Demons Strike Back

by Jacey Ward

  “Christ,” she mumbled. “Demon sex is best.”

  Kalen snorted with laughter, pulling his head back as he stared at her.

  “Is it now?”

  “I would say so,” she replied, still breathing heavily as he slowly withdrew from her, placing her tenderly on her feet. There were scuff marks on the wall, and she realized she was still wearing her white pumps. She swallowed a smile at their contribution to the suite.

  Circe studied his face pensively as he pulled his pants up casually. He almost seemed regretful of their violent tryst, but of course that was ridiculous; he was a demon.

  “What happened to you last night?”

  The question surfaced without warning and Circe wished she could withdraw it the moment it escaped. But of course, it was far too late for that.

  I sound like some jealous shrew and I don’t even know this guy.

  She hurried to correct her gaffe before Kalen could answer.

  “Never mind,” she offered as he opened his mouth to respond. “I’m drunk off hot sex.”

  He snickered and shook his head, watching Circe as she lowered her eyes in embarrassment, pretending to get herself together.

  “As I told you at dinner, I am from Europe,” Kalen explained. “I have come here on business and unfortunately, it took precedent over our date last night. I wish it had not, but…”

  He trailed off and Circe forced a smile.

  “You don’t have to tell me about the demands of the job,” she replied lightly. “But I am glad I got a chance to see you before I left.”

  He didn’t respond and Circe turned to look at him.

  “Why do I feel like the feeling isn’t mutual?” she asked, trying to sound joking but her heart was thudding nervously.

  “The feeling is more than mutual,” he assured her intensely. “But what if you didn’t leave?”

  The question hung in the air like stale cigarette smoke and Circe blinked, uncomprehendingly.

  “I have to go,” she explained. “It’s Fashion Week and I have contractual commitments.”

  The words sounded empty when she explained it. She somehow inherently understood that he was asking for something much more than for her to stay and romp about between the sheets.

  “What if I have a job for you here?” he said smoothly, his eyes fixated on her, trying to gage her reaction.

  “I have a job,” she reminded him, her heart pounding.

  He’s not offering me a modeling gig. And dammit, I was right. He didn’t chance upon me by accident.

  “Yes,” Kalen agreed. “But I’m offering you the chance to do something…good. For Deviants.”

  “What is this about?” Circe demanded accusingly, folding her arms under her chest as her pulse quickened. She was suddenly feeling betrayed by this demon. As if the last forty-eight hours had been a giant lie.

  I thought he and I had something, but he’s just been headhunting.

  She bit back her anger and waited to see what he wanted from her.

  “I’ve come here looking for a common enemy of ours,” he explained and suddenly it was clear.

  “Uvall.”

  “Yes,” Kalen replied, slightly startled that she had guessed correctly. “Uvall.”

  She stared at him for a long moment, overcome by memories of everything that the rogue demon had done to Arya and Dante. Her loathing for Uvall was almost palpable, overwhelming her commitments to Analeigh.

  “What do you want with him?” Circe finally asked, unsure of what to make of the emotions flooding through her.

  She was being used as a pawn by a demon, but was that a surprise? They were all evil incarnate. They would do whatever necessary to achieve what they wanted, sacrifice anyone who got in their way.

  Did I imagine our connection? He didn’t need to seduce me to ask for my help. The confusing and contradictory arguments raced through her mind.

  “I want him brought to justice,” Kalen replied. “And I know you want the same, Circe.”

  She nodded slowly. No matter what the reason for Kalen pursuing her, he was right. Finding Uvall would make her sleep better at night, knowing that he was no longer a threat to any of them.

  “Will you assist me in my search?” Kalen asked, drawing closer to her. She didn’t resist as he cupped her face and stared into her eyes.

  “Why do you need me? You’re a demon. He’s a demon. I can’t overpower him,” she wondered aloud.

  “He is hiding with a sorceress, one who is versed in misdirection and deception. You have the ability to shift and get into places where they have been known to be. Last night…”

  He stopped speaking abruptly but Circe nodded understandingly. He had been on Uvall’s trail last night.

  “You didn’t find him.”

  Kalen shook his head and sighed.

  “I had tracked him to a warehouse but I couldn’t get close enough to see if he was there. You could have.”

  No, she decided. He didn’t seduce me. We have a bond, just like Arya and Dante. He’s asking me this as a last resort, not because he came seeking me out.

  “Circe?”

  She made her decision, the light in Kalen’s strange irises guiding her.

  “I can offer you three days,” she replied. “But then I have to be in Milan.”

  He placed a soft kiss on her parted lips.

  “I’ll take it,” he replied and Circe exhaled.

  Now she had to deal with Analeigh.

  6

  Without telling anyone, both Circe and Kalen left their respective hotels and checked into The Towers at Lotte Place.

  Evander called him incessantly, demanding to know where he had moved and why, but Kalen disclosed nothing. He was not ready to introduce Circe to his shady circle of friends unless absolutely necessary.

  “If you get another lead as to Uvall’s whereabouts,” Kalen told the immortal. “Tell me where he went and I will go after him – alone.”

