Base Instincts (19 page)

Slake shot Raze an exasperated look. “Can I kill her now?”

Raze was tempted to do it himself. But he had questions, and before anyone stabbed her in her black heart, he wanted answers.

Still, he found himself wrapping his hand around her throat and lifting her hard into a wall. “What’s going on, Fayle?” Letting his anger reign for the second time in as many days, Raze got in her face. “You told me you ran away from your people because you wanted freedom. That was thirty years ago. So why do they want you now?”

She clawed at his hands with her razor talons, but he ignored the pain and squeezed until she gasped, “They want me because the queen died.” She sucked in a gulp of air. “I’m next in line.”

He stared. “You’re some sort of princess?”

“I’m
the
princess,” she choked out, and he let up on the pressure. Just a little. Just enough so she could talk without fighting for oxygen. He’d cut off her oxygen later. “I just wanted to be normal. To latch on to a male like every other self-respecting succubus instead of ruling a kingdom and popping out litter upon litter of babies in a world with no color.” She looked at him, but her gaze was distant, shadowed, lost in a place where Raze couldn’t follow. “Did I tell you about my lands, Raze? Did I tell you that there is only black and gray, and even the air is the color of mist? But the human world is so vibrant, and when I found you in it, I knew I’d hit the jackpot.” A wistful smile touched her lips, lips made to make men beg. Men
and
demons, Raze thought bitterly. “Very few of us are lucky enough to hook an incubus. All that sexual energy . . .” She shivered, the light in her eyes returning and growing heated, the way it did when she sensed sex nearby. “But now I’m on my way home. I’ll take my place on the throne. I’m just here to charge up and enjoy one last fling in the human realm.”

He hated that he actually understood her thinking, because all he’d wanted since he’d reached sexual maturity was to be normal. And not even a normal, heterosexual Seminus demon. To him, normal meant having a relationship with someone he could share a life
and
a bed with. Someone he could talk to. Someone who wanted him as badly as he wanted them.

Normal . . . was Slake.

Very slowly, he released Fayle, but if she thought he was done with her, she had a huge surprise coming. He glanced over at Slake, who gave him a nod of understanding and pulled out his phone.

“Were you planning to release me?” Raze asked, staying where he was, which was in her face.

A shamed blush swept across her cheeks. “What can I say? I love you as much as I can love anything, Raze, but I’m a demon.”

“So am I, but I’m not—”

She cut him off with a wave of her hand. “I know, I know. You’re not sucking anyone’s energy. Fine. Whatever.”

Before he knew what she was doing, she was kissing him, driving her tongue between his teeth as she hauled his body against hers. She hadn’t kissed him like this since the very first time they were together, when she’d helped him through his transformation. He remembered everything as if it were happening now, felt the electric sizzle unique to her kiss.

An unholy, possessive growl vibrated the air. Instantly, Raze’s body responded as if to a mating call.
Slake
.

Fayle broke off the kiss and stepped back, giving Raze a shaky smile. Slake, on the other hand, had closed half the distance between them, had drawn blades from the harnesses under his coat, and was staring at her with death in his eyes. Damn, that was hot.

“It’s done,” Fayle said, keeping one eye on Slake. “My ties to you are broken.”

That wasn’t the only thing broken here. He’d trusted her once, but she’d broken that. He’d cared about her once, but she’d broken that too. He’d thought the last thirty-plus years had been about mutual respect. She’d shattered that belief.

“Tell me,” he said, “if your council has only started looking for you because your queen died, why did we constantly move? Your species isn’t really nomadic, is it?”

She plucked a candy from the bowl on the counter and popped it into her mouth as if everything was fine now that she’d broken the bond between them.

“Oh, we’re nomadic,” she said, “but that’s not why I insisted on moving every few years. My people were always looking for me. The search just didn’t get serious until the queen died.” She bit down on the candy with a hard crunch. “Now, unless you’re here to kill me, there’s a red-light district that’s just ripe with sexual energy to harvest. So go away.”

“Oh babe,” Slake said, his voice scraping gravel, “you’re the one who is going away.”

In a move so fast Raze didn’t see it until it was over, Slake launched a dart that struck Fayle in the throat, penetrating so deep that blood spurted all over the pockmarked tile.

“What the fuck,” she screeched, clutching at her throat even as her claws extended like a tiger’s and her body began to swell and morph.

“Hurry!” Raze yelled at Slake. He tackled Fayle, taking her down to the floor as Slake wrapped her ankles with rope he swore would contain a succubus of her species.

Fayle swiped at Raze, catching him in the jaw, and pain seared him from the chin to his scalp.

Growling like a werebear awakened from hibernation, Slake snared her wrists and hogtied her, facedown on the cheap floor rug. Her muffled curses followed them as they both stood and looked down at their handiwork.

“You made the call?” Raze confirmed.

“Yup. Justice Dealers should be here any minute.”

Excellent. Justice Dealers were the police of the demon world, and nothing gave them bigger hard-ons than tossing a royal into their jails. Raze was going to make sure Fayle paid for what she’d done to Thirst. And he’d enjoy every minute of it.

Slake turned to him, and abruptly, his humor turned to concern. “You’re injured.” Reaching out, he gently smoothed his thumb along Raze’s jaw, and Raze sighed with pleasure that outweighed any of the pain Fayle had dealt him tonight.

“I’m okay,” he said. “I think I’ll always be okay now.”

