Demon Bound

seen. So I figured he ought to know what all is grabbing my attention, and why I’ve been looking at a few things the way I have been.” He leaned back in his chair. “Besides, I don’t think I’ll have a private moment for a couple of hours. Charlie and I have to head on over to the theater, pick out curtains or paint colors or something.”
    “I see,” Alice said, certain she did. Beside her, Irena stiffened as an excited buzz swept through the restaurant. Not sensing any alarm from the humans—just admiration and disbelief—Alice didn’t glance away from Ethan. “How heartless you are.”
    He grinned. “I’d have made it easier on you if you’d told me what your trouble was. Now, I figure you might want to stock up on those itching powders.” He raised his voice a little. “When you get done playacting, Jake, maybe you’ll tell Alice about the trip to Hell that Charlie and I took.”
    Charlie’s gaze shifted over Alice’s shoulder, and she let out a thin, strangled sound. Then she dropped her head into her hands. “Please don’t kill him, Alice. This is my fault.”
    Charlie’s warning kept Alice from calling in her weapon when an unfamiliar man gripped her hand.
    Jake. His psychic scent was unmistakable.
    He tugged her up against his chest, wrapped his arm around her waist, and said loudly, “I just couldn’t wait to see you again, babycakes.”
    She’d had a response forming on her tongue, but the sheer absurdity of his greeting rendered her speechless.
    He smiled with lips that were almost feminine, despite the thin mustache and goatee he now sported. His dark hair had the long, careless wave of a poet’s. Handsome, but it was a refined, androgynous beauty.
    Why in heaven’s name would Jake trade his strong, boldly formed features for this? His smile was much more appealing when it forced a curve onto his chiseled mouth.
    “You ready to go, babycakes? We’ve got booty to plunder.” His gaze bored into hers, and his palm slid low on her back. His head slowly descended. “And I intend to plunder all night long.”
    Booty? Ah, yes. A pirate. Now she recognized the actor from movie posters and merchandise that she’d seen marketed to teenaged girls.
    “Is—” She averted her face, and his warm lips landed on her jaw. Undeterred, he began to nibble. Oh, dear.
    She would not shiver, Alice told herself. She would not.
    “Is this necessary, novice?”
    His deep voice was suddenly his own, soft against her ear. “Play along; it’ll make Charlie happy.”
    Considering that the young vampire was repeatedly thumping her forehead against the table, Alice thought that whatever Charlie had asked of him, this wasn’t precisely it.
    Irena rose to her feet. “Well then, Alice. You are getting what you need, and so I’ll leave you to it.”
    “But—” Dismayed, Alice tried to turn, but Jake held her fast. Tossing him across the room would create a bigger scene than they already had, so she merely looked over her shoulder. “Won’t you wait to hear?”
    “If this information regards Michael . . .” Irena shrugged, and pulled her white hood up over her hair. “I will not influence your decision, Alice, because the action you take will determine mine. So seek me out when you decide to act. Be well, Drifter, Charlie.” She smirked. “Jake.”
    “Bye, Irena,” he said cheerfully.
    Alice faced him again. It would be snakes and spiders and leeches this time. And squirming maggots. Devouring one another.
    He wasn’t looking at her, however, but studying the table with an amused expression. “So this is what happens when you get your hands on a man’s meat.”
    The mutilated hamburger. Oh, the images she could create from that. She glanced down.
    Alice’s hand flew to her lips, stifling her shriek.
    A circus clown’s head stared up at her from the basket, his mouth stretched in a horrid red grin. Less than a second later, the illusion vanished. Jake released her and stepped back.
    Blast, blast, blast! He couldn’t have missed how her heart had jumped, the gasp she hadn’t smothered.
    “I told you he learns real quick,” Ethan said mildly.
    She looked up. Jake’s grin was as wide as the clown’s had been.
    “Gotcha, babycakes.”

    Certain that whatever came out would be more laugh than cackle, Alice didn’t unclamp her lips until they were halfway across the lake, heading east toward Ethan and Charlie’s home. Jake probably thought her silence came from anger—which was