“Get me back?” I repeated. “I don’t do exterminator work anymore. I told you that.”
“I don’t just want my partner back,” he said, his glare daring me to refuse him. “I want you. In my life. In my bed.”
I was speechless. I wanted to check my ears to make sure they were working, but under the category of things that were impossible, this had always topped my list, above pigs flying and dogs mowing lawns. He waited for me to say something, his broad shoulders set, his hands jammed into his pockets. I could see the outlines of his fists through the fabric of his pants.
“You can’t be serious.”
“Can’t I?” he said, his gaze lasering through me. He looked determined. More than that. Dogged. Relentless. Like come hell or high water, he wasn’t going to lose this fight.
Sudden foreboding swept over me, and every hair on my body prickled. My mouth went dry as adrenaline slammed my system.
The ghosts were scared of my answer. So was I.
Just then a knock sounded at the door. Saved by the bell. I stood. Law watched me. I could feel him seething, could almost hear his thoughts. I was running away again, hiding behind a knock at the door instead of facing him. It was true. It was also a lot more complicated than he knew. If he and I were together on any level, I couldn’t keep the ghosts. They’d never feel safe. That bothered me more than I can say. I’d given them my protection, a home. They’d saved my life. I had a responsibility for them. I couldn’t just kick them to the curb.
My visitor knocked again, sharper, impatient. I looked at Law. “I’ve got a feeling whoever it is is looking for you.”
“They can wait.”
But he couldn’t. Or wouldn’t. The unspoken threat was there. Fine. He wanted answers, he could have them. The short-and-dirty version.
“The poltergeist’s name is Tabitha. She’s thirteen. Normally she doesn’t throw tantrums, but something about this place set her off. She’s one of eighteen ghosts who live with me. The job—my mark stole something. I’m here to get it back. My dad—my mom died when I was twelve. Cancer. Dad was a necromancer. He raised her back up. Her body didn’t keep well. When I was fifteen, I put her back in the ground and made sure he couldn’t raise her again. He never forgave me for it. I never forgave him for making me watch my mom rot until I had to kill her a second time.
“What would it take to get me back?” I shook my head. “I don’t even know what that means. You don’t need a partner here. I’m never going to be an exterminator again. You’re never going to leave that life behind. I mostly live out of my car these days, following a job. As for me in your life? I don’t see us having candlelit dinners and long, misty walks on the beach. The only things we ever did together was work and screw. Six years later, working together is off the table and sex—” I shrugged. “You don’t need me for that. You’ve got your choice of all kinds of beautiful women, I’m sure.”
The knocking got louder, more impatient. “Lawrence? Are you in there? Please answer.”
Speaking of beautiful women he could choose from, it was LeeAnne. “Work calls,” I said. “Better answer. I’d hate for her to think I kidnapped you.”
He remained still, his eyes boring through me. I stared back, determined not to be the first to look away.
LeeAnne knocked again. “Lawrence?” She sounded rattled.
He twitched and scraped his lower lip with his teeth. “We aren’t done here, Mallory. Do not try to leave without talking to me,” he ordered and strode away to answer the door.
I followed. I didn’t know if I was relieved that the housekeeper had interrupted us or irritated. It was like leaving a surgery half done and I was the one bleeding on the table.
Just before he put his hand on the handle to open the door, my mouth popped open. “As long as we’re going for full disclosure, I still love you.” I couldn’t believe I said the words, but the truth was I was tired of carrying them around with me unsaid. If this was going to be the last time we saw each other, and please God that it was, I wanted to lay it all to rest. I wanted to know that I’d said all I needed to.
He froze, his back to me. “Still?”
“That’s what I said.”
LeeAnne knocked again. “Lawrence? It’s important. Please answer me immediately. We have a serious problem.”
“Are you going to talk to her?” I asked when Law didn’t move. I’m not sure what response I’d been expecting from him. Silence was better than full-on laughter. Or maybe not. I don’t know. I’d kept the words bottled up for so long, it was relief to have said them. I knew he didn’t feel the same way, but letting the words out healed something in me. It was like the last step in growing up. “You probably ought to talk to her. Sounds like it might be an emergency.”
“I was considering strangling you first,” he growled.
The ghosts rippled around me like fluttering moth wings. With his back turned, he didn’t see.
“That would solve some problems,” I said. “Have me cremated if you do. I don’t want to be among the walking dead.”
