Accidentally Demonic (37 page)

His puzzled look pierced the cool roll of her eyes. “It’s about Naomi. I’d like you to release her from her contract to you—when the time comes.”

A throaty laugh drifted throughout the cavernous halls of her study. “And I’d like to rule Hell, but I have my doubts that will happen. Naomi’s my insurance that you’ll stay put—so forget it. And speaking of, have we given thought to what we’ll do about that frumpy, dreadful mouse Casey? She could put a real damper on my anniversary, and seeing as you don’t bring me flowers anymore, it won’t make me happy. I cannot believe what you did, Clayton. Did you really think whatever that crazy shaman gave you would abolish me? Or the real question—did you really think I wouldn’t find out? Honestly, Clayton. I gave you more credit.”

Turning from her, he fisted a hand and fought a sneer of rage. Casey’s name on her lips made him want to bloody her to a pulp. But if he didn’t play his cards right, she’d do that to Casey anyway. “I—” He cleared his throat. “I apologize. I don’t know what I was thinking. But I’m here to make it up to you.”

Her platinum head cocked to the left. “I’m sorry?”

“You heard me. I’m here to make it up to you—
in any way I can
.”

“Does this mean, after all these years, you’ve come to your senses? Why would I believe that now? It’s been a long time.”

“Why wouldn’t you?”

“Because it’s been centuries, Clay. For centuries you’ve rebuffed my advances to make our mating a true one. I was so terribly hurt.” Casting her eyes downward, she threaded her fingers together.

“I was angry. Surely you can see why?”

She waved a dismissive hand. “It’s all water under the bridge. It was so long ago.”

He knew he shouldn’t jab her, but just one last time—for Dagmar—his wife. The woman he’d loved and should have been able to protect. “She was your
sister
. Naomi’s
mother
.”

Hildegard sighed with a forlorn whistle. “I know, I know, and then I killed her because I was jealous that she had you. Yadda, yadda, yadda.”

“Let’s not forget the part where you let your vampire buddy turn my child—your niece. So I hope you’ll consider our mating thus far a period of mourning for me. It was the right thing to do.” To this day, hundreds of years later, he’d never believe that even his scheming, lying, whoring sister-in-law would go as far as she had. To this day, he wanted to strangle her—hold her down while she squirmed and begged for forgiveness.

She shrugged her shoulders, rising from the couch to saunter toward him, her eyes glowing with the look of a cat who’d just captured her prey. “Oh, right. There’s that. But it was all for a good cause. So are we going to spend our time revisiting the past, or are we moving on? You said something about making it up to me. What did you have in mind, Clayton?”

 

 

CLAY listened to the plan Heath, Keegan, and Greg had hatched, and he was staunchly against it. “I already told you, Greg. I appreciate the offer, but no fucking way am I going to allow you to be shunned because of me.” As tempting as the offer of help was, he just couldn’t live with it. Harder still? Living with the idea that he’d lied to Casey about his intent to let Greg and the others help him. It would be the last thought she had about him when she found out what he planned to do. He was a liar.

As dawn broke, the first stirring of daylight shimmered through the window, giving Greg’s determined face a sharp edge to it. “Then don’t think of you. Think of Naomi. Casey. Would you really allow them to end up in Hell without at least letting us lend support? Fuck the clan and its archaic rules, Clay. We’re talking about a child here. Your child! I couldn’t live with myself if she ended up bound to Hildegard for an eternity. So how about you let me worry about the risks, and you just shut the hell up? You do know my wife, don’t you? You know, the one who’d beat you senseless for looking at her cross-eyed? She’d kill me if I didn’t try and stop this. I’d rather live with shunning than that—or worse, Nina’s disappointment. It’s a bitch.”

Clay’s head moved back and forth with a violent shake. “Clan law says you’re never to interfere in matters of mating. Stopping Hildegard from feeding from me is interfering. They’ll boot your ass out so fast you won’t know what hit you.”

Heath spoke then, with a grimness lacing his tone. “What’s the worst than can happen, Clay? So we don’t have the support of the clan. Trust me when I tell you, my friend, I’ve been there. It might not have been purposely, but I was human for a time. It might not be the same thing, but I started all over once, I’ll just do it again.”

