Sharon Karaa - A Familiar Problem (Northern Witches #2)

by Unknown

  “So what are you waiting for? Permission?” Gerwyn crossed her arms and looked at me.

  I glared at her and snatched up the bottle, taking the cork in one hand and holding on to the base with the other. I pulled sharply and black smoke shot out of the top. I stared in wonder as the smoke slowly bent over the side of the table, touching the floor, then rose, taking the shape of a man. When all of the essence of Abaddon was free of the vial, the smoke started to clear, leaving him standing directly in front of me. He stretched his arms up high and inhaled deeply, closing his eyes in pleasure. I melted at the look of passion on his face and wished for a second it was for me. I definitely needed to get laid. All the testosterone around me lately had me going nuts.

  Finally, he looked down at me, his eyes dark and dangerous and an unreadable expression on his face. I wondered briefly if this was going to be the single biggest regret of my existence.

  Abaddon turned to look at Gerwyn.

  “We need another portal.”

  As Gerwyn prepared the potion, Abaddon stood looking over his shoulder, issuing instructions on some additional ingredients that were needed to take us to an alternative layer of Hell, one where, hopefully, Cerberus and his brethren did not patrol. I looked on, uselessly enthralled by his masculinity. I would really need to get this under control. I wondered briefly if he was part incubus. That would explain at least some of what I was feeling.

  Finally, Abaddon took a knife from the sheath resting on his hip and placed the sharp blade across his left palm. He sliced into the flesh and allowed a single drop of his blood to fall into the cauldron then licked the wound to seal it. I watched in lustful fascination as his tongue laved his flesh then gave myself a mental slap. He was a demon, a womaniser and also my enemy. When would I get my hormones under control?

  Gerwyn reverently stirred then tipped the cauldron on its side and poured the content through a funnel into a glass bottle. I picked up the salt drum and created the circle as I’d seen Gerwyn do earlier, desperate for something to do to take my attention away from the sexy demon who was too close to me for comfort. This kitchen was bloody tiny.

  “Are you both ready?” Gerwyn asked. I nodded and looked down at the ground.

  We stood around the circle as Gerwyn raised his hand, ready to pour. Abaddon reached across and grabbed my hand in his. I wasn’t sure if it was to make sure I didn’t try to take the leap without him or because he just wanted to hold my hand. I wanted it to be the latter but silently berated myself. Again.

  Gerwyn held the vial over the circle of salt then tipped it on its side. A thick, black liquid spilled out into the circle, burning instantly through the fabric of earth and making the connection to Hell. Surprisingly, the heat wasn’t as strong as it had been previously and I took that to mean we weren’t going so far down” in to the bowels of Hell. I looked down into the black depths then looked at Gerwyn.

  “You make sure you come back, do you hear me?”

  “Don’t worry, Gerwyn, she’ll be back. We both will,” Abaddon said softly and I looked at him in surprise.

  With a wink, he stepped into the breach and pulled me in with him.

  As we floated downwards, Abaddon wrapped his arms around me and pulled me in to his chest. I struggled against him but he just pulled me in tighter.

  “Be still, Natalia, I’m not sure where we’ll come down and I might need to transport us both quickly. I can’t do that unless I’m touching you.” That may be so but how could I tell him that the feel of his body pressed up against mine was about to turn me in to a quivering wreck. I forced myself to think about something else. Anything. Geordie sprang to mind and that did the trick. There’s nothing like a six inch, pot-bellied old pervert to throw cold water on your ardour.

  We sailed downwards for some minutes in silence. I looked up in to his eyes and saw a steely determination and caught myself wondering again if I’d made a mistake, trusting him. Well, I guess it was too late to worry about that now. I was on the merry-go-round so I’d better make the most of it.

  I looked down below us as the city came into view and hoped that Abaddon would get us down without being impaled on a lightning rod. Sky scrapers? Since when did Hell have those?

