Law carried me upstairs, down various hallways, and through doorways. I closed my eyes, falling into an exhausted daze. I was conscious of other voices and the answering rumble of his voice in his chest, but I paid no attention to what was said. I didn’t care. I reveled in his strength and scent and his bare skin on mine. I wanted to stay in his arms forever.
The ghosts didn’t come with us. Maybe they stayed to watch after So’la. Maybe they didn’t want to get too close to Law. He’d not killed them, but he could always change his mind.
Eventually we reached our destination, which turned out to be his apartment. He carried me into an enormous bathroom and stripped me down before pushing me into the shower. It was glorious. Jets hit me from all directions, and a rain shower fell from above. Seconds later, Law joined me. He soaped me up and washed me with indifferent hands, pausing to swear now again as he encountered a bruise or cut. He lingered on the lich scar down my back and again on the Ammit demon scar curving through my scalp and behind my ear.
When I’d warmed up and he was satisfied that I was clean, he pulled me out of the shower and wrapped me in a bath sheet then toweled my hair. He swiped himself with a towel and wrapped it around his hips before swinging me into his arms again and carrying me into his bedroom. I didn’t get a chance to notice much of anything but dark woods and pale walls before he pulled back the covers and laid me on the mattress.
“Wait there,” he said and rummaged in his drawers, returning with a pair of sweats and a cashmere sweater.
I protested the latter. “It’s expensive. I’m wet. I’ll ruin it.”
“I like the thought of you in it,” he said and put them on me, tucking the covers around me before dressing himself in jeans and a sweater.
I’ll admit to disappointment that he didn’t crawl in with me, even though I’d practically begged him to go take care of So’la.
He came back to the bed. “How do you feel?”
I considered myself. “Like I’ve been used as a punching bag. Though definitely warmer,” I said. The warmth didn’t seem to reach all the way to the source of my chill. I frowned. “But still cold somewhere. And kind of numb. Like I’ve been hit with a massive dose of Novocain. Except not in my body. It’s inside but not in me exactly. If that makes sense.”
He gave a frowning nod. “You’ve likely overloaded your channels with the magic you expended tonight. Or possibly the connection with the demon is causing it.”
I gave a little shrug. Nothing much I could do about either one. He laid a hand on my forehead and another on my chest. Magic wreathed his hand and pulsed inside me. It burst into me like a puff of summer wafting through an open window. My body went boneless as a feeling of utter relaxation overcame me.
“Neat trick,” I murmured. “Where’d you learn to do that?”
“Sleep now,” he said, ignoring the question. “I’ll do what healing I can while you’re out.”
“And So’la?” I mumbled as my eyelids drooped closed, too heavy to hold up.
“The demon will be taken care of,” he growled.
It occurred to me that that sounded more ominous than I liked, but when I opened my mouth to ask what he meant, it turned into a yawn.
“Go to sleep,” he said. He bent and brushed his lips deliberately against mine. I decided not to think about what it might mean. Just thinking about us made my head hurt. I snuggled into the sheets, inhaling the scent of him wrapping my body.
* * *
I thought that maybe Law would have climbed into bed with me. Or maybe I just hoped. Instead I woke up with ghosts. They ringed the bed in silent vigil. I wriggled up against the pillows and looked around at them. All of them were there. Tabitha and Edna stood at the foot of the bed. Edna held the girl’s shoulders. All of them watched me with solemn, sorrowful eyes.
Instantly I was assailed with guilt. “Look, I’m sorry,” I said. “I was totally irresponsible—”
“You’ve been kind and generous to us,” Ramona said, interrupting.
“You’ve let us stay with you and protected us,” Tag added. “We’re grateful.”
If anything, that only made me feel worse. I’d let them go after Law, knowing that they risked their lives, and I’d not tried to stop them.
“Tabitha wants to cross over,” Edna announced suddenly.
The words punched me in my stomach, and the room spun around me. I clutched the sheets beside me for balance. “What?”
“It’s time,” Edna said simply.
I looked at Tabitha. “Why?”
I didn’t really expect her to answer.
“I want to see my family,” she said.
“But—” There was no telling if her family still existed anywhere. I had no idea if there actually was a heaven or any place else for souls to go. I didn’t say it. She might have that kind of faith, and if so, I didn’t want to ruin it for her. I brushed the sudden tears that burned in my eyes.
