Page 43 of Wings of Ashes (Wings of Ashes #1)

CHAPTER

A s Bael’s hand slapped over the door and stayed there, preventing her escape, Nix was reminded of how unfair his alpha speed was.

The sex demon, who had a knife hidden on his body at any moment, was not the kind of person Nix thought he was if he worked with her future captor. Why would the sex demon have humanity?

She had thought of him as a—relatively—harmless threat to her. But now?

He could be truly dangerous.

What does he know? She wanted to pin him to the floor and demand answers. He might like it if she did.

She failed to pull the door open with his weight against it. She pulled and pulled. Nothing. Heavy, muscular demon .

“You had a traumatic night,” Bael said, blocking her exit with his broad shoulders. “You bled , and unlike us, you don’t heal fast. Eat something. I’ve got eggs, bacon, ham, and thick, hot sausage—more than one kind.” Bael winked.

Nix nibbled on her bottom lip. She was suspicious of the incubus, but he did not know what she knew or what she saw upstairs in Ryker’s room. He also did not know she had come from the future or her history with those shifter poison needles.

And she did love food—years of starvation did that to a person.

She also wanted to get answers. Was he involved somehow with her future captor? What other reason existed to explain it?

They had an exact replica of the shifter poison needles that she used to be on the receiving end of, each week.

“If you don’t eat something, I will have to eat you,” Bael threatened in a cheery voice that made it obvious he wanted her to take him up on his offer. He flicked his tongue to make the oral sex implication even more obvious.

Her thighs clamped together, but she said, “I…I need to get going.”

“Baby, I could eat you out in minutes.”

Nix’s blush deepened to a darker crimson, and the familiar pulsing began between her legs. How was her body not satisfied after last night? Just because it was a dream?

He could be linked to my future murder! This was not the socially acceptable “bad boy” kind of sex demon she had originally thought.

Bael rubbed a thumb over one of her pink cheeks and whispered, “So pretty.”

Her heartbeat continued to quicken as he touched her. She held her breath, trying to calm herself.

But he noticed. Bael’s small smirk curled down as he listened to her fast heartbeat. Thierry also frowned and stepped closer to her.

“Why do you…smell like fear?” Bael asked darkly.

“Did you feel pressured into what happened last night?” Thierry asked in a voice just as gut-wrenchingly remorseful. “I would have never— Please know, I didn’t realize—”

“N-No,” Nix said, shaking her head. The dream had been euphoric. Just not the new artifacts Nix saw in Ryker’s room. Nix pressed her lips together, trying to hold back her questions for Bael.

Bael continued staring at her, analyzing her face with his dark red eyes. They acted like lasers, slicing away any pretense or feigned expression, trying to see her at her barest and most vulnerable.

“What’s going on in that brain of yours, baby?” he asked, sounding suspicious now as well—of her.

Shit . Nix stared right back at him, trying to read through his expression. Was any of his flirting—or occasionally sweet words— real ? Had it all been an act to get close to her?

If so, why had he never done so in her previous life? She was the one who signed up for two of his classes in this new life.

In this second chance, I promised myself to be brave .

Nix tipped her chin up like a queen, narrowed her eyes onto him, and asked, “What is phase seven?”

Bael’s red eyes darkened into a shade of garnet as his entire body tensed at her words. He tilted his head and inched closer to her, so his earthy, sensual alpha scent played with her senses.

“Ah,” Bael said. “Someone was snooping this morning.”

“Who are you? Really?” Nix asked in a hoarse voice that hinted at the inner violence and betrayal twisting inside her stomach. “What are your plans with me?”

“What is she talking about?” Thierry asked, gaze shooting between Bael and Nix.

“Plans with you?” Bael echoed as he lifted a hand and trapped a lock of her hair between his fingertips.

“Why do you have a needle of shifter poison?” Nix revealed what she saw.

Bael blinked, arched an eyebrow, and clucked his tongue. “Now, how do you know what’s in that needle?”

“I…” How did she explain without losing her upper hand? No one can know I lived through a possible future.

“Are you working with them?” Bael snapped at her, losing his flirting and carefree demeanor. His voice whipped down around her, vicious and threatening.

“Them? Who?” Nix asked. Who was he working with?

“Someone tell me what is going on right now,” Thierry demanded, but Bael had never been a good “listener.”

“Do you know what they are doing?” Bael asked Nix cryptically.

“ Who? ” she exasperated.

Bael’s hand shot forward, releasing her hair to clamp around her neck. His blade blurred in his other hand as he lifted it to her chin.

Nix inhaled sharply as the blade pressed to her skin. Still, she feigned confidence. Bravery. Fuck him if he thinks a little knife compares to years of torture .

“Tell me how you know about the poison, baby,” Bael murmured seductively in her ear.

“Release her. NOW,” Thierry commanded the incubus.

“I suspected a faculty member was helping work behind the scenes,” Bael said. “Never pegged you for the type, Stoney.”

“Someone needs to provide me with context for this conversation immediately,” Thierry told them.

“How did you know the needle was poison?” Bael asked Nix again, tuning out the professor.

“I am supposed to trust you when you are threatening me?” Nix asked him.

“Haven’t you heard the phrase ‘Always trust a demon,’ huh?”

“The poison…” Nix swallowed as Bael pressed the blade harder to her skin. “I’ve ingested it before.”

Bael’s blade lifted ever so slightly as he listened. “How…” Apparently, the sex demon was smarter than he let others see because he said, “The elixir. The one you and Bowen were talking about… The one that could damage your ability to shift—”

“Yes,” Nix grated.

“The Oadess family gave you that elixir, didn’t they?”

Nix replied, “Why would you think that?”

“Because I think Council President Oadess has been using the same poison to disappear rare shifter species off the streets and from the academy because he feels threatened by their powers.”