Secret Worlds (338 page)

“Jesus,” he muttered and ran his hands through his hair, the horror of it all reflecting in his face.

“Yeah, it was bizarre,” I said and slipped out of bed, heading for the bathroom to relieve myself. I grabbed a nightgown on my way by the dresser to dilute the discomfort of being exposed. When I came back out, Damian had straightened the covers and sat with his arms crossed and that brooding expression that I immediately recognized.

He was getting more irritated by the second and he met my gaze when I slipped into the bed.

“How can you even think that?” he snapped, taking me by surprised.

“Look, in the dream I saw something out the window that caught my attention. It was Lucifer and he was outside the fence smoking a cigarette like they do in the old movies, you know, after fucking around. And you, you sat up with that same shit-eating grin and asked me how I liked dancing with the devil.”

Damian blinked and his eyebrows rose.

“Then I woke up screaming.”

Damian’s gaze moved past me to the window and back and the tightness in his jaw softened. “I can assure you, that was all me.” He blushed.

“But Lucifer was the one who brought out the beast in you,” I said.

His gaze dropped to his hands and he took a deep breath as he analyzed my comment and his head started shaking back and forth. “No. Lucifer had nothing to do with my behavior tonight.” He turned his glance toward me. “You had everything to do with it. I’ll concede that my anger may have made me a bit more callous than usual, or a bit less inhibited, but you’re the one who drives me insane.” A dimple appeared. “In the best way possible,” he added.

The morning sun drenched the bedroom and I blinked, rolling away from the open curtains. Damian’s side of the bed was empty and I pushed myself up into a sitting position. My stomach decided that wasn’t the brightest thing to do and I clamped my hand over my mouth, running to the bathroom as the bile crawled up my throat.

I did not like this side effect of pregnancy. Dealing with an unsettled stomach close to twenty-four hours a day sucked. Exhaustion I could deal with, but this, this was a royal pain. I spit in the toilet and climbed to my feet, flushing before washing the nasty taste from my mouth. I wrapped a warm bathrobe around my body and headed into the living room.

Damian looked up from his position on the couch, his computer propped on his lap and a pencil sticking out of both sides of his mouth. Papers and a yellow pad lay across the couch and I smiled. He pulled the pencil from between his teeth.

“Hey, how are you feeling?”

“Eh. What are you doing?” I waved toward the mess.

“I figured I’d try to get most of the time I promised to Kevin.” He glanced at his watch and stretched.

“How long have you been at it?”

“A little over three hours and I only have another forty-five minutes before the auto-transport company is due to arrive.”

I glanced at the clock. “You got up at five?”

“I couldn’t get back to sleep,” he said, folding the computer and putting it on the table. He started to arrange the paperwork into a neat pile and then set it on top of his computer before he finally met my stare.

When he didn’t offer an explanation, I shrugged and asked, “Why not?”

He stood and retreated to the kitchen and I followed. After he popped a couple of pieces of bread in the toaster, he turned, leaning on the counter behind him.

“The more I thought about it, the angrier I got,” he said.

My mouth went dry and I wasn’t sure I wanted to know, but I asked anyway. “Thought about what?”

“Everything.” He didn’t continue right away, instead he focused on buttering the toast and bringing it to the table, setting it in front of the chair I stood behind. “I’m pissed that we’re pawns in their fucking game,” he said and sat down.

The toast smelled good and my mouth watered, so I took a bite. He yawned, covering it with his hand before continuing.

“I’ve been running for centuries, surviving by hiding away: from the sun, from Lucifer even from Michael for a time. Every time I thought I found peace, the angels rained down on me, spoiling it in some manner. I’m not going to let that happen this time.”

The intensity in his eyes made me swallow hard.

“I’m done being afraid,” he added and crossed his arms. “Death is just an end to the running and if I don’t stop him this time, my child will never know peace.”

A cold fear pierced my heart and spread through my body, almost doubling me over. I dropped the slice I held onto the plate. “I’m not letting you sacrifice yourself for us. I need you just as much as your child does.”

