Through a Crimson Veil by Patti O'Shea

Other World. He’d slain demons merely for roaming the streets here, and that wouldn’t be well-received. Even if that remained secret, his hatred of demons was so ingrained, it would take years to overcome.
    “I’m not sure,” she hedged. “I can be happy here too, but it would depend on a few things.” Since she didn’t want him to ask what those things were, Mika kept talking. “I’ll always have ties to Orcus, though. My mom, and gran, and brother are there.”
    “You have a brother?” He sounded shocked.
    “Half brother,” she corrected easily. “Our mom was mated to his father before she met mine. We’re prettyclose, considering he was nearly twenty when I came along and we didn’t grow up together. His dad was Grolird—that’s the second darkest of the demon branches—and Nic’s always been protective of me.” She couldn’t contain a laugh at the thought. “Other demons have no clue how to respond to him. He has the bite of his father and the sense of fun of the Mahsei. It confuses almost everyone.”
    “Why isn’t he protecting you from the Kiverian then?” Conor asked.
    It took all of Mika’s will to keep her body from becoming rigid. Damn, for a second, she’d forgotten about her story. Conor was her mate; she didn’t want to add more untruths to their relationship, but what the hell could she say?
    “Nic doesn’t know about this,” she said, this being her mission for the Council—“and I’d like to keep it that way.” Oh, yeah, would she ever. Nic would chew her out for even agreeing to undertake the job, but she’d had to protect the man she’d thought her vishtau mate no matter what.
    “Why?” There was a note of suspicion in Conor’s voice.
    Mika had to be careful. “For much of my life, I’ve run to my brother to fight my battles when they became too tough for me. I’m tired of that, McCabe. Maybe you think it’s stupid—what difference does it make if you fight for me or Nic does—but I hired you. And I’m giving you something in return.”
    He exhaled long and hard, his breath tickling her ear. “I think I understand. You feel like a burden.”
    She nodded, if hesitantly. “Sometimes. I don’t go to Nic often, and haven’t since I reached my teens. I’d rather take care of things on my own.”
    She wanted him off this line of questioning. When he’d quizzed her yesterday about the Kiverian that was supposedly after her, she’d used her body to derail him, but if she pulled that again, he might suspect. She needed an alternate plan.
    Stoke his temper. Mika smiled. That would work, andwhen it came to infuriating Conor, she was the world champion.
    “Of course,” she said with exaggerated patience, “you’d never understand how I feel.”
    “Why the hell wouldn’t I?”
    No doubt he thought she’d blame it on his being male, but that wasn’t a hot button for him. “Because you’re Kiverian,” she said instead.
    She felt the rumble in his chest, but she couldn’t hear it. He wasn’t quite mad enough. She needed to torque him up another notch or two. “After all,” she continued blithely, “you’re from such a dark branch of demon, you must be the biggest badass in Crimson City. You can take down vampires and werewolves without difficulty, no human would dare challenge you, and even other demons are going to be careful. How could you know what it’s like to be powerless?”
    “I am not a demon,” he snarled. His voice was hard, dangerous.
    And she had ignition. Mika guessed she couldn’t take full credit for getting McCabe angry so fast, not with the frustrated sexual tension brewing between them. But the whys didn’t matter. The important thing was that Conor had stopped questioning her.
    “Demon traits are dominant. The scientific claim could be made that you’re more Kiverian than human.”
    His growl only proved her argument. Only a demon male could manage to produce that noise. Mika, however, wasn’t about to point that out.