Paranormal Magic (Shades of Prey Book 1)

by Margo Bond Collins

  “Who did this to you?” Concern filled her features, causing Grace to let out a wail. Naomi reached for me, her fingers tracing the bloodless welts before her gaze met mine again. “Lucifer?” she asked in a hushed voice.

  “I honestly don’t know,” I said. I had no memory of anything but mind-altering drugs and kinked-out sex. Lucifer’s offer surfaced, the seductive whisper, my consideration, the pain... and everything snapped into place.

  My eyes widened and my grip on the doorframe tightened.

  In a manner of speaking, I had come so close to being royally fucked. The thought produced a high pitched laugh and I ran my hand through my hair. Sidestepping Naomi, I headed to my bedroom, closing the door on the questions in her eyes.

  No wonder everything hurt, those girls were possessed by more than just drugs, and the things they did brought me to my knees. Before they turned the tables on me, I ravished the depths of their pussies, their asses, and their mouths, coming more times than humanly possible.

  I vaguely remember lounging in the chair, while Jenna sprinkled what I thought was coke in my lap. She put a light layer on her breast and pulled my mouth toward her. The white powder numbed my mouth and brought me back to relative consciousness before sending me into orbit.

  They had an array of toys and while I seemed to float in and out of awareness, they played with their toys, pleasuring each other until their moans drenched me. I recall drinking from something they handed me and then whispers filled my world, warning me, telling me to wake up, but I ignored them, letting the numb pleasure take over.

  I woke at one point with my wrists tied behind my back and the rope nearly strangling me. Jenna had my ear between her teeth and her hand around my cock while her friend sucked and sucked like I had the secret to immortality hidden in my dick.

  My drug induced haze cleared when her hips pressed against my backside and I realized I was the benefactor of one of her toys. I struggled, choking on the pressure from the bindings, my body tingling back to life from her vigorous thrusts. There was no pain, and a different level of ecstasy gripped me. Jenna’s grunts mixed with the others and my entire body seized, my orgasm flooding the mouth of the sucking queen.

  Jenna’s hands ripped across my chest, drawing the crisscross pattern Naomi saw and she didn’t slow her pace. The ominous whisper in my ear, along with the pain in my chest, brought me to another brink; a brink filled with empty promises as her nails slid into my flesh.

  How I wanted to say yes, the idea of ravishing Naomi, taking her any way I damned well pleased was so appealing, even though I knew how wrong it all was. I was so close to giving in when another mouth latched onto my hardening member, sucking me into submission.

  My father’s voice filled my head with a warning that overshadowed everything else and the rope holding me hostage snapped.

  I had the wherewithal to yank her hand from my chest and buck her off before the word “no” slipped from my lips. Jenna’s cheeks flushed in anger and then her friend pushed me against the wall, resuming the task of swallowing every inch of me. My eyes rolled back with the next wave.

  I didn’t remember anything after that.

  I sat down on my bed, aroused at the memories and disgusted with myself for being such a fucking freak. Demons sure knew how to take advantage of a guy when he’s down.

  My bedroom door opened and Tom stared at me, his eyes widening at the raw scrapes crossing my chest.

  “Why didn’t you tell me she was a drug-crazed bitch in heat?” I asked. I couldn’t help the flare of anger that surfaced and he closed the door behind him.

  “Drugs?” he signed and cocked his head.

  “Yes. She was a regular fucking drug store.” I pulled my pants on, zipping them up before meeting his gaze.

  “Like what?”

  “Pot. Coke. She had pills, too, but I have no idea what they were.” I stared at him and then dropped my gaze. “Hell, they could have been roofies for all I know,” I added and opened the bureau, pulling out a sweater and slipping it over my head. “And she wasn’t alone.”

  Tom’s lips stretched into a grin that just fueled my anger.

  “Did you know she has toys, too.”

  His eyebrow shot up in the silent question and I saw a little of his memories as he thought about his experience with Jenna. It was eons tamer than what I experienced, without a toy in sight.

  I laughed.

