Ash to Embers (Courting Shadows) (29 page)

Royal stretched, flashing the platinum caps of his lower incisors. "Lucky for you, we love a good disaster."

"If he really is pureblood they won't be able to kill him, Tian. He could draw them out," Ceyla said. "They won't stop if the rogue was Sidhe Struck. Besides, you know as well as I do, they're not going to wait for the trade if they can find him early."

"That statement sounds like you think it's possible that I started this," Sio said.

"It is." Xavier was still struggling to wrangle his emotions under control. It wasn't working. And wasn't that about a bitch. He hadn't needed to bust in with his two cents, knew it was petty, entirely too human as emotions went, but that part of him needed the bastard to hurt.

*And I'm the asshole?*

-You are an asshole.-

*Only because I hate to disappoint.*

Xavier gritted his teeth as Tian shot him a cold look that burrowed under his traitorous skin. Her aura had condensed down on itself until it was almost opaque, a seamless cocoon of golden fire in the guise of armor. The look she gave Ceyla wasn't much better. It was hard as hell, but the potential for catastrophic levels of violence weren't as specifically directed. He would have happily paid to be pissed. Fuck understanding, it was the last thing he was in the mood to be right now and still he couldn't muster angry. Angelic devotion could suck a dick.

"He's bound," Tian answered. "There's no telling what they could manage while working him towards undead."

"Well, if anyone could speak from personal experience," Royal said.

Xavier shook his head. With Royal's only internal censor weighing heavily in the demonic corner, the fact that he was acting so subdued meant that he was bottling destructive impulses like crazy. The thought was monumentally disconcerting, considering the wild card not four feet away.

"Careful," Sio said.

You have no idea.

"She's right," Xavier said. The words left a bitter aftertaste. "Besides there's no telling how the binding affects what should make him immortal."

He averted his gaze from Tian and focused on Sio. The cocksucker's aura churned with the fractured horror of a hardcore trauma. The male's face was closed down except for the muscle ticking steadily in the left hand side of his jaw. Xavier wanted to hate him, but that station wasn't an option anymore. Lord only knew what that meant, but he could hazard a guess and it wasn't pretty. Neither was Sio's aura. Xavier studied the heavily dimmed silver white maelstrom. The glittering threads of Tian's energy slid along the guy's skin, chasing away the dark cancers haunting his chakras. The binding around him was bent by the fury and fraying at the heart, hands, and groin.

'Life makes survivors of us all.'

Tian had said it years ago in passing, but for some reason the once casual statement resonated. The wake of it brought an empty sense of peace.

"Xavier." Avery's voice caused him to start.

"What?"

Royal smirked. "If you're done making eyes at Tian's lover..."

-I will hurt you.-

*Promises, promises.*

"Our dear friend Avery asked you what the rogue wizard's name was," Royal said. He hadn't missed a beat. It was irritating as piss that he was able to do that.

"Why didn't you tell him then?"

Royal shrugged, and tossed out a beatific smile. "He didn't ask me."

"Irritating prick," Ceyla said under her breath. She shook her head and tossed back another shot.

"Is he serious?" Sio asked Tian.

She snorted and shook her head, "Xavier?"

That bedroom rasp of hers was killing him. "The rogue wizard's name was Eloise Parker."

They all turned and looked at Sio expectantly.

"What did you say her name was?" Sio asked.

A bright purple stain spread through his aura, across the mesh of the binding, and over the wide flat planes of Sio's chest. It hadn't been there before, but it made the massive width of the guy's shoulders rival a goddamned muni bus.

"Eloise Parker."

The stain darkened until it made Sio's left pectoral look like the spectral version of a poorly cleaned dry erase board. Sio shook his head. He looked at Xavier. The bleached wheat color of his eyes was jarring.

"You said it more than once and I haven't retained a syllable. How is that possible?"

Tian shot a dark look towards the demon. "How is that possible, Royal?"

*Has his aura changed?*

"I'd need a picture of Parker to be sure," Royal said. He was appraising Sio with the kind of contemplation most men rolled out when buying a new toy of the motorcycle/entertainment center variety.

