by Misty Evans
He leaned over and pecked my cheek. “Awesome.”
We got in and he cranked the ignition. Megadeath exploded from the speakers. He scrambled around, looking for the volume control and once he found it, turned the radio down so low, it was nothing but background noise.
“You don’t really like that stuff, do you?” he asked.
Metal rock could not be appreciated at anything less than full volume. I cranked it up again. “Best music. Ever,” I yelled over the grind of guitars.
He shook his head, shifted the car into drive and we took off, tires squealing along with Mustaine singing, “Peace sells, but who’s buying?”
After a few miles, I was confused by Cole’s series of turns. “This isn’t the way to my house.”
“I know that.”
We were still yelling over the music. Disgusted, he poked the off button. Sudden silence, as loud as the music had been, descended.
“Hey,” I complained.
“Fucking stuff gives me a headache.”
“I know you’re getting off on driving my car, but are you ever going to take me home?”
He glanced in the rearview. “I’m making sure we don’t have a tail.”
“I’m not that kind of demon. No tail. No horns. Just a wicked sense of justice and a mean temper.”
Cole rolled his eyes, but I could see he thought it was funny. I pinched his arm. “I appreciate you doing this, you know.”
He didn’t answer, just punched the radio back on.
Half an hour later, we pulled into the drive that went around the back of the church to the parking lot and main entrance area. A weak solar light, the only one that hadn’t been broken by vandals, cast a muted glow over the area. The wide concrete porch and steps were shadowed, but we could see their outlines. In the flash of the headlights, a figure moved, jumping up from a seated position on the porch.
“Who’s that?” Cole said, hand on the gearshift, ready to back up and get out of there.
My eyes adjusted to the varying shadows and I could see it was a woman. She seemed to be wearing a long, flowing robe, but the hood was down and her frizzy hair flew in all directions. I remembered that hair, the way Nudra had stroked it while she was feeding off my stomach. What the hell? Did everyone know where I lived?
“Victoria.”
“You know her?” She was moving toward the car and Cole drew a weapon from the inside of his coat. “She a friend?”
So not a friend. I tapped his hand, suggesting he put the gun away. “She’s human. Don’t kill her. Let me see what she wants.”
Cole parked the car, left the engine running. Turned off the radio. “Got your protection mojo up and working?”
I touched my fingertips to my thumbs and magic formed a strong protective barrier around me. “Check.”
A shadow moved behind Vicky and we both tensed. Cole swore under his breath. “Who the fuck is that?”
As the witch reached the car, I could see she was upset. I could also see the figure behind her—a man—walking into the muted light. Broad shoulders, dark hair, sexy saunter.
“Hell’s blood,” I muttered, reaching over and taking Cole’s gun. “How good are you at burying bodies?”
Cole flicked his eyes to me holding the gun, back to Vicky, who was yelling at me from the outside of my window in between sobs. Great, just what I needed, an emotional witch and a Noctifector. “Unless he’s a vamp, that gun won’t kill him, y’know.”
“I know,” I said, “but it will hurt like hell when I drill him in the heart with a dozen holy water bullets.”
He smiled a knowing smile. “The Chaos demon?”
“I’m going to need my keys back.”
“Why is that?”
“Because after I’m done shooting il pistolino, I’m going to run him over. More than once.”
Chapter Thirteen
”I raised her, but then she killed everybody in my coven. Everyone but me!” Vicky tugged at the ends of her kinky hair and paced back and forth between the car and Rad, not looking at any of us. “Why did she do that?”
The area I live in is considered a dump even by South Siders. When the battle between good and evil went down here in the mid-1800s, the leftover magic formed a repulsive barrier to humans. They stay away from the church and the nearby graveyard and say it’s haunted.
Fine by me. I like privacy. Which is why I’ve also added a little gothic glamour to the place to also give humans an icky sensation if they get too close.