“You’d probably come back as a poltergeist and haunt me.”
“I don’t think so,” I said. “I’m not into masochism.”
“You can dish it out, then, but you don’t like to take it. Is that it?”
I was surprised at the bitterness in his voice. “What do you mean?”
“It means we’ll be having a long talk later,” he said and pulled the door open before I could say anything else.
“What is it, LeeAnne?” He sounded calmly collected. It was his professional voice. I’d heard it a lot the two years we’d been partners. I’d always admired his ability to pull that mask over his own feelings, until he’d started doing it to me.
The Ritter case had been the last straw, but I’d started fraying months before. Every case involved killing someone or something. A lot of them deserved it. Ritter deserved it, even though he ended up in a supermax eating three squares a day and detailing his crimes to psychologists and biographers. He wanted to be remembered.
Law and I put a lot of creatures down. Humans we had to be careful about since they had legal rights. Ghosts, goblins, demons—supernatural creatures in general—they were another story. They were all vermin, according to the handbook, and you eradicate vermin. Only I had begun to see them as people, and extermination started to feel more like murder.
I started drinking more and more and I got angry a lot. When I wasn’t angry, I was whiny and weepy. That’s when Law turned his professional face on me. He went through all the tricks—soothing sympathy, helpful calming, stolid comforting. I felt like one of the victims. Talking to him didn’t help. He couldn’t understand. I took stupid risks, which only pissed Law off. It was better than dealing with professional robot Law. I know he thought I had some sort of PTSD. He was pushing me to take some time off. I knew what that meant. He couldn’t trust me in the field. It killed me to know he was right. The worst part is that I didn’t want to get over the new conscience I had grown. After I helped wipe out Ritter’s women, I realized I was done. If I stayed, I’d be a danger to Law. If I quit and stayed, he’d have treated me as if I were broken. He’d already begun doing it. Pity Mallory; she used to be good, but now she’s lost her nerve.
Leaving became my only good option.
“I’ve been trying to call you,” the housekeeper said. “There’s been an incident—” She caught sight of me behind him. “Ms. Carson. I hope everything is all right. Are you settling in?” she asked with frosty politeness.
She definitely had territorial issues about Law. I wondered if he’d been sleeping with her. A dull sword of jealousy rammed through my chest, and for a second, I couldn’t breathe. I didn’t have a right, I told myself. I never had.
“I’m doing well, LeeAnne,” I said and she twitched as I used her first name.
“I hope you don’t mind if I steal Lawrence from you,” she said. “Auberge business.” Her smile was plastic.
She reached to take Law’s arm and startled back when my wards stung her. Oops. She ought to have known better.
“Would you let me out, please, Mary,” Law asked. “It seems I have work to attend to.”
So did I. “Of course.”
I retreated to let the wards down and returned a moment later. Law stepped out into the hallway, and LeeAnne gripped his arm to drag him off.
He turned back to look at me.
“I’ll be back later,” he said. “I expect you to be here.”
I shrugged. “Girl’s gotta eat.”
“Don’t leave the hotel.”
I hesitated. If my mark slipped away, I’d have to follow. “I’ll wait as long as I can,” I said, hedging.
He scowled, his jaw jutting. “I’ll lock the place down.”
“Lawrence! You can’t do that! The guests would panic,” LeeAnne said. “It would be a disaster.”
He shrugged her off. “I mean it, Mary,” he said. “If you so much as look at the exit, the shutdown will trigger.”
I wondered if he could really do it. The ghosts could change my aural signature into an infinite number of variations. He might not know how I did it, but he certainly knew I could, so he wouldn’t set the shutdown to trigger off that. What else could he use? I didn’t know, but his threat didn’t sound idle. He must have a card up his sleeve.
“Fine,” I said. “Do what you’ve got to do.”
It sounded more like a challenge than an agreement. He started to say something, but LeeAnne tugged his arm. He gave me a hard look, and they strode away down the corridor. They matched; they belonged together. Her ice queen elegance and his lion grace. I looked down at myself. I was all alley-cat grunge.
I shut the door and reset my wards then took a shower. I felt more than a little grimy. I’d driven from Chicago to Greenwich, Connecticut, in a couple of days, sleeping in the car and eating fast food. I was exhausted and working the wards and dealing with Tabitha had drained me. Not to mention the conversation with Law.
