by Jenny McKane
“Nope,” Plaxo shook his head. “Now you see why Plaxo was so scared of it. They are dangerous.”
Yeah. That was putting it lightly. Sunny reached up and grabbed a handful of paper towels and wiped the blade clean before returning it to its hiding spot. She stood and tried to wipe the splatters of blood from her face and chest. Lucky for her, she was wearing black which basically covered the signs of any blood, but she’d been scratched up pretty bad on her legs and her head, so she did her best to rearrange herself so that she could get back across the supper club without drawing another succubus’s attention and so she could get Gideon and get the hell out of there. She wasn’t sure she and Plaxo would survive another run in.
She gave herself a quick look in the mirror over the sink, which was now cracked and spider-webbed where she’d been thrown into it, and grimaced. Holy hell, she looked like a hot mess. She shook her head before heading to the door and unbolting it. She took a deep breath, before walking back out into the bar area, and started walking.
She was certain that someone was going to see the mess of her outfit or the trickles of blood she felt streaming down the sides of her neck, but Sunny was out of options. She heard Plaxo’s heavy little footsteps beside her, and for some reason, it was incredibly comforting.
Whoever Gideon needed to talk to was gone, and he caught sight of her a few steps out of the bathroom, thank goodness. He even looked concerned. She kept the ruse up as she felt eyes on her as she neared the tables again, and she passed with her head held high, despite the fact that she felt like she might be sick, and she really wanted the heels off.
Sinking as gracefully into her side of the booth as she could, Sunny gave a weak smile as Gideon gave her a once over. She saw the moment he recognized that something was wrong, and his face darkened. Without saying anything, he reached across the table and swept a soft fingertip across the top of her cheek, along the cheekbone and toward her nose. He turned the fingertip toward her and showed her the blood. Whether it was hers or the succubus’s, Sunny couldn’t tell.
“What just happened?” Gideon whispered to her, his eyes darting around, checking every person in the vicinity as they went about their business.
“Succubus hit attempt,” Sunny said.
His eyes widened in surprise.
“You killed it?”
She nodded, and Gideon shook his head in disbelief.
“Jesus, Sunshine,” he said as he let out a breath. “You never cease to amaze me. Is there a body?”
Again, she shook her head, but Sunny wasn’t feeling so great.
“I think I need to,” she started to say before the world swam in front of her, and she fell sideways onto the bench of the booth, the world going dark.
Chapter 20
Sunny didn't remember drinking the antidote, she only remembered that it tasted like corn chips and mold. Her last memory was of passing out in the supper club, her eyes on Gideon in her panic, and she knew she was fading. She hadn’t even considered the fact that the claws on the succubus would have venom in them. Of course, they would, the succubus was a predator, and Sunny was the prey.
She hadn’t put two and two together until too late.
It was clear that Gideon had somehow gotten them home, though she had been worried that with the blood she was losing, it would alert the other waitstaff to whom she was. With a bounty on her head in the succubus world, staying under the radar was going to be Sunny’s best plan.
The world was spinning, even with her eyes closed, but Sunny knew that she had regained consciousness, because she could hear Plaxo in the corner somewhere talking to Noodle.
“We could be friends, furry animal,” Plaxo was saying. “We could be friends if the fur ball would share the food with Plaxo.”
Sunny didn't need to open her eyes when she spoke. “You don't need cat food, Plaxo,” she said. The sound of her voice hurt her head, and she let out a groan. It was like the worst hangover Sunny could imagine, and she could probably imagine a lot, because she hadn't experienced all that many in her short twenty years. This recovery would likely go down in some hangover hall of fame. Assuming she lived long enough to have a hangover hall of fame. The train of thought made her chuckle. And that hurt.
“Why does it hurt so bad?” she asked Plaxo, her voice sounding like gravel.
“The antidote is almost as bad as the venom,” Plaxo said.
