Howler's Night

by Marie Hall

  I nodded even as my metaphysical body moved toward her secrets.

  To try and describe what was happening wasn’t easy. I was outside of my body, even as I was looking through my eyes. I could see her breathing. It wasn’t as hard and heavy as before. But she was blinking. I didn’t quite have her totally enthralled, but I was getting close. She was bobbing from side to side on her feet, like a lure in calm waters.

  Moving from side to side, but still aware. Still knowing that something else was inside her. Something foreign, something slightly sinister.

  My will picked up her box.

  “See who she really is, Pandora. See what she’s done.”

  The box was smooth, flat on all four sides, and could fit into the palm of my hand. As far as sins went, there didn’t seem to be much in there, and yet I could feel the heaviness of it. The weight of it.

  Open.

  The scene unfurled like a slowly blossoming flower to the first rays of the morning sun.

  She stood inside a building. A night club.

  The flashing neon lights highlighted the sharp planes and smooth coffee gleam of her skin. She was dressed in the very same outfit she wore now. She was sitting at a table, laughing and running her hands down a man’s thigh.

  He was dark skinned, with a shaved head and a diamond stud in his ear. He was buying her drinks, and she let him. They talked for hours, all while she rubbed her hand along his obvious erection.

  Then she leaned into him, whispering something in his ear.

  A flashing pulse of light highlighted the glint of sexual excitement in his dark brown eyes. Nodding, he helped guide her out of the booth. They headed toward a bathroom.

  When they got there, they locked the door. Immediately she was on him, freeing him from his pants and sucking him into her mouth.

  His eyes were closed, his hands palming the back of her head. It was full on porn mode, but I knew it couldn’t just be the sex in a shit hole that’d caused Bubba to tag her.

  I was just about to ask him, when I saw for myself.

  The man was writhing, and at first I thought it was ecstasy. Her fingers gripped his thighs so hard her knuckles had turned pale, and he was no longer just writhing. He was pushing her away, pushing her off him, but she wouldn’t budge.

  She was sucking hard, pulling long and slow, and at first I wasn’t sure if I was really seeing what I was seeing.

  The man was aging before my eyes. His skin was turning dull and weathered, his eyes rheumy, and still she sucked, dragging from his cock like he was the sweetest dessert she’d ever had.

  A minute later she pulled off him, wiping down her mouth and watching as he crumpled to dust at her feet.

  “Succubus.” Sirens, they drew their vitality and youth from the seed of men.

  I felt Bubba’s nod brush against my hair. “Tonight. That male was her first.”

  The girl’s eyes widened, but still she did not move.

  “Now take the memory trapped inside that box and bind her with it, Pandora. Wrap it like a silken scarf around her soul.”

  Gathering the memory in my hands, I rearranged and wove them together, twisting them until they became thick and strong like a rope. I could feel my body trembling, feel as sweat began to coat my brow and slide down my neck from working in a way I never had before.

  Then I felt the brush of Bubba’s power slide along mine. Not much, but just enough to help me to relax, just enough to make that rope glimmer. And then together we wrapped the girl in the chains of her evil. And the next time I glanced at her I could see a small, satisfied little smile touching the corners of her lips.

  “That is the thrall,” Bubba said. “Now the rest is easy. Call her to you.”

  Pulling my will out of her body, I studied the girl, no longer seeing the innocence of a young, beautiful face, but the monster she truly was.

  “Come to me.” I crooked a finger and grinned when she took her first step. “Stop,” I said once she’d gotten to within a foot of us. “Now what?”

  “With your fangs”—Bubba dropped our intertwined hands and stepped back— “you prick her finger.”

  I frowned, feeling the hunger beating at me like a ravenous beast. Gluttony wanted more than a mere drop of blood.

  He shook his head as if sensing my thoughts. “He only needs a drop. He will take more, he will always take more, but to control him, you merely need to feed him one, single, solitary drop.” He held up a finger.

  “Give me your finger,” I commanded the girl, and when she lifted her hand, I felt washed in a rush of electric power. My body hummed with the flood of Gluttony’s desire.

