The Others 03: The Demon You Know

by Christine Warren

  Why don't you go give them a hug? And maybe a kiss. You know, I hear communal nudity can be a real bonding experience….

  Trust Lou to turn a moment of emotional revelation into the setup for a bad porn film.

  Abby didn't even bother to acknowledge it. "Did you know there're no diet sodas in there?”

  Samantha looked at her as if she'd asked if they were aware there were no pygmy aardvarks in the refrigerator and took the can of root beer. "Of course not. Who drinks that stuff?”

  "I do." Abby popped the tab on a ginger ale and sipped the sweet, spicy liquid. "It's the price I pay for what my grandmother so kindly refers to as my 'childbearing hips.' “

  "I'm afraid Sam doesn't see the problem with childbearing hips," Tess said, explaining the confused look on the Lupine's face. "You see, most shifters find physical attributes like wide hips and a curvy figure to be turn-ons. I think it has something to do with the preservation of those primitive, animalistic instincts. Believe me when I say, you'll never meet a Lupine who's on a diet.”

  Abby blinked. "Are you serious?”

  "Perfectly, but there's no need to look surprised. I mean, you can't tell me you've ever heard Rule objecting to your figure," Samantha teased.

  "Well, no, but I thought that was just more evidence that a man that perfect couldn't possibly be human.”

  Tess snickered. "In a way, I suppose it is. Like I said, the Others tend to have different ideas of beauty than the human advertising industry. Haven't you taken a look around? I mean, Samantha has to be the skinniest woman you've met while you've been staying here. It's not like I don't have a curve or two.”

  Abby looked from one woman to the other and frowned. "Neither one of you needs to lose weight. You both look terrific.”

  "And so do you. If you don't take our word for it, take Rule's." Tess's expression turned wicked. "I'm sure if you're still having doubts, he'd be happy to demonstrate his satisfaction with your physical appearance.”

  Abby blushed. "I'm not having doubts that Rule finds me attractive.”

  Samantha grinned. "Well, at least he's doing something right.”

  "He's doing lots of things right, being thickheaded notwithstanding." Abby fiddled with the tab on her soda can, spinning it in little circles until the metal gave out and snapped off into her hand. Bracing herself, she took a deep breath. "I think…I'm afraid I'm completely in love with him.”

  Her declaration was met with utter silence.

  Heart in her throat, she looked up and saw both women staring at her impassively. Neither said a word.

  Abby started to squirm.

  "And?" Samantha prompted.

  "Were we supposed to respond to that?" Tess asked. " 'Cause, I hate to break it to you, sweetheart, but... DUH!”

  Laughing, Abby let her head thump back against the headboard. "Well, it may sound stupid to you, but this is a big thing for me. (A) I've never been in love before, and (B) this is the first time I've dated anyone outside my own species. This is a stretch for me.”

  Samantha patted Abby's leg. "It doesn't sound dumb that you're in love with Rule. What sounded dumb was that you were expecting us not to have noticed.”

  "Like I said, Ab, it's a really good thing you don't play poker." Tess swigged her own cola. "I understand the species gap, though. Trust me, I had problems with it, too, and at least I grew up knowing that other species existed. You've only had two months to assimilate it.”

  Abby sat forward and nodded. "Exactly! This is like a whole world shift for me. I mean, I've barely dated over the last couple of years, and now all of a sudden I'm falling in love with something that three months ago I would have said was an allegory for humanity's taboo impulses.”

  "Right. The thing you have to understand, though, and this is the most important part, so listen carefully,”

  Tess leaned forward and put her hand on top of Abby's, "the thing to remember is…get over it.”

  "What?”

  Tess laughed, which Abby wasn't entirely sure she appreciated. "Get over it. Listen, Ab, I love you. You're a great girl, but you're getting way too wrapped up inside your own head. Maybe it's that convent school upbringing of yours, but whatever. You need to move past it. I get that the idea of interspecies dating can put a little hitch in a girl's step, but you have to stop and realize that in the end, they're all just guys.”

