by Patti O'Shea
The dark demon looked at him, then at Mika. When his hand drew back, Conor struck; with his forearm, he knocked the Dark One’s aim off. A fireblast hit the ceiling, leaving a smoldering, charred hole. Conor had to block from his mind what that blast would have done if it had struck Mika.
If he could just hang on to the bastard, he could freeze him—but Conor wasn’t given the chance. The demon quickly escaped. Conor pursued, but wasn’t able to narrow the distance between them.
“Cowards run,” Conor called with a snarl.
The dark demon turned, his eyes glowing, then said calmly enough, “Believe what you will.” Finally, firing another blast at Mika, he ducked out the door.
Conor barely had time to intercept. His protective shield held—something he’d wondered about, given what Mika had said about the Dark Ones’ power. The magic was the most intense he’d ever felt, but he absorbed and processed it into energy he could use. If only he had a target. His enemy was gone. To verify, he ran a scan, but he hadn’t missed anything. He muttered a couple of curses and then turned to check on Mika. She was swaying and he caught her as her knees buckled.
“Honey, are you okay?” he asked.
No response. That wasn’t good. He sat down, holding her on his lap. Her whole body shook violently, and when he lifted her eyelid to check her pupils, all he saw was white. He didn’t know one damn thing about dealing with this, and he doubted any Emergency Room doctor would know how to treat it either. Conor cursed again and wrapped his arms around her. “Mika, don’t die,” he begged.
“Not…planning…on it.”
As he cuddled her against his chest, the spasms began to abate. He moved her away and saw she had her eyes open. Conor tried to imagine what the bastard had done to Mika. “How bad is it?” he asked.
She took a deep breath. Her lips curved. “I’m not sure what happened, but…I’m okay, McCabe. Relax.” And she rubbed the back of his neck, trying to ease his tension.
“You could have died,” he growled. She would have died if he hadn’t come home when he had.
“But I didn’t,” she argued.
Her eyes were clearing, and her body only quivered with occasional spasms now. That enabled Conor to take his fear down a notch and think. After feeling that demon’s power, he knew that Mika was right when she’d said the bastard hadn’t run because of him. There was some other reason why the dark demon didn’t want to engage, but damned if he knew what.
“Are you okay?” Mika’s soft question pulled him from his thoughts.
“Yeah, why wouldn’t I be?” he asked.
“You took a hit, too. I was alert enough to see.”
“I’m fine. I just hope that”—he gestured to the hole in the ceiling—“didn’t go all the way up through the roof.”
Mika laughed, and Conor relaxed some more. If she could find humor here, then she was okay. With his index finger, he angled her face for his kiss. Keeping the action gentle, he explored her mouth to express the relief he felt.
For a brief moment after he drew back, they only stared at each other. Then Mika said, “I love you, McCabe.”
He nodded, unable to speak around the constriction in his throat. Her words filled him with satisfaction. As did the way she said his last name: There was so much affection, so much warmth in her voice that it was an obvious endearment. He for damn sure liked it better than the stupid pet names some women used.
Her avowal made him even more determined that nothing happen to her. Which got him thinking again. How the hell had that bastard dismantled his protection? Only someone who had his permission to enter his property could do that. Conor knew Mika hadn’t taken it down and Ben, his former mentor, was in Arizona. He needed to walk the perimeter and see what had happened, see if he could fix things. As long as his security was down, Mika was unsafe here.
A piece of ceiling fell, narrowly missing them and reminding him to check the damage to his house.
“I have to go outside and take a look at what he did to the shield. Will you be all right here by yourself?” he asked.
Her eyes flared. “Of course I will.”
“Honey, you couldn’t stand up a few minutes ago. I don’t want to leave you defenseless.”
As if to prove to him how much she’d recovered, Mika got to her feet and moved across the room. “I’m fine,” she said.
Conor went to her and pushed her hair back until his fingers hit the barrette. He unsnapped it and, using both hands, gently untangled her locks. “If you need me, yell,” he said, and he handed her the clip.
“I will.”
After a moment’s hesitation, he nodded and headed outside. The night air felt cool, and Conor tipped his face into it, trying to sense any demonic presence. There was nothing.
In the nearly five years he’d lived here, his protection had been impenetrable. It had been tested repeatedly by humans, vampires, werewolves, and yeah, demons. Sometimes he knew when someone tried to cross the energy shield or take it down, sometimes he only suspected. He did know that in the last six months or so, the attempts had become a lot more frequent. But this was the first time anyone had succeeded, and he wanted to know how they’d done it.
Conor checked the two front corners first. Nothing was amiss at either place, but he didn’t expect to find anything. With his truck mere feet away, he’d have noticed immediately when he pulled up. Even if he had been in a fog of lust.
He walked along his property line to the back of the house. The third corner checked out okay, too. Which left one last place.
Corner number four was hidden by bushes he’d been meaning to trim for months. As he neared them, Conor noticed they were even more overgrown than he’d realized, and perfect cover for nefarious activity. Damn. He’d have to make this a priority.
