My Darkest Passion (27 page)

“As I said. Low risk.”

She held the paper cup under her nose and breathed in. “I have coffee.”

“You didn’t ask him if he’s from Africa.”

“It seemed insensitive.”

“Why?” He peered into the bag.

“Because I shouldn’t assume that being black and speaking with an accent means you’re from Africa. For all I know he’s Canadian.”

“Addison.” He growled softly at the contents of the bag. “The question is a geopolitical one. His accent isn’t Canadian, for one thing.”

“How do you know?”

“Because I have been to Africa and heard similar accents. The African demons have resisted any dealing with us. If he’s African, then we have to wonder what he’s doing here and why. Are mages from here causing trouble in Africa? Or are the Africans coming here on their own?”

She took a long sip of the coffee. “Tell you what, if we meet up again, I’ll ask him.”

The plastic bag contained bottled water and a jumble of assorted protein bars. Harsh had already opened the fast food bag. He took out one of the burgers and frowned. “If he’s Canadian, there’s nothing to worry about.”

“Not all Canadians are nice, you know. That’s as bad as assuming Tau is African.”

“Pickles. Nikodemus has an agreement with the Canadians. I should know because I negotiated the terms.”

“Eat the damn food, please.” The center of her chest vibrated as the imperative of what she’d said combined with her conviction that this was something he should do. The thought that Harsh was obligated to comply horrified her. “I don’t mean that as an order.”

“And, yet, you do.” He removed the pickles and took a bite.

She stared out her window, unnerved by what had just happened. “This isn’t going to work.”

He didn’t say anything while he ate. “Yes. It will. It has.”

She bounced her palms off the steering wheel. This wasn’t right. At all. Mistakes like that could ruin everything between them. “I have no idea if you’re saying that because you have to.”

He took out another hamburger and removed the pickles. “My oath of fealty to you does not make me your slave. You will adjust to this. As will I. Until it is no longer necessary.”

“Fine.” The burgers smelled great. Really, really great, and she’d never been a fan of fast food.

He looked over at her, unconcerned. “I am not without power in this relationship. As you will discover.”

“Whatever.” She started the car again and got back on the freeway. The coffee, straight up shots of espresso—she didn’t care how Tau had known that’s what she wanted—didn’t last long. Neither did the pastries she found in the white bag. She drove north because what the hell else was she supposed to do? She’d made Harsh a promise. An oath. She was not going to let him down.

“Where are we going?”

“San Francisco. Unless you have a better idea.”

“No.” He removed pickles from a cheeseburger.

“Kynan would not have fucked things up as badly as I did back there. He wouldn’t have gotten you nearly killed. You wouldn’t have ended up like this.”

“Alive?” He brushed a hand through his black, black hair.

“Sworn to me.”

“Perhaps not.” He stretched out his legs, and she tried not to notice the effect on her. Harsh Marit was quite possibly the world’s most gorgeous facsimile of the human male. She was over the whole weird transference thing from those early days. She could look back and see why she’d felt that way. He was safe when nothing about her life then had been. That was then.

This was now, and now was completely and utterly different. She had no idea how to deal with now.

He was oblivious, thank goodness. “Kynan has been what he is for a very long time. It’s hardly fair to compare his experience to yours. Trust me, I’m not arguing with the outcome of what happened.” He shifted his legs. “I’m alive, and I’d far rather be sworn to you than to Kynan.”

“There’s a ringing endorsement.”

“Don’t be difficult.” He handed her a cheeseburger.

“I hate pickles, too. Also, onion.”

“Sweetness and light.” He handed her a pickle-and-onion-free burger.

“Eff you.” She kept driving, but she ate the burger, and it was fantastic. Hot and cheesy and salty bad for you. She ate one more, and then they shared the fries. She kept driving. About two hours later, she no longer reacted to him as if he were magekind. She looked to her right. Harsh was leaning against the seat, eyes closed. Not asleep; more like conserving his energy.

Outside Monterey, that ripple of awareness across the back of her neck came back. A while later, she checked the rearview mirror for about the bazillionth time. A white van was several car lengths behind them. Could be coincidence, but it wasn’t.

“Pull off here,” Harsh said.

“Why?”

