
This book is dedicated to everyone who likes to read smutty books. If you bought this one, you know who you are. This one's for you.
She was being hunted.
Adrenaline pumped through Maron's veins, made her heart pound and her breath rush as she darted between pedestrians and across a busy intersection. Horns blared and drivers swore at her, but she ignored them, a feral smile curving her lips. It was usually she who hunted---she who captured and claimed. Even now, she trailed a killer, the scent of his evil stinging her nostrils, and all the while she knew others of her kind---demons---drew closer by the minute. Seeking her. Wanting her.
The dichotomy sharpened the experience.
This was what she lived for. The thrill, the chase. The order of demons she belonged to tracked down evil souls and shipped them straight to the hot spot before they could hurt any more innocents. Once a person crossed over into true evil, the soul festered inside them, the stench enough to make Maron gag.
If only humans knew the truth about what demons did on earth, keeping the baddies away from them. But it made sense that her kind would be demonized over the ages. You worked in the gutter long enough and it was inevitable you would end up knee deep in shit. Maron shrugged and let her body dissolve into nothing more than a shadow as she ghosted up a narrow side street. It really didn't matter what people knew or not, she would do her job.
And bringing in this piece of scum was going to be a pleasure.
David Norris. Drug dealer, pimp, murderer. His stink was in her nose, sinking into her blood until her heart thrummed with the need to vanquish the evil. Her world came down to a single focus---find him.
He was close. Very close.
A high-pitched scream froze Maron in place. Every sense went on alert, and she eased around the edge of a building to see what was going on. Norris struggled with a teenage girl who looked way too clean and well dressed for this part of town, but her eyes and nose had the red-rimmed look of a junkie coming off a bender. He slammed her against a dumpster, cutting off her next scream. She gagged and sobbed for breath, tears streaking her make-up down her cheeks. He got in her face and growled, "Where's my money, bitch?"
"I'll get it to you." The girl squeaked when he shoved her again. "I swear I will, Norris. I'm good for it. Just give me a little more time."
"You said that last time." He grabbed a handful of one of her breasts, squeezing and twisting. "Maybe I should take it out of you a different way."
Her hand locked around his wrist, her knuckles whitening as horror crossed her face. "No. No!"
Shit.
Maron wasn't about to stand around and watch some kid get raped by this asshole. She was only supposed to reconnoiter, find the evil soul and wait for her back up. It didn't look like that was going to be an option tonight. Her boss, Samael, was going to be pissed. She stepped out of the deepest shadows, rematerializing not far from where Norris had the teen pinned.
"Hey!"
Both humans jerked, their heads snapping in her direction. The girl's look was pleading---the man's enraged.
"Get the fuck out of here, bitch. This has nothing to do with you. Unless you want it to." He grabbed his crotch for emphasis.
Maron rolled her eyes at the crude gesture, which just made Norris even more furious. Too bad. She flexed her fingers, held her hands out in front of her and unleashed the power deep inside her. It rushed up eagerly, the hot, consuming force of it shaking her to her bones. Flames danced at her fingertips, and she shot forward an arrow of fire. It sizzled on the concrete in front of Norris, and he shouted, jumping back. She drove him farther away from the girl with one ball of flame after another.
The teen cowered against the dumpster, snot and tears dripping from her chin. Maron spared her a glance when they drew even. She felt the fire flickering from the corners of her eyes, and her smile was a simple baring of teeth. "Run, little girl. Stay out of dark alleys from now on. And don't do drugs. They're bad for you."
The kid's eyeballs almost popped out of their sockets, and she nodded so fast her hair flapped against her pale face. Then she ran like her ass had been scalded. Smartest thing the kid had done that night. Sadly, she wouldn't remember her encounter with Maron. That was the thing about demons. They faded from your memory the moment you left their presence. The fire and lightning and soul-stealing power was just a bad dream. Unless they'd come for you.
Once the teen was safely away, Maron spread her fingers, and a ring of fire whipped around Norris. He screamed, the sound as terrified as the girl's had been. Maron's smile deepened.
A bead of sweat slid down her temple as she felt the evil of his soul begin to sap her strength. She just hoped she could keep him caged long enough for her backup to arrive. There was no way she could harvest him on her own. Too bad she'd done the best she could to shake the demons hunting her... Samael would fry her ass for trying to ditch her new partners, but damn it, she didn't want a new partner, let alone two. She sure as hell didn't want a fully bonded Demon's Triad, and that was what Samael had in mind for her. He'd already shuffled her last partner off into that kind of sexual bond with a couple of demon operatives. Fucking matchmaker.
Norris's shrieks grew louder, the unholy sound pounding against Maron's skull, and her mental distractions exploded into shards that sliced through her control. Where were those two? She couldn't hold on much longer. Her muscles began to quake in helpless shudders as her powers dragged at her physical strength. The flames around Norris began to waver and die. He'd be able to escape soon.
No! Shit, shit, shit.
She tried to hang on, poured everything she could into the fire surrounding him, but the weaker she grew, the more overwhelming the evil emanating from him became. It drained her faster. If she pushed herself much harder, she might not be able to pull back at all. Disaster. Letting him go would be a slightly smaller disaster, but only slightly. Her legs cramped and she locked her knees to remain upright, but it was a losing battle. The world faded in front of her, tilting sideways, and she knew she was falling. She was failing.
"Got you." A strong set of arms wrapped tight around her, pulled her back against a wall of muscle.
"Kobal," she rasped.
The fire before her roared higher as he added his power to hers, the red flames turning to a brilliant blue. The hottest part of the flame, the heart. "You were expecting someone else, love?"
"Where's Raum? We won't be able to bring this one in without him." She shivered as a small connection snapped between them and Kobal's energy flowed over her, which made the pain knifing through her brain fade. The relief had her sagging against him, but she forced herself to straighten away from him. No need to encourage his and Raum's designs on her.
"He'll be along, don't you worry." Kobal cradled her closer, his touch almost reverent as he stroked her hair back from her face and tilted her chin to make her look at him. "Are you all right?"
The concern in his voice made her swallow, and she jerked her face away from his grip. If the tenderness unnerved her, the possessiveness in his touch made her want to drive an elbow into his stomach. She tried to step out of his embrace, but he quelled the movement with easy strength. She clenched her jaw as anger rumbled through her. Instead of instigating a futile struggle, she fed the emotion into the fire. The job was the most important thing---she'd deal with her demons later.
Raum's tall form materialized on the far side of the blaze, and Norris whipped around to face the new threat. He shouted and stumbled back, shaking his head wildly when forks of lightning speared from Raum's fingers. A hot vortex formed around Norris, building so high and blinding she couldn't see through it.
"It's not going to be enough." Kobal's voice gritted out the same conclusion Maron had come to. Even their combined power wasn't enough to wrench so dark a soul out of Norris's body. If disappointment washed through her, she assured herself it was because they would fail their assignment, not because it proved they weren't as perfect a Triad as Samael had hoped. Kobal growled a few choice obscenities in different languages, his muscular body stiffening behind her. And that wasn't the only thing about him that was stiffening. "Unless..."
She steadfastly ignored the iron bar of his erection that rubbed against her backside and the tingles that broke over her skin. So, she was attracted to him. So, she'd spent a night in bed with him and Raum when they were out on assignment once. So what? Her nipples tightened, and the rushing heat of their melding energies seemed to center in her sex. This was madness. She dug her fingers into his forearm. "Unless what?"
"Unless we can boost our power a little. Deepen our link." He nuzzled the side of her neck, pulling her tighter against his rock hard body. The unwelcome excitement that shot through her made the vortex before them spin faster, glow brighter. A keening wail echoed from within, the sound of a soul beginning to split from a physical vessel.
"No." The word was little more than a whimper, and she fought to put more strength behind her voice. "No, Kobal. We can catch him another time."
"And how many more people will he hurt before that happens?" His voice was somehow a steely rebuke and a seductive purr at the same time. "You're willing to walk away from a case and let a bad guy go free just because you're scared of bonding with me."
"I'm not scared." She gave in to the urge to elbow him hard. His breath whooshed out on a grunt, but his grip didn't loosen. One arm held her in place and the other moved so he could slide his hand down her midriff. She caught his wrist, digging her nails into his flesh. "We're in the middle of an alley, damn it."
He opened his mouth against the side of her throat, scraping the sensitive tendon with his teeth. "No one will see us, and you know it. Not even your nasty little Norris can see us right now."
A shudder passed through her when he bit down on her neck, just hard enough to sting. Moisture flooded her sex, heat exploding within her. It was just as good as it had been the one night she'd let Raum and Kobal touch her. So hot it sizzled, so sweet it ached. Her eyes drifted closed as sensation dragged her under. He flicked his tongue against her ear, sucking the lobe into his mouth.
"I can feel your cravings, Maron." He groaned and a pulse of his power shot through her, spinning into the energy vortex that howled in front of them. "Joined like we are, I can feel everything. So good. It's so fucking good. It could always be this way if you let it." His fingers flicked open the button on her pants, slid the zipper down and slipped inside her panties.
The short, choking cry that jerked from her throat was half need and half despair. "I don't work with male partners, and Samael knows it." And she had damn good reasons for that, which her boss also knew. It was difficult to remember all those reasons with Kobal cupping her wet pussy, teasing her lips until more cream gushed from her.
