16. Patten

Iflick off the TV and toss the remote on the couch before crossing over to the small round dining table that separates the kitchen from the living room. “Now I fully understand why the collector would want to live in the ass-end of nowhere.”

“Why?” Shep turns from the refrigerator.

“Easier to cover up shit like a dragon destroying his compound. There’s nothing on the local, national, or international news. Just a vague report about some freak mountain accident that caused a landslide or some bullshit. Doesn’t this town have a sheriff?”

By the time the witch’s friend returns from her vacation, she won’t have two crackers to rub together with the speed we’re emptying her refrigerator and kitchen cupboards.

Hitting the grocery store isn’t an option. If I’m going to be taken out by Atticus and his guards, I don’t want it to be as I’m reaching for a bag of chips.

That and I’m too lazy to volunteer. No one else has offered to go either, so I can’t be the only one who prefers relying on what’s here already instead of venturing out for more.

Isaiah is looking at me from the kitchen island as I take the seat beside Jade. After that bite and the size of the boner it gave me, it’s hard to meet his eyes.

I’m used to wanting to climax between a woman’s thighs. What I’m not used to is fangs in my wrist making me feel that same way.

“I imagine a man like Atticus has the sheriff in his pocket,” Isaiah says. “Probably the firemen too, if we had to dig ourselves out of that mess.”

“So the collector has the run of the town?” I ask as Jade sets aside her cup of peppermint tea.

I grip the edge of her wooden chair and drag her closer. When she smiles at me, I wish she was nearer or we were alone. There’s something about her smile that does something indescribable to me. Makes me feel like no one has before.

Dominik’s lips flatten.

Makes me enjoy my morning even more.

“Looks like he does.” I leave my arm around the back of her chair. Not to annoy Dominik still standing opposite, watching. Or not only. Jade is back. She’s fighting to stay with us, and she feels good. All great reasons to not stop touching her.

Jade peers up at me. Her dark green eyes, framed with long dark ashes, are beautiful. “At the compound, I swore when I got out that I would learn more about the things my dad kept from me so I could protect myself. Mostly I want to know about the things I should run away from. Can you help?” she asks.

I start telling her that maybe I’m not the best person to ask. I’m a lowly half-demon, and I probably know less than she does.

Then Dominik straightens, as if getting ready to volunteer.

“Sure I can.” I get to my feet and offer her my hand. “Why don’t we sit on the couch?” Dominik’s glare burns a hole through me, and I love every second of it. “We’ll be more comfortable.”

Thirty minutes later, I have Jade sitting on the couch. Shep and Isaiah have gone to do a quick food run, given that apparently a day is enough to empty a witch’s cupboards.

The dragon glared at me as I began my presentation but must have gotten bored to have wandered off.

Who the fuck knows where he’s gone?

I’m standing in front of a whiteboard I found in the office, showing off my artistic skills by drawing a stick man and woman when the front door swings open.

Shep and Isaiah carry bulging grocery bags over to the kitchen island.

After depositing his bags, Shep wanders over as I point my blue spatula at the stick man. “So you got your incubus,” I tell Jade before pointing at the stick woman. “Then, your female equivalent succubi—that’s plural for succubus, by the way. Both are your garden variety?—”

“Patten, what are you doing?” Shep asks.

“Jade wants to know more about demons. I’m giving her the rundown.” We started with the things she should run from. Dominik, most other vampires, anything with more teeth than you have. If your instincts say run, you run.

“With a spatula?” Shep raises a brow.

“With a pointer.” I emphasize.

Shep looks at Jade.

“It’s very educational,” Jade says. “Once I learned to ignore the fact that it’s a spatula.”

Shep looks at the stick man and shakes his head. “Where’s Dominik?”

“Not upstairs.” I shrug. “Maybe he did us a favor and flew himself back to New York.”

“I’ll go find him. We need to talk about what we’re going to do about Atticus.” Shep heads for the backyard, and I return to my talk of demons.

But Jade’s gaze is unfocused.

“Jade?”

She blinks, focusing on me. “How do you align the human you versus the demon you?”

A question like that is not an easy one to answer. I put the spatula down and join her on the couch. “You’re having a crisis of identity.”

