Chapter 13
Chapter Thirteen
Roxy
The tavern was full. Apparently, one of the locals had just mated, and the village was celebrating.
I guess that explained the “only one room at the inn” situation I found myself in.
We grabbed drinks and passed on the carvery dinner, since it was a good chance the menu tonight was Ferinian, and opted for buttered bread.
We found a standing table to eat and watched the festivities.
“A lot of these people have probably traveled here for the celebration. That’s going to make things more difficult,” Lothar said and took a bite of bread.
He was right. It was going to be a lot harder to pick the locals out of this crowd.
The newly mated couple hit the dance floor, and everyone surrounded them, cheering as they danced and seriously made out. I sipped my drink, not daring to look Lothar’s way, but I felt his eyes burning into me.
He shouldn’t want to look at me, and he sure as hell shouldn’t want to kiss me.
“I’m gonna go ask around,” I said and rushed off, disappearing into the crowd.
I worked my way around the tavern, showing B’s photo to everyone, but no one had seen him, or if they had, they weren’t talking.
Gods, I could still feel Lothar’s gaze on me, following me around the room.
As the night wore on, and no one admitted to having seen B, I was becoming more on edge, and honestly, I was having trouble holding it together.
“I’ve been watching you flit around the room all night, beautiful. I was hoping you’d come my way,” a deep voice said.
I turned and looked up. A tall male with shiny black horns and pointed ears grinned down at me.
He was handsome, leanly muscled, had black nails, and wore a lot of piercings and silver rings.
He had bad boy written all over him, and was totally Ursula’s type.
My gaze dipped to his plate, though the half-gnawed-on roasted foot with charred toenails was a major turnoff.
I grinned back at him, holding his vibrant green eyes. “I promise I was making my way over to you. You’re hard to miss,” I said and leaned against the wall facing him. “Are you from here?”
He grinned back, flashing white teeth. “Yeah, born and raised. You’re not, though, are you, gorgeous.”
“Nope, just passing through.” I pouted a little.
“I’m looking for a friend of mine actually.
” I knew exactly what this male liked, it was part of my skill set.
I knew how to give a person exactly what they wanted.
I could offer the personality traits they found most attractive and reel them in.
My new friend here liked sweet and a little ditsy.
“Yeah?” He sipped his drink and leaned in. “I might be able to help.”
I widened my eyes and tugged on the front of his shirt. “Could you really? That would be amazing. I’d be so grateful.”
His gaze darkened and slid down my body, and I giggled and preened.
“You got a picture of your friend?”
I nodded enthusiastically and pulled out my phone, opening to the picture of Beelzebub. “This is him.”
His gaze slid up from the picture. “Is he your mate?”
“Nope, I’m not mated. He’s just a good friend. We’ve been really worried.”
“We?”
A heavy arm landed on my shoulders. “That’s right, we.” Lothar’s eyes were burning red as he leaned in. “So you seen him or not?”
Fucking hell.
“Nah,” the male said, his lips curling in distaste. “Never seen him before in my life.” Then he glanced down at me, his displeasure still there, and strode off.
I shoved at Lothar’s chest, pushing him away. “What the hell was that?”
“What?” he asked as if butter wouldn’t melt.
“You know what you did,” I fumed. “We may as well leave. No one will talk to us now. You made me look like a manipulative asshole. You piss off the locals, everyone else will clam the hell up. Goddammit, Lothar.” I strode off, through the crowd and out onto the street.
He followed, seeming unruffled, pleased with himself in fact, and that just infuriated me more.
“You’re acting like a crazy person. You see that, right?” I fired at him.
“He didn’t know shit. He just wanted in your pants, and you were fucking falling for it,” he said, looking arrogant as hell.
“I wasn’t falling for anything! He had a freaking foot on his plate, Lothar. I was using his attraction to me against him. That’s literally what I do. You know this, we’ve already had this argument.”
His eyes were still red and showed no sign of changing. “I don’t like it, Roxy. I don’t like males using you that way, and you can’t make me believe different.”
“Dickhead.” I stormed off, because I was out of fight right then. We’d argued our way across three realms, and I was fucking exhausted.
He said nothing else, just followed me to the inn and up to our room. I didn’t talk to him as I grabbed my things and changed in the bathroom, and I continued to say nothing when I walked out and found him bare-chested and lying in bed with his hands behind his head.
Flicking off the light with more force than was necessary, I got in beside him and thumped my arm down on the covers between us several times, creating an invisible boundary, then squeezed my eyes closed.
