Мишель Роуэн - Angel with Attitude

Not that I have anything to live for anymore.

She snorted into the mattress. Could she be any more dramatic?

Her mild laughter turned to self-pitying sobs after a moment.

She was going to die. Slowly.

Then she heard a sound. A quiet click as the door behind her opened. It was Julian, she knew it. He was ready for her. She tried to pretend to be asleep, but her heart was beating like crazy, her breathing uneven. She’d never felt so helpless. Just like one of those lobsters staring plaintively out from the tank at Red Lobster—her favorite restaurant other than McDonald’s—begging not to be picked.

The floorboards creaked. Then there was no sound for a few moments. She strained her ears to hear anything, deciding that maybe it had only been her imagination. Maybe—

A hand clamped down over her mouth and she screamed against it, but the sound was muffled.

“Shh,” a familiar female voice said. “Be quiet, or they’ll hear you.”

She tried to turn around. “Lisa? Is that you?”

“In the flesh. Talk about déjà vu, huh?”

“Where the hell are we?”

She laughed softly. “Interesting choice of words. We’re in the mayor’s mansion.”

“Oh no. Not again.”

“Yeah. Just when you think you’re out . . . they pull you back in.”

Val brightened. “Godfather quote. Nice.”

“Now hold still and I’ll undo these ropes.”

She heard another voice. “Val? You okay?”

Val tried to turn around again. “Reggie?”

“In the fur.”

The ropes slipped off her hands and Lisa started to untie the ones at her feet. Val’s eyes were adjusting to the dim lighting enough to see the outlines of bodies. Lisa’s small, shapely one, and Reggie’s small rat one sitting proudly on her shoulder.

“You’re not dead!”

“Shh!” His tail twitched. “We’ll all be dead if you keep screaming.”

She lowered her voice. “I’m not screaming. I’m just so happy to see you.”

“There,” Lisa announced. “You’re free.”

Val rubbed her sore wrists. “What are you doing here at the mansion again? I thought you would have been long gone by now.”

She shrugged. “I had a little unfinished business to take care of. I sneaked back and saw Julian drop you off earlier. I’ve been waiting for everyone to clear out so I could come in and repay you for saving my ass earlier. Are you complaining?”

“Not in the slightest.” Val slipped off the bed and stood on shaky legs. Her head throbbed from the hit she’d taken earlier from Julian.

“Come on.” Lisa grabbed her rope-burned wrist and pulled her toward the door. Before Val had a chance to gather her thoughts, she’d opened it, and they were making their way down an abandoned hallway.

Val asked, “Where are we going?”

“Oh, I guess I should give him back to you now.” Lisa stopped and gently picked Reggie off her shoulder before placing him on Val’s.

“Thanks for the ride, sweetheart,” Reggie said.

“Anytime.”

“Really, you mean that? Because I just might be in the market for a new girlfriend soon. It would be a rebound thing, but I don’t see why we couldn’t make it work.”

“I don’t date outside my species.”

Reggie nodded. “Can I get your number anyhow?”

Lisa rolled her eyes. “Is he always like this?”

Val managed to grin at that. “Pretty much. But you didn’t answer me. Are we getting out of here?”

“Soon. Like I said, I’ve got a little business to take care of.”

“And that would mean—?”

Lisa shushed her again and started walking, keeping close to the wall, ready at any moment to slip inside a room if someone started coming their way.

“So, Val,” Reggie said, “last time I saw you, you were hot-tailing it out of here and Nathaniel was giving Julian a ride on the pain train. You probably didn’t see me.”

Her heart sank at hearing Nathaniel’s name.

Reggie continued, “I hung out under a potted plant for a while, then slipped out. I’ve been checking this place out ever since. It’s big. Especially at my current size. Even if I was normal-sized I think it would still seem huge. Anyhow, I wasn’t panicking. I knew you’d come back for me. Of course, I thought you’d come back of your own free will, not trussed up like a Thanksgiving turkey, but I’m not complaining. I’m just happy to see that you’re okay.”

He paused. “So where’s tall, dark, and gruesome?”

She swallowed hard.

“Val? Where’s Mr. Moody? He-who-hates-the-rat? Demon-boy? Hello?”

She swallowed again and tried to find her voice. “He’s gone.”

“Do you know where he went? I thought he was bound to us. Well, to you, anyhow.”

“He was. I released him.”

She saw his whiskers twitch out of the corner of her eye. “You released him? Why?”

“Just had to.”

“You just had to release him? But he’s our ticket out of this hole.” His voice had gotten pitchy. “Remember? The whole bookcase-turns-into-dimensional portal deal? I kind of wanted it to be a two-way ride. It’s one thing to be stuck as a rat. I have to say I’m actually starting to enjoy it a little, especially the riding around on gorgeous women’s shoulders part.

The view from up here is spectacular, if you know what I mean. And I mean cleavage city.

But I’d rather be a rat at home, than a rat in the Underworld. Hey, maybe that will be the title of my autobiography. I like it. It’s catchy. Val?”

She shook her head. “We’re going to have to find another way out, I think.”

Lisa touched her shoulder. “Are you okay?”

Val felt a hot tear slip down her right cheek. That’s where it had been. Just building itself up until she had an audience for her eventual blubbering. Great.

“He’s gone.”

“Where did he go?”

“They summoned him back to . . . to Hell. And since he was still bound to me it was tearing him up—causing him major pain being pulled in two different directions. So I . . . had to release him. I had no choice.”

Lisa frowned. “I don’t understand. Punished for what?”

“Nathaniel’s been a bad boy, I guess,” Reggie said. “Geez, Val, what did you do, sleep with him, or something?” He laughed.

Val didn’t.

Reggie stopped, “Oh shit. You slept with him. Val! I’m shocked. And incredibly turned on at the same time.”

“Me, too,” Lisa said, then frowned. “The shocked part. I’m in no way turned on by imagining you having sex. Seriously. I draw the line at Angelina Jolie.”

“Oooh. Angelina Jolie,” Reggie murmured. “But, back on subject. What happened? You’ve only known him for a few days, right?”

She shrugged. “I don’t want to talk about it.”

“Did he force himself on you?” Lisa asked.

“No. If anything, I may have forced myself on him a little bit.” She almost smiled. “I’m not normally so . . .”

“Experimental?” Reggie offered.

“No.”

“Erotically inclined?”

“Reggie—”

“A naughty little monkey?”

“Could you please not help me? I’m happy you’re alive Reggie, but please be quiet.”

“Sorry.”

Her head ached. “Look, he said things to me. I said things to him. He told me that he loves me.”

Lisa’s eyebrows shot up. “He said that? And you believed him?”

Val frowned. “This subject is officially closed. I don’t want to discuss it any further with either of you. Got it?”

“It’s gotten,” Lisa said.

She waited for a response from the rat before she turned her head to try to look at him.

“Beyond gotten,” he said, raising a paw. “But for the record, I don’t think he was lying. Who could possibly know you and not love you?”