by Cari Z
“Who are you?” Devon asked hesitantly.
The demon tutted derisively, as though scolding a poor student. “You know who I am, kitten.”
Devon had heard her say it, but it hadn’t really sunk in until now. “You’re Cressidus.”
“The one and only.”
“You’re the demon who raped my mother.”
“Nonsense,” Cressidus scoffed. “There was no rape involved. Your mother worshipped me; she gave herself over to my power willingly. The man I inhabited while you were made felt the same. I’ve never had to coerce my followers, not when they’re the ones who chose to summon me in the first place. Your mother was a got everything she wanted out of me, including a baby.” Cressidus sighed and pouted a little. The expression looked ridiculous on a dead woman’s face.
“People want things they don’t understand. Your mother thought having my baby would give her access to unconditional love from both of us, but that cult couldn’t maintain their hold on me for long, and babies are so much more work than parents realize at first. Your mother gave you away before you were a year old, did you know that?”
No, Devon hadn’t known that. He’d done his best over the years not to wonder too hard about his mother, convinced that nothing good was going to come of it. He hadn’t always been successful. It was a common thing among the other fosters, wondering where their real parents were. Some of them had known: hospital, prison, dead. Devon had envied them their certainty. Not knowing gave him room to hope, and he had hoped for almost ten years that something better was going to happen to him, that someone better was coming for him. But no one ever did.
At his most optimistic, Devon had hoped that his mother had wanted to keep him but had died. Her death was the only reason child-Devon could think of that could justify the abusive foster homes, the man who’d visited him and found out what he was, then stolen him and made life even worse.
“When I found out, I had her killed,” Cressidus continued, watching Devon’s reaction carefully. Devon did his best to stay calm, but the demon nodded as though it had seen exactly how conflicted he felt about that. “Because you were one of my successes, Devon, one of the few, and she gave you away. The more powerful the demon, the less likely it is that a woman will successfully bear that demon a child. Did you know that?” Cressidus read his ignorance in his face even though he tried to be impassive. “Your foster fathers should have told you more. You might have gone into this hunt of yours better prepared if they had.
“Most women who give birth to cambions die in the process, or at least they did until rather recently in the span of my existence. Humans aren’t meant to contain such elemental forces. I spent centuries trying to breed offspring sufficient to bear my power, and happily, now I find myself with an embarrassment of riches.” She laughed, and the demon’s voice was much louder this time, almost overpowering that of poor dead Cassandra. “It’s so wonderful to be afforded options.”
Keep it together, Devon told himself. Keep it together. You’re going to get out of this. Rio is coming for you. Of course Rio was coming for him. Devon remembered that part of their terribly fucked-up mission—Rio’s hand covering Devon’s cheek as he swore to find Devon. Devon just had to make it until then.
“Options for what?” Devon forced himself to ask, carefully secreting the shiv under the waist of his pants at the small of his back. Cressidus didn’t seem to notice.
“For my new body, obviously. This one won’t do.” Cressidus tapped the side of her mangled head meaningfully. “Your friend is rather ruthless. Demons might not bleed, but that doesn’t mean we can simply ignore it when our host’s brains are blown out. Poor Porter was genuinely shocked.”
Cressidus shrugged. “It doesn’t matter; Cassandra was the least able of my children, although I suspect her mother won’t see it that way. That would be Penelope,” she clarified. “The woman who owned the club that you and your interesting little friend followed Porter to. I suspect that losing her daughter will destabilize her permanently, but our bargain was drawing to a close anyway. Beauty, power, sexual appeal…I gave her everything she asked of me, and I took my payment in flesh.”
Devon’s stomach roiled with disgust and odd, second-hand guilt over the dead woman he couldn’t look away from. “You’re completely fucked up, you know that? Fucked. Up.”
“You’re entitled to your opinion, kitten,” Cressidus said indulgently. “And I suspect that opinion will change once you get to know me more intimately. I went to a lot of trouble to bring you here, Devon, and I’m going to take my measure of you one way or another. It will be much better for you if you let me inside of you willingly.”
