The Devil You Know (8 page)

“I thought you’d never ask,” Jacq’s husky voice murmured in my ear, her nose nuzzling my neck.

I whipped my head about, nearly bumping our noses together. Jacq squatted near my side of the low car, one hot hand on my thigh, the other on the seat. She was fast. Either I was more tired than I realized or Seth had started making some sort of vampiric moonshine and my fiery phoenix had been drinking his red-lightning. It was probably the former, because even as Jacq’s soft lips parted and kissed the corner of my mouth, my jaw cracked with a wide yawn.

But with that soft simple brush of lips, desire stirred. Even beaten, bruised and weary, my body stayed on a low simmer, ready to flame with her slightest touch or heated look. Even my demon-half purred contentedly, slumbering in her cage. But we still had things to settle before taking that next step. I’d already given Jacq my heart. Once I gave her my body, there would be no going back.

I brushed my lips against Jacq’s, pulling away reluctantly before either of us was tempted further. “To sleep,” I clarified, leaning my head back to examine her crouched body closely, making sure her super-speed hadn’t come with any other new traits—like a third eye or bat wings.

Jacq grinned and I couldn’t help smiling back. She squeezed my bruised thigh gently then offered her hand. “As my lady commands.”

This time, the dubious look was mine, but I let her help me out. Keeping my hand in hers as we entered the wards, I tugged a confused Jacq around to a rarely used set of fire stairs that led to a back door on the second floor.

Though the sun hadn’t been up for long, I knew Nana and Aunt Helena would have awakened before the golden orb had crested the pine-covered horizon. Maybe I was being cowardly, but I didn’t want to see either of them. I didn’t feel I could look them in the eyes without remembering they had lied to me every day by omission. And I certainly didn’t want to explain my puffy eyes and bandaged head or why I couldn’t seem to let go of Jacq’s warm magic-
zinging
hand.

The upper floor was miraculously quiet. We’d moved Rom, the weretiger who had been injured saving my life in the battle against Nicodemus, and his cot into another room Monday. His sister Risa and Brittan, a woman we had rescued from Nicodemus, had stayed with him in my room Sunday night while Jacq and I took the couch. I was thankful to open my door and see my empty bed.

My nose scrunched at the musky smell in the air.
Were phers.
Despite being unconscious, Rom like all Weres released pheromones that increased emotions, especially lust. The entire house was permeated with them. Thankfully right now my heightened metabolism was burning them out of my system before they could cause my moods to swing further. Jacq had never reacted to the phers but Nana, Aunt Helena, and Brit did. I had already given them suppression amulets to temporarily mute the phers effects. But the amulets and my metabolism could only do so much. The longer and greater the exposure, the more susceptible we would all be to the phers. Hopefully within the next few days the weretigers would move Rom from the house and into a medical facility.

As I began to move into the room, Jacq dropped my hand. I turned to her, confused.

“I—” She shook her head. “You’ve had a difficult few days. I should leave you to rest.” She tilted her head toward the guest room, free now that Grey, the Tiger Alpha, and his family had gone home.

“Do you want that?” I asked uncertainly.

Jacq didn’t hesitate. “No, but it’s not always about what I want.” She smiled slightly.

I grinned, my confidence returning, my watery eyes beginning to dry. “You would follow me into a car full of demons but not into my bedroom? Join me in my rest, Detective, before I find myself insulted.” I held out my hand.

She chuckled softly, taking it. “Never that.” Jacq smiled that roguish one-dimpled grin.

Crossing the threshold’s silver wards reminded me of something else I was thankful for, something I’d neglected to express. Seeing Jacq strip down to her slate-colored bra and hip-cut panties almost made me forget my resolve, my urge to thank her—and every other thought.

But as we climbed into fresh cool sheets, I remembered what I needed to say. Jacq’s warm, underwear-clad body slid behind my similarly clad one, and I looked to the now locked door, eyed the silver glow, and softly said, “Your wards, whatever their purpose, saved Aunt Helena’s life.” I yawned, my eyes closing as her musky sage and sandalwood scent enveloped me. “I can never thank you enough for that. But once I get a bit of energy, I’ll try. Hopefully soon.” Soon, we would have that talk, then find our way to being in the same bed at the same time and both of us would be whole, healthy…and awake. Very much awake.

