Fallen by Suzanne Wright

CHAPTER TWO

Four months later

Khloë slammed down the phone and whirled around, placing her hands on her hips. “That is the fifth cancellation we’ve had this week. The fifth.”

Harper tilted her head. “Be honest, what bothers you more? The number of cancellations, or the fact that it’s an uneven number?”

The OCD receptionist sniffed. “I don’t see how that’s relevant.”

Raini rolled her eyes and went back to wiping down the checkered partition that stood between her station and that of her business partner, Harper. Devon, who did both tattoos and piercings, had her own station adjacent to theirs. They were all readying the place to be shut down for the night, which was why the scents of citrus cleaner and disinfectant now almost completely overrode the smells of paint and ink.

“Seriously, this isn’t good,” Khloë pressed. “It’s one thing to know that someone’s trying to get people to boycott Urban Ink by sending our clients gift cards for other tattoo studios. It’s another to know that it’s working.”

Putting away her equipment, Harper sighed. “I know. I’m still struggling to understand why anyone would bother to make this play. Well, I can see why the owners of the other tattoo shops around here would bother. But Knox confirmed that it wasn’t them.”

Probably by scanning their minds, Raini thought, adjusting the position of her station’s black leather recliner. “Whoever’s behind it could be someone that one of us pissed off.” She exchanged looks with both Harper and Devon, who each nodded.

Khloë frowned, her head jerking back. “Why are you all staring at me?”

“You fuck with people like it’s your job,” Devon pointed out.

“It’s good for the soul,” defended Khloë. “Anyway, I’m leaning more toward the theory that it’s an indirect attack on our lair.” She looked at Harper. “I mean, three of the four people who work here are part of said lair, and you’re the co-Prime of it. Moreover, you also own half of Urban Ink.”

Raini kind of missed the time when they were all part of the same lair. But after Harper met and mated with her anchor, Knox, she transferred to his lair and now ruled it alongside him. Devon had later mated one of his sentinels, Tanner, and Khloë had mated another of the sentinels, Keenan, so both girls had also switched lairs.

Knowing her girls were so happy with their mates, Raini was thrilled for them all, but she suspected she would have felt somewhat … left behind, maybe, if Khloë had moved out of the neighborhood and into Keenan’s apartment. Instead, he’d moved into the imp’s home, which was very close to Raini’s.

“Knox thinks the same,” said Harper. “He’ll keep looking into it. We’ll find out who’s playing these games eventually. They seem seriously petty to me.” The sphinx’s gaze slid to Raini. “Speaking of petty … is your sister speaking to you again yet?”

Raini felt her lips thin. “No.” But Demi had frozen her out so many times over the years that it no longer stung.

Harper shook her head. “If she’s going to be mad at someone, it should be Dwain the Dweeb, who needs to go home yesterday.”

Oh, Raini couldn’t agree more. Her sister’s anchor was an irritating asshole at times. “He wants to spend a little more time with his family and my sister so they can get to know his brand spanking new mate.”

“Grams said she got the impression that Dwain wants it to bother you that he’s now mated,” said Harper, whose grandmother—Jolene Wallis—was the Prime of Raini’s lair.

“I can’t think why he would. It’s not like his past feelings for me were real.” Raini crossed to the reception area and used the remote control to switch off the wall-mounted TV. “Succubae snares wear off unless the succubae wills them not to, and I didn’t snare him on purpose—he just fell into it.”

“It happens. Some demons are susceptible to them,” said Devon, cleaning her station’s large wall-mounted mirror. “If your sister had been a succubus like you and your mom instead of an imp like your dad, Dwain probably would have been enchanted by Demi instead.”

“Probably.” Raini placed the remote on the coffee table, careful not to knock off the portfolios. “I hate that he doesn’t see how much he’s hurting Demi right now.”

“What I hate,” began Khloë, “is that your own sister blames you for the fact that she’s hurting. It is not your fault that Demi fell for her anchor. It is not your fault that he fell for you. And it is definitely not your fault that he’s now mated to someone else.”

No, it wasn’t, but … “In Demi’s mind, if I hadn’t rejected him, he wouldn’t have moved away, and she and him would have gotten together eventually.”

Harper frowned. “But if you hadn’t rejected him, Demi would have hated you for dating the man she loves, so there’s really no way you can win here.”

