I still didn’t understand why this was so important that Eryk and Nate rushed back especially to tell us. “Does this mean that Connor is still here, in San Francisco?”
Donovan nodded. “He may not have even been following the berserkers, like we thought, but he didn’t need to do that anyway—we now know that the centaurs extended an invitation to him to join them in their realm. He sent his Purg and his banwyn to hunt us, but he followed another plan.”
Donovan’s expression was so devastated, I reached out and took his hand. “Why would he do that?”
He met my gaze. His eyes were so hard, I understood immediately. Connor had gone after the succubus’s stone for a reason.
“Oh,” I said. “Let me guess, the seduire spark stone gives them the power to seduce people.”
“Yes.”
He didn’t have to say anything else. I knew why Connor had made it a priority. He’d failed to seduce me to his side, but he wasn’t giving up just yet. He’d decided to level up, so he could magically reel me in.
Donovan turned to Nate and Eryk. “Thank you for bringing this to me. Now go, see if you can locate a centaur. If Connor has already devoured the seduire stone, I expect he will be in the centaur realm now.” He clenched his jaw. “The centaurs are fools if they think they can handle him.”
Eryk nodded. “We have a lead—we spotted a gentleman’s club downtown. We will go there now and see if we can find someone to talk to.”
“Go quickly,” Donovan ordered. He went to say something else, but obviously thought better of it and closed his mouth.
Dread settled in my belly. We were running out of time.
While I was marinating in anxiety, Nate patted the kitchen table. “Can we get a quick exit out of here, Violet? While I love your human-style elevator, it’s a little slow. Time really is of the essence.”
My House vibrated underneath my feet, asking permission.
“Go on,” I told her. “You can do it.”
The kitchen wall melted away, leaving a man-sized hole. The wind whistled past, blowing my hair into my face, and caused the hanging pots and pans over the island to bump together like a giant makeshift wind chime.
“Uh, something maybe a little less… death defying?” I asked her. “They might need a way to get down to the ground quickly. Something to cushion the fall.”
The wall mushroomed back into place, and the wind died down. Violet was still for just a second, then, her floorboards groaned.
A hole opened up in the floor. I looked down and saw smooth boards winding around, disappearing into a spiral. Violet had created a slide in the middle of the building. The boys wasted no time. With a confidence I admired, both of them jumped feet-first into the hole and disappeared.
My anxiety spiked as soon as they were gone. The idea of Connor road tripping around all the realms in all the Worlds with brand-new seduction magic made me want to vomit. “Now a whole species is going to die out,” I mumbled under my breath. “The succubus will lose their magic. They won’t be able to seduce anyone. They might starve to death.”
“It is admirable that you would think of that,” Donovan said. “To be honest, it is not my first concern.”
I knew what his first concern was. “It won’t work, Donovan.” I gave in to my impulses, reached out, and squeezed his hand. “It doesn’t matter what kind of compelling magic Connor has. I’m not worried about him at all.”
“That’s the spirit, Chosen.” Cecil slid a martini glass full of black liquid with an inch head of creamy foam in front of me. Three coffee beans floated in the foam in a triangle as a pretty decoration.
I looked up at him. “Really, Cecil? Espresso martinis?”
“You asked for a coffee.”
“A coffee, not a cocktail.”
“It’s got coffee in it. It’s after five,” he said, nudging the glass towards me. “You don't have a hoof to stand on. We need cheering up, Chosen. At some point in the next few hours, we might have to go and fight some centaurs. You may have beaten the berserkers, babe, but centaurs won’t be falling for any of your tricks.”
A chime rang through the air. Someone was ringing my doorbell. “Oh God, what now?”
Violet pushed a little screen dutifully from the kitchen island, so Cecil shimmied over to check it. “It’s one of your human enforcers. A policeman.” He peered closer. “Or it's a stripper. Let’s hope it’s a stripper.”
I got up abruptly and looked at the screen. Cecil was right; a burly uniformed officer was downstairs, glaring into the hidden security camera right above my doorbell. Behind the cop stood two other men, one older, in his fifties, with a bald head, square face and tiny piggy eyes, the other younger, thinner, with a pointed chin and receding light-brown hair. Neither of them were in uniform, instead, they wore trench coats over slightly crumpled shirts and dress pants. Both of them stood back from the door, motionless, but their eyes roamed everywhere restlessly.
They might as well have been wearing t-shirts that said I’m a detective. “Violet, can you give me the door intercom?”
An ugly handset popped up right next to the screen. I picked up the phone. “Yes?”
“Susan Moore?” The uniformed cop shoved his hard face next to the intercom by my doorbell and gave it a hard stare.
Cecil slammed his espresso martini down on the table. “Who's asking?” he shouted. I elbowed him, and he butted me back. “We need to know if they’re cops or strippers, Chosen, so we know whether or not to let them in.”
The cop, obviously hearing him, glared at the camera. “Susan Moore, we have a warrant to search your apartment.”
I squeaked. “A warrant?”
“Open up. Now.”
I backed away from the screen, my hands shaking. Oh no, this was bad. I remembered exactly what it was like to get arrested. You see it on TV every day and think oh, that doesn’t seem so bad.
But when there’s a burly man behind you, forcefully wrenching your hands back behind you, clamping them in cold metal, hissing at you to stop fucking moving and shut the fuck up—
My mind scattered; I couldn’t gather my thoughts. “What do I do?” I breathed out.
Suddenly, Donovan was beside me. “Do not be afraid.” One of his huge arms wound around my shoulders and he pulled me in, burying my face in his chest. “I will take care of this.”
