I blinked, squinting at the clock. Eight thirty. Time to get up. Even though we’d gotten to bed late, I still preferred catnaps. A few hours here, a few hours there, and I was good to go. Especially after the sex and the hot bath we’d taken together afterward.
I didn’t like water, but Zach had eased me into the tub full of bubbles, where I leaned against his chest as he reached around and washed my tummy, gently rubbing my breasts as he did so. As his hands glided over my flesh, the tide between us rose again, and he took me there, in the tub. I slid up on his lap, my knees straddling his hips. He slipped into me from below as I leaned forward to brace my hands on the bottom of the tub, and we’d quietly thrust our way into soapy ecstasy until the water cooled. The moment my head hit the pillow, I was out.
Now, awake but still blurry-eyed, I yawned and eased my way out of bed. Zach groaned, then pulled himself up to a sitting position. He gave me a goofy smile, warming me from the inside out, and held out his arms. I dropped my panties and bra, slipping back under the covers to plant a good-morning kiss on his mouth.
After a moment, he leaned back against the headboard and regarded me with a serious look. “Okay, we didn’t talk about this last night, but we need to now. What about—”
“Chase?” I finished the sentence for him. I still wasn’t ready to discuss the situation, but Zach wanted some sort of explanation, and I felt I owed him one.
“Yeah, Chase.” He let out a long sigh. “Last night was incredible. I can only hope to God you felt the same thing I did. We’re meant for each other, Delilah. Can’t you feel it? We didn’t just fuck. We mated.”
I almost about swallowed my tongue. I knew exactly what he was talking about but had been hesitant to vocalize it, not knowing if he’d felt the same way. The sex had been fantastic, but even more, it felt like we’d merged, like he’d accepted me fully. All of me. Fae, human, weretabby, werepanther . . . every aspect of me had been involved in our lovemaking, and as much as Chase and I clicked, there were parts of my being where he couldn’t—or wouldn’t—go.
“I know,” I said softly. “I know. But Zach, so much is going on right now. Chase and I . . . Chase . . .” I held out my panties, staring at them. They were green satin, and Chase had given them to me, a gift from Victoria’s Secret. I suddenly couldn’t put them on. I stuffed them back in the drawer and found another pair: pale pink, cotton, very simple. These were mine. My own, my style, my comfort. As I slid them up my hips and then fastened a matching bra, I turned around to stare at the werepuma who was stretched out on the bed.
A long drink of warm rum on a cold winter’s night—that’s what Zach was. Milk and cookies in the afternoon, oatmeal in the morning. Hiking boots and blue jeans and a leather jacket that smelled like heaven. He was everything I was, except Fae.
“I’m furious that Chase lied to me. I could have handled him sleeping with his old flame, because truthfully, I think I’d like to have both of you in my life. But he didn’t tell me the truth, and I feel stupid because of it. Now I don’t know what he wants or what he’s thinking.” I sat down on the edge of the bed, staring at the floor as I rested my head in my hands. “And I guess I don’t know what I want. I don’t even know what I’m allowed to want.”
I turned and pointed to the mark on my forehead. “I haven’t told anybody this yet, but yesterday, during the fight, the Autumn Lord said . . . he said that one day his plans include me being the one to bear his child. If he’s serious, I won’t have a choice. I’m bound to him. So where does that leave me? As much as Chase wants to be cool with our ways—with the ways of my father’s people—there are limits to what he can accept. To what he will accept. And he’d never accept something like that. Would you?”
Zach stared at me. After a moment, he reached over to rub my arm. “I don’t know if I can answer that right now, to be honest. I think if the Autumn Lord was okay with you having a mortal lover, that I could learn to be okay with you having an immortal child. The Puma Pride wouldn’t be, though. But I don’t necessarily listen to everything they say. Not anymore. My latest antics, as the elders call them, haven’t been well received at all. I’m sorry. I can’t give you a better answer than that.”
I shrugged. “I’d rather have you honest about it than lying to me. That’s good enough for now. So what have you been up to that’s got the council in such an uproar?”
