Grave Destinations (19 page)

“He disguises it well,” Dmitri snarled, “but behind the pretty face lies the soul of a true hunter. You would be wise to remember this.”

One final push downward mashed his face against the floor, and then the hold pinning Jack released.

He staggered to his feet, only to find Ruby and Dmitri at the far end of the room, huddled close in heated discussion. Ruby’s hands gestured wildly as she spoke, while Dmitri stood rigid with his arms folded across his chest. Less than a minute passed before their voices grew quiet and Ruby’s arms dropped to her sides. Dmitri’s hands cupped her face, his thumbs gently stroking her cheeks. Whatever he said made her smile. Then she rose to her tiptoes and pressed a quick kiss to his lips.

After casting daggers in Jack’s direction, Dmitri grabbed a black duffle bag from the floor and strode out the door without a backward glance.

Ruby’s head swiveled in Jack’s direction.

“I’m sorry, but he’s a wee bit overprotective,” she said as she crossed the room toward him.

“Yeah, well I wish his idea of protection didn’t involve internal injuries.” He lifted his hand to wipe the sweat from his brow and winced at the pain in his shoulder.

“It’s the way he’s wired. Not that I blame him, but he isn’t exactly the trusting type.” She smiled, and her entire face softened. “To be fair, he kind of took it easy on you.”

“You call that easy?” If that were the case, he’d hate to be on the receiving end of the bastard’s wrath.

Ruby nodded. “You should have seen what he did to this one guy who wouldn’t take no for an answer after I broke things off with him a couple years back.”

The emotions he saw on her face went beyond friendship or appreciation. They ran far deeper, and much more intense.

Jack’s eyes widened as realization hit him like a freight train. “Wait a minute. Did you? With him?” His jaw almost hit the floor. Why hadn’t he seen the signs earlier?

Ruby’s lips pursed together. “If you’re inquiring about any prior entanglements with Dmitri, the answer is yes.” She pinned him with a withering glare. “You of all people shouldn’t judge.”

“I wasn’t—” He stopped himself from finishing the sentence because yes, he was judging. The thought of her with Dmitri made his vision flash red. “I’m sorry. That was out of line.”

“Damn straight it was.” The ice in her voice chilled the room. She leaned a shoulder against the mirrored wall, crossed one ankle over the other. “Might as well get it out of your system. What do you want to know?”

“Forget it. It’s none of my business.”

“That’s beside the point. Obviously, something’s stuck in your craw. Why don’t you spit it out so we can move forward?”

Jack stared down at his sneakers, his mood vacillating between anger and shame. Unaccustomed to such alien feelings, he struggled to wrangle them under control. Deep breath in, deep breath out. Then another. And another. It was the same technique he used when containing the demon. Funny how that worked.

When his pulse finally slowed to normal, he asked the question that burned hottest in his mind. “Do you love him?”

“Yes,” she responded without hesitation, and Jack thought he was going to puke. “Before you start jumping to conclusions, let me finish. I’ve worked with Dmitri for close to thirty years. In that time, we’ve gotten to know each other pretty well. And when the stress of the job gets too intense, we’ve turned to each other for comfort.”

“You mean sex.” The words came out harsher than he intended. Ruby arched one eyebrow. “You’re mighty prudish for someone who’s seen so much action. Or maybe you just like playing fast and loose with a good old-fashioned double standard.”

“That’s not fair.”

“Isn’t it?” Her eyes hardened. “You seem to have no problem justifying your own activities. But damn if you’re not quick to condemn mine.”

Jack opened his mouth to deny the accusation, only to realize she had him dead to rights.

“As I was saying,” she continued, her voice clipped, “over the years, we’ve turned to each other for comfort, but our relationship runs more along the lines of friends with benefits.” Her fingers toyed with the choker around her neck, this one a simple burgundy band matching the color of her tank top. “In spite of what you believe, he’s a good man. He means the world to me, and I love him.” She paused. “But I’m not
in love
with him.”

“You’re not?”

“Nope. Trust me, if it hasn’t happened by now, it ain’t gonna happen.” Her mouth twisted into a bittersweet smile. “Besides, falling in love isn’t conducive to my line of work.”

There was a hollowness to her voice that made his heart flinch. “All this time, you’ve never been in love?”

She shook her head. “Have you?”

“No. Not since Victoria.” Since then, the curse had forced him to keep those kinds of emotions under lock and key, never investing enough in any one person to weaken his defenses. Maybe he’d just never found a woman worth fighting for. “You must have fallen in love at least once before you crossed over.”

She shook her head again. “Never. To be honest, I don’t know if I believe in the concept. I just know when somebody wants me.”

How sad, to think a woman like her had never experienced the miracle of love. She deserved so much better. “Is that why you left last night?”

