Wow, so maybe it was a good thing that I was half demon after all. Apparently the head of the faction needed to have full control over the future king. That was interesting and kind of worrying.
“I’m ready for a change. I have spent way too much time on the streets. I have been waiting for this kind of opportunity for years,” I stated.
“Good. I like you, Maxine. Your resume is very impressive and your background doesn’t bring any major concerns. The future king should be satisfied. You also need to remember that you will be managing other guards, men that haven’t worked with women before. Do you think that would be a problem?”
I started laughing then. He was right: I was only twenty-four, and most of the time men didn’t appreciate getting orders from a woman. I had worked hard to build up a reputation for myself. Men weren’t a problem for me as long as they treated me with respect and as an equal.
“No, it’s never a problem,” I told him. “I have worked as the only woman with men for over six years.”
I didn’t know if the interview was going okay or not. The demon in front of me kept asking me other questions, left the office for several minutes, and then an hour later he was giving me a tour of the palace.
All this baffled me, but I assumed that it was just a standard procedure. Deep down I was very disturbed that a demonic faction was working for the British monarchs. Presumably Lucifer didn’t like giving humans a free hand, and he needed to keep an eye on one of the most important families in Britain.
“Graham was right. You’re going to do well in here,” Johnson stated after he introduced me to most of the security staff. I blinked rapidly, wondering if I had heard him correctly.
I was just about to ask him what he meant, when we both heard loud whistling, and a moment later a tall, blond guy appeared greeting us with the most delicious smile.
I left the tube station at Hackney Downs, remembering how extremely excited I’d been at being presented with that kind of opportunity. I was going to be a head of security and I would protect Prince Arthur himself. Two years ago this sounded like an unbelievable break for me. I was so naive then, badass but very naive. I had no idea that this job would ruin me forever.
I was fresh and young then, maybe a little inexperienced in certain aspects of my life, but ready to take on any challenge. My life seemed simple, and it was—until the moment I met the Prince himself.
Edward and I both turned around at the sound of the whistle. The man that approached us was definitely human with a lot of charisma. His emotions were calm and he seemed relaxed. He was dressed in jogging shorts and a white T-shirt.
“Ah, there is Arthur himself. Let me introduce you,” Johnson said, smiling tightly. My jaw dropped. I had never paid attention to the royal family, so back then I didn’t know what the future king really looked like. I wasn’t expecting to meet the prince himself.
“Ed, what a surprise. I’ve just been out on a run,” Arthur said, eyeing me with curiosity. He was sweating a lot, but I liked his messy look, the curiosity and gleam in his green eyes. This man was trouble.
“Your Highness, allow me to present you with your new Head of Security,” Johnson said, throwing me completely off guard. “This is Maxine Brodeur. I was planning to make the proper introduction tomorrow, but since you’re here—”
“Maxine, pleasure to meet you,” the future king said, getting to me faster than I expected and extending his hand for a shake.
He was much taller than me, his shoulders broad and muscular. For the first time in my short life I was speechless, staring at this man in total amazement. He smiled wider, and then suddenly a wave of desire flipped over my stomach. When our hands touched, I felt the zing of electricity that suddenly ran between us, connecting my demonic soul with his human emotions.
“It’s good to meet you too, Your Highness,” I managed to say, unable to take my eyes off that man, that human. We were staring at each other for a good few seconds, still holding each other’s hands, and with every passing moment my heart beat faster.
I should have known back then on that corridor that my life was never going to be the same again. I should have predicted that meeting the prince would break my ordered life to pieces, that after a year in the royal court I would have to hide in order to protect the secret that could never be revealed.
Chapter Eight
“Into the eternal darkness, into fire and into ice. ” ― Dante Alighieri, The Divine Comedy
I didn’t go straight to The Broken Shoe. For a good half hour I walked around contemplating what to do. Soon the craving for a drink won and I entered a different pub near Hackney an hour later. The Broken Shoe was hidden between the small alleys in Brixton, and it served a different caliber of customers than the one I had chosen tonight. I was hoping to speak to one of the guards from the palace. He had a tendency to hang around here a while back. The pub was called Six Bells and there was a mixed crowd in here: a few drunk humans, mongrels and a demon who sat at the back with a pint of beer.
Matt was one of the guards that I personally hired almost two years ago. I knew that he liked drinking in Six Bells, mostly because that was where he met his ex-wife; he was a nostalgic kind of guy. Also he was the best person to talk to about the night that George disappeared. He knew most of the staff and I hoped that even after a year not much had changed.
I glanced around, slightly apprehensive to see two Watchers sitting in the corner and eyeing the crowd in front of them. Their presence was worrying. They only appeared if a creature from the underworld was on the loose, or if a human accidentally had learned the truth about the demonic world. They also dealt with demons that didn’t stick to the rules. This wasn’t good, but I shook my head, wanting to ease my paranoia. The bottom line was that they weren’t here for me, well, hopefully not. I was getting paid to track George down and I was certain that I would have something after talking to Matt. The past was the past, and there was no point dwelling on it.
