Dark Beauty (The Deadly Beauties Live On 1)

“I’m sorry,” she whispers, her eyes moving to Kimber whose head has fallen back.

Frowning, I carry Kimber to my room and place her in the bed, stroking her hair out of her face. She looks innocent and peaceful when she’s asleep. She’s stubborn and frustrating when awake.

I lean over to her ear and whisper, “Never again, Kimber. Never. Again.”

She stirs just barely, but her eyes remain closed. I head back into the living room where Karma is holding the ice pack to her head.

“Nothing for you to apologize for,” I say, cursing my own self.

“It’s my fault. I trusted him,” she says remorsefully.

I lean back, studying her. They really wanted her back. She’s young, new to our world, so her powers haven’t fully nested and reached their full potential yet. If she stays on our side, she’ll be a good asset.

“I’ve been out of the game for a while. I shouldn’t have been so careless. It would have made more sense for us to stagger our positions,” I tell her, soothing the regret she feels.

“I really thought Avery hadn’t been hardened by those places. I thought he was… like me.”

The despair in her eyes is evident, but before I can try to say anything, Dice beats me to it.

“So you thought he was a bit of a bitch then?”

She narrows her eyes at him, but then a hint of a smile appears when he starts cackling like the ass he is. I don’t know if he did it on purpose or if he was just being his usual jackass self, but he seems to break through her guilty barrier.

“Go to hell, incubus,” she says roughly, even as her smile grows.

Dice keeps walking, waving a hand in the air. “You’re kinfolk have never been overly fond of me. I’ll stay topside if it’s all the same to you.”

Her smile deepens as he disappears into his room. I’m not sure how the crafty incubus conned me into giving him a permanent room in my home.

“There’s a guest room next to Dice’s. Take it,” I say to Karma as she stands. “We’ll regroup. Thad is already on his way to Alyssa to fill her in on everything.”

“The queen?” she asks, though I think it’s more of a rhetorical question. I nod, and she settles back in her seat.

“What will happen?” she asks after a minute.

“We’ll find a new source of information. Alyssa will send us trustworthy help. Believe me when I tell you that I only work with people I trust. We’ll take better precautions from now on.”

She sighs and it echoes my own disappointment. We went into the woods thinking we’d be walking out with new locations to hit, but we came out ambushed and weakened.

“Everyone here has jaded eyes,” she says softly, so softly that I barely hear her.

“It’s just a part of our lives,” I say mildly, curious as to why she has randomly changed the topic.

Her eyes come up to meet mine, and she blows out a shaky breath.

“Kimber’s eyes are jaded from what she endured. Dice has his reasons, I’m sure—mostly debauchery. But you and the changer… As a half demon, I see sins in the eyes of people—the windows to the souls. I can’t see the details, but I can see the depth of the scars. I assume you haven’t always been on this side of the line.”

Her words strike an uneasy chord, and I narrow my eyes at her. Taking a step forward, I make sure to let the menace roll off me. “Pasts exist. Thad and I were born in much different times, and we weren’t exactly swaddled in blankets of purity. What’s your angle with this line of direction?”

She holds her hands up. “Don’t get your panties twisted. It’s not like that. It’s obvious you’ve been reformed. Both of you. It’s just… Those looks always scare me. I spent a large piece of my life looking into very sinful eyes. It’s rare I see redemption as well.”

My jaw tightens, but I have nothing else left to say. I’m not going to lay my past bare to some girl I don’t know, and then try to explain myself.

Instead, I turn around and head toward my room where Kimber is, silently cursing the half demon. The second I push through to the room, all thoughts of Karma vanish.

Kimber is shaking violently, unconscious as her body convulses.

“Shit.”