“Good seeing you too,” I said. “I’m glad to hear you’re doing well.” I really hoped he didn’t have anything to do with the death of Barry Landrieu. Hopefully this case will be the nice, easy natural death it currently appears to be.
He glanced down at my left hand. “Not married yet?”
My lips twitched. “Nope.”
“Seeing anyone?” he asked, eyes on me.
Wow. How to answer that one? “Umm, sort of. Yeah.” Did regular sex with a demonic lord count?
“I’m going to be in town for a couple of weeks,” he said. “Maybe we could have lunch or coffee.”
“I’d like that,” I replied before I could think about whether or not I really would like it. “I, um, hate to chase you off, but I need to tie up the loose ends here and get started on the paperwork.”
“No problem,” he said. He pulled the door open and politely stood back to let me exit first. The cold was a knifing shock after the balmy comfort of the shack, and it took everything I had to force myself out into it and not suck my breath in dramatically or anything like that.
“I’ll be in touch,” Roman said, then surprised me by leaning down and giving me a quick kiss on the cheek before hurrying off to his car.
I watched as he started the BMW and drove off, then yelped at a hard smack on my arm. I turned to glare at Jill.
“Oh my god,” she said, grinning wickedly. “You are a total hunk magnet!”
I thwapped her arm back. “Don’t you start! I am not. Besides, you have a hunk of your own.” Jill was dating Zack. Special Agent Zack Garner—who I’d recently discovered was a lot more than just a special agent.
Jill suddenly reached out and gave my arm—the same one she’d just punched—a comforting squeeze. “Still nothing from Ryan?”
I couldn’t quite suppress the wince as I shook my head. “Nothing worthwhile. I get spam that’s friendlier.” Jill heard from Zack several times a day, while in the past month and a half I’d received a grand total of three emails from Ryan—all oddly terse and almost painfully neutral. It was enough to give a girl a complex. And I was neurotic enough already, thank you very much.
However, part of my wince was guilt-induced. Jill seemed to be getting more and more serious about Zack. And I didn’t have the faintest idea how to tell her—or even if I should tell her—that Zack wasn’t exactly the perfect man she thought he was.
And that he wasn’t a man at all, for that matter.
I was part of an interagency task force that supposedly dealt with financial crimes but actually handled situations that fell outside the definition of “ordinary.” I’d met the other two primary members of the team—FBI Special Agents Ryan Kristoff and Zack Garner—during the investigation of the Symbol man murders, during which I’d confided to Ryan that I was a summoner. Shockingly, he’d known what a summoner was, and I subsequently discovered that he also had a fair amount of sensitivity to the arcane, though not as much as I did.
Or so I thought. But shortly over a month ago our little group began work on a case involving death threats against a local singer, and during the final wrap-up of the case—which turned into an ugly battle against a horde of golems—I discovered that there was a shitload more to Zack and Ryan than met the eye. Turned out that Zack was a demon in human form. And Ryan? Well, the FBI agent who’d become one of my closest friends was very likely an exiled demonic lord, even though he had no memory or awareness of that fact.
The two agents had left for some sort of special training up in Quantico about a week after the battle with the golems. Meanwhile I was left to grapple with information I’d been told, stuff I’d seen, and things I’d deduced. Zack couldn’t come right out and confirm my suspicions about the two of them, but he had repeatedly stressed that Ryan’s safety could be jeopardized if he knew the truth. I still didn’t know if Zack was Ryan’s guard or his guardian, but I had an odd gut feeling that the training was a convenient excuse for Zack to get Ryan away for a while.
Jill’s face twisted into a sympathetic expression. “Men are dicks,” she announced, “and Ryan’s being an emo dick, which is the worst sort.”
I smiled despite my angst. “Ryan’s never really struck me as the emo type.”
She gave a snort. “Please. Zack says that he’s being Mr. Moody—moping around or taking out whatever frustrations he has on anyone silly enough to be willing to train with him.” Then her eyes softened—which wasn’t an expression I was used to seeing on Jill. “Look, it really messed him up when he thought you’d died.”
My stomach tightened again, and I had to work hard to keep a neutral expression on my face while I gave her a nod. The only reason I hadn’t died was because of Ryan. And what he’d somehow been able to do.
