Angel Seduced (15 page)

“This is about you, not me.”

He plucked one of the feathers from the glass. “But if you're my inspiration, it's about you.”

“Only as it pertains to you.” Her fingers twitched as she eyed the feather in his hand. He liked ruffling her placid exterior. He tipped his chin toward the picture. “Who's the girl? Your daughter?”

Mallory's cheeks flamed hot. “My niece. And that's all I'm saying about her.”

He sauntered over to one of the paintings, a male angel kneeling before a seated female angel, his face buried in her upturned hands. Her long, dark hair spilled down over his bowed back, catching the light coming from a window.

Hayden couldn't keep from feeling pulled into the scene. She stepped up beside him, her gaze on the painting, too. Her eyes softened and shimmered. It moved her, even though she saw it all the time. His gaze went back to the woman in the painting, and it hit him. “That's you.” She looked so beautiful and innocent, it almost hurt.

She merely shrugged. “I pose for him sometimes.”

She obviously inspired the artist to the greatest of heights. Every shadow, every wash of light over skin and hair, perfection.

Hayden kept his gaze on the innocent version of Mallory. “What do you think this scene is about? Supplication?”

“It depends on my mood. Sometimes I think he's begging her to love him back. Other times I think he's bidding her goodbye.”

He obviously did feel inspired in her presence, or at least his mouth did, because he had no intention of voicing the question that popped into his head: “Have you ever begged someone to love you back?” He met her gaze, at the same moment the woman on the stereo sang, “I crave you.”

Her gaze dropped to his mouth for just a second before she turned back to the painting. “Kasabian said you have writer's block. Let's talk about that.”

“All right. I'm writing a story about a Muse who falls in love with one of her clients. So, of course, I need to know what motivates a woman like you. What moves you.”

She aimed an irritated look at him and opened her mouth to no doubt tell him off. The phone rang, silencing her. Kasabian.

W
e're going to see a Caido
hooker
?” Kye traced her finger along the stitching on the seat of Kasabian's Lotus.

Kasabian made a turn toward the ocean. “She's not a hooker; she's a Muse. Didn't you hear what I said? Muse, for their ability to inspire. Mallory is a professional, as dedicated to her craft as you are to yours. She stays unemotionally involved for the same reasons you do.”

Yeah, and look how that turned out.
“I guess I got hung up on the ‘inspire with sensuality' part. I, of all people, shouldn't judge. I know how folks misconstrue the word
sensuality
for
sex
.” She wanted to pretend she didn't want to know, but the words “Have you been, uh, inspired by her?” came out.

“I did not go to her as a client, no. We became friends.” He shrugged, which meant
And more
, but he was too nice to say.

She wasn't nice. “Can you give me a definition of ‘friends'? Yes, I'm being nosy.”

His eyebrows raised. “Muses can take lovers, but they aren't allowed to get emotionally involved or married. It has nothing to do with their abilities being impaired, like you, but more about their obligations to Muse-hood. My word, not hers. We were hanging out a little too much. She said she was starting to have feelings, and we backed off. That was about five years ago.”

“She fell in love with you.” Oh, yeah, Kye was liking this woman less and less.

He lifted his shoulder in a shrug. “We have lunch once in a while, and that's it.”

Kye hated to admit it, but Mallory
was
like her in some ways. Helping people with their issues, staying emotionally uninvolved for fear of losing her career. Damn, she wanted to dislike her on principle. Not for what she did, but for her history with Kasabian.

“Do you visit other Muses then?” She gave him a stern look. “And don't say a word about me being jealous. I'm just…curious.”

He gave her a sly smile. “Of course you are. For the record, I haven't had empty, meaningless sex in a long time. It was easier to not think about that aspect of my life.”

Was
easier. Her ego was eating up the fact that he was obsessed with her, that she was the one who'd awakened that part of him.
Bad ego. Bad, bad ego.

She sank into the memory of his hand squeezing her breast and skimming her skin, the way her body had come to life beneath his touch. He had awakened a savage beast in her, too, though hers wasn't the Dragon kind.

Those thoughts sparked the memory of him pinning her against the wall.
You are
mine
, he'd growled, and some part of her had answered,
Yes, I am.

Holy Zensu, what was happening to her? Kye stopped the thoughts before he could pick them up through their bond.
Puppies. Babies. Cleaning the litter box, Vlad supervising as always.
Anything to divert her attention.

“Kye,” he said on a groan, “you're killing me.”

Too late. “Sorry, my thoughts tend to run away from me sometimes. What do you pick up exactly?”
Please, not images or specifics.

“Your desire. Like you're getting aroused by the idea of meaningless sex.”

