I froze, straining my eyes seeking out the demons that I was positive they had stashed in here with me.

After a moment, Rohan opened the door again. “Kidding.”

He flicked on the light to reveal a vast, well-lit studio. The ceilings and walls were the same concrete blocks as the hallway, but the floor was wall-to-wall blue padding. There were no windows.

“You’re a dick,” I told him.

He glanced down at his crotch. “It is legendary, but it doesn’t fully define me.”

“My God,” I muttered. Noting Rohan’s bare feet on the pads, I toed out of my shoes, stacking them beside the door. “Why is this called the Vault?” If there were valuables they were well hidden because there was nothing to see. Not even a punching bag.

“It’s the most secure room.”

I rolled out my shoulders. “Now what?”

“Training,” Baruch said, entering.

“Shalom, Sensei Tree Trunk,” I said, bowing with my hands together in Namaste position. “What’s first? Weapons?” I could totally rock a weapon.

Baruch and Rohan exchanged glances. “Absolutely not,” they said in unison.

Baruch’s fist whipped out and bopped me on the nose.

“What the hell, dude?” I prodded for broken cartilage and blood but it had been more of a tap for shock effect than to do any damage. I was surprised, but otherwise fine.

“Demon tag. Now you’re dead,” Rohan said.

Baruch kicked out, swiping my legs out from underneath me.

I landed hard on my back. My hands flew up to cover my face as Baruch dove down, grabbing me lightly by the throat.

“Dead.” Rohan yawned.

Baruch helped me up.

“I wasn’t ready–”

Baruch mimed ripping out my heart.

Rohan smirked. “And dead. Getting the idea?”

I turned my back to him, refusing to let him taunt me. “Baruch, please tell me what I did wrong so that I do not repeat the experience. Since I refuse to give Emo Snowflake the satisfaction of dying.”

The nickname earned me a sharp jab in my back.

The side of Baruch’s mouth kicked up in the tiniest of grins but his voice was serious when he spoke to me. “You did not access your power. Your first instinct right now is to scream and run, like you did with the araculum.” He pinned me with the weight of his shrewd blue gaze. “You’ll be dead by nightfall unless you access your power at the first prickling of trouble.”

“Got it. But the power seems to show up on its own.”

“Your magic wants to be used,” Baruch explained. “If it’s not the first thing you fire up, you won’t live long enough to use it. Activate it. Get in, kill, and get out with as little physical contact as possible. Run if you have to.”

I shook out my arms and legs. “How do I access it?”

“How do you spit?” He waved off my grimace. “I’m serious. You spit saliva. You spit electricity. Both come from inside you. What do you do when you want to spit?”

I braced for some snarky comment from Rohan but he watched Baruch with a fascinated expression. “Okay, well.” I took myself through the motions. “First, I tense up my jaw. To activate the saliva.”

“Good. Then what’s the power equivalent of that action? Close your eyes. Visualize. Where is your power?”

I did as I was told, eyes closed. “It’s like there’s a switch.”

“Touch the spot.” That was Rohan in a silky rumble, who now stood beside me. “Where do you envision it?”

Oh, Lordy. What I was actually envisioning right now? Very different from what Rohan intended. My eyes snapped open and I pushed him back. He didn’t go anywhere so I stepped away from him. “Begone, irritant.”

The look he shot me from under his eyelashes, full of wicked heat, made my mouth flood with saliva. I swallowed hard.

Baruch tsked at him. “Stop toying with her.”

“I’m not toying. I’m deliberately distracting. Seeing if she can multitask.” He smiled innocently at me. “I can’t help it if she finds me irresistible.”

“Oh, I find you something, all right,” I growled, my hands out to throttle him. My fingertips sparked.

“Freeze,” Rohan commanded in a steely voice.

“Anger,” Baruch said. “Not fear. That’s what turns you on.”

Rohan barked a laugh, smoothing out his expression at Baruch’s pointed stare.

I twisted my hands one way then the other, now glowing and crackling away. “So I just need to internalize you as my trigger?” I asked Rohan.

He batted his lashes at me. “Do what you need to, baby.”

“Baruch?” I pleaded.

Baruch pointed to the door. “Go.”

Rohan was undeterred. “You can’t send me away.”

Baruch quirked an eyebrow.