"He also knows you don't fuck women, so unless he partners you with men, you'll never enter a full Triad." Kobal thrust two big fingers into her channel and her lungs seized. She was already so slick, he slid in easily, and it was fucking amazing. She raked her nails up his forearm, and her breath sputtered in ragged gasps.
This couldn't be happening. It just couldn't. Ten minutes ago, she'd been hunting a corrupt soul and now she was being finger fucked in the name of her job. A moan wrenched out as he rolled his thumb across her pulsing clit. The arm that had held her in place loosened and he used his free hand to fondle her breasts. He plucked at her tight nipples through her shirt, twisting them just enough to set her on the screaming edge of pleasure and pain.
Her head fell back against his broad shoulder, her hips arching into his touch, her interest in resistance splintering under the onslaught of ecstasy. She gritted her teeth as another wave of his power hit her, mingling with her own before exploding into the whirlwind. A dark streak twisted into the light, and she knew Norris's soul was beginning to separate from his body. It was working. "Fuck."
"Anytime, anywhere." Kobal chuckled in her ear, the sound deep and rich. He added a third finger to her pussy, and the stretch made her moan. He rocked his hand against her, thrusting as hard as he could in the tight confines of her pants.
"More. Faster. Now." She didn't wait for him to comply, just slid her hand down to cover his, shoving him deeper. They both groaned when she rolled her hips and ground herself against his cock, then pressed forward into his fingers. The energy that cycled back and forth doubled and redoubled until her mouth opened in a silent scream. It was too much, and she could feel the orgasm gathering deep within her, her pussy contracting once.
His big body shuddered. "More, love. Give me more."
The hot link between them widened slightly, and she could feel the intensity of his need. The depth of it shook her and her eyes flared wide, but before she could question what it might mean, he sank his teeth into the side of her neck, drove his fingers into her hard, and thumbed her clit.
She shattered, her scream lost in the howl of wind and power that sucked upward into the vortex, now almost black with the ugliness of Norris's soul. She twisted in Kobal's arms, and he held her closer, tighter. Her sex fisted around his thrusting digits, the orgasm rippling outward in waves that made her body bow, her hips snapping to meet his hand. Tingles erupted over every inch of her skin, sensation piling on top of sensation when his hands worked her nipples and clit through the tumultuous ecstasy. He dragged every drop of energy from her and flung it into the whirlwind. She crested again, her pussy flexing hard enough to make her choke on the razor-sharp pleasure that sliced her control to ribbons. She couldn't breathe, couldn't think, could only feel what he wanted her to feel. It went on for an eternity. Left her sagging when it ended.
The vortex burst into a million shards of light that danced on the breeze for a few dazzling moments. She blinked, swayed and watched Norris's remains slump to the ground. By tomorrow night, the human coroners would probably have claimed he'd died of a heart attack. Having one's soul wrenched forcefully from one's body would be shocking enough to stop the heart, but that detail wasn't going to make any scientific reports.
Raum stepped over the corpse and strode forward, his brilliant green gaze almost incandescent as it swept her from head to toe. It lingered for several long moments where Kobal's hand was still buried in her sex. Raum was the quieter of the two, and he usually had few words to spare for anyone. He searched her face for a moment and probably saw far more than she was comfortable with. "You all right?"
She shifted under his scrutiny and had to clench her jaw to keep from moaning at the resulting movement of hard masculine fingers inside her. "Fine."
He nodded and said no more.
Kobal's hand abandoned her breast as he reached into his pocket and pulled out a cell phone. He pressed a few buttons, then held the phone to his ear. "Yeah, did you get the package? Great. Bring us home."
His voice was remarkably even considering his rigid cock nestled between her buttocks and his fingers still hadn't left her pussy. He snapped the phone closed and put it away. His thumb stroked her clit one last time before he withdrew from her pants, and she strangled a harsh gasp.
Raum caught Kobal's hand, drew it to his mouth and sucked her cream from each finger. Kobal groaned, thrusting against Maron's backside, his energy lashing through their connection. She froze, caught by Raum's intense gaze and the carnal sight of his mouth playing over his lover's flesh. A small smile crinkled the corners of his eyes, telling her he knew exactly what effect he had on her and Kobal. He released Kobal's hand and reached out to fasten her pants for her, the backs of his knuckles brushing over the lower curve of her belly. She forced away the craving that made her want to demand he touch her and lick her, please her as Kobal had done. Only more. Deeper. Both of them together.
No. They wanted more than she was willing to give. They wanted a Demon's Triad. Some stupid, weak inner longing twisted through her, and she crushed it under her boot heel. No. Sex was one thing, bonding was something else entirely. Never again would she allow herself be so tied to any man, let alone two. She'd played that game before and lost everything. Her confidence, her self-respect and almost, her everlasting life.
A rush of power flooded her, shutting down her thoughts as her back arched in shocked reflex. This demonic power was too strong to belong to any of the three of them. Samael. She focused on relaxing her muscles. It made the transition between locations easier. It felt similar to when she made her body dissipate into shadows, only she plummeted through the shadows into an icy nothingness. The fall lasted forever and was over in moments. She shuddered, shaking off the chill and the arms of the two men who held her between them.
They materialized in Samael's office. The room was buried deep beneath the L.A. high-rise that housed all of Samael's operatives. Maron could sense the fields of energy that emanated from the chamber beyond this office---the hellmouth through which Samael delivered the souls they captured. Standing in this room too long always sent goose bumps rippling along her skin.
Samael's dark gaze swept over the three of them, assessing them, but Maron didn't know what for. She was certain she wouldn't like whatever conclusion he'd come to when a smug smile crossed his lips.
"Good work tonight."
"Thank you, sir." Kobal smiled, while Raum just nodded respectfully.
Samael waved them off. "Be back tomorrow night for your next assignment. One of the watchers found something interesting for you."
Meaning all of them. Anger and horror wrestled for dominance within her. He couldn't possibly mean it. He should know better, and she was damn tired of all three men trying to push her into a bond she didn't want.
When Raum and Kobal turned for the door, she stayed rooted where she was. Waiting for the door to close behind them, she took a deep breath and quashed her temper. Losing her cool with a high demon wouldn't help her case.
"Sir, this will not work." She set her hands on her hips. "I'm more effective with female partners."
The big man rose from his desk and came around to her side. "Maron---"
"You can't say I haven't tried males before. I have. It didn't work." Lifting her chin, she tried not to remember that time. Tried to push Shax from her mind. It was ages ago, and she would never make such a mistake again.
Samael sighed and settled against his desk, crossing his arms over his broad chest. "You're one of my best operatives, Maron."
"Thank you, sir." She took a breath as the unexpected and unusual compliment warmed her.
"But..." His eyes narrowed, pinning her in place. "I can't send you out on more difficult cases because you don't form deep enough bonds with your partners to raise the kind of energy required to cage that kind of darkness."
The bottom dropped out of her stomach, and she forced her expression to careful blankness. "I see."
"The most powerful operatives I send out in the field are bonded Triads. You're one of my best, Maron, and I want to use you to the best of your ability. I can't do that with the way things currently stand." He scrubbed a hand down his face, looking tired. "I've made some mistakes with assigning you partners before, I'll admit, but I want you to give this a chance."
Mistake. Yeah, that was one word for it, but in the end, the biggest fuck-up had been hers, not Samael's. It would be easy to blame him for what had happened with Shax, but it wouldn't be honest. "Sir, with all due respect---"
"Try it for one more case. If it doesn't fit, no harm, no foul, and I'll pair you up with someone else." Samael held up his hand when she opened her mouth. "A female, yes."
She gritted her teeth, biting back further arguments. "One case."
"Just one." Nodding for emphasis, he met her gaze steadily, letting her know he was earnest. He wasn't the type to jerk her around, and she had over a century of working for him to know.
"Fine." The word clipped out. While what he offered was fair, she still didn't like it.
He ignored her terseness. "Good. You can leave at nightfall. I'll have details on your new target, so be in my office then. Take the day and get to know your partners a little."
"I know them well enough already," she growled.
Sniffing the air a bit, he cast her a wicked glance. "Yes, so I assumed. Perhaps try talking to them this time. Or not." He waved a dismissive hand. "I don't dictate how these matters unfold."
She cocked an eyebrow. "None of us would listen if you tried."
"Exactly. I don't work with weak demons." He straightened and moved around to sit behind his desk. "Go on. Out."
"Yes, sir. Thank you, sir," she drawled. Spinning on a heel, she then marched toward the door. The hinges squeaked a bit when she opened it, and she almost missed his snort of amusement.
"Evening, Maron." The huge demon outside Samael's doors nodded as she stepped into the corridor.
He was a guard, another order of demons who protected the hellmouths throughout the world. Those who made up the watcher order were the ones who lived the most like humans. Their job was to keep an eye on the mortal population and alert high demons like Samael when someone went over to the dark side. That was where hunters like Maron came into play.
The guard's partner stood the other side of the entry and grinned cheerfully. Guards did best in pairs, hunters in threes, and watchers were solitary beings. Why that was, no one knew. "Heard you nailed another one."
