Chapter 3 #2
“Watch me.” Onyx’s body flashed hot. He needed to get his emotions under control, but everything was so sharp today.
So overwhelming. “Andras was a pacifist. Caught off guard after trusting the wrong witch. Your coven couldn’t overpower me.
Don’t let history make you bold. One slayed demon is hardly a precedent. ”
Rowan relaxed his posture, so calm you’d think he hadn’t been threatened. What was his angle in backing down?
“My apologies. I clearly have no idea what’s going on here. I don’t even know what mates are. Of course, I’ll help get the word out about demons returning, but it seems we need to agree on a message first. How about a drink?”
Nico nodded, and Rowan stood, heading for the small bar on the other side of the room.
“Bourbon, please.” Nico sounded relieved.
Rowan began pouring two glasses. “How about you, Onyx?”
“Nothing for me.” Onyx didn’t drink anything but blood and the occasional intoxicating potion.
The hunger filling him intensified. Maybe Onyx should ask Nico to personally quench his thirst. That would really piss him off. But the possibility of sampling Nico’s blood tugged at him, as if he really wanted it, and hadn’t entertained the idea purely because it was inappropriate.
Onyx shifted his weight, leaning closer to Nico. His citrus cologne was overpowering. He must have doused himself. Onyx hated how pleasant the smell was. He didn’t usually gravitate toward such bright scents.
Nico accepted his drink and raised his glass to Rowan. The vampire did the same, and they drank.
Rowan settled back in his seat. “Can you tell me how the demons were released? If they’re worried about re-confinement, that could change things. Lucifer trapped them in the first place, correct?”
Onyx pulled his mind away from Nico’s scent and the weird effect it was having on him. “Yes, Lucifer trapped us. He also released everyone. My brothers and I planned to free our fellow demons, but he beat us to it.”
Nico cocked his head. “You planned to release the rest of the demons?”
Onyx shrugged. “It was the right thing to do. They didn’t deserve to be imprisoned.”
“Lucifer agreed with you?” Rowan asked.
“We didn’t exactly discuss it. He’s the one who deserves to be trapped, and he released everyone, at least in part, as a distraction to get away from me and my brothers.”
“Brothers? You mean the Hounds?”
Onyx’s eyes narrowed. “We don’t like that term.”
“Apologies.” Rowan sounded frustratingly genuine. “So, Lucifer changed his mind about holding the demons in Hell? Why?”
That was the question, wasn’t it? “If you meet him, you can ask.”
Nico set his empty glass on the coffee table. He drank that quick. “It has to be mates, right? Ash and Dante said they’re the only ones to find theirs.”
Onyx’s fire flared. Fine, he’d talk about mates.
“Freeing the demons could be in response to discovering Ash and Dante are mated. But the way Lucifer released them wasn’t completely spur of the moment, not with how the gateway was constructed.
He could have planned it before discovering Ash and Dante’s mates. ”
And Lucifer hadn’t believed either demon was mated. His conviction that they were lying had been so strong. Would he really change his tune that drastically? If not, why had he been planning to release everyone?
He must not have been. Onyx had to have it wrong.
Rowan shifted closer, perching on the edge of the couch, and Onyx could practically feel his questions coming.
“We fell to Earth to find our mates,” he said to head Rowan off, bitterness eclipsing the hunger gnawing at him.
“Eternal beings have fated mates. Destined matches. It’s all very political in the Eternal Realm, so some of us came here to find and claim our partners freely.
But we never found them. Everyone assumed the silly quest was hopeless.
We were being punished for falling. Blah, blah, blah.
Apparently, all it took was a few thousand years of waiting. ”
Rowan sipped his drink. “So the freed demons will be looking for mates. For love?”
Onyx ground his teeth. “I guess.” Mates were still the driving force behind too much. Onyx was over it. Had been for a long fucking time.
Rowan took a second to digest this before turning his attention to Nico. “Why do you think the magic world should be aware of fated love?”
Nico ran a hand through his hair, glancing between them.
“Mating means binding yourself to a demon irreversibly. It’s not like any other magic I’ve heard of.
People should at least be aware that this kind of bond exists.
We can’t do much about informing humans without revealing our whole world, but it would be better for fewer mates to be caught off guard. ”
Rowan nodded slowly. “You don’t trust it. Do you not think the fated connection is as genuine and as purely love-based as Onyx says?”
