Million Dollar Demon Page 3

  “Still, an all-expenses-paid vacation to the West Coast?” David said, and then his expression blanked. “You didn’t get banned from Seattle, too, did you?”

  “No, but being surrounded by Ellasbeth’s family for a week doesn’t sound like a vacation. He’s going to be busy with the enclave elders cementing his Sa’han status. My presence would not help.”

  David put an arm over my shoulders in consolation. The eon-long war between the demons and elves had crusted over, but the scab was new and they both seemed to be looking for a reason to scratch it. “I’d think having a demon on your payroll would be a positive thing,” David said as he opened the door and the sounds of the city at noon rose to soothe me.

  “Sure, if I wasn’t also in his bed,” I muttered, and David laughed.

  Jenks looked up from his hover over Sharron’s shoulder as she gave me a thumbs-up that could mean anything from “I’m on the phone with my mom” to “we cinched the deal.”

  “I’m sure it will work out.” David’s arm fell away as he came to a rocking halt in the sun, his dark eyes scanning the street. “You’ve got a solid in with the elven dewar for saving Landon from the baku. Zack doesn’t have a problem with a demon shacking up with the prince of the elves and, come his eighteenth birthday, he’ll be the head of the dewar.”

  “Trent is not the prince of the elves,” I said, my gaze dropping to my new pinky ring, glinting in the sun.

  “Tink’s tampons, he isn’t,” Jenks said as he abandoned Sharron. “The guy is pure Rachel candy. Vast power and clout—”

  “—on the skids,” David finished, to make Jenks laugh and bob his head, golden hair shining. “Face it, Rachel. You’re kryptonite to the high-powered elites.”

  “Am not.” I fumbled to put my phone in my bag, head rising to follow the sounds of sirens two blocks over.

  Jenks gave David a sidelong look before landing on his shoulder. “You bankrupted Al in three years flat,” the pixy said, raising one finger. “Did the same for Trent in, what? Six months?”

  “Al was trying to own me,” I said in my own defense as David checked his phone and frowned. “And Trent still has money,” I added, but him flying out first class instead of in his jet left me wondering. “Why does everyone think he’s broke?”

  “Maybe it’s the lawsuits,” Jenks smart-mouthed. “Ivy is still trying to recoup her losses after hitching her wagon to you. Paycheck to paycheck doesn’t look good when you’re slated to be Cincy’s master vampire after death. Poor girl.”

  “I didn’t ask her to leave the I.S. with me,” I said, but Jenks was on a roll.

  “I’m the only person who has come out of this better than they went in,” he said proudly.

  “I’m better off,” David said, his head down over his phone. “Ivy is better off by far. Al is, too, for all his complaints. And Trent?” David grinned, showing his teeth. “I didn’t have to kill Trent to prevent another Kalamack from taking over the world.”

  Because of me, I thought, but I was too embarrassed to say it. Because of me, Trent had grown into who he wanted to be, not what his father had made him: frighteningly resolute in his pursuit of a goal and blind to another’s pain.

  “It’s harder to scare people into doing what you want when you don’t have any money,” David said, ruining it.

  Jenks laughed as I put a hand on a hip. “Why do I even listen to you?” I said.

  “Because I look good in leather and scruff,” David replied. “And what would the papers print if Rachel Morgan went out without a boy toy?”

  They were both laughing, but Sharron had finally gotten off the phone, and I pushed past David, willing to ignore it.

  “Good news!” Sharron said brightly. “They like the terms that Jenks offered, and with your preapproval, we’re all set. The place is yours.”

  My God, we are going to do this, I thought, breathless as Sharron locked the front door, beaming as she turned to face us. “I’ll jump back to my office,” she said, eyes bright, “print out the contract, and move this forward before the weekend and everything slows down. Congratulations! If everything looks okay in the inspection, you can be in by the end of the month. I’ve got your good-faith check from the last place that fell through. All you have to do is pick out your furniture.”

  “Month?” I turned to Jenks, wincing. I could probably couch surf for a while, but it wasn’t the image of self-reliance I was trying for, and interviewing clients at a coffee shop would get old really fast.

