Silver Tongue Devil (Devil in the Deep Blue Sea #1), page 19
A sinking sensation set me back on my heels. “Oh, fuck…” I whispered. “The nectar.”
Cooper grinned more.
“He knows.” I swallowed.
“You know Lars makes it his business to know all.”
“Knows all and wants it.” I shook my head. My focus jumped back to Annabeth. She had grown more into herself since I had been gone, looking stunning. She’d definitely been training, but she was still a waif.
“Why would he send you guys?”
“Let’s just say I made a bargain with him.” Cooper’s gaze drifted to AB. “If it does what it says…”
My lid closed for a moment as understanding dawned on me.
Annabeth was human. She was aging, would grow old and die, while Cooper wouldn’t age at all. None of us around her would, not for eons. She was his mate, and he would do anything to keep her around forever.
Something I wanted for AB as well. To always be with us.
“And let me guess,”—I smirked at Annabeth, knowing her too well—“you wouldn’t let him go without you.”
Her familiar grin lit up her face with mischief. I blinked away my tears, pulling her into me again, ignoring the bag strapped around her digging into my wound, kissing her head. “Fuck, I’ve missed you.”
“We’ve missed you too,” she muttered.
“No! Stop! I have no more brains to suck! You promised you’d suck something else!” A voice jolted through me, causing me to stumble back, my gaze going to her bag between us.
“Oh. No…” I uttered, recognizing the tiny voice. “Noooo.”
A furry brown head popped out, a honey package stuck to it. “What?” He peered around, rubbing sleep from his eyes. “This doesn’t look like an all-you-can-eat buffet. But I’m starving. Am I dead? I have to be. I don’t see any food. This is hell. I am in hell, aren’t I?”
“Oh crap! Sprig! How did you get in there?” Annabeth slapped her hand over her mouth in shock, blinking at him as if he wasn’t supposed to be here.
“Oh fuck. No.” I shook my head. “No fucking way.”
The monkey-sprite twisted to me, his eyes opening. “Oh, sprite biscuits. I was right. This is hell. I’m back with the butt-pirate and no honey. What did I do to deserve this?!” He waggled his arms up at the sky. “Why me?”
“What the hell is that? How is it talking?” Kat came up next to me, staring in astonishment at the talking creature. Monkey-shifters couldn’t talk in their animal form, so even in the fae world, this thing was a freak.
I blew out, my hands rubbing my face.
“An annoying pet.”
“Pet? Pet!” The five-inch monkey squeaked, crawling further out of the bag, a pair of girl’s black underwear around his neck like a cape, the honey packet still on his head. “How dare you, smelly ass-bandit! I’m the great Spriggan-Galchobhar!”
“Great at licking your own balls.” I smirked at my old friend, pretending I didn’t want to bundle him up in my arms and kiss his furry head.
“At least I have some.”
“And here I hoped they’d donate you to a zoo by now.”
“You two,” Annabeth groaned with amusement. “Straight back into it, huh? Some things don’t change.” She plucked the wrapper from his fur. “Guess I can figure out why you got in my bag. How many did you eat?”
“One, Bebinn!” Fair woman, his nickname for her. He held up a finger. “Okay, maybe two or three…” He looked guilty; sprites could not lie. “Nine, I swear… okay, ten at most.”
Sprig was an experiment from Dr. Rapava’s labs. A sprite put into a monkey body. A prototype of bigger plans Dr. Rapava had conceived before we killed him and destroyed his labs. Sprig attached himself to Zoey, becoming another member of our little fucked up group.
“I’m gonna have to call Zoey before she freaks out.”
“She knows you’re here?” Her name dug into my heart, missing her more than I thought.
“Yeah.” AB nodded. “She wanted to come too, but with Wyatt and the orphanage, there was no way for her to get away.”
“How’s Wyatt?”
“He just turned six.” She gave me a look, a slight judgment. “So much like Zoey and Ryker. We think he’s a Wanderer. He’s showing magical signs of it.”
“Oh, shit.” I blinked, hating how much of the boy’s life I missed. I should have been there—Uncle Croygen. Now he wouldn’t even know me. “Ryker must be shitting his pants.”
