I floated on smoke. Or maybe I was flying.

It was hard to tell as I looked down at the world below. Blanketed by a moonlit sky, blue flames ravaged a forest. In that sky I sat, watching it all burn. Normal fire needed time to catch and grow into an all-consuming beast, but the flames of Hell were not normal. They did not operate that way. Instead, all that they touched instantly turned to ash as they swept across the land.

The beast felt a small thrill at the scene below, but I didn’t share that with her this time. I did not wish that. Fire was life and light and cleansing, but it was also deadly and destructive. The winds blew warm air across my skin and layers of fabric drifted around my bare legs. Two long drapes of cloth hung over my shoulders and barely covered my breasts. It was cinched around my waist with a dainty gold belt. The onyx cloth wrapped around my calves, curving around my ankles. I was sitting on smoke, or a cloud more likely, given that the flames didn’t give off smoke. Where I was or how I’d gotten up here was beyond me. I felt a steady unease that this wasn’t right. Here, wherever I was, didn’t deserve to burn.

I reached out to the flames below, calling them back to me. They stilled in their rampant destruction. A very clear line between all that had already burned and the world beyond that still could. I couldn’t let that happen. The same as they were mine to unleash, they were also mine to control. To prevent from destroying everything.

I held onto that thought as I pulled them in, only then noticing the beast’s smile.

“You are ready,” she whispered.

I blinked, and when I opened my eyes it was the midnight sky that greeted me. Millions of little white lights lit up in constellations that you couldn’t possibly see in any city. I stared at them for a moment in awe.

“Ruby!” someone shouted.

I blinked again and looked to my side. Dark glitter covered the ground as far as my eyes could see. It sparkled beneath the night sky, reflecting the stars above.

What in Satan’s name had I done this time?

I yawned deeply and stretched languidly like a cat before pushing up off the ground into a sitting position. The Four Horsemen stood in front of me, each of their expressions ranging from bad to worse. I knew I was in deep, deep shit, and I hadn’t even consciously done anything this time.

I groaned against the stiffness in my legs as I moved to stand. I’d fallen asleep and set everything on fire again, that much was clear. I was also stark naked, and I felt sticky between my thighs. That probably had to do with the ungodly amounts of sex I’d been having for…well, I don’t know how long. I just couldn’t seem to get enough. After Rysten branded me, it all got a little wonky. I remembered skin, lots of skin, and the distinct taste of each of their kama—and lots of biting, maybe some blood…aw hell. I was a filthy slut and they totally just went with it.

What’s the point in being a demon queen if you couldn’t act a little sinful sometimes? My new position was beginning to grow on me and it had a lot more to do with the four in front of me than any crown.

“How are you feeling, love?” Rysten asked, walking forward. Also naked. They were all naked. Hmm… I swallowed hard, averting my eyes from skipping from one male’s package to another.

“I’m—” I coughed like I smoked a pack a day for twenty years. “My throat’s dry.”

Rysten nodded like he expected this and leaned down. Instead of just offering me his hand like a normal person, he scooped me up in his arms. I flailed, not all that much a fan of being picked up. I get that lots of girls loved that shit, but I was tall. That saying about tall people? The bigger you are the harder you fall? For someone who spent a lot of time falling, I had found that to be quite true.

Rysten locked an arm beneath my knees and wrapped the other around my naked back, cuddling me to his chest even though cuddling was the last thing I felt like.

“Put me down! You big oaf—” I elbowed him in the chest and Rysten sighed.

“You think you can manage not to burn anything else down for now?” he asked lightly.

My brows furrowed as I narrowed my eyes.

“Maybe…” I trailed off, opening my mouth to continue when the air whooshed around us. Instead of standing—or being carried like a lazy fuck—in the middle of a burned down clearing, we were now standing in a familiar living room. Rysten carried me to the couch as Julian stepped out of the shadows behind him. A ring of fire appeared to our left and Laran came striding through with Allistair. Rysten laid me on the couch almost gingerly before pulling away. He flipped the light on in the kitchen and started rummaging through the fridge.

This was weird. So weird on so many levels.

Allistair moved to pour himself a glass of scotch and settled in the armchair across from me, his half-hard dick was more distracting than I think he realized as his eyes raked over my naked body. We were gross—disgustingly gross—and yet, I probably could have ridden him right then and there without a care. I must have officially lost it.

Julian came out of the kitchen carrying a glass of water and two little red pills. He handed them to me silently and walked away as I downed the water and what was probably ibuprofen in about three seconds flat. To top off the strange atmosphere, Laran picked me up despite my grumbling and repositioned himself next to me with my head resting on his chest.

Hmm…maybe losing it wasn’t so bad.

One of his arms snaked around my waist and the other pushed my mass of hair aside. His fingers trailed down my neck to the muscle where the neck and shoulder meet, slowly massaging out the tension. My toes curled inward as I let out a small moan of relief, and the very odd, fairly normal atmosphere froze as one of the other three turned to look at us, and Julian shot him a death glare if there ever was one.

What happened to sharing? I mentally sighed, not really giving a damn.

“He only likes sharing if he’s involved,” a warm voice echoed.

I jumped in surprise, looking around before I realized it was Laran. The whole mind speak thing was going to take some getting used to.

“Telepathy,” he answered aloud, still addressing something I clearly hadn’t said but trying to freak me out a little less. I relaxed back into him, and he continued with the massage.

“So, you can hear my thoughts now?” I asked. Around the room, each of them nodded and I twisted my lips. “Then why can’t I hear all of yours?”

“You shouldn’t be able to hear ours unless we send them to you, but you seem to be projecting yours while also listening into ours.”

Allistair seemed troubled by this. A thin tendril of wariness wrapped around him. Hesitation.

“This bothers you,” I commented.

