Free Fall (14 page)

She wanted desperately to sit down, but with everyone else standing up, that would put her at a disadvantage. She was physically smaller, the only woman present, and the only witch, too. And pregnant. She was going to have a baby, and once again the realization rattled her to her soul.

“I assume you’re open to that or you wouldn’t be here.”

“I’m listening.”

Telos tightened his arm around her waist, and it was comforting.

“My senior legal counsel says I could use a litigator.” He shoved his hands in his front pockets and rocked back on his heels. “She’s a lawyer, by the way. If you want to do lawyer stuff, there’s a place for you with her. Maybe you could do lawyer stuff when you’re too pregnant to work with Durian or Carson. Either way, I pay top dollar for good talent. Great benefits, and we allow telecommuting. Paid maternity leave for a year, no loss of seniority or benefits. Free day care. I’m happy to hook you up with HR.” He tipped his head. “Four options for you. One is you come over to my side and work with Durian and his team. Two is you go with Carson and her people, which I recommend until we’re all sure you have control. Three is you can join my legal team.”

“What’s the fourth?” It struck her as odd that in this room with its million dollar view, the guy in jeans and a T-shirt looked most like he belonged here.

“The fourth is that you stay unaffiliated. That means no oath, but we watch you and make sure you abide by the rules. But then, like I said, that means you and Khunbish are a problem for me.” He rocked on his heels again and leveled his laser-sharp gaze on Telos.

“There’s a place for you here, Khunbish. We can use your talents.” He pretended to type in the air. “No need to give up your consulting work. It’s good cover.” Then he looked between Telos and her, and even though he was still smiling, the temperature in the room fell ten degrees. “Now we do the looping back around. Before we go any farther with this, I need to get clear on something.”

“Warlord,” Telos said.

Nikodemus nodded and returned his attention to her. “You’re living together? You and Khunbish.”

“Yes.”

“How’s that working out?”

“He has toilet seat issues. Aside from that, it’s good. So far.”

Nikodemus looked at Telos. “Your take?”

“She has commitment issues.”

Lys turned on him. “I do not.”

His fingers tightened around hers. “Yes, you do.”

“You haven’t asked for a commitment from me.”

He gave her a look that conveyed his poor opinion of that claim. “It’s obvious what I want. You’re living in my house, aren’t you?”

Nikodemus briefly covered his face. “Jesus H. Khunbish, don’t you know anything?”

Harsh snorted, and even Durian’s mouth twitched at least a nanometer.

“You are living with a witch.” He rolled his eyes. “Use your fucking words, fiend. I’m not taking any oaths until you two figure out what you’re going to do about each other.”

Telos’s upper body tipped back about an inch.

“Durian, Harsh, let’s give them some privacy.” He gestured. “We’re back in ten.”

When they were alone, she and Telos stared at each other. “This is awkward,” she said.

“All this time you’ve been thinking I don’t want you with me? Lys.” Briefly, he closed his eyes. “I said I’d take care of you.”

“Have to. Want to.” She lifted her hands. “Not the same thing.”

“Do you want to move out? You don’t have to stay. I’ll help you find a place. Buy, rent, fix up your place, whatever you want, I’ll take care of it.” His voice got low and thick, and he let out a frustrated breath before he started again. “Look. I’m not going to leave you, if that’s what you’ve been thinking. Shit. I’m no good at figuring out what you humans want when all I have to go on is this. Your expressions. Your words. I’m lost without the rest, and if I’ve fucked up because of that, I’m sorry.”

She had an inappropriate urge to laugh, but managed not to. “You didn’t. And it’s okay. I know why you didn’t use your words.”

“It’s not okay.” He scowled, but he didn’t push her away. He wasn’t angry, just frustrated. “I’ve been staying out of your head, completely out, because I thought you needed the space.”

“I did. For a while.” Khunbish seemed so terribly serious, and her heart folded over. “You don’t need to do that anymore.” She pressed a palm to the side of his head. “You don’t need to keep away. I don’t know how these things work. Relationships. I only know what it was like living with Michael and constantly being afraid I’d go into free fall. I’ve never been involved with anyone else. Never anyone normal.”

“You know I’ll help you with that. Whatever you need.” He took her head between his hands. “But, Lys, with me, you still don’t have normal.”

She couldn’t help a smile. “I wouldn’t deal well with someone normal.”

“Good. That’s good.” He moved his thumbs over her cheeks. “Whatever you decide, nothing changes about my commitment, okay? But I want you with me. Want. All this time I’ve been trying not to crowd you, but we’re great together, and I want you with me.” He looked directly into her eyes, so serious. She felt the pressure of him, that subtle change that told her he’d opened himself to her. “If you don’t feel the same, that’s fine. I’m here for you and the baby, no matter what. But please.” He drew her close. “I like having you around. I love having you around. I want you to stay. Please.” He whispered. “Don’t leave. Don’t leave me.”

He sounded like he was ripping up inside. He sounded like he meant every single word. No one, no one in all her life, had ever spoken to her as if she mattered more than anything. The most important thing, though, was that Telos Khunbish was not a liar. He would not hand out bullshit about anything, but especially something like this. She leaned her forehead against his chest because tears jammed up in her throat, and she was afraid he’d see.

“Hey. Hey. Don’t cry.”

She sniffed. “I’m not crying.”

