Darkest Night - Smoke And Ashes Part 12

Oh, yeah, interrupt a vampire when he's about to chow down. Not the best way to live a long and happy life. Henry's eyes were dark, and he had the whole Prince of Darkness thing on full blast.

Too bad.

Their history helped him hold Henry's attention but only just. "Ryne Cyratane is in the building and he doesn't look happy." In fact, for a guy who supposedly fed off s.e.xual energy-and there was enough floating around that Tony strategically draped a fold of blanket over his boxer-briefs as he sat up-the Demonlord looked decidedly unhappy. Possessive even. Possessive and p.i.s.sed.

Tony recognized the expression even when he could see the wall of his apartment through it. "Henry! I'm guessing he doesn't like to share with other powers! He's already sending demons after Leah; it won't help her if he starts sending them after you, too."

Henry's lips drew back off his teeth.

Great. Vampire, prince; they both saw the whole thing as a challenge.

"Leah! Turn it off!"

Yeah. Like that was going to happen. Her head was back, her skin practically glowed, and even he was starting to find her tempting.

Henry was after blood. Leah was after s.e.x. Together, they'd make a bad situation worse. As far as Tony could see, there was only one thing to do. He picked up a pillow and threw it as hard as he could at the vampire's head.

The next instant, he was flat on his back, Henry's hands around his wrists, Henry's body driving his down into the thin mattress.

Tony's hips bucked up as Henry's teeth closed through the skin of his throat and concerns about demonic interference abandoned ship... along with pretty much anything else resembling cognitive thought. "Oh, please, there's no need to be embarra.s.sed, it's not like I've never seen e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.e before."

"Make her shut up," Tony muttered as Henry handed him a gla.s.s of juice.

"How?"

"I don't know, vamp her or something."

"I don't think we want to go there again."

Tony wasn't sure he could go there again. At least not for a couple of days. Provided those days included thirty-six hours of sleep and a lot of liquid. He handed the empty gla.s.s back to Henry, wrapped the sheet and the shredded remains of his dignity around him, and stomped off to the bathroom to clean up.

The shower helped. Although he had to brace himself against the tile to keep the water from pounding him down onto his knees.

After, wrapped in his one thinning bath towel, he wiped the mirror clean and studied the mark on his neck. It was... noticeable. In spite of the coagulant in Henry's saliva, the actual bite within the impressive bruising still seeped blood. Fortunately, in the almost empty medicine cabinet, he had one sterile pad remaining from the exploding beer bottle incident. No gauze, but there was a rolled- up tensor bandage with very little tense left that should do, provided he kept it fairly loose.

Tomorrow...

c.r.a.p.

He didn't think he even owned a turtleneck.

"Tony?"

Henry outside the bathroom door. Worrying.

"I'm okay."

It seemed a little pointless to balk about being seen in a towel, all things considered, so Tony squared his shoulders, stepped out into the hall and across it to his closet. He'd have gone back into the bathroom to dress except Henry needed a few moments in there. Leah was out of sight, so she had to be in the kitchen end of the room where the angle was too tight to see or be seen from the hall. He pulled on jeans-Henry had destroyed his last clean pair of underwear-a T-shirt and a sweatshirt over that, then socks and shoes. Dressed, he walked into the living room and quickly stripped the bed, throwing the bedding onto a pile of dirty laundry in the corner and folding the mattress up into the sofa. It was a little stiff; he didn't close it often. The two cushions went back on as he shoved debris that had been under it out of the way with the side of his foot.

There.

That ought to help bring things back to what pa.s.sed for normal.

He turned to find Leah standing behind him. "Could you not f.u.c.king do that!"

"Sorry." She offered him a large gla.s.s of what looked like chocolate milk. "It's an instant breakfast. I dropped a couple of packages from the craft services table into my purse."

"That's not..."

"Please, it's a CBC show. Think of it as your tax dollars at work."

It didn't seem worth it to argue. Tony sat at one end of the sofa and took a cautious swallow. "It's a little slimy." "How old was your milk?"

"Oh, ha." Another swallow. He frowned as she pulled a chair out from the table and dropped onto it. "Are you.. um... Tall, dark, and naked is gone, did you... um..."

"Get off?" She crossed her legs and smiled at him. "Don't worry. I took care of it. Although, if truth be told, you guys almost took care of it for me. Woof!"

His blood pressure was too low to raise a decent blush. "Could you not talk about it?"

"At all?"

"Ever."

"You know, you're weirdly prudish for someone with a Nightwalker as a lover."

"It's not... it's having an audience." A memory of a night in an alley off Charles Street back in Toronto surfaced. "No, it's having you as an audience."

"Hey. You will never find a more appreciative audience than me. Although the audiences for this live s.e.x show I was in back in London in..." Dark brows drew in, and the yellow toe of the sneaker in the air drew circles. "... 1882 were great."

"At the Midnight Lily?"

Tony was childishly pleased to see her jump as Henry appeared behind her.

"The what?"

"The Midnight Lily-was that the name of the club?"

"Yes..."

Henry nodded thoughtfully and walked past her to sit on the other end of the couch. "I thought you looked familiar."

Rolling his eyes, Tony reached for the remote. "I'll just watch a little TV while you two trade flashbacks."

Then the remote was gone. "I don't think so." The fingers of Henry's other hand gently touched the rough bandage on his neck.

