I’m here, but have two more clients. So won’t be available for another two hours.
Nico’s fingers flew across the screen as he responded.That will work. I’ll meet you at the back of your shop.
See you then.
“We’ve got two hours until Verion is available,” Nico said, pulling up another contact on his phone and sending a text. “That gives you and me time to do some hunting.” He glanced at Raphael.
A moment later there was a knock on the door. Nico walked over and looked through the peephole. Sable stood there, her eyes scanning back and forth in the hallway.
Nico pulled the door open, and she stepped inside.
She held up a cell phone. “It’s a burner. Should be safe to use for a few hours.”
“Thank you,” he told her.
Sable glanced at the females, her eyes fierce as she spoke. “You can trust these males. Do what they say, and you’ll be fine. Don’t be like the stupid females in movies who think they can save themselves.” She turned on her heel and headed back outthe door. “I’ll stand guard out here. Corin is doing as you’ve asked. Do your thing, Shaman, and bring Wolfgang and his traitorous mate to their knees.” The door closed behind her with a small click.
“Well, she seems nice,” Miryam said, clearing her throat.
“You think everyone is nice,” Morgan sighed. “That’s what got you in this mess in the first place, remember?”
“That’s a story I need to hear,” Raphael told her, a slight smirk on his handsome face. Then he turned to Nico. “You ready?”
Nico nodded. “Let’s get what we need. Sable will keep you safe.” He held out the phone to Morgan, who seemed to be the leader of the group. “I’ve programmed my number and Raphael’s number in here. Only call or text if it’s an emergency.”
She nodded and all three females stood up as he and Raphael headed for the door.
“Thank you,” Akira said, her words coming out quickly.
He looked back at her, letting his eyes roam over her face, memorizing every line.
“For taking time to explain everything to us,” she continued. “You could have just locked us up here, not worried about how it would make us feel, even if you were keeping us safe.”
Raphael opened the door and stepped through it. Nico followed. But before he closed it, he responded to her. “You should have never been put in a situation to feel unsafe. Our people did that to you. The people I am responsible for took you and scared you. I will do everything I can to make it right.” Then, he shut the door before he said something more that might terrify her worse than being abducted. Declaring his undying affection for her after only knowing her for an hour probably wouldn’t make her feel safe. He’d have to show her and hope that she wasn’t an animus. Nico didn’t know if he could stand theidea of her with another male. Not that he had any right to feel that way.
“You want to talk about it?” Raphael asked him as they passed Sable and headed towards the stairs.
“Doyou?”he challenged back, knowing what he’d seen when Raphael had looked at Miryam.
“Where do you think we should search first?” The incubus asked, instead of answering the question.
Nico laughed, a little wild and chaotic as he felt the thrill of the hunt rising in him. He could feel Las Vegas pulsing outside the walls. Since stepping foot into that room and laying eyes on Akira, the future cracked open—a little wild, a little perilous, and brimming with possibility.
Chapter Five
“You can hide. You can lie. You can even attempt to fight back. But, I will find you. I will expose you. And I will defeat you. The promise I made long, long ago as a shaman–to protect the kingdoms from corruption, to serve Visata above all others, and to defend the innocent—still stands. You have been weighed and judged and been found lacking in every way.” ~ Nico
The plan was simple—on paper. In practice, it felt like stepping onto a tightrope strung above a pit of hungry wolves. They would split up: Raphael would prowl the clubs, hunting secrets with a smile that would charm the knickers off a nun, while Nico would slip into the heart of the beast—right into Wolfgang’s office. You’d think it would be in one of those casinos that looked like a mausoleum for broken dreams, but actually itwasa building with broken dreams. Those so broke they couldn’t go to the mausoleums.
They paused when they reached the bottom of the stairs, standing beneath the flicker of a tired lightbulb that buzzed likean angry bee overhead. The air smelled of old cigarette smoke, industrial cleaner, and the faintest trace of magic—an alchemical tang, like ozone and wild herbs, that always clung to Chaos territory.
“Don’t get killed,” Raphael muttered, rolling his cuffs with a precision born of centuries of feigning indifference and seduction. His eyes—a demon’s eyes, shimmering violet in the gloom—fixed on Nico with what could be called concern, or at least as much as Raphael allowed himself to care.
Nico flashed a crooked grin, the kind that promised trouble. “Same to you, demon. And try not to charm anyone into a coma, yeah?” He hesitated, the words hovering on his tongue, words that would reassure his friend that what he needed to do wouldn’t mean he was any less of the good man Nico knew him to be, but he swallowed them down, settling for a two-fingered salute before turning away. His boots made no sound on the threadbare carpet, but the city’s pulse seemed to echo in his chest with every step.
As he moved closer to the door with the red “Exit” sign over it, the sound of the casino seeped up through the concrete—slots clanging, voices rising and falling in a tide of hope and desperation, the distant bass of music pounding out a heartbeat that belonged to Vegas alone. He slipped through the service entrance and out into the night, the air thick and heavy, sticky with heat and a thousand sins.
Akira’s name pressed against his ribs, relentless and insistent. He could still see the way she’d looked at him—chin high, eyes dark with a wariness that made him want to bare his soul just to earn her trust. He’d known her for less than a couple of hours, but already she haunted him, a possibility that shimmered just out of reach. Maybe she was a shaman, maybe not. Maybe Visata would let him have this one good thing. The thought of her with someone else—some other male’s mark onher skin, some stranger’s voice in her ear—made his hands curl into fists. He tried to shake it off as he walked, forcing his focus onto the job.
