Gabriel's Hope

Intrigued by the offer she brought him before she disappeared, he was beginning to think he should've made the deal official. He'd never entered into a private one before and didn't know if his predecessor had either.

The idea she'd hidden it somewhere he couldn't find was driving him mad, along with the scent of the human blood coating the walls of the far bedroom. He ran his tongue over his pointed teeth and stood in the center of her living room, pensive and hungry.

It wasn't here. It wasn't anywhere he'd tracked her during the entirety of her lifetime. The human named Deidre had to have it with her, a trinket or piece of jewelry with sentimental value that she never took off. It was small enough, it could be anywhere. Wynn's soul was an official debt she incurred, and Death would do its duty and repay.

The second soul bartered for in private was flat out missing. It didn't seem possible. Past-Death wanted this soul found, and Darkyn's searches the past few years yielded nothing. With the sheer number of demons Darkyn had assigned to watching Deidre over the years and all the leads he'd personally pursued, he should have stumbled upon it by now. The demons he sent to Death's underworld failed. The demons he sent to the mortal world failed.

Furious, he took matters into his own hands. He, too, was failing. Worse, he wasn't able to operate under the radar for much longer, now that Gabriel had claimed his mate. Time was short.

Darkyn had no tolerance for failure, especially not after past-Death interfered in his attempt to capture Rhyn's mate. He was burning through the limited amount of demons qualified to shape-shift. They were a finicky lot, lasting only two to three days in the human world before the serum that change their features wore off.

Deidre's boyfriend, Logan, cost Darkyn two of the valuable shape-shifting demons. Neither of them found any trace of what Darkyn sought.

"Hey, boss."

His least favorite demon crept from the shadows. Jared was a thorn in Darkyn's side, but he was also a friend of the half-demon Rhyn. No other demon was permitted close the Immortal fortress. It was respect for this usefulness that kept Jared from feeling the brunt of Darkyn's anger.

"I went over the beach house with a fine-toothed comb," Jared said. "Nothing."

"I'm missing something," Darkyn growled.

"Are you sure …"

At Darkyn's glare, Jared ducked his gaze and fell silent.

"I need a distraction, Jared, to keep the Immortals out of my hair," Darkyn said.

"Happy to serve."

"Pick a human school to target for breakfast. Take two more demons with you. Make it messy and obvious."