by Krista Walsh
Eventually, he came to a part of the city that had recently been plowed, although at the rate the snow was falling, he doubted the effects would last long enough for any businesses to open shop for the day. A few determined people hunkered in thick parkas, faceless beneath hats and scarves, and shuffled along the road with him, but no one glanced his way. Gabe was happy to ignore them in return.
His thighs cramped with the effort of staying upright on the icy ground, but the pain and cold had sobered him up and sharpened his mind. He kept pulling his collar up around his neck as the wind tugged it down.
He reached Main Street and walked past the empty, lifeless storefronts. Overhead, against the bleak grayness of the day, the streetlights flickered and turned on. The sudden glare made Gabe turn his head until his eyes adjusted.
The lights reflected on the faceless mannequin heads in the windows, and he pressed on with their blank stares following him.
At the next corner, he paused and glanced down the side road toward Yggdrasil Books. He debated passing by again to see if Vera sat within, but decided against it. As distracted as he was with everything else, he doubted the encounter would go as he wanted it to. He imagined himself stumbling over his words while Vera’s steady gray gaze appraised him, thinking him an idiot.
Definitely don’t need that stress right now.
Shoving his hands in his pockets, he continued down the street. One more block, then he’d turn around and go home.
He groaned, pinched the bridge of his nose, and squeezed his eyes shut. He needed sleep. A solid rest without nightmares so he could think things through. With some sleep, his unconscious mind could do the heavy lifting for a while, and he’d have a clearer vision of where he had to go. He just needed one good idea to guide his next steps. John had given him a lot to think about, but he hadn’t provided nearly as many answers as Gabe might have wished.
Looking over his shoulder to make sure the street was clear before he crossed — a gesture that came out of habit rather than necessity with the roads as bad as they were — Gabe’s gaze landed on Allegra’s high-rise three blocks over. The apartments were speckled with light from the windows of people rising from their full night’s sleep and getting ready for the day. He imagined families sitting around the kitchen table with bacon and eggs, making plans to walk through the snow and take advantage of the empty streets. He pictured couples curled up in blankets as they drank their coffee, with big shaggy dogs or purring cats asleep at their feet.
Shaking off the loneliness fogging his mind, he decided it was time to go home.
Just as he turned away, John’s face flashed behind his eyelids.
Gabriel, you molasses-brained idiot.
He’d been so caught up considering what to do next that he’d almost missed the answer that was right in front of him. Allegra might not be able to tell him more about Ligeia, but he felt pretty certain she would know something about John Deverill. The jinni lived in social circles far above Gabe’s pay grade, but from what he’d dug up about Allegra’s modeling campaigns, the succubus glided through the upper echelons as though she were biding her time before taking over.
If he was going to get into bed with John, Gabe preferred to know what kind of partner he’d make.
He shuffled across the three streets between him and the high-rise and then stopped in front of the building. He tilted his head back to take in the details under the light of the dim dawn, which was brighter than it had been over the last couple of days. The building was a sleek, classy place with nothing but sheets of tinted glass to offer the best possible views of the city. He would feel like a rat in a laboratory if he lived in one of these things.
Gabe stepped into the entrance, glanced at his watch, and hesitated. The hour was coming on eight-thirty. A decent time for most people, but Allegra was not most people. He wondered if she was awake, and what kind of mood she’d be in if he woke her up from her beauty sleep. She’d once described what she was capable of doing when she was upset — like Ligeia, she had a strength that would surprise anyone who didn’t know what she was — and he didn’t have the energy to fight her today.
Then again, for all he knew, she was the sort of woman to rise at the crack of dawn as chipper as a robin. He was willing to take the risk.
The security doors were closed this morning, and when he pulled on the handle, he found it locked. He stared through the glass into the lobby. It would be the work of a moment to rift into Allegra’s apartment, but he doubted she’d be happy to sit down and chat with him after his sudden appearance.
And there was always the chance she wasn’t sleeping at all.
He imagined rifting into her bedroom only to find her in bed with her breakfast. While it would be amusing to catch her off guard and watch her scramble to make sense of his presence, the awkwardness of the situation wouldn’t be worth the effort.
No, he would have to announce himself the old-fashioned way and hope he kept his head.
With a curse, he stepped toward the directory and hit the number for Allegra’s apartment. He crossed his fingers that she would understand his urgency.
After the third ring, a voice mumbled, “What do you want? Do you even know what time it is? If you do not have a good reason to be here, I swear by all that is holy that I will grab your heart and rip it from your body.”
Gabe blinked. He hadn’t seen any video security system upstairs, which suggested she greeted all unexpected guests so pleasantly. Not a morning person then.
“Allegra, it’s Gabe. I need to talk to you.”
The silence stretched out long enough that he worried she’d left him and gone back to bed. Finally the buzzer sounded, and he pulled the door open.
With the lights on, the lobby was even more opulent than what he’d felt in the dark. The couches were real leather, the rich brown material wavering under the light of flames from the gas fireplace. Heat blasted through the vents, and by the time Gabe reached the elevators at the other end, he’d unbuttoned his snow-soaked coat to prevent himself from over-heating.
