Phoenix Broken (31 page)

He shrugged. "She's probably out with Miss Mags, partying. It's what grown-ups do for Halloween, Tobe."

"You don't."

Scott laughed. "Because I have more fun stealing your candy."

"Candy
is
the best." Tish held up a gold plastic earring for him to affix to her little ear, wrinkling her nose.

"Yup." Scott laughed, tapping that cute nose. "But chocolate can give you a hangover almost as bad as alcohol so remember…

"…only three pieces each." The twins chorused, rolling their eyes in tandem.

"She's never got to go trick-or-treating, not for real, you know." Toby frowned as Scott started to clear up the makeup and bits of trash from the bathroom after Tish swirled out to find her cutlass.

Scott knew who his son meant. "Well, that's too bad, but—"

"She said she really wanted to, at least once, only she was too old now. But that's silly, 'cause you go with us every year."

"Yeah, I do, Tobe, but Miss Des doesn’t have kids, so until she has a couple of monsters of her own," Scott swallowed, the thought giving him an unexpectedly nasty jolt, "I'm afraid she's out of luck. Grown-ups don't get to trick or treat, it's a privilege of being a kid."

Toby snorted. "That's dumb. She'd have to wait like years and years. Maybe we should call her and ask if she wants to come with us. She could borrow us, like Miss Rissa does sometimes."

"Tobias…" Toby had already snagged Scott's phone off the counter and darted into the other room.

Oh Jesus, Mary and freakin' Joseph on a hump-backed camel…

Des showed up at their door a half hour later, wearing a slightly more elaborate version of the gypsy costume he remembered from when she and Mags had taken the kids out to the festival. It was perfectly suitable for a children's Halloween, but the damn thing made Scott nearly swallow his tongue. What really killed him was the lace-up bustier over her billowy white shirt. There was only a hint of cleavage, but it clung to her in all the right spots and made him want to unlace the damn thing with his teeth.

It was awkward at first, both of them adjusting to being around each other outside the bedroom or 'work', but within five minutes Des was hand in hand with Tish and Toby, skipping down their road, ready to hit every lit-up house they saw. In their neighborhood, that was most of them.

Des was a freaking riot.

She ooh'd and ahh'd at all the decorations, giggling at one neighbor's animatronic demon figure, setting it off again and again. Tish outfitted her with a pillowcase of her own and soon it was bulging. More than one man stuck at home passing out candy nearly emptied their bucket into her bag when she smiled at them. A fact that bemused Scott only a hair more than it pissed him off.

He shook his head when she came back down the sidewalk after her latest haul, the man in the doorway still looking after her, a bit dazed. "Toby's wrong, you're not weird, you're shameless."

"Simply making up for lost time, Jo—, "she caught herself and flounced her skirt at him as she passed, making Tish laugh and do the same. Toby rolled his eyes, but Scott could tell he was impressed. Scott couldn't blame his son.

He'd never seen her quite like this. She wasn't able to maintain her guard around the kids, that hint of wariness she used to keep him at a distance. This laughing woman who ran to each door with just as much enthusiasm as his kids—okay, probably more—reawakened his own love of the holiday.

By the end of the night, he and Toby were taking bets on how much candy they'd get based on a house's Halloween curb appeal. Des snuck up behind him during one of these intense confabs and poked Scott in the ribs with Tish's sword, making him jump and curse. Toby instantly informed his dad that was $200 for Memaw's swear jar.

"Oh, it's
on
now, angel." At the very next house, Scott jump scared her so bad, that Des actually punched him in the gut, to the twins' howls of delight.

Scott hadn't seen his kids so happy in …

Well, a long fucking time.

By the time they walked back to the house, it was full-on dark. Scott was carrying a worn out pirate in one arm, and watching Des and Toby out of the corner of his eye. She was listening intently to his son, her head cocked to one side, the street lights highlighting the gold in her hair.

Behind the two, he caught the shadow of Calimente's man trailing them. Scott frowned at the unwelcome reminder of the danger stalking Desdemona.

The kids insisted Des come in to sort candy. There was a small mountain of chocolate and treats on his living room floor when they were done. Scott sent the Toby and Tish to brush their teeth to a chorus of groans.

As soon as the twins vanished down the hall, Scott took the opportunity to do what he'd been dying to all night. He yanked Des to him and kissed her there on the floor. Tasting chocolate on her lips as she moaned into his mouth, her hands fisting in his shirt.

Neither of them noticed Scott's front door opening. Or Merry and Frank standing on the threshold until the latter coughed politely.

"Just coming to see the kids before they take off their costumes," Merry said, watching Scott pull back from Des' mouth, her face unreadable.

He knew that, Merry and Frank did this every year. It'd just slipped his preoccupied mind.

Des took it in stride, her cheeks just a bit pink. She got up and introduced herself, since Scott proved incapable. There was small talk, none of which he followed. By then, the kids had come out. Des gave them both a squeeze and said her goodbyes. Toby didn't want to let her go, hugging her so hard she gave a gasping laugh.

