𝔸𝕧𝕒

"I'll kill him. I swear to fucking god, I'll cut his hands off so he can never touch you ever again. I'll send him through a fucking wood-chipper, see how he heals from that."

Zane paces back and forth, his eyes glowing a brilliant green and his fists tightly clenched. A deep growl rumbles behind his every word.

"Zane, it was just a dream," I say. "You're making a big deal out of nothing. It wasn't real."

"Yes it bloody was real!" he yells. "He's an Incubus! He's a literal sexual predator! You think it's a coincidence that you have a dream about an Incubus trying to assault you?"

"What does that mean? I don't understand... you think he was actually there in my dream?"

"Do you not know what an Incubus is?" he asks.

"I mean you guys said he's a demon and he feeds off sexual energy."

"Fuck," he says, resting his head in his palm. "He has the power to enter and control dreams. You didn't know that?"

He says that like it's common knowledge.

Maybe it is for Immortals, but not humans.

"No, how would I know that?" I ask. "They don't teach demonology in public school."

"I'm sorry, baby," he says with a sigh, wrapping his arms around me. "This is all my fault. I didn't warn you. I should never have trusted him."

"It's okay. I'm fine, really."

"I don't get it, though," he says. "Why now? Why is he just now going after you?"

Now that I think about it, this may not be the first time.

But if I tell him that, will Zane spontaneously combust?

"Um..." I say. "There may have been another time."

"WHAT??" he roars, pulling away from me. The veins in his neck bulge outward and his skin has turned a deep red.

"Just once. When we first started dating, I had a dream about Kieran. I didn't think anything of it at the time. I'm not even sure I knew you were a Siren at that point."

"I'll bloody gut him," he says. His voice is soft and eerily calm.

"It wasn't like this time," I say. "He was more normal and friendly. He didn't force anything on me. He just kissed me, but he stopped when I said no."

Zane rails his fist into the brick wall and chunks of brick fly everywhere, leaving red dust hanging in the air.

He walks out onto the patio and closes the door behind him.

I'm not sure if I'm supposed to go after him or if he needs to be alone. I decide on giving him space and I slump onto the couch with a sigh.

Did Kieran really attack me?

If he's so truly evil, how did I not see it before?

I don't even know who to believe anymore. It seems like all people ever do is disappoint.

I can only imagine how Zane feels. Kieran is his best friend. He trusted him. He defended him. I feel almost guilty for having come between them. But if Kieran is really evil, I'm glad we found out now.

I look out onto the patio but can't see Zane from this angle. I stand up and look out the window, scanning the rooftop for him, but I can't find him anywhere.

He wouldn't have just left—right?

Uh oh.

I quickly pull out my phone and dial Kami.

"Hey," I say when she answers. "We have a problem."

ℤ𝕒𝕟𝕖

I pull my car halfway up onto the lawn in front of Kieran's place and throw it in park. My feet are practically on the ground before the car stops moving.

As I approach his front door, it occurs to me he might be at work already. If he's not here, I'll head to Pike's next. I ponder if I should knock, but my body decides for me when my foot collides with the door, sending it off its hinges with a loud crackle.

I hear Kieran's voice cursing and a high-pitched scream. As I step inside, I see Kieran and a redheaded woman both sitting naked on his couch playing video games.

His eyes widen and he slips on a pair of boxers, quickly throwing a pile of clothes at the woman. He takes one look at me and his expression morphs into one of panic.

"Zane... Don't... She's human..." he says, raising one hand up as if to hold me off.

"Human??" the woman shrieks, frantically slipping her dress on. "Kieran, what's going on? Who is this guy?"

"It's fine, babygirl," he says. "But you need to go. Now."

I let out a loud growl. It's taking all of my strength to wait for this woman to leave.

She scurries out, stepping over the collapsed door and shards of wood.

"Now, Z-Man, hear me out..." he says, stepping back slowly.

"Did you think I wouldn't find out?" I ask.

My blood is boiling and my skin feels like it's on fire. Every second my fist is not connecting with his face feels torturous.

"I..." Kieran says. I can see his eyes darting back and forth, looking for an exit.

He launches toward a back room, but I tackle him to the ground.

I grab him by the neck and smash his head back into the floor. My other hand delivers a blow to his face, his bones making a satisfying crunching sound upon impact.

"Fuck!" he curses, grabbing my arm and extending his claws deep into my skin.

He pulls his feet inward and kicks me in the chest, launching me backwards. He jumps back up to his feet, now in a fighting stance with long black claws at the end of each finger.

"Okay, I probably had that coming," he says, spitting blood out onto his carpet.

"You have a bloody lot more than that coming," I say. "You fucking demon scum."

I fire toward him again and we struggle in a lightning-quick barrage of fists and claws.

