Mystic Realms: A Limited Edition Collection

by Nicole Morgan

  “Picture living in your worst nightmare with no end in sight. Could you imagine that? I couldn’t. There’s simply no way they’d put themselves in that sort of danger.”

  “But we need some sort of precaution, don’t you think?” I understood where MOG was coming from, but Blondie’s alarming words were still fresh in my mind.

  “What do you suggest?”

  “What if we went out in pairs?” I bit my lips shut after the words had come out. Did I really want to have a tag-along? Especially one whose perfection irritated me to the nth degree? “Never mind,” I blurted before she could respond. “You’re right. I’m sure everything will be fine.”

  She patted my hand and smiled. “Of course. However if you think having a partner would make you feel safer?”

  “No. I’m fine. Honestly.”

  “Why don’t you take the rest of the night off? Heal and come back tomorrow evening refreshed?”

  “Okay. I just want to check on a few things before I leave though. Would you mind if I investigated Peter Piper a little more? Maybe I can find something in his online files that’ll give us a reason why he’d revolt.”

  She looked bored by the idea. “Fine. Go ahead. If that would make you feel better.”

  “It would.” I stood up and realized my side didn’t hurt as much anymore. “Thanks for the...uh, medicine.”

  “No problem, Abigail. Be careful out there.”

  “I’ll try.”

  I waved to Pauline, who was still in the same spot with the same insincere smile and then headed back down to the office. I wasn’t sure why I couldn’t let this warning go...and why MOG so easily could. It was very possible the demons who’d attacked me were simply amusing themselves. It was even more likely they’d realize their blunder and come to their senses. The danger of spending an eternity in any of my nightmares would scare me straight, that was for sure.

  But still...

  Judd was on the phone with the pizza place when I walked up to his cubicle. “Extra pepperoni on the second one.” He peered at me from the corner of his eye and mouthed, “What?”

  “I need you to look up some stuff for me.” The desk clerks were at our disposal for whatever info we needed to obtain to do our job on the street. Usually I didn’t bother Judd. Usually I let him play his little computer games while I troubled another desk Angel. But I didn’t want any of this to get out and start a panic. I trusted Judd the most to stay calm.

  Judd rolled his eyes and gave his attention back to the person on the phone. “I’ll pick them up... Phone number is 1-800-Nunyabusiness... Sure thing... See you then.”

  He set the phone down and swiveled his chair to face me. “Does this have to do with why your face is turning into a pumpkin?”

  “No. Well, kind of. MOG put this on me. It’s some sort of medicine.”

  He pouted his lips. “That’s so cute. Did mommy make it feel better?”

  I ignored him. “Peter Piper. Could you look him up for me please?”

  “What do you need to know?”

  “I need all the information on him that’s not in his standard file. You know, the stuff I didn’t get the first time around.”

  “Because?” He leaned back in his chair and put his hands behind his head.

  “Because I need to locate him.”

  “You couldn’t find your target with the info in your file? I’m not impressed, Abby.”

  I tried not to grind my teeth together. “I did find him. That’s how this happened.” I pointed to my cheek.

  “Please tell me you didn’t let a demon take you down. This is exactly why men shouldn’t have been taken off the streets.” He sat up straight and clenched his hands on the armrests. “You have no idea—”

  “Shut up, Judd. I didn’t let a demon take me down. It was more like four.”

  “You got ambushed?” he asked too loudly. “Those motherfuckers.”

  “Shhh.” I didn’t see any other way around telling him the whole story, so I did. I leaned down and whispered every embarrassing detail.

  “You’re kidding?” he said when I was done. “And MOG said to ignore it?”

  “For the most part but I want to investigate it a little more. I’d feel like crap if an Angel got hurt because I did nothing.”

  He nodded his head and gave me approving look. “Understandable. His name was Peter Piper?”

  “Yeah.”

  Judd turned back to his computer and typed in the name. I released a breath. Why I let Judd get to me was ridiculous. So what if he’d been screwed out of a career I still had? It wasn’t my fault men couldn’t do the job Demon Control had demanded. It wasn’t my fault Judd was sitting at a desk while I roamed the streets for demons.

