Chapter 6

Brooklyn

The itch in my ear was persistent to a point of madness but my arm was numb for some reason, and I couldn't scratch it. In the back of my mind, I had a bad feeling about why this was, but I couldn't grasp it long enough to form a cognitive thought. All I knew was I really needed to scratch my ear.

It was driving me insane.

Voices murmured somewhere in the background, yet I paid them no mind. Lately, I had found myself waking up from some injury or being knocked unconscious more times than I could count with Samir, Alice or Dominic mumbling around me about how I have shortened their lives with my recklessness. By some stroke of luck, however, I was still alive.

For some reason I was pretty sure that was not going to change any time soon.

I felt tired to my bones and wanted to sleep.

If only the itching would stop.

"I am not sure irritating her more will work in our best interest." Whoever the talkaholic was moved close enough to be heard. I was not surprised that it was not a female. And what was it about supernatural males that made them so chatty?

Well not Dominic. He was all broody and silent, but he was a feline. It was his nature. The rest, however, couldn't hold their tongues to save their lives. Like the chatterbox here that kept at it without realizing the moment my arms stopped being numb I will have my hands wrapped around his neck.

After I was done scratching the damn ear.

"I would honestly stop that." The males raspy tone irked me more. "It looks like she's coming around."

‘It sounds to me like you are afraid of her, Chester." A female purred so close to my itchy ear her breath added to the tickling as it brushed my skin. Mockingly clicking her tongue, she gave me goosebumps when she spoke. "Are you scared of the Atua, little Chip?" My whole body became tense and on alert when she chuckled. "Don't you worry. I will protect you."

"I doubt you will be in a position to help anyone including yourself if you don't move away from me." My words came off a little raspier than I would've liked if my threat was to be taken seriously but I had to go with the flow and take things as they were. Alice was rubbing off on me.

And I still couldn't open my eyes. It felt like I had sandpaper instead of eyelids.

"Marvelous." The female sounded truly in awe while I doubled my effort to open my eyes. "She is truly about to break the hold of my magic."

"I hope she can hear us because I would love for her to know that I had nothing to do with this and that you are unstable." The male barely took a breath as his voice moved further away from me. "Whatever grievances she has, she should be taking it up with you."

"You are afraid, Chip. It is a rare treat to see you so pale." The female laughed with glee. "I'm half tempted to remove the hold I have on her just to see you quiver and shake." Her irritating laugh stopped abruptly when I muttered under my breath. "What did you say?"

"I said," lifting my head from where it rolled limply on my shoulders so she could hear me better, I grinned blindly in the direction I thought she was in. "There are over a million words in the human language we speak, but I can never string enough words together to properly express how much I want to hit you with a chair."

"I told you it's a bad idea." The male mumbled to his nose. "She may not be with the Syndicate, but they raised her. Now you and I are juicy bones between two rabid dogs." His voice kept getting higher in pitch. "We are going to die." As soon as the hyperventilating stopped, he whispered dramatically. "Very painfully."

"Knock it off, Chester." High heels clicked over tiles as she moved around me, and I tracked her with my head since my eyes were still glued shut. "I'm not releasing her until she promises that she will hear me out first. I know you can hear us."

The memory from the alleyway came clear as day in my mind while she talked and I stilled, anger bubbling instantly inside me. "You have a funny way of getting someone's attention if talking is all you want to do. Try a phone call to arrange a meeting next time. I'm not an expert on interactions but I'd guess it works better than an attack in a dark alley." My shoulders squared and it sent a sharp pain traveling up my arms. Which told me my arms were numb because I was hanging by my tied wrists.

"Exactly what I told her." Chester mumbled from somewhere to my right.

"Shut it, Chip." The female barked at him. "Two of my brothers tried talking reason with you and ended up drained of blood and tossed like trash on the streets of Chicago. I had no intention on parting with my lifeforce to get a minute of your time while you were on a killing spree."

