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Chapter One
“I think that maybe we might have screwed something up,” I say.
“Maybe? Might have?” Havoc asks as he dangles upside down from the shackles around his ankles. Why they figured putting him upside down was ideal, I’m not sure. They at least hung me from the ceiling by my wrists.
“It was a possibility and you know we have to follow all leads,” I say.
Havoc swings back and forth, arms crossed over his chest, eyes directed on me, until the chain starts rotating and his back is turned to me. He wiggles around until he’s facing me so he can resume glaring. “Remember what I said?”
“Nope.”
“All vampires are dicks.”
“Yes, and I didn’t believe you because you hate Nicco, who is a perfectly fine vampire, so I assumed you were being prejudiced, like normal.”
My arms are starting to hurt from being shackled above my body with my feet left dangling. The shackles have runes embedded in them that keep me from using my magic or I’d have poofed our asses out of here in a burst of smoke, fire, and rubble. Instead, I’m left swinging as I think because Havoc is basically useless since the runes are also keeping Havoc from shifting into his raven form.
We’d thought the vampires had been in contact with Geoff, but it was just a stupid rumor, created by them to try to make themselves look scarier.
“Now hear me out, what if you crawl up my body—” I start.
“And choke you a little for not listening to me?” Havoc asks as he shows me his shiny white fangs. Since he’s a demon, being a little grumpy, easily annoyed, and possessive are some of his character traits. He also loves power, which is how we became bonded. He’s a very handsome man that I’ve known for the past few hundred years. Just recently he finally told me he loved me, which should have been our happy ending. But of course, fate never goes that way. Especially when an ancient dark mage currently wants to eat my heart.
Now, I’m flattered that of all the people in the world, the great dark mage Geoff—risen from the dead—wants to devour my heart, but I kind of like it right where it is. Especially now that I have Havoc by my side.
Literally.
He’s turned around now, his ass in line with my eyes. His two white horns that curl slightly like a ram’s contrast sharply with the rich black of his hair that’s currently sticking out because gravity is pulling it down.
“The upside to this is that I have a very nice view,” I assure him.
He whips his head around to look at me and gives me a grin. “Ooh, you like my ass, dontcha?”
“I mean, it’s you or the dead guy,” I say as I point at the skeleton hanging from the third set of chains.
“His ass is as flat as yours.”
My grin turns immediately to a scowl. “Why do I like you?”
He’s cackling now as he turns to face me again, his blue catlike eyes watching me closely. “Now, what’s this about me climbing you like a tree?” he asks.
“What if you climb up my body and you hold me up so my skin isn’t touching the shackles. Get me? If I try pulling myself up to do it, my hand will be on the chain, so it won’t work.”
“Huh… that could be a semi-smart idea. I’m surprised you thought of it.”
“Surprised? Really?”
“Shocked, honestly,” he says as he swings over, but he misses on the first go. I start swinging too, but now we’re swinging in opposite directions, getting farther apart by the minute. I stop my swings and judge it better before he has a smart-ass comment about that. He wraps his hands around my thighs and that’s when one of his horns slams between my legs.
“Watch my balls!” I cry as I spread my legs, but that just smooshes his face right into my groin.
“I’m watching them real damn close. Why’d you spread your legs, you naughty, naughty boy? I highly doubt right now is the time for that. But I’m so damn good, I bet I could get you to come in an instant.”
“You’re not that good,” I say as I look down into his eyes.
“Tell me I’m that good or I’ll be so brokenhearted that I’ll let go. My hands are slipping! My heart is compressing! I’m fading away!”
I sigh at the drama I have to deal with. “You are so mightily good that my cock becomes erect every time your name graces anyone’s lips,” I say dryly.
“Sometimes I wonder if you were put on this earth to torment me,” he says. “And I’ve been such a good person that I can’t understand why.”
I cock my head, really feeling like this conversation is more important than getting free. “You… You… what? Do you not remember all the times you’ve been mean to me? What about the time you put gryphon piss on the bottom of my shoes and all those horny gryphons tried mating with my feet?”
He’s laughing so hard now that he nearly loses his grip on me. “Barely any of that happened.”
I stare at him.
“Like a fraction. The thing had his ding dong out, but he didn’t try mating you.”
I continue staring at him.
“He might have grazed you with it.”
“Why do I love you?”
“Good question,” he says as he unbuttons my pants and yanks my pants and underwear straight down my thighs before continuing his climb up my body.
“What are you doing?” I cry as cold air touches my ass and balls, but there’s not a lick I can do with my hands strapped above my head.
Havoc is dying, he’s laughing so hard. “I just wanted to see your penis. Sue me. I would think you’d be flattered that your lover wants to see it and isn’t disgusted by it.”
“Yeah, maybe if we were in bed but not in an evil vampire den!” I wiggle a little, but it makes my pants slide down farther, so I quickly still myself. Havoc wraps his arms around my shoulders so we’re eye to eye.
“Hey, babe. Looking pretty sexy, but isn’t your penis getting a little cold?” he says.
“I’m finding a new demon.”
“None will ever be as amazing as me.”
“That’s where I fear you’re wrong,” I grumble, but then he gives me a little sweet kiss that makes me smile and my brain turn to mush. That’s also when the door opens and the vampires look at us in confusion.
“What the fuck is going on here?” the oldest growls.
While most vampires are kind and use synthetic or animal blood, there are a small handful who are complete dicks and get off on feeding from and murdering innocent humans—not that either Havoc or I are innocent, but we don’t go around killing humans for a bit of fun.
And these fuckers need to understand who they’re dealing with.
“I was trying to choke myself on his cock so I didn’t have to see your ugly face again,” Havoc says. He hooks my chain in the crook of his arm so he can keep from falling down as he reaches my hands and pulls me up with his superior strength. The moment he raises me, I push my arms together so he can hold the hard metal shackles away from my skin. He doesn’t completely get it away from both arms, but my power is strong enough that what he does give me allows me to instantly break the bind.
The runes crack, the shackles fall from my wrists, and Havoc lets me drop to the ground. The moment I touch, I step forward to throw magic at these assholes. But I’ve promptly forgotten about my pants being around my ankles. I fall forward, smashing down face-first into the ground.
The vampires cackle and laugh before rushing toward me. I call the name of fire and it rushes out with just a thought, grabbing onto the evil vampires and turning them all to ash.
The room is deadly silent as I roll onto my back and pull my pants up before looking over at Havoc hanging upside down. He starts to whistle like he has no idea why I’m on the ground.
“Havoc?”
“My love! You have defeated the evil ones!”
“Havoc?”
“You’re so amazing!”
“Havoc?”
“You’re gorgeous too! Beautiful brown hair that looks like it came from the angels!”
“You’re not going to make me forget that you nearly got me killed by depantsing me.”
He whistles a merry little tune until I wave my hand and the shackles on his legs break. Of course, I was hoping he’d at least hit the ground, but instead, he flips onto his feet with amazing reflexes. Amazingly annoying reflexes.
He dusts himself off and walks over to me, arms wide open like I’m going to jump into them.
“Back your ass off.”
“I was going to carry you over the vampire dust!” he says as he points at the ashes.
“Oh… then I suppose,” I say, and he picks me up and carries me to the other side of the door. “Well, this was a massive dead end.”
“I don’t know. I had fun.” He sounds like he’s telling the truth, too.
“Your definition of fun is vastly different than mine,” I say as he goes to set me down. “What do you think you’re doing?”
“Setting you… on the ground?”
“It’s raining outside, and my feet don’t want to get wet.”
“Yes, your majesty,” he says as he walks through the evil vampires’ lair to the front door and looks out at the downpour. Then he flips me over his shoulder and ducks his head under my body like I’m some human umbrella as he runs to the car.
“You are going on my shit list!” I yell as I’m flopped all around as he comes skidding to a halt at the car.
“You only said you didn’t want your feet wet!” He yanks the door open and tosses me inside before running around to the other side and getting in. “Whoo! Man, I almost got wet,” he says as he looks over at me.
Lanni leans forward from the back seat and smiles at us. “Good thing you used Miles as an umbrella,” she says.
Havoc and I just about crawl out of our skin. I nearly explode the car with my magic right then and there. Havoc leaps so high his horns ram into the fabric on the ceiling of the car, ripping it.
“What the hell?” I ask.
Lanni looks to her right, her left, and then behind her in clear confusion. “Am I… missing something? Ooh! Is it another invisible beastie?”
“No, we were in shock about you.”
She seems genuinely surprised about this revelation. “Oh! Yeah, I’ve been here quite a while. I hopped in when I saw those vampires drag you guys inside!”
“And… did you call for help or come to help us?” I ask in disbelief.
“Nope! I mean… really, why would I think you two couldn’t handle some dark vampires? But then it started taking a while, and I was getting bored and hungry, so I called Uber Eats and had them bring me a sandwich from that cute little place down the road. It was delicious!”
“And you never thought to help us?” I ask.
“I got you guys sandwiches too!” She pops them in front of us, and I instantly forgive the idiot. Lanni is an interesting being. She can take over the bodies of the recently deceased and live in them like they’re her own body. She doesn’t bring the body back to life, seeing as the person who once used it has since moved on, but while she’s in the body, it’ll continue to age and be affected by ailments. And when the body becomes too old, she moves on to another.
Right now, she’s in the body of a woman with frizzy blonde hair and a huge smile. Freckles are dotted over her button nose. But just because I refer to her as “she” doesn’t mean she’s actually a female. To my understanding, she’s genderless and takes on the pronoun of the body she inhabits, though she isn’t picky about which gender of body she takes. She says it makes her feel closer to them and the body is more accustomed to their own gender, instead of a new one.
“I’ll forgive you this once,” I say as I take the sandwich. When I open it up and see that it’s my favorite sandwich from a place down the road, I immediately forgive her even more. It’s still warm and tastes delicious enough I can even forget that she watched them drag us inside and did nothing.
“Did you find anything?” Lanni asks.
“Miles flashed them his penis and then they burst into ash.”
“Ah… makes sense,” she says with a nod.
I glare at Havoc. “It doesn’t make sense.”
He grins at me from behind his chicken cordon bleu.
“So what now?” Havoc asks.
“I don’t know, I’m running out of leads. I’m not sure we’ll ever find the mage who helped bring Geoff back to life. I just really thought that if we found them, we could torture Geoff’s location out of them,” I say. “But this was just another dead end.”
Havoc nods approvingly. “You know I always enjoy a good torturing. But we’ve already looked into every legal mage within hundreds of miles and none are strong enough, so that leaves the illegal ones, and who knows where all of them are.”
“What if it’s not a mage?” Lanni asks.
“What else would be strong enough?” I ask as I start the car.
She thinks about it for a moment before shrugging. “I don’t know… maybe you’re right. I mean… the spell calls for a mage, right?”
“Yes. They would have been using the book of Teller, who was a dark mage. So we’re probably looking for someone who is very familiar with black magic,” I say, but the only dark mage I’ve ever come across was Geoff. He taught me some black magic, but I was able to save myself before I let it consume me or let myself be drawn in by its power. I can use some black magic, but only spells that I know I won’t be pulled into. Black magic is a powerful thing, but if you’re not mentally strong enough, it’ll pull you into its power, which is how many dark mages lose their lives.
Havoc stills my hand, and for a moment, I wonder if something’s wrong. Then he directs my sandwich to his mouth and takes a bite. “That’s pretty good. Try mine.”
“I think we have bigger things to worry about,” I say before taking a bite. “Ooh, that’s good too.”
Havoc leans back in his seat. “Let’s head home. I’ll talk to some demons and see if they’ve heard anything about a dark mage.”
“Lanni, are you riding with us?” I ask.
She seems to have been waiting for this because she claps her hands together. “Yes! I’ll ride back with you. I didn’t bring a car here.”
“How’d you get here?”
I hear her seat belt snap into place. “This man drove me! He was very nice and told me I looked like his dead wife.”
“You got into a strange vehicle with a creepy stranger who told you that you looked like his dead wife?” I ask in concern. How has she not died yet?
“I did! Don’t worry. I can’t die… I think.”
“Why do you attract such strange people?” Havoc asks as I begin to drive.
“I… I don’t know,” I admit.
OceanofPDF.com

Chapter Two
I wake up when I hear a loud bang and leap out of bed. Havoc is already at the door, sword drawn, ass naked. He lunges through it and off he goes.
Kind of thinking he can handle it, I contemplate getting back into bed. I mean, really, the barriers around the building I live in are still intact, which means that no one has entered the second floor that doesn’t have permission.
But I grudgingly get up and pull sweats on before wandering off to see what made the noise. I find Havoc standing in the doorway of the living room, face showing apparent shock.
“What happened?” I ask, realizing that something horrible must have occurred for him to look like that. I rush forward and slip past him, hand raised, just in time to see Badrick, the massive forest spirit who is currently living in the spare bedroom, turn around.
“There are humans locked inside this box! I cannot get them out!” he says as he stomps a paw down right on my brand-new flat screen TV.
“Stop!” I shout, and he turns his wolflike head toward me.
“But the humans must be helped. They were screaming!”
We happened to save the forest spirit when someone was trying to use him to get his power. He’s a large, horse-sized beast in the shape of a white wolf. He has red scales that run down his neck to his stomach, and he’s currently trying to “dig” humans out of my TV.
“Dammit, Badrick! It’s a TV!”
“Oh!” he exclaims, finally getting it. “I will save you humans from the TV!” He pounces on the screen, breaking what was left of it.
I rub at my head, not even sure why I tried. “Get off the TV.” This is why I can’t have nice things. “They are not in the TV. They are prerecorded in some studio from who knows where and projected onto it for entertainment purposes.”
“Huh. Show this to me.”
“I can’t! You broke it!”
He huffs. “Must not have been very well made then.”
“Well, I’m not sure what TV could withstand a fifteen-hundred-pound creature pouncing on it.”
He looks offended. “I am not that fat!” he growls. “It’s all hair.” He shakes, leaving a dusting of shed hair all over the living room.
I sigh. “I’m going back to bed.”
“Miles,” he says, almost quietly.
“What?”
“Are you… mad I broke the TV?”
“No, it’s alright. I’ll get a new one. You thought you were saving people.”
He nods his massive head. “I did. But now I feel quite foolish. And peckish.”
“Touch my chocolate and you’re dead,” Havoc growls before heading back to our room. I follow after him and realize that we only have an hour before we have to get up again. “This is your fault.”
I look over at Havoc in surprise. “My fault? What? I telepathically told him to go break my shiny new TV?”
“No, you invite the weirdest creatures into your life. It’s like they’re drawn to you.”
“And funny enough, you’re the weirdest one,” I say as I pull my pants off. He grabs me and pushes me down onto the bed before pulling the blankets over us. They’ve already started to get cold.
“I’m the only normal one. Now we have barely any time to sleep,” he grumbles as he holds me close.
I press against his naked body and close my eyes as I enjoy his warmth. “I don’t have that many strange friends.”
“Shh, honey. I hate being mean and telling you that you’re wrong, but you’re hugely wrong.”
“Nope.”
I doze for a bit, but I can’t seem to fall back to sleep since my mind keeps becoming preoccupied with Geoff and my childhood. It’s something that’s been happening more and more since Geoff’s return. He wasn’t exactly a kind master and had abused both Havoc and me. He’d also enslaved my magic, which makes me question if he still has power over me.
“Want to get up?” Havoc mumbles as he opens his eyes.
“Did I wake you?”
“No, I’m kind of awake,” he says as he trails his fingers over my side. “You seem to be worried about something.” His hand lifts to my face and he pushes my hair back with a gentle touch.
“Just what size TV I’ll buy next.”
He shakes his head. “Massive. There, that problem is solved. What else is bothering you?”
“How powerful Geoff will be.”
“We already defeated him once.”
“Yes, well now he has the ability to gain the powers of people whose hearts he eats. He’s insanely powerful.”
“Power shmower. You’ve also grown a lot, Miles. You’re hundreds of years older than him, since he was dead for a few hundred years, and you now have a supremely handsome demon by your side.”
“Iya?”
His face scrunches up in disgust. “No. Me.”
“Oh. Wait, you were by my side back then?”
“Yeah, but I was only a tiny bit helping you in the beginning. I kind of didn’t care if you lived or not and would only help enough that you wouldn’t yell at me. You have to remember that to me, it was like you were enslaving me. I only grew to like you a little while later.”
“True. Now you like it when I enslave you and tie you up.”
Havoc gives me a toothy grin that flashes his white fangs. “I do, very much!”
I lean forward and kiss his forehead. “I might get up and see what’s going on in the café or pick up the pieces of my TV. Are you going back to sleep?”
“Nah, I’ll help.”
We both get up and get dressed. Once we have the living room straightened up, we head downstairs into the café I run. From the bottom step, the area on the left is for the café and a small room up front is where I make charms or other things for patrons. Baron, who is a werewolf, deals with the stuff in the kitchen while his fiancé, Yoko, takes care of the customers and minor spells.
Yoko is a pretty Japanese woman with long black hair and an ever-present smile. She’s a witch, and while witches and mages are vastly different, I’ve been able to teach her quite a few spells. That’s mostly because in my hundreds of years of life, I’ve learned and dabbled in more areas than the average mage.
They’re busy at work this morning as I head for the counter to help out. Just as I reach it, my phone rings, and when I pull it out I see that it’s Detective Sam Diaz with homicide. This probably isn’t a good thing.
“Hello?”
“Miles, it’s Sam. We have a… situation and would like to call you in and get your input, if you don’t mind.”
“What kind of situation?” It could be a “Hey, we have an unidentified familiar here” or a “There’s a dark mage coming to murder you” kind of situation. Here’s to hoping for that lost familiar.
“Crime scene, four deceased, but it’s the… setup that’s stumping us. We even had our nonhumans analysts look at the scene, and they’re not getting anything. We thought maybe you or Havoc would have a better idea.”
“Send me the address, we’ll be right over.”
I hang up with Sam, tell Yoko and Baron what we’re up to, and head out the door with fresh pastries thankfully made by Baron and not Yoko.
“You know… for how annoying Baron is, he sure can make good food,” Havoc says as he devours his first pastry. Baron even specially made it coated in chocolate because he knows how much Havoc loves chocolate.
“Remind me again why you don’t like Baron?” I ask as we walk out to the car.
He seems to think about the overly kind, sweet-as-a-teddy-bear werewolf as he chews. “Just looking at him annoys me.”
“You’re such an asshole.” I can’t help but grin as I say this.
“Did you forget that he stabbed you?” he asks as he adjusts his feathered cloak. His relationship with that odd thing still perplexes me. I’m not sure if he likes it because of it being coated in feathers and he’s a raven, or if he thinks it’s going to come back into style someday, but he hardly leaves the house without it.
“He was possessed,” I say as I get into my dark blue sports car.
He shrugs, not seeming to care at all that Baron didn’t have a choice in the matter. “Torture is too kind for him.”
“You’re so dramatic and evil.”
“He would be kind of cool to have as a pet, though. Can you make a dog collar for him that won’t let him shift back? I’d look pretty badass with a pet werewolf.”
“Absolutely not, but I bet he’d happily trot anywhere with you as a wolf just for your attention. He really likes you.”
Havoc cringes. “Ew.”
I sigh and turn out onto the road as I hand my phone to Havoc. “Keep an eye on the GPS for me.”
“Will do. What if I replaced him with a different werewolf? They all smell the same; you probably wouldn’t even notice.”
“That’s an amazing idea! Why didn’t I think of that? I always identify him by his smell!”
“I’m so glad my mate approves,” he says, and I realize that I need to assure him that I don’t approve of him trading off Baron.
And only one thing will make him keep from doing it. “No more pastries then.”
He hesitates, the last bite of his chocolate Danish aimed at his mouth. “Fine. He may live a short, tiny time longer.”
I drive to the location Sam gave me and pull over on the side of the road. It’s a small motel just off the main highway, but it’s immediately apparent which room is the one we’re headed to. There’s tape keeping people back, but nosy folks are hovering around it, looking for a way to get inside. I park next to a police car and get out before heading to the tape with Havoc by my side. The man keeping people back immediately turns to us as if I look suspicious at all with the demon hovering next to me.
Havoc gives him a wicked grin and pushes out his aura that makes the poor man shrink and contemplate running. I doubt the man was even planning on stopping us from entering, seeing as I’m the boss of the district and control much of what happens around here. I definitely don’t control it alone, though.
“Havoc, stop,” I say, but before I can do anything else, Sam walks up.
“They’re here with me,” Sam says as he pushes the tape up and I slip under it. “Is Havoc harassing people again?”
“That’s his favorite pastime,” I explain as I follow Sam up to the motel room door. As soon as we pass through it, we bump into Lieutenant Johnson, who is also invested in Geoff’s case. They initially came to me hoping for help reading a letter found on a dead body. Since then, we’ve helped each other out on multiple cases.
“Hey,” Johnson says with a strained smile. “Let’s hope you two know something.”
He leads me past the small kitchenette and that’s when I see it.
In the middle of the room is a large magic circle with candles wrapped around it. Sitting around the edge are four bodies, still upright, but they appear to have been dead for years. The way their dried skin stretches over their bones makes them look almost mummified.
“What the hell?” Havoc mutters as he steps closer to examine one.
They’re all holding hands, and stranger yet, in the middle of them sits a cat.
Not a dead cat. Just an unusually red-colored cat who is currently licking its paw as everyone stares at it.
“It hasn’t left the circle yet,” Sam whispers, like talking too loudly could disrupt it.
I take a small step toward it, but it doesn’t even glance up. “Anyone tried touching it?”
“Yes, and it bit them, nearly tore their finger right off,” Johnson says.
“That little tiny cat did?” Havoc asks as he points. “Someone let that tiny cat get the best of them?” The cat stands up, stretches, and yawns, showing off what looks like a hundred tiny needle teeth that really don’t belong on a cat. “Oh…”
“Yeah.” Sam shudders.
“Want me to kill it?” Havoc asks.
I turn to him in disbelief. “No! You don’t just start killing things! We just talked about this!”
Everyone in the room warily looks at Havoc before moving to the far side beside Sam and Johnson.
“Do you know what any of this is?” Sam asks curiously. “Especially that thing?”
I walk over to the circle, and even though the monster has resumed grooming itself, I can tell it’s watching me. I kneel down between a mummified man and woman and look at the circle. It’s smudged but still readable… if I knew how to read it.
“Did you get a sample of the blood used to create the circle?” I ask.
“Yes, we sent it back to the lab hoping that’d help us.”
“I’m assuming whatever spell they did mummified the casters,” Havoc says. “I mean, there’s no way they just… carried them in like this, right?”
I scrutinize the man. “I think the spell did this… but did they do it wrong? Were they summoning this creature? What is this creature?”
Its black tongue draws slowly over its bright red fur. Its ears are black-tipped with tufts of hair sticking out of the tops. But golden eyes watch me closely as I near the bodies to examine them.
“Make sure that thing knows that if it even looks at you funny, you will blow it into little kitty chunks,” Havoc says as he points a finger at it.
It slowly, creepily, shifts its eyes over to Havoc and suddenly the claws on the paw it’s licking extend. They have to be over an inch long each and appear razor sharp.
“Interesting. It understands human language,” I say.
“That’s not fucking interesting. That’s terrifying! There’s something wrong with that thing!” Havoc says as he jabs a finger at it.
Seeing as Havoc can shift into a raven, he’s never been overly fond of cats. But this thing is no cat, although I have nothing better to call it.
“Are you stuck in the circle?” I ask the creature.
It shifts its eyes over to me and switches to a new paw to groom.
Either I’m wrong and it doesn’t understand what I’m saying, or it’s being a dick.
My vote is dick because nothing I ever interact with can just be sweet and cuddly and helpful.
“Everyone step back. I’m going to touch the circle and try to feel what kind of magic created it,” I say.
Everyone immediately steps back and a few leave as I reach out while watching the cat and set my hand against the edge of the circle. The circle is thundering with magic. Once a magic circle has been used, they usually lose their magic or the magic goes back to the caster. Instead, this one is almost bubbling with life. And it feels dark. Black magic, probably. Is this the doing of Geoff? Could he really be this close to me?
The thought makes me feel ill. He could already be ten steps ahead of me just waiting for his moment to strike.
Havoc sets a gentle hand on my shoulder and squeezes it tightly. “You alright?”
I look up and smile at him. “I’m fine. So the circle has a lot of magic still flowing through it, which is very strange when the spell seems to have been completed. But I still don’t know what the spell was. I have my doubts it was for bringing out this cat, but maybe it was. I’m going to try and cut the magic off to it, in case they’re using it for some other reason.”
“Is that safe?” Johnson asks.
“It’ll be safer than if they’re syphoning off it. We could kill the link now.”
Sam nods, like he understands, but points to the cat that is now working on its tail. “What about that… thing?”
“The cat?”
Sam makes a strange noise. “That’s not a cat.”
I glance over at the golden eyes staring straight into my soul. “Looks like a sweet little kitty,” I say.
Havoc makes a funny noise. “I’m with the entire universe on this one. That ain’t no damn cat. It’s a monster,” Havoc says and the creature hisses at him. It’s almost like its jaw opens up wider than an animal’s should and I’m left staring into the maw of something that will probably eat us alive.
“Looks pretty cute to me.” I’m enjoying their annoyance at this point.
“Miles, I’m going to order you a brain examination when we’re done here,” Johnson says. “Now what are you going to do when the circle breaks and that… cat gets loose?”
“See if he wants a piece of kibble, I guess?”
Havoc waves his arms at me. “Does everyone see what I have to deal with? All of you think I’m the crazy one. Well, here’s proof.”
I grin at him since he’s honestly being a bit dramatic. “A bunch of grown men scared of a little kitty.”
“You know what?” Havoc asks thoughtfully. “That cat kind of looks like something.” He scrutinizes it for a second while thinking. “Oh, it’s on the tip of my tongue… blood. That’s what the cat looks like. The fur looks like it’s rolled in the blood of its victims.”
“I’ve never seen such a scared group of people!”
I look over at the creature and see it staring me right in the eyes. It’s creepy as fuck, but of course I can’t tell anyone this. I’m more than positive it’s going to eat all of us and I’m going to be forced to turn it to kitty dust. “I’m breaking the spell now,” I say as everyone who’d been lingering takes a step back while I let my magic snake out of my body and wrap around the magic being used to keep the circle open. When it snaps, the other magic dissipates as mine feels the circle over, trying to figure out what it is.
And that is the very moment that the cat grins at me. Literally grins with its mouth filled full of fangs.
And disappears.
I sit up abruptly.
“Where’d the cat go?” I ask in horror.
“Oh, I thought it was just a cute little cat,” Havoc says.
“Quiet! Everyone!” Sam says.
And that’s when I hear purring. Literal purring.
And panic explodes. Everyone who’s still in the room runs from it, pushing and shoving as they struggle to get through the door, and there’s Havoc, yanking me right into the mess. “I’ll protect you!” he shouts.
“I don’t need protection!” Yet for some reason, I’m running with the rest of them.
Once outside, Johnson slams the door shut and looks around before dusting his hands off like it was a job well done. “Alright, then. That was a good job today, folks!”
“You’re just going to… what? Burn the place down?” I ask.
“I can’t say it didn’t cross my mind,” he admits.
I look out at the crowd of people who are all very curious why we came running out like maniacs. I catch the eye of a young man who is watching us closely. It’s not because he looks different or is acting different, but he feels different. What kind of magic is that?
I step toward him, but Johnson slides in front of me. “Okay. So we need to finish up here. How do we know where that thing is now that you just set it loose to wipe out the city?”
I shrug, not seeing why it’s now my fault. “It’s just a little cat.”
Havoc holds up a hand to quiet all the chatter. “Alright, we need to send one person inside to see if the cat is still in there. I vote Sam. He’s most expendable… I mean dependable.”
Sam cocks his head. “I used to like you.”
“I’ll go in!”
We all turn just in time to see Iya, a demon I’d summoned to protect Sam after he’d been targeted, duck under the protective tape. Since he’s a minotaur, he’s a bull from his chest to his head, while the rest of his body is much more human. When he ducks under the tape, it catches on a horn so when he stands up, it tears the tape from the barriers.
“It has me! It has me!” he shouts as he starts running and turning, winding the tape up all over his body. “It’s killing me.”
“Oh my god,” Johnson whispers. “Sam, what did I tell you about bringing him to crime scenes?”
“He was in the car but probably came out after he heard the commotion,” Sam says as he rushes over to help Iya. “Iya, it’s okay, it’s just tape.”
Iya immediately stops and beams at Sam who I’m pretty sure he’s in love with. “Oh! How foolish of me! I thought the monster got me!”
“There’s a monster?” a woman who’s been watching asks.
“Monster!” someone screams, and then there’s pure panic as the onlookers bolt in every direction. The news crew tries to capture it all.
“Well, that got rid of them,” Johnson says, sounding pleased. He returns to the closed door.
“I’ll go in,” I say as I grab the door and pull it open. The room is silent as I peer inside with Havoc so close to me he’s bumping into me.
“I’ll let it eat you first,” he assures me.
“My god, you’re so sexy and handsome when you protect me like that.”
He chuckles but holds on to me protectively, or maybe as a shield, as we step inside. I know he’d jump in front of anything, even a cat, to protect me. But I really don’t think the cat is evil.
I think.
Maybe.
We slowly walk into the room and look around as we assess the room for the cat. Even though there are no open windows and the door had been shut, I don’t see it anywhere. We hunt the room over, looking under the bed, in the drawers, nearly everywhere, but I don’t see the cat anywhere.
“What’s this?”
I look over at Havoc as he walks out of the bathroom with a receipt. “It was behind the trash can.”
“Is it recent?”
“Yesterday.”
“To where?” I ask as he flattens it.
“Daily Time.”
“Never heard of it.”
Havoc shakes his head. “Me neither.”
“I’m going to take pictures of the circle. Go ahead and give that to Johnson and tell him to come on in.”
“The cat’s probably waiting for more victims. It’s not as much fun when you only murder two,” Havoc says.
“Are you speaking from experience?”
“Maybe.”
I snort and shoo him off. Havoc and I stick around until they finish up, just in case the cat returns, but I’m really eager to head home to try and figure out what the symbol has been used for. I try calling Nicco, a vampire who lives in my other house, to see if he can research it, but his cell phone is dead.
Again.
Once they wrap up for the day, we head for home. We’ll need to call a council meeting soon to talk about this and the lack of clues we have, but for now, home it is.
“Do you know what would make this day better?” Havoc asks as we walk through the door of the café.
“Chocolate? Strippers? A blow job?”
Havoc’s eyes get wide and a grin covers his face. “Wait… what? You’re going to strip and give me a blow job while coated in chocolate? Now this is a thing I can get behind. When do you start and how much?”
“More than you can afford,” I tease. But then, annoyingly, my mind is pulled back to the case. “What was today? A step forward to finding Geoff? A step back? I mean, that was dark fucking magic. You know he was involved.”
“Uh… how about just a step? Kind of sideways, a little diagonal, there was a stumble there in the middle…”
I grin at him, even though he’s not being helpful. “Doesn’t it feel like it?”
“What about a little relaxation time?” he asks with a grin that sends excitement running through me as I aim him toward the door leading to my home upstairs.
“Ooh, let’s move quickly so they don’t ask us to help.”
“Miles!” Yoko shouts the moment she sees us trying to slip from one end of the café to the stairs.
“She’s not talking to you,” Havoc says. “She’s talking about how much she’s walked today.”
“Ah, good. I’ve walked miles today too!” I tell her while hurrying away.
“No, not… Miles, just a moment!”
Havoc covers my ears, yanks the door open, and shoves me up the stairs. We rush through the hallway while snickering like children after having bullied poor Yoko.
Havoc pulls the bedroom door open and literally screams. “What the fuck!”
That’s when my eyes fall on the cat… that cat sitting on my bed grooming itself.
Havoc yanks me back and we slam into someone behind me. Startled, we turn on them and Havoc lifts his arms like he’s going to karate chop Yoko right on the neck.
“Like I was trying to say, there’s a weird cat in your apartment,” she says.
“You didn’t think to tell us?” Havoc asks, like he’s annoyed.
Her brown eyes get unbelievably wide. “Seriously? I was going ‘Miles! Miles!’ Neither of you heard that? Now that… creature walked into the café and right over to your door and pawed at it while meowing sweetly. I thought it was someone’s familiar, so I told it you weren’t around and to come back later. That’s when it pulled out these massive fucking claws and bared these… needle fangs. It really wanted inside, and I was scared it was going to murder us, so I might have opened the barrier for it.”
“You opened my barrier to my safe haven to let it in?” I exclaim.
“I was terrified of it!”
When I look over, it cocks its head as it holds up a paw that wicked claws slice out of. Then it sets a paw on the top blanket and shreds it while never losing eye contact.
“We’re going to die,” Havoc decides.
“I was trying to call you, but before I could, you guys walked through the door.” Yoko nods at it. “What is it?”
“I… don’t know,” I say as I take a deep breath and step back into the room.
Havoc literally picks me up and carries me back out.
“Havoc, stop! If it was going to attack, it already would have.” While this sounds reasonable, I’m not sure I even believe my own words.
“It’s just playing with its meal,” he says. “Did you see it shred your blanket? And that’s my favorite blanket!”
It responds by shredding it a little more. Then it reaches over and hooks Havoc’s pillow, like it knows exactly which one is his, and drags it over to itself.
“Alright, that’s enough!” I say as I walk into the room and step in front of the bed. “My name is Miles. I’m assuming you’re interested in one of us if you’re following us?”
The cat—I think it’s a male—walks up to me and sits down directly in front of me.
“Do you understand me?” I ask.
He stares at me for a moment before giving the tiniest of nods.
“What’s your name?”
He meows.
Yoko takes a step toward me, excited about something. “Ooh! What if you get him like a way to communicate? Maybe he understands letters!” Yoko says before rushing off.
“Oh, please don’t tell me it’s that smart,” Havoc says, but Yoko seems excited as she runs off.
“I’m really trusting you by allowing you in my house even if you came in uninvited,” I warn the cat. “I don’t know what role you have in all of this, but I don’t take kindly to being stabbed in the back, so if you try anything, that’ll be the end of your life.”
The cat yawns, clearly dismissing my threats. That’s when Yoko comes back with a paper covered in letters from the alphabet she’s printed off the internet. She sets it onto the shredded blanket and steps back.
“Can you read that?” she eagerly asks.
He glances down at it and promptly smacks the paper off the bed.
“It’s dumb and an asshole,” Havoc says and the creature hisses at him.
What the hell have I gotten myself into?
OceanofPDF.com

