by Eve Newton
I sigh and turn over. Maybe I’ll wake up and it will all have been an awful, horrible nightmare.
Luc
I’m frantic.
I’ve worn a path in the carpet with my pacing. Damn that witch! I should never have listened to her warning about Axelle. I should’ve kept this news to myself. Her look of disgust is all I can see, and it bothers me more than it should.
I hear a low chuckling coming from behind me. I spin around to see Jezebelle floating in the corner.
“Don’t think that destroying that painting will get rid of me,” she says, wagging her finger. “There was nothing left of my essence in it.”
“What a pity,” I drawl. “But it was time to get rid of it. Out with old…”
Jezebelle hisses and her face goes ugly as she advances on me. “Old?” she spits out, the dig needling her just as I’d intended. Jez, unlike other regular Demons, tended to age. Very, very slowly of course, but noticeable to the discerning eye over a couple of centuries, and my eye had been very discerning with regard to her. She had turned my head like no other before her, but since?
Well, there is no need to go over that… but just to piss her off further, I add, “Yes, you are looking a little tired and drab, my dear. Perhaps it is time to give up and rest, no?”
“You fucker!” she screeches, flying towards me with her hands hooked into claws.
“Such language,” I tut as she goes straight through me, and I step to the side to see her try again to reach me. “A lady doesn’t cuss with such gusto.”
As Jezebelle once again fails to touch me, she lets out a loud howl of rage. “I will get into that bitch one way or another, Luc. Mark my words, this isn’t over!”
She vanishes from my sight and I know exactly where she has gone. I take myself off to Axelle’s bedroom and see Jezebelle hovering face down, lengthways, over Axelle’s body as if to enter her form.
“The ward will stop you,” I snarl.
“Don’t count on it,” she snarls back and lowers her wispy form closer to Axelle’s.
I step forward, ready to try to tear what is left of her essence to shreds, when she pauses with a shrewd look.
“Oh my,” she laughs and turns her head in my direction. “What a pickle.”
“What do you mean?” I demand, glaring down into Axelle’s face. But my eyes are drawn to the ward etched into her chest. Meant to glow a reddy-gold under her skin while it is active, is now a dark red, turning black before my very eyes.
“What have you done to her?” I roar at Jezebelle, but she grins at me and shrugs.
“Why nothing, my love. It seems we can be reunited after all,” she answers.
“No!” I bellow and place my hand on Axelle’s chest to stop Jezebelle from entering her body.
The ice under my palm hits me like a sledgehammer. I hiss as I feel the cold permeate my skin, right to my very core. “What is this?” I mutter as I look closer at Axelle’s lifeless form. Something is very wrong. Surely, she would have woken up with all the shouting going on right over her.
“Axelle?” I say into her face as I grip her shoulders tightly and shake her. “Axelle?”
“Oh, she’s not in there,” Jezebelle taunts. “Seems I gave this bitch less credit than she deserves. She has escaped you.”
I feel the stab of panic in my gut, but there is more. I feel the sting of betrayal. She has left me. She has found a way to, once again, remove herself from my domain.
“Damn you!” I roar, clenching my fists and waving them at the ceiling in my rage.
I should have known better than to trust her. She did this before; I should have known she would try it again. The protection around the house would only have kept her human form from physically leaving. It would do nothing against her true essence, and I should have been better prepared. I would’ve been if the vicious, tempting, Seductress I chose to be my Demon Bound hadn’t swayed my mind. I let my guard down ever so slightly and I neglected to be my usual monstrous self around her. I gave her just enough leeway to escape from me and that is all my fault.
“Stay away from her!” I yell at Jezebelle, who is sneaking up on the body.
“Why? Without her essence, this vessel is useless. Let me take it,” she says eagerly licking her lips.
“She will return,” I say, trying to calm my anger. “Once she has had time to think, she will be back. You will stay away from this body.”
“I…” Jezebelle starts and then peers down at the body on the bed. “Oh my,” she says again.
“What now?” I huff and spin around. “Axelle?” I ask anxiously as I see the body stir and snuffle, bringing her hand up to her face to rub her eyes.
Her eyes open and I feel a flood of relief. She came back. She wants to do this with me after all.
“Axelle,” I say with a smile.
I see her face freeze with absolute terror at her name. Her eyes go wide and scared and she looks around her in a growing panic. She screams when she sees Jezebelle floating next to her and it makes my ghostly ex jump a bit.
And then she carries on screaming.
Axelle
My eyes fly open as I feel like I have been slammed back to the bed from a dizzying height, my labored breathing is loud in my ears. I look around from behind my curtain of honey-colored hair, my eyes wide.
What the fuck?
“Mornin’, baby. How are you feeling?” A low, sexy, and very familiar voice asks me this question and my heart slams in my chest. Not my Devil-created one, but this actual human one of the host I’m currently residing in.
I gulp and look at Slade Johnson through the eyes of my old host body, Lacey.
Shit!
Fuck!
How in the name of all things unholy did I manage to do this? Escaping Hell is no easy business, certainly not the third time you attempt it, yet here I am. I pinch myself to make sure I’m not dreaming. I yelp, my weak human flesh stinging under the pressure.
