Nick shot Becca a look at the tongue suggestion, and she gave him an innocent smile that made him snort.
“Man to man?” Satan rubbed his chin while he considered Nick. “I have never had a man-to-man discussion.” He peered into Nick’s face. “You are quite masculine and virile. Have you had many women?”
Nick glanced at Becca, who mouthed “a lot” at him. “Hundreds…” Becca jerked upward with her thumb. “…of thousands.”
“Eh.” Satan sounded unimpressed. “That is it? For a man as virile as you?” Satan flicked his fingers in disgust. “You are not worthy if that is all you have conquered.”
Becca rolled her eyes and jerked her thumb upward again.
Nick looked at Satan. “Oh, you meant ever? I thought you meant this year. I’m just under a million for the year.”
“Oh, this year?” Satan clapped a hand on Nick’s shoulder. “All right, then, man to man, you are sexually not my equal, but at least you are manly enough that I do not have to cut off your manly regions for failure to appreciate them. So, what shall I do with fair Iris?”
Nick glanced at Becca, and she made a motion with her hands to answer him. God, talk about pressure. Love advice wasn’t his thing, and to have to coach Satan on it? Crap. He shifted, trying to think about how he’d talk about sex and women with Jerome. “Is she good in bed?”
“It is making love!” Satan shouted, and he bopped Nick in the head with a fireball that had a faint tingle of gold, dropping Nick on his ass. “Do not denigrate the love act with my woman!”
Nick shook his head to clear it, his fists clenching with frustration. He was too strung out to be dealing with this kind of shit. He wasn’t touchy-feely, he wasn’t used to walking away from a potential battle, even to save his sister, and he was sick of this crap.
He pulled himself off the floor of the alley with a growl, dusted himself off, and marched back up to Satan and shoved him right back. “Listen, Satan, when men bond about women, they talk crassly, and they don’t fireball each other when receiving advice.” He shoved him again, and Satan took a surprised step back. “So, here’s the deal. You want to keep Iris around, then give her what she wants. If you don’t care, then don’t. But don’t lie to her. Women find out, and they get mad, and then you won’t get laid for centuries. Got it?”
Satan stared back at him, and Nick became aware that he was up in Satan’s grill, jammering about Satan’s love life. He balled his fists and readied for the battle he knew would come. Bring it on, big guy. Let’s take care of this now.
Then Satan broke into a delighted smile and yanked Nick into a big hug and thudded on his back with his fists. “You are what I need in my life! A man-friend who is not afraid to stand up to me! You are like my Rivka, but you are more! We will watch porn, drink beer, and be man-friends together.” He straightened his shirt and turned to face Becca. “Most excellent work for finding me a man-friend, Rivka. As always, you are indispensable.”
She grimaced. “Trust me, I’m not indispensable. There are so many other—”
Satan beamed at her. “The love of my loins says I must be nicer to you. So I gave compliment to satisfy you for next several hundred years until next one. Are you overwhelmed with adoration and awe for me now?”
“Yeah, sure…” She suddenly emanated so much emotional distress that Nick actually raised his hand to touch her shoulder in comfort before he realized what he was doing and dropped his hand.
But just as quickly, she replaced the distress with confidence as she got a sudden gleam in her eye. “Hang on. I want you to meet someone. Man-bond for a minute, okay?” She immediately vanished through the ground.
Becca dragged Paige up through the floor of the alley less than a minute later, and she grinned when Satan’s eyes nearly popped out of his head. Then he shrieked with protest and slapped his hand over his eyes. “Take her away, Rivka! Iris will skewer my eyeballs if she learns I gawked at such beautiful breasts.”
“Omigod. Satan.” Paige’s voice was breathless as she dropped to her knees in front of him. “You are my idol.”
He parted two fingers to peek at her. “I am quite magnificent, am I not?” Satan’s gaze dipped to her breasts, and he made a noise of pain and covered his eyes again. “Rivka! Why are you torturing me when you know Iris does not permit this kind of gawking? Man-friend, this girl is a most bountiful supply of luscious femaleness, is she not?”
