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CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

“ I need to talk to you.”

Setting the empty plate I’d just taken out onto the counter, I look over my shoulder at Rio and give him a sceptical look. “You know, despite Ash designating you as my babysitter, I find it hard to believe you’d want to spend your time on the job talking to me.”

Him spending the whole time giving me death stares and silently plotting my demise seems far more likely…

“I said need, not want,” he responds, rolling his eyes as he impatiently gestures for me to hurry up. “Come on, let's get out of here before one of your actual self-appointed bodyguards interrupts us.”

Self-appointed bodyguards is a generous way to put it. It feels a lot more like anxious hovering from where I’m standing. Ever since my little adventure to get snacks in the middle of the night a few days ago, Dai, Torrin, and Ash have all been watching me like hawks. Here I thought I was the paranoid one, when it turns out they’re the ones all fighting for that particular title.

“Won’t you get in trouble for aiding in my escape from constant supervision? And what’s so important you’re willing to risk a jailbreak to talk to me alone?” I ask, following him out of the kitchen and raising my eyebrows when he hands over a pair of my shoes. Someone prepared for our escape in advance. Probably wise if he doesn’t want one of his brothers tagging along for this little chat.

I’m honestly starting to wish I didn’t mention running into Lorcan. The three of them had immediately become concerned it wasn’t a coincidence, but what reason could he have for tracking me down? There’s no way he would have figured out about my baby being half-demon just from hearing a pregnancy rumour. It’s quite a leap to make, even if the conclusion is true.

He can’t possibly know. Lorcan’s not a hunter, trained and prepared to recognise demons. He has no reason for carrying around charmed objects like the detectors the Fletchers use or for casting a spell intended for searching out demonic energy. The latter would have been immediately obvious if he had anyway. The feel of another’s active magic passing through a person as they scan their body or energy is near unmissable. Even baseline humans are known to shudder when sensing magic is used directly on them.

It’s also not as if it would be worth his time stalking me at three in the morning to throw taunts my way either. It was bad luck on my part that we'd crossed paths; that’s all. Nothing more to worry about. Well, not from him, but after their reaction to his presence, I hadn’t even thought about mentioning feeling watched by someone else. I’m probably just being weird and hormonal or something, anyway.

Having already slipped on my shoes as we made our way to the door, I pause when we reach the back exit of their building, realising something. Turning to Rio, I cross my arms and give him a pointed look before he can slip out, ignoring the aggrieved sound he makes at my silent prompting. He can huff all he likes, but he never answered my questions.

“It’s hardly an escape if I’m still watching you, is it? I’m perfectly capable of making sure you don’t get hauled off by our fellow witches for your demon-screwing sins,” Rio says flippantly, finally giving the half-answer before practically shooing me out of the door. He leads the way over towards a small, old-looking car. His car, given he unlocks it and opens the driver’s side door.

“This is yours?” There's no chance I can keep the amusement from my voice, not that I try. I don’t know shit about cars, but this thing has to be older than my brother. Hell, maybe even older than my parents. Not to mention it’s sort of compact…almost cute-looking, or it would be if it wasn’t covered in filth anyway. It’s definitely not the car I pictured him driving. “I’m surprised it still starts,” I add, deciding not to mention my surprise at the style of it too.

“She’s a classic, and she still runs perfectly fine.” Rio glares at me for a second before slipping into his seat and slamming the door shut. Though he continues his glowering through the passenger side window until I join him in the vehicle, shutting my door with a little less force than he did. He’d definitely take the opportunity to complain about it if I had.

“At least it’s clean on the inside,” I comment, somewhere between antagonistic and teasing as I swipe my fingers lightly over the dash. I glance down at them as if inspecting for dust. If he wanted me to play nicely, he should have been nicer about his invite for this sneaky outing.

“I didn’t hear you sassing Torrin about his car,” he grumbles, hands clenching the wheel just a little too tightly.