“Hey, Mattie boy, how are you this fine cold evening?” I asked, situating myself next to him. He looked at me, releasing a huge smile, and then scanned me up and down with his deep brown human eyes.
“And who the devil let you in here? The one and only Maxine Brodeur,” he said. “I had a feeling you might show up soon enough.”
“Well, you know me. I don’t like wasting time,” I replied and nodded to the barman to pour me some tequila. I knew that this wasn’t what I was normally used to, but the spirit was enough to shush my troubling memories. “You’re the perfect person to tell me everything that I need to know.”
Matt was lean and built up like he had taken too many steroids. He had deep circles around his eyes, a square jaw, and he was completely bald. He was divorced with teenage kids, and after many years of failed relationships, he still hoped to find the right woman.
“I didn’t see anything last night, if that’s what you’re after,” he said, getting straight to the point, and then he took a generous gulp of beer.
“That’s disappointing. I was hoping that you might have actually seen at least something?” I asked.
“No, we all got the call around midnight, but by that time the young prince was already gone. I’ve got no idea how the intruder even got into the palace in the first place. There were guards stationed almost everywhere and no slackers sneaking off.”
I looked at the gold liquid in front of me, aware that it’d been two nights since I had tasted it.
“To be honest, I don’t really want to talk about last night. Tell me who George has been hanging around with lately. Any questionable individuals?” I pressed, and swallowed my first shot of tequila. The alcohol burned my throat, but the sensation afterwards felt damn good. Mama was home, baby.
“The usual—spoiled kids from Chelsea. There had been some arguments with Princess Layla too. George wanted her to stay out of his business. You know, the same domestic stuff as usual.”
I asked the barman to pour me another shot of tequila, an
d once the alcohol started burning through my veins, I began relaxing. The stress from earlier on faded and my torn heart became stone cold again. Hell, drinking was my escape from agonising pain, from feeling like the loneliest person on this planet.
“There is more though, isn’t there, Matt? It’s not just the usual problems at home,” I said, pretty much aware that he knew more than he wanted to say. Whoever the hell was in charge of the security these days must have been keeping all the guards on a short leash. The rules were simple: all the staff that worked for the royal family had to sign a nondisclosure agreement, but Matt owed me more than a few favours. I didn’t want to bring this up right away, but I needed to know what young George had been up to. Something wasn’t sitting right.
Matt finished his pint. I had all night, and I wasn’t planning to leave empty-handed.
“I heard that the prince had been seen in the company of some redheaded chick. An older one. Boys were saying that he didn’t want to leave her side,” Matt said, barely in a whisper. “I don’t know how much of this is true, but they were seen kissing and holding hands.”
“A redheaded woman? Had anyone seen her with him before” I questioned, thinking that maybe George had lost his head for some cougar. There was nothing strange or suspicious about that. Who knew? Maybe the whole kidnapping was staged.
“Well, I know for sure that she wasn’t one of his usual girls. None of the guards had ever actually seen her, but his friends had talked about her a lot. Besides, young Prince George was a prick. He wasn’t like Arthur,” Matt said. “If you know what I mean”
I nearly spat the alcohol all over the bar. That name made me feel suddenly very angry. I needed to get out of here and get back to Brixton with this new lead. The woman must have meant something to George or maybe I was reading too much into it. Women were always likely to become less moralistic, shall we say, when they were around young royal bachelors. There was also a possibility that she was a demon, trying to take advantage of our young prince.
“Okay, that’s pretty much all that I needed to know, unless there is something else you want to tell me?” I asked, hopping off the stool. The alcohol was working, finally untangling my emotional downfall.
“He is missing you, Maxine. Natalie doesn’t fill the hole in his heart that you burned with yours,” Matt said unexpectedly when I turned around, ready to leave. I stopped abruptly. My stomach rolled with warmth, but I pushed it away. Matt was just a guard, but he obviously knew more about royal affairs than I expected.
“What are you talking about?” I asked, my voice small.
“A year ago when you left, he went into total meltdown trying to find you. Got himself into a lot of trouble with the police and guards.”
I wasn’t expecting to feel so shitty about my whole life when I entered this bar. Arthur didn’t give a fuck and Matt was lying.
“Well, it looks like he sorted himself out quickly enough,” I muttered.
“Barely. He still talks about you to other guards, to staff. He hasn’t forgotten about you, Max,” Matt added, but I couldn’t listen to this anymore.
I glanced back at him and then walked away until I breathed in the cold February air. My chest heaved with pain reliving the worst day of my life. Matt had no idea what he was talking about. Arthur’s grandmother made sure that we would stay apart, and he had never tried to find me.
I needed to get out of Hackney and pour a whole bottle of magical tequila down my throat to kill the guilt. I was forced to leave something behind, something that connected me to Arthur on a whole new level. I looked down on the ring that he had given me and shook my head, forcing the tears away, wishing that I could tell him the truth about my disappearance. Wishing that this pain would go away for at least a moment.
