The Devil in Disguise

by Maya Daniels

  “I’m going to…” Her moaned words end in a scream of my name.

  Her tight channel clenches so hard I’m finding it challenging to keep fucking her. She is not letting me slide far enough out so I can move. When I feel it pulsing around my length, sucking it deeper inside her, my entire world falls apart, and my sanity goes with it. The splitting roar that comes out of my mouth shudders the walls around us for as long as I keep pulsing inside her, spilling even my soul through my cock. After what feels like an eternity, I lift my head from her back where I’ve curled around her, only to see her watching me over her shoulder.

  “Well, that was a sure sign that you missed me, too.”

  My chuckle is embarrassingly weak.

  Helena

  After walking out to get a wet cloth so we can clean up, with his jeans unbuttoned and barely hanging on his narrow hips—you know, who cares about modesty around here—Eric holds onto me as if I’ll try and escape. I say nothing because I’m holding onto him the same way. Okay, fine, I’m stalling. I’m sure the entire neighborhood heard us having sex, and I’m not in a rush to see the others. Groaning, I press my face closer to Eric’s neck.

  “What’s up, cupcake?” Eric is trying to act like he doesn’t know why I dread leaving this room.

  I know that he knows why.

  Apparently, there is a cot here, and that’s where we are curled up around each other at the moment. I didn’t notice it when we first walked in. No one can blame me for not seeing anything when Eric is around. The man sucks the attention out of everything within a mile radius around him. I might be biased, but there is also no denying the guy is hot as hell.

  I snort.

  “What’s going on inside your head, Hel?” He kisses the top of my head, a habit he developed that I really like, and rubs his cheek over my hair.

  “I was just thinking that you’re hot as hell.” A surprised chuckle coming from him bounces my head on his chest. “Yes, I know. I’m brilliant like that, coming up with puns and all.”

  “I see.” His voice sounds amused, but also, I can hear the satisfaction in it.

  “We do need to leave this room, as much as I don’t want to.” Pressing my chin on his chest, I look into his eyes. His arms tighten momentarily. “I wanna see if Maddison found out something from your groupie and we need to start coming up with a plan on how to do this.”

  My joke, calling Lauren his groupie, falls flat.

  “I still don’t like it.” His gaze darkens.

  “Neither do I, but we do what we gotta do.” Shrugging, I peck his lips.

  Eric lets me lift up and sit next to him reluctantly. I’m moving around him now like he is a dangerous snake and I don’t want to startle it. I have a feeling if I make one wrong move, he will lock me up in one of the rooms to stop me from moving on with my plan.

  I seriously wouldn’t put it past him to do something like that.

  “Promise me something, Hel.” He laces his fingers through mine.

  “If I can, no problem.” I guess that was not the right thing to say because a muscle jumps in his jaw. I watch him evenly.

  “Promise me that if anything feels strange, no matter how insignificant it seems…” His Adam’s apple bobs up and down. “You’ll get the fuck out of there.”

  “That’s easy.” Smiling, I bring his fingers to my lips, giving them a kiss. “I was honest that I have no death wish. I’ll be out of there so fast their heads will be spinning.”

  “And you will not leave this realm under any circumstance.” His eyes narrow.

  I roll mine so hard at that, I can see the inside of my skull. “I might be reckless, Eric, but I’m not an idiot.”

  His lips twitch, and he frowns at that like he is upset with himself for wanting to smile. I’m funny, damn it. He should’ve laughed. So, I poke him in the ribs. His legs jack-knife on the cot and he jumps up, holding both palms facing me to keep me away.

  A wicked grin blooms on my face.

  “How interesting.” I stand up slowly, while he takes steps back, eyeing me warily. “I never pegged you for being ticklish.”

  “Helena, stand back.” His face is so serious I can’t help but burst out laughing.

  “Umm…” Tapping my lips after I’m done laughing my ass off, I pretend I’m considering it. “I think not.”

  Springing on him, I keep poking him anywhere I can reach. It’s a good thing Eric is trying not to hurt me while fending off my deadly fingers. He is cursing up a storm, laughing and growling, even snapping his teeth at me a few times and making me scream. The weight that was pressing on my chest ever since he was hurt lightens more, and the longer I listen to his deep laughter, the easier it is to breathe.