Chapter Three
“The meeting will now begin!” I say as I look at the other council members. We still meet at Rehna’s shrine, even though it’s no longer hers seeing as she’s dead. Instead, it’s where the celestial being who’d kept Rehna young has taken up residence. She’d been held captive by Rehna who was using her power to keep from aging. She rarely attends the meetings but seems to enjoy greeting us as we come in.
The council is made up of “bosses” of nearby districts. Each state is broken into districts and each district is run by a boss. The boss is generally someone nonhuman or of magical descent who can reign over and take care of everyone else. Sometimes it’s a power struggle, but if the boss isn’t working out for the district, the state’s council can overthrow them.
“The question is whether or not Miles has clothes on,” Lanni says.
“One time, one time, I come to a council meeting without clothes and you guys act like I’m a nudist. I had an illusion on! No one else but Lanni even noticed!” I’ve tried to reason with them again and again, but it falls on deaf ears.
“You did notice how no one will sit in that chair, right?” Evan asks. Evan is a druid, which means he’s connected to the earth and plant life. That means he thinks he can get away with wearing air plants in his hair. He says it’s so he’s constantly connected to something living, even when indoors. I say it’s because he’s weird.
“What do you mean?” I ask.
“No one wants to sit where your naked butthole was once parked,” Evan explains.
Because this isn’t a full council meeting, only those involved in the Geoff case—which honestly should be everyone, but some are too “busy” to deal with the prospect of the end of the world—are present.
That means we have Sam and Johnson, who aren’t on the council, but are honorary members; Jacob, who runs a nearby school for magical arts; Evan, and Lanni, who runs my district while I’m away. There used to be two more members: Aiden, who was killed by Geoff, and Rehna, who was working for Geoff and defeated by me.
Aiden’s spot still hasn’t been filled, but there’s talk of who will take his place. Until then, the council is handling his district as a whole.
“Another boss was found dead,” Johnson says. “This is the third one this month found with their chest cut open. We have no proof that it’s Geoff doing it, but clearly, it’s in relation to him. He could have people bringing the hearts to him and letting them do the dirty work.”
“What kind this time?” I ask.
“Another necromancer. It seems he’s now targeting stronger bosses. He’s probably growing in strength,” Sam says.
“I still don’t understand how devouring the hearts is giving him their magic,” Evan says.
I shake my head, not fully knowing, but having seen it myself when I was a teenager. “It’s all in the magic in the spell that brought him back and the magic he acquired with life. I don’t understand it very well myself, but I know it’s possible.”
“We’ve been in contact with those districts to get more information. It’s highly unlikely there’s another monster around eating hearts for the hell of it,” Johnson says.
“When you hear more from them, let us know,” I say.
He nods.
“Alright, I’m not sure about the rest of you, but could we talk about the monster on the table?” Lanni asks as the cat grooms himself like he’s a centerpiece.
“This is my new pet! Do you guys like him?” I reach out like I’m going to pet it. The cat also reaches out and then exposes one single claw, which he sinks right into my finger. “See how cute it is?” I ask as blood runs down my finger and drips onto the table.
I quickly mop it up, in case anyone decides to use my blood for something heinously magical.
“It’s fucking evil, and it’s taken over our place,” Havoc says.
I glance over at who might help save me from this pest. “Jacob, I was hoping you could tell me what it is. Or maybe take it home with you. Would you like to examine it? Dissect it? Experiment on it?”
Jacob is a mage who has dedicated his life to the study of magic and teaching children magic, so I feel like if anyone might know what this thing is, it would be him. “I can tell you what it’s not,” he helpfully supplies.
“Natural?” Havoc inputs.
“It’s not a cat and definitely not a witch’s familiar.”
“No, it’s smart too. It understands English.”
That gets Jacob’s attention. “Like you tell it to sit and it sits?”
“No, like you ask it complex questions and if it feels like answering with a head nod, it will. Most of the time it doesn’t. Not because it doesn’t understand, but because it’s evil.”
Jacob’s eyes light up as he leans toward the monster. “Intriguing. Are you a unique type of familiar?”
It one hundred percent ignores him.
“It only likes Miles,” Havoc says.
I look at my bleeding finger. “It likes me?”
“More than anyone else. It’ll only answer to you.”
I think back on all the fun times I’ve shared with the creature since I had him. The time where he shredded the curtain while I was in the shower because I asked if he wanted a bath. When I tried giving him cat food and he bitch slapped that bowl across the living room. When I suggested he sleep in a cat bed on the floor and he sliced the cat bed open and promptly curled up in my bed, so Havoc and I were forced to sleep on the couch. It’s been a long eighteen hours. Havoc even threatened to set our bed on fire when he rolled off the couch at one point. Once he turned into a raven, we fit a little better.
“Ignoring the cat from hell, let’s continue this discussion. So does anyone recognize what this magic circle means?” I ask as Sam slides a picture that was taken of the circle from the motel room.
Jacob leans in but he shakes his head. “It’s very strange. What’s the blood?”
“Human. We believe the blood is from the spell casters. Though their bodies were mummified, we can see the cuts on their hands,” Johnson says.
“Very interesting. Was it to summon the cat?”
The cat meows, and we look over at it.
“Do you know?” I ask. He walks toward me and jumps onto my shoulder before leaping onto a bookshelf behind me. When I look over at Havoc, I see he has his sword out like he’s ready to dice the creature up for touching me.
“I was just about ready to cut that furball in half if it laid a paw on you,” he assures me, but we’re all more interested in the cat as it walks down the bookshelf before stopping at a book and pawing at it until it falls out and hits the ground.
“Hey, hairball, those are expensive and old!” I say as the cat jumps down and starts pawing at the book. We huddle around it as the cat meows. I lean over to read what’s on the page, but the cat switches it to another and then another.
When we clearly don’t get it, he jumps back onto the shelf and knocks another down.
“Wait!” Havoc says as he cautiously nudges the cat off the book and flips through it. “Both of these are written by Hans Teller.”
“The man who wrote the book with dark magic that was used to bring Geoff back to life?” Sam asks.
“Yeah, that’s him… Is this about Hans Teller?” I ask the cat.
The cat meows.
“Maybe more of his magic? If we still had the book that was stolen from us, we could check if this is a spell from the book,” Jacobs says.
The book had been stolen from me so they could use a spell inside it to bring Geoff back, and now they’re using another spell from it for this… cat. “But what did this spell do? Was the spell for you?” I ask the cat.
He just stares at me.
“Hmm… then what was its purpose?”
“They wouldn’t be bringing Hans back to life, would they?” Evan asks.
“It’s a different spell than the one used to bring Geoff back to life,” I say.
Havoc continues to flip through the book. “At least we have a clue now. Johnson, did you get a location on that receipt?”
“I did—it’s a clothing shop. It sells weird stylized clothing, but nothing of interest. Maybe just a regular receipt,” Sam says. “We asked if any of the employees could describe anyone who’d been in that day, but the one working said she didn’t remember anything distinct about any of them.”
“Havoc and I will check them out,” I say. “I can’t imagine no one can remember anything about one of their few customers they had.”
“Are you going to go in naked again?” Lanni asks. “I bet that’ll get them to talk.”
“One time,” I say.
“My eyes hurt for days.”
I glare at her and head back to the table to finish up the meeting. It doesn’t take long, seeing as none of us really have any leads or anything of use. It always seems like Geoff is one step ahead of us.
 
* * *
I’m wiping off the remaining table as Havoc slips inside the café. He’d run a charm to someone for me while I finished closing up the café. Now that it’s done for the night, it’s just the two of us.
“You didn’t tell me the charm was going to that… woman,” he grumbles.
“Gina?”
His scowl deepens at the sound of her name. “Yes, Gina. She tried getting in my pants.”
I can’t help but grin at the thought of Havoc dealing with Gina. “Ooh, did she succeed?” I joke.
His eyes narrow. “I told her that I only needed you now. Do you want to know what she said?”
I smile, kind of surprised he said that. “Sure?”
“That you’re stuck up and she could show me things you could never dream of showing me.”
“Oh?”
“And so then I ran through every sexual position we’ve ever done. I made up names for a few of them.”
I look at him in horror. “You did not.”
“I most certainly did. Then I told her about that thing you do with your tongue.”
My eyes are nearly falling out of my head at this point. “What thing?” I ask, mortified.
“You know, that ‘aulala’ thing you do,” he says while doing something that I’ve never seen with his tongue.
“I will never be able to show my face in the magical community again,” I realize.
“Then I told her—”
It gets worse? “I don’t even want to know,” I say as I hurry back into the kitchen.
His laughter follows me. “Sweet pea, don’t run from me!”
“Don’t call me that. When you call me that it means you know you did something wrong,” I say as I start packing up the stuff that’d been left out. “Will pie shut you up?”
“Maybe.”
“Good. Baron wanted help trying out a new recipe, so we whipped it up.”
He eyes the pie sitting on the counter as I grab a plate and fork. “What’s in it?”
I glance back at him and give him an evil grin. “Secret.”
He leans over my shoulder, setting his chin on it as he gazes down at the pie. “I’m not always into secret ingredients.”
“I’m the one who threw the secret ingredient in,” I say as I cut out a slice and slide it onto a plate.
“Ohhh…” He even cringes a little. “That makes me even more worried.”
I grab a forkful before turning around. He presses his body against mine, pinning me against the counter as I aim the fork toward his mouth. He opens up and bites down while holding my eyes.
“Hmm… the secret ingredient is… love,” he settles on.
I snicker, which makes him laugh.
“It’s delicious.”
“Thanks. Baron made the crust, and I did the rest.”
“Making food is too difficult. I’m glad you can cook,” he says as he leans in.
I press in for a kiss, but he raises an eyebrow, making me hesitate.
“I want more pie.”
Such a cocky little ass. “You’re evil.”
He gives me a huge grin, knowing exactly what he did. “Maybe. But that pie won’t hang around as long as you will.”
I cock my head while questioning how I ended up with someone so evil. “Are you saying you like pie more than me?”
“Not exactly, but while I’m going for the pie, you have Gina as an option. She definitely wants you after I told her about the way you can do this touch that’s so soft it’s almost a tease, yet hard enough it makes my penis want to explode.”
“That doesn’t even make sense!”
“I’m complimenting you, so I think that deserves more pie.”
I shake my head but aim another forkful toward his mouth. As he goes to bite it, I pull it away. “It’s not nice to be teased, is it?”
He cocks his head and gives me a look that makes me want to keep teasing him. “The difference between you and me is that I can manhandle you.”
As he reaches for my hand to “manhandle” me, I grab onto our magical bond and say, “Stop.” Just like that, his entire body is forced to stop and his eyes narrow.
“You’re the worst cheater I’ve ever met.”
I grin at him. “Why, thank you,” I say as I slide the fork into my mouth with a moan. It really is quite good. I can see why he’s more interested in it than pleasing me.
Then, as he watches, I slide my tongue over the fork, cleaning up any last bit I might’ve missed.
“Ooh, that’s so good. I might just… have to eat it all by myself,” I say as he’s forced to remain stopped by my command. Because I’m playing and not serious, he’s manipulating the command some. He keeps pulling at it until his hand begins sliding forward to reach for me.
“You know you want me,” he purrs.
“Oh, but this pie… I think I want it more.”
“Than me?”
“I mean, you’re handsome and everything, but this pie just won’t hang around as long as you will,” I say, throwing his words back at him.
“How’s it feel to be sexy and an asshole?” he asks teasingly.
I take another bite and moan. “Almost as good as it feels to eat this pie.”
He starts laughing and I drop my hold on him before directing the next bite to his mouth. He grabs my waist and hoists me up onto the counter before pushing forward so he’s between my legs.
Havoc leans forward and kisses me softly. “Does it ever amaze you that we’ve been together for so long and still like each other? I mean… I know we didn’t get along as well as we do now, but we cared for each other.”
“It makes me happy. I know that if I can handle three hundred years with you, I could handle at least a few hundred more. If you straighten up, that is. You’ve been getting kind of sassy lately.”
“Straighten up? How could I get any more perfect than I already am?”
I twirl the fork around. “This reminds me of when we were younger.”
“Me pinning you against a counter and you feeding me? I don’t remember this in our past, but do tell,” he says.
“Feeding you. Remember? I would sneak food to you. While it would take a long time for you to actually starve to death, Geoff definitely wasn’t too generous with the food. It seemed like he’d go weeks at a time without feeding you. I’d take food down and toss it into the circle for you.”
He reaches out and slides his fingers through my hair before tugging on some gently. “I remember. You always were too kind.”
“I wasn’t too kind. I wanted to use you,” I say as I watch him closely.
That doesn’t appear to bother him. “You seem to remember things differently than I do.”
I cup his cheek with my hand and use my magic to push my memories into him.
Geoff has had the demon for years but he refuses to do anything with him. Does that mean he’s afraid of him? I really hope he’s afraid of him. Because if there’s something Geoff is afraid of, I want it, and I’m going to use it to destroy him.
“Is this your favorite pastime? Do you enjoy staring at me?” the demon asks.
“Strangely, I want to care about you when I see you chained up, bleeding, hurt, and alone. Then you speak and I realize that I don’t care about you all that much.”
The demon is barely clothed, only a pair of ragged pants to cover him, even though it’s cold down here. But Geoff wants to make sure the demon is not comfortable or cared for in any way. “How odd. I think I would actually enjoy you more if you were chained up as well! I seem to have a fetish for humans being tortured.”
“Depending on the human, I might agree with you,” I say as I open a folded-up cloth I’d stuck in my pocket. The demon is surrounded by a magic circle which he can’t pass through, but I can toss things through it. Hell, I could walk through it if I wanted him to crush my skull. Instead, I toss a chunk of bread. He catches it, making his chain rattle. “It’s like going out and feeding the birds.”
He snorts. “So it’s amusing feeding me?” he asks.
“More amusing than talking to you.”
He gives me a wicked grin filled with fangs. I used to fear that look, but someone can only bare their fangs so many times with nothing else happening before I get bored of it. Instead, I’ve strangely started to think that he looks kind of handsome when he wears that look.
I shudder.
That thought fills me with disgust. And desire.
Mostly disgust.
Dammit.
“What do you think you’re getting out of feeding me?” he asks. “I mean… you do know that if you’re caught, you’ll be beaten or worse.”
“The goal is not getting caught, obviously.”
“Yes, but your luck must run out one of these days, and I can’t wait until it does.” He rubs his hands together excitedly as I glare at him. His favorite pastime really is wanting me to suffer.
“Really? Then no more food.”
He shrugs like he doesn’t care, but I know he likes my company. Even if he’s a stubborn asshole. “Are you a strong little mage yet? How about you kill that disgusting monster and then we could talk.”
“Talk while you pick your teeth with my bones?”
He looks aghast. “How rude do you think I am? I’d at least wait to see what you could do first. You could be entertaining. Although, honestly, I’m getting bored of looking at you. Do a trick. Step into the circle and see what happens.”
I walk across the dank basement to get closer to him. “Someday, I will. And what’s going to happen is I’m going to make you mine and you’re going to tear that wretched man apart piece by piece.”
“Ooh, I like the way you talk. The piece by piece part, not the being yours part. It’s almost like you’re in love with me. How flattering.”
I snort. “That would never happen. I would have to put myself out of my misery if something like that ever occurred.”
“How about I do it for you? Would you like to choose how you die? Head pop right off? Dismemberment? A good strangling ought to do the trick, your neck is like a chicken’s.”
“Hmm…” I pretend to think about it for a moment. “I have always been interested in a good strangling.”
“Great. I’ll keep that in mind. Want to try it out? We could practice. Come on inside my circle.” He motions for me while giving me a fang-filled grin.
“I don’t know…” I say as I toss an apple which he snatches midair. “I feel like you might be lying to me. Hell, what’s it hurt?”
He bites into the apple as I stand up and walk toward the circle. He stops mid chew and cocks his head. A look of amusement crosses his face as my toe touches the edge of the circle. “Ah, neither the guts nor the balls—”
I step right into the circle. I know at this point he could kill me. Everything inside the circle is his and he has no reason not to. He despises humans, and how could he not? We’ve chained him up, tortured, and abused him because we can’t control such a strong demon without our devices of torture. He’s too smart. He has too much power. But he’s also a demon and demons think so differently than humans.
At least that’s what I once believed. Now… I’m not so sure.
Before my foot even touches the ground, he’s on his feet and has my throat in his hands. The grip is crushing, but he’s not squeezing the front, which he’d need to do if he was planning on choking me easily.
“Oh, and I mistook you for smart.”
He’s taller than I am, towering over me. He looks massive up close with muscles and strength that could destroy me in an instant. And here I am, willingly letting myself climb right in. He drags me the rest of the way inside and throws me to the ground. I hit hard as he sets a foot on my back and pushes me down and my instincts are telling me that he’s going to kill me, but still, I don’t try to run.
I push myself to my hands and feet but he kicks me down again. The thing is, he hasn’t killed me. I’ve seen him attack Geoff. I’ve seen Geoff make a mistake and this creature tear him apart. Instead, he’s kicking me and pushing me, but with no real venom. It’s like he’s trying to scare me, but he should know that I live with the scariest of monsters.
I push myself up again and this time, I manage to get to my feet before he tries to toss me back down. But before he can, I set my hand against his chest and let my magic flow from my body. I close my eyes and let blue tendrils of magic run down him, touching and learning. I want to know about this bond, I want to know how to break it and how to conquer it. I might not be strong enough yet, but someday, someday I’ll free him.
And then I hit Geoff’s hold on him. Geoff’s dark magic slams into mine, eating at it as pain tears into me. I yank my hand back and hit the ground on my ass as I hold my throbbing hand against my chest like I’ve been burned. Is it the markings Geoff put on me? Is it the strength of his magic?
I look up at the demon who is watching me intently. He kneels down before reaching out and setting a hand on my forehead.
“No wonder why Geoff likes you so much and hates you in the same breath. You’re quite powerful, aren’t you, little mage? And Geoff knows you’ll be more powerful than him some day.”
“I want you as mine,” I say.
“Then you need to work a little harder.”
“What’s your name?”
He raises an eyebrow. Every demon knows that the only way to create a demon circle to summon a demon is by using their real name. A name they hold close and never tell. Or at least they try not to. The stronger mages can force the demons to tell them their names while some give up their names easily for power.
I know this demon has no reason to give me his name, but with it, I could be one step closer to Geoff’s destruction.
“Geoff is home,” he says, and I start, knowing that he’ll beat me if he finds me anywhere but in the library.
But before I go, I have to know. “What’s your name?”
“Do you understand what you’re asking for?”
“Yes. Knowing your name, I can enslave you. But I could also get free from Geoff and I have to think you’d want to be free as well.”
He continues to stare at me, and I know that every moment he wastes is a moment that Geoff gets closer to knowing that I’m not where I should be.
“Havelocke.”
And with that, I’m onto my feet and running for the door.
I pull my hand away from his face, breaking away from the memory as Havoc watches me with a smile.
“You’re really going to tell me you were evil and just using me?” he asks.
“Yep.”
He shakes his head and gently kisses me. “I might’ve acted like a dick and acted like I hated you… but those days… those years I spent in that room with nothing was worse than any torture Geoff inflicted on me. It made me bitter and angry. It made me hate everything, and some days it made me want to die just so I didn’t have to stare at that fucking brick wall for one more day. And then you started coming. And at first, I was angry. I was angry at everything. The world, humans, everything. But at some point, I started waiting for you to come, begging for you to come. Every time I heard footsteps near that door, I’d plead that you would come down to give me something, even though you were a mage, the one thing I hated most about the world.”
“I… I didn’t realize how much you cared about it,” I say. “You were my few moments of reprieve from that man. I never realized the feeling was mutual.”
He brushes my hair back before tipping my chin up and kissing me again. “You were the only thing I managed to care about. I’ve made your life difficult, I’ll admit that, but humans had lied to me and gained my trust so many times that it took me a long time to realize you were different. You were worth caring about. And only now do I realize how much I care about you. Even if you occasionally irritate me or sass me.”
I snort as I set my head against his chest. “I like sassing you.”
“I’m aware. And I hope you never stop.”
OceanofPDF.com

Chapter Four
I feel like I look a little suspicious as I walk into the store that the receipt came from. I’m supposed to be inconspicuous and see if I can figure out anything about the place that the police might’ve missed when they asked about the receipt.
But instead, I have Havoc, in his raven form, on one shoulder, since I thought that would be less suspicious than bringing a horned demon inside. And then, weirdly, I have the cat on my other shoulder. He’s currently digging his claws in as he stares at Havoc who doesn’t look pleased. Havoc puffs up his feathers and glares at the cat.
“Cat, can you stay outside?” I ask.
He digs his claws in deeper in response.
“You freaking menace. That’s what I’m naming you. Menace.”
The cat flicks his tail back and forth. I’m not sure if that means he’s going to claw my eyes out or he’s pleased with his new name, but I pass through the door into the clothing store.
A woman looks up and smiles at me, completely unaffected by my beasties, which means she’s probably a witch and used to it.
“Good morning. What can I do for you?” she asks.
“Just stumbled upon the store, thought I’d get a better look,” I say as I take a look around. Sam was right, the place is… unique.
“Well, come right in. A man with your build would look very nice in this jacket here,” she says as she leads me over to a jacket that looks like a peacock’s tail. It’s hideous but Havoc caws.
“Very sexy,” he jokes. Thankfully, only I can hear his words in my mind when he’s in this form. The only problem with it is that I have to speak out loud to answer him, which I can’t do when others are watching unless I want to be thought insane.
The cat jumps down and begins weirdly rubbing on my ankles. I nearly trip on him as I reach for the jacket to pretend I’m interested in it. While examining the coat, I let my magic feel the room over. The shop itself doesn’t have many magical elements to it. I can sense a book of magic on the desk, but it clearly belongs to the woman who’s a witch. It would be stranger for her not to have a book of lesser magic. What I do feel is a magical barrier on the place that isn’t around the shop but on the floor.
A basement?
So what’s in that basement?
“This is nice, but I think the brown will clash with my black raven and red cat.”
Her eyes get wide. “Very true!”
Suddenly I’m flooded with fashion advice as she goes on and on about what colors would complement my animals. I wander a bit, trying to figure out where the barrier is the strongest, but I can’t get far without the woman watching my every move.
Havoc discreetly hops off my shoulder when the woman is looking the other way. “The cat found something. It’s not completely useless. Do you mind if I peck his eyes out? Silence means no.”
I try to glance over to them, but I’m not quite sure where they went, so I pick up a gaudy black shirt with rhinestones all over it to look like I’m at least doing something while my creatures run amok.
“That would look amazing on you,” she says.
“Are you sure? You don’t think it’s too much for someone like me?” I ask. I think the only way this shirt could be of use is during a good torturing. I could threaten to put it on anyone, and I guarantee they’d talk right away.
“Oh, heavens no!”
“Can I try it on?”
She looks very pleased by this. “Of course, right this way,” she says as she leads me to the back.
“Keep her over there, I’m going to shift and see if I can tell anything about the door. We won’t be able to open it without disrupting the barrier. Is it hers?”
I feel the barrier again, but it’s immediately apparent the magic is different, so I shake my head. The woman ushers me into a changing room.
“Is this your place?” I ask before she can turn away.
“It is! I’m very lucky to be able to afford it. I make all of the clothes myself, so if something doesn’t fit, I’ll make it in your size.”
“Oh… I didn’t realize that.” Clearly her tastes are as strange as her clothes. “That’s amazing.”
She beams at me. “Thank you. I come from a large coven who really thought I should dedicate my time to their stuff, so I’m very happy they allowed me to go down this path instead.”
What path? The path of horribly gaudy clothes? They were probably just trying to keep her from a life of embarrassment.
She gives me a wave. “Sorry! I didn’t mean to start going life story on you! I’m just blabbing! I can tell you have magic too, but I can’t tell what it is.”
I give her a wink. “It’s a secret.”
She blushes. “I do have the problem of talking more than I should.”
“Miles, we can only tell that it’s leading into a basement. The magic is very heavy on the door. Only those who are allowed can open it. I think that unless we break the spell, we’re not going to figure out what’s down there.”
Yes, but if we break the spell, the caster will know and come see what’s up.
“I’ll try this on now,” I say.
“Great!”
I step into the room and close the curtain. Just as I’m pulling the shirt on, Havoc hops inside. “Alright, we’ll watch the place and see if something’s going on,” I whisper.
“I’m sorry, were you speaking? Your shirt is so damn loud, I couldn’t hear your voice over it,” he says, then begins doing his cawing laugh.
“You don’t dig it?” I tease as I turn in the mirror and see myself shine. “You know I have to buy it. This poor lady’s so excited I’m here.”
“Good, I think it suits you. It reflects your sparkling personality.”
“It turns you on, doesn’t it?”
He hops a bit. “Never been more turned on. Especially because I can see my reflection in the rhinestones. And boy, am I sexy.”
I stifle a laugh as he shifts, feathered cloak fluttering around him as he looks down at me. “You’d better not get caught,” I whisper.
“Me? I’m like a whisper in the night. A breath in the air. A cucumber in a bit of squashes.”
“None of that made sense.”
“What also doesn’t make sense is how sexy you look in this outfit,” he says as he runs a finger down my rhinestoned chest. Havoc presses into me, pushing a knee between my legs so I part them. He directs my chin up and runs a thumb over my lips, making me want more of him. Just a taste of his lips will be enough until we get home. He presses into me softly before opening his mouth just enough that his tongue brushes against mine.
I hear a yelp of surprise and jerk back. “What the hell?” I ask.
Havoc shrugs and shifts, so I yank the shirt off and grab mine before stepping out to where the woman is having a staring contest with the cat.
“Is this… a familiar?” she asks in confusion.
“A… cat,” I say.
She raises an eyebrow. “A cat?”
“I love the shirt!” I say as I carry it over to her.
Her expression shifts into pure happiness. “Thank you so much! Is that… do you want to buy it?”
“I’d love to.”
She promptly forgets about Menace, the creepy cat, and merrily rings it up.
 
* * *
I summon two semi-intelligent lesser demons that are shaped like small gargoyles and ask them to keep a watch on the shop. I think they’re more interested in boning each other, but they seem to be doing an adequate job because they let me know every time someone walks in the shop.
My phone rings and I see that it’s them again. At least I’m on the couch this time and not busy with other things.
“Hello?” I say, trying not to show my irritation at getting called for the fifteenth time today. The first time was the mailman, the second was the delivery guy, the third was the witch who owns the place, and on and on. I’ve been trying to get them to understand that it’s okay for normal people to be there.
“Master!” One croaks out. “Master? Master! This stupid thing. Make it work!”
Feeling extra creative, and unable to call them by their true names since that should stay between a mage and a demon, I asked what they wanted to be called. The female picked the name One because she is, and I quote, “Number one,” and the male picked “Popsicle” because he wanted a popsicle.
Semi-intelligent is the key here.
“I’m here.”
“Now… I know you mentioned only calling if there was something alarming.”
“I did.”
One hesitates. “And I might have promptly called about a dog that walked by.”
“You did.”
She hesitates again. “But this time I think it might be something.”
“Okay, what is it?” I ask.
She hems and haws a bit first. “Now, I could be wrong.”
Havoc leans into me. “Them again?”
I nod. “Come on, One. What is it?”
“Will you be mad if I’m wrong?”
“No. So?”
“Popsicle thinks I’m wrong. So we discussed it, and we really don’t know, so I thought it was better safe than sorry and he was like it’s better sorry than safe and then we realized that that made no sense, and I asked him how he could rather be sorry than safe—”
“One, please tell me who entered the building.”
“Oh, a whole group of people! Kind of looked like a cult!”
I sigh as my hand instinctively balls up like I’m wishing to strangle something. “Oh my god. And how long ago was this?” I jump up and wave to Havoc as we rush for the door. Menace chases after us, eager to join in on anything that involves him making things bleed or tearing them up.
“Well… first we thought about it for a bit, then we considered it, and then we debated whether we should call you or not. So… about an hour.”
I groan. “We need to talk about what seems suspicious.”
“Dammit. I told you!” she growls at the other demon.
I sigh but hang up on her and rush after Havoc who is striding toward the front door. We head to the car and just as I’m shutting the door, Menace jumps onto my lap. I still can’t tell if he wants to murder me or love me, so I toss him into the back seat. He promptly crawls back into the front seat and parks his ass on my lap as I drive.
“I can’t tell if that thing likes you or wants to be close so it can stab you without having to move too far,” Havoc says.
“Funnily enough, I was thinking the same thing. I’m also not sure.”
I reach down and pet his ears. He huffs, like he’s annoyed because he’s “not a cat,” but doesn’t move. I think he secretly enjoys it, so I poke at his ear. He swipes at me with a paw, but thankfully, his claws weren’t out or I’m pretty sure Havoc would have tossed him through the window.
Not out the window. Through it.
We reach the little shop and park a short distance away from it before getting out. One, the demon, flies down and lands in front of me. She’s about knee high, phone in a taloned paw.
“There are three outside. Smoking.”
“Ooh, perfect,” I say as I rush past her. We slip around the corner and see the three people—two men and one woman—smoking in silence.
“Let’s get them into the alleyway and knock them out,” I suggest.
“How do we do that?” Havoc asks.
I see that one of the men is playing on their phone, so I nod at it. “Swoop in, grab his phone, and bring it this way.”
“Got it,” he says as he shifts into a raven and leaps into the air. I wait patiently until I hear shouting and the sound of feet rushing this way. Clearly, they’re not happy.
Havoc zips around the corner and shifts, dropping the phone to the ground as the three round the corner. Havoc punches the first square in the face, dropping him like a sack of potatoes.
“Wha…cha!” he shouts as a kick lands. What that means or why he shouted it, I’ll never know. All I do know is he’s enjoying himself if the huge grin is anything to go by.
Instead of relying on my magic, which will likely harm the second man, I grab him in a headlock and start choking him. That’s when the woman begins casting a spell. Before she can get it out of her mouth, Menace leaps onto her, scaling up her body as she screams at his claws digging into her. The man I’m hanging on to thrashes and hits me until his arms grow weak and he drops to the ground.
“Don’t murder her!” I yell at Menace as he digs one claw into her forehead and extends his nails like he’s going to claw her face off.
Havoc grabs her and puts her into a chokehold before Menace can proceed with the face disfigurement. Menace hisses, clearly displeased over the lack of a good face skinning.
“I feel… like that was a little overkill, but it might just be me,” I say as I look down at the bleeding trio. They’re just heaps on the ground.
Menace is licking his paws like he’s proud of himself and Havoc is still grinning, clearly pleased.
“Nah, nothing’s ever overkill for us,” Havoc says. “If it was overkill, we would have killed them. Get it? Ha ha!”
I ignore him while wishing I hadn’t gotten it. “Okay. Since we don’t have a third person, we’re going to have to hope no one notices the woman’s gone missing.”
The cat meows like he wants to know our plans.
“I’m putting an illusion on us,” I explain to him. “So Havoc and I will go in looking like these two.”
Menace walks over and sits on the woman’s face, like butthole right on her mouth, and meows again. That’s when I realize what he wants.
I shake my head. “No! I’m not putting an illusion on you! You could screw it all up.”
He growls and extends his dagger claws.
I eye him. “Brute force won’t get you everywhere in life!”
He begins yowling.
“Is… is Master really having a conversation with a cat?” One asks Popsicle.
“Don’t ask,” Havoc says as he sets up two of the bodies, then shoos the cat off and sets up the third.
“Fine.” I jab a finger at the cat. “Don’t fuck this up.”
He’s all cocky as he pads over to my side, tail flicking back and forth. I kneel in front of the first man and examine him so I can get the illusion right. “Havoc… did he have a broken nose before or after you punched him in the face?” I ask.
Havoc stares at him very closely. “It’s not bleeding. I think he already had it.”
I poke it but it doesn’t feel broken. “Are you sure? I mean that fucker’s like a beak and it’s clearly broken.”
“Positive. I remember his tilted beak when I grabbed the phone.”
“How positive?” I ask.
“Ten percent.”
“Out of what?” I demand.
He chuckles then sets a gentle hand on my shoulder. “Trust me, babe.”
“I don’t trust you at all,” I say as I scrutinize the man and then place an illusion on myself so I look just like him. Then I turn to the next one so I can make Havoc look like him. He’s shorter than Havoc, but the taller of the two. The issue with that is that people will see him as the height of the original man. So if they reach for his head, they might feel that something’s off. Honestly, it shouldn’t be a huge deal since people rarely go around patting the tops of heads.
The cat, on the other hand, could be a disaster.
He meows.
“Yeah, I’m thinking about you.”
He lifts up his paw and extends one claw.
The middle one.
“You’re such an asshole,” I say as I make him appear like the woman. I use my magic to tie up the three unconscious people and set my minor demons to watch them as the three of us head toward the door of the shop. “I’m just going to put this out there. This is going to be a disaster.”
“Why?” Havoc asks, sounding like Havoc.
That’s when it hits me. “Ah, shit. I didn’t listen to them speak. I don’t know how to make them sound.”
“I did when they were shouting at me! Your guy sounded like his balls never dropped. Very squeaky. Think like mouse whose balls also never dropped.”
“Splendid.”
“And I sounded sexy. Masculine. Handsome.”
“How do you sound handsome?” I ask.
“Hi, my name is Havoc,” he says, voice low and grumbly.
I stare at him.
He grins at me. “Went to your dick, didn’t it? Speechless.”
The cat, who now looks like a woman, hisses. Literally the woman hisses.
“You can’t talk at all,” I say as I point at Menace. I try to magically modify our voices some to how I think they should sound, but before I can do much more, the door opens.
“What are you three doing? We’re waiting on you!” a woman shouts from the doorway of the shop.
“Here goes disaster,” I say as I head toward them.
OceanofPDF.com

