20 Shades of Shifters: A Paranormal Romance Collection

by Demelza Carlton

  “And then how could I recover on my investment?” Lucifer smiled in that friendly, easy way he had that was at once disarming and unbelievably cold. “I hear you’ve had a change of heart.”

  “Gabe is dying,” I said, as plainly as I could. “Heaven’s gates are closed to my words. If you save him, I promise to serve you faithfully and true. I don’t care what it takes. I just want you to bring him back. Don’t let Heaven take him.”

  Lucifer seemed to regard the situation with the air of one whose careful machinations were blossoming and bearing fright right in front of his eyes. “You should know, serving as the right hand of Hell has many perks, but visits to the surface and leave days are not one of them. If you commit to this, you will, in all likelihood, never lay eyes upon Lord Gabriel at all, again, ever.”

  Gabe wheezed in pain. His lungs were filling up with blood. If he didn’t bleed to death, he would drown in his own lifeblood. I had little time.

  “I understand that.” Even as I watched, Gabe’s breathing got weaker, shallower. I didn’t want this to be the last time I ever saw him, but I wanted this to be the last time I ever saw him alive to be less. If he lived, there was hope. Without life I had nothing.

  “Just do it,” I said. “Just…save him.”

  Her Whole World, Turned Upside Down

  Pinchot State Forest

  New York State

  I hoped I was doing the right thing.

  Lucifer snapped his fingers. With a soft flash of red light, Asmodeus appeared in his hand, carrying a large syringe as big as he was, filled with an ominous blood-red fluid that swirled with flecks of black. It was good to see that pesky little imp again, but at the same time, it infuriated me how he had appeared…so quickly. So prepared.

  Asmodeus flapped over to me, obviously straining under the weight of the massive syringe, perching down on Gabe’s shoulder. “Okay,” he said, grunting as he hoisted the large glass cylinder up, its needle glinting ominously in the moonlight. “Say the word and I’ll jab him full of this Hellish shit, and we’ll be on our way to fixing him.”

  “Do not,” cautioned Lucifer softly, “forget our deal, Lady Grace.”

  How could I? I took a deep breath, almost backing out. I didn’t want this. I wanted to be with Gabe…but I had no choice.

  “Yeah,” I said, nodding down to Asmodeus. “I won’t. Just save him. I’ll deal with what comes next later.”

  With no further ado, Asmodeus scrambled down Gabe’s arm, toward the elbow. He stood straddling the limb, spending an agonising few seconds adjusting his posture and aligning the needle to the vein, and then gently, easily, slipped the tip into Gabe’s flesh and depressed the plunger, putting most of his weight onto it.

  The instant the red fluid touched Gabe’s veins it began to glow. As Gabe’s heart beat and pumped the stuff around his body, it created glowing red spider webs underneath his skin, making his whole body light up from within. I saw—and heard—the bones in his wings rearrange themselves, crunching softly as the broken parts realigned themselves and attached, repairing themselves with soft red flashes of light that shone up through the skin. The broken ribs on his chest resettled and stopped being broken, the wheezing whenever he breathed eased up, died down, and then went away entirely.

  The red light persisted for a few seconds, seeming to be almost running out of things to do, and then it faded just as quickly as it had arrived.

  Asmodeus removed the syringe, hopping back to inspect his handiwork. “Not bad,” he said, nodding with approval. “I think that basically did it.”

  I hoped so. My heart was pounding at a billion beats as second inside my chest, my tail thumping against the ground and my broken wings hanging uselessly down by my back.

  What if it didn’t work? Lucifer wasn’t really known for his refunds policy. If Gabe died here, would I still become his second in command?

  A thousand thoughts flew through my head all at once and none of them very helpful or productive at all. But one overrode all of them.

  “Gabe?” I asked, fearful of the response.

  “Hey.” He smiled at me, just a little, but colour was already returning to his cheeks. “What did I miss?”

  Oh boy. Demons weren’t supposed to cry. We definitely were not supposed to cry. Maybe I was a bad demon, because I bawled like some kind of big whiny angel baby. “Not—not much.”

