One Handsome Devil (21 page)

A weekend in New York—hell, a weekend anywhere with Sara—beat just about anything Jack could think of.

"Don't get too confident,” he reminded her. “I've stunk at that millionaire game you've been making me watch."

Jack felt Sara bristle at his words. “I usually know the answers when you don't. We're a team, you don't have to do everything yourself."

"Right, team.” A demon is naturally a loner and, even with Sara, it was hard for him to build a level of trust. Still, they were a stunningly compatible team. Sara might lack his skill with ancient Sumerian but she crushed him on modern television.

"Since I don't have to worry about requesting vacation from my job, we won't have any problems catching an early flight to New York."

"Early as in when?"

Sara glanced at her wall calendar but the gesture was perfunctory. She'd clearly made up her mind. “Mertz said there's a flight at nine Friday morning."

"I could fly you.” His wings had largely healed from their brush with the church and he longed for a time to spread them, to seize the winds with them as he had done after the first creation.

She smiled, her hazel eyes glowing with excitement. “I thought you were recovering and I'd love to go for a flight with you some time."

"But?"

"But that's too far. Besides, I'm not ready for you to fly Nana and Katra too."

He could carry the extra weight but he didn't think Maura would be up to the adventure.

"I guess we'd better take the airliner."

Sara heard the caution in his voice. “I know Maura can be a bit of a trial, but she means well and she's sweet."

"There's a saying about what paves the road to Hell."

Sara brushed back a tendril of blonde hair, then twisted it around her finger. “I've been meaning to ask you about that. Is it true?"

It was hard for Jack to talk about that original mistake, hard for him even to think about it. Still, he owed Sara that much, at least. “At the time, I thought my intentions were honorable. In retrospect, I wonder if pride didn't tinge my thinking."

"Well that hasn't changed."

"Tell me about it.” For better or worse, worse being far more likely, pride was the one thing he still retained from that awful defeat.

"We don't have to take Katra and my grandmother if you don't want to,” Sara told him. “Or if there's anyone you'd like to take. We get two guests so we could take one each."

"I'm fine with that.” He paused for a moment. “Maybe you could encourage Maura to talk about something other than her church.” Persuading Maura not to talk at all was way beyond the possible.

Sara laughed. “And here you always go bragging on how you're used to standing the pain."

Katra finished her last cup of coffee and looked at the time. Six o'clock. Time to go. While living in fear of Derrick might be destroying her confidence, the extra hours she was spending in the faculty lounge had made her the best prepared teacher in Maude E. Smithson Elementary School.

She unfastened the deadbolt, opened the door, and peered down the hall. Nobody.

Leaving her books in a cupboard, she sprinted through the multipurpose room and onto the parking lot. A black Lexus was the only vehicle still there.

She flung the door open and jumped into the back seat just as Derrick's Jaguar rounded the corner. “Let's get out of here."

"Can't the police do anything about him?” Maura asked from the passenger seat of Reverend Bob's car. Sara's grandmother and Reverend Bob had insisted on helping protect Katra. Once Bob had showed her the evidence of how many stalkers harm or even kill their victims, Katra had stopped arguing.

Katra sighed. “He's claiming I'm harassing him because he dumped me so they can't do anything. Of course if he actually killed me they'd probably arrest him then."

Oddly, she never spotted him when Jack was around.

"Don't even think about that,” Bob advised from behind the steering wheel. “He'll tire of the game. Then you can go back to having a normal life."

Katra's normal life was working more hours than any of the other teachers so she didn't have to go home to her trailer and see her mother and sister, but she knew what Bob was talking about. “How about I treat you both to dinner tonight as my thanks for all you two have done for me."

"Oh, dear. I've tried your cooking.” Maura sounded seriously concerned.

"I meant we'd go out to a restaurant. There's a new California Pizza Kitchen in the West End."

"Maybe you two should go. You can just drop me off, Bob."

Maura must have given up on matching Bob with Sara so now she was pushing him Katra's way.

