A Despair of Demons (Travelers, Book 1)

by Cassy Campbell

  Gin nodded, clearly not convinced.

  “Well,” Connor said, “looks like you’re finished.”

  Nathan shrugged. “It’s inconvenient, I’ll grant you. But we’ll rebuild. We don’t have to Travel anymore for research. Maybe we’ll relocate to Hawaii.”

  “What are you talking about?” Trent asked.

  “He’s got himself a nice setup,” Connor said. “Apparently, he’s got this neat little device that changes the orientation of an object to a different world, so it can be brought along. He and his scientists have been stealing everything from weapons to astronomy equipment and storing it in Hell.”

  “And in the building we chased him to,” Liv added. “I just wish we’d had time to look around a little more. I’d love to get my hands on that device.”

  Jordan held up what Liv at first thought was a common cell phone, but the screen and buttons along the side weren’t quite right. And the two prominent metal prongs on the other side were definitely not standard phone design. “You mean this device?”

  Nathan gave a startled yip. “That’s mine! Where did you get it?”

  Jordan smiled. “I just happened to look around your little lab, and there it was.” He spread his hands. “Since you’re so tolerant to stealing, I didn’t think you’d mind if I borrowed it for safekeeping.”

  “You’ll give that back.”

  “We’ll see.”

  Liv glared at Nathan. “We’ll confiscate it all eventually. You’ll lose everything.”

  His answering smile was cold. “We’ll see.”

  Liv shook her head in disgust. “What do you think the official explanation for tonight is going to be? The government is going to want a scapegoat, and here you are, the actual perpetrator.”

  “Not to mention you’ve been stealing from them,” Connor added.

  Nathan repeated, “We’ll see.”

  Chapter 29

  They got back to base just before one o’clock Saturday morning. Despite the late hour, General Mace was waiting for them.

  He detailed T47, another exploration Travel team, to watch Nathan Blank overnight. After the members of T47 heard his crimes, they promised they wouldn’t give him more than an inch of personal space.

  Even with only a brief overview, it took them two hours to go over all they’d done and all they’d discovered.

  Had Liv been less exhausted, she would have been interested to learn that while she and Jordan had been traipsing through Hell with Connor and chasing Nathan in…wherever they had been, Trent’s group had searched the whole Innerstellar building and found evidence that he’d been tampering with human and demon DNA.

  “For what possible reason?” Gin asked.

  Trent stared grimly, or maybe just tiredly; it was hard to tell. “I’m no geneticist. But it looked like he was trying to hybridize the two.”

  Jordan fell deep in thought. Apparently, he didn’t need sleep. “He said as much to us in Hell. He wanted an army.”

  Connor’s lip curled. “Because he can.”

  “How?” Ben asked.

  “We’ll be sure to ask him,” General Mace said. “I trust you’ll want to be there for the interrogation?”

  “Oh yes,” Connor said. The others agreed.

  The general turned back to Connor. “Finish your report.”

  “Jordan and Liv disappeared, and I went back to Home World.”

  Jordan took over and told the rest of their story.

  Connor added, “That’s pretty much it. We took off and the building fell down.”

  “Was anyone injured in the collapse?” Jordan asked.

  “As far as I know,” General Mace said, “the SWAT team got everyone back. They were preparing to assault the building when it came down.”

  Gin said, “We should probably be grateful. It would be difficult to explain burning demon bodies in the elevator.”

  “Did the wildfyre snuff out?” Connor asked.

  Trent said, “I’m not entirely sure wildfyre needs oxygen to burn.”

  General Mace sighed. “I’ll get R & D to figure out a way to stop it from going China Syndrome.”

  “I’ll help.” Trent started to get up from the table.

  “You absolutely will not, Petty Officer Nagano.”

  Trent sat back down.

  “I’ll take that device, Dr. Jameson, and you are all cleared for a full twenty-four hours off. You will go home and get some sleep. We’ll interrogate Blank Monday.”

  Trent muttered, “Yes, sir.”