That Vicky had found my residence bothered me immensely. That she’d gone and raised an entity from hell bothered me more. I didn’t think she had it in her, even with mine and Nudra’s blood, to be able to do such a thing. Shame on me for underestimating her. Underestimating what my blood mixed with a vamp’s could do. “Are you sure it was Lilith and not some other demon?”
The gun in my right hand hung loose by my side. I’d wrapped my cloak around my shoulders once more and Volante coiled securely around my left wrist, her handle in my palm.
Rad kept his distance; he and Cole staring each other down. Even in the demon world, males give off don’t piss with me signals. Similar to human testosterone, the magical variety permeated the air and crawled into my nostrils. Rad’s stormy scent bucking up against Cole’s metallic one. Air and earth colliding. The hair on the back of my neck prickled from their combined magical energies.
“Of course it was Lilith!” Vicky’s voice echoed off the high stone walls of the church and several trees in the graveyard bowed their limbs as if a strong wind had just blown through, but I didn’t feel even the slightest breeze.
“She ate their souls for strength,” I told the witch. “She needs a lot of souls to take human form and walk the Earth after being in hell for so long.”
Vicky faced me, eyes wide. She took two steps in my direction before Cole moved in front of me, cutting her off. “Why didn’t she take my soul?” She looked around him, clutching the front of her dress and crinkling the fabric into a fisted bunch of cotton. “I raised her. Am I not good enough for her?”
Cole scanned the area, giving Rad another my dick’s bigger than yours look. “We need to get inside. Now.”
I couldn’t leave Vicky in the parking lot but I wasn’t hip on bringing her inside my home either. Stupid witch didn’t have a coat on and had to be freezing in the early morning air.
November first. All Saints Day. A good day for demons to stay inside under the covers.
Walking around Cole, I started for the door. Vicky followed on my heels and Cole brought up the rear. As I passed Rad, I raised the gun and pointed it at his heart. “Get off my property.”
He was wearing a black leather jacket that hung down past his hips. His hands were hidden deep in the jacket’s pockets. “We need to talk.”
No telling what weapons he had stashed in and under that coat. “Vaffanculo.” I used my favorite hand gesture. “We have nothing to talk about.”
He stepped toward me and Cole immediately intercepted him, placing a big hand on his chest. “Lady doesn’t want to talk to you. I suggest you go back to the hole you crawled out from.”
Rad didn’t back up, didn’t even look at Cole. He started to draw his right hand from its pocket and Cole immediately had a blade at his throat.
Cool. A wrist blade. It hid under Cole’s sleeve and slid out with the flick of his wrist. I’d used a similar knife on a few occasions, but most of the blades felt too heavy to me when I wasn’t using them. I preferred my whip. Lightweight, easy to pass off as jewelry or a belt, and Volante was nearly a sentient being who fed off my wishes and desires when I was battling someone. As far as weapons went, she was a beast. I could wound or kill with a slash. I could choke someone or simply remove a digit with her. I could blind someone with the tip or tie them up using the entire length.
Rad dropped his gaze to Cole’s. “I have something of Kali’s. Right pocket.”
Cole nodded for Rad to remove it. “Slowly.”
Rad did so and held up a swath of black material. My skirt hung from one gloved finger. He looked back at me, raised the skirt higher. “Thought you might want this back.”
I snatched it off his finger, not missing Cole’s raised brow, and hoping Rad didn’t pull out my underwear next. He didn’t and I started for the church again. Victoria babbled softly to herself as she followed me.
“You know, if she did raise Lilith, you’re going to need my help,” Rad said to my back.
Cole had released him and was walking backwards toward the church door, keeping Rad in full view while watching for other intruders. I paused at the French doors, laying my hand on the stone next to them. Earth magic communicated with my demon. Nothing but the usual vibrations and hums and the door unlocked at my touch.
“I don’t ever want anything from you again,” I told Rad. “You’re lucky I don’t kill you right now.”
Cole shoved the door open wide. “Get inside.”
