Demon Kissed: Book 2 of the Venandi Chronicles (An Urban Paranormal Romance Series)

by Sara Snow

  I folded my arms across my chest. “You can talk right where you are.”

  “Okay. I came here to apologize. I’ve been overprotective. I’ve been condescending. And worst of all, I underestimated your abilities.”

  My mouth fell open. I studied Carter’s face, trying to detect traces of sarcasm in his features, but I couldn’t see anything but sincerity.

  “I’m serious,” he continued. “I know it’s hard to believe that I’m actually here apologizing. I’m finding it hard to believe myself. But I wanted to clear the air between us before we left for Texas. We can’t travel together if we’re not even speaking civilly to each other.”

  “When have I ever been uncivil to you?” I asked.

  A small smile crept across Carter’s face. “Well, I can think of one incident with a flying mace. But that’s in the past. Whatever bad blood we have between us, I want to get over it. So, what do you think? Can we start over?”

  His voice was soft, his eyes fixed steadily on mine. I don’t think he’d ever spoken so gently to me. Ever since I returned to the warehouse, I’d been so busy guarding myself against him that I’d forgotten how attractive and compelling he could be.

  After he hid the truth about who my father was, it was still hard for me to trust him to be truly open.

  “I don’t know, Carter,” I said. “I’ve never been very good at starting over. I feel like once someone shows their true face, they probably won’t change. At least that’s been my experience.”

  “I know that. But you’re twenty-one years old. You haven’t had as much experience as I have. How do you know you’re right?”

  I threw my hands up in the air in exasperation.

  “See? There you go again. Putting me down for being young, for not having enough ‘experience.’ Don’t you think some experiences count more than others? I didn’t exactly have the perfect childhood. My own mother let me go. I got transferred from one home to another, never finding a family that wanted me. I was betrayed more times than I can count, and I don’t think any of the grownups who lied to me ever came back and apologized.”

  “So, my apology should count for something. Yes, I did betray you, Georgia. I didn’t share important information about your background. I knew you had extraordinary powers, and I hid the truth about where they came from. I don’t know how else to tell you how much I regret that.”

  Folding my arms across my chest, I turned and walked over to the window. The sky was still dark, and there were no signs of life in the streets around the warehouse. Beyond the streets, I could see the lights along the docks. Even though this was a rundown, neglected industrial neighborhood, I felt safe here in the warehouse.

  Soon, we would be leaving for Texas, a place I’d never been, to meet my mother Deena, the woman who had abandoned me.

  The one person in my life I should have been able to trust.

  Carter stepped up quietly behind me and took me in his arms from behind. I gasped, startled, as he brushed my long hair back and kissed the hollow where my neck met my shoulder. For a second, I thought he was planning to bite me, but I only felt his lips, soft and smooth on my skin.

  Goosebumps sprang up along my arms. I leaned back, letting my body relax against his chest. I knew I shouldn’t be letting go like this, but it felt so good to stop resisting him. The hard shell I’d been wearing melted away, and I turned around to face him.

  “You look so beautiful in this light,” he said, smiling as he lifted my hair to study my face. “Too bad the sun has to come up soon. I could stay here all night, just watching you.”

  The kiss that he gave me was so delicate and tender that I wondered if it was really Carter. The few times we had kissed before, he had seemed hungry and impatient, as if my lips were just the appetizer he had to rush through to get to the main course. Now, he was taking his time, kissing my lips, then my eyes and my throat, his lips as light as butterfly wings.

  I tipped my head back and braced my hands against the windowsill, moaning softly as his mouth grazed my collarbones. He opened the lapels of my bathrobe to cover the tops of my breasts with kisses. I arched back and let his mouth rove across my chest as he reached into my robe to caress my waist and back.

  This is going too fast . . . especially after you just kissed Jacob a few hours ago.

  As a teenager, I’d never dated much—I never spent enough time in one place or with one family to get to know the boys in school. And whenever a boy looked like he wanted to cross the border of friendship, I would back off, leaving them disappointed and confused.

