“You were already flirting with us. And don’t try to deny it. When we saw you were enthralled, it was simple enough to up the flirt and take action. And if you remember correctly you asked us for help finding your friend. It’s just a coincidence that a nasty incubus is involved.”
“Okay,” I said. Uncertain where I wanted this to go. “But I still like you. That’s on me, no compulsion right?”
“Vlad’s the only one who had a compulsion on you, and you managed to break that. If you still like him, that’s all you,” Biker said.
“And the weird mixed up signals I’m getting and feeling about you and Goliath?”
“That’s also on you. But Gloria, there are no mixed signals here,” Goliath answered.
“But I like all of you, and I can’t decide.” I pouted.
The car stopped suddenly. Biker cupped my chin so I was forced to meet his gaze. “No one is asking you to choose anything right now, accept maybe your weapon. We can discuss the who likes whom part of this later. Let’s go get your friend.”
He gave me a quick kiss and jumped from the car.
Goliath leaned into the front half of the car, and also kissed me before pushing the seat up and climbing out of the back seat. “You know you don’t have to choose if you don’t want to. I know how to share.”
This time I exited the car with a bit more finesse, landing on my feet and ready to fight. Vlad didn’t have as dignified an exit as I had managed.
He stood and adjusted his suit. “Pretend you didn’t see that.”
I stifled a giggle.
“The wolf’s right. When you choose, sharing is an option.”
He was off running after Biker and Goliath before I had time to come up with a witty retort, or ask why he hadn’t kissed me too.
Locating the demon was surprisingly easy this time. Just run down the alley with the weird otherworldly glowing green smoke.
I rounded the corner, and the scene before me was bad. Monster movie bad.
How do I describe what I saw? The sexy anime demon had grown larger than life. He had been tall before but now he was a giant, easily ten to twelve feet tall. The fancy robes he had worn earlier were shredded. The ass-length long hair now only came to just below his shoulders. And why yes, he was a sex demon. I may have seen a penis that big on a hippo at the zoo.
He held Vin, King Kong fashion, in his grasp. She kicked and struggled and screamed for all she was worth. On the ground at his feet were the other girls. I counted seven on the ground. Two were oddly silent and limp. I didn’t want to think about that. The rest were in divided groups, huddled together and crying. I didn’t blame them.
In the air over his head, the same boiling clouds and purple lightning opening some sort of temporal rift. The hole roared like a thundering train. The mummy like demons from early slowly crawled out, as if they were afraid of getting caught by the sex demon.
On the far side of the alley from where I was, stood a large black snarling wolf, Posh. Biker, back in wolf form, was circling around. I caught a glimpse of a man dragging the crying women away from the demon. My initial thought was that he was poaching the victims for his own nefarious purposes, until I watched. He dragged them back, and then picked them up, or helped them to walk under their own power. Once a good way down he set them down, helped them sit, and talked to them, looking them over for any serious injuries. The glowing green smoke swirling around the demon’s legs made it hard to focus on details. I couldn’t figure why he wasn’t heading down and around the block.
I kept him in my peripheral vision. If there was a way to get around the demon without being clotheslined by his erection, I wanted to help get the women out of there and someplace safe.
A demon arm sailed past my vision as Vlad shredded one of the mummified things. Posh and Biker alternated between going after Irdu Lili and the lesser demons. Armed with a silver cross and some pointy sticks, I entered the fray. Goliath was actually climbing the sex demon like a tree, and not in some sexy hot metaphor. Irdu plucked him off his hip and tossed him.
“Goliath!” I cried as I watched him crumple. I didn’t need to be concerned, he went limp and then rolled, and landed on all four of his wolf paws before bolting back into the fight.
More of the creepy mummy demons crawled out of the gate, and Irdu seemed to be getting bigger. At least his dick was.
“How do we close the portal?” I yelled.
“What is that thing?” The guy helping the women pointed up and asked me.
