“Wonderful. What is it?”
“We’ve talked it over. Valac, Stolas, and Bael agreed. They’ve gone back to the club to clean up the mess and see how much of the map we can salvage, but…we’re never going to find the killer like that. If he’s smart, he would have gone somewhere we’d never think to look.”
I folded my arms. “I don’t like any of the words coming out of your mouth.”
Caim clasped Az’s shoulders. “We think we should go through with the trade.”
My stomach bottomed out. Shaking my head, I sucked in a sharp breath and stepped back. I couldn’t have heard him right. No way in hell one of the Legion—Caim especially—would want to toss me at the mercy of a supernatural serial killer who clearly wanted me dead. There had to be another option, one that would end in no one’s death. Not Serena’s. Not mine.
Az would never agree to this. Heart squeezing, I turned to him. His words echoed in my head. I was under his protection, but…what was more important? Saving one human life or saving his Legion from having to go back to Hell and face Lucifer’s wrath?
He’d known me for all of three weeks. He’d known them for centuries.
Fuck.
Maybe it was time to run.
“That’s not an option,” Az said firmly. Inwardly, I sighed. “I’m not handing Mia over to a killer.”
“That’s not what we said,” Caim replied. “We want to set up the trade. If we do it right, we leave with SerenaandMia. And the killer leaves empty-handed.”
“And by empty-handed, we mean he’ll join Vlad where he’s swimming with the fishes.” Phenex waggled his eyebrows at me and grinned.
“You really like talking like a mob boss, don’t you?” I rolled my eyes, but inexplicably, I felt my heart soften. Just a bit. These demons were violent and rash, but they were also trying to save me and Serena. And, you know, all of humanity.
Kind of hard to think of them as evil when I looked at it like that.
Phenex pounded his chest. “I’ll make you an offer you can’t refuse.”
“You’re too late.” Caim elbowed him, snickering. “Az already did that.”
My entire face flamed. Awkwardly, I coughed and tried to find something to look at that wasn’t Az’s sculpted chest. He still hadn’t put his shirt back on, probably because it and his pants were in ribbons now. The shredded material of his shirt draped over his waist and barely hid his cock. I wasn’t sure why no one but me seemed to notice.
“How can we be sure this will work?” Az asked, changing the subject back to the new plot to stop the murderer. “We already tried to trap him. He’ll likely expect us to try again.”
“We’ll come up with a good plan,” Caim said firmly.
Az folded his arms. “What plan?”
Caim and Phenex exchanged a glance. “Well, we don’t know yet, but we have some time. By tomorrow night, we’ll have something.”
“There’s another thing you need to know, boss,” Phenex added.
“What now?” Az growled.
“You and Mia had a public argument tonight. She stormed off. As far as the supernatural community knows, you’ve broken things off.” Phenex grinned again, but then forced his lips into a frown when Az shot him a glare. “We’re running out of time to get an invite from Lars. If you don’t do something soon, we’ll lose our chance to get into that ball.”
“We don’t have time to worry about this,” I said, throwing up my hands. “We need to focus on finding Serena.”
“We’re going to have to worry about both, darling,” Caim drawled. “You and Az need to have a public date where we know Lars will see you. As soon as possible. Like…tomorrow. While you’re out getting your invite to the ball, we’ll huddle and form a plan for the killer.”
Phenex nodded. “After your date, you can come back to the club, and we’ll fill you in on the plan. We can do both. Easy peasy.”
“This sounds like the opposite of easy peasy,” I said flatly.
“As much as I hate to admit it,” Az finally said. “They’re right. If we don’t get an invite to the Covenant Ball by the end of this week, we aren’t getting one. All of those human lives will end.”
“Fine,” I relented. “On one condition.”
