Accidentally Demonic (26 page)

Casey cocked her head.

Yep. Those were definitely angels singing on high.

She mentally slapped her hand. She was gloating. He was still married—mated—hooked up. She’d been down that route before—it always ended with her eyes puffy and her nose dripping with snot. No matter. “I still don’t see the big deal, Darnell. She wants Clay about as much as a girl wants a case of the clap.” She grimaced in Clay’s direction. “Sorry. And he feels the same way about her. They did this mating thing out of convenience. So what difference does my being anywhere near Clay make? How jealous can one woman be about a man she wants nothing to do with?”

Clay looked puzzled as well. His posture had gone from bent over to ramrod straight. “It’s been a long day, and maybe it’s just me, but I’m lost, too, Darnell.”

Darnell’s grin was Cheshire. “ ’ Cause you purty powerful now, Casey. All you gotta do is work at the skills you got and you’ll be just as strong as Hildegard. That means you might keep her from drinking from Clay. If she can’t drink from him, she cain’t stay here on this plane. That means one a you got to go.”

Oh, hell’s bells. That was badder than bad.

“Fuck,” Clay shouted. “This woman and her hold on me. Damn it, Casey, I had no idea how deeply intertwined you were with her. I was under the impression you would just share characteristics—traits, whatever—with her. I had no idea you’d share me.”

The conviction Clay showed in his face was enough proof for her to believe his statement. And what was this drinking thing about? Wanda had told her she and Heath drank each other’s blood, but she hadn’t gone into details, and Casey hadn’t asked because it squicked her out. And if a demon needed to drink a vampire’s blood, how did Darnell manage to stay on this plane? Oh, Jesus, how would she? Casey crossed her arms over her chest in doubt. “So how do
you
stay on this plane, Darnell?”

His face held many mysteries. “My contract’s not up. Lucifer lets you do what you want as kind of a ‘see what a great guy I am’ gesture, but when the time comes to make your appearance for service in Hell, if you ain’t got no other options, it’s downstairs you go. That witchy woman’s contract was up long time ago, but then, she knew that, and she found a way to get out of it through Clay.”

Casey was instantly worried for Darnell. He didn’t belong in Hell. He belonged in the biggest baseball field Heaven had to offer. “So someday, when your contract here on Earth is done, you have to—to—”

His face wore resolve. “Yes, ma’am.”

Reaching for his hand, she squeezed it. “I hate that. You just made a bad choice, and it wasn’t even about you as much as it was about helping your family.”

“Oh, I wanted that fame, make no mistake, but I done wrong—cain’t go back.”

God, that was so fucking ominous. “I’m sorry. . . .”

“Don’t be sorry,” Clay said. “As long as I’m around, Darnell will always have what he needs.”

Darnell held up his knuckles to Clay. “Aw, man, you aight.”

Clay thumbed his finger over his shoulder. “Tell her that.”

Fingering her forehead, Casey massaged her temples. “So let me assimilate this. What you’re saying is—now Clay is kind of mated to me, too. So he’s sort of gone Mormon in a paranormal way. Not only that, but I have the ability to keep Hildegard from drinking from Clay because his blood lets her keep her ability to stay here on Earth.”

“Yep. That’s the size of it.”

But the question was . . . “What happens if she ends up in Hell, Darnell? Then what happens?” She closed her eyes with a cringe, unsure of whether she wanted to hear the answer or not.

“She has to serve him—Lucifer. Means she’ll probably be mated to another demon.
For eternity
.”

Ahhh. Now she got all the twisted malice—the hype over her being in Clay’s presence even though the two of them appeared to despise each other. Casey was just collateral damage, and Hildegard wouldn’t hesitate to kill her to keep herself firmly rooted here. Casey was a risk she couldn’t afford to take.

It also meant she had the ability to save Clayton Gunnersson’s ass.

Not to be forgotten—she was also the
only
person in the universe he could wonk besides Hildegard.

Cue maniacal laughter.

CHAPTER 12

“I’m tellin’ ya, it din’t work, womon. He showed up an’ it got wicked. Dat mon you mated to is a mean one. Now be off wit ya an’ stop naggin’ at me!”

