Kissed by Darkness(35)

Shit. Kabita was going to kill me. And when she got done killing me, I was going to kill Inigo. After I made him tell me exactly what happened between us. I wasn’t stupid. Satisfy your curiosity first then commit murder and mayhem.

But first I had an appointment with Cordelia. After that, I had a date with a Sunwalker. He just didn’t know it yet.

I couldn’t help but smirk just a little. This was going to be interesting.





Chapter Ten





I didn’t even have to wait for Cordelia to buzz me into the building. The minute I hit the door, I heard the latch release. It was kind of scary how much I was getting used to her spooky prescience. I wondered vaguely if other people had weird friends, or if I was just unusually blessed.

I was also apparently getting used to the precarious stacks of odd objects around her apartment. I probably wouldn’t have noticed the addition of a rather large collection of books on ancient Egypt if not for the fact they were topped by an enormous amethyst geode. I’d always wanted one of those.

“Cool amethyst.”

She grinned happily. “Why thank you. Bastet likes it.”

Of course Bastet liked it. What was I thinking? “Um, yeah. I’m sure.” Probably she liked to scratch her back on it or something. I couldn’t imagine cats cared one way or another about crystal geodes.

I held my hand out until my palm was about six inches away from the crystal. I could feel the heat radiating off it, as though it were a living thing.

I caught Cordelia giving me a funny look. “You feel it.”

It wasn’t a question and I didn’t pretend not to know what she was talking about. “Yeah, I can feel it.” I rubbed my fingers together. They were tingling a bit. “When I’m near gemstones I can feel … ” I hesitated, unsure how to explain what I could feel. “I feel heat from them. Not quite like body heat. More like … energy. It’s sort of warm and tingly. Sometimes it’s warm and fuzzy and other times it feels almost … jagged? Discordant, I guess.” That sounded all kinds of dorky.

“Of course you do.” Cordelia led me into the living room jammed with the usual assortment of oddities. “It’s your nature to attract the energy in the things around you. Since gemstones in particular help focus and channel energies, you feel their energies most strongly. And amethyst is, after all, your birth stone.”

She was right about that. Spooky, since I’d never told her when my birthday was, but right. I wondered how she did it, then decided that some things were just better left unknown.

Bastet had draped herself over the mound of pillows on the couch. She gave me a haughty glare as I dropped into the only free chair. Seriously, that cat had issues.

Cordelia did the usual shuffle with some stacks of papers and books and what looked like a star chart before dropping into the seat across from me. Neither of us spoke as she poured us both a cup of tea from the pot that was already waiting. Sometimes silence was comforting.

The first sip of hot tea liberally spiked with milk and sugar made me sigh happily. So, it wasn’t coffee, but it would do. The spicy tang of ginger and lemon hit my nose, giving me the sudden urge to bake molasses cookies.

“Tell me.” It was all I needed to hear. I told Cordelia about the dreams I’d been having, about the hunt and the weirdness with the darkness. I told her about Inigo and about how I couldn’t remember what happened between us.

“I think there was something about his eyes.” I frowned down at my cup. “I just … I can’t remember what it was.”

“His eyes?” She tucked both legs into a lotus position and leaned forward eagerly. I noticed her toenails were painted electric blue.

I shrugged. “I think I wasn’t supposed to see it, whatever it was. But I did. Only … well, now I’m starting to think it was all a dream.”

Bastet strolled over and hopped up onto Cordelia’s lap. The cat stared at me with those great yellow eyes of hers, unblinking. It was incredibly unnerving. Cordelia sipped her tea, deep in thought as she stroked Bastet’s fur. “No, it wasn’t a dream. Bastet agrees. It was very real.”

I barely stopped myself from rolling my eyes. Of course Bastet agreed. “Why can’t I remember?” I leaned forward, a little embarrassed. “I can’t even remember if we, um, you know, slept together. I should remember that. I mean, if we did it or not.” God, I was acting like a sixteen year old. Idiot. “I’m pretty sure we didn’t, but not absolutely sure.”

Cordelia frowned. “Well, that I can’t answer. Whether you and Inigo had sex or not is not clear to me. Or to Bastet. We don’t think that’s the important thing.” Not important? Was she nuts? “We do think that there’s a reason you can’t remember what you saw. We believe that is the important thing, what you must focus on.” I doubted Bastet cared one way or the other, but I was willing to go along with it.