The scream of her release tore through the house, slamming against my balls, which released their load and cleared my mind in the process.
“Pivane!” the princess roared, rattling the window.
I looked down on Eliza who panted with her skin dewed with sweat. I helped myself to it, even though I wasn’t in much better shape. Her eyes were hooded and I wished I could do more for the scratches marring her beauty. With swollen lips she reached for me and kissed me so deeply that if I had a soul she’d have touched it.
“Why did you only use your hand?” I rotated my thumb on her clit as I slowly retracted my fingers. She shuddered again.
“Because I fear I love you.”
* * * *
Detective Vincent DeTello
Caked with black soot, I tried to clear my eyes as noises became distant to me. Who’d seen what I’d just done? Who saw what was attacking us in the first place? No one was rushing to aid us.
Wiping my eyes didn’t help because my hands were covered in the thick ash too.
“Vincent,” Esther said from beneath me. “Vincent, I need my knife.”
A figure formed under me as I batted ash out of my eyes. Esther’s eyes shone brightly below me and were the only thing I could make out clearly.
“They’re gone. At least we think they are,” Kiriana said. “I’ve checked in with Nye, he is trying to coordinate everyone. We need to get back to the compound now.”
“What about Vain?” I coughed as I slowly dislodged from the pretzel Esther and I had become.
“Vain? Pivane?” Kiriana asked.
“Pivane…” I’d heard that name before. “You know him?”
“He’s a demon.”
“You think they’ve relocated?” Esther said as I helped her up and passed her knife off to her.
“Who?” I asked, still in a daze from what had just occurred.
“The demons,” Kiriana explained as she popped the back of the SUV and passed us baby wipes to clean up with. “We knew where they were living, but after our attack last year I’m sure it’s not in the same place.”
“The cul-de-sac where Nemesio lives?”
“Yes, they are all homes of demons.”
“It’s still occupied. I sent…” Horror hit me at the idea that Meegan had gone there. “Damn it, I need my phone.”
“It was damaged,” Kiriana said.
“Then bring me to my office.”
“What’s the problem, Vince?”
“I sent a woman there to investigate Nemesio, Damarion, and you,” I snapped at Kiriana. “A blonde reporter.”
“Shit,” Kiriana cursed and moved quite stealthily for a pregnant woman. I barely had my seatbelt on before she peeled out of the parking lot and shot down Old Highway Thirty-Four.
“We don’t need the police to pull us over, just get me to the station.”
Dragging Esther behind me. I hurried to my desk. I waved off the calls of “Feeling better?” and “Hey, I thought you were out today.” Shoving papers on my desk aside, I searched for Meegan’s card. The number was saved in my phone, but I was sure I hadn’t tossed it. Finding the number I quickly dialed and got voicemail.
Checking in with the newspaper, I learned they hadn’t seen her in hours. She was following up on a story last they heard.
“You don’t look too sick to me,” Jones smartly commented as he walked by. “Just a bit dirty. You rollin’ around a pasture with this one…she’s not one of your hookers that you’re so fond of, is she?”
Jones flew into the wall, knocking over the cooler. Water gurgled as it coated the floor. The punch was long overdue and came at just the right time.
“Jones, you live in a shit town like every other town in the world. Every vice in the big city is here. Demons run wild and drugs are as popular as potato chips. Get your head out of your ass. If we would have done something when the hookers came up missing we wouldn’t have lost a legal assistant, physician, and reporter.”
“Who’s missing?” Jones snarled as he held his jaw.
“Yappy. I think I sent her to the man abducting the women of this town.”
“Why would you send her to do anything?”
“Because you won’t.”
A strange look passed over his face. “Let me help.”
“Not if my life depended on it.”
“I like Yappy and this is street stuff.”
“You think I can’t handle myself?” I challenged just as the chief found his way out of his office.
“DeTello,” he bellowed. “Get your ass in here.”
“No time.”
“How about we play a fun game where I’m in charge here and you find your way to my office. Jones, get a mop.”
Taking Esther’s hand in mine, I walked to the back office. She stayed behind me with her hand on my hip.
“What the hell is going on? Fighting in the squad room.”
“If you knew the answer why’d ya ask the question, Chief?”
“You’re supposed to be my second-in-command and I can’t even count on you to keep your cool around the officers. How can I leave this place to you when I retire?”
“I’m sorry, Chief, he was…”
“Being Jones, a jackass of the highest level with a dad on the county board. Seriously, I took a chance bringing you in here, don’t make me regret it.” He shuffled papers around on his desk then settled back into his chair. “Who’s this?”
“Special Agent Esther Benson.” Esther came from around me.
“Special Agent? Why wasn’t I told the FBI came to town?”
“I just arrived. I ran into Detective DeTello in the parking lot. He’s catching me up on a few things.”
“I don’t like being lied to,” he said as he leaned back in his chair. “This is a small town. People can’t take a shit without the color being broadcast on local radio. So when my detective goes to talk to a prisoner down the road I tend to catch wind. Especially when he doesn’t go in alone. Federal badges tend to make people jumpy.”
