Possession

Chapter Forty-three

Sitting cross-legged on her bed, Sissy had the book Adrian had given her on top of a pillow in her lap. Even with all the lights on, and her eyes being excellent, she was getting a tension headache from frowning at the tiny, faded writing.

Her Latin was so not good enough for this.

Leaning back against her headboard, she cursed softly.

“That bad, huh?”

Turning toward the open door, she saw Adrian standing there with a bag of Chips Ahoy!

He jogged the sealed cookies. “Want a little sin?”

“Yes. Please.”

As he limped in, she wished she knew how he’d been hurt. What had happened exactly. But she had a feeling that was seriously off-limits.

Sitting down at the foot of her bed, he did the deed of opening things up, and then offered the chocolate-chip cookies to her. She took four.

“You know,” Adrian said between bites of his own, “Eddie always did say that thing read like stereo instructions.”

“It’s nearly incomprehensible—and it’s totally discombobulated … like stream-of-consciousness stuff. No organization, just a series of random riffs.”

“Well, what have you got so far?”

“Can you people really do spells?”

“Jim can, yup. I’m okay at it. Eddie was better than I am—he used to tell me I had ADHD and that was the root of my problem. You need to focus properly.”

“Can you do one for me now?”

“Like I’m a trick pony?”

“Come on. I need a break, and I’m honestly curious.”

Adrian popped another cookie into his mouth. Then he held out a palm. Frowning in concentration, he made a waving motion with his free hand over it.

“Presto!”

She leaned in. “What did you do?”

“I made nothing appear. Just like magic.”

Sissy started to laugh. “You’re a freak.”

“Too right. And an idiot. I should have brought up the milk.”

She looked down at the book again and got serious. “Tell me more about the mirror.” When he didn’t reply, she glanced back up at him. “Please.”

“You hit me with this even after I hooked you up with the Ahoys?”

Except he stretched out across the end of her bed, propping his head up on his hand. He kept munching away, somehow not getting cookie crumbs all over the place.

“The mirror, the mirror …” He shook his head. “It’s the ugliest fucking thing you’ve ever seen. Old and decaying, just like her.”

“Whenever I’ve seen the demon, she’s been young and beautiful.”

“Just another of her lies.” He rubbed an eyebrow with his thumb. “Like I said, the thing with her is, she needs that portal. She loses the mirror? She’s stuck on this plane, at least from what Eddie always told me. Now, you’d assume the easiest thing to do would be to break it, but if you do? You get sucked into the shards and you ain’t never coming out. The key would be to get control of the POS. Take it out of her possession and make it so she can’t get access to it. Logically, that’s the only set of chains you’re ever going to put on her.”

“You found me in that bathroom.” She put her hand across her abdomen. “To protect…”

“Yeah.”

“Why didn’t you take the mirror with you when you left?”

Adrian blew out a curse. “Jim had flipped the fuck out when he saw you, and because he’d tripped her spell, she was coming back at a dead run. It was a choice between keeping the savior from attacking and probably getting shanked … or taking the mirror. We chose him.”

“So she’s killed someone else to replace me.”

The angel cleared his throat. “Yeah.” Abruptly, he reached out and put his hand on her knee. “Hey, hey … you need to stop thinking about all that. That’s not your biz.”

“If Jim felt that way, I’d still be in Hell.”

“Doesn’t mean you have to be a hero up here.” He took out another cookie. “Or down there.”

Sissy was quiet a long time. And then she heard herself say, “She hurt him.”

“Excuse me?”

“I saw Jim …” It was so hard to put it into words, and she didn’t know why she was bringing it up now. “She hurt him. Her … people hurt him. Bad.”

When Adrian didn’t reply, she glanced up. His face was set in stone, no expression to be found within the composite of his features. And that was when she knew … he’d had the same abuse done to him.

“Sissy, do me a favor?”

“What?”

“Don’t tell him you saw that, okay? It’ll kill him.”

“That woman needs to be stopped,” Sissy said darkly.

“That’s what Jim’s trying to do.”

Sissy was silent for a time. “There’s another thing I’ve been wondering. How did he get me out?”

“He traded a win for you.”

As those simple words sunk in, Sissy felt her head go a little fuzzy. “I’m sorry … he did what?”

As Duke traced Cait’s blond hair with his eyes, a feeling of dread hit him hard. You don’t suppose … oh, come on, there was no reason to be paranoid.

“I thought it was natural,” he heard himself say.

“You don’t like brunettes?”

“Ah, no, that’s not it.” He shook his head, thinking, Enough with that psychic. “The blond looks good on you.”

“Thanks.”

As she picked up her fork and started to eat once more, he tried to forget Yasemin Oaks’ warning, the strange men sitting shotgun with him, the sense of foreboding that was killing his otherwise healthy appetite. He should be talking to Cait, pulling a little uncomplicated chatter out of his ass, pretending that he was focused on normal things…

“God, this is so awkward again,” she said. But then she looked up in a flash, as if she hadn’t meant to speak out loud. “I’m sorry—I didn’t mean—”

“No, I know what you’re saying.” He pushed his hand through his hair. “I just … I want you to know that no matter what happens … I want to be here. With you.”

