Burn

“Of course.” Glancing at the doorway, she said, “That’s Isla Ross.”

The woman was amazingly beautiful, her features were eerily perfect, and her skin was flawless…but there was something almost robotic about her as she slowly crossed the room. It was odd.

When Knox tensed ever so slightly, Harper knew he’d spotted her. “Here goes,” she said. His hand squeezed her thigh gently, almost soothingly.

Isla was searching for an empty chair when she finally glimpsed Knox. She came towards him with a half-smile. “Knox, it’s been a while.”

He stood, not speaking until she’d exchanged greetings with Tanner and Levi. “Isla, you look well.”

Her smile brightened a little. “Thank you. We should talk before you leave.” Then she walked on past, not even acknowledging Harper.

“That was easy,” Tanner said quietly.

“I don’t think she realized Harper was with us,” said Knox, retaking his seat. “I usually come to these events with only two sentinels as company.”

“Is there a problem I should know about?” Jolene quietly asked Harper.

Harper leaned into her. “In sum, there’s a possibility that Isla believes that Knox is her anchor, which means…”

“She might not be so happy to meet you,” finished Jolene. Then she shrugged. “You can take her.”

When a blond, smartly dressed male with an air of authority waltzed inside, all the demons standing then immediately took their seats. He settled in the chair at the head of the table. “Afternoon, everyone. For those of you who haven’t met me before, I’m Raul Harlan. As you all know, we’re here to discuss…well, the fact that Isla’s making a lot of noise about things that don’t interest me. But her noise is getting louder, and it’s time to get the whole thing settled.”

Harper liked his no-bullshit manner.

“Isla, maybe you’d like to explain to us why you wanted this meeting.”

The she-demon straightened in her seat opposite Malden. “In short, I’m proposing that a pyramid hierarchy be put in place in the U.S. as opposed to our lairs all existing around each other.”

“With you as the ruler,” said Raul, to which she nodded. “Why? Why fix what isn’t broken?”

“But it is broken. The small lairs have no protection from larger lairs, strays are easy targets because they have absolutely no one to turn to, and we are so divided that we are vulnerable to dark practitioners. If we worked together against them, they wouldn’t have a chance. But because we all cling so tightly to the idea of power and refuse to answer to each other, we’re making our kind easy to prey on.”

“Odd that you would criticize people for wanting power when you yourself are asking for power over us all,” observed one of the Primes.

Her face hardened. “There’s nothing wrong with wanting power. But if the search for it makes our kind suffer, it’s not a good thing.”

“The U.S. has had a Monarch before,” called out a Prime at the far end of the table. “It didn’t work. It resulted in lairs constantly attempting to overthrow others.”

“Yes,” confirmed Isla, “but there wasn’t a pyramid hierarchy then.”

Raul crossed his arms over his chest, looking bored and tired. “Explain this pyramid hierarchy.”

“There would be levels of power and influence,” she said. “A layout of authority exists within each lair; there’s the leader, the sentinels, the Force that defends the lair, and the other demons that are part of it. Layouts work.”

One of the Primes scoffed. “You want some of us to be sentinels for you?”

“Not at all. I am simply making the point that each level within a lair’s hierarchy has a certain amount of authority – the same would apply to the pyramid hierarchy I am proposing. Depending on where a Prime sits within the structure depends on how much power they have.”

Another Prime spoke up. “And what about Primes that sit on lower levels?”

“Obviously they wouldn’t be influential over the others,” replied Isla, “but it means they would have the protection of the others. At the moment, small lairs are very vulnerable to larger ones. Plenty of small lairs have in fact been overtaken by others. I’ll bet even some of you here are guilty of that.”

Harper watched as some of them averted their gaze or shuffled in their seats.

“We have no laws,” continued Isla. “Nothing in place to protect the demons of our country. Having a Monarch would prevent that.”

“That’s a very pretty answer,” said Jolene, lounging casually in her chair, “but realistically all lairs existing on the lowest level would be crushed under the power of the others if such a hierarchy was implemented.” Murmurs of agreement spread throughout the room.

Isla arched a brow. “Are you not crushed now?”

“No, because there’s no law or Monarch that says I can’t retaliate against any lair that tries to give me trouble. If we accept your changes, it would mean lairs with a high level of power and authority over me could come along, demand I hand over my lair to them, and there’d be nothing I could do about it. Of course, I’d tell them to shove that order up their ass. I don’t think they’d like that. So we’d war. It’s possible I could lose. Then what?”

“You could come to me, I would ensure the crime was punished.”