coffee table. I stood next to the fireplace, learning against the wall, arms crossed, a scowl on my face. Normally I enjoyed standing close to the coldfire since I liked to gaze into its flickering flames and I knew they couldn't do any damage to me. But that night I stood there mostly out of habit. I wasn't enjoying myself in the least.
Despite Devona's invitation to collect their pay the three members of the Midnight Watch didn't step forward. Instead they exchanged uneasy glances and remained standing where they were.
Devona frowned. 'What's wrong?'
Bogdan spoke for the trio. 'Scorch, Tavi and I are reluctant to take a full share of tonight's profits. We don't feel as if we earned it.'
'We were hired to protect Scream Queen,' Devona said, 'and we stopped Overkill from stealing her voice. She was pleased with the service we provided and she paid us. All of us.' She looked at Bogdan. 'And you were able to cast a spell that returned her voice to her.'
Bogdan shrugged. 'It was a simple matter. An Arcane child could've done it.'
My scowl deepened. You're a modest son of a bitch, aren't you? I thought.
'And all of you-' Devona took in Scorch and Tavi with her gaze now – 'participated in the fight against Overkill.'
'For all the good we did,' Scorch said in a pouty voice, sounding like the preteen she appeared to be. 'The three of us got our butts kicked.'
'We were up against Overkill,' Tavi pointed out. 'We're lucky to still be alive.' He turned to glance at me. 'Uh, sorry, Matt. I didn't mean-'
'Don't worry about it,' I said. 'Living or dead, I'm still ambulatory and that's all that matters.'
'Look, everyone,' Devona said in what I'd come to think of as her boss voice. 'We all shared the risk, so we all share in the profit.'
Bogdan, Scorch and Tavi all glanced at me then as if to see whether I had anything to say about the issue. While none of them seemed to have bought into any of that 'savior of the city' crap that folks like Acantha wanted to saddle me with they did seek my opinion every now and again – though I felt Bogdan did so more to keep up appearances with his fellow employees than because he really cared what I thought about anything.
When I didn't answer right away Devona said, 'Well, Matt? What do you think?'
When you're part of a couple there are times when you know your significant other is asking you a question to which there is only One Right Answer. I recognized this as one of those times. Unfortunately I had no idea what the correct response was. So I did what I usually do in situations like that. I gambled.
I shrugged and tried to sound as casual as I could as I replied: 'It's your business, so it's your call.'
I knew my gamble had been a spectacular failure when Devona gave me a scowl that said We'll talk about this later. Then she returned her attention to her employees.
'So it's settled then.'
The three exchanged glances one last time before finally stepping forward and collecting their share of the night's earnings.
'So…' Bogdan said. 'When are we going to discuss what happened tonight? I have some ideas on ways we might improve our performance next time.'
I'll just bet you do, I thought. And from the way the warlock looked at Devona as he spoke I had the feeling that when he said we he wasn't talking about all five of us sitting down for a chat.
Scorch groaned. 'Really, Bogdan, why do you always have to be such a worker bee? It's getting late and I have a pile of newly acquired darkgems burning a hole in my pocket. I say we head on back to Sinsation and see what other kinds of trouble we can get into tonight.'
Bogdan frowned at the demon, but Devona cut him off before he could reply. 'Was there anything we could've done differently to deal with Overkill? Of course. There's always room for improvement, but that's not important right now. What matters is we got the job done and that's enough for one night. Let's save the post mortem for another time, shall we?'
She gave Bogdan a smile to take the sting out of her words and the warlock responded with a courtly half bow that, if I still had a gag reflex, would've made me want to vomit on the spot.
'Of course, Devona,' he said. 'It's probably a good idea that you don't work anymore tonight anyway. After the injury you sustained you could use some rest. Magical healing can only do so much you know.' The warlock then gave her a wink and Devona actually blushed a little. Considering how pale she is even a mild blush looked like fiery explosions beneath her skin.
