Sex & The Immortal Bad Boy

by Stephanie Rowe

  She rested her cheek against his chest, feeling his heart beating steadily. “My leg hurts all the time now, and I can even feel pain in my hip. It’s building, and I’m constantly afraid it’s going to explode and I’m not going to get another chance. It’s going to take an angel to fix this, and one of them is going to have to willingly break the rules to do it. I’m a little short on angel friends right now.”

  He cursed softly and pressed his face to her hair.

  After a moment, he dropped his hands and stepped back. “Let’s go.”

  “Right.” She tucked her cell phone in the bodice of the dress, then lifted her chin and clenched her fists. “It’s about time I had sex anyway. I’m too old to be a virgin.”

  He held out her shoes, a grim look on his face. “Spoken like a true descendant of Satan.”

  Jed sat back in his seat, watching Paige search the club. The place was packed, and it seemed to be like any other meat market. Dark lighting, pulsing music, men and women prowling around, getting it on on the dance floor, throwing back the drinks and trading suggestive looks.

  Except . . . there was lightness in the air. A place like this usually felt dark, and his shadow warrior usually reacted. But here . . . his other self was quiet. If he went shadow warrior here . . . would it still be the same? Or would all the angels soothe his savage beast?

  He was almost tempted to try. To find out if it was possible to embrace that side of himself without becoming murderous.

  But tonight was about Paige. Not about him.

  He turned his attention to the table. Paige was between him and Theresa, with Dani on the other side. Dani had clearly not wanted to get too close to Paige, and he’d seen the hurt on Paige’s face, and it had pissed him off. The three women were checking out the angels and debating about which one Paige should approach.

  Theresa had already warned off three who’d approached the table, not wanting Paige to waste time with one she couldn’t manipulate.

  “They don’t look like angels,” Theresa said. “They look normal.”

  “They have halos.”

  He looked at Paige in surprise. “You can see their halos? Really?”

  She nodded, and took another handful of peanuts. “It’s this sort of yellowish white glow that looks like it’s coming out of their ears.”

  “Ears?” He squinted at a couple dancing in front of him. Ears looked normal to him.

  “Ears. Maybe it’s the ‘hear no evil’ thing.”

  Jed raised his hand to catch the attention of the dancing couple, then shouted, “What time does this place close?”

  “When the last person leaves,” the girl yelled back.

  Jed gave her a thumbs-up then returned to the table. “They heard me, so they can hear evil. Guess again.”

  Paige giggled and whacked him on the arm, but Theresa gave him a thoughtful look. “You’re evil?”

  “Damned. Why do you think she can touch me?”

  “Damned? Really?” She scooted her chair closer. “How’s that work?”

  “Long story.”

  “So, you hoping to ride Paige’s coattails to purity so you can go to heaven?”

  He narrowed his eyes. “No. I’m not worried about my soul. It’s pretty much a done deal.”

  “He made a deal with Satan Jr.,” Paige added.

  “Junior?” Dani suddenly leaned forward. “You know him? I used to date him. How’s he doing?”

  “Dani! How can you possibly care how he is?” Theresa smacked her in the temple. “He trapped you in a death blister! Have you no pride?”

  Dani ignored the dragon. “Jed? How is he?”

  Jed eyed the girl. “He’s an ass.”

  “But he’s doing okay? Not lonely? Is he seeing anyone?”

  “Excuse me.” Theresa stood up, walked around the table, and grabbed Dani by the hair. “I have to go plunge her head into a toilet as a gentle reminder that there are bad boys, and then there are Bad Boys. My God, girlfriend, what is your problem? I know Jerome did a number on you, but that’s no excuse for prostituting yourself to that sick bastard—”

  Her voice faded as she dragged Dani through the crowd, Theresa shoving right through anyone who was in her way.

  Paige stood up. “I’ll go help beat some sense into her—”

  Jed grabbed her wrist. “How’s your leg feel?”

  She hesitated, then cursed and sat back down. “The same.”

  “You need to learn how to meditate.”