“Not as much as Kennedy and Lorcan are.” Cooper laughed. The Druid Queen and the Dark Dweller had twins, their kids taking on both druid and dark dweller magic. A first for the fae world, which seemed like trouble waiting to happen.
“You also better call Rez. She’s mad at you too,” Annabeth chided.
Sign me up for the worst parent of the year. I missed the parenting window by a long shot, but I tried to stay in contact with her to establish some kind of relationship with her.
Commotion at the beginning of the pier caused my head to look around as a group of Ju’s soldiers moved down, asking for papers and checking out the products on the trading ships.
“Oh, shit,” I muttered. “Sorry to put this reunion on hold, but we have to get out of here.” I found my first mate. “Scot, get the crew ready. Sail us out now.”
Scot nodded, yelling to the guys to set sail. Water was neutral territory and a lot harder to attack.
“Go inside. I’ll meet you in the galley once we’re out to sea,” I told Annabeth and Cooper, turning back to help my crew. Something jumped on my shoulder, a soft brown tail curling around my neck, his “cape” flapping in the wind.
“I did not miss you at all, pirate,” Sprig huffed.
“Tradesman,” I countered, our constant joke. “And I didn’t miss you either, gerbil.”
Fuck, even I didn’t buy that lie.
Chapter 17
Croygen
“Honey bread? Honey nuts? Honey-covered mangos? Pancakes? Honey cake? You don’t even have peanut butter and honey truffles?” Sprig exclaimed. He stood on the counter next to Zid, who was cooking lunch in the galley. “What kind of establishment is this? I’ll even settle for cinnamon sugar churros! I’m dying here… I’m not kidding. Can’t you hear my stomach?”
Zidane blinked at the tiny thing, clearly not sure how to react to the talking monkey. It had been over an hour since they boarded, and introductions had been made. Now we floated not too far away from Shanghai port, enough so Ju couldn’t reach us.
“Cookies? Biscuits? Scones? Honey-drizzled chicken?” Sprig bounced on his toes. “Do you understand how desperate the situation has become? I. Will. Die!”
“There’s a banana right there.” I grinned to myself, waiting for the response because he despised the fruit.
“Murderer!” Sprig gasped, his eyes wide. “Bebinn,” he yelled for AB. “He’s trying to kill me. I always knew you hated me, wanted me dead, but I didn’t think you were so heartless.”
I reached for the yellow fruit, peeling it and taking a large bite. “Yum.”
He stared at me, blinking as if I had kicked a puppy.
“Stop traumatizing him.” Annabeth scooped him up, handing him a granola bar. “Here, Sprig. Tide you over for a bit.”
“Give us at least five seconds of silence,” I scoffed.
“Masssmole,” Sprig mumbled, flipping me off, the granola filling his cheeks like a squirrel.
“Yep, just like old times,” I snickered, moving to the tables. I had my crew, minus Corb, who was on watch, down in the galley for a meeting.
Without even looking, I became aware of Kat coming into the space, sitting at the table, clean from a shower, her hair wet, and wearing one of my T-shirts again. At least she had on pants this time. My awareness of her had skyrocketed overnight, and it was disconcerting. We hadn’t even talked about what happened or how we woke up; it was another ghost in this room.
With Annabeth here, so was Lexie because she had been there every step, witnessing the change in my and Lexie’s relationship. Raw, strange guilt throttled my lungs. As if I shouldn’t be conscious of Kat because Lexie was somehow still around. And if she hadn’t died, she would probably be right here with me.
If she was, would I still feel this pull to Katrina? The squeeze in my gut told me what I didn’t want to know. But that was with a different Croygen. Another man, another life, someone who was lost alongside her.
“Well.” I clapped my hands together, walking to the front of the room. “Let’s get right into this. We can do full introductions later.” The introduction had been brief, the need to get away taking precedence. “Cooper and Annabeth have been sent by King Lars, confirming why we came here. He’s quite sure the nectar is real.”
“Shite.” Scot sighed, probably still thinking this was a fool’s errand.
“Wait, did you say nectar?” Sprig piped up, finishing his bar. “You mean honey of the gods?”
