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“Damn you to a thousand deaths, Asher.” I don’t know if I ever met a more depraved being in all the worlds.

He looked bored. “Will you behave?”

I sank away from the opening.

“I’m taking that as a yes, demon, only because I’m not interested in cleaning blood off my car twice in one day.”

I worked my jaw. “My name isLana.”

Asher leaned forward. “Because you creatures are so dense, I will tell you again: I don’t give a shi—”

I lunged forward, my hand darting through the opening to swipe him.

He jerked back just in time, his face a mere breath away.

When he recovered, the corner of his mouth curved up. “Careful now, demon... that temper’s going to get you into trouble.”

Chapter 5

Asher

As I turnedinto the Tudor-style estate house an hour west of DC, I surveyed the steep gabled roof and half-timbered walls for signs of a break-in. But if demons had beat me here, they were exercising uncharacteristic restraint. Place looked untouched.

My safe house.

Nicole had inherited it from her parents when they died in a car crash, and over the years I’d fortified it into a fortress.

I pushed the remote clipped to the sunvisor and took the Hummer down the cobblestone driveway into a bunker-like garage, where a blast door sealed shut behind me. From outside, it looked like a normal garage door.

Nothing here was normal.

The entire subterranean level had been built to withstand a siege—reinforced concrete walls, diesel generator and battery backup, water and rations to last six months. The contractors had been led to believe they were building a bomb shelter.

I called it my safe house, but really, this was my only house—not counting my one-bedroom apartment in LA.

I parked and sat for a moment, breathing heavily.

What a clusterfuck I’d gotten myself into.

I reached back and opened the slot to the cage.

“Demon, talk to me.” I watched the rectangular opening, hand on my gun in case she tried anything again. “How you doing back there?”

“Die in hell,” she grumbled. By the sounds of it, she’d gotten sick.

“You have two choices,” I said. “I can leave you in the truck, and in the morning I’ll see how well you fared...oryou can behave yourself, and I’ll take you inside, and I’ll feed you, and I’ll give you a bed. Your choice.”

She glared at me through the slit. For some reason, of all things, I fixated on her long eyelashes.

“Why do you ask a question when the answer is obvious?” she said.

“It onlyseemsobvious,” I climbed out, jingling my keys, “because I gave you two options. Trust me, if I hadn’t spelled it out for you, you would have tried to stab me in the eye.”

Don’t give her any ideas.

But still.

Even though she was a simple healer, even though her blood magic had run dry, even though she was half my weight and I could easily overpower her, even though she was unarmed andveryaware of the consequences of misbehaving, she was still a demon.