Derek’s fingers dug into Callie’s shoulder. She nipped his lower lip.
“Doll. Callie. Wait,” he said between breathless kisses.
“Wait?” She paused, holding a breath deep in her lungs. Holding back the need to push.
His calloused thumb skated across her lower lip. “My gorgeous woman.” He sighed like everything could be okay, but this was Gem City. “I wish we could do this now. Fuck. You have no idea how much I wish we could do this right now.” His words were half groan, half plea.
She arched a little in a way that made him close his eyes and clench his jaw.His need grounded her. She was safe here, in this bed, with him.
The safety couldn’t last.
He wet his lips. “I’m so sorry, Callie. The Charmer called.”
That name was cold water to the face. Callie sank back against the sheets. “I thought we agreed not to mention his name in bed?”
Derek didn’t take the bait. All levity was gone. “He’s called an all-hands meeting.”
The hollow depths of his voice conveyed the gravity, but Callie didn’t understand the words. “Is that concerning?”
“It means something is fucked.”
“How fucked?”
“He didn’t demand every person show up armed when Tess was stealing from him.”
Oh. This was ‘burn the city to the ground’ bad.
She understood. She’d experienced the vitriol and the vehemence from the Soul Charmer when he realized Tess was taking souls that belonged to him. He’d demanded Callie and Derek exact results with fire. If that didn’t warrant sounding the alarms what did? “What could be....” she trailed off. Maybe she didn’t want to know.
Derek’s lips thinned. “I’m not going to guess, doll. It ain’t fucking good.”
Callie sat up. The headache drilling into the back of her head whined. “How long until we have to be there?”
“He said immediately.”
“But?”
“But nothing. We have to get over there. I don’t want him sending Beck for us.”
She didn’t either. Fuck. Beck. “I don’t have the Charmer’s souls,” she blurted like he didn’t already know.
“If he’s this worked up, he might not even ask about the flask. We could say it’s back here. Buy some time.”
Callie was shaking her head before Derek even finished. “He’s been squirrelly all week about his stash. He’s been convinced stuff is missing. Asking why things aren’t where they ‘should be.’ He’s going to ask about those souls, and I sure as shit can’t tell him I gave them to Nate.”
“No,” Derek agreed. “If he doesn’t bring up Nate, we shouldn’t either.”
“Look. You go in. I’ll figure something out for the souls.” Her brain was already spinning scenarios. Could she pick up from others to buy time? How many souls would be enough to keep him from asking questions? No, no, that wouldn’t work. She’d be perpetually in the same boat.
“We can’t split up.” Derek was resolute, and usually Callie loved that.
“I can’t have him take my screw up out on you.”
“This isn’t about you. He needs you. Besides, like I told your brother, these days where you go, I go.”
He had said that, hadn’t he? Well. WELL. Fuck. “I’m going to pull new souls from the soul well.”
“You’re what?”
“The soul well. It won’t throw off the number he has in his stock. It’ll help the church or some shit—I don’t entirely get that whole thing, but I think they’ll be cool with it.” The more she talked, the more she was convinced this wasn’t a horrible plan.
Souls needed to be extracted from the well beneath the cathedral. The Cortean Church needed the service of the Soul Charmer—or her. So they said. The priests wouldn’t be pissed if she popped in to pick up a couple souls, and the Soul Charmer didn’t need to know.
Derek was less convinced. “What about the souls he wants?”
“We’ll get them back eventually. If we can appease the Charmer today, we can focus on getting some payback on Nate and that includes taking back the Charmer’s souls.”
Derek’s frown was full body. Even his black tee shirt appeared to give her a disapproving stink eye. Finally, though, he said, “I’ll take you to the cathedral, but we have to be fast. The Charmer said as soon as fucking possible and that’s never been more than an hour for me. If we take much longer he’s going to know something isn’t right.”
Callie pulled on a pair of jeans and had her hair swiped up into a ponytail in record time. Five minutes later, she and Derek were out the door and on their way to the Cortean Catholic Cathedral. Her stomach was surprisingly settled.
The sky was a brilliant blue. No clouds could hinder the sun, and so the town of Gem City was vivid with every outdoor surface shimmering in sunshine. The temperature hovered just below freezing, but at least it looked pretty. That was the only bright side Callie could muster as they drove to the same spot on El Paseo for the third time.
The dealers weren’t center stage on the corners at one thirty in the afternoon, but Callie couldn’t help but scan the crowd of milling tourists for Adam or Dougie or any of Nate’s other flunkies.
Derek moved to follow her into the church, but Callie stopped him. “Do you want to wait out here?”
He arched a brow.
“They aren’t going to let you in there without one of these.” She tugged down her sleeve to expose her nighthawk mark. The simple black lines made it an elegant tattoo to everyone else, but Derek wasn’t just anyone. He knew that was a magic brand. A mark that granted her passage to the soul well. An identifying icon he did not bear.
“I get that, but there are
