CARNAL, The Beast Who Loved Me (20 page)

“Sorry,” he said. “I’m taken.” At that he reached across the bar. He grabbed Rosie’s hand, pulled her down to the end of the bar, then picked her up and put her over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes. As he headed for the door, there were hoots and hollers from the few who noticed. It wasn’t much of a spectacle in the midst of a full-blown Exiled party.

Rosie could have easily forced Carnal to put her down, but she would have to stop giggling first. There was something exhilarating about being claimed in such a primal, and public, way. She could halt the progress of whatever Carnal had in mind whenever it stopped being fun.

His long strides ate up the distance between the Commons and the Extant’s house. He opened the door with his right hand and was about to cross the threshold when he put that free right hand on Rosie’s behind, so close to her most sensitive bits that she threw herself straight up into a vertical position just in time to hit her shoulder blades on the cross frame.

“Ow. Fuck, Carnal.” He set her on her feet immediately and searched her face with a look of concern. “That was a bad time to try for third base.”

“Third base?” He looked confused.

“It means you need to keep your paws to yourself.”

“Paws?” His brows came together. “Is that a racial slur?”

“What? No! It’s got nothing to do with genetics. It means you’re being overbearing and grabby.”

He grinned. “Guilty. Were you harmed?”

She blinked. “Not, um, permanently.”

“Good.” He laughed and bent to pick her up again, but this time she took a step back.

“Hold on. What’s this about?”

Carnal gave her a look like she was stupid. “We’re going to finish the conversation we started in the wasteland.”

“Oh?” When he didn’t elaborate, she began to fidget under his unrelenting stare. “So you want to talk?” She took his lack of reply as agreement. “I can walk myself.”

He motioned toward the stairs in a ladies-first gesture. “My room. You know the way.” When she turned to climb the stairs, he pulled her back into his body and whispered in her ear. “I’m right behind you.” She wasn’t sure whether it was the heat of his breath on her ear or the feeling behind the statement, but the result was a full-on body shiver.

She grabbed the hand rail and began the climb up the stairs. She didn’t need to glance back to know that he was, indeed, behind her. She could feel the energy of his presence.

She opened the door, walked in, but when she turned to face him, realized he’d stopped at the threshold.

“You didn’t! It’s worse than before!”

“What?” She looked around, trying to see it through his eyes. The rusticity of log walls had been replaced with a relatively smooth orange peel texture. She had left the wood and iron furnishings as she found them, but covered the bed in white eyelet duvet and coverlets. The window had been covered with delicate white gauze. The overall effect was sensual, but definitely feminine, more so than the last time he got a look at it.

“I made some changes, but don’t worry. I can put it back the way it was before I go.”

Carnal’s head jerked at that. “You’re leaving?”

“Well, not right away. I just mean, you know, someday.”

He stared at Rosie for a full minute like he was trying to determine whether or not she was telling the truth. Then he turned and jumped on her bed, landing on his back.

Her eyes went wide at his audacity. “Get. Your. Big. Fat. Boots. Off my bed!”

Carnal just chuckled at her, eyes flashing, and locked his fingers behind his head. “The girlie bed doesn’t belong in my room. The purity is just begging to be compromised.”

She got the innuendo and snorted in a way that would make her Auntie Elora proud. “I’m not pure, Carnal.”

“No?” he asked with a twinkle in his yellow/green eyes. “Show me.”

She cocked her head. “You’re not afraid of me at all, are you?”

“Should I be?”

“Yes.”

He sat up quickly, swinging his legs off the side of the bed and looking deadly serious. “That’s exactly what I want to talk about. What happened to my bike?”

Rosie blinked. “Is there something wrong with it?”

Carnal dipped his chin lower. “You know there’s nothing wrong with it.”

“Then what’s the problem?”

“You going to make me spell it out? You’re full of games, Rosie. All right. I’ll play. To a point. You were riding my bike straight into a concrete wall. Just before you hit, you disappeared, but the bike crashed and wrecked. You showed up next to me, clutching my arm. I’m not objecting to the clutching, mind you. But I
am
going to be needing to know about the rest of it.”

Rosie tried to keep her face blank. “That’s not the way I remember it.”

“You’re a terrible liar.”

“Am not.”

Carnal stared for a moment before giving her a slow feral smile. “You are. Your heartrate sped up
and
your eyes dilated.”

She decided that if lying didn’t work, perhaps subterfuge would. “Maybe I’m attracted to you. Did you ever think of that?”

Carnal laughed out loud. “Of course you’re attracted to me, angel.”

“I’m not an angel.”

“I think you are.”

“Then you’d be very wrong. I’m mostly demon. Do you know what that is?”

A deep, smooth-as-velvet voice came out of nowhere saying, “Of course he knows. Demons are universal.”

Toward the end of that sentence, Deliverance appeared at the foot of the bed. Faster than lightning, Carnal leapt off the bed and moved in front of Rosie.

“Hi, Grand,” she said from behind the wall of flesh that was shielding Deliverance from view. Carnal didn’t move and didn’t take his eyes off the new arrival. “Carnal, this is my grandfather, Deliverance. He’s a demon.”

