Page 41 of Facet

“The lights all dimmed. Think there’s a storm rolling in,” Squirrel observed, but the way his attention came back to me and focused said otherwise.

“Storm? What are you talking about? It’s sunny as hell out there,” Voodoo chimed in with a glance at Squirrel that said he was as nuts as his road name.

“Okay, I was tryin’ not to bust our boy here out. But Facet got this weird look on his face. His eyes went dark as fuck and had like little silvery flecks of something in them.” Squirrel dramatically wiggled his fingers in the air. “Then the lights went dim and there was like a crackle in the air. You didn’t feel that?”

Voodoo’s crystal blue eyes locked on me. “That was you?”

I shrugged.

“Yes, that was him. That’s also how I knew he needed me. We need to work on that, because obviously you needed me sooner,” my father piped in from behind me.

Angel was still at work, and my father motioned him away with a raised brow that asked if it was okay. Angel glanced at me in question, and I nodded. My father wouldn’t have offered to help if he wasn’t able.

In a suit that probably cost more than my computer setups, he crouched in the coagulating puddle of Willow’s blood. He placed a hand on her, took a deep breath, then opened his mouth and exhaled over the stab wound. Dark tendrils of smoke left him and seemed to be pulled into the opening left by whatever she’d been stabbed with.

The skin knit together, and Willow’s body convulsed upward. Her eyes snapped open, but she stared vacantly. She shuddered as she sucked in a massive breath. Then she reached out and clung to me.

Chills skated over my skin as my startled gaze darted to Séamus—my father. I hated that I didn’t know what to call him, though “Dad” would probably never happen. The guy barely looked older than I did.

“Don’t worry, she’s fine. Still human,” he said with a smirk, before he got to his feet and straightened his jacket sleeves.

Which reminded me I needed to address the future with Willow. Something I didn’t know if she was ready to discuss. Hell, though I’d shown her on multiple occasions, I had yet to tell her I love her. Maybe until that very moment, I hadn’t realized that was what I’d been feeling.

“How did you do that?” I asked, looking up at him.

“Perks of the trade,” he joked with a shrug, like it was no big deal that he had saved my girl with little to no effort. “I just did what I normally do, but backward.”

“Damn, Angel. He might put you outta business,” Squirrel muttered. Angel was sitting on his ass with his arms resting on his knees and his hands knit. He shook his head with a half-hearted grin.

Séamus snorted. “Not likely. That’s highly frowned upon by my… boss. Considering what I’ve found out, I’m pretty sure he’ll overlook this one time.”

“Close this place down for the night,” Venom called out to the few remaining trusted employees still milling about. “No one’s coming back here tonight. We’re lucky we don’t have the cops knocking on the door.”

They’d had all the dancers lock themselves in the changing room—for multiple reasons. Once Angel and I had gotten here, Venom had our security team take them out the back door and made sure they got home safely.

“Oh, you did,” Séamus casually mentions.

“What?” Venom demands.

“Don’t worry, I took care of them.”

“How the hell did you take care of them? You can’t just go killing cops around here. That shit would get a spotlight thrown on us so fast we wouldn’t be able to blink. We’re a lot of things, but we aren’t cop-killers,” Venom ground out.

Séamus’s eyes darkened and flashed silver as a muscle ticked in his jaw. “Do I look stupid?”

“I didn’t say youlookedstupid, but if that’s what you did, then youarestupid!” Venom snapped back. All of us sat there with our eyes bouncing back and forth between our P and the goddamn demon hunter.

“No,Decker, I convinced them there was nothing to see. That a waitress cut her hand on a broken glass and got blood all over herself. She couldn’t stand the sight of blood and passed out,” Séamus explained. It didn’t surprise me that he knew everyone’s real names. The man seemed to know everything.

“And they accepted that?” I asked, butting in to try to calm the back and forth between them.

“Of course they did. A little helpful persuasion made sure of that. What do you take me for? An amateur? I haven’t lived as long as I have by making stupid decisions.” Séamus crossed his arms and looked down his nose at us.

“Then thank you,” Venom grudgingly offered. It was probably the most Séamus would get from my president.

The door opened and Hawk, Sabre, Ghost, and Chains came inside. As soon as Hawk saw that Willow was awake and talking, he pulled out his phone and walked off talking to whoever he called.

“Damien,” Willow murmured, and I glanced down at her. She looked exhausted, though still as beautiful as ever. “We need to stop looking for my family.”

---