He gave me a sheepish grin. “I’m running for City Council. In Puyallup.”
I stared at him. “You’re what?”
“I’m running for City Council. I want to be a councilman. I’m running on an open platform as a Supe. As one of the Rainier Puma Pride members. Venus is backing me up, and his support is the only reason they haven’t thrown me out of the council yet. But I’m facing a lot of anger back at the compound.”
I nodded. The Rainier Puma Pride—especially the council of elders—were set in their ways. They didn’t approve of my sisters and me, even though we’d saved their butts from the hands of a ruthless serial killer who turned out to be an ancient enemy. But we had at least two allies there. Both Zachary and Venus the Moon Child, their shaman, stood up for us. Thanks to the two of them, the Pride had assisted us on more than one occasion, but without their backing, we’d be persona non grata.
“Councilman, huh?” I snickered. “Hey, can you fix parking tickets if you get in?”
He laughed, a throaty laugh that made me want to bite those beautiful lips of his, but he rolled away, hopping out of the bed to stretch. His muscles rippled in the warm morning light. As he grimaced and held up his muddy jeans, I tossed him a terrycloth robe.
“Give me those dirty things.”
He raised his eyebrows as he exchanged them for the robe. “It’s pink. And not hot pink, either. This is bubblegum pink.”
“Hey, I happen to like bubble gum. So deal with it,” I said, grinning. “We’ll just wash your clothes before you head home—”
A knock interrupted me. As Zach clutched the robe closed, I opened the door to find Iris standing there, a concerned look on her face.
“Sharah’s on the phone again, and she needs to talk to you. She’s on line one. Why don’t you take it while I toss these in the washer? I think we have a spare pair of jeans and a shirt around here that will fit you.” She pulled Zach’s clothes out of my arms as he hastily scrambled to keep his robe from flying open. “Relax, Zachary. You haven’t got anything I haven’t seen before,” she said with a grin, then quickly gathered up a basket of my dirty clothes from the floor and headed back downstairs.
I picked up the phone near my bed. We’d installed two extensions on both my floor, the third, and Camille’s, the second. Now we didn’t have to run downstairs. We’d also signed up for an extra line.
“Hey Sharah,” I said. If Chase had set her to calling for him, I’d chew him out. There was no need to stick someone in the middle of our dispute. But she sounded frantic.
“Delilah, thank the gods. I’ve been trying to reach you since last night, but you didn’t call me back.”
I glanced over at Zach. “I had . . . other things to attend to. Sorry. What’s up?”
“It’s about Chase.”
“What about him?” I didn’t want to hear that he was upset or off moping. He’d brought this onto himself, after all.
“Chase hasn’t checked in since around noon yesterday. He never just drops out of sight. I’m really worried something has happened to him.”
Her words slammed into my heart. “What do you mean? You think he’s in trouble?” A niggle in the pit of my stomach began to worm its way up to the surface.
“I mean just what I said. He hasn’t come in to work yet. Last night, he left early and I called him later with a problem, but he wasn’t home. I was a little worried but I thought maybe he had a family emergency or something, so I called you. Now I’m really concerned. He hasn’t been in yet. I’ve tried calling, but there’s no answer at his apartment.”
I bit my lip, tasting blood as one of my fangs accidentally caught the chapped skin where I’d forgotten to use the lip balm Camille had bought for me. Sharah was right. It was unlike Chase to vanish without leaving a get-in-touch number. He had too much respect for his job. But then again, he’d been leading a double life for a while now. Maybe Erika had messed with his sense of responsibility.
“Have you talked to Erika?” I asked, the words jarring me even as they tumbled out of my mouth. “Maybe she knows where he is.”
Sharah paused. She knew. And I knew she knew. After a moment, she cleared her throat. “I called her, but there was no answer. I’m sorry, Delilah. I don’t know what to say—”
I could feel Zach’s gaze fastened on me as my cheeks reddened. I hated blushing, hated feeling conspicuous and embarrassed. As tears welled up, I dashed them away before they fell and tried to focus on the matter at hand. The fact was—Erika or not—Chase wasn’t one to shirk his duties. If he could have called, he would have. Which meant something was wrong. Maybe it was car trouble. Maybe it was something else.
