Chapter 1 #2
Once we figured out that the series of murders over the last year and a half was related to the demon, we tried to get ahead of them.
We looked for girls who fit the general profile of the ones who were killed—specifically, females around Locklyn’s age and build who, at some point, slipped and accidentally revealed their creature magic.
In an era of AI, filters, and deepfakes, most humans dismissed these accidental flashes.
The demon didn’t.
How it knew about them, we don’t know. But catching on to what was happening gave us a place to start, and we’d been trying to reach the girls before the demon ever since, with no success so far. This was the seventh corpse we’d come across since I’d returned to the human world.
The demon hasn’t found Locklyn’s sister yet, but it’s only a matter of time.
A renewed sense of urgency rises in my chest, making me antsy.
The space between the killings is starting to shorten.
The last one was less than a week ago. We arrived a day late, finding her mutilated body in the marshlands near New Orleans, where she went to school.
Her parents didn’t even know she was missing yet.
The blood in the room today is still fresh, not even starting to congeal. I’m not an expert, but my gut says if we’d been just thirty minutes earlier we might have prevented this tragedy.
“Have the local authorities been called?”
Kade nods. “Let’s get out of here. There’s nothing else we can do.”
I start to follow him out when I notice Talon isn’t with us. Glancing over my shoulder, I catch him staring down at the dead girl, a hollow look in his eyes, and finally a splash of emotion on his face: dread.
I can guess what he’s thinking. If the second part of the prophecy had been about Locklyn, that girl could have been her.
I try to ignore the grin on Talon’s usually stoic face during the flight back to NYC.
Generally speaking, the mood in the jet is somber.
Kade glowers from his spot in the back of the plane, looking like he’s ready to bite anyone’s head off who disturbs him.
The other Order members have been uncharacteristically quiet.
Conversations over the three-and-a-half-hour flight have been no more than low murmurs, and short.
But with an hour left until landing, Talon’s phone pinged with a message and he’s had a permanent smile on his face ever since.
The worst part is he’s sitting right across from me, so I can’t miss it.
It’s not until we are on our descent into the small airport outside the city when he finally pockets his cell again, his mood still disgustingly light.
“Locklyn?” I ask, not needing to say any more than that.
He nods. “She’s waiting at the airfield for us.”
She’s not waiting for us. She’s waiting for him.
As the plane decreases altitude, he keeps checking out the window and fiddling with his seatbelt. It’s clear he’s antsy to get off the plane to see her.
I lean back in my seat, settling in even more. The last thing I am right now is in a rush.
“I still don’t understand what she sees in you,” I jab, hiding my pain behind biting humor.
He glances over at me with a smirk. “It’s the jawline,” he says without missing a beat, and I roll my eyes.
“I have a sharp jawline too,” I grumble just as the plane touches down.
Talon laughs and then pops out of his seat before the plane stops moving. He slaps me on the back good-naturedly, like I’m joking.
Which I am . . . mostly.
Crossing my arms, I let my biceps stretch my sleeves, making a point, and he laughs harder and heads toward the door.
As soon as the plane rolls to a stop, he throws open the door and rushes out, not bothering to wait for the cabin crew to do it.
I, on the other hand, take my time, letting the rest of the Order members deplane, until it’s only Kade and me left.
“Do you want me to check to make sure it’s clear?” Kade asks, coming up next to me.
I grab my pack from the empty seat next to me and stand. “I don’t know what you mean.”
He shoots me a look that says I’m full of it, and he’s right.
I’m taking my time because I don’t want to watch the Talon and Locklyn show. If they’re apart for more than a few hours, their reunions can get rather intense.
That’s the last thing I want to see right now.
Leaning over, Kade peeks out the window and winces. “You might want to give it another minute,” he says with an apologetic look before heading toward the cabin door.
I shrug like I couldn’t care less, but I’m not fooling anyone, except for maybe Locklyn and Talon. And that’s because I put in the work around them to seem as unaffected as possible.
At the end of the day, Locklyn is happy, and I care about her enough not to want to ruin that for her. Besides, it’s bad enough she picked the other guy. I don’t think I could handle her pity on top of that.
When we returned to the creature world after defeating Kerrim in Central Park, I thought I might still have a chance with her.
As far as we knew, Talon was lost to her forever.
She grieved as if he had died, so I didn’t want to press her too soon.
Eventually, it seemed like she was accepting it and moving on, and I was preparing to make my move.
But I was wrong. Instead of giving up, Locklyn dug in and fought, finding a way back to Talon when we all thought it was impossible, going as far as to leave everything behind for him: her family, the only life she’d ever known—me.
When I found out what she was trying to do, I didn’t want to admit I’d lost her forever. It was only when she disappeared through the portal back to the human world, and I thought I’d never see her again, that I finally gave up hope.
But knowing that you’ll never be with someone again doesn’t mean the feelings just disappear. Locklyn’s relationship with Talon is proof of that. Instead, I was stuck in this agonizing limbo, torturing myself with wondering where she was and if she was happy.
Over time, I did learn to accept it, mostly, and my emotions for her cooled.
But when we learned she and her sister might still be in danger in the human world, I knew I had to warn her.
Before it all turned, Locklyn used to be my best friend, and that love never dulled.
I fought as hard to get to her as she had for Talon, doing what needed to be done and not making many friends in the process.
