Page 29

Dove

“I talked to Damon last night,”

I said calmly after classes as we ate dinner. Everyone’s gaze snapped to mine.

Rhys slammed down his fork. “Are you insane, vixen?”

“He’s dangerous, Dove. You can’t trust him,”

Kairos snapped.

“I didn’t say I trusted him. I said I talked to him.”

“Don’t you know what he’s done?”

Rhys continued.

I rolled my eyes. “No, and you still haven’t told me.”

“Yes, we did. He’s worse than a demon. He tried to turn Enko into a rogue kitsune. Turn him into a coldblooded killer. Into one of his henchmen. Into a—

Enko remained silent, so I turned to my giant mate, not letting him finish. “Enko?”

“Into a Beast,”

Enko growled. Fire burned behind his eyes.

“He told me that sometimes humans are as bad as demons,”

I said. “It’s one of the first things he ever told me.”

“Sounds like something he’d say,”

Enko mumbled.

Kairos exhaled loudly. “Dove, we told you not to speak to him. Let alone trust his word.”

I frowned. “He’s mine.”

“Great, she’s feral for him. No matter. She won’t be speaking to him again tonight. We have a contract,”

Rhys said, passing a small card over to Seven. “Tier IV. Hopefully you managed to get some sleep last night during your late night chat with the demon.”

“Where’s its web?”

Seven asked, passing the card over to Enko.

“Lethe. Where else? If the Lord of Nightmares could do his fucking job, it wouldn’t have gotten so far from the Hellgate,”

Rhys snarled.

“That’s a lot of demons for one kitsune to handle. And he doesn’t need to be in the dreamworld to talk to me anymore. He has my phone number,”

I said, returning to the topic.

“What do you think, Enko? Is she safe to speak to him?”

“He won’t hurt her, if that’s what you mean. But he’ll be out for revenge. And with as much power as he has, he’ll get it.”

“What’s the contract?”

I asked, stroking the handle of my new weapon like it was my pet. It purred, dying for its first kill.

Seven passed the card over.

Jorogumo, Tier IV

2459 Main Street

“Can I have this one?”

“If you have to ask, Fated, it’s not really your kill. How about you fight me for it?”

Seven muttered, earning a look from Rhys.

We left the dishes on the table as we prepared to leave, but some mysterious maid always came in to clean them up. We headed out the front door and toward Seven’s Land Rover. It was the only vehicle we had that was big enough to fit all of us.

I dashed toward the passenger side, but Rhys beat me to it, flashing a winning smile. When I groaned, he said, “I’m not gonna be squashed between Enko and Kairos, vixen. And I know you like to be.”

I crawled into the back middle seat as we drove to Lethe. Enko’s arm stretched around me and Kairos kept his hand on my thigh.

“You’ll be careful around him, right?”

Enko said. I knew who he was talking about. The Lord of Nightmares. “Don’t let him make you do anything you don’t want to do.”

“I won’t. Are you okay with me talking to him?” I asked.

Everyone in the car was listening, but they let me have this moment alone with Enko. He tucked me closer to his side, kissing the side of my head. “He’s your Fated.”

He paused. “I’m sorry we hid him from you. We thought we knew what was best for you.”

“It’s okay,”

I whispered back.

We pulled into the city as night fell, just as all the unfavorables were starting to crawl out from their holes. Neon lights lit up the roads and the street lights blinked on and off from neglect. Smoke always hung on the air like a smelly cloud in Lethe.

Seven parked in front of an apartment building. Its bricks had been red at one point, but now they were covered in the grime of the city and appeared more of an orangish-brown.

A fancy gray car pulled up behind us, a Rolls-Royce and all the guys stiffened. “Did you tell him we were here, Dove?”

Kairos asked.

I twisted my head around to see what they were talking about. A driver stepped out from the vehicle and walked to the back, opening the door. Damon stepped out like royalty, wearing a suit almost as fine as Kairos’ attire.

He was so much more handsome in real life, unlike the static of the dreamworld like the haze of trying to remember a dream after waking. I jittered with excitement at just the sight of him. Enko and Kairos blocked me from getting out so I crossed my arms and waited as Seven and Rhys exited the Land Rover.

“Good evening,”

Damon said, his words muffled by the closed doors, flashing the whites of his teeth.

