The Devil You Know (20 page)

“How could I not know?” Jacq whispered. Her eyes pleaded for forgiveness, even as their normally dark gray color turned light with pain. My strong warrior was coming down from her euphoria with a vengeance.

I felt Jacq’s fear before she hid it away, but she couldn’t hide her devastation. She looked as if she would cry at the thought of failing me, and I couldn’t bear it. The tear I’d been holding back slipped away, sliding down my cheek.

“Shh.” I brushed my fingers through her hair. “You were too far and I was too weak to call. We believed I would be safe with Van. No one could have foreseen this.” Jacq started to shake her head, to deny the absolution I offered, but I held her steady. My voice was stern. “Had you not gone, I would have sent you away. We both know where your responsibilities lie.” There was no doubt in me, in my eyes or my mind. What I didn’t say, what I couldn’t say, was that I didn’t expect her to always be there. Jacq might not understand, but that would get me killed faster than anything else, including her absence.

She held my eyes for a long time, breathing deep, searching for a rebuke she would not find. I could see her efforts to order her thoughts, to calm herself. As I watched, the tension left her body and her gaze finally flickered with a weak but growing acceptance. I moved my hands and she bowed her head, closing her eyes. Through our bond, I felt Jacq push her emotions away and come to terms with the truth of my words. When she reopened her eyes, they twinkled with unexpected humor.

“If you keep getting into trouble, cher…” She smiled but her tone was deathly serious. “I’ll make you wear one of those long-distance safety whistles within and without the house.”

My nose scrunched. “Those big ass orange ones that skiers wear in case they get lost in a snowstorm?” Jacq smirked. I groaned. “Detective, those are so
not
hot.” They were certainly better than the cowbell around the neck my Grams had once threatened me with.

Laughing softly, I pulled her close for a soft kiss. Our lips had barely touched when a tiny voice bellowed, “Mama, let us out.” Little fists thumped against the car window. “We wanna see Jiminy.”

Surprised, Jacq and I turned to see Cassie give Gemini an apologetic look before opening the door. A small, dark-haired child flung himself out. Faster than her companion, Gemini caught the child, lifting him to sit on her hip. From inside the car, a small voice protested and Gem reached in, lifting out a smaller child who sucked his thumb sleepily before tugging Gem’s hair until she leaned down. The child whispered something in Gem’s ear. Gem frowned and nodded, adjusting the children until she held them closer. The sleepy child nuzzled the damphyre’s neck before closing his eyes and drifting away.

The children’s skin and hair were close in color to Gem’s. If not for their colorful jumpers, it would be hard to see where the little bodies ended and hers began. As it was, it was hard to tell who was more stunned: Cassie or Gem. Aunt Helena had warned that Loren’s children were extremely shy. The children’s grandfather, our neighbor Wellsy, had said the same when he was still living. Apparently, that shyness didn’t apply to Gem. The children had taken to her like ducklings to a mother duck.

With Jacq’s help, I stood, wincing slightly at the stiffness in my knees. I kept my hand in hers and turned to the other women. “Gem, will you help Cassie and the boys to the house?” Gem nodded, a strange, unidentifiable look on her face. I turned to Cassie. “I think it best if you, Alex, and Carlin bunk with us tonight.”

Cassie sighed. “Normally, I wouldn’t impose. But I don’t know how strong the wards are at their Popi’s. And I don’t have the energy to reinforce them tonight. Do you have room?”

I quickly did some mental rearranging. It was doubtful Seth could find another armored limo at this time of night, and I couldn’t see Kathryn bouncing along back to NOLA in my old broken-down Chevy with a passel of vampires riding in the truck bed. No, the shipwrecked demons, especially the injured Van, would have to sleep over. At least the vampires could fly to NOLA or The Burg to feed before going to their rest.
At this rate, I’ll soon have to pitch a tent in the backyard.
Then I remembered who was home and smirked.

“Between Nana and Aunt Helena, they’ll find the room. Besides, if you don’t come home with us, they’ll insist on staying with you at the Wellsy place. We’ll all be safer this way.”

Reminding us they were listening, the larger child opened eyes drooping with weariness and chimed in, “We stay with Jiminy.”

