Blood of the Demon (19 page)

“Understood,” he said to the Council, making sure to keep his voice even. Turning, he walked toward the portal waiting to transport him back to New Orleans.

No two ways about it. He was seriously fucked.

Chapter Sixteen

Keegan downed another shot—his fifth one so far—and set the empty glass on the worn and dented wooden countertop. Just his luck. A city of over a million people, and he’d somehow managed to stumble upon a bar that catered mostly to demons. The waves of energy vibrating off the others buffeted his senses, forming a deafening cacophony that almost drowned out the stench of his own failure.

Almost.

How had he managed to become such a total fuckup? He couldn’t do anything right. Not only had he not been able to protect his brothers when they’d needed it most, but now he’d let himself become responsible for yet another person. Just one more on the long list of people he couldn’t help.

Someone rubbed against his shoulder. He looked to his side and watched a pretty demoness take a seat on the barstool next to him. She was all lush curves and sly glances, and there was no mistaking the interest in her eyes.

“You look lonely,” she said in a sultry voice.

“Yeah?” he replied bitterly, motioning to the bartender for another round.

“What’s the matter, baby? Having some problems?”

Keegan chuckled into his empty shot glass. “You could say that.”

“Maybe I can help.” She leaned in closer to him, near enough that he could see down her blouse. “I’ve been told I’m very good at solving problems.”

The invitation in her voice was all too clear. And he couldn’t be less interested. While he might have found her alluring once, right now all he could think about were laughing green eyes and hair the color of honey.

“I have a place down the street from here,” the demoness continued, fluttering her lashes as she ran a teasing finger down his arm. “We could go grab a drink there, and you can tell me all about it.”

Her touch awakened a glimmer of interest in Keegan’s cock. After yesterday’s close call, that wasn’t too hard to do. He ached to get off, to be buried inside warm, willing flesh.

He considered her offer for all of half a second. While going home with her would certainly solve a lot of his problems, he couldn’t bring himself to do it. Not when he’d be imagining it was someone else the entire time.

Shit. What had he been thinking yesterday? He’d almost made love to Brynn. Worse, he still wanted to, even though he knew it couldn’t happen.

“This is ridiculous,” he muttered.

The demoness’ eyes widened and she sat back with a look of affront on her face. “What?”

“Sorry, uh... forgot I have to go somewhere.”

He ignored her angry sputter and threw some cash onto the counter. If his time with Brynn was limited, he wouldn’t waste it here. Who knew what would happen tomorrow? Tonight, he was going to take her out. Let her have some fun. After all, it was the least he could do.

Maybe it wasn’t the best idea, given he was halfway drunk and didn’t know how he’d keep his hands off her, but right now he didn’t care. He needed to see her.

§

Keegan had been gone since she’d woken this morning. Brynn had tried convincing Ronin to tell her where he’d disappeared to, but he wouldn’t budge. In fact, he hadn’t left her alone all day, other than when she went into the bathroom. He sat next to her the entire time, plugging away on his laptop.

Right now, he was on the phone with Taeg.

“Yeah, he’s still gone.” Ronin aimed a sidelong glance at Brynn before he stood and turned to face away from her. “I’m thinking we should just start in the necropolis. It seems the most likely place... yeah, well, it doesn’t look like we’re going to get much help.”

Ronin sighed and began pacing as he listened to whatever Taeg was saying. “Maybe I should fly in to help. What about Dagan? You should make him do something.”

Brynn gave up trying to watch television. She clicked it off and walked to the sliding glass door that led to the balcony. Even from inside, she spotted the heavy crowds on the street.

“What? What do you mean, he hasn’t come back yet?” Ronin said. “Damn it, Taeg, we’re on a mission here, and it’s not to see how many chicks we can bang.”

Her cheeks flushed at his crude language, but she didn’t turn around. Maybe he’d think she was occupied by the sights and keep talking. Maybe she’d find out where Keegan was.

“I don’t know, but we need to—”

Ronin broke off at the sound of the door to their suite opening.

Brynn whirled to see Keegan striding in, a grim look on his face. The heavy weight in her chest eased a fraction. “Keegan.”

“Hey, Keegan just walked in,” Ronin said into the phone. “Yeah, I’ll call you back later.”

“Everything okay?” Keegan said, stopping in front of her. Something about his voice sounded off. Sad.

Brynn nodded. “I’m fine.”

Ronin dropped his cell phone on the table and stood next to Keegan. “How did it go?”

“We’ll talk later.” After a moment’s pause, Keegan added, “What about you? Any discoveries? Anything on Taeg’s end?”

“Nothing new,” Ronin said grimly.

Keegan nodded, and turned to Brynn. “Want to go out for a while?”

She hadn’t expected that, but she wasn’t about to turn it down.

“I’d love to.” She snatched up her coat and slipped it on before he could change his mind.

“I’ll go, too.” Ronin headed for his jacket, but Keegan stopped him with a shake of his head.

“You stay here and keep working.”

For a second, Ronin looked like he would argue. But as if he and Keegan shared some sort of silent agreement, he merely nodded.

Brynn followed Keegan outside their suite and to the elevator. She waited until they headed down to start questioning him. “Where did you go?”