“His car doesn’t look beat to hell and covered in a layer of dirt. There’s a big difference between a car being past its prime and it being a classic.” Not that I would know, yet I am genuinely surprised by the lack of terrifying sounds as he starts it up. As we pull away from their place, I’m still tensely waiting for a loud clunk, but there’s not even so much as an annoying rattle. It’s bizarrely smooth going, especially considering the roads in this area of the city are pretty terrible. You’d think it would kill someone to fill in potholes from how many of them there are.

“You know it only looks how it does because he obsessively washes it twice a week, at minimum , right?”

“Is this what you wanted to talk about, Torrin’s car maintenance?” I question sarcastically. “I don’t think your brother is nearly vengeful enough for that to require privacy.”

“You’re the one who decided to attack Molly,” he snaps back at me, lips smacking shut and pressing into a tight, thin line as I start to grin.

No. Freaking. Way. He didn’t—did he?

“You named your car Molly?”

“No,” he answers flatly, keeping his eyes firmly on the very straight and entirely empty stretch of road ahead.

“So the car isn’t called Molly? Because it sure sounded like it.”

“I didn’t name her.”

“Sure you didn’t,” I say, agreeing to his non-answer with a roll of my eyes. “So, what did you want to talk about if not cars and whether you’re terrible at picking names? Speaking of, remind me not to come to you for baby name suggestions.” Not that I was planning on asking him for ideas. He’d probably suggest calling it evil demonic spawnling or something anyway.

“It’s—” Rio cuts off, looking like he’s sucking on lemons for a moment, before speaking again. “You could call this a…continuation of our conversation the other week.”

All the amusement drains out of me at his words, as there’s no mistaking what conversation he’s referring to. It’s not as if we spend a lot of time alone together. Does this mean he’s changed his mind, that I am influencing Daion and Torrin? He’d seemed pretty sure I hadn’t been when we spoke before, but maybe something’s changed. Does Ash’s presence affect it? Is it more powerful now? There’s a heavy, sinking feeling in my gut as I consider all of the implications, all of them leading me back to one awful fucking thought.

Is my stupid succubus-powered lure the only reason they still want me around?

“Fuck,” he says, grunting the word out and snapping me out of my head. “Stop thinking so hard. I don’t need to read minds to know you took what I said the wrong way.”

“Well, don’t start a conversation off so ambiguously then!” I huff, forcing myself to relax back in my seat, having to consciously untense my shoulders. There’s an awful rigidness to my entire body which wasn’t there a few minutes ago.

“Just wait for five minutes. We’re almost there, and it’ll be easier not to divide my attention.”

We spend the rest of the journey to wherever it is we’re going in silence, the remaining drive taking closer to twenty minutes than five. It might only feel that long, though. Rio parks the car around the back of some unfamiliar buildings and tells me to stay put, darting out before I can object to being left behind.

So much for watching me…

Not wanting to tempt fate, I wait in the car, irritation growing every second until he gets back. I check my phone a few times and stare out the window while trying to figure out where he’s gone. I even rummage through the glovebox when the irritation threatens to turn into death by boredom.

Thankfully, the smell of food when he returns chases the sharp edges of my annoyance away. He shoves the paper bag of salty-smelling goodness across to me as soon as he enters the car. I pull it open and peer inside.

French fries?

“You brought me here for fries?”

“There’s a burger too, underneath them.” Rio shrugs. “Like I said, we’re here to talk. The food is a bribe to keep you calm. I’ve seen how Torrin handles your moods, and I’m not a complete moron.”

“Debatable,” I mutter under my breath, before shoving a couple of the fries into my mouth. Mmm. Just the right amount of salt, damn him. I hunt under the fries to see what burger he picked out, annoyed to see it's probably the one I would choose. There’s a bunch of different dips at the bottom of the bag too, so I can't even complain about that.

Oh well, it’s probably best not to taunt him now anyway. He might take my food away. As much as I’d like to object to the idea of anyone ‘handling my moods’, I’m too hungry to care right now. It’s his fault. He interrupted me when I was about to make something to eat.