-The Crayola mess on his chest is new.-

*Does it look like a name?*

-I just told you it looked like a mess.-

*Christ, you're painfully useful aren't you? Could it have been a name?*

-Maybe, dick, but there's too much there to account for the good ole first and last routine.-

"What are you doing?" Sio asked Avery.

The skin-walker had his head down. His fat thumbs moved with frantic speed over the surface of a touchscreen. Avery pitched the phone with major league style accuracy over to Royal in the corner.

"Facebook, man. A bonafide head shot of one Eloise Parker, marina chick and secret wizard extraordinaire. Gotta love the miracle of modern convenience."

Royal grinned, flashing the platinum caps of his lower incisors. Ceyla took another hard drag on her hand rolled, ashing into her cup before closing her eyes and exhaling a flume of smoke through both nostrils.

*You'd do better watching Sio. Stop looking at her.*

-You know she wants you. Bad.-

*Fuck you. Watch him.*

Xavier caught the tail end of Royal's dirty look before his demon counterpart passed the phone over to Sio. Royal may have been facing the other man, but his attention was fixed over to his right where Ceyla sat ignoring him. A fission of electric green sparks leapt in the depths of Royal's eyes, repelled by the ink of his irises.

-Focus then.-

Royal hissed, but his attention snapped back, locking on to Sio as if the male were a lifeline. Sio looked down at the screen and the purple smear began to boil, churning as if it had gotten caught on the sickly mesh of his binding.

*Well?*

-It's reacting to something.-

"I met her at a hotel the night I saw Tian in the fireplace."

"That's not really possible," Avery said. "Not with the kind of binding you've got."

Sio's jaw took on a stubborn set as he tossed the phone on the island. "It was pretty hard to miss. She was naked, twenty feet up, and half submerged in some crazy seething tar pit."

"Hell," Ceyla said. She shrugged and took another faux casual drag on her cigarette, blowing the smoke in Royal's general direction as if oblivious to the fact that she was needling him with it. "Maybe it is possible."

"It's not," Avery asserted with a stubborn shake of his head.

"It is if the binding's degraded," Xavier said. He was half surprised the sentence had come out of his mouth. There it was though, all out in the open and shit.

Tian's amber eyes snapped over to him. "Is it?"

He nodded, compelled by the unwavering focus of the razored gaze that had always turned him inside out.

"How?"

-Answer her.-

For a split second it seemed Royal would argue. He didn't. "Formative trauma while the binding is young enough to be in flux, still growing with him. In theory it's the only way to warp a binding as powerful as his. Would you like me to elaborate, Little Death?"

Tian's ethereal features locked down tight, effectively shutting off the growing fury that had been building in her eyes. There had been something else there as well, but it'd been hidden as fast as it had surfaced. She folded her arms under her breasts and leaned against the counter, unconsciously mimicking Sio's position. Xavier gritted his teeth.

"No." Tian unfolded her arms and gripped the counter behind her. "What happened at the hotel, Sio?"

"Do you want me to see if I can find out who put the binding on him?" Royal asked.

-What are you doing?-

"I think you know enough of our business already," Avery said.

Royal shrugged and made an elegant non-committal gesture. "Suit yourselves."

"The wizard..." Tian prompted.

"Was wearing a gray dress," Sio said. "I picked her up at the bar and fucked her in the bathroom. I saw you on the way, and was on auto-pilot afterward. I thought I was losing my mind." There was an empty quality to his monologue that made it sound as if he were rattling off a grocery list. The purple splotch had reasserted itself against the complex mesh design of the binding as he spoke.

-It's back.-

Royal's eyes narrowed in concentration. "This is important," he said, "was there ever a point after that first night that you remembered her name?"

"No, but I should have. It took me hours to scrub off in the shower. She wrote it and her phone number on my chest in permanent marker."

Bingo.

"When did she mark you?"

Sio was grinding his shit so hard Xavier had to wonder if he was gonna have any molars left after the inquisition. Tian didn't look a lot happier.

"After. I. Pulled. Out."

"Did you wait until you got home to wash it off?" Royal persisted, ignoring the likelihood that he was cruising to get himself popped in the socket again.

