“Diversion?” echoed Devon.
“Yes,” replied Jolene. “He didn’t want us to see that he’d sent a small army of corpses to the cabin—some human, some animal. While I was fighting Enoch, the others dealt with his puppets, but it wasn’t easy. Eventually, only Enoch was left standing. We killed him, but not for good. He’ll be back.”
Keenan’s brow knitted. “How did you get him to drop his shield so you could kill him?”
Khloé lifted her hand. “With this.” She let flickers of electric fire play across the surface of her palm.
His brows shot up, and he looked sincerely impressed. “You can conjure electric fire? I’ve heard of the ability, but I don’t think I’ve ever before met anyone who possessed it.”
“It’s an uncommon gift,” commented Knox. He looked at Jolene, his lips curving. “It must aggravate you deeply that she hasn’t joined your ranks.”
Jolene’s mouth tightened. “Oh, it’s aggravating all right. She’d be a tremendous addition to my Force. Loyal. Organized. Meticulous.”
“But I think we can all agree that the people under my command would eventually unite to kill me,” said Khloé. She’d drive them insane. Often. Totally on purpose.
Harper tilted her head. “I think Devon once made a similar point.”
The hellcat nodded. “I did.”
“What’s the latest word on this blade that’s up for auction?” Jolene asked Knox. “I know there’s only two days left before the auction closes, but would the seller be open to canceling it and settling on a price?”
“I already tried that avenue; it got me nowhere,” said Knox. “He’s intent on going through with the auction. Be sure that I won’t allow anyone to outbid us. You’ll soon have the blade in your possession.”
Harper’s shoulders lost some of their stiffness. “Which means it’s only a matter of time before you have what you need to defeat Enoch. Good. Because he needs to die in a major freaking way.”
“Agreed. But we can’t kill him with the blade until he surfaces again,” Richie pointed out. “It’ll be a few days before his body has regenerated; he may attack immediately; he may wait.” A frown marred his brow. “He said that people from our lair paid him to resurrect their dead. Could he have been telling the truth?”
“I’d like to think not,” said Jolene. “But people can do irrational things when deep in grief.”
Tanner nodded. “It might be worth looking into.”
Jolene pushed to her feet and crossed to the fireplace, a restless edge to her movements. “He’s been part of our lair for over a decade now. We need to check how many of our demons have died within that period and have someone take a look at their graves.”
“Me and Mitch will do it,” said Orrin. “If we can’t positively say any of the graves haven’t been disturbed, we’ll pay a visit to their relatives—if there are dead bodies somewhere in their house, I doubt we’ll have a problem sniffing them out.”
Khloé sighed. “I need to go home and take a shower.”
“You need to heal a little more first,” Penelope insisted. “The hot water will hurt your burns.”
“But I reek.” Khloé looked up on hearing sounds coming from upstairs. “Ciaran must be awake.”
Relief fluttered across her mother’s face. “Thank God. I’m proud of him for joining your ranks, Jolene, but I still worry for him.” Penelope looked at Khloé. “Since you’re not a member of her ranks, is there any way you can spare me the worry I went through today and just leave this stuff to the people whose job it is to protect our lair?”
“None of them can destroy Enoch’s forcefields, so, no.”
Penelope’s shoulders slumped. Honestly, Khloé was surprised the woman wasn’t slurring. It was clear she’d been drinking a lot today—probably to calm her nerves, since one of her worst fears was that she’d lose another of her children.
Just then, Ciaran padded into the living room, his face soft and flushed with sleep. He frowned at Khloé. “You woke before me?”
“Blame Keenan,” she said. “He telepathically yelled at me, and I’m pretty sure it’s what yanked me out of sleep.”
The incubus curved a hand around her nape. “I needed to hear your voice and know you were okay. Slamming a mental door on me was mean.”
“Yet fun.”
“Will you always find joy in pissing me off?”
“It’s looking likely.”
He sighed. “I feel so cared for.”
“Do you? How strange.”
He just shook his head.
A little while later, imps began to trickle out of the house. Richie had to usher Penelope out, though, as she wouldn’t stop faffing over Ciaran and Khloé.
“We should all probably head out, too,” Harper told her lair members.
“I’ll be staying with Khloé,” Keenan stated.
“I figured as much,” said the sphinx.
“I’m glad you two finally got your acts together,” Jolene said, her eyes dancing from Khloé to Keenan. “You’ve been circling each other for far too long.”