Part 19 (2/2)

Parrish's finger touched my lips. ”I'm desperately in love with you, Garnet. Surely you must realize that by now.”

I hadn't.

Parrish apparently didn't notice my stunned expression, or maybe he chose to ignore it. ”I could have gone anywhere to escape my debt. A larger, more metropolitan center would have better served my need to disappear. I came here because you were here. Quite simply, I wanted to be with you.”

Oh, what c.r.a.ppy timing.

It also ruined a theory I'd had percolating in the back of my head. Since I didn't want to deal with Parrish's unrequited love at the moment, I blurted, ”So, ifyou didn't tell the Vatican to look for Sebastian here, who did?”

To his credit, Parrish rolled with the abrupt subject change pretty well under the circ.u.mstances. ”What the b.l.o.o.d.y Christ are you talking about? Can't we talk about us?”

Wow. Daniel Parrish wanted to talk relations.h.i.+p. I'd really hurt him. He pulled away and crossed his arms in front of his bare chest.

”I'm sorry, okay?” I said. ”You have to admit that our previous relations.h.i.+p was, well, fraught.”

I couldn't think of a better word that took into account all the ghoul girlfriends and nights spent alone wondering whose blood-or other things-he was sucking. Being jealous, then feeling stupid for even imagining I could tame a wild thing like Parrish, followed by realizing I probably wouldn't particularly like him domesticated, anyway.

”Garnet,” Parrish said my name as if it were a command for me to pay attention. ”We just had s.e.x.

Wasn't that 'fraught'?”

He had me there. How could I explain all the mixed-up emotions that had inspired my libido? ”Um, yes?”

He pulled his s.h.i.+rt over his head in a fluid motion. Then he rubbed his bare arms as though wis.h.i.+ng he had more clothes to put on. He shook out his hair, which s.h.i.+mmered in the low light like red gold. He stared at me for a moment, not saying a word. His lips compressed into a thin, angry line. ”Forget it.”

Forget he said he loved me? I pulled the afghan tighter around my bare legs. ”How can I? Parrish, it's not that I don't-” Oops, dangerous ground. There was no denying that my feelings for Parrish were strong. Did I love him? I was certain I had once. I probably still did.

Before I could finish untangling my thoughts, he put up a hand to stop me. ”I get it, Garnet.”

”You do?”

”Sure,” he said. ”Don't worry about it.” I frowned at him. I'd missed something. ”What are you talking about, Parrish?”

Parrish shrugged. ”I'm not the kind of guy who inspires happily ever after. You don't even trust me to bite you. You never did.”

Ah. I wondered how long it would take before this old argument surfaced. Well, given the nature of our coitus interrupts, I'm surprised it hadn't sooner. ”It's not about trust. If I wanted to give blood, I'd donate to the Red Cross.”

His eyes flicked over the bruise on my shoulder. ”Yet Sebastian convinces you somehow.”

”He took liberties with us,” I snapped. ”Get over it.”

The mixture of horror and surprise on Parrish's face made me mentally replay what I'd just said. I supposed the ”us” made me sound a little insane, but I couldn't quite fathom why he still gave me the you're-scaring-me glare.

”What?” I asked.

Parrish continued to gape. Freak the mundane was one thing; I never expected to get the what-the-h.e.l.l- are-you rapid blinking from a vampire. Then I remembered. Parrish had never met Lilith.

”Oh,” I started. ”When I said 'us,' uh, I meant 'me.' ”

His thin lips jerked up in a kind of smirking smile, which was much better than the look of abject fear. ”I see. So then the speaking with two voices at once was just some kind of Freudian slip?”

Two voices? Had She spoken through me? ”Creepy.”

”I'd say.”

Here was the part where I should have started volunteering the whole story of how I'd walked in on the Vatican's cleanup crew that night and drew Lilith down from Heaven, or up from h.e.l.l, depending on your perspective. Instead, I stared at him blankly, not knowing even where to begin.

Parrish hadn't balked when I'd told him I needed help with some heavy lifting that turned out to be several bodies. He'd even suggested I aerate the bodies with a pitchfork to help the decomposition ga.s.ses escape. He could have told me to get lost, especially considering that I'd broken up with him two days before, but he'd been a calm in the storm-a homicide expert to lean on.

Clearly, he must have suspected I'd had some kind of magical help, but he'd let me keep my secrets. He never asked any questions, not even when he saw the vestments... or the damage I'd done.

Later, I found out through a tiny mention in the metro section of Minneapolis's Star Tribune that the coven's house had been destroyed by fire. I always suspected that Parrish had something to do with it. I hadn't been able bury my friends in secret. I'd wanted their families to have bodies to claim. I'd insisted we leave them exactly where they lay that night. Parrish made a strong argument about forensic evidence and how Wiccans did not need the sensational press blathering on about what would look like some kind of occult murder scene, but I'd started sobbing so hysterically that he backed down.

Now Parrish sat down on the couch and waited patiently for me to say more, his pale blue eyes scanningmy face. A tiny smudge of blood clung to his lower lip. I used my thumb to wipe it off. ”That night,” I said. ”Didn't you ever wonder how I'd done it? Killed all those agents, I mean.”

He rubbed the back of his neck with his hand. ”Someone tore their throats out.”

”You thoughtI did that?”

”Youdid do it, Garnet.”

”My body did,” I corrected. ”Lilith did the killing. I... channeled Lilith.”

Parrish nodded, like he wasn't completely surprised by this revelation. He tucked a stray curl of auburn hair behind his ear. I recognized it as his contemplative gesture, especially when he started rolling the tip of the strand between his thumb and finger. ”I see,” he said. ”And She's taken up residence, has she? As a payment for services rendered?”

I hadn't thought about it like that, but I supposed it was true. I'd a.s.sumed Lilith had become grafted to me by accident, since I'd built no protective circle, hadn't grounded, called wards, or any of the usual safeguards required for that kind of powerful spell work.

”And now the priests are back,” Parrish said with a nod at the arrow on the wall. ”Do they know about your G.o.ddess-in-residence?”

”I think so. At least, they do now. They had a sensitive with them.”

”To fight Sebastian,” he surmised. ”But they found you, instead.”

”Yeah, and I still don't get how they knew to look for Sebastian here. I mean, the first agent I ran into might have followed Izzy and me back here, but how would they know he was coming over tonight or that the grimoire might be here?”

No one else besides Parrish knew about the missing grimoire, and he swore he didn't narc. Sebastian would hardly give up his own secrets. Who did that leave? Matyas.

When Parrish didn't respond, I asked, ”Have you heard of a dhampyr?”

”Dhampyr.” Parrish rolled the word around in his mouth, as though trying it out for the first time.

”Dam-fear,” he said again, slowly, exaggerating the p.r.o.nunciation. ”A dhampyr is the s.e.xual offspring between a human and a vampire. Often said to have magical abilities and an extended life span.

Sometimes turns Queen's evidence on his vampiric parent and becomes a hunter,” he said. ”A complete myth. No such creature exists.”

”I met one.”

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