mission magic 01 - the incubus job (18 page)

He huffed out his nose and lowered his head so he could see my face fully. “What are you suggesting?”

“We don’t have to be friends, and I don’t really care what you’re up to. But there are going to have to be some rules.”

“Ah. Rules,” he said and I could feel the hatred pulsing off him.

“Yes. No killing innocent people. No torture. If you do have to kill, make it clean and fast. Try not to cause mayhem, and don’t go around breaking the law if you can help it. And Law is off limits to you.”

So’la blinked at me. “Those are your demands?”

I thought about it. “If they have to be. Can you handle that?”

“I could very easily circumvent the letter of your rules,” he pointed out.

“Are you going to?”

Another one of those shrugs. “And you? Will you stay here with the sorcerer?”

“None of your business,” I said. “But I have a job, and it can’t be done here.”

“He will be unhappy.”

“He’s always unhappy,” I said, though that wasn’t true. Law knew how to have fun. He had a deep laugh and a smile that made me catch my breath. Every time. He used to do both often.

“You put yourself in danger with your job,” the demon observed, stepping back.

“So?”

“If you die, so will I.”

“Is that your way of saying ‘be careful’?” I snorted. The conversation was getting more ridiculous by the minute. I was more than a little aware that Law prowled the outside of the door, respecting my silent request for privacy. His restraint wasn’t going to last much longer.

“Summon me if you need me,” So’la said after a moment. “I cannot refuse to come.”

“Yeah. Right,” I said. “I told you. Slavery isn’t my thing. I’ll be fine on my own.”

The demon shook his heavy head from side to side. “Your track record thus far says otherwise.”

That’s when I remembered he’d been watching me for a while. He knew about the lich cat and most of my other scrapes.

“I do my best with what I’ve got,” I said, waving my hand dismissively. “I’m not turning you into my sidekick or whatever you want to call it.”

“The binding means that you have me. Therefore, you must use me if you are in need.”

I shook my head. “Didn’t you just tell me you don’t want to be anybody’s slave? That that was the whole point of this exercise? I don’t want to be anybody’s owner. I’m not making exceptions.”

His eyes roiled with flames. “You must.”

“You’re giving me a headache,” I said. “Why don’t you toddle off and live your life now?”

“Because my life is yet in your hands, and if you choose to do something dangerous and risk your life, then I will die as well. Summon me if you are in danger.” He paused then deliberately said, “As I know you will come to me if I am in trouble. Two . . . associates . . . in a pact of mutual survival.”

Bastard. He had me there. “Fine.” But I resolved that I would never be in so much trouble that I’d go through with it. Around me, my ghosts fluttered. Probably in dismay. I couldn’t blame them, but they didn’t have to stick with me. They were free to leave. Not that they had somewhere better to go. But at least they had the choice.

“So that’s it?” I said when he didn’t speak for a long minute. “I can go eat?”

He gave a slow nod. “You can go.” His voice inflected oddly, like the question startled him. Or maybe that I asked at all. Or maybe that I waited for permission.

“Do you need anything?” I asked and almost laughed. I was acting like a mother sending her kid off to school for the first time. I pictured him with a Star Wars lunchbox and a Captain America backpack and started to giggle.

“I think not,” he said, eyeing me with a mix of confusion, exasperation, and impatience.

“Then I guess this is good-bye.” I waited. When he didn’t vanish into a cloud of smoke, I shrugged and headed for the door. I swung it open and came face-to-face with a thunderous Law.

He looked over my shoulder. “Is he gone?”

I turned. The room was empty. “Looks like.”

“Good. Then let’s get this out of the way first.”

He cupped his hands around my face and kissed me. In my surprise, my mouth fell open. He took immediate advantage, slanting his head. His tongue slipped between my lips, tasting, caressing. Shivers swept through me, followed by a wind of sparks. My legs turned to wax. I reached up to clasp his wrists, holding tightly for balance.

He slid one hand around the back of my head while the other snaked around my waist. He pulled me firmly against him, and I turned to fire. I wrapped my arms around his neck, pressing against him with a storm of lust, love, and need. I nibbled his lips, and he groaned, turning me against the doorjamb and running his hands over me, his hands slipping under my shirt—his shirt really—and rasping eagerly over my skin.