  Lucifer looked on, a strange, unreadable expression on his face; a mixture of curiosity, happiness, anger, and frustration.

  “Okay,” said Gabe, swallowing a mouthful of blood. “Wow.” He stared up at me in bewilderment. “What happened?”

  “Heeeeey, don’t worry about it,” I said down to Gabe, dragging the word out, fighting to keep my voice as even as possible despite my blubbering. “Looks like you’re okay, you feather brained, stupid, dumb, idiotic, big ole’ stupid angel stupid…stupid.”

  “Well said,” muttered Asmodeus, casually fluttering away from Gabe to perch on Lucifer’s shoulder again. “This turned out a lot more disgusting than even I could possibly imagine.”

  Gabe turned his head to say something to Asmodeus, probably something shitty and bickering, but then he saw…him. Lucifer himself, standing there and observing the goings on.

  “Surprise,” I said. “Guess who.”

  He looked back at me, stunned as a mullet. “I…is that who I think it is?”

  “Oh, don’t mind me,” said Lucifer, his thin face adopting a small little smile. “I’m just an angel with an interesting vocation and profound daddy issues.”

  Gabe’s eyes kept flicking toward Lucifer but, at least for now, he seemed to be mostly focusing on me. Which is good. “Juliet?”

  “Dead. Well, as dead as the others. Which might not be so dead after all. But for now? Dead.”

  That seemed to relieve him greatly. He closed his eyes, resting his head back, now healed wings resting down by his side. “Thank you,” he said, with a palpable quiver in his voice. “I know…it must not have been easy to reach out to him about this.”

  “Mmm,” I said, taking a deep breath. “But…don’t thank me just yet.”

  Lucifer smiled at me and dipped his head. “It’s time to go,” he said, gently, but in a tone that booked no argument.

  A Deal’s a Deal

  Pinchot State Forest

  New York State

  “Wait,” said Gabe, confusion painted all over his face. “What do you mean?”

  It was time to tell him. My stomach became a sinking black pit, for right at that moment I felt almost as terrible as when I’d seen him get crushed. Almost. “Lucifer helps nobody for free,” I said, a firm lump building in my throat that threatened to smother the words before they could properly come out. “I…I promised him something very serious that I am obligated to follow through on.”

  “It doesn’t matter what you promised him,” said Gabe, his tone turning fierce. “I’ll gladly pay whatever cost you offered. I’m an angel. I know he will want me to suffer, want me to burn alongside others of my kind in the pit—I will do it. I will gladly suffer. Don’t concern yourself with that.”

  “It’s…not about you,” I said, cautiously, trying to break the news to him. “I would never offer you in exchange for myself.”

  “Okay,” said Gabe, slowly, “I understand that this means you won’t get back to Hell now. I get that. But listen to me, Grace—that’s a good thing. I want you to stay here on the mortal realm. I want to be with you here, make a life with you here, and I’m totally okay with never having to go back to Heaven. That’s what I want. That’s perfect.”

  “That’s…also not what Lucifer wants,” I said, taking a deep breath. “He wants me to return to Hell with him, to serve as his right hand for all time.”

  Slowly, the gears turned in Gabe’s head as he put the pieces together. “But how will I see you?”

  Oh boy, he was starting to get it. “You can’t,” I said, as flatly as I could, which was not very much. “It’s…a full time
position. Basically. Lots of pitchforking.” I made a little stabby motion with a finger. “Sinners aren’t going to—” My voice cracked. “Aren’t going to poke themselves, you know. It’s…it’s a lot of poking. Poke poke.”

  Silence. A dark, foreboding silence that seemed to consume all the sound around it, drinking in everything and swallowing it.

  “I’ll wait for you,” said Gabe, a fierce edge in his tone. “Forever. Until you have the time. Whatever you can spare. A day, an hour, a minute…until you’re free, I’ll wait here, with the living. And when you get a chance, no matter how infrequent, no matter how brief, I’ll be here. Until there’s no more time to wait.”

