by Misty Evans
Dru skirted the table, then me. “I just remembered I have business at the House to take care of.” He pecked me on the cheek. “I’ll see you tomorrow?”
Twice a week, I did my queen duties at the House. “Bet on it. We have a lot to discuss.”
A tight sigh escaped his lips and he nodded a solemn goodbye.
Rad and I circled each other for a minute. “Want a beer?” he asked.
“How about an explanation.”
“I needed a project. I couldn’t work on you, so I worked on your house instead.”
I sat at the table, sipped Dru’s wine. Stuck my finger in the pie and ate a chunk off the end. Rad’s gaze zeroed in on my lips. “I needed time to think things through. To grieve. At first I didn’t realize why you did what you did. You and Damon weren’t exactly buds.”
His eyes came up to meet mine, saw the hidden meaning there, and he plunked down the beer bottle on the table. “You thought I killed him on purpose?”
“I did.”
Shaking his head and snorting, he paced back and forth a couple of times before grabbing a chair, flipping it around and straddling it. The room was lit with a single bulb hanging from the ceiling and it swayed with the intensity of his emotions. “Wow.”
His disappointment was palpable. He wouldn’t look me in the eye.
“I know better now, and…I’m sorry I thought that to begin with. It was…wrong.”
He hooked the bottle with a finger, took a drink. Several heartbeats of silence passed. “Okay.”
I wasn’t all that familiar with the whole apology process, but okay seemed a little anticlimactic. “That’s it? Okay?”
He eyed me across the table and his magic came to attention. “You want me to hold out? Make it harder on you than it already is?”
“Hell, no. I just didn’t think you’d let me off the hook that easily.”
“Oh, you’re not off the hook. I’m going to keep you dangling there a long, long time.”
Something kicked hot and needy in my stomach. I arched a brow, practicing my Damon aloofness. “Funny, because you aren’t off the hook either. I haven’t heard an apology yet.”
“I’m holding out a little longer. Hoping you’ll make me pay for my insolence.”
He was going to pay all right. But not tonight. “Rad, this is not a game. Damon’s death…”
He rose and came to me, pulled me out of the chair and kissed me. Soft, uncomplicated, sweet. Our magics mixed and swirled.
When our lips broke apart, he rubbed my back. “A thousand apologies wouldn’t be enough for that. But it had to be done and I did it. For you and for Damon. He never should have put that responsibility on your shoulders.”
“That’s what he said too.”
“He’s back?”
“Not back per se, but he will be one of these days. Right now, he’s still working for Lucifer.”
“Are you okay with that?”
“Do I have a choice?”
The back rub continued. “Damon may be gone, but the rest of us are still here.”
That rock-solid emotionless powerhouse inside me shook. My magic stirred deeper, my demon warming under the feel of Rad’s hand on my back. “I’m so tired.”
“Stay here tonight. Rest.”
My eyes dropped to the open shirt and his naked chest underneath. Spending the night with Rad would not be restful.
He saw the thought flash across my mind. He pointed three fingers in the air. “Scout’s honor. I won’t touch you.”
I was physically tired, but not that tired. I wanted him to touch. Wanted his arms around me, his fingers trailing melodies over my skin, and his comforting voice whispering in my ear.
Facing the truth about what I really meant by tired made me uncomfortable but I thought he might understand. The next words were hard to say. “I’m tired of saving humans. And supernaturals. Everyone needs me. Save the world, Kali.” I rubbed my head, guilt hitting me square in the face. “I want to save them, but I’m fucking exhausted.”
He brushed hair from the side of my face and chuckled. “Even Wonder Woman needs a day off now and then.”
“Ah, but there’s the difference. Wonder Woman is a goddess-slash-superhero. I’m a demon-slash-superfreak.”
“You both have lassos.”
Volante, curled around my arm, flicked her tail, offended.
I laughed. “For the record, I have a whip, not a lasso.”
“You and the WW both have sexy legs, big boobs and kickass attitudes.”
True. “Don’t forget the boots. It’s really all about the costume.”
He untied my cape, removed it from my shoulders. “Less costume is better.”
“What happened to I won’t touch you?”
“Just helping you get comfortable.”
He did too. He poured me a shot of my favorite liquor—Frangelico—and brought me a clean fork for the pie.
I preferred using my finger and did so. He sat again, watching it dip into the cream, rise to my lips and be sucked off. “We need to talk about Parker.”
“Parker who?”
Funny. “I didn’t kill her. Yet.”
“Why not?”
I stopped feeding myself pie. “She has information I may need down the road about the Noctifectors and the Pope. I’m keeping her, Maria and Victoria in the isolation chambers at the Institute. For now.”
He looked at me. “And?”
“When the time comes, I may have to torture Parker to get the information I’m looking for.”
His brows dipped. “Are you asking for my permission?”
“Just reminding you that she’s a prisoner of war and I will use her for my purposes the way she tried to use you.”
“I understand. And I owe you an apology for that.”
“For seeing Parker behind my back or for fucking her in front of me?”
