Page 37 of In the Devil's Shadow

“How is it possible that she has two fathers?” Angie asked. She looked at Oisín. “Do you have two fathers, too?”

“No, Lucifer is my only father, and my mother was a Druid Priestess. You should both be packing. Let’s walk and talk. I want to hear stories about this firecracker as a kid. I have a feeling she was a handful,” Oisín cackled.

Mal and Bash went with them, while Desmond followed Nonna to her room to help her pack. Charlie, Azazel, and I stayed with Diana. She ran into her closet, pulling out luggage bags and throwing them on the bed. She gathered items from all over the room: pants, dresses, shirts, books, shoes, and a blanket that had seen better days. Charlie and Azazel packed them while I looked out the window to check the perimeter. I didn’t see anything, but I had been waging wars my entire life. I had been on both ends of the fight–the attack and the defense. Something felt off, but I couldn’t put my finger on it.

Checked the window, and I don’t see anything. I don’t hear anything either. But something feels wrong. Hurry up and get everyone back in here quickly,I linked the crew.

The guys replied with affirmatives, and I caught Charlie and Azazel up on my suspicions. They hurried, and in no time, she had two neatly packed bags with her stuff. Eventually, everyone filtered back to Diana’s room. Nonna and Angie both had a couple of bags that we placed next to Diana’s. Mal closed his eyes, waving his hands to teleport them to the suite.

“They’re safe. I teleported them to our place in Vegas,” he explained to Angie as she raised a brow at him.

Sounds of glass shattering rang out around the room as a group of masked men crashed through the windows. They wore half masks over their eyes and were dressed in black tactical gear. Their ears were long and pointed, but their skin, save the pale green around their eyes, was completely covered. One lunged for Diana, but she hit him with a blast of energy that knocked him on his ass.

“Bash, please get my family and Charlie out of here!” she screamed as more identical men came in through the door.

He grabbed Nonna, Angela, and Charlie’s hands, pulling them into the circle and disappearing back to Vegas. One of the men tried to follow them through, but Mal stopped him by using telekinetic magic, causing the bastard’s head to explode all over the room. Desmond stood in front of Diana, blocking her from the fight as he shifted into his demon form. One of the ninja wannabes charged him, but Desmond bent forward, bull-gouging him with his horns. He threw the corpse into another attacker, knocking him over.

Oisín turned into a tiger, using his emerald-colored magic to create a cloaking shield. It protected him as he tore one of their throats apart. Blood sprayed all over Diana’s bedspread, and he licked some of it off.

“I don’t think that’s going to come out of the fabric,” Diana said as she petted his head. Oisín shrugged her off as he stalked toward the window. He roared at Azazel to get his attention.

Azazel ran to the window, eyes going wide at whatever was out there. “Ohfuck!” he shouted over the melee as he looked out to the street below. He shot silver streams of magic outside. “More of them are scaling the walls, and there are at least twenty more outside.”

I turned to find that more of them were coming in through the door. I felt a knife plunge into my back, and whipped around to see one of the insurgents, cocky as fuck with a smile on his face.Oh, you dumb fuck, knives don’t hurt me.

“Your head is about to become my newest plaything. Thank you for the gift,” I said as I grabbed the sides of his head, twisting it until his neck broke and his head popped clean off. It was like opening a bottle of Cherry Coke.

I lit the head on fire, tossing it in my hands before whirling it at another masked moron. He fell like a sack of bricks as his clothing burned. The fire took out two other enemies before Mal snuffed it out.

Good job, but we can’t let their house burn down with us inside it,he linked.

He wasn’t wrong.

Whoever these dramatic fucks were, they were more advanced than the reptile shifters, although not as skilled as us. I scanned the room, and saw Diana and Desmond fighting a few of them. Diana kicked one in his nuts, yanked him to his knees, and shot a line of fire into his mouth, burning him alive from the inside.She’s so hot when she’s torturing people. My Little Goddess’ bloodlust is strong.

Desmond magically bound another assailant’s arms and legs before throwing him onto the bed. Mal teleported him away with a wave of his hand. I was dying to question whoever we caught. The thought of tearing them apart limb by limb and beating them to death with one of their own legs made me feelgiddy. I was ready to fuck shit up.

Azazel and Oisín sealed the windows, their silver and green magic providing a transparent shield. We made quick work of whoever remained. I threw fire balls at the last two masked mystery intruders, then worked on gathering everyone.

“It’s time to leave,” Azazel urged. “The seals on the windows aren’t going to last forever.”

We all scrambled to the circle, jumping inside to teleport back to Vegas.

When we stepped out of the circle into our suite in Las Vegas, everyone seemed confused. Nonna looked around me, and her mouth gaped as she ran her fingers through her curly, black hair.

“Where’s Diana?!” she screamed. “Why isn’t she with you?”

I spun around, but the only people I saw in the circle were me, Desmond, Azazel, and Oisín. Diana and Mal were missing.

“Something isn’t right…” Azazel looked between us all. “Desmond, what’s going on?”

“I have no clue,” he responded. He stepped back into the circle, but nothing happened. He didn’t cross over the linked circle in Brooklyn.

“I never closed the summoning circle,” Bash said with a tinge of panic to his voice.

He grabbed Desmond’s hand and they disappeared. Everyone started talking at once, and it was difficult to keep up with all the separate, frantic conversations. Oisín cut me a look from the other side of the suite. He may have been silent, but I knew what he was thinking. There was a good chance that when Bash and Desmond got to the house in Brooklyn, Mal and Diana wouldn’t be there.

They appeared a few minutes later, concerned looks on their faces.

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