It was too bad. He’d been so hot.
It wasn’t that she was upset he wasn’t as good-looking as she’d originally thought. She just didn’t like being lied to. What had Nathaniel called it? A glamour? Obviously some kind of magical cloak of beauty to cover what one really is underneath. Using a glamour was cheating as much as using the demon charm mojo. As far as she was concerned, if Donovan was a troll, then he should be a troll. He shouldn’t try to be a gorgeous demon.
Speaking of . . .
She turned her head. Nathaniel was walking a few paces behind her. Reggie perched on his shoulder now. That was strange. Julian had reacted like Reggie was poison to him. She would have expected Nathaniel to behave the same, not chauffeur the little guy around as if it didn’t affect him at all.
She stopped walking until he caught up to her.
“So,” she said. “What do you really look like?”
“What are you talking about?”
She nodded toward the apartment building they’d just left. “Donovan was using a glamour to look so good. I just want to know what you actually look like underneath it all. You don’t have to be embarrassed. I’m not here to judge. Just curious.”
He studied her for a moment before his lips twitched into a small grin. “Are you trying to say that you think I look good?”
Val sighed and started walking again. “Forget it.”
“I think I’m flattered.”
“Don’t be.”
He caught up to her. “Just for the record, I don’t use a glamour. I might use a little extra bit of charm to help me out from time to time, but with me, what you see is what you get.”
She glanced at him sideways. “And I would believe that, because?”
“I already told you I used to be human.”
She shrugged “You could have been an ugly human.”
His grin widened. “Why Valerie Grace, I think you’re attracted to me.”
Val’s cheeks immediately warmed and she watched Reggie’s eyes widen. “Am not.”
Nathaniel took in Val’s flushed response with obvious amusement. “That’s why I just don’t understand why you’re being so difficult. You like me, I like you . . .”
She wanted desperately to wipe that grin off his face. “Donovan’s a better kisser. No offense.”
That did the trick. His grin slid right off his face. “If you knew half of the evil things Donovan has done you would not be so glib.”
“Like the things you’ve done?” she countered.
“You have no idea what I’ve done.”
“I can guess.”
He blinked, and studied her for a moment before replying. “I think you might be surprised, little angel. You don’t know a damn thing about me. Who I am, what I’ve done, what I’m capable of. You know nothing. That’s what I need to remember when we’re together: what my assignment is. I can never forget it. Nothing you say or do can affect me, make me change my mind. Nothing.”
They glared at each other.
“Okay you two,” Reggie said. “Enough already. This is enough to give a rat a headache.”
Val took a deep breath. “You’re right, Reggie. Let’s just focus on finding Julian. Then this can be over and you can convince Claire to change you back. You don’t want to stay stuck like that forever, do you?”
Reggie cleared his throat. “I’m thinking a dozen roses. And a sincere, heartfelt apology.”
“Who’s Claire?” Nathaniel asked.
“My ex,” Reggie said. “She’s the witch who turned me into a rat. She also helped Val summon you. We’re just like a big, happy, scary, dysfunctional family now, aren’t we? Hey, Nate, you wouldn’t happen to be able to reverse my spell, would you? That would save a lot of groveling on my part.”
“No,” Nathaniel said with disinterest. “I can’t. Nor would I want to if I could.”
“Meanie.”
Val had one thing to say for the Underworld, everything seemed to be within walking distance of everything else. She wondered how much space it actually took up. Or if it was a magical displacement of space. And if she should be wearing some kind of sunscreen under the hot sun since she burned easily.
“You’re sure you want to go to the Rosebud?” Nathaniel asked after a few minutes.
Annoyance still tinged his words.
“Of course. If anyone there knows about Julian, I have to talk to them.”
She was looking forward to the faery pub, actually. She loved faeries. Claire had a faery tattoo on her lower back, which she’d taken from a book about faeries she’d shown Val when they’d still been on speaking terms. The tattooist had gotten it a little wrong, though, and had drawn the faery without a neck so it looked as if it was in a perpetual shrug.
Yes, they were pretty little faeries in that bright, colorful book. With their gossamer wings, flitting here and there. How cute. How harmless and adorable—
Nathaniel pushed open the front door of the pub.
How incredibly scary, horrible, and wrong.
Val blinked in disbelief at what was behind that door.
It looked to her as if faeries who lived in the Underworld were a little different from the ones who floated on bubbles and hung out in flower gardens.
The Rosebud resembled a hardcore biker bar on the inside. Dartboards, dark, dank atmosphere, smoke hanging heavy in the air, carcasses of odd creatures nailed to the walls.
They walked into the pub through a narrow, musty-smelling passageway, pushing past what felt like cobwebs hanging from the ceiling. The bar itself was about twenty by twenty feet.
Small and smelly. At a quick glance Val could count six booths and three small round tables in the middle that were carved out of rock. The bar counter had eight stools. Every seat in the house was full, but conversation and the loud, throbbing heavy metal music had stopped the moment they entered. And every eye turned to look at them.
A large, burly man with a long, stringy gray beard and a belly to shame Santa himself got to his feet so fast his chair fell and clattered to the floor behind him. He wore a dirty white T-
shirt under a studded leather jacket. Grease stains marked his worn jeans. He had a fierce, unfriendly expression on his face. When he turned Val saw that his jacket had slits in it to accommodate his wings.
His pretty, colorful, gossamer wings.