Huntress

would have had ample opportunity to find and take the codex and to conceal it before my client got around to noticing its absence.”

“If that’s true, then it’s likely any number of people would have also had access and opportunity in that same time frame. How does your ‘client’ intend to prove that my uncle was the one who actually stole it?”

“Um, I’m not sure he’s really worried about offering proof …”

“Well, he should be. Unless he’s prepared to produce a bill of sale or some other documentation of his claim of ownership, I doubt there’s a court in existence that would support a claim of theft and order the artifact be returned to him.”

She snorted. “Record keeping is not my client’s forte. Mr. Bullard, while I didn’t see a bill of sale, my research turned up no evidence proving your uncle’s ownership, either; so I have no reason to dispute S—, um, my client’s claim.”

“Well, I do. I know my uncle, and I know he was not a thief. I’ve seen the man give back a penny of change to a store clerk if it was a penny too much. His family has lived in this town since it was founded. Heck, his family founded it. Honor and honesty were everything to him. But he was supposed to have broken into your mysterious client’s house and made off with an item as valuable and unique as the Praedicti? I have no reason to doubt that my uncle came by his ownership of the text in a completely innocent and above-board manner.”

She narrowed her eyes at him. “Are you some kind of lawyer?”

“No, a curator. Why?”

“No reason.” Lilli shifted and sighed. “Look, this obviously isn’t getting us real far. I came here to get the book. I was hoping I could do that quickly and discreetly, but we both know that didn’t happen. Now, we could turn this into a legal battle and pit you against my client and let you two duke it out to see who can prove they really own the thing, but I doubt anyone would want to do that. My client wants the manuscript. I have a feeling he’s willing to do a lot to get it. Why don’t you tell me how much you want to sell it back to him? I’ll run the number by him and see what we can do.”

“I don’t think I feel comfortable with that. Not when I know so little about your client. You haven’t even told me his name. He could be completely the wrong sort of person to allow to take control of the Praedicti.”

“There’s a right sort of person?”

“Absolutely.” When she opened her mouth below a rather offended glare, he bowled right over her. “You’ve already admitted that I know more about the codex than you do. Given the context of this conversation, I’m going to take it to mean that you also fail to understand what exactly the Praedicti is capable of.”

“It’s a book. I pretty much figured it was capable of lying there and being read.”

“And that’s it?”

She scowled. “I already made sure that it wasn’t cursed or enchanted in any way. And it’s obviously not a spellbook. So what else could it do? Prophecies don’t cause future events, they just speculate on what they might be.”

“In general, yes, that would be the definition of predictions; but the predictions in this book aren’t general. They are highly specific and are divided into two groups: the first set predicts events like the spread of the plague across Europe, the Norman Conquest, even the execution of Joan of Arc.”

“Right. I don’t see how that’s the sort of thing that becomes dangerous in the wrong hands.”

He ignored her. “The second set predicts the course and outcome of a great apocalypse brought about by the unleashing of the fury of Hell upon the mundane world.”

“The Revelation of St. John does the same thing,” she pointed out impatiently.

“Yes, but St. John doesn’t preface his vision with a recipe for how to accomplish that unleashing.”

Lilli froze, felt herself go cold. “The Praedicti does?”

“Add a sprinkle of brimstone and bake at three-fifty until golden brown.”

She closed her eyes and groaned.

“Well, shit.”

FIVE

The coffee had gone cold while Aaron and Lilli tried to kill each other, but it didn’t take long to boil the kettle and fix another pot. Pouring a cup for each of them, Aaron set Lilli’s in front of her and then slid into his own chair across the kitchen table.

“Thanks.”

“I suggest starting at the beginning.”

“That would take way too long. There’s just too much.”

“Sum up.”

She took a drink, lingered over it, obviously stalling. “A few years ago, I was doing a job that involved tracking down a particularly bloodthirsty goblin.”

“I thought you said you were a bounty hunter.”

“I am. I specialize in non-human tracking, capture, and rendition.”

“Non-human?” Aaron repeated. “You mean visitants.”

She made a face. “I’ve always hated that term. Doesn’t it imply that they’re visiting from somewhere else? Because I can guarantee that most of what I go after is completely homegrown.”

“I think it has to do with their ability to visit to or from those planes that humans normally can’t.”

Her shoulders shifted in a shrug. “Anyway, yeah. I go after the nasties. Mostly I contract out with the police, the courts, bail bondsmen. When a non-human doesn’t show up for court or when the police lack the expertise to handle a supernatural creature, I step in and get them or return them to custody.”

