Chapter Fourteen
Roux
“Thank you, Lila. You may leave,” the woman in the lavender suit said.
My best friend cast me a sympathetic look before exiting the room, closing the door softly behind her and leaving us at the mercy of the five Guild members.
“What happened to my couch?” Thane asked, and a flush of heat crept up my neck and along my cheekbones as I took in the piece of furniture. The legs of the couch lay broken beneath the seat, and the main body of it was snapped in half.
“That’s where I died the first time,” Atticus quipped.
Thane’s eyebrows rose to his hairline. “What?”
Atticus turned and pointed towards me. “That would be Roux’s fault. Besides, it was only a little blip of mortality, really.”
I grinned wide. “What can I say? Sex with me is a deadly experience.”
“Is that so?” A sensuous voice said, pulling my attention back to the Guild members.
The man who spoke was beautiful. Impossibly so and almost too beautiful to look at.
Dark, mysterious sapphire eyes, full lips, pale, luminous skin and rich auburn hair that fell to his shoulders in soft waves.
He exuded confidence, and I was instantly drawn to him.
The room faded into insignificance the longer that I looked at him.
This gorgeous man had to be the incubus.
The incubus continued to stare at me, and he rolled his bottom lip between his teeth in a move that was so hot, so blatantly sexual, that my entire core clenched. “Any chance I could try?”
I let loose a breathy laugh. “Absolutely not. I’m not sure you could handle me.”
The incubus smiled wide, and he held his hand out. “I’m Daire.”
“Nice to meet you,” I said as I shook his hand. It was warm and soft but with a firmness lurking beneath his delicate touch. Steel wrapped in silk. “I hear sex with an incubus could also be considered deadly.”
“Only when we’re starving, and I try not to let my hunger get that desperate,” Daire said, his dark eyes assessing each of us in turn.
“I’m Lazarra,” the lady in the lavender suit said, interrupting my appreciation of the incubus.
She had skin the colour of honey, and her eyes shimmered like drops of whisky.
Her platinum blonde hair was scraped back into a severe bun at the nape of her neck, and her long legs ended in stiletto-clad feet.
Wow, she was tall. “Blood witch and Head of the Guild. This is Rory, my second in command.”
Where Lazarra was serious and to the point, Rory looked like he belonged on a beach. His skin was golden, his hair a soft blonde with sky blue accents and all messy. He smelt like the sea, and I could imagine him spending lazy days under the sun.
“How do you do?” I asked as I shook his hand, a little mesmerised at meeting a merman.
I’d never had the chance to meet one before.
They weren’t known for their trips to the Underworld but I had heard tales of some living out on the shores of Elysium.
Not that anyone had ever seen them. They were mysterious creatures and rarely out of the water.
“Very well,” he said cheerfully, his voice as smooth as silk. His skin was rough against mine, and there was something about his aura that had me curious to know him better. I especially wanted to know how he ended up working at the Guild. “Pleasure to meet you, Roux.”
The man next to Rory looked bored and like he wished he was anywhere else. He also had that slight pale shimmer that identified him as a ghost. He didn’t hold his hand out, and I didn’t ask for it.
“I’m Jefferson,” was all that the ghost said, his words clipped. Okay, guess we weren’t going to be best buddies, then.
“I’m Avery,” the woman next to Jefferson squealed.
She threw her arms around me in a hug and squeezed me hard.
The scent of mountain pine wafted from her, and I could feel her wolf shift beneath her skin.
Most people wouldn’t, but I could always feel the Hounds beneath the skin of the twins because I’d spent so much time with them.
“It’s lovely to meet you, Avery,” I replied, casting a pleading look at one of the guys to help me. This tiny woman was about to break a rib.
“Perhaps you should let the Reaper go,” Jefferson drawled.
“Sorry.” Avery stepped back, a sheepish look on her elfin face.
She seemed on the petite side for a wolf, but I knew that looks could be deceiving.
There was no way this woman was on the Council without some serious prowess backing up her stature.
“I am a big fan, and I have been so eager to meet you! I’ve been following you on the DeadZone for years, and I love it when you smack some punk-ass, no-good-for-nothing douchebag in the face with some Reaper justice. ”
What the fuck? “You follow me on DeadZone?”
I didn’t even know I could have a following on DeadZone. That was our social media down here, and it was supposed to only be for the Underworld, but someone leaked it to the surface, and now everyone is on there. The dead and the living alike. I avoided the thing like the plague.
