by Cassie Ryan
Jez stumbled out toward the rapidly emptying parking lot happy to find two men sitting in the bed of a large pickup truck, bottles of beers clutched in their hands. Since their truck was blocked in by the exiting traffic, they seemed to be making the best of it.
She picked up her pace, jogging toward them, cursing the tight corset and the larger-than-life breasts that bounced painfully with every step.
Both men’s heads swiveled toward her and she slowed to a brisk walk, smiling at them. She hoped they’d had enough beers and were distracted enough by her oversized boobs to make them look past the gaping shoulder wound and her bloody clothes.
“You need a ride, miss?”
Jez couldn’t tell which of them made the offer, but at this point, it didn’t really matter. She reached the truck and scrambled up into the bed, shivering as her bare legs hit the cold metal. “Actually, I’m freezing and hoped you boys could warm me up.”
The men smiled at each other and then back at her, not bothering to move from their seated positions on opposite sides of the truck railing. “What did you have in mind?”
In answer, she stepped toward the first man and straddled him just as she had with her dinner. She grabbed his face in both her hands, the slight stubble scraping against her palms as she kissed him hard.
He opened his mouth and she took the opportunity to slip her tongue inside, using several thousand years of experience to keep him fully engaged. He returned the kiss, and his beer bottle clattered loudly against the bed of the truck as his arms came around her holding her close.
Jez didn’t have time for a slow surge of energy, she was losing blood fast, and the human who’d helped her could already be dead. She ground against the man beneath her, kissing him hard and deep, allowing his energy to flow into her in a quick rush.
When he swayed against her and his hold on her loosened, she pulled back and stood.
He blinked hard as if coming out of a trance and then slid down into the bed of the truck like a rag doll. “Damn,” was all he managed to say past the wide grin on his face.
Jez rotated her arm and winced at the pain still there. Although, she was glad to note she could move the arm at all and that the rush of blood had slowed to a trickle. Her fingers were still numb from the poison, but nothing she couldn’t heal totally if she had more time and some full-on sex.
“Hey, what about me, beautiful?” asked the second man in the truck.
Jez flexed her hand and shrugged. She could definitely use a little more energy, and the man would experience less of an energy hangover from her than he would from drinking a case of beer. She leaned forward, giving him a full view of her over-impressive cleavage and allowed him a quick look before she cupped his cheek and pressed her lips to his.
He opened for her immediately and stood to pull her against him, dropping the bottle just as his friend had.
Jez stood on her tiptoes as his energy flowed into her. In only a few seconds he swayed against her, and she guided him down to the bed of the truck where he flopped over, smiling up at her.
“Thanks,” he slurred with a smile as his eyes slipped closed.
“No, thank you.” She rolled her injured shoulder noting the improved healing and the reduced effects of the pestilence demon’s poison. Not fully healed, but good enough to go back and save the Good Samaritan’s ass.
Not bothering to waste her siphoned energy to change form, Jez hopped down off the truck, wincing as it jarred her still-injured arm. A quick jog took her back to the door she’d left just a few minutes ago, and she took a deep breath for courage before she stepped back inside the club.
Sounds of battle told her the human still lived. She breathed a sigh of relief as she used the darkened interior to her advantage and kept to the shadows along the side wall until she could sneak behind the long mahogany bar. From there, she was able to kneel on a box of clean bar towels, which put her at the perfect height to peek above the bar to see the action unfolding in between the dance platforms.
The human stood facing off with the pestilence demon just as she’d left him, making her wonder what other tricks he had up his sleeve besides the obvious holy water in a Super Soaker trick.
Movement behind the man caught Jez’s attention, and she turned to look just as the imp head butted the back of the human’s legs, making him lurch forward to land hard on his knees with a loud curse.
The pestilence demon laughed and straightened, even though his hide still sizzled and smoked. “I’ll eat your soul, human!”
Jez bit back her cry of warning since it would only get her caught. Instead she rolled off the box and landed hard on her ass as she racked her brain for any way to help. As a succubus, she was the definite example of lover, not fighter, but she had to do something. The human had saved her, after all.
More sizzling sounds and one definitive “fuck you” from the human told her he was still alive, but she didn’t have much time.
Her gaze landed on the bottles of liquor filling the mirrored shelves behind the bar and a slow smile spread across her face as she glanced back at the box of bar towels.
She grabbed a half-filled bottle of Jack Daniel’s and twisted off the top before stuffing the edge of one of the bar towels inside it far enough to begin to soak up the liquid. Working quickly and listening for any sign she’d been found, Jez grabbed all the bottles she could reach from her hiding spot and filled them with bar towels.
She risked being seen by standing and grabbing two of the still-lit table candles that sat on the bar and pulled them down onto the floor with her.
“Please let this work like it does in the movies.” With her hands trembling, she grabbed the first two bottles and held the protruding end of their bar towels over the flames.
When they caught fire and the flame began to spread, she stood and threw first one and then the other in the general direction of the demon, but as far away from the human as she could.
For a long few seconds, nothing happened except the crash of splintering glass, and then the flame met the liquid and there was a satisfying flash and fireball.
