Witch Heart

CHAPTER EIGHT

ADAM CHOKED ON HIS BITE OF SANDWICH AND coughed. "Uh, what do you mean?"

"Since I was eight I've slept on the floor near Rue's bed. Every single night. I'm not used to beds or to sleeping alone. I've been having nightmares."

Claire. In his bedroom. When he was already fighting an inappropriate attraction to her? He wasn't such an uncontrolled cad that he couldn't resist her… he didn't think. Still, it wasn't the best scenario.

"Don't you think your nightmares might have more to do with your situation, Claire, and less to do with your sleeping arrangements?"

She pursed her lips. "No."

He sighed. "Look, no way am I letting you sleep on the floor. What was wrong with this guy Rue anyway—"

"Nothing!" she shot back. "It's just the way things are done there."

He stared at her for a moment, wondering how else things were done there. Adam wanted to ask her about Rue and if she'd ever been taken advantage of by him, but he didn't know her well enough to ask. It wasn't his business, even if his hands heated with anger at the thought of this woman being forced by demon scum.

"Look, that's not the way things are done here, okay? We'll move one of the twin mattresses into my room and you can sleep on that. No way am I letting you sleep on the hard, drafty floor of this old house."

"But—"

"No way." He used his cop voice. He hadn't used that one in a long, long time.

Her lips compressed for a moment. "I can try it."

"Trust me, you'll get used to sleeping in a bed. It's much more comfortable. Can I ask why he made you sleep you on the floor, Claire?"

He figured it was to show her she was lesser. Adam wanted her to say it. It was the first step in breaking through that weird Stockholm syndrome shit.

"The magick. Even at night his experiments worked in me. I slept on a cushion, not the floor, but it allowed me to be at the correct elevation for him to wake and make adjustments as I slept."

Adam bit back the lab rat comment poised on the tip of his tongue and nodded curtly. Hell, her sleeping in his room was probably a good idea anyway. They still didn't know if the dynamic demon duo had tracked them out of Chicago magickically or not. It was probably best she was near one of them in case they showed up during the night.

He nodded. "Let's move the bed then."

Between the two of them, the task was done quickly. Adam knew Theo would get the wrong idea because Adam had a certain reputation among the witches. That was something to deal with tomorrow. Tonight they needed to get some rest.

Adam came out of the bathroom, rubbing a towel through his hair. He'd barely managed to remember to put on a T-shirt and a pair of boxers before he'd exited. Normally, he didn't wear pajamas to bed. Probably better he did these days, anyway. He didn't want the experience of fighting demons in the buff.

Claire sat on the edge of her bed with her back to him. She was just pulling a nightshirt over her head. He got an eyeful of slender, creamy back tapering to a waist any man would want to nip at. He glimpsed the curve of a breast and the flash of one pretty pink nipple before the fabric sheathed her.

He stopped short, towel nearly dropping from his suddenly loose grip.

Fuuuuck him.

Unaware he was there, Claire stared out the large window that backed the king-size bed. It was dark now, but in the daytime it overlooked a private backyard with lots of trees and a small heated pond teeming with goldfish. The look on her face was so forlorn that Adam completely forgot about sex… for a moment. For him, that said a lot.

"Hey, are you all right?" He dropped the towel on some prissy red and black upholstered chair and walked toward her. "We don't know each other very well, but I'm a really great listener."

She pulled herself out of her stare to look at him. He tried hard to ignore the black curl that had been caught on her shoulder and how it had sprung into a ringlet when she moved. "I'm so messed up. Is that the expression?" "I'm disturbed." Her voice sounded heavy with emotion. "I miss Eudae, can you believe it?"

"It's the only home you've ever known. I don't think it's strange that you're feeling a little lost here."

She motioned with her hands. "Yes, but I was basically a slave there. A well-treated one, but still without freedom, without choices. I was denied the life I would have had here — a regular childhood, a normal education, my first car, my first boyfriend." A smile flickered briefly over her face. "Ding Dongs. There's part of me that's really happy to be here because this is my home, but I feel like I don't fit. I feel like I was made for Eudae and that's the only place I'll ever be comfortable."

"Do you want to go back?"

"I did. I did want to go back when I first got here." She hesitated and then shook her head. "Now… no. But that doesn't stop me from missing it."

"Claire, you're only thirty-one, right? You have a lot of years to make up for everything you've missed out on."

"A lot? Shouldn't it be many? Many years to make up for everything I've missed out on."

"Uh?" He raised his eyebrows. "Are you an English teacher?"

She shook her head. "Sorry, I'm just clarifying. My mother taught me the language and she was very particular."

Her mother. Interesting.

By the way Claire's face had shuttered and how she'd looked away from him at the mention of mother, it was clear he shouldn't press. He would, though, just as soon as he felt he could.

"Yeah, well." He sighed and pushed a hand through his short, damp hair. "I didn't exactly get the best education out there, you know? I was born and raised in Cicero, a suburb near downtown Chicago, by a single mother who had no money to send me to college. As soon as I could, I joined the police force." He almost went on to explain how lucky he was that his wife had been brilliant and had made lots of money, but he stopped himself.