"You took a chance."

Shaking his head hurt. "Not much of one. You never really damage what you consider to be yours." He was impressed by how nonchalant he sounded about the whole thing.

"A good thing you stopped us, then." Fingertips lingered a moment longer then withdrew. "A good thing you saw the danger."

"Yeah, well, wizard. We see what's there."

"True." Henry sat back against the sofa cushions. "And occasionally what isn't there."

It might have been wiser to just let that go but, given what he'd already survived tonight, Tony was feeling a little reckless.

He turned and faced Henry, eyes narrowed. "Are you telling me you're not doing CB?"

"And are you deciding who I can and cannot feed from?"

"You have the whole d.a.m.ned lower mainland. CB, the studio, that's mine!" "Your employer might argue that."

"Are you two always such drama queens," Leah demanded, "or is this special for me? And," she continued before either of them could respond, "while it's painfully obvious you two are dealing with the kind of personal s.h.i.t that would give Dr. Phil reason to retire, this isn't the time. Let's concentrate on the important thing here. Me. You," she pointed at Henry, "are here for backup.

Tony seems to think you'll be useful-the brawn to our brains and beauty combination although there was some mention that you might have access to information we can use. I doubt you're going to know anything about demons I don't, but, hey, better safe than sorry. Also, given what you are, and given how stupidly territorial vampires can be, I'd rather have you with us than against us.

You..." Her finger moved to Tony. "... need to conserve your strength. Between that spell you threw earlier and your ex's feeding habits, you haven't got energy to spare for arguing." She paused just long enough to ensure she had their full attention. "Now then, who has a plan?"

"I think," Tony said slowly, "we should bring Jack Elson in on this."

One red-gold brow lifted as Henry drawled, "Now, do I say anything about you and Constable Elson?"

"There is no me and Constable Elson; the man is straight!"

"You're doing it again," Leah snapped.

"Fine." The look Henry shot her would have caused strong men to run. Leah rolled her eyes. "Why Elson?"

Tony finished swallowing the last mouthful of liquid breakfast. "I have an arm in my trunk."

"This is a human arm."

"And he's what? Only four hundred and sixty-ish?" Leah shot an anime-sized look of wonderment in Tony's direction. "What amazing deductive powers!" And to Henry. "I have to know; how did you work it out?"

"It smells like burned pork," Henry told her dryly, not rising to the bait. "Not to mention, it's wearing the remains of a watch. From what you said about Tony dusting a demon, I had a.s.sumed it was a demonic arm."

"We wouldn't need Jack for that." Tony yawned and nodded toward the arm. "This got bitten off a construction worker. Jack took me to see the body this afternoon."

"Why?"

"Because he doesn't believe in giant racc.o.o.ns and he wanted some answers."

"I'm moderately disturbed by how much sense that makes," Henry muttered. "And you think we should give this arm to him?"

"Sure. He can put it with the rest of the body."

"And you don't think that would cause more questions?"

"Well, we'd... I'd... answer his questions. Mostly. He knows what's going on. I mean, he knows there's stuff going on. I told him about the Demonic Convergence." Tony yawned again. "He's still at least one version of the script behind, but it won't take long to bring him up to speed."

"I wasn't actually thinking of questions from Constable Elson," Henry pointed out. "I was thinking of the coroner and the victim's relatives. It might be best if they continue to believe that the arm was bitten off by a wild animal and eaten. Another urban myth of man-eating cougars in the city would be preferable to an investigation. Modern forensics can be remarkably thorough."

"Let me guess, you've been watching CSI." This time, Tony yawned so widely his jaw cracked. "Besides, we'll need Jack to work backup in the daylight."

"Demons don't..." Henry began and stopped.

"The last one did. Which leaves us kind of screwed if you're all we have."

"Thank you."

c.r.a.p. "Sorry. That was..."

"Tactless," Leah offered. "But true."

Henry nodded, graciously acknowledging the point. "And you think Jack Elson can stop a demon?"

"He has a gun."

"Will a gun have any effect on these creatures?"

Forgetting the wound in his throat, Tony shrugged and ground out, "I have no idea," through gritted teeth.

"Then perhaps we'd best not involve Constable Elson until we know more. Why don't you start by telling me exactly what happened this afternoon."

"I've got it." Leah lifted a hand to cut off Tony's protest, but he hadn't actually planned on one. Exhausted, he sagged back against the sofa cushions half listening to the immortal stuntwoman tell Henry about the demon attack but mostly thinking how immortal stuntwoman sounded like a cool idea for a show and wondering if he should pitch it to CB.

h.e.l.l, at some point someone had to have thought that vampire detective was a good idea.

"Tony?"

"I'm awake."

"Of course you are."

Leah's eyes were so dark a brown he could barely make out where the irises ended and the pupils began. "What?"

"Henry's going to get rid of the arm."

Tony shot Henry, still standing by the arm, a thumb's up. "How?"

"Leave that to me," Henry said quietly, "Leah knows a better way of returning the demons to h.e.l.ls, one that won't nearly kill you.

She'll teach it to you. But not tonight," he added. "Tonight you need to regain the energy you spent." And the blood you lost. Tony felt his heart beat just a little faster. Henry's eyes darkened slightly, aware of Tony's response.

"You're doing it again," Leah sighed.

"You are not totally without fault here," Henry told her, masking the Hunger. "Your presence is provocative."