Pushing the branches away from his face, he headed behind them to check the last section of his yard. He nearly fell over the body. Crouching down, Conor checked for a pulse. It was there, but weak, and even as he monitored it, the beat grew fainter. There was no blood or other sign of injury, but a Dark One didn’t need to leave visible wounds to kill.
As he pulled his hand back, the half-dead man turned his head and Conor grunted in surprise. Ben? His mentor had been the one to let the enemy in? He struggled to fight the overwhelming sense of betrayal. “I don’t see any indication of trauma,” Conor said, his voice tight. “What did they do to you?”
“Life force spell.”
It made an odd kind of sense. The spell they’d used stole life force energy from a victim and transferred it to the demon. The spell was only capable of extracting a small amount, but at Ben’s age, that would be all it would take.
“Do you want me to call an ambulance?” he asked, although there was nothing anyone would be able to do.
“No. It’s too late. But I knew if I could hang on, I’d get a chance to talk to you.”
“Why?” he demanded furiously. “So you could explain why you turned on me?”
“I was protecting you.” Ben’s voice was sad. The man tried to sit up, obviously using the last of his energy.
Conor was too angry to rein in. “Bullshit. You destroyed my home’s shield and allowed him in! He nearly killed my wo—my client tonight.”
“They”—Ben emphasized the plural—“are here to protect you from her. The leaders of Orcus want you killed.”
Conor would have laughed if he weren’t so angry. “If Mika wanted me dead, I’d be dead. She’s had plenty of opportunity. Either you’re lying, or you were stupid enough to believe their lies. Mika isn’t capable of murder.”
Ben reached out, clasping his arm with surprising strength. “She’s part of a team. She’s not an assassin, she’s the thief. They briefed her on you and your background, then sent her in. The Council wants a spell you have, and when she gets it, the two assassins sent to kill you will do so. Believe me.” His grip tightened for a moment, but the strength didn’t last.
“Why should I? Your facts come from
Dark Ones. Demons! It never occurred to you that they were telling you lies to get at her? You should be smarter than that. They want her dead, and you did everything but roll out the welcome mat.”
“Your father…” Ben’s voice trailed off as Conor stiffened.
“What about that bastard?”
Ben took a deep breath. “He’s with the demons trying to protect you, and he swore to me that he wanted to save your life. I couldn’t come to you. I had to work with them. Didn’t want you dead. They said…” Ben’s hand slipped from his arm. “I love you, Conor, like my own son. Couldn’t let you die.”
The older man’s eyes actually filled with tears, and that thwarted Conor’s anger. “You’ve always meant a lot to me too,” he said awkwardly. Damn, the man was dying and he still couldn’t say those words. He did love Ben, as if the man were a grandfather or an uncle. If it weren’t for him, who knew how Conor’s life would have turned out? Ben had found him living on the streets of Los Angeles after his mother washed her hands of him, and had taken Conor under his wing, given him a place to stay, and taught him the business of being a slayer.
“Don’t worry. I know…” Ben’s eyes closed as he winced.
“Thanks,” Conor whispered.
“I know too, that you don’t want to believe me about her. You’re thinking they did this to me, so how honest can they be? But your father wasn’t part of this. I believed him. You won’t want to hear it, but he loves you. It was obvious when he talked about you.”
Conor could have said a number of different things on the topic, but he didn’t. What was the point? Ben would think whatever the hell he wanted, anyhow.
Although Conor knew there wasn’t a damn thing any human doctor could do to save him, he asked, “Are you sure you don’t want me to call an ambulance?”
Ben shook his head. “Nah. Can’t do nothing against this spell. Just promise I didn’t die for no reason. Promise me you’ll throw her out.”
“I promise you won’t die in vain, but I won’t throw Mika out. I already gave my word to protect her. I’ll fulfill the obligation.”
“You don’t believe me about her?” Ben hissed. “She was sent for the enslavement spell. I knew that thing would be trouble.”
“Yeah, I remember. You told me to burn it, that no good could come from finding it. But those dark demons, they’re not on my side.” He didn’t want to believe it. Yet…if they were here to protect him, their retreats made more sense. They’d known from the way Conor put himself in front of her that he would die in her defense.
Conor shook his head. He couldn’t be buying into this fantasy they’d spun for Ben. “Why send her then, and not a stronger demon? If they want me dead?”
“They knew she’d be able to get closer. She’s half human. Like you.”
“You know?” That shocked him.
“I always knew. It doesn’t change who you are.”
A thousand thoughts whirled through Conor’s head, but before he could settle on any one, Ben’s breathing changed. The wheezy, rattling sound shook Conor and he put his hand on his mentor’s shoulder. “Ben, are you all right?” No answer. “Ben?”
The older man’s breathing stopped altogether.
Conor waited for it to resume, but it didn’t. The urge to throw his head back and howl raged through him, but he fought it. “Rest well,” he said. “I guess you know how much what you did meant to me. Thank you.”
Slowly, he stood and walked back inside. Mika was alone and vulnerable. He couldn’t neglect her any longer.
But how could Ben have conspired with demons? He’d known how they lied.
