Demon Bound (11 page)

Michael smiled slightly. “I do. I've brought this for you.”

At first Jake thought it was a Scroll—one of the texts from the Caelum archives. But it was a rolled-up sheet of music, instead. An original composition of some kind—and by a guy Jake hadn't heard of but who was apparently good enough that Charlie was half in tears.

Okay, so he
was
still the only dick.

Alice was smiling, too, until she looked from Charlie to the Doyen. “Michael,” she said, and her lips firmed, her spine stiffened. “I fear the Marrakech Gate might have been found out.”

He inclined his head. “I will warn the others.”

“And,” she said in a lower tone, “I have been contacted by one of Belial's demons. It would be useful to me if I could learn more about the prophecy.”

“I see.” He looked to Drifter. “If you have anything more to share with Alice, you may feel free to do so.”

“All right,” Drifter said, frowning a little at her.

“Thank you. I must go; I wish you all well. Charlie, congratulations.” Michael turned and left, and a moment later Jake felt the light touch of the Doyen's teleporting Gift.

Jake resisted the urge to shake his head. The Doyen made jumping look easy, but he was God-knew-how-old.

“Count me in on that movie night—and I'll bring the novices up from San Francisco,” Selah said, rising from her chair. “Lucas and I have to go as well, Charlie. Does anyone need a ride?”

Irena shook her head. Alice looked to Jake.

“May I impose on you after I speak with Ethan?”

“Bumpy,” he reminded her.

Selah's cupid's-bow mouth curved. “It might help if you teleported with your eyes open.”

“I do—so that I can see what's coming at me. They're just closed when I land.”

“Perhaps you shouldn't be so quick to leap,” Alice said in the prim tone that made the back of his neck tighten, “if you are not prepared to face the consequences of it.”

For some reason, Drifter and Selah both grinned. Jake did, too, but his showed more teeth. “Golly gee, Alice, I've never thought of it that way before. That'll change everything for me.”

“How fortunate that I am here, then.”

“Oh, yes. With words of wisdom like that, you'd have made one hell of a—” He bit it off. Not mentor. He wouldn't go there.

She raised her eyebrows.

“Paratroop instructor,” he finished. Fucking stupid.

“Oh, dear. Leaping from an airplane? How unseemly. My skirt might blow up over my knees.” With that, she dismissed him, turning to Marsden and Selah.

Jake watched her, tried not to picture her spindly legs sticking out from billowing black fabric. Maybe they weren't bony, though—when she'd been fighting, a ballerina couldn't have matched her grace. Instead of thin and knobby, her legs might be slim, strong. And her skin would be the same smooth, dusky gold as her hands, her cheeks.

Jesus. He must be crazy, imagining the Black Widow naked. She probably bit off the head of anyone brave enough to get into her bed. A guy would need balls of steel . . . or no balls to lose. Like a woman—

His gaze moved from Alice to Irena, then back to Alice. And that was enough for his dick to take over, making him desperate to see, to know. He'd have crawled under the table if he thought it'd get him a look at her legs.

Hell, he'd have settled for a glimpse of her flippin' wrist.

“Jake? You here?” Charlie waved her hand in front of his eyes.

He vaguely realized they were looking expectantly at him, that Selah and Marsden were gone. And that he'd been staring at Alice for at least a few minutes.

Someone must have asked him something, but he didn't care enough to find out what.

He met Alice's eyes. “I'm wondering how you fight in that skirt.”

“You plan to spend any time in one, Jake? Maybe you ought to consider taking her on as a specialist,” Drifter said over his whiskey.

“I might.” Jake held her gaze. “Do you have to cut it open to kick? Or do you change clothes when a demon shows up? The time wasted could be dangerous.”

Irena added her curious stare to Jake's. “That is true, Alice. And you used to wear that redingote and trousers, so that it freed your legs. You no longer do.”

“Because it is no longer necessary. This has plenty of give, and I can move freely.” She tugged on her sleeve. The silk stretched, then snapped taut against her arm when she let it go.

