Read The Demon You Know Online
Authors: Christine Warren
"Oh, screw that." Tess held up a hand and laughed. "No, hear me out. Yeah, I knew going into this that shape-shifters existed. I'd even met one or two, but it's not like I was pals with any of them. You wouldn't know this, since you didn't know about any of the Others up until the news broke, but until about five years ago the witches had absolutely nothing to do with the rest of the Others community. We kept entirely separate, had our own little council, our own laws, everything. So trust me when I tell you that it was nearly as big a leap for me to end up mated to a werejaguar as it's been for you to end up mated to a demon.”
Abby shook her head. "No one said anything about mates.”
"Right." Samantha rolled her eyes. "Of course not. We'll pretend that doesn't exist just like the
whole love thing, shall we?”
"I'm serious. I'm having a hard enough time dealing with sex and love. Leave me a little breathing
room, would you?" She turned back to Tess. "So how did you deal with it?”
The blonde snorted. "As little as humanly possible. I ignored it for a good long time, then I
bitched about it for a while. Actually, I spent a lot of time bitching to Missy and the girls.”
"The girls?”
"There's a whole group of us. The Benevolent and Protective Order of Women with Idiot Men
on Their Hands. We'll discuss your induction later, when the others get back from their vacations. A lot
of them managed to arrange to be out of town when the Unveiling broke." Tess waved a hand. "But that's not the point. In the end there was really only one thing that mattered. No matter how much the jerk got
on my nerves or how many barriers stood between us, I was in love with him. Utterly and completely. And I still am. He's my husband and my friend and the father of my son and the person I want to wake up next to every morning for the rest of my life. He's my mate." She paused to stare at Abby. "Any of this ringing any bells?”
Abby just closed her eyes on a sigh.
"Look, I know it's inconvenient, Ab, but you're going to have to face the fact that love is rarely anything else.”
She made a face. "That doesn't mean I have to be happy about it.”
"Oh, Gods, no," Tess said, sounding completely taken aback. "Yell and scream and rant and
rave. Trust me, the practice will come in handy. But when the dust settles, take a good look at Rule and
try to imagine what your life would be like if he weren't in it anymore." She raised an eyebrow. "Is that
something you're prepared to face?"
The movie, the popcorn, and the friends were long gone when Rule finally climbed into Abby'sbed that night. He moved silently, but she had begun to recognize the feel of him in the room, the way theair seemed to shift and tighten when he was near. She turned immediately into his arms and burrowed herhead against his shoulder.
"Is everything okay?" she whispered, her voice thick and foggy with sleep.
"Fine," he murmured, and brushed a kiss over her forehead. "Go back to sleep.”
Abby grinned into the darkness. "Make me.”
He hadn't needed to be told a second time.
She had reveled in his touch, not just because it felt so good, an aching excitement she was afraidhad already become addictive, but because she needed the reassurance after their earlier argument thatanger hadn't changed what was between them. By the time she had drifted, limp and boneless, into sleep,at least that worry had been thoroughly banished.
When she woke, though, a dozen others were clamoring to take its place.
Rule was gone, his side of the bed already cool to the touch. Abby hurried through a shower andyanked on the first clothes she found, surprised that she didn't even have to fight with Lou that morning. Maybe that was a good sign.
She hurried downstairs to the club's second floor and poked her head in the War Room. Empty. Frowning, she turned and headed down the hall to the media room. No one around here seemed towatch much TV, but maybe someone was catching up on the news?
That room was empty as well. Come to think of it, the entire floor sounded eerily quiet.
Hesitantly Abby walked down the steps to the club's main floor where most of the members andguests spent their visits. Even that seemed quiet. Of course, her watch told her it was only a few minutesafter noon, and even the non-nocturnal members of the club tended to stop by only after nightfall.
She didn't open any of the closed doors, not wanting to interrupt a club member's privatemeeting, but she was starting to feel a little uneasy. Frowning, she turned toward the main entrance andthe office Graham kept nearby.
A footman met her in the hall. "Miss Baker?”
Abby turned. "Yes?”
She still couldn't get used to the idea of the club
having
footmen, but calling them waiters didn't
fit, considering they spent very little of their time serving food or drinks.
