

He was just a kid. He looked like he couldn’t be more than eighteen. He nodded. “Okay. I think that might be best. And I’ll tell my mom that the Nex Apparatus saved me. That should impress her.”

The king strode over, holding out a hand. “Ben, I’m sorry about your brother.”

The kid nodded. “Me, too. Les was a good guy. I know you won’t believe this but my mom isn’t so bad. She’s a succubus, but as long as she gets what she needs, she’s very reasonable. She wants me to talk to you about her tribe. Without the contracts in place, they’re suffering, Your Highness. They serve a function, sir.”

Donovan nodded, but his focus changed. “I’ll talk to her and I intend to open up a dialogue again. Come to the Council with us and we’ll discuss it. But not before we figure out who’s been controlling Neil.”

Yeah, I had a feeling.

It had been that smell that made me wonder. He kept a small play area in the lobby of his office. The man on the floor saw patients of all kinds. He would never turn anyone away, and certainly not a child. He kept toys out there, too, and sometimes when I was running late for my appointment, I would catch him out there, rolling the dough out with his daughter or one of the others, making fun shapes for them.

“Felix?”

I’d never seen Donovan look so lost as that moment when he realized the man who had betrayed Neil was Felix Day.