She hadn’t changed a bit.
And Tony looked like, well, Tony—blue skin notwithstanding.
“It’s you,” Tony said, and Fiona smiled at him.
“It’s me.”
He ran to her, and I didn’t stop him as he wrapped his arms around her in a gentle hug. She clung to him, and he stroked her hair, looking much more civilized than he had twenty seconds ago.
I shared a look with Adrik and then glanced at Wolfrick, who stood at the base of the stairs watching their embrace with watery eyes. Who knew demons could get choked up at public displays of affection.
“They’re a thing,” I explained to Adrik, who continued to watch in confusion as Tony and Fiona locked lips in a tender kiss.
“I missed you,” Tony said in a gruff voice.
“I looked for you, but you were gone. When you didn’t come home, I did a locator spell to find you. It didn’t work until today.”
“He was indisposed until recently,” I explained.
A locator spell, though? That was all it took? I glanced at Adrik again and noted the glower he wore. Apparently, he hadn’t expected to be so easily findable either.
“What happened to your skin?” Fiona asked, and a haunted look passed over Tony’s expression.
Instead of answering, he glanced at me, his worried expression offering a glimpse into the old Tony. I stepped forward, quick to fill the gap. “That’s a long story,” I said and then hugged her. “It’s good to see you again.”
“Good to see you too.” She shot a look at Adrik and then Wolfrick. At the sight of a Nephilim and demon standing on either side of her, all the color drained from her face, and her breath seemed to stall.
I couldn’t blame the girl.
“We’re all friends here,” I assured her. “Come on. Let’s go sit down on the couch. Adrik will pour us drinks, and I’ll tell you all about it.”
I steered Fiona into the living room—and the only decent furniture in the place. Fiona and Tony sat together on the couch. I took the chair across from them, and Wolfrick hung back near the door.
Adrik disappeared into the kitchen, and Fiona’s eyes bulged as she leaned forward.
“He’s going to make us drinks?” she whispered.
I smirked. “Why not? It’s his whiskey after all.”
When Adrik returned a moment later with snifters of whiskey for everyone, Fiona stuttered out a thank you and then stared at his ass when he walked away to stand against the wall near the kitchen.
My smirk widened.
“Okay, this is crazy,” Fiona said, shaking her head as she eyed first Adrik—his eyes this time—and then Wolfrick. Finally, she eyed me. “When did you start hanging out with such a … diverse crowd?”
“It wasn’t exactly my choice,” I told her.
Already, I could feel Adrik’s eyes on me and knew he was silently warning me to keep our secrets to myself. His death glare was unnecessary, though. As much as I liked Fiona, she wasn’t getting every gritty detail of my fugitive status or the demon-summoning and death-threat conspiracies we were currently entangled in.
“Yeah, I heard about your, um, misunderstanding with the SSF.”
She had the decency to look sympathetic, at least, and I gave her the cleanest, shortest version of the story I could. The one where I was innocent and about to be proven so. And where no Nephilim-Barbie bitches were trying to kill me.
Mostly, I kept it about Tony.
“So, you saved him?” Fiona asked when I’d finished. She looked at Adrik reverently. “And you went up against the other Nephilim to do it?”
“I did what was right,” Adrik said simply.
Fiona squeezed Tony’s hand, and her eyes filled with moisture. “Thank you,” she told him earnestly. “Thank you all for everything.”
She looked back at Tony, smiling through unshed tears. “I was so worried. Especially when my magic couldn’t locate you anywhere.”
“I think the Delta building is cloaked against that sort of thing,” I told her.
She nodded. “Of course, makes sense. I should have just come to you,” she told me. “I should have known you’d be wrapped up in all this.”
I frowned, not quite sure how I felt about that sort of assumption. But, considering she wasn’t wrong, I couldn’t bring myself to be too put out.
“Well, you all must be exhausted after such an ordeal,” she said, rising.
