by S. L. Wright
Petrify had tried to escape New York—like I’d told him. I gave Shock a stricken look, but she was disgusted. “You should have done it,” she told me.
“He was an infant, unable to defend himself.” I glanced at Lash, wondering if she knew I had killed her offspring Pique, instead. I wondered if she cared. Pique had been a sick, twisted product of her sick, twisted love for Crave. All of the newbies were dying like flies. “So Dread got Petrify in the end. What happened to Amaze?”
“Stun killed her, I’m told. He didn’t even need to replenish his core.”
We fell silent, thinking of the implications of that. The only person Stun ever listened to was Vex, but now with him gone . . . and to make matters worse, he was Shock’s first offspring. Not that she had anything to do with him. Except for making him the horror he was.
Bliss suddenly gave a long, sensual shiver. “Umm . . . Petrify had the most frightening signature. I think he would have had a hard time making friends.”
That was my fault, because I had fed Shock my panic when she came to my place to give birth. Who was I to judge her for her offspring?
Lash nudged Crave, who was watching Bliss so intently that his fingers faltered on the keys. Bliss was doing it again, changing subtly, throwing out cues, trying to please the only man in the room.
This time it was the wrong thing to do.
“Stop it, Bliss,” I ordered under my breath.
“Feeling jealous?” Crave asked Lash. Slowly Lash eased back into place. He made eye contact with Bliss again, letting Lash see. She touched his thigh, soaking up his desire to hurt her.
Bliss was watching them, a smile shadowing her lips.
Low enough that I almost couldn’t hear her, Lash said, “You know I can never get enough of you.”
He kept playing. “So I’ve discovered.”
“I’ll do anything for you,” she said louder, willing to abase herself in front of everyone if that would make him pay attention to her. “Anything you want, just tell me, and I’ll get it for you.”
“I don’t keep you because you’re rich,” Crave drawled.
“No, you depend on me for that,” Glory snapped.
I watched it all go down. Crave was sick of playing the role of devoted lover, especially when it suited no purpose except to stroke Lash’s pride. But Glory was determined to indulge Lash because she wanted her to be happy in Harlem. Lash was her only hold over Dread. She had probably told Crave to treat Lash better because this was no time to be harboring a viper in their bosom.
“Dread is sure rich.” Bliss sighed. “All those clothes you left behind, Lash ... You should see Allay’s closet. It’s embarrassing. How much black can one person wear?”
“Bliss!” I exclaimed. Shock rolled her eyes as if she expected nothing better from Bliss.
“What?” Bliss asked innocently. “I would have pegged Lash for the sugar-daddy kind, not the benevolent cougar.”
All eyes turned to Lash, who glared at Bliss. “Shut up!”
Bliss laughed, a startlingly clear sound. “You think I don’t know Dread’s thing? When he was wooing Allay, he couldn’t even bend over, he had such a long stick up his ass.”
Crave snorted, then hid his mouth behind his hand. Glory didn’t look happy about it, so I kept my expression blank. Once again, Bliss had perfect recall.
Lash stood up and started fanning herself. “It’s crowded in here. Maybe some of you who have no reason to be here should step outside.” She looked pointedly at Bliss.
Bliss laughed again. “That’s okay, Lash. Don’t get into a twist. I’ll wait downstairs on the corner.”
Shock suddenly spoke for the first time. “Then one of them has to leave, too. I won’t sit here outnumbered.”
It was annoying, but I didn’t want to openly contradict Shock. They had just revealed a lot about the inner tensions inside the Glory camp. I didn’t want to give them the same insight into ours.
Glory gestured to Lash, her voice kind. “Why don’t you go upstairs, honey? I’ll call you when we’re through here.”
Lash hesitated, glancing suspiciously at me. With Bliss out of the room, I had reverted to being the primary target of her jealousy. But she was dependent on Glory, as she had been dependent on Dread to sustain her. I could smell it on her, something anachronistic, as though she had never left the era she had been born in, when women were property to be cared for and tended. I couldn’t imagine spending sixteen hundred years living that way.
