by Shona Husk
“Stop apologizing.” He smiled. “Most people want to know and I tell them the same thing. People seem to think that asking about the scars is a good icebreaker. It’s not.” Every time he met someone they’d look at his arm and ask what had happened without realizing what they were asking.
“Maybe you should make up a cool lie.”
“I have lied. Bar fight usually shuts people up and makes them take a step back. Especially when I add that I walked out and the other guy didn’t.”
She knew he was joking, but it wasn’t funny. The waiter came back to take their order. She scanned the menu for a moment, had almost ordered her standard glass of white wine, then she changed her mind and ordered a glass of whiskey with her meal. Cory would have a fit. She liked that idea more than a little.
Noah stuck with water. “Magic and alcohol don’t mix. I usually drink after a case.” Because the person was dead and he wanted to forget.
“Maybe it will be celebratory dinks this time.”
“That would be nice.”
“I mean it. You said you don’t get to spend much time with the people before the end, maybe this time will be different.” She needed it to be different. She didn’t want to stop and think about it too closely or she would freak out. One meal at a time. One thing off her list at a time. One day at a time.
“That’s what I’m praying for, too.”
“To your goddess?”
He nodded. “To whoever is listening.”
She traced a circle in the condensation on her glass. So many questions burned the tip of her tongue but she wasn’t sure where to start. He wasn’t like anyone else she knew, and not just because he’d believed her. Maybe they were both crazy. Her lips twitched but she couldn’t quite raise a smile. Her life had slid over a line and into an alternate world where things from movies and horror shows were real. She knew how it had happened for her. Cory had brought black magic into their house.
“Why did you become witch?”
“If I’m answering questions, so are you.” There was a calculated gleam in his eyes, as if he were still trying to work out what she was up to or if she was keeping secrets.
“Okay.” She had nothing left to hide. He knew the worst bits of her life already. It was he who was hiding things. Well, maybe not hiding, but refusing to talk was almost the same.
Noah frowned. “This isn’t a date.”
Lunch, a show and awkward questions as they got to know each other. It sounded a lot like a date. When she looked at him, she knew she’d be quite happy to be on a date with him. Yeah, and he was making it clear that he wanted this to remain purely professional. The trouble was, it was personal for her. She’d spent more time with Noah over the past few days than she had with her husband in the past two months, and she liked Noah a hell of a lot more than she’d liked Cory for the last six months. Around Noah, her body gave little flutters of excitement. The kind of flutters she hadn’t felt in a very long time.
Damsel in distress syndrome. He was being a gentleman and her savior. If he’d been a sleaze, she wouldn’t be feeling the same. Still, if they were going to be sharing a hotel room, she wanted to know who Noah was and what he liked.
Their meals arrived and they ate in silence. He kept glancing out the window—on guard or bored? She was being boring, but she didn’t know how to get the conversation going again. The whiskey burned down her throat and hit her stomach with a nice burn. Cory had always said women shouldn’t drink spirits as they were a man’s drink. Yeah, well, it turned out she liked spirits and witches.
Good food, good liquor and a good-looking man. Life could be worse. If she ignored Cory and his demon, life was actually looking pretty damn good. She was in New York doing things she’d never done before.
Noah took a swallow of water, placed his glass down and looked at her. “I’ve always been a witch. I was born with a little bit of magic in my blood or in my soul. Whatever. Maybe it’s just the ability to focus really well on a single thing.” He shrugged. “When I was fourteen my uncle came to visit from England. He explained more. I didn’t join the Ravens until after…” He took a breath as if remembering Louise’s death still ached. “Why did you become a teacher?”
While he’d taken his time he’d finally answered her question, and now it was time to pay the price by answering his. “I like kids; I love seeing the look of discovery on their faces. Cory said I was educating the next generation of delinquents. A couple of years after we married, he changed his mind about me working and I had to quit. Then he changed his mind about us having children. He threatened that if I ever got pregnant he’d make sure it didn’t end well.” How stupid had she been? Her marriage had been over for years, but she’d been making excuses. “You went to college, how come you’re—”
“Bumming around being a part-time bodyguard and PI?”
She’d hit another sore spot without even realizing. Did he even realize they were there?
“No one would give me a chance in Oklahoma. I was too well known and for all the wrong reasons. Moving to New York was the fresh start I needed, but even here I tried and…and they’d look me up and that was that. It was easy to work for Mason. He let me indulge my obsession. I spent every spare moment creating the database and trying to find answers.”
“And you’re not obsessed now?” Noah was still tracking down demons, but who was he really trying to save?
“The fire’s gone out, but I still hope for a lucky break so I can save lives.” From the way he was looking at her, she knew he was hoping she’d be the lucky one. She was hoping she was too. “Something to prove I haven’t wasted my life.”
“You haven’t wasted your life.” If Cory hadn’t gone demonic, she might have wasted several more years with him. “I’ll buy that celebratory drink when this case is over.” She sounded like she believed she was going to live. They both needed that hope, otherwise they would drown together in a bottomless ocean of despair.
“I’ll take you up on that offer.” He raised his glass. “To success.”