“I’m not leaving here until we talk.” The set of Rad’s shoulders told me he wasn’t kidding. Not only did I have a hysterical witch on my hands, I also had the most stubborn Chaos demon in history ready to camp out on my back porch.
Everyone was looking at me. Even Cole. His look told me he’d kill Rad for me, but he wanted all of us inside the safety of the church before he did it. Out here, he couldn’t be my bodyguard and Rad’s assassin at the same time. The minute he focused on killing Rad, he’d leave me vulnerable.
Rad had that effect—making me vulnerable every time he was around—no matter what the situation. “Fine. You can come in.”
I led Victoria and Rad to my living room, a sunken area with curvy couches and a fireplace. It had taken me years to do all the work myself, but I was damned proud of it. Magic can be an awesome thing when it comes to remodeling a gothic church into a home.
Shrugging off my cape, I kept Volante on my arm and Cole’s gun in my hand. Rad leaned one arm against the fireplace mantel, head down and looking at me from under his dark eyelashes. Cole, meantime, went room to room, avoiding the sanctuary, and making sure the place was secure. I knew it was, but if it relieved his sense of duty to confirm it, who was I to deny him the thrill.
Victoria sat on the edge of one cream colored couch and looked at me expectantly. “Why didn’t she take my soul? Why?”
Suicidal much? Gaw. Witches. “When you raised her, you formed a sort of umbilical cord connecting the two of you together. You’re what holds her here. If she killed you and ate your soul, she’d end up right back in hell.”
There was a long, silent pause as Vicky digested what I’d said. She smiled as if deciding she was even more skilled than she’d imagined. People like her sold their metaphorical souls every day, obsessed with a goal that sacrificed their humanity the closer they came to obtaining it. “I’m her master.”
“No,” Rad said, as Cole came back into the room. “You’re her slave, now, like the rest of the demon world. You get a free pass until she figures out how to stay here without you.”
Cole took a sentry position where he could see the door to his left, the tall stained glass windows to his right, and me in front of him. “We can’t let that happen.”
“No, we can’t,” I said, staring at the witch. Too bad she was human or I would have severed Lilith’s Earthly connection with one flick of my wrist.
A pregnant pause now filled the room as Vicky realized what I was thinking. She rose from the couch slowly as if afraid moving too fast would startle me and make her an easier target. “I think I’ll go now.”
“You’re not going anywhere.” I tossed Cole his gun and Vicky flinched. Exasperation at this new predicament got the better of me. What luck, I now had to protect Victoria while trying to figure out how to exorcise Lilith and stop the vamp coronation. Oh, and have a heart-to-heart with the man who’d screwed me over, not once, but twice.
I’d experienced a lot in three hundred years, but this night was one for the record books.
Rad pushed off the mantel. “Maybe I should make coffee. Where’s your kitchen?”
Snatching up my cape, I motioned him to follow me. Time to take care of the least of my problems. It didn’t feel like the least, but in the big picture, Rad was inconsequential. Our relationship, screwed up as it was, was minor compared to the mother of demons running loose on Earth and Damon forcing me to be a vamp queen.
In the kitchen, I opened the pantry door. At one time, it was the priest’s study. Being a hermit, I had taught myself to cook and I was pretty good at it. I didn’t even use magic. “There’s a fancy espresso machine in a box on the top shelf in the back.”
He took off his coat, slung it over a chair. “You don’t have a regular coffee maker?”
“Is that a problem?”
He shrugged, found the espresso machine and whistled softly under his breath. “The Jura J9 one-touch. Sweet machine.”
“Di gave it to me for Christmas last year.”
“And you’ve never used it?”
We were having a conversation like normal people did. Like friends did. We were not normal people and we certainly weren’t friends. I wasn’t sure what we were, but a demon killer, let alone one who’d broken my heart and betrayed my family, would never in this lifetime be my friend.
I bit back an explanation. I didn’t owe him anything, not even a simple explanation. “I want you out of my house and out of my life. Go back to your life as a rock star and leave me alone.”
