Chapter 10

Zee dozed through the flight,his knee-high boots up on the cream-leather seats, and wings draped over the entire couch. His skimpy, sunshine-yellow top proclaimed: Girls Just Want to Have Fun-damental Rights. Reynard sat opposite, alternating between scowling at Zee and tapping on his phone, then taking technical-sounding business calls. I spent the flight time thinking over the past few days, and everything we knew, or didn't know about Sebastien and Zee.

A lot of things made more sense, now Zee had explained why he'd never fought back. He'd resigned himself to submission, accepted it. But I hadn't, and couldn't. Not ever. It wasn't okay unless he'd chosen Sebastien. Everyone deserved a choice.

And then there was Reynard. On his best behavior, since his family probably wanted him and me dead. He wasn't free either. He couldn't walk down the street without looking over his shoulder, fearing he might lose his head. The vampires would surely try and get to him, and me.

And then we came to me. Adam Vex. Hiding. No longer running, since there was nowhere left to run to. At least Reynard and Zee didn't ask the question I knew they both wanted the answer to.

What is Adam Vex?

I was supposed to keep my head down, stay hidden in Zee's larger-than-life shadow, run a hotel and stay safe within its wards, where nothing and nobody could reach me. And here I was, heading to LA to speak with a demon general, looking for a way to save my demon from a pimp, before that pimp killed Zee.

After this, I had to go back to hiding. I couldn't get involved in any more lost causes.

Within a few hours, we'd landed under LA's brilliant blue sky, and walked off the private jet with umbrellas raised, shielding Reynard. I sauntered unmolested through the human security line, while Reynard and Zee were both searched. Zee obviously took the opportunity to flirt with the security guard who had him spreadeagled against the wall. Reynard was much less enthused by having a metal-detecting wand waved around him. He fixed his face into its stoic mask, which meant he was a few seconds from unleashing a verbal tirade of long, elaborate-sounding words, that would likely result in threats to sue.

We eventually made it outside to the pick-up area, where a black sedan waited.

"Does Reynard magic these cars out of thin fucking air?" Zee muttered, vanishing his wings and scooting into the rear seat beside me. It was a tight fit, with Reynard on my right and Zee on my left, mostly because Zee had foot-long horns and three-inch-heeled boots, meaning he had to scrunch himself into a gap not designed for fabulous demons.

His wriggling shoved me against Reynard's firm, warm leg, causing Reynard to arch an exasperated eyebrow. He didn't say it—because unlike Zee, Reynard didn't blurt out every thought in his head—but I suspected he'd begun to regret offering to help.

Zee gave the driver the animal shelter's address and slumped back in the seat, knocking me into Reynard's arm. "Sorry. Zee, can you maybe shift over a bit?"

"It's not my fault I'm magnificent."

We cruised through LA's wide, flat, palm tree–lined streets.

"Let me do the talking," Zee said, still fidgeting. "Reynard, stay in the car. The general—Fido is his chosen name now—has spent several decades fucking up vampires. If you waltz in making demands, he's more likely to cut your balls off than help us."

"As delightful as meeting the general sounds, I have a luncheon elsewhere," Reynard said, sounding relieved. "Take my driver's number, and when your meeting concludes, summon him via text."

We hit a bump. Zee's horns snagged in the car's roof lining. He shot out a hand to steady himself, shoving me sideways. I toppled, and grabbed Reynard's thigh.

"Adam, if you could please refrain from wriggling?" Reynard suggested in his clipped voice.

I plucked my hand back. Mercy, he had thighs as firm as steel. "It's just a bit tight between you both, that's all."

"Tight." Zee snickered.

Reynard tugged on his shirt collar, and flung an irritated glare past me, at Zee. "Perhaps if Zodiac wasn't so imposing?"

"Do my generous dimensions bother you, Your Highness?" Zee enquired. "It is a common complaint," he continued, his voice beginning to mimic Reynard's lofty American accent. "Of course, you don't have that problem, since you're smaller." He pinched his fingers together, leaving a tiny gap, and whispered, "In every way."

"Bigger is not better. Size is nothing without control."

Zee's lashes fluttered, his pupils widening. Reynard had touched a nerve, or... touched some part of him he'd liked. I waited for the comeback, but for the first time in forever, Zee didn't have one.

Reynard had used his smooth, brain-candy voice. The one that could touch a person's soul—and other parts of them. Mercy, it was getting hot in the back seat. "Driver, can we maybe have some air back here?" A blast of cold washed over us.

"The general's new name is Fido?" I asked, hoping to clear the air a little, and distract them both before Zee demanded Reynard produce his set square to measure their dicks.

Zee shrugged. "We all picked new names. Except Sebastien, he kept his. Loved himself too much to change it."

