“Blackwell Industries is throwing another party,” Lochlynn told me, later that day. The two of us sat up in his room. I had been there all day, but Lochlynn had left about an hour and a half ago and telling me he had to look at some things. Whatever that meant. I assumed he wanted to keep me as far away from his father as humanly possible. Considering every encounter that we’d had so far, I couldn’t blame him.
I wondered how long I could get away with hiding in Lochlynn’s rooms before his father came after me.
“Okay. What does that have to do with us?” I asked, leaning toward him as if speaking louder would alert everyone to our conspiracy.
“Blackwell Industries is run by three demon families,” Lochlynn said. “Mine—”
“Which has the biggest chunk of the power,” I said. When he looked at me, I shrugged a shoulder. “My sister might’ve done some research on you, and she might’ve told me a few things after we, ya know, nabbed you.”
Lochlynn nodded. “That makes sense,” he said. “And yes, we are the powerhouse behind Blackwell. It’s not really a business. Not in the human, traditional sense, anyway. We do own a lot of human businesses, but we have people that run those for us. Basically, we’re just one of the prominent leaders in…”
“Taking souls,” I said.
He nodded. “Yes. Anyway, this party is being held at one of the other families’ estates. There’s my family, and then there’s my father’s best friend. His name is Nigel, and he’s a rat bastard.”
“Is he worse than your father?” I asked.
Lochlynn took a second to think, which worried me. His father was one of the worst things I’d ever encountered in my life, and Lochlynn had to take a second to wonder if this man was worse? “No,” he finally said. “Which isn’t to say that he’s better, either. He’s just different from my father. I could see how someone would consider him better, and I could see how someone would consider him worse. If it came down to it, I’d rather have you in a room with my father over Nigel. At least Dad would leave you alive, just to torment me.”
“That’s not making me feel any better.”
“It wasn’t supposed to,” he said. “I need you to listen to me on this one, Tomorrow. I can get us into that party easily. My father has to go anyway, and my entire family has a standing invitation. No one would blink at me bringing you, because you’re my human.”
“You left off the pet part.” I sounded dry and critical, even though I didn’t mean to. Lochlynn hadn’t ever called me that, and I didn’t think he would. He had more respect for me than his family did.
And because of that, he didn’t honor me with a snide response, but just gave me a look. “When we’re there, I need you to stay next to me at all times. It’s the only way that I can keep the other demons from bothering you. Most won’t care that you’re there, and some will just be friendly. Some will do whatever they think is necessary to get you to sell your soul.”
“Even if I’m you’re human pet?”
“Especially then,” Lochlynn said. “It would be showing Nigel that they’re so good, so crafty that they managed to get Lander’s son to lose his human. They’d be even more valuable to the company, and it has the added benefit of making my father look bad and making him angry with me.”
“This isn’t the good kind of family friend, is it? Not the kind of friend that will help you in your time of need?”
“On the contrary, Nigel would help us immediately if we needed him to.”
“But?”
“We might not like his form of help. Some could even say that it’s the opposite of help, you know?”
I rubbed my eyes. “All right, I hear all of that. Now’s the part where you tell me why we’re going to this party, and how it pertains to Derrick.”
“I don’t have access to the files that say where they sent Derrick after his capture. Only the ones that tell me what humans we have. All the demons in the company do, in case they want to pick someone special to take home.” He said this sourly. “If Derrick isn’t in our holding facility, then he might be in theirs.”
“We’re just blindly looking around?” I asked, feeling hopeless.
“It’s not as blind as you think,” Lochlynn said. “This might not be what you want to hear, but when you and your friends took off with Derrick? He became far more interesting to my father. If I know him half as well as I think I do, then he would’ve made a little manhunt for you guys. He would’ve told Nigel and Rosalina to send their best people after him, and whoever managed to get him first, could keep Derrick.”
It sounded like people sending their hunting dogs after a fox to me. Whichever dog brought the prey down, well they would get belly rubs that night, and they could even sleep in the bed!
Lochlynn continued. “If Nigel found him, then I can guarantee that he’s in that holding facility. Nigel would want to drain him personally. If Rosalina found him, then he could be anywhere, and our jobs just got a lot harder than they were a few minutes ago. I don’t even know if she’d let us onto her actual estate. She’s warier than Nigel is about such things.”
I rubbed my eyes. “All right. If we don’t have another option, then let’s do this. I’ll go to that party, and we’ll hope for the best.”
Lochlynn touched my cheek as he stood up. “I know this isn’t what you wanted, but it’s the only way.”
I nodded again “I’ll return as soon as I’m done talking with my father. I just have to let him know that we’re going to that party.”
“Is that safe?” I asked.
“I’ve had plenty of conversations with the man where he hasn’t attempted to mutilate, violate, or kill me,” Lochlynn said dryly. Despite his tone, I still didn’t know if he should leave. I watched him walk out of the room and wanted to squirm around the second he left me alone. It felt like I had done something very wrong.
To keep myself occupied, I went and found my phone. So much had been happening that I hadn’t bothered looking at it in the last two days. Lochlynn had plugged it into my charger and put it on the nightstand by his bed. I’d have to talk to him about our sleeping arrangements soon.
I had a lot of messages. Way more than I could even count. They came from Seanan, Seamus, Yesterday, Linda, and ranged from curious to terrified. Breathing out, I plopped down on his bed, and chose my sister first.
Her phone rang once. “Tomorrow?” she asked cautiously.
“Yup,” I said.
She breathed out. “Finally.”
In the background, I heard Linda call my sister. They talked off phone for a bit, shouting things at each other that I could barely understand. It lasted for a few seconds before Yesterday apologized and put the phone on speaker. Which limited what I could say to her, but I’d be able to explain over text when Linda stopped butting in. “How’s it going, sweetie?” Linda asked.
“Just fine,” I said. “I haven’t needed to wear the nightie you packed me, though.”
“Well, you never know when you might need one. I just wanted to be sure that you had everything that you could possible want.”
“What?” Yesterday asked. “She packed you a nightie?”
“Yeah. She’s trying to whore me out to Lochlynn.”
“Tom!” Linda said. “Do not take that tone with me or say anything like that. I just wanted to make sure that you had everything you needed.”
“That’s so creepy,” Yesterday said.
“I’ve protected you girls, I know, but you should be aware of what the world is.”
“I don’t even know what that means,” Yesterday said.
Linda sighed. “How is going there, Tom? I want you to tell me everything. What’s Lochlynn like? What’s his family like? How are you doing there? Do you think you’re going to stay on a permanent basis?”
“Fine. Nice. Psychos. I’m a bit bored. And no, I’m not staying here on a permanent basis.”
“You shouldn’t talk about them like that!” Linda hissed. “And I hope things pick up for you. I’ve called the school and gotten you the week off. Take all the time you need, though. GPAs exist for a reason, right?”
“Can I talk to Yesterday, please?” I asked.
“Oh, of course!”
A second passed. “All right, I took it off speaker, and the nanny from hell just walked out of the room. I’m still creeped out, though.”
“Yeah, me too,” I said.
“How is it actually going?” Yesterday asked.
I told her everything. From the second I arrived, through the terrible family dinner, all the way to what Lochlynn just told me. I didn’t leave anything out, except for the things that Lochlynn told me about his father. I loved my sister, but those weren’t for me to tell. I shouldn’t have even forced Lochlynn into giving me the information to begin with.
When I finished, Yesterday went silent for a second. Then she said. “All right.”
“That’s it?” I asked. “You’re not going to lecture me on how I should let Derrick go and come home? You aren’t going to tell me that I’m being stupid for staying after everything that’s happened?” I sounded more surprised than I probably should have.
“No,” Yesterday said. “I’m not, because you already know it. You know that those demons could kill you, you know the risks that you’re facing, and you’re doing it anyway. Mere words can’t compete with that kind of stubbornness.”
“I’m not sure if I should be flattered or irritated,” I said.
I could hear the smile in her voice as Yesterday responded, “Flattered. But I want you to keep me updated this time. You just vanished, and I didn’t even know until Crazy Poppins told me at dinner. I’ve been worried sick for two days, and your friends won’t leave me the hell alone.”
“I’m sorry,” I said. “After what Landers did to me, I just wasn’t thinking clearly. Otherwise, I would’ve called you sooner.”
“It’s fine,” Yesterday said.
“What’s been happening there?”
“Oh, you have no idea how lucky you are to be dining with a bunch of demons,” Yesterday said. “Linda has been doing nothing but focusing on me, and it’s driving me up the wall. She’s baked a dozen different kinds of cookies. I took like a hundred of them to school, set them on the teacher’s desk, and told everyone in the class to go at them, because I didn’t know what else to do. She’s taken me out to eat four times since you left. Four. And she keeps telling me that if I’m careful, then I’ll be able to get a demon boyfriend myself. It’s terrifying, actually.”
“Oh, wow,” I said. “She wants to marry us off to demons.”
“If this were olden times, she would’ve sold us to them for goat,” Yesterday said. “And then expected us to take care of her for the rest of her life.”
“That nightie she put in my bag? It was red satin,” I told my sister. “Even Lochlynn looked embarrassed for me.”
“Oh god, he saw it?” Yesterday said.
“Yeah, but it wasn’t a big deal. He didn’t act weird, or anything.”
“Well, that’s good,” she said.
“Why do you say it like that?” I asked.
My sister snorted. “You can’t still be in denial. You went off with this demon the second that you could, and no offense, you were into him pretty much immediately.”
“What? No,” I said.
“Yes.”
“No.”
“I’m not going to get into a childish game where we say the same thing back and forth until one quits. Tomorrow, you are at his house. I know, I know. You went for Derrick. That’s a nice excuse, because it has the benefit of being true. But it’s not the only reason that you took off. You wanted to see him again. Admit it.”
I didn’t say anything.
“You’ve been caught. There’s no point in fighting or denying this. Admit it.”
I huffed out a breath. “Fine, all right. I admit it. I’ve got the tiniest bit of a crush. Miniscule, really.”
“Uh huh.”
My eyes went to the bed that I sat on, and my heart twisted around. “Nothing can come of it, though. He’s a freaking demon, and his father terrifies me. His mother does too. And his sister and brother. They’re all terrifying, and then there’s Lochlynn, who’s anything but. It’s almost fun to be around him. He’s not a jerk, he’s not cocky, he’s kind of reserved. I don’t know. It’s hard to describe it, you know?”
Yesterday sighed, and I heard a rustle on the other end of the phone. Probably her sitting down. “Yeah, there are a ton of problems that you would be facing, but you don’t have to think about it right now. Just enjoy having a crush and flirting. When the time comes to put an end to it, then do it with grace.”
It hurt to even think about, but I knew she was right. Nodding to myself, I said, “Yeah. That makes sense.”
“Now, I want to talk for another four hours,” Yesterday said. “But you’ve got to get ready for a party, and if you don’t call Seanan and Seamus, my head is going to explode.”
I laughed. “Right. I’ll give them a call as soon as we hang up.”
“Good. Before we do that, I just want to tell you to be careful. I know you aren’t stupid, and you don’t need your lame twin sister telling you that. But you’re the only thing I’ve got, and I can’t stop you from running headlong into danger. I can tell you that if you die, I’m alone with Linda for god knows how long, and I’ll never get over it.”
The words stilled the amusement that I had felt a moment before. “I know. And I’ll come back home. Promise.”
“Good. I love you.”
