Page 77

THIRTEEN

Ruse

If the chaotic events of the past twenty-four hours had made anything clear, it was that no matter how much of himself Snap had swallowed into the deepest depths of his being, the devourer still had a puzzling but valiant habit of caring about everyone else’s welfare more than his own. This despite the fact that as far as he could remember, he’d only known the bunch of us for those twenty-four hours.

That observation led me to a spark of inspiration. None of the items I’d offered him so far had jogged any familiarity loose. My reassurances that he was among friends hadn’t cajoled his old self free. But maybe if he believed our lives depended on him dredging up times past, whatever force was holding them down in his gullet would shatter.

It was worth a try, anyway. Every time Sorsha looked at him with the loss shining in her eyes, I wanted to shake him until he snapped out of it. I would have if I’d thought there was any chance of that tactic working. I’d always liked the devourer well enough, but starting over from scratch with his naively precocious self was getting rather irritating.

I got my chance to try out my new strategy when we stopped at a gas station-slash-burger joint just past the Texas border to fill up both the RV and our mortal. My job, of course, was to persuade the establishment that they didn’t need any money for their trouble. Snap stepped out of the Everymobile with Sorsha and me and tipped back his head to bask in the midday sun.

“Wait right there,” I told him. “I’ll find a tasty snack for you too.”

He beamed at me so brightly you’d have thought I’d offered him a ten-course banquet on a week-long tropical cruise. He had always been easy to please.

It wasn’t pleasing him I was after, though. I had a little chat with the man at the counter, watched him call out our order eagerly to the cook staff, and left Sorsha to collect the goods. As I reached the restaurant door, I threw myself forward, bursting out into the parking lot as if I’d run all the way to the entrance.

At the sight of me dashing over, Snap straightened up with a jerk, his body tensing. “What’s wrong?” he asked, buying into my gambit before I’d even had to really sell it.

“Sorsha,” I said in a breathless voice. “The Company goons were waiting for us—they’ve grabbed her, and they’ll be coming for the rest of us any minute now.”

The devourer turned even more rigid. “What should we do?”

I waved at him frantically. “Quick! There was something you picked up about a guy named Meriden before—I think if we could show we knew him we could get them to back down?—”

It had to be a real fact, or it wouldn’t connect with his smothered memories. A fraught expression crossed the devourer’s pretty face. He opened his mouth and closed it again, his hands moving at his sides as if groping for an answer in the air.

I almost thought I had him, that something was jostling loose, when he let out a choked sound of dismay. “I don’t know. Meriden, Meriden—there’s nothing.”

“Just give yourself more of a chance. It’s got to be in there somewhere.”

“I don’t know.” The furrows in his brow dug deeper as the seconds slipped by. He shook his head and spun toward the RV. “We have to tell Thorn and Omen. They’ll know how to push those people back and get Sorsha away from them.”

Throwing the whole group into a panic wouldn’t solve anything. I grabbed Snap’s arm before he could reach the door. “There isn’t time. Even if you have the slightest sense—tell me anything that comes to you. It could make all the difference in saving her.”

“Saving who from what?”

The restaurant had worked faster than I’d anticipated. Sorsha was walking over, a paper bag dangling from her hand and a crease forming in her own brow as she looked from me to Snap. Her grip on the bag tightened. “What’s happened? Do we have to get out of here?”

Snap brightened with such intensity the brilliance of his smile stung my eyes. “You’re all right! Did the Company people let you go? You have the food…” He trailed off and then looked at me uncertainly.

I made a living out of lying, but I had to admit the hint of betrayal in his expression provoked a prick of guilt. I gave him a tentative pat on the arm. “Just a little… prank. I was hoping it would jumpstart your memory. She’s been perfectly fine the whole time.”

“Of course I’m fine.” Sorsha grimaced at me. “All you did was freak him out. The last thing he needs is more stress after this morning.”

The prick of guilt expanded into a sword-like stabbing. Although the wound where Thorn had scraped out the silver mark on Snap’s arm hadn’t leaked any smoke since being bandaged, it was true that this morning’s events had been far from a pleasant stroll in the park for the devourer. And the look our fiery mortal was giving me was the exact opposite of the sort I’d have wanted to elicit.

She didn’t need more stress in her life either.

I dipped into an apologetic little bow. “I’m sorry. I only wanted to give every possibility a shot, and we seem to be running low on them.” I glanced at Snap. “We’d all like to have you back with full history intact.”

“I’m sure we’ll have plenty of other chances that don’t involve giving him a panic attack,” Sorsha said, and shot Snap the soft smile that seemed reserved just for him.

Snap’s head drooped. “I’m not sure whatever you’ve been looking for is still there to be found. I’ve tried… I truly have.”

“I know.” She swallowed audibly and then made an attempt at cheerfulness. “Good thing I’m not the kind of girl who gives up just like that.” Her gaze came back to me. “No more staging supposed attacks. We’ve had enough of the real thing.”

“What’s the hold up?” Omen barked from inside the RV. “Let’s get a move on!”

“All right, all right,” Sorsha hollered back—and a little flame licked from her palm to her elbow.

She suppressed her flinch so quickly I might not have noticed it if I hadn’t been watching her already. She pulled her arm to her torso, snuffing out the flame, and all that remained was a thin pink line over the sensitive skin. I might have offered to kiss it better if the clenching of her jaw hadn’t warded me off from any teasing remarks.

“Just—just behave yourself for a little while,” she grumbled at me, and handed Snap his bacon cheeseburger before clambering on board.

