Demon Retribution (Shadow Quest Book 3) (13 page)

A sarcastic groan made them both glance at
Cale. “I’m just waiting for you two to kiss and get it over
with.”

Kyra pulled away to punched his
shoulder.

He put his hands up. “Fine, fine, but in my
head, that’s what’s happening.”

The girls rolled their eyes and grumbled in
unison, “Men.”

* * *

“
What do you mean she’s
staying on the ship?” Nadua’s outraged holler reached Sonya all the
way across the salon.

Not many had gathered for the morning meal,
but the few crew members that lingered glanced toward Nadua and
Marik. Though no one could be confused as to whom Nadua eluded.

A Serakian witchling had arrived, to
everyone’s disappointment, only a week ago.

Her initial purpose had been to attempt a
mate bond separation between Nadua and Marik, who had thoroughly
botched the claiming—worse than thoroughly, nearly irrevocably
fucked it up forever.

Reversing the mate bond had never been
attempted, at least in known record, and there was no guarantee
that the Serakian’s magic would have even worked, which was
probably why their council had agreed to try.

The Serakians were an extraordinarily
curious faction, made up of gifted individuals recruited from
throughout the universe.

However, the transmission that the witch’s
services were no longer needed, had apparently gone un-received and
the witchling, with no transport home, had demanded she be allowed
to stay on the ship until other arrangements could be made. She
insisted she needed to contact her Serakian council regarding the
change of events.

As of yet, the council had sent no
reply.

Sonya wondered what effect it might have had
on Marik, had the witch been allowed to sever the bond—assuming it
would have worked. Demons only get one chance at claiming a mate, a
fact that had been scientifically explored a few years before the
destruction of their planet.

In those years, scientists had argued with
philosophers over the “theory” of the mate bond—the whys, the hows,
and the inevitabilities—only succeeding in displaying that no one
had any real answers beyond the biological process, called the
claiming: a process of combining natural, but complex, chemicals in
the body that would be excreted through the fangs upon biting one’s
mate.

It was a one shot deal.

That was the kicker! One time, and one time
only did a demon yield the necessary mixture to mark a mate. Since
Marik had used his up, would he have been given a second
chance?

Luckily, it was moot, Sonya thought. Nadua
had refused to give Marik up, and Sonya was happy for the couple.
Of all people, Marik deserved the happiness he was finding with the
little redhead Faieara.

Still, Nadua remained distressed by the
Serakian’s presence.

The salon doors whooshed opened and Ethan
strolled in, searching the room.

“
Shit,” Sonya muttered
under her breath and then scooped up the last of her breakfast
before plotting her escape.

She’d been avoiding him since they’d
returned from that ice cube of a planet, Undewla, and he’d been
trying to do the opposite. Though she couldn’t understand why. They
hated each other. Made no secret of it.

He had even gone so far as to humiliate her
by taking advantage of her on a day when her demon nature had been
particularly unmanageable. She had wanted to appease her body’s
needs with a quick sparring match, and he had wanted to appease
them by taking her virginity. Not that she had cared overmuch for
her virginity, but the experience had been less than favorable. At
least…there at the end.

To her dismay, Ethan spotted her and made a
fast approach. She had an idea why he was here now. Her latest
scheme had clearly backfired. She stood, pretending not to notice
him by brushing imaginary crumbs from her skirt.

“
What the fuck, Sonya!”
Thankfully he wasn’t as loud as Nadua, so he didn’t draw the
attention of the entire room.

“
Morning, Ethan.” She
proceeded past him to the door. He followed her out, his infuriated
gaze burning into her back. “How is Jade getting along?” she said,
knowing it would set him off.

He ran his fingers through his white-blond
hair, giving her a glimpse of his pointed ears. “Jade is standing
behind my bar, thinking she’s a new employee.”

“
It’s
my
bar, Ethan,” Sonya chided. “And
Jade
is
a new
employee. I hired her yesterday. I need some time off.” She turned
a corner and picked up her pace, hoping to keep this confrontation
short.

