“And a friend of mine,” I said. My voice was still cheerful, but I could see in her eyes that she was well aware of the escalating tension.
“Still, fair game,” she replied with a shrug. “And what do you care? His soul’s already tainted. He’s not that good a catch. Not like I can do much more damage.”
That wasn’t true. Seth might currently be Hell-bound, but he wasn’t beyond redemption—even though the odds of that were allegedly slim. If by some crazy chance Simone got him to cheat on Maddie again, his soul would grow darker and kill any lingering chances to save him. Plus, sin aside, Simone would shorten his life—which was something I was definitely against.
“So, he’s just a random guy you scoped out?” I asked. The politeness was fading from me. It was disappearing from her too. So. Bland Simone wasn’t quite as oblivious as she played. “The fact that he’s a friend of mine and someone I used to date makes no difference?”
“You make it sound like I’m trying to get you back for something. I don’t even know you. I’m just here on vacation. Getting guys is part of our life—and you don’t have any territorial control like them.” She nodded toward the vampires, who had very well-defined hunting grounds. “Unless,” she added smugly, “you’ve got some kind of arrangement with Jerome.”
I certainly didn’t. In fact, my boss had made it extremely clear that he didn’t care about what happened to Seth.
“No, but I’d think you’d do it as a courtesy when you’re visiting someone else’s city. It’s the nice thing to do.” My smile returned, filled with ice this time. “And it ensures that your visit stays nice too.” Maybe using her favorite adjective would drive home my message.
Simone stiffened, attention totally on me now. “What is this, some kind of warning that you’ll come after me if I don’t back off?”
I shrugged and finished my drink. “Just friendly advice.”
She stood up and slung her purse over her shoulder with such force that it nearly hit Carter in the head. Apparently, he wasn’t on the radar anymore. Well, at least for now. “I’m not going to stay and listen to thinly veiled threats. Especially ones over inconsequential men. If I want him, I’ll get him.”
“You’ll be missed,” I muttered as she stalked away.
“Oh,” said Hugh brightly. “There is nothing I like better than when succubi fight. Puts Dynasty to shame. You could have cleaned the floor with Tawny, but Simone might give you a match.”
“Hardly,” I said. “And she’ll have about as much luck with Seth as Carter.”
Carter raised an eyebrow, apparently not agreeing with my statement.
“She’s really hitting on Seth?” asked Cody.
“Yup. In a shy, starry-eyed fan girl kind of way.”
“Isn’t that how you won him over way back when?” asked Peter.
I shot him a glare. “It’s irrelevant. It won’t work.”
“Then why worry?” asked Hugh slyly.
“Because an ounce of prevention—oh, never mind,” I groaned. “I need another drink.”
Hugh and the vampires were clearly amused by all this and weren’t particularly concerned. I think they too believed Seth would prove immovable; they just liked the idea of me making another succubus irate. The sad part was that I’d probably just encouraged Simone to try even harder.
Two drinks later, I decided to head home. I was sufficiently angry that I didn’t fear the siren song’s comfort. Before leaving, I informed Cody about his impending date. Unsurprisingly, he freaked out.
“What? I…I can’t. What will I say? What will I do?”
“Frankly, my dear…” began Hugh in an undertone.
“You’ll be fine,” I said. “Just stop stressing and be yourself.”
“Sounds like a double date,” said Peter. “I can get more black hair dye.”
“No,” I warned. “Do not even think about it.” I could still see faint streaks that hadn’t entirely washed out from Cody’s blond mane. “Just dress like you are now. I’ll meet you at the club.”
I started to turn, and then a thought came to me. “Carter, can I talk to you?”
His lips twitched slightly. If that was his sign of surprise, I couldn’t say. “Anything for you, Daughter of Lilith.”
He followed me outside the bar, where we stood amid all the Pioneer Square partygoers. Once clear of the building’s non-smoking interior, he promptly lit a cigarette.
“If you’re jealous of my relationship with Simone,” he said, “I can assure you, we’re just friends.”