"Yep." In the end, that was what mattered most. She'd stopped Norris from raping that human girl, and now the teen might have a chance to turn her life around. Maybe. Maron dealt with too much ugliness to have a lot of faith, but the possibility was there. "It was a rough one, though. I'm hitting the hay. See you guys around."
They grunted as she strode down the hall to the elevator, and that was the end of the conversation. This pair of guards was one of her favorites. They did their jobs with no muss and no fuss, which sat well with her. That was how she liked it, which was apparently something Samael looked for in his best operatives.
Considering she'd almost flunked out as a hunter at one time, the rare affirmation of how far she'd come had been gratifying. But the idea stung that she could go no further, that she was stunting her own growth by not bonding deeply with her partners. A frustrated growl echoed in the elevator car as it shot up the many floors toward her apartment.
It wasn't that she didn't work well with others---when she'd teamed up with Lilim, they'd brought down some serious baddies. Of course, Lilim had a yen for women, and her new Triad was with two other female demons. Maybe Samael had hoped Lilim would get Maron to swing that way and develop a sexual bond. She wouldn't put it past him to try it.
Failing that, it made sense he'd split them up, sending Lilim into a Triad and trying to throw Maron into one of her own. It behooved her boss to try to get the most out of his people, so she understood, even if she didn't want to get on board with his plans for her.
Plans that included her new---temporary---partners. Kobal and Raum. Who she was supposed to get to know today before she had to work with them again. Her body hummed with remembered passion, and the lace on her bra chafed as her nipples beaded. Her sex clenched in longing, and her skin heated where she recalled the feel of their hands upon it. She wouldn't mind experiencing that again, if it didn't have all kinds of strings attached. But a bond would put her right back where she was with Shax. Vulnerable, dependent, needy. Weak.
No. Going back to that again was not an option. She shook her head, pushing away her ricocheting thoughts as she stepped out onto her floor.
And froze. They were there. In her apartment. She could sense them as surely as she had when they were tracking her earlier. That her awareness of them was so gut-level and fundamental was not a good sign.
She tightened her jaw and let her body dissipate until she could step through the wall and into her living room. No need to use the door and give them notice that she was coming in. Crossing her arms over her chest as she solidified, she hid her hardened nipples when the sheer physicality of them struck her again. Both were muscular, but chasing down evil didn't allow for flabbiness. They were tall, and attractive in their own ways. Raum's green gaze focused on her, the intensity almost magnetic, drawing her in when she wanted to resist. His pale gaze contrasted with his tanned skin and dark hair. His features were a little too sharp to be handsome, his jaw a little too square, but the combined effect made her want to take a second look. Or third. Kobal, however, was stunning. His face had an unholy beauty to it, nothing short of perfection. His hair was wheat blond, his eyes the pure cerulean of a cloudless sky. Energy seemed to pour from him, giving the impression of constant movement even when he was still.
Compared to them, her own dark hair and eyes were remarkably unremarkable. She pushed away that foolish thought and arched her eyebrows at the two demons sprawled across her couch. "I didn't invite you into my home, did I?"
"We're your partners." As if that answered the question. Kobal gave her a cheeky grin that made her want to smile back and smack him all at the same time. "You'd look a lot happier if Samael had given you what you wanted. That means we're still a team."
"For now." She knocked his feet off of her coffee table. "Samael says I only have to work with you for one more assignment. If I don't want to keep you, I don't have to."
Raum's brows drew together in a deep frown, and a flash of disquiet crossed Kobal's features before he smoothed his expression. "Well, I think you know which one we'd like you to choose."
"I don't partner with men." She slid her hands into her pockets and shrugged, trying not to dwell on the fact that their hands had been in her pants not a half an hour before. "It's not personal, and I'm sorry if that means you'll be disappointed when we go our separate ways."
Raum straightened where he sat, his sharp gaze locking on her, nailing her in place, but she refused to squirm. "You're that sure you'll drop us?"
"Yes." She made the word firm, uncompromising. There was no reason to lead them on. She had nothing against them, and it wasn't their fault she kept men as far from her work as possible.
Nope, that one lay solely on Shax's doorstep, not that he would care. Her lips formed a bitter twist. Then again, he was lucky she hadn't seen him in a century, or she might kick the demonic bastard in the balls.
Kobal stood, capturing her attention as he paced in a tight circle around her. His shoulder brushed against her, and even that slight touch was enough to send goose bumps erupting down her skin. The chemistry was undeniable, and under different circumstances she would want to explore it. But Shax had taught her the danger of mixing business with sex. Kobal stopped beside her, and she fought the need to step back. She held her ground, even as the closeness set off reactions in her body that she wanted to quash. His gaze slid over her, stopping on her lips, her breasts, and the notch between her thighs that he'd touched so recently. His voice dropped to a silky challenge. "Samael wants you to spend some time with us today, right? Those were his orders?"
There was the slightest of emphasis on orders, reminding her that she answered to Samael, whether she liked it or not.
She stiffened and gritted her teeth, struggling with the need to kiss him. Or light him up with a flame ball. Not that it would do much to hurt him, but it'd make her feel better.
"Leave her alone, Kobal." Raum cast his partner a quelling glance, and to her surprise, he subsided. Then the green-eyed man looked at her. "Let's have dinner together. Minimal commitment on your part, and you give Samael what he wants in good faith."
There was no demand in his voice, which made it easier to relent. In the end, it was a sensible compromise. It was not because she wanted to spend time with them. She sniffed. "Yeah, okay. I can do that. We'll need to order in, because I don't have anything here."
Kobal's face contorted in an expression akin to disgust. "We can't eat here. This place sucks. I've seen cheap motels that were better than this."
Raum groaned and dropped his face into his hand. "Kobal."
"What? It's true."
Blinking, she looked around at her apartment. It sported the furniture that had been installed when Samael had the high-rise constructed. Maybe it was a little run down, a little...bleak. There wasn't a single picture or memento anywhere, and she'd been topside for a hundred plus years, so she'd had time to collect some. And she didn't remember the last time she'd gone shopping for food. The natural form of demons was ghostly---one of the qualifications for serving on earth was the ability to maintain corporeal form for long periods of time. As long as they stayed corporeal, they had to fuel themselves as humans did. She usually just grabbed something from the cafeteria Samael had had installed in the building, and when she was feeling really ambitious, she got Chinese take out from the place around the corner.
"I don't spend a lot of time here." Which was pretty damn obvious now that she looked around. This place was no more personal to her than one of the motels she might stay at on a longer hunt. Her apartment was...pathetically lonely. Like the rest of her existence since she'd become obsessed with being the best hunter of all time. Since Shax had nearly destroyed her. She tried not to wince at the accurate description. "Um. Okay, we can go out. Or go to the cafeteria."
"No, we're eating at our place." Kobal's jaw set in a stubborn line, his arms crossing over his muscular chest. "If we only get dinner with you, we're not spending the time with a bunch of other demons watching. Or, worse, in public with mortals hanging around. Plus, by human time, it's breakfast, and I don't want that."
Raum shrugged. "I'm a fair cook. What do you like?"
"Food." She hated to agree with anything they said, but she didn't want breakfast either. It was the end of her day, dinnertime. But like most of the evil creeps they hunted down, demons had to keep night hours. Plus, mortals tended to dismiss the strange things they saw in the dark as figments of their imagination, which helped demons catch their prey. "Nothing sweet. Just regular food."
A rare grin flashed over the sharp features of his face. "I think I can manage that."
She kicked herself for smiling back at him. She'd decided long ago to turn away from relationships and focus on her work, which wouldn't leave her raw and stripped bare. When she was on a hunt, she was in control. She had a mission. She had a purpose. In a bond, there was no control---there was only pain and suffering and insecurity. Bonds could make her feel more alone than being single ever had. And no one was going to save her when a soul got so evil it almost sucked her into the vortex prison. She'd be tangled with that darkness for eternity.
Horror curdled in her gut. It was good reminder of why she didn't want a Triad, no matter how attractive or interesting she found these two demons.
"This is it." Raum held the door open for her, motioning her into the apartment, which was three floors above hers.
She blinked when she stepped over the threshold. It was nice. Masculine and comfortable. The furnishings were straight lines and warm wood. The walls were medium blue, unlike her blank white walls. "This is pretty."
It was nothing like she'd expected from them. In fact, she hadn't thought much about demons decorating their apartments to make them more inviting. Lilim's place had been wild, with her own graffiti spray painted on the walls and hanging aluminum street signs she'd stolen, which had just made Maron shake her head and roll her eyes the few times she'd been there. But the men's space was...somewhere to relax. She could feel her muscles unkinking as she walked around the open space, the kitchen, dining room and living room flowing together.
"Mid-century, modern Danish style." Kobal gestured to the furniture, then pulled out a chair at the dining room table. "I've collected the pieces here and there over the decades. It's comfortable. Have a seat."
"I like it." The longer she stood there, the more she could see how it fit them. Understated and not fussy, like Raum, but still eye-catching and compelling, like Kobal. That she was even thinking this way made her frown. It didn't matter where or how they lived, so long as they did their jobs. She was never coming back to their place anyway.
The bonus of eating here was that she could leave whenever she wanted. There was no way to force her to stay---she could evaporate through a wall if she needed to. If they'd stayed in her apartment, she couldn't have kicked them out if they'd decided to hang around. This worked out much better, and not because she liked the feel of their place.
