Junkyard Queen (Alexa O'Brien Huntress Book 12) Read online

  Falon lounged on the bed, as usual, enjoying his nudity and my discomfort. “Fuck no. I showed up for you. Again. You owe me at least that much. Now, tell me about Shya, and then I’ll lick you until you scream.”

  This was my chance to tell him that I knew about Winter. It didn’t seem worth hiding anyway. Yet for some reason I just couldn’t bring myself to tell him I knew.

  Hands propped behind his head on the pillow, he waited.

  I should say it. Why couldn’t I just say it?

  “Shya kicked my ass. Just like last time. He said and did things I wish he hadn’t.” I paused, wrestling with myself. “He sent my victims to me. Made me lay there helpless while they all told me about what a piece of crap I am for stealing their lives and destroying their families.” I stood awkwardly in the middle of the room. Instead of returning to the bed, I perched on the desk chair across from it.

  “Sounds like Shya. He’s got nothing but time to cook up ways to torture you.” Falon stretched like a happy cat, causing muscles to ripple beneath his skin. A ruffle of feathers and his wings appeared, splayed beneath him. “Don’t let him get inside your head. That’s all he really wants. To drive you mad. Those victims were more than likely all fabricated. Not even real.”

  Thinking back to Shya’s house made me ill. I hugged myself, pinching the soft terry cloth between my fingers. “It felt real.”

  “It’s supposed to. But it’s all demon tricks, Alexa. You know how he works by now.” Swiping the room service menu from the bedside table, Falon flipped through it. “Hmm, the fruit platter looks good. Do you care if I order something? It’s on your credit card.”

  I waved a hand, indicating I didn’t care. I was too busy pondering. “What about Halloween? When he had people from our past visit us? Was that just a trick? Because Raoul knew things Shya couldn’t have known.”

  Now I’d crossed into dangerous ground. Shya had sent Winter to torment Falon that night. It gave me the perfect lead in to drop an “oh by the way,” but I waited, studying his expression.

  Falon picked up the phone and called down to room service for the fruit platter. His celestial gaze never left my face. “Unfortunately, that was real,” he said upon hanging up.

  Tell him, my conscience prodded. Tell him now.

  “That night was so fucked up,” I began, testing the waters. “He must’ve thought he was so clever sending them to fuck with us.”

  Shadows crossed Falon’s face, lining it with peril. Eyebrows knit together, he studied me a little too intently. “What did he tell you?”

  The waters were not friendly. “What do you mean?” Trying to backtrack I played it off like I hadn’t been angling toward anything.

  Falon sat up straighter. Suspicion made him harder, meaner. “Don’t toy with me. I know you’re not as dumb as you look. What did Shya tell you?”

  “How can you take a simple comment and spin it into something else?” I asked, annoyed. He wasn’t wrong, but it seemed a tad presumptuous to me.

  “It was the way you said it. Like there’s something more that you’re not saying. So say it.” He started to get up.

  I hopped off the chair, but there was no escaping once he backed me against the closet door. The heat of his body contrasted with the ice in his gaze.

  “Aren’t you overreacting just a little bit?” I held the robe together at the top but couldn’t stop it from separating near my thighs.

  “Not yet I’m not,” he replied. Grabbing both my wrists he slammed them against the door above my head. “Would you like me to?”

  Warmth flooded my groin. I couldn’t help but respond to his aggressive tactics with excitement. Apparently my hunger for him had not yet been fully sated. “Yeah, I think maybe I would.” Biting my bottom lip I blinked up at him, trying not to smile. Truth be told, I was nervous that he would force me to tell him and then everything would change.

  “Alexa.” Darkness dripped from his tone; I shouldn’t have enjoyed it so much. “What did Shya say about me?”

  I rubbed my thigh against him before wrapping my leg around him. “He told me who Winter is. He told me what happened with the two of you. The curse. Her choice to finally break it.”

  Even as the words spilled out, I recalled the horror I’d felt upon first learning Falon’s story. He and Winter, the nephilim he’d loved, cursed by a demon prince to relive their love and loss, as she died in every lifetime once their love had been consummated. Until she broke the cycle by choosing the demon prince instead of Falon.

