Deliverance from Sin: A Demonic Paranormal Romance (Sinners & Saints Book 5)

by Rosalie Stanton

  The panicked feeling in his chest, the same that had quieted while she’d been in his arms, began to chirp again. Campbell tightened his jaw and released a long breath.

  The sound was enough to stir Varina into action. She sat up, looked at him, then climbed to her feet. He watched as she collected the discarded clothing littered across the floor. The shorts he’d destroyed, the tank top he’d dropped near the door—which they hadn’t closed, he saw—and the bra that had seen better days.

  She didn’t hide her body. Didn’t bring her clothes to cover her breasts, or act scandalized that her wet, swollen pussy was on display. All this he found refreshing. And because she lacked modesty, he gave himself permission to look her over as he hadn’t before.

  She was, in a word, gorgeous.

  It wasn’t a thought Campbell often had about women. Not anymore. He’d been around long enough to see beauty in its every form. Nothing took him by surprise. It was all the same, just packaged slightly different. And just looking at her, he couldn’t say what about Varina stood out to him, except there was something. Perhaps the calm assuredness in her stride, the way she didn’t cover up the parts he’d already gotten to know with his mouth. Her breasts were generous, her hips full. Her arms were firm and muscled, her stomach toned. Demon hunting had treated her body very well.

  Except for the rather gnarly scar that curved around her bellybutton and ended just before reaching her mound. Judging by sight alone, he’d say it was an old wound, soft and pink but angry enough to still be noticed. She bore other marks—places he could tell had met the blunt end of a knife, or taken a rather brutal hit, but none were as prevalent, large or angry-looking, as the scar on her lower abdomen.

  The panic he’d felt earlier took an abrupt dive, then came back as something he didn’t recognize. He didn’t let himself dwell. Didn’t have the chance, really, as Varina, without a word or a look in his direction, disappeared through a doorway and into an adjoining room.

  Campbell inhaled and sat up, waiting to see if she’d return. When she didn’t, he climbed to his feet, tucked his cock—which had remained locked in a state of semi-arousal, thanks to the gratuitous nudity—back into his jeans and zipped up before following.

  He found her in what he guessed had been the gentlemen’s parlor, back in the day. She was searching through a duffle bag of clothes, and had already donned a pair of yoga pants and replaced the bra he’d torn off her earlier with one of the sports variety. No underwire. Her nipples poked through the fabric, teasing his mouth.

  Without looking up, she said, “You wanna tell me what’s going on?”

  Campbell stared at her a moment longer. “What?”

  “You. That’s twice today. Twice you’ve shown up in places that are mine. Twice we’ve…” At last, she met his gaze, her pale skin flushing. “I don’t do this. I mean, I have sex, but I don’t do…” She gestured between them. “Like this.”

  “Like what?”

  “With a guy whose name I don’t even know. I’m not saying I’m a nun, but I usually ask for a name at least.”

  “It’s Campbell.”

  She held his gaze a moment longer, then nodded, her expression stoic. “Campbell. Got a last name?”

  He swallowed, his mental wheels spinning, but still dulled from the relaxation bought by really great sex. It was the only way he could explain how he let, “Darcy,” slip through his filters.

  Darcy. Because he was the Sin of Pride, and his brain made the leap to Austen.

  If Ira ever found out about this, he’d never let Campbell live it down.

  “Campbell Darcy,” Varina repeated, her nose wrinkling as though it was the most ridiculous name she’d heard. She wasn’t wrong. “Okay. So, Campbell Darcy…what the fuck?”

  “Excuse me?”

  “With Rat Trap earlier. And now… Why are you here? Why did…” She gestured to the hallway. “Why does that keep happening?”

  “I’m here to see you.”

  “Yeah. I got that.”

  Campbell frowned. “You’re awfully testy for someone who seemed to be having a really good time just a few minutes ago.”

  Varina’s nostrils flared. So did her eyes. “That was…I dunno what that was, but I don’t like it.”

  Little liar. At that, Campbell felt his mouth twitch like it wanted to grin. He hadn’t had genuine cause to grin in a long time.

  Varina bit the inside of her cheek and seemed to consider him. “Look,” she said, her tone measured, “on the scale of one to shit-fest, today has been a turd.”

  “Sorry.” There was no other way to respond.

  “So I don’t have the patience to wade through any more bullshit. Just tell me who you are and why you’re here.” She lifted her chin. “Please.”

  Campbell studied her a moment longer. He wasn’t a guy who impressed easy. Hell, he’d stopped looking for people to admire a long time ago, so his criteria was a little shoddy and rarely evaluated. But something in Varina’s demeanor, her poise, the way she looked at him stirred something he didn’t want stirred. It wasn’t life-changing—hell, had he not been standing so damn still, he might not have even noticed it. But it was there all the same.

  Another part of being forever years old was that his talent for reading people, for making snap decisions, was pretty damn sharp. There was a reason she’d touched him at Rat Trap—a reason he’d bolted the second he’d emptied himself inside her. He’d seen it then and he saw it now, and though the air still smelled of sex, enough time had passed that he couldn’t blame his conclusions on his dick.

