Page 11 of Demon's Bluff
“You, ah, want to come over this weekend?” Trent asked hesitantly, his attention on my staticky hair. “I’ve enough in the fridge for two. Quen always stays with the girls when they’re at Ellasbeth’s. You and I will have the entire estate to ourselves now that the staff is gone. I could use some help with the books. You have a feel for them.”
I twirled the broken flower, watching it flop from side to side as the mystics lost interest and returned to the line. They were the eyes and ears of the elven Goddess, and that they didn’t recognize me anymore was a, ah, godsend. “Sure. If I’m not in Alcatraz.”
Trent laughed—until he realized I was serious. “Because of Brice? I would have thought that Constance…”
“Yeah, no,” I said, flower dangling. “Brice is fine. No one cares. Which is irritating all on its own. It’s Elyse. I think she wants to show me that spell to bring back the undead.” I hesitated. “Today, at three thirty.”
“Mmmm.” Trent’s hand found mine again. “I thought only a coven member could see that particular spell.”
“Which is why she wants me to bring the book with Brad’s curse in it.”
“Rachel,” he started, and I cut him off.
“Relax, I’m not going to abdicate my subrosa position to become a coven member. I’d have no voice and end up doing their dirty work. But Iamgoing to show her the curse I used on Brad. I owe it to Vivian.” Vivian, who died because I wasn’t honest with her, when a word from me might have given her the warning she needed. It was one of my largest regrets.
“Are you sure that’s—” he started.
“If they try to put me in Alcatraz, I will take them apart.” I leaned in and gave him a little peck on the cheek. Trent dropped his gaze, clearly not happy. “There’s only four of them, and not one is older than me. Sorry in advance for any damage I do to the building. Did you know they are renting space from you?”
He nodded. “Perhaps what they want isn’t such a bad idea,” he said, surprising me. “If you’re coven, anything you do will be sanctioned. Past, future.”
From the ley line, Ray sang, “All work done. Black pot in the sun.”
“Sounds easy, doesn’t it?” I said. “Maybe in a decade or two, but Constance isn’t ready to run a city even with Ivy’s and Pike’s help. Besides, the coven doesn’t want me. They want what I know.” They wanted me to betray my demon kin.
Trent was silent. “I’m sorry about Brice.”
I couldn’t look at him. “The I.S. doesn’t care, and the FIB doesn’t have jurisdiction. It’s done.”
He took my hand to pull my attention up. “I wasn’t sorry about the legal ramifications. I know you. Are you okay?”
My breath came in slow, and I nodded. “I am. Thank you.” TakingBrice to the morgue and cremating her without process was a warning to any other upstart vampires that challenging Constance would not be tolerated. It was effective even as it raised the question of how I was keeping the peace. Constance might be holding court, but I was the one in charge. Supposedly. That I had covered up Brice’s death bothered me.
Or had I?There had been no attempt to hide what Constance had done. Ivy had taken Brice in the back door, sure, but she went through the entire building. Doing so had made Constance’s actions public, in essence, divorcing Ivy from the actual killing. Ivy was saying, “I didn’t kill her, but I will see that she is taken care of.” And because I was with her, I was included in that.
My gut eased a little as I saw the sense behind Ivy’s actions. “I’m okay,” I said again, feeling Trent’s warmth as he tugged me closer. Together we stared at the ley line, each of us reluctant to part. Like a tingling bolt of electricity hovering at chest height, the line would drop me and the girls downtown, right beside the parking lot where Quen had left Trent’s SUV. I could almost hear the traffic.
“I used to stay at the estate for months without leaving it. Now I can hardly stand three days,” Trent said.
“This, too, will pass,” I encouraged him, and together we moved to the line.
“Quen is trying. We’re hitting unusual roadblocks. I can’t get my assets unfrozen, and what little I do have on hand is being treated like Monopoly money.”
“Want me to make a doppelganger charm for you? We could go out to a movie.”
“Yes,” he said immediately, then, “No. But thank you. I can ask Quen to go with you to the coven if you like.”
I could tell it bothered him that he couldn’t come himself, and for a moment, I considered it. The dark elf had been Trent’s security since before he was born, but Quen reacted too fast and too hard for my liking. “No. I’ll be okay,” I said, and I would be…until I wasn’t.
“Let him know if you change your mind.” We scuffed to a halt, the lineso close I could hear it humming, feel it lifting my hair with the mystics who existed within it. The girls were impatient to cross, but Trent tugged me closer for a good-bye kiss. “Give me about an hour to ride back and get to my office so my phone will work. You’ll call me, right? Before you talk to the coven?”
Still in his arms, I nodded. “Yep. And afterward, too, so you know how it went.” Because if they put me in Alcatraz, he would help bust me out, warrant for trafficking in illegal genetic treatments or not. I reached for him and pulled him down to give him a lingering kiss. My breath quickened as a dart of sensation went right to my groin.
Shuddering with pent-up desire, I let him go. Trent was smiling. “You are amazing, you know that, right?” he said, and I flushed.
“Only on my good days. Ready, girls?”
Chattering, Lucy ran up to him, Ray quick to follow as they gave Trent little-girl kisses and promises to be good for their mother and not spell her cat into a frenzy.