Her Secret (11 page)

My heart was beating rapidly. “What’s he been
telling them?”

“Just that Theoron requires your undivided
attention. He thinks he can delay until spring, more than long
enough for you to recover.”

At my first party with Danial, I’d been a
nervous wreck. How much worse would a party with every vampire who
was anyone be, knowing they all were coming to see my son and
me?

“Do we have to see them?” I asked
shakily.

“Danial and I are waiting to see if Manir’s
death has the ripple effect we’re hoping it will before we make any
plans.” Theo squeezed my hand again tightly. “Don’t worry. I’ll
tell you if I think you need to worry, you know that.”

I squeezed his hand back. “I know that.”

* * * *

Theo shook me awake when we got home. “Are
you okay?”

“Much better,” I replied, yawning. “Do you
want some dinner?”

“I want you to rest. I’ll fix you some soup.
I can eat some chicken.”

I didn’t have much appetite, but I ate the
soup he warmed up for me. After I was finished, I took the dishes
to the sink. Theo was eating in the other room, the crunching of
chicken bones just audible over the TV.

“I’m going to bed,” I called.

The crunching stopped. “I’ll be in shortly,”
he replied. “I’m going to be in cougar form, as an FYI.”

I put the cats and dogs to bed, and then
crawled into bed myself. Theo came in just as I was falling asleep.
A few moments later, the bed groaned under his weight as he leapt
onto the bed.

I looked sleepily into his light yellow eyes.
“Don’t get any ideas.”

Theo rolled his large eyes, then batted me
lightly with his paw. He curled up in a circle next to me, and
began to purr. I stroked his head, then his flattened nose and his
small ears. He grinned happily, purring louder.

We’d never done this in the old days. But
since his return from being taken, some nights Theo slept with me
in cougar form. Despite my earlier crack, he’d never acted as more
than a pet, a companion who wanted platonic love and affection.
That would’ve been fine, but I suspected that he wasn’t doing it to
experience a new intimacy with me. He’d done this with Tasha, and
he missed her deeply.

He’d slept like this with her, curling
himself around her body...

I pushed aside my hurt. This was good for us
to share, no matter the reason. Theo spent so much time in cougar
form now that he had total recall of everything that he did while
he was a cougar. Moreover, he had complete control, so much that
the cats and dogs would tolerate his animal form, even if they were
still leery.

“Goodnight, Theo.” I shut off the light, and
we lay together in bed, his purr still rumbling low in the
darkness.

* * * *

The next morning, I went into work early with
Theo. Right after we arrived at Danial’s, he left to patrol the
grounds, and I went up to Danial’s office. There was a note waiting
from Danial, asking me to handle the email first.

I booted his computer, and began looking
through the company email of Solutions, Inc. There were over thirty
valid emails, but that was usual for a week’s time.

Danial did consulting to large companies,
fixing them structurally to increase profitability and make them
more efficient. Yet he was better known for his excellent work in
the line of
finding-out-what-the-hell-had-happened-when-something-went-wrong.
The majority of the email was of that type: high tech detective
work.

Also per usual, some of those potential
clients wanted more than just their mysterious problem resolved:
they wanted the instigator taken out, too. There were also a few
carefully worded emails looking for revenge and justice outside the
courts: hit requests.

There was a time not long ago when Danial
handled those kinds of cases, too. But killing for hire had gotten
Danial more than a few death threats. One had led to an attempt on
my life not long after we’d met. Danial had given up that business
soon after.

Those needed to be forwarded onto Devlin, the
new handler of deserved revenge, with a question mark and a number.
Then I would reply to the person and tell them that we couldn’t
help them. Devlin would either contact them directly, or not. What
worried me wasn’t the potential deaths these emails represented, it
was that I had to contact Devlin this morning. It would be the
first contact we’d had since the night we’d said goodbye...

Maybe it could be put off. How would Dev
handle these anyway, if he was in Rio? Wait, Brian had said he had
a demon, Titus. He must know teleportation, as Terian did. Devlin
could be anywhere instantly.

What if Devlin teleported here when I was
working? That simultaneously worried and exhilarated me. Abruptly,
that all changed to worry visualizing the night Devlin arrived at
my back door. If he’d teleported then to my house, he could
certainly do it again. What if he showed up some night Theo wasn’t
home?