  Back then, it didn’t feel safe to connect with anyone that way. If I had gotten past first base with a boy, he would have eventually wanted to see things I was ashamed of, like the cigarette burns left by one of my more sadistic foster fathers, or the fingerprint-shaped bruises on my arms left by the grabby, drunken boyfriend of a foster mother.

  It wasn’t until I met Adam that I let myself really open up to someone. He was a football player, a popular all-American blonde, but he seemed to get me. He didn’t care that I was an antisocial loner. He brought me out of my shell, made me feel beautiful and unique.

  Adam showed me how incredible sex could be. And then, while I lay comatose in a hospital bed, he cheated on me with my roommate.

  Now, with the memory of Jacob’s kisses still in my mind, I was letting Carter turn me around and walk me backwards toward my bed.

  I had no idea where this was going to take us, but I was ready to find out.

  15

  Jose

  When I opened my eyes, I felt like I was floating above my body, looking down and watching myself sleep. My face looked peaceful, which surprised me—I’d been worried about Georgia and the rest of the team since I’d found out they were leaving.

  I didn’t look like the same guy who’d slammed his head into the wall about a hundred times. During that last seizure, when the demon possessed me and spat out his prophecy, I thought I was done for.

  I had been having more seizures lately, but this time they’d really kicked my ass.

  Bebal and Abalam had told me that if I spoke for them, they’d leave the rest of the team alone. Like a dumb shit, I believed them. They had already tried to kidnap Georgia, and they had attacked Jacob. It was only a matter of time before they came to get Kingston, Carter, and Eli.

  But I was still stuck being their voice. I couldn’t go back now—they wouldn’t let me go. And I couldn’t tell Kingston or the rest of the team. I didn’t want to admit that I was the one who had let them take over my body.

  Kingston had a long talk with me last night while we waited in the ER. He had a lot of hope that Georgia and the rest of the team would pull off their mission, and that the mortal world would be saved. He explained that when anything serious happens in Paimon’s kingdom, he brings Bebal and Abalam with him. Georgia’s meeting with her mother was a big deal for Paimon, which meant the three kings of the Tenebris were sure to be there together.

  Just in time for Georgia to burn them to a crisp, and Carter and Jacob to send their remains back to Hell.

  It was going to be awesome. At least, that’s how I felt until I dreamed about Georgia’s new power. When we had our meeting in the library where she started a fire in the bowl, everyone acted like it was the Fourth of July.

  Then I had the dream about Georgia setting the warehouse on fire, and I wasn’t too thrilled about her powers anymore.

  Why would she have burned down the warehouse in my dream if she didn’t want to do that at some level? Most of the time, when I looked at Georgia, all I saw was this incredibly beautiful woman who was also good to me.

  But every now and then, if I caught her when she didn’t know I was watching, she looked like something was bothering her, like she wasn’t really comfortable. Like maybe she hadn’t made up her mind about whether she wanted to be here with us or not.

  Since that dream about Georgia and the flaming sword, I’d been having seizures at night again. I’d wake u
p with my head full of words in ancient languages, prophecies of events I didn’t understand. None of them seemed like they offered a lot of hope.

  When I found out that Eli was going to stay with us at the warehouse, I felt a little better. I didn’t want them to think I was chicken, but the truth was that I was afraid to be here alone with Kingston. I loved Kingston like a dad, but he’s not that young anymore. I worried about him, especially when he got that tired, haunted look.

  Kingston told me that if this mission in Texas worked out and the team saved the mortal realm, he could go back to being a regular angel again, not a fallen one. His soul could be restored to its original state. He hadn’t told Georgia or Carter because he didn’t want them to think this whole mission was about him.

  So far, he had just told Jacob and me because we were the closest to him. Jacob was his son by blood, and I was his son by luck.