Hildegard grabbed a waist- long braid from her cohort’s head and yanked. “I want her gone. Understood? If we don’t get rid of her, if Clay succumbs to her pathetically fresh, innocent charm, and those puppy- dog eyes, I’m doomed. And there is no way I’m hitting the Highway to Hell and ending up mated to one of those disgusting hole dwellers. No. Way. Have we an understanding, Marcus?”

He ducked from her grasp, twisting her wrist and hauling her close to him. “Yah, I understan’ ya. But she a tough one. She got your blood.” Marcus cackled in her face, his white teeth glowing against his dark complexion.

Running a finger along the craggy planes of his cheek, her look was thoughtful. “I’d like to know how she got her hands on my blood. An enemy? I certainly have plenty of those, don’t I, Marcus?”

His eyes, olive black, avoided hers. “Yah.”

“Maybe, while I figure out who would betray me in such a vile manner, you could figure out how to get rid of Holly Hobby!” Her voice raised ten octaves, ending on a screech of a demand.

She’d leave this plane when she was good and ready—and that equaled
never
.

 

 

BLOWING her tangled hair out of her face, Casey fell to the couch. “Wow. I’m beat. Battling demons is daunting work, don’t you think?”

Clay grunted, but didn’t speak. He’d been very quiet since their walk back to the apartment together. The couch sagged when he flopped into place beside her.

“Sorry I set you on fire. I didn’t mean to. My aim’s been pretty good so far, but I was panicked.”

A long-fingered hand rubbed the back of his head. “I’m fine. It grows right back.”

She was too tired, still too much in awe that the supernatural truly existed to beat him down, but it had to be said. “You should have told me it was Hildegard’s blood. It explains so much. Like, why you’re the only person who can get me to stop doing my impression of the Goodyear Blimp. Because we’re all mated- like.”

His expression clouded, his eyes somber. “You’re right. I should have. I would have, but I hoped to have solved my problem with Hildegard by now, and she wouldn’t have factored in to any of this. Her cohorts might have, but once word got around that I was here to protect you, they’d have eventually gone back where they came from, and you would have gone about adjusting. It just isn’t working out according to plan. Just know that my intention wasn’t to continue to hide things from you, but rather to find a way to fix this before adding one more worry to your already full plate. But it looks like we have a much bigger problem now.”

For now, the grave look on his face left her feeling like it was time to let some of the details alone. “So how does it feel to not just be chained to one woman, but two?”

“I really had no damn idea, Casey. I didn’t know the implications involved in you absorbing Hildegard’s blood.” His genuine remorse made her joke fizzle.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to make light. It isn’t me who’s mated to that lunatic, it’s you. My issues have only made things harder on you. It well and truly sucks.”

“It wasn’t your fault. It was mine. I was careless.”

With
Hildegard’s
blood. Why in all of fuck had he been toting her blood around? Yet another detail she was willing to forgo until a later date. Strangely enough, she had almost no doubt his reasons had nothing to do with wicked intent toward anyone but Hildegard. “But you know what this does mean, don’t you?”

“I have two support checks to write each month?”

Laughter flowed from her lips. “No. It means I can help you.” “Uh, no. I don’t need anyone’s help, Casey. It means you’re in danger, and while by proxy you may have inherited some of Hildegard’s powers, you’re nowhere near as strong as she is. I won’t put you in danger to keep her from getting what she wants.”

Nudging his shoulder, she teased. “Oh, c’mon. You heard Darnell. I have Hildegard all up in my DNA now. Why couldn’t I become just as powerful as her? I can learn. I’m a quick learner.” Just ask three college professors about four switches in her major.

“I don’t want you involved.”

Sitting forward, Casey eyeballed him. “But I
am
involved, and if Hildegard sticks around because she’s pissed, I’m in danger anyway. So why not eliminate the danger?”

His lean fingers reached out, pulling pieces of tattered leaves from her hair. “Because this isn’t your battle.”

“Au contraire. It is now. She’s as much a detriment to me as she is to you. It’s either her or me, right? If what Darnell says is true, and Hildegard and I are attached by some freaky DNA connection—one of us has to go. And I promise you; the one you want to stick around isn’t a leggy blonde. It’s the mousy brunette. So get over yourself, vampire. Stop with all the He- Man tactics and let me have a shot at her.”
Look at Miss Nonconfrontational talk shit like you don’t have Hildegard’s blood running through your veins, but Mike Tyson’s
.

