Page 41 of Total Eclipse of the Moon
Chapter Thirteen
"Bad news,"Antonio announced as he strolled in moments after Madeline shut the shower off from her quick rinse.
"Your people didn’t catch Jillian?" Shane asked.
"Oh, we got her. I’m not talking about her." He flipped through a few screens on his phone and glanced up. "You know that necromancer you told me about? The one your handler mentioned? Looks like someone's going to have to deal with it. The thing took over a building. Are your brothers going to do it or does the Alliance take care of it?"
"The Alliance is you and me right now." Shane covered his face and nodded. "Figures it can’t wait. Where, exactly?"
"Ryazan, just outside Moscow. If we decide to go and leave now, we won’t make it before dawn. Your ass will be on its own. I'm not daywalking for this."
Shane frowned. "I need you on this one. Maybe it can wait until nightfall?"
"Fucking can't. Have those lazy brothers of yours go deal with it."
"They're busy. What's shoved a burr up your butt?"
"Piss off." Antonio stretched his neck from side to side. "Slept wrong and now I have a kink on one side."
"Is it someone in Madrid that’s making you behave like this?" Who could get him this riled up?
No reply.
Antonio stared as if re-reading the same message on his phone over and over, clearly rattled from a simple phone message. Shane had yet to see anyone who flustered Antonio. Sure, the vampire occasionally got frustrated by inefficiency or stupidity.
"What’d you find out from Jillian?"
"Nothing. She killed herself with some sort of poison before we could ask her anything. So cliché. Dying by magic or blowing oneself up has honor. Poisoning yourself is so last century."
"That sounds like a bigger problem for us than the necromancer." He snapped his fingers to get Antonio's attention away from his cell phone. "Guess we still can't trust anyone else in the Alliance."
"You sure you can trust me?" Antonio lit a cigar with a slight tremble to his hand, inhaled, and blew out smoke.
As Shane stalked past him on his way to the bedroom to grab a shirt, he squeezed Antonio’s shoulder. "Yes."
When he returned, Antonio had cleaned up the entire kitchen. The vampire had a borderline obsessive-compulsive neat streak, which was both hilarious and annoying.
"I didn’t have coffee yet," Shane said. "I would’ve cleaned up." He waved around the kitchen.
"No, you wouldn’t. Did you and she…" He did a slow pelvic rotation and leered. Seems the old Antonio was back.
He shook his head.
"Wish you had. Might make you realize she’s not as great as you built up in your head and move on." Antonio picked up his abandoned cigar to inhale.
She is all that and much more.Watching her come had been the sexiest thing he’d ever seen. Despite being so guarded, she gave into extreme feelings with full abandon. Her mouth had fallen open, nipples puckered, and legs parted to shift up and down and search out every bit of pleasure. He liked that she had no trouble taking what she wanted.
Baku advised,"Keep things casual. No expectations."
Easy for a demon to say. Things were never casual with Shane. He didn’t operate that way. Shane was an all-in person. It’s why he stayed out of relationships and avoided women in general most of the time. He scratched an itch for release occasionally, but his partner always had the same motivations and expectations, which didn’t extend beyond physical release.
He wondered why the demon remained silent for this long. He’d expected a running dialogue the entire time he’d touched Madeline. They might be separate beings locked together, but he’d come to know the demon a bit. It wasn’t the heartless, self-interested monster everyone thought demons to be.
"I didn't say anything because I was puking my guts out. It was disgusting."
"You're so weird. But glad to have the privacy."
"Tough conversation?" Antonio asked.