  “Here it is,” he said, breaking me from my thoughts.

  I looked over his shoulder at the monitor. One line popped out at me from all the rest of the words on the screen. PREVIOUS EMPLOYMENT—KELLER TEMPORARY EMPLOYMENT AGENCY. OWNER—SIMÉON KELLER.

  Oh shit.

  Judd read down the list, unaware of the warmth creeping up my neck. “Looks like Piper’s been in trouble with human law enforcement as well. What a loser.”

  His finger scanned down the monitor, and I hoped to MOG that he didn’t notice the name that was giving me so much anxiety.

  “He was lawfully employed up to two weeks ago by...huh. Why does that name sound familiar?” He looked over at me.

  I was sure he could see the heat now burning my cheeks.

  “Simeon Keller,” he said and grinned cunningly. “The half-breed who got Abigail Virtue Angel into the sack. How could I forget? So tell me, Abby, are you going to investigate this to the fullest? I think it calls for some deep undercover work, don’t you?”

  “Just print it out for me, would you?” I said and left his cubicle.

  Sure, I’d made mistakes but why was it that this one haunted me like no other?

  Chapter Three

  My puny apartment wasn’t big enough for the two guys who were sprawled across the floor and couch. But I didn’t mind so much. Judd and Eli would leave after the game was over, and I’d be alone again with nothing to do but think of the very memory I wanted to banish from my brain—the day Simeon Keller had seduced me.

  I’d heard demons had a special power of persuasion to get humans do to unsightly acts. Something in the tone of a demon’s voice and the depth of their eyes could convince a human to do almost anything. A human was putty in a demon’s hands. But I was an Angel, immune to the powers of evil. How in the world had I let that happen?

  Almost five years ago, I had gone to Simeon’s office to issue him a first warning for violating Code One, Lust. He’d convinced a married woman to sleep with him instead of her husband on her wedding night. I’d wondered what was so special about this half-breed to make a human woman behave so foolishly...until I saw Simeon for the first time. Then I understood. He was more alluring than any full demon I’d ever seen.

  My heart still sped up at the memory of his unusual features—a heart-shaped face with olive skin framed by ink-black straight hair. He had silver eyes, not gray but a shiny silvery hue that I couldn’t help but gaze into. Eyes I couldn’t forget. And I wasn’t one to remember a face, especially a demon’s.

  He’d smiled when he saw me walking through his door and immediately unbuttoned his shirt for me. He’d known who I was and why I was there, as if expecting me. I’d crossed the room slow and unsure. My mind racing. How could a creature so evil be so appealing? How much of the man before me was human? What was his story? Half-breeds were as rare for demons as my hair color was for Angels. How did he become this way? And what was to become of him in his afterlife? I had so many questions but knew my place wasn’t to ask them, only to give him his strike and be gone. On to the next.

  To this day, I still don’t know what it was, but something had kept me there.

  Staring up into his eyes, I raised my hand and clumsily brushed my fingers across the muscles on his chest.
>
  “Sorry,” I mumbled, and my cheeks blazed. There I was, a member of law enforcement, apologizing for doing my job. Ridiculous.

  His smile faded as he reached for my hand and helped me. He actually helped me press my thumb to his heart.

  “No apology needed.” His voice was silk, smooth, and pleasing to my ears.

  He kept his hand clasped with mine even after the strike had clearly been imprinted on his skin. I couldn’t seem to pull away, intrigued by what he would do next, what words would leave his lips.

  “You’re like no Angel I’ve seen before,” he said after his gaze examined me thoroughly. His pupils were large, the silver disappearing into blackness. “Absolutely stunning.”

  I wanted to argue with him, I remembered. I wanted to tell him about how most men didn’t agree with him. At least not to the point of committing to an ongoing relationship. Even if an Ex-Angel decided to marry, it wouldn’t be to someone as abnormal as me. I’d come to that conclusion, anyway.

  But I didn’t say anything. Instead, I breathed in his words, letting them absorb into my lungs. There were few times in my life when I’d been complimented. It felt nice. Nice enough to melt into his grasp. I couldn’t push him away. Not yet.

