Hard Luck

by Romy Lockhart

  He’s right, and I don’t like that. Damon isn’t safe here either. Not when Nero’s master is expecting to slay a vampire when he wakes up. I glare at Nero.

  “I’m going to feed him, and when he’s sated and it’s dark enough, we’ll leave. Until then you can distract your master however you please. He doesn’t get to kill Damon.”

  “This place is huge, I’ll take ye to a room ye can use,” Nero says after a few prolonged moments of awkward silence. He moves to the stairs, looks back at me and morphs into our old professor’s human form. I relax a little, no longer feeling as if he’s trying to manipulate me into his arms.

  It might not last too long, but it doesn’t have to. I’m going to get Damon back to health, and then he’s going to drain Nero’s master. I’ll send the asshole back to hell if it’s the last thing I do.

  The room Nero shows us into is dark with heavy drapes. He goes inside and draws them all closed, and then pushes the door to a windowless bathroom open. I help Damon to sit on the bed. His eyes are sleepy and he’s exhausted. He looks as if he wants to pass out, but that would make it harder to bring him back. I’m lucky I got here before things were any worse. I frown at Nero, who looks so confident and suave in his new skin.

  He starts to leave, then opens his mouth, looks and me and shakes his head. He leaves, finally, and I go and lock the door closed behind him quickly.

  I untie the belt around my coat and let it fall to the ground. Stepping out of my shoes, I kneel in front of Damon, and kiss his swollen mouth lightly. He barely seems to acknowledge the touch, his gaze still far away.

  I place my wrist in front of his mouth and he blinks, his eyes darkening that tiny little bit extra that’s so barely noticeable with him. His fangs appear in a flash and I gasp as he grabs my arm and bites down. Blood spills from my wrist and he devours every drop with a hunger I’ve never witnessed from him before.

  “Easy,” I murmur, as the bite high hits and makes my head swim. The aroused state I was fighting against pushes back to the surface.

  Damon seems to feel the change in the air too, because he stops feeding to gaze at me with an entirely different kind of hunger in his deep, dark eyes. The wounds on his face have healed while he was drinking and it feels entirely appropriate to let my hands drop to his pants to get him out of these clothes.

  “Lie down,” he tells me, as I free his straining cock from his pants.

  I smile as I get to my feet and move onto the bed. It might not be an ideal situation, but right now neither of us cares. He stands and removes his clothes in a lighting fast blur of movement.

  “Well, you’re definitely feeling better,” I tell him, as he mounts the bed.

  “And I’ll feel even better again when your demon mate is burning in hell,” he says, parting my legs and moving between them. He caresses me and watches my face carefully. “You’re aroused by his presence.”

  I feel my face flush. “It’s an instinctive reaction.”

  “You didn’t act on it,” he says, moving over me and gazing down into my eyes as his cock lines up with my aching cunt.

  I reach out and touch his face. “He tried to kill you, Damon. He’s a monster.”

  “I thought it was impossible to refuse a true mate. You surprise me more every day, Maeve.”

  He kisses me softly now, opening my mouth and bringing a metallic tang to my lips. My body quivers in ecstasy as he drives his cock into me in one solid thrust. I groan into his mouth and he breaks the kiss.

  I wrap my legs around his back, my arms around his neck. Weaving my fingers into his thick, dark hair I bring his lips back to mine where they can help push me over the edge to climax. Every little sensation is amplified by the bite high, every touch. I moan as his lips brush mine.

  “Fuck,” he murmurs. “You’re going to make me come.”

  He drops his mouth to my throat and I feel his fangs scrape lightly along my flesh, adding fuel to our fire. I gasp as he sinks his fangs in, pushing another bite high through me. My back arches as an intense wave of all consuming ecstasy washes over my body. Every fiber of my being sings out as I hold Damon close and ride the high.

  He retracts his fangs only once the warm glow begins to subside, as if he was making sure I got to feel the full force of the bite high before he stopped. He thrusts a little harder and comes with his gaze fixed firmly on my face.

