CHAPTER NINE

I'll come for you.

Cursing beneath her breath, Ella paused in topping up the box of small on-sale products near the till. Viper's words from last night wouldn't leave her alone.

She'd done her best not to think about him. Had tried hard to mentally shove aside their little encounter in the shadows. It was just sex. There was no reason to think about it.

And yet, snippets of it kept replaying in her mind. His mouth moving insistently on hers, his hands possessively fisting her hair, his cock driving into her over and over, and making her explode more fiercely than she ever had before.

Okay, so it hadn't been ‘just sex'. There'd been nothing regular or simple about it. It had been incredible. An unparalleled experience. Blindingly hot.

But that wasn't to say they should repeat it. Their kinds weren't supposed to mix. A one-time fuck, well, that could be overlooked. It had just been a spur of the moment thing brought on by the mere fact that she'd been thinking with her pink parts.

Parts he'd pleasured exceptionally well.

Ella gave her head a little shake and went back to adding products to the counter.

There was another—and admittedly silly—reason why his words kept swimming back to the forefront of her mind. They felt slightly reminiscent of those spoken by the wraith: He will come for you.

This was sheer coincidence, of course. The wraith had merely blurted out crap to mess with her—there'd been no truth in it, let alone any reference to Viper.

The only person who might ‘come' for her was her little note-deliverer, but that concept didn't gel with the rest of the wraith's weird warning … " You will be chained to him forever, and you cannot imagine what that will mean for you. "

Plus, the demon had also said something about how it was her soul that she needed to worry about. There was no reason why her pen pal would pose a risk to her soul. No one would. So yes, the wraith had been rambling nonsense.

Viper, though? She didn't get the sense that he'd thrown out his little warning lightly. If she didn't seek him out, he might very well come find her. Which shouldn't make a little tingle of excitement ride her spine, but their chemistry was, like, whoa. The kind of chemistry that made a person make unwise decisions.

Case in point.

If he sought her out, well, she'd just remind him that casual fucks weren't her thing. It would be for the best, wouldn't it?

Her demon didn't think so, no longer bothered by, or uneasy about, him being one of the Fallen. It liked the darkness that seemed to cloak him. Weirdo.

Mia appeared beside her, one hand on her hip. "You keep zoning out, and I'm wondering if your thoughts might be flying to the mystery guy who ravished you last night."

Ella had confessed to her sister that she'd slept with someone at the Red Rooms, but she'd kept his identity to herself. Mia might toss out comments about how hot Viper was, but she wouldn't approve of this. She would instead lecture her on the evils of tangling with the Fallen in such a way. Ella was in no mood to hear one.

"I'm just tired." It wasn't a lie.

"Hmm, you do look like you could fall over and nap any second."

"Ever the flatterer," Ella sardonically muttered.

Mia snickered and braced her elbow on the counter. "Why won't you tell me who the mystery dude was? It's killing me that I don't know."

Ella frowned. "You haven't been all that open with me either. I'm still waiting to hear about whoever fucked a smile onto your face at the club."

Mia's brow dented. "I already told you all about him."

"Oh, yeah. ‘ He was uber hot and had some serious skills. You woulda liked him .' Very detailed."

"There wasn't really anything more to tell."

The ding of the bell above the door made them both look over.

"Oh, here we go," Mia muttered as Dionne's mother strode into the store looking like she was sucking on a lemon. Knew this would happen , she added telepathically.

We're not rehiring Dionne no matter what this woman says , Ella stated.

Maxine appeared at the counter, her chin up high. She wasn't a hellcat like her daughter and mate, she was a harpy. And since people generally swerved from getting on the bad side of a harpy, the woman was used to getting her way and not dealing with resistance. So used to it, in fact, that she'd come to feel entitled to it. Which meant she could be a pain in the ass at times, especially when things didn't pan out like she wanted.

"Ella, Mia." Her voice was as sharp and cutting as broken glass. "I heard you fired my daughter yesterday."

Ella folded her arms. "I did."

The harpy's lips flattened. "And just what makes you believe it's fair or acceptable to fire someone for having frequent migraines?"

Whoa, was that what Dionne had told her? "That isn't why she lost her job. She's lazy. Frequently late. Wanders off to check her phone notifications. And, just yesterday, she also helped herself to cash from the register."

Maxine's shoulders tensed. "The latter is a very serious accusation."

