Free Stone Cold Lover by Christine Warren Page A

deception, Spar acknowledged. Neither her expression nor her tone betrayed the slightest hint that her leading question was full of misinformation.
    “They’re still adding up the damage.” The reporter finished his coffee and set aside the mug. “The bomb went off in the chapter house, which was unoccupied. They’d been using it to store a few of the abbey museum’s newly acquired works, including at least one pretty big statue they were planning to display out in the gardens. It looks like that was a total loss, since it sounds like the thing would be hard to miss if it hadn’t been blown to bits.”
    “That’s it?” Felicity prompted. Spar noticed the way her fingers gripped tightly around her mug, but her voice gave no indication of her tension.
    “That’s the part I’m not going to ask you about, Fil, because the police haven’t released it, and no one outside the department is supposed to know.” He grinned roguishly. “Well, outside the department and those of us with really good sources.” He sobered. “The chapter house was unoccupied, but the emergency responders did find a person in the rubble. A man. They think it’s possible he was the bomber, and something went wrong while he was setting up the detonation. The blast went off before he could get out.”
    Felicity nodded, but her expression didn’t shift. “Wow. Was he dead? Or did he live through that?”
    Ricky watched her for a moment before sliding out of the booth. “He was alive at four this morning. That’s when they managed to dig him out and transport him to Montreal General.” He shrugged into his coat and gave Felicity a hard stare. “I don’t know why you wanted to know that, Fil, and I don’t think I want you to tell me. But it’s costing you more than a cup of coffee. You’re buying my breakfast.”
    The reporter turned and left without another word.
    Spar looked back at Felicity, expecting to see the tension in her body ease now that she had the answer to her questions. Even though they had learned the nocturnis had survived the explosion last night, if he had been taken to a hospital he must be sufficiently injured to pose no immediate threat. So why did she still appear so upset? Should he haul Ricky back here and make him apologize?
    With a start, Spar realized that Felicity’s state of mind affected his. For some reason, her feelings stirred answering sensations in him. Emotions. Because of her unhappiness, he himself felt unhappy as well. Unhappy enough to glare at the café’s exit and contemplate following the recently departed reporter. With his fists.
    Catching his gaze, Felicity shook her head and tapped the table. “Finish your food. Montreal General is the local trauma center, so chances are our little lunatic is too messed up to have gone blabbing to his goat-sacrificing pals about me, but I want to make certain. When we’re done here, we’ll head up to Mount Royal to check.”
    Spar reluctantly turned back to his breakfast. The steak really was quite tasty.
    “I do not believe the ritual slaughter of livestock is a defining characteristic of the Order,” he pointed out, hoping to distract her from her thoughts. “Blood magic is certainly one way to raise demons, but I was under the impression that large animals can be difficult to come by in modern cities.”
    The look she shot him wasn’t what Spar would call lighthearted—she appeared to believe he also might have lost touch with sanity—but at least her grip on her cup loosened perceptibly.
    “It was a figure of speech, Rocky,” she said as she lifted her cup. “I just mean that if we’re really lucky, I might be able to slip under the nocturnis radar while you go off and fight the good fight. I, for one, would like to forget any of this ever happened.”
    Spar knew of no spell cast by the Light or by the Darkness that would ever make him forget Felicity Shaltis. He would carry her memory with him for his next thousand years.
    It was a