Demons are Forever

by Wynne Hayworth

Lian straightened, marshalling her thoughts. “It was the cold, I think. Before that, he was just a regular john looking for action. Young, handsome, definitely some oriental background. He had an AG mark, but nothing leaped out at me. He was exactly what you’d expect under the circumstances.” She thought about that. “Which explains why he had no trouble getting himself a Pet or two. He was all about the sex. And he handled it well, making everything clear up front, not jumping on the girl or being violent in any way. He was there for one thing and one thing only, as far as I could tell.”

  “Okay, that answers a few questions.” The captain nodded. “Then what? You up to walking us through it?”

  “I guess.” Lian took another drink. She was tired—as exhausted as if she’d run a marathon. But she knew all too well that if she didn’t cover this ground now, there might be details she’d forget later.

  “We talked. Not much. He got naked and got onto the bed. It sort of progressed from there as you’d expect. But then…” She paused.

  “Then what?”

  Buck gently encouraged her, probably not even realizing he’d taken her hand. But she did. The warmth of the gesture helped her continue. “Then I did my best to ramp up his arousal level. I worked with the assumption that the creature would change before orgasm. So I had to get him to that point. And as he got really hot under the collar, the air temperature started to drop. I remember shivering…”

  “That’s when you told me over the link you were cold.” Buck’s fingers tightened around hers as he turned to the captain. “I’d sensed that cold, Cap. I dropped everything and went running.”

  “That much I know.” The captain raised an eyebrow. “Let’s hear what Dr. Herrick did while you were breaking land-speed records.”

  “Sorry.” Buck subsided.

  “The cold helped me focus.” Lian swallowed. “He was all for fucking me, getting ready to—to—penetrate me. I didn’t want to give myself away too soon, so I just kept going, turning up his furnace, loosely speaking.” She stared absently at her hand, entwined with Buck’s, as she organized her thoughts coherently.

  “He was there, on the edge. I could sense it beginning for him. Then the cold got really bad and he started to sort of shimmer. His head first, shifting, changing, blurring to where I wasn’t sure what I was seeing.”

  “It was the basilisk then?” The captain sought confirmation.

  “Yes. As soon as I saw the eyes take shape, I knew it was him. And it was happening quickly, although it seemed like it was taking forever. Does that make any sense?”

  Buck nodded. “Yeah. I know I got there within seconds, but to me it was hours.” He squeezed her fingers.

  “Anyway—” she flashed Buck a tiny smile and continued, “—the claws were out and flashing and I managed to reach my pendant.” She touched it where it lay on her orange shirt, a tiny green disk that otherwise would have gone unnoticed. “I hit the on switch and damn if it didn’t work.” She turned. “We owe Karl a real big vote of thanks for this one. I’d have been dead meat without it.”

  Buck glanced at his boss. “It’s basically some sort of DNA interference signal. It can’t stop the process, but the shift takes longer. Prototype. Top secret.”

  “Riiight.” The captain lifted an eyebrow. “It worked. That’s all I need to know.”

  “So I froze him, sort of.” Lian pursed her lips. “And we stared at each other. It was the weirdest thing. I didn’t sense much of anything from him other than a need to get inside the nearest warm—er—well, you know.”

  “Got it.” Buck snapped out the words. “Move on.”

  “Honestly? If I hadn’t known the danger, I’d have let him. If I’d been a Pleasure Pet, there wouldn’t have been a damn thing to tell me that he wasn’t just shifting into his AG entity. No slavering, no tearing his claws into my skin and lapping the blood—nothing. I have to assume the urge to kill is released with his orgasm. And I froze him before it could happen.”

  She sighed. “And then I pulled my gun out from under my pillow and shot him without a second thought.” Lian gulped. “God help me, I killed him.”

  She began to shake as the realization of what she’d done crept from the recesses of her mind into her consciousness. “I could feel my finger on the trigger. And all the time it just stared at me, like an inhuman statue. And then there was this loud bang and I knew I’d gone and done it and there was a hole in his head and blood—and then more blood—”

  “It’s okay, babe. It’s okay.” Buck slid his chair close and put an arm around her. “Cheney and I got there within a second or two. We took care of what was left. But I reckon she’d done the job for us, Cap.”

