Iris
In the past, the compound’s foyer and its grandeur always instilled a feeling of adulation—something to aspire to. Now, as I stride forward in a daze, every polished surface and ostentatious decoration makes my skin itch because I only see them as the glorified façade that hides the rot beneath. The thing about rot is that it doesn’t matter how many times you paint over it because it will fester and spread until the foundation crumbles.
I round the corner to the library, and as I’m about to enter through the double doors, the image before me makes me stop in my tracks: Grayson is embracing my aunt near her desk, one hand wrapped around her middle, the other cradling her face. He bends to kiss her passionately.
WHOA!
Cringing in awkwardness, I put my back to the wall. I know Grayson is good looking, but I never imagined my aunt going for someone almost twice her age. Well, if she’s happy, who am I to judge? I never in a million years thought I would fall in love with a demon, either. Besides, my aunt’s love life is none of my business. To be honest, I was worried about her. In all the years since she took me in, I’ve never seen her go on a date or talk about a man other than her long-lost fiancé, Owen.
This is awkward as hell, so I peel myself off the wall. I’ll hide in one of the rooms on the second floor and then come back in twenty minutes. However, when I take a step back, I hear my aunt mentioning Erik’s name. I freeze. Then drop into a crouch, pretending to tie my shoelaces.
“I can’t believe they’re saying Erik did all of those horrible things. Do you think he—”
“He didn’t,” Grayson snaps. “They’re all lies. Timothy tracked Erik’s phone to a club in the Raven district called Sin. He also hacked an ATM camera on that street that recorded him passing by around one a.m. That’s his last known location. He didn’t pass the ATM again, and there aren’t any other cameras on that street that we know of. The club is owned by the Obsidian Conclave.”
“Did Britney know about this?”
“No, Erik told her he was going to have a quiet night in and go to sleep while she was on her shift. When she came back, he wasn’t there, so she assumed he was training at the compound. He often trains at that time; he likes to have the place to himself. Britney only started to worry after a few hours when he wouldn’t respond to her messages.”
“Why in the world would he go to a club owned by the Conclave? All Order members know the rules,” Aunt Josephine muses.
“I don’t know, but I will find out. That fucking Elite demon, Kaiden Black, must have had something to do with it. I feel it deep in my bones. He’s lying, but we can’t prove it. Everyone knows he has the chief of police in his pocket, so they must have fabricated the story about my grandson being a serial killer to get away with his disappearance. He said there was a fire that wiped out all the surveillance footage. We interrogated all of those filthy beasts working for him. However, they’re all sticking to the same story. So, since Kaiden Black refused to offer any support in the investigation, we captured one of the dark creatures that work for him—a female wolf shifter. We will get to the bottom of this. If need be, I will torture her for answers myself, but I already assigned Cain to do it.”
The air stuck in my lungs escapes in a rush.
“Are you sure about this? The Celestial Treaty…we can’t—”
Grayson cuts her off, voice steeped in venom. It’s so potent, it coats my skin like syrup. “She’s a lesser being, nothing more than an abomination. No one cares if something happens to her. At least no one from the Council will. Lightborn are blessed by the mighty archangels, doing God’s work. A wolf shifter scum doesn’t count for much. And they took my grandson from me. I’ll kill them all if I have to.”
What. The. Fuck.
I’ve never heard Grayson talk in this manner. His poisonous words are a deadly mist as they spread through the air, forcing the veil shrouding my eyes to drop. Sam was right; no one chooses how they are born or made into this world. All of them—Ava, Logan, Malik, Dominic, and Emily—are dark creatures, yet they have been nothing but nice to me. Moreover, the guys have risked their own lives for me, when I’m not even sure any of the hellseekers here would. Who knows what would have happened to me if they hadn’t come into the abandoned cathedral, guns blazing? This much hatred…what if Erik learned it from hisgrandfather? After all, Grayson raised him after his parents died.
Female wolf shifter. Fuck me. It better not be Emily. And not only is torture Cain’s specialty, but he’s a fucking psychopath. Inhaling a lungful of air, I try to calm down my hammering pulse that’s wreaking havoc on my eardrums so I can concentrate on their conversation again.
“I wish I knew how to help you,” my aunt’s voice travels through the open door.
“Just having your support is enough,” Grayson replies, then kisses her again. They’re not subtle, so I don’t understand how I haven’t seen them together before. Maybe it’s new.
Straightening, I tiptoe down the corridor. Once I’m out of their earshot, I fly down the stairs to the basement where the armory and interrogation room, alongside the detaining cells made specifically for demons, are located.
As I reach the doors of the armory, a blood-curdling scream bounces off the walls. Then someone speaks. I recognize that voice. And if I’m right…Fuck. Light on my feet, I shuffle toward the sound, then peer over the corner to catch a glimpse inside the interrogation room through the one-way mirror in the wall.
Shitshitshitshitshitshit.
It’s Emily. She’s tied to a chair, her wrists and ankles pinned by pure silver chains that burn through her skin. The smell wafting from the interrogation room is downright vile—as if someone is making a gory soup of melted plastic and human remains. Her once gorgeous, bouncy curls are now matted on the side of her head as sweat courses down her deep amber skin in rivulets. Blood trickles in a steady stream from one of her nostrils.
If I thought I felt the ravaging effects of guilt before, it has nothing on the way it wraps around my lungs like barbed wire, folding them in two and almost forcing me to my knees. Because that should have been me. Emily is being punished for somethingIdid. The fucked-up part is that they kidnapped herwithout proof. Her only transgression is being a dark creature and working at the bar where Erik was last seen. And now she’s being tortured.
What will happen to me if they find out I killed Erik?
Fury pushes the guilt aside as I spot Cain. He resembles a predator cornering its next meal while circling her chair. A cruel smile curves his lips upward as though this is one of the best days of his life.Sick fuck. The deep scar running down from his hairline through his missing right eye and stopping at the base of his neck makes him look all the more demented. He got it when a ghoul clawed at his face. His lean figure only adds to that image because despite him not being as muscular as the other hellseekers, he somehow looks deadlier—like a double-edged sword meant to cut through skin and bones.
With a sardonictsk, tsk, tsk,Cain stops in front of Emily, fists her hair, then pulls on it hard while bending to be at the same eye level as her. “I’m going to ask again. Where is Erik?”
She spits in his face. “I don’t know!”
Cain backhands her, sending her head flying to the side. Emily doesn’t make a sound, but my hands still ball into eager fists. This motherfucker needs a lesson from someone who isn’t tied to a chair, defenseless. He straightens, using the sleeve of his Henley to wipe the gobble of spit and blood. “Ah, mutt. You will learn it’s not a good idea to provoke me,” he says as he strolls to the table in the corner of the room to take something. I can’t see what it is since his back is facing me.