  Eric is usually serious. He has that trademark smirk that is permanently keeping one corner of his full lips quirked up, yes. But he very rarely laughs or has any fun just for the sake of it. Pretty much the same as me. So, it feels wonderful to have this moment we share, even if I would’ve preferred for it not to be in this building. His face is open, the line between his eyebrows smoothed out, and he looks much younger. If you don’t know he is centuries old, you’ll think we are the same age. Maybe him being a year or two older.

  “You okay, Hel?”

  I didn’t notice I stopped poking him and I’m just sitting here, straddling his chest and staring, while he is sprawled on his back on the floor. Smiling, I push the hair off his forehead, tracing his firm jaw, high cheekbones, nose, and eyebrows with my fingers. When I touch his lips, he kisses the pads of my fingers, and my heart gets too large for my chest.

  “I’ve never been better.” His eyebrow goes up, and I laugh. “This right here is why I have to do this. I want us to have more times like this, Eric. When we don’t fight or run for our lives. Or have to go to Hell to close portals and other bullshit.” I press my fingers harder on his lips to keep him quiet. “I know nothing can change who or what I am. I’ll never be completely safe and left alone. But I’m sure we can find a way to avoid most of the other problems if we get rid of the jinn. I feel it in my bones that I’m right.”

  He kisses my fingers one more time before removing my hand from his face gently. “You don’t have to keep convincing me; I know that nothing I say can change your mind. I’ll go along with this insanity of yours, and for all our sakes I hope it works out well.” I push off the floor, tugging him up with me while he speaks. “Because if it doesn’t…I’m not sure what I’m capable of doing.”

  “I know.” Wrapping my arms around his waist, I hug him close. “Everything will work out, though. I know it will.”

  I wish things are ever as easy as that.

  Eric tugs me along with him through the hallways. I’m avoiding everyone’s eyes as they pass by us, but my face is on fire. Maybe none of them care. For all I know, they were not even here to hear my screams, but I can’t help it. Not because I’m a prude or anything. It’s just that whenever Eric and I are intimate, I see it as something personal, something that I want to keep only between the two of us. My inability to keep myself from screaming at the top of my lungs notwithstanding.

  Monster boy, on the other hand, struts around with his chest puffed up so much you’d think they just named him the king of Heaven and Hell. He even grins at me every time he catches my eye, like he is expecting me to give him applause for an excellent performance. The performance was more than excellent, if my still-trembling legs have anything to say about it, but he can keep on dreaming if he’s waiting on me to acknowledge that in public.

  Hell to the no.

  Thankfully, we reach the room where we left the rest of our group. Eric stops at the closed door, giving me a raised eyebrow. Blowing out a deep breath, I release his hand, wiping my sweaty palms off my pants. Steeling my spine and widening my stance, I press my lips firmly and nod at him. I watch his hand as it wraps around the knob, loosening my arms at my sides. With a sharp twist of his wrist, he swings it open.

  A flurry of movement strikes through the
space, slamming at my legs, and I snitch a handful of blond curls. The Trowe is vibrating while clutching at my leg, and Eric roars with laughter. We learned the little bugger’s trick, so I was prepared for him this time instead of kicking him like a ball.

  “Mistress…” Narsi hisses in long, creepy intervals, and everyone joins Eric’s laughter.

  “Hello, Narsi.” Still holding a fistful of his hair so he can’t climb me like a tree, I shuffle awkwardly in the room. “You haven’t seen me in an hour, if that. A very long time, right?”

  “Yessss.” He looks absolutely thrilled that I’ve acknowledged my absence.

  Shaking my head, I ignore Colt especially, because I can see he is barely holding himself together so he doesn’t make a smartass remark. My glare only makes him grin more, and I’m grateful when Beelzebub punches him in the gut. The pained groan and the loud whoosh of air exiting Colt’s lungs is a piece of music to my ears. Nodding at the fallen, I smile when his red eyes sparkle with humor.