“It isn’t going to happen.”

Placing her hands on his thighs, Casey made a face at him. “I don’t necessarily need your help. In fact, I don’t need it at all.”

He snatched her wrists up, drawing her in close to him. “If you get involved in this without my knowledge—”

“You’ll what?” Yeah. She was daring him to stop her. Making this an exciting battle of wills. Cocky, cocky, cocky.

His face shadowed with a tense unease. “Don’t. Push.”

Pulling a hand from his grip, she shoved at his chest and thought quite childishly,
neener, neener, neener.

A long growl let go from his throat. A warning growl, she suspected.

“Ohhhhhhh, we’ve resorted to grunting. Very caveman, but very sexy, too.” She knew she was walking a fine line here, egging him on for the sheer enjoyment of seeing his sculpted face go all hard and scary. This time, as she poked, she was very aware of said poking, and it thrilled her to the bone. Pitching forward, Casey smiled in arrogance. “What’s the matter, control freak? Are you having trouble coming to terms with the fact that I hold your fate in my incapable, little—”

Her breath stalled in her lungs when he cut her off, throwing her under him, and pinning her to the couch with his full weight.

Oh, Jesus, Joseph, and Mary—every hot, hard, long- limbed, bomb-diggity inch of him.

Her breath came in pants, short and choppy, and though he didn’t breathe, he didn’t need to for the unwavering gaze he’d locked with hers.

Casey’s discomfort had nothing to do with how heavy he was, or even that he’d challenged her to a stare- off—but it had everything to do with how unbelievable, amazingly good his body pressed to hers felt.

“Just a warning,” she whispered, shaky and uneven.

“And that is?”

Okay, cocky was back in his court.

She gulped.

“And that is, Casey?” he taunted, clearly enjoying his power over her.

“My libido,” shot out of her mouth like a cannon ball.

“It’s arrived?”

“In spades.”

“Suggestions?”

Goddamn him. She lifted her chin. Pride—remember you once had some. “I’m open.”

Moving in closer, letting the slightest whisper of his lips touch hers, he said, “To?”

Jolts of overwhelming heat skittered over her skin. Her stomach clenched. “Suggestions . . .”

Clay nipped her jaw, making her hips rear upward. “This is a dangerous thing, Casey.”

Dangerous is as dangerous does. “How?”

His hands began to knead her hip, rolling his palms over it, inching ever closer. “You’re still adjusting. It’s the last thing you need right now.”

Said who? “Apparently, so are my hormones,” she replied on a soft moan when his tongue slid out to glide along her lower lip.

“Your hormones could bring you a lot of trouble.”

Yeahhhhh. “Trouble doesn’t always have to have a bad connotation attached to it.”

His other hand slid under her ass, hoisting her hard against his lower body. “I’ve been fighting this since that kiss in the club, and you’re not making it easy. We’re opening a can of worms here, Casey.”

“Do you want me to be the can opener, or will you?” Ballsy. Big and ballsy. “You do know what I’m considering doing with you goes against every single thing I believe in.”

Clay nodded. “This is going to sound like a line straight out of Cheaters Anonymous, but I’m not mated because I want to be. It’s out of obligation—nothing more, nothing less. And technically, if it makes you feel any better, you’re my mate, too. But no pressure,” he joked, gazing at her with amusement.

It was like she’d just gotten a day pass to Disneyland. “That’s true, but what if what we just found out is entirely wrong. You could be shunned. I couldn’t live with that because I couldn’t keep my panties on.”

“I think I’m willing to take the risk.”

“What if what Darnell said is wrong? What if—”

This time, when he cut her off, it was with his mouth, driving with force against hers, stealing the last bit of breath she had from her lungs. A hot, electric current sparked between their mouths, awakening every nerve ending along every part of her body.

The lush, full push of his lips, the heated slither of his tongue along hers, drove her to the edge. Low in her belly, a tight coil of desire began, making her wind her arms around his neck, push at his sweater so she could finally feel his naked flesh.

As her hands found his back, she almost pulled away. Contrary to the hot flush of her overheated skin, his was cool to the touch—cool and dry. Lifting her shirt, then tearing off his own, when Clay repositioned himself against her, Casey luxuriated in the sensation his cooler skin brought to the fire of her own.