by Nick Freo
He shook his head. “I don’t know. It was a bit unusual. Lilah, do you feel like it worked?”
“I think I love and hate every fucking thing in this house.” She reached out, touching my arm. “You humans have emotions about the dumbest things. I love it. I’m going to go see how I feel about food.”
“Wait,” Mr. Gray said as she turned to leave. She stopped, turning back toward us. Cara raised an eyebrow, the faintest hint of concern on her face. Mr. Gray looked at me. “Do you feel anything?”
As the last of the gritty sensation vanished, I felt it. It was like that feeling of being on a roller coaster as it hurtles down combined with a sense of power that borders on violent. It felt like it was about to burst out of me, so I opened up my palm, aiming it at the Persian rug. That sensation coursed through my arm and ripped out of my hand.
Fire erupted out of my palm. The red and black flames demolished the carpet directly in front of me and kept sweeping down the hall, consuming everything in its path. There was a twinge of pain in the center of my palm, but the pain was trivial in comparison to the surging, reckless power hurtling through my veins.
Holy shit. This was what I’d been missing in my life.
The fire stopped as I closed my fist. Thin streams of smoke slipped out between my fingers as the mansion’s sprinklers went off. The water sprayed down on my head as I checked my palm. There was no sign that my hand had changed or that flames had just burst out of it.
In my periphery, Lilah was dancing in the downpour, shouting her joy like a child. I grinned, turning my hand over as I lowered it.
A dark glint caught my eye.
I lifted my hand up again. The gray ring my father gave me—I could have sworn it had been a metallic shade of gray before. Now, it was closer to a dark, stormy day. I shifted it in the light, seeing if it would change. Maybe the fire had charred it. Maybe I had only glanced at it in the dark or dimly lit rooms.
Lilah swung her arm around my shoulders. She got onto her toes and kissed my cheek. It was sweet in a way I would never have expected from her.
“Thanks for the humanity,” she said.
“Thanks for the hellfire.”
Her hand rested above my navel, and her wet hair pressed against my shoulder.
“I’ve heard sex for humans is worth the trip to Hell. Wanna show me?”
Surging. Reckless. Power.
Chapter 8
Mr. Gray cleared his throat.
“I have other matters to attend to, so before the consummation, I surmised it—” he started. I nearly tripped as I pulled away from Lilah. Cara hid a smile behind her hand.
“I’m sorry, the what?” I asked.
“Before the consummation,” he repeated, staring straight at me like he was talking about a court date or an acupressure appointment. “I surmised it would be beneficial for me to leave you with contact information to handle your father’s estate—his accountant, his lawyers, his financial advisor, and a few more names that could have potential to be useful—so I left a list of names and numbers on your father’s desk. It is very important for me to attend to these other matters, so I will wish you luck and say farewell.”
He pivoted on his heel, walking toward the door.
“Wait—” I said. “The consummation. Is that figurative or—”
“Oh.” He turned to me as he opened the door. “I almost forgot. If you’re hungry, there are provisions in the pantry, but otherwise, there is a grocery store about four miles east from here. They are willing to deliver groceries to this address, but considering the circumstances, it could be considered a wise decision to simply eat the MREs.”
“Mr. Gray,” I said, but he walked out the door, snapping it shut behind him. I turned to Lilah, who was twisting herself around me, her cheeks pink with happiness. I glanced around, but it looked like Cara had disappeared into another room.
“Did he mean what I think he meant?” I ask Lilah. I heard a whacking noise, followed by a scraping sound. Cara was either moving furniture or breaking through a wall.
“Sure,” she said, nibbling on my ear, oblivious to the noise or enjoying it. “But I think MREs are gross. Are they better with human emotions attached?”
“No, not about the food. About the…the consummation. Are we supposed to sleep together?”
“Of course. It’s tradition.” She smiled up at me. “You and your father weren’t close, were you?”
“No…”
She grabbed my hand, yanking me toward the stairs. “Well, I suppose that’s not a father-son conversation, anyway. Come on. This might be the one tradition I’ve been dying to try out. With these brand new human emotions and my body, we can set the world on fire.”
I followed her up the stairs, my desire for her battling with the idea that this was expected of me. It had been slightly more alluring when the fantasy was my choice.
“Hey, Cara,” Lilah called into a room. “Me and Kyle are gonna bang it out. If you hear any screaming, you don’t need to rush in to heal anybody. I’ve got everything covered.”
As she tugged me past the room, I saw Cara’s face. It was filled with such disappointment that I almost wanted to invite her along, but after seeing them argue, I’d assume that would lead to a much deadlier demon and angel war than whatever Michael and Belial were planning. She was also holding a baseball bat in a room that appeared to be a batting cage, and I wasn’t stupid enough to start a conversation with an angry woman that had a weapon.
“I should be nicer to her. A winner should be gracious, after all,” Lilah mentioned as she stopped in front of the next door. This one was larger than the other doors with a crystal door knob. “What do you think is in this room? Should we agree to use it no matter what?”