“Oh, I know. But she never lets reason or rationality get in the way.” Most imps didn’t, to be fair.

“Do you think Dwain knows how Demi really feels about him?” asked Devon, idly fiddling with a pen from the reception desk. The hellcat scowled when Khloë snatched it from her and put it on a very specific spot on her desk.

“I don’t think so,” replied Raini. “He cares for her a lot. If he’d known this news would hurt her, he would have told her in private, not sucker-punched her with it by just turning up unannounced and saying, ‘Meet Harmony, my mate.’”

“I don’t like Demi, never have,” Devon said to Raini. “Mostly because she’s always been pissy toward you. So I’m finding it hard to feel bad for her right now, but I’ll keep trying.”

Raini snickered. She and Demi were like chalk and cheese, and they’d never gotten along. The whole mess with Dwain only made it worse. “To her credit, she hasn’t been rude or unwelcoming toward Harmony. She hasn’t tried to taint this for Dwain. Only those who know her well can sense she’s hurting.”

“Well, let me tell you, Grams is furious with him for being so blind to it,” said Harper.

“Yeah, I picked up on that easily enough. She often looks at him as though she’d like nothing better than to skewer him with a spear.” It really was a pleasant visual.

A cold, familiar psyche touched Raini’s, and then Maddox’s voice flowed into her mind. How was work today?

Coming from anyone else, the mundane out-of-the-blue question might have seemed like an awkward attempt at small talk. But one thing Raini had learned about Maddox in the past four months was that there was no small talk with him. If he asked you a question, it was because he wanted to know the answer.

He generally didn’t bother with hellos. He got straight to the point. Unless, of course, he was toying with someone. He could turn on the charm then, but it was just a mask. He didn’t wear it with her. She liked that.

It was fine, she replied. As per their agreement, she always responded now.

Don’t forget you’re due to come to my club tomorrow.

I won’t.

His mind briefly sort of stroked hers, and then he was gone.

She would have thought their little meetings would be awkward and strained, but they weren’t. Probably because he only ever asked her simple everyday questions as opposed to anything too personal. She suspected he already knew most of her private business; that he’d already compiled some sort of dossier on her—Maddox provided that service for people for a fee.

Initially, she’d expected him to attempt to seduce her, given his past sexual telepathic whispers. But he’d never once flirted with her or said anything suggestive, although a glitter of heat had occasionally flashed in those usually vacant eyes.

Maybe he’d quite simply decided that introducing sex into the mix would only complicate things. She’d have to agree with him on that. Which both disappointed and relieved her, because she was so very conflicted where he was concerned.

She wanted to dislike him. Wanted to hold that image of him being cruel and malicious in her mind so that she wouldn’t lament that he didn’t want the bond. But it was hard to truly dislike someone when you couldn’t help but feel sorry for them. He was a demon who carried the very potent blood of a powerful archangel. How hard must it be to feel torn on the inside by both dark and light—two such extremes?

You’d exist in the gray.

It explained why his emotions rarely seemed to fluctuate and why very little seemed to touch him. He often made her think of someone walking around an art museum bored out of their mind. He saw everything. Noted everything. Processed it all like it was data. But he didn’t really see it in a way that allowed him to appreciate it. And that seemed so sad.

Her inner demon wasn’t so sympathetic. But then, it wasn’t a creature who could feel compassion or empathy. It was too predatory. Too callous. Too dark. And exceedingly pissed that their anchor wouldn’t just claim them already.

“Hello?” sang Khloë, waving her hand in front of Raini’s face. “Raini, this is base, do you copy?”

Snapping back to the present, Raini poked the petite woman’s shoulder. “Smartass.”

“You had that ‘I’m not home right now’ look in your eyes that told me you were having a telepathic chat with someone. Was it Maddox?”

“He was just checking in, as usual.”

“Hmm.” Khloë folded her arms. “Grams said that Demi was smug on hearing that he doesn’t want to bond with you.”

“Your Grams said it to you, or she said it to someone else and you were eavesdropping?”

“Let’s not wander off the subject.”

Raini snorted.

“Is Demi all smug and shit?” asked Devon, frowning.

“She likes the idea that my anchor rejected me, yes,” replied Raini.

Harper’s face darkened. “But he hasn’t rejected you. He’s rejected the bond, which isn’t the same thing at all. Doesn’t she know he assigned you a guard—one I rarely notice, she’s so damn good at subtly watching over you—and had a hi-tech security system installed at your house?”

