by Ken Scholes
“Unfortunately, it’d take a lot more than a 1968 Shelby Cobra to kill him, but he’ll feel it for a while.” I can hear the shake in my voice. “Truth is, your crucifix to his eye probably did more long-term damage. That’s going to set him back a bit.” I grab her hand. “Are you okay?”
“I think so,” she says, checking herself over as we pull out onto the main road.
I feel her shake as I wrap my arm around her shoulders and pull her close. This is as far from me as she’s ever going to get.
Chapter 19
Dance with the Devil
Luc
Frannie straightens Riley’s legs and sits next to her friends on my bed. “Are they gonna be okay?”
“Yeah. It’ll take a little while for them to come around. Demon possession can knock the Hell out of you.”
“You can just jump into other people’s bodies whenever you want?”
I nearly gag thinking about it, but then I remember being in Frannie-how incredible it was. “If they’re tagged for Heaven they’re off limits, but otherwise, yeah. It’s usually pretty uncomfortable. It’s cramped. and sort of sticky and slimy.”
“How does it work? Are you, like, both in there at the same time?”
“Pretty much. It takes a very strong mortal to hold his own against a demon who is trying to control him, so it’s usually like the mortal’s not even there, aside from taking up space. But it’s not always like that.” I think about dancing with Frannie again and feel a tingle work through me, making me shudder.
She looks at Taylor and Riley on the bed. “Will they remember anything about Belias and Avaira?”
“Probably not. When a mortal is possessed it’s almost like they go dormant. They won’t remember, and it’s probably best if they don’t know what happened.”
She stands up, meanders over, and wraps her arms around me. “How did you know?”
And that’s the problem. I didn’t until it was almost too late. I shake my head. “My sixth sense was buzzing when we got out of the car. It never occurred to me that Belias and Avaira would resort to possession. I figured when you left with Taylor and Riley, Belias would make a move to follow and I could take him down. But as soon as you pulled out of the parking lot, the buzz stopped. I’m embarrassed to say it took me a few minutes to figure it out, and, when I did, it was almost too late. I knew which direction you went. and then I remembered the quarry. Belias was there that night.”
“What does he want with me?”
“The same thing I did.” My heart aches. I know how hard this is for her to hear. But she needs to understand that they won’t give up until she’s tagged-one way or the other. “They’ll keep coming for you.”
She stiffens. “I hate this. Why is this happening to me?”
I hold her tighter. “I don’t know,” I say, wishing I did.
She sighs and presses her face into my chest. “So it’s always going to be like this.” A tear slips over her lashes, and I wipe it away. “I just want a normal life.”
I want to hold her and tell her it’s all going to be okay, but I’m not going to lie to Frannie anymore. “I think you gave up normal when you fell for a demon.” And maybe an angel. The thought sits like a stone in my core, weighing me down. I kiss the top of her head and sigh, “But I don’t see them stopping until they have you.”
“There’s nothing we can do?”
“We can try running, but I’m not sure there’s anywhere we could go that they wouldn’t find us.”
Her expression is suddenly determined. “I’m going to live my life. Otherwise what’s the point of fighting? I may as well just let them tag me now.”
I pull her closer, wishing it could be that easy. “There’s your Sway, Frannie.”
“What do you mean?”
“Your Sway. If it’s strong enough to change me, you should at least be able to use it to defend yourself.”
“How does it work?”
“That’s something you’ll have to figure out for yourself, but once you learn to control it, it should be some protection.”
She looks up at me, and I see the fear and trepidation in her eyes. “What was Belias gonna do?”
“Belias is a creature of lust, an incubus, so his technique usually involves seduction and soul sucking. But that’s only with mortals who are already tagged-I think.” I remember my conversation with Belias under Frannie’s tree. “He did say the rules were changing. ” I feel her shudder in my arms.
“This sucks,” she says, looking back at Riley and Taylor on the bed.