“Oh, be quiet. You know that’s not what this is about. Look, she was lying, right? About Seth being a coincidence?”
Carter took a long drag before answering. Angels could tell when others were lying. “Yep. But she seemed pretty sincere in the last comment about going after him regardless.”
I grimaced. “Why? Why would she target Seth? Is it some kind of way to assert dominance over the local succubus?”
“Not sure. The ways of succubi—and all women—are a mystery to me.”
“Jerome originally thought she’d come to spy. He had Roman follow her, but nothing came of it. She never reported in or anything. He pulled Roman from her—” I paused, suddenly turning over the events and analyzing them in a way I hadn’t considered before. “But it wasn’t until I told him Simone was hitting on Seth. It seemed like that was the moment Jerome pulled Roman. He seemed pretty adamant about leaving her alone.”
“Did he now?” Carter inhaled on the cigarette again, but I could see thoughts churning behind his eyes.
“What?” I asked.
“Just a musing,” he said. A half-truth, typical of angels. “Did Jerome do anything else after that?”
“Yeah, he put Roman on me.”
This elicited surprise. “Why?”
Apparently, Jerome and Carter hadn’t been hanging out recently. I gave Carter the rundown on my latest bizarre situation.
“That is weird,” he admitted.
“Do you know what it could be?”
“Any number of things.” He spoke flippantly, but I knew I’d piqued his curiosity—maybe even his concern.
I sighed. “I wish people would stop saying that. No one’s really helping.”
“I’ll help you,” he said, dropping the cigarette and stamping it out. “I’ll follow Simone.”
That was not at all what I had expected. “Why would you do that? Are you going to stop her from making the moves on Seth?”
This earned his amusement. “You know I can’t interfere with that kind of thing. But I am curious about Simone’s activities.”
An uneasy feeling bubbled within me, one that had troubled me since I’d first met Seth, and Carter had begun taking an active role in my life. “Why? Why do you care so much about Seth? You’ve always been curious about what he does—and how we interact.”
“I’m interested in the creative process of a great artist. It’s fun to watch.”
“Another half-truth.” Like always, he answered the question without really answering it. I was astonished at the desperation in my voice when I spoke next. “I’m serious. Why, Carter? How does Seth—and me being with Seth—concern you?”
He chucked me on the chin. “You’ve got better things to do than worry about the goings-on of a curious angel. Besides, wouldn’t you feel better if someone was reporting back to you on Simone?”
“Well, yeah,” I admitted. “But—”
“Then it’s settled. You’re welcome.”
He turned quickly away and disappeared into a crowd of partiers. I knew better than to go after him because he’d probably literally disappear once no one was paying attention. I sighed yet again.
Fucking angels.
Chapter 8
Knowing Carter was on the job with Simone made me feel mildly better, but there was something about him that always unnerved me when it came to Seth—and, well, my love life in general. He was too interested. I’d gotten used to an angel hanging out wit
h my friends, but sometimes I wondered if I was being lulled into some kind of trick. Heaven had its own agenda, just as we did, and their motives were often harder to figure out.
I had a morning shift the next day. It passed by easily until Doug delivered some bad news to me about ten minutes before I was going to leave.
“Can’t go with you tonight, Kincaid.”
I looked up from my spreadsheet in disbelief. “What?”
He shrugged, hovering near the door to my office. He’d had the same shift as me today, and I had a feeling he was telling me at the end to save himself from hours of anger. Kind of like how people who get fired are told at the end of the day on Friday.
“There’s this girl I met…and I can’t really turn down the chance to go out with her. Oh, man. She’s smokin’. She’s got this body that—”
“I don’t need the details,” I interrupted. “Can’t you just take her instead of me? Cody was starting to get into this idea…he’ll be really down if it gets canceled.”
“No need to cancel. Just go without me. I couldn’t bring her instead of you—Cody needs you.”
I groaned. “Yeah, but the safety of a group is gone, and I become the third wheel.”
“Find someone else to go, then.”
