Burn (Dark in You, #1)

by Suzanne Wright

“He didn’t choose her. She lured him away.” Khloë could control most minds, but she had too much self-respect to ever use the ability to get a guy who didn’t want her. “We both know that isn’t true. But even if it was, two wrongs don’t make a right. Your parents have proved that.”

“Your ideas of ‘fun’ tend to attract the attention of humans.” A huff. “I don’t know why you have to be so judgmental.” Harper shook her head. “You’re unbelievable.” “Thank you.” She sounded genuinely pleased with the comment.

“I’ve apologized for that a million times.” He inhaled deeply. “I miss you, all right.” “You should. I’m fucking awesome.” Exasperated,

Harper’s brow furrowed. “Why are you even asking me questions? I know you did your research on me.” “I did,” he admitted unrepentantly. “I learned a lot about you. For instance, I learned that you’re responsible for the breakdown of an ex-boyfriend’s bank account—” “Allegedly.” “—that you hacked a human police database and messed up their filing system when your friend was unjustly arrested—” “Hearsay.” “—that you beat up a male demon who hurt your cousin—” “I have an alibi for that.” “—and that you infected an old teacher’s computer with a virus that caused clips of gay porn to pop up on his screen every thirty seconds.” “Closet gays do the strangest things when the pressure gets too much.”

Devon stepped into the room with Raini. “That was really all a test?” Her face suddenly scrunched up and she hissed at Tanner, looking ready to pounce. Pure male amusement took over the sentinel’s face. “What’s wrong, kitty?” Yeah, hellhounds and hellcats had an instinctive aversion to the other.

Knox pinned her gaze with his. “I’m not going to keep you a secret just to placate one person who may or may not still be deluded about something. You’re in more danger if people don’t know who you are to me.” “He’s right,” Levi told her. Harper sniffed at the sentinel. “I don’t believe I asked for a glass of your unimportant opinion.” The guy just smiled. “Knox, can I bite her?”

“Royce, I won’t come back to you for a number of reasons – primarily because you seem to think that monogamy is a shade of brown.”

“Honestly? Stick your cock in a bee hive. Call me and let me know how that goes.” Flashing him a sweet, acidic smile, she then made her way to Tanner, who was holding the car door open. “Hey, Tanner.” “Problem?” He flicked his gaze to Royce. She sighed. “I just don’t understand your gender. Do you?” Tanner held up his hands. “This isn’t a conversation that could go well for me.”

A growl made everyone freeze. Then the Bentley shook as if something was struggling to get out. Tanner. By the sounds of it, he’d let out his inner demon. A mere moment later, the demon was out; launching itself in the air and over the car to land in front of Harper, growling at the practitioners. Hellhounds were like wolves on steroids, yet they had a majestic air about them. They had fur as black as coal, eyes as red as blood, and they brought with them the scent of burning brimstone. Gripping the hound’s fur, she struggled to her feet, her head still throbbing with pain. “Motherfucking motherfuckers need to motherfucking die.”

As Jolene and the receptionist went through the check-in rigmarole, Harper noticed Beck discretely stuffing his pockets with complimentary mints. Imps never turned down freebies. Meeting Tanner’s amused gaze, she rolled her eyes. As usual, he was acting as her bodyguard.

“Good evening, Knox,” said a familiar voice that made Harper inwardly roll her eyes. Dear ole Malden. He nodded at Harper before smiling at her grandmother. “Jolene, it’s good to see you.” Jolene smiled, twisting in her seat to face him. “Oh, hello…um…” Harper leaned into her grandmother. “It’s Malc—” “Malden,” he stressed, a tick in his cheek going crazy again. Smiling brightly, Harper clicked her fingers. “That’s what I was going to say.”

“Harper, if you don’t want me to break the dog in half, you need to get him away from me now,” Devon warned. Sighing, Harper glared at Tanner, who sat further along the bench beside Devon, sniffing her. He’d accompanied Harper, Raini, Devon, and Khloë around the Underground while they went shopping before finally stopping at a restaurant…and he’d done nothing but taunt Devon the entire time. “Tanner.” “She doesn’t need your help, Harper,” said Tanner with a smile, his eyes on Devon; there was a challenge there. “She can take care of herself. Can’t you, pretty kitty?” “He’s trying to rile you because he wants to know what you can do,” she told Devon. It was a stupid move on his part, since Devon could seriously hurt him if she wished to do so. Devon’s smile was a little feral. “You want to know what I can do, pooch? I can shove my foot so far up your ass, you’ll feel it in your throat.” “Now you’re just lying.” That got him an exasperated hiss.

