It must suck to have to wear the thing all the time, though. That, and the fadeddermoireon his right arm had to be a constant reminder that he was a half-breed Seminus demon with all the things that went wonky when a Sem bred with a human. Lore and his twin sister, Sin, were anomalies. Demon DNA gone wrong. But they’d gotten beyond their dark and twisted past, finding respectable jobs, mates, and family.
Pretty cool. Mace had always admired their strength.
Outside on the stone patio next to the fire, Wraith was waiting, his blond hair rustling in a smoky, citrus breeze. “Hey, kid,” he said as Mace took a seat at the round table. “What’s up?”
Lore grabbed a couple of beers from the outdoor mini-fridge and handed them out. “You okay?”
The bottle hissed as Mace wrenched off the top of his brew, crafted by Stryke’s company to allow Seminus demons to get a buzz. There really wasn’t anything StryTech didn’t have its fingers in. “I need some advice, and you both come at things differently.” He paused, unsure how to broach the topic.
“Female trouble, guaranteed,” Wraith tapped his bottle against Lore’s as they exchanged knowing looks.
Mace peered down at his own beer and blew out a long breath. Fuck. “You know how I’ve been best friends with Blade and Scotty since we were kids, right?”
“Obviously,” Lore said.
Wraith took a swig of his beer. “I still don’t know how you and Blade have kept it platonic with her.”
“We made a pact.”
“Really?” Wraith studied him for a second, and then one corner of his mouth raised in a knowing smirk. “You want to break it, don’t you?”
Mace stared into the longneck, wishing it promised a trip back in time instead of an alcohol high. Why wasn’t Stryke working on time travel instead of space travel?
He’d be willing to bet that Blade was having similar thoughts.
“It’s already broken,” he rasped. “It was Blade.”
“Ah, shit,” Lore muttered.
Wraith drained his beer and reached for another. “Is your shiner part of the story?”
Mace tested the tender tissue beneath his eye with a finger. Still hurt. “In a way.”
“What the hell?” Lore chucked his bottle cap into the trash. “How could they do that to you?”
“It’s not like that,” Mace said, hating that he had to defend Blade. “It wasn’t intentional.”
Wraith snorted. “What, Blade accidentally fell on her while they were both naked?”
That was not a vision Mace needed in his head right now. “They were trapped together on a mission, and he didn’t have his suppressant.”
“Nuh-uh. No way. How did he not have his injector pen?” Wraith demanded.
That was a sticking point for Mace, as well. Pun not intended.
How could Blade have been so careless? “He says he took his backpack off for just a minute. Some sort of flood happened or something, and he lost it.”
“Do you believe him?” Lore asked, but Wraith was clearly in the skepticism camp.
“Of course, I believe him.”Of course. Blade had never lied to him.
Except when he kept what had happened between him and Scotty from Mace.
Lore seemed to consider that. “So, are they together now? Are they a couple?”
“They said they aren’t.” Mace forced himself to unclench his jaw. “They swear it won’t happen again.”
Amused, Wraith tossed a piece of wood on the fire. “Yeah, right.”
