Chapter 9 #2
“Then we need to wait,” Deacon says, blocking my hand. “Follow him until he leads us to Reid.”
I frown. “I get it. You can’t have him see that you’re helping me. I’m just going to peek—”
This time I use my hunter strength to break off the handle and peer inside. Finn’s shirtless, pulling his pants back on, as a mortal woman is zipping up her dress. The scent of sex wafts out and my nose crinkles.
“If you thought that was something,” Finn says as he buttons his shirt, his voice as reedy as the last time I heard it, “wait until I show you what kind of games I play down the hall.”
“I love playing games,” the flushed woman purrs, offering him his belt from the love seat.
Finn sneers, mood changed on a dime. “You will watch. And like watching.”
She nods, eyes a little wide.
“Come on,” he snarls at her before dragging her out another door on the opposite side of the room.
I don’t think as I slip inside, Deacon right after me, and shut the door behind us.
The private room is simple. A bed, a porcelain soaking tub, that love seat with Finn’s belt still on it.
Hinoki incense paired with the scent of human sweat stings my eyes.
When I reach the door Finn passed through, I can’t get it open. It’s been locked with magic.
“Shit,” I curse. “He must have a witch back there. It’s spelled.” But the fizz in my blood only intensifies. Somewhere nearby is a gaggle of Brood. “They’re here, though. I don’t know about Reid, but Finn and his men…There’s a whole crew of them past this door.”
Wait until I show you what kind of games I play down the hall. I wouldn’t be surprised if his idea of foreplay was pulling out Reid’s fingernails in front of his sexual partners. My blood begins to hammer in my veins.
With an arch through his shoulder muscles, Deacon’s arms ripple over with sleek, silver-white scales.
His hands gnarl and elongate into the clawed fists of a beast. Of a behemoth king of glorious violence.
Just the shift of his forearms is a more vicious display of power than any I’ve seen outside the High Thane.
For a moment I forget where we are, what our shared goals might be, how we’ve bickered all night like equals. Like he’s an exasperating coworker—
Deacon Graveheart is no such thing. I find myself reaching for my daggers.
He’s about to slam those massive creature’s fists into the door when my blood spikes. “Stop!”
Someone is coming. Someone with slicked-back dark hair, someone odious, insidious—Finn. “Finn’s coming back.”
The door handle shakes as a spell is cast. No time to run. I brace myself for the fight, but Deacon grabs me by the shoulders, hands and forearms already back in human form, scattered with his patchwork of tattoos.
“Get on your knees,” he breathes.
“What?”
“Trust me. Get on your knees.”
The door handle twists.
“Trust you? You’ve tried to kill me. Multiple times.”
“And now,” he growls, “I’m trying to save us both. Get on your knees, Vivienne.”
As the door swings open I do what he says and come face-to-face with the zipper of Deacon’s pants.
“Deacon?” Finn asks. I sense a turned warlock by his side. A redheaded man with a narrow face and nervous energy.
Deacon releases a low groan of satisfaction that sends unwelcome shivers up my neck.
His broad hand twines in the hair atop my scalp, keeping me hidden in front of his body.
Despite everything in me screaming not to, I bring my hands to his muscled thighs.
Deacon’s thumb strokes my cheek and he groans again, turning his head back to Finn. “ ’Sup, buddy.”
He sounds wasted, and I realize Finn can likely smell all the drinks he’s had tonight as well as I can.
He did say he wanted to be sure the High Thane and his son never knew he was looking for Reid.
Had he downed all those drinks as a cover?
So if he ran into Finn he’d appear to have been indulging at the party like any other night?
The warlock hurries over to the green love seat and grabs Finn’s forgotten belt.
Deacon’s hand—broad and veined and warm—curves down my neck possessively and brushes the skin between my throat and my shoulder.
He holds me there, caressing gently, thrusting his hips just enough to look like the act from behind.
“Well, don’t mind us,” Finn chuckles like a conspirator, sliding on his belt with ease. “Enjoy your well-spent dime, cousin.”
Shock like lightning courses through my veins.
Cousin.
When Finn and his warlock leave the way they came, I yank my head away and punch Deacon in the groin as hard as I can.
Deacon doubles over in pain, coughing and sputtering.
“That’s for the black eye,” I spit. “Why the fuck did he call you cousin?”
“You’re such”—he wheezes—“a bitch.”
“Answer me.”
When Deacon stands, his usually clear face is red and blotchy. He coughs once more, holding his gut. “Because he’s my cousin. Why do you fucking think?”
No. Not possible. Because that would mean…“The High Thane is your uncle? The High Thane is Reid’s uncle?”
Deacon rubs his stomach, still soothing the pain. “Surprise,” he chokes out.
For some sick reason, I want to laugh. “You’ve known his identity all this time.”
“Don’t tell me you’re mad I haven’t called the authorities?” But then he gets it. I know, because I can see the way his irritation mutates into pleasure at my suffering. “No, no, of course not. You’re mad Reid never called the authorities.”
All the times Reid swore he had no idea who the High Thane was, despite being in the Brood for so many years. It’s a sledgehammer to his integrity. “If he knew who the High Thane was, how could he not have told the Elders?” How could he not have told me?
“Listen,” Deacon says, stalking toward the door Finn walked out of.
“I don’t know my brother as well as I used to.
I can’t tell you why he did or didn’t do any of the dumb shit he did, from following Edgar Driscoll out of the Brood, to working at that school, to getting himself kidnapped for your sorry ass. ”
Guilt and anger twine around my heart.
“What I do know is that everything is relative. My uncle may be a sniveling, vindictive piece of human feces, but better the devil you know than the one you don’t, right? If he’s removed from the Throne of Bael, who takes over?”
All the blood drains from my face. “Finn.”
“Bingo. And that guy’s a freak. Maybe Reid chose the lesser of two evils.”
It’s not a bad point. In fact, it reminds me of what Fiona said just the other day about the Elders. How their job is to ensure the good of the many, not the one.
“Or maybe he just didn’t give a shit,” Deacon adds, reaching for the door handle. “Like me.”
“He’s nothing like you.”
“Yeah, yeah, yeah. Reid the saintly demon. Whatever helps you sleep at night.”
But something is dawning on me. “Why not just ask Finn and your uncle to free Reid? He’s their family too.”
Icy violence gutters through his eyes and I regret the question instantly. “Not an option,” Deacon snarls. “As I’ve told you. Repeatedly.”
I try to piece together all I’ve learned in such a short amount of time.
Deacon doesn’t fear the Brood—he’s avoided their dominance, their wrath for thousands of years—and yet he’s adamant neither Finn nor the High Thane catch wind of his efforts to save Reid.
His freedom from their prying eyes somehow revolves around them also being free from his.
“Your uncle has something on you,” I mutter, awed.
“If you anger him he won’t try to kill you or take your club…
it’s worse.” A weakness in this creature of horrific, exquisite power.
Deacon ignores me, swinging the door open with his demon’s claw, but I slam it shut once more.
“Listen, I don’t care if you don’t like me or you think I’m a bitch—”
“Both.”
“—but if we find Reid down this hall, you need to swear to me we’ll do things my way.”
“And what does your way entail?”
“For starters, we need to stop hiding from Finn. I don’t care what they have on you.
It won’t matter if we successfully take him out.
And no human lives get lost in the process, okay?
He went in there with a mortal woman. There are going to be more.
And most importantly, we have to actually work together—”
But Deacon just shoves me aside, swings the door open, and stalks down the dimly lit corridor without me.
“Asshole,” I mutter to myself.