Devil May Care

by Patricia Eimer

  “What?”

  “You know what I’m going to do before I throw you in that hamster cage in the Grey Lands? I’m going to rip your wings off and tape them to my bedroom window like some sort of sun catcher a serial killer made in art therapy class.”

  “You don’t scare me,” Daharack said. “You have to escape first.”

  My toes went cold. Picking my head up, I looked at the wavering bit that had appeared in front of us and watched my legs disappear beyond it. That couldn’t be good.

  “They’ve got a reality bubble,” Matt said, groaning. “Like the one we have at Neveah. Great. Just what we needed today.”

  “Somebody will find us.” I bit my lower lip. The air around my ears turned icy as they carried me through the wall of their bubble. “When we don’t come back they’ll send out a search party.”

  “Except for the whole reality bubble thing,” Matt said. “The only way you can find one of those is if you know where it is to begin with. They aren’t just invisible. Unless you know one exists it doesn’t manifest in this version of reality.”

  “So nobody’s coming for us?” I asked. “But, even if they do, this place doesn’t exist for them?”

  “Yep.” Matt said, popping his “p.”

  “So we’ve got to get out of here ourselves is what you’re saying?”

  “That’s exactly what I’m saying.”

  I picked my head up and looked at the sprawling, seething mass of sprites filling this hidden space. Matt’s mom had struck up an agreement with a pack of feral sprites. Who had us trapped in a place that didn’t actually exist unless you knew it was there. Great. My day was getting better and better with every passing moment.

  “No worries. We’ll be out of here by dinner.” I looked back over at Matt and tried my best to smile. There was no reason to let him see that I was scared. I was the only one who had access to our combined powers and that meant it was my job to get us out of here.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

  “Tell me again how I had to be mistaken about the sprites taking Tolliver?” I squirmed my back against the rough bark of the weeping willow tree Daharack’s minions had propped us up against, trying to find a way to get clear of my bindings and not getting anywhere. I looked out at the sprite camp and tried to kick my feet. No luck there, either. “How they weren’t aggressive? Simple creatures you called them. Think you might want to reevaluate your position, Mr. Andrews?”

  “Would it help if I said you were right?” Matt rolled his eyes. “You were right. I was wrong. Okay? I…was…wrong. Does that make you feel better?”

  The swarming mass shifted and pulled at each other, flittering to and fro, a high-pitched wail reverberating from their constant motion. It was like being trapped inside a giant beehive filled with very large, homicidal bees.

  “No,” I said.

  “No?” He raised his eyebrows and I could tell he wanted to reach up and tug at the ends of his hair. But he couldn’t. Because Daharack had us trussed up like a bunch of Christmas hams. “Why not?”

  “Because this is the fucking icing on the cake. Think about it. We’ve had almost no time alone in the past month. Or sex life is nonexistent. Then, just when it seemed like things were settling down, your crazy ex-girlfriend shows up and moves her ass onto my couch.” I knew I was being irrational but right now I didn’t see how that could make things any worse.

  “You were the one who insisted she stay at your place. I wanted to put her ass on a bus the minute she got there,” Matt said, and I felt a surge of power through the link bonding us.

  “I know I did but you shouldn’t have listened to me. You know damn well and good I make decisions without thinking them all the way through.”

  “Now you tell me. Or is that your excuse for snuggling up with your ex-boyfriend the minute my back was turned?” Power surged through the link again and I stretched my mind toward it. If I strained I could just about wrap my mind around the edges of it. I gave an experimental tug and Matt’s face paled. Crap. So much for that idea.

  “I wasn’t snuggling up to anyone. The only person I even want to snuggle with is you, you big, stupid jerk. The problem is people keep interrupting just when it’s starting to get good.”

  “So there’s nothing going on between you and Dan? You’re being serious? Nothing happened between the two of you?” Cautious hope filled his eyes.

  “Of course not.” I huffed and shook my head, trying my best to channel the unspoken “you stupid, stupid man” vibe. “Nothing has happened between us and the one time he tried to make something happen I smacked him across the face. I don’t want him. I want you.”

