by Dante King
“This should keep us from getting too many stares,” Mareth said. “I’ll go ahead and open a portal back to Christina’s house, Luke. From there, we should be able to head out. Sound good?”
Food, sex, school, I thought, looking at the two gorgeous women in front of me. The only things I gave a shit about when I was nineteen. A smirk rose to my face. Yeah. This is gonna be fun.
I took each woman’s hand, clasping it in an almost tender gesture. “Lead the way,” I said, coaxing Mareth toward the strange portal. “So what are you feeling, babe? Mexican? Italian?”
Christina gave me a secretive little smile. “I know just the place,” she said, her hand snaking around and grabbing my ass. “You’d better keep that hard-on, stud. I’m going to get fucked tonight.”
“Don’t you worry about that,” I growled, looking her in the eyes as Mareth’s portal sizzled over us. “Mareth’s taking us to dinner—but you’re my fucking dessert.”
Her eyes widened. Before she could say another word, we had left behind the strange chamber and had stepped through the portal to Christina’s house.
Chapter 4
My beat-up van waited for us on the curb as we exited Christina’s house. Despite the amount of time we’d spent talking with Lucifer, my watch told me only a few minutes had passed since I’d activated the strange computer program hidden in Christina’s router. That seemed wrong somehow, but I didn’t question it. I was too hungry—and too horny—to think about much other than the rest of the night.
Just as Lucifer assured me, the engine roared to life on the first try. It let out a leonine roar as Christina and Mareth piled in with me, Christina tossing a hastily packed duffle back between her seat and mine as she climbed into the passenger seat. I hadn’t asked what was in there: probably clothes.
Mareth sat in the back row, leaning forward with her elbows on both of our seats. I could tell she wouldn’t put on a seatbelt, so I didn’t bother asking. She probably didn’t need one.
“Which way am I going?” I asked, backing out of the space. The van cornered sharper than I’d expected, as if whatever fixed the engine did a number on the steering, too. The gas gauge was even full, when I’d been sure the needle was pointed on empty most of the way to Morningstar Lane. More presents from the Prince of Darkness.
Christina pointed. “That way.” She let out a little laugh, as if seeing the rolling hills around her for the very first time. “This neighborhood is confusing, isn’t it? All the houses look the same, except for my block…”
“That’s suburbia,” I said, kicking the van into gear. We passed rows of houses, the streetlights lit up all down the block. “Just be glad there’s no one carrying dead squirrels around…”
The two teenagers I’d seen on my way here must have gone back home, but there were plenty of people on the streets. Joggers, a couple pushing a baby carriage, a demon out walking his dog...
Wait, what?
“Do you see that?” I asked, pointing at the dog walker. He had the body of a man, with the head of an elk. Massive antlers stuck out from either side of his head, the kind of thing any hunter would salivate to have on their trophy wall.
The van gave a jerk but remained on the road. “That guy’s a fucking demon!?”
Christina leaned forward. “Wait, what?”
“Let me see!” Mareth sprang from her lair between the seats, arching her back like a bow as she put her elbows on the dash. I couldn’t help but notice how good her ass looked in that position. “Oh, him? I’m surprised you can see that, Luke.”
“It’s just a guy,” Christina said.
“Possessions,” Mareth explained. “You’ve seen The Exorcist, right, Luke?”
The demon lifted a hand and waved as we drove by.
“I thought that was just a movie…” I muttered.
“Demonic possession is very real,” Mareth said with a shrug. “It’s even a major at the Infernal Academy. I’ve had to take a few courses in it, as prerequisites for my advanced placement succubus class.”
“Is that so? Then what the hell is that?” As we turned the corner to the next block, I saw an elderly couple out for a stroll. Only the wife had what looked like a giant black cat perched on her shoulders. As we drew closer, the cat looked at me and blinked, seemingly surprised to be noticed. A huge pince-nez with one cracked spectacle rested on its face, giving the creature an oddly dignified air.
