Page 103 of Rites of Passage

Mae noted the warning in his eyes and dipped her chin respectfully. “Hi, it’s nice to meet you.” Her gaze swept the armed bodyguards fanning the room before focusing on the man in the suit who had yet to rise from the other couch. “Let’s make this quick. I have a lunch date I don’t want to miss.”

The main Russian syndicate rep’s gaze grew arctic.

“I am afraid this meeting will take as long as it needs to, Ms. Jin,” he said in a heavily accented voice.

Mae shrugged. “It’s your funeral.” She cocked her thumb at Brimstone. “He’ll get hungry in about two hours. I can’t take responsibility for his actions if he eats some of you.” She indicated Hellreaver’s medallion form next. “And this guy is as uncivilized as they come. I’m talking a thousand demons’ worth of uncivilized.”

Hey!Hellreaver protested.

Confusion washed across the representative’s face.

“Who is she talking to?” he asked Yuliy suspiciously.

“Oh.” Mae scratched her cheek. “I guess you can’t see them.” She glanced at Vlad. “Can we?”

The incubus dipped his chin, the lines around his eyes and mouth telling Mae he was trying really hard not to laugh.

Mae looked at Brimstone. “Mind the ceiling.”

Brimstone grinned.

Gasps sounded around the room as Brimstone and Tarang made themselves visible, the fox growing into his nine-tailed spirit form. Hellreaver detached from Mae’s neck and shapeshifted with a pulse of crimson energy.

Admiration filled Yuliy’s eyes as he eyed the nine-tailed spirit and the demonic weapon. Several guards dropped their guns in shock. The representative shrank back on the couch.

“Like I said, we should make this quick,” Mae muttered, deadpan.

She strode up to the nearest armchair, sat down, and crossed her legs.

Several of the men stumbled back as Brimstone curled up beside her, his giant head dominating the space. Tarang jumped up on the fox and plopped down on his back with a happy rumble. Hellreaver zoomed around the office, oblivious to the ashen-faced guards watching his gleaming blades as he inspected various knickknacks curiously.

“Don’t break anything,” Mae warned the weapon.

“You should put a ring on her,” Yuliy murmured to Vlad as the incubus settled beside him.

CHAPTER44

Bryony’s eyes bulged.“They just agreed to let you be?!”

“I can be very persuasive.”

The High Priestess looked unconvinced by Mae’s words. She gave Vlad a jaundiced stare. “What really happened?”

The incubus smirked. “Brimstone and Hellreaver got hungry.”

They looked to where the fox and the weapon were inhaling the steaks on a serving trolley, Tarang helping them clear the giant order of meat the coven had prepared.

Mae was conscious the crime syndicate Yuliy and Vlad answered to would continue to try to get her to work for them. Her little demonstration today had been intended with only one purpose in mind.

To show them who had the upper hand in this negotiation.

Hopefully, they’ll decide messing with a Witch Queen is too much trouble and leave me alone.

She could tell Vlad and Yuliy had greatly enjoyed her interaction with the poor guy who’d traveled from Moscow to meet with her, even if they hadn’t shown it at the time. The way Yuliy kept patting her back in a fatherly way and inviting her over for dinner was a surefire sign she now featured the crime lord among her friends.

Abraham strolled in with Violet and Miles just as lunch was served. Nikolai turned up halfway through the meal.

“Did you get the key?” Mae asked.

---