“Keep your hands to yourself, Leo, or I’ll paint your claws pink.” Lola turned her attention back to Nico. “How can I be of help?”
“I don’t know her, but I like her already,” Morgan said from where she sat on the couch opposite him.
Nico grinned as Lola’s face filled the phone screen, green eyes sparkling with that familiar mix of sass and knowing. “Lola, I need you to help convince these three I’m not a trafficker, or a lunatic. At least, not on weekdays.”
Lola’s lips curved into a wry smile. “You want me to lie?”
Nico groaned as he ran a hand across his face. “How quickly I forget that you and your two friends are troublemakers.” His eyes met hers and he hoped she could see the seriousness in them. “They need to know they’re going to be okay.”
Finally she nodded. “Okay. Introduce us please.”
He turned the phone so that the girls could see Lola. Nico gestured toward the girls. “Morgan, Miryam, and Akira. Ladies, meet Lola. She was right where you are not too long ago.”
Lola’s gaze softened, her voice gentle and just a little amused. “It’s nice to meet you,” she said, and Nico could hear the sincerity ring true. “First, I want to commend each of you because somehow you haven’t maimed Nico or Raphael, and that takes some serious self-control.”
“Still a riot, I see,” Raphael said dryly. “It’s a good thing I don’t have an interest in kitty cats.”
“Being on the other side of the country doesn’t mean you're safe from me, demon,” Callon said, his voice a tight growl.
“Easy, big guy,” Lola said, her hand reaching over and patting the large shoulder that was just inside the frame of the screen. “I swear you males justwanta reason to go all claws to the walls.”
“Both of these men have been polite and forthcoming,” Akira said, her eyes focused on the screen where Lola’s face is. “Neither has made us feel unsafe.”
Lola laughed. “I didn’t think they would. From the time I’ve spent with them, though they both are a tad odd, they have fought for what is good. Now, annoy you until you want to scratch their eyes out—that would make complete sense to me. But, if they’re being on their best behavior,” she paused and let her eyes bounce from Nico to Raphael and back, “well, that’s interesting enough news that I need to dig a little deeper.”
“There will be no digging,” Raphael sighed. “Just share your story so we can get on with the mission at hand.” There wasa pause as the demon glanced at Miryam, and then he added, “Please.”
Lola whistled. “Got an incubus demon tossing out manners like Halloween candy. I’ve definitely got to meet you girls in the flesh. Alright, here’s the real story. I was a waitress in New York City at a place called No Name Pizza—worked as many hours as I could get or handle. I thought my life was as ordinary as it gets. But then, one day, I had some,” she paused and tilted her head, her eyes taking on a far away look as if searching for the memories, “interesting patrons. I thought I was losing my mind, to be honest. I noticed that not everything about them was exactly human.” She looked a little sheepish as she added, “I like to read paranormal fiction and felt like my mind was playing tricks on me because of how much I read. Like I wanted so badly for the things in the books to be real, that I was just conjuring them. Thinking back on it now, even though there actuallyaresupernatural creatures in our world, I feel quite foolish for having wanted something.”
“You weren’t foolish,” Callon said, stepping closer to her so that he came onto the screen. His eyes softened as he looked at his mate with an adoration that Nico found himself jealous of. “Deep inside of you, your soul knew that you were missing something.”
Lola stared up at him, her lips tilting up slightly. “You. I was missing you.”
Callon leaned down and pressed his lips to her forehead, both of them seeming to have forgotten they had an audience. “And I was missing you, Sazzi.”
Raphael cleared his throat and after a moment, Lola turned to look back at them, but Callon’s eyes stayed on his mate, as if her beauty captivated him completely. Nico’s eyes shifted to Akira. She was staring at the phone intently, watching the interaction between the mated couple. Her lips pressed tightlytogether as she leaned forward. Nico recognized the look of longing in her eyes because he felt it in his very bones. He didn’t want to look away from her. In fact he wanted to get closer to her. He wanted to see if her skin was as soft as it looked. Nico wanted to know what she smelled like, how her lips tasted, how she would respond to his touch. Immediately, at that thought, he locked his mind down, pushing it far away. Now wasn’t the time to be fantasizing about a female he’d just met, one that had been trapped against her will, and might have a mate out there in the world.
“Sorry,” Lola said, smiling at the three females. “He can be a little intense. Actually, the whole mating thing is quite intense. But, I’m jumping ahead. Back to the strange people. I saw things like inhuman eyes, tattoos that moved, even shifting skin that resembled scales. In my gut, I knew something was different, like really different about them. That it wasn’t in my head. A couple of the guys I met encouraged me to go to a tattoo parlor called Wild Ink.” She rolled her eyes as if annoyed by the suggestion. “Now I know it was because they wanted to find out if I was an animus.” Lola moved, the phone shifted with her until she was sitting down. “I saw more strange things at Wild Ink, and felt odd things. I’d never truly wanted a tattoo, or at least I didn’t think I did. But once I started talking about it, something in me realized I did. I actually desperately wanted to get one, and when asked what I wanted, I said a lion.” She reached her hand up to the v-neck shirt she wore and started to pull it down, but Callon’s hand was there a split second later.
“Sazzi,” he said in a low, dangerous voice. Not that he was a danger to her. A Damarius male would never hurt his female. He’d sooner cut off his own arm.
“I wasn’t going to show them the whole thing,” Lola huffed. “I just wanted them to see that I wasn’t lying. You could showthem yours.” She looked at Nico and then Raphael. “Could you two please step out of view?”
“You have no problem with these females seeing me with my shirt off?” Callon asked, his voice slightly teasing and challenging at the same time.
“I didn’t say you’d be taking your shirt off,” she told him, narrowing her eyes. “But if it helps earn their trust, then yes. I’ll allow them to see it.”
Nico made a motion to Raphael, and the demon stood and followed him until they couldn’t see the phone screen. He kept his eyes on Akira, his gut tightening at the idea of her looking at another male, especially with his shirt off.
Morgan sucked in a breath and then whistled. “Umm, no disrespect Lola, but if all the guys of this race look like that, sign me up.”
“Mmm,” Miryam nodded, her eyes wide.
Raphael took a step towards the female, his purple eyes beginning to glow. Nico grabbed his friend’s wrist, forcing him to stand still. It was becoming more and more obvious that Raphael felt something very strong for Miryam. Which was surprising, considering Raphael had been mated at one time. Her death had devastated the incubus. Nico had never imagined that he’d ever look at another female again.
Akira didn’t make a sound, but her eyes definitely widened a bit.
“Are you covered, Lola?” Nico asked, his voice a little sharper than he intended.
