Wicked Whispers (20 page)

“You wanted something tonight, and you couldn’t get it without help. So the help came.”
Ganymede seemed to feel he’d explained things sufficiently, because he turned his full attention to George.

Just in time. The chef took a frantic look around and then bolted.

“Shit. I have to catch him and erase his memory of this crap. If he quits, Sparkle will try to cook. She did it before. Food poisoning sort of sticks in your mind for a long time.”
Ganymede leaped after the chef.

“I don’t think I’ve seen the cat move that fast since I’ve been here.” Murmur sounded a little more normal.

Ivy’s hand shook as she pushed strands of hair from her face. “What now?”
Someone tell me what’s happening to me.

“Now we get Klepoth out of the hallway.” Murmur walked over to look down at the other demon.

Ivy couldn’t work up any sympathy for Klepoth. “Why did he use that illusion? And how did he make it feel so real?”

“His job is to scare me back to the Underworld. Pain is a great motivator. He can make his illusions feel real because he can manipulate areas of the brain that perceive and control pain, just as he can control all of our senses. This is his power. I couldn’t keep him out.”

“He’s evil.”

Murmur looked pained. “We do what we were created to do. Klepoth wants to survive. We all have that instinct. So he does what needs doing.”

Left unsaid was that he was no better than Klepoth. She didn’t believe that.
Maybe you don’t
want
to believe it.

She had no chance to answer before Holgarth swept down the hallway—robe swirling, pointed hat tilting, snark cocked and ready to fire.

“We will never maintain our five-star rating if you insist on littering the castle with unconscious demons.” He narrowed his eyes. “I’m not your friendly demon-removal service. I have other, more important duties.”

“How did you know?” Ivy was learning to ignore Holgarth’s rants.

“I felt the disturbance and correctly assumed you were responsible.”

He was talking about “you” in the plural sense, because he swept both of them with an accusing glare.

“What will you do with him?” She glanced at Klepoth. He’d be ticked when he finally came to.

The wizard stared down his nose at the unconscious demon. “I do wish we had a garbage chute or an incinerator.”

Ivy’s horror must have showed, because Holgarth shrugged.

“Since we have neither, I suppose I’ll have to shove him into a plastic bag and toss him into the trash bin. Tomorrow is trash day.” He cast Murmur a calculating glance.

“No.” Murmur scowled. “I won’t do it.”

“Why not?” Holgarth seemed sincerely puzzled. “He obviously did something to you. Your pain was strong enough to touch me.”

Murmur kept his gaze on Holgarth. “He’s not a thing to be thrown out. He did what he was created to do. We all do. He didn’t give the order for my pain.”

“We have to do something, and quickly. Guests who trip over bodies usually check out, and then they go home to tell their friends. It’s bad for business.”

The body in question groaned and opened his eyes. “Haven’t had that bad a trip in centuries. I need a drink.”

Murmur moved to Klepoth’s side and crouched down beside him. “Go to my room. Order a drink. Wait for me. We’ll talk.”

Klepoth nodded as he looked past Murmur at Ivy. “You pack a punch.”

“You deserved it.” Ivy wasn’t in the mood to back down from anybody.

Murmur helped haul Klepoth to his feet. Once upright, the other demon staggered toward the elevators. Holgarth sniffed before walking away, outrage in every stiff stride.

“Come to my room.” Ivy didn’t plant a question mark at the end. She headed for the stairs.

He hesitated before following her.

Once in front of her door, she unlocked it. “Lay on my bed. You still look a little shaky. I have to make sure my brother is okay.”
I have to make sure
I’m
okay.

She stood there until he closed the door behind him, then she went next door to talk to Kellen. He wasn’t there. Panic was close to the surface as she pulled out her cell and called him.

Ivy didn’t give her brother time to say anything. “Where are you?”

“I found someone to give me a tour of the castle.” He sounded excited. “You won’t believe it. I was sitting at the desk, and suddenly this cat appeared. She said her name was Asima and that she was a messenger of the goddess Bast. She freaking talked in my head.”

Damn
. Ivy didn’t know what to do. She couldn’t keep him isolated forever. “Put the cat on the phone.”

