A Demon's Work Is Never Done: Latter Day Demons, Book 2 (10 page)

"Soup and sandwich, High Demon style," Kory called it and fed me with the largest cooking spoon Opal could find.

Then the werewolf physician arrived, assessed the situation and opted to wrap my hands with the healing gel and gauze. He said our other burns were healing quickly on their own and with one or two more sleeps, we should be well enough to go back to humanoid.

"Leave your hands wrapped," the physician said. "I'll allow a bath tomorrow. We'll remove the gauze then, check the burns and re-bandage, as necessary."

"Baby, will you let me comb your hair?" Kory asked, once the physician packed his things and left.

"I feel like a mess," I hung my head. "I can't even brush my teeth or anything."

"We have mouthwash for now," Kory gave me a lopsided grin. "Teeth brushing is for later."

It took more than an hour for Kory to comb out my hair, which still held bits of oatmeal in it. He was so gentle during the process that I fell asleep after the first half hour.

Chapter 6

Kordevik

"Her hands were burned repeatedly, when she pulled that net out of my skin and scales," I explained to Anita. Lexsi was asleep in her bed and had been since we'd arrived home an hour earlier. "Some of those burns went to the bone," I added.

We were back to humanoid, although Lexsi's hands were still wrapped in the healing gel provided by the werewolf physician in New York.

"That hurts, just thinking about it," Anita grumbled.

"How's Watson?" I asked.

"Hmmph," Anita snorted.

"Please tell me he's not still hung up on that fucking, two-faced girlfriend," I said.

"I don't know what's up with him. I just cook and clean around him, that's all." Anita tossed up a hand as if to say she'd given up on him.

"I can rip an ear off—or blister it when I yell," I offered.

"Don't intervene on my behalf," Anita said. "If he doesn't wake up and smell the bacon frying after a while, then we're done."

"How's Sandra?"

"Sandra's fine. She and Mason are getting along like a house on fire. Sorry. Didn't mean to use that particular saying," Anita winced.

"No problem. Just don't say fire net, okay? That's what caused the problem. Ordinary fire is nothing to a High Demon. Tell me about Sandra and Mason. I need a good, cheerful story." I lifted the bottle of beer I'd hauled from the fridge after getting Lexsi settled in bed. The cold liquid felt good as I swallowed it.

"Not much to tell, yet, but there have been lots of long conversations between those two, followed by plenty of glances and sighs, if you know what I mean. If her now-deceased husband weren't so deceased, Mason would probably deal with that problem himself."

"I see." I took another swig from the bottle. "What about Farin and Tibby?"

"Tibby's in constant training mode because this is a championship fight. Farin follows him to the gym every day and stays until he's done. Most of the time, that's late. Two more cousins and Tibby's brother have joined Diego in providing bodyguards for both Farin and Tibby. After that debacle you had with the opponent's fight promoter in D.C., they're making sure nobody approaches Farin that they don't know."

"Good for them," I said emptying the bottle and rising from my barstool to get another. "The way I feel right now, I'd probably kill Charlene Devangi if I saw her. Tibby's family can keep her away from all of us."

"Tibby's abuela is coming to the fight. I hear that's a big thing with all the rat shifters."

"Maybe she's a legend or something in their community."

"Maybe." Anita pursed her lips and considered that for a moment. "Tibby's never said her name—he just calls her Abuela."

"Have you looked him up by his real name?" I asked.

"Everybody knows Tiburon Snark Demonio Diaz. You don't have to look him up."

"Maybe somebody mentions his mother in all that. If that's true, maybe you can go backward and get to his grandmother."

"You know, you're pretty good for a thickheaded High Demon," she pointed a finger at me.

"Wow. That's faint praise if I ever heard it." I popped the top off my second bottle of beer and drank a third of it in two swallows.

"Sunset in two hours," Sandra walked into the kitchen. "Any more of that?" she nodded at my bottle.

"Plenty. Somebody restocked," I said.

"Mason went shopping last night—I gave him a list," Anita said.

"Good for him," Sandra sighed and headed for the fridge.

"We can't let people starve while Lexsi is recovering—especially Lexsi," Anita said. "She needs good food to get better."