Mika’s a demon. Conor shook off the voice in his head. The Dark Ones were trying to kill her; she wasn’t lying about that. She’d be dead already if not for him.
But she’d claimed it was a Kiverian who wanted her dead, and not these two Dark Ones. He knew she read energy too accurately to make that kind of mistake.
Maybe she’d lied to ensure he’d take the job. It was understandable. She’d been scared, needed help and knew nothing would get him on her side faster than being hunted by a Kiverian. Except, she shouldn’t have known yet that he hated Kiverians. Or why.
Conor thought back to the night they met, the way she’d immediately known his mother was raped. What he’d said hadn’t given it away, Mika shouldn’t have jumped to that conclusion so quickly. Unless she had been filled in about him beforehand.
He walked to the front of the house instead of using the back door. Mika couldn’t be part of some plot to kill him. If she was, it meant that everything between them was a lie. Everything. And that just wasn’t possible.
Chapter Fourteen
Mika paced anxiously, but when two turns around the room left her dizzy to the point of staggering, she sat on the sofa. Where the hell was Conor? It couldn’t take so long to just check around—not unless he’d run into trouble. She brought her heels up and wrapped her arms around her knees. If anything happened to him, she’d hunt those bastards down and kill them. Big talk for someone who could have died tonight, and whose head was still swimming from the shots the Dark One fired, but she meant every word.
She wanted to go outside and check on Conor, but she knew better. If he was involved in a fight, her presence would only distract him. She refused to let her worry make her do anything that would endanger him.
No matter how difficult it was to wait.
It was an eternity before she heard the door open. Mika dropped her feet back to the floor and let her eyes eat Conor up. He appeared unharmed, but something had occurred, and from the stone-cold look on his face, it was serious.
“Conor?” she said. She stood, crossing the room to him. “Are you okay? What happened?”
Without answering, he stepped around her and walked deeper into the great room. Pivoting, she went after him, but she’d moved too quickly and her head started to spin again. She braced her feet to keep her balance. The last thing she wanted was Conor to think he had to take care of her. “You’re scaring me. Please, are you okay?” she asked.
“Fine.”
There was no emotion in his voice, and that frightened Mika more than his expression. When he walked away from her again, she followed and wrapped her arms around his waist from behind. After pressing a kiss between his shoulder blades, she asked, “What happened?”
Another eternity passed; then he turned and pushed her away from him. Okay, some men didn’t like to be touched after a battle because they were too keyed up, she understood that, but she didn’t think that was Conor’s problem. After an even more intense encounter with one of the dark demons, he’d taken her to bed and kept her there until they were both exhausted. Why didn’t he want her to hold him now?
For the first time, Mika felt unsure of herself. She linked her fingers together at her waist and squeezed her hands tightly as she debated what to do. Did she continue to push to learn what had gone on outside, though he’d already ignored her question?
As the silence lengthened, she became more uncomfortable. Finally she cursed and said, “McCabe, you tell me what happened out there or I’m going to hurt you myself.”
“Hurt me yourself? Has the plan changed, Mika? I thought you were supposed to find the enslavement spell before I was killed.”
“There’s no plan to kill you! I made them promise—” It wasn’t until she saw the flash in his eyes and watched his expression become even more remote that she realized what she’d admitted. She felt the blood drain out of her face. He’d been on a fishing expedition, and she’d taken the bait faster than a shark would chum.
“Conor.” She reached for him, but he stepped back, evading her touch. Mika let her hand fall to her side.
“Congratulations, you had me snowed. I trusted you. I believed what you told me. Of course, you went out of your way to make sure it was my cock doing the thinking and not my brain.”
McCabe didn’t use language like that with her, not out of bed, and it drove home exactly how f
urious—and how hurt—he was. “It wasn’t like that, I swear.”
His hands fisted and relaxed at his sides. “You swear? Why doesn’t that make me feel any better?”
“I know I hurt you, but I give you my word, I did not use the visht—the attraction between us to complete my mission.”
He’d caught her slip; she could see it in the way his gaze sharpened. Mika bit back a groan. Tonight wasn’t going well for her. The magical attacks she’d absorbed earlier had left her thoughts sluggish, which was why she was making mistakes. That was small consolation.
Conor closed the distance and, taking hold of her shoulders, glared down at her. “Vishtau. That’s what you were going to say, right? Right?” he demanded, when she didn’t answer.
“You know about the vishtau?” That surprised her.
“Start talking,” was all he said.
Mika frowned. Was he testing her? “I don’t understand.”
“I want you to tell me about the vishtau.”
“But—” When the glow in his eyes brightened, she stopped short. Mika tried to organize her thoughts, but she wasn’t having much luck. Not only was her mind slow, she was upset. She decided to just be honest. “Sex is pretty casual for most in Orcus. I don’t know if it’s always been that way, or if it’s because the number of males is far greater than the number of females.”
When she paused, Conor’s hands tightened. Mika continued quickly: “But that changes when a demon meets a vishtau mate. The closest thing to it is the human concept of soul mates, but it goes far beyond that for demons, and most of us hold it in reverence.” She shrugged. “Probably because our population is stagnant and we can only conceive with such a mate.”
