“That’s right,” Lord says, his tone tight. “We’ll find the demon and return the item.”
“Finders keepers,” Mac tries again. “It’s his fault. He was showing it off at the bar. He didn’t care about it like I do. I’ll take care of it.”
“Aww,” Lake says before Nico shakes his head.
“We can’t take everything we want anymore,” Nico says. “Maybe from mortals but fucking with supes is bad news.”
“Nico’s right,” Arson says. “Ask me how I know.”
“The vampire nest from a few hundred years ago you told me about?” Dray asks, smiling.
Arson nods. “Vampires have excellent taste in art, but they are not to be fucked with.”
Lord sighs. “So how do we find the demon? I don’t want Mac used as bait. This demon sounds pretty tricky, and visiting the demon realm to pull our brother back isn’t on any of our to-do lists.”
“I found some information,” Dempsey says. “How to summon a specific demon. We need his true name, of course.”
“I think Xazedose is his real name,” Mac says.
“Then we need a witch, so we could ask Dahlia for help with that. Also, I found three spells that could work.”
“Let’s do that then,” Hemingway says, beaming at his mate with pride.
“Well,” Dempsey continues, his cheeks turning pink as he pushes his glasses up his nose, “It should be noted that demons don’t like to be summoned, so he’ll probably be pissed off.”
“Great,” Nico says. “He’s already pissed off.”
“I might have a lead,” I admit, drawing all eyes to me. I shrug. “What? I know some demons.”
“You’ll fuck anything, won’t you?” Arson teases, but his tone is pure affection.
I almost want to gloat, but my dragon growls softly instead, the implication pure protection. Dude. My dragon has lost the plot. I’m starting to wonder if Montrose is playing some kind of game with me, making me all demon-dicknotized.
I shake my shoulders to clear my thoughts. “I know a place I can go where they sometimes hang out. I’ll go tonight and ask around.” My ulterior motive tastes sour on my tongue, but I am killing two birds, as they say. “If no one has anything, we can try the summoning.”
Lord nods, but he’s still looking at me curiously. “For now, Mac will stay with me. My guest suites are as secure as my hoard room.” He turns to our brother. “You’ll be safe there and still have some autonomy.”
I’m expecting Mac to argue, but he nods, his erratic energy calming down. “Okay, Lord.”
His acceptance makes it clear how scared he really is. No dragon wants to be contained, but this is best for him and he knows it.
As the meeting breaks up, Lord closes in on me.Please for the love of fire don’t ask me why I’m acting so weird.
“Call me if you need any backup,” he says.
“Of course.” I lift the hand with the ring on it. “Little bro has good taste.”
“And bad instincts. Maybe some time with us can help.”
“Yeah. I figure if I’m wearing the ring, the demon might sense it and show himself too.”
“Smart.” He searches my eyes and I feel the questions he doesn’t ask. “Be careful,” is all he says.
“Always.”
MONTROSE
It’sfive minutes after midnight and still no sign of Valentino. My ego wants to disappear, stinging from his apparent brush off, but some annoying tug in my chest keeps me planted on this stupid barstool, fending off the throng of supes attracted to my pheromones. I’d turn them off, but fuck me, I’m too excited to see the damn dragon to control it.
