mission magic 01 - the incubus job (16 page)

“Never, ever, hurt Law again,” I told So’la. “Do you understand me?”

The demon gave a slow flourishing bow. “As you wish, Mistress.” The last word was an accusation, an indictment.

“Fuck you,” I said. Then I spun around and got sick on the floor. Relief for Law gave way almost instantly to a feeling of horror. Suddenly I felt like had six years ago. Dirty. Tainted. Like I could never be clean again. Like I’d crossed a line into a vileness that I could never return from. I didn’t have a choice, I told myself, and that was true. I couldn’t let Law be killed. All the same, I’d used a power that I shouldn’t even have to save him. Wrongs didn’t make rights and enslaving someone, even accidentally, was wrong. Worse was actively stepping into the shoes of the slave master.

So’la hunched up beside me. “Dearest Mistress, you’re unwell! How can I serve you? What can I do to make your life better?”

“Give it a rest,” I muttered.

“Is that a command, Mistress?”

I wanted to say yes. I wanted to tell him stick his head up his ass and get on his way back to hell. I didn’t get the chance.

Magic blistered the air, and a sizzling bolt of energy struck So’la. It drove him back against the wall. He keened and struggled. His pain seeped through our connection. I gasped. Lightning netted my body. I swayed and sagged. It took all my concentration to firm my legs and keep me standing.

I was ready to walk out and leave them to it, but I realized I couldn’t. So’la couldn’t fight back. I’d told him he couldn’t hurt Law, and that didn’t leave him much by way of a defense. On the other hand, letting Law kill the demon would certainly solve a lot of problems.

I hesitated. I’m not proud to say it, but part of me was thinking how easy it would be to just quit. Let Law have his way. So’la would be off this earth, and I would be out of my misery. Six years of being apart hadn’t made my life happy, and it hadn’t made me hurt any less for loving him and not being loved back. It was exhausting hurting all the time. That and being alone. The ghosts didn’t count. They weren’t friends and they weren’t family. I didn’t really mean anything to them. They needed me to survive, and their protection of me was symbiotic; help me, and I keep helping them.

But I was lonely. I never felt like a belonged anywhere. I never felt like anybody would care if I survived a job or not. Sure, the boss would be sorry to have to replace me. I made him a fair bit of money, after all. There was no one else. I didn’t have pets. I was never home long enough to take care of them. Hell, home was just a place for me to keep my clothes and sometimes crash until my next job. I didn’t even have pictures on the walls.

Exhaustion weighed on me, and I pressed the heels of my hands against my eyes and curled my fingers into my scalp. God. I was such a whiner. I needed to pull my shit together and get over myself. I wasn’t really alone. I still had my aunt and cousins. Besides, I was lucky. I got to go see interesting places and have adventures. Every kid’s dream. Nothing tying me down. Footloose and fancy free. Anyhow, family and friends were way overrated. They were just emotional minefields waiting to blow a person to bits. I was better off alone.

So why did I feel like I’d just as soon lie down and give up?

Maybe I should just let things play out. If there really was a God and he had some kind of plan for me, maybe I just needed to wait and find out what it was. Maybe I should just wait for fate to happen.

That sounded really smart in my head. I staggered over to the wall and leaned back against it. More pain leaked through the connection between me and the demon. It rippled down my nerves, lighting them on fire. I moaned and slid to the floor, putting my arms around my legs and burying my face in my knees.

God was clearly pissed at me. Law needed to hurry up and get this over with. I could use a rest.

“Don’t give up.” Tabitha. Her voice sounded shaky and frightened. “Don’t die. Don’t leave us.”

I made myself lift my head. It wobbled and I tipped it back against the wall as I opened my eyes. Only halfway. My eyelids were too heavy. The ghost-girl stood in front of me, her hands clenched together. Her eyes were wide, and her chin trembled.

“Maybe I won’t,” I said, barely a whisper. “Maybe I’ll become a ghost like you.”

Edna appeared just behind the girl, putting her hands on Tabitha’s shoulders. “That’s not funny. You need to get up off the floor. Stop this now.” She gestured toward the battle, sounding more angry than I’d ever heard her. In fact, I don’t know that I’d ever heard her get mad before.

