fine abode.”
“Oh.” The lackey’s face fell with obvious distress. “I don’t think I can help you there.”
After all this, we still hadn’t found someone with answers? I restrained a groan.
“Why not?” the incubus asked.
“Well, he just… never leaves. We come and go in shifts during the day, but in the year I’ve worked there, I’ve only seen him leave maybe three times. He had an essential appointment a few weeks back, so I doubt there’ll be anything else for months unless something special comes up. Anything he needs, he has delivered.”
“If I could even talk to him on the phone—”
The guy shook his head. “He’s on his phone a lot, that’s for sure, but I don’t have the number for it. If I was ever going to be late for or miss a shift, I’m supposed to tell the head of the team, and they just send someone else.”
My stomach sank. It wasn’t that this guy didn’t have answers—it was that the answers he had sucked donkey balls. If we couldn’t lure his boss out of his apartment with its shell of toxic metals to somewhere Ruse could get his ear, the incubus wouldn’t be able to charm the man we most needed to reach.
I stepped closer again. “Can’t you think of anything he’d be willing to leave for?”
“I’m sorry. I wish I could do more.”
I paused, feeling the weight of my companions’ attention on me. This had been my plan, and now I had to salvage it before all our efforts had to be chucked in the trash.
A glimmer of inspiration lit in my head. It might not work—but it was worth a shot. Story of my life.
With a thin smile, I propped myself against the dresser. “Actually, I think there is one more thing you could do to prove your loyalty to the cause. Listen carefully.”
26
Omen
There were times when the frequent sunlight of the mortal world became wearying, and I missed the constant dim of the shadow realm. The cycle of days and nights did have its benefits, though. For example, if I’d had more than this constant dimness during my long wait for the Highest to offer their attention, I might have some idea how long that wait had been.
It felt like an eternity or so at this point. Apparently the most ancient of shadowkind had decided to give the DMV a run for their money. Or maybe it only seemed like days on end because I didn’t have much to think about besides what trouble my crew might be getting into in my absence.
I hoped that they’d at least had the sense to keep moving and scope out the situation in San Francisco so we could jump right into action when I returned. And also that their scoping out hadn’t involved too much action on its own. Maybe it was too much to wish for both rather than one or the other, especially with our fiery not-quite-mortal in the mix.
My mind veered in that direction now and then of its own accord. To her scarlet hair and the defiance in her bright eyes… to the heated taste of her on my tongue and the feel of her matching my heat flame for flame…
I had no physical presence here, but the memory managed to stir a flare of lust all the same.
I hadn’t meant to give in to that temptation—but possibly it was all right. The world hadn’t ended because we’d fucked. I’d enjoyed it, and so had she, and she’d still been the same mouthy but frustratingly appealing nuisance afterward as she’d been before. It hadn’t been a vow or a nuptial. Releasing all that pent-up desire had eased the tensions inside me in a way I could actually appreciate.
It might not even be such a bad thing if we did it again. In moderation.
That was, if I could sort out whether I was more unsettled or gratified by the realization that no matter how much I’d insisted that I’d seen her, I now couldn’t shake the sense of how much she saw me. More of me than I’d have wanted anyone in all the realms to see. She’d struck straight through all my best intentions with the tenderness in her voice and those knowing eyes…
I should have been furious. I had been furious. But at the same time, the memory of her proclamation that I couldn’t scare her sent an odd twinge of longing through me.
Of course, none of that would matter if the Highest