He set the box down, opened it with a flippant rush. “Why not kill me along with Victoria? Solve two of your problems right here, right now.”
“I’m considering it, but you’re both human to some degree, and I don’t kill humans. Never have and I never will. Besides, I never kill anyone in my home. Cleanup’s a bitch.”
He smirked, started to say something. I held up a hand to fend off whatever else was on his mind. “There are beans in the freezer. Once you’ve made coffee for Victoria and Cole, see yourself out. We clear?”
“Give me a chance, Kali.”
“A chance?” I walked forward so I was in his face. I’d worn my platforms home, but we were hardly eye-to-eye, which pissed me off even more. I hated looking up at him.
Stupid of me to get so close, being he was obviously a good demon killer, but I was angry. Angry and tired and freaking out under my cool exterior. “You had your chance two hundred and eighty-five years ago and you left me at the altar and joined the Noctifectors. Don’t you dare ask me for another chance.”
I left him standing there with the J9 half out of the box and a sad look on his face, his emotions swirling and the scent of a summer storm prevalent. In the living room, I snagged my cape, tipped my chin at Vicky and spoke to Cole. “Don’t let her out of your sight.”
“You can’t hold me here against my will,” Vicky said, indignant and oh, so human.
Cole and I ignored her and he acknowledged my request with a nod. “Where you going?”
“Upstairs.” In the distance, the whir of the bean grinder told me Rad was following directions for once in his life. Miracles would never cease. “I need to think.”
“What about the Chaos demon?”
I picked up my skirt and balled the fabric in my fist. “He’ll be leaving shortly.”
“You don’t want me to kill him?”
“When the time comes,” I muttered, “that’ll be my job.”
Chapter Fourteen
Chicago is a gray city six months out of the year. Gray sky, gray lake, gray buildings. When the sun breaks through the winter gloom, the sky sports a beautiful, sharp blue canvas, but even then, the lake and the buildings remain gray. And no matter what time of year, there’s a pall that hangs over this entire part of the state. Most humans can’t see it, but I can. A lot of evil has been done here.
Those nights I made it home by sunrise, I sat on the highest roof line of the church to watch. The building had been modeled after a castle in Ireland, complete with crenellation
s and a bell tower. On a normal morning, I sat in the tower and watched the sun rise to catch the array of colors and appreciate something most humans took for granted.
That morning, I had to stay inside for more reasons than one. Staying out of the line of pissed vamp fire was the least of them. I could think better on the roof and being forced to remain inside made my skin itch. I needed fresh air and sunshine, not the claustrophobia of stone walls and too many beings downstairs.
Changing out of my business attire, I exchanged the skirt and blouse for pants and a long sleeve turtleneck. I spread my cape on the bed, rearranged the weapons inside and then checked my stash under the bed. I was low on holy water and stakes and I wanted one of those stun batons like Nudra’s mercs had used on me. That thing packed a punch and there was one person in particular I wanted to use it on. Later, after I sorted out a couple of things, I was going shopping. Nudra’s office at the Madhouse would be my first stop. His residence, the second. I bet he had some fun weapons hidden in both places.
Lying on the bed and staring at the high ceiling, I stroked a long stake from my armory. Premium cherry wood, it was hard and strong and sanded to the smoothest finish to make sliding into a heart even easier.
Cherry makes a heavy stake, too heavy for carrying in my cape, but this one was utter perfection in home security. Best of all, I got the premium cherry stakes from an eco-friendly supplier right there in Chicago. From growing to harvesting to manufacturing, the wood had been handled with a focus on sustainability. The Earth was precious. Another point most humans didn’t appreciate. Spend a little time in hell and you’re glad for anything that isn’t.
Of course, if Lilith was truly walking the Earth again, sustainability was a moot point. She would give a whole new meaning to deforestation and global warming.
As I stroked the smooth wood under my hands, there were a couple of things bothering me. Besides the biggies. How had Victoria found where I lived? What was Arman doing with his new powers? Why hadn’t Rad killed me when he’d had the chance?