Demons are a Ghoul's Best Friend: Afterglow, Book 2 (16 page)

“My wings.” She shifted slightly. “They’re gone.”

He shrugged. “I don’t understand what the hell happened. And, being a man, I have absolutely no brains at the moment, since I just shot them all into you.”

“Understood.” She yawned. “When you get them back, we’ll figure out what that just was.” Her hand moved to settle comfortably on his chest. “I’m glad I didn’t turn into a tree.” And with that, she was asleep.

Cheney moved his head a little on the pillow and looked down at the tangled mass of red hair covering his arms. She had worried about turning into a tree? That sex would bring out some kind of evergreen transformation during orgasm or something? That he’d have spurted his come into a tree trunk? Fucking shit. That would have been an incredibly bad thing for both of them, knotholes notwithstanding. No wonder she’d put a lock on her AG side and controlled her sexual impulses around anything with…er…wood.

He sighed. There were so many jokes about “wood” and “wood”. And so little time to come up with just the right one.

He’d just have to give it his best shot. And then stand back in case that redheaded temper of hers didn’t appreciate the humor.

Smiling at the image, Cheney’s eyes drifted closed and he slept—like a log.

Chapter Thirteen

Sunlight danced across her eyelids and woke Pandora from one of the best night’s sleep she’d had in a long time. Lazily, she uncurled herself and stretched cat-like, simply enjoying the warmth on her naked limbs.

God. I’m naked.

The memories of the night flooded back, along with an odd assortment of aches and stiffness. She wasn’t sure whether to be enraptured by the sensations or crawl back under the covers and pretend it never happened.

She decadently indulged in the former since the latter wouldn’t solve anything. It certainly wouldn’t give her the right words to use when facing someone who had completely shattered her preconceived notions about sex, intimacy and being a dryad.

The place next to her was empty, she discovered. Relieved that the inevitable morning-after-sex confrontation was to be postponed, she swung her legs over the edge of the bed, staggered a little when trying to stand and eventually stumbled to the bathroom where a hot shower did a lot to restore her equanimity and ease the slight soreness between her legs.

She found her underwear and jeans neatly folded on a shelf, obviously washed since they were both clean and neither smelled smoky. There was another of his sweatshirts ready for her as well. She chuckled to herself as she slipped it on over her bare skin. The idea of washing a bra had defeated him, it would seem.

Feeling a little underdressed but at least semi-human, she followed the scent of coffee and bacon to the kitchen, pulling her hair back into a makeshift ponytail.

Cheney was there, spatula in hand, looking very much at home as he did things with eggs and bacon, and toast popped up, golden brown and fragrant. Pandora’s mouth watered, but it was arguable that Cheney, bare-chested, bare-footed and clad only in snug jeans, was every bit as delectable as the food.

He looked up and smiled, starting a furnace simmering low in her belly.
Shit. I’m in big trouble now
.

“Coffee?” He nodded at the pot. “Breakfast’ll be ready in a minute.”

She shook her head. “You made coffee. You cooked breakfast.” She looked down at her jeans. “I can’t believe you even washed my clothes.” She dropped down onto one knee on the kitchen floor and grinned up at him. “Cheney Fisher, will you be my wife?”

“Hmmm.” His expression swept her with a wave of heat.

She stood. “I understand. You need some time to think about it.”

“This is so sudden.” He batted his eyelashes at her, then pointed the spatula at a cupboard. “Grab a couple of mugs, would you? Time to eat.”

She did so, glancing at the clock on the wall. “We’re meeting Buck at ten, I think you said?”

He nodded and carried two plates to the table. “We’ll drive over to Karl’s and meet him there.”

“Okay.” She poured cream into her coffee, sipped and sighed in deep appreciation. “Okaaaaay.
Now
I’m human again.”

Cheney lifted an eyebrow at her and munched his toast.

She blushed. “Relatively speaking.”

“I guess this means the marriage proposal is withdrawn.”

“Yeah, sorry. It was a momentary weakness induced by a severe attack of domesticity and caffeine deprivation.” She attacked the food with a strong appetite for someone who usually grabbed something on the run for breakfast.

“Used and abused.” Cheney slumped dramatically. “Story of my life.”

She chuckled. “Give it a rest, Fisher.”

