No signal.
Tried to fade to hell.
Nothing.
“Don’t panic, Paige. You can get out of here.” She whirled around and fireballed the door, then scowled when it came ricocheting back at her. Ceiling, walls, doors . . . all steel with a hint of Otherworld karma.
Then she saw a flash of gray smoke trickle out from under the door, and elation swept through her. “Jed!”
She jumped back to clear space for him to form. “Thank God you’re—”
She gasped as the smoky cloud plunged straight into her heart and clamped down. She clutched her chest and dropped to her knees, doubling over at the pain, as she felt her body seize up.
I’m going to die.
She felt a lurch in her heart, and she knew then that it wasn’t Jed who held her life.
It was Rafi.
Heaven’s new weapon of death.
And he was here to kill her.
Twenty-one
Raphael Buchanan, you must cease and desist immediately!”
Paige jerked her head up as the steel door exploded off the hinges in an explosion of gold bubbles, and Satan leapt through, his eyes blazing with blue fire. “You will not kill her before she has turned!”
She gasped as Rafi’s grip tightened around her heart and her arms began to go numb.
“I command you to stop!” Satan Jr. appeared in the doorway right behind Satan. “She’s mine! I recall you to my torture chamber immediately!”
The pressure around her heart increased, and the room blurred.
“Idiot!” Satan shouted. “You have no power to recall him unless his brother breaches the contract. Do you have no idea how to write contracts? You are useless.” He dropped to his knees, grabbing Paige’s face between his hands. “Find your wraith, former apprentice Rivka. Drive him out! Destroy him! He can be killed by your touch!”
Paige closed her eyes and tried to summon up her darkness, but . . . couldn’t think . . . had . . . no . . . will. . . .
“The shadow warrior is pure evil! She can’t hurt him in that form,” Junior shrieked. “Dammit to hell! This can’t be happening! I want her!”
She felt a sudden prickling over her skin, and recognized it instantly. Jed. Must. Let. Him. In. She tried to focus on dropping her shields the way she’d done in the church to let him in, but her mind kept blanking out.
The prickling increased until it felt like thousands of daggers pressing against her skin. She scrunched her eyes against the pain and threw all the last remnants of energy into her shields and suddenly they were down.
Jed slammed into her so hard that her body jerked, and she felt like her skin was going to explode.
“Former Rivka apprentice?” Satan slapped her cheeks. “I will be extremely disappointed if you allow yourself to die. Do you wish to disappoint me? I torture most brutally when I am disappointed.”
She felt a rumble in her chest, and suddenly the pressure around her heart eased, and she gasped in a breath as Jed freed her heart from Rafi’s grasp.
“Excellent!”
Then pain exploded in her heart again. She couldn’t breathe. Couldn’t. Inhale.
“Paige!” Satan Jr. dropped next to her. “You’re too evil to go this way. Don’t die!”
Her heart trembled, and then the pressure eased just enough for her to suck in another gasp of air. Vibrations rocked her chest, and she could feel her heart shuddering, fighting to stay alive, desperately trying to fend off death, while the brothers battled inside her body.
Then there was warmth around her heart, and the muscle burst to light. Jed.
There was a shudder in her body, and then Rafi was gone.
She opened her eyes, but didn’t see a gray cloud. Too small to be seen?
But she knew he’d fled her body.
She sighed and collapsed back in Satan’s lap as she felt Jed work on her heart, breathing strength and life back into it . . . but as he worked, she felt her dark side begin to awaken, creeping up her leg, spreading through her body, gravitating toward Jed’s darkness. Seeking to feed on him.
Get out now.
And then he was gone.
She opened her eyes, but she couldn’t see him, and she knew he’d gone after his brother.
“She is alive!” Satan crowed and helped her sit up. “Most excellent work, former Rivka apprentice.”
She groaned and put her head between her knees, trying to keep from passing out. “I’m way too young for a heart attack.”
Satan Jr. was sitting back on his heels, frowning. “How’d you fend off the shadow warrior? I’ve never seen anyone do that.”