“You don’t need my permission to take over my body.” It was a fearful thought, but it was true. The demon had already done it once, after all. Any incubus forced into human form could influence a cambion, and Cressidus being Devon’s sire just made her control even more potent.
“Oh, that was simply giving you directions, hardly beyond playing. I want more than that, kitten. I want us to become one; I want to understand every part of you, to possess everything you are. I want to own your very soul, my son. I either need your willing cooperation to get that deep, or you’ve got to be so weak that you’re close to death. Do you want to tempt fate that way?” Cressidus leaned close to the grate, her emerald eyes shining with unearthly brightness.
“Give yourself over to me and we will become a completely new creature, united in power, a being not seen on this earth for hundreds of years. A cambion and his sire, fully incarnate, Devon. Not bound by the rules of either Heaven or Hell, or victim to the vicious whims of humanity. Together we will never age, never succumb to sickness; our body will heal every wound. You’ve always wanted to be this close to someone else, I know you have. I can feel the need in you, my son. You have given your heart away time and again, but no one has ever given theirs back; even your fathers hold each other first and foremost, and forever shall. You’ll always be no more than second best to anyone else.”
It was like poison in his ears, dripping down into his brain. Devon didn’t care about looking vulnerable anymore; he shut his eyes and looked away, pressed his hands tight over his ears, but it did nothing to block out the intense resonance of the demon’s voice. It vibrated through his body, filling him with the urge to move, to reach out, to connect.
“You would always be first to me, my son. Come to me willingly and I’ll preserve everyone you love, even those who aren’t worthy of it. Even the nephilim. I know that you love him; I felt it in your mind. Loving a monster like that… It’s a disappointment, but one I would tolerate if you join with me.”
“Nephilim?” Devon asked weakly, trying to ignore the pull of pleasure he felt emanating from the demon. It promised ecstasy, delight, happiness; everything he could ever want to feel, Cressidus was throwing at him. “What’s a nephilim?”
“It’s a half-breed like you, kitten, only the other way around. Your Rio is the offspring of a human and an angel, a giant in stature straight out of the scriptures. They’re terribly violent creatures, and most of them died centuries ago.” Cressidus sounded put out. “It’s a shock that any have lived to see the modern age, really. They’re strong, but far too opinionated for their own good.”
“Rio’s the son of an angel?” Wait, then that meant… “There are really angels?”
“There are demons, kitten, why shouldn’t there be angels?”
“I’ve never seen one,” Devon said, opening his eyes and chancing a look up at Cressidus. Demons, fine, they were the sort of wicked that went hand in hand with mankind. But angels were supposed to be good, weren’t they? The ultimate good, guardians, protectors of mankind. Devon had never not believed in them, precisely, but he’d always thought of them as less…physical. More of a force than a person.
Cressidus threw her head back and laughed. “You’re so ridiculously ignorant, kitten! You lived with an angel for years! Why else wouldn’t I have taken you sooner, when
you were young and vulnerable? If only I had found you first,” she added with a sigh. “Your particular angel is very interesting, somewhere between righteous and fallen. Not powerful himself, but very powerfully protected. I can’t enter his territory, but I’d be very surprised if he dared to enter mine.” She licked her lips. “An angel’s blood is particularly sweet…I wonder if his would still taste as potent after being gone from Heaven for so long.”
Devon’s head spun. One of his fathers was a…an angel? Why didn’t he know? Why hadn’t they told him? Or maybe Devon really was ignorant, or worse, stupid. Neither of his dads could be affected by a cambion’s power, that was true, but Devon had assumed it was some kind of magic, or maybe a side effect of their commitment to each other. Nope, none of the above, just one of them being a fucking angel. How much more didn’t Devon know?
He wanted to curl up into a ball and just stop thinking, to shrink away from the source of so much confusion and temptation. His whole body seemed to pulse with directionless desire, and his erection was so hard it hurt.
