I sat back, unable to speak. This was the last thing I’d expected to hear, and I had no clue what to do next.

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  At that moment, the waitress appeared with our meal. After she left, I turned to Ezerian.

  “What do you mean, Brim Fire is aiming toward loosing the Elder Gallara here? I thought they were aimed toward bringing you in to take over Seattle.” I needed to contact Seton and I needed to talk to him right away. I thought about pleading a stomachache, so I could go home and call a meeting.

  “Me? The Arosiens have no desire to take control of your city, Kyann. However, Brim Fire has delusions of grandeur, if you haven’t already figured that out,” Vaurice said. “They truly believe that if they summon the children of chaos, that the Elder Gallara will be so grateful they’ll make the members of the group their nobility over the rest of humanity.”

  “That’s just stupid,” I said. “They’re arrogant beyond the pale.”

  “You don’t have to tell us that,” Vaurice said. “We may be demons but even we recognize how incredibly dangerous that arrogance is.”

  “The Elder Gallara are sleeping in their home of El’ishemach, and none of us want to deal with what will happen should they awake. They have no concept of the modern world, nor the current state of the realms. They’ll come riding in on lightning and fire, and they won’t stop. They’ll spread out like a plague of locusts, destroying everyone and everything in their way, through as many realms as they can.” Ezerian clenched his jaw, a grim look on his face.

  A mild panic began to spiral through me, knotting my stomach.

  “We’ve had some dealings with Brim Fire. We stumbled into them on a case earlier this year, and since then, they’ve been popping up more frequently. That they’re chaotic, is apparent.” Even though I didn’t like the fact that my father wanted to establish a stronghold here at the expense of the vampires, since the Arosiens appeared to dislike Brim Fire and since Brim Fire was going for the ultimate fail, the latter danger was far greater than the former.

  After a moment, my father pointed toward my plate. “Eat. In our clan, we don’t waste anything. So, would you like to know more about your heritage?”

  I nodded, spearing a slice of steak with my fork. “I’ve read up on our clan, but there wasn’t a lot that I could find. Actually, can I even claim to be part of the Arosien Clan? I’m not even sure since I’m half-human.” I found myself actually hoping for a ‘yes’.

  “I believe so.” Vaurice sent me a smoldering look. “Although, as I said before, we could never marry, given your lineage⁠—”

  “Dude,” I sputtered. “Walk softly on that subject. You’re my freaking brother. Half-brother, but still, brother. We could never marry because it’s just…Eww.” I found myself at a loss for words, but then realized he was goading me again. “Funny. Real funny.”

  “You’re too old to say eww,” Vaurice snarked. He laughed. “I just like watching your reaction. You’re so easy to trigger, and that amuses me.”

  “And you’re too old to enjoy being an asshole,” I shot back.

  “Never too old for that,” Vaurice said, winking.

  “Stop, the both of you,” Ezerian said. He turned to my brother, his voice hard. “She isn’t laughing. And you’re not so old that I can’t box your ears.”

  I blinked. That my father actually defended me was a surprise. And the use of a term like ‘box your ears’ seemed oddly anachronistic, but the tone in my father’s voice made it clear he was serious. Of course, he was probably hundreds of years old, if not older, so what was old-fashioned to me, was likely new-fangled slang to him.

  “Sorry,” Vaurice said. He shook his head, tossing his hair over one shoulder. Silky and thick, his hair was a startling pastel lavender. He winked at me, and I frowned, turning away. I didn’t want to admit how handsome my brother was. And I sure as hell didn’t want him to ever know that I thought so. I felt sorry for any human he turned his charm on. Come to think of it, my father was handsome, as well. Apparently, our family was blessed with good genes.