  Back when Shya had first told me, an unexpected sadness for Falon overtook me. I felt it now too. Did he see it in my eyes?

  His grip on my wrists tightened. I sighed from pain, pleasure, and relief of shedding that secret.

  “That was lifetimes ago.” Voice hoarse, Falon seemed to choke on emotion. I watched it happen, the struggle taking place within him. He blinked a few times, and his gaze dropped to where my robe had opened, exposing most of my cleavage.

  I didn’t dare speak. Not in this moment. Was he pissed at me? Or maybe he’d just leave.

  A knock on the door announced room service. Falon shouted at them to leave it in the hall. They didn’t knock again.

  “She’s nothing to me. Just as you are nothing to me.” Anger now made each word razor sharp. “Shya had no right to tell you. It happened so long ago. I’m not that person anymore. That bitch got what she deserved in the end. And so will you.”

  I didn’t need a degree to figure this one out. Wounds like Falon’s never truly healed. A nudge could open it up again. Since Winter was not here to take his pain, he directed it at me.

  Suddenly he released my wrists and buried his face in my breasts. For a moment I wasn’t sure what to do with my hands. Tentative, I slipped my fingers into his disheveled hair. His mouth hot on my skin, he held my breasts like they were a source of comfort. When he sucked a nipple into his mouth, I groaned.

  “Just a means to an end,” he murmured against my flesh. “That’s what she was. It’s what you are. We’re supposed to make each other forget, you and I. Make me forget now. Make me forget her.”

  Falon’s desperate plea rocked me to my soul. During our first encounter in the FPA building, under the influence of the dark entity, he’d asked me to help him remember what it was to feel. When I prodded him later, he’d claimed to be so far beyond feeling that he lived in the void. He used me to escape that place of nothingness.

  Now he begged me to help him escape her. Winter. And the only power that drove him was that of pain and regret.

  Aware I witnessed Falon in what might be his most vulnerable state, I stroked his silver hair, seeking the right response. “What do you need from me?” I whispered, afraid to speak too loud and shatter the strange and fragile vibe that had settled between us.

  With a ragged sigh he dropped to his knees before me, wings spread on either side of him, and buried his face between my thighs. I continued to stroke his hair as he pleasured me. What the hell had just happened?

  Mind just a little blown, I quickly became overwhelmed by the swell of agony that permeated the atmosphere. His energy was rife with it. How many millennia had Falon carried this pain, escaping it only by going to a place where he felt nothing at all? No wonder he was such an asshole. He’d done nothing to deserve my sympathy, nor did I believe he sought it. Showing it would likely just feed his loathing.

  I’d taken from him repeatedly, giving nothing in return but the enjoyment of being my victim. He needed something from me now. And though it strayed far off the path of our arrangement, I had to give it.

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  Falon wasn’t satisfied until he had me screaming his name. Up against the closet door, he took me, and we screwed until the angst no longer hung so heavy upon us. When it was over he pulled away, leaving me to fumble my robe back into place.

  Having no shame he strode to the door nude and fetched the fruit platter from the hall. Lounging on the bed, he popped a strawberry into his mout
h and reached for the TV remote. “Tastes almost as good as you do,” he remarked with a lascivious grin. “I’m going to hang out for a bit if you want to take off. Figure a soak in that massive tub might be nice. I could use a night off.”

  Pretty sure my jaw dropped. Did he just dismiss me? I’d done it to him often enough, usually with a cold command that he shrugged off. So why did I feel so offended?

  Because he’d turned the tables, that was why.

  After his display of weakness, he clearly didn’t want to linger in that moment. He seemed to have shut it down pretty fast, acting as if it hadn’t happened.

  Fine with me. “Don’t charge anything else to my credit card.” I strode to the bathroom to get dressed, happy to shut the door and close him off.

  Falon was my drug of choice. Hard to admit but true. He served as my escape from reality, my power boost when needed, and a pretty great lay. I didn’t want any more from him, and I sure as shit didn’t want anything to change.

  But something just had.

