Chapter 5
Chapter five
Nikhiv looked pretty good for a dead demon.
Mira openly stared at him while the others talked. He was seated at the table with Phoebe snuggled in his lap, while he fed her bites of the perfect omelet only a professional cook could create.
He’d mentioned offhand that his healing had been a side effect of taking Phoebe as his mate. Yet, Mira couldn’t imagine how, since it appeared that the two had done nothing since she’d left last night but fuck.
A lot, from the looks of it.
Nikhiv practically oozed male satisfaction as he whispered and caressed Phoebe like he’d known her his entire life. With the way his eyes gleamed, he’d gladly carry her back to her bedroom, where he’d already kept her until late morning.
And the way Phoebe squirmed in his lap, biting her lip, she wouldn’t mind.
Mira shook her head and finally glanced away. Phoebe had most definitely been a virgin up until yesterday. Her experience must have been nothing like Mira’s first time with her ex.
All Mira could recall from losing her virginity to Jackson was how uncomfortable it’d been. And slightly painful. She hadn’t let him touch her again for weeks.
She certainly hadn’t looked at him the way Phoebe was looking at Nikhiv now.
Not long after Nikhiv had emerged unblemished from the bedroom, leaving Mira gaping, Dominic had walked right upstairs into Phoebe’s apartment like he owned the place.
She didn’t understand was how Dominic’s jaw wasn’t on the floor, like hers, after seeing Nikhiv. He must have spent hours cleaning Nikhiv’s profuse blood out of her clothes last night.
Nikhiv looked better than just alive. His skin almost glowed. His wounds were reduced to faint lines. Even though less than twelve hours ago, she’d been kneeling in his blood on the floor, working alongside her brother to save him.
It was, flatly, impossible.
Before she’d joined the Demon Freedom Coalition, Mira had just been a keyboard warrior, arguing down the worst of the online trolls on social media. She’d become quite good at rebutting anti-demon hysteria, and wielding the academic citations to prove it. The articles not censored and removed by the Council, at least.
One of the earliest debunked myths was demon immortality. They weren’t immortals. Many of them lived incredibly long for some inexplicable reason, but demons otherwise aged, bled, died just like humans.
Because they were humans, as Professor Rellman had recently demonstrated with genetic sequencing. He’d even proposed labeling them as Homo daemons , a subspecies of Homo sapiens that had genetically diverged for survival reasons.
The Council’s takedown of Rellman had been particularly harsh and swift. After declaring his research pseudoscience, most of his online work and physical books had disappeared almost overnight.
It was fascist bullshit, like most of the things the Council did or stood for. Luckily, the DFC’s volunteer archivists had gotten way faster at creating backup databases of work like Rellman’s. Even the Council didn’t have enough resources to chase them all down.
Knowing Dominic could comfortably work for the Council wasn’t just disappointing. Before she’d simply classified him as a Council tool. But after last night, it left Mira’s stomach churning.
He was… decent. More than that, maybe. So how the fuck did he manage to sleep at night?
But when the rich asshole he’d called Bastian arrived, Mira realized Dominic just kept terrible company, in general.
She scowled. Bastian only seemed a few years older than Dominic, but his every gesture conveyed his disdain for Phoebe’s cozy apartment. He moved like someone who’d never known discomfort in his life.
It wasn’t surprising someone like Bastian could make a body disappear so easily. If he was as powerful as he looked, he probably could have moved it in broad daylight, with the assistance of the corrupt officials he likely had in his pocket.
Mira shoved the thought away, and eyed the stairs. She’d tolerated Dominic’s watchful eyes and Bastian’s arrogant voice for as long as she could manage in one session.
It was time to leave. She was hungry, Phoebe was safe, and Nikhiv was miraculously healed. As Phoebe’s so-called mate, he could also protect her.
Laara had disappeared already. Just as surprising, Bastian had noticed, and thrown a fit to find her gone. With his tailored suit and diamond cuff links, Mira had expected him to recoil in horror at the sight of their new colorful, food-stealing freeloader.
Now, it was time for Mira to make her own escape.
Or, so she’d thought.
Mira threw another withering glance behind her, where Dominic’s car was keeping pace with her brisk walk. “Fuck off, Dominic.”
“You don’t want to walk all the way to Diego’s from here. It’s a lot further from Phoebe’s place than your usual haunts. Half the lunch specials will be sold out by the time you get there.”
She shook her head and sped up. Damned stalker.
Another car honked loudly behind Dominic’s.
“See, Mira? We’re holding up traffic. I can do this all day. Everyone else will get pretty angry.”
Mira stopped abruptly, and stared at him in exasperation. He winked, and rolled to a stop beside her.
She made sure to slam the passenger door as hard as possible after she’d climbed in. Dominic merely grinned and pulled away from the curb as the driver behind him leaned on the horn.
“Don’t you have anything better to do than trail me everywhere?”
“Everything about you is my business, Mira. Especially now, after those demon attacks.”
She frowned at him uneasily. “You don’t actually think the DFC is behind this, do you?”
“You guys are too busy disrupting concerts and defacing public property to recruit and radicalize smoke demons into attacking humans.” He snorted. “The Demon Freedom Coalition is anarchist amateur hour. I very much doubt you have a single smoke demon among your ranks.”
Mira ignored his obvious baiting. “So, you really think this is a conspiracy by air demons?”