“So…” He paused and buttered a piece of toast. “Since I’ve got an expert at my table, maybe you can help me out.”

She looked at him curiously, anticipating some legal question.

“It’s this terrible case of morning wood.” He glanced down at his crotch. “I’m wondering if you can suggest something I can do about it, seeing as how you’re uniquely equipped to understand the problem.”

She shook her head and smiled wryly. “Been working on that one for a while?”

“As a matter of fact, I had several others. But that one seemed to fit with breakfast.”

“Remind me not to be here for dinner.”

“Ouch. Funny girl.”

They were sparring, she realized, verbally dueling with each other, a battle of wits softened by the knowledge of how well their bodies fit together. And she relished every minute of it.

“You give great eggs.” She finished her plate and leaned back with a contented smile.

“Re-thinking making an honest woman out of me?” His lips curved in amusement.

“I’ll get back to you on that. I have to see how well you clean house first.” One thought led to another. “Which reminds me…what’s happening with Roz and the kids?”

“They’re staying with Roz today and with any luck going from there to their new home. I’m going to grab an hour later on to see them.”

She nodded. “Cool. I’m so happy that’s working out.”

He stood and collected the plates. “Here’s how I see the schedule. Meet Buck over at Karl’s. I’m thinking Lian will be with him. Probably the best thing is to send you girls off shopping after that.”

He rinsed the plates and stacked them in the dishwasher, oblivious of the frown Pandora was shooting at his back. “Girls” indeed.
Hmph
.

“That’ll give you a chance to pick up what you need for the upcoming week, and Buck and I can go over some of this whole madness and see if anything shakes out when we put our heads together.” He straightened. “I’ll drop by Roz’s and take care of things there, then we can all meet for dinner someplace. Whaddya think?”

Munching the last piece of bacon she’d swiped, Pandora nodded. “Sounds good to me.”

“Don’t talk with your mouth full, Counselor.”

“Pound sand, Detective.”

“We’ve got to work on your witty repartee.”

It was a promise he kept in the car, teasing her, correcting her acerbic comments and making her laugh. Then he glanced at her, his face momentarily sober. “Speaking of eggs…”

“We are?”

“One thing I forgot to ask. In the heat of the moment it slipped my mind.”

She grinned. “Don’t wanna be a daddy, huh?” It didn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out what he’d forgotten, since she’d never even thought about it, let alone wondered if she should do the asking.

“Not right now.”

“No problem. I’ve had my shots. I don’t want to be a mommy right now either. My eggs are napping.”

He released a pent-up breath. “Whew. Good to know. I’ve had mine too, but I worry about my extra energetic little swimmers—they’re champions, you know…”

He was joking around, but Pandora felt pretty much the same way. She wasn’t ready to have a child, hence the NB protection. No baby for her. When both partners had contraceptive shots, the road was clear. If only one was up to date, there was always a risk. A small one, but a risk that could turn into a tax deduction in nine months.

She didn’t need another tax deduction. Her losses in the fire would take care of that.

“Here we are. And Buck’s beaten us to it by the looks of it.” He parked next to a large truck she recognized as his partner’s.

Lian opened the door before Cheney could knock, introductions were performed and they all walked quietly through the dark store, past the variety of antiques and not-so-antiques, giving Pandora a chance to assess Buck’s wife.

Her Oriental blood showed in the beautifully slanted black eyes, the slender figure and the air of inscrutability she probably didn’t even know she had. The rest of her blood clearly came from the Swedish supermodel line—shining blonde hair falling down her spine and legs that seemed to go on for miles even though she was shorter than Pandora. Who sighed and envied her the ability to look up at Buck. Who looked back with such an expression of besottedness it made Pandora smile. Yeah, they were perfectly matched. The fair-haired beauty and the sharply dark detective.

Then Cheney took her hand and smiled at her—with a look that heated her blood. It might not have merited the description of besotted, but it warmed her to her toes. Right now, she could live with that.

The lab purred with activity, machines softly beeping and flashing lights every now and again in a dazzling display of technological fireworks.

“Wow.” Cheney looked around. “This place is humming.”

“Literally,” Buck agreed. “Hey, Karl?”

