The trouble was, she'd seen what she had seen: a woman with black holes for eyes and an aura that seemed to taint the very air that surrounded her; Vin collapsing and speaking words he didn't seem to hear; and now…a proud man, hanging his head in shame for something that was neither his fault nor his wish.
Marie-Terese kept stroking his shoulders, wishing there was more she could do to ease him. “I don't…” She let the sentence drift.
His reserved gray eyes flicked over to her. “Have any idea what to make of me, right?”
Well, yes…but she wasn't about to put that thought into words for fear it would come out wrong.
“It's okay,” he said, reaching out and giving her hand a squeeze before rising from the bed. “Believe me, I don't blame you in the slightest.”
“What can I do to help?” she asked as he walked around.
He looked at her from over by the window. “Get out of town. And maybe we shouldn't see each other. It may well be safer for you and that is the single most important thing to me right now. I'm not going to let her get you. No matter what I have to do. She is not going to get at you.”
Staring up into his face, she felt a stirring down deep as she realized he was her real-life fairy tale: Standing before her, he was willing to do battle for her, on whatever killing field the war took place…He was prepared to accept wounds and make sacrifices for her…He was the dragon slayer she had looked for when she was younger and had lost faith in ever finding as she'd aged.
And just as important, when it would have been easier for him to believe the lies that woman had said, when he could have listened to Devina spinning that total fallacy about her having been with Jim, he had chosen to think more of her, instead of less. He had had faith in her, and had trusted in her, in spite of her past and his.
Tears stung her eyes.
“Look, I should go downstairs and talk to them,” he said roughly. “You might want to leave.”
But she shook her head and rose to her feet, thinking that two could play at the knight-in-shining-armor game. “I'll stay, if you don't mind. And I don't think you're a freak. I think you're…” She tried to choose the right words. “You're just fine exactly the way you are. More than just fine—you're a wonderful man and a great lover and I just…like you.” She shook her head. “I wouldn't change anything about you and I'm not scared of you, either. The only thing I might wish were different…is that I met you years and years ago. But that's it.”
There was a long stretch of silence. “Thank you,” he said hoarsely.
She went to him, and as she wrapped her arms around him, she murmured, “You don't have to thank me. It's how I feel.”
“No, it's a gift,” he said into her hair. “You always should thank the person who gives you something irreplaceable, and to me…acceptance is the most priceless thing you could ever offer me.”
As she choked up against his chest, he spoke three little words: “I love you.”
Marie-Terese's eyes popped, but he pulled back and held up his hand to keep her from stammering. “That's the way I feel. That's where I am. And I don't expect any kind of response. I just wanted you to know.” He nodded to the door. “Let's go down and face the music.”
When she hesitated, he tugged her gently. “Come on.”
After he kissed her, she allowed herself to be led from the room. And considering the way her head was reeling, she was impressed that her sense of balance was good enough that she made it down the stairs and into the living room without falling over.
Even as they joined the others, she felt she should say something back to him, anything, but he honestly didn't seem to be waiting for reciprocation or even an acknowledgment.
Which made her feel honored in some strange way—probably because it meant that his gift to her was unconditional.
The men had obviously found the beer, as they all had bottles in their hands, and Jim introduced the two who'd come with him to her. For some reason, she trusted them all—which was very unusual given the way she usually felt around big, muscle-bound members of the opposite sex.
Before any of them could speak, she said loud and clear, “What the hell is she? And how worried do I need to be?”
The men all stared at her as if she'd grown two heads.
Eddie, if she heard the name correctly, was the first to recover. He leaned forward and put his elbows on his jeans-clad knees. After a moment of concentration, he just shrugged, like he'd tried to find a way to sugarcoat things and decided to give up on the lie.
“A demon. And very concerned barely covers it.”
Chapter 35
Vin was totally impressed by his woman. Having just been through a hideous and frightening welcome-to- the-unreal-world, and then having gotten hit with an I-love-you bomb, she was holding her ground, staring at Eddie with steady, intelligent eyes as she absorbed his answer. “A demon,” she repeated.
As Eddie and Adrian nodded in unison, Jim just took a seat on the couch, put his cold beer bottle on his swollen face and leaned back into torn-up cushions. The rippling sigh that came out of his mouth seemed to suggest that new bruise he was sporting looked bad, hurt worse.
God only knew how he'd—oh wait, Adrian's knuckles were split.
“What does that mean?” she said.
Eddie's voice was level and reasonable. “Your common conception of one is largely accurate in her case. She's an evil entity who overtakes the lives and then the souls of people. She's hardwired for destruction and she's after Vin. Anything or anyone who gets in the way is in immediate danger.”
“But why Vin?” She looked across the way. “Why you?”
Vin opened his mouth and nothing came out. “I…I really don't have a clue.”
Eddie paced around, going from the bookshelves to the ruined mirror. “You said you went to a psychic who gave you a ritual to perform. What did you do to call her to you?”
“But that's the thing,” Vin said. “I didn't call her at all. I was trying to get rid of the visions. That was it.”
“You did something.”
“It wasn't to volunteer for this shit, I assure you.”
Eddie nodded and glanced over his shoulder. “I believe you. The trouble is, I'm pretty damn sure that you were set up. I don't know what you were told exactly, but I'm willing to bet it was not about dumping those trances. The thing is, for Devina to go to work, you have to give her a way to get in.” Eddie refocused on Marie- Terese. “So in this case, I'm thinking what he was told to do opened him up wide and Devina took advantage of it.”
“So she's not tied to his visions?”
“Nope. She can eclipse them as long as her hold on him is strong—but he's probably getting them again because the tie is weakening a little. As for, why him? Think of it like…the metaphysical equivalent of a car accident. Vin was in the wrong place at the wrong time, thanks to some very bad advice.” Eddie met Vin's eyes again. “That psychic—how did you find you her? Did she have some kind of vendetta against you?”
So the visions were going to come back. Great.
“Ah, I didn't even know her.” Vin shrugged. “She was just some woman downtown who I went to randomly.”
Eddie seemed to shudder—as if Vin had just told the guy he'd had a plumber operate on his colon. “Yeah, okay…and what did she tell you do?”
Vin wandered around, hands on his hips. The night that he had gone upstairs and locked himself in his old room came back to him—and what he remembered doing was not exactly something he felt comfortable sharing in very mixed company.
Eddie seemed to get that. “All right, we'll come back to that. Where did you do it?”
“In my bedroom. At my family's house—Wait, wait, hold the fuck up here…am I responsible for all this?” Vin rubbed his chest, the crushing weight over his heart making it difficult to breathe. “If I hadn't gone to her, I
