Page 66 of Demon Heart: The Complete Series

ROMAN

I cracked my knuckles, ready to go as a fine drizzle fell on my head.

“Get on,” Xavier said, lowering himself.

“Huh?”

“Have you forgotten how fast I move?”

I climbed onto his back without another word. Why not utilize such speedy transport?

Xavier got us through the streets quickly, my stomach flipping.

Darcy better be okay. If that fluttering fucker laid one hand on him, I’d stick him under a spyglass on a sunny day.

No, Darcy was okay.

Darcy had to be okay.

The streets were pretty quiet, everything changing when we reached central London.

Shit.

The roads were closed by blockade after blockade, police and ADU agents everywhere. The air stank of burning, a hum of noise in the distance.

“What the hell?” I muttered, climbing off Xavier’s back.

“What have you come as?” a voice beside me asked.

“Huh?”

A man looked me up and down, scratching the tip of his nose with his little finger.

“You what?” I returned.

“Cosplay?”

“Huh?”

“You and the big fella into cosplay?”

Oh. Right. The robes. “Yeah. What’s going on?”

He shook his head. “You don’t know?”

I shook my head.

He shrugged. “It all started with her address about an hour ago. Did you miss it?”

More hate from her rotten mouth. “Yeah. Missed it.”

He played me key a clip on his phone.

“You must take to the streets,” she spoke against a lavish silver backdrop.

Was she at Nightingale Castle? “Show the world you will not stand for this. Defend your rights. Never allow these vile invaders to win. Demons will not prevail. We must show them and their supporters our fury.” She shot a fist into the air.

“In my name. In your honor. Take back our streets!”

The clip ended.

She really was prepared to burn the world.

“Things then kicked off over in Covent Garden,” the man said, pocketing his phone.

“Protesters against the queen arrived first. Waving placards and banners, chanting stuff. Pro-queen groups followed, and the violence escalated quickly. Spread into the streets, overwhelming this whole area. You can’t get into Soho, down to Westminster, anywhere like that.

And Buckingham Palace is basically a pancake. ”

We weren’t far from the Strand. Not too far from home, but a million miles away with blockades up.

Oh, God.

“The looting started,” the man continued, “fires breaking out. ADU and police swept in to contain it.”

“Whoa.” What the hell were we going to do?

“Fucked up, ain’t it? How did we get here? Why can’t we just have peace? Where’s Phillipe? Actually, scratch that. He’s better off hiding. Too many want his blood.”

Riots, violence, the buildup to war. Man, this world was in serious trouble.

“You’re better off getting yourselves home and in the warm,” the man said. “Look after your own and yourselves. A storm is coming.”

I shuddered, thinking of the doom hanging over our heads. The Rift saga had been bad enough, but this could make that look like a tea party.

“Yeah, good idea,” I agreed.

He nodded, moving away to talk to a woman and her husband.

Panic really clawed at me. “What if someone broke into my flat and hurt Darcy? I can’t…I can’t have him being hurt. Oh, shit.”

“Come on,” Xavier gestured to a small, narrow street. “We can get to him.”

Worried beyond sick, I followed him, climbing onto his back when we reached the shadows. Every building stood dark. The end of the street would probably be blocked at the other end.

It will be okay. It will be okay.

Darcy will be okay.

The street curved to the right, ending at a junction lit by a single lamppost.

Two men stood in that light. The shorter, brown-haired guy leaned against the wall, a silver tabby cat in his arms. The taller man beside him looked as if he were listening to the air. He turned to meet our approach, dark hair falling across his pale-as-moonlight face.

The short man turned his head in response, pushing himself off the wall.

“Oh, gosh.”

The cat in his arms meowed.

The two men moved close together.

Xavier slowed, keeping me on his back.

“That piggyback reminds me of us,” the brown-haired guy, also pale but with a slight beige-tone to his complexion, tapped the taller guy on the arm. “Don’t you think?”

He exuded a sunny demeanor unlike the other guy’s darker aura.

“I suppose so.” The husky-toned tower of yumminess, truth be told, focused his dark eyes on me.

Then it hit me.

Oh. My. God.

I knew who these men were.

Clay Christmas and Tae Frost.

“Shit…”

“Are you okay?” Clay asked, rubbing the cat’s head.

“ Meow .”

The sound made me think of my own pet I desperately wanted in my arms.

Tae cocked his head curiously.

“You don’t look right,” Clay added. “And I don’t mean that to be rude as in you need to marry a beautician or something, or find a fashionista to sort out your choice of outfit because you can wear what you like and all power to you, but you just look hassled and I’m making this worse, oh gosh I’m so?—”

“Take a moment,” Tae said, a deep bell to halt Clay’s rambling.