I shied from thinking about him at all. I still had butterflies zinging around my stomach from his kiss, and somehow hope had knifed its way inside my heart. I hated hope. It lied more often than not.
Instead I concentrated on the job.
I was after an incubus. Rather, I was after a box that the incubus had stolen. He’d stolen the box after seducing the wife of one of Ivan’s business partners, so Ivan had called on me for help.
He’d hired me to do odd jobs for him a couple years after I left Law and Acadia, a quasi-governmental company and our former employer. A few years later, he put me on retainer and gave me regular work. I liked it. I could still take on any client I wanted, but I had a regular paycheck. Not that I spent much of it. Ivan covered most of my living expenses since I was never at home to get my mail or pay my bills. That left me a good chunk of change to drop in the bank every week. I liked the vagabond life. The ghosts kept me company, and I didn’t have to answer to anybody.
I also didn’t have to think about why my apartment was so bare or the fact that I didn’t have many in-the-flesh friends. I talked to my cousin Remy sometimes, my Aunt Sandra’s eldest. I visited him when I could and sometimes his sister, Traci. They were about the only family I had left, besides Aunt Sandra. She didn’t talk to me much. My dad had told her how I killed mom the second time. Even though she’d said I’d done the right thing, she avoided me.
After the shower, I wrapped up in one of the plush bath sheets and went into the bedroom. I’d left my backpack on the floor. I picked it up, set it on top of a dresser, and untied the knots at the top. As much as I wanted to sleep, I had to get to work. The incubus wouldn’t stay in the hotel long if he thought he was in danger. Tabitha’s tantrum would have made him itchy. He’d not had a chance to feed for a few days, though, so with any luck, I could tempt him into letting me be his meal of choice.
I pulled the stuff I’d need out of the pack. First came the slinky Vera Wang dress. Next came the makeup pouch, shoes, and thigh-high silk stockings. I dug out the perfume, hairbrushes, and thong underwear. No bra with this dress. I was aiming to look like a buffet for the sex demon.
I’d become an expert at dressing first class, thanks to Ivan and the lessons he’d insisted on. I needed to know how to fit into every setting, he told me, especially the ones built out of money.
There wasn’t much to be done with my hair. I blew it out with one of the dryers in the bathroom. The makeup was quick. I gave myself smoky cat eyes and painted on bright red lipstick. I rolled the stockings on and stepped into the slinky dress. The bugle crystals sparkled over the dark green silk. The low back revealed all three of my scars. They ran down the left side of my spine and disappeared under the fabric along my ribs. I’d had them tattooed with delicate vines and spring flowers so they looked less like I’d been clawed by a demon and a dead puma and more like I’d done the whole design out of vanity. Hey, Mr. Plastic Surgeon, could you scar me up real good so I can have a dramatic tattoo?
The front of the dress was slightly more modest than the back. The neckline dropped to reveal generous cleavage, though I wasn’t in a lot of danger of falling out. It was so well designed that even though the sides were mostly not there, I wasn’t going to flop out there either. A slit ran up just above mid thigh on the right side, revealing glimpses of the top of my stocking when I walked. The whole dress clung like a second skin, emphasizing my curves. As I said, I’ve got banging hips and boobs. I added some emerald earrings and a matching pendant—also courtesy of Ivan—and slipped on the matching stiletto heels last. I gave myself a once-over in the mirror.
I have to say I looked pretty amazing. Not a little of me hoped that LeeAnne and Law would get to see me all polished up. I shoved the thought aside. Work. Concentrate.
I took my clutch purse out of the backpack. It matched the dress. Opening it, I put in my lipstick, driver’s license, and a credit card, followed by a thin binding chain. It was no heavier than a necklace, but once I got it on him, he wouldn’t be able to use his predatory sex magic on me. The emerald pendant I was wearing protected me as well. I also slipped in some handcuffs and brass knuckles.
I’ve trained for more than ten years in various hand-to-hand combat styles, but nothing really replaces a solid right hook while wearing brass knuckles. I snapped the purse shut. It would have to do. Demons—even minor demons such as incubi—didn’t drug well, or I’d have gone that route. I had a few magic tricks up my proverbial sleeve as well, plus the ghosts. I didn’t expect a lot of trouble—incubi weren’t terribly aggressive. They were lovers, not fighters, as the saying went.