“Magic.” She clenched her fists as her inner wraith continued to rise, fed by the battle in her own body.
Satan cursed and quickly scrambled to his feet. “Oh, no. You do not go wraith around me. I leave, you turn, all is good. Fruit of my loins, you must leave as well. You cannot be around her either when she turns. Is generous of me to offer advice to keep you alive, no?”
Junior narrowed his eyes. “I’m not letting her change. She’s not loyal enough yet to me.” He grabbed her arms. “Fight it.”
“Hah.” Satan stood up. “You cannot prevail, fruit of my loins. The wraith will not be yours. You cannot control it. It will be mine.”
“I’m a her, not an it,” she muttered. “And I’m right here.”
“Shut up,” Junior ordered her. “Concentrate on fighting it.” He peered down at her. “Or do you love Jed yet? Because if you do, then give me the word and I’ll take off so you can change.”
Shut up? Paige dragged her eyes up to his face. “Go to hell.”
His eyes flashed. “I’ll go to hell when I’m powerful enough to claim it. I need you, so you won’t change yet. You can’t change if you’re unconscious, so—” Something hard cracked her on the back of her head, and the room went black.
Jed streamed down the hall faster than he’d ever gone, following the essence Rafi was leaving behind. What the hell was going on? Why was Rafi in the mortal world? How had he gotten out? And what the hell was he doing murdering Paige?
He slipped under the door and into the bar . . . and then lost the trail.
He reformed instantly, and sprinted into the crowd. “Rafi!”
Bolted past the dancers and out into the street.
It was starting to rain, and the streets were shiny, reflecting the fluorescent lights from the strip of bars.
But no Rafi.
Jed cursed and opened his senses, reaching out for his brother.
But Rafi had obviously gone back to human form, because Jed couldn’t track him. “Rafi!”
Nothing.
His brother was gone.
Or what was left of his brother.
Rafi would never do what he’d just done to Paige.
What the hell had happened to him?
What had Junior done?
Junior. Satan. With Paige. Who was going wraith.
His gut lurched, and he whirled around and tore back into the building.
Jed burst through the broken door, ready for battle.
But all was still.
Paige was moaning softly, holding her head, curled in a ball on the burned-out carpet. Smoke was rising from the now-blackened walls, the mattress was smoldering, and the mirror had melted right down onto the bed, no doubt from a friendly father-son disagreement.
But Satan and Junior were gone.
He kneeled beside her, and cradled her face in his hands. “Paige? Are you still with me?”
“I feel like hell.”
Relief shot through him, and he had to sit down before his legs gave out. “No wraith yet?”
“No wraith ever. I hate it. I refuse to succumb.” She allowed him to pull her onto his lap, resting her head on his thigh. “I have to admit, though, I owe Junior. If he hadn’t knocked me out, I have a feeling I’d be screaming around here killing everything in sight.”
Jed tensed, and suddenly shadows began to swim at the edges
of his vision. “Junior hit you?”
“Knocked me right out.” She twisted so she could look at him. “Jed! You’re getting transparent. Stop it! I need you right now.”
His form became solid again and he looked down at her, but his eyes were solid black. No white at all. “I’ll kill him.”
“Would you stop with the macho hero crap? You promised you’d knock me out if I couldn’t stop the change. Why is Junior any different?”
Jed’s fingers began to trace her head, and she knew he was looking for damage. “Because he didn’t care if he hurt you.”
“And you do?” She winced when he brushed across the back of her head.
Jed cursed. “What’d he hit you with? A baseball bat?” He sat her up and parted her hair, peering at her head. “You’re bleeding.” His voice was throaty and low, vibrating with low energy she hadn’t felt before.
She sat up, gripping his arm hard to keep from tipping over from dizziness, and she looked at him. His eyes were still black, and edges of his head were getting a little fuzzy. She blinked hard several times to try to get rid of the sensation of the room spinning. “If you go shadow right now, you’ll call my wraith out. I don’t have the strength to stop it, and my head hurts like a mother and I really don’t want to be knocked out again.”
