When Temptation Burns: A Shadow Keepers Novel (Shadow Keepers 6) (26 page)

Everything she could want—except he wasn’t what he seemed.

Instead, he was—what?

She didn’t know. Or maybe she did, but she just didn’t want to think about it. It was too sad, too scary, and as the cab bounced along the surface streets she hugged herself and thought of her dad and hoped that he’d have some wisdom to offer her, because right now she was fresh out.

“Sweetheart.” Her dad’s wide smile greeted her at the door. She gave him a tight hug, closing her eyes and relishing the feel of his arms around her. “What’s wrong?”

She pushed back and looked up at him. “That obvious, huh?”

“You never could cry without your eyes swelling.”

She managed a sniffly laugh; it sucked to be so transparent. “There’s no keeping anything from you.”

“And you shouldn’t even try. Besides, you didn’t come here so that you could not talk to me. Are you okay?” He pulled her inside and they sat down next to each other on the couch. “Is this about your mother?”

She made a noise that was a cross between a laugh and a snort. “That and a million other things.” She licked her lips, realizing that he didn’t know half of what had happened. “Did you hear about Stu?”

His brow furrowed, and she told him the story, watching as his face shifted through a variety of emotions. “Kevin?” he finally asked.

“Safe.”

He nodded. “Thank God.”

“I’m surprised Paul didn’t tell you.”

Her father shook his head dismissively. “I was at the church all morning. He left a message, but I haven’t called him back yet.”

She almost told him about the attack at Wes’s house, but decided against it. He’d just worry, and it was too late to do anything about it. Besides, that wasn’t why she was here.

The truth was, she wasn’t entirely sure why she was here.

“I met this guy …” She trailed off with a shrug and she realized she’d been touching her mother’s cross, silently pleading for it to give her strength. To protect her against everything—and everyone—that was swirling around her. “Considering everything that’s going on, I guess a guy sounds pretty trivial.”

“Relationships are never trivial. Can you tell me what’s wrong?”

“I’m just—” Her voice broke. “I’m just really frustrated. I thought there was something there, you know? He’s strong and funny and capable and we can sit and talk for hours. But we’re different.” Her smile was beyond ironic. “Really, really different.”

“Sometimes a couple’s differences strengthen their relationship. Your mother and I seemed very different on the surface, but it was what was in our souls that really mattered.”

She shivered. “I don’t think this—” She cut herself off and leaned against him.

“All right, tell me. What’s this big chasm between the two of you?”

But she couldn’t tell him. Not this. “It’s—it’s a lifestyle
thing. He’s a cop. It’s—well, he looks at life differently. And it’s dangerous. And, I don’t know. It’s just difficult. And all this stuff with Mom and Paul and everything, it’s just making the differences seem that much bigger. Does that make sense?”

“Anything that distances you from someone can be a challenge. Give him space. Maybe the two of you can find a way to work past it.”

She nodded, wanting to take that next step and tell him exactly what the trouble was. But she couldn’t. He was in tight with Paul, and that meant Doyle was the enemy.
Oh, God. The enemy
. She knew what her father would say. That he was evil. That he was the devil incarnate. That Andy needed to run far and fast before Doyle got his claws into her soul.

She pressed her hand to her mouth, afraid she was going to be sick.

“Sweetheart?”

“I—I saw what happened to Stu.” She took three huge, gulping breaths. “I think I understand what happened to Mom.”
Doyle’s kind did that. He’s like them. He’s one of them
.

Her father’s arms tightened around her, but he didn’t say anything.

“Do you think they’re all like that?”

“What do you mean?”

“Werewolves. Do you think they’re all vicious? All the werewolves? All the vampires? All of these creatures that the Dark Warriors are fighting? Or are there some that are, I don’t know, just better, I guess, you know, like what Mom thought.”

He didn’t let go, but she felt the tension in his body,
and she knew that her question had made him uncomfortable. “Why would you ask that?”

“I don’t know,” she lied, her mind focused on Doyle. “I was thinking about Creevey.”

“Creevey?”

“He’s a monster, right?” She pulled out of his arms and shifted on the couch, because this was important and she wanted to see his face.

“Of course he is.”

“But we don’t judge all people by him. We don’t look at a man and think that since Creevey’s evil, that man must be, too.”

Her father shook his head, his expression infinitely sad.

“Daddy?”

He reached out and cupped her cheek. “You’re always looking for the good in people.”

“Is that bad?”

“Not when it’s actually people you’re looking at. But these creatures—sweetheart, they’re not human. They’re demons. I realize it’s difficult to wrap your head around it, but you have to.”

“But—”

“No,” he said, and this time his voice took on the tenor of the pulpit. “Think, Andrea. Think about who was the most beautiful of all. The most tempting of all. Lucifer may shine like a light, but that doesn’t change his nature, what’s at his core. Evil is evil, Andrea. And that basic nature cannot be changed.”

Andy borrowed her dad’s second car to go home, but as soon as she pulled out of the driveway, she knew that she wasn’t ready to go. She’d heard what her dad had to say. But although she loved and respected him, his words had rung false in her ears.

His answers weren’t her answers, and it was time for her to put her reporter hat back on and figure out exactly what was going on—what Doyle was, and what that meant.

The trouble was, a reporter needed sources, and Andy wasn’t exactly well stocked in that department. She didn’t know anybody outside of Paul’s crew who even knew that this other world existed. And Paul was definitely not the man she wanted to talk to right now.

