Kitty Raises Hell (Kitty Norville 6)

His voice lulls her. But the anger that drew her into this shape lingers. Who is he to tell her this?

“Kitty. Shh. Shh.”

She glares and meets his gaze. “Go to sleep. I’ll watch over you. You’ll be all right. Shh.”

Pacing, she stumbles. Her body is succumbing to the spell of his voice even as her mind panics. But her other half agrees with him. Sleep. We have work to do. We have to sleep.

He reaches to her, but she won’t approach him. Nearby, there’s a shadow made by foliage, as close to a forest as she’ll find here. She curls up in this spot, folding her legs, putting nose to tail. Tries to keep an eye on the man of death who crouches nearby. But her eyes are heavy, and they close.

I awoke groaning, clenching my limbs, because nothing smelled right. Nothing seemed right.

Vampires, there were vampires here, and I was all tangled up in the sheets, and . . .

Naked.

I was lying on dried grass, covered with an overcoat that smelled like Rick.

The whole episode played through my memory on fast-forward. The demon, Roman, Changing, Rick. He was sitting nearby, within arm’s reach, hands holding his knees.

He glanced at me. “Hello.”

I didn’t have to get drunk and hungover anymore to wake up pissed off and groggy. I had this instead. I groaned again, rubbed my face, and decided against sitting up just yet.

“How much do you remember?” he said.

“Most of it, believe it or not. What did he do to me? He said those words, pushed me over the edge. I didn’t know vampires could do that.” But it wasn’t just him. I remembered the rage that had spurred the final Change, and that rage had been all mine.

“That isn’t part of a vampire’s power. Roman has something else, some kind of spellcraft, maybe even a form of hypnotic suggestion. It was probably similar to what he used to repel the demon.”

“You saw all that?” Now I did sit up, awkwardly keeping the coat around me. I was probably really lucky Rick had been around. I might have gone running off into traffic or something.

“Yes. I’ve been keeping an eye on Roman. On both of you,” he said.

“Oh.” He had probably seen us talking the other night, then. Right on the edge of plotting against him. “I guess I should say thanks. For the intervention.”

“And I suppose I should apologize. For thinking you really would go along with him against me.”

I sighed. “It’s been very frustrating not feeling like I have a say in the matter. Feeling like I’m at the mercy of both of you.”

“There’s so much more to this than you know, Kitty. Who he really is, what he is—I’ve met vampires like him before, and they’re dangerous. You have no idea how dangerous. Their manipulations have dozens of levels—I can’t explain it all to you.”

I smirked. “Spoken like a true vampire. ‘You puny mortals couldn’t possibly understand.’”

He ducked his gaze and chuckled. “You’re right. I’m sorry. I thought I was protecting you. Sheltering you from people like him.”

“Keeping me in the dark isn’t protecting me,” I said.

“Obviously,” he said. “Still, his offer must be tempting, now that he’s proven he can deal with this thing with a snap of his fingers.”

“Yeah.” I wondered who was going to die tonight, now that the demon was even more aggravated. “I’m not through yet. We’ve got a plan. Maybe it’ll actually work.”

“Can I help?”

“Just keep keeping an eye on Roman.”

“I’ve only found him when I’ve followed you, but I’m working on it. I need to know where he came from and what he wants.”

I huffed. “I can tell you that—he wants to get his greedy little paws into Denver.”