  We floated down past the tallest of the buildings and I looked about, interested to see how things had changed in the last three hundred years. Hell was certainly becoming over-populated. It was also surprisingly like any major city I’d visited on earth. As we got closer to the ground, I saw the litter blowing across the street and the overflowing dumpsters. Yes, very much like earth.

  I looked around me and realised that my memory of the city streets was not going to serve me well at all. Nothing looked familiar; the place had changed so much in three hundred years. Of course, I’d seen the maps of Hell created by Dante but believe me when I tell you, Hell is nothing like that. Satan did however, find it amusing that Dante thought he could be arsed to herd his evil spirits and minions in to specific principalities based on their sins. Firstly, it was almost impossible because most sinners enjoyed a wide variety of bad habits and situations. Gluttons, for example, come in the baptised and unbaptised variety. So here we have our conundrum; do they go to the first or the third circle? The answer is, of course, who gives a damn? No pun intended. Satan does not like order, he enjoys variety. In point of fact, Hell is very much like earth, only the inhabitants were more likely to do evil than good. On earth, if I had to guess, I’d say it was fifty-fifty. Or sixty-forty, if you lived next to a pub.

  We landed gently in the middle of a busy thoroughfare and Abaddon had to pull me sharply out of the way of a speeding truck. Something else Hell hadn’t had three hundred years ago.

  I turned to look at Abaddon. “Which way?”

  He looked unhappy and confused, not a look to inspire confidence.

  “We’re across the other end of the city to where I’d wanted us to come down. We have a couple of miles to cover.”

  “Can’t we transport?” I asked him. That would be the quickest form of travel.

  “Too dangerous, Cerberus might pick up our energy signatures. We have to do this low key.”

  He grabbed me by the hand and dragged me down a back lane. A dusty old Shelby Cobra open top car was parked illegally outside the back of a store and Abaddon headed for it, smiling. I wasn’t convinced. It looked like it had actually been abandoned and wasn’t in good shape.

  Abaddon jumped into the driver’s seat and pointed his finger at the ignition. A spark flew from his finger and the engine roared into life. He turned to look at me, grinning.

  “Get in!”

  I ran round the other side of the car and sailed over the door into the passenger seat just as Abaddon floored the pedal. The car shot forward and we’d just reached the end of the lane when a door opened and a man in blue overalls came running out, shouting at us. He probably wanted to thank us for taking the pile of junk away from his shop.

  We turned left onto the main road and Abaddon took off like a bat out of hell, weaving in and out of the cars and cutting across an intersection straight through a red light. This demon could drive! I laughed, enjoying the thrill, as I captured my fly away hair in my hands and tucked it into the top of my jacket.

  “So where are we headed?” I turned my head to look at Abaddon. My lady bits still throbbed every time I looked at him but it was getting easier to control.

  “Martina works at a club on the east side. We’ll go there first and see if we can find her.”

  I look at his fingers as they gripped the steering wheel. He had beautiful hands, for a demon. Long, tapered fingers and short, clean nails. I wondered what it would feel like to have his hands on me and a shudder ran through me. As if he’d sensed my desire, Abaddon turned and glanced at me, grinning. I looked away.

  Within minutes, Abaddon was turning the car down another back lane and parking up. As the engine died, we jumped out of the car and Abaddon waited on the street for me to come around to his side.

>   “It’s just at the end, on the left,” he said, his eyes seeking out the doorway to the club. A neon sign hung above the door, telling me the club was called ‘Kitten’s Whiskers’. We walked towards it with strains of rock music getting louder the closer we got. We reached the open door but it was impossible to see beyond the blackness.

  “You wait here, this won’t take long.”

  As he made to go in to the club, I grabbed his arm. “Abaddon, I’m coming in with you, I’m not waiting outside like a child.”

  He grinned at me then reached down and kisses me quick and hard. “You wait here. It will be easier for me to track her scent without yours distracting me.” Abaddon stepped forward and was quickly swallowed up by the darkness.