And our five seconds were up.
“Not that kind of nectar.” I shot him a look. “And if you eat it, I will squeeze you like a bag of frosting until you pop.”
“Man, someone needs to get laid,” he grumbled. “Crabby butt bandit.”
“Hey, talking rat? Shut up.” Damn, did he feel like an annoying younger brother.
“I don’t know. He’s a lot more interesting than you, Captain,” Vane goaded.
“I agree!” Sprig stood up, his hand in the air. “Who seconds he should walk the plank?”
“Shut the hell up.”
“You know what? I second that.” Kat held up her hand, a smirk in her eyes.
“I like you.” Sprig bounded to her, leaping on her shoulder, pointing at his eyeball. “All say eye?”
“It’s aye.” My hands rolled into fists, trying to show the slight difference in the words.
“That’s what I said. Eye. E-y-e!” He shook his head at Kat like I was losing my mind. Which I might be.
“It’s A-y-e.”
“Eye doesn’t start with an A!” He threw up his arms. “You must walk the plank—on the decree of the one-eyed pirate named Matty. Because you’re an idiot.”
“Oh, my gods.” My head fell into my hands. “That’s not…” I gave up, knowing he’d never get it. Breathing in, I rolled my shoulders back. “Can we get back to business now?” I pointed at him. “You open your trap again and I will gag you with your tail.”
“I won’t kink shame you.”
Taking another deep exhale as Vane and Scot snickered and snorted, I let my gaze drift to Katrina. A familiar sensation dropped to my dick, wanting to take every one of my kinks out on her.
It was a moment, a flash, a picture of what I could do to her. Her bent over the helm as I spanked her. Heat burned up the back of my neck before I slammed the door on that thought, disgusted with myself for even thinking it. Especially with AB here.
Moving my gaze away from her, I spoke. “Kat and I were attacked this morning.”
“Wondered how you got your wound.” Zid sat down, waiting for our meeting to be over. The smell of stir-fry coming from the kitchen was enticing us.
“Uh, that was from another fight.”
“Another pissed-off husband?” Scot questioned, a grin on his lips.
“Fuck off.”
He let out a burst of laughter, hitting the target.
“The latest attack was not, and the little information we could get out was they wanted to scare us. Stop us from going after this nectar.”
“How the hell did they know?” Scot sat up at the seriousness of this. “Did you tell anyone?”
“Only person I said anything to was Duan Ru. And I know he wouldn’t talk.”
“Are you sure?” Zidane kicked his boots up on a bench.
“He was freaked out and wouldn’t help us.” Kat lifted the shoulder Sprig wasn’t on. How fast she seemed comfortable with him being there. “He practically ran out. What if it was him? He’s the only one who knew.”
“Makes no sense, though. He seemed almost scared of it. Wanted nothing to do with it.” I shook my head.
“Unless it was an act and he’s going after it himself,” Cooper said, tying up his shoulder-length blond hair in a knot. “The awareness of this substance is growing, at least with the people dealing in black-market items and who can afford to be in the know.”
Like Emperor Batara.
Like Lars.
The Demon King had a history of going after powerful mythical items. His need to obtain the four treasures of Tuatha Dé Danann led to so much destruction and death in the past. Why was I surprised he would go after this, too, after all that happened? He was happy with his mate, Fionna and their daughter, Piper. Why would he go down this road again?
“Only thing that makes sense,” Vane added his opinion.
Duan Ru sending people to scare Kat and me didn’t fit right, but I couldn’t think of anything else. How else would anyone know we were pursuing it?
“Well, whether it was him or not, people know we are after it, which puts a very large target on our backs.” I perched on the top of one of the tables, my brain racing to figure everything out. “Now where do we go from here? Any clues on where it is located? Lars tell you anything?”
“Just that there was a report it was in this area, and he knew you had at least figured out the same thing.” Cooper leaned on his forearms, his muscles bulging. “The last report Lars received said a Dr. Novikov had it. Lars tracked him down here in China.”
