Dance with the Demon by Stacia Stark

6

Danica

The sun was rising by the time I left the Mage Council. I got in my car and shoved the arrowhead into my glovebox. Then I headed straight to the paranormal hospital in Lakewood Park.

“I’m here to see Gary…”

The receptionist took pity on me. “The gnome?”

“Yeah.”

“Room 548.”

That was far too easy. I squinted at her, but she was already turning away to answer the phone.

I frowned. She hadn’t even asked me for ID. If this was the piss-poor security I could expect from this hospital, heads were going to roll.

I took the elevator to the fifth floor and strode down the linoleum floors, attempting not to breathe in the piercing scents. Every hospital I’d ever been in had smelled like antiseptic and death, and the Lakewood Park Paranormal Hospital was no different.

Two demons I didn’t recognize were stationed outside Gary’s hospital room. My stomach fluttered.

Samael knew. He knew Gary was important to me, and he’d made sure he was safe. I hadn’t been asked for my ID because Samael had already cleared the way for me. I didn’t know what to do with that.

The demons watched me approach and I nodded at them. “Is he conscious?”

“No. One of the healers is in there with him now.”

I took a deep breath and slowly pushed the door open. The healer was a light fae woman, with a wealth of long hair so light it was almost white. She looked up from the notepad she was writing on as I walked in.

“Ms. Amana?”

“Yes.”

“You were the one who found him.”

“Yeah.”

“You saved his life. His heart had given out under the stress of his body’s attempts to heal his injuries. By keeping it beating, you gave him a solid chance.”

“How solid?”

“Excuse me?”

“What are his chances of surviving this? Of waking up and recognizing his sons?”

Her light green eyes turned shrewd. “Right now, we’re keeping him under. I just healed some of the swelling in his brain, but the damage is severe. Attempting to heal too much at once can lead to a long-term coma that he may not wake up from.”

I swallowed. Healing came with side effects. When Samael’s healer had healed me, he’d fixed a bad head injury and a compound fracture. I hadn’t been close to as hurt as Gary, and it had still taken days before I could leave Samael’s bed. The healer had told me he’d used a light touch so I wouldn’t be unconscious for too long. He’d instructed me to return for another healing.

“What are his injuries?”

“Fractured skull, nose, collarbone, ribs, and wrist. His arm was torn almost out of its socket, but it’s the internal injuries and bleeding we were most concerned with. So far, we’ve got that under control, but the swelling on his brain requires a gentle touch.”

I couldn’t speak. I still hadn’t been able to bring myself to look at the figure in the bed. A lump formed in my throat as I stared wordlessly at the healer. Her eyes glinted with sympathy. “I’ll give you a few minutes.”

My hands shook. How was it that after being worked on by the healers, Gary looked worse? I approached his bed and stared down at him. Maybe it was because they’d cleaned him up, and without all the blood, I could now see exactly how broken he was.

Gary was tough. Gnomes weren’t exactly helpless, and I’d seen him throw pushy customers out on the streets when they pissed him off.

He’d get through this. I had to believe that.

“I’ve got the kids,” I told him. “They’ll probably wake my sister up at the crack of dawn, and I bet she’ll take them for pancakes at her favorite place. She’s always been convinced that pancakes are the best comfort food.”

He didn’t say anything. The tube pushing air into his lungs continued to wheeze.

“I’m going to kill whoever did this to you. All you have to do is recover. By the time you’re back on your feet, this will all be fixed. I promise.”

My lower lip trembled and I bit down on it hard. The last time I’d seen Gary before he was attacked, I’d lost control of my power and terrified his kids. But that power was exactly why he’d told me to keep them safe. “I’ve got this, Gary. No one will hurt them.”

Gary’s room had a stimulating view of the hospital parking lot. Outside, the sun had risen, and it was a new day. I needed to sleep, but I doubted I’d be able to. May as well get straight to work. I called Steve as I walked out of Gary’s room.

“I’m at work,” he murmured when he answered. Steve worked at Samael’s tower. I didn’t know exactly what he did, but it was something to do with tech and security systems.

“I need a solid.”

“What’s wrong?”

I filled him in and he cursed. “I’m sorry to hear that.”

“Yeah. I’m going to go threaten some of the people who own stores around Gary’s until they hand over their security footage. Can I send it to you?” Steve was great at cleaning up bad video.

“Sure.”

“I’ll owe you another one.”

“This one is on the house.”

My eyes burned and I rubbed them. “I appreciate it.” I glanced at my phone screen as it beeped. “My sister’s calling, I’ll talk to you later.”

I switched calls. “Evie?”

“Dani, you need to get here. Now.” She sounded frantic. In the background, someone snarled.

“Where are you?”

“I took the boys out for breakfast. Someone set up some kind of magical bomb on our route and the car flipped.”

