by Christine Warren, Marjorie Liu, Caitlin Kittredge, Jenna Maclaine
“I think it has to do with their ability to visit to or from those planes that humans normally can’t.”
Her shoulders shifted in a shrug. “Anyway, yeah. I go after the nasties. Mostly I contract out with the police, the courts, bail bondsmen. When a non-human doesn’t show up for court or when the police lack the expertise to handle a supernatural creature, I step in and get them or return them to custody.”
Aaron nodded for her to continue.
“A few years ago, one of the things I was after—a goblin—thought he would be able to give me the slip if he beat a path into Hell.”
That made sense to Aaron. Hell was the nickname given to the parallel plane of existence inhabited and controlled by nine devil princes, immortal beings of great power and no discernible redeeming qualities. Devils lived to accumulate wealth and power, and one of the ways they did so involved the enslavement of unsuspecting humans and visitants alike. Aaron had never paid the plane a personal visit, and he intended to continue to stay very far away. If he’d been following someone who had ducked into Hell to evade him, he’d have waved goodbye and headed out for ice cream.
“Not a bad move.”
She shot him a very level glance. “I don’t give up on a case,” Lilli informed him steadily. “If I agree to bring something in, I bring it in. I don’t care where I have to go to make it happen.” She paused. “Well, okay, I care, but I don’t let it stop me. I went in after the goblin.”
Aaron shook his head. Already he could tell this story would not end happily.
“I decided to do it the smart way, though,” she told him. “Instead of just following the trail and stepping on a bunch of pointy tails, I found out which part of the pit he’d gone to and I decided to ask the prince of the area for his permission to wander around his land. And then I decided to go for broke and ask if he would be willing to ensure me safe passage until I found the goblin and left.”
“With brass balls like that, I’m surprised you don’t rattle when you walk.”
Lilli snorted. “It had less to do with balls than with a sincere desire not to have to fight my way into and out of the principality. So anyway, the prince agreed, provided I paid for the favor.”
“How?”
“I agreed to do him three favors in return,” Lilli explained her agreement with Samael, including all the restrictions she’d insisted on. “This—getting the book back for him—was supposed to be the last favor. I almost had it.”
He could hear the wistful tone in her voice and felt a stirring of sympathy. She might have broken into the house and attempted to steal part of his inheritance from his uncle, but frankly he couldn’t swear he wouldn’t have done the same if their positions were reversed. He figured he’d be willing to do whatever it took to get a devil off his back, too.
“I understand the bargain,” he said, “but how did you get into Hell to begin with? I always thought that humans had to either be summoned there or escorted by a demon or devil to get onto the plane in the first place.”
Lilli shrugged. Her gaze held steady on his, but he could see a flare of defiance in her unusually colored eyes. “Humans do, but I’m only half human. My father was a devil.”
He experienced the shock just as if he’d built up a bunch of static electricity and then grounded with a jolt. “You’re a demi?”
Her mouth tightened. “If you want to use the term. Personally, I’m not wild about it. Labels aren’t really my thing.”
Aaron could sense her discomfort with the subject, but he couldn’t stifle his curiosity. He’d never met a demi-human before. They were incredibly rare, mostly because few humans chose to associate with Hell-folk, let alone mate with them. Of course, according to the stories, choice often had very little to do with it. Often the children of human-devil matings owed more to rape than to romance. He longed to ask her about her parents, about her history, but his conscience managed to step in and rein him back.
“That must be where you got your eyes,” he said finally and a little weakly. “They were the first thing I noticed about you. Well, after I noticed you were in my house when you weren’t supposed to be, and you were armed like a Navy SEAL.”
“Yeah, the eyes are hellish. Some people get freaked out by them, but I’ve always considered myself lucky not to have inherited horns or something even worse. I knew a kid when I was growing up who had the complexion of a three-day-old corpse—kind of a greenish, purplish gray. He went to the tanning salon every damned day, but no matter what he did, he couldn’t change his skin tone. Made weird eyes seem like not much to worry about.”
