Kali Sweet Series, Three Urban Fantasy Novels (Boxed Set)

by Misty Evans

  He sucked on my wrist next, gently tormenting the edges of the wound with his tongue and lapping at the blood. His talented fingers had no trouble de-robing me. One hand toyed with my breasts, the other slid up and down my inner thigh, building a terrible, wonderful craving between my legs.

  I arched into him, slamming my hips against his and feeling the bite of his belt buckle into my bare skin. His mouth left my wrist and he lifted me, carrying me to the bed. I’d just unzipped his pants when a sharp knock sounded on the apartment door.

  “Kali? What’s taking so long? Everyone’s waiting.”

  Yasmin. I searched the floor for the dagger I’d tossed away. “It hasn’t even been five minutes,” I added bitch under my breath. “I’m getting cleaned up.”

  “It’s been twenty minutes. Get your ass in gear.” Slut, she said under her breath, just loud enough for me to hear.

  Touché.

  Time had slipped away from me. Always did when I was with Rad.

  He chuckled softly as I gave Yasmin the middle finger and the front of his very full jeans a disappointed look. “I am going to kill her one of these days.”

  “We could leave. Get out of town for a while. Fly out to Hollywood early for the awards ceremony.”

  “What ceremony?”

  He frowned. “The People’s Choice Awards. Remember? I told you the Chaos Demons have been nominated for a couple of awards.”

  Oops. “Sorry, I forgot. Awards ceremonies are not on the top of my list right now. You know I can’t leave town.”

  He was pissed, but he helped me off the bed, slapped one of my ass cheeks as I headed for the bathroom. “At least Yasmin’s honest about hating you.”

  Change of subject. Definitely pissed.

  I stopped in the doorway and grabbed my chest, doing my best Maddy gesture while trying to lighten the mood. “Yasmin hates me?”

  “I know your job comes first, I just wish you could take a vacation.” He motioned at my hair. “Probably need to brush that.”

  “I need a shower and three days of uninterrupted sleep, but neither is going to happen. I’d kill for a vacation. That’s not happening either.” Avoiding the mirror over the bathroom sink, I washed off my wrist, which was already healing and snagged my hairbrush, attacking the tangled mess the same way I attacked everything else in life.

  The simple act of straightening and smoothing the hairs into a ponytail calmed me. I snapped a hair band around the base and got dressed. Rad watched me with his golden eyes. His aura was contained, the emotions forced down behind a wall. He was still thinking about Dru and stewing about it.

  I sat on the bed next to him, tugging on a pair of thigh-high boots with a bevy of weapons hidden in their silver hardware. “Jealous much, demon?”

  My tone was light and teasing, but his response was all heat and desire. His gaze dropped to my feet, then traveled up my legs, lingering on the juncture between my thighs before continuing its slow perusal upward. One of his fingers traced the top of my cleavage now held up by a leather bustier. My nipples tingled, the pulsing sensation returning to my lower body. His fingers trailed up behind my ponytail, latching onto my neck, and his lips stopped just short of mine.

  They grazed my cheek, trailed down to my neck. His low words vibrated against my skin. “The vampire’s blood may give you sustenance, but I’m the only male who will ever satisfy you, demon.”

  My head spun, my nipples puckered. I licked my lips, thinking about all the ways Rad could satisfy me. A shudder ran through my body and his magic gripped me like a vise.

  Rad lifted his face to look me in the eye. Sex magic snapped between us, but there was more. Much more. “Tu me comprends, mon couer?”

  Did I understand? That I was his heart? His only love? The one and only thing that could damn him to hell?

  “Mais oui,” I answered in French the way I had two-hundred and eighty plus years ago. “I understand.”

  Chapter Twelve

  How do you fight a titanic enemy like the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse?

  That was the question circling my brain as we entered the conference room. A jostling of voices and magics met us at the door. Inside, I tried twice to get everyone’s attention, and when that didn’t work, Rad placed his finger and thumb between the lips that had kissed me only minutes before and blew hard.

  The piercing whistle echoed around the large room. The two dozen people in attendance fell silent, all eyes on the two of us.

