Wicked Whispers (5 page)

Ignoring her, he pulled open the door and strode into the hallway.

Jerk. She followed him.

He didn’t look at her once as he climbed the three flights of stairs.

“Why didn’t you take the elevator?” She was sucking air by the time he stopped in front of a door.

The glance he shot her gleamed with malice. “The stairs don’t bother me.”

He allowed his gaze to slide over her—slowly, suggesting that stairs would soon be the least of her problems. “
Humans
don’t have the stamina for them.” He made sure she understood he was distancing himself from those out-of-shape humans.

While she was composing a reply that would be as insulting as possible, he pushed on the door. It opened.

“Wasn’t the door locked?”

“Locked doors won’t stop me.” His tone dismissed her question as foolish.

“Who has dared enter my room without—?” Creepy Guy rushed toward the door and then came to a sliding stop.

“Troll.” Murmur spoke quietly, but menace lived in his voice.

Murmur said only the one word, but Ivy swore the walls actually vibrated and the air thickened with the threat of it.

“You!” Creepy Guy backed slowly away. He stuck his fingers in his ears. “Don’t.”

He didn’t specify what he didn’t want Murmur to do, but the fingers in his ears gave Ivy a pretty big clue.

“Leave.” Murmur didn’t bother shouting. He simply pointed to the door.

Creepy Guy nodded, took his fingers from his ears, and rushed past them.

“If you ever threaten the human again, I’ll find you.” Murmur’s smile was terrifying. “And you’ll dance. Forever.”

“Won’t threaten human, won’t come back.” And then he was gone.

Amazed, Ivy stood frozen while her brain processed everything. Creepy Guy was a troll? What was with the dancing thing? Then it hit her.

“If I hadn’t pulled away from you last night, how long would you have danced with me?”

“Until you died.” He turned and walked away.

3

Murmur was freaking furious. Sure, he’d been in her mind. And sure he’d done a little taunting. But that was no reason to run to Zane for help. And she’d done it right in front of him.

A melody line wound through his head, one full of thorns tipped with poison. He controlled his need to send it Zane’s way. That would indicate emotional weakness,
jealousy
. Demons weren’t emotional beings.
Then what do you call all this anger
? Even though he recognized the dangerous path his thoughts were taking, he couldn’t stop them.

He wondered how she’d feel when he told her that behind Zane’s big, smarmy smile lurked a sorcerer. Murmur might have called Zane a wizard, but he knew the truth.
Holgarth
was a wizard—annoying as hell, but with no dark magic in his bag of tricks. Zane was a sorcerer—malicious intent lurked in the heart of his magic.

Murmur paused at Bain’s door. He took a deep breath, trying to deny the anger any power over him. He pictured a blank, white screen and shoved his feelings behind it. Ivy could do whatever she wanted with Zane behind that damn screen. She was merely a placeholder for the woman Bain would snatch from the faery host.

He wrapped himself in his customary persona, honed over millennia—someone who observed, who took advantage of the foolishness in others, and who never, ever allowed strong feelings about anything except his music to infect him.

Once again secure with his personal identity, Murmur raised his fist to knock. He did have to take back one of his earlier assessments, though. She had the most sensual lips he’d ever seen. Murmur had no idea how he’d ever thought they were just ordinary.

Bain opened his door on the third knock. He was holding a burger. He frowned at Murmur. “I don’t work during lunch. Tell Holgarth to deal with it himself.”

“This isn’t about the castle.” He walked past Bain and sat on the couch. “I need a few more details about how you intend to pull off stealing from the faeries.”

Bain followed him and sat in the one chair. He dropped the half-eaten burger on the coffee table next to his drink and fries. “So what do you want to know?”

His friend looked open, but Murmur had learned long ago not to trust anyone, even Bain. “What’s the woman’s name?”

“Elizabeth.”

Bain wasn’t into elaborating on his answers today.

“I don’t think we should use Ivy.” Murmur tried not to wince. Had he really said that? “Sparkle will go crazy when she finds out that we traded her shiny new assistant to the Sluagh Sidhe.” Murmur breathed easier. See, he had a perfectly logical reason for his suggestion.

Bain shrugged and picked up his drink.