Lash waited until Bliss headed downstairs; then she swished out of the room, as if compelling us to watch her retreat upstairs.
Crave continued to play softly, but the melody was markedly lighter. Shock folded her arms as if she could wait all day.
“Dread would do anything for you if you get Lash to meet with him,” I told Glory.
“Yes,” Glory agreed thoughtfully. “I expect he wants to possess her again rather than kill her. In spite of all the secrets she knows about him.”
“That’s a powerful bargaining chip. And he’s in a bargaining mood right now.”
Glory gave me a bland smile. “Ah, the impatience of youth. I prefer to wait to see which way the wind blows. I’m not going to get caught out in a mass raid again. And it’s not just Dread I’m concerned about. I’m certain Goad won’t bend his knee to anyone now that Vex is dead.”
A soft bell rang. Glory gestured to Crave, dismissing him like a servant. He went quickly through the back archway, presumably going down to his jewelry shop. Shock smiled slightly, relaxing even more now that it was just the three of us.
As Glory questioned me about my conversation with Dread, I kept thinking about Bliss down on the street, alone. I didn’t like it. What if she wandered off? Or got into trouble. I didn’t have any responsibility for her, but for some reason I felt I had to do my best to help her. Other demons didn’t feel that way about their offspring. But in a real sense, she was the only kind of child I would ever have.
So I rushed through my answers and finally told Glory, “I’ve got to go get Bliss. She doesn’t make the best choices sometimes. As you noticed.”
Glory wasn’t satisfied, but that was only to be expected while things were in a state of flux. Shock and I got out of there with more promises of cooperation and goodwill.
When we got down to the corner, Bliss was nowhere to be seen.
I raised my hands. “Crap! I knew it! She’s run off.”
“Good riddance,” Shock said with feeling. “I thought she’d never leave.”
“Don’t say that.” I felt awful. I tried to think like a demon—Bliss was nothing more than too much energy I had absorbed, overloading my system until I’d fissioned in two. But with her memories of my life, it felt much more intimate than that. I’d always considered Shock to be my sister because her progenitor, Revel, was also the progenitor of Plea, the demon I’d absorbed when I became possessed. I knew Bliss wasn’t my child, but I couldn’t convince my heart of that.
I tried to sense her signature, but with all the demons at the jewelry shop, including Shock right next to me, Bliss was gone.
“You look that way.” I ran across the street and down Madison Avenue. Surely Bliss would be drawn downtown while looking at all the boutiques. But even after several blocks, with Shock falling behind, I still didn’t sense her signature.
I headed back uptown. If Bliss was smart, she would go deeper into Harlem instead of exposing herself to Goad’s horde.
But she wasn’t farther up Madison, either. As I paused on the corner, indecisive, a black limousine car with dark windows whipped past, and I glanced at Shock as we both felt Glory’s strong and distinctive signature. Glory was going home.
“Come on, Allay,” Shock insisted. “This is useless. Let’s go back to the bar. Bliss is bound to show up there. Unfortunately.”
Shock hailed a cab, but I couldn’t make myself get inside. “I can’t.” It was the strangest feeling. As if I were walking away from a baby, leaving it helple
ss on the sidewalk. “I’m so stupid! I never should have let her come down to the street alone.”
“Allay, you’re being irrational. Bliss can take care of herself, believe me. I’ve been watching her from the moment she was born. That girl can get whatever she wants.”
My feet stubbornly returned to Crave’s jewelry shop. The leafy green of Central Park over on Fifth Avenue was enticing. Maybe she went that direction. Or she could have gone east toward the river.
As I was turning, something caught my eye through the window of the jewelry shop. A flash of brightness—blond hair. It was Bliss.
Now that I saw her, I could feel her floaty signature, as if my sight enhanced my sixth sense. I should have known.
I pushed against the glass door, but it was locked shut. Shading my eyes, I could see Bliss and Crave reflected in one of the case mirrors. Bliss was kissing Crave, wrapped around him as if they were molded together. Their auras sparked green and gold where they touched, unmistakable signs of their raging lust. His fingers tightened on her shirt, ready to rip it off her, and damn the consequences.
