"Hang on!" I heard him yell.
The door swung open to reveal a naked Burrom. Okay, not exactly naked, but the teeny tiny towel hanging sinfully low on his hips covered just enough to keep the image from an R rating.
Yep, whatever I'd done at his burial ground months ago was seriously linked to my feelings for Cormac. His face might have resembled Cormac's brother, but the physique was identical.
"Like what you see?" He leaned back away from the door, looking toward the entrance of his bedroom and then back to me. "I can kick them out if you want. Just give me five."
Them? "Not necessary. Where is everyone? Awfully quiet around here."
He smirked as he tipped his head toward me. "After all we've been through, Jo, you still don't trust me?"
The knot that had formed in my chest started to loosen up a bit.
"Where are they? Your people?"
"Partying like it's the end of the world, as per my orders. Babe, we might have agreed to go down with the ship but we're going out with some style." His eyes were big and his smile was bigger. "Okay, I'm not sure drunken drugged debauchery should be termed style, but we're really committed to doing this thing right."
"Do I want to know?"
"Just your typical end of the world stuff, you know, orgies, alcohol and heavy drug use. Nothing to fuss about. And don't worry, I told them that they absolutely weren't allowed to use farm animals or anyone unwilling."
"You had to tell them that? It needed to be said?" This was to be my army? The fate of what was left of the free world rested in these hands.
"I'm not a hundred percent sure it was necessary, but I figured it was safer that way. It's all in good fun." He tilted his head toward his room again. "If you aren't joining the party, do you mind? We were just getting to the good part."
I held up my palms, "Nope, not at all. You go."
He smiled again and went to shut the door but swung it back open quickly. "Oh, uh, I wouldn't breathe too deeply until you get off this floor."
"Got it."
Chapter Eighteen
The Cost of Sharing
"Are you really going to sit there all day and write names?" Cormac asked.
I was perched on a stone dragon that had shown up in the courtyard about a week ago. About ten feet off the ground, it was actually a pretty comfortable perch with good visuals. Its tail arched in a way that made a very ergonomic backrest and its head was the perfect height to rest my boots.
"Yes. I want to remember every single person that left. Who's got Harvey?" It was the name I'd started to call Sabrina's son. He was the last little piece of Sabrina and I didn't like to call him "it."
"Dark."
"I thought Dark was still freaked out after this morning." That was when we'd discovered Harvey wasn't as human as he appeared. After a bout of gas, we no longer had two couches in the penthouse. Dark had been holding Harvey at the time and lost a healthy chunk of hair to the fire burst he'd let loose during an especially loud burp.
"It was his turn. Everyone babysits the Harvey."
"In other words, you forced him."
"I can't have one of my men running around afraid of a baby. It's embarrassing."
His hand reached up, resting on my thigh and I wasn't sure how to feel about it. We were in some weird relationship limbo land after last night. He'd been gone by time I'd gotten back and this was the first time I'd seen him.
I readjusted, using it as an excuse to dislodge the contact.
"We back there again?" he asked after removing his hand and leaning against the stone dragon.
"I can't instantly turn the feelings back on, especially when you can't make a commitment." I avoided eye contact, again. I was turning into such a wimp when it came to him.
"Did the feelings ever turn off?"
I ignored the question. "I didn't leave there. I can't move forward if I don't know where I'm going."
His expression was unreadable and also a place I didn't feel like going, so when I saw Buzz walking nearby, I hollered over to him.
"Can you believe this?" Buzz asked as he neared us. "Bunch of traitors."
"They're scared, is all," Cormac said.
"When did you become mister sensitive?" I asked.
"Since I learned what it feels like."
He was watching the mass exodus out of the castle and I was grateful he wasn't paying attention to me. I wasn't sure I would've been able to hide how much that hit me.
I shoved my pad and pencil at Buzz. "Do me a favor? Write down all the names of anyone leaving?"
"On top of everything else I've got to do today?"
"I've got a lead on some Twix." Buzz had a crazy sweet tooth.
He grabbed the supplies. "Just names, or do you want times as well?"
"Names are fine."
I would've jumped down from my perch, but Cormac's hands found my waist as I slid down the front of him. My breathing shallow, my back arched of its own accord. He paused my descent just as I was eye to eye with him.
"Oh yeah, those feelings are buried really deep. I can tell." His voice was mocking as my cheeks burned.
"Do you mind? I've got work to do."
My feet hit the ground and I forced myself not to linger in his grasp.
"Where you going?"
"I've got to go find me some bugs to talk to."
***
"You didn't need to come," I said, not bothering to look at Cormac who was following me into the golf course where I'd last seen them.
"I'm quite aware that you have handled things very nicely while I've been gone."
"Then why are you following me?" I whipped around as I asked him.
"Because of this?" He pulled out what looked like two collars with little boxes on them.
"What are they?" I reached to take one from his hand but he lifted it too high.
"Oh no," he said smugly as he walked in front of me, putting the collars back in his pocket. "You aren't playing nice, so why should I share my toys?"
"Can you just tell me what they are?" I asked, following him through the snowy golf course.