“Ready or not, here I come,” I said.
The incubus hadn’t arrived at Effrayant all that long before I had. I figured he’d probably gone to clean up and maybe sleep before feeding. The club on the third wing roof was a popular hot spot, and I was sure that would be his hunting ground. He’d stuff himself, going back to the sex buffet a few times during the night. I was counting on the fact that he’d be too hungry to move on before morning, even with the Tabitha episode. Having followed him from L.A., I knew he was also fastidious about his food choices. He wasn’t going to snack on a maid. He liked to dine on the sleekly wealthy, hence my disguise.
I was hungry too, so I decided I’d grab dinner at the bistro inside the club. The view from the restaurant was stunning. I stuffed myself on fried mushrooms, bacon-wrapped scallops, a Moroccan apricot stew, and a sampler of melt-in-your-mouth confections. By the time I was done, I was pretty sure I looked pregnant in my dress. I signed off on the ticket, leaving a generous tip for my attentive waiter, then went into the club.
I was early and grabbed a seat at the bar. I ordered a glass of merlot and settled in to wait. Before long, I had a steady crew of men coming up to buy me drinks and ask me to dance. Because it would be expected, I danced a little and flirted, all the while keeping an eye out for the incubus. I’d stuck a little gold star sticker on the outside of the entrance door. It was spelled to give me a warning when he was near.
I didn’t need a spell to tell me that Law had arrived first. He strode in, driving away my current companion with a smoking look promising pain if the man didn’t get lost and quick.
Law stood over me, taking in my outfit. “What are you doing?” he asked, the muscles in his jaw clenching.
“My job. What are you doing?” I hoped the incubus didn’t show up while Law was around. He’d probably take one whiff of Law’s fury and run for the hills.
“We need to talk,” he said and took my arm. He practically dragged me off the chair and back through the lobby into a small office near the kitchen. With a wall of bulletin boards holding schedules, rules, OSHA warnings, and charts indicating food needs for various supernaturals, a row of file cabinets along another wall, and a paper-laden desk, it was clearly the restaurant manager’s office.
Law pushed me in ahead of him and shut the door. I wasn’t sure if I should be angry he’d interfered with my plan or worried about why he had.
“What’s so important you had to drag me off the job?” I demanded.
He leaned back against the door, his arms crossed over his chest, his eyes hooded. His eyes glittered as he scanned me from head to foot. My skin heated. This was not a look he’d ever seen me wear before.
“You cleaned up,” he said. “Nice.”
“I’m hunting an incubus,” I said. “I wanted him to take the bait. You think he will?”
I turned slowly in a circle, letting Law get a good look. I don’t even know what was driving me. For the eighteen months we’d been lovers, we’d had great sex, but I’d always felt like the last cookie in an empty jar. If you can’t be with the one you love, love the one you’re with. That idea. I wanted more than that. I wanted to know that I turned him on, that I was his choice, not his consolation prize.
I got halfway into my turn when Law came off the wall. Suddenly he was behind me, his breath tickling the back of my neck. He traced my tattooed scars downward to where they disappeared beneath my dress. I shivered at his touch.
“How did you get that?”
“A big dead kitty cat.”
He ran a finger over the white stripe in my hair before moving to the scar on my face. “These?”
“Ammit demon in Alabama.”
I felt exposed, like I was naked. I couldn’t move. I didn’t want to.
“What happened?”
He bent and flicked his tongue over the lobe of my ear. I locked my knees so I wouldn’t melt to the floor.
“Which time?” My voice turned husky.
“Either. Your back,” he said, nibbling around the back of my neck to my other ear.
I couldn’t seem to catch my breath. My heart pounded. I wanted to lean back against him. I made myself stay still.
“Costa Rica. A family got kidnapped. It was a ransom thing. The money got paid, but the family didn’t get freed. The drug cartel had hooked up with a lich, thinking they could control it. It didn’t care about money. It wanted to torture them. I got the family on the escape boat, but the lich sicced his pet dead puma on me.”
Law settled his hands on my shoulders, his thumbs tracing patterns on the back of my neck.
“You could have died.”
I couldn’t tell what he was thinking. His voice was utterly colorless.
“Should have,” I agreed. With both the Ammit demon and the puma. “If the ghosts hadn’t taken care of me, I wouldn’t be here now.”
