Chapter 9

I left Zee sleeping,and padded in my PJs down to the bar in the early hours of the next morning. I had a few hours before the guests began to wake and go about their day, and I liked the quiet, early hours in the bar, watching Tom bustle and mutter grumpy complaints.

Reynard was seated at a table, and staring at the cabinet while sipping his tea, as though the piece of furniture was his arch nemesis. I never would have asked him to make it if I'd known he was going to obsess over it.

"Ah, good morning Adam." He brightened. "How is Zodiac?"

I yawned and settled in the chair beside him. "I think he's alright. But he's going back. He believes Sebastien is going to be fine with sharing him, but he doesn't know about the note, or that Sebastien dumped his friend on the hotel steps."

"Hm, that is concerning. Forgive my candor, but Sebastien will tighten Zodiac's leash until it chokes him."

That was my fear too. I held Reynard's gaze. He knew how to keep his feelings off his face, which made him difficult to read, but I suspected we were on the same page when it came to Sebastien. "We can't let that happen."

"No, we cannot, but I'm afraid the contract is binding. There is one possibility to void it though. And that's if we find General Copernicus, the demon who sold Zodiac and the others, and determine whether he did in fact have the right to trade the battalion to begin with."

That sounded promising. "How do we find him?"

"I have people working on it. Like most demons trying to craft new lives, the general probably goes by another name now. It may take some time."

That didn't sound so promising. "Time in which Sebastien tightens the leash."

"Hm..." Reynard sighed. "His treatment of Zodiac displeases me."

It displeased everyone, including Zee. But we had a target to work toward, which was a good thing. It was better to focus on the positive. "Admit it, you like Zodiac."

He clacked his teacup onto its saucer. "Like is an overstatement."

"But you do feel something for him?"

"Feeling anything but hatred for a demon is highly inappropriate. We are enemies." He'd said all that as though reading off a script, and without meeting my gaze. Those weren't his words, they were the words of his vampire family. He didn't believe them. But maybe he was still working through all that vampire drama, as Zee called it.

Reynard's gaze lifted, checking whether I was paying attention. I was. He pinched his lips together and leaned back in the chair. Was that a little hint of resignation in his eyes?

The internet had been right. Hashtag Reyzee, and hashtag enemies-to-lovers was a thing. Had Reynard read the same fanfic as Zee? There was probably explicit fanart out there too. I couldn't quite imagine the two of them ever being close enough to get naked, but there was a spark of something between them, and it definitely wasn't all hatred.

"However," he began tightly. "This hotel and its proprietors are of considerable personal value to me in a way my business empire is not." He cleared his throat, as though the confession had almost choked him.

"Oh." Reynard didn't do elaborate gestures or talk about his feelings. Considerable personal value was another version of Zee's saying he needed the SOS Hotel to come home to. I grinned. Lord Victor Reynard, billionaire vampire nobility, was totally into us.

"Your smug smile is unnecessary."

"Smile?" I coughed into my hand and wiped my smile away. "What smile?"

Tom caught my eye and winked.

"This is a business arrangement," Reynard clarified, but he was speaking more for his benefit than mine. He'd already confessed to all of it being real. Whatever we had, all three of us, it had gone far beyond a business arrangement, right about the time Zee had helped save Reynard's head from the axe, and Reynard had posted on all his socials to help keep Zee alive. They could dance around it all they liked, but from my place in the middle, I saw it all.

Zee sauntered into the bar, yawning and stretching. He wore his classic lace-up corset and black pants riding low on his hips. Normally, I'd have been lost in gazing at him, but I stole a moment to side-eye Reynard, and witnessed how his gaze lingered on Zee's approach for that extra few seconds.

"Adam...?" My name rumbled from Reynard's lips in a soft warning.

"Nope. Nothing. Not saying a word." I zipped my lips, folded my arms, and leaned back in my chair, maybe just a little bit smug.

"Okay." Zee grabbed the chair next to mine, spun it around so it faced the wrong way, then straddled it and draped his arms over its back. "What in the actual fuck are you two plotting that's making my wings itch?"

"Plotting?" The smug smile fell from my lips. "We're not?—"

Zee dropped his gaze and glared through his lashes. "Do I look like a dumb fuck?"

"Would you like me to answer that?" Reynard asked, straight-faced.

"You, vampire, can fuck all the way off, back to Vampire murder Mansion." Zee showed him his middle finger. "Oh look, I have all ten fingers and this is one of them."

Reynard's eyes narrowed.

I cleared my throat. "We were just discussing the cabinet. Doesn't it look great?"

"Sure." Zee shrugged, and lounged back in his chair. "It's kinda wonky, though."