"Z... Fuck!" he huffs through ragged breaths. "God damn fucking... listen... fuck!"

He lands a hard punch to my abdomen and I fall to the side.

"Jesus, you're too damn strong now," he says with a sigh. "This thing with Ava has turned you into a fucking beast."

"Don't you fucking say her name," I say, throwing a punch as he dodges it.

"It was harmless!" he shouts, stepping behind his kitchen counter for cover. "It's not even real, Z, not really. It's just a dream!"

His mouth is so full of blood it's not clear if I've left him with any teeth. His face is swollen and bloodied with the skin split across one eye.

"It's real to her, you sick fuck," I say. "And it's real to you and you bloody know it!"

I break off a chunk of the ceramic countertop and hurl it at his head. It collides with his eye with a sharp crack and he stumbles back.

He runs for it and I chase him to the bedroom, which he now seems to realize is a dead end. I step closer and closer as he coughs and pants.

"Zane, I didn't mean anything by it," he says. "You know how many times you told me you weren't interested in her? All you did for weeks was tell me you didn't like her. You made it out to be this fling."

I have tunnel vision and there's a deep desperation in me to have my hands wrapped around his throat.

"You think that justifies attacking my girl?" I say, each word rolling off my tongue with a particular venom. "She's always been mine. And you're just some demon prick who conned me into thinking you could ever be anything better than vermin."

A flash of hurt appears in his eyes, but it's gone in an instant and replaced by a deep black nothingness spreading across each eye from edge to edge.

"Is that so?" he says with a wicked smile. "Because I'm pretty sure I got there first."

I swipe at him but he dodges to the other side of the room.

"I wanted her first," he says. "So don't give me your bullshit about staking some kind of claim to her."

Those words ignite a fury in me. My fist strikes his chin and sends him backwards into a short wooden dresser. He springs back up and lands a blow to the side of my head, sending a shockwave of pain through my skull. My ears are ringing as I stumble, struggling to maintain balance.

"If I hadn't backed off and let you have her, she would've come home with me that first night and you know it!" Kieran taunts, knowing precisely which buttons to push.

I've been foolish to not see that he's been after Ava this whole time. Who knows what else he's lying about.

Maybe he really did kill all those people.

Especially with vials of Siren venom circulating out there. For all I know, that could be the real way he's been getting his meals without me.

A thought hits me and I feel like all the air has been knocked out of my chest.

"That night when you called me to the bar..." I say, my mind processing the words as they leave my lips. "What are the odds another Siren really targeted Ava?"

His facial expression shifts so subtly, anyone who didn't know him well would've easily missed it. I, however, immediately clock his accidental show of guilt.

"You dosed Ava with venom??" I ask, diving toward him with my hands headed for his neck. "You motherfuc-"

"Idiots!" a woman screams from the doorway, interrupting my attack.

We turn to see Kami standing with a hand on her hip and a look of judgment. She grabs me by my sleeve and pulls me away from Kieran.

"Kami, I'm not finished with th-" I say.

"Yes, you are," she says abruptly. "I have Ava in the car outside."

Naturally, she has said the only words that might actually be able to stop me from obliterating Kieran in this moment. I freeze in place and examine the damage I've done. His face is so covered in blood that his only distinguishing features are his pitch-black eyes. Behind the blood and bruises is just a hint of a smirk still plastered on his face.

"We're leaving," Kami says.

I reluctantly allow her to pull me out of the room. As soon as I exit, she turns to speak to Kieran, blocking the doorway.

"If you ever come near Zane or Ava again—dream or otherwise—I will grind you into dust and use your remains as demonic fertilizer for my lawn, you got that?"

He lets out a cold laugh in response and Kami guides me out of the house.

"How could you be so stupid, Z?" Kami curses as we walk toward her car. "You know, I miss the days when I was the reckless one and you were the one cleaning up my messes."

"Do you know what he did?" I ask.

"Yes, I do," she says, opening the driver's side door. "Do you know what you did?"

She gestures to the back seat of her car where Ava is lying down, her knees up to her chest as she clutches her head.

"Fuck, baby," I say, kneeling into the car and reaching for her hand. "What happened?"

"It's okay, I'm okay," she says softly. "Are you alright?"

Her voice cracks ever so slightly and, despite her best intentions to convince me otherwise, I know she's in pain. Leave it to Ava to try and worry about me when she's suffering.

"What happened?" I ask again, this time turning to Kami for an answer.

"You're bound to each other, you clueless moron," Kami snaps. "So what happened is you just got your human girlfriend into a fistfight with a demon."

Guilt grips my heart, flooding my body until every drop in my veins is tainted with self-loathing.

That's what happened.

I'm what happened.