Page 18 of Demon's Desire

“It’s still rude.”

“Oh no. I feel so bad about it,” Onyx sneered.

Ash crossed his bulging arms. “Why are you here?”

“To steal all the treats.”

Predictably, Ash’s eyes burned orange.

“What is wrong with you two?” Dante strode in from the deck, shirt off and wings out. Ash was similarly undressed. “I eat your baking all the time, Ash.”

Onyx used to take Dante coming to his defense personally, but Dante did it for everyone.

“I wanted to see how things were going,” Onyx said before Ash could respond. “You barged in on me first, so you aren’t in a position to complain.”

“You aren’t barging in.” Dante’s brow creased, probably fretting over Onyx’s irritated tone. “You’re always welcome here. If you want to stay now that Luc is back, there’s plenty of room.”

“No, thank you.” Onyx made a show of shuddering. “My place is nicer and there’s no risk of running into Ash with his clothes off.”

“I’m dressed,” Ash muttered.

Onyx ignored him. “So, what’s happening? You wanted me involved, and here I am. Or did you forget?”

“Of course we didn’t forget. I was going to call you today,” Dante insisted.

Sure he was. “Don’t hold back now. Where’s Luc? You’ve been tracking him for ages.”

Dante grabbed a soda from the fridge and plopped onto a barstool. “We can’t track Luc. He figured out another way to hide.”

Damn his brother. It was too bad he was clever. “But he can’t hide behind our magic anymore. That illusion was broken.”

“No, he can’t hide behind the magic he stole from us. He’s using everyone else.”

Onyx took a staggering step back. “He stole magic from all the demons he released?”

“No.” Dante gave him a horrified look. “We’re lucky it wasn’t that. Fuck. No, he did the reverse. The spell must have been built into the gateway. When we’ve tried to track Luc, we get hundreds of locations.”

“It seems like Luc branded every demon that flew through the gateway with his magic,” Ash added. Or overexplained, Onyx would argue. But he kept quiet as Ash continued. “Several groups of demons are headed this way, but there’s no way to tell if one is Luc. We’d have to hunt them down in person and see who we find at the end of the trail.”

“Well, that’s useless.”

“Thank you, Onyx, but I’d already worked that out.”

“Good for you. Not as dumb as you look.” Onyx turned his attention back to Dante. “So are you going to scope out every demon that comes to the city? How long have you known this was an issue?”

Dante ignored the second question, and Onyx feared the evasion was deliberate. “My flock will recognize Luc by sight, as long as he’s not invisible, so I’ll have my birds discreetly check any new arrivals. I don’t want to seem aggressive, turning up inperson and demanding to know what every demon is doing. We don’t need to create enemies.”

“We’ll have enemies whether or not we create them. What if more demons are here to hunt us down like those last three?” Onyx asked.

“Then we’ll deal with them.” Dante paused, his tone taking on an edge of concern. “You can stay here if you want. It might be safer.”

Onyx wrinkled his nose. “Again, no thanks. My place is guarded.”

No one argued with him even though they knew his home wasn’t as well protected as Dante’s. Maybe Dante’s offer was insincere despite how it sounded.

“I guess I’ll keep an eye on the witch situation,” Onyx continued. “Make sure our fellow magical beings don’t freak out about demonkind’s repopulation of the planet.”

“Great.” Dante smiled, all supposed concern vanishing. “Nico said he’d keep us updated, too.”