Chapter 46
Chapter Forty-Six
Syke
Driving Hailey into the demon district felt a little like lighting a firework from the dark side of the moon.
She made everything seem brighter and more magical.
The demon district was a bit of a misnomer, because it wasn’t all demons who lived in this area of Central Valley.
There were also some night dwelling creatures, those with histories of violence and eating villagers, and singular creatures who were the last of their kind.
The demon district had one hard and fast rule—mind your own fucking business, or there was a nightmare lurking in the shadows, waiting to make you mind your own business.
Demons policed our own, though, because even the CVPD didn’t really have the jurisdiction, or the balls, to tell us what to do.
Occasionally, a plucky little angel would join the demon security force and burn out in a month because their views of right and wrong had no place in the district any more than they did in hell.
The only way to keep order in the demon district was to give everyone a long rein in a small area.
If it spilled out into the other areas of Central Valley, then they found that rein shortened into a noose very, very quickly.
There were no second chances, so the demon district was the most lawless and heavily policed area in the city.
I pulled up in front of Verano’s apartment building. It was a tall skyscraper, and I knew he had one of the upper floors. The closest most of us would ever get to heaven was a penthouse in one of these skyscrapers.
“Verano is a narcios demon. He works as a plastic surgeon most of the time, though sometimes he works in transmutation. He’s prickly and mean, so don’t take it personally.
He feeds by making you feel like shit about your looks, like one of those basement dwellers in the early 2000s who thought putting on a brightly colored jacket and telling a girl she’s average was going to get them laid.
” I shook my head at the stupidity. “He’s a thousand times less powerful than me.
You’re entirely safe,” I told Hailey, whose leg was bouncing in the passenger seat of Otis’s SUV.
She nodded and climbed from the car. I locked it, though there was always a chance I’d come back out and the tires would be gone—not because the demons who lived here wanted to sell the tires, but because they just liked to fuck with your day.
We pushed through the heavy chrome doors of the apartment building and into a foyer that was opulently decked out in black marble and chrome features. It was monochromatic because it made us feel at home.
Hell had little to no color.
I walked over to the concierge, a low-level imp. He looked like an underwear model, but there was a bitter sense of desperation when he looked at me, and even more so when he looked at Hailey. I wrapped her in my shadows and stared at the imp. “We’re here to see Verano. He’s expecting us.”
The imp gulped. “Go on up. Sixty-second floor.”
The elevator opened as soon as we hit the button. I ushered Hailey inside, and she gulped. “Did he just say sixty-second floor? As in six-two?” She sounded a little panicked.
“Uh-huh.”
“Is this the right time to tell you I have a fear of plunging to my death inside an elevator?” she squeaked.
I stared down at her incredulously. “A little late. Why didn’t you tell me when we pulled up?”
“I didn’t realize until now,” she replied, her eyes wide and panicked. “This has to be the tallest building I’ve ever been inside.”
Humans. Their mortality made them kind of irrational at times.
I walked over to her and picked her up in my arms. “Sunshine, do you really think I would let anything as mundane as an elevator collapse harm you?” I pressed her against the wall of the car.
“When I’m with you, you are the safest human on the planet. I won’t let anything hurt you again.”
I kissed her, but it wasn’t slow and gentle.
No, I attacked her lips with my own, filling it with my ferocious anger at myself for letting her get hurt in the first place.
I pressed her firmly into the wall, and she wrapped her legs around me, pulling me close.
I ground my cock against her, my hands gripping the soft, perfect flesh of her ass.
I looked at the numbers above the door. We were already on the twenty-sixth floor.
“I think I can make you come before we make it to our floor,” I purred. “Do you want to see exactly what my shadows can do?” I thrust against her again, and she moaned against my lips.
“Yes!”
I sent a small tendril of shadow through her stretchy pants and curled it around her clit, vibrating it.
I held her tightly as she bucked against the sensation.
My cock ached as I continued to grind against her, using my shadows with more dexterity than I could even use my fingers or my tongue.
As if to prove my point, I flexed my shadow until it pulsed, almost like it was sucking on her clit.
I smirked as I was proven right.
“Oh my fucking—” She keened out an orgasm.
