Midnight With the Devil

by Emma Castle

  Then Lucien released her wrist and stalked away from Mrs. Rafferty and toward Diana. He gripped her by the hand and dragged her into her parents’ house, searching room by room until he found the bathroom. He closed the door, hitting the lock and sealing them both inside.

  “Distract me,” he growled, his hands rough and hard as he gripped her waist.

  “Distract you? Why?” His eyes were glowing a little red, and his body was hot.

  “If I don’t get control, the anger will take over and I’ll punish that vile woman.” His voice was low and raspy.

  “You mean Mrs. Rafferty?”

  “Yes. That vile woman,” he spat.

  “Okay, let’s calm down.” She put her hands on his chest, stroking him until he relaxed a little. “What about our next…Friday? Can you tell me what you have planned?”

  The frown on his lips twisted up a little. “That is a surprise, you cheeky little thing. I’m not telling.”

  “See, so much better, right?” she asked.

  “I ate the pineapple,” he said suddenly, a wicked grin making his eyes gleam.

  “What does that have to do with—”

  “On your knees and I’ll show you.” His soft growl was a command, and rather than be angry, Diana was curious. He never forced her to do anything she didn’t want to, so maybe she could try whatever he was most definitely looking forward to.

  She slowly lowered to her knees, and he cupped her chin, tilting her head back as he peered down at her.

  “Open those pretty lips for me.” This came out a silken murmur, and Diana couldn’t deny that she wanted to do this. This…taking him in her mouth. She knew that was what he’d been wanting all along. She just didn’t understand how pineapples fit in.

  She reached out for his pants, but he waved her hands away. “Hands behind your back.”

  Doing as he commanded, she waited, knowing what was going to happen…and she wanted it. She’d never gone down on any of her boyfriends. It had never really appealed to her before, but with Lucien? It felt like the hottest thing ever. Her skin was burning up with desire, and her mouth was dry in heady anticipation.

  Then he opened his fly and freed his cock. It jutted out, and he gripped it with one hand and her chin with his other hand. Then her own body responded with hunger, her body flushing with a wet heat as a deep, aching pulse started up between her thighs.

  She leaned forward, licking the tip of his shaft, and he groaned in soft, husky delight. Then she opened her mouth, and he pushed his cock inside.

  “That’s it, let me hear those sounds.” He began to rock his hips while she sucked on his thick shaft. He forced her to deep throat him, and he twisted one hand in her hair, growling as he pumped harder and harder. She tried to use her tongue to stroke the underside of the shaft, but he chuckled.

  “We can work on techniques for sucking me off later. Right now I want to fuck the hell out of your mouth.” He was harder, faster, more furious, with anger in his eyes, yet his hand in her hair was gentle. Her nipples pebbled and her womb clenched as shame and desire mingled inside her. She loved him using her, controlling her like this, and she hated that she liked it.

  “When you feel me come, swallow when I hit the back of your throat.”

  Diana made a noise to try to tell him she understood. Then she felt it, the hot spray of his seed as he rammed his shaft totally in, and she choked, desperately swallowing, but she couldn’t because of his cock. It shouldn’t have been hot, it shouldn’t have turned her on to have him use her mouth like a toy, but it did. She was wet and hot for him, and all he’d have to do was touch her clit and she’d explode.

  She focused on his taste. He was a little sweeter than she’d expected.

  “Fuck.” Lucien panted as he slowly withdrew his dick from her mouth. Diana sucked in a breath of air and swallowed his juices.

  “You okay?” He grabbed a towel, wiped himself off, and zipped his pants up. Then he knelt in front of her and cupped her face, studying her worriedly.

  “Yeah, that was…” She simply had no words. He had just used her, and she’d liked it.

  “Not too rough?” The open concern in his gaze startled her.

  “It was rough, but I liked it. I never really wanted to do that with a guy before, but with you it was…hot.” She thought back over at all. She could’ve easily pulled away at any point. He hadn’t actually had her in a position where she could not have pulled free.

