She led the way across the lobby to the main bank of elevators, stepping around bodies and strewn furniture as if like it happened every day. Already a small staff army was pouring in, helping the injured and straightening the room.
I followed the housekeeper into the elevator with relief. Thank goodness Ivan had made the reservations. He was my current employer and had more money than god. What he wanted, he got, and he’d wanted a room for Mary Carson in Effrayant.
I was to be housed in the main tower, apparently, just below the residence floors. Of course. The priciest rooms. I should have told Ivan I wanted something closer to the ground floor and exits. Not that I couldn’t manage a quick escape with magic, but I preferred not to rely on it more than I had to.
“To answer your question, Ms. Carson, we do try to keep the ghosts out—this is a quality establishment, after all—but occasionally they do find a way. Our exterminator is quite good. Lawrence will have the situation well in hand within the hour,” she said, preening as she delivered the news.
I blinked at her, more than a little surprised. Unpleasantly so. “Stanger?” I asked before I thought to keep my mouth shut. “Law Stanger is your exterminator?”
Both of the housekeeper’s artfully plucked eyebrows arched. If she’d been a cat, her ears would have flattened. She was possessive about him. I wondered if she was screwing him. I wouldn’t be surprised. She was damned beautiful, and I’m sure men panted after her like dogs after a meaty bone.
“Do you know Mr. Stanger?” she asked.
Biblically. Not to mention he used to be my partner when I was still working for Acadia.
“We’ve met,” I said. I wondered if she’d keep the fact I was staying at the auberge a secret if I asked. Discretion was part of her job, after all. It was worth a try. The last person I wanted to see was Law. “I expect he’ll be busy with your little haunting. I’d just as soon not disturb him,” I said as the elevator doors opened.
She gave me a sidelong glance. “Of course. I’ve put you in the Ronce suite on the corner. I’m sure you’ll be very pleased with it.”
Her gaze slid down to my feet then ahead down the hall. I bet it twisted her hard that she didn’t know a damned thing about me and I knew Law. I wondered if her curiosity would win out over discretion. If so, it wouldn’t take him long to put two and two together and come up with the fact that I was Mary Carson. Law was many things. Stupid was not one of them.
I’d better come up with a plan fast. This job was already half derailed thanks to Tabitha; I didn’t want Law to push the train all the way over.
The housekeeper scanned a card over the door lock. The light turned green, and an electronic pad slid out.
“Put your left thumb on the pad please,” she said.
I did as told. Magic flowed over my thumb, and my body pulsed hot. It was over in an instant.
“The lock is now keyed to your aural signature. No one else can enter without your permission, including staff. When you want your room cleaned, simply press the service button inside. All the information on our services is listed in the notebook on the desk. Please do not hesitate to call down if you need anything. My name is LeeAnne Watson. I’ll be happy to look after any of your needs.”
She handed me a linen card embossed in blue and gold. “Enjoy your stay at Effrayant, Ms. Carson. Please do note that all your meals will be comped during your stay as compensation for your difficulties checking in. We have several doctors on staff if you would like to consult anyone, at our cost, of course. Effrayant values your patronage.”
“Thank you,” I said. “You’re very generous.” She wasn’t. It was bare minimum compensation for me nearly getting killed by a poltergeist in the lobby. It’s not as if LeeAnne Watson knew Tabitha being in the auberge was my fault. All the same, I’d take it with a smile and get on with my business. With luck, I’d be gone by tomorrow.
Unfortunately, I’ve never been very lucky.
Chapter 2
I stepped inside the suite. It was really more like a palace. The master bathroom could have doubled as a ballroom. A sunken hot tub steamed in the center of the oversized room, with another bathtub and separate shower, both big enough for orgies. I could have parked two cars in the closet. The four-poster bed was on a pedestal with four stairs leading up to it. Apparently giants usually stayed here because four or five could have slept in the bed without touching. There were two other lavish bedrooms, a den, a sitting room, another bathroom—this one without a hot tub—a fully stocked kitchen, and a media room with an enormous wall screen and reclining chairs.
