by Melissa Haag
Eliana snorted.
“If I hadn’t held your hand, you would have tried to hit Devian.”
“Well, that’s because he’s cheating on his girlfriend. I don’t like cheaters.”
“Why don’t you get mad at Fenris, then?”
“He’s very open with his interest, and he’s not committed to Aubrey, despite what she believes.”
“So every time you’re angry at someone there’s a wicked reason?”
“Based on tonight, that seems to be the case. I’m not done testing it yet.”
“What do you mean? What more do you still need to do?”
“I need to follow my temper to Camil’s killer.”
Twenty
Oanen stood on the front porch of my house when we pulled into the driveway. His gaze locked onto me. Arms crossed and looking more stoic than usual, he stepped off the porch and followed the car.
“You are in so much trouble,” Eliana said.
“Me? Why just me?”
She just shook her head as she parked behind the house.
When I opened the door, he was there, crowding my space.
“What did you do?” he asked softly.
“Do? Why do you think I did something?”
“Because you’re an hour late. Because I circled town looking for you, and you weren’t there. That means you went somewhere else. For a girl who likes staying away from people, it seems odd that you’d suddenly want to roam around Uttira. Unless it wasn’t idle roaming. Unless you had a specific goal. Like looking for a killer.”
“Ha!” I said with a triumphant grin. “I was not looking for the killer.”
He continued to stare down at me, and I rolled my eyes.
“I had to test what you said to see if it was true. Does my anger indicate a wicked person? I believe it does. I also believe the level of anger hints at the level of wickedness.”
“I repeat…what did you do?”
“I followed a siren home and watched her scam some rather nasty older men out of their money. I also saw a guy cheating on his girlfriend. That’s it.”
He exhaled slowly.
“Megan, when I suggested using your abilities to find the killer, I didn’t mean alone.”
I frowned. “I wasn’t. I had Eliana.”
He leaned forward, placing each hand on the roof of the car and caging me in. My chest grew tight and a flutter started in my belly. Vaguely, I heard the kitchen door slam shut as I stared up into his deep blue eyes.
“With me, Megan. You go with me.”
His gaze held mine until I nodded. Then, it dipped to my lips. My heart beat painfully in my chest, and I forgot to keep breathing.
He closed his eyes and sighed.
“What do you want to do next?” he asked.
My brain hiccupped on that question. What did I want? I wanted him to do something about that longing look, didn’t I? No. I didn’t. It was too dangerous. Just standing like this was too dangerous. It felt like a fire was starting inside my stomach. That couldn’t be good for either of us. He was already too far under my skin.
“Do you have any idea who the murderer might be?”
That froze the flames that had been licking at my insides.
“What?”
He leaned away from me and released his hold on the car.
“What did you plan to do once you verified that you could use your powers like I said?”
I tried not to blush that I’d misunderstood his first question so thoroughly. He’d been asking what I’d wanted to do next to find the killer.
“I thought I’d spend more time in town around the adults.”
“And when you got angry at one?”
“Eliana has my back with her ninja hugging skills.”
“You need to take this seriously.”
“I am.”
“You’re talking about adults. People who’ve had years to hone their skills, not the fledglings in the Academy. Do you know what to do if you piss off a Gorgon? A Sphinx? How about a Minator?”
“Yeah, I hit them.”
His hands suddenly cupped my head.
“You are killing me.”
I jerked my head from his gentle grasp.
“Don’t even joke about that.” I pushed past him and stomped into the house.
Eliana, who sat at the table while looking out the window with an unfocused gaze, jumped at the sound of the door. She looked at me then over my shoulder. I didn’t miss the hint of black in her eyes.
“You okay?” I asked.
“Yep.” Her smile didn’t reach her eyes. “I’m not feeling up for company, though, so I think I’ll head home.” She stood and escaped the kitchen before I could blink.
“I’ll see you in the morning,” she called from outside.
She’d left me alone with Oanen. Again.
I looked away from the door to where he leaned against the counter. He watched me with that same careful study he had since the moment I’d punched him in the face weeks ago.
“I have some things I need to do.” He straightened away from the counter. “Do you promise to wait for me before going to town?”
“I don’t plan on going tonight.”
“Whenever you plan to go, do you promise to wait?”
“Yeah. Sure.”
He didn’t look like he believed me and took a step in my direction.
“I promise. Geez.”
He gave me a long look then moved toward the door.
“Am I camping on the roof again, or is your spare room still available?”
Part of me seriously considered saying he could camp. But, despite my irrational temper, I wasn’t that mean.
“The spare room is yours until the killer’s found.”
“Thank you.”
He walked out the door, and I focused on pulling out dinner from the fridge rather than watching him strip for take-off. It didn’t matter where I looked, though. My imagination gave me all the imagery I needed to match each wisp of sound before his wings beat loudly in the air.
Once he was gone, I brought his folded clothes inside and set to work preparing all the ingredients for tacos. The activity kept my hands busy but not my mind.
Adira wanted me at the Academy, attending sessions, which meant not being in town when most of the adults were out and about. If I couldn’t be in town when the adults were, how could I ever hope to find the killer? A thought brought my head up. I stared out the window and grinned at my genius.