Aaron nodded for her to continue.

“A few years ago, one of the things I was after—a goblin—thought he would be able to give me the slip if he beat a path into Hell.”

That made sense to Aaron. Hell was the nickname given to the parallel plane of existence inhabited and controlled by nine devil princes, immortal beings of great power and no discernible redeeming qualities. Devils lived to accumulate wealth and power, and one of the ways they did so involved the enslavement of unsuspecting humans and visitants alike. Aaron had never paid the plane a personal visit, and he intended to continue to stay very far away. If he’d been following someone who had ducked into Hell to evade him, he’d have waved goodbye and headed out for ice cream.

“Not a bad move.”

She shot him a very level glance. “I don’t give up on a case,” Lilli informed him steadily. “If I agree to bring something in, I bring it in. I don’t care where I have to go to make it happen.” She paused. “Well, okay, I care, but I don’t let it stop me. I went in after the goblin.”

Aaron shook his head. Already he could tell this story would not end happily.

“I decided to do it the smart way, though,” she told him. “Instead of just following the trail and stepping on a bunch of pointy tails, I found out which part of the pit he’d gone to and I decided to ask the prince of the area for his permission to wander around his land. And then I decided to go for broke and ask if he would be willing to ensure me safe passage until I found the goblin and left.”

“With brass balls like that, I’m surprised you don’t rattle when you walk.”

Lilli snorted. “It had less to do with balls than with a sincere desire not to have to fight my way into and out of the principality. So anyway, the prince agreed, provided I paid for the favor.”

“How?”

“I agreed to do him three favors in return,” Lilli explained her agreement with Samael, including all the restrictions she’d insisted on. “This—getting the book back for him—was supposed to be the last favor. I almost had it.”

He could hear the wistful tone in her voice and felt a stirring of sympathy. She might have broken into the house and attempted to steal part of his inheritance from his uncle, but frankly he couldn’t swear he wouldn’t have done the same if their positions were reversed. He figured he’d be willing to do whatever it took to get a devil off his back, too.

“I understand the bargain,” he said, “but how did you get into Hell to begin with? I always thought that humans had to either be summoned there or escorted by a demon or devil to get onto the plane in the first place.”

Lilli shrugged. Her gaze held steady on his, but he could see a flare of defiance in her unusually colored eyes. “Humans do, but I’m only half human. My father was a devil.”

He experienced the shock just as if he’d built up a bunch of static electricity and then grounded with a jolt. “You’re a demi?”

Her mouth tightened. “If you want to use the term. Personally, I’m not wild about it. Labels aren’t really my thing.”

Aaron could sense her discomfort with the subject, but he couldn’t stifle his curiosity. He’d never met a demi-human before. They were incredibly rare, mostly because few humans chose to associate with Hell-folk, let alone mate with them. Of course, according to the stories, choice often had very little to do with it. Often the children of human-devil matings owed more to rape than to romance. He longed to ask her about her parents, about her history, but his conscience managed to step in and rein him back.

“That must be where you got your eyes,” he said finally and a little weakly. “They were the first thing I noticed about you. Well, after I noticed you were in my house when you weren’t supposed to be, and you were armed like a Navy SEAL.”

“Yeah, the eyes are hellish. Some people get freaked out by them, but I’ve always considered myself lucky not to have inherited horns or something even worse. I knew a kid when I was growing up who had the complexion of a three-day-old corpse—kind of a greenish, purplish gray. He went to the tanning salon every damned day, but no matter what he did, he couldn’t change his skin tone. Made weird eyes seem like not much to worry about.”

Aaron shook his head. “I don’t think they’re weird. I think they’re beautiful.”

Lilli stilled and raised her eyes to his, her gaze searching his expression for the truth. “You do?”

He nodded. “I do.”

“Oh.”

She swallowed, and he watched the muscles in her throat work until the urge to lean forward and trace the movement with his tongue nearly overwhelmed him. He swayed forward, caught himself, jerked back. He cleared his throat.

“So, uh, like I was saying,” he coughed, struggling for calm, “I, uh, I think what we should do next—”

He never got to finish his sentence, ridiculous though it would have been. Not when Lilli rose slightly from her chair, leaned forward, and laid her soft, warm, expressive mouth over his and stole his breath in a kiss.

The world froze. Time may have stood still, the universe may have stopped expanding, he couldn’t be sure. All Aaron could be sure of was that sinking into Lilli’s kiss felt like coming home. He