Wicked Games

by Kel Carpenter

  “She is the reason we were created. The reason you can control the flames. Right now, she’s probably agitated and feeling impatient with us for asking questions. We just need to know how much control you have, and how much she can control you. You’re still new at this and we don’t expect you to be perfect, but if you’re in danger of transitioning soon, we can’t let you out of our sight. Do you understand?” He loomed over me; dark, but not as imposing as he’d once been. Inside me, the beast smirked because she was the reason why. She liked the power she lorded over them. She liked it a lot. Almost as much as the smell of his skin and the…

  I withdrew my thoughts away from her, only then realizing how close she was to the surface. She wasn’t being malevolent or forcing her way for control, she simply liked them and wanted to be closer to them. She didn’t care if it was me or her that got us there.

  I ignored her entirely and focused on what they were asking from me.

  “I’m in control, but this morning I couldn’t put out the flames on my own. I panicked when Moira woke me up because I thought I had hurt her. The beast put them out once we realized what was happening.” I looked away, hoping it would make her stop pushing me to go to them. She was somewhat agitated and impatient, just as Julian had guessed. Just not for the same reasons.

  “Allistair’s right. You are progressing faster than anticipated,” Julian said, his eyes flicking back to meet Rysten’s. He nodded. “We need to reevaluate the living arrangements until you’re ready to return to Hell.”

  My mouth popped open.

  That wasn’t what I expected.

  I glanced between the four of them, dumbfounded and shocked, but I didn’t even need to say anything before Moira went off.

  “Reevaluate living arrangements? Who do you think you are?” she snarled, lunging forward to stand in front of me. Devil save her.

  “Her protectors. Unlike you, we were created to help her diffuse the power and stay in control. If she’s having trouble, then one of us needs to be nearby. Especially when she’s sleeping, if that’s when she’s having the most trouble,” Laran rumbled. He was taller than Julian, and almost as menacing as he glared down at Moira. My best friend didn’t shrivel like a frail little flower, as most who faced the Horsemen would. She returned his glare unafraid and entirely sure of her place in my world.

  “You sure this is about helping her?” Moira challenged, a feral grin gracing her lips. Rysten chuckled under his breath, and Julian threw a warning glare at Laran.

  “You’re not helping the situation, War,” Julian said stiffly.

  “The banshee doesn’t understand her place,” he growled back.

  “My place? What about your place—”

  “My place is by her side,” he snapped back at her.

  “Do you know how many men, demons and human, have told me that over the years?” Moira sneered. Okay then. Time to deescalate the situation before Laran tries to silence her or she blows his eardrums.

  “Guys. You are both being ridiculous. The sooner you both are quiet, the sooner I get to take a shower, so shut it.” Moira pursed her lips and stepped aside. Laran didn’t say anything, but the tick in his jaw was telling. He was being quiet because I asked it, but the moment Moira went off again it was going to be a throw down in my bedroom.

  “Originally, I thought you had longer before the transition. Now, I’m not sure. I would be more comfortable if you moved in with us in the meantime—with the banshee, if you insist,” Julian added quickly as the expression on Moira’s face soured.

  Move in with them? Did he realize how crazy that sounded?

  “You can’t be serious,” I said, trying to brush it off. I would have laughed at him like I did when he said I was the devil’s daughter, but I’d already been proven wrong once. If that was possible, I suppose anything was. Even Julian and the Horsemen getting such a crazy idea as to want me to move in.

  “I’m quite serious,” Julian replied stiffly.

  I could tell my reaction displeased him by the tension in his eyes, but he wasn’t arguing. Not yet at least. Rysten took one look between Julian and me, perhaps sensing his brother’s thinning patience now that I declined their offer. Devil knows I could feel it.

  “Look, love, you don’t have a living room. The insulation in the floor is ruined and it’s November. In Oregon. At the moment, we won’t make you do anything you don’t want to, but please understand you’re only putting off the inevitable,” Rysten said softly. I met his jade colored eyes and softened inside. Even with his power pulsing through the room and not hidden behind a glamor, this was Rysten. The same Rysten that came to earth and learned to be more human for me. The one that tried to give me a choice, even when the other Horsemen were being ruled by their dicks and exuded nothing but pure arrogance.

