The Demon and the Succubus (3 page)

Movement from the doorway made Amalya snap her head around to find Jethro standing in the entranceway, a fully packed duffel in his hand.

“Is she fully energized?”

Fully energized?
If she were any more energized, she’d blow the roof off the entire building!

She glanced between the two men. Anger and irritation snapped through her as she realized Jethro was talking to Levi and not her. She stiffened, and with as much dignity as she could maintain while still sitting impaled on Levi’s cock, she demanded, “What the hell is going on here?”

Levi met her gaze. “I think it’s time for the second part of what I can do for you, my beauty.”

Amalya scrambled off Levi’s lap, not caring if she snapped off his cock in the process. She stood at the other end of the tub, the water sluicing off her as she turned to face Jethro. “What’s going on?”

Her friend met her gaze squarely and she thought she saw a flash of guilt before the familiar calm mask fell across those deep blue eyes—which definitely didn’t bode well for the situation.

“Jethro,” she said in a low tone of warning.

“Get dressed, Amalya,” Levi said smoothly as he stood, “and we’ll explain everything.”

Amalya held out a hand to stop Levi’s words and stared at Jethro, piercing him with her steady gaze until he nodded.

“According to Levi, Semiazas has escaped his prison. Lilith sent Levi to bring you back to her lair.”

“It could be a trap.”

Jethro sighed. “I thought of that, but Lilith sent him with more than just that medallion. She told him facts to convince me to help him. And he has a lot of information. He says two bounty demons are moving this way. One pestilence and one famine. Amalya, we can’t take a chance on it not being true.”

“Why did he tell you this instead of me?” she asked Jethro, pointedly ignoring the naked man in the tub.

Levi answered anyway. “We’ll need Jethro’s help in making it back to Lilith. It was necessary I gain his trust. Plus, Lilith told me you would be more likely to trust your guardian than a stranger. We don’t have time to discuss this further. Now that you have the energy you’ll need, we have to get out of here. ”

Amalya took several long seconds to absorb the shock of their words.

She’d known this day would come. Semiazas would either serve his entire term and
then
hunt down her and her sisters, or he would escape early with the same result. She’d had no illusions that this would end otherwise, but that didn’t make it any less terrifying. She raised her chin as she stepped out of the tub, grabbed a towel, and began drying off in rough motions. “My sisters?”

“No word.” Jethro sounded apologetic.

“How close?” Levi stepped out of the tub and Amalya pointedly turned away so she wouldn’t have to see his muscled body or remember what he had felt like moving inside her.

Jethro set down the full duffel and stepped inside Amalya’s closet as he spoke. “We’ve got maybe ten minutes, give or take. They must have someone on the inside because we had no early warning on this.” Anger vibrated just under the surface of his deceptively calm voice. He came back into the bathroom holding a full set of Amalya’s casual clothes which he gently pushed into her arms. “Get dressed quickly.” He met her gaze for a long moment and then brushed a warm finger over her cheek before he turned to face Levi. “Meet me at the side entrance when you’re done.”

Amalya hurriedly dressed in the jeans, tank top, and sneakers Jethro had chosen for her, then pulled the clips from her hair, letting her long, blond hair spill around her shoulders. She finger brushed the tangles out as she turned to find Levi already dressed and watching her.

“Amalya,” Levi began as he dried off. “We needed you at full strength for the trip ahead and this was the best way to get it done quickly.”

“It?” Anger and embarrassment moved through her, both fighting for dominance. She stiffened and glared up at him. “You mean you both decided that the poor, weak succubus couldn’t be trusted with very important information that concerns her, so you took matters into your own hands to trick me into sex, supposedly for my own good?”

Levi picked up the duffel off the floor, seemingly unaffected by her words or her anger. “Is it better if I paid a lot of money for the privilege of fucking you than Jethro and I making sure you would be ready before we begin this very dangerous journey?”

His reasonable tone grated against her nerves and she stared at him with all the hatred and revulsion she could muster as the full slap of betrayal surged through her. This man had given her the best orgasm of her entire life, she’d shared her private time with him and even her real self, and it had all been an act, a job assigned to him by Lilith.

“Regardless of what you may think of me, Levi, I’m neither a fool nor a woman who is ashamed of what she is or what she does. So fuck off.” She started to step away and then stopped short. “You may have considered it a freebie, but the fuck in the tub will definitely cost you, no matter what you thought when you got into this.”

Levi’s smug chuckle echoed gently around them. “I have very deep pockets, my beauty. Don’t worry about that.”

She glanced back over her shoulder as she hurried down the hall to find Jethro. “I never said it would cost you money, now did I?”

“Let’s try this
again, shall we? I can smell the damned succubus all over you, so now I just need to know where you last saw her.” Semiazas had grown tired of the man’s brave but ignorant act. He just wanted answers.

The man held his hands up in front of him as the putrid stink of fear poured off him in noxious waves. “I told you, I don’t even know what a succubus is, so I’m not sure who you mean. If you’ll just—”

Semiazas darted forward much faster than the human’s eyes could track to wrap the fingers of his right hand around the man’s throat.

When the man clawed at Semiazas’s tight grip, the demon smiled and lifted the human off the ground until his polished Italian loafers flailed above the hardwood floor.

“Let’s make this easier. Who have you fucked in the past several days?” Semiazas grinned and allowed the illusion of flames to flicker inside his eyes. Granted, it was all a bit 1970s horror movie but decidedly effective in his experience.