Khloë raised her hands. “Fine. Hey Harper, how come Knox didn’t join us for lunch?” “Just because he’s my anchor doesn’t mean we’re together 24/7.” “Yeah,” said Khloë, “but you guys have been doing the hunka-chunka.” Devon’s face scrunched up. “Doing the what?” “You know…Riding the flagpole. Roasting the broomstick. Going deep into the bush. Pounding the punanni pavement.” “Stop, stop,” laughed Raini, her hand on her chest.

“You haven’t worked it out yet? It wants to keep you. It wants to take you as its mate.”

“They’re just clothes, Harper.” Before she could rant, he sucked her bottom lip into his mouth. “Hear me now, because this is important. I know you feel uncomfortable about this and I understand why, but I am going to buy you things. I am going to spoil you. I am going to take care of you when you need me to. Because I want to. Because you deserve it. Because that’s what mates do. Rejecting the things I do or give you is much like pushing me away.”

Martina scowled at Harper. “Don’t think I haven’t noticed that you don’t wear the necklace I gave you with the fishbone charm on it. It’s for good luck.” Harper frowned. “How can it give good luck? Things didn’t exactly go well for the fish.” Beck’s laugh earned him a glower from Martina.

“Harper, you need to do something about that bodyguard of yours, because he’s getting on my goddamn last nerve.” Glimpsing out of the window, Harper saw that Tanner’s arm was hanging out of the front window of the Bentley…and there was a cat collar dangling from his hand. It was pink and had a little bell. “At least it’s pretty.” “My demon wants to claw his face off. Can’t you ask Knox to assign someone else?” “Devon, don’t expect me to feel sorry for you – you’re just as bad as he is. For God’s sake, you brought him a bag of dog biscuits yesterday.”

When a demon fell, it was quick and hard and intense. He’d never thought to experience it. Hadn’t imagined it was possible for another person to be so vital to him. He didn’t fear it, though. He welcomed it. Knew he’d forever want this little sphinx with him.

“Skeleton heads? Nice.” The unfamiliar and unexpected voice made her jerk in panic and instinctively strike out with a punch to the jaw. They hit the ground with a thud, out cold. As she realized who it was, she winced. “Oh, shit.” “Um, Knox. I kind of just knocked the Devil unconscious.” Knox’s head snapped up from the fax he was reading to stare at Harper. “Repeat that.”

“He came to Jolene’s house to yell at her for something, so she fed him some cookies as an apology. Of course, they were drugged and made him high as a kite. He stripped down to his boxers and sang Baby Got Back.”

Lou sat beside Harper and began nosing in her box of appliques. With a muffled curse, he started moving some of them around. She frowned. “What are you doing?” “You’re getting them mixed up.” He sounded genuinely agitated. “See, you’ve got rhinestones over there with the sequins.” Oh, yeah, Jolene had once mentioned he was a little OCD. “Does my grandmother still send you chain letters?” He growled again. “Yes. She knows I can’t break them. It’s bad luck.” Harper shook her head. “Not really. It’s called OCD and—” “Yes, yes, so my psychiatrist tells me.” “You have a shrink?” “Apparently, I have some repressed anger and unresolved abandonment issues after my experiences with God.” An element of vulnerability entered his tone as he continued, “You know from your experiences with Carla and Lucian – that kind of thing leaves its mark on a person, doesn’t it? It hurts right to the core.”

Exasperated, Harper burst out, “Oh my God.” Lou frowned at her. “Can we leave him out of this please?” Knox blinked in surprise. “You said ‘please.’ Snappy or not, you used manners.” “I decided to branch out from cold and pure evil.” Harper was sure she’d never met anyone as whacked as this guy.

