“Kitty, they are trying to help—”
“Their help wouldn’t be necessary had they let me be in the first place, instead of having Incubi kidnap me. So, stop painting them as my saviors.”
I closed my eyes and leaned back in the seat, not loving my irritation with Delilah or my tone of voice with her at the moment. These temper flare-ups were not typical for me. I was tired, definitely sleep-deprived, and on edge.
She heaved an exasperated sigh.
“I don’t want to start an argument—”
“Of course not. What’s the point? All your hate is directed against the beings you never took your time to understand. You never even met them until today. But you’re talking about The Priory—the other side responsible for all this mess—as if they’re the holy saviors of us all. What good did this organization do, beside hiding behind the backs of kidnapped women for centuries?”
“These are not some poor misunderstood creatures, Kitty.” Delilah leaned towards me, her dark-blue eyes gleaming with conviction. “Their supernatural allure might have altered your perception, after your spending time with one of them. But believe me, I’m not indifferent to the plight of the women. I do have strong reasons to mistrust Incubi.” She swept back the few loose strands of her dark hair that had made their way out of her neat bun. “My family suffered directly at their hands. My brother was kidnapped by them as small child. It broke my mother’s heart, killing her within a year of his abduction. My father never was the same again. He dedicated his entire life to manage the relationships with Incubi. He worked hard to make sure there were no leniencies for them to ever take more than what was given.”
She leaned back and shook her head before continuing.
“No one liked those arrangements. No one was happy about giving our women to them every year. But you can’t kill the demons. There is no way to get rid of them. The only way to keep them in check is to regulate their hunger.”
“Why would Incubi take a little boy?” I blinked, reeling from her revelations. “Your brother?”
“Because they are creatures incapable of love, Kitty. They’re void of compassion and are beyond all human morals.” Her voice rose. “They can’t comprehend right and wrong. All they know is hunger. It hollows them with pain and they’d do anything to feed. Obviously, they needed leverage, knowing of my father’s position within The Priory, and wanted to weaken him. But they’ve failed—his hatred for them grew and only made him stronger in his fight against them.”
Her face flushed with the passion she’d put in her words. Navy blue eyes glistened, reflecting the unwavering strength of her beliefs.
“What happened to your brother? Do you know?”
“No. I’m still searching.” She exhaled heavily. “The demons deny knowing anything about him. But I swore on the memory of him that sooner or later I would find what happened to him. And I’ll make those responsible pay.”
Chapter 24
I SAT ON THE EXAMINATION table, wearing a hospital gown, my clothes folded neatly on a chair nearby, the golden shoes tucked under it. Straining my hearing, I tried to listen to the muted voices of Delilah talking to the doctor on the other side of the curtain.
“The doctor has cleared you to go,” she announced, shoving the curtain aside. “I’ll drive you home.” She tossed my clothes to me and folded her arms across her chest, waiting for me to change.
Turning my back to her, I started getting dressed.
“Where did you get that necklace?” Delilah asked unexpectedly as I struggled with the hooks of my bra. “I saw it glow last night, just like mine.” She stepped closer, and I felt her fingers on my back, as she quickly closed my bra for me.
“Where did you get yours?” I asked her instead of giving an answer.
“Family heirloom. This one was my mother’s. My father had one too, shaped like a claw. He gave it to my brother.” She paused. Over my shoulder, I saw her twirling the pendant between her fingers. “But I’ve never seen either of them light up before.”
“Ivarr gave me mine.” Fully dressed now, I shoved my feet in my shoes. “To protect me from the Council. It glows when demons are near and prevents them from entering the room you’re in.”
“I never knew.” She stroked her pendant, her brow furrowed in thought. “I don’t think my parents knew, either, otherwise they would’ve told me.”
“Miss Jones?” A nurse poked her head behind the curtain. “There is someone to see you. Mister Stratton.”
“Derek?” I exhaled in shock.
“How did anyone know she was here?” Delilah moved on the nurse menacingly.
“Mister Stratton asked to be notified as next of kin if Miss Jones ever came in . . .” The nurse retreated, shielding herself with the curtain.
“I don’t have a next of kin.”
“In the absence of a close family,” the nurse explained carefully, “as your fiancée—”
“Derek is not my fiancé. We’re not engaged.”
“This can’t be standard practice, surely?” Delilah narrowed her eyes at the nurse, who almost completely hid behind the curtain from her by now.
“It doesn’t need to be,” I muttered.
Derek’s local celebrity status, along with his all-American boy-next-door charm, compelled many into bending rules for him.
“Kitty!” He burst through the curtains, instantly filling the small enclosure with his cologne and his presence.
Ignoring everything around us, he rushed to me and enclosed me in one of his energetic hugs.
“They told me you were dead, but I just couldn’t accept it. Not even when they said they’d found a body.”
“A body?” Over Derek’s shoulder, I glanced at Delilah in question. She waved me off, mouthing ‘Later.’
“Obviously, a mistake,” continued Derek. “Good thing I never stopped searching.”
Still, he appeared visibly shaken by my sudden resurrection. The familiarity of his arms around me relaxed me somewhat, and his distress triggered my compassion.