So where did that leave her? Libraries? The Internet?

No
.

The realization hit her with such force that she slammed on the brakes, almost causing the car behind her to careen into her. The driver shot his middle finger into the air and burned rubber getting around her, something that would normally piss her off.

Today, she ignored it. She eased back into traffic, her mind going a million miles a minute.
Luke Dragos
. He’d been right there at Orlando’s. She’d seen him.

And he was CeeCee’s guardian.

She could be wrong—maybe CeeCee really was just
your average kid—but Andy would have bet a full year’s supply of Chips Ahoy that CeeCee was as different from teenage heartthrob Kurt Wiley as Andy was from Ryan Doyle.

It was already early evening, and she knew that it was a long shot that she’d find CeeCee at the Pacific Teen Center, but she had to try, and she broke about a dozen traffic laws getting there. She slammed the car into park, then raced inside, standing in the doorway as she scoped out the room.

All of the kids looked up at her, a few with concerned expressions. A few more waved.

CeeCee just lifted her head and frowned.

“Can we talk?” Andy asked, approaching her.

“Am I in trouble?”

“No, but I need your help.” She cocked her head toward the door and led the girl outside. This wasn’t official, and she didn’t want to have the conversation in a building owned by her father’s ministry.

“So what’s going on?” CeeCee asked, when they were both settled on a low stone wall, their feet dangling as they looked out at the ocean.

Wasn’t that the question of the hour? Now that she was here, Andy really wasn’t sure how to broach the subject. She drew in a deep breath and decided to dive right in. “I was thinking about you and Kurt,” she said. “What’s so different about you two?”

“Huh?”

“You told me you were too different—that was why you could never date. But you look the same. You’re both teens. You both live in California. So what’s different?”

CeeCee’s nostrils flared a bit, and then she frowned. “It’s complicated,” she said.

“Would it uncomplicate things if I told you that I think I understand.”

“Oh, please. I promise you, you don’t.”

“Do you know a guy named Ryan Doyle?”

That
got CeeCee’s attention. She turned sharply and looked at Andy. “What makes you think I know him?”

“He’s a friend of your guardian’s, isn’t he? Of Luke’s?”

CeeCee laughed. “Hardly. Those two haven’t been friends for a really long time.” She shrugged. “But they work together, so I guess they have to tolerate each other. How do you know him?”

Andy ignored the question and dove straight into the deep end while her courage held out. “What is Doyle? He’s not a vampire or a werewolf, so what is he?” She squeezed her hands into fists, hoping against hope that she hadn’t just scared off a perfectly human teen.

CeeCee jumped down off of the wall and started walking away. “Oh, whoa. I don’t do this crazy talk stuff—”

“Bullshit.”

The girl stopped in her tracks, but she didn’t turn around.

“Please. I need to understand. I—I like him. But I don’t understand what he is. I don’t understand any of it at all. And you’re the only one I could think of to ask.”

Slowly, the girl turned back around. “Why do you think he’s anything?”

It was Andy’s turn to hesitate. “I saw him do things. His skin changed. His eyes, too. And he was able to control the wind.”

“Yeah, well, I think that goes with the package.”

“What package?”

“Doyle’s a paradaemon.”

“A demon?”
Oh, dear God, her father was right. Doyle might seem human, but he came straight up from the bowels of hell
.

“What? You mean like all fire and brimstone? It can get pretty gritty in here,” the girl said, thumping her chest, “but none of us are cousins of Beelzebub.”

Despite the flippancy of the girl’s words, Andy felt a million times better. Except at the same time, Paul’s voice was in her head, telling her about the darkness inside vampires and werewolves. Telling her they needed to be eradicated.

“Oh, please,” CeeCee said, after Andy had said as much. “Did you know I ran away from home? My stepfather beat me. That was evil. Not what I am now or what the family I have now is like. They’re good folks, you know? I mean, yeah, there’s bad shit out there, but I don’t think Doyle’s bad shit. I think maybe he did some bad things—I think Luke did, too, a long time ago. But they both fought to be good, you know? And I think that if you fight, then you can’t be evil. Because evil would just give in.”

“You’re sixteen, right?”

The girl sighed. “This year, yeah. And next year, too. Apparently I’m going to be sixteen forever.”

Andy laughed. “The age suits you.” She paused. “My mother knew about your world. And she knew that it was like mine. Some folks are good, some aren’t. Some are bad, some aren’t. She tried to prove it, and it ended up getting her killed.”

“I’m sorry,” CeeCee said. “That must’ve been hard.”

“I didn’t realize it at the time. But it’s colored my dad’s whole world.”

“He’s seeing what he wants to see,” CeeCee said. “It’s not like it’s hard to see how things really are if you just open your eyes.”

Andy considered that, and had to admit that she agreed. And if Doyle wasn’t pure, walking evil …

She cleared her throat. “So, um, does it ever happen? One of your kind dating a human?”

“Oh, sure,” CeeCee said easily. “Sara was human when she and Luke got all hot and heavy.”

“Really? What happened?”

“She almost died, so Luke turned her into a vampire.” CeeCee shrugged. “I guess that worked out pretty well, huh?”

“Yeah,” Andy said, though the solution wasn’t really one that appealed to her.

“And Serge is like me, and he’s with Alexis now and she’s totally human.”

“What about later?”

CeeCee shrugged. “Dunno. Guess they’ll figure it out.” She looked sideways at Andy. “So what are you going to do?”