Bewitched, Blooded and Bewildered (18 page)

“Your bedside manner sucks, Nurse Ratched.”

“I’m not a healer. But I can fix this if you hold still.”

Gritting my teeth, I balled my hands into fists and choked down another complaint, allowing him to continue pulling glass out of my skin. “Where’s Lex?”

“With the healer, as I promised. She is confident that he will make a full recovery. Why did you break the bond?” he repeated.

“I want to see him.”

“You can see him when Amelia allows it. Answer my question.”

“Can we be more concerned about the hunters who just tried to kill me?”

His brow was creased with his temper-tantrum look, and I knew that did not bode well. “I deserve an answer.”

“The hell you do.”

“You and I shared something special, and you threw it away.”

Lord and Lady, he sounded like a jealous ex-boyfriend. Great. “We didn’t share anything. You forced something on me, without asking, without my permission, and it was screwing with my life and my marriage. I had to end it.”

“Maybe if you hadn’t rushed into said marriage—”

“Don’t. I just stabbed a bunch of people to death, one more won’t phase me,” I warned him. Zach paused and then shook his head.

“Was it really that bad?” he asked, his voice soft.

“I wasn’t going to live the rest of my life with your color commentary in my brain.” He looked up at me, and though his expression was pained, his eyes had gone creepy light green. “If you bite my feet, I will kick you in the face,” I warned him.

He snorted. “Sorry. I’m not going to bite you. The blood is affecting me.”

“Uh huh. You have a foot fetish, don’t you?”

This time he laughed. “No. Though I will admit to being enamored of your ankles.” I frowned. My ankles were hidden by the cuffs of my jeans, so I knew I wasn’t flashing him any inappropriate ankle skin. Zach paused. “Was it because of the dream?”

“No. But we’re not discussing that. Ever.”

“Why not? Because you’re afraid you might have feelings for me?”

This time I snorted. Yeah right. The only feeling I had right now was the urge to kick him. “That dream was a dirty trick, and you should be ashamed of yourself for pulling it. There’s no way I’d ever end up with you, even if Lex hadn’t shown up. I love him.”

“I didn’t create that dream,” he said. His voice was low, little more than a whisper, and I wondered if I’d heard that right.

“The hell you didn’t. You were all smirky-satisfied about it when it ended.”

“I won’t deny enjoying it, but the dream wasn’t my doing. I assume it wasn’t yours either, by your less-than-pleased reaction to it.”

“Damn right it wasn’t my doing.”

Zach sighed. “There was a truth to it. I love you, Catherine. I would love you forever, if you let me.”

“No, you don’t. You have zero concept of what love is. You’re a spoiled brat who doesn’t understand the word
no
, and I’m done being pushed around by you.”

“And your husband is such an understanding man,” Zach said, his voice dripping with sarcasm. “Did he give you a choice? Exactly how did he propose to you?”

My stomach turned. It hadn’t been an ideal, oh-so-romantic proposal. “That isn’t fair.”

“You never gave me a chance.”

“You’re right, and I wasn’t going to. I’ve been planning a way to break the bond ever since the art gallery debacle,” I informed him.

“Why?”

“You sound like a toddler. Or a parrot. Are we really still having this conversation? Is it that hard to understand? You forced the spirit link on me. I wasn’t going to fall in love with you because you think I should. So you need to move on.” Shaking his head, he less than gently yanked out another shard. I bit my lip and tasted blood. “Has it ever occurred to you that you might have a soul mate of your own out there?” I asked, changing the subject.

“If I did, I would have met her by now.”

“Why? You’re going to live forever; it’s not like you’re running out of time. I’d say that gives you an edge in finding her,” I pointed out. He didn’t look convinced. “And when you do find her, do you think she’d appreciate having her man connected to another woman? Uh, no.”

“Perhaps,” he said. “How did you break the bond?”

“With magic,” I replied matter-of-factly.

“With what spell? Where did you get it? Who helped you?”

