Ever After

dirt before today.

“I startled you,” he said, hands clasped innocently behind him, but I wasn’t fooled.

“Ivy isn’t here,” I said cautiously, thinking that word she was back got around fast. “I can give her a message.” And then you need to get your ass outta my kitchen, dirt nap. Talking to undead clients in the unsanctified back rooms was standard practice, but they usually knocked first. Damn, this one was old if he could get past Jenks and me without my even hearing him.

“A message will do,” the man said, and I moved to put space between us. I knew it made me look scared, but I wanted to be able to react if I needed to. Slowly his voice filtered through my memory. I recognized it from somewhere, or rather, I recognized how his voice pulled at me, the cadence both mesmerizing and soothing, unnervingly so. Suddenly I was a lot more concerned.

Breathing in my alarm, he moved, the silk of his suit rustling against itself as he tucked a foot behind the other, just the tip touching the floor. His eyes flashed black, and I froze. “I want Nina returned to me,” he said, and that fast, swirling madness entered his eyes.

Shit. “Felix,” I whispered, and he inclined his head, never taking his eyes off mine. This was Felix. He was out of his hole. I was looking at him, not a willing mouthpiece. Ivy had called him out by encouraging Nina to rebel, and he had come. Looking for her.

My fingers slipped from the stainless-steel counter. Felix moved. I got a gasp of air in, and he was on me, pushing me back until I found the wall beside the archway. His arm was under my throat, his breath was on my skin. Delicious tingles sparked through me, and I shoved them aside, refusing to let him take me this way.

“Where is Nina . . .” he began, and I pushed him off me.

He stumbled back, clearly shocked that he hadn’t bespelled me. I was shocked, too. The guy looked like he was eighteen. I didn’t sense any magic keeping him this way. He had died young.

“I’m only going to tell you one more time, Felix,” I said, trying to pull myself out of a defensive crouch. “I don’t care what you want, you will keep your hands off me. Got it?”

Oblivious to my threats, he licked his red lips, gaze darting over the ceiling. “She was here. I can smell her.” Eyes closing, he breathed deep, exhaling to fill the room with the sound of desire. “She has been willful. She needs . . . gentle correction.”

This time I had a bare instant of warning as his eyes met mine before he lunged. “Get off! ” I shouted, tapping the line out back as one hand gripped my shoulder and the other twined in my hair. He jerked my head back to lay my neck bare. Energy sizzled as it raced from my chi, running down my hands and burning as it flowed through ever-smaller pathways until it found my palms. I cried out as it burst from me, arcing to him with a tiny pop of sound.

Snarling, he flung me away as it struck him. My back hit the wall, and I stumbled, falling into Ivy’s chair. Tossing the hair from my eyes, I scrambled to my feet, heart pounding. He stood a good eight feet back, almost to the sink. The imprint of my hand showed clearly on his jaw and neck, and he touched it gingerly.

“You said what you wanted. Get out,” I threatened, moving farther into the room so he could leave without getting any closer to me. Where in hell was Jenks? And what was it with the gargoyles letting this guy through? Apparently undead vampires weren’t on their watch list.

But Felix only tugged the sleeves of his suit coat down, clearly trying to calm himself. It wasn’t working. Ivy had been right. This guy was halfway off his rocker.

“Ivy put Nina up to this disobedience,” he said, voice smooth and persuasive, but I wasn’t buying it. “I need her. Directly. Tell me where she is, or I’ll take my needs from you.”

My eyes narrowed at the threat, but I was spared threatening him in turn when Jenks darted in, blade drawn. “Who the hairy-ass fairy are you?”

“You all need correction,” Felix said, and I swear he swallowed back his saliva. “Especially Ivy. I’ve heard about her, been warned she could satisfy me. Bring me to my knees.”

“I can bring you to your knees right now,” I whispered.