Yeah, you keep thinking it's that.
“But I thought desire wasn't painful when it came from me because of the bond.”

He pulled into the parking lot of a huge high-rise building and found a visitor's parking space. His fingers tightened over the shifter as he pinned her with a look of heat and agony. “It's not the same kind of pain. It's more like…mass frustration. Because I can have it, and I can't have it.”

Kye understood too well. She shoved back all those thoughts. It was easy to quell the desire when she was about to face a woman who'd fallen in love with him. It shouldn't matter at all. But it did.

Kasabian phoned Hayden. “How's it going?”

“I think it might help if you come over. Us writer types, we're a little awkward socially. At least for me, it's easier to talk to my characters than a…beautiful woman.” His voice got a little fainter. “Mallory, is it all right if Kasabian comes up? He's in the neighborhood.”

“Yes,” she said from a short distance away. “
Please
, have him come up.”

Kasabian chuckled as he disconnected. “Hayden's playing his role well, I think. Maybe too well.”

“Or she's just eager to see you,” Kye said, getting out of the car.

Kasabian looked at her from across the roof as he got out. “Not that you're jealous or anything.”

She narrowed her eyes, but what could she say? This was a foreign feeling. She'd never had anyone to be jealous over.

Mallory had already notified the man behind the security desk, so within a minute they were being escorted to the elevator. A few seconds later, a woman who looked nothing like Kye expected answered the door. Not seductive and overly made up, but clean and fresh, like the girl next door. If that girl were ethereally stunning.

Mallory's tense expression immediately melted, and she hugged Kasabian. For a moment her eyes squeezed shut. She seemed to reluctantly let go and invited them in. Kasabian rested his hand in the middle of Kye's back as he made introductions. It felt faintly proprietary, and a part of her liked that.
Mine,
echoed in her mind again. Her voice or his, flowing through their connection?

Mallory took the two of them in with even more curiosity but was too polite to voice the questions that were on her face. Kye wondered what Mallory picked up from her. Mallory focused on Kasabian. “I'm not sure your friend is ready to do this.” She gave Hayden a backward glance.

“He's not.” Kasabian led Mallory to her sofa by the hand, sitting down on the arm once she was settled. “I'm sorry to deceive you, but this isn't about creative inspiration.”

Mallory almost looked relieved, but then she turned to Hayden. “So all your harassment was what? A way to pass the time?”

Kasabian gave Hayden a stern look. “You were harassing her?”

Hayden shrugged. “I was probing her. I mean, prodding. I was just asking her some questions. Yeah, to pass the time.” But he looked a bit flustered.

Mallory turned her now irritated expression to Kasabian. “What the hell is going on?”

He pulled out the picture of Jonathan. “Have you seen this boy in the Tower?”

Mallory studied the picture. “Cute kid, but no. I rarely see children here.”

“Who owns the black Hummer?”

“Kasabian, you know the identity of those who live here is sacrosanct. What is this about?”

He tapped the picture. “Whoever owns that Hummer has this kid. And he shouldn't.”

Compassion glittered in her eyes. “Has he been kidnapped?”

“In a manner of speaking. He's being used in a program that at least one member of the Concilium is sanctioning. I don't know who, so we can't go to the authorities.” He settled his hands on her shoulders. “I don't want to drag you into this. If it causes any trouble, tell them I tricked you, that we forced the information out of you, whatever you have to say. But I need the name and the floor he lives on or this kid dies.”

“You're serious?” Mallory asked.

“Very.”

“Richard Talbot owns the Hummer. He lives on the eighteenth floor. I don't know much about him, other than he's an arrogant ass and a very old Caido. He was trying to get me to work with his son, Kevin, who's Arrogant Ass, Junior.”

Kasabian planted a kiss on her forehead. “Thank you.” He opened the French doors leading out to her balcony and went out, Hayden right behind. They seemed to be sizing up the distance between balconies.

Mallory leaned up on tiptoe, balancing herself by putting her hands on Kasabian's arm, and whispered, “You are
not
going to scale six floors.”

There was no easy way to get from one floor to the next, and the thought of them trying tightened Kye's stomach.

“And you can't Leap either,” Mallory added. “There are barriers all over the building. You'd be shot down the moment you were spotted. These old Caidos have awesome powers. A few years ago, some guy tried to break in.” She grimaced. “It wasn't pretty.”

Kye waved them inside, and once the doors were closed, said, “We need to find out if Jonathan's in there first. I can send a scry orb up to look in the windows.”

Kasabian and Mallory looked at her with puzzled expressions.

“It's a spy orb, a tiny thing that looks like a bug unless you know what you're looking at.”