  “I need to get laid by an angel.” She propped her chin up on her hands and surveyed the room. “So, who’s your pick for tonight?”

  He felt his shadow warrior stir. “You’re asking me?”

  “Yeah. You’re a guy. You know what it looks like when guys are checking out the goods. Who looks the most in need of me?”

  He scowled, well aware that he hadn’t been able to scare off every guy who’d looked at her. He’d tried to make eye contact with each one of the bastards, but some of them had been so enraptured by Paige that they hadn’t noticed his hostile glare. Yeah, it wasn’t helping Paige’s goal, but he hadn’t been able to help himself. “No one.”

  She rolled her eyes and scanned the bar, then broke into a smile. “Him.”

  Jed followed her gaze, and saw a well-muscled, attractive man in an expensive suit, holding a martini. He was giving Paige an inspection that made Jed want to drill right into the guy’s heart. “He’s too good looking,” he snarled, letting his shadow warrior into his eyes long enough for the guy to pale and turn his back on Paige.

  Paige shot him a hopeful look. “Jealous? You should know, you’re way better looking than any guy here.”

  Jed felt some of the ice around his heart soften. “The problem with that guy is that he can get any chick he wants. It won’t be worth it for him to break the rules for you, since you’ll be easily replaceable by someone who doesn’t come with strings.”

  “Oooh . . . good point.” She pursed her lips and scanned again, then nodded. “The guy at the other end of the bar.”

  The guy in question was skinny, short, had bad skin, and looked totally uncomfortable with the bar scene. Jed’s fists clenched, as he acknowledged that that guy was the perfect choice. Could he really stand back while she did this? Yes. He had to. They had a deal. He gritted his teeth, and forced his voice to be calm. “He’d work.”

  She touched his shoulder. “Just so you know, if I had the choice . . . I’d pick you all day long.”

  He couldn’t keep himself from looking at her, from searching her face to see if she was telling the truth. When she met his gaze with a steady look, with her chin jutted out, he knew she was being completely honest.

  “Hell.”

  She smiled, then stood up, and smoothed out her dress. “Wish me luck.”

  Jed had to avert his gaze from her, or he’d be down on his knees, begging her not to go.

  Begging.

  Him?

  Sure as hell, yeah.

  He ground his teeth. “If you run into trouble, just yell. I’ll be there.”

  “I know you will. Thanks.”

  “Good luck,” he managed.

  He felt her gaze on him, then saw her walk away out of the corner of his eye. When her back was to him, he allowed himself to study her openly. Watched the sway of her hips as she crossed the floor, saw her fiddle with the dress, scratch her earlobe, then come to a complete stop several feet away from her quarry, shifting her weight restlessly.

  Hell, she was nervous. He cursed and stood up to go after her.

  Then she lifted her chin and squared her shoulders, and started moving forward again.

  Jed hesitated as she walked up to the guy and said something. The guy looked at her, his eyes widened in shock, and then he gave her an awkward smile and started talking.

  Darkness swirled around Jed, and he slammed his ass back into the chair.

  Twenty

  Three virgin daiquiris and two hours later, Paige was exhausted. It had
taken her almost an hour to get Ralph Mullins, as her man was named, relaxed enough to actually talk to her without stuttering and another hour to get him out on the dance floor.

  Jed’s dark gaze had been tracking her the whole time, and he was totally stressing her out. Dani had been talking to Jed most of the time, no doubt trying to get the goods on Satan Jr., and Theresa had been sending Paige obscene gestures for the last twenty minutes, until Jed had grabbed her arm and apparently ordered her to leave. After a hostile argument in which Jed had actually begun to go into shadow form, the women had left, and Jed was her only backup.

  He was enough.

  “Paige? Did you hear me?”

  She looked back at Ralph, who was dancing too close for her comfort. “I’m sorry. What were you saying?”

  “I . . . um . . . was wondering if you had plans later tonight. I mean, if you wanted, we could, um, you know, like I don’t live too far and my cleaning people came today, so it’s not dusty or anything.”

