The Devil You Know (30 page)

“Will he turn?” a guard’s voice echoed back.

“I know not.” Cassidy’s reply was resolute. That was the Fates’ affair. She had divested herself of it.

As they passed the open doors and the silent dead still lying in their beds, the other guard asked, “What shall we do?”

“Burn it,” Cassidy said, eyes focused on the path ahead. “Burn it all.”

With her sensitive half-demon ears, Lucine listened as her mother and her people left. Once she and the boy were fully alone, she crouched in front of him, her dead uncle between them. Though he was vanishingly thin, she judged him to be perhaps only three years younger than her thirteen cycles. As the guards had spoken, the boy’s head and body had twitched but he never raised his head. Lucine reached out, lifting his chin. His eyes were as black as hers, a gift of the undead flesh he had stolen from his Master.

She said, “I am Lucine. But you, beautiful boy, may call me Mistress…Mistress of the Moon.” She smiled, showing teeth just a little sharper than a witch’s. He looked at her with questioning eyes.

“Come,” she stood and held out a hand, “let us go home.”

The boy stayed as he was, watching her hand for a moment before standing. He took it, feeling a connection already growing between them.

As they left the citadel, the first licks of flame lighting the dark sky behind them, he carried out only a small ornately carved black box. His new Mistress’s soft voice began to lilt in his head, telling him of her father’s kingdom and the rich feasts he laid every night for his loyal servants. One hand in hers and the other cradling his box close to his chest, the boy smiled for the first time since reaching this valley.

The time had come to begin a new game.

Chapter Seventeen

“Hellhounds are a girl’s best friend. Those that don’t try to eat her, that is. The rest I recommend avoiding. In fact, that goes for anything with sharp teeth and ill-intent. In conjunction, those two can really put a damper on a girl’s evening.”

—Cate Delacy

“This doesn’t feel right,” Jacq murmured into my hair. Holding me close from behind, she swayed with me to the sultry blues song wafting softly out of my bedroom speakers.

Her heart was heavy with worry over tomorrow night’s run to remove the remains of Gemini’s father, Domini Roskov, from the Council’s cryo lab. Between my stray thoughts and the smattering of information she’d managed to glean from JJ, Brit and Mynx, Jacq had learned enough that I’d had to tell her our full plans or risk her going mad with worry. But knowing hadn’t eased her concerns.

With her still holding me, I looked down at the clothes I was packing and sighed in equal parts pleasure and weariness. Somewhere in there was the outfit we’d found for Brit to wear during tomorrow night’s run. The rest were for my trip to Jacq’s house. That was the only benefit of the change in plans. We could leave for New Orleans after Mynx made her run to take Van and Kathryn home. Jacq had raised her eyes at the dress I’d packed, clearly wondering where I planned to wear it. She seemed to think we would spend the entire trip naked in her bed. She was going to be surprised.

“Funny, this feels very right to me.” I placed my hands over Jacq’s, enjoying the heat her body generated.

“That’s not what I meant, cher, and you know it.” Her whiskey-smooth voice, holding the smallest hint of a threat, shivered down my spine. Her hands tightened, making my blood heat in a very pleasant way.

I broke Jacq’s tempting grip and turned, lacing my hands behind her neck. The worry in her gray gaze was hard to miss.

“If I had a choice,” I said, “you would be riding shotgun all the way. But with so little time to prepare, it’s going to be hard enough getting myself in and then out with Roskov’s body. Getting you out too would take angelic intervention. At least I’ll have Mynx coordinating everything. Besides, I need to know you and Fera are here keeping Kathryn and Van safe. If more demons attack, you know my family would go out to fight them. You two have to keep them from doing that.” I cupped her cheek. “Together or separate, you’ll always be my champion.”

One of Jacq’s hands moved between us, stroking the material softly above my belly. Fire moved under my skin. I bit my lip, holding in a groan.

“I thought,” she said huskily, lowering her head to speak in my ear, “that champions went on the quests.”

I laughed, clenching my thighs together to ease the ache her sure strokes were creating. “It’s a new era, Detective. Now the damsel has to get herself out of distress, and the champion has to prove her love for her fellow man by going off and doing lots of good deeds.”

