Unearthed

by Lauren Stewart

  But the rest of it would stick around as long as she let it.

  “It’s time. Make it happen.” Maybe she should eat first. Or take a nap. Or hibernate all winter. It didn’t even have to be her—somebody else could go.

  No. If she never went back to that house to see it as it really was, it would stay in her mind just the way she remembered it, from the perspective of someone imprisoned inside it. It wasn’t as if she’d suddenly be healed, there’d be peace on earth, and a bunch of fairies would get their wings, but when you wake yourself up screaming enough times, something needs to change.

  Now that she knew where the house was, knew there was a possibility another girl could be suffering the same way she did…in the same place…so close to safety…

  It had to be now.

  And hey, who knew? Lamere could be there. He hadn’t lived there full-time when she had, although “lived” seemed an odd word choice for either of them.

  Her own fear and disillusionment aside, it wasn’t about her. He could be hurting someone else, and the faster he was wiped off the planet, the better off the world was. Both worlds.

  “So…” A short trip to check out the house where she grew up the hard way and kill the bastard who’d kept her chained to a wall whenever he wasn’t playing with her. Multitasking at its finest…and its most fatal.

  Time to put on her big-girl boots, fill up her gas tank, and pack up all her favorite weapons.

  “Where are you off to, puppet?”

  She slammed the trunk of her car and flipped to face the demon. If he was human, she’d have heard him long before this and he’d be on the ground, bleeding already. “Every single time.” Was she slipping, or was he really that good? If he was, she needed him. Maybe she needed him even if he wasn’t that good. Maybe—

  “Are you stalking me?” She leaned down to pick up her keys, pushing on the trunk lid to make sure it was latched. Wouldn’t be much fun if it popped open on the freeway and stakes and silver chain flew everywhere.

  Davyn put a hand on his heart, wounded. “That’s the bad kind of creepy. Not my style.”

  “I’ll get a restraining order if I have to—and for demons, it comes with a Bible and a priest.”

  He laughed. “Where are you going?”

  “How did you know I was going anywhere?”

  “Because I’m stalking you, and have no plans to stop any time soon, so you might as well tell me where you’re going.”

  “Shoe shopping. Wanna come?”

  He looked down. “Your feet have never worn anything but boots, have they?”

  She glared at him but didn’t say anything because no, they hadn’t. Not for six years, at least. The last time she’d worn pretty shoes was when she was seventeen.

  “Thought not. So sure, I’ll go shopping with you. I might even buy you a decent-looking outfit. You have a body under all that armor, I know it. Well, I know you have breasts, fantastic breasts, because you showed them to me. Thank you for that, by the way.”

  “You know I’m not going shopping,” she grumbled. She’d used exactly the wrong excuse. He probably loved shopping. Weirdo.

  “Yeah, but I had my fingers crossed. I was planning on phasing into your dressing room at regular intervals to see the sights.”

  “You’re not going to leave now, are you?”

  “When things might finally get interesting? Not a chance.”

  She couldn’t put off this trip even one more day. It could be the day Lamere decided to play one of his games or lecture about his “living art” to the person he was slowly killing with it. It had been three years too long already.

  “Where are we going?” he asked.

  “I’m going to his house.”

  “Been to all of them. They’re empty, although…the one in Montreal was a little dusty if I remember correctly. Dust a la Otis.” Only a demon would make a joke about what they’d seen there.

  “Not his apartments. I’m talking about his house in the suburbs. Oh my god, is this proof you don’t know everything?”

  “He has a house I didn’t know about, in the ’burbs.” He was speaking to himself, laying it all out in his mind, maybe looking for a reaction from her. “That’s where he kept you, and now you’re going back.”

  “Yeah, I already knew that. Try to keep up.”

  He studied her, his brow furrowed, head tilted. “You hoped I would come by, didn’t you?”

  “Believe me,” she said, laughing, “that’s something I would never, ever hope for.”