Chapter Five
We go inside and through the now open door. Thankfully, the barrier for the door has been opened, otherwise, I might have had to snap it, and that could’ve caused many issues.
We head down the stairs into the bottom floor where about fifteen people of different magical descent linger. I actually recognize two of them. The woman from the shop, who is sitting in the corner looking a little pale and wide-eyed, and a mage named Terrance.
“What happened to your nose?” a woman asks, looking startled.
Dammit, Havoc.
I try to appear calm and normal. “Uh… Broke it.”
That gets everyone’s attention. “You broke it while smoking a cigarette?” the blonde witch asks.
“Tripped. Right on my face. Pow. Snap crackle pop. Broken.” My god, I need to stop talking.
“That’s right,” Havoc says as he walks up looking menacing, or at least trying to, but the body he’s in is nowhere near as menacing as his real body. So he’s got the pose, just not the look. Honestly, he looks a bit ridiculous.
“Eugene, what happened to your limp?” Terrance, the mage I know, asks.
Of course he had a fucking limp. I give Havoc wide eyes, praying he’ll pull this one off. He’s a smart man, he can do this.
“Some good ol’ drugs,” Havoc says.
“Like… Tylenol?” a succubus asks.
All right, drugs are good. Drugs make pain go away.
“Cocaine,” Havoc supplies.
Drugs are NOT good!
Eyes get wide. There’s whispered talk, and I know we’ve ruined our chances.
“Bloody hell, you’re on the coke, Eugene?” a man exclaims.
“He’s such a joker!” I add.
They all turn to me. “Eugene hates jokes,” a male witch says.
Of course he does.
“Eugene, you just went through rehab, and you’re already back to the coke?” Terrance asks.
Oh my god. Of course Havoc can pull this off while I’m floundering like an idiot. I want to just fade off into the background and let Havoc take the lead role. That is, until I see Menace as the woman licking his paw. Visually, the woman is just standing there licking her hand before rubbing her spit-slicked hand all over her hair.
“Menace!” I hiss.
He pauses, tongue out, hand frozen.
“Menace?” Terrance asks.
I quickly look around as I try to find a way to save this situation. “Yes! Menaces everywhere!”
Kill me now.
“Our buddy here told me he wasn’t feeling too good,” Havoc says as he pats my shoulder.
I scowl at him.
“You know how simple he is,” Havoc says. “Broke his nose tripping over his own feet! Should’ve seen it!”
Everyone’s laughing now, and I’m contemplating punching Havoc.
Havoc beams at me. “That’s alright. You’re one of us.”
I glare at him but he’s giving me a huge smile.
“So what are we up to now?” Havoc asks as he rubs his hands together.
“You’re awfully eager.”
“It’s the cocaine talking,” he says as he looks around.
I look over at a magic circle beneath some of their feet as they begin to step away from it. I can finally see enough of it to examine it.
“Let’s begin,” Terrance says.
Everyone heads over to the circle and I push Menace between us so we’ll be the only ones holding furry paws instead of hands.
“Everyone’s good? Everyone’s ready?” Terrance asks as he kneels and everyone follows suit.
I examine the circle. It’s some type of summoning circle, but it’s hard for me to possibly recognize every type of summoning circle when there are thousands of them. I see the symbol for summon, earth, and soul, but I’m not quite sure what they’re summoning. It’s not a demon, I can tell that much. I’m very familiar with demon summoning seeing as I currently have four demons summoned myself. Most mages can’t have more than one, let alone four. And two of mine are high level.
I eye the others as they gather in a ring just outside the summing circle and take each other’s hands. Feeling awkward, I reach over and take Menace’s paw. It’s furry and fluffy and hiding death daggers that I’m really hoping he doesn’t extend. Havoc reaches for the other paw but Menace refuses to give it to him.
“Something wrong, Yuna?” the blonde witch says.
The witch from the shop looks nervous and now a little green. I have my doubts she wants to be here, telling me that some of these people are probably from her coven. Maybe they own this building she runs her shop out of.
Menace grudgingly hands Havoc his hand/paw, claws aimed toward him, telling me that they’re extended, like he thinks it’ll keep Havoc from grabbing his paw. Havoc leans over.
“I will make kitty noodle soup out of your hairy ass,” he growls.
“Don’t worry, he won’t. He doesn’t understand the concept of cooking. But I can’t promise you he won’t try,” I say.
Menace gives in.
Terrance smiles at his brain-dead cult. “Alright, now let’s begin the summoning.”
I look over at Havoc as I question how far we should let this go. Do I stop them now? Do I see what they’re up to?
Havoc gives me a look. Now we’re looking at each other with some silent discussion going on between us with neither of us really knowing what to do. The thing is, at this point, I don’t know if they’re doing anything illegal. If I stop them, there’s nothing I can do, and they’ll just go elsewhere and do it again. So I decide to at least wait and see what they’re cooking up. I’m pretty confident that I can stop the spell at any point if I need to, but I’m not going to aid them with my magic.
And that’s when they begin chanting. Clearly, it’s something they all have worked on for a little bit because they know the words perfectly. I just move my mouth and mumble a little but not Havoc! Oh no! Havoc couldn’t just mumble a little; instead, he’s using full words that clearly don’t work in a summoning. Is he talking about… pickles? What? I swear I just heard the words banana berry.
I look over at him and give him wide eyes that hopefully convey to quiet down.
So while everyone else is chanting things like “Sevehala ho’vess” Havoc is chanting “SweeTart hoes.”
But what I do realize over Havoc’s ridiculous chanting is that I recognize some of the words. And what I’m hearing is not what I want to hear. That’s when I realize they’re summoning a valient, an uncontrollable creature that feasts on the souls of anyone and everyone. Is this really their answer? There’s no way they understand what a valient is if they’re planning on summoning it.
As they continue what they’re doing, I use my magic to feel over the spell so I can start to undo it. It’ll keep them from making the summoning. I close my eyes and fixate on the magic of the circle. Whoever created the circle had a lot of magic. This circle was made by someone who knew what they were doing, and I honestly don’t think they’re present here today. No one in this mini cult is strong enough to make this circle.
I start to push through the magic being poured into the circle by the mini cult, and that’s when my magic touches the tendrils of the person who created the circle.
It hits me hard, and the pure familiarity of it makes me jerk back, tearing my hand free from the person on my left and Menace’s paw.
I feel like a child again, weak as his magic wraps around me, tearing me back and ripping through me. Even though I know it’s not affecting the binds he’d placed on my body, it’s almost like they’re burning again.
Havoc’s attention turns to me as does the shopkeeper’s, but everyone else remains focused.
“What happened?” Havoc whispers.
I shake my head and that’s when I feel the magic circle begin to shake. The summoning is working, and instead of stopping it, I’m sprawled out on the floor fixated on childhood fears. I thrust myself forward and slam my hands down on the summoning circle, knowing that I need to close it now.
“Do you guys understand what you’re doing?” I say, hoping to slow the disaster.
Some startle and look up, but most are too into the spell. They won’t break their concentration, so I need something that will.
“Havoc, Menace, stop them. They’re summoning a valient.”
The two jump into action as I close my eyes and focus on breaking the spell, but I think it’s too late. I manage to snap the cult’s magic almost instantly—they’re weak compared to me—but Geoff had clearly spent time creating this. Even so, I’m able to grasp onto the magical tendrils and snap them. It takes some concentration, though it’s not hard for me to break his circle, but just as I’m reaching for the last part of it, something slams into me.
I’m flung back as Terrance screams something at me. Havoc tears him off and throws him, but that moment is all that is needed.
The ground splits and a large clawed paw rises through it. The creature is larger than Badrick as its massive head comes next. The head is grotesque, leathery skin stretched over an almost lionlike skull, but it’s mangled, ear torn, eyes red. A few of the members scurry back in horror, but it just draws the creature’s attention.
“Stop it! It’ll kill all of you,” I warn.
“I command you to listen,” Terrance the Idiot says to the monstrosity.
It’s fixated on the ones trying to run because it loves a moving target. It leaps out of the magic circle and slams one to the ground. Instead of “eating” the woman, it lowers its mouth and a light is dragged out of her until her body collapses on the ground.
It doesn’t eat their flesh and bones; it eats their souls.
“I command you to listen!” Terrance yells as he throws some fire spell at it. The fire hits the creature and it turns, clearly pissed.
“Do you not see what Geoff is doing?” I ask. “He sacrificed your lives to bring this creature to life. Valients can’t be controlled. It will kill all of you.”
Panic takes over those around me as Havoc returns to me. “What do you want me to do?”
“We need to stop it.”
He rushes for it but before he can leave, I grab his arm and tug him back.
“Havoc,” I say as he turns to me. “That thing could kill you. Please… please be careful. I can’t lose you.”
He clenches his jaw. “I can’t lose you either. That’s why we have to stop it before it does anything else.”
“I command you!” Terrance yells as people start running toward the stairs leading up to the door. It seems to understand that they’re trying to escape because it leaps over them, sliding in front of the stairs and blocking their exit. They rush back, some throwing spells at it, others fleeing. Everything bounces off it as it tears down a man trying to cut it with a sword.
I get Havoc’s attention. “Let’s try to reason with it.”
“You can’t reason with that thing!” Havoc says.
“I didn’t create that circle and I don’t know the spell to put it back; it’ll need to go back on its own or I’ll need a lot of time to change this one.”
“Time is something we don’t seem to have a lot of,” Havoc says as the valient devours another soul.
“Let’s try to corner it and weaken it. If it’s in fear of dying, it might go back,” I say as I call upon the name of fire. It leaps in front of the beast, cutting a path between it and the humans it was planning on devouring. It starts to step through the flame but realizes that it burns and pulls its paw back. It considers its opportunities as the flames rush toward it. It decides to rush the flame, moving through it as the fire singes its skin, but it’s already distracted by another human soul to devour.
Havoc rushes toward it while it’s fixated on a man who shoves another in front of him to take his place on death’s door. That’s when Havoc drives his sword right into the side of the creature’s neck. It howls out and swipes with its paw, but Havoc shifts into his raven form and flies out of harm’s way.
Even with the bleeding wound, it isn’t slowed and quickly smacks a straying human to the ground before turning to me. I’m the new threat in the room and he’s not happy.
“I’m going to create a cage to hold him in until he goes back,” I explain as I see a piece of chalk someone had used for the first circle. I kneel down and begin drawing a symbol as Havoc holds the beast off. When I make the final finishing touch, I stand up.
“Havoc, can you get him over here?”
He shifts into a raven again and draws the enraged creature straight toward me. I need to be touching the circle for it to work, so the beast will have to be uncomfortably close to me, but I trust that my magic is quicker.
It rushes me, eyes filled with bloodlust. The souls it devours will just make it stronger and more uncontrollable, so I know we need to work fast. It’s only a matter of time before I can no longer stop it if it continues eating souls like this.
As it draws close, I begin whispering the spell to hold it inside, and that’s when it hits me.
“Silve.”
My eyes get wide at the voice as the word that’s caused me so much terror hits me. Pain shreds through my body, eating a path down the tattoos that adorn my skin—tattoos Geoff had placed to control me. I’d thought I’d broken that spell when I killed him. But how could it still work? There was no magic left in the tattoos; I’d checked. I would have known if magic still existed inside them, but then how else has that simple word sent pain tearing through me?
I drop to my knees as the creature slams into me, tearing me to the ground, and there’s nothing I can do to stop it because when Geoff uses that single word, I can’t do anything. My magic, my mind, everything seems to go away and in its place is just pain.
“Miles!” Havoc yells, and the valient rears back as Havoc rams his sword into the creature’s right eye, making it pull back. Havoc stands over me, sword dripping blood, but his attention isn’t on the creature. “Stay away from him,” he growls at the others while trying his hardest to protect me.
“Oh, demon, you pitiful little creature. Still letting him drag you around. Don’t you want power? Think of what we could do together,” Geoff calls down to him.
I can’t see him; I have to see him. I have to know it’s real, that my mind isn’t playing tricks on me.
“Step any closer and I’ll kill you,” Havoc growls.
My body is shaking as I struggle to push myself up. I have to stop Geoff. I can’t allow Havoc near him or Geoff will kill him. And no matter what happens, I can’t lose Havoc.
“Miles, just stay down,” Geoff says, voice showing his irritation at me trying to get up. I will resist him even if death comes for me.
As soon as my eyes lock on the man standing in the stairwell, my body goes cold. He looks the same as he did the day he died, just paler. But I can feel the power radiating off him from here. In an attempt to drive him back, I throw fire toward him but with that simple word of his, he puts me back on the ground, writhing in pain. He seems confident as he takes his first step down the stairs, a grin on his pale face.
“I actually thought this would be a fight! But here you are, lying on the floor and just waiting for me to kill you. And once I do, Miles, I’ll make sure I take excellent care of your demon. He looks so good in chains.”
That’s when I notice a young man step up behind Geoff almost like he appeared there. And without hesitation, he kicks Geoff right on the ass. Geoff flails his arms as he falls forward and stumbles the rest of the way down the stairs. He turns quickly to face the person and looks confused.
“Who the fuck are you?” Geoff asks. He raises his hand, probably planning to crush the new arrival, but before he can, the ground at the feet of the young man opens up and a shadow appears before him. Geoff’s spell slams into the shadow that is barely deterred as it rushes forward.
The valient is the first to reach the shadow that was summoned by the newcomer, and I realize that Geoff’s attention is off me. I push myself up and reach back into my past for the black magic I rarely use because it has the power to devour a person, but if it means killing Geoff, I’ll lose myself to it. I don’t even care at this point. The ground begins to shake and the ceiling cracks as the ground opens up, swallowing pieces of itself. Geoff stumbles back, eyes flickering into the hole. He reaches over and grabs onto the valient that seems to realize that outside this basement is the place to be.
The valient, with Geoff in tow, leaps past the newcomer and rushes through the open door, taking wall and doorframe with it. It’s impossible for me to follow them; I’m too fixated on the fact that I feel like I’m dying. My body feels like my skin is being split from where the tattoos were placed, and I grit my teeth to push the pain back.
“Who the hell are you?” Havoc growls as he steps in front of me, like he needs to protect me from the newcomer as well. I use his body to pull myself up even though I feel too weak to stand. I lean into him, holding him tightly.
“Looks like I just saved your asses, so you can call me your guardian angel,” the young man says.
Oh god, no. Not another cocky asshole. Don’t I have enough of them in my life? I slowly manage to look around Havoc, who pulls me into his arms.
My eyes narrow as they finally focus on the new guy. “I recognize you… you were outside the motel.”
“Yes, I’ve been following you for a little while. You’re pretty oblivious, if I do say so myself. But when I heard you were the one Geoff wanted dead, I knew I had to come and see if you were worth helping.” He gives me a smile as I stare at him and try to figure out what he is. It helps keep me from being too fixated on the pain. He has curly blond hair that makes him look young, almost boyish, but his eyes are so pale gray they’re nearly white. And the magic coming from him… is it magic?
“What are you?” I ask.
He looks aghast. “How rude. A human, of course… kind of…” He’s quiet for a second. “No, this is the mage that originally killed that man… What?… Oh, shut up.”
I would find it bizarre that he’s talking to himself, but I’ve been known to do the same when communicating with Havoc. So is he a mage?
Fuck if I know, I just know that I feel like I’m dying.
“Miles, we need to get you to a doctor,” Havoc says.
“No, the pain will go away.”
“You were clawed by the valient. Didn’t you notice?”
I look down and realize that I am bleeding a little, but it’s nothing a few stitches and some magic couldn’t clear up. “Huh.” My entire body hurts so much I didn’t even notice. “Interesting.”
“It’s not interesting,” Havoc growls as he scoops me up into his arms and looks to the others watching with wide eyes or sobbing over those who’d been killed. “If any of you move before the police get here, I will hunt you all down and scalp you or peck out your eyeballs.”
“I don’t need to be carried,” I grumble, but I feel like Jell-O, so my complaint doesn’t have much conviction. As Havoc carries me past the young man, I reach out and grab his face.
“We just met, and you’re already enamored by me,” he says with a grin.
I throw my magic into him to feel what he is, but before I can reach him, something pushes itself to the front. It’s tall and dark, like a shadow, nothing like the creature he summoned. No… this thing is very different. It’s shifting and changing, like even its form never stays the same, and its magic reeks of death.
Necromancer?
No… something different. Something entirely different.
“Come on, stop feeling people up,” Havoc says as he carries me off.
“Maybe I was enjoying it,” the young man says. “A little stroke every now and then doesn’t hurt.”
“You should disappear now,” Havoc decides.
I shake my head. “No. He’s weird. I want to know what he is.”
“Why do you love the weird things?”
“I don’t know,” I realize as I reach for him again, but Havoc is on a mission. I don’t need to worry because along with the cat, the young man gets right into the car as if he’s been invited.
“If I’m being honest, your cat kind of creeps me out,” the young man says, like he’s not the weirdest thing in this vehicle.
“What’s your name?” I ask as Havoc wraps his jacket around my stomach and pulls it tightly. Pain crawls into my abdomen as the pain from the spell Geoff put on me begins to lessen.
“I am Etienne and you are Miles, but I don’t know your demon’s name… or your monster’s name.”
“Havoc and Menace.”
“Sound like a fun crew,” he jokes.
“What are you?” I ask as I reach for him yet again. He takes my hand and gives me a high five like a little asshole.
“Etienne, remember? And that’s Havoc and Menace. Is there a Chaos somewhere? Is that still open? I might be up for the position.”
Havoc has the car racing down the street even though I’m clearly not dying. Although I’ll probably die if he crashes the car at this speed. Like, yeah, I’m bleeding, but with some medical and magical care, I’ll be nearly healed by morning.
I reach back and grab Etienne’s hand as I push my magic back into him again. For a split second, I can feel the young man, and then that thing is in front of me, slamming into me with all the force it can.
“What is inside you?” I ask.
He jerks his hand back, startled. “You can feel him?”
“Earlier, you weren’t talking to someone through a mind link. You were talking to something in your mind. What the hell are you?”
“We’re here!” Havoc shouts, parking right in the ambulance lane.
“Havoc, you can’t park in the ambulance lane,” I say.
His eyes narrow. “I can park wherever the fuck I want.” Then he rushes around the car, grabs me before realizing I’d put my seat belt on and proceeds to choke me.
“My god, you’re killing me!” I cry.
He whips out a knife and slices through the seat belt and tears me from the car.
I stare at him in horror. “You could have unbuckled it!”
He gets unreasonable whenever I’m hurt, and I pay for it. He rushes me inside and starts yelling, “He’s dying!”
“I’m not dying!” I say, but people come rushing forward and urge him to put me down on a bed.
“I only want the best doctors,” he threatens a nurse.
“Y-Yes, sir,” she whispers, and now her hands are shaking too much to even see what all the fuss is about.
A doctor comes in and Havoc narrows his eyes at her. “You look like a baby, give me a different doctor.”
“Havoc, please, stop!” I say. I have no idea why his demon nature comes out more when I’m hurt but he becomes borderline unreasonable.
The doctor just smiles sweetly at him, completely unaffected by the menacing aura he’s exuding. “I assure you that I will take the best care of him.”
Havoc snorts, like he’s extremely positive she’s going to accidentally cut my arm off instead of stitching the cut across my abdomen. He seems convinced she might even take a leg off while she’s at it.
“I’m watching you,” he threatens.
“Good to know,” she says as she steadily works away.
Havoc seems satisfied with that because he lets her continue to work without much more complaining.
 
* * *
Thankfully, the cut wasn’t deep enough to do any internal damage, and once they have me stitched up, Havoc whisks me away without waiting for the doctor to dismiss me. I force him to let me walk back to the car this time, but just as soon as we step outside, he turns me around.
“Miles… I’m really sorry,” he says.
“Why are you apologizing? It’s not your fault he’s back.”
“No, not that. I’m sorry you got hurt and I wasn’t protecting you. You shouldn’t have gotten hurt with me there.”
I reach up and cup his face. “Why do you always think it’s your fault when things like this happen? You had no way of knowing Geoff would appear at that moment! Havoc, you don’t know everything, and you couldn’t possibly know everything.”
“Yes, but I’m useless if I can’t protect you. That is my job. That’s what I’m here for.”
“You… you think you’re here just to protect me? Havoc, you’re here because I love and care about you. If you lost all ability to protect me, I would still have you by my side.”
“You wouldn’t have a single need for someone so useless.”
I sigh as I set my head against his shoulder. “I love you, even with that thick skull and bad hearing.”
“I can hear you. I just don’t always believe you.”
I lean back so I can look into his eyes. “Try believing me a little more, then.”
He’s got his stubborn face on but he gives me the teeniest, tiniest nod ever.
I give him a smile and lead him to the car that is thankfully in the parking lot. Etienne must have moved it, seeing as I doubt the cat could. When we reach it, Etienne is gone but Menace is curled up in the back seat. He opens an eye and hops onto my lap, giving me the feeling that he was actually worried about me.
“Were you concerned?” I ask.
He immediately snubs me and hisses.
I smile as I draw a finger over the top of his head. “I’m alright. We didn’t even have time for the numbing to wear off before Havoc dragged me away.”
“I don’t want you outside your barrier. You’re never leaving your house again,” Havoc decides.
“Never?”
“Never ever.”
He starts to drive, and I lean back into the seat as thoughts rush through my mind. I feel so many emotions and they’re driving me crazy. I knew Geoff was back, but seeing him is a whole different game. I want to say something to Havoc, but he’s already on edge, so I keep it to myself. Worrying will get me nowhere.
Once home, we head upstairs to get cleaned up and get into bed. I have a few messages from Sam, telling me that they managed to secure the location and arrest seven people who were involved that weren’t killed. Two of the living are in the hospital, but the rest sustained minor injuries. Not sure I have the energy to call him, I text him that I’m home and promise that I’ll call in the morning.
When I get into bed, Menace jumps onto it before walking over and lying down on my pillow as Havoc gets in.
“I’m sorry Geoff’s back. I can’t imagine what this means to you,” Havoc says as he reaches out to me.
“Me? He kept you tied up for years. Shackled, tortured, beaten—”
“And he didn’t beat you? Just tonight he showed again the power he holds over you.”
I catch his hand and squeeze it tightly. “I thought… I thought the spell had been broken. But I couldn’t do anything, Havoc. I could only lie there as he did as he wanted. I couldn’t protect you, or help you, or do anything! We got lucky he left early this time, but next time, I’m afraid I won’t be able to do anything to stop him.”
He draws me in and holds me tightly, careful of my stomach. I don’t care about my stomach; I want him to squeeze me to him hard enough that I feel some level of comfort. “I want to tell you it’ll be alright. I want to tell you everything will be fine, but I know I would be lying to you. Where we are right now, at this moment, we won’t stop him. If he can control you, we’ve lost our biggest chance against him. So we need to change that.”
“I don’t know how, Havoc. I spent years of my life before and after he died trying to remove the spell, and I just don’t know how to do it.”
“You’re stronger now, though. Maybe you just didn’t have the strength before.”
“Maybe,” I say, but I’m not sure he’s right. Yet I also know that I can’t doubt him. I need to trust him and hope that we can figure something out because currently, I’m useless against Geoff.
Havoc gently runs his fingers over my back. “Let’s do something with just the two of us after this. No werewolves, no vampires, no demon cats.”
Menace hisses and slams a paw down right on Havoc’s face, claws threatening to sink into his flesh.
“I guess you, me, and the cat,” he says, and I start laughing as Menace retracts his paw, satisfied with this answer. “Why do you like that evil thing?”
“You were very evil when I met you.”
He points at the cat who hisses. “Not that evil.”
I raise an eyebrow.
“Slightly more evil?”
“A whole lot more evil. The cat hasn’t tried murdering me yet.”
“I haven’t either… more than like ten times. But that was before I knew you!”
“We’d known each other years.”
He gives me the softest, sweetest smile. “Did I ever tell you how much I love you?”
“Don’t think that’ll make me forget.”
“No? Well, I love you so much. Like… I’m just coated in love for you. It’s dripping off me. It feels a little gross, but I deal with it just for you.”
“I’m not sure if you’re trying to annoy me or make me love you more. It’s not working for either.”
He pets the side of my face. “Shh, listen to my words of love.”
I smile and press my head against his chest, glad for the distraction. Because if I let it, thoughts of Geoff’s return and his control will consume me. So I focus on the here and now—the man before me and what he means to me—and then I use it to become determined that I will stop Geoff at all costs.
“What about a memory?” Havoc asks.
“What?”
“To make you feel better. Ooh! What about the first time you summoned a higher demon?”
I can’t help but smile at the memory. “Oh no.”
“It’s one of my favorites.”
“Fine,” I say grudgingly, like I don’t want to. Then I press my hand against his eyes and let us fall into the memory as if we’re living it at the moment.
“Human,” the demon says by way of greeting.
I stop from where I’m carrying a spell book across the room. “I have a name and I know you know my name.”
“It’s such a stupid name.”
“Thanks.”
“Can I rename you?”
I raise an eyebrow. “If I can rename you.”
“Rename me from what? It’s not like you’re calling me by my real name. So you’re going to change it from filthy bastard demon to what? Daisy?”
“Buttercup, actually. You know what? I like this idea. What about Locke?”
“Hate it.”
“Teddy?”
“Would you like me to murder you in your sleep?”
“You kind of look like a goat. What about Goaty?”
“Come into my circle, sweet child, I’ll sing you a lullaby.”
I grin at him as I walk over until I’m inches from the circle. “You’re so feisty. Quick to anger and love destruction. What about Havoc?”
“If you call me by that horrendous name, I’m going to show you how goatlike I am as I horn you.”
“Havoc it is!” I say, feeling proud of myself. “So, Havoc.”
“I won’t answer.”
“You already did. Maybe it’s like having a pet. I feed you when you react to the name,” I say as I open my handkerchief. “Havoc.”
He ignores me, so I pinch off a piece of bread and toss it at his face. It smacks his cheek and hits the ground.
“Havoc,” I say as I toss another piece.
His scowl deepens.
“Havoc.” And another. He snatches this one midair and crushes it in his hand. “Aw! You’ve already learned your name! How cute!”
“What about… Miles because I wish you were five thousand miles away from me. Hopefully, that would put you drowning in the sea somewhere.”
“I like it! Thank you!”
He growls his annoyance, but when I slip my hand through the barrier and hold out the food I brought him, he takes it without maiming me. “So what are you here to do, annoying little mage?”
“You know I’m sixteen now. I’m not little anymore.”
“Tiny, frail, incompetent.”
“And wildly attractive,” I add.
He snorts, which makes me laugh. “So?”
“Well, Geoff is off doing sinister things and won’t be back for days, so I’m going to try my hand at summoning a higher demon. I want to get good at summoning so I know what I’m doing when I break Geoff’s hold on you and bind you to me.”
“You are… the most interesting and stupidest creature I’ve ever met and it’s fascinating.”
“Thank you.”
“That wasn’t a compliment.”
“Thank you, Havoc.”
Grumbling occurs.
“Would you rather be Geoff’s demon?” I ask.
He grumbles even more as he inspects his apple. I’m afraid he’s forgotten speech and only knows how to grumble now. “Fine. Do you have a demon in mind?” he asks.
“I have Geoff’s book of demons and their true names.”
“Let me see it.”
“Is that… okay? I mean, should I show you their true names?”
Havoc raises an eyebrow like it was a horribly stupid question. “What the hell would I do with them? I’m not a mage.”
I shrug and carry the book over to him. He flips through it.
“How confident are you that you can summon a high-level demon?”
“Very.”
He nods as he flips the page. “Good. If they feel fear, they’ll weaken the hold and then eat you alive.”
“Yep. I’m pretty confident, honestly. When you live with Geoff and are best friends with someone like you, you forget how to fear things.”
“We… we’re best friends?” Havoc asks as he grabs his chest. “That’s the most disgusting thing you’ve ever said to me. Please don’t ever say something like that again. Now summon this one. His name is Ivatress.”
“Do you know him?”
“Perhaps.”
“How sharp are his teeth?”
“Oh, he won’t need teeth to kill you.”
I hesitate, but for some reason, I trust the demon far more than I should. “Alright.”
His face shows clear surprise but then he quickly pushes that away and grins at me. “Alright. I am excited!” He even looks it.
“Which should worry me, but I’m not,” I say as I grab some powder and start drawing the magic circle. Then I tailor the summoning to include the demon’s true name. I cut my hand and stand before the circle with one last glace at Havoc.
He looks wildly amused. “You should be kneeling for this to work better.”
“Really? Geoff always stands.”
“Yes, but he’s old as dirt and has summoned a lot of demons.”
“Okay,” I say as I kneel down and let blood drip into the circle.
Then I begin to summon the demon, using his true name. Nothing happens at first and I wonder if I’ve done it wrong.
I glance at Havoc for reassurance. He waves at me like he wants me to hurry up. “You’re not focused enough. You’re wavering. You need conviction in your voice. A higher demon will not come unless forced. You have to force him out.”
“Okay. Ivatress, I summon you to serve beneath me,” I growl and slam my hand onto the ground. The ground begins to break as an arm reaches out. The large hand smacks the ground as I see horns and a white head shaped like a bull rising up from the hole. The demon stands up, facing slightly away from me as I look up at the large minotaur in shock.
“Who summoned me?” it calls as it turns quickly and the largest dick I’ve ever seen in my life smacks me in the face.
I reel back, absolutely mortified until I realize that this… this is why Havoc told me to kneel.
He’s howling, he’s laughing so hard, but he won’t be laughing when I murder him. I rush into Havoc’s circle, leaving the giant-penised thing behind.
“Your face! Your face and his penis!” Havoc shouts. He’s wiping away nonexistent tears of joy.
“I’m going to murder you,” I declare as I grab him in a headlock, unsure of where to go from here. He’s laughing too hard to be concerned at all as I decide a punch to the gut will suffice. Instead, it feels like I break my hand on his rock-hard stomach.
“Oh, gods above! Your naive little heart trusted me when I told you to kneel!” He’s enjoying this way too much.
My eyes are barely slits, I’m glaring so hard. “You knew he’d be naked!”
“Iya is always naked! And then it smacked your face!”
“My new goal is to set you free so I can murder you.”
He’s laughing too hard to care. “I’ve seen you looking me over, little human. You can’t tell me you didn’t enjoy that even a little.”
I jerk back in horror. “I would never!”
“Oh, it’s alright. I know I’m a lot to look at.”
“Who… summoned me?” the minotaur asks. He seems a little confused now.
I don’t even know if I can face him. So I yank my shirt off and toss it at the minotaur. “Cover yourself with that!”
“Do I have to?”
“Yes!”
I give him a moment and turn around only to find that he’s put the shirt onto his upper body instead of tying it around his waist and now his huge dick seems to stand out even more.
Havoc seems to find this even funnier, especially because the minotaur has ripped the shirt in multiple places forcing it onto his body.
“Heavens save me.”
Iya, as Havoc has been calling him, looks around before his eyes settle on Havoc. Even though his face is very unhuman, I can tell his entire expression changes.
“You’re one of those. Iya doesn’t like those. Iya doesn’t like you,” he shouts as he points a meaty finger right at me.
“One of… those?” I question.
“He thinks I’m yours,” Havoc explains.
“Oh. He’s not mine.”
Iya isn’t focused on me. Instead he’s staring at Havoc as he steps up to the barrier of his magic circle and begins to push through it. The barrier isn’t meant to keep them in, since it’s not like the one around Havoc.
Iya turns to me and starts moving closer.
“Miles, you need to command him to stop. He’s not listening to you. You need to control him,” Havoc says.
“Command him?” I ask. Obviously, I’ve seen Geoff command demons. That’s all he does. But if I started barking commands at Havoc, he would hate me. Would this Iya feel the same?
Havoc looks a little concerned, which is kind of odd. “Iya doesn’t trust you.”
I turn back to the minotaur. “Iya, I am not here to hurt you. Do you know Havoc?”
He lets out a loud grumbly noise that tells me he’s not pleased.
“Miles, control him! What are you doing?” Havoc yells. “Iya, he is not my master!”
Iya rushes toward me, but I stand my ground. “Iya, do I need to control you or would you like control of yourself? You have one choice here and if you step into my space, I’ll no longer trust you, and I will force you to do my bidding.”
He keeps moving, so I lift my hand which makes him hesitate.
“Iya, listen to me,” I say. “Havoc, as I’ve renamed him, is not my demon. I’m not controlling him.”
Iya looks over at Havoc.
Havoc nods and I’m surprised he’s helping me out here. “He’s telling the truth.”
Iya examines me, then leans forward and sniffs me. “You reek of the dark mage’s magic.”
Because I’m no stranger to Geoff’s ways. “He is my master as well.”
The minotaur watches me closely. “Iya hates him.”
I give him a half smile. “Join the club.”
He stares at me and flips his head this way and that. “Iya likes your face.”
“Oh… um… thank you?”
“Iya would like to see you naked!”
“Oh my gods.” Well, that’s concerning.
Havoc is back to cackling.
“No!”
“Hmm… is young mage certain?”
“Very.”
“Hmm…” Then he looks at Havoc. “Ah! I see! You want sex with him!”
This is a fucking disaster. “I do not!”
“Oh?” Havoc asks. “With me?”
“No! This is horrible.”
I pull back from the memory and look at the huge grin on Havoc’s face.
“One of the best days of my life.”
“Was it?”
“Hands down.”
“I’m glad you enjoyed it,” I say as I lean into him and listen to him retell me his favorite parts of that time.
OceanofPDF.com

