“So, the werewolves are involved in this too?” Black grumbled with a shake of his head. “This is ridiculous… the damned Apocalypse was less of a mess than this!” He turned to look out the window again and let forth a deep growl.
Kari rose and went to stand beside him at the window. The view was amazing, but her gaze went east toward the old city hall with the bell tower. The building was dark, but Kari searched the inky blackness for some sign that Emma was there. “The werewolves are just trying to get rid of the demons and stop them from raising corpses, so far as I can tell,” Kari said, and she patted him on the shoulder comfortingly. Something about doing so felt strange.
Lord Black wrapped his arm around her, his hand on her opposite hip. It felt nice. He pulled her close to him; how had she missed his protective nature and well-masked gentleness? In a way, he was like Eli, but he was taller, stronger, and much more handsome—not to mention half-guardian instead of half-corlyps. They stood side by side, looking out over the city streets, dimly lit as the hour grew ever later, and at the few lighted windows scattered throughout the more populous areas of the northern districts.
Kaelin turned to her, and Kari let him wrap his arms around her and bend down to kiss her neck. She felt comfortable in his embrace, and she ran her hands down his powerful arms before resting them on his hips. He began to back her up toward his desk, and Kari sat on its edge. Kaelin continued to kiss her, and despite the cigar burning behind her, Kari could only smell the muscular, handsome, half-guardian male. Why she hadn’t opened herself up to him before?
Her memories felt hazy; she couldn’t even remember why she’d come to see him. It wasn’t important; she was with this man, and he was handsome, available, and the rich and powerful earl of a prosperous county.
There was a warning tingle in Kari’s mind, but as the earl’s hands began searching for the releases of her breastplate, Kari fell deeper into the warmth of his touch. She couldn’t explain the tentative pang in the back of her mind, but it pulsed as she reached to remove the earl’s shirt. Kari ran her hands down his muscled chest, marveling at the puncture wound scars just below his ribs and the telltale sign of deep lacerations like claw marks near his collarbone. He’d mentioned being attacked by a demon once; she assumed the scars were from that encounter.
Perhaps we have more in common than I thought…
The pang grew stronger, more insistent. Kari rubbed the back of her head as Black undid the last clasp of her breastplate and started to take it off. Why did she feel like she was betraying someone by being here? After all, she and Eli weren’t mates, only friends. The fact that they’d had sex didn’t mean she belonged to him, and she was free to make her own choices and spend a passionate night or three with Black. She took her breastplate and padded shirt off when Black struggled to get them free of her wings. She pushed Eli out of her mind and stood up so Black could embrace her and start taking off her halter.
Wait a second, Kari thought, a moment of clarity through the haziness. I never had sex with Eli, did I?
The pang turned to blinding pain, and Kari separated from Black and put her hand to her forehead. This entire situation was wrong somehow, but the only thing that was real at that moment was the pain. Kari tried to remember her first encounter with Eli; she’d met him in a brothel. He had come to her bedroom that night, but it wasn’t to have sex; it was to fight a demon—a succubus.
Kari pieced her thoughts together, and the pain began to subside. She was hunting a succubus… a succubus working with a demon. A demon that apparently thought she and Eli were sleeping together and tried to use that to blur her memories of Grakin.
A demon that was standing right in front of her....
Kari slapped Black hard across the face, and he staggered back a step, eyes wide. She thought perhaps she was mistaken, but then he grabbed her by the arms in a bone-crushing grip, picked her up, and slammed her on his desk. Kari’s breath was blasted from her, and Black began yanking the lower part of her armor and her padded pants off. Kari got her wits back when her panties followed and Black crawled up onto the desk with her.
Instinct took over. Kari threw her right leg over Black’s shoulder. He regarded it for a moment with a grin and muttered, “Well, this is different.”
His smile disappeared when she wrapped his head and arm with her other leg and locked them in a triangle choke, just as Aeligos had taught her. She pulled his trapped arm out straight, threatening to break it at the elbow, but she regained her wits. She didn’t want to hurt Lord Black to get at the demon inside him. Instead, she released his arm and grabbed his head to pull it down harder into the choke. She wasn't sure she could choke the demon unconscious, but she squeezed her legs and kept pulling his head down. Black tried to say something, but his eyes rolled and he went limp in seconds.
Kari leaned over and dropped him off the side of the desk. She sprang to her feet and put her hands over her exposed breasts. She shivered in the chilly office but grabbed her swords before she gathered her scattered clothing. Kari had all but her breastplate back on by the time Black stirred, and she grabbed up her scimitars when his hands sought purchase on the surface of the desk.
He pulled himself to a sitting position, and he looked around with a furrowed brow. When he saw Kari, his ears went back, and the furrow deepened. He started to rise, but thought better of it, rubbing the back of his head with a grimace. “What the hell happened?” he asked. “And why are we both half-naked?
“What’s the last thing you remember?” Kari demanded. She put her scimitars back in their sheaths and then put her breastplate back on.
“I was… looking out the window, and then you patted my shoulder,” he said. If he wasn’t sorting through his thoughts, he was doing a damned good job of acting like it. “Then, I woke up here… with the back of my head bleeding. What happened?”
“The shadow demon blindsided us,” she answered. Kari hated to lie, even to someone like Kaelin Black, but was that even a lie? Black rubbed the back of his head, still seated on his rump; Kari didn’t think he was acting.
“Everett!” Black called, rising.
It took only half a minute before there was a knock at the door. The earl invited his marshal in; was he going to have Kari arrested?
The earl picked up his shirt and went to sit in his chair. He took up a handkerchief and pressed it to the bloody tangle of hair at the base of his skull. “What do you mean it blindsided us? Did it take solid form?”
“I’m not really sure,” Kari said.
Marshal Saracht came to attention before Black's desk. “What happened, my lord?”
“The shadow demon attacked us,” the earl answered. “Did you see anything enter or leave the building?”
“No, my lord.”
“Why was your breastplate off?” Black asked, turning to Kari.
“It started trying to pull off my clothes,” Kari said. A slight tremor entered her voice, but she worked to calm herself. “But I was able to drive it off.”
There was no mistaking Blacks’ reaction; he understood exactly what she meant. Still, he didn’t say anything, hesitating until he said, “Everett, escort the lady back to her inn, and then bring me a priest—I don’t care from which church.” The marshal bowed, and Black turned a measured gaze on Kari. “I’m tempted to keep you around if you’re capable of dealing with this shadow demon, but you’re obviously shaken up. Go back to the inn and get some rest. My marshal and his men will keep watch over you through the night. Meanwhile, I’ll see if the priests can at least keep that demon out of here. Come the morning, keep up the pressure on these demons, and let me know if you need anything from me. I am placing the marshal and his men fully at your disposal.”