Demon Kissed: Book 2 of the Venandi Chronicles (An Urban Paranormal Romance Series)

by Sara Snow

  “Are you Georgia?” she asked, leaning down to look at me.

  Her breath smelled like cigarette smoke and her long nose reminded me of a pelican, but her eyes were kind.

  “Yeah,” I said warily.

  “My name is Susan Dibbs. You can call me Miss Sue. Can I come in?”

  “Not right now,” I said, panic rising in my chest. “My mom’s sleeping. She worked late last night.”

  “I understand, Georgia. But I won’t stay long, and I promise not to wake her.”

  She stood up, so much taller than me that she blocked the sunlight. Before I could stop her, Miss Sue had walked past me into the apartment.

  My mom was going to kill me if she ever woke up.

  Miss Sue didn’t seem surprised to see my mom lying on the couch. She took a long look at her, then turned to me and smiled, holding out her hand.

  “Come with me, sweetheart. I’m going to take you somewhere safe.”

  That was the last time I ever trusted an adult, not that I’d ever had any reason to trust them before. Though Miss Sue was gentle with me as she led me to her car and even bought me a Happy Meal on the way to her office, she didn’t end up taking me anywhere safe.

  It wouldn’t be until I turned eighteen that I found anything like safety, and then I had to create it for myself.

  Now here I was, twenty-one years old, going back to find my mother.

  I didn’t want to be alone with my thoughts and memories anymore. I needed to find someone to talk to, so I went to the game room, thinking I might find Eli or Jose.

  “Hello? Anybody here?”

  The game room was empty. I drifted over to the pool table, then made my way to the bar. The last time I was here, I’d been with Carter. The team had just celebrated my birthday—a few weeks late—and Carter had brought me here to give me a gift.

  A guitar pick, once owned by John Lennon, no less. Carter had somehow found out that John Lennon was my favorite singer, and he’d given me a gift that I would never forget.

  Then he kissed me, right here on this barstool. The kiss led to touching, then to that hungry exploring that always leads to lovemaking. Except Carter put an end to it because he didn’t think it was the right time, whatever the fuck that meant.

  Will it ever be the right time for me to love someone?

  Demons didn’t fall in love, as far as I knew. I was sure that the demon who fucked my mother hadn’t loved her. He probably hadn’t even known her name. I tried to imagine how Paimon had entered her life, then her bedroom, then her body, but the images that came to mind made me sick to my stomach.

  No one likes to think about their parents having sex. But when one of those parents is a demon from Hell, it’s much, much worse.

  I went behind the bar, grabbed a can of soda from the mini-fridge, and cracked it open.

  “Wouldn’t you like something stronger?”

  The sound of Carter’s voice made me spit soda across the bar.

  “On second thought, maybe you should be cut off now,” Carter said with a sarcastic smile.

  “Maybe you shouldn’t even start. It’s barely noon,” I snapped back.

  “Good point. I usually stop here to get a bottle of water after I train. But Eli kicked my ass today, so I thought I could use a pick-me-up. Do you mind handing me a beer?”

  Carter’s skin glistened, and the black t-shirt clung to his chest. He wiped his forehead with a towel that hung around his neck. The scents of fresh male sweat and testosterone made me feel a little woozy. I distracted myself by pretending to rummage around in the fridge for a beer, even though it was clearly well-stocked.

  “Thanks.” Carter opened the beer and took a long drink. I watched the way the muscles in his throat moved as he drank.

  Is that how he looks when he’s drinking blood?

  I grabbed a sponge and began wiping the bar so I wouldn’t have to look at Carter anymore. His vampire side had always fascinated me. Was feeding an erotic experience for him? Was it arousing for his human victims to feel his fangs sink into their flesh?

  “I think I’d better go find Olympia,” I said. “She probably thinks I blew her off when I came back last night.”

  Olympia was a witch who had joined the Venandi and contributed her powers to foresee the future, cast spells, and concoct potent herbal remedies for just about any ailment. When I first came to the warehouse, she had taken me under her wing, becoming my friend, confidante, and occasional drinking buddy.