My head spun and desire whirled fast and achy inside me. I pushed my hands under his shirt, and his skin was flaming satin. I traced the ridges of his muscle and bone, delighting in the way he pressed harder against me, his breathing turning ragged.

Abruptly he jerked his head up. “No,” he said.

An icy knife plunged into my gut, dissolving every good feeling. My lips felt swollen. My body felt tight inside my skin. I wanted to ask what was wrong, but I couldn’t. Fear of what he was going to say curled my hopes and wishes into ash. I felt like an insect pinned to a board. I wanted to run away, but I was held in place by his hands on my hips and the unreadable look in his eyes.

“I don’t want to do this,” Law said, gazing down at me.

I slumped against the doorjamb, hollowness pushing through me. “Okay.”

He frowned, skimming his fingers along my cheek. “Don’t.”

“Don’t what?”

“You’re closing up. Disappearing behind that mask of yours. Running away inside. Don’t hide from me.”

I shook my head. “What do you want, Law? Because I’m really confused. You kissed me. I didn’t twist your arm. Hell, all I did was open the damned door.”

I started to turn away, having regained strength in my legs, but he wedged his body into mine, holding me in place. I glared up at him. I opened my mouth to rip him a new one.

“Shut up,” he said before I could say anything. He brushed the hair from my face. “Listen just this once, would you?”

His eyes bored into mine. My mouth went dry. I nodded.

“Good. Then let me make this one thing clear. I love you. I have been in love with you since we were partners. Before that first time we went to bed.”

I think my brain exploded. I didn’t move, didn’t react, just waited for him to take it back, for the other shoe to fall, for the world to end.

“Did you hear me?” He scowled. “I said I love you.”

I gave a little nod. “Okay.” It’s not that I didn’t believe him. But I didn’t. It wasn’t possible. I had to wonder if I’d hit my head and was in a coma, dreaming. Or maybe this was a trick that So’la was playing on me.

“Okay? That’s all you’ve got?” He stepped back, running his hands over his head. “Christ.”

The loss of his weight against me actually hurt. I blinked rapidly, trying not to let go of the tears burning in my eyes. What was wrong with me? “It doesn’t seem very likely,” I said.

“What the hell does that mean?” he demanded. “I had no idea you gave a tinker’s damn about me until you popped off that confession of yours yesterday. I believe you. God damn but I have to believe you.”

That last caught me up short. “Why?”

He gave a harsh crack of laughter. “Because I’ve been bleeding half to death since you walked out. Since that demon tore you up and the lich cat got your back. I’ve watched and I’ve waited for you to realize that we had something, that whatever made you run away wasn’t worth it, and then you show up and you say you’ve loved me all this time and we’ve wasted years, Mallory. Six fucking years. So I have to believe it because otherwise I have to keep living like a zombie, every day losing a little bit more hope, and when you showed up on the doorstep, I didn’t have a lot left.”

“But—” But what? He’d never said anything? Neither had I. Not the whole time we were together. I’d been careful not to, afraid to be too clingy. I didn’t want him to leave me. Couldn’t he have done the same thing? “You didn’t say anything yesterday. Not when I told you, not when we had sex.”

“I was too busy trying to wrap my head around it when you told me. Too busy trying not to kill you for putting us through six years of separation. Later—I was still angry and I just wanted you. Needed you. Nothing else mattered. I’d never seen you in a getup like that. So much skin and every man looking at you. You walking around, trying to bait a fucking incubus. I was out of my head with worry and jealousy. I wasn’t thinking, Mal. I’m an idiot. I admit it.”

I stared. “Are you really serious?”

He growled and came back to me, resting his hands on my shoulders, his thumbs rubbing my neck. Our eyes locked together. “As a heart attack.”

I remembered then the reason I’d left, the reason I’d stayed away. “I’m not broken,” I said.

He stiffened. “I was wrong to think that. I could see you were hurting and I didn’t know how to help you. I had tunnel vision about the job. I’ve changed.” He licked his lips. “I can’t leave here. I’m bound to Effrayant for another three years. If what you want is the occasional hook-up—” He swallowed, his lips twisting on the words. “Then I’ll do it. I’ll take what you give me. But that’s not what I want.” His hands tightened until my shoulders hurt. “I want you to stay with me.”

