The Incubus Job

by Diana Pharaoh Francis

  I swallowed hard. “Are you really sure?”

  Tabitha smiled and for once she looked happy. “I am. I want to see my family again.”

  I gave a little nod. “Okay. I hope it turns out,” I said around the baseball-sized knot in my throat. That was all the good-bye I could manage.

  I didn’t wait, didn’t make a production out of it. I simply pulled my magic into me and sent a dart of energy at her. She vanished, just like that.

  I sank to the floor, staring at the spot where she’d been. Another door flung open, and Law stormed inside. His gaze swept the rumpled bed then the room.

  “What the hell? What was that spell? What are you doing on the floor?”

  “Tabitha’s gone,” I said in a small voice. “I killed her.” I felt thin as glass and full of cracks. Ghosts fluttered over me and around me as if to offer comfort.

  “What happened?”

  Law dropped to his knees in front of me. Somewhere behind him, I was aware of So’la’s presence.

  “She wanted to go. She asked me to send her.” I shook my head and shrugged at the same time, unable to meet his eyes. “I had to. I’m the only one, you know, except you, and she was my—”

  I was going to say responsibility. When had I become a mother to a ghost? That’s what it felt like. Like I’d killed my own kid. Except I wasn’t her mother and she was years older than I was. I was her port in a storm more than anything. Safety from exterminators like Law. And me.

  Law cupped my chin and lifted it until I met his gaze. “Don’t,” I said.

  “Don’t what?”

  “Don’t tell me I was just doing my job or that she’s better off or any other bullshit.” My words came out harsher than I intended.

  He winced. “I suppose I deserve that.”

  I twisted out of his grip and sighed. “No, you don’t.” I stood up. He rose with liquid grace. I glanced past him. So’la remained in his demon form. He stood inside the doorway, watching me.

  “You okay?” I asked.

  He tipped his head. “As well as can be expected,” he said, his voice dust dry.

  As well as could be expected for being enslaved to me. I nodded that I understood, my stomach twisting tighter. I wasn’t hungry anymore. With Law looming so close, I felt trapped. “I should call Ivan,” I said.

  “What will you tell him? You can’t give him the box or its contents.”

  “I’ll tell him what happened.”

  “He won’t be happy.”

  “He’ll get over it.”

  “And then what?”

  “He’ll give me another job, I suppose.”

  Law’s nostrils flared and he nodded, his mouth tightening. “Be difficult to get there. The place is still sealed.”

  “LeeAnne must be climbing walls.”

  “Fuck her.”

  The painfully jealous side of me wanted to ask if he had, but he’d said he hadn’t been with another woman. Still, I could imagine them together and that was enough to rip my heart in half.

  “We need to talk,” Law said finally when I didn’t speak.

  “Can I eat first?” I wasn’t sure I could keep food down, but anything to delay a heavy talk. He was going to go off on me for my stupidity again. I’d have to agree and then . . . I had no idea. Probably a discussion of my poor choices in jobs and life, and then a rehash of me walking out on him.

  “We’ll talk over breakfast,” he said then glared at So’la. “Alone, if you please.”

  The demon looked at me with those unreadable orange eyes. What did he expect me to do? But I knew. Demands. Orders. I decided to ignore him.

  “Are you ordering room service?” I asked Law, looking doubtfully down at myself. “Or are we going to hit an IHOP?”

  “I’ll cook,” he said disdainfully.

  I cocked my head at him, surprise making me meet his sharp green gaze at last. “Since when do you cook?” When we were partners, the backseat had always been filled with fast food sacks, pizza boxes, and protein bar wrappers.

  His expression tightened and a bleak look swept his features. “I had time on my hands.”

  Because of me? Because he’d left the job? Because the auberge didn’t keep him busy enough? I didn’t know what to make of that. I mean, for all I knew, he’d gotten bored with the stay-at-home job. He’d never been much for the social scene. He wouldn’t go in for the clubbing or the parties. Anyhow, if there was a message in there for me, I didn’t get it. I’d told him I loved him, we’d had great sex, and that was that. I wasn’t sure I could actually do the sex-buddies thing again, but I was willing to try. I’d given him up once. I wasn’t ready or able to do it again, not without his help.

