by S. L. Wright
Cherie was the former supermodel, aging and emaciated from decades of stringent dieting. I had held her hand during the circle and fed off her fervid faith. “Why didn’t you tell me?”
But I knew. I would never have had sex with him if he had blurted it out right away. Mystify was right—Ram manipulated me into doing what he wanted as naturally as he breathed.
I pulled farther away. “Why? Why is Dread doing this? Why would Cherie go along with it?”
“Cherie isn’t known for her intelligence. I doubt Dread told her anything. Besides, Dread is no Vex. He’s not interested in world domination. He’s doing this to get control of Vex’s line. By gaining more power and offering to share it with Goad, he gets to keep his enforcers and his power base among the demons.”
I felt spun around, but it did make some kind of sense. That was where Ram had been, finding out what was going on inside the Prophet’s Center. He could sneak in posing as any of the human employees, hiding his signature from Dread and Zeal. “Why didn’t you tell me in the first place?” I demanded.
Ram tried to draw me back closer. “When you said Goad was chasing you, I lost my head. If he had caught you last night instead of Fervor, Dread would have used you to transform Cherie into a demon. I wasn’t there to protect you.”
I resisted, until he let go. “So Dread is going to pull a resurrection?”
“Yes, in a day or two, I’m sure. Hybrids usually burn out within a few weeks, and Cherie is not likely to take easily to the transition. She’s nearly fifty and set in her ways. Once she commits suicide, Dread will be left with nothing to prove his assertion. But that should be enough to destabilize the situation and gain the Fellowship a sizeable following. Goad would be a fool to walk away from that.”
“We have to stop him. We can’t let Dread con millions of people by staging a religious miracle.”
“It’s too late, Allay. He’s set up ERI machines at the entrances to the Prophet’s Center. I can’t get back inside without being detected.”
I remembered our meeting in the bar. Dread had denied any interest in a resurrection. “Dread was stalling me when he came here. He lied to me. But I didn’t see it in his aura. How did he do that?”
“Old demons can hide their emotions better than young ones. Much better,” Ram admitted.
I stood up, suddenly not caring that I was naked. My body was another set of clothes to me, something I could change at will. “What else haven’t you told me, Ram?”
He looked up at me steadily, reclining on one elbow on the bench. He could have been a sculpture of a Greek god lying on grape leaves. Maybe he had posed like that before.
“I already knew about the ERI machine because I bugged you in the Prophet’s Center. I heard Dread’s presentation in the media room, and your discussion with Vex. That’s why I checked into it and found out that it’s based on Kirlian’s work. I don’t see any way to fool a machine based on that technology. Glory hired a lab that I happen to own to find out how to do it. I told them to stall her for a few weeks, then let her know it’s impossible.”
My mouth opened. “Why didn’t you tell me that yesterday?”
He ran his hand through his hair. “I should have, but I don’t want you to be afraid of me. Every time I tell you something, you rear back like this and stop trusting me.”
“That’s because you keep lying to me. You let me tell you about the ERI even though you already knew.” I patted my bare hips and thighs. “Do you have me bugged right now? Were you following along ‘every second’ while I was with Mystify?”
“No! I wouldn’t eavesdrop on you now, Allay. That happened before I told you who I really was.”
It was falling into place. “So you knew about the ERI all this time. You knew it would expose us. Is that why you revealed yourself to Dread? Is that why you killed Vex?”
He hesitated, and I felt my heart sink.
“I didn’t know then whether the ERI used the Kirlian field,” he said. “I did know that I couldn’t save you without revealing myself, and that I couldn’t let you die. So I did it. But in truth, I suspected we’d soon be exposed one way or another—through Dread’s resurrection or the ERI. Something. There’s a rhythm to our coexistence with humans, and periodically we’re exposed. Sometimes it’s on a small scale, like tabloid reports of spontaneous combustion, and other times it becomes legend. During those times, demons are destroyed—buried alive usually. If it goes badly, I can hardly imagine what they’ll do to us today with science at hand. We’re past time for exposure, and the only question is, what will the repercussions be?”