“See, it’s settled.” I smiled, laughing inwardly at Gem’s helpless expression and Cassie’s obvious attempt to restrain a lecture. Jacq was laughing so hard in my head it was a wonder we weren’t both rolling on the ground.

Cassie sighed again and nodded. She raised her arms to take the children from Gem but only looked at the strange trio for an infinitely long moment before turning and quickly moving to her car to unload the night’s essentials.

Gem looked from the children to the retreating Cassie with an expression I could only describe as lost before her face hardened into the battle-numbed mask the Kin wore like a second skin. With a fierce resolution I hadn’t seen since our predawn discussion regarding her quest to avenge her father, Gem jerked her head at our two vampire guards, barking out orders in a foreign language I recognized only as not Russian. Despite her bearing a child on each hip, Gem’s tone made it clear her orders were not to be questioned. The vampires scowled but holstered their guns, stepping forward to help Cassie.

While they worked, I turned to Jacq. “Take a walk with me.” Thunder rumbled in the distance. She looked down at my bare feet, and I said, “Don’t worry so much.” I smiled and tapped her chin playfully, using humor to hide the unease that bubbled within me, growing with every second that brought us closer to home. I had a good idea of the cause and knew I needed open air and a few minutes more before I could face my family.

With my tease, that dimpled half grin appeared, and I received the mental image of her white teeth catching my finger, scraping the sensitive skin gently before sucking it into her warm mouth. My cheeks flushed, and I jerked my hand away. “You’re one very bad woman, Detective Slone.” My voice was raspy from more than a damaged throat.

Jacq laughed, flashing those white teeth in a quick, sexy grin. Then she leaned down, murmuring into my ear, “Not half as bad as I will be, Miss Delacy.”

I shivered with pleasure at the thought. Jacq gently pulled me to her side, wrapping her arm around me, sharing her warmth. She continued to hold me captive as we watched Gem tuck the sleeping children into the back seat of her car. Still slightly shell-shocked, Cassie climbed in behind them, holding the dozing children tightly in her lap. Before they left, I asked the two women to tell my family we would be there soon and instructed Gem to ensure Cassie and the children were given a room facing the front lawn. Then Gem drove off, the two vampires flitting through the woods ahead and behind, staying at my request close to Cassie and the children until they reached the safety of our house.

I felt Jacq’s eyes watching me as much as the departing car. She had questions. But I kept silent. Neither of us was ready for what I had to say.

* * *

October, 1726

The boy would never work magic, not on his own. After two months of being beaten almost every night for botching the simplest of spells, he and his teacher knew this. So in a moment of generous arrogance, the alchemist had decided to share the secrets of stealing power with his future son. That was two weeks ago. Since then, nearly every night, the alchemist had called some dark thing forth from the stone portal and made the boy consume a piece of it. Afterward, the black-eyed man drank from the boy then made him take a sip of his own thick, nearly black blood. Every night, the boy was sent to bed late, his blood burning with icy magic, his mind full of lives he had never lived.

He knew now his father-to-be was something called a son of Drakōn and was mad from the power and memories he stole. The boy also knew he himself was out of time. That same madness was slipping into his mind, growing stronger with each night and each piece of flesh consumed. In desperation, he found a way to tell his mother.

Or rather, he told the wall.

His oath bound him to tell the alchemist’s secrets to none with ears to hear. So when the sun was bright and his Master deeply asleep, the boy spoke to the stockade’s stone wall, the one located in his mother’s room, telling of how he had been sworn to secrecy, telling of the spells that had been cast on the people and the village. Telling how the Master fed on them and stole the memories of it. He told of the box that contained the souls of those that died. The box the Master used to further fuel his powers. The only thing he did not tell was of his own sin, his own growing hunger for what his Master already had. That was an unnecessary worry. His mother could not do to him what was needed. Once she and the others were safely away, the boy would search out someone who could either cure him…or kill him.

He was tearfully surprised when his mother told the wall she was grateful for her son’s courage and that they and a few trusted servants would leave the next day when the snow began to fall. He begged her to leave immediately. But he understood her reasoning. They must leave no trail. And though his mother did not know it, they must leave no Master…no monster…behind to come for them. The pale-haired man had taken blood from all of them. A blizzard from Hell itself would not keep this land’s lord from chasing them down.

