Pandora's Box

by Miller, Gracen

  The demon bitch, Petra, knelt, leaned in against his ear. “Quit sexing her up with your eyes and just go for it, Birmingham. Madison needs a good fuck. Never met a woman as uptight as she is.”

  Nix stiffened, but she walked off before he could comment. Gage and Mads exited the dance floor and made a beeline for the table. She fit comfortably in the common world and among the Sherlocks, exuding cultured charm to both facets of life. Nix worked best in the hunting community, often clumsy and unpolished among those they aided. Mads was very clearly out of his league. Joy shone on her face, making the two-day drive worth the trip to surprise her. She deserved more, someone better than him and the monster she’d already married.

  “Happy birthday, Madison,” Gage said and kissed her temple.

  “Thanks. You’re next.” She offered her hand to Nix.

  He shook his head. “I don’t dance.”

  She grabbed his hand and tugged. “Come on. I hear it’s a lot like making love.” The visual popped into his head, a naked dance with her would be his downfall if he stepped on the dance floor with her. “We all know you’ve had plenty of practice, which means you should be good at it.”

  Zo snorted, and Nix shot her a warning glare.

  “Nope, Mads, I wouldn’t be comfortable.”

  “Ooo…good song,” she said as something slow came on, one he didn’t recognize. Her hips started a sexy roll to the languid beat. “It’s a slow dance.”

  Even worse. He’d have to hold her without the privilege of fondling her.

  “Don’t be such a girl, Nix,” Amos said with a leering grin.

  Nix shot the boy a surprised glare. Whose side was he on?

  “Hey!” Mads challenged Amos. “I’m a girl.”

  “We have to watch her dance all the time at home.” Amos rolled his eyes.

  “All the time,” Zen said.

  “You can’t be any worse than she is,” the boy teased Nix.

  “I take offense, Amos Wescott.” Mads sent Amos a mock glare and he grinned, clearly putting on for his mother. She turned back to Nix and implemented an adorable pout. “Pleeeease.” Her slow southern accent rendered him crazy with inappropriate fantasies. “You can’t tell me you drove all this way not to give the birthday girl her only birthday wish?”

  Zo burst out laughing, and Gage knuckle-fived Mads.

  “Witch,” Nix bitched as he failed to suppress a grin. Talk about layering the begging on thick.

  Mads must have sensed his defeat, because she said, “Yes!” and moved in for the kill, yanking him out of his chair by his hand. Lacing her fingers with his, she led him to the center of the dance floor.

  “Tell me what to do.” He glared at the customers glad to note none watched, except his family.

  She faced him, tossed her hair over her shoulder. “You seriously don’t dance?”

  “Not unless I’m shitfaced.”

  “Nix, you’re such a wild child.” She flashed him a teasing grin. “Here.” She placed one of his hands on each hip, her palms remaining on his as if she thought he might move his away. The only time he’d ever thought about holding her hips, he’d fantasized about thrusting his cock deep inside her.

  It would be a long, fucking night at the rate his libido amped up.

  Without warning, her hands slid up his arms—feeling too much like a goddamn caress—and came to rest on the back of his neck. Her light touch scalded his desires to lucid awareness. Damn shifty libido couldn’t be trusted to behave itself. Executing a silent groan, he attempted to talk his dick back to sleep.

  “Follow my lead.”

  Nix might not know much about dancing, but he thought her comment a man’s line. “Isn’t this a little close?”

  “For slow dancing, we’re a little too far apart.” Mads tugged on the short strands of his hair.

  “Ow!”

  “Big baby. Pay attention and cease your whining.” She rubbed away the sting where she’d pulled his hair. “Relax, Nix. I don’t bite.”

  He wished she would. He’d be happy to point to the spot he wanted bitten.

  Their bodies swayed to the music, his following her easy grace. Each subtle brush against her body was pure hell for him as his cock grew hard. Attempting to put a little distance between her and his idiot head below the belt, he stepped on her foot. Overcompensating to remove his weight from her, he set her off balance and would have sent them both tumbling to the floor if he hadn’t bumped into a table.

  Madison clung to him, laughing.

  Nix managed a contrite, “Sorry.”