“Did you get it for me?” She didn't imagine that Gideon kept vials of succubus antidote lying around. Of course, she could be wrong. She often was.
“Half Breed sent me to do it,” Plaxo replied.
“Where is he now?”
“Asleep,” Plaxo replied.
“How long have I been out?”
“Almost a full day,” Plaxo said. “According to your human calendar, it is Wednesday night.”
Son of a bitch. She had managed to miss her second shift at The Little Lamb.
“I'm going to be fired,” she groaned. “I needed that job.”
“At the string store?” Plaxo asked. He sounded like he was closer now.
“Yarn shop,” Sunny corrected him. “Yes, I needed that job.”
“Half Breed called the nice owner lady and told her that you had a fender bender,” Plaxo said. “Nice lady said that you could come to work when you felt better.”
If it didn’t promise to hurt too much, Sunny would have cried with relief. The last time that Gideon had spoken on the phone with a boss of hers, he’d basically quit for her. This time, he was saving her job.
“I owe him one,” she said, mostly to herself.
“Noted,” a deeper voice replied.
Her eyes were still closed, but the rumble of his voice sent shivers down her arms, and she knew Gideon was in the room now. Sunny forced her eyes open, and it hurt. There was just enough light to aggravate a headache she didn't know she had yet. It felt like her skull was splitting in half.
“This is torture,” she said, as she ground the palms of her hand in her eye sockets. If she could do it, she’d probably squish her eyes right out of her head, they hurt so badly right now.
“You took it like a champ, though,” Gideon said. “I was sure that you were going to barf it up. I’ve heard that most humans can’t handle the antivenom.”
“Thanks for the vote of confidence,” she mumbled as she sat up.
“Anytime, Sunshine,” he said with a little too much cheer in his voice.
“How long am I going to feel like this?” She was certain she would burst into tears if he said anything longer than two or three more seconds.
“It depends on how quickly your body can process it,” Gideon said, as he came to sit on the edge of her bed. The mattress tilted towards him under his weight. He handed her an unopened bottle of Gatorade, and she cracked open the lid and took a sip. It tasted salty and foreign on her tongue, and she made a face.
“Yeah,” Gideon said. “All of your senses are going to be a little jacked up for a few hours at least. Taste especially. No way around that.”
The day was getting better and better. She wasn’t sure if she was going to survive it.
“Hey, dream demon,” Gideon said over his shoulder. Sunny looked and didn’t see Plaxo anywhere. He must have disappeared when Gideon entered the room. At the summons, Plaxo surprised Sunny and appeared.
“Yes, Half Breed?”
Sunny tensed at the name, certain that Gideon would take it as some kind of slur, but he didn’t seem to show any reaction.
“Take a hike for a minute,” Gideon said. “I need to speak with Sunny. In private.”
Plaxo gave a short half bow and disappeared again. She wondered if he would stay true to his word, and after a few moments, she didn’t sense him at all. She was getting good at sensing him and could normally tell if he was in the room, even when invisible.
Sunny studied Gideon’s face and noticed the dark circles under his eyes.
“You look tired,” she observed.
He
gave her a long stare and didn’t say anything for a moment.
“Forgive me if I look a little less than refreshed,” he said with a droll smile. “I've just been scared half to death, that's all.”
“Worried about me?” Sunny asked, batting her eyelashes. She was teasing. Sort of.
Gideon laughed.
“Don't flatter yourself, Sunshine,” he teased as he leaned forward towards her. “You’re the property of the archangel, and if I break you, it’s my ass.”
“So freaking sweet,” Sunny muttered to herself. Without saying anything, Gideon grabbed her hand and covered it in his again, just like he had at the restaurant.
“You scared me,” he said. Suddenly, his voice was all seriousness and all hints of teasing were gone.
“I'm sorry,” she said. “I didn't have time to let you know, and she was pretty intent on killing me.”
“Your dream demon let me in on what happened, at least as far as he knew,” Gideon said. His face fell slightly as he spoke again. “Christ, Sunny, if I had known that there was a bounty on your head, I never would have taken you there.”