  "Tess is right. Trust me, I've dated a lot of guys in my life," Samantha said, "and not all of the ones who were dogs happened to be Lupine. Men are men. No matter what species they come from, they all have the same impulses and the same incomprehensible way of looking at things.”

  "Take Rule and Rafe as an example." Setting her soda down on the bedside table, Tess resettled herself. Abby had already noticed that the witch tended to talk with her hands. "Two totally different species raised on two totally different planes. One a Felix, the other a demon. Sound pretty different, don't they?" She shook her head. "Uh-uh. The two of them took one look at each other, recognized themselves as long-lost blood brothers or something, and they've been thick as thieves ever since. I'm talking from day one. And it's not because their backgrounds are so similar. They're entirely different. But they're both men, and more than that, they're both Alpha men. Their main purpose in life is to claim and protect. It doesn't matter what bubble they fill in under the species column on the next census.”

  Samantha snorted. "And isn't that going to make for some interesting national statistics?”

  "You've had a lot longer to come to that conclusion than I've had," Abby protested.

  "Oh, screw that." Tess held up a hand and laughed. "No, hear me out. Yeah, I knew going into this that shape-shifters existed. I'd even met one or two, but it's not like I was pals with any of them. You wouldn't know this, since you didn't know about any of the Others up until the news broke, but until about five years ago the witches had absolutely nothing to do with the rest of the Others community. We kept entirely separate, had our own little council, our own laws, everything. So trust me when I tell you that it was nearly as big a leap for me to end up mated to a werejaguar as it's been for you to end up mated to a demon.”

  Abby shook her head. "No one said anything about mates.”

  "Right." Samantha rolled her eyes. "Of course not. We'll pretend that doesn't exist just like the whole love thing, shall we?”

  "I'm serious. I'm having a hard enough time dealing with sex and love. Leave me a little breathing room, would you?" She turned back to Tess. "So how did you deal with it?”

  The blonde snorted. "As little as humanly possible. I ignored it for a good long time, then I bitched about it for a while. Actually, I spent a lot of time bitching to Missy and the girls.”

  "The girls?”

  "There's a whole group of us. The Benevolent and Protective Order of Women with Idiot Men on Their Hands. We'll discuss your induction later, when the others get back from their vacations. A lot of them managed to arrange to be out of town when the Unveiling broke." Tess waved a hand. "But that's not the point. In the end there was really only one thing that mattered. No matter how much the jerk got on my nerves or how many barriers stood between us, I was in love with him. Utterly and completely. And I still am. He's my husband and my friend and the father of my son and the person I want to wake up next to every morning for the rest of my life. He's my mate." She paused to stare at Abby. "Any of this ringing any bells?”

  Abby just closed her eyes on a sigh.

  "Look, I know it's inconvenient, Ab, but you're going to have to face the fact that love is rarely anything else.”

  She made a face. "That doesn't mean I have to be happy about it.”

  "Oh, Gods, no," Tess said, sounding completely taken aback. "Yell and scream and rant and rave. Trust me, the practice will come in handy. But when the dust settles, take a good look at Rule and try to imagine what your life would be like if he weren't in it anymore." She raised an eyebrow. "Is that something you're prepared to face?"

  The m
ovie, the popcorn, and the friends were long gone when Rule finally climbed into Abby's bed that night. He moved silently, but she had begun to recognize the feel of him in the room, the way the air seemed to shift and tighten when he was near. She turned immediately into his arms and burrowed her head against his shoulder.

  "Is everything okay?" she whispered, her voice thick and foggy with sleep.

  "Fine," he murmured, and brushed a kiss over her forehead. "Go back to sleep.”

  Abby grinned into the darkness. "Make me.”

  He hadn't needed to be told a second time.

  She had reveled in his touch, not just because it felt so good, an aching excitement she was afraid had already become addictive, but because she needed the reassurance after their earlier argument that anger hadn't changed what was between them. By the time she had drifted, limp and boneless, into sleep, at least that worry had been thoroughly banished.

  When she woke, though, a dozen others were clamoring to take its place.