Slake grinned. “In that case, I’d say it’s time I deal with
my
Fayle.”

“Do you need me there?”

“Nope.” Slake drew Raze hard against him. “Meet me back at your place. And I want you naked when I get there.”

There was only one answer to that.

Duh
.

For the first time in his life, Slake walked into Dire & Dyre’s New York headquarters without an ounce of trepidation.

He was prepared for a battle to get onto the elevator, but surprisingly, the entrance receptionist sent him to the top floor without an argument. So far, so good.

When he stepped out of the elevator and into the plush offices that belonged to the Big Boss, Dyre’s goat-horned assistant stopped him. Not unexpected.

“You’ll have to wait. Mr. Dyre is—”

“Bite me.” Slake shoved past her and slammed into Dyre’s office.

Dyre looked up, but if he was annoyed at the intrusion, it didn’t show. “Slake. What a surprise.” He grinned, flashing sharp teeth. “A surprise that you aren’t puking out your insides from the pain of losing your soul.”

The jackass. “Yeah, well, how about another surprise?” He moved to the desk, planted his fists on the shiny oak top, and leaned in. “I. Quit.” As an afterthought, he added, “Asshole.”

Dyre’s black eyes rolled like oily marbles in his head. “You can’t quit. I own you.”

“If you’re talking about my soul, well, even if that were true, you couldn’t stop me from quitting. My body is still mine, no matter who owns my soul.”

The marbles in Dyre’s eye sockets became ringed with red. Dyre had a short temper, and his inner demon loved to come out to play. It was probably time to de-escalate the situation. But only a little. Slake needed the guy to be agitated for what he had planned.

“I will kill you and reap your soul long before I allow you to quit.”

What a dick. “You realize that when your employees are terrified of you, they won’t go that extra mile, right?”

“They will if they like their skin.” Dyre grinned wider, and Slake swore the number of teeth in his mouth multiplied. They’d also grown sharper. “Or their souls.”

“Yeah, about that—”

A silver flash lit up the room, and suddenly Revenant was standing there, his massive black wings, shot through with silver and gold, arched high above his back. If Slake hadn’t met the guy before, he’d be pissing himself. As it was, he still took a step back so he didn’t get brained by the careless flap of a wing.

“So,” Revenant said, his voice rumbling with such force that the expensive trinkets on the shelves rattled, “it turns out that when you own a soul, you get notified when there’s danger.” Revenant scowled at Dyre. “What were you doing to him?”

Dyre shoved to his feet. “Who the fuck are you?”

Revenant gave Slake a withering look of disappointment. “You really gave this douche bag your soul?”

Abruptly, Dyre’s skin turned black as night and horns jutted from his skull, which began to elongate as his body doubled in size. Very slowly, Slake reached under his jacket for his bloodblade, a Duosos weapon only a male of his species could wield.

“You dare to insult me?” Dyre roared. “Do you have any idea who I am?
What
I am?”

A smile so cold that it dropped the temperature in the room curved Revenant’s lips. “Do you honestly think I care?”

Every dangerous object in the room activated at once, all of them aimed at Revenant. In a blur of motion, he was pelted by various blunt instruments, struck by rays of melting heat, and impaled by sharp objects. But when it was over, he merely
tsked
, and everything went back to normal. His clothes stopped smoking, the blood was gone, and there was nothing pointy sticking out of him.

Dyre’s black skin went ashen. “What the—”

Revenant lifted Dyre off his feet. And as far as Slake could tell, Rev was using the Force, because the guy hadn’t moved a muscle.

“I did a little research on you after I talked to Slake. Seems you and Satan were pretty close. He let you do whatever you wanted with the souls you collected as long as you gave him all of your daughters. Is that right?”

Dyre stopped clawing at his throat long enough to croak, “Yes. I-I’ll offer you the same deal.”

The laughter that came from Revenant made Slake’s blood freeze in his veins. “
You
will offer
me
a deal. Really? Because from where I’m standing . . . well, I’m standing. You, however, are floating in the air and slowly strangling. So let’s try this again.” He flung Dyre into a wall, shattering artwork, pictures, and Dyre’s prized, framed awards and certificates. As the guy scrambled to his feet, Revenant advanced on him. “Here’s the deal
I
will offer
you
. Return all the souls you haven’t sold off or used for whatever vile purpose you use them for, and close your law firm.”

“And what,” Dyre ground out, “do I get in return?”

“You get to not die.”

Dyre gaped. “Are you crazy? I can’t give up my practice for nothing!” Dyre’s hand slipped behind his back. Slake opened his mouth to warn Revenant, but there was no need.

Dyre exploded. Just . . . blew into a cloud of atomized red mist that settled around the office in a gruesome blanket of gore.

Revenant sighed. “I’ve had to do that a lot lately.”

Ho-ly. Damn. “What,” Slake muttered, “explode people?”

Revenant nodded. “Turns out that when you take over Hell, people aren’t all, ‘Hey, he banished Satan, the most evil being ever, so he must be a super-badass.’ Nope, they’re all, ‘Hey, he must have gotten lucky, so let’s see if we can take him down.’” Revenant shrugged. “Exploding people really gets a message across.”

“I am
so
never pissing you off.”

“Wise.” A scroll materialized out of thin air, unrolled, and Slake recognized his signature. It was the deed to his soul. Revenant snapped his fingers, and the thing burst into confetti. “You’re free.”

“But . . . why?”

“Because I don’t like being linked to anyone.”