CHAPTER NINE || BRYAN
H ours later, I woke up in stages, enveloped in the warm Tobias scent of cinnamon and nutmeg. His strong arms were wrapped around me protectively and the heat from his body was so blissfully nice that I could have died right then and there, a happy vampire.
Tobias was pressed up close against me and I could feel the heat and hardness of him against my ass, even through the jeans I’d fallen asleep in. It caused my own cock to throb, and I belatedly realized that I was hard too.
So hard, in fact, that it ached.
Half asleep and still a little groggy, I rubbed my ass against him, biting my lip with my sudden desire. A small needy noise built up in the back of my throat, begging to be released.
If Tobias was less of a boy scout, or if I was just a little more of a monster, one of us would pull down my jeans enough so that he could ease his hot hardness deep inside me. It would feel so good to have him buried to the hilt, taking his pleasure—
“Good morning,” Tobias breathed, which was the only thing that actually stopped me from moving to yank my pants down.
That snapped me wide awake.
Holy hell.
My eyes flew open and I froze, feeling like ice water had been dumped over me.
“How long have you been awake?” I demanded, horrified.
I rolled over to face him, which wasn’t any better, because the movement pressed me right up against him. Only a few thin layers of highly tearable clothing separated us from each other. A bit of vampire strength or one well-cast spell and we could be pressing up against each other, completely naked.
“Um, hi,” Tobias grinned down at me. His eyes danced with amusement. “This is a new way to wake up. Not that I’m complaining.”
I gave him a shove—using human levels of strength only—and pushed him away. “Get off me.”
“Hey, you were the one who just jumped me , mister,” Tobias informed me, his grin never wavering. “I was over here being peaceful. And I’ve been awake for almost an hour, by the way.”
I glared at him, but I felt relieved to have something to bat at him with. “You’ve just been, what? Watching me sleep? That’s creepy.”
“You looked so calm and happy. I didn’t want to ruin it.”
“Weirdo.”
“If you say so.” He paused, a sly sort of smile darting across his lips. “Hey, just out of curiosity… did you have any more nightmares?”
From the smug way he said it, it was clear that we both knew what my answer would be.
I glared back at him, but it was extremely half-hearted. Because, for the first time since I had woken up from the compulsion, I had, in fact, slept without any disturbances at all.
“Let’s just focus on hunting ghosts,” I said sulkily, which caused his smile to widen. “After I’ve had some coffee. And a shower. Alone. ”
My stomach growled and I grimaced, hoping he hadn’t heard it. I rolled out of bed and beelined to the bathroom, trying to hide my hardness as much as possible.
“It’s nothing to be ashamed of,” Tobias called after me after I had slammed the bathroom door shut between us. My vampiric hearing caught his words just fine. He added, “Say the words and I’d be more than happy to help you with that , too.”
I glowered at the shower wall, fighting the urge to go back into the motel room and make him put his mouth where his money was. Instead, I did my best to pretend I hadn’t heard him. After all, it wouldn’t do anything good to give either one of us any more bad ideas than we already had.
*
“Look, are you going to help me or not?”
“Of course I am,” Tobias replied.
It was an hour later, and we’d left the motel to go grab breakfast at the diner down the street and discuss our new arrangement. Thankfully, the weather forecast for the day was overcast skies with the chance of rain, which meant I’d actually be functional during daylight hours.
Tobias flashed me a grin that seemed suspiciously genuine. “I told you before, anything you need. Anything at all. Just say the words.” He paused long enough to waggle his eyebrows at me suggestively—it had been an awful idea to wake up together, because it seemed like both of us were , in fact, getting some impressively bad ideas—then he added, “Anyway. So, we need to figure out what type of ghost this is.”
“We can go back after breakfast. We’ll just redraw the manifesting sigils—”
“It tried to kill you.”
“I’m hard to kill.”
“We’re not doing that. Instead, we’re going to interview Lisa.”
“Lisa,” I replied blankly. His statement was so out of left field that I forgot to even get annoyed with him that he had shut me down so quickly. “Am I supposed to know who that is?”
