Page 59 of Demon's Desire

“The signal is faint. Maybe they’re still flying toward the hill. The birds can’t see anything.”

“Should we go out and hunt them down?” Ash asked.

Dante’s white eyes darted back and forth. “Seems like their magic is fading.”

“What does that mean?” Onyx glanced questioningly at Ash, whose expression was pinched in confusion. No surprise there.

“My counterspells must have diverted their interest, like they’re supposed to. They’re leaving.” Dante blinked, and his black irises reappeared. “If we want to catch a glimpse of them?—”

He didn’t need to finish before Ash was speeding out the open door, Dante right behind him.

Onyx followed.

“Stay within the protections for now, so they won’t catch any hint of us,” Dante called. “I’ll send some birds farther afield.”

They flew along the tree line, scouring the clifftop. Onyx hadn’t brushed up on detecting invisibility illusions, so he cast out for any sense of magic.

Nothing registered.

“They’re gone,” Dante called after they’d covered the extent of the reserve.

Onyx turned toward the house. He arrived first and waited for Dante and Ash in the kitchen. It was too bad they hadn’t gotten a sense of who the intruder was.

Ash returned to the mess of baking on the countertop. “Think they’ll be back?”

The enchanted flock being common knowledge meant the clifftop nests were the first logical place for demons to search for them.

Dante opened a drawer and pulled out a king-size chocolate bar. “We’ll have to wait and see. Hopefully my spells convinced them nothing’s here and they’ll move on.”

“Well, that was a whole lot of nothing.” Onyx turned to go. “Have fun baking. I’ve got better things to do than be Ash’s sous chef.”

“Wait.” Dante grabbed his arm. “You shouldn’t leave immediately.”

“But we didn’t find anyone. They’re gone.”

“From the area around the reserve. They could be watching the clifftop or the coastline from farther away, and if they’re looking for invisibility illusions like Pamala did, you’ll give us away. That’s why I had us stay within the protected area.”

Onyx tasted smoke. Dante had a point, but fuck. “I had plans tonight.”

“I’m sorry.” To his credit, Dante looked it. “Please stick around for a few hours, just to be safe.”

Onyx wanted to tell them both to piss off, but they had to be smart about this.

“We aren’t going to hide completely,” Dante went on. “We can’t let demons think we’re easily intimidated, but there’s also no reason to give anything away for free. We need to scope out the threat before we confront it.”

“Yeah, yeah. Got it. I’m not stupid.” Onyx marched to the fridge and pulled out a bag of blood.

Seemed he wouldn’t be finding out what Nico had on his list of things to do with him. He shouldn’t have been so disappointed.

The next morning,Onyx flew from Dante’s house directly to the gallery.

He landed on the roof and pulled out his phone, bringing up his texts with Nico from last night.

Onyx:

I’m sticking with my brothers tonight. Nothing major, but someone came poking around our protections so we’re lying low. Don’t miss me too much.

Nico: