“Will you get Liam? He’s waiting for you at Jack’s. Bring him to Doran’s.”

You and your wolf. Of course I’ll fetch him. Again. With a long snort Blaz leapt into the air, his path taking him in the opposite direction of Ophelia’s flight. I wondered if she would come back, or if that was the last we would see of her. I wasn’t sure we wanted a mentally unstable dragon, even if she was on our side.

“He will be gone three days at most,” Erik said. “You need to decide what to do with him,” he booted the passed out doppelganger, “before he gets back and your wolf gets a smell of him.”

I knew what he was saying. There was no way Liam would allow the doppelganger to live knowing the danger he represented. And I couldn’t blame Liam; the doppelganger had been so far within our guard we hadn’t even known he was a danger. He could of killed Blaz and Ophelia and there would have been nothing we could have done to stop him. Hell, he’d been sabotaging my training and setting me up to be killed alongside Liam and my other allies.

I scrubbed a hand over my face. “I don’t know. He didn’t kill Blaz or Ophelia when he had the chance. Do you think it’s possible that not all demons are bad?”

Erik crossed his arms over his wide chest, his eyes narrowing in thought. “I … I think that not all of them are as bad as Orion. The creature who housed the demons was a demon that helped us. Perhaps there is a reason for this one yet to live.”

A few hours passed before the doppelganger woke with a groan. He sat forward, swaying from side to side. Right away he changed his appearance to something far more human. He looked suspiciously like Bruce Lee.

“Why didn’t you kill me while I slept? I know nothing, other than the orders I was given.” His voice was lightly accented now, but not Russian like before.

I crouched in front of him and put a hand on his shoulder. He flinched as though it were a hot brand. “Not all demons are bad. That’s what I’ve heard. Are you ready to renounce your previous master?”

“He’ll kill me,” he whispered.

I laughed, not kindly. “He’s going to kill you when you fail to follow his orders, idiot.”

“Right.” His head dropped, black hair sliding forward to partially cover his face. “Our prophecies say he will win, that he will beat you, and he has the black book of prophecy now to guide him as well as the violet book that has what you need from it.” He lifted his eyes, they were completely black, with no iris, no white showing. Freaky.

“Well, all the other prophecies say I can beat him. The rest of the supernatural world has put their trust in me. If you won’t renounce him, I’ll kill you.”

“I don’t want to die. I like it here.”

After that, it was simple. He picked himself a name. Albert, of all things, and Erik did some sort of binding on the doppelganger. I watched closely, that it was kind of like killing the demons, but only the reverse. Erik pulled the demon’s essence close to himself instead of shoving it away. I watched, not because I wanted to bind any demon to me, but knowledge was power.

“He is mine, until I let him go or I die. If I die, he dies. It is that simple.”

Albert shadowed Erik wherever he went, and soon enough we were calling him “Bert.”

Faris took us to Doran’s, though he was not happy about the demon coming with us.

The vampire pulled me to one side. “You walk a fine line, Rylee. Keeping a demon for a pet is not smart.”

“He’s not my pet, he’s Erik’s. And I will kill him if he steps out of line.”

“I think you are going soft. Once you would have killed him and asked questions later, and now …” He lifted a hand and touched the middle of my forehead. “Something has changed within you. I don’t know yet if it is for good, or for ill.”

“And if I’d killed you when I had the chance Doran would not be the leader of the vampires and we all would have died at the hands of the old ones.” I pushed his hand from my face. “So perhaps Bert has a part to play yet.”

Ever so slightly, Faris inclined his head. “Touché. Now, I must be off. I have things to do for Doran.”

He sliced through the veil and was gone. I wasn’t sure if I was happy to see him go or not. A powerful ally, but a mercurial one for sure.

The next two days passed swiftly. I met with Raw, who’d assumed leadership of this new band of ogres, then met with Raw, Doran, and Berget. Eve flew to bring the unicorns close to the borders of Doran’s place. When I asked her about the harpies she shook her head. “I do not know, Rylee. They were non-committal.”

Everyone had a plan, had a way to try and stop the demons. But I knew it would come down to what I had to do. The rest of them would be holding off demons, like Pamela and Milly had done for Erik and me.

Holding off the hordes long enough for me to do what I had to do.

Whatever the hell it was.

Three days and Blaz came flying into sight, three figures on his back. Shit, had he really brought …

Frank insisted. He said he wasn’t leaving his family to fight demons without him. The boy has some spine.

Blaz landed and Liam slid from his back first. Shit, who the hell cared if we had a serious PDA?

I ran to him, threw myself into his arms and buried my face in his neck. His arms tightened around me and we stood like that, clinging to one another. Around us people swirled and talked, but for that moment it was just him and me.

No words were needed as I slid from his arms. We were together. That was all that mattered in that moment.

Blaz stood beside me picking at his teeth with his claws. Chaos should have been your name. Everywhere you go, you bring change.

“Complaint department is over there.” I pointed at the ogre’s tents, which were colored in the tones of their skin. Not a single black tent sat amongst them, a distinguishing mark. Blaz laughed and rolled onto his back, stretching out fully. As if Blaz’s return was the signal, everything seemed to happen at once.

From behind Doran’s abode came the clatter of hooves and within moments the black stallion of the Tamoskin Crush slid to a stop in front of me.

Tracker, the time draws near. We stand with you against the darkness. Nikko is what you may call me.

I gave him my thanks, nodded and headed inside. As night fell, I called a council meeting.

Doran, Berget, Raw, Liam, Erik, Pamela, Alex and Blaz, Eve, Nikko, even Charlie came. Faris was a no show, off on some errand or another for Doran. Of Will and Deanna, I’d heard nothing. Which pissed me off to no end, but for all that it irritated me, there was nothing I could do about it. Not yet anyway.