Shards of Ecstasy

by TJ Michaels

  Yes, this was the day they’d all been waiting for.

  Kenna had received her piece of destiny. Her piece of The Heart.

  It had been difficult to keep the secret from their baby sis while Dee, Memory and Charlotte were able to speak freely of it. But now they could all share what they knew, what they’d learned so far about the importance and pain-in-the-ass of being Chosen.

  Chapter One

  Asmodeus held a wavering hand above his brow to shield the glare of the sun. It wasn’t that the brightness actually bothered him. In fact, he enjoyed it. But he was supposed to fit in with these fleshlings—these humans—with all their physical limitations. Which included the need to protect their beady little eyes from the brilliance of the sun.

  Heat. Glorious heat. He loved it. Reveled in it. Too bad he couldn’t feel it on this plane. Not as completely as he would when he fully manifested on earth.

  “Damn it,” he growled low in his throat. His façade slipped just the slightest bit. The temporary form he’d taken was diminishing. The fingers shielding the sun were beginning to unravel, to fade around the edges. Of course, no one would notice here. They were too busy preening and prancing around the beach, trying their best to impress one another. Hollow, vain, fragile creatures. And more prone to corruption than any demon he’d ever met, including himself. Humans. Puh. Nothing more than meat suits running around this glorious planet. Didn’t make a bit of sense to him why they’d been entrusted with dominion over such a vast and wondrous world just teeming with spiritual beings, both with and without souls, with and without flesh. Gods knew they didn’t deserve it.

  The tingling at the edges of his vision brought him back to why he was here. He was running out of time. The energy siphoned off his last victim was almost spent. Soon he would have to return to the netherworld to replenish…unless his latest prey decided to cooperate and become, well, prey.

  He watched her execute a series of martial arts forms, moving fluidly along the edge of the water. With each kata the surge of her spirit seemed to join with that of her crystal. He didn’t actually see the stone, but he knew it was there. Most of his senses were muted here—touch, taste, even hearing. But his nose worked just fine and he was perfectly happy that the only thing he could get a good whiff of was energy, the kind that filled him to overflowing with lust and power. Pure energy. A Chosen’s energy. The scent of it swirled in the very air, reached out and wrapped around what was left of his dark little heart. Teased and taunted him. And his gorgeous Chosen was the source.

  Aside from her life source, Asmodeus was fascinated with the woman herself. Skin like Saigon cinnamon and from what he’d observed an attitude that was just as spicy. And there was something else—an entity accompanied her. But what was it? The presence was faint, almost nonexistent, yet still as potent as the beauty exercising down near the water.

  Just as he could twist the sexual desires of mortals, the spirit of a Chosen could strip him clean if he let his guard down long enough. Yes, he would have to use caution. Their sweet aura was almost like diving into a pool of pure goodness laced with addictive, soul-mending energy. And that goodness, if unleashed against him, would be like tossing the Wicked Witch of the West into Puget Sound. I’m melting! I’m melting! The thought made him shudder.

  So, what fantasies did this one hold? What wildly wicked dreams lurked in her soul? And even if the answer was “none” he’d still find something to pervert. After all she was human. They all had a secret sexual fantasy, even those who claimed to be as pure as fresh mountain spring water.

  Sex was beautiful, made and given by the Creator. But over the centuries Asmodeus had been successful in tainting the thoughts of men in regard to the pureness of the act.

  Fleshlings were so gullible, so naïve, they’d spent more time teaching their daughters to be ashamed of sex when they should have been teaching them to revel in their sexuality. The confusion of the world’s women had played right into Asmodeus’ hands for centuries. While he’d sown the seeds of discord in many areas, money and sex remained his two biggest destructors.

  Women were reared to believe that it was wrong to enjoy sex, yet those same women were expected to marry, say “I do” and suddenly love being fucked when they’d been taught it was wrong for so many years. What were they supposed to do, flip a “sex is good” switch when they married and suddenly everything they’d been told was taboo for twenty or thirty years was suddenly okay? Nope. The human psyche didn’t work that way.