  “Even though I’m a big, stupid jerk?”

  “Yes, even though you’re a big, stupid jerk and we’re stuck underneath a tree like a couple of second rate mummies at a really crappy flea market. I love you.”

  “You know that’s the first time you’ve ever said it?” Matt shifted closer and licked his lower lip, his eyes filled with intent. “I should have known you’d have to call me a name first and say something off the wall immediately afterward. But that doesn’t change the fact that—”

  “Well, if we’re going to end up stuck in the Grey Lands, or something worse, I thought I should say that first.”

  “You’re not going to get banished to the Grey Lands,” Matt said.

  “Why is that?”

  “Because we’re not going to let that little shit Daharack beat us. You’re Satan’s daughter and I’m a nephilim. We’re not getting outsmarted by a bunch of flying twerps.”

  “So how are we going to stop them?”

  “You can feel my powers.” Matt smiled. “I felt it when you tried a minute ago. You can touch them. Can’t you?”

  “Yes.” I wrinkled my nose at him. “But I don’t see what good it will do. There’s got to be a million sprites in here. We aren’t going to be able to sneak past all of them.”

  “Who said anything about sneaking?” Matt asked. “You’re going to get the two of us free from these webs and then we’re leaving here fighting.”

  “But—” My stomach clenched. He was right. If we could get free, and if I could manage to channel his powers—both of which were huge ifs—we might be able to get out of here. Or we could get our asses kicked.

  Even worse, I could be forced to drain him off all of his powers and that would take his mortal form apart at the angelic equivalent of the molecular level—which would leave his soul trapped in the Celestial realms, unable to manifest in a human form. If we were lucky he’d end up like Harold. If not? He’d be trapped in Heaven—the one place I couldn’t follow.

  “Concentrate,” Matt said. “You’re going to get us out of here, Faith.”

  Damn it. I hated when he decided to trust me. Because the thing was, if there was one creature on Earth you shouldn’t trust it was a demon. We didn’t deserve it.

  I closed my eyes and tried to still my mind. Near the top of my head, dark power tickled the inside of my skull. I reached for it mentally and the power sparked, flaring into life. It slipped through my mental fingers, smooth as silk, and I managed to grasp it. I tugged and my wings began to twitch. Now we were getting somewhere.

  My horns inched upward of their own volition and my tail itched, confined inside my cocoon. I focused on releasing my wings and the silken bonds gave way, allowing me room to breathe. The wings had torn the wrappings down far enough for me to pull my hands free and I ripped through the bindings around my legs. My tail shot free and I sighed in relief at how good it felt to not be cramped up like an elephant inside a wine bottle anymore.

  Matt groaned, and I looked over at him, my heart racing. He was still wrapped up tight, his face a sickly gray and sweat beading on his forehead. Shit. I was draining him through our link. I concentrated on the dark energy swirling through me and tried to push some of it back toward him through the link. But it was like there was a faucet between us. Power flowed out of him to me, but I couldn’t send it back. />
  “Matt?” I knelt to pull him free of the bindings. “You okay?”

  He lay there, sucking in deep breathes and trembling. I wrapped an arm around his shoulders and helped him to sit up. He rubbed at his cuffed wrist and I could see ugly red blisters forming underneath the blue-black metal. I laid my fingers over the skin and the blisters disappeared, but his skin was still an ugly, raw red.

  “Okay maybe try to pull a little less power? Jesus, I feel like I just ran a marathon and then got my ass kicked at the end of it.”

  “I’m so sorry.” I grabbed the wrist cuff on his arm, prepared to yank it off and give him complete freedom. Besides, if we had to fight our way out of here it would be better if he had control of his own powers. If we got separated somehow he needed to be able to save himself.

  “Don’t.” He jerked his arm away from mine and cradled it against his chest. “The only person who can take the cuffs off of us is Nahamia.”

  “What?”

  “They’ve been bonded to us,” Matt explained. “They’re held in place with dark power. If you try to remove them, they go boom, my body goes boom, and I’m trapped outside the mortal realm.”

