Save My Soul (14 page)

Harold grumbled, but got up and went toward the other bedroom. He looked back once more in Luc’s direction, his eyes searching the hall for evidence of the thing that had blocked his path. Luc growled under his breath just loud enough for the man to hear and quicken his retreat.

When Harold disappeared behind the bedroom door, Luc slipped into the room he’d been guarding.

“Dad?” the girl asked.

“No.” Luc sat in the chair next to the bed. He’d been doing this for awhile, usually going through the wall to watch her. He couldn’t stand her not knowing she was safe from that bastard. But she was starting to sense his presence, and he didn’t want her to be afraid of him, too. He switched the lamp on and materialized.

She tilted her head to the side, no fear evident on her features. “Are you an angel?”

He chuckled. “I’ve told that lie before, but something tells me you’re too old and too smart to fall for it.” He brushed her hair out of her face, wanting so badly to taste her. No. Cain brought dinner. This wasn’t dinner. She was under his protection.

The scene kept changing, almost too fast for Anna to track. Each scene showed Harold trying to get to his daughter and Luc stopping him. Both men were like determined terriers pissing over territory. Slowly, Sara became too much of a temptation for the demon.

The scene shifted again. Luc kissed the side of Sara’s throat as they made love. He took gentle tugs of her energy, feeding, being careful not to take too much. This one mattered to him.

He’d told himself over and over she was too young, but she was the age of consent, and hadn’t he fucked much younger back when times were different? Her soft sighs and whimpers were driving him over the edge. Waiting for it to be safe to feed from her again was becoming more maddening each time, but he’d do whatever he had to, to keep her safe.

His heightened sense of hearing picked up the dull, flat throb of footsteps coming down the hall. The bastard just would not give up. Well, neither would Luc. The door opened and the light flicked on.

The incubus whirled in anger, a searing heat flowing through him as his true form came forward, sending Harold fleeing down the hallway in hysterics. Luc turned, unable to pull his demonic visage back. Sara looked into his eyes, a mask of terror frozen on her face. And then he couldn’t reach her.

Anna was ripped away to another, more recent scene. Luc’s rage boiled as the change rippled over his skin. He used every ounce of control to remain invisible.

Anna’s cries had pulled him out of his self-indulgent stupor. He’d made it to the landing when he saw her being dragged by her ankle down into the living room. She couldn’t have known safety was upstairs, but for a moment he imagined she’d been running to him for his protection.

Protection he sure as fuck planned to deliver on, whether she was aware of its existence or not. A growl slipped from his throat as he tore down the stairs and ripped the motherfucker off her.

He wanted to verbally threaten him, needed to, wanted to ask him what right he had to come into his house and terrorize her. But he couldn’t think straight enough for language. All he could manage was a litany of snarls and growls as he sliced the man up.

Luc had the presence of mind to stop before he killed him. He couldn’t leave a body for her to have to dispose of or explain away. He had to leave the fucker breathing. For now.

The scene shifted again. Luc sat at the kitchen table, the rage still simmering, the heat still prickling along his skin. He was still too angry to change back. Luc hated scaring her, but he couldn’t let her see him. He watched as she huddled in the corner with the candlestick in her hand.

By the following morning, Anna and Tam had come to an uneasy truce. When they walked into the house on Cranberry Lane, Anna blinked, sure she was hallucinating.

The kitchen island held a large buffet spread. Croissant sandwiches, pancakes, eggs, fruit, English muffins, biscuits, and gravy. Suddenly she was very hungry. All Tam had at her house, besides popcorn, was coffee.

The harem sat around the table chattering and eating. Anna felt left out in her own home. It wasn’t like it was easy to strike up conversation with the women who were sleeping with her man.

Strike that. Not her man. Never her man. Not a man, period. Demon. He was Luc, and he wasn’t quite the level of evil she’d thought he was, but he couldn’t be hers. They could be friends, that was all. Yes, he was hot, and they had banter or whatever. But it ended there. The alternatives of sharing him or losing her soul weren’t options she was prepared to entertain. Ever.