Her brow wrinkles. “I’m having a what?”

“It happens. I thought I was human. Then I wasn’t. Because I didn’t know what I was, I spent the next ten years in a daze.” That and being manipulated by my da.

“I thought you always knew.”

“Nope. I set my granny’s cooker on fire one day.”

“But I haven’t seen you use any fire.” She frowns.

“Uh, that’s a long story.”

She looks like she has more questions, so I keep talking. There’s no way in hell I’m telling her that my abilities have faded since I stopped doing the thing that sustains all succubi: feed on my sexual partner.

Given that I’m not interested in feeding on her, those abilities are probably gone forever. Which leaves me more human than demon right now. And weak. Not ideal when we could face down an attack any minute.

“A long, complicated, and boring story. The issue here is that you need to stop thinking of yourself as two halves. You’re not. You’re one delicious whole.” I bounce my shoulder against hers.

A tiny smile tugs on her lips. “I never know what you’re going to say when I ask you a question.”

I wink at her. “Drives Isaiah crazy.”

“You let him feed on you,” she says, cocking her head. “And you?—”

“Another long, boring, complicated story,” I interrupt.

From her raised eyebrow, she’s not buying it. “You liked it and you didn’t want to like it. Didn’t you?”

I shrug, trying to ignore the fact Isaiah is somewhere behind us, putting away groceries from all the papers and rustling going on.

And listening. I’ll bet there’s a whole heap of eavesdropping going on back there too.

“Me too. When he bit me…” Jade shifts in her chair.

I remember how I felt watching Isaiah suck on her throat as she ground her pussy on him. That had been fucking hot to watch.

Now I know why she did it. Because that sucking…

It’s my turn to shift around as I adjust myself in my pants. “Yeah. So the best thing?—”

“Ah, hey there, Son,” Da’s voice comes from behind me.

I’m out of my seat as Jade is scrambling to her feet.

By the time we’re up, Isaiah has his hand wrapped around Da’s throat and his feet are dangling inches from the ground.

Isaiah’s fangs glint as he hisses, “You.”

“Am a friend,” Da gasps as he yanks on Isaiah’s wrist. “Just a friend.”

The backyard door swings open. Shep and the dragon burst in. The dragon looks irritated and Shep frustrated. They must have been arguing—probably about Jade—out there.

“Get the fuck out of here,” I snarl as Jade whispers. “You. It was you.”

Something brushes my bare arm.

A translucent blue glowy ribbon thing about two inches thick circles Jade’s right wrist. I scramble back, nearly tumbling over the coffee table. “Ah! The fuck is that?”

When Jade looks down, the ribbon slows its circling motion. “Oh. It came back.”

It came back?

“What is that?” Since Jade doesn’t seem surprised by whatever it is, I decide I don’t need to grab her and pull her to safety.

“Spirit.” Dominik smiles. “She’s emerging.”

Every time this guy opens his mouth, I want to kill him. First for kidnapping Jade. Now, for knowing more about what’s going on with her than I do. I can draw stick men and maybe hint at some dangers in the world. I have no way of protecting her from them, and I fucking hate that.

“What are you doing here?” Shep demands as he stalks toward my da. “Isaiah, stop choking him. We need answers.”

Isaiah loosens his grip and my da focuses on Jade. He smiles. “Hi, there.”

“Come near me and I will set you on fire,” Jade threatens as the glowy blue thing whips faster around her wrist.

I give the blue ribbon that’s a little too close for comfort a nervous glance, hoping it knows I’m a friend. “And can you do that?”

Jade’s eyes narrow. “Now feels like a good first time. You wore Patten’s face and tried to feed on me. Twice.”

Dominik’s eyes flare an ominous red-orange. “That was you?”

Da gulps. “I’m here to help. If you want the collector, you’re going to need my help.”

“You don’t know the first thing about helping anyone, Da,” I say.

“Da?” Jade breathes.

Shit.

I take in her wide-eyed expression and realize I forgot to tell her something important. “Uh, I was going to mention that.”

“He’s your father?” she breathes.

