Demons Don't Always Tell The Truth (Kate Storm Series Book 3)

by Meredith Allen Conner

  "If she's not at home, I assume she's with Phil."

  Crap. Was Désirée Norma-Sue still in contact with Snake? I liked Snake as a person and a client. I didn't like him involved in any way with Désirée's life.

  That could only equal trouble.

  "She's with Phil? Maybe that's why she isn't answering her phone."

  "Is it urgent?" Silly question. Snake wouldn't be calling me if it wasn't urgent. "She was just texting me about an hour ago. I can text her and have her call you."

  Urgent business with Snake ramped up my concern with Désirée.

  "S'allright. I can text her. I just wanted to make sure she was okay. I got worried when I couldn't get a hold of her." Snake had been worried? "Just wanted to make sure I got the guy before he got her."

  "What?" I nearly strangled on the question.

  "She's a sweet girl. She don't need anyone hassling her."

  She wasn't a sweet girl. Désirée Norma-Sue was a secretive fairy, that's what she was. In some very serious trouble.

  "Don't worry though. I'll take care of the problem for her."

  "Um, good?"

  I knew it would be good if my secretary was safe from harm, but I didn't think my client should be taking care of/disposing of/murdering the problem. That struck me as very bad for business.

  "How soon are you planning on handling this problem?" Hopefully, I had some time and could talk to Désirée first. It seemed to me that magic would work better than murder.

  "Before the end of the week." Snake cleared his throat. "So, you got any more dates lined up for me?"

  I liked Snake. I really did. I just wasn't always sure how to take him. For most people, a discussion about potentially killing someone was uncomfortable. Or at least it certainly should be. But for Snake, it was discussions about dating and love that set him slightly on edge.

  He was such a contradiction.

  He wanted to find someone, but it scared him at the same time. I think, given his preferences and lifestyle, he was mostly worried he wouldn't ever find someone.

  Given my own background and recent events, I could relate.

  "Not yet. But don't worry, I KNOW I can find the perfect match for you."

  I really did. She was somewhere in the pile I had waiting for me. I just needed a little more time, a little luck and a touch of magic.

  "Keep me posted." He hung up before I thought to question him about the mysterious bad guy stalking my secretary.

  I debated calling Désirée Norma-Sue, but she'd probably ask me questions I didn't want to hear. Didn't have an answer for. And why would she be willing to answer my questions when I had no plans to answer hers?

  Wow.

  My downward spiral was headed downhill rather fast.

  The doorbell rang and I almost dumped Al in my rush to answer it. I didn't care who was on the other side and what questions they had for me. Anything to stay out of my own head for a while.

  I should have known better.

  Large hands planted on his hips, body squared and braced for battle, Ash stood on the other side of my door.

  I tried to slam it in his face, but he slapped one big palm against it and pushed back.

  Let me tell you, size does matter.

  Size and really big muscles.

  Despite throwing my entire body and considerable weight at the door, I was no match for his hand. I slid backwards as if wearing skates on a glass ice rink while the door advanced. I jumped out of the way at the last minute to avoid being crushed between the door and the wall.

  "I don't want you here. Please leave." I pulled Al closer as he barked ferociously. What I really wanted to do was turn Ash into a lizard, but I couldn't juggle both my magic and the Chihuahua, so I was left with icy politeness.

  I don't recommend icy politeness when facing the demon who has broken your heart. It doesn't help. There was no burying the pain inside.

  It did allow me to hold onto a smidgen of my pride though. Since I could easily envision myself flying at him with tear drenched face and daggers in hand like a scorned banshee at an orgy.

  Instead I was the scorned witch. Trying to hang onto a tiny Chihuahua in full attack mode.

  "We need to talk."

  No, we didn't. I didn't want to hear anything he had to say. He could use my own desires against me. Had anything I felt with him been real?

  "Go away." Al tried to lunge for Ash. I just managed to grab him before he fell. Doing an about face, I snapped over my shoulder, "Don't let the door hit you in the ass on your way out."