  “Can we move this any faster?” Jenks asked for both of us.

  Sharron turned, the big key in her hand. “It’s empty,” she said, her eyes distant on the future. “So maybe a few days to line up the inspection.” Her focus cleared on David. “I’m sure you can get proof of insurance expedited, and your mortgage is sitting there from the last time we thought we had something. I’ll keep an eye open for a closing cancellation. They don’t like it when we push for speed, but things have been easier since the Turn.” She hesitated in thought. “Maybe two weeks if nothing goes wrong?”

  I exhaled, and beside me, David seemed to relax. “Two weeks is better,” I said, wondering whether, if I was really nice to Constance, she might let me and Jenks hang out on the boat tied to Piscary’s quay a couple of extra days. Probably not, I thought sourly. I’d downed Pike, her scion, after catching him poking around the boat, and pride meant everything to the undead.

  “Great!” Jenks took flight. “I can still get a late spring garden in if I hustle.”

  Sharron extended her hand first to me, then David, the woman clearly pleased. “This feels good, Rachel,” she said as she backed to her car, her phone still in hand. “I told you we’d find something before you lost your place.”

  “Nothing like waiting to the last moment,” I muttered, and Jenks bobbed his head. Constance was coming. I could see it in the new graffiti and the uncomfortable headlines. Not to mention my new escorts driving around Cincy in a beat-up brown Volvo. “Thanks, Sharron!” I called out as the woman crossed in front of her car and waited for traffic to clear. “I can’t believe it took this long.”

  “Everyone finds their place eventually!” she said happily as she got into her car and slammed the door shut. I could tell she was relieved we’d pulled the trigger on this one so fast. We’d been looking for ages, and her time-invested/commission ratio was probably nearing the break-even point. Not that she would ever complain. She was too professional for that.

  Jenks landed on my shoulder, the barest hint of a sour green dust spilling from him. “It wasn’t as if we weren’t trying,” he muttered, and I nodded. We’d lost the last two places due to miscommunications and a buyer’s market.

  Sharron’s passenger-side window went down with a whine. “I’ll text you when I’ve got the paperwork in hand,” she said as she stretched across her front seat. “Where are you going to be the next couple of hours?”

  Hours? I thought, thinking she must be tired of properties being jerked out from under us, too. “Ah, Junior’s?” I suggested. “It’s close to your office. I could use a coffee.”

  David leaned closer. “She has no idea what you are talking about.”

  I stifled a wince. No, she wouldn’t. Only a handful of people called it that. The why was a long story. “Coffee shop a few blocks from your office,” I added. “The one with the circles on the floor.”

  “You got it. See you in a few.” Sharron’s car window went up, and, after looking behind her, she pulled out and was gone.

  “Congratulations, Rachel,” David said, and I waved for Jenks to go hover by the door so I could get a picture to send to Trent and Ivy. “I’m glad you’re moving out of Piscary’s and a door that half of Cincy has a key to.”

  I looked up from my phone and met his eyes. “Seriously?”

  Jenks zipped closer, and I tilted it so he could see the picture. “Who’s
going to bother Cincy’s resident demon?” he said, and I blew his dust away before it blanked the screen.

  “We do okay,” I added, but he was right, and I quashed my nervousness as I pocketed my phone and we started down the sidewalk to where I’d left my car.

  “I know you do.” David took a long step to catch up. “It’s just . . .”

  My unease deepened. His hands hung free and his eyes were on the rooflines. “What?”

  He scrubbed a hand over his bristles sheepishly. “Three idiots tried to jump me this morning on my run. They fled in a brown Volvo.”

  My eyes widened and Jenks’s dust shifted to a surprised red. “Seriously? Are you okay?” I blurted, and David looked at his fist. It was skinned. I hadn’t noticed until now.

  “Me? Fine,” he said, flashing me a thin smile. “They weren’t much of a threat. Besides, I needed the workout. All this domestic bliss is making me flabby.”

  Flabby? I eyed his flat stomach.

