Chapter 29

Islept like the dead.

Armaeus had to have swept us out of time for a period, because when my phone pinged again, waking up was like coming out of a deep fog. We were no longer in an anonymous Mediterranean retreat perched on the side of a mountain, but in Armaeus's expensive bed in Prime Luxe. Not a bad trade-up, I decided as I snuggled down deeper into the sheets.

Then my phone pinged again. I opened one eye malevolently, glaring at the nightstand. "What time is it?"

Armaeus stirred. "It's going on midnight," he murmured.

I groaned. No good messages came in after midnight. They were either bad ideas waiting to happen, or bad ideas that had already played out. I rolled toward him, wanting to shut out either possibility for a few seconds more. "Do you already know what it's about?" I asked.

"It is almost certainly related to the influx of new energy that's flooding the Flamingo," Armaeus said, sounding profoundly unconcerned. I jerked upright, rolling away from him, and swiped my phone on.

"What kind of new energy? Nikki's there, and so is Nigel, or they were a few hours ago. Are they getting targeted? What's going on?" As I asked all these completely reasonable questions, I checked my messages. Nikki's was the most recent one.

Strangers at the Flamingo, dollface. Stranger than usual. Thought you should know.

"Well, she doesn't seem all that worried," I allowed.

"She wouldn't be concerned. Nikki has never met a stranger that stayed that way for long."

Then he sat up as well, stretching luxuriously, my eye greedily following the line of his chest and abs as the sheets fell away from his body. He truly was a beautiful man. Demigod. Whatever.

"Speaking of that, so you're shipshape right?" I asked. "With the Moon revealing herself, I get that you have your memories back, but you didn't lose anything in the transfer, did you?"

He eyed me with affection, but he didn't pull his usual inscrutability act. "I did not," he said frankly. "The release of the Moon has made that which is hidden clear to those from whom it was being obscured. Those who are already seeing clearly might have some issues, as their vision is obscured or colored with moonlit fantasy, but that's never been much of a concern for me."

"Moonlit fantasy," I echoed. "Deliberate or delusional?"

"Delusion is often in the mind of the observer, not necessarily the beholder," Armaeus said. "What I may believe is a foolish assumption on your part, you may subscribe to with such force that it overrides any rational truth. The time for great clarity is coming, but before that's possible, all potential paths will seem viable to those who long for them."

I blew out a long breath. It had been so nice, that scrutability, while it had lasted.

"So you're saying we're about to have some epic cases of the grass is always greener?" I asked, immediately seeing the problem with that. The lines of power were changing in the Arcana Council, and with this group, more was always better.

Armaeus nodded. "When anything seems possible, that which is practical loses some of its appeal," he said. "Something to watch out for."

I swung my legs over the side of the bed and stood, unsurprised to see that I was dressed once again, though at least in new clothes. I surveyed the sleek black pants, black vest, and black hoodie, all in a light, adventure-ready fabric that I suspected they didn't sell at REI.

"What's this all about?" I asked, extending a foot to survey the sleek leather boot that covered it.

Armaeus shrugged. "War is coming, Miss Wilde. It would be best to dress the part."

He stood, and I took in his own dark pants, sleek shirt, and heavy boots, all in deepest ebony.

"We're going to look like SWAT," I complained as he moved toward me, his body already growing more diffuse, mist billowing out around us with a surge of magic.

"Considering who will be watching, I'd suggest that's not a bad thing."

He wrapped his arms around me and we vanished into the night.

A breath later, we appeared on the dance floor at the Flamingo casino, and I blinked at the transformation in the place even from the last time I'd seen it. In an unreasonably short time, the stage at the far end of the room had been transformed into a technological wonder, with glittering lights, a full-on DJ station, and special effects that included cannons shooting glitter that somehow managed to explode into the air without ever landing on the dancers or the floor. The Devil's illusions at work, to a degree I'd never seen before.

He and Nikki might not be an item, exactly, but they certainly were a partnership to be reckoned with.

"Dollface!" Nikki said, surprisingly close. I turned to see her break away from Nigel and a small collection of dancers. As she strolled toward me through the crowd, I noticed she'd changed clothes too. I suspected she kept an entire clothing suite at the Flamingo, given her new role as mistress of ceremonies there. Now she wore a deep-cut silver-sequin dress that hugged her from shoulders to waist and then trailed down one side of her body, a thigh-high slit on the other leg allowing easy movement. Her boots were a sight to behold, tight black leather that stretched up to her knees, studded with a line of rhinestones down her shapely calf. They were heavier duty than her usual stiletto numbers, and I thought of the Magician's warning. Nikki was dressed to party, but she was absolutely ready for whatever direction that party took.