She floated toward me, coming to kneel weightlessly on the bedcovers beside me, covering one of my hands with hers. The electric chill of her energy was as familiar to me as my own heartbeat. “I need you to send me home.”
I could only stare. “No.” It came out in a strangled whisper. “No,” I repeated, more loudly. “I’m not— You can’t—” I shook my head emphatically. “No.” What she meant was she needed me to exterminate her. I couldn’t. Not without knowing for sure I wasn’t sending her into permanent nothingness.
“It will be all right,” Edna said, her dark eyes heavy with sympathy. “God will take care of her. You need only open the door for Tabitha to go into his arms.”
I wasn’t sure I believed in God most of the time. I shook my head, pulling my hand away from Tabitha’s touch. “I can’t. You can’t ask me to.”
I launched myself out of the bed, uncertain where to go. All I knew was that I needed to get away from the beseeching demand in Tabitha’s gaze. “There’s got to be another way,” I said and strode toward the first door I saw. It led into the bathroom.
I shut the door behind myself and leaned against it. I glanced around. The room was enormous, done in grays and blacks. On the vanity were a few masculine toiletries. My dress was gone. Good riddance. I doubted it could be salvaged. I shivered, remembering that Law had taken it off me twice. Where was he? Where was So’la? How long had I been asleep?
I glanced down at myself, taking an account of my physical aches and bruises. There weren’t any. Mostly I felt hungry and thirsty.
I rinsed my face then filled the glass at the sink and rinsed my mouth out. It felt a little too intimate to use Law’s toothbrush. I blushed hotly at myself in the mirror. Too intimate. As if we hadn’t mauled each other in the restaurant manager’s office. The ache of that experience was gone now too, along with all the others. Maybe it was a sign. Pretend it never happened.
I bent my head, trying to think about last night. Or however long ago it had been. I’d told Law I loved him. He’d told me he’d been watching after me, waiting for me to come back to him. But he hadn’t said he loved me back. And he still thought I was crazy at best, broken at worst.
I heaved a long sigh and straightened. I looked at myself again. “You can’t hide forever,” I told myself. I looked a lot like a deer in the headlights, poised to run but nowhere to go. Time to face the music. The whole damned symphony of it.
I swung open the door, half expecting to see the ghosts waiting in a wall. But most of them were gone. Tabitha held Edna’s hand, her other caught in Tag’s. She looked less haunted than she had before last night, as though reliving the night of her death and seeing So’la had somehow cleansed her. But no. That sort of thing couldn’t be cleaned. Maybe it had freed her from the memories so she could let go.
Let go of this world and go on to the next.
“I swore I’d never exterminate another soul again,” I said to the three of them.
“It is what she wants,” Tag said and he blinked to clear ghostly tears from his eyes. “You have given us the dignity of remaining in this world, of choosing what we will be. Let Tabitha choose.”
“She could be committing suicide,” I said. “With me as the weapon.” I gave a hard shake of my head and folded my arms over my stomach in a vague defense. Against what, I didn’t know. It’s not like they were going to attack me.
“It’s her choice,” Edna said.
Tabitha pulled herself free from the two adults and approached me. She looked up at me. “I don’t want to be here anymore. I want to go. I want to try.”
I stared down at her. My chest caved in under a tide of grief and self-disgust. I was a killer. That was my peculiar talent. The worst part was it was easy. As simple as blowing dandelion fluff. It should have been harder, especially since only a few sorcerers actually could do it. Yet it took no more effort than cracking an egg.
I swallowed hard. “Are you really sure?”
Tabitha smiled and for once she looked happy. “I am. I want to see my family again.”
I gave a little nod. “Okay. I hope it turns out,” I said around the baseball-sized knot in my throat. That was all the good-bye I could manage.
I didn’t wait, didn’t make a production out of it. I simply pulled my magic into me and sent a dart of energy at her. She vanished, just like that.
I sank to the floor, staring at the spot where she’d been. Another door flung open, and Law stormed inside. His gaze swept the rumpled bed then the room.
“What the hell? What was that spell? What are you doing on the floor?”
“Tabitha’s gone,” I said in a small voice. “I killed her.” I felt thin as glass and full of cracks. Ghosts fluttered over me and around me as if to offer comfort.
“What happened?”
Law dropped to his knees in front of me. Somewhere behind him, I was aware of So’la’s presence.
