Satisfaction Guaranteed (33 page)

"Everybody hates me. I'm the devil. It comes with the job description." Nick stood up and patted me on the head. I kicked him in the shins with the pointy toe of my strappy come-fuck-me shoes. He just laughed. "I like your style. I always have." He turned serious then. "You're capable of this, Edana. I am not setting you up to fail. I want him stopped and I want him stopped now, before I lose any more demons to him."

I blinked at that. How many had this bad-ass Nephilim tagged already? It had to be pretty bad for Nick to get personally involved. He might be the devil, but he didn't micromanage. If he wasn't leaving this matter to one of his lieutenants to handle, if he'd taken on the task of assigning me to deal with it himself, matters were serious.

It was like a bad joke. Hell had a serious problem, and
I
was the one getting sent to deal with it. Armed with my Frederick's of Hollywood wardrobe.

"Do silver bullets work on Nephilim?" I asked.

"No." He tweaked my cheek. "Arm yourself with feminine wiles. They're more powerful and much more lethal. Go shopping."

"Damn."

"That's what you are," Nick agreed in a cheerful voice. "Go damn him, too."

"Right," I said, my lack of enthusiasm palpable. I didn't even wiggle my ass at him as I left the room. I was too depressed. Instead, I peeled out of the panties, kicked off the spike heels and left the items scattered behind me as I headed for my computer terminal. Since the ambient temperature in the office was always measured on the Kelvin scale, clothes were the last thing I needed.

Hell's Internet crashed frequently and without warning, and if that didn't cause me enough aggravation the computer would blue-screen periodically. Shopping for this job could take a while. Which was fine with me. My afterlife as a succubus might not be perfect, but it beat nonexistence. I wasn't in a hurry to cease to be.

Although arguably nonexistence isn't really possible. I've heard enough theologians going on about this one to have heard all the points and counterpoints on that debate. Demons can assume physical form, but in our native state, we're energy. Energy can't be created or destroyed. So how can we cease to exist?

I don't know the answer, but I know nobody's been able to contact a banished demon to find out if they're still self-aware and if they've retained consciousness. My best guess is that energy can be used up, and the prospect of a blast from a powerful Nephilim aimed point-blank at me didn't fill me with positive thoughts.

My best hope was to strike first. Get him before he got me. Do unto others and all that.

Before I started browsing for battle armor in the form
of my chosen undress uniform, I did some research to see what I could dig up on the Nephilim. What little I knew wasn't nearly enough to help me spot possible vulnerabilities I could exploit. Still, all men had their weaknesses and I'd had a lot of experience in using those weaknesses to my advantage.

I learned they'd been known as giants among men, much taller and stronger than their purely human counterparts. Their race had also been credited with bringing the knowledge of magic to humans. The epic of Gilgamesh documented the heroic exploits of one member of this not-so-lost race. Those recorded deeds were enough to make me feel chilly despite my location. Gilgamesh had been one historic bad ass and he'd gone after the first succubus, Lilitu. She'd survived and escaped, but he'd come out the clear winner in that contest.

Great. As far as I could tell, I was going up against a sorcerous warrior giant. A powerful being with supernatural abilities and human form with far greater than human strength.

And due to the mixed nature, a soul.

The soul and the human form might make him somewhat vulnerable to me, but I didn't like the odds.

"Seduce him," I said out loud. Right. Because he wouldn't see through a succubus and know it was a trap.

Done with my depressing search through the pages of history, I switched my attention to my current files. Nick would have sent me the information on my target and I wanted to know my enemy.

His name was Eli Moss. His face . . . well, his face would have made me take notice even if I wasn't a being
who subsisted on sexual energy. I can't really say he was handsome in the classical sense of the term, but he was certainly compelling. He had animal magnetism and it showed even through the computer's display.

The mixed heritage altered features in a way that would look exotic to human eyes but not abnormal. Just more rugged, harsher, more beautiful in purely a masculine way. More jaw and cheekbone than your average man, deep-set hazel eyes that seemed too aware, too knowing. He wore his black hair shoulder length with two small braids on each side, an unusual style in modern times. The hairstyle emphasized his features.

Oh, and he was really big. All over. A giant among men, indeed. I couldn't help it, I felt my nipples tingle and a distinct flare of heat in my midsection as I considered the total package.

And that was just the effect of graphical rendering. What impact would he have in the flesh?

I licked my lips and considered my mission. He was either going to be a feast for my demonic senses like no other, or my downfall. If I allowed him to distract me, guess which was more likely?

"You seem a decent fellow," I said to his image. "I hate to kill you." The line from
The Princess Bride
earned me a reprimand in the form of Barry Manilow's hit "Mandy" pouring from a hidden speaker. I scowled in the general direction of the source of the music, if you could call it that. I knew better than to complain out loud, though. I'd only get something worse.

