A range of mountains appeared in the distance, and the dragon headed towards their ragged purple peaks. Within a few minutes we had landed on a snowy ledge. We all hopped off. “Thank you, friend,” Pan said to the dragon. It responded with a plume of flame as it took off into the sky.
“What now?” Eli asked.
“Now, we just open a door back to Earth.” Pan ignored our puzzled expressions and lifted his walking staff into the air. With the head of the staff, he drew a rectangle in the space before him. Glowing lines appeared along the edges. He pushed his palm forward, and the rectangle fell, revealing a city street at night. “Ladies first,” he said with a bow.
I followed Quinn through the door onto the street, stepping over the strange rectangle of Faerie sky that Pan had cut out. Comfort enveloped me as I stepped into the cool darkness of the night. We were on Broad Street, the Space Needle hovering just a few blocks away. Quinn wrapped me in a tight hug.
“You rescued us. I can’t believe it.”
“Well, I wouldn’t be a very good friend if I let the faeries keep you as pets, now would I?” I shifted uncomfortably in her grasp.
“Just shut up and let us say thank you,” Riley said, adding himself to the group hug.
“Are you guys okay?” I croaked from under all the hugging.
“We’re fine,” Riley answered.
“They didn’t make you fight in the arena or anything?”
“No,” Quinn said. “We’re okay, really. They grabbed us on the way to Noir, and after the video, they took us straight to the gladiator arena and threw us in a cell. We were scheduled to do some battles, but then you showed up and saved the day in classic Zyan Star fashion.”
“I must express my thanks as well,” the HR said when I’d finally managed to untangle myself from Riley and Quinn. “You’ve proven yourself to be the right person for the job. And, a good friend, if I may call you that.”
“You may,” I said, feeling a strange warmth in my cheeks. “And I must thank you, Pan, for leading us into Faerie and back out again in one piece.”
Pan nodded, his silken red hair shifting in a night breeze. “You allowed me a chance to get revenge on Taryn Blackflame. An altogether entertaining adventure.” He leaned on his staff, looking back and forth between me and Eli. “I say farewell for now. But I will call upon you, Eli, for my favor at some point in the future. And you, Zyan, I will call upon as well, though your debt is fulfilled. Hopefully we can entertain each other further.”
His expression left nothing to the imagination there, and I definitely felt myself blushing this time, mostly because the HR stood right next to me. Pan sauntered down the street, spinning his walking stick in his hands, and then vanished in a burst of moss green sparks.
“I’m going to get the HR back to headquarters,” Eli said to us. Then he smiled down at his boss. “I’m sure there are a few people who want to see you.”
“Thank you again, Zyan.” The HR met my warm brown eyes with his dark ones.
“Of course,” I responded.
Eli looked at me. “I’ll call you later.” His purple gaze shifted around. “Try and uh—get some rest or whatever.” And he and the HR vanished.
Quinn shot me a puzzled look. “Why was Eli acting so awkward all the sudden?”
I shrugged and started walking down the street. “Bed sounds beautiful right about now.”
“Wait—something happened, didn’t it?” Riley’s voice, his footsteps right behind me.
“Uh, yeah. We just had to follow Pan, the God of nature, who is questionably sane, into Faerie. And then that whole gladiator thing…”
“You’re dodging the question.”
I rolled my eyes. “No, I was simply answering it. Plenty of things happened, and yes, one of those things might have been a kiss, but only—”
“Whoa! What?” Quinn shrieked.
“But only because Pan made us. Twisted little faerie fuck….”
“Wait, how did he ‘make’ you?” Riley smirked, doubt written on his face.
“It went something like ‘I’ve never seen a soul sucker and an angel kiss, entertain me or die’. He had quite a few faerie thugs to back up his threat.” They both kept silent for a moment, contemplating my words. “Anyways, I don’t know why he’s being all awkward, because it didn’t mean anything.”
“So, how was it?” Quinn asked, a gleam in her eye.
I groaned. “Don’t know, Quinn, I was kind of hoping we wouldn’t die, and worrying about your dumb asses, and trying not to drink Eli’s life force, which smells pretty amazing.”
“You’re such a liar.” Riley shot me a knowing look and strode on ahead.
“Think what you want,” I hissed, but they both laughed.
We arrived back home a few minutes later. Quinn and Riley went to their respective rooms. I sunk down onto the sofa. It’d been a really interesting last couple of days.
Someone knocked on the door, making every muscle in my body tighten. With a groan, I got up and walked across the room. I looked through the peephole, saw a familiar Irish shapeshifter, and swung the door open.
“Donovan, what are you—”
By way of greeting, he crushed me against him, his face in my hair. “Oh, thank God!”
“You’re crushing me!” I croaked. Not that I couldn’t get out of his hold, but I didn’t want to hurt the poor man.