Understanding lit the man’s eyes as he tried hard to swallow past Semiazas’s grip. With a dramatic sigh, Semiazas lowered the man until his shoes touched the ground and then loosened his grip only enough to allow the human to speak. “Now. Where is my succubus?”

“I bought whores at each of my business stops. But I don’t know what a succubus is,” the man hissed through the limited air Semiazas let get past his grip.

Anger snaked through him and he tightened his hold on the man’s throat until cartilage and flesh gave way like a ripe tomato squeezed too tight. He enjoyed the small surge of power that snaked through him at the fear and pain swimming in the man’s dark eyes.

The sickening gurgle that rose from around the man’s crushed throat sent frustration and disdain searing through Semiazas but definitely not a penchant for mercy. “I’ve been very patient. And if you really knew me, you’d understand that’s not really one of my stronger points, if you get my meaning.” Semiazas leaned close to the man’s face and snapped his neck, enjoying the muffled crunch as bones and vertebrae snapped.

A spurt of evil glee speared through him but quickly faded when the now lifeless body slumped in his grip.

Semiazas cursed. He’d forgotten he wasn’t torturing the human in Hell, which meant rather than unlimited regenerations while the man continued to feel everything acutely, now he was just a rotting meat suit.

Semiazas opened his fingers with a sigh and let the corpse drop to the floor in a heap.

Torturing and extracting information in the earthly realm had been so much easier in the Dark Ages when people were more superstitious and fearful of everything. He’d still killed and maimed, but that had been for pure enjoyment after they’d given up whatever information he’d needed at the time, if any.

He turned his wrath toward the demon who had taken the form of the dead man’s roommate. “Tell me you found something before I strip your flesh off a piece at a time and send you back to Hell in a shoe box.”

The demon in human form met Semiazas’s gaze and nodded once. “He just returned from a four-stop business trip—San Diego, Phoenix, Vegas, and Santa Cruz. The scent of the succubus is faint, so it might have been several days since he’s seen her. I’ll backtrack to see if I can find anything on his credit card statements, but I’m betting he paid cash from the large wad he withdrew from the bank before he left.” The demon shrugged. “Apparently, he and my host only shared an apartment to split rent, not because they were friends or confided in each other.”

Semiazas fisted his hands at his sides trying to corral his temper. Regardless of what he’d threatened, killing his demons only poofed them back to Hell, which would force him to go round up more who were willing to work for him. And since he had stripped the flesh off several previously, the pool of demons who fell into that category was beginning to thin. So it was better to save his physical wrath for the humans, who were expendable and populated the planet like goddamned rabbits.

“Your Grace, he may not have known who you were referring to. Most humans wouldn’t know a succubus if one bit them on the ass.”

“Fine,” Semiazas snapped. “If you think you can do better next time, I’ll leave you to it. But find me results soon or you’ll think the torture you’ve endured for the past millennia in Hell was a holiday next to what I’ll do to you.”

The demon paled before he dissipated.

Semiazas wiped his bloody fingers on the curtains and then straightened his shirt and tie before sucking in several large breaths to try to expel the last of the adrenaline surging through his system.

He had more work to do to ensure his plan played out smoothly, and getting sidetracked by his emotions wouldn’t help him reach his goals. Although once he had those four succubus at his mercy . . . He let the thought trail off as images jumbled together inside his mind of what he could spend the rest of eternity doing to them.

Amalya
hurried down the hallway after Jethro past rooms that she might never see again. A few women glanced up or waved as Amalya passed, and she tried her best to appear calm and happy, so as not to worry them. These women had become her friends and surrogate family, even though she had always been apart from them because of what she was. They had at least made her welcome and as much as possible treated her as one of their own.

The sound of Levi’s sure footsteps behind her made her quicken her pace.

Damn both men for treating her like she was too weak to make her own decisions!

She just wished she couldn’t smell the unique musky scent of Levi’s arousal that still clung to her skin and hair. It was a constant reminder of how much neither man trusted her judgment. Embarrassment and anger surged through her to flame heat into her cheeks as she rounded the corner and nearly ran into Jethro’s muscled chest.

He reached out to steady her and then motioned Levi forward. “Time to prove your skills, Ashford. They’re closer than we thought.”

Amalya frowned as she glanced between the two men, finally realizing that Ashford must be Levi’s last name.

Jethro handed a leather-wrapped bundle to Levi who unrolled it to reveal a dozen wicked-looking silver daggers with polished black handles.

“Thanks for watching over these for me.” Levi’s tone made it clear he hadn’t voluntarily given them up as he pulled each blade out of their bundle and slipped them into tiny sheaths all over him that Amalya would never have guessed were there if she hadn’t watched him.

Jethro pulled out both his concealed carry guns and checked them—for ammunition, Amalya assumed. She didn’t like guns and never had any desire to find out more about them.

Still angry with Jethro, she glared up at him. “Do you have mine?”

Levi stared at her as if she’d suddenly grown two heads. “Your what?”

She refused to acknowledge his question and instead held out her hand as Jethro laid her sterling silver single-action switchblade in her outstretched palm. She’d had to use it last week on a supernatural customer who had gotten a bit out of hand, and unfortunately, the trigger mechanism had been damaged in the process. Jethro had used his network of contacts to have it fixed for her.

The four-inch switchblade might not be a dozen daggers or a gun, but it had saved her enough times over the few hundred years she’d carried one that she usually felt naked without it.

Levi laid a hand on her shoulder. “Do you even know how to use that thing? Those can be dangerous.”

Amalya shrugged away from his grip and opened her mouth to tell him exactly where she’d like to use her blade right now, when Jethro stepped around her to stand toe to toe with Levi.