by Tara Rose
Magda muttered something that Alexei didn’t quite catch, and then she picked up Faina’s dress and jacket. “At least let her put her clothes back on before she eats.”
Alexei would rather stare at her curvy hips and lush breasts, especially since they were covered in lacy, black underwear, but he had to agree with their housekeeper this time. The girl deserved to be covered. He moved the table away and tried not to watch as she dressed. “Do you want your boots as well? We don’t wear shoes in the house, but you may if you want.”
She shook her head. “I don’t either.” When she reached into her jacket pocket, her face took on a look of disappointment and she sighed. “Where is my phone? It was in a case with my hotel key and my ID.”
“I told you it’s safe.” Alexei positioned the table in front of her. “Please eat something.”
“Where’s your food? Are you just going to sit there and watch me eat?”
“We’ve already eaten,” said Konstantin. He glanced toward Magda. “You can go now.”
She narrowed her eyes slightly but finally left the room. Alexei waited until Faina had drunk two glasses of water, taken a bite of toast, and tasted a forkful of eggs. Then he steeled himself for her reaction. This was always the worst part, although, thankfully, they hadn’t had to tell this story to too many women over the past one hundred years. He had a feeling this one might actually believe them. She was sensitive to supernatural powers, and her fear of them had significantly abated in the last few moments.
“How much do you remember about what you saw last night in the clearing?”
She frowned slightly. “Not much. Chanting in a language I’d never heard, torches, and dancing. It looked like some kind of ritual, but there was a bad aura coming off the participants. An evil aura…” Her voice trailed off, and she gave them each a wary glance. “But you both were there. You should know what it was.”
“We do know what it was, but we weren’t part of it. We were there to prevent exactly what almost happened to you. To keep humans away from that crowd.”
She dropped her fork, and Alexei fought the urge to put his arms around her. The fear was back, but this time it wasn’t directed at them. “Why?”
“For the very reasons you’re imagining,” said Konstantin. “They would have loved to get their hands on someone with your psychic abilities. You’d have made a strong sacrifice.”
“How do you know so much about me?”
“We can sense it,” said Alexei.
“What are you?”
“We’ll tell you, but you have to promise not to freak out.”
She watched him carefully, and he could sense her indecision the same way he’d sensed her wondering where her phone was earlier. They couldn’t read minds, per se, but they were able to discern thought patterns and specific objects if the person concentrated on one subject hard enough. Finally, her aura changed. She’d decided to trust them. Alexei breathed a sigh of relief.
* * * *
“All right.” Faina pushed away the table. She was no longer hungry or thirsty, and there were too many unanswered questions that had to be dealt with before she did one more thing. “I’m listening. Tell me everything.”
“We’re demons.” Alexei put up his hands. “But not like the demons they taught you about in school. We’re trying to earn back our humanity by keeping the human world safe from what’s going on in New Orleans right now.”
“What’s going on in the city?” Demons. Actual demons. Like the one that had appeared to her one warm summer night in her bedroom. Should she tell them about that? Would they believe her?
They exchanged a glance filled with both surprise and suspicion. “Why aren’t you afraid of us?” asked Konstantin. “Most women we’ve told that to react a little bit, at least.”
She’d have to tell them and the consequences be damned. No pun intended. They had a right to know. Faina had always believed she had psychic abilities, and the way these two reacted to her was a confirmation they sensed it, too. If they knew that much, then they must also realize she believed in their kind. “When I was twelve years old, a demon appeared to me in my bedroom late one night. I know he was a demon because he told me he was.”
They exchanged a sharp glance, and hot fear spread through her limbs. “What? What’s wrong?”
“Nothing,” said Alexei. She didn’t have to listen closely to realize he was lying. “What did he look like?”
“Like you two. I mean he was in human form.”
“Can you be more specific?”
“Not really. It was dark, and I didn’t see his features. But I smelled…” She didn’t want to insult them, but that was the only other clear detail she remembered from that night. “I caught the scent of something moldy. Just like I smelled in here this morning.”
Konstantin nodded. “What else do you remember?”
“Nothing. I asked him why he was there, but my mother opened the door and yelled at me for not being asleep. It was a Saturday night, and I had a bad habit of staying up too late then falling asleep during Mass the next morning. We went every Sunday, without fail.”
“Did she see him?”
“No. He was gone. Just like that. And before you ask, I’m certain I wasn’t dreaming.”
“We believe you. Did he ever come back?”
“No.”
“What had you done or said before he appeared?”
“Do you mean was I playing with a Ouija board or something like that? No. I wasn’t. I didn’t say or do anything.” That wasn’t quite true. “Except for the book I found.”
“What book?”
“It was an old text with incantations in it that I found in the basement of my grandmother’s home in the Ukraine. That’s where I was born, but I’m a US citizen, as well. Each summer we used to go back for two months to visit family. About two weeks before the demon appeared to me, we were on our trip and I found a box of old books in the basement. I asked my grandmother about them, and she said I could have them if I wanted since she’d been about to donate them to the library.”
“Do you remember the name of the book?”
