mission magic 01 - the incubus job by Diana Pharaoh Francis

She looked me over from head to toe again. “Just what is it that you do, Ms. Carson?”
    “I’m a Jill of many trades,” I said.
    Her lips twitched into a contemptuous sneer. “I’m sure you are.”
    She turned her attention back to Law. “How long before you lift the shields? The guests are getting restless.”
    “No idea,” he said. “Not until I find out what triggered them.”
    His glance at me added an unspoken warning that it would also be after we had our conversation.
    “That’s unacceptable. I’ll give you an hour.”
    I covered my snort with my hand. Law did not take getting bossed around very well.
    “Very generous, I’m sure,” he drawled, taking my elbow. “But it won’t change anything. I don’t answer to you. I’m blood-bound to fulfill my contract. I’ll lift those shields when I’m damned well sure that Effrayant is safe.”
    “Blood-bound?” I repeated as he pulled me away, shock rocking me to the soles of my feet. I felt like someone had smashed my head between two trash can lids. “You can’t be serious?”
    “I am,” he said. His chin lifted and he looked arrogantly down his nose at me.
    “Now who’s making limiting choices?” I taunted.
    “I’ve got a comfortable life.”
    “So if I had called you when I was in trouble, you couldn’t have come and helped me anyhow. All that was bullshit.”
    I couldn’t help the accusation and betrayal that leeched into my voice. I didn’t have a right to either of them, but he’s the one who’d made a big deal of it, making it sound like I’d failed him somehow by not contacting him.
    The truth was he couldn’t go far from Effrayant, and he couldn’t stay away too long. He probably could go twenty or thirty miles. Usually binding terms said no more than twenty-four hours before he got reeled back in, faster if something happened at Effrayant. Law would have no choice but to obey. If anybody got in his way, he’d go rabid in his efforts to get back. A magician of his particular talent could level New York City if he wanted. The blood-binding guaranteed he’d want to.
    His expression went cold and austere, like stone in winter. “I signed it when I gave up on your coming back from you lich trip. It kept me on the sunny side of the dirt.”
    It took a moment for that to sink in. When it did, my mouth fell open. He watched me, his eyes glittering.
    “You can’t be serious,” I said.
    “Can’t I?” he asked then gave a caustic laugh. “What a tragedy, then, that I am entirely serious.”
    His confession was staggering. I locked my knees to keep from falling down. Could he have loved me the way I loved him? I shook my head. It wasn’t possible. I would have known. Wouldn’t I? The world started to spin drunkenly around me. Had I really misread his feelings so horribly six years ago? Could I have stayed with him?
    The horror of all that I might have thrown away rose around my throat like a noose. What had I done?
    Unforgiving honesty hit me like a blow. What drove me away had been my need to leave the extermination business. To not have to defend myself to Law. To not have him always judge me and find me wanting. Knowing he cared about me would have made me stay, and that would have destroyed me. I’d have ended up a corpse.
    “It doesn’t change anything,” I said quietly. “We don’t fit together.” Pain coiled brambles around my heart. Self-preservation demanded that I turn and run out the doors right now, barefooted and in this ridiculous dress. I’d left Law once, and it had nearly killed me. How was I going to do it again? How was I going to do it knowing that he actually had feelings for me?
    He went still. Feral savagery suffused his face, his green eyes narrowing to slits. He bent close to my ear, his breath brushing my skin. “Try to leave,” he crooned in a soft whisper. “Just try. See how far you get.”
    I shivered at the promise and threat twisting through those words. My soft, gooey center loved