Good Will Ghost Hunting: Demon Seed [Good Will Ghost Hunting 1] (Siren Publishing Classic) (24 page)

Amazing
. Abby couldn’t even do that. She could call other archdemons to her, even ones she wasn’t close to, sometimes summon them to take her to wherever they were, but never materialize without help. What she could do had taken her centuries to master.

On the heels of his amazement, the realization that Kal felt truly miserable. Whatever should have happened when they bonded, she was still upset and unhappy.

With him.

The bathroom door opened. “Will, can I come in?” Her voice sounded quiet and sad.

“Yeah, of course.”

He felt the cool draft and heard the door shut again. A moment later she stepped into the shower with him and wrapped her arms around him from behind, resting her head against his back.

He felt her lips against his skin. “I’m sorry,” she said.

He patted her hands. “It’s okay. You don’t owe me any apologies. I know you were dragged into this.”

They stood like that for several minutes before she spoke again. “I’m
not
miserable with you.”

“You don’t have to lie to me.”

“I’m
not
lying. I didn’t realize until after I said all that how it must have sounded to you. I felt really dang mad at Ryan and wanted to give him a piece of my mind. It’s just that I finally realized my whole life has been under his control. Everything.”

“I know you’re forced to be with me. I understand you’re upset. I’m sorry. I wish I could give that all back to you.”

“No, it’s
not
that.” She made him turn and face her. “I
do
love you, and not because of what he’s done. It’s just…” She fought for the words. “It
pisses
me off that I didn’t have free choice in the matter. You know like when your parents are right about something and you know it but you still don’t want to admit it? Like that.” She stroked his cheek. “I still love you. I think I felt it when we first met. Seriously. I probably would have ended up with you anyway, even if he hadn’t engineered this. It would have taken a lot longer and our first date wouldn’t have been me losing my virginity, but it would have happened eventually.”

He wished he could believe her. He wanted to. Without a doubt she believed it, but how much of that were her true feelings and how much was what happened?

Considering what he knew he felt for her, did it really matter?

“I thought I finally got to live my own life when I took this job,” she continued. “I thought I was escaping my parents. Now it turns out I wasn’t escaping them, I just ran deeper into a net I didn’t even know was there. It’s an adjustment I need to make. It’s not your fault, and I’m
not
miserable with you.”

She kissed him. Her bare flesh pressed against his, and his cock couldn’t help but harden in response.

His hands skimmed down her back to her hips. He pulled her against him. His lips worked from her jaw down her neck, gently nipping her shoulder, making her pleasantly shiver in response.

Her hips shifted a little and he slid his cock inside her pussy. She was wet and ready, and he backed her against the shower wall, slowly thrusting, trying to remember what he’d been so upset about a few minutes earlier. Making love to her tended to push all other thoughts, all cares away.

His love for her.

Will couldn’t deny it any longer. He’d tried denial from the moment they’d met, and whatever bullshit Ryan pulled didn’t make it any less true. He closed his eyes.

Her hands stroked his back as she softly whispered in his ear. “You feel so good.”

He knew she wouldn’t climax like this, but her voice and her body drew his release from him faster than he imagined possible. He pulled her hips tightly against his, trembling, moaning his orgasm into her wet hair.

“I love you, Kal,” he breathed when he recovered. “I
do
love you. I loved you from the first moment I saw you, but I didn’t want to admit it. I never thought I could feel this way again about anyone after I hurt so much when I lost her. All these years, and I never felt this way about anyone else.”

She desperately clutched him, sobbing. With his arms wrapped tightly around her they sank to the shower floor, and he held her under the spray, rocking her, soothing her.

“Please don’t ever leave me, Will.”

“Never.” He buried his face against her neck and hoped she couldn’t tell his tears from the warm spray. “I swear on my very soul, Kal, I will never leave you, baby.”

After Kal’s little field trip, Will decided they both needed an extra day alone together. He called Aidan, who juggled the schedule to accommodate them.

They spent most of the morning in bed, just cuddling, touching and holding each other, her warm, soft, willing flesh pressed against his. If he could spend the rest of his life like that, with the heat of her body warming him, he would never ask for anything more.