“I don’t know what we’ll find in San Francisco. For that I would prefer to be fully recovered. Besides, it’s better to settle things with them now.” He meant the occupants of the white van. “In case there’s a misunderstanding somewhere.”

“You think there’s a problem? Why do you think that?” Her pulse went through the roof. “You didn’t think there was a problem before, why do you think there’s one now?”

“I didn’t say there was.”

“You are driving me nuts.” She released her death grip on the steering wheel long enough to put the blinker on.

“If you don’t want my advice, say so. It’s no problem.”

“I don’t want you doing anything because you feel obligated.”

“Addison.” He dug around in the bag for more fries. “My oath to you imposes at least some obligation on me. I’d prefer if you didn’t deny me that. I’m happy to advise you. If you’d like. Less happy if you’d rather I didn’t.”

“Yes. I want your advice. Please. Thank you.” She pulled off the freeway and drove until she found a dinky motel with a blinking green vacancy sign. An equally dinky motel was across the street. The ocean was closer than she would have thought for what looked like accommodations in her price range.

She parked in a shady spot and watched while the van drove into the parking lot of the other motel. Of course it was the same van, unless there were two vans full of demons. If she were to close her eyes, she’d know where they were, and which one of them was which. The beautiful, dark-skinned demon, Tau, as strong as Harsh in some ways. The one who felt smooth to her, and the two who were still disorganized around the edges.

Harsh leaned forward to look out the window. “I don’t do downscale.”

“That’s not advice, that’s an opinion.”

“It’s a fact.”

“We’re on a budget.” With every degree of improvement in his condition, he became more vivid to her. The walled-off place in him was back. Her guess was whatever the deal was with the mage-sourced magic, he had it locked away again. Interesting.

Across the street, the four former magehelds gathered in a knot by the van. They didn’t go into the motel, though. They crossed the street to where she was parked. “I don’t suppose they’re bringing me more coffee.”

“No.”

“Stay put.”

He snorted. “Not an order I intend to obey.”

“It wasn’t an order—quit yanking my chain, would you?”

He laughed to himself, but she knew he meant it for her. “So amusing.”

“I’m all about amusing. Just wait and see.” She leaned over and put her hand on his cheek, but instead of her gesture conveying her sarcasm, a tingle shot through her—whoa. Inappropriate—and their eyes connected and there was just no ignoring the tension. How long ago was it that she’d teased him about blow jobs? Forever, it felt like. She removed her hand too quickly. She didn’t know the status of their physical relationship, and now was not the time to find out. “Here they come.”

Tau and the other demons stopped a few feet away. She held enough magic to do some damage if she needed to. She got out and walked around the car so she could lean against Harsh’s door. As soon as she did, he lowered his window, and she twisted around to scowl at him. “Would you please stop it and sit still? You’ll bleed all over the car.”

“Too late.”

Tau bowed his head. “Warlord.”

“Tau.” She looked at the others. “Addison O’Henry.” She crossed her arms over her chest. “This guy is Harsh Marit.”

The other three gave their names, too. Tau pushed at her, magically speaking. Challenging. Testing, and it pissed her off enough that she pulled more magic through her and gave him a good long chance to decide that, yes, there was a lot more there. She wasn’t imagining that it was easier for her now. Significantly so. A definite buzz.

“Addison,” Harsh said softly. “Please.” Tau backed off, and she relaxed. Some. “Moeletsi Tau. One of the African demons? Or are you Canadian?”

“Africa.”

One of the other demons lifted a hand. “Canadian.”

Addison smiled. “It’s a nice place, I hear.”

“Long way from home for you, Tau,” Harsh said.

“It is.”

“We tried to meet with you. Nikodemus did, I mean.”

Tau’s mouth quirked slightly. Smile or smirk? Hard to tell. “Yes, I know.”

“Can we do the geopolitics later? I don’t know about you guys,” she said to Tau and the others, “but I’m headed north. I’m going to find out what’s going on up there and do what I can.” She tilted her head toward the car. “Harsh works for the warlord up there.”

“Nikodemus,” one of the other demons said.

“That’s right.” The others being so close kicked off her now-familiar desire to have their fealty. She could take on more sworn kin. She could. Because she was a goddamned warlord and none of them were. Not even Tau.