  “If you’d relax, you’d be okay.”

  He glared over her shoulder at his family. Zoe grinned and Gage sent him a thumbs up. Jackasses! Who needed enemies with his family around?

  “Mads, you said dancing was similar to sex and having you in my arms after the comment…awkward.”

  Her gaze jackknifed to his, her eyes slightly rounding. “Okay, you made your point.” Quickly, she stepped out of his reach and shoved her hands in her back pockets.

  He regretted the loss of her in his arms, but tried to shrug the feeling away. “Come on, let’s ditch the troublemakers and get a drink at the bar.”

  Mads sent his family a glance. Zoe and Gage threw innocent expressions in their direction for Mads’s benefit. Saying nothing, she followed him and sat on one of the stools.

  “Two beers.” Nix sat on the barstool next to Mads and motioned to the bartender with two fingers.

  “So, what are you guys hunting?”

  “I don’t want to talk business, Mads.”

  “I’m not talking about your women and how you obviously suck at sex.” She winked.

  “Witch,” Nix teased. “How’s it working out with your crystal genie?”

  “He’s not my genie. I wish you wouldn’t call him that. He’s my friend, as valuable as all of you are to me.” She wrapped a lock of hair around a finger. “He’s taught me a lot, how to protect myself, weaknesses of various supernatural creatures. He’s a very useful paranormal encyclopedia. You wouldn’t believe the things the man has in his head.”

  Nix grunted, uninterested in the things Zen harbored in his head.

  Mads sipped her beer, watching him over the rim of the mug.

  “Have you had any run-ins with Micah?”

  Sitting her mug down, she asked, “Isn’t Micah considered business talk?”

  “Yeah.” He grinned. “I guess so. Here.” He pulled a box out of his pant pocket.

  “A present?” She took the wrapped box from him and ran her fingers over the wrinkled Happy Birthday paper. “You shouldn’t have, Nix.”

  God, yes he should have, especially after witnessing the awed expression on her face at his simple gesture. He played it cool—or hoped he managed to play it cool—shrugged, and said, “Open it, Mads.”

  She needed no further prodding, ripped the wrapping off, tossing the crumpled paper on the bar, and opened the box.

  “Beautiful, Nix,” she said, running her finger over the shiny blade. She gripped the bone handle and slid the knife from its tissue paper nest. “A perfect fit for a woman’s grasp.”

  His cock would be a better fit for her grasp. He swallowed hard, strangling his mischievous inner whore.

  “I figured your crystal genie—” he winked “—had taught you how to handle a blade.” Fighting the succubus alone proved her skill.

  “Thank you.” She leaned forward, kissed his cheek, and rubbed her thumb over his jaw. They were close enough he considered tilting his head slightly and kissing her properly. “You’re sweet.”

  He chuckled low, amused by her perception of him, even if her words were as effective as cold water dashed in his crotch. Yeah, he rolled his eyes, call him regular ol’ Joe Schmo, boringly sweet. “I’ve been called many things. ‘Sweet’ has never been one of them.”

  She grinned, an evil glint twinkling in her blue eyes as she sat straight, thrusting her breasts out. “Send them my way, and I’ll make sure they call you �
��sweet.’” The blade tumbled across her fingers, verifying she held more than enough skill to handle it.

  Smiling, Nix nursed his beer as Mads set the dagger on the bar and spun it. A sad wistfulness disturbed the edges of her eyes and permeated her body language. It hadn’t been present the last time they saw each other. Something bothered her.

  “How’ve you been?” He set his mug down, making sure to place it back in the wet ring on the napkin.

  “Good.” She wouldn’t meet his gaze.

  “But?”

  Mads shook her head. “No buts, Nix.” She twisted on the barstool, facing him, their knees almost touching.

  “You can’t bullshit a bullshitter, Mads.”

  She whacked his thigh with the back of her hand, a smile tugging at the corners of her mouth. Grabbing her beer, she took a couple of swallows. Nix watched the slight movement of her throat as she swallowed and resisted the urge to lean in to her and press kisses there. Maybe a few bites and licks, too.

  “My answer would fall into off-limits conversation.” Beer in hand, she leaned closer and whispered with an impish grin, “Business talk.”

