Wicked Fantasy

by Nina Bangs

  She flapped her wings at him. “I’m not done talking about my tail. Find something that’ll keep the damn wig on. I’ve tried double-sided tape, glue—”

  “Staples?”

  “We are not amused.” Morrigan almost vibrated with temper. “If I didn’t want you to continue suffering, I’d have destroyed you centuries ago, warrior.”

  Conall wished he could cut her strings and wrap them around her scrawny neck.

  “Now get me something to keep—”

  A sudden breeze blew down the stairs as if someone had opened the door to the battlements. It lifted Morrigan’s wig and dropped it on the step beside him. He picked it up, prepared to put it back on the goddess’s butt.

  “Hey, your feathers are almost all grown back.” He stared. “I don’t remember some of them being white.”

  “Put the damn wig back on.”

  He plopped it on her behind and then straightened. “Old age catching up with you, goddess?”

  “You did not see those white feathers. You will never speak of them to anyone.” She twisted her head to make sure the wig covered the offending feathers. “Sparkle Stardust is a bitch, but she takes care of herself. I’ll make an appointment with her hairdresser. A good color job will fix everything.”

  Conall would pay to see the expression on the unlucky hairdresser’s face. “Anything else you need?”

  “I’ve decided to give you and the Kavanagh female one night of sex.”

  After eight centuries, Morrigan had finally said something to shock him. “Why?” He wouldn’t pretend he wasn’t interested. Conall just hoped she didn’t know how desperate that interest was.

  “I’ve spent days trying to find out who impersonated me. If I’d had all my tail feathers, I could’ve appeared in my true form and scared the shit out of everyone in this cursed place. All I’ve been able to do, though, is listen at some doors and read a few puny human minds.” If a crow had teeth, she’d be grinding them. “You know everyone here. They’ll tell you things.”

  “And?” He guessed what was coming.

  “You’ll track down the pretender and in return I’ll give you your night.” She wiggled her butt. “My revenge will be horrific.”

  “So I can make love to Gerry after I give you a name.” Where should he start looking? The odds were against him earning that night with Gerry.

  Morrigan cocked her head to study him. “Make love to her tonight or tomorrow night or whenever you want. But it’d better be just one night.”

  “Aren’t you afraid I’ll take my reward and not give you what you want?”

  Her eyes shone in the dim stairwell. “You’ll come through. You know that if you try to mess with me I’ll punish some unsuspecting descendant of yours. Your conscience is a weakness. Too bad for you.”

  Bitch.

  “That’s why I liked Sean so much. He was like me. His conscience was never an issue. Sean wouldn’t care who I hurt as long as he got what he wanted.” She sighed. “I thought of him as a son. So much potential for greatness.”

  And I killed his ass. Even after all these years, the thought still gave him satisfaction. He turned and continued climbing the stairs. She didn’t follow.

  As he stepped out onto the walkway, he was busy planning how he’d find the person who impersonated Morrigan.

  “Beautiful night, isn’t it?”

  Startled, Conall turned toward the woman’s voice. Well, so much for being alone. The three demonic vestal virgins stood smiling at him. “Yeah, nice night.” Maybe they’d leave.

  Instead they moved closer. All three of them were gorgeous, but they creeped him out. Blond hair, pale eyes, white dresses . . . “Did you ever think about buying some red dresses?”

  They studied him a little too long. One of them finally answered. “I’m Tullia, and these are my sisters Fulvia and Varinia. We’d never wear red. It’s a carnal color.”

  Personally, he thought a little carnality would do these women a lot of good. He glanced over the wall at the people leaving the castle after their fantasies. It must be nice not to have demons cluttering up your life.

  “We noticed that you’ve been with Gerry a lot.”

  This from Fulvia, although Conall wasn’t sure. They looked interchangeable. “Uh-huh.” If he didn’t encourage them, would they go away?

  Varinia chimed in. “Ordinarily we wouldn’t intrude, but we think you should know some things about Gerry.” She glanced at her sisters for confirmation. They nodded their agreement. “She’s fixated on her body.”

  “And that’s a bad thing?” So was he. It gave Gerry and him something in common.

