“Was that Harley?” Will murmured.
I chanced a glance over my shoulder and watched Harley sauntering down the hall toward the room we had just exited, balancing a bottle of champagne and a couple of flutes.
We caught Harley’s elevator and I crossed my arms while Will mashed the CLOSE button.
“You still think Harley’s the one, huh?”
“Who else could it be?”
“Nina’s a big girl, love. With, you know, fangs. She can take care of herself.” He slung an arm over my shoulders and pulled me close to him. I breathed in his clean, refreshing scent of bath soap and detergent. I allowed myself to rest my head against his shoulder, to consider the idea that the fate of the Underworld might not be on my shoulders for the next fifteen minutes.
“Fancy a pint?” Will asked when the elevator doors opened on the lobby.
I bit my lip, then smiled. “I fancy something with frosting.”
Will reflected my bright grin back. “I’m not really into all of that kinky stuff, but for you, love, I’m willing to risk the sticky.”
Chapter Twenty-Three
I slept restlessly. ChaCha was walking over me and covering me with hot doggie slobber. My mind alternately raced through every Underworld murderer scenario and images of beautiful red roses bursting into flames. I woke up with a start, and went nose to nose with Nina.
“Augh!” I screamed, and clutched at my chest. “My God, Nina, I told you not to do that.”
“I’m sorry,” she said, smiling sweetly. “I’ll send trumpeters ahead of me next time.”
My heart thundered in my ears. “That would be nice,” I yelled over the beat. “What are you doing in here?”
“I heard you tossing and turning.” She pulled her knees up to her chest, and dug her bare feet underneath my covers. “Want to talk?”
“I thought you were mad at me.”
She shook her head, pushing a lock of silky black hair over her shoulder. “I know you just worry about me.”
I nodded. “Not just you, Neens. This is big. I know I said that before, but I’m scared. This is big and it seems so close.” I looked at her; then I looked back at my bedspread. “And you and Harley are getting so close... .”
Nina slung a frozen arm over my shoulder and pulled me to her. “I told you, Soph, you and I are a package deal. I’m not going to go hightailing it off into the sunset with Harley.”
“Because that would make you burst into flames.”
Nina rolled her eyes. “Even when my novel gets picked up—”
“I’m not worried about you running off on a book tour with Harley, Nina. I’m worried about him being dangerous. His book—”
Nina held up a hand. “Soph, two days ago Dixon and VERM were responsible for all of this. A day before that, it was a fallen angel. Before that, it was random acts of demonic violence.”
“I wasn’t sure then.”
“And you’re still not. You’re looking for someone to fit your theory, and you’re making Harley fit. What about VERM? Their one goal in this afterlife is to restore vampires back to their former glory. Well, that and bring back the ascot.” She grinned. “Two major goals.”
“Nina, you know if you’re accusing VERM, you’re accusing Vlad.”
I could see Nina’s jaw stiffen as she gritted her teeth. “Not exactly. Dixon has his hands in VERM, too. He could be using them—using Vlad even—to do his dirty work. It would make sense, you know—the whole pull to bring the vampire population up by bringing the demon population down.”
“You really think VERM would have people out attacking demons—attacking me?”
Nina crossed her arms in front of her chest. The act wasn’t defiant, so much as challenging. “Do you really think my boyfriend would be out attacking demons—or you?”
I wanted to nod. I wanted to tell her, yes, that was exactly what I thought, but I couldn’t push that tiny, three-letter word past my teeth.
Instead, I looked over Nina’s head, looked at the clock, and said, “We’re going to be late for work.”