His touch was mesmerizing. I stood frozen like a rabbit in the headlights. I told myself to step away from him. I had a job to do. So did he. “What did LeeAnne want?” I made myself ask.
He turned me around. His gaze dropped to the exposed curves of my breasts. His breath caught, and my belly tightened and my nipples peaked through my dress.
“That’s what I want to talk to you about,” he murmured, not looking up.
He lifted his hands to cup my breasts, his thumbs brushing my nipples with butterfly softness. Glorious sensation forked through me. Sparks of blossoming heat followed, turning my insides liquid. I made a whimpering sound.
That did it for him. He crushed me against him and kissed me as he ran his hands down my naked back and beneath my dress. His fingers curved over my ass, and he ground me against his thick hardness. His kiss was pure hunger. I slid my arms around his neck and pulled myself up to meet his demand with my own. I didn’t care about the incubus or the missing box. All I could think about was how much I wanted Law and how much I’d missed his touch.
He pulled away and I protested, tightening my arms. But he was pushing down the straps of my dress to expose my bare breasts to his touch. He thumbed my nipples again, laughing softly when I moaned.
“Bastard,” I said.
“You want me.” He was gloating. “Say it.”
“I want you,” I said. I refused to leave it there. I could tease too. “I want you sucking on my breasts and your rock-hard cock plowing hard into me. I want to wrap my legs around you while you pound against me. I want to ride you hard and dangle my breasts in your mouth until I explode. I want to lick you from head to foot—”
He kissed me, picking me up and spinning me around against the door. He set me down long enough to shove my dress to the floor and unfasten his pants. He pushed my underwear to the side and slid his fingers inside me. At the same time, his mouth fastened on my breast, and he sucked hard. A storm of sensation tumbled through my stomach and dropped low. I was making incoherent animal noises. I fumbled for his cock, wanting to touch its velvet heat. I wrapped my fingers around him. He moaned and bucked against me. Then he picked me up again and wedged me against the door. I locked my legs around him. He buried himself inside me with one hard thrust.
He held still, letting the feeling of being locked together become real for the both of us. It was pure bliss. We stayed that way, just breathing in each other’s scent, and then he grew impatient. He lifted my breasts to lick them. I couldn’t stay still. My hips rocked forward with urgent need. He laughed and bit down, and electric throbs pulsed through my body, tightening to a lovely ache. I put my hands on his shoulders and raised myself, dropping down and thrusting my hips forward. Now it was my turn to laugh as he gasped.
“You feel so damned good. I have missed this.”
“Shut up and get to work,” I said, jerking my hips again.
He took charge. All I could do was hold on as he stroked in and out, no finesse at all. Just raw need. It wasn’t long before pleasure overwhelmed me. I let out a choked scream as my body exploded. He thrust hard and held himself still as his cock released, his face buried in my neck.
I was floating in the stars. I hadn’t felt like this for six years.
“Six years, Mallory. How could you walk away from this, from us, for six goddamn years?” he rasped.
Just at the moment, I didn’t know. It seemed insane.
His arms tightened on me then loosened. I lowered my legs. I’d kicked off my heels at some point. I found a roll of paper towels and cleaned myself up before donning my dress again. I’d have to find a bathroom and fix my makeup. I hoped the smell of sex wouldn’t put the incubus off.
Both of us were still breathing hard when we finished getting ourselves reassembled. Law’s cheeks held spots of red, and my lipstick smeared his mouth. I handed him a clean paper towel, and he wiped it away. I knew I was going to have some bruises later. I felt achy in all the right ways. My body tingled with the aftermath.
Law ran his fingers through his hair, standing it on end.
“We have to talk,” he said.
“So you said. About what?”
“There’s been a murder. I’m fairly certain the body is your incubus.”
Not what I was expecting, particularly after what we had just done together. Not after I told him I loved him. He hadn’t mentioned that at all. I knew Law wasn’t given to a lot of romantic gestures or cuddling, not that cuddling was an option after sex against a wall, but maybe a high-five would have been nice.
“What?” I rubbed a hand over my forehead, trying to bring myself back down to earth. “A murder? What makes you think he was my incubus?”
He ran his hands through his hair again. It wasn’t like him. He didn’t lose his cool. “Fuck. I’m making a hash of this.” He reached out and grabbed my hand and pulled me close, sliding his hands up to the back of my head and holding me fast so he could stare deeply into my eyes.
