WeirdNights (13 page)

Jonah shook his head. “I basically blocked you out for
years. Probably from the trauma of being the one who turned you in.”

He watched his father jolt in his seat. Jonah had wanted
closure with the man, not to come here and stir up old drama best left dead in
the past. Still, the part of him that could be petty didn’t mind seeing the
shock on the old man’s face.

Deciding to put it all out there, he kept talking. “I work
against what you are now. I took an oath and I live up to it. I fight evil,
demons and people like you who prey on the weak to do disgusting deeds. I came
here today because I wanted you to know that.”

His father shook his head. “You have a legacy, powers that
will make it impossible for you. Embrace who you are or it will drive you mad. You
belong with the demons. We made sure you’d be psychic when you were born. The
demons promised us.”

Jonah shrugged. Now at least he knew where his particular
set of “gifts” came from. It made goose bumps travel up and down his back but
he had no intention of letting his father know that.

“Sorry, guess I’m just a normal human. The demons must have
lied to you. Hope it was worth it, all the pain you caused everyone, because
you know you’re never getting out of here. And my mother is apparently
languishing in a mental institution, tormented by visions of dark things. Good
luck with the rest of your life.”

He’d made his own destiny and the demons must just hate it
that they’d wasted their gifts on someone who was going to spend the rest of
his life working to destroy them.

He hung up the phone and left his father sitting on the
other side of the window, looking old and used up. Jonah would never make
another visit to this place. What would be the point? He’d acknowledged his
past so he could finally have a future and that was all that mattered.

When he closed the door behind him, exiting the prison, it
felt as if the world had gotten brighter while he’d been inside the walls. Seeing
his father had finally released him from the jail where he’d imprisoned
himself. Sweet freedom had never tasted so good.

Braxton and Foy both leaned against the car while he
approached. Foy shook his head and Brax grinned at him. It was the smile that
got to him. Foy was always shaking his head about something but Braxton grinning
like a fool? Something was going on.

“Tell me.” He crossed his arms over his chest.

“No.” Foy got back into the car.

Jonah turned to Braxton. “Spit it out.”

“We just got off the phone with Christian.”

“I’m assuming that your grin means he’s not dead or
injured.” Braxton was many things but elated over a blood-oathed brother’s
misfortunes wouldn’t be in his character.

Braxton shook his head. “If Christian was hurt both you and
I would be rolling around on the ground in agony while he sucked our life out
of our body through the blood bond.”

“That’s true. All right, continue.”

Braxton laughed, a long, hard sound. “Your girlfriend just
took the head off a hellhound with the handle of a mop.”

Jonah’s stomach turned. “What?”

His hands itched and his heart rate kicked up. How quickly
could he get on a plane? How badly was she hurt?

“Jonah.” Braxton shook his arm. “She killed it. She’s not
hurt. She kicked ass. Okay? I’d never have told you like this if it was otherwise.”

He nodded. Yes, Braxton’s words made sense and slowly they
penetrated the haze that formed around his brain when he’d heard about Mindy.

“Tell me everything.”

Mindy had expected that when she saw Jonah again he would be
holding roses and asking for forgiveness. So the anger pouring from his gaze as
he stared at her from the threshold of Dodie’s apartment door took her by
surprise.

He motioned to the living room. “Can I come in?”

“Do you need permission? Did the Shaman turn you into a
vampire?”

Jonah’s nostrils flared. “That’s just a myth. Vampires don’t
need permission to break down your door and suck you dry. I’m asking because
it’s polite.”

“Right. Well, I’m not sure I want you in here if you’re
going to be yelling or something.”

“Mindy.” He placed his hands on the sides of the door and
leaned in. She could smell his aftershave and it made her insides go soft. It
had been five weeks since she’d seen Jonah. Angry or not, his form was a
welcome sight for her. He looked…healthy. Color had returned to his cheeks and
the hollowed, exhausted look that she’d last seen on him was nowhere to be
found.

Jonah looked full of life. And pissed as hell.

“Yes?” She swallowed, her mouth gone dry. Had he come here
to tell her to go to Hades over the ultimatum she’d levied at him in a low
moment? Even she would admit her timing could have been better. He’d been a
little down at the time. Guilt had been making it hard for her to sleep at
night.

Guilt and not having him next to her, feeling warm and
solid.

“You can let me in or I can bellow in the hall for all the
building to hear. They might not even be shocked. This place was assaulted by a
demonic clown earlier this year.”

Mindy swung open the door. These people had all had enough. Most
of them, according to Dodie, didn’t even seem to remember what had really went
on at the time. Selective amnesia or something like that.

Jonah stepped into the room and immediately seemed to
dominate all the space in it. She pushed back the tears that threatened to
spill from her eyes. How could she be so relieved to see him when he was so
angry with her?

“Let me look at you.” He pulled her against him and his
hands roamed her body, feeling her arms and back, over her stomach.

