Unholy Pleasures (Half-breed Series Book 4)

by Debra Dunbar

  I reached up to twine my arms around him. “Not now. Later. I do want to have a child with you eventually, but for a while, I’d like to have you all to myself.”

  He fitted me against him, his hands tangling in my hair. “Good, because I’d like to have you all to myself. Starting right now.”

  Chapter 27

  It was the fifth time I’d checked my phone, and still no word from Hallwyn. Irix and I had dozed off after making love, and I’d woken around ten at night, an hour after sunset, worried that I hadn’t heard the familiar beep of my phone receiving a text. I’d sent her a message, then waited, then sent another message.

  If I woke Irix, he’d tell me to go back to sleep. He’d tell me that Hallwyn was a grown elf, fully capable to taking care of herself. He’d tell me that she probably got home and fell asleep before her head hit the pillow, forgetting to text me. He’d forbid me from going out in the dark of the vineyards to look for her.

  So I didn’t wake him. Putting his cell phone next to him on the pillow and turning the volume up so he’d hear it if I called for help, I snuck out to find Hallwyn, walking up and down the rows and tracking her to the far end of the vineyard. The night was overcast, and with the lack of lighting in the field, I was barely able to see more than a few feet ahead of me. Hallwyn could easily navigate the vineyard with her elven eyesight, but I stumbled over rocks and roots, cursing softly under my breath each time.

  “Be quiet, noisy human,” Hallwyn hissed. “You could wake the dead with the stomping of your elephant feet and loud mouth. How could I have ever thought you might have elven blood?”

  I jumped to hear her voice so close to me, grabbing the front of my shirt. Damned elf nearly gave me a heart attack. “You were supposed to go home,” I hissed back. “You pinky promised.”

  “I felt better after I ate and just kept going.” She looked up at the sky and wrinkled her nose. “It’s dark. I’ve got very good hearing, and outside of you tromping through the rows and cursing, I haven’t heard anyone else. I think the demons are gone.”

  “Please come with me, get in your car and go home,” I pleaded. “Or come back and sleep on my couch. Irix will kill me if he knows I’m out here, but I can’t leave you alone. I really don’t want to show up tomorrow morning and find you dead next to a rotted vine.”

  She sighed. “Fine. But I am not sleeping on your couch again. That thing stinks. It smells like you were having sex and sacrificing goats on it.”

  That was pretty close to the truth. “Then let me walk you back to your car.”

  Hallwyn nodded and led the way. I followed closely, grateful for her superior eyesight. I was following so closely that I ran into her back when she came to an abrupt stop.

  “Shh.” She held up her hand.

  I froze and listened. I could hear footsteps. Then voices cursing as they tripped over stakes and ran into vines. The demons. Shit it had to be the demons. I looked at Hallwyn, her expression just as panicked as I’m sure mine was.

  “Run,” she whispered, grabbing my hand. Then she sprinted, half-dragging me through the rows as we zig-zagged our way toward the parking area. I was fast, but as a full elf, she was faster, and it was all I could do to keep up. All the while I heard the crashing of the demons.

  The clouds parted, the waning moon lighting the fields in shades of gray. A figure stepped out into the path in front of us and raised her arm. Hallwyn gasped and dove to the side, but not fast enough. I heard the gunshot, heard her scream, then felt a burning sensation, like someone has shoved a red-hot knife through my upper arm.

  Hallwyn let go of my hand, falling to the ground. She was holding her shoulder and writhing in the dirt. The metal bullets. I knew elves had an allergy to certain metals this side of the gates, but I didn’t know how serious an in-and-out wound would be. Could she go into anaphylactic shock? Lose her arm? Die?

  I heard footsteps and knelt down in front of Hallwyn, ready to do whatever necessary to protect the pair of us.

  “You’re lucky we don’t kill you, too,” Apixt said waving her gun at me as she approached. I knew it was her because she was fingering one of the leaves of the grapevine, withering it with her touch.