Both acts had originally annoyed Raini, but he’d ever so kindly reminded her that she’d agreed not to obstruct his attempts to keep her safe. That seemed to be an umbrella term that would let him get away with all kinds of shit. Like when he’d had a protective spell put on her car—it wouldn’t stop a crash from happening, but it would keep the vehicle intact, which would mean she’d suffer less injuries.

“Oh, she knows,” Raini replied. “But she sees that as him simply giving the impression that he cares.”

Harper’s brow creased. “Maddox isn’t interested in people’s impressions of him.”

“Well either she hasn’t heard about that or just prefers to believe what brings her joy.” Raini shrugged. “Whatever the case, she’s pleased that he doesn’t want to bond with me.”

Devon shook her head. “You know, with any luck, she won’t come back from her upcoming cruise. Maybe the sea will take her.”

“It’s more likely to spit her back out.” Khloë twisted her mouth, her gaze locked on Raini. “I was sure Maddox wouldn’t hold out long; that he’d choose to form the anchor bond at some point. But then you made your little deal with him, so now he’s getting the best of both worlds and has zero motivation to give in. Don’t you know better than to make deals with shady dudes like Maddox Quentin?”

“I wasn’t going to let you die.” Raini raised a hand. “No, don’t start giving me grief again, Wallis. I made a choice, and I don’t regret it. You’d have made the same choice if the situation was reversed. You can’t say you wouldn’t have.”

“Actually, I can, because I don’t know exactly what you promised him,” said Khloë. “Without all the info, I can’t make an educated guess as to whether or not I’d truly have agreed to it in your shoes.”

“I told you the conditions of the agreement.” Mostly.

“No, you told us some of them, not all.”

Raini had held back the final condition. Why? Because they’d be furious that he’d request such a thing when he wouldn’t even bond with her. More, they’d tell Jolene for sure, who’d be equally furious. And when someone was bat-shit crazy right down to the bone and liked to demolish entire buildings when their temper was running high, it was not a good idea for them to be in a fury about anything.

Oh, Jolene would understand Maddox’s reasoning. She just wouldn’t care. And Raini would really rather not be stuck in the middle of a dispute between her anchor and her Prime.

Besides, what would be the point in bemoaning the situation or having anyone take him to task over exploiting her desperation that night? Raini would never try to renege on a deal, so it wasn’t like anything would change.

Khloë sighed. “Look, if you’re keeping the rest from me because you worry I’ll feel bad that you agreed to this deal to save me from dying, then don’t.”

Raini rested a hand on the imp’s shoulder. “If there’s one thing I’ll never do, Khloë, it’s worry that you’ll ‘feel bad’ about, well, anything. Guilt has never quite been your thing.”

“It’s a wasteful emotion.”

Raini’s inner demon happened to agree with that.

Khloë sighed. “I worry about you, that’s all. I felt his power flow through me and … it was just so cold, Raini. Cold, but it burned and prickled. A little like chilblains. And now you … Look, don’t get me wrong, I’m happy to be alive, I’m grateful he helped. But he’s mega powerful. Like scary, mega powerful.”

“But,” Harper cut in, “fate wouldn’t have paired Raini with him if it didn’t feel she could handle him.”

Raini inwardly snorted. Maddox wouldn’t be easy to deal with unless he was in the mood to be. Which seemed to be never, from what she’d so far observed.

The bell above the door rang as it swung open. Knox entered with three of his sentinels—Tanner, Keenan, and Levi. Naturally, each of the first three males made a beeline for their prospective mate and delivered a few soft, lingering kisses.

“You ready to go home, kitten?” asked Tanner.

Devon smiled at the hellhound. “Almost, pooch.”

“I’ll just lock the back door,” said Harper, who then headed to the rear of the shop.

“I gotta set my desk to rights,” Khloë told Keenan, who frowned … probably because, to anyone else, the desk looked the epitome of organized.

Watching as Knox and Keenan moved to the side and began talking quietly, Raini felt her mouth tip up. After Khloë almost died, there’d been a short period of time during which the two males hadn’t spoken to each other. Raini hadn’t understood why. Well, not until she overheard Harper and Keenan talking in the sphinx’s office here at Urban Ink a few months ago …

“He could have saved her, Harper,” Keenan insisted. “He could have stopped her from being hit by the death orb, but he didn’t. Aren’t you pissed? She’s your cousin.”