It annoyed her that Dominic seemed to know more about demons than she’d learned. Like the revelation that not only did air demons exist, but they apparently didn’t get along with smoke demons.
Embarrassingly, she’d thought air demons were just myth. She’d even done her fair share of refuting their existence to online conspiracy theorists.
“Maybe.” Dominic shrugged. “It’s not my job to confirm it, either way.”
He slowed at a yellow light, and his gaze lingered on her. “My job is to investigate you, and any connection the DFC might have to the attacks.”
“There is no connection,” she muttered.
“Then this should be fairly painless.”
“After which, you’ll leave me alone?” she prompted.
Dominic only smiled as he turned into a neighborhood.
Diego’s “restaurant” was a food truck that took up residence on an abandoned residential lot near Mira’s childhood home. The locals had embraced him, and over the years, a collection of sun-bleached picnic tables and patio umbrellas had sprouted around the truck.
Dominic parked on the curb, and drew a deep breath. “This place always smells good. I’ve been wanting to try it for months.”
Mira blinked. “You never even tried the food?”
“That’s not how shadowing works, Mira.”
“ Shadowing ? You mean stalking, right? Whatever. Let’s go.”
Mira slammed the car door, and gestured impatiently for Dominic to follow her. Somehow, the idea that he’d tailed her repeatedly to Diego’s without ever eating there irked her more than the stalking itself.
When they reached the front of the line, she nodded at the picture menu plastered over the front of the truck. “You first. Pick something out.”
He paused to examine the faded pictures, then smiled up at Diego. “Hi, I’ll take the steak plate—”
She elbowed him. “You have to order in Spanish,” she murmured.
“Right.” Dominic blinked several times, and blew out a breath. “Okay.”
When he began speaking once more, a startled laugh burst out of Mira.
He looked at her in surprise, then gave her a sheepish smile. “Did I say it wrong? What did I just order?”
“Definitely not food,” she choked out. She shooed him to the side. “I’ll order for you. Stop embarrassing me.”
He leaned against the counter, watching her from the side as she ordered for him, as well as her usual. His gaze finally drew her attention.
“What is it? Did you want to add more?”
Dominic shook his head slowly. “I was thinking if my Spanish makes you laugh like that, I should speak it every day.”
A glimmer of the heat was back in his eyes that she’d seen last night. Mira swallowed, and forced a laugh as Diego handed her two cans of soda. “Was that a pickup line? Because it was awful.”
Dominic only smirked as he took the cans from her. “That’s your favorite spot, right?” He nodded toward where an old, low brick wall emerged from the shade of the autumn trees into the daylight.
She glowered at him as they walked over to sit on the wall to await their food. “You really are a stalker, aren’t you?”
“It’s kinda hard not to notice how much you love sitting in the sun, even in the middle of the summer.” He cracked open his soda and held her eyes as he took a long drink. “Every time I catch you preening in the sun in a park somewhere, it’s a surefire sign your ragtag group is about to show up and turn shit sideways.”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
“Of course, you don’t.”
Annoyed, Mira turned on the wall, away from his amused eyes. Her phone buzzed, and she pulled it out and checked it without thinking.
Where have you been? You missed our last planning session. Our next move is confirmed.
Stricken, she cleared out Jackson’s message and stuffed her phone back in her pocket.
“That was from one of your associates, wasn’t it?”
She remained silent, staring stonily across the lot at Diego’s truck.
“I can’t investigate this properly without you, Mira. You need to loop me in.”
“Loop you in?” She studied his face. “What does that mean?”
“Just a few details to start, about your most recent activities. If I can corroborate where your group has been, I can rule out your involvement in the attacks.”
Mira looked at him in stunned disbelief and leapt to her feet. “No. Fuck no .” She lowered her voice. “I’m not selling out the DFC to the Council. I wouldn’t give that information to anyone. Not even Phoebe or Tyler.”
Fighting for calm, she stalked toward the nearest oak tree.
He caught up to her immediately, crowding her until he’d backed her against the tree trunk.
“I’m not your best friend. Nor am I your brother, Mira.”
Dominic almost touched her cheek, but stopped. He caught a lock of her hair instead, and curled it around his finger. “We have a very special relationship. One with the highest level of trust.”
Her eyes narrowed as she puzzled out his meaning. He wound her hair tighter around his finger, and gently tugged on it, like a leash.
Shocking heat rushed over Mira’s skin. Her mouth fell open, and she drew a sharp breath.
Dominic’s nostrils flared. He glanced at her lips before he leaned close, his mouth hovering near her ear.
“I’m the one you call when you need to get rid of a body,” he murmured.
His breath tickled her ear, and the warmth of his body soaked into her. To her dismay, her nipples hardened in her bra as heat pooled low in her body.
He leaned away once more. She swallowed and looked down, away from his fierce gaze.
“I’m not the Council. I’m the only one inside the Council who gives a damn about what happens to you. As far as the Council is concerned, the DFC is a domestic terrorist organization. They’ll gladly throw you under the bus as the culprits with the flimsiest evidence imaginable.Then sic the Demon Control Authority on your asses.”
Over the racing of her heart, Mira distantly heard Diego call out her name for their order.
Dominic stepped back. “You want me on your side, and in your circle. I’m the best chance you’ve got.”