by J. K Harper
They fucked frantically, and there was no other word to describe it. It wasn’t a sweet joining, and it certainly wasn’t making love. It was about satisfying their hunger for each other as quickly as possible. She wanted her orgasm, but she also wanted the moment to last forever, so she was almost disappointed when she started to come, her convulsions triggering his own release.
Afterward, he set her carefully on the ground, making sure she was steady on her feet before letting go to right his clothes. She did the same with hers, staring up at him in bemusement. She still wasn’t entirely certain how that had happened, or why she’d been in such a frenzied state of lust, but it had been amazing.
“Remind me to play knight-in-shining-armor more frequently,” said Bach.
She grinned at him. “I’ll definitely do that.” She could sense an idea forming in her mind, and she surrendered to it. It was a mental image of the two of them patrolling the streets at night, her to heal, and him to dole out justice. It was like a screwed up version of a comic book. She giggled at the idea of someone making their story into a comic book. After the experience in the alleyway, it would definitely have to be R-rated at minimum.
Hand-in-hand, they finished their walk back to her apartment, and she led him upstairs to her room, closing and locking the door behind her in case her roommate wanted something. Linda was home tonight, and she had been for the last few nights, but she hadn’t said anything about Naiya’s overnight guest yet. Either she didn’t know, or she no longer cared about keeping boys out of their apartment.
Maybe she realized Bach wasn’t a boy, but was instead a man. Maybe she made exceptions for sexually virile demons with massive visual appeal. Whatever the reason, she was glad not to have to deal with Linda’s histrionics, because she had no intention of giving up Bach or their time together after their nightly rounds.
Chapter 5
“Hello?” said Naiya as she answered her cell phone.
“That answers that question,” said Serafina.
She lifted a brow, confused by her sister’s comment. “What question?”
“The question of if you’re still alive. I haven’t heard from you in almost two weeks.”
Naiya glanced automatically at the calendar on the wall, realizing her sister was right. She hadn’t spoken to her for at least the last twelve days, not since she’d met Bach at the Halloween party. She blushed at the oversight. “You knew I was still alive. You liked one of my Facebook comments, and I retweeted one of your tweets.”
Serafina laughed. “Social media, the new proof of life. I’m just kidding, but I was a little worried about you. You usually call every couple days or so.”
Naiya moved away from the stove she’d been scrubbing when her phone rang, taking a seat at the tiny kitchen table with its two chairs. “I’ve just been busy. I’m about to start my second trimester, and then it’s just one more until graduation.” She squirmed a little at the fib. School kept her busy, as always, but no busier than she had been before Bach.
“I understand being busy. I was starting to think you’d been kidnapped and spirited away.”
Naiya giggled. “Not hardly.” Feeling a crushing weight of guilt for almost lying to her sister, she let out a small sigh. “I did meet a new guy at the Halloween party at my sorority house. He and I have been spending most of our evenings together.”
Serafina was silent for a moment. “I see. I thought you had decided to steer clear of men for a while after Jeb Franco?”
She winced at the anger in her sister’s tone when she spoke her ex-boyfriend’s name. There was also a lingering trace of something harder to identify. Tentatively, she wanted to call it guilt. “I made that as a general decision, but there’s room to change my mind if I meet a guy who’s special.”
“In this guy special?”
Naiya didn’t have to hesitate. “Yes, I believe he is.”
“I hope he’s not the bad-boy jock-type like Jeb was. He’ll just break your heart.”
She stifled a sigh. “He’s not a jock. Bach’s actually really sweet. I mean, once you get to know him.”
Her sister was silent for a long moment. She sounded like she was choking when she asked, “What did you say his name was?”
“It’s Bach. I really have to go, Serafina. I have plans tonight, and I’ve been cleaning. I need to take a quick shower.” She ignored Serafina’s attempt to protest, giving her a breezy bye and hanging up. If she didn’t get in the shower now, she was going to be late to meet Bach.
* * *
They’d had dinner, and now they walked hand-in-hand through the neighborhood in search of people to help. It was a quiet night considering, and Naiya had only found one person to heal so far. She was about to suggest they cut short the evening and go back to the apartment when they heard a small cry.
As was the routine, she stepped behind Bach. Without having his affinity for dispensing justice, she usually hung back until he had dealt with the threat, and then she moved forward to help anyone who needed it.
Bach surged forward, allowing her ample view of the scene, and she winced at what she saw. Five men surrounded a young woman, with two of them holding her arms, and another trying to pull off her dress. The last two were busy trying to lift her feet into the air, and their intent was obvious.
At first, they didn’t see Bach coming, and two of them had felt the lick of the fire whip before the other three seemed to realize what was going on. They released the girl and either turned toward Bach or tried to run. He dealt with the other two quickly, and the one who was running was just out of range of his whip.
Seemingly without a second thought, Bach stared hard at the one running away. Abruptly, the man stopped. He started to twitch and spasm, and then he screamed. The screaming was shrill and haunting, but blessedly brief. In under five seconds, he was a gooey mass of human tissue splattered all over the alleyway.