  Rule was gone, his side of the bed already cool to the touch. Abby hurried through a shower and yanked on the first clothes she found, surprised that she didn't even have to fight with Lou that morning. Maybe that was a good sign.

  She hurried downstairs to the club's second floor and poked her head in the War Room. Empty. Frowning, she turned and headed down the hall to the media room. No one around here seemed to watch much TV, but maybe someone was catching up on the news?

  That room was empty as well. Come to think of it, the entire floor sounded eerily quiet.

  Hesitantly Abby walked down the steps to the club's main floor where most of the members and guests spent their visits. Even that seemed quiet. Of course, her watch told her it was only a few minutes after noon, and even the non-nocturnal members of the club tended to stop by only after nightfall.

  She didn't open any of the closed doors, not wanting to interrupt a club member's private meeting, but she was starting to feel a little uneasy. Frowning, she turned toward the main entrance and the office Graham kept nearby.

  A footman met her in the hall. "Miss Baker?”

  Abby turned. "Yes?”

  She still couldn't get used to the idea of the club having footmen, but calling them waiters didn't fit, considering they spent very little of their time serving food or drinks.

  "Mr. Rule asked me to give you a message," the young man said. He had the look of a college student, someone studying the sciences or maybe engineering. "He said to tell you that Mrs. De Santos's informants had some information for him and he's gone to speak with them. He won't be long, and you are to stay in the club." At least the kid had the grace to look apologetic. "He, uh, he also told me to tell you that, uh, he's not trying to handle everything without you but that if you try to leave the club on your own to follow him, he'll..." He cleared his throat. "He'll, uh, paddle you so hard you won't sit for a week.”

  Abby just stared at him.

  "I'm sorry, ma'am. He made me say it.”

  She gritted her teeth. "It's all right. Not your fault. I'd give you a message of my own to pass on to him, but I don't want to rob myself of the pleasure of kneeing him in the balls personally.”

  The footman just went pale and hurried into another room, presumably before it occurred to Abby to kill the messenger. Or demonstrate her own message. Plotting dire revenge, she turned to stalk back up the stairs but stopped when someone called her name.

  "Hey, Abby!”

  She turned and saw a woman standing in the hallway leading toward the club's rear entrance. "Carly?”

  The Lupine nodded and grinned. She wore the same paramedic's jumpsuit Abby had first seen her in. "How've you been? I hear the warden in this joint can be pretty strict.”

  Abby laughed. "You have no idea. Are you on duty?”

  "Of course," Carly ran a hand through habitually tousled hair. "I've been pulling doubles the entire week. That's why I haven't been able to stop by before now. At the moment, though, I'm on a lunch break. A long one.”

  "Cool. The chicken salad here is killer, if you're in the mood for something other than steak." She gestured to the stairs. "In fact, I'm ready for food myself. Come upstairs and eat with me. One of the benefits of being under club arrest is I get great service.”

  Carly laughed. "Actually, Samantha and I thought you might want to go out for lunch. Just to the deli down the street," she said, grinning at Abby's look of shock. "We know better than to take you out of shouting distance, but the deli has killer Reubens, and we thought with a double werewolf escort you'd be safe enough. She's waiting out back. What do you say?”

  Rule's threat, delivered in the stammering voice of a freshman physics major, made the decision for Abby. Threaten to spank her, would he?

  "Wait right here. I'm just going to grab a jacket.”

  Abby bounced up the stairs and returned a minute later with the denim jacket she'd worn on her last, ill-fated excursion into the great outdoors. She was actually looking forward to fighting with Rule about this later, especially since his objections would be completely unreasonable given she would be under double guard the entire time she was away.

  "Lead on," she instructed, waving Carly toward the back door. "I'm in the mood for extra sauerkraut.”

  "Ooh, you do like to live dangerously," Carly teased. "In fact, from what Sam told me earlier, it sounds like you're thinking of making the danger zone a permanent state of residence?”

  Abby blushed and shrugged. "It's a little soon to be saying that.”

  "Oh? From what I hear, Sam and Tess are practically picking out their bridesmaids' dresses.”