I wanted to dive inside her mind as she came so she could drag me over with her, but I didn’t.
I was trying to respect her boundaries the way I did with my team.
It was harder with Hailey than with them, however, because she had no natural shields like creatures did, but I would be her shield.
Looking over at the numbers by the door, I saw that we just hit the sixtieth floor. “Perfect timing,” I whispered to her, kissing her softly as I lowered her to her feet. “You’re just such a perfect little morsel.”
The doors slid open, and I ushered her out. There were only two doors here, 62A and 62B. I definitely didn’t want her to knock on 62B. Even I was careful around the creature who lived there.
I knocked on Verano’s door, and it was opened by the harried-looking demon. “Syke.”
He turned and led us into his apartment.
He already had a suture kit laid out in his dining room.
“Someone spiked the fae punch, and I swear, I spent twenty-four hours listening to them gripe about how they’ll never be beautiful again.
Well, guess what, Tinkerbell, maybe you should have fucking eased up on the fairy wine so you didn’t try and go toe-to-toe with the unseelie in a fucking bareknuckle fighting ring.
” He looked at a chair and then at Hailey.
“Sit, human. I’m tired, and I don’t have time for niceties. ”
“You’re never nice, Verano,” I taunted but directed Hailey to the chair.
“Especially when I’m not getting paid.” He peeled off the bandages a little more roughly than necessary, and my shadows wrapped around his wrist.
“Gently, or lethargy will be the least of your issues.”
Verano rolled his eyes at me, but his touch gentled. He tutted as he looked at Otis’s butterfly bandage patch job. “Should have gotten this to me twelve hours ago, though I would have been busy, but I’ll see what I can do. You probably won’t be so pretty anymore, human.”
“Uh, that’s fine,” Hailey said, her eyes wide. I tried to see Verano how she did. He was once an ugly fucker, that was for sure, and some of those traits still lingered. His teeth were pointed, and he had nubby little bumps on his skull instead of hair. They looked like pustules but black.
He was short and round, but his features were perfectly proportioned. I knew that was from surgery. It was a glowing endorsement of his skills as a plastic surgeon that he’d taken a face that was once as unattractive as the ass end of a toad and made it reasonably pleasant to look upon.
Snapping on gloves, he went to work. I wrapped my magic around Hailey, keeping the pain suppressed, and if she realized I was doing it and not the local anesthetic that Verano had given her, then she didn’t mention it.
Honestly, the local probably would have been enough, but I didn’t want her to feel even a moment of discomfort.
Verano stitched quickly, the action practiced to the point of second nature. “Do you need, like, a tetanus shot? What caused the wounds?”
“A knife.”
“Iron? Cold steel?”
“Uh, probably a Walmart six-piece steak knife set kept in some crackhead’s pocket,” she answered, making Verano laugh.
The demon never laughed.
“A tetanus shot probably wouldn’t hurt then.” He went to the small countertop fridge and pulled out a vial. I watched him like a hawk as he gave her the shot.
Finally, he covered everything up with fresh bandages, clear plastic ones that did nothing to hide the wounds. We were all going to have to stare at our inadequacy until she healed—a penance we deserved.
“Keep it dry as much as possible, but you should be fine to shower. The sutures will dissolve in a week or so, and you can remove the dressing then too. In a year or two, you shouldn’t even be able to see the scar.”
Hailey gave him a tight smile. “Thank you for seeing me on such short notice.”
Verano shook his head. “Don’t thank a demon, human.
There’s a chance they’ll take you as an indentured servant for the rest of your mortal life, if you’re lucky.
” He gave me a disapproving look. “Rumor is she’s your ‘mate.’” He gave me finger quotes.
“Teach her better, or someone will fuck with her life just to fuck with yours.” He stood and pointed to the door.
“Get out. Come back and see me if it gets infected.”
I pulled Hailey to her feet and propelled her gently to the door.
“Verano,” I said with a nod. It wasn’t a thank you, but as close as you could get as a demon.
“Don’t darken my doorstep again unless the rapture is upon us,” Verano grumbled. I smirked and shut the door quietly behind us. Sometimes it was good to have friends in low places.