by Renee George
“I think I’m going to get the Sanctum Slider plate with sweet potato fries. You?”
“The bacon double cheeseburger sounds good. I think I’ll spend big and get the onion rings.”
David made a face. “I never was one for onion rings.”
“Then I guess you won’t be trying to kiss me tonight,” I teased, falling back into that easy banter of yesteryear. The difference was now he didn’t have a wife to act as a buffer for my feelings, and my words felt less like teasing and more like wishing.
His mouth dropped open, and his eyes widened. “I could learn to like onion rings given the right incentive.”
I lowered my eyes, dropping my lids lazily to look down at the menu. Flirting with David was the easiest thing I’d done in a long time, but he was a nice, innocent man, and I was a shitty, lying minion.
The waitress came back to the table and set down our drinks. “You all ready?”
“Sure,” I said. I pivoted my gaze to David, saw the look of absolute lust in his eyes, and gulped. “Ready.”
We put in our orders, and she left, humming a song under her breath that I recognized as Patsy Cline’s I Fall to Pieces. I raised a brow as I looked at David. He smiled and shook his head. “I do you know.”
“Do what?”
“Fall to pieces each time I see you again.”
Oh, he was smooth, all right. And the emotion reflected in his voice, in his gaze, made my heart leap in recognition.
In hope.
“Mr. Jensen? I hope you don’t mind. I saw your truck here, and I thought I’d drop by the final paperwork.” A gray-haired man had approached our table. He wore a short-sleeved white shirt with a blue tie and khaki pants. He held a manila envelope. The gentlemen looked at me. “You must be Olivia Madder.”
I glanced at David.
“Yes, this is her,” said David. “Olivia, this is Mr. O’Neil, my grandfather’s lawyer.”
“Hi,” I said.
“Hello.” He handed the envelope to me. “I never had the pleasure to meet David Jensen, but he was always nice to me on the phone. I think this takes care of everything, Ms. Madder. I’m headed back to St. Louis tomorrow morning, but if you have any questions or need clarifications, I’ll be at the Sanctum Inn.”
“Um, thank you?”
He nodded. He offered a hand to David. “I’m truly sorry about your grandfather, Mr. Jensen.”
“Thank you, Mr. O’Neil.”
“You folks have a nice day.”
After the lawyer left the diner, I put the thick manila envelope onto the table and tapped it. “What is this?”
“The last will and testament of David Jensen,” he said. “You’re my heir.”
All the breath left my lungs, and I struggled to get air in. Finally, I managed a noisy exhale followed by, “What?”
“The egotistical demon asswipe might’ve made it impossible for us to find each other again, but I figured a regular ol’ human on the hunt for an heir might escape Jerkface’s notice. I wanted you to have a place to call your own, Liv. And I wanted you to have the research I’d accumulated.”
For all my time on Earth and my minion immortality, I’d gotten used to life and death. Maybe even grown cynical of it. But at this moment, I realized with utter clarity that David had grown old and died. He’d raised his son alone. Then buried his son. He’d cut ties with his only family, his grandson, so Tristan would be protected from the monsters. From Moloch. And after all those trials and tribulations, he’d still kept me close to his heart. I was still his mission.
Oh, David.
I pushed the packet toward him. “Well, you’re alive, so I can’t inherit.”
“Technically, I’m dead,” he said. “So, the farm is yours.” He pushed the envelope back toward me. “The Wi-Fi password is Burger Bar, no space between the words, both B’s capitalized.”
The sudden shift in conversation put me off kilter for a second. Okay, fine. But I was only tabling this discussion. He was crazy if he thought I was going to take possession of the farm. I took my iPad mini from my purse and logged in. Four bars. “Hmm. Good service.”
“The best. It’s why I come in at least once a month.”
“Why don’t you have internet at the farm?”
“Technology is the devil’s playground.”
“I thought that was idle hands.”