"I think I'll need a show of goodwill."
"I haven't thrown your clothes out. I thought that was some amazing will." They'd been unpacked neatly in the closet, to my consternation, this morning. I'd had them packed away in a corner of the dungeons after he left. The only reason I hadn't thrown them out was I felt guilty knowing someone could use them. I was eventually going to give them away, but not until I could bear seeing his white shirts everywhere.
"It's a step." He paused and pulled out a single collar and held it out in front of him.
"Is that a camera?"
"Yes. I plan on convincing the owls to do a fly over while wearing these."
"Where did you get them?"
"I rigged some stuff up from the old pet supply place that was on the outskirts of town and collected some things from one of the camera stores that had a room still intact."
"This is fantastic," I said in an awed voice.
"And I bet you would love to see the footage if the owls agree." He was smirking, not even trying to hide his pleasure at having the upper hand.
"What do you want?"
He pocketed the collar and his hands reached down cupping my hips, he steered me back until I felt a tree at my back.
"Just a kiss."
I reached up and planted a quick kiss on his lips before pulling back.
"That's not a kiss." His eyes were hypnotic as they stared down at me. Under his stare, it felt like everything else in the world faded away. His lips moved slowly closer to mine. "This is a kiss."
He cupped my cheek, using his thumb to urge my face upward. He brushed his lips over mine with the barest of pressure. He nibbled slowly on my lower lip before his tongue briefly entered my mouth. The stiffness in my limbs dissolved and he took advantage of it by fitting my body to his.
Then the kiss deepened, all softness gone, replaced by a possessiveness that shook me. I p
ressed my hands to his shoulders, breaking the contact and the intensity that sent me reeling. He pulled back enough to give me room but still kept contact.
"You got your kiss. Now let me see?" I asked.
"I kissed you. I'll share my toys, but I insist on an IOU for the kiss."
"Fine." If he'd known how rattled I was he might have pressed for a lot more, so I considered myself lucky.
He backed away with a smile and walked deeper into the golf course.
It took us another hour of calling before I found the bugs, not far from Burrom's tree, still in full foliage.
"Hi, Jo," the bugs greeted me and then a full minute later, they added "and him."
It was a little evil, the happiness I felt that at least somebody wasn't all enchanted with Cormac.
Pinky, the only one I could identify quickly because of the flashing pink on her tail, landed on my shoulder. "Do you know where the owls are?" I asked.
"They were around earlier. Don't know where they are now."
"Can you tell them I…we'd like to speak to them." Might as well use their adoration of Cormac to our benefit.
"Okay. Someone was looking for you."
"Who?" Cormac and I asked at the same moment.
"Weird old guy."
"Weird how?" Cormac asked.
"He was there but he wasn't there. And then he wasn't there at all."
Like the figure in the road before I crashed. I was really hoping for a mass hallucination. Sometimes crazy wasn't a bad thing. "Was he really big? What did he say?"
Fred flew over after making a couple zig zags due to his bent wing. "You're all big. He said 'Where's Jo?'"
"What did you reply?"
"We didn't know."
"Thanks. Please give the owls our message."
Cormac grabbed my hand and tugged me along.
"You know who it is?"
"I think it's got to be linked to the giant that showed up in the road then disappeared." I'd given Cormac a brief explanation about that night and I knew Colleen had filled in the gaps for him. "It would stand to reason that there aren't that many disappearing men floating around."
"I'm not sure I would take that for granted." He raised his brows as he said it.
"I don't have any other ideas."
"Could it be linked to the senator?"
"Every other time he wanted to talk to me, he's just come."
"How many times was that?" There was an edge to his voice as he asked.
"I don't know. I didn't count."
"More than a handful?"
"Yes, I guess."
"Why didn't you tell me this?"
"It didn't seem relevant."
"I have a feeling it's very relevant."
His grip was tightening painfully on my hand and his face was scowling.
"You're hurting me."
"Sorry," he said and immediately loosened his grip but didn't let go.
"What's got you so riled up?"
"The senator has a thing for you."
The idea was so ridiculous I smiled. "He hates me. Don't you remember the things he said to me?"
"Maybe that's how it started out," he stopped, forcing me to stop with him, "but I don't think those are his feelings now."
"Don't look at me like I had something to do with it."
"Did you lead him on? Maybe to keep the truce going?"
"How could you even ask me that?" I tried to wrench my hand out of his grasp but he didn't let go.
"It was a logical question since you've got half the casino sniffing after you."
"Including you?" I didn't know why I said it. Maybe because I still felt like he'd abandoned me, I wanted to rub it in a bit.
"Don't think for a second you can play me like the rest of your boys."
"My boys?"
His eyes hardened and before I could register alarm, his hand holding mine encircled my back and his other hand gripped my hair. I felt like I was in a storm as his lips pressed against mine, hard and demanding. It was a claiming kiss, one of possession mingled with jealousy.
When he let me go, I was reeling but tried to hide it. He started walking back in the direction of the casino. I didn't think he was going to speak again but I was wrong.
