“Anything’s possible,” Mara said. She patted her small evening bag. “Guess what I found next to Jeremiah’s bed. A drug from Los Angeles that will allow us to see the sunrise together. I think I’ll persuade Jeremiah to share it with me tonight after the wedding. It will be so romantic.”
I couldn’t speak. What had she been doing in Jerry’s bedroom? And how would she even know about the drug unless Jerry had told her?
“Glory?” Lily steered me away from her mother. “Don’t listen to her. She’ll say anything to get together with Dad again.”
“Yes, well. I get it.” Oh, did I get it. But maybe Jerry’s mother had told Mara about the drug. And maybe Mara had sneaked into the bedroom. And maybe I was making excuses for Jerry. He might be perfectly happy to have a romantic evening with another woman. My head swam, and I held on to Lily.
“Sit, Glory, you don’t look good.” Lily helped me into a chair.
“I’m, I’m fine. Too much champagne I guess.” I saw Mara make a beeline for Blade and thrust the bouquet under his nose. He threw his arm around her and leaned close to listen, then laughed. Oh, but I hated her. And him. Yes, I’d hurt him, but to zoom into her arms . . . What was he thinking? Hah. What was he thinking with?
“Let her have him. Hell Boy is still ours.” Alesa hiccupped. A drunk demon. Wasn’t that a scary thought?
“Time for the happy couple to leave on their honeymoon. You’ll find bags of confetti on the tables. Let’s send them off in a blizzard.”
Flo ran up and gave me a hug. “Take care of yourself, Glory. Don’t let that bitch worry you.”
“Which bitch? That one or the one inside me?” I glanced at Mara, then down where I’d shoved fabric into my bra again.
“Any of them. I’ll help you when we get back. We’ll figure things out. I love you.” Flo ran back to Richard, and we showered them with confetti in the shape of tiny bats. A cliché, but Flo couldn’t talk Aggie and me into cutting out thousands of tiny fangs.
I sighed and looked around. The party was still going strong, and everyone seemed to be having a good time. Everyone except me, that is. The band started to play a song I recognized, a romantic ballad I’d considered my song with Jerry. We’d had lots of those over the centuries, this was one of them. It was the slow kind, an excuse to make love on the dance floor, and we’d danced to it not long ago.
The lights dimmed, then I saw Mara leading Jerry to the dance floor. No. She was stealing my life. Every bit of it. My man. My sunrise. Even my damned dance.
She glanced back at me over her shoulder, her smile so superior and so triumphant, I felt my own hellfire rise inside me. People around me gasped, and I knew my eyes had gone red. Jerry’s horrified glare brought me down to earth, and I spun on my heel before I could let the fire fly.
I had to get out of there. My dress was losing the battle, and I finally ripped it off in the parking lot. Not smart. My purse was upstairs, along with the clothes I’d worn to Damian’s.
“Shit.” Rafe appeared out of the darkness, took off his coat and wrapped it around me. “What now, Glory?”
“I should have flamed her. Roasted her where she stood.” I sighed and leaned against my car.
“Would have been a fine ending to the wedding, but I already warned you about the consequences of that so I’m glad you restrained yourself.” He put his hands on my shoulders. “You need me to go grab some things from upstairs?” He tugged at the lapels of that jacket. “Or do you want a ride home?”
“Always taking care of me, aren’t you?” I pushed away from the car. “Thanks, Rafe. I mean it. But you’re off the clock now, and there’s an upstairs window open. I’ll take it from here.” I handed him his coat. I didn’t wait to see his reaction, just shifted into a bird and, with a flutter of wings, headed up to get my things. It felt good. No man rescuing me, just Glory taking care of herself. That sense of purpose and fine feeling lasted until I managed to sneak out of the house again and out to my car. I drove out of the lot in a shower of gravel.
The tears I’d been holding back hit me about a block away, and I had to pull over because I couldn’t see to drive. I leaned against the steering wheel and let it all out—the pain, the humiliation and the fury. Yes, I was mad at Jerry, but at myself too. What was up with this sleazy behavior? Sure, I’d been attracted to Rafe, but it wasn’t like me to jump into bed with a man unless Jerry and I were on a break. Alesa. This was all Alesa’s fault.
I hit my chest. “You damned bitch. You turned me into an amoral hell-bound cheater. I could have had an affair with Rafe if I’d just waited for Jerry to get back in town. Then I could have calmly sat down with him and told him I thought we needed to take a break. We’ve done it before.”
“Oh, yeah?” Alesa cackled. “The man who just waved his little skinny bitch in your face tonight would have calmly accepted that you wanted a break? So you could bang your shifter roommate?” Now Alesa was hitting high C with her laughter. “Honey, do you really know this man?”