“I know,” she said. “And hell, if I had known, I wouldn’t have let you take me there. But now I’m a little nervous. That one was hard enough to kill, and I had help.”
Gideon frowned momentarily and looked up at her.
“Speaking of that,” he said. “How did you manage to kill a succubus in a confined space like that bathroom? Not that I’m doubting your hand-to-hand combat skills, but I’m definitely doubting your hand-to-hand combat skills.”
That last part made her laugh a little bit. But he was serious.
“What did Plaxo tell you?”
“To hell with what the dream demon said,” Gideon replied. He seemed a little angry now. “I'm asking you how you killed her.”
Sunny hesitated a moment before telling him the truth. It was a fault of hers, this truth thing. It wouldn’t get her anywhere in a world of demons who offered as little as possible when it came to honesty.
“I got a blade yesterday from Michael,” she said. “He was waiting for me after I got out of my classes, and he handed it to me in some sort of creepy envelope. Like some clichéd drug deal. I didn’t exactly know what it was until I tried to show Plaxo.”
“It’s an obsidian blade, isn’t it?”
Once the question was out, it sounded more like an accusation. Sunny nodded and braced for impact.
“Are you fucking crazy?” Gideon was angry. “That was incredibly dangerous, and it’s a stupid thing to keep around. Do you know how easily something like that could be turned against you? Did Michael even bother to explain to you what happens when an obsidian blade is used on a human wielding it?”
No. Of course, Michael had not told her anything about that. But then again, neither had Plaxo.
“No,” she whispered, suddenly afraid of what Gideon was going to tell her. Instead, he shot to his feet and promptly punched the nearest wall. It seemed as though the entire foundation shook under the force and Sunny closed her eyes. Shit, he was angry.
“The same thing, Sunny,” he said. “You know? That fade to dust as your soul is eaten up? It would happen to the owner of that blade if it was turned on them. It’s sort of a balance-of-power clause written into obsidian blade weaponry. Stab a random human with it? Nothing but a cut that could potentially heal. Stab a demon? Soul-stealing and death. Get stabbed by the blade you were wielding? Soul-stealing and death, Sunny!”
She felt a little sick to her stomach and lightheaded, and she couldn’t be certain if it was because of the antidote or the massive truth bomb Gideon had just dropped on her.
She laid her head back and closed her eyes, tears sliding out. She didn’t speak; she only worked on controlling her breathing and not panicking.
Gideon must have seen the tears, because the mattress dipped again under his weight.
“I’m sorry I yelled at you,” he said, a little gruffly and significantly mollified. “Please don’t cry.”
She sniffed and ran the back of her hand across her face as she opened her eyes and stared at the ceiling.
“I’m not crying because you yelled at me. I ignore you all the time,” Sunny sniffed miserably. “I’m upset because this entire game is stacked against me, and I’m a worthless pawn in the middle of it. Nobody tells me a damn thing, and it’s really only because of some tiny little dream demon that everyone else in the demon world craps on that I’m even alive.”
Sunny was struggling to hold it together. She didn’t want to get upset, partly because she wanted to save a little face in front of Gideon, but mostly because she was afraid that the antidote would make her barf if she got any more worked up.
Gideon was quiet beside her for a long moment, and when she finally gave up waiting for him to respond, he spoke. “You’re dealing with demons,” he said. Sunny shook her head in frustration and moved to stand, but he shot his hand out and gently grabbed her arm, keeping her in place. “It’s not an excuse, and it’s not me just stating the obvious. But think about it, Sunny. You’re dealing with supernatural beings hell-bent on winning a war that you have nothing to do with. You might not see a war yet, but how long do you think demons are going to allow angels and archangels to police them without trying to shrug off the system entirely? All of this? It’s way more than a single assignment.”
His words sunk in, and she believed them, but she also knew what was on the line.