After lunch they went for a walk, and she discovered another answer to a puzzling question. “I still don’t understand why no one ever bothers you. It’s like they don’t even know where you live.”

“They don’t.”

When she stopped in her tracks, he stopped with her. He had to stop or let go of her hand, and he damn sure didn’t want to do that.

“What do you mean they don’t? Those paparazzi guys are crazy persistent.”

He shrugged. “Ryan takes care of it. He set up a barrier. People can find out where I live, sure, but unless it’s someone who belongs here or who I want to find me, it’s like they totally forget why they’re here when they get here. That’s why no one bothers me when I’m out, either.”

“Why can people pop in and out of his apartment? If he’s the big cheese, you’d think he’d want a doorman or something.”

“Same thing. Think of it as a spam filter. Only the people he wants to come in are able to get there. Sort of like a selective barrier, like the one I put up the other night after Ryan left.”

“And he can call you like I can call you?”

“Oh yeah. Unfortunately.”

Ironically, Will heard the call the next evening while Kal napped and he lay in bed with her watching MSNBC. He resisted for several minutes. Ryan persisted. Will appeared in the Atlanta condo.

“What do you want?” Will growled.

A woman’s perfume assaulted his nose. “Well, hello, Will. Long time, no see.” He’d know that damn voice anywhere.

“Bera.” Will turned on Ryan. “You brought me here for
her
?”

“Why don’t you like me, Will?” Bera purred.

“Because you’re a conniving, cheating, backstabbing bitch.”

“Can’t you say one nice thing about me?”

“Nice perfume.”

“See?” She smiled. “Was that so hard?”

“Too bad you marinate in it.”

She scowled, turning to Ryan for support.

None came. Ryan smirked. “I’ve repeatedly told you in the past you use far too much.”

Bera looked like a cougar on the prowl, and not the four-legged kind. Penny-red hair carefully coiffed and hair-sprayed into submission. Her makeup perfect, her lacquered red nails would scare the crap out of Freddy Krueger and drive nightmares of Elm Street out of any rational person’s mind. Today she looked executively terrifying in a Vera Wang suit and three-inch Manolo peep-toe pumps.

“You know, you could have taken me as a soul mate, Will. I was available and certainly willing.”

“You have to have a soul first, Bera,” Ryan snarked.

“Can we get to the point?” Will impatiently asked. “I’m busy.” Well, that was a lie but he preferred curling up in bed with Kal to talking with the Incredible Bitch and Boy Blunder.

“Too busy to get some information?” Bera asked.

“What information?”

Ryan nodded to her. “Apparently our prowling prima donna spent a little time off the reservation, as it were. She’s brought back some interesting news. When she recounted her adventures, I thought you should hear this directly from the viper’s mouth.”

Bera looked like she didn’t know whether to be more indignant at Ryan or Will. “All right, fine,” she spat. She looked at Will. “The last guy, the one who escaped? He took a long walk off a short pier. They killed him when he returned to his dimension. They came over from Tavares.”

Will froze. Bera didn’t need to clarify who she meant by “the last guy.”

“Killed by who?”

She examined her nails. “I don’t know. I couldn’t find that out. Whoever paid them wasn’t happy to find out his money was wasted. They were hired hacks. You were the target, not Abby. When they failed, the only one who made it back alive got whacked. Apparently they don’t work on the demerit system over there, and failure really isn’t an option for those dipshits. They make the mafia look like preschoolers.”

“Why did they want me? Why come across and start trouble?”

“I don’t know. I’m not even sure if you were supposed to be killed or just taken. I got the hell outta Dodge before they could kill me once it got out I wasn’t a local. It was only sheer bad luck I got over there in the first place. Last time I go drinking with a Selkie. Those things are fricking crazy.”

“You’d do well to remember that,” Ryan said.

“That’s all you’ve got?” Will asked.

“What do you mean is that all I’ve got?” she indignantly asked. “It’s more than you had before. Now you know where they came across from.” Bera slyly smiled. “What’s it worth to you?”