“Sure,” I said because I was certain she didn’t actually want or need my agreement. And I’d also have sex anywhere.
She swung open the door.
The room was a shock, based solely on the fact that it wasn’t filled with junk like all of the other rooms. There was a billiard table in the center of the floor, with two armchairs in the southwest corner, and a small bar in the northeast corner. Lilah ran into the room and jumped onto the edge of the billiard table. Her shirt slid up, revealing a flash of red underwear at her waist.
“There’s nothing sexier than a man cave,” she said. “Good choice, Arbiter.”
I grinned, walking toward her. “I like the sound of that. The Arbiter. Do you think it comes with good benefits? Decent health care?”
She laughed, grabbing onto my jacket and pulling me between her legs. “You won’t need any of that, Kyle. You’ve got me, you’ve got that hellfire, and you’ve got that devil-may-care attitude. All you need is to fuck me, and we’ll be invincible.”
“That sounds good—”
Before I could finish my sentence, Lilah kissed me, her lips pushing apart mine with reckless abandon. Her hands slipped under my shirt, clutching my torso. I could almost feel fire burning in the two of us, threatening to merge and combust.
She pushed me back, jumping off the billiard table. She gripped the bottom of her shirt, yanking it up over her head. Like I thought, she wasn’t wearing a bra, and her breasts were flawless. I reached for her, my hand brushing over her left nipple. It erected into a small bud. The fire in me roared louder. I gripped her hips, lifting her back up onto the billiard table.
She slung off my jacket, and we kissed again. We were fighting fire with fire and it was worth all of the devastation.
I tore off my shirt, desperate to feel her breasts against my body. As we crashed against each other again, our mouths colliding like speeding cars, her breasts pressed into my chest. My heart swelled, and it wasn’t the only thing.
“Get onto all fours,” I ordered. She smirked at me, a strand of her hair dangling between us.
“What if I told you that I didn’t want to?” she asked.
“I’d know you were lying.”
She laughed, tossing her hair over her s
houlder. A scent of spicy cinnamon wafted over me. “Very true.”
She swung her legs around to get on her knees. Her ass stretched the lace of her underwear. I slipped my fingers under the elastic and yanked her panties down to her knees. Her body shivered.
“God,” she muttered. “The human soul makes this so much hotter.”
“Move forward,” I said. “Your head should be hanging over the other side.”
She inched forward slowly, giving me a quick, sultry smile when she was halfway over. I climbed onto the billiard table. Though the table had solid, wooden legs, I was surprised it didn’t shake under our weight. I moved behind her, admiring the view. Someday, I’d have more fun with that ass, but, at the moment, I just needed to be deep inside her.
“You better fuck me like you mean it,” she said, her head bowed over the edge.
“It’ll be like an exorcism.”
She laughed again. That laugh was addictive, feeding into my need to rip her to pieces and put her back together again. I unbuttoned my pants as she swung her ass back and forth, whistling some nursery rhyme.
When I guided myself into her, the fire burning in me turned into a wildfire. I gripped onto her hips as I sunk into her, her body anchoring me in its heat. Her back arched as she crooned—one low, sweet note. I started slow, her body swaying with every movement, even as she gripped the edge of the table. From behind, her pussy greedily gripped my cock with perfection—like I was a match being struck over and over and getting lit every time.
She began thrusting her ass back up against me, her hand slipping over her clit. I slid my hand down across her stomach and pushed her hand out of the way. As I rubbed circles around her swollen bud, she began to buck up against me. I met her enthusiasm, thrusting harder. My hand was barely able to maintain the friction against her pussy, but it must have been enough because her moans were so loud, I swear I could feel them through my cock.
The fire inside me was roaring. In the past, I would have been preoccupied ensuring the woman would orgasm at the same time as me, but all I felt were those flames. Somehow, I knew that Lilah and I would reach our peak at the same time.
As I was almost ready, I pulled out of her. I grabbed onto her hips and flipped her over so quickly that she winced as her back hit the table. As soon as I thrust back inside her, any trace of pain was gone from her face. I returned to the fervent pace from before. She grabbed onto my face, kissing me and biting my lip. It was harder to hold onto her now because our bodies were drenched in sweat, but we ached so hard with pleasure that neither of us cared how much her body was moving underneath me.
I felt the peak coming like a hurtling train. I thrust harder. Lilah was halfway off the table as she locked her arms around my neck to stop herself from falling. She looked straight at me, and the hunger mixed with the trust in her eyes was enough to send me over the edge.
When I came, it felt like the weight of the world turned into weightless glory. It felt like the thrill of doing something bad mixed with the gratification of doing something good. The pleasure bombarded me as Lilah’s pussy tightened around my cock, squeezing it for all it was worth as she yelled words that could have been gibberish, English, or demonic hexes for all I cared. It was pure bliss.
I collapsed down beside her. After a couple of minutes, she curled up around me. It felt right. It felt magical. And for the first time, it felt like I could deal with all this bullshit.
Chapter 9
I woke up on the billiard table, Lilah’s arms wrapped around my waist and her head cradled on my chest. I caressed her hair. She looked up at me, the sunlight creating a glint in her hazel eyes that reminded me of a butterfly knife’s blade.
