He growled. “What are you doing, Witch?”
“Unpacking my things, Demon.”
He regarded her and the pile of boxes and bags in the circle suspiciously.
“Go get me something to eat,” she said, suddenly famished. Well, yeah... running and sex with a demon and all that magic. Anybody would be ravenous. “I’m human. I still need food. Did you think I survived off sex with your evil leader?”
He grumbled but left the tent, presumably to address her food demand.
She stepped outside to yell after him, “Oh, and I better see a cheeseburger and some fries when you get back—nothing stupid an herbivore would eat like an apple or vegetable.” Who knew what demons thought most humans ate?
When he’d gone, she peeled the dress off and returned it to the trunk, then changed into something less slutty: jeans and a T-shirt.
Tam sat back down in the circle and pulled her tarot deck out of a bag. She unwrapped the red silk, shuffled the deck, and laid the cards out, focusing on her intent as best she could at the moment.
Not good. The death card was still in there, and the tower, and the lovers. The pretty epic major arcana cards. Ick. It looked like the kind of reading Romeo and Juliet would have gotten before that poisoning episode. The tower usually represented a rude awakening, war, or some type of dramatic shake-up in one’s life. The lovers, of course, were self-explanatory. And the death card... in this spread? Well, it didn’t seem like just a big change. But then, if death was her goal, why was she filled with so much foreboding over it?
It could mean anything. The cards could mean Jack was going to kill her, or Cain was. It could mean any kind of struggle or fight or revelation was soon to go down. It could be about her former relationship with Jack or sleeping with Cain now.
Tam made a frustrated sound and scattered the cards, not wanting to look at them anymore. In the scatter, they all turned face down—except the death card. It was hard to read one’s own cards anyway. You couldn’t be as objective, always seeing what you wanted instead of what was there. Though there was no interpretation of those cards that sounded like a fun time.
There was a disturbance outside the tent, raised voices. Tam gathered the cards and wrapped them back in the silk before moving toward the doorway. She heard Cain and a demon guard on the other side.
“Why is only one of you still here?” he snarled. “What is with this sudden rash of disobedience?”
“That witch of yours was doing magic in there. Mace went in to check it out and came back with a scorch mark on his shoulder. She sent him on a cheeseburger run. I don’t know why we’re keeping her alive. She’s a danger to us. We should kill her now. We don’t owe the other preternaturals anything.”
Cain growled. “I’ll be the one to kill her. There is no we in this equation. And I’ll kill her when I’m good and damn ready.”
“Y-yes, sir,” the demon said, losing his bravery.
Tam stumbled back as Cain ran into her. He arched a brow in that sexy way she didn’t want to overthink.
“You sent one of my demons on a cheeseburger run?”
“I’m hungry. Do you understand humans eat food?”
He looked sheepish but quickly recovered his badass demeanor. “What kind of magic were you doing in here?”
“Just unpacking my things.”
“For what purpose?”
“What do you mean for what purpose? To f**king have them. To wear normal freaking clothes! You think I want to flounce around here wearing something a micro-step above a negligee? Are you for real?”
Cain pushed past her and emptied the bags, sorting through her things. “I’m taking the books and all magical tools and herbs and potions. You’ll have no use for them here, and if you think I’m sitting around while you concoct some incantation to seal me in a jar for all eternity, you’re insane.”
She wouldn’t tell him that she hardly needed any of that to incant. She was far past that level. All she needed was her mind and voice. Even so, it took everything in her to keep her anger at bay. If Cain intended to kill her, taking her books and tools away was like he was taking her identity with him. Asking him to kill her had seemed like a smart option, but if she was going to just sit on death row waiting for him to lose control with her while everything that held any meaning in her life was taken away... It made her blood boil.
She struggled with the last energy reserves she had to throw a ball of gleaming purple energy at him. He dropped the books and rounded on her, his eyes glowing red, fangs descending. He let the demon come out and shifted fully, letting his true face and form out. He was larger as a demon, with reddish-brown-scaled skin. Deadly claws forced their way out of larger fingertips, and horns popped out of his shoulders like antlers. His clothing ripped from the transformation like a cheesy Hulk movie. In his true form, he oozed menace and fear and hatred and anger and every bad feeling in the universe.
His voice was distorted when he spoke. “Do you have a death wish?”