Harper sighed. “Keenan—”

“Hey, I get it, okay. Knox is so good to you and Asher that it can be easy to forget that he’s not good. I know he doesn’t have a basic reflex to help others. I know that you and Asher are his priorities and that he’d never help someone—not even himself—if it negatively affected his mate or son. And exposing to everyone that he could call on the flames of hell would sure as shit not be good for the family you three have built.”

Raini felt her mouth drop open. There’d been rumors that Knox had such an ability, but Raini had hoped they weren’t true, because nothing was impervious to the flames of hell—they could destroy the freaking world.

“I do get all that, Harper,” Keenan went on, “but—”

“But Khloë’s yours, and you love her, and you don’t want her to die,” Harper finished. “You’re wrong in thinking that Knox hesitated that day because he didn’t want to expose his ability—he knew he could erase the incident from people’s minds.”

“Then whydid he hesitate?”

“I was speaking to him telepathically just before Jolene’s shield crumbled. He wasso angry, Keenan. There we all were—tired and injured from a damn battle during which his own son had been fighting alongside us in his astral form … and all because someone suspected—simply suspected—that Knox possessed the ability to call on the flames.

“Right then, Knox hated and resented that he had it. The last thing he wanted to do was use it, but hewould have if he’d known that Jolene’s shield would fall. He couldn’t have known it would. I hadn’t. I hadn’t thought we’d need the flames. I mean, there was a bunch of us against one man. None of us could have known that Jolene’s shield wouldn’t survive the final attack. Her shield had cracked a few times during the battle, but it hadn’t faltered until then. Knox hates now, with the benefit of hindsight, that he hesitated. You and I both know he wouldn’t have held back if he’d thought Khloë would otherwise be hit by that last death orb.”

Keenan said nothing for a few moments. “Why didn’t he say any of this to me when I ripped him another asshole?”

“Because he feels that he let you down, so he’s not looking for you to forgive him or excuse what decisions he made that night.” Harper paused. “Put yourself in his shoes. If it had been me who Enoch wanted to kill, you’d have been worried for me, but your priority would have still been Khloë. The fact that she was unsafe would have been all you could think about. Fearing for the life of a person you love fucks with your head and makes it hard for you to be rational. You wouldn’t have put Khloë’s life before mine, would you?”

Keenan exhaled heavily. “No,” he admitted, the word seeming torn out of him.

“So you can understand why he didn’t put her before me?”

Another heavy exhale from the incubus. “Yeah. And I get why his head was all kinds of messed up after seeing Asher there. I don’t think I could have thought straight either, in his shoes.”

“So then maybe you could stop hating him.”

Keenan softly snorted. “I don’t hate Knox. You can’t hate someone you walked through fire with for years to come out the other side. He’s saved my life more than once.”

“And mine. He’s almost lost me several times. It plays on his mind that there’ll be a ‘next time’ and I won’t survive it.”

Keenan sucked in a long breath. “I’ll talk to him. I can’t say things will get back to normal fast, but I’ll talk to him.”

“That’s all I’m asking.”

Raini had walked away after that, so she wasn’t sure what else had been said. The conversation between Knox and Keenan must have gone somewhere good, because they’d begun speaking again shortly after Harper spoke with the incubus. Things had seemed a little awkward at first, but not so much now.

She hadn’t told anyone what she’d overheard, and she never would. If it was well-known that Knox could truly destroy the world so easily, many demons would band together to kill him. She doubted it would get them anywhere, but they’d still try it. Others would get hurt and potentially die.

Some secrets just couldn’t be shared. Raini knew that better than anyone.

Ready to leave, she crossed to the coatrack near the vending machine and slipped on her jacket. “Hey, Levi,” she greeted the reaper.

The guy possessed that elusive badass quality that was all kinds of hot. There’d never been any chemistry between him and Raini, though.

He didn’t seem affected by her succubae allure, which was part of why she felt comfortable around him. She suspected he was good at treating it as background noise because one of his closest friends was also a sex demon.

He tipped his chin in greeting, his steely eyes sweeping the space. “Where’s your bodyguard?”

Raini flicked her hair out from under her collar. “You always ask me that, and you always seem so disappointed in me when I can’t give you the answer.”