Face serious, Jacq seemed to consider this. “Fine.” She stopped our dance and stepped back. I looked up, confused. She looked almost angry. “I’ll give you a good deed.” Growling, my fierce phoenix grabbed my waist and threw me onto the clothes-strewn bed. Squealing, I landed amidst shirts, pants, and lingerie. Jacq landed on top of me, tickling my ribs even as she began nibbling on the sensitive underside of my chin.

“Uncle! Uncle!” Laughing hard, I rolled, tangling us in the clothes.

“Uncle? Uncle?” Jacq laughed. “Who are you calling for?” She continued her torturous tickles.

“It means mercy—” I stopped as someone pounded against the wall located behind the bed’s headboard, shaking the mattress beneath us.

“Pipe down! Demons are trying to sleep here!” Van, still a little drunk, yelled, unsuccessfully mimicking a Jersey accent.

Jacq laughed harder and I glared at her. I wasn’t sure who to kill first: my new demon cousin for watching TV all day, myself for introducing him to the damn thing, or my grandmother for putting him in the guest room when Gem said she would stay at the Wellsy homestead as “extra protection” for the children.

Sensing my thoughts, Jacq laughed harder, and the pounding came again. She began to pull her shirt up over the back of her head and do an impression of Van.

Quickly rolling atop my detective, I placed my hand over her mouth and whispered, “If you start that, I will forever equate you with my cousin. And there will never
ever
be any consummating this relationship.”

Jacq’s eyes widened. Her lips screwed up tightly beneath my fingers, and I slid my hand away to kiss her startled face. I pushed the clothes off the bed and turned out the bedside light. It was a long time to Saturday night and our trip to New Orleans. We might not be able to have hot wild demon-monkey sex until then, but there was no reason we couldn’t play around a bit. Jacq moaned as my thumb flicked her nipple. I grabbed the stereo’s remote, turning the volume up.

What Van couldn’t hear wouldn’t hurt him.

I awoke sometime later to the sound of Jacq moaning loudly behind me. What at most times would be a welcome sound was anything but when I rolled over to find a sleeping Jacq writhing in pain. Dressed in her favorite blue boxers with little green dragons and a blue tank, she lay twisted in the sheets, her body glowing bright silver in the dark, her forehead shining with sweat.

Jacq’s eyes were open, staring blankly at the ceiling, but those normally beautiful smoky orbs were cloudy with sightlessness and pain. Her slightly open mouth released the most agonized sounds. I didn’t want anyone to see my love like this. Thankfully the radio was still on, playing a soft nighttime rock show, and Van, the only person sleeping nearby, should be out cold from all the alcohol he’d consumed.

I stroked Jacq’s forehead and neck, feeling the fever that scorched through her body. Jacq was always hot but right now she felt ready to combust. Literally. Even for a woman who played with fire on a regular basis, having my love erupt in flames in my bed seemed like a very bad idea.

Somehow I knew what to do. With my demon-half’s guidance, I rolled my T-shirt-clad body to lay over Jacq’s, fitting our limbs together. Kicking the sheets away, I tried to touch as much skin as possible, gasping as I felt her heat seeping into me. I opened myself up, drawing in a small amount of her heat, making it my own. As her power moved into me, I threw my head back in pleasure.

It was like dipping my toe into a pool that rippled with ecstasy. Though small, the power moving between us created such a wonderful feeling.

I needed more.

I wasn’t sure if that thought belonged to me, my demon-half, or something else. And I didn’t care. I wanted to submerge myself in that pool. I wanted to pull the warm wetness of it into my body and make it my own until I could feel this feeling every moment of every day until eternity. I wanted Jacq…and
everything
she could give me.

I did it again, taking more of her heat, opening myself further. Silver power arced out of her and into me. As her own body bowed back in pleasure, recognition returned to Jacq’s eyes. Her mouth flew open in a gasp.

“What…are…you…doing?” she panted, her chest heaving as I pulled power from her a third time.

Hands braced on either side of her head, my body moved over hers without my control, the need to connect more skin…to feel that all-consuming surge of ecstasy directing my limbs. Deep within, my demon-half growled hungrily, the sound rumbling upward until it came out of my throat.

“I don’t know.” My breath came fast, my body shuddering in pleasure. “I can’t…I can’t…seem to stop.” It was as if my body were starving and Jacq were a banquet of endless delicacies spread open before me. My thoughts were foggy, my senses focused completely on the hot magic moving from her body into mine.