“It's spandex?”

Jake would've laughed at the horrified note in Charlie's voice if he hadn't been so gobsmacked.

“It's the spider silk.” Freaky as hell, but badass. If the strength of the woven material was anything like what he'd seen up in Caelum, her dress would be like armor. “Hot damn.”

Drifter frowned. “The what?”

“From the spiders. In her quarters.”

Drifter's brows shot up, and he turned to Alice. “You got some living up in Caelum?”

Alice nodded.

“Well, hell. I figured all the talk of spiders and vampire blood was just the novices saying the same fool things about you that they always do.”

“No,” she said. “That one is true. I asked Selah to bring the first few widows not long after the Ascension.”

Drifter seemed to consider that. “All right, then,” he finally said.

He was going to leave it there, but Jake wouldn't. No matter how much it cost him.

“So everything you're wearing is made of the same stuff?” And in the temple, it had been smooth and warm under his hands. “Even your bloomers?”

Irena broke out with a loud laugh, startling the humans around them. Charlie groaned, and Jake tossed a five-dollar bill on the table in front of Drifter.

A human couldn't have tracked the speed at which Alice reached over, pinched the money, and sat again. Jake's body tightened, but he forced his mind out of her skirts. Tried to.

When she moved quickly, everything rigid became supple, her body long and fluid.

“They aren't made of spider silk, novice. I weaved them from the legs of those widows who have passed,” Alice said, her back straight now. “For when one is a Guardian, loyalty is the utmost virtue. And so I keep my friends close—even if they itch.”

“You've got itching down below?” Jake leaned in and lowered his voice. “They've got powders for that now.”

Alice smiled. Her teeth, he saw, were sharp again.

“Oh, Lord.” As if sensing disaster, Charlie spoke up, asking Alice's opinion on the materials the decorators planned to use at the theater.

Jake sat back, studying Alice.

Spider legs and loyalty. She'd used the same tone that'd gotten his back up before, but he'd have bet his left nut that her moralizing platitudes were a joke.

Half the time, anyway. Or only around people she was tight with—not the fucking new guy.

But when she unbent a little, the Black Widow wasn't half-bad.

And where had he gotten the impression that she was dried up, spinsterish? As angular as her features were, they weren't pinched or heavy. Her dark brows, her straight nose, and her direct gaze gave her a no-nonsense look, sure—but there was also something dainty about her mouth, her pointed chin.

When he looked past the severe braid and rigid posture, she appeared about the same age Jake did. Early twenties, maybe. Not more than twenty-five.

It was the dress, he thought. And he didn't usually notice the thickness of a woman's lashes when the disapproval in her eyes was driving icy spikes into his brain.

Those lashes flickered in response to Irena's voice. Alerted by that unease, Jake realized Irena was addressing him, caught the tail end of her question.

“—have begun your specializations?”

“I'm on swords. With Alejandro.” He checked his watch. “I'm meeting him at midnight.”

Every day the same: four hours with Alejandro, six hours in San Francisco, ten with Drifter, and the rest in personal study. Now that he'd come across Alice's collection, most of those personal hours would probably be spent in the Archives.

“Alejandro? That is good.” Irena nodded abruptly, and Jake wasn't about to ask why her tone suggested otherwise. “He was born to wield a blade.”

Charlie looked at Drifter. “You're good with a sword, though. I've seen you.”

“Damn good,” Drifter said. “But I'm more of a fists-and-pistols man.”

“Hugh taught both of us the basics of the discipline, Charlie,” Alice said. “But when we specialized with Alejandro, I daresay we learned more in one year than the previous sixty.”

“That we did.”

“Jake will, as well.” Alice's gaze rested on him. “I have already seen Alejandro's influence in the way he holds his blade.”

Charlie flashed a grin at Drifter. “Alejandro used to freak me out, you know—the first couple of times he came in here to visit you. There's that devil goatee thing he's got going on, and then he's all dark and quiet and staring. Like it hurts him to smile.”

