Breath seized in her throat as she scrambled for the door to the keep, but the black dragon was coming in like a missile. She heard his scream, and she looked back just as horrific, razor-sharp talons reached for her. She leaped for the door—
—and never landed.
She was yanked up, violently, pain slicing across her body with knives of steel clamping down on her and whisking her up, up, up…
Her heart seized as the keep dropped away below her.
She was caught.
“Who’s your sire?” Lucian demanded.
“You’re fucking crazy!” the demon replied. Or rather, his human half did, with wide eyes and apparent confusion as to why Lucian had him pinned to a brick wall in a dank Seattle alley. His demon half was busy clawing at Lucian’s hand, fighting a hopeless battle against the fae runes that had gathered at his hand and held the man’s chest with an iron-press. There was no hope of escape.
“You can lie to me, invidias daemonus, but it will only prolong the agony of your death.” Unfortunately, Lucian couldn’t actually kill the demon, not until he had traced it back to its maker, but the man—and the demon—didn’t need to know that.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about!” The man’s voice had hiked up to hysteria. Which was troubling—because he was clearly demon, but it was possible the human side of him had no knowledge of it.
Then again, he’d clearly understood what he was doing when he broke into a woman’s apartment to steal her laptop. Lucian had caught a whiff of him as he made his exit out the back of the building. The stolen computer lay discarded on the ground, probably damaged when Lucian descended on the man in dragon form and nearly made him piss his pants.
Stealing. It was consistent with the invidia class demon Lucian scented on him, full of the deadly sin of envy, covetous of things that belonged to others. Not odious class like the demons Erelah and Leksander had slain, which was even more troubling. Were all the demon classes suddenly afoot in the city? And for what purpose would the Winter Court risk war with the Summer Court by releasing them into the human world? And halflings at that.
It made no sense.
“I’ll give you one more chance, demon—” He cut himself off, whipping his head to the side at the scent of angel and dragon, not to mention the sound of air beaten by wings.
Leksander and Erelah dropped to the alley floor next to him.
Lucian grimaced. He’d turned off his phone while apprehending the demon, just to keep it from going off and calling attention to their interrogation in the alley. “I was going to call you, just as soon as I—”
“Lucian.” Leksander’s harsh tone cut him off more than his word. “Arabella has been taken. I tried to call you. Your phone is off.”
“Taken?” Lucian dropped his hold on the demon and stepped back. “What do you mean?”
“She’s been snatched from the lair—”
Fuck. Lucian shifted, cloaked, and was in the air before his brother could finish speaking. Goddamnit, why had he left her alone?
Behind him, he heard the demon scream its death throes. Erelah must have already plunged her angel blade into him. But that was unimportant—the only thing that mattered was getting back to the keep.
Lucian, don’t go alone! Leksander must have shifted to dragon to get that message to Lucian’s mind, but he was quickly out of range, pumping hard to get clear of the city, then boosting his speed with every drop of magic in his blood. He left a sonic boom behind him, a mysterious sound for the inhabitants of Seattle to puzzle over while he rocketed back to his lair.
Who had taken his treasure? It was a screaming demand inside his head, every dragon instinct he had rearing its primal need to protect what was his. The power of it fueled his speed and sharpened his senses for battle. The fact that Arabella summoned this urgent need to protect her, to get her back, was purely instinctual—at least, that was what he told himself, over and over, as the mountains slid under him. The sun was setting at his back and sending long, daggered shadows across the ground, pointing toward the keep that was supposed to be holding his beloved.
Beloved.
Fuck. No, this was simply a raging dragon desire to get back something stolen from him. And dip his talons in the blood of the dragon responsible for stealing it. Worse than any invidias daemonus, a dragon who stole another’s treasure knew exactly the nature of that challenge. Whoever it was, Lucian would shred him apart. This was about honor and instinct and treasure, not love.
Not love.
By the time he reached the keep, he had almost convinced himself.
He landed in a flurry of flapping wings, killing his speed but nearly plowing through the glass panes of the keep that shuddered with his arrival. He had aimed for the central conference room, figuring Leonidas must be waiting for him there, but then he saw his brother atop Lucian’s lair, near the stairwell to the roof. Lucian leaped into the air again, crossing the flat expanse of the keep to reach Leonidas fast, shifting again to human as soon as he landed.