The Company of Darkness (3 page)

Ethan was silent for a long moment, his voice pained as he spoke.  “As much as I’m enjoying the show, this is a bad idea.”

“Come over and stop me then.”

“I wish I could, but I don’t think it’s a good idea. Not yet.”

She backed away from the window where there was less chance of anyone seeing her unless they were really looking, like he was.  “You want to hear me make that sound, right?”  Her free hand dipped to cup a full breast, imagining she felt his hand there. 

“You’re killing me,” he groaned.

“Fine then,” she sighed, turning off the lights and sitting on the edge of the bed in the darkness.  “Can you still see me?”

“Not really, just an outline.”

“If you won’t come up and join me then you’ll have to imagine what I’m doing next.  Can you see me lying back on my bed?  Can you see what I’m touching now?” she teased, laying back, but not indulging in any further raunchiness, no matter what she said.

“You’re a cruel woman, Cady.” 

“But you love me.”

“Yes, I do.  Which is why I’m going to go now before I do something we might regret.”

“The only thing I regret is that you’re not here with me now.”

“I have to go.”

But the silence stretched between them without either of them disconnecting. 

“When can we be together?” she asked finally.

“I don’t know.  I need to check on a few things first.  I don’t want a few stolen moments with you, Cady, I want to do this right.”

He was so close, she decided she’d rather just get to it and save the rest for later, but she could see his point.  “Fine.  I’ll let you go then, goodnight.”

“Goodnight, Cady.” 

Her phone buzzed once a few minutes later, making her smile in the dark. 

Soon.

Can’t wait.

The novelty of working in an office wore off within a week and a half.  After staying up until three or four in the morning and sleeping past noon for ages, it was
hard
to get up in time to get to work by noon.  Sure, she got to wear nice clothes and sit in comfort, and the job wasn’t hard.  But most of the time Cady was bored out of her mind.  Calls came in to the front desk in flurries that kept her hopping, but then hours would go by at a stretch with nothing. 

In addition to her receptionist duties, she provided light administrative support for two of the agency field executives at Pacific Surety.  Ms. Tran was a compact Vietnamese woman who hardly gave her a lick of work to do, while Mr. Morley tossed instructions on his way to and from meetings as she furiously scribbled them down.  The last girl they had must’ve been a total moron, because everything they asked her to do barely took up more than a quarter of her day. 

Being up at the front desk meant she couldn’t catch up on her favorite shows on the CW, and she couldn’t even listen to music since she had to keep an ear out for the phones at all times.  Cady was able to read on her phone though, thanks to the reading app, and she’d gone ebook crazy, averaging a book every two days.  Being tied to the phones meant she also had to ask permission every time she had to go to the bathroom to get someone to cover for her, and that sucked big time. 

Still, she wasn’t working in a cage taking men’s soggy bills as they ogled her goodies.  That had to count for something.  Besides, there were other perks.  In addition to the better pay and benefits, she got to take home any leftovers from the weekly meetings they housed for the agents and she got all the free soda and juice she wanted.  Twice she’d brought home a ginormous fruit plate that fed her for days and a box of mini muffins that Ian scarfed down in fifteen minutes flat. 

Plus there were all the free pens she could carry, and just in case she ever needed to mail a letter – free postage machine. 

Meet for lunch?

Probably the biggest perk was she could text Ethan all day long and no one said a thing about it. 
I could eat
, she sent back. 
How about I come over?
  She hadn’t been back to his place since that day she’d seen Rikard, and so far Ethan kept putting her off on spending any time alone together.  They had met at the movies once, sitting together after the house lights dimmed. 

We wouldn’t end up eating.

Even better.

That would take more time than you have.

That sent a thrill through her. 
Noted
. 

We should probably meet somewhere off the beaten path.

So long as I can get there and back on my lunch break.

“Well, hey there, fancy meeting you here.”

Cady looked up to find Detective Andrew Lucas smiling down at her over the reception desk, and she shut her phone off with a guilty twitch.  He wore a Journey T-shirt that said
Don’t Stop Believin’
over a pair of jeans, his badge visible, clipped to his belt.  “Detective Lucas.”

His smile stretched wider.  “You remembered my name, I’m flattered.  I remember you too.”