She’s not backing away from me. Yet. I hope to fuck I haven’t made her think I’m anything like him.

I forget about Da. He’s no longer important. Convincing her that I’m not interested in feeding on her takes precedence. “I was going to tell you but?—”

“Things keep happening.” She sighs, scrubbing a hand over her face. Which is when I notice the blue ribbon disappeared as suddenly as it appeared.

“Uh.” I nod at her wrist. “What happened to your blue ribbon friend?”

She smiles faintly. “I don’t know that it’s a friend.”

I wrench my eyes from her wrist. It scared the shit out of me, but I’m glad she has something to protect her from my da. “Well. If you ever want to use it to take out my da, go for it. You might have better luck than I did.”

She stares at me. “You tried to kill him?”

“That night he took a night stroll in Wilkerson,” Shep says dryly, eying my da as if waiting for an excuse to kill him. The dragon’s eyes are no longer flame orange, so I guess he isn’t in danger of cremating Isaiah while he takes out my da. A relief.

I slide my palm around the nape of Jade’s neck. “He hurt you. Of course, I went to fucking kill the old goat.”

“Ah, romance,” Da chokes out.

“Shut up before I kill you,” I threaten him before refocusing on Jade.

“He’s your father,” she says softly.

“He’s a piece of shit who only ever helped himself, is what he is.” Then I kiss her. “I’d like to get back to that killing now.”

“After he tells us something we don’t know. Let him go, Isaiah. And you, Almeth.” Shep points at the dining table. “Sit. Start talking.”

“I came to help,” my da says, massaging his throat when Isaiah releases him. “No need to treat me like I’m a criminal.”

“Then you can help by sitting your ass down and telling us everything you know.” I round the couch and stalk toward the dining table.

I’d hoped Jade would stay where she was, away from Da, and where it’s safe, but she follows.

Da has a greedy look in his eyes as he moves to the table. As soon as he sits down, and Jade approaches, her blue ribbon friend appears, slowly circling her right wrist.

Da eyes the thing and sits back in his seat.

Jade is coming into her powers, and Da knows it. He won’t try to slip into her dreams and feed on her again if he wants to survive. Unless he’s stupid. But he’s greedy, and his eyes have always been bigger than his stomach.

“Talk.” Wood scrapes across hardwood floors as Shep drops into the seat beside Da, taking the last seat at the table. There are only four chairs, so the dragon remains where he is, and Isaiah stands behind Da.

Da peers over his shoulder at Isaiah. “Can a man get a drink around here?”

Isaiah shows him his fangs.

Da turns back to the table. “You could have just said no,” he mutters, crossing his arms.

I jab a finger at him. “That collector knew about Jade. You had something to do with it.”

Da bristles. “I did not?—”

“You’re sitting in a room where everyone has a reason for wanting you dead. I’d start talking if I were you,” Shep demands.

Da clears his throat. “Can I at least get some water?”

A bright orange flame ignites the collar of his white button-down shirt. Da yelps as he bats it out.

Dominik lifts a brow. “Or I can set you on fire? What will it be?”

I stifle my jealousy at his fire ability, missing my own. It’s been too long since I handled flame. Too fucking long.

Da finishes putting out the fire Dominik started on his shirt collar. “I might have been doing a little bit of work in Chicago.”

“What work?” I demand.

“I picked up a jewel on my travels and heard about a man who could give me a good price for it,” Da says.

Why do I think ‘picked up a jewel on his travels’ means out of someone’s pocket and into his?

I briefly meet Shep’s eyes. Nigel, the jewel trader and the man who had Jade stuffed in his attic. Coincidence, or was there more at work here that Da is keeping from us?

“You heard about Jade?” I ask.

Da shakes his head. “Just the jewels. He let slip something that made me wonder. I had a bit of trouble at the same time. A collector was breathing down my back, wanting something I’d promised him but couldn’t deliver.”

Why am I not surprised it goes back to Da screwing someone over?

“Jade?” Shep asks.

Da shakes his head.

Shep leans across the table. “There is no other way he would have known about Jade. You told him about her. Didn’t you?”