  The captain nodded. “We owe you a debt, Dr. Herrick.”

  She shook her head. “Buck and Cheney would have got him. I didn’t need to shoot him. You were there, Buck. You could’ve done it.”

  “That’s debatable.” Cheney walked in unannounced and pulled up a chair. “Figured you’d want what we got as soon as we got it, Cap.”

  Cheney looked as tired as the rest of them, as if a weariness of body and spirit had cloaked them all in shades of grey. Lian turned to him. “What do you know? Any news?”

  Cheney’s eyebrow lifted a little in amusement and his eyes twinkled with a suppressed laugh in spite of the lowered lids and the deep creases at their corners. “It’s taken some time to get it all straight, Doc. There were a lot of—um—side effects to your hoochie coochie broadcast.”

  She blinked. “Huh?”

  Buck snickered as Cheney cleared his throat. “How can I put this delicately?” He thought for a moment. “You were sending out a pretty strong signal, if I can call it that. It got the job done. But it sort of swamped everyone within a couple of hundred yards radius. We had multiple orgasms. A lot of multiple orgasms. There was…” Cheney coughed politely into his hand to hide his laugh. “Considerable coming and going.”

  “Oh good lord.” Lian let her head rest on Buck’s shoulder. “You’re kidding, right?”

  Buck shook his head. “Nope. When I was carrying you out, you could hear the screams in just about every damn room.”

  “The line stretched around the block before we closed the place off.” Cheney was grinning hugely. “Even our guys.” He cleared his throat. “Well, let’s just say they’re professionals, but they may have some explaining to do when they get home tonight.”

  She blinked again.

  “The fact there’s a giveaway on the front of their pants, honey.” Buck whispered into her ear.

  “I was that strong?”

  “Yep. We’re going to have to figure out some kind of cover story, Cap.” Buck glanced at the man who was doing his best not to chuckle. “Don’t want it known that Lian here has a siren’s song that can get a man hard across half a mile or so.”

  “Quite.” The captain nodded and shuffled a few papers awkwardly on his desk. “Anything else, Fisher?”

  Cheney sighed. “Yeah.” He pulled out a small data pad. “Forensics is bringing in the remains, of course. But they got an initial DNA sample and ran it on the spot. Came back positive to a Weng Chu. Guy owns a laundry on the far side of the Bogs.”

  Lian frowned and stared at the photo Cheney was holding up on his pad. “That’s not the man who came into my room.”

  “It is and it isn’t.” Cheney narrowed his eyes. “He—Chu—is a shifter. I picked that up when he came through the line. So I figured he’d shifted into gorgeous hunk mode for the night. But he fit the profile, of course, so we had him under surveillance. There were other shifters, but none like him. I never sensed he was multiple shift capable. I didn’t even know there was such a thing.”

  “Me neither.” Buck sounded puzzled. “I thought it was one critter per shifter and that was it.”

  “It’s supposed to be.” Lian chewed her bottom lip. “This is new to me.” She moved slightly away from Buck and looked at the captain. “I have one request, sir, if you don’t mind?”

  “
Name it, Doc.” He smiled at her paternally. “If it’s within my power, you got it. After what you did tonight—”

  She waved that away. “I’d like a sample of that DNA. My research lab—the place I told you about—”

  “No problem at all. I’ll make sure you get some. And whatever or wherever that lab is, I hope you’ll put in a good word for us. We could use some helpful information now and again.” The captain looked somber. “We stopped a serial killer tonight, make no mistake about it. But we’ve got unanswered questions too.”

  Buck looked at Cheney and Lian and then at the captain. “Like who’s behind it? Who was pulling this creature’s strings?”

  “Yes.”

  “I didn’t pick up anything.” Lian clenched one hand. “If there’d been one iota of another presence, I like to think I’d have caught it.”

  Cheney shrugged. “I didn’t either. Thought I felt something early on, but it wasn’t anything to do with the basilisk shifter. Most likely a case of too many wild hormones in the air.”