I rocked my head back and forth in a negative shake. “It’s fine. Whatever happens happens for a reason, right? Isn’t that what everybody says? I just have to let fate take its course. God’s will be done. He’s got a plan for me, right?”

“Horsefeathers. You don’t believe in fate,” Edna said. “What’s wrong with you?”

I wanted to tell her the truth. I was just too damned tired and too sick of myself to fight back. I had really fucked up picking up the command stone. I’d bound myself to a demon. Technically I’d enslaved him. That by itself made me a monster. On top of that, even though right off I’d declared I wouldn’t order him around, I wouldn’t be a slave master, within minutes I’d done just that. I knew I’d do it again and explain it away with all sorts of good reasons. Except there was never a good enough reason and deep deep down where I couldn’t lie to myself, I knew it.

It was too humiliating to confess.

“This isn’t you. You’re not a coward,” Edna said when I didn’t answer. “You’re a fighter. Why aren’t you trying?”

I gave a wobbly smile and said the truest thing I knew. “Because I might win.”

There was the big pink elephant in my life. What if I did win? What would I be left with then? If I stopped the fight, if I lived, then I’d have to leave Law again. Six years and nothing had changed between us. Not for the better, anyhow. The crazy thing was I loved him more than ever. The idea of walking away again hurt far more than anything I’d endured this night. I barely survived the last time. I didn’t think I could do it again. I’d rather have a clean, quick end and not have to feel that endless torture of loss.

Edna was wrong. I totally was a coward.

Chapter 9

I let my eyes drift closed, which is why I don’t quite know what happened next. But suddenly the world stretched and snapped. Sound like dozens of hands scraping fingernails across chalkboards screeched through the cavernous workroom, and the temperature dropped down into the negatives.

I shuddered at the unearthly sounds and clamped my hands over my ears, opening my eyes at the same time.

Law and So’la were still at it. Law had the demon on the ground now, standing above him and pouring energy into the writhing creature. His face was almost expressionless, his eyes glittering with turbulent emotion. White frost rimed the floor, walls, and ceiling and even me. The ghosts circled above the battle, arms locked together as they spun. Their mouths hung open, making that unbearable noise. My skin prickled and I felt a pull on the tie holding me to the demon. It reached deep down inside me, tracing all along the intricate spread of roots anchoring us together.

My body arched and jerked forward a few feet. It didn’t exactly hurt, but it didn’t feel good either. More like someone had invaded. My gut reaction was to scrape at my skin and try to dig the feeling out. I clawed long divots out of my arms and neck before I caught myself, balling my hands into fists and holding them tight to my jaw as I got jerked again. I felt like one of those big bluefin tunas getting reeled up out of the ocean depths.

By this time, Law had realized that something was up. He glanced at the circling ghosts and snarled at them like a dog guarding a bone. So'la kicked weakly and twisted, trying to escape Law’s magic. Guilt assaulted me. I’d robbed him of the power to defend himself. Not that he couldn’t have tried to escape. I mean, was that all these two could do? Attack and kill, rinse and repeat?

I should have stopped it. For the sake of So'la, if nothing else. Even if I could have survived his death, I wouldn’t have been able to live with his death on my conscience. Better late than never, I supposed.

I got up on my hands and knees then staggered up to my feet, bracing my legs wide when my knees tried to buckle. I didn’t have near the power Law did. He was connected to the auberge and the magic running under it. That didn’t mean I was helpless.

Pain continued to snap through me in random explosions of fire and sparks. I pretended they were happening to someone else and made myself focus. The ghosts continued to distract Law with that awful cacophony. What could I do? The answer suddenly seemed stupidly obvious. I walked toward him. My bare feet ached with cold, then turned numb. Oh goody. I was going to end up with frostbite along with all my other aches and pains. I was having such a fabulous day.

Law snarled at the ghosts as they darted in to touch him. Little spots of blue and black pocked his exposed skin. I tried to hurry. At any moment he could turn on them, blast them into oblivion. I let out a little moan at the possibility. Without thinking, I flung a shield out around them then another around the demon.

The effort took almost more than I had at that point. I stumbled and caught my balance and kept going. Law started blasting the shield protecting So’la with furious bolts of pure energy. I couldn’t hold out against those long. Already I felt my spell retracting and thinning under the assault.