Rafe chuckled. “It’s quite the impressive page. I think Norman set it up when you kept going rogue and causing havoc topside.”
“You’re quite the star outside of GRIM,” Rayne added.
I was flabbergasted. Not only had Norman—our PR guru—kept this from me, but so had the twins. To be fair, if I had known about it, I’d probably have told Norman to take it down. “Let me see—”
“As delightful as this is to watch, I think we should probably be moving on with why we are here,” Lazarra said as she pulled out a chair. “Please, sit.”
I sat in the chair opposite Lazarra, the twins to my left and Atticus and Thane to my right. The welcoming atmosphere of the room dissipated into a serious, thick tension. It brushed at my skin with a clammy hand and made the room feel incredibly close.
“Thank you for joining us this afternoon,” Lazarra began.
Rory pulled out a large number of files and placed them on the table in front of him.
“It wasn’t like we had much choice,” Rayne growled. I placed my hand on his thigh and squeezed gently. We needed to remain level-headed until we knew what we were dealing with. Pissing off the Guild wasn’t going to get us anywhere.
“No,” Lazarra replied, her voice curt. “But I’m glad you didn’t run. Then we would have had to send investigators after you, and it would have become this whole thing, and it’s just so much easier that you’re here.”
“Happy we could help, then,” Rafe drawled, and I flicked him a pleading glance.
Lazarra hit the pair of them with a flat look. “If you could leave the sarcasm at the door, I’d appreciate it.”
“They’ll behave,” I said, giving the twins a death stare.
Daire laughed softly, the sound of it low and seductive.
It made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up as a shiver crept down my spine.
The man himself sat there watching me, a long finger tracing his cupid’s bow while amusement danced in his eyes.
He knew exactly what he was doing to me, so I scowled at him, but the asshat just smiled back.
“So, I bet you’re all wondering why you’re here?” Lazarra said as she flicked through the first file, ignoring the incubus at her side. “We received notification of the expungement of Mr Drake’s debt through death, and yet the man is still walking around. Explain.”
Atticus cleared his throat and sat up straighter. “I did die, and I am dead.”
“This is correct,” Thane added. “He is tied to me by his soul and my Death Magic, which now gives him life.”
“But he’s dead?” Rory asked, his expression confused.
“As a doornail,” I clarified.
“Must have made quite the impression,” Daire posed, his eyebrow quirked suggestively.
“He did,” Thane replied. “I saw him and instantly knew he was mine.”
“Aww,” Avery said with a sweet smile and her hands clasped under her chin. “I love it when that happens.”
Jefferson gave a grumpy huff. “It’s Fate.”
Avery playfully backhanded Jefferson in the chest. “Doesn’t make it any less special.”
I had expected some sort of retaliation from Jefferson, but he merely curled his lip in a hint of a smile. Maybe the ghost wasn’t as grumpy as he made out to be.
“If it makes any difference, I’m also bonded to Roux,” Atticus added, a wide grin plastered on his face.
I rolled my eyes at him. Now he was just showing off.
Lazarra quirked an eyebrow. “A Metus demon with two mates?”
Daire looked at the five of us, his gaze assessing. “I think there is more to this unit than meets the eye.”
“What do you mean?” Lazarra asked as she turned to face the incubus.
Daire must be a powerful incubus if he could sense the love lines that linked us all.
The ones that were and the ones that could be.
It was a power found only in the highest-ranking incubi, the Royals.
Jeepers, was this guy a prince? His dark eyes shimmered silver as he called his ether sight to him and looked at all of us in turn.
“They are all connected to one another. Their love lines are all entangled, but some are incomplete. Interesting.”
His eyes snapped back to the dark sapphire blue, and a knowing smirk curled his lips. What did he mean by ‘interesting’? I wanted to ask, but now definitely wasn’t the time. Dammit, I’d have to collar him later.
“What happens to me now?” Atticus asked the Guild, his thumbs turning over each other as he looked at Lazarra.
He’d been forced to work for the Guild as punishment for attacking one of the other high-ranking officials.
He’d literally trapped the man’s mind inside a living nightmare, holding it prisoner until the day the man died.
That high-ranking official had forced himself on Atticus’ little sister and sexually abused her which made it a fitting punishment if you ask me.
It was just unfortunate that even attacking scumbags like that will earn you a sentence to serve.