The demon reached both arms out, grabbing for my head, but I swung my left arm, cutting the blow off with the wooden stake and followed immediately with a strike of the knife. The blade hit home in the demon’s shoulder. She recoiled, hissing what appeared to be steam. But I didn’t stop. The demon had gone after Matisse. She had to be destroyed.
I surged forward on the offensive and just when I was about to drive the stake in the demon’s chest, she turned, spraying me with that steam.
“Fuck!” It burned like hell, almost as if I’d been pepper-sprayed. Tears flooded my eyes, and I stumbled back, blinded. “Son of a bitch,” I cried, my arms flailing, trying to connect with any part of the demon. But there was nothing but air.
“You opened the gates,” the demon said in a sinister tone.
What the hell did that mean?
“And you killed my mate, dirty witch.” Another snarl escaped the demon. “It’s time to pay. Your life for his.”
Matisse’s strong voice filled the room. “No! By my word to the Goddess, I command you back to Hell!”
Thunder rumbled, shaking the furniture as the dishes rattled on the tables. Then I heard a boom, followed by what sounded like an electric sizzle.
I wiped at my burning eyes and tried to peer through the blur. A fuzzy outline appeared before me.
“Vaughn?” Matisse’s voice was soft, full of concern.
“I’m fine,” I said, scooting back, not wanting to be coddled. “I need water.”
There was a slight rustling and the clink of glass against what must be a pitcher of some sort. Then her delicate hand wrapped around my wrist as she pressed a cold glass into my palm. “Here.”
“Thanks.” Still mostly blind, I fished the ice out of the glass. Then I forced my eyes open and dumped the water over my irritated eyes. “Holy fucking shit!” That burned. Blinking rapidly, I poured more water over my face, and after what seemed like hours, though it was likely only a few minutes, the restaurant came back into view.
“Welcome back,” Matisse said as I finally focused on her. She’d ripped apart one of the linen tablecloths and bandaged her leg. Funny how I hadn’t heard that while I’d been cleansing my eyes. “You okay?”
“I’ll be fine.”
We were both sitting on the painted concrete floor as the staff slowly started to emerge from the back.
“Where’s the new waitress?” one of them asked.
Neither of us answered. But only Matisse knew for sure where the demon had gone.
The front door blasted open, and two men wearing official-looking black jackets and odd badges burst through. They did a sweep of the restaurant. When they came up empty, they headed straight for us.
I climbed to my feet and held a hand out to Matisse. There were many questions for her to answer, but I’d be damned if I made her do it alone. She cast me a grateful look and struggled to get to her feet due to her injured leg. I wrapped my arm around her, giving her the support she needed to stand upright.
The taller official glanced over his shoulder at the restaurant workers, who were staring at us. Turning back to us, he jerked his head toward the door. “I think we should talk outside.”
“Fine.” I helped Matisse navigate the disaster created by the struggle. With each wince and hiss that escaped her sweet lips, a piece of me hardened. Had she really opened the gates of Hell? Was she the witch I’d been looking for? I didn’t want to believe it. But the more I tried to explain the demon’s words away, the more convinced I was that she was the rogue witch. Why else would a demon come after her in broad daylight?
Once outside, the official took a rundown of exactly what had happened in the restaurant, confirmed Matisse was a witch and that I wasn’t, and then they thanked us and left.
“Who the hell was that?” I asked her. They weren’t with the NOLA PD. Or any other government law enforcement.
She stared at her feet.
“Matisse?” I kept my tone low and as even as possible. We’d had enough conflict for one day.
“Can we go back to your apartment?” she asked, still avoiding my gaze.
“Sure.”
At first the walk was slow and tedious, but with each step, Matisse seemed to be getting stronger. By the time we reached my apartment, she was barely even limping.
“Did you cast a spell?” I eyed her as I unlocked the door. “Or do you have super healing capabilities?”
That got a smile out of her. “It’s a spell. Though it did take a lot out of me. I might be walking better, but I still feel like shit.”