Chapter Six
“How late do you guys sleep?” Etienne asks as Havoc and I come down the stairs. I feel a little sore from yesterday’s fiasco, but okay for the most part. The only thing wrong is that I’m tired since I was up most of the night. The wound is already almost healed with the magic I used on it since it wasn’t too deep, so I should be able to take the stitches out in only a few days.
Etienne is sitting at a table in the empty café since the café hasn’t even opened yet.
“He was here when we got here this morning,” Yoko says.
“Like… at the door?” I ask.
She shakes her head while looking concerned. “No, no, just helping himself to a cup of coffee.”
I eye him suspiciously. I want to figure this person out. “You busted through my barrier?” I ask.
Etienne takes a slow sip. “I didn’t bust through it. I simply walked through it,” he says. “I’d like to help you guys.”
“Where’d you go last night?” I ask curiously as I walk over to the table.
“The hotel I’ve been staying at,” he says as he pats the table like he wants me to sit down.
Before I do, I turn to Yoko. “We’re closing the café for today. I’m sorry you guys came in and I didn’t get a hold of you sooner.”
Yoko gives me a look of worry and Baron pops his head out of the kitchen. “Something happen?” Baron asks.
“We ran into Geoff,” I say. “And our first priority is figuring out how to break his spell on me. I’ve sent a message to everyone I can think of who might be able to help, and they’re going to meet me here this morning.”
That’s when Badrick comes down the stairs, shaking the floor as he tramples down them. Etienne’s eyes get wide as he looks up and eyes the large beast.
“I don’t know what it is,” Etienne says. For a moment, I’m confused about what he’s talking about before I realize he’s talking to the thing in his head. This is going to be hard to get used to.
Badrick steps into the café, stretches, and knocks over five bottles that’d been on the counter with his tail.
“It’s so cute!” Etienne shouts. “Shut up. It is too cute… yeah, well I’ve seen what you think is cute.”
Everyone’s staring at him like he’s crazy, even Badrick. And you know something’s crazy when even the forest spirit thinks it’s crazy.
Etienne blushes as he folds his arms in front of his chest. “I’m not crazy.”
“No one said you are,” I say as I sit down.
“We’re all just thinking it,” Havoc helpfully supplies.
That’s when the door opens and Jacob, the mage headmaster, walks in with Evan. While Evan is a druid and probably won’t be of much use with breaking the spell, he could be of some help in other areas. And who knows what random knowledge he might have come across in his lifetime.
“I already don’t like you,” Etienne says as he points at Havoc. “Even if you’re hot.”
Havoc gives him a huge smile. “Aw, thanks, but you look like a child and I’m not into children.”
Etienne’s eyes narrow. “I’m not a child. I’m a man.”
“A tiny one.”
Oh no. How did even more chaos get added to this ensemble? “Alright, children, that’s enough. Etienne, how did you get in here?” I ask, since that’s still bugging me.
“I rode my horse here.” He says it like that’s not at all interesting. Like people ride their horses everywhere nowadays.
“While that was not exactly what I was asking… you rode your horse?”
“I did.”
“Where is it?” I do like horses.
He waves his hand and light shines upon the ground as a fucking horse crawls out of it. Since my café is an “intimate” setting there’s not enough room for a forest spirit and a damn horse, and the horse knocks over three tables. It starts and looks ready to flee as it turns, knocking down three more, chairs and all. It then proceeds to dance in one spot, crushing a chair into little tiny shards.
“It’s okay, Enzo,” Etienne says, and the horse instantly calms down and licks his lips.
“Sometimes, I don’t even know why I try having nice things,” I realize as the horse swishes its tail and, seeing how its ass is now near me, the tail whaps me in the face, making it feel like my face is bleeding. “Why did you summon your horse?”
The creature is black but has the most peculiar markings. It’s like the skeletal structure of the horse has been inked into its skin, making its sleek coat show a skeletal outline. Almost like the hair is colored to show its bones. I reach out and trace a finger over the white hair on his barrel and see that it follows a rib bone exactly.
“I don’t know! You asked where he is and he’s really cute, so I thought it’d be a good ice breaker. Like, hey, guys, I might have brought Geoff back to life but look at my horse, isn’t he cool!” Etienne blurts out.
My attention is snapped away from the weird skeleton horse and locks on to Etienne. I grab him by the front of his shirt and haul him halfway across the table. “You did what?” I growl.
The horse snorts and stomps his feet as Etienne’s eyes go completely black.
“Let go, human,” Etienne says, but the voice isn’t his. It belongs to the creature that lives inside him, and I’m curious how strong this thing is.
“You have to understand why I’d be slightly concerned,” I say.
“Dammit, Dyame, stop!” Etienne says as his eyes switch back to normal. “Let me explain!”
“You brought him back to life?” I growl.
He gives me a sweet smile like “Oh, look how cute I am,” but there’s the horse, the monster inside him, the creepy eyes, and the fact that he brought fucking Geoff back to life that’s making the look not work for me. “I can see why you might be a little testy over it,” he says.“Testy?” The word is low and menacing.
Havoc leans in and presses his sword against Etienne’s neck before speaking to me. “Do you want his head chopped off now, or are you feeling a bit of torture first?”
Etienne groans. “Dyame, I can handle it. Miles, Havoc, we’re such good pals—”
“Torture sounds nice,” I decide.
That’s when there’s a knock on the door.
A man I don’t recognize looks through the glass door and sees what’s going on. His eyes get ridiculously wide. I’m not sure if it’s the horse, the forest spirit, the man being held at sword point, or maybe he’s a sane man and it’s a combination of all three. He pushes through the door that’d been unlocked for Evan and Jacob.
“Hey, hey! Hold on here!” he says as he pulls out a police badge and rushes for us.
I don’t recognize him, so I’m guessing he’s from a different district.
“Hey, love,” Etienne says. “These are my new friends: Miles, angry horned man, and floofy forest spirit. We’ve hit it off perfectly.”
“You know him?” I ask. “Where are you people coming from?”
“That’s my husband,” Etienne says as he waves at the alarmed man.
“We’re not married. That marriage wasn’t legal.”
Etienne grins. “Who needs legalities?”
“I’m Officer Leo Maloy, and I would really appreciate it if you removed the sword from Etienne’s neck,” he says.
The man is older, probably forties, with gray hair that’s almost white and dark brown eyes. He has a friendly smile that’s working overtime to get us to let the pest go and wrinkles at the creases of his eyes. And he feels strangely human, despite the low level of white magic I sense from him. The two have to be twenty-something years apart, but the look he’s giving me tells me he really cares for the strange young man.
“He brought Geoff back to life.” Me saying that should be reason enough to bring on murder.
Leo hesitates. “Etienne, remember me telling you not to tell them? Like… I know lying is bad, but that could have been one thing to keep to yourself.”
Etienne grins at him. “I forgot. They were bullying me and making me show them my private things.”
Leo’s eyes get ridiculously wide. “What?”
I glare at Etienne and question my sanity. “I asked about your horse.”
“Yes, he’s my most private possession,” he says as he reaches over and tickles the horse’s lip. The horse wiggles his lip around, clearly happier now that Leo is here to break up the mess.
“What are your names?” Leo asks.
“I’m Miles, this is Havoc. And I want you to explain what you mean when you say you brought Geoff back to life.”
Etienne clears his throat like he’s about to start a dramatic reading. “Well… so there I was in prison—”
And we’re not supposed to see him as guilty?
“When Rehna came to me and told me she’d help me out of prison if I brought some guy back to life. I was all in. I mean, I had the option of rotting in prison or helping her with something, so I did it. I didn’t know who this man was and… I’m not sure I cared. I just… it was nice having someone rely on me… to need me for something, you know? And she was a freaking district boss that everyone loved, so how bad could it be? I just didn’t quite realize what she needed me for. I didn’t really know Leo at the time, and I had nothing to lose and a whole lot to gain.”
“Why were you in prison?” I ask.
Leo folds his arms over his chest. “He was caught breaking and entering. The issue is… the district we’re from is pretty far away and isn’t like this one. It’s run by a man who wants to control everything and everyone. Etienne’s powers didn’t match ‘regulation,’ so the boss’s way to control that was to lock him up. He sentenced him to life in prison because he was powerful and different. No, he shouldn’t have broken into where he did, but because of who he is, no one would hire him for work. I don’t blame him for going with Rehna. And Etienne seems to have a habit of latching on to the wrong people.”
“That’s because the right people never want me.”
Leo reaches out to him. “I want you.”
The smile on Etienne’s face is so genuine that it reminds me of when I was a child being passed from person to person until Geoff found me. I know the feeling of wanting someone to care and a place to belong. While Geoff failed at that, Havoc thankfully became that for me.
“How do we know this isn’t a setup? How do we trust either of you?” Havoc asks.
Etienne shrugs. “I don’t know. How do you trust that cat that looks like it wants to eat all of us?”
Menace hisses at him before sliding himself between my ankles and looking up at me. I don’t realize this means “Pick me up or I’ll murder your flesh” until he starts scaling his way up my body.
“Motherfucker,” I cry as I grab him.
He’s purring as he slips out of my hands and onto my shoulder. I really don’t like him this close to my eyes. Yet, I have somehow become “tolerable” or a slave to him. Who knows?
“Okay, for the moment, let’s forget that this is all your fault,” Havoc tells Etienne. “Are you a mage?”
“No. I… don’t know what I am. I wasn’t old enough to have learned much magic, even though I feel like I was born with magic. This… group of people used me in a ritual when I was a child. They wanted to bring back some fallen god of luck or some bullshit. Like I said, I was a kid, it was hard to get the details. They tied me down, slit my throat and left me to die. The circle I was on was made of clay or something with little ravines for the blood to flow and fill it. And as I slowly bled to death, they chanted and offered my body to whatever the fuck they were trying to call forth. That’s when I opened my eyes at the River of Death. It’s a river where children go when they die early. Most of the time they wait there for their parents to lead them over, but there were no children there when I arrived; they’d all been scared off by a monster.
“That monster stepped from the river and walked straight over to me, smelling the spell they’d placed upon my body. And that’s when he attacked me but when my magic hit his body, he was left to die. There we lay, two dying fools driven together by children-killing psychopaths. While he had no body, I did have one, but a dying one. So that’s when he offered me a chance to live again—I just had to open my magic to him. That’s how Dyame came to live inside my body and I woke with a strange ability to deal with death. I can walk people to that river or I can walk them away. I don’t know what I am or everything I can do. I just know that there’s a monster inside me and he’s real fucking weird. I mean, it sounds kind of cool, right? Well, imagine a perverted death monster inside your head constantly talking and you get Dyame. You should hear him when Leo and I have sex! Boy! He’s not too into that, but he’s got a front row seat. I make sure to give him a real good ball view every now and then. You know, just get right in there—”
Leo sets a hand on Etienne’s shoulder and squeezes. “That’s way more than they needed to know.”
“Oh. Whoops.”
“That’s interesting.”
“The balls?” Etienne asks, like he’s excited.
I shake my head. “No. The rest. And you don’t know what he is?”
Etienne shrugs. “Weird. That’s the only thing I know.”
“So he gave you his abilities?”
“Some, but I don’t think he’s as strong outside his body, or maybe outside of purgatory he’s not as strong. But we’d like to help you… you know, to kind of make up for the tiny blunder we made.”
“Blunder… uh huh…” I’m still trying to comprehend how you accidentally bring an infamous dark mage back from the dead. How does that work?
Jacob grabs a chair and pulls it up to the ever-growing table. “I don’t even know where to start. So we are now more than confident that Geoff has returned. But what was this about him having a spell on you?”
“Is that what that was?” Etienne asks. “I didn’t know if you were just flopping around like a fish or having a seizure.”
“When I was a child, he put a spell on me to control me and my magic,” I explain as I stand up and pull my shirt off before dropping the illusion on myself so they can see the lines that run down my body. “When Geoff uses the spell, it feels like someone is slicing open my skin where those lines are, and I’m unable to do anything with my magic.”
“How’d you defeat him last time, then?” Jacob asks.
“It was a spell that Nicolas could do that would break the spell for a short period of time. We’re talking minutes,” I say.
Havoc thinks back on it. “We went first and attacked Geoff, right? While you stayed back?”
I nod. “Yeah, we didn’t want to waste time with it, so we waited until things were dire before Nicolas did the spell on me. Geoff thought we did something to the spell he has on me, since the first few times he used it, it didn’t work. By the time it started working again, he’d stopped trying it. It was luck, honestly. But Nicolas is dead, and I have no idea what the spell was.”
“Even so, it’s not ideal—we need to break the spell,” Havoc says.
“Can I see all of the markings? Can you take your clothes off?” Jacob asks.
“I’d have to be naked,” I say.
“We’ve all seen a penis,” Etienne helpfully supplies. “Doesn’t mean we won’t make fun of yours, but we have all seen them.”
Yoko clears her throat. “Is this my cue to leave?”
“You could be of help; just like don’t look and it’ll be fine,” I say as the entire audience stares at me while I reach for the button of my pants. “Is it more awkward if I strip while you guys look? Should I leave and strip and just come in naked? Do I try to cover up with something? Does anyone have like a thong at their disposal?”
“I vote for the striptease,” Havoc helpfully supplies.
“That wasn’t part of the choices.”
“I vote that one too!” Etienne says.
“You… do?” Leo asks.
Etienne smiles warmly in response.
“I’m just going to whip them off. Havoc wanders around naked all the time,” I say as I push my pants down right as the door jingles and we all look over at Sam, Johnson, and Iya.
“Orgy!” Iya shouts.
Havoc starts laughing. “This reminds me of the memory last night! Iya, we were talking about the first time Miles met you! Remember? When you turned and your penis smacked him in the face?”
Iya’s face shows so much glee. “Iya does remember! He screamed like a little girl.”
“I did not scream!” I say while trying to see if it’s possible to tuck my underwear in a way that they can still see the markings without having to show everyone everything.
“Sam likes it when I smack his face with my penis,” Iya says and Sam’s face ignites. I could roast marshmallows off his face.
Johnson clears his throat. “We… We’re here about last night, but I see you guys are busy…”
“We’re trying to break a spell Geoff has on me. It’s not anything weird. Just like a normal meeting,” I say.
“With extra penis,” Havoc adds.
“I’m trying to hide the penis. Just ignore my groin, have a seat, and explain what you can,” I say.
They awkwardly sit down as I try to ignore Jacob, Yoko, and Etienne examining me with my underwear shoved up my ass crack.
Sam flips open his notebook and glances at it. “So we did round up quite a few of them. The shop owner admitted to them belonging to the Velmah de Rizen. The new one. She had no idea that it used to be a cult that killed all magical beings. She said her coven forced her into it when she wanted nothing to do with any of it. They were promised that they were making a god, so the first step was giving him a protector, which is why they summoned the valient. They were under the impression that a mage by the name of Terrance would be in control of it—”
“Don’t look at his ass,” Havoc hisses.
“I’m looking at the lines across his ass, not his ass. Although, it is a very nice ass,” Etienne says.
“Take that back.”
“You want me to say he has an ugly ass?” Etienne asks.
I sigh. “Let’s stay focused, please.”
There’s minor grumbling, but Sam is permitted to continue.
“For now, we’re questioning them, but most are refusing to talk. To our understanding they’re only a small part of the Velmah de Rizen. For now, that’s all we know.”
We go over everything we know but there’s honestly nothing new. We still don’t know Geoff’s exact location, but at least we have some of his people behind bars. So I suppose that’s a step in the right direction.
“Now please tell me someone has an idea about what to do with this,” I say as I motion at my body.
Jacob makes a noise that I don’t want to hear, and I know what he’s going to say before he even says it. “I’ve honestly never seen something like this. It’s apparent that it was performed using black magic, and I don’t even know of a mage who practices black magic to ask.”
“It’s highly illegal and stupidly risky. I don’t know any either,” I admit. “I do… know black magic. I mean, I was taught by a dark mage, but even I can’t do anything about it. It might be because I’m not a true dark mage.”
“I could break it,” Etienne says casually as he sinks back down into his chair. “But you’re not going to like how.”
I readjust my underwear and tug pants on as I look up at him. “Tell me.”
“Spells leave a body when the body dies. If you were to die, Geoff would have no connection to your body—”
“We’re not killing him,” Havoc growls.
“Listen, feisty. So I have a connection to the dead.” Etienne turns to me. “I kill you and then I grab your soul before you cross over the river into purgatory and plop you back into your body. Spell broken. It would, of course, break all your spells. You’d have to redo all of your barriers. You’d have to resummon your demon and any other spell you have that isn’t like… an inanimate object such as a charm or something like that.”
“What’s your guarantee of bringing me back to life?” I ask.
“No!” Havoc growls. “We’re not even considering this.”
“Ninety-five percent. I’m very confident.”
“He brought Geoff back who’d been dead for hundreds of years,” Baron says. “Wouldn’t it be fine?”
“What?” the newcomers shout. I forgot they weren’t here for that whole revelation.
Etienne waves them off. “Don’t sweat it. The difference is that Geoff was brought back as a monster. I’ll bring Miles back just the way he was. Nothing will have changed, but the spells will have broken.”
Havoc steps in front of me, shoulders tense as his eyes lock on to mine. “Absolutely not.”
“Let’s just hear him out, Havoc,” I say as I set a gentle hand on his shoulder and squeeze. “We don’t know what we’re doing, but we have to do something.”
“I’m not going to let you die to figure this out. There has to be something else.”
“Havoc,” I say as I cup his face. “We’re just hearing him out. You know I’ve spent endless years trying to break this spell. If we don’t break it, Geoff could kill me, and then what?”
His expression is hard, and I can tell he’s put up a brick wall between us. “I’m not listening to this bullshit,” he growls and turns around before walking away, black cloak fluttering around him.
I sigh but turn back to Etienne. “I want to hear all the details, and then I’ll think about it.”
“Well, we’ll kill you in some way that doesn’t harm your body. Choking would probably be quick and painless. And then I’ll slip into purgatory and grab your soul and guide you back to your body. The whole process might take five minutes. It won’t even be long enough to hurt your body.”
“Why should I trust you?” I ask.
He shrugs. “I don’t know. I seem pretty trustworthy.”
I can’t tell if he’s joking or not. There’s the prison, bringing Geoff back to life, the creature in his head… the list is long. I do like his horse though. He’s currently licking up salt from a saltshaker he’d knocked over. I’ll have to remember to wash that table again.
“I know Etienne can come off a little…” Leo examines Etienne as the younger man beams at him. Clearly, he thinks he’s going to get some compliments. “Strange. But he’s a good kid. If he says he can bring you back, then I trust that he can bring you back.”
“What do the rest of you think?” I ask.
Yoko doesn’t seem convinced, but Baron squeezes her hand. “It depends whether you think the rest of us can stop Geoff without your help,” Baron says. “If there’s a chance of losing you, I’d rather see what we can do.”
Evan shakes his head. “I have gone up against Geoff, but this was before he began to acquire power from eating the hearts of others. His strength will just continue to grow. I know we have different friends now to help us, but… realistically, your current team isn’t used to fighting. They don’t fight for their food or for protection. They’re going to have a tough time stopping him, and Miles might be our only option because Geoff just won’t die.”
I snort. “You’re such an ass.”
“I have a question,” Evan says. “Will doing this affect Miles seeing as he’s clearly lived longer than the average human?”
“Is it a spell?” Etienne asks.
“It is,” I admit.
“Can you put the spell back on yourself?”
“I could.” I don’t like giving much away about the spell I use to keep myself from aging because it would be bad in the wrong hands.
“Can you use this spell on others?” Etienne asks.
“Sadly, I can’t. Or trust me, many of my friends would still be alive. But I’ll be fine putting the spell back on myself. The only thing I’m nervous about being broken is the bonds with my demons,” I say.
“Because someone could summon them?” Sam asks.
“Yes. Havoc is alright. He has a ring to keep it from happening, but Iya and my others don’t have things like that. But the probability of someone summoning them at that very moment is extremely low,” I say.
Sam appears shocked and quickly looks over at Iya. “But you could get him back, right? Because you’re stronger?”
“No, he’d be in that mage’s hands until the mage gives him up or someone kills the mage.”
Sam wrings his hands as he bites his lip. “Wait! Jacob, you’re a mage. Can’t you summon Iya until Miles returns?”
Jacob’s eyes get extremely wide. “S-Summon a demon. What kind of mage do you think I am?”
“Most mages don’t play with demons,” I inform Sam.
“Yeah, but you can this time, right?” he pleads.
Jacob looks uncertain. “I don’t think I’m strong enough to control him.”
Sam’s eyes narrow. “He doesn’t need to be controlled. He’s not a wild animal. And it’s just until Miles returns.”
Jacob stares between us. “I’ve never summoned a demon in my entire life. I’m not sure I know how.”
Sam looks upset, so I set a hand on him in the hopes of easing his mind. “Sam, the likelihood is extremely low. I honestly feel like he’ll be safe or I wouldn’t even consider it.”
“But… what if he’s not? Can you make a ring for him like Havoc?”
“The ring took special materials that I don’t currently have.” And it’s a lot of trust to put in a demon who is slightly rash.
“Can someone who’s not a mage summon him? Can I do it?” Sam asks.
I eye him as I assess his magical ability. “Do you know any magic? I mean, I feel a touch of magic in you, but it’s very weak.”
“No… my mom’s a witch but I didn’t get anything.”
“If we go through with it… I suppose I’ll try,” Jacob says, but he doesn’t look pleased.
“Okay, let me think it over and talk with Havoc… Etienne, how do I reach you?” I ask.
“I’ll give you a phone number,” he says, which is great because I was terrified he planned on just moving right in like everything else weird in my life.
Once we finish up, I head upstairs with Menace at my feet. He meows repeatedly at me as I walk up the steps.
“What?” I ask.
He meows again.
“I don’t understand cat talk,” I say.
He begins yowling which is quite obnoxious in the tiny stairwell.
I reach down and pick him up. “What?”
He yowls again.
“English.”
He tries smacking my face, but I’m not an idiot, so I’m holding him far enough away that he can’t.
“You’re so angry,” I say as I set him down. He hisses at me and runs off. Now I have another one angry at me, and I’m really not sure what I did to that one.
I feel like it’s best to deal with Havoc first and make sure he’s all right. I find him in the living room pretending to read a book. He’s turning the pages unbelievably fast and with enough force I’m surprised he hasn’t ripped the pages.
“Hey.”
“Oh… it’s you,” he growls.
I walk over to the couch and sink down onto it. He leans away from me, like I might not already be aware he’s mad at me. He’s so stubborn. This is why we’ve butted heads quite a bit throughout the years. When he doesn’t agree with something, he acts unreasonable instead of talking through it or trying to reason with me.
I try to get him to look at me, but he avoids my eyes. “Please talk to me.”
He tears the book right in half. Right down the spine which makes me sigh because I was enjoying that book. “What’s there to talk about?”
“For a moment, I want you to pretend you’re back tied to that wall he had you chained to when I met you. You never know when he’s going to come in and order you to do something. Now imagine being chained to that wall while I’m by your side and Geoff wants to kill me. So there you are, standing there, shackled in place as Geoff attacks me. I fight, of course I fight, but he’s stronger than me and I’m all alone. You know you could help, but you can’t because you’re shackled and under his command. But you have a choice to break free and help me. Would you?”
He grinds his teeth and refuses to answer the question.
“Havoc, please listen to me. No, I don’t want to die either, but I don’t think we have a lot of choices here. You know I wouldn’t even be considering this if there was another option. I just don’t see any. When I was lying on that ground unable to do anything, I thought he was going to kill you. It doesn’t mean I don’t think you can fight. I know you can fight, but none of us can stop him alone. We need each other.”
The tension in his face slides away and he finally turns to face me. He catches my eyes, and I see so much sadness there that I want to comfort him and tell him it’ll be all right, but I don’t want to lie to Havoc. I just don’t know what anything will be like when it comes to that monster.
“How do you know it’ll work? How can you trust him? You could die now. Wouldn’t it be better to just try and stop Geoff? I can’t lose you, Miles,” he says, sounding desperate.
“Etienne seems very confident.”
“You don’t know him. He could be working for Geoff. He brought the asshole back to life, for fuck’s sake!” he says, voice rising. It’s clear he’s upset, but I feel like I’ve been backed into a corner with only one way out.
I reach out and hold my hand between us. He hesitates for a long moment before taking it in his own. “Okay. We’ll wait. We’ll leave it as an option but until then, we’ll just keep moving forward.”
He nods but doesn’t look any happier.
“What?” I ask.
“Am I making the wrong choice? Am I putting you into more danger?”
“We don’t have to make the decision right this minute. We can think about it and decide what would be best for us.”
He nods, but I’m still not sure he’s convinced. I can’t tell if he wants to go through with it or wants nothing more than to not go through with it. He probably wants what I want—for Geoff to go away and to never have to deal with him ever again.
I want something to distract him and make him feel better, and I realize I have the perfect thing. I just haven’t shown him yet.
“Can you go downstairs and make me a coffee?”
“Right now?”
“Yeah.”
“Sure.”
“Thank you,” I say.
As soon as he’s gone, I head into the bedroom. I push some stuff back, open the kit and lay down the plastic. Once that’s in place, I start unfolding the next part when the door opens and Havoc looks in, clearly confused.
“Are you going to murder me?” he asks.
“What?” I look down at the plastic covering the floor and start laughing. “Yep. I didn’t want to get my carpet full of icky Havoc bits. Of course I’m not murdering you.”
Then I shake out the canvas and his eyes light up.
“Oh, heavens above. Is this one of those sex paint kit things Yoko was talking about?”
“It is.”
“You’re going to let me fuck you into a canvas?”
“Is it better than bringing you in to murder you?”
He assesses it for a moment, like he’s trying to think about it. “Probably, right?”
I grin at him. “Well, let’s find out,” I say as I press into him and give him one quick kiss.
“The only thing that could make this better is chocolate syrup.”
I pull back and stare at him. “I’m not having sex with syrup again. I let you talk me into that one time and Badrick was trying to lick me for days.”
“Fine,” he says.
I pull my shirt off and toss it on the bed before sliding my hands up Havoc’s bare stomach, taking his shirt with me. He lifts his arms, revealing his muscled chest and abdomen. There are scars on it that tell many stories from the years that haven’t been kind to him. But thankfully I’ve kept newer ones from tainting his body.
I lean in and kiss his throat as his hands draw a line down my sides to my waist. He unbuttons my pants and pushes them down my hips. I kick them off as his finger slips under the waistband of my underwear and slides them down.
“Is this paint safe to go anywhere?”
I shrug. “We’ll find out. If someone stabbing me through the body doesn’t kill me, I doubt some paint will.”
“True! And if it does, we won’t have to discuss killing you anymore!”
I snort and shake my head, but it makes him smile. He leaves me long enough to grab the lubricant and pulls me in close now that we’re both completely naked.
“I’ll keep some fingers free of paint for now, just in case,” he says.
“As you wish,” I say as I grab his hips and pull him onto the canvas. Then I pick up a bottle of silver paint and let a line of it run over his shoulder. The bead of paint runs down his shoulder and over his chest. I catch it and smear it across his nipple.
“Wait! I want some paint!”
“Get your own paint,” I say with a grin.
“You’re so greedy,” he says as he pulls away to find his own. Then he grabs my ass and pulls me to him before dropping to his knees and guiding me down with him. He pulls me onto his lap and pushes my chest back as I wrap an arm around his neck to hold on. He drips the golden paint over my throat and down my chest, avoiding the wound that’s nearly healed. Then he slides his fingers through it, pulling it across my pale skin. He grabs the lubricant with his other hand and slides lubricated fingers down my ass. His slick finger runs over my hole before pushing inside me. I press into him, my cock brushing against his as I pour paint into the palm of my hand. Then I dip a finger into it and begin drawing symbols over his body that make up spells. Of course, alone, they’re ineffective. But they still have meaning.
Love, bound, eternal, life.
As Havoc stretches me, his free hand draws more paint down my shoulder, splashing some onto the canvas. My cock aches as I shiver beneath his touch, the cold paint warming as his fingers trail over me.
“I now understand why people enjoy art. I usually only like the art pieces with penises or boobs!” he says.
I snort as I run paint up his neck and cup his cheek. “This one has penises too.”
“That is true!”
He reaches down and puts two dots of paint on my dick and when he adds a curved strip, I realize what he’s doing. “Now it’s a happy penis!”
“It was a happy penis before. Now it’s a confused penis.”
Havoc snickers. “We gotta do something about these nipples next.”
He pokes one, covering it in gold. Then he swipes some paint off his body and makes the other silver.
“Beautiful!”
“Is it?” I ask as I use the paint on him and abruptly stop my symbols of affection and draw a huge penis on his stomach.
“Oh man. You love my penis so much you wish I had two!”
“Not what I was thinking.”
“Huh… I thought we were always on the same wavelength.”
“Really? Sometimes I wonder where you even come up with your ideas,” I tease before leaning forward and kissing him. He pulls his fingers out of me and turns me around so I’m on my hands and knees. He pushes me down until my chest is pressed against the canvas and my hands and arms are flat.
He grabs my ass in wet hands, trailing the paint down my thighs then up my back. Then he presses his wet cock against me and instead of pushing in, he pulls me back to him. I groan as I feel his thick cock open me up. He rests just inside me as his fingers move over my back, painting it with color. I push back onto him, filling myself up.
“Move,” I beg.
“Not yet,” he says as he leans into me and kisses my back as his hands slide up my stomach to my chest. I push into him, hoping it’ll get him to move, but he’s too busy touching every part of me with his fingers and his lips. I groan, half frustrated, half consumed by him.
“I can’t get enough of you,” he says, and I look back at him, catching his inhuman eyes as his hand, coated in silver and gold paint, slides into my hair to tip my head back.
“I’ve given you everything I have.”
“And I still can’t get enough,” he says as he kisses and licks my throat. He slowly rocks his hips and I dig my fingers into the canvas before remembering that I should be careful with it.
“I want to touch you,” I say.
He pulls out and flips me onto my back before pushing back inside me. I moan as I wrap my legs around him and pull him into me. With hands coated in silver, I grab his ass and squeeze before moving my hands up his back and grabbing his head to pull him down for a kiss as he moves inside me.
I hook his leg and push him up, and he willingly rolls onto his back as I slide down his cock and ride him while he looks up at me. It’s like we can’t get enough of each other and the paint coating our bodies is proof. As I’m getting close, he rolls me onto my back again and thrusts hard inside me as all thoughts of paint become forgotten. Instead, I writhe beneath him as he drives me closer to the edge. I groan as I grab onto him and his hand quickens on my cock. Cum hits his stomach as I hear him moan. He thrusts inside me, pace quickening. He groans as he tucks his head and I feel the warmth of his cum as he releases inside me.
“So… was the paint supposed to be on the canvas or just coated over your entire body? Because you are covered,” Havoc says as he pulls out of me.
I grin as I gently smack a bit of paint on his cheek. “Is it beautiful?” I ask as I roll off.
“Look at your ass print!”
I start laughing as I look at the splotches of colors filling the canvas. Havoc stands and pulls me up so we can admire our work and that’s when my phone rings.
I promptly ignore it. “We should be artists.”
“Let’s hang it in the café.”
“Hell no.”
“Please.”
“No!”
“Pretty please?”
“No!”
“But—”
“The answer to this will always be a big fat no.”
He grumbles, and that’s when my phone starts ringing again. I gingerly pick it up and put it on speaker so I don’t have to hold it against my face. “Hello?”
“Miles, there’s an emergency, we need you now,” Sam says.
“Like…” I look at my naked body covered in paint. “Now, now?”
“Right now. We need you here immediately. I’ll send you the address.”
“I need a shower.”
“Miles, now. I just saw you like an hour ago. You’re fine without a shower. Come now.”
“Shit, okay,” I say as I hang up and look at Havoc who’s giggling. The fucking menacing-as-hell demon who I’ve seen take on armies of undead is giggling at the prospect of us going out like this.
“Illusion, sweetheart,” I say as I toss one on him and it just crushes his joy.
“No. I want people to see how much I’ve marked you!”
“Put on clothes you don’t care about and let’s go.”
I rush through the room, careful to keep paint off everything as I get dressed in ragged clothes that I don’t mind ruining. Then I grab plenty of blankets and rush out to the car. Thankfully, the paint is starting to dry in the areas where it was thinner, but I still cover the seats and get inside. And just before I close the door, Menace slips in.
Havoc doesn’t seem pleased by any of this. “Why does no one tell us anything? They just bark orders and you come running with your tail wagging,” Havoc grumbles now that the prospect of showing up covered in sex paint has disappeared.
“The only one I run to with my tail wagging is you.”
He seems slightly satisfied after hearing this. “Good.”
“I love that you’re trying to be jealous of law enforcement.”
“I’d never be jealous,” he says while he has his hands folded over his chest.
I snort and try my hardest not to do a full belly laugh at the ludicrousness of his words. But he’s my little liar.
“You’re so cute,” I say as I pat his leg.
“What’s that mean?”
“That you’re cute!”
He narrows his eyes but lets me get away with it. I pull into the parking lot of the local jail and park. The three of us get out and head to the front door. Havoc holds it open for me, but as I pass through it, I bump into Sam who’s hovering right inside the door.
“Whoops, didn’t see you lurking there.”
“Yeah… we have a bit of a problem,” he says. “Johnson and I were called in because a few of the people seem to be… dead.”
“The cult people?” I ask.
Sam seems distracted as he picks at the shoulder of his jacket. “Is this paint?”
Whoops. Must have been when I ran into him.
“Where did this come from?” he asks.
“No idea. None at all. You were talking about dead people?”
He lets go of his coat and turns his attention back to me. “Oh yeah. Them.”
“Did they kill themselves?” I ask as he takes me over to Johnson. They get us clearance and take us through to the back, where the rune-covered cells are.
“Nope, they had a little help,” Johnson says as he hurries around the corner with us following close behind.
“Ooh! How interesting!” a voice behind me says. The detectives jump and spin around, but I already know who it is.
“Hey, Lanni,” I say as I turn. “And… Etienne.” My band of misfits just keeps growing, and how do they always know where I’m going to be? Do I have some type of tracker on myself that I don’t know about?
“Did you bring them?” Sam asks in confusion. “How’d they get in?”
“I’m like magic!” Lanni says, then does jazz hands for some reason before her eyes lock onto mine, and she cocks her head. “Why are you so silver?” Then she looks at Havoc and cocks her head the other way. “And you’re so gold.”
I forgot she can see through my illusions and open my mouth to explain, but before I can, Sam says, “Is that why I have silver all over my jacket?”
“What? Nada nope,” I say which sounds like the biggest lie ever. I don’t even know why I said it.
Sam narrows his eyes at me. “Drop the illusion.”
“Is that really what you want?” I ask.
“Like it’s in your hair and everything.” Lanni seems mystified by this. I’m mystified about how this is more interesting than dead bodies.
“Were you guys painting?” Johnson asks in confusion.
Havoc chuckles. “We were painting, all right—”
“Nope, you’re done speaking,” I threaten as I jab a finger at him.
“With our naked bodies,” he finishes.
“Havoc, we’re trying to be professional.”
“Whoosh. That ship sailed when you showed up looking like that,” Lanni helpfully supplies.
“Now, I did ask if I could get a shower. Tell them, Sam!”
Sam’s eyes narrow, like he’s trying to understand. “So… you guys… had sex while… painting?”
“We made art!” Havoc says.
“But wouldn’t paint get… you know… up there?” he asks.
“Up where?” Havoc asks, fully knowing up where.
Sam’s head cocks. “You know… up the… area.”
“Which area?” Havoc asks.
Johnson lets out a huge groan of annoyance.
“Shut up, both of you. We are professionals. We are checking out whatever it is that we’re checking out,” I say, hoping this torture will end as soon as it can.
“Leo’s going to be so excited when I bring paints home!” Etienne says. “I gave him a hand job on my horse once. He was a little concerned about it, but I told him the horse wouldn’t notic—” Etienne eyes us. “Don’t look at me like that. It’s a horse. It wasn’t like he was, ‘Neigh, let me join in with my horse dick.’”
Johnson clears his throat. “You all are literally the strangest group of people I’ve ever met.”
“I’m normal!” I cry.
“Is that a painted penis on your neck?” Lanni asks as she squints her eyes.
I slap a hand over my neck and hurry off after Johnson.
“So, Johnson, about kicking the rest of them out?” I ask.
“You… you’re the one who shows up covered in sex paint, and you want the rest kicked out?” he asks with a raised eyebrow.
“I asked if I could take a shower and was told I didn’t have time. Not my fault. Clearly, I had time. We’ve done nothing but bicker since I got here!”
He eyes me for a moment, and I realize that everyone is out to get me while Havoc is over there so proud of himself. I scoop up Menace and hold him in front of me as I walk.
“Will you be nice to me?” I ask the cat monster.
He immediately bats at my face, but thankfully, there are no claws involved. So I assume that means he loves me.
“That cat hasn’t eaten you in your sleep yet?” Sam asks.
“He secretly likes me, he just won’t admit it,” I say, and that’s when we step around the corner.
Menace stops struggling and turns to look at the cell that seems to be the problem. The front is made of glass so the officers can see in, but the runes keep any magic users from using their magic. There’s blood splattered over it that appears to be Terrance’s blood, if I had to guess. Roaming the cell is a huge higher-level demon and at her feet is a very dead Terrance.
“He… summoned it?” I ask in disbelief. “I thought these cells were made to withstand magic. Like… lots of magic, and Terrance doesn’t have a lot of magic.”
Johnson shakes his head. “He broke the runes somehow and summoned the demon.”
“He did not break these runes,” I say as I set my hand against the glass and reach for the runes. “A professional rune caster put these in, right?”
“Yeah.”
“No, Terrance didn’t break these. Check the footage; someone else did this.”
Johnson tears his eyes away from the roaming demon. “Can you send the demon back?”
“Yeah,” I say as I head over to the door. As Lanni and Havoc continue to debate me coming here covered in paint, a guard opens the door. The demon immediately rushes toward me, but I hold up a hand. “Return to your circle.”
She hesitates but when I step toward her, she backs away and bows her head. She’s not dumb and respects my power, or maybe she even knows who I am and knows better than to fuck with me. She steps onto the circle, and I hold my hand steady.
“Go back to where you came from or you’ll be forced to give me your true name.”
She hesitates until the magic ignites at her feet and she drops to her knees.
“You have so much control,” Etienne says from behind me. “How do you remain in control?”
I look over at him. “You probably shouldn’t be in here.”
“I guess, but they’re bickering about your painted ass and didn’t notice. Sometimes, I fear I’ll lose control of Dyame and he’ll consume me. Can you… show me how you control them?”
Menace meows at me and tugs at my pants. I look down at him but wave him off.
“I don’t know that it’s the same, but I can try,” I say as I hold my hand out to the circle to push the demon through it.
Menace yowls, and that’s the moment I touch the magic.
The moment I feel it, my blood runs cold and I jump to my feet. “It’s Geoff!” I scream, but the glass must be soundproof. I turn and rush for the door as it slams shut. There’s no door handle, so I run for the glass and beat my hand against it, but they can’t hear me, and no one is turning to see me. In a panic, I close my eyes and reach for Havoc’s connection. He instantly spins to face me, and that’s when I see Geoff standing behind them. He gives me a huge smile and that’s the moment that my connection to Havoc snaps off. Not because the bind is severed but because the runes in the room begin working again, sapping my magic away as if I’m the one imprisoned inside.
Havoc turns toward Geoff and draws his sword as my world spins out of control. I can do nothing in this room without my magic or my connection to Havoc. I almost feel like the runes have ripped a part of me away and my body feels oddly hollow and incomplete. Can I even function like this? Before I can do anything, I hear movement behind me that draws me away from my thoughts that are spiraling out of control.
Quickly, I turn as the demon lunges for me. I slip out of her path at the last moment and she slams into the glass wall.
“What the fuck?” Etienne asks as he bangs on the door. “Miles, I don’t know how to fight without magic!”
I don’t have my sword on me or anything else to aid me, leaving me nearly defenseless. I didn’t even think to grab it, not when Havoc has his and I rely on my magic so much more. After Rehna broke my last one, I haven’t found another that reacts to my magic in the same way. Now I realize I could have even packed a fucking spoon, and it’d be more helpful than hand-to-hand combat with a demon that has three-inch-long dagger claws, faster speed and agility, and a clear desire to see my head separated from the rest of my body.
“I don’t have time for this,” I growl. I need to get out there and stop Geoff. I need to help the others. But outside this room, am I of any help? Will I just get in the way? Havoc will be forced to protect me the moment Geoff says that one word. That one single word will drive me to my knees and I’ll be nothing more than a liability again.
I long to turn to see what’s happening, horrified at the thought of being behind this glass as the man I love faces that horrible monster, but I can’t let my attention stray off the demon. She’s too fast and all I can do is dodge her hits.
If I don’t stay focused, she’ll kill me, and I really won’t be helping anyone.
Instead of being pissed about this and splitting my attention, I need to stop the demon and focus on getting out. The faster I get out, or get Etienne out, the faster we can help. Even if I’m useless, it doesn’t mean Etienne will be.
The demon steps into me and I slide to the right before ducking under her arm. I ram my elbow into the side of her neck, causing her to stagger. Enraged, she turns to face me and begins rushing my way. That’s when Etienne throws the blanket from the bed over the demon’s throat and yanks down. I see that the demon is carrying a dagger, so I pull it from its sheath and drive it into her chest as she fights off the blanket.
She howls out, but I know that it’s not enough. Demons don’t go down easily and it would require decapitation to make sure she’s dead. I’m not very fond of killing demons since they don’t usually have a say in what they’re doing, but I doubt an order would work in here with the magic sapped from the room. And I have the feeling that she really wants to kill me for the fun of it.
I draw the knife back as she uses her nails to slice through the blanket Etienne had been using and turns on him quickly.
He looks up with wide eyes and rushes backwards, but he doesn’t have far to go before slamming into the wall. I lunge at her and drive the knife into her neck, and that’s the moment I feel magic rush back into the room.
Did they manage to stop Geoff? Then drop the hold of the runes so I can fight back? That’s when the intercom crackles and Geoff says that one single word that drops me to my knees. The demon grabs me and I lift my hand to call upon my magic and find that my magic is already gone again. Of course Geoff stopped the runes to hurt me before snapping them back into place.
The demon staggers back as she paws at the knife wedged into her neck. My breath is coming heavy as pain radiates through the markings on my body. How do they cause me so many issues?
Suddenly, I feel fingers slide through my hair and my body runs cold. The fixation it has on the pain from the markings is almost pushed away as I feel cold metal pressed against my neck.
“You could have been so much more, Miles,” Geoff says as I feel the blade slice across my throat and warm blood run down my neck. “I tried so hard to love you, to teach you everything I ever knew, but you just refused to listen.”
I reach for my neck as my legs feel weak, like they’re incapable of holding my weight.
“Why did you choose this path when you could have had greatness?”
I open my mouth, wanting to answer, but find that words can’t come to me as Geoff lets me drop to the ground.
“No! Miles!” Etienne yells, but the first to reach us is Menace. As soon as I hit the ground, he’s on my back and Geoff steps away from me for some reason. I want to push Menace back. There’s no need for him to die as well. I open my mouth, wanting to tell him to go, but I can’t get words to form as I feel like I’m drowning in my own blood.
“How the hell did you get that—” Because Geoff is too busy looking at the cat, he doesn’t see Etienne until he’s driven the knife right between his ribs.
“Fuck. I will eat your heart just as well,” Geoff says, backing out of the room, most likely so he can use his magic again.
I try to move, but my arms feel like weights. My neck hurts like hell, but so does my entire body because of the spell.
And that’s when I really comprehend what’s happening.
Without my magic in this room, I’m like any other human. Of course I’m going to die from getting my throat slit open.
“Miles? Miles!” Etienne yells as he rushes over to me. “We have to do something… you’re going to die… don’t go down the river. Whatever you do, don’t—”
“Someone fucking kill that nuisance and get me their hearts,” Geoff says, but his voice is in a tunnel so far away I could never reach it. Sounds become indecipherable as the world becomes dark and I feel myself falling away.
OceanofPDF.com