  I nodded a thank you at Rad. He smiled and found a seat next to JR.

  “Just so everyone’s up to speed, Damon, will you tell us the latest?”

  Damon was good at being the boss. He rose from his chair at the end of the table and succinctly covered the list of problems erupting in our city. After he finished, I asked Salmad to fill the group in on the Four Horsemen.

  As the priest finished laying out the specifics of what we were up against, I paced and looked over the powerful group in the room. Elite warriors, six of the seven deadly sins, archdemons and a goddess. A pure-blooded Master vampire with demonic proficiencies, a Chaos demon who had a legion of fans all around the world, and me, a vengeance demon who embodied dark magic, Jesus-given virtues, and all the enhanced magical abilities of a natural-born vampire.

  It wasn’t enough.

  A sense of foreboding stole up my spine. “When fighting an immense enemy, you amass your forces. Even if we add the vampire and Bridge foot soldiers to this group, our forces—” I motioned a hand at the group, “—are too thin to face the coming apocalypse. We’d only make a nice, tidy target for the Horsemen.”

  Wary eyes stayed on me. I shook off the foreboding and continued to pace. “If we can’t conquer our enemies with one concentrated assault, we borrow a page from the industrious Vietcong. We embrace guerilla warfare.”

  Cole, leaning on the wall next to the door, brightened. “Small, nimble attack forces. We’ve got those. Unpredictable and unconventional strikes—no problem. They advance, we retreat. They rest, we attack.”

  “Exactly.” I pointed at Kirill. He was reaching for a plate of pastries Lainie had set on the table. “Kirill, what does the Red Horseman look like?”

  His hand stopped in midair and he gave me a confused shake of his head. “Why does that matter?”

  I walked over to JR. “Do you have that sketch artist software on this laptop?”

  “Face ID 4.5.” My tech guru’s fingers raced across his keyboard. A new program opened. “Has over four thousand facial features in its database.”

  “Put it up on the screen.” As JR connected to the Institute’s internal Wi-Fi media server, the projection screen on the far wall came to life. I turned back to Kirill. “What does Pestilence look like?”

  Everyone stared at the pudgy disease expert. Forgetting the pastry, he adjusted his lab coat and leaned back in his chair. “Usually poses as a doctor, but he can shift into a rat, a fly, even a flea to spread disease.”

  He rattled off height, weight, bone structure, eye and hair color. On the screen, a man’s face evolved. As things like eyebrows and lips were added, Kirill gave JR instructions. “The eyebrows are thicker and not so arched. Yeah, that’s more like it. The nose should be narrower.”

  Over the next couple of minutes, they tweaked the sketch until Kirill was satisfied. “That’s him.” He swiveled his chair to look at me. “At least the last time I saw him in Europe.”

  “He’s been on Earth before?” This from Aphrodite. “I thought the Horsemen’s only purpose was to kick off Armageddon.”

  Kirill gave her a smug glance, his aura indicating he reveled in the attention. “He’s been responsible for a dozen or more plagues and pandemics going all the way back to 430 B.C. Before then, actually, but record keeping was poor in ancient times so few humans know about those outbreaks. I know because I helped with all of them.”

  Kirill had been around longer than I thought, but this was good. Know your enemy, know yourself. The first rule of battle.
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  He saw we were still waiting for him to explain how it was possible Pestilence had visited Earth before. Leaning his elbows on the table, Kirill shifted his gaze around the room making eye contact here and there. “The Horsemen have tried kick-starting Armageddon at least a dozen times. Never worked. They send in the False Prophet, then Pestilence and War initiate the first waves of disaster and wait for Death to show up. The four of them working together have started cataclysmic world events, but they never close the deal. Up until now, anyway.”

  “Why is that?” I asked.

  “Because they need the help of the archangels to bring an end to humans. The angels can’t lift a finger to help until all seven seals are broken. The False Prophet, the Whore of Babylon, the Horsemen…they’re all seals. All we’ve seen so far is Pest.”

  “So the others haven’t been broken yet?”

  Kirill shrugged.