“What we just did together was amazing, Mallory. It was perfect. Essential. Like flying into the sun. It shouldn’t have been up against a wall and if I could, I’d take you to bed right now and do it right. I’d make you scream until you lost your voice, and I wouldn’t let you up again until we figured things out.”
He drew a heavy breath and let it out. “But I can’t. I have to handle this murder first. Just don’t think that being with you didn’t matter to me. Okay? And don’t try to leave.”
His thumbs caressed my cheeks as he waited for my reply.
I should have been thrilled at his words, but instead a rock settled into my gut. I’d told him I loved him, but he’d ignored it. He wanted me. I made him feel good and he made me feel good, but he didn’t love me.
It wasn’t news. I’d known that six years ago, but for a few hours today, I’d had a sliver of hope that maybe my disappearing had made him realize how desperately he loved me. Fairy tale trash. Hope was a bitch. The question now was—was wanting enough?
Six years ago I’d left because I couldn’t handle being an exterminator anymore and I knew he’d never let that rest. I’d always be damaged goods. I’d grown up a lot since then. I was a whole lot more comfortable in my skin. I knew who I was, and I was proud of it. I wasn’t going to justify myself to Law. As for love? The past few minutes had taught me I’d rather have a little of him than none.
I covered his hands with mine and pulled them down. “The thing is,” I said, “I’ve got a job to finish. If the incubus is really dead, I’m not sure I can stay around much longer.” I still had to find the box he stole and return it. “But I’m not running. We can hook up when I’m in the neighborhood or between jobs.”
“Hook up?” he repeated, his expression turning dangerous. “A quick fuck? A night or two of grand passion every few weeks or months?”
“That’s what we just did, right? We are pretty grand together,” I said lightly, wondering what was setting him off. Sounded like a perfect deal for him. I wouldn’t even interfere with his regular love life. LeeAnne would probably like that.
“I suppose in the meantime we’d both be free to see other people.”
I shrugged. “If you want. I haven’t been with anybody since you.”
That caught him up short. His eyes widened at me then narrowed. If anything, he looked more angry now than he had a second ago.
Before he could say anything, an alarm pulse—a strong one—rippled through the room. At the same time, I felt the shutdown shields cascade closed all around Effrayant. Suddenly the air felt dense. Instinctively I fed extra power to my personal shields. The ghosts fluttered around me in unease.
Law swore and pulled out his cell phone. He tapped it, then shoved it back in his pocket and grabbed the landline on the desk. He typed in a number and waited. Finally a recorded message began. He pressed the button to disconnect. He thought a moment then spun about, strode to the door, and yanked it open. I hesitated. He twisted to look at me.
“Are you coming?”
“If I’m invited,” I said and immediately wished I wasn’t wearing the spike heels or the dress.
He reached out and dragged me close against him, pressing a fast, hard kiss to my lips. “You’re invited,” he said. “And since we’re going on the record today, I haven’t been with anyone since you either.”
Sometimes my mouth starts moving before my mind accounts for the moment.
“Wow, no wonder you’ve been in such a bad mood.”
His expression was mocking. “I could say the same about you.”
A second later, I realized exactly what he’d just confessed.
“Why not?”
He gave me a wicked smile, part razor fury, part malice, part scorn. “We’ll talk about it later, after we find out what triggered the shutdown shields and who killed your incubus. Or maybe we’ll get to it next time you’re in the neighborhood and we hook up.”
His lip curled on the last.
“Most men would jump at the chance to have regular hot sex and no strings attached,” I pointed out as he started off down the corridor, my hand still clamped in his.
In training to put on makeup and wear dresses and fit the part of the elegant high-roller type, I’d had to practice walking in high heels. I had decided fast that I should learn to run and fight in the damned things too. A walking exit from an angry—well anything really—was just an invitation to get dead. I trotted easily along next to him as he took long, angry strides back out through the club.
He headed for a stairwell. I sighed, though I knew he was right. We’d be trapped if the elevator got stuck or was sabotaged. All the same, I wasn’t going to risk breaking an ankle. I twisted out of his grip and stopped to kick my shoes off. I pulled up my dress, peeled off my stockings, and tossed them aside. As soon as I was done, Law grabbed my hand again.
“I won’t get lost,” I said as we went into the stairwell and started downward. “And you’re not going to be able to work one-handed.”