  “I love the way you look when you’ve come,” he tells me, still buried inside me.

  “I was afraid I’d lost you,” I admit, taking in every detail of his face as if I’m trying to commit it to memory.

  “You could never lose me,” he tells me with a smile. “I’ll never leave your side again.”

  “Promise?”

  “I promise, Maeve.” He kisses me softly and I let my legs fall when he starts to back up. “Now where’s the bastard I need to kill?”

  Which one? I wonder, as he gets up and starts to dress. “We have to stay here until night falls.”

  “That doesn’t mean we should delay this. He could leave,” Damon tells me, pulling up his pants and looking around.

  I bite down on my lip. Killing Nero’s master is the sensible way to get rid of him. We’d have to leave his charm and run. Hope that the cops throw it into an evidence locker for a few dozen years. That no-one who touches it desires anything strongly enough to bring Nero back.

  “I’m not sure it’s a good idea,” I tell him, wondering why it’s so hard to do this.

  “He’s not going to stop until you’re his, Maeve.”

  He’s right. I know it. Still.

  “Something just doesn’t feel right about it.”

  He comes to me as I get to my feet.

  “If you want to just wait here and leave when night falls, that’s what we can do. But that demon sees you as his property. He’s not going to leave you alone. We don’t deal with this now, we’re sure as hell going to have to deal with it later.”

  I groan as I push onto my feet. He has a point.

  “I don’t like this.”

  “At least if we do it now, Dean can’t come rushing out here and get himself killed.”

  He’s only halfway joking. I smile but it doesn’t reach my eyes.

  “Let’s get this over with.”

  We move back along the corridor we were lead down to get to our room. The hallway is silent. I don’t feel Nero’s presence. Not at all, not even a little bit. Something feels off about this whole thing, but I can’t quite put my finger on it. I brush it off as nerves. We’re about to do something crazy, not to mention entirely illegal and amoral. I don’t even know this guy, and we’re going to kill him?

  “I don’t think…” I start as we get closer to the room he was passed out in.

  “He’s already dead,” Damon tells me, moving forward and going to the side of the guy’s couch to look him over. “Overdose, most likely.”

  I walk into the room, the tension draining from my shoulders as I realize this is the reason I can’t feel Nero anymore. He would have been sent back to hell when his master died. He’ll only come back if someone takes up his charm, and hell only knows what that is.

  “I’m kind of disappointed,” Damon says, getting back to his feet and brushing off his pants. “I thought this would be a bigger challenge.”

  I look around the room. There are empty bottles and take out boxes littered all over the room, as if they were just dropped wherever this guy was standing and replaced by something new after a few bites of each meal. I cover my mouth. The room smells bad, and it doesn’t even have a dead body odor yet.

  I turn away and start to walk back out of the room. I’m stopped by the glint of an amethyst geode on a table by the door. The colors are so pretty. It reminds me of the dress I’m probably going to have to burn. I reach out and run my hand over the crystal, feeling the thrum of energy from within.

  Suddenly my senses are shoved into high gear, and I sense Nero before he appears in front of me, a wicked smirk decorating his demon
ic face.

  “Master. How may I serve you?” he drawls, his demon voice rich and gravelly.

  “Oh, shit,” I curse, staring at the crystal. Charms tend to be smaller, but there’s nothing to say they can’t be ornamental rather than jewelry. It just makes less sense since anyone could walk into this building and take the charmed object. I stare at him, my mouth falling open as I realize fully what I’ve just done.

  He smirks slowly, making my body flush with desire as my gaze connects with his.

  “Are you telling me you’re not pleased to see me?” he asks, killing me slowly with that damned gorgeous voice. He leans in, “Mistress.”

  I can’t believe what I’ve just done. I stare at Nero in disbelief and he watches me back in deep amusement, never shifting from his demon form. His charcoal flesh and vibrant ruby eyes are a darkly alluring combination, that when combined with his rich natural voice are almost enough to make me drop to my knees and worship him right now. And that’s without glancing below his very naked top half.

