The Devil You Know (36 page)

To sleep was to dream. And to dream was to want. But the Fae had learned well the sorrows of wanting for an eternity. Goddess bless them for creating the only sleep where one could be assured they would never…ever…dream. For as certain as I had just murdered a friend who had delivered me a headful of mad memories, the only dreams that would be visiting me in the near future would be nightmares.

* * *

Across campus…

The music was loud and rocking, the singer rapping about sex and his love of a woman with a plump ass, when two such specimens of the female persuasion walked down the sidewalk. Their hips swung in time to the music, swaying in their tight leather pants. Every step, every throb of the deep bass beat screamed the rapper had written his song especially about them…and they damn well knew it. Forgetting the red plastic cup he had raised to his lips, the young man standing on the small house’s front porch almost choked on his beer. One had black hair with a white streak. The other had blond with blue. And both had tops so tight and small they showed more than they hid.

Expecting them to walk past, he prepared for the no doubt most excellent view. But JJ and Brittan turned, heading straight for the house with trouble in their eyes. With a never before seen speed, the young man finished his beer, straightened his shirt, checked his breath…and sent up a little prayer of thankfulness to the patron saint of frat houses.

Smiling, the women climbed the stairs. He returned the smile and gallantly opened the screen door, ushering the ladies in before following them inside, never noticing the row of young men following slowly behind, their eyes glazed with lust.

Grabbing each woman by the elbow, he offered to show them to the keg, briefly wondering at the women’s musky scent and strange necklaces. Then his eyes glazed with lust and his blood flow headed further south, taking all but one of his thoughts with it: Tonight was his lucky night.

He had no idea how true that was.

* * *

Sometime later…

Lights flashing, siren screaming, an ambulance raced through the night. Cars moved over. Drivers craned their necks as the ambulance turned onto the local university’s campus. The van slowed as it pulled by the now empty guard booth, lights and siren dying.

“Was that really necessary?” asked a voice in the driver’s ear, irritated.

“Maybe not,” Gem replied. “But I was late. Now I am not.”

“Fine,” Marco sighed. “But try not to draw too much attention. Change the plates like I told you when you’re done and ditch the van in the agreed upon spot. I don’t want this coming back to us, but if it does, the van was stolen and found later. Agreed?”

“Yes, as you say,” Gem said, her Russian accent thick. She turned, approaching the nondescript building that looked like a gardener’s shed on the edge of the garden area. “Are all in position?”

Mynx answered, “Yes, security and the local police are about to be alerted of an issue across campus. The others will pull out and meet you for transfer once they know you have the cargo.”

Gem signaled her confirmation but left the mike open. She backed the large van close to the door, keeping the vehicle running as she went to the door and hit the buzzer. While she waited, she chewed a large piece of bubble gum. After a second, she hit the buzzer a second then third time.

When a blurry-eyed, middle-aged, uniformed man answered, she blew a bubble then popped it. Pulling her cap up and smiling, she said with a credible Brooklyn snap, “You got a couple bodies for me, bubba?” Gem popped another bubble.

Irritated, the guard stared, hand on his flashlight, squinting against the red taillights. All he saw was dark hair, tanned skin, and a lot of pink popping gum. “We’ve got no pickups scheduled for tonight. Where’s your partner?” The guard nodded toward the waiting van. He’d been watching the only working monitor and reruns of Were wrestling when the ambulance had pulled in. There’d been only one shadowed face visible through its windshield, and he knew the rules. The EMTs always traveled in pairs.

Gem made a disgusted face. “IBS. Left him at Plucky’s,” she said, naming a local gas station, “shittin’ his brains out.” She smiled apologetically. “No need for both of us to pick up a couple stiffs. You sure you don’t have something scheduled?”

“No, ma’am.” He shook his head, warming up. He’d always been fond of a sweet woman with a dirty mouth. Yanks were no exception. He adjusted his belt.

“Damn judge.” Gem popped her gum again, and his eyes returned to her mouth. “Orders came through only an hour ago. They pulled me off hospital detail to take some folks to the old crematorium. Their family’s already there. Check again will you, bubba, while I get the paperwork?” She gave him a smile, flashing white teeth in the darkness.