“Demon portal. Halloween crap gone wrong,” I yelled back. “Are they okay?”
He looked over his shoulder to where the women were safely distanced from the action. “They are a bit banged up. The alley is closed off at the other end. We need to get them out of there and to the hospital.”
“We need to take care of this thing first,” I said pointing up.
“Light, energy, an explosion would be good,” Vlad answered me.
Great, where was I supposed to get a bomb?
“We need fireworks,” the guy said. He ran behind Irdu and we could finally talk without yelling across all the fighting and snarling.
“It’s Halloween, not the fourth of July. Where the hell are we going to find fireworks?” I was able to focus on him. I couldn’t decide if he was in costume or not. Either way, he was dressed in expensive stone washed jeans, with a bright purple silk shirt open to the navel showing off nice man-scaped pecs. His ink-black hair was unruly, but I attributed that to our situation. His mustache was a bit extra with the ends twirled up, he wore heavy dark eyeliner, and sizable gold hoops in his ears. He was either dressed as a Bollywood hero, or he was a Bollywood douche-boy wanna be. Either way, Vin totally needed to meet this guy. He was completely her type. And if he was single, he would also be her mother’s type—for setting Vin up with.
“I know where I can get fireworks,” he said.
“Run!” I yelled. “I don’t think we have much time.”
He took off out of the alley. I really hoped that was not the last we would see of him.
I spent the next ten minutes distracting the demons I could with silver burns and my pokey sticks. I had been right. The creepy ass demons crawling out of the portal did move in a swarm fashion. It did not make me happy to be right.
“I’ve found some fireworks!” Bollywood announced as he returned.
I ran over to him. “These are great. Any rockets?”
“Mostly flash bangs. How’s your throwing arm?” he asked.
“I throw like a girl,” I announced.
Bollywood looked at me a bit disappointed.
“Fastpitch softball, bitch, I’ve got this.”
He cracked a smile. “Good. Let’s blow this fucker up.”
“How many do we have?” I started laying them out in a row.
“Not so many that your pitches can go wide. So no curve balls, yeah?”
I stood up and started rotating my shoulder. I hadn’t played fast pitch since the tenth grade. That was almost ten years ago. But I had technique and I was counting on muscle memory.
“Let’s do this.” I extended my hand and Bollywood put a lit firework in my hand. If I timed this wrong, I could lose some fingers. If I didn’t try, I could lose Vin. Fingers were worth saving a best friend over.
My first pitch was too low. But the flash-bang went off near Irdu Lili’s head, distracting the demon. He almost dropped Vin. He needed to let her go. I didn’t want him to climb into the portal with her.
“You missed,” Vlad had time to provide a little obvious commentary.
“Yes dear, I’ll try to do better on the next one.”
“Do please, this is getting rather tedious, and I’m getting tired of dodging that penis.”
I laughed and wound up for another go at the portal.
Missed again, but I was closer. I needed more spin up, and I needed height.
“I need to get higher.”
Goliath rolled in front of me from a blow.
“Goliath, can you get me onto the demon?”
He shifted back, naked. He was distracting, but I kept my focus on the job at hand, and his eyes.
“What do you need?” he asked.
“I need to get higher, and if I can be under the portal, like right where he is, I know I can land the shot.” I turned to Bollywood. “Once he gets me up there, you toss me the firework. We won’t have much time. So don’t light it until the very last second.”
He gave me a sharp nod.
“Ready?” Goliath asked.
I nodded, and then I was lifted and pushed up into the night. I wrapped one hand around the demon’s torso, and braced my footing.
“Now!”
Bollywood tossed the firework, and I heaved it skyward with a wind up. The flash-bang went off, and the portal collapsed with a thunderous crash. The demon looked up and added his own roar to the noise.
“Irdu Lili Demon of Sumeria!” I screamed as I stomped on the thick, wood-hard dick I stood on.
He paused at the sound of his name. It had worked.