  As a devastating retort before making my grand departure, my exit line lacked impact. I was afraid to delve too deep. Everything important was caught up in the seething mass of pain swirling inside me.

  Anything could come bubbling out.

  I set Al on my bed, fluffed a blanket around him and shut the door behind me. I completely ignored the massive demon following my every move.

  I was NOT going to lose it in front of him.

  "I'm not leaving until we've talked."

  I shrugged. I did not care. Ash - pardon me, Asmodeus - and his fucking secrets were out of my life.

  He could talk until he was blue. He'd lied and used his powers against me. What more was there to say?

  "Kate."

  I knew that tone. It was his "I'm not budging" voice. I'd already lost the battle with the door, I wasn't about to humiliate myself further.

  The possibility of turning him into a small reptile beckoned, but I was afraid if I did I wouldn't turn him back. And fifty years from now I might regret it. Possibly.

  I marched into the living room, picked up my wine glass and headed to my kitchen. I was pretty sure I'd left my back up wand on the counter. If Ash wanted to talk, I wanted my magic close at hand.

  I emptied the bottle into my glass, picked up my wand and went back to sit in one of the side chairs. No way would I sit next to him on the couch.

  I took a large sip of my wine, set the glass down on the table next to me and waved my hand at him.

  Ash sat in the middle of the couch. He looked at my wand and then at me.

  I lifted my wand, twirled it until a few glitters of magic appeared and then set it back down. I've lived with a hit-man for a while now. I know a few things about intimidation.

  My wand may not have been a large gun, but it could make as big an impact. Or turn him into a small lizard.

  Ash leaned forward, elbows braced on his knees. "I want to tell you everything. No more secrets. I need you to hear me out so we can put this behind us."

  Did he still think there was an us? He'd lied to me and used my feelings against me. Anything we'd had between us had been built on deception. A false house of cards. We had nothing left.

  "You need to know it all."

  Wait. There was more?

  "I hate the demon realm. I have ever since my mother was killed. I never wanted to rule it - I don't want anything to do with it - but I can't leave. My sin keeps me bound to it."

  Ash leaned towards me. Emotions raced over his face too quickly for me to read.

  "I've been looking for a way to break my bond so I can leave. Start a new life." Ash clenched his fists, squared his shoulders. "I found someone who could do it, break the bond. In exchange, all I had to do was track someone down."

  Ash looked me in the eye. "That someone was you."

  His words hit me like a sucker punch to the stomach. I couldn't breathe. This was worse than thinking he'd just used my feelings against me. "You planned to meet me? To use me all along?"

  The words were out before I knew it. I didn't want Ash to hear the quiver in my voice. The devastation.

  I hadn't felt like this since I was a young witch, looking in at a world I would never be a part of, shunned and mocked for my very being.

  Lost.

  I was lost. Had everything between us been a total lie?

  "No!"

  Ash was on his knees before me. His big hands cupped my face, wiping at tears I
couldn't control.

  "I made this bargain before I met you, Kate. Before I knew anything about you. You can't know how much I wish it was different, but I can't regret it. I would have never found you if I hadn't made the bargain in the first place."

  I tried to sort through the mess of my emotions, found I couldn't and settled for another question.

  "Who hired you to track me down?"

  It seemed silly in this day and age. I had a protection spell against evil on all my computer accounts, but that was standard procedure for all witches. Anyone could look me up.

  "Morgause."

  Sheer shock held me in place. All of my witchy instincts were telling me to run and hide.

  "She knows where I am?"

  Spirits, no wonder Aunt Tabs kept checking on me. Oh no. Aunt Tabs. Morgan.

  I shoved hard against Ash, desperate to reach my phone and hear their voices. I didn't feel as if something had happened to them, but clearly I couldn't trust my instincts at all.