“She wanted to go. She asked me to send her.” I shook my head and shrugged at the same time, unable to meet his eyes. “I had to. I’m the only one, you know, except you, and she was my—”
I was going to say responsibility. When had I become a mother to a ghost? That’s what it felt like. Like I’d killed my own kid. Except I wasn’t her mother and she was years older than I was. I was her port in a storm more than anything. Safety from exterminators like Law. And me.
Law cupped my chin and lifted it until I met his gaze. “Don’t,” I said.
“Don’t what?”
“Don’t tell me I was just doing my job or that she’s better off or any other bullshit.” My words came out harsher than I intended.
He winced. “I suppose I deserve that.”
I twisted out of his grip and sighed. “No, you don’t.” I stood up. He rose with liquid grace. I glanced past him. So’la remained in his demon form. He stood inside the doorway, watching me.
“You okay?” I asked.
He tipped his head. “As well as can be expected,” he said, his voice dust dry.
As well as could be expected for being enslaved to me. I nodded that I understood, my stomach twisting tighter. I wasn’t hungry anymore. With Law looming so close, I felt trapped. “I should call Ivan,” I said.
“What will you tell him? You can’t give him the box or its contents.”
“I’ll tell him what happened.”
“He won’t be happy.”
“He’ll get over it.”
“And then what?”
“He’ll give me another job, I suppose.”
Law’s nostrils flared and he nodded, his mouth tightening. “Be difficult to get there. The place is still sealed.”
“LeeAnne must be climbing walls.”
“Fuck her.”
The painfully jealous side of me wanted to ask if he had, but he’d said he hadn’t been with another woman. Still, I could imagine them together and that was enough to rip my heart in half.
“We need to talk,” Law said finally when I didn’t speak.
“Can I eat first?” I wasn’t sure I could keep food down, but anything to delay a heavy talk. He was going to go off on me for my stupidity again. I’d have to agree and then . . . I had no idea. Probably a discussion of my poor choices in jobs and life, and then a rehash of me walking out on him.
“We’ll talk over breakfast,” he said then glared at So’la. “Alone, if you please.”
The demon looked at me with those unreadable orange eyes. What did he expect me to do? But I knew. Demands. Orders. I decided to ignore him.
“Are you ordering room service?” I asked Law, looking doubtfully down at myself. “Or are we going to hit an IHOP?”
“I’ll cook,” he said disdainfully.
I cocked my head at him, surprise making me meet his sharp green gaze at last. “Since when do you cook?” When we were partners, the backseat had always been filled with fast food sacks, pizza boxes, and protein bar wrappers.
His expression tightened and a bleak look swept his features. “I had time on my hands.”
Because of me? Because he’d left the job? Because the auberge didn’t keep him busy enough? I didn’t know what to make of that. I mean, for all I knew, he’d gotten bored with the stay-at-home job. He’d never been much for the social scene. He wouldn’t go in for the clubbing or the parties. Anyhow, if there was a message in there for me, I didn’t get it. I’d told him I loved him, we’d had great sex, and that was that. I wasn’t sure I could actually do the sex-buddies thing again, but I was willing to try. I’d given him up once. I wasn’t ready or able to do it again, not without his help.
He glanced once more at So’la. “I’ll be in the kitchen,” he said and swept out the bedroom door.
“How are you?” I asked the demon after a moment.
“Alive,” came the dry response.
“And well?” I asked.
“Can’t you tell?”
I rubbed my head. The verbal fencing made it hurt. “Would I have asked?”
The creature shrugged, his folded wings rising and falling above his awful head. “The sorcerer healed my wounds,” he said grudgingly.
“That’s good.”
“He did so to keep me from leaching strength from you.”
“At least you’re okay.”
“It behooves you that I am. Now what would you have me do for you, Mistress?”
“Not this again,” I muttered, the rawness from killing Tabitha flaring under the scrape of his accusing voice. “Look. You’re the one who made me open the box. I don’t want you. I’ve been doing fine on my own. So I’m going to go about my business and hopefully find a way to break this binding and send you back to Demonlandia.”
“It is not breakable. We are eternally bound. ’Til death do us part,” he said mockingly. “A marriage made in hell.”
A sound from the doorway caught my attention. Law stood there. “You are not married,” he said between stone lips.
So’la’s lips parted in a jagged smile. “Are we not? An arranged, unhappy marriage to be certain, but—” He broke off in another shoulder-rolling shrug.
Law’s green eyes lasered at me. “Get rid of him or I will.” He turned and walked out of the room again.
