The Trouble with Twelfth Grave (Charley Davidson #12)(14)

“Just pretend this is your hometown. Daeva don’t have a say.”

He narrowed his bronze eyes on me. “That’s low, sugar. Even for you.”

“See?” Gemma said. “That’s interesting. What’s a Daeva?”

“A slave demon from hell,” I said, hoping to scare her right off the bat.

“Oh.” She thought about that a moment, then said, “Okay. Well, I’ve learned something already.”

This was going to be a long morning.

We sat around Cookie’s desk, Uncle Bob next to my best friend and associate-slash-receptionist. He took her hand in his, and I felt a small rush of pleasure erupt out of her.

Garrett stood back, pretending to be annoyed that I’d asked him if the ho had called. He was worried about Reyes. As was I.

Osh sat in the farthest corner, tipping his chair back like a kid in high school.

Angel popped in and hung back with Osh, probably because Osh was the only person in the room besides me who could see him.

Even Artemis showed up. She sat at Angel’s feet, and he and Osh took turns rubbing her ears.

Gemma sat next to me. I’d commandeered Cookie’s chair and sat behind her desk so I could see everyone as I explained the situation.

I cleared my throat, but Garrett motioned to me, lifting the rope he had in his hands.

“Oh, right.” I looked at Osh. “Osh, we are going to have to tie you up and torture you. Sorry.”

“Really?” He stood and removed his top hat, a broad grin splitting his perfect face. With the enthusiasm of a virgin at a brothel, he slapped his hands together and rubbed them in anticipation. “Where do you want me?”

“That chair will be fine. Just scoot it to the middle of the room.”

Cookie’s office wasn’t huge, but it was big enough to tie Osh up and torture him.

Gemma’s eyes rounded in concern when Osh sat down and Garrett began the bondage process. Was it wrong that I had a hankering for gay porn at that moment?

I walked over to them to make sure Garrett’s knots were inescapable. But inescapable to a human and inescapable to a Daeva were two very different things. Osh could most likely get out of pretty much any sticky situation, but if it did nothing else, it would damned sure slow him down. Garrett’s handiwork made certain of that.

Osh grinned up at me. “You gonna do the deed, sugar? You gonna hurt me?”

“I might.”

He winked, and a microsecond later I realized I was flirting with my future son-in-law. I’d seen what would become Beep’s army. Who would become Beep’s army. Most of it, anyway. And Osh was most definitely spoken for in the future.

Angel sidled up to me. “I want to be tied up.”

I turned to him and put my hand on his forever-boyish face. “I’m fairly certain the ropes would slide through you, lindo.”

“We should check it out, just in case,” he said.

But I barely heard him. The moment I laid my hand on his face, I felt a warmth at the back of my neck. A heat slide down my spine.

I spun around, hoping, but saw nothing. When I turned back to Osh, however, he was looking in the same direction the heat had come from.

“What?” I turned again. “What did you see?”

All traces of humor were gone. Everyone in the room followed Osh’s line of sight to no avail. But Osh tilted his head, completely bound now, and leveled a serious stare on me.

“Why am I tied up?”

“Because we have to take certain precautions.”

Kneeling next to him, I placed a hand on his bound arm, his muscles straining against the restraints. Garrett did a helluva job.

“Osh, I need you calm when I tell you what’s happened.”

He glanced behind me, then back again. “You think I don’t already know?”

I looked again but saw nothing. “What? Did you see him?”

He bowed his head. “How did it happen?”

“Osh, what did you see?”

When he refocused on me, his face had paled. “Him. For a split second. Angry. Wild. Volatile.” His expression turned incredulous. “You released him.”

“What? No.” I shook my head. “I don’t know.” I stood and walked to the door of my office for some other place to look. Anywhere other than his accusing stare. “It was an accident.”

When I turned back to him, his head was bowed again, his jaw tight behind his dark hair.

“Osh, what are you thinking?”

“Do you have any idea how powerful he is? What he could do with the slightest thought?”

“What do you mean, I released him? Released him from where?”

“He’s a god, sugar. He was always in there, lurking. Waiting for his chance to rise again.”

“Osh, he’s been a god for … well forever. But he’s known he’s a god for weeks now. And I … I sent him into the god glass.”

He sucked in a sharp breath of air, astonished.

“Not for that reason. Not for … look, he was just supposed to go in and check the place out. There were innocent people trapped inside. I wanted to go, but he insisted I send him. I was supposed to wait sixty seconds and call him back out. I didn’t even wait that long. I called his name not fifteen seconds later, but nothing happened.”