Kiss of a Dragon(12)

She scowled. “I barely know why I’m here. And I certainly don’t know where here is.”

Guilt twisted inside him, just enough to let him know it was there. “Make it short. I have a few things to show you.”

That seem to intrigue her, but she stepped a several paces away and stood by the window, turning her back to him and placing her hand on the clear glass as she dialed. She held the phone to her ear. After a moment, she said, “Hey, Rachel, it’s me.”

Lucian’s hearing and vision were far better than human, even when he was in human form. Eavesdropping on a phone conversation, especially at this very short distance, was a simple matter of focus.

This Rachel person, apparently a friend of hers, replied, “Holy shit, Ari, where are you?”

Arabella glanced at him. He kept a cool gaze trained on her, waiting. This was her moment to try to get free. To break away or send some kind of coded message to her friend to come and rescue her from this mysterious trap in the mountains.

“I, uh... I’m not feeling so good. Taking the day off.” Arabella was back to staring out the window.

“Do you have the flu? And why does your caller ID say L Smoke? What the hell, Ari? If you went home with some hot guy, why are you sparing the details?”

“It’s nothing like that,” Arabella said, her voice clipped.

Only it was exactly like that. In a way.

“I told you, I’m sick. I lost my phone last night. I’m borrowing my next door neighbors’.”

“Old man Beady Eyes has a phone?” Rachel asked, skeptically. “I thought that guy was like some old drug addict. How does he have cash for a phone?”

Arabella’s hand turned into a fist and knocked against the pane of the window. “I’m not up for this, okay? Just cancel all my appointments for today. I’ll be back tomorrow or the next day at the latest. As soon as I don’t feel like I tried to outdrink you and then got bounced by the Russian mob.”

There was a moment of silence on the other end of the line. “Are you sure you’re okay? The police were by your apartment this morning.”

“What?” Arabella shot a look to him. “Why were the police at my apartment?”

Lucian frowned. They obviously traced Arabella’s phone when they found the demon’s body. Or rather, the human half that was left.

“I don’t know!” Rachel’s voice hiked up. “I hightailed it out of there! What do you expect—I’m going to stick around for the cops? Hey there, Officer Hottie, I’ve got a record a mile long, what do you say we go get a donut and talk about it? Come on, Ari.”

“Okay, okay,” Arabella said. “I must have just been passed out when they came by. I didn’t hear them knock. I’ll try to answer the door if they come again. Otherwise, I’m just going to sleep this thing off, okay? Can you hold down the fort for me?”

“Sure thing. Do you need some chicken soup or something? You know I’m not the mothering type. I don’t know how to do this shit. If you need something, you need to tell me straight out.” There were concern and annoyance in Rachel’s voice.

“All I need is some sleep.” Arabella glanced at Lucian again. “I’ll call you tomorrow.”

Lucian sighed. She was hedging her bets. Which was smart—and he couldn’t rightly blame her for it.

“Okay, girlfriend. Go kick some virus ass!”

Arabella gave a small, snorting kind of laugh. It made Lucian’s heart squeeze. He didn’t like that one bit—not the normalcy of it. Not the sweetness of the sound. He steeled himself as she said goodbye to her friend and hung up.

“Okay, I bought us a day or two,” she said to him. “What is it you wanted to show me?”

“I want you to know what a woman stands to gain by falling in love with me.” There was a lead weight on his chest as he said the words. What she stood to lose was so much more. He knew that. But it had to stay a dark secret for now.

“Fair enough. That should help with the sell job, I imagine.” One corner of her lips tipped up in a wry kind of smile.

“Come with me.” He turned his back and led her toward the spiral staircase in the great room. At the top, he strode past the closed door of his bedroom, forcing himself not to pause or linger his thoughts there. When they reached the second set of stairs that spiraled up to the roof, he glanced back to make sure she was still with him. Her bright eyes were unsuspecting, innocent and clear. He tore his gaze away from her face and led her up the stairs. When they reached the top, he held the door open. The wind was light, but it made the long strands of her hair whip around her face. The sun caused a cute squint to show up on her face. As they stood atop the keep, they could see the full expanse of it, an upside-down glass castle with a flat top and towers reaching down and anchoring it to the mountain, like a diamond had forced its way out of the dirt to shine in the sun.