Page 65 of Legacy of Temptation

“Our people didn’t do anything wrong,” Kynan snapped. “And until I get assurances that whoever is responsible will be held accountable, you’re staying here.”

Logan raked a frustrated hand through his hair and swore. “The Aegis won’t like that.”

“So I found out when I talked to Elder Hammond.”

Eva would have laughed if she wasn’t so busy trying to keep from crying. Kell Hammond was a humorless, hardheaded former Marine who didn’t negotiate with terrorists or anyone else.

“What do they want?” Logan asked.

“They want Draven’s head. His literal head. And they won’t release our people until they have it. And they want Eva back. They’ll give up one of our guys for her, but that’s not good enough. I want them all. They gave us one day to either give her up or find Draven.”

“Or?”

“Or they go to the press and tell the world that one of our pet demons is rabid and on the loose.” Kynan slammed the side of his fist against the wall. “It’ll be the end of DART.”

How had the last twelve hours gone downhill so fast?

DART had been fighting an uphill battle for decades when it came to employing supernaturals, and the one golden arrow they had in their quiver of arguments was that no DART agent had ever gone rogue. There had been a handful of investigations, sure, especially when civilians had been injured during the course of a battle between DART and dangerous supes. But for the most part, they’d kept their supernatural employees clean and out of the spotlight.

This would reverberate through every anti-demon entity in the world, and it wouldn’t matter that an Aegi instigated the incident. News that a vengeance demon was slaughtering demon slayers would be devastating to the organization. Even if it didn’t completely destroy them, public approval would plummet, and funding would dry up.

Logan could already visualize the protests filling the streets, stirred into frenzies by a media that made its money by fueling hate and sowing division. It would be The Aegis’s wet dream.

They definitely couldn’t give up Eva. She was the only leverage they had.

“If you let me go, I promise to do what I can to get your people released.” Eva’s proposal sounded sincere, but Logan doubted she had that much sway with the Elders.

“Sorry, Eva,” Kynan replied, “but we can’t do that. Not yet. We need to find another way.”

Logan scoured his brain for ideas and rejected them one by one as too stupid, too outrageous, or too dangerous. Except…shit. He had a card he didn’t want to play, but they were out of options, and Draven’s life was on the line.

Reluctantly, he turned to his boss. “Can I talk to you outside for a minute?” Kynan agreed, and as soon as they stepped outside, Logan put down his ace. “Let me talk to them.”

“What, you have some special backdoor into The Aegis’s leadership?”

“Ah…yeah.” At Kynan’s raised eyebrow, Logan’s cheeks heated. “I dated one of the Elders back in college.”

Kynan, who was rarely surprised by anything, blinked. “Say what?”

“Maja Weso. She wasn’t an Elder when we dated. She wasn’t even in The Aegis. I met her in one of my demon archaeology classes.” Logan had taken the class mainly for the easy A, as well as to see how ridiculous the lessons would be. Turned out the human who taught it had been extremely knowledgeable, so much so that Logan suspected Professor Sheeron was a demon.

The class had been interesting, but what he’d really gotten a kick out of was the students. Some took the course out of curiosity, like Maja. Others needed it for the new degrees available in a handful of demon-centric studies. Students of both categories came at the class from two different angles—about a quarter had neutral to positive attitudes toward supernaturals, while the rest went the other direction to varying degrees.

Logan hadn’t liked the latter much.

But Maja had been on the fence, leaning a little more toward finding supernaturals to be fascinating, and she’d been open to giving them a chance. So, she’d taken the class as an elective on her journey toward a psychology degree.

“Was it serious?” Kynan asked.

“Yes.”

“Did it end on good terms?”

“Not at all.”

“Then what makes you think you’ll even be able to speak to her, let alone get through to her?”

“She’s smart, and she’s curious. She’ll want to know what I have to say.” Or she might tell him to go fuck himself and the hellhound he rode in on. He’d give his attempt fifty-fifty odds.

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