  I leaned against the wall and waited, pissed off that I hadn’t got to go inside and more pissed off that the kiss hadn’t lasted longer. I didn’t want to think about what he’d said about my scent. I really needed to get myself under control. I vowed to stop thinking about his man bits and decision made, settled in for the wait. A few minutes later, the sound of heels clattering to the door indicated someone was coming at speed. I counted to three then stuck my leg out, just in time to topple the blonde demon trying to make her escape. She sailed through the air and landed in a heap in the middle of the road, her very short silk dress riding up and flashing her red panties. I folded my arms and walked over to her.

  “Martina, I presume?” She turned on her back and looked up at me, terrified, her blonde hair covering one eye and sticking to her bright red, glossy lipstick. I studied her; amazed that this was the type of demon Abaddon could go for. She looked like a cheap hooker and it helped strengthen my resolve against him. I grabbed her by the hair and pulled her to her feet just as Abaddon walked out of the club, his silhouette casting a shadow over us.

  “I think you lost something,” I said to him as Martina struggled ineffectually to escape.

  Abaddon’s eyes burned bright red and I thanked my lucky stars that it wasn’t me he was pissed at. His lips may well hold the promise of carnal bliss but his eyes? When he was angry? They promised a slow and painful death.

  “Martina, you have some questions to answer.” He walked slowly towards her.

  “I swear to you, Abaddon, I had nothing to do with it!”

  In the blink of an eye, Abaddon had her up against the wall, one hand around her throat. I looked down at my fingers and found I still held a clump of her hair. I grimaced and rubbed my hand until the strands dropped to the ground. That was going to leave a bald patch.

  “Who set me up?” Abaddon all but growled at her.

  Martina, her face deathly pale and her eyes bulging, gurgled.

  “I think you need to give her some breathing room” I said, helpfully.

  Abaddon loosened his grip and Martina inhaled sharply. Beads of sweat popped up on her forehead, her pale skin causing her dark eyes to look almost black.

  “I swear to you, Abi, I don’t know anything, I was as surprised as you!” she batted her eyes at him, trying to charm her way out of her situation. Abi? Seriously?

  “It’s Abaddon and I don’t believe you.”

  Sensible man, I thought.

  “You know what happens to demons that cross me, don’t you Martina?” he growled and tightened his grip slightly on her throat, causing her to whimper in fear and my heart to accelerate with pure lust.

  Martina said nothing but started to cry. I was going to puke if she kept this up. Abaddon didn’t cave though, and I felt a certain degree of pride in him. Most men, at the first sign of tears, bend over backwards to make it stop. I was ashamed to say it was a distraction technique I’d used myself in the past. Usually, it was the men who cried though.

  “This is your last chance. Who. Set. Me. Up?”

  “Kobal! It was Kobal!” she sobbed, only now it looked real. She looked terrified.

  Abaddon froze in shock. “Kobal? What does he have to do with this?”

  “All I know is what he told me! He said I had to let you take me home at exactly midnight, that’s all, I swear it! I had no idea that they were going to trap you!”

  Abaddon was deathly quiet and his hands dropped from Martina’s throat. She didn’t attempt to leave, however, fear rooting her to the spot.

  I turned to Abaddon, registering the shock and betrayal on his face. There was one thing I wanted to know.

  “Who the fuck is Kobal?”

  We were back in the car and Abaddon still hadn’t spoken, his hands gripped the steering wheel as he drove us mindlessly through the streets of Hell. It wasn’t so much fun now I was worrying about the fact that he didn’t seem to be paying any attention to the road. We’d hit two dumpsters just getting out of the back lane.

  “Are you going to tell me who this Kobal is?” I asked, annoyed that he still hadn’t answered my question.

  Abaddon’s eyes never left the road although I would lay money on it that he had no clue what was in front of him. “He was my best friend. He’s also the devil’s entertainment and Lilith’s lackey but I thought he was one of the good guys.”

  I looked at him and if he didn’t look so distraught, I would have laughed. I turned to look out of the window to hide my smile. A good guy? In Hell?

  “You know, you need to give him a chance to explain, don’t you? You can’t honestly be telling me you would take the word of a skanky demon over someone you’ve known…how long?” I sat there, surprised at myself. Where the fuck did that come from? Me, counselling someone on friendship? It must be Selina rubbing off on me.