  “Do you feel better?” she asked. “Was that distracting enough?” She couldn’t believe it, but she was teasing him.

  “Oh yes, more than enough. I was outraged by that woman. She thought she could make demands of me. Me! She’s lucky I was in a good mood.” His scowl was back, but his hands were gentle as he held her face.

  Diana hated to admit it, but she was glad Mrs. Rafferty and her come-on attempt hadn’t been well received. He’d come straight to her instead, and she’d been relieved and aroused.

  “Will you finally tell me about the pineapples?” She reached up to put a hand on his chest.

  Lucien chuckled, the rich sound light and almost sweet. It was a sound she’d never heard from him before. She’d grown accustomed to the dark edge of his laughter and wasn’t used to this lighter side. She liked both versions.

  “A naughty mistress of mine back in the 1970s taught me that consuming fruits or fruit juices, especially pineapple, will make a man or woman’s juices sweet.”

  Diana’s face flooded with heat. “You always planned on me going down on you, then?” She wasn’t mad. Rather, it was really hilarious, not that she could say why.

  “Did it work?” he asked, his voice lowering as he gazed intensely at her mouth.

  “Maybe you should taste it.” She licked her lips, and he leaned in and lifted her so she straddled his lap on the floor the bathroom. He gave her lower lip a hungry nibble, and she sighed in sheer delight and melted into him. The kiss was lazy and leisurely, and Diana gave over to him and the moment so completely that she forgot where she was. It was like he had all the time in the world and he wanted to spend eternity exploring her mouth. That kind of focus and gentle, sensual intensity made her dizzy and her heart flutter with treacherous emotions too close to affection.

  His hands tangled in her hair, gently tugging on the strands as though he needed to get closer to her. He lowered his hands to her back, then down to her ass, cupping each cheek as she arched her body, rubbing against him. He gave her ass a hard squeeze, which made her nipples tighten into points again and her clit throb. This hunger for him felt different than on Friday night. This was real intimacy, a meeting of the souls that left her breathless. But she wondered…did the devil have a soul? Did an angel? There was so much she didn’t understand about him or their situation.

  A jerk of the doorknob and a curse outside made her and Lucien hastily break apart. She wiped at her mouth, grinning sheepishly as she climbed off his lap and they both got to their feet.

  “Just a minute,” Diana called, and she knew that whoever was on the other side of that door would know what she and Lucien had been up to. There was only one reason to be in the bathroom at the same time.

  They came face-to-face with Mr. Gunter as they exited the bathroom.

  “Oh.” The man glanced between them, eyes widening.

  “Hey, Mr. Gunter,” Diana greeted him before she rushed past him. Lucien smiled broadly at the man and slapped his shoulder.

  “Nice day for a barbecue, eh?”

  “Um…yeah.” Mr. Gunter slipped into the bathroom, and Lucien really chuckled as he joined Diana at the back door. Since they’d left the backyard, most of the guests had left and the party was winding down. That was a huge relief because fewer people might guess what they’d been doing. Of course, with the way Diana’s face was flaming, it might be obvious anyway.

  “Don’t regret what we did,” Lucien whispered and pressed a kiss to her cheek.

  She reached up and touched her cheek, which felt even warm
er now from his lips. When she met his gaze, she was again stunned by the softness in his eyes. He was almost like a normal guy, and she felt almost like a normal girl, albeit one who’d gotten away with giving a blow job to the devil at a barbeque.

  “You okay with staying just a little bit longer if my parents need me?” she asked Lucien.

  “Sure.” He glanced around at the remnants of the food and drinks. “I’ll grab a drink and wait for you.” He headed straight toward the cooler of beers.

  Diana found her parents and asked if they wanted her to stick around. When they said no, she turned to find Lucien, but he was gone. Her heart sank, and she couldn’t help but wonder if it was because he’d gotten what he wanted and he had no reason to stick around.

