by Dakota Brown
"Well, I'd rather you didn't, either. I'm much more entertaining alive." I grinned at him. "Mal, it's okay."
He sighed and turned the car off. "I sometimes forget how fragile human life really is. Then I lose someone. Or almost lose them." He glanced at me, before getting out of the car.
My heart sank. I don't know if I could handle it if he left right now, but I didn't know what to say.
Finally, I settled for a bit of my classic snark.
"Yeah, well I'm damn near indestructible right now."
Mal arched an eyebrow and I wanted to run my fingers through his hair and kiss away all his worries, but I wasn't sure if he would welcome that right now or not.
"I will be okay, Chris. It's just weighing on me right now." He headed for the house and I followed.
"Okay." My tone must have reflected some of my worry because once we were inside the air conditioning, he pulled me into his arms.
"Don't worry, Chris, you're still my exorcist."
I melted a little.
Ezra, wisely, didn't object as I cuddled into Mal's embrace.
We stayed that way for a bit, just holding each other, before he released me.
"So, you want to teach a demon prince how to roleplay tonight?" I changed the subject. "And maybe a half angel?" I added when I heard Aaron's car pull into the driveway.
"Yes, that sounds fantastic." He perked up as I had intended. Then he frowned. "Half angel?"
"That's Aaron's big secret. He's a Nephilim."
"Ahh. I wondered if it was something like that. Very interesting."
We need to look for the occultist, Ezra reminded me. Though I hadn't forgotten. We still had hours.
"I'm going to see if Aaron wants to drive me around while we follow some of the clues Ezra's demon left us." I wanted some time to talk with him without the others around. "Maybe Sabian can make you feel better?" I suggested.
Mal blinked a few times, as if trying to process what I'd just said.
"Um, not like that, mate." I laughed. "I mean, Sabian would probably be into just about anything, but I meant you could talk with him, since you're both immortal badasses?"
Mal finally laughed. "Maybe."
Ezra ran phantom fingers up my back, making me shiver.
Mal tilted his head, dog-like.
I shook mine. "For someone who says he hates touching so much, he seems to touch me a lot."
I do not.
You just did, mate.
It is the incubus' fault.
Yeah, sure it is. Back to that argument again, were we?
Mal chuckled. "Enjoy, I suppose. I'm sure it's not everyone who has positive attention from a demon prince."
I sighed. "It's certainly better than a normal possession."
Mal brushed his fingers along my cheek. "Seriously, may as well enjoy the experience as much as you can."
"I'm getting the idea that you're thinking something along the lines of 'the longer he's around, the safer I am?'"
The vampire tightened his lips for a moment before he shrugged. "I won't lie, the thought has crossed my mind. Though, if he sticks around too long, he's going to have to learn to share."
Ezra shuddered.
I chuckled. At least that sounded more like Mal wasn't considering leaving once this was over. Some of the knots in my shoulders eased and Ezra caressed my back again.
I don't share what is mine.
Good thing I don't belong to you, mate.
He didn't reply, which was probably just as well. I was feeling uncomfortable enough with all the emotions I was having to deal with, that I'd probably start a fight with him, and I didn't need that at the moment. We could fight later.
Sabian and Aaron came in just then.
Sabian's eyes lit up like it was Christmas when he saw me. He hurried forward and, with a bit of flourish, dropped a rock into my hand.
Recognizing a gift when one was so obviously given, I studied it. He'd found a desert rose for me. From the bits of dirt still on the barite rose, I thought he might have actually found it, instead of buying it from a store.
"Thank you, Sabian. I love it," I replied with real gratitude in my voice. It was touching and very cool. It had been a long time since anyone had given me a gift. Especially one so heartfelt.
He preened with my approval.
I brought the rock into the living room and put it on the shelf where a few other treasures sat.
Sabian's grin broadened when I glanced at him. Now if only I could kiss him, but Sabian understood and he was probably just as uncomfortable with the idea as Ezra was.
