I twisted around to where Daemon stood in his true form a mere foot or two from the bed. Was he seeing this, too?
Lotho continued to laugh, deep belly laughs that echoed off the cement walls. Backing away from the bed, I walked to Daemon as he shifted into his human form once more. I didn’t get it. Nope. Did not compute.
Finally, after what felt like an eternity of him laughing himself to death, Lotho quieted down and sat up in one fluid motion. “Ah God, you guys are great.” He smacked his hands down on his thick thighs. “Man, really.”
“Yeah.” Daemon drew out the word. “I’m not following this. At all.”
A wide smile broke across Lotho’s face and he almost looked . . . normal. Still a wee bit scary, but kind of normal. “You two were really going to go through with this, weren’t you?”
I blinked.
“Holy shit, you really were going to let me go all yum-yum on you.” He popped onto his feet, raising his arms above his head, stretching. His back bowed as he sneered. “Do you really think I’d feed off a hybrid? Sure, you guys might be snack-a-licious, but I only eat Grade-A Luxen. And a certain type. Unwilling usually does it for me.”
I blinked again.
“What the fuck?” Daemon exploded like cannon.
Lotho threw his head back and laughed again, and we waited . . . again. “I seriously just wanted to see how far you guys were willing to go.”
I blinked at him a third time. “Wait a minute. You never planned on feeding off me?”
“Don’t take this the wrong way, hon. You’re cute, but you’re not my type.”
Should I feel offended? “And if we didn’t agree, you would’ve still let us leave without helping us.”
“Yeah.” He shrugged as he walked over to a high table and grabbed a bottle of Jack off it. Taking a swig, he faced us.
Oh my God, we’d just been dragged through an emotional wringer, and for what? Just so he could mess with our heads? Suddenly exhausted, all I wanted to do was shove my head under one of those animal pelts.
“I want to punch you,” Daemon said. “In the face. And in other places.”
Lotho shrugged again. “Most people do. Good news is that I know you two really are willing to do anything. I can respect that. So, you have your Arum army.”
I really didn’t know what to say. Shoulders slumped, I felt so many emotions all at once that I had moved beyond words.
Lotho swiped two glasses off the table, filled them, and then handed them over. I took one in a virtual state of shock.
“Let’s toast,” he said, eyes as cold as a January morning. “To a very unlikely, and very temporary, partnership.”
19
{ Daemon }
It was taking everything in my power not to introduce my boot to Lotho’s face. The Arum was crazy. Absolutely off his rocker and should be locked in a padded room. Better yet, he should be locked in a room full of metal spikes and then bounced around.
I wanted to punch him.
But I also wasn’t stupid. Hunter and his brother hadn’t been joking when they said Lotho was powerful. The little bit he’d displayed in that room told me he was capable of much more, and if we seriously had to get down to business, it would be ugly and really messy.
We were now seated in a small room that looked like someone had dug it out of rock and earth. The scent was musty and the torches shoved into the wall didn’t cast much light.
I had Kat where I wanted her, in my lap with my fingers working the tense muscles in her shoulders and neck. She’d been quiet since we left Lotho’s room, and I could tell she just wanted to get the hell out of here.
So did I.
“It’ll take me a day or so to get them all rounded up.” Lotho had progressed to vodka, and since we’d moved to this room, which had been maybe thirty minutes ago, he’d downed half the bottle. I was curious to see if Arum could get alcohol poisoning. “Some of my boys are out scouting.”
Hunter stood near the door, leaning against the wall. He looked completely at ease, but the sharpness in his eyes said he was ready to spring into action. “How much time are they giving you guys?”
We’d explained the government plans to get overexcited with e-bombs. “We have time,” Archer answered from where he was perched on a stool beside us. “About four or so days, but the sooner we can move against them, the better.”
“Yeah . . .” Lotho took another healthy swig. “Worried about them getting trigger-happy, eh?”
Archer nodded as he eyed the Arum leader.
“Like I said, I need just a day or two. Tell your human masters we’ll be there.”
Human masters? I rolled my eyes as I dropped my arms to circle Kat’s waist.
Lotho frowned as he glanced down at his now-empty bottle of vodka. “Where are we going again?”
Kat sighed.
“Right now, they want you at Mount Weather in Virginia,” Archer explained. Again. “If that changes—”
“You’ll call.” Lotho tapped the back pocket of his leather pants. Asshole still hadn’t found his shirt. “Got it.” He paused as he tossed the bottle to the floor somewhere to his left. Glass shattered. He smiled. “You have my word that we will be there. That is something I don’t mess around with.”
My gaze flickered to Hunter, and he nodded.
“It’s not like my kind or I will miss an opportunity to serve a little payback and get fed at the same time.” Lotho gestured at the closed door. “It’s been real nice chatting with you guys and we’ll be seeing each other again, but y’all got to go. None of you is welcome here, including you,” he said to Hunter.
He looked real torn up about that. Pushing off the wall, he didn’t even bother to hide his grin. “We’ll be in contact.”