"I hear that," Sandra agreed as she bent down to search the rows of bottles at the bottom of the fridge. "I'm a decent cook, but I've never seen anybody who can turn food into a masterpiece like she can."

It made me chuckle as I considered telling Anita that I'd fed Lexsi's Thifilatha soup from a large, stainless-steel bowl, to get enough food into her. I decided to save it for later—when I could tease Lexsi with it.

"What about the three prisoners in New York?" Anita asked, changing the subject.

"Petty criminals, exchanged for bigger and badder," I said. "They should be in jail, just not on life sentences," I added. "Opal and Kell took care of it after the warden and a few guards were arrested."

"Sick," Anita shook her head. "I hope they're not thinking about asking either of you to go to another prison. Ever."

"They're not. Opal says they have to come to us from now on, at a place of our choosing and they won't know the location until ten minutes before they arrive."

"Good. No more of this attack shit. If I had my hands on Laurel Rome, I'd," she pounded the kitchen island with a fist.

"I feel exactly the same," Jamie walked in wearing sweats and a T-shirt. The T-shirt was soaked in sweat—he'd been working out.

"Tibby and his family hauled equipment to the house. Said we could make use of it, as it was cluttering up his gym," Jamie shrugged. "Treadmill, weights, that sort of thing."

He'd done it for Lexsi and me, because that's how we exercised, for the most part. I was glad others in the house were getting some use out of it, too.

"Keeping yourself busy?" I asked, holding up my bottle and silently asking Jamie if he wanted a beer. He nodded and took a stool beside Anita. I rose to get him a beer.

"I'm busy enough. Checking stocks and investments. Winnowing out good from bad. This way, when I can access the money in my hidden account, I can build up my portfolio again. Laurel destroyed what I had."

I popped the top off the bottle and set it in front of him. He nodded his thanks and drank.

"Was that letter you got the insurance check for your Jeep?" Anita asked as I took my seat again.

"Yeah. I guess I'll go out and find something new," I shrugged. "I'll need something besides Lexsi's TinyCar to get around in."

"I'd like to go with you, if you don't mind," Jamie perked up.

"No problem, man," I said.

* * *

Lexsi

The last four days had settled into a new routine. I slept until my growling stomach woke me. I'd be forced to let Kory feed me, because my hands were still swathed in gauze. Then I'd let someone remove my bandages, take a shower, get re-bandaged and go back to sleep.

At least while I slept, I didn't worry about not being able to use my hands, which still looked awful. Instead, I dreamed of my family. Of Bel Erland, my Karathian warlock half-brother, who'd somehow gotten himself engaged to a winged woman.

At least he was engaged in my dreams. I had no idea whether it was real or not. I'd spent my last year on Avendor before the wedding date at SouthStar. Nobody gets in or out of SouthStar without the owner's permission. An impenetrable boundary lay about SouthStar's groves and without the owner's or the Second's permission, nobody could get through, no matter how strong or talented they were.

I'd guessed that Mom and the others knew I'd try to run, so I'd been hauled from EastStar to SouthStar the year before the wedding without any warning beforehand.

News had been spotty as a result. I admit that I could have sent mindspeech to Mom, Dad or Uncle Edward, but I was pissed at all of them and didn't try. I still got my training from Uncle Sal at SouthStar—his best friend owned those groves, after all, although he was seldom there for anything, including meals and harvests.

Shoving covers aside with bandaged hands, I headed for my closet to find a robe. Fixing rumpled hair was out of the question, so I shrugged into the robe and left it loose over my pajamas before skipping into the kitchen.

Kory was having a beer with Jamie and Sandra while talking to them and Anita. "Baby, sit, I'll find something for you to eat," Kory rose from his seat.

I wanted to tell him I wanted steak and pasta, but there probably wasn't anything in the house to make either.

"Yeah." I held up my hands, frowned at the thick bandages and allowed Kory and Anita to herd me toward Kory's barstool.

"Here," Anita set a glass of juice in front of me. Kory lifted it to allow me to drink.
Enough
, I sent after a few swallows. Kory set the glass down.

"What do you want for dinner, onion?" Kory asked.

"Steak with mushroom sauce and pasta," I sighed, lowering my forehead to the granite island and letting it settle there. My hands were useless. If I were whole, I'd already be working on what I wanted. Nobody here knew how to make what I wanted.