Tony stood too. I noticed neither of them had touched their drinks and wondered if it would be rude to finish them myself.
After the day I’d had—
“Tony and I will get out of your hair,” Fiona added and moved for the door.
I jumped up, but Wolfrick was already blocking their exit.
“He stay,” Wolfrick said in a voice that brooked zero argument.
Fiona backed up, trembling at the sight of the wolf-demon at his full height.
Tony growled low in his throat, stepping between them. “Back up,” Tony warned, which only made Wolfrick look more determined.
I slid in and sandwiched myself between them, hands up. “Whoa, it’s okay,” I said. “We’re all friends, remember?”
A beat of silence passed as they stared one another down.
“Friends,” Wolfrick grunted.
Tony’s eyes cleared, and I exhaled.
I really didn’t want to get my ass kicked by a killer Smurf.
“Fiona, Tony can’t leave,” I said.
“But he should be at home,” she began, confusion etched along her worried face. “So he can recover.”
“He should, but he can’t. Because that’s the first place they’ll look for him.”
“Oh, right.” Her shoulders sagged, but then she brightened again. “I could take him to my house. Keep him hidden until he gets better.”
Adrik, who’d slipped around to also help block the door, sent me a warning look. Unnecessary. Fiona still lived with her mother, and I’d never forget orientation at the Tiff when Fiona had walked in looking like Swamp Thing, thanks to some weird-ass spell that had apparently been her mother’s idea of a chastity belt. No way would I let that woman anywhere near Tony.
“Fi,” I began gently. “He might not get better.”
“What do you mean?”
I sighed, wishing I’d snagged their unfinished drinks after all. “Tony has demon DNA inside him. He was used as a living experiment—to see if they could make him into a demon.”
Fiona’s expression registered horror then fear.
“That’s why he’s blue,” she said, and I nodded.
Among other things.
“He’s safest here,” I said. “With Adrik and Wolfrick for protection.”
“They’ll make sure he’s not taken again,” she said, and I nodded.
She eyed Wolfrick but didn’t seem to have the guts to look Adrik up and down the same way. Finally, she looked back at me.
“Okay,” she said.
“Okay,” I agreed, relaxing. “So, we’ll call you when it’s over,” I said at the same time she added, “Show me where we’ll be staying.”
I blinked.
She blinked.
“What?” I said.
“I’m not leaving without him. Not while he’s in danger.”
“Fi, that’s sweet. But if you stay here, you’ll be in danger too.”
She lifted her chin in stubborn defiance. “I’m not leaving.”
I sighed.
Adrik’s eyes were like twin daggers, but I ignored his silent displeasure.
“All right,” I said and glanced at Wolfrick. “Can you take them upstairs?” I asked.
Wolfrick grunted and led the way.
Fiona and Tony followed.
I watched them go and then finally met Adrik’s angry stare.
“What?” I asked innocently.
When I couldn’t take the heat—literal warmth radiated from him now, heating the small space between us and not in a good way—I doubled back to the whiskey Fi
ona and Tony had left behind and knocked them both back.
When I’d emptied them both and looked up again, Adrik hadn’t moved.
“What?” I said again.
“It’s a bad idea.”
“Of course, it’s a bad idea.”
His brow quirked, and my belly flipped.
“Then why did you agree?” he asked.
“Because that’s what I do.”
“Agree?”
“Make bad decisions.”
His lips twitched. “Can’t argue there.”
I glared at him, the whiskey finally doing its job. My muscles were turning softer. My fucks had all but evaporated now.
“Look, Fiona’s arrival sparked Tony’s humanity to return. She’s good for him. And between her and Wolfrick, they can keep an eye on him without you and me watching him around the clock.”
“You have somewhere to be?” he asked.
“Lots of places.”
“Care to fill me in on your social calendar?”
