Wicked Burn (Realm Enforcers #3)(13)

Nick’s gaze hardened as he looked from Bear to Simone. “It’s time to catch me up, little bunny.”

Bear pushed off from the door. “Not your monkey, not your circus. Both of you stay out of my business.” He turned and set his stance. “Get ready.”

Simone moved forward. “Bear—”

He planted his boot in the center of the door, and it flew right off the hinges and through the plane. Guns cocked. Simone peered around him to see at least four soldiers with green guns pointed at Bear. The kind of guns that shot lasers that turned into metal upon hitting immortal flesh. Plasma was too unstable for a plane.

Bear looked down at his hole-riddled sock. “What happened to my other boot?”

Simone grabbed the boot and hit him in the hip with it.

Nick grasped her arm and pushed her none too gently behind him. “This will be explained,” he said softly enough that only she and Bear could hear it.

Bear turned full around, his back to the weapons. “Simone? Does he know anything?”

She tried not to grimace. “No. Of course not.”

Nick inhaled sharply.

As she took in Nick’s raised eyebrows, she knew without question he wouldn’t let it go. No matter what happened next, Nicholai Veis would get his answers, and right now, protecting Bear was all that mattered. So she leaned up on her toes and set her mouth next to Nick’s ear. “Bear’s real name is Beauregard, and he’s my brother,” she whispered.





Chapter 5


Ireland smelled the same. Nicholai Veis sat in a waiting area far underground in the secret Coven Nine location after a shower and change of clothing. The witches did insist on their comforts, now, didn’t they? At the moment, Simone was probably getting dressed somewhere else. The second she returned, she was explaining her statement about Bear to him. It didn’t make a lick of sense.

But he liked her strong and pissed. For so long, he’d carried the image of her pale and sad in his mind. From the day he’d broken her heart. The worst day in his entire life, and that said something.

There was so much blood on his hands, they’d never be clean. He’d chosen his path, and even today, he wondered which moment had tipped his soul into darkness. Was it when he’d turned away from Simone? Or was it the next hour, right after the king had delivered him to demon headquarters?

Nick leaned his head back against the wall and closed his eyes, forcing himself to face that day. Only by facing the past did he have a chance of remembering to love again. God, he wanted Simone, but how the hell could he find his way back to her?

Dage had teleported him to demon headquarters, right outside Nick’s rooms. “Jesus,” Nick had muttered, stepping back from the king. “You can come right in past our defenses.”

“You might want to remember that fact,” Dage said, his silver eyes somber. “I don’t know what Lily told you, but if you ever need my assistance, you know where to find me.” He zipped out of sight.

Nick took a deep breath, went inside to arm himself, and then strode almost casually through the labyrinth of tunnels to reach his uncle’s rooms. It wasn’t too late to turn back. The image of Simone, tears in her eyes as he rejected her, wouldn’t leave his mind.

He rapped quickly on the stone door and waited for his uncle to bellow permission to enter.

Turn back. Turn back. Turn back.

Nick ignored his inner whispers and walked inside his uncle’s main office, instantly assailed by the smell of flowers on fire. Opium. His uncle had made smoking the sweet-smelling stuff a sport.

“Nicholai.” Uncle Henry stood behind his desk, a map of the new world spread across the stone surface. “I thought you went to Ireland with your tail between your legs.”

“I changed my mind.” Nick shut the door and crossed the room, bypassing a series of chairs.

Henry’s gaze narrowed, and shrewd black eyes took his measure. At about seven centuries old, Henry had honed his warrior’s body to pure muscle. His blond hair reached his shoulders, and he’d tied it back with leather. “The witch rejected you, huh?” He threw back his head and laughed.

“No. I decided it couldn’t work. The witch is too ambitious to be my mate.” Nick reached the desk and surveyed the maps. “What’s this?”

“New world with a new breed of human females.” Henry smacked his too-red lips together. “Suri and I are thinking about going hunting.”

They needed laws in place to protect females of all species from demons. “Doesn’t sound like much sport,” Nick murmured.

Henry shrugged. “’Tisn’t. But the end result is always so much fun.” He reached across the desk and smacked Nick in the arm. “Maybe I’ll go hunt that witch first and show her what a real man can do.”

Nick’s stomach rolled. “I don’t think so.” He grabbed Henry’s arm, yanked, and pulled his uncle right over the desk. The demon weighed a ton, but gravity helped.

Henry hit the floor, rolled, and came up swinging.

The first hit to the face nearly knocked Nick across the desk. Pain exploded as his cheekbone cracked. He countered with a punch to Henry’s nose. Blood sprayed.

Henry roared and yanked a razor-sharp knife from his back, swinging for Nick’s neck. “You bastard,” Henry hissed.