I stared at him lying there, so cold and detached as if he could stand by and watch demons die by the bucket load. But I could hear Plea’s screams echoing in my head, feel her raw throat from days of entombment in the catacombs.
I scrubbed my hand down my neck in sympathetic reflex. “You’re going to let it happen.”
“It’s inevitable.”
He had used the same ruthless logic to convince me to kill Pique so I could live. Then he had told me that the only way demons die is by the hand of other demons. But if I had listened to my memories, I would have known that demons also die at the hands of humans. If you isolate a demon so it can’t absorb any human energy, it eventually disappeared in a puff of smoke.
I shuddered and crossed my arms around myself. “Genocide is never inevitable.”
“There are too many demons. That’s the plain fact. Pique would have been the one to expose us all if he had killed you on the sidewalk last week. It’s going to happen and there’s nothing I can do to stop it.”
“You’re glad about it. It saves you having to kill them all yourself.” It was now or never. “Since you’re being so honest, finally, answer me this, Ram. Do you want me because I remind you of Hope?”
He sat up quickly, his control slipping. He instantly took in my expression, looking for signs of what I knew, what Mystify had told me. I lifted my chin, refusing to turn away. I had the right to know.
As he stood up, his aura was stained with violet sadness. He couldn’t hide his reaction to the mention of her name. “Your energy does feel a lot like hers . . . and your signature, as well. And there are similarities in your strength and clarity of purpose . . . but I never knew Hope as a young woman. She was at the height of her power at the time I was born. In many ways, she controlled everything between us, playing me for a fool.”
“Playing me must be a nice way of remaking the past.”
“I’m with you because of who you are, Allay. I love watching you blossom into your full potential. You’re different from Hope, very different. You don’t use people, for one thing. And I hope you never become jaded enough to start.”
I wanted to believe it, but ... “Tell me the truth. Do you think about Hope when you’re with me?”
Slowly he admitted, “In the beginning, yes. I couldn’t help it—you feel so similar. But now it’s you, Allay. Only you.”
Every instinctive alarm inside me went off. I knew it from the moment I’d found out about Hope, but I’d tried to ignore it. I was just a rerun, a faded echo of the original. I was an innocent toy he could use to work through his issues.
“Thank you for being so honest,” I managed to get out.
His voice lowered. “I’ve upset you. I’m sorry, Allay. I don’t want to lie to you. Ever.”
I backed away from his outstretched hand. I wanted to let him hold me so badly that it made me ache. But he was manipulating me, using me. My feelings were so conflicted that I couldn’t stand it.
I turned away. “I think you should go, Ram.”
“I understand.”
That made me even more angry. “Sure, you understand! Stand there and be all understanding and superior, while I’m nothing but confused. Mystify should be here. He would love this.”
“Mystify,” Ram muttered savagely.
“Don’t! Don’t you dare do anything to him. He’s my friend.”
“Allay, y
ou can’t trust him—”
“Why? Because he’s a template of you?”
“Mystify isn’t me. If he feels anything for you, it’s because he remembers my feelings.”
I grabbed my clothes and marched over to the door, opening it. “You can let yourself out, Ram.”
I didn’t wait to hear what he said, running lightly up the stairs. Bliss had thoughtfully left the key in the door so I could get inside. I let the bolt snick shut behind me. Downstairs I could hear the bolt on the front door do the same as Ram let himself out.
I willed myself to let him go. I couldn’t think when I was around him, and right now I needed to think.
It was my worst nightmare. Unless I did something fast, there was a resurrection coming.
10
Bliss and Crave were going at it in the back room, moaning and panting. They were probably on the very same chaise where I had seduced Ram that first night. Or rather, was manipulated into seducing him while feeling guilty for taking advantage of a poor human.
Ha! I was the poor sucker being taken advantage of.
I hopped into the shower and blasted the hot water. I was clean enough from shifting off the dirt and grime, but there was nothing like the psychological reassurance of water to make me feel better after our underground trek.