  “Maybe not normally—although I can’t imagine why not—but today you did. Because you don’t want to go alone.”

  That wasn’t true, was it? Damn it! She could’ve come up with a lie he’d believe. Why hadn’t she? “No idea what you’re talking about, demon. I like being alone.”

  “You’re so nervous, you’d even take me if you had to. Which you do, because you don’t have anyone else.” That was true…and pathetic.

  “Maybe I should let you through my shield just to prove how incredibly wrong you are.” She hated that he saw into her so well, that she seemed so easy for him to read. She wasn’t. No one knew anything she didn’t want them to know. She controlled what people knew about her. No one else.

  Except him. Davyn knew every move she would make before she’d decided. But maybe, for once, it was a good thing. If he came with her, she wouldn’t break down and show him how weak she was. She wouldn’t have to worry about emotions screwing with her focus or tears blurring her vision.

  “Where are we going?” he asked. “Come on. I have shit to do this week.”

  She sighed. “It’s about two hours out of the city.”

  “Tell me the exact location.”

  If she told him the address, he could phase there and be finished looking around before she was even out of the city. If he found Lamere hours before she arrived, he’d kill him.

  “I’m not sure,” she said, brushing past him. “I know the general area, but need to see landmarks to know where it is exactly. The last time I was there, I was left for dead in a ditch, and strangely, it didn’t occur to me to check the address.”

  “You don’t have to be mean about it, puppet. That kind of stuff hurts my feelings.”

  “You have no feelings.”

  “I have many feelings. Lucky for you, most of them are hugely inappropriate.” He slid into the passenger side, not bothering with a seatbelt. “Two hours, huh? We’re going to need to hit a drive-thru on the way.”

  There were a lot of things Keira never thought she’d do. Bucket lists stay short for those who are ninety-five percent sure each day is the day they’ll die. But she was one hundred percent sure that driving a Toyota with a grumpy demon in the passenger seat wouldn’t have made it onto anyone’s bucket list. Or anyone’s realm of possibility.

  He didn’t say or move much, except to eat. He’d gone through his demon-sized lunch already, and they were only about twenty minutes out of the city. This was going to be a long trip.

  She could’ve given him an approximate location and met him there, but it didn’t seem like a good idea to let him out of her sight so close to where her parents lived. He was too damn curious and, given her luck, he’d go to the restaurant where her mom worked and jump into her head to let off a little steam. No, it was better to keep him close.

  They drove and drove and drove. And Davyn got more and more irritable. Until she smelled melting plastic.

  “Holy shit, demon! Are you melting my seats?”

  He looked guilty for a microsecond and then shrugged, peeling his back away from the vinyl seat. “Yep.”

  “Shit! Stop using your glamour!”

  “I can’t travel or touch things without it. If you’d told me where this place is I could’ve met you there.”

  “I didn’t ask you to come along.”

  “But you wanted me to. How can I say no to a lady?” He smirked. “Or you?”

  “Can’t you just eat more to make it stop?”


  He mumbled something indecipherable before saying, “The food thing is less effective than other methods of stress relief we use.”

  “Like taking a quick dip into my head and tempting me to do something bad? No thanks.” Because she had a feeling what that might be, and it couldn’t happen. “I didn’t want your help to begin with, so guess again if you think I’m putting out to help you feel better.”

  “Damn, puppet. Your mind goes straight to the dirty places. Normally, I’d encourage those kinds of thoughts, but why make it harder for you to resist me? You’d probably get all clingy.”

  She groaned. “You’re the one who’s stalking me.”

  “True. You’re really boring, you know that? Really, really boring. Even rolling around naked in your mind probably wouldn’t be enough to burn off my heat.”

  “You’re damn straight it wouldn’t.” And she knew. Because she imagined them rolling around naked fairly frequently and it only created more heat. “Can you control yourself or not?” When all he did was laugh, she pulled off the freeway and got out of the car, stomping around to his side.