“My mistake.” He held her while she got herself under better control, one hand stroking her back. After a bit, he slid his other hand to her stomach. “Baby or not, I want us to try. Do you? If you need more time—”

“No. I mean, yes.” She drew back enough to look him in the face. All the fear and doubt she’d been holding in, her expectation that he would leave her and she’d be alone, all that faded away in the face of what she saw when she looked at him.

He frowned at her, but the edges of his mouth kicked up. “Does that average out to maybe?”

“It means I want to try, Telos.”

He leaned in and kissed her, and she pulled him close. His arms went around her, too, and he whispered, “I won’t swear fealty to him if you don’t want to.”

The back of her head got cold, then the door opened, and Nikodemus, Durian, and Harsh came back in. “Everything good here?” He looked between her and Telos. “No rush. But I do have another meeting in half an hour.”

The warlord gave her chills, but she answered him. “I want to swear the oath.”

“Khunbish?”

“Same here.”

He grinned. “I take care of my people.” He tipped his head in Telos’s direction but looked at Lys. “If this one turns out to be a dick, there’s room for you here or at Harsh’s place in the city. If you ever feel like you’re not getting the support you need, you come to me, I’ll take care of everything. No questions asked.”

“Fortunately, there’s no evidence he’s a dick.”

“Fensic, you love my dick.”

She elbowed him for that, and Telos pretended she’d hurt him.

The warlord rocked back on his heels. “You two ready for this?”

An oath of fealty to a warlord turned out to be a big deal. It changed something inside you when the oath took hold. It wasn’t one-sided. She’d understood going in that she’d be obligated to support Nikodemus, that a betrayal of her oath would likely result in her death. For his part, the warlord was required to play fair. If he treated his sworn fiends and magekind badly, the oath would break, and she’d be free.

Telos made his oath first, and since he ended his by kneeling, she did the same when it was her turn. When it was over, and she’d sworn fealty to Nikodemus, Telos took her hand in his.

Nikodemus studied them both. “Glad to have you with me. The baby, too.”

“Thank you.” She leaned against Telos’s side.

“I have a good feeling about you two.”

Lys slipped an arm around Telos’s waist, and he brought her in close. She wasn’t alone. She was where she belonged, and so was Telos. “Me, too,” she said. “Me, too.”

If you enjoyed
Free Fall
, I hope you’ll let others know by posting a review. Read on for more about my books and to read an excerpt from
My Darkest Passion
, Book 5 in the
My Immortals
series.

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Blood-twins
: A bonded pair of demons who share a permanent magical connection. They may be biologically related and/or same-sex. Antisocial and prone to psychosis.

Copa:
A plant derivative of a yellow-ochre color when processed. Has a mild psychotropic effect on the Kin, who use it for relaxation. For mages, the drug increases magical abilities and is highly addictive.

Cracking
(
a talisman
): A mage or witch may crack open a talisman in order to absorb the life force therein and magically prolong his or her life. Requires a sacrificial murder.

Demon:
Any one of a number of shape-shifting magical beings whose chief characteristic is, as far as the magekind are concerned, the ability to possess and control a human. They are psychically bound beings. They typically possess multiple physical forms, at least one of which is recognizably human. Before relations with the magekind exploded into war, they frequently bonded with the magekind. Demons can procreate with humans, but the demon must be in his or her true form.

Entelechy:
Demons not born from a human parent. Most are thousands of years old and extremely powerful.

Fealty:
Magically binding oath between a warlord and another demon, one of the magekind, or a human. Mutually protective. For the one swearing fealty, a broken oath results in severe harm or even death. A warlord who behaves capriciously with his sworn kin risks severing the bond. A warlord gains power through these oaths. A warlord can swear fealty to another warlord.

Fiend:
Subspecies of demon.

Hotblood:
An epithet the magekind use to refer to demons.

Kin:
What demons collectively call each other. Socially divided into various factions seeking power over other warlord-led factions.

Mage:
Human man who possesses magic. A sorcerer. See also magekind.

Magekind:
Humans who possess magic. The magekind arose to protect vanilla humans from the depredations of demons, a very real threat.

Mageheld:
Demon under the complete control of one of the magekind. A slave.

Severing:
The act of removing a mageheld from the control of a mage or witch, through the use of magic.

Talisman:
A usually small object holding the life force of a demon. The kin sometimes create talismans by consent if another demon is no longer able to take physical form. The magekind have learned to create talismans through ritual murder. A talisman confers additional magical power on the mage who has it. Sometimes requires an additional sacrifice. See also cracking (a talisman).

Vanilla:
A human with no magic or, pejoratively, one of the magekind with little power.

Warlord:
A demon who leads some number of other demons, who have sworn fealty. Usually a natural leader possessing far more magic than others of the Kin. Magekind and vanilla humans can swear fealty to a warlord.

Witch:
A human woman who possesses magic. A sorceress. See also magekind.

Carolyn Jewel was born on a moonless night. That darkness was seared into her soul and she became an award winning author of historical and paranormal romance. She has a very dusty car and a Master’s degree in English that proves useful at the oddest times. An avid fan of fine chocolate, finer heroines, Bollywood films, and heroism in all forms, she has three cats and a dog. Also a son. One of the cats is his.

Visit her on the web at:

carolynjewel.com
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A
ddison stood up when she heard
a car stop on the gravel driveway. Sweat trickled down her spine. She breathed through her mouth because the air was so thick with heat and humidity she could taste the stink. Even so, the skin along her arms and the back of her neck rippled and goose-pimpled as if an arctic wind had penetrated the walls that confined her.