“Same thing really.” He looked pointedly around at the rest of the diner patrons all with their attention turned to their phones, tablets, and even a few with laptops. “I’ve never seen anything more idle. Have you?” He leaned back. “But I mean it’s literally the devil’s playground, Liv. The information highway should be called the demonic freeway. Those bastards use technology to get inside people’s heads—into their homes. That’s why I don’t even have a radio at the farm.”
I typed “shedim lore” into the search bar. “But you came into town and risked getting on the internet?”
“I kept searching for you.”
I gulped. “Oh.” I met his gaze. My iPad lit up as the web browser brought up a gazillion unhelpful answers for shedim. “Balls.”
“Pardon?”
“I don’t think the internet is going to be much help. It seems your relic of a book has never been indexed.”
Next, I went back to the search engine and began copying and pasting the Latin words I’d memorized from the shedim.
Partu vitam mortem. The translator identified the text as Latin for birth, life, and death.
Next, I typed in: quam creare caelum et terram nullum ens dividerent
The translator returned: what is made in heaven and earth, no one can divide
“So not helpful.” I tried a few more, and got more cryptic pieces of the puzzle, like: earth, water, fire, soul thief, bringer of life, or maybe it was miracle life. I wasn’t completely certain. But nothing that screamed, hey, I’m the solution you’re looking for! In desperation, I went to the bookmarked page of DemonsWalkAmongUs.com. I clicked on the button to add a new topic to the forum. I typed in demon book as the subject. In the content area I asked, Does anyone know about an ancient book of shedim? It deals with mythology and fables about Malkam. Has anyone heard of a way to banish him or break a deal with him?
David leaned toward me. “What are you doing now?”
“Enlisting the lunatics,” I answered.
Chapter 8
After we finished dinner, David decided to go to the library to do his brand of research, and I stayed at the Burger Bar. I ordered a milkshake and apple pie, and then got on my iPad to check the message boards. I had scores of replies to my question, but most of them had subject lines like:
Malkam ate my baby. Signed, DemonsDownUnder
My husband farts shedim every night. Signed, GassyDevilLover
Try the public library. Signed, DeweyDiablo
In other words, nothing helpful.
“You are trying my patience,” I heard Moloch say. My heart turned over in my chest, and fear chilled me to the core. I looked around, but he wasn’t in the diner. “I am always with you, my servant. You can’t hide from me. Not for long.” I felt as if ice water ran through my veins. “Why are you wasting time trying to decipher a book that no longer exists? You think you’ll find answers in the pages David copied?” Moloch laughed softly. “The Shedim is gone and with it, all of its power.”
Yeah, right. Moloch trying to put me off the Shedim gave me hope I was onto something huge in the take-down-a-maniacal-demon-lord department.
“Three days left, minion. The longer you take to get me the Anunnaki’s soul, the worse it gets for your sisters.” His words climbed into me like a strangling vine, tightening around my neck and cutting off my air supply. “Remember who your master is, little Southern Belle. And do as I command or your sisters will pay the price.” I clawed at my throat, unable to even gasp. My pulse became sluggish. I staggered to my feet as my vision grayed around the edges.
I heard a ruckus around me, and someone s
houted, “Help her. She’s choking.”
I felt a pair of strong arms wrap around me. I sagged into them as I began to lose consciousness. The next instant I felt Moloch release me. Tears squeezed from my eyes as I sucked in oxygen.
“Liv,” David said. “Liv, talk to me. Are you okay?”
“D-d-d-david.” I could barely stutter out his name.
“I’m here.” He turned me in his arms and smoothed back my hair. “Are you all right?”
“Take me home,” I whispered. I wrapped my arms around him. “Just take me home.”
I’d recovered, at least physically, by the time we reached the farm, but Moloch’s presence lingered. If this had been a regular evening and David and I a regular couple, we might’ve sat on the porch enjoying the fresh evening air and listening to the music of crickets and rustling wind. Oh, how my heart ached. For myself. For David. For my siblings.
