follow. I stayed downwind so he didn’t catch my scent, and I flew so my feet didn’t make any of the crunching noises his did as he walked on the winter-dry foliage. After several minutes, Ian ducked into a cavelike structure. Must be the entrance to the mine.
I paused at my perch behind the roof of a former gas station. I needed camouflage before I proceeded. Good thing I knew exactly how to hide myself. I just needed a little help.
I cut my finger, using my blood to draw several symbols on the roof. Then, I filled them with the barest amount of power. I didn’t want my magic sensed by the town’s demons.
“I summon the spirit of Leah, daughter of Siobhan,” I whispered at the symbols. “Leah, hear my call.”
Moments later, the outline of a severely cut black-and-white dress appeared, then Leah herself bloomed into focus.
“I cannot fathom why he believed you’d stay in the car,” were her first words. “Does he remember nothing about you?”
I stifled a laugh. “Ian’s memory might be erratic, but his stubbornness is the same, which is why I need another favor.”
She smiled with anticipation. “Concealment?”
“Please.”
Leah held out her arms. I went into her embrace, feeling the chill of power instead of the corporeal form of a woman. But Leah’s power was greater than flesh and bone. It was also ironic. Leah hadn’t become a witch until after she’d been executed as one back when the American colonies were new.
Leah’s power continued to cover me until I felt like I’d been plunged into icy water. Then I watched as my body turned filmy like hers before it vanished altogether. Once it did, Leah’s form vanished, too. Thus drenched in her power, she was able to pick me up and whisk both of us into the mine.
At first, it looked the way I expected an abandoned mine to look, with crumbling support columns and pieces of equipment half buried in the stony ground. But the coal track running into the darkness was in pristine shape. Leah followed it, and minutes later, lights cast a golden glow in the distance and I heard laughter and music, of all things. At a sharp bend after a right-hand turn, the façade of a derelict mine vanished.
What I saw could have doubled as a jazz club. Cigar smoke hung in the air while a skilled quartet on a nearby stage played soulful music. Couches, chairs, and tables were spread out from a stone-carved bar in the main room, with two smaller wood-and-steel bars visible beyond the dance floor of a separate room. Floating orbs cast a cozy glow while allowing its darker corners to host danger or romance, depending on the occupant’s mood. With its privacy, lack of humans, and stellar music, I might have become a regular if it wasn’t also filled with demons.
At least a dozen of them were draped over the couches in the main room. Others shuffled together on the dance floor, and another baker’s dozen sat on stools in front of the three bars. “A few” demons in town, my ass!
And Ian was sprawled on one of the couches as if he were just another demon enjoying the music instead of a vampire surrounded by enemies who could turn on him at any moment.
Chapter 15
A red-haired demon with a bad spray-tan, leather pants, and a leather bra went up to Ian. I tensed, but all she said was, “What’s your pleasure, gorgeous?”
A waitress. No surprise that nothing was free among demons, even in a secret underground jazz club. Then the smile Ian gave the waitress made me glad I was still invisible. Otherwise, he’d see the holes I was glaring into him for the way he looked at the cleavage the curvy demon made sure was at eye-level for him.
“Depends on my mood,” he responded in a luxuriant tone. “Some nights, I’m smooth brandy. Other nights, I’m single-malt bourbon. On occasion, I’m even fine wine, but tonight, I’m hard whisky, straight up.”
Her gaze swept over him, taking in the muscled planes of his chest, as he’d unhooked a few buttons in his shirt since I’d last seen him. She even reached out to trace his chest as if seeing whether he felt as luscious as he looked. I knew he did, and from the seductive way she bit her lip, she thought so, too.
Slap her hand and tell her to fuck off! I seethed. Ian did neither. He only smiled wider.
I was going to