"Okay, Aaron, if you're up for driving me around a bit, I was hoping to steal you away for a few hours. I want to use some of those clues we got to see if we can track the bad guys down."
"Sure, I've got the time."
"Great, thanks. Before we get going, though." I reached out to touch Aaron.
Ezra groaned in annoyance and I giggled internally. He'd compared it to an electric fence. That, I could handle. Hopefully, he hadn't been understating things.
The zap that arced through me when my skin touched his was a bit more than a standard electric fence but not bad.
I chuckled at Ezra's annoyed grumbling. "You feel that?"
Aaron stared at me, incredulously. "No. Other than maybe a bit of pressure."
"Great." I zapped myself again.
If you want me to stop shielding you from the full affects, do it again, Ezra growled.
I chuckled, but took his warning and didn't touch Aaron again.
"Are you okay?" Aaron asked.
"No, mate. But getting a rise out of Ezra is making my day."
Aaron actually laughed. "I'm glad to be of service."
I grabbed Mal for a relatively chaste kiss, blew one to Sabian because I wasn't willing to push my luck too far, and headed back out into the heat with Aaron.
∞ ∞ ∞
"So, what made you drag me alone out into the desert," Aaron asked.
I laughed. "Well, I can't do naughty things to you because I might not survive the electric shock, but I did want a chance to talk to you, relatively alone."
He blushed and cleared his throat. "Relatively?"
"Yeah, well, hellhound in the backseat, demon prince riding along for a case of possession, can't be completely alone."
"Point taken. How is that? Being possessed?"
"Well, this ain't typical, let me tell you. Ezra is behaving himself and intending on leaving. Usually by now I'd be completely consumed and beyond recovery."
"How have you avoided it for so long? Being in your profession."
"Well, I've got a lot of personal protections in place to prevent it. Ezra was able to slip in because I was basically dead."
You were very dead.
"You probably don't need to worry about it, though. Angel blood and all."
He shook his head. "I still don't even know what to think about that."
"So, you can tell when folks are lying. Melt demon possessed charms with a touch..."
"Hurts like a son of a bitch," Aaron interjected.
"And anything else?"
"Yeah, if I get really stressed out about something it gets kind of weird." He didn't elaborate and I didn't push.
"Great. So, you on board with helping us stop the occultist or should we leave you at home?"
"I'll help. I'm not sure what good I'll be. I'm just a physicist and a sports and chess coach."
His angelic nature will be very useful, and it will protect him from a lot of the danger.
"Ezra says the half angel thing will keep you pretty safe, well, probably not from getting shot, but from all the demon shenanigans, anyway."
Aaron nodded acceptance.
"And it'll probably be pretty useful in the confrontation. So, glad you're sticking around."
"You're very intriguing, Chris Price. I've never met anyone quite like you before."
"One of a kind, that's me."
He laughed, the rich so
und going right through me and dragging me back to all those naughty thoughts.
"I'm not sure the world could survive two of you."
"Yeah, that's a terrifying thought. We'd either hate each other and destroy everything around us fighting, or be best friends."
"And destroy everything around you having a good time?" Aaron supplied.
I grinned, studying his profile. Smart. Handsome. Make that really smart. I wanted to trace those firm, lean muscles, explore those crazy eye markings, run my tongue along the wings draped along his back...Fuck me.
You do any of that and you're going to be unconscious, Ezra warned, voice dark.
It's your damn fault I'm not getting any.
You'll survive for a few more days.
I don't know about that.
Ezra, probably wisely, didn't reply.
As if sensing the turn my thoughts had taken, Aaron glanced at me. "Yes?" he prompted.
"Um, just, you know, living with an incubus is entertaining."
Sure, now you're blaming it on him.
You said I could!
The demon prince laughed.
Aaron shook his head. "I'm getting that impression. I like him. Mal, too."