  He glanced once more at So’la. “I’ll be in the kitchen,” he said and swept out the bedroom door.

  “How are you?” I asked the demon after a moment.

  “Alive,” came the dry response.

  “And well?” I asked.

  “Can’t you tell?”

  I rubbed my head. The verbal fencing made it hurt. “Would I have asked?”

  The creature shrugged, his folded wings rising and falling above his awful head. “The sorcerer healed my wounds,” he said grudgingly.

  “That’s good.”

  “He did so to keep me from leaching strength from you.”

  “At least you’re okay.”

  “It behooves you that I am. Now what would you have me do for you, Mistress?”

  “Not this again,” I muttered, the rawness from killing Tabitha flaring under the scrape of his accusing voice. “Look. You’re the one who made me open the box. I don’t want you. I’ve been doing fine on my own. So I’m going to go about my business and hopefully find a way to break this binding and send you back to Demonlandia.”

  “It is not breakable. We are eternally bound. ’Til death do us part,” he said mockingly. “A marriage made in hell.”

  A sound from the doorway caught my attention. Law stood there. “You are not married,” he said between stone lips.

  So’la’s lips parted in a jagged smile. “Are we not? An arranged, unhappy marriage to be certain, but—” He broke off in another shoulder-rolling shrug.

  Law’s green eyes lasered at me. “Get rid of him or I will.” He turned and walked out of the room again.

  “I don’t suppose you want to make this easy on me?” I asked the demon.

  His lips curled. “No.”

  I drew in a breath and let it out slowly. “He’ll do it, you know.”

  “I know. And what he does to me, he does to you.” The jagged grin. “Everything has a cost.”

  “Do you get off on hurting people?” I asked. “I mean, you were told to maim and torture, and it seemed to me that you didn’t like it, but now I’m wondering.”

  “I like to see those who’ve earned pain receive it.”

  “And I have. Because I opened the stupid box and idiotically picked up that command stone. How much is your fault? For dragging me into your mess? If anybody’s to blame for shackling us together, it’s you.”

  “A necessary risk,” he said, but his eyes flamed with emotion.

  “Well, you took that risk, and it didn’t pay off, and you should damned well stop blaming me. I told you before. I don’t want anything to do with you, except to send you home.”

  “This world is my home,” he hissed. “I never want to go back.” His wings lifted and spread in his agitation.

  “So getting attached to me is a good thing for you in that respect,” I said sourly. “You may think I’m your ball and chain, but apparently I’m also your permanent anchor to this world. Your pissing and moaning is starting to ring hollow to me. I’m wondering now if you had this in mind all along.”

  The demon lurched forward, stopping only when his nose brushed my forehead. I held my ground, despite the stink of his breath and the heat rolling from his skin.

  “I wanted freedom!” he bellowed.

  I flicked my fingers at the door, locking
it before Law came bursting through, riding his white horse.

  “So. Do. I.” I said emphatically. “I didn’t want this anymore than you do, but it looks like we’re stuck, so are you going to stop being an ass and start dealing with it?”

  He huffed out his nose and lowered his head so he could see my face fully. “What are you suggesting?”

  “We don’t have to be friends, and I don’t really care what you’re up to. But there are going to have to be some rules.”

  “Ah. Rules,” he said and I could feel the hatred pulsing off him.

  “Yes. No killing innocent people. No torture. If you do have to kill, make it clean and fast. Try not to cause mayhem, and don’t go around breaking the law if you can help it. And Law is off limits to you.”

  So’la blinked at me. “Those are your demands?”

  I thought about it. “If they have to be. Can you handle that?”

  “I could very easily circumvent the letter of your rules,” he pointed out.

  “Are you going to?”

  Another one of those shrugs. “And you? Will you stay here with the sorcerer?”

  “None of your business,” I said. “But I have a job, and it can’t be done here.”

  “He will be unhappy.”

