Chapter 9
Dante
IT WOULD TAKE ME LESS than thirty seconds to snap Bradley’s neck.
My fingers, which were shoved deep into my pockets, itched to do it—sink my claws into the muscle and feel bone crunch into dust beneath my grip.
My blood practically burned with the need to make this human suffer, to make him feel as shitty as he made Serenity feel.
Not because I felt any type of affection for the human woman. But because nothing brought me greater satisfaction than watching a human, who thought they were above everyone else, crumble upon their fragile tower.
Bradley’s tower was paper on a burning base, and I couldn’t wait to watch him fall into those roaring flames.
Bradley’s eyes tracked Serenity around the truck until she disappeared back inside. When he was sure we were alone, his fuming eyes met mine. “Leave my girlfriend alone.”
I snickered and tilted my bearded chin higher. “No.”
His rust-colored brows nearly shot up into his hairline as his mouth dropped open. “No? No? Dude. She’s fucking taken. She’s my girlfriend. Do you not know what ‘relationship’ means?”
“Do you? You expect her to be faithful to you when you can’t return that same courtesy?”
His eyes narrowed, and his fists clenched at his sides until the knuckles turned ghostly white. He ground his teeth, and suspicion clouded his gaze as he scrutinized me. “You haven’t told her.”
It wasn’t a question, and I didn’t need to ask what he meant by the statement.
I shrugged. “I don’t need to tell her about your extracurricular activities.”
I didn’t think it was possible, but his eyes narrowed even more until I could no longer see the blue between his thin lids. “What the hell is that supposed to mean?”
My grin widened, though no kindness existed behind it. I kept my hands in my jeans as I leisurely walked closer. “It means I don’t need to tell her your dirty little secret. Giving her that information as an excuse to leave is too easy, and it’s a route I don’t need to take to steal her from you.”
“St—Steal her from me? You can’t fucking do that! She’s mine!”
I raised a single cocky brow. “You sure about that?”
Bradley’s chest and cheeks puffed. If he’d been a bird, he’d be ruffling his feathers over my taunt.
“You aren’t gonna get to me,” Bradley growled, crossing his arms and tilting his head in an effort to match my confident stance.
“I know Serenity. She’d never leave me. We’ve been together for eight years.
She knows how lucky she is to have scored someone like me.
She knows her place. She knows she won’t find someone as good as me if we break up.
Without me, she’ll be a miserable, lonely bitch. ”
Being around as long as I had, I’d seen every type of human possible, and I’d dealt with the worst of the worst. It was why I was so jaded these days and convinced we demons weren’t the true monsters.
The real evil of the world were humans. Hearing Bradley spew how he really felt about his long-time girlfriend shouldn’t—and honestly didn’t—surprise me.
Yet my inner demon burned with venomous hatred as he talked about Serenity like that.
Perhaps the reaction was because the pure, fresh taste of her pleasure still buzzed through my veins, the memory like some addictive drug. Maybe it was because the human woman had been nice to me, even if she did have ulterior motives for doing so—because all humans did.
Regardless of the reason, I was left with only one thought.
I really fucking hate this asshole.
“You don’t actually care about her,” I determined flatly, copying his earlier blunt statement in lieu of a question.
He pursed his lips and shrugged. “Sure, I do. There’s history there, and we’ve had really great memories.”
I studied the human closely, and the more I did, the more the puzzle pieces began to fit together.
Another benefit to being alive for so long was I had gotten good at reading humans and their motives.
Bradley’s motive for staying with the girl he clearly didn’t give a shit about was easy to decipher.
“You want to take ownership of the company,” I guessed with a pointed look at the company logo embroidered on his jacket.
The large stitching read, “Dixon,” and I recalled Serenity giving me that same last name at the bar. It didn’t take a huge leap to figure out that Serenity’s place of employment sharing her name wasn’t a coincidence. More than likely, it was a family business—her family’s business.
Bradley nodded defiantly. “Yeah. That’s right. I’ve worked hard at this place. I’m not going to let some other man claim that head seat by marrying Serenity. It’s reserved with my name, so you can back right the fuck off.”
I let out a small incredulous laugh, even as I chastised myself for feeling a smidge of surprise. “You really are a sorry piece of shit, you know that?”
“And you’re delusional to think you could take what belongs to me. It’ll never happen.”
“If you’re so sure of yourself, I guess it won’t be a problem for me to continue hanging out with her.”
“I don’t trust you,” he snarled. “You just admitted that you want her. Plus, I’m not convinced that you won’t tell her about the others.”