"Wonky?" Reynard repeated.

"Slightly off-kilter, pissed, you know?" Zee tilted his head. "Maybe your ruler's bent."

"My set square is not bent." Reynard glanced at the cabinet. Then with a huff, he stood, and approached the cabinet. He mumbled something, crouched, and opened the cupboards, testing the door's swing angle.

Zee's grin grew. He'd deliberately baited him. He waggled his eyebrows. "Check out the view."

"Zee, you can't..." I looked over, and sure enough, Reynard's pants hugged a perfectly sculpted backside that was very nice. And looked firm. So firm.

"He could crack nuts between those cheeks."

Mercy. I tore my gaze away and cast it across the room instead, at the peeling wallpaper in the far corner—we really needed to invest in some fresh paint.

"It's the left side," Zee called, and gestured for Reynard to move to the other end of the cabinet. Reynard followed his directions and knelt to examine the other door. "Yeah, that's it. Right there." Zee tilted his head again, and his pupils got a whole lot fuller. "Bet he fucks likes a jackhammer."

I knew that laser-focused look. "Are you imagining Reynard naked?" I whispered.

"What? Pfft. Aren't you?"

"I am now."

Zee mock-gasped and fanned his face. "Adam Vex, your filthy mind is shocking."

"It's not wonky, is it? The cabinet?"

"No, it's fuckin' perfect, like that ass. And I hate that it's perfect, like I hate him and his stupid cabinet," he grumbled. Then sighed and pinned his full, big eyes on me. "What are you plotting?"

"What?" I squeaked, caught off guard by the sudden change in topic, from Reynard's fine ass to my plotting with a vampire lord to bring down Zee's ex-boss. "Nothing."

Zee leaned in. "Now your partner in crime is over there, imma ask you again. What are you plotting, Kitten?" His eyes sparkled with humor, but their pupils had sharpened to slits too. I couldn't see his tail, but suspected it would be ticking on the floor.

Zee had always suspected when I was lying, and the more time we spent together, the more he saw right through me. I sighed and watched Reynard fiddle with the cabinet. He'd probably have to dismantle it again, and all because Zee wanted to check out his ass. I'd have to tell him the cabinet was perfect, or he'd spend hours on it. He needed to know the truth, and so did Zee. He'd earned it.

"Sebastien is never going to let you go," I said.

Zee groaned. "We've talked about this. Seb is a me problem. Back off."

"I can't," I replied softly. The truth hurt. "I can't Zee."

Zee sighed and pointed a sharp, glossy nail at me. "We made a deal over mac and cheese. Mac and cheese is sacred."

"I know . . ."

"Then this won't work."

"This?" My heart thumped. "You mean us." I couldn't lose him. I'd do anything to keep him. If I lost him, then what was the point in all this? Why was I even trying to make this life work if I had nothing to live for?

"If you can't back off, then I can't be here. If my life touches this place, it's all fucked. That I can control."

I leaned in. "Zee, you don't need to protect me."

"And I don't need you protecting me. Or His Lordship protecting me. Especially Fancy Daddy. Why aren't you getting this?"

"Drop your glamor."

He recoiled. "Excuse you?"

"Drop your glamor." I checked the bar. It was still early, and nobody was here. Just me, Reynard, and Tom, who was prohibited from revealing secrets to anyone anyway. "If what he's doing to you is fine, and you're okay with it, drop your glamor."

Zee clenched his jaw and stared back. "That's not fair."

I knew what I'd see. Friction marks, bruises, or worse. I could help him, could help them all. I'd made him see Adam Vex as the harmless human, but now I needed him to unsee just a tiny bit of that lie, and understand I was a whole lot more than the mask I wore.

"General Copernicus. Do you know where he is?" I asked.

All the humor and lightheartedness vanished from Zee's face. "Copernicus?"

"How can we find him?"

"You've seen my contract?"

"Tell us where he is."

Zee's eyes sparked with fury. "I can't tell if I'm pissed off or turned on by your bossy voice, Kitten. But I know you and that vampire are going behind my back, trying to find my general, when I told you not to."

My heart raced now. I was in the wrong in some things, I knew that. I'd kept things from him. I'd gone against his wishes, but it was for the right reasons. I needed him to hear me. I needed him to fight back, like I knew he could. "You don't want to be under Sebastien, I know you don't. Zee, please. Look at what we did for Shadow. We gave them a sanctuary. We stood against the vampires, you and me. We stopped Gideon, for now. I will find a way to end Sebastien. We will find a way, all three of us. Trust me in this. Trust that I will not break. And trust I will make it so you have a choice. Don't you want that? A choice?"