And just then, Taylor’s eyes snap open. Taylor gasps and sits up. “What the hell.?”
“Hey, Tay,” Frannie says, walking over and sitting next to her. Riley groans and opens her eyes, still looking groggy.
“What’s going on?” Taylor checks her clothes and looks around suspiciously.
“Just hanging out,” I say with a little push.
Riley sits up, still dazed.
“Hey, Ry. How you feeling?” Frannie says.
“Like shit,” she answers.
Taylor swings around and stares at me. “Where the hell are we?”
“Welcome to my humble abode,” I say through a smile with another push. “Don’t you remember coming up?”
Her eyes glaze over a little. “Maybe. ”
“You want another beer?” I head for the fridge.
“No!” Riley practically shouts, rubbing her forehead.
We get Taylor and Riley loaded into Riley’s car, which Frannie and I circled back to retrieve, and watch as they pull out. I look around and sigh in relief, thinking about how close that was-for all of us. I loop my arm protectively around Frannie as I steer her back up the stairs to my apartment. Once inside, she latches all the deadbolts and locks while I throw up a field, my own infernal deterrent. Then she drapes herself over me, and I feel my heart speed up. She’s still shaking a little. or is that me? I’m not sure. “You okay?” I whisper in her ear.
She presses into me. “I am now,” she says. Then she’s looking up at me with curious eyes. “So, what you said earlier. about being able to be in other people’s bodies. ”
“Yeah. ”
“I was kind of wondering. could you. you know, do that with me?”
I look at the floor, feeling more than a little guilty, and watch the toe of my boot scuff at one of the filthy linoleum daisies. “I have.”
I’m surprised when I look up and find her smiling. “When?”
“Just before I first kissed you.”
“You mean before I first kissed you.”
I crack a wide smile. “Actually, I kissed you first. You just slept through it.”
She laughs. “Could you do it again? I mean the thing where you’re inside me. I promise I’ll stay awake.”
My heart takes off. But as I fantasize about slipping through Frannie’s lips, being in there with her again, I realize that I might not be able to do it anymore. Things are changing fast. “I’m not sure.”
She stretches up onto her tiptoes and kisses me, then gazes into my depths and whispers, “Try.”
I kiss her again, pulling her to me as tightly as I can, and as her lips part, I let my essence flow through them. I’m surprised again at how effortless it feels-because she’s inviting me in, I’m sure. I feel that same overwhelming rush of sensations I felt the first time, many of which I now have names for. Love, for sure, but also joy, hope, and pure awe for her sheer beauty. She’s more beautiful on the inside, and that’s saying something. We dance-and I’m in Heaven.
I leave just enough of myself behind to control my body, and as I hold her on the outside, I caress her on the inside, drinking in her gasps and moans as I explore her, inside and out. I feel her body’s physical reaction-not to mention my own. Before I know it, we’re on the bed, shirts on the floor, and it takes everything I have to stop. My heart aches as I reluctantly pull my essence back, and I’m left with that same feeling of being empty and alone in my human shell
.
She sits up on the bed and huffs. “Why’d you stop?”
“A knowing act of lust with a demon will earn you a one-way ticket straight to the Abyss. I’m sure of it. We can’t do this until I know it’s safe for you.”
“They. you. you’re taking everything. My life. everything. This is all I want. Just this one thing. Please? You’re almost human.”
“I don’t know that. It seems to be the direction I’m headed. and I really want to. obviously.” God, how I want to. “But just the fact that I can still do. that,” I shudder, “means it’s not safe yet.”
She flings herself back into the pillows and blows her unruly tresses out of her face. “This bites.”
I shift up onto my elbow and kiss her. “You’re the only one who’s ever known who I am, who I’m not, and who I want to be. And somehow you love me anyway. I’m not taking any chances with you, Frannie.”
She rolls on her side and gazes into my eyes. A wicked little smile just curls the corners of her pouting lips. “That was amazing,” she says, tracing the lines of my cheekbone with the tip of her index finger and making me shudder. Then her smile widens. “Probably better than sex anyway.”
