Bad Blood (4 page)

“Samhain is in three days. I need to be back in New Florida by then.” She couldn’t afford to miss the chance to catch the comarré during all that chaos.

“The final merging of the mortal and othernatural worlds will present some interesting opportunities wherever one is.” He lifted one shoulder. “If New Florida holds more interest than our decision, I urge you to go. There are others who would gladly accept the mantle of Dominus.” The corners of his mouth tipped upward ever so faintly. “You are dismissed.”

New Florida

S
ettle yourself, demon. There’s no getting out of there, so quit trying.” Aliza sighed, shoving a loose dread out of her face. Securing an all-powerful demon in a pentagram was a grand feat, the kind of thing that took noble vampire blood, earth from the Potter’s Field, salt from Lot’s wife… the rarest ingredients she’d ever gathered. But having that demon secured in that pentagram when it was located in your living room was a real pain in the keister. Really made it hard to watch her stories with all that noise and smoke.

Samael raged against the invisible barrier keeping him prisoner. “Let me out, witch. I am being summoned.”

She took a slug of cold beer and hit pause on the TV, stopping Dr. Lassiter just as he was about to revive the woman he was in love with from a coma. Poor man had no idea she was actually his long-lost sister. Damn, this was gonna be good. She glanced over at the unholy creature. “You’ve already been summoned. To here. One more
word out of you and I’m going to put the lid on that aquarium.”

She and Evie had figured it was best to keep him indoors after they called him the first time outside on the porch picnic table. Too wide open out there. No need to let the rest of the coven know what she was up to. Besides, a good breeze and half the pentagram would be gone and then what would they have? No demon, that’s what. And without that demon, there was no way they were going to get that ring the vampires were after. Trouble was, the demon was getting antsy.

Inside an old hexagon aquarium Evie had once bred Chewie’s feeder goldfish in, they’d remade the calling pentagram. Evie had glued the lines of salt and earth down onto a piece of cardboard, just to be sure there was no breaking it. Then they’d lit the candle, written the name in blood, and brought the demon back to them. It was better this way, with the pentagram safe inside the glass. Popping the lid on and throwing an afghan over the whole contraption was easy enough if they needed to hide him. So far, they hadn’t had to.

Right now, he spiraled out of the twenty-five-gallon container like a tornado, all smoke and hooves and hard red eyes. Mean-looking thing. But you couldn’t expect a demon to be soft and cuddly. Not the granddaddy of the whole entire race anyway. She rubbed a pale hand over her brow.

“Look, I know you’re in charge of other things, but we need that ring. You locate that for us and we’ll set you free.” Like hell. They’d track down the ring, then as soon as they had it, they’d contain the demon permanently. She wasn’t a fool. The instant they let him go, he’d take back the ring and strip the meat from their bones.

He scowled and bared his teeth. “I told you, I can’t locate it. It’s being protected. Hidden.”

“Well, you just keep trying, then.” She hit the
PLAY
button and went back to
Mercy Hospital.

The demon wailed in anger.

She turned up the volume. Out here in the Glades, the closest neighbors were members of her coven, and they knew better than to complain about noises they heard coming from her house. There was good reason they lived out here—privacy. Who were they going to complain to anyway? She was the one in charge, the one with the most power. Power the rest of them didn’t even know about. Like the power she’d built this coven on, which is how she’d come to be its leader. Wasn’t like the lot of them had half the skills she did in any case.

Evie came round the corner from the kitchen. “Ma, it’s loud as blazes in here.”

Aliza hit the
PAUSE
button again as she pointed the remote at the demon. “That thing’s acting up again.”

Evie’s shoulder jerked forward of its own accord. Ever since being released from her stone prison a week ago, she’d been twitching more and more. Aliza had tried to ignore it, hoping it would just go away, but it was happening more frequently now. Too bad Dr. Lassiter wasn’t real. He’d know how to fix it. “We should give him something to do.”

“Release me,” the demon growled.

Evie ignored the creature. “Let’s send him out to check on the shifter and the ghost.”

“I don’t have a use for them yet. I need that ring.”

Evie rolled her eyes and flopped down on the worn sofa. “You said this thing was going to make us rich.” She
stuck her finger through a threadbare spot. “When does that start?” She dropped her head back and stared at the ceiling, sighing loudly.

“Patience, child. These things take—”

“Patience?” Evie’s head came up, her eyes glinting with raw emotion. Her right arm convulsed like it had been hit with a live wire. “I had enough of being patient trapped in that stone tomb. I’m done with it. I’m tired of waiting.” She jumped off the couch and paced to the other side of the room. “I want something to happen now.”

Aliza nodded, hoping to calm her daughter down. Evie had been gone for so long, having her back, alive and safe, made every day a gift. “What do you want to do?”

She stopped her pacing to study the demon. “We should send him out to do some little thing.” She took a few steps toward him. “Make sure it goes right.”

The demon snarled. “You think I am capable of failing?”

“You haven’t gotten us the ring.”

He grimaced and spun like a dervish, coming to a stop a moment later. “Ask me for what
can
be obtained and I shall bring it to you.”

Evie rested her fingers on her chin for a moment. “I want a house. Bigger than this one. Everything in it new and beautiful.”

His ugly face contorted. Aliza realized he was smiling. “Where would you like this house? Europe? The Caribbean? An island of your very own?”

Evie pointed out the window. “Here. Next door.”

Aliza’s heart swelled. Nothing like having your pride and joy close.

The demon snorted. “Humans.”