“Jesus. Are you okay? Are the kids okay?” I was already running down the corridor toward the elevator. I pressed the button, cursed, and headed for the stairs.

“We’re all fine. Gemma had the car spelled just in case anything like this happened. They couldn’t break through the ward.”

“Are you still in the car?”

“Yeah. It’s upside down. I can hear an ambulance though.”

“Is anyone hurt?”

“We’re all okay.”

“Don’t trust anyone except your coven and Samael’s demons. Promise me.”

“I promise.”

I hung up and called Samael. It would take me ten minutes to get to my sister, but she was just a couple of streets from his tower.

“Danica.”

“My sister–”

“I know. I’m on the way.”

My heart thumped. “Thanks.”

I hung up, sprinted down the last few stairs and hauled ass to my car. It didn’t escape me that I’d just called the very demon I’d been contemplating killing earlier. And I hadn’t even hesitated. The moment I’d known my sister was in danger, I’d reached out to him.

I’d wrestle with that later.

By the time I arrived, paranormals were surrounding the empty car.

“Evie?”

“Over here,” she called. I turned. She was sitting in the back of an ambulance, one of the kids on either side of her. Samael stood a few feet away, talking to Vas and Bael.

“I’m sorry, Danica. I didn’t see it coming.”

“Of course you didn’t.” She was clutching her arm and I stared at her. “You said you were okay.”

“It’s just a break,” a seelie EMT said. “We’ll get it sorted in a moment.” He stepped back from Cil. “You’re fine, young man.”

Cil grinned at him, and then turned the grin on me. “We flew,” he said. “You should’ve seen it.”

I closed my eyes. A tiny hand slipped into mine. Zip. He’d hopped out of the ambulance. I glanced at the EMT and he nodded. “Also fine.”

I crouched down. “I’m sorry this happened to you,” I murmured. Zip nodded solemnly. “Our treasures are still in the car.”

I blinked at him. “The marbles?”

“We have other treasures too.” His steady gaze told me quite clearly that he expected me to reunite him with those treasures. Despite the situation, my mouth curved.

“I’ll get right on it.”

Vas made his way over to me, his expression hard. I stood back up and walked a few steps away from the kids.

“What do we know?”

“Your sister saw people in dark cloaks. That was it. After the car flipped, they surrounded it and ordered her to get out. Said if she cooperated, they might let the kids live.”

I would make them hurt before I killed them.

“They weren’t expecting the ward.”

“Nope. Evie said the head witch of her coven created it. She did good. There are some very upset, cloaked assholes walking around Durham.”

They were going to be much, much more upset when I got my hands on them.

“Do you have our treasures?” Zip stared up at the demon, who planted his hands on his hips.

Vas’s mouth dropped open. “Wait. You have treasure? What kind of treasure?”

Zip gave him a distrustful look. “It’s our treasure. It’s still in the car.”

“If I find it, will you share it with me?” A smile trembled around Vas’s mouth as Zip lowered his chin, gazing up at him stubbornly.

“No.”

Vas laughed. “I thought not. I’m on it.”

I met his eyes. “Thanks.”

The kids had been traumatized and their dad wasn’t around to comfort them. If they needed their favorite things to make them feel more secure, so be it.

And as soon as they were feeling better, I needed to talk to them again. They were being targeted because they’d seen something that could help them identify the guy in the cloak. He wouldn’t bother going after them otherwise.

I could feel eyes on me, and I lifted my gaze, meeting molten silver. Samael seemed deep in thought and I strode over to him. I was about to do something I was guaranteed to regret. Unfortunately, my regret didn’t matter. Evie and the kids could’ve died. My sister was powerful, but I wasn’t going to paint a target onto her back.

“I need a favor.”

Samael watched me, his silver eyes steady on my face as the wind rustled his hair. A few strands caressed one of his sharp cheekbones and I clamped down on the urge to push it off his face. His hair had grown a few inches in the last few weeks.

“Hello, bounty hunter, I’m well, thank you. And how are you?”

“Yeah, yeah, can you help me or not?”

He narrowed his eyes at me, and then his lips curved. I scowled. I hated when he smiled. It did something exceedingly uncomfortable to my chest.

“As always, I’m here to cater to your whims.”

The words held a bitter aftertaste. I stepped away. “Forget it.”

“No.” He caught my wrist. “You will tell me what you need.”

“I hate the way you order me around, you know that, right?”

He simply raised one eyebrow. I wrestled with the urge to kick him in the shin.

A headache was blooming in my right temple and I rubbed at it. “The safest place for the kids is your tower. I think they saw something last night, and someone wants to shut them up.”

Samael raised his eyebrows. When he spoke, his tone was haughty. “When I need someone to be so scared they piss their pants, I may give you a call. When I want to talk to two traumatized kids, you can stay far away,” he mocked me.