“I’m so sorry,” I said softly.
“Where have you been?” He moved back to see my face and grabbed my arms.
I winced at the pressure of his hand on my bandage.
“Are you okay?” He jerked his hand away and stared at my arm. “What happened?”
“It was an accident,” I replied, fully aware that his question applied to my disappearance as much as to the cut on my arm.
“Miss Jones is not at liberty to divulge the details of recent events at this point.” Delilah stepped in, clearing her throat. “An investigation is still ongoing.”
“And you are?” Derek straightened out, letting go of me.
“Doctor Delilah Neri.” She offered him her hand, and he shook it coolly.
“Doctor? You’re not the police?”
“No. I’m a psychologist. I’m here to ensure Miss Jones is delivered home safely.”
“I will be in charge of Kitty’s safety now,” he declared with authority and turned to me. “Have you been cleared by the doctors to go home yet?”
“Derek.” I shook my head, staring at him in confusion. “Why are you here?”
“Because who else is there, Kitty?” He wrapped his arm around my shoulders. “You have no one else to take care of you.”
“We broke up,” I reminded him.
“And I’ve been kicking myself over it since you’ve been gone. I should’ve never left you. None of this would’ve happened if I’d stayed.”
“You don’t know that. Besides, I’m not your responsibility.”
“Yes, you are.” He nodded with conviction and turned to face Delilah again. “I’m going to take her home if we’re done here.”
“Kitty?” Delilah turned to me. “Do you trust this man?”
“I do,” I said without reservation. I would never trust Derek with my heart again, but I trusted him with my life. At least as far as all the known dangers in the world went.
Everythi
ng that had to do with demons and secret Priories, on the other hand . . . “Delilah, can you promise me with absolute certainty that it’s safe for me to go home.”
“Yes,” she said firmly.
“Okay.”
Despite us disagreeing on pretty much everything so far, I sensed a certain level of integrity in this woman that compelled me to trust her word.
Derek obviously didn’t share this trust.
“I’ll contact the police for any updates on the investigation,” he declared, leading me to the exit, his hand on the small of my back.
Delilah gave him a glare, taking a wider stance.
“I don’t think the police would share any information—”
“They will,” he cut her off. “I have contacts there, too.”
She tilted her head, her mouth pressed into a thin line.
“Here is my phone number, just in case you don’t get any answers.” She offered him a business card. Without giving it a glance, Derek shoved it in the breast pocket of his crisp, blue shirt.
“Can I have one, too, please?” I asked, taking a step her way.
At that moment, Delilah seemed to be my only connection to everything that happened, the only link to Ivarr, too. I couldn’t leave here without having a way to contact her.
“Sure.” She gave me her card then closed the distance between us and unexpectedly gave me a firm hug. “I’ll take you to therapy on Monday. We’ll talk more.” She then whispered so soft, only I could here. “Until then, Kitty, please keep quiet.”
Chapter 25
RIDING IN A CAB WITH Derek by my side felt surreal. It was as if I had spent time in an alternate reality.
Now, here I was, driving through the streets of Seattle, sitting next to my perfect boyfriend again as if the past few weeks never happened.
He took my hand in his, and I let him, my head reeling from the struggle to readjust to my old surroundings.
“I paid this month’s rent for you,” Derek said, unlocking the door to my apartment.
“Thank you.” I walked in, surprised he still kept my key. “I’ll transfer the money to you as soon as I get my bearings.”
“Don’t, Kitty. You know it’s not about the money. No matter what they said, I wanted you to come back. And you needed to have a place to return to.”
“Thank you,” I replied mechanically, took a few steps across my tiny living room, and plopped on the couch. Dropping my head down, I blankly stared at my shoes.
“Those are pretty.” Derek must have followed my gaze. “Completely not your style, though. Where have you been, Kitty? What have you been doing all this time?” He crouched in front of me. “Tell me what happened.”
For a moment, I regretted not going through the available cover-up scenarios with Delilah after all and not choosing one to have prepared answers for him. Then I realized that I was in no condition to discuss any of it, fake or real.
Exhaustion weighed heavily on me, dragging me under.
“I’m so tired, Derek.” It was early afternoon, but all I got for sleep last night were a couple of interrupted hours in a moving vehicle—first in the truck, then in Delilah’s SUV. In addition to the physical exhaustion, I felt emotionally drained, too. “I’ll need to take a quick shower before I crash here. Thank you for everything.” With a huge effort I rose from the couch and went to the bathroom.
“Do you need my help in there?” His concerned voice was void of any innuendo.
“No. Thank you, I’ll manage. I’ll call you tomorrow?”
“I’m not leaving.” The hard note in his tone made me pause. “I cleared my schedule for this week as soon as I got the call from the hospital. I’m staying here tonight.”
“Why?” I braced myself on the doorframe to the bathroom.
“I don’t want to leave you alone again.”
“You can’t babysit me day and night, Derek.”
“Apparently, I have to,” he bit out, making me flinch at the accusation in his tone.
“I’ll be fine,” I assured him solemnly.
