Soul Stripper (29 page)

S
he tossed Wills the knife, and he flipped into the air, catching it between two fingers on the dull side of the blade. He flipped it a second time and caught the handle. “I have become quite skilled with a knife over the past few years.” He threw the blade at my wall, and it landed in the center of my face on a framed picture. The glass shattered and fell to the floor like raindrops.

Lexi sighed. “So theatrical.” She gestured to the knife. “Well, go get it.”

“I prefer to use my own blade.” He pulled a serrated knife from his boot and slipped it out of its sheath.

I was still pressed up against the wall, though no hands held me there anymore. “Wills,” I whispered, my eyes brimming with tears. “All this time, it was you?” I thought of the bodies I had seen. I remembered their fear, their deaths. The way he consumed their blood. “You had sex with her—she was dead and you had
sex
with her!” My voice was a hoarse whisper.

He propped an elbow against the wall, leaning over me. “You should take that as a compliment, Pocket. She looked so much like you—it was impossible to resist.” He ran the flat blade of the knife along my body, careful not to break the skin just yet. “You murdered me. You took my life. I’m just returning the favor.”

I shook my head. “Fine. I accept that you’re angry for what I did. But why all the others?”

He pushed off the wall and flipped the knife over in his hand again, like some sort of new habit. “Killing a succubus is an art in itself. I needed to perfect it.”

“So all those women—they were just
practice?
” This couldn’t be the man I had once loved.

“In a sense, yes. But they kill, too. Sure they didn’t take
my
life per se, but they took numerous others. They deserved it as much as you—though, I have to admit . . . all this talk of your reformation made me doubt myself. You’re not quite so thoughtless with your powers as you used to be. You don’t haphazardly steal the souls of men you claim to love anymore. I respect that. But, as Lexi made me realize”—he smiled at her and she smiled back—“that doesn’t change history. If it weren’t for her in my life, I’d just be another corpse on the battlefield.”

“You.” I looked at Lexi, a hatred flooding inside of me like I had never felt before. “You did this. You turned him to a demon.”

“Yes,” she said matter-of-factly. “And I explained that none of this would have happened without your interference. I showed him what his life would have been like had
you
shown some restraint.”

I pleaded, reaching my hands out to touch his clean-shaven cheeks. “Wills.” The tears spilled out over my eyes. “I would have saved you if she hadn’t interfered. I heard you calling for me in Bastogne. I-I found your pocket watch chain. I still have it.” I could hear the panic in my voice.

His face softened at that, surprise washing over him. He took one step closer. “You have my chain?”

He wasn’t reaching out to me, but he also wasn’t pushing me away. “Yes.” I smiled at him. “Yes. Would you like it? I can get it for you.”

“That was my father’s chain. When were you planning on telling me this?” He touched my hand, and I continued to caress his face.

“Wills . . .” Lexi’s voice was a low rattle. A warning.

“Quiet!”

His sudden loudness made me jump, and he squeezed my hand slightly. There was still an affection for me; I knew it. I had seen the crime scenes, felt the victim’s pain. There was no way I could love this man any longer. But I could fake it until I got to safety.

“Wills,” I whispered again, plumping my lips slightly with magic. “Don’t you understand? I loved you. I couldn’t resist you. I needed you in my life.” I leaned in to him, my lips coming closer to his, angling for a kiss. “All of this—this whole thing, it was destiny—and now that you’re a demon, we can be together for eternity.”

He slid the knife blade over his lips like a barbed wire fencing to keep me out, his eyes full of sorrow. “Come any closer and I’ll slice your bloody lips off. “

I backed out of his personal space. “You have to believe me, Wills.” I clutched my purse closer to my body. The gun hugged against me within it.

Lexi stepped forward. “Wills, my love, are you ready? Let’s drink her blood, absorb her power. We’ll both be stronger for it.”

Wills stepped back. “I’m sorry, Monica. I don’t doubt you loved me as much as a Hellspawn could love another. I’ll admit my desire for revenge has subsided in seeing you in your new life. But not enough. You still do the devil’s work.”

“Newsflash, Wills—your ‘beloved’ Lexi is a succubus as well.
She
does the devil’s work. As do
you
.”