  "It's all right." Asmodeus pulled me tightly against his chest, ignoring my attempts to break free. "She doesn't know where you are, Kate." He shook me. Hard.

  I slapped his chest with both hands, then pushed back, gaining as much freedom as I could. I jerked my head back so I could snarl directly at his face, "So help me, if anything happens to my Aunt or Morgan." I couldn't even think of Al's tiny body. "How could you?"

  He caught my hand before I made contact with his face. "Listen to me, Kate." He shook me again. "Morgause doesn't know where you are. She doesn't know where Aunt Tabs or Morgan or anyone you care about is. I never told her."

  He what? He'd made a bargain. He'd just admitted it. Morgause couldn't find me herself. My protection spells would have worked against her. She'd hired Ash to find me, track me down. And he had.

  "How can she not know?" I screamed at him. "We've," I choked. I couldn't go there. I just couldn't. I might have thought we had been involved, but Ash had been doing a job. "You've known where I was for weeks now."

  "Yes, but I didn't tell Morgause." Flames flickered to life over his shoulders. Just as quickly they went out. "The bargain seemed too simple. Too easy in exchange for something I wanted so desperately. Demons don't trust anyone. We can't. It goes against everything we know. My plan was to find you and discover what was so important about you, what Morgause wanted."

  Asmodeus let go of my hand and cupped the back of my neck, holding me still. "The moment I found you, something held me back. I couldn't let her know where you were. I didn't understand it. It went against everything I knew, everything I'd been taught." He tightened his grip, becoming more possessive, more determined.

  "Then I met you."

  I twisted my head, but I couldn't get away. "Then what? You decided to seduce me to find out your answers?" How could I have been so wrong about him? "I always knew you were hiding something from me, but this?" I hit his chest, "I never suspected anything like this."

  "Stop it, Kate." Orange and red flames sprouted back to life over his shoulders. His fingers slid into my hair, pulling my head back. He leaned down until his warm breath moved across my skin with every word. "What's between us is special. You know it as well as I do." Did I? "That's why I couldn't follow through on the bargain. I couldn't hurt you."

  Wait a minute.

  "You're saying you're not planning on going through with the deal you made with Morgause?"

  "Yes."

  I didn't understand at all.

  "You haven't told her where my Aunt Tabs is? Where Morgan or I am?"

  "No. I've been telling her I'm still searching."

  That part actually made sense to me. Everything I knew about my scary aunt said she didn't waste any time. She came up with a plan and executed it. If she knew my exact whereabouts, I would be dead by now.

  "How does she know I even exist? I thought she only knew about Morgan."

  Ash frowned. "I don't know. She's very secretive."

  I snorted. Morgause was the secretive one?

  Ash growled low in his throat. "I'm telling you the truth, Kate. I don't want any more lies between us."

  "I've never lied to you, Asmodeus."

  "You haven't told me the whole truth either." He shook me. "When were you planning to tell me about the curse or Morgause?"

  Oh no. He was not turning any of this back on me.

  "Don't you dare try to make me the bad witch here. You're the one who lied to me from the beginning."

  "I never lied. I didn't tell you the truth, but I never lied to you."

  That was a very thin line he was walking.

  "Is that who you've been texting?"

  "Yes. That's why your name was in the text." The flames along his shoulders flickered out. He rubbed the back of my head, leaned down to press his forehead against mine. "I've been traveling to different places, leaving a physical trail she could follow and check up on. Texting her from those locations in case she checked where I was."

  "What about when you texted from here?"

  Ash lightly pressed his lips to my forehead. I held very still. He sighed. "There is something about the geography around Dominion that creates a natural barrier. It works on both human and non-human technology and magic."

  I didn't know that. I'd never been anywhere outside of Dominion.

  "I couldn't find any trace of you before I entered Dominion."

  "Why did you come here then?"

  "Something drew me here." Ash moved back, cupped my face between his large hands. "I'd been searching for you and having no luck. But something kept pulling me in this direction." He slid one thumb over my jaw. "It was you, Kate. You were somehow calling to me."

