Fiends and Familiars

by Dunbar, Debra

  This guy…he was funny, smart, courteous. He was gorgeous, built like a freaking god, and the sex had been damned mind-blowing.

  I sat up, straddling him. “Do you want to go to a bonfire tomorrow night?” I asked, thinking an invitation to my family Sunday night dinner wouldn’t be super appropriate yet.

  He stretched, then pulled me back down against his chest. “I’d love to.”

  Actually I was hoping he’d spend the night and I’d see him first thing in the morning.

  “Maybe I can stay, and we can do breakfast?” he asked, as if reading my mind.

  “I’d like that.” I planted a quick kiss on his shoulder and got up, pushing away his hands as he tried to pull me back down. “I’ll be right back.”

  I had to use the bathroom, then maybe I’d fix us something to eat. Or maybe I’d just sprawl over top of him again and go for round two. With a quick smile over my shoulder at the sexy man on my couch, I snuck into the bedroom and into the adjoining bathroom, ignoring the questioning glance from Drake and the squirrels.

  As I was freshening up, I heard them all heading into the living room and winced. I wondered if Ty liked birds and squirrels as much as he liked dogs? Suddenly the living room erupted in sound. I heard Ty shout, then Drake started shrieking and hissing. The squirrels made their “danger” noises. Rhoid screamed. I ran out of the bathroom still naked and into the living room to see an equally naked Ty throttling one of my squirrels.

  “Don’t you run away, you bastard,” he snarled. “You won’t escape me. I’m going to pop your head right off and drag you back where you belong.”

  “No!” I shouted, horrified by the situation. When had the suave sexy guy I was half in love with turned into some kind of monster who hurts poor defenseless squirrels?

  Ty froze, Rhoid dangling from his hands. The squirrel bit down hard on his finger. He yelped but held on.

  “Drop the squirrel,” I commanded.

  Sorrow flickered across his face, then his expression hardened. “No. I can’t. I’m sorry, but I have to take him with me.”

  What the hell was going on? We’d had a wonderful date. We’d had sex. And now he was throwing that all away to kill a squirrel?

  “I’m sorry,” he repeated. “I promise the makeup sex will be really good. I’ll even grovel a little. I just have to kill him and take him to hell first.”

  Oh, there would be no makeup sex, even if he groveled on hands and knees. I wasn’t going to be having sex with anyone who murdered squirrels.

  I set my jaw and tried to look intimidating, even though I was naked. “I said, drop the squirrel. You drop that squirrel right now and get out of my house or I’ll…I’ll… You’ll regret it.”

  I was bluffing. This was me, a vulture, and the three squirrels that weren’t in Ty’s grip against a powerful supernatural being. Correction, me and a vulture. The other squirrels had vanished into the basement, and I sensed them hiding in the furnace room. Reaching out my awareness, I realized it was just me and Drake. Sucked, because I could really use Yeth right now.

  Ty’s eyes glowed red and horns sprouted from his head. He was still a breathtakingly handsome guy, but his resemblance to the demon from my dreams was startling.

  Shit. Double shit. If seeing him throttling my squirrel wasn’t enough of a punch in the gut, this throwback to my erotic dreams was doubly so. What the hell was going on? Why had the…whatever of my dreams become someone who could hurt a harmless woodland creature?

  “Ty, what is going on?” I pleaded, changing tactics. “That squirrel is under my protection. Why are you harming him? Why would you hurt someone I care for?”

  Unreadable emotions flickered across his face, then he took a breath and stood straight, gripping Rhoid tightly. “You don’t understand. This has nothing to do with you. He’s ours. He belongs to me.”

  “No, he’s mine,” I snapped. “Put down the squirrel and get out. Out! I want you out of my house. I never want to see you again, ever!”

  He stared at me, stunned. “But the makeup sex…”

  I stomped my foot. “No makeup sex. No sex ever again. Let go of my squirrel and get out.”

  Suddenly my living room was filled with dog-things. There were a dozen of them—one headed, two headed, all with sharp white teeth and glowing eyes. I recognized three from my lawn last night—and I recognized Yeth. He cringed, not meeting my gaze.

