by Marks, Rena
Besides, she had to store up some more reserves.
So when Caleb called, she point-blank told him she was going to a bar “with a little more action” than his.
The pause on the telephone made her feel a little shrewish. Especially when he asked, “What’s going on?”
“Nothing. You know I’m out…seeking. There’s nothing different.”
“The difference is you have me.”
“I told you, I never wanted a relationship. Why is that too much for the male ego to comprehend? The sex has been great, but that’s all it was. Sex.”
“You can belittle it as easily as that? It’s only sex to you?”
“What else is it supposed to be? You aren’t my boyfriend, we aren’t exclusive.”
“You’re bitter.”
“I’m not. I’m realistic and I decided a long time ago after I loved someone unconditionally, that the pleasure of that love isn’t worth the consequences of the pain afterward. I’d rather not have love any longer.”
Ashamedly, Keara knew he only felt differently about the emotion because she made him. She’d forced his love. He didn’t get a choice like she did. Like everyone should.
“Dammit, Keara, when will you wake up and see what’s in front of you? When it’s too late?” he said before hanging up on her.
Frustrated with life, Keara sat in her living room and pondered whether or not to call him back. But the choice was taken from her when the phone rang again.
She answered on the first ring. “Hello?”
“Boyfriend troubles?”
The pit of her stomach dropped, but she couldn’t tell if it was from disappointment from it not being Caleb or instantaneous dread that it was Enishka. Of course, if he was calling, it meant he didn’t dare pull her through, so she was safe for the moment. Perhaps he was still weakened from his wound. “How are you able to keep dropping into this dimension?”
“You gave me a link to you when you embraced your demonality. Sever it by coming back to Luciefyiore.”
Keara sighed. “Where are you calling from?”
“Are you sure I’m calling? Perhaps you fell asleep on the sofa and think you answered a ringing phone. Maybe I’m just another dream of yours.”
“I don’t care if you’re a dream or a real phone conversation. You’re taking up my time and I’d like to know why. What the hell do you want from me?”
The tone of his voice snapped. “I want you, period. You are owed to me, Jenesi. Your mother was trained to be mine and tricked by my second in command. You are that offspring and owed to me.”
“Do I not have a choice?”
“Did I?”
“Maybe I love another. A human.”
“Ahh, yes. This Caleb. Are you so sure he wants what’s best for you? Why is he making you feel all this rage? Dredging up all that water under the bridge with the old boyfriend?”
“He’s not bringing it up for his own purposes. He just wants me to see it with open eyes.”
“Open eyes? So he can look good. If that’s how you feel, Keara. But is that how you feel? Do you believe him?”
God, she wasn’t sure. She was tired, so very tired. All the time, even when she slept she felt like she hadn’t. The only time she was relieved was when Caleb rocked her to sleep.
It was like the nights were wasted. Sometimes she couldn’t even remember if she actually fell asleep.
And she was hungry. All the time. Addicted to power surges, like a junkie to heroin. And as confused as hell.
“Go away. I don’t want the job.” She hung up the phone and waited to see if it would ring again. It didn’t.
A power surge.
Maybe that was what she needed. She needed to seek out some fresh meat.
Inside and out.
A rival bar was what she needed, just like she’d told Caleb. One where she wouldn’t run into him. She found one across town and sat at a bar stool to study her surroundings. Blue eyes watched every movement in the bar. Who was sober, who was drunk. Single, married? Attractive and not.
It didn’t matter.
A group of men in the corner laughing and drinking. As yet, not even looking for single women. They would be by the end of the night.
The usual hairy-chested, gold chain-plated men who thought they were irresistible.
And a blonde woman in a slinky dress. Stalking the same men she was.
Natalya.
“Would you like to dance?” The voice broke through her thoughts and she acknowledged with a distracted smile before really looking at the specimen before her. She accepted his hand as he led her to the dance floor and then allowed her concentration to focus on him fully as her attention zeroed in on him.
Attractive. Lean and slender. Quiet, that was a plus over the usual cocky men she met.
“What’s your name?” he asked.
“Keara. Yours?”
“I’m Jason.”
She took a closer look at him. Fake tanned skin that obviously came from a tanning bed. Strategically placed highlights in his brown hair.
Vanity. It could bring him down.
Keara gave him the full force of her sexiest smile. Watched as he caught his breath. She moved closer to him, her body twisting to the music.
One leg maneuvered between his and the other was outside his leg, so she straddled his thigh. Wriggled deliciously, then stepped away.
A teaser.
He followed in, deliberately making eye contact with her. Keara tried not to grimace at the leather-looking skin around his eyes from the damage of the sunbed.