Aaron shook his head. “I don’t think they’re weird. I think they’re beautiful.”
Lilli stilled and raised her eyes to his, her gaze searching his expression for the truth. “You do?”
He nodded. “I do.”
“Oh.”
She swallowed, and he watched the muscles in her throat work until the urge to lean forward and trace the movement with his tongue nearly overwhelmed him. He swayed forward, caught himself, jerked back. He cleared his throat.
“So, uh, like I was saying,” he coughed, struggling for calm, “I, uh, I think what we should do next—”
He never got to finish his sentence, ridiculous though it would have been. Not when Lilli rose slightly from her chair, leaned forward, and laid her soft, warm, expressive mouth over his and stole his breath in a kiss.
The world froze. Time may have stood still, the universe may have stopped expanding, he couldn’t be sure. All Aaron could be sure of was that sinking into Lilli’s kiss felt like coming home. He may as well have been the people of Israel, wandering the desert for forty years, and now finally entering the promised land. She tasted of coffee and strength and a subtle tang of smoke that wrapped him up in an ever-tightening ball of fascination.
Moving without thought, he rose from his seat, careful not to lose the contact with her mouth. He would rather have lost his mind, which seemed like a distinct possibility. Two shuffling steps brought him around the corner of the table toward her and more importantly allowed him to get his hands on her. He slid them around her waist, his fingers flexing on the soft, muscled warmth of her. She felt as resilient as youth and as tempting as experience. When she answered his touch with a soft sigh that filled his mouth with her flavor, he felt his body tighten and his knees go weak. She laid her hands over his, then slid her palms up his arms, kneading as she seized the opportunity to explore him.
Aaron deepened the kiss, pouring into it the mysterious, inescapable intensity that had seized him. He slid his arms around her back and explored the slim length of her spine even as his tongue explored the slick, inviting cavern of her mouth. He could feel the superb conditioning of her muscles, the hard, faintly intimidating capability of them to move, attack, defend, absorb, and carry her through places as dangerous as Hell and still guide her back to safety. But he also felt the blatant flare of her hips, the incredible, luscious femininity of the bottom he cupped in his hands and kneaded with frank appreciation.
Lilli moaned and pressed herself against him, her arms twining around his neck, slim, clever fingers burrowing into the shaggy fall of hair at his collar. He felt the scrape of her fingernails across his scalp and his head reeled, his entire body tightening and quivering as electricity jolted through him. He tugged her closer, his hands on her bottom, pressing her hips against the hardness of his erection. Instead of backing away, she rubbed against him like a cat in heat, all elastic muscle and shameless sensuality.
Christ, he couldn’t ever remember being this aroused. Not from a first kiss, that was for sure. One taste of her, and he was ready to lay her back across the table, drag those no-nonsense BDU pants down around her ankles, and sink into her up to his damned fool neck. He guessed this was what people called “chemistry.” Morons. Aaron had never in his life felt a more powerful magic.
Magic, he thought hazily as he skimmed one hand up her side to close it around the soft swell of her breast
, was the only possible explanation for this madness.
But at least he wasn’t alone in his insanity. Lilli continued to press and rub against him as her mouth ate at his. It was like she was trying to climb inside him, which made perfect sense to Aaron; the only thing he could think of right now was getting inside of her.
Shifting, he pressed her half a step backward until her ass—and his very appreciative left hand—bumped against the edge of the kitchen table. He had urgent, heated, erection-swelling thoughts about whether the ancient piece of furniture would hold up to what he planned to do to her, but by then it was too late to care. Tightening his grip on her bottom, he boosted her up a few inches and nearly swallowed both their tongues when she parted her legs and wrapped them around his hips, pushing the hot, damp softness of herself against the monster in his pants. He could almost picture coming just like that, like a teenager dry humping on his parents’ sofa.
