by DB Reynolds
She stepped closer and touched his face. “Come on,” she whispered. “We’ll go upstairs.” Her hand slid over his shoulder and down his arm, until she linked her fingers with his, tugging him out of the chair, and out of the room, toward the main stairs. She swung around, taking the first few stairs backward, their hands still linked as she pulled him with her. “Don’t worry,” she said, her expression perfectly solemn, but her eyes dancing with humor. “Your virtue is perfectly safe with me. We have plenty of bedrooms.”
Kato met her gaze deliberately. She thought to toy with him using sex as her weapon? She was mistaking the disorientation of a new world with innocence or, perhaps, ignorance. He let the weight of years fill his eyes—decades on the dual battlefields of war and sexual conquest. He held her gaze until first fear and then excitement replaced the laughter in her expression. She swallowed hard, and her heart raced with a newfound lust, the twin peaks of her nipples pressing against the thin fabric of her shirt. He gave this evidence of her arousal a pointed glance, and she blushed, trying without success to extricate her fingers from his. But he held on tight.
Sweet Grace was beginning to appreciate just what sort of man she’d invited into her home and, very soon, into her bed, as well. Because it wasn’t only sleep that he’d been without for millennia.
Passing her on the stairs, it was his turn to tug her upward. “Which way?” he asked when they reached the landing. He hadn’t really needed to ask. Her lightly floral scent was everywhere to the left, strong enough that he thought the farthest room at the end was probably hers.
“That one’s mine,” she said, pointing there without looking, her eyes wide as she stared up at him. Forget his virtue, did she think he was going to steal hers? Right now? Tonight? He was a sexual creature, but not in the middle of a hunt.
“And?” he asked leadingly.
She blushed. “This one here is the guest room.” She indicated the room closest to the landing. “It has its own bathroom, just like the one in my condo, so you’ll have privacy.”
“Excellent.” He was relieved at the relative positions of their rooms. Not because of the space between them, but because his was closest to the staircase. Demons didn’t worry about such niceties as stairs, but with the scrolls in the office downstairs, any manifesting demon would come from that direction. He’d left the damn things there intentionally, so that on the off chance a demon decided to challenge him, he’d have some warning before it attacked. It was an unlikely scenario, however. Any demon that had somehow managed to secure its freedom in this bountiful hunting ground of a world would avoid Kato at all costs. The creatures would sense the parallels between his magic and the magic that had brought them forth, and understand the danger of confronting him.
Cupping Grace’s jaw in his calloused hand, noting how very soft her skin was, he murmured, “Sleep well, Grace,” and brushed a kiss over her lips. It was the lightest touch, but she sucked in a breath in reaction, her pupils blowing so wide open that there was barely a hint of pale blue iris.
Kato smiled and turned her in the direction of her room. She walked slowly down the hall, looking back only once, when she crossed the threshold. “Good night, Kato,” she whispered, and then closed the door behind her.
GRACE LEANED against the closed door, waiting for her pulse to return to normal and her lungs to start breathing again. Good God, he was potent. Somehow, her idiot brain had decided he was . . . well, not innocent, but scared and confused by his sudden emergence into this new and strange world. She couldn’t have been more wrong. He might be overwhelmed, but he was too much of an alpha male to let it weaken him in any way. And when he’d met her gaze down at the bottom of the stairs, when she’d made the mistake of teasing him about his sexual experience . . . she’d have sworn there’d been flames licking the dark centers of his eyes, and that she’d felt the heat of his gorgeous body swirling out to wrap itself around her, thick fingers of desire tugging her ever closer, into the abyss. And, God save her, she’d wanted nothing more, in that moment, than to delve into that dark unknown with him.
Kato Amadi was a dangerous fucking man. She had to remember that. Dangerous and fucking. She was still wet between her thighs, her nipples still painful points of sensation against her T-shirt. Damn it. He’d left her horny as hell, and with no vibrator at hand. She hadn’t left one here, not wanting to risk her mom finding it in the bedside drawer. Not that her mom thought she was a virgin or anything, but still, she was Mom.
