Unbalanced (4 page)

Jett was there, teetering on the edge, his legs quivering, his breath stuttering in his chest and hissing between his teeth in short, sharp gasps. Then Addie felt Locan’s rhythm change as he pressed deep inside her with short, hard thrusts. He cried out; his fingers dug into her thighs and his release pulsed hot and thick inside her.

As Locan grunted with each spurt of his seed, Jett arched his back and lifted Addie with the power of his final strokes. Hard and fast and so deep she felt the head of his cock slide over the mouth of her womb, felt the hot rush of seed as her inner muscles spasmed, clenching tightly enough to hold them both inside.

Their orgasm went on and on. Lights flashed behind Addie’s closed eyelids. Her mind filled with demonic howls and a loop of shared pleasure that left her beyond sated, beyond awareness.

Long moments later, Locan slipped free of her body. Addie rolled away from Jett. His spent penis lay softly against his thigh. She half lay, half sat on the stone ledge with Jett on her left and Locan on her right.

The three of them stayed that way, eyes closed, gasping for air. Addie clasped Locan’s hand in her right, Jett’s in her left, and thought of what she’d just experienced. What the three of them had shared.

Jett broke the silence. “So . . .” In a deadpan voice, he added, “That went well, don’t you think?”

Addie felt a giggle break loose. Then another. She heard Jett’s deep chuckle. Felt Locan’s chest shaking with silent laughter until he couldn’t contain it anymore. The three of them finally gave in, lying there half in and half out of the warm water, laughing like goons.

When Addie finally got herself under control, she rolled her head back on Locan’s shoulder so she could look at Jett. “Yeah. I think you could say that. I’m sure we’ll get better with practice.”

There was a long silence. Addie looked from one man to the other. Glanced down. Jett and Locan were both erect. Again.

She clutched their hands tightly, smiled at no one in particular, and leaned back against the stone wall. Her heart was full. She felt connected as she’d never been before. This was love—all hers to give. She fully intended to keep giving it to both men, whether they wanted love or not.

From the sense of contentment emanating from both men, Addie had a feeling that what she gave, while unexpected, was more than welcome. Maybe, one day, even to be reciprocated.

It appeared all was in balance, as it should be.

Chapter 5

They slept together that night, all three of them in Addie’s big bed. Sometime during the night she awakened to the soft buck and sway of the mattress and the shadowed view beside her of Jett between Locan’s legs, Locan’s heels hooked over Jett’s shoulders while Jett thrust and withdrew in a slow, sensual, and inescapable, undeniably loving rhythm.

She watched them for a while and then drifted back to sleep with a sense of puzzle pieces sliding perfectly into place. She’d done this for them. Helped them cross a barrier that had been holding the two men needlessly apart.

Was frustrated desire part of what made them so angry with each other? She wasn’t sure, but when they all awakened in the morning, it seemed perfectly natural to take Locan’s thick ivory cock in her mouth while Jett mounted him from behind.

Even more natural when both men brought her to climax with tongues and lips and amazingly dexterous fingers. Afterward, she lay there beside them, knowing it was time to get up but enjoying the powerful sense that she finally belonged.

Not merely to Jett and Locan, but to a family. As weird as it was when she thought about it—since they weren’t even human—they were hers.

But the best part was knowing she was theirs.

***

“Try it again.”

Jett waited in the bedroom while Addie stood in the main room. It seemed simple enough the way Jett explained it. Think herself gone from here and being there. So why didn’t it work? “I’m trying. It just doesn’t make sense.”

“You’re trying too hard. Don’t think it. Just do it. It’ll make sense before too long. Trust me.”

Addie shook her head. “I hope so. Nothing else does.”

Locan popped into the room clutching half a dozen paper bags. “I’ve got dinner. You guys hungry?”

Addie slammed her palm against her forehead. “Arrgh! How do you do that?” He made it look so damned easy, slipping from one dimension to another. She couldn’t even get to the next room.

Locan merely grinned at her. Addie practically snarled at him. “Yes. I’m starving.” Grumbling, she followed Locan and Jett into the dining area. “What’d you get?”

Locan held up a familiar bag.

“Tasty Burger?” Addie stopped in front of their perfectly normal kitchen table and stared at the bags. “You got us dinner from Tasty Burger?”

“I did.”

“Fries?” Her mouth was watering. How embarrassing. “And ketchup?”

Grinning broadly, Locan sat and handed out hamburgers. Jett took one of the chairs and divvied up the bags of French fries. Addie took a big bite of her hamburger. She didn’t even try not to moan. Damn but she loved these things.

She was savoring the act of licking ketchup off a French fry when Locan interrupted. “Look, guys. I was gonna wait, but I can’t. When I went after lunch, I . . . Damn. I’ve got bad news. There are two teams missing. Beth’s disappeared altogether. Frieda and her guys are dead.”

“You’re sure?”