Instead of answering, she stared down at her painted pink toenails, her face a clean slate. “I don’t know why I left,” she finally said.

“Liar.”

She glanced up in his direction. “Would you believe I needed to get back before curfew?”

“Nope.” His mouth quirked up at the corners.

“Then it must have been because your bed was too lumpy.”

“There isn’t a single lump in my bed.”

Ruby rubbed the side of her neck where he’d marked her hours before. The bruise was long gone, but the memory made his body hum. “Maybe I needed to return to my cabin before I changed into a pumpkin.”

He laughed. “Okay, that one earns you points for creativity.”

“I aim to please.”

Jack stepped closer, and her sultry scent made him weak at the knees. Reaching out, he tucked a strand of loose hair behind her ear. “Look, I don’t know what’s going on between us, but I like the way I feel when you’re around.”

The choker bobbed up and down when she swallowed. Conflicting emotions swam in her eyes, saying so much without ever saying a word. Fear and yearning. Fire and ice. “I don’t stick, Jack.” The words came out just a hair above a whisper. “It’s not part of who I am.”

We’ll see about that, he thought, but had the sense not to say it out loud.

Stretching for his hand, she gave it a quick squeeze. “I better get going. Dmitri wants to meet at the Windjammer for lunch, and I still need to shower and change.”

“If you want, you can use my shower.”

Her mouth seemed to be on the verge of smiling. “Tempting,” she drawled, “but if I use your shower we won’t make it on time.”

“I can work fast.”

“Maybe I’d rather you take your good sweet time.” She licked her lips and his dick stiffened.

The demon’s focus locked on her with frightening intensity. This wasn’t a good idea, not while the beast lurked so close to the surface. He needed to regain his sense of composure, needed to strike a meaningful balance if he stood any chance of building a future for himself and Ruby.

“All right, you win.”
For now.
Releasing her hand, he casually shifted position to give his erection more room. “But once this is over, I’m taking you back to bed.”

Her gaze drifted down to the bulge in his sweatpants, and a slow smile spread across her face.

“Count on it.”

A
quick shave and a much longer shower, and Jack almost felt human again.

His chest still hurt like a son of a bitch. A large purple bruise darkened the flesh along his right hip, and his shoulder throbbed from where he’d smacked the hardwood floor. By night, he’d probably be stiff as a board.

It sucked having your ass handed to you, especially in front of your woman. One day, he’d repay Dmitri for that particular indignity, but at the moment it wasn’t high on his list of priorities.

He still bristled at the notion of Ruby and Dmitri sleeping together. Ironic, after so many years of anonymous sex and one-night stands, but he couldn’t help the way he felt. He was jealous, plain and simple. Somewhere along the line, his feelings for Ruby had grown beyond sexual attraction. His temper ignited at the thought of another man—any man—touching her beautiful body. And yet he realized there was no way to change the past, and as long as they weren’t currently involved he had no choice but to suck it up.

Ignoring the pain in his lower back, he dressed in a pair of dark blue cargo shorts and a plain black tee. He crossed the room barefoot and walked onto the balcony, sucking in a lungful of crisp ocean air. A trio of pelicans flew high overhead, their wings stretched wide to capture the wind.

Of course, he was making the assumption that Ruby really was his woman. She wasn’t the type anyone should jump to conclusions about. She was a complicated lady, and the only person to his knowledge who’d ever communicated directly with the demon. After so many years of silence, why had it chosen to speak with her? Was it because she also skirted the borders of humanity, or did the demon harbor genuine affection toward her?

Whatever the reason, the demon had definitely taken an interest. It stirred whenever she neared, and settled as soon as she left. The reaction remained the same, regardless of whether or not sex was a possibility. Perhaps he could harness that interest and use it to tame his darker nature.

He walked back inside, leaving the balcony door open behind him. He stopped in front of the mirror over the vanity, staring straight at his own reflection. All these years, he’d viewed the curse as nothing more than the mindless creation of a vengeful bitch. A parasite that ruined his life. It never crossed his mind that the beast was actually a living, sentient being, locked in a prison of flesh and blood. No wonder the bastard kept trying to take over.

But then he thought about poor Victoria, and the years he’d suffered under the curse’s power, and all traces of sympathy flew right out the window.

“So. Gilrov, huh?” No change in the reflection, although he did feel the demon stir at the sound of its own name. “I never knew you had a name. I bet you’re about as sick of me as I am of you.”

A pulse of power flowed through his limbs as Gilrov voiced his agreement in the only manner at his disposal.

“Well, you heard Jolie. It seems we’re stuck with each other, so we’re going to have to work out some sort of agreement.”