Something about the way he said that made the hairs on the backs of her arms stand up, her skin pebbled with gooseflesh.  “What are you doing here?”

“I was in the building and saw you sitting here working so industriously.”  He leaned farther over the desk, taking an interest in what she was doing.

Cady shoved the phone into the bottom tray of her inbox, lacing her fingers together.  “Really?  You needed to talk to someone about insurance?”

“Cops need insurance too,” he shrugged.

“This isn’t that kind of an insurance office.”  The people she worked for were the executives that managed the agents, they never got actual customers in off the street.

“Okay, you got me,” he admitted with a dramatic roll of the eyes.  “I came here looking for you.”

Uh oh.
  “Why would you do that?”

“Any chance you’re free for lunch?”

“You came down here to ask me out to lunch?”  Was he hitting on her or giving her the third degree?

“No, I came down here to talk to you, but I don’t want to get you into any trouble at work.”  He waved to Cady’s boss’ boss, who stuck his head out of his office long enough to frown at her before shutting his door. 

“Then go away before they think I’m involved in something illegal.”

“Why would they assume that?  Talking to a cop doesn’t make you guilty, does it?  For all he knows I’m your boyfriend.”

Cady couldn’t help but laugh at that one.  “That’d be the day.”

“At least I got you to smile.  So are you free for lunch?”

“Sorry, no.”  She reached for a stack of mail she’d already sorted through, pretending to sort through it again. 
Why didn’t the stupid phone ring?

“You sure?  I’m buying.”

“No, thank you.”

“Aw, come on.  You gotta eat, right?”

“I brought my lunch with me today.”  The phone rang and Cady turned her back on the detective, but not before giving him a dismissive smile. 

So, lunch?

Cady waited until she was good and sure Lucas was gone before she sent a message back. 
Better not, tell you more later.

Ethan didn’t say anything back, and she refrained from sending any more texts until her lunch break came, and she planned on giving him a call from the deli.  No sooner had she turned around with sandwich in hand than Detective Lucas blocked her way, a knowing smile on his face. 

“I thought you weren’t free for lunch?”

Cady stepped around him, heading straight for the door instead of the table by the window as planned.  “That was my polite way of blowing you off.”

He wouldn’t be ignored though, falling into step beside her.  “Okay, I get it.  You don’t want to talk to me, but I want to talk to you.”

“About what?  Weren’t you told to drop that case?”

“And how exactly would you know about that?”

Shit
.  Cady pressed her lips together, wishing she could take that back.  “I just assumed so when you stopped harassing me,” she frowned, crossing the street, heading for a small plot of grass around the corner that could be called a park.  “Don’t you have anyone else to bug now?  New cases that need solving?”

“Aw, come on, you know you’re the one I want to bug.”  Lucas didn’t hesitate for a second, matching her light jog across the intersection until she stopped in the middle of the sidewalk.

“Why?”

“Okay, you’re right.  I have been officially asked to drop the case and anything to do with David Brown.  But they didn’t ask me to stay away from you.”

“What is it you want from me, exactly?  I haven’t seen David in weeks.” 
Technically not a lie...
  Ethan was going by the name Barry these days.   

“But you did get to know him better than anyone else I found while I was investigating him.  You’re the only link I have to him.”

“I’m not a link, not anymore.”  She shook her head, not sure what else to say that wasn’t a bald faced lie.  Something about lying to the police didn’t sit right with her, maybe it was leftover from her upbringing with a cop dad.  “Can’t you let this go?  You caught the killer.”

“Did I?”  Lucas lowered his voice, taking hold of her elbow and drawing her toward the shelter of a nearby building.  “Look, we both know there’s more than meets the eye with this stuff.  I’ve talked to your old boss Dylan – nuttier than a fruitcake.  But he spins a compelling tale about possession.”

“Possession?” she laughed, but it came out sounding almost hysterical as her stomach twisted with fear. 
If he only knew.
  “So he’s crazy.  That makes you crazy too if you put any stock into what he said.”

“But the thing is, those other cases I told you about – in Tallahassee and Laredo and the others – they share a common thread.  There is always a marked change in the last victim’s behavior, lost time, claims of not being in control of their own actions.  Kind of like possession.”

