Wicked Misery (Miss Misery) (25 page)

The one who’d carried me upstairs brushed the tip of his shoe along my torso, lifting my tank top as he did. I shivered. Yup, they were doing it on purpose. Assholes.

But that made me angry, and anger I could work with. I gritted my teeth, channeling my gift into repelling theirs. “Didn’t you hear me? I’m Jessica Moore. Take me to Devon.”

“You don’t look like her.”

“How would you know what she looks like?”

“We saw a picture.” Bouncer number two crossed his arms smugly.

I sat up with great difficulty. “I’m wearing a disguise charm. What other human would come here searching for Pete Donovich?”

“Who’s Pete Donovich?”

Aw, fuck. Just figured that these guys weren’t that in-the-know.

The satyrs exchanged amused glances. “Sweetheart, you’re in luck,” said the first. “I don’t know how you got down there and resisted the spell on this place, so you’re going to see Devon anyway.”

Well, that was something. They yanked me upright by the arms, a move that had the paradoxical effect of making me want to melt back to the floor.

“I can walk on my own just fine,” I said as we left the storage room. Predictably, that got me nowhere. I sighed, resigned to being gawked at by oblivious humans, and I squirmed in the satyr’s grip for oh-so-many reasons.

The crowds parted around us, and we headed up to the balcony. From there, the satyrs led me to an elevator on the far side. One of them swiped a keycard through a lock by the door, and we climbed inside. The elevator only stopped at three floors—the balcony, the basement and one higher. No surprise, that was where we went.

When the doors opened, I faced a comfortable office with a disturbing number of couches. Seeing as satyrs worked here, I could assume their use. The left wall of the office was floor-to-ceiling glass that overlooked the main dance floor. I tried to figure out how I’d never noticed it before from downstairs and realized it was a one-way mirror. Devon stood in front of it.

Unlike his bouncers, he didn’t bother with a disguise. Even the most clueless human who’d been touched by two satyrs should have guessed by now that something was up.

Devon looked me up and down.

“She claims to be that chick Dezzi placed under our protection,” Bouncer One said. “But it doesn’t look like her.”

“I told you: disguise charm.” The satyrs’ grips had slackened, and I snatched my arms away, turning toward Devon. “I was looking for Pete.”

Devon rubbed the scruff on his chin, contemplating if I had to guess. He’d changed clothes since I last saw him, and now wore a black sports coat and tie. “Why would you do that?”

That wasn’t the response I expected. “So I…” I bit my lip, floundering for something semi-intelligent. “So I could turn him over to the Gryphons. No offense, but I don’t exactly trust that you have my best interests at heart.”

“And where’s Lucen while you were sneaking around my basement?”

“At home. Entertaining an addict.” I could taste my own bitterness. Surely Devon could too.

“Funny choice of word.” He waved at the bouncers. “It’s her. You can go.”

“Where’s Pete?” I asked once the hired muscle departed down the elevator. Unlike the rest of the club, Devon’s office was freezing. I wrapped my arms around myself for warmth.

“Up here with me. I need to keep an eye on him in case he gets a return call.”

“I don’t suppose you’re going to hand him over to me, huh?”

Devon sat on his desk, a monstrosity from a bygone age that looked ridiculous since it held nothing more than a laptop. “You really want to call the Gryphons? With all the evidence linking you to the crimes, you’d have a hell of a lot to explain. They tested your blood. They know you’re not normal, and Gryphons don’t like nonhumans. What do you think they’d make of you?”

I turned my back on him, not usually the wisest idea with a pred, but I was too annoyed to care. Not normal? It was one thing to think that myself. I didn’t need to hear a freaking satyr say it.

The worst part was that on some level, I agreed with Devon. I didn’t want the Gryphons involved. I didn’t—couldn’t—trust the satyrs, but I couldn’t trust the Gryphons, either. I’d thought long and hard over the past ten years about what would happen to me if they discovered my secret. Exile? Arrest? Or would they simply shunt me away to some lab to study?