“Lexi gets her powers from the blood of other demons. Not from preying on humans.”

I laughed at that. “Oh? Is that what she told you?” I clicked my tongue in the same way Lexi had done to me earlier. “
Tsk, tsk, tsk
. You clearly haven’t been honest with your beau,
Alexandria
.”

“Don’t call me by my full name. I hate that,” she said through clenched teeth.

“I guess she also didn’t inform you of her undying love for Lucien, did she?”

He looked at me blankly, then at Lexi. “Lucien? The ArchDemon?”

She shook her head, her eyes calm, but the muscles in her neck were strained. “That was a long time ago, darling. Don’t believe her. She’s just trying to get out of this alive. Besides, you admitted it yourself—you’ve had other indiscretions since we became partners.” She then turned her attention to me. “And perhaps you should tell Wills about your recent developments with that boss of yours. I was in his office. I saw you two.”

“Enough!” Wills yelled, and shoved me up against the wall again. His arm was against my throat, constricting the amount of air flow. “Time to taste your power,
Pocket
.”

He sliced my cheek with his blade, a crimson stream gushing from my cheek like a wall of blood. He licked it, his tongue rough and scaly. With the lack of oxygen, my body’s natural defenses took over and the cut healed itself, closing over.

Wills pulled back, his eyes glistening red for a fraction of a second. “Wh-what just happened?”

Lexi grabbed a fistful of my hair and bent my head back to get a closer look at my healed cheek. My neck stretched backward in an unnatural way. “I thought you said you were going to take care of her! Make sure the stone absorbed the last of her powers!”

“I did, I did!” He gestured to me. “Right before our meeting, I arranged for Drew to find out about Adrienne. You said yourself—you saw her with him.” His eyes grew wide and he grabbed the back of my head, tearing Lexi’s hands away from me. He cradled my face. “You didn’t have sex with him, did you? If—if you had, the stone would have absorbed any energy you had gained back. In order to absorb power, you need to have sex in the stone’s presence.”

The night with Drew rushed back into my memory. The necklace—I had given it to Kayce that night for her hunt. I still had on the earrings, but they must not have been powerful enough to absorb all of Drew’s life force—which was why I only got a small fix off of him. I stared into Wills’s eyes in as much of a lovingly way as I could muster. There was a flicker of hope in them. Trust. If I could get him to think I was faithful, maybe he would spare my life. I nodded, my teeth clamped down to keep from chattering with fear. “No—no, of course I didn’t have sex with Drew. I’m with you. I would never cheat on you.” I had some energy left, but not nearly enough to survive a battle with either of these two . . . let alone both of them at once.

He kissed me firmly on the lips, pressing my body even harder into the wall. The taste of my blood on his tongue brought a gag up my throat.

“Well, that’s sweet and all”—Lexi sighed from beside us—“but Wills, we still have a job to do. Or do you not remember that this isn’t
only
about revenge. There’s a bounty on her head. If we don’t finish the job, someone else will down the line.”

He looked at me, regret flooding his eyes. “She’s right.”

“Wills, no . . .” I whispered. It was a moot point. He still loved me, I could see that. But he was going to kill me. “One last kiss, Wills. Can I just have one last kiss?”

He looked over to Lexi, who rolled her eyes and nodded yes. His lips brushed against mine, parted, teasing. My heart pounded against my rib cage. I lifted one hand to his face and with the other reached slowly into my bag. Making as little noise as possible, I rooted around for the gun. There was no way to click the safety off without their demon ears hearing. Once I made the choice to shoot, I’d have to do it all in a matter of seconds. As much as I’d rather shoot Lexi, Wills was the only guaranteed hit. With the gun still in my purse, I pointed it at his stomach.

