“Something happened. What is it?”

He took her hand in his. “It’s Carla. She’s missing.”

Harper’s stomach rolled. Carla Hayden was a sphinx and a member of their lair. She was also Harper’s mother.

CHAPTER TWO

Using a bottle of drinking water to wet a handkerchief, Knox then dabbed the healing wound on her cheek; wiping away the excess blood. He’d bitten her. The bastard had bitten her. Pointed a gun at her head. Slammed her into a wall. Tried to r—

The Bentley rattled a little, and she gave him a sideways glance. Knox took a deep breath to cool his anger, reminding himself that she was there with him, alive and safe. But it wasn’t easy when his demon’s rage heated his blood and buzzed through his veins. They’d seen through the human’s memories exactly what he’d done to his mate.

Knox and his demon were doubly possessive and protective of Harper because in addition to being their mate she was their anchor. Demons came in pairs, but they didn’t have soul mates. They had predestined psi-mates who would anchor their demon, make them stronger, and give them the stability that stopped them from turning rogue.

When a demon fused their psyche with their anchor’s, it forged a binding link between them. The link wasn’t sexual or emotional; it was purely psychic. Still, anchors often become close friends since they found it mentally uncomfortable to be apart for long periods. They also instinctually protected and supported each other, and they were unswervingly loyal.

Being anchored didn’t stop the inner demon from occasionally surfacing – nothing could completely control it – but it did stop the entity from taking over. And if a demon lost its anchor and the link between them broke, the demon often broke right along with it.

As his anchor and his mate, Harper was indispensable to Knox in more ways than one. He needed her alive and safe. He didn’t need her being fucking shot at by a junkie. It didn’t surprise Knox that she hadn’t called out for help when the human attacked her. Harper was used to being alone and taking care of herself. He knew she was fully capable of doing so. He just didn’t want her to have to. Knox wanted to be for her what she’d never had – someone to rely on, someone to turn to, someone who would deal with her problems for her. He wanted to make up for the things she’d never had. He definitely didn’t want to find her injured and bleeding.

Knox very carefully slid his hand to the back of her head to check out the swelling. It wasn’t so bad, which meant she was healing fast. Lost in her own thoughts, she didn’t even seem aware that he was touching her.

He watched her closely, unsure what reaction his news would receive. He would wager that he knew Harper better than even she did, but he was never able to predict her responses. She was a guarded, complex, elusive creature who always managed to surprise him, which was an actual achievement considering he was someone who read people easily.

It was her ability to both surprise and intrigue him that had first drawn Knox to her. It made her different. Interesting. And that had intensified the raw need she sparked in him. Not even five and a half feet tall, she was small and feminine with delectably sinful curves and a mouth from every male’s fantasy. She also had a natural grace and moved with an innate sensuality that enraptured his demon.

What Knox liked most about his pretty, shiny little mate were her eyes. Not simply because they were unusually glassy and reflective in a catlike way, but because they routinely changed color. Right now, however, they were annoyingly covered with contact lenses to hide her unique eyes from humans. And they showed absolutely no emotion. Whatever she was feeling about the Carla situation, he wasn’t yet sure.

Mother and daughter had an extremely complicated… well, he wouldn’t call it a relationship. There wasn’t anything between them. When aborting Harper didn’t work, Carla had wanted an incantor – a demon that could use magick – to bottle Harper’s soul in order to punish her father, Lucian. That plan had also failed, at which point Harper’s grandmother had paid Carla to carry the baby to term. Carla had then left Harper with the imps and never once played a part in her life.

It wasn’t that Carla was evil. She’d just been too twisted up inside after Harper’s father, who was both Carla’s anchor and the demon she’d chosen for a mate, rejected her on both levels. A demon who lost its mate was both dangerous and unstable. Given that Knox would be just as hurt if he lost Harper, he could understand why Carla became so twisted. Nonetheless, he didn’t see it as an excuse for anything Carla had done.

Harper had grown up believing the woman hated her just as she hated Lucian, and she’d come to terms with that in her own way. Months ago, however, they had discovered that Carla had actually watched Harper from afar when his mate came to Vegas – she’d even gone to Harper’s graduation. Knox had sensed that a part of Carla wanted her only daughter in her life, but it simply wasn’t a big enough part of her to make any difference. Learning these things had thrown Harper off-balance and forced her to re-evaluate what she’d grown up believing.

He suspected that too much had really happened for the two females to ever have a relationship of any kind. He strongly doubted that Carla’s absence in her life bothered Harper that much, though. She wasn’t bitter about it, and she didn’t want anyone in her life who wouldn’t be a positive influence.

In her position, Knox would have felt neither here nor there about the disappearance of a mother who had been anything but a mother to him. He certainly wouldn’t feel sympathy for someone who had so drastically let him down. But unlike him, Harper had a huge soft spot. Beneath her hard exterior lay a marshmallow center that would no doubt feel bad for Carla.