“That’s right,” he said, giving me a look like I was nuts.
Frowning, I turned to Dante, at a loss. “Do you?—”
He shook his head. “Nope, but I’ll be back. I need to talk to Sophia.”
Dante and I usually did the informal assessments when we were there, otherwise Sophia took all the necessary information. I knew immediately that this was someone I didn’t want for a client and he probably should never have made it through the screening process.
“So, when do I start, and not to be too picky, but what’s your best offer?” Arthric asked.
More confused than ever, I cleared my throat. “I think you have the wrong impression. We’re not hiring. You must have us mixed up with some other business.”
“No, I’m at the right place. Once you actually look at my resume, you’ll realize that you can’t do without me. Your boss will understand when he gets back.” He arched his eyebrows, tilted his head, and I had a sudden flashback to several really bad dates.
Oh my gods. Was he for real? I knew guys like this existed but luckily, had run into few of them. But he was seriously waiting for my response.
“That was a mistake, my friend,” I said, feeling my voice veer into the ‘edgy’ range. “Let me clarify. I’m not hiring. And I make the final decisions. Take your resume and go find someone else to bother.” I didn’t care if he was pissed or not.
Arthric leaned forward, his big brown eyes growing wide. “Are you sure?”
Right then, I knew he was trying to glamour me. Whatever he was, the glamour was there, though so weak I couldn’t imagine it working on many people—Supe or not.
“Knock it off. For one thing, I’m half-demon and you can’t charm me. For another, if you want a job somewhere that doesn’t include a jail cell, you might want to ease up on the assholery. All that, together, nets you a one-way ticket out of the office and a big fat, don’t come again.” I stood, holding his gaze.
He scrambled to his feet.
At that moment, Dante returned. He took one look at me and jumped between Arthric and me. “Kyann—calm down.”
Puzzled, I looked at him. “I’m calm enough. At least I would be if this little dipshit got out of here.”
Arthric took that moment to turn and run.
“Don’t do anything you’d regret,” Dante said, reaching out, taking my shoulders. He was obviously trying stop me from moving.
“What are you going on about?” I asked.
“So, you’re not going to chase him?” Dante asked.
“No, why would I? He’s just some pretentious little punk who thought he could bully his way into a job here. Probably considers himself the next Amazing Kreskin.” I shrugged.
“First, that’s a show I haven’t thought about in years. Second, your eyes were glowing red when I walked in the room and you looked ready to pounce on him. I’ve only seen your eyes do that once before—in the park.” Dante shifted uncomfortably.
The park. I remember all too well. That was the night Dante had saved me…and given me a chance at a new start. I’d never forget, and I would always owe Dante my very life.
“I feel fine. I was fed up, but not about to devour him.” I paused, then a lightbulb lit up. “Oh! I’ll bet you it’s from my work with Devon. My inner demon…” I paused. “I can’t even refer to that side of myself like that now. When I integrated my demon, I think I just accepted all of her and now I don’t disassociate anymore when that side comes out. So, I guess my eyes glow when that side comes out. I was really been irritated, but I guarantee, I wasn’t going to kill him.”
Dante nodded. “Well, that’s good. Seriously, this whole integration thing is good, Kyann. This will help you in the long run.” He paused, then said, “It’s been a long time since we’ve had a chance to have dinner by ourselves. You want to catch a meal this week?”
I nodded. “I’d like that and yes, it has been awhile. How about Thursday?”
“It’s a date,” Dante said. “Well, you know…”
“Yeah, I know,” I said, grinning. “Okay, I’m going to tell Sophia that our door is off-limits to Mister Arthric, and then we’ll get ready for this afternoon’s appointment with Wendy.”
As I headed out to the front desk, I once again thanked the gods for giving me friends like Dante and Penn.
CHAPTER FOUR
We headed toward Wendy’s house. She lived in north Seattle, in a relatively ritzy neighborhood, in a gated community. In fact, the security guard at the entrance gave us a long once-over, then put in a call to Wendy, then he straightened his shoulders and opened the gate, motioning for us to drive through. He handed us a printed map, with her house marked so we couldn’t miss it.