Guess he’d have to spell it out. “Let’s follow your plan to its logical conclusion. You trade Ivy for Elizabeth. Sparkle goes ballistic and runs to Ganymede. The chaos bringer will do anything for her, so he comes out blasting. Are you ready to match your power with his?”

Bain narrowed his eyes. “We command legions of demons.”

“And he has the Big Boss behind him. What would a war between legions of demons and the Big Boss’s cosmic troublemakers do to earth? I, for one, would miss humans. Who would be left for us to tempt and destroy? All because you were too stubborn to choose another woman. Our master won’t be happy.” Actually, Murmur hadn’t cared much about making the big guy down under happy for quite a while. He probably did need that trip back to the Underworld to get his head straight.

Bain looked thoughtful before slowly smiling. “Are you asking for a favor? If so, it would cancel out the one I owe you.”

Fury punched a hole in Murmur’s imaginary screen. Friendship should mean more than trading favors.
Demons weren’t meant to have friends, stupid
. Bain was just being true to his nature. So why was Murmur pissed at the other demon?

Disappointment made him reckless. “Look, I don’t care who you use. Take Ivy. You’re not doing me a favor. I’ll just walk away when the Big Boss comes calling. Elizabeth doesn’t mean a thing to me.” He waited to see if Bain would call his bluff.

After Murmur met Bain’s glare with what he hoped looked like disinterest, the other demon put his drink down a little too hard and some of it splashed onto the coffee table. “You win. Find me another woman to hand over, and I’ll forget about Ivy. But it has to be someone who’s working at the castle, because I can’t take the chance of her checking out unexpectedly.”

Murmur nodded. What the hell had he gotten himself into? Now he had to find a victim for Bain. He strung a few dozen silent curses together but refused to examine why he’d agreed to the whole thing. Why should he care what happened to Ivy or, for that matter, to Bain? His redundancy wasn’t lost on him. He’d asked the same question several times already without getting an answer. The next time he considered growing his friends list, he’d have to remember what a pain in the ass they were.

Bain didn’t have a chance to comment on Murmur’s agreement. The door suddenly swung open, and Tirron strode into the room.

“Knocking is an accepted preliminary to entering.”

The faery ignored Murmur’s mumbled complaint. He sat on the other end of the couch and leaned forward. “The Sluagh Sidhe has crossed over from Faery. They’re gathering humans in California now. They hunt by night, and since they always travel from west to east, they should be here in about two weeks.” He looked at Murmur expectantly. “That’s if you can make sure their flight to the East Coast swings through Galveston.” His pale cheeks flushed with excitement.

Murmur smiled. The ice king was actually showing signs of thawing. Too bad. He would enjoy putting a few cracks in Tirron’s anticipation. He made no excuses for his need to be mean. It was a demon thing. “Think of my power as a musical tsunami. The wave travels across the country, picking up strength and intensity as it goes.” He paused.

Bain speared him with a hard stare. “Why do I sense a ‘but’ coming?”

Murmur’s smile widened. Bain knew him too well. “No weapon is perfect. Any fae caught in that wave, even if they’re not connected with the hunt, will also be drawn here.” He held up his hands, palms up in a hey-it’s-not-my-fault gesture. “So you might want to prepare for random faery visits before the Sluagh Sidhe arrives.”

“Shit. How will I explain that to Ganymede?” Bain raked his fingers through his hair.

“You? It won’t take long for Ganymede to realize my music is drawing them to the castle.
My
ass will be on the line.” Would Bain even care about collateral damage? Murmur admitted to cynicism. Yes, he had trust issues.

Bain looked distracted. “You’ll be fine. You saved the Big Boss along with the whole castle a few weeks ago. They owe you. Just call in the favors.”

Tirron seemed oblivious to minor problems like staying alive once the cosmic troublemakers realized what was going on. “When will you start drawing them to us?”

“I’ll go to my room now. I need to concentrate.” Not true, but he was having difficulty keeping his annoyance safely behind that white screen. A show of temper would damage his legendary reputation as the ultimate cool guy.