  Snatching her finger to my mouth, fangs already dropped and tongue desperate for that first taste of her, I pierced her flesh.

  She never cried out.

  “Your thrall is strong.” Bubba sounded proud, and I straightened my spine, feeling a gloating sense of satisfaction.

  I only needed one drop, but the euphoria of that first taste flooded my senses, and I growled as I felt the pulse of that warmth, of her life, of the man’s life, rush through me.

  Clenching her finger tighter into my mouth, I sucked, pulling at her, wondering if I could tap a vein.

  Something hard dug into my shoulders. I shrugged it off, rolling my tongue around the finger, wanting more. So much more.

  This wasn’t nearly enough. I needed more.

  Everything.

  It was sweet, and spicy, and with each pull of it I felt my insides curl with streams of white, hot light. Delirious with ecstasy, I grunted as once again something grabbed me.

  But this time it was harder, this time I felt a flare of pain rip through my skull.

  Snapping my jaws, I punched at whatever it was.

  Then I screamed as I was tossed to the floor, clawing and digging at the ground, desperate to get back to my meal.

  “I need it!” I screamed, shoving the hands off me.

  “Push it down!” Bubba grunted. “Down, Dora, you’ve had enough. Too much and you’ll be consumed with lust for it.”

  The words finally penetrated my brain, and I realized where I was. And it wasn’t just Bubba on me, but Ash too. He was holding my legs and breathing heavy. There was a red mark on his cheek.

  I curled my hand to my breast and shuddered even as the desire for her still held me tight in its grip.

  “You good? You okay now?” Bubba asked, his fingers digging into my shoulders.

  And I nodded jerkily, slowly coming to my senses enough to know that no matter how delicious it’d been, there wasn’t going to be anymore for me. At least not tonight.

  Not right now.

  He grinned. “You did good, girl.”

  “What?” I shook my head, clearing out the last of the cobwebs, slowly beginning to realize that the succubus was lying in a heap beside me, her normally café colored skin now blanched and waxy looking.

  Wiping my mouth with the back of my hand, I nodded that I was okay for him to release me.

  “Took me years to train myself not to kill them.”

  Rubbing the side of my head that now throbbed like a sonofagun, I gave a choked laugh. “I wanted to kill her. I would have killed her if you guys hadn’t stopped me.”

  Asher gave me his hand. His jaw was clenched tight, and if I had to guess I’d say my man wasn’t exactly thrilled by what he’d seen me do tonight.

  “Nah.” Bubba dusted his silk pants off. “If you’d really wanted to kill her, nothing could have pulled you off her.”

  I wiggled into Asher’s side, relieved when his heavy hand draped over my shoulder. It was hard for me sometimes, always expecting the other shoe to drop with us, expecting him to give me a withering look before casting me away. I slipped my hand beneath his shirt and sighed when he kissed the crown of my head.

  But I think I was finally beginning to believe that sometimes when a person told you “always” they might really mean it.

  “How do you feel?” Bubba gave me a tiny smirk.
<
br />   “How do I feel?” I shuddered, remembering the roll of that warmth, the slide of it moving all through me, filling me up, making me desperate for more. “Powerful.” I grinned.

  His ruby eyes gleamed. “Then call her blood.”

  “Just like that?” I snapped my fingers.

  “The demon’s been fed. You held up your end, now it’s his turn to show off.”

  Looking down at the bundle by my foot, I wasn’t sure how to start. Whether to just command it, to squeeze my hand as Bubba had done, or what, but as I was thinking these things, I began to feel music.

  Frowning, I held onto my chest, because the delicate strings of the song weren’t rolling through the air but beating inside my own blood.

  Squeezing my eyes shut, I strained to listen, to hear each dip, each wave of sound. And it flowed like a stream.

  It was ethereal and heartachingly lovely.

  And when it felt right, I whispered just one word: “come.”

  Bubba’s laughter startled me.

  The succubus was once more covered in a sheen of blood.