“Trixie?” Slade asks me with a frown and that gets my blood boiling.
Trixie! That little trickster bitch that Lacey created in her mind to get rid of me. Somehow, I’ve managed to get back into Lacey’s body all the way from Luc’s prison house in Hell.
I grin up at Slade, my delight coursing through me at my amazing luck. And it is very amazing luck. This host is completely empty save for my Demonic essence currently housed in it. There is no sign of Lacey (or Trixie), and I wonder for all of a second where she is, but then I don’t give a flying fuck. Actually, I hope that I’ve swapped places with Lacey and that she is now undergoing torture at Luc’s hand. There is no way he won’t know that I’ve done a runner on him – again!
I’m free now.
I will defy all odds to keep Luc from finding me and Slade is the right man for the job. I can feel the uncomfortable burn of the holy water in Lacey’s stomach. This is supposed to stop a Demon from entering a host, but as it appears, I didn’t go about this in the conventional way, I’ve managed to bypass the barrier.
“Hi, lover,” I say with a salacious smile that he frowns at, but then he lurches forward as I try to sit up.
I struggle as there is something large sitting on my stomach, and I try to brush it off impatiently, only to realize that this has gone from being the best thing that has ever happened to me, to the worst.
“Pregnant?” I sneer, horrified that I’ve gone from being Luc’s baby vessel straight into a body that is currently so heavy with child, I can’t even get up!
“Trixie?” Slade asks with concern. “Is everything okay?”
“Uh, yes, fine,” I mumble, needing to keep up the ruse. Slade will get rid of me the second he suspects I’m back.
I give him a reassuring smile, but inside my mind is reeling. Oh, what have I gotten myself into? I need to get out of this house to find a new suitable host right the hell now!
“Whoa, there,” Slade says and quickly pushes me back down as I start to get up. “Complete bed rest means complete bed rest,�
�� he chides gently.
I grate my teeth together.
No fucking way! This is just my rotten luck, an absolute nightmare. With him hovering over me like a mother hen, how am I supposed to get out of this parasite-breeding host? I’ve traded my lot down in Hell to an even worse one here. My body is big and heavy, and it is so difficult to move. I can feel the little insect squirming around in my belly and it sickens me. I want to rip it out of my body, but all I am now is the weak, pathetic human of the body I’ve inhabited.
I debate on what to do now. Should I try to get back into my body in Hell, or should I stay here and try to escape? Slade has to leave my side at some point, doesn’t he?
“I’ll get you some tea,” he says and kisses me on the forehead in a loving gesture that makes me want to slap him. This isn’t the damaged man I knew and wanted to keep around because it was just such fun to break him that bit more. He seems normal. Ugh!
Help! I scream in my head, but to no one in particular, as I keep the dumb smile plastered on my face. Help!
I can’t stay here, not like this, but I can’t go back to do what Luc wants me to do either. I try to expel my essence from the body. It’s a risky move; I’ll have a matter of minutes to find a new suitable host, but I’m trapped. I can’t even leave the host!
I look longingly out of the window, and see the sun shining, and the birds chirping, and it gets on my nerves, but at the same time I want to get out there into the world and away from all of this baby stuff. I can’t be a mother. I just can’t.
But what am I supposed to do now?
I have three options and not one of them appeals to me: stay here and be Trixie-mom; have Slade exorcise me back to Hell, but then I will never see anything but the inside of a fire cell again, or try and get Luc to help me back into the body he gave me and, as a result, back to the ritual.
I chew my lip as Slade returns with my tea. I have to decide, and I have to decide soon.
Help! I shout out again in my head. Help!
~ CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE ~
Dashel
I stare up at the house in front of me on this sunny morning. I cannot believe that Axelle is still alive and is in a host body in this very house.
Her screams of desperation have called me to her. She is in need of assistance and seeing as she is now on Earth, I can reach her.
I gulp.
I witnessed her demise. I saw her burned alive by the flames of Hell, heard her cries of agony. Yet, she is here, waiting for me to help her.
I take in a deep breath and stalk over to the door, wondering what horror I will find on the other side, and kick it in, busting it off its hinges before I stride inside, ready to face whatever I need to in order to reach Axelle.
All I see is a normal living room, empty of any monsters.
“What the fuck?” a man thunders at me as he storms over, a baseball bat in his hand.
He is only a human, I have no fear of him.
I hold my hand up and he stills, frozen in time until I release him.
“Axelle?” I call out cautiously and take the stairs, two at a time.
“Hello?” she calls out just as cautiously. “Who’s there?”
I sweep into a bedroom and see a woman lying on the massive bed, heavy with child and not at all the tempting Seductress I know from my dreams.
Her eyes go wide as they rake over me in a salacious gaze that stirs my cock in a way that has never quite happened to me before.
I clear my throat and peer at her.
“Gorgeous Guardian Angel guy!” she exclaims and hauls her pregnant frame out of bed. She stumbles across to me with a sultry smile. “You do exist outside of my dreams.”
She thinks I’m gorgeous. I swallow loudly and shuffle in my tan pants. Her words are doing nothing to quell the erection that is bursting to reach her.
