by Hall, Marie
I clenched my teeth, still royally pissed and just as equally turned on.
Lust was a real bitch sometimes.
“I can’t tell you about the book. In fact, there’s a lot I can’t tell you.”
“Can’t or won’t?” I hissed with narrowed eyes.
“Can’t.” His mouth kept opening and closing as if he wanted desperately to tell me something. Judging by the way his throat worked, he was waging an internal battle with himself before he finally sighed. “Can’t, princess.”
“Princess?” I curled my nose and lips. “Why are you acting like this, Billy? Why?” And just then the necklace I’d tucked inside my shirt slipped free and the dangling A swung between us like a blazing sign that read: Yes, I’m completely obsessed with you.
Swallowing, he grabbed the pendant and just looked at it for a moment. Shame crept like hot fingers across my cheeks. I’d found that necklace the night outside the club when I’d accidentally stabbed him with my stiletto.
Okay, maybe not so accidentally, but startling a demon (even a half-breed) was a surefire way of getting a boot in your ass. Or in my case, a sexy black heel embedded in your chest.
His gorgeous lips twitched. “I should have known it was you. I looked for that thing the next day, never could find it.”
Pulling it out of his hands, I patted it back inside my shirt. “Finders keepers; nine tenths of the law. Look it up, Priest.” I lifted a brow in case he had any ideas of taking it back.
“No.” His fingers grazed the spot where I’d tucked the pendant away. “I like seeing you wear what’s mine.”
“What does the A stand for?” I had my suspicions, had had them for some time, but now that he was here and obviously in a sharing mood, I had to know.
“My real name.”
I had to admit for as hard as he was, the man was as comfortable as any cushion. I wiggled my hips and couldn’t help but grin when he moaned in return.
“You keep that up, and I won’t be such a gentleman.” His words were sharp.
“Who said I want you to be?”
There was a fire that danced in his eyes just then. And I blinked because it was the first time I’d ever witnessed it. Or then again... an inexplicable sense of déjà vu suddenly hit me, a feeling that I’d seen it before.
But the moment was gone before I could really figure it out.
“Fine.” I leaned down until our lips just barely brushed against each other. “Then what is your name?”
His hands continued to slide down my waist, maneuvering dangerously close to my backside, making me tingle in all the right places.
“Asher.”
“I knew it,” I whispered, wondering if in some cosmic way whether Asher/Billy/my death priest (whatever) and I had been destined from the start of time.
It was scary and all-consuming, and as much as I didn’t want it to, I couldn’t seem to help but believe it was true.
His smile was indulgent and warmed me to my toes.
“What should I call you then?” I asked.
Then his hand was sliding over me and I curled into it, moaning and desperately ravenous. There were still so many questions, but none of them seemed terribly important at the moment.
“Pandora...” His voice had grown husky, and just as I was sure he was going to claim me, mark me, I smelled sulfur.
“Shit!” I shoved my hands on his chest and jumped off just seconds before Luc appeared.
Luc wasn’t happy.
And that was a serious understatement.
“What the fuck is going on here!” He shoved his hand in the direction of Billy, but his stink eye was all for me.
Growling, Billy shot to his feet and made as if to come to me. But that didn’t happen, because the moment he moved, Luc was on him. His forearm was pressed into Billy’s throat and he had him pinned against Kemen’s wimpy trailer wall.
“Hey!” I screamed, slapping at his chest, but Luc’s face was shifting, morphing into the stuff of nightmares. His skin flashed a dark gray as fangs began to drop and lengthen.
Billy didn’t look at all terrified to be held in place by a barely checked Nephilim. No, the idiot laughed. “What you gonna do, demon?” He spat and then as quick as only a death priest could move, there was a massive Bowie knife in his hand, which was suddenly pressed against Luc’s throat.
This was a pissing contest for the ages and I wasn’t putting up with it.
“Tuck it away, boys,” I growled, wrapping my arms around Luc’s middle and forcibly prying him from Billy.