She’s a succubus! I should have figured it out when she seduced the cops.
I banged my fist against the window, rattling the door in its frame. Startled, they looked over at me. At the same time, on the inside, Lash appeared at the top of the staircase calling for Crave.
When she saw him holding Bliss, Lash shrieked. Even through the glass, the sound was shattering.
“What is going on here?” Lash demanded in a shrill voice. “What are you doing with her!”
Caught, Crave kept grinding himself against Bliss even as they both stared over in surprise at Lash.
“Let go of her!” Lash screamed.
Lash growled as she approached Bliss, her fingers extended like talons, like she was going to suck the life out of Bliss.
“Let me in!” I cried, banging harder on the door. “Bliss, come open the door!”
Bliss managed to untangle herself from Crave, who stopped Lash from getting to her. There was no way for Bliss to straighten her hair or clothes enough to remove the image of them going at it. Bliss was breathing hard, trying to hide her face.
“Are they laughing?” I asked Shock, trying to see through the glass. “They are! Stop it, you idiots!” Glory wanted Crave to keep Lash happy. But Crave was grinning as he valiantly took the brunt of Lash’s fists.
“You slut!” Lash screamed. People turned on the sidewalk, and I abruptly stopped banging on the door. Now we were drawing a lot of attention. Good thing there weren’t any paparazzi in sight, but that was bound to change any second.
Thankfully Bliss came over and opened the door. “Okay, let’s go,” she said breezily.
Lash grabbed on to Crave. “So now you’re going after dim-witted bimbo demons!” She raked Bliss with a scathing look. “Must you seduce every female who crosses your path?”
Crave didn’t seem bothered. “Only the ones who irritate you the most, my dear.”
Their gazes held, Lash proud, jealous, and defiant, while Crave refused to back down. It went on for a long time, too long, as they silently battled it out. Neither shifted or glanced away. The tension was so thick that I held my breath.
Then slowly Lash began to crumple in on herself, her indignation disappearing as her eyes began to plead. “How could you, Crave? I gave up everything for you.”
“I didn’t ask you to.”
She reached out for him, her eyes closing in ecstasy as she soaked up the full force of his disdain. It was her favorite emotion, the torment of her life. She had to be adored and pushed away at the same time. Dread had been the perfect symbiotic relationship for her. Crave was only going through the motions, an experienced incubus who was compelled to give women what they wanted so they in turn desired him.
And Bliss was cut from the same cloth—born with a desire to please and a need for ecstasy.
“Have you had enough?” Crave jerked his arm impatiently, as ruddy light flashed between them.
Her heavy-lidded glance went to Bliss, who was watching fascinated. I was, too, in spite of myself. “Don’t make me do this, Crave. Not in front of her.”
“You’re the one who made a spectacle of yourself, Lash.”
She was feeding off him in deep luxurious gulps. “Please, Crave.”
She was practically pulsing with desire for him, which he was soaking up. Her expression was glazed, and the dark green swirls in her aura grew more pronounced. The green tendrils began to cycle between them, going faster.
Shock pulled me away, and Bliss followed. The last thing I saw was Crave staring after us, ignoring the groveling Lash in front of him.
* * *
I waited until we got in a cab. “What do you think you’re doing, Bliss?”
“Crave was using me to play a game with Lash. He’s very good at what he does, isn’t he?”
I wasn’t expecting that. “You don’t care that he was using you?”
Bliss laughed. “He can use me anytime. He kisses really good.”
“Please keep away from him. You hear me, Bliss? I need to stay on Glory’s good side, and she needs Crave to keep Lash in line. That’s her only hold on Dread. I don’t want you getting mixed up in that.” Bliss didn’t reply. “Please, Bliss.”
After a moment, she agreed, “All right, since it’s important to you, Allay. But after this all settles down, I’m going to give him a whirl. He looks like a lot of fun.”
