Page 8

CHAPTER 8

GIRL TALK

SHANNON

O nce Hope, Sierra, and Billie had walked out of Azazel’s healer hut, the three of them laughing and chatting, I flag them down.

Sierra waves. So does Hope. Billie, being Billie, just changes her path so that the three of them head over to my house instead of hers and Glaine’s.

It’s been at least two weeks since Billie’s been back to Nuit. I greet her with as much enthusiasm as I do the other two: by throwing my arms around them each, one after the other.

As soon as we get our greetings out of the way, Hope starts vibrating in place, her obvious excitement ready to spill out before she squeals, “Look, Shannon. It’s Whiskey Rose!”

Oh, boy.

I knew that Hope was a huge Whiskey Rose fan. I also knew that Dagon’s mate Sierra is Whiskey Rose. I already had to listen to Kennedy gush about her first meeting when they came to Nuit, looking for Billie after Glaine basically stole her from Sierra’s apartment back in Manhattan.

I didn’t know that Hope and Sierra were acquainted, but you know what? I’m not surprised. With the exception of Susanna, Duke Haures’s mate that he keeps sequestered and hidden in the capital, all the rest of us eventually form bonds due to being a Sombra demon’s mate.

Considering Sierra doesn’t look annoyed at Hope, I figure one has sprung up between the two.

Instead, Sierra gives her an amused grin. “Hope. I thought we got past this.”

“I know.” Hope’s excited expression turns a touch sheepish. “And, I promise, I’m not like this when we’re back home. It’s just… I can’t believe I’m friends with Whiskey Rose!”

“Yeah. Actually… not gonna lie. I was kind of wondering about that. Did you two come here together or was it just luck that there’s five of us in Nuit together.”

Me. Kennedy. Billie. Sierra. Hope.

There’s never been so many of us at one time, and maybe I’m just being suspicious after the rain last night, but… I don’t know that seems kinda omen-ish.

Prophecy-ish.

Hm.

As Billie launches into a quick explanation how she actually arrange for the two to meet so that they could each rely on the other on Earth while the rest of us were in Sombra, I try to pay attention. It’s a good idea, I admit. Glaine, Billie’s mate, and Sammael, Hope’s mate, had worked together under Duke Haures for centuries. Since Billie decided to stay in the demon world, but Sierra had insisted on sticking it out on Earth a little longer, she might need someone who knew what she was going through.

So she had Glaine ask Sammael find Dagon so that Hope could become friends with Sierra. It obviously worked, even if poor Hope can’t shake some of the stars out of her eyes when she remembers that the woman with the gorgeous face, trademark braid, and slight belly bump starred in two movies recently while getting ready for her worldwide music tour.

Hell, I was a little shell-shocked the first time I met Sierra. I’ll admit, I’ve never been all that into pop. Even when I was younger, I was a total musical theatre kid instead. I knew who Whiskey Rose was, of course. I even knew she’d been in a girl group with two others before they broke up and she went solo.

Did I recognize that Billie was one of them? Or that the doppelseers’ feisty redheaded mate was another?

Nope.

Kennedy did. I bet Hope knows, too. Me? They’re just Sierra and Billie… even if there’s no better person to ask for the tea than a woman whose face is constantly plastered over the tabloids.

At Hope’s urging—while Billie rolls her eyes—Sierra launches into a story about how the famous playboy… and her infamous ex… Jared Turner found himself in a sticky situation involving a hot tub, a jar of honey, an Olympic skier, and her hockey-playing boyfriend.

She’s just winding it down, satisfaction in her voice as she says that he spent the last two months trying to erase his mugshot from the news, when Billie suddenly straightens.

Sierra’s former manager/forever best friend hates Jared Turner. Probably not as much as she does her ex that tried to capture Sierra at gunpoint, but it’s still a lot. I thought she’d be just as satisfied to hear that Turner was in legal hot water. And maybe he is, but she’s also distracted.

“Six,” she says, directing it at me.

Huh? “What was that?”

“Just correcting something you said before, Shannon. When you said there were five of us… five human women in Nuit. Not anymore.” She jerks her chin over my shoulder. “It’s six.”

Turning to look behind me, my stomach drops when I see the knock-out with the long, wavy, deep-red hair smiling as she walks toward us. She’s flanked by two demons. Each one is in his shadow form, a pair of bright purple eyes gleaming out from the inky black depths.