Nick scowled, his hands curling into fists. “She’s too young for you.”
“Young?” Satan peeked through his hands again, to where Paige was bent over, kissing his toes. “You think?”
“Touch her and I’ll rip out your throat. She’s a kid.”
Satan eyed Nick, raising a glowing finger toward him. “Man-friend. Do not overstep your bounds, or I shall be forced to kill you in most painful way.”
Becca immediately stepped between them. “Satan, I would like you to meet my new apprentice. Paige Darlington is a Rivka in training, the one you assigned to me last night. The one you ordered to spy on me.”
He dropped his hand to stare at Paige. “This is the one?”
“Yes.”
“Oh.” He grabbed Paige’s hair and tugged her to her feet, where she stood swaying as she gazed at him. “I do nice work, do I not?”
“Depends on your goals.” Becca smiled innocently when he shot a sharp look at her. “I’m training her to be just like me, as you ordered.”
“Excellent.” Satan spun her around, inspecting her. “She is feisty? Disobedient?”
“No, she adores everything you do and takes commands like a well-trained dog.”
“Ah, well, then you may as well kill her now.” He released Paige, immediately dismissing her as Paige gave a squawk of dismay.
Dammit. Becca should have realized Satan wouldn’t go for a Rivka who idolized him that much. He liked Becca because she gave him grief. She looked at Paige, who had tears of adoration and sadness streaming down her cheeks. Why the hell had he created an adoring Rivka if he didn’t want one? “Paige. Toughen up.”
Paige blinked at her. “What?”
“So, I go now to find Iris and apply my man-friend’s advice.” Satan turned to shake Nick’s hand. “I be in touch. You answer my calls, or I skin you and make lampshade from your intestine, no?”
“You try to make a lampshade of my intestine and I’ll kill you.”
“Excellent. Good man. I like you.” Gold bubbles began to float up around Satan, and Becca lunged for his arm.
“Wait! I need a list of people who want you dead.”
He snorted. “Everyone wants me dead! I am Satan! Why do you bother me with such piddle?” His eyes flashed black. “Rivka, I order you to harvest me a love therapist soul. Dr. Phil. Yes, that is who I want. He is much expert. But do not tell Iris, or I find your dragon and impale her on a fence post so birds can use her as toilet, yes?”
Damn. “I’ll get right on it, but I really need a list of people who’d want you dead. There seems to be a legitimate threat to your life and—”
“No threat to my life is legitimate. I am going to seduce my lady lover. I order you to not bother me until I am ready to be bothered.” He brightened. “In fact, I order you never to interrupt me when I am with Iris. Satan must keep personal and business separate.” He beamed at Nick. “Good man-plan, no?”
“Yeah, sure.” Not worth disagreeing with Satan on that one, though privately, he was beginning to suspect that Becca was all that kept Satan from crashing and burning.
“Excellent.” Satan clapped Nick on the shoulder, then shook his leg to dislodge Paige, who was now wrapped around it. The apprentice went flying and landed in a trash heap before Becca had time to catch her. “I bid you all farewell. May you have almost as many and as great orgasms as I am going to have.” And then he was gone in a poof of golden bubbles.
The bubbles were still floating when Nick gave her a look. “Man-friend?”
Becca walked over to Paige. “I’m trying to
help him build his independence from me. Teaching him that there are others in this world that can give good advice.” Paige was blinking and shaking her head, as if to clear it. “You all right?”
Paige staggered to her feet and blew her nose in Becca’s leather coat. “He wants me dead. Did you hear him? Why? What did I do wrong? All I wanted to do was make him proud of me.” She plopped down on a trash can, in a saggy little lump. “I am so depressed.”
Becca patted the kid awkwardly on the head. “You’re a little too soft for him. You need to be bitchy and sarcastic.”
“But how?” Paige raised her weepy eyes to Becca. “Whenever I see him or think of him, I’m overwhelmed by my love and adoration for him.”
“He bred it into you. Now you have to get over it and develop some independence.”