It made sense since the last victim would be the one that was actually possessed by the demon when Ethan caught up with him.  Not that she could acknowledge any of it.  “There are a lot of nutbars in the world.  So what?”

“So what if they’re not nuts?  What if there’s something supernatural going on here and it’s being covered up?”  Detective Lucas faced her, dead serious, and Cady’s mouth went dry.  What the hell was she supposed to say to that? 

It took everything she had within her to keep her voice light.  “I think
you’re
the nut.  And now you’ve talked through most of my lunch time.  If you come back for dinner, I’m going to call your Captain.”  Giving up the idea of the park, she turned around to walk back to the office, her heels ringing on the sidewalk at a fast clip.

Lucas jogged to get around her, walking backwards without worry for crashing into anyone.  “Cady, talk to me.  I need to know.”  She didn’t say anything, her eyes focused straight ahead, because if she looked at him, she might give something away and then they’d all be screwed.  “It won’t go anywhere, I promise,” he tried again.  “You’re right.  I’ve been ordered off of the case.  Hell, I’ve been ordered not to mention any of it within fifty feet of the precinct, but I have to know for my own peace of mind.”

Cady paused with her hand on the door to the building, finally turning to meet his gaze.  “It’s safer for your peace of mind if you don’t.”  Refusing to look back at him, she stepped onto the elevator, only sending the text once the doors safely closed with her inside and Lucas still out on the street. 
We should probably talk.

Come over after work. 

The text troubled Ethan more than it most likely should. 
We should probably talk
.  It could mean any number of things.  It’d been a long time since he’d had a girlfriend, but back then, that usually meant she was about to dump you.  Had he held her at arm’s length for too long?  He’d thought Cady understood about the necessity for caution, to keep her safe, but had she gotten bored and moved on?  She was so young and more vibrant and beautiful than he deserved. 

He pushed those thoughts aside and got on with his day.  It still troubled him that the Company had pushed back the offloading of his glyphs, but he knew they never did anything without a reason, so he fell back into the routine he was so used to.  Up early to put his body through the paces, sometimes a run, sometimes with weights, pull ups, crunches anything and everything to keep fit and strong. 

The other night he’d broken into the pool at the local YMCA, but the swim distracted him, thinking what it would be like to bring Cady there sometime.  In fact, thoughts of Cady had a habit of distracting him a lot lately.  It might prove problematic when he had a job to do, but for this downtime, he let himself linger over thoughts of her when he settled down at night, usually after trading a few texts.  She made him laugh, and she made him ache for something he hadn’t realized he was missing in his life. 

Knowing she was coming over that evening made Ethan push himself even harder, in a lame effort to channel some of that frustrated sexual energy whenever she was near.  But the moment he stepped into the shower to cool down, his thoughts returned to Cady, as they invariably did.  He couldn’t ask her to keep waiting forever. 

Stepping out of the shower, he toweled off and without bothering to dress, he grabbed a stick of white chalk to draw a circle on the sleek wooden floorboards, large enough for him to comfortably kneel in.  Next came the careful inscribing of protective sigils, in case he stumbled upon anything in the ether that might try to follow him back. 

Setting the chalk aside, Ethan knelt within the circle, closing his eyes to gather the stillness around him.  The ancient words began to form in his head, and when he had them fixed in his mind, they tumbled from his lips.  “
Dominus in lucem, mittere signum.  In sapientia tua precor.
”  He began to rock slowly, the words forming their own rhythm as he repeated the chant over and over again until he achieved a kind of trance, focusing on a single thought – show me Rikard. 

All he got was darkness, and Ethan patiently let the energy dissipate, sending it back into the Earth before grounding himself and trying again.  The second attempt wasn’t any better than the first.  Then again, Rikard could be shielded, he’d never tried looking for him before. 

Ethan grounded and began again, this time focusing on Cady.  Almost at once he was struck by a vision of her sprawled on a bed he didn’t recognize, her hair spilling across the sheets like a living flame as she writhed beneath him, their bodies slick with sweat.  It was enough to make him lose his concentration and the image slipped away.  It gave him a flicker of hope that they’d eventually find their way to be together, even if he didn’t recognize the location.  It was also enough to send him back into the shower, this time for a cold one until the memory of her throaty cries of pleasure faded from his mind. 