“Take that you motherfucker!” I slammed the silver cross into his face and pressed hard.
Both of his hands reached for the burning piece of metal.
Vin screamed as she fell. I jumped hard on his dick, like I was trying to break a tree limb under my feet. I fell on it, draping across his dick. I swung like a gymnast and then jumped to the ground.
Bollywood had Vin in his arms by the time I reached her.
“Vin, are you okay?” I reached for her, but she had her eyes on Bollywood.
“You saved me.”
I knew he was totally her type.
“Get her out of here.” I pointed down the alley where the rest of the women were. It was the safest place I could think of.
Bollywood lifted her as if she weighed nothing. With her safe, I returned my attention to my guys and the demon of the monstrous dick. Irdu was on his knees, still clutching at his face. The cross seemed to have sunk in the flesh. It was such a shame to ruin such a pretty face. Then again, it wasn’t pretty was it? It belonged to a demon that was going to consume my friend.
All around us the lesser demons crumbled into dust. It was time for this one to turn to dust. Irdu was shrinking in size. The tree limb erection had tumbled as well. Surrounded by three wolves and a vampire, and one pissed off best friend, he should have been defeated. Instead he started laughing. That deep maniacal evil genius laugh. My insides twisted uncomfortably. What if he had a clever escape plan all ready to—
There was a loud crack and sound of rending meat. Irdu Lili fell forward, face down on the pavement.
Vlad stood behind where the demon had been, brushing his hands together. “Well done, that’s taken care of.”
I blinked a few times. It was over. The sex demon was already crumpling before my eyes.
“We’re not quite done, we have those women to take care of,” the man who spoke could only be Posh.
“I’ll handle that,” Vlad responded.
“Hey.” I made him look over at me. “You gonna do that eye thing?”
“Something like that.”
“Can you make it so Vin remembers that guy?”
“Are you seriously trying to set your friend up with the fireworks guy?” Goliath asked as he shifted back to human.
I nodded. “It’s a professional grade hobby. Find a man she’ll like that her parents will also like.”
“I’ll do my best,” Vlad said with a chuckle. He straightened his jacket and tie, and headed down the alley.
Chapter Five: The After Party
Turns out Bollywood owned an SUV. And it was a good thing too, because I could barely fit four adults into my car, and we now had ten more people to transport. His SUV comfortably sat eight, so cramming in ten just meant they had to be stacked on top of each other. I did not fail to notice the men all elected to go in the SUV. Goliath whined something about leg room. I wasn’t surprised that Vin chose to ride with Bollywood too. Truth be told, it kind of hurt my feelings.
Vlad said we could all go to his house for a little “after party and clean up.”
I didn’t know how his compulsion worked. My best guess is it was some kind of heavy duty power of suggestion. Also, I was going to need to work on his concept of “house.” I clearly grew up in a hovel if his mansion was what he called a house. And if he wasn’t some kind of billionaire, he was close. His house was the size of some high schools I’ve seen.
Vlad led us through a side door. We were a rag tag group. Of the victims, the more injured women were carried in. I helped one limp in, her arm around my shoulder. I was pleased that Bollywood carried Vin. I hoped for her sake he was the perfect future son-in-law for her mother.
The large kitchen-lounge type mega room had plenty of seating, so everyone could be comfortable. I shuffled over to the kitchen side and filled the tea kettle I found on the stove with water. Goliath joined me and started looking through cupboards. He found a perfectly matching set of tea cups and saucers, and placed them on the counter. The stove clicked a few times as if the pilot wasn’t used to lighting the flame for the burner.
Vlad placed a large Taj Mahal looking tin on the counter. He opened it and took a sniff of the contents. He nodded before returning to where the rest of the group draped over furniture. He and Biker exchanged a few words, and then he left. I watched him go, and then turned my attention back to Biker. He and Posh were examining a few of the women, looking at cuts and scrapes.