  “You know how crazy this sounds, right?” I asked him softly. His lips quirked up in an almost human grin, reminiscent of the boyish smile I thought he had. His real smile was more animalistic; less refined. But it was still him.

  “I know, but you must understand: we’re demons, Ruby. We don’t think like humans do. If you were anyone else, we would take you without asking. We’d probably be halfway to Hell already. You were raised by humans, and so we’re trying. For you.”

  Rysten was the only one of them that had mastered pretty words that could make a girl swoon, and my ability to feel the emotions of those around me told me he meant every one of them.

  I bit my lip, letting the pain scatter the heat that was beginning to spread through me. The beast perked her head up and eyed Rysten thoughtfully. The words meant little to her. She was not one to be swayed by emotion. She didn’t care for much outside me and mine, but in that moment, Rysten held her interest as she eyed him with something akin to want. Possession.

  “Mine,” she insisted. My lips thinned as I pushed her aside. So not happening right now. She hissed at me, but didn’t make a serious lunge for power, thankfully.

  “I appreciate you giving me the choice, but I need to think on it,” I said. The beast downright sulked at my non-committal answer. She could get the fuck over it. As sweet as Rysten could be, moving in with them, however temporary, was not something I needed to decide on before coffee.

  I shooed them all out before anyone could try to change my mind or give the beast reason enough to surface. She was already pacing impatiently, and I knew if she came forward, they wouldn’t leave without me in tow.

  That knowledge alone had the possessive bitch downright gleeful that even if I didn’t go now, eventually she was going to get her way.

  I hoped that with coffee I could disagree with her, but there were some things that even caffeine couldn’t change. The Horsemen’s bond with me was one of them.

  Chapter 3

  Black particles glittered like ground up stardust as they swirled down the bathroom drain. The ash was all that remained of my living room and everything it held. I couldn’t tell one spec from another, whether it was my beloved couch, the first piece of furniture I bought, or the threadbare blanket that Moira wove me when we were fifteen—I would never know. Because it was all gone.

  It was only a room and they were only possessions, but they were a good portion of the only things I’d ever owned. The house itself we were still paying off, and while the money we made running Blue Ruby Ink was good…it wasn’t good enough to fund these kinds of repairs amidst everything else. Not exactly like we could file a claim with insurance for starting a fire with magical blue flames while I was sleeping. I didn’t need some fire investigators poking around here. No. We’d have to do this ourselves.

  Worry nagged at me as I finished my shower, but there was no point. What would worrying do? Not a damn thing. I shook the heaviness that tried to descend upon me as I wrung out my hair and dried off. The towel was hardly enough to keep the bite away from the bitter cold as I opened the bathroom door. It was chillier in here than I remembered, but not cold enough for me to think much of it. I dressed quickly, don
ning long johns under my jeans and two thick shirts to go with my sweatshirt.

  From up in his hammock, Bandit watched me curiously. I could have sworn he cocked an eyebrow at my choice of clothing.

  “What? You expect me to freeze my ass off? We don’t all have fur to keep us warm, you know,” I said, putting my hands on my hips. He let out a chittering noise and jumped to the bed. I crossed the room in a few quiet strides, my bare feet losing feeling against the cold carpet fibers. I lifted Bandit from the bed and held him to my chest. He wasn’t so keen on being cuddled like a baby right now and opted for scurrying up my front. He wrapped himself around my shoulders and neck like a poufy scarf.

  “Uh uh. Not happening,” Moira’s voice carried from the door. I turned towards her as she crossed her arms and leaned against the frame. “Trash panda’s not coming with.”

  I shot her a look of annoyance, burying my fingers in his fur.

  “Why not? I bring him into work all the time,” I said defensively.