  I know magic. It's special and precious and beautiful and, well, magical. I've seen and done things that can't be explained by physical laws. I couldn't discount his words, but I couldn't embrace them either.

  If there was any truth to what he was saying then Ash and I did have something special between us. But right now, I wasn't willing to admit or accept that. There was just too much to take in.

  "How are you able to stay here if you are bound to the demon realm?"

  "I've been making trips back. I can leave for a little while, but I am always drawn back."

  Well, that explained all of his mysterious disappearances. His secrets. His hidden agenda.

  I'd wondered why he would leave so unexpectedly. Why he couldn't tell me what he was doing. I'd never once considered it had anything at all to do with me.

  I'd been so wrong.

  "I'm telling you the truth, Kate. I did make a bargain with Morgause, but I've done everything I could since I met you to protect you."

  I didn't know what to think. How to feel. My entire life had been torn apart and put back together upside down. First Morgan and now Ash. I'd worked my way through things with Morgan for the most part. Asmodeus had completely blindsided me.

  Knocked me so far down the mountain, I didn't know where I was anymore. My belief in us, in myself, had been shaken so completely I didn't which way was up.

  "I don't know what to think."

  His entire body tensed, became a rigid cage for a moment before he relaxed. I could tell it was a concentrated effort on his part. Could see it in his eyes. Ash wanted to hash everything out right now. Sort through all the lies and omissions and move ahead. Put the bad things behind us and go forward.

  I didn't know if there could still be an us.

  "I think you should leave." Ash always messed with my thought process and my feelings. I needed space to try and sort though all of this.

  I knew what my stupid heart wanted. I've always known. But now I wasn't sure if I could trust it.

  "I'll leave if that's what you want, but I'm not giving up." He pulled me in and kissed me hard. He moved back before I could even respond. I wondered if he was afraid I wouldn't respond. I wondered if I even had that power over him or if there was still more to the story he wasn't telling me.

  "I won't ever give up, Ka
te. You belong to me. We belong together."

  That sounded more like a threat than a promise to me.

  The door closed behind him before I could decide if that was a good thing or not.

  17. Advice From a Chihuahua.

  I didn't sleep again. My mind just couldn't stop and let me rest.

  A part of me knew that if I would just confront everything I would at least have some answers and I could make rational decisions. Gain closure.

  As simple as it sounded, it wasn't the easiest thing for a witch to follow through on.

  1. Even though I had decided to put my useless ducking and dodging tactics behind me, certain habits are very hard to break. I'd lost all sense of direction in my new reality, clinging to an old habit was all I had. No matter how messed up it might be.

  2. I'd just had an entire cauldron full of crap dumped all over me. Ash had finally come clean with his secrets and they were serious whoppers. In addition, my aunt knew I existed and was actively looking for me. Which completely ruined the one and only strategy I'd come up with in my plan to destroy her - the element of surprise.

  3. Did I want closure? Did I want to permanently end things with Ash? He'd hidden some major things from me and while, given his upbringing in the demon realm, I could understand some of his reasoning, could I trust him now? Could I forgive him?

  My entire life has been devoted to love in one form or another. Being cursed to Fail in Love has both inspired me and made me determined to find my own true love. I've created a successful business helping others find their true loves.

  Was I so desperate to find my own happy ending that I was willing to ignore reality? I couldn't even say with one hundred percent certainty what reality was anymore.

  Ash claimed he wasn't giving up on us. He also said he wasn't going to keep his original bargain with Morgause. How could he stay with me if he was bound to the demon realm?

  It amazed me my head hadn't exploded at some point during the night. Although my heart still felt like it might.

  Spirits, I needed a cup of coffee.

  It wouldn't help my racing thoughts, but it would help keep my eyes open. And lying in bed wasn't accomplishing anything.

  I stumbled to the kitchen counter. Tiny nails pitter-patted on the floor behind me.