She nodded. “Of course. I still have it at home, but I haven’t opened it in years. Clavicula Salomonis Regis. The Lesser Key of Solomon.”
“What were you doing with such a thing?” asked Alexei.
“Just reading it. I swear. It fascinated me. The occult always has. I’ve never been afraid of those in the spirit world like many people are.”
“Obviously not. So, you were reading the book before the demon appeared to you?”
“Yes. I was…I was reciting incantations out loud.”
They exchanged a quick glance that she couldn’t interpret.
“And I don’t mean to abruptly change the subject, but what were you and your friends doing last night in the cemetery?”
She sighed. “Trying to find Marie Laveau’s tomb. We wanted to make a wish for our friend Lisette. She died ten years ago, and we all feel guilty about it. We talked her into leaving her gris-gris bag home that night because it was so valuable to her. It was a stupid decision.”
“You think if she’d had it with her she wouldn’t have died?”
“We don’t know that. We don’t even know who killed her. We only know that we went out with her one night in Oxford, Mississippi, where we all went to college together, and we got separated. When they finally found her, someone had cut her throat, and there was a symbol on her forehead, drawn in ashes. The police said it looked like a ritualistic killing, but those are the only details we ever received.”
“I’m so sorry.”
Alexei touched her arm. She flinched a bit and nearly pulled it away, but once she grew used to the warmth of his fingertips, she relaxed. And it wasn’t only the heat. Tiny jolts of electricity shot straight to her pussy, causing it to contract as if she were on the verge of a huge orgasm. Was that what it would be like to make love to these two? She fought to stay focused on Lisette’s story.
“Thank you.” Her voice came out breathy. He’d notice that. They both would. They seemed to sense her thoughts. Or could they actually read minds? She glanced into his eyes. “Can you hear my thoughts?”
The corners of his mouth turned up. “Not in the way you’re thinking we can. We can sense your mood and glimpse a general idea of your thought processes.”
That explained a lot. But what else could they do? She’d felt drugged when first waking up this morning. Was that part of their power over her? Was that also why she had only spotty memories of when she’d first seen them last night? “Did you use some sort of power on me last night? Is that why I can’t remember everything?”
“Ah, that’s my fault.” Konstantin looked apologetic. “I pushed you a bit so you’d put away your phone. Sometimes it’s too much and the person faints. That, combined with the rum you drank, made you sleep for so long.”
“What’s to stop you from doing it again and taking advantage of that?”
He cut his gaze briefly toward his brother. “Nothing. But we both give you our word that’s not our intention.” His unusual-colored eyes bored into hers, and it might have only been her imagination that she couldn’t seem to look away. “But if it was, you wouldn’t be sitting here, dressed, talking to us. You’d be naked and tied to the bedposts, and we’d be all over your body.”
Oh my…. She swallowed hard as erotic images danced through her head. When the demon had appeared to her at the tender age of twelve, she’d known enough about sex to be curious. For reasons which had never been clear to her, she hadn’t been able to get the same sort of images out of her head for weeks afterward. Why did she lust after such creatures? Did it mean something? Was that why they’d brought her here?
“Do you trust us now?” asked Konstantin.
She nodded. “I do trust you. But I have so many questions. Why me? I mean, I know what you said, but why did you both happen to find me there last night?”
“We don’t know.”
“What was that ritual all about?”
“There’s a turf war going on. The vampires were here first. In the city, I mean. Others came afterward, and some creatures have to make a big deal out of that. Most of us just ignore the others and go on about our business, but there are some from each species who can’t seem to simply coexist. They have to cause trouble, not only for humans but for each other. It draws attention to our kind and makes the local police nervous because they don’t know what they’re dealing with.”
“And it’s Halloween.”
Konstantin nodded. “Exactly. Worst night possible for you and your friends to be lurking in cemeteries.”
“Where are they? My friends? Are they safe?”
“Yes, as far as we can tell.”
“Good. Then let me go back to the hotel so we can all get on with our vacation.”
They exchanged a dark glance over her head, and this time she knew the heat spreading through her body wasn’t from lust. Fear prickled at the edges of her consciousness, threatening to overwhelm her.
“We can’t let you do that.”
She didn’t want to ask why, but she did.
“It’s not safe. You need to stay here with us until this all blows over.”
“And if I refuse?”
Konstantin gripped her face, not hard enough to hurt, but in a way that let her know he meant business. “Then you will be dead before the sun rises again tomorrow morning.”
Chapter Four
Faina narrowed her eyes. “More of the turf war?” She knew her voice came out in a sarcastic tone, but she couldn’t help it.
“You don’t believe us.” Konstantin stood, holding out his hand. “Come on. I’ll prove it to you.”
She stared at it, suddenly wishing she hadn’t gone down this path. Whatever they were about to show her, she didn’t want to see.
“You might want to put on your boots for this.”
She did, and then took his hand. His skin burned as much as his brother’s had, but she didn’t cry out because of that. She yelled because the room started to spin. He gripped her tightly, and she barely heard him shout, telling her not to let go and that she was safe. Faina closed her eyes as a horrible, dizzy feeling settled over her. When she opened them, they weren’t in the home any longer. They were on a gentle slope, overlooking a park.