For a second I considered delaying my job for a few days just so I could take a vacation in the glorious suite. I wouldn’t even leave it. Sighing, I dismissed the idea. My mark would vanish, and there was Law. I wanted to get clear of this place without having to see him.
After exploring, I set up shield wards. Nothing was coming in without permission, and more important, nothing was leaving. The walls were already magically secure—Law’s handiwork, I was certain—but I wanted my own. After I’d activated the wards, I released my hold on the ghosts. They peeled off like layers of lettuce. Mostly I couldn’t see them. They didn’t appear unless they wanted to, or like Tabitha, were out of control.
I considered Tabitha. Law was probably already setting up the summoning to catch her. He’d drop the suppression spell then activate the summoning. There’d be a couple of seconds between, if that. Time enough for Tabitha to escape, but I had to be ready.
I returned to the hallway outside my suite to wait for her. I tuned my personal shields to let her in and deny the summoning. I was careful to keep my magic subtle. If LeeAnne hadn’t told Law about me, I didn’t want to give him a reason to come looking.
The hallway was deserted. I walked back up the corridor toward the elevators. The blue lighting around the nearby doors indicated I didn’t have neighbors. There weren’t any surveillance cameras, but I hadn’t expected any. The Effrayant’s clientele wouldn’t appreciate it.
I returned to my room and loitered in the hallway. Five minutes passed. What was taking so long? I jumped when the elevator dinged, but no one came in my direction. A few more minutes passed, and my stomach started to knot up. Had Law destroyed Tabitha?
The idea was a hard punch in my throat. I leaned back against the wall, blinking away the prickly heat building in my eyes. Damn damn damn. Damn Law and damn me for not binding her and keeping her safe. Pissed off is better than dead.
Tabitha slammed into me like a freight train. If a ghost could shake, she would be. She was terrified. Her spectral body wrapped around me. I pulled her close and snapped my shields tight around her. The hairs on my arms rose as I felt the summoning begin.
“Sh,” I said, backing into my room. “It’s going to be all right. You’re safe now.”
I shut the door. The power of the summoning increased. Law always had been good. I strengthened the room shields, even though they were perfectly fine, and went to sit on a low couch. I could feel the other ghosts watching. Edna shimmered into form on the chair across from me. She sat primly, hands in her lap, knees together. Her short, finger-waved hair had been fashionable in her day. She’d been forty-one when her husband had decided to commit murder-suicide. He’d strangled all three kids and Edna before deciding he was too afraid to die.
I could see the navy leather of the chair through her, but otherwise she looked real enough.
“Hello, Edna,” I said. She didn’t often come out.
“Give me the child,” she said in a hollow-sounding voice, lifting her arms.
“Tabitha, Edna wants to talk to you.”
Tabitha tightened her grip on me. I shook my head at Edna. “She doesn’t want to come.”
The ghost’s mouth firmed, and her arms dropped. She folded her hands in her lap again. She had a round face with smile lines. I’d never seen her smile.
“Tabitha,” she said. “Come out. We need to talk to you, child. You risked all our l
ives and nearly got yourself killed. I know you feel alone, but we are your family.”
Edna reached for a handkerchief in the pocket of her cardigan and pressed it against the corners of her eyes. I stared. I’d never seen a ghost cry. She looked at me.
“You can make her come out.” It was a statement, not a suggestion. I had a feeling she was testing me.
“I could,” I said. “But I won’t.”
“You did downstairs.” Michael appeared in the air behind Edna. He was only about twenty, and built like a football player. His brown hair was short and straight and he wore a white shirt with brown pants. I always figured him for an eighties kid. He’d never told me what happened to him.
I nodded to him. “I did.” I didn’t bother rehashing why. He’d had a front-row seat.
“Tabitha,” he said in a stern voice. “You’d better get your ass out here.”