“Love ya too.”
We said our goodbyes and hung up. I stared down at the screen, thinking about what Yesterday had said. I had always understood that we only had each other, but it finally occurred to me that she didn’t have any friends either. She had Linda, and she had me. If I died, my sister would have to live the rest of her life, knowing that she couldn’t stop me.
The weight on my shoulders started to get heavier, even as I dialed Seanan’s number, and put the phone to my ear That turned out to be a huge mistake, because she answered her phone by screeching into it. She might’ve said my name, she might’ve been reciting the state capitols. It all would’ve sounded the same.
“Jesus Christ,” I said, yanking the phone away. “Who the hell answers a call like that?”
“Where have you been?” Seanan shouted again.
“Who is it?” Seamus said in the background.
“It’s Tomorrow.”
“Put it on speaker,” he demanded, as I brought the phone back to my ear. I didn’t see any blood, so at least she hadn’t ruptured anything that I would need later. When Seanan had done what her brother asked, he immediately started talking. “Tomorrow? Your sister said that you went to stay with that demon, and that you did it willingly.” His voice sounded like a deep growl.
“I did,” I told him, not caring that it would piss him off. I figured that he deserved a few minutes of anger for the way he put his question.
“Why?” he demanded.
Irritation rose, and I wanted to snap at him. Seamus had never liked Lochlynn and had been willing to kill the demon from the start. I actually worried that he would try it. But he didn’t know Lochlynn as well as I did, so I shut down that irritation as hard as I could.
Swallowing, I told them what Lochlynn and I had been up to. I didn’t tell him anything else. Not about what happened at the family dinner from hell, or what Landers had done to me. Seamus would just use it as another excuse for why Lochlynn needed to die. All demons were evil, and he couldn’t be any different.
When I finished, telling them about the party that we would be going to, Seanan breathed out. “Whoa. You think…you think that you can find Derrick? Like, for real this time? Not us blindly running into situations we aren’t equipped to handle?” She sounded so hopeful that I actually hesitated.
I couldn’t keep doing this. We couldn’t keep doing this. We couldn’t get to thirty, and still think that maybe, just maybe, Derrick had lived, and we could go get him. We couldn’t delude ourselves forever. Did I tell her the truth, or did I make something up? Something that would soften the blow if I couldn’t find Derrick. This had been a fool’s mission from the start.
Only an idiot tried to save another idiot from themselves.
I chose to be honest with her. “I think there’s a chance,” I said, hating how my voice cracked. “Lochlynn knows a lot about the demons that took him, and he thinks there’s a chance.”
“Why is he helping us now?” Seamus demanded.
I breathed out, rolling my eyes. “Because he wants to.”
“But why?”
“Why does he need a reason?”
“He’s a demon,” Seamus said. “You didn’t so anything stupid, did you?”
“Like what? Sell my soul? No, Seamus, I haven’t sold my soul to anybody. It’s safely where it belongs. Not every demon wants souls. Lochlynn is helping me because he’s a good guy, and he wants to.”
“He’s not a good guy,” Seamus said. “No demon is a good guy. They are all disgusting; they are all awful. He will turn on you the first chance he gets.”
“He’s a lot of chances.”
“The bastard’s probably playing with you,” Seamus told me, ignoring how his sister kept telling him to shut up. “Like a cat. He’s batting you around the room, watching as you bleed and die.”
“Seamus!” Seanan said with a grunt. I pictured her shoving her brother, and him barely moving.
“What? I’m not going to be blind just because the lot of you want me to,” Seamus said. “Don’t listen to him, Tomorrow. He’s just playing, to get something that he wants. Trust me.”
I breathed out, looking down at my knees. “I know him better than you do. Either of you. I’m going to that party, and I’m going to make sure that Derrick isn’t there. And then we’ll go from there. I’ll call afterward and tell you everything that’s happened. We’ll be careful.”
Seamus cursed, and I heard something shatter. He must’ve walked off, because I didn’t hear him say anything else, but Seanan got back on the phone. “Ignore him. He’s just been in a foul mood since we found out you took off. It scared him, I think. Are you okay, though? Really okay?”
I wanted to spill my guts to her the way I had with Yesterday. The difference being, Yesterday wouldn’t tell anyone what happened with me. My sister could keep a secret better than anyone else, as evidenced by the way she could sneak out of the house without issue. I didn’t know how she managed to do that.
Seanan would tell Seamus everything if he prodded her even a little. I didn’t want him to know anything about how I felt, because Seamus would just judge me. He would call me stupid, and he would try to fight Lochlynn. I didn’t think Lochlynn would just continue taking this abuse, either. Eventually, he would fight back. I didn’t think Seamus could win if that happened.
I set that all aside, though, to answer Seanan. “I’m fine. Really. Lochlynn’s got a huge house, and his own suite of rooms that I’m saying in. You don’t have to worry about me.”
“I probably will. Tell me, are you getting any werewolf actions while you’re there?”
“What?” I demanded, my voice incredulous.
“Oh, come on. Did you see those fine ass werewolves walking around? All strong, and tall, and powerful. Mmm. Mama likes.”
“I don’t even know what to stay to you right now.”
“You can say that you’ve gotten some werewolf action, so that I know what it’s like,” Seanan said.
“I have not, and probably will never, get werewolf action,” I told my best friend. “In fact, I find it unlikely that any of us will get any action of the nonhuman variety.”
“Boring,” Seanan said. “Human boys are fun, I guess, but they’re also boring. I went out with David the other day and had to nearly break his nose when he wouldn’t stop grabbing my boob. Then Seamus found out, and David got thrown into a dumpster while I fought with Seamus, telling him not to set it on fire.”
“Oh…” I said, sounding as surprised as I felt. “You should have let him set it on fire.”
“David is gross, but that doesn’t mean he deserves certain death,” Seanan said. “Just to be mutilated. Seamus finished breaking his nose and dislocated his arm, so I figure he’ll leave me alone from now on. My point being, maybe nonhuman fellas don’t get fresh with the ladies, ya know?”
I looked at the ceiling, counting to ten in my head. It didn’t give me any more patience than I had before, sadly. “I’m sure that they’re exactly the same, but stronger,” I said.
“Pfft. You’re no fun. Anyway, you should call your sister. She’s been talking about you like nonstop.”
I almost laughed. “I already did.”
“Good. I have to go make sure that Seamus doesn’t break anything else, because our parents are coming back in two days, and if they find this house destroyed, guess who had to pay for it. That’s right. Me and Seamus. I’ve got too many wonderful things to get to waste it all on things like lamps.”
I said goodbye about two seconds before she hung up the phone. I set it down on the nightstand and looked over to find Lochlynn in the doorway. He didn’t look bothered by anything that he might’ve heard. I hoped that meant he hadn’t been there for Seamus’ little tantrum, even though I had defended him.
“How did it go?” I asked, not bothering to see what he had heard. I didn’t think he’d tell me the truth anyway.
Lochlynn came into the room and sat down next to me. His bed didn’t make sound when someone got on it, unlike mine. I found it disturbing. “He said that it’s fine and that I should go to every party. He also said that I should bring my human pet to all the parties with me.”
My nose wrinkled.
Lochlynn nodded. “I didn’t much care for it either. I’m also worried that he’s got some kind of plan up his sleeve, because he seemed far too pleased with himself when I walked in.”
“Do you think he’s going to do something at the party?”
“No,” Lochlynn said. “Dad doesn’t operate like that. If he’s got something planned, then it’s for later, and it’ll be something neither of us like. I’m hoping that we find Derrick and get you somewhere safe long before he does whatever he’s planning on doing.”
Landers with a plan…I’d scarcely heard of something scarier than that.