“Lee Chamberlain’s wife. Maybe she saw the spirit manifest. We should ask her.” He sighed. “Preferably before we head back into the house that almost killed you.”
“Can’t wait.”
“I know,” he scowled at that. “I’m not used to doing this the hard way.”
“You can still leave,” I suggested innocently. “Any time you want. If this all gets too spooky or whatever.”
“Do you know what my job is in the coven?” Tobias asked me, looking so smug that I wanted to wipe the look off his face through any—and I did mean, any— means necessary. Said means probably would have involved a lot of making out with him, which wouldn’t have helped my cause any.
But then I paused, realizing I actually didn’t know what his job had been in the coven. We’d never really talked about Tobias, nor his life. Basically, the only thing that I knew about him for certain was that he was my destined true love and all that jazz. And that he was pretty much annoyingly perfect in every single way.
And to my own dismay, I found that I was far more interested than I should have been.
Playing it cool, I shrugged, then took a sip of my own coffee. Then I winced, setting the mug back down onto the counter. Even with a half a cup of cream and three packets of sugar, it still tasted like hot garbage.
“I understand that this place is as dive-y as it gets, but seriously… how do you screw up drip coffee?” I complained.
“You really are a Seattleite. I was beginning to wonder, actually.”
I rolled my eyes, inwardly pleased that I had successfully feigned enough nonchalance that I wouldn’t seem as desperate as I actually was for the details of his life. “So, what’s your job in the coven, then?” I said, trying to sound as casual and uninterested as possible. “Distract me from this deeply upsetting coffee experience.”
One of the waitresses behind the long bar must’ve overheard me, because she shot a nasty look in our direction in between hanging order tickets for the fry cooks on the other side of the serving counter.
Tobias leaned forward, his voice dropping. “When there’s a spirit that causes the coven or anyone else in the city trouble, they call me. And then I put it down.”
I felt my eyebrows draw together. “You’re joking. Like, you do this for a living? Banish ghosts, I mean?”
He shrugged, looking almost embarrassed. “Sometimes it’s demons. Or even weirder spirits from other planes of existence. It’s a really big universe out there and witches can sometimes conjure some really funky stuff, and then they can’t put it down. When that happens, they call me.”
“So, you’re saying we’ll have no problem with this ghost, then. It’ll be over before you can say ‘boo.’”
I couldn’t quite hide the disappointment from my own voice.
Except, why was I disappointed?
Didn’t I want to get this over with as quickly as possible now that Tobias had strong-armed himself into being my partner? And hopefully before I made even worse life choices than asking him to hold me while I slept?
Tobias gave me a small half-smile, like he could hear my thoughts. “It’ll still take plenty of time. We’re going to do this right, which is the only way to do it.” He leaned in and added, speaking in a whisper, “It’s gonna be slower than usual for me, since I don’t have a couple dozen witches from all over the city researching everything they possibly can about the haunting, so that I can just go in and dispatch the spirit. We still need to figure out what type of spirit we’re dealing with.”
“Why do they call you, though?” I asked immediately, to cover up the fact that his words had caused relief to spread through me. Though I was still worried he’d be able to see it too easily on my face. My sister, Sarah, had always told me that my face was too expressive, that she could read anything and everything on it. I added, also dropping my voice with a furtive look around to make sure no one was listening. “I mean, they’ve got a lot of other options, right? Like, a hundred other witches and warlocks? Why you , specifically?”
“Way more than a hundred, actually. But I was the one who trained with Ms. Davenport, who was the unquestioned expert on spirit conjuration and banishment for our coven for about a decade. I was her student for nearly two years. I was the only one who lasted that long. It would have been longer, but—”
He broke off and a shadow went across his face. He blinked, then settled back in his seat, falling silent. For an instant, he looked so lost that it took everything I had not to get up, slide into the spot next to him in the booth, and draw him into a huge hug.
I kicked that urge away with force.
It probably wasn’t the most professional reaction for me to have. And our relationship needed to be strictly platonic from now on, or else it would get super weird and messy faster than I could blink.