Kat stood and I followed, more than ready to get the hell out of Dodge, but as we walked past Lotho, he suddenly stepped in front of Kat. I started to pull her back from him, but he was fast.
“You have balls bigger than the males in this room,” Lotho said, his face inches from her. “I like you. And I’d keep you if it weren’t for the fact that you’re part Luxen. So that’s probably good news for you. Boo for me.”
And then he kissed her. Full-on, mother-freaking kissed her.
Before either of us could react and I could unleash my fury, Lotho shifted into something that was nothing more than smoke and shadow, and was gone.
“I’m going to kill him,” I swore, feeling the Source crackling along my skin.
Kat jerked out of my grip, her face pale and lips tinged in blue, like she’d been making out with a Popsicle, and she swung on Hunter and Archer. “I want to leave right now.”
Hunter glanced at Archer. “Yeah, I think that’s a good idea, before this whole trip goes to waste.”
An hour later, we were finally topside. It was dawn the following morning, and I was still so angry that the metallic bitter taste filled my mouth with every breath I took.
“You guys are more than welcome to come back to Lore’s place if you want to chill out for a few hours before you hit the road again,” Hunter offered. “Get some rest. Grab something to eat. Whatever.”
As Kat climbed into the backseat of the Explorer, I glanced at Archer. We really could use the time to rest before we got back on the road. Kat had barely spoken the whole time it took to get out of the damn maze of underground tunnels, and I knew she was exhausted. Probably disturbed, too.
What do you think? I directed the question at Archer.
He opened the driver’s door. I think we could use the R&R and I think Lore and Hunter are good, um, people, but heads up, Kat doesn’t want to go back to the base.
My brows rose as I glanced into the interior of the backseat. She was fumbling with the seat belt. Smiling a little, I leaned in, brushed her fingers out of the way, and buckled her in. Do tell?
She wants to go home. She wants to see her mom. It’s all she’s really been thinking about for the last hour or so.
I sighed. I didn’t have the heart to even broach that subject with Kat. Visiting her mom would be risky—too risky.
“Thanks for the offer,” Archer said, turning to the Arum. “We’ll take you up on it.”
Hunter quickly gave him the directions before doing that shadow thing and taking the extraordinarily fast method of traveling. As Archer climbed into the driver’s seat and I got in the back instead of the front passenger seat, he pulled his phone out of the compartment in the center console and tapped the screen. He frowned.
“What’s up?” I asked.
He shook his head. “There’s a missed call from Luc. Let me check this out, but he’s probably just impatient, wanting to know how everything went with the Arum.” Getting situated in his seat, he retrieved the voicemail. The minute his gaze flickered up and met mine, I knew whatever he was listening to wasn’t good. When he lowered the phone, lines formed around his mouth. “Luc said . . . he said Nancy is missing.”
“What?” Kat asked, her chin jerking up.
“I don’t know. I need to call him,” Archer replied. A nugget of unease sprouted in my gut and grew as I listened to the one-sided conversation. While Archer quickly explained what had gone down with Lotho and that the Arum was on board, the worry over what the hell Nancy was up to didn’t lessen.
Archer hung up, dropping the phone in his lap as he twisted around to face us. “All right, so it looks like Nancy has gone MIA. Sometime after we left was the last time anyone at the base had seen her. Luc and General Eaton have no idea where she is.”
Kat glanced at me. “But what does that mean?”
“I don’t know,” he admitted. “Luc seems to think she’s probably heading to wherever those kids are stashed and he’s got some people on the lookout for her, but with Nancy . . . man, you never know with her.”
True. I didn’t know what to think about that. If everything worked out with the Arum and we successfully took down the Luxen invaders, yet Nancy disappeared off the face of the Earth, it wasn’t a good thing. No way was I living the rest of my life wondering where in the hell she was and if she was going to pop up again one day, when we least expected it.
“It’s not the biggest of our problems right now.” Archer’s eyes met mine, and for a brief second, they flickered over to Kat. “Nowhere near it.”
That was also true. “Luc will find her,” I said, and I had to trust in that. But as I got all up and close with Kat, maneuvering her surprisingly pliable body around so she was stretched out across the seat and her head was in my lap, I couldn’t stop thinking about Nancy Husher. Did she really go for those kids? Or was there something else? If I’d learned anything by being around her, it was that there was nothing the woman could do that would surprise me.
I leaned down, brushing my lips across Kat’s cheek. “Get some rest, okay?”
She smiled a little. “That sounds bossy.”
“Okay.” I tried again as Archer fired up the Explorer. “Take a nap.”
One brow rose. “That’s still bossy.”
I chuckled and brushed the hair off her cheek, sweeping it behind her ear. “Go to sleep.”
“You really suck at understanding what bossy means.” But she closed her eyes, and I’d swear by the time Archer figured out how to get out of the damn airport, she’d drifted off.
Lore lived on the outskirts of Atlanta, and even with the low-level traffic in and around the city, it took a while to get there. I tipped my head back against the seat and closed my eyes as Archer kept it quiet and my hand got all playful in Kat’s hair.