He hit the button for the sixteenth floor and leaned his head back against the stainless steel cage. Fatigue weighed him down, and the warmer he became, the more he wanted to pull his comforter over his head and sleep until he didn’t need to anymore.
He roused himself as he reached the floor, rubbing his eyes, then staggered down the hall. He stopped when he found Allegra’s door partially open.
“Hello?” he called.
She didn’t respond.
He pushed the door open another inch and saw no one in the kitchen or in the living room. Beyond the silence of the main room, he heard the spray of water from the bathroom.
Gabe swallowed his envy at Allegra’s access to hot water and stepped inside. He moved to the fireplace and held his hands out in front of the gas-triggered flames, rubbing his palms together. Unlike the forced heat of the lobby, which had brushed his skin and clung to the hair on his arms, this fire worked deep into his bones. It curled up against his spine and chased away the lingering chill of the river water. Stress and exhaustion had stripped his resistance to the elements, and he sympathized with the humans who suffered the cold regularly.
The shower turned off, and a minute later, Allegra stepped out of the bathroom, wrapped only in a thick purple towel that covered her from breasts to mid-thigh. Her damp hair lay strewn across her shoulders in thick, flat strands.
Gabe glanced at her, then refocused his attention on the fire, not wanting to stare too closely until she’d gone to get dressed.
Though that towel covers up more than her robe did.
He didn’t know which he preferred.
Instead of going into her bedroom, Allegra stepped closer and laid her hand on Gabe’s waist. He jumped at the light pressure, then froze as her fingers slipped under his sweater to brush against his stomach.
The fire jumped from the grate into his blood and burned his cheeks and his heart. The rhythm in his chest matched the
fireworks that were exploding in his stomach and rapidly traveling farther down.
He cleared his throat. “What are you doing?”
Allegra’s lips pulled back in a smile, her brown eyes dancing as the gold flecks swirled. “I am cutting through all the awkward waiting, Gabriel. Twice you’ve come to me. Twice the desire for me has oozed off of you, so why do we bother to pretend we both do not want this?”
“I —” He swallowed hard, his objections evaporating as Allegra’s deft hands tripped over his body.
She cocked her head. “You have done this before, have you not? Or is that something you have been denied because of your ability?”
Allegra’s light touch stroked his cheek, leaving a tingling trail of warmth behind.
“Sure I’ve done this,” he said. “Always with women who didn’t care that I couldn’t look them in the eye while I did.”
He didn’t tell her that it had been almost a year since he’d last indulged in that particular pleasure. His thoughts had been too full of the possibility of something more lasting to be tempted by the emptiness of sex-for-hire.
“That is nothing to be ashamed of,” Allegra said. “Desire is basic, it is primal. There is no reason not to get what you need.”
She rose on her tiptoes and brushed her lips against his. The heat of her mouth spread out from his tongue and set his mind on fire. Her towel fell to the floor and the length of her pressed against him. She wound her fingers into his hair, and he found his hands dropping to her back, her damp skin soft and warm beneath his palms. The contact set the tears and scrapes he’d earned on the ice burning through his blood, but the pain only registered in the back of his mind, lost in the haze of his desire.
A fleeting concern tugged on his brain that she might be thinking of him as her next meal, but the suspicion fizzled out as quickly as it came. Human blood lurked in his family history, but not enough to make him palatable to a woman of such particular tastes.
Lust washed through him, and he imagined himself picking her up so her legs wrapped around his waist and carrying her into the bedroom. It had been so long since a woman had touched him in a way that made him catch fire, and with her he wouldn’t have to be afraid. She knew what he was and wouldn’t shy away. And he knew what she was — a creature of passion with no interest in a long-term commitment.
The profile of Vera’s beautiful, serious face partially blocked by a curtain of red hair entered his mind. The heat in his blood began to cool, leaving a vague emptiness in its place.
He trailed his fingers over Allegra’s back, up her arms, then wound them around her wrists.
She chuckled against his mouth, but the laugh cut short when he drew her hands away from his neck.
“I did actually come here to work,” he said, his words coming out thick and husky. Apparently his body had different intentions than his brain, but he’d made his decision.
Allegra arched an eyebrow and cast her gaze down his body. “Just work? How dull.”
Her gaze scanned back up and lingered on his face. One corner of her lip twisted upward in a rueful smile.
“No, that is not it. Your mind went to someone else. Less dull, but more disappointing.” She stepped away from him and grabbed her towel, but didn’t bother to cover herself again. In a show of honey-hued skin, small waist, and firm muscles, she crossed the floor with a sway of her hips. She went toward the bedroom, then stopped in the doorway and looked over her shoulder to scan him down to his toes. “Very disappointing.”
***
When Allegra returned, she wore silk pajamas that respected Gabe’s sense of modesty even if she didn’t care about her own, which he appreciated. She’d wrapped a smaller towel around her hair to dry it while they talked.