If he’d really wanted to resist, there was no way in hell I could have yanked Luc off. Visibly shaking with fury, Luc let me hold him and I fluttered my fingers up and down his chest, humming in the back of my throat to get him to put the demon to bed.
Billy’s eyes narrowed. “That was quite a hello.”
“You motherfu—”
“Enough!” I spun Luc around and yanked his face to mine. “Stop. You can’t just go killing my guests, Luc.”
“Guest!” He jerked his hand at Billy. “He’s a fucking death priest, Dora. Do you get that?” He stabbed at his head with his pointer finger.
A growl rumbled from behind me.
God, I had horrible taste in men. Why oh why was I always so attracted to alphas? Surely a beta would be so much easier to deal with.
“I’m not your enemy here.” Billy spoke up from behind me.
Luc’s nostrils flared and I knew he was scenting the room, both for the veracity in Billy’s words, but to also see just how far we’d gone. His eyes went glacial, so clearly he must have picked up on the unmistakable musk of my sexual excitement.
I expected an eruption, a full-blown assault on my person (Luc wasn’t the most levelheaded when in the grip of his demon). Shielding my eyes, I didn’t look at him head-on. Even though it was fury that’d brought out the beast, he was Lust, which meant he’d screw me ten ways to Sunday if I so much as encouraged him.
He must have known what I was about, because instead of the explosion, he gripped my wrists, bringing my palms to his face. And we stood like that for a solid minute, him with his eyes closed, my hands on his cheeks as he inhaled deeply in and out.
The next time he opened his eyes, they were as blue as a summer sky. “Why is he here?” he asked, and though I could still hear the fury, I knew he’d gotten himself under control.
I told you demons don’t handle surprises well.
Standing to the side of me, Billy glanced at my hands with a clenched jaw before saying, “I’m here because I have information.”
Luc snorted, pulling away from me as if my touch suddenly burned. But just as I was about to back into Billy’s chest, his arm snaked out and he dug his fingers into my waist, making me grimace at the sudden shock of pain.
“And we’re supposed to trust you?” Luc laughed, and the sound chilled the blood in my veins.
Billy’s stance was wide and he was flipping his knife from hand to hand, reminding me of the smug bastard I’d met the first night, the death priest who’d clocked me in the temple and tied me up.
Let’s just say our first meeting had been far from cordial.
“I don’t give a flying fuck if you trust me. I’m not doing it for you.” The priest’s voice was deep and solid and sure, and it did things to my insides no mere voice had a right to do.
“Then who are you doing it for?”
Billy’s eyes shot to my face and I’d be a liar if I said his gaze didn’t feel like a brand on my soul. Luc’s growl let me know he’d noticed it too. His fingers dug in harder. That was so gonna bruise.
“She’s not yours.” Luc’s words were steel dipped in poison.
“Hey!” I swatted at his hand, stepping away from both of them. “I don’t belong to anybody, you got me? So stop this pissing contest and just tell us why you’re here, Billy.”
If my words bothered him, he never let on.
“There’s a lot more to what’s going down than what eith
er of you might think. A. Lot. More.”
“Then enlighten us.” Luc crossed his arms, causing his biceps to flex. Even dressed in a silk shirt and tie, the man oozed scary sensuality. His hair was pulled back again and he looked freshly shaven.
Had he freshened up just to come see me? I frowned. His black loafers were definitely not desert-worthy shoes, so I seriously doubted he meant to be my tagalong in the Sierras today.
Billy glanced at me sidelong. “You want answers, figure them out.”
“Billy, wait.” I reached for him because I didn’t want him to leave. Not yet. Maybe not ever.
Something white and hot flashed through Luc’s eyes before he clamped down on the emotion and I knew I’d hurt him. I was always hurting him; it was how things were with us. Toxic.
“It’s Asher,” Billy murmured and then traced his knuckles against my cheek, and I shuddered into his touch. “And I told you, I’m not going anywhere.”
“You better tell us what’s going on. Now,” Luc ordered.