  Giving Asher a side-eyed glance, Bubba nodded. “She done good, Priest. She done real good.”

  But the sight of that blood made my mouth water, and I knew that at least for tonight, I was done playing with fire. Shoving the demon back down into the hole, I shuddered weakly into Asher’s side, feeling suddenly drained and exhausted.

  “I know she has,” Asher finally said, and his hand was warm and gentle as he glided it along the top of my bared shoulder, breaking me out in a need of another kind.

  I basked in his praise. “Thank you, Bubs.”

  “Anytime, girly.”

  Feeling as though a burden, a giant weight, had been lifted off my shoulder, I smiled at him. “I don’t think I’m completely in control of it yet, but it’s a start.”

  “And a damn good one at that.” He winked. “Make sure to feed it once every week or so, and Gluttony, at least, won’t be a problem for you.”

  “What do I do with her?” I glanced back down at the girl.

  She was a siren. Which in and of itself wasn’t inherently evil—I was all for sex. But she was a siren without control. Releasing her back into the world was probably not wise. But I’d leave Bubba to decide her fate.

  Her skin was slowly returning to a more normal shade. And she was beginning to whimper herself awake.

  “We could drag her back out if you’d like,” Asher said.

  But Bubba shook his head and began rolling his sleeves up. His eyes were glowing a brilliant ruby red, and I knew he meant to feed.

  “She gonna leave here alive?” I asked him, already knowing what his answer would be.

  One brow rose, and giving me a macabre smile full of nothing but fangs, he shook his head. “You saw what she did, what kind of demon would I be if I let her slip away.”

  Dropping to his knees beside her, Bubba dragged a clawed hand through her hair, and then, bending over, he inhaled deeply.

  And for a second I felt a prick of bitterness because I knew what that blood tasted like.

  “Come on, Pandora.” Asher gently guided me out. Digging my fingers into his shirt, I nodded, grateful all over again for my priest.

  We were halfway to our trailer when I heard her scream.

  Worrying my bottom lip, I almost turned back. Not that Bubba couldn’t handle himself, but…

  “Let him.” Asher’s words were for my ears only.

  Her screams blended in with the screams of riders all around. No one would be the wiser, no would know. Because we were good at what we did.

  “But why is he—”

  “Pandora, you did not see yourself as I did, as he did. Your need, your joy, it lit a spark in me. But in him.” He shook his head. “I think he was pushed beyond his limits, and besides, her fate isn’t worthy of our time.”

  “Oh, so bloodthirsty. Sexy.” I rawred at him, and then giggled when he smirked back.

  “So I got you all hot and bothered, eh?” I danced my fingers down his spine, until I got to his ass and could give it a firm squeeze.

  Growling, he lifted me into his arms, and when we reached the trailer, he took the steps two at a time and about knocked the door off its hinges when he yanked on it.

  “You have no idea.”

  I wiggled against the hardness pressing into my bottom and laughed. “Oh, I think I have an idea.”

  We were at the bed in seconds, and he was fast and furious, ripping the dress off me and pretty much ruining it, but I didn’t care. I wanted skin on skin, and I wanted it now.

  Lust was awake and hungry for her catnip.

  “But maybe next time”—a hot glint sparked in his brown eyes—“we can see if those fangs work on me.”

  My heart just about leapt out of my chest. “You want me to suck on you, Priest?”

  Nostrils flaring, he shoved me hard onto the mattress. I never did get my answer, but you can pretty much guess what happened after that.

  Chapter 22

  Asher

  I was just about to head back to our trailer, my arms loaded down with Pandora’s favorite breakfast foods, Krispy Kreme donuts and black coffee, when the familiar scent of Luc’s sulfur traced by my side.

  I gave him a questioning look.

  We’d been there three days already, and apart from the first day when he’d snatched Pandora away, we’d seen very little of him.

  “Bubba told me how she did.”

  I shrugged. “That a question or a statement?”

  I no longer wanted to rip the guy’s heart out. I didn’t like him, but I could tolerate him.

