"Now, Gloriana. Want to tell me what you and Valdez are working on together?" Jerry gestured for me to sit on the couch. Of course he was beside me, too close beside me, in an instant.
Rafe sat in the chair Jerry had used earlier. He studied me with his warm brown eyes and I knew he was hurt and not a little disillusioned. I could easily read his thoughts. There Glory goes again, back to Blade and her old dependent ways. I sat up straight and slid into a corner of the couch, using my knees to put some space between Jerry and me.
"Okay, here's the deal. Alesa, the demon who possessed me before-"
"Valdez's ex-wife." Jerry glared at Rafe.
"Yes, she was that. Anyway, she went down to hell after we drove her out and apparently bragged about how strong I was." I looked at Rafe for help.
"Knowing her kind, that was to save face. She was trapped in Glory for a good long while. Any demon worth her salt should have been able to jump right back out again after what happened. Instead, she was stuck in Glory. Couldn't get back to hell until we used extreme measures."
"Right. The exorcism and the power of love." Jerry looked beyond grim. "This all goes back to you and your demon origins, Valdez."
Rafe leaned forward, his elbows on his knees. "Which you knew about and appreciated when you hired me to look after Glory. Thought my powers might be useful."
"Okay, so that's a standoff. Am I right?" I didn't like the heat rising from Rafe or the way Jerry's fangs were glinting in the lamplight.
"Not exactly. What has that to do with now? You sent this demon bitch back where she belongs. So you're done, Gloriana. Valdez no longer works for me. He's no longer your bodyguard or your lover. Am I right?" Jerry stared at me, almost daring me to close my mind to him.
I didn't. I opened it wide. "No, he's not my lover. That's history." I turned to Rafe. "I'm sorry, Rafe, but Jerry and I are together now. What you and I did . . ." I stopped. No need to dredge that up. "Anyway, I'm committed to making our relationship work now."
"Committed. Working. Fine. Have at it. But you and I are in a hell of a mess." Rafe glared at Jerry. "Sorry, but we're committed too. And if I don't help you, Glory, we're both up shit creek."
"Explain." Jerry bit off the word.
"Alesa did such a sales job on me that two demons showed up, determined to make me an offer I couldn't refuse." I sighed. "They want me to work for Lucifer, to collect souls for him."
"That's ridiculous." Jerry smiled. "Anyone who knows you would never expect for a moment that you'd go over to the dark side."
"Exactly!" I wanted to reach over and hug him. But I didn't. Rafe was here and I wanted to keep the tone of this meeting as neutral as possible. "They even tried bribing me. Said if I did this, they'd make me a size six, permanently." I laughed. "Like that would do it."
"I remember when you went down to that size, in California." Jerry reached over and rubbed my bare knee, exposed by my skirt. "You were too thin, lost your full curves. You weren't the Glory I knew and loved."
"Well, maybe not physically, Jer, but, no matter the size of my outside, I'm always the same inside you know." I frowned, hearing myself. Hello? When I was right, I was right.
"I could have told you that, Blade." Rafe just had to put his two cents in. He nodded at Jerry like get a clue.
"Don't start, Rafe." I sighed. "In that world, Hollywood, surrounded by so many glamorous stick-thin women? It was important to me. And, I admit it, ultracool. A dream come true." I sighed again. Too bad it hadn't lasted. I'd always consider Ian MacDonald a genius for creating a vampire diet drug that worked. But so temporary and so outrageously expensive. Ray had paid for it. Which reminded me. I could see that he'd shut my bedroom door. What was he up to in there? If he was hunting for my Blud-Lite . . .
"Regardless, she turned them down flat. Even though they gave her another incentive." Rafe smiled at me. "She can see herself in a mirror. Actually gets a reflection."
"I don't believe it." Jerry gripped my knee.
"Oh, believe it. I'll show you later." I sat up straight, effectively getting away from Jerry's hold. I was afraid this next bit of news was going to make him crazy. "Then they called in the big guns."
"How so?" Jerry looked from me to Rafe.
"Me. I owe hell a favor." Rafe shot me a look that said it wasn't too late for me to abandon him. I sent him a mental message that he could forget it. "For using my powers. So I'm charged with helping Glory work for Lucifer."
"No, by God!" Jerry jumped up, gripping Rafe by his shirt front.