  “Are you kidding me?” I yelped. “You let them put a handcuff on you that has an explosive inside it? So what? If you take it off then you basically die?”

  “In the mortal sense…” Matt shrugged. “Using your way of putting it, yes, if I take the cuff off my body dies. If you die, I die. If you pull too much power through our link I die. If back in Pittsburgh, Nahamia gets hit by a bus and somehow dies, I die. In short, if this doesn’t go perfectly, my body is toast.”

  “But—” I looked first at my wrist and then at his. I let go of my grasp on our powers and retreated into my own mind. “How are we supposed to fight our way out of here if you can’t use your powers?”

  “You’ll use them.”

  “But I could drain you.”

  He gave me a sad smile and shook his head, so much better than me at conveying annoyed amusement at the fact that I’d just now caught up with what he’d been saying from the beginning of this craptastic little adventure. “If we stay here they’ll kill me. Given the way this plan is going right now let’s just say I’ll be lucky to join Harold on the phantom golf circuit before the day is out. Otherwise it’s an eternity of harp lessons. Not my idea of a good time.”

  I smacked him on the shoulder and scooted closer, so that our sides were touching. “Nobody is dying, or leaving the mortal realm, or whatever you want to call it.” I pulled my knees up to my chest and wrapped my arms around them.

  “Somebody’s going to have to,” Matt said. He scooted back into the shadows of the willow tree. I followed him and we huddled together, his arms wrapped around my shoulders, holding me close. “They aren’t going to let us walk out of here like nothing happened, and let’s be serious, that’s all my fault.”

  “It’s not your fault. I was the one who told you to let Brenda stay.”

  “True, but I know how close Brenda is to my mother. I should have known better than to believe that she had suddenly decided to make a life of her own. But none of that matters now. All that matters is figuring out how to get you out of here and make sure you’re safe. Although you might be late for dinner.”

  He was right. We were screwed. But what I wanted to know was why here? If Valerie didn’t have Tolliver stashed here, why was the place covered by such mad levels of security? Emphasis on the mad part.

  “Matt?” I lifted my head.

  “Yeah?”

  “What gave you the idea to come here?”

  “I told you.” He pulled me closer as he ran a finger around the neck of his T-shirt. “This is where Mom always hides the things she doesn’t want people to find. Like that stupid necklace Grandmother left…”

  “What?” My eyes widened.

  “It’s where she hid the necklace that my Grandmother had left for Aunt Ruth, my mother’s younger half sister. She’s a full mortal and when Grandmother died she left Aunt Ruth this cross necklace. It’s nothing expensive, just a cheap silver cross that Grandmother had always worn. But Mom stole it before the funeral. I was a kid, but I remember watching her take it off Grandmother’s neck before the funeral home people came, and hiding it in the floorboards upstairs. She told me it was ‘our secret’ and that I shouldn’t tell anyone else.”

  “So?”

  “That’s the last time I was here.” Matt said, his voice more insistent, like there was something I should be seeing but very obviously wasn’t. “The day she hid that necklace from Aunt Ruth.”

  “And once again I have to ask… so?”

  “She was wearing it at my apartment.” Matt grabbed my shoulders and turned me so that we were facing each other. “She kept playing with it while we were talking.”

  “The necklace?”

  “We were talking about Tolliver and about how she tried to hurt you. How you didn’t deserve me. That’s what she’d always said about Aunt Ruth. How she was a pure mortal and didn’t deserve to be Grandmother’s favorite. The whole time she’s telling me about how you’ll never find Tolliver, she’s playing with that necklace so that I’d see it. She knew that I’d see it and I’d remember this place.”

  “And if you remembered…”

  “She knew I’d bring you here. She set a trap she knew I’d walk you straight into.”

  “But she had to know you’d come with me. Why would she set a trap for her own son to get caught inside?”

  “Because she disowned me.” Matt huffed and then shook his head. “I told her that I loved you and that wasn’t going to change. No matter what she wanted. No matter how much she begged and pleaded and threatened, I refused to give you up. I love you, stupid.”

