Desert Heat (Complete)

{Dorian’s P.O.V.}

“I don’t f*****g understand how one person can just up and disappear!?” Allie was fuming as she threw her arms above her head in utter frustration. It’s been two months since Heather and a group of demons attacked her and Simba, which forced Allie into her early labor. Even with Abaddon searching for her and an open bounty motivating hundreds of other bounty hunters, Heather seemed to have vanished into thin air once again. Only this time, she wasn’t even in the underworld—according to demons who came out of the woodworks for their chance at thirty million dollars.

Once the dust had settled after that day, Brandon returned from Red Mountain, and I lost Andre to Jed, which I still haven’t really gotten over yet. Brandon was the one who brought it to our attention that Leah didn’t have a vision of Allie being attacked. That was when Sin and Allie both realized that their powers hadn’t worked that day either. Sin said she vaguely remembered that she couldn’t hear anyone’s thoughts immediately prior to the attack, and Allie never sensed anyone else with her and Simba by the koi pond. But, in spite of everything that happened, things seemed to be back to normal for them.

Allie reached out to Maxine and Claudia to come over, and they performed a check on their abilities. It turned out dark magic was used to block their abilities so that Heather would have the upper hand. Knowing that Allie and the others had powers as blessed wolves, Heather used her ties to Demonville to her advantage.

“I’m sorry to be the bearer of bad news, Luna,” Persephone told Allie.

“It’s fine,” Allie replied while putting her hand to her forehead and taking a breather. “It’s not your fault. I just wish whoever was helping her evade you guys would just stop already. It’s been more than a year since we’ve been trying to hunt her down. I almost just want to give up at this point. At the rate this is going, I’ll end up dying of a f*****g stressed-induced aneurysm.”

“Well, we can’t have that; you have a newborn to raise,” Sinbad pointed out. Allie gave him a look, and he just held his hands up and smiled.

“Is this Abaddon guy ever going to show his face?” Allie asked.

“Abaddon prides himself on discretion, Luna. He doesn’t want people to know his true identity because he is afraid that it can be used in the future for someone else’s gain,” Persephone answered.

“Most bounty hunters don’t even use their real name, Gizmo,” Mikey added. “That’s why I went by the name of Razor since I got into the game.”

“Imagine our surprise when we finally found out who you really are, old chum,” Sinbad mentioned to him. After Mikey had reopened Heather’s bounty that day, Sinbad and Persephone came down to lend a hand in hopes of tracking her down. That’s when they discovered that Mikey was Razor. And now, they’ve pledged their alliance with our pack. Even their small pack of trained assassins work for me now. Having them associated with us gives my company a considerable advantage. I’ve never had assassins on the payroll, but having two of the best in the world, the amount of money they asked for was well worth it.

“Well, I feel that I can trust you guys with it. Especially since you guys never took the bribe from Maya last year.”

“We would never. You saved our asses eight years ago. We owe it to you, Gamma,” Persephone replied.

“Enough with the formalities. You guys are friends and allies. You can call me Mikey.”

“No, that’s just weird,” she replied, making all of us smile. Just then, there was a small cry on the baby monitor.

“Welp, that’s her dirty diaper cry,” Allie announced and got up. She gave me a chaste k**s, grabbed the baby monitor, and left my office. As soon as the door closed, Persephone turned around and frowned.

“What’s wrong, darling?” Sinbad asked her.

“How the hell does she look like that after having given birth two months ago? It took me almost two years to get back to my pre-pregnancy weight!”

“You’re a mother!?” Mikey and I both exclaimed.

“Huh? Oh yeah, I guess we never told anyone,” she responded and pursed her lips together.

“Wait, where are your kids? How old are they?” Mikey asked.

“Our daughter is twelve, and she’s currently attending Ninja Academy in Okinawa,” Sinbad answered.

“To study martial arts?” I asked.

“No, silly Alpha. That’s just one of the many schools on the curriculum to become an assassin.”

“You’re training your twelve-year-old to become an assassin!? Isn’t that kind of early?”

“You think that’s early? She’s been training since she could walk. We put her into self-defense classes when she was three. She made it to third-degree black belt by the time she was ten. She started to display signs of aggression towards bullies, and that’s when we knew she would use her skills for good. So, we told her what we are, and she wanted in on the family business. When she turned eleven, we shipped her off to Japan to train at the Ninja Academy for two years,” Sinbad explained. Mikey and I just looked at each other speechless over what we just heard.

“Family … business?” he repeated. They both nodded and smiled. I was about to say something else on the subject when my office door burst open.

“Allie!?” I stood up from my seat. “Baby, what’s wrong?” Allie turned around, and in walked a woman. She looked vaguely familiar to me, but I couldn’t place it.

“What the hell?” Persephone exclaimed and ran over to help the woman to the couch. She had been badly beaten. Her eye was swollen shut with black and blue bruising, her l*p was cut and bleeding, and she was holding her side as if her ribs were broken. Her shoulder was dislocated, and part of her hair was missing from her head.

“Allie, what’s going on? Who is this?” I asked.

“That’s Aria,” Allie responded. I was taken aback and looked back at the woman spitting up b***d on my couch.

“Aria? As in the demon chick who had kidnapped you a few months back?” Mikey confirmed. Allie nodded and looked over at Aria with so much concern.

“What happened to you?” Persephone asked, but Aria wouldn’t answer. She just looked away and tried to keep herself from spitting up more b***d.

“Dorian, we have to help her,” Allie pleaded with me.

“How? She’s a demon. I don’t think Dr. Quinn can help,” I answered.