… he straightened, expression smoothing to ice, with only his eyes showing a devastating rage. He raised his hands before him, and in the next heartbeat the space between his hands filled with white-blue potency. He lowered his head, lip curling as he unleashed the power at the golem.…
“I know,” I managed to say. “But I didn’t die.” I shrugged, wishing I could shrug off the tension and uncertainty as well. Was that why Zack and Ryan left? Did they need to make sure that Ryan wouldn’t go all demonic-lord-smites-his-enemies again? “Whatever. I’ve been through worse.”
She gave a mock shudder. “Unfortunately, that’s far too true. You’re such a drama queen!”
I grinned. “And you still hang with me.”
“Makes me look good in comparison!” Then she lifted her chin in the direction the BMW had gone. “So, you and the football star, huh? Spill!”
“There’s nothing to spill,” I insisted. “We were in the same Early Japanese Art class. We found out that we were from the same town. He asked me out. He was nice. We dated for about two months. We parted ways.”
She eyed me. “And… ?”
I laughed. “Okay, he was also my ‘first.’ ”
“Niiiiice,” she said with an approving nod. “That’s how to get off to a good start.” Then she cocked her head, eyes sparkling mischievously. “So was it? A good start?”
“As good as any first time is, I suppose. He’s a decent guy. We just had absolutely nothing in common. And he was a damn sight nicer than my second boyfriend. Complete asshat and sucked in bed.”
Her lips twitched. “And now you date a demon.”
“And now I date a demon.” I shrugged. “Clearly I haven’t learned a damn thing.”
Chapter 3
The car heater did its best to pump out something resembling heat, but there was only so much that the poor Taurus could do for me. I could hardly blame it. It wasn’t often that it was called upon to perform this sort of service. To its credit, it had a quite efficient air conditioner, which was usually far more important, since the summers were insanely brutal. Hell, I’d probably be needing the air conditioner again in less than a week. Weather in this area tended to be rather inconsistent.
After a few minutes of driving, though, I gave up and pulled into the parking lot of the first non-outrageously priced clothing store I could find that was open. Yes, I had real jackets and warm clothing at home, but that was more than a half hour away. I was freezing my ass off now.
My plan was to buy the cheapest, warmest jacket I could find and maybe a pair of gloves. But when I walked into the store the first thing that caught my eye was the mannequin by the door. Or rather, what was on the mannequin.
“Oh, sweetie,” I murmured. “You belong on me.” I looked to the sales girl behind the counter. “I’d like to try that on, please.”
I slid the coat on while the sales girl looked on approvingly.
“It’s on sale, you know,” she said slyly.
I ran my hands over it, inhaled deeply of the rich scent of the black leather. “Would it be wrong for me to say I don’t care?” This mid-thigh length beauty fit snugly up top and skimmed over my hips, flaring out just enough to allow me to move and sit in comfort, with the side benefit of giving me something resembling a real figure. I didn’t usually have anything close to a defined waist, and my bust was far from exceptional, but the cut of this coat gave me actual curves without making me look chunky. A stand-up collar blocked the cold without giving me the sense I was choking, and also looked satisfyingly tough. I swung my arms, pleased to see that even though it fit me like a second skin, I could still move freely in it. Fucking hell, yes. I was buying this coat. Who needed savings? At the rate I was going, I wouldn’t live to see retirement anyway.
I ignored the whining of my credit card and my conscience. I bought black leather gloves as well, because what’s a badass coat without badass gloves? It was a good thing the store didn’t sell boots, because I had no doubt I’d have bought some. I had the brief urge to hand my Members Only jacket to the girl to dispose of, but my frugal side made a last-ditch rally and managed to slap a bit of sense into me.
Ten minutes later I was back in my car—and feeling not only warm but tough, because there’s nothing like leather to make one feel invincible.
I didn’t have any pressing need to go to the station since the report on the death of Barry Landrieu could certainly wait until Monday. However, two weeks ago the gods had decided that I was a good and just person and deserved to be compensated for the selfless works I had performed, and Grounds For Arrest had opened directly across the street from the Beaulac Police Department.
It was like Mecca and Nirvana and Valhalla all rolled into one. It was my Shangri La. They served coffee with chicory. And it was Good.
I parked in the detective’s parking lot of the PD since the café lot was being converted into a drive-through. A gust of wind caught me as soon as I stepped out of my car, and I bared my teeth in a grin. This wasn’t the icy wind from a possible summoning. This was simply winter. But I’m dressed for it now, bitches.