  Instead the women were emotionally confused and riddled with guilt for giving their husbands what they’d been scolded into keeping men away from—their cunts. And the men, tired of being rebuffed by their brides, sometimes found other women to satisfy their needs. Or they simply gave up on their homes, left their women and children bitter and broken. It had become amazingly easy to tear apart homes and plant seeds of anger and hate among children who’d been abandoned by their fathers. Several generations of that kind of sentiment had this world ripe for a good invasion of evil. Practically invited it.

  And Asmodeus would certainly never turn down such a juicy invitation.

  His eyes remained plastered on the woman down the beach from him. Oh yes, this Chosen would be delicious.

  De’alla Isaacs was her name. He wondered if she was a praying woman. Wondered how many times he could make her scream “Oh god!” in both pleasure and pain.

  “Mmmm, come to me, my beautiful Chosen.” Asmodeus had forgotten how the essence of the pure energy housed within their crystals almost stripped him of his self-control. It was like an aphrodisiac injected directly into his cock.

  “Just one taste of that sweet silken sex and I may even be tempted to give up my ambitions of ruling this world for a chance to feast on that flesh between your legs.” Now that was a temptation that hadn’t entered Asmodeus’ thoughts in a long time. But then, he hadn’t come across a single Chosen in almost two millennia when those god-complexed Atlanteans removed every possibility of him getting his hands on the Hearts of Fire. But now there were Chosen in the world again, and he bet that none had this one’s spark.

  Even still, this Chosen was ripe for the picking and she would fall.

  * * * * *

  “Miss Isaacs, Mr. Dow is here to see you, ma’am.”

  “Thanks, Kare. Just have him wait in the reception area for five minutes, then send him in.”

  De’alla Isaacs didn’t typically leave a client waiting, but for some reason her nerves seemed to be on a one-way trip to the stratosphere. She couldn’t remember ever feeling quite so jittery about meeting with a new client. Or at least that’s the excuse she was going to stick to.

  In truth, the crystal attached to the fine silver link chain around her neck sat on a low hum. Mere moments ago out of the blue the thing started zinging a stream of unfamiliar energy from its resting place at the vee of her breasts clear down through her stomach.

  God, the muscles of her diaphragm were getting such a workout she wouldn’t have to do crunches for the next two weeks.

  Well, no time for puzzling it out now. This was the launch of her new company and she simply couldn’t mess it up. The old man waiting on the other side of that door could make or break her. Mr. Dow had graciously agreed with her old firm, Daikuji Corporation of Japan, to work locally through De’alla’s firm here in Seattle. In turn she would fulfill the original contract obligations between Mr. Dow and Daikuji Corporation at a discounted rate and split the profit with her former employer.

  It was a win-win situation. Dee’s company would be off the ground, Mr. Dow would save a little bit of money and Daikuji Corporation would still maintain a connection with one of their oldest customers here in the States.

  So, time to get to work. Dee took in a deep breath and let it out slowly. Damn. Stupid zing was still there, only now it gently moved through her chest, radiated to her nipples, down her belly and settled at the juncture of her thighs. What the hell was going on?

  “Why’d
my damn Nature buddy have to take off now?” Dee grumbled, wishing she could talk to the companion that constantly occupied a small corner of her mind. Only that corner was uncharacteristically still while the energy that pulsed at the vee of her bra grew bolder.

  Dee left her desk, slipped into the bathroom adjacent to her new swanky office and splashed some cold water on her face. A quick glance in the mirror made her wince. Good thing she hardly ever wore makeup ‘cause any eye shadow would have her looking like a certified raccoon right about now. Turning away from the vanity with sure steps she strode toward her destiny.

  “Okay, Dee. Go get ‘em girl.” Smoothing her hands down the navy blue pencil skirt, another deep breath saw De’alla at her desk just as the door opened.

  She remained standing next to her chair as a short, wrinkled and decidedly grumpy man walked in.

  “Mr. Dow, I’m so pleased to make your acquaintance.”

  The man tilted his head to the side, scrunched up his face more—as if that were possible—and in a surprisingly kind voice answered…in Japanese.

