Devil May Care (25 page)

“You’re right. I’m terrified. What if something happens to you because of me?”

“I know,” Matt grabbed my arms and hoisted me off the bed, “that nothing I’ve ever felt in my life compares to what it feels like when I’m with you. Nothing.”

He laced his fingers through my hair and pressed his lips against mine. An electric spark shot between us and my knees went weak while the world spun around us. I grabbed at his shoulders, melting into his kiss, my knees wobbly. If I had to give him up, at least I’d have this last moment to cherish.

He pulled away from me and paced over to the window, resting his hands on the windowsill while I stood there stunned, my fingers over my mouth and tears welling up in my eyes.

“I love you,” he said. “Can you even comprehend that? Or is that beyond you as a demon? I love you, Faith.”

“It’s not that I don’t love you, it’s—”

“Don’t,” he turned to stare at me, his eyes filled with anger and hurt. “Don’t give me some tired old ‘it’s not you it’s me’ bit. I love you. And I’m going to go on loving you for the rest of eternity. I don’t want anyone, or anything else in my life besides you. I don’t need anything besides you.”

“Matt.” I pulled my hands free and turned away from him. “Please respect my decision and go.”

“You want me to leave?” I could hear him rustling around behind me, pulling on his clothes. “Fine. I’ll leave.”

I kept my head down and tried to hold back my emotions.

He stood before me, and tilted my chin up so I could look him in the eyes. “You can declare that we’re over, Faith Anne Bettincourt, but you can’t keep me from loving you anyway.

“Because there’s still an ‘us.’ Even if you won’t accept it. No matter what, I’m still going to be right here and I’m going to keep standing here until you realize that we’re meant to be together.”

I didn’t bother to answer, just jerked my chin from his grasp and looked at the floor. He let out a huff and stalked away, slamming the door to my bedroom loudly behind him.

I sat at the edge of the bed and clasped my shaking fingers together. Sure he was angry now, but soon he’d realize that he was wrong and that we most definitely didn’t belong together. Then he could find a nice girl and settle down. A girl who wouldn’t cause him pain. Someone who deserved a guy like Matt in their life.

“I’d go torture him for making you this miserable,” Malachi said. I glanced up to see the dread demon hovering in the doorway. “But you’ve done this to yourself and managed to destroy him in the process. So, there’s nothing left for me to do, but stand here and wonder exactly what those sprites knocked loose in your noggin.”

“Shut up.” I stomped into my bathroom and turned on the sink so I could splash some cold water on my face.

“You’re making a mistake,” he said. “I’ve never been a fan of the white light brigade but—”

“Don’t.” I held my hand up.

“But—”

“I said don’t.” I walked to my bed, curled up where Matt had been a moment earlier, and ignored him.

“Fine, lay there and sulk. Pretend to sleep if it helps. But when you wake up, nothing’s going to have changed. You’ll still be an idiot who made the biggest mistake of her life. Plus you forced me to agree with a member of the other team. Something I’ll never forgive you for, by the way.”

“Shut up.”

“He’s right. You are run—”

“Shut. Up.” I flopped onto my side, pulling the blankets over my head, ignoring the angrily twitching dread demon, so I could wallow in my own misery instead.

Chapter Twenty-Seven

“Faith,” my mother said through my closed door. She pounded on my door and I didn’t bother answering. After four hours of me not answering I hoped she’d give up and go away for good. No, instead, she was coming back to knock every five minutes now. “Open this door or I will break it down. I’m not kidding this time. I will do it.”

“Fine. It wasn’t locked anyway.” I stalked over to the door and pulled it open. Mom wore a pink bathrobe and her hair was rolled into bright purple foam rollers. The green mud mask on her face was starting to crack and I could see that she’d gotten some of it matted in her eyebrows. What in the name of the Alpha and the Omega was she doing dressed like that?

“You mean I’ve been standing here beating on your door all this time and it’s been open?” She gaped at me, her mouth hanging open and her eyes wide.

“Yeah.” I turned to go back to bed. What was these people’s problem with letting a demoness be miserable? You’d think they could get the obvious signs that I wanted to wallow in self-pity alone.

“So why didn’t you open the door four hours ago?”

“I didn’t want to talk to you, obviously. If you didn’t hear the latest news, Matt and I broke up.”

“We all heard.” Mom followed me over to the bed and started to rub my back. “I’m sorry, sweetheart. I’m sure you can find another nice boy. Maybe one of your father’s legions?”

“Because that worked so well for Hope?”

“You could always get together with Malachi,” she suggested.

What was she playing at? “Mom, Mal has been my bodyguard since the day I was born. Besides, he’s three feet tall and wears a cloak.”

“Only because it made you laugh the first time he showed up that way,” she said.

What? Malachi was, well
Malachi
. A whole legion full of bad in one tiny, travel-sized package. Wasn’t he?

“Mom, Malachi has always appeared that way in the mortal realm unless he chose to shapeshift into another body. Normally a
female body
.”

“The girl body thing is just Mal’s way of dealing with his own issues.” Mom rolled her eyes. “But the reason he shows up in floaty form is because he doesn’t want to freak you out.”

