Free Demon's Embrace by Abby Blake Page B

assassin decided to shut up. Angry enough to shake the jar, but sensible enough not to, Ronan turned to Alex for help. Nothing he’d learned about interrogation techniques had included a course on how to make a three-inch pixie spill all.
     
    * * * *
     
     
    “Why did you come after me?” Kali asked their captive.
    The pixie rolled her eyes and tapped her foot. Even in miniature that thing was a bitch.
    “Fine. Okay, I get it. Assassin for hire. Go where the money takes you. Kill whatever or whoever you’re told to kill.” She turned to Alex and Ronan. “She’s just a pawn. She doesn’t know anything.”
    “Do, too,” the pixie said, sounding smug.
    “Uh-huh,” Kali said in a voice that she hoped very clearly conveyed her disbelief. “Why would they tell you anything? You’re obviously a very small part of a much bigger plot.” She turned her back on the pixie, dismissing the creature’s existence.
    “Do you have any idea who I am?”
    “Not a clue,” Kali said over her shoulder. “Can’t say I much care, either.”
    “I am Connistanterina Elizabeth DeKardoin, fourth-born daughter of the Pixie King. I am royalty, and you will treat me as such.”
    “Well, Conni ,” Kali said, hoping the shortening of her name would infuriate the woman enough for her to spill some useful information. “As royalty in the enemy camp, perhaps you should consider human history. I’m pretty sure we beheaded captured royals.”
    “Human barbarians. No sense of honor.”
    “Says the miniature assassin caught in a glass jar. You’re pathetic. You talk of honor like you understand what it means.”
    “Of course I know what it means. The Oracle broke the rules. She intended to pass her information onto humans.” The pixie spat the word “humans” like it was some despicable contagious disease. “I killed her to protect my people. If I had known the traitor was capable of passing her information to human babies, I would have killed them all that day.”
    “So you’re not a hired assassin.”
    “I was not hired. I was chosen.” The pixie stuck her nose in the air, her eyes shining with what could only be described as a fanatical light. It didn’t matter what reasonable argument they made, this pixie had no intention of listening, ever. Considering she’d just announced she was willing to kill newborn babies, it took all of Kali’s sense of humanity not to grab the jar and start shaking until the callous bitch cried.
    “Why you?” Kali asked, trying to inject a mocking tone into her voice instead of the rage she felt. “What’s so special about you? You don’t look up to the job from where I’m standing.”
    “I am the best,” the miniature pixie said with an arrogant sniff. “I grabbed the Oracle, transported her to a place with no paranormal creatures, and silenced her.”
    “But you failed, because she passed her knowledge on to humans.” Kali tilted her head, lifting the jar to look more closely at the pixie. She could see the annoyance even on such a tiny face, but a theory was starting to solidify in her mind, and she decided to try and get confirmation. “You’re cleaning up your own mess. Nobody even knows you’re doing this. That’s why the assassinations weren’t simultaneous. You’ve been doing this on your own.”
    The pixie didn’t say anything, but Kali could see the woman’s fear now. It seemed pretty obvious that she had no backup. It was likely that no one would even notice that the pixie was missing—at least not for a while.
    “Can pixies starve to death?”
    “No,” the pixie said with a half laugh that didn’t quite hide her terror. “Unlike humans, we are not fragile creatures.”
    “Good to know,” Kali said as she turned to her men. “How long will the wards stay in place?”
    “Indefinitely,” Alex said with a grim smile. Kali could sense the anger both her men were feeling toward the conscienceless assassin.
    “Good,” Kali said. She lifted the microphone