He released his hold, a little, and stared at me as if trying to determine if I were a mirage. “I thought you were dead! I saw the news, and I knew you went down to Faerie, because you’re Zyan Star, and of course you went to Faerie, and—” And then his lips were on mine, not gently.
Donovan had always been an amazing kisser. Sweet and fierce, sensual and hungry, all at once. Our relationship years before had been extremely… passionate. We didn’t do a whole lot other than hunt things and spend time in the bedroom. Bedroom being a fairly loose term, as we often didn’t quite make it to a bedroom. But in all that time, never had he kissed me like this, like he was going to devour me, like I was the only thing in all the realms that he wanted. Needed.
And a small voice in my head felt inclined to remind me that I’d just been kissing someone else not a handful of hours before, but that small voice faded as I wrapped my legs around Donovan’s waist and dug my fingers into his strong shoulders. He carried me to my room and we fell on the bed in a tangle of limbs. My body was so hot I felt like I was going nuclear. I pulled off my shirt, ripping it in the process, and leaned forward to help him with his. Donovan stilled, placing a hand on each side of my face, and kissed my forehead.
“I can’t live without you, Zy,” he murmured.
“Can you say that again once your pants are off?”
He caught me in an intense gaze. “I’m serious.”
WTF was happening? “Um…”
“It’s not just about sex,” he said. “And I’m going to prove it.”
I looked down at a certain part of his anatomy that was straining up through his jeans. “Your body is majorly disproving it. Whatever “it” is.”
“You. Me. Us. I’m not trying to get you back for a cheap fling. For a purely physical relationship. We had that before. It didn’t work. I’m different now.” He held my gaze, his brow furrowed earnestly. “I love you, Zyan Star. I’m just going to say it, because it’s how I feel, and I want you to know.”
Well, fuuuucckkk. That was unexpected.
“And you don’t have to say it back now, because I know you’re not going to, and I don’t care.”
I took a deep breath and tried to speak. Failed. Tried again. “I—I’m at a loss for words.”
He smiled and stroked my hair. “I know. Just be here.”
We laid there in silence for several minutes. I was already grateful that I had survived my trip to Faerie, but Donovan’s reaction made me feel even more lucky. Wasn’t sure I was ready for our relationship to get serious, and I certainly wasn’t ready for the dropping of the L-bomb, but still. I was h
ere, and unharmed. Things could be way worse.
“I suppose what happened tonight is my bad karma for the other evening, when you made me dinner,” I said after a while.
“Yes. I suppose that’s true.” Donovan chuckled. “I may have enjoyed it. Just a little.”
“Hey!”
“Even the great Zyan Star gets turned down once in a while,” he said with a laugh.
I smacked him in the face with my pillow. “Smart ass.”
“I don’t get it,” I said, a few hours later, after getting some much-needed sleep. We were all sitting out in the living room. “I expected some sort of massive attack or societal breakdown while we were gone. Why else kidnap you guys and the HR?”
“I’m sure they didn’t expect you to get out alive,” Donovan commented.
“We were gone, what, about eight hours?” Quinn said.
Riley piped in. “What was about eight hours in Faerie was over two days here. The time passes differently.”
“Which makes my case even more—that’s plenty of time for an invasion to begin,” I said.
There was a knock at the door. Good grief. Couldn’t anybody ever call ahead of time? I walked over and glanced through the peephole. Eli. I opened the door.
“Has it started?” I asked by way of greeting.
“Yes.” His eyes were bright, like he’d had too much caffeine or something. “There’s a major breach in West Seattle. It looks like whatever plan Lucifer has in mind has been sprung. You ready?”
“Oh, sure, why not. The end of the world! Mind if I get some shoes on?” Without waiting for a response, I sauntered back into the apartment.
Eli followed me in, greeting the other three.
“No rest for the wicked,” I sighed. “You guys ready to stop this breach?”
“Let’s do this,” Riley said with a fist pump.
Quinn nodded in agreement and Donovan said, “Let me call my crew,” and opened up his phone.
“I’ll take Zyan and Riley through first, then you guys?” Eli asked.
We stepped up next to Eli, and reappeared a moment later in the midst of Armageddon. Eli disappeared again and thirty seconds later was back with Donovan and Quinn.
There had to be at least fifty demons, ranging from eighth level on up to twelfth. The NHTF and angel warriors outnumbered them slightly, but for demons of this level, it would take three or four warriors for each. I saw Commander Hunter leading a team against one of the twelfth level demons, and Eli immediately darted off to assist her. As he approached, she yelled and waved him off. “Don’t come any closer!”
He paused for just a moment, and then an explosion blasted him backwards. “Marissa!”
The smoke cleared and Hunter came running towards us with her team. “I’m fine. It’s you I was worried about. We’re using a special bomb on the demons. It’s deadly for supes.”
“Including angels?” Eli asked, looking astonished.
“Yes, including angels,” she responded, looking uncomfortable.
Quinn, Riley and D didn’t look too happy about it either, but I said, “Groovy. If they kill these fuckers, I’m down with it.”