  She smiled. “You know, I would love to, but—” She took a deep breath. “I have a problem.”

  He cocked a brow. “What problem?”

  “People who touch me die.”

  He stared at her. “What?”

  “Anyone good dies. I’m . . . like . . . poison. Satan’s fault.”

  “Satan? You’re contaminated by Satan?” He looked interested now. “How’d that happen?”

  “You believe me?”

  “Well, sure. It explains your black aura.”

  She felt her heart sag. “My aura’s black?”

  “Like coal.”

  “And you still wanted me?”

  He shrugged. “You’re the only good-looking girl that’s looked my way in two hundred years. I was willing to overlook that small flaw.”

  “Well . . .” She drew her shoulders back. “I’d love to take this thing with us all the way, but I can’t. You might die.”

  “Might?” He looked thoughtful.

  “Well, my friend says that an angel who was truly good and truly pure would be able to cleanse me and wouldn’t get blown up by me. . . .”

  “I’m an all-star,” Ralph announced. “Top of the list.” He eyed her. “You’d really sleep with me if I could make it safe?”

  She took a deep breath, trying to calm her frantically racing heart. “I . . . would.” She lifted her chin and forced herself to say the words, “Yes, Ralph, I would have sex with you if you’d save my soul.”

  Ralph broke into a big grin. “Well, then, let’s go.”

  “Go where?”

  “Clean you up.” He held out his hand, then dropped it. “Never mind. Follow me.”

  Fantastic! Was this really going to work? Yeah, she was feeling slightly ill at the thought of having sex with Ralph, but if he could save her . . . wow! She gave Jed a thumbs-up as she weaved through the crowd after Sam. Who knew men could get so desperate for sex?

  Then again, she was related to Satan. Need she look further to see the power of sex?

  Jed shoved his chair back and started walking after them.

  And she suddenly felt even better. Yeah, she wasn’t having sex with Jed, but if he was around, maybe she could pretend it was him and then she’d be able to make herself do it. Not that she had a problem with sex. It just was that she’d always had a fantasy about who her first time would be with, and this guy wasn’t it. Jed was, in all ways. And now that he was in her life, now that she’d kissed him, laughed with him . . . she bit her lip and ordered herself to stop thinking about Jed.

  She had a job to do. Just a job. Nothing else. Get over yourself, Paige. It’s all for a worthy cause: her own humanity.

  “Through here.” Sam held open a wooden door at the back of the club.

  She slipped inside and he let the door shut behind him. It clicked, and she wondered briefly if it was locked.

  Not that it mattered.

  Jed would have no problem with it.

  Sam led her through another door, then down a hall, then up a flight of stairs, and then punched in a seventeen-digit code that Paige lost track of after about eleven digits. Then a heavy steel door swung open, and she stepped through the doorway.

  The door slammed shut, and she had no doubt she was locked in, and her heart began to beat a little bit faster. She slid her hand behind her back and flared up a fireball. A white one, that wouldn’t be deadly, but would let her get away if she needed to. Would her transport to hell even work in here? She had a bad feeling it wouldn’t.

  Sam pulled open another door and she followed him inside.

  There was nothing in the room but a king-sized bed, and a mirror on the ceiling.

  Sam turned toward her. “Clothes off.”

  She immediately tensed. “You haven’t saved me yet.”

  “I want to see what I’m getting.”

  “What? No way.” She folded her arms over her chest, starting to panic at the thought of actually getting naked in front of him. “You can see enough. Save me first.” I can’t go through with this. I can’t sleep with him.

  “Show me first.” He walked up to her and leaned his face toward hers.

  She instinctively pulled back out of his reach. “I don’t want to kill you.” Or have sex with you. She had to, though. To save herself. Come on, Paige. Be tough!

  “You won’t kill me. You can’t. I’m angel. Nothing can hurt me.”

  “I already killed one.”

  “One what?”

  “An angel. I already killed one.”

  Ralph grinned and stepped back. “And that’s all she wrote.”

  “Wrote? Who wrote what?”

