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“You said yes?” he asked against her lips. “Wait, really?”
“Mm-hmm. That was a yes. Is a yes.”
Closing his eyes, he started to kiss her, and then he was pulling her down into the soft grass. As they stretched out together, their bodies getting flush, his arousal was instantaneous and urgent.
Yet he pulled back and looked at her. Stroking her face, he whispered, “I am so relieved.”
“You are?” She smiled. “As if I would say no.”
He thought about all they were facing. “I can’t do this without you.”
What’s more, he didn’t want to.
And as he thought about the alternative, she shook her head, like she was reading his mind. “Whatever happens, we face it together.”
“I just wish I had more to offer you.”
“You have given me yourself. That is all I should ever need.”
They started kissing again, and their clothes were not long for remaining on. Rolling her onto her back, he stared into her eyes as they were joined.
The pleasure had never been so intense.
Then again, he couldn’t shake the sense that though this was supposed to be a beginning for them… somehow it was also the end.
He thought back to the meadow and all those flowers.
Maybe this time, it would be different.
CHAPTER FORTY-SEVEN
After the meeting in the King’s baby blue study broke up, Eddie followed some of the members of the Brotherhood down the grand stairs, across the mosaic depiction of the apple tree in full bloom, and out through a vestibule into the night. Standing on the stone steps with Ad at his back, he looked across a courtyard to the smaller structure, then glanced out to the view from atop the mountain. The wind was persistent and strong, the cold creeping in through his leather jacket and his heavy flannel shirt, and as he took a deep breath…
He felt alive.
Which was about so much more than being immortal and not subject to death’s dispositive void.
He had missed this, he realized. Sure, he and Ad had had a purpose in finding Lassiter, but that was different from engaging an enemy. With a cadre of other fighters who were up to the task.
Fighting was in his blood. Avenging angel, indeed.
“Thanks for being here with us.”
Eddie looked over his shoulder. The goateed Brother—Vishous was his name—was lighting up, a gloved hand circling the fragile flame that he’d popped up at the tip of a Bic. As he exhaled, smoke drifted back toward the gray stone mansion.
“No problem,” Eddie murmured.
Ad leaned in to the vampire. “We like being useful as well as decorative.”
The Brother Vishous nodded. “And we’ll take the help, for sure.”
When the group on the steps had filled out to all of the assigned members, one by one the vampires dematerialized to the location they’d agreed on.
Eddie looked over at his best friend. “You ready for this.”
Ad was steady and sure as he nodded. “I feel like I’m back on track, actually. I’d rather be a soldier than a scout.”
“Me, too.”
“AWOL it is, then.”
They clapped palms and shook on it, the deal that they had been tap-dancing around sealed on both sides.
Then they followed the vampires, ghosting off into the night, traveling back to the neighborhood of fancy houses, and humans who were clueless… and demons who were trespassing. As they returned to their corporeal forms, it was not beside the white Federal mansion with the detached garage. It was in front of a Tudor-style house that was set very far back on grounds that were worthy of a garden party. Or twelve.
Eddie scanned the landscape—and Ad did the same. It was only after both of them nodded that the Brothers went up to the front door.
The Brother Tohrment, who Eddie gathered was the King’s right-hand male, was the one who put the lion’s-head knocker to use, and the reverberating sound was the kind of thing that could be heard even outside of the grand manse.
It was a while before the summons was answered, and the butler who dragged open the heavy oak door looked worn out.
When he saw who was in the drive and on the stoop, his brows went high and he stumbled his footing.
The Brother Tohrment spoke softly in a language Eddie couldn’t translate, but the servant clearly understood what was being communicated. The butler bowed low and motioned for them all to enter the home.
Eddie and Ad were the last inside, and right before he stepped in, Eddie took one last look around. He couldn’t sense evil anywhere on the property, but that didn’t mean shit couldn’t go south at a moment’s notice.
When they were all in the receiving area, the servant bowed again and spoke in that language. Tohrment nodded, as did the others, and then the lot of them were taken farther back into the home. As they went along, Eddie checked out the interior. Every mirror was covered with black draping and so were all the hearths—and when he caught sight of a maid, he realized what he’d failed to notice right off the bat: The butler didn’t have any white in any component of his uniform, and neither did the female servant who scurried out of sight as soon as she saw what had come into the household.