  “They told me,” he said, his expression becoming angry for the first time, “to look to Constance instead of you. That she’s the law in Cincinnati, and that if I knew what was good for me, I’d put a leash on my people and give her the room she needs.”

  “David . . .” This wasn’t good. First Trent, and now David? It was almost the same threat. Look to her, or else.

  But he was grinning, his eyes on his knuckles again. “I told them where they could lick themselves. Rachel, relax, it will take more than three living vampires to scare me. I handled it. They won’t be back. Vampires are homebody cowards. Once they find out they can’t bully you, they leave you alone.”

  Maybe, but in two weeks, Constance would have more than a handful of vampires at her beck and call, she’d have her entire camarilla.

  “I wouldn’t have even told you, except that a little warning goes a long way. If you have a new lock instead of being six feet under the ground or on a boat where you can’t reach a ley line, I’ll feel better.”

  I smiled, finding a compliment in there. “You’re right, but as you say, it’s a mistake they’d only make once.”

  “True, but why bust heads when you don’t have to?”

  Because a little tussle now prevents a big misunderstanding later, I thought, but he’d scuffed to a slow halt, and I stopped. His car was one way, mine the other. If he offered to walk me to mine, I was going to punch him. Escorting people through the bad guys was my job.

  “This is a nice neighborhood,” he said, but the way he was scanning the rooftops was disconcerting. “I’m glad you got it. Let me know when you’re moving and I’ll bring the pack.”

  “Deal,” I said. Exchanging pizza and beer for an afternoon of companionship and a fast move was a win-win. “Thanks again, David.” I reached out, tugging him closer for a quick hug to say thanks for more than the tip on the property, but also for letting me be me. Jenks flung himself back off my shoulder, swearing as I breathed in the delicious scent of Were: woodsy, spicy, and earthy. “Tell me if Constance’s chipped-fang thugs bother you again.”

  “Will do.” His eyes were crinkled in worry when he dropped back, but his smile was warm. “Always a pleasure,” he said as his phone rang. He reached for it, and my eyes went to the ambulance coming up the street, hitting its siren for a quick brupp to clear the intersection. Something was going on. I could hear angry shouting a few blocks away.

  “You need to take that?” I said as David frowned first at the number, then the ambulance as it slowly wove through the stopped traffic.

  “Excuse me,” he said, shoulders hunched as he hit the connect key and turned away.

  “Jenks,” I called so the curious pixy wouldn’t eavesdrop, and he jerked to a short stop, dust spilling gold in annoyance. “This is okay, right?” I said as he came back and we looked at the store front. Most of the closing costs were coming from him and the probable sale of the church—if we ever got it into saleable condition.

  “Absolutely,” he said, but a hint of depressed blue showed in the dust spilling from him. “I never liked living where dead humans were rotting in the ground.”

  I’d heard his complaint before, but I wasn’t sure I believed him.

  “And I can always gather stuff from the garden before we sell it,” he added, making me doubly unsure. It would be great having a downtown office, but I couldn’t help but wonder if I would miss the church more: the solitude, the cool quiet of the street, the solstice bonfires in the back, the noise of the kids riding their bikes on the walk in the dark, the garden I never seemed to have enough time to work in but which somehow gave me everything I needed.

  The belfry where Bis had lived, I thought, head dropping to the new ring Trent had given me. Jenks had raised his kids there, lost his wife among the tombstones. Maybe . . . maybe it was better this way. Time to let my baggage sit on the curb for the trashman.

  “Be right there,” David said as he ended his call. His face was creased in concern as he turned to us. “You can get to your car from here okay, right?”

  I followed his gaze to the ambulance vanishing around the corner. “Want some help?” I asked, and David fidgeted, clearly eager to be gone.

  “If you say no, she’s going to sulk for the rest of the afternoon.” Jenks rose up, hands on his hips in his best Peter Pan pose. “Don’t do that to me, Mr. Peabody.”

  But David was inching away, the mildly irksome nickname not even noticed. “It really is a nice street, Rachel. I gotta go.” Turning, he ran off after the ambulance, duster furling and hat falling off his head.