  “Because we’re not going into Blue Ruby today. Fuck all, we’re going to Voodoo Doughnut. He may like you a lot, but last I checked, vermin aren’t allowed inside.” She picked at an invisible piece of lint on her jacket. The puffy black material was sleek enough I didn’t think even the plumes of ash in our living room would stick to it.

  “What do you mean we’re not going—”

  “I took the liberty of rescheduling your Sunday appointments,” she said. Her face was blank. Neutral as could be. I wasn’t fooled; guilt and worry swirled inside her just below the surface. They were eating at her protective instincts, enough so that I bit off my retort about her rescheduling without asking, and simply said, “Okay.”

  She blinked once and cleared the surprise from her face in record time while I grabbed my boots and heavy wool socks. Bandit wasn’t happy that he wasn’t coming with, but in the end, a breakfast of rewarmed tilapia was enough to placate him.

  The drive to Voodoo Doughnut was swift, made faster by Moira’s skilled driving. It takes a special kind of person to put a Camry on two wheels and not bat an eyelash. Some days I wondered if she even noticed things like stop signs and traffic lights. Or maybe she did and simply thought they were mere suggestions as opposed to actual rules. Knowing her, it was entirely possible.

  Pulling up outside, the parking lot was mostly empty. Only two cars and the van unloading were present. The Pepto-Bismol pink bricks of Portland’s most notorious doughnut shop were a more welcome sight than I’d realized. After eating nothing more than ice cream for over twenty-four hours, something solid would be good, even if it was more sugar. My stomach rumbled in agreement.

  The shadow man from the sign above the door stared down at me as we approached the building. His eyes looked oddly real for the black abyss they were supposed to be. I frowned, but didn’t comment as we walked inside, the tiled black and white floors gleaming at us in welcome. The scent of fresh doughnuts made my mouth water.

  The girl at the counter smiled up at us and waved. Her hair shined white at the roots and darkened to a neon purple at the ends of her pigtails. She wore a tight t-shirt with the shop name that stopped short of her low-cut jeans, exposing her midriff and the edges of a white tattoo around her left hip bone.

  “Hi there, what can I get for you ladies?” she asked. It was right about the moment we reached the counter that I noticed how pointed her teeth were. She took a breath, looking back and forth between the two of us, and her smile widened. “Apologies for the mistake,” she corrected in a purr. I glanced down at the nails that were tapping against the glass counter. Wicked sharp and painted in a gleaming royal purple. “It’s rare that I find two she-demons in this area. Not to mention unclaimed.” Her eyes appraised us with interest.

  “This isn’t marked territory, is it?” Moira asked sharply, her eyes focused with an intensity that would have made a weaker demon subservient. The unknown did not lower her gaze, which made Moira’s question even more pressing. For unclaimed demons to walk into another’s territory, particularly a half-demon like Moira…the scenarios ranged from bad to worse.

  And it was that thought alone that had the beast leaping forward.

  I lunged to maintain hold, only barely beating her to it as the she-demon watched me with mercury-colored eyes. They were the most exquisite shade of silver I’d ever seen, and it threw me for a loop at identifying what kind of demon she might be.

  The beast in me shifted restlessly and the unknown demon smiled.

  “Relax. This area is not yet claimed. I was sent here by my master because of some…disputes going on in the area,” she said with a toothy grin. It was a smile that was almost impish, but somehow darker.

  “Disputes?” I asked tightly. I wasn’t aware that there were clans this far north. Demons hated the cold. The imp from the Black Brothers was an outlier. At least I thought he was. Me and Moira didn’t exactly stay on the up and up of the demon world here on earth. We had a hard enough time making it with the humans, so we left demons and their politics behind by the time we were seventeen. We set out to forge our own way, for a time. But it seems the demon world wasn’t letting go. Not now that I had a fucking pentagram branded on my chest.

  There was no hiding forever, but this was exactly why I was in no hurry to leave.

  The unknown she-demon clicked her tongue, dragging it across her jagged teeth. I waited for a smear of blue blood to show, but she didn’t cut herself.