  I looked at Damon and he straightened in his chair slowly as if deep in thought. Or maybe he was already exhausted thinking about the problem. I knew the feeling. “The breaking of the seals happens in stages. The stages can take weeks or hours, days or months. All we know at this point is that Pestilence is here. We can assume the other Horsemen are on their way. And after that?” He tossed his hands in the air. “Even if this isn’t the final apocalypse, things are going to be bad for supernaturals as well as humans.”

  I thought of what Parker had said. The White Horseman…the antichrist…was it really possible Rad was one of the Four Horsemen?

  “Humans don’t know about us,” Salmad interrupted my wayward thoughts, pointing a finger at me and then at our fellow vitiums. “But our combined presence on Earth is what tripped the switch, and from my research, this is the real deal. The Horsemen will succeed this round, but to wipe out the planet filled with billions of humans, they’ll need the help of the archangels.”

  “So if we stop the Horsemen, we stop Armageddon,” I said.

  Sal shrugged. “According to Revelation, The Horsemen represent the first four seals, but according to other ancient texts that predict the end of mankind, there are far more.”

  Lovely. “Do we know how to stop any of them?”

  Damon waved off the question with a hand. “Moot point. If we don’t stop the Four Horsemen, humanity will not survive whatever comes behind them.”

  I couldn’t help it. I shot a look at Rad, who was slouched in his chair, watching me. Cutting Pestilence off at the knees to stop the apocalypse was one thing. Taking out Rad?

  My chest heaved at the thought. Fucking Parker. This was just a stupid mind game. Her wanting me to doubt Rad. To believe he was my enemy again.

  The drone of Neve’s electric wheelchair broke the silence as she maneuvered it next to Sal. Unease creased the corners of her eyes. “Aren’t the angels supposed to be on our side? Um…you know, the side of humans?”

  A collective snicker went around the room from the supernaturals. Sal gave Neve a sad smile. “I’m afraid the only angels who were ever on your side were cast from Heaven in the days before Adam and Eve.”

  Neve rubbed the cross pendant at her neck and swallowed. I stepped up behind her and rubbed her shoulders. Don’t worry, friend. I’ll protect you.

  Cole’s calculating War demon gaze zeroed in on the face looming before us on the projection screen. “If Pestilence is in physical form, we can make him bleed, right?”

  Kirill gave a reluctant shrug. “His blood? What good would that do us?”

  “If he bleeds, I can kill him.”

  My kind of guy, that War demon. “I agree. We have to be proactive in this war. We find Pestilence and engage him on our turf. We get in, strike fast and hard, get out. And then we do the same with the next Horseman.”

  As long as it’s not… I stopped the thought as I caught Damon watching me again.

  Shields!

  The mental click of them snapping into place reassured me and I drew a deep breath.

  Murmurs rippled through the room, many of them full of surprise and doubt. Di turned frightened eyes on me. “Kali, even for you, that’s…well, that’s plain crazy. You can’t fight the Four Horsemen. They’ll slaughter you.”

  I paced the floor, my feet unable to stay still. “If we bring the battle to them—a battle they won’t be expecting—we’ll control the fight. That’s the way you win. Advance, retreat, and when they think you’ve given up? You advance again and attack. It’s proven battle strategy for small, dedicated groups of natives, and that’s what we are. This territory is ours. We care about it far more than they do and they cannot win if we stay out of their reach and strike quickly, quietly and effectively, over and over until they give up. Our first mission critical…take out the Red Horseman. The rest will be a cinch.”

  More murmurs, fading to silence. A very uncomfortable silence.

  Most of the auras in the room suggested my friends and comrades still thought I was crazy. I took hope in the fact no one got up and left.

  Damon sat forward. “In a metropolis the size of Chicago, how do we locate the Red Horseman?”

  “We don’t.” I ambled over to Kirill, tapped his shoulder. “Our disease specialist does.”

  The archdemon reared back, glanced between me and Damon. “But I…I have no idea where Pest is, nor would he do anything but strike me dead if he saw me. I work for the enemy now, in case you hadn’t noticed.”

  Pest. A fitting nickname. I pointed a finger at my tech guru. “JR, where did the initial outbreaks occur?”

  The sketch of Pestilence morphed into a Chicago map, showing a bright red dot. “Rush University.”