  “Alone or with the Valkyrie?” Evander demanded, his voice a low growl of disapproval. “This is a bad idea, Kalen. You need me to make this work and if you let personal feelings get in the way, if you - “

  “You work for me!” Kalen snarled, cutting him off midsentence. “And so far, you are failing miserably at your task. I have given you three days and we are now on the third day. Where the hell is he?”

  Silence met Kalen’s inquiry but the demon didn’t need a response. He knew that Evander was no closer to learning Uvall’s whereabouts than he had been.

  “Kalen, be reasonable. If you don’t return to the Corpus soon, you’re going to lose control of the masses.”

  Fury seeped through Kalen’s veins and he almost hurled his cell phone clear across the room. He was grateful that Circe had gone out for food because he could not hide his displeasure in that moment.

  “Are you telling me how to run my crew?” Kalen asked, his voice dangerously low. “You? What the fuck do you know about running the Corpus? I command their respect because I get shit done. What do you do?”

  “Kalen, you know I didn’t mean – “

  “I am sick of hearing you speak. Find Uvall. Don’t call me again until you have information about his whereabouts.”

  He disconnected the call and no sooner had he done it did than Circe appeared, juggling a series of paper bags. It had only been a short time since she had stepped out, but nonetheless, the sight of her took his breath away.

  Fuck, he was in trouble.

  Kalen stepped forward to help her.

  “Sorry it took so long,” she said. “The line up was huge! Don’t people in this city work? It’s a Wednesday afternoon for Christ’s sake.”

  “I imagine they were wondering the same thing about you,” he replied, grinning. “Although anyone with eyes can see you’re too beautiful to work.”

  “You don’t need to flatter me anymore, Kalen. You already got me into bed.”

  He frowned.

  “Oh. Well, I wish you’d told me that be
fore.”

  She smirked at him, the two laying the Italian food onto the glass table as she dug into the packages for the cutlery.

  “Any word on Uvall?” she asked and Kalen felt his fists clench at the memory of the conversation with Evander.

  “Not yet. But there will be.”

  Circe didn’t respond but he saw a concerned crease fall over her brow.

  “Is something wrong?”

  She shook her shiny curls but didn’t meet his eyes.

  “No,” she replied, slipping onto a chair with a plastic fork in hand. “I was just thinking.”

  “There’s not much we can do but wait for word,” Kalen told her. “We have every Deviant in the city looking for him and the priestess.”

  “Rowan,” Circe spat bitterly. “I might want to kill her even more than I’d like to destroy Uvall.”

  “She’ll get her due justice too,” Kalen assured her, but he felt a slight twinge of guilt as he said it. Rowan didn’t owe money to the Corpus and he had no business with her – except for the fact that she was abetting the most sought-after demon on the planet.

  “Maybe you can give me a few minutes alone with her first,” Circe replied hopefully, jabbing at her salad almost viciously with a fork. “My niece almost died because of her.”

  “I know,” Kalen replied. “And maybe I can arrange for that.”

  Circe’s head jerked up and she peered at him with interest.

  “Yeah? You would do that?”

  “It depends,” he said slowly. “What would you do to her?”

  “Hmm…”

  The model chewed on her salad thoughtfully.

  “With only five minutes?” she asked and Kalen could see she was actually considering how she could inflict the most pain in the shortest amount of time. The sorceress would definitely suffer if Circe ever got her hands on her.

  “Purgatory would be too good for her,” Circe sighed. “I would want to disfigure her horribly and send her to live among the trolls.”

  Kalen tensed.

  “Is that the cruellest fate you can imagine for her?”

  “For that holier-than-thou bitch? I would say so.”

  Kalen’s jaw clenched stiffly, his mind whirling.

  “Are there many trolls in the Americas?” he asked and she shook her head.

  “Thank gods, no. Most of them were driven out during the Industrial Revolution. They were living underground and were forced to the surface, scrambling like rats for safety. Last I heard, they had settled in northern Europe.”

  “You wouldn’t know a troll if you saw one, would you?”

  Circe snickered.

  “It’s been a while,” she agreed. “But I would know one of their hideous faces anywhere.”

  Kalen focussed his attention on his meal, willing himself to stay silent.

  “Anyway, I’m trying to eat. No more talk about trolls, please,” Circe sighed. “I have enough on my mind without losing my appetite.”

  “Agreed. What’s on your mind? Surely this can’t be the first time anyone has spoken to you about Uvall. Hasn’t Dante asked you for help seeking him out?”

  Circe laughed in disbelief.

  “Me?” she choked. “I’m a Valkyrie. He’s the Lord of the Underworld in these parts. What could I possibly offer him that he doesn’t already have at his fingertips?”

  “Is he still looking?”

  Circe’s head shot up and her eyes narrowed as she shoved her salad aside.

  “Did you ask me to help you because you think I have an in with Dante?” she demanded, understanding flooding her face.

  “Of course not!” he growled. “I know many Deviants who are well acquainted with Dante. If I wanted an audience with him, I have only to ask.”

  Circe’s lips pursed together and she stared at him so intensely, it made Kalen nervous.

  “I have to admit, not a lot of this makes sense to me,” she told him, sitting back in her chair. “What business do you have with Uvall?”