“It’s all right to give in,” Cressidus murmured, reaching cold fingers through the grate toward Devon’s face. “We don’t have to make this difficult. Open yourself up to me, kitten. I’ll take good care of you. Just relax and say yes.”
“No.” No, Devon had to hold on. Rio was coming, and Devon had to wait for him. It might be stupid, Rio might not feel the same way about Devon that Devon felt about him, but Rio had asked him to have faith. Devon might not know what to believe about anything else right now, but he still had complete faith in Rio. “No.”
“I could make you,” Cressidus told him. She said it simply, as though it were an incontrovertible fact. “Given a little time. I could pull you out of this cage and force you debase yourself. I could hurt and humiliate you past bearing. I could make you want to hurt yourself for me, kitten. I could make you do anything I wish.”
“So why don’t you?” Devon snapped, lifting his head and glaring at her.
“Because then I would have to waste time and energy repairing you, and I don’t have an abundance of either right now. Your friend will be coming, after all, and I want us to be looking our best for him.”
“You said you wouldn’t hurt him.”
“And I won’t,” Cressidus promised. “If you welcome me in, son. If you accept that you’re my perfect vessel and meant to be with me. Do that and I’ll let the nephilim live, I swear it.”
The demon’s eyes glittered, and her power flowed over Devon persuasively, leaving him trembling and desperate for more. Every nerve smoldered, ready to ignite with either pain or pleasure, he couldn’t even tell which any more. Devon had never needed to orgasm so badly in his life; his cock leaked a steady stream of precome into his pants, and the ache made him want to beg for relief.
Cressidus could have smothered him, Devon knew that; the demon could wriggle into his mind and body and crack him open like a walnut if she chose to. But she hadn’t, not yet, and that meant Devon still had a chance at waiting her out. The idea that he could save Rio was desperately tempting, but Devon also knew that Rio wouldn’t thank him for keeping him from a fight.
“No,” he said through gritted teeth. “You can’t have me. I won’t give myself to you.”
The demon’s power drew back, and she grimaced darkly.
“I never thought you would be this difficult. The children I sired overseas were raised to be far more obedient to their elders.” The demon pulled her hand away from the grate. “I followed your progress for years from a distance, my son. I chose you for the honor of incarnating with me more for your finesse than for your raw power, Devon. If I needed power, I would have gone with Shan.” Cressidus stood up. “Remember what I said about being spoiled for choice, Devon? Yesterday I had four children; today I’m down to three. Before another day is over, I will have only two.
“Mei is too young to move through society without attracting undue attention, but either you or Shan will suit me in the end. You were always my first choice, Devon, and Shan knows that.” Cressidus’s voice took on a darker edge. “And he’s always hated the thought of being second best.
The demon kicked the grate hard enough to leave a dent in it. Devon heard a bone in her foot snap, but Cressidus didn’t seem to notice. “No more coddling you. If you won’t give yourself to me, then you’ll have to fight to save yourself. And Shan will certainly be trying to kill you, Devon. So if you want to live to see your lover ride to your rescue, then you’d better fight for your life.”
Chapter Twenty-Three
It might have seemed like a challenge at first, making Rio’s motel room even more uncomfortable than it already was, but this phone call was managing it. At least he was weathering it without an audience. Steven had taken Maggie out for a walk; the little dog had gotten a bit too interested in the mess on the bed, and Steven had clearly needed a break. Rio had encouraged them to leave; it was better to face this new situation down on his own.
Rio had snagged the clean pillow from the top of the bed and placed it under Maria’s head; it was the only option he had for making her more comfortable, since the floor was filthy and most of the bed was bloody. Porter Grey still lived, breathing shallow, wheezy breaths and slowly seeping more blood into the bandages around his waist. He was as pallid as his own name, and it was all Rio could do not to shake him awake again and demand answers. That wouldn’t help, he knew it wouldn’t, and so he let the man sleep instead, bleeding his precious life away, while Rio tried to focus on the problem at hand: handling Devon’s fathers. Pacing while he was doing it made Rio feel a bit like he was dodging, so he kept it up despite the hint of shame it made him feel.