"Come on, Maura. You've both saved my rear,” Katra argued. “It won't hurt you to get out of the house for one night. Besides, they're supposed to have healthy pizza there."

"I'll be eating out in restaurants this entire weekend, when we go to New York,” Maura answered. Katra could tell she was weakening.

Katra took a deep breath and made the ultimate sacrifice. “Besides, I've been dying to hear about what your garden club is planting this year. Those roses you gave me are still blooming and I thought I'd plant something new this spring."

"Oh, all right,” Maura agreed. “You're right, you know. I don't get out of the house often enough. I need to keep up on what you young people are doing. You can tell me what you think about this young man Sara is seeing."

Katra felt a migraine coming on. Exactly how was she supposed to tell Maura and a minister that Sara's young man was actually a demon? The only answer was, she couldn't. But if she couldn't tell them that, what could she say?

"I don't really know him that well, but you know he's smart."

Maura peered at her for a moment and Katra got the feeling she got when Jack looked into her, as if all of her secrets were there on the table for anyone to see.

"Oh, let's not talk about him now,” Maura finally said. “It'll be easier after we have some food and maybe a couple of glasses of wine."

Katra's headache got worse. After a couple of glasses of wine, she might just tell them what he'd looked like after he'd lost that fight with the church.

Fortunately, the California Pizza Kitchen was hopping. Between Maura worrying about which pizza was best for her diet and Reverend Bob accidentally tripping a waitress, Katra managed to divert the conversation to Reverend Bob's work. Once he got started, he took over.

Two hours later, she knew more about the Reverend's fast-growing congregation of troubled men than she had ever wanted, had a slight buzz from the red wine Maura forced on her, and didn't have a trace of the headache she'd been so worried about. Reverend Bob knew how to tell a story and had the knack of making himself the butt of as many jokes as anyone else.

"I'm feeling a little tired,” Maura told them as they dispatched the last of the second carafe of wine. “Why don't I catch a taxi and the two of you can take your time."

"It's getting pretty late for me too,” Katra said.

"It's only eight,” Maura pointed out. “Just go out and have a little fun."

"Yeah, Katra. Why not?” Reverend Bob urged.

After all Bob had done for her, Katra couldn't argue. While he didn't ring her chimes, Bob wasn't hard on the eyes either.

"How about a stop at Starbuck's,” Bob suggested.

Starbucks’ Caffe Caramel happened to be Katra's only admitted weakness. She shot Maura a look and Maura refused to meet her eyes. She was matchmaking after all.

Still, what possible harm could it do to have a cup of coffee with a minister? “That sounds great.” She turned to Maura. “Are you sure you'll be all right? We could take you home and go to the Starbucks near our house."

"The one in the grocery store?” Maura looked indignant. “Don't be silly. I'll be fine."

It took another five minutes before Katra could persuade them she was serious about paying the bill. After that, they finally emerged into the bright Dallas evening. Although it was after eight, the sun looked as if it would shine for hours more. For the first time since Jack had come into her life, Katra relaxed. Surely things were going to be all right.

Maura climbed into a waiting taxi and Katra smelled a plot. “What are the odds that there just happened to be a cab here?” she demanded.

"I called from the washroom,” Maura giggled. “I knew you'd try to back out if I gave you the time."

She was right, of course, but Katra hated being so transparent. She tried to think of a snappy comeback, but Maura slammed the taxi door and the driver floored it before Katra could do more than gape with her mouth open.

"I've been hoping we could spend some time together,” Bob told her.

Uh-oh.

He led her to his car and held open the door for her, closing it when she had settled herself into the soft leather.

A navy Jaguar nosed out of the parking lot, disappearing from sight just as Bob opened his own door.

Katra fought back the wave of panic. Dallas was a big city. There had to be hundreds of people with Jaguars. She was paranoid to think Derrick was behind the wheel of every single one she saw.

"Turn right onto Preston,” she told Bob. “And floor it."

Bob followed her directions although he certainly didn't floor it. He didn't demand an explanation until they stopped for a traffic light. “Do you want to tell me what's going on?"

"Look up there. Do you see the Jaguar?"