She slid into the chair Kobal held out for her, crossing her legs under the table. Best to get this cozy scene of domesticity over with as quickly as possible and return to her solitary reality. "So, what's for dinner?"
"Steak. That all right with you?" Raum moved around the kitchen with the same quiet efficiency that he did everything else. He stopped for a moment to kiss Kobal. It was over in a moment, but the sight of their mouths meshing made her remember the night they spent in a cheap motel somewhere in New Mexico. They'd kissed then too. And they'd kissed her. They liked to touch. A lot. Heat bloomed inside her and she pressed her thighs together to quell the ache between them.
"Yeah." She coughed and glanced away. "I like steak."
"Sounds good to me." Kobal sauntered over and parked himself next to her, his shoulder and thigh crowding against hers. She almost swallowed her tongue as lust slammed into her. There was nothing sexual in the way he touched her, but it didn't matter. No matter how she sliced it, she wanted him. Them. Hell, Raum didn't even have to lay a finger on her to rev her up. It was hot to watch him.
There was no safe place to look at this point. They were there, big and hot and far too sexy for her peace of mind. She shifted in her seat, which just rubbed her up against Kobal, and sent anticipation zinging through her system. She pulled in a deep breath, and her awareness expanded. She could feel the heat of them, smell them, sense the very essence of them. It was like when she hunted a dark soul, only far more pleasurable.
"Give me a hand with this, would you, Kobal?"
She startled when Raum's deep voice rumbled from the kitchen, and sighed in relief at the momentary reprieve when his partner got up to help. The relief was short lived when Raum took Kobal's seat beside her, his side plastered against her. Kobal sat across from her, offering her a smile that would entice an angel to fall.
The men set three plates on the table, each one loaded with steak, steaming vegetables and rice. It smelled delicious. Her stomach rumbled, yet another need from her body demanding attention.
"Thank you," she said, pulling her plate toward her.
"No problem. Enjoy." Raum flashed a quiet smile when he watched them dig into the food.
She shifted in her seat, biting back a moan when she rubbed against his broad shoulder and muscled thigh. Her breasts grew heavy, the crests drawing to tight points. The lips of her sex went slick with juices. It was too much---she wanted to scream, to punch something, to drag both men to the floor and fuck their brains out. Anything to release some of the tension that gripped her rebellious body. She stared down at her meal, eating mechanically. It was tasty, but she didn't care. This was, without a doubt, the most carnally frustrating day of her life.
Kobal's sensual voice flowed over her, but she was doing anything to keep her focus off of them. Just put the food in her mouth and chew. Just finish this meal and get the hell out of there before she did something stupid. She choked when Raum's big hand slid up her shoulder to get her attention. Tingles broke over her skin, and she shivered, her sex clenching in helpless desire.
"Do we have your attention?" Kobal's blue eyes twinkled, inviting her to join in the fun with him. "How long have you been working with Samael?"
She swallowed the bite of food in her mouth. "A hundred and five years...and a couple of weeks, give or take."
Raum's fingers moved to massage the back of her neck while Kobal nodded and kept talking. "We were in the Buenos Aires silo for the last couple of centuries, before we transferred here."
There were silos like theirs all over the world, one for every hellmouth, each headed by a high demon like Samael. Of course, operatives could be sent anywhere in the world. It wasn't a jurisdictional thing. Whoever's watchers identified the evil first was responsible for bringing in the soul, no matter how far the hunters had to go to make that happen.
"What made you transfer?" She forced the words out passed the knot of lust that squeezed her chest. Raum's hands continued to work the nape of her neck, and it was all she could do not to drop her head forward and give in to his touch.
"Who doesn't want to work with Samael? We'd caught some serious nasties after we bonded, and we figured it wouldn't hurt to ask if he wanted some new blood." His white teeth flashed in a grin. "Besides, we figured---what's the worst he could do? Roast us alive?"
She chuckled. Their boss had an exacting reputation, but that was what made him the best. "Nah, he'll just send you after an evil housewife soccer mom. One who's more worried about getting in your pants than being soul sucked."
"There's nothing wrong with a little sucking." The wicked glint in his gaze made it clear what kind of sucking he wanted, and she rolled her eyes at him.
He laughed at her, and she couldn't stop her smile. Raum rubbed her back, and when she looked at him, her heart tripped at the sight of his lopsided grin.
The rest of the meal went much the same way, with Kobal teasing her, asking her about herself, telling her about both of them. Cases they'd been on, hilarious bloopers of near-miss assignments. The man had to be a trip to work with. Raum added a few tidbits here and there, a few zingers that had them chuckling. Overall, he said little, unlike his partner---he just touched her. His fingers toyed with her hair, slid over her shoulders and down her back. He brushed her hand when he poured her a glass of wine. He seduced her without even trying.
The two played off of each other, Kobal's easy conversation and humor relaxing her and getting Raum to unbend and open up. Despite the blade of sexual frustration knifing through her, it was...fun. She hated to admit it. She didn't even remember the last time she'd had anything even remotely resembling fun. It wasn't her style.
"Let's clean up." Raum rose from the table when they finished eating, cupping her elbow to help her to her feet. He picked up his plate and silverware and led the way into the kitchen. She did the same and followed him, with Kobal bringing up the rear. The last thing she wanted was to be in tight quarters with them, but this meal had become her personal sexual torment. All she had to do was hold out a bit longer and she could escape. Her vibrator was going to get one bodacious workout when she got home, that was for sure.
To keep herself from thinking about anything sexual, she turned the questions on Kobal. Leaning back against the counter, she crossed her arms and asked the one thing she hadn't been able to figure out since they'd started pursuing her. "The two of you seem...good together. So, why do you want to mess with that by bringing in someone else? Is it really just for work? Because a bad bond isn't worth it."
"Not just for work, no," Raum answered.
She threw up her hands. "Then why?"
Kobal shifted for a moment, but then met her eyes. "Because neither of us just wants men. We want women too. And we're not going to get that in our current bond." He motioned to his very masculine partner. Then his gaze narrowed on her. "We know what we need, and we're not willing to play it safe and stagnate because we're too afraid to go after what we want."
"I'm not stagnant." Liar. "And if you think I'm that bad, why would you want me?" Why the hell would she ask that question? She'd never considered herself a masochist before, but that certainly set her up for some stinging pain.
"Who wouldn't want you?" Kobal's voice sounded baffled.
She snorted, but when she looked, she saw how serious their faces were. They genuinely believed that. Any demon would want her. She'd never had any trouble finding male company for a night or two if she wanted it, including the night she'd spent with them. But there was wanting and there was wanting. Sex was easy. Bonding was harder.
Raum's finger curled under her chin, lifting her face. His mouth brushed over hers, and she went rigid, strangling a moan. The touch of his lips was feather light. "Who wouldn't want you?"
It was too much. After the subtle seduction this evening, she couldn't resist anymore. She could almost hear her tattered control snapping in her mind.
She didn't have to bond with them to sleep with them. It was the last rational thought she had before she shoved her hands in his thick, soft hair and hauled him down so she could all but inhale him. The taste of him filled her mouth, hot and male and arousing.
Cupping her hips, he pulled her tight against his rigid erection, and she moaned at the evidence of his arousal. How long had he been aroused? All through dinner? Just as she had been? The heat and hardness of him only made her wetter. He slipped his tongue into her mouth, and she sucked on it, bit it. He groaned against her mouth, and his grip on her hips tightened painfully. More. She wanted more. She wanted him naked, wanted his skin under her palms. She broke her lips from his.
"This needs to come off." She tugged at the bottom of his shirt until she could get it over his head. The heavy pecs were sprinkled with dark curls, his flat nipples begging her to suck them. So she did. Bending forward, she flicked one brown disc with her tongue, and it beaded for her. She worried it with her teeth, then suckled it hard.
"Maron!" He shuddered, taking a step away from her. His eyes were almost incandescent with lust, brilliant forks of lightning wrapping around his arms. He balled his hands in her top and pulled the garment off of her. Her bra received even rougher treatment---he just popped the straps and ripped it away from her body. He grinned when his gaze hit her bare chest, and he stroked the sensitive undersides of her breasts. Her nipples contracted to points for him.
A tiny bolt of lightning struck her breast, and she arched in shock. Not from pain, but from pleasure. His nails circled her areola, those same little strikes sizzling her nerves. The sensation seemed to shoot straight from breast to loin, and her pussy fisted on nothingness.
He backed her against the counter, those shocks of lightning still streaking through her body until her knees threatened to buckle. He abandoned her breasts, making her cry out, but then he wrenched at her zipper until it gave way, shoving the pants down and lifting her out of them. A gasp strangled out of her when he set her on the cold granite counter, her back bowing in reflexive shock. "Raum!"
Jerking her thighs apart, he chuckled, though the sound was strained. He bent her over his arm and sucked her nipples into his mouth one at a time, batting them with his tongue and shoving them against the roof of his mouth. Then he bit her. She screamed, cream flooding her sex in a hot rush. It was too much. She was going to come just from what he was doing to her nipples, and that wasn't how she wanted it. She pushed him away from her breasts so she could reach for his belt. Now. Right now. She refused to wait another second to have him inside her, fucking her hard until she came.