Deliverance bowed with a flourish and a grin like there was nothing more enjoyable than hearing his name out loud. “At your service.”

Rosie stepped out from behind Carnal, who said, “Did he just appear out of thin air?”

“Yes,” she answered as Deliverance cocked an eyebrow.

Carnal’s eyes scanned down and back quickly. “He’s wearing a loin cloth.”

“Only because he’s making a stab at being civilized. But he’s a sex demon who’s exceptionally proud of his, um, package, and he likes to show off. If you don’t abandon the focus of your interest, his next trick will be to give you an eyeful you’ll never forget.” Deliverance smiled wickedly, punctuating that by grabbing his crotch. “What do you want? And how did you find me?”

“I threatened to tell the Council about your angel’s little pet project here,” he nodded toward Carnal to mean the Exiled species, “if he didn’t tell me where you were. Coincidentally, it happens you’re at the scene of the crime.”

“What crime?”

“Kellareal went against Council. They have a standing order of non-interference, unless they’re the ones doing the interfering, of course. He risked a lot to save these creatures and hide them here.”

Rosie looked at Carnal, who had suddenly become very interested in the conversation.

“Okay. That answers how you found me. Now what do you want?”

“Is that any way to talk to your grandfather?”

“I guess not. So, how have you been? And what do you want?”

“I want to know what you’re doing here.”

“Taking a break.”

“From what?”

“Life as I knew it.”

“Evasive. Why all the secrecy? Your mother worries.”

Rosie looked uncertain. “Oh. Well. Tell her I’m fine and that I’ll come see her soon.”

“And tell her where you are?”

“No. I want to be on my own for a while.”

“Not sure that’s the best choice. You can be ‘on your own’”, he did air quotes, “without being AWOL.”

“Maybe not.” She lifted her chin. “But it’s my choice.”

“Not sure you’re old enough to make your own choices. You’re a baby demon.”

Carnal looked at Rosie like he was seeing her for the first time. “You really are a demon?”

She looked at Carnal like she was trying to decide how much to tell. “Sort of. I’m half demon, a quarter witch, and a quarter human. Or something like that.”

Carnal nodded then smiled broadly. “You’re hybrid. Like me, except you’re…”

“Yes. Go on.”

“You’re made up of creatures that don’t exist. Myths.”

“Myths!” Deliverance nearly sputtered. “Very well. Since I don’t exist, would you mind staying out of the talk I’m trying to have with my granddaughter?”

“Look, Grand,” Rosie interjected. “Thanks for stopping by. Please don’t make trouble for Kell or these,” she looked at Carnal, “people.”

Kellareal appeared in his guise as Finrar, the elf. “Oh. He’s not going to get me into trouble. I’ve got too much on him.”

“Do you mind?” Deliverance said to Kellareal. “This is a family matter, which means you are
not
included.”

Kellareal, as Finrar, smirked at Deliverance, then turned to Rosie. “Did you know that he…?”

“We’re going,” Deliverance said quickly. “If you stay too long, I’ll be back to check on you.”

At that Carnal and Rosie were once again alone together in his former bedroom. Carnal didn’t move or take his eyes away from the spot where the angel and the demon had been. “Did you see the ears on that guy?”

Rosie suppressed a smile. “That guy was Kellareal. He likes to dress up. And, yeah. It’s one of his most attractive guises.”

He jerked his gaze in her direction and spoke gruffly. “You think that’s attractive?”

She laughed. “You’re taking this pretty well if your most pressing question is about whether or not I think the angel is cute when he’s dressed as an elf.”

Carnal’s brows were raised. “So you can vanish and appear anywhere? Any time?” She nodded. “And you can make a wrecked bike look new?”

Her lips twitched. “I’m not going to become your super-mechanic, Carnal. And I’m not going to stay if anybody else finds out. I’m just a girl who cleans up and serves drinks at a pub. Sometimes I watch the children and cook for them.”

“The Extant doesn’t know?”

“All your father knows is that he’s doing Kellareal a favor. He doesn’t know what I am. Only
you
know.”

Carnal stared at her for a few beats, then grinned. “That you’re a sex demon? What exactly does that mean?” He ran the back of his hand down her bare arm, making her shiver noticeably. “Is that why I’m having this reaction to you?”

She walked across the room and pulled the shutters closed, acting like the shiver was the result of cool night air. “If you mean that the way I think, I hear it doesn’t take much to interest you.”

“What have you heard?”

She turned to see him prowling toward her with a grace that reminded her of the way big cats move when they’re not in a hurry. He stopped just short of touching. She thought he seemed even bigger when he was standing so close and looking down at her with that intensity that she’d come to think of as purely Carnal.

“I heard you’d been screwing around in the city.”

He chuckled . “So, Rosie, who’s just a girl who cleans up and serves drinks, I like you.”

“I like you, too, Carnal. So I guess we’re done here?”

She started to step around him, but he pulled her back and held her in place, his hands on her waist. That was the first time she heard it, the low rumbling vibration.

“What is that?” She looked around, trying to locate the source of the sound. Her eyes snapped wide open as they jerked up to his face. “Are you…? Are you purring?”

He smiled slowly. “I can’t control it. I know you think it’s an obnoxious noise, but…”