"Not an accusation, a fact. And before you try to pressure us into giving her back her job, know that it won't be worth it. You run a business, Maxine." A very successful clothing store, in fact. "Would you keep such a worker on your team?"

Maxine's eyes flickered. "She is young and has much to learn."

Which did not answer Ella's question. In fact, it was a clear evasion.

"She could learn working for you ," Mia pointed out.

"I would be thrilled to have Dionne as one of my staff," the harpy claimed, "but she has no interest in fashion."

"She has no interest in working here either." Another good point by Mia.

The bell above the door went again. Another woman walked inside—this one equally familiar, but more welcome. Ella cast her a quick smile before refocusing on the harpy.

Maxine's eyes narrowed. "Does your aunt know that you let Dionne go?"

"Of course," said Ella. "The decision to fire her was a unanimous one."

The harpy's gaze hardened. "Knox will not like this."

"Not like what?" asked the woman behind Maxine.

The harpy whirled to face the dark-haired, long-legged nightmare. "Oh. Piper."

Ella bit back a smile at the nervous tremor in Maxine's voice. She had probably planned to embellish what happened here on reporting it to Knox, whose name she often wielded like a sword. But now she couldn't lie. Because Piper would be able to tell him it was pure bull. And, as Levi's mate and a close friend of Harper, Knox would take Piper's word over Maxine's any day.

The harpy flicked a hand. "Nothing terribly important. Do say hello to Levi for me." With a dignified haughtiness, the woman left the store.

"What was that about?" asked Piper.

Mia puffed out a heavy breath. "We had to fire her daughter."

Piper's nose wrinkled. "It's a pretty frequent thing. She always tries intimidating Dionne's ex-employers into giving her ‘one last chance.' You know, personally, I think Dionne purposely gets herself sacked just to get at her mom."

Ella cocked her head. "Like an attention seeking thing?"

"Maxine is a workaholic who doesn't have much time for her daughter," Piper reminded her. "I think Dionne sabotages every job both because she's determined to be the opposite of her mom but also because it's the only time Maxine really notices anything that's happening in Dionne's life."

Mia sighed. "It's kind of sad. I feel sorry for Dionne, but we can't keep her on."

"And you shouldn't," Piper stated firmly. "Maxine might whine about it to Knox, but he won't step in on her behalf." Her pale-green eyes glinted with concern as they cut to Ella. "You look tired."

Ella really wished people would stop pointing that out. "I'm not sleeping well."

She'd had more dreams last night. Each had woken her at various times, but she'd never managed to cling to the threads of them. They'd slipped from her mental grasp, leaving her clueless as to what she'd dreamt about.

"Can't you whip up some kind of potion that would help you sleep right through?"

"I could, but they always leave me feeling bleh the next day. I have zero enthusiasm, and my vigilance level suffers." Rendering herself drowsy and unalert wouldn't be smart when she clearly hadn't shaken off her stalker.

"Don't worry, I'll be making her a talisman that fends off dreams," Mia told Piper. "All she'll need to do is stick it under her pillow. That should work."

"Fingers crossed it does." Piper looked from her to Ella. "Hey, why don't you both come have a drink with me and my girls at the Xpress bar later?"

Ella pulled a face. "Last time I went there, I nearly got into a fight."

Piper waved that way. "Pretty much everyone almost gets into a fight with Khlo?. It's like the law."

A snort popped out of Ella. The almost-fight hadn't whatsoever tainted the growing friendship between her and the imp. On the contrary, it seemed to have strengthened it, since Khlo? had found the whole thing wildly entertaining. "I'll think about it. Now, what can we do for you?"

Music blasted, drowning out Ella's voice as she yelled at Khlo?, who got right up in her face. Ella couldn't hear her words, could barely hear anything over the music. Only her pulse pounding in her ears and … and Khlo? suddenly wasn't Khlo? anymore. It was a tall brunette. And the club wasn't a club anymore. It was a dingy bar.

Everything here was … different. Accents. Music. Smells. People.

The brunette pointed in her face, accusing her of trying to flirt with the bitch's boyfriend—a guy Everleigh had just rejected at the bar, for Christ's sake.

Everleigh would have lunged at the little bitch for then calling her a whore, but her friend held her back. Pushed her toward the restroom. Encouraged her to calm down.

Everleigh stumbled through the crowd, a strange fog at the edges of her vision that distorted her view of everything else. That fog thickened and churned, only to part as a stranger appeared. No, not a stranger. She'd seen him here and there. There was no way to miss someone who looked like that. A guy who was hot as hell and had ‘danger' written all over him in capital letters.