But Kobal's hands were already there, unfastening Raum's pants and shoving them down his thighs. Those long fingers gripped Raum's hard cock, and pumped it until the dark-haired demon choked and rocked his hips. Kobal licked the side of Raum's neck, bit his ear. "You want to fuck her, don't you?"
"Yes." Raum groaned, lightning sparking between his fingers.
"I want you to taste her first. Lick her pussy, suck on her clit."
Maron's eyes closed as those erotic words poured over her. Pulse tripping, she made herself watch them as Kobal bent his lover over so Raum could use his mouth on her pussy. Raum braced his hands on her thighs, pushing them wider. She cried out as his hot tongue slid down her slit. Slowly. Even more stunning was the sight of Kobal, naked, and pistoning his fingers in and out of Raum's ass, preparing him to be fucked. One of his hands left her thigh and reached beneath him to stroke his own cock. Her excitement boiled out of control, a wild thing inside her that refused to be assuaged. She wanted more. Arching her hips, she pushed her pussy deeper into Raum's face.
He suckled her soaking lips, drinking her cream. Then he used his teeth. He nipped at her clit, and she shattered, her sex convulsing as her back bowed. She didn't have time to recover, to think, to breathe, before Kobal pulled Raum upright. She could see Kobal's face over his lover's shoulder, lust tightening his perfect features. He crowded Raum forward and rubbed the head of his cock against her pussy, teasing her lips and clit. She leaned back on her hands and lifted her hips in offering.
"Yes," Raum choked out and plunged deep inside her.
The shock of sudden penetration had her crying out, her inner muscles fisting on his cock. Kobal stroked her stretched pussy around Raum's dick, toying with the lips and flicking his fingers over her clit until she moved to meet his hand. The sheer eroticism of one man's fingers toying with her while another man's cock filled her made her moan. She could do nothing except raise her hips to get more, clamping her knees on Raum's flanks. He groaned, his pelvis shoving forward as Kobal entered him from behind.
Mischief danced in Kobal's blue gaze when he looked at her. "When I'm done with his ass, yours is next."
She quivered, unable to stop the surge of lust at the mere suggestion. She had always loved anal, the pleasure and pain and forbidden carnality of it. Her sex clenched, and Raum shuddered. Heat roiled within her, and she could see the flames licking at the edges of her vision, knew fire danced in her eyes.
Then they moved.
Raum ground himself against her clit, and she heard the slap of skin as Kobal fucked him. A slow rhythm began, Raum filling her and Kobal filling him. It was amazing how well they moved together. Kobal grabbed her knees and held her legs open even wider for Raum to push his cock as far into her pussy as possible. The feel was pure sin. She couldn't get enough. He plunged into her again and again, the hair on his chest rasping her nipples. She could hear the heavy panting of both men mixed with her own gasps each time the dark-haired demon stretched her. The smell of sex, sweat and them curled into her nostrils, the most erotic of aphrodisiacs.
With every thrust into her pussy, she could feel an orgasm building. The power that cycled back and forth between them was enough to bring the high-rise down around them if they released it outward. Her channel clenched on that hard cock, ecstasy skipping down her skin. So close. So very close.
Raum's green eyes closed, his head dropping to her shoulder as his body moved between hers and Kobal's. She held him close, and from this angle she could see everything the blond demon was doing. It was arousing to watch, as if she needed one more thing to set her on the ragged edge of climax.
His long cock slid deep in the other man's anus, his paler skin a contrast to Raum's dark tan. Her nails dug into Raum's shoulders as he pistoned in and out of her at the same swift rhythm that Kobal set. They moved together, the three of them, striving for the same hot completion.
Kobal slid his hand into her hair, forcing her head forward until he could kiss her. It was sweet, hot and wild. Perfect. His taste was lighter than Raum's, almost sweet. Addicting. Kobal's fingers tightened in her hair, which exposed her throat for Raum's lips. He opened his mouth on her skin, sucking and biting.
"Yes," she moaned. "More."
A little more was all she'd need. She closed her eyes, letting her senses expand. The energy in the room was chaotic, rising to a fever pitch of lust that was as powerful as a caress. Behind her lids, she could still see the brilliance of Raum's lightning surrounded by the heated flame of Kobal. And all of that energy was driving into her. The physical aspects of demon sex were only a small part of the pleasure. Their natural form was pure energy, and their coupling was damn near combustible.
Those lightning strikes hit her as Raum fucked her pussy hard and fast. Kobal's kiss was enough to singe her flesh. The threads of energy that connected them in sex widened as Raum offered her the Triad bond, the white-hot energy of his soul opening to her. She could meld her power with his, twining them together so deeply she wouldn't know where he ended and she began. It was so tempting. Too tempting. To have that link to another, to never have a single moment where she was alone. Her heart clenched at the thought. She was so alone, had been for a century.
When Kobal gave her the same opportunity to bond, vulnerable and accessible for whatever she wanted, it was almost more than she could bear. She wavered, standing on a precipice she hadn't faced since Shax.
Shax.
Just his name was enough to pull her back from the edge, and she slammed down the barriers on her power. Both men groaned in pain, and she could feel the shudders running through them, the way their energy wavered.
To distract them, she focused the moment on the physical. She bit Kobal's lip, then thrust her tongue into his mouth, driving the kiss to new levels of carnality. Fisting her sex around Raum's dick made him groan, made his strokes pick up speed and force until he hammered into her pussy.
Raum ground his pelvis against her clitoris, that sizzle of lightning hitting her where their bodies joined, and every thought except the drive for orgasm slid from her mind. The kiss with Kobal went wild, and she tasted blood. His or hers, she didn't know, but it only brought out her most feral instincts. The whole world came to this moment with them. The way they smelled, the sound of skin slapping against skin, the taste of Kobal, the feel of Raum filling her pussy with rough, urgent strokes. She was going to explode. Her sex clamped, ecstasy spreading out in waves until there was no holding it back. She screamed into Kobal's mouth as she came, rhythmic pulses clenching her sex on Raum's cock. Both men groaned, and she felt the heat of their energy peak as they hit orgasm simultaneously. Kobal broke the kiss, threw his head back and shouted. Raum shuddered against her, his fluids pumping into her pussy. She could feel how their bond with each other strengthened, reinforced by their sexual connection with each other.
She was not part of that with them, no matter how intense the sex had been for all three of them.
It was almost bitter, that she'd had to make herself turn what had been so sweet into something that was merely sex, but that was the reality of her life. She would never bond again, not after what Shax had done to her, not after the shattered remains she'd had to pick up when he'd abandoned her to a fate of eternal damnation.
The three of them spent the day rutting in the men's apartment. In the kitchen, on the floor in the living room, in the bedroom and the shower just before they'd had to meet Samael. Raum and Kobal insisted on following her to her apartment while she changed. There was no way she was doing the walk of shame in front of her boss wearing the same clothes she'd worn the night before.
He'd be smug about it, the bastard.
But she hadn't bonded with them, no matter what anyone else wanted her to do. Whether they believed her or not, she was saving them from a lot of pain later. It might suck now, but in the long run, it was for the best. Breaking a bond as deep as what they wanted was a crippling, debilitating experience. Even all these years later, she remembered it with searing clarity. There had been days when she couldn't move, couldn't breathe, couldn't think. Her mind and soul echoed with emptiness as the bond snapped and left her alone for the first time in years. She'd screamed and screamed just to hear something besides the nothing that ate her alive.
A shudder went through her, revulsion curdling in her belly. She'd held herself from the edge of madness, pulled herself together, and gotten back to work. No more sexual bonds with partners. Not ever.
They stepped into the elevator to ride it to the hellmouth. The small space felt even more crowded with two large male demons in it with her. She drew in a slow breath to steady herself and took in the scent of the men.
One case. That was all she'd promised Samael, and that was all she'd be able to stand. Her mind knew what was best, but after the hours and hours of being drowned in sensuality, their hands moving over her and each other, their quiet talking and laughter in the dark, the sweet intimacy was more than her loneliness could handle. The temptation would be too much to resist if she stuck around much longer.
It made her ache to think of it, but she firmed her jaw and rode out any pain. This was the right thing for all of them. So what if she didn't like the thought? Suck it up, princess. Better than ending up in a fetal position and puking her guts up because the agony of bond-breaking was like having her beating heart ripped from her chest.
Raum growled and punched the button to halt the elevator on its downward slide to Samael's floor. They shuddered to a stop, and Maron grabbed for the metal handrail as the car jolted.
"What did you do that for?" She arched her eyebrows, looking from one man to the other. They were due in Samael's office in a few minutes. The high demon didn't like being kept waiting.
"Okay, I have to ask---we have to ask." Kobal gestured between Raum and him when he rounded on her. "Why don't you work with men? Both times we've all been together have been fucking amazing. Mind-blowing. Better than anything Raum or I had hoped for when we decided to start looking for a female to form a Triad with. And it's not just the sex...we like you. We like having you around. Hell, Raum even talks when you're around, and that's more than a little unusual." He shook his head, frustration stamped on his handsome features. "Even if it's not to a bonding point for you, it still doesn't make sense. You want to do your job well, anyone who's met you can tell that, and the best way to do your job is to have a sexually amplified Triad. So, why?"
