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

by Meredith Allen Conner

  I wanted the chance for a happily ever after.

  I wanted a new life.

  I picked up the phone and called Morgan instead. Even if she was resting in her coffin, she'd have her cell and her laptop. She did a lot of her texting and posting in her coffin.

  The phone barely finished the first ring before she answered. "Why are Aunt Tabs and Al planning your kidnapping?"

  Oh, sweet Spirits.

  "They're going to kidnap me?"

  "Yep." I heard her nails clicking over a keyboard. "They're torn between taking you to Vegas or a cronies' cabin in northern Idaho."

  I assumed Morgan meant a witch crony friend of Aunt Tab's.

  "Is there running water at the cabin?" A small break might actually be good for me.

  I'd been on numerous camping and roughing it trips with my mom and my aunt when I'd been younger. And while I loved camping outdoors, as far as I was concerned, once you added floors and walls there should damn well be indoor plumbing and electricity as well.

  More clicking in my ear. "No. There's a picture of an out house."

  Ugh. I rubbed my forehead. "Aunt Tabs and Al thought posting their kidnapping plans on Facebook and Twitter would be a good idea?"

  Didn't the FBI monitor the internet? The CIA? Some branch of the government? I knew vampires did.

  "Well, they didn't mention kidnapping exactly. They're calling it a vacation, but I know you so I just assumed."

  The whole assume makes an ass out of you and me thing is completely blown out of the cauldron when it comes to UDBFs. They never assume. They just know.

  "Did they happen to mention a time frame for my vacation?"

  Damn it. I knew they would try to plot something, but I hadn't realized how concerned they both were.

  More tapping. "You've got a couple days. Looks like the cabin isn't available until Thursday and I booked all the seats for the next three days on every flight in the area once I saw their posts."

  Spirits. I loved that vampire.

  "Thank you." Now I had a couple days to try and counter their plans. I could confront them, despite my instinctive duck and dodge go to mode, but I knew them. Aunt Tabs was her own force of nature when it came to protecting me and I'd learned never to mess with a hit-man.

  I didn't doubt their plan involved some sort of knock out drug or spell. When it came to my safety, neither one of them would risk a hair on my head.

  Well, I'd worry about their plans later. I had a couple days. And a free night ahead of me.

  "What are your plans for tonight?"

  23. UDBF.

  We wound up at Got Fangs? just after sunset. Well, Morgan arrived then.

  I got there a good hour previous.

  I'd left work at my regular time, went home, showered, put on another pair of loose jeans and my favorite lacy, purple, button down blouse and then realized I couldn't stay in an empty apartment.

  On paper, it had sounded good. Al could snuggle with my aunt and I could have a night to myself where I didn't have to pretend I was anything but miserable.

  The reality was far more depressing than I'd thought.

  A teeny tiny apartment with nothing but myself.

  I'd lost several bristles on my broom in my haste to get out.

  I was fairly certain my curls were still attempting to readjust from Mach speed by the time I entered Got Fangs?. This was based solely on Lolly's expression when I walked in. He maintained a steady gaze a good seven inches above my own eyes as we chatted. It's not often you see a warlock in a state of pure bemusement.

  It didn't bother me. I'd seen that exact same expression on my face in the mirror on more mornings than I could count.

  I also didn't bother to rush into the bathroom for an emergency reconstruction attempt. My curls were the least of my worries.

  It was a fairly decent crowd for a Tuesday night. Lolly didn't bother with bands on week nights, but the conversational buzz was significant enough to notice the sudden drop when Morgan arrived.

  I was already on my third beer. And my third water. My inner witch had been warning me I was right on the verge between getting slightly tipsy and sniffling into my beer and getting really drunk and sobbing into my beer tonight.

  I wanted to err on the side of tipsy and as few tears as possible.

  I waited for the conversation to start back up again. And for the human at the table next to me to make his play and get slapped down before I kicked out a chair for her.