“Huh?”

“Put the phone next to her ear.” She waited impatiently for him to do it while she tried to figure out how to speak softly enough so that Kellen couldn’t hear what she said.

She needn’t have worried.

“I assume you have important information for me”
—pregnant pause—“
or you just want to yell at me for being with your brother. Whichever it is, I’ll speak with you mentally.”

A convenient skill. So, Ivy supposed, she just had to think what she wanted to say.

“Exactly.”
Asima purred her pleasure.

Okay, here went nothing.
“What do you want with Kellen?”

“I don’t have any friends in the castle, and your brother seems nice. I thought it would be fun to spend some time with him. Oh, and I know you must realize that he looks like Mab.”

Hey, it worked.
“And you plan to do what with that information?”
She put all the coldness she could into her mental voice.

“I have no intention of harming your brother in any way. Consider my lips zipped.”

Ivy didn’t know how much she believed Asima, but she figured just this once she’d take the risk that he’d be safe.
“I don’t mind if you show my brother the castle, but try to keep him away from the faeries. I don’t trust them.”
And I don’t trust
you
.

Asima’s purr got louder.
“And what will you do for me in return?”

Ivy huffed her frustration.
“Name your price.”
Maybe she should’ve worded that differently.

“I have tickets to a chamber music performance here in Galveston. Murmur will be with me. I’d like you to come too. This will be so much fun.”
Her purr was a motor revving up before the big race.
“No one from the castle ever appreciates true culture.”

“Fine. I’ll go.”
Fun, fun, fun. She’d get more joy from poking herself in the eye. But being with Murmur would help.
“Bat the phone back to my brother.”

Kellen spoke. “No one said anything. What was that about?”

“We talked mentally.” That sounded so cool.

“Wow. Do you think Asima could teach me to do that?”

“I don’t know, Kellen. I really don’t know.” Right now she felt overwhelmed. “Look, I’ll check in with you later. Have fun with Asima.”

She needed advice. No, she needed more than just advice. She wanted the warmth of someone’s touch, someone who’d listen and try to understand. Then she wanted to make love to that person, affirm that she was truly alive and human. Only one person would do. Murmur. A demon. Amazing. She returned to her room.

Ivy paused inside the door. Murmur lay on her bed watching her. He filled up her bed, big and so beautiful she felt like crying. Not the reaction she’d hoped for. “Feeling better?” She didn’t think false cheer would fool anyone.

“I’m fine. Kick off your shoes and relax awhile.” He patted the bed beside him.

She hesitated a moment too long.

He smiled, and she heard his music in her head. It was soft, sexy, and beckoned her with minor chords dipped in chocolate.

“We’ll just talk.” His smile widened. “For now.”

She shouldn’t go anywhere near that bed. He was too sensual, and she was too vulnerable. She wanted him, and that close he’d be able to feel the hunger vibes. Heck, they were strong enough to shake the bed. She should sit on one of the chairs. Definitely the chair.

Ivy walked over to the bed, kicked off her shoes, and lay down beside him. “I need someone to talk to.”

“I’m listening.”

His music slid over her body, trailing wisps of lust behind it. She shivered.

“Cold?”

“You know I’m not.” She drew in a deep breath and tried to focus. “I’m worried about Kellen.”

“You want to keep him safe.”

Ivy turned on her side to face him. “I don’t know what to do.” She was going to tell him. “When I first got here, this place freaked me out. It still does.”

“Understandable.” He reached over and brushed a strand of hair from her face.

She waited a second before speaking to absorb the shock of that brief touch.
Focus, focus.
“I decided to leave. So I got another job.”

He nodded, a slight widening of his eyes his only reaction.

“But the job wouldn’t kick in for a few weeks.” She sighed. “Now I’m not sure if I should leave here.” Leave
you
. “Instinct tells me to take Kellen and run from all these people—dangerous people—who know what Kellen is.”

“That might be the wisest course in the short term.” He looked conflicted. “But as he gets older, he’ll travel more by himself. One of the Sidhe will eventually see him.” Murmur glanced away. “Or sense him. As he ages, his power will grow.”

