by Monica Rossi
He sipped the beer he’d ordered, eyes surveying the place, as he told himself the brew wasn’t the best he’d ever had. The women weren’t bad looking, he guessed, they just weren’t what he was used to. Clear faces free of make-up, hair in buns or braids or even dreads, all in long flowing dresses or skirts, and lots of patchwork. Some of them, even with their lack of adornment, were still smokeshows. But then, Demon was a connoisseur of women. He’d take them in any flavor.
“You look a little out of place,” a girl of no more than twenty sat down on the stool next to him. She wore a lose dress that tied around her neck, her honey blonde hair flowing down her bare back, leaving lots of dusky skin open to the eye.
“Oh really? I hadn’t noticed.” All of the other men seemed to be wearing khaki or plaid shorts with sandals, even though it was getting a little chilly outside. Demon, with his dirty looking bluejeans, tee-shirt and black leather cut probably did stand out. “Can I buy you a beer?” he asked her, he might as well take advantage if she were interested.
“No, thanks. I only drink mead,” she said, pointing to her wineglass.
“Ah, of course, mead,” he nodded, as if he drank mead all the time because he lived in the fucking sixteenth century.
“I’ve seen her before,” Veronica whispered in his ear, startling Demon.
“Everything ok,” the girl asked, noticing him jump slightly and stiffen.
“Yeah, fine,” he swatted like a bug had landed on him. “Must have been a fly. So, what’s your name?”
“You can call my Rhythm, what’s yours?”
Of course, Rhythm, it’s not like he’d expected a normal name. “You can call me Demon.”
“Demon, really?” she asked.
“Rhythm, really?” he replied.
She snorted and laughed, “You’ve got a point.”
“So what do you do Rhythm,” Demon leaned in, smiling a little, she was hot even if she had a stupid fucking name. He could think of worse ways to pass the night.
She caught her breath, it seemed the smile was working, “Oh you know, this and that.”
“Ah, yeah, that’s about what I do too,” his smile spread and he ran a finger across her arm. She looked down nervously, like maybe she was enjoying something she wasn’t supposed to. “You want to get out of here, take a ride with me?”
She swallowed, “Uh, yeah, yeah sure. Let’s go.”
Veronica started whispering furiously in his ear, “I remember now, I saw her at Fredrick’s, but not dressed like this, she was in a pantsuit when I saw her, holding files and talking to him. She’s probably one of his informants, finding locals with special abilities and turning them in. That’s probably why she’s talking you up, she knows a lot of dirty shifters,” she must have forgotten she was talking to one, or not, she was a bitch, “are in MCs. She’s probably going to test you somehow and then either try to kill you or take you back to Frederick.”
Demon’s eyes narrowed. What a golden opportunity.
Her phone beeped at her again. She’d missed another call from Red. She could not keep avoiding him. Sooner or later he was going to come find her and she wouldn’t be able to avoid him. And he was going to figure out she was hiding something and then she was going to have to lie to him and he was going to realize she was lying because she was a horrible liar.
She cradled her head on top of her arms, face turned sideways and she read some of her homework from Bree. This was a book on water magic, which seemed like it would be very useful to almost no one at all. She couldn’t really think of a point at which she’d need to call down a tidal wave. She could however think of a time in which she’d need a spell to make her a good liar. Because that point was now, right freaking now.
Her phone let out another little beep. Great, she had a text message.
“Hey babe, call me ASAP. I need you.”
Her stomach clenched in response. She needed him too, he didn’t even want to know how much. She’d lain awake at night, her body on fire, wishing he were there with her. She’d have to ask Bree for sure, but obviously practicing magic was some kind of aphrodisiac because she had been barely able to contain herself since she’d started her lessons. There were random moments of her day where she felt the tell-tale rush of wetness and a throbbing would begin, like she had a kick drum in her panties. It was infuriating and distracting. Not only was she trying to catch up at the clinic from all the time she’d missed but she was also trying to study on her lunch breaks and after work to learn all she could about ‘the craft’, as they all called it.