“There are worse things to fear in the world then a piece of laminated paper,” Esther retorted.
“Hmmphh…well, where are we with the missing legal assistant?”
“I have a name that I came across in another case,” I said.
“Which one?”
“Damarion Juarez.”
Esther cut her eyes at me.
“A neighbor of his, there’s a similarity between him and a man who worked with an inmate at MPCF.”
“I assume that’s where our federal help came into place?” the chief said.
“Yes sir,” Esther replied.
“Just one more thing.”
“Yes, Chief?” I asked.
“Why are you covered in black crap?”
“Oh…that…well, see…” What was I supposed to say? I killed a demon and they turn into sulfuric ash when stabbed into an oblivion?
“Shit happens,” Esther said plainly. “Can we go? We have a suspect to speak to.”
She didn’t wait for an answer. Instead she opened the door, leaving both the chief and I in her wake.
“Where did that come from?” I asked when I finally caught up with her outside the station.
“While I was picking out an outfit Kiyoshi let me watch part of a show so I could learn how police operate. Was I not doing it correctly?”
“I think you made my chief have to change his diapers.”
“He wears diapers?”
“No.” I nestled her head in my hand as I leaned in for a kiss.
Again her hands went to my chest, but instead of pushing me away she curled my shirt into her fingers. Her lips parted slightly when I touched her and I used the opening to lightly lick her lips. A moan vibrated between us and I pressed her against the wall. Hunger overwhelmed the two of us as her hands bunched my sweater, but not at my chest. She guided my top up with forceful hands then let her fingers run
over my bare skin. The hands who’d never seen a day without hard labor found a delicate touch and sent waves of lust directly to my dick.
“I love the feel of you,” she gasped when she broke our kiss while still keeping her lips close enough that I felt as well as heard her. “Is that wrong?”
“Only if you’re mimicking a TV show.”
“I’m not, I’m…Vince…” Her breath hitched and I feared she’d run again. “We should go…” She swallowed hard. “Until those women are safe, giving into lust…”
My thumb stroked her bottom lip and she nipped the end.
“You are a strange and beautiful soul, Esther Benson.”
* * * *
Pivane
“People know I came here.” The reporter’s teeth chattered as I approached her.
“Are they blonde? I have a predilection to them.” Cupping her breast made her head turn in disgust. “Natural ones, though…” I used my knee to separate her legs and move her skirt up until I reached her juncture. “Did you dye every hair on your sweet little body or just the top ones?”
Thick tears filled her eyes and overflowed to spill down her cheeks.
“Maybe I’ll look later.”
When I hit the top step I finally heard her gasping cry. The other woman who’d been kind to me on the sidewalk comforted her the best she could from across the room. Slamming the door I flopped into the kitchen chair and eyed the table. Desire for Eliza burned in my loins. Pressing against the confinement of my pants. Visions of her squirming on top with her fingers clutching the sides made me lick my lips looking for her flavor, but alas it was gone.
Resting my elbow on the table, I ran my finger under my nose and again came up wanting. My palm supported my head as I prayed for salvation from the princess and her demands.
“Kill her.”
The order echoed in my head. The fear in Eliza’s eyes when I returned to the kitchen scorched me. LaDressa kept her voice loud and commanding so the whole house could hear. Even those in the basement. I hated that women’s death warrants were signed by looking at me. The peace and gentle lovemaking Damarion showed to Nemesio after the loss of Zuma was lost on me.
Cherishing a woman and keeping her in my arms was a foreign concept to me. The demon I’d married so many centuries ago experimented with sex, pushing me to the limit of depravity. That pushing had cost her life, but I doubt she cared. Something about the best way to go being in the middle of an orgasm. Reigning in my need for inflicting pain in my sexual partner had become a fruitless struggle and until I met Eliza I’d accepted my fate. No woman would be there in the morning and Deumos, with all their talk, didn’t really want what they begged for. Not even the princess.
I walked back into my bedroom where said princess rested after using the microwave to make popcorn for my necessary salt intake.
A handful of popcorn for me and three pieces tossed at her head was enough to rouse her.
“Is it done?”
“We know where the Frozen are holed up. We could attack at any point in time.” I sat on the end of the bed. “Because you fell in love with a ditch digger—”
“He was royalty on this plane,” she spat.
“Give me enough money and I too can be king here.” I shook off her comment and refocused. “You demand I have sex with you, growl because I chose to pleasure a woman, and then claim you desire Damarion.”
“If he was here you could lock us away in here. He’d heal me, but instead he is trapped in a dungeon unable to escape.”
“Who gave into those rules?” I asked. “Did you even try? LaDressa—”
“I am your princess.”
“Your Holiness, if you love me it is not a loss for Damarion. You can leave him trapped away for all eternity. Eventually the Frozen will probably just kill him. We can be together, rule in a way others think impossible.”
“Are you suggesting I marry you,” she sneered in disgust. “The thought.”
“You were young, naïve, and had the misguided notion Damarion was your true love. Now you’ve been out in the world and discovered that others can make you pant.”
