“Curvy hips, supple legs, long auburn hair?” he grinned. “Yeah, I’ve met her and got reeled in by her come-hither bedroom eyes.”
She wrinkled her nose at him. “But she typically takes the formof a sinister crone with pointy fangs and deadly claws.”
“That sounds more like Pedro.”
She chuckled.
“What’s your point about the rainbow goddess?” he asked.
“What if Daisy wasn’t just daydreaming about a rainbow while saying what she did to you? What if she was channeling the rainbow goddess and the part about death being smeared on you had something to do with bad luck?”
Quint knocked her leg with his. “Who are you and what did you do with Dr. García, the levelheaded brain-iologist?”
“I know it sounds nuts, but look at what happened at the last site.”
He sobered. “You think I’m the bad luck because I’m supposedly a Summoner? That I should leave and take my beast-luring beacon with me so any preternatural problems go away?”
“No, I don’t want you to leave.”
“Good, because I’m not going anywhere without you.”
Her heart melted even more in the steamy tent.
She lifted his hand and kissed the back of it, eyeing his lucky ring for a moment before returning to his face. “But what if that was a warning about this place being bad luck with smears of death everywhere. I mean, KuTu told me the wall stones aren’t singing.”
His gaze narrowed. “So, something died here and the skulls were a warning for any trespassers about a deadly disease?”
“Maybe.” She cringed. “Or maybe something is here that causes death and disease, and we need to be careful not to end up like the others.”
“Well, that doesn’t make me excited to crawl over that wall tomorrow.” He sniffed. “Maybe we should pack up this camp and call it a year. Take that vacation we put off.”
Guilt warmed her face even more, but she held his gaze. “We can’t leave, Quint.”
“I had a feeling you’d be too stubborn to agree.”
“I’m not being stubborn.”
“Then why can’t we get out of here before some kind of bizarre, ancient shit hits the fan?”
“Because if any of these what-if notions are true, especially when it comes to you being able to unintentionally summon supernaturaltroublemakers, then we need to keep any other archaeologists besides Dr. Fernel from coming here, at least until we can clear the site of whatever might be haunting it—for lack of a better word.”
“Haunting,” he repeated, his brow creasing. “And how do we do that?”
She sighed. “I don’t know, my Good Demon. But somehow we have to find whatever is at the end of that rainbow and bury it for good.”
Chapter Fourteen
Hot Thoughts from a Good Demon
Another day of beating back the jungle.
Two miserable, long, hot days. And I mean fucking hot.
Like standing next to a demon’s sphincter sort of hot.
A bad demon that is, fresh out of Hell, with bigger teeth than me. And longer nails. Probably a lot uglier, too.
But I might reek more after sweating all damned day.