Aaron struggled for control, found the last few threads that remained, and gathered them up in a tight fist. If he didn’t get ahold of himself, he was going to last about fifteen seconds, most of which would be spent muttering apologies for his technique of shoving it in and then shaking like an earthquake while the force of this mad chemical magic overwhelmed him.
He reached for the hem of her shirt only to find that she’d beat him to it. Their kiss broke just long enough for the fabric to whisk over her head and go sailing in the direction of the refrigerator. The strange little hourglass pendant she wore dropped back to her chest with a thump, the red sand inside seeming almost to flash with inner light at the movement. Then he laid his hands on her bare skin and jewelry was the last thing on his mind.
Her skin felt like warm cream, soft and smooth and voluptuously silken beneath his fingers. At the moment, he could see a flush of pink adorning the pale expanse of it, and he wanted nothing so much as a taste …
She reached behind her and flicked open her bra clasp.
Make that a huge, greedy mouthful.
Brushing the scrap of dark fabric out of the way, Aaron cupped a soft mound in his hand and lifted it to his mouth. Bending low, he took the rosy tip between his lips and drew her inside himself, groaning in pleasure at the sweet, warm, dusky taste of her. His tongue played over the hardened nipple, teeth lightly scraping the sides until he felt her quiver under his hands.
“Aaron,” she breathed.
He released her nipple with a soft pop and dragged his lips across her chest to the other peak. He felt her fingers tighten in his hair and hoped he’d still have some by the time they were finished. Of course, shaved heads were in, he reflected, and baldness seemed like a small price to pay for something so astoundingly perfect.
Rearing back, Aaron reached for the fastening on her jeans, watching as her eyes fluttered open and blinked hazily up at him.
“Wha—?”
He leaned forward, pressed a hard, hungry kiss to her mouth and drew down her zipper. “Sh.”
Something hot passed between them, but it wasn’t until Lilli muttered something against his lips and began to press her hands into his shoulders that he realized it wasn’t their mutual attraction.
Tearing himself from the kiss, Aaron reared back and frowned down at his own chest where a black singe mark now stood out against the top of the white O in the name of the band on his shirt. “What the hell?”
Lilli wasn’t paying attention, but Aaron could hardly blame her, not when he saw the patch of livid red skin above her breastbone and the brightly glowing pendant that seemed to be causing it.
“Damn him,” she hissed, reaching for the chain with both hands and yanking it off rather than fumbling with the clasp. “He didn’t just want me keeping track of the time, the bastard; he wanted to keep track of me.”
“Ah, Lillith,” a voice purred from the shadows in the hall door, “you always were such a clever girl. You get that from your father. It’s just such a shame you won’t be able to pass it on to a child of your own one day.”
Aaron turned and instinctively placed himself between Lilli and the intruder. That earned him a smack on the shoulder blade hard enough to make him wince, but he didn’t step aside.
“Who are you?” he demanded, even though he had a sneaking suspicion he already knew the answer. Behind him, he heard the shifting of cloth as Lilli tugged her shirt back on. Good. Now at least neither of them would be naked when they were slaughtered by a devil prince.
“Didn’t you tell your new friend?” the figure asked, finally stepping forward into the light from the chandelier above the table. “Lillith, darling, I’m hurt that you wouldn’t think to mention me.”
With every step the devil took, Aaron felt more intensely the sensation of things crawling on his skin. He knew better than to look. Devils and demons often gave humans who glimpsed them the feeling of being somehow contaminated, either by insects or vermin or even acidic liquids. It was purely psychological.
At least, that’s what Aaron hoped.
“Sam,” she bit out, her voice sounding as grim as the face he glimpsed when she stepped out from behind him and squared off against the intruder. “Checking up on me already? I thought I had until dawn to run your little errand.”
The devil shrugged and propped one shoulder against the refrigerator in a negligent pose that did nothing to disguise the malevolent power he embodied. “Technically, I suppose you do, but you appear to be a little distracted. I was afraid you might have forgotten why I sent you here.”