Chapter Seven
I open my eyes to the sound of water. The world around me is strangely dark as I feel water rushing past me. Panicked, I stand up quickly and break through the surface of the water, only to realize I’m in the middle of a river.
I take a step and hear something behind me that makes me turn quickly. Along the shore is a line of people with sickly colored skin, shadows obscuring some of their faces, but it’s clear they’re focused on me. As they look down at me, I see that their eyes are pale, lifeless.
“A killer.”
I turn to find the speaker.
“Another killer.”
The current of the water is going faster. It’s pushing against me and I feel like if I let it, I’ll never come back.
Come back? To where? Where am I? The world is dark, almost like everyone beyond this river and the shore is just nothingness.
“You’re dead,” one says, and I turn, but no one seems to be speaking.
“You expect to be forgiven for your sins?”
Again, I hunt for the voice, but I can’t tell whose it is. They have no distinguishing features on their faces or color that allows me to tell them apart. Their mouths never seem to move and their eyes never seem to blink. But deep down, I know I killed all of these people. Whether it was me or my power that killed them, I don’t know. Havoc tells me it wasn’t me—that I couldn’t control it, that Geoff was the one using my magic to end their lives—but I could have stopped it. I could have died before Geoff killed them. I could have made it end. But I didn’t know, right? I was a kid.
They step closer to the river’s edge and I step back, letting the current push me. Etienne’s words come back to me, telling me to not let the current take me, but I deserve it. I deserve whatever this current has in store for me.
Without my selfishness, so many would still be alive. I push off, bringing my feet up and letting the current sweep me back.
This is right, this is what I deserve.
I glance down at the paint coloring my skin. The water is washing it away. I try to hold my arms up because the paint reminds me of Havoc and I at least want that. I deserve this, but can’t I take a piece of him with me? A simple memory?
My body slams into something and I sink. I’m pulled straight under and water fills my mouth and nose. I kick and thrash, trying my hardest to reach the surface although the water feels like it’s collapsing my lungs. When I break through, I see what stopped me. It’s a man… or maybe a shadow of a man. It’s hard to focus on it because its shape seems to constantly be changing. His face morphs and molds but his eyes never do. The irises are black, darker than the shadow’s skin.
“He’s weak. He’s been here mere moments and already giving in. Are you sure it’s worth it?” the shadow asks.
“He’s not weak… trust me, he’s not weak. He’s very strong, but he thinks he deserves to die. How interesting.”
I turn, recognizing that voice, and see that Etienne is behind me, astride his horse, Enzo. It looks skeletal here; there’s no hair on its body besides its tail that’s floating on the water’s surface.
“Maybe he deserves to die, then?” the shadow says and when I turn, there’s a large hound-like face pressed into mine. He sniffs me and I pull back, running into Etienne’s skeletal horse. “He smells like death.”
“Dyame, I don’t have time for this. I’m taking him back.”
“You can’t take him back without me. And I’m not sure he deserves to return.”
Etienne sighs. “We don’t have time.”
“Then let him go,” he says as he morphs into something unrecognizable.
“Killer,” a person from the edge says.
“Miles, are you with us?” Etienne asks.
I look up at him and realize the current is becoming stronger, trying to sweep me back. I find myself grabbing for his horse, but I don’t hold on. I can’t get my fingers to grab onto the beast. Do I deserve to cling onto life?
“Miles!”
I grab the horse’s skeletal neck, allowing myself to look up. “Yes?”
“Do you deserve to live?” Etienne asks. He’s the only bright thing here—the only real-looking thing, but he still doesn’t look normal.
“I don’t know,” I say.
He glances up at the shore. “Why did you kill these people?”
“I didn’t… my magic did.”
“Isn’t it the same?” the shadow asks.
“Geoff controlled my magic. He used the power of my magic to aid him. I didn’t know…”
“You had to know,” the shadow says.
I shake my head defiantly, because I didn’t. If I had, I know I would have done something. “I didn’t!”
“Hmm?” The shadow shifts into a giant bird, towering over me. “I smell a liar.”
“I’m not lying!”
“Miles, you’re resisting me. Do you truly feel like their deaths were your fault?”
I wish he’d stop asking me things that I can’t figure out how to answer. I’m confused and those voices are so deafening that they’re driving me back. “He used my magic! If he didn’t have my magic, they could still be alive!”
“But didn’t he have a spell to control you?” Etienne asks.
Geoff did, didn’t he? “Yes… but…”
The current is too powerful; it’s pushing me back. My feet begin to slide on the slick rocks that make up the bottom’s surface.
“Miles, the choice is yours,” Etienne says. “I can’t force you to return. I can only guide you back.”
Enzo takes a step back and my hands fall away from him. My feet slip out from under me and I plunge under the water.
Do I want to return? Of course I do. I don’t want to die. But… do I deserve to return?
Havoc’s words return to me, telling me it wasn’t my fault. And a part of me knows it wasn’t but another part, a big part, feels so guilty and at this moment, that guilt is dragging me under. Under the water where it’s peaceful and the voices are gone.
But what then? If I die, what then? Geoff will continue to kill more people. It’ll never end unless I stop him. Isn’t it more selfish to just give up? Yes, my power was behind their deaths, but I was a child. I didn’t understand.
I kick with my feet, but I feel like I’ve been sinking for hours. The surface is gone now that I need it. But Havoc is waiting for me. I can’t leave him. He needs me as much as I need him. Even more. It’d be nearly impossible for him to live as a demon without a master. And beyond that… I can’t imagine the grief I’d put him through.
My arms are tired and weighing me down, but I kick and fight, pushing myself as hard as I can until I finally break through and realize that I can stand, seeing as the water isn’t even deep enough to cover me. I look at the people staring down at me as water runs from my mouth and nose while I choke and cough.
Desperately, I try to turn to the shore. “I didn’t know… I know my magic was responsible, but I didn’t know at the time that he was using it. I was scared. I wanted to live. I wanted to destroy him and let my hatred for him push me further and further into the darkness. But I’ve gotten away, and now I’ll stop him for good or die trying. I know that will never make up for the pain that each of you went through by his hand, but maybe it’ll help,” I say, begging for them to understand.
Suddenly, I realize that I’m speaking to no one. The ghosts from my past are gone and the edge of the river is just that.
“Come on, Miles,” Etienne says as he holds a hand down. “Let’s go before your horrible choice for a partner kills me.”
“He wouldn’t kill you,” I say.
“I’m positive he’ll kill me.”
“He won’t. He’s not that evil.” I take Etienne’s hand. That’s when the shadow grabs me and everything goes dark again.
 
* * *
“I’m going to fucking kill you if you don’t bring him back,” Havoc growls.
“Settle your nuts, goatman, I’m trying. He was being a stubborn fuck!” Etienne says.
“Come on, Miles, come on,” Havoc begs.
I love hearing that threatening voice, the annoyance and malice always directed at the wrong people. Slowly, I open my eyes and look up at Havoc. I reach for him, but my hand feels weak.
“Oh god. Miles,” Havoc says, and his head drops to my chest.
“Not to be a pain in the ass, but it looks like Geoff is going to murder us,” Etienne says.
“Geoff’s… what?” I’m still trying to figure out what’s going on as Havoc picks me up.
“I’m going to hold him off—get Miles out of here,” Havoc says as he slides me onto Etienne’s magical and creepy horse.
“Don’t you fucking dare,” I whisper, wishing I could scream at him, but my body feels too weak. If Etienne wasn’t holding on to me, I’m pretty sure I’d be getting an up-close look at Enzo’s hooves. “Havoc, please!”
He grabs my face in his hand and kisses my forehead as I slump into him. “I love you. More than you’ll ever know.”
I try to latch on to him so he can’t leave me, but my hands are so weak I can’t close them. I can’t hold on. “Havoc, stop! Please!”
“I’ll shift. I’ll be fine, love,” he says.
“If you push him into the west wing, we can lock it down and get Miles out,” Sam yells.
“Got it.”
“No! Havoc!” I fight against Etienne’s hold, but he’s clicked to the horse and it’s already moving. “No! Don’t you dare!”
I fight against him, but being half drained of blood makes it quite difficult even though he’s a tiny little thing that I could snap in half on a normal day.
“Please, please,” I beg as I try to call for my magic to help. The horse has rounded the corner, and I can’t even see what’s happening. “Please, Etienne.”
I can’t lose Havoc. I can’t. I need him more than I need anything in my life. He can’t take on Geoff alone. It doesn’t matter what he plans to do, Geoff will hurt him. I dig my fingers into Enzo’s mane, feeling absolutely useless.
Etienne stops Enzo at a door that’s too short for us to go through on the horse’s back and slides off. He pulls me off with him, and the moment my feet touch, my legs give out and I start to drop. He holds me up and drags me through the door, clearly struggling with my dead weight.
I try moving back toward the door to reach Havoc, but the guard slams it in place in an attempt to keep what’s bad in there and us out here.
“The others should be coming,” Etienne says as he starts dragging me again.
“No, no. Let me back through,” I plead as I push against him and fall into the door. “I have to stop them.”
Etienne grabs my face in his hands. “Miles, at this point there’s nothing you can do. Havoc has done what he needs to, and by the time you drag your half-dead body back there, there’ll be nothing for you to do. You would just distract him.”
“I could use my magic!”
“You’re half dead. You can’t even stand. If you die again so soon, I won’t be able to bring you back. You’ll be dead for good. Now don’t fuck this up when Havoc is doing this to keep you alive.”
He pushes me at Enzo, but can’t lift me, so a guard helps. I sink down onto the horse’s neck, unable to keep myself up without help.
“Guide us out, please,” Etienne says, and that’s the last thing I remember as my fingers tangle in the black mane.
OceanofPDF.com

Chapter Eight
I just want to hide.
That’s all I know. I thought I knew what it meant to be a bad person, but I didn’t. Maybe they were bad, but this man is evil. And he enjoys it.
“You know he’s going to find you?”
I peek out from around the cabinet I’m hiding behind. There was enough space for Geoff to slide a board in and out, so I figured out that my body fit behind it if I squeezed it enough.
“A-Are you going to tell him?” I ask the demon who is watching me very closely.
He looks amused by the idea and I realize that he’s going to get satisfaction out of telling Geoff where I’ve hidden. I’ve only been here weeks, but it’s already clear that this place is the worst place of all. “I might. What are you going to do in exchange for me staying quiet, little human?”
I don’t even know what to say because what could I do or give him? I have nothing to my name. Geoff had supposedly adopted me from the workhouse, but I’m just property to him. “I don’t have anything.”
“You must have something.”
“I…” I truly have nothing. Everything I have on me belongs to Geoff. He’s made that clear by taking it all away when I don’t listen. He wants me because I have magic. Wait… that’s one thing I do have… and while I don’t understand it, maybe the demon will. “All I have is my magic.”
The horned demon gives me a huge smile, like he’s come up with an outstanding idea. “I could eat you and then you wouldn’t need to fear anyone. What about that?”
I’m definitely not fond of that idea. “I don’t want to die and you’re not going to eat me. You don’t eat people.”
“How do you know?”
I really don’t. “I just do.”
“Hmm… then come here and find out.”
I shake my head, not willing to go anywhere. “I… I’ll… steal food for you.”
“You want me to risk my life so you can hide, and in exchange you’ll give me food? That sounds like a pretty lousy deal,” the demon says.
That’s when I hear the door swing open, and I slip back behind the cabinet and quiet my breathing. If only I could leave this place, I would run and run. I would never look back. I’d rather live on the streets than be here, but the spell he placed on me makes it so I can’t flee.
“Demon, where’s my little prodigy?” Geoff asks as I hear his steps on the stairs.
“Is that what you’re calling that tiny weed?” the demon asks.
“Yes, he has untapped potential. I just need to show him how to properly use it.”
“Beating people is generally the best way to show them how to do something.”
Geoff laughs as I try to remain as quiet and small as I can, fearing that even a hair might be sticking out from behind the cabinet. “Watch your mouth, demon, before I force you to remove your own tongue.” I hear him walk into the middle of the room. “Child, I know you’re in here. Either come out or I will force you out, and I assure you that if I have to force you out, it will not be pretty.”
I know it won’t. I know he’ll find me no matter what I do. It’s not like I can hide inside this house for years, but I refuse to give in. I refuse to hand myself over to him. If he wants me, he’ll have to find me.
“We have things to do and you are keeping our guests waiting. I don’t want to keep them waiting, do you?”
Guests? Could they help me? Could I talk them into taking me from this place?
“I’m going to count down from three. If you are not out, I’m going to be extremely unhappy. Three…”
Should I show myself? He’ll discipline me either way. Maybe he’s bluffing. Maybe he doesn’t know I’m down here.
“Two…”
Why has my life come to this? Why is it that everyone I wish to trust makes my life miserable?
“One,” he growls.
The cabinet leaps from the wall, flying across the room and slamming into the far wall, telling me Geoff knew where I was the entire time. He reaches down and grabs me by my hair and flings me into the center of the room. He grabs the whip he uses to beat the demon and rushes at me. I jump up, hoping to run, but he hits me with it before I get far enough from him. The whip cuts through the thin shirt and bites into my back as he hits me again and again. When I get too far, he uses that word to put me on the ground then holds me down on my front with a foot on the back of my neck, pinning me down as he whips me.
I try not to cry because I know he loves tears, but I can’t help the ones that wet my cheeks as I question what I’ve done to deserve this. I’ve been good. I’ve tried to listen, but it doesn’t seem to matter with this man.
When he finally stops, I’m shaking as he grabs my hair and pulls me to my feet. “Will you listen now?”
I nod, eager to tell him anything so he doesn’t hit me again.
“Then come along. Our guests are waiting. You still have a lesson to learn today,” he says as he drags me over to the stairs.
I glance back at the demon and find him watching me. I don’t know why I’m so drawn to him, but I do know that he is the lesser of evils in this hell.
I’m pulled up the stairs and over to the dining hall where a servant is passing through the door with a bottle in hand. Seeing us, she pulls open the door and closes it tightly behind us. Once inside, Geoff lets go of me, allowing me to look up at the twelve men and women who sit at the table enjoying bread and drink.
The man closest to us smiles when he sees us. “We’re so glad you’ve been understanding. Thank you again,” he says.
“Of course!” Geoff says. “I want you to meet my apprentice. This is Milliant and he’s interested in learning magic from me. Now, Milliant, these people came to me because they believe I’m encroaching on their land. See, dark magic requires sacrifice, and sometimes, the easiest thing to sacrifice is living land, but that’s hurting their crops so their cattle can’t eat. So we talked it through and came to the conclusion that I’ll use the land behind my house, which is amusing. Like I want a bunch of dead trees surrounding my home!”
The people look a little confused now, but they don’t say anything.
“See, when you’re as powerful as me, you don’t have to bow down before commoners like them. They should fear you. They should never ask anything of you and instead hand over everything you ask for. And this is how you make that happen,” he says as he sets a hand on my head before holding his other hand up and whispering a word I’ve never heard. I feel my magic jump and it confuses me, but I quickly forget it as I realize that something is happening to the men and women.
A woman drops her wine glass and it hits the table, glass shattering. She grabs for her throat as she screams, but the sound is quickly cut off by a gurgling noise. The man beside her reaches for her before smoke rises from him, like his skin is being burned. And there I stand beside the monster as the men and women thrash and flail, bodies seemingly being eaten alive by something. Fire? Acid? I have no idea. All I know is that I can hear their screams and when I look away, when I look at the man beside me, he has a smile on his face like he’s enjoying every moment of it.
Living the life I have, I’ve seen men kill, but never have I seen one enjoy it so much. And I realize with horror that he’s trying to mold me into a monster just like him.
I’m startled awake, ripped out of the dream. Was it a dream? God, I just felt like a child again, controlled by Geoff as he used my magic to aid him in killing and hurting others.
I look around, confused to find myself in a room I don’t recognize, staring into golden eyes. I jerk back, startled, before realizing it’s Menace.
“Hey, bud,” I mumble as I reach for his head, hand stilling halfway there. “Is Havoc here?”
He watches me for a moment before shaking his head.
Panic fills me at the thought that Havoc still hasn’t returned. “No, no, no. Where is he?”
I sit up, causing the cat to slide down and pain to ignite in my neck, but I fight through it. I try to grab ahold of our link, but it was severed when I died. And I can’t call him to me with a demon circle because of the fucking ring. A ring I’d made for him to give him freedom might be the reason why I can’t save him.
The door opens and I look over at Yoko and Leo.
“Hey,” Yoko says.
“Where’s Havoc?” I ask, begging that they know.
“We don’t know, but we’re going to find him, okay?”
“No, I need to find him now. Yoko—”
Leo walks over to me and gently sets a hand on my chest. “Miles, we need you to calm down and rest. I used some of my healing magic on you, but you’re still in a very vulnerable state.”
“You guys have lost your mind if you think I’m going to sit here while Havoc is out there.” I can’t leave Havoc. He’s my everything. We’ve suffered through so much together and he’s always been there for me. I can’t give up on him now.
Yoko kneels next to my bed. “We have everyone looking for the ones who are missing, Miles. Baron’s whole pack is out there. Johnson’s gone and Lanni’s gone too. We think Geoff has them.”
If Geoff has Havoc… I’m shaking just thinking about it. Once he finds out he can’t bind Havoc to him, he’ll have no reason to keep him. Or he could torture him. He doesn’t care what he does as long as he gets what he wants.
I just know I can’t sit here and hope he returns. “I’m going to go look for him—”
“You’re going to rest so you don’t die. There’s no choice here, Miles. If you go out there, you could die. Geoff has the city crawling with people looking for you. We don’t know who we can trust. They’ve found evidence that people working in the prison were in on it. They personally let Geoff in. Whether out of fear or… whatever he’s promising them… people have joined his side,” Yoko says. “You need to stay here until you feel better.”
“Fine,” I say, but they shouldn’t be dumb enough to believe I’d agree that quickly.
I innocently sit there as Leo looks me over and heads out the door. Then I reach for my water glass, but I make sure it looks like an accident when I push it off. “Ah shit,” I say as the water tilts off the side and hits the ground, splashing everywhere.
“I’ll get you another one,” Yoko says as she picks it up and heads toward the door. As soon as she’s out, I look over at the only thing left in the room that could stop me.
“Menace, I need to find him.”
He watches me for a moment before jumping from the bed to the windowsill.
“Oh, thank god. I thought I was going to have to stuff you in a pillowcase or something,” I say as I get up and push the window open. I feel woozy and dizzy, but I’m managing to keep my feet under me, so I slip through and creep toward the driveway. I start peeking through the windows of cars, looking for keys that could have been left in one.
“Menace, can you go inside and find some keys for me?” I ask.
He turns to the door just as I hear Yoko yelling something.
“Shit,” I hiss as I turn around and slam into a horse. A fucking horse.
Etienne’s horse.
“Hey, buddy,” I say as I pet Enzo. He’s too busy chewing on grass to care. How a dead horse can eat grass, I’m not sure, but he seems to be enjoying it.
“I’m sure you have some like… awesome connection to Etienne, but would you do me a super huge favor and let me ride on your back? See, Havoc is missing, and I need to find him, and I can’t run.”
The horse continues to chew.
Menace meows at me like I’m crazy talking to a horse.
“You’re a cat and you understand me,” I remind him.
He huffs.
“Please don’t kill me,” I say as I grab Enzo’s mane and pull myself up. It’s been years since I’ve ridden a horse, but I’ve had plenty of experience. I can guarantee that I’ve ridden more years than Etienne has been alive. Doesn’t mean the horse will trust me and not kick my head in. It clearly has a connection to Etienne that it doesn’t have to anyone else.
“Please?” I ask as I sit on the horse’s back. Menace meows, so I reach down to him and he leaps up, snagging my pants, but I catch him before he uses my flesh to help himself up.
Enzo extends his neck to tear some leaves off a tree before munching away. I click to him and squeeze my legs and am honestly a bit surprised that he starts to walk as the house door opens. The moment he starts trotting, I realize why this was such a bad idea. I feel every wound in my body and quickly urge him to a canter, a much smoother gait. He does so without qualm as I hold on to his mane with one hand and Menace with the other. It’s oddly nostalgic running through the field on the back of a horse while wishing to save Havoc.
Another time, many years ago, I was in a similar scenario. Havoc had been ambushed and taken captive while I’d been away. As soon as I heard, I jumped onto the back of my stallion and raced across the fields. The men had been slave traders, dealing with magical beings, and they didn’t realize that I would be quite pissed when I found him. At the time, I had armor that fit my horse that I would light on fire, making him look like something that crawled out of the pits of hell. Half the men ran in terror before we even reached them, the other half wished they had. Havoc was laughing when I saved him and reenacted the terror on the faces of the men for days.
I smile at the memory, hoping to push back any negative thoughts of what could have happened to him to keep him away from me for this long.
“Please be safe,” I whisper.
Menace meows at me, so I let the fingers of the hand holding on to him run over his soft fur.
“Thank you for saving me. You did a good job back at the prison,” I say.
He looks up at me and kneads his paws a little and I swear I hear a hint of a purr, but I bet he’d be angry if I said anything.
I wasn’t sure if I could find Havoc without our bind, but we’re connected enough that I know what direction to go. Since Enzo has no bridle, I gently squeeze my right leg and the horse veers to the left. In the still night, the only noise I hear is the sound of hooves beating on packed ground as pain and worry eat away at me.
The horse begins to slow, and I question if he’s tiring, but there isn’t even an elevation to his breathing. Even so, the squeezing of my legs and clicking won’t urge him on. Is Etienne calling him back? We’re still too far away—miles away still—and I’m in the middle of a field.
“Come on, buddy, can’t you ignore Etienne?”
He’s stopped now, but he weaves a little and I realize it’s like there’s an invisible barrier in front of him. I try one last time to urge him, and he puts a hoof forward but as the hoof falls, in the light of the moon, I see that there’s nothing left of his leg but bone.
Etienne’s magic must only work so far.
Enzo is hesitant but he takes another step, revealing another skeletal leg, head and neck changing with it. He turns his skeletal head to look at me even though it appears that he has no eyes, but it’s clear that he seems uncertain. I press my hand against his neck and feed him my magic. I have no idea what kind of magic Etienne holds or if there’s even a name for it, but I do know that I can aid magic. And if what he needs is more magic to make Etienne’s reach farther, then I can give it to him. When I open my eyes, his hair is back and his dark eyes are watching me. He drops his head and blows his nose before stepping forward.
“You don’t like that, do you, buddy?” I ask.
Enzo continues on at a slow lope, but he seems hesitant. I don’t push him because I don’t want to hurt him. And all too soon, he’s stopping again. I try to feed him more magic, but he tosses his head and weaves, telling me our journey together has come to an end.
“That’s okay. Thank you for getting me this far. You can go back to Etienne,” I say as I slide off his back. My legs feel weak and my body tired. I guess dying does that to a person.
I start walking with Menace by my side, but I don’t even know what I’m going to do. If he’s with Geoff, how will I stop him? I feel too weak to make it to a road that I can see. How will I fight? Maybe I’m an idiot for going out, but there’s no way I could lie in that bed with Havoc out here.
“I have to find him,” I tell Menace. “He may be… prickly toward others, he may be rude sometimes, and slightly evil… but I love him. I grew up without a family to love me or care for me. I associated people with coldness, hate, and pain. I knew nothing else and I feared that would be all there would be for me. And then I met Havoc.” I smile at the thought. “He was an asshole at first, and I was as wary of him as I was interested in him. I saw him as a means to escape hell, and then he became something so much more. He became my support to the point that I’m not sure I could have done anything without him. He was always there for me, even if he pretended like he didn’t want to be or he was going to leave me behind. But I knew he cared because even when he had the option to, he never did. If I just had my fucking bind with him, this would be easier.”
Menace meows as he looks up at me.
“I’d pet you, but I feel like if I leaned over, I’d just topple to the ground. The road’s right there. Once I’m on the road, I’ll get someone to stop and drive me.” Drive me where? I don’t know. Thankfully, I can still feel Havoc. It must be from our centuries together.
The road can’t be more than a hundred feet away, but I can’t even fathom how I’ll go ten more feet.
“What about a little breather?” I say, feeling dizzy and nauseous. I touch my neck, but all I can feel is the bandage. I kneel down in the weeds and immediately sink to my ass. “I feel kind of stupid. Do you think I’m stupid? Now instead of trying to find Havoc, people are stuck looking for me as I just lie here in the weeds wishing I’d had time before I left to put my spell of immortality back on myself. I didn’t even put a fucking barrier up. I just lah-di-dahed the fuck out the door.”
I sprawl out onto my back, feeling like maybe just a moment flat on my back would help. Then once I rest, maybe I could use a spell of some kind that’s simple just to give me a leg up.
I hear a flutter of wings and my eyes snap open. I sit up so quickly it feels like my head nearly falls off from where my neck had been slit. Startled, I watch as Havoc drops to his feet in front of me, staggers, catches himself, then trips at my feet.
“Hey, babe,” he says, all cool and shit.
“Havoc…”
“Whatcha doing out here?”
“Just… enjoying the stars,” I say as my eyes water. “Dammit, Havoc.”
I crawl over to him as he holds his side with one arm and reaches out for me with an even bloodier arm. “What happened? You’re hurt!”
“Shh. I’m fine,” he says as he grabs my waist and pulls me onto his lap. I instantly sink into him. It’s like a weight has been lifted off me as relief floods through me. Am I dreaming? Could he really be here in front of me? Could this torturous night end on a good note?
“I thought…” A sob escapes me as I dig my fingers into his back. “Havoc…”
He grips onto me tightly. “Hey, Miles. It’s okay! I’ve been much worse. I’m fine. You’re the one that died, you asshole.”
“I didn’t die on purpose.”
He sinks into me, arms squeezing around me. “I thought I lost you. Etienne made it sound easy to bring you back, but he… it took so long.”
I tuck my head against his neck. “That… might have been my fault, not Etienne’s.”
“What?” Havoc asks as he pulls back. “Is this about you thinking you deserve to be punished for those people Geoff killed?”
“No,” I lie as I look away.
He reaches out and presses a tear into my cheek. “I’m okay. You shouldn’t have been so worried.”
“I thought he had you again,” I say, feeling like I can’t grab onto him hard enough. I know he’s hurt, and I should be careful, but I just want to feel every part of him. Squeeze him until he knows that he’s never allowed out of my sight.
“I’ve never seen you like this… Miles, I’m fine.”
“I know,” I say as I kiss him. I let go of his back with one hand and grab his face, kissing him gently. “I thought I lost you.”
“I’m sorry I worried you,” he says as he presses his forehead against mine.
“Why’d it take you so long to get back?”
“I managed to push him back far enough that they could lock him in the far side of the prison, but he had people with him. I think you fully enraged him by coming back. He thought he finally had access to your heart… to your power. God… if he got ahold of your power, there’d be no stopping him.”
I nod, fully understanding the consequences of it. “I heard he took Lanni and Johnson.”
“I was trying to stop him, but he was too powerful. He collapsed part of the building trying to attack me. I finally managed to get away, but I could tell he had people looking for me, so I hid. I didn’t want to risk them following me back to you guys. I couldn’t contact you through our link because it was severed when you died. I really wanted to tell you I was okay, but I didn’t want to move from my hiding spot when they were so close. And with Geoff’s connection to demons, if I opened a demon gate, I was afraid he’d notice. When it was finally safe, I slipped away, but Geoff has the city crawling with magic users who are specifically looking for us. There were a few close calls, but I finally got away, and that’s when I felt you down here. And lo and behold there you were, staggering around.”
“I was staggering, wasn’t I?” I ask, realizing that now that my adrenaline is gone, I feel exhausted.
“Yes, then you were sprawling.”
“I rode a horse here… it reminded me of the time I saved you with my flaming horse.”
He grins at me. “Their faces when you came in on this mount ablaze!”
“Yes,” I say as I kiss him. “I’m too tired to walk back.”
“I’ll carry you.”
I shake my head then realize that’s a horrible idea when your head and body aren’t very well attached. “You’re hurt!”
“So are you!”
“Then Menace can carry us,” I say as I reach over to the cat.
Menace makes a huffing noise.
Instead of getting up, I tuck my head against Havoc’s neck and contemplate going to sleep like this, but he really should be looked over. “Shift, I’ll carry you.”
“I’m not making you carry me; I’m fine.”
He eases me off his lap and stands up. Gently, he pulls me to my feet with him. I hang on to him as he runs a thumb over my cheek. “Don’t scare me again.”
“Same for you!”
“Never… leave me,” he whispers. “Please.” He holds me to him and runs his fingers down my back and I just feel tension leaving me.
“I won’t. We need to get you back to them so they can help you. Shift and I’ll carry you.”
Havoc gives me a look like I’ve lost my mind. Maybe I have. “Let me carry you.”
Now he’s lost his mind. “Havoc, you’re bleeding, my wounds are stitched up.”
“Your head looks like it’s going to fall off.”
“It’s not going to fall off. My bones didn’t get severed. My head’s not just going to topple off.”
“And you were just sprawled on the grass staring up at the sky because…?”
“The stars are pretty, obviously.”
He sighs and reaches for me.
I stare at him in disbelief. “You’re not carrying me! You’re hurt.”
“I’m a demon.”
“Demon… shit! I forgot to rebind Iya! Sam is probably losing his mind. Hold on, let me summon Iya and he can carry us.”
“Good idea.”
I grab a stick and draw his summoning circle in the dirt. I’m a little anxious that I’ve taken too long and someone else has nabbed him or Geoff has realized he’s free. I would feel like shit telling Sam that I can’t get him back. But I’ve literally never summoned anything faster.
And out he comes as naked as the day he was born.
“Is whipping your clothes off the first thing you do when you go back to the demon realm?” I ask.
His eyes are huge as he grabs me and pulls me into a hug. “Iya thought you had left him forever!”
“I’m sorry for leaving you alone so long,” I say as his flaccid penis hangs awkwardly between us. I can feel it a little and it’s creeping me out. Must creep Havoc out even more because he slips his hand between us and pushes Iya’s hips away. Iya won’t let go, though, so now we’ve got this weird hug thing going on with our asses pushed out and Havoc kind of between us, but not really joining the hug.
“Iya thought you were gone forever. I-I thought you died. The sever of the bind was like someone who died, and I was very sad.”
I pat his broad shoulder. “Aw, I’m okay. I promise.”
“Good. No more dying.”
“I sure hope not!” I say as I pet his fluffy white coat. “Can you help us get back to the safe house? Havoc’s hurt and so am I.”
“Yes! Of course!” Then he grabs me around the waist and Havoc around the waist and picks up both of us, like he’s just going to carry two grown men miles back to a house.
“Iya, Havoc can shift!” I say. “You don’t need to carry us like this!”
“Huh. I forgot about that.”
He puts Havoc down who then shifts into a raven before landing on my shoulder.
“I feel very awkward with you carrying me,” I say. “Especially with your huge penis right below me.”
“You think my penis is huge?” Iya asks as he holds me with both hands.
“I feel like I walked into that, and I feel like an idiot being carried. It was so much cooler riding the horse here.”
“I could get on my hands and knees and you could ride on my back!” Iya decides and when his legs start buckling, I vigorously shake my head.
“No! Please, no!” How can this day get worse? Can it get worse?
“Fine, fine,” he says as I pull Havoc off my shoulder so he’s not sitting so precariously and hold him to my chest. His feathers are ruffled and wet with blood. When we reach the horse, we find Etienne there as well as Badrick, who is watching us.
“Etienne, I have found them!” the forest spirit exclaims.
“Thank you for pointing that out! I never would have noticed them ten feet from my face!” Etienne says, voice coated in sarcasm.
“You are very welcome. Humans have such poor eyesight. It’s a wonder they’re still alive!” Badrick says, not at all noting Etienne’s sarcasm.
“Wow, he could drop you and catch you with his penis,” Etienne says.
Ah yes, my day just got worse. “Shut it, Etienne.”
He shrugs. “You stole my horse, so I should be able to say whatever I want.”
“He wanted to be stolen!”
Etienne strokes Enzo’s neck. “Poor baby.”
“And you must like me if he let me ride his back. There’s no way he would’ve trusted me if you didn’t,” I remind him.
Etienne folds his arms over his chest. “Maybe… maybe not. I’m glad you found your bird, though.”
“Thanks.”
“Is he alright?”
“He’s hurt, but he’ll be okay. Demons are very resilient.”
“Good. Let’s get you guys back. Leo was losing his mind that you ran off while wounded like that,” Etienne says.
“Badrick, could you carry Iya home?” I ask.
“But… his genitals.”
“Um… I’ll have someone disinfect your back when we get home?” I helpfully suggest.
“I suppose,” he says with a huff. I would huff too if I had to carry a naked Iya anywhere.
Iya puts me down. Etienne helps me onto his horse’s back as I hold onto Menace and then Iya gets onto Badrick’s and together, we head back toward home.
OceanofPDF.com