  “What’s your name?” he asked.

  “Abigail.”

  “Beautiful.” His free hand cupped my cheek while his other held me close to his chest.

  Taken aback by his affection, I froze. Even on the few dates I’d been on, no man had ever appeared so engrossed with my presence. I liked it too much. It fed my ego. It empowered me, if only for a moment. I couldn’t turn away from that. I was too weak.

  “Can I kiss you, Abigail?”

  I nodded oh-so slightly. Then his lips were on mine.

  He tasted so good. Not just good. Delicious. If I could’ve identified the exact flavor, I would’ve bottled it and ingested it on my own, so I wouldn’t have ever needed to crave his kiss again. But since that day, I’d never come across it. He owned it. And it was very wicked of him to have allowed me to sample him in the first place. Had he known I’d have that reaction? Had his taste been the venom that paralyzed my willpower?

  Because from that second on, my mind was not my own.

  I had no idea who started taking off my clothes, but I hazily remembered them falling to the floor. Our hands searched each other’s bodies, and then I felt his fingers on my bare skin. He caressed me so gently, so completely, that my legs faltered.

  He clung onto me, not letting me fall and then lifted me effortlessly onto his desk. With a swoop of his arm, he knocked down everything in my way. The computer monitor, his telephone, papers, everything—they all crashed to the floor.

  I looked up at him, shocked by his disregard. He shrugged, grinned, and kissed me again, down my neck to my breasts and back up. Breathless, I reclined against the cold, smooth wooden desktop, and I watched with both eagerness and anxiety as he stripped off his own clothes.

  In less than a heartbeat, he was inside me, and I was ecstatic. As though the mere seconds it took to happen had been too long. I clung to his strong arms and enjoyed every thrust until my insides were quaking with pleasure.

  When we were both satisfied, he continued to kiss my lips and my body until my senses started to come back to me. Only then did I realize what a huge event I’d just allowed and how incredibly foolish I’d been.

  “I have to go,” I said, my body trembling. “I’m sorry, but this shouldn’t have happened. I have to go.”

  I shoved him away, not having the courage to watch his response. Quickly, I dressed and scrambled to the door.

  A question ate at my gut, and I wasn’t able leave until I asked, “How did you do it? I’m an Angel. What power do you, a half-breed, have over me?”

  He was silent for a moment, and then I felt him behind me. His fingers grazed my shoulders, and instead of my wings begging to be free, they stilled, dormant.

  “Your power is your own.” A low murmur in my ear. “Believe it or not, Abigail, you desired a half-breed as much as I desired you.” He pushed a lock of my hair away from my heated cheek. “How does that make you feel? Dirty? Immoral? Evil?”

  I left without another word, sick to my stomach. Angry and humiliated that not only had I let a half-demon seduce me but I’d also let him fool me. Because for the briefest time I’d thought maybe, possibly, he’d had some good in him.

  I’d never been more wrong, and I vowed I’d never look into Simeon Keller’s silvery eyes again.

  “What are you thinking about?” Judd asked, jolting me out of my deep thoughts.

  I sat at the edge of my love seat with Judd beside me. Eli stretched out on the floor in front of us, giving all his attention to the television.

  “Nothing,” I said. “Just watching the game.”

  “Liar. You were fantasizing about me again, weren’t you?”

  I blew out a breath and realized my cheeks were clammy and cold with perspiration. Why did I still let that day with the half-breed rule my emotions?

  Judd’s smile disappeared. “If you weren’t an Angel, I’d think you were getting sick. Why are you paler than usual?”

  “I’m just tired. It’s been a long day.”

  “You want us to leave so you can get some rest?”

  “I’m not going anywhere until the game’s over,” Eli mumbled.

  Eli was more a buddy than a friend, if that made sense. He came around when there was something in it for him, whereas I couldn’t get rid of Judd if I tried. The difference might have had to do with Eli being an Angel of Death or AOD. He didn’t live in our building, the Demon Control building. He didn’t run in our circle. And his mind was programmed differently. Judd and I were all about getting the bad guys and deporting them back to Hell. Eli was all about sending humans to heaven.