She’d seen it happen, but was at a loss for words on how to describe it. The closest analogy she could come to was he’d been turned inside out. She started to move toward the girl out of instinct, wanting to check on her, but froze as her words filtered through her mind. Turned inside out. Just like Jeb. Her lips felt numb when she turned to face Bach instead of the woman who was pressing her back against the wall. “Did you kill Jeb?”
He gave her an inscrutable expression. “Yes.”
At least he didn’t bother to deny it or play dumb. It still made no sense, and she stared at him with her mouth open. “But why?”
“He deserved it. He hurt you.”
She took a step back. “You killed him because he hurt me? But he never laid a hand on me.”
His mouth tightened. “That’s not true. You took him into your bed, and he most certainly did hurt you. He broke your heart and made you cry. For that alone, he deserved what he got.”
She gasped. “You killed him because he was my lover? I didn’t even know you then, so why would you do that?”
He sighed impatiently, his gaze flicking to the girl huddled against the wall. “Why don’t you check on her? After that, I’ll tell you everything.”
Naiya approached the woman, who was trembling and jerked away when she tried to touch her arm. “I’m not going to hurt you. I just need to see if you’re all right?”
The woman burst out in hysterical sobs, and this time she let Naiya hug her. Naiya did so as a means of comfort, but also as a way to check for hotspots and found only a sore section on the woman’s hip. She sent healing energy that way, along with trying to calm the woman’s fear. She was less adept at emotional healing than physical healing, but she must have had some success, because the woman stopped trembling and eased away.
She seemed calmer, at least until she looked up at Bach. Then her eyes widened again, and tears oozed on her cheeks. “What is he?”
“He’s a demon.”
The woman flinched. “Is he going to hurt me?”
Naiya shook her head. Bach wasn’t at all who she though
t he was, but she was pretty sure he wouldn’t do anything to the woman he’d just saved with such extreme force. “You’re safe now.”
The woman looked near where her assailant had fallen, but didn’t quite look at the body. “May I go home now?”
Naiya nodded. “If that’s what you want. Do you live nearby? I don’t want someone else to assault you between here and home.”
“Just around the corner,” she said in a slightly broken voice. “I should be fine. Of course, I thought that I’d be fine anyway, since I come this route almost every night after work.”
“Would you like me to walk you home?”
She shook her head. “No. I just want to get home and forget all about this. Maybe I can drink enough to pretend it was simply a nightmare.”
“Good luck,” said Naiya, briefly entertaining the idea of doing the same. She’d have to do a lot of drinking to convince herself the last thirteen days with Bach had been just a nightmare, especially since things had been so good until tonight. Without further arguing, she watched the young woman hurry down the alleyway, carefully skirting as much of the mess from the body as she could.
After she disappeared from sight, Naiya forced herself to turn to Bach. “Is there some way to clean up the mess you’ve left? The police are already intrigued by what happened to Jeb, so much so that they ended up burying it for lack of an explanation. If another inside-out body turns up, it might launch an investigation, which you don’t want.”
She was surprised to find herself concerned for him, but realized she couldn’t shut off her emotions that easily. Even learning the truth about just how dark he was couldn’t automatically make her stop caring. That would take some time, though he didn’t need to know that.
A second later, fire consumed the remnants in the alleyway, burning up all the proof. The fire was almost white, it was so hot, and even from several feet away, she could feel the burning sting radiating from it. She took several steps back, steering clear of the radius until the fire abruptly disappeared, leaving nothing but ash, and likely some bone fragments. Something had definitely happened in the alley, but at least it wasn’t obvious the true events at first sight.
The other four had either remained unconscious or dead, and she didn’t bother to check. She couldn’t handle more doses of reality at the moment, and she was in no position to want to help any of them recover if they were seriously injured. After what they had planned to do, she couldn’t seem to summon enough compassion to care if they suffered. Had this been how Bach had felt about Jeb?
Thinking about him again, she turned away from Bach and started walking quickly. Of course he caught up with her, seemingly without any difficulty as his long legs bridged the distance she’d managed to put between them in less than a minute. She didn’t look at him as she continued powerwalking, keeping her gaze focused ahead. “Stop following me—and don’t touch me,” she added as she shrugged off the hand he put on her arm. “I don’t want to see you again.”
“Naiya, if you’d just listen—”
She stopped and spun to face him. “What can you possibly say to justify your actions? You turned my ex-boyfriend inside-out because he was a jerk. There’s justice, and then there’s vengeance.”
He gave her a cool look. “If you recall, I’m a vengeance demon. For me, the two are often the same.”
She shook her head. “It’s not the same. He didn’t deserve the death penalty for being a self-absorbed asshole.”
“He was more than that. Jeb Franco deserved what he got.”
She shook her head. “No one deserves that.”
He sneered. “Even the rapist in the alleyway just now? You don’t think the world is better off without him?”
She couldn’t answer that. All she could do was give him a response based on emotion. “Whether or not someone deserves death, it’s not for me to decide, and having witnessed it, especially in such a fashion, really opened my eyes to what you are. I knew you were demon, but seeing the reality is more than I can handle.”
His expression went blank. “What are you trying to say?”