  Morgan placed a martini glass filled with blood and two olives on the table along with a gold thermos as she slid into the seat.

  I sighed. I couldn't blame the human.

  Her hair was caught up in a twist high on her head and held together with two gold chopsticks. Four perfect sunset curls framed her face, two on either side.

  She wore a hot pink, silk top with a neckline that plunged to her belly button. It had some sort of a gold brocade embossed over the front and down her arms. The blouse tapered down into skintight, brushed gold pants so smoothly I couldn't tell if they were two pieces or a full on catsuit.

  Never mind. This was Morgan. It was a catsuit.

  I hadn't seen the shoes, but I'd heard them click across the floor. I was betting a good four inches and lots of shimmer. More than likely in gold as well.

  "You look like hell."

  A witch can always count on her UDBF to lift her spirits when she is in the pits of despair.

  "Thank you." I scowled at her.

  Morgan frowned back, blinked once, raised an eyebrow and reached forward. She pulled a small branch from my hair. It still had three leaves attached.

  I sighed. "I'll be right back."

  I found several more leaves and two small twigs lodged in the horror that was my hair. I didn't even remember flying by a tree.

  Luckily I carry a travel sized bottle of conditioner along with my back up wand in my purse.

  I used the entire bottle and a ton of water and managed to get my hair back down from the stratosphere. There really wasn't much more I could do, so I used some paper towels to blot up the excess moisture and left it as is.

  Like I said, my curls were the least of my issues.

  There was a fresh bottle waiting for me when I returned.

  "Thanks." I decided I was still safely on the tipsy and sniffling side, so I took a drink.

  "You still look like hell."

  I paused mid-sip to glare at her.

  "I hate to see you like this, Kate. You've got dark circles under your eyes. You look like you've lost weight."

  I tried to boost my spirits with that thought, but it just didn't seem to matter that much.

  Morgan set her glass on the table and leaned forward. "I never meant to hurt you, Kate. I was just so angry when I found out about Ash. I hated the thought of him using you." She gripped my hand with hers. "I know how much you care for him."

  "I actually liked him too." She did? That was a new one. "I just can't believe he'd use his sin like that against you. I honestly thought he liked you, otherwise I would have found out the truth faster."

  I knew this. Morgan had probably been checking up on Ash out of reflex. Not suspecting anything specific. Because, really, why bother worrying too much when we all knew I was cursed to Fail in Love?

  It's not like I should have had any other expectation.

  "It's just so typical of a demon to be cruel because they can."

  Oh shit.

  Of course she'd think that. Why would Morgan think differently? She obviously hadn't dug any deeper into Ash's past once she found out he could manipulate a person's desires and feelings.

  And I'd been too busy having my own personal meltdown to do anything other than melt.

  "Um. About that."

  Morgan picked up the olive spear and twirled it. "I guess he just wanted to get out of hell for a little while and have some fun." She spit out the last word like it had a bad taste to it.

  I watched her lift the spear and bite down on one
of the olives. Her fangs glistened brightly.

  "Um."

  "We should make a trip to hell and kick as much demon ass as we can." Her emerald eyes brightened with the idea. She sucked one fang.

  "Morgan, there are some things that I seem to have forgotten to mention."

  She tilted her head to the side. "Have you already planned a trip? I can loan you some extra knives."

  I'd be the one getting my ass kicked if I attempted such a trip, but I appreciated her sentiment.

  I grabbed both her hands in mine. I wasn't sure I'd be able to hold onto her, but I had to try.

  "Ash used his sin to seduce me because he made a deal with Morgause to find me and in return she would remove his sin so he could leave hell." Her skin had begun to brighten with each word until it was almost painful to look at her. Her loose curls floated upwards. Chairs squeaked around us as our neighbors fled. I tightened my grip and rushed on. "But Ash says he fell in love with me instead so he has been lying to Morgause to protect me. She doesn't know about you."

  Some of her brilliance faded. Enough so I could look her in the eyes.

  "Ash is in communication with Morgause?"