“Sure,” she said with a nod, looking at Gideon. He took his hand away, and she wanted it back, she realized. “But I don’t have the luxury of thinking big picture. I’ve got to get through this assignment and kill Seumat. And it would all be so much easier if my boss wasn’t as hostile as my targets seem to be. I can’t help but wonder--did he want me to get carved up with that loaded blade?”
She didn’t think Michael was that cold or heartless that he’d send her off into the world with a weapon that could self-destruct and collapse her soul with a simple cut, but facts were facts.
“And why wouldn’t Plaxo warn me?” She sniffed, feeling the waterworks starting again. She did not want to cry right now.
“More than likely, he had no idea,” Gideon said as he drew his arm around Sunny and pulled her up against him in a half-hug. “Lower demons wouldn’t have much access to intel like that. He simply didn’t know, but he did know it was dangerous and he tried to tell you.”
It was true.
Sunny closed her eyes as the scent of cinnamon and flame washed over her. Gideon had a scent to him that got to the very core of her. It was heady and hypnotic, and she could recognize it from a mile away.
“How do we win this, Gideon?” she asked, just a bit of misery in her voice. “Can we win it?”
Gideon was quiet a moment before he spoke. “We’re after very different things, Sunny,” he said at last. “I’m not entirely convinced we can both walk away winners from this particular minefield the archangels arranged for us.”
She looked up at him in surprise and read the serious expression on his face. He meant it and the truth of it rocked her a moment.
“You’re serious?”
He blinked and studied her face before he spoke.
“Yes.”
She inhaled a moment and felt herself sagging against him.
“So, why are you doing this then? Buying me furniture and clothes and trying to help me with Michael’s assignment?”
He didn’t say anything and stared at the floor before looking back at her, his expression harder to read now.
“I ask myself that all the time, Sunshine,” he said. “And I still don’t have an answer.”
Chapter 21
The antidote hangover lasted through the rest of Thursday, causing Sunny to miss her classes. She considered texting Liam to let him know, but figured it would be a bit weird, he might take it the wrong way, or no way at all, which would probably be even worse. She fretted over that singular decision longer than she needed to.<
br />
Thursday was mostly spent in her bed, watching her favorite shows on her laptop. Gideon was busy and stopped in a few times during the day to check on her, even bringing her more Gatorade. As the drink grew less and less awful tasting, she knew she must be getting over the antidote. It was a long haul, though.
She managed to get a little bit of her reading done for her English class and had typed in an entire table of contents for the paper that was coming due next week. Next week, she realized, was going to be a bit of a bear. She had a paper; she had a quiz; and she had a payment due to the financial aid office. She wasn’t sure how she was going to survive one of those, let alone all three. But as was the norm with her, Sunny had more pressing matters immediately at hand. She had to survive the weekend, and that she could worry about next week.
By Friday morning, Gideon had informed her that if she was feeling up to it, he had information about a sketchy place they could investigate. A body had been found last week in a dumpster behind a strip club on the south side. Gideon happened to know, on good authority, that said strip club was also a succubus hang out.
“But before I take you anywhere else,” Gideon said that morning, “we need to teach you how not to stab yourself with this obsidian blade.”
They had gone back and forth for quite a while about whether or not Sunny was going to use the gift from Michael. Gideon was dead set against it, as was Plaxo. At first, anyway. But Sunny reminded them both that she had neither the training or the body toughness that both of them had. Hell, even Plaxo new how to defend himself, and he was only forty-eight inches tall at his natural height. Plaxo had a plethora of moves at his disposal, and Gideon was a walking, talking, sexy-as-hell badass. She had never got the chance to ask Gideon how he knew everything that he did, but she figured she might get the chance someday.
They spent the majority of Friday afternoon doing basic drills with a dummy knife made of silicon that Gideon had in his garage. He had Sunny working a slashing motion over and over again until she got it right without loosening her grip and she straightened her arm.