“No one can be firmly marked anything, baby. No one’s all good, and no one’s all bad. Everyone has different dimensions to their personality, and everyone has different things that drive them. People can change, sometimes for the better and sometimes for the worse. A person’s nature is a fluid thing.” He was right, she realized. “I love you.” And now he was gaping at her, which wasn’t surprising. “I know it’s a really weird time to say it. I get that. But it occurred to me before that I grew up never really knowing for sure if the people in my life loved me. I don’t want you to wonder.” Knox

With a roar, flames erupted from the ground. Gold, red, and black, they swirled around Knox, engulfing him until she couldn’t see him. What the fuck? No, not even he could survive them. She moved towards him desperately, but the heat was just so blistering and she— And then she saw it: a figure of raging flames stood inside the fire. She couldn’t help but gawk as her heart pounded so frantically it hurt. Her inner demon was shock-still. There was only one thing that could withstand the flames of hell…because it was the only thing that was born from the flames of hell. Her breath caught in her throat. “Archdemon.” Just as archangels were born in heaven and served God, archdemons were born in hell. But they weren’t there to serve Lucifer as many religions believed. They were there to serve hell itself. Born from the flames, their purpose was to command, control, and destroy.

He cricked his neck, his dark eyes glittering with danger. “I don’t just call on the flames of hell, Harper. I am the flames of hell.”

“You never suspected, did you? Nobody ever does. Poor, poor Harper’s not sure she likes the reality of what I am.” Harper narrowed her eyes at the deliberate bite to his words. He was taunting her, meant to scare her. He was pushing to see if she’d run. Her demon didn’t like it any more than Harper did. “Ignorance is quite often bliss, isn’t it?” He cocked his head. “Your heartbeat sounds something like a rabid racehorse.” Well forgive her if she was just a little spooked to find out her mate was part of the fabric of hell.

They thought he was insane, yet they could accept the strange behavior going on around them. One imp was wearing nothing but a kilt, blue face paint, and a pink Hawaiian flower necklace. Another was dressed up as Harry Potter and occasionally blurted out meaningless spells for no apparent reason. There was also the imp who was carrying a hedgehog and losing patience with the creature because, ‘You’re not listening to me; you never listen to me.’ Then there was the group taking bets about whether the teenager currently eating a raw onion would vomit.

Lucian’s eyes narrowed. “If you’ve got something to say to me, just say it. No sly remarks.” “Fine.” Knox stepped into the imp’s personal space. “You’re a selfish, irresponsible, juvenile, self-indulgent asshole. In fact, scrap ‘juvenile’ – you’re not quite that advanced.”

The bitch is here, Harper told Knox. Fake Kendra is here. She must have been hired by the practitioners, so it looks like my little theory was right. How can you be smug? YOU’RE TIED TO A TABLE LIKE A DAMN SACRIFICE! I don’t appreciate your tone.

“We know what you are!” The practitioner wore a self-satisfied yet shaky smirk. “You’re Lucifer himself.” Had Knox not been drowning in a fury that bordered on madness, he might have laughed. As it was, Harper and Larkin did laugh. “I’m not Lucifer,” Knox told him. “I’m worse.” Knox released the power buzzing through his veins; let it fill the air as he called to what birthed him, to what lived inside him. The ground shook beneath him as flames circled his body and licked over his skin. The fire within Knox surfaced, beginning to take over every inch of him. “Now you die.”

“Harper, if there’s something you can do, do it now!” There was really only one thing she could do. There was a good chance it wouldn’t work, but she was fresh out of ideas. Taking a preparatory breath, Harper jumped to her feet, rushed across the roof, and leaped into the flames – heading straight for the figure of fire. Because there was another thing that Knox had once said…’The flames can’t burn you, Harper. Because they’re me. And you’re right, I’d never harm you.’ She’d love to say she flew, but it was more like she shakily soared through the fire and, fuck, it was hot! The flames scorched her skin, zapped every nerve ending in her body, as she headed for him. But they didn’t hurt her. Somewhat ungracefully crashing into him, she picked him up, ready to fly them out of the flames. Not yet adept at flying, however, she lost her balance and they slammed to the ground, rolling several times.

“If I did have OCD,” Lou said to Jolene, “it would bother me that the letters aren’t in alphabetical order, wouldn’t it?” “Be honest, admit that it bothers you,” dared Jolene. “What bothers me is that health professionals give fancy names to conditions or learning difficulties that will irritate the patients; like OCD not being in alphabetical order, putting an ‘S’ in ‘lisp,’ and making dyslexia a word that no one can spell. It’s just mean.”