  “You realize you’ll have to dress me if you don’t want me scaring the locals,” he reminds me, scratching at one of his thick black horns.

  Right. This is why he’s in all his demon glory right now. He’s limitless, but he doesn’t have a human form. As his master I’m supposed to give him a preferred form. He’ll use others when he’s conducting my business, whatever suits the job, but he’ll remain in my preferred form as I wish it. As I wish it. Damn. I can’t do this.

  “I’m not making any wishes, Nero.”

  He shrugs. “That only means they’ll force themselves on you. Good luck stopping whatever you want most from happening.”

  I swallow hard as he puts the implications of what I’ve just done into perspective for me. I’m endangering everything in my life right now. I can’t be his master, or mistress, or whatever he wants to call it. Yet, what’s the alternative?

  “Or you could just set me free,” he tells me, as if it’s an afterthought. I can see from the gleam in his eyes that it’s anything but.

  I shake my head. Freeing a limitless djinn on earth is a recipe for disaster. He’ll cause pure chaos for eternity. It’s what he was born to do. I can’t unleash that kind of power on the world. It could start an apocalypse.

  “Send him back to hell,” Damon suggests, speaking up so suddenly that I jump a little at the sound of his voice. “He has to obey.”

  I swallow. It’s a slippery slope. I command him once and I take the mantle of his master. Some might argue I already did that in touching his charm, but I haven’t taken the charm yet. It’s still bound to his previous master’s form, still sitting there looking like a harmless geode.

  I turn on my heel and move over to the dead body. He can’t have passed that long ago. I wonder if there’s still something salvageable here. I touch his shoulder lightly. His skin retains warmth, even if his heart has stopped and there’s no breath left in his lungs. I send a jolt of good fortune into his vacant body, hoping against hope that there’s still a chance…

  “Maeve. What are you doing?” Damon asks, his tone concerned.

  “Move him into a better position,” I say, my mouth setting in a grim line.

  “A better position for what?” He leans in close to whisper.

  “I’m going to try to revive him,” I say quietly, causing Nero to laugh loudly behind us.

  “He’s dead, Maeve. You can’t undo what’s already been done.”

  “Just watch me.” I glare at him before I begin resuscitation. It’s not something I’ve been trained in, but my inherent good fortune makes me a natural. I beg for this man’s survival as I work, jumping back a little when his heart bumps in his chest and a whoosh of air leaves his body.

  “You’re going to regret that,” Nero tells me, as he turns into a frowning dark haired teenager before my eyes. My lady boner disappears swiftly. I let out a relieved sigh.

  His master sputters and wheezes as he sits up, slapping his arms around until I get out of his way. He hauls off his sunglasses and I can see his eyes are bloodshot. He might be alive but he looks halfway to the grave.

  “Get off me,” he grumbles, glowering at me. “Who the hell are you anyway?”

  I step back, and Damon takes my hand firmly. We need to get out of here. Too bad it’s still light outside. I don’t know how the hell we’re going to get back to the casino now.

  I messed up. Twice.

  Hard luck for Maeve.

  At least the world isn’t going to end with a genie apocalypse.

  “Jake, who are these fuckwads?” The ungrateful moron shouts back at Nero, who shrugs in response.

  “Jake?” I ask, raising an eyebrow at Nero.

  He scowls, like a typical teenager, and starts kicking at something on the floor.

  “Oh, wait a minute,” Nero’s master says, scrutinizing Damon. “You’re the vampire. You’re supposed to be in the basement.”

  Okay, yeah. I never should have brought this guy back. He’s seriously bad news. I take a breath when he looks at Nero, clearly getting ready to order him to take Damon back to the basement. Maybe both of us. I don’t know, but it isn’t happening.

  I touch his shoulder, this time keeping my hold vice-like as I let bad luck course through me and into him. I give him more than a casual dose. It’s enough to undo what I did. I see the life drain out of his eyes and I feel my vision blur. I didn’t like this guy for the three seconds that I knew him, but watching him die still cuts me up inside.