  “Witch.”

  “Your rules. I’m just following them.”

  “You watched any good shows lately?”

  “I couldn’t even tell you what’s on TV.”

  “I hear there’s a kickass reality series about two brothers deep-sea diving for treasure off the Gulf Coast.”

  Her eyebrows elevated. “Are they hot?”

  “Who?”

  “The brothers.” Groaning, he crossed his eyes at her, and she smiled. “If I watched it, I’d become irritated by the trivial aspects of it when people are dying in real life.” She shrugged. “Wouldn’t be worth it. Besides.” She tipped her beer to her lips before she finished her sentence. “I don’t think anyone is as hot and adorable as the real men in my life.”

  “I’m telling Zen you think he’s adorable,” he said in a hushed whisper.

  Strangling on a laugh, she warned, “Phoenix Birmingham, if you do, I will find you in bed on a cold and lonely night and hurt you while you sleep.”

  He wished she would! In a sexual way, of course.

  “Don’t forget, I know all the pressure points, and how to use them effectively.”

  “Evil witch.”

  “Don’t forget it.” Her taunting grin set his cock twitching and inappropriate fantasies tumbling through his head. What would those lovely lips look like wrapped around his dick? “I have an awesome CD in the car you might like.”

  He thought about oral sex, and she thought about CDs.

  “Some of the ear-bleeding music you love?”

  “Well, it ain’t none of the soft rock you like.”

  Something about her scratchy southern brogue, made him think about soft core porn—not rock music. He gave his inner voice a mental growl of warning and shoved it into the timeout corner. Evil bastard needed to stop sending his mind into the gutter. This was Mads, not some easy trollop he could fuck and leave.

  She started it, his inner voice whined, with the stuff about sex being like dancing and forcing me to hold her hips. For Christ’s sake, her hips! Nix slapped a mental hand over his whorish inner voice.

  “How’d you find the hard rock stuff anyway? I can’t imagine your uptight Christian father letting you listen to it.”

  “Heck, naw.” He loved it when southern slang fell from her lips. “On one of those pitch black nights, not a star in sight, driving between point A and point road to nowhere—” He knew the place well, had grown up between the two points. “—I was sick to death of the country music I listened to. Amos lay asleep in the back seat, and I changed the satellite channel.” She denied being a Sherlock, while fitting the definition of one. No other Sherlock he knew could afford satellite radio, though. “I stumbled across the metal channel, and it spoke to something primal inside me.” She shrugged. “Now, it’s all I listen to.”

  Nix nodded, understanding. Heavy metal singers screamed out lyrics laced with anger and rebellion. Angry with a life never asked for, Mads would probably rebel until she gasped her last breath.

  Over Madison’s shoulder, Zen suddenly launched to his feet, drawing Nix’s suspicious gaze. The immortal stared at an ethereal blonde who swaggered into the bar, makeup too heavy, a suggestive roll to her hips, her trampy getup nothing out of the ordinary in a sleazy, backwater bar like this.

  James and Georgie glanced over their shoulders to see what drew Zen’s excessive response. Before Georgie could issue a silent O of surprise, Zen prowled toward Madison. The man moved like a predator. He stalked the blonde heading for them, his hard, silver eyes trained on the stranger.

  “We’ve got trouble,” Nix said.

  Mads swiveled on the barstool, tensed, and jumped to her feet. “Mother,” Mads said as the woman neared them, and Nix jerked in surprise.

  He assumed this could be the first time Mads had seen her mother since her supposed vehicle accident more than a decade before. The accident had been shrouded in scandal, underwent a criminal investigation for foul play, and Mads had been the prime suspect.

  Mads stared at her mother, her features devoid of any expression. Her white-knuckled grip on the hilt of her birthday knife exposed her detached gaze for a lie. Nix knew she churned with a bevy of mixed emotions, betrayal probably headlining the list.

  “Touch her, succubus whore, and I’ll kill you a second later,” Zen said, crowding the woman’s space. Nix suddenly liked Zen better than ever before. Intense and to the point, he wouldn’t play games with Mads’s safety.

  Her mother flicked a glare at Zen. “Madison, call your flea-bitten mutt off.”

