Page 68

FOUR

Ruse

“Two down, three more to go,” I said, taking in the squat brick home our next target had vanished into after leaving guard duty at the museum. “This is the one we think will be working the inner rooms, isn’t it?”

Sorsha nodded where she was lounging on the RV’s sofa next to me. “That’s where he was this morning, anyway.”

“You’ll want to prime him to not just let us pass but also so that he’ll bring any colleagues he’s working with out where you can work your charms on them too,” Omen reminded me, leaning to eye the building over my head. “I can’t believe it’ll just be him in the inner sanctum. And since our Disaster here wants to spare the poor little mortals…”

Sorsha shot him a half-hearted glare over her shoulder but didn’t bother to comment. The movement sent a whiff of her fiery sweet scent into the air. Fucking delicious. What I wouldn’t have given to be spending the next hour in the bedroom down the hall, drinking that scent right off her skin from every part of her body, rather than chatting up another of the Company’s dupes.

We did have our devourer to break out of imprisonment, though. And besides, even if I had let myself indulge in Sorsha’s allure alongside Snap not long ago, I suspected making a solo venture of it wasn’t the wisest idea. Not if I wanted to stamp out the longing tug in my heart that no incubus had any business feeling—something I should have been doubly sure of after the last time a mortal had turned my head around.

Still, I allowed myself the luxury of a fond smile and pretended it didn’t send a ridiculous giddiness through me when she returned the gesture. It was because of her suggestion that I’d ended up spearheading our current plan of action.

I hadn’t really seen myself as the leader type. It’d certainly been less pressure hanging back in the shadows during our previous operations and only popping in for the rare occasions when my talents were needed. There was a bit of a thrill in knowing that when we stormed the museum facility tomorrow, it’d be my persuasive skills rather than Thorn’s brute strength and Omen’s houndish savageness that paved the way.

And maybe there was also a thrill in knowing Sorsha had believed in those skills enough to point to me rather than them in her moment of uncertainty.

“I remember the whole strategy we discussed,” I told Omen, and gave him a teasing salute. “Off I go to meet my fate.”

I leapt through the shadows, peered through the slightly hazy view of the world they gave me until I was sure no one was nearby to see, and emerged into physical being on the house’s doorstep. Since we already knew this fellow’s feelings about shadowkind, I’d brought my favorite cap into being with me. As Sorsha caught up with me, ready to take on her mortal part in this role-play, I adjusted the hat’s angle over my horns and knocked on the door.

The sinewy young man who opened the door frowned as he looked the two of us over, clearly not expecting any stunningly handsome gentlemen callers, at least not in the middle of the afternoon. His gaze lingered on me. I couldn’t read his emotions at the moment, but his expression suggested he didn’t find me entirely unappealing, if I’d happened to swing that way—and if I hadn’t had other more urgent concerns.

I couldn’t read his emotions or work any of my other skills on him just yet because he was still wearing a protective badge made of silver and iron over the general area of his heart. Not the same design as the one Sorsha tended to keep pinned to her undershirt, but for the same purpose. How kind of him to have left it uncovered so we could carry out this part of our plan with minimal struggle.

“You’ve got something on your shirt,” Sorsha said as if spotting an embarrassing stain, and jerked the badge off with one deft yank.

The guy had barely let out a yelp before I let the full force of my seductive power trickle up my throat and into my voice. “I’m sorry to interrupt you, sir, but there’s a matter of grave importance I need to bring to your attention. Lives could be at stake.”

From the conversation with a colleague I’d overheard while watching him from the shadows, I’d already known he saw himself as some sort of champion of the people. The appeal to his heroic aspirations gave my magic an extra hook into his mind. He still looked discomforted, but he appeared to have forgotten Sorsha’s manhandling already. An avid gleam had come into his eyes. “What are you talking about? How do you even know me?”

“There are many of us who study the Company of Light and reach out to its most promising members,” I said, letting my smile turn conspiratorial. “Are you ready to step up to the next level in the war against evil?”

Dashing darkness, was he ever. The peek I took inside his head only confirmed the eagerness that lit up his blotchy face. “Absolutely,” he said. “Come in—whatever you need, I’ll do what I can to help.”

Sorsha’s part here done, she gave my arm an affectionate squeeze and hustled back to the RV. I ambled after our target into a living room with a leopard-print sofa, a zebra skin rug, and a very large cat—no, by the realms, that was a living, breathing tiger cub bounding across the floor to pounce on a ragged chew toy.

“Oh, don’t mind Elsa,” my host said with a careless wave. “She never bites that hard.”

Our aspiring hero was also an owner of illegal wildlife and possibly a new Tiger King in the making. Wonderful. If Omen didn’t end up tearing his throat out when this was through, I’d bet Elsa would once her fangs had grown. I only regretted that I wouldn’t be around to see it.