“Did you have somebody drop by his apartment?”
“No,” she said. “Not yet. I thought I’d make some calls before I did that. You wouldn’t be willing, would you? I understand if you want to say no, but there’s a bug going around, and we’re shorthanded here.”
I let out a long sigh. The last thing I needed to do was go chasing Chase, but something about the situation didn’t sit right.
“All right. I’ll drive over there and take a look. If he comes in before I get back to you, let me know so I can move on to my other errands for the day.” There were three case files sitting on my desk that needed attention. Nothing urgent, but they would pay next month’s utility and food bills.
“Will do, and thanks. Again, I’m sorry I had to call.”
As I slowly replaced the receiver, Zach slid his arm around my waist. “I think I got the gist of what’s happening. You need me to come with you?”
I shook my head. “Probably not the best idea. If I do find him, we have a lot to talk about. And if I don’t, well . . .” Leaving the thought untouched, I motioned toward the door. “Let’s go down and grab a bite of breakfast. What are your plans?”
He leisurely tied the belt on the robe and opened the door for me. “Oh, not a lot. Just talk to my campaign manager, get some head shots taken, and then this afternoon, there’s a fence out at the compound that needs replacing. I’m overseeing the work crew on that.” He paused. “Will you call me later and let me know how things went?”
I nodded. “Count on it. Let’s go find out how it went last night with the spirit seal.”
As we hurried into the kitchen, the only ones there were Smoky, Iris, and Maggie. Maggie was sitting on Smoky’s lap, playing with a strand of his hair, which was teasing her, tickling her belly.
Iris handed Zach a pair of jeans and a shirt and he went to the bathroom to change. She pointed to the range; one pan held scrambled eggs and another, thick slices of bacon. There were melon balls on the table, along with a stack of toast. I grabbed a slice and promptly plowed into it.
“Serve yourselves, please. I’m doing laundry and house-cleaning today. Camille’s already left for the shop, and Morio’s off to do the shopping. Menolly’s in her lair, of course, and I haven’t seen hide nor hair of the demon twins today.”
I choked on a crumb. Iris had taken to calling Roz and Vanzir the demon twins, much to their chagrin. The rest of us found it amusing, but they—Vanzir in particular—didn’t appreciate her sense of humor.
“Knock yourself out. I promised Sharah I’d check on something for her. Chase has disappeared, and nobody can find him.”
“Great Mother, I hope he hasn’t come to harm.”
“I hope not either,” I muttered and sat down at the table, as Zach returned, dressed. I offered him a plate of eggs and bacon, but he shook his head.
Swiping a couple pieces of toast, he kissed me on the forehead. “I’d better head out. I’ll call you later. Bye, everyone.” Before I could see him off, he was out the door, and I watched at the window as he climbed into his truck and drove away. I turned back to Smoky, who sat there, watching me carefully.
“Tell me, how did it go with the spirit seal last night?” I returned to my chair and dug into the food, starving. We had high metabolisms, and Camille and I ate like storm troopers. Menolly would have, too, if she’d still been alive.
Smoky shrugged. “Your sister needs to work on her diplomacy, but overall, it went well.”
Uh-oh. “What did Menolly do now?”
The dragon arched his eyebrows, and he seemed to be repressing a grin. “For one thing, she almost let it slip that we knew about Trillian. That would not be a wise move, considering the elves went to such lengths to keep the mission covert. I managed to cover her gaffe, but I’m not sure they believed me when I had a coughing fit.”
Wonderful. We should have known better than to let Menolly take the helm on that little excursion. While she was one hell of a fighter and as dependable as Old Faithful, she had a problem controlling what she said and who she said it to. She’d never give away state secrets, but make her mad enough, and she blew way too easily. I blamed it on the vampire thing, even though I knew that she’d always been that way.