“I said nothing of the sort,” he denies, seemingly outraged. When his collar starts smoking, he shoots Dominik a nervous glance and speaks in a rush. “Well. I might have let something slide after I heard some noises coming from upstairs. Wasn’t my fault that Atticus put two and two together. When he went to grab her, she was gone, and I figured he got her when he suddenly let me off the hook for that thing I offered him and didn’t deliver. So I went back to the jewel collector to?—”

“Get Jade yourself?” I interrupt.

“Nothing of the kind, Son.” His voice is innocent. Too fucking innocent.

My teeth grind.

Lies. Everything with him is always lies, half-spun truths, or bullshit. Everything.

It’s a good thing we broke into that house when we did. Da would have snatched Jade up, taken her right to Atticus—after he’d drained her until she was half-dead—and walked away with a big payoff from Atticus and having had a good feeding from Jade.

If Da had known that Jade was with us in Isaiah’s mansion, he’d have sold us out without hesitation. Speaking of…

“How did you know we came to Wilkerson for Jade?” I ask.

He shrugs. “Lucky guess.”

“You wore my face in Jade’s dream to trick her.” I lean toward him. “You knew we had her in Chicago, didn’t you? And you knew we came down here to save her?”

Silence.

He clears his throat, projecting an innocence that no one is buying from all the suspicious narrow eyed looks pointed his way.

“If I came here to cause trouble, I wouldn’t have been the one walking through the door. I’d have gone right to Atticus, told him where you were and that would have been that,” Da says. “I’m here to help.”

“And where is Atticus?” Shep asks.

Da shrugs. “Comes and goes in a truck. Thinks it’s safer to keep moving around rather than staying in one place after that dragon attack.” He looks around and casually asks. “What ever happened to that other guy?”

His right sleeve catches fire. He frantically slaps it out.

Dominik arches a brow.

Da tears his eyes from Dominik and focuses on Shep, clearly thinking he’s the one he needs to convince. Or maybe he thinks Shep will save him from going up in flames. Who knows? “I’m not here to cause trouble. I can help you.”

“The only way you can help us is by telling us where Atticus is,” Shep says.

The sooner he’s dead, the sooner we can move on. Leaving Wilkerson would be grand, but we’d be leaving a snake at our back, ready to strike at us when we least expect it.

We need to stamp him out now or we might not live to survive his attack.

Da’s eyes turn shifty. “Like I said, he moves around a lot.”

“You’re lying,” Jade says. “Why would he move around when he could just find a quiet place to hide?”

My lips quirk. “She has you there, Da. What you’re saying doesn’t make sense.”

“I’m not…” For the first time, Da looks flustered. “Look, you don’t understand what you’re dealing with. He has friends everywhere around here. Everyone would bend over backward to kiss his ass. This town is his.”

We all fall silent to process his words.

It actually sounds like he’s telling the truth. Not just his version of it.

I turn to Shep. He’s looking at Jade, concerned. Probably wondering if we should grab Jade and get the fuck out of here. Maybe taking the fight to Chicago might be the better alternative. Isaiah’s mansion might not survive the fight but Jade would.

Isaiah is looking thoughtful. Is he also considering leaving right now?

“Atticus wants her, and he won’t stop until he gets her.” Da leans toward Jade. “I could?—”

A thin blue ribbon slams him into the wall.

We all turn to Jade.

She tucks her right hand under the table. Her cheeks are pink, and she doesn’t look anyone in the eye. “I’m still figuring this out. And I told him to stay away from me.”

Yeah, she’s coming into her powers, all right.

She’s this mix of sweet innocence and potent danger, and it’s sexy as hell.

I do the only thing a man can under these circumstances. I slide my hand into the back of her hair, drag her close, and kiss her. A second later, she loops her arms around my shoulders as she kisses me back.

“He likes to live dangerously, doesn’t he?” the dragon asks tightly.

“You have no idea,” Isaiah mutters. “He’s gone by the way.”

I break the kiss. “Who is…?” My voice trails off when I spot the dent in the wall but no Da on the ground. “Fuck.”

“He knows where we are and can go right to Atticus to tell him,” Shep adds.

I blow out a heavy sigh. “Like I said. Fuck.”