"I think we have T-bones, will that work?" Anita stood at the fridge with the door open while she turned back to ask.

"Good enough. What about mushrooms?"

As it turned out, we had everything we needed. I had to walk Anita, Sandra and Kory through the making, though, while Jamie watched. After a while, when the scent reached Watson wherever he was in the house, he wandered in.

"You need your furry tail pulled," I snapped as he sat beside me.

"I probably do," he agreed. "Is there more beer? Please say yes," he said.

* * *

Peru

Laurel Rome

"What do you mean, they're all dead? All four of them?" I narrowed my eyes at Berke. I hadn't told him, but I was beginning to regret that he had Jamie's body. The Berke I'd fucked early on had a younger body. Now, he only had a younger brain.

"We're beginning to see what he's capable of—Kory Wilson, that is," Berke spread his hands as he attempted an explanation. "Yes, we lost four, but they were unimportant, as Deris will tell you. The Sirenali were young—V'ili made sure they weren't able to speak, you know, before he sent them to do his bidding. Shame, though; V'ili should have told them to fold the warlocks away at the first sign of trouble. He was so sure the fire net would work that he didn't add safeguards. We won't let that happen again, dearest."

"With another fire net? Why didn't the first one work?" I demanded.

"We, ah, don't have another net. That was the only one we could acquire for now. As you see, it wasn't as effective as we'd hoped. Somehow, they managed to defeat it and kill our four servants. V'ili felt the obsession die when they did; regardless, no information could be gotten from them."

"Where is Hannah?" I asked. "I want to ask her questions. She knows both of them. I want to know how to kill Kory Wilson and that trollop of a girlfriend he has."

"I'll find Hannah. She's probably out sunning herself by the pool," Berke replied.

"Tell her to get her ass in here, or I'll think twice about saving it next time," I snapped. "She has what she's wanted for a long time—a younger body. I did that for her. She owes me."

* * *

Lexsi

"No more," I held up a gauze-swathed hand. Kory fed me steak, mushroom sauce and pasta until I felt as if I'd pop with one more bite. He'd fed himself while I chewed, so we could have dinner together.

"I'll be done in a minute," Kory said. "I'll take the bandages off then, so you can get a shower. Your hands looked much better the last time."

Lie
.

"Do they still hurt?" Sandra asked, turning me away from Kory's untruth. He'd said it to make me feel better. There was no need to accost him over it.

"No. I just have trouble flexing them," I admitted. Yes, the net had burned through muscle and sinew on both hands; they looked skeletal at best and I secretly worried they'd never be the same. Automatically, I hunched my shoulders at the thought.

"It'll be fine," Kory laid an arm over my shoulders. "High Demons are tough. My Lexsi is tough."

"I don't feel tough," I mumbled.

"But you are," he kissed my hair. "Trust me, ninety-nine percent of the High Demon army would have watched me burn rather than pull that shit off me and risk injury."

"Ninety-nine percent of the High Demon army are idiots and they don't love you," I sighed.

"My baby loves me," Kory pulled me into his arms.

"I am pleased to see you home," Klancy declared. Sunset had come and the vamps were awake.

* * *

After my shower and the rewrapping of my hands, Kory settled me on the sofa next to him and crooked his arm about me while we answered Klancy and Mason's questions. Watson, Anita and the others came, too, in case there was news they hadn't already heard.

"You call this a fire net?" Klancy was curious.

"Yeah. It's a way of controlling High Demon criminals. No idea how they got their hands on one," Kory shrugged. "They're all guarded like your proverbial Fort Knox. You have to handle fire nets by the narrow edges only—everything else will burn what it touches."

I watched their faces as they digested that information. "Where is Kell?" Mason asked after several seconds.

"He stayed behind with Opal. She appreciates his advice," I said. "Plus, I watched him behead two warlocks and two Sirenali in about a blink. He was pissed, I think, that they'd attacked us like that."

"Do you think the enemy knows those four are dead?" Sandra asked.

"Probably. They've been a step ahead of us most of the way," Kory rumbled. I snuggled farther into his warmth as he explained what we'd seen and heard since our visit to the Colorado facility.