  “You want to be sad and miserable and lonely forever?” Even the very thought of it was impossible for me to bear. The mental image of Gabe finding a house, getting a job, watching the years and decades and centuries pass by until finally, finally I could spare a moment to go see him. And be with him. “No,” I said, with as much finality as I could muster. “That’s dumb. And you’re dumb for thinking it. Go…go be happy now. Enjoy your life now. You can’t become some Obi-Wan-esque hermit living a life of boredom and solitude waiting for the off chance that some demon with an Australian accent you met for a couple of days might—might—be able to come visit you at some point. It’s stupid. Don’t do it.”

  “That’s very demon thinking,” he said, the edges of his mouth curling up slightly. “Just focusing on the present.”

  “It’s smart.” I had to make him see. I had to make him understand. “You know what’s not very angel thinking? Wanting to spend your life with a demon. Knowing you can’t because she’s literally serving as Satan’s right hand man. Woman. Demon. Whatever. Don’t do that to yourself.”

  “It’s my life, my stupid decision to make. Because…because I really like you. And I…I even like that you’re a demon, because you’re unlike any other demon I’ve ever met. And we work well together.”

  I glared at him, trying to make him see. “How can you justify loving something in me that you hate in others?”

  Gabe smiled sheepishly. “Love is weird?”

  “Woah,” I said, trying to laugh it off and failing miserably. “You’re just going to drop the L word right out there without any warning?” I poked him in the chest. “Even if you were literally dying like two minutes ago, there’s no way I’m going to let you get away with that little stunt, buster.”

  “Well, love is…quite different for different people,” he said, coughing slightly. “For example, the great scholar Plato believed that love between friends encouraged a higher level of intimacy than physical or sexual love, so should be more highly regarded. Hence platonic relationships.”

  “That’s bullshit,” I said, decisively, although I couldn’t help but give a weak smile. “There’s nothing wrong with doing what you did…receiving ‘holy communion’ from a total stranger in some guy’s house.”

  Gabe flushed terribly. “Please don’t call it that when Lucifer’s watching,” he murmured.

  “It’s time to go,” said Lucifer, a little more insistently, and I knew he was not a patient man. “We have a great deal to talk about.”

  I stood and, before I had a chance to change my mind, turned toward Lucifer. “Very well,” I said, keeping my eyes on him and away from Gabe. “Let’s get out of here.”

  “Hold on,” said Gabe, pushing himself up into a sitting position. “There’s got to be some other way. There’s gotta be an option here. Something that you can do instead. Some other way—”

  “The weapon,” said Lucifer, holding out his hand. “I would like it back.”

  I’d dropped it somewhere. I wasn’t sure where. “I…”

  With a sigh, Lucifer held out his hand. The lens cap flew out of the Juliet-dust and into his grip, nestling comfortably against his wrinkled, ancient skin. He closed his hand and the item disappeared, then he extended that same hand to me.

  Gabe started shouting something. Something I couldn’t bear to hear. I did my absolute best to ignore it and, before I had a chance to change my mind, I stepped forward and took his hand in mine.

  “Sorry, babe,” said Asmodeus.

  The world started to fade away as he helliported back to the pit. The last thing I saw was Gabe’s despairing face as the mortal world slipped away.

  You Can’t Always Get What You Want

  Interstate 476, just passed Allentown

  New York State

  Slowly I felt myself slip between the border space between the mortal realm and the pit. Everything around me started to become grey and colourless, fading out to nothing. My fingers tingled as they usually did, and warmth rushed over me. It was like opening an oven; a dry, warm heat rushing into my face, washing over all my body, soaking me in its familiar fire.

  But then something went terribly wrong. I snapped back as though a tether had run out, or a giant hand had grabbed me and yanked me back at the last minute.

  With an explosion of fire and salt, I was back in the forest. Without Asmodeus, without Lucifer, standing at the centre of a massive sizzling pentagram burned into the ground.

  Gabe stared at me, his wings rustling in confusion. He hadn’t moved from the spot where I’d left him.

  “What happened?” we both said at the same time.

