Page 16 of Taken by the Twins (Sombra Demons #7)

CHAPTER 16

THE END

LUCIAN

O h. Wow.

Where did she come from?

So fixated on Billie and her mate, I guess didn’t notice that there was another couple standing just behind them. The other demon is in his dark shadowy form, though I can still make out his purple eyes—the same shade as my demons’—and his pair of double horns, just like those Billie’s mate has.

The other woman is human, though, and she’s not only super pregnant, she’s bouncing slightly and clapping her hands as she looks at me.

I want to tell her to stop. Won’t that cause damage to the kid? Like, bounce too much and it might kickstart labor or something?

Then again, I’ve never been pregnant. Don’t really plan on it any time soon, either, so if her mate or even Billie aren’t about to stop her, I’ll keep my trap shut.

I’d put her about my age, maybe a little younger. She’s cute, with her heart-shaped face and wide brown eyes. Her hair is a dark blonde that falls in gentle waves down her back, and her shadowy mate hovers next to her, a silent warning not to upset his pregnant partner.

I step back into the protection of my two mates, then wave. “Hi.”

She looks sheepish at my less than enthusiastic welcome. “Sorry. Billie said I can come out and meet you, but I needed to be cool after I freaked out meeting Whiskey Rose. But can you blame me? That’s Whiskey Rose! But you… you’re awesome, too. I mean, One, and… okay.” She takes a deep breath, silencing her squeal. “I’ll shut up now.”

Billie rolls her eyes, but there’s no malice in it. In fact, she looks charmed by the other human’s reaction, though not even a little surprised.

“This is Kennedy,” she tells me. “She’s only been in Sombra for about a year in human-time, and she was a huge Thr33peat fan growing up.”

Wow. I probably should’ve figured that out when she called me ‘One’.

What are the odds? Fate works in funny ways sometimes because here we are: Sierra, Billie, and I were formed into a girl group when we were young teenagers, and now we’re all here in this demon world, with a fan.

“It’s so nice to meet you.”

“Are you coming to visit Billie? We have to sit down and chat!”

Billie’s forehead furrows. “Your ankles acting up again?”

She shrugs even as her mate lays his hands on her shoulder, muttering her name softly. Waving him off, she says, “It comes with the territory. I sweat, I don’t even remember a time I wasn’t pregnant, but it’s fine. Though I won’t say no to a chair right now.”

Billie points at one of the houses in the not-too-far distance. “Me and Glaine live closer to this spot than you and Loki. Why don’t we bring Tandy in and chat?” She glances over at her mate. “I’m sure you want to speak to the doppelseers, demon. Unless you invited them?”

Damien clears his throat. “The doppelseers offer invitations. We don’t seek them.”

“But we will accept them anyway,” adds Lucian. “Yes. We’d like to speak to the guard. The mage, too,” he says, referring to Kennedy’s mate. “Loki. Come. You can trust our mate and Glaine’s to watch over your female and spawn. We see a healthy birth, all things considered. Your fears are unfounded.”

Kennedy reaches behind her, fingers disappearing into the shadows. “See? Told you. Go with the other guys. I get to finally meet One!”

Part of me wants to tell Lucian and Damien not to leave me with the superfan. It’s been a long time since I’ve had to deal with one, but Lucian nods. “We won’t be far, dear one.” Ah, hell. How did I not notice he called me that? It’s not dear one , is it? It’s dead One ? He brushes his claw over my cheek. “If you need us, follow your bond.”

“I will, Lucian.” Looking over his shoulder, my gaze finds Damien. “Love you.”

“Your heart is ours,” rumbles Damien.

Sierra had a heart barely used—until she found her demon.

Billie has a heart full of love for her mate.

And me? It belongs to a pair of demon males.

Using our bond, I send him a mental image of the three of us twisted up like fucking pretzel. Lucian’s need is like a warm caress, while Damien’s is a bonfire.

Now they have a reason not to leave me at the mercy of my old friend and a superfan, I think, as my grin widens. “You know it.”

It takes about fifteen minutes before Kennedy inevitably mentions Jared Turner.

I knew it was coming. Even if Billie bit her tongue long enough not to mention that prick, Kennedy would’ve been the target audience for the tabloids and the gossip rags when the story broke about me ‘stealing’ Sierra’s boyfriend.

Of course she’d want the story straight from the horse’s mouth.

Instead of talking about the long ago past, though, I talk about my latest run-in with him. Kennedy squeals again as I tell them both about how Damien went after him, Lucian and I followed our initial bond to Manhattan, and how I finally got the tiniest bit of revenge on Justin for letting me take all the credit for screwing up when it takes two to tango.

Kennedy thought it was hysterical, and once I confirmed that no demons came looking for my mates to clap them in chains, Billie seems to enjoy hearing about how we knocked Jared down a peg or two.

By the end of the story, I can’t help but laugh a little myself as I admit, “It was great. Damien had him pissing his pants before he hit him in the head with that stupid award.”

“Too bad it wasn’t a Grammy,” Billie says. “They pack a much bigger punch, according to Sierra.”

Before I ask what she means by that, she gets up from the couch where the three of us have been sitting. Across the front room, there’s a window, and she peers out of it.