“Fine. I’m leaving. You’re welcome,” Rohan called out to me over his shoulder.

“Can you turn it off?” Baruch grasped my wrist, twisting my hand from side-to-side.

I closed my eyes, thinking about the switch inside me. I located it slightly down and to the back of my belly button, imagining it rooted there, with invisible cables snaking out to all parts of my body and the bright white switch set to on. Mentally, I flicked it the other way. Off.

I opened my eyes. My hands still crackled.

“They dimmed for a second,” Baruch said. “Tell me what you know about demons.”

“Nothing. Ari told me nothing.” My words came out in a rush.

His expression gentled. “He won’t be in trouble. I just want to know what information you already have.”

I lowered my hands. “Okay, well–”

“Did I say stop your visualization?” he barked. “Do you think you’ll be encountering demons with no distractions? Nothing else demanding your attention? Talk and train.”

I made a snarky face–okay, imagined it–but in my head, man, did I put Tree Trunk in his place. I closed my eyes, picturing my power switch. “There are different levels of demons. Some work on a more global scale either in the shadows or more overtly to bring about civil unrest or world wars.”

I tugged on my mental switch. I got the barest hold on it and it vibrated but didn’t flick off. My magic continued to thrum through me. “Hey, how did Vancouver land a spot?”

“This chapter is the Canadian HQ. The fault lines along the west coast draws demons because they like the seismic activity. A naturally occurring instability.”

“That’s the heart of it, isn’t it?” I asked, opening my eyes. “Instability. Natural, political, or emotional, demons thrive in those environments.”

Baruch blinked proudly at me for making the connection. For half a second. “Again.”

I threw all my mental power against the switch. “Some create more localized disasters, collapsing bridges or making sure levees fail.” I had my suspicions about New Orleans. “Then they rush in to exploit an already vulnerable population. Same with areas hit by earthquakes or famine or flood. They feed off the chaos and pain.”

My switch bucked to the halfway point, then crashed back to the “on” position. A sharp crack resounded through my hands. I shook them out.

“Again.”

“Demons are also drawn to big cities. Tons of humans easily tempted. The New York chapter house has at least a dozen hunters stationed there at any given time.”

I kept at my envisioned on/off switch. It took a while. A long while, but eventually, through sheer mind power, I made the electricity in my hands turn on and off at will.

“Mazel tov,” Baruch congratulated me.

I jumped over to him like a little kid and hugged him. “That. Was. So. Cool!” It reminded me of when my balance and movement had come together and I’d done my first perfect shuffle in tap, instead of the clunky, wobbly steps up to that point. The moment when it all just clicked.

I was super proud of myself. Sweaty, metallic-smelling, and tomorrow I’d probably hurt like crazy, but proud. I’d done it. I could access my power at will. Even if this was a baby step, I’d mastered it. I wasn’t sure anyone had thought I’d even get this far.

I wasn’t sure I had.

Staying alive and being an asset. Yay me.

Baruch disengaged. “Now we work on firing up the rest. It might require a kick or even a head-butt to hit the kill spot and you want your power coming out of all of you.”

Rohan popped back in. “How’s she doing?”

I held up a fist. “The sisterhood for the win.”

A paragon of blond-haired, green-eyed perfection stepped into the doorway. His loose, light brown linen pants and shirt really complimented his dark scowl. “As if a girl could become one of us,” he spat in a super sexy Italian accent.

“One did, so suck it up, honey.” I managed to give him the finger and waggle my Rasha ring at him, which was very talented of me, if I did say so myself.

Out in the hallway, Kane snickered.

Hot Angry Dude stalked toward me.

“Drio–” Rohan was cut off as Drio shouldered past him.

Baruch sighed and stepped into his path. Drio was a beautiful racehorse. Baruch was a bull.

“You said no one knew what to do with her. That that was why we got abruptly reassigned, with me and Ro on guard duty at the expense of our own mission. Remember?” Drio didn’t back down, even with Baruch blocking his way. It was quite the commitment to hating me. “Can you say you’re happy about it?” he asked Baruch.

“They reassigned people to me?”

“What did you think would happen, principessa?” he sneered. “That we wouldn’t give you extra special treatment?”

