Smoke and Ashes (47 page)

Tony ignored the excuse. “Henry says your tattoo changed.”

“That was a little abrupt. What's up your skirt?”

“We were still in the Demonic Convergence. You should have checked in before you left, just to be on the safe side.”

“Should have?” Arms folded. Lip curled. “You're not my keeper, Tony,” she snarled.

She'd had millennia to work on that whole “don't fuck with me” thing, and it was definitely definitive. Zev took a step sideways, putting more of Amy's desk between them. Amy looked like she was taking notes. Tony didn't really give a crap. All things considered, attitude from an immortal stuntwoman was pretty fucking low on his list of things to be impressed by.

“I'm the only wizard we know of,” he told her flatly, “and you're walking around with the oldest working magic in the world etched into your stomach. I need to know what's going on with it.”

Leah's eyes narrowed, and she stared at him for a long moment. “You used me to defeat Ryne Cyratane. You had no idea what slamming him back through the gate would do to me, and yet you did it anyway.”

“I knew what Ryne Cyratane would do to this world. Reshoot the scene and I'd play it the same way.”

“Would you?”

“Yeah. I would.”

Unexpectedly, she smiled, set down the helmet, and unzipped her jacket. “Okay, then.”

“Can you say anticlimactic?” Amy muttered.

“Anticlimactic,” Zev acknowledged.

Leah grinned and pulled her fuchsia turtleneck up off the tattoo. “You were expecting a fight? I made my point when I blew town, leaving him to his own devices, and besides, he's right. He should have a look at this, just in case.”

“In case of what?” Amy demanded as Tony peered at the interlocking circles.

“These are new,” Tony announced before Leah could answer. He traced the inner circle, his finger about a millimeter above the skin. “And there wasn't this much color before.” Not only the new runes in the inner circle but a few of the unchanged runes were now a deep crimson. The color of fresh blood instead of dried. “What does it mean?”

“I don't know. You're the wizard.”

“Yeah, but…”

No
but
, actually.

“I guess I'll have to find out,” he said, straightening.

Letting the sweater drop, Leah leaned forward and kissed his cheek. She smelled like cinnamon. “I'm not going anywhere for a while, I'll help. There's not a lot about demonology I don't know.”

“You didn't know Ryne Cyratane would betray us.”

“Please!” She smirked and reached for her helmet. “He's a demon, what did you expect? Ciao, Antonio!” A second kiss on the other cheek and a wave with her free hand as she headed for the door. “Bye, kids. See you around.”

“You going to stop her?” Zev asked quietly.

Tony shook his head. “No, if I need her, I just have to call.” He rubbed the palm of his left hand against his thigh. “You guys want to go get a beer after work?”

“As if,” Zev snorted. “CB wants the score for the last episode tweaked again. He's looking for a John Williams sound on a Chet Williams budget. I'll be here all night. Probably tomorrow night, too.”

Amy leaned out and dropped a stack of old sides into the recycling box. “I'd love to, Tony, but Jack and I are going to a zombie retrospective.”

That was unexpected. “Jack's into zombies?”

“He's not
into
so much. He thinks they're funny.” She shrugged and pulled a strand of hair out from the inner workings of her skeleton earrings. “I figure as long as we're both enjoying ourselves, no harm no foul. Say, I know…”

Tony had always found ingenuous a worrying look on Amy.

“…why don't you ask Lee if he wants to go for a beer?”

“Why don't you ask Lee if he wants to go for a…”

“Zev!”

Not at all repentant, Zev sighed. “You're willing to go mano a mano with invading wizards, haunted houses, and enough demons for a theatrical production of
The Inferno.
What are you so afraid of when it comes to Lee?”

“I'm not afraid. Lee's…”

“I swear, Tony, if you say straight, I'm going to feed you Amy's stapler.”

“Hey!” Clutching her stapler protectively, Amy rolled her chair over to the other desk. “Use Rachel's. She's never in the office anyway.”

Tony took one step back, just to be on the safe side. “It has to be Lee's choice.”

“Why?” Zev folded his arms and glowered. It was a surprisingly impressive glower.

“His career…”

“Why would you affect his career?” Amy snorted. “You likely to do something kinky in public?”

“Actually…”

“Zev!”

“Earth to Tony; no one cares but you. So Lee likes guys as well as women. Big whoop. Most of the world has more important things to worry about than a bisexual actor in a third-rate, syndicated, vampire detective television show.”

“Yeah, but…”

“Hey. No buts. End the freakin' suspense.” She tossed Zev the stapler. He made threatening gestures with it, and Tony surrendered.

If the whole thing blew up in his face, he'd be able to blame his alleged friends. And office supplies. Which was a dubious comfort.

 

Lee's dressing room door sat partly open and Tony had a moment's fear, relief, fear that he'd already left. There'd been talk about an offer to do an
Amazons in Space
movie in the Australian outback during hiatus, but he had no idea if Lee'd got the gig. Between the end of the Demonic Convergence and the end of the season, they'd been so busy they'd hardly said two words to each other.

Yeah. That was the reason.

If he's not here, it's a sign and…

He was just taking his cell phone out of the charger. He turned. Saw Tony. Froze.

Okay. That's not exactly a welcoming expression. I should just back away slowly…

On the other hand, he did have a very threatening stapler waiting for him.

Oh, what the hell.

Tony stepped into the dressing room, reached back, and closed the door. One of Lee's brows went up.

“I didn't know you could do that.”

Both brows dipped down. “What?”

“The single brow thing.”

“Oh. Yeah. Since I was kid.”

“Cool.”

A long moment of silence. It wasn't a very big room. They were no more than an arm's length apart.

Tony wasn't sure which one of them sighed first. He ran a hand back through his hair. “One of us needs to stop being such a guy about this.”

“Yeah, except we're both guys.”

“That's not a problem for me.”

“Me either.”

It happened just that fast.

Where “that fast” ignored the events of the preceding six months, all leading up to this moment, with the possible exception of those events that had been leading up to world domination, mass slaughter, or actually shooting an episode of
Darkest Night
.

Now he finally knew where Lee was, Tony wanted nothing more than to make magic, to hold out his hand and call the other man to him—but the smoop levels had already risen to nauseating heights. He felt like he'd stumbled onto a Rainbow Network Movie of the Week and this was the part in the soundtrack where the female vocalist would come in with the power ballad. “So what do we do…”

Lee tossed his phone aside, grabbed Tony's jacket in both fists, and swallowed the last word along with the lower half of Tony's face.

Later, when they finally broke for air, Tony felt he needed to make one thing perfectly clear.

“I never once thought of you as the damsel.”