Chapter 3

CHAPTER 3

I thrust my hands into my pockets and hung back in the Cain Technologies foyer, blending in, being normal and not in any way suspicious.

Zee cleared his throat, and announced, "I don't think you know who I am. My name is Lycian. L-y-c-i ... maybe e or a ? Definitely an n at the end. Look it up. Whatever." He hair-flicked. "Why would I be here, glorifying your swanky foyer with my beautiful self, if I do not have an appointment?"

I heard the receptionist say something about his name clearly not being on the schedule.

"Check again. L-y-c... or maybe s ? Try an s . Yes I know how to spell my own name, thank you. I like to switch it up." He bent over the desk, then half mounted it, one knee on the desktop, angled to get a look at the receptionist's screen. The poor woman clearly hadn't met anyone like Zee before. "Let me see."

"Oh, you have pretty eyes," he said. "And that lipstick is to die for. What shade is it?"

"Cranberry Crush?"

"You have to tell me where you got it, queen. "

"Alright, but your name isn't on the visitors schedule, Mr. uh... Lycian."

"Wait . . . Isn't this Cora's Modelling Agency?"

"Didn't you want Mr. Reynard?"

"That was earlier. Can't you see how gorgeous I am? So this isn't the modeling agency, and Cora doesn't work here? Oh, my mistake. Anyway. Bye. Text me the link for that lipstick, honey." He dropped off the desk, turned on his heel, and strode across the foyer and out the door. I waited a few beats, making sure anyone who stared after him had gone back to whatever they'd been doing before Zee interrupted them, and then casually ambled out after him.

A whistle drew my eye and there was Zee, a little ways down the street, leaning against a storefront wall. I hurried over to meet him. "What just happened?"

With a flick of his fingers, he produced a keycard. "It's all in the wrist."

"You're brilliant."

His eyebrows bounced. "I know, right. I am the best. I also saw on Cranberry Crush's screen that Fancy Pants is definitely in the building. So unless he has his head stuck up his ass, he knows Gideon Cain's name is all over his business and he neglected to mention it to us, his besties. Maybe because this was all part of his evil vampire plan ?"

I plucked the card from his waving fingers. "I don't believe that. I won't believe it until I see him and talk to him myself. You said yourself, there's something going on back there. Something wrong ."

Zee screwed up his nose. "Yeah, for real. So, all we gotta do now is get by Cranberry Crush and into the elevator without her calling security."

I eyed his tall, stunning, dramatic self. "I don't think you're slipping by her anytime soon." There had to be a way to get him inside. "Can't you just poof into the elevator? Or down to Reynard's office? It's in the basement."

Zee blinked. "One, there is no fucking way I can poof into a moving elevator without getting cheesewired in half by the cables. And two, if I don't know where I'm going, there's a high fucking chance I'll poof into a wall... or a person, resulting in instant death for them, and some very uncomfortable surgery for me. Why do you think I stole the fucking key?"

"Oh right, okay. Yeah, but how do we get past the receptionist, even with the elevator key?"

Zee poked my forehead. "You're so cute, and sometimes dim. There's this little thing called glamor. I know you've heard of it, since you're wearing it."

"What? I'm... what?" I trailed off, to make sure nobody had heard, as his eyebrows climbed higher. "Okay, fine. I may be wearing a tiny amount of glamor."

"Uh-huh, so we're gonna glamor up to the tits and walk right in. That'll get us as far as the elevator, and the key will get us to the basement, right? Also, his office is in the fucking basement? What a loser."

"It surprised me too. I was expecting a grand office suite, but it wasn't that at all. He seemed to like it though, which is the important part I guess."

"No, if you have billions, you make sure everyone knows it, else what's the fucking point? Ugh, he can't even humble brag right." He pulled the glasses off and vanished them with a flick of his wrist. "Okay, so just a little glamor," he said, rubbing his hands together and glancing both ways. A few people trod the sidewalk, but whipping up some glamor in public wasn't unusual, like adjusting makeup. "You ready?"

I frowned, then kicked at a loose bit of stone. "Uhm."

He narrowed his eyes. "You can change your appearance? "

I winced. "I dunno, maybe?"

"Wait." He caught my shoulder and drew me to the side. "You do know how to glamor?"