  Ezerian turned back to me. “The Arosiens are among the most powerful demons in the UnderRealms. We’re at the top of the hierarchy, and every other member of the Demonkin Race holds us in respect. Well, except for the Suboni. In case you’re not familiar with the term, that’s what we call the lower demonic creatures. They look up to no one. They’d actually fare well under the Elder Gallara, because they’re used to the powerful using the weak. ”

  “So the Suboni are less powerful than the rest of Demonkin?” I asked. The more I found out, the better.

  “Not necessarily. Some are weaker. Some are infinitely more powerful. However, they have absolutely no code of honor. They’re the ones that most humans think of when they use the term demon. Like the creatures out of the Exorcist, or the Omen. Most of the great Demonkin Clans are ruthless, yes, but we aren’t chaos incarnate.” My father pushed his plate back.

  “So, you’re a demon lord. Does that make you a king or something like that?” While I had the chance, I wanted to dig for as much knowledge as possible.

  “Not a king, no. But yes, I’m one of the most powerful demon lords in the realm.” Ezerian held my gaze. “You should be proud of your heritage. The Arosiens are among the uppermost nobility. You come from royalty, Kyann. Although, and in this your brother is correct, you would never be allowed to ascend to power in the UnderRealms. Not unless you chose to undergo the ritual to erase the human side of yourself.”

  I stiffened. Seton hadn’t mentioned this as a possibility. “That’s possible? To eradicate a side of myself?”

  “Yes, it is. There are ways to allow your demon side to take over and push out the human part of you.” He held my gaze.

  My stomach lurched. Was he going to ask me to change? To let go of my mother’s blood? But he said nothing, just continued to look at me, and I couldn’t figure out what he was thinking.

  In fact, my father was proving to be unreadable. He could be lying through his teeth and I wouldn’t be able to tell. I sat there for a moment, digesting the knowledge that—if I wanted to—I could fully take my father’s heritage.

  The thought scared the hell out of me, and yet…and yet…to not be torn in half? To embrace my nature rather than fear it? I didn’t want to admit it, but a part of me kept thinking how easy it would be to just give in. To feel whole for once.

  I pushed my plate away and finally asked, “What are the UnderRealms like?”

  Vaurice sighed. “Well, they aren’t all flame and brimstone, like so many humans believe.”

  Ezerian ignored him. “We have cities, and countrysides. And there are war torn lands, as well. But things are different there. We have our own variants of technology, and pockets of magic. But the main difference is that in the UnderRealms, life is harder. Less forgiving.”

  “Are there humans there?” I asked.

  “A few—some slaves, and some who crossed over by choice. They have their place.” Ezerian brought out his wallet and left two twenties on the table as a tip. “I want to meet your team. Since you’re working with us, we have to meet them—formally.”

  That was going to be a problem, given we weren’t really working with him. But I couldn’t say anything. And given what he’d said about the Elder Gallara, we were going to have to reconsider our approach and goals in the matter.

  “I need to ask you a question,” I said. “Why do you hate vampires so much?”

  Ezerian shrugged. “I don’t, but they’re in the way and they don’t fancy working with us. So, they need to either move, or we’ll force our hand. We need to utilize the Underground in order to set up our operations.” He paused, then said, “The mayor agrees with me.”

  “The mayor…of…?” It didn’t seem likely that Saturn had made any such agreement.

  “Seattle. We tried approaching the Washington State Governance Council, and they weren’t amenable to our presence. However, after presenting the evidence to Mayor Bixby, he understood the greater threat. So, we’re working with him—covertly—because he understands what the future looks like if the Elder Gallara are allowed entrance. We’re also working with other cities, in other countries. Brim Fire is a worldwide organization and so we have to act on a worldwide basis.”

  That caught me short. The demons were involved across the world? Either this was the greatest sham they had ever pulled, or the world was in serious danger.

  “I’d like to ask you to ease up on the vamps. I know the mayor of Underground Seattle, and he deserves more respect. Trust me, we can bring them around, if you don’t come down so heavy-handed.” If I could buy Saturn some time, we could convince more of the vamps to relocate and possibly prevent a nasty little war right here.