“Why would he freak me out?”

“Look, when you were an infant, Malachi was an invisible presence. Karanthian lived with us as a nanny demon and the only time Mal physically manifested was if we called him. But when you were about two, Karanthian left and Malachi stepped in to be your bodyguard fulltime. The first day he showed up looking like a normal mortal man—tall, muscular, black hair, big chocolaty eyes. He was sexy in this sort of bad boy way, and when I say sexy I mean he could literally stop traffic at the mall during the Black Friday sales. I always said if your father wasn’t around—”

“Mom!” I grabbed her shoulders and gave her a quick shake. “Enough mooning over my bodyguard. Focus.”

“Right, sorry.” Mom shook her head like she was trying to clear out the memories of how hot Malachi used to be. “But I mean is it really any surprise that Matt’s mom would have tried to seduce him? Really, Bassano can’t compare.”

“Valerie tried to seduce Malachi?” My eyes widened. “Was that the whole thing going on between them at the Church Brewworks?”

“Well obviously that was all anger and unresolved sexual tension between them.” Mom rolled her eyes at me. “But anyway, Malachi showed up looking like a mortal man, but you were terrified of him and wouldn’t let him near you. Which made guarding you and Hope almost impossible. So he tried turning himself into a dog. A black French poodle, if you can believe it. You peed yourself when he got near you.”

“Great, thanks for that memory. My own bodyguard made me wet my pants.” I couldn’t believe this. Malachi was a man. I mean sure, he did the demonic equivalent of drag on occasion but he still identified himself as a male demon. But I’d never thought of Malachi as a
man
. Like a man
man
. “What I don’t understand is how he went from being a man to being what he is now.”

“There was this commercial on television. I don’t even know what it was for. Something stupid. I think it might have been a used car lot talking about how the only person who could slash things better than them was the Angel of Death. Then they had this little cartoon of a reaper slashing prices on their cars, and it made you howl with laughter. So he shifted into that form and you kept laughing. You even let him float down to sit beside you and that was that. He’s stayed that way ever since.” Mom shrugged and gave me one of those
what-can-you-do?
smiles she seemed to have perfected over the years.

I shook my head and rubbed my eyes, trying to find some way for this to make sense. “I still don’t think it’s a good idea for us to date. No offense to Mal but I think I might give up on the whole enterprise if you don’t mind. Maybe celibacy isn’t such a bad idea.”

“Well, your dad said I can’t push you on anything but I want to say I think you’re making a mistake. Life’s difficult Faith, you shouldn’t spend it alone.” She patted my back. “But I think I have something that will perk you up.”

I tried to muster some enthusiasm. Otherwise she’d come up with something truly horrible to torture me with. Like chick flick marathons. Or even worse, hours of watching Lifetime.

“Ooh! Has Dad decided to go destroy a city? Can we level Paris? I’d really like to level Paris right now.”

“Why Paris?” Mom lifted one of her eyebrows and gave me an appraising stare. “What is there in Paris that you want to destroy?”

“Nothing.” I tried not to think about my and Matt’s first date, which happened to be in Paris. I’d rather not think about what my stupidity since then had cost us all. “I just thought Paris would be a good city to destroy.”

“Your father isn’t leveling a city. But you need to get up anyway. You know how Lisa and I had agreed to just have a double wedding since my wedding got canceled?”

“You and Lisa were planning a double wedding tomorrow? Does that mean I don’t have to wear that fugly monstrosity that you bought us and I can just wear the nice black cocktail dress I had picked out for Lisa’s wedding?”

“Oh right, you were MIA when Lisa offered to let us share their wedding. That doesn’t matter. What matters is that your father doesn’t feel right about making me share my special day with someone else. I’m going to be the Devil’s consort. I should have my own day. Well, my own night, I guess you could say.”

“Mom, not that this isn’t terribly compelling,” I said before pulling the pillow over my head. “But could you cut to the punch line? I’d like to go back to my pity party so I can get it all out of the way and be able to fake enthusiasm for my best friend’s wedding tomorrow.”

“Well, you’re going to have to speed up that order of fake enthusiasm,” she said, bouncing on the edge of my bed.

I lifted the pillow off my face and gave her my best bitch stare. “Why?”

“Your father and I are getting married tonight.” She glanced at the clock and frowned. “In six hours.”

“You’re getting married at nine at night?” I asked, looking at the clock. “Why so late?”

“It was always supposed to be an evening wedding,” Mom said. “They’re very trendy. Besides, it will take your father’s kitchen staff that long to get the food prepared and set up on this short notice. But your uncle is here. All of you children are here. Everyone is safe. We’re having the wedding.”

“Are you sure it’s not so you can beat Lisa down the aisle?”

“Of course not.” Mom huffed. “Now, up. I need you to start getting dressed. We have a full day’s worth of pampering to do and not nearly long enough to get it done. Come on.”

“Fine.” I sighed. “I’ll get up. I’ll be happy that you and Dad are getting married. Does that mean I don’t have to wear the dress?”