“The hell you will,” Clay shouted. “You know it’s much different than being human, Heathcliff. You’d lose everything. All the power you’ve gained over the years, the power that was transferred to you by becoming a clan member. You’ll have no protection from rogue vampires. No resources,
nothing
. I’m not dragging everyone down with me. That’s just not an option.”

Keegan slapped him on the back. “From what I hear, you won’t even know we’re there, pal. You being a heavy sleeper and all.”

The men chuckled, but Clay didn’t. “Keegan, this won’t bode well for you, either. You know pack law. You’ve bitched about it a hundred times. No violence.”

Keegan’s lips grew thin. “That was before a child was involved. Because it makes me think of my own daughter, Hollis, and Marty, too. If they were in the kind of danger Casey and Naomi are in, not even pack law would stop me. The hell I’ll allow this to go down without a fight. Not with Naomi involved.”

“There’ll be no fight,” Clay reiterated, his jaw tight.

Greg’s laughter was hearty. “Like you could stop it.”

“There’s nothing to stop. Hildegard will drink from me today just like she’s always done.”

“The hell she will,” Heath muttered.

“But she will,” Clay said with resignation. “I made a deal with her. She lets Casey go, and I’m hers forever. Lock, stock, and
soul
.”

“What the fuck have you done?” Greg roared, the boom of his voice shaking the glass tumblers of blood on the table.

“I sold my soul to a demon.”

Awed silence prevailed.

The first to shake off their disbelief was Keegan. “But I thought as vampires you had no souls. How the fuck can you sell something you don’t have?”

“We do have souls,” Heath said in flat response. “It’s a little-known fact, but it’s true—much like my reversion back to a human. It’s buried pretty deep, because no self- respecting vampire wants to be someone’s bitch for eternity, but it can happen. What I’d like to know is how you found that shit out, Clay?”

“Your manservant can come in handy for more than just a clean pair of shorts, buddy. He tells me that if a vampire sells his soul to a demon, he’s basically fucked. I’m Hildegard’s to do with as she pleases. It’s just like Heath said. I’m her bitch. She shows up in Hell with me, that leaves Casey free and clear and with plenty of time to figure out what she wants to do.”

“I’ll kill Arch,” Heath mumbled.

Clay rose. “You won’t. He has no idea the kind of information he gave me. And it’s true, gentlemen. No self-respecting vampire would sell his soul—unless he didn’t give a shit about self- respect or anything else but the safety of his kid, and a woman he didn’t plan on developing feelings for, but has anyway.” And damn Casey for making him want something he hadn’t wanted in so many centuries he’d lost count. His bargain with Hildegard would be far easier if he wouldn’t spend eternities wanting Casey.

“But what about Naomi? If you sell your soul to Hildegard, and you have to spend an eternity in Hell with her, what about your kid?” Keegan asked.

Clay’s face was stoic. “I’ll still be granted the opportunity to see her. Not much will change other than Hildegard and I won’t be spending centuries apart anymore. We’ll live as all mated couples do.” Fuck, he hated that. It made him want to puke. The very thought that she’d want him to honor her right to him as a mate made his skin crawl. But the choice was clear. It was him or Casey. Not in this lifetime or a hundred more would he risk her or his daughter. What still baffled him was Hildegard. She’d gone for his offer like a salivating dog. All this time he’d thought her interest in him was purely to sustain her existence on this plane. Yet she’d jumped at the chance to make their mating one that was real.

“We can stop this, Clay. Don’t do it. Let us help you,” Greg pressured.

“
No
. But do me this? Make sure Casey’s taken care of, okay? She’s new at this. Keep her out of harm’s way at all costs.” Because if someone hurt her, he’d fucking find a way to come back and mutilate them. “And keep her away from me until this is over. If I know her, she’ll try to take on Hildegard, and she’s not ready for that. Make sure she doesn’t leave your sight until twilight. Make sure she’s fed, Greg. You be the donor. Nina won’t mind as long as she doesn’t directly feed from you, and at least I’ll know it’s pure. With vampire blood Casey’s life on this plane can go unhindered.” He looked at each of them, men he’d played poker with, golfed with, even gone into battle with, and left them with one last statement. “I’m trusting every one of you to honor my last wish. Keep Casey away.”

Heath shook his head. “This is fucked up, Clay. I can’t in good conscience let you leave here without—”

Clay was gone before Heath could finish his sentence.

