She plucked a candy from the bowl on the counter and popped it into her mouth as if everything was fine now that she"d broken the bond between them.
"Oh, we"re nomadic," she said, "but that"s not why I insisted on moving every few years. My people were always looking for me. The search just didn"t get serious until the queen died." She bit down on the candy with a hard crunch. "Now, unless you"re here to kill me, there"s a red-light district that"s just ripe with s.e.xual energy to harvest. So go away."
"Oh babe," Slake said, his voice sc.r.a.ping gravel, "you"re the one who is going away."
In a move so fast Raze didn"t see it until it was over, Slake launched a dart that struck Fayle in the throat, penetrating so deep that blood spurted all over the pockmarked tile.
"What the f.u.c.k," she screeched, clutching at her throat even as her claws extended like a tiger"s and her body began to swell and morph.
"Hurry!" Raze yelled at Slake. He tackled Fayle, taking her down to the floor as Slake wrapped her ankles with rope he swore would contain a succubus of her species.
Fayle swiped at Raze, catching him in the jaw, and pain seared him from the chin to his scalp.
Growling like a werebear awakened from hibernation, Slake snared her wrists and hogtied her, facedown on the cheap floor rug. Her m.u.f.fled curses followed them as they both stood and looked down at their handiwork.
"You made the call?" Raze confirmed.
"Yup. Justice Dealers should be here any minute."
Excellent. Justice Dealers were the police of the demon world, and nothing gave them bigger hard-ons than tossing a royal into their jails. Raze was going to make sure Fayle paid for what she"d done to Thirst. And he"d enjoy every minute of it.
Slake turned to him, and abruptly, his humor turned to concern. "You"re injured." Reaching out, he gently smoothed his thumb along Raze"s jaw, and Raze sighed with pleasure that outweighed any of the pain Fayle had dealt him tonight.
"I"m okay," he said. "I think I"ll always be okay now."
Slake grinned. "In that case, I"d say it"s time I deal with my Fayle."
"Do you need me there?"
"Nope." Slake drew Raze hard against him. "Meet me back at your place. And I want you naked when I get there."
There was only one answer to that.
Duh.
For the first time in his life, Slake walked into Dire & Dyre"s New York headquarters without an ounce of trepidation.
He was prepared for a battle to get onto the elevator, but surprisingly, the entrance receptionist sent him to the top floor without an argument. So far, so good.
When he stepped out of the elevator and into the plush offices that belonged to the Big Boss, Dyre"s goat-horned a.s.sistant stopped him. Not unexpected.
"You"ll have to wait. Mr. Dyre is-"
"Bite me." Slake shoved past her and slammed into Dyre"s office.
Dyre looked up, but if he was annoyed at the intrusion, it didn"t show. "Slake. What a surprise." He grinned, flashing sharp teeth. "A surprise that you aren"t puking out your insides from the pain of losing your soul."
The jacka.s.s. "Yeah, well, how about another surprise?" He moved to the desk, planted his fists on the shiny oak top, and leaned in. "I. Quit." As an afterthought, he added, "a.s.shole."
Dyre"s black eyes rolled like oily marbles in his head. "You can"t quit. I own you."
"If you"re talking about my soul, well, even if that were true, you couldn"t stop me from quitting. My body is still mine, no matter who owns my soul."
The marbles in Dyre"s eye sockets became ringed with red. Dyre had a short temper, and his inner demon loved to come out to play. It was probably time to de-escalate the situation. But only a little. Slake needed the guy to be agitated for what he had planned.
"I will kill you and reap your soul long before I allow you to quit."
What a d.i.c.k. "You realize that when your employees are terrified of you, they won"t go that extra mile, right?"
"They will if they like their skin." Dyre grinned wider, and Slake swore the number of teeth in his mouth multiplied. They"d also grown sharper. "Or their souls."
"Yeah, about that-"
A silver flash lit up the room, and suddenly Revenant was standing there, his ma.s.sive black wings, shot through with silver and gold, arched high above his back. If Slake hadn"t met the guy before, he"d be p.i.s.sing himself. As it was, he still took a step back so he didn"t get brained by the careless flap of a wing.
"So," Revenant said, his voice rumbling with such force that the expensive trinkets on the shelves rattled, "it turns out that when you own a soul, you get notified when there"s danger." Revenant scowled at Dyre. "What were you doing to him?"
Dyre shoved to his feet. "Who the f.u.c.k are you?"
Revenant gave Slake a withering look of disappointment. "You really gave this douche bag your soul?"
Abruptly, Dyre"s skin turned black as night and horns jutted from his skull, which began to elongate as his body doubled in size. Very slowly, Slake reached under his jacket for his bloodblade, a Duosos weapon only a male of his species could wield.