  He liked her.

  Dammit.

  And he found he respected her too much to try to bullshit her. She already thought he was something he wasn’t. He wouldn’t build upon the lie. If he had to stick around, he’d do so using the truth as a shield. “I’m here because a while ago, a demon called Legion escaped from where it was being held.”

  Varina inhaled, her chest rising and falling. Otherwise, she did not react.

  “Legion is—”

  “I know who Legion is,” she snapped. “It was captured before?”

  Campbell nodded. “Yeah.”

  “How?”

  “I… Look, I can’t say that. I just know it’s gotten loose.”

  She blinked, visibly unimpressed. “How?”

  “Because a couple weeks ago, someone tried to end the world, and as a result, a shitload of nasty demons were released onto the Earth.”

  That much was enough to surprise her. Varina’s eyes went wide, her jaw falling slack. It took a few seconds for something more substantial than a syllable to cross her lips. “I… Someone tried to end the world?”

  “Yes.”

  “That’s a thing that happens. People try to end the world.”

  “People predict. A few try here and there. One person with the right plan got pretty damn close.”

  She was quiet for a moment. Then she frowned and shook her head, the fight dimming from her eyes in favor of something else he couldn’t quite name. “How do you know all this?”

  Campbell felt a twinge in his chest, his mind tripping over itself to come up with a reasonable explanation. Something close enough to the truth to pass if questioned. He released a breath and stepped toward her. “What happened to you,” he began. “You saw it earlier today on me.”

  Varina wet her lips and nodded. “Yeah.”

  “Let’s just say this—I make a point to know things.”

  “Like the world nearly ending?”

  The Colosseum flashed in his mind, the night sky hidden behind a curtain of claws and fangs. His gut being ripped open, his insides spilling onto the dirt floor. The panic he’d felt earlier stirred again, and his heart began racing. “Yeah,” he said, his throat tight. “Like the world nearly ending.”

  Something flickered in her eyes—the same empathy he’d spotted earlier at Rat Trap.

  Whatever she was seeing, he needed her to see for this assignment. But it was a lie. At t
he very least a bastardization of the truth. And that made him feel like a dick.

  Varina stepped forward, her aggression having faded, along with her suspicion.

  “Okay,” she said.

  “Okay?”

  “Yeah. I guess for the moment, at least.” She held his gaze another moment before pulling an oversized Pink Floyd shirt out of her duffle. “You wanna drink? I’m not sure what I have, but I’m holding out for something strong.”

  Campbell didn’t move. “You’re inviting me to stay?”

  “I’m inviting you to have a drink of whatever’s in the kitchen, tell me about Legion, and we’ll see.”

  Varina left the room at that, not awaiting his response. Trusting, he guessed, that he would follow.

  Varina opened the door to the fridge, determined to keep herself busy. She knew if she slowed, everything would come crashing down around her, and she didn’t have time to pick up the pieces.

  So the world had nearly ended. Fine. The important part was it hadn’t.

  She swallowed, her heart thumping hard. She heard Campbell’s heavy footsteps behind her, and her mind filled in the image of him standing in the kitchen doorway. Shirtless still, his body covered in the same array of bruises and scars as hers. She’d tried not to stare earlier, but she had to admit, it was hard not to ask.

  Especially since the larger scars looked to be recent. The one at his side had faded, but not enough to place its origin years in the past.

  “Varina?”

  She started, snapping back to herself, and resumed scouring the contents of the fridge. “Looks like we have Guinness. You a Guinness fan?”

  “Sure.”

  She snatched up two bottles, blindly tossed one to Campbell, and popped the top off hers by way of the kitchen counter. It was only after she had the first mouthful swallowed that she turned to face him.

  He stood very much the way she’d pictured, and for a brief moment, she allowed herself a look. A pass to embrace the part of her she rarely paid any attention to—that with a sex drive.

  Not that recent behavior would support that claim, but damn, she couldn’t fault herself. The man was pretty much sex personified. He had yet to don a shirt, so her eyes were bestowed the feast that were his strong shoulders, muscled arms and bare, sculpted chest, all of which were decorated in vines of scars. His jaw was coated in a thin layer of whiskers, his blue eyes cautious but expressive. His hair looked darker in the kitchen light, but she could pick up the blond if she really looked.

  Yeah, Varina guessed if she had to have lost her mind and thrown herself at a stranger, she definitely could have picked an uglier one.

  “So,” she said, going for bravado she wasn’t sure she felt, “you were gonna tell me about Legion.”

  Campbell nodded. “Legion is the demon that possessed you, isn’t it?”

  “You’re just full of handy information, aren’t you?” Her tone was more acidic than necessary, but she couldn’t help but assume a position on the defensive. “Yeah, he’s the one. Or the many, depending on who you ask.”

  “You’re familiar with its origin, then. Where it came from.”

  “Are you asking if I know this is the same demon a certain messiah allegedly cast into a horde of pigs? Yeah. I went to Sunday school. Learned all the books of the New and Old Testament too. Fat lot of good it did.” Varina threw back another swig of beer. “How do you know about this?”

  “I have my sources.”