Clay nodded his head, taking his moment to calm down. “Sorry.”

They were both dressed expensively. Why not, when Tae Frost was a billionaire vampire, CEO of the luxury car manufacturer, Auto Frost. Lucky Clay. Compared to them, we looked like we’d been dragged through a bush then sat on by an elephant.

Maybe scratch the elephant part.

Xavier put me down.

I rubbed the back of my achy neck. “You’re back in London?”

“You recognize us?” Tae asked.

“Who wouldn’t?” I countered. “You were everywhere last year.”

Clay smiled at me. He looked different to the pictures and videos. Not quite the same warlock as before.

“Well, I’m Clay.” He offered me a hand.

I shook it, aware my palms were sweaty with anxiety. “Roman.”

“Nice to meet you. This is Fizz.”

I petted the gorgeous feline. “She’s lovely.”

Fizz purred, enjoying a rub behind the ears.

The spider demon stepped forward. “Xavier.”

Him and Clay shook hands.

“You’re a demon, right?” Clay asked.

Uh, oh. When Clay had wielded Arcana, the magic back for a chaotic stint last year, he’d been taking demons down. He couldn’t now, but he might still go for some violence. Sunshine or not, I didn’t know him at all.

“How did you know?” Xavier wondered.

“I can just tell.” He smiled. “And it’s cool. Don’t worry. I know you’re not all bad.”

Ah. Didn’t he have demonic blood or something?

“A demon and a witch,” Tae interjected, shaking our hands now. “A risky pairing in this climate.”

“Indeed,” Xavier answered.

The two bigger guys mirrored each other in height and bulk as Clay and I kind of did—although I was a little taller than him and not as skinny.

“Are you okay?” Clay asked. “Do you need help?”

I sighed. “I need to get home. I live in Soho.”

“Shit. It’s wild around there.”

“I heard. But my friend is in trouble. I have to help him.”

“I’m so sorry.”

“What are your climbing skills like?” Tae asked Xavier.

“Good.”

“Jump range?”

“Wide.”

“Where in Soho are you going?”

“Old Compton Street,” I answered, kind of stunned by the back and forth of deep voices and scary energy.

Talk about cock trembling.

These men were forces of nature for sure, like two male lions sizing each other up, but with plenty of tolerance to keep the peace.

I wouldn’t want to be caught in the middle of a smackdown between them.

“Then may I suggest a route?” Tae asked.

“Please,” Xavier answered.

“I have spent much time above these streets.” God, the vampire’s deadpan delivery was kind of funny.

Xavier nodded as Tae explained a rooftop solution to Old Compton Street.

“We don’t really come to London anymore,” Clay told me. “Any cities really. My fault for wanting to visit… Gosh, you really don’t need to hear this. You want to get to your friend and I’m taking up so much of your time and I’m rambling because all I ever do is ramble. Sorry.”

Man, I wished I could have met him under better circumstances. I already liked him.

“Don’t be sorry,” I responded. “It’s cool to see you in the flesh.”

He giggled. “This is so weird, right?”

“Yeah.”

“But I get good vibes from you both.”

Fizz meowed in agreement, so chilled out in his arms.

Oh, Mr. Christmas. I wouldn’t be so easygoing with me. “That’s kind of you to say.”

“No worries.”

A scream pierced the sky, followed by a distant boom.

Clay held his cat tighter to his chest. “All this because of the queen. I met her once. She wasn’t like this.” He shook his head. “But what do I know?”

Tae moved to slip his arm around his lover after the big guy conference finished. “We should leave.”

Clay nodded. “I won’t argue with that. Good luck with everything.”

“You, too.”

“There are blockades at either end of this street.” Tae pointed left and right at the perpendicular road. “Be careful.”

“Sorry we can’t do anything else to help,” Clay offered. “But, erm…”

“We have to worry about ourselves,” Tae finished for him.

“Amen to that,” I agreed.

And with that, they walked the way we’d come, Clay waving goodbye over his shoulder, Fizz letting off one more meow.

“That was really odd,” I said, waving back.

“Indeed.”

“But nice of Tae to help like that.”

“I would’ve been fine.”

“Huh?” My lips quirked into a smirk. “Are you jealous?”

“No.”

“Is that a pout?”

“No, Roman. I was being polite to the vampire. He seemed like he really wanted to help.”

“You gleaned that from his brooding?”

He shrugged.

Okay, this was kind of cute, but I didn’t press on with it. “It was also nice of them not to kick our arses—not that they look like the kind of people to do that. Well, maybe Tae does.”

Honestly, this brief interlude put some fire back in my belly.

“Let’s do this.”

“Climb aboard, Roman.”