NINE
It was after ten, and Occam was getting ready to leave, the keys to John’s old truck in one hand. Mud was upstairs preparing for bed. We had a moment of alone time, our arms around each other, my head against him, listening to him breathe. It was not a human sound, a hint of purr in it, calming. He rubbed his jaw against my redder-than-usual curls, a cat gesture, as if scent-marking me.
“Soon you won’t have to leave,” I said. When he didn’t reply except to tighten his grip on me, I added, “And the church ain’t got rules about cohabiting without legal marriage. You could stay.”
“We done talked about how we wanted to start and how we wanted to go forward, Nell, sugar.”
I heaved a sigh. “Yeah.”
My phone rang. I heaved another sigh.This can’t be good.
Occam turned me around, cradling my spine against his chest so I could pull my cell from a back pocket. “FireWind,” I said to Occam. I answered, “Ingram.”
“Ingram. A firefighter saw indications of an arcenciel in the sky over Ming’s. Would you be willing to read Ming’s land again, specifically searching for signs of Soul?” he asked.
“Yes. Tomorrow.”
FireWind took too long to respond before he said, “Why not now?”
I pushed away from Occam and paced along the room toward the kitchen. “Lemme get this right. You’re wanting me to go to a vampire’s property, right now, in the middle of the night. Just after a battle where people died on that land, their blood and bodies all over it, and after a fire that killed plants, all of which will be screaming with shock. While I’m off the clock.”
“I—” he started.
“First off, once the fire trucks leave, any vampire on the property will be riled enough to kill first and think later. Second, I can’t learn anything about Soul until the sun rises and the vampire blood that currently contaminates that ground boils away. Now. Ain’t my job to remind you what you shoulda thought about a’fore you called me,” I said to my boss-boss. “Your’un the boss, and your’un job is to look after your’un agents. What you’un just did wasn’t looking after me. It was putting me in danger.”
I was pacing a lot faster, and began to circle the kitchen table. I mighta been stomping a bit. I could feel Occam’s attention the way a mouse might feel the stare of a predator, but I knew whatever expression was in his eyes, it was not directed at me but at the man I was fussing at.
“You wouldn’ta sent Rick or Margot or Occam on the full moon to do something that could get them injured because a their nature. You’da thought first. But where I’m concerned, you didn’t even think about it. I done told you about me and what I am and how it works to be a plant-woman. You need to remember my nature too. And I am mightydadgum tiredof reminding you. On top of that, I’m tired of defending myself. So. Tomorrow.” I stomped some more, scowling at nothing but seeing the cats race to the top of the stairs and sit, hunched, watching me.
“Yes. Tomorrow,” FireWind said after a silence that stretched out too long. “My apologies.”
“Tomorrow. After I deal with the church and my sister. I’m on the clock at eleven. I assume that will be acceptable?”
FireWind said, “Certainly.” He sounded stiff and uncomfortable. “Good night, Ingram.” He didn’t wait for me to respond before he ended the call.
Occam had put down his gear and my keys and moved back into the kitchen, a different expression on his face from the one I was expecting. Maybe…pride? I wasn’t used to seeing pride on anyone’s face, and my own face burned with embarrassment.
I stopped stomping and went to my small refrigerator, where I removed an open bottle of Sister Erasmus’ wine, pulled the cork, and splashed a little into two of the oversized pottery wineglasses that might actually have been intended as candleholders. I offered one to Occam and drank back what only avery kind person would have called a ladylike sip. I looked at my fiancé, whose face held a small smile, and demanded, “What.”
“You do like yanking his chain,” Occam mused.
He was leaning against a cabinet, ankles crossed, the wine and pottery in one hand. He looked relaxed and huggable, not that I told him so. Not with my cheeks still red and burning.
“So?” I said, the tone defensive. “Sometimes a man’s chain needs a bit of yanking.” And then I turned all kinds of red all over, because after not understanding Shakespeare, even I caught the accidental double entendre in my words.
Occam’s lips pulled as he smiled, the scarred muscles twisting his face. “Sometimes,” he agreed, teasing me just a little. “But what I was referring to is you standing up for yourself. That’s the sexiest thing in the world, Nell, sugar.”
I glanced at my—our—room and back to my cell. It was late. It was sooo late. My shoulders slumped. “And I’d act on them words right there,” I said, “if I wasn’t so tired and if Mud wasn’t so big eared.”
“I heard that,” my sister shouted down the stairs.
Occam rumbled with cat laughter. “There’s always tomorrow, Nell, sugar. And I think I need to shift and run around, get some exercise.”
“You’re’un jist guarding the property until Yummy gets back to patrol.”
“Cats don’thaveto sleep all day and all night. We just want to. I ain’t gonna rest while you’re unprotected.”
I crossed to him and laid my hand on his chest. He raised his arms and drew me in. Kissed the top of my head, and let me rest against him again. I yawned and he kissed my head once more. He stepped away, plucked off a few leaves that had sprouted while I fussed at my boss-boss, and tucked them into my shirt pocket. Without another word, he stripped down to pure-T-naked.
