Page 26 of Nighted

She stopped and spun around, and her expression made me freeze. Her gaze was cold and vacant. Whatever was happening, Lucy wasn’t aware of it.

“Your friend is… indisposed.” She had Lucy’s face, and Lucy’s body, but definitely not Lucy’s voice. No. But, I knew this voice. Fuck. This was the voice from the other day. The voice that trapped me in the darkness. I tightened my fingers on the handles of my blades to keep the numbness tingling there from spreading through my body. How was I going to explain this to Duke?

“You’re the thing that trapped me. Who are you?” I asked. “What do you want from Lucy?” Lucy better not be hurt or there would be hell to pay. How I would hurt a demon, I didn’t know but I would make damn sure I figured it out.

“It’s not what we want from Lucy. It’s what we require from you. Your friend was the… easiest target.” Goddamnit. Sweet Lucy, so innocent.

“Let Lucy go. What do you want from me?” I repeated.

“Your mother owes us a great debt.”

“My mother? I haven’t seen my mother in months. You’re tracking the wrong person if you’re hoping to find her. I tried to kill her last time I saw her.” I had my knives firmly in my hands. There was no space for fear in my body or mind.

The demon’s voice was bored. “All the same, she owes us payment. And if she can’t be found, then your blood will do in her place. We were hoping to bring you in as leverage, but obviously that doesn’t seem like it’s going to work.”

“Fuck that shit. Your problem is with my mother. You can find her and deal with her.” I was not about to clean up any more of my mom’s messes, especially not with my blood. But wait. We? “Do you work for… Orcus?”

Quicker than I could track her movements, Lucy was in my face. Her breath smelled like blood and ash, and it took everything in me not to flinch away. “Do not say that name. And you Venators do not ask questions of me,” she hissed. “He will have my payment one way or another. Bring your mother here, or we’ll collect from you.”

“My mother is on the run. How do you expect me to find her and then convince her to come with me to her death?”

Lucy shrugged, holding a tendril of my hair between her fingers. The sight was unnerving. My naïve friend looking menacing, all the while I knew she wasn’t in control of her actions. She whispered in my ear, and every word was a nail scratching a chalkboard. “Not my problem. You have a week, Venator.” I blinked, and Lucy was gone into the black of the night.

Ava! For fuck’s sakes, where are you?Jasper’s angry voice echoed through my mind. I could feel his fear, taste his desperation as he tore through the forest looking for me.

Shit.A week. What the hell was I going to do? One thing was certain, I had to find Monica and fast. I hoped Merrick was up to the challenge, because I was going to use him as bait.

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