Dark Champion (Flirting with Monsters #4) - Eva Chase Page 0,33
dirt from our new hacker associate?” she asked, hopping up to sit on the table with her legs dangling.
She’d had a more buoyant energy to her since she’d come back from the search of Paris’s tunnels with her latest brilliant idea. I liked seeing her lit up like this, but at times it seemed almost frenetic, as if she were racing along to stay a step or two ahead of some deeper anxiety.
I also hadn’t been able to help noticing that when she’d returned all energized, the smoky smell clinging to her skin hadn’t been just her natural fiery scent but a tang of brimstone that belonged to the hellhound shifter as well. How much was she buoyed by her new brainstorm, and how much by whatever the two of them had gotten up to after they must have made their peace?
It was bad enough being an incubus in love without getting jealous about my lover’s other partners. Darkness forbid she ever asked for a count of how many women I’d gotten it on with over the centuries. But somehow knowing she’d been hooking up with Omen—and was clearly happy about how that had gone down—rubbed up against other anxieties of my own that had been gnawing at me.
“He hasn’t come up with much in the past few hours, but being mortal, he does need to sleep occasionally,” I said. “Now that we’ve determined there’s significantly more Company activity happening in Rome than anywhere else on this side of the ocean, he’ll be checking for more distinctive patterns there. We’ll narrow in on family and friends soon enough.”
Sorsha sighed, the swing of her legs slowing. “Of course, it’ll only work if the Company employees have been allowed at least a little contact with the people they care about outside. Their boss—the mortal one or Tempest—might have them under a total communications lockdown too.”
I gave her thigh a light squeeze. “Then you’ll come up with some other brilliant plan. You’ve been pulling out the inspiration as fast as your flames.”
The Everymobile chose that moment to hiccup, a little lurch vibrating through the entire frame. Sorsha had to grip the edge of the table to keep her balance. Then, like actual hiccups, the RV hitched again. Up at the front, Omen let out a growl of frustration.
“I’m starting to think taking ‘Darlene’ through a rift wasn’t such a great idea,” I said, just loud enough to make sure he’d hear me.
Sorsha laughed, broken by another tiny lurch. “She isn’t quite the same as she used to be, that’s for sure. How do you figure we cure vehicular hiccups? Give her a glass of water? Jump out in front of her to scare her out of it?”
“Well, we did just fill her up with her liquid of choice, so I’m guessing that won’t do it.” I chuckled along with her for a moment until the fact that I honestly had no idea what to do about our transportation issues or much of anything else clouded over my good humor.
I tried to keep my smirk from faltering, but Sorsha quieted too, her gaze lingering on my face. She slipped off the table, caught my hand, and tugged me toward her bedroom. “Come here a moment.”
Ready for more action, was she? My own desires woke up as I followed her down the hall. But even the familiar sensation of lust—and the less-so sensation of a sweeter affection—didn’t offer much of a balm to my restless thoughts.
In bits and pieces, the others had laid out their encounter with Tempest for me. All the sphinx’s haughty remarks and dismissals of their concerns—and her accusation that they’d forgotten their monstrous natures. She hadn’t levied that charge at me, but merely because I hadn’t been there, I had to assume. The moment Snap had mentioned it with a pained twist of his mouth, I’d felt it like a jab to the gut.
Had I really fallen for Sorsha in defiance of my promiscuous inclinations? Or… had some subtler aspect of my powers simply recognized what a blessing it’d be to have an easy source of nourishment at my side for all time?
She’d been the first mortal—or semi-mortal, at least—to accept me for all I was. I could sate my hunger for pleasure night after night without needing the slightest supernatural seduction. In many ways, it was incredibly convenient that I’d found myself longing for a relationship of more commitment with her.