Rhys and Seven stood side by side. The Archfox kept his arms crossed. “She told us you visited her last night. That you spoke.”

“We did,”

Damon agreed.

“What did you speak about?”

Seven asked.

Damon looked directly at me, like he could see through the near black tint of the windows. “That’s between me and Dove.”

“I know you rule this city. But I am the Archfox, and you will follow my rules if you want to be with Dove. No manipulating her thoughts or dreams. No making her do anything she doesn’t want to do. And no killing of humans. Let them handle their own kind.”

Damon frowned. “You have your minions, Rhys, and I have mine. You don’t have the slightest inclination of what it takes to guard the Hellgate. If you’d like to switch jobs, by all means. But until that point, I will protect this city however I need to.”

“You’re doing a great job at that. Letting a Tier IV out to pillage the humans. Not that you care about humans,”

Rhys responded. “Did your father ever let that happen? Or are you just his ever-failing bastard?”

“The former Lord of Nightmares didn’t have a weakening Hellgate. The final war is coming, Rhys. There’s nothing I can do to stop the entire flood of demons coming at us. All kitsune need to stand together for this war, as the goddess intended.”

Damon paused and laughed. “That’s right, you don’t believe in her. How does Dove feel about that? You must be aware of her beliefs by now.”

Rhys snorted, but I could feel his discomfort at the accusation. “She wouldn’t let something so small come between us.”

My enthusiasm overflowed now. “Can I get out? Please?”

Seven and Rhys turned toward the car, hearing my question. Rhys opened the door and Enko stepped out, Kairos hurrying out the other side and around the vehicle. And then Enko held out his hand as he helped me from the car like we were as fancy as the Lord of the Nightmares.

Fancy is not the word I’d use to describe him, Fated.

The four of them stood around me as the Lord of Nightmares waited several feet in front of us. I stepped forward slightly, making sure the others wouldn’t embarrass me as I got to see my final Fated mate. Just being around all of them made me feel complete.

“Hello, Dove. Would you mind if I joined you tonight? I want to make sure you’re safe against a Tier IV.”

“She is safe with us,”

Seven snapped as Enko growled.

I ignored Enko’s growl and Seven’s response as I nodded. “I’d love that.”

Even though killing demons wasn’t exactly the perfect first date.

Okay, well, maybe it was for me.

Rhys, Seven, Enko, and Kairos didn’t say a word as Damon closed the distance between us and held my hand. “It’s in here,”

he told us, gesturing to the apartment building.

“No shit,”

Seven spat. “Why do you think we’re here? We got your contract.”

“Seven,”

I warned, but my voice came out like a whine.

Damon held my hand as we walked up to the front of the building and he pulled out a set of keys.

Seven dove forward, slipping into the Shadow Vale and opening the door from the inside, showing off his skills. “I got it, Fated.”

Damon tucked the keys back in his pocket. “I cleared out the building yesterday, but not before it got hold of a few victims. We’ll need to find them as well. If they haven’t been sucked dry yet.”

“Couldn't you kill it yourself?”

Rhys taunted. “Needed us to do some extermination for you?”

Goddess, I could almost see where Seven got it from.

“That’s your job, Your Holiness.”

Damon dipped his head forward sarcastically. “My job is to focus on keeping the Hellgate guarded. Is there a reason it took you an entire day to send someone to kill it? Because the last Archfox never took more than a few hours to send a kitsune group to kill a Tier IV. I can’t afford to have my resources tied up for this long.”

“I’m protecting my soldiers. Can’t just send anyone to deal with a Tier IV,”

Rhys growled.

I nudged my elbow into him. Play nice.

For you, vixen. But he didn’t look happy about it.

The apartment building loomed over us with its darkness, no lights turned on within, but the first floor looked fairly normal. It wasn’t until after climbing to the second floor that I saw the first traces of the demon. Shiny white threads stretching out like tripwires, barely visible to the eye. We stepped carefully over them to not warn the demon of our presence and climbed another flight of stairs.

Webbing blocked the entirety of the hallway. Enko pulled out his sword and his Fire flowed through it. He took the lead and slashed through the thick strands.

The sight of the demon stole my breath away. At the end of the dark hallway, a flash of red caught my eye. It remained perfectly still, as though we might be stupid enough to fall into its trap.

I nearly tripped over a stand of the web and Kairos caught me before I could fall forward into the sticky trap.

