Damon nods. “Agreed. I think we could do it if we had a couple hours, but we don’t have that. Someone will definitely find us before then.”
“Ahem.”
We all whirl around to see the door to the stairs open and the frame filled with the forms of the demons we met at the Apalachin. Angelo rolls his eyes, groaning as his wings burst free in response. “As he said, no way we’re not discovered before we get this fucker open.”
The wily looking emo demon smirks at him. “Good old Lucian upgraded the entire campus’ security before our caliphate setone foot on it. At least, that’s what Zav figured out when he swiped the plans for all the buildings and tunnels. If you want in there, you need me and possibly a few of the others, plus your girl.”
“How do you know that?” Damon says indignantly. “You have no idea what we’re?—”
“Because he’s the heir to the Greed line and he spends more time breaking into shit in a week than all of you have in your lives.” The sarcastic drawl comes from the one they called a prince last time, and his mood looks even pissier than it was at the meeting.
Rogue pushes to her feet and eyes the group, squinting past the thief and the royal. “Where’s my buddy at? If we have to deal with you mooks, I’d like to see him. Kit’s the only one of you who has their head on straight.”
“Don’t you meanher?” The prince scowls at our girl and I move to her side, noting their curious looks at my passenger.
“Look, royal dude. I don’t know what that means, but no way do you get to be shitty to our woman. I don’t give a fuck who you are; we have enough bullshit to deal with without your attitude.” Angelo sucks air in between his teeth behind me, but I don’t care. Rogue is ours to protect and we have a lot of crap going on. I’m shooting straight with the asshole and if he doesn’t like it, oh well.
The long-haired pretty demon steps out of the pack, tilting their head. “Sorry, man. We have some… internal issues going on at the moment. Sounds like you do, too, so maybe we should find out why you’re skulking around the forbidden library levels like thieves in the night.”
“Did someone get killed in the stadium thing?” Rogue’s question makes the prince frown harder and some of the others mutter curses under their breath. She must have hit the nail on the head and that’s definitely where their ‘internal issues’ come from. Smart as a fucking whip, that’s our mate.
“Yes.”
“No!”
Both answers are given by multiple demons and it makes Angelo snort with laughter. Once he’s done cracking up, he sighs. “We’re not the fucking enemy. How about we tell you why we’re here and you answer her question truthfully?”
The prince and the biggest demon of them all exchange looks, and then the cranky royal finally nods. “Fine. You first.”
I wave at them, pointing to my baby carrier. “Well, we got attacked on the way home from my being accused of killing a teammate by some mysterious other realm douchebag. Rebel got kidnapped and Javier had to go boom to save us, hence my little friend in here. Don’t stare, but he’s like a burnt fucking chicken right now.”
“You got attacked and accused of murder on the same day?” We look at the small, bushy-tailed redhead as he peeks out of their pack. He pushes his glasses up, reminding me of D, and clutches his bushy Kitsune tails in his arms as he waits for a response.
“Affirmative,” Rogue says as she meets his gaze. “My one non-mated boyfriend got kidnapped during the brawl, too. So it has not been a good fucking week, so we decided to come here and do some goddamn research. Nothing we have up there is useful regarding the other realms we saw represented at the big meeting. I assume you guys don’t know squat about that, right?”
“No.” The prince looks even more angry and his second-in command takes over while he fumes.
“We should bring them back to the dorm for the night if this project will take much longer.”
I blink at the enormous demon in surprise. “Why?”
“Because there are many things that happen in Hell at night that you, the bird baby, and the Fae woman are not prepared for. Your twins are also not familiar with the new security. It makes sense.”
“Plus, KK will want to see Rogue,” the emo guy says as he taps his fingers on his lips.
“Do you even haveroomin dorms for four more people and a screaming baby phoenix?” Rogue eyes them, trying not to look excited at the prospect of seeing the guy who I guess is a girl that we met last time. That situation seems to be the crux of a big fucking problem with their group, so I’m just going to ignore it completely, even if we are in their rooms.
My mama didnotraise a man foolish enough to get caught up in other people’s love lives.
Seven
SLASH
Idislike bringing these people to our small area of control on campus, but I know that the little demon will enjoy seeing the brightly colored Fae. She has not had strong parental or even friendly influences in her life based on what she’s shared, and I’m uncertain that having ancient demon men be her closest buddies is the healthiest thing for her healing process. This is drawn from Zavida and Anton’s research into human psychology, of course, and I may be completely mistaken. But deep down, my gut tells me I am not.
Therefore, getting this group and the one with the gargoyle woman vetted is of utmost importance. If we can do so, Kat can have friends who are not… us… and that will help her confidence. Having my brothers as friends has helped Zavida and Anton, who I would consider the smallest in stature of our group, feel safe to train up their powers for a long time. Now they are quite formidable in their own right, and we use that secret strength as a gambit that is not advertised to the rest of the world.
The little demon is stuffed to the gills with unknown gifts that are going to amaze everyone; I am sure of that.