Okay, maybe the demon had a point. But sneaking around and doing the wild thing behind Jerry’s back wasn’t my style. If I was ever going to have a relationship with Jerry again, I was going to have to make that clear to him. I was the Glory he’d known for years. The Glory he usually could trust. So what had changed? Oh, yeah. Demon on board.
“That’s right, honey. And you’ve had a hell of a ride, haven’t you? Don’t go telling me you’re sorry for it. Rafe is a fine man, a great lover and has that demon thing going on.” Alesa sighed. “If you don’t keep him on a string, you’re even dumber than you look, Blondie.”
I finally pulled myself together and put the car in gear. I had serious work to do, not the least of which was to get rid of this damned demon once and for all. But how?
I spent the next forty-eight hours holed up in my apartment consoling myself with EV snacks left over from the bachelorette party and the case of Nadia’s premium synthetic she’d left as a thank-you. I didn’t bother to get out of the granny gown I’d put on for comfort or even brush my hair. There was a Lifetime movie marathon on TV, and the three-hanky sob stories suited my mood.
When the knock came on the door, I tried to ignore it, but Flo’s voice shocked me off the couch. I flung open the door.
“What are you doing here? I thought you two were going to be gone for a couple of weeks. On your honeymoon.” I stepped back as Flo pushed inside, followed by Richard.
“I couldn’t leave you in this mess, mia amica. So I said to Ricardo that we must go to New Orleans, to a woman I know. She will tell us how to send this demon screaming back to hell, eh?” Flo grabbed me and hugged me, then wrinkled her nose. “You are a mess. Go, clean up, get dressed. You are about to have company.”
I held on to Flo’s arm. “But what about this woman? Did she have the answer? Are we going to be able to get rid of Alesa?”
“In your dreams, vampire. In mine too. You think I like watching you pine away here like a lost little girl? Gag me. And you let Rafe just stroll off to work without so much as a good-bye kiss. Stupid.” Alesa gave me a poke and some heat.
“I’m sure of it. We’re going to use the power of love.” Flo began pulling things out of a tote bag Richard handed her. “Go take a shower. Make yourself pretty. Everyone I could find who loves you will be here in fifteen minutes.” Flo nodded toward the bathroom.
Everyone who loved me. That was a pretty short list. Was CiCi going to help again? Had Flo called Rafe to come back from the club? I’d asked Rafe to look for a new place to live, so he wasn’t exactly feeling the love right now. But he still seemed to care for me. He’d even gone down to check my trunk for Simon’s latest surprise. He’d brought up three pairs of designer shoes that had made my eyes water. Oh, the EV king was diabolical. I’d built a shrine to those shoes on my dresser.
Another exorcism. I knew this was probably one more wasted effort, but who could resist Flo when she was in top form? And I was desperate anyway. I allowed myself the tiniest glimmer of hope as I rushed through making myself presentable, slapping on makeup and pulling on a sweater in Blade’s favorite blue. Talk about hope. Would he show up? Knowing Flo, she’d called him, asked him to help poor pitiful Glory. Would four hundred years of history be enough to persuade him to help rid me of this demon?
Poor pitiful Glory would be pathetically grateful if he did agree to help. It would mean I hadn’t killed every bit of the love we’d once had. The power of love. One of the movies I’d watched had proved it could do everything from cure disease to end wars. Maybe shoving out a demon wasn’t such a stretch.
“Sentimental crap. Get a grip, Glory. In hell, we know it’s lust that counts. Love is a useful tool that Heaven has sold for millennia. Saps fall for it, live and die for it. But it’s all a fairy tale.” Alesa laughed like a hyena. “Tell Flo to bring it on. This is going to be the biggest joke yet.”
I dragged myself out to the living room, which had been transformed while I’d been dressing. Red candles were everywhere, perfuming the air with the scent of roses. A tablecloth with a giant gold cupid covered the couch. Flo had draped a gold shawl with red hearts on it over her shoulders, and CiCi wore one too as she hugged me. Rafe arrived.
“Glad to see you out of that blanket you call a gown.” He sniffed. “Showered too. One more day and I was going to hose you down myself.”
I socked him on the arm. “I’m allowed a little wallowing, aren’t I? My heart is broken.”
Alesa gagged. “No more TV for you unless it’s a brutal action flick or porn.”
There was a knock on the door, and I saw Rafe stiffen. One whiff and I knew why. I hurried to throw open the door.
“Jerry.” I smiled and stepped aside to let him in. “I can’t believe—”