Some of the starch slipped from Piper’s shoulders. She looked away, pensive. He wondered if this was the first time she’d realized how often she considered Celeste’s feelings before making decisions.
“Look at me.” He waited until her gaze leapt to his before he went on, “We are going to claim each other as anchors. I’m not asking you to agree to do it straight away, though I’d be up for it if you were. We’ll take the time to get to know each other, if that’s what you need. But understand this. I won’t walk away. Not for you. Not for anyone. My demon wouldn’t stand for it if I tried. And neither would yours.”
“Quite the bossy bitch, aren’t you?” There was no heat in her words.
He felt his mouth cant up. Oh, she really had no idea just how domineering he could be. He highly suspected he’d drive her crazy, but he had no intention of warning her.
She thrust her hands into her hair and puffed out a breath. “I need you to give me some time. Space.”
He shrugged. “Sure, if that’s what you need.”
She squinted, suspicious. She should be. Because his idea of ‘time and space’ meant he’d be back in, oh, about twelve hours.
Levi grabbed her phone from the coffee table and punched in his number, pleased she didn’t object. He then called himself using her cell so he could store her own number. He pinned her with a look. “You need anything, anything at all, you call me.”
She lazily saluted him, her expression all ‘Whatever.’
He didn’t want to leave her. Not yet. But he’d be back soon enough, and then they could begin the whole ‘getting to know each other’ stage.
Needing to touch her one last time, he tucked her hair behind her ear. “Sleep well, Piper.”
And then his demon abruptly shoved its way to the surface, taking the wheel.
Piper froze as Levi’s eyes bled to black and the temperature dropped slightly. His inner entity stared at her, its gaze cold, cunning, and gleaming with possession.
Her own demon stirred in response, eyeing it boldly; sensing that it would—like Levi—steamroll both Piper and her inner entity if they allowed it. Which they wouldn’t. It seemed best to communicate that now.
Forcing her muscles to untense, Piper flicked up an imperious brow. “What?”
The corner of its mouth kicked up slightly. “Hold back from us if you must, little nightmare,” it said, its voice toneless. “But it will change nothing. We have waited a very, very long time to find you. We will not walk away.” It gently tapped her chin. “You belong to us. With us. That is pure fact. We would not change it even if we could. So do not request that we wait too long to claim what is ours. Why bother anyway? You will still be mine. Still be his. I suggest you hurry and get used to it.” The demon retreated.
Well, now. That fucker was intense, wasn’t it?
Levi gave her a look that said he was totally behind his ever so arrogant demon on this. “I’ll be seeing you soon, Piper.” With that, he left.
Setting her hands on her hips, she blew out a long-ass breath. Christ, she was way too sober to deal with this right now. Well that, at least, was something she could fix.
CHAPTER TWO
Sitting at her kitchen table the next morning, Piper waited for her best friend to answer the video call. She needed to talk about the anchor situation with someone. Olive had always been her main confidante. Although she’d relocated to Washington eight months ago to be near her newly discovered anchor, she and Piper video-called each other several times a week.
Olive answered after only a few rings, a bright smile on her elfin face. “Hey, Winslow.”
Piper felt her mouth weakly quirk. “Hey, yourself.”
Olive’s smile faltered. “Uh-oh. What’s wrong? That rat bastard Kelvin pulled another stunt, didn’t he? Tell me you stabbed him at least once.”
“I already hurled a hellfire orb at his chest.”
“That’s so impersonal, though. Thrusting a knife into someone is truly much more satisfying. Euphoric, even.”
Piper snorted. “So your psychosis is showing no signs of retreat, I see. To answer your question, no, he’s pulled no other stunts. I haven’t seen him since the day I quit. He’s tried calling me a few times, but I let the calls go to voicemail. I’ve received plenty of texts as well.”
The last had read something like: We’ve been friends and colleagues for years, Piper, let’s not throw that away just because I fucked up.
Their friendship hadn’t meant much to him if he’d been disrespectful enough to fuck another woman on Piper’s chair.
She flapped a hand. “The asshole is easy to ignore.”
“So what’s wrong, then?”
“Nothing should be wrong, really. In fact, the whole thing should feel ‘right.’ And it does. Kinda. To a degree.”