  Kingston had found me two years ago when I was staying in a homeless shelter. My father had kicked me out of the house after I told him I was having visions about the future. I had warned him that he would get hurt in an accident at his job in the factory. The next day, a chain broke on one of the machines and hit my dad in the back, breaking bones in his spine. My father believed that my vision had made the accident happen, leaving him unable to provide for our family.

  My father said I was the voice of evil. When Kingston found me and heard my story, he told me that the opposite was true—I was a voice of good. He asked me to help him and the Venandi fight demons, who were the agents of Hell. I agreed to join them, and I moved out of the shelter into the warehouse.

  When Kingston told Jacob and me that we had a chance to save the mortal world, his eyes shone. I wanted him to be a full-on angel again, like he was before he fell.

  Kingston said I needed to trust that everything was going to work out.

  Most of the time, I did.

  Jacob

  That kiss with Georgia last night had blown my mind. The first time we made out, it was more like a couple of kids fooling around, just high on their own energy and looking to feel good. But last night, after she set that demon on fire and I brought her back to the warehouse, we had kissed like friends who knew they were turning into lovers.

  Learning about her fire power had changed Georgia’s attitude. She was suddenly much more confident, more aware of her own potential, and that made her a hell of a lot sexier. Of course, she had always been gorgeous. But in the training room yesterday and in the parking lot after that near-miss with the flying demons, she had been a total goddess.

  The cambion was all fired up now, so to speak. And just in time for our road trip.

  My alarm went off at 4:45 a.m. Georgia had asked me to wake her up early, and I knew that Carter wanted to get on the road before sunrise. His delicate complexion didn’t react well to the dawn’s early light, apparently.

  I hummed a tune under my breath as I showered and got dressed. I’d been looking forward to this road trip ever since my father asked me to go, and after that kiss with Georgia last night, I was more excited than ever to get that time with her in the car.

  Freshly showered, shaved, and ready to go, I bounded upstairs to wake up Georgia. I guessed she was already awake, because I could hear her moving around in her bedroom. She had told me she was ready to go, but she probably had more stuff to pack. Women always packed more than they needed.

  “Hey. Georgia. It’s your wake-up call,” I said softly through the closed door. Jose’s room was right down the hall, and I didn’t want to wake him up at this ungodly hour. The kid had enough trouble sleeping.

  I knocked lightly. The rustling inside Georgia’s room stopped.

  I could have sworn I heard whispering inside her room. Then, silence. Maybe she’d been talking on the phone.

  I turned the doorknob. The door wasn’t locked, so I walked right in.

  Georgia and Carter sat on the edge of her bed. Their faces were flushed—even Carter had a little color in his cheeks—and their legs were still intertwined. Shock and guilt filled Georgia’s eyes, while Carter glared like he wanted to kill me. Carter still had his clothes on, but Georgia wore only a bathrobe, and her hair looked like it had been styled by a cyclone.

  “What the actual fuck are you doing here?” Carter snarled, detaching himself from Georgia. “Do you follow me around for fun, or are you a professional stalker? If I didn’t know better, I’d swear that Paimon hired you to keep me off his daughter.”

  I held up my hands in a defensive gesture. “Georgia asked me to wake her up this morning. You’re the one who wanted us all to leave while it was still dark, buddy.”

  Carter stood up, his fists clenched. “Oh, please. You know it’s more than that. You’ve had your eye on Georgia ever since Kingston brought you in to save her from that demon. Now, every time I get close to her, you pop up out of nowhere. Your constant sneaking around is really getting old.”

  “Listen, I don’t need to sneak around to get women. Not like you, hanging out at dive bars to pick up sleazy blood donors. I’d bet a million bucks you haven’t told Georgia about that.”

  Carter lunged at me, his fist drawn back. He would have clocked me if Georgia hadn’t intervened. She sprang to her feet, tightening the belt of her bathrobe.