  Everything tumbled out at once. “I don’t know,” I said, stammering out words. “Lucifer helliported me and Asmodeus back to the pit, and I was almost there—I could feel it, smell it, but then suddenly I’m back here.” I looked down to the massive pentagram below me, smoke rising from the burned in lines. “I don’t think he meant for that to happen.”

  “Then what did happen?” asked Gabe.

  With a flash, Lucifer reappeared. The image of him as an old man shifted almost instantly; tall, broad bat wings burst from his shoulders, his eyes pits of fire. “You dare defy me?”

  I knelt before him, ducking my head low. “My Lord, I have no idea—”

  He grabbed hold of my shoulder, and once again I felt the pull of a planar shift dragging me away from the mortal realm.

  And once again, with a thunderous burst, I was thrown back.

  Lucifer snarled as he rematerialized, his wings beating angrily in the breeze. “What trickery is this?”

  “None of my doing,” I said, honestly and genuinely. “I…have no idea what’s keeping me here.”

  He hissed in the same way Asmodeus often would, fury and anger like a wounded snake. “There is only one force who can openly defy my wishes,” he said, his forked tongue lashing. “And you…” slowly, slowly, the anger in his voice faded away. “You are not Him.”

  Ooooh.

  Crap.

  I looked at Gabe. He shrugged helplessly. “Wasn’t me,” he said.

  “Well it wasn’t me,” I said, shrugging in return.

  And then the most unexpected, most confusing thing happened.

  Lucifer laughed.

  He actually laughed. A proud, almost relieved laugh that went on for some time. When it finally ended, he shifted his form, letting his wings melt away and becoming, once again, the withered old man.

  “Well, well, well” said Lucifer, clicking his tongue in amusement. “I suppose I’ve been played after all.”

  Nothing was making sense. “I’m afraid I don’t understand.”

  “I believe,” said Lucifer, a sneaky smile spreading over his face. “That the Heavenly choir would like you to spend a lot more than seven minutes in heaven, and you can take that however you like.”

  The very idea boggled the mind. “So you’re saying,” I said, cautiously, “that the big guy is stopping you from taking me back to Hell?”

  Lucifer rolled his shoulders quizzically. “That’s my theory. Of course, it’s probably all predicated on some kind of illogical nonsense—in this case, I’m guessing something along the lines of…anyone who would willingly go to Hell for another person against their will does not deserve to be in Hell, but it’s not like He and I ever really
saw eye to eye on most matters, so…my guess is as good as yours.”

  Anything that could seemingly, genuinely stump Lucifer was probably something that was a little above my pay grade. “Okay,” I said, simply, unsure of whatever else to say.

  Lucifer waved his hand dismissively at me. “Well, I’m not about to question the dictums of my father, not that I could anyway, but while I am not able to accept you back into the fold just yet, I’m also more than capable of maintaining your banishment. Which, of course, is now more about pissing off my father than anything else.”

  “But what about our deal?” I asked, risking a furtive glance at Gabe. “I’m guessing the refunds policy on a resurrection is a little…grim.”

  “You didn’t do anything wrong,” said Lucifer, his tone sincere. “My legal team—which, by the way, I assure you is the best bar none—would inform you that I had failed to deliver on my side of the bargain, rather than you failing on yours. So the business of extracting my, ahem, refund falls to me.” He glanced at Gabe dispassionately. “Unfortunately, the accord between my father and I prevents me from harming his agents directly. Something, I’m sure, of which He is well aware.”

  Clever guy.

  “Okay,” I said, the faintest crack of hope growing in my voice. “So…where to from here?”

  Lucifer considered that question with great gravity. I could sense his mind whirring, trying to find some obvious loophole. “There is an answer to this,” he said, at length, seeming to reach some unshared conclusion in his mind. “But unfortunately, before I can share it with you, I need to consult with my legal team.”

  “Uhh…” I grimaced. This wasn’t the worst thing to have happen, but I dared not truly hope. I didn’t think we were out of the woods just yet. “How long will that take?”

  “Some time,” confessed Lucifer. “We will want to be completely certain of our conclusion before we take any action.” He smiled coldly. “But I am a patient man, as you are probably aware.”