"You dare to insult me?" Dyre roared. "Do you have any idea who I am? What I am?"
A smile so cold that it dropped the temperature in the room curved Revenant"s lips. "Do you honestly think I care?"
Every dangerous object in the room activated at once, all of them aimed at Revenant. In a blur of motion, he was pelted by various blunt instruments, struck by rays of melting heat, and impaled by sharp objects. But when it was over, he merely tsked, and everything went back to normal. His clothes stopped smoking, the blood was gone, and there was nothing pointy sticking out of him.
Dyre"s black skin went ashen. "What the-"
Revenant lifted Dyre off his feet. And as far as Slake could tell, Rev was using the Force, because the guy hadn"t moved a muscle.
"I did a little research on you after I talked to Slake. Seems you and Satan were pretty close. He let you do whatever you wanted with the souls you collected as long as you gave him all of your daughters. Is that right?"
Dyre stopped clawing at his throat long enough to croak, "Yes. I-I"ll offer you the same deal."
The laughter that came from Revenant made Slake"s blood freeze in his veins. "You will offer me a deal. Really? Because from where I"m standing . . . well, I"m standing. You, however, are floating in the air and slowly strangling. So let"s try this again." He flung Dyre into a wall, shattering artwork, pictures, and Dyre"s prized, framed awards and certificates. As the guy scrambled to his feet, Revenant advanced on him. "Here"s the deal I will offer you. Return all the souls you haven"t sold off or used for whatever vile purpose you use them for, and close your law firm."
"And what," Dyre ground out, "do I get in return?"
"You get to not die."
Dyre gaped. "Are you crazy? I can"t give up my practice for nothing!" Dyre"s hand slipped behind his back. Slake opened his mouth to warn Revenant, but there was no need.
Dyre exploded. Just . . . blew into a cloud of atomized red mist that settled around the office in a gruesome blanket of gore.
Revenant sighed. "I"ve had to do that a lot lately."
Ho-ly. d.a.m.n. "What," Slake muttered, "explode people?"
Revenant nodded. "Turns out that when you take over h.e.l.l, people aren"t all, aHey, he banished Satan, the most evil being ever, so he must be a super-bada.s.s." Nope, they"re all, aHey, he must have gotten lucky, so let"s see if we can take him down."" Revenant shrugged. "Exploding people really gets a message across."
"I am so never p.i.s.sing you off."
"Wise." A scroll materialized out of thin air, unrolled, and Slake recognized his signature. It was the deed to his soul. Revenant snapped his fingers, and the thing burst into confetti. "You"re free."
"But . . . why?"
"Because I don"t like being linked to anyone."
"Oh. Well, ah, thanks." He looked at the mess that used to be Dyre and felt sorry for the firm"s janitorial crew. "So I got my soul back, but now I"m out of a job."
"Did you like your job?"
Slake shrugged. "No. But it paid the bills and kept my people from dragging me back to the compound and executing me."
"So why did you come here? To kill him and take his position?"
Slake held up the blade he"d had a white-knuckled grip on for the last few minutes. "I"m not a powerful enough demon to kill him, but I could have-"
"No way!" Revenant s.n.a.t.c.hed the dagger out of Slake"s hand like a kid who wanted another kid"s candy. "This is a Duosos bloodblade. Do you know how rare they are?"
"Ah, yeah, I have an idea."
"You could have infused the blade with Dyre"s blood and been immune to any move he made against you for a year."
"That was the plan," Slake muttered.
As Revenant said, bloodblades were rare, made even more so by the fact that each one could be used only once. Slake had planned to neutralize Dyre, and then he"d use the year to gather Dire & Dyre"s sc.u.mbag clients for the Justice Dealers. Working with the Dealers to capture Fayle had been eye-opening and exhilarating, and he figured he"d get a kick out of using his skills for good for once.
Revenant flipped the dagger into the air and caught it between his thumb and forefinger. "Come work for me."
"What?" Slake gaped. "Are you serious? I just got out from under the thumb of one powerful psycho . . . er, I mean-"
"Stop with the flattery." Revenant held up his hand. "I get it. I used to be Satan"s whipping boy, and it sucks to work for some evil jacka.s.s who is f.u.c.king insane and can end you with a mere thought." He folded his wings behind his back, and a heartbeat later, they disappeared. Must be cool to have wings. "But here"s the deal. I"m the new King of h.e.l.l, which means people either suck up to me because they want something, or they think I"m going to explode them, or they want to kill me. I don"t have anyone around me I can trust. You seem to be good at your job, and while I held your soul, I got a feel for who you are. I could use you on my payroll."