Sio glared at him. "No. I didn't asshole, but since you're interested there's only so much you can do in a public restroom."

Royal cocked an eyebrow. A slow smile spread across his face. The demon aspect was beginning to reassert itself and the bastard looked smug as he savored the agitation. "Obviously."

Sio blinked and narrowed his eyes, the seconds stretched, and then, contrary to expectation, he started laughing. Thing was, it didn't sound like the guy had cracked, just like he'd finally gotten the joke no one else thought was funny. It was the kind of laughter that was genuine, infectious and surprisingly without ego.

"Good point."

*I hadn't expected to like him.*

-Join the club.-

*Don't be ridiculous. You don't like him.*

-Sue me.-

"Your sponge bath was probably the only reason you're not playing wizard lap dog right now," Xavier said.

"No," Royal interjected, "there are two reasons you're not a wizard lap dog. The other is that the binding Ms. Parker was unaware of slowed the setting of the spell down long enough for you to change its intent by smearing it in a frantic attempt at removal."

"I'm not sure whether to be relieved or pissed off, but if this is proof that I didn't set an innocent female on the 'socio-path' I'll take it. What happens now?"

"It's not that easy, chief. All we can prove is that she put a spell on you. Since the original intent is obscured we've got nothing, man, not love, not infatuation, fixation, obsession, nothing." Avery cracked his neck and took a sip out of a bright red mug.

"We need the marker," Tian said. "It'll reek of her magic, be made for a specific purpose with a specific intent, the resonance will be the same as what's left on your chest, and it'll have been made before she used it on you."

"Without it the Guardian will claim she was trying to escape and gave you a good case of amnesia in the process," Royal said.

"What?" Sio's face was one hundred percent under control, but the fury that road flared his aura was down for an old fashion ass beating.

"It's what I would do," Royal answered.

"That's fucked up, dude," Avery said.

Sio took a more direct approach. "Yeah, except you're a dick."

-Okay, so maybe I'm warming up to him.-

*Tian seemed awfully warm in his lap earlier, perhaps that would help you along.*

-I'd settle for watching him batter your cabbage again.-

*Someone's got comebacks.*

"What we need is to buy time, a doppelganger they won't be able to catch. Ceyla was right, we need to draw them out, distract them until we can get the marker," Tian said looking at Avery.

Avery grinned, the charm generated by his amusement over the suggestion stole some of the average from his face. "I'd almost forgotten what a nasty piece of work you are, T. You know I'm gonna need a body fluid for that," he said.

"I'm practical," she told him.

"You're resplendent," Royal said.

"Stop it. Can you track the original spell or is what's on him too inconsistent with the base intent?" Tian asked.

Ceyla furrowed her perfectly arched brows and turned her face away to stare out the window. Xavier realized he hadn't been the only one to pick up on her response when Sio edged closer and nudged her with a gentle elbow.

"You good?" he asked.

"Ducky," came the tart reply.

"Hey, I'm not above punching him in the face again for your amusement."

Ceyla let out a choked laugh before growing quiet. Her aura pulsed as she lost the iron fisted control she'd had on her emotions. Dark spirals emerged, corkscrewing through the effervescent jade green spill that matched her eyes. Even to a half angel the serpentine fluidity was mesmerizing.

"She's lucky, you know," Ceyla said. "You both are."

Oh shit.

Royal looked like she'd shoved a live grenade into his chest cavity and pulled the pin. The steel hue of his aura exploded, reacting to what Ceyla had said and the element of her nature she'd lost control of. It shot out into a ball of razor sharp points until he looked like the gooey center of a metal sea urchin. The tines shifted and rippled, elongating toward the female on the counter as if they were magnetized. There was a heartbeat in which she owned him utterly: mind and body and soul.

And then Royal staggered backward. The panic in his eyes preceded the anger that shattered the moment. "Find someone else." Royal's eyes glowed electric green, all traces of emerald and humanity had burned away in the inferno that raged above the all too familiar hard set of his jaw. "You should fall down and thank whatever god you pray to that I have so much restraint."