On the way out, he realized that Bain still hadn’t given him any solid information about how everything would go down. But he didn’t feel like continuing the discussion with Tirron in the room. Something about the faery felt wrong. Murmur left Bain and Tirron discussing whatever they were discussing and headed toward his room. Once there, he’d send out his call to the faery host and then… Maybe he’d check to see if Ivy had left yet.

Murmur didn’t have to do any checking, because as he reached his tower floor, he saw Ivy pounding on his door. She turned as he approached.

He didn’t know what expression he’d expected, but it hadn’t been grim determination. “You have to add the I’ll-huff-and-I’ll-puff line if you want me to answer.”

She didn’t look amused. “Can we go inside?”

The best thing he could do for both of them was to send her away. Murmur knew he wouldn’t. He didn’t answer her, just unlocked his door and stood aside for her to enter. And then watched her flinch as she heard the door click shut behind her.

He waved at the couch. “Sit.”

Ivy hesitated but finally perched on the edge of the cushion. “I decided to quit after your full-disclosure moment.”

“Smart decision.” He was thrilled. Really. Thrilled.

She took a deep breath and met his gaze. “Were you telling the truth?”

He didn’t have to think about his answer. “Yes.”

She nodded, and he watched her repress a shudder. For whatever reason, her response triggered his anger. He couldn’t remember his emotions ever being this close to the surface.

A melody began building in his head, one with minor chords and major warnings. He walked over to the narrow window, putting some distance between them.

“I called my mother after the meeting. I wanted to tell her I was coming home.”

“And?”

She stared at him. “I’m staying.”

“Dumb decision.” But no matter what he
said
, a part of him celebrated. Not the smart part.

“She said that Dad lost his latest job.”

“I’m sorry to hear that.” He didn’t give a damn about her father’s job, but since it obviously had something to do with her staying, he’d hear her out.

“Don’t be sorry. He loses a job every week. Mom has always supported us.” She folded her hands in her lap and stared at the closed door. “I’ve never wanted to be like him. I went to college. Got a business degree. Worked until I had a down payment and then bought my pet store. None of it mattered. I still lost the store to the bad economy. Sparkle’s offer was a godsend. It pays good money with great benefits.”

And some not-so-great ones. “You’ll find another job.” Damn, the melody was gaining volume, but he forced himself not to listen, not to think about where it would take him.

“No one will offer the kind of paycheck Sparkle is giving me.”

“And the big paycheck is important because… ?”

“Dad bails on every job he gets, so that’s no big deal. But when I called, Mom said she got notice that her company is downsizing, and she’ll have to take a job that pays less. My brother is still in high school. I have to help.”

“Money.” Of course it was money. With humans it was always about money. If he couldn’t find someone else in the castle to offer up to Bain, he could pay Ivy to leave before the faery host arrived. Humans all had their price. “You could always bring your brother here. It would be one less mouth for your mother to feed.”

Ivy shook her head. “Not with a demon in residence.” She speared him with a hard stare. “If you touched him, I’d have to kill you.” Her expression said she meant it.

Under ordinary circumstances, her threat would amuse him. But there was nothing ordinary about how he was feeling right now. Her answer just made him angrier.
And he couldn’t turn off the damn music in his head.

Murmur nodded even though he didn’t understood human love of family. It was tough to empathize with something you’d never experienced. “So you didn’t mention wanting to quit and come home?”

“No.” Now for the hard part. Ivy needed information. “Since I’m staying, I want you to tell me the truth about the people in this place.”

He raised one brow. “Why come to me? Sparkle could’ve told you. Besides, I only tell the truth on Tuesdays. Well, most Tuesdays. If Tuesday falls on a full moon, all bets are off.” He smiled. “Demon, remember?”

She huffed her irritation. “Why you? Because you scare me. And if I’m going to work here, I have to face my fears.” She thought about the total weirdness of the whole castle. She could handle the rest of the strangeness, but only he truly frightened her. On a whole bunch of levels. Some of which she wasn’t ready to examine yet.

His smile was slow and wicked. “Sweetheart, you have no idea what true terror is. But thanks for the compliment just the same.”

What a bizarre reaction. Ivy thought about bolting from the room, but forced herself to stay seated by thinking about how much she needed this job. She’d lost her sense of self along with her pet shop. She damn well wasn’t going to lose this chance. She would
not
fear him.