The news obviously didn’t sit well with Gilrov. Another burst of power slammed through Jack’s blood, his bones, his brain—this one far more powerful than the last. Damn, the little fucker must have been saving up for that one. If he’d been in a weaker frame of mind, it might have been enough to short-circuit his defenses.

“Cut the shit and listen,” Jack snapped, his patience beyond exhausted. He braced his arms against the countertop and leaned closer toward the mirror. If he stared long enough, he could just make out the trace of a shadow moving within the browns of his irises, a barely perceptible movement that would have been dismissed as reflection by anyone who didn’t know better. “We have business to discuss.”

That got Gilrov’s attention. The demon stilled.

“Thank you.”

Jack pushed back from the vanity and strode across the room. The ocean breeze whipped his hair as he stepped out onto the balcony and gripped the smooth wooden rail.

“You see that?” he asked, staring down at the choppy waters below. The waves formed intricate patterns on top of the water, there for a moment before disappearing forever. “The fall would be enough to break every bone in my body.”
Our body.
“If that didn’t kill me, I’d drown in a matter of minutes. You know what happens to you if I die, don’t you?”

Another pulse of power, this one a bit frantic.

“I’ll take that as a yes.” Jack moved away from the rail and the demon calmed. He closed the door behind him and walked back to the mirror.

For so many years, he’d searched for a means to get rid of the demon so he could live a normal life. With that option off the table he had no choice but to find another alternative, something satisfactory to both parties involved. If not, the push and pull would never come to an end, and he simply refused to live with it any longer.

To be fair, Gilrov was just as screwed as he was. Maybe more, since Gilrov was a supernatural creature trapped within the confines of mortal flesh, an unwilling participant long denied its natural diet of sin and extravagance.

But it was a poor excuse for bad behavior.

“I won’t have you harming Ruby,” he said. “Or any other woman, for that matter. From now on you’re going to behave yourself.”

Gilrov made another bid for control, a determined—or was it desperate?—attempt to assert its authority. The demon poured all of its strength into the effort, determined to gain some semblance of superiority over his host. But Jack was prepared for him this time around, shoving back against the power pulsing through his body and attempting to invade his mind. The outer rims of his irises burned silver for a few fleeting seconds before dimming back to their natural brown.

“Not this time,” Jack growled through clenched teeth. He sucked in a breath, mentally fortifying his defenses against the onslaught until the demon expended all of its energy and abandoned the siege.

Truth be told, the struggle had worn Jack out as well. The fight was far from physical, but it still drained a lot of his energy. His heart raced while his blood pounded in his ears. A cold sweat dampened his brow as he propped his arms against the smooth surface of the vanity.

“How much longer are we going to keep doing this?” He met his own gaze in the mirror again, staring at Gilrov as much as at himself. The shadows shifted in his eyes, and for the first time Jack could actually feel the demon’s fury.

“Hey, pal, I’m not exactly thrilled about this either,” he said, opting for a tactic that was less confrontational. Brute force worked for only so long, until he experienced another moment of weakness. The time had come to forge a compromise, to arrive at a solution that would appease the demon while granting Jack a measure of continual dominance. Without it, he simply couldn’t go on. “But if we don’t work out some sort of arrangement, I’m going to do something that’ll put an end to things. Permanently.”

Gilrov’s anger subsided, replaced with something Jack could only guess was anxiety. Did the demon fear death more than it loathed captivity?

Jack was counting on it.

 

Ruby set the hair dryer down and gave her reflection a cursory inspection in the bathroom mirror. She’d paired her favorite denim shorts with a heather gray cami and sky blue macramé choker, completing the look with her hair worn down and a broad swipe of cherry red gloss over her lips.

In general, when you looked good and projected a positive image, people assumed all was well and didn’t bother scratching beneath the surface. She hoped the tendency applied to Jack as well. Mainly because she didn’t want him asking more questions like the one he’d dropped on her earlier that morning.

She didn’t know why she’d slipped out of his bed as soon as he’d fallen asleep the night before. Well, that wasn’t quite true. Fear had driven her back to her cabin. The emotions she’d seen in his eyes as they made love had nearly matched her own. So strong, so intense. So sudden. It scared her half to death. She’d needed to put some space between them so she could gain her bearings and put things back into perspective.

Of course, that perspective had flown out the window the second he stepped into the aerobics room. All she could think about was the night before. The fire in his eyes, the musky scent of his skin. The passion in his voice when he called out her name.

She refused to allow those feelings to grow. They simply weren’t a part of her lifestyle. Throughout the years, her job had taught her one very important lesson: Everything ends. Everything. When the inevitable happened, those left behind were stuck cleaning up the wreckage. And since she was the one who never stuck, she was doing Jack a favor by giving him the advance warning.