Sitting up straight in her chair she made a decision. She was going to have to bite the bullet, see Red, get all the lying out of the way, and then screw his brains out.
She dialed his number and waited as it rang.
“Sidney, where the fuck have you been?”
She was a little taken aback by the bite in his voice, “I can explain it Red I promise, but I’d rather do it in person.”
“Good, where are you?”
“I’m about to leave work now,” she closed the book she’d been studying and stuck it in her shoulder bag, making sure she wouldn’t be tempted to sit down and read it again and make herself into even more of a liar.
“I’ll meet you at your house in…. twenty minutes.”
“Ok, I haven’t…,” she started but he’d already hung up. She sighed, this might go worse than she’d imagined.
***
“Red, I promise I can explain, I haven’t been avoid – ” Red strode though her front door, letting the screen door slam behind him.
Without a word he gathered her in his arms and pressed himself to her, his mouth devouring hers with firm insistent lips. Desire rushed headlong through her, sheer wanton lust flaring uncontrollably.
He pulled back only long enough to glance down at her blouse before he took it in both hands and ripped it off of her. His hands roamed, rough and taking, pulling aside straps, tugging at her panties, grabbing her roughly as he lifted her and wrapped her legs around his waist.
She gasped at the violence of his lust. He’d never been a slow easy lover, but this was more than she was used to. He grabbed her hair and pulled, her head arching back and exposing her neck. She whimpered, not with fear, with pleasure.
A rumble escaped him as his lips descended onto her throat, biting, sucking licking. She couldn’t concentrate on anything except her need and the hardness pressed against her center. She ground her pelvis against him, liking the feel of the rough denim against her slit, massaging her clit. She let out another whimper and moved her hands between them and unbuttoning his pants and greedily pushing them aside, grasping for the hardness she knew was waiting for her there.
Sidney couldn’t wait, she guided him to her entrance and let him drive into her hard.
Their mouths met bruisingly again as he pumped into her, bringing her closer and closer to the edge. She had needed this, needed him so badly. She arched against him, wanting him harder, faster.
An animalist sound ripped from him as he came inside her, the pulsating of his cock stroking her inside. He held her steady but she kept rocking against him, so close to her own release.
Red, out of breath but still hard and willing to continue, moved them from the wall to the edge of the couch and flipped her over in one deft motion. Using his foot to spread her legs, he entered her hard and deep. She groaned, his cock was rubbing some magic spot inside of her that sent tingles across her scalp and pleasure through her body.
Hands placed on her hips he rode her relentlessly, each thrust causing the sensations to build until she was wound so tight she could hardly breath.
“Oh God,” she cried out as she came, her inner muscles clamping him tight as he worked in her, his on release happening moments later.
They collapsed in a damp pile on her couch, her in his lap, both unable to speak after the culmination of a week of wanting. They just held and stroked each other as they recovered.
“You want some
thing to drink,” she asked after they’d recovered for a minute. She felt like she could drink an ocean.
“Yeah, you got some beer?” his eyes were still closed, head leaned back against the sofa.
“Of course, your favorite kind,” she walked into the kitchen and immediately began to worry. The time of lies was upon her. She chewed on her bottom lip, she could do it. He wouldn’t find out, all she had to do was play it cool. She’d just had a lot to catch up on at work and her sister had come into town. Nothing sinister. No naked magic rites in the middle of a huge meadow surrounded by trees so big they shouldn’t even exist in this climate. Nope, none of that. Sister visit, lots of work, that is all.
“That was something else,” she said, holding the bottle out to him.
“Yeah,” he agreed, but didn’t elaborate or open his eyes. He was probably waiting on that explanation that was due to him.
“So,” she cleared her throat, not knowing where to begin, “How was your week?”
His eyes opened into slits, “Well, you’d know if you had bothered to call.”