The scent of fresh coffee came over me as a sizzling sound filled the air. My eyes swept to the kitchen where Julian was filling a giant coffee mug while Rysten fried something that smelled suspiciously like bacon. I wondered if it was Saturday…

“You displayed a lot of abilities during the transition. While it’s not expected that you will keep them all, you showed many to such a degree that it is unheard of…” His voice trailed off as Julian filled my vision. He silently handed me the cup of coffee, holding out his other hand to take the empty glass. I traded with him, muttering my thanks as I took my first sip of pure heaven in far too long.

“Why wouldn’t I keep all of them?” My mind seemed to snag on this. Did that mean I would lose the fire? If I lost that—

“You won’t lose the fire, Ruby. Any abilities you displayed before your transition will still be there, just stronger now. Some things you were able to do during should have also stayed, others probably not.”

I nodded along even though that didn’t make a lick of sense to me. Why would I keep some and not others? That seemed dumb. Allistair sighed and Laran let out a chuckle. Apparently, they thought that was funny.

“During the transition, a demon takes on every ability in their genetic pool. As your body starts to change to fit immortality, the weaker ones don’t usually stick. Instead, that energy gets absorbed in the process and repurposed for other things. Like accelerated healing.”

While his explanation made sense, my body was clearly not doing its damn job. The ache between my thighs, while not painful per se, was not exactly pleasant. Allistair cut me a ruthless grin and Laran’s hand tightened around my waist.

“You’re not completely through the transition yet,” Allistair said by way of answer.

“Yet?” I asked. He nodded, and I took another swig of coffee.

“You went through the worst of it at the cabin. At this point, you shouldn’t have more than a day left before you’ll be feeling better than ever. Until then your body will need a lot of sleep and food—” His eyes flicked down to where I was licking my lips. Just the mention of—“Real food, not just kama,” he inserted tightly.

The tension in the air thickened, his cock hardening to a thick column. Kama pulsed from behind me, as Laran’s magic hands pulled the tension from my shoulders. It brushed over my skin, turning my brain to mush for a second.

In the kitchen, a bang and loud cursing pulled me out of it. I looked up to see Julian giving Laran another death glare, followed by a mental threat he probably thought I didn’t hear. I grinned to myself, hiding it behind the lip of my coffee mug as I took a long sip. The bitter burn did just what I needed it to, clearing my head of more thoughts of sex.

“So…” I drawled out. “Why did you take me to the cabin and not back here?”

“We didn’t have a structure strong enough to hold you,” Julian answered from the kitchen. He came out holding a plate of bacon and lifted my feet to sit at the end of the couch. “We had hoped this one would be with the wards, but after you broke out the first time, I wasn’t chancing it again.”

Broke out? Ha! I whooped their asses and jumped three stories like a boss. Nice way to downplay it, Julian. Real nice.

Allistair choked on his scotch and coughed twice as Rysten grumbled in the kitchen. It was only Laran that sounded half as amused as I was when he let out a deep laugh.

“So you took me out in the middle of the woods, so I couldn’t run? Or if I did, it’s not like I had anywhere to go…”

Julian nodded, offering the plate of bacon. I happily took it and began munching away.

“You know that’s creepy right? You literally took me to the middle of nowhere, so you could—”

“Fuck you?” Julian said, staring at me without remorse.

I shrugged. Fuck me. Smack me around. It wasn’t all that different when I was doing it with him. The dark glimmer in his eyes told me he heard that and had plans for a lot more fucking and spanking. I shivered, and it was entirely out of desire. Not an ounce of fear.

“We also had to get you away from the city, love. There were too many people that would have died if you decided to go all supernova in your sleep,” Rysten added, walking into the living room while scratching the back of his head.

On his chest, just below the dip in his throat, a dark blue pentagram swirled like smoke. On one hand, it looked kind of cool because brands never did that. On the other hand, my fire didn’t have smoke, so I don’t know why they kept manifesting that way. He took one look at the seating arrangement and moved to sit on the adjacent couch.

I knew that demons felt quite comfortable in the nude, but this group nudity thing was taking it to a new level. I would need some time to get used to this new dynamic.

“We have all the time in the world now, little succubus, once we—” Allistair cut off short, his eyes flipping to Julian. I frowned, tilting my head sideways.

Were they really trying to keep things from me again? What the shit—

“It’s not what you think,” Laran said. His hand drifted over the tops of my shoulders as he tried to massage the tension out. His chin sat just on top of my head, where he’d tucked me into him.

“That would be easier to believe if you four didn’t continue to keep secrets and try to control every aspect of my life,” I replied, more than a little salty.

Mates, we may be. Perfect, they were not. Or sane. Can’t forget that one.

“We only do it to keep you safe, love—”

“Cut the shit, Rysten,” I snapped. Something was missing here. Something so obvious, it was right in front of me… “Where’s Moira?”

Silence.

Looks like I was getting to the crux of it on my own.

“Where. Is. Moira?” I repeated. She was my familiar, devil-damnit. If they won’t tell me, I could find out myself. Opening my mind, I reached out, trying to feel—

“She’s going to find out anyways.”

“And heads are going to roll when she does.”

“The banshee made her choice—”

“—Moira is her familiar, as is Bandit.”

Laran was the only one that didn’t think of my raccoon as vermin. Speaking of—

“Where are Moira and Bandit? Where are my familiars…” My voice trailed off as a scene appeared before my eyes.

Back in the underground, Julian had grabbed me. I remembered him grabbing me, I didn’t realize Bandit had fallen off when he did. He scurried out from between our feet and dove into the mob. Where no one had seen him since…

…or Moira.

I blinked, my body lurching as I pulled away from Julian and the memory cut short. He was really going to regret binding me with blood magic, because the transition wasn’t over, but they were missing—and now I knew it.