“Independence?” Paige pulled her shoulders back, her eyes losing the dazed gleam they’d had when Satan was present. “You mean, like give him attitude?”
“Exactly.” She sighed as she eyed a dark stain on her leather jacket. “Think you can manage that?”
“Maybe…” Paige popped the end of lock of hair in her mouth to chew while she thought on it.
Nick grabbed Becca’s arm and spun her toward him. “My ancestors gave their lives to get free of Satan, and you just put me back in his life.”
She had? Dammit. She had. What a shitty thing to do to someone. “I’m sorry. I didn’t think of that. Let’s just go get your sister, okay?” She held out her hand. “Come on.”
Anger still flowed off him, but he folded his hand around hers without another word. A burr of his heat and his life force slipped down her arm, making her want to…well, never mind. “Apprentice. Coming?”
Paige shook her head as if to clear it, then grabbed her arm. “When do I get to do this inky-black-melty thing myself?”
“When I’m sure I don’t need to kill you. I can’t have you melting right before I deliver the final blow.”
Paige stuck out her lower lip in a pout, then Nick shook his head at Becca and parted his lips, no doubt to chastise her for scaring the apprentice, so she turned them all into mist before he could speak.
Nine
The instant Becca pulled Nick and Paige up through the floor of Dani’s front hall, she was slammed with a howling emptiness that had her stumbling. Nick caught her before she pitched into the rack of coats hanging behind the door, his hands firm on her shoulders. “What’s wrong?”
“Jet lag.” She blinked hard and twisted free of him, trying to shake the dizziness making her head spin. A cold wind tore through her body, ripping into every cranny of her soul. She felt like she was standing in hell, stripped naked of all her defenses while the scorched aridness sucked whatever life she had left out of her body. “What’s in this place?”
“It’s freezing in here,” Paige said, tugging Becca’s coat tighter around her body. “Doesn’t this place have heat?”
“It’s not cold. It’s…something else.” Becca could tell her body was shutting down.
“Becca!” Nick’s voice was distant.
“What’s wrong with her?” Paige asked. “Boss, you okay? Want me to get Satan?”
“No.” She stumbled again, and Nick grabbed her again. This time, she noticed a faint pulse of warmth where he held her shoulders, an abatement from the howling emptiness inside her. Instinctively, she turned toward him and burrowed into his body, sliding her hands under his shirt against his warm skin, and the barrenness eased ever so slightly. What the hell was going on?
Nick could feel the aching desolation trying to consume Becca, felt her trying to reach out to his heat, so he wrapped his arms around her, pulled her tight, nestling his face in the curve of her bare neck. He released all control of his emotions and sent them cascading into her; his fear for Dani’s safety, his frustration at not knowing how to save her, his love for his family, his raging hatred for the Council for taking away his pa. “Do you feel that?”
“Yes,” she whispered against his chest, pressing her face harder against him. “It’s working.”
He pulled her against him so the length of their bodies were crushed together and sent his energy through every inch of his skin, through his clothes and hers. He felt the chasm hesitate and then begin to retreat, and he pressed harder, chasing it with all that was bubbling inside him, all that was who he was. And then the void was contained, held at bay by the fiery hot wall he’d created inside her. And that’s when he felt it. An answering heat, somewhere deep inside her, behind the vortex of emptiness that swirled through her. A heat that was hers, fighting to stay alive. “Becca? You doing all right?”
She nodded, and he felt her breasts swell against his chest as she took a deep breath. “Yeah.” She lifted her head to look at him, not relinquishing her tight grip on his waist. “What was that about?”
“I think it’s because of what’s in Dani’s room.” He looked down at her, watched the strength and determination reassemble in her gaze. “It makes me feel bleak, but it got you even worse.”
“I feel bleak, too,” Paige announced. “I’m freezing, actually.”
Becca turned her head to look at her hovering apprentice, who appeared worried as she hugged her arms around her upper body. “Go find a thermostat and crank up the heat.”
“Good call. I’m on it.” Paige darted around the corner, leaving them alone.
