Page 37 of Demon's Mate
Ash had a knack for tracking. He’d planned to use his ability to find Onyx before he heard he was in Shearwater Landing. Ash had always been able to track his closest friends more easily than anyone else. Years spent in the presence of one another’s magic would do that. But he hadn’t been able to get a whiff of Luc’s magic.
“Do you think he’s getting close?” Onyx asked, setting his half-drank blood aside.
Ash shrugged. “I haven’t detected anything helpful.”
Onyx’s eyes widened.
Ash expected to have picked up at least a hint of Luc’s presence if he were heading toward Shearwater Landing. He shrugged. “It’s possible he isn’t in the area yet.”
Ash wouldn’t be able to sense Luc’s magic if he were too far away. He needed a characteristic to latch onto to track anyone, like a sense of their magic, knowledge of what they looked like, or a fairly good idea of where they were. But even if Luc were outside the city, Ash should have been able to detect a general direction to follow until he got close enough to latch onto Luc’s magic and find him.
Had it been too long since Ash had been around Lucifer to get a hold on him, unless he was close?
“Do you think he’s up to something else before coming for us?” Onyx asked.
“He could be.” The idea was worrying. Ash assumed Lucifer would track them down immediately. If he wasn’t coming for them right away, whatever else he was up to had to be important, and nothing important to Lucifer was good.
“I don’t like this,” Onyx muttered, more serious than Ash had heard him in a while.
“Me either.”
14
HARPER
Harper didn’t leavethe apartment for days.
Nico was onto him, and even if Nico had no connection to his coven, Harper’s lies had been seen through way too easily.
Maybe he wasn’t as safe as he thought.
Someone was watching him. He could fucking feel it. The prickling sense of eyes on him had only grown stronger. He was sure someone was spying on him in the apartment, not just when he was out.
But it made no sense. Someone couldn’t be watching him when he was alone at home. No one could see in. There wasn’t even an occupied building directly across the street. The warehouse opposite had no windows level with his floor and he’d glanced at the roof often enough to know no one was ever up there.
There was no spell to make a witch invisible, and vampires had to be in close proximity to make their illusion magic work. But no matter how logical his explanations were, he couldn’t shake the feeling invisible eyes were on him.
Who the Hell was watching? How were they managing it?His coven wouldn’t lurk. They’d recapture him immediately. But aside from his coven, no one had it out for him.
After another failed trip into stone memory, Harper gave up trying to figure out any of his problems and decided to bake cookies. That was a positive activity. Self-care or whatever. And it would be nice to have treats to share when Ollie came home.
Once the cookies were in the oven, Harper checked out the living room window. Was it becoming a compulsion? Seeing nothing there only made his chest tighten. Maybe he should hunker down and do nothing for a week, avoid anything magic-related, and try to live a human life.
Could he get a human job, like at Seaside Coffee with Dex? He’d be terrible at it compared to the other people working there, but it might be the smart thing to do.
He pulled up a website of human job listings to see what a coffee shop might look for in an employee. He didn’t expect to get a job with Dex just because they knew each other, but maybe he could ask for help finding something.
Harper browsed the listings, his frown deepening the longer he read. None of these people would want to hire him over a human with experience.
An odd scent caught his attention.Oh no!Harper lunged for the kitchen. The cookies!
Harper opened the oven and a plume of smoke wafted out. Grabbing an oven mitt, he extracted the charred cookies and turned on the kitchen fan. Man, there was a lot of smoke.
He rushed to the living room window and opened it. He didn’t want the fire alarm going off. Everyone would have to evacuate the building.
He hurried to his room and reached across his dresser to yank that window up too. They were old and only opened a few inches, so not great for getting a strong cross breeze, but it would have to do.
With a sigh, Harper turned back toward the kitchen, knocking into the beakers from his potion kit that he’d left out that morning. They toppled and one rolled off the dresser. He caught the glass before it hit the floor, but in his haste, he hit something with his elbow.