  Liv sleepwalked next to Jordan to the entrance hall, following the others. She was too tired to even lift her head as she usually did to look at the stories-tall ceiling, lit to throw mysterious shadows into the spaces between the huge marble buttresses. They clomped across the overpolished marble floor, signed out at the guard station, and took the shuttle tram to the Ranch.

  Liv contemplated just sleeping on the train, but after some consultation with her body, and a bit of cajoling—think of your nice, soft, clean bed. You can do this. Just get up—she hauled herself to her feet and followed the others to the parking lot.

  “Thank God,” Gin said. “I’m ready to fall asleep on my feet. See you guys tomorrow.”

  “Night,” Ben said. “Tomorrow night. I’m sleeping till six at least.”

  “Sleep, that sounds amazing,” Trent said.

  Connor got into his F-150 with a wave, and Ben’s Jeep was already pulling out, following Gin’s motorcycle.

  Lucky. The air would probably keep her awake until she got home.

  Liv stared at her own car, a burgundy cherry ’77 Aston Martin V8 Vantage. Normally, she loved driving, but now, she just wondered how she’d make it home without crashing her car.

  Then she and Jordan were alone in the parking lot.

  She turned and he wrapped her in his arms. She breathed him in as her arms went around him. Faint citrus-y cologne was overpowered by demon smoke and red dirt, but she didn’t care. “You almost died, like, three times tonight,” she said, feeling like she was underwater, swimming through syrupy exhaustion.

  “So did you.” Jordan squeezed her tighter, then pulled back so he could look her in the eyes. He smiled. “But we’re fine. If not for your boyfriend, we’d have had smooth sailing.”

  Liv was too tired for this. She looked into his eyes, trying to see what he was thinking. On the surface he was joking, but she realized he really wanted to know how she felt about Nathan now. She put her disgust into her voice. “He’s not my boyfriend.”

  “Oh good,” Jordan said lightly, but she heard his relief. “Then can I be?”

  “Okay.” She pulled him close again, wishing they could just stay like this all night.

  He sighed in contentment. “Come home with me tonight.”

  She pulled back again. “What? We haven’t even had a first date.”

  He laughed. “I know, we’re going backwards, but it’s kind of late for that, isn’t it? Come on. I just want to hold you all night, but I don’t think I can stand out here much longer.”

  “Yeah,” Liv said. She tried to think, but she was definitely too tired for this.

  “I’ll be good, I promise,” Jordan said, pulling away to look her in the eyes. “I just want you with me.”

  She couldn’t think of a single reason not to. Hadn’t she just been wishing she could stay like this all night?

  “Okay.”

  He smiled and kissed her, tender and slow. Her feeling of being underwater intensified. It was almost like drifting on small waves. Jordan led her to his car and the next thing she knew, he was shaking her awake in his driveway. He took her straight to his bedroom, and she stared longingly at the mountain of white sheets and blankets.

  “Jordan, I’m filthy. We can’t just get into bed.”

  “Sure we can. But I’m up for wet and naked if you want a shower.”

  Her mouth twitched. She looked down at herself, then at the beckoning piles of pillows and sheets. “I can’t do it.
I have to clean up.”

  Jordan laughed at the longing in her voice. “I said I’d be good, but I’d really like if I could clean up with you.”

  He gave her a puppy dog expression that made her laugh too. “I guess that wouldn’t be so terrible.”

  They got into the shower, and Jordan grabbed the shampoo before she could reach for it. “Let me.”

  He lathered her hair, making her sigh sleepily as he massaged her scalp, and pulled her back against him to rinse. The hard length of him pressed against her, and she wiggled against him sensuously.

  “Hey, I’m being good. Help me out a little here.”

  She laughed. He soaped her body, starting at her neck and shoulders, massaging as he went, working down her back and then around to her breasts, where his hands rubbed and slid smoothly over her nipples. It was all so slow and dreamy that it was like she was already asleep, even as nerve endings sizzled awake under his hands. Those hands circled lower, sliding over her belly, making it flutter. The feeling intensified when he slid his hands down her hips to the outside of her thighs.