Slake"s mouth went as dry as the sand in the Blighted Desert. "I appreciate the offer-"
"But?"
Slake really wished the guy would stop doing that. "But I won"t kill anyone who doesn"t deserve it. I won"t seduce anyone. I won"t-"
"Yeah, yeah," Revenant droned. "You won"t compromise your morals or do anything that"ll p.i.s.s off your mate. Fine. If you object to a job, you can discuss it with me. I"m not completely unreasonable." He appeared to reconsider that. "My mate might disagree."
Revenant was one weird dude. But Slake liked him. In any case, he could be employed by a lot worse than the King of h.e.l.l. "You really know how to sell a job," Slake said, maybe a little sarcastically. "I"m in."
"Good. But I do have one requirement." Revenant"s expression went grim and serious, and Slake had a feeling that whatever he was going to say was of lethal importance to him. "Never lie to me. Ever. And if I lay down a law, it is to be followed to the letter. Do you understand?"
"I understand."
Revenant held out his hand. "Then welcome aboard."
Man, Raze was never going to believe this.
Raze loved the forest. The trees. The wildlife. The peace.
And now, six months after Raze said good-bye to his old life, he was moving into his new one.
Which meant moving in with Slake.
Giving up the apartment had been easy, but he"d miss seeing Thirst every day. He wouldn"t be away long, though. The new construction was almost finished, and he figured he"d be back to work there within the next month or so. In the meantime, he"d picked up extra hours at the hospital to keep himself busy while Slake was helping Revenant rule Sheoul.
And talk about a full-time job. Revenant always made sure Slake could get to Raze when needed, but Slake definitely kept busy. Today, however, they were both off work, and they planned to make a relaxing day of it.
"Breakfast?" Slake"s gravelly morning voice went straight to Raze"s groin. He looked up from his chair on the patio where he"d been sitting in the morning sunshine and listening to the gurgling rush of the creek a few yards away.
"Did you make some?"
Slake stumbled outside in nothing but boxer shorts, his sleep-mussed hair giving him a boyishly appealing charm. "I was hoping you did."
"a.s.shole," Raze said, hiding his smile in his coffee mug. His insult earned him a lingering kiss and a light but promising stroke of Slake"s hand over Raze"s rapidly swelling c.o.c.k.
But Slake was a f.u.c.king tease. Grinning wickedly, he plopped into the chair across from Raze and sprawled in the sunshine, not a care in the world. He"d changed a lot in the last few months, losing the guarded wariness he"d worn like a suit of armor when they"d first met, and finally letting himself laugh. And play. And trust.
"Revenant said I can have a week off." Slake raised his face to the cloudless blue sky, a smile curving lips that could make Raze beg. "Can you get some vacation time?"
Shifting to give his erection more room in his shorts, Raze sipped his coffee. "Sure. Why?"
Slake shrugged. "I"ve never been on a vacation with anyone. You know, sun, sand, the ocean. I figure we can go somewhere exotic. And then hole up in our room and-"
"f.u.c.k our brains out?"
Slake"s eyes darkened, and Raze"s c.o.c.k got harder. He didn"t need s.e.x for another six hours or so, but he wanted it, and that was something completely new. Well, new since he"d met Slake.
"I was thinking . . . maybe we could try that mating thing you keep talking about it."
Raze choked on his coffee. Just a little. But still. "Mating? You want to mate with me? Like, I"ll be tied to you until one of us dies? That mating?"
Slake braced his elbows on his spread legs and leaned forward even as his voice lowered to an intimate purr. "When you put it that way . . . yeah."
A flurry of emotions washed over Raze, but he couldn"t grab on to one. It was as if he was happy and panicked and angry that it might not be possible, all at once.
Bonding. d.a.m.n. It was a mating ritual that, until now, had only been something Seminus demons did with females. Would it even be possible with a male? With a female, the bond was pretty much a one-way street, allowing the female to control the reins. She gained a dermoire that matched her mate"s, but on the opposite arm, while the male . . . well, that"s where the bond truly rested. A bonded male could never have s.e.x with anyone else as long as his mate lived. To bond with someone was a major commitment. A life commitment, and given that his lifespan ran hundreds of years . . .
"Hey," Slake said quietly. "We don"t have to. I know the thing with Fayle was f.u.c.ked up, and if I were you, I wouldn"t let the word bond into my vocabulary. But I was just thinking-"
"No, I want to," Raze blurted, because the h.e.l.l if he was going to let this opportunity slip through his fingers. "I do. It"s just that I don"t know if it"s possible between two males."