“I don’t want to see you again, Bach. Whatever we had is over. It has to be.” Her heart felt like it was breaking as she uttered the words, and part of her wished he would continue arguing, though another part of her insisted it wouldn’t change her mind. Apparently, that was the part he saw when he stared deeply into her eyes, clearly assessing her body language and evaluating her response.
With a long sigh, his shoulders dropped, and he stepped back. “If that’s your wish.” Without another word, he was gone. He teleported away from her without so much as even one last attempt at changing her mind.
Realizing she was angry about that, she shook her head. He’d done what she’d asked, and she apparently had been convincing enough that he hadn’t doubted her words. She should be relieved that he’d accepted them and given in gracefully rather than continuing to pressure and pursue her. She should feel that way, but instead she felt slightly disgruntled, though fear of what he had done, coupled with her own dose of guilt for being part of it, outweighed any sense of disgruntlement.
She slowed her pace as she continued walking back to her apartment, trying to come to terms with everything that had happened. Abruptly, she wished she hadn’t sent him away so soon, at least without gaining answers for several of the questions crowding her mind, such as why he’d targeted Jeb to start with, and why he’d sought vengeance on her behalf.
Naiya almost groaned aloud when she reached her apartment and found Serafina standing in the doorway, clearly waiting for her. Her boyfriend Liam hovered a few feet away, and she felt guilty for the flicker of annoyance when she saw the concern in both their expressions. She managed a wan smile as she extracted her key from her purse and moved around Serafina to open the door.
“Come on in.” She issued a halfhearted invitation, certain they would have entered either way. There was an air of purpose about her sister that suggested Serafina wouldn’t be receptive to the idea of putting off whatever had brought her here until tomorrow.
She went straight to the kitchen and started a kettle of water for tea. “What brings you two by?”
“Bach,” said Serafina tensely.
She jumped at the sound of his name on her sister’s lips. She turned away from the stove to face Serafina. “Why do you care about my ex-boyfriend?”
“He is your ex then?” asked Serafina with obvious relief.
She nodded. “After tonight, he can’t be anything except that. I just saw him turn someone inside-out. He’s the same person who killed Jeb.”
“We know,” said Liam as he stepped closer, his hands grasping Serafina’s arms in a show of silent support.
Naiya gasped. “What do you mean, you know?”
“It’s my fault Jeb is dead,” said Serafina. “I was so angry with him after he broke your heart for the third time that I cast a vengeance spell. Unfortunately, I was angry, and I was also doing a spell I’d never really done before, and I made a mistake. Instead of casting a spell, I made a curse, calling forth Urobach, or Bach as you know him, to be my instrument of revenge.”
Naiya gasped again, moving away from her sister as the words sank in. “You asked him to kill Jeb?”
“No, of course not.” Serafina, already pale with her redheaded complexion, seemed to turn white at the accusation. “No, I just wanted him to suffer. Liam arrived to help me break the spell, but I wasn’t ready to do it yet. My heart wasn’t in forgiving Jeb and breaking the link with Bach. I enjoyed Jeb getting a little dose of comeuppance, but when I finally managed to get over my anger and break the vengeance curse, it freed Bach to turn against Jeb and destroy him rather than just make him suffer.
“I don’t know why he killed your ex, but he wouldn’t have been on Bach’s radar if I hadn’t screwed up and summoned him instead of performing a vengeance spell. I know now it wasn’t my place to seek revenge anyway. I was just angry on your behalf, and being overprotect
ive, so I acted without thinking. It’s my fault Bach came into our lives, but I don’t have an explanation for why he targeted Jeb so extremely.”
Her mind was whirling as she tried to absorb everything Serafina was telling her. She was angry with her sister, but not as upset as she could have been. Whether it was because Serafina was a redhead, a fire elemental, or simply because she was her older sister, she knew Serafina was prone to letting anger get the best of her, and if she’d felt overprotective on Naiya’s behalf, it was no wonder she’d managed the skills and power required to summon a high-level vengeance demon, even inadvertently.
“I appreciate that your heart was in the right place, though I don’t agree with what you did. I can kind of answer the question about why he killed Jeb though. It was for me. I don’t know why he did it, but he told me tonight it was because Jeb had broken my heart, and also because he’d shared my bed.” Her face heated as she said the last words, studiously avoiding looking at Liam. Even under the circumstances, it was still embarrassing to discuss her sex life in front of her sister’s boyfriend.
Liam let out a small sound that was ambiguous. “I think I see what happened.”
Naiya turned her attention to him, as did her sister. He’d removed his glasses, and his strange purple eyes, with their flickering flashes of magic, drew her in, and she was unable to look away. “What happened then?”
“It seems obvious to me that Bach started out intending to carry out the vengeance curse, but then he must have run across you at some point while he was harassing Jeb, or simply tracking his movements. He might’ve been awed by your beauty, or perhaps he was just knocked flat by your compassion and your gentleness. Whatever it was, I’m willing to bet Bach fell for you and fell hard. It explains why he escalated, ultimately killing Jeb for hurting you, and also to remove him as a source of competition.”