My interlude with Thorn. A faint flush crept up my neck. “We tried to be quiet.”
“Don’t worry your lovely head about that. I have especially keen senses when it comes to my area of expertise. I lent a little magic to give you the privacy I figured you’d want to have.”
“Oh. Thank you.” I paused. “That didn’t require you to be in the room, did it?”
Ruse held up his hands. “I enjoy participating in the act, not so much watching it from afar. Consider the favor my contribution to the public good. Thorn’s needed a good lay for at least a few centuries, I’d estimate.”
I socked him again, but his banter had helped distract me from my uneasiness in this place. When Snap and I had gotten close, the incubus had told me that he was happy for me to seek pleasure wherever I could find it. It sounded like that applied to the warrior as well, as much as their attitudes tended to clash.
The gaudy brass clock standing between the photos showed it was quarter past three. “Leland will be here soon,” I said. “You’d better stay out of sight until I give the signal that his badge is off.” I didn’t know whether he’d be wearing it just to walk around the city, but after screwing us over as badly as he had yesterday, I wouldn’t be surprised to find him extra cautious.
Ruse nodded and vanished. I prowled around the living room until I found an ideal spot where I could crouch beside a side table. The position gave me a clear view of the hall so I’d know what I was dealing with before I sprang into action, but should hide me from a casual glance. Then all I had to do was wait.
As the minutes ticked by, I twisted a lyric and sang softly into the silence. “Waiting for that final woe sent, you’ll say the words that lie and prey.” Leland would probably claim siccing our enemies on us had been a heroic act. Well, he’d lost any hope of screwing me months ago, and now he was going to lose any chance of screwing us over again.
Ruse blinked into the physical space just long enough to say, “He’s coming down the street,” and then vanished again. I tensed in my hunched pose. My fingers curled toward my palms.
A key clicked in the lock. Leland strode in, all puffed up on an endorphin high from the weights he’d have been hefting. As he tossed his gym bag to the side of the hall, his shirt shifted, and I caught a glint of silver at its V neckline. He was wearing his protective badge pinned to an undershirt like I often did. No other metallic gear gleamed on his person.
That was all I needed to know. I sprang up and leapt across the few feet between us.
Leland stiffened in surprise—wrong reflex, dude. “Sorsha,” he sputtered, and I was already on him, smacking his defensive hand away with a quick swipe while I yanked on his shirt. With one swift jerk, the badge snapped off the layer of cotton underneath. I flashed it through the air to signal Ruse.
“What the fuck are you doing?” Leland snapped, lunging at me. Too bad he spent all his gym time bulking up and not developing his inner Jack Be Nimble. I darted out of the way just as Ruse materialized in the space between us.
“Hello, my friend,” the incubus said in his most cajoling tone, so strung through with supernatural power I could feel the vibration of it in the air. “As you can see, we’re all going to get along here. We came out of concern for your well-being—you need to listen to us or you could be in grave danger.”
Leland swayed on his feet, his boyish face tensing. The voodoo hadn’t totally enraptured him in one go. “You’re one of the shadowkind she’s working with. I don’t think you should be here. Either of you. You—”
Ruse held up his hands in a placating gesture. “We’ll certainly leave as soon as we’ve settled things with you. You’ve been in contact with very malicious people, and we couldn’t bear to see you get hurt because of that. I know you and Sorsha have had your differences, but can’t you see how much she still cares for you?”
I fought back the urge to glare at him for that remark and gave Leland the sweetest smile I could summon. Which probably wasn’t very sweet, since I was also inclined to puke on the jerk’s shiny trainers at the idea of caring about him, but it appeared to be enough to smooth Ruse’s spell along.
“I always knew she must, somewhere in there,” Leland said, peering back at me with his own smile, which was so self-satisfied I nearly did puke.
Thankfully, Ruse stepped in before any expelling of bodily fluids became necessary. As he nodded, a sly thread crept into his voice. “And you must care about yourself enough to prioritize your safety, no? Look at this magnificent display of your past achievements.” He motioned to the photos on the mantel.
Leland’s gaze followed the gesture. “We have to celebrate our victories,” he said. “Pep ourselves up to take on even more. Or to step in when other people are going too far.” He glanced back at me, drawing himself up with a pompous air. “You were ruining people’s lives. I couldn’t stand back and let that happen.”
I bit my tongue to avoid pointing out that he’d potentially ruined dozens of lives by enabling the Company’s attack and preventing us from freeing their captives. As much as he’d pretended to care about defending the shadowkind, their lives clearly didn’t mean all that much to him. Maybe he only saw them as worth protecting when they were small and inept. Maybe it’d always been about gaining a sense of magnanimity and never about kindness at all.
Ruse grinned. Confident he now had the other guy completely under his sway, he pointed Leland to the photos again. “I need to see just how dedicated you are to yourself before I know how we can help you. Take your favorite image and give yourself a kiss.”
“Ruse,” I whispered in protest. We had more important things to do here than goof around with my ex on puppet strings.
The incubus ignored me, and it was kind of satisfying watching Leland rush to grab the photo of himself on the boat deck and give it a hearty smooch. My lips twitched despite myself.
Ruse applauded. “Perfect. Now, do you think you could show us a headstand? It’s very important for ensuring we give you the most helpful strategies for protecting yourself…”
Leland was already bending over to set his head on the rug. He braced himself and heaved his bulky legs into the air. They flailed this way and that for a few seconds before he toppled over onto the rug with an audible whoomph. Then he was leaping up again as if ready for another go.
I elbowed Ruse. As much as I’d like to watch my ex make a fool of himself for hours, we were here on business, not pleasure.
“All right, all right,” the incubus said, and motioned Leland over. “Just one more thing I’d like to check. If you wanted so much for Sorsha to offer you the full girlfriend experience, why didn’t you romance her like a boyfriend would? An honest answer, please.”
Leland’s expression turned vaguely puzzled, but he was charmed enough to answer without balking. “Why should I have to put in that work first if she didn’t appreciate what she already had? I didn’t hear any complaints about our hook-ups. I’ve got a good job, I work out—I’m a goddamned catch. I’m not going to chase someone who can’t be bothered to give me a foot massage or cook up a meal to pay back what they’re getting out of me. She obviously has delusions about deserving all kinds of fawning. I bet that’s how these creepy shadowkind sucked her in.”