Page 86 of Dating the Dealing Demon

“My friends?” I forget my pain for a second.

The wall flickers to show Dupree posing for the camera like he’s in some sort of reality show confessional booth. My family’s show cut those years ago. “The bitch princess and I had an alliance with the prince of the ocean realms to steal the sea witch’s daughter.”

“Ava.” My voice almost cracks on her name. I miss her so much, and this asshole dared to plot against her.

Fuck this guy. If he wasn’t dead, I would take him out again. No one messes with my friends.

The video keeps going. “Who knew the prince of the oceans would be such a colossal failure? Not only could he not kidnap one human through the easiest portal grab ever, but when we gave him a second chance, he couldn’t keep a portal open to bring all his monsters through to conquer the human realm. I promised him an entire continent, and he couldn’t deliver. Loser.”

I look to Theo.

“Your friend Ava and her kraken took them down,” he says.

Chills go through me.

“Her sea witch mom helped,” Nic adds.

Dupree’s voice starts again. “Gilly assured me she’d made the best of a contact I’ve been stringing along for decades. A pariah among the gargoyles.”

“Gargoyles,” I whisper. “Rosemarie.”

“She’s okay,” Theo promises. “The gargoyles crowned her as their queen last night.”

“What?” I come close to shrieking except my burn screams in protest. The hedgie hisses as though he’s trying to decide who to attack until Monty squeaks at him.

Dupree’s exasperated huff brings my attention back to his horrible ramblings. “The dragon Gilly dredged up from the pits of the After Worlds should’ve destroyed the Bridge of Souls, butsomehowanother of those human women Theo mated off to monsters managed to fuck up an attack yet again.”

I look to Theo, keeping my voice down since Monty has calmed the killer hedgehog by sharing the toy unicorn to prance between the two. “Tell me Rosemarie didn’t face off against a freakin’ dragon.”

He shrugs. “She did fine, and it’s now a beautiful addition to her Bridge of Souls.”

“There’s more,” Nic says.

“More?” I breathe as deeply as I can without setting off the pain in my chest.

Dupree’s smug face flickers on the wall. “Which leaves me to clean up that mess at the Valley of the Gods. The humans survived the plans that relied on others, but they won’t be there for this. Plus, Gilly will grab collateral from those who the human mates left behind. I suggested she start with the easiest, most pretentious target.” He grins, the camera angle catching only fangs. “Val’s family.”

Ice crawls across my skin despite the burn. Gilly, the psycho demon princess with teleportation powers and a tyranny complex, is going aftermyfamily. “I have to warn them.Now.”

CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN

Theo

Ihold on to Val’s hips, careful to avoid the places on her upper body where the burn has not yet healed no matter what we tried. There’s no way in the hell dimensions she’s using her magic again until we’ve figured out how to keep it from consuming her from within.

“Ready?” I ask.

“You don’t have to meet my family,” she tells me.

“If you go, I go.”

“Monty’s already coming with me.” She tips her head toward her enchanted purse where Montejanus has curled up in mongoose form. The toy unicorn is tucked between his front paws.

“I’m better protection,” I argue.

“And more likely to want to kill my family.”

“True.” There’s no denying how angry their mistreatment of my mate makes me. “What if I promise to be on my best behavior?”

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