Desire welled up within me. I rummaged in my
purse quickly, and popped another yellow pill. I’d been taking them
at lunch, but from now on, I’d take them at breakfast.

The phone rang. Relieved to see it was Theo,
I answered. “Hi.”

“So how’s the email going?”

“A few seem good. I printed those out and
left them on Danial’s desk. There’s also one hate mail.”

“Put it in the possible suspects file. Oh,
and can you move some of those to the Possible Enemies Drawer?
Anything over six months can go there.”

“Will do.”

“Anything for Devlin?”

I swallowed quickly. “Yes. I’m...I’ve sent
them on to him. I also had a few junk e-mails I deleted.”

“Fine. I’m actually calling about Elle. She
wants to know if the sleepover’s been finalized.”

“Not yet. I’ll call Cathy shortly.”

“I’ll tell her. See you about five. Love
you.”

“Love you.” I hung up.

I called Cathy right away and set up a sleep
over for the following Friday. She said that would be fine, and I
gave her directions to my house. I could tell she wanted to ask if
Theo was my husband and what the deal was with Danial, but she was
too polite. Amused, I didn’t volunteer the information.

Taking stock one more time to make sure I’d
done everything, I realized there were no praising emails for
Solutions, Inc., as Danial sometimes received. Suddenly inspired, I
took a blank sheet of paper and wrote on it in big letters “YOU DO
A GREAT JOB AND YOU ARE LOVED :),” then set it where he’d left me
his note.

As I went to shut down the computer, a new
email arrived. Devlin had replied to one of my emails with just two
words in caps: MISS ME?

“Hell, yes,” I said longingly before
thinking. Flushing quickly, I deleted the email and switched off
the computer.

* * * *

After lunch, I relayed the sleepover news to
Theo, then went in to see my son bearing some ice cream for a
treat. Terian was already in the room, holding him.

“Mommy!” Theoron shrieked.

“Hi,” I said happily back, handing Terian the
dish of ice cream.

He took it, and started feeding Theoron. “Now
don’t bite at it. Lick instead.”

Theoron was used to blood, being half
vampire. He’d adapted to most foods, knowing that solid food
required biting and chewing, and liquids could be drunk. But ice
cream was kind of in-between.

“Keep your fangs retracted,” I encouraged.
“You don’t need them.”

His alone were retractable, like the ones
seen in movies. I was happy about that, despite the difficulty
Theoron was having with food now. Danial, Devlin, and all other
vampires had fangs that were always present. Danial had said once
that it had taken him a few months to learn how to speak clearly
again, and that he sometimes cut himself on his fangs while
speaking. Theoron wouldn’t have that problem, once he mastered
retracting his upper and lower fangs.

“Trying,” Theoron said crossly, managing to
retract three of his four fangs.

“Go ahead and drink the rest,” I said,
offering him the bowl. “It’s pretty melted. Then it’s to bed with
you.”

Theoron finished the ice cream quickly, then
yawned, all his fangs again out. Terian put him back in his crib,
and I gave Theoron a quick kiss. We left him sleeping a few moments
later.

Terian and I walked together out to the great
room.

“He’s managing well,” Terian said happily.
“He’ll probably be able to retract all of them at will by the end
of this week.”

“That’s good,” I replied casually. “How was
your hot date?”

Terian started, stared at me, and then walked
directly into the wall. I cracked up laughing.

“You did that on purpose, Sar,” he said,
giving me an irritated look.

I gave him an innocent one back. “Are you
going to give me her name or not?”

“Brian said something,” Terian muttered.
“He’s the only one I told.”

“Hey, I just care if you’re happy,” I assured
him. “Tell me about her.”

“Fine. But let’s go out in the sun, okay?
It’s not snowing.”

“It’s okay by me if you don’t mind the
mud.”

Terian and I went to the mudroom. Sitting
down on the stone bench, we pulled on our boots. Terian locked the
door behind us, then checked his gun before slipping in into his
shoulder holster. We walked over to the edge of the woods in the
direction of the werecompound.