She glanced up at Konstantin, and he put a finger to his lips, then leaned close and whispered in her ear. “They won’t know we’re here unless you speak.” She nodded, and then Alexei was on her opposite side. He put an arm around her shoulder, and she had to bite back a moan at the desire coursing through her body.
But as she scanned the men gathered in the park, her lust was replaced with an urge to retch when she realized they weren’t men at all. Like creatures out of a dark fairy tale, they had horns, hooves, forked tails, and fur-covered bodies. It was surreal, but at the same time, she knew it was true. She was watching evil supernatural beings in their true form. Is that what Konstantin and Alexei would look like if they shed their human disguises?
She struggled to hear the voices more clearly.
“We can’t get near the McDryw house, but we know they have one of the human women.”
“What about the others? There were five spotted.”
“Two are unaccounted for. A third is with Elijah and Mikael Moreau.”
Several of the creatures gathered swore, and one of them spat out the word “vampires.”
“It gets worse. We have reason to believe the Veselov brothers might have another.”
Now they were shouting. Faina had trouble following the conversation, but she heard the words “blood traitors” more than once. Konstantin raised his brows, and then he gripped her hand. This time, she was prepared for the vortex of sensations, and when she landed again, she was once again sitting on the bed, her half-eaten breakfast cooling on the table in front of her.
“Now do you believe us?”
She gazed into Konstantin’s face. “Where were we just now?”
“An undisclosed location outside of the city.”
“If it’s such a secret, how do you know where it is?”
“We can go anywhere we like, and if we’re careful, even other supernatural creatures can’t detect our presence for short periods of time.”
“Why did they call you blood traitors?”
“Because that’s what we are. We’re demons in alliance with a group of fallen angels who help our kind redeem bad deeds. But obviously there are those who don’t want us to work for good, and they’re in alliance with the creatures you just saw. They’re the driving force behind the turf war going on.”
“They mentioned my friends. How do they know so much about us? We weren’t in the cemetery more than fifteen minutes.”
“Do you really have to ask? Alexei and I were able to discern your smallest concerns just moments ago. How did you think you could approach such a powerful gathering of creatures and not be detected?”
Faina nodded several times, wishing she knew whether her friends were all right. “Those names they mentioned…do you know them? Are my friends all right with them?”
“We know them.” Alexei’s voice held an undercurrent of disgust. “Not our favorite beings, but I don’t believe they’ll harm your friends.”
“So they’re looking for us. That’s why I can’t leave.”
“Yes.”
“But I have a home. I have a job.”
“I realize that.”
“But why can’t you simply whisk me away to the airport so I can go home?”
Alexei sighed as a parent might in the presence of a stubborn child, and the hair on Faina’s arms prickled. She didn’t need attitude from them. “A demon appeared to you years ago. That means you’re susceptible to our kind. You’ve already had contact. Even at home in your apartment, you’re not safe. I’m afraid you’re stuck here with us until we resolve what’s going on in this city.”
“What about my
things at the hotel? My clothes and personal items?”
“We can get them for you. Do they have your credit card on file?”
She nodded.
“Then we don’t even have to worry about you checking out. We’ll send Magda over today to retrieve your luggage.”
“Who is she? Is she a demon?”
“No. She’s human. Her ancestors have worked for our family a long time.”
“Why is she safe from those…creatures I saw?”
“Because they don’t know she exists.”
“You know this all sounds insane, right?”
Alexei’s eyes bored into hers. “Does it really?” He spoke softly, teasing, as if coaxing a lover in a candlelit room.
She had to avert her gaze. It sounded no nuttier than her story about the demon appearing to her twenty-two years ago.
“Is it so difficult to trust your own senses?”
“No. It’s not. So what do I do now?”
“Anything you’d like. Explore the home, read books, ask questions. Anything at all. In addition to Magda, we have a small staff, so just ask if you need something.” Alexei pointed toward the table. “Do you want the rest of your breakfast?”
She shook her head. “I’d really like to take a shower and put on fresh clothes.”
Konstantin stood. “I’ll go and see to the retrieval of your luggage.” He pointed toward a door at the far end of the room that she hadn’t noticed earlier. “There’s a bathroom in there stocked with products. It might not be what you use, but I hope they’ll prove satisfactory for one time. By the time you finish, your personal items and clothes will be in this room.”
“Thank you.” She started toward the door then turned to face them. “Thank you, both of you. I’m sorry if I was bitchy earlier. This is a bit much to take in.”
Konstantin’s gaze was soft, seductive. She fought the urge to wrap her arms around his body. “No apologies necessary. We understand your reluctance to trust us.”
“You saved my life. I understand that now. I owe you.”
The briefest flash of unadorned lust passed across his face, and Faina nearly came. If a glimpse of emotion could produce that strong of a reaction, what would it be like to hold him while he fucked her? “Then I suppose we’ll have to figure out how you can repay us both.”