"I had a sexual bond with my first partner. It didn't go well." Understatement of the millennium. She wrapped her arms around herself defensively. The last thing she wanted was to talk about this in front of men she'd spent the night shagging. It was just sex. It had to be. Opening up was a mistake, letting anyone in was a mistake. Especially men she liked as much as she liked these men.
Something close to desperation shone in his blue eyes. "And you're not willing to give it another chance?"
"No," she said flatly.
"What happened?" He spread his hands and let them fall to his sides, the expression on his face making her chest tighten.
She closed her eyes and shook her head, her heart clenching. Telling them about her weakness and shame would help nothing. "That's no one's business but mine."
"It would make it easier for us to understand why you don't want us." Those words from Raum stung. The rejection in his voice was like acid pouring over her skin.
Swallowing, she forced herself to meet his eyes. His expression made her flinch. His normal stoicism was gone, and his gaze reflected a deep pain that just made her want to sob. She hadn't really cried in years, but it was all she could do to keep tears from welling in her eyes. It hurt her to hurt them, and she hated doing it. She wished she didn't have to, wished her history had made her into a different person. Then again, when hadn't she wished she could undo the damage Shax had done?
Maybe it would help them to understand why she could never give in. Maybe it would make them stop offering that sweet bond so openly. It was a punch to the gut to consider that the truth about her failures might turn them away from her entirely. That was what she wanted, wasn't it? She shut down any protest from her soul. "He was my first partner---Shax."
"What did he do to you?" Raum's hand closed over the nape of her neck, the gesture one of support.
"Nothing. He didn't do anything to me." No, it was what he hadn't done that made all the difference in the world. "I'd just come topside and Samael wanted to start me out with one partner at first, build me up to a Triad."
She'd wanted to do the hunting rather than serving as a prison guard for the evil souls in hell. Active participation in shipping their sorry asses downstairs rather than just making sure they stayed locked there. She'd been determined to learn everything she could, but it had been harder than she'd ever imagined. Learning to blend in among humans was difficult, trying to stay in corporeal form was challenging, ripping a corrupted soul from its body was exhausting and had made her violently sick to her stomach the first few times. Shax had thought that meant she didn't have what it took to be a hunter. He'd never said it, but they were bonded. She could sense his doubt in her, had felt that doubt coating her skin every time they'd gone out on assignment.
Her hand tightened on the elevator rail, a connection to the present when her mind was locked in the past. "Samael put me with one of his most experienced hunters, so he could show me the ropes. I think even Samael was surprised how deeply I bonded with Shax."
Too deeply, it turned out, and Shax certainly hadn't opened himself to the link as much as she had. But she'd never bonded before---there was no need for it below. They had all the power there. Not so much up here. She didn't know how to keep any of herself back from the bond, hadn't even known that she should.
"It was a rough transition to the hunter lifestyle, and he...didn't think I had the chops to be a hunter." Her own partner hadn't thought she was good enough. How pathetic was that?
"Fool," Raum growled. She could feel his anger as a palpable force in the elevator.
Kobal paced in the small space, and he made a sound of disgust in the back of his throat. "Did you put a blade in the asshole?"
She snorted, her eyes stinging. "No, I didn't do anything to him."
Though when she'd finally dug herself out of the pit of loss and despair, she'd wanted to. Her ex-partner had been damn lucky that Samael had shipped his ass to a silo in the swampy armpit of Africa---somewhere Shax was sure to despise. The high demon had immediately given her a new female partner and put her back to work, driving her relentlessly until she was too busy to think of Shax. It was probably the kindest thing her boss could have done for her---he hadn't babied her at all. Combined with her burning need to prove Shax had been wrong about her, she'd risen to become one of the most productive hunters in their silo.
She pinned her gaze to the floor. She didn't want to see the expressions on Kobal and Raum's faces when she finished the ugly story. "We were out on a hunt one night, and it was a really bad one. I'd never come across a soul this evil, not even in hell." She swallowed, trying not to recall how her gorge rose the moment that rotting stench had hit her nose. "It was bad."
She felt Raum twitch beside her, and Kobal paused in his relentless pacing. Clearing her throat, she pushed on. Just get the story over and be done with it. "We caught him in the vortex, and started breaking his soul out of his body, but we were struggling to raise enough power to get it done. I poured everything I had into it, knowing the bond with Shax would hold me back from getting sucked in along with that ugly soul."
"We've done that before. It can be effective," Kobal interjected, but still she couldn't look at him.
Because that kind of risk meant relying wholly on the bond, which she had. A mistake. "Shax didn't think I had the power to finish it...and he thought if he kept the bond with me open, he'd be pulled in with me."
The strangled sound Raum made had her flinching. Yeah. It was really that awful. She sometimes managed to convince herself that she'd made it worse in her mind, but no. The complete, utter selfish betrayal was as bad as she remembered.
"So, he cut our bond. Right there, in the middle of our soul retrieval. He walked away and didn't look back." Her stomach heaved as she said it.
"How did you manage to stop from getting sucked in?" Kobal's voice was strained, a painful sound to hear.
She shook her head, never once looking up. "I don't know. The best Samael can guess is that when the bond broke, I went into shock and slammed down all barriers on power, which cut the vortex too."
"I didn't know that was possible." His feet began to thud against the floor again as he resumed walking around the car. "Once you commit to it that far..."
"I don't know. It was days before I woke up in my apartment, and I wasn't even in physical form. Samael had found me and brought me back. The soul escaped, and other hunters had to bring him in, but I was lucky I'd gone spirit form because he could have done anything he'd wanted to me. I was totally out of it. Comatose. I was that far gone without my bond to Shax."
Hot shame poured through her, the humiliation still fresh after all these years. She'd given so much to that bond, trusted in it so much, that she'd lost herself. She'd been a fool, and had almost paid for it by being consumed by her own vortex and tangled up with that festering soul for eternity. There would have been no undoing it, no saving her. For everyone's sake, she'd have been locked in hell along with all the other evil souls. The end.
Her mouth worked for a moment, moisture burning the back of her eyes. "So, yeah. No more male partners. No more sexual bonds. No more relationships. I'm sorry. I just can't go there again. It's not worth the risk to try to be the best." Which was what she would tell Samael when she turned down this Triad he wanted her to join. She wasn't strong enough to let go of herself again. She might not recover this time, especially if it was with two men instead of one.
She was so steeped in her misery, she didn't even see Raum move, but the next thing she knew, he had her in his arms. Kobal came up behind her, the heat of both their bodies enveloping her. The blond demon ran his hand down her hair. "I'd like to toss his ass into a vortex for you. See how he likes it."
"Coward." The emotion behind the word wrenched up from deep inside Raum. He buried his face in her neck, his grip on her tightening painfully.
She stroked her hands up his back. "It was a long time ago. I healed."
"Did you?" Kobal snapped, barely leashed fury in his voice. "You run from bonds, so that tells me you haven't healed---that the son of a bitch scarred you so bad, you might never heal."
He had a point. She refused to cringe from it. She was always going to be a little bit broken. Shax had taken something from her that she didn't think was possible to get back. Trust. Hope. The ability to love. He'd taken everything, and she'd spent a hundred years trying to fill the emptiness he'd left behind. Maybe that was an impossible task, but what else could she do? Give up and go back to that pathetic creature she'd been? She wouldn't give him the satisfaction.
"You're right." She sighed. "I'm scarred, and that's never going to get better. But now you know why I can't give you what you want."
Raum's lips moved against her skin when he spoke. "I refuse to believe that. Do you know how strong you are to have survived what he did? And to have come so far since then?" He pulled back to meet her gaze, his green eyes almost electric in their intensity. "I want you more now than I ever did before, Maron."
It was the longest speech she'd ever heard from him, and it left her speechless. What could she say to that? Her heart skipped a beat and she felt herself wavering on the edge of something she was too terrified to identify, let alone give in to. She shoved at his chest, tearing herself from his arms, but Kobal caught her wrist and hauled her toward them.
She struggled against his hold. "I don't---"
He slammed his mouth over hers, smothering any protest she might have made. She bit his tongue when he thrust it between her lips, fighting him, fighting herself and everything she wanted but couldn't have. Damn them, and damn herself even more.
Raum closed in behind her, the heat of him swamping her. He pushed her hair out of the way and bit the nape of her neck, sliding his hands down her back. She could feel his erection prodding her ass, while Kobal's seared into her lower belly. Moisture gushed in her sex, the despair of moments before swept up in the passion of the moment.
Everything about them made her burn.
Kobal jerked her shirt over her head, and Raum removed her boots. They stripped away her jeans and panties in seconds, and pulled her down until they knelt on the floor of the elevator.
The blond demon bent to her breast, sucking her nipple through her bra. The rasp of lace stimulated her responsive flesh, and her head fell back, lust pouring through her system. She moaned when Raum caught her mouth, and she pushed her tongue between his lips. It was intoxicating, being surrounded by them. She slid her fingers into Kobal's hair, holding him close as he sucked and bit at her nipples. Reaching back with the other hand, she grabbed a fistful of Raum's dark locks. He groaned, his hips surging against her backside.