Odd, how I was half an inch from cheerfully committing murder yesterday, but today I felt strangely… glad … that he was here with me.
The only problem was, his pulse was still hammering in his throat. And so was everyone else’s. I could block it all out… for now. But I wouldn’t be able to ignore it for much longer. I wasn’t getting hyper fixated or anything, but it was getting harder and harder for me to control my urges.
It had been way too long since I’d last fed.
My maker, Veronika, had been a huge fan of humans and she had warned me never to kill anyone to satisfy my appetites. Instead, she had taught me how to find a suitable victim, lure them away, feed upon them without hurting them, and then erase their memories afterward. No real harm done—they’d probably have a mild headache in the morning and an hour or two of missing time. But I no longer trusted myself to do that. I didn’t even trust myself to feed on the willing donors who worked for the vampire king, even under the supervision of other vampires. I was terrified that I would go too far. That I would hurt someone, the way I had hurt Teresa and the others.
I’d just be a monster then, wouldn’t I?
It took me a very long moment, but I realized that both Tobias and I were staring at each other, lost in our respective thoughts.
“You don’t need to tell me,” I said, breaking the silence between us. “I get it. You cared about her.”
“No. I want you to know who I am. You should know—I’m not this crazy guy who dropped into your life without warning, talking about destiny and shit. I’m just me. A regular person.”
“Who can shoot lightning bolts from his fingertips or whatever,” I shot back. “And I’m pretty sure I’m the one who dropped into your life without any warning.”
“Doesn’t change anything. Sorry, not sorry.”
“Figured as much. Look, I’m not ready to run off into the sunset with you, but it’s not like I don’t want your eternal happiness and whatever. We’re fated and all that, right?”
The back and forth had snapped some of the tension and Tobias seemed to recognize it just as much as I did, because he shot me an almost grateful look, like I had somehow given him exactly what he needed to actually tell me something real about himself. Like the banter had just made this easier on him in some crucial way.
He took a deep breath before plunging in. “When I was seventeen, there was a powerful demon that some idiot mundane with latent magical powers had conjured up. The demon was off hurting people and threatening to expose magic to the mundane folks. And so Ms. Davenport went to face it with a team of powerful and highly trained coven members.” He paused, swallowing hard. “It killed all four of them.”
“I’m sorry,” I whispered. It sounded idiotic to my own ears, the same way ‘sorry’ always does, whenever you actually mean it.
“If I’d been there, I could have stopped it,” Tobias replied, the pain in his voice unmistakable. “I did stop it. I banished it on my own, when I heard what it had done.” He gave a bitter laugh, then dragged in a shuddering breath. “My abilities give me a huge advantage when it comes to banishing spirits. If it had been me fighting it, she wouldn’t have needed to die.”
“You were her student. She was doing her best to protect you. Which means she cared.”
Tobias blinked rapidly. “Most people who trained under her only talked about how cold she was, how merciless, how much she demanded from them. They didn’t usually last very long. But she was only like that because she understood the danger. What none of them understood was that—yeah, you’re right—she was trying to protect them.” He let out a breath and added, “But who was there for her?”
“You were. You put down the creature that hurt her.”
“It doesn’t matter. That’s the thing. It didn’t bring her back. It didn’t make everything right. I didn’t save her.”
“It wasn’t your job to save her.”
“Wasn’t it?”
“You cared about her too. I’m sure she knew that. You’re not exactly cagey about it when you care about someone.”
Tobias scoffed a bit at that. “Our circumstances are a little different from my usual, Bryan.”
I didn’t even bother to dignify that with a response. Instead, I waited him out. After a long moment, he sighed, scowled a bit at me, and added, “But yeah, okay, fine. She was like a mother to me. She taught me everything I know about putting down spirits. And other supernatural creatures.”
“She sounds like she was formidable.”
“She was a badass,” he agreed, the ghost of a smile tugging at his lips. “And yeah, I guess I loved her. Once you got to know her, it was hard not to. She had this beautiful flower garden.” His voice went thick. “She doted on it. She loved it so much.”