If I ever make it back to the creature world, I’ll be facing the wrath of the Society for what I did.
When they refused to take the Vampire King’s warning about the prophecy seriously, I went around them, breaking him out to get here.
Regardless of the enemies I made in the creature world, I don’t regret my decision. I needed to come here. I needed to warn Locklyn about the demon and do what I could to help stop it. I needed to see with my own two eyes that she was happy and safe with Talon.
Which she is.
I just didn’t realize watching her move on without me would hurt this much.
Absentmindedly, I rub at the ache in my chest as I count to sixty and then deem it safe to deplane.
I’m wrong.
My insides clench when I spot Locklyn and Talon still in an embrace.
She’s up in his arms, her legs wrapped around his waist, both her hands in his hair as she holds him in place as they kiss.
Talon’s arm supports her, while his other hand gently strokes her neck, playing with the fine hairs at her nape.
I know the murdered girl’s likeness to Locklyn hit him hard, but this is ridiculous. Have they been going at it like this for the last ten minutes?
Get a room, already.
They break apart suddenly, heads snapping in my direction, cheeks flushed and gazes unfocused.
Shit. Did I say that out loud?
They detangle, Locklyn sliding down the front of Talon’s body before he finally releases her. He gives her a quick kiss on the nose before they break apart.
I force a smile as Locklyn comes over to give me a friendly hug. Color stains her cheeks, and I don’t know if it’s from embarrassment over the PDA or the fact she’s still catching her breath from the kissing.
I want to be anywhere but here.
I may have come back to the human world for Locklyn, but the more time I spend with her, the clearer it becomes that she’s fine without me. This isn’t self-deprecation, it’s actually a good thing. I know she appreciates that I’m here and why, but she’s moving on. With Talon.
The longer I’m around them, the more I realize I need to move on too.
It’s just hard when she’s always right there in front of me. I’m stuck in this weird push and pull with her. And for the first time, I want something from Locklyn that I’ve never had before.
Space.
“I’m so sorry about the girl,” Locklyn says after a quick hug.
I nod, because what else is there to say or do?
“We’ll find my sister.” She says it with so much confidence it makes me believe her.
From the moment I told her about her sister, Locklyn has worked tirelessly to try to locate her.
I can still remember the look of awed disbelief on her face when she learned that her human family might still be alive.
The assumption had been that her parents and sister were killed when she was kidnapped and taken to the creature world.
They’d vanished completely, so it never even crossed her mind that they might still be alive.
But now that she knows they might be out there somewhere, she’s thrown herself into finding them with single-minded focus.
She usually goes with us on these missions, but she stayed behind this time because she hadn’t slept in over two days. She had discovered the lead but was wise enough to know she wasn’t in good shape to go with us in case we did run across the demon.
I’m glad she didn’t come with us. The memory of the slaughtered girl will stay with me for the rest of my life. She doesn’t need that image rolling around in her head, imagining that it’s her sister.
Talon comes up behind her, laying a hand on her lower back. Probably without even realizing it, she leans into his touch.
“Want to go grab a quick bite with us?” he asks.
I raise my eyebrows. We left the West Coast late, and between the flight time and time change, it’s a little after four a.m. in New York.
“Now?”
He shrugs. “Empire is open all night. My sleep schedule is all screwed up anyway. I feel like dinner, then I want to get a few hours of sleep.”
“You should come,” Locklyn says just as her hand lands on my arm.
I flinch before I can stop myself. She drops her hand at once, her frown carrying a flicker of hurt that sends a familiar ache through my chest. I want to erase that look, to tell her it’s not her fault. But I hold my tongue.
We’ve both been trying to pretend things are the same as they used to be. We both want to stay in each other’s lives. But to do that we have to figure out a new normal for us. We’re just not there yet.
“Naw, you guys go ahead,” I say, adding a forced lightness to my tone. “I’m beat. I need to check on Cassian anyway.”
Locklyn visibly shudders when I mention the Vampire King by name. She hasn’t warmed to the two-thousand-year-old vampire yet. I don’t blame her. He’s a weird dude, to say the least.
He knew about Locklyn’s sister and the demon’s intentions because being trapped in Shadow Striker with it made him privy to its secrets.
On top of that, he has a very particular type of magic: the ability to make portals between the worlds.
He’s the only creature in existence, that we know of, who can do that.
Without him, I never would have gotten back to the human world.
The one stipulation for his help was that I take him with me, and so I did. But then I somehow became his unofficial caretaker as well. We’ve been holed up in the same tiny apartment that Kade secured for us since we arrived.
For the most part, it’s easy. Still recovering from his ordeal, he rarely leaves his room. It’s like living with a shut-in, or that weird roommate who gives all your friends the creeps. I try to cut the guy some slack though and at least make sure he’s eating and taken care of.
“You sure?” Talon asks, giving me a look that makes me think he sees right through my flimsy excuse. But I nod and force a smile that feels brittle.
Hopefully it looks more convincing than it feels.
With a wave, I head out, letting the smile slip from my face the moment my back is turned to them.
Exhaustion pulls at my limbs, but even so, I’m not going to get rest anytime soon. The urgency that’s causing the knot in my chest won’t let me.
There won’t be another murdered girl. Not if I can stop it. I just need to dig deeper. I need to find Locklyn’s sister and make sure she’s safe.
Then, maybe when I’ve helped save her life, I’ll be able to move on with my own.