A little more collected, Ethan tidied up, removing all traces of the chalk circle.  If he couldn’t find Rikard through his visions, maybe it was time to take the bull by the horns.  Pulling out his phone, he dialed the man, his gut tightening when Rikard answered on the second ring. 

“You need help with a body?”

Not the usual way to begin a conversation, but Ethan recognized it as classic Rikard.  “Since when have I needed help with a body?”

“Thought you might be going soft after that last subject nearly kicked your ass.”

“Fuck you,” Ethan chuckled, glad to hear the man echo his laugh. 

“What’s up then?”

Ethan took a breath, inwardly cursing himself for the hesitation, no matter how small.  “I was wondering if you’re still in town?  I thought we could go grab a beer.  This down time is killing me.” 

“Most people would enjoy the break,” Rikard pointed out.

“You wouldn’t.”

“We’re a rare breed, you and I.  Never really happy unless we’ve got a quarry in our sights.” 

Once he might have agreed with him, but now Ethan felt no kinship for the man whatsoever.  “You’re not wrong,” he lied glibly.  “I wasn’t built for this sitting around bullshit.”

“You could ask HQ to send you something mundane.  It’s donkey work, but at least it keeps you busy.”

Ethan resisted such assignments, though occasionally they still came his way.  Usually a reaper was deemed too valuable for low level surveillance.  “Yeah, I might do that.  Still, replacing boring shit with boring shit wouldn’t be my first choice, you know?  So, what do you say about that beer?”

There was a pause on the line, maybe not a long one, but Ethan noted it before Rikard responded.  “I’d love to, but I’m up in Oakland waiting for Rex to pull his thumb out of his ass and give the order to take down Alma.” 

That made him sit up straighter.  “Are you serious?  Rex is going to oust Alma and you’re supporting him?”

“Nah, I’m just waiting for the weasel to make his move, and then I’m putting him down under Alma’s orders.  She’s been onto him from the start.  You know as well as I do, you don’t fuck with Alma.  Well, unless she asked nicely, then I’d definitely hit that,” Rikard chuckled. 

Alma was a beautiful woman, but dangerous in her own way, even to men like Ethan and Rikard.  “You had me worried there for a minute.  I’d hate to have to turn you in for something like that, but like you said, you don’t fuck with Alma.”

“Same here.”

Did he mean he’d hate it if Ethan had to turn him in or he’d hate to have to turn him in?  Ethan felt the beginnings of a headache pressing on the back of his eyes, and he pushed those thoughts aside.  “Alright, give me a call when you’re done cleaning up the mess, you know where to find me.”

“That I do.  Later.”

Ethan sat with the phone resting against his lips, his mind turning over the conversation, weighing Rikard’s tone and word choice, the hesitation and glibness of his responses.  Finally, he rose and shut all the blinds, taking one last precaution, even though he was fairly certain they were in the clear. 

The text that chimed an hour later brought a smile to his lips, not because it came from Cady as he’d expected, but because it was the Company with a new date for offloading.  Finally things were back on track. 

Nervous as hell as the time clicked closer to her arrival, Ethan started to worry that maybe he should’ve planned things out better.  Did she expect a romantic dinner?  Flowers?  Those things weren’t in his usual arsenal.  His fridge was stocked with beer and munchies, and he had a condom tucked away in his pocket in case things went the way he hoped they would.  But what did she want to talk about? 

His stomach tightened when her knock came, soft and hesitant.  If he hadn’t been listening for it, he might’ve missed it all together.  Out of habit he checked the peep hole first, the gun not too far away in case she had company, but Cady stood out in the hall all by her lonesome, shifting from one foot to the other in impatience. 

The second he opened the door, she pushed her way in, smiling once she leaned against the inside wall.  “Hi.”

“Hi,” he smiled, knocked for a loop at the sight of her plump bottom lip caught between her teeth.  He resisted the urge to lean in and bite it himself.  Her waist length hair was pulled into a conservative twist, the slim fitting navy skirt and polka dotted blouse being her version of office chic, he supposed.  For some reason he found the strappy thing around her ankles sexy, the shoes old fashioned, but appealing. 