“I don’t even remember that. The fucking part.”
“I know.” I blew out a sigh. “You were all under Death’s spell.”
“So you are—or aren’t—mad at me over that?”
Another fingertip of cream went in my mouth. “Haven’t decided.”
He blew out a disgruntled breath. “I only saw her once behind your back and that was to fool her into thinking I was double crossing you. It was the only way to control how and when she and Maria showed up here. I never dreamed they were bringing friends.”
I sipped the Frangelico and kicked off my boots. “Anything else you want to admit to?”
“Keep torturing me with that pie and I’ll confess all my secrets.”
Now we were getting somewhere. “Why haven’t you been making public appearances?”
He stilled. His magic stilled. “I’ve been busy here. And I’m looking for a new job.”
My finger froze half-way to my mouth with a fresh dab of cream. “You’re giving up being a rock star?”
“Not completely. Just thinking about a new option.”
“Why? You love your music, fame and fortune.”
The chaos in him could not rest for long. He fiddled with the beer bottle, picked at the label. “I do. I’m not walking away from that, but I have skills well suited to the cause.”
“What cause? Oprah for president?”
“Don’t underestimate my powers. I helped Obama get all the way to the White House.”
Huh. I saluted him with my glass. “Nice job.”
“Thanks.” He stood, placed his empty bottle in the sink. Set a hip against the counter and crossed his arms over his chest. I nearly drooled. “I want to work for the Institute.”
The glass bobbled and I nearly choked. “Come again?”
“You’re busy doing Damon’s job. You need a new enforcer.”
I laughed loud and hard. “You? A Bridge enforcer?”
His eyes snapped. His chest expanded. “I was a Noctifector for two hundred years. I think I can handle it.”
I forgot sometimes that he was more than a pretty-faced r
ock god. More than a gorgeous Chaos demon. “Not the same.”
The tension in his body increased. “Exactly the same. I know everything there is to know about supernaturals and the ways in which they think and act. I know what they crave, what actions they take against humans, and I know how to stop them.”
He had a point. One I didn’t particularly like. “It’s dangerous work.”
“That you’ve been doing for several hundred years.”
“But you’re half human.”
“I can’t believe you just went there.” He made a disgusted noise in the back of his throat. “Yes, I have human genes and human weaknesses, but I survived all the torture and brainwashing the Nocts did to me, and I survived all the encounters I had with supernaturals once I was in the field. You can’t use that against me.”
I’d never seen his humanity as a weakness. I went to him, unfolded his arms and slipped up on my toes to kiss his lips. They were stiff, unyielding.
My fingers brushed his waist, lightly made their way up his back. I admitted the truth against his firm lips. “I can’t stand the thought of losing you.”
“You won’t,” he murmured back, catching my lower lip between his teeth.
The bite was gentle, provocative. I yearned for more. “If I take my clothes off, will you forget this crazy idea?”
His hands went under my shirt, found their favorite targets. He cupped my breasts and massaged them, making me weak in the knees. “Only for as long as you keep them off.”
While Dru and some of the males—and a few of the females—at the Institute might not mind that, it was generally hard to take your director seriously if she was naked. “Deal.”
He carried me to the table, sat me on the edge and undressed me. His pants hit the floor along with my clothes and we feasted on each other’s bodies.
Literally. He laid me back, spread my legs and placed dollops of chocolate cream pie in strategic places before licking it off. Our lovemaking was soft and slow. Languorous, as if we had all night.
We didn’t. My cell phone rang, bringing me back to reality. “Could be the Institute,” I said, shoving him aside and fumbling for my cape.
Rad grabbed my wrists, brought me to heel and refused to let me answer. He kept me restrained as he bent me over the table and entered me from behind.
I quickly forgot the phone.
It rang on and off the rest of the night. Continuing to ignore it, I took what was left of the pie and made my own special treat out of his body, licking, sucking and restraining him my way. He came in a rush of magic, my evil powers giving no quarter to his breathless begging for me to stop.
When he recovered, he blindfolded me. “Trust me.”
Naked and at his mercy, I did.
“Show me what you want me to do to you,” he murmured against my neck at the exact spot my vampire scar rested. I shivered under his lips. “For the next hour, it’s all about you and only you.”
Be what you are.
Something inside me broke loose. Something dark and dangerous. Being the selfish demon I was, I showed him exactly what I wanted him to do to me and reveled for the rest of the night in my debauchery.
Funny thing was, it wasn’t about the sex.
____________
Sunlight woke us, bright and blinding on the snow outside the kitchen windows. We squared off across the table again, this time with coffee and donuts.
“I won’t hire you unless you completely give up being a rock star.”
He bit into a glazed pastry, licked his lips and said, “Okay.”
Wait. He was supposed to balk at giving up his career. Music meant everything to him.
This brilliant idea had hit me as I lay half-dozing in his arms. I’d thought it was the perfect way to foil his plan to replace me as enforcer.
“I mean it. Everything. No concerts, no albums, no benefits. You can’t work for the Bridge and be in the public eye the way you are now.”