“But he’s never shown that he has any power.”
Neither did you until today.

“He will. No one who looks so much like Mab could ever be powerless.” He sounded certain of that.

“My father doesn’t have power.” She was grasping now.

“He does. But he’s tried to suppress that part of himself. Would he admit he had unusual powers?”

Ivy closed her eyes. She thought about her mother’s refusal to believe in his voices,
her
refusal to believe. “No, you’re right. Dad never even told us he could see the fae.”

“Kellen will need someone to guide him, someone who can prepare him to straddle two worlds.” He paused to think. “He needs one of the Sidhe he can trust to help him.”

Ivy knew her laughter reeked of bitterness. “Trustworthy? Do any exist?” She opened her eyes.

“There are good and bad in every race. Yes, this one you can trust.”

That’s all he said, and she believed him. She was finding it all too easy to believe everything he said and way too hard to remember what he was. A mistake? She didn’t know.

He was silent for a moment, and when he finally spoke he said what she absolutely did
not
want to hear.

“You should explore your own power.”

No. Not now. Not ever. “Maybe. Right now, though, I have other uses for the word ‘explore.’”

His music wrapped around her, holding her tightly, warming her even as it shielded her from the worry, the fear, the
uncertainty
. He was everything. Maybe not forever, but at this moment he was all she wanted. She knew her eyes said what her words would probably botch. So she remained silent.

He turned on his side to face her and his music swelled. “Let’s explore the outer limits, Ivy. And maybe when we get there we’ll find there are no limits at all.”

11

Coward
. If she were braver, she’d reach out to touch him, allow him to see the neon-bright “yes” in her eyes. Instead, she glanced away before blurting out the first questions that popped into her mind.

“So, have you ever had a wife, children? How old are you anyway?” Her pillow talk needed a little polishing. Okay, so it needed some heavy buffing.

He remained silent for so long she thought he wouldn’t answer. She took a chance and met his gaze. His smile said he understood exactly how she felt.

“I’ve lived thousands of years among humans and thousands more in the Underworld.”

He
didn’t
glance away. She guessed that proved which of the two in this bed was a giant wuss.

“I never stayed with one woman for more than a few weeks.” He finally looked away. “Demons can’t produce children.”

“A few weeks?” That little tidbit shouldn’t make her so happy. After all, she wouldn’t be with him any longer than that.
Do you want to be?
Ivy didn’t know.

“Women don’t love demons. They might lust after us for a while, but it doesn’t take them long to sense what we are. Demons have nothing to offer humans except misery. And death. Can’t forget death. No home, no family, no happiness, and then you die.”

That “you” sounded sort of personal. A warning? “Wow, you fling a mean bucket of cold water.” She rolled onto her back so he couldn’t read her expression, but she watched him from the corner of her eye. “Would you change all of that if you could?”

“I never think about it. Wishing and hoping don’t work for demons. So why bother?” His face was a blank slate.

“Well, I’m wishing and hoping for a lot right now.” She wasn’t doing a great job of keeping the tension from her voice.

He smiled. And Ivy decided that smile looked good enough to keep her here for well over two weeks.

“But there’s a lot to be said for living in the moment.” He propped himself up on his elbow and leaned over her. “In the end, that’s all we remember anyway. It’s never about the years, it’s about those moments when magic happened.” His smile faded. “Or didn’t.”

Crossroads alert.
Ivy had always chosen the men in her life according to her mother’s feet-on-the-ground rule. Mind over emotion. She’d taken careful steps so she wouldn’t trip, always choosing well-lit roads—men with good jobs and no bad habits and who weren’t prone to talking to themselves. Now was decision time. If she made love with Murmur, she’d be stumbling onto a side road—not paved and definitely not well-lit. Was the destination worth braving darkness and danger?

Murmur’s music touched her. Not compelling her.
Seducing
her. The promise of pleasure and much more waited for her in that darkness. Ivy made her decision.

She reached up and slid her fingers along his jaw. “I’d hope this would last more than a moment. Interesting to see if the reality lives up to the music.”