Billy laughed. “I’m not scared of you, Neph. Not by a long shot.”
Sensing they were about a second away from violently destroying Kemen’s trailer, I jumped between them, holding out my hands.
“Seriously, enough. Asher”—I stuttered over the name, still wanting to call him Billy—“you came here. Why?”
The click of his jaw working from side to side sounded louder than gunshot in the sudden quiet.
“We have a destiny, you and I, Pandora. What’s going down, it’s because of you.”
“Going down?” I whispered.
Luc’s lips snarled. “Destiny?”
I whipped around. “Luc, for pity’s sake, can you just focus on what matters, please?”
The muscle in his cheek twitched.
Eyes narrowed, Asher walked to me and even though I knew I was just a pawn in this testosterone-fueled game, I didn’t stop him from draping his arm across my shoulders. They were the dogs and I was their fire hydrant.
Nice.
Swatting at his hand, I let my baby fangs show. Something I tried hard to keep hidden since they were a clear giveaway to my true identity.
“I swear, if you guys can’t get your shit together, I’m gonna leave and you’ll never find me. I’ve got places to be and I don’t feel like dealing with this. From either one of you.” I eyed them both.
Asher’s answer was a swift, dimple-cheeked smile, and yeah, I was pretty sure a couple of my brain cells just fried. I hadn’t known he had a dimple, but then, I couldn’t remember him ever really smiling either.
“You’re a death priest. Your only job in this world is killing Neph. You will not harm her.” Luc’s voice had grown guttural.
“I would never.”
“But you did.” He snarled. “I was the one who found her after your beat-downs. Me.” He slapped his chest and it was moments like these that made me think perhaps I was a fool to believe he didn’t actually care for me.
At some point our relationship had grown twisted and distorted and bloated with so much pain and hurt that for a while it’d been easy to believe it was gone. But I heard it now. I saw it flickering in his cold eyes and my heart clenched.
I knew he loved me, and in many ways I still loved him. But our love would kill us—I was as sure of that as I was that I never wanted Billy out of my life again.
“I had to do what I did to make sure no one knew whose side I was really on.”
“Yeah, right. Great answer.” Luc snorted.
Billy rubbed my arm in slow circles and I don’t think he was doing it so much for me as for himself. “Everything I did I did to protect her.”
“I don’t understand you, Billy—”
His brow rose.
“Asher,” I said, correcting myself. “You stabbed me, you tricked me. How was any of that to protect me?”
“Did you ever really doubt me, Dora?” He turned me so that I was now looking him square in the face and it was just us again. “I knew what you were capable of, how you could heal. You felt the eyes everywhere. We were always watched—it was the only way.”
He was right. The entire time in South Dakota I’d known I was being watched, but I’d actually thought it was him. I frowned. “Who do you work for?”
Licking his lips, he sighed. “The book... You’ve got to read the book.”
“Book?” Luc snarled and I jumped, because I’d almost forgotten he was with us. “What book?” His eyes rolled to mine and I had to quickly look away because I sensed his Lust roiling just beneath the surface.
“Jeez.” I groaned and then marched over to the bed and flipped him said book. “That. Grace’s assistant Mary gave it to me the night she disappeared.”
“Nice. Thanks for telling me.” His tone dripped contempt. Luc riffled quickly through the pages. “What is this shit?”
“Poems, written by some kid in the Middle Ages.”
Luc snorted. “Priest, you’re this close to me killing you.” He tossed the book back onto the bed.
I wasn’t overly fond of him threatening my priest, even though I was one hundred percent certain Asher could fend for himself. “It’s an allegorical work.”
“There’s also a cypher code,” Asher said.
“Cypher code?” I twirled on him. “We can’t decrypt that, not without the key.”
“Pandora, listen to me.” He planted his hands on my shoulders. “I’ll give you as much information as I can, but some of this you’ll have to figure out yourself.”
“Why?”
Luc’s smile was vicious and then he gave a throaty chuckle. “You can’t tell us, can you? Ah, how ironic, the priest isn’t as all powerful as he’d like us to believe.”