The devourer and I followed, Snap gulping down his lunch in a few swift bites and then looking mournful that somehow the meal was already gone. He licked his lips. “The different types of meat do make an excellent combination, especially with the cheese and the fluffiness of that bread.”

I clapped him on the shoulder. “A little more practice and we’ll get you writing a food blog.”

“Blog? Is that some kind of fallen tree? Why would someone write on one?”

Good old Snap. “Don’t worry yourself about that.”

We stopped in the kitchen area. Sorsha had kept going, disappearing now into her bedroom with a flash of her scarlet hair. I suppressed a fresh jab of guilt. If my gambit had worked, she’d have been overjoyed. It’d been worth the chance. Snap clearly wasn’t traumatized in any lingering way.

Snap was watching me . “You like her,” he said in his direct, well-meaning way. “Quite a bit.”

I yanked my gaze back to him. “You did too,” I felt the need to point out. “You and her…” I didn’t know how to describe the bond that had appeared to be forming between the two of them, partly because those sorts of tender feelings weren’t my domain… and partly because remembering that fact sent an uneasy twinge through me.

“Come on,” I said to distract him. “Let me show you the best view we can get from this thing.” I motioned to him and leapt into the shadows. The least I could do after my trick was give him a more enjoyable experience to make up for it.

Snap trailed after me into the shadow around the small sunroof positioned over the hall. From the top of the RV, the suburban landscape we were passing through sprawled out on all sides, every bit of it visible without us needing to move an inch. The clear blue sky and the warble of the wind faded as they reached our senses through the patch of darkness, but I’d take that dulled view over risking a tumble in my physical body at the speeds Omen drove at.

A serpentinely slim presence beside me, Snap made a sound of approval. For a few minutes, we simply crouched there, taking in the sights of the mortal world with the colors of early fall whipping past us and the faint tang of gasoline rising from the freeway.

“It’s too bad the mortal can’t join us up here,” Snap said. I felt his attention shift to me. “Why is she particularly important to you?”

I suspected he was really asking why she’d mattered so much to him . Was that the way to get through to him—to remind him of the devotion she’d enflamed?

“She’s proven herself to be a—how would you put it?—a particularly fantastic being of any sort,” I said. “She’s been standing up to and sticking it to the people who collect shadowkind for years. Even when we turned up in her home out of nowhere, she held her own and refused to be intimidated. You saw just now that she doesn’t put up with any crap from me.”

Snap nodded. “She protects all of us in every way she can.”

“That’s one way of putting it. But she’s hardly all severity like Thorn. She has a playful spirit to her, a bountiful capacity for amusement and enjoyment…” I had to smile, thinking of her absurdly switched-up songs, all the banter we’d exchanged. Of the passion that radiated from her in the bedroom, so eager both to give and receive pleasure…

Maybe I’d answered the question he’d actually spoken as well.

“It’s hard not to care about her, even when it’s not the wisest idea,” I finished.

Snap was silent for a moment. “What’s unwise about it? Everything you’ve said makes her sound like a worthy mate, if you wanted one. Is it not accepted for shadowkind to have relations with mortals? I thought I’d heard of others forming bonds, from talk in the shadow realm—maybe I misunderstood.”

“It’s not that,” I said automatically. “ I’m just not made for that sort of connection. My nature is to focus on bodily gratification.”

“Well, I don’t know anything about that, but you seem to be affected by her words and feelings as well.”

“That doesn’t matter. What matters is she wouldn’t want a being like me.”

I had the sense of Snap blinking at me in confusion. “Why would you say that? I haven’t noticed her treating you differently. Did she say that to you?”

“Well, no, I just?—”

I cut myself off, feeling vaguely ridiculous that I wasn’t managing to hold my own in a debate with Snap of all beings. I could even play out his counterarguments in my head. There was another woman , I’d say, and he’d reply, What does that have to do with Sorsha? Do they share the same mind? And I would point out?—

I didn’t even know what else I’d point out. The truth was that Sorsha hadn’t ever treated me as anything less or different because of my inclinations. Last night… She’d offered up an experience that was all about pleasuring me without a second’s hesitation. She’d seemed to revel in the bliss she’d provoked.

Remembering sent a flare of heat through me that wasn’t entirely lust.

How could I say she was yet another mortal woman who’d see me as little more than an extremely extravagant vibrator when she’d already proven she cared about me so much more than that? It wasn’t ridiculous that I couldn’t convince Snap to believe me. It was ridiculous that I’d convinced myself to suppress all the tenderness that had been growing in me with every passing hour I spent in her presence.

Was I really such a coward that I’d push away the one woman who’d enjoyed my company at least as much outside the bedroom as in it—all because of some harlot more than a century ago who couldn’t have held a candle to Sorsha anyway? Why was I so intent on throwing away the exact thing I’d wanted so badly all those years ago now that I had it for real?

What a relief it would be to stop reining those unexpected feelings in and… and simply love her.

A sense of release was already spreading through me, loosening more tension than I’d realized had tangled up inside me. Yes. Screw anyone who thought they could decide what an incubus was capable of or deserved. If she wasn’t going to be governed by the rules of what made mortals mortal and shadowkind of the shadows, then I could sure as hell take a slight deviation from the typical cubi path. It’d simply be in the name of a different sort of satisfaction.

“You know,” I said, with a broader smile, “you might actually have a point.”

Now if only we could get the devourer to remember how deeply he’d fallen for this woman too.