“Tell me everything,” I said eagerly. “How
did you meet?”

“I went to a festival one weekend,” Terian
said hesitantly. “She was there. I caught sight of her a few times.
Although I noticed her, she didn’t talk to me.”

“Festival?”

“A kind of gala for people like me...well,
people who are interested in sorcery, or who practice it.”

“Real witches?” I said skeptically.

“About half and half,” Terian admitted. “Some
pretenders were there, but that’s normal. I wasn’t looking for
friends, anyway, but for local ingredients. Buying online is fine,
but it’s safer to see what you’re paying for before you’ve paid for
it.”

“Don’t tell me you’ve ordered eye of newt
online and gotten eye of gecko?” I teased.

“In another second I’m not going to tell you
anything more,” Terian said, frowning at me.

“Sorry, I’ll stop. Tell, please. Did you ask
her for her number?”

“No,” Terian said proudly. “She gave it to me
without me asking.”

Was this another stripper?
“Where?” I
managed. “In the parking lot?”

“When everyone went and got pumpkins,” Terian
said. “Right after your condition presented itself. You and Theo
didn’t go, remember?”

“I remember. Danial told me about it that
Saturday I stayed over.”

Danial, Elle, and Theoron had gone with
Terian, Cia, Aran, Aran Jr., Janice, and Ivan to a local pumpkin
farm, leaving the rest of the foxes behind to watch the estate.
They’d had a great time. Elle had picked out a huge pumpkin, and
even Danial with all his strength had to have Terian help him lift
it into the Expedition. Later that night, they’d set to carving in
the great room. When everyone was done, Danial had set them all up
together on a table, and taken a picture, which he’d shown me.

Terian had carved the classic face, with
triangles for eyes, then used magic to make the pumpkin grow horns.
Elle had treated the pumpkin as a canvas, carving the headless
horseman. Danial had helped Theoron make a bat. Cia had made a cat
silhouette, and Janice and Ivan had seen the competition and also
carved classic faces, though Janice had made her face look
distinctly fox-like. Ivan’s for some reason had huge bushy
eyebrows.

I’d been dismayed about missing that night,
and Danial had seen it. With a soft smile, he’d produced another
large pumpkin. On it had been carved a fox walking through the
snow, leaving footprints behind it, looking over its shoulder.

“You gave it my eyes.” They weren’t green,
and there was nothing else to say they were mine, yet somehow I
knew they were.

“That gave me the most problems,” he
admitted.

“I didn’t know you had so much talent,” I
said, awed. “But now I understand why you encouraged Elle so
much—”

“Sar!” Terian said loudly, breaking into my
memories. “Are you listening?”

“Sorry,” I said, flushing. “Danial never
mentioned you met anyone that night.”

“He didn’t see her. I noticed her, and smiled
at her. She returned the smile and came over. We talked about
Halloween, and costumes, and then she gave me her number, and said
she wanted to see more of me.”

“Did she, now?” I grinned widely. “What has
she seen so far?”

“You’re bad, even when The Lust doesn’t have
hold of you,” Terian said, shaking his head. He stopped walking and
turned to me. “We’ve kissed a little, that’s all. But I like her a
lot. Maybe it’s because she’s the first supernatural girl I’ve been
with.”

I gaped. “What?”

“Somewhere in her family line there was
something other than human. What that was, she hasn’t said.”

A woman who wasn’t fully human would likely
find it easier to accept Terian’s half-demon nature. I hugged him,
relieved. “I’m very happy for you,” I said emphatically. “What’s
her name?”

“Valarie,” he said, drawing it out to roll
over his tongue.

“When are you seeing her again?”

“This weekend,” he sighed. “The problem is
waiting until then.” He began to walk again.

I followed him down the path, into the
werecompound to his lab.

Terian took off his gun, and hung the rig on
the door, along with his jacket. “So what is it you’re after today,
besides gossip?”

“What?” I said, hanging my jacket beside
his.

“You followed me all this way for a reason
other than my dating life, Sar,” he said, giving me a knowing
look.

“Two reasons,” I admitted. “First, can I get
you to give me a box this size that is invisible, or make this one
invisible?” I held out a wooden box to him that was three inches on
a side.