He laughed in a way that sparked an irrational irritation.

“I’m not suggesting that I become a martyr, honey, I’m talking about killing him. Ending his reign of terror and walking away from it.” He reached over and snatched one of the slices of toast. “You got me thinking. There has to be a way to kill an angel and with Lucifer, I’m not sure stealing his grace is achievable, but we both know he can be killed. You’re the one who’s gotten the closest to that goal, so I just need to figure out how to do it without the tiger.”

“I almost beat him because he was in human form.”

“We’re both painfully aware of the differences between human and angel forms,” he said with a sigh. “I think he’s stuck in human form until he mends completely, at least that’s what I’m hoping.”

“He looked pretty whole after eating Michael’s heart,” I said and my appetite vanished. Damian nodded and he exhaled audibly through his nose.

“I know. I guess I expected Michael to fight back in some way, even in his debilitated state.”

“Yeah, I think I expected him to sprout wings and smite that bastard.”

Damian let out a small laugh. “I should have taken advantage of the situation and attacked while he was still vulnerable.” He met my gaze and shrugged. “I think that’s the thing that pisses me off the most. That was probably the best chance I had of beating Lucifer and I ran away like a frightened little girl.”

The venom in his voice gave me pause and I searched his face for a moment. “You were protecting me,” I said and he nodded.

“You and the baby.”

“And really, what could you have done with the cop there.”

“I could have broken his neck, like I did to that demon,” he answered. “It would have at least slowed him down and maybe he wouldn’t have killed that cop.”

I jerked with the shock of his statement. “He killed...” I started and trailed off.

“It was on the news this morning along with my face. Plastered all over the fucking news. I’m apparently a person of interest,” he said using finger quotes around the words person of interest.

I blinked at him and my eyebrows arched.

“They didn’t have a clear picture of you,” he said and offered a smile. “But they have one of me, looking shocked as shit.”

Muscles I didn’t realize I had tensed relaxed a fraction. I don’t look any different from five years ago and I’m sure if this story went national, some of my friends in New York might have been able to provide an identity that would be traced back to a dead girl.

“So what else did they show?”

“Nothing. No footage of Lucifer, nothing, just my face, which looks like a still from a video feed and a couple of seconds of us running as the cop yelled freeze.”

I couldn’t help the laugh that escaped, as if our lives weren’t complicated enough, now we had the police searching for us. My brain caught up and I gasped, my gaze shooting back to Damian’s. “They don’t have footage of Lucifer?”

Damian slowly shook his head and I exhaled, slumping in the chair. We needed a break but it didn’t look like it was coming any time soon.

“The bastard set us up.”

I blinked, staring at him. “And he’s using the media to find us.”

“Bingo. Are you sure you don’t want to go to Greece?” he asked, cocking his head. “Because right now, it looks like they’re building a case against us.”

“With your picture plastered all over the airwaves, there’s no way we would get away with leaving the country,” I said and he bit his bottom lip with an expression that agreed with my statement.

“The good news is not many people know my face and most of those people know me under an alias. There are only three people who know my name and address and one is sitting right here.”

“And the other two are at Hartford Hospital.”

“Yes. I also spoke with Ted this morning. It looks like Valerie is going to be okay. She made it through the night without incident and she even regained consciousness enough to relay her version of the attack.”

“Really?”

“Yes. Thankfully, that wasn’t picked up by any news stories because Lucifer would put it together and go after her. At this point he has no idea where she went.” Damian glanced at his watch and stood. “I have to go meet the auto-transport people.” He paused at the doorway to the living room. “Just hang here, okay?”

The worry in his eyes made me nod. I didn’t need to help pack the cars anyway. I had some packing of my own to do. “Be careful,” I said.

“I always am,” he said and I huffed and Damian rolled his eyes. “I’ll try,” he added and disappeared from view.

I made the mistake of turning on the television and taking in the news story. The raw anger that bit at me sparked a chuff from my lips and the shock of the feral sound pulled my gaze to the floor, and the white-furred paws.

