Chapter 13
The next two weeks were truly hell on earth after dark. It seemed as if the Daimons lived only to play with and torment them.
No one was safe. The city had even tried to implement a curfew at Acheron's behest, but since New Orleans was a twenty-four-hour party town, they hadn't been able to enforce it.
The body count was unlike anything Tabitha had ever heard of outside of a Hollywood Movie, and the Squire's Council and Acheron were having a hard time hiding all the deaths from the police and news agencies. But what scared her most was the fact that what few Daimons they caught were damn near impossible to kill.
Every night she came back to Valerius's house in pain from the abuse to her body. She knew he didn't want her to go out with him to patrol and yet he never said anything.
Valerius merely spent an hour or two after they returned home massaging Icy Hot into her pains and bandaging up her wounds.
It was unfair that he never had aches and pains, and what few scuffs his body suffered were always gone after a few hours.
Tabitha now lay naked in the shelter of his arms. He was asleep and yet he held her firmly tucked in beside him as if he were afraid of losing her.
That warmed her more than anything else ever had. She should have gotten up hours ago. It was already after four in the afternoon, but since she'd moved in with Valerius she'd become a certified night owl.
Her head lay against his biceps and his right arm was thrown over her waist. She ran her hand over his forearm as she studied that tawny masculine skin.
Valerius had beautiful hands. Long and tapered, they were strong and well-shaped. These last few weeks they had given her so much comfort and pleasure that she could barely breathe from the happiness that consumed her whenever she thought of him.
Her phone rang.
Tabitha scooted out from under him to answer it.
It was Amanda.
"Hey, sis," she said a little hesitantly. Over the last two weeks, there had been a major strain on their relationship.
"Hi, Tabby, I was wondering if I could come over for a little while and talk to you."
Tabitha rolled her eyes at the idea. "I don't need another lecture, Mandy."
"I swear it's not a lecture. It's one sister to another. Please."
"Okay," she said quietly after a brief internal debate, then gave Val's address.
"I'll see you in a few minutes."
Tabitha hung up the phone, then crept toward the bed. Valerius lay on his side with his hair fanned out around him. Stubble shadowed his face and yet he looked almost boyish as he lay there.
Even asleep the muscles of his body were evident and defined. Dark hairs lightly dusted every perfect dip and curve, making the terrain of his skin all the more masculine and alluring.
But it wasn't just his handsomeness that appealed to her. It was his heart. The way he could take care of her without taking over her. She knew he didn't like it when she fought beside him and yet he never said one word against it. He merely stood by and let her fight her own battles. The only time he interfered was whenever she was in over her head.
Then he would charge in and save her without making her feel incompetent or weak.
Tabitha smiled at the sleeping image of him.
How could someone come to mean so much to her in such a short period of time?
Shaking her head, she reached to dress and thought about the first time Valerius had seen the tattoo on the small of her back, a small Celtic triangle.
"Why would you mark yourself intentionally?" he'd asked as if aghast at the very idea.
"It's sexy."
He'd curled his lip at that and yet now he took a great deal of pleasure kissing and massaging the tattoo in the mornings when they returned from their patrols.
Impulsively, she picked up his black silk shirt from the floor and put it on. She loved the way his spicy male scent clung to the fabric. The way it clung to her skin.
She pulled on her pants, then went downstairs to wait for Amanda.
"Hey, Tab."
She turned to the left at the bottom of the stairs to spy Otto using the computer in Valerius's study. It was the only piece of technology she'd been able to find in Val's entire house except for the massive DVD collection that he kept hidden in a vault in his office, which explained his knowledge of pop culture.
"Hey, Otto, whatcha working on?"
"Trying to track the Daimon menace as always. I'm using Brax's program to see if there's a pattern we can follow to predict where they might be tonight."
She nodded. Otto had slowly warmed up to her, and since the Daimon attacks had started, he'd reverted to his basic black wardrobe.
Today he had on a black turtleneck, charcoal sweater, and black slacks. She had to admit he was a good-looking man when he wasn't trying to be a tasteless slob.
He'd even given up the IROC and now drove his Jag, claiming that it was no longer fun to antagonize Valerius since the Roman was so distracted by Tabitha that he never reacted to Otto's ribbings anymore. Nor was Gilbert there to react to him either.
She moved into the study to look over his shoulder. "Have you found anything?"
"No. There isn't a pattern, yet. I just don't understand what has caused this. If they want Kyrian, why haven't they moved on him?"
She sighed irritably. "They're playing with us. You weren't here for Round One with Desiderius. He gets off on making us afraid of him and on toying with our heads."
"Yeah, but I'm getting sick of the escalating body count. Ten people died last night and the Council is having a hard time hiding all this from the authorities. The public is freaking and they've only heard about a percentage of the actual total."
Tabitha cringed. "How many Daimons were killed last night?"
"Only a dozen. The four you and Val took out, Ash killed five, and then Janice, Jean-Luc, and Zoe killed one each. The rest of the bastards got away."
"Damn."
"Yeah, I don't like being on the losing side of anything. This really sucks."
Tabitha scowled as his list ran through her head. "You know, it's pretty sad when I'm human and I can take out more Daimons than a Dark-Hunter."
Otto gave her a droll stare. "You're not out there on your own."
She blew him a raspberry. "For the record, Valerius helps me, not the other way around."
"Riiiight."
Tabitha laughed at his playful scoffing until another thought occurred to her. "What about Ulric?"
"What about him?"
"How many did he kill?"
"None, why?"
None? That wasn't right. "He didn't kill any the night before, either, did he?"
"No."
A bad feeling went through her. No, surely she was wrong.