  “Potty break, puppet?”

  “Do it. Use me.” She held her arms out to the sides. “Not my mind. My body.”

  “How many men have you said that to?” The upholstery clicked as he separated from it and slid out of the car. “If it was only me, I’m not sure what it would do to my ego. Or my pants.”

  “To vent, demon! Use my body to vent your heat.”

  “No way. I’m not wasting your end of the deal on this.”

  She swallowed when he took his shirt off and held it up, cursing. A lot of the words were ones she could use too—a list of things she’d like to do to him, starting with tracing each square muscle of his abs with her tongue. He crumpled the shirt up into a ball and tossed it into the backseat.

  “Consider this a freebie, since I don’t think my insurance pays out for damage caused by a demon.”

  He shook his head. “Just give me a second. Or an hour. And some food.” His gaze traveled the over her body. “And a blindfold.”

  She didn’t have time for this. It had taken her this long to finally work up enough courage to face her personal demons, she couldn’t let an actual demon’s control issues mess that up. When she reached for his hand, he jerked away.

  “You don’t want to touch me right now. You shouldn’t want to touch me ever.”

  “Then stay here, but I’m going.”

  “Just admit you need me, puppet.”

  “All you do is screw up my focus.”

  “Ditto, hunter. Why do you think I don’t want you to touch me right now?”

  “Messing with people’s heads is what you do. Tease, tempt, and then laugh, right? It’s not much fun from this side.”

  “It’s not fun from over here, either.”

  “I’m leaving.” As she passed him, she felt the sting of his hand on her arm. The sound stopped her—a sizzle followed by a huge pulse of pain. When she opened her eyes, she was flat on her back looking up at him.

  “You okay?” he asked quietly. He crouched next to her, eating a granola bar.

  “That hurt.”

  “Yeah, I shouldn’t have done that.” He didn’t offer to help her off the ground. Halfway up she got a head rush that sent her back down, this time face-first. After rolling over and taking a long, disgusted breath, she pulled her sleeve up where the shirt was discolored, as if she’d left the iron on it too long. As if Keira ironed anything. A bright red, perfectly formed handprint circled her bicep.

  “Good place for a tattoo, right?” She touched it gingerly.

  “If it makes you feel any better, it’s already going away. It was way worse before.”

  “No, that doesn’t make me feel better. Did I pass out?”

  He nodded. “For about fifteen minutes. You were still breathing, so I went to go get a snack and a new shirt at the gas station.”

  “You left me unconscious on the side of the road to go novelty t-shirt shopping?”

  “What? You don’t like it.” He looked down at himself and then shrugged. “I’m cool enough to get back in the car now.”

  “Not going to happen. You’ll just heat up again. You need to be all the way cool. Can you vent with me now?”

  “Wow,” he said, his eyes wide. “While I love a good masochist as much as the next guy, you should take it easy for a little while.”

  “Just do it.”

  He shrugged his answer. “Sit up.”

  “I can’t. Not yet.” The pain was gone, but she still felt lightheaded. Probably from falling on her face.

  “Well, I can’t do it while you’re lying down.”

  “Why not?”

  “Because if I lean over and touch you while you’re on your back, I’m going to get hard.” His words were clipped, as if he wasn’t sure who he had less patience for—her or himself. “The last time I got hard around you, I had a panic attack. Which was actually a lucky thing because if I hadn’t, I might’ve done something to relieve that hard-on. And then neither of us would be here enjoying this fun road trip.”

  “Give me a sec.” Without using her burned arm, she hauled herself off the ground. She shut her eyes tightly and clenched every muscle in her body, waiting for the shock of his heat. “Okay, I’m ready. Do what you need to do.”

  He blew out a breath. “You enjoy tempting fate, don’t you?”

  No. She hated it. Fate had given her nothing but shit most of her life.

  “What would you do if you went into my head?” she asked, opening one eye.

