Cimmerian Shade: A Limited Edition Paranormal Romance & Urban Fantasy Collection

by Kiki Howell

  Nicholas didn’t reply, not until Jacob had turned to him.

  “Is it Kirsten?”

  Jacob’s head snapped up and his back was suddenly ramrod straight.

  “Is it Kirsten what?” he said blankly.

  So that was how he wanted to play it...

  “Yesterday you were grinning from ear to ear. Today you kick Vinnie’s ass without warning or reason. It’s not like you to have mood swings.”

  “I don’t have—” Jacob cut himself short, his teeth grinding together. “I didn’t kick Vinnie’s ass. We sparred. He must have been tired or something.” He eyed Nicholas warily. “Are you gonna spar with me?”

  “Not when you’re in that mood, no.” Nicholas stressed the word deliberately. “Maybe you should go out and clear your mind before night falls.”

  “I don’t need—”

  “Because if you don’t,” Nicholas continued as though he hadn’t heard, “you’re not going out to fight tonight, and I don’t care that you have a date with Kirsten.”

  Another word used very deliberately; Jacob didn’t like it any more than the last. He marched over to Nicholas, his eyes gleaming with those golden flames that betrayed he wasn’t fully human.

  “Why are you doing this?” he hissed. “You know it’s not a date.”

  Nicholas reached for Jacob’s sparring sword, closing his hand above Jacob’s on the hilt and tugging lightly.

  “I know,” he conceded. “And I also know the last time you acted like this was when she broke things off. I thought you were past that, kiddo.”

  A look of true surprise crossed Jacob’s features and he let go of the sword.

  “I don’t,” he started, but stopped short and frowned. Passing a hand through his hair, he stepped away. His scent was shifting from the sourness of annoyance to the jumbled notes of confusion.

  “Why do women make things so complicated?” he asked plaintively, and for a second he looked much younger—like the kid Nicholas had called him.

  “You’re asking the wrong person,” Nicholas said with a half-smile. “Look who I ended up with. Not that your father makes things any easier for me.”

  Jacob’s quiet laugh sounded forced.

  “You’ve got hours before nightfall,” Nicholas added. “Go out. Get some sun. Or catch a movie. Just stop thinking about her for a while.”

  Jacob nodded, and after cleaning up he did leave the house, but somehow Nicholas doubted it’d be that easy.

  Andrew hadn’t asked him his opinion when he’d started thinking about hiring Kirsten; Nicholas had long ago made it clear that he didn’t care about the comings and goings at the agency. Still, Nicholas was beginning to wish that, just this once, he had chimed in and told Andrew and Jacob what they both ought to have known: it had been a terrible idea to hire the girl.

  Chapter Ten

  JACOB HAD NO destination in mind when he followed Nicholas’ advice and went out for a run. Usually, he went to the park to jog, and sometimes stopped to watch the kids on the skating loop. It’d been a while since he had put his skates on. He missed it, like he missed skating in a hockey rink, but he’d given both up for the same reason: he had responsibilities, and no time for games.

  Today, though, he didn’t go to the park. He followed the road, letting the rhythmic fall of his feet on the asphalt clear his mind from the dark thoughts and fears that seemed to make everything murky. He’d owe Vinnie an apology when he saw him next. Probably Nicholas, too. As for Kirsten...

  With a shake of his head he tried to push thoughts of her away before they could mess up his mind again. He’d denied it when Nicholas said it, but yes, he was in a bad mood. And he knew quite well it was his conversation with Kirsten that was to blame. She was mad at him for no reason he could figure out, no reason she would even explain, and it was like when she had broken up with him, all over again.

  For the past few years, that question had haunted him. What had he done for her to dump him? What hadn’t he done? She’d always refused to say, and as much as he had thought about it, he’d never been able to figure it out. That was another reason why he hadn’t tried to date since: how could he start another relationship when he was afraid he’d make the same mistake again and not even know it?

  “Damn it.”

