Good Intentions (31 page)

* The text message from Jason said, with his usual eloquence, “Sup?” Alex responded: “Dinner date. Epic fail.” “Why dat?” “Ambushed by Godwin’s Law.” “Good times,” read the response. Alex frowned, thinking as he put the phone back in his pocket, Who says text messaging lacks tone? Jason seemed to have that part down. A familiar, wellcome touch slipped over his shoulder as Lorelei passed him on the return to her seat. He looked up, seeing a bit of an emotional recovery. “Thank you, Alex,” she said with some relief. He looked up at her curiously. “For what?” “For giving me the chance to become someone better than I was,” Lorelei answered. Alex glanced over his shoulder to see the little old lady returning to her seat with her family. She looked to be in better spirits. Then, remembering his manners—he hadn’t been on a date like this before, of course—he got up out of his seat and pul ed out Lorelei’s chair for her. She hadn’t expected it. The small courtesy put her smile back on her face as she sat. He realized as he sat down that he was very pleased al of the sudden on an almost instinctive level. It took him a moment to figure out why. He glanced back to the large family and then asked, “You talked to her?” “I did.”

“You know I didn’t expect that of you, right? I really didn’t mean anything by what I said.” “I know, Alex,” she nodded. Her hand came out across the table to take his. “But you gave me a chance. I never would have thought to ask for it.” They looked at one another until Alex finally said, “I’m going to have a hard time eating with only my left hand.” * “How do you figure he swung that?” Thomas asked, nodding from his seat at the bar at the other end of the restaurant. “Money. Gotta be. Rich kid, rich kid’s date. Maybe Daddy rented her for him for his birthday?” muttered Richard. He took another gulp of his Jack & Coke and looked on with no small amount of open, casual jealousy. “I dunno, man,” Harold frowned. “I’ve seen professional escorts before, but she’s a cut above even that. Something fishy, though.” “Seriously,” Thomas agreed. “I mean, what’s she doing with him?” “Fal ing in love,” said the waitress behind the bar as she poured drinks. She didn’t look at the three finance office chums. The blonde appeared, instead, to be very interested in the bartender’s cheat sheet for mixed drinks. “Get outta here,” Richard huffed. “With him?” “Fuck yeah,” she nodded.

“He’s like my kid nephew! What’s he got that’s so special?” Harold asked. “He’s hot,” the blonde said. Her eyes fluttered closed, and she inhaled deeply as if breathing in some intoxicating fume. “Hot like redemption.” The three men openly gawked at the stunning blonde, utterly mesmerized by her now as she concentrated less on being unobtrusive for the sake of indulging in this moment. They hadn’t noticed, real y, how beautiful she was until she spoke. Nor had they ever seen anyone’s face so erotically charged right in front of them. Harold’s mouth hung agape. “Uh. That’s hot?” “Mmm-hmm,” she nodded. Her eyes were closed and there was a visible weakness in her posture. “I’m afraid to actually look,” she admitted breathlessly. “I don’t know if I can control myself.” Swept away by the sight of her face, they were al quite surprised when that look of transcendent arousal very quickly shifted to sober, scowling distaste. “Aw, shit,” she muttered. Her eyes turned toward the entrance. She set the ingredients to whatever she’d been fixing down behind the bar. “Hey, wait,” Thomas urged, and she paused to look up to him quizzical y. He wasn’t sure what he meant to say, either, apart from wanting that angelic face to stay there with him. Quickly, he grasped for something, anything to keep her attention. “Aren’t you fixing that drink for someone?” Rachel glanced down at the drink for just a second before she shrugged. “Oh, whatever. It’s not like I work here,” she said. *

Lorelei sensed the arrival just as it occurred. She had been laughing with Alex, explaining to him after the check had been handled how tacky it was to pay for a meal in a restaurant like this with cash. That laughter and the words accompanying it fell away almost instantly. The look in her eyes, like a predator whose territory had been intruded upon, was unmistakable. Alex turned his head a bit to indicate his curiosity, but he didn’t ask out loud what the problem was. “Demon,” Lorelei said quietly. “One that will almost certainly sense that I am here.” “Like Gorge?” “No,” she shook her head, and her expression became more dark. “Much worse. One like me. Her name is Lydia.” His brow furrowed. Alex felt tense already, and would have admitted to fear if anyone had chal enged him on it. “You can tel one from another? How many are there?” “I know this one…Gorge told me she was in Seattle.” “What else did he tel you?” Lorelei nearly answered, but stopped. “I believe now is not the time. There are a thousand ways this moment could go poorly. A week ago it would have been no issue, but in my current state this is very dangerous. will you fol ow my lead?” “Yeah. Of course.” “I cannot hide us. She knows I am here, and will discern much. Our only option is to walk out quite brazenly.” She paused, and looked at him very seriously. “Remember al that you have already overcome, Alex. Fear no evil.” Alex took a deep breath and nodded. She was about to rise, but he held up a quick hand. Then he got out of his seat and helped her out of hers, and took her arm like a gentleman should.