She couldn’t do it. Realization sank in as quickly as a bucket of water dousing burning flames. She didn’t have the patience to tempt and tease, to find out how much corruption ran through his body.
Her dancing slowed and she took one step to distance herself from him.
Someone moved in behind her, moving in time to the music. She heard a soft, feminine voice in her ear.
“You are The Punisher. You need power in the event of a showdown, which we both know will happen soon. You allowed the Earth dimension to soften you. Suck it up, Jenesi.” Natalya’s hands gripped at her hips and moved her to the same beat she moved to.
The disgusting human smiled widely at the sight of two women, dancing to please him. “What’s your name?” he asked over Keara’s shoulder.
“I’m her friend. Natalya.”
“Nice to meet you,” he said, while checking out her goods. “I’m Jason.”
“You single, Jason?”
“Technically. I’m still living with a girlfriend, but if I could find someone to replace her, I’d boot her out in a heartbeat.”
“Could you take two?” Natalya smiled charmingly, her blonde looks nearly angelic.
The human blinked as his good fortune sunk in. “Hell, yeah.”
Natalya looked at Keara and wriggled behind Jason. She thrust her hips into him from behind, and reached for Keara’s hands, pulling her into them. Slowly, she maneuvered Keara’s hands around their waists, and Jason began to thrust his hips back and forth, into the two of them.
Keara was close enough to whisper to. “You can do it, or I can,” Natalya said, not even caring that he could hear. “Now, I never have, so I’d hate to try to find out I love it.”
Keara understood exactly. Stealing power was tricky, just once and you might find yourself permanently caught in the trap, stealing until you turned into a Rot Demon.
Natalya would be just the type, which is probably why she’d never done it.
Keara’s eyes went blank and she lifted her parted lips to Jason. Natalya pulled them close. Their lips touched, softly at first.
The lights in the bar flickered and darkened as the music cut. There was silence in the bar before personnel scrambled to find out what was wrong.
A few minutes later, the music and lights returned.
Keara was gorgeous, flushed pink, her full lips glossy and moist. In comparison, the human was pale, the fake-bake ta
n looking incongruous as it sat upon his leathery skin. The strategically placed highlights in his hair were also odd, almost disproportionate, until one realized that there was now gray threaded through his hair, giving him a frosted appearance from the eighties.
“It was nice to meet you, Jason,” Keara said as Natalya moved closer to her side.
“Yeah, uh, I’m not feeling all that well.”
Natalya’s smile was harsh. “Go home to your girlfriend. Maybe she’ll take care of you.”
“Yeah,” he muttered, as he turned and stumbled before moving away.
“Then again, maybe not,” Natalya said. “I sure the hell wouldn’t.” She turned to Keara. “Let’s go sit.”
They found an empty table in the back—empty of people anyway. The top of the table was littered with drinking glasses. Natalya approached it and with one sweep of her arm cleared it, spilling everything onto the carpet below before sitting in the booth as if nothing was wrong.
Keara sighed. “You haven’t changed.”
Natalya grinned, a devilish grin that reminded Keara of when they were children at their school, Luciekynokus. “On the contrary, I learned to take care of myself.”
“Is that why you’re aligning yourself with me?”
“You got it, sister. You think I don’t know Enishka would squash me like an insignificant bug should he get the chance?”
“I thought you craved the power. You’ve always craved it in Luciefyiore.”
“I assumed climbing the social ladder meant safety. If you have importance, no one would dare harm you. What I didn’t understand was you still have threats as you climb, even more so as demons try to take you out for your status.”
“So what’s the answer?”
“I want the top. The throne.”
“How?”
“I originally planned to marry Enishka and get rid of him. But now I realize that’s not even an option. He has too much power. Any wife he obtains, he’ll simply get rid of after gaining her power and rendering her useless. So I’m aligning myself with you, especially if I’ll be stuck in this dimension.”
“He sent you here and left you?”
Natalya nodded grimly.
“I still don’t trust you.”
Natalya smiled. “Smart girl. Never trust anyone. I don’t.”
“Then why are you aligning yourself with me?”
“You pissed him off, Keara. And he’s scarred. It’s a permanent reminder of you. You’re going to have to strike hard and fast. Before he gets you first.”
“I can’t strike first. That would make me no better than him.”
“If he strikes first, he’ll hit you hard enough that you’ll go down. You won’t be able to defend yourself. You’ll be done for forever.” Natalya rose from the table before leaning her face into Keara’s and saying bitterly, “And I’ll be stuck here forever.”
