Chapter Nine
“Raine!”
I looked up from the computer screen where I’d been inputting my most recent patient’s information.
Cora, one of the ER’s nicest nurses, grinned at me as she approached. “You’ve got a patient asking for you.”
I stiffened. As demanded, Remy hadn’t contacted me over the past four days. Had he decided to show up in person now?
“Tall, dark, and handsome?” I asked warily.
Cora snorted. “Short, hairy, and smelly. Probably fractured his arm, too, but he refuses to get X-rays until he sees you.”
I relaxed. I’d probably just treated him before. Some patients felt more comfortable seeing a familiar face. We didn’t have any Level 1 emergencies now, so I could take the time.
“What bed number?”
“Seven,” Cora said.
I finished my inputting and went to ER bed 7, pulling back the privacy sheet. Then my professional smile froze.
“Ed?”
My mechanic sprang up from the hospital bed, wincing as the movement shifted his awkwardly bent arm.
“Raine, you gotta help me!”
I stifled my sigh. I helped everyone here, including assholes. “I will, but you need to let Radiology get an X-ray—”
“Not that,” he said, shoving an envelope at me. “You need to help me with him.”
I peeked into the envelope. It was stuffed with hundred-dollar bills. What?
“Here’s your money back.” Ed shoved the envelope at me again. “And Frank’s bringing your car right now. It’s fixed good as new, so we’re square now, right? You’ll tell him not to come back?”
“Tell who?” I asked, but I had a pretty good idea.
Want to really impress me? Make my mechanic stop ripping me off.
Done.
Now here Ed was, with my cash in hand and my car on the way. Guess Remy didn’t know a joke when he heard one.
“You know who.” Ed shuddered. “I can’t ever see the things he showed me again. I broke my arm running from them, and I think … I might have shit myself, too.”
From the smell, he had. What the hell had Remy shown him?
“He won’t bother you again,” I said firmly.
“Promise?” Ed’s voice quavered while tears rolled down his cheeks. Yesterday I’d have said nothing could make me feel sorry for Ed. Now I did.
“Promise,” I said, giving Ed my most reassuring smile. “Now, let’s get Radiology in here so we can get your arm fixed.”
Hours later, Ed was released with a cast and instructions to follow up with his primary doctor. Frank picked him up, and he handed me my car keys without looking me in the eye.
I took them, and finished my shift with growing ire. Yes, I’d wanted my car fixed, and no, I hadn’t enjoyed being ripped off, but I hadn’t wanted Ed terrorized! If Remy thought this was going to win points with me, he was wrong.
Frank had parked my car near the front of the ER. I got in the aging blue Honda, noting that the floors had been vacuumed and the interior had been wiped down. Then the scent of artificial pine hit me, and my stomach roiled.
Pine reminded me of that camping trip and my family’s slaughter. I tried to force those memories away as I rolled down all my windows. Still, that smell lingered the entire way home.
My mood was truly foul when I reached my floor and saw Remy outside my apartment door.
His thick black hair was brushed back, showing all of his stunning face, and the crisp lines in his steel-colored pants and his spotless white shirt made me feel like my medical scrubs had morphed into trash bags.
I shoved that feeling back. I’d been helping people all night while Remy had been busy scaring the hell out of them.
“If you’re expecting a thank-you, forget it” were my first words. “I never asked you to scare Ed literally shitless, let alone make him break his arm while running away from whatever freaky stuff you showed him.”
Remy shrugged, the simple gesture elegant. “I merely showed him the darker parts of his own mind. It’s not my fault that he fills it with such disturbing content.”
“People shouldn’t get what they deserve just because they deserve it,” I shot back.
His brows rose. “That statement makes little sense.”
I grunted. “You want what you deserve? I know I don’t.”
A measured look made me suddenly feel naked. Wow, now I wished I felt like I was covered with trash bags.
“You’re shockingly sweet,” he finally said.
Had he met me? “I’m the opposite of sweet, and you’re blocking my door.”
Remy moved aside.
I pretended I wasn’t hyperaware of him as I opened my door, but I felt every move he made as he leaned against my doorframe. He was close enough that his cologne teased my senses with faint hints of cognac and sugarcane, chasing away that hated pine scent.
I went inside and left the door open behind me. Yes, I should slam it in Remy’s face, but he’d probably just do something magical to get inside anyway. The sooner I heard him out and rejected whatever he offered, the sooner he’d leave.
Then I’d slam the door in his face.