"You sound surprised."
"Never met a demon or a vampire before," he answered. "Guess I never really thought about it. I like how they treat you. They seem like decent folks. Maybe once this is over, we can still hang out?"
"Yeah, mate. I'd really like that."
You know, Ezra said, surrounding yourself with powerful men is not a terrible idea. Especially with as much as you seem to attract trouble.
I ignored him. Pointedly. Though, yet again, I wondered why he cared beyond my usefulness in our current mission.
"So, we haven't turned off of this highway in a while, but I kind of feel like that dirt road needs exploring," Aaron suggested after a moment.
"If we hadn't already established that naughty things were off the table until I'm no longer hosting a demonic prince, I'd wonder what you had in mind." I laughed when he practically choked.
"It was more that something feels off, and I've learned to trust my feelings," Aaron stammered.
I'd have nudged him playfully, but when I went to do it on reflex, Ezra froze my limbs.
Jerk.
"Yeah, let's check it out," I said aloud.
Aaron gave me another long, searching look, before he turned back to the road.
"How are you defining your relationship with Mal and Sabian?" he asked, voice almost carefully neutral.
"We haven't really had time to figure it out yet. I didn't meet them too long ago and we all know we need to discuss it, but not getting killed, or, well, in my case, recovering from getting killed, has taken priority." I was trying pretty hard not to think about nearly dying too much, but I probably was going to have to have a good freak out session about it later. Even though I didn't want to think about it, I'd brought it up enough that it was clearly on my mind.
"Why?"
He shrugged. "Just curious."
He's far more than curious, Ezra chimed in. Unnecessarily.
Yeah, getting that idea, mate. Thanks.
Phantom fingers curled around my neck before trailing down my spine. I managed to hide my reaction outwardly, but Ezra stilled.
Sorry. He muttered and disappeared from my awareness.
"You have any family?" I asked as I studied the landscape. We were driving deeper into the desert. There were a few mesas nearby and this road twined between two of them, whatever was beyond them out of sight, and probably where we were headed.
Aaron's brow furrowed as he concentrated on the road and whatever feeling was nagging at him.
"Yeah, parents are still alive. They're down in Albuquerque. Got a sister in Colorado. Aunts, uncles, and cousins all over the place. Sister's got a couple of kids.
"No Mrs. Reed?"
He glanced at me before looking back at the road. "No. Why?"
I shrugged. "You're the one asking relationship questions." I deflected the question back at him, not really ready to truly go there.
"I've dated. Not extensively. The markings and other abilities make things awkward after a while."
"Know that feeling," I said. My markings were chosen, and my abilities crafted and honed, but even before I'd met Darius, I hadn't exactly been what most people considered normal.
Aaron chuckled. "I suppose you would."
"Do you think I'm someone you could take to visit your parents?" Okay, maybe I was going there a little bit.
Aaron frowned. "Yeah, sure. They're cool with a lot more than you might imagine." He shrugged. "I wouldn't even tell you to leave the exorcist part out. I do need to talk to them about the Nephilim thing. It'll explain a lot, but I didn't think it was something I should broach over the phone."
"Yeah, probably not, mate."
That he thought his parents would be cool with me blew my mind. That, I had not expected.
We fell silent after that, listening to the woosh of the air conditioner and the crunch of dirt under the tires. I thought about turning the radio on, but we were out of range of the good station, so I left it off.
After a long silence that wasn't completely uncomfortable, we rounded the mesa and Aaron hit the brakes.
We stared for a few minutes before he quickly turned the car around and we hurried out of there. Hopefully, we hadn't been noticed.
On the surface the place simply looked like a New Mexico style ranch. Adobe architecture, sprawling single story home, barns, other outbuildings, fencing, even a wall around part of the house forming a private courtyard. Very charming. I would have loved it normally.
It practically oozed with malevolence. The air over it shimmered, and I could convince myself I could see arcane symbols surrounding it in some sort of super powerful ward.