I held my tongue on my warning. It was probably inevitable. They would either repel each other like magnets or go down in a glorious burst of passion. There wasn’t anything I could do to stop it, and acting like the mom of a teenager would be the quickest way to drive Bliss away.
Shock was looking at me curiously. I knew she was thinking the same thing—somehow keeping Bliss happy had become very important to me.
4
Back at the bar, Shock took me aside and urged me to tell Bliss to leave. “She’s doing something to you, something I’ve never seen before.”
“I’ve never given birth before.”
Shock shook her head, clearly not understanding. For demons, fissioning was a physiological function of absorbing too much energy, something akin to throwing up. Sometimes the new demons killed their progenitor while they were weakened and fallen into a stupor from the ordeal. Shock had come to my place to birth Petrify, in part because she feared he would consume her. Also, she wanted to give him to me so I could replenish my life force with his core.
Instead I had sent him out like a lamb to slaughter, bleating and unable to defend himself. And Dread had killed him. If I had killed Dread first, Petrify would still be alive.
Not that Shock cared about that.
“I feel responsible for her,” I tried to explain.
Her piercing blue eyes searched mine. “Are you falling in love with her, Allay?”
“No!” I couldn’t have been more appalled. “Ick ... how could you think that?”
“It happens.” She shrugged. “Newbie demons retain a lot of their progenitor’s personality traits as their memories battle with their own true nature. Their core desire wins out in the end, but when I met Mar in Singapore, she was in love with Stymie, her offspring. They were together for months before he finally left her, and it turned out bad. A whole neighborhood burned to the ground. They don’t talk now.”
“That’s so narcissistic. It’s sick, Shock. I can’t believe you think that about me.” But what was my fascinated need to keep Bliss close? It was more than duty. That was for sure. I had panicked when I thought we’d lost her on Madison Avenue.
Maybe I should rethink listening to my gut. I was a demon, after all. My own choices were suspect.
Shock saw my uncertainty. “It’s time to cut the cord, Allay. Bliss isn’t a human, and she isn’t your baby.”
I sighed. “I’m not kicking her out now, Shock. Not while everything is in turmoil. I feel guilty enough about Petrify.”
“What
do you mean?”
“I wish I’d helped him more. I didn’t even give him shoes!”
“He tried to kill you, Allay. Where’s your head? These are demons we’re talking about.”
I turned away. “We’re demons, too.”
I couldn’t fix the ice machine. We needed to go several blocks to the supermarket to get the big bags, and it would take at least two of us to get enough in the hand-carts. I wanted all of us to go, but Shock insisted I stay in the bar, where it was safe. “Goad’s horde could be waiting just out of range for you to wander into their hands.”
I couldn’t stand having another argument with Shock, so I let them go alone. I was busy prepping the bar when I realized I also needed limes and lemons. The fruit stand was on the corner, so I could get back inside the bar quickly if I felt anyone approaching.
I ran out and bought the fruit, fidgeting as I explained to Raoul that I was opening the bar again. He was so happy that I didn’t want to be rude and rush away, but Shock and recent events had made me too paranoid to have a nice chat with my neighbor on a nice spring afternoon.
I was crossing the street at the corner when I saw Ram. I felt an instant rush of anticipation, an almost itchy need to touch him. I’m ashamed to say I wanted to feel his ancient energy again, to feel the depths of time in him. I wasn’t sure if it was the demon in me that wanted him more or the horny human who hadn’t been laid in years before he came along.
Then I met his eyes, and nothing else mattered. Where there had been two of us, there was now one being united in common purpose—to protect and care for each other.
How could his eyes say so much?
It was only then I realized he was in his Theo Ram guise again. It seemed kind of dangerous since the cops were looking for that persona. I wondered if he did it to make me more comfortable, because I had learned to trust him in that guise. But I had also learned he had lied about who he was, riding on my coattails to infiltrate the Prophet’s Center.
He was on Third Street behind the Spanish restaurant, in the short driveway in the back where they kept their Dumpster. He gestured for me to join him, then drew me in deeper, so we couldn’t be seen behind the Dumpster.