  De’alla could have kicked herself. She hadn’t thought to ask her contact at her client’s company about any lingual needs. Major blunder. Luckily she was fluent in the language and had been for years.

  She opened her mouth to greet him properly while closing the door. It snapped back at her with a bounce.

  Dee looked down at a foot poking through the small space between door and jamb. Somebody else’s foot.

  A muted “ouch” came from the other side before a body gently pushed through.

  “Aw hell. No way,” she grumbled not quite low enough.

  The raised eyebrow aimed her way was accompanied by a confused yet arrogant smirk. Her honey brown eyes met a pair of unexpected chocolate-colored ones…and her fucking crystal went haywire.

  And the strangely absent She barged into the forefront of Dee’s mind as if she wanted to do nothing more than hop into Dee’s body and jump the uninvited man’s bones.

  In fact Dee wanted to jump his bones right along with She. A real threesome. And the invisible lightning that zinged from her stone down through her body was… Hell, she just couldn’t take it.

  Zing! Zap! Kung!

  Holy shit! Knees trembled as her head filled with raunchy thoughts too ridiculous to even contemplate. And they all surrounded getting laid. Hard. Fast. And right damn now. And the star of her fantasy stood right in front of her. And she couldn’t stand him.

  “Uh, e-excuse me. I’ll be right back. Please make yourselves comfortable,” Dee said, motioning to no one in particular.

  With each step the crotch of her now damp panties bunched and rubbed against the flesh swelling between her legs. Now when was the last time she got aroused just being in the presence of two strange men? One she’d never met and was surely old enough to be her father, if she’d had one, and the other man she’d seen and heard plenty of but didn’t want anything to do with.

  The smile pasted onto her mouth was as stiff as three-day-old royal icing, but she had to keep it there just long enough to escape.

  In three steps she was out of her office and headed to her assistant’s desk. Gods, why couldn’t she move faster? Her feet felt mired in hardening cement as if they needed to stay in that room. Not good. Sooo not good.

  Dee stormed down the hall, around a corner and into a blessedly empty reception area. The surprise in her assistant’s eyes was palpable. Well good, that made two of them.

  “Kare, what the hell is Faison Dow doing…?” Dee paused and mentally kicked herself as the pieces clicked into place. “Oh, duh. Dow, as in related to my client, Mr. Dow. Fuckity fuck-a-duck.”

  “Say again, Miss Isaacs?”

  “Cut the Miss Isaacs crap, Kare. There’s nobody out here but us.”

  “Well, I just want to be careful. I just talked to Daisy at Daikuji Corp and she told me that the senior Mr. Dow is quite formal. I’m so sorry. I didn’t know Dow was a Japanese name and didn’t arrange for the more formal reception you prefer for visitors from Japan.”

  “Don’t worry about it, Kare. It’s an easy mistake to make given his last name is actually Gaelic.”

  “Gaelic? You mean Irish? How?”

  “Our client’s been in the Pacific Northwest since World War II. It was common to change last names to something less Japanese in those days. His original family name was probably Tao, which is pronounced ‘dow’.”

  “Oh, that makes sense. So what should I do?”

  Dee didn’t answer. Instead, she asked a question of her own.

  “But what is Faison doing here? Doesn’t he have a concert to practice for or something? And why wasn’t I told he’d be coming with his, with his…his what?”

  “It’s his dad. And it was actually a surprise to me until a few minutes ago. He said he was here to act as interpreter for his father and apologized for not letting us know ahead of time.”

  Sigh. Dee couldn’t even complain. It was an oversight on her part, after all. She was fluent in Japanese but hadn’t thought to instruct Kare to share that information with her counterpart in Mr. Dow’s company.

  “What’s the problem? He’s so easy on the eyes. The younger Mr. Dow, I mean,” Kare said, words ending on a dreamy sigh.

  “Yeah, that he is. But he’s a panty-sniffing, arrogant, air-brained playboy underneath that tailored suit.” Complete with gorgeous face, hunky body and damn good natural-smelling scent that set her insides to wiggling. Whew!