“I don’t doubt Onyx and the other demons are telling the truth, but I don’t like the idea of powerful beings binding themselves to unsuspecting people.” Nico seemed to brace himself for Onyx’s reaction, hand tightly gripping the leather armrest.
Onyx smiled. Nico’s suspicion was like a breath of fresh air. For millennia, all Onyx heard was how great the connection would be and how important finding their mates was. He didn’t exactly disagree, but he didn’t need a mate. Mating wasn’t more important than any other aspect of his life.
He didn’t care much one way or another. He saw no reason to be heartsick over not having a mate when there were so many other ways to enrich his life.
“Sounds like you have a healthy critical eye.” Onyx turned away from Nico, but not before noting the man’s surprise.
“I’ll tell my brothers you think mates should be common knowledge, and see what they say.
Though it’s not really up to us if it should be secret or not. We aren’t demonkind’s representatives.”
He paused. “I will say, if you’re spreading stories, make sure you present being a demon’s mate as rare. There have only been two since we fell, and just because they were found recently doesn’t mean we’re all going to suddenly pair off.”
Rowan nodded, setting his empty glass down.
“Noted. I’ll discuss this with my coven and see if we can decide where to start getting word out, emphasizing the exodus, not mates.
Passing things along to my allies here and overseas will be easiest, and Nico, if you could talk to the Lockwood Coven, that would be helpful. ”
“They’ve been having a hard time lately, but I’ll see who I can speak with.”
Onyx hadn’t heard of the Lockwood Coven. Until recently, he’d kept almost completely out of the magic world.
Which reminded him.
“I don’t want people knowing who I am.” Onyx straightened his posture, letting his eyes burn in Rowan’s direction. “I suppose some of your coven saw me come in, so that cat’s out of the bag if they’re also aware I own Gallery Four. But no one else.”
“Not a problem. My coven will keep your visit and identity confidential.”
“Thanks, Rowan.” Nico stood, and the vampire followed suit. Onyx hurried to follow. “Let me know how talking to your coven goes and when you plan to start passing things along.”
“Of course.” Rowan clapped Nico on the shoulder, winning a small smile in return. “I’m happy for the Valeros to be the point of contact here in the city, and won’t spread around that you’re in contact with Hounds—uh…” He looked apologetically at Onyx. “What do I call you and your brothers?”
“I’d prefer if you didn’t refer to us.”
Nico let out an irritated sigh.
“Right.” Rowan only nodded. “Shall I contact you through Nico if I need you?”
Onyx gave him a look that told the vampire not to need him. “Sure.”
“Excellent.” Rowan led them toward the door. “Poker this week?” he asked Nico.
“I’ll be there. If I’m not, Leo will hunt me down.”
Rowan chuckled, and irritation flared in Onyx’s chest, his hunger growing from a pit to a chasm.
He couldn’t believe these two were actually friends.
Why was Nico so cozy with a mobster-esque vampire?
The two were nothing alike. Nico had stains on his jeans and obviously fretted about Ollie and Harper—given his opinion of mates—while Rowan was busy building his empire.
He clearly had a lot more going on than a strip club and whatever else was in this building, talking about allies like he had enemies.
Nico should have better friends.
“As Leo should. We’d miss you otherwise. And, Nico”—Rowan paused at the door—“if you start getting a lot of requests after this comes out, let me know.”
“Yeah, I’m sure it’ll be fine. We aren’t advertising my connection to the demons.”
“Still. People come to you.”
Onyx’s pulse thumped. They were acting like he wasn’t even there, and this was the second time people coming to see Nico had been mentioned.
Was he so accommodating and helpful that he let people ask him favors all the time?
Would they come to him if they heard about demons, not even knowing Nico was connected to this mess?
How infuriating. Onyx wouldn’t stand for anything like that if it were him.
“I have to get back to work,” Onyx announced, refusing to be so easily forgotten. “It was interesting to meet you.”
“Likewise.” Rowan grinned, showing fang for some dumb reason.
“Talk soon.” Nico turned and headed into the hall.
Onyx followed, the door shutting behind him.
Nico continued down the corridor without waiting. “Didn’t you agree to help because you were good with people?”
Onyx made a face at his back. “No, you said I was good at moving between worlds. And I am. This wasn’t a human niceties conversation. Rowan was posturing from the get-go. Acting meek isn’t how I work.”
Nico huffed. “It’s not meek to be friendly.”
“Agree to disagree, witch.”