Chapter Nine
The bedroom door opens and Havoc walks in. While I know he was off getting fixed up, I’ve spent the past few hours anxiously waiting to hear how he’s doing. Even though Leo must have some type of magical ability that allows him to work with light or healing magic, we both required a doctor to stitch us up first.
It left me to sit on the bed and force Menace to allow me to hug him to my chest while I waited. He wasn’t very compliant at first, but by the time Havoc arrives, Menace is sleeping in my arms.
Havoc quietly shuts the door behind him, and Menace pops his head out from under the cover. He looks between us, then acts disgusted that he’d been cuddling with me and crawls away. He promptly licks himself where I’d been touching him, like he’s going to remove my scent that way.
“They forced me into a different room and threatened me to stay put, so I immediately threatened them and left,” Havoc says as he pulls my blanket back. He climbs onto the bed, and I grab for him before he even lies down.
“I hate feeling weak,” I mumble.
“Trust me, I know.”
“How about we rest for one day and then, head falling off or not, we jump back into action?” I suggest.
“Sounds perfect.”
I push his shirt up, revealing a line of stitches across his side. I gently brush my fingers near it. “I’m sorry you got hurt because of me.”
He gives me a grin, like it doesn’t bother him. “Aren’t I always cleaning up your messes?”
I snort. “That’s hilarious. I’m always cleaning up your messes.”
“We should have a running total of who makes more messes.”
“I don’t have enough fingers or toes. I’m not sure there are enough fingers or toes in this entire building,” I say.
“That’s why I’m using a pencil and paper instead of toes!”
I snort as I slide my fingers around his waist and squeeze him to me. I close my eyes as I press myself against him. I realize that I don’t know where we’re at or what’s going on, because my brain has been so focused on Havoc. It’s the only thing I can seem to care or think about. Everything else is meaningless when Havoc isn’t around.
“Anyway, I just really don’t know what you’re talking about. I’ve never messed up anything ever,” Havoc says like he’s not the biggest liar known to mankind.
“Are you sure?”
“Positive.”
“You don’t remember a crucial time in our lives that you ‘messed up’?”
He seems to think for a long moment, gives me an innocent smile, and goes, “Nope.”
“Oh, that’s it, you’re getting it shoved right into your brain,” I say as I reach for his face.
“No! I don’t want you to force one of your lies on me,” he says as he grabs my wrist.
“Ow, my wrist!”
He quickly jerks his hand back. “I’m so sorry!”
I grin at him. “My wrist is fine—you fell for my trick,” I say as I press my hand against his face.
“And people say I’m the evil one!”
“You are!” And that’s when I push him into the memory.
“Do I need to go over the plan again?” I ask Havoc.
He yawns, even makes a show of it. “Heavens above, do you ever get tired of talking?”
“We’re planning our escape and you feel like right now is a perfect time to be a smartass?” I ask.
“I’m not sure when a bad time would be.”
I’m going to strangle him. As soon as he’s my demon, he will be strangled. The plan that he doesn’t feel like hearing again is that I will break his bind with Geoff, make him my own demon, and then we will get the fuck out of here. Obviously, we’d like to kill Geoff, but I feel like that won’t go well with Geoff’s control over me. So a quick and efficient retreat is what we have in mind. And Geoff is headed into town, so we have a short time frame to make any of this work and Havoc’s too busy being a pain in my ass.
“Fine, ready then?” I ask.
“What are we doing again? Chess?”
“Yes, chess, and I’m going to ram my queen up your ass if you don’t stay focused.”
He gives me wide eyes. “Violent… I like it.”
I sigh and pace a little more. “Do you think he’s far enough away? The moment he feels me fucking with your bind, he’s going to rush back.”
“I’d give him another minute or two. You have everything prepared? And you think this will actually work? You do realize I’m a very high-level demon, right? And Geoff has me bound with spells and runes.”
“It’ll work.” It has to work or we’re both dead—or worse, tortured. Geoff is not a kind man. He won’t toss me in a room and tell me to contemplate what I’ve done. He’ll ruin my life.
I kneel down and set to work. The first thing I need to remove is the spell keeping him in the circle. Then I can start working on the bind that connects him to Geoff. What’s going to help us is that both are old spells. Geoff’s had Havoc for over a decade and hasn’t redone the runes or magic on his binds. While I’m not stronger than Geoff, maybe I can be against an old spell. Especially if I try harder than I’ve ever tried before.
The circle doesn’t take long to break, only a few minutes, but that’s because it’s runes keeping him there, not Geoff’s binding.
“Ready?” I ask as I grab some ash and step up to the naked demon and reach out for him. I’d asked him to take his clothes off so I can work with skin-to-skin contact.
“I’m pretty sure you just wanted to get me naked so you could rub your hands all over me.”
I blush but make sure I cover it up with a glare. “I feel like you think this is a joke. You’re just acting like this is foolish. Don’t you want to be free?”
He reaches out and grabs my chin so I’m forced to look up at him. “Human, you can’t break a demon’s binding. I know you have this wild and crazy idea in your head, but it’s not going to work. You’re going to piss him off and he’s going to beat you within an inch of your life. And we’ll have accomplished nothing. This is merely a joke that I’m finding amusing.”
“Are you worried you won’t see me again?” I ask. Or maybe I’m the one worried about that.
He’s quiet for a moment. “I can only hope. Please continue and then maybe there will be some silence.”
I sigh and go back to running the ash down his chest and over his arms. I draw the summoning circle and his true name right onto his body so the contact is as close as can be. First, I must break the hold Geoff has, then I must bind him to me.
I slide my fingers down his leg, closer to his groin than I want to be.
“Want me to spread them a little for you?” he asks.
I try not to get distracted by the comments as I keep working. When I get to the rune-inscribed shackles on his arms and legs, it’s hard to get the ash under them, especially when the skin is infected and bloody. I wish I could break them, but I don’t have time, so I work around them.
With blood from a cut on my hand, I finish the spell and press my palms against him. I take a deep breath and push my magic into Havoc, letting it wind around him until I feel the black magic that Geoff has bound to him. I concentrate, slowly chipping away at the magic, tearing it back and revealing Havoc’s own magic that makes him what he is. How could he even function with such a suppressing hold on him?
It feels like I keep slamming into walls, but I push all the magic I can into this, even though I know I’m exhausting myself. If Geoff attacks me, I’ll have nothing left.
And finally, after what feels like hours, I snap the bind and Geoff’s magic dissipates.
I don’t realize I’m leaning against Havoc until I push my exhausted body off and look up at him.
The shock on his face startles even me.
“W-What? Did I do something wrong?” I ask.
“You… broke the bind.” It comes out barely a whisper.
“I told you I wou—”
Geoff slams into the door. There’s a spell on it, but Geoff doesn’t seem to think the spell is of any concern as he blasts through it, breaking the lock and everything. Thankfully, I already put the binding symbols on Havoc, so all I have to do is touch them and make him mine.
I press my hand to his chest and find that I am absolutely exhausted, but I have just enough magic left to bind him to me.
“I’m free,” Havoc says as he looks down at himself.
“Havelocke, I hereby bind you—”
I don’t get the next part out before Geoff uses his spell on me, sending me to the ground in excruciating pain. Through the pain, I fight to reach for Havoc who is looking down at me. But he’s not reaching for me, he’s not helping me, instead he’s just watching.
“Ha! I’m free! I’m free of you assholes,” Havoc growls.
“Havoc… please. Bind yourself with me.”
“Oh, sweet child, you’re such a fucking idiot,” Geoff says to me. “Demons are always, always only doing shit for themselves. You have humanized him, but they’re not humans.”
No, not Havoc. Geoff is wrong. Havoc and I have spent years together. He cares about me and I care about him. He wouldn’t do that, right?
“Oh, you dumb, moronic child. You thought he cared!” Geoff says as he walks toward me and as he does, Havoc just casually backs away while I stare at him in disbelief. “He was using you, and you were stupid enough to go along with it.”
“No… he wouldn’t!” What about all the times I risked my own life bringing him food, and how I’d talk to him and care about him?
But I’m a human and he’s never seen anything but pain and suffering from humans.
I know the feeling.
I look up at Geoff and know that this is it. I’ve wasted years of my life studying demons, demon binding, and demon magic for this. To get beaten and tortured by Geoff while thinking that death would be kinder.
Geoff kicks me in the side, and I try to push myself up. He kicks me again and that word puts me on the ground once more, pain tearing through me.
I am a fool.
“Look at him,” Geoff says as he grabs my hair and yanks my head back, forcing me to look at Havoc as he opens up a gate to the demon world. “He’s not even going to try anything. And you want to know why? Because he’s not a fucking idiot like you.”
He slams my head to the ground as I lie there, infuriated. I want to call for my magic, but the moment I try anything, he’ll send me back down. And I don’t know what hurts worse, the pain coursing through my body or Havoc walking away.
Fine, I don’t need him. Everyone has walked away from me in my life, so what’s another person? I turn to Geoff as I prepare for my next move, and that’s when I hear something.
“While this disgusts me to help a human—and a mage at that—I suppose I have no choice,” Havoc growls as he pulls something out of the gateway. When I see the sword, I question if he’s going to hack me up too while he’s at it.
“Oh, demon, don’t fuck with me. I will kill you,” Geoff says as he throws fire at him. It hits him, singeing his skin, but because he’s naked, nothing on him starts burning. Havoc throws the sword straight at Geoff and the metal slices his left arm. Geoff steps back to get more room and that’s when Havoc reaches me. He drags me up and slams my hand against his chest.
“Don’t you dare,” Geoff growls as I feed my magic into the bond.
“Silve!” he snaps, but the bond has been thrown into place.
I can feel it. I can also feel Havoc grabbing onto my magic as he rushes Geoff. I know he can’t defeat him like this, but maybe it’ll be enough for us to get away. I crawl toward the door as they fight, hoping that if I pull myself far enough back, I can escape.
I push myself to my feet and just as Geoff is driving magic at Havoc that could kill him, Havoc disappears. For a moment, I think both of us are confused before Havoc is beside me again, dragging me after him.
“What the fuck was that?” I’m not sure if I’m talking about his deserting me, him seeming to disappear, or any of the other things that have happened.
He pushes me through, and I throw magic at the door, creating an inferno Geoff will have to pass through. Havoc drags me after him as I fumble over my own legs until they start working again.
He slips outside to where I have a horse waiting for us. I’d pulled him out on the chance this worked and we could escape. Havoc literally picks me up and tosses me onto the animal before climbing onto his back and pushing him into a run.
“His magic is going to hurt me when we go through that gate. Please don’t leave me behind.” I’m a little nervous after what went on in that room, but I have to trust him. I know the man who had cared for me is still in there.
He grunts something, which doesn’t make me very confident as the horse rushes for the gate. It’s a spell that seems to knock me out every time I hit the gate, but I’ve never had someone to pull me through it. Let’s see how this goes.
“It went perfectly well. I don’t see a single mess in that situation,” Havoc says.
“Really?” I ask suspiciously.
He nods, looking very earnest. “Yeah, that was nothing compared to the time you got me chocolate with raisins in it.”
“I really hope you’re joking.” But I’m sure he’s not.
He grins at me before kissing me. “I… I am sorry.”
“I don’t want your apologies.”
“I was… honestly going to leave you. Because there I was, free for the first time in so many years and I don’t even have a choice but to immediately be bound again? Freedom for a split moment then back to servitude? It was really hard getting myself to understand that you weren’t like the others.”
I slide my fingers through his hair. “I know. But when you walked away, I wanted to punch you so hard.”
“It was probably the evilest thing I’ve ever done.”
“Tell me about it.”
He squeezes me gently. “But it ended up alright in the end.”
“It did. Now we need to stop him this time instead of running away again.”
“I really hope this worked and it snapped the spell he has on you. Are the markings still visible?”
I drop the illusion I always wear on myself and look down at the lines running across my skin. “They are, but I think it worked. I lost all other spells and contracts that were magically tied to me.”
“You did. We’re no longer in a contract with each other. I’m free from a contract for the first time in hundreds of years… and I was wondering… if you could put one back on me.”
I raise an eyebrow, convinced he’s talking crazy now. “I made that ring so you don’t have to worry about someone else ever forcing you into a contract. You’re free.”
Havoc frowns, and I find it strange. “I don’t like it. I want to put the contract back into place.”
“You can still use my magic and stuff if we’re not contracted, since I’ll allow you access to it. I just can’t control you.”
He grabs my face in his hands. “Don’t you want to be in a contract with me?”
“Well… of course, but I don’t want to take your freedom, Havoc.”
“Bind me to you before I force you to,” he growls.
Emotions fill me as I realize that he desperately wants us to be connected. I lean into him. “Are you positive?”
“I’ve never been more sure of anything in my life.”
I know Havoc’s bind by heart since I’d practiced it so many times as a child. I trace it over his skin with just my finger, knowing that ink or ash or anything else would be unneeded. Especially when he wants the binding.
“Cat, I need you to prick my finger,” I say as I hold it out. Menace doesn’t even hesitate as he stabs a claw into my finger, drawing blood. I kind of feel like I should be concerned about how quickly he jumped on board with making me bleed, but I let it go since he did snuggle with me.
I run my finger down Havoc’s chest and press my hand against him. I don’t even need to say anything; I can feel the binding. It’s like an old friend and my magic tangles with it easily as his grips onto it. It feels strangely intimate. So different than any other demon I’ve ever connected to.
When I open my eyes and look up at him, he’s mine again. But this time, it was his choice.
Havoc gives me a blissful smile. “Thank you. That feels much better.” He leans in and kisses me, and I can’t help but wonder how such a horrible twelve hours could turn into this.
Then I grab Menace and pull him between us. He fights and pushes to squeeze out of my hold, but with my arms around him and Havoc’s arms around me, he’s given no choice but to oblige. I think I might even hear a tiny purr at one point.
OceanofPDF.com

Chapter Ten
I wake up with the feeling that I’m being watched, which is never good when someone wants to murder you. I open my eyes and look up into a pair of eyes staring down at me. 
“Holy fuck!” I yelp as I jerk back, jarring my sore neck. Havoc lunges out of bed, lifting his hands up into a karate-like pose, even though I’m positive he doesn’t know karate. 
“It’s that creepy fucker!” he yells, and even though the “creepy fucker” is the very friendly vampire Nicco who lives in my other house and would, in no way, try to harm me, Havoc karate chops him right in the neck.
“You little pencil-dicked piece of shit!” Nicco yells with his thick British accent as he rushes at Havoc. 
For some reason, they hate each other. It doesn’t help that Nicco is slightly creepy, even by vampire standards, and just appears out of nowhere without announcing himself or telling you he’s coming. 
I just cradle Menace to my bare chest as Nicco bitch slaps Havoc. Which literally has to be the worst move he could possibly make. “Children, please stop.”
Havoc’s got him in a headlock now. “Hurry, get the tub filled, let’s drown him,” Havoc says. 
“Can you drown a vampire?” I ask thoughtfully.
“We’re sure as fuck going to find out!”
How did this become my morning? “We are absolutely not going to find out! Havoc, let him go. Nicco, don’t slap Havoc.”
Havoc grudgingly lets him go. “He was being creepy!”
“That’s like saying Menace was being hairy. That’s just what Nicco does. Hey, Nicco. I’m surprised to see you here,” I say, since I’m pretty sure he never leaves the house, let alone drives four hours here. Or did he run the whole way? That sounds much more likely. Probably terrifying people along the way. 
He turns his attention to me. “Your barrier on the house broke… I knew the only way that’d happen was if you were dead. But… I couldn’t believe you were, so I ran here, and then I threatened people until I found your scent and followed you here,” he explains, confirming my running hypothesis. 
“Thank you for the concern. I’ll make sure I get the barrier back up on the house, but it’s probably ideal you’re here instead of there, since Geoff knows where that is. We should probably get together as a group and figure something of use out,” I say as I slowly stretch my sore limbs. 
I don’t have any clothes since I don’t even know whose house this is, so I put on what I wore yesterday, even if it is dirty and stiff with dried blood. Havoc and Nicco snub their noses at each other while I dress.
“What is that thing?” Nicco asks as he points at Menace, who instantly hisses at him. 
“That’s Menace.”
Nicco scrutinizes him for a moment. “It’s not normal.”
“He’s not?” I ask in mock surprise. I pick Menace up and admire his red fur, then tickle his chin to see if I can get him to display his black tongue and needle teeth of death.
Nicco rolls his eyes at my sarcasm while Menace starts yowling, clearly dissatisfied with me messing with his face. 
“Oh, stop that,” I say as I flip him onto his back like he’s a baby and boop his little black nose.
He bites my finger but thankfully doesn’t sever it. 
“Why do you pick up the evilest things?” Nicco asks as Menace gently takes my hands in his soft paws and then extends all claws like he’s prepared to skin me. 
“He loves me,” I say, and then I lean over and kiss him right on the forehead. That startles him still, but I notice his claws retract. 
“For some strange reason, he likes you,” Havoc says.
“Everyone likes me.” I give him a wink, and he shakes his head.
Together, we make our way into the hallway and down the stairs to the living room where there are a few people including Evan, Baron, and Yoko. It’s instantly clear whose house this is when I think about the abundance of plants lining the hallway, in the bedroom, and in the living room. They’re everywhere. Exotic-looking things I’ve never even seen scale up the wall to the point that I can’t even tell what’s wall and what’s plant.
“We must be in your house, Evan,” I say.
“We are! I’m surprised you noticed!” He’s dead serious.
“The color of the carpet just gave it away.”
He chuckles politely, not getting it at all, like everyone has a mini rainforest in their house. 
“We were trying to find someplace safe,” Sam says from behind me. I turn and see him with Iya tailing him. “I reached out to Evan, hoping he’d know a place outside our district but not too far. Since his house was right on the district edge, we decided to come here.”
“I’d like to call a meeting with anyone willing to work with us,” I say.
“I’ll get everyone,” Evan says before heading into the hallway. 
All of us pile into the living room where Yoko pulls out a seat for Havoc and me. We sit and wait for Etienne, Leo, and Badrick to come down. 
Once they’ve arrived, they turn to me, so I take it as a cue that I’m supposed to start figuring things out. “So… we know Geoff has Johnson and Lanni. I doubt he has any need for Johnson besides leverage over us. As for Lanni… I’m not sure if he’d want her magic or not, seeing as we don’t know what her magic is or if he can even take it. But he knows we want them, and we need to get them back,” I say.
“You also need to reach out to your district. Don’t forget that you’re the leader of the district, and they’re relying on you,” Evan says.
“Ah… yeah. I’m not very good at this leader stuff. I think we need to find someone else to take over when I’m done with all of this. I like just doing whatever I feel like when it strikes me.”
“Since Miles has technically died, Geoff’s control should be off him now, right?” Sam asks.
I shrug. “We hope, but there’s no way to test it until we’re face-to-face with Geoff again.”
“What if we do a public announcement? Set up a trap or something?” Havoc suggests. “There’s no guarantee Geoff will go, but he’ll probably send some of his assholes.”
I nod, liking the thought. “We still have the valient to deal with, wherever that is. He might send it.”
“Do you think he’s controlling it?” Etienne asks.
“I didn’t think there was a way to, but if there is, I’m sure he’s figured it out,” Havoc grumbles.
I lean back in my chair as I try to think it all through. “I’m going to send some lesser demons out. We need to figure out where Johnson and Lanni are being held. I also want to make a public announcement so my district doesn’t think I’ve deserted them. Do you think we can figure that out? And while that’s happening, we can hopefully find a way to get Johnson and Lanni back.”
“It’s worth a try,” Sam says. “The police department is trying to keep everything manageable.” 
Leo catches my eyes. “Make sure you’re resting. I know Etienne brought you back, but you were pretty weak when you got here and my healing magic is pretty low, but I did my best.”
“I’m good, thank you.” I feel weak and my neck hurts, but I’m honestly healing faster than a human would.
Everyone stares at me, some with narrowed eyes, some with hard expressions. 
“I’ll summon some demons and then go rest,” I say, hoping to appease them. “I also need to put my longevity spell back on. I don’t want to get wrinkles like you guys.”
I get a lot of glares on that one. I leave them to complain about me and head back to the room I started in to begin summoning some demons to help. 
“Need help with anything?” Havoc asks.
“Having you just standing around looking menacing generally whips them right into shape.”
“I like that,” he says. “Want me naked?”
To me, that sounds like a splendid idea, but maybe now isn’t the best time for it. “You don’t really need to be. I’ll probably look like a perv then.”
He thinks about it for a moment. “But aren’t you?” 
I can’t help but grin. “Nope.”
He looks aghast. “Aw, we left our sex painting on the floor. I hope no one messes with it.”
I think about it for a moment before grinning at him. “I wonder who had to wash the sex paint off me.”
Havoc gives me a huge grin filled with glee. “That is the greatest thought I’ve ever had. Did they even get between your butt cheeks?”
I hold my arms out and examine myself. “I had it everywhere, but look how clean I am.”
“I bet it was Yoko.”
“It was me.”
I turn to the doorway and look at Baron who is leaning against the doorframe. “Aw! Did we get to second base?”
“I got to a lot of bases that night with you,” he jokes. “Everyone said that since I’m used to being naked with people because I’m a werewolf, I got to clean you off. Like… why was there so much paint? And it was everywhere.”
I’m trying my best to not laugh at the look he’s wearing. “You didn’t need to clean me up that well! I could’ve taken a shower today!”
Baron raises an eyebrow. “I wasn’t just going to let you lie coated in paint while you were trying to die.”
Havoc folds his arms across his chest. “I’m feeling a little jealous now.”
I shake my head. “Oh, hush. You hugged and kissed me last night; that should make up for it.”
Havoc scoffs. “I wasn’t talking about you. I didn’t get a sponge bath last night!”
“You wanted a sponge bath from Baron?” I ask with a raised eyebrow. It was just months ago he couldn’t stand the man because he stabbed me when he’d been possessed, and now he wants a sponge bath by him.
“You won’t give me one, so I have to take what I can get,” Havoc explains.
Baron shrugs. “I’ll go get the water and the sponge. Get undressed.”
I snicker as I sit on the floor. “You heard him, Havoc! Take it off!”
Havoc is too busy fake pouting to take anything off. 
“Anyway, I was just bringing you some pain pills,” Baron says as he holds out some water and gives me the pills. “Havoc, can you take pain pills?”
“They won’t work very well on me, but I’m fine.”
With the pills in my system, I start summoning demons. Mostly ones I’ve worked with previously, so I don’t have to go through the whole “listen to me or else” nonsense I’d like to avoid. When I have six minor demons summoned, I send them off into the city to keep me informed on what’s happening, who is where, and to look for Lanni and Johnson. 
Then I turn to Havoc. “I’m going to rest a bit longer, and then I’ll be ready to go,” I assure him. I wish I was ready to do something now, but my body is physically exhausted. I guess dying takes a lot out of you.
“I think resting is in your best interests,” he says as I erase the summoning circle before heading over to the bed. “While you rest, I’m going to go check some things.”
“Then I’ll go with you,” I say.
“No, you’ll stay here,” he says as he kisses my forehead. “Right here, got it?”
I stare at him. “No, you’re not leaving me, dammit.”
“I’m not going to leave you. I’m just going to get some weapons. We need weapons, right?”
“No,” I say stubbornly.
He picks up a potted plant. “What are you going to do? Ficus them to death? You know Evan has shit for weapons.”
I glare at him. “Send someone else out.”
He stares at me. “I can fly and am the size of a raven—you know, since I can turn into a raven—and you want to send out who, exactly? And who do we care the least about and decide they’ll be the destined one to get the weapons?”
I snicker. “Shut it. Fine. Just… please be really careful. I won’t be able to rest with you out there.”
“I’ll be extremely careful,” he says as he urges me over to the bed before kissing my forehead. He then picks up Menace, who instantly bites him, and sets the evil cat in my arms. 
“Squeeze this thing while you wait. Preferably to death,” he says as I hug Menace to me while he hisses at Havoc.
“Okay. Please be quick and careful.”
“I will,” he says before heading through the door. 
I sink down on the bed feeling useless and helpless. Sometimes having a human body is such a fucking pain that I hate it. As soon as he’s gone, I kick myself for not going with him. I should have gone with him and now he’ll probably get hurt while I’m helplessly lying here. 
I decide to distract myself with my memories. 
When I open my eyes, I’m confused. I slowly look around, wondering where I am and what’s going on. Then I sit up quickly, startling a black bird that’d been perched on me. Why was there a bird on me?
When I see the horse grazing, everything comes rushing back to me. Breaking Havoc’s binds, the asshole planning on deserting me, and him finally coming back to help.
“Havoc?” I ask as I look around me. 
Have I seriously lost a demon already? I’ve had him not even hours and he’s already run off. 
“Dammit, Havoc, where are you?” I ask as I get to my feet, feeling light-headed for a moment. I lean against the horse to steady myself as my eyes fall on the black bird that’s staring at me. 
I cock my head; it cocks its head. 
I lean in, it leans in.
“What is that thing?” I cry to no one in particular. 
And that’s when the bird distorts and Havoc appears so quickly in front of me, it’s like my mind is playing tricks on me. 
“‘That thing’?” he asks with a huge scowl. “Have I been reduced to a thing at this point?”
I open my mouth to apologize before remembering that he was going to leave me! “You asshole!”
“I do have an asshole. Why are you asking? Oh right, you fancy the lads, don’t you? My asshole is not for you.”
“Ew, gross. No! You tried leaving me.”
He dramatically grabs his chest. “Me? I would never! I care far too much about you, Miles.”
My brow lowers at his ridiculous reply. “You tried leaving me.”
“But I didn’t! Doesn’t that make you happy?”
I grumble.
“Ah, such a happy noise you just made! I’m so glad we get to work with each other. Are you sending me back?”
“For that, I’m keeping you until I die,” I growl. “And I don’t plan on dying any time soon.”
“Splendid. I can’t wait to help you die, I mean, keep you alive!”
I narrow my eyes at him. He narrows his eyes at me. 
The relationship between a demon and a mage is a beautiful thing. 
“Let’s get as far as we possibly can from Geoff before he finds us and makes us like each other again over our mutual hatred for him,” I decide. 
“Good idea. I was tired of holding up your weak body, so I just let you slide off the horse. It’s a good thing the horse didn’t step on your head. He was so careful too. It was impressive how he purposely avoided your head.”
“Hilarious how a horse cares more about my head than you.”
Havoc smiles at me. “I already can’t wait to spend the rest of my life with you.”
“Me too.”
And so we begin walking. We lead the horse for a little while to give him a break from our weight. Once I get tired, I climb onto the horse’s back. That’s when Havoc shifts into the raven and lands on my shoulder.
His talons sink right into my shoulder in some type of death grip. “Ow, dammit!”
“Suck it up.”
That straightens me right up as I turn my head quickly to look at the raven. He completes this action by pecking me on the side of the head. “Ow, fuck! You can talk?”
“Of course I can talk,” he says, voice bouncing around in my head. It’s like my own thoughts, but it’s clearly his voice.
“You’re in my head,” I realize.
“That’s what happens when you force someone to be your slave.”
“First off, I didn’t force you. It would’ve been really hard to force you to do anything when I was writhing around on the ground while trying not to die. Secondly, can all demons do this?”
“No, I’m better than them.”
“Of course you are.” He digs his talons tightly into my shoulder while assuring me it’s to keep himself from falling off. I could take a tumble down a cliff, and I’m positive he would never fall off with how tightly he’s digging his talons in. 
We ride for a while before deciding to stop for the night. I tie the horse so he can graze, and then I gather wood for a fire as Havoc heads off to hunt something to eat. It’s weird being free outside of Geoff’s watch. He rarely let me leave the house without him by my side because he always wanted complete control over me. And now… now I’m free. 
I can’t help but smile at the thought as I light the wood on fire with my magic.
“Why are you grinning maniacally while staring at burning sticks?” Havoc asks as he walks up with two rabbits. 
“Maybe that’s just how my face looks.”
“I’d work on getting a new face, then.”
“You’re evil,” I say, which really shouldn’t surprise either of us.
“Thank you.”
He sits down and pulls out a knife, making the rune-covered shackles clank on his wrists. I know they’re there for protection, and without them he could technically harm the mage if the mage isn’t strong enough to control him. Am I strong enough? If I’m not, he could kill me no matter how many times I order him not to. But if they’re on, he can’t touch me. 
He skins the rabbits and sticks the meat on a stick before holding it over the fire. 
“Are you going to share?” I ask curiously.
“You mean you’re not going to order me to give you everything and leave me to get the scraps?”
“Wasn’t my intention.”
“Then no. All for me.”
I raise an eyebrow. “That’s so strange… I feel like I have many memories of me sneaking food to you.”
He lets out a grumbling noise. “Fine.”
He’s acting snippier with me than he usually does. Shouldn’t he be happy I’ve broken his connection to Geoff? Or does he hate me now that I’m his master?
For some reason, that thought makes me sad. I would’ve believed he’d know me at least a little after all the years we’ve spent with each other. 
He cooks the meat in silence as I think about what we could or should do. I think the best course of action is getting as far from Geoff as possible until we’re confident that we can stop him. 
But maybe that’s not what Havoc wants to do.
He grudgingly holds a stick out to me, meat a little burnt, but better than nothing. 
“Thank you, even though it nearly killed you to be kind to me,” I say.
“It was disgusting.”
I smile at him as I take a bite because I know he honestly must care a little. When we finish eating, I toss the stick into the fire and crawl over to him as he warily watches me. He’s still naked and probably cold, but he’ll be warm enough soon.
“Give me your hand.”
“What are you wanting to do with it?”
Always untrusting. “I’m going to chop it off, what do you think I’m doing with it?”
“Who knows. You’re very strange.”
“I’m not strange,” I say as I grab it so I can examine the shackle that’s cut into his skin. I can smell the rot and can only imagine the pain it causes him. So I press my thumbs against the runes as I close my eyes. My magic breaks the runes almost immediately, and I unlatch the shackle. I slowly pull it away from torn and bloody skin, pieces of flesh falling with it from years of irritation.
“Do you realize what you’re doing?” he asks, voice quiet.
“Yes.”
“I could kill you.”
“Maybe. But you won’t.”
Havoc grabs me, slamming me against the ground as he towers over me, freed hand around my throat. The other shackle is still on, but the magic is broken, so he could take them off himself. 
“I could kill you.”
I look up into his blue eyes. “I see that.”
“Are you not afraid?”
I raise an eyebrow. “I should be. Your arms look like they could snap me in half, and you have that scowling thing going on that makes most people shake and want to piss themselves. I’m pretty sure you love that part the most. You almost feed off it, if I had to guess. But, Havoc, you have to understand that I was raised by people who hated me, then I was picked up by a workhouse that tried to pretend they were an orphanage where I was treated like an object. The abuse we saw there was no better than anywhere else, and I nearly killed them by burning the place down. Then when I thought that maybe, finally, I had someone to care about me, I ended up with Geoff who beat me and abused me and used me. Yet there was this… thing in the basement that was a complete asshole, but he used his behavior to cover up how he truly felt. He also was treated like shit by humans, yet sometimes he’d show just a fraction of kindness toward me that would make me feel so damn happy. Because honestly… it was the most kindness I’d ever seen even if he was trying to act like he was evil while doing it. So no, Havoc. I’m not afraid. I’ve gotten tired of being afraid.”
His grip loosens on me. “Fine.”
“But what I will do,” I say as I sit up, “is release you. I needed your help escaping Geoff. But now that I’m free, you’re more than welcome to leave.”
He looks at me in shock. “You’ll let me go?”
“Of course,” I say as I reach out, but before I can touch his bare chest, he grabs my hand.
“Wait.”
“What?” I ask, curious why he’d want to stop me now. He literally almost sacrificed my life to be free and now he’s not sure?
“Are you different?” He seems hesitant… or maybe hopeful. 
“From the other mages?” I ask, confused.
“Yes.”
“I don’t think you’d be asking me if you thought I wasn’t. You know me, Havoc. I know you think I’m hiding some type of evil inside me, but I’m not hiding anything. It’s all out in the open.”
“Maybe that’s why I don’t like you,” he says, but it has that joking tone he’d have when we talked in the basement. The one that made me trust him and try my hardest to free him. But I get it. Even “freedom” isn’t true freedom. Not for a creature like him. 
“I’m willing to let you go.”
“Then what? Geoff instantly calls me back? I’m a demon. I’m given no choice. I was created to serve greedy mages like you. I will never be given my freedom. From the moment I was born, it was taken from me. For now, don’t cancel the hold. I see you as the lesser of two evils. You will never understand.”
Sometimes, I think I understand more than Havoc will ever believe. “I do understand. This is the first time I’ve been faced with freedom and if you stay with me, it’ll be the first time you’re faced with it as well. If you don’t want the spell broken, I’ll treat you like a man as long as you’re willing to act like one. If you disrespect me, treat me like I’m a fool, and leave me behind to die again, then I’ll reassess this plan. But for now, let’s at least stay together for a time.”
“I will assist you until Geoff’s dead,” he says as he stares me down.
“Deal.” I hold out a hand to shake on it and he stares at it funny. 
“I don’t want to touch you.”
I raise an eyebrow. “Are you kidding me? Why did I save you?”
He groans, like he needs everyone to know that it wasn’t his idea to touch the disgusting human. 
I give him a smile which only further disgusts him. “Have a seat and let me clean up your wrists and ankles.”
Now he looks downright suspicious as I go to the saddlebag and pull out a kit I’d packed knowing that there was a possibility one of us would get injured. 
I take his hand and lift up a small bottle of amber liquid. 
“What is that? Poison?” he growls.
“Yes! I saved you just to pour poison on your wounds.” I pour the “poison” that should help him heal over the dying skin. Thankfully, demons are much more resilient, so he’ll heal soon. 
When I’m finished, his wrists are bandaged in white cloth that stands out against his dirty skin, and he looks confused more than anything. 
“Now we just wait for my flesh to rot off from your poison.” 
I sigh as I head over to the horse. “Are you always going to be this dramatic?”
“I sure as hell plan on it.”
OceanofPDF.com

Chapter Eleven
According to my demons, Geoff has control of the main points of my district. He’s keeping people from using the transportation and the city center. And if anyone threatens to get in his way, he’s killing them without a care. I know he’s hoping to draw me out, especially by announcing that the boss of the district has abandoned his responsibilities. 
People have become fearful because they know the dark mage from tales and stories that made him out to be a monster, not a human. But now, he’s feasting on the hearts of others to make him stronger, and word of his victims is spreading fast.
I slide into a seat at the breakfast table where Havoc, Evan, and Yoko are all seated. Oh, and Nicco is being creepy in the corner. 
“I think we’re running out of options,” Evan says. “The videos Yoko has posted of you reaching out to them has helped calm your citizens some, but has it helped enough?”
I lean back in my chair as I try to think about our next step. That is the very moment something slams into the glass window inches from where we’re sitting. Evan screams and throws his arms up like he’s going to call upon his plant power to help us. Havoc jumps back and kicks the entire table toward the window, sending plastic cups flying. And Yoko and I just sit there in shock about the chaos around us even though there’s nothing outside the window.
That’s when a tiny clawed hand smacks the window and I realize what it is.
“It’s just one of my demons,” I say. 
Why they didn’t realize that a house has a window and slammed into it, I’ll never know. I glance out and realize that it’s Popsicle, the dumber of the two gargoyle-looking demons. When One’s not around to keep him in line, he just radiates stupidity. 
“The door,” I shout. 
He cocks his head this way and that, so I go to the door and shout for him to come. One reaches me first and comes inside as Havoc rights the table he’d flung across the room.
“What’d you find, Popsicle?” I ask.
The lesser demon’s eyes get huge. “You found popsicle? I want it. Red? Is it red? I want red.”
“I thought that was your name?” I say.
“Ohhhhhhhhh.” He thinks for a moment. “Ohhhhhhhh.”
I hate dealing with lesser demons. “One?”
The other demon literally pushes him out of the way, making his head slam into the wall. So much for them liking each other. He doesn’t seem to mind, though. “Yes! Oh. Right. We found the two. One human and one… thing.”
I pull out my phone and show her the pictures of Lanni and Johnson. “These two?”
“Yes! Although that one,” she points at Lanni, “looks like this.” She proceeds to flop on the ground and stick her tongue out. I can only assume she’s pretending she’s dead.
So has Lanni left her body? Or did Geoff get to her first?
“Can you show us where?”
“Yes! But you have to fly. Lots of ground guards. Here and there and everywhere!”
“I can go,” Havoc says.
“Yes, but you’re not going alone.”
“Did someone say… fly?” I look up as someone else appears in the doorway that I never wanted to see again.
Havoc growls at him, which is really not surprising, Havoc doesn’t like many. But unlike Nicco, the vampire who I actually like, I’m with Havoc with this one. So I slam the door on the gorgeous angel.
“For the love of the gods, how the hell is everyone finding us?” I growl.
“Was that Marco?” Evan asks as he pets one of his plants like it’s a dog. He’s just stroking the broad leaf. I’m pretty sure I’m surrounded by crazy people. 
“Yes, that was Marco,” I grumble.
“I called him to help us. I assumed we needed all the help we could get.”
I raise an eyebrow, wondering if Evan remembered how much “help” Marco was. “You do remember him harassing me, right? Like all the sexual harassment?”
Evan pets his plant a little faster. “But he… could help?”
I groan as I pull the door open and stare at Marco who immediately looks butthurt. He’s a gorgeous angel who knows he’s gorgeous and tries his hardest to make sure everyone else knows he’s gorgeous too. The issue with that is his rotten and narcissistic personality. He has also tried telling me how much he loves me but in an annoying and unwelcome way. Why he can’t just find someone else to annoy, I’ll never know.
“Are you going to apologize?” he asks.
I think about it for a moment before saying, “I’m sorry your face is the only thing nice about you.”
He gives me a huge smile. There’s even a little tinge of red to his cheeks as he ruffles his feathers. “Thank you.”
That was not a compliment at all, and it disgusts me that he thought it was one, but I also know it’ll be less hardship just to let him have it. So I give him a pained smile and turn away. “I’m going to call my demons here. Yoko, could you please tell everyone what we’ve learned so far and get them here?”
I call for my remaining demons to return to me, which they should be able to do within the next half hour. Then I turn as Etienne walks in with Leo. 
“Wow… did you take all the good looks when you fell from heaven?” Etienne asks Marco.
Marco grabs his chest. “Oh my gods, you think I’m gorgeous too? I know, like do all of you feel ugly when you’re in a room with me?”
Etienne’s face sours. “Ew. Leo, go beat that creep up for me.”
Leo doesn’t look convinced, but he also doesn’t seem too upset about Etienne’s remarks which tells me he does this stuff often. I’m pretty sure he says it to see if Leo will get jealous. “You want me to beat up the guy you just said looks gorgeous?” Leo asks.
“No, I made a general statement about his looks and then he started talking and I was disgusted.”
Marco’s still flaunting around and spreading his wings, oblivious that Etienne now hates him. Marco slides up next to him and smiles at him. “Hello, tiny creature.”
“Married, fuck off,” Etienne says as he grabs onto Leo. “Leo, help! There’s a creep!”
How the hell are we supposed to be the saviors of mankind? We can’t get along for five minutes. I can’t even prevent my own sanity from slowly draining away.
I look over at Havoc, hoping just setting eyes on him will help, but he’s too busy whispering something to Nicco who has bent a spoon in half out of anger.
I can’t be the only normal one here, can I? 
I look over at Yoko and we lock eyes. Ah, I have found kinship amongst the chaos.
 