  She lingered a little longer around the house, tidying up the kitchen before she returned to her apartment. Life had to go on. She could not let Lucien and his schedule dictate her life. This agreement between them lasted only three months. She needed to stay focused on school and not let him disrupt her plans.

  To hell with the devil.

  13

  Great acts require great means of enterprise. —John Milton, Paradise Regained

  “You have a problem,” Andras said when Lucien materialized in the location where he had been summoned. They stood in front of an old temple deep in the Amazon rain forest. Roots of ancient trees had broken apart the stone structure built by early humans from a civilization long faded into the obscurity of history. The leafy canopy let sunlight filter down in spirals of light.

  “Another one?” Lucien asked. He hadn’t wanted to leave Diana or the barbecue. They had so much left to do after their time in the bathroom. He had plans, wicked ones that had been rudely interrupted by Jerry Gunter. He was tempted to assign a succubus to that man.

  “We have a croucher,” Andras declared with some concern as he pointed to the open doorway made of stone. Old deities, ones almost as old as Father, were carved into the stone, but their identities were unclear because years of rain and moss growth had smoothed out the sharper points of the carvings.

  “A croucher? Haven’t dealt with one of those since the days of Babylon.” Lucien walked closer but froze when the fine hairs on the back of his neck rose in ancient instinctive warning. If he still had his angel wings, they would’ve been quivering with the need to fly him far away from this place.

  “How did you find it? Crouchers don’t usually linger in places anymore, and this one is far from civilization.” Lucien didn’t like this type of demon. It was dangerous, unpredictable, and needed a fair amount of heavenly—or hellish—power to be destroyed.

  Andras’s blue eyes were cold. “You’ll see. This way.” He led Lucien around the door, careful not to pass through. The body of a man lay across the stones of a room that no longer had walls. His sightless eyes were wide and still full of terror. His body was cold, but only just, which meant he hadn’t been dead long.

  “Who is he?”

  “An archaeologist. His team rushed back to the base camp to call in the death and have the medical team returning. We need to neutralize the croucher. We can’t have it taking any more victims.”

  Lucien nodded. It was another aspect of his job that people didn’t know about. As the king of hell, he had the thankless task of controlling demons, ones in the wild and those in the minds of men. He didn’t, contrary to popular opinion, unleash demons on the world. No, they escaped on their own, and he had to drag them back to hell. Croucher demons could be quite nasty. They lingered in the shadows of doorways, and any poor human who passed through would be killed. The Babylonians were the first to discover croucher demons and had named them rabisu, or “ones that lie in wait.” Crouchers chose doors as their demonic nests because of the powers that entryways held. In every culture in the world, doorways held significance and therefore required protection from malevolent spirits and demons.

  Even humans, with their weak instincts, could feel the presence of crouchers.

  “I hate these things,” Lucien said as he approached the door. The hairs on his neck rose sharply with unsettling tingles, like someone had dripped cold water down his head and onto his neck and back.

  “Be careful.” Andras stood on the opposite side of the doorway, close to the body of the fallen human. He watched Lucien through the stone frame of the entryway, expecting danger, as he should.

  “Brace yourself, Andras. Shit’s about to get ugly.” Even their father hadn’t liked crouchers. He’d warned Cain all those millennia ago that “sin crouches at the door.”

  Andras stood in a ready stance, palms up to summon the fires of hell should they be required.

  Lucien slowly reached out to the doorframe. The moment his hand would’ve passed through the doorway, a shadow slid from the top-left corner of the frame, coiling and twining like an ever-moving spiderweb made of man’s most ancient nightmares. Whispers of a thousand tongues could be heard, like a dark Tower of Babel, but Lucien heard every word in each foreign tongue.

  Kill, destroy, and consume, death to the light…

  Even Lucien didn’t want the death of the light. There was no darkness if there was no light.

  “Stand and face me, rabisu.” Lucien reached his hand to the coiling shadows. Pain exploded through his body, knocking the breath from his lungs. He released the fire that burned just beneath his skin and let it float out of his hand and into the shadows.