“Look implies eyes. Touch is what you’re doing.” Not that
she wanted to complain. He’d not made any sexual moves and yet even the
slightest stroke of his fingers against her clothes made her core come alive. Any
second now she might be drenched and have to change her panties.

“I have to be sure you’re okay.”

Oh
. Realization dawned on her. Someone must have told
him about the hellhound. She squirmed out of his embrace. “I’m fine, as you can
see. I handled it. The thing was dead before Christian even got there. Because
I’m capable of kicking butt when I have to.”

Jonah nodded. “How did you manage to jam the mop handle into
its mouth?”

He wanted to know how she did it? “When he opened his mouth
I jammed my arm and the handle inside. I pushed it through the back of its
throat.”

“Yuck.”

He wasn’t incorrect in his wording. It had been pretty
disgusting. She could still hear the tearing of skin and the puncturing of the
muscles and bone. Still, she’d do it in a second again to put that creature
down.

“It was necessary.”

“No. What was necessary was for you to help Dodie get the
people out and then run away. But that’s not possible. I know that. You need to
be in the thick of these things. It’s just who you are—I have to respect that.”
He shook his head, some of the fire fading from his gaze, replaced by a wariness
she’d not seen projected from him before. Jonah looked down as if he didn’t
want to meet her gaze straight on. “But I’m in love with you. You’re important
to me, vital even. And I wish you didn’t have such an easy time throwing
yourself into danger as if your life didn’t matter.”

She took a step forward and then whacked him in the arm. “How
dare you. You took a blood oath promising to spend your life fighting evil. Do
you think you’re the only one capable of feeling something like that? I almost
died when a demon went after me. I think I’m entitled to want to rid the world
of them too.”

“You are.”

She was? Well, she knew that but hearing him admit it was an
entirely different thing all together. Mindy opened her mouth to speak and
closed it. What was she supposed to say when he agreed with her?

“And,” he continued, “given that I know you need to be a
part of this, I have to make sure you’re a part of it with me.”

He pulled out a piece of paper and held it out to her. “I
did something before I left Chicago. Well, a few things and, thanks to Foy, I
was able to get it done quickly.”

She stared at his outstretched hand. Every once in a while
she would have a sudden sense that her life was about to shift in a significant
way. It didn’t happen with any regularity. The day her boyfriend had been
murdered had seemed like any normal twenty-four hours until everything fell
apart.

But seeing the piece of paper in Jonah’s hand, she knew that
everything would change as soon as she looked at it.

“Gotta love Foy and his connections. What would we all do
without him?” She stalled. It was cowardly and she knew it. Killing a hellhound
had been easier than this.

“Take it, sweetheart. It won’t bite and if you don’t like
what’s on it, I can undo it. There’s no pressure. Just an offer.”

She snatched the white paper from his fingers before she
could change her mind and opened it up to read it.

It took her a second to realize what she stared at. It was
the deed to his parents’ house, only it had been transformed into some kind of
organization that had both their names on it.

“I don’t understand.”

He ran his hand through his hair. “Well, it turns out I’m
pretty loaded. My parents’ estate, what was left after their defenses, still
proved to be pretty substantial. Foy’s been keeping it in trust for me, waiting
for me to deal with the truths of my life.”

“That was nice of him.” Foy did a lot of things very
silently.

“Right. So I decided to take the house and make use of it.
Not so long ago, the place was used to do horrible things. Now it can be to
make people who have been through a demonic ordeal get better.” He shrugged. “As
you did somehow without any help.”

She swallowed. This was a huge gesture. He wanted to make
this amazing place and he’d put her down as co-director of it with him. Tears
threatened to spill in her eyes.

“You’re a survivor too, Jonah.”

He touched the side of her face and she nearly melted to the
floor in a puddle of mush. “Do you want to do this with me? I mean, of course,
there will be fighting involved. Demons aren’t going to just leave us alone. We
both, apparently, draw them to us like flies to a peach pie. But there can be
other parts of life too. Right?”

“Yes.” She nodded. There could be lots of parts of life and
she wanted to have them all with him.

Because she couldn’t control herself, she threw herself into
his arms. He caught her and seconds later they were kissing. His mouth was warm
and so familiar that it reminded her how much she had missed having his lips on
her own.

“Is that a yes?” He pulled back to look at her.

“Yes, it’s a yes.” She kissed him again. “I want to do all
of that with you. This is what I wanted, to be your partner.”

“Mindy.” He said her name like a prayer and shivers traveled
up her spine. “I want you to be more than my partner. I want you to be my
everything.”

“I don’t know what that means but I like the sound of
everything
.
It sounds…lovely.”

He laughed and she relished the sound. Jonah needed to do
that more; it made two small lines appear on the sides of his eyes. She reached
out to stroke them.

“I’m saying I want you to be my wife. My everything. That is
if you can tolerate the idea of marrying a guy whose parents did something
demonic to him when he was a baby so now he has to figure out how to handle his
crazy abilities.”