"My opinion?" he rumbled, his voice as delicious as him. "She would have had it coming if you'd punched her."

Everleigh blinked. "Sorry?"

"She called you a whore, right?"

"Right."

"Then she would have had it coming." He stalked toward her with the animal grace of a predator on the hunt. "Everleigh, isn't it?"

Her demon narrowed its eyes, sensing he was no demon himself. If she wasn't mistaken, he was a celestial. "Yes. Who are you?"

He grinned. "Let me buy you a drink and I'll tell you."

The fog swished around them, blocked her sight, muffled her hearing, and misted her thoughts.

Her surroundings seemed to melt as every color spread and changed shape, looking more like a pastel painting. Then it cleared, every detail coming into view. Her house. She was walking toward her house.

A figure prowled out of the shadows—tall, dark, sinfully gorgeous. And a man who had some serious game in the bedroom.

Everleigh slowed, taken aback that he'd showed up here. Had she told him where she lived? She didn't think so, but she'd been pretty tipsy that night.

She'd tried not to think about him since. Really, really tried. And failed. Oh, failed so very dramatically. "I have to admit, I didn't expect to see you again."

He blinked. "You remember me?"

She frowned. "Of course I do. I wasn't that smashed last weekend." But he still appeared strangely thrown. "What brings you here?"

"You," he replied bluntly, the heat in his eyes making it clear what he wanted from her.

Temptation fluttered in her belly just as a sense of excitement rushed through her veins. Her demon's mouth curved, liking his blunt response.

She didn't believe in playing dumb, so she reminded him, "That night we had was supposed to be a one-time thing." She'd made that clear, and he'd agreed.

"Supposed to be," he allowed.

"It's not a good idea to do it again."

His shoulders lifted and fell. "Don't much care."

To her dismay, she found that neither did she. Her inner entity didn't see why she should consider it a big deal. Sex was sex, in the demon's opinion.

Much as Everleigh wished it was that simple, she knew it wasn't. Not merely because he was a freaking angel, but because nothing about the night they spent together had felt casual. They'd connected on a level she couldn't explain. "Don't you think once was enough?"

His gaze darkened. "No. And neither do you."

The fog swallowed everything in front of her. Every image, every noise, every emotion. All gone.

Her mind seemed to drift, blissfully empty. Clear. At peace.

Sensations penetrated, making her surroundings come into view once more. The fog hovered on the edges again, smudging all but what was in her line of sight. Him .

He was above her, in her, thrusting hard, stuffing her full, eating her up with his gaze.

"I could live right here in this pussy, never leave it," he gritted out, forcing his cock deep. "No one fits me better than you."

An alarm blared, dragging Ella out of her dream. Her eyelids fluttered open as the haze of sleep began to disperse. Images, words, and sensations lingered. Lingered but faded. Faded and faded and faded.

And still, she remembered. Remembered one thing: Familiar piercing blue-eyes staring into hers while a long, thick cock was buried so deep inside her.

Huh. Apparently, she was having sex-dreams about Viper now.

Ugh.

Scrubbing a hand down her face, she sluggishly sat upright, her shoulders slumping with fatigue. As if it wasn't bad enough that the dude flowed into her waking thoughts far too often, it now seemed he also featured in her dreams. Wonderful. And unfair.

Ella threw back the covers and shuffled to the edge of the bed, letting her legs dangle over it. What was with the X-rated dream content lately? It obviously wasn't caused by sex deprivation, given she'd let Viper ravish her a couple of nights ago.

And why hadn't the talisman worked? It should have. Mia's magick had never failed her before.

Not having the time to ponder this just now, Ella forced herself out of bed. Forced herself to get ready. Forced down food and coffee. And when she met her sister in the foyer, Mia winced.

"I look that bad?"

Mia twisted her mouth. "I'd like to say no. I really would. But I can't. Didn't you get any sleep?"

"Oh, I did. I also dreamt, though. I swear, it's like dreaming takes a toll on my brain these days or something."

Mia's brow creased. "Dammit, I really thought the talisman would work. I can't understand why it didn't." She walked in a circle around Ella. "You haven't been jinxed or anything—I'd sense a spell if one clung to you." She sighed. "What's happening with you isn't normal. Dreaming doesn't tire the brain. It just doesn't."

No, it didn't. And Ella couldn't work out why that would suddenly change for her.