She stripped off her hoodie and yanked her T-shirt over her head, feeling the fabric snag on her stiff nipples. It looked like her fingers were going to be doing double duty tonight, but all she could think about was how much better Kato’s big, thick fingers would feel instead. She’d bet the rest of him was big and thick, too.
Shit. Why did he have to be such a fucking gentleman about it? Actually, she thought in sudden indignation, he hadn’t been a gentleman at all. He was a tease, that’s what he was. He was probably lying in his bed down the hall stroking himself off, imagining . . . well, hell, he’d better at least be fantasizing about her while he jerked off.
For a moment, she was so full of righteous anger that she almost rushed right down there to tell him off. Luckily, she caught a glimpse of herself in the mirror, naked from the waist up, cheeks flushed, expression just a little bit wild, and stopped herself from doing something really stupid. Wouldn’t he have gotten a kick out of that?
Turning on the cool water, she washed her face, and then brushed her teeth with a vengeance before stripping off the rest of her clothes, yanking on some unattractive sweats, and sliding into her cold and lonely bed.
Fucking Kato.
Chapter Seven
Malibu, California
KATO WAS ALREADY sitting outside on the deck by the time Grace made it downstairs the next morning. She shivered, zipping her hoodie shut and wrapping her arms around herself, chilled despite her leggings and the long-sleeved T-shirt she had on under her sweatshirt, the tank top under that, and the warm UGG boots on her feet. It had to be cold out there. The sun had barely risen, and its warmth wouldn’t reach the beach side of the house for some hours, if it did at all. This time of year, the coast was more likely to be foggy until well after noon.
Shuffling into the kitchen, she went directly to the pod-style coffeemaker and brewed three quick cups. The first cup she drank, after doctoring it with cream and sugar, while watching the next two cups make themselves. By the time the third cup was finished, she’d doctored her second cup and taken her first sip. Balancing the two cups in one hand, she slid the glass door open and joined Kato on the deck, handing him the straight black cup.
“Aren’t you cold?” she asked. Just looking at him made her shiver all over again. He wasn’t even wearing a jacket, and his arms were bare beneath a short-sleeved black T-shirt that did wonders for his broad chest and heavy shoulders . . . his arms, too, with the sleeves stretching around thick biceps. She forced herself to look away from the Kato eye candy.
“I’m rarely cold,” he said in that quiet voice of his. He was always so calm, so centered, as if he’d not only achieved the higher state that her yoga instructor was constantly going on about, but had moved up to the next rung. If she hadn’t seen him in action, fighting off a real live demon in the museum basement, she’d never have believed it was possible. His inner peace seemed at odds with his martial prowess. Or maybe not. Maybe that was how one became a great warrior, by setting aside everything else and focusing on destroying the enemy.
“Well, I’m cold just looking at you,” she muttered, taking the chair next to his and all but hugging the hot cup of coffee to her chest.
He took a sip of his own and grinned at her. “We can go inside if you’d like.”
She noticed he’d said, “we.” No complaints about spoiling his quiet morning, just consideration for her comfort.
Why the hell had it taken an ancient sorcerer’s curse to drop a good guy onto her lap? Or, more accuratel
y, onto her desk, but who was keeping track?
“No, that’s okay,” she assured him. “The coffee’s hot. So, what’s on today’s agenda?”
He stared out at the ocean a while longer, as if reluctant to leave the morning’s peace behind and take up the burden of killer demons on the loose.
“We need to go back to your condo, or more specifically, to your murdered neighbor’s condo.”
“What about Ryan? Should we find him first?”
Kato stared at her unseeing, his thoughts clearly elsewhere. “Normally, I’d split our efforts to cover both possibilities, but I’m reluctant to send you against a possible demon alone, and—”
“And you need me to drive you wherever you go,” she reminded him.
“And that. Have you tried to reach your friend yet?”