The jorogumo rushed forward at us. I drew my sword, barely getting it out in time as the creature came into sight.

A red and black pattern encased its humanlike face, red diamonds and white spots and black stripes. Its head was attached to a hairy black abdomen, eight legs of a spider stretching out. Other than the red diamond and white dots on its head, it hid easily in the darkness. Those features allowed a small amount of warning to its victims. Probably why it had taken the power out.

Even with her odd features, her face was that of a beautiful woman, enough that if only her face was seen, it may lure in an unsuspecting victim.

The jurogumo’s legs easily maneuvered through the web, her legs stretching out and touching the walls, ceiling, and floor, her speed not hindered by the stickiness. But it came to a full stop as it saw the six of us standing within its destroyed web of perfection.

“Kitsune,”

she whispered, like the echoes of a thousand voices of its victims.

No more hiding now. We all drew our weapons, cutting through its web like a demonic jungle to pin down the fiend. The spidery demon backed up, but it knew as well as us that it had nowhere to go. Trapped in its own tunnel web like one of its own victims.

Enko shifted into his fox form, tails of pure fire whipping around and lighting the webs on fire so we could move faster, spreading like wildfire as the creature retreated. Damon held a rapier out, a hint of purple Mind magic wrapping around the blade. For a moment, I admired his weapon, unable to see in the darkness what metal he had chosen.

We chased it down the hallway until it was wedged against the wall and our sharp metal points.

Seven disappeared, crossing the distance through the Shadow Vale and stabbing at the demon.

One of its legs severed, and it screamed out in pain. “Filthy sneak!”

Its voice caused the hairs on the back of my neck to stand on end. I dashed forward, my blade calling for its first taste of demon flesh. The white metal shone as though it had its own light, sapping it from my own magic. “Seven, it’s my kill!”

I yelled at my extremely skilled dark mate.

He glanced in my direction and the demon took the chance, grabbing Seven with two of its remaining legs, webbing shooting from its backside onto him. Two fangs extended from the jorogumo’s mouth, aiming for Seven’s body.

I swung my odachi down onto its head, slicing into her beautiful face, black blood squirting from the wound.

It dropped Seven, skittering at me now, but I swung my blade in a circle, slicing off the ends of the two legs that tried to grab me. Black blood splattered over me, acidic holes forming in my clothes where it landed. I ignored it as I stepped back, holding my weapon handle with both hands as I stabbed it in the abdomen and twisted the blade within it.

The jorogumo froze and sputtered, its legs curling in on itself as it twitched into death. The blue fire of Hell consumed it, lighting the hallway and filling it with the smell of rotten eggs.

My blade absorbed the black blood as I turned around and sheathed the weapon. Unable to withhold my animated jump of zeal as Enko, Kairos, Rhys, and Damon looked on. Damon gave me a wide smile.

“She’s quite something, isn’t she?”

he asked the others. “An angel of darkness.”

They all glared at him, but he pulled out a black handkerchief and tossed it over to me like their eyes weren’t shooting daggers at him. Like it didn’t bother him at all, even though I knew it did.

I caught the piece of cloth and when I looked back at Seven who was trying to wipe the sticky web off himself, I struggled to withhold my laugh. “I think Seven needs it more than me.”

We continued forward, finding several pods of spider webs hanging from the ceiling. Snacks the jorogumo had planned to eat. I pulled out my dagger and carefully cut away the webbing from one of the ones in front. My mates rushed forward to the others.

A mouth appeared and I sheathed my dagger, using my hands to rip open an air hole for the abnormally pale gray human. Enko helped hold the person as he reached to rip the strands of web holding it to the ceiling and guided the body to the floor.

“That’s a really nice rapier,”

I told Damon as we worked. “What kind of metal did you choose?”

Damon looked at the weapon with indifference. “I didn’t. It’s an heirloom, said to be made by the goddess herself to guard the Hellgate. Only to be used by the Lord of Nightmares.”

“Oh my goddess, stop trying to brag and impress her,”

Kairos mused scornfully.

We carried the humans down to the first floor, leaving them in the apartment building. Enko burned away most of the webbing that was left, hiding what had occurred within the city.

The humans gaped at us with confusion as we toiled. They would tell this story as if this was some delusional nightmare, and that was for the best. Because in their minds they would know the supernatural existed and nobody would ever believe them.