“Are you in danger?” I croak out.
Her left eyebrow goes up as her sultry smile turns wicked. “Come to save me?”
“Do you require it?”
She glances down at herself and gestures madly. “What do you think?” she screeches and then slams her lips shut. “Where is Slade?” she adds suspiciously.
“Slade? The human male downstairs? He is currently frozen in time,” I inform her stiffly.
“Oh,” she says surprised. “Good. Get me out of here.” She holds her hand out for me to take.
I blink at it. The thought of touching her both repels me and makes my heart thump faster. My stomach clenches into a tight ball.
She is a Demon. I shouldn’t have thoughts of her in the manner in which I currently am. “You are not yourself,” I mutter.
“No shit,” she drawls at me, waving her hand. “I need help getting out of here and outside to where I can find a new host.”
“No,” I say, shaking my head. “I cannot allow you to be let loose in the world. You are a Demon.” There, I’ve come to my senses and told her straight.
She laughs at me.
Really loudly and for a very long time.
“Oh, you are sweet, wanting to save these pathetic humans from me, but seriously…you came in here ready to help me, so help me,” she snaps, her attitude changing instantly now that I’m refusing to entertain her plan.
I give her a stern look, one that has the Angels under my command quaking in their boots, but she just rolls her eyes at me and comes a bit closer.
I step back, taking in a deep breath.
She has turned on her power. I can feel it from several feet away it is so strong. I’m self-aware enough to know that if I can’t resist her in my dreams, how can I resist her in the flesh?
“Do not,” I command her, holding my hand up to fend her off.
She grabs it, her smile turning evil.
I grunt as the force of her Demonic power surges through me.
“Help me,” she purrs at me. “Please. I need you.”
I close my eyes and try to push off the seduction that is shrouding me like a cloak. I must take too long though, because the next thing I know, she is as close to me as her huge belly will allow, running her hands up my chest.
“Stop,” I say weakly, knowing it is futile. I am no stronger than a mere human when it comes to her power.
I stare down into her blue eyes, mesmerized as she stretches up on her tip toes and pulls on my t-shirt to bring my mouth to hers. She brushes her lips over mine and then down over my jaw. I am frozen to the spot. I have no idea what to do next. Every instinct is screaming at me to grab her and kiss her, but something stops me.
This isn’t her.
Well, at least not the her I know. She looks similar, but she is different. I find it makes a difference to me. I am able to push back against the seduction and grab her upper arms to move her away from me slightly.
“Hmm,” she murmurs and drops the spell.
I feel the pressure lift and breathe out in relief.
“Powerful Angel, aren’t you?” she mutters.
“I do not wish to cavort with your kind,” I state, but she can see straight through my lie.
She giggles at me. “I’m just not your type like this, am I?”
I glare at her. How did she know that is what was on my mind? Does she have powers beyond her seduction?
“Kiss me,” she demands, that wicked smile back in place. “I’ll make you if you don’t. You can’t hold me off forever.”
I growl at her as she throws the web of lust over me again. It falls over my soul, begging me to corrupt myself with her so that she can claim me.
“Stop that,” I grunt, fighting it.
“Give me what I want,” she says.
I search her eyes, trying to find the strength deep inside to push her away, when in pops another creature from the depths, breaking her concentration and making her grin in delight.
“Evan!” she exclaims.
I turn with a narrow-eyed look.
“Get away from her!” he spits out.
He is looking at me with undis
guised hatred and I can’t blame him. I failed him and his sister a long time ago. I never thought I would see him again, yet here he is, standing in the home of this human, taking Axelle’s hand and pulling her closer to him, as if protecting her from me.
“You have no need to be afraid,” I say, cutting my gaze back to Axelle. “I’m not here to harm you, only to save you.”
“Then help me,” she says, pulling away from Evan and grabbing my t-shirt again. “Get me a host and help me get out of here.”
“Why are you running?” Evan asks her, turning her to face him again.
“I left Luc,” she says, looking back at me, her mood going serious. “Help me.”
I nod grimly. Her admission has just made my job a lot easier. If she has come to the conclusion herself that she needs to run, then she will listen to what I have to tell her. “Come.” I hold my hand out for her, but she shakes her head.
“I’m not going anywhere looking like this!” she cries. “Get me a new host.”
“From where?” Evan asks desperately. “We don’t have time for this. He will be here any second.”
“Actually, he won’t be,” I point out. “There are rules…”
“A psychic! That is the easiest way to find a host. Most of them are hacks, but some are mystical,” she interrupts rudely. “Bring me a few and I should be able to jump.”
“You can’t do that,” I start, but Evan is already telling her he will find her someone.
He vanishes as quickly as he arrived and Axelle’s blue eyes land back on me. “Why am I so important to you?” she asks.
“You know why by now. It is my job to convince you of another course of action.”
“Which is?”
“Exactly what you are doing. You have left him before it was too late.”
Her face goes sad. “It is too late. I love him,” she mutters.
My heart feels like it has exploded in my chest. Another deadly sin hits me in the gut as envy floods me. I grit my teeth. I never thought I would see the day that I would be envious of the Devil. But this female has twisted me into a knot.