  “Dead demons turned up outside a night club a few days back. Or at least their ashes did. Wouldn’t know anything about that, would you?” she asked slowly. I pulled my eyes from her seductively threatening tongue. I was used to drawing everything male my way, but somehow, I always felt awkward when females came looking. They were never as mindless as the men, but ever as persistent. It made me have both a certain appreciation and fair amount of wariness with all demons. After all, all it took was a brand to be claimed.

  “Nope,” I drawled out. “Haven’t heard anything about that,” I replied slowly. My heartbeat slowed to a crawl as persuasion tried to leech its way into my voice. As tempting as it was, she was bound to realize something was off if she even caught the smallest inkling of it. I was better off lying through my teeth for the time being.

  The she-demon seemed to consider this, leveling me with a falsely positive stare. There was amusement hidden there, in the depths of her eyes. And something darker.

  “Good to know,” she said softly and clapped her hands together. The noise startled me, and I jumped back from the counter. She let out a husky laugh and started motioning to the doughnuts that were spinning around in the glass case to my left. Moira put a hand against my shoulder and made like she was trying to see around me. Her fingers dug into my skin, pumping into me her strength. Calm. I eased against her while she selected her doughnut and the unknown she-demon turned to me. Her eyes betrayed nothing. Whatever darkness was there had vanished.

  “And you?” she asked. I didn’t even need to think about what I was getting. I got the same thing every time.

  “Triple chocolate penetration for me,” I said. She smirked as she reached for the extra chocolatey doughnut. I licked my lips when a voice me made me freeze.

  “Excellent choice, little succubus.” Allistair’s power wafted through the air. His strength was like a fog, and it pushed through every cell of my being the closer he came. It invaded my mind with dirty thoughts and constricting around my core without my permission, sharpening the need that already enslaved my body most days and nights.

  I took a tight breath and turned my head only a fraction towards him. His eyes were dark, but not with need. What the—

  I followed his stare from me to the she-demon behind the counter who was ringing up Moira. She hadn’t appeared to have seen him yet, but there was no way she couldn’t have heard him. The sinister little smile on her lips made me boil with contempt.

  Contempt?

  No, that can’t be right. There’s no possible—reasonab
le—explanation for why I may want to rip her throat out…except for the look she gave Allistair the moment Moira turned away from the counter. Her eyes brightened with an unnatural shimmer as she waved to him.

  Unable to stop myself, I let out a growl. It was soft. Silent to human ears. Yet it dripped with a rage that was completely foreign to me. The beast was pushing against my hold. She wanted to tear the demon’s throat out for looking at someone that was hers.

  “Ruby?” Moira asked. Her voice sounded far away even though she was right next to me. I couldn’t answer her while the beast and I were locked in a silent battle of wills. I couldn’t even look at her, because the beast demanded that we watch this other she-demon before she tried anything.

  The silver-eyed demon turned her gaze from Allistair to me, and another growl escaped my lips.

  “Ruby,” the darkest of desires called out to me. Passion made flesh. Pure masculinity given sound. Both the beast and I were powerless to resist it. We turned as one, drawn to the voice that dared taunt us. Tempt us.

  “Look at me, Ruby.”

  A single tantalizing finger hooked under my chin, drawing my eyes upward, only to be pulled into amber depths so vivid they looked like molten gold. The beast nearly purred as I leaned into the touch. Allistair’s lips parted, breathing a taste of warmth across my face that caressed my skin.

  For a moment, I was transfixed in an in-between state of reality where only Allistair and I existed. Until the door behind him opened and a group of blushing girls walked in, entirely unaware of what we were or the sticky situation they could so easily have placed themselves in, had his presence not calmed the beast enough to retreat.

  I bit my lip and turned for the door, not looking over my shoulder once at the purple-haired demon we were leaving behind.

  “What happened in there, Ruby?” Moira asked, coming up on my side. The slap of the cold made me stuff my hands in my armpits while we walked. My hunger for food all but forgotten as my best friend took a hulking bite out of her doughnut. Bavarian cream dribbled down her chin from the very aptly named Cock and Balls. The phallus shaped doughnut was her absolute favorite, and more than likely the source of the chuckle behind us.