Something about his words stirs the Court members. They fidget, and I wonder just how many secrets the Court of the Sun and the Moon holds.
I’m not sure I have time to care. If the nightmares I’ve been having the last few days and the claw marks on my flesh are any indication, I’m a ticking time bomb.
Chapter 6
Once the door closes behind the court members, Aunt Eloise spins, the alarm on her face turning into grim concern. “Maybe you should consider moving back in.”
“No way!” The words pop out much more vehemently than I intend them to. “No.” Softening my voice, I approach her, head shaking. “I can’t.”
“Not for good, Harper.” She tugs on her earrings, and I know if she doesn’t stop, she’s going to make herself bleed. “Just until all of this is over.”
With a touch of annoyance, she glances at a spot over my shoulder. At the counter, Lucas pours another glass of scotch.
“Don’t mind me.” He salutes us with the liquor.
I ignore him. “If I come back now, I’m letting them win.”
The monsters are not allowed to win. They’ve taken too much from me. Innocence. Youth. Magic.
They won’t take my life.
Eloise’s face reddens, and a tear trickles down her cheek. She swipes at it angrily. “I promised your parents I’d do my best by you.”
She starts to grab me by the arms, and then stops, her hands dropping to her sides. It’s disconcerting to see her so upset. Aunt Eloise never cries; she sings Van Morrison and makes herbal remedies until everything in her world is right again.
“I don’t know how to help,” my aunt admits.
There’s nothing worse than feeling helpless. Nothing worse than not being able to rescue the people you love the most. Nothing worse than being afraid you’re going to hurt not only innocent bystanders, but the people you care about. It’s a nightmare I will never wake up from.
“It’s better for her in the mountains,” Lucas interjects. “Less casualties if something goes wrong.”
Eloise stares at him, her gaze intent. Minutes tick by like years. “Don’t fail, angel,” she says finally, voice wavering. “Please don’t fail.”
“Levi was bound to find a way to get to me eventually. If not through your niece, then another way. I promise you, I fully intend to give him the fight he deserves.” He looks to me. “We should go.”
“Together?” A million thoughts flood my head, and none of them are good.
Me. Him. Strangers.
Maybe he senses my unease because he comes to me, a sardonic tilt to his lips. “I like my coffee black, music that beats so hard you can feel it in your pulse, and gambling. But only if I know I’m going to win. I don’t do long walks on the beach, but watching sunsets from the clouds,” he shrugs, “it does it for me.” He offers me his hand. “Now that you know something about me, does that help?” Frustration colors his gaze, and I don’t know if I’m the reason behind it or if it’s the demon haunting me.
After a moment’s hesitation, my hand touches his.
He pulls me into him, startling me. Bright light flashes, and I shut my eyes against the glare.
When I open them again, we’re inside my cabin in the mountains, his embrace cloaking me. He’s massive, his muscular frame making me feel much, much smaller than I actually am. His heart beats against my cheek, his chest rising and falling with each breath. It’s too intimate, and I have to fight the need to struggle.
“You’re not used to being held, are you?” Lucas asks, head bent, his breath whispering against my neck.
Shudders race through me. “It hurts.” Emotions, old and new, play a complicated game of hide and seek within me. To hide it, I push against him. “My stomach,” I lie, even though it does pain me.
Immediately, he lets go. “Let me see it.”
“What? No.” I back away from him. “It’s fine.”
A smile flits across his face, the expression gone as fast as it appears. “Sit.”
“Seriously, I’m good.”
“No creams or medicines will fix demonic wounds.” He urges me toward the sofa. “I can help.”
When he drops to his knees in front of me, I start to shoot up, but he grips my waist, holding me in place. His hand slips under the hem of my shirt.
I look anywhere and everywhere except at him.
Cool air rushes against my skin, aggravating the raw wound and making me increasingly aware that I am not alone. His fingers run gently over my ribs.
I tense, electric tingles shooting all the way down to my toes. Birds flap frantic wings inside my stomach.
“Relax,” Lucas soothes.
He touches the claw marks, and I hiss. Beneath his fingers, cool heat flares, and the pain from the injury subsides. The pad of his thumb dips toward my navel.
Hugging my middle, I fly off the sofa.
From his place on the floor, Lucas watches me. “I make you uncomfortable.” It’s a statement, not a question.
“I don’t know. I—”
“Do you want to have sex?”
The question is so abrupt, so unexpected, that I’m pretty sure I squeak. “What?” My eyes widen. “Did you . . .” Pausing, I stare, inhale, and then, “Did you just proposition me?”
I mean, did he?
He stands, completely comfortable with himself and the situation. “I asked if you wanted to have sex.”
A crazed laugh escapes me. “I don’t even know you.”
He shrugs, unconcerned. “I don’t always know the women I sleep with.”
My mouth falls open. “Are you serious right now?”
“The pleasures of the flesh are an enjoyable way for you to get over this fear you have of being touched.”
The hell?
“I don’t have a fear . . .” I wag a finger at him. “You know what? I don’t like you.”
“You’d like me much better if you had sex with me.”
The snort that slips out of me is completely unrefined. “You know, that’s not even worth a response.”
Turning away, I busy myself by trying to start a fire. Lucas joins me, nods at the hearth, and then steps back when the wood within bursts into flames.
I glare, annoyed. “I could have done that.”
“All you have to do is say no,” Lucas says, and I know he’s not talking about the fire.
My chin rises. “No.”
He leans against the stone fireplace. “You’re going to have to find a way to feel comfortable around me fast, Harper. The things that will happen to you won’t be pretty. You need to be okay with me helping you with that.”
“By having sex?”
“By opening yourself up in any way you feel comfortable doing so. Sex is just a fun suggestion.”
Emotions swell like a tsunami inside of me, the strength of it threatening to knock me into the fire. “Do you have a lot of experience with things like this?”
“Demons or sex?”
I throw him a look.
He grins, and then sobers. “I’ve done a lap or two around the demonic block. Dealing with demons is complicated. Sometimes the experiences are bad. Other times, they’re surprisingly good. I even call a few demons friends.”