His gaze skipped back and forth, reading the conviction on my face, and I stared back, unblinking. This wasn't a game to me like it was for Sebastien. I wasn't ever going to use Zee and toss him away. He meant more to me than anything else in this world. He'd saved me when I'd lost everything and everyone I'd ever known. Sebastien would kill him, eventually. I wasn't going to let that happen.

Zee huffed, slumped back, and flicked his fingers in front of his face. His image shimmered, glamor peeling away. I didn't want to look, but it was already too late. A patchwork of bruises spread across his jaw. A split cut into his lip. Purple thumb prints speckled his neck, and claw marks scored across his shoulder. And that was just the visible.

The rage came out of the dark, visceral and real, and its terrible swell almost tore through the curse holding me together. A small, sharp hiss filtered through my teeth, then a sob tried to follow. I swallowed hard, pushing everything back down.

Reynard's simmering presence was suddenly beside me. Beside us.

"It won't be bruises next time," Reynard said to Zee.

Zee slowly raised his gaze. "When it's me he's fucking up, it's not them."

He was protecting his friends, his fellow warriors. I wanted to pin Sebastien down and tear his wings off. A tingling sparked the air, tensions building, the wards firing up around me. I very much meant to harm Sebastien, and the wards didn't know he wasn't in the room with us, just that I meant to hurt someone. Worse than hurt, I'd destroy him.

Zee's gaze slid to me. "Kitten?"

Reynard took a step back. "Adam?"

I spread my hands on the table and watched tiny little sparks dance down my fingers.

It was fine. Everything was fine. We were fine.

Gradually, the rage subsided and the wards settled, and I was just me again. Adam Vex. A nobody human who definitely did not have any secrets. "Ah-hem, sorry about that. Indigestion, maybe?"

Zee's eyebrows lifted.

"Perfectly reasonable explanation," Reynard agreed. He pulled out his chair, sat, and rolled up his sleeves, in a sure sign we were about to discuss grown-up things. "Adam, while I concur with you on most things, the time has come to be truthful about certain issues. Don't you think?"

I swallowed. "What?"

Reynard pinned down my innocent gaze, making me squirm. "Zodiac has been honest with you, showing you what you asked."

He'd heard that? Then, had he heard everything we'd said about his ass? "I don't follow."

"The flowers?" Reynard prompted.

Oh my stars, the flowers? He wanted me to tell Zodiac his friend was in the flowerbeds, now?! "Oh, I don't think now is the time to talk about flowers."

"I disagree. It's the perfect time."

"No, nope, I don't think so." I picked up an SOS Hotel coaster and flicked it between my fingers.

"What's wrong with the flowers?" Zee asked.

"Nothing!" I smiled, and tried to make it look sweet and innocent, but neither of them appeared to be buying it, so I glared at Reynard. "The flowers are not relevant."

"They are certainly relevant to this conversation."

"Nooooo, nope."

Zee glanced between us. "Why are we talking about flowers?"

"We're not."

Reynard folded his arms and slowly sat back, his face so disappointed I wanted to shrink in my chair. "It will only get worse."

"What the fuck is wrong with the flowers? What flowers?" Zee scrunched up his face. "The flowers out front?"

I slammed the coaster down. "No!"

"Yes," Reynard said over me.

I gave him the stink-eye. Where Zee's friend's body was laid to rest was not Reynard's secret to tell. "Anyhoo, what are we going to do about Sebastien? Hm? Let's focus on that, shall we, Victor?"

Zee stared at Reynard, waiting for the big reveal, and Reynard glared at me, waiting for me to reveal it. But I saw Zee's bruises, knew how he'd tried to protect everyone he'd worked with at Razorsedge, and I couldn't do it. Even though I should. It would hurt him, and he'd already been hurt so much.

"General Copernicus," I said, steering us back on track.

"You stole my contract?" Zee asked.

"Yes," Reynard answered, before I could deny it.

Why did he have to be so... right?

"That's what you were both doing in Seb's apartment," Zee said. "It won't do you any good. You think nobody has tried to find a loophole? There isn't one. Also, you're both epic dicks. I told you to back off, Adam. Instead, you did the exact opposite, and suckered His Lordship into your plan."

"I volunteered," Reynard corrected.

Zee rolled his eyes. "Right, because an influential billionaire vampire baron, volunteered to save a fabulous sex demon from his asshole pimp? Because that's a thing that happens in the real world?" Zee grinned, but only to bare his little, sharp teeth.

It did sound farfetched. "That's actually, exactly what happened," I confirmed.