Acting as though she hadn’t tried to lure him into her bedroom, she slid onto the couch and gestured for him to join her. He dropped onto the leather cushion and shrugged out of his coat, the heat from the fire and the memory of Allegra’s touch passing into uncomfortable.
“So what is so important you felt the need to wake me up in the middle of a most delicious dream?”
Gabe groaned. “Do you ever not think about sex?”
She flashed a grin. “Actually, this was a dream about sinking my teeth into one of Pierre Thierry’s decadent chocolate cakes. I haven’t had a slice in far too long. One of the downsides of living in this wreck of a city instead of touring Europe as I would rather be doing.”
By the tightness around her eyes, Gabe guessed her dreams had been far from delicious and hadn’t featured any chocolate cake, but if she didn’t want to discuss the truth, he wouldn’t push. He shrugged. “Maybe the third time’s the charm. After this storm, you could get on a plane and go to France for a while.”
Allegra frowned. “Do not tease me with such dreams, Gabriel. It’s rude. For me to leave this drab, cultureless city, I would first need to discover what it is that keeps me here, and at the moment I’m far too busy. But you did not wake me up to hear about my dreams.”
“I did not,” he said. “I actually came to update you on our siren.” He described his recent encounter with Ligeia and what Percy had discovered from the video. When he began filling her in on John’s visit, her eyes widened. For a heartbeat, they glittered with something that looked like fear, but that might have been the reflection of the fire.
The corners of Allegra’s mouth tugged down. “The world was better organized when the guardians were here to keep order. They would have dealt with this siren quickly, without such mess. Unfortunately, others did not agree. Although John’s interest does make the siren’s story more intriguing. I don’t know the man well, but such behavior does not fit with my impression of him. He always struck me as a man who lives as I do — for the pleasure the world offers without a desire for any of its troubles. Did he explain why he caged her?”
“According to him, this isn’t the siren’s first foray into mass murder. Her name is Ligeia. Does that ring any bells?”
Allegra shook her head. “Not a single one.”
Gabe shrugged. It had been worth a try. “He says she pulled the same stunt near the end of the eighteenth century, and that he would have preferred killing her, but he was worried her power over him might force him to turn his magic on the city. Does that sound believable to you?” This part of John’s explanation had bothered Gabe since he’d had time to run through it again.
Allegra pulled away the towel around her hair and let the still-damp strands tumble down her shoulders. She set to work drying it in parts.
“It is possible. My knowledge of the jinn is not as deep as it is for my siren sisters, but I do know they once used to be powerful spirits until they were enslaved by a deal that went wrong. At that point, they were trapped into doing the bidding of their human masters. Over time, they learned that the more orders they obeyed and the more deals they made, the stronger they became. Some of them became powerful enough to free themselves from bondage.” She paused. “I’m not sure where John sits in the process of liberating himself. I suspect his master is long-since dead, and I have not heard of anyone else picking up his mantle. But if he has not gained his full power yet, he might still be weak enough that this siren’s song would affect him as it would any man.”
Gabe tried to wrap his head around her explanation. “I guess that could explain why he might be hesitant to tackle the task himself, although he was ready to take on the whole case. It was only after he realized I wouldn’t back down easily that he offered to work together.” He frowned. “I don’t know why he came to me in the first place. Why not just go out to the harbor and take care of the siren himself, right then and there?”
Allegra eyed him, her deft fingers weaving between her damp locks. “You did not ask him?”
“I was too busy trying to make sense of his story. Maybe he’s worried he wouldn’t be able to beat her by himself?” He blew out a breath. “And if he can’t, what chance do I have? Maybe I should partner up with him after all.
I just don’t know.”
Allegra’s eyes narrowed, and she searched Gabe’s face. “Do you need to work with him, Gabriel?”
Her question surprised him. “You know him better than I do. Is there any reason I shouldn’t?”
Allegra shifted her gaze to the fire. “I would not say that. I’ve never had any personal issue with him, and as far as I know, his reputation is sound in New Haven. My concern lies only in his nature. As I said, the jinn seek freedom through making deals, by twisting their agreements in such a way to ensure they come out ahead. They are clever and mischievous, and it can be difficult, sometimes, to see where their traps lie.”
Gabe considered her warning, but from where he stood right now, he couldn’t see any other option to dealing with Ligeia.
“It can’t hurt just to hear what he has to say, right?” he asked. “If I keep control of the meeting, his help might mean the difference between getting rid of her and letting the male population of New Haven wind up as fish food.”
Allegra hesitated, then blew out a breath and tossed her towel onto the coffee table. She crossed her arms and said, “If you are set on speaking with him, you should not go alone. The jinn are a crafty species, and a second set of ears might notice any pitfalls you miss.”
Gabe saw the wisdom in her suggestion, but as to who he might bring with him, he wasn’t sure. He considered Percy, but having someone in his ear wouldn’t be as useful as having someone beside him, someone who was good at interpreting body language as well as words.
He looked Allegra in the eye. “Would you come with me?”
She raised an eyebrow, and he rushed forward before she could utter the refusal he knew was coming.