I shoved myself between Tree Trunk and him. I could fight my own damn battles, thank you very much. “Newsflash, jerkwad, no one has told me jack. Believe it or not, I want to be part of your ‘no girls allowed’ club even less than you want me here. But you can’t keep me in the dark.” I whirled to Rohan. “You have to tell me important stuff.”

“The Executive hasn’t decided how they feel about you,” Rohan answered, not bothering to soften that information. “As the first female Rasha, you’re either a dream secret weapon or–”

“A walking nightmare,” Drio cut in.

Rohan raised his eyebrows at him like “really?”

“With the deciding factor being what?” I asked.

Drio clicked his tongue. “Your performance. Supposedly your early death would be a bad thing.”

“Wow,” I said, “don’t I feel precious?”

“You,” Rohan said to Drio, “stop antagonizing. And you,” he turned to me, “don’t think I’m thrilled to babysit your ass.”

“Why you?” I demanded.

“Because I’m such a people person.”

“Or because you’re a screw up?” I scratched my chin with the edge of my thumbnail. “Is that it? Did I get exiled to the island of misfit toys?”

Drio’s hands balled into fists.

“Enough.” Kane’s voice cut smoothly through the tension. He pushed me back a few steps. “A little gratitude here,” he said, with a tap to the end of my nose. “You’ve been given the best of the best. Baruch has put his brilliant military mind to use creating weapons and training Rasha to become even more effective. Rohan and Drio,” Kane placed a hand on Angry’s shoulder, “are two of our top intelligence officers and analysts on demon behavior. Thanks to them, we’ve unearthed and taken down a lot of demons living among us in positions of enormous power.”

I cocked my head. “And you?”

He shrugged. “I’m just the lone Vancouver member who wasn’t re-assigned.”

Drio laughed. “Kane’s nickname is the Kiss of the Death. He’s one of the top Rasha in demon kills.” His fond amusement morphed into an ugly leer. “We are the best. And you’re the bright shiny trophy the entire demon world will want to bag. Be grateful or we won’t keep you alive.”

I rubbed my skin as if to wash his disgusting look off. “Never in a million years.”

Drio shrugged, exiting with a tossed-out, “If the demons do get you, you won’t be missed.”

I flinched.

White spots of rage appeared on Rohan’s cheeks. His eyes darkened to volcanic fire. He didn’t say a word. Just sped from the room.

“Oh no,” Kane said. He and Baruch raced after him, with me bringing up the rear.

We caught up in time to see Rohan leap from midway up the second flight of stairs onto Drio, tackling him. They crashed onto the main floor landing.

Drio managed to flip onto his back, but that merely allowed Rohan to pin him between his thighs.

Rohan pulled his left arm back. I tensed, waiting for his hand to curl into a fist and Drio’s nose to be shattered. Instead, five short, wickedly sharp looking blades snicked out of Rohan’s fingertips, with one long blade running up the entire outer edge of his arm. Like an outline. That longer blade slashed right through the center of the heart tattoo on his bicep.

Holy. Fuck.

“Finally decide to kill me?” I couldn’t tell if Drio sounded anxious or hopeful.

I stared wide-eyed at the two of them. Not even daring to breathe. There was a powder keg of unspoken issues between them, and I was scared I was the fuse that could blow it all sky high. I didn’t like Drio but I didn’t want his death on my conscious.

Necessarily.

With a blur of motion, Rohan swiped.

Drio flinched, eyes closed, but Rohan jammed the blades into the ground beside his head.

“The demons will be after her,” Rohan said, in a low rumble. “Which means we stick close and protect her. With. Our. Lives.” He sounded oddly bleak about the concept. “Got it?”

Drio pushed Rohan off him. He gave a mocking salute. “Got it.” With one last baleful look my way, he jumped to his feet and blazed off.

Rohan yanked his finger blades from the floor, leaving two inch gauges in the pretty planking. He shot an unreadable look after Drio before storming off in the opposite direction.

That left Baruch, Kane, and me standing there. “What was that about?” I asked.

Baruch was Mr. Impassive, which was no great surprise, but based on my short acquaintance with Kane, I was sure he’d give up the goods. Nope. He remained infuriatingly tight-lipped as well, simply saying, “I’ll check on Drio.”

Baruch shook his head when I glanced in the direction Rohan had taken. “Let him cool down,” he said, before following Kane.

I never was any good at doing what I was told.