* * *
Once my demons assemble, we drive within a mile of the building where my demons claimed to have seen Lanni and Johnson. After that, we walk from the parking lot to the wooded area where my crew will make their stand. 
I turn to everyone and realize that I’m left with the strangest group of helpers. But everyone is ready to assist, so we’re going with what we’ve got. And somehow, I’ve become the leader of them all. 
“So the plan is for the Penetrators to flank them, right?” Iya asks.
“Please stop calling us the Penetrators,” I say. “I can’t even think when you say that.”
“Then… what else could we be called?”
I ignore him. “Because of the amount of people surrounding the building, Marco is going to fly me in while you guys wait to assist. One has volunteered to be my illusion. She’ll look like me and taunt them so when they see her, they will most likely try to attack. At that point, she’ll draw them back into a trap you guys have laid out in the woods here. Everyone with me so far?”
There’s a lot of head nodding and even a hair flip from Marco, so I assume that means they are. 
“Perfect. If at any point you believe it’s too much, pull back. I’m going to hope Geoff is inside the building with Lanni and Johnson. If he is, I will try to engage only if I think the setup is ideal for it. If it’s not, I’m going to pull back. Do not hesitate to pull back. If you think circumstances are not ideal, retreat. Please, please be careful,” I say. “I couldn’t live with myself if one of you was horribly hurt because of this.”
“You act like this is your fault,” Baron, always the kind-hearted one, says. “We all need to stop him. Not just you.”
Havoc shifts his attention. “Like… it almost seems like it’s the fault of someone who brought him back to life,” Havoc says as he stares at Etienne. 
Etienne quickly looks away, eyes huge. “I have no idea what you’re talking about. But just because I understand your frustration, I’ve already volunteered to be at the front. But I still have no idea what any of you are talking about because it wasn’t my fault at all.”
Everyone stares at Etienne as he starts kicking at a rock that bounces into his horse’s hoof. 
“Anyway, everyone good?” I ask.
There’s a chorus of “Yes” and a single “Penetrators unite!” that I pray I heard wrong. Havoc shifts into a raven as I step up to Marco. 
“I’m so excited to carry you. What kind of hold do you want?” When I don’t immediately answer because I haven’t fully comprehended it, he says, “This is my favorite.” He steps up to me, grabs my ass cheeks in his hands and pins me against his body like that. 
“No! Just a regular hold!”
He looks perplexed. “Okay.”
Then he kneels a little and slips one hand between my legs before interlocking it with his other hand that snakes around my hip. “Like this?”
“What the fuck? No! Why do all of your holds involve my balls or butt?”
“For safety, of course.”
“Of course,” I say sarcastically as he releases his hold.
“Alright, let’s try this. Hop up.”
I don’t hop up, but he lifts me up anyway and tries getting me to wrap my legs around his waist. Clearly, Havoc has had enough at this point and flies into Marco’s face where he begins beating him with his wings.
“Dammit, bird!” he cries as he drops me to protect his face. “What would make you guys happy? Huh?”
“Just hold on to me normally.”
“I’ve tried!” 
Havoc pecks the side of his face. 
“Damn you, bird! I just want to be pretty. Why does no one like me?”
“I think you asked and answered your own question with that,” I say. “Now, try again. Normal hold.”
He wraps his arms around my body in a surprisingly nonsexual way. “Better?”
“Perfect.”
“Yay,” he says sarcastically as he leaps into the air, his wings pulling him straight up. 
I’m not the biggest fan of having my life in Marco’s hands. The issue is that he might see his reflection in a cloud or something and drop me by accident. So I cling onto him tightly and try not to look down. We attempt to get up high enough that no one will see us as we’re going overhead, but it just means I’m in his arms even longer. I don’t want to use my illusion when I’m pouring my illusion magic into One to make her look like me.
“Did I ever tell you how handsome you are?” Marco asks.
“Wait, I thought you could only see your own dashingly good looks.”
“I mean, you’re nowhere near as handsome as me, but for a human, your looks are to my liking.”
I’m not sure if that was a compliment or a jab. “Wonderful, thank you.”
He smiles, face inches from mine. “You’re very welcome.”
“What’s that asshat saying to you?” Havoc growls.
“Just talking about how pretty he is,” I say.
“You think I’m pretty?” Marco asks. “Aw, thank you. Did I ever tell you how big my penis is?”
“I can currently feel your penis, we’re clinging onto each other so hard.”
“That’s true! You’re both cute and smart.”
How any of that classified me as smart, I’m not sure, but then again, a rock is smarter than Marco. 
“What could I do to get you to like me more?” Marco asks.
“You could stop harassing me, stop pretending like you’re better than everyone, and stop reminding me that you have a penis; that would be an amazing start.”
“Can you think of something easier? Like if I took away all of that… what would be left of me, you know? Just a shell. Just a fucking beautiful shell of a man with gorgeous wings.”
“I’m so glad we had this discussion,” I say sarcastically.
“I am too.”
“Can I kill him?” Havoc asks.
“Wait until we land.”
“Land? Now?” Marco asks and he instantly starts dropping.
“No! I was talking to Havoc! Don’t land!”
“Oh!… I think someone saw us,” he says.
“Why’d you drop so fast?”
“I thought you said to land,” he says as he looks down. “What do I do?”
“Try to reach the building.”
“Hmm… I’m afraid your long boring plan won’t work now that you’ve wrongly shouted for me to land. And now people are running after us and shouting at more people.”
I glance down, only able to see little specks of people. “Wonderful. This day has been amazing.”
“I have that effect on people,” he says, but he doesn’t get that I was being sarcastic. 
“You truly do.”
So now that our entire plan is backfiring on us and everyone is now alerted that we’re flying in, I realize the only thing left to do is to make Marco fly in faster than the word can get out that we’re here. 
“Do you want me to just off him?” Havoc asks.
“Not until I’m on the ground. Marco, see if you can get us in next to there,” I say as I point at an area with a lot of vehicles I could use for cover. “As soon as you drop us, I’m throwing an illusion on you to look like me, and you’re going to draw them away.”
“But what if they try to hurt me?”
“Fly fast!” I say.
Marco groans as he drops down low enough to let me go. I grab onto his ankle and throw the illusion on him just as people see him. It’ll probably remove the illusion from One, since she’s so far away, but at this point, I don’t think it matters.
Poor Marco yelps as an arrow narrowly misses him and he beats his “perfect” little wings as fast as he can to get away from the ruthless attack while looking like me. Well, like me with wings.
“I’m too pretty to die!” he cries.
I crouch behind the car and look over at Havoc who shifts into his human form. “Aw, look, Marco looks handsome for the first time in his life,” he says.
I glance up, but I’m confused until I realize he’s talking about the illusion I put on Marco to make him look like me. “Fuck, you’re sexy,” I grumble.
“Wanna make out?”
It does sound tempting. “Maybe if we weren’t currently being pursued by crazy people. Then I’d be climbing your body like a jungle gym.”
“Oh, you gonna… slide down my pole?”
“I’m gonna slide up it too,” I say as I drop the illusion on Marcus and put an illusion on him to make him look like one of the men who just ran past. The issue with my illusions is that they’ll fool most, but there’s a possibility it won’t work on everyone and someone might see through it, especially with the way I’m throwing it on this and that, my illusion magic thin. I throw one on myself and then stand up. 
“Ready?”
“Yes.”
Everyone is running about, so we race straight for the door. Before I even reach the door, I hold my hand out to feel what kind of magic barrier they have on it. It’s a spell that keeps the door from unlocking for anyone other than those it’s designed to open for, which means that even looking like this, if I grab onto the door handle, an alert will sound. 
I pull out a Sharpie and quickly draw a magic circle on the handle, careful to not touch it with my skin. Then I draw the same circle on my hand before pressing it down on the correct spot and pushing my magic into it. I need to keep from severing the magic barrier because I don’t want the person who set it to notice. Instead, I need to fool it into thinking that Havoc and I are allowed inside.
There’s minor hesitation before the door handle turns. I pull it open and usher Havoc inside.
“Can you feel Geoff here?” he asks.
I shake my head. “I can’t. It doesn’t mean he’s not here, though. He’s always been hard for me to follow or pinpoint.”
We follow the path that One and Popsicle gave to me and head deeper into the facility. There was some confusion about the difference between right or left, so I’m really hoping we’re heading the correct way.
We turn the corner as some people come rushing toward us, but we stay calm and continue on like we have a destination in mind. They ignore us and trot on past as we reach the hallway.
“I think this is it,” I whisper.
“I sure hope those dumb things are right,” Havoc grumbles. “I hate being categorized with lesser demons. They shouldn’t be called demons.”
“We all know you know your left and right,” I assure him. “Besides that one time I was like ‘You’re pinching my left nut!’ and you’re like ‘Huh? What?’”
He glares at me. “That wasn’t because I didn’t know left or right but because I had no fathomable idea how I was pinching your nuts! I still don’t!”
“You were trying to kneel on my nuts!”
“I was not! You’re so dramatic.”
“Am I? Am I really?”
“Thankfully, we’ve reached the door,” he says as he stares at the huge metal door. “Do some magic mojo on it and see if it opens. Abracadabra!”
I glare at him. “I’m going to abracadabra your ass into tomorrow if you don’t straighten up.”
“Is that a sex position? You made it sound like a sex position and now I’m excited.”
“Wonderful,” I say as I start picking apart the spell on the door. It takes much longer because it’s very complex in order to hold magical beings inside. Thankfully, no one bothers me and the moment I have it undone, I pull the door open and come face to face with Johnson. 
“Hey, it’s Miles and Havoc,” I say as I rush over to him and kneel down to free him.
“Oh, thank the gods. Please get me out of here.”
“Do you know where Lanni is?” I ask.
“Next room over. She’s been going fucking nuts in there. I could hear her screaming and yelling from over here,” he says.
“Havoc, can you free him? I’ll go get Lanni,” I say.
“Yeah, of course.”
I head back into the hallway and start working on the next door. It doesn’t take me as long now that I know how to break it. I pull the door open and Lanni whirls on me. Surprisingly, she’s not chained up and she looks all right. I was worried something had happened to her after what One said. She has blood on her jeans, but her coat is buttoned up to the top and she looks fine for the most part. 
“Oh, thank fuck, I never thought she’d get someone,” she says. “Come on, let’s fix this.”
She rushes past me and turns right, the opposite way we came in.
“Lanni, I think the exit is this way. At least, that’s how we broke in.”
She hesitates and turns to me. “Miles?”
“What? Do you know a faster way?”
“No… I was just moving. Yeah, we can go this way. Are the others with you?”
“They’re holding them off outside,” I say as we meet back up with Havoc and Johnson and I put an illusion on both Lanni and Johnson. 
“Perfect,” Lanni says and lets me lead the way.
We’re quiet as we make our way back toward the door. Carefully, I pull the door open and check before turning to them. “Since Marco can’t fly all of us out, we’re going to slip out this way and try to make a wide path before joining up with the others. We’ll contact them and they can either back off or we can assist.”
Just as I’m turning, my eyes see the last thing I want to see.
Geoff.
He’s quite a ways from us, just watching us as we slip through the door. I turn to face him and he does an oddly familiar gesture that looks strangely unfamiliar on him. He cocks his head and stares at me, telling me he’s seen right through my illusion.
Hold on.
I turn around to look at the others rushing away, having not noticed Geoff.
Then I shift my attention back to Geoff and point behind me at Lanni. Geoff runs a finger over his throat. 
Lanni didn’t recognize me when I opened the door… because that’s not Lanni.
That’s Geoff. 
Right?
What the fuck? So did they switch bodies? I know Lanni can switch bodies but did Geoff?
Or am I wrong? 
Geoff, or whoever is in Geoff’s body, is too far away, and if they come any closer, it would disrupt everything. I need to make my decision now. 
I pull out a knife and turn from Geoff, praying I’m right. And if I’m wrong, Lanni might just need to find a new body and will have one more reason to bitch about me. Maybe she’ll forget the naked incident.
I jog to catch up to the others and as I reach them, I slide my fingers into Lanni’s hair and feel the pulse of magic that Lanni doesn’t possess. Instead, I’m met with the magic I detest. 
I bring the knife to her throat and pull the knife across, much like he did to me, and that’s the moment that the world explodes around me.
It’s like time freezes as Geoff spins around and grabs for me, but I slide out of his reach as blood gushes from the open wound.
“Why won’t you just die,” he growls.
“I could say the same to you,” I hiss as I move in for another hit.
Magic hits me hard enough that I’m flung back. I slam into the side of the car I’d previously hid behind. I roll off it and push up to my feet, but Lanni’s body is gone. 
“Fuck,” I growl.
“What the hell was that?” Havoc asks as he runs over to me.
“That was Geoff in Lanni’s body. And Lanni is in his. He was probably wanting me to take him to the others so he could wipe us all out at once.”
“Shit. I’ll see if I can find him; make your way back,” he says as he shifts into a raven.
“Okay, please be careful,” I say as I rush over to Johnson to help him. 
Johnson stares at me, looking exhausted. “My job used to be so normal. What happened to it?” he grumbles as I assist him.
“I don’t see Lanni or Geoff, but I see that big-ass fucking valient headed toward us. Get out of there,” Havoc says.
“Got it,” I say.
“And now we’re being rescued by a horse.”
I turn to see Etienne’s horse running toward us. That’s the moment the valient rushes onto the scene. It leaps over some of the cars, landing on one and crushing its hood in. I push Johnson forward as I turn around to face the creature and throw up a barrier in the hopes of protecting us.
It slams into the barrier and screams out in anger as it bats the path that’s been cut off. 
“I’m too old to get on a fucking horse!” Johnson yells as he tries scrambling up the horse’s side. I give his ass a shove and push him onto the horse before pulling myself up behind him.
The horse doesn’t wait for guidance, he breaks into a run as I slide my arms past Johnson and grab onto the horse’s mane so Johnson has something to support himself on. 
“Havoc, do you see Geoff?”
“No. I haven’t seen him since he threw us back with his magic.” 
“Come back and fly ahead. See if they can set up a trap for this thing. If not, I’ll take it on myself and have the horse take Johnson to them.”
“Got it,” he says.
Thankfully, the horse can run because the valient is beating down everything in its path, ready to strike and destroy without a care in the world. And we’re currently first on the agenda.
“Why?” Johnson asks.
“What?” I ask, confused about what he’s crying about. “Did you need a weapon? Here!” I hand him a knife which he takes then stares at. 
“A fucking knife?” Johnson asks.
“Yeah? It’s a nice knife! Just like stabby stab!” I mime this action in case he doesn’t understand it. 
He turns to look at me as he holds the smallish knife up. “With this?” he cries. “What the fuck am I supposed to do with this?”
“Stab them!”
“That creature’s fangs are larger than the knife!”
“Now you’re just being dramatic. I’ll take the knife back.”
“No!” he cries as he hugs it to himself. Why he can’t just make up his mind, I’ll never know. 
I call Evan who answers with an “’Ello?”
“Don’t be cute with me,” I growl. 
“Hello? Is that better, our great savior of mankind?”
“Yes. Thank you. I’m going to rush in, jump off the horse, and create a circle. Our goal is to push it into the circle and harass it enough that going back to where it came from sounds better than dealing with us.”
“You’re not going to kill it?”
“One does not simply kill a valient. A valient kills everyone else. I’d rather stop it and hope it decides to just go away.”
“Got it. I’ve talked to the trees and they are ready to assist us as long as I promise to bring some fertilizer. They’re trying to decide what kind of fertilizer they’d like. Sometimes they’re just so fussy.”
I’m so very glad I’m not a druid. I would not have the patience to deal with “fussy” plants. “Wonderful. Let’s tell the trees we can worry about that if we all live.”
“They said that our bodies would also fertilize the earth.”
“Wonderful. I’m so glad they’re now considering ways to murder us.”
“Oh, they wouldn’t murder us. They love us.”
I feel like I have a right to be skeptical. “Do they?”
“Well… some of us. Iya pissed on one and it now refuses to help us.”
“Perfect. This day just keeps getting better.”
Evan must be satisfied because he says, “Great! We’re as ready as we’ll ever be!”
The valient lunges to the right, trying to catch us off guard, but the horse slips past, narrowly missing the paw slamming into the earth.
And I hang up before I have to deal with any more of that nonsense. As I go to put the phone in my pocket, I see that Evan’s immediately calling me back. 
“Hello?”
“The phone went dead.”
“Yeah… I hung up because I’m trying not to be eaten. Do you need something?”
“No, no. I was just concerned I upset you.”
“No! I’m hanging up.” And this time he lets me. 
Wonderful.
The horse slips right into the trees and the plants almost seem to come to life as Evan holds his hands out. I can feel his magic surge as they create a barrier that the valient slams into. It’s going to hurt some of the trees, that’s apparent, but hopefully, they’ll hold him off long enough I can create a circle. 
I jump off the horse and grab a stick, drawing it in a circle big enough to capture the monster as everyone else helps Evan hold the creature off. When the circle is finally complete, I look up. 
“Let him in!” I say.
Evan pulls back and the trees draw apart, allowing the creature to rush right into the circle where it slams into the wall that I’ve created to keep it inside. 
“Everyone, attack it now!” I shout.
They throw spells or weapons at it as I try to force it down and hold the barrier steady at the same time. 
“Just go back to where you came from,” I urge.
It slams into the barrier, cracking it. 
“Everyone get back behind me,” I order. 
“What are you doing?” Havoc asks.
“Get them back,” I say, knowing the barrier isn’t going to hold it. 
The creature slams through it and barrels down on Yoko and Iya. Baron, in his wolf form, leaps up and grabs the creature by the neck. It swats him away, sending him flying into a tree. 
Evan pushes his hands down, making the ground shake beneath its feet as vines reach up and wrap around the monster’s paws. It snaps them in mere moments as I throw fire at it. 
It’s fast, faster than a human, and rushes us. When it rams into me, throwing me onto my back, it also drives Johnson down who’d been standing next to me. It reaches for him, lowering its muzzle in an attempt to take his soul. I struggle to get to my feet, but the large mouth is inches from my face as its heavy paw keeps us both pinned down. I can see the cloudy eye from where Havoc had stabbed it the first time, making it blind to what I’m doing.
I pull the tiny knife from where Johnson had stuffed it into his pocket and drive it up into its throat. It reels back into the magic circle as I look over at Johnson.
“Bad time to say I told you so?” I ask as I toss the knife back to him and push up to my feet. 
I draw my fire magic up fast before slamming it into the creature that isn’t prepared for it now that blood is running from its neck. It screeches and tries to flee but the new barrier stills it. It thrashes this way and that as I confine the fire just to the circle. 
And that’s when the ground begins to open up, telling me that the valient has decided its time here has come to an end. And with that, it disappears back into the earth to where it came from. 
We’re all a little out of breath after that one. And a little surprised it gave up the fight. 
“Man, I need to get into shape,” I whisper. “Is anyone else dying?”
I look over at all of them giving me an exasperated look like I’m an idiot.
“I’m a waitress,” Yoko says. “I’m on my feet all day, but this,” she waves around us, “is not normal.”
“I’m good,” Baron says, butt-ass naked, toned body slightly glistening with sweat, but in a sexy way. I feel like I’m wearing sweat as a second skin. 
Don’t get me started on the blood that’s coating my chest. 
“There’s someone coming,” Etienne says, bursting our joyous bubble.
I rush toward the front of the group, ready to do whatever I can to protect them as a lone woman walks toward us.
This is ten times more suspicious than an army because if she’s alone, that means she believes she can kick all our asses alone. 
The wind whips her hair back as she struts toward us and puts her hands in the air, like she’s trying to show that she has no weapons, but in a world where hands are the most powerful of weapons, I’m not too trusting.
“Stop!”
She cups her ear. “What?”
“Don’t come any closer.”
“Don’t commit to any closure?” she yells back.
“Dammit, stop!”
“Damishop? Is that German?” 
You have to be kidding me. Why’s this shit always happen to me? “Stop walking.”
She cocks her head. “What?”
“I can hear you just fine, are you fucking deaf?” I shout.
“No, I’m not dead!”
“Want me to kill her?” Havoc growls.
I wave him back. “Hold up… I think it’s Lanni, but why she wouldn’t just walk up and go, ‘Hey, guys. It’s Lanni. I’m in a different body, so don’t shoot me,’ I have no fucking idea.” I sigh as Havoc scrutinizes her. 
“It does seem suspicious.”
“Lanni?” I ask.
She gives me a huge smile. “Yeah?”
“How are we supposed to know it’s you?”.
Her head cocks to the side. “What?” She gets within a few feet of us before stopping. “Oh! When I get in a new body everything takes a bit to get used to. Right now, you sound like you’re in a tunnel. I didn’t like Geoff’s body. It was icky and he had a little dicky. Ha ha! I’m hilarious. Why are you staring at me like that? Ew, are you fetishizing me?”
I wave at Havoc like she might have forgotten that I have no interest at all in “fetishizing” her. “I want to know you’re really Lanni.”
“Okay…” She thinks about it for a moment. “You’re wearing clothes.”
“I am.”
“If you were wearing an illusion, I could have been able to tell! See?”
Way more people than just Lanni know about this. Especially after the me-showing-up-naked mishap. “Let’s try something else.”
“Alright. I’ve seen your penis. I can tell you what size it is.”
“I can too!” Marco shouts.
Havoc turns on him and Marco stills. “What was that?”
“I thought… you needed help,” he says, then he kicks a rock around with his shoe. 
He knows what he did, but he also has a brain big enough to be aware that Havoc wouldn’t mind crushing it. It’s amazing, really. 
“Lanni, tell me about the first time we met.”
She seems to think about it for a moment before her eyes get really wide. “Ah! Yes, I saw you and then I tried to kill you!”
“Perfect,” I say. “Let’s go.”
“Where was I during this?” Havoc asks.
“You were laughing, remember? You laughed so hard you spilled your soup?”
“That was Lanni?”
“Yes.”
“Huh!” Then he tries to hide his grin.
“Lanni, how’d you end up in Geoff’s body?” I ask.
“He came in and thought he could kill me. I’m not sure if he was wanting my magic or what, but the moment he cut into me, I threw my magic at him, and somehow, I was suddenly in his body. I took off for the door and slammed it in place. He was staggering around, which would have been the perfect opportunity to kill him seeing as he wasn’t used to the body, but I was also struggling with his body. I’d never gone into a body like that, and I don’t know how I did.”
“Maybe it’s because his body was dead for so long?” Havoc suggests.
Lanni nods. “That could be! But there was something wrong with the body, so I left it and took this one. I think we should go before they notice us.”
I agree with her, so I put an illusion on everyone and move them back toward the vehicles. It takes us a while to get home because I need to make sure we’re not being followed, but we eventually make it back.
OceanofPDF.com

Chapter Twelve
“What are we going to do after this?” I ask Havoc as I step into the bathroom where he has the shower running. He’s standing just outside, stripping off his last piece of clothing.
“Like… us or the rest of this bullshit?” he asks.
“Us. I want to talk just about us.” I walk up to him and lean against his bare body.
“Take a shower with me?”
“Sure. I’m too tired to wash myself. Dying, then using magic like that makes one very tired.”
He pulls back enough that he can slide my shirt off. “Let’s… do something with just us.”
There’s a loud meow and scratching on the door as Menace decides he’s either going to shred his way through the door, or I’m going to let him in.
“How about us and Menace?” I ask.
Havoc narrows his eyes like he’s offended by this question. “Why do you like that thing?”
I reach back and open the door enough the cat can slip in. “Look at that face.”
Menace promptly sits down, lifts a paw, and starts licking it as he extends his razor-sharp claws.
Havoc makes a strange noise that is not quite disbelief but something close. “You realize he’s looking me in the eyes while doing that, right? He wants to murder me and keep you to himself.”
“He wouldn’t,” I say as Havoc tosses my shirt on top of the cat monster.
The cat yowls and shreds my shirt as I sigh.
“I guess I didn’t need that shirt,” I grumble.
“Good. I like you shirtless better. Good job, cat. Shred his underwear too.”
“No, thank you. Be good.” I push my pants and underwear down before kicking them far away from the cat. Havoc pulls me into the shower, and I sink against him as the hot water beats down on us. I could sleep for hours like this, tucked in Havoc’s arms, warmth surrounding me.
“What if we go on a trip somewhere, like to Disney or something so we know we’re not getting caught up in some disaster?” Havoc suggests.
That sounds like a nice idea. “I could do Disney. There are no weapons or anything allowed in that place. It’ll be so peaceful.”
“Then when you come back here, you’ll be rejuvenated enough to rise as the best boss ever and control your district so they bow down to you everywhere you go!”
I crane my neck back from his shoulder to give him a good look. “Um. No?”
“No?”His eyebrows furrow. “Really?”
“Yes, really!”
“Well, that’s disappointing, if I’m being honest. You’re so powerful, Miles. What if you just take over the next district and then another and then another?” he asks hopefully.
“I was actually thinking that I’m not very good at this boss district stuff and was hoping someone else would take over. Like I’ll still be around to help protect the place, but maybe I could find someone more… capable. Maybe Johnson?”
Havoc reels back like he’s disgusted. “A human?”
I narrow my eyes at the outburst. “I’m a human.”
“Yeah, but he’s like human human.”
“Yeah, but he’s smart and probably knows how to actually run things. I mean, he helps run the department.”
His shoulders deflate. “But… power… world domination, you know, that kind of stuff.”
I grin at him. “Why do you think I need to have that?”
“Because I want everyone to see how powerful and amazing you are.”
“You do realize that I don’t lose my power working at the café, right? I’m still plenty powerful there.”
“Hmm…. I suppose.”
I snort. “Do you want to run it?”
He raises an eyebrow. “No one would ever let a demon run a district.”
“I could make it happen if you wanted to.”
He shakes his head. “Nah, I’m not much for that kind of stuff. I just want to crush skulls, threaten people, and look at your naked tush.”
“Do you see why we’re not meant to run anything?” I ask with laugh.
“Nope, not seeing that at all. I think we’d be amazing, but yeah, maybe we should leave it to someone who’s into the whole ‘protect the city’ nonsense.”
“Yuck. What nonsense.”
He snickers. “We’ll just be awesome the way we are, alright? We know in our hearts that we are the best of the best.”
I kiss him before draping my arms over his shoulders. “We don’t need anyone to tell us any differently. We’re just automatically awesome.”
“Honestly… as much as I’ve always wanted you to rise to your potential in society, I now kind of want to keep you in a box, so really, I’m not upset at all about this idea. Seeing you in danger and knowing what could happen to you… I can’t tell you what went through me when Geoff killed you and Etienne was struggling to bring you back. I can’t describe the panic I felt and the fear that you were gone from me. After I led them off and hid until it was safe to leave, I broke down and cried. Me. A demon. Sobbing. It was disgusting. Snot, tears, all of it. Because there were moments that felt like an eternity where I thought I lost you. I thought that I was going to have to face the world without you. And in that moment, I thought about walking right out and letting Geoff kill me because I don’t know that I could keep on moving without you. We’ve been together for so long that I now feel like I know nothing but you. If you were ever to leave me… I just couldn’t do it.”
I squeeze him tighter. I feel awful about not instantly going with Etienne. I hadn’t thought about the pain it was causing Havoc because I’d been too wound up in my own self-hate. “I’m so sorry I did that to you. I didn’t think. I just get caught up in feeling like I should be punished for what I did.”
“Should I be punished for all the people I was forced to kill by heartless masters?”
I shake my head. “No, of course not.”
“Then why do you feel like you should?”
I want to say that he doesn’t understand, but I know he does. “I don’t know, Havoc. I try not to. And I’m better now. Since facing those people, I think I’ve come to terms with it because I told them that it wasn’t perfect, but I was going to kill the man who did this to them. So after I take his life and keep him from ever hurting again, I feel like I’ll truly be at peace with myself. I’ll trust myself.”
Havoc kisses my forehead. “Okay. And I will be by your side to make sure we stop him. Can we use that to atone for our wrongdoings? Will stopping him fix it?”
“It might not make everything perfect, but I believe it’ll set us on the right track to live for ourselves.”
“Then that’s what we must do. And after that, we’ll stay on this path of being good people,” he decides.
“As long as you’re beside me, this is the only path I want to be on.”
Havoc kisses me softly as I rest my head against his shoulder. How can this man understand me so well? I suppose our years together have made our relationship grow. But I feel like this past year, we’ve grown more than the hundreds of years we’ve been companions.
 