“I googled it. It was on Wikipedia. You should really look into that,” I lied.

“I’m serious, Catherine.”

“And I’m not telling you, Zachary. It happened. Get over it.”

He scowled, but let the subject drop.

I didn’t think there was that much glass in our house, but apparently there was, and it was all ground into the soles of my feet. Stupid hunters. Now we were going to have to replace the windows before the real estate agent showed up again. And I’d soaked the kitchen with water damage from the exploded sink. Not good.

With exacting patience, Zach removed splinter after splinter, both with his hands and with stinging necromancer magic. When my feet were whole again, he sat back and looked over the rest of me. “Any other injuries?” he asked.

“No. This isn’t my blood.”

“Hunter blood?”

“Oh yeah. And demon goo.”

“Demons?” Zach’s brow rose. “What happened?”

“I’m not sure. The dogs freaked out, and I flipped the lights on and saw the hunters sneaking up on the house. I got Lex, and then they were everywhere. The demon must’ve gotten them past our unnoticing wards, but that doesn’t explain how they found us.”

“Alexander is in the database the Oak Glen librarian gave the hunters. We all are. I’m surprised they went after a guardian, but perhaps it was only a matter of time.”

“Marie! I need to call Marie,” I gasped. “Damn it, Faust still has my phone.”

“You called?” the faerie said as he appeared in the room, standing next to Zach. “I believe this is yours, my lady.”

“Thanks,” I said, taking the phone back from him.

“Zachary, if you’re not proposing, you may wish to stand,” Faust said dryly.

“He is so not proposing.” The idea was a tad bit horrifying.

“Your cousin has retrieved your pets,” Faust informed me. “She has also managed to remove all your possessions from the house and has stored them in Faerie for the time being. She seemed quite anxious that the hunters should not rifle through your things if they returned.”

“Oh. Good idea,” I said. That was a handy skill. I’d have to hire her when we moved into our new house. Though I had no idea how we’d explain the blood stains and bullet holes in our current house to the agent. Maybe Portia did home repair too.

Faust turned to Zach. “The collections teams should be retrieving the bodies shortly.”

“What are you going to do with them?” I asked, afraid to know the answer.

“Interrogate them,” Zach replied.

Necromancer interrogation session. I fought down a shudder and focused on calling Marie. I was momentarily distracted by the blood covering my hands. Lord and Lady, I looked like a serial killer. I hit Marie’s number and tapped the fingers of my free hand in a frantic beat on the leg of my jeans while it rang. I hoped the hunters hadn’t gone after her too. Had they been watching the house? Did they follow her?

“Hey there, Cat. What’s up?”

Relief flooded me at the sound of her sweet Southern drawl. “Don’t go home,” I blurted, and then I winced. “The hunters hit the house. It’s not safe.”

“Are you okay?”

“I’m okay. Lex was hurt pretty bad. There’s a healer with him now.” Silence hung heavily on the line, and I glanced at the display to make sure I hadn’t dropped the call. “You still there?”

“Yeah. Where are you now?” she asked.

“Umm, one sec.” I looked up at Zach. “Where the hell am I?”

“Oak Brook. Do you need the address?”

“Yeah.” He gave me the address, and I had no idea where it was, but I read it dutifully back to Marie.

“You’re with Harrison?” she asked, sounding surprised.

“Yeah. I know it’s weird, but Faust came to our rescue and brought us here,” I explained.

“That’s not weird, that’s just wrong,” she said. Faust snorted at her comment, and I smiled sheepishly. Like I said, he was growing on me. Like athlete’s foot. “You sure you’re safe there?”

I blinked up at Zach. Honestly I wanted to say no, but he’d promised to help Lex. I had to take him at his word. “We’ll be okay.”

“If you say so. Look, I’m gonna crash here for the night. Keep me updated on Lex’s condition. Make him call me when he’s up to it.”

“Sure. Where’s here?” I asked, curious.

“Brian’s.”