Explaining to your lover’s parents that their son had been kidnapped right out from under your nose, while you were watching, in fact, was at the very top of the list of things Rio never, ever wanted to experience again. Both men were on the other end of the line, and they listened to Rio’s explanation in silence until he got to the end of it.
Once Rio finished, Renat let loose with a string of curses in a language that made the man’s beautiful voice sound like he had lined his throat with razor blades: the words were ugly, vicious and hinted of blood. That was the being who had once been a prince of Hell speaking, not the wholly human artist of now, not the loving husband and father. That was a creature who had been death and violence incarnate, and who in this moment was clearly missing his former wicked glory.
“Not so loud, the children might hear,” Emiel warned, his own usually gentle tones curt and gravelly. “God damn it,” he said a moment later, and Rio was stunned into an abrupt stop. He knew the look on his face had to be somewhere between stunned and fearful, to hear an angel of the Lord blaspheming so. There was no subsequent bolt of lightning, however, so apparently God was more forgiving than Rio had ever given him credit for.
It turned out there were limits to what Emiel could do, and locating Devon when Emiel himself was so far away was one of them. The obvious solution for that was to bring Emiel to Seattle, quickly, but Ren shot that down in a heartbeat.
“You can’t leave Florence,” he told Em, absolutely no compromise in his voice. “Not for this. A direct confrontation with a demon would destroy you.”
“I wouldn’t have to confront it,” Em argued. “I could simply narrow down Rio’s area of search. I wouldn’t get anywhere near it.”
“You don’t know that. You don’t know how many cambion it’s claimed to do its dirty work, you don’t know for certain that it’s working without the help of other demons, you don’t even know how many humans are under its control. Neither of you do,” Ren added for Rio’s benefit. “You’re too vulnerable to attack out there. I won’t let you go.”
“This is our son,” Em protested. Rio felt himself flush; this was a conversation he really didn’t have any business listening in on, but he couldn’t hang up the phone. “You would let our son be violated by a demon, this demon, just because—”
&nb
sp; “I would let the world burn,” Ren said bluntly, his voice soft and intimate. It was just as frightening a sound as his curses, somehow. “I would let the earth itself be overrun if I thought it would keep you safe. I love Devon with all my heart, but you are more than that. You were worth falling for. You’re certainly worth sacrificing for, but it isn’t going to come to that. Rio.” The softness was gone now. “You said you’re working with a tabula rasa, one with a special tattoo. He can’t pull the information out of Grey’s head?”
“He tried,” Rio said. “There isn’t enough power left in it. Or Grey’s buried the information so far down inside of himself that it’s unreachable.”
“It won’t be unreachable,” Ren assured him. “Porter Grey has just been abandoned by the one person who made his dark, pathetic little life worth living. He’s wounded, he’s surrounded by his enemies…oh, he’s thinking of Cressidus. Trust me, he can’t think of anything else.”
“Renat,” Em said, sorrowful instead of angry now.
“I’m not blaming you, my love, I’m simply illustrating a point,” Ren replied. “Your tabula rasa—”
“Steven.”
“Fine, Steven. Is he experienced?”
“The kid’s covered with tattoos,” Rio said.
“Then he should know enough to make this work. Gregorio Pagani,” Ren said, his voice utterly serious, “what would you offer of yourself to save Devon? Think carefully, because I’m about to ask for a lot.”
“Anything,” Rio said instantly. He meant it, too. “Anything at all.”
“Good. Go and get Steven back in there; I need to talk to him.”
Rio had no idea what was going on, but the confidence in Ren’s voice was terribly reassuring. For a moment a memory Rio had all but forgotten flashed into his head: his father, larger than life on horseback and in armor, leading his knights into battle without a care for the blades and arrows of his foes. Confidence inspired others, confidence won battles, and Rio needed all the confidence that Ren could muster right now, because with every minute that went by his heart sank a little deeper. “I’ll get him.”