His hand only shifted so he could lace his fingers with mine. “Why are you hunting the incubus?” he asked.
“He stole a box from one of Ivan’s partners. I’m supposed to get it back.”
“What’s in it?”
“No idea. He didn’t tell Ivan.”
“Or Ivan didn’t tell you.”
I shrugged. “Doubtful. Ivan likes me working for him. He knows I’ll walk if he messes with me.”
“You shouldn’t have taken the job until you knew what was in the box. You’re risking your life.”
“My life to risk,” I said, stung. “Besides, I get paid not to be too nosy.”
“Stupid,” was all he said.
I was startled to see Edna jet away from me and halt right in front of Law. He stopped dead, staring at the shimmering shape of the 1930’s ghost. She had her hands on her hips, and her expression was fierce.
“She’s brave,” Edna declared in her watery ghost voice, her lips pinching in anger. “She’s kind. She protects us.”
My chest swelled. I liked my ghosts but figured they tended to follow me because they needed my magic and they helped me for the same reason, sort of like paying rent. It was a little bit stunning to find out they actually cared about me. Respected me, even.
“Don’t hurt her,” I warned Law. I wouldn’t be able to forgive him. I couldn’t extend my shields around her. She was too far away.
“You have two ghosts,” he said slowly.
“Eighteen, actually,” I corrected.
That jolted him. He gave me a hard look and then faced Edna again.
“Mal takes stupid risks,” he told Edna. “She shouldn’t be working alone either. She needs someone to watch her back.”
“She has us.”
Another flutter and the stairwell filled with ghosts. All but Tabitha, who remained safely inside my shields, thank goodness.
Law didn’t move. He wasn’t afraid. He had no need to be. His shields would protect him from any attacks, physical or otherwise, and he could exterminate them all in a matter of seconds. I watched him carefully. At the least sign he was going to attack them, I’d have to stop him. My stomach dropped. I wasn’t sure I could.
“We had quite an audience back there,” he said to me drily, scanning the faces.
I blushed hot, despite myself. Law glanced at me and chuckled softly.
“If you’re going to keep them around, I’d appreciate it if they gave us a little privacy in the future.” He glanced at the crowd of ghosts again. “Where’s the little girl who threw the fit in the lobby?”
My blush went nova. Oh hell. I know Tabitha was really a lot older than thirteen. She’d been with me for four years, and I don’t know how long she’d been dead before that. All the same, I thought of me and Law in the office and was mortified.
“She’s keeping a low profile,” I said in a strangled voice.
He eyed me and the corners of his mouth curved as if he knew exactly what I was thinking and was enjoying it immensely.
He turned his attention back to the ghosts. “Thanks for looking out after her,” he said to them.
“She’s important,” someone said. Ramona, I think. She almost never talked. She’d come to me only about a year ago. A college student who’d been gunned down in a gang shooting in Chicago. A mutter of agreement ran through the collected dead.
“She’s special,” Tag said. One of just three male ghosts I had. He’d joined my little band a couple of years ago. I’d been on a job in Arizona, helping out on a police investigation that Ivan had an interest in. Tag had run away from home and was on his way to L.A. to break into the movies. On the way he’d been kidnapped and forced into prostitution. I’d been the one to take down the operation, but he’d been sick and half starved and had died in my arms.
The memory made my eyes burn. He’d weighed hardly anything and was covered with bruises. He’d cried and begged me never to tell his mom what had happened to him. I never did. I made up a story about how he’d died saving another boy from drowning in the river.
“That she is,” Law agreed solemnly, his hand tightening on mine.
“You know I’m standing right here,” I said.
“We won’t leave her,” Edna said determinedly, and everyone else nodded and murmured agreement.
“I agree,” Law said. “She needs you.”
I pulled my hand from his. “Don’t do that. Don’t patronize.” Anger made me launch down the steps again at full speed, my bare feet slapping on the cool concrete.
Law overtook me in just a few steps but didn’t try to stop me. The ghosts coasted behind.
“I’m not patronizing,” he said.
“Then you’re lying,” I snapped.
He grabbed my arm, twisting me around to face him. “I’m not lying. I thank God you’ve had at least someone in your corner when you go out on your jobs. That Costa Rica job with the lich and his cat? I knew you’d left the States. A month went by, and I started to get worried, but no one had heard from you. Not a peep. Another month and I was climbing walls. There was no trace of you anywhere. Three months after that, you show up again, and I had no idea what happened, except this.”