"So what have we got?" I asked as she approached.

"You ask me, we got werewolves." Nikki's smile was wide but a little hard. "Werewolves, ThunderCats, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, I don't know what they are, but there is something decidedly hinky about the strapping group of gorgeous ballers that just hit the Flamingo. Like it amped our level of hot to the stratosphere, and I'm not talking the casino at the wrong end of the Strip."

"She's right." A man threading his way through the crowd in a waiter's uniform morphed smoothly into his more usual form of Kreios as he reached us, all long, tawny hair, sun-kissed face, and easy smile. Tonight he was dressed in a business suit, its sleek lines whispering along his tautly muscled body like a second skin. "I haven't been on this Earth as long as you, Armaeus, but I have never encountered creatures like these before. Have you?"

Armaeus shot him a questioning glance, and Kreios nodded off to the right. While the Magician glanced over with casual curiosity, I swung that direction a little more slowly, well aware we might be under surveillance as well.

I needn't have bothered. The tight knot of men near the bar were laughing and passing around drinks like frat boys at a keg party.

They were also tall, broad, and bulky, with enough wildness about them that I could absolutely understand why Nikki decided they were wolves in human clothing. I didn't necessarily recognize them as the Moon's honor guard, but I didn't not recognize them either. They definitely seemed…familiar.

Armaeus's brows arched, and despite his shit-kicker attire, he once more looked like the intrigued professor greeted with a new puzzle to solve.

"Definitely wolf," he murmured. "All the same…breed, I guess you would say. Certainly deeply attached to each other. There are no others with a similar energy to them lurking close."

"So are they like demons?" I asked quietly. "Able to assume a guise that humans can tolerate without losing their marbles?"

"No, they are a true dual nature," Kreios corrected as the Magician nodded. "Both man and supernatural creature at once. These aren't true wolves—or humans turned wolf. That's not how it works. They are magical constructs, not traditional flesh and blood and bone. They may bleed and die like an animal if they're caught in that form—or like a human if they fall while in that guise—but they are an entity unto themselves, not some sort of human hybrid."

"So you're saying they can't turn one of my girls," Nikki said wryly. "'Cuz I gotta tell you, I've already had a couple of volunteers."

The Devil laughed, but when he returned his gaze to us, his face was set. "They are here for a reason. It's in each of their minds so strongly that I don't have to make any effort to pull it out." He flicked a glance to Nikki. "You know it too, yes?"

"The ring," she said, making me blink as she turned my way. "You still have it, don't you, Sara?"

"I…" Belatedly, I patted my pockets, not surprised but still relieved to feel the ring's comforting weight tucked near my kidney. Of course, the Magician wouldn't have omitted that detail in dressing me. He was nothing if not thorough. "Why that after all the junk people hauled to Atlantis? All of it worked to get us to her."

"All of it worked to open the door, but not all of it was originally the Moon's," The Devil said. "Apparently, she wants her ring back, and they have the skills to find it. Therefore, they're risking detection by moving in the open. Not wise, but it would seem that what the Moon wants…"

Because I still had my gaze trained on the creatures, I could see what he meant. A few of them had stopped laughing quite so broadly, had started looking around with an air of intensity. Not all of them, though. Others were staring openly at a knot of sequin-covered dancers swaying to the music. Nikki's troupe, I recognized immediately, statuesque bombshells in gowns that lit up the room with their vibrant colors. They attracted the attention of the shifters more than anyone else in the room, which was not to say the other humans were completely escaping the shifters' notice. A pulse of pheromones rolled through the space, strong enough to catch me up short as Nikki straightened.

"Hold the phone," she muttered, waving a hand in front of her face. "What's the sudden influx of he-man body spray all about? My eyes are watering."

"We don't know anything about how these warriors fight," the Magician murmured. "You should have a care. If they're asserting their strength, setting the ground rules, if you will, on a primal level, they could be about to strike."

"If you're telling me they're about to mark their territory, I'm flat-out going to go ballistic," Nikki advised him. "That level of personal expression may fly where they come from, but it's not working here. We just polished the floor, for criminy's sake."