Maybe I didn’t need to wander. Two deaths. Both human. Maybe I just needed to stay around the humans.
* * * *
Eliana and Oanen had different plans the next morning.
“What do you mean we’re not going? I thought skipping school meant Trammer would come knocking on my door.”
“We’re not skipping,” Eliana said. “We called in and said we couldn’t attend today and possibly not tomorrow.”
“And Adira was fine with ‘hey, I don’t feel like coming in today’?”
“We let her know that we’re going to town to help you work on your anger,” Oanen said. “She only asked that you email her a report with the names of the people who upset you along with a reason why you think they upset you.”
An Academy sanctioned leave of absence? I could live with that.
“By the way, thanks for setting dinner aside for me last night,” Oanen said. “I didn’t think I was going to be gone that long.”
“No problem,” I said, quickly standing and taking my plate to the sink. I didn’t miss Eliana’s knowing smirk.
She had made us breakfast again. Only this time when I’d come downstairs, Oanen had already been showered and dressed. It didn’t matter. Having him here in any form distracted me in a really weird way. Like I kept wanting to look at him and just stare. As soon as we found the killer, I’d need to tell him he had to stop stalking my roof and sleeping in my guest room. I’d never be able to focus enough to figure out what being a fury meant with
him around.
“So where are we going to start?” I asked.
“To keep what we’re doing a secret, I thought we could start with the shops and look for a new top since your old one has Taser holes in it,” Eliana said.
“You want to actually shop?”
She nodded, grinning widely. I shrugged.
“Fine.”
Twenty minutes later, I stood in a dressing room trying on a top that Eliana had picked out for me.
“It’s too tight,” I said, attempting to wiggle it into place.
“It’s supposed to be tight,” she said from the other side of the door.
“I don’t like tight. I like breathing.”
Another shirt appeared over the edge of the door. This one had a modest heart-shaped neckline with a hint of shimmer to the loose material. I wiggled out of the strangler and gave the new option a try. The darker color looked good on me.
Smiling, I opened the door. Oanen sat in the chair opposite the changing room. His relaxed, leaning position didn’t change when I stepped out, but the look in his eyes did. Appreciation replaced bored disinterest.
“Megan,” Eliana said from beside him, drawing my attention, “that looks amazing on you. It falls over your curves instead of hugging them.” A blush colored her cheeks as she spoke.
“Talking about my curves embarrasses you?” I asked.
“That’s the first time I’ve ever heard her use the word,” Oanen said.
Eliana narrowed her eyes at him.
“You keep it up, and you’re waiting outside each shop.”
“Each shop?” I said. “There’s no point. Look around. There’s no one here. Where do all the mark bearers go every day?”
“A lot of them have day jobs outside of Uttira.”
I groaned. “Why didn’t you tell me that?” Before the festival, the market district had been teeming with people at this hour. When I’d planned to spend more time in town, it was because I’d thought it would be full of people again.
“How do these businesses stay open?”
“They make their money off the unmarked, like us.”
Frustrated, I returned to the dressing room to change out of the shirt. If the adults weren’t in town, then there was no point for us to stay, either.
I stepped out again and stopped at the sight of Eliana’s large, pleading eyes.
“Please don’t say we have to go home. I’ve never been able to shop like this. Adira will count this as progress.”
I snorted. “Progress? You’re not the one trying on the hootchy shirts.”
“Picking them out counts. It’s a baby step.”
Sighing, I rolled my eyes and nodded. She clapped and took the shirt from my hands.
“We’re getting this, right?”
“Sure.”
We walked toward the register where the woman sat reading a novel. She looked up at us and smiled.
“Find what you needed?”
“Yes, thank you,” Eliana said, sliding the shirt onto the counter.
The woman started to ring up the purchase. Everything was fine until I handed her a fifty, and she opened the cash drawer.
Anger slammed into me. I reached out for Eliana’s hand. Instead of connecting with her small, cool fingers, strong warm ones clasped mine. The shock of holding Oanen’s hand distracted me from my anger.
“Here’s your change,” the woman said, holding out a few bills.
When I didn’t reach for them, Eliana did.
“Thank you,” she said.
“Enjoy the shirt.”
Oanen led me toward the door. I stared at our joined hands, my insides flaring hotter and hotter by the second. At the last minute, I recalled the anger and looked back in time to see the woman slip my fifty from the drawer.
As soon as we reached the sidewalk, I eased my hand from Oanen’s. Heat had spread from my stomach to my face.
“Are you okay?” Eliana asked.
“Yeah. She stole money from the cash drawer as we were leaving. I didn’t feel anything toward her until I handed over the fifty. As soon as I did, it’s like I knew she would do something wicked the moment she thought of it.”
“Wow. That’s pretty nifty,” Eliana said.
I grinned at her. “Nifty?”
“What? It is. We’re still shopping some more, right?”
I sighed and ignored the fact Oanen was still watching me closely.
“Lead the way.”
