Page 27 of Demon's Mate
“That’s not helping,” Dante snapped.
“You think I’m here to help?” Onyx scoffed, tossing blue bangs out of his face. “I’m here to watch you two bicker.”
Ash didn’t believe him. Onyx might be able to get away with a lot, but he wouldn’t risk being dragged back to the Realm of the Damned. He was here to help—or to keep himself free, at the very least.
Dante must have thought something similar because he ignored Onyx’s comment. “If anyone goes poking around the spells cast on my old place, the birds will notice. And it’s not like I’ll show up like I did with you, Ash. I can see who’s there before I leave my house. Because of the birds.”
Ash ground his teeth. “Of course you wouldn’t show up there without knowing who was poking around.” Dante wasn’t stupid. Ash never meant to imply that.
Dante turned to face the massive windows overlooking the deck and city below. “Once we strengthen the protections on this house, we can stay here safely while we use my flock to monitor the city.”
Onyx glared at Dante’s back. “And what? Be cooped up until my brother comes knocking? No, thank you.”
“You don’t have to stay with us, Onyx.” Dante didn’t bother turning around. “If you want to face your brother on your own, that’s fine. But if you betray us, we won’t hold back.”
Onyx’s mouth dropped open. “Always so quick to cast meout. Are you serious? Betray you? My brother can go fuck himself. I’m not doing a thing for him. If he wants you two, then it’s my mission in life to ensure he doesn’t get you.”
The fierceness of his words was almost heartwarming. “So you’ll stay with us?” Ash asked.
Onyx cut a sidelong glance at him, chewing his lip. “Fine, whatever. You two are so clingy. But I’m going out whenever I want.”
“It’s not like we’ll stop you as long as you’re being smart.” Ash didn’t plan to stay cooped up in the house either, no matter how lovely it was.
Onyx’s eyes blazed for a split second. “I’m always smart.” He turned up his nose. “Once we’re sure Luc’s in the city, we could let him find me as a trap. You still want to imprison him, right?”
“Yes, imprisoning Lucifer will be the only way to get him off our backs,” Dante said without hesitation. “A trap could work. Once the shearwaters see what he’s up to and who he might have brought with him, we can set it up. However, there is one complication.”
Ash knew it. Nothing was simple. “What?”
Dante turned to face them. “Lucifer isn’t the only one looking for us.”
Onyx laughed, blue eyes flashing. “Um, what?”
“I came across something while sifting through the shearwaters’ collective memory.” Dante could control the birds and see through their eyes. The enchantment he’d cast also created a collective memory for the flock, which he could tap into. “I don’t normally watch the birds too closely. They usually know when something is important enough to pass on to me. This wasn’t like that.”
“What did you see?” Ash asked.
“Witches are hunting us.” Dante frowned, and Onyxlaughed again. Dante ignored him. “The shearwaters didn’t recognize what the witches were doing so their hunt fell under the radar, but it seems they’re searching for us in the city’s stone memory. They’ve been lurking around old parts of the city, chipping off bits of the buildings and cobbles.”
“But they’rewitches,” Onyx sneered. “Who cares? What could a witch do to any of us?”
“Hand us over to Lucifer,” Ash suggested and Dante nodded his agreement.
Ash had never trusted the sect of witches who worshipped Lucifer. They knew enough of the true history to know Lucifer was their source of magic, but they didn’t know everything, and their covens were often the ones causing trouble in the magic world.
“But it’s not like the witches have found us,” Onyx argued. “So how can they hand us over? Stone memory won’t lead them to this house.” He gestured around him.
“You’re right. It probably won’t,” Dante agreed, prompting Onyx to smile for a split second. “But I wouldn’t trust any witch in the city, just in case.”
“Were we ever trusting witches?” Ash didn’t mix with other magical beings if he could help it.
Even the witches who didn’t worship Lucifer weren’t worth dealing with. Many hated demons for being the reason they were banned from their rightful afterlife, even if they had demons to thank for the gift of magic. And vampires were even worse, a bunch of self-important, power-hungry immortals who originated from a group of witches that slayed a demon and drank his blood to gain eternal life.
“We may have trusted witches,” Dante said, surprisingly magnanimously, considering no witches were present. “But we won’t be now. Shearwater memory can be unreliable indiscerning human characteristics. I can’t be sure exactly which witches are looking for us, only that some are.”
Onyx threw up his hands. “If the birds can’t tell people apart, how will they find Lucifer?”
Dante clenched his jaw. “I’ve imprinted an image of Luc into the flock’s collective mind. They know what he looks like and what his magic feels like. If they see our hunters again, they’ll be able to show me faces. Looking back through their memory when they didn’t know to be keeping their eyes out is what makes things fuzzy.”