  The curse wheezed out of him; without realizing what he was doing, he’d been running faster and faster as his mind insisted on revisiting old wounds. He slowed down and stopped, bracing both hands on his thighs as he gulped air and tried to catch his breath.

  When he looked up again, ready to go back home, he recognized the building across the street and realized where he was: Rachel’s apartment complex.

  He hadn’t meant to come here, but now that he had he figured he might as well say hello and see how Rachel was. Moments later, he was knocking on her door.

  The first thing he noticed when she opened the door was the book in her hand, her finger wedged between the pages to mark her place; the second was her smile, although it faded away as she looked at him.

  “What’s wrong?” she asked urgently. “What happened? A demon attack?”

  “What? No, nothing’s wrong. I just came to see if you’re feeling better.”

  She was smiling again, now with her eyebrows climbing halfway up her forehead. She opened the door wider, making room for him to come in. “But of course. I’m always dripping sweat when I visit a friend. Makes sense.”

  Jacob froze two steps in and raised a hand to his face. His fingers came away wet and he grimaced. “Sorry, I didn’t realize... Could I—”

  “Clean up?” She chuckled quietly and waved him down the hall. “Bathroom’s in the back. There’s towels behind the door.”

  He nodded in thanks and made his way to the bathroom. He debated sticking his entire head under the faucet but in the end only splashed his face and neck with cold water. When he looked at himself in the mirror, he wasn’t so red anymore, but his eyes still looked a little wild. Clutching the counter with both hands, he bent his head and took a few deep breaths. What was wrong with him? He needed to get a grip, and fast.

  When he walked out of the room after drying his face, he looked more presentable, or at least a little more; there was nothing he could do about his drenched tee-shirt. Feeling sheepish, he pushed his hands in his pockets and went back to the front room. Rachel was on the sofa, reading. She glanced up at him as he approached.

  “Thirsty?” she offered, and before Jacob answered she was already pointing at the kitchenette; a glass of water waited, the sides dripping with condensation. A pitcher next to it was full of water and ice cubes.

  Jacob picked up the glass with a word of thanks and drank deeply. Rachel was back to reading, but a small smile curled her lips.

  “Feeling better?” he asked as he refilled the glass.

  “Tons better. I’d have come back today but someone said I should take a few days off and I’ve been dying to know how this ends.”

  She indicated the book as she finished speaking. Judging by the cover, it was some kind of epic fantasy; Jacob had read a few of those when he’d been younger and the author’s name was familiar, although the title was not. When was the last time he’d read a good book?

  “I might have to borrow it when you’re done.”

  “Sure thing. I didn’t know you liked fantasy novels.”

  He grinned.

  “You had me pegged as a vampires and swooning maidens’ kind of guy?”

  He gave a pointed look to the pile of books at the foot of the sofa. He’d glanced through them the previous day, and some of the titles had been... interesting. Seeing the kind of job Rachel did, he’d have thought she would be more interested in action-packed books than romance novels, but there seemed to be just about anything and everything in those rickety piles.

  Rachel rolled her eyes and threw a pillow at him, but the beginning of a blush was darkening her cheeks.

  “Smartass.”

  Catching the pillow, he threw it ri
ght back and laughed.

  When he left, an hour or so later, he had a book in his hands and a smile on his face. He started reading the book not very long after getting home. Rachel had been right, it was pretty good. As for the smile, it lasted until they got the call that night.

  A single demon had been spotted in the woods out of town.

  SHEER EXCITEMENT COURSED through Kirsten like electricity, raising goose bumps all over her bare arms.

  The very first time she’d used magic had felt a little like this. Back then, she’d been in this very same office, following Julie’s directions for a harmless little spell that caused miniature fireworks to spark to life above her cupped hands. The magic she intended to do tonight, and the circumstances in which she would do this magic, would be very different. She felt no fear, though. She’d trained too hard and too long to feel fear now.

  Besides, how could she be afraid when Jacob was coming with her?