* * * *
I rolled over in my bed, pretending to sleep. Pretending that I couldn’t hear Eliana singing in the kitchen or Oanen moving around in the shower.
The routine of the last few days was getting under my skin. No, it wasn’t the routine. It was Oanen. I didn’t know what to do about him. No, that wasn’t it, either. I knew what I needed to do, and I hated it. Pushing him away now was better than having him wash his hands of me later. It was safer for both of us if I walked away now. Wasn’t it? My insides churned at the thought.
The internal conflict was tearing me apart, and since I didn’t know how to resolve it, I planned to hide from it. Besides, there was no reason to get out of bed today.
After that first day’s success, we’d gone to town every day that week with Adira’s blessing. Sure, I’d identified a few people involved with petty crimes. And I now better understood how the degree of my anger corresponded with the level of the person’s wickedness. But, during all that time, I hadn’t come close to feeling the level of anger I would have thought could be associated with murder.
Downstairs, the singing stopped, and the kitchen door opened and closed. My eyes widened. Eliana wasn’t leaving me alone again, was she?
A minute later, Eliana’s voice, just outside my bedroom door, made me jump.
“Get out of bed already. He’s gone.”
I rolled over and looked at her.
“For how long?”
“Until tonight. I thought we could keep binge watching our shows.”
Relieved, I got out of bed. We talked, snacked, watched our shows, and relaxed until after dinner when Eliana’s phone beeped with a new message.
She made a face as she read it.
“What’s up?”
“Oanen’s parents are worried that I’m not socializing enough for a young succubus. They want me to go to the Roost tonight.”
I made the same face she’d made a moment ago. I didn’t want to spend the evening alone. Not when Oanen had an open invitation to stay over.
“Do you have to?” I asked.
“If I don’t, they’ll just bring up their concerns to Adira, who will push harder for me to do stuff I really don’t want to do. The Quill’s mean well. They really do worry that I’m not…eating right.” Her face paled with the words, and I could see the dread in her eyes.
“Want me to go with you?” I offered.
“Would you? I know you’re tired of town.”
“Of course I’ll go. Tired or not, it’s more fun hanging out with you at the Roost than watching TV alone.” I stood and grinned at her. “Besides, I wanna be there when you wear that dress I picked out for you.”
Her previously celebratory smile started to fade.
“Come on. Don’t be a chicken. You wear your dress, and I’ll wear mine.”
She laughed and clapped. Of course she would. My dress was far worse than hers.
Twenty-One
“Stop tugging,” I said, slapping Eliana’s hand away from her neckline.
“I feel sick,” she said, staring at the Roost’s red double doors.
“No, you don’t. You feel nervous. There’s a difference.”
“Let’s go back to your place.”
“No way. I want to see the boys fall all over themselves when they see you in this.”
“This” was a tube dress topped with capped sleeves. And, it was a far cry from the typical, prim mid-calf sundresses Eliana usually wore. We both knew the dress would cause every head inside to turn. The material clun
g to every curve that Eliana owned. And that fact was freaking Eliana out.
I met her nervous gaze. Her makeup looked flawless and natural. The quiver in her glossy lips didn’t convey any sense of “I am succubus, hear me roar” but rather damsel in distress. I thought the latter would prove more potent in this crowd.
“You’re going to knock the socks off of everyone in there. There’s going to be fighting and mayhem because of you. If I’m lucky, I’ll get to throw in a few punches in defense of your honor.”
She snorted, my words erasing the look of fear in her eyes, as I’d hoped.
“You can’t fight tonight. That dress wouldn’t survive.”
The dress I wore, a black tube that barely reached below the curve of my butt cheeks and the top of my boobs, didn’t need to survive more than one night, anyway. I never planned to wear the dumb thing again.
“We’ll see,” I said, reaching for the door.
We walked into the Roost together, the beat of the music rattling my rib cage. No sultry singers swayed on the stage tonight. Everyone was crammed onto the dance floor.
As I expected, it didn’t take long for people to start noticing us. Not that we dressed so seductively compared to the rest of the crowd. I was pretty sure the girl wearing the dress with the opaque panel over her boobs won the seductive, yet tacky, dress contest.
Eliana leaned in to talk so I could hear her.
“I see Ashlyn at the back table. Let’s go talk to her.”
I nodded and let her lead the way. It wasn’t like we were at the Roost to actually socialize. It was about appearances. Eliana needed to look like she was socializing and trying to become more like a typical succubus.
Before we made it to Ashlyn’s table, Fenris stepped out from the mob on the floor.
“Ladies,” he said, holding his arms out wide. “What a spectacular sight. Come dance.”
“Thank you, but we wanted to talk to Ashlyn before she has to go,” Eliana said.
“Tell me you’ll dance with us afterward, then.”
Aubrey chose that moment to step from the crowd. The annoyance that had simmered in the back of my mind flared into full anger. I’d witnessed Aubrey’s meanness and certainly thought her level of bullying and bitchery qualified as wicked. But wicked enough for this much anger? No. There was more to Aubrey’s story, and I really wanted to know what…after I punched her teeth in.