“Kitty . . .” He came closer and put his hands on my shoulders. “Listen, I can see you’re tired.” His tone softened a little as the light green of his eyes warmed somewhat too. “We can have this conversation after your nap. But I’m staying here while you sleep.”
“Fine. You can stay,” I conceded, too tired to fight and disarmed by genuine emotions in his expression. “As a friend. If you want.”
LYING IN BED, WITH the door closed and Derek guarding me in the living room, I stared at my closet. The dark curtains on my bedroom window let a few slivers of the afternoon sun through. The faint light glimmered off the gold of my shoes on the closet shelf. That and the bright crimson of my silk top on the hanger were the only splashes of colour among the usual monochrome palette of my wardrobe.
My chest tight, I struggled to breathe around the lump lodged in my throat. Where was he now? How was he doing? Broken, in pain, detained . . .
Incubus.
A sex demon, who in the short time that we spent together managed to crawl deep into my heart.
‘He is a demon, like them.’
‘We have no place in their world.’
Maybe. But now that he had made his way into my world, what was I supposed to do to get him out of my thoughts?
Chapter 26
IT WAS COMPLETELY DARK when I woke up. Physically, I felt rested. Mentally, I was disoriented. Waking up in my own bed after so many weeks, I felt uncertain how to go on. Getting back to my old life didn’t seem as easy as slipping on an old pair of shoes.
Unsure of what time of the day it was, I only knew that I didn’t feel like sleeping anymore. Instead, I threw a bathrobe on and shuffled to the kitchen to make some coffee.
“Good morning.” Derek sat at the kitchen counter, his laptop open in front of him. “Did you sleep well?”
“Yes. Thank you. What time is it?”
“Quarter after five. You slept over fifteen hours.” Derek’d always been an early riser. He appeared freshly showered and was fully dressed in his usual outfit—a crisp blue button-down and a pair of khaki pants, his reddish-blond hair carefully tousled, the top button of his shirt intentionally left open. Derek put a lot of effort into his casually effortless look. “I had Jake get some groceries last night. Milk for your coffee is in the fridge.”
Jake was Derek’s personal assistant, extremely helpful and super-efficient.
“Thank you,” I said again, starting the coffeemaker, then sat on the barstool next to him. “Sorry,” I rubbed my face, feeling awkwardly out of place with my sloppy appearance next to his impeccable self. “I’m . . . um, somewhat out of it, right now.”
“It’s understandable,” Derek said in his best coaching tone, and took my hand in his. “I called several therapists yesterday and set up appointments for them to see you. I figure you can do an initial consultation with all of them then choose which one turns out to be the best match.”
“But I already have someone. Delilah, I mean Doctor Neri, is taking me to see them on Monday . . .”
“Do you trust this Doctor Neri to act in your best interests, Kitty? Why?”
I didn’t have one specific reason to trust Delilah, except that she had delivered on everything she’d promised so far. She got me home, safely.
Besides, she was in on the whole truth about Incubi, as would be the therapist she’d take me to see, I assumed. It seemed useless to talk to any professional if I had to lie about what happened to me in the first place.
“No more and no less than I’d trust any therapist right now. I could at least start with that one and search for someone else if it doesn’t work out.”
“I called some of my contacts in the police last night,” Derek changed the subject, obviously avoiding an argument. “None of them are aware of any investigation in regard to your case. Apparently, you’re still confirmed dead. But now that you’re here, the police want to question you. I was able to postpone that,
to let you rest, but someone will be here later this morning.”
“I have nothing to tell them.” I wrapped my arms around my shoulders, shifting on the stool.
“Will you tell me?” The expression on his face was that of a parent questioning their child—kind and insistent. “About where you’ve been?
“Not right now, no. Sorry, I just need some time . . .”
It wasn’t even about the Incubi or the Priory or their centuries-old secrets. I simply had no idea how I could talk about any of this either to Derek or to the police, without making myself seem completely insane.
“Maybe . . . after I speak with a therapist,” I added in a pacifying tone, very aware that nothing I could say to him at the moment would satisfy his inquisitive nature.
The coffeemaker beeped, and I got up to get a cup from the cabinet.
“But I’m here. Alive.” I gave him a weak smile. “That should count for something, right?”
“Kitty.” He shook his head. “You have no idea how terrible I felt learning about your disappearance. Then when they told me they found your body . . .” His voice broke off, and he shook his head again.
“I’m sorry.” I left the mug on the counter and walked around to enclose his tall, lean figure in a hug. “I’m sorry you took it so hard.”
“I care about you, Kitty. Even when I left, I never stopped.”
“You didn’t call me once after our breakup.” I released him from my arms and sat on the barstool again. There was no accusation in my tone, I simply stated the fact.
“I didn’t,” he agreed. “But I knew you were okay. Until the night you disappeared.”
“Did you spy on me?”
“I kept an eye on you. Kitty, you have no one else. And I should have never left you.”
“Why?”
“All the time you were gone, I regretted leaving you all alone. You shouldn’t live on your own.” He closed the laptop, shoving it aside, and turned in his seat to face me. “Kitty, I want you to move in with me.”
The Forgotten (Demons Book 2) Page 14