  “I don’t control him.”

  Nix placed his hand against her spine, hoping she understood he backed whatever choice she made. He’d give her his heart too, except it wouldn’t do her much good at a time like this.

  “What do you want, Celeste?”

  “To talk.”

  Zen stepped between Mads and Celeste. Forced to take two steps back, Mads rolled her eyes. She didn’t balk at the protection. Nix would have placed himself between her and her mother, too, if he’d thought she’d stand for it.

  “We have nothing to talk about.”

  “I wanted to tell you about yourself. My agreement with Micah wouldn’t allow the discussion until now.”

  Mads shrugged, and he felt her bristle beneath his palm. “I don’t care.” Nix knew the statement a lie.

  Nix watched his family pattern out behind the succubus. James and Gage moved behind Celeste. James’s hand rested beneath his jacket. Zo flanked Uncle James’s other side and Aunt Georgie stepped up to the succubus’s side.

  “She came to enthrall you, Madison,” Georgie said. “It’s amazing; you two look like twins.”

  “You lie!” her mother hissed.

  Georgie shook her head. “I don’t.”

  “Wait? What? She’s female,” Nix said, confused. “Succubi can’t enthrall women.”

  “So, Sherlocks know of your true nature.” Madison’s mother glanced at them all, even turning to get a look at the others behind her.

  “A full-blooded succubus can enthrall both male and female,” Mads explained. “Demons and non-demons alike. Only a King is exempt from a succubus’s charm.”

  Charm? That was like saying a snarling mountain lion only wanted to give you a playful kiss as it bit your head off.

  Amos shoved into the fray, Petra at his side like a protective canine. “Rlaaq!”

  “What’d he say?” James asked, frowning at the foreign lilt.

  “No.” Mads placed a halting hand on Amos’s arm as her mother knelt at the boy’s feet. “No, Amos, I don’t want her kneeling to your commands.” Any love she might have once felt for her mother was not in her present gaze. “I should kill you.” They stared at one another, Mads’s expression openly hostile. “I could, you know. One word from your Queen and you would die. I would relish making it gruesome.”


  Damn, Mads could be cold blooded when she wanted. He found it sexy.

  Her mother paled. Nix never knew demons were terrified of anything.

  “The psychic lies. I came to wish you happy birthday.”

  “I don’t lie,” Amos said. “And Georgie tells the truth. You came to enthrall my mother, to lead us both back to Daddy.”

  The succubus hissed. Nix had thought his family dysfunctional…not any more.

  “Get off your knees.” Mads scanned the bar. “You’re causing a scene.”

  Nix thought all of them circling a woman dressed like a two-bit whore drew more attention than the fact she’d been on her knees.

  “Did Micah send you, Mother?”

  “It’s time for you to come home.”

  “Tell Micah I said, Hta Noaal htelrj hta Relv ‘j u mojjc wik jalxelv tak hi kahkeaga pa. E xuka tep hi yuhyt pa ew ta yul.”

  Biggest fucked up language Nix ever heard! Leave it to the demons to come up with something sounding like a bunch of garble.

  “Ouch.” Amos winced.

  Nix nudged him and whispered, “What’d she say?”

  Madison answered. “I said, ‘The Queen thinks the King’s a pussy for sending her to retrieve me. I dare him to catch me if he can.’”

  “Ouch is right.” Nix thought it most unwise to dare a demon, and hoped the words didn’t bite her in the ass at a future date.

  “Does your father know you’re slumming, Petra?” Celeste fidgeted as she glared at Micah’s daughter.

  Petra shrugged, and said nothing.

  “Leave,” Zen snarled, “or I’ll joyfully kill you.”

  The succubus turned a little green, then swallowed hard. “Hiding from your husband is wrong, Madison. I reared you better than that.”

  “Lying to me was wrong, too, but it didn’t stop you.” The two women stared at one another for a long time. Georgie was right. The resemblance between them was startling. The mother appeared as young as the daughter. They could’ve easily passed for twins. “Leave, Mother, or I’ll sic Zen on you.”

  Her mother flung a distrustful glance at the immortal man. “How do I know he won’t follow me out the door and kill me anyway?”