Page 15 of Beauty At Stake
I sat down on Killian's left. He was in the chair to Star's left. It felt safer to have Kill between us.
“Vampire hunters.” Nassar chuckled.
Star cleared his throat.
Everyone went quiet.
“After I left, the hunters escaped,” Star went on. “A Demon freed them.”
All the Demons at the table, with the exception of their king, groaned or made other sounds of annoyance.
“Come on,” Sallales whined and pounded her forehead on the table.
“Haven't they learned yet?” Phodrel added. “For fuck's sake. What do you have to do to make them fall in line?”
“Maybe there was a reason Lucifer was such a prick,” Eladeb said.
“I refuse to believe that I have to become a monster to keep our people in check,” Star said. “And Lucifer's reign wasn't without incidents either. You, of all Demons, should know that.”
Sal grimaced. “Yeah. Fair enough. Maybe we've been so focused on the negatives that we haven't noticed all the positive changes. Shit. I mean, how often did we use to hunt? All the fucking time. And we were only one of several Sayadi teams. Now, it's just us, and we've only had a few incidents to deal with. That's pretty fucking awesome.”
They exchanged nods and looks of agreement.
“Except that Lucifer didn't handle shit like this himself.” Phodrel waved a hand at Star. “Maybe you should make some new Sayadi teams, Your Majesty.”
“I don't have to make new teams.” Star leaned back and looked at his guards. “There are still several in place, waiting for my orders. But you're the only ones I trust. And this situation involves Seren. So, we're handling this ourselves.”
“Wow, dude.” Killian shook his head. “You're not even trying to be discreet about it.”
“Why should he?” Sal, who was Star's right-hand woman, asked. “We all know what's going on with you guys. It's why we stayed back tonight.”
“Yeah. All right,” Kill muttered.
“So, a Demon has teamed up with humans who hunt Bite Witches?” Veshim asked.
“Yeah,” Killian said. “That about sums it up. Any ideas on why?”
“Why do Demons do anything?” Nassar shrugged.
“Usually money, magic, or power,” Sal said. “Or revenge.”
“Or to fuck with their new king.” Star leaned back and his partially unbuttoned shirt gaped.
I looked away from the sleek, hard chest that teased me. And right at Antaura.
Antaura was Star's gorgeous ex-girlfriend. They were together when we met. Antaura begged Star not to give me a piece of his magic. He did it anyway, and he ended their relationship shortly afterward. So, yeah, she resented me, and I totally understood. But I also saved her life. Well, not saved exactly. I could have let her die, but I didn't. Judging from the way she nodded at me, it was equivalent in her opinion.
I nodded back—soldier code for accepting an offer of truce.
“I guess we'd better investigate the scene before the trail gets cold,” Sallales said. Then she looked at me. “Why didn't you track them, Your Majesty?”
“I can only track you guys when you're near,” I said. “It was too late by the time we figured out what had happened. Maybe if I hadn't been so distracted, I would have felt the Demon arrive.” I glanced at Star, then Kill. “But with one Demon present, he didn't register with me.”
The King's Guard stared at me. As in, all of them. Together.
“All right.” Star stood up. “There's no point in hashing this out. Sal's right. We need to investigate the scene first.” Hesighed and looked down at himself. “All of you, head over with the Ambassadors. I've got to change.” Then he left.
The rest of us watched him go.