I smile back, dying to prove her wrong. It was amazing. Mind-blowing, actually. But I can’t imagine sex with Frannie would be anything less. “How much do you remember?”
Her smile widens and she trails a finger down my chest to the button of my jeans. “All of it.”
I can’t stop my own smile. “Interesting.”
Her finger trails along my stomach at the waistband of my jeans, driving me insane, and I’m right on the edge of diving back into her when she says, “Where is Hell, anyway?”
I almost laugh. “At the core.”
She looks into my face, surprised. “Of the Earth?”
“Yep.”
“So all those kids digging to China are in for one hell of a surprise.”
“Literally,” I chuckle.
“How did you get there? Did someone like you come after you?”
“No. I’m a creature of Hell.” I shoot a sideways glance at her, not sure how she’ll take that, but she just looks thoughtful.
“What do you mean?”
“Demons are created in Hell. We were never human.”
“I don’t get how that works.”
“We’re born from sin. My sin is pride, just like the original-King Lucifer. My name is a dead giveaway. Only creatures of pride are arrogant enough to take His name.”
Her eyes shift to her hand on my chest. “Would it be really weird if I said I think I kinda knew all along?”
I smile. “Yes.”
Her eyes flit to mine and away. She opens her mouth to say something then closes it again.
My smile widens. I lift her chin with a finger and fix her in my gaze. “What?”
She blushes and her face pulls into an embarrassed grimace. “Nothing,” she says, lowering her lashes.
“It’s obviously something.”
“I want to feel your horns,” she blurts without looking at me.
I grimace. “Why?”
She rolls with her back to me. “Forget it. It’s stupid.”
I roll her back and shift onto my elbows above her. “You’re not going to run screaming from the room?”
She lifts her eyes to mine, then lifts her head and kisses me. “After what you just did? What do you think?”
I close my eyes and push off my human shell and shudder when I feel Frannie’s fingers running slowly through my hair. There’s a tremble in her touch as she traces one finger around the base of my left horn, then up to the tip and back. I feel both of her hands wrap around them as she pulls me down into a kiss, and they vanish as I sink back into her.
When I pull back, I stare down into those sapphire eyes looking for any sign of fear or disgust, but all I see is love. I still can’t believe that look is directed at me.
“Will they try that again. with Taylor and Riley, I mean?”
I sigh and trail my finger down her nose, over her lips, down her chin and along her neck, stopping short of that insanely hot red bra. “Probably not. They know we’ll be looking for it.”
“What are we gonna do?”
I roll off her and shake my head. “I don’t know. My sixth sense is slipping. This is dangerous, Frannie. I can’t see them coming like I used to. I’m not sure I can protect you anymore.”
She smiles. “I need another cross, and I think you need a talisman. Something to ward off evil spirits.”
“And just where am I going to get this talisman?”
If I didn’t know better, I’d swear her eyes were glowing. She sits up and turns her back to me, undoing the clasp of her bra and sliding it off. As I watch, I feel things. stirring. and it’s taking every ounce of restraint I can muster not to jump her right this second. She pulls a pillow in front of her and turns back, her hair spilling across one side of her face. She tosses her bra to me with a sinful grin that would put any demon to shame.
“Your talisman,” she says.
“If you think this is going to ward off evil spirits,” I say, holding it up, “then you don’t know much about evil spirits.” I look at her and work to control my breathing. “You have no idea what you’re doing to me.” Truth is, I have no idea what she’s doing to me either. This is completely uncharted territory. But, whatever it is, I think I like it.
Still grinning wickedly, she says, “I’m not sorry.”
But then I see it. The answer. I hesitate for just a second, letting my eyes eat Frannie alive, before hanging her bra on my headboard and tossing her shirt to her. “As much as it pains me to say it, you have to get dressed. Gabriel has something we need.”
