The Cat's Meow

by Stacey Kennedy

  With my confidence back firmly in place, I yanked myself out of my thoughts and turned to my other concern, Kale. Who was this warlock? I considered what I’d seen of him and yes, Kale was tough, but why had Bryon reacted so strongly to him? While Kale proved he’d kill him with ease, it definitely seemed more personal. I really did hate that my instincts led me to believe Kale might be involved in this rebellion against the Alchemy. Especially considering I now realized all his sweet gestures and interest in me had been genuine. The last thing I needed was the enemy after my tail. The time to lay into him and get real facts arrived. “What in the Goddess was that all about?”

  “We needed answers.” Kale took the dagger from my hand—I’d forgotten I held it—and tucked both weapons in his boots again. “I got them.”

  I crossed my arms and examined him deeper. “Do you have a split personality?”

  His head lifted to mine and the moonlight spread a glow over the side of his cheek. “No.”

  Well, that was annoying, since it’d be easier explained if he had said yes considering that the warlock I’d just seen didn’t resemble the one I had known. “So you always go all I’ll kill you where you stand?”

  He approached the first dead warlock, sprinkled the accelerant on the body, and lit the match, which engulfed the warlock in flames. I held my breath to offset the pungent aroma. He finally glanced over his shoulder at me and a slow dark grin swept across his face. “I did tell you I was useful without my magic.”

  “Ah, yeah. Got that.” I waved my hand around at the other two bodies on the ground. “But you went crazy-ass-killer.”

  He shrugged as he turned to the second dead warlock. “We got what we needed and didn’t waste time with spells.” He then proceeded to burn the other bodies, and flames filled the night sky.

  When he raised his head, he without a doubt saw my scowl since he added, “I’m not saying you’re not valuable. Your spells led us here, and for that I’m grateful, but sometimes brute force can be effective.”

  I didn’t mind that he credited me since no warlock had ever done so, but I snorted to counterbalance the happy bubble that rose within. “Clearly.” While he finished with the bodies, I set out to purify the forest, and within minutes my incense added a more pleasant aroma to the air.

  Once I recited my ritual to rid the area of any other darkness, Kale gestured toward the path. “We off, then?”

  “Not quite yet.” I studied him, long and hard. His firm stare was clear with the flames casting an orange hue over his face, and this change in his demeanor rubbed me wrong. I couldn’t shake the sense that he knew more than he told me about this rebellion, and behind him more existed than I wanted to believe. Instead of being lost in suspicions I got right to it. “Are you involved in this?”

  He looked at me as if I had a huge hairy wart on my nose. “If I were involved, why would I help you try to destroy the threat?”

  Good point, but it didn’t settle my concerns. He had to do better. I glanced over the dead warlocks. The flames had lowered, and the bodies were mere blackened flesh now and would soon be ash. Then I glanced back at Kale. “No personal attachment to this business with the Alchemy whatsoever?”

  “I’d say I have a very personal attachment now.” The intensity of him burned right through me, landing in my soul as if he held a place there.

  A breeze swept over my arms, raising goose bumps, but it did nothing to cool the heat he brought forth. I licked my lips, trying to keep my thoughts centered and not to let him sidestep the issue. Dammit, I held his stare—he’d not dominate this moment or me. “By that, you mean?”

  He closed the distance between us. His footsteps were almost silent against the forest floor and the night seemed darker now. As he settled in front of me, his body this close to mine, he looked down at me with a tender expression.

  This was the Kale I knew: the warlock with the gentle touches, obvious concern for me, and off-the-charts sexiness, not the cold-blooded killer. “Don’t play games, Libby. Everything is personal now.”

  While I could take his meaning in two ways—personal between us in the romantic sense or personal to him because of his assignment to the original case—I went with the one suspicion I needed cleared up before I allowed my next suspicion to take over. “You mean, because I’m a job to you?”

  He shook his head in frustration, with an underlying torment. “I have already told you that is not why I’m here. Believe me, your coven would be damned idiots if they kicked you out.” He drew in a long breath, regarding me, and then asked, “Have I proven that keeping you safe is important to me?”