  Carter raised an eyebrow. “Olympia rarely gets out of bed before two p.m. I’m sure she’s happily snoring away, dreaming about one of her sexual conquests.”

  “Well, I need to go anyway. I have stuff to do. Plans to make.”

  I started to walk around the bar, but Carter put out his arm to stop me.

  “Actually, I need to talk to you about your plans,” he said.

  The light, bantering tone in his voice was gone. I knew immediately which plans he was referring to. A hot flush of anger spread through my body.

  “Kingston told you, didn’t he?”

  “He mentioned it, yes. He told me you wanted to see your mother. And I’m glad he did, because I want to tell you that it’s a bad idea.”

  I tried to push past Carter’s arm. He held it firmly across the bar like a drawbridge.

  “Thank you for offering your feedback, Carter. But you can keep it and shove it up your ass.”

  I tossed my hair back and glared at him. He glared back.

  “Nothing good can come of this, Georgia. Trust me, I’ve been there.”

  “Trust you?” I snorted. “We both already know how that goes.”

  “Fair enough. If you won’t trust me, maybe you’ll at least believe me when I tell you that my own experience trying to find my human family was a disaster. Humans who mate with supernaturals rarely want anything to do with their offspring. If I’d known that in the beginning, I could have saved myself a lot of pain.”

  “I’m not looking for a Hallmark moment, Carter. I just have a few important questions for the woman who had sex with a demon and gave birth to me nine months later.”

  “As usual, you don’t know what you’re getting into.” Carter polished off his beer. “You’re not going to find what you’re looking for.”

  Arrogant son-of-a-bitch.

  “Maybe you didn’t hear me the first time when I told you to shove your opinion up your ass.” I planted my fists on my hips so I wouldn’t be tempted to slap him in the face.

  “Listen, Georgia,” he said more softly. “I know how it is to want to connect the scattered pieces of yourself. But this search for your mother could end in disaster. The only good thing that came out of my own search for my human family was my friendship with Kingston.”

  “What does Kingston have to do with any of this?”

  “I first met him here in Chicago. Someone told me he was a fallen angel who knew a lot about the other supernatural beings in the city, and I figured he might know about my parents. It turned out that he knew my mother but had no idea who my father was. But he could tell I was lost in life, needed a sense of direction. That’s when he asked me to join him as a demon slayer. If he hadn’t been there to give me a purpose and a goal, I don’t know where I’d be right now.”

  “Carter,” I said, “you have to understand. Finding my mother isn’t something I want to do. It’s something I need to do.”

  “What you need to do is stay here and train. Develop your gifts. You’re about to come into your power. Do you know how vulnerable you are right now? If Paimon finds you—and he will, if you go looking for your mother—he’s going to do whatever he can to keep you for himself. He’ll be persuasive, charming. He’ll make you think he cares about you, and you’ll believe him.”

  “What’s this power, anyway?” I shouted. “I know I can do weird things, like throw stuff with my mind and heal from major wounds in about five minutes. But you know what? I don’t feel any different inside. It’s like telling a skinny gi
rl with a flat chest that she’s going to look like a Sports Illustrated cover model as soon as she gets her period. So, where are my big tits? Where’s my big blonde hair? Whatever this power is that you’re talking about, it’s not here yet.”

  I picked up the sponge off the bar and threw it at Carter. The damp blob bounced off his arm and fell on the floor. When he bent to pick it up, I ducked around the bar to get away from him.

  He caught me gently by the wrist. We were so close that I could feel the rhythm of his breathing and the heat radiating from his body.

  “When you left the warehouse, I swore that would be the last time I lost you. It takes a lot to destroy a half-vampire, but if I lost you again, it would probably kill me. Please, Georgia. Let me go with you.”

  The intensity in his dark eyes told me he was absolutely serious. Every nerve in my body was alight. He pulled me closer, and my lips started to quiver.

  “Hey, guys. Who’s going where?”

  Locked in that moment, we hadn’t heard Jacob stroll up to the bar. I yelped in surprise. Carter let go of my wrist and turned to face him.