It made the experience that much more excruciating that she was naked and they still had their clothes on. Their jeans felt rough against her sensitized skin, but that only sharpened her pleasure. Raum released her lips, stringing open-mouthed kisses down her throat until he could scrape his teeth over the tendon that joined neck to shoulder. Wetness drenched her pussy, and her channel contracted on emptiness. Tingles skipped down her skin, that fiery connection that came when demons coupled expanding. Fire and lightning. It was too strong, and they weren't even inside her yet. That was dangerous, and she should push them away. Instead, she held them closer. For a little while, she got to keep them. Just for a little while longer, they were hers.
The thought was heady, the most erotic aphrodisiac she'd ever known.
Her skin felt too hot, too tight. Each drag of Kobal's lips on her nipple sent ecstasy shooting straight to her sex. Raum bit her neck, hard, and she twisted in their embrace, gripping their hair tight enough to make them both wince. "I want you inside me now."
She reached for Kobal's fly to unfasten it and heard the heavy rasp of Raum's zipper. His cock brushed against her ass, and she leaned forward to give him all the access he could want. He stroked her back, her ass, parting the globes so he could fit himself between them. The head of his dick rubbed her slick lips, teased her clit. Anticipation shot through her, and she pulled Kobal's cock from his pants, pumping the hard shaft in her fingers and waiting for Raum to penetrate her pussy.
The blond demon pushed his hips forward, thrusting his cock into the ring of her fingers. His eyes slid closed, a muscle in his jaw ticked and a look that was close to agony contorted his face. "Please, Maron. More."
Power exploded through her, that she could make one of her big, strong men beg. She all but purred as she bent farther forward and licked his cock from base to crown. He sucked in a breath, his hand splaying on the back of her head to urge her forward.
"Yes. More. Suck me, please." His normally smooth voice was guttural with lust and only served to excite her more.
Raum probed her entrance with his cock, his hand sliding under her to toy with her clitoris. Dampness soaked her channel, and she could feel beads of moisture slipping down the insides of her thighs. Her muscles trembled, her reaction flaming out of control and red fire dancing at the corners of her eyes. She'd never felt her self-restraint slip so far, so fast, and she'd never have imagined that she'd like it so much. She took the tip of Kobal's cock into her mouth just as Raum pushed deep inside her. The sudden forward jolt forced Kobal's dick between her lips, all the way to the back of her throat. The musky, salty flavor of his skin filled her mouth, and she rolled her tongue along the underside of his shaft.
The way Raum's cock stretched her was perfection. He was thicker than Kobal, but Kobal was longer---she had to work to take all of him into her mouth. Clenching her internal muscles around the cock thrusting in and out of her pussy, she made what was already a mind-blowing experience an even more erotic one. When Raum groaned and buzzed her clit with a shock of lightning, her back bowed, her channel contracting once, twice. She moaned, and a shudder passed through Kobal as the vibrations hit his shaft. He fisted his fingers in her hair, and it stung her scalp, but that just snowballed into the avalanche of sensation that rolled over her.
It was so good with them. She'd never felt anything like it. And she would never have it again. She would always be alone, always apart from everyone. She was too empty for anything else. It didn't matter how much evil she'd eradicated or how good a hunter she was. She was still just the shell Shax had left, too afraid to reach outside herself again.
She sucked Kobal harder, shoving her hips back to take Raum deep inside of her. A tear slid down her face as each man pumped into her. She took them into her, driving them to the edge of madness. The feelings were divine, the emotions were frayed and painful, so she focused on the physical gratification. This she could handle. This she could give them. If she wished it were more, that was her own problem.
Groans spilled from both men, and the slender link she allowed with them sparked with erratic power. They were close to orgasm. She could feel it. Their lust fed her own, driving her ever closer to climax. Shivers ran down her skin, and she lost herself in the moment. The taste, the feel, the smell of sex and the power that surged through her, sweeping her along in the wicked, sensual rush of pleasure. Their breathing was ragged pants, and her lungs burned with the need to drag in more oxygen. Her tongue swirled around the head of Kobal's cock, and then she drew him back into her mouth. Raum's thrusts into her grew faster and more urgent, the slap of his flesh against hers adding to the carnal symphony.
Fire licked at the corners of her eyes, rippling over her skin. She knew they felt the heat erupting from her when they both shuddered. The tiny bond would have allowed them to experience her spiking needs. Her pussy flexed around Raum's cock each time he entered her, and she sucked Kobal in long, regular motions. They'd all go over the edge soon, and she wanted them to fall together. It was as close as she'd get to the real thing.
"I need to come." Kobal's voice was a low, gritty rasp.
Raum's lightning wrapped around her, arrowing between her legs. That was all it took to shatter her. She moaned, her pussy seizing in one protracted pulse of ecstasy. She closed her eyes, struggling not to burst into actual flames as her control shredded. Her sex clenched in another peak of orgasm every time Raum entered her channel, every time Kobal pushed into her mouth. She was taken, and it was beautiful. She crested again when their power flooded her in a hot wave, and this time they came with her. Their fluids filled her, and she swallowed the salty flavor of Kobal's come, flicking her tongue over his dick to take every drop of him.
They offered her the bond again, lightning and fire that seemed to merge too easily with hers now, and she bit back a sob. That they'd do that, knowing how broken she was, made her heart turn over. She didn't even know how to react. They should have pulled back, just as she'd thought they would. She wasn't an easy woman to deal with, wouldn't be anyone's idea of an ideal bondmate, considering her past.
They slid out of her, and she heard them zipping their pants closed, but she stayed where she was, head down, panting, her mind still spinning in circles too dizzying to let her move.
"I'm not giving up on you, Maron." Raum kissed the back of her shoulder, while Kobal stroked his fingers through her hair.
They helped her to her feet, tugging her clothes back into place for her. When was the last time anyone had done anything to take care of her? Sure, her female partners had watched her back during assignments just as she'd watched theirs, but that was business. This was wholly personal. The way Raum and Kobal touched her had nothing to do with hunting.
Her thoughts whirled, and she had no idea which way was up and which was down anymore. She needed to snap out of it and get her head on straight. They had a hunt coming, which she knew firsthand was never without danger. If one of the men was harmed on this case because she fucked up, she'd never forgive herself.
Ever.
She tugged her at the hem of her shirt, smoothing any wrinkles out of her clothing as they stepped off of the elevator. Nodding to the guards outside Samael's office---a different set than the day before---she let Raum hold the door open for her. She stepped in and saw Samael standing over his desk, one hand braced on the wide surface, the other propped on his hip. His dark brows were drawn together over his eyes.
Thankfully, he looked too distracted to notice that his operatives reeked of sex and sweat.
As she moved closer, she could see pictures spread out over the desktop. It struck her, suddenly, how austere his office was. If her apartment had nothing personal in it, his space was plain old empty. There was a desk, chairs, a laptop, a cell phone, and that was it. She had no idea what his living quarters looked like, but since he was wedded to his job, she knew he spent most of his time here. It showed exactly how focused her boss was on his work and nothing else. No knickknacks, no mementos, nothing.
It was odd. She'd been in here thousands of times, and until Kobal had pointed it out to her, she hadn't noticed or thought anything of it.
Shaking herself, she focused on the pictures on his desk while her partners drew up next to her to do the same. A man was featured in every shot, walking out of a bar, crossing a street, holstering a gun, slapping a young woman who wore almost nothing. Her breath caught when she saw who Samael had targeted this time.
"What?" Raum set his hand on the small of her back.
She pulled one of the pictures toward her, tapping her nail against the man's face. "I know him."
"You've tried to catch him before?" Kobal arched his eyebrows, his gaze reflecting surprise, as if it was beyond him that she might have failed to bring down an evil soul. She wanted to kiss him for the sentiment, but refrained. Bad. Idea. She shouldn't even have let things go as far as they had in the elevator, but there was nothing she could do about that now. Best to keep going forward and stop looking back. She was usually pretty good at that, but the last day had dredged up memories she'd rather forget.
She shrugged and answered Kobal, "Not him. His boss. This guy used to be one of the underbosses for Vito De Luca. Looks like he took over after Lilim and I soul-sucked the big guy."
"Name?" Raum snagged a couple of pictures and studied them.
Kobal pulled the thick manila file folder toward him and picked it up to read. "Bruno Costa. Former hit man, now crime boss, responsible for the murder of thirty-two people, and an accessory to a couple dozen more. Likes to torture his victims before he finishes them. Forty-six years old, married, no children, diabetic, heart attack waiting to happen." He snorted. "Well, we can make that happen for him."
The two men shuffled through the photos and paperwork gathered by Samael's watchers. There was a suit coat draped across the table---probably swiped from a dry cleaner's before it was laundered---that would have their target's essence on it. Maron didn't need to touch it. She'd been in the same room with him before. She'd sensed the corruption in him, but she couldn't just snatch any soul she wanted. They had policies, red tape and bureaucracy even in hell. Somehow, she thought humans would be surprised by that.
"If he's into the same things as Vito, he's also a drug dealer, pimp, human trafficker and a dozen other nasty kinds of criminal." She leaned her hip against the desk, going over in her mind a few of the better ways to get in to his office, assuming he used the same one as his boss. Lilim and she had pretended to be prostitutes, but she somehow doubted that would work as well with her current partners.