“Babe, she’s still a living person!” she shouted at me and walked over to Aria. She sat next to her and held her hand. Aria looked at her and appeared to be on the verge of completely breaking down. “Aria, what happened?” Allie asked softly.

“Gideon.”

“Gideon? He did this to you!?” Allie exclaimed. Aria nodded, and the tears she had been holding back fell from her eyes.

“Wait, are you … crying?” Sinbad asked her. Aria looked up at him and quickly wiped her face.

“Why is that weird?” Mikey asked.

“Because if she’s a full demon, she wouldn’t have a soul. She would be incapable of crying,” he answered. We all looked at her, and she looked back at Allie. That’s when Allie suddenly c****d her head to the side and lifted her brow.

“Why are you looking at me like that?”

“Oh my god …” Allie gasped.

“What?” we all asked.

“Aria, you have a soul.”

“What?”

“You have a soul, Aria. I can sense it when I look into your eyes. It wasn’t there the last time we spoke, but it’s there,” Allie said to her, gripping her hands.

“But how? I’m a fully mid-level demon. I was born a demon.”

“You’re being rewarded,” Sinbad explained.

“What do you mean?”

“I know several demons with souls. And from what they have told me, demons who use their dark magic for good are actually rewarded by the god or goddess of the species that benefited from their good deed. In your case, I believe whatever you did for the Luna, or this pack, has pleased the moon goddess, and she has given you a soul.”

“I’ve never heard of such a thing,” I said to him.

“Because it is quite rare for a demon to use their dark magic for good,” he replied.

“Aria, look at me,” Allie instructed her. We all turned our heads. “I think Selene has given you a soul as a peace offering and as a reward.”

“What do you mean?”

“Remember, you told me that Selene created Heather specifically for Gideon. To uphold a promise she and the other high powers made to him eons ago?” Aria nodded her head. “I think she feels bad that she took away the man you fell in love with—Gideon. She wants to make it up to you by giving you a soul so that you can find an actual mate. Someone who will actually love you, for you.”

“Is that my reward? A mate?”

“Having a mate who truly loves you is the most rewarding thing in life, Aria,” I told her and stared lovingly at Allie. Sinbad took Persephone’s hand, and Mikey just nodded.

“And it will be the best thing to throw in both Heather’s and Gideon’s faces,” Allie said with a smirk.

“How?”

“Think about it. You get a mate. An actual mate, who will want to f**k your brains out but actually do it out of love and want, rather than as a booty call. Something Heather has always wanted but never got to have. And Gideon, well, he will get to see what an amazing woman you truly are, someone that he’s never going to be able to have again. Especially not after hurting you this way. I cannot believe he physically put his hands on you like this!” Allie shouted, looking her over once more.

“He didn’t.”

“What?”

“He didn’t … put his hands on me, anyway,” Aria said while looking down as she started to tremble. I immediately saw Allie’s body tense, and her eyes flickered black back to their light brown.

“Oh … my … god … How many?”

“Allie, please—”

“HOW MANY!?”

“Half a dozen, give or take,” Aria whispered.

“And he just allowed it to happen?”

“He ordered it.” Allie’s jaw dropped to the floor.

“Allie?” I called out to her, she looked in my direction, and her eyes were nothing but a black abyss. “Baby, what’s wrong?”

“He ordered her to be … gan … gang … Oh my god, I can’t even say it!”

“That’s it. Everyone with testicles, out!” Persephone shouted and pointed towards the door.

“This is my office!” I insisted.

“Dorian!” Allie shouted at me.

“Fine.” I grabbed the baby monitor from Allie, and we guys left my office to let the women do damage control. When we made it to the hallway, the door was immediately shut in our faces, and I turned to Mikey and Sinbad.

“Was Gizmo about to say what I think she was about to say?” Mikey asked. I nodded my head.

“Okay, demon or not, that’s f****d up. Who orders their subordinates to do that to another subordinate, and a woman at that!?” Sinbad questioned. I knew that this would be a touchy subject for Allie, given her past, but if there was one person who could get through to Aria, it would be Allie. Demon or not, no one deserved to be hurt that way.

“We need to find Heather and kill her,” I told them.

“The mark,” Mikey said to me. I nodded.

“What mark?” Sinbad asked.

“Before Heather became his human b***h, she marked Gideon, the demon king. He bears the mark of a werewolf on his neck. But according to Aria, it ties his soul to Heather’s, the same way it ties mates together. If Heather dies, we’re told that Gideon will die alongside her,” Mikey explained.

“Wait, what? Why didn’t you tell us this before!?”

“Because of that demon in there. Aria is in love with Gideon, and she didn’t want us killing Heather until we found a way to get rid of her mark on him. But given what he’s done, I don’t think Aria is going to have us wait anymore,” I explained. He was about to respond when the door flew up open, and Allie was standing before us.

“You’re right about that,” she announced. “Aria doesn’t want us to wait anymore. So, go find that b***h Heather, and kill her!”

“But we can’t even find her. Does Aria know where she is?” Sinbad asked.

“I know where she is,” someone said. Allie looked in between us, and her eyes widened like saucers. We turned around and saw an unknown man standing down the hall.

“What the f**k? Who the f**k are you? And how the f**k did you get into my house!?” I asked.

“Whoa,” Allie blurted out in awe. I turned around, and I could have sworn she had hearts in her eyes.

“What’s going o—Hello!” Persephone said from behind her. Sinbad turned to her in shock. “Who … is that?” she asked.

“My apologies for intruding, but I felt that what I needed to say couldn’t be done via email or phone call. You never know who is listening these days, and I think your phones have been compromised,” the unknown man informed us.

“Again, who the f**k are you?” I asked.

“Greetings, my name is Uriel, but I believe that you all know me as Abaddon.”