Your sisters will pay the price. The demon lord’s words rang through my head like a smoke detector in a house on fire, only all the exits were blocked, and no one was coming to save me. And another word echoed in my mind, too. Anunnaki. What was that? And what did it have to do with David?
David opened the door and ushered me inside. I shrugged off David’s attempt to help me. “I’m all right, David. Honest.”
“Are you going to tell me what happened? I’ve never seen you so shaken.”
I put my iPad mini on the coffee table and threw my purse across the room. “You haven’t seen me in more than fifty-six years!” I dropped to the couch and covered my eyes. “You don’t know me, David. Not anymore.”
I felt his fingers touch mine. “Liv,” he said gently. “Look at me.”
I let him move my hands away from my face and stared at him dully. “I’m looking.”
“Do you know how I came to be here...now...with you?”
“The angel agreement.” I still didn’t understand how that worked, but I guessed it was probably similar to mine, though David had managed to get Heaven’s attention and I’d attracted Hell. And now, Hell wanted him as well.
“Yes.” He nodded. “I want to tell you everything, Liv.”
“Shh.” I put my fingers to his lips. “Don’t.”
He raised his brow.
“Evil dick,” I mouthed and circled a finger in the air. Moloch’s attack at the diner had freaked me out. I didn’t want the demon digging around in my head again for information. “I can’t share what I don’t know.”
“Moloch—”
I pinched his lips. “Don’t say his name.” I couldn’t take another telepathic strangling, or worse, an impromptu and in-person visit.
David removed my fingers. “As I was saying, Moloch,” he emphasized the name, “can’t hear you here, sweetheart.” He pressed his hand to my cheek and lifted my face. “After I used the unholy lock on the asshole, I put the wards on the property again.”
“You never had anything strong enough to keep a demon lord out before.”
“I’ve learned a trick or two over the years. I’ve developed something I like to call Malevolent Asshole from Hell Blocker.”
“You know that sounds like something you’d plug into your butt,” I said, smirking. “But Moloch isn’t going to stay away. You can’t get rid of him with a few pokes of metaphysical magic.”
“He can’t cross any boundary of this property. I didn’t use a demon sex toy, Liv. I used powdered brimstone, myrrh oil, and,” he shrugged, “a little bit of angel grace.”
I looked at his hands, still covering mine, and enjoyed the warmth of his touch. “Where’d you get the angel grace?”
“From an angel, of course.” He gazed down at me, his hazel eyes looking greener under the artificial lighting in his living room. “God, you’re beautiful, Liv.”
“David.” I closed my eyes against my own desires. It wasn’t fair to David. Especially when I hadn’t told him the whole truth.
“I’ve missed you so much. I cared for Clarissa, I did, but I couldn’t love her. Not the way I loved you.” His fingers danced across my jawline. “The way I love you now.”
“We can’t...”
“I’m on borrowed time, Liv. My bargain with the angel Afriel ends the minute we save your sisters.”
“You bargained to save my sisters?”
“I tried to bargain for you,” he said softly, “but Moloch owns your soul. I figured if I could at least keep your sisters from going to Hell, it would be of some comfort to you.”
“What did you have to give up to make this agreement?”
“Angels don’t work that way, sweetheart.” He twirled his ring with his thumb, and the stone took on an extra sparkle.
My guilty minion’s heart clenched. David had made an angel bargain to give him time to save my sisters. And I’d made a bargain with Moloch to trade David for my siblings.
“I don’t have much time, and I don’t want to waste another second of it denying my heart.” He tipped my chin up, forcing me to meet his eyes. “Do you?”
“No,” I said breathlessly.
“Am I alone in my feelings? Tell me.”
