“Get rid of it,” Azi snarled at Sam.
She made a choking sound. “Get rid… How? Am I supposed to offer it a cookie or something? Give it a damn belly rub? You get rid of it. You’re the demon badass.”
“You’re a Pure,” Azi fired back, my voice laced with venom. The demon’s patience was waning, but underneath that, I felt concern. The carnivus was, unlike other things on this plane, a very real threat—one that shouldn’t exist outside hell, and one my body wasn’t really made to handle. “You are unbound. Use your energy.”
The canine-like creature snarled and snapped its massive jaw, but it still made no advance. “What’s it waiting for?” Sam gripped the back of my shirt. I felt her fingers skim my skin as they wrapped themselves around the thin fabric.
“These are not creatures known for their intelligence. They are soldiers, bound by the commands of their masters.”
However this thing had come to be here, it couldn’t have been acting on its own. Azi was very familiar with them, having used the monsters in its own army during the Great War. That made me an expert as well. These things had brains the size of horses.
“It isn’t acting of its own free will,” a man said from behind the beast. He emerged from the shadows, approaching as though he didn’t have a care in the world. He plucked what looked like a peanut from the small brown paper bag in his hand, tossed it into the air, and caught it between his teeth before chomping down.
The carnivus froze, its low-throated rumble silenced mid-growl.
“Abel.” Azi pushed the word past my lips as if it left a bad taste in my mouth. “Your timing is impeccable.”
The man gave a small bow, then nodded a greeting over my shoulder to Sam. “Azirak. Please, call me Heckle.”
Sam sprang from behind my body and pushed past, eyeing the suddenly immobile carnivus with caution. Red tinted the air around her shoulders as she tightened her fists. “Where the hell have you been? I’ve been trying to find you for over a week now.”
Heckle’s eyebrows lifted. He glanced down at the carnivus, then back to her before popping another peanut into his mouth. “For?”
The waves of red smoke spiraled upward and sent shivers of excitement through my body. The demon’s metaphorical mouth was watering—and so was mine. “The last thing you said to me was that there was a way to separate Jax and Azi. Then poof. You dropped off the face of the planet.”
“As I recall, it was you who said that. I never confirmed it.”
The red smoke thickened, and Sam clenched her fists even tighter. The demon was amused. It wanted to see what would happen if she laid one on Heckle. I had to admit, I was interested, too. Sam was a fireball. She’d give the cocky shit a run for his money.
“You implied it,” she said. Her voice was deadly, and the sound of it stirred something primal in Azi. The demon took a step closer to her.
Heckle sighed. “As I said, Azirak would have to leave of its own accord.” He glanced toward me. “Is that a possibility?”
A rush of images flashed before me. A swarm of pictures involving the witch Sadie Gray—also known as Malphi, Azi’s intended mate. They ended with the memory of me, wide-eyed and furious, standing over her bleeding corpse. “No,” the demon said. The tone left no room for argument. No room for forgiveness. I’d killed the demoness to save Sam, and in doing so had lost control of my body to the demon.
“Then this conversation is moot.” Heckle folded his arms. “I have a task for you. Something suited for your particular talents.”
“A task?” Sam balked. “Are you high? It’s your fault I have a permanent supernatural target pinned to my back. Because of you, I have to sleep with one eye open, and Jax—”
“Enough,” Heckle said. He appeared calm, but Azi sensed an underlying storm. “You belong to me. Both of you. You each made a bargain, and you will fulfill your end of it.”
“I made no bargain with you,” Azi said calmly.
“But the body you’re currently residing in did. Therefore, you are bound by Jax’s word.”
I took satisfaction from the demon’s ire. Keep me locked away in my own body? Well, fuck you then.
Suck it up. I gave him my word. His help in exchange for my service. Nothing you can do about it.
But the demon didn’t see it that way. Fury filled me, a barely contained simmering rage. My hand came up and wrapped tight around Heckle’s neck. “You dare conspire to enslave a royal of hell?”
Heckle was silent for a minute. He blinked once. Twice. Then, with a sigh, he pried my grip from his neck with alarming ease and had our positions reversed. “Don’t push me, Azirak.” His voice still rang with the utmost calm, but the demon’s enhanced senses afforded me a glimpse of something deeper. Heckle was not one to be fucked with. Under his mellow exterior lay unparalleled raw power. “If you wish to remain in control, you will keep Jax’s end of the bargain.”
“As you wish. But I will do nothing that puts myself, my clan, or the Pure in danger.”