Demons Like It Hot (32 page)

“What sort of circumstances?” Kalli massaged the back of her neck. “Because the Fore-Demons are not ones who reassign missions that easily. Just ask Rafe.”

Serah finally found her voice. “Matthias and I had a little disagreement earlier. It’s nothing that a little compromise can’t fix.”

Kalli waggled her brows. “Oh, really?”

Serah rolled her eyes. “Not that sort of compromise.
Jeez
.”

“Oh, darn. Well, my job here is done. Lucy wanted me to check on you. Despite the mascara, things look fine.” She brushed her fingertips over Serah’s face. “There, all fixed.”

Kalli reached back and loosened the leather thong that hung around her neck. She placed the pewter pendant that dangled from it on the counter and slid it toward Matthias. “Something tells me you need this more than I do.”

“Thank you, Kalli.”

“You’re very welcome. I’m relieved actually. I was afraid I’d given Josephine an empty promise. I don’t like breaking promises.”

Kalli swiped a red dreadlock from her cheek and stood. She held out her hand. “I’m glad we’re on the same side now. I always admired your abilities.”

Matthias’s lips curved into a wan smile. He took Kalli’s hand in his and clasped it in a sturdy grip. He shook his head and stood, crushing Kalli to him in a tight hug. “Thank you. Thank you for easing her pain.”

Serah’s breath hitched and her heart clenched. Seeing him embrace Kalli sent her skin crawling. She shivered. Matthias was not her ideal man, but something about him called to her. And now he was attracted to Kalli. Then again, Serah had told him he made her sick earlier and that she never wanted to see him again. What did she expect?

Why the hell did she have to like him so much? After all, he was the one who almost had her killed.

Almost. Didn’t he try to save you in the end?

Ugh!
It was crazy what he did to her—what he still did. She shouldn’t like him. He’d been a demon for hire and had obviously done terrible things in his past. Kidnapping her couldn’t have been his worst crime. Why the hell did she care so much about him?

Even when he acted like a complete asshat, she cared. Absolutely crazy. She gritted her teeth and clenched her fists. Yep, she was pathetic.

Kalli pulled from the embrace first. She turned to Serah and arched a brow, a knowing smile curving her lips.

Yeah
right, she couldn’t read my mind. That expression said it all.

“If you scowl any harder, your face will stay like that forever.”

“Sorry, I was just thinking really hard.”

Kalli shrugged. “If you think any harder, diamonds are going to pop out of your ears.” She yanked at her skimpy lace corset and blew a giant pink bubble.

“Are you saying I have a brain full of coal?” Serah crossed her arms. Then again, sometimes she felt like it.

“Good point. Not a very good quip, huh? As much as you try to hide the fact, there is more in your brain than you realize.”

Kalli strode toward her and wrapped her arms around Serah, pulling her into a friendly embrace. “It’s perfectly all right to be attracted to him,” she whispered. “Just so you know, he’s attracted to you too.” She offered Serah a sly wink.

Yes, Kalli was much too shrewd for her own good.

With that, she pulled from their embrace. “Mind if I use your office? I know how all that poofing affects you.”

Serah nodded. Secretly, she wished Kalli would stay. She didn’t want to be alone with him. Part of him scared her. Part of him intrigued her, and, well, the other part of him—she’d seen where that had ended up.

So what if they were attracted to each other? So what if he kissed like a professional? So what if she was more than eager to jump his bones?

He’d been a mercenary. He’d battled for both sides. What’s not to say he wouldn’t switch sides? Maybe he was playing both sides right now? After all, hadn’t Balthazar said as much in the alley? That Matthias had upheld his part of the bargain?

And then there was Daniel with his always smiling disposition. Maybe they were working together?

“Thinking hard again?” Kalli asked, breaking her from her thoughts.

“Yeah, something like that.”

“I’ll leave you to it then.” Kalli threw her hand up in a dismissive wave and strolled off toward the office, the door clicking shut behind her.

“Why did you do that?”

“Do what?”

“Cover for me.”

“I wasn’t covering for you.” She crossed her arms in front of her. “I just didn’t think it was the right time to discuss it.”

Matthias nodded. “Well, thank you anyway.”

“What
ever
,” she said, attempting to sound indifferent. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to start supper.”

Matthias blew out a breath and adjusted his shirt. Serah sighed. The naughty part of her wished it were still on the floor. “I need to talk to you about this, Serah.”

It was not the time or the place to have thoughts like that. And she definitely wasn’t ready to discuss his involvement in her kidnapping either.

Serah crossed her arms. “I’ve got other things to deal with right now. The TV show, remember?”

“As you wish.” He reached in his pocket and palmed his phone. “Rafael will be checking in soon anyway.” He swiped his finger across the touch screen. “I might just call him myself.”

“I’ll let you know when supper is ready. Maybe then we can talk.” She owed him that.

“Would you like me to get the pot at least?” Matthias offered a friendly smile. “I can’t have my shirt drenched again.”

“Fine, if you really want to.”

“Yes, I want to.”

“Knock yourself out.” She handed him the pot.

Matthias took the pot beneath his arm and filled it with water. He carried the pot across the kitchen and set it on the stove. “I’ll let you take care of the rest. You’ve seen what I can do to a kitchen.”

“Don’t remind me.” She reached for the knob to light the burner.

Matthias reached for her shoulder. “Serah, are you sure you don’t want to talk now?”

She stiffened. Part of her wanted to talk, but part of her still wanted to keep her distance.
For
crying
out
loud, could anything go easy once in a while?

“I’m not ready yet.”

Matthias nodded, turned, and headed toward the office.

