Page 37 of The Devil of London

“Homeless shelter on 6thAvenue,” he admitted with his eyes squeezed shut. “I know Thomas from there. He’s a good kid. Helps the nuns out with the heavier shipments being delivered. I guess we all do.”

“So, you’d have been around the shipping bay?”

“Yes, ma’am,” he uttered as soft, hazel eyes opened to look at me. “I used to drive a rig before my wife got sick.”

“What happened to her?” At his pained look, I felt a pinch of regret.

“Cancer. One month, we were planning to travel to the Caribbean Islands, and the next, she was gone. My son killed himself two weeks after I lost my Cathy.” The anguish in his tone was genuine. “Thomas lost his momma, too. His father murdered her. He fled, fearing he’d be next or that he’d end up put in the system.”

“Is that true?” I asked while moving onto the next man.

“Yes. My stepdad was a drunk who enjoyed beating her. On the day he killed her, I was in school. I returned to find the cops there and knew he’d probably either hidden or fled the area,” Thomas admitted. “I’d heard about this place from my mom. She used to live here. My real father was supposed to be from here, too.”

“And you?” I asked the man whose finger was dripping blood into the chalice.

“What the fuck does this have to do with anything?” Nasir interjected.

“Answer the question, please,” I continued on as if Nasir wasn’t about to murder us all.

“Drunk driver hit my car on Christmas Eve. Killed my children and wife, but I didn’t get to go with them.”

“Aderyn,” Nasir warned.

“A wraith, Nasir.” At my words, his eyes slid over my face before drifting over the men standing in front of us. “And how about the man who this asshole just killed? What was his story?”

“His son was killed overseas. Ned drank himself into the ground, then ended up at the shelter when his wife left him,” Thomas replied. “Andy, the first one killed. The cartel took and sold his daughter. He was here to get close to Nasir to find the connection he had to the cartel.”

“So, we have—had five men from the same shelter. Each one was helping in the delivery bay. They’ve all lost loved ones. That means we’re more than likely dealing with a wraith, or a couple of them. So, we need to look for who’s controlling them.” Frowning, I paused in front of Thomas. “We’re going to need to add protection before we bind ourselves together. You pissed someone off, Khaos. Someone powerful enough to control wraiths.”

“I don’t keep a list of my enemies in my back pocket, love.”

“That list wouldn’t fit there, Nasir.” Once I’d finished the last of the men, I moved back to the altar.

“What the fuck was that about?” Nasir demanded.

“You wanted answers. I needed somewhere to start with their memories. Or did you want to leave your poor fiancée sitting around all night?” I had to force the words out of my throat. It tasted vile to even whisperfiancéein a sentence concerning Khaos. Grabbing the mortar, I poured their mixed blood into the herbs. Then I used my still bleeding fingertip to draw the last symbol on Khaos’s face.

As I lowered my hand, Khaos grabbed my wrist. It caused me to swallow audibly. I watched him dipping the cloth from his pocket into the moon water to wet it before he cleaned my fingers of the others’ blood and some speckles of herbs that clung to my skin. Once they were clean, he brought my thumb up to his mouth, capturing it between his lips. A shiver rushed down my spine as his tongue wickedly caressed the cut.

“Wouldn’t want you leaving me still bleeding, would we?” he asked in a husky tone.

“You realize this is blood magic, right?” Blood magic was closely tied to sex magic. You couldn’t really heed the call to one without feeling the other. If I was binding myself to Khaos, we’d be inside one another’s minds. It was as close as two souls could get. Well, other than being a bound mate, which obviously we were not. In the two hundred and ninety-nine years we’d been stuck together, he had ignored the need to consummate shit with me. No mate could have done that.

Khaos would not be able to see anything about what I’d been doing lately, of course. I’d hidden it in a part of my mind that couldn’t be found by any spell or magic known, not even after my death.

“Of course I do, brat.” He smirked.

Ignoring him, I walked toward the open area where a large carpet covered the floorboards. I flicked my wrist, causing the carpet to roll up before lifting and leaning against the wall. Next, I held my hand out for the broom. Afterward, I began sweeping the floor backward to intensify the spell for protection. I created the pentagram using black salt and then added a thick circle around it.

I tiptoed back a couple steps, calmly imagining it with the six skulls circled by black agate at each point. They would have moldavite clamped between their teeth for grounding, and amethyst in their eye sockets to boost power to the third eye. Violet candles would be around the entire circle arranged in the outline. They would boost influence, metaphysical energy, strength, and my abilities to access suppressed knowledge. And dragon blood sage would burn around us, grounding us while adding extra intensity to the spell circle. A single slap of my hands had the items appearing perfectly in place. A victorious smile played on my lips before I cleared the emotion.

“I thought you feared using dark magic, Aderyn?”

“I did, but I found that there is beauty in the strangest of places when fear no longer controls your mind,” I murmured before striding back to the altar. “Remove your shirt. Please.” After dipping my fingers into the paste, I used the thick substance to finish the binding spell. I was the last one to be anointed, since I was the one who would hold all of their minds together. That done, I grabbed the length of rope and turned, only to pause when I was met with the sight of Khaos’s powerful chest. Remembering our audience, I forced myself to walk into my circle, careful not to disturb anything. Khaos exhaled as he waited for the invitation, when he and I both knew he could cross it without one.

A witch’s circle was her space, and we protected it from those wishing to harm her, which was why I’d never understood how he managed to cross into and out of the ones I created. It should’ve sensed him as the threat he was.

“Won’t you join me, Khaos?” I asked, extending my hand.

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