Still, I’d been willing to risk it. What choice did I have? I was human. Preds would always be a bigger threat to me than other humans.

“So it’s not going to matter how nicely I ask?”

“Jess, I explained this earlier. This is Shadowtown business. That means we keep the Gryphons out of it. And next time you feel the need to challenge me on a decision, don’t go sneaking around behind my back.” The flirtatiousness had disappeared from his voice. For the first time, he sounded like Dezzi’s backup, and it fully hit me that I was dealing with Boston’s second most powerful satyr.

I dropped my gaze from all the fun the normal humans were having on the dance floor. “Fine.” For now, and only because I couldn’t think of a different way to get at Pete. I was not contacting the Gryphons until I had him. That would definitely be stupid.

“Good,” Devon said. “I hate having to get all confrontational with hot women.”

Uh-huh. “How did you know I was down there anyway? I didn’t see any cameras.”

“No need for cameras, although I do have some. You tripped my alarms.” Devon slid off the desk, and his normally mischievous smile became something less playful. “What did you find by the way?”

Excellent question. Those cocoon-like things were creepy, even for preds and especially for satyrs who, generally, weren’t half as creepy as their pred brethren.

But when I attempted to ask, the words evaporated from my tongue. I tried again, mouth opening and shutting like I was chewing the air. No words came out. Frustrated, my jaw clenched as I refused to give up, fighting the inevitable.

Devon watched me, his expression curious.

At last, I balled my hands into fists and let out the words my brain wanted to say. “Nothing interesting.” Then I screamed. “What did you do?”

Devon’s face was almost comical. “You remember what you saw?”

“Yes.”

“But you can’t talk about it?”

“Yes. What the hell did you do to me?”

“Personally? Nothing.” He raised his eyebrows and donned his usual smirk. “I can think of a few things I’d like to do though.”

I backed up. “I’m serious.”

“So am I. You are interesting, Jess. I’ve never seen a human resist a compulsion spell that way, and it’s a strong one too. I can absolutely see why Lucen likes you so much.”

“You mean you all just like screwing with me.” So I was right about the type of spell, for all the good that did me.

I rubbed my aching head. The clock on the wall proclaimed the time to be closing in on midnight. According to Devon, Note-writer hadn’t called Pete, and another day was about to escape into tomorrow. No wonder I felt ill.

“You haven’t given any of us the chance to screw with you yet. But I’m sure you’re right. We would like it.” Devon winked. “Time to take you home.”

“I can take myself back to Shadowtown. My disguise appears to be working fine, and someone needs to be with Pete in case he gets a call.”

“Someone is with Pete. Don’t worry. And your disguise is quite good. Lei does good work. But I so rarely get the chance to be gallant.” He pressed the button for the elevator. No keycard was needed up here.

“It doesn’t mean I’m going to let you into my pants.” Yeah, if he wanted in there badly enough, it’s not as if I could stop him, but I saw no harm in making my opinion known as frequently as possible.

“I’m patient.”

“So am I. When are you going to tell me about—?” I gurgled as the words died away. “You know what.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

Since glaring at him did nothing more than encourage Devon to make lewd comments, I gave up.

The trip back to Shadowtown was uneventful. Devon drove, and I stayed mostly silent, scheming of ways to ask Lucen about what I saw without setting off whatever curse had been laid on me.

It was all for nothing. Walking through his front door was like turning back the hands on the clock. My negative emotions of earlier returned with a vengeance, distracting me. I rested my head against the wall, breathing deeply to calm down, but Lucen’s pheromones thickened the air.

Fortunately, Devon hadn’t come inside, so I was on my own. I stomped up the steps, praying I wouldn’t be subjected to any more noise from Lucen’s bedroom. It was quiet, but I shut my bedroom door anyway.

Lucen had brought up my duffel bag. It sat on the bed next to a netbook. Interesting. I’d ask about that later. Right now my body was telling me I needed a shower. Purgatory had left a layer of sweat on me, and maybe I could wash these ridiculous emotions off, as well.

