Demon's Embrace (6 page)

With waves of farewell, they nodded as she turned to the inner doors with Ash beside her, to be certain they were locked. She made the familiar ‘rounds’ until they finally stepped out into the cool, early fall air.

Miri locked the last of the outer doors behind them.

Pale moonlight filtered through the landscaping. It silvered the trees and bushes that framed the walkway to the lecture hall.

Ash stayed close by her side.

“Where did you park?” he asked.

She pointed in the direction of her car, halfway across the now empty parking lot. It hadn’t been that empty when she’d arrived.

The only other vehicle there now was a motorcycle, but that bike was unlike any other motorcycle she’d ever seen. It was some sort of hybrid sport/touring bike, clearly custom from the style to the paint job, just visible under the glare of the lights.

It was a beautiful piece of machinery, unencumbered by some of the sillier accoutrements some bikers liked, sleek and powerful.

Like Ash.

“What is it you’re afraid of, Ash? What do you think is going to happen? This is a college campus, I’m a professor here.”

Glancing at her, Ash said, “Last year the people who may be behind Hargrove Summoned my…friend…Asmodeus, from another plane where we’ve existed for millennia, hoping someday to return to our own world.”

The memory pained him and yet they’d gained much from it, despite it all.

Asmodeus had found his Gabriel. She’d given him and them a place in this world once more.

To secure that, Ash would risk much.

But not Miri.

Nor would his brothers or his Prince ask it of him. They would find a way. For which he was grateful. All he had to do was defend her until then.

He scanned the parking lot for the danger he knew awaited.

“Hargrove didn’t lie,” he continued. “If I’m right, the person, the man Hargrove likely works for – Gordon Templeton – is as he stated quite powerful. So powerful he dared kidnap a Federal Agent from her own apartment building without fear of reprisal.”

He had to make Miri understand the danger.

In his mind’s eye, he pictured Asmodeus’s mate, feisty Gabriel, with a fond mental smile. She was a woman to be reckoned with, truly. As was the one beside him, he was beginning to believe.

Miri knew Gordon Templeton, or rather she knew of him. Everyone did. More by reputation than anything else.

Wealthy financier, flagrant self-promoter, dedicated to the occult according to the more select circles especially the darker aspects of magic or so she’d heard. Some found him charismatic. Miri had found him disturbing. It wasn’t difficult to picture him doing almost anything. Something in his name resonated within her, in echoes of her visions.

“Gordon Templeton,” she said.

Ash nodded.

“What does that have to do with me?” she asked.

“Templeton used an ancient grimoire called the Book of Demons to Summon Asmodeus to this plane of existence,” Ash said, his hand on her elbow to hurry her, “and trap him in a magic circle.”

“To keep the Book from Templeton’s men, Gabriel – the FBI agent I spoke of – threw the Book between the rings of the circle, consigning it to one of the planes of existence. Your temporal planes. At the time it was the only alternative but the Book is too dangerous to leave where Templeton could perhaps find it again. It appears he’s now actively searching for another way to locate it. So both he and we have come to you. The question is, does he know you can see the other planes? If he does it makes you even more of a target.”

Suddenly Ash had a sense of movement around them in the darkness, of men closing in.

If they could reach his motorcycle first…

Somehow, Ash doubted those around them would allow that.

He didn’t mention that the Book had once been used to Summon him as well. And what he’d suffered for it. It was neither the time nor the place to talk about the past. If ever.

Miri looked at him, sighed worriedly. “I don’t know. It’s not something I tend to talk about much. A good search of the internet, though…?”

Nothing was truly private there. Many of her contacts with the metaphysical community took place there.

The bright orange sodium vapor streetlights illuminated the parking lot, his motorcycle and her car. Both vehicles were alone, the light harsh on them, erasing the image painted on the side of his bike.

Neither had parked close, not anticipating the need for an emergency exit. His motorcycle was closer but not close enough.

“Stay close to me, Miri,” he cautioned.

“Don’t worry about me, Ash,” Miri said as they started across the parking lot.

A part of her still didn’t believe she was in danger.

Not until the men in their black armor stepped out of the shadows.

Then she believed.

With one arm, Ash swept her behind his back to put himself between her and the intruders.

More closed in all around them.

There was no safe place.

There was no safe place to run.

“Let’s do this easy,” one of the men, clearly the leader, said. “Dr. Reynolds, if you don’t want anyone hurt, including yourself, just come with us quietly.”

“Ash,” she said, softly.

“They won’t take you,” he said, evenly, certainly.

Only over his dead body. It was there in his voice, Miri could hear it.

Looking at the grim faces of the men, her breath caught. Fear shot through her. Not for herself but for Ash.