  “She’ll whine about her cellulite.” Varinia gave him a so-there look.

  “Cellulite?”

  “And when she goes to the store? She’ll come home with a beer brand you hate because it was on sale,” Tullia chimed in.

  Conall frowned. Not buy his favorite brand? This could get ugly. It wouldn’t be a deal-breaker, though.

  Fulvia delivered what she probably thought was the knockout punch. “Picture this. Houston Texans. Behind by six points. Need a win to get in the playoffs. One minute left on the clock. Fourth and goal for the Texans. And . . .” She smiled with wicked glee. “Gerry grabs the remote, presses the mute button, and plants herself in front of the TV screen because she wants to discuss your relationship. When you growl at her, she asks what you’re thinking. Do you tell her?”

  “No. I pick her up and move her away from the screen. I don’t see that as a problem.”

  “Argh.” Fulvia’s eyes glowed red, and she bared her teeth at him.

  Conall exhaled wearily. “Look, I get that you don’t want Gerry and me together, but there’s nothing you can do to stop it. Maybe you should trot on back to hell.”

  “You know we’re demons?” This from Varinia.

  “Yeah. And you failed. Gerry and I have already made love.”

  The three sisters looked at each other, then they looked at Conall.

  “Does anyone remember what sex feels like? I don’t.”

  “What do we have to look forward to when we go back? Just another thousand years of freakin’ chastity.”

  “He has a good body, and I bet his cock is very large.”

  “What do we have to lose?”

  “What have all those centuries of virginity gotten us? No fun, and we still get PMS.”

  Conall didn’t bother trying to put a name to each comment. The overriding message was clear. It looked as though he’d be fighting demons sooner than he’d expected.

  They rushed him. His innate unwillingness to hurt a woman disappeared fast as all three flung themselves on him at once. He went down beneath the assault. Damn, he’d forgotten that they might look like women, but they had demonic strength.

  Conall fought the clawed fingers that ripped his clothes from him. He managed to hold on to his briefs. Barely. Three pairs of glowing red eyes stared down at him. He had no trouble reading the sexual hunger stored up over centuries in them. The sisters smiled at him, exposing pointed demon teeth. In their excitement, they were losing their human forms.

  “This isn’t going to work. No matter what you want, it’s not going to happen without my cooperation.” He grunted as one of them threw herself across his chest while the other two tried to yank off his briefs.

  Conall heaved himself to a sitting position and then to his feet dragging the three virgins with him. He fought them back and forth around the walkway. This would teach him to take his sword everywhere. When he’d thought about battling demons, fighting for his virtue was not what he’d had in mind.

  Gerry hit the key that would send her message winging its way across cyberspace to Payton. A really short message. Yes, she still had Jinx. Yes, she had the alleged serial wife killer. And, no, she didn’t know when she’d be leaving the Castle of Dark Dreams. Payton wouldn’t be happy with her short report, but his happiness wasn’t at the top of her priority list right now.

  Shutting d
own her laptop, she looked at Kim, Fo, and Conalla. “Done. I appreciate you staying with me.”

  “Always feel free. That’s what friends are for. And thanks for filling me in on what happened at the beach. Brynn will want to know the whole story.” Kim tucked Fo and Conalla back in their pouches and stood to leave.

  Gerry joined them. Friends. She leaned forward to give Kim a spontaneous hug. “Thanks. I’m at that in-between stage. Too weird for my old friends and too new for any vampire friends.”

  Fo peered up at Gerry. “Conalla wants to tell you something.” Her tone suggested it wasn’t a good something.

  “Conalla?” Gerry would need an interpreter. She hadn’t taken goo-goos and ga-gas as her second language. She stared into Conalla’s rainbow eyes.

  “You must tell Conall he will never be free of Morrigan’s curse.”

  There was something creepy about that very adult message of doom delivered in a little-girl voice.

  “What happened to the baby talk?” Gerry looked at Fo. “And how does she know this?”

  Conalla answered both questions. “Baby talk is the expected form of communication for newborn humans, so I conformed to what would make those around me feel comfortable. But when I receive a vision of what will be, I must abandon that form of speech so everyone will understand me.” She looked at Fo. “Did I do what was right, Mother?”