  “How do you know all that? I’ve never heard of him before and I consider myself pretty up on the latest music. You mentioned he does concerts?”

  “He’s a vocalist. Hottest thing on the charts in Japan.”

  “Are you sure?” Kare asked as she tilted her head a bit to the side. Dee could understand the skepticism given the fact that Faison Dow spoke perfect English with no accent whatsoever.

  “I’m sure. He grew up here in Seattle. Went to Japan for college around the same time I did. Made it big like nobody’s business, and all on a dare. Talk about being in the right place at the right time.” And it was true. Anybody who listened to contemporary music in Japan under the age of fifty knew the story. Faison Dow entered a talent contest on a dare. A scout for Sony Japan happened to be at the show and snatched up the asshole quicker than you could say…well, asshole.

  “That man sings R&B like he was born in my skin instead of his own. In fact, he’ll be performing at his stateside debut concert sometime soon.”

  “Really? Where?” Kare asked.

  “I have no idea.” And Dee was surprised at herself again. She loved the man’s music and typically had a clue of what his current projects were. He was a hell of an entertainer on stage. He just wasn’t that great of a person in real life from all the dirt she’d heard about him.

  Dee frowned as she watched Kare’s pen move across a piece of paper. “What are you writing?”

  “His name and genre. I’ve got to check out his music. Oooh, and maybe you can introduce me to him? Maybe he’ll give us some free tickets? He is seriously fine. Does he have a girlfriend?”

  “Good grief, Kare, knowing good and well your horny self has a boyfriend!”

  “Can’t blame a woman for trying, Dee.”

  With a chuckle at Kare’s typical brash self, Dee rolled her eyes and stalked away. “Oh, and in ten minutes send in some tea. Jasmine and ginger, okay?”

  “Anything you say, boss.”

  On the way back to her office, Dee reached into herself and prayed there would be an answer from her lifelong companion.

  “She? She, are you there?”

  *I am.*

  Good gods. Not only was the entity there, but she blazed inside Dee’s mind.

  “Why have you been so quiet? This is a hell of a time to show up and show out.”

  *Your destiny is near. I am not allowed to say any more than that. But I cannot control my reaction to the sister stone and…*

  “Hold the door. Sister stone? In al
l the years you’ve camped out in my head you’ve never said anything about a sister stone being near before.”

  *Because I have never sensed it before. But it is something of which you are already aware. A piece of the Heart is near. The piece that is matched with yours.*

  “Wait a minute. All that zinging and craziness started when Mr. Dow and his loose-hipped son walked in.” Dee paused. Oh hell no!

  She didn’t respond. Dee remained still for a few moments. Her hand rested on the knob to her office door but she just couldn’t bring herself to turn it. If Mr. Dow was her mate she would just die. Why in the world would the Ancestors pair her up with an old man? Surely a nice old man, but old nonetheless.

  *There is more. The reason for the unrest you have been feeling for the past year is near.*

  “Asmodeus?”

  *Yes. I can discern his presence on this plane, but nothing more. I cannot locate him. I have expended great energy trying. It has been taxing.*

  “Is that why you’ve been so quiet?”

  *Yes. Yet the sudden nearness of the Piece of Eight is energizing me like nothing else could.*

  Wow. Her mate was a sixty-seven-year-old man? Not fair.

  *Fear not, De’alla. Your Ancestors had great insight. That includes your needs as a woman as well as a Chosen.*

  “Yep. Sure they did.” Major snark. If they knew her so well why didn’t they just let her not be a Chosen? Dee shook her head, sucked it up, turned the knob and commanded her knees to stand firm as she walked back into her office to face her destiny.

  So far, destiny sucked monkey balls.

  What the fuck?

  A flash of potent energy streaked through Faison’s fingers, into his wrist and settled into the bones just below his forearm. If he slipped the bracelet off and examined the skin he was sure he’d find an etched outline of the jewel embedded in the silver. Maybe even a black burn mark or at least an arc of electricity dancing across the surface.