They didn’t have very far to go. Alex had just enough time to consider that Lorelei apparently still had quite a way to go in her recovery. He had no real perspective on that beyond the fact that of al that had been taken from her, she had only thus far recovered her devil’s tail. It was, he considered wryly, one hell of a way to be encouraged to have more sex. If we make it out of here, he thought. Fighting Gorge had been a knock-down, drag-out brawl with three of his friends at his side, and two of them were about the toughest guys he knew. Lorelei was stone cold calm, but he somehow doubted that it concealed an overabundance of strength. They made it to the corner between the dining room and the foyer of the restaurant. There they came face to face with the hostess, three men in suits and a dazzlingly sexy blonde clad in a very flattering little black party dress and long black gloves. Her bril iant green eyes stood out from her flawless skin, matched by lustrous emerald jewels on her ears and neck. Her hair was cut short. Her face had an almost naturally wicked beauty. The three men with her were al Latinos. Two of them were tal , broad-shouldered men. One of them, Alex couldn’t help but notice, had a pair of teardrop tattoos under one eye. The third man wasn’t exactly small , either, but he looked to have perhaps a decade on the other two guys, and it was on his arm that the blonde walked. The blonde stopped in her tracks. “Lorelei?” “Lydia,” the other said calmly as if in acknowledgement. The blonde looked her over once, simultaneously curious and disdainful. “You look awful,” she declared finally. “What on Earth happened to you?” “You two know each other?” the man on Lydia’s arm asked. “Oh, we go back quite a long time,” Lorelei answered him, then turned back to Lydia. “I had heard you were in town. You’l forgive me for having not sought you out. I didn’t really have anything new to say.” Lydia frowned a bit. “Ah. Dear Robert has been gossiping about me, has he? His lips grow so loose and

indiscriminate while he’s out drinking and whoring. I’l have to have a talk with him about that.” “Good luck with that,” Lorelei replied dryly. The Latino blinked a bit, sensing obvious tension. Lydia had slid off of his arm to bring her hands together as she spoke, throwing out some other hardly-even-veiled insult. Almost unwil ingly, he glanced at Alex as if to see if the young stranger knew what was going on. Alex had very quickly gone from dread to grim amusement. He was probably going to die over this, he realized, or at the very least he was in for a severe beating. That made for the fourth time he’d faced certain doom this week. Five if he counted that first, anguished night and day spent in fear of what could happen if he took the succubus up on her invitations. At this point, his entire life just seemed absurd. To top it al off, he was getting quizzical looks from someone who had to be marked for death, and probably deservedly so. The man leaned in and asked, “Do you know what this is about?” He had a subtle but distinct Mexican accent. He wasn’t irate, or demanding, or really anything but confused. Suppressing a grin, Alex matched the Mexican’s lean and said, barely above a whisper, “I dunno, but I don’t see how this could possibly go well . They’re wearing the same outfit. Chicks have to brawl if that happens, don’t they?” The Mexican’s eyebrows rose as he noticed what Alex meant. Apart from the very different jewelry, the two were dressed alike. “Maybe we should break this up quick and go our separate ways?” Alex suggested. “Real y, Lorelei, you seem so much more haggard than usual,” Lydia said, casting off only a little of her venom in favor of genuine curiosity. “What did you do to yourself?” “Divorce can be rather brutal,” Lorelei shrugged. “But I am quickly on the mend. I already feel much better for having shed so much baggage. You should try it. You’l feel much lighter. In your case I imagine it would feel like having shaved off an entire cow.”