I settled onto the sofa and put on my “serious business” expression, mainly inspired by Thorn and his vast range of sternness. Another thread of magic wove through my voice. “It’s particularly important that you don’t mention our meeting to anyone. Not everyone in the Company of Light is worthy of our trust. Which is precisely why we need your assistance with a vital matter…”

It took more than half an hour of tempting and cajoling before I was sure the hopeful hero was 100% committed, but by then I could have told him the security of the planet depended on him jumping off the roof of the museum, and he’d have happily run off to do it. Luckily for him, the use I needed to put him to was much less hazardous to his health, at least in the immediate moment. What the rest of his Company would do to him if they realized he’d been compromised—well, I expected he’d receive his just desserts for his horrible life decisions.

As I sauntered out of the house, the sun had just touched the rooftops of the buildings opposite. I kept walking until I was out of view and then dashed through the shadows back to the RV where Omen had brought it around the other side of the block.

As soon as I appeared with an okay signal to Omen, he revved the engine as if the vehicle were his motorcycle and not the sort of thing in which retirees took off to Florida. It rumbled on down the road, and Sorsha poked her head out of her bedroom.

“Did it go all right?” she asked.

I gave her a thumbs up. “Got him eating out of my hand in no time. He had an important bit of info to pass on to us, too. They’re expecting an inspection from a couple of higher-ups tonight. They run most of their experiments overnight when there wouldn’t be any patrons around if a creature escaped. Smaller staff during the day. In light of that news, I primed him to make our introductions tomorrow while the place is open.”

I glanced in Omen’s direction with a flicker of anxiety that the boss might not appreciate my taking that initiative, but his grunt of acknowledgment was approving enough. He might be the man of plans, but I had enough wits to contribute in that area too, didn’t I? More than just a pretty face and a sweet voice, thank you very much.

As Sorsha had clearly trusted. There was no surprise tempering the relief that crossed her face. “Less than twenty-four hours until we get Snap out,” she said. Then her exhilaration dimmed. “Assuming he’s still there. Assuming they haven’t been even more horrible to him than the other shadowkind.”

There was definitely something wrong with my incubus inclinations that her fretting wrenched at me as much as it did. Well, our companions didn’t need me until we made it to our next target. I went over to her.

She leaned back against the closed door with a dip of her head. “I know, there’s no point in worrying about it when we won’t find out until tomorrow anyway.”

I brushed a few locks of her red hair back from her cheek and let my hand linger against her warm skin. “Of course you’re worried about him. We know what these fiends are like.” And as much as our mortal had woken up passions I never would have expected in the devourer, he’d woken up a tenderness in her that I wasn’t sure she’d ever expected either. Something softer than the playful affection she’d offered me as she’d started to open up to my attentions, but why shouldn’t it be?

She sucked in a breath and appeared to gather herself, resolve steadying her posture. Never did she look so gorgeous as when she was preparing for battle, and damn if I hadn’t had plenty of opportunities to witness that in the past few weeks.

“They have no idea what hell they brought down on themselves when they took him.” Her gaze darted to Omen in the driver’s seat. “Maybe literally if it comes to that. And they’ll deserve every bit of it.” She shifted her attention back to me. “ You know I didn’t suggest a change in tactics just to avoid having to fight, right?”

Rarely had I wished quite so much that I could take a glimpse of the contents of her head without breaking her trust. Something about her powers had unnerved her since we’d come to Chicago, but I wasn’t sure why now or what exactly was going through her mind.

It didn’t matter, though. I could still answer truthfully, “Of course. I’d be less surprised by you giving up your ‘80s tunes than by you running from a brawl where you’re needed, Miss Blaze. Woe betide anyone who messes with our mortal.” I stroked my fingers down her jaw, resisting the urge to lean in to claim more than just a caress. “We’ll get Snap back. These pricks don’t stand a chance. And just imagine how overjoyed he’s going to be to see you again.”

“The feeling will be mutual,” she said. From the momentary dreaminess that came into her eyes, she was picturing that reunion right now. If Snap could have seen her like this, he’d never have doubted her devotion enough to run off in the first place.

If she could accept all the monstrous parts of him—the jaws, the whole eviscerating of mortal souls bit—was it possible she might accept all that I was as well, without the lingering fear of how I might pry inside her mind or sway her to my whim? The one thing I knew above all else was I wouldn’t want this woman coming to me on any terms other than her own. It wouldn’t have been worth it to win her by magic, not when I’d had a taste of utterly unclouded yearning.

I shook that desire off like I had so many times in recent days. It was nothing but noise and clutter. But perhaps it wouldn’t be such a bad thing if I presented a distraction in this moment that we’d both enjoy quite a lot?

The ring of her phone served as a cockblocker. I managed not to glower at it as she pulled it out of her pocket to check the number. Her jaw tightened.

“Vivi,” she said, and to my surprise, hit the button to dismiss it.

“Did you two have another argument?” I asked.

“No, nothing like that. I just—with everything that’s going on—” She made a face as if she couldn’t find the words to express her reasoning. Then her phone pinged again, this time with a text alert.

As Sorsha read the message, she let out a disbelieving laugh. “Oh my God. I can’t believe I forgot.” Shaking her head, she looked up at me with a twist of her mouth. “She’s wishing me a happy birthday.”

My eyebrows jumped up. Then a smirk crossed my lips. I could give her something even better to take her mind off everything that troubled her. “It’s your birthday today? Oh, Miss Blaze, you’d better believe I’m not letting that pass uncelebrated.”