I returned his smile, but internally, I was suddenly panicking. I had encouraged exactly this, but now that I was here, I had no idea what to say.
How on earth could my warlock be so damn sad? And how was I going to distract him from it? More importantly, why did it suddenly seem like the most important thing in the world to me that Tobias not be trapped in his own grief?
“So, I’m sorry about earlier. I kind of freaked a little.”
“This is a freaky thing,” Tobias said, giving me a tentative smile. It was still a little sad around the edges, but beggars couldn’t be choosers. “And you, what? You’ve decided to buy me a cheap cup of coffee to make it up to me?”
“I decided to allow you to buy me a cheap cup of coffee to make it up to you,” I corrected.
He laughed and I was relieved to hear that it sounded almost genuine. “I’d buy you a hundred cups of cheap coffee if you wanted me to.”
I grimaced down into my cup. “I’d settle for one good cup, honestly.”
He shook his head, grinning at me. “Such a snob.”
I shrugged, secretly relieved that he no longer seemed trapped in his own pain. “I like what I like. I can’t help it.”
Tobias frowned thoughtfully at that, considering me. Then, with a quick glance around to make sure no one was watching us, he took my mug and pulled it closer to him. He held his hand over it, whispered something in a language I couldn’t place, then made a swirling motion over the cup.
“Try it now,” he said smugly, pushing it back toward me across the table.
I took an experimental sip and my eyes widened. It was perfect. Every bit of it was exactly what I needed it to be—sweet, sharp, strong, with subtle notes of chocolate and berries. It was exactly what my taste buds craved, exactly when they craved it.
It was, in fact, the best cup of coffee I’d ever had.
I meant to savor it, but instead, I practically downed it in one gulp, then wiped my mouth with the back of my hand.
We grinned at each other.
“Nice trick, warlock. Wonder if you do birthday parties, too?”
Tobias and I both froze at the same moment.
Standing next to our booth were two men, both of them about our age, watching us with matching steely expressions. One of the pair was Native American. He was gorgeous in a knife-edged sort of way, with short spiky black hair, brown-black eyes, and high cheekbones. He wore a leather bomber jacket.
The other one was almost as pale as a vampire, and he’d clearly seen the inside of a gym. He was built like a linebacker, with thick ropes of muscle everywhere. His hair was buzzed short. He was still handsome, albeit in a very stereotypical jockish sort of way. Except that, unlike most jocks I’d ever seen, his dark gray eyes were cold, unfathomable, and hard like granite. He was dressed head-to-toe in black denim, with matching black cowboy boots.
I smelled gunpowder and steel. My eyes dropped to the telltale bulges in their jackets.
Both of them were armed.
“What’s a warlock?” Tobias asked, cocking his head to the side, clearly intent on playing dumb. “You guys must have the wrong idea. Halloween isn’t for another four months.”
Leather jacket shook his head. He gestured to the coffee mug. “We know what you did. And that means we know what you are.” He glanced over at me. “You a warlock too, pretty boy?”
“You don’t get to look at him, and you don’t get to fucking talk to him!” Tobias growled, moving from playing dumb to more menacing than I’d ever seen him, like someone flicking a light switch. “He stays out of this.”
Leather Jacket gave Tobias a sharp-edged smile. “We’ll stay out of your way, so long as you stay out of ours .”
Cowboy boots shot his partner a dark look, like he wanted to argue.
But then he turned back to us, scowling. “What he means is stay the hell out of our case. The lady from the morgue was sure there was something weird about our story after she ran into you two, even though she wasn’t sure why. She mentioned it to one of her cop friends, who called to check us out. You two almost blew our cover.”
“It’s lucky that we have friends in low places,” the other one muttered, seemingly to himself. “Look, If you’re going to fuck with someone’s mind, warlock, at least have the decency to put something else there. Don’t leave a big blank spot so that the person can start asking questions. It’s sloppy .”
“You’re the other FBI agents she mentioned, then.” Tobias laughed. He shook his head. “What, exactly, did you mean your case? What in the hell are you talking about?”