Ryan waved his hand and sent her away before Will could bury his foot ankle-deep in the middle of her ass. He looked at Will. “Well?”

Will felt like he’d been kicked in the gut. “Why tell me this?” he hoarsely asked. “Why now? We can’t go after Abby’s killers, they’re all dead anyway.” Just when he thought the rest of his life with Kal looked bright, now this dark cloud to deal with. If he ever had a chance to avenge Abby’s death, he wouldn’t refuse it.

Ryan’s voice hardened. “Because I just found out a few minutes ago when Bera showed up looking for sympathy. Despite our differences over the years, Will, the person or persons who hired those animals are still out there. I want these bastards as much as you do, perhaps more. They took one of our own from us.” His voice hardened. “Worse, a soul mate. That cannot and will not go unanswered. I want them. I want whoever’s behind it, and I want to send a message to them that they will not fuck with us here without experiencing serious repercussions. If we cannot agree on anything else, I think we can agree on that, can we not?”

Will set his jaw and finally turned to Ryan, met his gaze, and grudgingly nodded. “Yeah. We can agree on that.”

Ryan’s expression softened. “How is Kal holding up?”

“She’s adjusting.” He hesitated. “Promise me, swear to me on the waters of Styx that you’ll protect her.”

Ryan nodded. “I swear it, you know I do.” He sat and stared at Will. “How are you sleeping now?” Ryan softly asked. “Are the dreams better?”

What little “moment” they’d shared was gone. Will’s jaw tightened. Ryan had no right to ask him those questions considering how he’d abandoned him and Aidan, and Abby by default. “Are we done?” he asked through clenched teeth.

Ryan nodded. Will disappeared.

Now alone, Ryan closed his eyes and took a deep breath, held it, and finally blew it out. Bera was insufferable, but Will had to hear that information. He owed him that much.

Owed Abby that much.

A bottle of merlot called to him and he poured a glass. He walked into the bedroom, thinking he would take a shower and go to bed early and catch up on some much-needed rest when he passed the carved wooden box on his dresser. He set the glass down and opened the box, as he had so many times before. Usually he simply stared at it, because the pain in his soul bloomed even worse when he touched it. This time he reached inside.

The dark red garnet amulet appeared almost black in the dim light, its unusual shape as familiar to him as his own hand. He gently withdrew it and held it, staring at it.

Why torture myself?

He couldn’t help it.

Created from the same larger stone, when he fit the amulet against the one hanging from his own neck, the two matched perfectly. He closed his eyes and conjured her face. She was always there in his mind, even this many ages later. Every night he dreamed of her, alive—and in death.

Every second of every day he ached for her.

After a few minutes he couldn’t stand the deep throbbing pain in his soul. Ryan carefully replaced the amulet in its box, lovingly caressing the lid as he closed it.

No, regardless of what Will Hellenboek thought he had suffered, he truly knew
nothing
of pain and loss and sacrifice. Not by a long shot.

And hopefully, for the better good of the status quo, Will never would.

* * * *

Of course Bera returned the next morning.

Ryan scrambled eggs in a cast-iron skillet. Bera’s perfume assaulted him as soon as she appeared. He didn’t look at her.

“Bera, did you ever stop to think perhaps you wear too much of that crap?”

She slid onto one of the barstools in front of the counter and watched him cook. She fingered the rose quartz amulet around her neck, her blouse open to the third button, ample breasts nearly spilling out of her lacy demi-cup bra. “I like it. It’s expensive.”

“Yet another good reason to use much less than you do.”

“You demon men are far too sensitive. Can I have some eggs? You always cook them so goo—”

“No.”

His curt answer apparently surprised her, because she frowned. “What’s the matter, sunshine? Why are you so grumpy this morning? I thought you’d be happy to see me after the news I brought you yesterday.”

“What do you want from me?”

“Maybe I want to spend a little quality time with you, Ryan. Ever think about that? It’s been a while.”

“No.”

His lack of further conversation forced her to forge on. “You know, I’ve been thinking, you and I are both alone, and it’s not like I’m some weakling that can’t keep myself safe—”