* * *
“We need a new plan,” Johnson says.
I look across the table at him. “A new plan? We didn’t have one to start with.”
“We need a plan.”
The whole group of us are gathered around the table. There aren’t enough chairs, so some people, like Iya, Badrick, and Baron, are standing. I’m sitting on a chair with Yoko, and both of us have one ass cheek falling off.
“What if,” Iya says, “we just ask him nicely?”
There are a lot of snorts about that one. “Ask him nicely to murder us? Because that’s the only thing he’s going to agree to ‘nicely’ do,” Havoc says.
“Sorry that Iya wants to make friends and not enemies,” Iya says as he folds his arms over his broad chest and huffs.
“That’s very… admirable of you, Iya, but I don’t think Geoff’s going to listen,” I explain. “His whole… thing is to murder all of us.”
“What if you draw him to the old house and we’ll be waiting for him?” Nicco asks.
I look over at Nicco, who’s been creeping in the corner. Creeping enough that I hadn’t even noticed him standing there. “You mean the main house? But Geoff knows that house stupidly well. It’s his house,” I say.
Nicco slowly nods. “Yes, but the house’s magic resonates with you. There is a lot of untapped magic in the grounds from years of use. It’s where this all started with you and him. It’s where he sacrificed uncountable victims.”
Etienne leans forward from where he’s sitting on Leo’s leg. “You’re talking about the dead people from the river?”
I nod. “Yes. Most of them died right there on that land.”
Etienne looks thoughtful. “I’m not a necromancer, but there is the possibility of me calling up their aid to help us. Many have not passed on because of the way they died. If they have a shot at taking him down, I assure you, they’ll lend their magic and their help,” Etienne says confidently.
I look over at Havoc, trusting his opinion most of all.
Havoc reaches under the table and squeezes my leg. “It’s our best hope, I believe. I think we should head there now so everyone has enough time to get prepared. He probably has someone watching the place, so we won’t have long, but we can hope it’s long enough.”
I nod before looking around at all of the people who’ve gathered here to help us. “I agree. But let me say something before we do this. All of you have stuck with us for so long and we’re very grateful for the help. We’re truly lucky to have you guys beside us, to call you guys friends. I couldn’t ask for anything more. That means that none of you are expected to go with us. We don’t know what we’re facing. We don’t know if we’ll beat him in seconds or he’ll annihilate us in seconds, and we have to be prepared for that. Only do what you know you can accomplish, because I can’t lose any of you.”
Everyone’s quiet as they let the gravity of the situation soak in. I wish things were different, but sadly, this is the only choice we’ve been given.
Etienne catches my eyes. “I will stand with you until the end. This is partially my fault, so I’ll see it through.”
“If Etienne is with you, you’ll have my help,” Leo says.
Evan leans into the table. “This is my battle too. I was with you the first time we defeated him; I’ll be with you the second and hopefully last.”
They continue to hand out their support until everyone in the room assures me that they will be by my side the moment we face Geoff and they will help me bring him down.
I pray and hope that when Geoff takes his final breath, all of them will still be by my side.
I set a hand on Havoc’s and squeeze it tightly. He looks at me and gives me a smile.
We have our army.
Now we just need to win the war.
OceanofPDF.com

Chapter Thirteen
When we reach the house that Geoff raised me in, I stare at it in distaste. Because of the magic wound through the walls, it looks the same as it did those hundreds of years ago when I fled with a demon by my side.
“Ready?” Havoc asks.
“Yes,” I say, and I begin to set up with the others.
We spend all day setting up traps while Etienne lies in the middle of the grass talking to the thing inside him as his horse grazes around him. I can feel the magic bustling around him, but I don’t bother to ask what he’s doing so I don’t disrupt him. I feel it’s best to just let him be.
I have my demons on lookout, since I know Geoff will likely figure out that we’re here.
As it grows dark, everyone slows down. Even Etienne gets up in search of Leo.
“I think that’s all we can do for tonight,” Jacob says. Since he’s also a mage, we worked together to create spells and barriers. Even though he seems to think my methods of demon summoning and dark magic are a bit… risky and idiotic, he appears genuinely interested in them and asks me about it as we work.
I look around and notice Havoc is missing from the team. “Why don’t we get some sleep so we’re ready for when he attacks?” I suggest.
Everyone agrees and heads toward the house where I have Nicco show them where to stay, since it’s more his house than mine at this point. He’s lived here for quite a while, but he watches the house, so it works for me.
I head inside and reach for my bond to Havoc. It tells me he’s downstairs, so I walk over to the door leading into the basement. I set my hand on the doorknob as I think of all the times I longingly looked at this door. I could only venture down it when Geoff was away or asleep.
If he caught me going down it, he would beat me, but it didn’t deter me. Nothing could because Havoc was down there. And as a child, I associated him with freedom. He was so strong. He didn’t cry when Geoff abused him. Instead, he defiantly faced him.
I slowly walk down the stairs I haven’t been down since the day I escaped all those years ago. Once on the floor, I turn and see Havoc sitting in the circle he was once bound to.
The memories hit me hard as I stare at him in the same spot he’d always be in every time I came down. His hands would be shackled and red. He’d pace that small circle and snip at me until he began to like me. Even then, he pretended he hated me, although it was clear he didn’t.
“Why are you sitting in that horrid spot?” I ask as I walk over to him.
“Just thinking.”
“About?” I ask.
“Everything. About what will happen if we win. What will happen if we lose. How this,” he waves around him, “was the only thing I had for years. That and watching you grow up. You always stayed optimistic even through all of that and I couldn’t fathom why, but I also couldn’t stop eagerly waiting for you to show up. I hated that I began to trust you, a mage. But look at where this horrid circle has led me. All those years in this tiny circle were worth it just to end up with you.” He reaches out to me. “Do you think we’ll finally get our happy ending after this is all over?”
“We fucking better. No more dark mage dickheads.”
He grins as I set my hand in his and let him pull me down into the circle with him. I remember the first time I stepped into the circle, knowing very well that he might kill me yet doing it anyway. Was it that I didn’t care if I died or was it that I trusted him? He threatened my trust quite often throughout the years, but he is a demon. And he’d been mistreated his entire life. It just took him a long fucking time to realize that I’m not going to ruin his life. He pulls me onto his lap and runs his fingers down my side as his mouth finds my own. His lips part and I feel his tongue brush against mine before it tangles with it.
I have to be strong. I have to do everything I can to keep safe so we can get our happy ever after.
He picks me up, never breaking from the kiss, and carries me over to a couch Nicco must have moved in here. “Door locked?”
I glance at it and throw up a barrier. “Is now.”
Havoc lowers me to the couch before crawling onto it with me. His hands run up my sides, drawing my shirt with them as he watches me closely. My body shivers against the gentle touch, aching for more as I slide my hands up his back, taking his shirt with them. I toss his shirt onto the ground as he kisses a line down my neck to my chest, his lips brushing against my skin. My hands slide into the back of his pants so I can grab his ass and pull him against me. His leg is between mine, so I push up, rubbing my cock against his thigh as he murmurs something too quietly for me to hear.
The feeling of my erection must make him eager for more because he reaches for my pants and begins to push them down my hips. His hand runs over the top of my boxer briefs, cupping my cock and rubbing it. The feeling of his hand and the cloth sliding against me makes me groan as I unbutton his pants and slide the zipper down.
He nuzzles my throat and then gives it a gentle kiss, his expression holding none of the teasing and toying he usually shows when we have sex. “Please be safe tomorrow. I want to hold you again and again. I want to wake up with you beside me,” he says, breath heavy against my ear.
“You too. I need you more than anything.”
I push his pants down his hips and reach into his underwear for his cock. I trail down the hard length before wrapping my fingers around him and drawing my hand up. He pulls my underwear off before kissing me again.
That’s when I remember we’re missing something important. “Lube? I don’t have lube. I have a spell that might make something we could use as lube or might blow up. It’s done both. Do we take the chance?”
His eyes narrow. “I think I have a travel pack, so let’s hold off on blowing my dick off, alright?”
“I suppose.” My grin instantly makes him start laughing, and I’m glad there’s a moment of lightness to the situation.
Havoc pulls my legs up so my hips are raised and squeezes my ass cheek as his other hand slides between them. He runs a wet finger over my hole, circling and rubbing before slipping inside me. I grab the small packet of lubricant from him and squeeze what I can onto my hand before reaching for his cock.
I draw it over him, rubbing up and down as he adds a second finger inside me. We’re moving quickly but gently. It’s like we both know how much we need each other more than anything, and we need each other now, but we’re also taking the time to just touch and feel, to appreciate and love each other through strokes and soft kisses.
“Good?” he asks.
I nod and pull him to me. I grab onto him, holding him down as he lines his cock up with my hole. I can feel the tip brushing against me before he pushes in, going tantalizingly slow as he opens me up. I groan as his hand wraps around my cock and our lips crash against each other’s. His movements are unhurried as his hips rock inside me. I need so much of him that I don’t feel like I can get enough. Because in the back of my head there’s this tiny voice that tells me that this could be our last time together. The last time I get to feel his body as he holds me and moves inside me.
But I know that I need to be strong, I need to focus on him here with me, holding me and touching me, whispering words of love into my ear and telling me how he’ll always protect me.
“I love you,” I say. “So much.”
“I love you too.” He kisses me. “More than you’ll ever know.”
I smile at him as my hands slide down his back. I can feel the bumps from scars that tell so many stories, but I know this body so well. Even if I don’t know every story behind them, I know him more than anyone. I know what he loves and what he hates. I know all of it, and I know I’ll never get enough of it.
He hits that sweet spot inside me that makes my body tense and grab onto him as my back arches and I moan. He rocks his hips, hitting it again. I can’t hold out much longer and his hand stroking me makes it impossible to keep the orgasm at bay. His pace quickens as I clutch onto him, cock achingly hard as my balls tighten. I moan as I come and feel myself tighten around Havoc’s cock. He holds me tighter in return and drives himself into me as cum hits his stomach.
He groans as he comes inside me, tucking his head against my neck as his orgasm rushes through him and I hold tightly onto him. He kisses me softly, first my neck, then up to my lips. Slowly he pulls out of me before lying against me in silence.
I hold him to me as tightly as I can as we just soak up the feel of each other for what seems like hours but can only be minutes.
“We should probably find an actual bed and get some sleep so we’re ready for tomorrow,” I say.
He nods. “I suppose.”
He pulls me to my feet and dresses me between kisses and gentle touches. As we walk away, I look back at the room. “It’s funny how… to you, this room was the worst place. It was your prison, it was torture. But to me… this place was the best room in the house because you were in it. And I liked you more than anything and anyone.”
He seems to think about it for a moment before smiling at me. “It wasn’t always torture. Just mostly torture when I saw your smiling face come trotting down the stairs.”
I grin at him. “You’re pure evil.”
“Thank you.”
I reach over and squeeze his hand. “Was it torture just now? Me ‘trotting down the stairs’?”
“Not this time.”
OceanofPDF.com

Chapter Fourteen
“Here! Here! Here!”
I jerk awake as one of my lesser demons comes crashing into the room. Havoc is up and ready to murder it, so I have to grab for him to remind him that the annoying little creature is just doing its job. Even if it’s annoying at its job.
I reach out to my barrier and feel the magical presence of one who is very uninvited. “He’s here. Alert everyone.”
Havoc’s hand on my chest stills me. “Miles, I grabbed this for you last night while you were sleeping,” he says as he holds something out to me.
I turn on the light to properly see what it is and realize that it’s a sword. “You left?”
“I slipped into the demon realm. I was careful, I promise. Clearly, because I’m still here,” he says.
I stare at him in disbelief. “You know I don’t like you going places without telling me. How would I rescue you if someone abducted you?”
“Who’s going to abduct me?” Havoc asks as he waves at himself. “I’d like to see them try so I can kick their ass.”
Of course that’s his mindset. “The goal is to not get abducted, not to maim your abductor,” I remind him.
He slowly nods like he’s letting it sink in. “Ah, I forgot.”
I take the sword from him and pull it free of its sheath before looking down at the blade shimmering a light blue. It’s absolutely gorgeous. “Where did you get this?”
“I got it for you. When I saw it, I knew you’d love it, but I was having it sharpened and prepared. The blade was made using dragon fire.”
I stare at him in disbelief because he looks positive that all of this happened. It’s the same with the ring that I made him. He tells everyone I made it from dragon skin. “Dragons aren’t real!”
He gives me a look of defiance. “Tell me any other metal that shimmers like that.”
The sword does have a strange shimmer and the magic wound in it is old. I don’t even recognize it and wish I had time to familiarize myself with it, but for now, I’ll just have to hope it works as well as my last one.
“Thank you. I absolutely love it. It feels wonderful, even if dragons aren’t real,” I say as I check out the balance of the blade.
He pulls me in for a kiss. “Be careful.”
“You too. I love you.”
“I love you too.”
For a moment, we just hold each other, but that’s all we can spare. Then he grabs his feathered cloak and shifts into a raven before flying away.
I pull on some very light body armor that will save me from a minor stab and is also bulletproof, but still allows me to move freely.
When I reach outside, there is nothing amiss besides the silence in the air. The others begin to join me as I go over to Badrick and run my hand down his thick coat.
“Once you take me to him, you can retreat.” I don’t want to send the forest spirit into danger after so much has already been taken from him.
“I’ll stand by your side,” Badrick says.
“Thank you, but retreat if it becomes too risky.”
With that, I climb onto his back as Havoc flies above us. Menace leaps up and I grab onto him before he can claw into either of us and pull him onto my lap. And once everyone is behind me, I begin to move forward.
“Let’s not let him get ahead of us,” I say. “He can’t be allowed time to create his own barrier. We must stop him before he does.”
“I’m with you,” Etienne says from atop Enzo. “We’ll head him off. The others can move after us.”
“Got it,” I say, and we start to move out.
“The Penetrators, attack!” Iya shouts, and I really hope those aren’t the last words I hear from his mouth.
We rush forward, Badrick and Enzo jumping into a run that puts us ahead of the others besides those who were gifted with the power of four legs, like Baron. Still, I order him to hang back and protect the others. We don’t know what Geoff has beside him to aid him, so we’ll have to be cautious.
As we break into an open field, I see that Geoff is not in the first line of enemies. While he could be wearing Lanni’s skin, he can’t hide from me this time because I can feel his magic and know what I’m looking for. It’s apparent he’s planning something just past this row of enemies.
Havoc shifts above one, a necromancer from the looks of it, and drags him straight to the ground as Baron rushes forward for the next. The two of them create a path that Etienne and I slip through, leaving them to the rest.
The ground begins to shake as the earth moves beneath Badrick and Enzo’s feet, but Badrick leaps forward, missing the sliding earth that’s probably controlled by a druid of some kind. Etienne’s horse also seems equally unaffected. I suppose that’s what happens when you’re already dead and can randomly crawl out of the earth.
And that’s when I see Geoff, standing in a fucking circle with a smile on his stupid fucking face. He’s returned to his body, telling me that he’s taken some of Lanni’s power to be able to jump to a new body, and that makes me worried. If I kill this body, will he just take another?
I move toward him as he holds his hands out and the ground begins to shake. This time, it isn’t the earth, but what lies beneath it.
The dead rise from beneath the earth, his previous victims now under his control. The moment they break free of their resting places, they rush us.
Badrick slows as he bats them to the ground.
“I’ve got these,” Etienne says as he drops from his horse and kicks his shoes off. Once his bare feet touch the ground, I feel magic swell from him.
Badrick barrels into more, but the dead seem to be flooding into the area, ready to destroy us. He’s barely making progress as they create a barrier to keep him from passing. And just as he lunges forward, something large slams into him, seemingly from nowhere. He’s thrown to his side as I fall from his back and look for what has attacked him. He cries out, but there doesn’t seem to be anything there even though I can feel a swell of magic. I reach out with my own magic, allowing the tendrils of it to race along the ground until I realize that whatever they are, they’re covered by illusions.
Badrick bats one off as he struggles to his feet, and I use my magic to pull the illusions from them, revealing a pack of weres. I use wind magic to push them off Badrick since it won’t hurt him and it’d take a whole lot more force to send a creature his size flying. It allows him to get to his feet as Baron rushes up in his wolf form and takes one down the moment they move toward us.
Badrick rushes to tear them down as I lift my hand to help.
I feel a swell of magic behind me and turn just as Baron slams into me, throwing me back. He stumbles and that’s when I see an arrow coated in magic buried in his chest.
I lift my hand, throwing fire in the direction of the illusioned archer. A scream tells me I’ve hit them, even if I can’t see them.
“Are you okay?” I ask Baron as he sinks to his butt.
He shifts, whether on purpose or not, I can’t tell, and groans as he grabs for the arrow. “Fuck… at least maybe Havoc will forgive me for stabbing you now,” he says.
I still his hand to keep him from just yanking the arrow out and causing more damage. “Hey, he already forgave you. Just… sit still for a moment,” I say as I touch the arrow to pull away the magic wrapped around it. “Just… Badrick, can you get him back, please?” I ask as Badrick moves away from his beaten enemies.
“Of course.”
“I’m fine, I’ll just…” Baron takes a deep breath. “I’m fine!”
“Shit. I’m sorry,” I say as I throw up a barrier around him. I wish I could do it to everyone, but if I split my magic that much, there’s no telling how much I’d have left when it finally comes down to facing Geoff. But Badrick rushes over, so I help Baron to his feet as blood runs down his bare chest. “You make it back to Yoko or Leo, you hear me?”
He looks pale as he nods, and I know it’s not good when he willingly lets me push him onto Badrick’s back.
“Badrick, please be careful,” I say.
Badrick nods before rushing back toward the house where the others are still fighting. I turn, unable to see Geoff but knowing that I need to keep pushing forward.
“Miles!” Marco shouts as he swoops down and grabs me off the ground. He holds on to me tightly as he pulls me up into the air.
“Be careful, there are illusioned people everywhere,” I warn him. “We just have to get close so I can see him.”
“I’ll try,” he says as we move over armies of undead that I’m relying on Etienne to control.
A burst of wind magic slams into Marco, tossing us back. His wings falter as he begins to fall and I search for what caused the wind to swell, but with the illusions hiding Geoff’s army, I’m blind to our attackers.
Marco slams into a tree and his hold on me loosens as I’m dropped. I grab onto a tree limb which slows my fall so when I smack the ground, it doesn’t hurt too badly. I roll up onto my feet as Marco drops down beside me.
“I’m sorry,” he says.
“Are you okay?” I ask Marco.
“Yes, but I think my wing’s broken. I can’t pull myself up.”
“Can you get yourself back?” I ask as I notice undead moving toward me.
I pull my sword free as I light it on fire and slice through the enemy. The sword is oddly receptive to the fire, like it was made for it, so I use it against the undead. They have no brain, their bodies controlled completely by Geoff’s necromancy. But there are so many and I’m in the thick of it.
“I can help. I’ll be fine!”
“Marco, I don’t need you to get stuck here without flight,” I say as I hold up my hand to protect us, preparing to use magic, even though I want to save all of my magic for Geoff.
But before I do, the magic in the dead begins to shift and change. I see a white mist flying toward the bodies coming from behind me. I turn and feel a surge in Etienne’s magic as the dead stop moving. They don’t crumble or crawl back into the earth; instead they turn, like they’ve found a new enemy.
Are their souls returning to them from the river because of Etienne’s magic?
“What the fuck are you, Etienne?” I ask, even though I know he can’t hear me.
But if the dead aren’t going to kill me, then I’m now free to move forward and face our invisible enemies.
I didn’t need to worry because the dead wrap around me like a barrier that the arrows and bullets don’t pierce through. They’re here to destroy the man who took their lives and they know that I’m the person who can do it.
“Marco, here’s your chance to back off. Please head back—I don’t want you to die because of this.”
He hesitates before nodding, knowing that without his wings, he wouldn’t be able to pull himself back as he’s used to. Quickly, I move forward, rushing with the undead as I turn to the one who’s my enemy.
Geoff.
He’s smiling at me but the cold expression sends chills racing down my body. I know it’s a reaction from my childhood fears, but it still makes me hesitate. “Ah, Miles. I see you’ve come. You’re so fucking stubborn. Why won’t you just die? Why do you insist on living?” he asks. “I finally thought I killed you, yet here you are again.”
“I think because you’re just so damn bad at your job you can’t figure out how to kill me,” I say.
He chuckles, like any of this could be mistaken as being funny. “Join me, Miles.”
I raise an eyebrow as Menace brushes against my leg. Join him? After all that, he wants me to… join him?
Geoff’s eyes drop. “So it’s taken a liking to you.”
“Menace?”
He looks horrified. It must be because of my superior naming skills. “You named… you named him Menace? Of course you did. Do you… you don’t!” He starts laughing. This new inside joke is giving him a boatload to laugh over. “You don’t even realize what that is, do you?”
I look down at the evil little monster. “A cat?”
He starts laughing harder. “A cat! How cute! It’s tsumchi.”
I stare at him. He stares at me.
Menace meows.
“You don’t know what it is, do you?” he asks, then the laughing returns and I want to kill him even more than before.
“Sounds like a type of tea.”
He dramatically shakes his head and waves his hand at the same time. “How did I raise such an idiot?” he asks.
“Because you beat me more than you taught me.”
“I sacrificed the lives of many great and powerful people to bring that thing to me and of course it runs off and finds you, of all people.”
“So you were the one who summoned him.”
“I was, and did you see the strength it took? The lives it took for the spell to work? And instead of serving me it’s been what… your pet? Let’s just end this now. Silve,” he says, planning on putting me down on my knees.
When I remain standing, he stares at me in confusion and tries again.
“You tricky little asshole,” he says. “Let’s get this over with.”
He lifts his hand and starts whispering something, so I send fire careening toward him. With a wave of his hand my fire dissipates as I stare at him in disbelief.
This is not good, especially when I have an affinity for fire. That means the rest of my spells aren’t as powerful.
And that’s when he throws the fire back at me. I toss up a barrier but it slams into me so hard that I feel the heat hit my face.
My magic has grown so much since our last fight those hundreds of years ago. But it dwarfs in comparison to the magic he’s throwing at me. Every time I drop the barrier, he hits me with a different magical attack. It’s no longer just the magic of a mage, but all of the magic he’s stolen from the people he’s killed. And it’s nearly impossible for me to block it because I don’t know what to expect. The ground beneath me begins to move, and I realize that he has some type of earth magic as it crumbles, making me stagger.
Havoc drops down beside me before shifting and pulling me to him.
“Havoc… I can’t do this,” I realize.
“What?” he asks in shock.
“He’s too powerful. I’m draining my magic just blocking him.” I reach out for him and take his hand. “Havoc, will you please get everyone back? I’ll hold him off until you get them safely away. Please.”
He shakes his head. “I can’t leave you.”
“You have to.”
Something hits me so hard I’m thrown off my feet and slam into the ground. Havoc pulls me to my feet, and I throw up a barrier before we’re shoved down again.
“Fuck,” I say as my barrier shakes and cracks.
The barrier shatters and I’m hit with such a hard force that I’m thrown back, slamming into a tree.
Havoc leaps into a raven and rushes Geoff.
“Havoc, no!” I yell.
Menace yowls at me.
“Havoc, come back here.”
“No, I’ll keep him back long enough for you to get away. Push the others back.”
“I’m not leaving you!”
“Then why would you think I would ever leave you?”
Fuck.
Menace rears up and claws at my leg as he yowls again.
“Havoc, do you know what a tsumchi is?” I ask.
“A tsum… chi?” He’s quiet for a moment. “NO! That fucking cat?”
“What is it?” I ask.
“Shit!” he hisses as I see Geoff throw him back.
Quickly, I pick up Menace. I mean, if Geoff thought it was hilarious that I had no idea how to use the cat, then that clearly means he’s badass in some way. Magical, perhaps. Maybe he can eat this asshole. “Can you help me?”
And that’s when he bitch slaps me across the face.
“What the fuck?” I cry as I feel blood dripping down my face. “You’re evil!”
He ducks his head, almost tipping it down as I stare at him.
“Evil!”
He growls at me and tips his head again as I feel a fluctuation of his magic. I reach up and wipe the blood from my face as I stare at him and realize that I feel an influx of magic coming from the top of his head. Is that what he’s doing? Is he trying to perform a spell with me?
Well… what’s it hurt? He might eat me, I suppose, but at this point, I’m not sure it’ll matter.
I set my hand, wet with my blood, right on the top of his head. Strange magic I’ve never felt before hits me. Ancient magic wraps around mine and I immediately start to pull back, not trusting it, until I realize that it feels comfortable. It feels right. And it’s consuming me. Dark blue tendrils wrap around my red magic, weaving with it as I feel it invade my body. And then the magic begins to merge and it’s strange. I’ve boosted magic to work with others before, which is what I thought I was doing here. Should I stop it? What if I’m handing off my magic to this evil monster cat that I kind of like?
But somehow it feels familiar, and I know in the back of my mind that this might be the only opportunity any of us have to stop Geoff. So I take a deep breath and feed him my magic. I shove it all at him, giving him everything I have and praying this isn’t a mistake.
Menace jumps out of my hands as the spell ends and I realize that my magic feels different. When I reach out to the magic coming from Menace, my own magic feels like it’s overflowing.
Is this all my power? Is some of it Menace’s? Is this what it feels like when it reacts to him?
It swells up and spins around me, not out of control, though. I’ve never felt like I’m in so much control.
Suddenly a flash of light surrounds Menace as he pulls magic from me, but I have so much of it that I don’t even notice the difference in my body as the blinding light fades and I feel hot breath on me.
A lot of hot breath.
Slowly, I look up as a huge head lowers down and golden eyes catch mine.
I stumble back as realization dawns on me, but he moves back into my space, large red-scaled foot reaching toward me. When he sets it down, the ground shakes as I realize that what is standing before me is no longer a small cat from hell, but a dragon.
A motherfucking dragon.
“Dragons aren’t real,” I whisper.
He tilts his head in Geoff’s direction and I can feel Menace there in my mind. Not words, necessarily, but I can understand his intentions. And his intentions involve maiming Geoff.
“O-Okay! Yeah… let’s… do this?” I ask, a bit uncertain. I kind of feel like we’re going to do whatever the dragon wants to do, and it doesn’t matter what my plan is.
He lowers his head and I’m confused until I realize that the dragon wants me to climb onto his back.
The dragon.
“Menace?” I ask.
He swings his head over to me, eyes vibrant against the red scales.
“Don’t tell Havoc he’s right about dragons.” As if I could hide the ginormous dragon from Havoc who is less than fifty feet away.
Menace huffs and little puffs of smoke poof out.
“And please don’t eat me,” I say as I climb onto his back, but I know he won’t because somehow we’re connected, and I know that he’s only been able to take this form with the help of my magic.
Once on his scaly back, I don’t know what to hang on to since he doesn’t have a mane like a horse, but he does have pointed spikes that race down his neck that I grip tightly.
“What the fuck are you riding?” Havoc yells.
“It’s a horse,” I say.
“It’s a goddamn dragon! You made him your familiar?”
“Wait… what?” That can’t be true, right? Mages don’t have familiars, witches do, and I’m definitely not a witch.
“Oh my god, you don’t even know what’s going on, do you?”
“Uh… yes, we’re going to eat Geoff… from atop my horse.”
An arrow whizzes by me, startling me and reminding me that we’re not out of the woods yet. Death could still be on the horizon.
And that’s the moment that Menace leaps into the air. His wings beat hard against the wind as he blows fire down, raining it on the illusioned fighters below. What makes their illusion fail quite quickly is the fire eating through their clothes as they run and scream in terror.
I have always had an affinity for fire, so I probably could help instead of sitting pretty on my new dragon buddy… I mean horse.
I call the name of fire and push it toward them, taking the fire Menace laid out and escalating it. Even if I can’t see my enemy because of all of Geoff’s illusions, a field of fire will surely take most out.
Menace drops onto the ground feet from Geoff who looks enraged.
“You dare bond with him? You can’t control so much power, Miles. You are weak and useless, and your demon and this tsumchi will see through this façade you wear.”
“You can degrade me all you want, but they both chose me, not you.”
Geoff throws his magic at us but Menace lunges for him as I call upon every ounce of my magic, every sliver of it, and pour it right into destroying Geoff’s body, soul, and magic.
The world lights up in red as the magic slams into Geoff’s barrier while he throws his arms up and fights to keep it intact. I pour my power into it as I see his barrier begin to break and the magic begin to wane.
Geoff’s screaming something, but I can’t hear it over the roar of the fire. The moment the barrier breaks, Geoff tries to leave his body, but that’s when I notice another person rushing to our left. I drop the magic, but Enzo doesn’t seem to mind racing across the burning earth.
Etienne reaches a hand out, and before the soul can find a new body, he pulls it to him and then I see the magic that made up Geoff disappear.
Etienne stares at his hand for a moment before dropping it and turning to me. “I like your horse.”
I pet Menace’s neck before sliding off his back. “Thanks. He’s a little temperamental, though.”
With a flash of magic, the dragon disappears, leaving in its place a little red monster cat.
Havoc drops from the sky, crushing blackened brush when he lands. He grabs onto me, squeezing me against him. His face is bleeding, but his heart is still beating strong, and that’s all that matters.
“You did it,” he says.
“We did it. I couldn’t have done it without every single one of you.”
He pulls back. “I would like an apology.”
My eyebrows furrow. “For?”
He waves at the cat. “Dragon! I told you dragons are real!”
I pick Menace up who looks angry that I disrupted his grooming session. He was really fixated on his shoulders, the area I would have been sitting on when he was in his much superior form. “This… is a cat.”
“It’s a tsumchi, a mage’s familiar.”
I feel very suspicious about this whole thing. “How have I never heard of this?”
“The last one I saw was about seven hundred years ago,” Havoc explains. “They became folklore and they don’t generally shift into dragons. Like generally they have a superior form but a dragon? How do you get all the cool stuff? I want a dragon. Will you let me ride on your back?” Havoc asks as he reaches out to Menace.
Menace hisses and smacks Havoc’s hand.
“He’s pure evil. Pure evil,” Havoc says while he makes a wringing motion with his hands, like he’s miming strangling the cat.
I grin at him. “I seem to have a knack for acquiring evil things. Somehow they become my favorites.”
“So…” Havoc says as he looks around himself at the decimated land, burned to pieces by my fire. “How are we going to explain this?”
“Just like… kick a little dirt over it. No one will notice.”
“You did go a little excessive,” Etienne says as I turn to look at some of the crew who are making their way toward us. Iya is currently trying to smack out fire that had grabbed onto the leg of his pants as he moved toward us. When Evan reaches me first, I turn to him.
“Is Baron alright?” I ask.
He gives me a relieved smile. “I believe he’ll be fine. I helped Badrick get him to Leo who was working on healing him.”
“Oh, thank god,” I say. “And everyone else?”
“For the most part everyone will be alright, I believe. Wounded but happy to be alive,” he assures me.
That’s when Iya reaches me.
“The Penetrators are here to…” Iya looks around. “Oh… are you done already? We just got here. Iya was ready to tear off heads and devour testicles!”
Sam turns to him in clear concern. “Do you… have you… you know what? I don’t want to know. Please…”
“What?” Iya asks.
“You’re vegetarian, right?” Sam asks.
“Yes! I think. I don’t know. What is this?” He gets distracted by something shiny, so I turn to the rest, happy to see that everyone is there, although some look a little rough or bloody.
“Come here, all of you,” I say as I hold my arms out and just try to force them all into this huge group hug. I’m not sure this is what people usually do after a battle, but it’s a requirement now.
OceanofPDF.com

Epilogue
“This is the life,” Havoc says as he raises his hands up to help emphasize his point. “I never knew Disney could be so fun!”
“Fun Disney” is currently walking from the car to the entrance.
“I mean, look! We don’t even have to wait in line!” he exclaims.
I look at the parents grabbing their children and pulling them away out of horror of my menacing man. Havoc seems to think this means that they’re giving him their place in line and struts right up to the front ticket booth. He hands the tickets over to a man who assesses us.
“No cats allowed.”
“It’s not a cat,” I say.
“It’s a dragon,” Havoc says helpfully.
“And I’m a merman,” the ticket man says.
I pick up Menace and, while looking the man in the eyes, put an illusion on the cat. “Poof. All gone. Now can we go in?”
His eyes narrow. “Where’d the cat go?”
“There is no cat,” I say. “I poofed it gone. If you don’t take our tickets, I’ll poof us gone too and just wander in.”
He looks at us suspiciously. “You can’t. There are sensors.”
What looks like a manager rushes over to us. “What’s going on?”
“This man won’t let me and my familiar inside because he’s classist,” I say.
“Miles!” the woman says, and I realize I recognize her from assisting her with some charm work a few years ago. She cringes a little when she sees who is beside me. “And your demon.”
Havoc grabs my hand and makes a show of kissing it even though he probably doesn’t even remember this woman. If he did, he’d realize she had no interest in me in the slightest.
“Oh no…” she whispers. “What happened?”
“To what?” I ask.
She waves at Havoc holding my hand.
“He just acts ridiculous in front of everyone else, but he’s a good guy.”
She nods slowly. “Okay…” She’s clearly not convinced. “Let’s check out your tickets. And for your inconvenience, I’ve gotten you some more fast passes seeing as it looks like you’re planning on cutting in line anyway.” She takes my tickets and gets us through and on our way.
I drop the illusion on Menace, so he climbs onto my shoulder. Thankfully, I’d had some of my clothes modified so I can’t feel his claws slicing into my shoulder, and it’s easier for him to hang on to.
“Jesus fucking Christ!” Havoc yells and I turn quickly to see what has caused such alarm. When I see that it’s just a man in a Goofy costume, I eye Havoc.
“You’re seriously scared of that?”
“Nicco should work here. He’s as creepy as these costumed fucks,” Havoc hisses.
“You can’t say that word here. There are children around.”
He looks around him and I realize that my statement is wrong. After his outburst, the children have pretty much scattered, giving us a wide berth as we make our way through.
“This is so much better than battling evil dead men,” Havoc decides.
I nod, agreeing with him far too much. After the fight, Etienne assured us that Geoff’s soul was right where it belonged and that the people he killed were making sure he never found his way out again. While we can’t be sure we stopped everyone that day, we know that without Geoff, I will crush them with just a look. Or my dragon.
I’ve spent many nights researching mage familiars after that, but sadly, there’s not much information to be found. So everything is now a guessing game. What I have learned is that he’s as stubborn as Havoc and won’t shift into a dragon when you want to be cool and have everyone look at you in wonder. Instead, he just hisses and yowls and flicks his tail back and forth. Then he shifts into a dragon as soon as everyone’s gone just to spite you.
Even so, I’m pretty sure he loves me.
When Johnson told me he wasn’t interested in ruling the district, Evan and I decided that we’d merge the two districts and run them together, with the council’s permission, of course. Once it was granted, I left him in charge of most things, and he just pulls me out when he needs someone threatened or help with some of the bigger decisions. Honestly, it’s much better than me trying to run anything. I’ve always been better at ruling things from the background and lighting things on fire.
“What do you want to do first?” I ask Havoc.
He looks over at me and grins. “I don’t even care. I’m just happy to spend a day with you where we don’t have to question who might threaten our lives. I could do anything… oh my god, look at that chocolate!” He rushes off, dragging me after him. “Forget all that weird gross spilling of emotions. Look at all this chocolate.” Then he smiles at the woman at the front of the line. “If I buy your chocolate, can I cut?”
She instantly smiles back. “Of course.”
It wouldn’t be Havoc if he didn’t have the attention span of a toddler. But the awesome thing about our relationship is that he doesn’t need to give me all those ooey gooey feelings and words filled with love for me to know how much he cares about me.
So I wait on the sidelines and smile at the absolute delight on his face as he comes rushing over, laden down with chocolate. “I got you this,” he says as he holds out a chocolate sundae and is that a… donut on top?
I’m not sure whether to be enamored that he thought of me and got me this or horrified that he expects me to eat it. There isn’t an ounce of the entire thing that isn’t coated in chocolate syrup or chocolate chips. But I take it and smile at him.
“Thank you.”
“Whatever you don’t eat, I will,” he assures me, even though he has his own. “Why are you looking at me like that? You look all happy and shit and it’s freaking me out.”
“You’re so fucking weird.”
He starts laughing. “So are you.”
“Good. Sounds like we’re meant for each other, then.”
He moans as he pulls the spoon from his mouth. “Now… what do we want to do after this? See if mermaids are real?”
“I thought we were going back to a life of quiet?”
“Hell, no. I want fire and explosions. And I want you naked during it.”
“If I have to be naked, you have to be naked.”
“Deal,” he says with a grin.
We walk side by side, while eating the sweetest thing that has ever touched my lips. Occasionally, our shoulders bump—I’m not sure if it’s from sugar overload or the inability to stay apart. Every time they do, Menace hisses, like he can’t stand Havoc getting close to me.
“Who knew that gangly little annoyance that bugged me in that basement would turn out to be handsome.”
“Do you feel like a creep thinking back to my tiny body that you would one day ravish?”
He cringes. “Not until now! Dammit. You almost ruined my sundae.”
I grin as I lean over and kiss his cheek. “Nah. I don’t think that could ever happen.”
“I didn’t think this could happen either and now look at me. I’m like an ol’ house husband. Or a sex toy. Wanna have sex?”
I wave at the giggling children and happy families. “We’re not having sex here.”
Havoc groans. “Evil. They say I’m the evil one, but I would never deprive you of sex.”
“When we get back to the hotel, we can have all the sex you want.”
“Deal,” he says.
Who knew what hundreds of years together would lead to? While it would have been nice if he’d have gotten around to noticing me, oh, a couple hundred years ago, I’m not sure we were ready yet.
We still have plenty of years to spend with each other—our journey has just begun.
He grins at me as he bites into his chocolate donut.
And I can’t wait to see where we go from here. Just hopefully no more adventures like this one.