“I wish we knew what,” Ethan said, glancing over at me.
Petting Taco’s back, I nodded. “Maybe Carlos could tell us what it means.”
“Well, after Drake left, I took a picture of it, then called it in. I didn’t want the humans to find it.” He pulled up the picture on his phone and handed it to Ethan. He glanced at it, then held the phone to me.
Taking it, I examined the picture. The writing was almost too hard to see, but then again, I didn’t know what I was looking at. I handed it back to Roark. “Can you send that to my phone?”
He nodded and sat down to do it. Seconds later, my phone beeped with a text. One thing was certain. Unless Drake had taken up a new hobby, the demon was back. Then again, a desperate man did desperate things. I didn’t know what to do if Drake was still possessed.
After Roark left, we called Carlos. He showed up wearing a pair of jeans and a tank top, completely different from his usual leather. His smug expression told me he knew what we were about to say. Part of me didn’t want to give him the satisfaction because I was still bitter over him trying to kill Drake at the hotel.
Ethan didn’t say a word as he handed my phone to Carlos. He looked at the screen and frowned, then glanced between the both of us. “Where did you get this?”
“Drake did it a couple nights ago. Do you know what it means?”
Carlos swore, tossing the phone onto the desk. Startled, Taco flew up and started roaring in his tiny voice, spitting fire at the demon hunter.
Carlos leapt back in surprise. “What the fuck is that?”
“Calm down. It’s just a dragon,” I said, trying hard not to laugh.
After a few minutes, Taco calmed down and landed on the desk again, strutting around, lighting things on fire. I had to work fast to put them out before everything went up in flames.
I motioned to the phone as I patted at the flames on a piece of paper. “Tell me what it is.”
“It’s the first step to opening the gates of Hell. He’s trying to release more demons.” Carlos shook his head in disbelief, dragging a hand down his face. “There are several steps, but this is the first one. It calls to other demons in the area to let them know he’s serious about opening the gate.”
Ethan sat in a chair heavily, looking somewhat dazed. “The demon has to be powerful to go through the steps to open the gate. Why would he want to?”
“To let out an even stronger one. And yes, it takes an advanced-level demon to do that. They rarely make it out of Hell, so it’s never been a concern before now. But if the demon in Drake is one of them, we’re in deep shit. We have to find out which one it is.”
I groaned. Why did everything have to be so difficult? Did I have a neon sign with arrows pointing at me above my head? Annoyed, I tossed a balled-up piece of paper into the air, which Taco immediately set on fire. Smiling, I tossed another one for him.
“So, if we do find out who the demon is, then what?” I asked.
“Then we have to find the right way to kill him. With these higher-power demons, a regular sword to the throat or stab to the heart won’t work. Which means Drake is pretty much invincible right now...until we can figure out how to stop him. We were lucky to even bind the bastard in the first place.” Carlos pulled out his phone. “I’m going to call my contacts and see what they’ve heard. If this demon is starting the process, this isn’t the first time it’s been heard about.”
I WOKE UP TO THE SMELL of smoke. Shooting up in my bed, I watched as Ethan, clad only in boxer briefs, scrambled to grab my fire extinguisher and put out a fire on the curtains. Seconds later, my wall was covered in white foam. When he glanced back at me and frowned, I sighed.
“Taco?”
“Yeah. As soon as I started rubbing you, the little asshole set the curtains on fire. You need to talk to him because I’m not going to hold out past tonight to have sex with you.” He set the extinguisher down and leaned over the bed to kiss me. “Having you so close and not touching you is torture.”
Taco flew between us, landing on my chest. He looked up and hissed at Ethan. I sighed, picking up the little dragon by his wings and holding him in front of my face so I could look into his eyes.
“You have to back off, Taco. Affection happens in this house. If you have to go into another room, that’s fine.”
Judging by the scowl on his face, if he could have given me the finger, he would have. When he huffed out smoke, I released him so he could fly into the other room. I wasn’t sure how he managed to slam the door, but he did.
Looking at Ethan, I shrugged, then pulled him down by his shoulders so he rested on top of me. His kiss was soft, his tongue briefly touching mine and sending a thrill through me. When he wedged his knee between my legs, I groaned into his mouth.
Images of Drake and me having sex popped into my mind. I immediately pulled