“Okay. Now, which one is Damien?”

Joining Billie by the the window, I see the four demons standing together: Glaine and Loki on one side, facing off against Lucian and Damien as Lucian say something to the others. I can’t hear them, but I know which of my males is mine, even at this distance.

I point at Damien. “The broody, sexy one right there.”

Billie frowns slightly. “And Lucian?”

“The sweet, sexy one standing next to Damien.”

“So what I’m understanding is you can tell them apart, but they’re both sexy,” my old friend teases.

Of course. “You can’t?”

She blinks at me. “They’re identical twins, Tandy. And they’re shadows. I’m lucky I can pick out Glaine, and that’s only because no one else in Nuit is a soldier with green eyes.”

“My mate has purple eyes, too,” pips up the superfan. “But it’s easy to tell Loki apart from other mages because he has two horns.”

“Glaine does, too,” Billie adds. “It’s supposed to mean they’re powerful demons.” She squints at my mates. “They only have one.”

That’s not necessarily true. As a pair of twins who shared their essence their whole lives before giving it to me, technically they do have two pairs of horn. They just each have a pair on their own heads.

Not like I need to one-up Billie and her friend. Maybe a decade ago I would have, but that’s the old Tandy. And while that part of me will never die—especially since I’m immortal now—I don’t need to rub it in their faces that my twin mates are the longest-lived, most respected seers in all of Sombra, plus the only set of demons that exist.

Why do that when I can simply give them my most lascivious grin and say, “Who needs two pairs of horns when you have two cocks?”

Kennedy lifts her hand, covering her mouth as she giggles.

Billie, like she used to whenever I made a comment like that, simply rolls her eyes.

I just grin at them.

And that’s when, over the sudden, stunned silence, we hear someone shout out near enough to the window to catch our attention.

My mates, too. As one, Damien and Lucian turn in the opposite direction. Loki—two horns with purple eyes—shifts on his heel, racing for the door; no doubt he’s coming inside for his pregnant mate. Glaine—two horns with green eyes—starts to jog in the direction that my demons are staring in.

Right. Because he’s the guard, and if he’s Billie’s mate, he’s sure that she can take care of herself. That, or she’s safe in the house while he goes to see what’s causing the ruckus outside.

I’m sure my mates would want me to do the same. But, thanks to the essence exchange, they have to know that keeping me safe and sound, out of sight and out of mind, is never going to work for me. Hell, I’m the chick who said ‘fuck it’ and ran into the shadows to find Damien, and even though I understand now just how close to being lost he was when I found him, that didn’t stop me from letting him have me however he wanted.

There’s a reason why Billie and I always got along. Though Sierra was usually the instigator, with Billie having to bail me and Sierra out whenever we got into trouble, Billie is determined. She’s fearless, too, and will never let anyone tell her what to do.

She also has a motherly instinct a mile wide. I’m actually kind of surprised that she’s not the one ready to pop out a kid, like Kennedy is—and, from what I understand now, Sierra, too—but she always took care of us. First, Sierra and me, while we were in Thr33peat, then Whiskey Rose as Sierra’s popstar persona’s manager.

Now she has Glaine, and as soon as he takes off, so does she.

I’m curious. Can’t help it, and though I wait just long enough to help Kennedy get awkwardly off the couch when she flailed a little, we follow after Billie.

Loki meets us on the front porch leading into Glaine and Billie’s home.

“Kennedy,” rumbles the purple-eyed demon. “Stay near.”

She nods, and the three of us hurry over to where Damien, Lucian, Billie, and Glaine are.

We’re not the only ones looking around. Multiple demons—and demonesses that look nothing like the males—step out of their houses, conferring the way that nosy humans do back home.

“What’s going on?” asks Kennedy.

“It’s Shannon,” Loki tells her. Shannon? Who’s Shannon? That’s a human name if I ever heard one.

Kennedy’s hand drops to her belly. “Is it time?”

Her mate nods. “Malphas came running into the village, carrying his human. The clanmother and clan leader went to his quarters. Azazel is there now, too. We must stay here and give them their peace and privacy if we expect the same.”

I’m so confused. I mean, yeah, I’m the newbie here, but it’s like I’m the only one who has no clue what any of that means.

Even my mates seem to understand. I don’t sense any confusion coming from them, and when I turn to find them both, I’m stunned by how absolutely bright their eyes are. They’re still purple, but like they’re suddenly high-beams, you’d almost mistake them for white.

“The child is coming,” intones Lucian.

“Duke Haures is coming,” adds Damien.

“The end is coming,” they echo at the same time.

I’m sorry… what?

I just found my demons. What do they mean, the end is coming?

And why, when I reach through the bond to understand what they mean, is desperation to keep me forever the only thing I feel? I thought we had forever?—

Something is happening to me. My head feels hazy. My heart is ponding. My fingers are tingling?—

The child is coming.

Duke Haures is coming.

Holy fucking shit, if this prophecy doesn’t change like Glaine’s did, the end is coming .

As the echoes of my mate’s prophecy comes skittering down our bond, I shake my head and fist my hips.

The end is coming?

Huh. Not if Tandy Lewis and her doppelseers have anything to say about that .