Page 114 of Quiet Burn

They could be a big ass fucking problem.

Thus, I’m exiting the room looking for Dottie without pause. She comes running over from a perch on Slash’s chair. Apparently, she’s not only fond of birds, snakes, and bears (oh my). The shark shifter gets up as soon as she darts over to me, his eyes sharp as he makes his way to me. Large hands land on my shoulders as he looks down at me seriously, ignoring the sounds of protest behind him.

“Little demon, are you well this morning? Will this be too taxing?”

I grin a little when X makes a grumbling protest about Slash’s lack of care for how they’re doing. The huge demon arches a brow, waiting for me to answer as he stares at me. He’s deathlyfocused, so I actually look inside, taking inventory of how I feel on various levels before I answer. When I’m ready, I wrinkle my nose. “Well, I don’t ache or feel weak. Salem fed me, so I’m good for a little bit on that front. I’m nervous as fuck about this trip, though, so I’m full of jittery sparkles and spiky anger. Is that what you wanted to know?”

He nods, tilting his head. “It is and you were good for telling me honestly, little demon. I will make sure I’m close by to help dampen the nerves. If you need to ground, you can grab my arm. Yes?”

I’m not grabbing anyone in front of fucking people I don’t know, but he doesn’t need to know that.

“Okay, big guy. But the others can help, too, right?” My eyes move to the pouting demons behind him, then cut to Jasper as he scowls. “Well, except His Royal Assface. He doesn’t want to be helpful, so I’ll make sure I stay as far from him as possible.”

Somehow, that makes him scowl even harder and I throw my hands up in frustration. Slash chuckles, shaking his head. “Do not worry. I know you have the entire caliphate to assist with protection and comfort. Except for the Prince, of course.”

A dark growl comes from Jasper’s direction and I narrow my gaze. “Stop being a dick and tell us where the fuck we’re going.”

Moving around the shark shifter with Dottie in my arms, I see that Salem has emptied his bag and is currently filling it with his supplies. The care he takes makes me smile a bit, and as if I said his name, the panda demon turns to wink at me. “Just making sure we have what we need to survive a day up in that stupid place, KK. We can eat their food and shit, but it doesn’trejuvenate us like ours does. Plus, I’ve got a little safety kit Annie and X brought from the doc.”

They were busy AF this morning, I guess.

Oriel finally pushes through the crowd, his dark eyes dancing as he takes me in. “I knew I had the right size!”

I look down at the ripped black skinny jeans, my combat boots, and the oversized Ramones tee-shirt that came pre-punkified with a grin. My eyes move back up to his as he pulls an army jacket from fuck only knows where and hands it to me. “I was worried at first, but you did well, O. This all fits well and none of it makes me want to off myself if people see me in it.”

X scampers over to look at me, handing me a tech watch in black. “Zavvie fetched this for you because we can use it to keep connected if we get separated. I know we have phones, but um… just in case, right?”

Peeping at the red-headed kitsune, I give him a grateful smile. It makes him flush and hug his tails, which seems to be making my pulse skitter now. It’s so damned cute and I’m tired of pretending it isn’t. “Thanks, Zav. I’m sure you guys can track me, too, which helps my anxiety a bit.”

Jasper scoffs, rolling his eyes. “Yes, of course we can, shrimp. Now if you idiots are done dancing around him, we should get moving. Time moves differently there, and we don’t want to keep burning portal access time.”

“I asked where we’re going.” I cross my arms over my chest, stubbornly refusing to move until he includes me in his goddamn plans.

The Prince sighs loudly, running his hands through his raven and dark green locks in annoyance. “Fuck, you’re such a pain in the spikes.Fine.We’re going to your hometown?—”

“No!”The shout is out of my mouth before I can stop it and six pairs of demon eyes are looking at me in confusion. Xerxes, of course, knows why I’m flipping out, but they stay quiet.

“Little demon, we should try to find?—”

Shaking my head, I hold a shaking hand out. “No, we shouldn’t. Where Dank picked me up is not where I was dropped off as a baby, nor are the Jamesons evencloseto my first fosters. They’ll be no help at all.”

Dottie looks at me, her baleful kinkajou gaze telling me that I’m wrong about whether they’ll be helpful. I remember finding her rooting through their secret safe, and it makes me pause. I can’t take them there until they all know; no one in that town will cover my ass, especially not my idiot foster brothers.

“Maybe we should go to the coast instead,” Anton says.

I could kiss him, but again, I’m thinking about kissing a lot of people today, so I should calm the hell down. “What’s on the coast?”

“Trouble,” Jasper replies with a dark frown. “If you’re too wimpy to go home, then we should investigate what the fuck Lucian has been doing up there; Anton’s right. That means no running your mouth and starting a fucking feud, got it, shrimp?”

Now I’m like fifty times more likely to do it—but he’ll find that out later.

Mr. Brightside

Jasper

If I didn’t believe this was necessary, I would have chucked the idea to go to the surface as soon as the shrimp and X were hurt. Better yet, without my father being a complete asshole, I could have simply postponed it until we were ready. It might have even given the rest of my caliphate time to convince the kid to go back to his previous home so we could investigate the present back to the past.

As usual, the universe and all its meddling forces have conspired to make shit difficult.

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