Jude; The Fallen (The Fallen Series, Book 2) (4 page)

Jude couldn’t hold back the snort and the other man’s eyebrow lifted again.

Coriander sighed. “Sure. Alex Kiriakis, this is Lucius, Mordecai, Elijah, and Jude. Guys, this is Alex, my business partner. And that,” she pointed to the little girl, who was now tucked in on the sofa between her aunts, quickly becoming the victim of a vicious tickle, “is our daughter, Ashtiru.”

Paternity confirmed. Double fuck.

“Persephone didn’t mention you had a child,” Lucius offered.

“Well, she sure didn’t tell me that you had invaded my home, so I guess she’s keeping secrets from all of us,” Coriander shot back.

Persephone’s voice was light as she continued tickling Ashtiru, “If you checked your messages ever, you would have known, Cori.”

Coriander glanced her way and frowned. “Point taken. So, would someone fill me in on why my butler has lost his grip on sanity? This sort of ruckus is just the kind of thing that will send him to an early grave.”

“Winnie’s too high-strung by far, Cori,” Teraslynn replied in her Irish lilt. “We offered him a good swig o’ Jameson’s and a seat in the drumming circle, but the ol’ bastard cursed at me and went on.” She giggled and covered Ashtiru’s ears with her hands. “Sorry.” She giggled louder and shouted out into the room after the absent butler, “Ye uptight fecker!” She shook her head and hugged Ashtiru to her chest. “Too attached to his florals, he is.”

“I’m attached to those peonies, Teir! Do you know how much it cost me to have the freaking things jetted in from France? Ugh!” She threw her hands up and pointed at Ashtiru. “You. Bed. It’s way past your bedtime.” Coriander turned to Alex. “Take her up, will you? I’ll be there to tuck her in soon.”

He nodded. “Evening, all.” Alex held out his arms. “Come on, princess. Time for bed.”

Ashtiru snatched up her stuffed dragon from the floor and ran into her father’s waiting arms. Her little red head buried itself in the crook of Alex’s neck as he walked to the stairs. Princess eagerly followed behind. As he passed by, Jude felt a ripple in the air, and the scent of sand and spice filtered into his nostrils. It was familiar and strange all at once, and he looked harder at the side of Alex’s face as he ascended the stairs. Hovering around him was a light blue glow that flickered in soft pulses. At the apex, over Alex’s mess of dark curls, the image coalesced. He glanced over at Lucius, to confirm that he wasn’t losing his mind. Sure enough, his leader had his gaze firmly attached to the other man. No, Lucius saw it too. Alex disappeared onto the second floor and Jude whipped around to Lucius.

He leaned over and whispered, “You see that, boss?”

Lucius nodded, his face grim. “Yeah. I saw it. You think Cori knows?”

Jude shrugged. There was no telling what sort of things the archeologist knew. Nothing seemed to faze her, and the image of an ancient dog filtering around her boyfriend wasn’t exactly the sort of thing to come up in casual conversation. “Want me to ask her?”

“Yeah,” Lucius replied, “but give it a day or two. I think she’s a bit shell-shocked from finding us here.”

“Not to mention the fuck-all racket that is Teraslynn and her Ren Faire Rejects,” Jude added.

Elijah’s hands flickered from the other end of the living room. “I think the Irish one is refreshing.”

Jude smiled at him and gave him his middle finger.

The child’s bedroom was decorated all in pink. It was a confection of bright, fluffy love, tiaras, and Dora the Explorer, that sort of exploded. Ashtiru loved it. Her bed, a four-post version of Coriander’s, but with a higher lip, had her favorite quilt; a blanket with a pastel green and blue dragon embroidered upon it. Coriander watched as she flounced on it, fluffing out her quilt. Princess waddled to the edge and rose on her two back feet. Alex picked her up while Coriander proceeded to change Ashtiru into her Hello Kitty pajamas.

The girl yawned as Coriander picked up the story book and asked, “Mommy?
Are we going to be staying here a while?”

“For a little bit,” she answered as searched for her last place in the book, “Why do you ask?”

“I don’t want to go away from you and Daddy,” Ashtiru answered. She punched her pillow to make Princess a nest to snuggle next to her head. Alex sat on the other side, checking his cell phone’s messages and texts.

“Well, you’re not going anywhere that Mommy and Daddy will never find you. Now, let’s catch up with Mr. Badger and Mr. Toad, shall we?” Coriander said as she perched her glasses upon her nose and started reading.

It only took five minutes of reading until Ashtiru’s eyes drifted closed, arms wound tight around the badger. Coriander thanked the gods for jet lag. On silent feet, both parents kissed their little girl goodnight and crept from the room. Coriander stopped in the hallway to put away her glasses, and felt the heat of Alex’s body press solid against hers. He sighed and leaned in to brush his lips against her neck. Coriander stepped away, barely able to contain her irritation as she spun on her heel to glare at him, “What the hell are you doing?” she hissed through clenched teeth.

“Obviously nothing tonight,” he snarked. He leaned against the wall and crossed his arms while pouting, “I was hoping that we could get closer, but I’m guessing you don’t want that.”

Coriander’s mouth hardened. “You know the answer to that. What prompted this?” He opened his mouth, but the brief pause told her she wouldn’t be able to trust his words. Her eyes narrowed as she said, “You’ve got some fucking nerve, Alex.
I am not your damn fire hydrant. You will not piss on me and then trot off to someone else. Quit being a jealous man.” She stamped her foot and whirled to go to her bedroom. “Asshole.”