“Oppressions,” Mareth said lustily, licking her lips. “You’ve heard of people having a monkey on their back? It’s not an expression—it’s a demon.” She sighed wistfully. “I’d so love to qualify for one of the Academy’s work-study programs in Oppression. I just know I’d be amazing at giving a sweet young prude some filthy urges…”
Hot damn, I thought. “There’s lots of them,” I realized, comparing the numbers of demons I’d seen with the number of people. “You guys are all busy with this kind of thing? Is everyone being subjected to this kind of treatment?”
“It’s a tug of war,” Mareth said, giving me another one of those shrugs that tensed the muscles of her back so beautifully. “There’s angels out there, too—either trying to influence people to be good or trying to counteract the stuff demons do. You can’t see those, though—at least, not yet.”
I thought about the slender bracelet Lucifer gave me. “Not yet,” I agreed.
Mareth glanced to the side, distracted by the tone of my voice. “Are you freaked out? I’d totally understand if you were freaked out right now. This is a lot for a mortal to take in.”
I laughed. “Honestly, I’m more freaked out by the fact that I’m not freaked out,” I admitted. “I’m not really scared or terrified, the way I figured I’d be. Instead, I’m…”
“Excited,” Christina panted. I looked over at her and knew she felt the same way.
“Yeah,” I agreed. “It’s sort of badass. There’s a whole supernatural world out there, you know? Lurking underneath of ours, just under the skin. That’s pretty fucking cool.” I shook my head as I drove. “Demons.”
“You’re a demon now,” Christina said. “Technically. Or at least a kind of demon. That’s why you can interact with the demonic world —why you can see things like possessed people and demons going about their business. I’m jealous, really.”
I nodded and put my hands back on the wheel. In the space between one blink and the next, the street in front of me exploded with a brilliant white light.
I nearly drove right off the road. Beings with wings and halos were everywhere, following behind joggers and people out walking their pets. As I watched, a floating cherub the size of a bread box bumped a baby carriage, moving it out of the path of a pothole in the road. Even the people I’d seen before with demons had angels crawling all over them — in some cases, the angels and the demons seemed to be fighting.
The dashboard glowed too, like it was possessed. I half-expected Mareth and Christina to have angelic figures clinging to them, but they seemed completely separate from the strange world overlaying our own. What, then — did my car have a guardian angel?
In an instant, the vision dissolved. I jerked the car back into the center of the road, ignoring Mareth’s expletives as she nearly fell from her perch in the backseat.
“Holy shit,” I whispered. “Did you girls see that?”
Mareth gave me a puzzled look. “What did you see?”
“Angels with feathery wings, little cupid-like creatures — shit, I think I even saw a flying monkey. All of them had wings and halos, like something out of an old cartoon.”
Mareth tensed up all of a sudden. “Really? Are you sure you saw those things?”
“Just flashes,” I said. “But they were definitely there.”
“Wow,” Mareth said. “That’s...quite a rare ability. Maybe it’s some side effect of Lucifer’s blessing? Either way, I’m sure it will pass.”
I nodded. “So, it’s not normal to see both realms at the same time?”
“The angelic and th
e demonic world are separated.” Christina sounded like she was reading it out of a book. “Both of them can affect the mortal world, but neither can touch the other. Our realm, Earth, is the only way to go from one to the other.”
There was a giggle from the back seat. “That’s not entirely accurate,” Mareth said.
Christina gave a start. “What? Which part?”
“The angelic and demonic realms can interact directly with each other,” Mareth explained, “but only in certain places. And at designated times. There are all sorts of treaties and documents between our side and the angels’ that say when and where—it’s how we resolve conflicts.” She giggled. “We’ve been doing it in this manner ever since Eve first lured Adam into eating that knowledgeberry fruit.”
“What!?” I couldn’t believe that. “What the fuck is a ‘knowledgeberry’? I thought it was an apple.”
“A common misconception,” Mareth said mildly. “The Bible never states what type of fruit it was—just that it came from the tree of knowledge. Hence, knowledgeberry.”