I bite down on my bottom lip nervously.

So, Apollyon wasn’t worried about the rain, huh? Sure, he didn’t send for Duke Haures or anything, and maybe he didn’t contact Lucian and Damien, either—because, you know, psychics —but they’re here now anyway.

Wonderful.

Even better, I’m not the only one who doesn’t seem too thrilled at the appearance of our new guests.

Sierra sucks in a breath, her cheeks hollowing. A soft sigh escapes her as Hope’s brow furrows, glancing from Sierra to Tandy and back.

Meanwhile, Billie lays her hand on Sierra’s shoulder.

Sierra shakes her head. The universal signal for ‘I’m fine, don’t worry about it.’

Billie thins her lips and looks down her nose at her best friend. And that says ‘Bullshit’ without her ever having to utter a word.

It hits me a moment later. Oh. Oh . I knew about this. It was more ancient gossip, back from the days the three of these women were in their girl group. Like twelve years ago, maybe.

When Sierra actually was dating Jared Turner… until he cheated on her with Tandy.

That one act put a schism in their band and their friendship that never healed. Thr33peat split up, Sierra became Whiskey Rose, and the song she wrote about Jared Turner betraying their years-long teenage relationship— Heart Barely Used —became her break-out hit.

They hadn’t spoken in years. Sierra and Tandy, I mean. At least, not until the doppelseers were searching for their mate about six months ago and they had Malphas draw the woman that they saw in their head.

Tandy Lewis.

Their one true mate—and the woman that Sierra has been avoiding ever since Tandy came to live in Sombra.

Jeez. What does it say about me that I wanted entertainment and, welp, it looks like I might just get it.

Finally. At least that ’s something to take my mind off of the rain.

MALPHAS

Over the many cycles that we have been bonded, my mate has taught me a lot. Today I’m reminded of the concept of ‘female conversations’, or as she prefers to call it: girl talk.

It all started with Amy, Nox’s human mate. The first time we went to her quarters, Shannon disappeared into another room to speak with her, leaving me and the former Nuit hunter to stand together, waiting for our mates to tire of each other’s company and return to their males.

Since then, every time Shannon and I visit the village of Connecticut, the same thing happens. Shannon and Amy talk, and now Nox questions me on what I have learned about being a provider for my mate.

We don’t hunt for our mates in the human world, though Nox has made it his purpose to explain to me how. Sometimes he and Amy would even join Shannon and me on our trips to Sombra so that I could put his lessons to use. While baking for my mate makes her happier than bringing her one of the prey beasts that I hunted with Nox, the hunter is right. I must do everything I can to show her how much I love her.

In Jericho, they have something similar to the Sombran ungez. Wee baby cats known as kittens. I don’t hunt them, though I help them, and Shannon always beams at me when I rescue another baby cat. Some nights, while we were waiting for Alana to be born, she would tell me she knew she picked the perfect dad for her kid because of the way I treat the kittens. I never would’ve thought to do anything else, which is probably why I’m the clan artist instead of one of the hunters…

I don’t need to be. My mate adores me the way that I am, and she’s not only the perfect mother for my child. She is my heart. My light. My flower. She is tiny, but mighty, and will always be the one to stand before me, defending me and our daughter. She is loving. Smart. Amusing. My love.

And, blunt as ever, she has no issue telling me when she’s had enough of my company.

Earlier tonight, as the main moon started to shine through the shadows in the sky, Shannon put Alana down for a nap after dinner, then shooed me outside, sending me to the village square. With Sierra and Hope staying over another night—and the doppelseers hesitant to return to their enchanted house with their mate—the six human women decided to gather in front of our house for another round of ‘girl talk’.

It’s a lovely night. The heat warms you down to your shadows, and though it’s been days since the gold moon rose, the main moon is shining brightly, cutting through some of the usual gloom. The women are either sitting on our porch or milling around out front as they chat, with my mate positioned near the slightly open window in case Alana coos and calls for her mother.

I said my hellos to Sammael, Dagon, Lucian, and Damien earlier. I waited to see if the doppelseers would mention the fleeting rainfall from last night, or even tell us if there had been a change to the prophecy involving Alana, but instead, the other males all act as though there’s nothing to fret about even though they acknowledge that it did happen—and it’s part of the reason they’ve stopped into to visit Nuit.

