Wicked Fantasy (21 page)

“No goodies?” Ganymede widened his amber eyes. “You're right, Conall. You can protect her. I'm going where the food is.” He stood, leaped from the coffee table, and headed toward the door. “I'll be in the candy store when you finish here, babe.” He flicked his tail at Sparkle and exited, leaving his empty bags and tons of crumbs behind.

“Now that I've saved the day, I'll go back to guard-cat duty outside the door. I'll intercept any evildoers trying to reach you, Conall.”
Asima didn't have a modest bone in her Siamese body.

“Yeah. Thanks.” What else could he say? She
had
helped. But why the hell was she so fixated on
him
?

She slanted her cat gaze at Gerry.
“Don't forget our bargain.
Swan Lake
, my room, tomorrow night.”
Then she padded after Ganymede. The door swung shut behind her.

Conall breathed a little easier once she was gone. Two down, three more to go. He'd changed his mind about having Fo and Gabriel stick around. Gerry needed some downtime. With him.
Only
with him.

“We don't want to keep you guys tied up.” Conall aimed his smile at Fo and Gabriel who were watching the unfolding drama with open fascination. “You probably have stuff you have to do.”

“No.” Fo stared at him with wide purple eyes. “We want to see you make love. The TV is interesting, but we'd like to be involved in the emotion of a live performance.”

“Uh, making love is sort of private, Fo.” Gerry cast a desperate glance in Conall's direction.

“Why is it private?” Fo slid her gaze to the screen. “Those humans don't mind.”

Hell, he'd never known how to handle Fo's questions.

Sparkle galloped to the rescue. “Here's the deal, Fo. A man can't get it up if he's nervous. You'd make Conall nervous because he's not used to someone watching.”

His male pride might not survive Sparkle's help.

“Get it up? Get what up? Is something sleeping? I'm not familiar with that idiom.” Fo's gaze shifted to Gabriel. “Have you ever heard—”

“Well, how was the sex?” Gabriel didn't talk much, but when he did, he got right to the point.

Silence fell. Sparkle's gaze returned to her broken nail, but both ears were wide open.

Gerry stared at Conall, and there was something in her expression that warned him his relationship with this Kavanagh would never be the same.

“It was worth a goddess's tail feathers.”

And that would be his measuring stick for all future lovemaking with Gerry Kavanagh.

Gerry glanced away, and he sensed she hadn't meant to put so many unspoken words into that one sentence.

He had no time to ponder those unspoken words because Holgarth appeared at the door. His pointed hat rested somewhere left of center, a sure sign he was pissed.

“An emergency has occurred.” Holgarth would've used the same tone to tell them a comet was zeroing in on the castle, and they'd all be dead in five minutes.

Conall had a feeling he knew what the “emergency” was. “You've seen Morrigan.”

“
Everyone
has seen Morrigan, and heard her as well. She's telling the customers what's on her mind and theirs, too. I tried to impress upon her the need for circumspection, but my powers aren't strong enough to stop her. I actually had to refund
money
.” Holgarth loved money. Hated giving it back. Ever. To anyone.

“I've called in our substitutes to take over tonight's fantasies while we deal with this situation.” From his expression, Holgarth felt the black plague would be preferable to this “situation.” Dead people didn't ask for their money back. “And since we'll be discussing Morrigan, we can also ruminate over the attempts on Gerry's life, understandable though they may be.”

“Hey, did anyone ever tell you you're a vile old man?” Gerry wasn't taking any more crap from this arrogant, self-important, bombastic—

“You
must
include sarcastic in your list. I'll be so disappointed if you don't.” Holgarth offered her a thin-lipped smile.

“Yeah, that, too. And stay out of my mind.” How did you insult someone who refused to be insulted?

Gerry gave up the attempt in favor of something more productive. “Where will we meet?”

“Back off, Holgarth.” Conall glowered at the wizard before glancing at Gerry. “There's a conference room next to the restaurant in the lobby.”