He continued to fade, and she grabbed his face. “What’s wrong with you? You have total control over your inner demon. Why can’t you stop it now?”
“Paige,” he growled. “He hurt you.”
Her jaw dropped open. “Omigod. You’ve lost your legendary control of your inner demon because he hurt me?” She threw her arms around him and slammed her mouth onto his, kissing him with delight. His lips were cold, his breath tasted like smoke, and his body was rigid.
And she didn’t care! “That is the sweetest thing anyone has ever done for me! I had no idea you really cared about me like that!” She pressed his hand to her heart. “That gets me right here, Jed. Truly. I’ll carry this moment with me forever, or at least for the next couple hours until I turn wraith and lose my mind.”
She threw her leg across his lap, and pressed her hands into the front of his shoulders, pinning him to the floor. “Jed Buchanan, you are my hero.” His eyes were black, but she was too excited and overwhelmed to care. She simply dropped to his chest and plastered her mouth to his, swirled her tongue over his, dug her fingers into his hair. Kissed him with every fiber of her being, completely unable to control her delight and her happiness . . .
And suddenly he was back. His mouth turned to fire, he tasted of mint, and he smelled like cinnamon and something woodsy and dark. And he was kissing her like he was trying to yank her soul right out of her mouth.
Hooray!
His hands shot to her back and he ripped her dress open, dozens of pearl buttons flying, and then she was on her back, and he was kissing her ribs and her belly button and her collarbone. And then her bra was off and he was kissing her left breast and then her right and then . . . “Slow down,” she gasped. “I want to savor this.”
He stopped kissing her and lifted his head to look at her. His eyes were violent and intense, and all Jed. “We can’t—”
She grabbed his hair. “We can. Just don’t merge your aura with mine.”
He cursed. “Paige, there’s no way I can make love to you and not merge. It’s impossible.”
“I don’t think I would have been able to sleep with the angel,” she whispered.
He said nothing, but he didn’t take his eyes off her face.
“All I could think of was you. I want you.” She lifted herself up far enough to kiss him. “You’re my fantasy man, Jed. Most women don’t get to lose their virginity to their fantasy men. I don’t want to be one of those women who looks back on their first time and wonders why she didn’t hold out for magic.” She met his gaze. “You’re my magic, Jed.”
He closed his eyes for a long moment, his body utterly still.
“Jed?”
He opened them again, his eyes glittering. Without taking his gaze off hers, he placed his left hand on her ankle, then slid it up her leg, under the hem of her dress, and along the inside of her thigh.
“Is that a ‘yes’?” she whispered, even as she parted her legs, hoping . . .
His fingers fluttered up the inside of her leg until they brushed against the satin of her underwear and she felt her belly convulse at the touch. “Oh, wow . . . that’s . . .”
Still watching her, and still saying nothing, he slipped his fingers underneath the skimpy material and sank them deep inside her.
“Holy hell.” Paige dropped her head back as her body quivered as his thumb began to rub against some sensitive spot. “Jed—”
Then he flipped the skirt of her dress up, trailing kisses down her belly and over her thighs and then his mouth found her core.
“Holy hell. That’s the most amaz—” She forgot to talk as pressure started to build inside her. Hot, vibrating, teasing, trembling. His whiskers scraped her inner thigh, and she reached down to entwine her fingers in his hair. In Jed’s hair. Jed.
The orgasm slammed through her so hard she shouted and came up off the carpet, her body spasming. Jed gripped her tightly, holding her as the tremors spilled through her, taking over her soul, her mind, her spirit, her everything.
She sagged back on the carpet as Jed scooted next to her and wrapped himself around her, pulling her against him so her cheek rested against his biceps. She closed her eyes and let the sensations continue to wash over her, snuggled against the heat of his body. “See?” she whispered. “I knew I was right to hold out for you.”
She felt his whiskers press into her face and knew he was grinning. She didn’t have to look at him to know it was a macho man sex look, all proud to be introducing a woman to the wonders of intimacy.
