Page 38 of A Study of Blood and Ichor

“Things ran smoothly while I was preoccupied?” Vain asked her.

“Considering the building didn’t burn down, I’d say so.”

“And no trouble with the club?”

“Nothing I couldn’t handle,” Nesera said, then turned away. “I’ll see you around then. Nice to meet you, witch.”

She wandered toward the doorway that led to the kitchen and wrinkled her nose at Vain as she passed him. “Your meat suit stinks by the way.”

I snorted at Vain’s soured expression. “I like her,” I said to him.

“Everyone does,” he said through a scowl. “Come, I’ll show you to your room.”

He led me down a long hallway lined with expensive modern art pieces that hung in the recesses of the walls between the door frames. When we reached the end, Vain opened a door on the left, letting the soft morning light bleed into the hall.

“Make yourself comfortable and feel free to explore the rest of the penthouse at your leisure. If there’s anything you need, Alastair or I will be around to provide it for you.”

It felt like I should be thanking him, but I didn’t want to make thanking a demon a habit of mine, so I kept my mouth firmly shut and nodded once.

Without another word, Vain turned and disappeared behind the door next to mine at the end of the hall. I slipped into my room and immediately locked myself inside.

Wasting no time, I secured every corner of the room with wards. I must have spent over an hour placing every combination of them I could think of. Ones for protection against astral projecting, spells that would confuse any sort of tracking, and most importantly, wards to keep demons out of my space. The ones along the threshold were ironclad, not even Vain would be able to cross them. The only drawback was that I’d need to strengthen them every day to maintain their effectiveness. It would be a drain on my magic, but it was a small price to pay for peace of mind.

My stomach growled once I had finished. I’d barely eaten since the night before. And though Vain had offered it, there was no way I was about to ask him or Alastair for anything.

I kept my hand against the doorknob for a long while, listening closely for any sounds beyond and catching only silence before I peeked out into the hallway. Finding no one lurking in the shadows, I slunk into the great room first, intending to creep directly through to the kitchen but the large windows caught my attention. At this elevation, Vain’s penthouse rose high above the rest of the city, a palatial tower in the sky. The north-facing view offered a panoramic overlook of the long expanse of Central Park below and the Hudson, and it was nothing short of breathtaking. But it distracted me for longer than I should have allowed it to, so when my hackles rose with the sensation of a set of eyes watching me from behind, I whirled.

Nesera eyed me from the doorway to the kitchen with one arm slung across her chest, the other holding a half-eaten apple in her right hand.

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you,” she said as she chewed, then chuckled as my shoulders sagged with relief. “Did you think I was Vain?”

“He does have a nasty habit of leering at me from across a room.”

Nesera bit into her apple again, and my attention drifted up to the small horns crowning atop her head.

“Are you a demon?” I asked.

“Cambion,” she replied simply. That settled my nerves a bit, knowing I had one less full-fledged demon to worry about here.

“And you live with him?”

“Yup. It’s better than being one of D.A.R.C.’s little weapons they can order around as they please to fight their battles.”

Unfortunately, I knew all too well how the mortal-led military front and their priests preferred to control their cambion soldiers like pawns in their war. And while I’d never worked directly alongside them, seeing as I was never ordered out into the field, I had still grown friendly with the few who had been stationed at the Moreau Coven.

Given their half-human, half-demon heritage, cambions were the perfect weapons—their supernatural strength and speed were unmatched, and their innate tracking capabilities allowed them to hunt demons better than anything else, making them valuable assets within our ranks. But not all cambions were willing to be controlled, and the ones that didn’t side with our efforts aligned themselves with the demons, making them just as formidable enemies to encounter.

Nesera seemed intimidating in her own right, the kind of unassuming threat that was wrapped up in a quiet, demure package. And while I had a suspicion that Nesera was one of the good ones, I still held some caution due to her unknown potential.

“And you can come and go freely? Vain doesn’t keep you here against your will?”

Nesera stifled a laugh. “No one makes me do anything that I don’t want to do.”

“He hasn’t hurt you?” I couldn’t stop myself from asking.

Nesera’s mouth quirked downward, her tone immediately dismissive. “What? No. Vain has never laid a finger on me. Neither has Rory. Not that I would have minded.” She smirked at the thought. “Lilith knows they’ve rejected enough of my advances.”

She shrugged, then moved closer toward my direction. “Look, I don’t know what situation you three have got going on, but you’re under Vain’s protection now. You’ll be safe with him.”

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