“Here.” Karl’s handsome head popped up from behind something large, shiny and metallic which might have been a filing cabinet crossed with the guts of a starship. “Got a few things for you guys.” He leered at Pandora. “Hi, beautiful. Wanna play around later?”

“Give it up, Karl.” Lian sighed. “Ignore him, Pandora. He likes to think ultra-horny is part of his charm.”

“Someday I’ll show you ladies what you’re missing.” Karl snickered unrepentantly. “It’ll spoil you for other men.”

“Yeah yeah. Bigger and longer than everyone else.” Buck snorted. “What you got, Einstein?”

“Einstein was an amateur hacker compared to me.” Karl seated himself comfortably on a complex chair and hit buttons, rising to the height of a workstation equipped with state-of-the-art gizmos. His fingers adeptly moved over the infrared keyboard, and the large screen on the wall sprang to life.

Cheney suppressed a pang of envy. When it came to monitors, size mattered, in his opinion. Karl had them all beat with this one, which was now flickering with an assortment of files, numbers and equations.

Karl touched one or two and pulled them to the center. “Here are the DNA results of that sample. Some of it was degraded, some of it was useless. But being the genius I am, I still managed to pull some usable data.”

“I’ll suspend my comments on your modesty until a later time.” Lian frowned at the images. “What does it mean?”

Karl ran his hand through his thick sandy-blond hair. “It means that your sample came from some kind of chimera.”

Cheney thought about that. “Like a compound creature or something? Bits and pieces of other creatures?”

“Succinctly put, tall one.” Karl nodded. “Genetically speaking, a chimera is a critter with more than one population of cells. Those cells originate in different zygotes, two early embryos fused together, for example. The populations keep their own characteristics and the resulting critter is a mixture of both sets of tissues. In humans, it’s very rare but has an inherited component—a genetic trait, if you will. Sometimes it’s caused by a transfusion during pregnancy and in the past, in vitro fertilization resulted in a few cases.” He paused. “There’ll be a quiz later. Why aren’t you taking notes?” He blinked at Pandora. “I’ll give you the answers if you take your clothes off.”

Cheney sighed. “Moving on…”

“Yeah.” Karl turned back to the screen and pulled up a simpler file. “Good news is that I was able to identify most of the stuff. Now for the bad news.” He expanded the file’s contents to fill the screen. “Your critter had more than two parts. It was a super-chimera, if you will. I identified vampire DNA, along with some shifter, a dash of Fae and a strain of wolf I haven’t run into for a while. Very wild.” He spun on his chair to face them, his face devoid of humor for once. “The thing that I found most disturbing was a trace of DNA I had to hunt for.” He paused. “It turned out to be something I thought long gone. It was
ghoul
.”

“Fuck.” The oath flew from Buck’s lips even as Cheney was thinking it.

“What? Fuck what?” Pandora’s eyes were wide.

Neither man needed to be a mind reader at this particular instant. Cheney knew that Buck’s protective instincts were as strong as his own.

“Ghouls are nasty buggers. Fortunately, on the rare occasions they crop up, they don’t survive for long. Something about a genetic weakness.” Buck stared at Karl. “
Right
, Karl?”

The small man’s gaze darted from Buck to Cheney and back again. “Right, Detective Smarty Pants. Somebody’s been reading science manuals again.” He laughed. “Lian, you need to take this man to bed more often and screw his brains out. Otherwise he’ll start thinking he’s actually got some and try giving me a run for my money.”

Lian shrugged. “I do my best. But what about this thing of Pandora’s? I still don’t understand…”

“Me neither.” Pandora shook her head.

Cheney cursed under his breath. He needed time with Buck, he had a dozen questions for Karl and he didn’t want the women anywhere near that conversation. Sure it was archaic. Sure both of ’em could hold their own, in the brains department
and
in the courage department. But he was still old-fashioned enough to want to protect what was his. Testosterone was one thing that time and the Afterglow hadn’t changed.

And at that precise moment, Cheney Fisher had a flash of insight that rocked him psychologically and dried the spit in his mouth.

Pandora was
his
.

Seconds later, the world now settled back to where it was supposed to be, he turned to listen to Karl, leaning against the edge of a desk and standing close to the woman who was going to be beside him for the rest of his life, whether she knew it or not.