We lay there in silence for several long minutes, and every second that passed, the tension in the room grew. Maybe it was just me, but I was positive I could feel a restlessness rolling off Lothar, as if he were coiling tighter and tighter, about to burst out of bed—or something.
I jumped when he suddenly did just that. He shoved the covers back, bounded out, stalked to the window, and shoved it open. He dragged in a deep breath, then another.
“What are you doing? It’s cold.”
“I need it open,” he grumbled.
“Well, I need it closed. This realm drops in temperature overnight. We’ll freeze.”
“You’ll be fine,” he said and strode to the wardrobe, opened it, dragged down another comforter, then threw it on top of me before getting back in bed.
I lay there, confused and now cold. “I can feel a draft. I’ll get frostbite on the end of my nose at this rate,” I said, tugging the covers higher. “What’s the problem? It’s not like it’s hot in here.”
“Drop it,” he said and tucked his hands behind his head again.
“Drop what? Your weird need to turn me into an ice statue?”
He said nothing.
“Is it the cleaning products they use?” I breathed deep. “It just smells fresh to me.”
He continued to say nothing.
“So it is the smell?”
“Drop it, Roxy,” he said again.
“Is it me?” I said, joking, and made a show of smelling my pits, and as expected, they were fine.
He was back to not answering.
I froze. “Lothar?”
Silence.
No. No freaking way. “Is it me?” I said again. “Do you think I smell?”
He cursed. “No, not smell exactly.”
“What!” I shot up. “You think I stink?” I couldn’t believe it.
“Fucking hell,” he muttered. “It’s not that you stink, it’s more that your scent, well, it kind of…repels me.”
“What!” I shrieked again. “I’m repellent?”
“You’re making it sound worse than it is,” he said.
“How is that possible? It sounds pretty horrific any way you put it.” I spun to him. “You truly think I stink? Oh gods, do all the hounds think I smell?”
“Roxy—”
“Lothar, tell me.”
“No…just me.”
I gripped the covers more tightly. “So right now, you want to—”
“Roxy, fuck. It’s fine most of the time, but in an enclosed space like this—”
“Oh gods, you want to throw up and run the fuck away, don’t you?”
“I don’t want to throw up,” he said roughly.
He wanted to get as far away from me as fast as he could. “Is it helping with the window open?”
“Yeah.”
My face was burning with humiliation, and I quickly rolled away from him. I couldn’t believe this. What the hell was going on? Why would I smell bad to Lothar—
It hit me like I’d run headfirst into a brick wall. I was going to kill Lucifer!
“We good?” Lothar muttered sleepily.
“Yep. Fine.” I would never be fine again.
Lothar’s breathing evened out, asleep in minutes, and as soon as I was sure he wasn’t going to wake up, I snatched up my phone from the bedside table.
Roxy: You made me stink!
Luci: I did no such thing.
An actual answer from him. At least that was something.
Roxy: Lothar said I stink.
Luci: Ahh, then yes, I did do that.
I bit back my scream of rage.
Roxy: Why would you do that?
Luci: Better to be safe than sorry.
My repellent stench to Lothar was a safety measure?
Roxy: Are you saying there’s a chance he could remember everything?
Luci: A small one.
If I wasn’t already lying down, I would have fallen on my ass.
I’d been worried it would happen, but told myself I was overreacting.
Now I knew it was a real risk. As much as I wanted to yell at Luci, it wouldn’t do any good.
It wouldn’t change anything. The only way to make sure everything didn’t unravel around me was to find Beelzebub ASAP and put some serious distance between me and Lothar.
Roxy: Any info on the fallen?
I couldn’t bring myself to say that bitch’s name.
Luci: I’m working on it. The angels are forcing me to barter for the information. We’re still in negotiations.
Shit. Lucifer wanted B found, badly. Whatever the angels wanted in exchange for the info must be big.
Roxy: Let me know as soon as you have anything.
I placed my phone back on the bedside table and rolled to my back, staring up at the ceiling.
What was I going to do? And where the hell was Beelzebub?
“That’s it, kitten.” His low, deep voice made me shiver. He made an mmmm sound, but it was gritty and my belly fluttered. “Rock those hips…yeah, take my fingers deeper.”
I slid my hand over his shoulder and down his arm to his wrist and gripped tight, holding him there. “I need you,” I whimpered.
He growled low. “It won’t be much longer. I promise, soon we’ll be together like we were meant to be.”
My eyes snapped open. It was still dark and my body was on fire. I was panting, sweating, a throbbing, aching need burning between my thighs from the dream.
Oh fuck.