Page 15 of Flirting with Death

The normal startled gasps and shrieks filled the lobby as we passed through. It didn't matter that Alastor was loudly trying to tell anyone that would listen that it was just makeup. Yeah, really realistic makeup. Another snort worked its way from my throat as we exited onto the busy street. A woman fainted in front of me. I watched her fall and then stepped over her. I didn't have time for dramatics.

Alastor paused for a moment to make sure she was okay before he caught up with me. "She'll live."

"Didn't ask." I waved away his comment. "My father is already in this realm. We have very little time to spare."

CHAPTER 10

Samantha

Lex kissed my nose and climbed from the bed.

I watched his delicious ass as he made his way to the bathroom. A new tattoo graced his side, it was a sleek-looking red fox; I was pretty sure it was like the other two and would protect him. I’d have to take a closer look later on. For now, I stretched lazily as he disappeared.

I really could stay in this bed all day—forget my responsibilities and promises—pretend like I wasn't being hunted. Instead, I pushed off the covers and pulled on my discarded clothing as I gathered it up from the floor in his living room.

When he returned, I was ready to hunt, my dagger in place. I tied the shoelace on my boot and stood up to face him.

"You don't have to come," I said. While part of me screamed silently that I wanted him to come, he had promised to stay with me.

He chuckled and pulled on his clothing. "You're cute."

A smile tugged at my lips as I watched him lace up his shoes. "Guess I'm stuck with you now, huh?"

"Yep, our paths are officially intertwined. Remind me to thank my sisters later." His arm dropped around my shoulders as we left the safety of his apartment. Rai had said he would meet me outside in a few minutes.

"I think we should start in the woods, maybe something is left of the horde." Our hips bumped as we walked, and I was still relaxed from the many climaxes I had. In all honesty, I could probably go to sleep right now and not wake up for hours.

Raiden leaned against the side of the building and pushed off as soon as he caught sight of us. "Hey," he said in greeting. "Ty is home now."

"Did you find out what actually happened?" I asked. Warmth radiated off of him as his arms wrapped around me for a hug.

He puffed out a breath of smoke that smelled like a campfire. I used to think that he always smelled vaguely like a fire because he was a firefighter. I really had my head in the sand for what he was. Anytime he was emotional, he couldn't contain his fire completely.

"He said a muse paid him a visit, looking for a hero," he said.

"Another muse?" Lex asked. We started walking toward the woods without a conversation about our destination; we were all on the same page.

"Yeah," Rai responded. He rubbed at his neck before he added, "She told him he needed to save her sister, because you would fail."

"Rude," I grumbled.

"She has us now," Lex said. "But maybe the muse is seeing more. My mom mentioned that the Demon King wanted revenge. If he is added to the mix, then maybe Sam's failure is a distraction with something bigger?" He made quotation marks with his fingers around the word failure, as if he didn't really feel like being distracted meant I would fail.

"But if the other demons have a muse that will inspire them with ideas of ways to stay, that sounds like the bigger issue," I said.

I stepped over a fallen branch that hadn't been here the last time we came down the path we were on. Dead foliage that hadn't already been beaten down with footsteps crinkled beneath ours. The smell from the earthy leaves drifted to us as we crushed them. With the slight breeze through the treetops and the sun rising over the forest, it was almost magical.

"Ty was kind of out of it though, he thought he could have hallucinated the whole thing. He was going to sleep it off," Rai said.

"Was he drunk?" I asked. Because that would be the only way he would have imagined something like that. Ty was levelheaded and normally pretty straight forward. It was part of the reason I always looked up to him and looked for his approval in my life. Not that I was afraid to disappoint him, I'd done that tons, but I loved him, and he was family.

"No, he—" Rai's words cut off as voices traveled through the trees to us. If we could hear them, they would hear us if they hadn't already. I couldn't pick up what was being said, but the tone sounded angry. I'd love to have that shadow power that Bellamy's friend had right about now. Instead, we were slinking through the trees, watching our steps and making sure they were slow and measured so the leaves didn't give away our position.

On a different trail, three demons stood immobile, two against one in an argument. We crouched behind a fallen tree, observing them. I strained to hear exactly what they were saying before I realized it was a language that I didn't understand.

"What are they saying?" I whispered, frustrated that I couldn't figure it out.

"I don't know. Sounds like orcish," Lex said.

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