  “Gallette’s dead,” I told her. “Your deal with him is over. You’ve done enough damage here, it’s time for you to move on elsewhere.”

  Txipa walked out of a row to walk in step beside her sister. “Did you not hear me before? We’re not leaving until our work here is done, and you interfering with our work is pissing us off. We gave you a courtesy warning. Now move aside and let us finish off this elf, or we’ll shoot you as well.”

  “No. I’m not letting you kill her. Let us go and…and I’ll take her with me. We’ll leave Napa Valley.”

  “We warned you, and we warned her, too,” Apixt said. “The elf only gets one warning. You get another pass because we like sex demons, although if you’re not out of here by the time I count to ten, I’ll change my mind.”

  “She’s mine,” I shouted, trying to think of a demon negotiation tactic that would get both Hallwyn and me out of this. “She’s mine and I won’t let you have her.”

  “One. Two.”

  “I’ll trade you something for her. A favor to be redeemed at a later time, or something else.” Eww. I hoped they didn’t want me to have sex with them.

  “Three. Four.”

  I shot a bolt of lightning at Txipa who easily deflected it.

  “Five. Six.”

  “Let us go or I’ll kill both of you.” My voice wavered, far distant from the tough-bitch I wanted to portray right now.

  “Seven. Eight.”

  I summoned every bit of energy and threw it into the vines closest to the plague demons. Stems and leaves shot into being, elongating and expanding as they filled the space between the rows like a wall of green. Apixt yelped, grabbing vines and withering them as quickly as I could grow them. I heard a gunshot and shifted my focus, twisting thick leaves and vines around Txipa and her gun while trying to shield Hallwyn from any stray bullets. We were at a stalemate, the demons killing off the vines at the same pace that I was creating them. The only difference was that I was tiring fast, while I got the impression that they had deep energy reserves. I wasn’t sure I could hold them off enough to get my phone out and call Irix for help, and I didn’t know how much time Hallwyn had before she’d succumb to her wounds. Was she already dead? I didn’t dare break my concentration to turn around and check on the elf.

  The vineyard suddenly exploded in light. “Did I miss anything? I dislike it when I miss all the good battles.”

  I turned around in surprise and saw Harkel and Irix standing behind Hallwyn and me. The cavalry had arrived, and without a moment to spare. I felt my strength falter, my vines withering under the plague demons’ attack. Txipa pulled her gun free from the vines and aimed it, only to throw it in frustration when she realized that the magazine was empty. Something inside me snapped, and all the vines fell away. Apixt launched herself toward me and I raised my arms, trying to protect Hallwyn.

  That was when Harkel strode into the middle of the fray, lifted his hands to the sky then pushed them down in a quick sharp motion.

  The sonic boom deafened me. Whatever the warmonger had done it extinguished all of the fire and sent both demons crashing to the ground. Spikes rose up from the dirt, surrounding the three of them and keeping the plague demons from Hallwyn and me. I felt Irix’s arms around me.

  “Idiot.” The word lacked heat. In fact, he sounded rather shaken. “When I woke and found you gone, I had a feeling this is what was going to go down. So I enacted my backup plan.”

  Which was Harkel. I wondered what Irix had promised to get him to leave his activities in Central America and come racing back here?

  The warmonger stood before the two demons, scowling. “You dare attack a member of my household? A succubus that I have petitioned with a breeding contract?”

  I had been under the impression he’d withdrawn that, but maybe
there was a formality that hadn’t yet been taken?

  The two plague demons rose. “We have claimed this vineyard. She and the elves keep reversing our work. We’ve warned them,” Apixt said.

  Harkel’s eyes glowed an eerie orange. “One demon type cannot claim exclusive territory in this world against another demon type. You may lay waste to fields and sicken the populace, but I still have a right to come in and cause a revolution. A sex demon still has the right to come in and seduce. An imp has the right to come in and cause mischief.”