Marie was shacking up with the chronicler. I guess it could’ve been worse. She could’ve taken a liking to Simon. Still, I’d try to avoid mentioning that to Lex, because it’d probably make him feel worse. “Right. Hey, can you check on something for me?”

“Sure, what?”

“There was a demon with the hunters. I tried to get it to admit who summoned it, and it said all the summoners were dead. I know we’ve heard about the faerie-blooded summoners who disappeared, but is it possible there are more we don’t know about? They’re not exactly friendly.” I wanted to check to see if Patience’s diamond marker was still tattooed on my arm, but not in front of Harrison. If she died, would it disappear?

“I’ll look into it.”

“Thanks. Keep out of trouble.” I ended the call and looked up at Zach. “Do you have any summoners on your payroll you can check on?”

“No. Most insist on remaining freelance. I will make some calls.”

“Great. Can I see Lex now?”

“You may wish to clean up first. You look…startling,” Zach pointed out.

“This is true,” I replied, looking down at my bloody clothes.

“The clothing in the wardrobe here will fit you,” he informed me. I resisted the urge to roll my eyes. Of course it did. I bet he had my favorite books in the bookcase again too. “Do you want me to send for some food as well? Maybe some coffee?”

“Yes. No. I can’t have coffee, it’s on the bad-food list,” I said, sighing with disappointment. Well, I
could
have coffee, but I shouldn’t have it. I didn’t know how I was supposed to live without coffee for the next few months. No coffee, no cigarettes, what was my life coming to? Oh yeah, mommyhood.

“Bad-food list?” he repeated.

Damn it.
Might as well get it over with. “Yes. I’m a little bit pregnant,” I admitted. Faust and Zach both seemed startled by that. I don’t know why, because it wasn’t earth-shattering news. “That’s another part of why I had to break the bond. I couldn’t let you drag me into the ring for your next fight. Besides, you wouldn’t want to experience real sympathy pains when I go into labor, right?”

Zach’s lip twitched, more likely in a snarl than a smile. “I suppose not,” he said cautiously.

“See, it’s a good thing,” I said. Less than convincingly. “I need to shower. So go torture some zombies or something.”

Faust snickered. “Come, Zachary. Let’s leave the Titania be.”

They left, though Zach continued to wear his cranky face. I assumed they were off to do nefarious villain things. How wrong was it that the vampire and the shadowspawn faerie were the lesser evil?

I locked the door behind them and headed for the bathroom, where I peeled off my bloody clothes and threw them in the trash. I pulled the bullets out of my pocket before I pitched the jeans, and I set them on the counter. I wasn’t sure what to do with them. Maybe make a morbid pendant, one of those “these had your name on them” kind of things.

Patience’s mark was still there, so I hoped that meant she was okay. I wasn’t worried about her welfare, but we needed summoners to deal with the demon problem. I kept the shower short, eager to get back to Lex’s side. I rummaged through the wardrobe and found everything I needed, even socks and shoes, and I dressed in a plain black blouse and blue jeans. For a long moment I stared at the bullets on the bathroom counter. Should I take them with me? Should I toss them? Weapons could sometimes pick up weird energy, like a piece of the magician they’d been used against. I couldn’t risk leaving these here and having one of Zach’s minions spirit them away. I shook my head and stuffed them into my pocket, and then I left the room. I started down the hall, and Faust appeared by my side.

“This way, my lady,” he said politely. “I will take you to your Oberon.”

“Thanks. Do you know where my cousin is?”

Portia should’ve shown up by now. Unless she was on the warpath, looking for hunters to slay. Which didn’t sound bad at the moment, but considering how tough these buggers had been to deal with, I didn’t want Portia to put herself in danger. Faeries could be killed, as her brother Tybalt had recently demonstrated, and I didn’t need to learn who would win in a faerie-versus-demon fight.

“I believe she is speaking with the faerie council on your behalf.”

“My behalf? Why? What’d I do now?”

Faust chuckled. “Nothing. She is asking that they give your Oberon time to recover before testing you.”