"Mr. Rule asked me to give you a message," the young man said. He had the look of a college student, someone studying the sciences or maybe engineering. "He said to tell you that Mrs. De Santos's informants had some information for him and he's gone to speak with them. He won't be long, and you are to stay in the club." At least the kid had the grace to look apologetic. "He, uh, he also told me to tell
you that, uh, he's not trying to handle everything without you but that if you try to leave the club on your
own to follow him, he'll..." He cleared his throat. "He'll, uh, paddle you so hard you won't sit for a week.”
Abby just stared at him.
"I'm sorry, ma'am. He made me say it.”
She gritted her teeth. "It's all right. Not your fault. I'd give you a message of my own to pass on to him, but I don't want to rob myself of the pleasure of kneeing him in the balls personally.”
The footman just went pale and hurried into another room, presumably before it occurred to Abby to kill the messenger. Or demonstrate her own message. Plotting dire revenge, she turned to stalk back up the stairs but stopped when someone called her name.
"Hey, Abby!”
She turned and saw a woman standing in the hallway leading toward the club's rear entrance. "Carly?”
The Lupine nodded and grinned. She wore the same paramedic's jumpsuit Abby had first seen
her in. "How've you been? I hear the warden in this joint can be pretty strict.”
Abby laughed. "You have no idea. Are you on duty?”
"Of course," Carly ran a hand through habitually tousled hair. "I've been pulling doubles the entire week. That's why I haven't been able to stop by before now. At the moment, though, I'm on a lunch break. A long one.”
"Cool. The chicken salad here is killer, if you're in the mood for something other than steak." She gestured to the stairs. "In fact, I'm ready for food myself. Come upstairs and eat with me. One of the benefits of being under club arrest is I get great service.”
Carly laughed. "Actually, Samantha and I thought you might want to go out for lunch. Just to the
deli down the street," she said, grinning at Abby's look of shock. "We know better than to take you out of shouting distance, but the deli has killer Reubens, and we thought with a double werewolf escort you'd be safe enough. She's waiting out back. What do you say?”
Rule's threat, delivered in the stammering voice of a freshman physics major, made the decision for Abby. Threaten to spank her, would he?
"Wait right here. I'm just going to grab a jacket.”
Abby bounced up the stairs and returned a minute later with the denim jacket she'd worn on her last, ill-fated excursion into the great outdoors. She was actually looking forward to fighting with Rule about this later, especially since his objections would be completely unreasonable given she would be under double guard the entire time she was away.
"Lead on," she instructed, waving Carly toward the back door. "I'm in the mood for extra
sauerkraut.”
"Ooh, you do like to live dangerously," Carly teased. "In fact, from what Sam told me earlier, it
sounds like you're thinking of making the danger zone a permanent state of residence?”
Abby blushed and shrugged. "It's a little soon to be saying that.”
"Oh? From what I hear, Sam and Tess are practically picking out their bridesmaids' dresses.”
"That's
way
too soon." Abby reached for the handle and yanked on the heavy metal door. Thankfully, she didn't need to disarm the security system to leave, since she didn't know the code. Samantha and Carly both did, though, so they could punch them back in after lunch. "First we need to deal with this whole fiend issue, then we can decide if we can keep from killing each other for the entirety of a long-term relationship.”
Carly followed Abby outside and tugged the door shut behind them. The electronic lock beeped
as it engaged. "I don't think that's something you need to worry about. After all, you'll be dead in just a few hours, so why borrow trouble?”
Aw, fuck.
Abby's reeling mind registered the empty alley, the change in Carly's tone of voice, and the shrieking of her self-preservation instincts all at the same time, about the time that Lou lapsed into profanity. Heart pounding, she turned just in time to see an unnatural glow burning behind the Lupine's brown eyes. Abby opened her mouth to scream, but the blow landed before she made a sound, and then
all she registered was darkness.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
Rule sat beside Tess in the back room of her shop, awkwardly cradling a steaming mug betweenhis hands. He hadn't wanted the tea, but it had seemed rude to refuse it when she'd been passing outcups. Besides, having something in his hands seemed to set the older women in the room more at ease. When they'd first arrived and seen him, they had looked as if they expected him to pounce on themimmediately and crunch their bones for his afternoon snack.