I shook my head. “I’ve got the job, and then there’s So’la.” But I could, I supposed. Live with him. Get odd jobs in the neighborhood. The demon was gone. He wasn’t going to come back unless I summoned him, which would happen when pigs flew. I didn’t really have much to go back to. I didn’t have a long-term obligation to Ivan.

“Why not? There are jobs here, and your apartment is a dump. We can figure out what to do about the demon. There’s nothing there for you besides being alone. Is that what you want?” He gave me a little shake.

“How do you know it’s a dump? Anyhow, it’s not that bad.” I had no idea why I was arguing. Maybe I was just getting used to the possibility that I could stay. The hope. I didn’t like hope. It hurt most of the time.

“It’s a crummy flophouse, and stop dodging the question.”

“We aren’t the same people. You don’t know me anymore. I don’t know you,” I said, talking to his throat because this was the thing that worried me the most. Not just that we’d changed, but that he didn’t understand who I’d become, that he couldn’t really care about this new me.

The way his hands trembled told me he shared my doubts. Or maybe he was just scared he couldn’t convince me. The idea about knocked me flying. Could he really care so much? Love me like that? The whole concept seemed too incredible, too good to be true.

“I want to try,” he said, voice rough. “I want us to try together. No walking out without a fucking word.” Bitterness flew off the words.

I wanted to say I didn’t have a choice back then but I had. I’d been too deep in a hole to see it, but neither had I looked all that hard. I’d been convinced he could never trust me as a partner again, much less love me. That both were totally impossible and there was no point in staying. I’d been wrong. I didn’t want to be wrong now.

I was different now. Back then I’d been inexperienced—a rookie paired with a veteran agent. I’d done more taking than giving, and it had contributed to my need to leave. But I’d fought personal and real demons these past six years. I’d come into my own, and I was strong enough now to stand beside Law as an equal. Neither would he overwhelm me as he had. He hadn’t meant to. He’d wanted to help, but he hadn’t understood that I was just changing, not breaking. Not that I’d made it easy with my drinking and moods.

He was waiting for me, as he’d waited six years. I raised my gaze, looking into his eyes. Green fire flickered in the depths—fear, maybe, hope, and longing. He was certain to see the same in mine.

“No walking out,” I said.

He sucked in a sharp breath. “You promise?”

“I do.” I was promising a lot more than not walking out. I was committing to the fights and the push and pull of figuring us out, the disapproval, along with all the good stuff. My heart swelled. I didn’t know if my chest could even hold it. I brushed my lips against his to seal the vow.

His fingers tightened on my shoulders, digging hard. His eyes closed and emotion flickered over his face too fast to read. He looked at me again. “Then let’s eat.”

My brows drew together. “What?”

He grabbed my hand and dragged me toward the kitchen. “Food. Sustenance.”

“But—” I admit I’d been expecting something more romantic. I wanted nothing more than to jump his bones. One in particular.

We reached the kitchen, and he started to push me down into a chair at the breakfast bar. I tightened my hand on his, pulling him around to face me. “You’re hungry? Now?”

“You’re hungry and for what I have planned, you need your strength.” He smiled wolfishly as he pushed me down into the chair. “Plus, you’ve a call to make.” He picked my phone up off the counter and handed it to me. “Make it official.”

There was a challenge in his look. He still wasn’t sure of me. Nor did he make any motions toward opening up the barriers closing off Effrayant from the rest of the world. As if I might escape any moment.

I picked up the phone. “I left this in my suite.”

“All your stuff is here,” he said, his gaze daring me to protest.

“Convenient,” I said and tapped the speed dial for Ivan. He picked up on the second ring.

“Mal? Did you get it?”

I made a face. “I’m fine, thanks for asking. The incubus is dead. The box is gone,” I said, noticing for the first time that it sat on an ebony coffee table surrounded by red leather couches and chairs. It was open, the talisman within. I wondered how Law had retrieved it all, or maybe the power in both were gone.

“Gone? Where?”

I shrugged, though he couldn’t see me. “I don’t know. I got attacked by another demon, the same one that murdered the incubus. I don’t remember a lot after that.”

Silence. Then, “But you said you’re okay?”

I watched as Law worked on an omelet and both bacon and sausage. My stomach rumbled. “I’ll live. I found a guy with skills.”