Now Asher looked annoyed.
“What are you talking about?”
I couldn’t make heads or tails of this and since Luc was looking like the cat who just ate the canary, I was more than a little annoyed that he wasn’t sharing.
“I mean...” He rolled his eyes to me and this time I wasn’t quick enough to look away, so his power slammed into me like a giant tsunami, snatching my breath and making me change instantly.
I transformed from my usual raven-haired, willowy Goth self to Luc’s blond bombshell, complete with enormous boobs, enviably slim waist, and mile-long bronzed legs. Beside me Asher growled, yanking me roughly to his side.
Luc smirked; the bastard had done it on purpose. My shirt rode up so high on my belly thanks to my freakishly large boobs that I felt practically naked.
“...that the priest is under an enchantment. He can’t talk, Dora, because somebody, and likely the person is a powerful sorcerer— At the very least, am I right, Priest?” His lips twitched before he turned his gaze back to me. “Owns his soul. Very interesting, isn’t it?”
My brows dipped and I looked at Asher, and when he didn’t try to deny it, I knew Luc was absolutely right. “You really were trying to protect me, weren’t you?”
Asher’s gaze softened when he looked at me, and I knew he was telling me the truth. I felt it deep in the depths of my cold, black soul. Asher had never been my enemy. He held my gaze a moment longer, and I felt my body shift and transform back to my natural form.
“Then how are you here? Whoever owns you, they’ll know where you are. They’ll come looking.” My eyes immediately shot to the window. I was suddenly on edge and expecting to see the boogieman’s face pressed to the glass.
“That’s why I died in Hell.”
Needless to say, Luc refused to join me on my quest to the Sierra Madres after that. After Asher’s confession, Luc had swiftly turned on his heel and slammed out of my room. Now it was just Asher and I combing through the sparse mountain range, looking for the trail that would lead us to the zombie hive.
“Feels like old times.” I hip-bumped him when he got close to me.
His smiles were coming more freely now. I liked it.
Like really liked it.
A. Whole. Freaking. Lot.
<
br /> The man had a way of getting under my skin. The way the ends of his hair clung to his neck, how his bronzed skin almost gleamed in the midday sun. Dressed in those sexy-as-sin jeans that hugged his massive thighs and muscular waist. I had to blow out a breath to get Lust to chill the hell out.
She was writhing and purring and making me want to jump him right here, right now. To toss him down on the packed red sand and have my wicked, wicked way with him. Didn’t matter that we were currently walking through hell on earth, full of scorpions and rattlers and every other kind of nasty killing machine out there.
I hadn’t felt this carefree, this... happy... in a long, long time.
That word stopped my daydreams cold. It was like a slap of icy water in the face and made me halt. We were searching for a zombie hive. Reputedly one that’d already killed several mortals. What I should be doing was keeping my head on a swivel, not glued on Asher’s ass, which looked amazing in those jeans.
As if sensing that’d I’d stopped walking, he turned and looked at me. A hot breeze blew across the desert sands, slapping tiny grains against my cheeks and scraping them raw.
“What’s the matter?” he asked, back at my side in a nanosecond. The sun was beating down on my brow, and I knew I’d looked better. And I hated that when he got so close to me, his unique scent completely overwhelmed me— a musk of man, danger, and cool silk sheets. Lust was salivating. Pestilence was in hiding, though I still felt his oily stickiness clinging deep, deep down inside. He wasn’t sure what to think of my sudden obsession with the priest. It both confused and disgusted him.
Lust was in full control and she had been ever since the death priest showed up in my room.
Disgusted with my inability to focus, I shoved him back. Regardless of the combustible heat I felt, I was still angry with him.
“Nothing.”
Brown eyes licked at my face for a brief yet all-encompassing second, making me feel itchy in my own skin. Sighing, he looked at the dead landscape and then pointed to a small shadowy shelf of red rock in the distance.
“C’mon, we need to take a break. Hot as hell out here.”
