CHAPTER 25
Too late and too startled to arrest her momentum, Fiona collided right into the second demon. She might as well have thrown herself against a brick wall. It would have had more give. One large hand curled around her arm to steady her before setting her firmly away.
With a low growl, Walker did the demon one better, grabbing his mate around the waist and setting her aside. Battered and bleeding, he still managed to hold himself upright on his wolfish hind legs and snarl a warning at the demon. His altered vocal cords distorted the words, but he made sure they were understandable. “To touch her, you’ll go through me.”
The demon raised an eyebrow. “At the moment you wouldn’t offer much challenge.” Slowly and carefully, it slid its sword into a long scabbard at its back. At their feet, a small charred pile of flesh smoked where the bull-headed demon had stood. “Besides, I didn’t come here for you. I came for Morgagch, and that is who I slew. You are in no danger from me.”
Walker snorted. “We’re to trust a demon?”
The demon shrugged. “You can do whatever you like with your trust. That’s none of my concern.”
“What is your concern?”
“As I said, I came for Morgagch.”
“Was that the demon’s name?”
“The fiend’s, yes. I don’t think you and I mean the same thing by the other name.” The demon glanced down at the wound in Walker’s side. “Its claws were poisoned, and you’ve taken a significant dose.”
Fiona made a sound of distress. How could she have forgotten? Leaning down, she peered closer at the ragged gash. The scent of it confirmed it had been poisoned. It stank of the demon’s sulfurous, decaying taint. Laying her hand over the opening, Fiona tried to muster up the energy to heal it, but she’d used everything she had on spells she had already cast.
Walker looked down at her furrowed brow, and one huge claw-tipped hand came up to cradle her cheek. “I’ll be all right,” he said as softly as his shape would allow. “Shifting will force the poison out.”
“It might,” the demon said, reaching into a small pocket that hung at the side of its belt, “but I doubt the experience would be a pleasant one. Morgagch’s venom runs deep and fast. Already it infects not only the wound site but your bloodstream as well. To force it out of this body would put a dangerous strain on the other.” It pulled out a small, clear vial about the length and thickness of its thumb. “This is an antidote. If you drink it, it will neutralize the poison. Then when you shift, your body can concentrate on healing the tear rather than purging your bloodstream of the fiend’s taint.”
Walker looked at the vial and sneered. “There’s that trust issue again.”
Fiona frowned. She knew shifting helped Lupines heal their wounds at an astonishing pace, but she could see Walker was already weak. If the demon was right and there was a chance he might injure himself further during the shift, she didn’t want him taking the chance. She stood for a moment, torn.
A firm tug drew her attention downward.
“If you wants the furry mortal guy to gets better quick, he better takes the medicine, Miss Fiona,” Squick said in a loud whisper. His eyes kept jumping from her to the demon, and they were wide with awe. “He the kind who would knows.”
Confused, Fiona continued to frown. “But it’s a demon, Squick.”
“Yeah, but not like the other one were. And you gots to hurry, Princess. Your furry mortal guy, he not looking so good.”
Her eyes flew to Walker’s face and confirmed the imp’s assessment. Her mate’s eyes looked glazed and feverish, the rims red, and she could see sweat beading in his fur. Unable to bear the sight of him in pain, she snatched the vial from the demon’s hand before she could lose her nerve and uncorked it.
“If this harms him, I will find a way to destroy you,” she bit out, then lifted the small vessel to Walker’s lips.
He tried to turn away, but she followed the movement. “Please, mo fáell,” she encouraged. “Please. Take it. Squick said you have to, and I trust him. Can you trust me?”
Walker’s eyes, the warm gold faintly dull in the dim light, met hers, and a ragged breath hissed from between his lips. Then they parted, and he swallowed reflexively as if there was no question of his trust for her.
Fiona held her breath and waited. A quick glance at the demon revealed neither satisfaction nor malice. It looked as neutral as granite, and she wasn’t sure whether or not to find that reassuring.