“Shit.” I shook my head. “So how come I’ve never heard of it?”
“Well, obviously the Almighty wouldn’t want to leave any laying around after what happened the first time, now would he?”
I thought about it, then nodded. “Fair point.”
For a minute or two, we drove on in silence. Yet the atmosphere in the van continued to thicken. Christina’s gaze grew more feverish; her shoulders rose and fell faster as her attention toward the road faded in favor of me. She’s going to make a move, I thought. Any minute now.
“I wish I could see demons,” she growled, leaning over in her seat. The move put her in danger of sliding right out of her seatbelt, while practically depositing her in my lap. “I know it’s not good for me to sound this way, but—I’m jealous, Luke. It’s so cool that you get to pierce the veil.”
From the tone of her voice, I could tell she was thinking about me piercing her veil. A husky laugh echoed from the backseat. “Luke could help you with that,” Mareth said in a teasing tone.
Christina’s hand closed on the bulge in my pants. “Could he?”
Pleasure shot through me at her touch. “Fuck,” I groaned, struggling to concentrate on the road. “Is this my powers again? Am I turning the whole car on?”
Christina tugged my zipper down with a little whimper, then slid her fingers into my pants and took hold of my cock. “Does it matter? Hey, how’s that dizziness of yours?”
“Fine,” I gasped, trying to keep my eyes forward. It was a struggle not to watch what she was doing; it felt amazing. “Getting better all the time.”
“Yeah, you definitely seem better. You think you’ll be able to handle this, then?”
Before I could retort, Christina puckered her lips and spit on the crown of my cock. She worked her hands up and down the shaft a few times, making me moan, then lowered her head into my lap. Her hot, wet mouth enveloped me and my hips shot upward, filling her throat.
“Oh fuck,” Mareth groaned. She sounded like Christina was doing it to her, not me. “Shit, that feels so good! That’s right, mortal, keep sucking that dick…!”
Oh right, I thought. Succubus. My fingers tangled in Christina’s hair, coaxing her deeper onto my cock. She complied eagerly, taking me all the way down to my balls like she’d never heard of the term ‘gag reflex’. The heat and friction were amazing. When she added her tongue to the mix, swirling it around my head as she bobbed up and down like a cork, I nearly came apart right then and there.
Fuck, I’m getting road head from a gorgeous babe, I thought deliriously. And there’s a succubus in the backseat getting off on the whole thing…
“Yeah, that’s right,” I said, my fingers digging into the back of Christina’s head. “Take it all the way down. Your mouth feels so fucking good…”
She sucked me harder at the compliment, her cheeks hollowing around my cock as her lips formed an oh-so-tight seal. At the same time she lifted her ass in the air and tugged down her jeans, fingering herself through her panties. The smell of sex filled the van, and the dizziness reared up in me but failed to take control. No way. I wasn’t going to stop this time. I was gonna enjoy the hell out of this, fill Christina’s tight little throat up with my load.
I thrust upwards into her mouth, grunting like a caveman. The road ahead swam before my vision as I hit the peak. My cock jerked against the roof of Christina’s mouth, thick ropes of semen spraying from the tip to coat her tongue.
With any other girl I’d been with, that would’ve been the cue to pull back - to finish me with her hand. Christina did no such thing. She moved like I’d given her a personal challenge to drink down every drop of my load, slowing her motions but making the hot seal of her lips even tighter than before. Relief flooded me as she milked me dry, her fingers pumping between her legs as the rich taste of my load filled her mouth...
“Look out!” Mareth screamed suddenly, grabbing my shoulders. “Luke, hit the brakes-!”
My hands jerked from the back of Christina’s head to the steering wheel. To my surprise, the van hadn’t swerved from the center of the road—a person stood in the middle of the street, looking around at nothing as if they owned the whole neighborhood. I hit the brakes with a vengeance, and fortunately Lucifer must have done a number on those on top of everything else. They squealed, tipping our van nearly onto its side but sliding past the strange man, missing him by inches.
