It was good Henry was already balanced on the desk, because his knees wobbled. His fingers pressed harder against the wood until the tips of each one turned white.
“They only confess to the bishops.” His voice hitched and the office tiles only amplified it. The truth of the situation bounced from every surface.
Derek didn’t make a move to comfort his brother, but offered careful words. “This isn’t on you.”
“He’s right, and thank you. Knowing what is coming could help us protect people from him.” Callie couldn’t say more without putting the priest in an even more precarious situation.
Nate had stolen religious relics from the Cortean Church. Someone had stolen souls from the Soul Charmer. It wasn’t a leap to guess the two were related. The hard part was what would come next.
Fixing this shouldn’t be her problem, but it was quickly becoming apparent that dealing with the Soul Charmer’s shit storms was her specialty.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
Callie left Beck and Miguel to cover the shop. She needed food and sleep, and maybe not even in that order. She and Derek picked up drive-thru tacos around the corner from the Soul Charmer’s, and had devoured them in the few minutes it took to get to Derek’s place.
They should have immediately crashed, but Callie plopped down onto his modern-but-surprisingly-comfy couch instead. “It feels good to sit.”
Derek only nodded.
She slid off her shoes. He sat at the center of the couch. She turned so her back was against the arm of the sofa, and pulled her feet up onto the couch. He didn’t even flinch when she wedged her toes under his leg.
“Today was a fucking day, doll.”
Callie had buzzed from one staggering situation to another, but she wasn’t the only person in the thick of it.
“Anything extra happen at the shop?” In the basement?
“Extra?” He slid a hand behind her calf and held her loosely. “Beck and I were able to get more out of Lexi.”
Regret reverberated in a hollow pipe within him. Callie folded her arms atop her knees. He had more to say, and she’d long learned that comfort can come too soon when you need to get the bad shit out.
“What did she give you?” Callie asked.
“She knew of three warehouses that could be key points. She’d picked up souls there, which could be nothing or everything.”
They needed this lead. Callie tugged her feet back toward her, readying to get up. Derek’s hand held steady on her leg. “Beck and I both sent people to look into it. We’ll hear back if any of the locations has actual viability,” he said.
She stilled for a breath, and then relaxed into his touch again. “That sounds almost like a plan. You know I love plans.”
He chuckled, and moved a smidge closer to her in the process. “That you do. She still wouldn’t use Nate’s name of course. Whatever demo he did for them, it was the kind of act that melted any steel in someone’s spine.”
Callie yawned, and didn’t bother covering the fatigue. She didn’t have to with him. “I’ll admit Nate can make a threat legit, but if he’s got the backing of the Ford family? I can imagine even his spindly ass could be imposing.”
“I hear threatening jacking someone’s soul and forcing eternal damnation is scary as fuck.” His tone was serious, but his grey eyes danced with light.
“You keep that up and I’ll throw you against a wall,” she made the joke, but it soured on her tongue. What she’d done to Savannah and Lexi shouldn’t be joked about.
Derek laughed loud and boisterous. “You going to put me up against a wall?”
Callie pressed her fingers against her lips. “Do you want me to?”
He turned, and knocked her knees wide as he did. Her whole body flushed. He tilted his head down to gaze at her, and when he lifted his eyes to meet hers there was nothing but hunger. “Seemed like you were good with me keeping you on that counter.”
The air between them was thick and heady, and Callie gasped it in. Low in her belly began to clench. His hands were searing as they slid along her jeans. He pushed her legs wider, and quickly filled the space. He let his full weight land on her. It was crushing and possessive, and she loved the reminder that he could be powerful when she needed it.
She speared her fingers into his hair, and pulled him closer. Their lips met in a feverish hunger. He sucked her lower lip into his mouth. Their kiss grew deeper, and Callie wrapped a leg around his back. She couldn’t hold him there, but she’d try. She grappled with the hem of his shirt, edging it up, but was unwilling to break the kiss to give him the freedom to toss it overhead. Her own shirt rode up, too, and electricity snapped between their bare skin. It was the promising prickle of expectations. Her body needed something good. Her soul needed it, too.
He gave her a small nudge, and pushed himself back to pull off the shirt. “Just a sec, doll.”
Callie wasn’t interested in waiting. Not tonight. If today had taught her anything it was how volatile the world could be. How quickly circumstances could change. She was going to feast on love and sex and Derek, and she wasn’t about to wait for an invitation for more. She placed her hands on his shoulders. His muscles hardened, and it only made her wetness increase. His chagrin put her over the edge. She pulled a pinch of her magic forward, and throttled Derek to the other side of the couch. The sofa shifted closer to the wall as his back hit the other arm. Callie hadn’t throw him, though. She’d thrown herself, too. She straddled his waist, and ran her nails down his bare chest.
“Oh,” Derek said.
“Oh,” she repeated and then leaned in to get more of the kiss she needed. His mouth was already