  “She wasn’t seducing,” Txipa complained. “She was healing the vines we’d infected. It was a direct slight. And those rights don’t extend to elves.”

  Harkel laughed. “You are paltry plague demons if a succubus can reverse your work. I suggest you slink away lest word of this get back to Hel. And as for the elf, if the succubus Amber Shania Lowry says she has claimed her, then the elf is hers and not yours to harm. Leave now. My patience with the two of you has come to an end.”

  Both demons shot bolts of lightning at Harkel who absorbed them with ease. In return, he blasted a beam of bright red light toward the pair, blowing holes through their abdomens.

  Txipa and Apixt screamed, falling to the ground, the holes expanding, blackening flesh all down their torsos.

  “You are both lucky that I am in an excellent mood from my activities this week.” Harkel walked over, placing an elf button inside the smoking holes that were just under the two demons’s rib cages. “Glah ham, shoceacan,” he announced. And then they were gone. I glanced over at Irix. I’m sure my mouth was hanging open with shock.

  The iron spikes dissolved and the warmonger walked over to me, shoving a finger into the wound in my arm. I gritted my teeth, trying not to pass out from the pain.

  “You wear your wounds with pride, Amber. Yes, you are quite an amazing succubus. I need to return to my rebellion, but perhaps next week…”

  “I would love to see you next week,” I gasped, grateful when he finally removed his finger from the hole in my arm. “Thank you for coming. I don’t know how I can possibly repay you for your assistance.”

  Harkel seemed perplexed at my statement. “Of course I came. That’s what the head of a household does when one of his demons has been threatened or is being attacked. As for repayment…” He grinned, and it was a naughty-boy grin that rivaled Irix’s. “Perhaps anal sex when I return. I promise I will use the mouse cock for you.”

  Men. Didn’t matter if they were human or demon, it was all about the ass. “I would be delighted,” I told him, turning to Hallwyn as soon as the warmonger was gone.

  She was alive, but pale, gasping and holding her arm. I pulled my shirt off and made a makeshift bandage around the wound. “Are you going to be okay?”

  She nodded. “This really hurts, but I’m slowly healing it. It’s going to take weeks, and I’ll have a scar.” The elf burst into tears. “I’ll have a scar. A scar on my beautiful skin. Oh, Amber, I’ll be ugly, just like you.”

  And that was the thanks I got for saving her life. I helped her to her feet, and with some pleading, convinced Irix to carry her back to our trailer where we put her on my sofa and covered her with the towel she’d used last night. As tired and hurt as she was, she didn’t even complain about the smell before dropping off to sleep. I was thrilled to hear her snore. Huh. So much for perfect elves.

  Irix led me to the bathroom and cleaned my wounds, jumpstarting my healing with one of his panty-soaking kisses. Then he washed the rest of me and led me off to bed, curling in beside me and spooning against my back, taking care not to jostle my arm.

  “Sex?” he asked.

  “Not with the stray-puppy-with-excellent-hearing on the couch.” I laughed. “Tomorrow morning, after she’s gone to work we’ll get nasty.”

  “I’m still waiting on that blow job and anal,” he teased.

  “Speaking of anal. Thank you for calling in Harkel.”

  He brushed his hand down my thigh. “I thought we could use some backup.”

  “And what did you have to promise him for this favor?”

  Irix grinned. “That, my dear girl, is none of your business. I’m not an incubus who kisses and tells.”

  “Yes you are.” I turned over and gave him a quick kiss on the cheek. “But thank you.”

  He wrapped a leg around mine, pulling my hips tight to his. “Anytime, elf-girl. Anytime.”

  Epilogue

  I opened up the envelope and let out a squeal.

  “What? What is it?” Irix tried to grab the paper from my hands, but I was waving it in the air and dancing around. I’d spent the day packing because this was the last week of my internship. I’d go home for a few weeks, visit with my human mother, Wyatt, and Nyalla, and make bean dip and red velvet cake for Sam’s shindig, then I’d start sorting through all of my belongings in preparation for my move to New Orleans.

