Spellbound (Otherworld 12)

"Heli-skiing. When this is done." He waved. "This whole mess. When it's over, I want to try heli-skiing."

"In June?"

"We'll have to find someplace cold. Maybe Switzerland. I always wanted to see Switzerland. That's where we'll go."

"We?"

"It's a long trip. Expensive. I need someone with a trust fund. Why else would I invite you?"

I squirted him with a lime wedge. He yelped. The other patrons continued to pretend we were invisible.

"All right," he said. "I'll pay my own way. You pay yours. We'll go to Switzerland as soon as this is over."

"If you're trying to make me feel better--"

"--then I'd pick something you wanted to do. I'm the one who's been pestering you to try heli-skiing. This is all about me. So, you in?"

"Who else are we inviting? Sean's always game. Elena and Clay might--"

"Next time. This is just for us. Get away from everything, including our friends."

A vacation in Switzerland. Just the two of us. We'd taken a lot of trips together, but always brought others, so no one could mistake it for anything but friends on vacation.

Now he didn't want that buffer. Did it mean something? I wanted it to. But when I looked into his eyes, I didn't see anything new there, just the old Adam grinning, inviting me out to play.

"That doesn't look like a yes," he said. "Come on. A week in Switzerland. Taking a helicopter up the mountains. Skiing down. Sipping brandy by the fire. Being stuck together in a chalet until you're ready to beat my brains in with your ski boot. What's not to love?"

I looked at him. What's not to love? Nothing I could see.

"It'll be fun," he said, leaning forward.

Yes, it would be fun. Just fun. Was I okay with that?

"Sure," I said.

"Good, mark it on your calendar then."

"Do you have an end date in mind for all our other problems? My power failure? My would-be assassin? The violent uprising we need to squelch before they manage to summon the Prince of Darkness?"

"A week from Thursday works for me."

I laughed and took another shot.

"Lucifer is not the prince of darkness, by the way," Adam said.

"Yeah, yeah. I was being dramatic. Lucifer is only another lord demon. A particularly nasty lord demon, though, which is why we don't want him getting involved."

"Mmm. I wouldn't say nasty. Dangerous. Not nasty. There's a difference. You, for example, are dangerous, but not nasty."

He launched into a mini-seminar on Lucifer, the angel who refused to serve humans and was, for his hubris, cast out of heaven. Personally, I've always kind of sided with Lucifer on that one. It would be like Paige bringing home a two-year-old and telling me I had to do his bidding. Um, no. Ask me nicely, and I'll help take care of him, but I don't bow to anyone who hasn't proved himself worthy. I'm sure, in Lucifer's case, there was more to it than that, but I can't help thinking he got a raw deal.

"Lucifer retains the powers of an angel, including his sword of judgment, which can send souls to purgatory." Adam was still talking as we finally staggered out of the cocktail lounge. "Whether that's true or not, nobody knows, but it's an interesting piece of lore."

"You know, alcohol brings out different things in everyone," I said. "For you, it releases your inner librarian."

"Sexy, isn't it?"

"Totally."