Sort of. I'd rarely done it. "Yeah, but... I don't like to mess with it. It's... volatile."

"You're already boring." He waved a hand at my head. "Just switch up your hair color."

"Hm . . . yeah okay, but also, uh . . . no?"

"Why not?" He genuinely didn't understand. A touch of glamor for him was as easy as breathing. He'd used it all the time to hide any marks left over from Razorsedge. But mine was a little more... complicated.

"It won't change," I admitted. "It's stuck like this."

"Huh?"

"So uhm... you know that curse I mentioned? Yeah, well. That, on top of the glamor, kind of means it's all stuck like it is. Like I am. Like this. As me."

"You can't remove it?"

"No." I swallowed. Not without a blood sacrifice and a whole lot of suspiciously telling rituals. But Zee didn't need to know that part right now. That was all part of The Talk that would come later, when I was ready.

"Okay, fine. We won't change your look. You're so boring, you're basically invisible anyway. I got this." He flicked out his hands. "Imma flex. Stand back." He took a step away, rolled his shoulders, cracked his neck, and swept both hands up his body, then spread out his fingers and pushed at the air. His appearance, already slightly altered, shimmered and fizzled. His clothes blurred, changing into pressed gray pants and a severe-looking suit jacket. When the shimmer got to his face his jaw softened, rounding out, and his eyes turned brown. His hair, typically a floppy, two-tone black and purple mess, became clipped close to his skull—and turned brown.

He'd become a completely different person .

He shivered all over, then sighed out. "How do I look?" His brown eyebrows jumped.

Like every other person marching up and down the street. "Wow."

"Now I'm even more boring than you. We can be brothers. Kinky stepbrothers who fuck."

"That's... impressive." Glamor-changing your whole appearance and species, was also illegal. But who was I to argue?

"Kinda hot too, right? All that family angst but not actually related, so morally and genetically, it's fucking fine?—"

"What? No, not the brother thing, the glamor." Glamor was used for minor adjustments, tweaking things, but rarely to change a whole person into another person. Few had the power required to fuel that level of transformation. I had it, and clearly, so did Zee. Proving he was a lot more powerful than he let on—or knew.

"Yeah, but I can't hold it for long. It chafes like crazy. Let's go be boring before it wears off and all my fabulous spills out."

We returned to Cain Technologies, entered through the door, and strode by the splashing fountain.

"It's all about confidence, Kitten," Zee muttered through his smile. "Walk like you're the boss and nobody will doubt you."

Zee was right. We walked right on in, toward the elevators, and nobody batted an eye. Even Cranberry Crush was preoccupied with another visitor and didn't see us. Zee usually turned heads the second he entered a room. Not this time. Nobody looked over. It had to be killing him.

The elevator doors glided open, depositing its load of suit-clad employees and making way for Zee and me. We stepped in, then I flashed the card and hit the button for the basement level, where Victor's office was .

Zee fidgeted beside me as the music tinkled. "Dunno how you live like this. It's fucking suffocating." His tail popped out and lashed. "Oops."

A grumpy looking man entered moments before the doors slammed closed. He jabbed the level-three button.

"Oh, erm, we're going down," I warned.

"It's fine," he grouched, then pulled his phone from his pocket and buried his face in it.

Zee stood very still in the corner, trying to be boring and normal, while his tail swished his frustration. All he had to do was hold his glamor together for a few more minutes.

He pinched his lips, eyes widening, and as I watched, the base of his horns emerged from his brown hair that was now turning purple.

The grumpy man tapped away on his phone, oblivious to the gradual appearance of a demon behind his left shoulder.

The glamor peeled from the rest of Zee's horns then down his face, like a mask falling away. Zee closed his eyes, willing the glamor back, and for a few seconds it held, then dropped down his shoulders. Underneath, his original, near-transparent shirt emerged, then the glamor fell from his hips, where his pants clung low. Seconds later he was Zee again, missing only his wings. Although, from the look on his face, those wings might have been about to make an unscheduled appearance.

"Hold it," I silently mouthed.

He scrunched his lips together and screwed up his face.

The music jingled.

The lift hummed.

Zee's face contorted.

Just a few more seconds.

"Fuck, can't!"

His wings poofed into the elevator, filling every inch of available space. His right wing slapped against the grumpy man, who fell against me. I squished up against the side of the elevator, with the stranger plastered intimately against my chest.

