Page 38 of Demons and Debts
Without warning, my mind gives me a picture of Sie when he changed in front of me, his black horns coming up from his head winding just a little, smooth and black, his piercing eyes that stared practically into my soul, his skin that felt so warm and silky but thick and calloused in places. The tattoos had disappeared, and, in their places, he had scars I remember, crisscrossed and jagged all over his neck and chest and a single long one across his cheek from his ear to the side of his mouth.
‘Sit,’ Vic commands as if I’m already their pet, and I'm brought back into what’s happening here and now, a little annoyed. I do as he says though because I don't have it in me to fight him after everything else today.
The leader of the Iron I’s looks a little … surprised maybe? …. when I take a seat in front of him without argument. His eyes narrow a little bit. I don't think it's in anger, but right now I’m definitely not going to be able to figure out his, or anyone else’s, nuances of emotion, so I just stare at the wall behind him, and I watch from my periphery.
He frowns and glances past me with a look at Theo, I guess.
‘I don't know,’ Theo says.
Vic gets up and they stand together at the edge of the room, talking behind me in hushed whispers. I can still hear most of what they’re saying, but I can’t seem to find it in me to care. I just want to go to sleep.
‘The hell's wrong with her?’ Vic whispers.
‘How the fuck should I know? I left her in the kitchen, and she vanished for five hours. Finally found her in my room.’
Vic growls. ‘How did she disappear when we have more than one security system keeping tabs on her?’
‘Paris had some trouble during the tech upgrade and the perimeter magick is still on the fritz. It’s messing with the other spells we have.’
‘Is it back up now?’
Theo nods. ‘It’s all online as of ten minutes ago.’
‘Where was she while all of this was happening?’
‘She says she was in the bathroom.’
They both stop and look at me. I ignore them.
‘Where was Korban?’ Vic asks finally.
‘You know him when he’s got a fight. He's been in the gym most of that time.’
‘And Sie?’
‘He hasn't left his room.’
At the mention of Sie, my arms curl around myself. There are too many feelings and they're too intense for me to understand today. It's going to take me a long time to figure out everything that happened and everything I felt and although I'm scared, I don't think it's ofhim. It's ofmy reactionto him. Almost all of these men… demons … have touched me now and I haven't shied away from their hands like I do everyone else.
I wipe my own hands over my eyes. I don't know what to think and I sure as hell don't know what to say.
Vic comes back to his desk and sits down.
‘Where were you?’ he asks me sharply.
‘In the bathroom,’ I say.
‘For four hours?’
‘Five hours,’ I correct him with a mutter. ‘I fell asleep in the bath.’
I repeat the lie easily, but Vic isn't fooled.
‘Where were you really?’
I don't answer him. I'm sure as hell not going to tell him that I had a run in with his buddy and had to spend hours getting over it. That's fucking ridiculous.
So my jaw sets mulishly, and I just stare at the books on the shelves behind him.