I ground my teeth so hard I thought I might have to visit a zombie dentist.
Bogdan begged off accompanying Scorch back to Sinsation. Tavi tried to escape as well, but Scorch wasn't about to be denied twice. She hooked her arm in his and, since she was far stronger than the shapeshifter even while wearing the guise of a preteen girl, he had no choice but to allow her to drag him off in search of further excitement. Given the sort of activities a demon considers fun I hoped the lyke survived the night.
That left Bogdan, Devona and me – and you know what they say about three being a crowd? Well, evidently Bogdan had never heard of the phrase for he sat down on the couch next to Devona, laying his arm across the back, almost but not quite putting it around her. At that point I was a very unhappy dead man.
'You were really the star tonight,' Bogdan said to Devona. 'It was the security spell you placed on the club's entrance that prevented Overkill from simply waltzing out of there with Scream Queen's voice. It was extremely sophisticated spellcraft, worthy of one of my own people. Very few non-Arcane can work magic of that level. It was most impressive.'
The warlock scooted an inch closer to Devona. If she noticed, she didn't react. Maybe, I told myself, she didn't react because she liked the idea of Bogdan – a living man – getting closer to her.
Don't be an idiot, I told myself. You know how Devona feels about you.
Still, there are a lot of disadvantages to being dead and one of them is that I'm not exactly fully functional in certain key areas, if you get my drift. And despite the fact that I disliked Bogdan quite a bit at that moment – actually, loathed might be a more accurate description of my feelings toward him – I had to admit that he was handsome enough, in a sleazy kind of way. And as sheltered as Devona had been for most of her life she hadn't had a lot of experience with men and might not realize just what a superficial, shallow and manipulative jerk he was. Yeah, loathed is definitely the right word.
'Thank you, Bogdan,' she said. 'That means a lot, coming from a warlock as accomplished as you are.'
I'd had enough. Beneath my breath, I whispered, 'Sic 'em, Rover.'
At first nothing happened, but then Bogdan's red hair began to stir as if tousled by a sourceless breeze. A second later a miniature windstorm erupted in the great room centered, strangely enough, on the couch where Devona and Bogdan sat. They squeezed their eyes shut against the wind and Devona shouted something, but her voice was muffled by the storm's howling. Devona and Bogdan tried to stand, no doubt intending to get away from the couch and the winds that buffeted them, but the small-scale gale was too powerful, and every time they managed to rise off the couch so much as an inch, a fresh gust of air would shove them back down.
I let this go on for a minute or so before whispering, 'That's enough, Rover. Heel.'
The mini windstorm gave a final howl that sounded almost disappointed before finally dissipating. Both Devona and Bogdan's hair was mussed – revealing the beginnings of a bald spot atop the warlock's head I noted with petty satisfaction – and though Devona's leather outfit had weathered the storm just fine, Bogdan's clothes were now rumpled and in dire need of a good pressing.
'I'm so sorry about that, Bogdan!' Devona said. 'I've been working on housebreaking Rover, but as you can see, he still acts up from time to time.' She shot me a look then and in an icy tone added, 'Doesn't he, Matt?'
'He does have his high-spirited moments,' I said, doing my best to keep my tone neutral.
When Devona first purchased the Midnight Watch building we'd discovered that the original owner – a powerful warlock named Leander Crosswise who specialized in security magic – had created a guardian creature for his establishment by granting a level of sentience to a wardspell. Unfortunately for Crosswise when he decided to retire and sell the business the guardian had decided that the warlock had become a threat to the place it was supposed to protect and it killed its creator. The building gained a reputation for being haunted after that, especially since the guardian attacked anyone who considered purchasing the place, and the Midnight Watch building remained empty for decades. The creature had attacked Devona and I when we inspected the property and we'd barely managed to figure out what was happening before the creature destroyed us. We made friends with it, after a fashion, and in a strange way it had become something of a pet to us, hence the name Rover. I'd never been