"Er, hello? I'm Adam."

The man's eyes blew wide. "Wha?—"

"Oh, Kitten, yes," Zee moaned his delight. "This feels so good!" He stretched, and his wings expanded, plastering the elevator walls. His tail came up, massaging the grumpy man's alarmed face. "Smoosh over?"

"There's no room Zee!" The grumpy man was no longer grumpy, and was instead traumatized. "I'm so sorry," I told him. "If it's any consolation, your day probably won't get any worse."

The doors opened and Zee spilled out, flinging his wings and tail wide. "I have arrived!"

I stumbled out after him, and turned to see the elevator doors sliding closed on the grumpy man, who looked as though he'd been assaulted in Demontown. There was zero chance he wouldn't mention that he'd met a demon in the elevator. But that was fine. Victor would fix everything.

The basement corridor was as grim and forgettable as the first time I'd seen it. Lights blinked on above us as we moved toward Victor's office.

"This is just fucking sad." Zee stopped outside the door with Victor's name on the plaque. "I almost feel sorry for Fancy Fangs, which is fucked-up." He knocked, but nobody answered. In fact, the entire basement was quiet. The corridor stretched on, plunging into darkness where motion-sensing lights hadn't been triggered.

I tried the handle, but the door didn't budge.

"I can poof inside, if you tell me what's in there... so I don't get too personal with his furniture."

"There's a small couch on the left... His desk is on the right, with a chair behind it... And not much else. "

"Fuck, would it kill him to live a little?" Zee poofed away. A second later the door lock snicked over.

"You forgot to mention a few fucking things," Zee said, as the door opened. "Like how Daddy Vampire's office is a BDSM sex den."

My mouth fell open.

The plain desk and boring couch were gone. Metal shackles hung from the back wall and hooks had been fixed to the floor, clearly for chaining people down. This was nothing like how I'd last seen it. He'd said he'd made changes, like buying a cat picture, but there wasn't one on the wall now. I checked the name on the door, just to make sure we were in the right room: Victor Reynard.

My insides sank. "I don't think this is his office anymore."

Zee picked up one of the shackles. "He's into torture. Maybe he redecorated."

It was possible. But with the name change from Reynard to Cain, and the traces of fear Zee had picked up in the foyer, a lot of things weren't adding up. Then there was how Victor had checked out— it's for the best —leaving only a paper flower outside my room.

"Zee, I have a bad feeling about all of this."

When we'd last talked, before my big reveal, I'd told him to turn off the tracking software. What if he'd tried, and it had triggered his family to get involved, to protect their assets? Sebastien had revealed Daisy and Cain were working with him. And now Gideon Cain's name was over the front doors of Reynard Technologies.

Dread sat heavy in my gut. "This is bad, Zee."

"Kinky, bad. I like it. Chain me up and spank me, daddy."

"No, bad bad."

"Wait, this isn't a sex thing?" He dropped the shackle. "That is a lot less fun." He cringed and regarded the chains in a new light. "For fuck's sake, do I have to save his perfect ass again ?"

The door opened and Reynard walked in, with his sleeves rolled up and his hair braided so tightly it made his face even more severe. He jolted to a stop, as alarmed to see us as we were to see him. "Adam."

Zee grinned. "He's fine! Let's go."

"Zodiac?" Reynard frowned, and then the frown cut even deeper into his severe expression. "You cannot be here."

"Great, we're all agreed we shouldn't be here." Zee marched toward the door. "Love what you've done with the place. Very torture-chamber chic. But it's my birthday and I want cake, which we definitely will not find in your sex den."

"This is not an erotic dungeon. It's HR."

"Human resources?"

"Indeed. I'm sure you've noticed Gideon Cain's hostile takeover? I returned to collect my scant belongings—Zodiac, it's your birthday?" Reynard asked. "I wasn't aware."

Zee folded his arms. "Because I decided this morning."

"You've decided your birthday is today?"

"If you hadn't fucking checked out, you'd know. But no, you slunk off like the sucker you are, hurting Adam's feelings. A lot. Asshole. Good talk. Bye. Adam?"

Reynard frowned. "I left a note outside your door, Adam."

"Oh..." The flower had been a note? Oops. "I didn't realize I was supposed to open it."