  He appeared right outside her office, sword already in hand, dressed all in black with heavy, steel-toed shoes, jeans and a leather jacket. His expression was pure determination when he asked, “You ready?”

  She closed her messenger bag, having just double-checked that everything she would need was in there, and sprang to her feet.

  “Ready,” she replied.

  She started toward the door, the bag already bouncing against her hip; Jacob stopped her with a few words.

  “You might want to put on a jacket. It’s kinda chilly out there.”

  Her first reaction was to tell him she was a grown up and didn’t need his advice. She managed to hold back the words, thankfully. She’d been in a grumpy mood for the past couple of hours—ever since she’d heard Jacob and Andrew talk about some book he’d borrowed from Rachel. Apparently, that was where he’d been that afternoon. Kirsten wished it didn’t bother her, but she couldn’t lie to herself. It did. He had the right to flirt and date, of course, but did he have to do it in front of her?

  She slipped on her jacket and tried to clear her mind before stepping out of the office. Jacob was already striding to the front door, Andrew hovering like he’d so often done when Jacob was a teen.

  “Give us a call, all right?” Andrew was saying. “Tell us if it works or not.”

  Jacob let out a long-suffering sigh.

  “Or you could just wait up ‘til we come back. One demon, it won’t take that long, whether the spell works or not.”

  Another flash of irritation raised the small hairs at the back of Kirsten’s neck.

  “Wow, your confidence in my abilities is heartwarming,” she said deadpan.

  Jacob threw her a wary look.

  “It’s not your abilities I question,” he said. “Mages have been trying all sorts of spells for years. I just don’t want to get my hopes up and let my guard down.”

  She translated that as, “I don’t want you to get hurt because of me.” Part of her was yet a little more annoyed; she was no child for him to protect. Another part remembered all too well how Jacob had always made it a point to help and protect anyone he could, and how proud of him she’d been for it.

  “Well, we’ll never know if we don’t try,” she said, fighting not to let either side of her show in her words. “Let’s go.”

  They took his car, which again reminded Kirsten of a long gone past. He’d picked her up in this same car mere minutes after his fathers had given it to him and they’d gone for an impromptu ice cream date.

  And maybe reminiscing and getting nostalgic wasn’t the best thing to do right before her first contact with a demon...

  “So, how are we doing this?” she asked, trying to focus on the situation at hand. “We need to get close to it but I guess it’ll attack as soon as it sees us?”

  “Which is why I’m there,” Jacob replied. His thumbs were drumming a fast beat on the steering wheel. “I’ll get you close, and while you do the spell I’ll hold it away from you.”

  “Try not to wound it,” she admonished. “Or at least not until after I do the spell.”

  Jacob let out a quiet sound that could have meant anything.

  “Jacob,” she said warningly. “If you kill it before I can finish the spell, this will have been for nothing. Some of these ingredients are really hard to come by, I don’t want to waste them.”

  “I’ll do what I can.”

  They had arrived where the demon had been spotted, and Jacob parked the car. Kirsten laid a hand on his arm when he killed the engine.

  “You’ll do what you can?” she repeated. “That doesn’t sound all that convincing to me.”

  He met her gaze, something he hadn’t done very often in the past weeks. She felt a jolt when those eyes she knew so well plunged into hers; small, golden sparks seemed to flicker through them.

  “I train to kill those things,” he said in a quiet but strong voice. “I don’t play with them. So yeah, I’ll do my best not to kill it but I don’t guarantee anything. Let’s go.”

  Before she could insist again, he was already out of the car and getting his sword from the trunk. Kirsten gritted her teeth and said nothing. She’d have to work fast, that was all; it wasn’t like the spell would take long anyway, not if she did it correctly, and there was no reason for her to mess up. She would not let herself get distracted. She refused to fail now.

  “Stay behind me,” Jacob said quietly when they approached the woods. “Maybe you should open your bag, so you’ll be ready when we find it?”

  She’d meant to do as much; she nodded, a little irritated.