“Divorce?” Lydia laughed. “Well , you do look like you belong in one of those quaint women’s shelters.” She turned her head curiously toward Alex. “Oh, but who’s your escort for this evening? He looks so young and innocent. And he’s already met Carlos. Introduce us?” Those sultry green eyes bored right into him. Her grin twisted a bit and there was a subtle shift in her posture as she stepped close to him. She was only a bit shorter than Alex and undeniably beautiful. She was also, of course, not at al as hindered or weakened as Lorelei. Alex blinked as she slid up against him. She looked deeply into his eyes, breathed against his lips. Carlos and his companions pointedly said nothing. They looked on with a mix of reluctance, arousal and fascination. Carlos hated it when Lydia did this, but he couldn’t do anything to stop her, nor could he turn his eyes away. Nothing stopped Lydia from pressing her very luscious, perfectly curved body into Alex’s with a predatory grin. “I hope you don’t mind a little catty talk between old girlfriends,” she purred. “It’s no big deal, real y. I’m Lydia. Who might you be? You almost look familiar.” She stared into his eyes, and as she spoke one gloved hand slid around his arm and up his back to tease her fingers through Alex’s hair. She touched him right where Onyx had sprinkled her salts in warding him hours before. That salt had come out in the shower, but the warding spel would last until morning. It wasn’t enough by itself to protect from someone as powerful as Lydia, but it blunted her intensity. The rest was up to Alex’s natural will power. “I’m someone who’s already got a much hotter blonde in his life than you,” Alex deadpanned. “Now would you back up a bit? You’re steppin’ on my dick.” Her eyes went wide with shock. Lorelei suppressed her surprised snicker, but not her grin. The three Mexican gentlemen in Lydia’s company al looked on as if the universe had just turned itself inside out and started playing the bagpipes right in front of them. From her watchful position nearby, Rachel clamped her hand over her mouth, spun around the corner, and bumped her head against the wall twice to prevent herself from laughing out loud. The blonde succubus slipped back, still completely stunned. Alex held her gaze, wanting to turn away and get the hell

out but remembering what Lorelei had said. He glanced coolly to his date and asked, “Weren’t we leaving, Lorelei?” He held out his hand. She took it. “A warning, Lydia, for old times’ sake,” Lorelei said. “This is a dangerous city for our kind. Not everyone respects the balance. The natives here sometimes bite back. You may even wind up on a new leash that you will find much less pleasing than the one you wear now.” Together, Alex and Lorelei stepped past Lydia and Carlos, both of them still taken aback by the scene though for very different reasons. The two large men in their party remained in the way, but only for a moment. Lorelei asked them to move, very politely in Spanish, and they both suddenly blinked and made way for the couple. They were gone for almost half a minute before the hostess recovered from the mesmerizing encounter. “Um. Would you like me to show you to your table?” “Carlos,” Lydia said with a voice full of sweetness and adoration, “that little brat and his whore both insulted me just now.” Her date was still shaking off his surprise as she spoke. “Shouldn’t they have to say they’re sorry?” He looked at her for a moment, unsure of how to tel her to just get over it, or whether he even should. As always when he looked at Lydia he opted for the path of least resistance. Carlos turned to his two bodyguards. “Well ?!” * The roads were wet, dark and hill y, but at least traffic was very light in downtown Seattle late in the evening. Paco didn’t entirely care for being behind the wheel here, especially as he was still a little unfamiliar with the roads, but better him behind the wheel than Chuy. His partner in the passenger seat was really only good as an extra gun or an extra pair of hands and eyes. Carlos’s superiors had insisted they bring Chuy along when they came up from Mexico. It wasn’t as if they wanted a

shortage of muscle. But it would’ve been nice, at least, if the guy would talk about anything. Prison could turn a chatty man quiet—Paco knew that plenty well —but Chuy’s silence was just creepy. Just as well at the moment, Paco decided silently. Fol owing the Lexus through its confusing, steep downhil route required more than a little concentration. There were one-way streets, drivers who were lost or just stupid, and pedestrians who’d go against the light…just like the blonde waitress from back at the restaurant who was now crossing the street while looking right at Paco and Chuy. Wait, what?! Paco thought. He hit the brakes and swerved just enough to miss her. Smiling, Rachel whipped out from behind her back a pair of kitchen knives she’d swiped from the restaurant. She spun around as if in a pirouette, carving with one knife into the rol ing front left tire of Paco and Chuy’s SUV, then doing the same with the other against the rear left tire less than a second later. They were good, sharp blades, and her strength was well beyond human. The tires burst instantly, sending the SUV into a lurch. Panicked, Paco turned the wheel entirely the wrong way. The SUV hurtled through the intersection, twisting to the left a moment before suddenly overturning. It slid several more yards before finally coming to a stop in the middle of the street. Given their predicament, both Paco and Chuy completely missed Rachel’s celebratory touchdown dance. * “…and I’l just have the light garden salad,” Lydia finished dismissively. The waiter picked up the menus, thanking her, but Lydia wasn’t even paying attention to him. She was lost in thought until she noticed Carlos’s cel phone had rung.