Before she could make up her mind, she heard Walker gasp. Alarmed, she reached for him. Sweet Lady, please let him be all right! Fiona’s arms closed around him, and the feel of him had her eyes opening wide. The fever she had seen just seconds ago seemed to have vanished. He felt warm but certainly no hotter than usual. Pulling back, she looked into his eyes and saw the glaze over them clearing. She felt the strength surge back into his muscles, felt them shift and flex as he shifted back to his human form. She looked immediately down to his side and saw the pale pink scar that was the only reminder of the demon’s attack.
“Oh my Goddess,” she breathed, reaching a hesitant hand out to touch the mark. “You… you’re okay!”
He pulled her tight against his side. “I’m fine.” Raising his gaze to the demon in front of them, he nodded. “And I’m in your debt.”
The demon shook its head. “No. There is no debt involved in completing my mission.”
“Your mission?” Fiona asked. “You mean you really came here to kill that… Morgagch?”
“I did. And now that it’s done, I’m afraid I have still more work to do.”
The demon turned to leave, but Fiona stepped forward and Walker let her, adding his own protest. “We’d appreciate if you could answer a few questions,” he said. “It seems we’ve spent a lot of time lately with the exact same goal in mind, only we weren’t planning to stop with just one of the demons.”
The demon’s eyes sharpened. “You’ve seen the others? You know where they can be found?”
“Not exactly, but we’ve seen their handiwork. We know at least one or two other demons have been snacking their way across the city. We’ve been trying to locate them before they do any more harm.”
“You shouldn’t interfere. They will not be easily taken. Let me handle them. It is my duty.”
Fiona blinked. “It’s your duty to hunt down and kill demons?”
“Fiends,” the demon corrected. “We call his kind ‘fiends.’”
Walker raised his eyebrows. “His kind? There are kinds?”
The demon’s expression never changed, but Fiona got the feeling he wanted to roll his eyes. She also realized with a jolt that she’d stopped thinking of this particular demon as an “it.” There was no argument to be made that he was human, but he clearly had a code of ethics, and if she hadn’t known him to be a demon, she would have assumed he had a soul.
“There are kinds of everything,” he said. “Very few things in the worlds are unique.”
“You must be,” she said, the words tumbling out before she could think about them. “That sun spell didn’t even make you blink. You’re a demon. I know you are. It should have at least blinded you, if not knocked you on your ass.”
The demon’s lips curved. “Yes, I should thank you for that. Your assistance made Morgagch’s defeat much swifter.”
“But why didn’t it bother you? You didn’t even blink, but demons hate sunlight.”
“Fiends hate sunlight,” he said. “I am not a fiend.”
“And that’s the root of our problem,” Walker said. “Every time you open your mouth, we end up with more questions, not less. I think we’re going to have to ask you to fill us in on quite a few pertinent details. In exchange, we can tell you what we know about the other d—er… the other fiends you’re looking for.”
“If you like.” The demon’s mouth quirked, and he glanced down at Walker’s bare skin. “But are you certain you wouldn’t prefer to have this discussion somewhere… warmer?”
They found out the demon was called Rule, although that wasn’t quite his name.
“Names have power for my kind,” he said. “We guard them closely.”
“Yeah, but I prefer that any other men who’ve seen me naked not be complete strangers,” Walker had said ruefully.
After a brief discussion, they decided to head directly to Vircolac. It would save time if Graham and Rafe got to hear their story all at once, and once Fiona and Walker explained the role those two held in Other society and in the current negotiations with the humans, Rule had not objected.
Fiona tugged on Walker’s hand. “Give me a kiss.”
He frowned down at her. “What?”
“Give me a kiss,” she repeated. “You can’t go walking out of the park naked, because for some reasons, humans seem to take issue with that. And I used up everything I had trying to kill our new friend. I need a kiss if I’m going to get you some clothes.”
“Furry mortal guy can puts his old clothes back on,” Squick piped up. “They lying right over there.”
Fiona wrinkled her nose. “Yeah, covered in demon blood. I don’t think so.” She raised her face to Walker’s. “Kiss me.”
She saw her mate’s eyes lift uneasily to Rule’s face, which was blank of expression. Tugging on Walker’s shoulder, she grumbled something about the prudishness of mortals and pressed her lips against his. As usual, it took about two nanoseconds for him to not only respond but also seize control of the kiss from her and make it his own. She forgot all about their audience, forgot all about the goal of this little exercise, even forgot her own name as the familiar wave of pleasure and magic crashed over her.