Jez resisted the urge to pump her arm in the air in victory and instead grabbed two more bottles as another satisfying high-pitched squeal sounded from the pestilence demon.
She lit the bottle bombs in her hands, stood, and with her good arm, chucked them one after the other in the same general direction.
The man had regained his feet and stumbled back closer toward the bar, bringing the pestilence demon with him, their battle still ongoing. She winced as she noticed a few bleeding wounds where flying glass from the bottle bombs had hit him.
The second bottle bomb hit a few inches away from the imp, and the resulting fireball lit the small demon like a Fourth of July sparkler.
Its scream of gurgling anguish was cut short when a loud pop drowned out all other noise as the imp’s physical form was destroyed and he was sucked back to Hell.
“Serves you right, you little bastard,” she muttered as she grabbed more bottles, prepared to keep up the barrage until she could either do the same to the pestilence demon or figure a way out of this mess.
She lit another two and tossed them between the human and the demon. When the fireballs exploded, she gave in to the urge to whoop as she lit another two bar towels.
In her peripheral vision, she noticed the human pull out a small gun from his backpack and take aim at the pestilence demon. Over the music and the demon’s screaming, Jez never heard the retort of the gun, but five pink darts hit the demon in quick succession, protruding from his skin like odd piercings.
Jez watched in fascination as the demon’s form sizzled and slowly expanded as if he were doing a remake of the blueberry girl from Willy Wonka. She definitely didn’t want to be around when he “popped.”
Movement caught her attention, and she glanced up in time to see the human jump onto the bar in front of her.
“You gonna throw those?”
Jez jumped when he grabbe
d the two already-lit bottle bombs in front of her and tossed them toward the demon before he dove over the bar, nearly knocking her on her ass.
She scowled as she realized she’d gotten distracted and almost let the bottles explode in her face.
The sound of two explosions one after another rent the air and startled Jez. She sat frozen for a long moment, sizing up the human. Up close his eyes were the soft gray of storm clouds, and they alternately sparked with intelligence and curiosity.
He picked up two more bottle bombs, lit them, and tossed them blind over the bar in the general direction of the demon before he grabbed her around the waist, dragging her with him as he rushed toward the end of the bar and along the shadowed edges of the walls.
“Hey,” she protested as she scrambled to try and gain her feet. “I can walk, you know. Put me down.”
“Fine.” He let go and dropped her, nearly dumping Jez on her ass again as he continued forward. “Stay down, and run like hell,” he hissed over his shoulder as he ducked through the exit doors, just a second before the two bottle bombs exploded.
2
Noah shook his head at the annoyed expression that slid across Jezebeth’s features when he’d nearly dropped her on her ass. After all, he’d risked his neck to save her back there; she could at least be appreciative. Hadn’t he told her to run?
She came back for you, his conscience reminded him, making him scowl.
That had surprised him. From everything he’d learned about succubi in the past few weeks from the imp Lilith had sent to give him this assignment, he’d figured Jezebeth would cut and run and he’d have to track her down once he’d killed the demon.
Although since the imp who had given him the information was the same one who had just tried to help the pestilence demon kill him, Noah wasn’t sure how much of its so-called information he could trust.
He had to admit, he’d been impressed with Jezebeth’s quick thinking in making the bottle bombs. Succubi had to be smart to survive as they did, so maybe this assignment would be quick and easy.
Yeah, right.
Noah adjusted his backpack on his shoulders and winced as the shards of glass still embedded in his arm and side from the first of the bottle bombs moved inside their wounds. Once the first one had exploded he’d kept his distance and let the demon take the worst of the debris.
He mentally shoved aside the pain and glanced around. It wouldn’t be too long before the pestilence demon recovered enough to come after them, and they needed to put some distance between them and it as quickly as they could. He doubted they’d been lucky enough to destroy its earthbound form—mid-level bounty demons were supposed to be very hard to kill.
Noah edged around the building and breathed a sigh of relief when the pickup he’d stocked with supplies still sat unharmed in the parking lot. The way the last few weeks had gone, he wouldn’t have been surprised if the truck mysteriously disappeared and he had to walk the damned succubus to the final rendezvous.
He looked over his shoulder to find Jezebeth peering past him toward the parking lot. Her ridiculously large breasts nearly spilled out of her corset as she leaned forward to see around the corner. Noah resisted the urge to roll his eyes. “By the way, I’m Noah. Lilith sent me here to bring you back to her lair.” The words sounded inane, even as they spilled from his lips, but he couldn’t think of a better way to broach the subject quickly.
A furrow appeared between her dark brows, and she looked him up and down as if seeing him for the first time. “Seriously?” From her tone, her disbelief was obvious.
A spurt of irritation sizzled through him and he said through gritted teeth, “Yes, seriously.”
“Prove it,” she said before edging past him and walking quickly toward the parking lot. “And do it quickly,” she called over her shoulder. “I’ve got to get out of here.”
He caught up to her in a few quick steps and grabbed her arm, spinning her around to face him.
