Fuck.I couldn’t. Sometimes, I really hated being me.
When I flipped open my eyes, I found four demons staring at me. I jumped a little and glared when Caim cracked a grin.
“Honestly, you guys are creepy sometimes,” I muttered.
“That’s rich, coming from a human,” Caim replied with a chuckle.
I glowered at him. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“Will you two stop flirting?” Az asked in a voice as hard as steel. Shadows rippled across his jaw.
“We’re not flirting,” I said quickly, although I didn’t know why I felt the need to correct him. What did he care? He’d warned me away from Caim, but that was before I knew the truth about them. He’d clearly been worried I’d find out the truth. Now, I knew everything. So, what was the big deal?
Technically, I was very much single.
“Nevermind all that.” Caim eagerly leaned forward. “What did you decide, Mia?”
“I’ll stay.” My voice sounded alien to my own ears. I’d decided not to run away from this, but it was hard to believe I’d said it out loud. This was totally idiotic, right? Serena was going to lose her damn mind.
Az sat up a little straighter, clearly surprised by my answer. “Let me get this straight. Youdon’twant me to rip up our contract.”
“No,” I met his gaze and swallowed hard. There was a glint of appreciation in his eye, a softness that I wasn’t sure I really wanted to see. A good in him that betrayed my earlier impression. And as that good burrowed its way into my skin, I wanted to claw it out. It was easier to think of him as an asshole demon who wanted to steal my soul. Then, I could ignore the way his touch made me feel.
Not that his touch made me feel any certain way, thank you very much.
He was just hot, okay?
A slow, delicious smile spread across his lips. It was the kind of smile that could melt most women’s panties. Not mine though. I was definitely one hundred percent immune. That little tickle down there just meant I had to pee.
“Mia,” he murmured. “You have just made me a very happy man.”
Flames engulfed my face. I cleared my throat and cast my gaze around to find anything that was not his wicked face. I turned to Caim, who wore a knowing smirk. Like he could see exactly what I was thinking. Or maybe I was just reading too much into things.
“I think this means I’ve earned a bonus,” I finally said, turning back to Az. “You know, for the added danger aspect.”
“Sure.” Still smiling, he leaned back in his chair, his arms folded over his pristine black suit. “You can get a bonus. If you help us with something else.”
“Something else?” My heart flipped. “I’m not sure I want to know.”
His smile suddenly died, and shadows collected in his eyes. “We need to stop this killer, once and for all,” he said with a nod to Caim. “Show her the thing.”
Stolas let out a grunt, shaking his head.
“The thing?” I asked slowly, watching Caim jump up from his chair. He strode over to a wall where a thick black curtain hung over the windows. Only…when he pulled the curtain back, I saw it didn’t block windows at all. It covered a massive map. Like, twice as tall as me both ways. Manhattan’s famous grid stretched out across it, drowning in scribbles. String connected multicolored pins to each other. It kind of looked like something a serial killer would have in his dungeon.
“Meet the map,” Caim said proudly as he gestured at it.
“That’s deranged.” Still, I popped up from the chair and trailed over to it. The pins obviously represented the murders. I didn’t have to be a rocket scientist to figure that out. But not all of them made sense. I pointed at a few pins clustered together in the Lower East Side. “What are these for? I thought he only killed here in Hell’s Kitchen.”
“There have been some other murders downtown,” Az said quietly. “Over in Queens, too. The cops haven’t linked them, but we have. There are plenty of similarities. Every single victim has been a supernatural.”
“This is…” I quickly counted the pins and whirled toward him, my heart hammering my ribs. “At least a hundred deaths. How long has this been going on?”
“Over a year,” Valac said through gritted teeth as he joined us at the map. “We’ve tried dozens of times to catch this guy, but he’s like butter through our fingers. He always vanishes into thin air.”
“That’s what he did tonight,” I breathed. “As soon as he heard the sirens, he just…disappeared. Poof. He was gone. I thought maybe I was imagining things.”
Az spoke up from the table. “You didn’t imagine anything. He can hide himself somehow. We don’t know if he’s travelling through shadows, cloaking himself, or something else entirely. Either way, he’s proven impossible to catch.”