"You think I want her working for demons?" Rafe shoved at Jerry and the sofa moved.
I jerked the coffee table out of the way. I'd already lost one to a fight in here and I really liked this one.
"Calm down, both of you. There's nothing we can do except work to fix this."
"All of this comes down to this damned demon." Jerry snarled at Rafe.
"You brought me here. Let me get to know Glory, love her. This is your damned fault, Scotsman." Rafe was livid and he threw a punch that landed with a sickening crunch on Jerry's nose. Blood spurted and I screamed.
"If you love Glory, then get these hellspawn away from her. Do something!" Jerry roared and charged, hitting Rafe solidly in the midsection and reducing my chair to kindling as they hit the floor.
"Stop it!" I kicked at both of them but they didn't even notice, too busy pummeling each other as blood sprayed the wooden floor and pieces of chair crunched under their bodies.
"Nice." Ray stood in the doorway, a bottle of Blud-Lite in his hand.
"Damn it!" If that didn't just make this whole thing worse.
"Glory, your cell is ringing." Penny came out of the bathroom, my cell phone in her hand. I guess I'd left it next to my makeup bag. The mirror in there was now my favorite place in the apartment.
Jerry and Rafe cursed and rolled toward me. I threw up my hands and stalked around the back of the couch. To hell with them. To hell with Ray too, who now leaned against the bathroom door, flirting with Penny. I grabbed my phone, shoved Penny toward her bedroom and Ray into the bathroom, then slammed the door. I finally answered the phone, though I could barely hear over the grunts, curses and crashes from the living room.
"Hello?"
"Glory? It's Erin. We've got an emergency in the shop. You'd better get down here."
"What kind of emergency? I've got a situation up here that's pretty bad at the moment." Damn it, there went my lamp. Jerry was paying for a new one. I was pretty sure he'd started this brawl with his attitude. Then Rafe's red eyes started heating up and I was afraid he was going to owe hell even more favors. I had to stop this, right now.
"Paparazzi. Seems you and Israel Caine are back together again if the fact that his SUV is parked behind this building is any indication. Which is way cool. But you know what happens. We're swamped. You went to that concert and someone got a picture of the two of you right after he did a header off the stage. Is he okay?" Erin sounded breathless. "Yes, ma'am, this is her shop. Oh, yes, I'll ring you up." I heard the rustle of fabric. A sale.
"Erin, I'll be down in a few. Ray's fine. But we're not-" I almost fell in when the bathroom door opened behind me. Ray came out wearing nothing but a towel around his waist after what had to be his quickest shower ever.
"Damn, that water's cold." He snagged me around the waist. "Let me call Nate and get some clothes up here."
I heard more glass breaking in the living room. "Erin, hang in there. Give me five minutes to kill a few men and I'll be down." I shut the phone and handed it to Ray. "Knock yourself out."
"Thanks, sweet thing." He gave me a smile and a squeeze. "Better do something about your guy in there before he kills your dog."
"You are such a jerk." I took his hand off my waist and charged into the wreckage of my living room. "Stop!"
Jerry rolled off Rafe and lay panting on the floor. His shirt was ripped and bloody and both eyes were swollen to slits. Obviously he'd been ready to call a halt or he'd never have obeyed me. Rafe lay on the floor where Jerry had left him. He had long gashes in his skin where obviously Jerry had used his fangs to good effect, and he was bleeding all over the floor and what was left of his ripped shirt. His lips were cut and swollen to double their normal size.
"Aren't you a pretty pair?" I put my hands on my hips. "And look at the mess you made." I figured the only piece of furniture still worth keeping was the couch. Both chairs had been destroyed, along with my lamp and various decorations I had used to make the living room homey. My coffee table hadn't survived either. Damn it. "Did this solve anything?"
"Sorry, Glory." Rafe winced as he sat up. "Guess we should have taken this outside."
"Ya think?" I kicked the broken lampshade aside to make a path. "You will pay for every bit of damage. Both of you." I glared at Jerry, who was getting to his feet. I saw him bite his lip against the pain but didn't have much sympathy for him. His temper had started this.
"Of course. Send me half the bill." Jerry held on to the wall as he staggered. "The shifter can pay the other half."
"It should all be on you." Rafe was on his feet now and grabbed a kitchen towel to wipe the blood off his arms. "You put your hands on me first. I don't take that shit from anybody."