He had said that with levity but she knew that he meant what
he said. “Jonah, I don’t care a lick about your parents. Let them stay locked
away where they belong. They’re nothing to us.”

“Then you’ll marry me?”

“I seem to be doing a very bad job of answering you. Yes,
yes, I want you to be my husband.”

Jonah tugged her tighter against him. “Shit, Mindy, I need
you so much.”

“Then what are you waiting for?”

He kissed her hard, walking them both backward until they
were pressed up against the wall. Her breasts ached and she suddenly felt as
though she was wearing way too many clothes.

She wanted to be naked, writhing in his arms. “Fast, Jonah.
Please don’t make me wait. It’s been too long.”

“Quiet, my love. I’ll get us both there. I don’t want to
rush this. I’d never get over it if I disappointed you just moments after bungling
a proposal.”

He always thought the worst of himself. They were going to
have to work on that. But not at that moment. Not when she needed her legs
around him and his cock inside her more than she needed the air she breathed.

* * * * *

Slow down
. He had to keep repeating that mantra or he
was going to spill himself way too fast. This was the behavior of a man who
hadn’t had his woman for five years not five weeks.

Still, every moment away from Mindy was hell. It might as
well have been five years.

He stroked her breasts through her shirt, finding her
nipples and rubbing them until they peaked hard enough he could feel them
through the material. His balls ached and tightened.

Jonah hissed in his breath.

“What’s the matter?” Her voice had a husky tone. He’d barely
touched her. It was awesome that she could get so turned on so quickly by his
caress. It did his ego a world of good.

Hell, at that moment he could fly if he needed to.

Not that he intended to try. Staying put until he got her
naked and beneath him was what he would be accomplishing for the next bit of
time.

He pulled her shirt over her head and discarded it.

“Put me down,” she licked his neck, “and we can get to the
good part faster.”

As much as he really liked holding her against the wall, it
helped to satisfy something inside him that needed to know she was safe, he had
to agree with her. They weren’t going to both get naked in that position.

Jonah set her down and they tugged at each other until they
were both stripped of their clothes, some of which now piled at the floor by
their feet.

He ran his hands over her creamy skin, looking for any
indication that she’d been wounded in any way since they’d been apart.

She shivered beneath his touch and he grinned. “You like
that?”

“You touching me? Yeah, I think it’s safe to say that I like
it. A lot.”

Mindy kissed him and the world refocused. Only she existed
for him. The feel of her breasts pressed against his chest, the way her curves
fit against his body as if they’d been made for each other.

Maybe they had been. How else could he ever understand a
woman like her wasting her time with him?

“Bedroom.” He picked her up and carried her across the apartment
to the guest room. After he gently set her down on the bed, he grinned. “You do
realize that this is where we met? This apartment.”

“Right.” She nodded, biting down on her lower lip. “I was
terrified out of my mind and you came. Suddenly, I knew everything would be
okay.”

He didn’t know how to handle her words. They moved him and
if he didn’t want to start weeping like some kind of pathetic excuse for a man
he had to distract himself. The truth was he’d wanted to make her feel safe.
From the moment he’d laid eyes on her.

He took her nipple in his mouth, swirling his tongue around
it. She tasted sweet, like strawberries and it made him harder, which seemed
impossible since he already felt as if he might explode at any second.

Mindy didn’t help. She reached down and took him in her
hand. He gasped. “No, darling. Not yet.”

“You never let me play.” She pouted.

“After.” He bit down on her earlobe and she pushed tighter
against him. “You make me too out of control.”

“Fine.” She kissed him again. “I do want you inside me.”

“That’s good because that’s what’s going to be happening.
Very shortly.”

He scooted down on the bed until he could insert one finger
into her warmth. She was wet for him. He pulled his finger out to taste her. Mindy’s
eyes got huge as she watched him taste her from his hand.

“You’re flavored like heaven.”

She gasped. “I don’t embarrass easily and yet you seem to be
perpetually making me blush.”

“I live to bring that red hue to your skin.”

Mindy rolled away from him and he reached for her. “Where
are you going?”

She winked at him before pulling a condom from the side
drawer of her nightstand. “After we get married, I’ll go on the Pill.”

The idea of being skin-to-skin made his hands shake. He had
to get that image out of his head. “How do you feel about eloping? Tomorrow?”

She laughed. “Sounds really good right about now.”

He slipped his fingers back inside her, this time tweaking
her clit. The small bundle of nerves felt swollen and she moaned when he
touched it. He groaned when she arched on the bed. Mindy made him so hot.

“You’re wet and writhing. I think you missed me as much as I
missed you, kitten.”

“When this is over, I’m never letting you call me kitten
again.” She arched her back again, this time gripping the bed sheets.

He laughed. Leave it to Mindy to manage that much thought
when most people were incoherent. His head was muddled and his cock dictated
the directions of things.

At that moment, it was to get inside her. He sheathed
himself and moved until he was positioned at her core. Joining with her would
be like finally coming home after a long, terrible absence.