Page 18 of Flirting with Death

As if she sensed my emotions, she turned to face me again, her curves pressed against mine in all the right places. Her fingers trailed over the scruff on my cheek as she met my stare.

"No one is kidnapping me, I'm going to be fine. This is my job, hunting demons. I can deal with them on my own if I need to."

"But you aren't alone now," Raiden said. "You never were."

I heard the hidden meaning in the words, he had kept his true self from her for years. Like a protector from the shadows, I was sure if she ever got into trouble, he would have been there.

"Let's focus. First we need to save the muse, then figure out how to send the demons back to Tartus."

"You don't want to kill them?" Bellamy shoved his hands in his pockets as he eyed her. What was he hiding?

"If they force my hand, I will kill them, but I know now that it isn't black and white. If you aren't all evil, then how could the rest of them be?"

"I'm not sure you know me all the way yet, hunter." He deflected her words. They clearly made him uncomfortable. For someone that never felt like he belonged after his brother disappeared, they were probably a balm on an old festering wound.

She moved away from me, I missed her warmth immediately as she trailed a finger down Bellamy's chest. "I know a few things, Prince. I know that you've held back with your abilities. When you used them on me to get my mom to sacrifice you, I felt the true extent of them. You could have killed me. I know you want to be a hero, or you wouldn't have done what you did. You wouldn't have wanted me to see you that way when you came back. You can't hide from me. You were lost in a sea of pain, but I anchor you and give you the light you were searching for." She walked her nails down to his waistband. "And right now, if you were only a monster, I'd be naked and writhing on the floor before you. But I don't feel a single tendril of lust coming from you because you and I have a connection that we can't explain."

He swallowed hard, and I wondered if she saw all of us so clearly. I knew he was all in. It was why he came back to save her from his father.

"I would prove it to you, but as Raiden has pointed out, we have other things to focus on right now. One of them being sending your horde back where they belong."

"My father is hunting you."

That wasn't exactly how I would have told her. Her fingers curled into his waistband as her eyes darted between his. We all saw her breath catch as she stopped breathing for a moment.

"What do you mean?"

"He blames you for my death." He rolled off of the pole behind him and put space between them. Cerberus growled when he stepped too close to his tail. His own slapped the floor in a quick tempo.

"He doesn't know you are alive?" Her head tilted as she studied him before she dropped to the leather sofa next to Lex.

Bellamy shook his head. Lex's palm squeezed Samantha's leg, and Raiden folded into the space on her other side, tossing an arm along the back of the couch.

"I sensed you and Lex in the woods. We were already headed to you when I felt your panic skyrocket. I thought he found you." He dragged his fingers through his white hair, his bangs a stark difference to his blue skin as he backed further away. "If I'm with you when he finds you, I can stop him."

"Don't you have a way to find him first?" Raiden asked.

"Only if someone knows a locator spell. I texted Tristan already, but his witch is on some sort of mission for the Academy."

Watching the train wreck happen, I leaned against the window and crossed my arms. I didn't know Raiden very well, but Bellamy probably wasn't safe staying here. The puff of smoke billowing from the dragon's nostrils told me it would be a crime scene if we didn't find a solution. Then the King would have an actual reason to come after Samantha.

CHAPTER 12

Samantha

My palm slapped down on Raiden's leg before he could launch himself at an unsuspecting Bellamy. His muscles bunched beneath my fingers the scent of brimstone in the air.

"Stop it," I said. I knew he was the one that was probably going to have the hardest time with the others, no matter how much he said he was okay with it, but it would not start right now. "My best friend is the Queen of the Fae, she might have a way."

The room fell silent as Bellamy, Lex, and Alastor digested the news. Lex had to know something was happening between her and the warriors when they came to his club, but he must have never connected the dots.

"The Queen of the Fae?" Alastor blinked, then his gaze shifted to Cerberus. "The daughter of the old king?"

"In a way," I said. The story was too long and complicated to give cliff notes.

"How could she track a demon?"

"She won't be the one to do it. But one of her guys is apt at tracking." I pulled out my phone and texted my contact in the mortal world that had a way to get a message to my friend. Briefly, I wondered what she would think of the guys in this room. Would she threaten them like I had her warriors?

---