Dusk Avenger (Flirting with Monsters #3) - Eva Chase Page 0,27

enough. Is there really something wrong with taking part of that craziness in an enjoyable direction now and then?”

“I suppose not. What was last night about, then?”

“I don’t know. Sometimes you’re appealing in a very annoying way. Sorry if that bothers you. I kissed you because I wanted to, plain and simple. If you’re looking for a huge conspiracy, you’re not going to find it there. But if it was so distasteful to you, I’m sure I can restrain myself in the future. As you’ve pointed out, I have plenty of other supernatural beings to kiss if the urge strikes.”

Omen’s mouth twitched. There I went, staring at those damn lips again. When I met his eyes instead, a hint of their orange glow had come back.

“I didn’t say it was distasteful,” he said, in a carefully restrained voice that spoke of so many emotions he might be tamping down. “But if you’re concerned about how many blazes you set off, perhaps you should pick your dance partners more carefully. Let’s have it end where we left it last night.”

“Fine,” I said. I definitely wasn’t disappointed about that. All right, all right, maybe a teensy weensy bit. “I just thought we should clear the air. Look! Clear as crystal. Now back to our regularly scheduled programming.”

That twitch of his mouth was in the direction of a smile. And maybe it would have gotten all the way there if Ruse hadn’t hurried over to us from the RV right then. The fire in Omen’s eyes went out as swiftly as a doused campfire.

“No luck with Snap?” he said, taking in the incubus’s expression.

“Not exactly.” Ruse ran a hand through his already rumpled hair. “I didn’t want to say this in front of him in case it made things worse.”

My pulse hiccupped. Was there more wrong with Snap beyond just his memory?

Ruse looked at me and then back at Omen. “I took as good a read as I could on his inner state. It’s not easy picking up emotions and the rest from shadowkind—most of us keep our minds too guarded. But you know our devourer is pretty much an open book. I think… I think he’s in there. All of him. The Company jackasses didn’t burn those memories out of them. He’s just buried them so deep even he can’t dredge them up again, for whatever reason.”

“Why would he do that?” I asked.

“I don’t know. Maybe he was trying to pull his consciousness away from the torment and he overshot by a couple of miles?” Ruse let out a short laugh that had no real humor in it. “In essence, you could say he devoured himself.”

8

Thorn

If Talon’s fidgety comrade didn’t stop sneering at Sorsha, I was going to have to apply my fist to his skull and enjoy the billow of his essence escaping. Our lady wouldn’t like it, but I was starting to feel it’d be worth weathering her disappointment.

The syndicate boss himself wasn’t cultivating my good favor either. He’d grimaced and sighed through Omen’s explanation of our need, and now he was working his jaw in thought with his basilisk eyes still hidden behind those dark-paned glasses.

You couldn’t trust a being who wouldn’t look you in the eyes—even if it was a look that could kill. He’d have been thinking rather highly of himself if he believed he could fell any of us shadowkind in attendance.

But of course one of our number was not shadowkind and thus not of the same bodily durability. And Jinx—who, based on his frenetic movements and the quivers of energy that rippled off him with a faint lemony tang, I’d become increasingly sure was a poltergeist—absolutely delighted in reminding us of that.

“Not sure what you need allies like us for when you’ve got this one already,” he mocked, waving his hand toward Sorsha. “Interesting strategy, bringing a human along to fight enemies who can topple even higher shadowkind. Makes me wonder what other screws you’ve got loose up there.”

Now he’d managed to insult both my commander and my lady in one go. We could discover how amusing he’d find the situation when he was leaking smoke all over his clubhouse.

I took a step forward, my hand clenching, and Sorsha caught my arm. She gave me a little smile with a sharpness I suspected was intended for the other shadowkind. “Leave him be. He doesn’t know how much he doesn’t know.”

Jinx squirmed at the affront to his intelligence and shut his mouth, which satisfied me enough