  I nodded. "He calls and texts her."

  Morgan grunted. Her hair quit floating and her skin resumed it's normal radiant sheen. "He must be protecting you then. We'd all be dead if Morgause knew where we were." She shuddered.

  I shivered in response. Morgause was one scary witch.

  "Morgause can't track you in Dominion, can she?" Morgan tapped one nail against the rim of her glass as she pondered her own question.

  Frog warts. Did everyone know about the weird field around Dominion except me?

  Morgan patted my hand. "There are lots of places like Dominion in the world, Kate."

  Oh, goodie. I wasn't just an ignorant local witch, my ignorance stretched world wide. This was probably one of those subjects covered in high school. Dang it.

  "Do you believe him?"

  I shrugged, nodded, shrugged again. "What he says makes sense. I don't like it, but it makes sense." I sniffled back a tear. "It just hurts that he lied to me."

  Morgan drummed her fingers over the table. "Technically, he didn't lie to you, he just didn't tell you the full truth."

  She was going to take his side? How dare she?

  Morgan looked at me, winced. "I'm not saying it's right. Sometimes reality can be hard and it’s not necessarily the full truth."

  I glared at her. The traitor.

  Morgan picked up my hand. Squeezed it. "I omitted a lot of things with you, Kate."

  Ah hell. My several times removed Aunt Morgana certainly had chosen not to share critical information with me.

  "I only meant to meet you at first, I never planned for us to become best friends."

  She should have been smoking in her chair from the heat coming from my eyes.

  "Shit." Morgan frowned. "I can totally understand where Ash is coming from."

  She could? Morgan was supposed to be on my side. Not Ash's. I didn't want her to track him down and disembowel him, but I didn't want her to sympathize with him either.

  Morgan wrapped her other hand around mine, so I was held within her cool grip. She took a deep breath, looked me straight in the eye.

  "I know I hurt you, Kate. I know we've both been struggling to get back to where we were."

  She inhaled sharply and then rushed on as if she'd been holding everything inside for too long and it had reached the boiling over stage.

  "After meeting you, everything I've done has been to try and protect you. To make up for my actions all those years ago." She squeezed my hand when I would have spoken. "Our friendship has been the best thing to ever happen to me, Kate. I'd be less of a vampire if you weren't in my life. My life changed course when we met and I will never regret it. I couldn't."

  Tears streaked down my cheeks. I couldn't regret us either. No matter how much she had hurt me.

  "I know you're still hurt and made at me. I don't blame you. I'd be hurt and mad too. It's one of the reasons I didn't want to tell you everything. All of a sudden we were friends and I was in too deep and I couldn't figure out a way to come clean without possibly losing you and our friendship."

  I shoved the beer bottle to the side and wiped at my cheeks. I'd bypassed sniffling and stopped just short of sobbing, but she was killing me. My emotional defenses had been blown away by Ash. I didn't have time to build them back up and hide behind my pain and anger with Morgan.

  My emotional crutch. I'd developed it as a child when I went to school and had been completely ostracized.

  Cursed. Half bred. Mortal. Witch.

  The one without friends. Taunted and bullied for things I couldn't control.

  I'd learned to put up a good front. Call me names? Ridicule me? They wouldn't see me cry. See my pain.

  But Morgan and Ash meant something to me. They were a part of me. I couldn't push aside this hurt.

  Morgan and I had already been through this. We'd brought out this hurt already. But clearly we weren't finished. We had to push through more emotional wreckage to clear the path.

  "I'm so sorry, Kate. Sorry I didn't tell you everything right from the beginning. Sorry I waited so long. Sorry I exposed Ash and hurt you all over again."

  One crystal tear welled up, clung to her perfect eyelash and rolled slowly down her smooth, pale cheek.

  "Can you forgive me?"

  I stared at her. Sunset curls, pale, porcelain skin, emerald eyes. Each feature perfect in it's own right, put together her beauty was breathtaking.

  She turned heads where ever she went.