  I felt dizzy. Yeth. Hounds. Master of the Hounds. Ty, or whoever he was, had sent his hounds to watch me days ago. Had the meeting at Pistol Pete’s been planned? Our date? Sex? All to get a squirrel? Anger filled me along with sorrow, and embarrassment.

  “You bastard!” I spat at Ty. “You asshole!”

  He recoiled, and his grip on Rhoid must have loosened because the squirrel squirmed free and dashed for me.

  “No! Damnit, get back here,” he shouted.

  The dog-things charged. I couldn’t believe this was happening. The first guy I fall for since college and he was only using me for his ulterior hellish motive. And now he was siccing his hounds on me, willing them to maul me. I’d had sex with this guy. I’d opened myself up to this guy. The betrayal cut deep.

  Cassie was the sister known for her hot temper, but rage flared through normally placid me—rage and hurt.

  “Sit!” I yelled with every bit of authority I possessed as I let my magic fly. I swore I’d never do this, but I was so angry.

  The hellhounds sat as if their back legs had been rendered instantly useless. They snarled, scooting forward with their front legs like dogs dragging their asses across the carpet.

  “Down! Stay!”

  That did it. The hounds dropped to the ground, immobile. My stomach churned and I felt nauseated as the magic rolled through me—nauseated as well by the thought of what I’d done. I’d seized control of their physical forms. I’d made them my puppets. They might still be snarling, but they were unable to move.

  That should have been enough but I was still caught up in a storm of anger. There he was, standing there with his tousled black hair and his chiseled cheekbones, and his kissable lips and dark sultry eyes. How dare he be so damned sexy. How dare he do this to me.

  “Nice puppies!” I shouted.

  The magic reached a crescendo, and I nearly barfed. It hit the hellhounds full force, pouring out of me and leaving me drained and shaken. The hounds stopped snarling. Happy tongues lolled out of mouths and tails began to wag furiously. I’d taken control of their bodies, and now I’d just taken control of their minds.

  “What have you done?” Ty looked at his pack, then glared over at me. “I’m Master of the Hellhounds. What have you done to them?”

  I glared right back. “You might be Master of the Hellhounds when you’re in hell, but this is my home. I’m not going to stand by and let your animals chew me to pieces.”

  “I’m not...they weren’t…” His eyes narrowed and his gaze shifted to the squirrel on my shoulder. “Give him to me. Give me that sneaky little bastard.”

  That’s what this was about? He wanted Rhoid for some reason? He seduced me as part of a ploy to get a squirrel? If he’d hit me up with this request a few days ago and asked nicely, I might have handed over all four of them, but the pesky animals had become part of my little family and the only way they were leaving my home was if they did it of their own volition.

  “Get your own squirrel. This one’s mine.” Wait, what did he want a squirrel for? Now I was thinking of all the nefarious things the jerk might want to do to a poor furry thing. Was he going to use it as bait in some hellhound fight? Turn it into a hellsquirrel? That last one might actually be kind of cool, but I was totally against the first. Hunting was a way of life for many in Accident, and I wasn’t averse to chowing down on a good steak, but taking a life for sustenance was different than a poor animal being sacrificed to a bunch of hellhounds.

  “He’s mine, not yours,” Ty snapped. “I had him first. He escaped and I’ve been looking for him for centuries.”r />
  I rolled my eyes. Such drama. There’s no way he’d been looking for a lost squirrel for centuries. The guy was a jerk and a liar.

  “Well, finders keepers, losers weepers. You’ve got yourself a dozen dog-things, you don’t need this squirrel, especially if you’ve lived just fine without it for centuries. What do you want with him anyway?”

  “He’s mine for all of eternity. I have to torture him, and I’m way behind on his punishment,” Ty shouted.

  Oh, he was so not getting this squirrel—or any squirrel for that matter. In fact, I might not even let him take the hellhounds back with him. Did he torture them as well? Poor puppers, no wonder they were so on edge. They just needed some love, a nice comfy pillow, and a whole lot of liver treats and they’d be fine. I’d bet I could quickly find nice families to adopt them.