  She thought he’d go straight between her legs, but he slid his hands all the way down to her ankles before slowly working his way back up. She had never appreciated how sensual an ankle massage could be. By the time he passed her knees, she was panting. He stood up and pressed himself to her back and his cock throbbed against her. She felt an answering clench from her lower belly.

  He kissed and nibbled her neck as his hands slid slowly toward the sensitive crease at the tops of her thighs, and then worked inward, reaching the wet folds between her legs and rubbing over her clit. She gave an involuntary cry as he finally ended her anticipation. He let the hot water pour over her, and his busy fingers played until her knees were weak and she was gasping. The first orgasm crashed through her and left her breathless.

  “Wait,” she said as a flicker of consciousness broke through. “What about you?”

  She grabbed the shampoo off of the shelf and gave him a wicked grin as she switched their positions, pushing him out of the water and pulling him around to face her.

  She gave him the same treatment, massaging his scalp and body with the help of water and soap. She had to press herself against him to reach around his broad back, taking the opportunity to kiss his nipple, and suckle first one and then the other. She looked up to find his eyes on hers and felt a thrill at the naked need on his face.

  She continued soaping, teasingly sweeping her hands lower and lower on his belly. When she reached his cock, she soaped gently and then grabbed firmly, eliciting a groan. She pulled him under the water and began stroking, able to get a better grip as the soap rinsed away, until he grabbed her wrist. “Liv, I’m not sure what kind of Superman you think I am, but I’m hanging on by my fingernails here.”

  “Oh good.” She knelt down and took him in her mouth. He groaned again, and she teased him with her tongue until he was panting harshly. His hands fisted at his sides, and cords stood out in his neck as he gritted his teeth. His reaction to her made her quiver in anticipation.

  When he said again, “Liv…” she reached out of the shower. His look of bafflement changed to a look of surprise as she opened the foil wrapper.

  “Well aren’t you prepared.”

  “Aren’t you glad?”

  She rolled the condom on slowly, rubbing the head of his cock teasingly with her thumb, and his, “Yes, definitely,” came out strangled.

  She stood and kissed his lips, hard, and felt him throb against her belly. He picked her off her feet and braced her back against the wall.

  She wrapped her legs around him as he entered her in the same motion. She swallowed his moan and made some sound of her own as he buried himself in her. Jordan held her easily in his hands, keeping her still while he moved within her, and she was driven up and up by his long silken movements.

  “Faster,” she managed to gasp.

  He obliged. He shifted her, changing the angle slightly, and she thought she would die with pleasure. He kissed her frantically, her neck, her face, her mouth, and she opened her eyes to see his go dark and far away as he went over. As he swelled within her, she followed, and their cries mingled together with the falling water.

  They stood for an indeterminate time, holding each other. Finally, he said, “Clean enough?”

  “Mm hmm.”

  He shut off the water, picked her up, and carried her to his bed.

  “Jordan, we’re still soaking!”

  He shrugged with her in his arms. “So we’ll stay cool while we sleep.”

  He tipped her onto the bed and crawled in behind her, pulling her against him. “I said I’d be good. Sorry I couldn’t stay true to my word.”

  She laughed. “No, you did. You were very good.”

  She felt safe in his arms, his strength and support at her back. He always had her back, she reflected, and remembered her revelation on the stairwell of Innerstellar.

  Jordan buried his face in her hair, inhaled deeply, and turned her to face him. He tipped her face up with a finger under her chin and kissed her gently. Then he trapped her in those flame blue eyes. “I love you, Liv. I always have. I’ve wanted to tell you a hundred times.”

  She smiled. “I love you, Jordan. I always have, too.”

  His slow smile lit her up inside. “Really?”

  “Really. I realized something tonight.”

  “What’s that?”

  “I always knew who Nathan was. I always knew I couldn’t trust him, and I always knew he would disappoint me, but I loved him and I ignored those feelings.”