Jett obviously knew who Beth and Frieda were. Addie popped the fry into her mouth and just listened.

Locan nodded. “I smelled that dead meat stench and heard cursing. Got there just in time to see Frieda go down. The guys died trying to protect her. I was too late to save any of them, but Frieda lived long enough to tell me she thought Beth and her guys bought it, too.”

“Crap.” Jett set his half-eaten burger back on the wrapper. “I wish I knew what the hell we were dealing with. It’s not a normal demon. It looks like something out of a cheap movie.”

Or a video game!

Both guys turned to stare at her, but it was Jett who asked. “What did you just think?”

“The demon. I knew it looked familiar. I think it’s the same as one in a video game a guy where I used to work played. It’s called Demonikus
.
The goal of the game is to kill Demonikus before it kills you. It looks just like the one we saw, with four arms and tusks and horns on its head. How can it be real?”

“No idea,” Locan said. “But stranger things have happened. Demons exist in other dimensions. Whoever created the game might have unwittingly opened a new portal, some unexpected access to Earth. In the game, how do you kill Demonikus? How do you win?”

Addie shivered. She’d seen more than enough gruesome crap in those stupid video games. The thought that some of it could be real . . . No. She didn’t need to go there. One crisis at a time was more than enough.

“It was something really stupid.” She frowned and dug into her memory. “Fire. Let me think.” She took a big gulp of her soft drink. “In the game, Demonikus’s blood is both acidic and flammable. We’ve seen the real demon’s blood—it’s definitely acidic. When you’re playing, you get points for wounding the creature and making it bleed. Then you use your flamethrower and it burns up.” She shrugged and added sarcastically, “I mean, doesn’t every demon hunter carry a flamethrower?”

Locan shrugged. “Not all of us, but Jett does.”

“Huh?” She swung around and stared at Jett. “Where? I’ve never seen you tuck one of those into your boots.”

Jett shoved his chair away from the table, turned and stared at the wall on the far side of the room. He narrowed his eyes and fired what looked like a laser across the open space.

Flames struck the stone wall and rolled all the way up to the stalactites overhead. When Jett turned back and faced Addie, his eyes glowed red before slowly fading back to forest green.

She stared, absolutely speechless. Finally she cleared her throat. “Uh, were you planning to tell me about that little weapon in your personal artillery?”

“Pretty cool, eh?” Jett grinned. “If you’re right, Addie, we should be able to take him down without too much danger. Finish your lunch. I want you to learn how to hop between dimensions before we go, okay?”

“Can’t I learn it later?”

Jett and Locan both shook their heads. “No.” Locan’s gaze was on Jett and something seemed to pass between them. “If anything goes wrong, you need to know how to get back here. Otherwise, you won’t get a new team.”

***

She didn’t want a new team. She liked . . . no, she loved this one. Loved both her men with a depth that frightened her, given the short time they’d been together. They made her whole. Hell, she made them whole. In the past couple of days, the tension between Locan and Jett had almost disappeared.

To the point that maybe they didn’t even need her anymore?

No. She refused to go there, though she’d noticed them touching one another more often, talking quietly. They seemed at peace in ways Addie hadn’t seen before. That they cared for her just as much was obvious in everything they said or did. She’d never felt so much a part of anything in her life. They were more than a team. They’d quickly become a family.

And damn it all if she didn’t figure out how to hop dimensions as soon as she’d finished her lunch. It was such a simple thing, now that she was getting the hang of the powers Leah had bequeathed her.

She was getting better with a knife, too, though she preferred a short sword to the dagger Leah had used. Luckily, Locan thought it should be up to Addie what weapons she wore.

They were all heavily armed when they met just outside the cavern. The sky flashed with multicolored lightning and a harsh wind blew across the stark landscape. Addie took Locan’s hand in her left, Jett’s in her right.

And just like that, they stood on a dark corner beneath a busted streetlamp, not far from Addie’s old apartment.

“Do you smell him?” Jett raised his head and sniffed.

Locan shook his head. “Maybe he doesn’t want to be found.”

Suddenly Addie stared at her old apartment building. “He’s over there. I think he’s in my apartment.” She rubbed her hands over her chilled arms. “I can’t smell him, but somehow I feel like I know he’s there. How?”

Jett chuckled. “How did he get there, or how do you know?”

She jabbed him in the side with her elbow. “How can I possibly know?”

“Because you need to. That’s sort of the way most fulcrums work. And no, don’t ask because I haven’t got a clue how. Let’s go check it out and see if you’re right.” He took her hand. Locan took the other and they winked out of one spot and just as quickly winked into the hallway in front of Addie’s apartment.

She hadn’t been back since that night her life changed. The rent was paid through the month. After that, she imagined the apartment manager would just assume she’d skipped out when she lost her job. She thought of the things she’d left, and realized there was nothing of her old life worth hanging on to. That Addie was dead.

She much preferred the life this new Addie lived.