“Great idea,” Kasabian said, looping his arm around her and pulling her close for a moment. “This is why I brought her,” he said to the others. “She's brilliant.”

She arched an eyebrow at him.
As if you had a choice.

Kye held out her hand, palm up. “It's been forever since I've made one. It's one of the first bits of magick we learn. Then we discover it's intrusive to, say, spy on your best friend's conversations or your parents when you think they're Christmas shopping.” She shuddered at the memory of catching her father stuffing more than the stockings.

Hayden said, “The Deuces in the Guard use them a lot. Sometimes they really come in handy.”

Mallory's mouth dropped open. “
You're with the Guard?
”

Hayden's shoulders widened just a bit, his pride showing. “Vega.”

Mallory spun to Kasabian. “You sent a Vega to me? They're incompetent, egotistical, corrupt—”

Hayden held out his hand as though he could physically stop her words. “Whoa. We're not all that way.” He paused. “What happened?”

Mallory glanced behind her at a shelving unit. A picture on the unit, Kye thought. “The Guard was useless when I needed them.” She pinned Hayden with a hard look and huffed. “That explains a lot.”

“Mal, please?” Kasabian said. “Work with us.”

Mallory's eyes got sort of shimmery as they locked onto Kasabian's. Though Kye couldn't pick up one damned feeling, she knew Mallory was still a little in love with Kasabian.

“All right,” Mallory said. “For you.”

At least she hadn't said,
Anything for you, Kasabian.
Kye would have gagged.

Kye focused on the magick that spiraled from the center of her palm and swirled into a small gray orb. “It's not tight enough.” The orb was fraying at the edges, barely holding together. It had been nearly as hard to create the blue orb she'd used when Kasabian was fighting Silva. “I'm so out of practice. Tighter. Come on, tighter.”

The orb snapped together, shiny and gray like a metallic beetle. She directed it to float upward and then into the kitchen. She created a holographic window to see through the orb. Sleek shell-pink granite and opalescent cabinets, a black granite sink. She brought the orb back. “It's working.”

The four of them returned to the balcony. Kye released the orb and directed it to the eighteenth floor. They all watched it fly up and out of sight, then turned to the window that hovered in the air. Balconies and French doors whizzed by as they all counted the stories out loud. Once the orb reached the right floor, she directed it to land on the balcony railing. Its legs clamped onto the smooth concrete. The windows reflected the sun, making it difficult to see inside, so she sent it closer to the French doors, where it landed on a mullion.

A man was on the phone, pacing and clearly arguing, though she couldn't hear his words. He jammed the phone into his pocket and stalked into the interior of the condominium. Another man was in the kitchen pouring a glass of milk. She watched him carry it into the living room and hand it to…a boy. Jonathan!

“He's there,” she said on a long breath of relief, resolve, and trepidation.

The man looked up, staring at the doors. Then he started walking toward them. She called the orb back, and it disintegrated as it reached her.

“Good job.” Kasabian gently squeezed the back of her neck. “How do we get to him?”

I want a kiss, too.
It was a silly and childish thought, but there it was.

“I can make an orb to destroy the door,” Kye said, mentally sorting through the various orbs she could create. “Of course, that would draw attention. I could create a bubble orb. It creates the illusion of invisibility. We could knock on the door and go inside when someone opens it.”

“I can get us into his son's residence,” Mallory said. “I could apologize for being rude to him.” She grimaced. “Tell him I've been thinking about all those freaky, jacked up muscles of his, the insane edge to his laugh, and the endearing way he stares at my boobs as though he expects them to move of their own volition.”

She seemed to shake off the memory of that encounter. “He leers at me every time we pass in the lobby or out by the pool, so I think he'd buy it. If he invites me in, I'll make some excuse to go to the bathroom and Leap you in. I'll have permission to enter, and you'll be coming in with me, so we should be able to bypass any barriers on that floor.” This she said to Kasabian, no surprise. “Which covers Talbot's unit as well, since he and Kevin have units on the same floor. We subdue Kevin and climb over to Talbot's balcony. Not easy, but doable.”

We.
She'd inserted herself into the action. Kye took a better look at the shelving unit, seeing a picture of Mallory and a little girl. Maybe she had a personal reason to get involved.

“I like it,” Kasabian said, getting agreement from Hayden. “I know you can pull off the seduction, but are you ready for combat?”

Mallory's shoulders stiffened. “I have to be ready all the time. I can't rely on some security guy to come to my aid. One of the Muses here was taken hostage by a Caido blissed out on Abyss. He beat her up pretty bad, and the Guard had to come in and rescue her. That was one time they got it right.”