“What’s the blast radius?” Eli asked, all logical and stuff.
“Twenty feet or so. So just make sure you’re clear before they go off.”
“Alright, load me up,” I said impatiently.
Hunter tossed me two small silver orbs. “Be careful.”
“I’ll try.” I shot off in the direction of a cluster of demons that seemed to be pummeling some of the NHTF agents pretty hard. I heard Donovan and Riley shift shape and tear after me. Coming in at a hard run, I whipped past the agents and pulled my blade. I went in a circle around the demons, weaving in and out in a blur, slicing at their legs. On my second rotation, I jumped straight up into the air, pressing the red button on the bomb and tossing it down between them. “Duck and cover!” I yelled, tucking into a tight ball and spinning out into the night. One second, two seconds, three—the night lit up with a white flash and a satisfying boom. I landed and watched the astonished expressions on all the agents’ faces as the demons dissolved before their eyes. Good ol’ government. Always coming up with new things to play with.
Turning, I saw Eli and Commander Hunter fighting back to back against two tenth level demons, Hunter with some sort of automatic weapon that launched blasts of white light instead of bullets. I was mentally planning the next good place to plant my second bomb when something smashed into the back of my head and sent me flying. I flew about thirty feet, landing hard with my cheek against the pavement. Rolling over, I got to my feet just as the twelfth level demon blasted another spell at me.
I rubbed the back of my throbbing head. As a wave of anger washed over me, I saw my demon mark begin to glow. Which made me more mad, which made it glow even brighter.
“It looks like you have a problem with your temper,” the demon said with a throaty laugh.
“You have no idea.” I leaped up, pulled my sword and stabbed it through one of its eyes, using my weight to drag the blade down through his face and neck. The demon burst into ash.
The howl of a wolf broke the night and I saw the cavalry had arrived. The shapeshifter cavalry, that is, Donovan’s crew. A stream of wolves, panthers and a couple tigers poured around the battle scene, launching themselves at the demons. “Stay away from the bombs!” I yelled.
Quinn ran up next to me, throwing spells as she went.
“Can you do some sort of spell to hold the demons still?” I yelled above the noise.
“Yeah. I think so. But only for about ten seconds—they’re so strong,” she replied.
“That should be enough time. See that group over there?” I pointed to five demons that were bearing down on a group of angels and agents. “On my count, cast your spell. I’ll run in, clear out the angels and drop the demons a surprise. Got it?”
She nodded.
“Okay—one, two, three!”
Purple bolts of magic shot past me as I ran into the throng. “All supes clear out!” I called. The demons were all frozen with shocked expressions on their faces, but one of them could still wiggle a bit. The angels had taken flight and the humans were backing up. The bombs wouldn’t hurt them, but when the blast hit it would knock them on their asses. I pressed the red button and flung the bomb under the demons’ feet. Right as I saw one of the wolves dash into the blast radius.
There wasn’t time to call a warning. I put on a burst of speed and plowed into him, feeling the shockwave from the bomb moving towards us. We skidded across the ground, inches in front of the blast. Finally we came to a stop with a final bone crunching somersault. I sat up and popped my jaw back into place. A long lupine tongue slurped up the side of my cheek, and the wolf darted away.
“That was too close,” Quinn squealed, running up to me.
“Hey, it’s not exciting if there’s not a little near-death experience involved.” I grinned and rolled to my feet.
With the help of the shifters and the dozen-or-so demons I’d taken out singlehandedly (not that I’m bragging or anything), the fight quickly turned in our favor and a few minutes later only piles of dust left any indication that Hell’s finest had just tried to ransack Seattle. Riley and Donovan had shifted back into human form and were collecting their clothing off the ground. Turning into an animal was inconvenient that way. After a moment they joined Quinn and I as we approached Eli and Commander Hunter to get a briefing.
“—increased over the last several days,” Hunter was saying.
“What about the other cities?” Eli asked. “Have they experienced an uptick in breaches as well?”
“Yes. We’re getting hit pretty hard everywhere.”
“I still don’t get it, though,” I interjected, drawing an impatient look from Hunter. “I just thought it would be worse. They’ve had two days with us trapped down in Faerie, and this is all they’ve done?”
“I’ve lost a lot of men,” Hunter said coldly. “I’m
sorry if this doesn’t seem as exciting as you thought, but it’s taken a brutal toll on our forces.”
“I’m sorry for your loss,” I said, “But the HR and my friends were kidnapped to get me and Eli out of the way for a while. Or maybe they just assumed we wouldn’t make it out. But I assure you, the incidents of the past few days will seem like a tea party compared to the major shit Lucifer has in store.” I paused to think, ignoring the flash of anger in Hunter’s eyes. She really needed to get that stick out of her ass. “Something just doesn’t add up here. I can’t figure why they haven’t fully launched their invasion yet.”
Martinis with the Devil, Part Two Page 9