"Why did you choose Zodiac?" I asked.

"You can see the stars more clearly here than back home. The patterns are awesome."

I grinned. "I like stars too. So does Reynard. We talked about the big spoon and little spoon. It's so great how we have that in common." Somehow, it was the wrong thing to say. Zee glared out the window again, tail twitching in the footwell, and Reynard chose that moment to check his phone. At least I was between them. If they'd been able to get to each other I wasn't sure if they'd try and kiss or kill each other.

The car cruised into an industrial park. Trash fluttered in rusted fencing, and the nearby burned-out car had been perched on blocks. I spotted a hand-painted sign for Fido's Lost Animal Shelter, and a big arrow pointing toward a single-storey warehouse with wraparound chain-link fencing.

Zee hopped out of the car. His wings popped back into the visible realm, and he gave himself an all-over shake. "My generous dimensions are not designed for itty-bitty cars."

"Remember. Summon the driver when you're ready," Reynard said, as I climbed out.

"Alrighty, Your Highness." Zee saluted and sauntered toward the shelter.

I lingered beside the car, holding the door open, with Reynard right there, waiting to leave. "Adam?"

The warehouse didn't look any more imposing than the typical industrial-park units around it. But it was midday, and there was no traffic, and no sign of any people. If it was an animal shelter, shouldn't there be yapping dogs?

"Would you prefer I stay?" Reynard asked.

"No." I laughed off the strange feeling of unease. I had Zodiac. Nothing was going to go wrong here. I just hadn't been this far from the hotel and its wards in six months. I felt vulnerable. "It's fine. We'll meet up later."

"Are you sure?" Reynard shifted across the seat, moving closer. "The sunlight is an issue, but not insurmountable. I'm happy to assist."

He meant that, and knowing he cared did settle my rattling nerves. "No, it's fine, really. It just feels strange, being away from the hotel, that's all. It's nothing." Zee was already halfway between me and the shelter. He clearly wasn't worried, so I didn't need to be.

I tossed Reynard a soft smile. "Thank you for helping with this. And I'm sorry I put you in a difficult position, with the uh... flowers."

"He should be told, but I respect your wishes."

Reynard was right, and I would tell Zee about his friend. Soon. I nodded, and raised my hand in a short wave. "I'll see you later."

"Indeed, Adam."

I closed the door, thrust my hands into my pockets, and watched the car pull away, hiding Reynard behind its black privacy glass. Sunlight beat down, and heat rippled off the gritty asphalt that crunched under my shoes.

Zee waited outside the warehouse's main door, under a sign that read: Fido's Fillings Flavors. A Pet in Every Pie.

I read it again, sure I must have misread it the first time. "Oh."

"Are you going to freak out?"

Pets. In. Pies.I winced. "Maybe? Why didn't you tell me?"

A mechanical thumping, sounding from inside the building, and the slight odor of baked pastries hung in the air.

"I would have, but you'd have still come, and worried all the way here. I can call Reynard's driver back?" He dug into his tight trouser pocket and plucked out his phone. "This is a huge waste of time anyway."

"No, we're here now." Fido—Copernicus—was our only possible loophole to void the contracts. I was doing this. For Zee. For every demon on the end of Sebastien's leash. I didn't have to like the general, or his business. I swallowed hard and nodded. "I'm not freaking out."

Zee shoved the phone away and hammered on the door, then backed up and eyed the camera watching us from high up on the wall.

"Yeah, yeah!" A deeply accented male voice grumbled beyond the door. Whatever accent it was, it definitely wasn't American. Australian? Or demon, maybe. They must have had their own vernacular?

A bolt clanged, the hinges groaned, and the entrance door swung open, revealing the biggest demon I'd ever seen. He was taller than Zee, with four stumpy head-horns, and so enormous I doubted he'd be able to fit through the doorframe. The name Fido had been stitched into his big white apron, that strained to contain his bulk. Stunted wings jutted out from his back. He probably hadn't used them in a while.

He peered down his broad, flat nose. "No humans."

"General." Zee dipped his chin, bowing his head. "It's good to see you again."

"Do I know you?"

"Wow, I'm hurt you don't remember me. Your favorite battalion commander, the life of the party, the one, the only?—"

"Lycian," the general grunted, then eyed Zee closer. "Did you get smaller? I didn't recognize you. Why you here? You wanna pie?"

"Uh..." Zee glanced at me, then back up at his former general. "Sure."

General Copernicus turned, and stomped down the narrow corridor, filling it from floor to ceiling and wall to wall. "But we're not here for the pies," Zee added, trailing behind. "Delicious, as I'm sure they are."

I closed the door behind us, sealing us inside with an increasing, baked-pastry smell.