"Unless the note said Happy Fucking Birthday to the Best Demon , nobody cares. Adam, Lord Fuck-Hard is fine and getting his torture on for Gideon Cain and Princess Buffy. He obviously doesn't fucking need us. So let's fucking go."

"You believe I would betray you?" Reynard grumbled, mostly to hide the small quiver in his voice. "After everything we've been through these past few weeks? "

"Meh?" Zee shrugged a shoulder. "What's a few weeks to your ancient ass, when you've been a villain forever?"

"Adam." Reynard stepped between Zee and me. "That was not my intention?—"

"So, what did the note say?"

"A great deal about Gideon Cain's hostile takeover in the very early hours of this morning. With poor reception at the hotel, I was not aware of the management reshuffle and that the board had voted me out. This morning, with everything else happening, I thought it best I leave... and for you not to come." He stepped closer, but when he reached for me his hand fell, already defeated. "Adam, it's too dangerous."

"Dangerous for who? Because you belong with us, not doing whatever you're doing for them ."

Reynard's gaze skipped to Zee by the door. Zee had his arms crossed, foot tapping.

Reynard caught my arms, and leaned in to whisper in my ear. "Knowing what you are, you cannot be here. Machinations are happening beyond my control. The risk is too great. You must go, and... we should not see each other again." He hesitated, then whispered. "It's for the best."

He was probably right. Maybe it was for the best. Maybe Gideon Cain would learn about the Lost Ones, and that I'd deleted myself from the system, and the vampires would rise up and take over the world. But I was done losing everything I'd ever cared about because of what I was and some stupid prophecy. Me and Victor and Zee and the hotel... I was not letting that go without a fight.

I looked into Victor's concerned gaze. "No."

"Adam." His light-fingered touch skimmed down my cheek then along my chin, so tenderly it almost hurt. "You must."

"No. I won't leave you. I didn't leave Zee, I didn't leave those pets, and I didn't leave Shadow. I won't leave you. You don't want this life. You hate technology, and you don't much like vampires either. This might be your last chance to walk away from all this." I stepped back, and caught Zee's keen glare. "Don't you want to take control of your destiny? Don't you want to be free?" I knew he did, and when I looked into his eyes the truth there confirmed it. "They'll kill you, Victor. If you don't come with us, they'll find you, question you, and it will be over."

Reynard's gaze flicked to Zee, who muttered, "Yeah, what Adam said, I guess."

I cut Zee a pointed glare.

"Fuck. Fine." He threw his hands up. "You don't belong here, you belong with us, blah blah. Don't leave. Emotional shit." He folded his arms, and added one more dry, "Blah."

Reynard almost smiled. "Your compassion is sincerely heartwarming, demon."

Zee showed him his middle finger.

They were so into each other.

With a sigh, Reynard released me. "If I return with you, I will lose all I have left—this company, my wealth, everything. I'll have nothing but the clothes I wear now. What use will I be to you and the hotel?"

"From the sign over the door on the way in," Zee drawled. "Looks like Gideon already fucked you into submission anyway."

"I'm . . . That is . . . They've already replaced my name?" he asked, sounding hollow.

"The swanky fountain has his initials on it too," Zee confirmed. "You're fucked."

Victor's face fell. "I hoped I'd have longer. I wasn't able to shut the software down. There's more to do. I'm not ready. If I stay, I can make a difference."

"Maybe," I said, drawing his gaze back to me. "Or maybe Princess Daisy is coming here right now to grind your bones to dust. You have a better family now. We care about you." I glanced again at Zee, who rolled his eyes. "Isn't that worth fighting for?"

Zee raised a finger. "I object, Your Honor. I never said I cared for Fancy Fangs."

"And it was never your money that mattered," I added... Although, I was going to have to cancel Gremlins Gone and find a cheaper way to solve our gremlin problem. "Come back with us. Whatever this is, walk away. While you still can."

Reynard glanced between us both, then around at what had been his office and was now some kind of torture chamber. "What will happen to my staff?"

"If you come with us, you'll be alive to figure that out."

Victor glanced at Zee again.

"We can fix you a new sex den at the hotel, if you like," Zee said, then caught himself and shivered. "Ugh. What the fuck was that? Me being nice to him? Vampires suck. Fuck off."