  “He’s always unhappy,” I said, though that wasn’t true. Law knew how to have fun. He had a deep laugh and a smile that made me catch my breath. Every time. He used to do both often.

  “You put yourself in danger with your job,” the demon observed, stepping back.

  “So?”

  “If you die, so will I.”

  “Is that your way of saying ‘be careful’?” I snorted. The conversation was getting more ridiculous by the minute. I was more than a little aware that Law prowled the outside of the door, respecting my silent request for privacy. His restraint wasn’t going to last much longer.

  “Summon me if you need me,” So’la said after a moment. “I cannot refuse to come.”

  “Yeah. Right,” I said. “I told you. Slavery isn’t my thing. I’ll be fine on my own.”

  The demon shook his heavy head from side to side. “Your track record thus far says otherwise.”

  That’s when I remembered he’d been watching me for a while. He knew about the lich cat and most of my other scrapes.

  “I do my best with what I’ve got,” I said, waving my hand dismissively. “I’m not turning you into my sidekick or whatever you want to call it.”

  “The binding means that you have me. Therefore, you must use me if you are in need.”

  I shook my head. “Didn’t you just tell me you don’t want to be anybody’s slave? That that was the whole point of this exercise? I don’t want to be anybody’s owner. I’m not making exceptions.”

  His eyes roiled with flames. “You must.”

  “You’re giving me a headache,” I said. “Why don’t you toddle off and live your life now?”

  “Because my life is yet in your hands, and if you choose to do something dangerous and risk your life, then I will die as well. Summon me if you are in danger.” He paused then deliberately said, “As I know you will come to me if I am in trouble. Two . . . associates . . . in a pact of mutual survival.”

  Bastard. He had me there. “Fine.” But I resolved that I would never be in so much trouble that I’d go through with it. Around me, my ghosts fluttered. Probably in dismay. I couldn’t blame them, but they didn’t have to stick with me. They were free to leave. Not that they had somewhere better to go. But at least they had the choice.

  “So that’s it?” I said when he didn’t speak for a long minute. “I can go eat?”

  He gave a slow nod. “You can go.” His voice inflected oddly, like the question startled him. Or maybe that I asked at all. Or maybe that I waited for permission.

  “Do you need anything?” I asked and almost laughed. I was acting like a mother sending her kid off to school for the first time. I pictured him with a Star Wars lunchbox and a Captain America backpack and started to giggle.

  “I think not,” he said, eyeing me with a mix of confusion, exasperation, and impatience.

  “Then I guess this is good-bye.” I waited. When he didn’t vanish into a cloud of smoke, I shrugged and headed for the door. I swung it open and came face-to-face with a thunderous Law.

  He looked over my shoulder. “Is he gone?”

  I turned. The room was empty. “Looks like.”

  “Good. Then let’s get this out of the way first.”

  He cupped his hands around my face and kissed me. In my surprise, my mouth fell open. He took immediate advantage, slanting his head. His tongue slipped between my lips, tasting, caressing. Shivers swept through me, followed by a wind of sparks. My legs turned to wax. I reached up to clasp his wrists, holding tightly for balance.

  He slid one hand around the back of my head while the other snaked around my waist. He pulled me firmly against him, and I turned to fire. I wrapped my arms around his neck, pressing against him with a storm of lust, love, and need. I nibbled his lips, and he groaned, turning me against the doorjamb and running his hands over me, his hands slipping under my shirt—his shirt really—and rasping eagerly over my skin.

  My head spun and desire whirled fast and achy inside me. I pushed my hands under his shirt, and his skin was flaming satin. I traced the ridges of his muscle and bone, delighting in the way he pressed harder against me, his breathing turning ragged.

  Abruptly he jerked his head up. “No,” he said.

  An icy knife plunged into my gut, dissolving every good feeling. My lips felt swollen. My body felt tight inside my skin. I wanted to ask what was wrong, but I couldn’t. Fear of what he was going to say curled my hopes and wishes into ash. I felt like an insect pinned to a board. I wanted to run away, but I was held in place by his hands on my hips and the unreadable look in his eyes.