* * * * *
It was still early when Keara left the bar. She drove by her parents’ house to find her father sitting alone on the front porch.
Turning off her headlights, she walked up to the porch swing and sat with him. She tucked her legs beneath her and curled up.
“What’s wrong, babisna?”
She smiled against his shoulder and twined her fingers with his. His hand was so much larger than hers. “Why would you think something’s wrong?”
“I can feel the tension in you. Tell me you’re not sucking too much power?”
“No. You feel a little because I just did some tonight, but I can’t remember the last time I had any before that, it’s been so long.” A slight lie, but one she didn’t feel guilty for. Her parents certainly didn’t need to worry about her.
“As long as you don’t do it too often. It’s too addictive for any demon, and you’re only half.”
“Daddy,” Keara said suddenly. “Tell me about when you met Mom. How did you know you loved her?”
“How could anyone not love your mother? How could a soul stay so pure when sold by their very own parents? How could an infant be raised by an evil demon lord and still stay untainted?”
Keara understood exactly. There was no one on Earth or Luciefyiore like her mother. Almost as if her mother didn’t belong in either dimension but had surfaced from another.
“Did you know Adolpheus, the Rot Demon, once tried to suck her soul?”
Keara gasped.
“It’s okay,” her father assured her. “That’s the beauty of it. He wasn’t able to. There wasn’t an impurity in her.”
“He’s Enishka’s right hand now.”
“Interesting,” her father murmured, lost in his own thoughts.
“How did Enishka not kill him instantly for trying to steal her soul?”
“He knew Adolpheus was in the middle of his addiction and unable to help himself. In fact, I think Enishka was the one who encouraged his power sucking to make him into a Rot Demon. Plus, it helped that the attempt failed and she was unharmed. Although,” he said slowly, “I guess he also could have had another reason in mind. Perhaps he wanted to see how uncontaminated her soul was to see if it could be sucked? Like a live experiment. That tricky bastard,” her father said, more to himself than her.
“How did you get her away?”
Her father turned down to look at her. The gaze in his eyes was solemn. “I planned against Enishka for many, many years. He has the power of the entire demon realm within him. It takes more than just strength to win, it takes cunning also. I hear he’s insane now?”
Keara shrugged. “I didn’t know him before so I have nothing to compare him to.”
“You’re safe in this dimension, babisna. Enishka can’t cross portals.”
She didn’t need to worry her father with the news that she’d given the demon lord the power to summon her over. And that he’d sent the Huntress after her. Her father would fight for her and she could protect both of her parents by keeping them out of this fight.
There were so many unanswered questions running through Keara’s head. She wanted to ask her father how to fight the evil that brewed inside her, but did he even realize they were wicked? That the humans weren’t the evil beings in hell they’d always suspected?
Chapter Ten
The Sweetness of Revenge
Natalya brushed her blonde hair, the waves curling the ends nearly to her waist. The ring of the telephone broke the stillness of the posh hotel room she stayed in. It shouldn’t, for who would be calling? The hotel was owned by one of Enishka’s minions and he should be the only person who knew about her in this dimension.
Yet the person on the other end of that phone knew where she stayed. Warily, her horns descended as she picked up the receiver, knowing the caller could only be bad news.
“Yes?”
“Hi, um, I was told to call you. The Huntress? My name’s Dean.”
“Who had you call me?” She knew, of course. Who else would have him ask for the Huntress but Enishka? Just as Keara would be referred to as the Punisher. The two highest-ranking demons, based on power, under Enishka himself. The third in the running was the disgusting Rot Demon.
Dean’s voice was a reverent whisper. “The demon lord.”
“And why does he want you to contact me?”
“He thinks we can work together to bring Keara to him. Look, I’ve already contacted her. She’s not as trusting as she was before. Wouldn’t agree to meet me and barely talked to me. I don’t see how I could help.”
“Then why are you calling me?”
“He wanted me to call you. I’m indebted to him.”
Natalya sighed. “I’m the Huntress. I’m not used to working with incompetent humans. Fine. I’ll draw her out, get her to that nightclub called The Silver Rose. You think you can handle it from there?”
“Yeah.”
His voice sounded confident enough to raise Natalya’s curiosity. “What will you do, human?”
“What the demon lord instructs me to do. This time, work on her human protectiveness.
Play on her sympathies.”
Exactly what she would have done. For even as a child, Jenesi could be tricked, over and over. Show her the smallest amount of kindness and she’d be wary. But run to her crying with a scraped knee and that silly maternal human gene would kick in. The file on Keara was an inch and a half thick on her weaknesses.