  “What do you think you’re doing, sneaking up on us like that?”

  Jacob’s smile faded. He raised his hands in an apology. “I just came in to see if I could get in on a game of pool.”

  “What you can do is stop lurking around and eavesdropping on private conversations,” Carter snapped. “Want to play games? Go ahead. I’ve got better things to do.”

  Carter exited the room, leaving Jacob and me staring slack-jawed at each other.

  “Wow,” Jacob finally said. “Who pissed in his cornflakes this morning?”

  I giggled. I couldn’t help it—Carter’s outburst left me speechless. Soon, I was shaking with laughter, and Jacob joined in. Carter could probably hear us cracking up, but so what? He had acted like a five-year-old.

  “I don’t know about you,” Jacob said, “but I’m in the mood for some recreation. Want to shoot pool?”

  He racked the balls while I drifted over to the table and chose a cue.

  “I never really thanked you for saving my ass last night,” I said, as I chalked the cue tip. “You were pretty amazing with your bow and arrow.”

  Jacob shrugged off my compliment, but his cheeks flushed. He looked a lot like Kingston, only without the lines and wrinkles that his father had earned over the years.

  “So, I guess you’ll be officially joining the Venandi now. It sounded like they were planning some kind of ceremony for you.”

  “It’s called the inductio. Basically, it involves a lot of ceremonial drinking. I don’t need to join the Venandi to do that.”

  “Why don’t you want to join? They all seem to want you on the team.”

  Jacob sighed. “Yeah. They all want me to join, except Carter. He’s never liked me, and after last night, he likes me even less. Now that I’ve met you, I can see why.”

  I didn’t need to ask for details to know what Jacob meant. I had to admit, Kingston’s son was handsome, in a fresh-faced, boyish way. I remembered the strength of his body as I leaned into him after the attack last night. He had felt solid, reliable, like the big brother I never had.

  But Jacob wasn’t looking at me in a very brotherly way as I leaned over the table to take my first shot. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw him discreetly checking out the curves of my hips and thighs.

  “Where did you learn to shoot a bow like that?” I asked.

  “I had a few lessons at the archery range, but I took to it pretty fast. It felt natural, like I’d been doing it forever. I’m not a hunter—in fact, I’m a vegetarian—but I go to the woods sometimes to practice.”

  “It must have felt good to shoot that demon in the back.”

  Jacob’s eyes lit up. “Oh, yeah. It was awesome to see him stagger and fall down like a ton of bricks. But I know the whole thing was terrifying for you,” he added hastily.

  “I’d rather not think about it.” I shuddered, remembering the demon’s hideous bulk hovering over me as he held up the branding iron against the night sky.

  “Sure, I get it.” Jacob took a shot and sank a ball, then another. Five minutes into the game, he was already kicking my butt. “You know, you and I are alike in a lot of ways.”

  “Really? How’s that?”

  “Well, you’re half-demon, half-human. I’m half-human, half-angel. So, we both have a human side and a supernatural side.”

  “You’ve got the advantage, though. Your supernatural side is good. Mine is evil.”

  “But your human side is better behaved than mine,” Jacob said. “I’m known as a bad boy around here. I don’t do what my father tells me to do, I don’t train on a regular basis, and I have a weakness for pretty women.”

  He grinned and raked his wavy blonde hair with his fingers. Now he was flirting for sure.

  I smiled back. “If you’re trying to flatter me, it’s not working.”

  “Did I say anything about you?” Jacob asked in mock indignation. “I said I had a weakness for pretty women. You’re drop-dead gorgeous. Way out of my league.”

  I snorted. “You need to get your eyes checked.”

  “Yeah, because your beauty is blinding me.”

  I picked up one of the pool balls and pretended I was going to throw it at his head. “I can easily put you out of your misery.”

  Jacob laughed. “Go ahead. At least I’ll die with a smile on my face.”

  I realized how long it had been since I’d had fun flirting with a guy. Carter was gorgeous, in his dark and brooding way, but every encounter we had made me feel like I was playing with fire. Jacob was sweet, easy to hang out with. Being told I was beautiful when I felt like a miserable wreck didn’t hurt, either.