Well I deserved that. “On consideration, I may have been hasty. Look, I can’t risk my sister, or the kids,” I blew out a frustrated breath and he simply angled his head.

“I will help you in this.”

“Thank you.”

He held up one hand. “But we will make a deal.”

It always came down to deals with him, and I somehow never saw them coming, even though he was a demon.

“What kind of deal?”

“On Friday night, I am signing a treaty with the unseelie king. There will be a ball. You will attend as my date.”

Today was Wednesday. I ground my teeth. “It’s always some kind of bargain with you.”

“Yes. Because it’s the only way you’ll spend time with me. Why must you be so stubborn?”

I pointedly looked down at the intricate gold design on my arm. “Why do you think?”

Silence. I chewed on my lower lip. Samael let me think about it.

I didn’t want to go to his stupid ball. But the fact remained that the demon was doing me a solid. I was still pissed at him, but if the kids were safe, I’d be able to focus on hunting down the deadbeats who’d tried to hurt them. Not to mention, if I was going to a ball filled with dark fae, there was a chance I could get a lead which could tell me who my father was.

“Fine.”

“Gracious as always,” Samael glanced at the kids, who were listening intently to something Evie was saying. She was probably telling them a story. “We will go now.”

With that decree, Samael turned to Bael, murmured a few words, and placed his hand on my lower back as he led me toward Evie and the kids. I peered up at the demon. He really needed to stop with the possessive body language.

Vas wandered over to me and slipped the kids’ bag into my hands. I peeked inside and smiled. A cheap, beaded necklace, a collection of shiny marbles, a broken watch, an old, tarnished amulet, three brightly-colored plastic rings– obviously from a gumball machine– and a handful of coins from various realms. Evie and I had kept a similar collection as a kid, only ours had included various components for spells at Evie’s insistence.

Everyone fell silent as I approached. “Hey guys, so we have a new plan.”

I handed the bag of treasures to Zip and his eyes lit up as his hand darted out and grabbed it. My gaze got stuck on Evie, who was cursing as the healer jostled her arm. But within a few moments, the strain around her eyes had disappeared as the bone knit back together. Her face tightened once more when I told her where I was taking the kids.

“You don’t trust me anymore.”

I stepped closer. “I trust you more than anyone,” I admitted. “You did everything right. But I won’t have you targeted by these people. I couldn’t handle it if this shit got you hurt, or worse.”

She studied my face for a long moment and then finally nodded. “I’ll help you get them settled in.”

I smiled down at the kids, who were squabbling over something. “How would you guys like to see the tower?”

“Samael’s tower?” They gave me big eyes, their little gray faces lit up in awe. It was exceedingly cute.

“Yup.”

“With Samael?” Zip asked.

My lips trembled and I jerked my head toward the demon standing a few feet away, his mouth tight as he read something on his phone. “That’s him, right there.”

I’d blown their minds. They stared at Samael as if they expected him to burst into flames. He looked up from his phone, finding all eyes on him. He raised one dark eyebrow and slipped his phone into his pocket. “Are you ready to go?”

The boys jumped up, running at him. “Are you really Samael?” “Do you know Lucifer?” “How tall is your tower?” “Can you set things on fire?”

Evie nudged me with her elbow and grinned. “Turns out he’s good with kids.”

I blinked at that, but she was right. Samael was answering each question with serious intent, his focus entirely on the boys. His palm lit up with a ball of demon fire as we watched, and the gnomes danced excitedly on their feet at the sight. I didn’t know what to make of that, so I shrugged.

“Let’s go.”

We bundled the kids into the car Bael had ordered for us. The demons thought of everything. Once we arrived at the tower, the kids were obviously in awe, their eyes huge as they stared at everything.

“They will stay on the floor below mine,” Samael said. “I have a nanny on staff.”

I blinked at that. “You have a nanny? Do you have kids?” The thought did something to my gut, made it twist in a way I didn’t enjoy.

“No. Some of my staff do, and I like to be prepared.”

I was learning more and more about this guy. I nodded, and we all stepped into the elevator. Evie had insisted on staying to help get the kids settled in, and her eyes were almost as wide as the gnomes’ as the elevator opened to the kids’ floor.

Cil let out a gasp. “Wow, cool!”

We exited the elevator to a room that was clearly designed for kids. A huge TV offered some kind of video console that the boys crowed over, and the bookcase next to it was full of games. One corner of the room held a mini-library, complete with beanbags and shelves bursting with books. Another corner was clearly created for younger children, with a huge box filled with toys, a motorized car big enough for a toddler to sit on, and a rocking horse.

Four pinball machines took up most of the far wall, and a small boy was standing in front of one of them, slamming his hand into the buttons. He turned as we walked in, and the three boys eyed each other.

