Vex shrugged. “She’s got enough wolf in her to survive. But if you want her to do the really sick shit, you’ll have to train it in.”
“Noted,” I said, folding the paper into my pocket.
The rest of the auditions blurred together. Some were barely legal, some too old to care. I picked three more, but none with the promise of the brown-haired one.
I watched them go, then signaled the bartender for another double. The glass was in my hand before I finished the nod.
The world was full of tiny possibilities, but there was only one I wanted to cage. When the time was right, I’d bring her here. I’d chain her to the stage and let her watch as I trained the others. She’d learn. They all learned.
The whiskey burned down my throat, hot and mean. I liked the pain.
I closed my eyes and listened to the hum of the lights. The world spun, and I spun with it, anchored by the promise that soon, very soon, I’d have everything I wanted. All I had to do was wait.
But I was never any good at waiting.
The first time you see a demon, you know it, even before your eyes catch up to the rest of your senses. The air gets thicker, like you’re inhaling molasses, and every nerve in your body lights up and says “danger.” Demons don’t walk into a room. They take it,strip it of oxygen, and leave only enough for themselves. I knew as soon as I felt the prickle on my neck that tonight’s appointment had arrived.
The auditions were still cycling onstage when Adramal, Maltraz’s right hand, stalked into the club’s main room. Two others followed, identically tall and broad-shouldered, with the kind of symmetry you only get in a manufacturing plant or a particularly sick joke of genetics. All wore black suits, matte as coal, tailored to show off the impossible shapes underneath.
Adramal’s skin gleamed like wet obsidian, almost blue in the club’s lights. His eyes were black on black, with no separation between the iris and pupil—just a well of void with a dot of faint silver at the center. He scanned the room and found me instantly. His lip curled. I’d met a lot of monsters, but few as hungry as him.
I shot a glance at Vex, who had just finished making Alexis demonstrate how to lick a dollar bill off the floor. Vex recognized the cue, abandoned her experiment, and started toward me. I flicked my hand for Dagger and Rook to join us. Dagger was always nearby, shadowing Vex, his braid swinging like a noose. Rook emerged from the back, silent as always. He took up position behind me, arms folded, face an expressionless slab of flesh.
I stood to greet Adramal as he approached, the three of them moving with the antigravity precision of parade generals or sharks. They stopped at my table. The two silent ones flanked him. All three exuded a reek of ozone and sulfur, like a thunderstorm about to break.
Adramal fixed me with his abyssal stare. “You have business for us.”
I gestured to the table, which Vex had cleared in anticipation. “Let’s sit. The details require focus.”
He didn’t move, not at first. “We required focus the last time, and your plan fizzled like a spent cigarette.”
He meant the bomb. I felt my jaw clench but forced a smile. “Unforeseen circumstances, not incompetence. We have a replacement plan.”
Vex and Dagger slid in beside me. Adramal and his bodyguards stood, looming over us.
I gave them the best smile I could muster. “The new plan is three-pronged. Precision, speed, and deniability.”
Adramal’s mouth moved, almost a smile. “Maltraz has gotten word. Explain it to me.”
Vex looked a bit uncomfortable hearing that Maltraz was privy to our plans as she unrolled a cheap paper blueprint, creased and smudged. “We traced the water supply lines for Iron Valor’s compound. There are two access tunnels miles from the main gate, guarded by nothing but a dead coyote and rusty locks.” She jabbed at a point on the printout. “We are in the process of procuring a deadly toxin that we plan on introducing into their water system. It starts to work upon ingestion.”
I cut in. “It’s shifter-specific. Engineered to target our breed and nothing else. If anyone outside the compound gets a taste, they just puke and move on. In phase one, we’ll introduce it to the outlying water lines. It’ll spread through that part of their population in just hours. Upon ingesting even a small amount, it will begin to make them weak. Start breaking down their bodies until they can’t get out of bed. Eventually, it shuts down all of their vital organs.” I looked Adramal in the face.
Adramal’s head dipped, a barely perceptible nod. “Go on.”
Dagger, always eager to brag, picked up the thread. “Then, in 24 hours, we’ll infect the second line. They’ll have no idea how it’s spreading since it won’t hit everyone at once. By then, people will be on the verge of death. Their Alpha will be showing signs of the illness, and they’ll know the end is near for all of them. He’ll be helpless to stop it.”
Adramal’s gaze bored into me, stripping the lies from the truth. “And what of the girl?” he said. “Maltraz says she is the only one that matters to you.”
Vex looked down, but not before I caught the spark in her eye. She thought I was weak for Parker. I wasn't weak for her. I just knew a valuable tool when I saw one. The fact that I wanted to sink my cock inside her tight pussy was just a bonus. Maybe it was the fact that she belonged to Iron Valor that made me want to ruin her.
I put my hands flat on the table. “The girl is mine. I’ll take her personally. There won’t be anyone who’ll be able to stop me.”
Dagger said, “You really want her that bad? She’ll get sick along with the others, anyway.” There was acid in his voice. “You have your pick of the club, boss. Why her?”
I looked at him, at the table, at the reflection of the demon’s smile in the polished black. “Because taking what used to belong to Iron Valor and making it mine gives me a special satisfaction. Plus, I’ll have the antidote. She won’t stay sick.”
The table went quiet. For a second, all you could hear was the DJ testing the sound system in the empty main room, a pulse of synth and a dying echo.