  It was exciting, scary, and strangely depressing all at the same time. I’d be living with Irix in his amazing home, in a city that I loved, surrounded by friends. I’d be filling out grant paperwork and working odd jobs until Jordan and I could get our non-profit organized and ready to go. It was what I’d been dreaming about for the last year, but there was this wiggly-worm of doubt that wouldn’t let me be completely happy, completely satisfied with the course of my immediate future.

  Something felt off. And then, out of nowhere, came this letter.

  “Amber, give it to me.” Irix snatched the paper from my hands and scanned it. I couldn’t read the expression on his face, and that dampened my enthusiasm.

  I was at a fork in the road, and I wasn’t sure which path to take.

  “Should I go?” I asked him. “It’s just for two weeks, and I might not even get the apprenticeship. I mean, I’ll be competing against people whose families have been enologists for generations, who grew up in vineyards and wineries.”

  “But you won’t know unless you try.” He handed the paper back to me. “If you go and you get the offer, then you’ll have a decision to make. If you go and don’t get the offer, well then at least you tried. If you don’t go, you’ll never know what course your life may have taken.”

  I bit my lip. “But I’m a half-succubus. I’ll live for tens of thousands of years. I could always do this some other time.”

  “But the offer is now. Go. Explore. And see what happens.”

  I looked up at him, searching his eyes for some sort of answer. “Will you be mad if I don’t go to New Orleans this fall? We had plans… And Jordan…”

  “Jordan really wants to work with you, but she’ll understand. And no, I won’t be mad. Actually I’d like to come with you. I haven’t been to Italy in centuries. We could stay in Lake Como, and mix business with pleasure.”

  I eyed the paper and smiled. “I’d need to be there for the courses, and take some time to study. Then there’s the competition/exam. But it seems like we’d have lots of free time to explore. Mmmm, villas, and statues, and artwork, and wine.”

  “And sex.” He laughed. “Let’s do it. Think of it as an extension of your internship. And at the end of two weeks, if they offer you an apprenticeship, then you can decide which direction you’d like to go.”

  I loved how Irix supported everything I wanted to do, how he was always willing, and excited, to come with me on these adventures.

  He took the papers from my hand and tossed them on the table, pulling me into his arms. “Let’s do it.”

  “Do it as in sex? Or do it as in Italy?” I teased.

  His chest rumbled with laughter. “Both. Sex now. Italy after.”

  Also by Debra Dunbar

  The Templar Series

  Dead Rising

  Last Breath

  Bare Bones

  Famine’s Feast

  Dark Crossroads (Fall 2017)

  The Imp Series

  A Demon Bound

  Satan’s Sword

  Elven Blood

  Devil’s Paw

  Imp For
saken

  Angel of Chaos

  Kingdom of Lies

  Exodus

  Queen of the Damned (Late Summer 2017)

  Half-breed Series

  Demons of Desire

  Sins of the Flesh

  Cornucopia

  Unholy Pleasures

  City of Lust (Fall 2017)

  Imp World Novels

  No Man’s Land

  Stolen Souls

  Three Wishes

  Northern Lights

  Far From Center

  Acknowledgments

  A huge thanks to my copyeditors Kimberly Cannon and Jennifer Cosham whose eagle eyes catch all my typos and keep my comma problem in line, and to Damonza for cover design.

  Most of all, thanks to my children, who have suffered many nights of microwaved chicken nuggets and take-out pizza so that Mommy can follow her dream.

  About the Author

  Debra lives in a little house in the woods of Maryland with her sons and two slobbery bloodhounds. On a good day, she jogs and horseback rides, hopefully managing to keep the horse between herself and the ground. Her only known super power is 'Identify Roadkill'.

  For more information:

  www.debradunbar.com