He deserved to gloat.
“No intercourse though,” he said.
She stretched, grinding her body against him. “Who the hell cares?”
“Spoken like a woman who’s never had sex.” He traced his fingers over her hip.
“And whose fault is that? Yours.” She sighed. “I wish we didn’t have all this crap to deal with. I wish we could go back to your place and you could rock my world until I went insane from orgasm overload.”
His hand stilled on her hip. “You need to stop talking like that.”
“Oh.” She sat up eagerly and started unbuttoning his jeans. “You need me to do you, don’t you? I didn’t even think of that.”
“No.” He peeled himself off her and stood up. “I think it’s better if you don’t get me started.” He adjusted the front of his pants.
She eyed the bulge. “You’re already started.”
“Not hardly, darling. Not hardly.” He grabbed her hand and pulled her up.
“Darling? You called me darling. I love it when you call me things like that.”
His eyes narrowed, and she thought he was going to tell her to stop thinking of him like that, like he did every time he thought she was starting to like him too much.
But he didn’t.
He ignored her instead.
Excellent. They were making progress. Failure to deny was a good step forward. Especially now that she knew the truth about how he felt. He might not love her, but he cared enough to lose control.
And that was enough for her.
Twenty-two
He shrugged off his shirt and handed it to her. “Put this on. We need to get out of here.”
There were too many buttons on the floor to hope that her dress was going to stay up around her chest, so she pulled on his shirt, and let it drape over her hips, where her dress was resting. “A T-shirt and a silk skirt. Theresa would be disgust—”
She suddenly remembered Oscar’s threat against Theresa and stumbled.
Jed caught her arm, then hauled her up against his side as they headed down the hall. “Talk. Tell me what happened before I got there.” He grip tightened on her. “Before my brother trie
d to murder you.”
The pain in her head began to subside somewhat, and the ache in her chest from Rafi’s attack was starting to ease. “He went into me in shadow form. I thought you said that shadow warriors couldn’t enter Rivkas without permission.”
Jed shoved open a heavy steel door so hard it slammed against the wall and got stuck. “They can’t.” Jed stepped through the door into the bar. “My brother isn’t a pure shadow warrior. I felt it when I was battling him inside you. He’s shadow warrior, but also something else.”
She frowned. “What else is he?”
“Hell if I know.” He let the door slam shut behind her, and cupped her waist as he began to move them through the crowd. “But he’s not my brother anymore. Something happened to him, and he’s . . . twisted.”
She’d felt that searing evil inside her, and knew he was right.
“And he intends to murder both of us. I could feel it.” Jed’s voice was bitter, and she looked sharply at him as they stepped out of the club into the rainy street.
“You’d let him kill you, wouldn’t you?”
Jed said nothing, but before she could think of what to say, her new phone rang. She nearly dropped with relief when she saw who was calling. “Theresa? Are you okay?”
“It’s a trap! The angels are onto you! Get out! They’re sending a shadow warrior to kill you!”
“I’m already out. No sex.”
“Thank God. You virgins can be so gullible, I was afraid he’d nail you before you realized what he was up to. Zeke was on the Internet looking for Beatrice McFleet, and he stumbled across this big warning about you on all the Angel websites, but I’d turned my phone off at the bar, so he couldn’t reach me until I got home. Angels are out, girlfriend. They’re all on the alert for you.”
“That’s okay.” After her orgasm with Jed, she knew there was no way she could ever bring herself to have sex with an angel. “I wasn’t into the angel thing anyway.”
Jed put his arm around her shoulder and squeezed. “The shadow warrior,” he said into the phone. “How did Zeke know about the shadow warrior?”
“Because he hacked into the Council server after that to see what their plans were for Paige. Apparently, they have a shadow warrior on the payroll now, hired for the sole purpose of killing her. Aren’t you honored, Paige? It’s quite the cachet these days to have a personal assassin—Hang on, Zeke’s telling me something.”
Sex & The Immortal Bad Boy Page 16