“I left a message, but he hasn’t called me back. I don’t know if he’s even received the copy I sent him yet. It went FedEx, but the University’s mail system probably slowed it down by at least a day.”
Kato sighed, and she was about to explain what FedEx was, but then he said, “We’ll go to your condo first. There’s no doubt that a demon murdered your neighbor, and it won’t stop killing as long as it’s free. Your police investigators will have no luck pursuing it, however. It won’t leave a trail that they can follow.”
“But you can?”
He nodded. “There’s a fetid stench to the demons’ world. It clings to them.”
“What about the others? Your brothers. Could they track a demon, too?”
Kato smiled, as if remembering. “Not Gabriel. He’ll fight and destroy demons and whatever else the enemy throws at him, but he has no sense for that kind of magic. His talents lie elsewhere. Damian possibly. It’s complicated with him. But my brother Dragan would certainly have no difficulty with a lower demon like this, and neither would Nico.”
“Lower demon? You mean there are some that are worse?”
He turned to look at her then, his dark eyes haunted. “There are some whose appearance alone would fuel your nightmares for the rest of your life, and others whose cruelty is such that you’d never stop weeping for their victims. Their world is filled with horrors, Grace, and they will visit that same horror on this world if they can. Don’t believe otherwise.”
She drew a shallow breath, her chest tight with apprehension at the dread reflected in Kato’s eyes. “I won’t,” she whispered. Then, telling herself to suck it up and stop being such a wimp, she cleared her throat. “Won’t being in the city make it difficult for us to follow the demon’s trail? There are so many people everywhere. What if it got into a vehicle of some kind?”
He nodded, his eyes once again clear with sober intent. “This world would seem well-suited to demonkind,” he agreed. “The air is filled with the stink of your industry and your cars, and it’s more crowded than I’d ever imagined a city could be. The hunt will be difficult because of it, but I’m not without resources. Still, it will be long and boring. You should—”
“Nice try,” she said dryly. “You’re stuck with me. Get used to it.”
The look he gave her then was so filled with heat that she fancied she could smell the small hairs on her arms sizzling. “I have no objection to being stuck to you,” he purred.
Her entire body flushed with equal parts embarrassment and desire. And maybe, if she was honest, desire had a slight edge. But she wasn’t stupid. She knew he was just trying to distract her with sex. Well, too late, buddy. He’d had his chance last night, and he’d walked away.
She stood, taking her empty cup with her. “We should leave soon. Traffic will get heavy later, and it’ll take a lot longer to get back to my place.”
He immediately pushed back his chair and stood next to her, standing so close that she was made aware, in a way she hadn’t been before, of just how big he was. He put a hand on her arm, and she felt his warmth through the three layers of clothes she was wearing.
“I’ll gather the scrolls, you finish getting dressed. It could be a long hunt, Grace. Dress accordingly.”
“Okay,” she agreed automatically, although she had no idea of what he meant. What was the dress code when hunting demons? Something that wouldn’t stain? Something washable? Were there certain colors that demons didn’t like? Like red in front of a bull? And what about smells? Should she steer clear of scented lotions to avoid messing up Kato’s nose? He’d said demons had a stench. So, was he like a human bloodhound? Was that why they needed to visit the crime scene again, so he could take a good long sniff?
“Today, Grace?”
She gave him a startled look, realizing she’d been just standing there, running scenarios through her head. “Right,” she said sheepishly. “Sorry. I was thinking.”
“Thinking is good. Moving is better.”
“Okay, Yoda. I’m going.” She went back into the house and headed for the stairs, taking perverse pleasure in the puzzled look on Kato’s face. So, he didn’t know who Yoda was. Maybe if he was really nice to her, she’d invite him over for a Star Wars marathon, popcorn included. They could stretch out on her couch together. It was big. They’d both fit, though they’d have to lie really close together.
Grinning, she ran up the stairs to prepare for her first ever demon hunt.