“I’m not disappointed in you. I’m disappointed in Maddox. Why put a guard on you if they’re not going to do their job?”

“She watches from afar. Kind of like a guardian angel as opposed to personal security. Only she’s not an angel. She’s a demon. And I don’t think she likes me much. When I do see her, she’s always frowning at me.”

“Who keeps moving my stapler?” Khloë burst out.

Keenan slung one arm around the imp’s shoulders. “Maybe it was you.”

Khloë frowned and jabbed the desk with her finger. “It goes there.” She then pointed at a spot a few inches away. “Why would I put it all the way over there?”

The incubus opened and closed his mouth a few times. “Good point.”

Soon enough, they’d locked the place up and were beginning their walk toward the exit of the Las Vegas Underground. The subterranean, demonic paradise had everything from bars and casinos to racing stadiums and rodeos. There were also many small businesses like coffeehouses, bakeries, and delis. It basically had everything that would keep demons— who, by nature, were easily bored thrill-seekers—happy and entertained.

The Underground was owned by Knox … as were a lot of things, considering the guy was a billionaire. Being his mate, Harper co-owned most of those things.

Many CEOs were demons. Their kind tended to gravitate toward jobs that provided them with power, respect, and control.

Finally, their group reached the elevator that would take them to the basement of the nightclub that Knox had built above the Underground to conceal its entrance.

After a quick upward trip in the elevator, Levi took the lead as they all filed into the basement, briefly greeting the demons that guarded the elevator.

Heading toward the staircase, Raini looked at Harper. “So how’s my little dude, anyway?” she asked, referring to Harper and Knox’s son.

“He’s just as fine as when you last saw him, which was yesterday,” replied Harper. “You always ask as if you haven’t seen him in months.”

“I like to check. That’s what honorary aunts do.”

As they reached the staircase, a male shimmered into view on the middle step, a dagger in hand, his eyes filled with intent as he stared at Knox.

The sentinels exploded into action in an instant, surrounding Knox and the girls. Tanner accidentally knocked Raini, who stumbled and crashed into Knox … just as the blade hurtled through the air.

She doubled over as white-hot pain thrust into her stomach, shocking the breath out of her lungs and making her heart slam in her chest. Looking down, she frowned at the dagger buried in her stomach. The steel glowed white. The fuck?

She heaved in a breath as something … God, it was like a magnetic force of some kind was viciously pulling at her very being. Pulling and wrenching and demanding something from her. The force was so fucking strong, it sent her to her knees.

Orbs of hellfire crashed into the bastard who’d tossed the dagger. He didn’t cry out in pain. He just vanished. Mere milliseconds later, he reappeared a few feet away, completely unharmed—no burns, no damage to his clothing, nothing.

Astral projection, she thought. You couldn’t kill a projection. Even so, the people around her attacked him.

The power in her belly surged forward, wanting to protect and avenge her. And then that alien magnetic force pulled at her power, trying to suck it into the dagger like a fucking hoover. Oh the hell no.

She was distantly aware of the mayhem around her—of voices yelling, of hellfire hissing and spitting, of power rippling through the air—but she was mentally caught up in the frightening sensation of her own power leaving her system in small drips.

Raini closed her hand around the hilt of the dagger. Under any other circumstances, removing the blade wouldn’t be wise, considering it was currently staunching the flow of blood. But this dagger … it had to be removed. First, she wanted what it had fucking stolen from her.

Gritting her teeth, Raini fought the magnetic force, wrenching back dreg after dreg of her power. And, God, it hurt. She honestly worried the veins in her temples would pop from the strain.

Her head pounded. Her teeth chattered. Her vision began to blur and dim around the edges. But she didn’t stop. She kept fighting. Kept taking back what was hers.

And then she had it.

Raini yanked out the dagger, hissing at the white-hot slash of agony. Warm blood soaked her dress, and her world tilted. Oh, this wasn’t good.

Before she’d even thought about it, she reached out to the one demon that could help her. Maddox, she managed to say just as someone crouched at her side and grabbed her arm.

What is it?demanded Maddox, a snap in his voice.

Before Raini had the chance to respond, her belly rolled, and her surroundings flashed white. Then, suddenly, she was in his office.

I’m not gonna pass out, I’m not.

It was the last clear thought she had before it all went dark.