“You’re wearing the dress.” Mom pointed at me. “Get over it. And don’t worry, I’ve already found someone else to escort you up the aisle since I didn’t think Matt would feel up to coming.”

“Who?” I asked, wary about what sort of crazy, and most likely inappropriate, date my mother had found for me.

“It’s a surprise. But your father wants to make sure you have ample protection so he’ll be your date to Lisa’s wedding tomorrow, too.”

“I’ll be fine with Malachi.” I fought the urge to give her a solid jolt of dark power. The last thing I needed was some demon I barely knew hovering over me. Or even worse, thinking that I was in the market for a new man in my life.

“I never said that you wouldn’t be fine with Malachi,” Mom said. “Now get in the living room so we can start making you look like the Princess of Hell your father claims you are.”

“I’d be more believable in the dress I picked out for Lisa’s wedding.” If my life had to fall apart around my ears, couldn’t I at least meet my fate looking somewhat fashionable? It just seemed pathetic to meet a lifetime of loneliness in a dress that hideous.

“Tough.” My mother stalked out of the room. “You have five minutes. Then I’m coming back in here.”

“I’ll be two minutes or less.”

She left, slamming the door behind her, and I grabbed my phone, looking at the picture of me and Matt on the front of it. I opened my settings and my finger hovered over the Delete key. It didn’t do me any good to keep it now. No matter what he said we weren’t going to be able to work things out between us.

The phone buzzed and I glanced at the screen. Rogers Hospital. But it wasn’t one of the lines from my contact list. That was weird. I answered it and hoped it wasn’t Harold, trying to keep me up to date with the latest who’s screwing who gossip. “Hello?”

“Faith?” Dan sounded nervous. “I just wanted to call and see how you were doing. You haven’t answered your phone in the past couple of days. I don’t want to be a pain in the ass but—”

“I’m fine,” I said. Why could this guy not get the hint? We weren’t meant to be together. I wasn’t meant to be
together
with anyone. “We found my brother and things are fine.”

“How are things with the boyfriend? I know the last time we talked you said it was complicated.”

“Not too complicated really,” I said. “Since he’s not my boyfriend anymore.”

“Oh.” I heard him swallow and clear his throat. “I’m sorry. I know you were hoping that you could work it out. Is there anything I can do?”

“No,” I said. “But is there anything else you needed?”

“I just wanted to check on you. And well…I guess there is this other thing.”

“What?”

“I’m done with the MEDTECH software update,” Dan explained. “My project at Rogers Hospital is done. I’m flying back to Chicago tomorrow morning.”

“Oh, well thanks for telling me.”

“I’m going to be back in a month, though,” he said, his words coming out in a rush. “A longer project, too. All of the University Hospital System. Twelve weeks.”

“That’s great. I mean it’s great that you’re on such a big project.”

“I was thinking,” he continued, “if you want, maybe we can get together for dinner. Maybe just drinks even, as friends of course. Because right now, you sound like that’s something you need.”

“I don’t think that’s a good idea. You’re a nice guy and all, but right now I just don’t think I’m in the place for that. I’m sorry. Congratulations on your new project, though. You deserve it.”

“Are you sure?” he asked.

“Yeah, I’m sure.”

“Well, if you need to talk to someone, you know you can call me. Don’t you?”

“I don’t think that’s such a good idea either. Good-bye, Dan.” I felt a sharp ache inside my chest. I’d never gotten to say that before. It should’ve felt like closure of some sort, but no matter how many memories you wipe or how many things you manipulate, the past is always there, waiting below the surface like piranha, just waiting to rip your hand off and leave you bleeding to death while it munched on your flesh.

Six hours later I’d been primped, pampered, polished, and then crammed into the world’s ugliest bridesmaid’s dress and a pair of stilettos that could double as torture devices for questioning terrorists. Standing in the back of the mock church that the Alpha had made appear out of thin air, I was pretty sure my night couldn’t get any worse. Then I remembered that Mom had set me up on a blind date for the next two days and realized that in this family it could always get worse.

“You know, you don’t look too bad in that dress,” Malachi announced from the top of a set of stairs that I thought might have led to the choir loft. I resisted the urge to laugh. Mom was right, if it weren’t for the fact it was Mal I’d have agreed with her that he was probably one of the five hottest guys I’d ever seen. Hell, even though it was Mal, he was still in the top three and that was just all kinds of wrong. But at least I didn’t have to worry about making small talk with a stranger tonight.

He tugged at the cuffs of his suit and gave me the once over with his caramel colored eyes. He lifted the side of his lush lips upward in a crooked smile and quit fidgeting. “But I forgot how difficult it is to get dressed in this body. Everything is so constricting.”

I could see how most men’s clothes would be. He was tall enough that he could rest his chin on the top of my head, and he had enough muscles without being one of those weird, gross looking
super-body-builder-I-eat-small-children-for-breakfast
types
,
but I didn’t need to ask who to put my money on in a bar fight, either. He’d neatly combed his black curls back and he was channeling the whole
Bad Boy Who Needs Love
thing like it was going out of style. I’d even noticed the shadow of a tattoo on his left bicep underneath his white dress shirt before he put on his jacket.