Oh, he was going to be bitchy, this could get ugly. “I was really busy Red. I had a lot of –“
“Too busy for even five minutes of your time? Too busy to call Morgan and tell her why she hasn’t seen you all week? I see.”
“Look, I wanted to come see Morgan, to call her, but there are things you just don’t understand.”
“Of course I don’t, because you haven’t explained them to me.”
She caught her lip between her teeth. A sister visit and lots of work wasn’t a good enough excuse, she could see that now. It’d seem like she was callous and uncaring to let a little girl worry about her, and miss her, just because there were a few puppies that needed deworming.
Red was looking at her, waiting for her to speak and she couldn’t think of anything to say.
“I’m a witch,” she said quietly.
He sat straight up, she had his undivided attention now, “What? What did you just say?”
She held her hands out in front of her and shrugged, apologizing mentally for how stupid it sounded, “I’m a witch.”
“And when were you going to tell me this?” His eyes turned into hot steel , rage glittering just below the surface. With one motion he pulled his jeans back into position and stood to button them.
“Look, I just found out. That’s why I haven’t been around this week, I’ve been learning about… my witchiness.”
“That seems… improbable. Don’t most of you people learn from your parents?”
You people? “Well yeah that’s what they said but my parents never told me a thing. Fran told me. It was right when I got back to work, she saw all the bruises on my face and asked me about them and I wasn’t going to tell her anything, and then she grabbed me. I guess she was going to try to read my memories or something, I don’t even know if that is possible, but whatever, when she grabbed me I got… transported to this place where I talked to this… being. And I didn’t know what was happening…”
“Enough,” Red held a hand up to silence the ramble that was flowing out of her. “You do realize that we just had unprotected sex.”
“So?” She was confused, what did that have to do with anything? “You know I’m on birth control.”
A cruel sneer came over his face, “Birth control isn’t guaranteed and there is no way I want to father a… a thing… an abomination.” He grabbed his shirt, jerking it over his head.
“What?” He thought a baby they might make together would be an abomination?
He shook his head, “An abomination, a disgusting half-wolf half-witch thing that shouldn’t exist. Trust me, I know, and I can’t take the chance of creating one.”
Sidney didn’t know what to say. She didn’t know what he was trying to say. “Ok, so what are we going to do?”
“Nothing,” he started walking towards the door.
“What do you mean nothing?”
“Exactly what I said Sidney, nothing. We won’t be doing anything, not anymore. My kind and your kind,” he opened the door, “we don’t mix. It’s against nature. It’s… disgusting. If you find yourself pregnant, and it’s possible I’m the father, abort it. Quickly.”
He slammed the door as he left, sending shock waves through Sidney. Her breath came in gasps, her vision blurred by the tears streaming down her face, as she crumpled to the floor.
She rocked back and forth, her heart feeling like a lead weight that might fall out of her chest and roll across the floor at any moment, hugging herself to keep it in as her mind repeated over and over again the only thought it could hold.
He was gone. He didn’t want her anymore.
The cold wind whipped through his hair and Demon enjoyed the bite of it on his skin. Summer was all well and good but Autumn had always been his favorite season. He watched as the breeze ripped the leaves off the trees and made them dance through the air before decorating the ground, he smelled fire in the distance, some homeowner disregarding the rules and burning their grass cuttings and leaves, he listened while Red and Sidney fucked like wildcats, and he chewed on a hangnail.
He’d just gotten back in town and had immediately went to find Red, so he could tell him what he’d found out in Asheville and possibly kick his ass for hanging up on him during their last conversation. But, of course, because life could never be simple, Red wasn’t at the clubhouse, at home, or at work. That only left somewhere with Sidney. So Demon had gone by her house first, and praise Allah, and he’d gotten lucky. But not as lucky as Red was getting at the moment.
He listened to the little moans and deep breaths Sidney was making and his body responded, mind filling in the scene without his permission. Sometimes extra keen hearing wasn’t so much of a gift as it was a burden. He tried to occupy his thoughts with other things so the sounds coming from the tiny rental house wouldn’t affect him, though he’d have to save the fantasy image he’d gotten of Sidney for later use. Sleeping with Red or not, that girl was filled out in all the right places.