  “Knock it off!” She pointed her finger at Carter. “Jacob’s right. I asked him to wake me up. You two are going to be in a vehicle together for at least the next twenty-four hours. If you can’t get along, we’re going to have Hell on Earth long before we hit El Paso. And if there’s conflict between any of us, especially you two dorks, the demons will know they can divide us.”

  Georgia spun around to face me, and now her finger was pointing in my direction.

  “And you, Jacob. I know you were eavesdropping in the hallway when Carter and I had that argument the other night. That has to stop.”

  Sparks shot from Georgia’s amethyst eyes as she stared me down.

  Damn, she’s hot when she’s angry.

  I shrugged my shoulders, turning my palms upward in a gesture of surrender. “I admit it,” I said. “I was being a snoop. But if you don’t want me listening to the two of you going off on each other, you’d better tone it down while we’re driving.”

  “You need to find a girl of your own, Jacob.” Carter sneered. “You’re spending way too much time dreaming about a woman who’s out of your reach.”

  “I don’t know which woman you’re talking about,” I said. “Georgia was in my reach just a couple of hours ago. In fact, she was kissing me right outside her bedroom. Right, Georgia?”

  Georgia’s face went slack with shock. Her cheeks flushed bright red. Carter’s smug smile drooped.

  “You’re full of shit, Jacob,” he said, not sounding at all convinced. He turned to Georgia. “He is full of shit, isn’t he?”

  Georgia gaped like a goldfish. I could practically hear her weighing her options in her mind. Should I tell Carter the truth, or try to cover it up? Lie in front of Jacob, or just let this blow up in my face?

  I wasn’t about to help her out. Not after those two lovebirds had left me feeling like I’d been sucker-punched in the gut.

  “Well?” I asked. “We’re waiting.”

  Her eyes darted back and forth between Carter and me. Maybe she was trying to decide which one of us would be better in bed. Or maybe she was wondering which of us would be a better long-term bet for her heart.

  Either way, she’d be better off picking me. I was one hundred percent sure of that.

  “Jacob’s right,” she finally said, in a small voice. “I kissed him before I went to bed.”

  Now Carter was the one who looked like he’d been sucker-punched. His pale skin grew even paler, and his lips twisted as if he were trying not to puke.

  “Why?” he asked Georgia. “Why would you do that? I thought we were—” His voice trailed off as he hit the nerve that had triggered this whole scene in the first place.

  “We were what? We don’t have a
commitment,” Georgia pointed out. “We’re not engaged or anything. We’re not even officially together.”

  “That’s right, Carter,” I broke in. “You haven’t made a commitment to her. In fact, after you let Georgia walk out of the warehouse, I was the one who saved her life.”

  Carter leapt at me, but I was ready for him. I’d seen the flash in his eyes, gritted teeth, and I was more than ready to take him on. When he grabbed me by the throat, my fist was already raised to punch him in the face. I could easily have knocked him cold, but Georgia shoved herself between us and pushed him to the ground.

  “That’s enough!” she shouted. “We can’t do this! Either we work this out, or one of us stays behind, and it’s not going to be me. Which one of you is going to put a stop to this?”

  She stood between us, panting, her arms spread to keep us apart.

  I knew she was right. But I wasn’t going to be the one to back down.

  Slowly, Carter got to his feet. “I will,” he said, glaring at me. “I say we call a truce for now. But it’s a damn good thing you’re my best friend’s son. This mission means more to me than the way I feel about you, Jacob.”

  “That’s a start,” Georgia said. “Now, it’s your turn.” She looked at me. “Do you agree we can get along for the next few days, or do we end this right now and have one of you stay in Chicago?”

  I stared back at Georgia, trying to find a glimmer of the desire I’d seen in her eyes last night when I kissed her. All I could see was a plea for me to back off, to be a good boy.

  “I’ll do that for you,” I said. “And for my father.”

  “Good,” said Georgia. “Now, both of you, shake hands.”

  “Don’t push it,” Carter warned.

  “I agree. Let’s get on the road,” I said. “We’ve wasted too much time on this bullshit already.”