He didn’t bother to tell her his name was Rodney. This once he could be a bubba, a daddy… Hell, he’d dress as Elvis in velour if she could work more with her lips and teeth than gum. He couldn’t see her face well, but if the figure outlined in the light was anything to go by, she was a mighty fine tall drink of water. If he thought her slight musky scent strange, the thought died quickly.

“Yes, ma’am.” He smiled, suddenly solicitous.

As he looked down at the electronic pad he had in his hand, she stepped to the ambulance, her fingers pressing a button inside the glove box as she grabbed the needed papers. When Gem returned to the door, he was shaking his head, looking at the pad.

“Everything all right?” she asked.

“Looks like,” he said, still shaking his head. “The orders just came through. Let me radio security. They have to verify the signatures and be here for the handoff.” He pressed the walkie-talkie on his shoulder.

Pretending not to hear, Gem simply chewed her gum and checked her nails, hiding her surprise when she overheard the word, “orgy.” JJ and Brittan were supposed to start a fight, not a sex show. What were those ladies up to?

After a few moments of terse conversation back and forth with the security’s exceedingly descriptive dispatcher, the red-faced guard pulled at his uniform collar and said, “Security’s tied up putting out one heck of a fire across campus. It’ll be a while. Why don’t you stay? How about I give you a tour while we wait?” he asked hopefully. If the dispatcher was correct in her description, security would be hours in coming, giving him time aplenty to turn on the charm.

Gem shook her head. “Wish I could, but I need to pick Billy up at Plucky’s. Then we have to drop these folks with their family and get back. With all these graduates partying, it’s going to be a wild night. We can’t be short a bus. Billy’ll have to come back when security’s free.”

“Oh.” His face fell. In the night’s blackness, his eyes caught hers. Gem’s gaze flickered red for a moment, reflecting the taillights. The guard brightened, his earlier reticence forgotten. “You know,” he patted his electronic pad and smiled, “they can sign off later. Why don’t you come on back and we’ll round up those bodies. They notified a tech this afternoon while the orders were being finalized to lay them out for possible transport, so the pair should be ready.” He’d take ten minutes alone with a beautiful woman and a lecture from security over ten minutes with a man who smelled of shit and gas any day.

The guard punched in the code, opened the little shed’s door, and led her down the dimly lit, winding ramp, the grip Gem had on his mind so subtle none would detect it, now or in the very near future. And she had no doubt someone more capable than herself at bending another’s will would try. Cate and Sheriff Fera might believe the Council, after getting the answers they sought, would relinquish the search for the body thieves who’d pissed on their doorstep. But Gem knew better. It had simply worked in her favor not to enlighten the others, especially after Louisiana’s Vampire King, Seth, understanding too well the cost, had refused to help her directly but instead referred her to Cate Delacy.

Her family and the Council hadn’t seen eye to eye for a long time, not since the night long ago when her father had refused their order to destroy the day-walker child he’d fathered, the one they considered an abomination. The Council held his body now as much to spite her and her father’s ghost as they did for research. And a man denied his pettiness often wreaked tenfold what he’d lost. A group of the five most powerful beings on the planet who’d had their vengeance stolen from below their cold stiff noses?

Well, let us just say they would be
most
unpleased.

* * *

Deffro…

From far away, I felt the spell tingle through me. Not long after, it came again.

Deffro…

The demand to make my heart beat was strong, but I lacked the strength.
Mother of Magic, I had let Bon take too much.
Far away, I heard JJ curse and knew it was her power that called to me, that tried to spark the Fae magic lingering in my blood.

“God damn it!” JJ exclaimed. “I thought this was supposed to trigger that damnable fairy’s reversal spell.”

Soft fingers touched my cold neck, paying attention to the bruise and the dried specks of blood. My mouth couldn’t work, but I could feel it no longer contained the illusion charm, meaning Bon’s bite would be visible.

“Move,” Brit ordered.

If my tear ducts had been operational, I would have wept for the certain authority in her voice. Brittan had finally found the confidence missing since her battering at Nicodemus’s hands.