  He sighed. “Six hundred years.” He lifted a perfect hand from the wheel and ran his beautiful long fingers through his hair. “I suppose you’re right.”

  “So what does ‘the Devil’s entertainment’ mean?” I asked, intrigued. Now there was a job I could get my teeth in to. I wondered if they had a graduate programme for that.

  “He’s just a really funny guy. Really funny.” He smiled at some secret memory. “Satan finds him amusing so whenever he’s pissed off or feeling down, he calls Kobal to come round and lift his spirits. He’s so good at it, Satan won’t let him take a job, he wants him on call twenty four, seven.”

  I was looking forward to meeting this demon.

  “And what about the ‘Lilith’s lackey’ part?” I turned in my seat to watch him as he spoke although, to be honest, my attention kept straying to his hands.

  “Lilith doesn’t like the relationship he has with Satan. She tries to give him jobs to do to keep him out of the way. Sometimes Satan lets her get away with it and other times…well, let’s just say they have a volatile relationship.”

  I pondered on what he had told me, tapping my chin with my index finger.

  “Lilith has to be involved in this somehow. She was really desperate to get you back to Hell and her lackey may be responsible for setting you up? I think we need to think about this.” I chewed my lip as I considered the possibilities.

  Abaddon didn’t say a word, just continued to stare at the road ahead. At least I hoped he was.

  Another question was burning in my brain and eventually I gave in to it.

  “So how come you ended up dating the skank?” I looked at him out of the corner of my eye.

  The vein in the side of his head started to pulse again.

  “She didn’t look like that when I met her. She was dressed in the best. Obviously, they paid her and cleaned her up for the occasion. Kobal had set me up with her on a blind date because, apparently, I take myself too seriously and needed to get laid.”

  I looked at him curiously. Why would someone, who looked like he did, need to get set up by his friend? I bit my tongue before the question could escape my mouth. His head was big enough.

  We drove in silence for a few minutes before I couldn’t stand it anymore.

  “Why would Kobal need to set you up with a date? I don’t mean to get personal here, but you’re hot, any demon would be thrilled to date you. And as I recall, you always had a repu
tation with the ladies.”

  His eyes darkened. “That was a long time ago. I came to my senses.”

  I looked at him, wanting him to explain but realised he wasn’t going to.

  I turned my gaze back to the road. The silence was deafening. Eventually, I couldn’t stand it anymore.

  “So where are we headed now?” I asked. This Abaddon was beginning to bore me. I even preferred the bottles of beer to this. At least I didn’t have to try so hard to have a conversation with him when he was singing.

  “We’re going to Kobal’s house.” A look of determination settled on his face and he turned a sharp right into a well to do area of the west side.

  We pulled over at the end of a road lined with houses hidden behind high brick walls and metal gates. Abaddon stared out into the street then slapped the steering wheel resolutely.

  “Want to share? How do you propose we get past the security gates, oh wise one?” I slumped back in my seat and waited for his answer.

  “That one’s easy,” he said, turning to face me and grinning. “We climb!”

  While I was relieved to see he seemed to have snapped out of his stupor, I was not looking forward to scaling a ten foot gate. I growled as I stood and leapt over the car door. This was not turning out to be a fun trip.

  I walked quickly to the gates and lifted my leg to the horizontal bar running about three feet off the ground, pulling myself up by gripping the vertical bars then climbing hand over hand until I was almost at the top.

  “Ahem.”

  I looked down at Abaddon, standing with his arms folded, observing me. I say me but his eyes were suspiciously lower down on my anatomy.

  “What?” I whispered, cross that he seemed to be using this as an opportunity to gawk at my arse.

  “That’s the wrong house,” he said smiling at me. I glared at him and jumped down.

  “Are you fucking kidding me?” I snapped.

  “I was hardly going to park right outside his house, now was I?” he asked, walking past me and heading down the street. I made off after him, muttering to myself. I was so going to kick his arse when this was over.