King of the Underworld by RJ Kane

King of the Underworld

465

Adrik

Once we were all convened in Vitaliy’s new office, we started to go over the evening’s events. Battista and Vitaly weren’t aware of what had happened when Stephen got rid of the things hanging around the hospital administrator and the mayor.

“Is that what made them cough uncontrollably?” Vitaliy asked.

“We think so. When it happened, the demons were almost desperate to find a way in. It really agitates them when they hear Stephen speak, Ivan said.

“I think the coughing is the body trying to reject it,” Sephie said.

“Does this mean the mayor is good to go now? We don’t need to worry about him further?” Battista asked.

“Not exactly. He still has weaknesses that a different demon can exploit. Viktor is what fixes that, but we haven’t figured out a way to do that subtly yet. It’s visually very obvious when he fixes someone,” I said.

“It’s visually obvious to you. Has anyone who is not you seen him do it yet?” Battista asked. “You all can see things no one else can anyway. Maybe the average person couldn’t see it.”

He did bring up a valid point. Viktor hadn’t used Kostya around anyone else outside our group yet. I glanced at Ilya, asking, “did you see it?

“Yeah, but maybe it was just because I’m his brother?” Ilya said.

ask him if there’s a way

he could communicate so quickly with Kostya, but clearly he could. He said, “he thinks he can make it so it’s not obvious. He still

Sephie asked, grinning at him.

was reserved specifically for her. “Who did you have

men, Eduard and Sergel. “I’m really sorry, Sergei, but you need help. You’ve needed help since I met you. I just wasn’t sure you’d let anyone help you.”

I’d still known Sergei for most of my life. He was a hard man, but he was a good man. Whatever Sephie

looked at Sergei, asking, “this is true?” Sergei was silent, but everyone could tell from his body language that he

to call you out in front of everyone, Sergei, but you’re struggling. It’s getting louder, which means it’s harder for me

to deal with all that on your own,

own searching when Andrei said something. “Sergei, you know that wasn’t your fault,

Sergei was the one that was with me. The attack killed the driver, Petr. It

blame himself for what had happened. He said he felt like he should’ve been able to see it coming. He was overprotective of me from that point until I hit adulthood. We all thought he had handled it, but clearly he was still carrying around guilt from it. Silently

for it for almost my

his shoulder. “You are very good at your job. You always have been. You always will be. What happened that night is not a reflection of you. It needed to happen, Sergel. He needed to go through that experience so he could save me when the same thing happened to me. If he hadn’t, I wouldn’t be here,” she said quietly. Sergei looked at her, his eyes wide. He

1, Sergei. He saved her so she could save me. That night had to happen. You kept him alive though. There’s no way he could’ve survived that crash

Stephen. He walked closer to her and Sergel. She whispered something quietly to Sergei. He nodded his head, then Stephen touched his arm. It took a few moments, but Sergei gasped loudly, like he just jumped into freezing water and his lungs were revolting. Stephen didn’t let go Sephie recognized that Stephen was having to work to get Sergei cleared completely, so she grabbed his other hand, giving him the needed boost. It took

looked at Battista, as well as Eduard, saying, “you two have to watch and

much like Andrei could see regularly. It was dim, with plenty of ho les in it. Viktor removed his hand, waited for a moment, then put his hand back on Sergei’s shoulder. We didn’t see Kostya this time, but we could see the effects of Kostya being there. Sergei’s aura lit up while

asking, “can you see