After one last check of the mirror, she left the cabin and took the elevator up to deck nine. By the time she entered the Windjammer restaurant, the late breakfast crowd had dwindled to only a few dozen occupied tables. A lot of the patrons were fellow creatures of the night, folks she recognized from her late evenings at the clubs. At night, they nearly vibrated with manic energy, but this early in the day they looked bleary-eyed and sullen, clinging to their coffee cups like they were life preservers.

Scanning the room, she spotted Dmitri sitting in a booth at the rear starboard corner. He’d showered and changed since the last time she’d seen him, but he hadn’t bothered to shave. Either he didn’t notice her or didn’t bother acknowledging her presence as he worked on a plate piled high with bacon. A coffee mug sat to the left of his plate, a few inches away from the napkin dispenser.

This late in the morning, the crew was beginning to swap out breakfast items for lunch, so she grabbed a plate and quickly filled it with grits, pancakes, and a bowl of fruit salad. With a tall glass of tea in hand, she wove a path to the table.

“Sorry I’m late.” She slid onto the bench seat opposite Dmitri.

He nodded, his mouth full of food. He swallowed and then washed it all down with a swig of coffee. “You never were a morning person.”

“Guilty as charged.” After drowning her pancakes in syrup, she took a big bite. The taste of sugary goodness flooded her taste buds, and she nearly groaned with pleasure. “So what’s the plan for the day?”

Dmitri glanced over her shoulder. “Hold that thought until your pet takes a seat. I don’t want to repeat myself.”

She was about to give him a talking to about the whole “pet” thing when she caught sight of Jack at the drink dispenser. He was standing behind two teenage boys, patiently waiting his turn. His face lit up when his gaze found hers, his mouth curving into a broad smile. After filling his glass with lemonade, he grabbed one of the last muffins from the breakfast buffet and made a beeline toward their table.

“What did I miss?” Jack slid onto the bench beside Ruby and set the muffin on the table. He greeted her with a kiss that made her morning brighter, and then gave Dmitri the big hairy eyeball.

“Nothing so far.” Ruby leaned back against the padded green bench seat, a light flush warming her cheeks. “We were waiting for you.”

“Were you now?” He grinned as his thigh pressed against hers, the casual skin on skin contact sending sparks up her leg and through the rest of her body.

Dmitri made a sound that was somewhere between a grunt and a growl. He’d already finished his mound of bacon, and was making quick work of his hash browns and that nauseating mixture of eggs and ketchup. “Do I have to put you two into separate corners?”

Ruby let the comment slide as she ripped open three sugar packets and emptied them into her glass. Taking a sip, she deemed the mixture acceptable and turned her attention to her meal.

Something in the restaurant felt intrinsically off, but she couldn’t quite put her finger on it. She glanced about the room as she ate her grits, but saw nothing out of the ordinary. Passengers milled about without a care in the world while members of the crew cleared away dirty dishes and refilled dwindling buffets. A young couple a few tables over argued in hushed tones.

Then it dawned on her, so obvious she kicked herself for not noticing it earlier. The floor beneath her feet no longer carried the faint, continuous vibration she’d grown accustomed to over the course of the cruise.

“The ship’s engines have stopped.”

Dmitri glanced up. “That’s because I stopped them.”

“How?” Then she remembered what he used to do for a living. “Never mind. I don’t think I want to know.”

“Probably better that way.” He said it casually, as if sabotage was part of his everyday repertoire. Then again, it probably was.

Eyes wide, Jack’s focus darted from Dmitri to Ruby and back to Dmitri again. “Wait a minute. Are you joking?”

Dmitri set his fork down and picked up his mug of coffee. He took a long drink before answering. “Do I look like I’m joking?”

In all fairness, even when Dmitri
was
joking, he didn’t look like he was joking. Usually, he looked like he wanted to slug someone in the face.

“Have you lost your mind?” Jack cursed under his breath. “You do realize there’s a hurricane bearing down in this direction.”

Ruby’s breath caught in her throat. In all the excitement, she’d forgotten about the storm. The last she’d heard, Georgina had grown to hurricane strength. After leaving St. Angelique, the ship had changed course to skirt the storm’s path, but with the engines stopped they were at Georgina’s mercy.

“I’m well aware of the storm and its trajectory. But I have my orders. This ship will not reach port until after we’ve captured our quarry.”

“Relax, Jack. We have plenty of time. There’s at least a couple hundred miles between us and the outer bands of the storm.” Ruby sipped her sweet tea, straining to maintain an air of composure while her heart beat wildly in her chest. Working on her daddy’s boat, she’d endured her fair share of storms at sea, and the memories were far from pleasant. “Besides, it’s not even a major hurricane. Anything under a category three isn’t worth worrying about.”