“Are you sure it’s alright for me to be here?” she asked, looking around as if she expected to find him not alone. 

“Yep, it’s completely fine,” he said, gesturing to the windows.  “I’ve had the blinds closed all day.”

“Smart,” she beamed, leaning up to drape her arms around his shoulders. 

The press of her lips dissolved the knot in his stomach.  There was just as much longing in her kiss as he’d been feeling.  Whatever it was she wanted to talk about, he felt confident it had nothing to do with how things were between them.  In fact, the way she pressed against him made it plain to see she was as tired of waiting as he was. 

Still, he couldn’t keep the niggling doubt from demanding to be heard.  “I thought you wanted to talk?” he said, taking a step backward before he lost his good intentions. 

Cady followed right after him, not allowing for so much as an inch of space between them.  “Can we do that after?  I’ve been waiting to kiss you for a week.”

Ethan couldn’t argue with that logic.  He kissed her good and hard, backing her up against the wall to feel her exquisite softness along the entire length of his body, showing her how much he’d wanted her too.  She made that sound… the sound that drove him wild and he almost lost his mind with need.  But instead of giving in to that need, he broke the kiss, calling on all his discipline and skill to remember they had something to discuss before things got out of control.

“Now, tell me what happened today,” he said when he could speak again. 

“Huh?”  Cady blinked back at him, her lips rosy and swollen from his kisses, and utterly adorable in her distracted state.  But her head soon cleared and the light of intelligence he admired snapped on.  “Oh right.  Detective Lucas came to see me at work.”

That proved as good as cold water for his burning libido and Ethan stepped back, his brows drawing together into a deep frown.  “What for?”

“To harass me mostly, about you.  I tried telling him we weren’t a thing anymore, but he kept following me.”

“He’s been following you?”  Damn it, if it wasn’t one thing, it was another.  Just as he’d made sure they’d gotten rid of Rikard, now they had to worry about the detective?  What if she’d led him right there?

“Relax, he didn’t follow me here, I was careful,” she said with a wry twist of the lips, reading his mind.  “As near as I can tell he gave up after lunch.  But he started to talk about possession.” 

“What about it?”  His frown didn’t lessen at all.

“I’m not sure.  I was trying
not
to get into it with him, not grill him for more information.  Still, it sounds like he’s putting two and two together and coming up with five.  It’s a cinch his bosses are already tired of hearing him talk about it, he was ordered off the case.  I just thought you should know about it.”

“Thanks for telling me.”  Ethan offered her a tight smile, bringing her hand up to his lips for a kiss.  “Lucas should be fairly hobbled as far as his investigation goes.  He can’t go through usual channels or he’ll risk getting in trouble.  Chances are he was only fishing today and he’ll move on to something else when he keeps running into dead ends.”

Cady wasn’t so fast to dismiss it.  “I’m worried you’re his new hobby.  Like trying to prove the Loch Ness monster exists or something.”

“Let him poke around all he wants, he won’t find anything.  The Company knows how to bury its tracks.  And if he does uncover anything real, they’ll bury him too.” 

“Please tell me you don’t mean that literally.”

He really had to watch what he said around her, the last thing he wanted to do was upset her.  Besides, since Cady was turning out to be more of a target for his crazy world than he’d thought, he started to get a new idea.  “Listen, I’m glad you came over.  There’s something I wanted to show you.”

“Great, whip it out,” she said with a cheesy grin.

“Huh?”  It took him half a second to see where she was going with that, his mind was already three steps down a different path.  “No, that’s not what I meant.  I’ve been thinking, how do you feel about trying something new?”

“Well… I thought we might do things the regular way our first time, but I’m open.”

Ethan laughed, pretty sure she was teasing, until her teeth caught at her lip again and she tilted her head speculatively.  He swallowed, trying to chase away all manner of erotic images that leapt to mind at what might be running through her head. 

“No, I meant, something really new.”

“I don’t know, I grew up in San Francisco, there’s not much I haven’t seen before.” 

Ethan smiled over the skeptical tilt of her brows.  “I can guarantee, this is something new.”