He ran his fingers over my back. His mouth twisted down bitterly. “I knew you’d gone through a shit storm, and I couldn’t do a damned thing. You sure as hell didn’t want me there. Why didn’t you call me when it got bad?”
I’d thought about it, in those few moments when I wasn’t delirious with fever. Even with the help of the ghosts, the lich magic had penetrated deep, and I almost didn’t make it. I still fall into random fevers with some interesting and scary side effects. Law had been in my head for most of my illness, especially when I didn’t think I was going to recover. I’d wanted to call him more times than I can count, if only to say good-bye, but I hadn’t been sure he’d pick up, and if he did, I wasn’t sure he wouldn’t tell me to go to hell or, worse, yawn and tell me to deal with it on my own. In the end I was too chicken to find out.
“It had been a long time,” I said. “I thought you were probably done with me, the way I left.”
“You should have called me.”
“I can’t call you whenever I stub my toe,” I said, starting down the stairs again. “I have to rely on myself.”
“And a crowd of ghosts,” he said with a snarl.
“The ghosts have been an unexpected blessing,” I said, glancing back at them. “Besides, even though you seem to think I’m an incompetent idiot, I’m pretty damned good at what I do.”
He grabbed my arm. “I don’t think you’re an incompetent idiot.”
“Oh really? Then what was all that business a minute ago about how I’m stupid and take risks?”
“I said you take stupid risks, not that you’re stupid or incompetent.”
“Newsflash. I do what’s necessary. I’m fucking good at my job. I don’t need anybody’s protection, and I sure as hell don’t need you treating me like I’m five years old.”
He sucked a breath in between clenched teeth. “If the shoe fits.” He touched the scar on my face.
I jerked away. “You know what? You can go to hell. I knew nothing good could come of seeing you again.”
He flinched. His hand clenched. “You know that I’m not going to let you just walk away from me this time, don’t you?”
I shrugged and started walking again, giving him a sideways glance. He looked as if he could rip apart steel with his teeth. “I said I wasn’t going to run. Though I don’t see how talking is going to change anything.”
“You’re wrong.”
“Of course I am,” I muttered. Along with stupid and reckless. I decided to change the subject. “How did the incubus die?”
“Messily.”
“Care to elaborate?”
“No.”
So much for conversation. I fell silent. I began to wonder who had killed the incubus and why. I didn’t know much of anything about him beyond what he looked like and that he liked fast cars and luxury, so I didn’t know if someone out of his own past had come for him or if it was about the box. If it were the latter, I wondered if the killer had taken it. If so, I’d be out the door sooner rather than later and whether or not Law and I had our little talk.
“Any evidence as to who might have done it?” I asked.
“You’ll see,” Law said cryptically.
I refused to be put off. “Did LeeAnne find the body?”
“It’s what she came to tell me in your suite, yes.”
That didn’t answer the question, but it wasn’t important. “She must be going nuts. First a poltergeist, now a murder. Whatever will the guests think?”
“She’s handling it. She’d good at her job.”
Why it bothered me that he defended her, I don’t know. I believed that he hadn’t slept with her, not that it was any of my business. Even if I wanted it to be. The bad thing was that I still ached for him. I hadn’t realized how much I’d missed him in my life. It wasn’t just the sex; it wasn’t even mostly the sex. I missed his voice and the way he argued with me and the way he always thought he was right, even when he wasn’t. A tiny part of me even liked the way he worried about me and tried to protect me, whether I needed it or not. And I liked the way he talked to the ghosts.
“I have a question for you,” Law said. “Why did the little girl ghost get so worked up that you had to push her loose?”
Another reason I loved Law. He was smart and he had a knack for pulling puzzles apart and making sense of them. Unfortunately he had aimed that sharp intellect at me.
“She thought coming to Effrayant was too dangerous.”
“Why?”
We’d never lied to each other, and I wasn’t starting now. That didn’t mean I was eager to tell him. When I didn’t answer, he stopped and faced me. We’d reached the bottom of the stairwell. I stood just above him on the last step so I was practically nose to nose with him.
“Just what aren’t you telling me, Mallory?” he asked, his eyes accusing. “What scares a poltergeist so bad, she goes on a rampage in a very public place?”