“Felix?” the pixy shrilled. “What’s the point of having gargoyles in the backyard if they let this crap through? Troll turds, I’m sorry, Rache.”

My eyes never left Felix’s. He was fast. Faster than Jenks. Still, was I a demon or not? “No need to apologize. Felix was just leaving. Weren’t you?”

“No.” Felix had lost his smile, his youthful features tight in anger that I might be able to stand up to him. It was starting to smell really good in here, but I could ignore it. Mostly. “Give me Nina and I’ll leave you alone for a time. She has it coming.”

How many times had I heard that? How many times did the abuser blame the abused?

“Ivy is trying to help you and Nina both,” I said, keeping my eyes away from the floor and the circle etched into the linoleum. If I could get him two steps closer, he’d be in it. “You are dangerously dependent on her. Let her go. It’s going to kill both of you.”

“Kill me!” he shouted, and Jenks’s wings clattered. Still, Felix remained outside the circle, pacing like a predator afraid to take the bait. “Nina is what is giving me life! She is mine to do what I want with. Mine. Ivy is hiding her. If you won’t give me Nina, restitution is mine to claim. Where is she?”

Fingers crooked into claws, he jumped at me again.

This guy is out of his friggin’ mind! I thought as I stood where I was, eyes screwing up against the impact. Jenks darted up and away, the ringing of his sword echoing through me, mixing with the unreal sound of Felix’s anguish.

My eyes flew open as his bone-crushing grip knocked us back into the wall again. Again I poured the line through him.

His fingers tightened as he screamed his frustration, and then he was gone, whirling in anger eight feet away, his black eyes pits. Blood dripped from his face just under his eye, mirrored on Jenks’s sword.

“I will have someone!” Felix shouted, and my lips parted as he crouched, preparing to jump me again. Is he trying to get me to kill him? I thought, shocked when a low sound of hatred rumbled forth, growing as he slid closer, dancing to music that maddened him. “I will have someone . . .”

“Felix, we’re trying to help!” I cried, then traced an informal circle about myself. Seeing it, Felix lunged, arm reaching. Instinct pushed me back, and my heel broke my circle even as it formed. I gasped, then stared, shocked as a shadow from the back living room flew into the kitchen, jerking Felix from me and spinning him into the corner by the fridge.

“Ohem!” a voice boomed from the short, stocky man somehow standing between us. “Find yourself!”

“Holy crap, it’s Cormel!” Jenks shrilled, and I fell back against the wall, hand on my throat as I realized it was Rynn Cormel, probably here to talk to Ivy.

“That one needs punishing!” Felix pointed at me, pacing back and forth before him, totally out of his mind. “She is mine. Mine!”

Rynn Cormel’s jaw was tight as he raised a hand. His felt cap lay on the floor, and his coat smelled of cashmere and vampire. “Let go of the thought of her, sir,” he said calmly, and I pulled myself straight, grimacing. I’d filled the air with my fear—I’d known better. Jenks, hovering at the ceiling with a bloody, bared sword, was tense enough for both of us.

“The demon witch encouraged my scion to defy me . . .” Felix’s voice was softer now, more calculating, scaring me.

Rynn Cormel shook his head, his Brooklyn accent sounding odd as he firmly said, “This is mine, not yours. I punish her, not you.”

No one was going to punish me, but I was smart enough not to say anything. My heart pounded, and I was glad Cormel was here. Felix was out of his mind.

Felix’s angry pacing slowed, and Cormel’s outstretched hand shifted to one of welcome. “You are in need, sir,” he said respectfully. “Distraught, and drunk on the sun. Let go of this idea and turn to a new one before my ward kills you. She’s not for you. She’s not for me. She is for Ivy.”

“Ivy . . .” Felix snarled, and I held my breath as Felix thought that over. His youthful face was twisted into an ugly mask of anguish and fear, his eyes black and showing a lack of control I’d expect from the newly undead, not one older than Cincinnati’s tunnels.