He never talked about his wife to anyone. With Claire, he sensed it was important he open up a little. Claire needed a personal connection with someone like him — an aeamon. Talking about Eliza pricked too much, though.

Her gaze traveled over him slowly, as if just noticing him for the first time. There was a sexual heat in her eyes that he'd believed her impossible of just moments ago.

Well, hello..

Then, as soon as it had appeared, it flashed out. "Anyway, about experiencing life" — she turned away—"maybe. Depends on how much of it I've got left."

He sat down on his bed, just a few feet from her. He didn't want to invade her personal space. Okay, that wasn't true. He really wanted to invade her personal space, that's why he kept his distance.

"You're here now, Claire, where you belong. We won't let anyone take you back there if you don't want to go. Not those fucking demons, not Rue, not anybody."

The fire of that conviction burned through his body as he spoke the words. He hadn't known how much protecting her had meant to him until he'd said it.

"I would like to believe that." She glanced away. "But you don't understand how strong they are. Rue will go to the ends of this Earth to retrieve the magick he stored in me. The fate of the Ytrayi and the other daaeman breeds depend on it."

"Yeah. Well, they don't scare me. I've hunted worse things to the ends of the Earth."

She looked back at him. Mentally, he tripped and fell into the serious, beautiful, dark pools of her eyes. "No. You haven't."

Claire hap watched Adam slide the long copper knife under his pillow before he flipped off the light. Did he really think that would work against these Atrika?

She stared at the silver moonlight bleaching the light from the planes and hollows of his muscular body, sprawled blanketless on the bed above her.

Of course, even as she sneered, she knew exactly where the copper sword in the room was — nudged up against the wall between Adam's bed and the night table. If the Atrika showed up in the night, it would be the first thing she went for.

At least until she got her magick under control. If she could get it under control.

In the bed above her, Adam shifted onto his back and groaned. The deep, masculine sound shot through her body like a bullet. Adam was intriguing.

Claire squeezed her eyes shut. What in the Houses was wrong with her? She couldn't go around being intrigued by every male she met.

It was true she'd had little enough romance in her life. Hardly any, in fact. And the first — and last — time she'd had sex, it had ended very, very badly. Bloody badly. It made her gorge rise to remember.

Maybe, since she'd had such a lack of contact in that way, she was a little affected by every man she met. She frowned. Okay, that wasn't true. She'd come into contact with lots of policemen, doctors, orderlies, and other males since Rue had pushed her through and she hadn't been attracted to any of them. She hadn't thought of Theo in that way, even though he was physically very good-looking. Only Thomas and Adam had pushed her buttons so far.

Thomas was off limits. She knew that only too well, having saved his life and sent him home from Eudae for Isabelle. Plus, he was married.

Anyway, Adam intrigued her more.

When she'd been in her early twenties, she'd longed for sex. Wanted more than anything to feel a man's skin sliding against hers, his breath on her throat, lips on her stomach, thighs, breasts. Every night she'd fantasize about it until she could barely function during the day.

She'd hidden her desires from Rue, who would have told her what she already knew — it was just hormones. Silly chemicals in her woman's body driving her to procreate. A throwback to the caveman days to ensure the survival of the species. Then Ty had shown interest in her, answering all her carnal wishes.

Ty had been a wonderful male. A Syari daaeman, he'd known so much about the world, taught her so much. They'd had long conversations and spent as much time as they could together without being discovered by Rue or anyone else.

She'd fallen in love with Ty even though she'd known their relationship couldn't go anywhere, not really. It had gone against every cultural norm on Eudae, and Ty had risked much by just associating with her… much less having sex with her.

He'd risked everything and lost.

She squeezed her eyes shut, deliberately altering the path of her thoughts. It had been so long ago she could barely remember what it was like to have sex. It had been five years since she'd been with a male.

After what had happened with Ty, she'd turned her sexuality off. Just shut it down. She'd had no other choice. It had been Thomas's arrival that had made it flicker to life once more, but it was Adam who truly piqued her curiosity.

How would Adam's skin feel against hers? What would his mouth taste like? How would the curves and hard planes of his body feel under her exploring hands?

Houses, she was so stupid! She had more important things to worry about right now than sex. She had to turn her silly, base desires off for now—again—and concentrate on surviving. Tomorrow she'd start poking at the jumbled mess inside her and untangling the threads.

Damn Rue for doing this to her!

She'd been loyal to him since the moment her mother had died and she'd been turned over to his care… with the exception of a few minor rebellions and the rather large one of her helping Thomas escape.

Claire had understood that Rue had never felt much emotion for her, not like an aeamon would, but he'd treated her with respect and understanding for all those years. Surely, he had some regard for her. Yet, when he'd slammed that thunderbolt of magick into her, he'd not hesitated. Not blinked an eyelash.

It was true he'd had no choice. If her assumption about the magick inside her was correct, it would mean the end of the other three daaeman breeds if the Atrika gained control of it. Yet, Rue had known he'd been sentencing her to death, most likely, and he hadn't cared.

Men.

She sighed noisily and tossed, turning her back on the sight of Adam.