“Do you oppose him or support him?” Tau asked. “What he’s doing.”

She resisted the temptation to look at Harsh. Since he didn’t interrupt, she decided that meant he thought she was doing okay. She heard him flick the interior door handle and then felt the pressure of the door against her ass. In good conscience, she could not use magic on him, and having a chicken-fight over the damn car door was not dignified. With a sigh, she moved.

Harsh got out, moving gingerly, which was more than he could have done a couple of hours ago. His clothes were a mess. Torn and blood-soaked; a stark reminder that Infante and his buddies had nearly succeeded in killing him. “It’s a matter of time before the mages are after us. All of us.”

Tau shifted his weight to one leg and addressed Addison. “Will you swear fealty to Nikodemus?”

“I don’t know. Maybe. Maybe not.” She looked at each of the demons in turn to give Harsh a chance to object or deflect the conversation, but also to make sure none of them were dumb enough to think she couldn’t pound them into dust. “I don’t forget debts when they’re owed. Nikodemus needs our help, and I am going there to do what I can. If you want to come along, that’s fine. Great, even. You’ll get no argument from me. But you have to play nice. Stop this creepy following me.”

The former magehelds exchanged glances.

Tau said, “The mages intend to take their war to Nikodemus.”

She kicked her heel against the toe of her shoe. “That’s what we hear, too.”

“They already have,” Harsh said. “They did that the minute they attacked me.”

“Perhaps you should not go to Nikodemus.” Tau was a match for Harsh in the cool department.

“Can’t do that.” She gave them all another long look, all of them with their close shaven heads.

Harsh moved closer to her. “You realize, don’t you, what’s going on in San Diego? Elsewhere, too. There are fewer of us now so they’ve taken to running breeding programs. Our children, born into slavery. They’re enslaving as many of us as they can so they have an army to send against Nikodemus. So they can use kin to kill other kin. Like the old days.” He stared hard at each of the others in turn. “Some of you might even have survived that war.”

No one said anything for a while, and Addison was fine with letting that sink in. “When I get up there,” she said, “I’m going to kill as many mages as I can. It’s no problem if you come along. Or if you don’t. But if you don’t, you better get far, far away. Hide.” She tapped the center of her chest. “I’m afraid if you don’t get out now, you’ll end up mageheld again.”

In the following silence, Tau studied her. He took a step forward and knelt at her feet. “I offer you my oath, warlord.”

Her pulse kicked up. Beside her, Harsh stayed silent. He was quiet along their psychic link, too. She wanted Tau’s oath so bad she ached, and Harsh knew it. “If you think this is a bad idea, Harsh, now’s the time to say so.”

Nobody said anything.

Head bowed, Tau said words in a language she didn’t understand. With every syllable he uttered, she felt a tug in the center of her chest and a rising anticipation. He stood when he was done and this time he spoke in English. “I swear my life and loyalty to you, Addison O’Henry.”

No one said anything. Not one damn thing.

Addison extended her arm to the demon, and really, it didn’t even hurt when he bit her hard enough to break skin. He did the same to his arm and the loop between them closed the moment the demon’s blood hit her tongue. This time, she expected the rush.

He stepped back and bowed again, and there, curled in the back of her head, was a new awareness of him, apart from her recognition of him as kin. He was sworn to her, and she now had a responsibility to him. Just as he had a duty to her, too.

One by one, each of the other three former magehelds swore fealty to her, too.

Oh, hell yes. She was going to San Francisco, and she was going to kick some magekind ass.

29

“D
ude.” She dropped her purse on one of the chairs. “You need a shower.”

Tau and the others had come in after she and Harsh checked in, but they had rooms a few doors down the hall. Everybody was safe. With only the slightest concentration, she could pinpoint where Tau and the others were. If she didn’t, everything settled to background noise.

“In a moment, yes.” Harsh leaned against the closed door, arms crossed over his chest. In the hotel lobby, he’d pulled a neat trick when they were checking in and transformed himself into a young white guy in beach clothes. He’d grabbed her hand and taken over getting them a room—one room—and the desk clerk didn’t even blink, the illusion was that perfect.