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“Grab your suit. We’re going swimming.”
Nava looked up from Sokoloff: Treatises on Dybbuks and Demons, eyes slightly unfocused. I knew the feeling well. Sokoloff’s treatises were all-words, no-pictures, dry as fuck, and all in all a real bitch of a book to get through, but Nava rocked the dazed look with wisps of hair escaping the messy knot on her head. She looked warm. The hollow at the base of her throat caught the library light, soft and golden, and I swallowed, remembering exactly how my lips had felt ghosting along her skin there last night.
She spit the pencil out from between her teeth. “You swim?”
I pressed a hand to my chest, scowling in mock outrage. “Good California boy
here. Of course I swim. Surf, too.”
Her eyes raked over my body before she caught my smirk and tossed the pencil at me.
“No, no, I get it. The image of me slicing through waves? Wet hair, parted lips, muscles rippling as a single glistening drop trails down....” I raised the hem of my T-shirt and patted my abs. “It’s potent.”
Nava gave an aggrieved sigh. Teasing her had become my new favorite hobby.
Next to fucking her. That one rocked top spot–at least until I got her out of my system.
If it had only been her looks this wouldn’t have been an issue: those blue-gray eyes that veered toward a bright summer’s day, stormy seas, or a mesmerizing blend of the two depending on whether she was amused, annoyed, or, like now, both, her silky fall of curls, and those long dancer’s legs, firm and sculpted. Legs I wasn’t ashamed to admit I fantasized about being wrapped around my waist on the nights when I wasn’t buried inside her.
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The problem was her mouth. Those full pink lips she’d deemed off-limits, no
kissing, no exceptions. Normally, this would have been fine. Except I kept imagining tasting and sucking them. Kept seeing them wrapped around my dick, her lashes at half-mast, giving that soft half-sigh of hers. Hell, even twisted in amusement as she busted my balls yet again. Not that every woman I’d ever slept with had been sweet and
accommodating. Far from it. But none seemed to take such glee in pushing me beyond the bounds of common sense and self-preservation. This chick had never met an
argument she didn’t like and had no concept of an edit button.
She was a challenge. That’s all she was. That’s all I’d let her be.
I shifted, my jeans uncomfortably tight. Now it was her turn to smirk. I rapped on the table. “Swimming, Lolita. With demons. You in?”
She stood up, stretching. “I know you like me wet, Snowflake, but do we need to discuss you wanting evil fiends creeping on us?” She slid past, her perfume weaving a tantalizing web around me. A fresh, sweet tease of orange.
I caught her shirt, pulling her back against my chest. My lips ghosted over her ear.
“You love being watched.”
She shivered and my hard-on amped up to granite status.
“Bathing suit,” she mumbled and slid free.
***
The Olympic-sized pool was still and silent. Deep green light cast twisted pockets of illumination in the dark watery depths. Outside the two glass floor-to-ceiling walls all was pitch black. While the pool had been closed for a couple of days now, the
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Brotherhood had arranged for the security staff to have the night off so Nava and I could work in secrecy.
I inhaled, filling my lungs with that first burst of chlorine-scented air that
reminded me of endless Saturday afternoons spent splashing around with my cousin Asha. But all of Asha’s swimming medals had not been able to save her, not from drowning in the mess I’d made. I pushed those thoughts from my mind and called out to my hunting partner, the warm, moist air seeming to swallow my words. “You ready?”
Nava stepped out of the changing room and for a second I thought she was naked.
Not that I was complaining. Braiding her hair up out of the way, she padded closer, a scrap of scarlet fabric with pretensions of being a bikini hugging her curves.
“Not bad, old guy,” she said, checking me out in my swim trunks just as blatantly.
“Thanks. Your unsolicited opinion means the world.”
She held up a hand. “Don’t talk. Conserve your energy so you can survive your
impending heart attack.”
“From what?”
“The sight of me from the back.” She winked, sashaying past me.
Nava was always striking. But seeing her in a tiny thong, nothing more than butt floss, made me stop. Her ass, like her legs, was sculpted from years of tap and if I squinted I could almost see my nail marks on it from two days ago. My mouth suddenly went dry.
Damn. She was going to kill me.
Nava peered into the depths of the water. “So, these demons are both bollas,
right? Half-blind but strong sense of hearing and smell.”
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I’d had twenty years of studying demons, she’d had a month, but she’d applied
herself with crazy determination, already making huge strides in her education.
Impressive.
“Got some snake charmer thingy to call it forth?” she said.
“Yeah, you.” With that I pushed her into the shallow end.
She came up spluttering, skittering backward until she hit the wall. “Asshole. Left out the part about me being bait.”
“I told you our victims were two females.”
“No. You told me in great detail how the families of the non-gender specified athletes were in shock at their Olympic hopeful swimmers drowning in a pool.”
The bollas had killed two women training during a private session. A male swim
team had been practicing earlier and left alone, as was the women’s male coach. Our bollas had a taste for girls. Luckily, Nava had a taste for kicking ass.
“I went with ‘need to know.’”