I felt a shimmy of something like laughter from the ghost girl. I couldn’t blame her. Michael in authority mode wasn’t convincing, especially since he liked to play pranks.
More of my ghosts began to shimmer out of thin air. I’d seen them all at least once. That was my policy. If they were going to latch on to me, I wanted to meet them. It was only polite. A few of them liked to visit me a lot. Michael was one. Edna came out more rarely, though she’d taken a motherly interest in Tabitha, and that brought her out more. Sam was another regular. She was in her fifties. Her husband had burned her house down with her in it. Once she was dead, she returned the favor with him and his sleaze girlfriend. Glenda was another who came out fairly often. She’d walked in on a guy robbing her house, and he’d decided it would be fun to rape and strangle her. She’d made him pay for that later and wasn’t too shy about sharing the details. She’d been creative in her revenge.
One by one they all came out. Seventeen of them. Tabitha made eighteen, but she was still adhered around me like plastic wrap.
“We aren’t going to hurt you, Tab,” Sam said. “But we need to talk to you.”
Ah, hell. As if my life wasn’t strange enough, I was now in the middle of a ghostly intervention. I’d have really liked Tabitha to peel off so I could go have a shower. I’d been in these clothes for nearly twenty-four hours now. I needed to clean up before getting down to business. Or rather, I needed to clean up in order to get down to business. My street urchin look wasn’t going to help me catch my prey. I had a feeling if I tried to go to the bathroom without dealing with Tabitha, the crowd of ghosts would just follow. I didn’t mind them when they were invisible and I didn’t have to notice they were there, but I drew the line at having a visible audience while showering and sitting on the toilet.
“What’s it going to take, Tabitha?” I asked. “Are you going to hide forever? You know sooner or later you’re going to have to face the music.”
No sooner had I said the words than a fist thudded against the door. My heart jumped into my throat. Speaking of facing the music. Law. Had to be. I could practically feel his fury radiating through the walls. Tabitha shuddered against my skin. I closed my eyes, my stomach twisting. I was not ready for this. He pounded again. So much for LeeAnne’s discretion. Effrayant’s owner was going to get an earful from me about his housekeeper’s loose lips.
He pounded again and this time the door shook. I drew in a breath and let it out slowly. Six years later and it was still too soon.
I stood and looked at my ghosts. “Better come to me. He’s an exterminator.”
I’d barely finished uttering the last word before they all winked out of sight and layered over me like armor. I needed it. I’d always felt exposed when dealing with Law, like my skin peeled away and all my nerves were on display. I’d fallen head over heels in love the first time I laid eyes on him and I had never gotten over it. Walking away had been the hardest thing I’d ever done. I never expected to have to do it twice.
As much as I dreaded opening the door, I couldn’t have stopped myself if I’d wanted to. I was like an addict needing a fix, and Law was my drug of choice.
A really pissed-off drug.
I twisted the handle and swung the door open in slow motion. He stood on the other side. I only stared, soaking in all that was him.
The first thing I noticed was that he looked older. Not a surprise. It had been six years, after all. His face was the same—all hard angles and stone. Instead of five-day-old stubble, he had a carefully trimmed beard now, and his dark hair was longer. It was messy as if he’d been scraping his fingers through it. Gone was the battered leather jacket he’d always worn, and the inevitable black T-shirt and jeans. Now a black cashmere sweater and charcoal slacks made him look harshly elegant. The one thing that hadn’t changed at all were his eyes. The green gaze felt like hammers battering at me as he examined me from head to foot and back, lingering on the scar that hooked from just below my right eye and made a slashing comma down to my jaw.
“Mary Carson, I presume?” he asked caustically.
His gravelly voice scraped my nerves as it always had, and I had to suppress a shiver. My hormones spun into overdrive and flat-out need lust through me like a tidal wave. I hadn’t slept with anyone since him. I hadn’t wanted to.