"We can't help you," Armaeus said, his expression going sharp as his eyes deepened in color, drifting into the inky blackness that revealed he was accessing particularly murky magical thoughts. "The Council cannot interfere with these agents of the Moon if we don't want to betray our true strength. Not yet. There is still too much we don't understand."

"Yeah, well. Lucky for us, we don't need you," Nikki said. "Dollface, let's go. You boys stay here."

She spun away, and I blinked for a moment at Kreios and Armaeus. The Magician's brows were tented in rapt fascination, while the Devil merely smiled.

"If I'd understood how delicious Nikki Dawes would be in a position of power, I would have made sure to arrange it long ago," Kreios purred.

I turned quickly to catch up with Nikki, matching her long flowing strides as best I could. She caught the attention of, well, the pack before she was halfway across the room—and particularly the largest member of their group, who I now recognized as the warrior Torsten. All dark-eyed, dark-haired badass with sharp features and an iron jaw, he nodded first to Nikki, then to me as we approached. He wore similar gear to his buddies—scuffed leather jacket, thick, no-nonsense jeans, a T-shirt in a neutral shade. His feet were wrapped in heavy-soled motorcycle boots.

"You guys raid a Harley-Davidson store before you got here?" Nikki quipped, with such brash challenge that despite her innocuous words, the man stiffened. Man? Wolf? Whatever he was.

"You protect this place?" he asked, and I nearly rocked back on my heels at the strange resonance to his voice, a low murmuring rumble not unlike a growl, though his words were easily audible despite the banging music.

"You bet your sweet ass I do," Nikki confirmed, her bright smile hard in the glittering lights. "And I know trouble when I see it. I'm just here to give you all the friendly suggestion not to start it here. It's Torsten, right? You're part of the Moon's honor guard."

The man regarded her with cool appraisal, taking in her curves, her muscles, and her muscular curves. His nostrils practically flared with awareness, and I could feel the heat of his quickening interest. The stench of testosterone shot straight past He-Man and well into Max Alpha territory.

"I am Torsten," he finally acknowledged, giving Nikki the barest nod, though his gaze remained sharp, assessing.

"Great. I'm Nikki." She held out a hand, her lacquered nails gleaming silver in the shimmering lights, looking remarkably like claws. Torsten and the two men flanking him noticed, and it was a long, awkward moment before he reached for her hand. When he shook it, Nikki's grin tightened slightly. "I mean what I say, Torsten," she advised, with a tone that brooked no bullshit. "You want to tell the Justice of the Arcana Council why you're really here, or should I?"

I watched this exchange with keen interest. Nikki's particular ability was to read the memories of anyone she touched—not the truth, necessarily, but the truth as the person she was interviewing saw it.

Torsten slanted his glance to me. "The Moon has had something taken from her. She wants it back—now—and she believes it's likely you know where it is. Tell us, and we will recover it. You don't know what powers you're playing with. You can't protect her. You can't even protect yourself."

I bristled. "And maybe you don't know who I am."

"Oh, he thinks he knows," Nikki drawled. "He thinks he knows that the Arcana Council is weak and not to be trusted. That you're a member of the Council, and by some stroke of dumb luck, you helped to free the Moon. And that you're tangled up in a problem that's way over your head, because you're just a girl." She narrowed her gaze at Torsten. "How am I doing so far?"

Torsten blinked, then set his jaw, clearly taken aback by Nikki's tone. "The Moon has ancient enemies, and they too want her ring—are desperate for it. We sense them coming even if you don't. They are massing for an attack even now, which means you must have the item she seeks. Celestine sent us here to protect you."

"Oh, bullshit." Nikki waved him off. "You were sent to intimidate Justice Wilde into giving you what you want, full stop."

Torsten's eyes flashed, and he smiled, all teeth. "Your defiance is misplaced. We're here to help you."

"Fantastic. You can help us by leaving." Nikki gestured toward the front of the casino. "Now would be good."

Torsten chuckled with what sounded—almost—like regret. "Unfortunately, that's not possible. Instead, we're about to tear this place apart—now, I think."

He jerked his hand forward, as if punching the air, and the men around him leapt into action.

Nikki whirled toward the dozen or so of her troupe who had assembled behind us and cried out simultaneously, "Go!"

The Flamingo lit up.