  “In comparison to last night, your roll in the hay with her was nothing more than a boring workout,” I said and his mouth popped open into a small ‘o’ of surprise. “Yeah, imagine three girls and every conceivable position you can think of, and then add a half a dozen more that you’ve never dreamed of,” I said and he grinned. “It’s not grin worthy, Tom. Fucking three girls while in a drug-induced haze isn’t something to pat me on the back for.”

  His smile dropped. “You got wasted?”

  “Out of my god damned mind.” I ran the brush through my wet hair, slicking it back before turning and facing my brother. “And I’m not sure it was Jenna.”

  His brow scrunched. “What do you mean?”

  “I think she and her friends were possessed by more than just the drugs.” I looked out the window at the ocean. “Maybe I was, too, for a bit.” When I turned back in his direction, his arms crossed and he waited for more of an explanation.

  “It seems the devil wants my soul.”

  Tom shrugged. “The devil wants everyone’s soul,” he signed.

  I couldn’t argue with him there, but he didn’t understand exactly why Lucifer was targeting me. “He wants me because I can destroy Damian and deliver Naomi and Grace to the twisted fuck.”

  Tom’s arms slowly unfolded and his eyes widened as the scope of the devil’s tricks unfolded in his mind.

  “And the bastard somehow knows I’ve got the hots for Naomi,” I admitted and Tom laughed.

  “She is beautiful,” he signed and his cheeks turned red.

  It made me feel marginally better that my brother had the same attraction to the woman. “Yeah, but she’s in love with Damian, all the way down to the cellular level, like Mom was with Dad.” I leaned against the bed. “Unfortunately, Lucifer knows I’m... vulnerable, right now, and he is playing with me.”

  “How?”

  “He’s throwing some serious instruments of seduction at me.” I met his gaze and saw the confusion in his eyes. Before he could ask, I continued, “There was a nurse at the hospital. I was exhausted and she showed me to the nurse’s lounge.”

  “What happened?”

  I looked up at him. “She was hot.” I couldn’t help the smile that played on my lips. “After we screwed around, she tried to persuade me to let Lucifer in, just like Jenna did last night. Unfortunately, the nurse had the gall to reveal the demon inside her and I annihilated the bitch.”

  “Annihilated?”

  “Turned her to dust,” I said and snapped my fingers. “Gone, dead, whatever.”

  “You killed a nurse?”

  “I killed a demon,” I corrected.

  He dropped his gaze, his mind jumped to Jenna and his eyes snapped back to mine.

  “No, I didn’t kill Jenna,” I answered the unspoken question. “I probably should have, but I was too far gone. Hell, between the drugs and the mind blowing sex, I almost said yes to her.” I met his gaze. “I think Dad somehow got a warning through to me.”

  Shock transformed his face. “But...”

  “Yeah, I know, he’s gone, locked behind the pearly gates with the rest of the fallen angels, but I swear he got a message through to me.”

  “What did he say?”

  I chuckled. “He told me to get my shit together.”

  Tom smiled. “Sounds like something Dad would say,” he signed.

  “Yeah.” I didn’t have anything else to add to the conversation, so I just shrugged and dug my hands into my pockets, wincing at the scrape of my knuckles on the fabric. I looked at the floor. “Do me a favor?” I asked withou
t looking up at him.

  “Sure?” his voice echoed in my head and I met his gaze.

  “If I fuck up, I want you to be the one to take me out.”

  His complexion paled and he shook his head.

  “You’d be the only one I’d let close enough, Tom. You’re family and if I screw up for some ungodly reason, you’ve got to kill me. Otherwise...” My gaze dropped to the ground. I didn’t want to entertain what would happen if the devil got his way.

  “No.” His perfect enunciation pulled my gaze to him. Tom crossed the room and grabbed a fistful of my shirt, pulling me close to his furious features. “You will not screw up.” His words came from his mind, not his tightly clamped mouth and they came with the power of a hurricane, ringing in my ears as his eyes leveled the challenge.

  Chapter 10

  I rolled onto my side and blinked my eyes open. Noise drifted from downstairs, a mixture of babies crying and people talking and I stretched, squeezing my eyes closed against the sharp pain behind them. Eventually, I slid out of bed and headed to the bathroom in search of aspirin to take the edge off my headache.

