“Nothing concrete. The trail’s faint, broken.”
I nodded. “I thought as much. Our best option until you can pick up something concrete is to head to Asmodeus’s quadrant,” I said, ecstatic when my voice came out strong, if a little hoarse from all my drunken crying. “Since he’s super tight with Beelzebub.”
Lothar’s brows lowered. “Can’t see that fucker sharing anything with us.”
Ursula grinned, and it was wicked. “Asmodeus loves our Roxy. If anyone can get him to talk, it’s her.”
“I’d planned to carry Rox,” Lothar said, “so we could move quicker, but if you’re coming, we better get going, his quadrant’s four or five days’ travel if we’re walking.”
My stomach flipped. How the hell was I going to get through this?
“Nah, we planned for that,” Ursula said. “Gus is coming. Maddox said he could spare him for a couple days. I’ll text and tell him to meet us at Kurgan’s quarters.”
Lothar nodded, and we headed through the caves. My gaze skimmed down his muscled back, down to his tight ass and strong legs. The male had a swagger that was pure arrogance, and he didn’t even try—it was built in. He was created with that confidence and it never wavered. I forced myself to look away and smiled when we rounded the corner and saw Zurriah.
She was standing at Kurgan’s door, about to go in, then changed direction when she saw us, striding over and giving me and Urs a hug.
“That for Kurgan?” she asked, looking down at the bags Lothar carried.
“Yeah, from Jag.”
Zuri had made a huge difference in her brother’s life, now that she was finally able to be with him. She visited him every day, had taught him to read and write, and was working with him on his self-control. Lucifer had expanded his quarters, and he had a few more comforts now that he didn’t immediately tear everything to shreds. She was also doing what Willow had done with the hounds aboveground, watching movies with him and teaching him about emotion and social interactions. He still had outbursts and was still more in tune with his beast than any hound I knew, but he was making progress.
She unlocked the door.
“I’ll take it in,” Lothar said.
Now that the other hounds knew about Kurgan, they were trying to get to know him, to make him feel part of the pack—not easy when he was forced to be locked up down here. When the door opened, I caught a glimpse of the main room. One of the first names he’d asked Zuri to teach him to spell was Lenny. Now his female’s name was written all over the walls in different colors, along with beautiful sketches of her and of things and places I’d never seen before.
Kurgan was on the other side of the room, his skin slick with sweat, doing pull-ups. He did that a lot, and I wasn’t sure if it was to cope with the helplessness and rage he had to be feeling or if one day he planned to tear it all down. Either option was equally possible.
Lothar disappeared inside with Zuri, and by the time he came back out, Gus had arrived.
Loth lifted his fist for Gus, and the much younger hound pounded it.
“Brother, good to have you with us for a couple days,” Loth said.
“Mad said if I didn’t get the fuck out of his face, he’d toss me in the burning river,” the younger hound said in his matter-of-fact way.
Lothar’s lips twitched. “Yeah? He say why?”
“I ask too many questions,” Gus said.
Ursula smirked. “Questions are welcome here, pup. Anything you want to know, you just ask Loth. That’s what big brothers are for. Isn’t that right, Loth?”
Gus was still basically a pup, only around a year old. Hounds made by Lucifer, like Gus, were created full grown, body and mind. We considered him a pup, but mentally, he was more like a naive, emotionally stunted, overly horny twenty-year-old human, only way more aggressive and, on occasion, bloodthirsty.
Lothar shook his head at her. “Sure.”
Gus brightened. “I have one now.”
“Of course you do,” Loth said.
He nodded. “When you mount a drystan demon, which hole do you stick your co?—”
“Not the right time, pup,” Loth said while Ursula cackled. “Later, when we stop to rest. Right now we need to shift and get moving.”
Gus nodded, stripped, and shifted. Urs gathered his clothes and shoved them in her pack. Lothar stripped as well, shifted, then lowered to his belly and turned my way, his golden eyes hitting me. I had to stop myself from taking an abrupt step back.
