Save My Soul (15 page)

Renee drew herself up to her full imposing height and stared Mimi down. “Maybe we are streetwalkers. Do you have a problem with that?”

The sisters were too shocked to speak. The dog barked hysterically at the blonde interlopers, sensing imminent danger.

“Yes,” Karen said, “or maybe we come from a big city where dress codes are more relaxed than stuck up little towns.”

Olivia put the icing on. “Puce is not your very best color. You should get one of those color tests done. They do them free at the mall now. And matching outfits for twins? Even a streetwalker knows that look is over.”

“Well, I never . . . ” Bitsy said, clutching her sister as if the girls posed a germ threat, and they just needed to get to the safety of a pay phone to call in the CDC.

“Yes, and you never will,” Karen said, leading Renee and Olivia around the two old women.

Bitsy and Mimi stood there, their poodle weaving in and out of their legs.

“Anna, really. Those girls are just . . . surely you must have better company to spend your time with than that . . . trash.”

“Actually, I enjoy the company just fine,” Anna said. “Have a nice day ladies.” She brushed past them, and glanced back over her shoulder. “And Olivia was right about the suits.”

She knew she was going to pay for that little scene later when the mob came to her house with the torches and pitchforks. Maybe the harem wasn’t so bad. She could be friends with these girls.

“Why aren’t you sleeping with Luc?” Olivia blurted when she’d caught up to them.

Or maybe not. Anna flushed bright red. “Because. I don’t want to,” she said lamely.

“Why not?” Renee pressed, as if it was the weirdest thing Anna could possibly think to say. “I mean, I haven’t yet, but Olivia has, and she said . . . ”

Karen, seeming to be the only one of the girls with any tact at all, stepped in. “Renee! She doesn’t want to talk about it. I’m so sorry about that, Anna.”

Renee was unperturbed. “But why wouldn’t you want to? I mean, look at him. He’s so . . . and he cooks. And he’s sweet. And he likes you. He can’t help what he is.” Her eyes narrowed with suspicion. “You think you’re better than him, don’t you? Because of what he does.”

Anna shifted, suddenly uncomfortable. This was getting into personal territory for them. They felt a kinship toward Luc, and if she wasn’t careful she’d have to fight off his crazed protectors. “It’s not like that. I just don’t see him that way.” Good, Anna. Say the lie out loud enough times, and it’ll start feeling true. Any second now.

“Bullshit,” Olivia said. “You’re just scared to get your heart broken. He wouldn’t just be a good lay to you. He’d be more. And he is . . . a good lay,” she clarified, as if clarification was necessary.

“Stop talking about him like he’s a piece of meat!” Anna said, falling over the sanity ledge. She was going to have a breakdown if they didn’t stop treating him like their paid escort.

“So you do care.” A satisfied smile spread across Olivia’s lips as if it had all been a plan to bait Anna into some honesty.

“Oh look, we’re here!” Anna said. She’d never been so happy to see a craft store.

***

Luc leaned against the door frame watching Anna’s friend fluttering about the kitchen. She looked like a little pixie with her delicate elfin features and glitter-filled hair. Susan and Maria were standing back as well, no doubt trying to stay out of her way.

He cleared his throat, causing all three of the women to jump. “I don’t think so,” he said.

Tam’s hand froze. She’d been laying craft supplies out on the kitchen table. “Excuse me?” she said, off-balance.

“You heard me. Do you understand that every piece of furniture in this house is a priceless antique? This particular table, for example, is over a hundred years old and hand-carved.”

She stood there gaping at him like a fish. Finally, she came up with something intelligent to say. “This is Anna’s house.”

He allowed the glow to come to his eyes, and she took a step back. “No, this is my house. Anna is just the one with the paperwork. But I’m the only one who can’t be removed, forcibly or otherwise. That makes it mine.”

Tam moved behind the table, putting one of his priceless antiques between them, betting he wouldn’t go after the furniture to get to her. Smart girl. Susan and Maria seemed to be practicing the forgotten art of pretending to be wallpaper.

The level of fear in the room was prodding at his darker urges like a little fork. He let out a low growl for effect and chuckled when all three of them jumped again. Susan and Maria’s wallpaper act needed work.

“I’m feeling very cranky,” he said. “And when I get cranky, I get hungry. Who wants to volunteer?”

The little witch seemed to snap out of her panic. “I called you last night because I felt sympathy for you. Now you’re being a gigantic ass. Do you know how much groveling it took this morning to get my friendship with Anna back on track?”

Mentioning Anna caused him to regain focus. What the hell am I doing? He wasn’t used to so many attractive females in such a closed-in space. It was like a starving person suddenly being transplanted to the middle of a buffet. It was fucking with his head. And he couldn’t get out of the house to escape them and all their girlie smells and hormones and arousal.

Just being an incubus, even without actively using the mind tricks, females seemed to just melt in his presence. It was hard to remember he had to be civilized and couldn’t act on every base urge that flitted through his head anymore.

Anna wouldn’t like it. He’d never gain her trust if he couldn’t maintain self-control. “I apologize. But you can’t put that wax and stuff on the table. You’ll destroy it.”

Before Tam could protest further, he disappeared into the guest bathroom down the hall and returned, his arms full of bath towels.

Tam held up a hand. “Oh, no. You think you’re crazy about your furniture, Anna will freak if we hurt her fluffy towels.”

He arched a brow. “And which one of us is scarier?”

Anna glared at Tam as she dropped her bags on the kitchen table. “You and I will have words later,” she hissed.

“Why? What happened?”

Anna was momentarily distracted by Luc. The kitchen table had been pushed against one wall, and he was dragging the dining room table in to join it. The effort seemed to be causing him physical pain.

“Luc?” Surely a table wasn’t too heavy for a demon to lift, even one as large and ornate as this one.

He glowered. “Tam said she needed more space to work on. But you listen to me . . . we are covering the surface with your bath towels. I don’t want to hear one word about it. This table should not be used to make handicrafts on.”

Anna glanced away to hide her smile. She’d thought it would be hard to look him in the eyes after spending the morning shopping with the harem, but he had that funny way of disarming her.

“So help me, Anna, if you laugh I will blister your ass.”

She lost the smile. He hadn’t just said that. And no, she was not going to fantasize about what he hadn’t just said. Bad, Anna.

“I wasn’t going to laugh.” Plan B. Ignore all innuendo. Do not respond. Do not engage. Check.

“Then what was the smile about?”

“You. With the cleaning up Chinese food and wiping off the mirror. I thought you were just being creepy and ghostly, but you’re an antiques fiend. You couldn’t stand anything getting messed up.”

Instead of denying the accusation, he shrugged. “So?”

“I don’t know why you’re protecting it. If I burn the house down it’s all going to be ashes anyway.”

He cringed, no doubt imagining all the beautiful antiques going up in flames along with that gorgeous banister.

“WHAT?” the girls shrieked. They stopped what they were doing and gawked at the couple.

“Luc wants me to burn down the house, to break the curse that has him trapped.”

“But you can’t! You can’t even be thinking about it!” Renee was near panic.

“I wouldn’t turn you out on the streets,” Anna said, assuming that was the reason for the freak-out. She’d taken them in; she wasn’t heartless enough to just throw them back to their pimps. That would be worse than bringing them there in the first place. The current set-up was starting to feel less sleazy and more Pretty Woman , but with an ensemble cast.

“No, that’s not it,” Susan said. “We’d be okay, but please tell me you aren’t thinking of burning this house down.”

“I’m not. We’ll find another way.”

“Then what happens? When we get him out?” Karen asked.

“I don’t know.” Anna hadn’t thought that far ahead.

For the briefest of moments, she entertained the idea of never letting him leave. Stop being crazy. You can’t even bring yourself to sleep with him. But the thought of the big, beautiful house with no Luc inside made her feel cold. Could she bring herself to stay without him there?

“I hate to say it,” Tam said, “but freeing Luc is going to be like getting a middle-aged man out of his mother’s basement. Do you even know where to start?”

“I thought about calling the archbishop, seeing if they could bring someone higher up in. Maybe that would make a difference. And I made an appointment with some paranormal investigators I saw on TV. They’ll be here tomorrow”

“I could just call the coven,” Tam said.

“No!” Both Luc and Anna shouted at once.

“I’m just saying. A witch started this mess. Maybe other witches can undo it.”

“Thank you, Tam, but no,” Anna said.

Tam had been claiming to be a witch since high school. Anna had thought it was a phase. When her friend didn’t grow out of it, she decided it would be the thing no one acknowledged, like the uncle who farts when company comes over.

With evidence right in front of her of not only demons but witches, well, she liked to keep pretending she had a normal life. If Tam started breaking out the pointy hats, she didn’t know how long she could maintain that fantasy.

Maria cleared her throat. “No one is talking about it . . . but I do have gypsy blood. And I have relatives who are full Romani. I haven’t spoken to that side of the family in awhile, but I’m sure that . . . ”

Anna looked at Luc and shrugged. “Gypsies aren’t witches.”

“Yes, but Gypsies aren’t traditionally good news for my kind either.”

“What do you have against witches?” Tam said. “It’s not like I hex people.”

Anna turned back to Luc. He was making her brain fuzzy. The scar on her hand tingled pleasantly, as if happy to be so close to him.

“We really have to try something. If we aren’t going with the coven, we should at least try the gypsies,” Anna said.

“Fine,” he grumbled. “But I’m putting your fluffy bath towels on the dining room table.” The look in his eyes dared her to challenge him.

“Luc!”

“It’s fluffy bath towels or no gypsies. You keep them in the guest bath anyway.”

“So?”

An arched eyebrow.

“Fine. Take my fluffy towels.” She thought she might cry.

. . . Luc sat in the middle of the living room floor staring off into space. The house was deathly still except for a constant, irritating drip from a leaky faucet in the kitchen. He made no move to shut it off.

He hadn’t fed in weeks. All he could think was that she was gone, and it was his fault. He heard the back door fly open. It wasn’t a woman. He would have known instantly if it were a woman. If it wasn’t food, there was no point wasting any more strength. Without food or means of escape, immortality became a true curse for the first time.

Footsteps stopped in front of him.

“Luc, my God. What’s happened to you?” Cain said.

“I killed her. She was right there for two whole days.” Tears streamed down his cheeks as he pointed to an empty spot on the couch.

Cain’s eyes were wide, his face filled with horror and disgust. “Why on earth are you crying?”

As if Cain had the right to be disgusted. He had no soul, not the slightest bit of empathy. “Why wouldn’t I cry? I killed her. I loved her, and I killed her.”

The other demon’s jaw clenched. “Why haven’t you left this place?”

“I can’t leave.” Luc didn’t have the energy yet to explain about the magic. He couldn’t rid himself of the image of Beatrice’s lifeless eyes staring up at him. All my fault. All my fucking fault. “They finally found her and took her out. She was still pretty.”

Cain ran a hand through his hair and took a deep breath as if trying to gather a tsunami of patience. “Why can’t you leave?”

“Trapped. She didn’t want me to leave her . . . trapped me.”

Cain grabbed an unresponsive Luc by the arm and dragged him to the door. He tried pushing him out, but the magic smacked against Luc, sending a shock of pain through his body.

The other incubus took Luc’s face in his hands and stared hard into his eyes. “Snap out of it! She was a witch. Goddammit! I knew something was wrong with you. I should never have left you here.”

Luc jerked out of his grasp and started to pace. Anna stared out from inside him, wanting to back away from Cain.