"You know what the most frustrating thing about this situation is?" He didn't wait for me to answer. "The old me wouldn't have worried about you. I would've done what I felt was best for my people and stayed at the castle, chips fall where they may. Wouldn't have worried about you getting hurt. I left because I cared. And not for Dodd or Dark or Sabrina, I left because I was worried about you. What would happen if I lost it while I lay next to you? I became the man you wanted me to be and you hate me for it."
Speechless, I watched his back as we walked. As we stepped into the castle, I still couldn't think of anything to say and I watched him walk away.
Chapter Nineteen
Skeleton Crew
When I finally fell asleep that night, after thinking all day about the ghost man who was lurking, and worse, Cormac's words, I fell asleep alone.
But I awoke with company. The tan muscular arm slung around my waist, hugging my back firmly to a warm and muscular chest. I was definitely not going to make the same mistake twice as I eyed the arm. I wouldn't make any sudden movements as I tried to decide if it was Burrom or Cormac.
Turning without alerting the man behind me seemed to be impossible, as snug as we were. I looked down at the hand, trying to examine it for some difference I could pick up on. I couldn't remember if Burrom wore any jewelry that might indicate whose it was, but Cormac didn't.
The arm pulled back giving me some room to assess the situation better. I turned and saw Cormac leaning against folded arms, very reminiscent of how Burrom had reclined there not long ago.
"Expecting someone else?"
My face must have given me away. "No." Maybe? "What time is it?"
"8:30."
"Shit!"
I jumped up ran across the room into the walk in closet. "Ugh! Your stuff is taking up all the room!"
"You mean my clothes in my closet, where they are supposed to be?"
I pushed past all the pristine shirts I had packed away and wondered where the hell he was getting them cleaned. How were they all still spotless?
"You are aware it's the end of the world, right? You could relax your dress code a bit? Maybe blend?" Only Cormac could remain well groomed in the apocalypse. "Sport a stain or two, just to look like you belong?"
"I've no desire to 'blend' anymore. By the way, you don't have to rush," he called from the other room as I yanked a clean sweatshirt over my head.
"Why?" I asked, half darting out and keeping my naked lower body behind the wall.
"I postponed it until nine-thirty."
A small part of me might have been annoyed he'd changed my plans without informing me, but it was hard to tell past the relief of not showing up late on the first day to train an army. Well, army might be generous. Squad?
"Do you plan on joining us?" I yelled as I pulled up my cargo pants. I so wanted to look the part.
"I have every intention of joining you," he replied from inches behind me.
I froze, relieved I had worn my cute underwear. "Does privacy mean nothing?"
"I've already seen everything. But I do enjoy seeing it again." He smiled as he leaned a shoulder against the frame. "The owls came last night."
"They did?"
"Yes. To the rooftop."
"Why didn't you wake me?"
"Because you were exhausted."
"Did they agree?"
"Yes. Of course they did. I've got good branches, remember?"
I moved past him and his all too charming smile into the living room where my coffee waited. As long as I had coffee, I could make it through. One day though... No, I wouldn't think like that. I had coffee today. That's all that mattered.
I looked down at the lists I'd made of the people who had signed up and were committed to this fight. "Squ
ad" might have been overreaching a bit. It didn't matter, more people would sign up. They had to, because if they didn't…well, it wasn't going to be good for anyone.
"You ready?" he asked almost an hour later.
I looked up from where I'd been analyzing the list. I recognized most of the names on there. Out of everyone, it looked like the changed were the highest percentage of people staying. But the list was slim.
I looked at Cormac, gripping the sad list in my hand. He'd swapped out his normal business casual attire for something more akin to a bookie about to make his weekly rounds picking up the winnings. How did I know what a bookie wore on such outings? I'd prefer not to divulge. It was bad enough that I did.
"You don't like it?" he asked, indicating his sweat suit.
"It's just not what I'm used to seeing you in."
"I borrowed it from Dodd's closet. He's got a ton of them. He won't miss one when he gets back."
I made a slow silent "ahhh, now it fits," expression. I hoped he was right and that Dodd was coming back.
We left the penthouse and made our way toward the great hall. I was pumping myself up to make the best of the situation when I stepped in to face the beginnings of our army. It wasn't horrible, but it wasn't great.
Scanning the group, it looked like we had maintained all the Keepers. The ones that weren't stationed at the doors had shown up. We were down to a skeleton crew on guards, now that the wolves and Fae were defecting, so their full numbers weren't able to be here.
The changed made up the bulk of the crowd. All of the humans, Crash and his men, check...but where were Burrom and his Fae?
When I heard the sounds of laughter and a loud belch, I didn't make any outward reaction. On the inside, I was rolling my eyes and cursing. Framed by the stone archway, the most slovenly lot of Fae appeared with Burrom in the lead. Some stumbled, and there were random hiccups as they filled the space with the aroma of a brewery.
Burrom walked over to me and I was grateful he, at least, appeared to be sober.
"Are they all drunk?" Cormac hissed under his breath in Burrom's direction.
I didn't chime in verbally, just gave him my visual condemnation.
Redemption: Alchemy Series Book #4 Page 15