He held her stare with his own, and was surprised to find that regardless of the intentions he’d started out with? That was the God’s honest. Sitting in this neat little kitchen, in her neat little house, eating her perfectly cooked lasagna? There was nowhere else he’d rather be—and not because he was making a revenge fantasy real.

And for some crazy fucking reason, he seemed to want her to know that.

He broke the eye contact first. “I haven’t …” He cleared his throat forcefully, and thought that he really should shut the hell up. “I don’t feel things anymore, you know? I don’t … well, I haven’t had emotions like this in forever.”

“Emotions like what?” she whispered.

Duke rubbed the center of his chest, and skirted the question. “You want to know the irony? I was going to be a cardiologist. I was always fascinated by hearts, how they work, why they work. Didn’t get that far, of course. But that was my plan.”

“What really happened?” She reached over and put her hand on his forearm. “You can tell me.”

Well, my brother found out that I was in love with a woman, and he seduced her and left her pregnant … and it fucked with my head so bad, I’ve never gotten over it. Especially because I knew him all along—I knew what he was capable of. And I’ve been waiting for years to get back at him …

Duke looked across the table at Cait, and finished the thought: You were the way I was going to do it.

For the longest time, he’d been watching G.B. from a distance, checking up on him from the sidelines, monitoring that career of his. And his fraternal twin had proven to have nothing in common with Duke, except for one thing—he never, ever dated anybody seriously. There had been casual hooks, yeah. Things that happened in bars or clubs or behind the scenes. But the bastard had never once invited a woman to see him sing or perform, a specific woman, a woman who was a quality female like this one.

Duke had known the instant Cait had shown up at the Palace Theatre why she was there—G.B.’s fans always came in pairs, besties doubling or tripling up to ogle him and hear him spout shit that was the polar opposite of the person he really was.

Cait, on the other hand, had been there alone, and sure enough, there to meet up with him at his request.

She’d had to be someone special to him to break G.B.’s pattern, and it was not a surprise that both he and his brother were attracted to her—hell, any man with half a brain would be. So Duke had known instantly what to do—yeah, sure, it wouldn’t be even close to what had been done to him, but then, G.B. had always had a much, much thinner skin.

Less was required to have the same effect—

Abruptly, Duke started shaking his head, and before he knew what he was doing, he got to his feet. “I have to go. I’m sorry … I can’t stay.”

As Cait blanched, he knew he really had to leave. She deserved so much better than all this—even though she wanted him, too, his motives hadn’t been clean at the beginning, and for some reason, that seemed to taint everything about his presence here tonight.

“I—”

He cut her off. “This is just a bad idea. I came here for—shit, nothing that you’re going to want or merit.”

She looked at the dinner she’d so carefully prepared for them—and he felt worse than he had in a very, very long time.

“I’m sorry,” he said. “I really am.”

As she put her napkin down and got out of her chair, she straightened the pretty dress she had put on for him. “Okay. And things are awkward, I know. I just…”

“It’s not you—”

“Oh, my God, that line.” She actually smiled a little. “I never thought it would be used on me.”

Duke stepped into her and touched her face. Goddamn, she was so lovely, and as he paused to soak everything in, he knew he was doing the right thing. The beef with his brother was nasty, evil stuff, and nothing this woman needed to get sucked into—he was still going to take his losses out of that asshole’s hide; he was just going to find another way.

Duke dropped his arm. “I don’t want this to end.”

She frowned. “It doesn’t have to.”

“Yes, it does.”

Cait took hold of his hands. “Listen, I know you say you’re not good at relationships—and I get that. But I’m willing to give it time if you are.”

“Cait—”

“I’m serious. I’m no better at this than you. I haven’t even been on a date in years. After Thom left me for someone else, I’ve just been working and doing all the ‘right’ things. I’ve also been living half a life. I got a wake-up call about six months ago, and I just decided I had to stop putting things off, I had to get out there. I think you’re the same.”

“You don’t know me.”

“So give me a chance to. I’m not going to beg you to stay—that’s up to you. What I am saying is that I’d like the chance to find out where this is going. If that’s not something you’re comfortable with, then you know where the door is—but I think you’re making a huge mistake.”

In the tense silence that followed, Duke was astonished to find himself agreeing with her—even though it was probably a bad idea. As much as he hated to admit it, she had woken him up, and he didn’t want to go back to the shadows—but at the same time? The stakes were high.

He’d already lived through a loss like this once…

And then he realized, the solution to everything might be easier and more honest than he thought.

Taking Cait’s face in his hands, he tilted her head back and stared into her eyes.

“Are you seeing anyone else?” he demanded.

The answer to that question was the only thing that mattered tonight.