“Don’t you feel it?” she whispered to someone. I felt weight across my thighs and knew Brit now sat astride my body. “Her blood’s low, and the spell’s weak.” Strong hands moved to rest below my breasts. With a sharp push, they began a rhythmic compression I knew well. “Cate’s not Fae and not made to endure this magic. Her life’s already slipping away.”

Moist lips covered my own, blowing air into lungs I couldn’t expand on my own. My face tingled with witchy magic as another pair of hands pinched my nose, and I knew it had to be JJ who offered me breath.

“No,” Gemini said. The surface below me dipped. The ambulance’s old shocks gave a springy squeak. “We began this together, we’ll end it together. Take off your cuff, little guardian.” She referred to the bracelet Brit wore to hide and restrain her new magic. In the background, Brit was counting her compressions.

“I can’t control it.” Brit’s voice was already breathless with strain.

I should have felt the same strain, the same worry, but all I could feel was cold numbness and knew it must be a side effect of Fera’s spell, one she had neglected to mention.

“Maybe not,” Gem said. “But I can.”

“I thought—” Brit’s confusion was evident.

“Shh,” JJ said, “questions later.”

Brittan removed her hands. There was the snick of a knife. Something warm and wet fell onto my chest. More drops fell. Then more still. If I had been in control of my lungs, I would have held my breath. Then two pairs of hands pushed sharply against my breastbone as two amazingly similar magics burst in my chest.

DEFFRO.
The command boomed in my head, fueled by the warm magic currently filling my heart near to overflowing. It was an order I could not refuse.

I gasped, eyes flying open. My body jerked upward nearly butting heads with JJ and knocking Brit from my lap. JJ leaned back just in time while Gem caught Brittan. I looked down, expecting to see whatever they had dripped on me still smeared between my nude breasts, but there was only clean, lightly-tanned skin. Brit’s and Gem’s hands were bleeding, which made Brittan’s exclaimed, “Holy shit, her skin just ate our blood!” more understandable.

All but Gem stared at me, and I wondered how much of it had to do with my apparently miraculous, blood-eating chest (hopefully part of Gem’s spell, otherwise that would be too freaky) and how much had to do with their bringing me back from the brink of death.

I sighed and winced. Even through the black bag, the cold metal top of the gurney was chilly on my bare ass.

“Could someone pass me a pair of pants?” I asked, my voice a bit raspy. I looked from one to the next eagerly, praying someone had remembered the spare clothes I’d packed. I really hoped this wasn’t becoming a habit. There were only so many times a girl could be caught without pants, or in this case clothing of any kind, without getting the wrong sort of reputation.

* * *

Cassie lay in bed, unsure what had awakened her. Hearing the wards softly ring, she quickly left the warm covers, rushing to answer the door, hoping it was Gem freshly returned from whatever mysterious run she and Cate had gone on. On her way, Cassie checked on the children, ensuring herself that Alex and Car were still asleep. As usual, the two dark heads lay close, sharing the same pillow. Almost if by magic, one child always found its way to the other’s side, no matter how often they were put to rest in separate beds.

Assured of their safety, she moved to the front door and the wards that had been kept tight to the house’s outer walls simply because she hadn’t had the time to expand them.

The door swung open. Through the swirling green wards, Marco’s black eyes met Cassie’s pale ones, and she bit back a sigh of disappointment. Then common sense took over and a spark of fear lit in her chest. A bright green ball of magic surged in her hand, and she regretted leaving the gun Gemini had given her under her pillow.

“What do you want?” She didn’t mince words. It was a little too late for social calls. And she knew about the Kin pulling their protection from Cate’s family. There was no good reason for one to be on her doorstep, especially not one dressed from head to black toe in battle gear. In fact, this had to be the first time she’d seen a vampire in anything other than a suit.

“I owe Cate a favor, the repayment of which includes my services for the entirety of the night.” At Marco’s darkly muttered words, Cassie arched a brow. “There’s something you need to see. So I’m here to…” the Italian’s dark good looks twisted into an ugly grimace, “babysit.” Somewhere in the depths of the house, a phone rang. “That will be Cate calling to confirm.”

Cassie’s mouth fell open.
Cate Delacy had some serious explaining to do.
Then she smirked.
“
Well,” she said, her sense of humor returning, “at least you’re dressed for it.”