  The ceiling mirror slid back to reveal an opening, and a man leaned down into the room.

  He was wearing all white. One of heaven’s posse members. The leader, maybe?

  “Paige Darlington, your confession was recorded, digitized, and put on the Internet. My name is Oscar Montefriece. You killed my angel. Prepare to die.”

  She backed up toward the door, suddenly ice cold. “But—”

  Ralph blew her a kiss, hopped up on the bed. “It didn’t occur to you that an Angel Alert might have been issued? Everyone in that bar has been watching you all night to see who you decided to go after. Nice try, Paige, but your playtime is over.” Then he grabbed the edge of the ceiling opening and swung up through it, and disappeared.

  Oscar Montefriece studied her, his hair hanging off his head and pointing toward the floor from his upside-down position. “You have interesting aura. It’s like you’re half-angel and half-demon. It would be much more interesting to study you than kill you. Too bad for me, right?”

  “I’m not in the mood to die, thanks so much for the offer.” She flung her fireball at him, clenching her jaw against the sudden twitch of pain in her hip.

  Oscar didn’t even flinch as it bounced off his forehead. “You can’t kill an angel that way. You really think we’d be that vulnerable?” He cocked his head. “How exactly did you kill my angel? We all want to know.”

  She recalled Jerome’s warning that heaven’s enforcers would kill her immediately if they thought she was Satan’s new deadly weapon. “It was a mistake. An accident. A coming together of over a million cosmic forces that can never be repeated.”

  “Tell me now and maybe we’ll torture you less.”

  Torture? She didn’t like torture. She swallowed hard. “I said it was a mistake. Can’t I apologize and do community service work or something? Take serial killers on tours of hell to get them to stop slashing the throats of innocents?”

  “What kind of example would we set if we let an angel murderer negotiate herself out of torture and death? Everyone would try to kill angels. It would only be a matter of time until some well-funded lab figured out how to poison them, and then there’d be a mass extermination of angels, and then where would we be?”

  “In an angel drought?”

  “Precisely. Do you have any idea what that would do to the balance of power in the Otherworld?�
��

  “Um . . . no.”

  “A world consumed by evil. We can’t allow that, you see? So, you need to die a horrible death, plus everyone you care about as well, just to make our point to anyone else thinking of killing an angel.”

  Oh, God. Not my friends. “I’m a Rivka,” she said with a dismissive shrug. “I care about no one.”

  “No? Sadly for you, we have a fantastic information retrieval system in heaven. We think you’d care very much if we killed a certain dragon, her husband, a woman named Dani Rawlings, a former Rivka named Becca Gibbs, and her fiancé.”

  Paige felt her legs begin to shake. “You could never get them. They’re too tough for you.”

  “Are they? Too tough for an army of angels who can’t be hurt by anything? Who are on a mission to save the world for good? That is a noble mission. The power will be with us. Your friends will have no chance.” He snapped his fingers. “Oh, I forgot. We much appreciated your phone call about Rafi Buchanan’s plight.”

  Paige stiffened. Crud! It was as she’d voiced to Jed. They’d taken her message about Rafi and the vortex Bandit had predicted, and they’d made their own plans. “What did you do to him?”

  Oscar smiled. “We’d forgotten about him, being stashed out of sight and all, but thanks to your hints about how he was ready to be a shadow warrior, we remembered and we took some action. Now we have a fantastic new weapon, and we owe it to you. Just for that, we won’t torture you. You get quick death instead. Because we’re from heaven, and we’re always fair.”

  Paige frowned. “What are you talking about? Rafi’s your new weapon? What kind of weapon?”

  Oscar waggled his finger. “You’re his first assignment. Make it easy on him, if you will? We have high hopes for his future.”

  Then he grabbed the edge of the ceiling and yanked himself back out of sight. Paige sprinted after him and leapt up, stretching for the opening in the ceiling. The mirror zipped back into place a split second before she reached it. She slammed a fireball into it, flames exploded all over her, and the mirror stayed intact.

  She cursed and whipped out her cell phone and tried to call Theresa.