Page 54 of Grabbed By the Guard

I swallow roughly. “I didn’t.” I say that as plainly as I can. I don’t know how Sierra knows… “I only found out he wasn’t who I thought he was on the night I disappeared with Glaine. That’s why I was heading home from Connecticut. He told me… ah, shit, Sierra. He told me he was in love with you.”

Her expression tells me that she already knew that. “Not me. Whiskey.” She lets out a small laugh. “We had a lot of traffic that night. You. Glaine. Trevor.”

“He— what?”

As I gape at her, Sierra tells me how Dagon sensed Glaine in the apartment. He was already gone—and so was I—when the demon went looking for him, and when Sierra went tip-toeing after her mate, but they both found Trevor waiting on the settee in the living room. Dagon disappeared, Sierra confronted him, and my expression goes from surprise to horror to furious as she adds that, like Patrick Ridgefield, Trevor pulled a gun on her to convince her to leave with him.

“I’ll kill him!”

“Dagon wanted to.” She beams at her demon. “Almost did. Brained Trevor in with one of my Grammys. Luckily, that creep didn’t see my demon, but he’s locked-up now, Billie. We don’t have to worry about him.”

If Sierra comes to stay with me and Glaine in Sombra, she won’t have to worry about obsessed fans ever again…

Of course, I don’t say that, though I wouldn’t be surprised if she was thinking the same thing.

Sierra has thrown herself all in with her mate. I’ve done something similar with Glaine. We both know that she can’t stay in the human world forever. She’s immortal now. Eventually her public will notice she’s stopped aging, and there’s only so much she can blame on ‘plastic surgery’ in the future. Sooner or later she’ll have to relocate here like Kennedy did with Loki, or, well, like I also did with Glaine.

But that’s the future. I’m more than happy living in the now, and with my best friend here for the moment, I’m going to enjoy it—and that begins with bringing her to meet Glaine so that she can get a chance to form her own first impression on him without relying on Dagon’s.

I should’ve invited him to join us when I dragged Sierra and Dagon over the fire pits for privacy. Like I said, I was in shock. I wasn’t thinking straight, and the only thing I was thinking was that the house I share with Glaine is ours. It didn’t sit right with me to invite Sierra and her demon inside. Kinda like how we kept the apartment at the Dorado closed off because it was our personal space… that’s how I think of the home I made with my mate.

I guess I expected he’d follow like always. That he didn’t exasperates me at the same time as it charms me. He doesn’t like going too far—a trade all Sombra demons share when it comes to their mates—but to give me time for my reunion with Sierra, he also gave me some distance.

Silly demon.

I gesture at Sierra. “Come on. I want to introduce you to Glaine. Three, too.” We start heading back toward my home. “No matter how many times I try to explain the concept of cats and pets, he keeps thinking that Three is an ungez like Freya.”

“Freya?” echoes Sierra.

“Kennedy’s shadowy squirrel-cat.” Seriously. That’s the best way to describe Kennedy’s pet. “Oh, right. You don’t know Kennedy yet. You have to meet her. She’s human, too.”

And a huge Whiskey Rose fan, but that little reveal can wait. First, I need to find?—

“Where’s Glaine?” Weird. Our front door is open, Apollyon is still standing near the entryway, but there’s no sign of my mate. That purple-eyed demon, either, though Lilith has joined Apollyon.

At my question, Apollyon glances at Lilith.

The motherly demoness turns her smile on me, and my heart sinks.

“Didn’t he tell you?”

Um. No. “He didn’t tell me anything.”

“I’m sorry, Billie. But he returned to Mavro with Erebus.”

CHAPTER 20

DÉJÀ VU

BILLIE

Ididn’t need Kennedy to bat her lashes and ask her mage mate to whip up a travel spell to take me to Glaine. I’m sure she would have if I’d given her the chance to, and I would’ve appreciated the help, but I’m Billie Bickles. I get shit done, and as I’ve learned over the last month, I don’t need to have my phone to do it.

After I get Sierra’s promise that she’ll stick around until after I’ve gone after Glaine and, in a complete reversal of how we met—dragged his big butt back where he belongs, I go into problem-solver mode.

I trust my best friend. I’ll miss not spending every day with her, but if Glaine is one hundred percent sure that he has to stay in Sombra, I can, too. For now, at least. I’ve only seen part of the palace and one village up close. Without the weight of begging trapped here on my shoulders, I’d love to explore it some more—with my mate.

Because he’s mine. I think part of me has always known that he was, from the moment he stepped out of the shadows and my first instinct wasn’t to scream. I just hated the idea of fate taking the choice out of my hands. Being his fated mate, getting trapped with him in his demon world… I wanted to choose.

---