As I tossed my clothes on top of the containers Lei had given me, the answer to my turmoil smacked me in the face. Before I’d returned to Lucen’s, I’d spent a couple hours in the presence of a harpy. She’d been stirring up my jealousy, and so I was primed for a good old freak-out when I left. That had to be why I’d been so irrational.

Really, why else would it bother me that Lucen was acting like the satyr he was? I shouldn’t care enough about him to react at all. I
didn’t
care enough. I didn’t trust him, didn’t understand him. Hell, I barely liked him. Sure he was good-looking, and I fantasized about him more than I cared to admit, but he was a satyr. He secreted sex. Everyone fantasized about satyrs. It was how they enslaved so many humans. There was nothing abnormal about me when it came to that.

But Lei’s harpy magic had been screwing with my head. Making me jealous. It was all magic, nothing more.

Lucen knocked as I fiddled with the tap. “Can I come in?”

“One second.” I threw some clothes on and opened the door. Then, to cover my discomfort, I began removing the glamour, grateful for something to do that required a modicum of concentration.

“Jess, earlier, if I—”

“Aren’t you neglecting your addict? Or is that the whole point? To work him up then let him down?”

An unreadable expression passed over his face. “He’s gone.” He gestured to the netbook. “Since you can’t use your phone, I thought you could use it to check email. It’s old, but it works well enough.”

“Thanks.”

“Where did you go? It’s not safe for you to be out by yourself.”

I grimaced and smeared away my enhanced cheekbones. “I’m a big girl. I know the risks.” I considered not telling him the rest, but he was bound to find out soon enough. Might as well be me that told him. “I went to Purgatory to find Pete, got busted snooping around by Devon, and he dropped me off back here.”

“What were you going to do with Pete if you found him?”

I shrugged. “Get the Gryphons off my back.”

“That’s not going to—”

“Yeah, I realized that.”

Lucen shifted and tapped his finger against the door. “Can I get you something?”

Yeah, answers about what I saw in Purgatory’s basement would be good. But I didn’t want to talk to Lucen. Not now. Not with all these unwelcome feelings lingering so close to the surface. Besides, I felt too embarrassed about how I acted earlier. “No. Silence. That’s all.”

“Are you sure you don’t want to talk about—?”

“Yeah. I need sleep. Good night.”

I didn’t sleep for a while. After my shower, I used Lucen’s netbook to get online and search for information about pred crypts, but I found nothing reliable. Figured. The Gryphons could probably tell me what I’d seen, but I’d been down that coulda-shoulda-woulda path before. Lots of knowledge and power had been shut off from me.

And Gunthra knew why.

I wouldn’t ask.

Just like I wouldn’t dwell any deeper on what had come over me earlier when Lucen’s addict was around.

There was nothing I could do about either problem.

Chapter Eighteen

Yesterday had to all be Lei’s fault. I didn’t understand why I had such a hard time accepting it. When I tried to think about everything logically, I felt like I was adding up two plus two plus two and getting negative eleven. Nothing made sense, and I tossed and turned all night because of it.

Lucen came downstairs not long after eleven. It was an abominably early hour for a pred to be up, and the circles under his eyes proved it. I was in the kitchen on my second cup of coffee, taking stock of what he had in his cabinets. My stomach hadn’t stopped growling since I got up. I hadn’t eaten enough yesterday, and what I had eaten was crap.

Lucen emptied the rest of the coffeepot into an oversized mug. “Devon called after you asked not to be disturbed last night.”

“Thought I heard the phone ring. Tattling about my adventures at Purgatory?” Would Lucen mind if I ate his Pop-Tarts? Something higher in protein, like eggs, was probably asking too much.

“He was keeping me informed. Please tell me you’ve put this idea of contacting the Gryphons out of your head. For good.”

“Yes. I was acting irrational last night. I don’t want to be arrested.”