Holgarth's lips thinned a little more. “Be careful where you give your affection, warrior.” Then with a dramatic swirl of his robe, he disappeared in a cloud of smoke.

“Damn show-off.” Conall turned to Gerry. “Feel intimidated yet?”

“By Holgarth?” She thought about the question. “Nope. Not feeling any overwhelming need to bow until my nose touches the pointed toes of his little blue slippers.”

“Too bad. He wasted all that energy for nothing. As he gets older, it takes more of his power to do simple magic. He should've taken the stairs like everyone else.” Conall smiled. “It would make the old guy feel good if you said a few words about how amazed you were with his disappearing act.”

Gerry raised one brow. “And I'd want to make him feel good, why?”

“Because you're kind? Because Holgarth gets a kick out of complaining and insulting everyone, but he'd put his life on the line to save any of us.”

“Even a Kavanagh?”

“Maybe not an ordinary Kavanagh, but you? Yes.” He studied her with those gray eyes she suspected saw too much of what she wasn't ready for him to see. “I think he'd go to the mat for you.”

What could she say to that? “Let's get to this meeting before Holgarth recharges his insult machine. If we walk in late, he'll be off and running.”

“I've got to make an appointment with my manicurist before I go to the meeting.” Sparkle glanced at Fo and Gabriel. “I'll take you guys with me. We'll go to the meeting together.”

Thank you, Sparkle
. Gerry owed the cosmic troublemaker a new bottle of nail color.

“Manicurist?” Conall looked confused. “It's after midnight, Sparkle.”

“I go to Forever Young Beauty Salon and Spa on the Strand. Stella stays open all night. She's a vamp with centuries of experience making female entities of every kind gorgeous. Stella can make anything look good.” She studied Gerry. “I'll make an appointment for you.”

“But I don't want to leave.” Fo looked mutinous. “I want to see—”

With a long-suffering sigh, Sparkle picked up Fo and Gabriel along with their pouches and left.

What remained behind was a very sexy immortal warrior and the elephant in the room disguised as the memory of their shared lovemaking.

Conall met her stare with a direct one of his own. “Tonight was incredible, but I can't do my duty if I'm busy thinking about the next time we'll be together, or how we'll fly under Morrigan's radar, so—”

“Finish that ‘so' and I'll be tempted to make sure you'll never ‘get it up' again.” It was time to bring everything out into the open, be upfront with him, lay all her cards on the table, collect a few more idioms for Fo. “We're going to be together for a long time. No way will I spend centuries in silent lust for you. I'm an instant-gratification kind of woman. I see, I want, I take. I mean, assuming that you want, too.” Okay, that sounded lame.

“I want. And I wasn't going to make an excuse why we can't be together again. But I do think we need to find somewhere Morrigan and our army of protectors won't look.”

She brightened. “Oh, in that case, I'll start looking for—” Her cell phone rang. Payton.

Her boss was to the point. No, he hadn't found anyone to track down the serial wife killer. Yes, he expected her to bring him in. And no, he didn't want to hear any nonsense about this guy at the castle not being the right one. Catch him. Now. Sigh.

“Your boss?”

“Yeah.”

“Anything I can help with?”

“Maybe.” She wouldn't let him spend the rest of his existence as her immortal bodyguard, but she could be okay with him as a partner. “Payton is convinced Edge is a serial wife killer. Edge fits the description Payton has. I don't think Edge is our guy, but what I think doesn't matter. So how do we pull it off?”

“We don't.”

“Gee, that's a great idea. Why didn't I think of it?” Partner, hah!

“Neither one of us has the power to make a cosmic troublemaker do anything. Edge has to want to go with you.”

“Like that's going to happen.” She could wave good-bye to her promotion.

Conall shrugged. “Offer him incentives.”

“Yeah, how about, ‘If you let me take you to jail, Edge, I'll include a gift certificate to the cell-décor store of your choice. That'll work.”

He grinned. “We'll think of something. Let's get to that meeting before Holgarth comes looking for us.”

As Gerry followed Conall up the winding steps from the dungeon to the great hall, she thought she caught a glimpse of Dell in the shadows.

