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Chapter Twenty-Six

The dry hush of sliding coals wokeof Brimstone I didn’t sit up since I arm and coainst the gently curving bench surrounding the central fire in Al’s kitchen I’d fallen asleep here before, but this felt different

A dilowed on a new honey-colored slate table set before the smaller hearth Al sat before it, his back to ht it was Al It didn’t look like him, but it didn’t look like Pierce, either

Al had been in hts real He’d seenof hisand he’shuure was taller than Al by quite a bit but narrower, lacking the wide shoulders that I was familiar with Short red hair pretty htweight black shirt and trousers Muscles ell defined, with a long strength rather than heavy bulk A shiny ebony hardness just above his ears ht have been horns, and by God, I think he had that same prehensile tail I’d seen before when he’d threatened Treble

"Al?" I croaked, putting a hand to ravelly chantlike words cut off, and he spun, a ley-line doodad clattering until it fell off the table and he caught it with a long-fingered, double-jointed hand A wash of black ever-after coated hi away to reveal the h he still wore that pair of casual jaoat-slitted eyes Theinto he slalyphs he had scribed on the new slate table

"You’re awake!" he said, and I cowered when his voice seeasped, hands overanother curse and a neash of ever-after falling fro? "I don’t feel so good," I said as I sat up "What are you doing in here?"

"Trying to re red from embarrassment, not a curse or a char, I looked over the candlelit roo out all day and gone to bed cold It had to have been fro that construct I hadn’t taken the smut for it, and I wondered who had Al? "You said I reset your DNA Can’t you justplug and play?" I asked

"Plug and play," Al drawled, his wide back to me as he put the ley-line stuff in a tall cupboard and locked the door with a key, not a spell that could be tampered with "Such a ords you have Yes, enes a person has are expressed I have to decide which ones to turn on"

Like the one with curly red hair "Oh," I said si where I sat Jeez, I was tired, and I stretchedache I was still wearing the short-sleeved shirt and jeans Newt had put e of the desert, but at least Al had takenabout that curly red fur he had been covered with And the tail "I kinda like you the way you are right now," I said, feelingmy feet to the floor and touched my toes to the cold floor "Where’s Pierce?"

"I don’t know"

My next words vanished in surprise He didn’t know? The way he said it was more like he didn’t care It wasn’t like Al to let profit slip fro shoulders, IIt gives me the creeps"

"Yes, well, it was easier for me to work quietly here than to move you to my room" He stood, a handful of ley-line charms in his thick hands "Now that you’re awake, you’ll bein there"

My ar in there? "Whoa, whoa, whoa," I said, waking up fast "Okay, I let you in , but that doesn’t translate into , and suddenly he was there, holding rip and falling back into the soft warmth of the blanket My heart pounded, and I felt weak, surprisingmy eyes start to warirlfriend, wife, or anything Anything!" I shouted, shaking as I drewyour rooht here!"

"Rachel, Rachel, Rachel," he said, very still and un conclusion You’re like a frog, you know" Looking nothing like himself, Al retreated to the s me eirl

"Wrong conclusion," I said bitterly "What’s not to understand? Move into your rooh to me"

Al spun his chair at the table to facedisheveled and ruht "You can’t continue to sleep in the kitchen," he said, looking discoain," he said as I took a breath, "I’ll sleep in the library You get the bedrooaze over the shadoorkrooet out" His goat-slitted eyesas I remembered the tapestry that seemed to move on its own and had bled and cried Or the bottle of soul that had al to fall over and break

"Or in," he added with a little shoulder lift, his eyes on the ceiling, and I heldto the dark spot on his pantry floor that seemed to pull at me every time I went down there alone-and only alone "You don’t have enough sht, attracting things"

"Likes in the dark attracted to power, and I’ about my associates It didn’t matter before, but" Al winced "I knew you were special, Rachel And don’t take this assoft or sentimental-"

"You didn’t think I could do it" My heart was pounding, and I felt sick I was a de back Stuff had been turned on in my head, and it couldn’t be turned off

Head lowered, Al looked at his bare hands, folded in his lap "I knew you could, otherwise I wouldn’t have let you get into that position But now everyone else knows it, too I wasn’t expecting how vulnerable you would be, and word gets around It is too easy for" He hesitated "You’re so da off once more "How am I supposed to keep them off you now that they know?"

My stoo blank Other deht want to take by stealth what they couldn’t buy now that I was one of them and not just a maybe And Al didn’t know if he could prevent it?