"Then why you here, Lycian? No war, no more. No veil. No home. Just pies."

I was pretty sure there was more to life than pies, but maybe the general didn't have anything else? I still wasn't going to feel sorry for a demon who clearly advertised pets in pies.

"It's Zodiac now. This is my friend, Adam." Zee gestured at me, and the general gave me a quick glance, then continued on his way, down the corridor, toward the heavy clanging, thumping and hissing noises.

"Right, right," Copernicus grumbled, not at all interested in me. "What doin' now, Zodiac?"

"That's why we're here." Zee gave a little dismissive laugh. "You remember Sebastien?—"

"That worm. Can't forget. Want to put him in a pie. Bake him for forty minutes at one-eighty degrees. Hmm... no. Not enough meat on that shlak." He looked over his shoulder and snapped his sharp teeth together. I had no idea what a shlak was, but it didn't sound friendly.

"You like pies, human?" the general asked.

"Erm, yes?" I smiled, and hoped it looked genuine. I was beginning to suspect General Copernicus might be missing some mental ingredients, and tried to catch Zee's eye to ask, but he was too preoccupied with following in the general's shadow.

We emerged from the corridor onto a vast factory floor, filled with loops of conveyor belts snaking through different machines, almost like a scaled-down rollercoaster. Except pies rode this one. The thumping sound came from a machine that appeared to be an enormous grated metal hammer, pounding chunks of meat into mush.

It was probably normal meat, right? Just pie filling?

I glanced around, and found I'd fallen back from Zee and Fido. They'd climbed a rickety set of metal stairs, to a suspended office with a glass front on it. Like a watchtower, from where Fido could oversee his production line. There didn't appear to be any other workers. Just him, and his loud, clanging, hissing, rumbling machines.

A shiver tracked down my spine. I hurried up the stairs to the watchtower office.

"—sold you off," Copernicus was saying. "All agreed."

"I know, I know," Zee agreed. "But is there anything you can think of that might void the contract? Any reason the deal might not be legit?"

The general planted his huge ass on his large desk and sniffed. "You looking to wriggle out of a deal, like a coward—like the shlak, Sebastien? Thought better of you, Lycian—Zodiac. I got a copy of the contract." He reached behind his desk and yanked open a drawer. "Wanna see? No wriggle room for cowards."

Zee rolled his eyes toward me, asking if I really wanted to go through with this when there was obviously nothing to find.

"Can I see it?" I stepped up to the general and took the familiar-looking contract from his hand—a hand the size of my face.

"It's as tight as your puny ass, human."

"Oh. Erm. I'm sure it is." I buried my face in the contract, not sure what to say to that. I didn't have a photographic memory like Reynard, but the contract did appear to be the same as the one we'd taken from Seb's apartment. We weren't going to find any answers in the general's version.

"Remind me why Seb is a coward?" Zee asked.

"Tried to get out of service. Fled, several times. Had heavies bring him back. Always trying to fly away." Copernicus waved a hand. "Had to clip his wings. Then we came here, and nothing made sense no more. No battle to fight, no war to win. New lives. Lots of pies."

"Where did Sebastien get the money from?" I asked. "If he worked for you when the veil closed, how did he have any money at all? Why wasn't he sold?"

"Didn't have money. Made a deal. The more he earns, more he pays, more pies I make." The general swept his arm toward the windows, encompassing the factory floor. "Delicious pies for everyone."

"But..." I licked my dry lips, sensing I was onto something. "Those payment terms aren't in the contract."

"Addendum." Copernicus shrugged massive shoulders and those limp wings. "What flavor pie you want? Labrador is a solid choice."

Labradorpies. I pinned a smile to my face and forced out, "Uh... maybe, erm, don't put pets in pies?"

The general's face scrunched up in disgust. "Why the fuck wouldn't I?"

"Don't you think it's a bit cruel?"

"Humans throw pets away. Better in pies. It's on the sign. Labrador?"

"Sounds great."

"Be right back." Copernicus stomped out the door and down the steps. I moved to the window and watched his barrel-like body plod down the production line, toward the giant masher machine, and out the door behind it.

"I told you this was a fucking waste of time." Zee dropped into the general's tattered, exhausted chair behind the desk, and kicked his boots up. "Copernicus is losing his marbles, and the contract is solid. I don't know what you were expecting, but the general's not saving me, or any of them. This whole fucking trip is as pointless as a chocolate condom."

I knew he'd thought the trip was a waste of time, but what I hadn't known, and what I could see on his face now, was how he'd hoped we'd find him a way out. And now he was crushed.

"It's not pointless, Zee." I set the contract down on the desk. "We'll find a way. Has the general always been like this? Maybe he wasn't in his right mind when he signed the deal? We could argue he didn't know what he was signing?"