She tapped her glass against his. She wanted that drink with him. And as she watched him sip his water, she wanted the kiss that was on her list.
When they left the theater, the sky was dull and grey. The sun had vanished behind clouds and night was creeping closer. People leaving work were filling the streets. New York was so much busier than her town, full of life and energy, and nobody knew who she was or cared what she was doing. It was wonderful. So much better than the small town where everyone knew everyone’s business. She sucked in a breath of air and smiled.
Danger wasn’t breathing cold and fetid down her neck. The odds of Cory finding her among millions of people were so slim. She gave Noah a friendly nudge as they walked along the sidewalk. “So what did you think?”
“Better than I thought it would be,” he admitted almost grudgingly, but the corner of his lips curved up. He didn’t want to admit he’d had a good time. Men.
“I almost bought tickets to Wicked, about the witches of Oz.” At the last moment she’d changed her mind. He probably wouldn’t appreciate the connection.
He gave her a sideways glance that confirmed that thought. “Matilda was a good choice. If one little girl can change her fate, maybe we can too.”
True, but this wasn’t fiction. This was her life. “I wish it were that simple.” She scuffed her shoe on the sidewalk.
“Thought is a powerful thing. Did you want to know why Cory was acting odd? If you spent long enough thinking and wondering, clues and hints would have formed, you noticed them. Not everyone would’ve.”
“So I’m a witch?”
He shook his head. “No…perceptive with a strong mind and heart. What drew you to New York?” His gaze drifted as he watched a crow land on a bench nearby.
“I wanted a city. I’d picked Poughkeepsie, but I’d missed that bus and the next bus was going to New York, so I took that one.”
“Why not wait?”
“I just
felt an urge to be on that bus.”
“Uh-huh.” But he was watching the crow that was several paces away. The crow looked over its wing, then at them. It flapped a bit, squawked and then flew over their heads. “We’re being followed.” His tone shifted from carefree to concerned, as if a switch had been flicked.
“Is this where we run?”
“Hell no, that makes us stand out in the crowd.” He grasped her hand and led her into a shop full of touristy things: magnets and key chains, t-shirts and note pads. But he didn’t drag her into the back, instead he stayed near the front where he could look through the window. He pulled out the magic marker and held it, fisted in his hand. His face changed for a moment, as if he’d left reality and was somewhere else, then he was back.
Her skin broke out in gooseflesh, as if spiders were running along her skin. “What did you do?”
“Keep looking at the merchandise near me while I look like the bored boyfriend,” he said softly.
She was putting her faith in a felt tip pen. If it could erase other markers, could it erase them from the shop? Were they now invisible? Her heart beat faster and louder than usual. She didn’t feel invisible. She felt very conspicuous as Cory walked past the window. He paused. There was only a pane of glass between them.
Rachel concentrated on a stand of I heart NY t-shirts, but she could still see him from the corner of her eye. Once she’d thought him so handsome. Broad shoulders, as tall as Noah, but more solid where Noah was lean. Cory’s face was set in a snarl. He hesitated as if sensing something and looked around. He was sniffing like a dog on a trail. How long had Cory been tracking them?
The flour. Noah hadn’t used the flour when they’d come out of the theater. It must really work. She had to believe it worked. She had to believe in Noah and his magic. She breathed out slowly and imagined she wasn’t here at all.
Cory turned around as if confused, looked directly at them through the window then walked on.
Her heart was beating so fast it was almost vibrating. That couldn’t be healthy. Noah slipped the pen away as if nothing had happened, but she was sure she saw a tremor in his hand. He stood still for a moment longer, then turned around. A relieved grin lit his face.
“I can’t believe that worked.” He ran his fingers through his hair and inhaled deeply.
“You can’t believe the spell worked?” Had he expected Cory to look at them, see them and come in? What would they have done then? For a moment she couldn’t breathe. Her chest locked up and the shop became too warm. Then Noah was there, putting his arm around her.
His lips grazed her cheek. “I’ve never done that before, not to that extent, anyway. I think the demon still sensed us, but all Cory saw was a couple.” His lips were by her ear and his voice was soft so no one in the shop could overhear their crazy conversation. His body was close, really close.
Was his heart beating as hard as hers? She tilted her head. “I believed it would work.”
She needed that. She needed to believe that the magic she was betting her life on was infallible and that Noah would beat the demon.
“Your faith in my abilities is greater than mine.” His hand was still around her waist, holding her close. His lips were only a few inches from hers.
She could lean up and in and they’d connect. Strike one off the list. But that would be wrong, crossing the lines Noah wanted—maybe needed—between them. But it didn’t stop her thinking, imagining or remembering the way he’d looked, skin slicked with sweat from working out. And now she didn’t have to imagine what he’d feel like pressed against her.
There really was nothing like danger to get the adrenaline and lust pumping.
His gaze locked with hers and she could see the rush mirrored in his eyes. His breath whispered over her lips a moment before his mouth landed. He placed a soft kiss on her lips that lingered for a heartbeat longer than a casual kiss should last before pulling away. His gaze flicked to the window again before back to her.
“To celebrate a small win.” He smiled.
If that was how he celebrated a small win, she was looking forward to seeing how he celebrated a major win.