Becca slowly peeled her arms away from Nick, but the instant she let go of him, he saw her face tighten under the renewed assault, and he grabbed her and hauled her against him again. “Came back?”
“Yeah.” She pressed her face into his chest and emoted crankiness and irritation that he found interesting. He’d have thought she was all hardness and was above such human emotions. “I hate being dependent on anyone,” she grouched. She kept a tight grip on his waist but eased her body away from him.
He watched her face for signs that the devastating blackness was regaining its hold in her soul. “Okay so far?”
“Yeah.” She glanced around the room, still holding tight to him. “So, which way?”
“Down the hall. Second door on the right.” He saw her look down the hall and then frown, no doubt trying to figure out how to get there without letting go of him. “I could carry you,” he suggested.
She glared at him. “Why don’t you just put your hand on the back of my neck and see if that works.”
“I can do that.” He slipped his hand around the back of her neck, continuing to send his emotions into her through their touch. The cold void was still there, waiting for his energy to leave, but his touch was enough so far. He wondered what that void was like when it wasn’t being fed by whatever was in Dani’s room. How pervasive was it for her? And how much did it suck?
She started walking down the hall, and he fell in next to her, keeping a tight grip on her.
They reached the hole in Dani’s wall, and he tensed as Becca stuck her head inside and then stepped through, dreading what he was going to find. He ducked in after her, and for an instant he thought the power had gone out.
Then he realized the dome was no longer transparent. It was almost opaque, and he could barely see the outline of his sister, still lying motionless on her bed. “Dani,” he whispered, dropping his hand from Becca to press his palms against the bubble. He shoved against it, and it shoved back. “Dani!”
Becca felt Nick’s anguish just before she was slammed with the sudden crash of emptiness at the loss of his touch. She immediately shoved her hand under his shirt to touch the bare skin of his back, anchoring her hand under the waistband of his jeans so it couldn’t slip off.
Instantly, the barren chasm inside her quieted, chased away by Nick’s essence, giving her life. He was heat and he was light and he was passion, and it was the most amazing feeling ever. His muscles flexed under her hand, and she remembered that not only was he alive with life force, but he was also a man. A man who made her feel alive.
“What is this thing?” he whispered,
finally drawing her attention away from herself and to the room.
Becca cursed when she saw what was there.
His body tensed at her words and he spun around, nearly breaking her wrist as it twisted in the back of his jeans. She clenched her teeth as her hand fell free, but he remembered to grab her shoulders before the void could consume her again. “I really didn’t like your response, did I?” he asked.
“She’s not dead right now, Nick. She’s just in a trance. That’s the good news.”
He didn’t relax his hold. “And the bad?”
She looked over the dome again, inspecting it for authenticity. “Well, I’d need to check a few things out to be sure…”
“Tell me.” His voice was low and rumbling again, and she had a feeling that walls were going to start collapsing from his energy if she didn’t get him to ease down.
“It’s from hell. That’s why it affects me worse than you or Paige, because I’m basically made of hell and you two are more distantly affiliated right now.” She eyed it, looking at the faint etchings in the surface that were so telling. “It’s called a death blister. It’s like a giant sac filled with the invisible pus of hell, and your sister’s in the middle of it.” When the mirror over the dresser exploded from Nick’s vibrating rage, she decided maybe it was best to gloss over the graphic description. “See, it’s a…” She decided not to call it a torture device. “…toy Satan made. He makes a vesicle, sets a timer, and then links it to someone’s life force. Then, the only way to destroy it is to kill whoever’s life force is supporting it. It’s a handy way of getting someone to kill someone else for him.”
The air around Nick continued to hum, and it wasn’t a feel-good kind of vibration. “So, what’s the timer for?” He sort of shuddered, and ratcheted down his emotions. “How does it work?”
“Well…” She turned toward the dome, looking for what she knew had to be there. She found it just under the window. “See that little black spot?” She leaned back against him, as she began to get cold and her mind started to get a little blinky.
He Loves Me, He Loves Me Hot Page 8