  “It serves you right,” I tell Eric’s twin, lifting my nose up.

  Even Raphael roars in laughter from that.

  “I see I missed all the fun.” Right on our heels, Maddison walks in, and all fun in the room gets sucked out.

  Not because of her, obviously, but because of the dark cloud of doom hanging over our heads. Eric sits next to me, Narsi wiggling his tiny butt between us until he gets comfortable. He still has his fingers twisted in my pants, probably in case I decide to run away from him. I can see now the Trowe is going to be a problem in executing my plan. But, first thing first.

  “Did she tell you anything useful?” Eric beats me to it.

  “She did, yes.” Maddison is still holding herself as usual, but since I stare at her too much when she’s around, I can notice the guardedness in her eyes.

  “How did you manage that?” Colt looks her up and down as if seeing someone that looks like she doesn’t want to break a nail by lifting a finger.

  I kick his foot that’s outstretched in my direction.

  “I had help.” The grin she gives him sends a shiver down my spine.

  I notice the specks of blood she has forgotten to wipe out, or hasn’t seen it maybe, on her neck and one side of her jaw. Maddison wouldn’t leave a crumb on her, little less a smear of blood. I forgot all that I was going to say about that when I follow the direction of her finger. Leviathan walks right behind her with a scowl on his face. I guess I missed him not being present thanks to the Trowe. Maybe someone should tell the dragon that he will look better if he stops glaring like that all the time, but it’ll be useless because even with his face scrunched up like that, he is too good looking by human standards. His icy blue eyes snap to mine, and I keep my mouth shut.

  “What do we know?” Eric frowns at Leviathan until dragon boy looks away.

  They are going to kill me if they all keep acting like two-year-olds.

  “They are operating from a warehouse not far from here, in this realm.” Leaning a shoulder on the wall, her arms fold over her chest. “Quite smart if you ask me. None of us would think to start checking warehouses looking for jinn like they are rats.”

  “I don’t think the jinn are expecting any of us to look for them, period.” Narsi hisses like an angry cat, so I pet his head to shut him up. “The one me, Beelzebub, and Colt fought was very cocky. He acted like an elephant staring at an ant while he was talking. I know he was sure in his head that there is nothing we can do if he decides to kill us.”

  Exchanging a look with both Colt and Beelzebub, I don’t let my eyes linger too long on them. We told Eric that we fought the jinn, we just skipped some details. Like splitting up, or like the jinn almost killing me. Okay, we skipped telling him all of it apart from we fought the jinn and we won. If he knows everything, there is no way a piece of my hair can exit this building for about a hundred years or so.

  “She said there is one jinn that’s in charge of the rest of them in that warehouse,” Maddison says, but she is too perceptive for my own good. She noticed the looks we exchanged, and I hope she doesn’t say anything. “And that Mammon spends most of his time in this realm there.”

  “We should go scout the place first.” Everyone perks up at that, including Narsi. “I just wanna know if that one jinn that Lauren told you about is the one that looks like me, or we are dealing with a lackey.”

  “If we get lucky”—Beelzebub claps his plate-sized hands, making me jump before he rubs them gleefully—“we might get our hands on that fucker Mammon. I want to show him why he needs hordes of demons between us so he can fight me.”

  Colt and Leviathan get vocal at that, I guess it’s a sore spot that Mammon got us all bloodied before we got our butts out of Hell. Eric joins in their enthusiasm, too. I watch Raphael from the corner of my eye, and my chest warms up when I see him nodding and getting involved with everyone else. I can’t imagine it being easy on him that he is all alone, one of his kind in the middle of us here. His yellow eyes turn on me, and he smiles like he knows what I’m thinking.

  “This is my fight too, Helena. We are all in this together, and I see no one here as below me just because I come from Heaven. They are trying to destroy all of us, and I’m sure many of my brothers and sisters would join given a chance. They just don’t know who to trust right now, and I cannot blame them. Heaven was in flames when I escaped with my life.” My eyes burn with unshed tears at the sadness on Raphael’s face as he hangs his head.