She twisted the knob to increase the flame. With a deep sigh, she leaned against the counter and stared into the placid pot of water. If only those molecules knew what was going to happen to them in a matter of minutes. If it was anything like what was going through her heart right now, she really felt bad for that pot, especially when the water started to boil out of control.

It was better this way. It had to be.

“Ye should gie him some haggis,” Farquhar said, his voice meowing in her ear. Serah adjusted the Bluetooth headset to turn down the volume.

“That’s just cruel.”

“Wha’s that sayin’? Don’t knock it if ye haven’t tried it.”

“I have tried it.”

“Wha’ever, lass.” Farquhar sighed. “Why did ye no invite me tae dinner?”

“I just assumed you and Inanna would be busy elsewhere.”

She stirred the sauce in the pan. She took a long breath, savoring the aroma of simmering tomatoes and spices. Her nose twitched. Something was off. She scanned the spices, spinning the rack. She never missed a spice before. Stupid Matthias. Now he was affecting her ability to cook.

She took a spoon and dipped it into the sauce. Maybe tasting it would help narrow the problem down. She brought the spoon to her lips.

Ick! She’d never tasted anything so vile in her life. The tomatoes had been fresh. Not a spot on them. Yet it tasted like rotten goat cheese.

She spit out the sauce. No effing way. She should have known Matthias was up to something. She reached for the knob to turn down the flame. It would not budge.

The flames burst from beneath the pot. A giant bubble burst, sending the stink up in the air. The rank odor of rancid Limburger cheese set her nostrils burning. The sauce continued to rumble and roil as the bubbles grew bigger. It was solidifying.

“My recipe didn’t call for this.”

She yanked open a drawer and grabbed the first implement she could. She gripped the shiny meat cleaver, ready to strike.

“Get the hell out of my kitchen,” she shouted, waving the cleaver in front of her.

A low, primitive growl was the demon’s response. He, she, or whatever it was, kept growing out of the pot, as thick plumes of black smoke swirled around it. The pot was like a magic lamp, but the genie coming out wasn’t so nice.

Two arms formed, the thick red sauce dripping onto her floor. Her sauce was indeed ruined.

“I said get the hell out.”

“I was invited,” the demon gurgled out, its head popping up like a bubble. “I don’t have to leave.”

And from what she remembered, the Infernati made their own rules anyway. And who exactly invited this freak? Matthias? Daniel? Kalli? Nah, Kalli had better taste than that.

“Wha’ is wrang?” Farquie’s Sottish burr rang urgency in her ear.

In all her excitement, she forgot the imp was on the phone. “I got a problem with the sauce.”

“Wha’ kind o’ problem?”

“It’s attacking me.”

“Wha’?”

The demon in the pot spewed hot sauce from its mouth, spraying her in the face. With a deep sardonic roar of laughter, the demonic marinara man leapt from the pot and lunged for her.

“It’s a demon,” she breathed.

The demon lashed out its hand, more sauce spraying in every direction.

Serah managed to duck to the ground and roll across the floor. With a quick leap up, she pulled open a drawer and yanked out another tool. Gripping the spatula tight in one hand, the cleaver in the other, she somersaulted across the checkered floor and jumped to her feet.

“Where’s yer bodyguard?” Farquhar asked in her ear. Thank goodness she still had reception.

“I kicked him out of the kitchen,” she managed in between ragged breaths.

“Inanna an’ Ah are on our way.”

She wouldn’t risk her friends’ lives. “No. I have it under control. Stay there.”

“Ye sure?”

“Yeah, I’ll call you right back.” She clicked the end button and stuffed the phone in her pocket.

With fluidity she didn’t know she possessed, she snapped back her arm and let the meat cleaver fly. It cut clean through the demon’s saucy head, slicing it into two. More sauce spewed across the room.

“Got you now you demonic pile of crap.”

The demonic roar of laughter echoed—quite literally—throughout the kitchen.
What
the
hell?
Serah glanced upwards, her heart plummeting. The sauce separated, and two equally menacing demons formed from the ooze.

Things
aren’t ever that easy.

“Arrgh!” the twin demons bellowed in unison. Their fangs glinted with menace. Serah had never seen fangs that long and sharp. What kind of demons were these things? Then again, she didn’t have time to figure that out. She had to defend herself. Talk about a kitchen nightmare.

“There’s more where that came from.” Serah launched the silver-plated spatula right between one of demon’s glowing red eyes.

It dodged to the right, the spatula barely scraping its ear. Throwing back its head, it let out a deep chortle. The other demon joined in, lunging at her. This was getting worse by the minute. She had to do something.

“You will die!” it growled out. More sauce swirled, its body fully regenerating. It slashed out its hand, snagging her by the ankle. More demonic laughter rang in her ears as it pulled her toward the pot. What was it going to do, boil her to death? The other demon grabbed her other leg, helping its twin drag her across the checkered floor.

Oh, God
. She really had to do something now. But how?

She couldn’t let this self-replicating demon win. It was bad enough it had already ruined her prize-winning sauce. She gripped the legs of the buffet with all her strength. No way was she giving up that easily.

Then she heard it. The door flew open. A warm gust blew into the room. Had Matthias found a way to break the demon code and enter somewhere he wasn’t welcome? She sure hoped he had.

“Let go ov her!” the rich feminine accent sang through the air.
Edie?

“Edie!” Serah shouted, fear creeping through her veins. “Get out!”

“No! You need help.” Her tone remained calm, yet strangely assertive. “Zee demons must be stopped.”

“How do you know—”

“Zere iz no time for talk. Use zee necklace.”