My indignation dwindled to nothing when I heard I killed members of her family. The fact she kept me alive was a miracle now that she put it that way. Not remembering coming across not one but two demons told me she's speaking the truth, and it happened while I was in bloodlust. I curbed my rage and decided to hear her out. If she wanted to kill me when she spoke her peace, I couldn't say I would blame her.

I'd kill me too if I were her.

Not like I would let it happen, but I totally understood where she was coming from if she wanted to try.

I needed one thing first before she started venting. I might be a monster, but cowardly I was not. I would look her in the eye when she called me every name on earth for destroying her family.

"Release me from your hold so I can look at you." I told her as calmly as I could muster it. "You can leave me tied up, but I would like to look you in the eye when I tell you how sorry I am for killing your brothers. You need to see I'm telling the truth."

"Well, I'd be damned." Chester breathed.

"You are damned, you idiot. You're a demon." The female muttered but I could feel her studying me, her gaze heavy on the skin of my face.

The weight holding my eyelids closed lifted without another word from any of them and I slowly opened my eyes, first glancing through my lashes in case they decided to jab me with something the moment I blinked, then fully stretching my lids to clear my vision.

It took me a second to comprehend what I was seeing, and then I blinked a few times rapidly as if that might change the scene. A very domestic type of scene, a total opposite of the dark blood-soaked dungeon feel I had when my sight was taken.

"This is kind of nice." I heard myself saying as I examined the pale blue gauzy drapes on the windows whose blinds were tightly closed.

Pictures in pretty frames were sprinkled over dressers and side tables as well as hanging on the walls. Modern, uncomfortable-looking furniture sat at the center of a large living room with me hanging in one corner of it like a long-forgotten Christmas decoration somebody thought it'd be funny to keep year-round. What got my full attention however was the white fluffy rug under the low, oval-shaped glass table. It was so white, it hurt to look at it.

"We might want to take this to another room." I told the two demons absentmindedly, unable to look away from the rug. "Do you have a basement in this house maybe?" When they didn't answer I forced my gaze from the rug to look at them. "No?"

Chester was shaking his head in agreement with my observation that they had no basement and was a real surprise with his physical appearance, which was a contradiction to his fearful comments. I must've become judgmental somewhere along the line if my expectations were the opposite of reality. That was not a problem I'd had before.

"Why do you need a basement?" the demon asked and narrowed his gaze in suspicion as if I was asking him some trick questions. Muscles rippled under his tight long-sleeved shirt when he folded his beefy arms across his chest. "You agreed to only talk if Echo released you from the hold of her magic. We also have wards around the house, no one can hear us."

Assuming he was talking about the female when he called her Echo, I turned my eyes on her, and our gazes locked. It was the same female that followed me in the alley, with her long braid draped over one shoulder and her chocolate skin shimmering under the light of the room. A silver sheen flickered over her irises as she watched me, assessing me as I was assessing her. Begrudgingly, I had to nod in respect to the warrior. I could tell she was and was surprised that she reciprocated in kind.

"I assumed you want to kill me." I told them both honestly. "The blood won't wash off that rug." Chester stared openmouthed at me while Echo cocked her head in puzzlement like she couldn't figure out my angle. "It's white." I said slowly in case they were color blind or something.

Are demons color blind? Embarrassingly enough I realized I knew next to nothing about their kind.

"You are sure she is the one that killed our brothers?" Chester continued to gawk at me, and my mouth twisted in disapproval of the insult.

"I thought you wanted to talk not insult each other." And just because I wanted them to understand who had control of the situation so there is no more mistaking on who would walk out of here alive if it came to that, I took a deep breath and used my voice to compel someone just as a power play tool. "Release my arms."

The chains holding my arms up dropped to my feet with a loud clinking of metal against metal, and I gingerly took a hold of my wrists to rub off the pain. Circulation was slowly returning to them, and I had to grind my teeth at the ant's sensation crawling all the way up to my shoulders.

"Now, let's talk." On a heavy sigh I took a few steps to the closest armchair and plopped into it. "A glass of water would be nice, too."