  He falls back hard enough to tip the couch. This time he isn’t going to get back up.

  I glance over at the spot Nero occupied and see that he’s gone. I don’t trust it until I realize I can’t sense him any longer. Tears drip down from my eyes as I lead Damon out of the room. We sit on the staircase waiting for night fall, and I force myself to look away every time my eyes are drawn toward where I know the charm is sitting, primed and ready for someone to claim it.

  I can’t be that person. No-one should be, but I don’t know how I can stop that from happening.

  “Everything’s going to be okay,” Damon murmurs, putting an arm around me.

  I rest my head on his shoulder, letting myself believe him.

  Dean listens to our story and his frown only ever deepens. Finn had to go pick up his daughter from his sitter’s place while we were gone, so it’s just the three of us in the office. Damon called Dean while we waited for night fall, to reassure him we were okay and that Nero was no longer a threat. He’d wanted more information but Damon decided he could wait. It sounded like a good idea at the time, but now it feels incredibly late and we still have to deal with Dean’s ceaseless questions.

  “The charm is still there?” Dean asks.

  “Neither of us can touch it without becoming his master,” I remind him, crossing my arms.

  “Anyone could come and take it.” Dean narrows his gaze as he stares past us while he ponders the situation.

  Most people don’t like loose ends. Dean can’t stand them. But what choice did we have?

  “I can’t be his master,” I tell him, shaking my head.

  “And we can’t set him free,” Damon chips in, as if he’s challenging Dean to come up with another answer.

  Trouble is, aside from letting fate decide, there is no other answer.

  Dean paces a little while Damon watches him. I try to pick back over the choices I made today. None of them make me feel very good, but my other options were even worse. I can’t see what I could have done differently, besides not touch the charm in the first place.

  That was dumb. I should have known better.

  Dean looks at me. “Why did you touch the charm?”

  I flush, wondering if he was reading my thoughts. “I don’t know. It just sort of called to me. I know it sounds stupid…”

  “It sounds like a human with a desire strong enough to become a master,” Dean corrects me.

  Is my desire to have children so strong that I acted human? I
t wouldn’t surprise me. I’ve already been acting more human than djinn.

  “I think maybe she’s pregnant already,” Damon says, keeping his tone low.

  I stare at him. “Wait! What?”

  “Your life-force is different,” he tells me. “Stronger. I can’t explain it any other way.”

  I touch my stomach, shocked that this could have happened so fast. Not that Damon’s suspicions have to be valid. Maybe something else is going on. I try to quash the excited energy that washes over me at the idea of a baby.

  It could take a while. The witch told Dean that.

  Dean comes to me, takes my hands. His expression lightens as he raises one to his mouth and nips the vein on my wrist with his fangs, drinking little more than a drop before he stops and gazes at me in wonder.

  “Your energy does feel different.”

  “Let’s not get over excited now,” I say. “We don’t know that for sure.”

  He looks to Damon. “When did you feel the change?”

  When he bit me while we were in bed together, I assume. I glance Damon’s way when he doesn’t immediately confirm my suspicion. He smiles wryly.

  “I felt it while we were waiting for night fall. You asked if I needed more blood and I told you I didn’t, but you insisted.”

  My buzz is officially dead. “You bit me before that, remember?”

  Wouldn’t he have sensed the change then? I mean, it was the first time he bit me after I slept with Finn hours before. Why would it take so long?

  He frowns. “I didn’t feel it then.”

  “Maybe it was because you needed to heal your wounds,” I wonder out loud.

  “That’s possible,” Damon says with a nod.

  “It doesn’t matter,” Dean says. “I have a plan.”

  Damon and I glance at each other warily before he picks up the phone.

  “I’m calling the witch I got the potion from. She should be able to take Nero’s charm and store it somewhere safe.”

  I’m about to ask what makes the woman stronger than the average human, when I realize what he means. As a witch, she’ll be able to move it without touching it.