Jett pressed an ear to the door. “I can’t tell if it’s in there. I don’t want to pop in and find it waiting for us.”

Addie’s sense that the demon was just on the other side of the door grew stronger. “Just a minute.” She walked down the hall and stuck her fingers beneath the tangled branches of a potted plant struggling for life in a dark corner. A moment later, she held up her extra key. “Try this.”

Locan’s soft laughter helped steady her nerves as she stuck the key in the lock and quietly opened the door. Jett slipped through first, with Addie and Locan right on his heels.

The stench of demon was enough to turn her stomach, but the apartment seemed quiet. A small lamp she’d always left on cast a soft glow around the room. The bathroom door was splintered, as if the demon had broken in after they’d escaped.

Her bedroom door was closed. Locan slipped quietly across the threadbare carpet and opened the door. It squeaked and caught on the rug. He pushed it harder and the door swung wide.

The demon shot out through the open doorway, slashing at Locan as it shoved him aside. Locan went down without a sound, his belly ripped open. Blood spurted from the gaping wound and quickly covered his white leathers.

“Locan!” Jett screamed his partner’s name as he attacked, slashing his knife, drawing the demon away.

Addie raced to Locan’s side and pressed her hand over the horrible wound.

“Help Jett.” Locan’s voice rasped and he struggled to breathe. “I can survive this, but only if you both live.”

“Here.” Addie ripped off her jacket and pressed it against his bleeding belly. “Hold this tight.” She leaned close and kissed him hard. “I love you. Don’t you dare die.”

She whirled about in time to see Jett leave a long, bleeding slash across the demon’s shoulder, but Jett was bleeding as well. Demonikus had caught him across the back and slashed through the dark leather. Blood seeped from Jett’s wounds, but he fought like the demon he’d once been, stabbing and slashing with his razor-sharp blade, dancing out of reach of the demon’s long arms, making the creature bleed.

Addie drew her short sword and wondered why she’d thought a short blade was superior to a longer one. Too late to worry now, so she lunged forward, remembering the lessons Jett and Locan had given her, slashing hard and fast as the demon spun to face this new threat.

She sliced through one of his wrists with her short sword and the demon’s hand fell to the floor. It hissed where blood burned through the cheap carpet. More blood sprayed from the creature’s severed wrist. A few drops splashed Addie and the pain where they hit her bare skin was agonizing.

“Is he bleeding enough?” She ducked, tucked and rolled away to avoid a slashing blow.

“We need to get him farther from Locan. He’s too close to risk setting him on fire.” They were still too close when Jett’s blade slashed across the demon’s face. It howled and lunged straight for him. Jett ducked and spun out of the way, but he caught his boot on the edge of the raised fireplace hearth and went down, hard, right beside Locan.

Addie heard a loud crack when the back of Jett’s head hit the raised bricks. He didn’t move. The creature stood over both men, growling and snarling. His blood dripped in hissing spatters to the floor.

Locan shoved himself up on one elbow. “Addie, love.” He gasped through pain and weakness. “You can do it. You can do anything you believe you can do. Burn him. Don’t worry about us. You have to stop him.”

She raised her head and stared at Locan. Blood pooled on the floor around him. His eyes were glazed with pain. She couldn’t tell if Jett lived or died. Didn’t know if she had the strength to call up fire when she’d never done it before.

“Do it, Addie. Now. I love you, Addie. Jett and I love you more than life itself. For us, sweetheart. Do it for us.”

She jerked her gaze away from Locan’s beautiful face. Stared into the eyes of a creature that shouldn’t exist, and made herself see flames shooting from her eyes, a brilliant laser beam of fire.

Except nothing happened. The demon focused on her. Took a lumbering step in her direction. Locan tried to stab it, but the knife dropped from his trembling hand. Jett still hadn’t moved.

Addie took another step back, and another, drawing the thing away from her men. Luring it to her. She grabbed the lighter she’d left on the table, the one she used to set the fire in the grate burning on those cold nights—all those long, cold nights she’d spent here alone.

She flicked the switch and watched the small flame spark to life. The demon lunged for her. She reached out and shoved the flame into one of his bleeding wounds. It sputtered and went out. The demon screeched and she glared at it with all the hatred in her, the fury and frustration that this thing, this abomination had taken her men from her.

Fire flashed from her eyes, a hot, blazing beam of boiling flames that engulfed the demon in a brilliant inferno. Burning furiously, the creature stumbled toward her, grabbed for her, but she lurched out of its grasp as it stumbled. The thing went down, shrieking hideously as flames consumed it.

Sobbing, Addie reached her men.

Clutching Locan’s hand in her left, clasping Jett’s limp fingers in her right, she thought them back to their cavern.

Thought all of them home, to safety.

***

They floated together in the warm pool. Jett held her from behind with one arm around her waist. Locan was in front with both legs over her thighs. Jett held an icepack to his head, but Addie’d learned something new—shifting between dimensions healed injuries.