“I don’t suppose you want to make this easy on me?” I asked the demon.
His lips curled. “No.”
I drew in a breath and let it out slowly. “He’ll do it, you know.”
“I know. And what he does to me, he does to you.” The jagged grin. “Everything has a cost.”
“Do you get off on hurting people?” I asked. “I mean, you were told to maim and torture, and it seemed to me that you didn’t like it, but now I’m wondering.”
“I like to see those who’ve earned pain receive it.”
“And I have. Because I opened the stupid box and idiotically picked up that command stone. How much is your fault? For dragging me into your mess? If anybody’s to blame for shackling us together, it’s you.”
“A necessary risk,” he said, but his eyes flamed with emotion.
“Well, you took that risk, and it didn’t pay off, and you should damned well stop blaming me. I told you before. I don’t want anything to do with you, except to send you home.”
“This world is my home,” he hissed. “I never want to go back.” His wings lifted and spread in his agitation.
“So getting attached to me is a good thing for you in that respect,” I said sourly. “You may think I’m your ball and chain, but apparently I’m also your permanent anchor to this world. Your pissing and moaning is starting to ring hollow to me. I’m wondering now if you had this in mind all along.”
The demon lurched forward, stopping only when his nose brushed my forehead. I held my ground, despite the stink of his breath and the heat rolling from his skin.
“I wanted freedom!” he bellowed.
I flicked my fingers at the door, locking it before Law came bursting through, riding his white horse.
“So. Do. I.” I said emphatically. “I didn’t want this anymore than you do, but it looks like we’re stuck, so are you going to stop being an ass and start dealing with it?”
He huffed out his nose and lowered his head so he could see my face fully. “What are you suggesting?”
“We don’t have to be friends, and I don’t really care what you’re up to. But there are going to have to be some rules.”
“Ah. Rules,” he said and I could feel the hatred pulsing off him.
“Yes. No killing innocent people. No torture. If you do have to kill, make it clean and fast. Try not to cause mayhem, and don’t go around breaking the law if you can help it. And Law is off limits to you.”
So’la blinked at me. “Those are your demands?”
I thought about it. “If they have to be. Can you handle that?”
“I could very easily circumvent the letter of your rules,” he pointed out.
“Are you going to?”
Another one of those shrugs. “And you? Will you stay here with the sorcerer?”
“None of your business,” I said. “But I have a job, and it can’t be done here.”
“He will be unhappy.”
“He’s always unhappy,” I said, though that wasn’t true. Law knew how to have fun. He had a deep laugh and a smile that made me catch my breath. Every time. He used to do both often.
“You put yourself in danger with your job,” the demon observed, stepping back.
“So?”
“If you die, so will I.”
“Is that your way of saying ‘be careful’?” I snorted. The conversation was getting more ridiculous by the minute. I was more than a little aware that Law prowled the outside of the door, respecting my silent request for privacy. His restraint wasn’t going to last much longer.
“Summon me if you need me,” So’la said after a moment. “I cannot refuse to come.”
“Yeah. Right,” I said. “I told you. Slavery isn’t my thing. I’ll be fine on my own.”
The demon shook his heavy head from side to side. “Your track record thus far says otherwise.”
That’s when I remembered he’d been watching me for a while. He knew about the lich cat and most of my other scrapes.
“I do my best with what I’ve got,” I said, waving my hand dismissively. “I’m not turning you into my sidekick or whatever you want to call it.”
“The binding means that you have me. Therefore, you must use me if you are in need.”
I shook my head. “Didn’t you just tell me you don’t want to be anybody’s slave? That that was the whole point of this exercise? I don’t want to be anybody’s owner. I’m not making exceptions.”
His eyes roiled with flames. “You must.”
“You’re giving me a headache,” I said. “Why don’t you toddle off and live your life now?”
“Because my life is yet in your hands, and if you choose to do something dangerous and risk your life, then I will die as well. Summon me if you are in danger.” He paused then deliberately said, “As I know you will come to me if I am in trouble. Two . . . associates . . . in a pact of mutual survival.”
Bastard. He had me there. “Fine.” But I resolved that I would never be in so much trouble that I’d go through with it. Around me, my ghosts fluttered. Probably in dismay. I couldn’t blame them, but they didn’t have to stick with me. They were free to leave. Not that they had somewhere better to go. But at least they had the choice.
“So that’s it?” I said when he didn’t speak for a long minute. “I can go eat?”
