“Fuck,” I muttered, crushing the napkin in my fist. “I can’t just leave him there.”
“I’d call it even and walk away if I were you. You both took a fall for the other. Sentimental, sure. Romantic, perhaps. Ultimately, pointless. It’s done no good for either of you.” With a shrug and a shake of his dark head, Shya frowned. “Your attention should be on Lilah right now. She’s not the type to give up. And, I can assure you, her attention is very much on you.”
I drank down some of the hot coffee, needing the caffeine fix but finding it hard to enjoy. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“It means she’s more desperate than ever to break the curse. She’s lying low, staying out of touch. But, she’s not staying idle. I can promise you that. We must bind her, Alexa.”
“How?”
“I can do the binding, but I’ll need you to strip her power first. Your power over vampires makes you the one person with the best chance of success.”
That was suspicious. “Why can’t you do it?”
“She’s my queen.” Shya stiffened, appearing uncomfortable. “A binding is disrespectful but it won’t harm her. I can’t do that. You weaken her enough, and I can effectively bind her. It will render her powerless, but it will only be temporary. It should buy us some time.”
“Time for what?”
“To figure out what she needs to break the curse and make sure she never pulls it off.”
I pushed a hand through my long hair and stared out the window at the traffic. I didn’t want to do it. I didn’t want anything to do with Lilah or her curse. Now I had no choice because of the trouble she was bringing my way. Besides, I couldn’t turn my back and let her break the curse if I had the ability to stop her. Willow said my name meant ‘protector of mankind’. If Lilah returned to her dark goddess throne, all of mankind would suffer for it. It couldn’t happen, not if I could stop her.
“Fuck,” I repeated. “I miss the days of hunting down idiot vampires. I don’t have the stress capacity for this shit.”
“With great power comes–”
“Yeah, yeah,” I cut him off, holding a hand up to stop his clichéd comment. “I know.”
Shya drained his teacup. In a motion almost dainty, he ran a finger along the rim. “The night of the full moon. That’s when we do it.”
“That’s in three days. It’s also a risky time for me. You know, the whole werewolf thing.” I waited for his response, but he only stared blankly at me so I continued. “The wolf will be really strong. I’ve never denied it on a full moon night.” I purposely left out the fact that I couldn’t tap my power when in wolf form. That would be revealing a weakness to a demon; I wasn’t going to blunder into such a mistake.
“You can though, correct? The change isn’t dependent on the moon.”
“No. I can shift at will. The moon, it encourages the change. It calls to the wolf. I can resist it, but for how long I’m not sure.”
I’d seldom been in such a predicament when it came to the wolf or the full moon. I’d been doing this for enough years to be where I both wanted and needed to be when the moon was full, in the forest where I belonged.
“Then I guess we’ll have to find out.” Rising to leave, Shya added, “All magicks are at their strongest during the full moon. We need to do it that night. Be at my place before midnight. I’ll get Lilah there.”
I stood too, abandoning the last of my coffee. “Then there’s no reason why I can’t go after the FPA for Kale tonight.”
“I’d advise against it.”
I fell into step beside him. “I can’t leave Kale there. He wouldn’t leave me.”
The demon threw his head back and laughed, a sound so chilly in its intensity that it made my skin crawl. “And, here I recall you being so insistent the two of you are not lovers.”
“We’re not.” I shrugged it off. No point trying to explain it to him.
Shya held the door open for me, waiting for me to pass through. It was a polite gesture, but it also put a demon at my back. When we reached the parking lot, he stopped me with a light touch on my shoulder. Again, my skin crawled. Damn demons.
“I want to send Falon with you if you go. Don’t argue. I know he’s difficult, but the FPA has nothing in their arsenal that can harm him. He can protect you.”
I pursed my lips thoughtfully, searching his snake-like eyes for the real reason. “Or, he can spy on me for you. Make sure I’m not striking any deals with the FPA that you should know about.”
“That too.” The dazzling smile he flashed at me wasn’t without its charm. He seemed to be eternally pleased with himself.
“I think I’ll pass.” I headed for my car before he could stop me. “I’ll see you in three days.”
I was prepared for Arys’s adamant refusal upon returning to the house. So, when he met my announcement with a shrug, I was more than a little stunned. We stood in the kitchen. He watched me closely as I cleaned up after making a sandwich.