“You’re not…ahhhh,” Jacq cried out as another blast of silver magic surged out of her, this time not directed by either of us.

I hadn’t opened myself enough to absorb it and the power hit me like a fist. My pleasure quickly morphed to pain. I cried out, my body convulsing as I tried to absorb the magic without shuttling it back to Jacq, understanding her earlier agony. If this was only a small part of what she held, of the hurt she felt, then my love deserved any peace I could offer her, no matter how brief.

“Cate!”

I heard Jacq call my name. Opening my eyes, I found myself slumped over her, my pain ebbing. I felt almost lethargic, my body heavy in a pleasant, drunken sort of way. I blinked lazily, watching as she gently placed me on the other side of the bed.

“I’m sorry,” Jacq whispered. Her beautiful gray eyes cried sparkling silver tears that slid down her silver-flushed cheeks. “You’re not ready for this.” Slowly, almost reluctantly, she rose from the bed. “I have to leave.” She shoved her legs into her black pants, not bothering with her shoes or overshirt.

“No,” I croaked, shaking myself from my lethargy, forcing my arms and legs to move. “Jacq!”

But she was already gone.

My body screamed for me to forget everything and simply sleep, but my soul cried out for the woman who had just walked out the door…and possibly my life. As quickly as I could, I forced my leaden body from the bed and headed for the door.

Jacq was fast. But so was I. As I pushed myself down the dimly lit stairs, my tiredness slipped away. I found myself moving faster and faster, the power I had taken from her giving my feet wings. Jacq was blocking our mental connection. But she couldn’t block my nose, which was sharper than ever thanks to her magic. Like a bloodhound, I locked onto her sage and sandalwood musk and followed it out of the house, through the back gardens, and down the hill. I stopped near the pond and looked into the woods, my eyes scanning the dark trees for an unmistakable flash of silver.

Jacqueline Slone was mistaken if she thought she could escape me so easily. I would follow her to hell and back…and was about to prove it. Deep within my soul, my demon-half cackled with glee, and for once I didn’t silence her.

On my way into the woods, I glanced into the dark water of the pond and saw my reflection. My eyes burned red with the fires of Hell. I smiled grimly.

I was my father’s daughter. But his mistakes would not be mine. I would not let the one I loved go.

I moved through the dark woods silently. Time seemed to move slowly as I moved faster and faster. After what seemed like a series of infinite moments, I came to the end of my search at the same meadow where we’d fought the minions of Nicodemus. Jacq lay in a small patch of daisies, her bright body visible from far away. The hellhound that I had begun to think of as my other protector lay by Jacq’s side, her diaphragm expanding and contracting quickly. Though the dog somehow seemed larger, her length almost matching Jacq’s, her presence seemed smaller. The hound’s eyes were black, the coals of Hell that normally burned there banked, but she seemed very alert, her nose raised and her eyes shifting from spot to spot.

As Jacq watched me cross the meadow, she absently stroked my demon-doggie’s head. Jacq’s face was still etched with pain, her brow wet with sweat, but the small tendrils of silver magic floating from her to the hound seemed to offer some relief. Seeing this, my anger dissolved. Especially when her mind again opened to me and I felt her distress overrunning.

I stepped closer, and the hound growled. But she was looking past me, into the dark woods at my back.

“Shh, Wrin,” Jacq said.

I looked over my shoulder. A scared rabbit dashed out of the woods, across the clearing, and back into the trees. The hound’s ears tilted forward, but she didn’t move.

“Just a rabbit,” I laughed. Yet as I said it a shiver ran down my spine and I wondered. I turned back to the strange pair. “You know the hound’s name?”

“She told me.” Strangely enough, that made perfect sense. The hound huffed, and I wondered if she was laughing at us. Jacq took a sharp breath. “You shouldn’t have followed me.” The words were soft, but her chest rose and fell heavily, her suffering apparent. “I couldn’t live with myself if I hurt you.” Her eyes were still bright with magic and moisture, silver tear tracks visible on her flushed cheeks.

I stepped closer and lay down at Jacq’s side, placing my hand over hers where it lay on the warm grass. My skin soaked in her heat, but I didn’t dare take as I’d done before. My love was in no shape to run again, but her mind said she would if pushed too far.