The Dweller was even bigger than I remembered. Since he had become second in charge after Eli left, the guy had packed on more muscle. Not that Dark Dwellers needed it because they were born to kill. To slip up behind their prey and tear their throat out with their sharp dagger teeth. I had seen them shift before, and they were scary as shit, a cross between a prehistoric wolf, black panther, and monster rolled into one. They were fortified with claws, teeth, and poisonous daggers that grew down their backs when they shifted.
My body froze, ice pouring down my veins.
“What?” I struggled to speak. “What did you say his name was again?”
“A scientist by the name of Dr. Jansug Novikov.”
The name scraped down my spine, taking me back to the horrors of Rapava’s testing labs, where that name had come up. My charm had gotten a lot of information from the nurses who worked for Dr. Rapava, thinking they were doing some heroic deed while we “lab rats” were tortured and tested on.
My time there with Zoey, and then later Lexie, still haunted me, waking me up in cold sweats. And no matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t forget a detail of that place.
Including that name.
He had worked with Dr. Rapava back in their home country of Georgia before Rapava ventured to the States to really chase his demented beliefs. Novikov went a different path in the pursuit of saving humans from diseases.
That path had circled around and ran straight back into me.
Dr. Rapava might be dead, but it seemed like he had returned. Another fucking ghost from my past coming back for me.
“Croygen?” Annabeth’s voice stirred me out of my painful thoughts, drawing my gaze to her. The girl was one of the kindest souls you’d ever meet, helping with disabled kids, assisting Zoey with the orphanage, and looking like some Disney princess come to life. But considering her past, there was steel behind her sweetness. She had been in hell down in his labs too, though what she went through had been horrific. She hadn’t been there long and clearly didn’t recognize the man’s name. “Are you okay?”
“Fine.” It took everything I had to nod, to pretend everything was all right. Sprig, me, Zoey, Lexie, Ryker, and Annabeth had all been down there. We all were experiments of Rapava’s. But I was probably the only one who knew about Dr. Novikov since he had no connection to the Dr. Rapava we knew in Seattle. I flirted with the nurses, getting them to talk and tell me things. Learn all about the man who was torturing us.
“We know anything else?” I shook off the sickness I felt, pushing forward. “Batara give you anything else?” I glanced at Kat.
“He had the same intel. Somewhere in China, last seen with this scientist.” Kat pinched her lips together, her gaze directly on me as if she could sense something going on behind my façade, peeling back the layers.
Irritation with that intimacy turned me away from her. “We need to find something more!” I barked. “China is a big fucking place, and this guy could already be in hiding.” Everyone stared blankly at me. “Does anyone have one intelligent thought?”
“Ohhh!” Sprig’s hand went up.
“Open your mouth, and I will thread your tail through your esophagus.” I pointed at the monkey.
“Okay.” Kat clapped her hands. “How about we get some food and take a break.” She still stared through me, once again tearing at my walls.
“Take a break?” I belted. “We have Ju’s soldiers breathing down our backs and people trying to kill us.”
“Sounds like a normal day for you, pirate.” Sprig leaped off Kat’s shoulder onto the table. “Plus, we need food. Bad things happen when I don’t get food… ohhhh… Do you have fried honey noodles with ice cream? Or how about double-fried ice cream with honey drizzle? Or maybe—”
“Sprig. Shut up,” I growled, pinching my eyes closed. A soft thump sounded. “I need to fucking think.”
“Holy shit!” Kat yelled, jumping up, my head darting to her, my heart fluttering in panic.
She stared down at the monkey lying on the table, appearing dead.
“Oh, my gods, what just happened? He-he was just talking! Is he dead?” She reached over, prepared to give him CPR.
“Don’t worry about him.” I breathed out in relief.
“What?” Her head jerked to me in shock.
“Another thing you should know about him besides having ADD and an addiction problem.” I snorted as his mouth puffed, a soft snore coming from him. “He’s a narcoleptic monkey-sprite with ADD and an addiction problem.”
The rich, tawny liquid burned down my throat, the smoky aroma coating my tongue, doing nothing to ebb my tension. The stars shined brightly out of my chamber window, though my brain circled around the same situation over and over, coming no closer to a plan than we had earlier.