Frannie
“I’m not going to let him tag me,” I say on the way to Gabriel’s house.
“I wish you would. That’d be the surest way. But there are other things that might be almost as good.”
“Like what?”
“Being a Dominion, he’s privy to information I’m not. He’s also got power I can only dream of.”
I think about our kiss-how it made me feel-and raise my hand to my lips and sigh.
“What’s going on with you two?” Luc’s voice is soft, but with an edge.
“Nothing.” I think.
“You’re a terrible liar.”
“I’m not-” lying, I start to say. But I am. ’Cause there is something going on. I just have no idea what it is. “I kissed him.”
Luc slams on the brakes, skidding to the side of the road. “You what?”
“I kissed him.”
He just stares at me, rage storming in his eyes. “When?”
“Before us-mostly,” I say.
“Mostly? What’s mostly?”
And his rage triggers my own. “You know what? It’s none of your business. At least he wasn’t nearly naked in my goddamn bed! And I’m still not convinced you weren’t doing Avaira!”
His jaw clenches and his eyes narrow. “Did he kiss you back?”
I slide down in the seat and cross my arms tight across my chest to keep from hitting him. “I told you, it’s none of your business.”
“Well this is just rich,” he says, his voice acid, “not only are you bringing down demons, but Dominions too.” He pulls back up onto the road and stares blindly out the windshield. “So, do you want him? Because whatever you want, you can pretty much have, what with the whole Sway thing.”
I glare at him. “Just take me home.”
I keep my arms wrapped tightly around me. The ache in my chest threatens to dissolve into angry tears, but I force myself not to cry. I won’t give him the satisfaction.
He pulls over on the side of the road again and just sits there, staring straight ahead-forever.
“I can walk from here,” I finally say, reaching for the door handle.
“Stop.” His hand darts out and grasps my wrist.
I jerk my arm away. “Let go!” But when I turn to look at hi
m, his face is soft and his eyes are deep.
“Frannie, please try to remember that I’m new at this. I’ve still got feelings-emotions-raging through me that I can’t even begin to identify. I don’t know what I’m supposed to do with them. I didn’t mean what I said. I’m sorry.”
I fight against the tears again. I really want to be mad at him. I want to hate him, ’cause it feels safer than loving him.
I tug on the door handle. “Too late.” I step out of the car, but before I get ten feet, he’s there, wrapping his arms around me from behind.
“Let go of me!”
A passing car slows and pulls onto the shoulder just as I pull Luc’s arm off me and throw him over my shoulder onto the ground. A tall, skinny man about my dad’s age gets out and looks at me with wide eyes. “Do you need help, miss?”
I look down at Luc, and, for a second, I’m madder, ’cause he’s laughing.
“You think it’s funny?” I sneer. But then I realize how ridiculous we must look, and there’s no stopping the stupid smile that pulls at my lips.
“Miss?” the guy says, taking a cautious step toward us.
Luc pulls himself off the ground as I break into an uncontrollable giggle. He looks at the guy. “We’re fine. ” his gaze shifts back to me, “I think.”
I can’t stop laughing, but I nod.
The guy doesn’t look sure, so I work really hard to stop giggling. “Thank you, but I’m okay.”
He eyes Luc warily. “If you’re sure.”
I clear my throat and try to look serious. “I’m sure.”
As he climbs back in his car and pulls away, I feel Luc’s arms snake around my waist and pull my body into his. “Are you done beating me up?” Luc says into my hair, and I can hear the smile in his voice.
“Maybe.” I spin in his arms and wipe a smudge of dirt off his cheek. “Are you done pissing me off?”
He grins. “Maybe.”
He grabs my hand and tows me back to the car. But as we pull away, something he said hits me hard, like a fist to the gut, and I feel suddenly sick.
“Do you think I cheated?”
He loops his arm over my shoulders. “What?”
“You just said I could pretty much have whatever I wanted. Did I make you love me?”