Zee pointed a sharp fingernail at Reynard. "You, Fancy Daddy, are manipulating Adam's good nature for reasons, and it's not even fucking subtle. You're using his feelings for me to make yourself look good. You're so transparent."

"You're wrong, demon," Reynard glowered. "I stole your contract because I care."

That last word dropped like a hammer and silenced the room. Reynard's eyes widened as he realized he'd revealed more than he'd wanted. At the bar, Tom Collins clattered some mixers together, trying to save us the awkwardness, but also proving he was listening to every single word.

Reynard cleared his throat and shuffled in his chair. "That is to say, the smooth running of this hotel benefits me greatly, since I intend to stay here, and has nothing to do with any personal attraction... feelings... desire... ahem... toward either of you. Because there obviously aren't any. Feelings. Or desires." He swallowed, loud enough we all heard it.

Zee stared, mouth slightly open. "Who are you and where is the real Victor Fuck-Hard?"

Reynard sighed. "Demon, your juvenile names are not amusing."

"I'm fucking hilarious. Tom?" Zee called. "How hilarious am I?"

"Fucking hilarious," Tom agreed.

Zee gestured and reclined in his chair, suddenly smug, where before he'd been seconds away from ditching us. He'd just gotten Reynard to admit to having feelings, and now he was watching Reynard squirm like a worm on a hook. I'd done the same thing earlier, before Zee's arrival, and admittedly, it did feel good to pry open Reynard's hard outer shell to find his gooey, yummy center.

Reynard let out an exasperated growl and huffed through his nose. "It appears we all want the same outcome—which is for the hotel to run smoothly—and for that to happen, its proprietors must be free to perform their duties without outside threats impeding their efficiency."

Zee snorted. "That's a whole lot of words for let's go fuck up Sebastien."

Reynard considered it, and said, "It is."

Was that an option? I leaned forward. "Can we do that? Can we just go and... uh... unalive Sebastien? Like we dealt with Baroness Reynard?"

"No." Zee shut me down. "If I could fuck him up, I'd have done it the first week. Contracts are sacred. I can't attack him. He owns me. He can do what he likes. Those are the terms we all abide by."

Contracts and deals, they couldn't be broken. Humans had their laws—Lost Ones had deals. "But you didn't sign the contract, your general did. You had no choice in any of this."

"I told you, demons don't get choices. We're all sold into servitude. I was sold into the military, and it didn't fucking matter because I liked it. Fucking thrived on it. Killing suckers is my kink." Reynard let out a rumbling, warning growl, but Zee winked and continued. "Shit went tits up when the veil sealed, trapping me here. No war, no purpose. My battalion had to find one, and fast. Copernicus sold us so we'd survive, and who cares if I had to fuck for money? I like fucking. I'm the best at fucking. Free food, right? Win-win."

"Except Sebastien isn't a win," I said.

"He showed his colors pretty fuckin' quickly, and we knew we were in for a whole world of hurt for a very long time. When he started fixating on me, and eased off his shit treatment of the others, we all just kinda let it happen."

Just because he was used to it—because he'd surrendered to it—didn't make it right.

"Where did Sebastien find the money to purchase all of you?" Reynard asked. "He couldn't have had much wealth here."

Zee shrugged, tilted his chair back, and kicked his boots up on the table. "Don't know."

"What did he do before coming here?"

"I don't know that either." His tail sought out my leg, and began to loop around my ankle. "I'd never met him before. Whatever he was, doesn't matter. We all left our lives behind and made new ones."

"We need to find your general," Reynard said. "The contract is solid, but there's a slim chance Copernicus knows more, and perhaps knows a way to void it."

"I know where Copernicus is," Zee said, unlooping his tail. "He runs an animal shelter in LA."

"Oh, he saves pets? That's nice." Unexpected, but nice. An ex–warrior demon general who saved animals. Not everything had to be bad. "He sounds like a good person."

Zee chuckled, and shook his head. "Adam, Kitten. You're adorable. Copernicus doesn't save strays."

"Oh." What else could an animal sanctuary do?

"He eats them?" Reynard suggested, grimacing.

I glanced at Zee, hoping Reynard was wrong, but caught his nod. Oh, then General Copernicus was not very nice at all.

"It's worse than that," Zee said.

"Worse?" I didn't want to know. "No, don't tell me."

Zee chuckled again and waved his hand, sprinkling his glamor back over his bruises. "There's no get-out clause in my contract, but if you two wanna get your rocks off trying to find one, be my fucking guest."

It appeared we were taking a roadtrip to Los Angeles. "Will one of your drivers take us?" I asked Reynard.

"Drive to LA?" He scoffed. "We'll take the jet."