I would’ve never guessed. Besides looking rumpled, she was as gorgeous as ever. But now wasn’t the time to dwell on that. I held the door open for her. She stood in my entry hall, fidgeting. Fidgeting? She’d just beaten down a demon and here she was, consumed by nerves. Was it the fact we were alone in my apartment once more or the fact that she’d just banished a demon? I was hoping for the former.
Chapter 10
Matisse
How did a girl explain to a guy she was dangerously attracted to that she was a sex witch, related to the high angel, and was using him for sex in order to close the portal to Hell? Yeah. No. Maybe the demon-portal thing was enough.
I sat on Vaughn’s leather couch and waited for him to return. He’d disappeared into the kitchen after saying something about bottled water. But when he took more than a few minutes to return, I got up and hovered near the door.
“I’ve got it taken care of.” Vaughn had his back turned to me as he talked into his iPhone. “Yes. She’s here… No. Don’t come over. Fuck, dude. I told you I’m handling it.” He pulled the phone away from his ear, shook his head, and hit End before tossing it on the counter with enough force that it bounced a couple of times.
“Your brother?” I asked, leaning against the doorframe.
He flinched and turned in my direction, clearly startled.
“Sorry. Didn’t mean to eavesdrop. I’m just a little thirsty.” I nodded toward the bottled water sitting on the counter.
“Right.” He grabbed both bottles and shuffled me out of the room.
We sat on his couch in silence as he studied me with a mix of curiosity and confusion. I took one of the waters and watched him struggle with himself while I drank a quarter of it.
Finally he squared his shoulders, looked me straight in the eye, and asked, “Are you a witch who deals with demons?”
I sputtered mid-sip. “What?”
“The demon.” He leaned in, scrutinizing me. “She said you opened the portal and destroyed her mate. Is this just another normal day for you?”
The way he asked the question ‘Is this just another normal day for you’ sounded very much like an accusation. Irritated, I sat back. “No. I don’t play around with demons. What the hell kind of question is that?”
He got to his feet but kept his gaze fixed on me. “Did you try to open a portal today?”
His no-nonsense questioning was seriously starting to piss me off. Never mind that he was almost on target. The implied accusation was uncalled for. He could’ve asked me without making me feel like a criminal.
I stood, ignoring the pain shooting down my leg. The wound had healed, but it would be sore for a while. I placed my hands on my hips and stared back at him with all the judgment he was laying at my feet. “What about you? How exactly do you know about demon portals?”
“You didn’t answer my question.”
“And you didn’t answer mine.” His brother was a witch. It wasn’t unfeasible that he would be knowledgeable about demons, but couldn’t he just ask what I knew about the demon without putting me on trial? The thought made my blood boil.
“Fine.” He stalked over to me and gestured for me to sit.
I held my ground.
He shook his head in exasperation and then sat across from me on his coffee table, resting his elbows on his knees. “Stand all night if you want to, but I’m fairly certain you’re still recovering. It’s probably better if you re
st.”
I glanced at my leg and grimaced when I realized it was trembling slightly. Damn him for being right. Reluctantly, I sat back on the couch.
His lips twitched and a smug smile broke out on his face. I glared. The smile vanished, but the gleam in his eye didn’t. Bastard.
“Tell me what you really do for your brother,” I demanded.
“You first.”
We had a stare-off to end all stare-offs that was only broken by the incessant ringing of his phone.
“You should probably get that,” I said and leaned back into the couch.
“It’s Mitch.”
“So?”
He gave me a pointed look. “He wants answers I can’t give him.”
I sat straight up, holding back a wince from the demon slashes on my ribs. Damn, that hurt. “I knew you were asking these questions for him.” But then a realization settled over me. He’d said his brother was a contractor for someone. As a witch, that likely meant one organization. The Witches’ Council. “Wait. Am I being investigated?”
“Yes.”
“No way!” I stood again and winced when another dart of pain shot down my thigh. Grabbing it, I stifled a whimper.
