Page 42 of Nightmares and Numerology

Lydia

Vin’s arms closed around me like iron bands, crushing me to him for the second time in as many days.

This time, he wasn’t trying to be gentle. He rapped my head against the wall so hard I saw stars. My knees buckled, and I sank bonelessly, held aloft only by the strength of his hands. If it had been Angelo, the grip might have been reassuring. Strange as it was, I trusted Angelo with my body and my heart. Maybe I’d regret that someday, but right now, there was no one I wanted more than my demonic protector.

Unfortunately, the incubus who actually had his hands on me wasn’t half as clever, handsome, or talented as the one I’d hitched my demoness to. I wasn’t sure if it was the Koloth or human in me that wanted to be violently sick. The sensation of his hands on me and the throbbing at the base of my skull had my last meal rising up my throat.

“You’re going to cooperate now,” he hissed. “Once Andrea has what she wants from you, I’m going to enjoy you for the next few weeks.”

So Angelo had been right. Andrea was more than just a blow to my fragile self-confidence. She really was bad news. I still wasn’t sure what I was dealing with or how Vin fit into her plot. Only one thought repeated over and over, a breathless motto in my brain.

Move, move, move. Run. Get away.

I wasn’t sure if the words were mine or Indigo’s. But it didn’t matter: in this, we were in total agreement. It was easier to run from a demon than to get into a fight in the bathroom. The only problem here was that the ruined door handle would make escape nearly impossible, even if there wasn’t an angry demon in my way.

A hysterical laugh bubbled out of my throat without my permission. It didn’t sound like mine, nor did the voice that came out of my mouth. In times of pain or extreme panic, sometimes Indigo could wiggle into the space I usually occupied, flooding my limbs with crackling energy. The desire to be sick receded alongside my mind.

It was my aching head that struck the bridge of Vin’s nose, which broke with a satisfying crunch, and he backed up, howling in pain. He’d had nearly the same reaction to being bitten in the courthouse. Was he really such an entitled piece of shit that he expected capitulation every time? He didn’t just get to shove an unwilling woman into a wall, hike up her metaphorical skirts, and get away with it scot-free. He was about to learn that lesson. His pheromones, already dulled by the mate bond with Angelo, had even less effect on Indigo.

“You’re a fool,” Indigo said, speaking through me. “You don’t even know what Andrea is or what she’s planning to do to this town. You were just offended that someone didn’t want you, weren’t you?” She didn’t wait for his response. “What did Andrea promise you, other than Lydia’s body? A place in her organization? A better job? Parasites like you attach themselves to something until they exhaust all the things they want from it.”

Vin’s handsome face twisted into something almost bestial, a wash of crimson spreading over his neck and cheeks like a bloodstain. I knew better. It was his skin. The nubs pressing against his hair were the beginnings of horns. He was transforming. He’d get bigger, stronger, and meaner once he completely shed his humanity. The change in my scent registered, causing him to pause with his head cocked.

“What the hell?” he muttered, more to himself than to me.

“Fool,” Indigo muttered. “Andrea didn’t even tell you what you were dealing with, did she? You were just cheap, dumb muscle.”

“Stop antagonizing him!”I hissed. “Unless you forgot the fact we’re trapped in here with a pissed-off demon?”

“I’m well aware,” she thought back, her mental voice dry. “You don’t always have to point out the obvious to me, you know.”

“Like the obvious fact that making him mad is bad?”

I felt my lips curl into a smile that wasn’t my own. There was always something hard and bitter about Indigo, no matter how much she warmed to me. The hard knot of grief at her center had morphed into disillusionment and rage that she was still struggling to unpack.

“That depends. If he likes his skin uncrisped, he’ll open the door.”

My fingers formed rigid claws at my side, my blood warming beneath my new skin. If I turned my head, I could see the lines of fire that formed like cracks on my skin. I kept waiting for the heat to lick agonizingly across my body, but it stayed just beneath the surface. I felt like a brittle sheet of cooled lava, just waiting to break into pieces and drop whatever poor sap stood nearby into the slow-moving but destructive depths of my demonic energy.

And it seemed to bemyenergy now. Indigo was having a harder time controlling it than before. I had to take a mental step forward, sliding a metaphorical hand into hers before the flame could spring into being, clutched tightly in one fist. A brief glance in the mirror would have frozen me to the spot if I’d been the one in control.

I looked like a vaguely feminine statue that had been through a house fire. It shifted in subtle hues in the lines beneath my skin and made the black that had overtaken my eyes look intentional and exotic. I could see a hint of the heart-rending beauty of a female demon in the shape, especially as she moved our body, vaulting sleekly over the arm he tried to drive like asteel bar at our stomach. Vin let out a yelp when the tips of her fingers found his back, the heat of my touch catching the fabric and setting it alight. He had to shed the coat before the flames could spread rapidly to reach his neck and long hair.

“Bitch!” he swore, rounding on me in one of those too-fast movements. His foot slammed into a stall door, exactly where my head had been just seconds before. It dented the metal and sent a bass clang echoing through the room. Someone would have heard it. And that meant I just had to survive him long enough for the mundane staff to hear and intervene. The optics were firmly in my favor. He was an overbearing man in the women’s restroom—one who had destroyed property and tried to assault me. One call to Taliyah, and Vin was as good as charged.

Indigo strode for the door, fully intending to melt the deformed handle into a puddle and escape that way, but she never got the chance. We were yanked back by our hair, hands scrambling to break free of Vin’s restraining arms. His hand closed around my throat, cutting off my air.

“That’s the thing about fire,” he hissed into our ear. “You need air to fuel it. And since it comes from inside you…”

His fingers flexed, trapping precious air in my lungs. My head began to pound in time with his words, and black spots began to parade across my vision. He seized his flaming jacket and used his superior reach to hang it on a sprinkler set into the ceiling.

“I’ve done legal work for this hospital,” Vin said in a low, conspiratorial whisper. He didn’t even seem to care that Indigo was raining physical and magical blows down on him. “I’ve slept with a fair number of the nurses, too. It means I know certain things about how their emergency systems work. Most of them have a trigger mechanism. It’s a little ampule filled with a glycerin-based liquid that expands when heated. So if there’s afire, it…”

He glanced expectantly at the ceiling, smirking when a chirping alarm went off in the distance and began to pour stale water onto our heads. Smoke rose from my skin, blinding me momentarily.

“Puts it out. Just like that. Isn’t modern technology great?”

Then he punched me in the face, laughing when I hit the floor with a thud.

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