Dell. He was the key to the last attempt on her life. She'd bring that up at the meeting.

And after the meeting? Maybe some time alone with Conall? A woman could hope and dream of tree trunks.

Gerry glanced down the long table. The meeting room next to the restaurant was packed. Most of the nonhuman entities she'd met so far, plus a few she hadn't, were crowded around the table. Only Ganymede, Sparkle, Fo, and Gabriel seemed to be missing.

Holgarth stood at the head of the table, gavel in hand. Figured. He had to be in charge.

Conall sat next to her, his arm resting across the top of her chair. As much as she wanted to believe she was a big bad vampire who didn't need a man's comfort, she wouldn't mind if he dropped his arm across her shoulders instead.

Edge sat across from her. He grinned, and every woman in the room took a collective gulp of air, whether they needed it or not.

“Thought of a way to bring me to justice yet?” His gaze slid to Conall. Assessing. Then he nodded. “Hope we won't be tangling, O'Rourke.”

Gerry frowned. “I'm the one you should worry about.” It was okay for her to secretly want a little male comfort, but in her professional role, others needed to see her as a force to be reckoned with. “I might not be able to match your power, but I'm top-notch when it comes to sneakiness and trickery.”

“I'll keep that in mind.”

He didn't smile when he said it, but she'd just bet he was laughing inside. Or maybe that was only her insecurity speaking.

“We might be able to work out a deal, Edge. You go with me to get booked—let's face it, you'll be able to get out anytime you want—and I'll owe you a favor to be collected at the time and place of your choice. You'll save yourself a hassle if you go with me, because if I fail, they'll just send someone more annoying to bug you.” A dangerous bargain, but she really wanted that promotion.

Conall dropped his arm from her chair and leaned across the table toward Edge. “I'll negotiate what can and can't be considered a reasonable favor.”

“Hey, O Great Buttinski. My deal, my right to negotiate.”

Conall leaned back in his chair, tension charging the air around his powerful body. A lifetime with this man would always be a push-pull of power. But as she added centuries of experience to her vampire skills, perhaps he'd learn to accept that she could look out for herself.

A lifetime with this man.
The enormity of that thought almost brought her to her knees. What would it be like to wake up every night to his face, his body . . . ?
His love?
No, that wasn't a place she was ready to go to yet. The whole curse thing would always play counterpoint to any real emotions between them. You didn't fall in love with your “duty.”

“More annoying? Is that possible?” But Edge looked like he was really considering her offer.

Hope made Gerry reckless. “I'll be there to plead your case. I mean, someone has obviously set you up. We'll track down that anonymous tip and expose the liar behind it.” Okay, so she wasn't sure he was innocent, but she was pretty sure. And that was good enough for her right now.

Edge nodded. “Fine, you have a deal. But first I have something I have to take care of here. And you have to find out who or what wants you dead. When everything's wrapped up, we'll take a trip to your jail. I won't stay long, just long enough to get a few laughs.”

Winner, winner, winner. Triumph made her giddy. And if she suspected Edge had his own agenda in agreeing to go with her, she chose to ignore it. She glanced at Conall. “You were right about offering him the right incentive. Thanks. This proves that everything doesn't always have to come down to who can beat the crap out of the opposition.”

“Maybe.” Conall looked like he was second-guessing his own advice.

She never found out what else Conall might've said because the missing members of the nonhuman conclave finally made an entrance.

Holgarth watched with narrowed eyes as Ganymede padded around the table to the only empty chair and then waited for Sparkle to sit down before leaping onto her lap. She set Fo and Gabriel on the table and then looked around. Her gaze froze when she spotted Edge.

“I thought you were watching Sweet Indulgence.”

He shrugged. “I got bored, so here I am. It's late. You won't sell many chocolate creams now anyway. I put up the closed sign.”

A low growl filled the room and everyone's attention fixed on Ganymede. The cat had put his front paws on the table and was glaring at Edge. His ears were flat against his head and his tail was fluffed up to fighting size. “Finis.”