He didn’t need to know that. Just like he didn’t need to know I’d been in love with him all those years ago. Fuck. Who was I kidding? I was still in love with him.
“In the flesh,” I said, making no effort to take down my room wards so he could come in.
When I didn’t say anything more, his scowl deepened and his jaw knotted. He put his hands on either side of the doorway and leaned in. I could smell his aftershave. It made my toes curl. I drew a deep breath to savor it even as I kicked myself.
“Are we going to do this in public, then?” he asked softly, his lip curling. “Because we are going to have a conversation right now.”
I flicked a glance at the door. I could shut it. He’d have to blast down my shields—if he could.
He made a growling sound as he followed my glance. “Do you really want a war, Mallory? Because like it or not, you’re going to talk to me. I’m not letting you vanish without a word again. So why don’t you try acting like a grown-up for once?”
His comments stung, if only because they were true. I’d not behaved much better than Tabitha had downstairs. I’d owed Law better. I just hadn’t been capable of doing it without pouring my heart out all over him. I wasn’t sure I was any more capable now, but he wasn’t giving me a lot of choice.
I stepped back. “Give me a minute.”
He gave me a blistering look but didn’t say anything. I retreated into the sitting area, facing away from him. I needed a second to get control over myself. I took several deep breaths, letting them out slowly, feeling for the center of my magic. To say I was flustered was an understatement. Not the best state of mind for working magic. I snorted softly at myself. I’d been telling Tabitha to grow up and deal with things, but I wasn’t handling my issue any better.
Six years ago I’d run away because I had to get out of that life and I knew Law would try to talk me down. I couldn’t let him. Six years ago I’d killed for the last time. I knew he couldn’t understand then, and I was pretty sure he wouldn’t understand now. Six years ago I’d broken our partnership and left behind the man I loved more than my own life. If I could do that then, I could do this now.
No more running. Time to face what I’d done, what I’d had to do. Watch and learn, Tabitha.
I took down my wards and heard the door thump shut. Law strode into the room behind me. The space filled with his presence. I squared my shoulders and turned to face him. I might have let him in, but we were still at war.
“Been a while, Law. You look good.”
He stopped a few feet away, giving me an incredulous stare. “That’s all you have to say for yourself?”
“What did you expect?”
He thrust his hands through his hair and swore. “God damn it, Mallory. How about an explanation? Like why you left without a
word. Like why you’ve never been in touch. Like what you’re doing here and with a poltergeist.” He moved before I knew what he was going to do. Suddenly he was standing right in front of me. He reached up, lightly gripping my face, his thumb brushing over the scar. “Like what happened to you,” he said, his voice turning smoky.
His touch sent curls of flame rippling through my body. I wanted to close my eyes and lean into him. But no, that was a trap. Anything to do with him was a trap. I couldn’t go back. I might still love Law beyond reason, but he belonged to a life that needed to stay in the past.
I stepped away, pulling out of his grasp and putting distance between us. “I left because I needed to. I didn’t say anything because you would have talked me out of it. I’m here on a job. If I were responsible for the poltergeist in the lobby, I would tell you that she panicked and it won’t happen again. I got the scar on a job.”
He waited for me to say more, and when I didn’t, he shook his head, fury making the grooves around his nose and mouth deepen. “All those answers and yet not one of them tells me a damned thing. You’re going to have to do better. Start with why you left without a word.”
I caught my upper lip in my teeth then shrugged inwardly. He was going to be pissed, but he already was, and it didn’t matter anymore. It was over. All the same, when I opened my mouth to tell him, the words wouldn’t come. The truth was that day wasn’t over, not for me. It never would be. It played on constant rewind in my nightmares. You’d think the repetition would make it easier, let me get used to it. But every time was like cutting the wound open fresh.
“I—” Words stuck sideways in my throat. I shook my head. “I just had enough. I had to get out.”
Law seemed to see my struggle because he set aside his anger, his expression turning gentle. God. How the hell was I supposed to fight that?
The Incubus Job Page 2