“Absolutely. For starters, there’s a hag demon out there with orders to kill you. I’m not in the mood to wait around for her to find her way here. Secondly, your sister is in need of a serious ass-whooping for reasons that number too many to name but mostly because she killed my dad and Grandpa and tried to kill me. And third, Raguel’s science experiments need to be stopped.”
“That’s a lot for a Tuesday night.”
“Obviously. Which is why we need a babysitting team for Tony.”
“And maybe more than just the two of us scouring the city, don’t you think?”
“I don’t know, we’ve done okay so far.”
“We also weren’t hunting angels and demons before. Two out of the three on your hit list are immortal beings who can’t be killed by a supe. Not even one who can shift into a griffin.”
“Well, it won’t be for lack of trying.”
He stared at me for a long moment. The air between us became charged with something I couldn’t identify.
“Why are you looking at me like that?” I asked, breathless from the rush of it. Of him.
“You are the most fearless woman I’ve ever met.”
His voice was low. Sexy. The wonder in his dark eyes was completely genuine.
My belly tightened, and my heart fluttered at his compliment.
“And,” he added, “I can’t decide if that makes you recklessly stupid or incredibly brave.”
“I do what needs to be done,” I said, prying my tongue off the roof of my mouth. He’d just complimented-slash-insulted me. Complisulted. And I was one hundred percent turned on by it.
He stepped closer and reached out, running his hand up my arm. A zing of pleasure shuddered through me at his touch.
My body ached for more.
“Adrik, I…”
A rap on the door startled me, and I jumped back, flinching so hard I nearly toppled backward against the arm of the couch. Adrik righted me then let me go, and I sucked in a mouthful of air that didn’t taste like hot-Neph-whose-penis-could-kill-me.
The pure oxygen cleared my head. Until Adrik answered the door and I saw who stood on the threshold.
“Jax.”
I said his name like it was the last breath leaving my body.
He stared back at me, his blue eyes glacier-cold and unreadable. On his chest, Fergie was strapped into some sort of complicated sling. She gurgled happily, drool hanging from a bone she held to her mouth.
Hopefully, not one that had recently been inside a live body.
I wanted to ask how he’d found me.
Or, on a scale of one to explosion, how pissed was he that I’d run out and ended up here?
Or if he was up for babysitting our demon-baby a little longer so I could hunt down a Nephilim who had murdery feelings toward me.
But none of those things made it into my mouth before he leveled a glare at me and said, “We need to talk.”
Every thought inside my head jumbled together until one very clear fact overrode everything else.
I was so busted.
Chapter Five
Jax stepped inside. He looked at Adrik.
“Can Gem and I have a minute alone?”
“This is my house,” Adrik said, and I tensed at the silence that followed his words.
“And you kissed her in mine,” Jax pointed out.
Adrik scowled and stalked off toward the kitchen, muttering about uninvited guests. I listened as he poured himself another drink, but my eyes remained glued to Jax.
The shifter senses in me knew better than to look away from something that moved very much like a predator. Even with the demon baby strapped to his chest, Jax managed to come across mildly threatening.
“You left,” he said flatly when he stood in front of me.
“I, uh, had an errand,” I said, glancing at Fergie.
With deft fingers, Jax flicked the latch on the sling and set Fergie on her feet. She ran to me and wrapped chubby demon hands around my leg in a hug. Before I could grab her, she released me and took off, launching herself onto the couch where she snuggled in with her bone.
“Must have been pretty important,” Jax said in a hard voice. I looked back at him just as his eyes flashed with temper. “For you to run out on your friends like that,” he added.
“I didn’t run out on you,” I said, temper rising.
But his expression softened, and his eyes turned pleading. “Is it because of what I said?” he asked. “About my feelings for you?”
“No, of course not.” Guilt tugged at me.
“About your father then?”
“Sort of but not how you think. Look, I’m sorry. But there was something I needed to do, and you would have—”
“Asked for an explanation? Gone with you to watch your back?”
“Told me not to go.”
His eyes narrowed. “Why would I tell you that?”