  “And where do you predict he’ll go next?”

  “The second largest hospital in Chicago proper.”

  “Northwestern.” I paced to the screen and back. “Kirill, you head over to Northwestern and put out feelers. Tell your friends and enemies alike that you’re looking to rejoin Pestilence’s ranks. You have skills he can use and insight into how the Bridge Council will try and stop him.”

  Kirill’s gave a derisive snort. “He’s not stupid. He’ll know it’s a trap.”

  “Then give it to him. Tell him what I’m planning. Make him believe I’m going to be his worst nightmare and that he needs to take me out before I ruin the best chance he and his brethren have to fulfill the biblical prophecy. Once he’s on board, lead him to my place, the church. Give us a heads up before you get him there and Cole and I’ll do the rest.”

  Dru, positioned in the far corner with his arms crossed over his chest, rocked on his heels. “And what exactly is the rest?”

  Rad gave me a look that said he wondered the same thing.

  He and Dru weren’t the only ones. I had no idea what I’d do once I had Pest in reach. I’d figure it out later. “Let me worry about that.” I pointed at the third archdemon in the room who, as usual, paid little attention to me or anyone else when Damon was in her presence. “Yasmin, you and JR work on upping security around the Bridge Institute. Once we hit Pestilence, all hell’s going to break loose.”

  She seemed startled that I’d spoken to her, but recovered quickly when Damon glanced at her. “Of course. The Institute will be safe.”

  At least Damon would be. Yasmin would give her dying breath to save him. “Good. Dru, you and Seraphina set up vamp patrols at all the major Chicago hotspots. Sporting events, concerts, anywhere massive groups of humans are gathering. I want eyes on the ground so we can ferret out Pestilence in case he’s being social outside the hospitals. Also keep an eye out for the other Horsemen. War will start riots and cause supply transportation breakdowns. Death will cause food to spoil, water mains to break, mass carnage. Anything that seems out of the ordinary, no matter how small, report it to Damon. He, Sal and JR will track everything so we can see the big picture.”

  Seraphina gave me a solemn nod. Dru glanced at her and I saw him sizing her up. For him, everyone fit into one of three categories: food, sex or sword. If he considered you food, your neck would meet his te
eth. Sex, the same. And if he considered you the enemy, your neck would meet his sword. It would be interesting to see how the Amazonian warrior would handle him. Unfortunately, I didn’t have time to keep an eye on the two of them.

  “Our second most pressing issue is stopping the Red Tide and the rodent population from spreading Pestilence’s diseases.”

  Arman raised a hand. “My friends and I can handle the mice and rats if you tell us where they are.”

  Werecat shifters were definitely a plus in this situation. JR performed his techie magic and the Chicago map spun and zeroed in on the docks and large scale condo units by the lake. “Here, here and here,” he said as three yellow X’s appeared on the areas in question. “These are where the worst infestations have been.”

  Arman stood. “We’re on it.”

  I liked a supernatural who didn’t wait for instructions to go to work. “Check in,” I said as he headed for the door. “And let me know how bad it is and what we can expect going forward.”

  He gave me a smile and a salute, seeming glad to be leaving our discussion. Maddy, however, sighed as the door shut. No doubt Arman was more fun to hang out with than me.

  “Now the Red Tide.” I turned to Rad. “Your strongest element is water. What do you think? Can you kill the bacteria in Lake Michigan?”

  Sal raised a hand. “You need to boil it.”

  Rad’s face didn’t change, but his aura conveyed suppressed shock. “You want me to boil Lake Michigan?”

  “Can you do it?”

  He drew a deep breath, rubbed the stubble along his jawline. “I’ve never worked magic on such a large body of water, but…what the hell.” He shrugged. “I’ll give it a shot.”

  “Take Sal and Shane with you.”

  “Me, too,” Akimo volunteered from behind Dru. “I’ll be the bodyguard in case the Nocts get wind of what we’re doing.”

  The Noctifectors. Parker. Too bad she was so focused on me and Rad. Her team would have done more good helping us slay the Horsemen.

  Except, Parker believed Rad was a Horseman.