Reynard's lips ticked, a sure sign he was smiling inside. "Alright. We should leave. Getting out will be easier than it must have been for you to get inside. How did you get down here without being stopped?"

"Zee glamored himself."

"The chance of me packing all of this magnificence away for a second time is exactly zero," Zee said, gesturing at himself. "So don't ask. Now I know where I'm going, I can poof out, but you two will have to walk. Can you do that, Daddy Vampire? Without getting caught, or kidnapped, or put in a pie, or some other fucking drama that I will be forced by Adam's sad face to rescue you from?"

Reynard glowered, and rolled his sleeves back down. "I am sure I can manage one elevator journey and a walk through the lobby. "

"Good. Then I'll meet you outside. I'll text the driver, because it's sunny and your precious vampire complexion will fry. If you don't show in five minutes, imma lose my shit and cause a fucking riot in the lobby." Zee smiled at me, then planted a quick kiss on my forehead. "Be good and bring Daddy Vampire home." He poofed away.

His words sealed it. This was the right thing to do. I held Victor's gaze. "Are you ready to come home?"

His hard, steely gaze softened with emotion he'd rarely let others see. "I am, Adam."

We were going home. All three of us. Together. My heart did a happy little leap in my chest. "So, are we going to just walk right out and hope nobody notices?"

He held the office door open for me, but after I'd passed through, he lingered a while, taking one last look at his ex-office. "You are right. I never liked it here."

I'd known that, as soon as I'd first seen his office. He'd been forced into a role he despised, but now he was free. It felt good. With a true smile, he clicked the door closed, and we walked the short distance back to the elevator.

But there was just one thing chipping away at the happy vibes. One question I had to have answered. And as the elevator doors pinged open, I asked, "Did the prophecy factor into your leaving?"

I couldn't look at his face and see the truth there, fearing I knew the answer. "It's just that you left right after you read the guide and learned about me, and I'd understand it—" We stepped in and the doors glided closed. The elevator lurched upward, swooping my stomach. "If that's what it was, I get it. Everyone leaves, or they die. Or I have to uhm... deal with them. Permanently." I glanced over and caught his raised eyebrow, then quickly looked away. "I wouldn't do that to you."

"I doubt you could," he said, with a hint of humor .

I smirked and tucked my thumbs into my pockets. "I definitely could."

A little curl of his lips teased a smile. "You would have to be inordinately strong."

"I am." It felt good to finally speak the truth, to be free of the lies. "In fact, I am super strong."

"And fast. You've seen the speed I am capable of. Do you think you could outrun me?"

"I'm not fast like you, but I have my ways." I let my smile turn smug.

"And you'd have to want to hurt me, Adam." He tilted his head down and peered through long, dark lashes. "Would you want that?" he asked, in his smooth, dark, chocolatey voice.

I sensed I was being teased, or even lured into a verbal trap. "It depends. Would you like it?"

Victor shifted closer, pouring all his predatory grace into the two steps that brought him right up against me. "I admit to being intrigued by what you are and what you're capable of. I already knew you were remarkable. The truth only enhances that. I care for you Adam, in ways I've not cared for anyone in centuries."

"You didn't leave because of me?" Looking up, I found his eyes sincere.

"I left to keep you safe, to keep the hotel safe. If they ever discover?—"

The elevator lurched, grinding to a sudden stop. The small screen above the door blinked, alternating numbers between minus one and zero. That was fine, right? Worst case, if the doors didn't open, it couldn't be far to climb to the lobby floor?

Victor jabbed the buttons, then hit the alarm, but nothing sounded. His eyes narrowed, and he looked over my head at the camera in the corner .

"What's wrong?" I asked.

"Many things." He grabbed the rail, tilted his head back, and jumped, shoving the overhead access hatch open. Then he vanished through it. Moments later, he leaned back in and offered his hand. "I'll lift you out. We'll climb the rest of the way."

"Isn't it just a glitch?" It seemed safer inside the car than exposed to all its cables and gears.

"I doubt that. These elevators have several safety features and fail-safes, few of which appear to be working."

If it wasn't a glitch then the elevator had been deliberately stopped? I glanced at the camera's beady eye. Was someone back there, watching us?