I thought better in the shower; maybe it was the steam, or the lack of things to look at. I was hoping for a brilliant idea on how to thwart Dread. But all I could think about was Ram. I didn’t want to, but my body resonated with the memory of the way he touched me, his slight shiver when I stroked him, the way he looked at me with love in his eyes—
Bliss banged on the door at the same time I felt it. “Allay! Crave says Glory’s coming.”
“Now, why didn’t I think of that?” I muttered. Maybe because Ram had turned my brains to mush.
“And Lash,” Bliss added more doubtfully.
“I’m coming,” I called back.
I threw on black leggings and a tank top, and slicked back my wet hair. By the time we got downstairs, Glory and Lash were at the front door waiting. Bliss opened up the bar and turned on the lights as I let them in.
Glory’s guise was a short, middle-aged, possibly Dominican woman, with chaffed, capable hands and a retiring demeanor. She’s appearing to be harmless. Is that for my benefit?
Or was someone else here the target? I glanced at Crave, who refused to look at either woman, while Lash drifted across the room closer to him as if she couldn’t help herself.
Crave took a stool at the bar, half turned away as if he wasn’t interested in speaking to them. Bliss unfortunately looked as if she was about to laugh. And for the first time I noticed she was wearing a pair of wildly colored boxer shorts rolled up at the bottom and an undershirt that barely reached her exposed belly button. Crave’s shirt was untucked and unbuttoned, still smeared and stained from the underground.
Lash was hungrily staring at him, practically quivering in anticipation. She looked even more beautiful than Bliss—honey blond, with high cheekbones and luscious lips the same color as her red suit. The skirt was tight and split up the back, and the jacket was décolleté and snug-waisted. But her lack of confidence, her naked need for him, destroyed the effect of sexy glamour she was trying for.
“It’s time to settle this,” Glory said softly, pulling all of our eyes back to the least likely looking person in the room. “Crave, are you going to obey me?”
Crave slowly turned in his barstool, then got to his feet facing her. “I’ve been loyal to you for almost two hundred years, Glory, even over my own progenitor. Never once did you have to doubt me. Yet over this one personal choice, you’ve cast me out and stolen everything I worked for. I don’t care what ‘higher purposes’ you intended for this. I’ll never forgive you.”
“No!” Lash blurted out. “Crave, you don’t mean it—”
“I mean it.” He turned to her. “We’re over, Lash. I never should have let you move in. I did it only because Glory ordered me to.”
“But . . . Crave, I know that isn’t true.” Lash hesitated, breathless. “I know what you feel for me.”
“I gave you what you wanted, not what I wanted. Now I know what I want, and it isn’t you.” He reached out and took Bliss’s hand, giving it a kiss. “I want joy in my life, not pain.”
“Oh, please,” I groaned. I wanted to smack him. “Spare us the theatrics, Crave.”
Crave led Bliss over to the door as we all turned to watch them. “I’m sorry I couldn’t give you what you wanted, Lash. Good-bye.”
Lash took a few steps toward the door as it closed behind them. Her hands were out as if to draw him back to her. Then she clutched them to her chest. “I don’t understand,” she murmured to herself.
I had stood in that very same spot and said the same thing a few minutes ago. “I’m with you, sister.”
Lash narrowed her eyes at me. “What do you know?”
I held up my hands. “Nothing. Nothing about this.”
Glory smiled, showing a missing tooth on the upper side. “Did Ram tell you about the new hybrid in town, Allay?”
“Yes,” I admitted. Should I have said that first? “He just left.”
“Did he tell you anything else I need to know?” At the shake of my head, she added, “I was informed of the birth an hour ago. The new demon’s name is Elude.”
Elude—that meant to flee, withdraw, secret away. Poor Fervor. She must have wanted to disappear when faced with Dread, Zeal, and Cherie the supermodel. Even then she couldn’t have known that Dread didn’t intend to kill her himself as he drained her of nearly all of her energy, exposing her core for Cherie to take. To create a new possessed human.