Sunlight.
I lifted myself up onto my elbows. I shouldn’t have slept the night away, but I couldn’t say I regretted it. I raised my head. The sunlight was coming from curved skylights above Lilah and I, all circling toward the massive chandelier in the center of the room. It was truly a stunning house. It would have been nice if I could have grown up within these walls, but I could accept that my father had protected me from everything that was crashing down now.
Lilah stretched, her legs sliding up against mine and her fingertips splaying out across my chest. She sidled closer to me again, placing a kiss under my navel. Her legs curved around me—two boa constrictors that I’d happily let strangle me.
I slipped my fingers through her hair. She smiled at me. I slid my hands underneath her back and tucked her underneath me. I pressed against her, her chest rising and falling underneath me as I kissed the curve of her neck.
I jerked away from Lilah as I heard a faint scraping sound. I turned my head as something white skimmed across the floor, landing beneath the billiard table. I untangled myself from Lilah, jumped off the table and bent down to examine what it was.
It was an intricately folded origami star.
“How likely is it that a piece of paper is imbibed with magic?” I asked Lilah. She dangled her head over the edge of the table. It was closer to her than it was to me. She scrutinized it for less than a second.
“Yeah. This has Cara written all over it. You’re fine.”
“How do you know it’s from Cara?”
“Because it says To: Kyle, From: Cara.”
She reached down, snatching the piece of paper up. For a second, I felt a wave of heat, and I was certain she was about to burn it. But she unfolded it and read it. She tossed it across the billiard table as I stood up.
“It’s a case file.” She massaged her shoulder. “Looks like your father was working on it. The person who filed it is Serena Foster. Cara must have found it in your father’s office. She’s so desperate. It’s sad. Maybe if we ignore her completely, she won’t be so clingy.”
I grabbed the paper from the table, a wave of guilt crashing over me. “That’s great. This is what we needed. Serena Foster might know what my father was doing right before he died.”
“She’s a witch,” Lilah said. “Unless your father was a pyre or the full moon, she likely didn’t even notice he existed.”
I folded up the note, sliding it into my pants pocket. “He was investigating demons that were sending death threats to Serena. She asked for his help.”
“Death threats are practically a bonding experience for demons. I get at least a dozen death threats from my mother every time I see her. We’re demons. It’s the way we are. Can you blame me for just wanting you to stay here with me?”
She rolled over onto her hands and knees and crawled over to me. Her hands rested on my shoulders as she kissed me, her mouth soft but insistent. My hand gripped the edge of the table as my thoughts turned primal.
Short and sharp knocks interrupted us. I pulled away from her, grabbing my boxer briefs and pants. I pulled them on, buttoning them quickly.
“I fucking hate you for doing this to me,” Lilah said.
“Doing what?” I asked, walking to the door. As I stopped at the door and looked back at her, she indicated her naked body.
“I’m ready to fuck, and you’re thinking about two other women.”
It wasn’t something I could actually deny or believe that I was doing, so I turned away from her and opened the door.
“We should get going,” Cara said as soon as I saw her. There was a soft glow in her face that the sunlight illuminated. I could imagine a timeline where I chose her instead of Lilah. Cara wouldn’t have had Lilah’s fierceness, but I could feel an intensity in her body language. She wouldn’t consume like fire, but she’d be the naked Eve I’d eat the forbidden fruit with, and we’d fall into sin together.
“Were you just holding your ear to the door, waiting for us to wake up?” Lilah called out. She had spread out on the table, her fingertips running down between her breasts. “Did you listen to us have sex too? Did we sound like animals? I know I sound like a tigress in bed, and I think Kyle’s a tiger too.”
Cara avoided looking at her. I didn’t have quite the same self-control.
Lilah jumped off the billiard table. She skipped over to me, her nakedness fully apparent as she pressed up against me. “It’s too bad that she doesn’t live on Irving Street. They have this amazing bar called Crater. It’s modern while also being skanky as hell. You’d love it. McGill Street is boring. It’s like if you took a corporation and took all the exciting backstabbing and espionage out of it.”
“If we leave now, we can leave her behind,” Cara said.
“I’ll go naked. I don’t give a fuck.”
I looked at the two of them and realized, unfortunately, I needed both of them. Even more unfortunate was that Lilah would need some clothes.
“I’ve heard of the hotel she’s staying at,” Cara said. “It’s downtown. It’s a nice upscale place. I’ll recognize it.”
“Boring,” Lilah whispered, her hand slithering down my chest. “Let’s go back to last night’s excitement. I don’t mind having an audience. Maybe Cara could learn a tip or two about fucking.”
Cara finally looked over at her. “It’s almost like you don’t want to check in on these accusations, Lilah. Are your demon buddies threatening Serena Foster for you?”
Lilah lurched forward so quickly that her shoulder collided against mine. She stopped less than an inch away from Cara. Even with Lilah being shorter, the height difference was negated by the fact that she was naked. At least, from my point of view.