  I hoped we hadn’t just gone and fucked up a good thing because of Winter. I wished her name had never passed my lips. Past and current lovers had no place in our sordid affair. We didn’t need that kind of sticky shit.

  When I emerged Falon was reclined against the headboard watching Kimmel. He sucked a cherry into his mouth, looking better than a sculpted Adonis. Damn him.

  Because I had nothing to say in the face of what had become an awkward situation, I grabbed my bag and headed straight for the door without a word.

  That didn’t stop him from calling after me. “Check up on the kid, would you, Alexa? And keep Dayne on your radar. The Circle expects you to stay on top of the wolf activity.”

  That set off a blast of ire as my temper rose. “We don’t discuss business here, Falon. Those two worlds, they don’t cross. Ever.”

  The eye roll he graced me with really pissed me off. But he knew that it would, which was why he did it. “Just do it.”

  I flipped him the third middle finger of the night and stalked out of the room. It took great restraint not to slam the door on my way out. No need to give him that satisfaction.

  Being forced to work together by The Circle’s powers-that-be meant seeing a lot more of him. A lot more time with our clothes on. So right from the start, I’d worked to keep those two sides of our fucked up relationship separate.

  Falon didn’t make it easy.

  On my way down in the elevator, I called Jez and asked her to meet me at The Wicked Kiss. If I ever needed some girl talk, it was now. I had to tell someone about the curse and how it could be broken. Right now she was the only one I felt I could confide in.

  The moment I arrived, Jez asked, “She’s not working tonight, is she?”

  Sinking into the comfy booth, I scanned the nightclub interior. “What? Who? Oh, Wendi? How would I know? I just got here.”

  Jez and a Wicked Kiss waitress had been having a fling. Since learning that Wendi had also been with Kale at one point, Jez had been trying to break it off.

  “Don’t you make the schedule or something? You should know.” Casting a furtive glance about, Jez tried but failed to relax.

  I laughed. “I pay someone to do that. Frees me up to babysit werewolves and argue with fallen angels.”

  Using a straw Jez stirred the ice in her trademark fruity cocktail, a bright blue concoction for tonight. “Speaking of which, tell me what happened with Falon. You have this strange look in your eyes. Kind of haunted. Spill.”

  “Where do I begin?” I muttered, shoving both hands through my tousled hair. In such a hurry to vacate the hotel, I’d forgotten to brush out the tangles.

  “You have sex hair,” Jez snickered. “Start there.”

  Feeling like I’d burst if I didn’t share, I started with Falon and his strange emotional break. It felt better to work my way up to the curse stuff.

  “Whoa.” Golden ponytail bouncing, Jez whistled. “That angel is one seriously messed up guy. One could almost feel for him if he wasn’t such a supreme dick. But you do though, don’t you? Feel for him.”

  My gaze strayed to the door and the steady stream of people coming in. Nobody else in my inner circle was present. Still, I didn’t feel safe admitting it out loud. “I don’t want to,” I hedged, trying to say it without saying it. “I mean, we are still very happily in hate with each other. But I do. There’s just something so deeply broken in him. He can never know I told you.”

  She squeezed her ruby lips together and mimed locking them up tight and throwing away the key. “Not a word. Just tell me one thing. What’s better? The hate fucking or the weird emotional shit?”

  Still high on him and feeling pretty damn good, I couldn’t help but chuckle at the thought. “I don’t think I can choose. It’s all fucking amazing.”

  “Damn. I’m jealous. It’s been a while since I had my world rocked that hard. Full-on supernatural style.” Her emerald eyes gleamed with mischief. Jez was looking good these days, so much better now that she’d been clean for a while. Her cheeks glowed with health. “Ok, now tell me about the trip to Helltown. How bad was Shya this time?”

  I hesitated, unwilling to relive it but needing her support and feedback. “I’m going to tell you something, but Arys and Shaz can’t know. Not yet.”

  “Well, aren’t you just full of secrets tonight.” She waggled her eyebrows at me. “Do tell.”

  “Shya told me how the curse could be broken.” Saying it would make it real. I didn’t want it to be real. Jez’s expectant expression made it harder to voice. So I just spit it out in a rush. “Someone I love has to die. And I have to be the one to kill them.”

