“Save you?” he frowned.
A long-suffering sigh jerked him back to the present. Rumpelstiltskin had his upper lip curled and was looking at them in obvious revulsion. “Have I got your attention yet?” he sneered. “Good. I’ve not got all day.”
“More deals to fashion, Lucifer? More lives to enslave?” Aeric retorted.
“Oh, something like that,” Rumpel chuckled, “tell me, hunter, how is Claudia these days? Hmm? It’s been a while since I’ve seen the spry lass. The way she used to bend—”
An inhuman roar sprang from Aeric’s lips and he did lunge at the imp then. Smoke engulfed him, the fumes thick and cloying, smelling of flowers and sulfur and then a decidedly firm hand shoved into his sternum.
Lissa’s brows were set, and apart from her face and one arm, no other part of her was visible. “Stop it now!” she roared. “Do not let him get to you. I will not let you destroy yourself for whatever male pride you feel you have to save. Whoever this Claudia is, if you want to get her back, then you need to set this male ego aside and stop!”
Aeric gave her a withering glare. “You do not understand—”
Pointy little fangs protruded from her mouth. “I understand enough. You want to get through Wonderland, you want to find the creature—”
Rumplestiltskin snorted. “Find the creature? Oh, that is rich. Lissa. Lissa. Lissa.” He shook his head, laughing quietly under his breath. “That is rich.”
This time it was Lissa’s turn to shoot him a glare full of fury and hate.
Holding up his hands palm out in a sort of ‘peacemaker’ gesture, Rumpel grinned.
“Enough! The both of you,” Lissa snapped. “Rumpel, you need him to make a deal. Aeric, you need him to get out of an impossible situation.”
Rumpelstiltskin only laughed harder. A curved buck knife manifested in his hands, taking the tip to his nails he began cleaning them out. “I find this highly amusing, my dear. Forgive me, I can be civil when I must I suppose.”
Aeric grabbed a hold of her wrist, and just like when she was in feline form, the touch of her soothed the beast inside of him. “Do not ask me to do this, Lissa. Rumpel and I have history.”
“True enough!” The imp clipped his head.
Aeric snapped around, feeling his body buzz and swirl, calling the sand to him. The killing sand that he’d wrap around the imp’s body to strip all the flesh off, forcing him to beg and plead for his life before gleefully dealing death’s blow.
“See,” Rumple said, “I told you someday you’d appreciate the killing sands. In fact, should you ever learn to harness it properly,” his tone dripped contempt, “you’re quest will succeed.”
Lips curling into a tight snarl, it was all Aeric could do not to snap the devil’s neck. The last thing he needed was to be told how to use this ill-gotten power. “You did this to me!”
“No. I did not. I cannot do anything. You know who fooled you, how she tricked and deceived you. I was merely the vessel used to do it.”
“Aeric, stop!” Lissa swatted his arm with her paw until she captured his attention again. “Look at me.”
His chest ached with a burning need to do the smirking pretty boy bodily harm, but looking into her eyes stilled the fury of the beast inside. “I’m looking.”
“Good. I need you,” Lissa gritted out, forcing him to keep his eyes on hers. “I cannot do what needs done without you, do you understand?”
Something about her words struck a chord in him. “What do you need done? I can do it without him? You must trust me, I will do it.”
Jumping out of his arms, she transformed back to a woman, and the shift made his breathing hitch, his body warm, and his head spin. Oddly, she was mostly visible this time. The only thing missing was her left arm.
She palmed his face and he swore if he closed his eyes he could feel her other hand, her ghostly one, cupping him too.
“You have two choices, accept the deal with the devil. Or die. That is it. What will it be?” Her sweet breath whispered across his lips.
On the walk here Aeric didn’t think of his history with Rumpelstiltskin, didn’t think of Claudia’s deception, how she’d forever shattered him. How her deal with the devil had ruined his life.
He’d put it all aside because he’d believed it’d been so long ago, that surely by now he was over it, that he could move on from that night the way he’d moved on from Claudia.
And he’d believed that, until he’d set eyes on that familiar pretty boy face—wearing his perpetual devilish grin, and riding with thunder between his thighs.