  The captain sighed. “Okay. Go home. All of you. Cheney and Fisher—reports on my desk forty-eight hours from now. Dr. Herrick—our grateful thanks. I’ll be filing my own report with County in a few days when we’ve got more to go on.”

  Buck stood, pulling Lian with him. Cheney followed suit. “Gotcha, Cap.”

  Lian smiled at the captain. “You look as tired as I feel. You need to go home too.”

  He smiled back, a totally genuine look that changed him from a cop into a warm and friendly man. “I will. Thanks, Doc. You’re welcome here any time at all.”

  In an old-fashioned gesture that charmed Lian, he took her hand, lifted it to her lips and dropped a light kiss on her knuckles. “I can’t begin to imagine what it cost you to do what you did tonight. Just remember all the lives you saved. The women who will live now, because of you.”

  She swallowed. “Thank you for that. I’ll try.”

  “C’mon. Let’s go home.” Buck tugged at her arm.

  “Yeah. I’m getting a bit nauseous. Jeez, Cap. Anybody’d think you were human or something.”

  The captain snorted. “Get the fuck out of here, Cheney, before I decide to let you write reports for everybody.”

  “I’m gone.”

  Epilogue

  “Buck, you don’t need to do this.”

  “Of course I do. Are you nuts? You’re so tired you can’t see straight, let alone drive.”

  Cheney heaved a big sigh as he watched his partner arguing with his woman on the steps of the precinct. Buck was going to lose, sure as shit. He just didn’t know it yet. And, come to think of it, this was one time when the dude was right.

  “Lian.” Cheney drew her attention away from the irate man in front of her. “You’re exhausted. If your ass dragged any more it’d leave a trail. Let Buck take you home. Curl up together and get some sleep. Wake up and fuck like rabbits if you want to, but for God’s sake make your mind up and quit arguing. You’re both giving me a headache.”

  “But—”

  Buck grabbed her and hugged her. “You heard the man. Don’t argue with me, honey. Please. I need you beside me tonight.”

  Cheney managed not to make gagging noises. To think his partner had sunk to this. “Yeah, Lian. If you don’t, Buck’ll have nightmares and call me at some ungodly hour whimpering and begging me to make ’em go away.”

  She gazed at him with a certain touch of professional interest. “Can you?”

  “No, but that hasn’t stopped him yet.”

  “Er, Cheney? You’re not helping.” Buck glared at him then returned his attention to Lian. “He’s right though. I need to know you’re safe. And the best way is to have you where I can keep an eye on you.”

  Cheney drifted a little, letting his mind free to wander in a peaceful meadow. He made sure that image percolated through the heat surrounding his two friends.

  Lian sighed. “Okay. I surrender. I’m tired and I want to know you’re safe too.”

  Buck hugged her more tightly and dropped a kiss on her lips. Then went back and did it again, with more intensity.

  “Hey. I’m still here, ya know,” Cheney reminded them.

  “Why?” Buck didn’t look away from Lian, just separated their mouths for a second or two.

  Cheney shrugged. “No reason at all, I guess. Just like watching the two of you make out in public.” He dug for his keys. “But it could get boring real quick. I’ll see you guys around.”

  “Bye.” Buck sort of waved his hand at Cheney, but it was more of a get out of here type thing than a goodbye. Since he was now kissing Lian with enthusiasm, Cheney could understand it.

  He walked away, humming under his breath, letting the night air flood his lungs and wash away the remains of what had been one hellaciously long night.

  Buck was well and truly caught. Cheney knew him well enough to recognize the signs of a man tumbling head over ass into that weirdly strange thing poets called love. It wasn’t something he wanted or sought. Too much nonsense, fuss and bother and potential suffering went along with it, if half of what he’d read was true.

  It would be an interesting experiment to watch Buck and see how it all played out.

  Of course, Lian was one hell of a woman. Bright, attractive, incredibly intelligent and with a fierce kind of courage that had caught him totally off guard. She’d pulled the trigger on that beast without a blink, while stark naked and possessed by some kind of sexual alarm system that had aroused more people than he could count.