“I don’t know. Isn’t that what every alpha tells a member of his pack before they rush into danger?”
“You’re not my pack, Gem.”
There was something in his voice. Underneath the anger. Something more dangerous; sharp. Like a challenge. Or a question.
I chose my words carefully. “No, I’m not. I’m something else.”
“Yes,” he murmured. “You are, aren’t you?”
Silence fell between us. Wherever Adrik had gone, he was quiet now. Jax took a step toward me. The temperature in the room seemed to spike.
He bent toward me. I went still as he brushed his lips over my cheek. “I’m glad to see you’re all right,” he whispered in my ear.
His warm breath washed over my already-heated skin, and I shivered.
He stepped back, a knowing smile curving his lips.
Fucker.
He’d done that on purpose.
I dragged in a ragged breath. “Thank you for keeping an eye on Fergie.”
He shrugged. “She’s important to you. So she’s important to me. I would never let anything happen to her.”
“I appreciate it. And that thing I had to do, it was important. But then I also got into a bit of trouble,” I admitted.
Jax’s gaze sharpened. “What kind of trouble?”
Quickly, I filled him in on Rourke and then Selaphiel.
“Your father’s memory is already honored through your bravery,” he said when I was done. “You don’t have to go against her. He would want you to be safe, wouldn’t he?”
Frustration speared through me. Why was everyone trying to talk me out of this?
“Yes. But he also knew me. Before I was an agent, I was a driver. Nothing safe about drag racing. And besides, in the end, he wanted me to be happy.”
“And you think going after a Nephilim will make you happy?”
“I damn sure won’t be happy if I don’t.”
He sighed.
A long moment went by. He searched my face and then glanced at Fergie, who’d abandoned the bone and, instead, gnawed on the couch c
ushion now.
Finally, he turned back to me. “What do you need from me?”
Surprise rippled through me. “Just like that?”
“More or less.” He hesitated then added, “The SSF came to my house.”
My eyes widened. “Why didn’t you tell me? Are you all right? Milo—?”
“He’s fine. We’re all fine. We got out. I sent Lester to his sister’s and my security team to a safe house across town.”
My brow lifted. “And Milo?”
Jax glanced upward just as footsteps sounded on the stairs. A second later, Milo rounded the corner to the living room.
“You’re in trouble,” he said darkly.
“Milo, I’m—”
“I only forgive you because I just saw Tony upstairs, and aside from being blue and ’roided out, he looks relatively unharmed. So, thank you. We can talk later about why you called Fiona into this mess.”
“Fiona showed up all on her own after doing a locator spell on Tony. And as for Tony being safe, thank Adrik. He’s the one who got him out.”
“He’s important to Gem.” Adrik stepped into the room from the kitchen, and Milo jumped at his sudden entrance. Adrik glanced at Jax, a twinkle in his eye. “So he’s important to me.”
I bit my tongue to keep from laughing at the murderous look Jax shot him.
“Anyway,” I said dramatically, snagging everyone’s attention before things could escalate. “Now that we’re all here, we should talk.”
“About?” Milo prompted.
“Selaphiel,” I said.
Quickly, I filled Milo in and caught him up.
He only stared back at me, his jaw hanging wider and wider.
Finally, he shook his head. “Damn, girl, if I’d known what a magnet for trouble you were that first day… Aww, who am I kidding? I still would have picked you as my pretend-lover. I mean, let’s be honest. It’s me. I’m trouble.”
I snickered. “You’re not wrong.”
“Okay, so what now?” he asked. “I mean, how do we kill the bitch-who-can’t-be-killed?”
“I think we’re getting ahead of ourselves,” Jax said. “First, we need to talk about the fact that the SSF has launched a manhunt for every single one of us. We’re not going to have time to hunt Selaphiel or her assassin-demons as long as we’re being hunted too.”
Death's Door (Supernatural Security Force Book 3) Page 4