“He's a good man,” Irena said softly.

“Yeah.” Jake glanced at Alice, and got his money ready. “It's other people who creep me out.”

And if he told himself that enough, maybe he wouldn't think about stroking her mouth open with his tongue. He must be desperately horny to be thinking of it now. But he sat anticipating her reply, completely focused on her lips as they softened and parted.

Her forked tongue flicked. A cobra swiftly uncoiled from her mouth onto the table, and struck at Jake's face.

A second later, Jake opened his eyes and looked up at the stars.

Yeah. He'd probably deserved that.

CHAPTER 5

Oh, dear,
Alice thought as the empty chair across the table began to tip backward.

Without glancing that way, Ethan reached around Charlie's shoulders and steadied it. “He needs to be controlling that.”

Irena's knife had appeared in her hand, but she vanished it just as quickly. “Was that a cobra?”

When Alice nodded, Irena threw her head back, howling with laughter.

Charlie blinked. “What just happened?”

Alice had used enough force that the other two Guardians had seen it, but a vampire couldn't receive images.

“Alice puked a snake all over the table,” Ethan said.

“For heaven's sake, Ethan.” Alice grimaced. “You make it sound so revolting.”

“I ain't ever come across anyone who could make it look pretty.”

Alice waited as a waiter set a basket of fried onion rings in front of Ethan, then Irena's plate, heaped with seafood and potatoes. After the waiter's brief hesitation, Charlie pointed at Alice, and he put Jake's hamburger next to her wine.

“Perhaps I shouldn't have done it,” Alice said once he'd moved on. Irena's laughter had faded to a low chuckle, but Alice hadn't missed the curious glances it had brought their way. “Someone might have seen him disappear.”

Irena liberally salted her potatoes. “No one did, Alice. If they had, we would have sensed it.”

“Even if they did see it, they'd talk themselves out of it. No sane person would believe it for long.” Ethan didn't reach for his food, but studied her face with a slight frown. “And I've never seen either you or Jake grate on another body so much, or him run his mouth on purpose like he was. You two have an altercation I should know about?”

“No.”

“One I shouldn't know about?”

Alice smiled and shook her head.

“He is an odd one,” Irena said. “He should be irritating, but I only want to rub his head.”

Alice did, too. Her fingers curled into her palms.

“And he's got a good brain in it. Picks up everything I have to teach him right quick. Aside from his specializations, there ain't much left that he needs but experience.” Ethan clenched his jaw, and Alice recognized the worry he projected. It was the same worry she'd often had for her own students. “He's just too damn young to be getting it by going up against demons.”

“Someday I'll get used to the idea of sixty years old being young,” Charlie said.

“Well, some of it's maturity. You've earned yours by the bucketful.” His gaze warmed when he glanced at her, and when he looked back at Alice, his eyes were glowing amber. “Jake, now—a year ago, I couldn't have said the same. But what happened to Charlie hit him hard.”

“As it should,” Irena said.

Ethan shook his head. “He'd been out of the warehouse less than a day when Sammael went after them. That the demon got to Charlie is on me.”

“And which Guardian would ever see it that way, Ethan?” Alice asked. “If it had been us, newly returned to Earth and untried in combat—and failing our assignment?”

“Not a one, I suppose. Still, it ain't on him.”

“But don't take the responsibility away from him, either. Particularly if it forces him to be more careful in the future.” Alice drew in a breath, scenting the fried potatoes and hamburger sandwich. How very wasteful it would be, should they go uneaten. She pulled Jake's basket closer. “It is just as damaging to be overprotective.”

Ethan heaved a frustrated sigh. “Yes.”

Charlie's fingers moved over Ethan's fist, and she squeezed before letting go.

And a single touch soothed his worry. It was absolutely lovely—and if Alice hadn't already been fond of Charlie, she would have been then. “And you remember when we were his age, Ethan. Our mentors despaired we would ever be mature enough to return to Earth, yet we survived.”