  He didn’t stop to pick it up.

  I frowned, and from beside me, Jenks said, “I don’t know if I should say something about him being an ambulance chaser, or just cars in general.”

  “He forgot his hat,” I said, striding forward to scoop it up.

  Jenks took off his bandana and stuffed it in a back pocket, telling me he was working. “Maybe you should take it to him.”

  Nodding, I started off in a slow jog, then jerked into a faster pace when someone screamed and the small pop of a handgun echoed against the stone buildings.

  Nice neighborhood? I thought as I began to run in earnest.

  CHAPTER

  3

  I skidded to a faltering halt in the street, lips parting as I gazed up at the low-slung, two-story apartment building. All the windows were open with their screens pushed out, and shadows of people were chucking clothes, tables, books, anything that would fit and a few things that wouldn’t down to hit the patchy front lawn. I stood at the back of a small crowd, jostling shoulders until someone either recognized me or felt the tingle of our internal ley line energy levels trying to balance and pushed back to give me room. Yep, I had that kind of a rep.

  I moved forward, arms over my middle as I stopped at the “do not cross” tape stretched between the gangly street trees. Three people, Weres by the look of the tattoos and general hippie/free-spirit clothes, were facedown on the front lawn, spread-eagled with their hands clasped behind their heads. Two I.S. agents stood over them, yelling their rights at them. A third held a rifle, presumably the one that had gone off and was now confiscated. No one was at the ambulance, so the situation looked contained.

  In addition to the EMS, there was a total of six I.S. cars, one FIB cruiser, the fire truck, and a news crew training their cameras on the distressed people gathering their stuff off the lawn. A second line of I.S. officers milled about, to keep the crowd from testing the line.

  “That doesn’t look legal,” Jenks said from the safety of my shoulder, and the crowd oohed when an entire bookcase came tumbling out, hitting the ground to break into three pieces and scatter paperbacks everywhere.

  It might be understandable if the building was on fire, but despite the fire truck at the curb, it wasn’t. This had all the earmarks of a mass eviction, one done without the usual painstaking legalities and paperwor
k, and my face burned. The I.S. wasn’t doing anything about it except crowd control.

  “You want me to tell David we’re here?” Jenks said, and I scanned the crowd until I found the man standing beside one of the cruisers.

  “That’s bull!” I heard him say faintly as he gestured to the building. “You can’t evict someone because you want the property. They’re paid up. The property is in repair.”

  “Sir, if you don’t get behind the tape, I’ll detain you for obstruction,” the officer said, one hand on his cuffs, the other reaching to push David back.

  My breath caught as David shifted, the motion so fast the I.S. officer hesitated in surprise.

  “I wouldn’t.” David almost growled the words, and the displaced Weres within earshot hesitated, turning from their growing piles. They were looking to him for direction, and a chill dropped down my spine. “I really wouldn’t.”

  This was bad, but it could clearly get a whole lot worse. “Tell him I don’t have bail money for this,” I whispered, and Jenks darted away, ignored as he broke the “do not cross” line.

  I lost his sparkle of dust in the sun, but I knew the instant he reached David, as the Were suddenly backed off, his posture shifting from aggression to worry. He turned right to me, frowning when I gave him a little wave. If they took him down, I’d get involved, and apparently he didn’t want that.

  “I won’t tell you again,” the officer said, bold now that David had retreated. “Behind the line!”

  David raised a hand in acquiescence, but his anger hung with him as he went to help one of the former residents carry a chair to the moving van that had pulled up to the curb.

  My shoulders slumped, stiffening back up when I spotted that same brown Volvo cruising the outskirts. My eyes met the driver’s, my lip twitching when he smiled mockingly at me and drove on.

  Which made me wonder if this had been a ploy to lure David away and get me alone, or just general harassment. The people collecting their things were frustrated and angry, prevented from going upstairs to get their belongings by three I.S. officers standing at the door. They were protecting Constance’s vampires, and my fists clenched.