“Nothing about you makes me pant.”
I slid up the bed so I was right by her hip. My fingers drummed on her belly, then pulled her shirt up.
“Tell me something…Have you ever climaxed? Really climaxed with your gut clenching and nipples hardening as you beg for release while not wanting to ever have the sensation stop?”
The tip of my index finger circled her areola. She sucked in her lips, but kept her eyes trained on mine. Surrounding her breasts, my hand kneaded the underside of her mound as I pinched the hardened nub of her nipple.
Her other nipple hardened and strained against the thin material.
“What attacked you? You still haven’t told us.”
“I don’t know.” She sighed and arched her back.
“Are they wanting to be released?” I nuzzled against her neck. “Your wings, do they demand their freedom?”
“Yes,” she moaned as I sucked her earlobe.
My hand followed the trail under the sheeting and I covered her undergarment. Rubbing her sex had her writhing on the bed.
“Princess, so do I.” I retracted my hand and continued eating my popcorn as I made my way to the door. “I want out. I want a permanent post on Earth. No longer will I stay tied to one coven in some sick attempt to manipulate the outcome of what has already been ordained. Your brother will be king after your father passes.”
“No, he won’t,” she protested.
“Why not? You’re here pining for a man with no worth and a have body destroyed by a creature you can’t even recognize.”
“I saw the gates,” she spat. “That’s how high I flew.”
I spilled about half my bowl before I recovered. “Heaven? You saw the gates of Heaven?”
“Yes. I flew higher than my mother dared dream and when I saw them, the guards rushed me. They didn’t attack, I fell from sheer shock. So while you say I will never rule in Hell you may be right. Because now I know what I saw and it was marvelous and next time I will be ready.”
Her hand flew, sending me from the room and slamming the door. Once again my house rumbled, but it was not alone. The whole cul-de-sac shook. She was opening the Hells Mouth and releasing the next coven. My door flew off the hinges and she walked, fully healed through it, and clutched my chin in her long claw-like fingers.
“Pivane, I wanted pleasure and you denied it.” Her lips curled around the words as she sucked in the air from the room. “A child, one to be manipulated and played like a fiddle. Is that not what you think of me? You and my brother?”
“Maybe he underestimated you.”
“What about you?”
“I never estimated you at all. You were of no consequence in my world.”
My throat burned in a desperate search of oxygen. As my hand reached for LaDressa I dropped to my knees and the feeling of spikes going through my kneecaps sent me back with a howl. My skin tore from her claws as I fell back and she stood over me with emblazoned eyes. They told me of the danger she posed. She’d warned me. She was no longer the shrinking violet kept trapped in a room. She’d learned anger, rage, and torment from a master, my master—only she had an X factor. One, that unlike with her brother, I could not circumvent.
“Is that still the case?” she asked, pursing her lips and wrinkling her nose.
Chapter 12
Esther Benson
“YOU feel that shift in the air?” Schmitty said as we stood at the edge of the cul-de-sac.
Everything about this grouping of five homes said go away. Across the street blinds open in every other direction were closed to us. Schmitty was a Closer, he knew how to feel the signs and prepared us for battle. The past few days had the steadfast soldier harried.
My hand slid into Vincent’s. The touch was enough to keep me positive for the future. More Frozen were arriving. Th
ey had parked around the neighborhood as to not draw attention to this one cursed place. The home with the roof the princess had destroyed now sat with a tarp over the top to keep out the wetness even though the inside had nothing to save at this point. Circling the homes, Closers from around the world were all on heightened alert.
“It’s going to get ugly, isn’t it?” Vince asked.
“We’ve upset a member of the royal family, more than likely,” I said. “Did Kiriana make it home safe?”
“Yes,” Kiyoshi replied.
The ground trembled beneath us and we all stopped.
“They couldn’t all…” I began.
“It’s never happened, but…” another female Frozen continued my thought process.
“What couldn’t?” Vince asked.
“Normally the run is from several holes and people don’t notice. It’s when the demons escape from Hell,” Kiyoshi said as the asphalt in the center of the cul-de-sac bubbled up. “That’s not good.”
As the road rose, veins of liquid ran down the hump until the black asphalt cracked and burst forth in a way that made me fear the rapture. The ground looked as if it were an orange peel. Steam erupted from the opening as a claw-like hand emerged on one of the shards. Vince’s arm came in front of me, moving me behind him.
“You don’t know what’s going to come out of there,” I advised even though I kept my hands on his hips.
“Neither do you.”
“Yes…I do…this is what the bantlings are trying to change into.”
The first demon to fully emerge howled into the air while crackling sounded from the cold air hitting the warm. A scorching heat rushed over the air and we all turned away as it burned against our skin. When a swoosh sent a second wave I knew the princess had arrived. After the last time I never wanted to see her again, but Kiriana had insisted she not be harmed. To me it seemed reckless. The past week of untimed demon emergences proved me right.
With wings flapping she floated ten feet above the opening. Arrows and bullets from members of the Frozen were rendered useless with the wave of her hands. The weapons fell to the side as she stared down the members from our compound.
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