A second later Vaughn was by my side, giving me a shoulder to lean on. “Come on. You need to relax.”
Because the throb in my leg wasn’t going away and he’d dropped the interrogator act to help me, I let him lead me into the next room and then into his bedroom. I came to an abrupt stop the moment we stepped through the door. What we’d done the night before was too fresh in my mind. We’d been two strangers using each other. Tonight we were something else. Friends? Enemies? Certainly not lovers. And being there was making it hard for me to breathe.
“What’s wrong?” he asked, concern lacing his tone.
I shook my head, totally out of my element. “Uh, nothing. What are we doing in here?”
“You need to lie down and the bed is a thousand times more comfortable than that old couch.” He tugged on my hand. When I didn’t budge, he swept me up in his arms, and despite my protest, he carried me to the bed and gently laid me on top of his comforter.
The gesture was far too considerate and sweet for me to continue to be pissed at him. He was an enigma. One moment he was acting the insensitive a-hole and the next he was taking care of me even when I was being stubborn.
My heart fluttered. Crap on toast. This was going to get messy.
Vaughn walked around to the other side of the bed and sat next to me, leaning against his headboard.
“Okay. I’ll talk if you will,” I said somewhat reluctantly. The work I did for Chessa was classified, but if I was being investigated by the Witches’ Council, it was better they knew I was working from orders. Not to mention Vaughn had been caught up in a demon fight. If there were any more coming after me tonight, he deserved to know he was in danger.
“Deal.”
We stared at each other, both of us obviously expecting the other to go first.
I chuckled. “All right. No, I wasn’t trying to open a portal. I was trying to seal one. And before you go thinking that’s the sort of thing I do for fun, it isn’t. I work for the high angel and that particular task is something she’s had me working on. I do not get off on dealing with demons.”
“The high angel?” He raised a curious eyebrow. “Isn’t it a little unusual for a college student to be working for the Angel Council?”
“Yes. It would be.” It sounded so absurd when he put it like that. “Except the high angel is my sister and this isn’t exactly sanctioned by the Angel Council.” Oh, oops! I bit down on my tongue, realizing I probably shouldn’t have added that last part.
“Really? So why is she so bent on sealing it up?” He seemed curious, not judgmental this time, which I appreciated. But I was still skeptical. He hadn’t told me anything yet. Not that Chessa’s reason was top secret or anything. “An angel she was close to was taken through the portal and fell. Chessa will do anything to seal it up.”
“I see.” He rubbed his five-o’clock shadow. I wanted to reach out and run my fingers over the stubble, but I refrained. Now wasn’t the time. “That’s rough.”
His voice was so full of compassion that I had a sudden change of heart. Now seemed like the perfect time. I reached over and lightly trailed the back of my fingers down his cheek to his jawline. We both froze, staring at each other for an intense moment.
When I dropped my hand, he cleared his throat. “Can’t say I blame her. Is that what you were doing today on the west bank? In the Pointe, right? Near the river?”
I turned to watch him. “How did you know that?”
He shrugged. “That’s what I do. I’m a bounty hunter—”
“What?” My spine went completely rigid and then I rolled off the bed, fuming. “Is that why you took me home last night?”
“Huh?” He looked up at me in confusion. “I didn’t… Oh shit. No, no. That’s not at all what happened.” He leaped off the bed and landed next to me. “Please. Sit back down and I’ll start at the beginning. I swear, I absolutely had no idea who you were last night when I brought you home. You were just too damn sexy to pass up. And that’s God’s honest truth.”
Too damn sexy. Well, I could live with that, I guess. Most men thought that about me anyway. It was the sex magic. Still, I sat on the very edge of the bed, ready to bolt if I suspected he was lying. Though I had no reason to believe he was. Except for the fact he was a bounty hunter and apparently I was on his radar. And that sort of pissed me off, too. I mean, he was the one guy I’d liked well enough to see twice and he’d been hired to hunt me. Eff balls. “Okay. Start at the beginning.”