The other? A riddle from Damien that this is where their mate is meant to be. Since she easily joined in on the ‘girl talk’—while notably avoiding Dagon’s fair-haired mate—the doppelseer must be right, though I can’t stop remembering the sting of the raindrops falling against my skin.

I am the only one. It seems as though everyone I spoke to seemed to be in a fine, worry-free mood. In fact, Apollyon welcomed the doppelseers’ sudden visit by deciding a village feast was in order. With Loki and Kennedy’s spawn almost here, and Azazel confirming that Dagon and Sierra’s spawn is doing well, the clan leader and clanmother had the feast planned and hosted for dinner tonight to celebrate our growing clan, plus our honor in hosting the doppelseers and their mate.

And if the sense of camaraderie has anything to do with my mentioning to Apollyon earlier this morning that I can no longer stand to see some of my fellow demons treating Shannon and Alana with anything less than a friendly graciousness otherwise we might have to relocate to a village that will , I’m sure that’s all just a coincidence…

Lilith is fond of my family. Apollyon listens to Lilith, and if Duke Haures learned that any of his subjects were wary of my daughter because she was born like him… born without shadows and with pale, colorless skin… then I’m sure he might find it in him to visit Nuit again.

And I doubt anyone wants that .

After the feast, the females decided to return to their earlier conversation. Loki went off to talk with Apollyon and Sammael; the two mages said they weren’t concerned with the report of rain that I gave to Apollyon earlier this morning, but between them and the clan leader, they wanted to discuss what it might’ve meant—and how to stop it from happening inside of Nuit again.

Lucian and Damien disappeared, too. Since they left Tandy behind in the care of Sierra and Billie, I know they haven’t used their enchanted house to relocate to another part of Sombra. Instead, the doppelsseers are probably doing things that only another clan seer might understand. And since Caldor, our last seer—and the one who told me I’d find my forever with a mate that blooms in a sun that never shines in Sombra, something I never understood until my Shannon summoned me to her—had moved to Soleil to stay with the one true mate he finally divined for himself, we don’t have one.

Sometimes, I wish I could see. That, instead of using giz and paint to draw the images in my mind’s eye, I saw something that would help keep my family safe.

It’s not to be. Instead, I worry about a future I can not fight, though if the gods are merciful, maybe I can change it…

The rain has changed everything; that, plus how I upset my mate. I tried to protect her, to shield her, the way a gentle Sombra demon could, but I was wrong. I messed up. I should’ve known better, and my shame is hard to hide as I stand with Dagon and Glaine, the other two banished from our mates’ ‘girl talk’ session.

The duke’s head guard splits his time between Mavro where he still serves Duke Haures, and Nuit, where he helps Apollyon keep Nuit safe. With Billie’s kin come to visit with her, Glaine has also extended his stay in town. That doesn’t mean he hasn’t sent his own message to Duke Haures about the inexplicable, sudden rain. He told me earlier that he had; so did Apollyon, with Loki’s help. But since the duke has stayed in the capital with his mate, Glaine and Dagon both agree that he doesn’t think that the prophecy is unfolding just yet.

He’s not concerned. I try not to be. And maybe if I wasn’t worrying so much, I would’ve noticed much sooner that something… something was wrong.

At first, I think it’s just me. I went more than a thousand years without mating. The most I did was rub my cock to the promise of the female meant for me, but even that lost any enjoyment over the centuries. Tasting Shannon’s cunt… feeling the way she wraps around my length tightly whenever she invites me into her body… the first time we mated, I knew that that was what I had spent the last millennium waiting for. Her affection, her love, her trust as I penetrated her, and the pleasure that consumed me when I found my one true mate.

I will never tire of pleasuring my female. Even now, my mouth waters to lap at her cunt. My cock is so hard, I add another layer of shadows to my coverings to hide how desperate I am for her all of a sudden. Usually I can control myself much better than this. I will always want my Shannon, but I’ve never felt as though I’d claw through my own skin to get inside of hers.

I grit my teeth. Folding my fingers, I jab my claws into the flesh of my solid palm. A trickle of blood stains my skin from where I accidentally nick it. Transforming my hands to shadow and back, my hands a hazy black to their usual red, I heal the injury.

Neither Dagon nor Glaine notice.

Odd.