  “If anyone is going to be punishing anybody, it’s me,” I shouted back. Hearing an alarmed squeak I turned to Rhoid. “Don’t worry. I’m not talking about you, I’m talking about him. Ooo, just wait until I get my hands on him.”

  Sadly that statement was followed by all sorts of lurid fantasies that had very little to do with punishment. Damn him for being so sexy! And what was with me still wanting this guy after he’d shown himself to be a total douche-canoe?

  Ty threw his hands up in the air, then took a step toward me. “Addy listen, you’re being completely irrational here. Just give me the squirrel. If I don’t take him, someone else will—and they might not be as nice about it.”

  My entire body tingled at the way he said my name, and now I was mad again. “I’m being irrational? You pretend to like me, then the moment I invite you into my house you have sex with me, then bring out your attack hounds and try to steal my squirrel. Go back to hell. Go, and don’t come back. And leave these sweet puppies. You don’t deserve them.”

  He ground his teeth. “Addy, he’s not a squirrel, he’s a soul that escaped from hell. And I didn’t tell my hounds to attack you. I’d never let them do that. They’re here to grab the squirrel, Faust. They were going to secure him and bring him to hell.”

  There he was, that sexy guy again, but I couldn’t forget coming out of my bedroom to find him strangling a squirrel, even if he was telling the truth and Rhoid was a soul that had escaped from hell. And I couldn’t forgive the fact that he’d set this all up just to get a soul back.

  He didn’t really like me. He didn’t really want me. Yeah, he’d obviously enjoyed sex with me, but it was all done with an ulterior motive. I didn’t matter to him.

  It made me want to cry, and I’d be damned if I cried in front of this asshole.

  “Get out.” For a brief second I thought about turning his hounds on him, but I’d already crossed the line with them and done something I swore I’d never do. I wouldn’t make it worse by forcing them to attack their own master.

  Ty looked at me, then at the squirrel, then back at me. “Okay. I’m sorry, Addy.”

  He wasn’t sorry. He wasn’t sorry at all. Picking up the nearest thing at hand, which happened to be a scented candle, I threw it at him. “Get. Out.”

  He vanished, leaving an expensive BMW in my driveway, a dozen hounds on my living room floor, and me with tears stinging my eyes. Without another word, I left everyone behind, went into my bedroom, closed the door and cried.

  Chapter 11

  Typhon

  I’d fucked up big time. I’d had Faust in my hands and I’d let him go. It was my duty. I was in charge of his torture when he’d escaped, and it was my duty to bring him back to hell. What sort of demon was I to let a soul slip through my fingers a second time?

  But the hurt and betrayal in Addy’s eyes had been more than I could bear. If I’d pushed her aside and grabbed Faust, if I’d hauled him off to hell, she would have never forgiven me. I wasn’t sure she’d forgive me now. How could I explain to her that the squirrel in her house wasn’t a squirrel, that he was a magic-using soul who’d escaped hell and was hiding behind her for protection?

  There was a reason Faust had gone to hell. He’d bargained his soul away, and after centuries of squirming through loopholes, it had been time for him to pay the piper. But even after death, he’d wiggled free of his obligations. And tonight I’d let him go because I didn’t want a witch to think I was harming a helpless animal.

  How could she believe I’d ever set my hounds on her? That I or anything obedient to me would ever harm her? When I’d felt her magic take their will, I’d let them go. I didn’t want to fight her for the obedience of my hounds. As mortifying as it was to return to hell without them, I’d far rather do that then rip them free of her. That would only harm them, harm her, and harm me.

  “Give her solace,” I whispered through the link I shared with my hounds. “Comfort her in my stead.” I made them stay, freed them to obey her even without her magic. Yeth was already half in love with her, the dog, but the others hadn’t been exposed to her enough to be seduced by the more subtle notes of her magic.

  But was it magic? I thought about the evening we’d spent playing putt-putt, how we’d laughed and flirted. I enjoyed her company. Being with her was more fun than tossing murderers into pits of hellfire. It wasn’t just sex. I liked her.

  And yeah, the sex. That had been pretty damned amazing as well.