I wouldn't actually be killing him, I thought, as I studied Eli's face. He was half angel. The loss of his human soul
would mean what, exactly? I couldn't find any precedent in the records. As far as I could tell, angels and demons alike had left the Nephilim alone. I didn't even know they still existed, which meant at some point they'd passed into the collective realm of myth despite the fact that they demonstrably were still around. Why?

Whatever the reasons, the centuries-long agreement to ignore each other, to live and let live, had ended with this Eli. By binding and banishing demons, he'd forced Nick to take action.

And lucky me, I was the official response. Too bad I wasn't being sent as an ambassador for peace. I didn't think there was enough underwire in the world to distract this man from my nature. He'd see me coming and I'd be toast.

I started shopping for the perfect outfit to wear to my funeral. If I was going out, I'd go out fighting and dressed to kill.

For reasons possibly known only to him, Eli lived as close to the middle of nowhere as it was possible to get in America, in a tiny Washington town of three thousand people surrounded by Olympic National Park. Oh, and it was also the wettest spot in the continental United States, with an average of one hundred and forty inches of rain a year.

I hated rain.

Fortunately, the black leather miniskirt and matching bustier I wore would shed water, and I had a black leather trench coat to help keep me dry. My thigh-high boots would sink up to the heels in mud if I had to do any walking. I made a mental note to avoid that.

I would stand out like a sore thumb among the loggers
who made their home here. I also wouldn't pass for a visiting hiker. Tourists might come from all over the world to visit the Olympic Peninsula, but they dressed for camping and fishing, not seduction.

I wasn't trying to blend in, though. I wanted to get Eli's attention. If I couldn't arouse his sex drive, I wanted to arouse his curiosity. He would be smarter than the average human, with his mixed heritage, and while that probably meant better physical self-control, it also might mean he'd get overconfident in his ability to put mind over matter, so to speak.

None of the demons who'd fallen to this Watcher had been a succubus. It was actually a smart move on Nick's part. Send a seductress who might slip under his guard instead of a warrior whose presence could only mean a direct challenge.

Besides, he might hesitate to hit a girl. You never could tell.

That's right, think positive. I parked my jeep on the private road that led to Eli's sprawling log cabin retreat in the woods, popped the button that opened the hood and counted to one hundred. Figuring I'd timed it about right, I shrugged off my trench coat, climbed out, and went around to bend over the hood.

With any luck, Eli would be along right about now. I planted my feet shoulder-width apart and dipped my lower back to emphasize the curve of my ass and make the short skirt ride up higher. I wasn't wearing any underwear. The odds were stacked against me as it was, I didn't see the point in pulling my punches.

I heard the low growl of an engine coming up behind me. I resisted the urge to turn around and look. The motor stopped, and booted feet crunched in the gravel. A rough
voice that sounded as gravelly as the drive said, "What's a nice girl like you doing in a place like this?"

I turned my head and gave him a slow, knowing smile over my shoulder. "Who said I was nice?"

Eli Moss was even bigger in person than I'd expected. He was at least seven feet tall, and built to scale. Even with towering heels, I was a shrimp next to him. I wasn't a true demon, after all. I'd started out as human and in my current form I was still human small.

He tilted his head and considered my answer. He took his time looking over the picture I made, my skirt showing off the lower curve of my ass and the soft flesh between my thighs.

"Naughty girl, are you?"

"Yep." I arched my back to give him a tantalizing display of pussy before I grasped the leather hem and pulled the skirt up higher to bare one side of my butt in invitation. "Very naughty. Want to spank me?"

"You'd like that, wouldn't you?" He smiled at me and I felt it like a punch in the gut. I actually sucked in a breath. How could he be terrifying and still make me want to get closer at the same time?

"Yes." I figured I might as well be honest. I was lust incarnate, after all. And he was something I'd never expected to encounter. My hunger stirred. He would feed me and feed me, able to last longer than any human male. Unless he destroyed me first.

Eli laughed and walked up to me. He planted the palm of one large hand on my butt cheek. "Then I'll have to find another way to punish you."

That sent a shiver of ice through my veins. There were far too many ways he could punish me for me to mistake the threat for a joke. "Wouldn't you rather spank me?" I asked. My voice dropped into a lower register.

"No." He stroked the soft skin of my butt, not lusting, just contemplating the options. His hand felt warm against my skin in contrast to the cold rain. "I think maybe I'd better bind you until I figure out what to do with you."

Oh, Hell. "If you're not sure what to do with me, I have lots of suggestions." I knew it was hopeless, but I had to try.

"I'm sure you do." He gave my bare ass an almost affectionate pat. Then Eli spoke in a language the world hadn't heard since before the time of the great flood, when all the earth's languages were one language and the Nephilim lived openly among humans. When he fell silent, I was bound.