I grabbed Victor's hand and clung on, as he effortlessly hauled me through the hatch and onto the top of the elevator car. Thick cables clanged and twanged far, far above. So far above that perspective made the shaft narrow to a point. Nausea churned. The elevator car swung an inch, and my insides swooped.

"How far down is it?"

"A few floors."

And the door to the lobby was just a few meters' climb above. Not so bad.

"Put your arm around my waist, I'll carry you up." Victor said, unpeeling my viselike grip from his forearm.

A twang sounded, then another clang, until the noises became a cacophony of metal strumming metal.

We both looked up.

The elevator car dropped.

My insides lurched. In a few horrible seconds my fate came rushing up to meet me. If I died here, then the prophecy was wrong. Ha! Take that, destiny! Although, I'd be too dead to revel in the victory, so... not ideal .

Victor's fingers snatched my wrist, jolting my brief plummet to a stop.

Below my dangling feet, the elevator car exploded. Bits of metal rained and rang, and cables twanged some more.

It had all happened so fast.

One second I'd been standing on it, and now it was below, crushed like a can, and I dangled from Victor's grip.

He clung to the side of the shaft with one hand, while the other had hold of me. "I've got you." He heaved me into his arms, then wedged me between himself and the wall. My heart galloped. I could have died. I'm hard to kill, but being crushed in an elevator car may have been enough. "It's alright. I have you Adam," Victor said again. His voice echoed now the shaft had fallen quiet.

"Oh, my stars." I gulped. "Was that deliberate?"

"I fear so." His voice rumbled. "They clearly know we're here."

Cables still clanged and twanged, dancing in the middle of the shaft.

"Who are they, Victor?"

"Gideon Cain, and perhaps my own family."

"Well, that's just . . . rude."

"Hold my arm, and we'll climb up."

"Right. Okay." More clanging sounded from high above. Then chimed closer. I saw it then, like a giant metal whip, lashing down the shaft. Victor, facing me, had no chance to prepare.

Time slowed. My heart thumped.

His eyes widened.

Lurching over his shoulder, I snatched the flailing cable, jolting its whiplike slash to a stop an inch from Victor's skull, and held its thick, metal girth in my own steely grip. It yanked, almost jolting me from Victor's arms, but he held on .

I dropped the cable, and its heavy weight thumped into the mangled wreckage below.

"Indeed, you are strong, Adam." Victor gulped.

"You're welcome." More clangs sounded from above. Was Gideon Cain up there somewhere, cutting cables and chuckling to himself? "Let's get out of here before something else comes at us."

"Agreed."

We clambered the rest of the way up the shaft. Every noise from above could be another deadly projectile. Trying to engineer our accidental deaths was extreme, even for Cain.

Victor dug his nails into the closed lobby doors, peeled them apart, and urged me to climb through first. I reached up, wriggled through the gap, and emerged between the legs of several alarmed office workers. "You uh..." I climbed to my feet and brushed metal shavings and dust from my clothes. "Should probably take the stairs."

Victor crawled through next, to a chorus of gasps. He stood, shook his hair out, and ruffled his clothes free of dust. "As you were," he told the staff, then extended his hand for me to take.

I folded my fingers in his and we casually ambled toward the doors, careful not to run.

Through the glass doors, I spotted Zee leaning against a waiting car at the bottom of the steps, oblivious to our near-death experience. The sun beat down, its full force making heat haze ripple off the steps.

"Are you going to be alright getting to the car?"

"I'll have to be."

"Hey, Zee—" I hurried down the steps. "Get the door."

"Fucking fuck, what happened to you?"

"Get the car door, will you?"

"Oh fuck, right." Zee opened the door and Victor moved fast, blurring from the building into the back of the car, where I found him, head back, eyes closed, breathing hard. It wasn't just the sun leaving him wrecked. Gideon Cain had tried to kill him in his own building, and marked his name all over Reynard's hard work, like a dog cocking its leg.

As mornings at the office went, this had to be his worst.

"Scoot over." Zee squished himself into the back of the car alongside me and closed the door, sealing out the sun's painful rays.

Victor didn't move. Just breathed, and kept his eyes closed. But his hand found mine again and latched on.

"What the actual fuck happened to you two?" Zee asked as we got underway.

It didn't seem real, even as I said it. "Gideon Cain just tried to kill us."