  “I don’t want to do this,” Law said, gazing down at me.

  I slumped against the doorjamb, hollowness pushing through me. “Okay.”

  He frowned, skimming his fingers along my cheek. “Don’t.”

  “Don’t what?”

  “You’re closing up. Disappearing behind that mask of yours. Running away inside. Don’t hide from me.”

  I shook my head. “What do you want, Law? Because I’m really confused. You kissed me. I didn’t twist your arm. Hell, all I did was open the damned door.”

  I started to turn away, having regained strength in my legs, but he wedged his body into mine, holding me in place. I glared up at him. I opened my mouth to rip him a new one.

  “Shut up,” he said before I could say anything. He brushed the hair from my face. “Listen just this once, would you?”

  His eyes bored into mine. My mouth went dry. I nodded.

  “Good. Then let me make this one thing clear. I love you. I have been in love with you since we were partners. Before that first time we went to bed.”

  I think my brain exploded. I didn’t move, didn’t react, just waited for him to take it back, for the other shoe to fall, for the world to end.

  “Did you hear me?” He scowled. “I said I love you.”

  I gave a little nod. “Okay.” It’s not that I didn’t believe him. But I didn’t. It wasn’t possible. I had to wonder if I’d hit my head and was in a coma, dreaming. Or maybe this was a trick that So’la was playing on me.

  “Okay? That’s all you’ve got?” He stepped back, running his hands over his head. “Christ.”

  The loss of his weight against me actually hurt. I blinked rapidly, trying not to let go of the tears burning in my eyes. What was wrong with me? “It doesn’t seem very likely,” I said.

  “What the hell does that mean?” he demanded. “I had no idea you gave a tinker’s damn about me until you popped off that confession of yours yesterday. I believe you. God damn but I have to believe you.”

  That last caught me up short. “Why?”

  He gave a harsh crack of laughter. “Because I’ve been bleeding half t
o death since you walked out. Since that demon tore you up and the lich cat got your back. I’ve watched and I’ve waited for you to realize that we had something, that whatever made you run away wasn’t worth it, and then you show up and you say you’ve loved me all this time and we’ve wasted years, Mallory. Six fucking years. So I have to believe it because otherwise I have to keep living like a zombie, every day losing a little bit more hope, and when you showed up on the doorstep, I didn’t have a lot left.”

  “But—” But what? He’d never said anything? Neither had I. Not the whole time we were together. I’d been careful not to, afraid to be too clingy. I didn’t want him to leave me. Couldn’t he have done the same thing? “You didn’t say anything yesterday. Not when I told you, not when we had sex.”

  “I was too busy trying to wrap my head around it when you told me. Too busy trying not to kill you for putting us through six years of separation. Later—I was still angry and I just wanted you. Needed you. Nothing else mattered. I’d never seen you in a getup like that. So much skin and every man looking at you. You walking around, trying to bait a fucking incubus. I was out of my head with worry and jealousy. I wasn’t thinking, Mal. I’m an idiot. I admit it.”

  I stared. “Are you really serious?”

  He growled and came back to me, resting his hands on my shoulders, his thumbs rubbing my neck. Our eyes locked together. “As a heart attack.”

  I remembered then the reason I’d left, the reason I’d stayed away. “I’m not broken,” I said.

  He stiffened. “I was wrong to think that. I could see you were hurting and I didn’t know how to help you. I had tunnel vision about the job. I’ve changed.” He licked his lips. “I can’t leave here. I’m bound to Effrayant for another three years. If what you want is the occasional hook-up—” He swallowed, his lips twisting on the words. “Then I’ll do it. I’ll take what you give me. But that’s not what I want.” His hands tightened until my shoulders hurt. “I want you to stay with me.”

  I shook my head. “I’ve got the job, and then there’s So’la.” But I could, I supposed. Live with him. Get odd jobs in the neighborhood. The demon was gone. He wasn’t going to come back unless I summoned him, which would happen when pigs flew. I didn’t really have much to go back to. I didn’t have a long-term obligation to Ivan.