Scott watched Merry's eyes narrow at this, and her and Frank had exchanged one of those looks. Married couple looks.

Nobody said anything further after Des left, though he had no doubt Merry intended to feel the kids out on the whole 'Desdemona' subject.

It bothered him, but not nearly as much as he'd thought it should.

Lines were starting to get blurred.

The weeks blurred, too. Scott had been used to time crawling for a long time. Now it seemed to fly.

Halloween had become November. The bright colors of fall were fading, preparing for the iron grey and bone white of winter. The smell of impending snow surrounded him as he ran through the woods near Phoenix, just before sundown.

He pushed himself faster down the trail, rounded the last bend in the woods, breathing hard as Phoenix's grounds stretched out before him in the late morning mist.

It'd been three weeks, no sign of Docie May. Scott went to Centaries every Tuesday, but she never showed. When he'd reached out, Miles reluctantly confirmed she was still at the Convenīre safe house, but his people reported no sign of Cross.

It bothered him. Hell, it bothered them all.

Scott thought they should attack the safe house and extract her, but Jules and Miles had so far been reluctant to make such a direct move against the Convenīre. They were at a standstill.

It seemed to be going around.

He'd gotten no closer to approaching the French vamp about Des' mother. What did he actually
know
anyway? A demon Miles hated had married the daughter of one of his best friends. Certainly not a coincidence, but what did it mean? No way Scott would poke that hornet's nest without a good idea of what might happen. He also hadn't pressed Des on the issue either, for entirely different reasons.

Giving into his lust for Des hadn't done a damn thing to get her out of his head. Two steps forward, three steps back. He’d only added a hundred images of her, in bed and out, that fueled his fascination for her.

He was meeting her in twenty minutes for lunch. Scott leaned over as the training wing loomed in front of him, running all out the last few yards. Des had pointed out they were not making proper use of the time that the kids were in school and Mags was at work. He agreed whole-heartedly, kicking himself for not thinking of it sooner.

It had been awhile since Scott had taken a long lunch. He planned on making up for that today. Finishing his stretching, Scott half-jogged to the locker room.

He tried to sneak up on her in the Atrium, but she turned, raising her fist along with her eyebrows. "You want another punch in the gut, mister?"

Scott laughed, closing the distance between them to yank her close. "Stand down, Des."

His scent had given him away. That piney smell that clung to her bedsheets and made her dream of him even when he wasn't there. The back of his neck was damp from his shower as she cupped him there, going to her toes, relishing the taste of his mouth.

She was getting far too used to this; his smiles, his arms around her. Des knew it, knew how dangerous it was, but she couldn’t help herself.

"Okay, okay. Break it up. Hey, Scott, can I borrow you for a minute? Des can come to, I guess, if she behaves herself." Dustin sent her a half-hearted wink.

Des frowned, she liked the IT guy a lot—if she hadn't Mags probably would've disowned her. She also adored how he teased Scott so mercilessly. Right now, Dustin didn't look quite as happy-go-lucky as usual.

Scott sighed. "Make it snappy, Dustin, okay? I got things to do."

"Oh I know exactly
who
you gotta do, and it isn't me, mores the pity. Of course, if you all ever want to venture into threesome territory, let me just say here and now—"

"Shut up, Dustin," Scott said.

They followed the bobbing pink-streaked hair into a room behind the security desk that Des had never know was there. There was no evidence of a door, but when Dustin lifted a hand, glowing lines appeared, tracing into what had appeared to be the same white-veined green marble of the wall. Within seconds a door clicked open and they walked into a computer geek's wet dream.

"Hey, is that—" Her eyes widened at the house coming into view on multiple screens.

“Yup. Mag's place is totally wired for sound, heat signatures, anything you can think of. Inside and out."

“Inside?”
He voice came out in a squeak.

Dustin's lips twitched. “Come on, you’re a succubae and you’re worried about a little exhibitionism?”

She narrowed her eyes, turning to face Scott. “Are they monitored?”

He grinned. “Not by live bodies, no. Not the inside cameras. If the system sends out an alert, then it would be brought up on the feeds here. Say we accidently tripped the alarm one night, Nolan and his crew would get quite the show.”

She punched him in the shoulder, not gently. “That's not funny.”

Ow!
Scott mouthed at her while Dustin laughed.

He raised his hands in surrender when she turned her glare on him. “Hey, I'm not into watching straight sex.” He shuddered delicately, then reconsidered. “Though, for a sneak peek at Davidson’s goodies, I think I could bear it.”

This time it was Des that grinned. Scott rolled his eyes.

"What'd you want to show me so bad, Dustin? And I swear to god if you reach for your pants—"

Dustin chuckled, but something on his face went still as he started tapping buttons fast. "It's an anomaly I noticed. Well, some would call it an anomaly, but me—"

He hit one last button. "Grab that from Nolan's personal printer, would you? I don't want it coming up in here."