It was then that Maddie appeared beside her brother. She was relieving him for the next shift. “Go where?”
My next words made me cringe, but I did not want to go alone with Cody and Gabrielle. “Do you want to go to a, um, metal concert tonight?” At least having another woman along would kill the double date insinuations.
This clearly wasn’t an invite that she’d been expecting. “Well…I would, except I’ve got to close, and then I’m supposed to meet a friend.” I had serious doubts about the “I would” part and this so-called friend. Metal was not Maddie’s scene. She suddenly brightened. “You know what? You should bring Seth.”
“I…what?” I asked.
“Mortensen?” asked Doug, sounding as baffled as me.
“I don’t think that’s his thing,” I said uneasily. I knew for a fact it wasn’t.
“Yeah,” agreed Doug. “Probably not a good idea.”
I hid a frown at Doug’s words. With as much as he wanted to get out of this and see his smokin’ woman, I figured he’d be willing to push anyone off on me.
Maddie was oblivious. “No, really. He’s been cooped up for weeks with the book, and I think it’d be good for him to go out. I think the wedding stuff is stressing him out.”
Yeah, that made two of us. “Oh, I don’t want to, um, push him outside of his comfort zone,” I said lamely.
She laughed. “Like I said, it’d be good for him. I’ll go ask him now.”
She was gone before either Doug or I could protest. Several moments of silence hung between us. “Well,” he said at last. “She can talk him into almost anything. I guess you’re set.”
“I guess so.” He walked off, and I found it intriguing that neither of us was excited about this prospect. It drove home the double date thing even more and also made me feel guilty about Maddie’s blind trust. On the bright side—kind of—I supposed it would take some balls for Simone to crash the concert and continue her “seduction” of Seth.
As Doug had predicted, Maddie did indeed convince Seth to go. It was a late show, and the four of us had agreed to meet outside the club around 10:30 so that I could distribute our tickets. Once we were all there, I glanced at the three faces before me, trying to decide whether it was all comical or pathetic. Seth was doing the averting-his-eyes thing, clearly uncomfortable that Maddie had pushed him into this. Cody was paler than usual for a vampire and looked ready to bolt at any moment. In fact, I wouldn’t have been surprised if both men teamed up to formulate an escape plan. Gabrielle was the only one who looked excited to be there, her eyes alight and eager.
She was also the only one really dressed for the scene, all in black, with her hair spiked up and makeup done to dramatic levels. Cody and Seth wore their usual street clothes, and I’d dressed somewhere in the middle: black jeans and a black bustier top, adorned with heavy silver jewelry. It was clearly too designer for this place, however.
“Thanks so much for letting me come along with you guys,” she said. “I didn’t know any of you liked Blue Satin Bra.”
“What’s not to like?” asked Seth, face innocent.
I kept my eyes away from him because I had a feeling I’d start grinning. I handed out the tickets, and we headed inside, surrounded by a crowd that I decided I’d want on my side if I was ever in a street brawl.
We managed to snag a high-top table in the back. It meant standing the whole time, but at least we had a surface to put our glasses on. “Offer to buy her a drink,” I hissed to Cody. The nice thing about playing Cyrano to a vampire was that his enhanced hearing meant I could keep my voice far below levels that Gabrielle could pick up. The noise in the room—even before the band started—also furthered the covert nature of all this.
Cody dutifully obeyed, and when Gabrielle started to dig out cash, he assured her the first round was on him. The smile she gave him seemed to boost his confidence as he headed off.
Seth leaned toward my ear. He stood on the opposite side of me from Gabrielle, and she was too entranced by the sights to even notice us. “This might be crazy enough to work,” he murmured.
“Don’t get carried away,” I responded back, trying not to think of his proximity. “The night is young. Any number of wacky mishaps might ensue.”
He smiled. “Those are your specialty, aren’t they?”
“Unfortunately, yes.”