"Never uards that you can’t get here"

"Al?" I questioned, and he stood, showing me his back as he faced the fire

"I’ll stay in the library," he said, and I shifted uncomfortably "I would have moved you toup in a strange place" He turned, his eyebrows raised in fa atif it made me look scared I was Vulnerable He’d called er, and therefore somehow beco how it had hurt-my soul stretched over the entire collective until he lifted hts Thank you"

He was back at the table before the fireplace, wiping out both the circle and the laundry list in Latin beside it with a red cloth "You’re welcouarded, and hts More than usual"

"Yes" Scrubbing, still scrubbing

"I couldn’t see yours"

S allinted "That’s the nature of it, yes"

Uneasy, I counted the dirty dishes scattered around,it look like a frat boy’s dorm It appeared as if he’d been here for days Maybe he’d been hungry I kneas "What did you see?" I asked, nervous

The rag he’d used to clean the table went into the fire behind him "I sahat you are," he said, "and I was ashamed I sahat you expect from a person, and I’d call you a bitch except you demand it from yourself as well I sa you seeI didn’t already know, but it made me wonder at what I lack, what isn’t there"

"Al," I interrupted, re that forced kiss and how it had felt

But Al was shaking his head, looking ill "I alancing ataway "You are one messed-up bitch"

"Gee, thanks," Ito try to change our relationship now that I was stuck here

Al’s expression shifted, becary with hihable," he said, his hand for a fist

"You still scare the hell out ofit coo ho to warm them "Sorry"

Al shook out a silver scarf that hadn’t been there a htly over the new slate as if erasing any electronic charge left behind "I don’t need your pity"

No, you need a good psychiatrist My eyes went to his feet as they scuffed Slippers? "Where’s Ku’Sox?" I asked, wishing I could wake up again and start over Having swu that he could be casual withto do next

His shoulders ain until even the last hints of what he’d written were gone "Don’t worry about Ku’Sox You proved yourself" Beco his eyes glow "You have a place here"

Perhaps, but I didn’t want it I had things to do I had to ask Trent what I’d done wrong with that curse Then I had to find Ku’Sox to give it to hi summoned Ho to appreciate the change of conversation as hts getting brighter "Noon?"

Great, I’d been out for hours Ivy and Jenks were probably worried sick Maybe come sundown they could suize until the sun caa hand to my middle when I wasn’t sure I could stand up yet Damn, I was dizzy "I passed out," I said needlessly, and Al sat back down in his chair to stare at me, one hand on the clean table, the other in his lap

"Rachel, you h to land a jet in Yes, you passed out"

I lickedthe s "I didn’t take the sive a lot to knohy"

Newt had taken it? Was that good or bad? "I think it was because she wanted to be a part of it," I said, re in his chair, appearing nervous "I doubt that she wanted to be part of that She doesn’t likeconstructs anymore She doesn’t trust anyone to watch her while she recovers That, and she doesn’t want anyone in her head" Al touched his chin, a nervous tic I’d never seen before "How do you feel?"

How do I feel? I feel like crap Hand tounder the blanket instead with e fire Had that nervous tic been real when he’d askedto seduceWhat turned me on, what turned me off What lowered h to ry," I finally said "I can’t believe I was out for half a day"

"Half a day?" Al drawled "Try the better part of three"

"What!" This ti until Al stood and steadied ht on my elbow "Three days? I couldn’t have been unconscious for three days!" Crap on toast, I’d !

"Slow," he said as I sat back down to get his hand off ht be dizzy for a while That’s why I didn’t leave Can you tap a line yet?"

Yet? Head betweenI carefully reached for a line, just enough to know I could, then pulled back I was starting to see the sense in this Feht up the construct, and a male lifted it from his friend’s psyche and protected her until she recovered-and I say friend because no as I Al’s lover But three days? Jenks and Ivy would be sick orry "Neas here?" I was able to sense theAl that she always left the demon with

I heard the creak of his chair as he sat back down "After you didn’t wake up the first day, yes, I asked her a few questions Can you tap a line?"

I looked up at the worry in his voice, feeling so me"

"I had to force her to leave," he said, eyes everywhere but on mine "She said I couldn’t care for you Bitch I made sure you ate Ran a brush-and-wash curse on you when you crapped yourself Waited Kept everything out until your aura recovered"

My aura? "Al?" I said, really scared as I firmly tapped the line to find no headache, no pain I was okay "You’re kidding, right?"

His wandering eyes settled on me "You’d rather I let you sit in your crap for three days?"

"No I meantUh Thank you JustThank you" Holy fairy farts, I hadn’t know , Al pushed his chair back "Damn lazy of you"

I could tell he was relieved as he stacked the plates and cups, sending the me for three days? "Al Thank you I really , sneezing instead

"Bless you," I said, and he held up a hand in annoyance as he reached for his scrying rimaced "It’s for you"