Page 84 of Demons in My Bed
She was scooting backward now, trying to put distance between us. Finally, she was afraid.
“You think you can come in here and what? Just save that name for the perfect moment? Drop that bomb on us when we’re vulnerable? Who the fuck sent you?” I tossed my head back and laughed darkly. “Oh my fucking hell, it was him, wasn’t it?”
“Rhodes, please, calm down…”
“Calm down?” I took a step closer to her. “Calm down?” I repeated as I squatted down. “Felix and Talon have finally,finallymade progress. Ashland isn’t as hateful, Misha is talking a little more… and you think I’m going to let you blow that up?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about…”
“SHUT UP!Just shut the fuck up! Enough of this!” I grabbed her and lifted her by the back of her shirt. “You can go tell your boss that I’ve been getting his little notes, and he can suck my fat fucking cock. You’re going to walk out of the front door and get thefuckout of my city. And when the boys see that you’re gone? I’m going to tell them that I didn’t see a thing. That you must’ve been a lying bitch all along and you’ve run away. I mean, that part will actually be true. But you aren’t going to succeed—they’ll never know that you were walking around here dropping the name of their dead fucking triplet, and I’ll have saved Felix and Talon the pain of having to kill a woman they seem to actually care about.”
Tears were welling in her big blue eyes, and her bottom lip trembled. “Rhodes, I honestly didn’t know. I swear, I’m a spirit witch and I—”
“I swear to fuck, Palmer. I am two seconds away from gutting you, and I’d much rather have you run like the little rat you are back to your master and deliver my message. Now get the fuck out of my sight. If Ieversee your face in this city again, I will drag you through the streets and set an example that will be whispered about forever.”
The tears finally lost their battle and started falling down her cheeks. She stumbled over to the nearby door and tugged it open. I felt like I was on fire; there was so much anger and adrenaline in my body.
“I’m going… but I want you to know something, Rhodes. I know what it feels like to lose your family, so I would never use my affinity to cause pain to those who have to go on living without their person… or people. And I do care about the others, so go fuck yourself.”
She wiped her cheeks with a small laugh as she stood straighter, and I watched her calm, confident mask slip back on. With her chin held high, she slipped through the door, shutting it behind her. I watched through the one-way glass as she walked through the room. She never looked back.
Once she was out of sight, I pulled out my cell phone, opening the security app to make sure she actually left the damn building.
What the fuck just happened?
Palmer walked right out of the club doors like I told her to, and I immediately switched to the camera that gave me a view of the street out front. Slowly, my demon calmed down, letting me begin to shift back into my human form. I didn’t like letting the demon take over, because clearly I had some anger issues, and I knew that going full-on demon escalated my emotions, making me overbearing and unmanageable. And yet, I didn’t feel remorse for what I’d just done. Not one bit.
I figured she must be working with someone, because the timing of the blue envelopes told me she wasn’t the one delivering them. It could be one person or several, though.
Honestly, I should’ve recognized her fighting style. She was a carbon fucking copy of the man who had ruined our lives. But throwing Jasper in our faces and using a woman to infiltrate us? I couldn’t wait to fucking end Asrael.
I climbed the stairs and slipped through the secret door into my room before falling back on my bed with a deep sigh. My body was tired from the fight, from shifting, from the emotional fucking hit I’d been blindsided with.
She was gone, and I was pretty positive I’d scared her bad enough that she wouldn’t dare come back. The only thing I wished was that I could spare my friends the hurt they’d inevitably feel when they realized she was gone. I was thankful I could soften the blow though; they didn’t need to know about the bullshit she’d tried to pull, using Jasper’s name like that.
It was too difficult to talk about Jasper, so we just… never did. What used to be six was now five, and it didn’t matter how much time passed, the sting of his loss was never going to lessen.
There were regrets. Of course. Jasper had warned me about the risks—if Asrael found out what we were doing… Foolishly, I’d ignored his warnings. We’d both ignored common fucking sense, and it had cost Jas his life.
Asrael never knew it was me that Jasper had been sneaking around with, and thank fuck he never found out, because the rest of us wouldn’t have made it out of Besmet alive. As it was, we’d had a hard enough time escaping the castle after Jasper died and we realized what Asrael had done. Tal and Ash had been ready to shred him right then and there, but he was too strong for us to attack without a plan.
We’d slipped through the realm, mainly at night, using our unique abilities to go undetected and to get out of dicey situations. The nights were dark, and our minds were even darker. Eventually, we made it to a resistance camp and got to work helping them figure out ways to overthrow Asrael and the monarchy. King Thane was still on the throne, but that didn’t mean shit when you had a sociopath for a brother. I was amazed that Thane’s son, Bram, hadn’t met an untimely end in some sort of “accident,” since he was the sole heir to the throne.
My phone vibrated, snapping me out of my thoughts. I dug it out of my pocket and saw a text notification from Hawthorne. It was early morning, but he often got started at the shop before the sun came up. I opened the message and scanned the words, sitting up as I did.
This was taped on the front door this morning.
I clicked the picture to enlarge it and growled at the sight of a blue envelope with my name on it. Fucking bastards. But if Asrael was behind these little notes, then that would mean that he did know about Jasper and me. This seemed like an underwhelming reaction from him. I’d fully expected him to materialize before me and kill me outright if he ever found out, not leave fuckin’ notes to taunt me.
I pressed my palms to my forehead and groaned. My gods damned head was pounding from trying to figure out what the hell was going on, and I knew my headache was about to become exponentially worse since I could already hear pounding footsteps and shouting from the boys. They knew she was gone, and they would be heading in here next.
They couldn’t know that I’d seen her before she left. I threw the covers back and dove under them just seconds before my bedroom door was practically blasted off the hinges.
“WHERE IS SHE?!” Ashland roared, charging into my room like a rabid wolf, his eyes darting around like I was hiding her in plain sight. My door made a creaking sound, and the top hinge came loose, leaving it hanging at a very awkward angle.
“What the fuck, man?” I pointed at the fucked-up door. “Where is who?”
“Palmer,” he snarled, sniffing the air. I braced myself for the hit I knew was coming because I suddenly realized he was going to scent her all over me. His wings expanded, and he launched himself at me, knocking me out of bed. He lowered his face, scenting my chest and neck. “You smell like her. Where is she?”