  I nibbled my lip. So far he had kept me safe. Tonight he hadn’t needed my help at all with the fight, and had also given me a knife for protection, so I admitted, “Maybe.”

  His mouth twitched and he took a final step and closed in on me. His body didn’t touch mine, but the heat from him hit me like a hot flash. “So, then, I’m not sure why you keep denying that by personal, I mean this”—he pointed between us—“not outside forces. Right here, Libby.”

  I could’ve found myself lost in his implied offer, the knowledge of the attraction, but I’d be damned if I didn’t distance myself from him until I got a better grip on things. Before, my issues with Kale were him being a warlock and my suspicion that he was testing me, but those suspicions were cleared from my mind. Now my issue was that I didn’t trust him…at all.

  While I believed him that my coven wasn’t after my butt, for whatever insane reason, I also wasn’t blind to the fact that he avoided my question. He never confirmed that I wasn’t a job to him, but merely followed up by declaring the connection between us I’d rather avoid. I wouldn’t allow him to erase my hesitation with his sultry advance because he continued to hide something—this I believed without a doubt.

  As it stood now, there was no logical reason why the coven assigned him to me, leaving me worried. Add that to the fact that he remained hidden behind a wall of secrecy, which only confirmed there was something he didn’t want me to know about him. At the same time, where did the distrust in Kale come from? He proved to be honorable and fought for the greater good. His actions showed that, many times over. So, if he wasn’t involved in the bad and if he wasn’t out to get me, then what was the problem?

  With a chill in my bones, I stepped away to put required space between us, realizing the even more precarious situation I had landed in. His affections for me weren’t to trap me, but the “personal attachment” he spoke of didn’t speak of a night of blistering hot sex, but lingering on to something deeper.

  He was all types of dangerous and until I discovered if that danger could hurt me—by killing either me or my heart—my wall to keep him out would remain. “We need to get Henry home. And I’m taking it you want to check out their headquarters?”

  Kale’s shoulders squared, his eyes narrowing at my change in the subject. “We can’t go to the Alchemy with this knowledge until we know it’s a real threat.”

  I took another step back to shield myself from the tension radiating off him at my clear rejection of him. Maybe also to ignore the pull he had over me to return to his side. “You don’t believe Bryon?”

  “I’m not sure what to believe.” Matching my retreat, he stepped forward. “But this is a serious offense and we need to be sure.” He cocked his head and his expression became pointed. “With the threat to the Alchemy, we need more than hearsay to act, Libby. We need proof.”

  I shuddered at the trouble that would hail down on me if we approached the High Priests with a threat this huge that might not be true. My neck would be wrung not only by the Alchemy, but the coven too, especially my mother. While the Alchemy knew trouble brewed in their ranks, I wouldn’t drag them out to Charleston if I didn’t believe without a doubt Bryon had been accurate, and I trusted Bryon as much as I trusted Kale. “Well said.”

  He nodded in agreement. “We can’t take Bryon’s word as the truth until we see it with our own eyes. We cannot
trust that he’s honest.”

  But you think I should trust you? The question hung in the warm air around me, and if he thought I’d trust him now, his head was so far up his scrumptious butt. I knew my refusal to trust him showed in my expression because he stiffened, but it didn’t stop him from taking the final steps to reach me.

  Before he could seduce me somehow, and without another word or acknowledgment of the distance between us, I hightailed it down the path, heading toward my SUV.

  So many worries made my steps heavy and fast; this attraction to Kale confused me. More so that I cared to understand him and fought against myself to remain detached. I wanted to trust him and it bothered me I couldn’t. What was he hiding from me? And why couldn’t I let it go? Plus, there were the cat deaths, which rubbed me wrong, and the threat of Baal being summoned was bad—very bad.

  When had life gotten so complicated?