“You ladies look hungry.” Luc untied his apron and laid it across the counter. “The girls slept in, and I thought brunch would be nice.”

It was easy to forget blood rituals, growling, and shapeshifting when he was doing his master chef routine.

“Oh,” Anna said, forgetting her manners. “Tam, this is the harem.”

“Anna! Don’t call them that!” Tam said, looking horrified.

“It’s okay. It’s true, we are the harem,” Karen said with a shrug.

“Yeah, I like the word. It makes me think of sultans and all those gauzy veils and stuff,” Renee said, adding her two cents. The other girls giggled and went back to trying to decipher their crossword puzzle.

“We should have gotten the word circle thing. I hate these. They always use weird words no one knows,” Olivia said. Susan and Maria both grunted noncommittally, engrossed in painting their nails a color that should have been called hooker red . Endorsed by prostitutes everywhere.

Luc handed Anna a glass of orange juice, avoiding eye contact. If that was because of the whole, hey, I’m sleeping with the whole world thing, Anna was over it. Really. He couldn’t change what he was. And if she wasn’t going to sleep with him, it wasn’t her business. He was just her roommate. She had no claim on him.

“What did you do?” Anna asked when the guilt didn’t leave his face. It couldn’t be too bad. He hadn’t killed anyone. There were still five hookers sitting in her kitchen having breakfast.

Luc busied himself fixing plates for Tam and Anna. “Um . . . well, you see . . . I’m trapped in the house, and incubi as I’m sure you’re aware, have little need for money . . . There are five ladies here. And there was no food except for leftover Chinese which I believe is growing a fur coat, and some cookies and ice cream and I . . . stoleyourcreditcard.”

“You what?”

He sighed and finally looked into her eyes, a sheepish expression on his face. “I sent Susan and Maria to the store with your card to buy food. It was a bit extravagant, I admit, but I’m cooking now. See?” He held out the plates like a peace offering. “You’ll eat much better than you ever have before.” He smiled a little too brightly as he waited for them to take the offered food.

Anna snorted. She couldn’t help it. That smile looked severely weird on Luc. He should stick to the smirking bad boy thing he had going on. Not that he could simultaneously maintain bad boy and master chef , but everybody needed something to aspire to. She couldn’t deal with petty breakfast theft Luc. He was too surreal.

“Of course I don’t mind. Thank you for doing it.” She surprised herself by kissing him on the cheek.

His mouth hung open. “Anna?”

“I had another dream. I was wrong about you. I’m sorry.”

“Yes, well, don’t get too comfortable. I’m sure you’ll have another nightmare and be back to the hysterics in no time.” He set to work scrubbing a pot so hard, she was sure he’d take the Teflon coating right off it.

Anna lowered her voice so the others couldn’t overhear. “I said I was sorry. I know there’s more to you than I thought there was. Okay? Can’t you just accept that at face value?”

He stood stiffly, working to maintain his ire as he continued to take his aggression out on the cookware. Finally, his shoulders relaxed, and he nodded. “What did you see?”

Anna recounted the dream.

His eyes rose quickly to meet hers. “Did you see me?”

She knew he was asking if she’d seen his demon form. “It doesn’t work that way. I can’t actually see you. I see through your eyes, feel your thoughts and emotions. Thank God I don’t physically feel everything you do, because gotta say, I don’t swing that way. I’ve seen more naked females than I ever cared to. That’s plenty up close and personal for me.”

He smirked, the relief evident on his face. How bad can his true form be? Obviously bad if a bright and together girl like Sara had ended up in the looney bin, and Luc had decided it was preferable to let Anna cower in a corner rather than allow her to see him. She shivered as her eyes drifted to the corner in question.

Then she noticed how quiet the room had gotten. “Something wrong?”

“You ask them,” Karen said, nudging Olivia.