  “And try to be quiet,” Jacob added before he started into the woods, holding his sword with both hands in front of him.

  “Why?” she murmured, following him. “We want to find the demon, so what’s the point of being quiet?”

  Just enough moonlight filtered through the canopy of leaves that when he turned to shoot her a look she could see how annoyed he was.

  “The point is, we want to find it. We don’t want it to find us and take us by surprise. Now quiet, and stay alert.”

  He turned around again. Kirsten couldn’t help but stick her tongue out and glare at the back of his head. She knew she was being childish, but damn it, did he have to spend another day with that girl?

  As hard as she tried to focus on what they were doing, she was still thinking of Rachel—still imagining her and Jacob together—when they finally found the demon.

  It had brought a friend.

  FOR THE THIRD TIME in the past ten minutes, Andrew looked at the clock and wondered, yet again, if the batteries might need to be changed. Surely more than ten minutes had passed since Jacob and Kirsten had left. It felt like a couple of hours, and—

  Nicholas whacked him over the head with one of the square pillows that the cat liked to sit on.

  “Will you stop fretting already,” Nicholas muttered. “It’s the damn season finale.”

  Grabbing the pillow, Andrew hit Nicholas back, then stood up from the sofa.

  “How can you watch this stupid show?” he said, gesturing at the television. “They don’t even try to make the demons realistic.”

  Nicholas huffed. “I don’t watch it for the demons. I see enough of those buggers in real life.”

  Glancing at the clock again, Andrew went to the window and peered out. Moonlight bathed the driveway. It seemed wider than usual with Jacob’s car missing.

  “The kid’s fine,” Nicholas said with a deep sigh. “He can take care of himself.”

  “I know he can,” Andrew shot back. “I just wish...”

  He glanced at the television again. Some blond hero cut up like a bodybuilder was fighting a demon barehanded. Andrew would have laughed if it hadn’t been so ridiculous.

  “You wish you were with him to make sure nothing happens,” Nicholas said dryly. “Yeah, I know. But seeing how we can’t be there, sit down and stop worrying so much already.”

  He didn’t say ‘because you’re starting to make me worry too,’ but it was right there in the sh
arper edges of his words, in the way his thigh bounced up like he couldn’t quite sit still.

  “It’s just one demon,” Andrew said, sitting down again next to Nicholas. He didn’t know which of them he was trying to reassure. “He can take care of a single demon with one hand tied behind his back.”

  Nicholas didn’t answer, or at least not until his stupid show had ended. Only then did he ask the question that had been bothering Andrew so much. The dispatcher who had called had said one demon had been sighted, but they’d gone to single alarms before and met more than they expected.

  “What if there’s more than one demon?” Nicholas asked, and Andrew had no idea how to reply.

  Chapter Eleven

  EVEN AT NIGHT, even under a thick canopy of leaves that didn’t let much moonlight shine through, Jacob had no trouble seeing the demons ahead of him.

  Both of them.

  Jacob could take down two demons on his own. He had no doubt about it. As long as he had a sword, he could keep himself safe and eventually kill his opponents. It might take him a little while, but he could do it. He knew it for a fact because he had done it before.

  He’d never told his fathers because he knew what kind of protests, warnings and reproaches Andrew would have offered him, just as he knew that Nicholas would have looked at him with that disappointed look that was as bad as all of Andrew’s words. Oh, they’d be proud, too. Even if they didn’t say as much, it’d be right there in their scents, in the way they looked and smiled at each other when they thought he wasn’t looking.

  That’s our son, those looks said. We taught him well.

  But they wouldn’t say that to his face, of course. They’d think it’d encourage him to take too many risks.

  The thing was, Jacob never took more risks than he needed to. He wasn’t stupid. He’d grown up hearing about how dangerous demons were, and witnessed countless wounds they had inflicted. That one time when he had found himself face to face with two demons had been accidental; only one had been reported, just like tonight. The surveillance system in place in the spots where demons were known to appear was fairly reliable, and only occasionally was it wrong.