  Chapter Ten

  The night could not be any darker. Only the streetlights and my headlights provided any glow. I turned a corner, and then glanced at Kale. He sat with arms crossed, staring out the window—at what, I had no idea. The rain hadn’t returned and all the houses in the area had their lights off. I doubted he saw much, meaning he did it to avoid me.

  Even after we dropped Henry off at the junkyard, his silence and the clench of his jaw declared his tight mood, matching my own. I heaved another sigh and focused back on the road. Hell, this bothered me too, even if I had no idea as to the why behind it. If he cared as he clearly showed, and I believed firmly now he did, why was he still being so evasive by never answering my questions and simply dodging them?

  “What are you thinking?”

  His voice startled me, because I thought we were playing the silent treatment. I looked at him out of the corner of my eye. “Pardon?”

  “Your thoughts.” He turned to me in his seat, his voice became gentle. “Tell me what has your mind so busy.”

  I took my foot off the gas pedal as the cemetery gates came into view. “Oh, this and that.”

  “Why don’t you tell me the this first?” He pointed toward the side of the entryway. “Park there and we’ll walk in.”

  I pulled the SUV over onto the grass by the wrought iron fence, cut the ignition, and looked at him. “Isn’t it obvious what I’m thinking?”

  He shook his head. “Not to me.”

  So many thoughts raced through my mind, it became almost impossible to pinpoint a single issue, but the one I’d share with him stood out among the most important. “A Prince of Hell is being summoned.”

  “Do you not trust in my abilities?” He grinned, brightening his features, even if his eyes challenged. “You aren’t in any danger. I’ll protect you.”

  Oh, I beg to differ.

  I had landed myself in serious danger, of what I still had no idea. While I thought he could protect me, I didn’t have the confidence right now that it made me any safer. “You’ve proved you can kick some serious ass, and that I trust.”

  His brow creased, eyes became pained. “Is that all you can trust?”

  “Now we are on to the that.” With the thick air surrounding me, I needed to get out of the SUV for more reasons than the mission ahead. After I exited, I slammed my door behind me in hopes we’d leave this conversation behind to never be repeated again.

  Kale stopped at the hood, staring with a fierce intent, and damn, did he look sexy now. “Explain.”

  “Simple: I don’t trust much else about you.”

  It seemed I surprised him since his eyes widened and his voice dropped low as if I insulted him. “You do think I’m involved in this?”

  “I’m not sure what to think,” I told him, watching as he leaned a hip against the hood, the tension rolling off him in waves. Heck, it radiated off me too, which annoyed me since he created it. “You’re not very forthcoming.”

  He considered me for a moment and glanced down at the grass before he lifted his head, and his expression had darkened, tormented. “I’ve been as honest as I can. What you see, Libby, that’s who I am.”

  Now wasn’t that an odd choice of words. “But you can’t tell me more?”

  Kale looked everywhere but at me, and after a very long moment his attention returned to me, dead serious. He stepped away from the hood and approached me on the other side of the SUV. Each step seemed to take forever and my breath got trapped in my throat. When Kale walked, it was with purpose, with power, and with clear intent, and I felt hunted.

  The trouble ahead of us, the outside world around me, all faded away as I remained fixated on his approach. His eyes were simmering with something so intoxicating, with a conviction any witch could lose herself in. The side of his mouth curved as if Kale knew the strength of his appeal over me. While that might annoy me, his confidence was attractive and his muscular physique, tall and powerful, made my heart race.

  Heat rushed low in my body and couldn’t be ignored. His mere presence overwhelmed me in a way that turned the stern thoughts in my mind into a muddle of arousal and demanded a release.

  Closing in on me, his head dipped down, and the woodsy scent of him engulfed me. “I’m well aware you have good reasons to doubt me.” He slid his knuckles across my cheek. I couldn’t move, burning with desire. “I think that’s very smart of you. You have great instincts.”

  My breath whooshed from my lungs as a similar breeze swept over my hot flesh. “So, you’re saying I shouldn’t trust you?”