“So, this is about your brothers?” I ask after eating my way through half of the fries. I’m guessing that much must be right, even if he isn’t about to accuse me of controlling their minds with my sex magic.

“It is,” he answers, glancing at my unfinished food as if he’d been hoping the distraction would buy him more time, but sadly for him, I can eat while we talk. While he talks, anyway.

“What about them?” I prompt Rio again, causing him to sigh.

“You need to hurry up and decide what you want instead of dragging this out.”

“What I want?” What the hell is he talking about? I grab another fry despite my confusion.

“I mean who you want, I suppose,” he corrects himself, not that he seems happy about it. His steel-blue eyes are looking anywhere but at me, and his fingers drum nervously on the bottom of the steering wheel.

“I’m sorry?” I question, feeling like my brain must be stuck buffering. The little wheel in my head is turning, but nothing’s happening. That was…not what I expected him to say. I drop the fry back into the paper bag. It can wait for a minute.

“Look, as much as there’s a lot about this situation I don’t like, both of my brothers are clearly into you.”

I snort disbelievingly, promptly rolling my eyes at the glare he gives me for making the noise. “Fine. Physically, they’re into me,” I concede, unable to stop the bitterness from seeping into my words as I continue, “but not emotionally. I don’t know what you think, but it’s not like that.”

Not for them.

This thing between us is just a mutually beneficial agreement, isn’t it? They were clear about being happy with their end of things, getting enjoyable sex with someone they found attractive. I also get that—and to not die from vitav drain, of course. I mean, we’ve become friends, I think. I’d like to hope they see me as more than a body to fuck and a customer for their hunting business…but it’s not as if we’re in a relationship. It doesn’t matter if my heart can’t help getting attached. It’s not likely they’ll ever want more from our situation than what is now.

How could they?

“Good fucking gods, save me. You’re as stupid about this as they are, aren’t you?”

“Excuse you!?” I snap. “I’m not stupid. You’re the one imagining more going on than what actually is. It’s just sex.”

“I know when those idiots are into someone, and they’ve both got it bad when it comes to you,” he replies, sounding not at all happy about it.

“You’re insane.”

“If I’m crazy, it’s your doing. You just had to show up like some ridiculous damsel in distress needing our help, and then you went and let them get attached to you.”

“I didn’t?—”

“I’m not done talking,” he practically shouts, cutting me off furiously. “That was bad enough. The way you batted your lashes at them, and now suddenly we’re helping a demon out instead of bringing them to justice. You made them like you—made them fucking care. Only now that you’ve found your baby’s father, you’re jumping right back into screwing him without even talking to either of them about it!”

“That was the plan! They were helping me out until they could find Ash. That’s what we agreed on. It was literally a life or death situation!”

“Fine. So why are you still messing around with their feelings now that you have him to keep you going? Why are you staying with us? Have you even thought about it at all, why they’d insist on protecting you?”

“I’m not—there are no feelings, okay!? And I don’t know, maybe it’s because they’re nice people? Unlike you.” I shove the bag of food across to him, letting it land on his lap as I throw open the door and get out of the car. “I’m not talking to you about this anymore. It’s not even any of your business.”

“Where are you going?” Rio calls after me when I pick a random direction and start walking.

“Away from you! Don’t worry, I'll call Ash to come get me instead of one of your brothers,” I yell back, hearing a car door slam a moment later.

The asshole is following me, isn’t he? Ugh.

I speed up, refusing to look back as I walk to…who the hell knows where or cares, so long as it’s away from him.

A hand lands on my shoulder, and I whirl around ready to chew Rio out for following me, but it’s not him holding my shoulder. It’s someone much worse. I can hear Rio running towards us, his steps loud and hurried, but I think we all know he’ll be too late.

“It was you,” I whisper, not quite believing what I’m seeing. He’d been the dark-haired person I’d glimpsed in the supermarket. He’s the reason I’ve felt like someone’s been watching me for weeks.

“Me,” the demon agrees, yellow eyes blazing as we’re suddenly transported away.

Fucking teleportation magic.