  “Did you retrieve your lost soul, Hound Master?” Abraxas slid up beside me, eyeing the soul of a murderer that I’d been ignoring while I thought about Addy.

  “Not yet.”

  “Now that he’s been located, Satan himself as well as the prince have asked me to assist.”

  The asshole sounded completely smug about this. “I’ll handle it. Go back to the fourth circle and…do whatever you need to do there. I’ve got Faust.”

  “Like you had him centuries ago?” Abraxas shot his long, forked tongue out between his lips and smacked the murderer in the face. The man screamed, the demon’s tongue leaving a smoldering red mark on his cheek.

  “Fuck off, Abraxas.” I scowled. “My hounds and I have done all the work these centuries to find Faust. We’ve found him, and I’m the one that will bring him in.”

  The other demon shrugged. “The boss himself told me to assist. If you don’t need my help though…”

  I glared at Abraxas. “I don’t need your help.”

  The saccharine smile he gave me was anything but reassuring. “Fine then, Typhon. Happy hunting.”

  He walked away, and something sour curdled in my stomach. Abraxas wasn’t going to let this one be. He wanted the glory, the acclaim for bringing in Faust. He wanted to be promoted above me, to perhaps become Master of the Hounds in my place. That wasn’t going to happen.

  And his involvement put me in a very awkward position. I needed to bring Faust in myself. But I also needed to make things right with Addy because there was no way I’d hurt her again. I needed her. I wanted her. And although she might never want to see me again, I wouldn’t risk her hating me just to bring in a soul I’d let slip through my hands centuries ago.

  Chapter 12

  Adrienne

  The nerve of that man. Or demon. Whatever. I’d cried my eyes out, then came out of my bedroom to find an entire menagerie in my house. The squirrels had barricaded themselves in the kitchen and were chattering angrily at the hellhounds lazing around my living room floor. Drake played referee over the whole lot of them, perched on the coffee table and swiveling his head to eye each group with scorn.

  I plopped down on the sofa and teared up again, struggling not to cry in front of his hellhounds, even though they’d stayed behind with me. Not that they’d chosen to. I’d commanded them, forced their wills to mine. I’d swore I’d never do such a thing, but I had. In anger.

  But did I have any choice? If I hadn’t turned his hellhounds to my side, he would have taken that squirrel and done who knows what with the poor thing.

  Drake nudged my shoulder with his beak, and I turned to bury my face in his musty smelling feathers.

  “He was just using
me,” I muttered into the bird. “Using me to get the squirrel.”

  He cares about you, Yeth told me. He was not lying when he said we were not to hurt you. Ever since he met you in that bar, he has been under your thrall. Actually, he was under your thrall since he first entered your dream and you cast your witchy spell upon him.

  Entered my dream? Holy shit on toast, had Ty actually been the sexy horned demon from my dream the other night? Even though that ratcheted up my libido quite a bit, it also made me even more pissed at him. Why the fuck had he entered my dream? Had he been plotting this since before I met him in Pistol Pete’s? Was this all a ruse to get the squirrel? Did I mean nothing to him at all?

  As for him being enthralled by me…pffft. That was total bullshit. I’d never cast a spell over him. I’d done nothing but be myself. How dare he pull this “she enthralled me” crap, when he was the one catfishing me to get to a squirrel that was living in my house.

  Drake hissed at the hellhound, then told me I should talk to the squirrel I’d named Hemorrhoid. I sniffed, thinking over what had happened from a less emotional perspective. Ty had claimed that Rhoid was an escaped soul, that he was someone named Faust.

  I frowned, remembering my college literature classes. Was this the Faust who’d made a deal with the devil? If so, then his soul was destined for hell. But why was he a squirrel in my house? How had a fifteenth-century man who’d bargained his soul for riches and knowledge ended up a squirrel I’d evicted from a woman’s house?

  How the mighty had fallen.

  I pulled away from Drake and sniffed, wiping my eyes. The hounds were still chilling in front of me. The squirrels were still in the kitchen, anxious and restless. I closed my eyes and thought for a moment, then decided I needed to put my emotions and libido aside and get to the bottom of this whole thing.