“My brother is a witch, and he works for the Witches’ Council, keeping an eye on unusual supernatural activity. I moonlight as a bounty hunter, tracking down leads for him and others who do his sort of work. I wasn’t working on any case at all yesterday. I got the call to track you down today and the only information I had was GPS coordinates. But when I got there, for some reason I could sense you but not see you.” He cast me a sidelong glance. “Why is that, by the way?”
My shadow-walking ability wasn’t exactly a secret, but it wasn’t public knowledge either. I wasn’t sure how much of myself I wanted to reveal to this guy, especially if he was somehow working for the Witches’ Council. They didn’t really care for my particular coven. The old prudes weren’t real tolerant of sex witches. I met his questioning glance. “How is it you knew I was there if you couldn’t see me?”
He chuckled. “I knew you weren’t going to let that pass. While I don’t have any real magical abilities, I can sense when someone is using magic. And then there’s this.” He pulled his laptop from the nightstand and powered it up. After opening a file, pictures of the levee on the west bank filled the screen. In every single one of them was a brilliant flash of light on the deserted waterfront. It was the same spot Chessa and I had been standing when we’d stepped into the Shadow world. The pictures had to be me casting the spell to close the portal.
I met his curious stare. “You saw me?”
He nodded. “But I didn’t know it was you.”
“I had no idea my magic was visible while I was… Shit, you said you could sense me?”
That gleam was back and my stomach all but fell to my feet. Did that mean he’d known I was using some sort of magic to prime the pump, so to speak, at the club last night? Jeezus. How freakin’ humiliating.
“Don’t worry about it,” he said quietly.
I swallowed, horrified. He’d known the whole time. “Worry about what?”
“About the magic you used last night. Whatever it was, it didn’t make me do anything I didn’t want to.”
Now his expression was completely stoic. Could I trust him? I wanted to. There’d never been a member of the opposite sex I could talk to about these things. It was new and entirely too comfortable. I shrugged. “It’s not much. A suggestion really. In order for it to work, the person has to be int
erested already. It’s not like I can control someone’s will.”
“Just their willpower.” He grinned.
There wasn’t any of that previous judgment behind his words, and that made all the difference. I shook my head, suppressing a smile. “You could say that.”
“At no point did I contemplate resisting. Does that make you feel better?”
I smirked. “I wasn’t feeling bad about it.”
He nodded. “I see. Well then, I guess we can move on.”
“Okay.” I shifted to stretch my sore leg. It was feeling better already. “Then tell me why the Council thinks I was opening a demon portal.”
“Nope. Not until you tell me how come I couldn’t see you. Do you have some sort of invisibility cloak à la Harry Potter or something?”
“Goddess, no. But that would be really cool.” I clasped my hand over his arm and leaned in. “Can you imagine how useful that would be? Especially in your line of work?”
“Nice try, Matisse. But stop deflecting the question.”
Damn him. I lifted my hands, palms up. “You can’t blame a girl for trying. Still, you have to admit it would be a cool tool.”
His body had relaxed as he leaned against his headboard and his face was set in a small smile. He was thoroughly enjoying this. And the realization made me warm all over. I wasn’t sending any pheromones out into the atmosphere. In fact, if anything, I was trying to keep myself pretty guarded at the moment. I didn’t really like exposing details about myself. And the fact that he was enjoying our time together made me ridiculously happy. Is this what it’s like to be in a relationship? The idea of being impossibly attracted to someone and being able to enjoy a good debate, to trust them with important matters, was terrifying. I’d never realized I wanted that before. But dammit if I didn’t crave it now.
Something must have shifted in my expression, because he reached out and caressed my neck just below my ear. The action sent a small tremor through my tired body and made me want to curl up next to him with his arms around me.
Demons & Djinn: Nine Paranormal Romance and Urban Fantasy Novels Featuring Demons, Djinn, and other Bad Boys of the Underworld Page 57
