Page 4 of Adepts and Alchemists

I didn’t. Damn it all to the lowest infernal layers, but I was fresh out of options that wouldn’t get more people killed. I’d have to babysit the mundane, just to be certain nothing happened to him. I’d feel responsible for his death if we dragged him into our mess only for it to cost him his life.

I shook my head with a sigh. “Fine, fine. Have it your way. We’ll solicit the services of your mundane. I hope it doesn’t get him killed.”

“We will be sure it doesn’t,” Wanda promised.

“I’m coming with you,” Angelo said, regaining his feet with a half-snarl.

I didn’t have the time to argue with him. Besides, my personal beef with him meant very little in light of what he stood to lose. If anyone else had as much stake in this as I did, it was Angelo.

“Fine. Just keep up, lover boy.”

“Count on it.”

Chapter Three

RJ

To call my apartment a ‘disaster’ would be an understatement.

After Libby and I broke things off, the place had reverted to its usual disheveled state. Piles of plates and laundry were stacked up haphazardly, with only enough room between them to allow one to stagger through the place after dark and be reasonably certain you wouldn’t trip and break something.

When Poppy texted and asked to bring friends over, I thought she’d meant an evening of playing board games with Henner and Darla. That meant I’d have about an hour or two to shove the takeout containers into the trash and run my dishes through the dishwasher. The laundry would have to be folded another day, but I could at least shove the piles in an out-of-the-way corner until our friends left.

“He’s up here!” I heard a woman’s voice.

Idid notexpect my guests to arrive promptly. And Iespeciallydidn’t expect Wanda to come waltzing into my bathroom, followed by the rest of them. And especially not when I was already in there, showering as quickly as I could.

“Ahem,” she’d called out as she wrapped her knuckles on the door. “You’ve got visitors.”

There was enough mist in the air to obscure everything long enough for me to tug the shower curtain down over my junk. It made the rings rasp, drawing every eye toward me. And more importantly, to what I was trying to hide.

“Wanda, he’s in the shower!” Poppy said, her face all shades of red.

“And we don’t have time for him to be in the shower,” Wanda responded.

It was odd to see speculation on so many female faces. Even odder that my friends should be gathered around the walk-in shower like a group of curious onlookers. I recognized almost every single woman who’d stopped to stare. Poppy, who’d aimed her eyes toward the ceiling the second she realized what she’d walked in on. Wanda, who was brazenly staring at my chest with an amused smirk on her face. Betanya, who seemed amused but largely unimpressed, Olga, who looked like she was planning to commit my image to paper and finally, Lydia.

My heart thumped a little unevenly, and furious heat roared into my face. The embarrassing truth was, I’d liked Lydia since she came to town. She was smart and funny, and her store had the best section on cryptids I’d found in recent years. She’d always special-order books if I asked for a copy she didn’t own. If she hadn’t been so clearly into Angelo Stedham, I might have asked her out on a coffee date.

But she wasn’t looking at me at all. Not in embarrassment, the way Poppy had reacted. She looked agitated, dark circles seeming to have carved themselves beneath her eyes overnight. There was a haunted look in those beautiful blue eyes.

I wanted to ask her what was wrong, but what came out was, “Um... guys... in case you didn’t notice… I’m naked.”

“Why, yes, you are,” Wanda said, smirk widening. I wasn’t sure if I should be flattered or slightly creeped by the appraising look she was giving me. “Poppy, you never told me your mundane friend was so ripped.”

Poppy smacked Wanda’s bicep. Or well, shetried to.She mostly ended up flapping her hand in midair in Wanda’s direction, clipping Wanda’s shoulder with her fingertips on accident, not by design. That’s because Poppy was too busy examining my ceiling to pay attention to what direction she’d swung. And she was the only one who was still standing in the hallway. At least one person was trying to respect my modesty.Everyone else seemed to be admiring the view with obscene relish, not that I minded that much. I mean, when did a guy ever find himself in the buff in front of a bunch of attractive women. This was a first for me...

Well, not just attractive women, but also a pair of men who were standing near Poppy in my hallway. If I thought I’d been flustered before, it was nothing to the flush of discomfort that rose in me when I realized I recognized both faces.

The first was unmistakably Wanda’s cousin and business partner, Maverick. I saw him around town enough to exchange pleasantries, but definitely not enough to have him standing in my hall like he owned the place. The other face was arguably worse.

Angelo Stedham was objectively perfect. So perfect it was creepy, if you asked me. There’d always been something about his too-symmetrical face that had fallen firmly into uncanny valley. None of the women around town seemed to agree with that assessment, instead going on and on about how hot he was. So I’d pretty much kept my thoughts to myself. I expected him to be sneering at me in that characteristically arrogant way he had.

Instead, he barely looked at me. He only had eyes for Lydia, looping his long fingers around her wrist, tugging her away from the tub and my nudity. Lydia’s expression creased into a haughty, scornful look and she tugged her hand free.

“Hands off, incubus. We don’t have time for that.”

The reaction to his touch was so different from what I’d observed a few days ago that it took me a second to realize what she’d said.Incubus?As in, the sex demon from mythology? Sure, he was good-looking, according to most of the women he met, but I wouldn’t go so far as to call him a sexualdemon.Hmm, maybe that was just like her pet-name for him? God, that was almost worse.