The truth was that he was the Hunter and nothing more. He did not have a choice in his future. He was not free. He served a purpose, and it was not to form bonds or indulge his desires. He was bound to his role for eternity by the brands on his body.
After carefully setting down Lily’s flower, he stripped off his human pants—a little tight now that he was back in demon form, but not much. Asmodeus had explained how they always bought their clothes slightly too big so there was room to shift. Unfortunately, human pants in any size did not have space for a tail, so it was only after he’d removed them that Mist allowed his to reappear.
Folding the human garment and setting it on the bed, he extracted his wyrm leather pants from the dresser drawer and donned them. If a demon shifted into a drastically different form—like his mist form or Raum’s crow form—the magic would shift the clothing with them. But a minor shift, like the transformation from human to demon, was not enough to affect most materials, and it would stretch or tear.
Wyrm leather, however, could grow and shrink along with a shifting demon, and it was a hot commodity in Hell, selling for exorbitant rates on the Blood Market. Mist’s two pairs of pants, custom-made for a demon with a tail, were the only thing of value he owned.
After dressing, he cleared floor space by moving the dresser and then retrieved the chalk he’d hidden in the drawer for this purpose. He traced the hellgate on the floor, adding a lock sigil so it could not be reactivated once he passed through.
Finished, he stood back and surveyed his bedroom one final time. He’d never had possessions before, besides a few meager trinkets to hide in the corner of his cave. It would be a shame to leave them behind now.
He hoped his ‘friends’ wouldn’t be angry he had left without saying goodbye—especially Meph, who would be waiting in the park for a very long time. Just in case, he removed his cell phone from the pants he’d discarded and typed a text message.
I have returned to my hunting duties. The blood contract remains binding, and I will not reveal your whereabouts or Eva’s existence.
He paused, struggling to find words to express his feelings. In the end, he couldn’t think of anything, or perhaps just wasn’t comfortable exploring it, so he simply added,Thank you, to the end of the message.
As he sent it, he told himself he was expelling such sentimentalities from his mind forever. Taking a breath, he banished all thoughts of Lily and his friends and stuffed his newfound emotions in a cage deep within. He locked them up tight and mentally discarded the key.
They were gone, and he was the Hunter once more.
And yet, at the last moment, he reached over and grabbed the lily flower he’d placed on the dresser. It washisflower, and he was keeping it.
Then he stepped into the hellgate and disappeared.
* * *
Lily and Irisdidn’t move for at least two minutes after Mist vanished into the night.
“Bloody hell,” Iris said finally.
They went together into the house after rubbing out the ward on the front door to hide the evidence from the neighbors. Lily collapsed at the kitchen table. The aroma of her uneaten dinner permeated the kitchen, but her appetite was long gone.
How could Mist be a demon? But he was. Undeniably. And yet she couldn’t get the look in his eyes before he’d shifted and flown away out of her head. And she couldn’t stop thinking about the way he’d kissed her and told her he found her ‘intoxicating.’ And the way he’d fixed his teeth on her neck and growled when he thought she was trying to escape.
Against her will, her stomach fluttered.
In truth, he’d been pretty terrible at acting human, and she was almost embarrassed that she hadn’t figured it out sooner. But his desire for her hadn’t seemed fake, and she couldn’t reconcile what her instincts were telling her with what she knew about demons.
“I can’t believe it,” Iris was mumbling, pacing across the kitchen so fast it was making Lily dizzy. “I can’t believe you had a demon in your flat. And he just broke through my ward like it was nothing.Damnit!”
Lily flinched at her shout.
“You know how long I’ve practiced to master that ward? Who the hell is this guy? Mist… It’s short for something, but I don’t know what. What I can’t figure out is how he found you.”
“What do you mean, found me? You make it sound like he was looking for me in particular.”
Mist was obviously powerful, but she had nothing that would be enticing to a demon. No money, power, or influence. She could have believed she was a target because of her bloodline, but she wasn’t even a practicing witch while Iris so obviously was. It didn’t make sense.
“What did you guys talk about?” Iris asked, ignoring her question. “Did he ask you about anything?”
“He just— He bought me ice cream the night we met. And he asked about my designs, and he just seemed interested in… me.”
She couldn’t talk about this. All it was doing was reminding her of the sweet things he’d done. If it was all an act to lure her in, he had done a perfect job. So perfect, she was still affected by it even after learning it was a lie.
“He didn’t ask about Mam and Dad or anything to do with the coven?”
Lily shook her head. “I never told him I was a witch.”