The trip to Asheville, even though it had gotten off to a slow start, had been very productive. He knew who was behind all of the mess that had happened, he knew what the crazy fucker wanted, and he knew who he was using to get it. Not a bad recognizance mission at all if you asked him. And on top of that he’d gotten that little bitch Rhythm, or whatever her real name was, to take him to the lab and show him what they were experimenting on. She hadn’t wanted to, of course, but when you only give people a couple of choices, ‘Do what I say’ or ‘Die slowly and painfully’, you tend to get a high rate of compliance. He had had to kill her regardless, of course, after she’d done what he needed her too, but she deserved it. Still, she’d been a halfway decent lay, enthusiastic at least, so he’d made it quick and painless. He wasn’t a monster, after all, at least not one on her level anyway.
What he’d found at the lab she’d taken him to had turned his stomach, and that wasn’t something that was easily accomplished. Room after room of not quite human test subjects, some passed out, some screaming and writhing in pain, all strapped down tightly to stainless steel metal gurneys. Their exposed skin a mess of half healed scars or oozing skin. Demon found it hard not to make her suffer the same fate those poor people had endured, but a promise was a promise, and she’d held up her end of the bargain, so instead of flaying her slowly, enjoying her screams as the skin peeled off of her like an over ripe peach, he’d just pulled her heart out. Not as humane as a snapped neck maybe, but he hadn’t wanted to miss watching the light as it left the bitches eyes.
“I believe the, uh, festivities are over,” said a disembodied voice from somewhere in front of him.
Demon snapped back to the present, letting the image of Rhythm dying slip from his mind, though the smile remained. “Good, maybe he’ll be out soon.” He shifted his stance, finding a more comfortable position as he leaned against his bike.
“Or you could go knock on the door so we can go. I’m sic
k of standing around.”
“You aren’t standing anywhere, you dead gash, and you may go wherever you want, the further away from me the better,” Demon was going to have to do something about this fucking ghost following him around. She had something to say about the way he ate, the way he washed his clothes, hell she’d even felt the need to chime in on the way he fucked. He was one hundred percent done with her bullshit.
She didn’t respond. He hoped she decided to keep it that way. But she was right, the sounds coming from the house had calmed down to just some heavy breathing. Maybe he’d hear some love talk he could rag Red with, maybe a baby name he could let slip while the rest of the guys were conveniently within hearing distance. As if ‘Red’ wasn’t bad enough.
Despite his inner monologue, Demon really hadn’t been paying attention to what the two were saying until the voices grew tense. Then he heard the damning words, “I’m a witch” and his breath caught in his throat.
Demon pressed his lips together as he listened to the scene across the street play out. No surprises there, he knew exactly how Red felt, and as soon as he’d heard the words leave her mouth he knew how this would end. Badly. Sidney was finding out something he’d already learned first hand, something he’d had to learn the hard way.
How shallow Red’s ‘love’ really was.
***
Red slammed the door behind him, the sudden afternoon sun blinding him as he walked out onto the porch. His insides were twisted like the melted metal left after an explosion. How could she have left out the fact that she was one of those... people, those things, the entire time she’d known him. Oh, she said she just found out but he found that a little hard to believe. But now things were beginning to make some goddamned sense. The unexplainable sound during his fight with Tinker, the way she’d healed him when he’d been poisoned, even though he should have died. The fact that she’d been able to kill that Hellhound bitch should have tipped him off. No regular human could have done that without taking some serious damage, and she hadn’t had much more than a few scratches on her. And then there was the way she’d wormed her way into his heart, into his life. He’d fallen for her almost immediately and not only that, he’d claimed her in front of the Dogs, something he could never take back. He spat on the street in disgust. She’d used her filthy magic to do it. Of course she had. There was no other explanation.