You can see them. Possibly because I can see them. Or they are simply that prominent.
"Okay, that's evil," Aaron declared when we were much further away, nearly back to the main road.
"Yeah."
Did they notice us?
I do not think so.
"That's way more what I expected demons to be like than the three you've got hanging out with you."
I'm quite evil, Ezra declared.
"Ezra says he is extremely evil." I kept my tone neutral.
Aaron chuckled. "Is he?"
"Probably." I shrugged. "He seems to be reasonably mellow in the evil department at the moment, but maybe he's just reining it in for our sakes."
Exactly.
I wasn't quite buying it, but I had no doubt he was far from good.
"Sabian could probably be quite evil if he wanted to be, but he seems inclined toward decency. The hellhound, well, he did choose the shape of a Pomeranian. I'm not sure what that says about him."
Hellhounds are protective and a bit chaotic. Their personalities often reflect the ones they are bonded with.
"Ahh, Ezra just said Mayhem will be chaos, but not particularly evil."
Both Aaron and Ezra laughed, though for slightly different reasons. I found myself grinning.
The difference between myself and what is going on at that ranch is that I have achieved my ambitions, and am relatively content to rule my corner of hell. The evil we sensed there is of the type that wishes to break onto Earth and cause actual destruction.
"Okay, Ezra says he's only evil if you piss him off. Whatever demonic presences are going on back there are evil because they want to break the world."
Essentially.
"I see."
"So, Ezra, you mentioned that there was something deeper going on than just an attempt to gain some territory on Earth. Anything else we should know about that?" I asked aloud so Aaron could hear.
I don't yet know the extent of this.
That was similar to the answer he had given me the last time I'd asked basically the same thing.
"What'd he say?"
"He doesn't know enough to say yet
."
"Think he would tell us if he did?"
"Eh, probably not. He just wants to end this and head home. Guess as long as we don't have to deal with the rest of it, doesn't matter much to me."
"What do you think the odds of us not having to deal with any of the fallout are?"
"That's a good question." I leaned back in the seat, unsuccessfully trying to ignore the phantom fingers that trailed over my skin again. I did find it interesting that Aaron was still considering himself a part of the equation after this was dealt with. Especially since he'd felt what we were up against.
Chapter 18
Price
What is the point of this?
It's fun. It makes Mal happy. Shut up.
We should be planning our attack on the occultist.
Trust me, we will. Also, if you hadn't noticed, Mal has us storming a heavily warded dungeon. Think of it as practice.
Ezra grumbled.
We were playing characters closer to our normal selves this time. I was playing a heavily intoxicated sorcerer. Which, I found entertaining, because I didn't actually drink that often anymore. Even when I'd been younger, I'd saved the benders for really special occasions, usually involving breakups, or fantastic fuckups on my part. Being a drunk exorcist wasn't the best idea.
To appease the demon prince a little I brought up our mission. "What is the plan?"
"Tomorrow is a new moon," Mal said. "Conveniently, it will be dark. Inconveniently, you won't be able to see very well. I suspect the rest of us will be fine."
I can help with that.
"I think Ezra's got the 'Price is a human' problem taken care of, at least where my night vision is concerned."
"I see pretty well in the dark," Aaron admitted.
"Yeah, not a problem for me," Sabian confirmed.
"So, we sneak in. Severely injure or kill the occultist, send the demons back to hell, and break things to the point where the human authorities can handle it, then call the cops?"
"Damn, Mal, you're starting to sound like me." I chuckled.
He shrugged. "I'm not sure how extensively we can plan otherwise. You and I should probably have a bit of a talk about the wards before I leave tonight. I'll do some research and show up tomorrow prepared to deal with them. We can set Aaron loose on any demon possessed charms. They are mostly Prince Ezra's demons, so I suspect we won't have much of an issue with them once they're freed. They might even help us against any humans they've left behind."