She scanned the pool. “You are not leaving me in here by myself to face a
massive evil snake.”
Bollas generally weren’t a concern until St. George’s Day next month when
they’d wake. But one or both had somehow been injured in the waters of False Creek Inlet and taken refuge in this indoor Olympic pool located by the beach.
“Hey, chlorine makes water even more conductive.” I retied the string of my
swim trunks. “Your magic will be off the charts in the pool. Just watch you don’t fry me.”
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Nava shot a wave of water my way. “Get in now and I’ll play nice. Otherwise?”
She shrugged.
“What, you’re not baller enough to handle a bolla?” I could see she was ready to get out and clobber me so I dove into the deep end, cutting cleaning through the water, and swam over to her with a series of powerful strokes.
“Show off,” she said, splashing me.
“Good thinking. Make noise. Alert them to your presence.” I splashed her back.
The water fight was on. It wasn’t all fun and games, though, our eyes constantly scanning the pool and dimly lit deck for any sign of the demons.
She yelped and froze.
My iron blades shot out, forming an outline around me as I jumped for her. There was a disorienting half-second where I had to recalibrate my balance to account for my magic extensions against the choppy waves we’d made.
“My contact,” she said, cupping her eye.
“Oh. Shit. Sorry.” I held her hair off her face, the loose wet curls draping lazily around my fingers.
A sheet of water hit me squarely in the face. “Sucker,” she gloated. “Twenty-
twenty eyesight, baby.”
“You are so dead,” I growled.
There was a quiet splash from the deep en
d. “Hold that thought,” she said and
headed for the demon.
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As far as bollas went, I could see that this wasn’t a particularly large one, which still made him an eight-foot-long, blood red, winged serpent with the approximate girth of a truck tire. Needle-sharp fangs glinted as the demon swam in and out of the shadows.
Nava stopped abruptly with a sharp inhale, jerking her legs up to her chest. I
would have taken it from here if that’s what she’d wanted but her chin shot up and she narrowed her eyes. “Here demon, demon.” She took a deep breath and dove down.
Ah, fuck. I swiftly followed, pushing through the water. With my blades
extended, the water exerted a greater drag force, and I had to use more energy to keep up my speed and power on my front stroke.
The bolla wrapped his tail around Nava’s leg and dragged her to the bottom. His gossamer-thin wings fluttered madly, trying to cage her in.
Rather than being scared, Nava simply waved impatiently at me.
I wanted to yell at her to fight him. Even if she couldn’t use her magic with me in the water, she had moves. She could have gotten free, swum for the surface, done something other than sat there with her absolute faith that I had her back, because shit happened and people fucked up.
I lunged at the demon, slashing his side with the blade along my forearm, but he barely registered the attack. Unfazed, he slithered lower, taking my fellow hunter with him.
Nava shook with the strain of holding her breath.
I sawed at his tail to free Nava’s leg, but halfway through my efforts, she
slammed her palm into the demon’s thick skin. There was a pop of blue. A mild electric shock tingled through my body.
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Nava’s power was electrical current. Awesome to watch, not so great in water if you didn’t feel like being barbequed through sheer conductivity.
She jerked free, kicking up to the surface.
The demon raised his head then shot up after her.
I jumped on him, wrapping my legs around his neck, and squeezing my thigh
blades hard enough that blood flowed, blueish-black trails floating in the water.
My lungs burned. I wrenched free and kicked up, barely breaking the surface and dragging in a deep breath before the serpent flew up. His garrote-sharp wing whistled through the air, pretty damn intent on my decapitation. I lifted my forearm, the blade running its outer length fully extended, and blocked the strike. Pulling my elbow back in a snap, I tore free.
The bolla hissed, his high-pitched cry sending pain spiking through my eyeballs.
My momentary disorientation allowed him to get close. He reared his head back to sink his fangs into my calf, and might have managed the fatal strike if Nava hadn’t jumped back into the water at the far end.
The bolla froze, his fangs tickling the side of my foot. Then he veered off in her direction.
I swam after him as fast as I could.
There was another flash and the stench of ozone. Voltage rocked through me like I’d stuck my tongue in a socket. “Jesus fuck, Nava. I’m still in the pool!”
“Yeah, and now I got the bolla out of the pool.” True. The serpent had slithered off under the diving board, hurt but still in fighting condition. Nava laughed. “I didn’t use enough electricity to actually damage you. I like you intact. Mostly.”
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I didn’t bother kidding myself that my swim over to the ladder was anything other than flailing and luck since my limbs were on a two-second delay from my synapsis.
The demon was uninterested in me, but the second Nava’s foot hit the pool deck, the bolla lunged out of the shadows. I bided my time, waiting until his fetid breath heated the hairs on my legs to leap on his back and drive my finger blades into either side of his eyes, straining to puncture the skin that was as tough as rubber.
The serpent roared. The pitch of its cry set my teeth on edge. The bolla flicked his tail up, slamming it into my head. Blood streamed hot and coppery out of my ear and down my throat.
