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“We have to raid that place. I’ll bet you anything Van and Jaycee are holing up there. Come on.” I set the laptop aside and jumped up, but a wave of dizziness swept over me and I sank back down to the sofa. “Or maybe not tonight. I’m exhausted.”
Camille nodded. “Me, too. We aren’t strong enough tonight. I don’t care how much caffeine and sugar we pour into ourselves. Vanzir—take one of the laptops and start hunting around for any information you can find on the club. Meanwhile, let’s finish going over all this crap. We don’t want to miss something that might be hiding right in plain sight.”
“I need a nap, though, even just an hour or two.” I yawned, stretching.
Camille rubbed her head. “Yeah, we’ve been burning the midnight oil a lot lately. Okay, you guys keep on with what you’re doing. Take over the notes. Morio, are you still good to go for a bit?”
He nodded. “Yeah, and Trillian can take over the planner. You and Delilah get a couple hours of rest. In fact, Smoky, Shade, you go chill, too. We’ll keep looking and wake you up in a few hours if we need to. When Menolly gets back from the bar, she can help us.”
Exhausted, I dragged myself to my feet and, together with Camille and our two dragons, climbed the stairs. I barely said a word before I climbed into bed and fell into a deep, dreamless sleep.
“Delilah, honey? Wake up.” Shade’s voice echoed through the room.
I blinked, fuzzy. It wasn’t light yet, but Shade was insisting I wake up and I didn’t want to. I growled, pushing his hand away. “Go ’way. I’m sleepy.”
“Honey? They need you downstairs.” Shade pulled the blanket off me, and the chill in the room descended to shock me awake.
I groaned and forced myself out of bed. I glanced at the clock. It was barely three and a half hours after we’d gone to bed. “Gah, I really want a full night’s sleep. I haven’t had one for a week.” As I stumbled into the bathroom, I heard Shade curse. “What’s wrong?” I peed, then washed my hands and brushed my teeth.
“I found one of your hairballs. The hard way.” He sounded grouchy.
I grimaced as I swished a mouthful of breath rinse and then spit. As I trudged back into the bedroom, he was sitting on the edge of the bed, wiping off one of his feet.
“I’m sorry.” I tried to keep a straight face but couldn’t help myself. I let out a snicker.
“What are you laughing about? Delilah, honey, can you please clean up after yourself? This is the fourth hairball you’ve left on the floor after you transformed back. I’ll help clean your litter box, but damn it, take some responsibility.” He wasn’t laughing. In fact, he looked downright out of sorts.
“It’s just a bunch of fur and spit.” I slipped off my panties and put on a clean pair, then wiggled into my jeans. As I hooked my bra and pulled on a turtleneck, Shade finished wiping his foot.
“That’s not the point. The point is that you need to develop better habits. I love you. I can live with the clothes on the floor, and I can handle the empty water bottles everywhere, but you have to start cleaning up your own messes. The hairballs and the dirty litter box and the overflowing garbage can are too much. How hard is it to spend ten minutes a day picking up around here? I thought cats were clean.”
I stared at him, both embarrassed and feeling a little guilty. I’d promised to mend my ways a dozen times—to Iris as well as to my sisters, and now Shade—but I kept forgetting. It just seemed easier to leave it for later.
“I didn’t realize my slovenly ways bothered you so much.” My face started to feel hot and I pressed my lips together.
“We have to be able to talk about these things—habits that annoy us, things that irritate us. If we don’t keep the communication flowing, then we stand the chance of bottling emotions up and that’s not a good thing. Especially since I’m part dragon.”
He put his hands on my shoulders, but I pulled away. “Well excuse me. I’m sorry I’m so disgusting.” Hot tears welled up and I dashed them away. I was so weary, and so frustrated, that every thing he said seemed to be colored with disgust.
“I called you no such thing. I get that I could have put it better, but Iris herself dumped your litter box on your bed. I live here too, now. Do you want me to go? Is this your way of pushing me away? I will if that’s what you want—but I love you. I just want to have a nice, cozy nest where we can curl up in comfort together. Why are you getting so pissed at me?” He looked so confused that I felt a tremor in my stomach.
Chase had lived in his own apartment. He’d stayed over, but we’d never shared a house or apartment. Shade and I’d been in the adjustment phase for the past couple of months, trying to figure out our routine, learning each other’s habits. Chase had been a neat freak. I hadn’t expected Shade to be one, too, but though I’d tried to ignore the signs, it seems like I’d been paired up once again with a tidy, organized lover.
I sighed, then dropped on the bed, reality crashing in on me. It wasn’t just me anymore. I wasn’t alone. “Fuck. And you know I don’t say that often. I’m sorry. I did promise Iris and my sisters I’d try harder. The truth is, I do shirk chores. I hate housework. And yeah, I do make excuses for not doing so.” Reaching out, I took his hand and drew him down beside me.>Vanzir straightened up. His eyes were sparkling. He tipped his head to the side. “We ask Trytian for help. We go to him and tell him we have information he’ll want, but in exchange he has to first tell us where to find Van and Jaycee. Then we hand over the info on Gulakah to him.”
“Trytian—you want us to deal with pond scum?” Camille slammed her mug on the table so hard the soup spilled. Hanna moved to clean it up, but Camille motioned her away and grabbed a napkin to wipe up the steaming broth.
Trytian was the son of a powerful daemon who was building an army in the Subterranean Realms against Shadow Wing. The daemon had sent his son Earthside—none of us was sure how, and Trytian wasn’t spilling secrets—to rally the Demon Underground to help them. Trytian had threatened Camille, tried to blow us all up, and then turned around and offered to build a truce with us. He was about as trustworthy as snake oil.
“I know you don’t like him, but look at the facts. He came to us to warn you about Hyto. He reached out first. He’s fighting against Shadow Wing, too—”
“That may be so, but he also has no compunction about destroying innocent people who he thinks are in his way!” Camille was pacing the floor. She stopped and whirled to me. “What do you think?”
I looked at the information Carter had sent us. Gulakah sounded like a badass motherfucker, and we were on the end of our tether with regard to Van and Jaycee. The thought of dealing with Trytian was stomach-churning, but the thought of letting the pair of sorcerers go on to cause more havoc was far worse.
“I’m with Vanzir on this one. If Trytian knows about anything at all that will help us catch them, then we need to take advantage of it.”
“What about the computer at the shop? The phone book? Can’t we go through them first to see if we can find anything that would keep us from having to contact him? If we come up empty, fine then…we have Vanzir put in a call and we make a deal with the devil…or daemon, rather. But maybe, if we’re lucky, we won’t need to.” Camille clenched her fists.