KATO WATCHED HER climb the stairs, admiring her natural, athletic grace. He didn’t know what people in this world did to ready themselves for battle, but he was fairly confident that Grace had never planned for such an event. She was fit, but that didn’t mean she was battle-ready. It took more than muscle, especially when the enemy was demonkind. And while he didn’t doubt her courage, he’d have much preferred that she confine her efforts to research. He’d travel faster without her, and when he finally cornered the deadly creature, he didn’t want to be forced to divide his attention between protecting her and fighting the demon.
But he wouldn’t deny her the right to participate in this hunt, either. This was her reality, and she’d invited this evil into her world. It was her duty to help destroy the invaders.
While she was upstairs, he went back into her mother’s office and gathered the three scrolls. Three scrolls, three demons, he thought to himself. One of them already dead, the second on the loose, and the third . . . he’d read the scroll and knew its intent, which was bad enough. Fortunately, Grace’s copy had been precise, but what if it had been altered by her duplicating machine, or if this mathematician had magic of his own? The best possible outcome would be if the package hadn’t arrived yet, or if he was traveling and unable to receive it. Kato had never longed more for the presence of one of his brothers, someone to follow one trail while he followed the other and kept Grace well out of it.
But, in his experience, life was rarely so cooperative.
He picked up the scrolls, interweaving their pages with translucent white paper, just as Grace had, then slipped them into the same envelope and carried it back to the main living area of the big house. He didn’t need the original scrolls with him for the hunt, but Grace’s family seemed to have several residences, and without knowing if he’d be back to this house by the sea, he didn’t want to chance leaving anything here. Especially not something tainted by the magic of the Dark Witch. If nothing else, Grace’s innocent copying of the spells had shown the danger in that.
He made a quick trip back upstairs to gather the few clothes he’d acquired in this world. Folding them neatly, he dropped them into the duffle bag that they’d also picked up at the mall yesterday. The folder with the scrolls went into an inside pocket, and he was ready to leave. While he waited for Grace, he carried the duffle back downstairs, then went out and sat on the deck, filling his senses with the salty fresh tang of the ocean, letting his desert-born skin soak up the moisture. He didn’t know if he’d ever come back to this house, but he knew that one way or another, his home in this new world would be near the ocean.
“Kato?”
He stood at the sound of Grace’s voice and walked back into the hous
e, closing the glass door behind him.
“You really like it out there, huh?”
He shrugged one shoulder as he scanned her up and down, checking out her choice of hunting gear. “Water is life,” he explained, “and I was born in a desert. Are those shoes comfortable? Can you run in them?” he asked, studying the chunky-looking purple and white lace-ups with some doubt.
“My Nikes? Totally! They’re made for running.”
He sighed inwardly. So much to learn, and no time to do it. Maybe when this was over, when all of the demons had been sent to their well-deserved deaths, he could find the time to learn about his new home. Maybe Grace would help him. He found that thought rather cheering and slid his glance from her shoes up to her slender legs, which were clad in pants of the same pale blue fabric as his own jeans. But unlike his comfortable fit, hers were skin-tight and quite appealing. He forced his gaze farther upward, lingering on the swell of her breasts beneath a soft jacket, before landing on her pretty, smiling face. She’d pulled her hair back into a long braid, which was a sensible precaution, but it also showed off the elegant lines of her jaw and neck. He grinned at the look in her eyes, which dared him to comment on her appearance.
Being a wise man, he said only, “You’ll have to drive,” and gestured for her to lead the way out of the house. As they exited through the front door, he noted the code she entered to engage the house’s security system, and then enjoyed the sight of her very firm ass in the tight jeans as they made their way up the short path to her small car.
Moments later, they were on their way, heading into a battle unlike any he’d ever faced.
“SOMETHING MUST have happened,” Grace muttered to herself, speaking absently as she took yet another detour around stopped traffic near her Brentwood condo. At this time of morning, she’d have expected some traffic, but nothing like this. “Probably an accident on one of the major streets,” she said more loudly, for Kato’s benefit.