Scott shrugged. "Okay, but behave yourself while I'm gone.

Dustin grabbed Des around the waist and pulled her into his lap. “Behave? Are you kidding me?" He made obscene smacking noises until she started giggling and pushing him away.

Scott snorted. “You don’t fool me, nothing will ever straighten you out.”

“I don’t know, my dad never tried hooking me up with a succubus!” Dustin called after him as Scott keyed the code to Nolan's office. “If Des is willing, we could give it a whirl.”

Des leaned forward, her hand stroking Dustin’s chest as her voice went to a low purr. “Okay, handsome, I’ll do my best.”

Scott’s middle finger saluted them before the door shut.

Dustin laughed as he released her. ”You’re good for him.”

She got up and leaned a hip against the counter, eyeing the exotic-looking man with approval. “So are you, I think.”

Dustin glanced at the door to make sure it was really shut. “You know I only tease him so much ‘cause most everyone else stopped. You know, after… Well, you know. Self-preservation. You were more likely to get a fist in the face than a laugh. Not too many would risk it, not from him. Only Gordy gives it to him unfiltered, and then only rarely."

“I think Alcide pushes him more than the others, too.”

“Really?” Dustin frowned. “Well, the werewolf wasn’t here when all that shit went down. Hell, I barely knew we had a shade working here, then the kid was just…gone. He never got to know either of them.”

He gave her a contemplative look, his dark eyes kind, but shadowed with worry. Worry for who? And why? She shivered.

“Scott used to be one of biggest jokesters around here. Gave as good as he got and then some. I don’t usually go so hard at the straight ones, you know. Not like I do with him. I just… I think he likes it that someone doesn’t pussy foot around him."

She put a hand on his thin shoulder. “You’re a good friend.”

He snorted. “Plus, he
is
freaking hot. Though I don’t have to tell you that, eh?”

Des watched Scott come through the door again, with that powerful grace that made her mouth dry and her knees weak. She sighed softly. “No, you certainly don’t.”

"He's watching her." The crackle in Scott's voice had her straightening. His eyes were scanning the print-out in his hands.

"He is."

"What? Who?" But Des knew who they meant.

The Dullahan.

Dustin explained it to her while Scott both listened and read. There was an anomaly Dustin had noted over the last few weeks, apparently random shut-offs of no more than a few seconds of the security system at her and Mags' place. Two-three second increments here and there. No discernable pattern, except—

"They are all within ten minutes of the time she gets home." Scott's head came up.

"No matter when she gets home, day or night." Dustin's voice was grim as well.

"Do you catch anything on the monitors during that time?"

"Most would say, no. But I— Well, let me show you what I got."

Dustin closed in on one image, then brought it up on the huge monitor on the wall, getting to his feet. "There." A shadow flickered on screen, almost as if a cloud had raced overhead during that frame, but then, he played it again, slowing it down, playing with a control in his hand.

The shadow coalesced into a figure; a tall figure with a profile Des remembered at once. Goosebumps trailed down her spine. "It's him."

“That’s what I thought, too.” Dustin’s nose wrinkled. “But it doesn’t look quite …human.”

"What's he doing?" Scott moved to stand almost nose to nose with the image on screen, his eyes narrowed.

"I have no idea, but I can find one of these flickers every time the other glitch happens."

"You think he's getting in?”

"Can't be, can he?" Dustin gave Des a look. “Unless he’s a wraith.”

“He’s no wraith.” Des remembered the feel of those gloved fingers on her throat, sold as steel, but definitely alive. The way he’d shuddered when her power hit him. He had thrown it off, yes. But he’d definitely felt it. A wraith wouldn't.

Scott didn't turn from the screen, staring at it so intently, she was surprised it didn't spontaneously combust. There was a tic in his jaw. "He can't hope to get to her there. Besides the security. Calimente's had people on her round the clock since—"

Scott's voice trailed off. He gave her a frustrated look, but she only folded her arms. There were some things between her and Guido that she couldn't share.

"He can't hope to get to her there," he repeated, still looking at Des. "So something else is going on. Run a full-system scan—"

"I have."

"Run it again," Scott snapped. "Nolan and I will look into this later this afternoon when I get back." He strode to Des, wrapping an arm around her waist. At the door, he turned back, his voice softening. "And Dustin, thanks."

"It's okay. I like the demon spawn." Dustin tried for a smile, but it wobbled a little as he looked at them. His concern was obvious.

So was Scott's as he reached for her, his thumb tracing her lips. “Me, too. Dustin. Me, too.”

Des wanted to believe that concern might mean something had changed between them, but she reminded herself Scott was a man who felt responsibility keenly. This last few weeks had been amazing, but she cautioned herself to be happy with what she had. Like his arms around her right now.

After all, you never knew when such things could end.