  She was annoyingly skinny.

  An edgy fashionista.

  She had superhuman strength and speed. Several lifetime's worth of knowledge and experience.

  She could fit into any group she wanted to and that group would be thrilled, damn it, to have her.

  She was everything I wasn't. And could never be.

  And she wanted me to forgive her. She valued me, the pudgy half-bred witch. The outcast. The one with a tentative foot in two different communities. Always divided, never whole. She valued me so much, she wanted me to forgive her.

  I already had.

  I didn't even realize it until she'd asked for it, but I had forgiven Morgan almost right away. I'd still been hurt, but I'd forgiven her.

  It's what friends did.

  I just needed to say it out loud. For both of us.

  "Of course, I forgive you, Morgan." I sniffled back more tears. "You're my best friend."

  Morgan sighed, squeezed my hand and sat back in her chair. She picked up her martini glass and slugged back the rest of her blood.

  I did the same with my beer bottle.

  Sweet Glinda. This emotional shit was exhausting. I was glad we'd said what we had, but I didn't want to go through anything like this for the foreseeable future. And probably several years beyond that.

  Morgan waved at the waitress and held up one slim finger. Then she unscrewed her thermos and filled her glass. After the waitress handed me my beer, Morgan raised her glass.

  We clinked beer to blood. "I'm glad we got that out." We both drank. Morgan wiped a drop of blood off the corner of her mouth as she said, "Now, let's not do that again for a very long time."

  I choked on beer. No wonder we were best friends. This emotional angst was for the sirens. Those creatures loved drama and luring men to their deaths.

  I sort of felt like I'd been run over by one.

  "So, what are you going to do about Ash?"

  I set my beer down. "There's not a lot I can do. His sin keeps him tied to hell."

  Morgan scowled. "Long distant relationships never work out."

  "I know." I'd been over this so many times already in my head. "I can set everything else to the side and it still comes down to the same thing every time. We can't be together if Ash can't leave hell."

  24. Ash.

  I'd come complete circle. Again.

 
I was thrilled Morgan and I had finally and completely made up. No more angst there. Whoopie.

  But now I was sitting on my couch, alone and thoroughly depressed. Again.

  My night out might have resolved some issues, but the ones that had run me out the door in the first place were still right where I'd left them when I returned.

  I now understood why Al chased his tail sometimes. It was damn hard to get off that loop once you started.

  I was on the umpteenth round of my own circle. With no exit to be found. I was getting dizzy.

  When the knock came at my door, it was a relief. And one I knew I'd been expecting. It wasn't my witchy intuition. That had been hit or miss lately. No, we had too many unresolved things between us, and Ash wasn't the sort of demon to let things lie.

  He stood on the other side of the door, dressed head to boots in black. He didn't wear a hat and his pewter horns caught the light in a dull gleam.

  His muscles shifted and bunched despite the fact he didn't move. As if his body was fighting its own inner battle.

  My stomach clenched. The big, bad-assed King of Demons at my front door.

  I stepped back into the hall. "Come on in."

  Ash took two steps in and paused in front of me, crowding me with his presence, warming the air with his heat. He looked around and frowned.

  "Where's Al?"

  "He's spending the night with Aunt Tabs."

  Ash stiffened then leaned forward, crowding me even more until I felt as if the very space around me belonged to him and I was there only because he wanted me to be.

  "We're all alone?"

  Oh. Sweet. Glinda.

  We were alone. Just the two of us in my apartment. Where there was a bed. And we were all alone.

  My mind might not be able to see any way that we could be together, but my body didn't give a damn. Not in the least.

  My hormones were swirling, warming my skin, heightening my senses and between my legs . . . Oh, this wasn't good.

  I ducked around Ash and fled to my living room.

  This was not going to happen. No way. No how. We were doomed as a couple. His sin kept him tied to hell. It wouldn't allow him to leave. I couldn't live in hell. He . . .

  Ash stalked into the room and all thought fled from my mind.