“That’s not all.” Evie lifted her chin. “Inside the house, I want something special waiting for me. A man.”

Shock coursed through Aliza’s blood. “Evie child.”

She turned. “Don’t look so freaked out, Ma. I’m not a kid anymore. Being trapped in stone was like prison. I have needs. And I want to take care of them.”

The demon chortled. “Tall? Dark? Dumb? At least make it sporting.”

“I want the blue-eyed half-breed.”

“Half-breed what? Fae? Varcolai?”

“Seminole. The Mohawked one who came here with the comarré and the vampires.” Evie snatched a crystal orb from the nearest bookshelf and conjured a picture of the man, holding it out to the demon. “And I want him under some sort of spell so he can’t refuse me.”

He leaned as far as he could, studying the image, then snorted. “Spells are your language, witchling, not mine. If you can’t control him, that’s of no concern to me.”

“Witchling?” Evie moved to within inches of the aquarium’s edge. Her knuckles paled from squeezing the crystal sphere. “I know enough to contain you, demon, and enough to destroy you as well.”

His red eyes glowed. “You amuse me with your threats.”

“Build me the house, hell spawn.” Her shoulder jerked. She crossed her arms. “Then bring me the man.”

He shrugged. “As you wish.” And disappeared.

Doc shot up out of the bed, his heart racing, his body strung in the halfway state between man and beast. The sheets lay in damp shreds around him, the casualty of a varcolai’s night terror.

“You okay?”

He looked up, still trying to bring his breathing back to normal. A fully corporeal Fi sat on the dresser across from the bed. Her legs were curled beneath her, her eyes as round and worried as when she’d been stuck in the time loop, forced to repeat the night of her murder.

Murder. The word pulled a shudder through his body. He ignored the sudden urge to check his hands for blood. To wipe the imagined wetness of it from his muzzle. “Fine,” he whispered through a split upper lip and teeth too long for a human mouth.

“Is that why your claws are out and your eyes are all yellow?”

He concentrated for a moment, and the signs of his true leopard self melted into full-on human. “Just a bad dream. Sorry for chasing you out of bed.”

She shrugged. “Once you’ve been dead a few times, the self-preservation instinct kicks in automatically.” Her eyes narrowed to slits as her mouth thinned. “You’ve been having bad dreams a lot lately. Ever since you went through the smoke.”

He’d realized that a few days ago but hadn’t wanted to say it out loud. Walking through the witch’s spelled smoke might have given him the ability to shift into leopard form again, but he’d known there would be a price to pay. Anything that involved the witches did. “Naw, that smoke was cool. That movie we saw tonight really freaked me out.”

Her brows rose incredulously. “I’m a ghost, you’re a shape-shifter, you live with a cursed vampire, and a zombie movie freaked you out. Honey, I love you, but that’s a bold-faced lie. What gives?”

He dropped his head into his hands, rubbing the stub
ble of his shaved scalp. “I can’t stop thinking about Preacher. About that baby. That’s all.”

“Babies scare you, huh? Good to know.” She laughed, but it was soft and gentle and didn’t feel aimed at him so much as intended to soothe. Fi was good like that.

“No, it’s just… I don’t want to talk about it, okay?” A vampire child couldn’t bring anything good into this world. He stripped off the ruined top sheet and patted the space beside him. He needed the distraction of Fi’s affections to blank out the nightmare threatening the edges of his consciousness. “Come back to bed, sweetness.”

She scooted off the dresser but didn’t come any closer. Damn, she meant business. “Suit yourself, but you really need to tell Mal about what you saw. You know Preacher’s got hard feelings for him. Mal deserves to know about anything new going on in that crazy daywalker’s life.”

“I will. Promise. First good chance I get.” Which hadn’t happened yet, and with the way Mal’s moods went, might not happen for another year or so. Truth was, Doc didn’t think Mal knowing Preacher had fathered a kid was such a good idea. No one knowing was a better idea. Hell, Doc was sorry
he
knew.

“I’m serious.” Her eyes strayed from his face down his bare chest and lower. She flipped a length of chestnut hair over one shoulder as the tip of her tongue wet her lips. She reached the end of the bed. “You’re not playing fair.”

He stretched, showing off the muscles in his arms and chest. He ached for her. For the unconditional way she gave herself to him. It was the greatest luxury in his life. One he’d kill to protect. “I never play fair. That’s part of my charm.”

She crossed her arms and shook her head. “Charm
isn’t going to protect you if Mal finds out you’re keeping a secret like this. You need to tell him.”

“I will. Soon.”

“Promise?”

Doc crossed his fingers behind his hip, hating himself for doing it. “Cross my heart and hope to die.”

Fi frowned. “Don’t say that. That’s the last thing either of us wants to come true.”

He held his hands out to her. “C’mon, baby. Nothing’s gonna happen to me. I’m a big bad leopard again. C’mere and let me show you.” He growled softly from deep in his chest. Silently he wished away the words he’d spoken.
Hope to die.
Why had he even put that thought out into the universe?

“Speaking of big bad leopards, are you going to go back to Sinjin now? See if he’ll reinstate you into the pride?”

“No. Never. He threw me out when I needed the pride’s help and support the most. That man is dead to me.” He patted the bed again and gave her the most wicked look he could manage, then stroked a finger down the side of his goatee. “Now come here, woman, or I’ll come get you myself and I really don’t think you want that.”

She shrieked, then laughed as she jumped into bed beside him. “You have the devil in you.”