  “Yes.” But Fo’s purple eyes looked sad.

  Kim sighed. “Conalla has a gift. It manifested right after she was born. She sees future events. So far, they’ve all centered around family or friends. We’re so afraid what would happen if her ability became known. But Conall is special to her, so we gave permission for her to give Conall her message.” Kim tried to smile but failed. “He’ll probably wish she’d kept her vision to herself.”

  Gerry looked back at Conalla. “Why tell me? Why not go directly to Conall?” She didn’t want to be the one to watch despair fill his eyes. No, that was a cowardly thought.

  Conalla stared at her from unblinking rainbow eyes. “Because you are the most important person in his life. You must choose the right moment to tell him.”

  Gerry could only nod while her heart bled for Conall. Her only hope was that Conalla’s vision was the result of a malfunction that needed tech intervention.

  But Kim wasn’t finished. “One of the first things Conalla told us was that Fo mustn’t be present at the final confrontation between Conall and the demon or she’ll be destroyed.” Kim looked torn. “I know Fo’s the logical one to destroy the demon, but we can’t take a chance.”

  “No problem.” Liar. It was a huge problem. “We’ll come up with a plan.” On the positive side, they didn’t have a plan yet, so it wasn’t as if they’d depended on Fo and now everything would fall apart. It was just that a demon destroyer would’ve made things a lot easier.

  “I’d better go up and see what Conall’s doing.” Gerry tried to look cheery, but from Kim’s expression she figured she wasn’t fooling anyone.

  “I’ll go up with you.”

  “Don’t bother. Asima’s outside the door. I’ll be safe with her.” Probably. Gerry watched as Kim left. Should she tell Conall about Conalla’s prediction? Could she justify depriving him of all hope? After all, it would happen whether she told him or not.

  One good thing, the prediction suggested they’d spend a long time together. So that must mean Dell wouldn’t destroy Conall or her.

  Gerry gave herself a mental shake. The prediction could mean nothing, just the product of a child’s imagination. Even if said child was a sentient machine.

  Staring at the floor, Gerry worried over this new problem as she headed out the door to join Conall . . . and slammed into a cart pushed by Sparkle Stardust.

  “Good. We caught you before you could run off.”

  “Uh.” Gerry stared at the clothes and shoes piled high on the cart along with the ever-popular makeup case. Atop the pile, Ganymede lounged with one black paw hooked around a bag of gingersnaps.

  “Hey, babe. Sparkle’s here to work her magic on you. I’m the muscle. No one will interfere while I’m around.”

  Sparkle translated. “What he means is that he tagged along because your TV has more channels.”

  Gerry tried to look regretful. “Look, I’d love to stick around, because there’s nothing I love more than trying on tons of clothes and stuffing my feet into dozens of shoes. But I promised I’d join Conall on the battlements.”

  “I totally know where you’re coming from, sister. After all, the more time you spend with your immortal hot bod, the more chance there is for sex and more sex. I mean, you can try on clothes anytime.” She smiled. “I noticed that Asima the Anal isn’t outside your door. Must’ve taken a kitty-litter break.”

  Sparkle seemed pretty cheerful, so the castle’s sex diva mustn’t know that Gerry had blabbed about the bet to Banan and Destiny. Good. She couldn’t handle a ticked-off cosmic troublemaker right now. “Thanks for understanding.”

  Sparkle shrugged. “Hey, we’re flexible. Aren’t we, sweetie?” She glanced at Ganymede, who’d already settled himself on the couch with the remote beside him.

  “Sure.” He didn’t glance their way.

  “That’s why we’ll go up with you to meet Conall. Won’t we, sweetie?” Sparkle cast Ganymede a pointed stare, which he completely missed because he was already channel surfing.

  “Sure.” Pregnant pause. Ganymede turned his amber gaze on Sparkle. “We? Why do I have to go?” He was in full whiny-child mode.

  Sparkle’s sunny mood was picking up a cloud cover. “Because you’re the big bad protector in this group, sweetie.”

  “I don’t want to.” He wouldn’t meet Sparkle’s gaze.