  “Cryptic bullshit isn’t gonna fly with me. Wanna try again?”

  Campbell studied her for a moment, his face unreadable. “How I know things doesn’t matter. I’ve been around a long time. I know a lot of people. I hear a lot of things. The thing that brought me here was that Legion had escaped and there’s a good goddamn chance this will be where it ends up.”

  Varina inhaled a deep breath, swallowed. The walls seem to pulse to life at the words alone, and the uneasiness she’d battled ever since stepping through the front door skyrocketed. “Why?”

  “Because Legion needs a body to live here.”

  “Mine?”

  Campbell nodded, popped the top off his beer on the counter, and took a long drink. “You feel me—my energy. You said so at the bar, when you thought I was a demon.”

  “Yeah.”

  The waves pulsing off this guy were intense, such that everything else around him seemed drawn to his space. The energy wave wasn’t overbearing, and it no longer frightened her, but there was no mistaking the presence of something heavy. And though she was loathe to admit it, Varina had to consider the possibility, however minute, that the reason was that whatever had possessed Campbell had been worse than Legion. Stronger. Hell, for all she knew, perhaps it had been the devil. The real deal.

  Now there was a truly terrifying thought.

  “It’s an energy signature,” Campbell said, “what you feel. What I give off.”

  “You got that when you were possessed.”

  He nodded, the motion slow and deliberate.

  “And,” Varina continued, “you said I have one too.”

  “You do.”

  “I don’t feel it.”

  “You wouldn’t. It’s like…trying to feel your hand. You don’t know what it feels like until it’s gone. You just have an understanding that it’s there.” Campbell held her gaze, taking a long swig of his beer. “When a demon possesses someone, it leaves its signature behind. And each signature is different.”

  “You make a study of it?”

  He arched an eyebrow. “Wouldn’t you?”

  Yes, she would. Varina huffed and looked away. After Lina and her father had thrown her out, she had dedicated herself to learning everything she could about demons. It hadn’t been immediate, of course, but it also hadn’t been optional. Lina had thought Varina was cursed, and when demons kept finding her, she’d had to confront the possibility that she might be. No matter how far she traveled, what name she used, or what protections she wore, wherever she was, demons would come. Learning how to fight them and, more importantly, how to kill them had been her only means of staying alive. Granted, not all the demons that showed up had nefarious intent, but Varina had stopped discriminating against which demonic lives she took a long time ago.

  Better to be wrong and sorry than right and dead.

  So yes, if she’d known about signatures—if she’d known there was a science to it—she would have made it her business to become a master.

  And she’d probably be tightlipped about it, like Mr. Hot Pants. That information in the wrong hands could cost her the advantage. One of the only things that had kept her alive these years was her ability to sense when demons were near—she hadn’t understood it, but she’d always trusted it.

  “Okay,” she said. “I see your point.”

  Campbell inclined his head. “You carry a bit of Legion’s signature. Legion wants to keep hidden from Heaven and Hell—”

  “Hell too?” She snorted. “They don’t even want him there?”

  A smirk flirted with Campbell’s lips. “Let’s just say this isn’t a demon that makes friends. This also isn’t a demon that can exist indefinitely on Earth without an earthly body.” He shot her a meaningful look. “This is where you come in.”

  A shudder ran down her spine and her shoulders tensed. “So because Legion marked me, I’m a prime candidate for becoming the human host.”

  “Yes.”

  His answer was quick and came without sugar. She appreciated that.

  “What about the others?”

  Campbell frowned. “Others?”

  “Yeah, the others Legion has possessed. I assume they’re out there.”

  “Not as many as you’d think.” He paused. “You’re the only one, Varina. The others have died, or didn’t survive the possession the first time around. Legion can exist on Earth without a body, but for very small windows, and my guess is its relying on animals to get by, since possessing a squirrel doesn’t require as much effort as a hum
an being. It can’t afford to attract attention, because if so many people are looking for it—”

  “So many people?”

  He stopped shortly. “What?”

  “Who all is looking for Legion?”

  Campbell blinked at her, and for a moment, she thought he saw something crack behind his eyes. “What?”

  “So many people,” Varina repeated, taking a step forward. “I only see you here. Who are these other people?”

  He stared at her, then looked away again. “I don’t think I should—”

  “Who are you working with?”

  “Who says I’m working with someone?”

  Varina’s inner bullshit detector began firing, and her body immediately responded. “Because you are,” she said. She jerked around, pulled open the drawer that had—once upon a time—housed the cutlery, and discovered fortune was on her side. In a blink, she had a large butcher knife in hand. “Once again. Who are you working with?”

  Campbell’s throat worked. He eyed her, then the blade, then her again. “I get my information from the people who know it best.”

  Varina stepped forward. “I don’t mind cleaning up blood, Campbell. You show up at my bar, at my house. I’m not sentimental. If you’re dicking with me, I’ll bury you in the backyard tonight and forget about you tomorrow. Tell me who—”

  “Demons. Earthbound demons. That’s my source.”

  She tightened her grip on the blade handle, afraid it might slip if she didn’t. “What?”

  “I wanted to know—”