Foresight didn’t help.

The time was here, now, the decisions made in these next few minutes, hours, days and weeks would change the course of history both human and Daemonae but there were too many variables for her to See her way clearly.

Only one thing was clear to her.

“Ash,” she said, her breath shuddering in her breast. “Go. I don’t want you to get hurt.”

 “No,” he said.

She understood. He was a warrior, he could do and be nothing else. It was no more than she expected but she’d had to try.

Looking from one hard face to another Miri knew this was as real as it got.

Most of them carried automatic weapons, Ash noted. By the way they moved they were professional soldiers, mercenaries, skilled in battle and not hired thugs. Likely Hargrove had called them in response to him and to Miri’s threat to call security.

Yet another sign Gordon Templeton was behind this.

He knew it was unlikely they’d shoot Miri, they wanted her too badly but they weren’t going to get her without going through him first.

Far stronger than these in whatever form he wore, his Daemonae body could sustain a great deal more abuse than men, as the priests had found. However, there was enough iron in those steel bullets to do a lot of damage both to this form and his natural one if they lodged anywhere within him.

 He thought he might have a way to…unsettle…them first and perhaps gain an advantage. They might have been warned about him but it was unlikely they’d never truly seen one of his kind in the flesh. Few had survived their last encounter.

“Miri,” he said quietly, “when I say go, run to my bike.”

The only other vehicle in the lot it was much faster than hers or most cars, more maneuverable, more vulnerable, too, but easier to get onto and get moving.

He glanced over his shoulder quickly. Miri nodded.

Turning, Miri faced the approaching men with her hand against the solidness of Ash’s back.

Fabric tore.

A shiver of magic washed over her skin and she felt armor come between her hand and the hard muscle beneath it.

To her astonishment, great leathery wings unfolded from his back to each side of him and her. Seeing them in vision and seeing them for real were entirely different. Those wings spread like the fingers of a hand and a long sinuous tail curled around her waist as if to assure him she was still there, safe behind him.

Startled, she turned her head to look over her shoulder and her breath caught, completely and utterly, in amazement. She’d seen it in vision, it was nothing to the reality.

Beauty didn’t even begin to describe what she saw.

Ashtoreth was incredible, magnificent in his true form, ancient and primal. Every part of her body reacted to him, her pussy clenched automatically in a rush of pure animal lust as appreciation shot through her at the sight of him in all his masculine glory.

Scarlet armor covered almost all of him. A helmet shielded his face, while the linked mail secured at the edges protected the nape and sides of his neck. More armor covered his chest, thighs, shins.

In his big hands was a sword straight out of her fantasy, the wavy black surface of it rune-covered. His big hands clenched on the wrapped leather hilt. Every muscle in his magnificent body, those of his back and what she could see past his wings, were rigid, clenched in preparation for battle.

He was shockingly fast.

Ash moved/

The surprise of his shift was enough to startle those around them as well, taking them aback for one fatal second. Clearly whatever they’d expected they hadn’t expected this.

Two steps and he spun. His sword flashed to separate one of the men from his gun. Along with the hand that held it.

Still there were a good number more of them than of him.

“Go,” he said.

For a moment, Miri was frozen. She could only watch him, incredulous.

He moved like the panther she’d imagined him to be, powerful, swift, precise, with no wasted movement, stunningly graceful and fluid. Now she truly knew the meaning of the phrase ‘poetry in motion’ as he moved to the attack in that precious moment of astonishment. He moved like water flowing, like trees bending. His sword caught the moonlight, flowed like a wave, not stopping as it cleaved through metal, bone and flesh. Blood sprayed, dark in the harsh orange light. It was incredible to watch.

Then she shook herself, did as he asked, and
ran.

They opened fire, closed on him.

A part of Ash thrilled to the simple joy of battle with worthy opponents. Were it not that the situation was so dire, that so much depended on him, and he wasn’t so severely outnumbered, he might have enjoyed it more.

They’d clearly been warned about him, they weren’t taken completely off guard. It didn’t take long for the men to recover from the initial shock of his shift. If they hadn’t believed in demons before, though, they certainly did now.

Bullets hammered into his armor, each a blow. One or two seared over his skin.

For all his speed, for all his skill, there were just too many of them.

A glance over his shoulder as they closed sent a chill through him.

Miri saw the men move to intercept her even as Ash fought the others. With her hand in her laptop bag, she pulled it off her shoulder and ran for her life, not bothering to hide from them the fear she felt as they closed on her. She had a surprise for them all.  She waited for her moment, knowing what agony it would be for Ash to see the men drawing close to her but she needed them close.