  Kale continued to trail his fingers over my cheek, and then he slid one finger down the side of my neck and smiled when he hit the hammer of my pulse. “No, I would never say that. You will trust me. But as you see it now, I understand why you don’t.” He pressed against my pulse point as if he gauged my reaction to him, and the arc of his mouth confirmed he liked what he found. “It means you have good sense and that’s an honorable trait.” His finger swooped back up to rest under my chin and he drew up my head.

  Goddess, is he going to kiss me?

  My lips parted and without thought I licked them. He zeroed in on my mouth, and his features deliciously darkened. When he leaned in and kissed my cheek, I held my breath and my eyes fluttered closed at the feel of his lips—those soft, incredible lips—against my warm cheek, and my knees weakened.

  When he backed away, he gave a sexy grin. “But your body trusts me, doesn’t it? That gives me a place to start.” He dropped his hand and, as if that hadn’t happened, he strode off toward the cemetery. “Come. Let’s see what we’ve got.”

  Remembering I needed air to live, I inhaled a sharp breath, and then I blinked, trying to get my wits about me. Damn him, he was right; my body trusted him. I’d never been so aroused from a simple touch, a simple kiss, and a simple suggestion—hot and damp in all the right places.

  At the main gates of the cemetery, Kale glanced over his shoulder, smirking. “Libby, we need to get moving.”

  Oh yeah, he was sure as shit proud of himself that he turned me into witchy goo. I cursed under my breath, fought through my thoughts and the heady arousal, and approached, trying to process what he had said while he melted my insides.

  Had he told me I shouldn’t trust him and that he knew there was a good reason not to? Plus, had he confirmed that my suspicions were valid? Or had he said under the circumstances he understood why I couldn’t trust him?

  One thing stood out regardless—he confirmed that I shouldn’t trust him…right now. Yet, hadn’t he said we’d build on how my body trusted him, as if he knew he could somehow fix this between us?

  But why wasn’t he fixing it now?

  Fuck it, Libby. Give up.

  Right. We had enough on our plate without getting wrapped up in this problem. Just like my mother said, I would keep my guard up and protect myself. I didn’t doubt that Kale wouldn’t let harm come to me. How could I with those combat skills? And he’d made it clear enough my safety concerned him, so until he turned on me, I had that to believe in.

  As I neared him at the entran
ce to the cemetery, he still grinned like a fool. “Ready?”

  For more kisses? To be beneath you? “Ready.”

  “Good,” he replied, unaware I didn’t mean the danger ahead, and then he strode into the cemetery.

  I followed, shutting off my mind to concentrate on the task ahead. The cemetery was dark, the night warm, and the air was as damp as my…

  Libby!

  I shook my head and heaved a sigh. When I glanced up, Kale’s eyes twinkled at me. “What?” I snapped.

  His eyebrow lifted. “Having problems focusing, huh?”

  “No,” I defended. “I’m worried about what’s ahead of us. That’s all.” He stopped, turned to me, and his eyebrow lifted higher, proving he didn’t believe me, so I shoved him. “Just go.”

  He chuckled. “As m’lady wishes.”

  We carried on in silence down the path toward the back of the cemetery, as Bryon mentioned, and I was glad for the long walk. It did help shed all thoughts of Kale and his heated impression on me.

  The cemetery was still quiet and still dark as row after row of the dead swept by us. As we passed another set of tombstones, Kale raised his hand in a signal to stop, but I didn’t hear or see what caught his attention, only silence greeted me.

  A second later he grabbed my hand and yanked me to the ground. I fell with a loud oomph, and once I settled myself onto my knees, instead of the near face-plant, I whispered, “What is it?”

  Kale jerked his chin to the left. “There.”

  I peeked from behind the old tombstone shielding me and immediately groaned.

  More than forty warlocks stood outside the large stone chamber with Sampson written in block letters above the entrance. The gate was open, and I didn’t even want to consider that there could be more warlocks down below in the burial vault.

  “Bryon’s telling the truth,” I murmured.

  “Harrumph,” was Kale’s response. He peered around the tombstone and he looked absorbed, which I’d come to learn was typical Kale. “None there seem powerful.”