Others, plural. Because Hell only knew how many the bastard fooled around with behind Serenity’s back.
“I told you,” I began dismissively, “that makes this game too easy. I like the challenge.”
“Game.” Bradley scoffed, and the sound grated on my nerves. “So you don’t even care about her. This is a game for you.”
Grinding my teeth, I shrugged and spun on my heel. “Who really knows?”
I waltzed toward the house with the air of calm, but I was boiling on the inside.
Care about her? The notion made me laugh darkly under my breath.
No, I didn’t care about her. What I cared about was reminding bastards like him of their place in this goddamn world.
I cared about reminding humans how small they really were.
Mortals were nothing. And I couldn’t wait to reduce Bradley to that.
When I got back inside, Serenity was sitting on the couch and talking to Addie about the details of her custom home.
She looked at me without stopping whatever she was saying to Addie.
Her gaze stayed locked on mine as I walked past. Unable to help myself, I smirked and basked in the sweetness of the color rising to her cheeks.
I stopped behind the couch, right where she sat, and braced my hands on the back of the sofa.
Her shoulders tensed at my close proximity, and the mischievous part of me wanted to toy with her hair some more.
The strands, so much like starlight on a cloudless night, drew me in.
But I refrained from reaching out. For now.
Bradley reappeared in the house, and though he gave me a fleeting furious look, he quickly replaced it with a charming grin for Addie. “Sorry about that.” He gestured at Serenity’s lap and the papers on the table. “It looks like Serenity already had what I needed.”
“All good,” Addie replied, refocusing on Serenity. “Anyway, like I was saying. I’m determined to convince Zagan to give me Coldin Jr., so I’d like a decently sized room for him.”
That snagged my attention. Serenity and her pretty hair became forgotten as I fixed a confused stare on Addie. “Coldin Jr.?”
I looked sideways to where Zagan and Coldin still stood around the kitchen counter. They’d clearly heard this, too, because Zagan coughed into his closed fist to hide a laugh while Coldin’s jaw tightened—actually tightened. I’d never seen the demon emote that much unless he was killing something.
“Dante,” Addie sighed, giving me a dramatic eyeroll. “How do you not even know the name of your best friend’s pet?”
I couldn’t keep my face blank, raising an eyebrow at Zagan and Coldin.
Zagan barely managed to smother his smile as he joined me at the couch to fix his gaze on Addie. “It’s not happening.” He tried to sound firm, but the corner of his pierced lip lifted ever so slightly.
Addie crossed her arms and refused to break her glare. “Stingy. I love him more than you. I never see you with Coldin Jr.”
I wanted to demand that someone tell me who Coldin Jr. was, but Bradley beat me to it.
“Who is this?” the human man hedged carefully. “A dog? Cat?”
Addie’s blue eyes brightened. She sat up on her knees and braced her hands on the coffee table, leaning closer. “I’ll show you! He’s amazing, and I want him to have the best room ever!” Addie looked at Zagan. “Will you get him, please?”
Iyla bit her lip, sharing in some amused dance of eye contact with Zagan. She clearly knew who Coldin Jr. was, so why the fuck didn’t I? Zagan didn’t have a goddamn pet, and if he did, he certainly wouldn’t name it Coldin Jr.
Zagan cleared his throat and nodded. “Sure. I’ll grab him.”
“I’ll come with you,” I announced, following after him.
The lead singer gave Coldin a pointed look, signaling for him to follow us upstairs to Zagan’s bedroom.
When we were inside, I looked at my best friend. “Who is Coldin Jr.?”
Zagan couldn’t contain his amusement anymore. He let out a bark of laughter and pointed a finger at our drummer.
“You know the drill, man,” Zagan chuckled as he watched Coldin.
“I never should’ve shown myself like this to her,” Coldin gritted out through clenched teeth.
Black shadows appeared around the drummer, and when they cleared, a large, black snake rested on the ground where he’d been standing.
Zagan still wore a shit-eating grin as he picked Coldin up and faced me.
He held the Letum demon out for me to see, as if I didn’t already know what he looked like. “Coldin Jr.”
Now understanding, my own laugh tore through my chest. The Letum demon, the worst demon among us all, had been reduced to a pet snake for a bubbly blonde.
“This is too good,” I boomed.
Coldin hissed, so I stepped out of reach, just in case the demon decided to make a move to bite me.
Fixing my amused stare on Zagan’s again, I asked, “Why Coldin Jr., though?”