I swung myself onto his back, keeping his head speared in place. “Look for a
small black diamond near his nose,” I told Nava. “It’s the sweet spot.” The place we’d have to drive our magic into in order to kill him.
The bolla kept slithering toward Nava, desperate to get at her despite me
wrenching him sideways with all my might. He flipped onto his back, pinning me under him in a tangle of limbs. Crushing me against the slippery decking.
I wrapped my legs around his middle, driving in my heel blades to spear him in
place and get enough traction to reverse our positions. “Hurry,” I ground out, my arms shaking from the effort of holding his thrashing head still enough for her to find the kill spot.
“Got it.” She coated herself in crackling electricity, a ball of current dancing in her palm.
“Count of three,” I said, “I’ll roll off, you finish him.”
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Before I could even get to “one,” the second bolla came out of nowhere and
coiled itself around Nava. His entire body clenched as he squeezed, the ugly ragged gash running along his side turning white with tension.
Their fight was impossible to see, Nava’s magic coating them both in blueish-
white crackling light that was flashing so violently it should have come with a seizure and epilepsy warning.
My eyes watered against the stench of ozone.
I tore my gaze away to deal with my own demon, trusting Nava to handle herself.
Scissoring my legs, I sliced the creature in half. He was down but not out. The demon rose up, taking me with him, then smacked me back down against the concrete.
I managed to take the brunt of the attack with my shoulder. Still, the deck cracked and it did sweet fuck-all for my poor skull.
Dimly, I registered the sound of a splash. The other bolla had Nava back in the water.
The edges of my vision cobwebbed gray and soft. I swallowed against the rush of nausea, then retracted all my blades so quickly that the demon slipped off, hitting the deck with a meaty splat.
Eyes glistening with hunger and fury, he lunged, but I rolled away, the demon’s own blood providing a handy lubricant to help me get further out of striking range. I jumped to my feet, chest heaving, scanning for the kill spot.
The demon lurched up one more time as if indifferent to the fact he was missing half of his body and gushing like a hydrant. His blood spilled viscous and sticky over my torso and coated his wings which he dragged along the ground behind him.
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As soon as the demon was close enough for me to see the centers of his faceted
silver eyes, I struck, slamming a finger blade through the diamond on the left side of his face.
The demon whooshed out of existence, dead.
I ran for the edge of the pool, one foot already lifting off to dive in, when I realized the water was bubbling. Roiling with Nava’s magic. I stumbled back.
I couldn’t see her under the churning waves, but the electricity was so strong that the smell stung my eyes and burned up my throat. Jumping in would be suicide. All I could do was stand there fists clenched, muttering, “come on,” over and over again like a mantra.
How many times was I going to convince people to trust me and then leave them
at the mercy of demons? My gut clenched, heavy and cold. When had Nava gone from
“challenge” to “people?”
Finally, the waters cleared and stilled. I ran the length of the pool but there was no sign of either the demon or Nava in the pool. “You asshole! Why did you jump in?” I yelled.
“Aw, you care.”
I peered into the gloom of the far corner only to find her slumped on the low
diving board. “How did you get away?” I said. “You were in the water.”
“Nope. Party crasher demon jumped into the pool to lick its wounds and I sat here
adding magic to the water like seasoning to a caldron.” Nava stretched forward, peering down to make sure the demon was really gone. “Guess I fired so much current into it, I hit the demon’s weak spot. It reeks to high heaven, though, sorry about that.”
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She flopped back on the board, her skin still faintly blue from accessing that level of magic. “Shit. That took everything out of me.”
My heart was still stuttering in my throat and all the strain went out of my
shoulders in a split-second, leaving me achy and shivering. When I spoke it all came out in an exhausted rush. “Nice work.”
“I aim to please,” She snapped her fingers. “Gatorade, stat. Then you can clean up whatever gunk you need to.”
I rolled my eyes but let her off clean-up duty.
My back hurt when I bent to retrieve the sports drinks from the cooler I’d brought for us, and I tossed one to Nava. She caught it and drained it like a vampire. I laughed.
Nothing like electrolytes to top up our magic and make us feel like a million bucks. I still had a headache while I mopped traces of bolla juice off the deck, but the infusion of Gatorade spurred my own healing magic into motion. By the time I finished body
disposal, I had a mild headache and some cuts, but wasn’t too worse for wear.
I walked the length of the deck, making sure that I’d scoured off all traces of demon. The pool would have to be sanitized. I texted Ms. Clara, the Brotherhood’s executive administrator here in Vancouver to arrange it.
I strode back to Nava who hadn’t moved. Her eyes were closed though she no
longer looked like one of the Na’vi. I pressed a hand to her lower rib cage, relieved at the slow, deep rise and fall of her chest.
“Come on. Shower time.”
“Don’t wanna,” she mumbled and rolled over, falling off the board and into the
pool with a splash.
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I didn’t bother hiding my laughter as Nava screamed in shock and then cursed me out in a flurry of very creative epithets as I headed to the changing room.
***
Scalding water sluiced over my naked body. I stood in the shower, head bowed,
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