“Dread’s going to use Cherie to stage a resurrection for his church,” I said. “Unless we can stop him.”
Glory nodded to her offspring. “I think that’s up to Lash. Don’t you? Lash?” she called gently.
Lash had her back to us, staring out the windows into the narrow courtyard. Glory had to say her name again to get her attention. “Lash?”
“Yes?” Her eyes were dull.
“You have to go to Dread and convince him to stop this stupid power play.”
“I can’t do that.” Lash blinked. “He’ll kill me!”
“He won’t kill you. He wants you too badly to see you dead.”
“I couldn’t, Glory. You don’t understand . . . not after Crave . . .”
“You’ll do it.” Glory didn’t seem to care that I was standing between them, awkwardly watching everything. “You’re my eyes and ears, and I need you there. I can’t have you stop now, not for wounded vanity or pride. You go back to your husband and you continue to age gracefully in the public eye while you support him. And you will convince him to cancel this scheme of his. Do you understand?”
Lash had both hands to her mouth. “Oh, Glory! No! I can’t do it. I’ll die before I go back to that . . . existence.”
Glory’s pleasant smile never faltered. “You’ll exist on the street if you don’t do as I say, Lash. Or you can join Crave in exile. If he’ll have you.”
Her head cocked at the ceiling. The muffled rhythmic thumping was unmistakable—Bliss and Crave were having sex again. Glory gave a slight shrug. “Maybe there’s another room so you won’t have to actually watch your lover fuck his new girl.”
Lash was in such shock she didn’t even consider about how she looked with her mouth hanging open. “You can’t mean it, Glory.”
“This is your only chance at redemption,” Glory said, still smiling. “Good-bye, Allay. It’s been nice seeing you again.”
“You’re leaving?” I asked. “What about Lash?”
“Brooklyn’s right over the bridge. I’m sure she can make it there.” Glory didn’t even glance at Lash, but she gave me a slight wave of her fingertips.
I couldn’t believe she was leaving Lash here. Neither could Lash. But Glory swept out and jumped in the waiting town car. Anyone watching would wonder wh
y the maid was leaving the lady behind in a dingy bar.
I’d been played again.
Lash and I looked at each other as the thumping overhead increasing in tempo. It was too cruel. How could they, knowing Lash was down here?
Lash put her hands to her ears. “I can’t stand it!”
I didn’t know what to say. I didn’t exactly feel sorry for her, seeing as she had brought it on herself. And then refused to acknowledge reality.
Lash let out a growl that rose to a roar. She grabbed the table next to her and flung it away with all her might, then the next one, smashing it against the wall. I ducked the flying debris as she picked up a chair and threw it at the pool table.
I leaped forward to grab her before she destroyed my bar. “Stop it, Lash!”
She was screaming and crying Crave’s name over and over again, raging at Glory for causing her ruin. I had to exert all my strength to keep hold of her, as she flung herself against the furniture, bloodying herself. Every time I thought she was subsiding, she would start up again.
I would have lost all of my tables if Shock hadn’t arrived home from work. Once Lash was stretched between two demons, she soon stopped her hysterics and promised to behave. We left her curled up in a corner sobbing quietly.
“Why are they both here?” Shock asked, looking around at the mess Lash had made.
“Crave’s upstairs with Bliss.” I listened but there were no sounds of lovemaking. That was when I realized Lash had pitched a fit to draw Crave downstairs. They must have heard the noise, but they had stayed locked in my apartment.
“So much for Bliss backing you up,” Shock said.
I was so relieved to see her familiar face that I didn’t care how bitchy she was. “I’m glad you’re home, Shock. It must have been a good shift.”
She was glowing with energy. “The best. But I heard Fervor was taken by Goad’s horde.”
I quickly filled her in on Dread’s renewed resurrection plans. She wasn’t as shocked by Dread’s deception as I was. “I figured that was all a show to try to get you on his good side,” she said. “You can’t trust Dread. Vex kept his word, but Dread lied whenever it suited Vex’s purposes. That’s who he is.”