He gave a slow nod. “You can go.” His voice inflected oddly, like the question startled him. Or maybe that I asked at all. Or maybe that I waited for permission.
“Do you need anything?” I asked and almost laughed. I was acting like a mother sending her kid off to school for the first time. I pictured him with a Star Wars lunchbox and a Captain America backpack and started to giggle.
“I think not,” he said, eyeing me with a mix of confusion, exasperation, and impatience.
“Then I guess this is good-bye.” I waited. When he didn’t vanish into a cloud of smoke, I shrugged and headed for the door. I swung it open and came face-to-face with a thunderous Law.
He looked over my shoulder. “Is he gone?”
I turned. The room was empty. “Looks like.”
“Good. Then let’s get this out of the way first.”
He cupped his hands around my face and kissed me. In my surprise, my mouth fell open. He took immediate advantage, slanting his head. His tongue slipped between my lips, tasting, caressing. Shivers swept through me, followed by a wind of sparks. My legs turned to wax. I reached up to clasp his wrists, holding tightly for balance.
He slid one hand around the back of my head while the other snaked around my waist. He pulled me firmly against him, and I turned to fire. I wrapped my arms around his neck, pressing against him with a storm of lust, love, and need. I nibbled his lips, and he groaned, turning me against the doorjamb and running his hands over me, his hands slipping under my shirt—his shirt really—and rasping eagerly over my skin.
My head spun and desire whirled fast and achy inside me. I pushed my hands under his shirt, and his skin was flaming satin. I traced the ridges of his muscle and bone, delighting in the way he pressed harder against me, his breathing turning ragged.
Abruptly he jerked his head up. “No,” he said.
An icy knife plunged into my gut, dissolving every good feeling. My lips felt swollen. My body felt tight inside my skin. I wanted to ask what was wrong, but I couldn’t. Fear of what he was going to say curled my hopes and wishes into ash. I felt like an insect pinned to a board. I wanted to run away, but I was held in place by his hands on my hips and the unreadable look in his eyes.
“I don’t want to do this,” Law said, gazing down at me.
I slumped against the doorjamb, hollowness pushing through me. “Okay.”
He frowned, skimming his fingers along my cheek. “Don’t.”
“Don’t what?”
“You’re closing up. Disappearing behind that mask of yours. Running away inside. Don’t hide from me.”
I shook my head. “What do you want, Law? Because I’m really confused. You kissed me. I didn’t twist your arm. Hell, all I did was open the damned door.”
I started to turn away, having regained strength in my legs, but he wedged his body into mine, holding me in place. I glared up at him. I opened my mouth to rip him a new one.
“Shut up,” he said before I could say anything. He brushed the hair from my face. “Listen just this once, would you?”
His eyes bored into mine. My mouth went dry. I nodded.
“Good. Then let me make this one thing clear. I love you. I have been in love with you since we were partners. Before that first time we went to bed.”
I think my brain exploded. I didn’t move, didn’t react, just waited for him to take it back, for the other shoe to fall, for the world to end.
“Did you hear me?” He scowled. “I said I love you.”
I gave a little nod. “Okay.” It’s not that I didn’t believe him. But I didn’t. It wasn’t possible. I had to wonder if I’d hit my head and was in a coma, dreaming. Or maybe this was a trick that So’la was playing on me.
“Okay? That’s all you’ve got?” He stepped back, running his hands over his head. “Christ.”
The loss of his weight against me actually hurt. I blinked rapidly, trying not to let go of the tears burning in my eyes. What was wrong with me? “It doesn’t seem very likely,” I said.
“What the hell does that mean?” he demanded. “I had no idea you gave a tinker’s damn about me until you popped off that confession of yours yesterday. I believe you. God damn but I have to believe you.”
That last caught me up short. “Why?”
He gave a harsh crack of laughter. “Because I’ve been bleeding half to death since you walked out. Since that demon tore you up and the lich cat got your back. I’ve watched and I’ve waited for you to realize that we had something, that whatever made you run away wasn’t worth it, and then you show up and you say you’ve loved me all this time and we’ve wasted years, Mallory. Six fucking years. So I have to believe it because otherwise I have to keep living like a zombie, every day losing a little bit more hope, and when you showed up on the doorstep, I didn’t have a lot left.”
“But—” But what? He’d never said anything? Neither had I. Not the whole time we were together. I’d been careful not to, afraid to be too clingy. I didn’t want him to leave me. Couldn’t he have done the same thing? “You didn’t say anything yesterday. Not when I told you, not when we had sex.”