  I put the ball back on the table, aimed my cue, took a shot . . . and missed again.

  “You really stink at this,” Jacob said cheerfully. “I could give you a few lessons if you want. Help you sharpen your game.”

  A vision of Jacob leaning over me, his strong arms circling my body as his pelvis pressed against my bottom, made me catch my breath.

  Sure, why not? You deserve a little fun after all the shit you’ve been through.

  “Maybe some other time,” I said.

  Jacob got the message. He chalked up his cue and proceeded to clear the table.

  Jacob was as good at pool as he was at archery. Watching his skillful shots made me wish things weren’t so complicated, but I wasn’t ready to start anything with Jacob, not when Carter already had my heart in a tailspin.

  A love triangle with a half-vampire and a half-angel was the last thing I needed in my life.

  7

  Carter

  The wheels had been set in motion with Georgia’s plan. I knew that as soon as Kingston told me she intended to find her mother.

  Georgia was determined to find out who she was, but I was just as determined not to let anything happen to her.

  Nothing had gone right that morning. After downing too many shots last night, I woke with a throbbing headache and a severe case of cotton-mouth. My vampire side has never reacted well to sunlight, but dawn was especially painful today. I’d forgotten to pull out the blackout curtains before I collapsed into bed, and the light hit my skin like a splash of acid.

  Worst of all, I knew I’d made a fool of myself at Jacob’s celebration. If anyone in the warehouse hadn’t known how I felt about Georgia before, they damn sure knew it now. I’d come across like a jealous jerk, which meant bonus points for the Boy Wonder.

  I decided that the best way to clear the booze out of my system, and to clear last night’s memories out of my head, was to drag my sorry carcass out of bed and go downstairs for a hard workout.

  Then I ran into Georgia in the kitchen.

  Every time I saw the cambion, her power seemed more magnetic. And the stronger her powers became, the more seductive she was, though she obviously didn’t know it. Every time I saw her violet eyes, her exquisite mouth, her jet-black hair falli
ng against her throat, another fault line cracked open in my jaded heart.

  When the earthquake finally hit, I wouldn’t be able to stop myself.

  She still looked at me like a wary animal, and that really pissed me off. Why was I getting the brunt of Georgia’s resentment when the whole team had lied to her?

  We were polite enough to each other in the kitchen, but I could tell I was making her nervous. She’d practically jumped out of her skin when she dropped that cheap mug on the floor and it shattered. Then, she cut herself on one of the shards, and it was a good thing the blood vanished before I could grab her hand and suck the red fluid that welled from her thumb.

  It had been too long since I’d fed. That was another reason the whiskey had hit me so hard last night. My hunger was also affecting my self-control. I had almost kissed Georgia in the kitchen, even though I could tell she wasn’t ready for it. If Kingston hadn’t come in, I could easily have crossed a line with her.

  Training with Eli, I worked out some of my anger and frustration. He was younger and fitter than I was, so he always left me gasping for air, but today I welcomed the struggle and the sweat. I knew he smelled the whiskey coming off my body, but he didn’t mention it. I can always count on Eli not to run off his mouth.

  I’d planned to pick up my bottle of water in the game room, then head for the shower, but fate kept directing me toward Georgia like an air traffic controller. She was there at the bar, drinking soda and looking more delectable than ever.

  Then, Jacob popped up, smiling like a choir boy, and from the way Georgia’s face lit up, I knew I had some real competition.

  It wasn’t just surprise that made Georgia’s purple eyes widen when she saw Jacob. He had saved her life, after all. What girl wouldn’t be hot for a guy who had killed a demon for her? I had slain more demons in the past year than Jacob had killed in his lifetime, but Georgia didn’t seem to remember that.

  Though I’d lost my cool in the game room, I managed to get my head together after I left. Let the kids have their fun—I wasn’t going to allow Jacob to interfere with my plan. I had already let Georgia know that I had no intention of letting her find her mother by herself. Now I just had to figure out a way to get her there in relative safety.