Cody returned with the drinks, earning more approval from Gabrielle. She wasn’t showing any romantic attraction to him whatsoever, but at least she knew he was alive. While I still stood firm that he shouldn’t overdo the vampire/Goth thing, I realized we were going to have to work hard to get past the “ordinary” facade she saw.
“Talk to her,” I told him. He’d slipped back to his place between me and Gabrielle. “Once they start, it’s probably going to be impossible.”
“What do I say?”
Seth, overhearing, leaned across me, and I wished I’d covered up more skin. His arm brushing up against me sent thrills through my body.
“Ask her if she’s ever seen them live before,” Seth said. “If she says no, tell her about this one time you saw them at…I don’t know. A private party. If she says yes, ask her what she thought.”
Cody gave an uneasy nod. He leaned toward her, and while I only caught bits and pieces of the conversation, she grew animated as she spoke. I leaned back to Seth.
“When did you become an expert in dating advice?” I asked incredulously.
“It’s what O’Neill would do.”
I scoffed. “You’re using fiction to further Cody’s love life?”
“Life imitates art, and art imitates life.”
“That statement is ridiculous. And, you know, I’ve never really seen you utilize that advice.”
“Well, that’s O’Neill’s advice. I have lots of characters I can draw from.”
“Funny, I don’t remember any introverted, stammering writers in your books.”
“I don’t stammer,” he said defensively—though there was a smile under his words. “Besides, maybe there’ll be someone like that in the new series.”
“Ooh,” I said, mocking his melodrama. “What’s with the ‘maybe’? I thought you had the premise for this whole fantastic new thing figured out.”
“I do. But it can always be improved along the way.”
“Introvert authors improve everything.”
“Damn straight.”
Laughing, I remembered that I should have been helping Cody, but he was talking to Gabrielle on his own, which I took as a positive sign. I turned back to Seth. “So does this mean you’ve figured out the ending to Cady and O’Neill?”
“No.” He still held his good humor, despite a small frown on his brow. “One of these days, I�
��ll have to—”
His words were cut off when the eardrum-splitting screech of a guitar ripped through the room. Blue Satin Bra had come onstage while I was talking (flirting?) with Seth. I hated stereotypes, but truthfully: they looked like what you’d expect from an all-guy metal band. Black clothing, piercings, and hair that ran in extremes: shaved or super long. The one thing that differentiated them was, well, the fact that they were wearing blue satin demi bras over their clothes.
Even above the deafening music that followed, I could hear Gabrielle shrieking, “Oh my God!” Her face was ecstatic, and when Cody said something to her, she lit up further and nodded eagerly at the band. My guess was—whether it was true or not—he was reaffirming how awesome they were.
The music forced Seth and me to lean close in order to talk. “You know,” he said, “I’m pretty sure the bass player stuffed his bra.”
“Nah,” I teased back. “It’s a push-up bra, so it just seems that way. They do amazing things for cleavage.”
All things considered, Blue Satin Bra wasn’t that bad. Metal might not be my favorite music, but I was still open to a lot of types. The setting and craziness that ensued throughout the night gave Seth and me lots of material to joke over. We were both in really good moods when the show finally ended and we walked out with Gabrielle and Cody.
“That was awesome,” she exclaimed. “Thank you so much for sharing the tickets.”
“No problem,” I said. My ears were ringing, and I wasn’t sure if I was still shouting.
“I think that was the best show I’ve ever seen,” said Cody nobly.
Gabrielle clutched his sleeve, and his eyes widened. “I know! Which was your favorite song?”
Silence.
“Mine was that one were they kept saying ‘My Armageddon scales will burn your post office,’” said Seth deadpan.
“Oh, yeah. That’s one of their greatest,” she said. “It’s called ‘Plywood Fuck.’”
“That’s my favorite too,” said Cody. I somehow doubted he’d heard any of the music tonight. His senses were all on Gabrielle.
Perfectly in sync, Seth and I glanced at each other and exchanged secret smiles, both of us amused at Cody’s love. I wasn’t as far gone as he was, but when our group finally split up, I found myself walking on air too.
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