"Kitten, you're clutching at straws."

Zee's boot nudged the computer mouse, and the computer screen blinked awake, showing a black and white camera feed into a room lined with metal cages.

Inside those cages, were all the unwanted pets. Dogs mostly, but some cats too. "Oh no." They hadn't done anything to anyone, and they had no chance of escape. The only good thing, was that they didn't know the fate that waited for them. Although, they must have been able to hear the meat pounder slamming through their last few hours alive.

Nope. I was done. I'd reached my limit. "I can't be here. I have to go."

Zee stood, and grumbled, "We should never have come."

"Where's Lycian, huh?" I snapped, lashing out. "Scourge of Demios? Would he sit back and let fate steamroll over him like it's doing to those poor pets? Is that you, in a cage, like them?"

Zee snarled. "Lycian left the building when that dumb fuck sold me to Sebastien. Are you happy now, Adam? You saw what you wanted and it's made no fucking difference."

The stairs clanged as Copernicus returned with two pies, one in each hand. "Fresh off the line." He beamed, so proud of his monstrous baked creations.

"Nice seein' you again, general." Zee shoved by him and hammered down the steps, leaving me to smile and thank Copernicus for the pet pies.

"Are those?—"

"Yes." I cut Reynard off, not wanting to get into why I was holding two pies.

Reynard sat to my right in the back of the car, with Zee squished to my left. In the middle again, I rested both pies on my knees.

The sun was setting as we made our way back toward the airport. Our trip to LA had been awful. Zee hadn't said a word since we'd left the factory, and now I had two pies that made me sad every time I glanced at them. I couldn't bring myself to throw them out, but I definitely wasn't eating them.

We rode in thick silence until the car pulled up at the airport. Zee was quick to hop out, then Reynard left, and I found myself bereft without them—alone, marooned in the back of the car.

"Adam?" Reynard peered back inside the car. He'd loosely braided his hair, and it flopped forward, like a tail. Like the pets had tails. "You have to leave the car so we can board the jet."

I couldn't do it.

I couldn't leave.

I stared into Reynard's gentle gaze. "I have to save them."

Reynard blinked, uncertain. "Save . . . what?"

Zee appeared at his side, braced an arm on the roof of the car, and leaned over Reynard's shoulder. Like that, together, with Reynard's face all pale and stoic, and Zee's hair a chaotic mop of purple and black tousled between his horns, his gaze intense, they looked right.

Zee's eyes narrowed, trying to read me, then a broad grin broke out across his face. "I thought you'd never fucking ask." Zee turned his head, putting his face very close to Reynard's cheek. "Wanna partake in some illegal shit, Your Highness?"

Reynard's head stayed still, but his eyes cut to the side. "That rather depends on the likelihood of being caught."

Zee snorted, straightened, and slapped Reynard on the back, jolting him forward. "Fucking live a little, Daddy. You might find you like being bad." Zee stepped back, glancing around us. "Park the car down the block. I'll get masks." And he sauntered off, apparently having a plan.

I eyed the two pies. It was too late for the Labrador in them, but I'd be damned if any more pets were going into pies on my watch.

"Is General Copernicus going to appreciate your intervention in his business, Adam?" Reynard asked, climbing back into the car.

"I doubt it."

"Masks will be wise, then." He instructed the driver to park down the street.

"He's also the biggest demon I have ever seen, who might be a little unhinged," I said.

"Demon generals most often are." Reynard rolled up his sleeves, and a predatory gleam made his silvery eyes shine. "A demon general undergoes thorough exams in battle prowess and strategic thinking."

"Is that how they become generals?"

"No, they do that by killing their predecessor."

"Oh." It seemed likely General Copernicus would not let us free his pets without a fight, and his bulk alone would make him formidable. "Maybe we should find some weapons as well as masks?"

Reynard's smile grew, revealing a hint of his sharp fangs. "I have all the weapons I need."

Zee poofed outside the car, flung open the door, and dropped inside. He tossed Reynard and me each a black hood. Reynard lifted the full-face leather mask and poked his fingers through the two holes for eyes, then stretched the small cutout circle for the mouth.

"Where did you get these?" Reynard asked, incredulously.

Zee picked his up, with its sock-like additions for horns. "What's wrong with them?"

"Zodiac?" Reynard's chastising tone rumbled. "Did you buy them from a sex store?"

"Pfft, no," Zee scoffed, gaze shifting.

Reynard blinked and sat back in the seat.

Zee grinned, and pulled a pair of fluffy pink cuffs from his back pocket, then tossed them into my lap beside the mask and pies. "For later." Glancing up, he caught Reynard's incredulous expression, and his grin grew. "Let's go save some fuckin' furbabies."