And he was going where no one stood a chance of finding him.

Especially Casey, who made his gut ache with need.

He wasn’t 100 percent certain he could deny her if she showed up.

Because he wanted her.

And he’d go right on wanting her long after this pact made in Hell was official.

CHAPTER 18

“Casey! Casey—open this door now! We have a problem!” Wanda’s voice verged on hysterical.

Shit, shit, shit. So much for a quiet escape. The plan had been to hit the bricks after Clay returned to sleep, and before everyone got here for the big showdown with Hildegard and her army of demons. But Clay hadn’t returned yet.

However, if she disappeared, then called Wanda and told her the location for the paranormal rumble had changed, she could lead them all on a merry chase until she was shipped off to Hell.

And she still wasn’t sure how that happened. When the hour struck, did a cab come and pick you up and take you to Hell? Was there a train station with a stop for Hades?

“
Caseyyyyyy!
I know you’re in there. I can hear you and so can Nina. Now open this goddamned door or I’ll open it myself!”

Damn their vampire ears. The window. She could climb out, float to the ground, and hit the bricks.

Well, okay, that might have worked if Nina wasn’t such a brute force to be reckoned with. The front door split in two, wood shards exploding inward to skitter along the floor. “You move, I’ll kill you, Casey Schwartz!” Nina threatened, charging at her like a rabid human rhinoceros.

Casey paused, but only for a split second before she was tackled and knocked to the ground by Wanda. Her sister sat on top of her, holding her down with but one hand. Her hair was wild, windblown and plastered to her face in spots. “Do. Not. Move. Have you lost your fucking mind?”

Fighting for air, Casey sputtered, “What . . . the hell?”

“Oh, look, girls,” Marty said from above, as composed and beautiful as always, not a hair out of place. “It’s the sacrificial lamb.” Her face was lined with her anger.

Nina knelt beside Casey’s prone form. And she didn’t look like rainbows and rocking horses were going to factor into whatever was up. “You know what, kiddo? I’ve had about enough of this shit to last me to the next eternity. What the fuck is wrong with you, offering yourself up to that loon? Didn’t we tell you we’d find another way? Didn’t we say to just sit the fuck tight until we figured this out? But no. Do you listen to us? No. Why the fuck would you? I mean, what do we, the paranormal, know?”

Hell’s bells—they’d found out?

“Yeah, that’s right,” Nina confirmed. “We heard all about your offer to take that freak’s place in Hell. Are you whacked? Did you lose some nuts and bolts?”

Her breath returning in slow passes, she gasped, “But who told you?”

“Oh, Miss, I’m afraid it was me.” Archibald, crisp and unruffled, appeared before her line of vision to out himself. “While I admit, and with great embarrassment, that I’m prone to nodding off due to my age, and indeed, it’s true, my hearing isn’t what it once was as a vampire, I do still hear. As I was on my way to the kitchen to prepare some warm milk for myself, I found myself presented with quite a dilemma—the offering of your unlife to that wretched woman. Now truly, what’s a manservant to do, I ask?” He threw a hand over his forehead with a dramatic gesture. “Oh, the full five seconds spent toiling over right and wrong. But alas, I am in Miss Wanda’s employ. Thus, my loyalties lie with her. Her wish was for me to watch over you when she couldn’t. Hence, I let my fingers do the walking, and called Master Heath posthaste. I do apologize for, er, blowing your cover.” He smiled and nodded with a curt tilt of his head.

Oh, God. No. No. Archibald had heard her and Hildegard. What kind of devious planner was she to have not checked to see if Archibald was in his room? Jesus! She was an epic- diabolical-planning failure.

But she couldn’t let them stop her. They’d be shunned. All of them, and Naomi and Clay were in serious danger. A surge of terror and a side order of fear made her heave her body upward, knocking Wanda to the floor. She slid across the room, hitting the couch with a hard crack. “Get—the—fuck—off—me! I have to stop this. I can’t let her hurt Naomi. I
won’t
!”

Nina and Marty were on her, pulling her away with ironclad grips as Wanda leapt to her feet like a gazelle. “Casey—stop! You have to listen to me. You’re no longer up for grabs. Clay offered himself up—he sold his soul to Hildegard. It’s
him
who’s going to Hell,” Wanda yelled, grabbing Casey’s chin and forcing her to focus.