Alex sighed and rubbed his temples. It was time to drink.

Jude stared at the blinding white of the bathroom tiles, gleaming back at him with their pristine cleanliness. There was a reason he was here, a reason he stood at the threshold of the doorway with the small blade in his hand. It was a steely and dangerous little thing he’d nicked from Elijah as soon as they got here. He missed the obsidian dagger. He hadn’t realized how much. The Almighty had seen fit to take it and transform it into a demon-killing sword that belonged in the hands of Lucius. Now it was gone. Much like its previous owner, lost to him in every way. Coriander belonged to the dark-haired Alex and the little girl. He didn’t belong to anyone.

The tremor started in his foot and worked its way up his leg, urging him to take the step into the bathroom, but he could not make it move. His vision warped and tunneled outward, and the bathroom rippled, beckoning him to breach the door jamb. Seeing her walk through the door had ripped open every wound he thought had healed. And even though she had made it perfectly clear she wanted nothing to do with him when she left, there was the tiny, hidden part of him that held on to the memory of his lips on hers. Because there had been no pain.

Everything hurt. All the time. Touch was agony. But when his lips met hers, the expected jolt never came. She had been hot and sweet, and the release from the pain had been instant, snuffed out like a candle. And when she shot him, it all came back. If he were honest with himself, he could admit to being grateful for the slug to the leg. He was so used to the constant and ever-present ache in his body and bones, and the sudden reprieve at Coriander’s kiss had thrown him for a loop. The gunshot simply grounded him.

Now she was back in his life, all guns and fire and fierce beauty, with a boyfriend and kid in tow. And here he was, back in this never-ending ritual of pleasure-pain that kept him in a perpetual vacillation between guilt and despair.

No. He was done with this. Never again.

Jude dropped the blade to clatter on the tile floor of the bathroom and turned on his heel. There were other ways to deal with this problem. It was time to drink.

Chapter Three

Jude stumbled down the hallway through the living room, clutching the empty bottle of Wild Turkey to his chest. Through the alcoholic haze, he could make out a sliver of light coming from underneath a closed door just off the living area. Ah, the parlor. He’d seen the fractious butler sneak a nip of brandy in that room once or twice. Got to be more where that came from.

He opened the door with more force than he intended, and it swung back to hit the door stop with a loud thud. The sound of a safety clicking sobered him for a second and he dove to the floor, reaching for a non-existent Glock.
Fuck.

“Who’s there?” a slurred Greek voice demanded. Great. The boyfriend.
Double fuck.

“It’s Jude. Put your damn piece away before you shoot me,” he called from the floor. He looked up to see Alex’s rumpled head peeking down at him from over the chaise.

“Oh, yeah. Sorry. Force of habit,” Alex said. “Gun’s down. You can get up now.”

Jude eased to his feet, closing his eyes against the nausea that rolled up at his sudden ascent to upright. “Jesus, you should be more careful with that thing. You could have shot me.”

“Kind of the point.”

Jude snorted, and came around to set the empty bottle on the table in the middle of the room. He noticed his bottle wasn’t alone. His gaze flicked to Alex. The dark-haired man was glassy-eyed and disheveled, and he swayed a little on the chaise. “New bottle, then?” he asked.

Alex grunted in approval. “Behind you. In the lower cabinet.”

Jude turned and walked over to the cabinet, opening the bottom door. “Do you have a preference?”
Like I give a fuck.

“Strong.”

Jude grabbed a bottle of Grey Goose and two glasses from the counter. He returned to sit in the large club chair and poured two hefty glasses of the booze. He held one out to Alex.

Alex reached out with a long-fingered hand and accepted. Before Jude could let go, Alex eyed him over the glass. “If you think I don’t know what’s going on, you’re an idiot,” he said.

Jude returned the glare. “If you think you know what’s going on, then you’re the idiot.” He let go of the glass and sat back to stare at Alex as he sipped the vodka. The blue glow was back, flickering with enough effect to hurt Jude’s eyes. He knew he should be able to place both the light and the image that hovered over him, but the knowledge seemed even more removed from his brain under the fog of alcohol. Something was off, and not being able to put his finger on it was irritating.

“I know more than you think I do, angel.” Alex’s voice was hard.

“Who are you?” The words slipped out in a vodka-scented rush before he could stop them.

Alex laughed, then hiccupped. “Not of this world. Same as you. But different.”

Jude frowned. “That doesn’t make any sense.”

“Does everything need to make sense in your world? Or don’t you have any faith?”

His jaw clenched and his hand tightened around the crystal glass. “I don’t think that’s any of your business.”

“Maybe,” Alex countered, leaning forward with a sly smile. “But Cori is my business. In more ways than one.” Alex’s eyes narrowed and he snorted. “I don’t like you.”

Jude smiled. “And here I was worried my dislike wouldn’t be reciprocated. That’s a weight off my shoulders.”

“I would hate to disappoint.”

Jude slammed the glass back, sucking down the rest of the vodka. The burn was instant, and he hissed against it. The bastard smiled at him across the table.

“For some reason she likes you,” Alex admitted. “I have no fucking clue why, from everything she’s told me, but she does.”