"Yeah."

"I think that's Derrick."

The Jaguar pulled a quick ‘u’ turn and zoomed by. Derrick glared at her through the window of his car.

"Follow him,” Katra demanded.

Sara ran her finger down Jack's naked stomach. His muscles tightened against her light touch. He might claim to be vastly removed from human but Jack was ticklish. She found it endearing. She also found contact with his body incredibly arousing. “Any interest in going to bed?"

Jack looked up from the heavy arabic tome he was reading. “That sounds nice.” He paused only a moment. “By the way, your friend Katra appears to be in trouble."

Sara looked at him. He seemed completely calm, sitting with a slender finger between the pages of his book. Almost as if he was making casual conversation rather than discussing a real danger. “What sort of trouble?” she demanded.

"Our old friend Derrick. He popped back on my radar screen."

"Radar?” Now she was getting really confused. Still, she had enough presence of mind to stand up and head for the door. Much as it pained her to admit it, sex, even mind-blowing demon sex, could wait if her friend was in danger.

"Not real radar, of course. I used that as an analogy. In humans, you would call it some sort of psychic premonition but, of course, you don't have highly evolved senses."

"I can't believe you're just standing there talking about it. Come on, let's go.” She grabbed her car keys from the hook near the door and headed outside.

"Do you want to put on some clothes?"

"Oh. Damn. Just a second."

She pulled on a pair of cut-offs and a running top. “What are you waiting for?"

Jack hung his book in mid-air and stepped after her. “Should we fly?"

"Can we?” His wounds had largely healed but his wings still had a charred edge to them.

"Maybe a little slower than before.” He seemed chagrined to admit the weakness but he did it. From what he had told her of Hell, admitting any weakness to anyone amounted to a quick ticket to increases in torture.

"Maybe you could just zap us there."

"We would need bodies to emerge into. I can't just create that much matter from nothing."

That sounded completely disgusting. “All right, let's take my car. Where is she?"

"In Oak Lawn.” He followed her lead into her Miata. “I think she's heading for East Dallas."

Sara threw the car into gear and peeled rubber down her street managing to bottom out on three of the road humps Dallas littered the pavement with to prevent exactly the type of driving she was doing.

"Do you want to tell me what you meant about needing a body?” She didn't want to think what she might have done with her spells but she had to know. Obviously she was messing with power that had potentially severe consequences.

Jack shrugged. “Nothing comes from nothing. I can no more create new matter than I can reverse time."

"When I called you up the first time, did you have to find some human body to occupy?"

Jack glanced down at his hard muscled body and flexed his wings. “Over the centuries, you manage to gather a little matter here and there. Depending on how much you gather, you can manifest yourself more or less physically."

"So the imps—"

"Imps are too weak to hold onto much mass. There aren't any banks where you can make a safe deposit."

"So if you went back, could you come again?"

"Not for a long time. I didn't think I'd have enough to come back the second time."

Sara shook her head and focused on driving. She crossed over the Trinity River. “What now?"

"Stay on Interstate 35 and exit at Martin Luther King."

Sara glanced outside. The sun was nearing the horizon and she didn't like the idea of being out in this neighborhood after dark. Even with Jack to back her up, she felt vulnerable.

"Turn right again."

Sara gritted her teeth. Katra was in trouble and Sara was worrying about her own safety. She had to get her priorities in better order.

She headed into the Fair Park area. Reverend Bob's Lexus and a Jaguar that could only be Derrick's stood out among the aging pickup trucks and Chevies. “I guess we're here."

"Be careful,” Jack urged. “This could be dangerous."

Derrick's psychic scent stank, gagged, tore at Jack's energy like the church had torn at his body. So why was he so hard to track? It didn't seem possible.

They'd followed Katra's trace, moving through the Fair Park night life. Derrick had moved fast despite the burden of two captives and he'd had a good lead to start. Now, however, Jack and Sara were closing the gap.

"Are you sure she's all right?” Sara's concern for her friend poured out like a torrent, threatening to wash away all other psychic tracks.