When Walker lifted his head, she blinked up at him for a few dazed seconds before her brain clicked back into gear. Unable to resist, she skimmed her hands along his bare skin one last time before covering them in comfortably worn jeans and a dark knit shirt.
“Thanks,” he rumbled, placing a swift kiss on the end of her nose.
They turned back to see Rule watching them with a troubled expression. “You’re not just Fae,” he said. “You’re sidhe. High Fae.”
Fiona wasn’t surprised he’d made the correct assumption. The sidhe were well-known for their ability to draw energy out of passion, and she’d never shared an unpassionate kiss with Walker. “Yes. Why?”
Rule just shook his head, but his mouth had settled into a grim line. “We should discuss it with your friends. It may well affect your thinking on the situation.”
He refused to elaborate, no matter how they questioned him. He kept silent on the trip to Vircolac, not even responding to a fascinated Squick’s babbling questions about his age and his ancestors and his adventures hunting fiends in at least two dimensions. Not until they were met at the door of the club by Rafe and Tess did Rule speak.
“I’m not sure what you mean by bringing a demon here, Walker,” the Felix said, his voice low with displeasure, “but I have reservations about letting him into this club.”
“Shouldn’t that be Graham’s decision?” Walker asked, one eyebrow raised. “It’s his club.”
“And his family is inside. He feels the same way I do.”
Fiona stepped forward. “Rule saved our lives tonight. If he meant us any harm, I’m sure he would have done something about it by now.”
“Why, thank you, Fiona,” the demon said, sounding amused. “I appreciate your confidence in me.”
“I don’t think either of us is confident,” Walker said. “We’re just desperate for information. And once we get you inside and you’re surrounded by my pack, the entire Other staff of the club, the head of the Council, and his witch of a wife, I’ll be more confident that we could take you down if we had to.”
Tess was the one who put a stop to the debate. Pushing firmly against her husband’s side, she managed to duck beneath his arm to stand just in front of him.
“Sheesh. You’re the one who asked me to come out here and evaluate the thing, but you’ve got to let me get a look at him before I can tell you what I think,” she grumbled, turning her surprisingly shrewd blue eyes on the crowd at the doorstep.
She looked first at Walker and Fiona, her gaze scanning carefully over them, lingering on their weary expressions. She blinked when she saw the imp peering out of Fiona’s shoulder bag but said nothing. Then Tess’s gaze turned to Rule and lingered for a moment on his stern face and deep black eyes.
“All right,” she said, turning to reenter the club. “They’re cool.”
Rafe’s hand shot out to stop her. “That’s it?” he demanded. “That’s all you’re going to do? What about a spell? This isn’t a decision to be made lightly.”
“I’m not making it lightly, but what did you think I was going to do? Give each of them a polygraph? I don’t need to. They’re fine.”
“I never mentioned a polygraph, but there must be some kind of spell you have to use to tell if everything’s all right.”
Tess sighed, sounding put-upon. “I don’t need a spell to tell me that. They’re fine. No one is under any kind of compulsion to follow the demon’s orders, and Rule himself has no ill intentions toward anyone in this building. It’s written all over them. Now can we go in? I’m not wearing a jacket.”
Rafe looked ready to launch another protest, but Tess shoved hard against his belly and pushed him back into the entry hall. “Come on in,” she called over her shoulder. “I’ll get Mr. Grumpypants a saucer of milk and see if that sweetens his disposition.”
Somehow, Fiona doubted it.
She led the way up the stairs and into the front hall of Vircolac as if she’d been doing it forever. True, it had only been a week, but she already felt almost as comfortable here as she did in Walker’s apartment. Maybe it was because she’d spent so much time here, but maybe it had more to do with the fact that the people here were Walker’s pack, his family. And now his family was hers.
“Graham and Missy are in the library,” Tess said, leading the way. “I think he said something about wanting to be close to the liquor for this.”
“He’s a smart man,” Walker grumbled, and followed them down the hall.