“
That’s crap and you know
it. You’re using her to avoid me.”

“
I have no reason to avoid
you.”

“
We need to talk about what
happened.”

“
There’s nothing to say,”
she insisted.

“
I have plenty to
say.”

Sonya paused, catching him off guard. He
stumbled to a halt, and she rounded on him, crossing her arms. “Go
ahead then.”

He suddenly became uncomfortable. “Well, not
here in the hall.” As if on cue, a small group of children came
barreling down the corridor, ignoring them as they passed.

Sonya started walking again, exasperated.
“Look, Ethan, what happened between us meant nothing. Okay?
Nothing. You did nothing wrong, and I’m not mad at you.”

“
No, I’m mad at
you.”

Sonya snorted. “Oh, really? What possible
reason could you—”

“
You know why.”

Sonya stopped again, flicking her tail with
irritation and spearing him with a killing look. Her brother, Cale,
would have put him on his ass by now.

“
You have the audacity to
be angry with me! When you are the one…” She trailed off as his
lips curled up in a mocking grin. He was just trying to get to her.
Doing a damn good job of it too. Her horns had started to darken
with the onset of her rage. “Just get back to work, pirate.” She
sneered.

His jaw clenched, erasing any traces of good
humor. “Stop calling me that.”

Sonya was never good at taking orders, and
she wasn’t about to start with him. Leaning in, she growled,
“Pirate.”

He moved swiftly, pinning her to the wall,
holding her wrists by her head. His face deepened to a nice shade
of crimson.

He was the only man she’d met, besides her
brothers, who could best her in a fight. A tiny part of her
thrilled at that, but she pushed the silly little thought out of
her mind. Any intelligent or witty verbal retaliation failed as her
anger walked a fine line.

“
Pirate,” she repeated,
though her voice had gone husky.

Shit, this wasn’t going as planned at
all.

“
Demon witch,” he murmured
before his lips pressed down on hers.

A betraying whimper escaped her, and she
cursed her reaction to him. She may hate his guts, but her body
didn’t seem to share the notion—didn’t the stupid thing remember
what happened last time it was in this predicament?

He deepened the kiss, swiping his tongue
out, coaxing her to do the same. She did. Damn it! Why was she
permitting this? He groaned when he felt her submit and released
her arms to lace one of his around her waist. Against her will, her
eyes closed, and she drowned in his passion.

Voices echoed down the hall.

She stilled.

Sebastian!

Ethan realized it as well and tore away from
her, both of them panting. She used the wall for support. When
their gazes collided, his eyes went wide and he took another step
back. She got the sense that it wasn’t because her big,
overprotective, demon brother was headed their way.

Then something grabbed her attention. The
tip of her tongue ventured out to examine one small, elongated
fang. She gasped and covered her mouth with both hands. Her heart
revved into hyper drive, sinking low into her gut like a whirling
vortex.

No!

She glanced at Ethan despairingly. He’d gone
pale.

Had he seen? Could he know what it
meant?

She didn’t wait to find out. Her body
reacted on instinct and took off down the hall, blasting past
Sebastian and Aidan.

“
Hey, Sunny,” Sebastian
called in a surprised greeting.

She didn’t answer. She couldn’t. Her throat
was closing as panic engulfed her. Blindly, she followed her feet
to her room and locked herself inside. At some point, tears had
begun to stream down her cheeks. Cold and wet, yet burning at the
same time.

Feeling dizzy, she flopped on the floor and
pulled her knees to her chest.

There was a bright side, her subconscious
offered. If he had seen, if he knew what it meant, Ethan would do
everything in his power to stay away from her from now on.

For some reason, that did nothing to cheer
her.

* * *

After only a couple of days, everyone had
settled in to their new home with a surprising amount of ease.

Cale had seemingly won Zoey over in the two
days Kyra had been unconscious, and it was as if Zoey didn’t even
care that he was a demon or that they were both from alien
planets.