Our kiss was ending. I could feel his lips finishing as he had done so many times in our past. “I’m sorry,” I whispered, the tears spilling silently over my cheeks. He tilted his head ever so slightly, a small crinkle at the corner of his eyes. As fast as I could, I clicked off the safety and pulled the trigger. The shot echoed through my small apartment and blew a hole through my purse. Wills crumpled to the floor; the bullets blessed with holy water caused a steam to rise from the wound, and he lay moaning on the floor. Before I could stop her, Lexi was on top of me. The gun fell inches from my hand, just out of reach. I shifted into something rabid, with threatening claws and teeth, and ripped past Lexi, rushing for the panic button. I barely got beyond her before my magic flickered away and I turned back into my normal human form. I grasped the necklace in my hand and squeezed, the button clicking uneventfully beneath my fingers. A heavy weight hit me from behind, sending me sprawling to the ground. Lexi flipped me over and sat above me, knife in hand, sputtering a demon tongue I hadn’t heard before.

She stabbed the knife into my stomach and quickly raised the bloodied knife to her mouth, licking the length of the blade. Splitting pain seared through my body, up my spine, and my vision grew dark. The wound healed, and I gasped a staggering breath. I reached for the gun with all my strength, but she flung my arm down by my sides and pinned them there with her knee. “Let’s see how long your strength holds up.” She stabbed me again in the stomach. And again in the ribs. The kidney. The liver. I could feel some of them healing, but my energy wasn’t able to keep up with the wounds. From the ground, things were starting to move in slow motion. Blood dripped from the wounds, gushing up my chest, pooling around the base of my neck. Some blood hit the stone necklace, and it sizzled, evaporating in a steam. Lexi paused, licking some of my blood from her fingers, and her eyes flashed red; veins rippled around her temples and jaw as some sort of dark magic took hold. She once again plunged the knife deep into my core. Sounds were further and further away. I heard distant voices, a group of voices. The stabbing stopped, and when I looked up, Lexi was no longer on top of me but standing, facing off with Jules, Lucien and . . . someone else. A stranger’s face, so familiar and dark at the same time. He looked at me, made eye contact. His eyes traveled down my body, letting them linger on my bloody, open stomach. He licked his lips, then quickly returned his gaze to Lexi. A shiver tingled down my spine. Not a stranger—I knew him. My maker, Dejan.

“You cannot win here,” Dejan said.

Lexi growled and took a fighter’s stance. “Even if
I
don’t kill her, someone else will.”

Another moan came from the floor in front of me. “Wills.” I whispered his name. He moaned again, and I heard a rustling.

I closed my eyes. Sleep seemed so close. To sleep would be Heaven.

Heaven.

A stinging on my cheeks woke me. Damien and Adrienne hovered above like two guardian angels welcoming me home. “Monica,” Adrienne said. “Stay with us. We’re going to get you help.” There was a badge around her neck, a detective badge. I reached out for it, running my bloody fingers along the crest.

“You’re a . . .” I coughed, and could see the blood sputter out of my mouth.

“I’m a cop.” She nodded. “Damien’s my partner.” She started chanting incantations that I didn’t recognize. I had very little knowledge of witchcraft and spells, but I was mesmerized by the calming tone of her voice. Her eyes swirled like two twisters, and a numbness settled over my body. “There,” she whispered, looking up at Damien, “that’s the best I could do. I’m not advanced enough to cast a healing spell on such a powerful succubus, but it should at least numb her pain for a little.” She and Damien stood, moving in as backup behind Lucien, Jules, and Dejan. It was five to one—Lexi didn’t stand a chance.

I could see the face-off, Lexi clutching her bloody knife. She knew she was no match for an ArchDemon and an angel. In a movement so fast I almost couldn’t see it, she grabbed a handful of the shards of glass scattered across the floor from my broken picture frame and threw them at the group. The glass sprayed everyone, snipping and cutting into their skin. She turned to me, and in one last ditch effort to not go down without a fight, she lunged. I, on the other hand, had no more fight left in me. I closed my eyes waiting for the pain to come; waiting for her knife to sink into my flesh one last time.

I heard Wills’s distinct voice scream, “No!” Lexi’s dagger was rushing toward my body. And suddenly like a shield, Wills threw himself on top of me. The knife sank into his back and a gunshot rang through the air. Heavy weight landed on my chest and stubble scratched at my neck. Wills’s eyes stared back at mine, blood trickling out of his mouth. “Pocket,” he managed to whisper in a raspy voice before his eyes rolled back into his head. His lungs emptied themselves of his last breath.