  “I love you, too, jerk.” I leaned my forehead against his and tried to still the fluttering in my chest. This was so not how I’d expected this conversation to go. For starters, I’d always figured a big bed would come into play at some point. And chocolate. Because there’s nothing quite like mixing chocolate and corrupting a member of the Heavenly Host when you’re throwing a private celebration for two.

  I pulled away from him and turned to look at our less than ideal setting, my heart sinking into my toes as I stared at the hive full of sprites mid war dance. “You think she played us? You?”

  He ran a trembling hand along the curve of my cheek. “All things considered, I probably should have expected it. Mother’s not exactly the maternal sort. Not when it gets in the way of world domination at least. So yeah, I should have probably come up with a better plan than stumble in and get ambushed. Especially since there’s a chance I’m going to get ripped to shreds by garden pests now. Which, for the record, wasn’t how I intended to retire from the mortal world.”

  “That’s not going to happen.” I grabbed his hand and pressed my lips against his knuckles. “We’re walking out of here together.”

  “Faith,” Matt said and shook his head. “For once in what will be a very long life on the mortal realm for you, can you please quit arguing with me?”

  “I’m not arguing with you.”

  “Obviously that’s a no.” He stood and gave me an exasperated smile, brushing the dirt off his jeans. He gave me a brief kiss on the nose and straightened. “I just have one thing I have to know.”

  “What?” I asked, standing beside him.

  “If this form dies, and I manage end up a ghost like Harold, can we still have sex?”

  “What?”

  Instead of elaborating, he grabbed my shoulders and hauled me toward him. He brought his lips down on mine for a kiss that made my toes curl. Heat roared between us and it took all I could do not to pull on the dark energy fighting to escape from me. I wrapped my arms around his neck and tangled my fingers in his hair, pulling him closer.

  He let me go and I stumbled backward, landing hard on my ass. When I looked up he had sprinted off, straight into the swarm of sprites.

  “What in the name of Evil are
you doing?” I screeched, chasing after him.

  “Saving you,” he called over his shoulder. “Now run!”

  “I am running!” I seriously regretted my previous avoidance of exercise. He’d have probably outpaced me anyway because of his height, but he ran every day and I hadn’t been near a track since tenth grade gym class. And back then I’d gotten myself a note from the doctor claiming I was allergic to aerobic exercise so I didn’t actually have to do anything.

  “The other direction, you dipshit!” he barked over his shoulder and I swear on his mother’s grave—I know, I know, wishful thinking on my part—the bastard sped up. On purpose. I so needed to get to the gym more.

  He disappeared inside the swarm and the sprites froze, stunned at the intrusion. They fell silent for an awful moment, not moving, and then seemed to implode toward the nephilim in their midst.

  Damn it. Damn it. Damn it! So much for sneaking out while their backs were turned. Now I’d be lucky if they didn’t tear his physical body apart before this was over. There was no choice left—I could either run for my life or save his ass. I felt a sharp zap through the bracelet and then an agonizing pain that I knew was coming from Matt as the sprites bombarded him with magic.

  I watched, stunned, as a sprite flew past my head, tumbling head over heels as it went, and heard several loud crunches before another sprite went speeding past me and the entire mass began to howl. Matt backhanded another one of the creatures like it was nothing more than a fly and I had to resist the urge to kick him. Stupid man. Stupid, brave, honorable man who was trying to distract them with his bare hands so I would have enough time to escape.

  Like I was going anywhere without him.

  I felt another sharp jolt. Matt’s knees buckled. He dropped to the ground and the swarm covered him completely, cutting me off to nothing but their howls and the pain-filled shrieks of the man caught in their midst.

  I stopped, kicked off my shoes, and dug my toes into the moist grass. I closed my eyes and drew as much power through the link as I could. It rushed through me, dark and electric, tingling as it raced along my wings. I threw my head back and lifted my hands, hellfire crackling between them. Blisters had formed on the palms of my hands, cracking open from the intense heat when I launched the hellfire over my head and into the swarm.