  Moving my hands resulted in flares of pain as well and I leaned my forehead against the pantry door, breathing for a moment before continuing. Opening the bottle presented a challenge and I was too damned tired to will the thing open, so I headed downstairs.

  Conversation stopped when I stepped into the room and held the aspirin up. “Can someone open this for me?” Even my voice sounded haggard and raw.

  It was Steve who crossed the space, ripping the bottle from my grip. His angry glare penetrated every fiber and I think I flinched. I know I took a step back.

  “I understand you decided, in your infinite wisdom, that drugs were the answer to your problems,” he said shaking the bottle at me like a weird exclamation point.

  My gaze bounced from him to Tom beyond and back.

  “Tom didn’t rat you out,” he said clenching his teeth and he stepped closer. “Banging everything in a skirt isn’t the answer, either,” he said and this time there was less bite to his words and I met his gaze. He had been there before. In both places, and I gave him a sheepish nod.

  “I didn’t...” I started and studied the patterns in the carpet at my feet. “I didn’t intend to get wasted.” I forced myself to meet his gaze.

  Steve could be intimidating when he wanted and he knew how to push the guilt buttons. I had to give him a great deal of credit in taking us in and raising us like we were his own and I hated like hell to disappoint the man. But that’s exactly what I saw in his eyes. Disappointment. And it made me feel like I was ten years old again.

  “Can you just open the aspirin?” I whispered, hating the pathetic lilt in my voice.

  “I should just let you suffer,” he muttered and his lips pressed together. Instead of opening the container, he pulled my forehead to his lips, opting to give me one more dose of excruciating pain before the tingling started in my hands, my chest and behind my eyes.

  “Damn it, I didn’t ask you to fix it. I asked you to open the fucking aspirin,” I snapped and stepped back grabbing the stair railing to steady the after-shakes of his healing power.

  “Next time, I’ll beat the shit out of you.” He pointed and turned away, leaving me huffing against the wall.

  Silence blanketed the room and I slid to a seat on the steps, cradling my head while Steve’s power magically erased the pain. After a few seconds, the crew resumed their conversations and I glanced between my splayed fingers.

  Only one person focused on me, his glare sharp over the edge of his laptop and I dropped my gaze, avoiding Damian’s silent rage. I stood, unsure of where to go to get away from the commotion and his justified anger. I had nearly sold his family out, and instead of confronting it head on, I slipped out the back door and took a seat on one of the lounge chairs, letting the cold wind saturate my clothing.

  The door opened and I stiffened, meeting his gaze as he took the seat next to me and handed me a beer. He didn’t speak at first, just stared out at the open ocean, and drained half the bottle.

  “I get it,” he said after a while.

  “You get what?”

  “Naomi. I get why you might be tempted to trade your soul for her.”

  I sighed. “No offense, but I really wouldn’t trade my soul for her.” I took a sip of beer. “There just isn’t that ‘I gotta have her’ connection.” I met his gaze. “I was high and horny and I guess getting a viewing of her chest the other day at the hospital put some unsavory thoughts in my head.” I shrugged.

  Damian chugged the rest of his beer, the knuckles on his hand gripping the bottle turning white as he squeezed the glass. “You what?” he asked, planting the bottle on the cold concrete.

  “She needed help breast feeding the boys while you were out getting a car.” I tried not to smirk, but it appeared anyway. His face turned red and his hands clenched. “Look, I told you the first night you were here, I wasn’t interested in making a play for her,” I said. “I’m still not.”

  He took a deep breath, calming the coil inside and I waited, gearing myself up for an attack. Damian surprised me by getting up and crossing to the rock wall where he swung a leg over the wall and took a seat. He stared out at the Nubble Lighthouse in the distance, blocking me from the thoughts going through his mind.

  His expression told me nothing and I waited and wondered how much of my sordid evening he got wind of. His head turned toward me and the muscles in his jaw jumped.

  “You made the mistake of leaving them alive,” he said, too quietly to carry over the distance but his voice was loud and clear in my head.