Jacq pulled me close, kissing the top of my head before resting her head behind mine. In my ear, her voice was slow with approaching sleep. “I meant them to protect you. But if they protect the ones you love as well, all the better.” She sighed, her breath evening out in slumber.

I joined her, but even as I drifted away my mind repeated her words.
Protect the ones you love.
My beautiful, caring, often infuriating, auburn-haired phoenix had protected them. Protected me. Over and over again. My family had thought they were doing the same when they had tried to take part of me and lock it away, presumably protecting me when they had hidden the truth for decades. Jacq had protected them. Had protected me.

Perhaps she could protect them
from
me. Because I wasn’t quite sure they were going to be safe in my presence. If nothing else, the warm woman wrapped snugly around me was a capable healer. After the “debriefing” I had planned with Nana and Aunt Helena, we might need to resuscitate them both. I wondered if I should lead with my entering into a lesbian relationship with an immortal of unknown species? With my new demon grandmother coming for dinner? Or with their use of forbidden magic, black magic, to tie part of my soul—and inadvertently my heart—into knots?

I pulled Jacq’s warm hand above the cotton sheets, holding it tightly as my consciousness fled, never determining how the conversation would begin. But I already knew how it would end.

I didn’t need the power of premonition to know things were about to change…and possibly not for the better.

* * *

White sheets rushed upward from the bed, ruffling softly in the open windows’ breeze before being taken outside by Helena, their dust whisked away by the wind to parts unknown as the cotton was shaken and tossed into a pile of others waiting to be washed. Helena returned to the house, looking around at the remnants of a life. Black-and-white photos of a happy couple and young girl were spread across the mantel. More recent snapshots of the old man and two toddlers littered the tables. Scrawled drawings were proudly displayed on the fridge. A stack of forgotten books towered on a table, their spines long broken by use.

Knowing the Were phers still surging in her system made all her emotions stronger, even the unpleasant ones, Helena sniffled, wiped away a tear, and tried to smile. Her old friend, Arno Wellsy, would be happy his house would be a home again, especially since the expected residents were his grandsons and their guardian. There was no time for tears. When his wife had died, Helena and her sister had promised Arno if the time ever came they would look after his daughter. When Loren was lost three years ago, they had renewed that pledge, vowing to watch over her children. Helena was glad their guardian, Cassie, was bringing the children home where they belonged. The Delacy home was only a short walk away. Though Cassie’s family had much power and protection, Helena sensed the children would be safer under the Delacys’ watchful eye. She didn’t have her sister’s power of foresight, but she knew serendipity when she felt it.

The goddess’s hands were at work in this.

At least, as she whirled through bringing new life to the old Wellsy homestead, she hoped the hands she felt manipulating their fates belonged to the goddess. She looked down at a photo and couldn’t help transposing over her friend’s once handsome visage with the face of the snarling power-hungry monster that had taken him, body and soul. Helena shuddered and laid the photo flat.

Yes, she hoped it was the goddess’s hands twisting their lives. She looked at another photo of two stairstep boys, their impish grins and dark twinkling eyes captured for all eternity on film.
Other forces would not be so benevolent to the innocent.

Chapter Five

“Time is not linear but more like a game of hopscotch. You can go forward, around, and back again. But careful you don’t jump too wide and split your britches, ’cause then it just sucks to be you.”

—Yreva, fondly known as The Revolution, Delacy

“You’re playing a dangerous game, Catherine Delacy.”

Startled by the low growl, I stood up from where I’d been kneeling in the sunny grass and spun, looking for the speaker. The sudden movement was too much for my head. Dizzy, I stumbled. Jacq’s quick grip on my forearms steadied me. The familiar hot tingle of her magic seeped into my skin where we touched.

Awakened early from our nap, I’d quietly gazed at her sleeping form, taking in the beauty of her ivory skin and peaceful expression, wondering not for the first time why this courageous immortal woman would want to be with someone like me—a klutz who was as clumsy with her hands, heart, and words as she was with her feet. Shaking off those thoughts, I’d left her sleeping to come outside, not bothering with my boots, which was why I now stood barefoot near a lowered ward door.

