Chuch and Eva had helped her find a place while they rebuilt. One of his many cousins needed a roommate, and Shan fit the bill. She’d gotten a job selling clothes at the mall, which she didn’t love, but it paid the rent. At night, she studied for her GED, and two weeks ago, she’d passed the test. She had an e-mail from Eva, congratulating her. In her DOWNLOADS folder I found a couple of PDFs from Laredo Community College. One contained fee info and the other was an admissions application.
Wow. I was so fucking proud of her.
And there were random notes from Jesse, too, showing the evolution of their relationship. At first just short and quick, uncertain almost, as if he didn’t understand why she was on his mind. They got gradually longer, and then I read, Dinner was amazing. And breakfast was even better. That had to be their first night together. I felt like a spy then, and I closed the computer.
Where are you, Shan?
I wished I had the ability to connect with her, mind to mind, but I knew no spells that permitted it, only natural gifts. Some people were born telepaths, but I wasn’t. Which meant I had to do this the hard way. Fine. With a faint sigh, I packed up her things and zipped the backpack we’d bought together. Afterward, I sat with my eyes closed, thinking, hoping Greydusk returned with a vital lead, as I had nothing, a galling admission.
Later, Chance came down to join me. I heard his steps but I didn’t open my eyes. What he had to say wouldn’t be fun to hear, but there was no point in putting it off. I steeled myself for a twist on the breakup speech. This time, accurately, it would be It’s not me, it’s you.
“Corine.” His tone throbbed a demand: Look at me.
So I did. I owed him that much, even if he broke my heart again. This time, I didn’t blame him.
“Yeah?”
“I don’t care about the demon stuff.”
I froze. Ran my fingers through my hair in stunned reaction.
He went on. “I don’t even know who my father is. And it’s clear something’s happening to me here too. I love you. And I’ll stand by you, even in this.” His charming, disarming smile flashed. “If the worst comes to pass, if you ascend as the demon queen, I’ll figure out some way to keep you happy, because there’s no way in hell I’m letting anybody else take my place as your consort.”
“Holy shit,” I breathed. “You’d do that? Why?”
“Because I’ve seen what life is like without you.”
“But you’d meet someone else—”
“Don’t you think I tried? You were gone eighteen months before I came looking that first time. Until Min vanished, I had decided to let you go.”
“For my own good,” I muttered.
“Well, yeah. I dated. But never more than once with the same woman. I was empty. Broken. When I had a reason to find you, I did. I was so glad to see you, even under the circumstances. Because in that time, I never found anyone who clicked with me like you. Now that we’re together again, I’m not leaving you. Ever.”
“It won’t come to that. I’ll do better at reining her in…and I won’t drink any more weird potions against your advice.”
“I understand why you did,” he said. “But your recklessness scares the shit out of me, love. Sometimes I think you don’t care if you live or die. You play chicken with the universe.”
I didn’t—couldn’t—deny it. Instead, I reached for him and when his arms went around me, I luxuriated in his familiar, comforting heat, the lovely cadence of a heartbeat that had lulled me to sleep in years past. “What’s your last name?” I asked.
Like he would tell me.
But his tiger’s eyes glimmered with amusement. “Yi, of course.”
“That’s your mother’s name.”
“She never married my father.” He cocked his head. “I can’t believe you didn’t know we were teasing you. I mean, she hasn’t told me who he is. That much is true. But I don’t have a secret name.”
So ridiculously simple.
“It was a running joke?” I ventured.
“I thought you were in on it too. Mom and I both did.”
Heat suffused my cheeks. God, my naïveté when I started dating him had been painful. “Oh.”
“We need to communicate better this time around.”
I smiled. “We’re working on it.”
He kissed me then, but before I fell into the pleasure, an idea struck me like a lightning bolt. The backpack. Shan had it with her when she was taken, and they let her keep it until they moved her that last time. If she saw anything at all during the kidnapping, the bag might know about it. I broke away from Chance.
“I’ve got an idea,” I explained, giving him a quick consolation kiss.
She always wore it lopsided, hanging on her right shoulder. So I went for that strap with an incoherent prayer. Please, please let this work. The charge was fierce enough to thrust me into her head, and I lost myself.
I’m walking to work. It’s pretty far, but I don’t have enough money for a car yet. Sometimes a girl from the store gives me a ride home, but I don’t know her well enough to ask if she’ll come pick me up. I’d totally kick in for gas. But car pool stuff can wait. It’s just fucking awesome that I’m self-sufficient.
Jesse’s coming to take me to lunch. A happy starburst, remembering. We’ve been together a whole month now. Which doesn’t seem like that long, but the boyfriends I had before were such children compared to him. I love how he supports me. He wants me to go to college.
A dark van passes. I don’t worry until it fishtails to a stop, blocking my path. I know how trouble starts, so I turn to run. They’re on me in four steps. Pain wracks me as I’m stuffed into the vehicle. Bound. They look like ordinary men, except for their eyes. Those are dead. Bloodred. As the van starts, I tip over. Hit the floor hard. One of them smashes a fist into my temple, and that’s the last thing I see.
I became Corine again, my head throbbing with Shannon’s phantom pain. Chance stroked my cheek. “How bad was it?”
“Bad enough.”
“Did you get anything?”
“I think, maybe. We’ll have to ask Greydusk if he knows of any demons that manifest in possessing a human host by showing red eyes.”
“It could point us to the right caste,” he said with rising hope in his voice.
“Then he can start threatening to suck the life out of those who don’t cooperate. I’m pretty sure that’s what he’s doing now, in fact. With less direction.” Because he’d been willing to support me, I owed him complete honesty. And so I shared Butch’s warning. I concluded, “If we don’t find Shannon soon, this might be irrevocable. I’d understand if you changed your mind.”
“I’m not going to. I fucked things up with you before. I failed Lily. I’ll do it right this time.”
I cracked a reluctant smile. “I don’t think the relationship manuals cover this kind of thing.”
“Since when did normal ever apply to us?” Chance rubbed his cheek against mine, and then nuzzled my jaw with his lips.
A pleasurable thrill trembled through me. The demon queen wanted to push him down and force him to serve. Demand immediate sexual satisfaction. I strangled her, but Butch whined, as if he could see the dark tendrils wrapping tighter about me. Before I could kiss Chance back or thank him or any number of interesting options, Greydusk slammed through the front door. By the demon’s expression, one of great excitement, his errand had not been in vain.
“You learned something?”
“How astute of you. But before I go into detail, I must ask your help.”