  He scrubbed a hand down his jaw. “Who’s she got tonight?”

  “Vyx said she’d take a go.”

  “No.” He shook his head violently, shoving long pieces of hair out of his eyes. “Tonight it’s Sloth.” And with those words he turned to go.

  I frowned. “That it? You leaving already? What the hell is this about, man?”

  I expected fire and brimstone from him, because that’s what Luc usually did. But when he turned back around, all I could see was lethargy and a man who’d given up on life.

  “You look like shit.”

  Not only did Luc look as bad as he had when we’d last been together, but in some ways I thought he might even be worse. And I wasn’t sure that it was only the loss of Dora causing it.

  His look was deadpan. “What do you want me to tell you, Priest? You want me to admit that you were right and I was wrong? Want to gloat about it? Shove it in my face? What?”

  I clenched my jaw. “If you think I’m trying to throw anything in your face, you’re wrong. I love her. That’s it. That’s all there is. But I’m here to fix this any way I can.”

  Bitter laughter spilled from his lips. “Whatever. Sloth at nine. Meet at my place. And don’t be fucking late.”

  ~*~

  “And he said Sloth?” She gave me an “are you serious” look.

  I nodded, watching as she demolished the final bit of sugary fried dough before bringing her fingers to her lips to lick them clean.

  Giving her a wicked grin, I snatched her finger, pulled it into my mouth, and flicked the sugar off it with my tongue before sucking on it briefly.

  Gray eyes rimmed in lavender never left mine as she moaned softly, and I couldn’t help but feel a satisfied chuckle that by some weird fluke of fate I was able to make a Lust demon as crazed for me as I was for her.

  Shivering when I finally released her, she chuckled. “I’m gonna pay you back for that later.”

  I snorted and crossed my ankles before leaning back on the pillows and dragging her soft body on top of mine.

  “So what’s the problem with Sloth?” I asked, attempting to get our thoughts back to things of a less carnal nature.

  “Kem was our only Sloth.”

  I didn’t know how I’d forgotten that, but somehow I had. “Actually they have another one. Her name’s Keltse.”

  “What?” She l
eaned up, giving me a surprised look.

  I sighed. So many things had happened while she’d been gone, sometimes it was easy—not to forget exactly—but not think about that year apart.

  “They got her a few months after you were taken.”

  “Why? I mean I loved my sandman, but as far as bulking up our numbers, what we want are fighters like Wrath and Pride.”

  I licked my front teeth. I’m not going to lie and say it wasn’t hard for me to talk about Luc. While I didn’t exactly hate the guy, he’d been Pandora’s lover for years. I wasn’t concerned she’d leave me for him; I’d definitely not been the cause of their rift. Maybe the catalyst for their break up, but one that’d been sprung into action years and years and years before she and I had come together.

  But I also knew how personally she took his well being, how much she placed everything on her shoulders where he was concerned.

  I played with her shoulder blade. “He wasn’t well when you left, Pandora.”

  Sighing, she rolled off me, staring at the wall in front of her. “That’s what Vyx told me too, but what exactly does that mean? He looks different and is acting weird, and except for that day on the mountain, he doesn’t act like Luc at all.”

  I shrugged, because I really had no answers. She was right, Luc wasn’t Luc.

  Her finger smoothed out the lines between my brows. “You’re actually worried about him, aren’t you?”

  I cringed. “No.”

  “Yes, you are.” She slapped my palm. “That hard-headed worm crawled under your skin too, didn’t he?”

  I grabbed her hand and gave it a squeeze. “Maybe.”

  She snorted, but the mirth quickly faded. “I’m worried about him too. Without his unwavering faith to guide this family, I don’t know what they’d do. If there’s one thing Luc’s done right in his life, it’s his dedication to the group.”

  I nodded as my thumb played along the ridges of her knuckles. “You think having us meet him at his place with Sloth might be some sort of a clue?”

  Shrugging, she wiggled her way back on top of me. “Maybe. Probably. But with Luc, it’s really hard to say. For all I know this could be his way of seeing how strong I am.”