In fact, as Cale had observed, she was full
of questions, and Kyra had been like a mother to a child that
continuously asks why. Zoey wasn’t satisfied till she knew her
entire history. Kyra was able to smooth over a few of the more
difficult decades in her past, but Zoey was so fascinated she’d
hardly noticed.

Cale was turning out to be a fairly
easygoing guy, except when it came to safety. He was constantly
checking the area around the cabin and probably knew the grounds
better than Kyra.

One evening, while Cale left for one of his
routine perimeter checks, Kyra joined Zoey on the upper deck,
overlooking the lake. She’d been puzzling over Zoey’s blasé
attitude for some time, and finally asked, “Why aren’t you wigging
out, Zo, for real?”

“
Ha!” Zoey replied. “If you
hadn’t passed out on day one, you would have seen me totally
freakin’. I almost straight up ditched you after…” She cringed.
Kyra still hadn’t inquired what her friend had witnessed that day.
“Anyway, before I got out the door, Cale threatened to chase me
down and rip out my organs—”

“
What!”

“—
if I didn’t drive you to
safety. I think I may have puked a little after that.”

“
I would have killed him.”
Kyra seethed.

Zoey laced her hands together and brought
them next to her cheek. “Aw, how sweet. You would have avenged my
death?” Kyra laughed, and Zoey dropped the pretense. “Anyway, I
don’t think he really meant it. He was just worried for you. At
least, that’s what I told myself later.”

“
Nah. He’s worried he won’t
get his revenge on those monsters.”

“
I don’t know, maybe. But
the way he carried you to the car, and then later into the motel
room, it was like he was afraid he’d break you. He was so
protective. That’s what made me start to trust him, I guess. That
and he’s insanely hot,” she added.

Kyra snorted and shook her head. “He could
have been a body snatcher for all you knew. But I suppose as long
as he’s hot…”

“
Uber hot,” Zo emphasized.
“He can snatch my body any time he wants. But it’s not mine he’s
interested in.” She looked at Kyra then and bumped their shoulders
together. “Has anything happened between you two?”

Kyra shifted and felt her cheeks grow warm.
Cale hadn’t really said much to her on the subject of their kiss.
And he definitely hadn’t put any more moves on her. She had tried a
couple of times to get him alone, merely to talk, but he always
found an excuse to get away.

Zoey waited patiently, knowing there was a
yes in her silence.

“
I kissed him,” she finally
offered. “Well…he kissed me to be more precise.”

“
And?”

“
There are no words to
describe it.” Remembering even now sent a shiver running through
her. “If we hadn’t been interrupted, I would have definitely been
body snatched.” They both giggled at the silly euphemism. “But he
hasn’t looked at me like that since.”

“
Are you kidding? He looks
at you like that all the time.”

“
Huh? When?” She thought
back to small amount of interaction between herself and Cale, and
had never noticed a stray look that might give away a hint of
interest. He was always so blank and cool.

“
Why do you think I haven’t
snuck into his room yet?” Zoey teased.

“
Because he’s an alien
species?” she replied sarcastically.

“
Alien or not, he’s a
keeper.”

A deep voice made them both jump. “But does
he want to be kept?” Cale stood, leaning against the house, a
devilish glint in his eyes.

Kyra’s laugh came out awkward and
high-pitched. “How long have you been there?”

He smiled and replied in a mocking tone,
“There are no words.”

Cheeks flaming, she covered her face and
flipped back around, suppressing a mortified groan.

Before slipping away, her traitorous friend
mumbled, “I think I left something in the oven.”

She sensed Cale take Zoey’s place by the
banister and reluctantly dropped her hands.

The sun was beginning to find its way behind
the mountains. And though the sky was still a pale blue, bird songs
had already transitioned into a symphony orchestrated by creatures
of the night.

When she finally gathered the nerve to peek
at him from under her lashes, she found him staring down at the
lake, his expression serious.