  The new shock of the century comes when Eric grabs Raphael’s shoulder, squeezing reassuringly. “We will get the fuckers. We will clean them all out of Heaven and Hell.”

  None of us believe it’ll be that easy, but it’s nice to hear it. I smile gratefully at Eric.

  “What are we waiting for then?” Pushing off the floor, I almost fall back on my ass because Narsi is still playing a koala on my leg. “Let’s go see what we are dealing with.”

  We have to split up in groups because Maddison apparently has an army of demons at her beck and call that none of us knew anything about. Eric knew about them, but he didn’t think she still had them around, considering the situation. He was wrong. Staring with my mouth open, I watched the groups of ten to twelve huge horned demons disappear in the darkness. We had to wait for a few hours before leaving the safe house for the night to fully cover Atlanta, and the time is finally here.

  It’s really odd not to feel the repulsion that would typically pass through me when looking at demons. I watch them blend in with the night, finding myself hoping they are safe and don’t get killed. I’m not sure if it’s because I know Eric’s true form now, or because after spending time in Hell and seeing myself in another person numbed me to everything else. It’s funny how perspectives change.

  Stranger than that is seeing George and Cass watching the whole thing without blinking an eye. They are hunters like me, yes, but neither of them has demon blood in their veins. Yet, I see them nodding at some of the demons like they are friends. I guess it’s true when we say the enemy of my enemy is my friend. But no one here is my adversary. Not unless they try to hurt humans in any case. Even now, I’ll have no problem introducing them to my dagger.

  When the last group of demons disappears, George and Cass join Colt, Raphael, and Beelzebub, and all of them take off down the street at a jog. Eric takes my hand, and we follow swiftly with Maddison, Leviathan, and Narsi on our heels. I hope the Trowe keeps quiet or we might get in a ton of shit. Reaching at my back, I assure myself my dagger is there. We don’t plan on fighting tonight, but you never know. All sorts of creatures are walking the streets of Atlanta now.

  “Three blocks down and head to your right. The warehouse is all the way at the end of the boulevard, facing a hill,” Maddison whispers softly before she and Leviathan whir off from us and are gone.

  “I should’ve fucking known,” Eric grumbles as we speed up. “It slipped my mind.”

  “Known what?” Breathing through my nose, I try to keep my heart rate steady.<
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  “I know the place we are going.” He releases my hand so he can clench his fists, and Narsi snatches it like a spider monkey. “I was watching the place the night I found you in that damn building.” Another growl is followed by a couple of curses. “Maddison was with me that night…well, the damn jinn impersonating her.”

  “Now that we know the jinn don’t want me dead, I think that bomb going off was meant either for you or Raphael.” I think I’m going to puke just thinking about it. They almost killed Raphael.

  “Yeah, well, too bad for the fuckers both of us are alive.” Eric puts a burst of speed in his anger, and I follow him, huffing and puffing like a freight train.

  Damn it, aren’t I an abomination? Shouldn’t it come with the same perks too?

  Turning down the boulevard Maddison told us about, I can already feel that things are not as they should be. My internal GPS goes haywire, alarms blaring in my head. Even Narsi whimpers, but I’m starting to think that he does that when he is reacting to my distress, or any strong emotion. Tugging him so he moves faster, I keep running. Eric has already put some distance between us, and I will hate to be the last person to get there. Especially with all my bravado on infiltrating the jinn.

  We are almost there when all hell breaks loose.

  Demons similar to the ones we fought in Hell come out from everywhere. If I didn’t know better, I’d say they were waiting for us. But that would mean we have a jinn in our close group and I’m sure that we don’t. Or I could be wrong since they did trick us a few times and not just once. Narsi yanks on my hand hard, bending me down just in time for my head to avoid the large boot aimed at it.

  “Thanks, Narsi.” With a round kick, I send the demon flying into a few of them behind him. “You are a number one sidekick.”

  I feel Eric’s back on mine when he materializes next to me. Sliding the dagger out, I ignore the screams and crunching sound coming from where I know Narsi is. I don’t even look because one, I can hear him hissing like he’s deranged, and two, because I know he is probably eating some of them. My stomach lurches at the thought.