Page 18 of Speak No Evil

“I don’t enjoy punishing members of my coven, Jade.” Kayla’s voice is just as sweet and serene as always and draws my eyes from the witch who’s now carefully avoiding my gaze.

“No,” I say, ignoring the tang of metallic on the back of my tongue and the blood dripping from my nose. “But you sure like the rush of twelve witches’ power coursing through your body. Don’t you?” I put a finer point on the observation by spitting a wad of blood at her feet.

Kayla doesn’t like that, but instead of saying anything, she simply jams more of the binding spell down my metaphysical throat.

Sweet Lucifer, kill me now. I can’t take much more of this.

The spell sets my cells ablaze.

Someone is screaming.

The second I realize it’s me, I shut that shit down. No way am I showing that kind of weakness in front of her. But I wouldn’t put it past Kayla to corrupt a spell in order to maximize pain just to force a scream from me, so I brace myself and don’t expect to keep silent for long.

Instead, Kayla lets out a lovely pealing laugh, like bells in the distance. It’s so beautiful it’s difficult to believe that such a terrible person produced such an enchanting sound.

She smiles at me, black eyes glinting with depraved glee. “Oh, dear Jade. When will you learn that I have the power here? All of it. So you can spit at me and stifle the sounds of your agony, but ultimately”—she comes closer, putting her face close enough that I can count the flecks of gold in her black eyes—“it’s your life, yourpower, inmyhands, witch.”

With her final word, Kayla intensifies the searing pain of the binding spell by a factor of ten.

My vision tunnels, and I thank the gods I don’t believe in for the sweet relief of impending unconsciousness. Or death. I’d take either.

The world grows darker, voices seem further away, and in the far corner of my mind, I hear a terrible, bone-chilling roar.

And something about the sound sets my soul at ease. I finally let myself slump forward and allow the darkness to take me fully.

THORNE

The city isfull of scents I haven’t indulged for quite some time. Vampires are incredibly hedonistic creatures, and given that Laurel Cove is vamp-run, sex and blood and desire permeate the air like a hand-distilled perfume.

It’s intoxicating, and if I were a younger demon not in full control of my baser self, the sensuous milieux might compel me to follow my nose to the most compelling scents. But I’m not the wild, gluttonous thing I once was and, more importantly, I’m on a mission:

Find Jade and destroy whatever has taken her against her will, regardless of the political consequence.

And there will be consequences.

With so many supes living in the neighboring cities, we established formal protocols between Blackwood, Laurel Cove, Cypress City, and even the fae city generations ago. Crossing city limits without formal notification...

It’s simply not done.

Things might get bloody.

But as Vrahs said, fuck the protocol. Jade takes priority. Especially if someone is hurting her.

Chonk yowls, but we’re keeping his pace, so I’m not certain what his issue is.

We’re getting close.

“Agreed,” Vrahs says, his carmine skin erupting into gooseflesh. “She’s very near.”

It makes sense that he would have a closer link to Jade. He’s the primary mate, the reason Thorne and I are mated to her at all. But I can’t say I’m not jealous that he gets a front-row seat to her mind and emotions.

I can only imagine what a feast swimming in Jade’s depths might be.

Perhaps one day.

To this point, Chonk has led us through the back alleys and less populated areas of Laurel Cove. But with the orange cat’s next turn, the four of us, including a giant, naked, red demon, are jogging down the main thoroughfare of the city.

Our only saving grace is that vamps aren’t early risers. There aren’t many cars or even people on the city street. The ones that are have their noses buried in their phones or have the glazed expression of humans awake too early and regretting their life choices.

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