  His nostrils flaring, Ezerian shrugged. “If it makes you happy, then I’ll take some of the pressure off. But only if they agree to relocate.”

  “I’ll work on it. I do have one other question,” I said.

  “And what is that?” Ezerian asked.

  “Why did you pick my mother? How did you meet her? She never told me anything about you and I’d like to know how I came to be.” Until now, I’d never expected to find an answer to the question that had haunted me since I was young. My mother had given me the barest of answers, and she died before I could insist. “I thought you might be an incubus, like Vaurice.”

  Ezerian shook his head. He stayed quiet for a few moments. I thought he wasn’t going to answer, but then he sighed.

  “Very well. I can understand your curiosity. I met your mother while I was hunting down a fugitive from our realm. A demon named Kāsel murdered my brother. Duels are common, but he didn’t even give Zayel a chance. Kāsel stabbed him in the back, like the coward he was. So I avenged Zayel. I traced Kāsel to Seattle, and found him in a bar. He was bothering a woman—she was extremely beautiful, and she obviously didn’t want his attention. I waited till she left, but Kasel started to follow her.”

  I caught my breath, but said nothing. But, inside, I kept thinking of Jace.

  “I followed them, and when they came to a park, he dragged her into the bushes. I dispatched him before he could do more than scare her. She was terrified—rightly so, since she saw me in my truest form and she watched me kill him. Kāsel vanished when he died, so she knew she wasn’t dealing with humans.”

  “So she knew, from the beginning? That you were a demon?”

  He nodded. “I escorted her home. We talked half the night. She suggested I stay with her. And that night, you were conceived. But I couldn’t stay for long. After a couple weeks, I had to return home.”

  “Did she want you to go?” I asked, suddenly hungry to everything I could about this man who had won my mother over. I wanted to ask if he had loved her, but I had a feeling that was asking for disappointment.

  He shook his head. “No. I offered to take her back to my realm, but I was honest with her. She could never be my wife there—only a concubine. And I was expected to take another wife at some point. Vaurice’s mother had died years before. Erin needed more than that and I understood. So she chose her world, and I returned home to mine.”

  I thought about this for a moment. “I think she was afraid that you would find out about me and take me away. She changed her last name and her backstory. She never told me about her relatives, and I think it was because she was afraid you might come back and hurt them. Or, at least, I thought it was because of that.”

  He seemed to understand what I was asking, between the lines. “I think she feared for you, more than for herself or her family. Demons aren’t readily accepted. Maybe she wanted to spare you rejection. Perhaps she feared her family would deny you.”

  “That could be,” I said, thinking. I had been bullied a lot during school, and while I always knew that I was half demon, she had cautioned me about speaking out about it. Given what I’d remembered about her boyfriend, it made sense. “To be honest, I think she was afraid I’d get angry and hurt someone, if they laughed at me or turned me away. That did happen, you know.”

  And just like that, I found myself telling him about the man who tried to kidnap me.

  Ezerian remained stoic, but he blinked—just once—and in that blink, I could see the regret. “I think, perhaps, I did you and your mother a disservice by staying away. But I didn’t know about you. Perhaps, if I had known, I could have made life easier for you both, even though I couldn’t take you home.”

  “How did you find out about me?” I asked.

  “About a year ago, a friend of mine came over here on an assignment. He caught sight of you, and—well—he saw the resemblance. He knew that I’d been here at one time. So, he took a photograph. When he returned to our realm, he showed me the picture. Right then I knew that Erin had gotten pregnant. There’s absolutely no mistaking that you’re my daughter. I could feel my blood beating in your heart through the photograph. So I began to search, and a few months back, I found out what happened to your mother. And that she had a daughter whose age matched the time period when I knew her. So I sent Vaurice over and…here we are.”

  “Here we are,” I echoed. After a moment, I cleared my throat. “I need to think about all of this for awhile.”