  There weren’t many women who could do that—he couldn’t think of one, off hand—so she earned his admiration. If Buck got himself in solid with Lian and they hooked up permanently? Cheney’d be the first in line wishing them the best and happiest of futures.

  It just wasn’t in the cards for him.

  What was in the cards was a deep-seated need to see this case through to the end. To pursue and apprehend—or destroy—the mastermind behind the killing machine. He hated loose ends. He might not keep his home tidy, but he liked to keep his professional life as neat as possible. And this was not neat. It was a job half done. Buck had shouldered the burden of this case up to now. Cheney was ready to take over.

  He strolled to his car, his thoughts meandering over the basilisk, the shape shifter who had more talents than he should have had, and the variety of ways in which he could have been created.

  If he was created. If not? Was there a mutant strain out there of AGs who possessed more than one alter ego? And how did one control one of these things strongly enough to make them kill without a blink?

  He sighed and leaned against the door of his car, staring into the dark night sky. He could call Gabrielle if he wanted to ease his lust. God knows his balls had ached enough when Lian was sending out her lures, but all that had vanished at the sound of a bullet from an old fashioned gun.

  Gabrielle was always happy to see him, smiling her pixie smile, stripping off her clothes and sprouting wings at a moment’s notice. He enjoyed taking her into magic places and fucking her every which way they could think of. Wings defied gravity sometimes and Gabrielle was an inventive little fae.

  But tonight didn’t seem like it should be a fairy night. Tonight was something else, something darker, something—something tickling and taunting the edges of his consciousness.

  He almost looked over his shoulder, then gave in and threw a glance behind him. There was nobody there, of course. But for a millisecond, he’d felt the tiniest glancing brush of—what? He opened his senses more fully, but there was nothing around him that was out of the ordinary.

  There was only the silence of the deepest part of the night.

  And an inexplicable uneasy feeling that sent a slight shiver down the spine of the tall detective leaning against his car.

  No more than twenty yards away, in the ink black shadows of a building, somebody stood completely still.

  And watched Cheney Fisher…

  About the Author

&nbs
p; Sometimes dreams do come true. Wynne Hayworth's dream has always been to write good books that people will enjoy. Stories that make them smile, even if there's blood spatter tossed into a few of ’em. Humor is, to Wynne, a vital part of life. Without a laugh or two now and again, things can get horribly depressing, thus there's always going to be a strong dash of fun in everything Wynne writes. That's her promise to herself—and her readers.

  To learn more about Wynne, please visit www.wynnehayworth.com. She loves to hear from readers and you can drop her a note at wynne@wynnehayworth.com.

  Signed, sealed, and seduced.

  His Final Seduction

  © 2009 Scarlett Childs

  When an affair with her boss wrecked her legal career, Sydney James finally admitted her sex addiction and swore off men. After a year of self-imposed celibacy, her friends surprise her with a trip to a Caribbean resort. Only they fail to mention her destination is the infamous erotic getaway, Club Carnal.

  She fully intends on fleeing temptation—until the club's hotter-than-the-tropical-sun manager puts a kink in her plan. And her celibacy.

  Moments from death, Damien Blake signed a contract with a succubus who promised to save his life…for a price. In exchange, he must use his newly granted sex-demon powers to seduce and steal energy from one hundred women. Now, ninety-nine women later—just one conquest away from freedom—he meets his final victim, the alluring, enigmatic Sydney James. Long-dormant emotions sizzle to life and ignite a fire in his blood unlike any he’s ever known.

  But when a lethal clause in his contract is revealed, Damien is forced to make a deadly decision. Spend eternity in slavery…or kill the woman he loves.

  Warning: If you like hot sex with even hotter partners, then you’ve come to the right place. Here at Club Carnal, anything and everything goes…foreplay for dinner, hands-on body massages, toys that take on a completely new meaning, girl-on-girl action—and, if you’re not careful, you might run into a sex demon. Or two.

  Enjoy the following excerpt for His Final Seduction: