Chapter 187 Chapter 187
“Get yourself together, you manchild,” Benjamin said, rolling his eyes at Xander’s antics. He grabbed his arm and pulled him to the sofa, making him sit down. Benjamin’s sinister gaze made the other demon shut up, at least for a moment.
When the demons finally calmed down—which was rare in itself—Liam used the moment of silence to address her. “Nicholas Clarke told us what happened. How are you?” he asked.
“I’m fine,” she replied. “I have my memories back, and my wounds are healing as they should. We’ve asked you to come here because we need your help with something important.”
“It’s about the demon who killed Seth,” Liam guessed, hitting the nail on the head.
“Yes,” Maxwell confirmed. “We found out his name. He is a fire demon called Mason. Does that ring a bell?”
Valerie nervously played with the edges of her sleeves, digging her fingers into the fabric as she waited for a response, but the demons didn’t say anything. She let her gaze wander over their faces, unease growing in the pits of her stomach. None of them seemed to recognize the name—it was as she had feared. They were clueless.
“I don’t think I have,” Liam said. He scowled and folded his arms. “This is bad… we need to find out where he is and what he looks like.”
“Otherwise, he could get very close to you without you even noticing,” Thorne warned.
“Are you sure you have never heard of him? Maybe he had a connection to Seth,” Maxwell asked urgently. “Do you remember Seth mentioning him?”
“It could be that Seth brought him up, but it’s been so long, it’s not like I could remember,” Xander said. Compared to his usual cheeky self, he was serious now. His glare could have melted the floor. “Shit, after all these years, it’s about time we put an end to this. We owe it to Seth.”
“We do,” Benjamin agreed. “And if nobody has a clue, then we need to start searching for Mason. The sooner we find him, the better. We have to ask every demon we know—someone must have heard of him.”
“Right, he can’t be that elusive,” Shawn said. “I know a bunch of fire demons… and I would be surprised if none of them have ever heard of him before.”
“That means we will ask around, keep our eyes and ears open… and if we find something we will tell you,” Wade summed up. “Damn it, I can’t wait to get my hands on him.”
“You’re not the only one,” Maxwell muttered.
Valerie propped up her chin in her palm. After Travis’s visit, she had gained some hope, but now it was pretty much gone again. How to find someone when you only knew his name? This was a nightmare. It meant that they had to deal with an invisible enemy, one that didn’t have a face. He could be anyone.
In her daily life, she often came across demons who visited the human world. It wasn’t anything out of the ordinary, and it hadn’t bothered her since they usually weren’t interested in her. Mason, on the other hand, would not ignore her if he found her. She didn’t want to think about what he would do to her, but she needed to be prepared for the worst. Gathering her courage and calming her racing heartbeat, she posed a question.
“Can I ask something?” she said reluctantly and gained the demons’ attention. “If you don’t mind answering, how exactly did Seth die? What happened to him?”
“You haven’t told her?” Liam asked Maxwell.
“Not the whole story, no,” Maxwell replied. “Only parts of it.”
“Then we should catch up on that. You need to be aware of the entire story, Valerie,” Vaughn said. His gaze was serious and filled with pain when he began to recount what had happened to their friend. “Seth died a few weeks after he got bonded to Delilah, a young witch. We all knew her since he introduced her to us. It was very important to him that his friends got along with her, and it worked out, except…” Vaughn trailed off, and his disapproving gaze landed on Maxwell.
“Maxwell hated her. You should have seen the way he treated her,” Thorne sighed, shaking his head. “I think she was scared of him, but she put up with him for Seth’s sake.”
“Hey, I wasn’t ready to tolerate another human after I only just lost someone to a bunch of them,” Maxwell hissed. “I told Seth many times to break up with her because I had a hunch that their relationship wouldn’t end well. Delilah was too naïve and too trusting. Since Seth and I were close friends, I hoped he would listen, but he ignored everything I told him. When he eventually got bonded to her, I almost lost it.”
He sounded bitter when he spoke, prompting Valerie to slip her hand in his, holding it gently. He squeezed it and glanced at her.
“At first, everything between Delilah and Seth went well. They were a happy couple and spent a lot of time together,” Vaughn continued. His voice wavered a little, eyes clouding with sadness. “One afternoon, Seth paid us a visit in hell and left her alone because she wanted to go shopping and meet with her friends. Everything was fine until suddenly, he seemed unsettled by something. I can only assume that he must have felt Delilah’s distress and pain. He collapsed, and we tried to save him, but we couldn’t do anything. He died right in front of us, turned to ash, and was gone.”
“As if he never even existed,” Maxwell breathed. His sadness and bitterness felt like a heavy blanket that smothered any positive emotion within Valerie.
“We headed to New York to look for Delilah and eventually found her remains in her home. Her body was charred, and the magic lingering in the air told us that her death had been caused by a demon,” Thorne continued. “We don’t know why she let him into her home or how he even found her in the first place.”