“I was too busy trying to wrap my head around it when you told me. Too busy trying not to kill you for putting us through six years of separation. Later—I was still angry and I just wanted you. Needed you. Nothing else mattered. I’d never seen you in a getup like that. So much skin and every man looking at you. You walking around, trying to bait a fucking incubus. I was out of my head with worry and jealousy. I wasn’t thinking, Mal. I’m an idiot. I admit it.”
I stared. “Are you really serious?”
He growled and came back to me, resting his hands on my shoulders, his thumbs rubbing my neck. Our eyes locked together. “As a heart attack.”
I remembered then the reason I’d left, the reason I’d stayed away. “I’m not broken,” I said.
He stiffened. “I was wrong to think that. I could see you were hurting and I didn’t know how to help you. I had tunnel vision about the job. I’ve changed.” He licked his lips. “I can’t leave here. I’m bound to Effrayant for another three years. If what you want is the occasional hook-up—” He swallowed, his lips twisting on the words. “Then I’ll do it. I’ll take what you give me. But that’s not what I want.” His hands tightened until my shoulders hurt. “I want you to stay with me.”
I shook my head. “I’ve got the job, and then there’s So’la.” But I could, I supposed. Live with him. Get odd jobs in the neighborhood. The demon was gone. He wasn’t going to come back unless I summoned him, which would happen when pigs flew. I didn’t really have much to go back to. I didn’t have a long-term obligation to Ivan.
“Why not? There are jobs here, and your apartment is a dump. We can figure out what to do about the demon. There’s nothing there for you besides being alone. Is that what you want?” He gave me a little shake.
“How do you know it’s a dump? Anyhow, it’s not that bad.” I had no idea why I was arguing. Maybe I was just getting used to the possibility that I could stay. The hope. I didn’t like hope. It hurt most of the time.
“It’s a crummy flophouse, and stop dodging the question.”
“We aren’t the same people. You don’t know me anymore. I don’t know you,” I said, talking to his throat because this was the thing that worried me the most. Not just that we’d changed, but that he didn’t understand who I’d become, that he couldn’t really care about this new me.
The way his hands trembled told me he shared my doubts. Or maybe he was just scared he couldn’t convince me. The idea about knocked me flying. Could he really care so much? Love me like that? The whole concept seemed too incredible, too good to be true.
“I want to try,” he said, voice rough. “I want us to try together. No walking out without a fucking word.” Bitterness flew off the words.
I wanted to say I didn’t have a choice back then but I had. I’d been too deep in a hole to see it, but neither had I looked all that hard. I’d been convinced he could never trust me as a partner again, much less love me. That both were totally impossible and there was no point in staying. I’d been wrong. I didn’t want to be wrong now.
I was different now. Back then I’d been inexperienced—a rookie paired with a veteran agent. I’d done more taking than giving, and it had contributed to my need to leave. But I’d fought personal and real demons these past six years. I’d come into my own, and I was strong enough now to stand beside Law as an equal. Neither would he overwhelm me as he had. He hadn’t meant to. He’d wanted to help, but he hadn’t understood that I was just changing, not breaking. Not that I’d made it easy with my drinking and moods.
He was waiting for me, as he’d waited six years. I raised my gaze, looking into his eyes. Green fire flickered in the depths—fear, maybe, hope, and longing. He was certain to see the same in mine.
“No walking out,” I said.
He sucked in a sharp breath. “You promise?”
“I do.” I was promising a lot more than not walking out. I was committing to the fights and the push and pull of figuring us out, the disapproval, along with all the good stuff. My heart swelled. I didn’t know if my chest could even hold it. I brushed my lips against his to seal the vow.
His fingers tightened on my shoulders, digging hard. His eyes closed and emotion flickered over his face too fast to read. He looked at me again. “Then let’s eat.”
My brows drew together. “What?”
He grabbed my hand and dragged me toward the kitchen. “Food. Sustenance.”
“But—” I admit I’d been expecting something more romantic. I wanted nothing more than to jump his bones. One in particular.
We reached the kitchen, and he started to push me down into a chair at the breakfast bar. I tightened my hand on his, pulling him around to face me. “You’re hungry? Now?”
“You’re hungry and for what I have planned, you need your strength.” He smiled wolfishly as he pushed me down into the chair. “Plus, you’ve a call to make.” He picked my phone up off the counter and handed it to me. “Make it official.”
