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Satisfaction flared inside her. Khloé smirked. “And it’ll soon be buried in Enoch’s precious little black heart.” She could. Not. Wait.
“That’s the plan. I think we need to celebrate.”
“Oh yeah?”
“Yeah. After our shower, I’m going to lay you on my bed and make you come again and again, until you can’t take anymore.”
“I’m up for that.”
*
A few days later, Raini rested her coffee takeout cup in the front passenger seat’s cupholder. “I get that people will do irrational things when deep in grief. But keeping a resurrected dead relative in your basement or outhouse goes beyond irrational.”
Khloé nodded, switching gears. “I was really hoping Enoch was lying when he said that members of our lair hired him to reanimate their deceased loved ones. According to Grams, they hadn’t known their relative would be nothing but a walking corpse. Enoch allegedly made it sound like it was another state of life.”
“But they had to have realized that was untrue when the spiritual echoes faded from their relative’s body.”
“They did, but Enoch refused to undo what he’d done, and they were too scared to ask Jolene for help in case she went psycho on their asses.”
The corpses had since been destroyed and reburied, just as the others had.
“Promise me that if anyone tries to have my dead body reanimated, you’ll step in and put a stop to that shit,” said Raini.
Khloé coughed around a dry throat. Her mouth felt all tacky and dry. “I promise. But I want the same promise right back.”
“I solemnly swear I won’t allow it.” Raini grimaced. “Ugh, this song is the height of annoying.” She turned off the radio. “You know, you don’t look so good.”
Khloé didn’t feel so good. As if the cough and dry chest weren’t annoying enough, fatigue badgered her every minute of the day. Her eyes felt dry and itchy, and it took everything she had not to rub them. The headaches came and went, and they always made her want to curl up in a ball and drown out the rest of the world.
In truth, she was getting worse every day. And no matter how much she strived to hide it from those around her, they didn’t buy her attempts to play it down. In fact, it only made them pissed at her, so she’d stopped trying to kid them.
“I feel like crap, but I’ll be fine,” she told Raini. “We just need to get some angelic assistance.”
“Has Vivian seen anything of the angel who frequents the hospital where she works?”
“Not yet, but she said she was expecting him in a week’s time. It’s only been four days since then. To be honest, I thought we’d have managed to locate another angel by now, but finding one is proving to be a lot harder than I’d anticipated.”
“I honestly thought Knox would have located one. I mean, the guy has contacts everywhere.”
“Yeah, but he’s a seriously powerful demon, Raini. Not the sort of person who’d attract angelic attention. They’ll naturally prefer to avoid him. Enoch, the bastard, is making it just as difficult for us all to find him. It’s driving my grandmother insane. She called each of the guy’s siblings, but they all claimed they’d still heard nothing from Enoch. Ciaran’s been helping the sentinels try to track the fucker, but there’s been no sign of him.”
“I saw Ciaran yesterday,” said Raini. “He didn’t look anywhere near as bad as you do, which is probably because you were infected much earlier than he was, but he looked drained … like someone had sucked all the energy from him.”
Khloé swallowed. “I know.” She felt her hands flex on the steering wheel. “I hate that I can’t do anything to help him.”
“He said the same thing to me about you. He’s super worried about losing you. Keenan seems just as worried. Knowing how incredibly impatient he is, I’m guessing he’s seriously wound up that the angel hunt isn’t getting us anywhere.”
“‘Wound up’ would be an understatement. I keep trying to distract him with sex, but it only works for a little while.”
Raini snorted. “He’s no doubt very aware you’re trying to distract him. I’ll bet the only reason he hasn’t called you on it is that he’s enjoying reaping the benefits.”
“Probably.”
“Things seem to be going good between you two.”
Hearing the questioning note in the succubus’ tone, Khloé said, “They are. He doesn’t seem to get as annoyed with me these days. Which I’ll admit is disappointing.”
Raini snickered. “I don’t think you ever truly annoyed him. I think he just didn’t do so well with battling all his sexual frustration. Will you be seeing him tonight?”
“After he’s back from accompanying Knox, Harper, and Asher on a mini outing, yes. He should only be a few hours at most.” Khloé cast the rearview mirror a swift glance. “You may have noticed that two members of his Force now follow me everywhere. It doesn’t matter to him that Jolene already has people tailing me—Keenan’s determined to put his own people on me.”