  Eyes wide, mouth open, Jez gaped at me, her drink forgotten. “Oh my God. What a devious piece of crap. Of course he’d make it next to impossible to break that curse.” She reached across the table to capture my hand in hers. “I’m sorry, Lex.”

  “He did it so I’d be forced to let him out. That’s really the only way to keep from getting my ass kicked every full moon.” I squeezed her hand, needing the warmth of her touch, the comfort of friendship. “I can’t let him out of there. I just can’t.”

  “Maybe there’s another way,” she suggested. “Talk to Gabriel. He knows a lot about this stuff. You can’t keep going back there. That could go on for decades. Centuries.”

  I shuddered at the thought. “I’ve been there twice. Two nights. And he’s already tormenting me with my dead victims. I can’t even imagine one more, let alone hundreds. Or thousands. He’ll destroy me.”

  A frown twisted Jez’s pretty face into something sad. I could see that she wanted to be helpful, but there was nothing she could do. “Well, at least you have Falon to put you back together after.”

  “A thousand nights of Falon,” I mused, conflicted at such a thought. “That might leave me more of a mess than Shya.”

  “Well, don’t give up. There’s got to be something you can do.” Jez sipped her drink and clinked the ice around in her glass. “Too bad you can’t tie one on anymore. If I were in your position, I’d be on a hell of a bender.”

  I couldn’t help but flash back to the fallen angel I’d just left in a swanky hotel room with my credit card on file. “I go on a little bender every time I’m with Falon. Kind of scares me. I’m not sure I could quit him if I wanted to. And I don’t want to. Can’t help but feel that’s not going to end well in the long run.”

  Did that kind of thing ever end well for anyone? Jez herself had suffered serious withdrawal when she kicked the drugs. After being an FPA lab rat, Shaz too had suffered greatly in the weeks since he’d been unable to have any real connection with either Arys or me. The whole world was so busy seeking ways to escape. Sadly the supernatural were no different, although our drug of choice tended to veer more toward the magical side of things.

  “Alexa.” The sound of my name preceded Smudge who shoved her petite frame through a group of guys blocking her path. “I hoped I’d find you here. I was just around the
corner and thought it’d be easier to drop in. Willow just killed a black magic witch.”

  My heart took another beating. He’d been too interested in Gabriel, but I sensed the young vamp’s continued existence. “He killed again? Any idea what his motive was?” I slid over to make room for her in the booth.

  “At this point I think she had something he wanted. It’s hard to say. I’ve got a team going through her house, but if he took something, we probably won’t know what.” Smudge glanced at Jez, did a double take, and stuck her hand out. “Sorry for the intrusion. I’m Smudge. Local watchdog.”

  “Oh, right. From The Circle.” Jez accepted the shake, holding a little longer than usual. “Jez. I used to work for Veryl. Looking forward to getting back to it with Alexa.”

  Smudge nodded, flipping her long black bangs out of her eyes. “Ah, the leopard. It’s a pleasure to finally meet you.” Her tone lilted on the word ‘pleasure.’

  Jez didn’t miss that flirtation and blushed like a teenager. “Likewise.” Her smile turned coy.

  I’d never understand how Jez could go from zero to flirt in mere seconds. While they made small talk, I thought about Willow. Trying to determine what had driven him to kill a black magic witch would be pointless. It could be just about anything, likely more of his personal justice. But I knew it didn’t bode well for whatever he had planned for the alignment.

  I needed to find out what that was. For just a moment I wished I’d stayed with Falon and taken a night off. I could use one.

  “I’ll deal with Willow,” I said when there was a break in their small talk. “I just don’t know when or how yet. Sorry I’m not more helpful.”

  “Honestly, I’m just glad I don’t have to solve that problem.” Smudge graced me with an encouraging smile. “We have faith in you, Alexa. I’m sure you’ll do the best you can, and seeing as it’s personal, I don’t blame you for feeling overwhelmed.”

  I pursed my lips and flopped back into the U-curve of the booth. It was wide enough that I could stretch out. During renovations I’d made the booths more of a bed with a table than a table with seats, an idea possibly inspired by Jenner’s Vegas location.