  “Fire…” the croucher’s voices whispered in anger.

  “Ahh!” Lucien bellowed as the shadows in the doorway expanded around him and he realized his mistake. This wasn’t one croucher, but hundreds, maybe a thousand.

  “Andras, get out of here!” Lucien screamed. He could just make out the other fallen angel through the fluttering gaps in the shadows.

  “No! You stay, I stay.” Andras grasped the shadows in his hands and unleashed his own fire. The pain pouring through Lucien was like nothing he’d ever felt in his life…except the day he’d fallen.

  He blacked out for a brief second, and all he could hear was the rush of wind as he plummeted into darkness.

  When he came to, he was lying on his back, every inch of him bruised and battered, and his ears were ringing. The forest was no longer eerily quiet. The mass of rabisu were gone, but not dealt with. They would be seeking other doorways, other victims. He’d failed. He shouldn’t have failed. But he had.

  “Andras?” he croaked.

  He heard coughing as he struggled to sit up, and he caught sight of his friend lying broken and hurt on the opposite side of the door. Andras was worse off than him. He called Andras, but he had no strength to move just yet.

  “This way,” someone shouted in the distance.

  Fuck, the humans were returning to collect their dead man, and they couldn’t see him and Andras like this.

  Lucien clung to the powers inside him, but it was like holding on to the ends of a frayed rope.

  “Hang on,” Lucien murmured as he crawled through the doorway to Andras. Then he wrapped his arms around the other man’s chest from behind and closed his eyes, using the last of his power to take them somewhere safe.

  He glimpsed the inside of Diana’s apartment as he and Andras materialized into her living room, and then he blacked out a second time.

  Diana stood in the kitchen, washing a few plates before putting them into the dishwasher, when she heard a loud crack! She screamed as two bodies smacked into her living room floor, crushing her coffee table into splinters. Seth, who’d been perched on the counter in front of her, screeched, his fur standing on end as he leapt rigidly from the counter and shot like an orange and white striped lightning bolt for her bedroom. Diana dropped the plate she’d been washing, and it shattered in the sink. She rounded the counter and rushed to the two men—yes, they were two men. And one was Lucien. He lay on his back, clutching the body of another man. Both were bruised and bleeding, as though they had been in some sort of fight or explosion. Panic nearly froze her for several seconds before
she tried to convince herself it would be fine. Lucien was the devil—he wasn’t a normal man who could be hurt.

  Diana knelt by Lucien and touched his shoulder gently. “Lucien.”

  His eyelashes fluttered open weakly, and relief flooded through her at the sight.

  “Safe,” he murmured drowsily. His eyes, usually darker, were now a honey-brown. They looked…human, more than they ever had before. Was that possible?

  “Yes, you’re safe.” She hoped she wasn’t lying. There wasn’t much she could do if something showed up looking for Lucien and whoever was with him.

  “Diana.” Lucien tried to lift one hand to touch her face, but it fell back to the ground and his eyes closed.

  For several minutes she wasn’t sure what to do. She dragged the second man onto the floor beside Lucien and placed pillows under their heads. How was she supposed to take care of a fallen angel?

  She pulled out her cell phone and dialed Amara.

  “Hello?” Amara’s calm voice was a welcome relief.

  “It’s Diana. I have a situation.”

  “What’s wrong?” Amara’s voice rose a little in concern.

  “Well…I have two angels…well…Lucien and another, and they just sort of appeared in my apartment. Someone or something beat them up. What should I do?”

  “Do they have any open wounds?” Amara asked.

  “No, they’re just unconscious.” Diana peered down at them.

  “Then I’m not sure what else you can do. They’re immortal. They should heal in time.”

  “Okay. Thanks.”

  “Diana, be careful.” Amara’s gentle warning seemed to mean more than just whatever had befallen Lucien and his fellow angel.

  “I will.” She hung up.

  She finally settled in to do her homework and was halfway through her reading when Lucien moaned and shifted. She watched him, not sure what she could do to help.