“And what game would that be, Detective Slone?” I leaned back, looking up into stormy eyes. Now that we’d rested, the blue smudges under Jacq’s eyes were lighter in the midday sun. The nap hadn’t been long enough for either of us, but it would have to do. There were still things to accomplish before my guests arrived.

Because we had left Seth’s mansion so late, I’d suggested sleeping at Jacq’s much closer cottage. She had staunchly refused, arguing there was safety in numbers. Our bond said something else. My auburn-haired beauty still hid part of herself, shielding even from my presence in her mind. That unknown part had reasons for not taking me to her home. But I didn’t push. I had my own secrets. Or so I’d thought. After Monday night, I wasn’t so sure.

“It’s a hell creature, Cate. It doesn’t belong here.” Jacq gestured to the meat-filled doggie dish I’d just placed down, somehow knowing I’d left it there for a hellhound. The same hound present when the other two had attacked—the one who claimed to be a gift for me. I sensed she was nearby watching us.

I wondered what Jacq would say if she knew this was my second time alone near the hound.
Probably something similar to the lecture now pouring from her mouth.

“Feeding it will only encourage it to stay. These things are dangerous and unpredictable.”

A sensible answer, yet I frowned. “So is Seth, the bloodsuckers’ big bad King. But you didn’t react when I teased him last night. In fact, you two looked pretty chummy.” My eyebrows scrunched together. “Why is that?”

“He’s a vampire.” Jacq pointed into the shadowed woods ringing the house. “That creature is a demon.” She said this as if that should make all the difference.

Something in my chest started to hurt, and I resisted the urge to rub the spot over my heart. “So am I.” I lowered my eyes then forcefully raised them, not wanting to see the affirmation in hers but unable to hide from it. “But then, you already knew that. You weren’t surprised by Van’s announcement.”

Jacq nodded once and sighed, pulling me tightly to her chest, linking her arms over my shoulders as my own circled her waist. Our bodies met nearly from head to thigh. I started to push away but her arms tightened and my urge to fight fled. I needed her, needed her warmth, her comforting touch. My greedy skin sucked in her heat. But more than that, her presence warmed me from within, keeping my heart from becoming the cold fortress it had once been. The one it wanted to again become whenever I remembered the secrets my family had been and were still keeping from me.

Face pressed to her neck, I murmured, “How long?”

“From the very beginning.”

I started to shake my head in denial but stopped as Jacq continued.

“The night we met, I stood near the garden, watching you fight with Mynx. By the sun, you were so beautiful.” She held me tightly, softly saying in my hair, “So mouthy, too.” I felt her smile against my temple, and some of my tension eased. “I was smitten. I moved to announce myself. Then fire flowed from your sword. Not many would know it as hellfire, but I’ve had experience with demons like Vanguard and your…” Swallowing hard, Jacq paused, having trouble with the word
grandmother
, finally adding, “Queen Kathryn.”

Until the last, I had been lost, seeing that night through her eyes, feeling through our link the rush of appreciation, shock, and finally resigned sadness she had felt. I was puzzling over the last when I realized what she had said.

“Who?” I squeaked, jaw dropping. I leaned back to look at Jacq’s serious face.

“That’s her name, Cate. Your mother obviously thought much of the Demon Queen to give you her name.” Jacq’s warm fingers moved through my loose hair as I let that sink in. I didn’t understand. Why would my mother tie me so to a world she had fled? I shook my head. I wouldn’t be getting that answer anytime soon, if ever.

Though this was the excellent distraction it was meant to be, the wheels in my mind kept turning, eventually working their way to the other things Jacq had shared. Her body stiffened, fingers stilling as she felt my thoughts shift.

Moving my palms in slow circles over her back, I felt the softness of her blue-gray cotton shirt and murmured, “This history you have with demons…does it have something to do with your wish that I not feed the hound?”

Jacq stared into the distance, her normally husky voice unusually deep as she said, “Yes.”

“Are you going to explain anytime soon?” I asked gently. It felt like our roles had somehow reversed. It was Jacq who longed to run and me asking her to stay.