“I know. I was thinking about it last night. The band will have to find a new front man.”
Merde. “Your fans will never buy it. The Chaos Demons will fail without you. You know that. You don’t want to disappoint the guys or your fans, do you?”
“I’ve always said I wanted to go out on a high note.” He finished off the donut. “Now’s the perfect time.”
So much for reverse psychology.
I leapt up, downed my coffee and grabbed my cape, still lying on the floor and stained here and there with chocolate. “I have to go. I have, uh, Bridge things to do.”
He rose too. “You’ll think about it? Hiring me?”
Avoiding his puppy dog eyes, I adjusted my cape, wrapped Volante around my arm. “Bring me your resume. I’ll have to take it to Kirill and get his approval. Hiring decisions are a joint process.”
Two hours later, I was back to business. Regardless of the fact I’d had little sleep, I had too much restless energy to go to bed. I checked on the new Fallen guests—they were adjusting nicely—spent an hour on the phone with Di discussing the latest SI cases and ate a hearty breakfast with Cole. He laughed at my predicament with Rad.
“What’s so funny?” I asked.
He laughed again around a mouthful of bacon. “I’m thinking of all the ways I can make Guitar Boy’s life miserable when he’s here every day.”
“I’m not hiring him.”
“The hell you aren’t. He’s right. He’s perfect for the job.”
Why was Rad always right? I slammed down my napkin and left Cole smiling into his orange juice.
Rad showed up, resume in hand, at noon. He brought Kirill with him.
Busted.
I hadn’t spoken to Kirill yet and recruited him to my side.
The archdemon was munching on an apple. Seraphina had put him on a diet. From his sour mood, it wasn’t appreciated.
He slammed the apple on my desk. “I vote yes. Give the boy your job.”
Rad grinned. I sneered. I had one last card to play. “No sleeping with the boss.”
The grin fell off his face. Kirill frowned. “There’s no rule against that.”
There wasn’t?
Time to make one up. “Bridge mandate, Code Six A, Section Eleven. Look it up.”
Kirill shook his head, making his jowls bob. “Liar.”
Rad crossed his arms. “I’m announcing my retirement tonight on the Late Show. I already talked to the guys and they’re cool with it. They’ve reached out to a couple of other front men and will continue the band. Meantime, I’ll lay low, make myself over so fans don’t recognize me when I’m out and work for you.”
The Kali approach wasn’t working. I sat back in the chair, reached for a pencil and started turning it end over end, digging the point into my blotter. Channeling Damon, I called up my impersonal face. “Why are you doing this, Radison?”
The two males looked at each other. “Scary,” Kirill said.
“You sound just like Damon,” Rad added.
Good. “Answer the question.”
He squared his body. Looked me in the eye. “I want to be enforcer so I can help humans.”
Now who was lying? “That the only reason?”
“I want to be with you and my current lifestyle makes that difficult.”
Finally, we were getting somewhere. “Why be an enforcer? Why not, say, a carpenter?”
A glint of challenge registered in his face. “I want to help you save the world. Take some of the strain off your shoulders.”
I believed him, but I still tried to come up with an argument.
He pulled out all the stops. “Give me a chance. Just one chance. Trust me, Kali. Let me do this for you.”
Don’t get emotional. Don’t take it personally. My mottos coming to my rescue.
How have those worked out so far, there, Kali girl?
Three hundred years of battles, scrimmages and all-out wars, and I was just learning emotions served a purpose and I needed to take things more personally.
&nbs
p; “All’s fair in love and war,” I said to no one in particular.
Rad and Kirill exchanged another look. Rad shifted forward. “Does that mean I have the job?”
I tapped the pencil against my cheek. “After a thirty-day trial period. I’ll review your performance at that time and make my final decision.”
“Yes.” He did a fist pump and he and Kirill high-fived each other. “You won’t be sorry.”
“No, but you might.”
He grinned. “Challenging me already, boss?”
I returned his smile with a little evil one of my own. “I’m going to put you through hell, Chaos demon.”
He planted his hands on the desk and got in my face. “Bring it on. You don’t scare me.”
I grabbed him and kissed him.
A second later, I heard the door close—Kirill leaving us to seal the deal.
We did, right there on the desk, the future shining as bright and dangerous as Michael’s golden sword.
Glossary of Terms
biblical pseudepigrapha—refers to books of the New Testament canon whose authorship is misrepresented
castello: castle; from Latin root castellum
guerriero feroce—fierce warrior
Hasta la Victoria Siempre: Until the Eternal Victory—Marxist revolutionary Che Guevara’s famous slogan
il pistolino—dick, prick
merde—shit
Noctifector—demon slayer belonging to the Roman Catholic Church’s secret organization; slang terms Slayer, Noct
porca miseria—miserable pig
mio fratello—my brother
mon petit chaton—my little kitten
non si preoccupi—don’t worry formal, singular
rifugio—refuge, sanctuary
semper paratus—always ready; motto of the U.S. Coast Guard
soldato della notte—soldier of the night
ti voglio bene—I love you