  “Then I guess I don’t want to cook that roast tonight. Oh, and I’ll probably forget to bake that apple pie. Maybe I’ll even accidentally throw out the ice cream I bought.”

  “You’re a cruel woman.” But he got his behind off the couch. “Besides, you don’t cook. You’ll just have some restaurant deliver it.”

  Sparkle narrowed her eyes to angry slits.

  “Okay, okay, I’ll come with you.” He mumbled his way all the way up the stairs to the battlements.

  Gerry followed in Sparkle’s and Ganymede’s wake wondering what she’d done in a previous life to deserve this. But all self-pity disappeared as she stepped onto the walkway atop the curtain wall. She froze and then blinked to make sure she wasn’t hallucinating.

  Yep, Conall was down to his briefs as he struggled with the demonic vestal virgins. The virgins didn’t look too chaste and pure right now. Their hair stuck out in every direction. Their dresses were torn and dirty. And their eyes glowed with a bright red fervor. All of that fervor seemed focused on getting Conall’s briefs off.

  “Whoa, babe, I’m glad you dragged my ass up here. Looks like Conall’s holding his own with those three hot demons.” Ganymede circled the combatants yelling encouragement to Conall.

  Sparkle almost bounced with excitement. “We have to help Conall. I’ll take the demon with the handmade Italian shoes.” She flung herself into the fray.

  Gerry watched in disbelief as one the demons grabbed Conall’s crotch. Who the hell did she think she was? Rage painted a red film across Gerry’s vision. She welcomed the slide of her fangs, the surge of adrenaline as she raced to Conall’s rescue.

  “Mine!” Gerry grabbed Fulvia, or maybe it was Varinia, by her blond hair and dragged her off Conall.

  Then she kicked Tullia, or maybe it was Fulvia, away from his leg. “Mine!” Good thing she’d gone for girly tonight because these sandals had a nice pointy toe. Great for kicking demon butt.

  Talking of butt, Gerry threw herself on the bitch that was trying to dig her nails into Conall’s luscious ass cheeks. “Mine!” Drawing back her fist, Gerry socked her. Damn, that felt good.

  Gerry was just hitting her stride. She hissed her fury as she looked around for someone to sink her fangs into.

  “Yo! Eve
ryone stop now.” Ganymede’s booming command startled Gerry. She paused to look at him. Everyone else did, too.

  “This is great, and I hate to make you guys quit, but I hear sirens. Someone called the cops.” Ganymede had leaped onto the battlements and was peering into the darkness. “I don’t like to step in when everything’s even, three against three, but I’ve gotta come down on the side of my sweet tart.”

  Then he turned to face them. Gerry gasped. The easy-going good-old-boy black cat was gone. What had taken his place was something else entirely. Oh, the cat form was still there, but his eyes . . .

  Thousands of years of wicked power looked out of those eyes. Power that made Gerry gasp for the breath she no longer needed. He was way beyond scary. Her mind might reject that scariness ratio, but the echoes of primitive ancestors reaching back to the beginning of time recognized Ganymede, and feared him.

  Ganymede’s gaze slid over them until it focused on the three sisters. Then they were simply gone. No muss, no fuss, just gone.

  “Where’d they go?” Conall pulled on his jeans as he kept track of the police cars entering the park now.

  “Probably somewhere in a South American rain forest. Could be as far south as the Antarctic, though.” He leaped from the wall, and when he turned his gaze on Gerry, he was once again the entity she’d thought she knew.

  “All that power. You never gave a hint. Why?” The germ of an idea was forming in Gerry’s mind. “I mean, I know Edge said you were powerful, but you just didn’t look the part.”

  Sly amusement moved in Ganymede’s eyes. “I don’t have to advertise, babe. Anyone who sees me in action once remembers. And those who don’t know about me?” He offered her a cat shrug. “Too bad for them.”

  Conall pulled his torn T-shirt over his head. “The cops just went into the castle. We need to move it.” He waved them toward the stairs.

  They clattered down the spiral steps and when Gerry peeked into the great hall on her way to the dungeon, she saw Holgarth waving his arms as police officers argued with him. The wizard had given them time to get out of Dodge. Gerry felt almost kindly toward him. Almost.