  His penetrating glare painted a picture in my mind and I shot to my feet, approaching him. “What did you do?”

  He stared me down and then looked out at the ocean.

  “Damian,” I snapped, even though I had a clear idea.

  “I took care of it,” he said.

  “You killed them?” A shiver spread through me and then I thought about the DNA evidence strewn all over the family room. Evidence that would point to me.

  “It’s all gone. The demons, the drugs, the fucking house. It’s just a pile of dust and burning embers.”

  “I’m not sure they were all possessed,” I balked. “Jenna, sure, but her friends, I didn’t know and I couldn’t take the chance of killing innocents.”

  “And I couldn’t take the chance they weren’t.”

  I stared at him, popping my mouth closed. His cavalier attitude toward killing reminded me of my father. He was a master at justifying it, too. “What gives you the right?”

  He swung his leg back and stood, crowding me. “Twenty-five hundred years of dealing with demons. Knowing how they operate, how they manipulate their victims. If I’d let them live, they would have ditched the meat suits and gone onto someone else. Maybe someone you wouldn’t have had the ability to say no to.” He stepped closer, his gaze hard and unyielding. “And you would have been implicated in whatever they left behind.”

  I gave him some space and shoved my clenched hands into my pockets.

  “If they can’t get you to say yes, they ruin your life to the point you don’t give a damn. Either way, they win.” He stopped and took a deep breath. “I was not only protecting my wife and kids, I was protecting your ass, too.”

  I kicked a patch of frozen grass and scanned the cold ocean. I didn’t like what he did, but it was no different than what I did to the nurse and I eventually nodded. “Are you sure there isn’t a way to exorcise a demon?” I needed to know if there was a way we could save the souls they pillaged.

  “Without killing the host?” Damian sighed and shook his head. “No.”

  I took a moment to scrutinize his memories. What I came back with was confirmation and I turned back toward the house, trudging across the lawn, and sat back in the lounge chair. The chill in the air had been replaced with a chill in my soul and a dark fear encompassed me.

  What if they ever got a hold
of Sandy?

  Chapter 11

  “Did you find a house?” Jennifer asked, when everyone was settled at the dinner table. She passed the rolls and focused on Damian.

  “Yes,” Damian said, digging into a pile of pasta on his plate. “It’s actually just down the road. I was able to negotiate a move in date on the first of next month.” He glanced across the table at Steve. “In the meantime, we’ll grab a hotel room after tonight.”

  “You are welcome to stay here until the closing,” Jennifer said rocking Grace in her arms. The two boys were sound asleep in new strollers near the table.

  I exchanged a glance with Tom. Our nice quiet home had become a mini-day care and I took a bite of the spaghetti. He gave me that ‘it isn’t that bad’ look and slid his gaze to Raven. She was enamored with the babies as much as Jennifer was.

  Damian opened his mouth to answer and his cell phone rang, interrupting the conversation. He looked at the display and said, “Excuse me,” before taking the call. Damian’s face paled as he held the phone to his ear and his gaze traveled to mine. The panic written in his irises gave me pause and I closed my eyes, pulling the gist of the conversation from his fragmented thoughts. I opened my eyes when he ended the call.

  “What’s going on?” Naomi asked, pulling him out of his broken thoughts and reading the concern in his face accurately.

  “Ted says there’s a problem at the hospital,” he said and his voice cracked.

  “Is Valerie okay?” Naomi asked.

  Damian laughed and looked at the ceiling, his eyes glazing over in a way I hadn’t seen.

  I took a moment to scan his memories for the name Valerie and came up with a wealth of information. He had known Valerie from the day she was born and considered her the closest thing he had to family. He felt responsible for letting a demon get to her and her uncle Ted shared that feeling, asking Damian to leave their home after the attack on his niece nearly took her life.

  I equated the kinship Damian felt with Valerie with what Steve and Jennifer felt for us and instinctively knew he would have never left her if he thought she was in danger. Both he and her Uncle Ted thought being safely tucked away in Hartford Hospital would keep her away from Lucifer’s greedy grip.