Night fell. The others lay down to sleep. As in all the nights before, the boy stood outside his Master’s rooms and knocked. His mother didn’t like it, but they had no choice. If he did not show, the alchemist would know something was wrong. They would all surely die…or worse, if what he saw in the alchemist’s black gaze as he opened the door was correct.

The boy tried to steady his heart as he stepped into the room. His Master shut and barred the door, his smile as large and sharp as it had ever been. For a second, the boy thought he was wrong and that the alchemist had not seen through his bluff. Then the tall man grabbed his shoulder with sharp claws, his nails sinking deep, and the boy knew they were in trouble.

LaFortuna’s fangs flashed, madness shining bright in his eyes. “Tsk, tsk, boy, don’t you know in a house where the dead walk even the walls have ears?”

Later that night, before the boy’s torture began and before the fully insane and enraged dark alchemist called forth his demon pets to kill all in the stockade and village, stealing their souls for his black stone box, his Master asked the boy if he wished to die.

Every night after for all the centuries since when the boy/man was sane enough to consider such things, he always wished he had given a different answer. A simple yes would have ended his eternity of madness and pain before it had ever begun.

Chapter Twelve

“I never kiss and tell. I never kiss tail. And I certainly never kiss off. But everything else is more than possible. If you don’t believe me, watch and find out for yourself.”

—Betty (Betz) Lo, Tigress

Jacq and I stood on the road watching Gem and her fanged ducklings go. When their red taillights finally faded and the night was again ours, I pulled Jacq across the gravel-embedded asphalt and through the tall grass to the softer, needle-strewn ground near the edge of the woods. Less than ten feet from the tall, imposing pines, I stopped and looked at the dark trees.

Through them was the way home. But I couldn’t move. Now that we were finally alone, that bubbling unease had burst, overflowing into my awareness, bringing with it the realization of what had happened…and of how much worse it could have been.

The strength I’d been drawing on to keep myself together crumbled. I stood with eyes wide and jaw clenched as one silent tear then another slid down my cheek. I swallowed and again felt black magic pushing its way down my throat. I clamped my jaw tight, holding in a whimper.

Jacq could feel my pain but not understand it. Her grip on my hand tightened. “Cate?” she inquired quietly, even as her presence in my mind dug into my recent memories, seeking answers.

I blocked her gentle probing, simply shaking my head, never taking my gaze from the trees. Not that I wanted to hide, especially not from Jacq. But the hurt was too fresh, the pain too sharp. I couldn’t repeat it, couldn’t relive it, not in this moment with my love.

Now that the adrenaline was gone, I was shaky…and if I was being honest, a little scared. But more than that, I felt as if something had been stolen from me. More than the pain or the fear, it was that sense of loss that pushed my tears up and out of the heart-deep well they had resided in. I needed distance between myself and the memory. Then maybe I could share.

My body began to tremble, and my knees weakened. Jacq pulled me tightly to her chest. I closed my eyes, leaned back, letting Jacq support me, and tried to just breathe. I drank her in, letting the things I loved most about her soothe me.

The zinging contact of her magic against mine. Her musky smell. The joining of our minds. The reassurance of her warmth at my back.
With Jacq’s presence, the loss didn’t feel so insurmountable.

We stood silent under the cloudy night sky for an undeterminable amount of time. Finally, I felt as if I could talk without stuttering.

“I promise, I don’t normally cry so much.” I sniffled. “One of these days you’ll see my better side, when I’m not banged up, concussed, and puffy-eyed. Ha, you think I’m hot now, just wait, Jacqueline Slone. I’ll really knock your socks off then.” I tried for a smile, but it fell flat.

Jacq kissed the top of my head. Her chin brushed my hair as she said, “You’re always lovely to me. But it’s our bond that shows me your true loveliness. Unfortunately, it also heightens everything, our joy and our sorrows. I fear this brings about these tears.”

I shook my head and tried to move from her grasp, unwilling to accept the graceful out she offered for my recent emotional meltdowns. But she tightened her grip, refusing to let me go. For a moment, her hot strength was replaced with a colder, harder form, and I struggled frantically. But my struggles ceased as Jacq’s next words flowed out, hovering quietly in the dark night, bringing me to my senses.