She winced and cried out, the sound lancing guilt through him like a sharp knife. He’d forgotten that was her injured arm, and now he felt like an ass as he dropped his hand.
She glared at him, the venom in her gaze stopping him as if she’d slapped him.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to hurt you.”
When her glare turned to surprise, confusion swam through him. She wasn’t quite what he’d expected. True, the short, spiky hair combined with the over-generous curves made her look like a bad caricature of what he’d envisioned a succubus to be. But what did he know? She had survived for centuries before this, so men obviously liked the look.
He mentally shrugged and raised his free hand to eye level to show her the sterling silver ring the imp had given him from Lilith but had warned him not to remove until his assignment was complete. “This is the only proof I have to show you.”
At her dubious expression, doubts spilled through him.
Had the imp given him something that would tell her to kill him instead of believing him? The sterling silver ring had faded ancient Hebrew characters inscribed on it that roughly translated to the current-day equivalent of “Temptation”—fitting and ironic for a succubus. But would that really convince her he was here to help?
Jezebeth’s brow furrowed, and she reached out tentatively to touch the ring with just the tip of her index finger.
Noah had the impression she was afraid the sterling silver might burn her. He racked his brain to see if he knew anything about the effects of silver on succubi, but came up blank. He had just opened his mouth to suggest they get out of here first and save the “proof” for later when Jezebeth gasped and her lips opened in a tiny “o.”
She gave no explanation of her reaction before she raised her gaze to his and nodded once, her face suddenly serious. “Good enough. Let’s go.”
Before she could walk off again, he grabbed the wrist of her uninjured arm and pulled her after him farther into the parking lot toward his truck. He made a mental note to ask her about the ring as soon as they were out of immediate danger.
Jezebeth followed behind him until they were nearly to the truck, then she slowed her steps. For a long moment, he worried that the effects of her injuries were finally catching up with her. He’d seen how deeply the pestilence demon’s claws had penetrated her shoulder, so her words surprised him.
“Please tell me they aren’t with you.”
Noah frowned and glanced back at her trying to figure out what she meant. He followed her line of sight to find a large pickup parked just next to his in the now nearly deserted parking lot. Two burly good old boys were sprawled in the bed of the truck as if they’d passed out before everyone had fled the building. “No, I came alone. Why?” He glanced back at her, and she smiled, just a small, sardonic curve of her lips.
“I had to take some quick energy from them to be able to come back inside and help.” She shrugged. “Would’ve sucked if I’d just exhausted your entire escape plan.”
Noah glanced at the men, who didn’t look as if either of them would be waking any time soon. Shock and revulsion spilled through him, and he frowned down at the succubus. “You came out here and had sex with both of them?”
Jezebeth yanked her wrist from his grip and glared at him with a clearly irate expression. “If I’d had full-on sex with two men in the parking lot, don’t you think I’d be fully healed and not walking around in this hooker getup?”
Noah had no idea how the succubus/energy thing worked, but filed away that bit of information to study later.
A roar shook the building and shot a new dose of adrenaline through Noah in a sudden surge. He fished in his front pocket for the truck keys and pressed the alarm button to unlock the doors. “Run!”
The command turned out to be unnecessary as Jezebeth had stayed so close on his heels that when he opened the driver’s side door to the truck, she jumped in and slid across the bench seat to the passenger’s side.
In a quick motion, he shrugged out of the backpack, ignor
ing the lancing pains up and down his right side from the shards of glass, and tossed the pack to Jezebeth before he jumped in the truck and slammed the door. He started the truck and peeled out of the parking lot as he fumbled for his seat belt.
A quick glance over at Jezebeth showed him her struggle with her own seat belt, her injured arm not working quite like it should. “Hold on tight and as soon as we’re clear, I’ll help you with that.”
She glared over at him as she grabbed onto what his family referred to as the “oh shit” handle just over the passenger window. Then she kicked off her shoes, bracing her feet against the dashboard since her legs weren’t long enough to reach the floor. The movement edged her tiny excuse for a skirt up around the tops of her thighs and Noah got a quick eyeful of the smooth, clean-shaven skin that covered her mons.
His cock swelled to life, and he swallowed hard as he ripped his gaze away from Jezebeth and back onto the road.
She’s a succubus!
And she’d just fucked two strangers in the parking lot—or did something close enough to take all their energy and make them pass out. How in the hell could his body be responding to that?
Succubus glamour?
He swerved out of the parking lot and glanced up into the rearview mirror in time to see the slow-moving pestilence demon limping after them, its still-misshapen form visible in the harsh lights from the club. Noah cleared his throat, praying his voice sounded normal. “Looks like it’s injured enough to stop it from following us, at least for now.”
“Look out!”
He glanced down and instinctively swerved as a glowing bright red demon that looked like it had stepped out of a nightmare appeared in front of the truck, lighting up the dark road in front of them with an eerie red glow. The tires squealed as they found traction and the truck fishtailed, smacking the demon aside with the back quarter panel of the truck.
A loud wrenching noise of metal grinding against metal made Noah grit his teeth and wince as he stomped down on the gas pedal and they shot forward.