  "That's way too soon." Abby reached for the handle and yanked on the heavy metal door. Thankfully, she didn't need to disarm the security system to leave, since she didn't know the code. Samantha and Carly both did, though, so they could punch them back in after lunch. "First we need to deal with this whole fiend issue, then we can decide if we can keep from killing each other for the entirety of a long-term relationship.”

  Carly followed Abby outside and tugged the door shut behind them. The electronic lock beeped as it engaged. "I don't think that's something you need to worry about. After all, you'll be dead in just a few hours, so why borrow trouble?”

  Aw, fuck.

  Abby's reeling mind registered the empty alley, the change in Carly's tone of voice, and the shrieking of her self-preservation instincts all at the same time, about the time that Lou lapsed into profanity. Heart pounding, she turned just in time to see an unnatural glow burning behind the Lupine's brown eyes. Abby opened her mouth to scream, but the blow landed before she made a sound, and then all she registered was darkness.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

  Rule sat beside Tess in the back room of her shop, awkwardly cradling a steaming mug between his hands. He hadn't wanted the tea, but it had seemed rude to refuse it when she'd been passing out cups. Besides, having something in his hands seemed to set the older women in the room more at ease. When they'd first arrived and seen him, they had looked as if they expected him to pounce on them immediately and crunch their bones for his afternoon snack.

  As if. All three were well past their prime, and two of them looked positively stringy.

  He sighed. He should have let Tess handle this interview and gone with Noah to check out the scene of a recent fiend sighting.

  "—tend to concentrate more on objects, you know. Wedding rings, wills, important legal documents, that kind of thing," one of the thin ones was saying. Rule thought her name was something like Daisy. "It was really Heather's suggestion that we branch out into missing persons. Children, mostly. It turned out to be a great success. And so rewarding, you know, to be able to see the little ones safely home.”

  The other two nodded. One of them, presumably, was Heather. Rule was going to go with the second stringy one. The plump one he thought had been introduced as Claire.

  "Of course, those are the good days," Heather added. "Sometimes all we can provide is a sense of closure,
and we have to be content with that.”

  Rule fought the urge to roll his eyes. If these were what witches were normally like, he needed to remind Rafe what a lucky man he was to have found a sane one to mate with.

  "So, really, since then we've looked on branching out our services as something of a challenge," Daisy continued. "I have to admit, though, your request did strike us as a bit unusual.”

  Heather nodded and made a face. "Fairly unpleasant, too. I have to tell you, Tess, this isn't the sort of energy we would normally expose ourselves to. Very violent. Very unclean.”

  "The word you're looking for," Claire said from over the rim of her teacup just as Rule was beginning to wonder if she ever spoke, "is 'evil.'“

  Heather glared at her. "You know I don't like that word, Claire. It's so…unforgiving.”

  Claire snorted. "Hard to be all that forgiving of something that wants to chew on your entrails.”

  Rule took back his uncharitable thoughts. Daisy and Heather might be fluffy-bunny idiot witches, but that Claire had a good head on her shoulders, even if it was long gone gray.

  "In any event, we appreciate you helping us out," Tess said, almost as diplomatically as her husband. Had she been taking lessons? "We haven't had any luck finding it on our own, so of course I immediately thought of you three. You have such a gift with location spells.”

  Daisy preened. "We all have our talents, dear. Take your potions, for instance. Why, I couldn't brew a decent cup of willow bark if my life depended on it!”

  Rule fought the urge to tell the woman that her life did depend on getting to the point and telling him what they had learned about Uzkiel.

  "It's nothing." Tess waved away the compliment. "I'm fascinated by what you ladies do, though. Why don't you explain the process to me?”

  Was she out of her mind? If they answered that question, it would take these three old biddies forever to get to the point. Rule glared at Tess, who pointedly ignored him.

  "Well, of course, dear." Daisy set aside her teacup and folded her hands in her lap. "Usually we start with something that belonged to the missing soul. With children, we like stuffed animals. They absorb so much energy, and well, it's just pleasant to hold on to one for a couple of hours, isn't it?" She laughed.