It took me another hour to get back to Brixton, and by the time I was walking through the streets of my neighbourhood it was ten o’clock at night. I hated living in such a sprawling city. The public transport was a nightmare, and on top of my ridiculously high rent, I wasn’t even covering all the bills.
I turned right, losing myself in the narrow alley that eventually would take me to The Broken Shoe, my favourite local pub. My stomach was burning, and I had to play tonight, before I did something really stupid. Deep inside there was an unbearable craving for the most precious thing that I was forced to leave behind, someone that had changed my life forever.
That night I was sloppy, and my thoughts were racing, so I didn’t even notice that I had been followed. A grown human male was creeping behind me, and by the time I felt him it was too late. Seconds later I was slammed against the brick wall by a large, muscular man that wore a strong, kind of familiar aftershave. I’d had a couple of drinks a while back, but no one had ever surprised me in such an unexpected and violent way.
“Hi, Flower. I think such a delicate creature like you shouldn’t be walking around the streets alone … so late at night,” said the voice that I vaguely recognised. There was something wrong with my excellent eyesight tonight, but it only took me couple of seconds to figure out who had managed to successfully corner me in the darkness.
“You have two seconds to get the fuck away from me before I smash your face against this brick wall,” I snarled, and felt his heat rising fast. Yeah, I just let Detective Zachary Quinton manhandle me. On top of that, he was getting turned on by the fact that I was pissed and not in my usual control. My vision suddenly sharpened. He was staring at me with those dark eyes filled with curiosity, roving over my parted lips. We only met for what—two seconds earlier on, but I really wanted to kick his arse right about now.
“Shut up and listen to what I have to say. I don’t like when someone interferes in my business and you’re doing exactly that right now, so I want you to quit. The streets of London are ugly, filled with too many unexpected surprises,” he said, moving his face closer, almost brushing his lips over mine.
My stomach made a flip, as the unfamiliar wave of lust heated up between my legs, causing havoc in my torn demonic soul. There was no way that Zachary was simply just an arrogant son of a bitch, an ordinary human. His energy was pushing his thoughts into my mind, and he narrowed his eyes like he wanted to see past the anger and fury. I didn’t have time to get overwhelmed. I wasn’t going to just stand there and listen to his threats.
His grip was powerful, but it was dark and he couldn’t have predicted my next move even if he was a demon after all. I twisted my right leg around his and then tossed him over to the side while he lost his balance for a split second, but he didn’t fall down. My inner strength gave me some advantage and I lifted my leg, smashing my boot into his pretty face, throwing him on his back several meters away. For a human, well, I had to agree, he was strong, but he must have forgotten that I had spent six years mastering my fighting skills. I wasn’t just some girl that he could mess around with.
I was sitting on him before he had a chance to take another breath, and I was bloody surprised to feel the hard bulge in his crotch. It looked like Zachary was not only an arsehole, but a sexual deviant too.
“Now, you listen to me, Detective. You obviously have no idea who I am and what I’m capable of, but you can shove your demands where the sun doesn’t shine. I’m on this case whether you like it or not, and trust me, it will take a lot more than your muscles to get rid of me,” I said, wondering why I was so pumped up with positive vibes and why the hell I liked sitting on top of him. Crap, this was supposed to be straightforward.
He smiled at me, and I frowned. There must have been something really wrong with my focus that night, because he shifted underneath me. He used his knee to kick my exposed back, easily punching the air out of my lungs. I was slammed back on the ground, seeing stars, possibly for the first time in my life.
My energy surged down through my aching body, letting me know that this human was going to kick my arse. For some reason, I was losing my usual focus and before I even realised, he was sitting on top of me. The heat that exploded between us was
sudden and fiery. When I finally managed to open my eyes, his face was inches away from mine.
“I asked nicely; now I’m telling you to stay out of my way, Flower. You might be tough and shit, but there are things in this world that you don’t understand,” he growled, staring at me with his gorgeous eyes. His attitude really pissed me off and I wondered why our paths hadn’t crossed before. Zachary obviously thought he was some tough motherfucker with a badge and a big gun.
I started laughing, partly because I wanted to cover my explosive feelings, and partly because he was broadcasting his desire for me loud and clear. My reaction made him angry and he narrowed his eyes at me in confusion.
“You really chose the wrong person to mess around with, and the most stubborn one. Get off me before I do something that I regret later,” I whispered, not even knowing why I was so adamant about proving my point. It was hard to judge what his deal was and why he was so determined to keep me away from his investigation.
“Flower, you wouldn’t hurt me even if you wanted to,” he said, lowering his eyes to my cleavage. That short moment of distraction gave me an advantage. I extended my arm and then punched him as hard as I could. Okay, maybe this wasn’t ladylike, but I was done with his bullshit.
When I was standing on my feet, looking down at the hero detective who was now bleeding, it kind of hit me that I never felt better, sort of like myself from two years ago, before Arthur shattered me. It was refreshing.
“How about we make a deal? Down the road there is a pub where I like playing poker. You beat me and this case is yours, but if I win we will work together on this case. What you say, Detective? Have we got a deal?”