“Zip, Cil, this is Brokk,” Samael said. The boys weren’t shy. They immediately headed toward the pinball machines, talking a mile a minute.

“Who’s the kid?” I murmured.

“One of my employees had to investigate a murder in South Carolina. I told him he could leave his family here to ensure their safety while he was gone.”

“He’s a demon.” Talk about stating the obvious.

Samael gave me a look. “Yes.”

For some reason, I tended to forget that demons had children. That they had families like everyone else.

“Why can’t his mom protect them?” I’d seen just how powerful high demons were.

“She’s light fae. A healer. She has few combat abilities.”

So, the kid was half demon, half light fae. What a combination.

“I want to stay with them,” Evie said. I glanced at her. She was sticking her chin out the way she did when she’d already come to a decision and had no intention of changing her mind.

Samael shrugged one shoulder as Sitri stepped off the elevator, a human woman with him.

“This is Martha,” Sitri said. “She works as the nanny here whenever we need her.”

“I’m still staying,” Evie said.

Martha smiled at her. “Sitri filled me in on what happened today. I think it would be great for you to stay.”

I hesitated. Did I want to leave Evie with the most dangerous demon around? Samael smiled at me, likely well aware of where my thoughts had gone, and I sighed. He wouldn’t hurt Evie. I trusted him that much.

“Sounds good,” I said. “I need to get back to work, but I’ll be in touch.”

I gave my sister a hug, and waved to the boys, who were already competing with each other in one of the games. It made loud, siren-like noises that made my head ache.

Samael was silent in the elevator next to me. I skimmed my gaze up his huge body until I found his face.

“Tell me you didn’t release that recording.” I didn’t think he had, but it was best to cross off all the suspects on my list.

Surprise flashed across his face. It was there for less than a moment, but I caught it.

“Why would I do that, bounty hunter?”

He only called me ‘bounty hunter’ when I was pissing him off. Good. Why should I be the only one wrestling with my anger?

“To isolate me so I’ll have nowhere to turn and you can swoop in?”

It sounded ridiculous, and a slow smile crept across Samael’s face.

“We both know I have no need to isolate you. It’s only a matter of time before you wake up in my bed each morning. Where you belong.”

“Keep dreaming.”

“Oh, I will.” He studied my face, and his eyes darkened. I’d seen that look on his face a few times now, and it never boded well for me. “You haven’t slept.”

“It was a crazy night.” It was almost noon now, but I needed to get moving. Some cameras were programmed to record over their video every twenty-four to forty-eight hours.

“Humans who are low on sleep have poor reflexes.”

I sent him a look. “Please, demon-splain my life as a human to me some more. This is real fun.”

The elevator doors opened and I cursed myself for not paying attention to the button he pressed. I stayed on the elevator and he merely took my elbow and hauled me into his penthouse.

“Why can’t anything with you ever be easy?”

He raised one eyebrow. “You stole the words from my mouth.”

“I don’t have time for this, Samael.”

He lowered his head, tucking his chin and narrowing his silver eyes at me. I knew that expression. That expression was 100% pure, male stubbornness, and it told me he wasn’t backing down.

“You will sleep or I will make you.”

“I’m sorry, I must have misheard you. I know you didn’t just threaten to send me to sleep like a child.”

“Not like a child. Like an exasperating woman who risks her life as if it means nothing.”

I took a deep breath. He was a demon. He had no concept of bodily autonomy for anyone but himself. Until I got this stupid bond removed, it was my job to teach him. The world would be better for it.

“Listen. I’m an adult woman who can choose when she takes a nap.”

“I don’t think so.”

I ground my teeth and my power roared, slamming against my shields. Samael gave me an amused look.

“Does your power itch to hurt me, witchling?” He took a step closer. I yawned. My eyelids were so heavy. The mark on my arm seemed to radiate relaxation and comfort.

I forced my eyes open. When had I closed them? Panic made my heart race.

“What are you doing?”

“You’re mine, bounty hunter.” His expression was cut in grim resolve. “That makes it my job to take care of you when you choose not to look after yourself.”

I stepped back and almost stumbled. Samael was there, lifting me into his arms.

“Let me go.”

“No.”

“I’ll kill you for this.”

A chuckle that made my hands fist.

“Sleep, little witch. You may attempt to kill me once you have rested.”

He always did this. He’d do something that made my heart stutter, like putting guards on Gary’s door, and then he’d immediately follow it up with something that made me long to rip his heart out, like this shit right here.

“You’re only making me hate you more.” My eyes had closed again. I forced them open, only to find him staring down at me, something like regret in his eyes. It disappeared in an instant.

“If you want to hate me for taking care of you, so be it.”

I opened my mouth to tell him to stop twisting things. He wasn’t taking care of me. He was taking away my control.

But my eyes had already slid closed.