“You know what I am, yet you just stand here making dinner.”
He reached up to a high cupboard to remove a bright blue box of rotini. I was so angry with him, I almost couldn’t appreciate his tight ass and the way his back muscles rippled when he stretched out his arm. “I’ll worry when you actually know what you’re capable of.”
“You got your answer and your painting. Give me my name. Who’s binding demons?”
His doorbell sounded. I planted myself in his way, but he lifted me up and set me aside so he could pass.
I stomped into his living room while Malik greeted someone in Arabic. I sat down on the sofa, intending to crash his dinner party.
He led a gorgeous woman with lustrous black hair and lush curves who was maybe a few years older than me into the room. Malik was thousands of years old so talk about cradle robber. “Lila, Nava. Nava, Lila.”
She approached me, hand outstretched, more for me to kiss than shake, her eyes aglow. “You are not what I imagined.” Her lilting voice with its trace of a Middle Eastern accent made my nipples harden and a low lick of heat unfurl inside me.
“I never am. You’re the Lila that Malik painted.” I stood up, pressing her hand between mine. Everything about Lila was flawless, from her dusky skin to the gentle curve of her smile.
“Yes.” Lila regarded Malik fondly. “I see my reputation precedes me.”
No reason why I should be the only one.
Malik chuckled. “Always playing coy, Lilith. You put a lot of work into your reputation.”
I crashed back onto my ass. “Lilith? Like Lilith Lilith?”
She settled into the chair beside me. “Guilty as charged. I prefer Lila these days.”
I sputtered for a few minutes while Malik got a platter of olives and assorted cheeses from the fridge and Lila watched me like I was amusing but not too bright.
In the Garden of Eden story, Lilith was human, not a demon. She was supposed to be Adam’s first wife. Gelman had said she was a witch. It was only later mythologies that referred to her as a demon. Granted, those were written by men and being both a witch and a woman with a strong sexuality would have been enough to earn her the demon label, but at some point, had she truly become something other than human?
“How the hell are you still alive?” I said. “What are you?” Heat slashed across my mouth, searing my lips together. Panicked, I thrashed in my seat, struggling futilely to open my mouth.
“Lila,” Malik chastised.
Lila reached for an olive, taking three dainty bites to finish it. “I don’t like her tone.”
I clawed at my face with icy fingers, making pleading noises. I no longer had lips, just a smooth expanse of skin. Bitch had eliminated my mouth. I hadn’t even liked that scene in The Matrix. Living it now was terrifying.
The lid rattled on the pot of boiling water. Malik ripped open the box of pasta and dumped some in the water. “She’ll make that infernal racket all through dinner and ruin my excellent sauce.”
“That’s on you for letting her stay.” Lila glared at me. “Stop whining.”
My jaw fell open. I gulped down air, running fingers over my lips. “Now would be a good time for that wine you’re so fond of.”
Malik set the timer on the stove with a beep, plucked the bottle off the counter and procured some glasses.
“Can I safely ask some questions?” I took the glass Malik gave me with shaking hands. At least they were no longer burned.
“You may ask, but it will cost you.” She accepted the glass Malik held out to her.
My heart was hammering in my throat, my magic slippery and uncontrollable. Sparks jumped off my skin.
“Watch the furniture.” Malik sighed. “Every time you people come over I have to call in my decorators to fix it.”
Lila chuckled. “Not like that. I want to experience a passionate memory of yours.”
Cautiously, I powered down. “Steal it?”
“No. Simply experience it. Relive it through you. It won’t hurt you in any way.”
“It won’t,” Malik said. Was I really going to trust the word of one psycho that the other one wouldn’t hurt me?
I examined the proposal for all the ways it could go wrong versus this opportunity to get answers, but no matter how I turned it over the request seemed fairly benign. “Deal.”
Lila placed her hand on my shoulder. “Think of a pleasurable sexual memory.”
My body went hot and tight, assaulted with images of Rohan’s hands on me, his lips, his cock.
Lila inhaled with a husky gasp and a shiver.
“What did you do?” I whispered, wrapping my arms around myself. My skin was prickly and ill-fitting, my core cold and queasy.
“I told you. I lived your memory. The rush off that one small hit… You are a very lucky girl.”
She glowed with satiated vitality, but I ached with a deep sorrow. She was right that it hadn’t hurt–physically. It was one thing to enjoy public sex, even get off on someone watching Rohan and me. That was from the outside. Lila had come into my memory and experienced it as I had, and in doing so diminished and tarnished it. I felt violated.
I wanted a shower. And to curl up at Rohan’s side and let being with him make everything better. I wished he was here now. I’d gotten used to us working as a team. “My questions?”
Lila waved a hand at me. “Ask away.”
I visualized Snowflake sitting behind me, lending me the strength to get through this shit show. “Do the witches know you’re still kicking?”
“I don’t know and don’t care. I don’t concern myself with witches, but I’m willing to make an exception about this binding business since Malik asked so nicely.”
More sputtering from me, this time narrowly avoiding splashing my clothes with the wine. “You’re the one who can figure out the purple magic?”
“Did you not tell her anything?” she chided Malik.
“It’s more fun not to.” He dropped into his chair, legs crossed. Lila tsked him.
My incredulity morphed into excitement. “Were you the witch that David made the deal with? To create Rasha?”
“The betrayer? Much to my everlasting regret.” Lila had only presented a beautiful human face up until now, but with that question, her eyes glittered with malice.
I hugged one of the sofa cushions to my chest, like that could protect me, seriously considering jumping out Malik’s thirty-storey window.
Again.
“I told you she was entertaining.” Malik helped himself to some goat cheese and a cracker.
Lila hissed at him.
I sat very still, not stupid enough to access my magic in her presence. “Was it because he’d fathered a demon?” Apparently, I was stupid enough to ask her another question.
Sprawled in his chair, one foot propped on the coffee table, Malik raised his hand. “Can I take this one?”
Lila reached for another olive. “You’re annoying and you never have anything sweet on hand.”