“I went to see the Council.”

“Really? In New Orleans?”

He chuckled at her obvious confusion, a fraction more relaxed for the first time since he’d returned. “The Council isn’t really anywhere. It convenes on a plane between dimensions.”

Between dimensions.
There he went, astounding her again. “So how do you meet with them?”

“Through an inter-dimensional portal. There’s one in every major city. It can take you from one world to another, or it can bring you to the Council’s plane.”

Why did she still expect a “gotcha” somewhere after the things he said? But it was quite clear he wasn’t toying with her. This was real. “Oh, God. This is crazy.”

His smile was sympathetic. “Too much?”

She paused for a long moment, then shook her head. “No, I want to know. How does it work? Can anyone use it? Do people stumble into it by mistake?”

Keegan draped his arm around her back and led her through the lobby, out into the chilly street. “No, but you need clearance from the Council. It’s invisible, but it emits a repellant force that steers most people away.”

“Wait a second. If there’s a portal in every major city, how come we couldn’t just use that to get here instead of flying?”

“Traffic control,” he said, straight-faced.

“Are... are you shitting me?”

“No.” He uttered a short laugh. “The Council would never have time for anything else if it had to monitor use of its portals within dimensions. So all travel within any given world has to be done according to that world’s means.”

“Even when you’re trying to catch a sadistic madman who’s in danger of taking over an entire world?”

“I never said the Council didn’t have a twisted sense of logic.”

Apparently, that couldn’t be more true. “What did you talk to them about?”

“I asked for some help digging for the
Book
in Memphis.”

“And?”

“They blew me off.” Though the words were said in a casual tone, she got a sense of just how pissed he was.

“Why would they do that?”

“Stupidity. Politics.” Keegan shrugged. “Whatever the reason, it appears we’ll need to solve this problem ourselves.”

That was crazy. If he wasn’t going to be angry, then she’d do it for him. “That’s ridiculous. Why bother sending you here to guard me at all? Why not just have me killed?”

Keegan averted his eyes, and her stomach did a panicked flop. She froze in place so abruptly that he kept walking, and she lurched when his arm on her back pushed her forward. “Wait. You
were
sent here to kill me, weren’t you?”

He stopped and turned to face her, two bright spots of color appearing on his cheeks. “If I had been, you’d be dead already, wouldn’t you?”

Well, he had a point there. He was far stronger and quicker than she was, and her number-one defense mechanism didn’t even work on him. Still, something about this made her very uncomfortable.

“I suppose you’re right,” she finally said.

Keegan gave her a curt nod, then led her toward a bar advertising hurricanes, New Orleans’ classic rum punch. “Come on. A drink should warm you up a bit.”

Three hurricanes later, Brynn definitely felt warmer even though night had already fallen. The citrus punch was deceptively mellow-tasting. She was also well on her way to becoming shitfaced.

Somehow they ended up migrating to one of countless night parades, and to her surprise, even Keegan seemed to enjoy it. She stood on her tiptoes to speak into his ear. “Guess they don’t have anything like this where you come from, huh?”

“Like this?” He glanced toward several women who stood nearby, baring their breasts as a float sailed by. His gaze stuck there for a long moment before flashing back to her. “No, not quite.”

Brynn laughed and shook her head. Keegan might be a demon, but in many respects, he was still a typical male.

Crowds of people swarmed around them, adding to the street’s pulsing energy. Even though they kept getting jostled around, she didn’t feel unsafe. No doubt it had everything to do with the demon standing next to her. Practically speaking, that blew her whole demon assassin theory right out of the water.

“Hey, babe.” A drunken college-aged kid sidled up to her, holding up a few strings of beads. “Show me your tits, and I’ll give you some beads.”

“Fuck off,” Keegan said, shoving the kid to the side.

“Hey,” he protested. But then he sized up Keegan—who towered at least an entire head taller—and must have realized he wasn’t
that
drunk.

“Thanks.” Brynn gave him an appreciative smile and he grinned back before tugging her in front of him. He wrapped his arms around her and suddenly, she wasn’t at all cold anymore. Not when she had her own personal furnace, heating her in more ways than one. Her heart gave a little thump in her chest before resuming at a staccato beat that warmed her blood and flushed her cheeks. Despite all the craziness of the past few days, it almost seemed worth it to have this one moment in time.

With a sudden, blinding intensity, she realized she’d begun to fall for Keegan. Hard.

If anyone had told her last week that she’d be falling for a demon, she would have laughed them all the way to the insane asylum. But now that it was happening, it felt right. Destined, even. Demon or not, he was more like her than anyone she’d ever met. He understood what it was like to be different. He knew what she could do, and he didn’t care.

She held him tightly against her, and settled in to watch more of the parade. Concentrating wasn’t easy, though, with Keegan pressed to her back. Having him so close turned her on in ways she couldn’t even explain. And if she wasn’t mistaken by the hardness she felt at her back, he felt the same way.

The parade ended after what seemed like hours. Keegan grabbed her hand and gently tugged her along. “Come on, we’d better head back.”

They walked a few blocks before she stopped him. “Wait.” She didn’t want to have this conversation with Ronin in the next room.

“What’s wrong?”