There was a challenge in his look. He still wasn’t sure of me. Nor did he make any motions toward opening up the barriers closing off Effrayant from the rest of the world. As if I might escape any moment.
I picked up the phone. “I left this in my suite.”
“All your stuff is here,” he said, his gaze daring me to protest.
“Convenient,” I said and tapped the speed dial for Ivan. He picked up on the second ring.
“Mal? Did you get it?”
I made a face. “I’m fine, thanks for asking. The incubus is dead. The box is gone,” I said, noticing for the first time that it sat on an ebony coffee table surrounded by red leather couches and chairs. It was open, the talisman within. I wondered how Law had retrieved it all, or maybe the power in both were gone.
“Gone? Where?”
I shrugged, though he couldn’t see me. “I don’t know. I got attacked by another demon, the same one that murdered the incubus. I don’t remember a lot after that.”
Silence. Then, “But you said you’re okay?”
I watched as Law worked on an omelet and both bacon and sausage. My stomach rumbled. “I’ll live. I found a guy with skills.”
Law glanced at me, the corner of his mouth lifting, his eyes crinkling. He looked happy. I stuck my tongue out.
“Can you track the box?”
Ivan was nothing if not determined.
“Don’t think so.”
He made a heavy sound. “Shit. This isn’t good, Mal. You’re the best. I expected better.”
I lowered the phone and stared it in raw disbelief. I returned it to my ear. “You what?”
“Damn it, I trusted you, Mal. This was a big job. Important. Failure wasn’t an option. Have you any idea how much this is going to cost me? Jesus. How could you have fucked up this badly?”
In the past I might have tried to explain, maybe apologize. I wasn’t in the mood today. “You know, Ivan, you’re right. You can do better. Next time you’ve got a job, call someone else. I’m done.” I hung up and dropped my phone on the counter.
Law looked at me, raising one eyebrow. “You okay?”
My phone rang. I glared at it and let it go to voicemail. It rang again. I shut off the ringer and pushed it aside.
“Mal?” Law said, frowning at me.
“I’m fine.”
“I can tell,” he said, flipping the bacon. Sausage sizzled in another pan. “So that’s it? You’re off Ivan’s payroll? Just like that?”
I frowned at him, hearing the accusation underneath the words. “It’s not the same as you and me.”
“Sure.”
I took a breath and let it out slowly. “First, I thought you didn’t like Ivan. Second, he didn’t warn me what was in the box or what I was up against. He had to have known something about it. So now he’s getting pissed at me for not adequately handling a situation he knew would probably get me killed. Third, I don’t want to work with someone who blames me when he sabotages the job from the first and can’t be bothered to give full disclosure. And finally, Ivan’s a prick and he’d been screwing me for ages. I let him because I was too lazy to go out on my own.
“At some point, after he’s had a chance to stew and realize what he’s losing, I’ll let him apologize to me, and then I’ll agree to take jobs of my choosing, and I’ll make it clear that if he lies to me again, whatever he loses on this job will be a bare fraction of what I will do to him. I’m not his whipping boy.”
I leaned back and folded my arms, watching Law, keeping my face carefully blank. “He’s also going to pay through the nose. The point is, this situation is nothing like you and me. I suggest you use your words if you think it is because we aren’t going to work if we don’t talk to each other like grown-ups.”
He was staring at me now, like I’d turned into a giant eggplant. “You’ve changed,” he said.
“I mentioned that.”
He nodded. “All right. Words. I jumped to a stupid conclusion. It’s going to take me a while to believe this is real. That you won’t leave again. That hurt like having my spine ripped out. Try to be patient with me.” He flashed a wicked grin. “I promise to make it worth your while.”
I wished I’d known how he’d felt. I wished I hadn’t hurt him. I wasn’t good on patience, but I’d find it somehow.
I stood and came around to take a slice of bacon off the plate, brushing myself up against him. I wasn’t wearing a bra, and the cashmere was erotic against my skin. He was erotic against my skin.
“Food and sex? That’s your sales pitch?” I asked huskily.
“Good food and mind-blowing sex,” he corrected. He flipped the sausage patties in the other pan and set the spatula down, turning to pull me tight against him. “And forever. Whatever it takes, Mal. I want forever.”
“Me too,” I said. But we both knew that what we wanted and what actually would happen might turn out to be very different things. Everything depended on us. I hoped we were strong enough.