Biker looked into the eyes of one of the victims I had seen unconscious earlier. I was glad she was upright, but she probably had a doozy of a concussion.
The water boiled for our first round of tea before Vlad returned. He carried an assortment of decidedly vintage medical supplies. “These came with the house,” he announced as he spilled his arm load onto the table.
“I guess we should be glad you have anything at all,” I muttered.
If he was a vampire, he would have no need for human things, like twenty piece matched serving sets, or tea.
“The caretaker keeps a few items here, like the tea. But the rest of this has been here for years.” He waved his hand about indicating everything.
Goliath and I prepared hot tea for everyone. Including Vlad. I didn’t want to leave any hints that he might be something other to the rest of the group. Vlad helped us to serve.
As he handed over each cup, he caught the woman’s gaze and held it for a very long moment. I know he had done something similar back at the alley, but this time I was able to witness him working. Everyone was very quiet settling in. He repeated his actions with Vin, and I could tell she was getting ready to pass out. I had been best friends with her since college and had become familiar with how she was after a late night of studying, or just hanging out with me. He did his eye lock thing one last time with Bollywood, and with him I noticed a change in his demeanor. Previously he held Vin on his lap, but now he let her sit on her own. He stayed right next to her, still protective, but not so much in her space. Yawns spread through the group.
“Why don’t we adjourn to the salon,” Vlad said with a gesture indicating to everyone it was time to get up and move.
I had never been in a house with a salon. I knew he didn’t mean a place to get a haircut. I tried to remember from movies and shows that had mansions, and I couldn’t remember a salon. A bat-cave, sure, an indoor pool, yeah, a library to marry a beast over, definitely, but not a salon. We followed him through a tall ceilinged hall, and large heavy wood double doors into a space that was part library worth marrying a beast over and super comfy living room. The décor was straight out of A Thousand and One Arabian Nights, with low, heavily cushioned couches, and swathes of draped tent-like silk. Things were old, and slightly dusty. Vlad had mentioned a caretaker, so I’d guess it was safe to say the room had been dusted and vacuumed, if not in this decade, at least this century.
The women lowered themselves onto settees, and couches with a
udible sighs of relief, and the low moans of pleasure that come with climbing into bed after a long and tedious day.
The damage to everyone’s clothes stood out in stark contrast to the elegance and style of the room.
“Do you have anything we can let these ladies change into?” Posh asked.
Vlad harrumphed. “Possibly. Gloria dear, would you mind assisting?”
With a nod I followed him through the big doors, and down the hall opposite of the kitchen. The hall opened onto the formal entrance of the mansion. It was spectacular. Large enough to hold a ball, and this was just what you got when you walked in the front door. Black-and-white marble tiled flooring, gilded accents, a chandelier the Phantom of the Opera would be envious of.
“I think my entire apartment building fits in this room alone,” I said as I took it all in with my mouth wide open.
“It’s nice enough, but I’ve seen grander. I doubt my father would have ever considered a home so small for one of his mistresses. And he had several.”
“Houses or mistresses?” I asked.
“Both.”
I followed him up the stairs. The staircase was the kind that brides went bonkers overs.
“So you would consider this downsizing?”
He laughed.
“We had very different childhoods,” I said. The words trailed out of my mouth as he led me into a bedroom. Not his. The air had that lack-of-regular-use mustiness to it. Everything was gorgeous: four poster bed, coordinating dressers, a fireplace.
“I believe a dressing room is through this way.”
We passed through the room and into what I had at first expected to be a closet, but was in fact another small room pretending to be a closet. Vlad reached up and removed white sheeting from over the hung garments. Everything was pristine and vintage to mid-twentieth century and older.
“Vlad, how long have you owned this place?” I sorted through and found a section of long-sleeved nightgowns. I started to pull them from the hangers.
“Maybe seventy years or so. I’ve spent the last twenty years on the continent and haven’t had a chance to air everything out.”
A Cursed All Hallows' Eve Page 47