  “I already explained that,” Kalen said. “I want to see him brought to justice in the old world. He left a lot of us high and dry when he came this way.”

  “You were part of his legion?” Circe asked, her tanned face waning at the idea.

  “Not exactly. He borrowed a lot of money from me and disappeared. I am simply looking to collect.”

  Circe seemed slightly relieved but she chuckled mirthlessly.

  “I have a feeling that Uvall isn’t exactly rolling in the cash these days.”

  “There are other ways to collect when someone defaults on a loan.”

  The menace in his voice startled her for a moment, but inherently she knew that Kalen was a very dangerous being indeed. She returned to her salad, continuing to chew but the shadow over her eyes didn’t pass.

  “Circe is something else on your mind?”

  “No.”

  He sighed and moved his chair closer to her, reaching out to take her hand.

  “I would like to think you can talk to me. We’re holed up here together after all.”

  She glanced at him through her peripheral vision and swallowed almost grudgingly.

  “I just want to make sure we get this bastard before I go to Milan.”

  Kalen watched her, his mind probing her thoughts but she had purposely shut him out.

  Something is on her mind and it has nothing to do with Uvall.

  Her cell phone rang from inside her purse and he saw a muscle in her cheek twitch nervously.

  “You need to get that?”

  “No, it can go to voicemail,” she replied. “Are you going to eat? I stood in line for six years to get that manicotti for you.”

  Reluctantly, Kalen moved back and dug into his meal, but he kept his eyes on his companion.

  “We’ll find him,” he told her, wanting to take the umbra of worry from her face. “And then you can go back to your life as it was before.”

  She met his gaze and smiled lopsidedly.

  “Exactly as it was before?” she asked teasingly. “Is that your way of saying that you’re kicking me to the curb after you find Uvall?”

  A sweeping sadness rushed through him and he cleared his throat.

  “You might be the one tired of me,” he replied gruffly, emotion coloring his tone. A dark eyebrow rose in surprise.

  “You don’t know me very well.”

  “I’m hoping to change that,” Kalen told her, forcing a teasing smile, but she shook her head.

  “I don’t let many people into my life and certainly not at the warp speed I’ve allowed you in. You can’t get rid of me that easily.”

  A combination of worry and pleasure shot through Kalen as he heard the sincerity in her words.

  You say that now, but what will you do when you learn that I am exactly what you despise?

  Kalen shoved the unpleasant thought from his mind. There was time enough to concern himself with what Circe would think. A small part of him still hoped to keep the truth from her, even though he knew it was a pipe dream. He might manage to hide it until Uvall resurfaced, but once the rogue demon was in his clutches, the truth would be revealed.

  From her bag, the cell began to ring again and a look of anger passed over her delicate features.

  She wrenched the phone from her purse and rose from the dining room chair without saying a word.

  “Where are you going?” Kalen demanded, but she didn’t answer. A moment later, he heard a gentle splash and the supersonic flush of the toilet.

  When Circe returned, she was no longer holding the cell and Kalen realized she had flushed it.

  “What’s wrong?” he demanded. The instinct to fight her battles overcame him and again he was floored by the foreign emotion. Circe simply shook her head and sat.

  “I am fine – now.”

  His extrasensory abilities told him that a tension was mounting inside Circe, one he couldn’t fully understand.

  Maybe I’m the cause of her tension – my presence can�
�t be good for her. Maybe I should let her go, he thought for a fleeting moment, knowing that somehow, his presence had caused a rift in her life.

  But despite the knowledge, he couldn’t bring himself to say the words aloud. As convinced that Circe was that he would not easily be rid of her, he was equally certain of the opposite.

  The only difference was, Circe wasn’t lying to him the way he was to her.

  Instead of facing that, Kalen grabbed her around the waist as she went to pass by. For the second time that day, and an unbelievable number of times since they had gotten the room, Kalen had to have her. The only peace he felt lately was when he was sunk deep into her body.

  What was it about her that gave him solace? That stilled the demons in his head, and the fiery burning for retribution that was always in his gut?

  She calmed him and somehow made him feel complete. He hadn’t even known that he felt incomplete before. Damnit, what was it about her?

  It was a kiss ripped from his deepest desires, finally a way he could pour out his feelings for her. He didn’t think he’d ever be able to become vulnerable enough to another person that he would utter words of affection, but maybe he could show her what she did to him. Hunger poured from him as he deepened the kiss, drowning her in his need.

  Trembling with sudden desire, she met him thrust for thrust, their tongues sparring and warring for dominance. They tore at each other’s clothes, not caring where they fell. Nothing could stop him in this moment from owning her, taking her hard and deep, and branding himself onto her.

  He laid her back, but when he moved to come over her, she shifted and pushed him onto his back, climbing over him and planting her lips on the muscles of his chest.

  He grunted, all the blood in his body flooding into his cock at her aggressive move. “You’ll fucking drive me insane,” he groaned as her hot little teeth found the flat disc of his nipple. “God, Circe.”

  She chuckled evilly as she continued to torture him, “I remember how you didn’t let me come earlier when I was desperate…do you remember that, Kalen? You know what they say about karma and a bitch, right?”