I was close now. Only a dozen feet away. I pushed my feet to move faster and lunged. In something between a controlled fall and a charge, I crashed into Law, plowing into his side and wrapping my arms around his waist.

He twisted, trying to keep his feet as he grabbed me. I’d committed to the fall. Gravity and dead weight were on my side, not to mention he was off balance. We hit the floor with me half under him. The breath exploded from my lips and my head knocked painfully on the slate. Stars spun around my head and I thought I heard birds twittering.

Before I could collect myself, Law had rolled away. No doubt to get back to his attack, damn it. I elbowed the floor, pushing myself onto my side. Before I could complete the move, Law had an arm around my shoulders and was angling me up to lean against his chest.

“What the hell do you think you’re doing? I could have killed you.”

“You were doing quite a fine job of it already,” Edna declared in a prim voice. “Weren’t you paying any attention? The demon dies and so does Mallory. Or don’t you care?”

He gave a fierce shake of his head, his arms tightening around me. “The demon lies. It’s his nature.”

“Is it a lie?” Tabitha stood on the other side of me. She stretched a ghostly hand out and touched my cheek. I blinked in surprise. Her touch was warmer, like fire, and sent a burst of delicious heat through me. I let my head fall back.

“Thank you. That’s heaven,” I whispered.

“Christ,” Law said and he heaved me up into his arms and stood. “Why didn’t you tell me? God damn it. Don’t worry. I’ll take care of you. You’ll be fine.” He sounded determined. He swung me around in a circle as if trying to figure out where he wanted to go then strode toward the gaping doors.

“What about So’la?” I asked.

“We’ll worry about him later.”

I started to wriggle and kick. “He needs looking after. I’m responsible for him.”

Law stopped dead and stared down at me. “You can’t be serious.”

“It’s true. He and I are tied together. He can’t refuse anything I want of him. That makes me responsible for him.”

Law started to shake his head but then went still, closing his eyes and breathing in and out before opening them again. “All right. Let me take care of you first; then I’ll come back for him.”

“Soon?”

His jaw tightened. “As soon as possible.”

I let myself go limp then, laying my head against his shoulder. I barely kept myself from nuzzling into his satin heat. “Thank you.”

He made a growling sound and started walking again.

Chapter 10

Law carried me upstairs, down various hallways, and through doorways. I closed my eyes, falling into an exhausted daze. I was conscious of other voices and the answering rumble of his voice in his chest, but I paid no attention to what was said. I didn’t care. I reveled in his strength and scent and his bare skin on mine. I wanted to stay in his arms forever.

The ghosts didn’t come with us. Maybe they stayed to watch after So’la. Maybe they didn’t want to get too close to Law. He’d not killed them, but he could always change his mind.

Eventually we reached our destination, which turned out to be his apartment. He carried me into an enormous bathroom and stripped me down before pushing me into the shower. It was glorious. Jets hit me from all directions, and a rain shower fell from above. Seconds later, Law joined me. He soaped me up and washed me with indifferent hands, pausing to swear now again as he encountered a bruise or cut. He lingered on the lich scar down my back and again on the Ammit demon scar curving through my scalp and behind my ear.

When I’d warmed up and he was satisfied that I was clean, he pulled me out of the shower and wrapped me in a bath sheet then toweled my hair. He swiped himself with a towel and wrapped it around his hips before swinging me into his arms again and carrying me into his bedroom. I didn’t get a chance to notice much of anything but dark woods and pale walls before he pulled back the covers and laid me on the mattress.

“Wait there,” he said and rummaged in his drawers, returning with a pair of sweats and a cashmere sweater.

I protested the latter. “It’s expensive. I’m wet. I’ll ruin it.”

“I like the thought of you in it,” he said and put them on me, tucking the covers around me before dressing himself in jeans and a sweater.

I’ll admit to disappointment that he didn’t crawl in with me, even though I’d practically begged him to go take care of So’la.

He came back to the bed. “How do you feel?”

I considered myself. “Like I’ve been used as a punching bag. Though definitely warmer,” I said. The warmth didn’t seem to reach all the way to the source of my chill. I frowned. “But still cold somewhere. And kind of numb. Like I’ve been hit with a massive dose of Novocain. Except not in my body. It’s inside but not in me exactly. If that makes sense.”