  Judd and I were born and raised Angel right here in Denver. Eli was born and raised Angel in Puerto Rico and was transferred here after graduating from Academy. He had black eyes, short dark brown hair that he combed to the side and a goatee he trimmed meticulously. His clothes were always ironed, and his crisp dress shirts were never seen untucked.

  Judd was the opposite, always wrinkled and ruffled, but for some reason, he always smelled really good. His musky aroma definitely made up for his haphazard appearance.

  Me? My unruly copper hair needed anti-frizz products galore, and my pale freckles couldn’t be camouflaged by any amount of foundation. My wardrobe consisted mostly of jeans, T-shirts, jerseys, and sweatshirts. At the moment, I was wearing a tank top, sweats, and blue and orange striped socks. My typical pajamas. Comfy.

  Neither man seemed to mind that I was a flawed Angel, and I didn’t mind most of their imperfections. This made for comfortable companionship. It wasn’t a marriage like some of the Angels were able to pull off, but it was all I needed. Friends, pizza and beer, and Monday night football on early Thursday morning.

  Eli rolled over onto his back and looked up at me. “Sorry. I’d leave, but I have a heart attack waiting to happen down the street.” He glanced at his watch. “It’s just after three a.m., so I got another forty-five minutes. You don’t mind, right?”

  “Geez, Eli,” I said. “Do you ever stop working?”

  “I wish.” Eli sat up and started on a familiar rant. “I got a quota to fill if I want to keep my job. AODs don’t work in shifts like Demon Control does. A human dies, and we have to be there to show their pansy asses where to go.”

  Judd put his hand up for Eli to stop. “I’m really sick of your whining, dude. At least you still have Angel status. At least you’re not stuck in some dumbass office waiting for eternity to be over. You know, sometimes I wonder if switching sides and becoming a demon would be better than insignificant desk work.”

  “But you hate demons,” I reminded Judd. Was he seriously considering selling his soul to become one of them?

  “I know,” he said with an edge to his voice. “They disgust me. But at least that side gives men the respect
we deserve.” His dark blue gaze did a once-over of my face and must have noticed my utterly bewildered expression. He put his arm around me and forced a grin. “I’m kidding, Abby.”

  “Didn’t sound like a joke, dude.” Eli stood and checked his vibrating pager. “I’m out of here. Broncos are never going to win this one, anyway. And there’s a pedestrian accident at Sixteenth Street Mall. Possible fatality.” Eli kissed me on my good cheek, pounded Judd’s fist, and left.

  The room was silent for a moment. Judd avoided my stare. Easing his arm away from me, he pretended to stretch.

  I studied his face. I knew every crease, every expression, every annoying tick. He was my best friend. Actually, pretty much my only friend. How could he even consider joining forces with our enemy?

  Finally, he blew out a breath and met my eyes. “I really was kidding,” he said. “You don’t need to look at me like that.”

  “Like what?” I was curious.

  “Like you think I’m going to abandon you.”

  “What?” I tried to act shocked. Maybe he knew my face a little too well. “If you really want to do something stupid like go around soulless and depraved for the rest of your life then that’s fine with me. I’ll smile as I deport your ass to Hell.”

  “Hey, maybe if I’m a demon I’ll have a better chance of getting you in my bed. Or should I say ‘across my desk’?”

  “That’s not funny.” I’d been on one date with Judd back when men weren’t off limits, but it never went anywhere. Not even a kiss. He hadn’t asked me out again, so I figured we were better off as friends. But that didn’t stop him from constantly flirting and badgering me.

  “You’re right,” he said. “It’s hilarious. So are you going to go see this half-breed? Ask him about Piper?”

  “I don’t know.” I grew anxious just thinking about it.

  “I’ll go with you if you want. I’d love to see the reason behind your temporary insanity.”

  “Never.”

  “Why? You going back for seconds? Don’t want an audience?”

  “No, Judd, and I’d really love to stop talking about this. It was a mistake.”