Page 65 of Prince of Demons
Kesh wrapped his arm around her midriff and pulled her to his chest before addressing the newcomer.
“Father,” he said, practiced calm in his voice. “I wasn’t expecting you. What brings you here?” Without so much as a fucking text as a heads up.
“Her.” Kirigan speared the girl on Kesh’s lap with his unsettling eyes, and an urgent sense of alarm rushed up from his gut. Kesh only just managed to twist his body around to shield Georgia, before his father’s powerful magic slammed into them both.
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Kesh
His magic defenses flooded out a millisecond too late, making his body take the full impact of his father’s attack. A deep ache rattled through his bones, but Georgia’s agonized cry made the pain fade to nothing on a rush of fear so deep, he could barely breathe.
“Georgia! No, no, no!”
“She’s fine.” His father’s calm voice didn’t suggest he’d just attacked his own son unprovoked. “Only a divine creature would be harmed from that kind of magic.”
Kesh ignored him and carefully cupped Georgia’s face, tilting it up to his. “Tell me where it hurts, sweet one.”
She gasped up at him, eyes wide and shocked, searching his for reassurance, for protection. “My… bones. All of them. B-but it’s fading. I think… I think I’m okay.”
He searched her gaze, verifying she was telling the truth before carefully standing up to place her on his throne… and then, he turned to his father.
“You.” Every cell in his body itched with violence. “Have you entirely lost what little was left of your mind? You come into my domain and attack me? While a Breeder is under my care? Do you have a death wish? If you weren’t my father, I would smear the walls with your blood! Explain yourself!”
“I didn’t attack you—I attacked her. It was your choice to put yourself in harm's way. I had to make sure you hadn’t been bespelled by a goddess.”
Kirigan’s exasperated tone did little to calm Kesh’s fury. He clenched his fists until his knuckles cracked. “Explain. Better.”
“I've just come from Lord Aran, who said a woman and a child were seen on the battlefield—and that your Second dragged them off. And then I arrive here to find this female perched on your lap. Exactly as a manipulative goddess would be, were she undercover and trying to gain influence with demon royalty. I had to make sure you were not being poisoned.”
“Why the fuck would a goddess have been on the battlefield in Maine? And why on Earth would I have brought her home, rather than slit her filthy throat? You think I can’t recognize a divine cretin when I see one?”
“You wouldn’t have recognized this one. As for why she was there… I will explain, once we are in private. This matter is urgent, but it is not for the Breeder’s ears.”
Every molecule of Kesh’s being resisted the idea of bringing the man who’d just attacked Georgia to his home, but they were at war. If his father said a matter concerning a goddess was urgent, then there was no way around it. Gritting his teeth, he said, “I can’t leave the Breeder with my men—she’s still unmated. Follow us to my apartment—we can talk privately there, while she is safe in another room.”
He left Georgia in the bedroom, with orders to stay.
She gave him an annoyed look and muttered something about not being a pet as he closed the bedroom door behind him.
It bothered him—that she was irritated with him. Instincts he could do nothing about prickled at his spine, urging him to fix it. Ridiculous, of course. There was nothing to fix. He wasn’t to be her mate; it wasn’t his job to keep her happy. And yet, his stupid, primitive wiring kept his mind preoccupied with thoughts of how to please her… make her sweet on him.
Frustration oozed off him as he entered the living room where his father waited. “Out with it, then. Why did you think the Breeder was divine?”
Kirigan arched an eyebrow at his insolent tone, but thankfully didn’t call him out. He wasn’t in the mood to be put in his place by his insane but immensely powerful sire.
“There were signs of divine presence during your battle with the Europeans in Maine. But… hidden. Expertly so. One of them was there.”
Kesh sucked in a breath. He knew better than to question his father on matters concerning magic. The ancient demon was one of the utmost experts on the matter, not only in the Americas, but in the world. The thought of a goddess having been so close, without Kesh so much as sensing it? Unsettling was too mild a word.
“Why? What was her purpose? To make us rip into each other? We don’t exactly need divine intervention for this war.”
“To steal a Stone of Power. The Europeans had one with them. I felt its echo, along with the faintest trace of a god’s presence as it vanished off the battlefield. To pull that off, whoever they are must be… very old. Powerful. And sly. Aran mentioned his men seeing your Second drag a human woman with a child off the battlefield… hence my assumption about the girl on your lap.” Kirigan leveled him with an emotionless yet somehow entirely judgmental look. “I didn’t anticipate you bringing a Breeder into battle.”
Heat touched Kesh’s ears, his brow pulling down with a sense of defensiveness. “There was no other choice. I couldn’t leave her behind. Aran needed urgent assistance, or we would have lost his entire territory, and there wasn’t time to get another lord to look after her. She was supposed to stay out of danger, behind magical wards.”
“Your sister-in-law should have prepared you for the fact that Breeders aren’t always meek and compliant.” Kirigan’s gaze slid toward the hallway and the closed bedroom door. An unsettling intensity flickered through his black eyes. “Why did she enter the battlefield? Does she possess the light?”
“No. She’s not Pure.” Kesh took a half-step to the side, blocking his father’s view of the door shielding Georgia. “She’s just a soft-hearted Breeder, who saw a wayward spawnling on the field and decided to put her own life at risk for an insignificant human’s. Which would be the child Aran mentioned. She clung to that thing like she’d birthed it herself, so Mallorn had to rescue them both.”
