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DIYA

“P lease.”

“Listen. I love you and I’d do anything for you, Asher, but not that…” I shook my head with a frown. “That thing looks like it eats humans for breakfast.”

The gray-eyed menace sat unnervingly still beside its owner’s very, very dead body.

“But you killed his owner,” Asher said, as if that explained why I should now be responsible for what was a demon in feline form. “Now he has nowhere else to go.”

I tore my eyes away from the cat just long enough to glare at Asher.

The cat kept staring at me with those unblinking eyes. “He looks at me like he could point me out in a lineup.”

The cat flicked its tail, looking vaguely disappointed.

“See?! You saw that, didn’t you?” I asked. “It’s plotting.”

The cat blinked. The kind of blink that said, I know what you did, and I will remember it, mortal.

I sighed, running a hand through my hair. “Your owner was a piece of shit. He raped his assistant, and then fired her.”

Theobald looked unimpressed.

“He made it look like she was lying out of spite. He made her into a bitter ex-employee trying to ruin his name. And, of course, with all his money and power… he got away with it. And he tried it again. I wasn’t wrong to kill him. I, at least, made it less painful?”

Silence.

“I just made him drink his tea?”

A low snarl.

Fuck, those teeth are weapons.

“Okay, I added a teeny-tiny amount of Oleander in his tea and a touch in his food. It’s not that bad, Theo.”

Matthew Dale, Theo’s owner, had a pre-existing heart condition. I just had to push him over the edge with Oleanders, which contained cardiac glycosides.

The coroner would rule his death as a heart attack.

“That’s Sir Theobald for you, human,” Asher said with a snicker. He was enjoying this way too much, that piece of perfectly delicious…

“When we go home, I’m going to bite you in the ass for this,” I said, glaring at him. “Now, let’s get the hell out of here,” I said, looking around the house, making sure everything was in its place.

After coming back to New York, this was my first kill. I had to refine my methods and kill only when I was sure I could get away with it.

But doing this, with him, felt right.

“Look at his face, just take a look,” Asher said, and I huffed.

“We might as well do a perp walk to the police station before taking that creature home with us.”

He pursed his lips. “But what if…”

“No.”

He raised a hand, trying to look innocent. “What if we make it look like he found us ? We just so happened to find him wandering, all alone, sad, pathetic—”

“That’s not pathetic.”

“Confused, probably traumatized after he witnessed his owner’s death.”

“He looks like he runs a crime syndicate, Asher.”

“We rescued him. Just two selfless people, who stumbled upon a poor, abandoned cat.”

I scoffed. “Fine, but if this backfires, you’re explaining it to the cops.”

Asher grinned, nudging Theobald lightly with his foot. “Hear that, buddy? We’re going home.”

Somehow, I got the feeling the cat had known all along that he was coming with us.

Asher gave me a bright smile when I glared at the cat. “Don’t worry. She’ll fall head over heels for you soon. That’s exactly how she looked at me when we first met, Theo.” Asher leaned closer, pressing a kiss on my lips above the cat’s head, and the creature hissed.

Theobald didn’t like me very much. The feeling was mutual.

Oh, the things I do for Asher Maddox!

“Let’s go home then, Sir Theobald,” I said, walking out, and the cat flicked his tail.

Darkness hid us as we walked through empty streets until we reached Asher’s motorcycle, and we drove home.

I was opening my apartment door when I realized something was wrong.

The cat let out a low hiss.

Cautiously, I pulled the door open, and froze.

Layne sat on the couch, gagged, bound, squirming, eyes burning with hatred.

Declan pressed the gun to her forehead with a smile.

“Hi, Sister. It’s been a while.”