His lips tingled and it had nothing to do with testing a new spell out at a critical moment. Where Sawyer might use it to make himself vanish, that wasn’t possible with a demon. Cory’s demon had still sensed them, but when Cory looked into the shop all he’d seen were couple of strangers. Cory hadn’t seen them even when looking straight at them. The best kind of invisibility as far as Noah was concerned.
“What now?” Rachel said.
His gaze lowered to her lips for just a moment. She had nice lips, soft. And they’d moved just a little when he’d kissed her, as if she were contemplating how much she should kiss him back. If he’d run his tongue over her lips, he was sure she would’ve opened her mouth to him.
Not here, not now. The timing was wrong. It didn’t feel wrong. It felt…he didn’t know, but it had hit all the right spots, right down to his toes, and made him want a hell of a lot more.
After the case he could drink and screw and let all the tension fade away into something colder and emptier. When he glanced at Rachel, he wanted her, not some random woman to scratch a need.
“Now we go back to the hotel.” His mind was full of the things they could do. It didn’t help when her cheeks pinked and she got that smile like she knew exactly what he was thinking. “Buy the t-shirt first so it looks like we weren’t hiding from your husband.”
She took a step back, her chin lifted a fraction and the smile was gone.
He had to push her away. He knew how this ended. And even though that wouldn’t stop him from fighting, it didn’t mean he was willing to let himself get attached and get hurt.
When she came back with her new t-shirt, he was ready to go with a little flour pinched between his fingers and his thoughts firmly under control. If he fucked up they were both dead, so thinking about kissing her and how nice she’d felt against him was not a good idea. She didn’t speak, just followed. She didn’t even watch as he cast the flour and confused their trail. He should’ve done it when they left the restaurant and the show, but he hadn’t expected Cory to be that close.
He’d relaxed and been careless. It wouldn’t happen again.
“Thank you for taking me out.” Her voice had lost the earlier warmth and he missed it. He wanted it back because it made him feel warmer. No, it made him feel something else other than crushing failure and bleak doom. No wonder he couldn’t muster any fire.
“It was a pleasure.”
She glanced at him for second. “I enjoyed crossing things off my list.”
And she wasn’t talking about the steak and show. “Glad I could help.” That hadn’t even been a proper kiss. He hadn’t really been trying. She’d been there, the spell had worked and it had kind of happened. “I try not to kiss clients.”
He steered her around a cluster of people checking out a map, trying to keep an eye out for Cory. If the crowd hid them, it also made it easier for Cory to walk around and not be noticed. He resisted the urge to check over his shoulder on a more regular basis—that would look a little suspicious and they needed to blend in.
“I know. You’ve made it clear you are babysitting, not dating.”
He knew that, so why did it feel like she was sticking a knife in and giving it a twist for good measure? He grabbed her arm and spun her to face him. “This isn’t easy for me. I’m looking at you, laughing with you, kissing you and you know what I’m thinking? That in the next few days you’ll be gone. That I’ll be trying to write up something, having to dissect where I went wrong or, worse, talking to the damn cops.”
Her lips parted for a moment. “You’re as scared as I am.”
“I’m just used to hiding it better. Trust me, if you saw what I saw, you’d be suppressing too. There are demons everywhere.”
A man gave him a look and gave them a wide berth. That’s right, move away from the guy talking about demons. Beca
use if you actually listened, you’d never leave your house.
“Around us now?”
He nodded. “You know the old saying about having a monkey on your back, or personal demons, or even those people who feel the life is being sucked out of them?” He didn’t need to keep explaining, he could tell from the look on her face she got it. They were real and caused by demons.
“You can see them?”
“If I use magic.” He had no desire to see all the demons all the time.
“Can you sense them?”
“Sometimes. Most won’t hurt anyone but the person they’re riding. It’s the others that give me nightmares.” He knew why people came home from war traumatized from the violence. Anyone who’d seen bodies pulled apart never forgot. Some of the demons were so hideous he wished he’d never seen them. Another reason he always wanted to be able to create light, because the dark hid a hell of a lot of nasties.
Her teeth raked her lower lip. “Thank you for telling me. Now I know why you’re freezing me out.”
“I don’t mean to. I…” What could he say? He didn’t want to be sucked in and get hurt. He didn’t want to make friends and then have to watch her die. He couldn’t. He wouldn’t survive that. Some warrior he was. He was too scared to take a chance because he might get hurt.
“I said I understand. I didn’t say I was going to forgive you. If I’m spending my last days with you, I want to enjoy them as much as I can.”
“You can’t force me to have fun.” But he liked the idea that she’d try anyway. She really was making the best of the situation. Should he? What was the best thing he could do—aside from running and hiding as best they could? Should he suggest they make the best use possible of the hotel room? Was that a good thing? It was fun he’d pay for later. Maybe. What if she lived? What then? Either way things got messy. He didn’t do relationships. Not since Louise’s death. What if a demon came after his next lover? He looked at Rachel. With her, that was a certainty.
“I believe I did this afternoon,” she said with a smile.
Damn. She had, too, and he’d forgotten all about Cory and demons for at least a few minutes.