“Quit playing dumb. You know exactly what we mean,” Leather Jacket said. “The fucking house. It’s our job to fix it. Not yours. Not his,” he jerked his thumb in my direction. “Our job, our case. We mean it. This is your one and only warning. Get out of this town and don’t come back.”
Something went hard and cold and dangerous in Tobias’s gaze. “No.”
Cowboy Boots blinked, surprised. He traded a look with Leather Jacket before turning back to Tobias. Apparently, he wasn’t used to their tough guy act failing.
“No?”
“No,” Tobias repeated, his voice a rough and dangerous whisper. The lights overhead flickered ominously. “You want to threaten us? To threaten me? To threaten him ?”
The light exploded overhead, as though to punctuate that last syllable.
It was then that I realized I had never seen Tobias angry before.
I didn’t like it one bit.
“You don’t know who we are,” Leather Jacket shot back, clearly unfazed. “If you did, you’d leave, just because we asked you so nicely.”
Cowboy boots grinned at us, his granite eyes dancing dangerously. “If you were smart, that is.”
“Can’t do that,” Tobias gritted out. “It’s important to someone I care about that we stay. And that’s exactly what we’re going to do. And since you gentlemen were kind enough to make us an offer, let me make you a counteroffer. You two are the ones who can get the hell out of town. If you ever come back, there will be hell to pay. You know what I am. You know what I’m capable of. But I promise you, you don’t know the half of it.”
This was accompanied by the window beside us icing up so completely and abruptly that it completely obscured the view out into the parking lot. The door to the diner blew open to unleash a howling wind that caused several patrons to let out startled yelps. The lights in the entire restaurant began flickering.
“Cool parlor tricks,” Cowboy Boots sneered before turning to his friend. “What do you think, Danny? Should we be worried?”
Danny grinned at Tobias. “Cast some magic on us, warlock. Hit us with your best shot. It’ll be funny to see what happens.”
Cowboy boots added, “We’re hunters , jackass. We’re warded against witchcraft. We’re protected from anything and everything.”
My blood froze to ice in my veins.
Veronika, my maker, was a hunter too. But she worked alone. And for good reason. Most hunters killed vampires on sight. She had warned me that most of the human hunters out there were to be avoided. As a rule, they’re merciless, they hate anything remotely related to the supernatural, and they’re absolutely lethal.
Before I could stop him, Tobias gave them a thin, terrifying smile. “Figured. The problem is… you guys seem to suffer from a lack of imagination.”
With that, all the silverware on the table spun in the direction of the two men. Every piece of cutlery quivered in place, as if eagerly awaiting Tobias’s command before launching themselves at the hunters.
“I might not be able to do magic on you ,” Tobias whispered dangerously. “But please don’t think that makes you safe from me. I’m a creative sort of guy. And you have no idea what I’m willing to do if you threaten me or anyone I love ever again.”
Danny eyed the silverware on the table, gave us a dark look, and took his friend by the arm. “Let’s go, Michael. It’s not worth making even more of a scene. You remember what happened in Phoenix?”
Michael scowled at Danny but then sighed. He nodded. “Yeah, you’re right. It took us weeks to shake the police.” He added, glancing back over at us, “But I’m betting these two warlocks will clean up after us this time. They don’t want any of these Podunk assholes knowing about all the things that go bump in the night any more than we do.”
Danny gave a long-suffering sigh, shooting Michael an exasperated look. Then he turned back to us and most of the heat was gone from his expression. “Look, just get out of town and we don’t have to duke it out. But this is our case. If we see you again, we’re going to have a problem.”
Tobias gave him an icy glare in reply. The cutlery began to shake more violently on the table.
Michael let himself be towed away by Danny, but he turned back and glared at us. “You’ve been warned, asshole. That’s all I’m saying. Do the smart thing. Hit the road and don’t come back.”
After they left, there was absolute silence all around us.
One long, horrible moment later, I realized that every single person in the diner was staring at Tobias and I with wide, disbelieving eyes.
And even worse than that, I had a sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach that we had just made enemies of two potentially very dangerous, very lethal men.
And that this wouldn’t be the last time we crossed paths with them.