“Not likely.”
“Really?” His black, blank gaze shifted from Lilli and Aaron to the bra she had discarded on the floor beside the table and not bothered to put back on in her haste to redress herself. “Funny. I thought you looked quite absorbed.” His gaze shifted to Aaron, focused, glittered dangerously. “Maybe if I gave your beau a few lessons in seduction you’d have better luck next time.”
Aaron’s skin gave up crawling and felt as if it were trying to leave the room at a dead run. He would have very much liked to follow it. Straight into a boiling hot shower. The idea of Samael, Prince of Hell, Lord of Deception, and Master of Depravity, teaching him anything about women held even less appeal for him than apprenticing at the hands of de Sade. He didn’t think immersing himself in a vat of full-strength bleach until his skin melted off would be enough to remove that kind of filth.
God, he thought suddenly, how the hell would he ever get this kitchen to feel clean again?
Now that he thought about it, Aaron couldn’t understand how the devil had even gotten into the house to begin with. Uncle Alistair had the place warded from attic to building site. Aaron remembered teasing him years ago about his paranoia. After all, Alistair was just researching the darker forces, he wasn’t offering to show them a good time. All the wards and charms and spells and blessings that encircled the house and gardens had seemed like overkill. Now, he couldn’t have been more grateful for them.
Fixing his eye on Samael, Aaron studied the devil closely, looking for a clue as to how he’d gotten past the guards. He didn’t appear to be harmed in any way, and he knew several of those wards were strong enough to burn a body to a crisp if they were tripped. He might have suspected that the devil had used magic of his own, but that would have been impossible. No creature could take down a ward specifically designed to keep his kind out. That was what made them effective. So how had he gotten inside?
Aaron craned his head and tried to look around the demon. That was when he noticed it. Despite the uneven light in the kitchen, Samael cast no shadow. The floor and refrigerator behind him remained blank and well-lit, which would have been impossible if the devil were actually in the room. He wasn’t; the figure Aaron and Lilli were seeing was a projection, a kind of magical hologram that looked and sounded exactly like the real thing, but had actually been created to be used as a sort of live-action attendee at a supernatural conference call. He could speak to them, and his presence could still cause them the same physical symptoms as if he were in the r
oom, but the projection was essentially powerless. It could not touch them, and more importantly, it could not use magic against them.
Aaron let himself relax. Just a little.
“Unfortunately, your luck doesn’t seem to be holding out so well, does it?” Samael continued. He smiled, and Aaron marveled that a face so beautiful could be so chilling at the same time. “Of course, you are doing better than your dear uncle, but considering he’s dead, I don’t suppose that takes all that much effort.”
His chuckle made Aaron’s blood run cold. Something tickled at the back of his mind, something he’d heard about the Praedicti, or something he’d maybe even included in his thesis. Something about the coming of an apocalypse …
Lilli just continued to glare at her client.
“I think we’re doing just fine without your help,” she snarled.
What had it been? Aaron wondered frantically. Images flitted through his mind—a burning tower, the crack of whip, long lines of rattling chains. Was that why Samael wanted to get his hands on the codex? Did he think it would help him to bring about a war between humanity and the powers of Hell?
“If that were true, he’d already have fucked you, wouldn’t he, my dear? But then, I’ve always found that those who try too hard to resist temptation have the hardest time giving in to it. Or rather, the softest, to be frank.”
Something about an offering. Not raised up to the Gods, but lowered into the abyss.
No, not offerings, Aaron realized, feeling himself stiffen. Sacrifices. Three deaths were required to bring about the war foretold in the Praedicti. The one who possessed the book had to sacrifice three people and use their life force to crack the seals that divided the planes of Hell from the ones of mortal reality.
Aaron uttered a word so foul he hadn’t even realized he knew it. Throwing up his hands, he stepped forward and sent a stream of rage-fueled energy straight at the projection of Samael.