“No,” I said again. “No. You’re not alone.” My grief for my sisters, for my lost life, and my desire, my strong, intractable passion for the man before me took me over. I slid my arms around his waist and kissed him. He cupped the back of my neck, his tongue slid the crack of my lips, and I opened for him, drinking in his kiss, knowing that no matter how much I took, no matter how much he gave, it would never be enough to satisfy my thirst for him. His two-day growth of stubble scraped my skin, igniting an urgent need in me that I’d been trying to bury for six decades.
His other hand slipped around my waist and yanked me close as a groan of pleasure escaped his throat. I leaned back as he nibbled down my neck to my collarbone. “Liv,” he murmured against my skin. “My Liv.”
Tears burned down my cheeks, and David kissed them away. I’d fantasized about being in his embrace, but that’s all it had ever been a fantasy. Not reality. Yet, here we were, holding each other, loving each other.
He stopped the kissing and looked at me. “Do you want to slow down?”
I answered him by tugging his tee-shirt from his jeans and lifting it up and off over his head, enjoying the way his muscles bunched and released under my touch.
David chuckled. “Is that a no?”
“It’s a hell no,” I said, stripping my own shirt off.
David lifted me, I wrapped my legs around his waist, and he carried me toward the staircase. Something must have caught his foot because we careened forward, our bodies slamming hard to the floor.
I yelped as the edge of the lowest stair dug into my ribs.
“Son of a bitch,” David swore, rolling me on top on him. He looked where his feet had gone wrong. “Your purse.” He shook his head. “I tripped over it. You got an anvil in there or something.”
I giggled, and it made my side hurt. “Something,” I told him, suddenly aware of my position on top of his long, lean body.
“Are you injured?”
“No,” I lied. I may have cracked a rib, but it was nothing that I would let stop me from enjoying this moment, this chance, maybe the only one I’d ever have with the man I never thought I could have.
And here he was.
We were.
Together.
His fingers played along my bruised ribs like a sweetly delicious taunt. I winced even as I moved against him. He sat up, holding me as his clever fingers worked the back of my bra. After a moment, he swore, “Damn it. That thing is like trying to break into Fort Knox.”
“Nothing that impenetrable,” I told him. I reached back and undid the snap. David slid his hands over my shoulders, hooking the straps with thumbs as he took it the rest of the way.
He kissed me again as my bare breasts pressed against the soft, sweat-dampened hair on his chest. It didn’t take long for both of us to fumble open the buttons on our jeans as we worshipped each other with lips and tongues and
teeth. I cried out when he rolled me over and entered me. He held me so tight, whispering words of adoration and love as he stroked into me over and over. I gripped him tightly, my body giving as good as it got, until the explosion of orgasm rocked me to the core. David moaned as his hips jerked and his body shuddered until completely spent.
“Wow,” I said when I caught my breath.
“Wow,” David echoed.
I smiled. “That was...
“That was,” he agreed.
“The stupidest thing I’ve ever had the pleasure of watching,” a male voice said.
I barely had time to register the stranger in the room before David put his body between me and the dude, and said, “What are you doing here, Afriel?”
A thin boy, who appeared to be in his teens, with long chestnut brown hair and a flawless complexion, stood a few feet from us. His expression was sour as he crossed his arms over his chest and stared at us. “I am trying to stop you from damning yourself, David.”
The young man craned his neck to look around David and glare at me.
I grabbed my shirt and covered my breasts. “What are you, thirteen? You’re too young to be looking at boobs.”
David snorted. “Most boys look at boobs as soon as they figure out what they are. Afriel is the angel of youth. And apparently, the angel of bad timing.”
“I’m older than the earth, so try millions of years old,” said Afriel, ignoring David’s jibe. His gray gaze pinned mine. “Rest assured, I am not interested in your rather sizeable mammary glands.”
“I don’t know if I should be relieved or offended,” I said.
But Afriel had returned his attention to David. “I told you, emphatically, not to have intercourse with this demon’s minion.” He threw up his hands. “Congratulations. You’ve defiled yourself by sleeping with this tainted woman. I hope you’re happy.”
