Page 116 of Finlay

I grabbed Chester’s arm and pulled him behind me. “Stay here, just in case whoever it is decides to attack first and ask questions later.”

Chester squeaked in alarm. “Is that likely to happen?”

I hoped not, but I’d heard stories. Demons were asterritorial as wolf shifters, especially if they happened to have a human mate.

Which three of Lucifer’s sons did.

But when the door creaked open, it wasn’t a demon who appeared but a water mage. He folded his arms over his chest, his steel grey eyes sweeping over me critically. “Bar’s closed, shifter.”

I took a cautious step forward. “I’m looking for Danny. Do you know where he is?”

The mage quirked an eyebrow. “Who’s asking?”

“I’m Finlay.” I extended a hand, praying the mage was in a good mood. Water mages were the last kind of supe you wanted to fuck around with. “Danny’s beta. I lead the McCarthy Clan.”

Recognition flared in the mage’s eyes as he shook my hand vigorously. “Finlay! Ah, I’ve heard so much about you. I’m River. It’s great to meet you. Any friend of Danny’s is a friend of ours.Except LeClerc, of course. No idea howthatbromance happened but Sebastian is currently barred for staking Mori.”

Chester’s curious voice came over my shoulder. “LeClerc? Mori?”

River craned his neck to smile at Chester over my shoulder. “Hi! LeClerc is a dickhead of a vampire who you should hope you never meet, and Mori’s my mate. Big sexy demon.”

He gave a delighted sigh like he was picturing Mori before continuing. “Anyway, I saw you hiding back there and decided not to kill Finn. It’s a bit rude to do that in front of someone’s human.”

Chester gripped my waist protectively. “You were going to kill Finn?”

River winked. “Only temporarily. But don’t worry, he’ssafe from me. Now, why don’t you come inside and we can track Danny down for you.”

He spun on his heel and stalked into the club.

Chester came to stand beside me, staring in the direction River had vanished in. “He doesn’t look like a demon.”

“That’s because he’s not.” I paused. “Mind you, the demons don’t look like demons either. You’d walk past one on the street and have no idea. River’s a water mage, which means he can control the flow of liquid.”

“Would he really have been able to kill you?”

“Aye.” I put an arm around his shoulders to lead him forwards. “Liquid includes blood. They can drain their opponents in less than a second.”

“Lovely,” Chester said faintly.

“It is a brilliant trick,” River said from the table he’d taken a seat at. “Very handy too. I took out an entire clan of wolf shifters a few years ago by doing it.”

I came to an abrupt stop. “That was you?”

River tilted his head. “You heard about that?”

“Every shifter did,” I said, reluctantly pulling out a chair for Chester. Being given a detailed example of just how lethal River was had me suddenly wanting to spirit Chester far away. “Can I ask why ye did it?”

River smiled. There was no warmth in it, just calculated vengeance. “They were attacking my mate.”

Ah. Now that I could understand. “In that case, I’m glad you ended them. None of us lost any sleep over it. They were a bunch of twats.”

“Indeed.” River pulled out his phone. “I assume you’ve been trying to call Danny and Riley and not getting through?”

The anxiety from earlier came rushing back. “Are they okay? Did something happen?”

“They’re fine,” River said, his fingers tapping at the screen. “They went on holiday last week to Aruba and there was an incident.”

“An incident?”

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