Must Love Hellhounds

me. Those things don’t matter. You had no control over your past, but here, right now, you control the situation and you’re voluntarily giving it up. You’re punishing both of us because of something that happened half a lifetime ago. It makes no sense.”
    I tried to pull away, but he held me.
    “There hasn’t been anyone since I met you. I’ve been good, and don’t think for a moment it was because of the lack of wiggling asses. Have you ever seen me with another woman since we met? Have you heard of me being with another woman? The same women who wanted to give you pointers will tell you that I haven’t touched anyone since I saw you. Are you jealous of them? Is that it?”
    My face went hot and I knew I had flushed. I was jealous of them. Of all of them.
    “Andrea, you can’t be jealous of someone I met before I knew you. I didn’t know you existed back then. I don’t want anyone else now. Has there been anybody for you?”
    I shook my head.
    “I think of you a lot. Do you think of me, Andrea? Don’t lie to me.”
    “Yes!” I snarled, my face burning. “Yes, I do! All the time. I can’t get you out of my head. I wish I could!”
    He hugged me so hard, my bones nearly crunched. “You’ve made yourself into a new person and so have I. We deserve a fucking chance. I want you and you want me. Why aren’t we together? I’ll deal with your hang-ups if you’ll deal with mine, but if you’re still too scared to even try, then you’re not worth waiting for. I have some goddamn pride left and I won’t wait forever.”
    He let me go.
    I could either take control of it now or walk out. I clenched my teeth. This was my decision. I owned it, I took full responsibility for it, and no memories would make me cower and run away from him. I was worth it, damn it. He was worth it.
    I did what I had wanted to do since I first saw him. I dropped my fork and kissed him.
    We never made it upstairs to the bedroom.
     
     
     
    The problem with falling asleep wrapped in a comfy blanket on the floor between the coffee table and the sofa is that in the morning, when the phone rings and wakes you up, you forget the coffee table is there. At least Raphael did. There was a solid thud as he sat up, smashing his head against the table, and then a string of foul curses as he staggered into the kitchen and picked up the phone.
    “It’s for you!”
    I got up, wrapped the blanket about myself like a cape, and went to get the phone.
    “Aha!” Kate’s voice said on the other end.
    “Aha what?”
    Raphael must’ve recovered from his unfortunate connection with the table, because he set about trying to steal my blanket.
    “Nothing. Nothing at all,” Miss Innocence said.
    “How did you get this number anyway?” I smacked Raphael’s hand away.
    “Jim gave it to me a long time ago. I tried your cell, the Order, and your house. This was the next logical number. I’m a trained detective, you know.”
    “You couldn’t detect your way out of a shoe if someone lit the way with neon signs.”
    Raphael finally won the battle for the blanket and molded his body against mine, nipping gently at my neck. “Hold on a minute.”
    I covered the phone and turned to him. “About dealing with my hang-ups—this is one of them. I’m on the phone. Please let me be.”
    He sighed and went about the kitchen getting eggs out.
    “I’m here,” I said, pulling my blanket back up.
    “How did it go with Cerberus?”
    I briefly sketched it for her. “Even if destroyed, he continues to remanifest as soon as the magic is up. He’s bound to that house. I’ll be talking to the People today about the vampire. I doubt they’ll tell me anything.”
    “How important is this?”
    I explained about Aunt B.
    “I’m so sorry.”
    “Me, too.”
    “Ghastek owes me a favor,” Kate said. “I have it on paper, signed in the presence of witnesses. Call him on it.”
    “Thanks.”
    “It’s the least I can do. Say, how did you even get into this mess?”
    “Some man called Teddy Jo called it in.”
    Kate hesitated. “Be careful with Teddy Jo,” she said softly.
    “Why?”
    “I don’t have anything solid, but there is something that bothers me about Teddy. Just watch him carefully if he ever shows up.”
    I hung up. After Nataraja, the head of the People in Atlanta, Ghastek was the most talented of the Masters of the Dead. And also the most dangerous.
    “Are you off the phone?” Raphael inquired mildly.
    “Yes.”
    A hint of danger