“Don’t go outside the lines,” Tamberi said crossly.
“What are we? Five?” Cato asked, rolling his eyes.
“You paint like you’re five,” she said, dipping her brush into the small bowl of blood. She pressed the black bristles against the side of the bowl, allowing the excess to run down into the crimson pool.
“I get to lick both bowls when we’re done,” Cato said. A few drops fell from his brush onto his arm.
“Speaking of which, for f**k’s sake, don’t waste it,” Tamberi snapped. She bent her head and snaked her tongue over his arm, licking away the savory spots. He grinned and leaned forward, nipping her bare neck with his fangs. Tamberi’s black hair was buzzed to about an inch long, which should’ve made her look as repulsive as an army recruit, but Cato found her sexy as hell.
“There,” she said, dabbing in a last spot on the inverted pentagram. She smirked and caressed the head of one of the shackled virgins. She backed away to get the full effect. A small mat on the floor had been covered with purple velvet. The human sacrifices were arranged in a V formation with the pentagram forming the third side of a triangle into which they would welcome the demon Gadreel. Tamberi couldn’t wait to see him in the flesh. She’d done a ritual to commune with a demon and had been communicating with Gadreel through her dreams ever since. He was an incredibly powerful presence in her unconscious world, but she was sure that her dreams of him would pale in comparison to what he was like when alive.
Large tears rolled down the bound girl’s round cheeks.
“What?” Tamberi demanded. “You see where all that ‘saving yourself’ got you? You couldn’t have been a virgin sacrifice if you hadn’t been a virgin.”
Cato snorted with laughter. “Did the demon really specify virgin sacrifices? Or did you want to use virgins because they piss you off?”
Tamberi ran a hand over the bound boy’s hairless chest. “Gadreel likes them innocent.”
“Speaking of what he likes, you sure he won’t mind me being here for the raising ritual?”
“Why should he care? Two sacrifices means twice the power. And I want you here.” She stretched and cracked her neck. “All those muses getting ready for their Christmas party, they have no idea what they’re in for. This year I’m not raising some pathetic minor demon that Merrick could slay without breaking a sweat. This year, if the beautiful enforcer decides to crash the party, Gadreel will dine on his heart and pick his teeth afterward with Merrick’s finger bones.”
Cato sighed. He hadn’t known that Tamberi had been the one who’d raised the demon in 2007. Before the ventala syndicate had sent Merrick to deal with it, that monster had killed four people in the Varden, including Cato’s friend Davy Roma.
“And Gadreel’s smart,” she added. “He’s not going to cause trouble in the Varden, so Dad won’t even call Merrick. What happened in’07 is what I get for trying to avoid using a human sacrifice. Minor demons are like rabid dogs. Can’t control them once they’re raised.”
“Fuck, Beri, Davy used to be part of my Friday night game. You know Lou can’t play Texas Hold ’Em for shit.”
“Yeah, sorry. I cracked a few eggs making that omelet, but this time is going to rock. After Gadreel gets his ring of power, those prissy pricks from Etherlin Security are going to have a slaughter shoved down their throat.”
Kate’s startled laughter echoed off the walls. “Time traveler. That would be the story of a lifetime,” she said. Faced with his warm, magnetic presence and the smell of soap and male skin, her body registered its strong inclination to do more than photograph him for a story. “I guess your DeLorean is buried under a snow drift. Why don’t you sit and tell me why you think you’ve been traveling through time?”
He sat on a barstool at the counter, and she set soup and toast in front of him.
“I remember living in Rome. This,” he said, holding up his fist and pointing to the ring, “is Nero. Claudius adopted him and made him his heir. Claudius built things. Nero burned them down.” He chewed slowly. “This tastes extremely good, Kate. Do you have any figs?”
“Figs?” she said with a smile. “It’s the middle of winter in Colorado. Sorry, no figs.”
“I remember that I like them.” He swallowed several spoonfuls of soup. “In Rome, I had a family. I can’t remember many details, but something terrible happened to them. It was Nero’s fault, but not his fault alone. I don’t know why it’s important to me after all these years, but I need to remember those details. I want the name of the man who hurt my family.”
“I would, too.” Her pulse thrummed excitedly; evidence of time travel had never been documented. If this were real . . . No, it was just as likely—probably more likely—that he’d read books or seen movies that his mind was trying to incorporate as his own memories. But he did seem foreign, his clothes were old and crudely made, and he’d appeared from out of nowhere. Not to mention his antiquated ideas about gender roles. If he did really turn out to be from the past, she would have to make more allowances for him.
He finished his lunch and licked the excess butter from his thumb. “Thank you, Kate, for your hospitality.”
“Sure.” Figs, Kate thought, suddenly recalling the chocolate-covered figs she’d ordered from a chocolatier in Seattle. It had been a whim that she hadn’t understood at the time. Now it made her shiver. How exactly was she connected to this bronze Adonis?
She walked to the cupboard and took down the dark brown box and tugged away the gold ribbon. She set the confection on a dish and brought it to him.
He licked the dark chocolate coating and swallowed thoughtfully.
“There’s a fig inside,” she said.
He picked it up and popped the entire thing in his mouth. He chewed while she admired his square jaw. When he swallowed, he nodded. “I think I prefer them fresh, but that tasted good as well. Thank you.”
“Your clothes will be dry soon, but you really need a coat. My brother forgot a sweatshirt when he was here last, but I don’t have any other men’s clothing.”
“It’s no problem,” he said, then grimaced, bowing forward.