  “This isn’t making me feel very loved.”

  Liv tapped him on the nose. “Just wait. So when Nathan turned into this power-hungry egotistical bastard and basically told me to keep up or get out of his way, I wasn’t surprised. So then, I figured I couldn’t trust my feelings anymore, and I stopped listening to myself.

  “And then I met you. You were everything I would have looked for in a man if I had been looking. And I loved you, almost from the first week we started working together. But I didn’t trust that, so I buried it. Until tonight.”

  “When I almost died.”

  She wanted to squirm, but she forced herself to look him in the eye. “Well, yeah, but not only that. I figured out a while ago that I loved you, but tonight I finally realized that I could have you, so I’d better not waste any more time. But I also realized that I know you, just like I knew Nathan, and I’ve never once thought you’d let me down. And you never once have.”

  Jordan kissed her, a soft brush of lips. “I’ll try to make sure I never do.”

  “I know. That’s why I’m not worried.” She burrowed in under his chin, and Jordan rolled onto his back and pulled her against him. He kissed the top of her head, and she felt him smile as he pulled her more snugly against him. Seconds later, she was asleep.

  Chapter 30

  “What do you mean, ‘We’re letting him go’?” Connor’s voice sounded that even only when he exerted extreme effort to control his rage.

  After their full debriefing of the Innerstellar Technologies mission, General Mace and T36 had questioned Nathan Blank.

  He hadn’t given them anything new, and he’d insisted that he be allowed to speak with the Secretary of Defense.

  General Mace had had no choice but to brief the Assistant to the Chief of Staff of the Air Force, who in turn had briefed the Joint Chiefs. They had likely spoken with the Secretary of Defense as well. The general had just received the return call, informing him of the Joint Chiefs’ decision regarding Nathan Blank.

  “I’m sorry.” General Mace’s jaw was tight. “The DoD is going to sanction him themselves. Officially, he’s a national traitor, a business owner convicted of industrial espionage, and a man sentenced to prison for life. However, the DoD thinks he’s too valuable, so they’re putting him into witness protection and rehiring him.”

  Liv listened with half an ear while her thoughts raced. Nathan couldn�
�t be allowed to continue his research, and especially couldn’t be free in the multiverse. He had proved to be a psychopath who’d only try again to further his interests at the expense—and possible death—of Home World.

  Why would the Joint Chiefs decide to let him go?

  “Sir, this is ridiculous!” Gin cried. “He nearly killed a whole block-full of people when his building came down, and he didn’t even care!”

  “Actually, Ms. Karelli, it was you and your team who brought down the building.”

  “Because he forced us to!” Jordan said. “He brought demons to Home World and gave them technology to help kill our allies and raid their worlds. That smuggled technology almost helped the demons kill us! When they invaded Home World, they would have been armed with our own weapons!”

  “I’m aware,” General Mace said heavily. “However, this decision is out of my hands. We’re to release him immediately.”

  “I’ll do it, General,” Trent said without looking at anyone else.

  Liv came to the only conclusion that made sense. “Sir, wait.”

  The general’s eyebrows lifted in question.

  “What if Nathan could be kept from Traveling?”

  General Mace raised his eyebrows, his only sign of interest.

  “Sir, the only reason they’re letting him go is that they can’t hold him anyway. But what if they could?”

  “I think you’re correct,” General Mace said. “They can’t keep him under twenty-four hour lockdown with a Traveler present to make sure he stays here. It’s not constitutional. But I thought your brain ray was out of commission until the lab can make you more cartridges.”

  Jordan smiled. “Elachai.”

  “Do you think he would help us?” Gin asked.

  Jordan shrugged. “We saved his family. If we could find him, I bet we could convince him to help.”

  “How would we find him?” General Mace asked.

  Gin’s expression was furtive. “Um, I may have something that could help. When his family was being held by the Wolf, I may have, um, inadvertently…dropped something into the clothing of his wife.”

  “Let me guess,” Connor said. “Something sticky and radio-transmitting.”