Shock transitioned through my body and I took another step, still locked in tiger form. I hissed and spat and padded down the stairs. The keypad was difficult to manage with my paw but I finally had the idea to use one of my razor sharp nails.

The door squeaked open and I padded my way down the tunnel, turning into a gallop and by the time I reached the stairs, my heart pounded and I was sure Damian was being tortured on the other side of the hatch. I flew up the stairs, using the strength in my massive shoulder to open the hatch. I came to a sliding stop in the middle of the garage, a snarl coming from my mouth.

Damian spun along with one of the work crew. I growled and then chuffed and licked my chops, looking between Damian and the group of workers who were backing away slowly. Their expressions would have made me laugh had I been in human form.

Damian gave me a cocked-head stare and then he approached, slowly.

“Hey, baby, how’d you get out of your cage?” he asked with a soft voice, like one meant to disarm an angry tiger.

“Wo, dude, that’s yours?” one of the crew asked.

“Yeah, she’s mostly harmless unless you decide to attack me or something,” Damian said coming up to me and running his hand over my head and scratching me behind the ear. I rubbed my head against his leg, knocking him back a step.

“Sit,” he said with authority and I glanced up at him. While I wanted to tell him to fuck off, I obeyed and sat down on my haunches before stretching my paws out.

“That’s my girl,” he said and I actually bared my teeth at him for a moment before settling in place.

I wish I could have answered the questions in his eyes but I didn’t quite understand the switch either. I was angry at the news story, but I had been angry before and never just popped into the tiger like this. It’s usually caused by mortal danger but there was no danger here.

I licked my paws as I watched them load car after car until all the vehicles were loaded. After Damian closed and locked the doors, he turned and stared at me.

“What the fuck?” he asked and I stood and stretched before crossing to him and rubbing against his leg. He squatted and held my head between his hands. “Can you change back so we can talk?”

I licked his face and he sat back on his haunches, concern marking his handsome face. The man smelled wonderful and I stepped in, nuzzling against him.

“Naomi,” he whispered, his voice carrying a warning and I looked up at his face, but he wasn’t looking at me anymore.

I turned my head and followed his gaze to the back door. Paws smashed through the door, breaking the hinges and the door swung open. The stench of the thing made my nose crinkle. It smelled like a cross between a demon and a wet dog and it didn’t look much better.

The beast filled the exit and I bared my teeth, positioning myself between this thing and Damian. The sound of metal scraping pulled my attention in Damian’s direction and he stepped next to me, the crowbar gripped in his hand.

“What do you want?” Damian asked, like he expected the mutant dog to speak.

“I’ve been sent to bring your head back to my master,” it growled and stepped inside.

The shock of actually seeing a hellhound talk gave me pause, and I measured it up against my formidable size. It wasn’t quite as big as I was, and it certainly didn’t have the raw strength I had. It looked more like a mangy mutt than a powerhouse.

It wasn’t until the second one stepped in that my confidence wavered. The hatchway to the basement sat open and I wondered what our chances were of making it to the tunnel opening. Although, I had doubts the salt ring would keep these demon-dogs out. Especially since I thought Damian had reinforced the garage.

The two split up, circling the outside edges, their growls echoing in the empty garage. I flexed my paws, bringing out my deadly claws. That was my advantage against the mangy beasts. They had teeth, but I had both teeth and claws and I tightened my muscles, getting ready to spring.

Damian raised the crowbar like a bat and turned his back toward me, covering me from that side. I focused on the beast closest to me and I don’t think either one of them was aware of who I was, so another advantage. They were here to kill Damian and right now, I stood in their way.

“Let’s do this,” Damian whispered and I launched, twisting in the air and landed on top of the mangy beast. My claws latched onto the dog’s torso and I bit down on the back of its neck, hoping for a quick kill. It reared up and his howl of pain filled the garage. I shifted my nails, tearing at the beast’s front chest. It tried to turn its head but my jaws prevented him from reaching me. I ripped until blood started shooting and the thing stumbled to the ground. I shook it with a growl and then released, focusing on the one circling Damian.