  “Depends. First, you’d have to let me inside. I could force my way in, but it would hurt. Probably not as much as the brand I just gave you, but the head seems more brutal somehow. Humans constantly think about stuff they want to do but shouldn’t, so I never have to go in too far to find something useful. But with you…” A small grin brought out the dimple in his cheek. If he were human, she’d think he was shy. Until his expression intensified and he came towards her, pushing her up against the car from two feet away.

  Suggesting he touch her now felt like a really horrible idea. “With me, what?”

  “With you, I’d have to go really deep, as deep as I can get.” His boots hit hers, making her spread her legs and lean back onto the hood of the car. “When I find the right spot, we’ll both know. You’ll get hotter and feel me pushing you to do whatever I want you to do. At that point, even if you try to stop me, I’ll win.”

  “Maybe you won’t find anything.” She cleared her throat to get the horrible submissive quality out of it. “There’s not a lot I don’t have the guts to do.”

  “I know that.”

  “Well, there might be one thing.” Although she wasn’t sure he would need to push very hard to make that happen. “But like you said a minute ago, then we wouldn’t be here to enjoy this fun road trip.”

  He ground his teeth together. “I know that too. I just wasn’t sure if you did.”

  “I thought you haven’t gone into my mind.”

  “Don’t need to. I can see it in your eyes. You’re fucking beautiful, you know that, puppet? Really fucking beautiful.”

  They stared at each other, their bodies tense, neither of them moving or even breathing. The air around them, between them, the only external thing keeping them apart. They were wrong to want this. That it was illegal didn’t matter, but everything else did. They were on opposite sides, enemies, from two races forbidden to ever be together for reasons only the demons knew.

  Both of them stayed perfectly still, but the earth seemed to be moving, bringing them together until it would’ve been so much easier to come together than stay apart.

  She didn’t know whose mouth moved first, not that it mattered. It started as a smirk, a small curl of a lip, then turned into tight-lipped, trying-hard-not-to grins. They tried to fight it, giving up when they saw each other’s teeth-exposing, what-the-fuck-is-wrong-with-us smiles. His chuckle came from deep in his
chest, and the sound that came out of her mouth sounded a lot like a giggle. She cut it off as soon as she heard it, but it was too late.

  Once they started laughing, they couldn’t stop, and she was pretty sure he didn’t know what they were laughing about either. All she felt was relief that they’d found a safe way to break whatever force pulled them together. The weirdest part was that she felt closer to him, like she knew him more than she had thirty seconds ago, better than she knew anyone else.

  She wiped the tears from her eyes and waited to find out what would happen next. The tension was gone, but that didn’t give them a direction to go in. This time, they had to make a choice—pretend to be enemies or admit the possibility they could be…more.

  “So you think I’m beautiful, huh?” she asked smugly.

  He laughed again. “Yes, puppet. I think you’re very beautiful, and I want you really badly.” His smile faded. “But unfortunately, that’s never going to happen, so let’s move on.”

  “Have you cooled off enough to get back in the car?”

  “Not at all. You just made me hotter.”

  “So it’s my fault?”

  “Entirely. You should start being less attractive.”

  “Yeah, okay.” She couldn’t do any less than she was already doing. Her appearance was unimportant to her because it didn’t make her stronger. A long time ago, it had made her prey. “I’ll work on that if you work on cooling off.”

  He sat on the curb in front of the car, his long legs stretched out in front of him. She sat next to him, studying his profile.

  “Are all Fosfer demons like you?”

  “Incredibly attractive and charming?”

  “I was thinking more along the lines of kind of human-ish.”

  He flinched and grimaced. “Did you really have to say that?”

  “I’d say sorry if I meant it. Even if I was a little bit sorry.”

  “I thought we were finally starting to get along,” he mumbled. “First-level demons stay topside for fifty years. Unfortunately, we tend to become more human-ish at the end of that cycle. It’s repulsive, I know.”