“We thought, I mean, we understand why you brought us here, and it was really nice of you and all . . . ”

“You’re kidding, right?” She didn’t consider bringing women to her house to service Luc to be a nice thing to do. “This is horribly . . . I have no words for it. I’ve tried to justify it a thousand times in my head, but all I can think is that I’m doing something wrong and dirty. At the same time I can’t bring myself to let him starve, either. I’m going to Hell.” She sank into one of the chairs and put her head in her hands.

“No!” They all began protesting at once.

“Are you kidding me?” Maria asked. “This is the first time I’ve felt safe in a long time. And you’re putting us up here, and feeding us. And it’s not like sleeping with Luc is a trial.”

Anna blushed and looked around for the demon’s reaction, but he’d slipped out of the room. Karen cleared her throat and kicked Maria hard under the table.

“What? Ow! Anyway,” she said, glaring at the blonde, “we asked Luc what he thought we could do to pay you back for all your kindness.”

Olivia picked it back up. “Yes, we were wondering if we could help with the candle stuff. We could make a lot more, all of us together. And you’d have plenty to sell by the weekend.”

Tam shrugged. “I don’t see why not.”

Anna wasn’t sure she was comfortable turning them into her indentured servants, but she wasn’t taking a cut of the profits. Maybe Tam could pay them. They were only trying to help after all.

“This is going to be so fun!” Susan said.

Anna had her doubts about that. She avoided the knowing look in Karen’s eyes. Was it that obvious? Did Anna have a sign on her head that said, Here, sleep with Luc. I wish it was me, but I’m too damn uptight?

Tam steamrolled over the tension by getting straight to business. “Since we’ve got so much help, we’re going to need more supplies. I’ll stay here with Maria and Susan to clean up. You can walk with the others to the craft shop.” She pulled a slim notebook from her purse, jotted down a quick list, and handed it to Anna.

“I don’t know what half of this stuff is,” Anna groused. “Wouldn’t it make more sense if I cleaned my own kitchen and you went to the store?”

Tam smiled sweetly. “If we’re going to work together, we both need to be comfortable. I need to be comfortable with the kitchen, and you need to be comfortable with the supply list. Get the store clerk to help you.”

Anna was about to protest further, but Tam had already started straightening the kitchen. She sighed and followed the girls out the back door.

Once outside, she felt like the odd woman out at a Barbie doll convention, with her long dark hair, flanked by perky bottle blondes. And they were perky.

She wasn’t sure if it was being in Luc’s presence or leaving their old lives behind them, but they’d quickly come alive, and Anna was starting to feel something like jealousy. Why couldn’t she be like them and share him? Wasn’t a small bit of Luc better than no Luc? Judging from the extra bounce in their steps, she was pretty sure it was.

Anna stiffened as Bitsy and Mimi and their yappy dog approached. They were running behind schedule on their daily walk.

“Well, hello dear. And who are these young ladies?” Mimi asked. Her voice was all politeness and drippy syrup, but Anna could see the disapproval in her shrewd eyes.

The girls tensed beside her, as if they thought she’d introduce them as a harem or hookers. It was one thing in the house, but she would never . . . Then again, maybe they were reacting to the predatory looks on the sisters’ faces.

The lie tripped off her tongue easily. “These are my sorority sisters from college. They’re staying with me for a while. This is Karen, Olivia, and Renee.”

She was painfully aware of how out of place they must look, walking down the street together. Anna in her usual jeans and t-shirt, her long, wavy hair hanging loose down her back, surrounded by three girls with too-blonde hair and mini skirts.

Thankfully, they’d left the fishnets at home. Despite their attempts to clean it up, miniskirts just didn’t fly in Golatha Falls. Hell, skirts two inches above the knee didn’t pass inspection. Anna had a flashback to Catholic school and the dollar bill test, the excruciating and demeaning ritual meant to determine they hadn’t rolled their skirts up at the waist.

“Don’t you think you’re wearing just a touch too much makeup for the morning hours, dear?” Bitsy said, deciding to pick on Renee first.

“And those skirts . . . honestly. I know college can be wild, but you’re grown women now. You shouldn’t be walking around looking like streetwalkers,” Mimi said.