  Vaurice reached out and gently patted my shoulder. He sounded almost empathetic when he said, “This must be a shock.”

  “It is,” I said, and I didn’t even slap his hand away.

  “Take your time,” my father said. “Meanwhile, when should we come to the office to meet your employees?”

  I was going to have to go along with this front for now. And—given what I now knew about the Elder Gallara—there were so many questions to answer.

  Sighing, I said, “Friday morning. Ten o’clock.” That would give me time to warm the others up to the idea, and to plan out what to do next. I also needed to talk to Seton and Devon about what I’d learned.

  “We’ll be there. On time. And make sure your roommate’s there. I want to meet the woman who’s caught my son’s attention.”

  Before I could say a word, Ezerian motioned for Vaurice to slide out of the booth. Both were taller than me, by quite a bit, and together we made for an intimidating trio. Right then, I realized that I believed my father. I believed him about Brim Fire and what they were trying to do, and I wanted to help them.

  All the way home, I tried to sort through my feelings. In the space of two hours, I’d gone from suspecting Ezerian of trying to disrupt our world, to believing that—as unlikely as it seemed—he was trying to protect it. My father was supposed to be the bad guy. In many ways he was—in no way did I trust that he was a good person. But now, he was fighting on our side.

  “The enemy of my enemy is my friend,” I whispered, clutching the wheel.

  As I pulled into the driveway and turned off the ignition, I thought about what I was going to tell the others. I didn’t have the faintest idea of where to begin, but before I headed inside, I put in an emergency text to Devon, Seton.

  we need to talk immediately. can you both come to the office tomorrow morning? it has to be tomorrow, before friday.

  And with that, I headed inside, wondering how to tell Penn everything that had happened.

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  As I woke, I heard Jangles meowing as she stared out the window. She was sitting on my dresser, nose pressed against the glass, making little chattering noises.

  “Do you see a bird?” I asked. “I’m sorry, but you’re not going to go chase it.” I didn’t let the cats outside. There were all sorts of dangers, and they were perfectly content staying in the house. I had plenty of toys, cat trees, and other challenges for them. “You do not need to denude the neighborhood of its avian population.”

  I’d left a note for Penn when I got home the night before, asking her to join me at work, if she could possibly make the time. There was far too much to tell her, so I just said that it was urgent. Now, as I dressed and headed into the kitchen, she was there, fully dolled up in one of her retro swing dresses, with makeup perfect.

  Breakfast was on the table. She’d made eggs and sausage, with apple muffins. I pulled myself a quad shot latte and joined her at the table.

  “It smells wonderful,” I said. The cinnamon from the apple muffins gave the kitchen a spicy tinge, and I cut one in half and smeared butter inside. The muffins were still warm and the butter soaked in as I took a bite of it. “These are so good.”

  “So what happened? Your note worried me, but since you were home safe, I decided to wait until your alarm went off to ask.” She speared a sausage link and bit into it.

  “I’d like to wait till we’re at work. But you’re not going to believe what I have to tell you.” I paused, then said, “I’m still speechless as to what I found out. By the way, I also need you to come in tomorrow morning. It’s important.”

  Penn glanced at me, a quizzical look on her face. “What are you planning?”

  “It’s not what I’m planning,” I said. “It’s a matter of who’s coming into the office to visit. I tell you everything now but then I just have to repeat myself at the staff meeting, so if you could wait until then, I’d appreciate it. My mind is still reeling over what happened last night.”

  “Okay,” she said. “I’ll back off until we get to work. But you’ve got me on pins and needles now, and I’m not sure what to think.”

  I fed the cats, while she fed Mr. Crumbles. We armed the security system and headed off, taking separate cars so that if she needed to leave during the day she could. The sun was out, and I glanced up at the sky, feeling the warmth of my face. The light seemed so disparate as to what I was feeling inside, that the juxtaposition threw me off guard. But I took a deep breath, focused on the road, and tried not to think until we pulled into the parking lot.