Maybe someone else would have huddled in a corner and cried, but Tam wasn’t someone else. “Do you have a thirty-second memory? We’ve had this conversation. I want you to take me out of this world. Are you tired of me yet? Bored yet?”
She threw another ball of energy. It had formed much more slowly than the others, but she didn’t care. She threw it anyway. Cain leaped out of the way and charged her. He gripped her wrists so she couldn’t throw any more. The joke was on him, because she was tapped out.
“Not even close,” he growled. He was still in the demon form, looking her over like she was prime rib. “Let me tell you how it’s going to go, little girl. You’ve pissed me off for the last time. I will take you out when I’m good and ready, but before I do, I vow I’ll make you love me. You’ll beg me to keep you. And then I’ll laugh and kill you.”
Tam was out of magic, but not out of stupidity. She spit in his face.
He let go of her and glared. Tam rubbed her wrists where he’d held them so tightly.
“Let me let you in on a secret,” she said. “In order for me to love you, you’d have to be charming and halfway decent. A task you’re failing miserably at.” She doubted he could pull off charming and halfway decent even on his best day.
“I’ve got more experience in the art of seduction than you’re prepared to handle.” He went back to the circle, packed up her stuff and lugged it out of the tent behind him. It took him three trips.
She rushed to the doorway and pulled the tent flap back to yell at him. “Oh, and taking all my shit? Brilliant first move. I’ll be swooning by dinnertime.”
The demon guard showed up with a bag from a fast food joint and a soft drink. She glared at him and ripped it out of his hands, then went back to her tent. First food. Then nap. Then she wasn’t sure what, but something.
***
Cain returned to the caves to hide Tam’s books and tools behind a natural rock formation. When he was sure they were secure, he headed back into town, still angry with the witch, but wanting nothing more than to take her again. With his age, he didn’t need to feed every day, but he often did—just like humans ate chocolate not out of hunger, but because it tasted good. Unlike his brother’s situation with Anna when she’d still been a living human, Cain was confident he could sleep with Tam more frequently without killing her.
To kill a two-thousand-year-old witch with the level of power she’d acquired just from living and using it for so long, he’d have to make an actual effort. He’d have to gorge himself on her—not an unpleasant way to spend an evening.
But before he killed her, he wanted to make good on his threat. Maybe it was the danger she posed to him, or maybe it was his own ego and the fact that he had to use a heavy dose of thrall to make her give in to him... and even then her smart mouth still fought to the surface. He would break her. By the time he was finished, she would be desperate for his approval. And then he’d toss her aside like all the rest. It was what he had to do. There was no other acceptable option.
When he got back, Jane, Cole, Anna, and Luc were standing outside his tent looking impatient and worried.
“Did the meeting run on this long?” It seemed that a lot of time had passed, though it was so easy to lose track of it in the demon dimension with no day and no time keeping machines like clocks or watches.
“We should speak privately,” Jane said.
Cain nodded and led them into his empty tent. “What is it?”
“It would be convenient if you had a cell phone,” Cole said.
“Cell phones don’t work between dimensions, and technology doesn’t work here at all. This place is made of too much magic. The two interfere and the magic wins.”
Jane and Cole both pulled out their cell phones only to discover them dead.
“Huh,” Jane said. “So we can’t have TV or Internet or...”
Cain shook his head, amused. It was easy to forget Jane was still such a new demon. Of course she would have known by now that such things didn’t exist in his dimension, but that they couldn’t exist hadn’t penetrated. But then, she’d been preoccupied with raising her young pup back in the human realm.
“But cell phones are really convenient,” Jane said, as if it were some arbitrary rule Cain could change.
Luc cleared his throat. “Nobody cares, Jane. We’ve got more important matters to attend to here than your instant communication withdrawals. Some day you’ll be glad there’s a place you can go without those annoying things ringing for your attention.”
Cole growled. The werewolf alpha didn’t do well when anyone talked down to his mate. He lost all his sense and reason. Another thing Cain didn’t find very attractive as a lifestyle.
“Will somebody please tell me what’s going on?” Cain was growing irritated.
“Fine,” Cole said. “The Cycler has struck.”
“Already?” Only two little Indians left.
The pack leader continued, “It’s hit the human media. It’s bad. Come with us, we need to show you.”