Christina’s mouth left my lap. The blonde stared straight ahead, her face the color of skim milk. “What the fuck was that!?”
While Christina wiped her mouth, I stuck my head out of the driver’s side window. The man still stood there, as if nothing had happened. He’d barely reacted to a near head-on collision. A thought occurred to me: was he really there? Maybe I’d reacted too quickly to another of the demons Mareth had been pointing out. But then, she’d seen it as well.
The man gave a start, like someone snapping out of a trance. His gaze followed the path of our van, lingering on the skid marks across the asphalt. A dark, angry look settled over his features, and he began to shimmer.
“Tell me that’s just another one of those oppressions you were talking about,” I yelled, jerking my chin toward Mareth.
“Um, Luke?” Mareth clung to the edge of the backseat like a gargoyle, craning her neck to see the strange man. “You might want to drive…”
Too late. The edges of the man’s body wavered, turning blurry. Within the span of a heartbeat he’d grown a foot in size. A vicious growl tore itself from his throat, deepening into a register no human could match as he continued to transform.
A demon, then. Only this one wasn’t merely a possessed human, or a devil on someone’s shoulder. This creature clearly stood a rung or two higher on the food chain.
It raced across the street with a roar, coalescing into the form of an eight-foot, musclebound demon. A single large horn extended from the center of his forehead, like a rhino’s tusk. Fangs glistened in his too-wide mouth, studded with precious metals like a rapper or an Instagram star. Torn clothing hung from his frame in tatters: apparently the transformation only affected his physical body, not his clothes.
He slammed into the side of the van, nearly flipping it over. Christina screamed, pressing the body that had been so intent on pleasing me a few moments ago against the driver’s side door in hopes of escape. Mareth leapt from the backseat, landing atop the duffle bag sitting between the seats.
“Drive, Luke,” the succubus begged, pointing at the dashboard. “Before we can’t!”
“What is that guy?” I asked, reaching for the steering wheel. Something was wrong—I gunned the gas, but the van refused to move an inch. The engine whined, turning over the way it was supposed to-
I glanced in the rear view mirror. The demon held the rear bumper of the van in one hand, lifting it far enough off the ground for the wheels to lose contact. He grinned savagely at the sight of me, then dropped the bumper and spr
ang forward, seizing hold of the driver’s side door.
Before I knew what was happening, my feet touched the ground. The demon hauled me bodily out of the van, its claws clutching a fistful of my computer repair uniform. It dragged me toward the rear of the vehicle, growling.
“Just what the hell are you doing, buddy?” The demon lifted me off the ground, slamming me against the same spot on the van he’d dented on his approach. “You’re driving like a fucking maniac! What, did you just get your demonic driver’s permit yesterday!?”
More like ten minutes ago, I thought weakly. Struggling in the demon’s grip, I tried to get my feet back on the ground for leverage. If I didn’t do something soon, somehow, this demonic dude was going to end my stint as potential next Archlord of Hell with one single definitive squeeze.
“Listen,” I gasped, reaching for the driver’s side door. I had to get away before this guy decided to beat the shit out of me. “There’s been a mistake!”
I looked up into the demon’s eyes. For a moment, our gazes met—then the demon reared back, confusion filling its face. It dropped me to the ground, waving its hands in front of its face as if I’d blinded it with a halogen bulb. What had I done? For just an instant, I’d felt something. Something akin to the effect I had on Christina and Mareth.
Much to my surprise, the demon dropped to one knee in the street. Even in a posture of submission, the big guy had an inch or two on me. Taller than an NBA forward, I thought, still dazed from the attack. I wonder if they hire demons to play ball?
“I apologize, Lord,” the demon said, its horrifying voice twisted into a mode of contrition. “I have laid hands on one of my betters. I will accept whatever punishment you deem necessary.”
I glanced up and down the block, a little confused by the display. No one had come out to check on the commotion at least—just the same sleepy row of houses and quiet streetlights.