Remy’s gaze took in my studio apartment. The tiny kitchen was clean, but I hadn’t made the bed, and my clothes spilled out of the top of my laundry hamper. I’d have to spend hours at the laundromat to get them all clean. Since I’d been working the past few days, I hadn’t had time.
“Home sweet home,” I said with false brightness.
My cat came in from the bathroom. Belle gave me a heavy-lidded look that widened when she saw Remy. The only other person Belle had seen in my apartment was the burglar who the Beast had devoured into ashes. No wonder Belle hissed at Remy and fluffed out her fur in warning.
Remy made a low, rumbling sound.
At once, Belle’s hair smoothed out and her hissing stopped. She then ran past me to twine around Remy’s legs, purring.
I gave Remy a jaded look. “That’s cheating.”
He grinned while he bent to pet Belle. “Nonsense. Wardens and cats have had a long, amicable history. Cats are drawn to magic, and Wardens have an abundance of it.”
Clearly. Belle was already letting Remy scratch behind her ears. I’d had to feed her Fancy Feast for two weeks straight before she let me do that.
Remy gave Belle a final scratch and straightened. “I have a proposition for you.”
Of course he did. He hadn’t come here just to make friends with my cat. “Does it end with me being ‘kept’?”
“Yes,” he said bluntly.
Points to him for being honest, at least. “Then forget it.”
Remy rested his hand on the countertop. Belle immediately leapt up there and rubbed her head on it. Faithless feline.
“My definition of that word is far different than yours,” Remy said, giving Belle another stroke. “I wouldn’t put restrictions on your activities, and your living accommodations would be considerably upgraded.”
I stiffened. “This place might look like a dump to you, but it’s my dump, and I like it because—”
“The Beast hates it,” Remy finished, shocking me.
How could he know that?
Remy gave me a charming smile. “The Beast prefers the woods, mountains, or other open spaces. You rarely ever find it in cities. If you do, it’s never in small, confined units stacked on top of each other like this apartment building.”
Yes, the Beast hated it here. I felt that the moment I walked into this building. It’s why I stayed. Call me petty.
“Still,” I managed to get out. “Pets are kept. Not people, and certainly not me, so the answer’s no.”
Remy’s smile never slipped. “I know a thousand different ways to force you to say yes, but I won’t use any of them. You’ve earned the right to choose this for yourself.”
His arrogance was astounding. “Is one of your powers shrinking heads? Because yours is so ego-inflated, it’s taking up most of this room. You think I should be grateful that you’re letting me make up my mind about my own life?”
Another elegant shrug. “I’m a Warden. We enforce truces between races so powerful they’ve repeatedly soaked this world with blood. The ancient Battle of Kadesh wasn’t really between the Hittites and the Egyptians; it was the Basilisks versus the Nemtytes, and the first Warden stopped it.”
“Nemtytes?” I said.
“You’ve seen them on Egyptian hieroglyphs. They have the head of a falcon on the body of a person.”
Those things were real?
“Other races have also used the supernatural version of chemical warfare on humans. The Black Plague wasn’t caused by bacteria; it was magic.
Once again, a Warden ended it. That’s why, as Warden, I normally don’t ask at all before doing what’s necessary to ensure peace on my lands, let alone ask nicely. ”
“Guess you do think I should thank you,” I muttered. “Well, Warden, that’s a fascinating history lesson, but my answer’s still no.”
His stare became that laser one that made me want to take a step backward. “Oh, but you will accept my offer.”
My chin jutted out. “Will I?”
Remy came nearer. “Yes, because of your only true fear.”
It might have been his acoustic power that sent chills down my spine. It might have been me sensing that he’d already guessed what that was. Either way, tension coated the room, as inescapable as humidity during a Deep South summer.
“You think you know what it is?”
“Yes.” The single word thrummed through me.
“That first night, you told me you wanted to be free from the Beast only if I could prevent it from entering into anyone else. That’s what you fear—losing control long enough for the Beast to jump into another host. If it does, you know the Beast will wreck that person’s life as thoroughly as it’s wrecked yours. ”
I drew in a breath that shuddered.
I hated the Beast, sure. It had slaughtered my mother and grandmother, turned me into a murderer at fifteen, kept me from having any real friendships, let alone any real relationships, and killed my dreams. And this was the best I could hope for.
Worst-case scenario, I’d get imprisoned for one of the Beast’s many murders.
Or get turned into a vivisected guinea pig if the wrong higher-ups in the government found out what I was.