Raum frowned, picking up the coat to take in Bruno's essence. "Getting a guy like this alone for long enough to take his soul is a challenge. I'd prefer not to fight off his henchmen."
"Right." Kobal sniffed, bending forward to smell the coat. Some demons went by feel, others by smell. She knew which ones they were now and wished she didn't. She didn't want to know more about them. It would only make it harder to walk away later.
"Why don't you ask Maron how she took care of Vito? It might be useful information." Samael's voice was deceptively mild as he settled in his chair and steepled his fingers under his chin.
It was a test. The perfect test. Would her partners follow her lead in a situation where she had the advantage of previous experience, or would they prove to be just like Shax? Never trusting her fully, always thinking they knew best on any hunt. It would tell her exactly what she needed to know in the one trial run she had with them. No doubt Samael had chosen the case for just that reason. He was a wily bastard, she'd give him that.
Kobal eyes sparkled with mischief. "I would have asked, but it says right here in the file. She faked being a hooker."
"Are there pictures?" A brief, wicked grin flickered across Raum's face.
The blond demon's eyebrows waggled suggestively. "No pictures, but maybe she still has the outfit."
She grabbed the file from him and smacked him with it. "In your perverted, adolescent dreams."
"Well, yeah." He chuckled and fended her off. "I'd still respect you in the morning, I swear."
The utter sincerity in his voice cracked her up. She knew she shouldn't laugh because it would just encourage him, but she couldn't help it. The two of them amused her. She shook her head and sighed. "You're incorrigible. Can we focus on the job, now?"
"Sure, boss lady." Kobal shrugged and slid his hands in his pockets. "You'll take point on this assignment, since you're the one who knows our target. Tell us what we're doing."
The right words, sure. But words were easy to say, not as easy to live with in the heat of the moment. She noticed Samael watching the by-play between them with keen interest---and approval---and she wanted to kick him. So, she liked the men he'd picked for her. Or maybe the men had gone to the boss and asked for her. She didn't know, and she refused to let herself ask. Telling them about her past changed nothing for her just as it changed nothing for them. They were still at an impasse.
"Well, the first thing to do is some recon on his current location---and that of his goon squad." She dropped the folder to the desk and tucked her hair behind her ear. "Let's get this show on the road. Samael, you know where to send us."
"Yep." He waved his hand, and a roiling, roaring wave of black fire engulfed them.
They dissolved into nothingness, speeding through the black until they appeared in an alleyway. Half of Kobal's body was in a dumpster, which was why they always arrived wherever they went as insubstantial shadows. It wasn't just because they didn't want humans to see them arrive---the mortals wouldn't remember it anyway---it was because untangling themselves from the middle of a brick wall or garbage can could take a while. Demons couldn't die, but that kind of mess would suck. And it might let a target slip from their fingers, which no self-respecting hunter would allow.
"Okay, which way?" Kobal stepped out of the metal bin and materialized.
She drew in a deep breath, widening her senses to let Bruno's essence come to her. There. He was near. She could sense him. That familiar instinct to hunt her prey flooded her being, a relief after a day of feeling shaken up and tossed around.
Opening the slender bonds that sex had given her with her partners, she sent the information thrumming along those tethers. It felt good to have those ties. She'd sever them the moment they got back to the silo. She quelled any inner protest that might have risen at the thought.
This bond with them was no deeper than her bond with Lilim or any of the other partners that came before her. If the excuse rang hollowly in her mind, she ignored it. It didn't matter how good the sex had been. That meant nothing. She'd had amazing sex before. Maybe not quite that amazing, true, but she'd never had any more trouble walking away from a lover before. At least not since her last male partner. A shudder of self-loathing ran through her.
Striding down the alley, she let her senses carry her in the direction of Bruno. The closer she got, the riper the stench of his darkness became. She swallowed the bile that stung the back of her throat. Even after all these years, that scent reviled her. She'd never gotten used to it, but she'd learned to suppress her reaction. Bruno's stink was far worse than Norris's had been, and there was no way she'd entrap something that ugly on her own, even for a few minutes.
She nodded toward a rundown, two-story warehouse, just as Raum and Kobal said, "There."
"Yep." The street was largely empty. Only the unsavory elements would stick around this kind of warehouse and factory area after quitting time. Everyone else had already gone home for the day. Which meant the humans that she sensed nearby could become a problem. She noted where those signatures emanated from, hoping none of them got in her way. There was a comfort she didn't want to acknowledge in having two large, experienced hunters at her back.
Kobal sucked in a deep breath as they slipped behind the warehouse. "There are a lot of them in there. Bodyguards?" He lifted his hands and shrugged. "Crime boss is a job that comes with enemies."
Raum dropped to his haunches and laid his fingertips against the building, closing his eyes, and she felt a pulse of his power dance over her skin. What he was sensing, she didn't know. His forehead creased, then relaxed. "It's not paranoia if they really are after you."
He smiled a little when Maron and Kobal snorted. Then he nodded and rose to his feet.
"A little ghostly recon, just to be sure we have correct numbers and placement?" Kobal cracked his knuckles, a gleeful grin on his face.
She could feel the adrenaline buzzing through him. The need to take action thrummed along the thin link between them, filling her too. Her muscles tightened and she forced them to relax when she went incorporeal, blending into the night. "I'll take the second floor, just to make sure nothing's going to come down on our heads. Raum, you take the bottom floor. Kobal, make sure there's no one outside to give us any nasty surprises. Be back here in five minutes."
The two demons nodded silently, taking her orders without protest. They slipped into the shadows and were gone. She flowed through the wall of the warehouse, noting the humans she passed as she moved toward the staircase. Eight men, and she could feel more nearby. She shuddered when one of them walked right through her while he came down the narrow staircase. The building had an air of neglect and ill repute. The perfect place for a man like Bruno to conduct his business.
A quick tour of the upper floor revealed a few more men, all armed. Whatever was going down tonight required a lot of guards. Or maybe this was Bruno's standard operating procedure. A man like him had to have a lot of enemies. There was a hum of anticipation, though, as if they were waiting for something. Or someone.
Keening sobs stopped her in her tracks. She turned toward the noise, which came from behind a closed door on the far side of the building. Unease twisted through her as the helpless, hopeless crying grew louder. It sounded like more than one voice making that sound. She slipped through the door and would have needed to resist the urge to gag if she'd been in human form.
There were almost a dozen girls trapped in the windowless little room. Not one of them looked over seventeen or eighteen. Babies. They were emaciated, half-naked, huddled shivering and sobbing in one corner as far from the door as possible. It was pretty obvious from the bruises, bleeding and torn clothing that more than one had been raped. Recently.
Maron backed out of the room, rage pumping through her. She wanted to put a fist through something...preferably Bruno's face. It took everything she had not to burst into a wall of unholy flame and burn her way through this building in retribution. She shuddered and stepped aside as a couple of his thugs passed through her insubstantial body to check the locked door that caged the teen girls.
"Wish this guy was waiting an extra day to get the girls," one of the men grunted. "I wanna take that redheaded one for another ride. I like a little Russian every now and then."
The other goon chuckled, and it was an ugly sound that sent chills skating down Maron's spine. "Good of the boss to let us check out the merchandise first."
"Yeah." The first man winked at the second, and Maron resisted the urge to solidify and put a boot in their balls.
Assholes. Her nostrils flared in disgust. Well, she knew what they were waiting for...selling girls imported illegally from Russia. They may have come to the U.S. willingly, but she doubted they'd had any idea what was in store for them. Her heart wrenched. She hated shit like this. Hated. She wasn't law enforcement, and it wasn't her job to save these girls. Her aim was to drag Bruno kicking and screaming into hell.
That part would be a pleasure, considering how nice he'd been to let his men test the merchandise. Her hands balled into fists, but she spun for the stairs and went back the way she'd come.
Her men were waiting for her, just as she'd instructed them. Kobal paced, as was his way. The man had more energy than any two demons she'd ever met. She'd bet he was invaluable on a long hunt, with enough tenacity and vigor to never give up. Raum would be a good voice of reason and balance for that. Too bad they wanted a full bond...and that they were men. Otherwise they would have been great partners to work with.
Kobal paused when he saw her, a smile flicking on and off his face. "There are a couple of cars outside with armed men."
"Nine on the bottom floor, including Bruno. They're waiting to move some kind of merchandise." Raum straightened to attention as he reported in.
"Another four up top. All heavily armed." She sighed and rubbed her forehead as she materialized. "They have a bunch of Russian girls locked up there, and they're waiting for someone to come get them. Selling them off."
"Human trafficking." Kobal looked angry, sickened, and a muscle in Raum's jaw began to tick.
"Can't wait to bring this motherfucker down." She rolled her shoulders, easing the tension in her muscles. "Here's the problem... It's unlikely he's going to be alone tonight. As soon as whoever is coming to get these girls shows up, the place will be crawling with even more people. The three of us can't suck his soul and fight off his men, plus whoever is handling this shipment of Russians." She ran a hand through her hair. "We have a couple of options. First, we could wait until tomorrow."
They didn't like that idea, she could tell. None of them said it, but they didn't want to abandon the girls to their fate, even if it wasn't their job to help. Maron flatly refused to---she didn't give a damn what the job called for. She was supposed to scrub evil off this planet, and the one rule was that she couldn't trap a soul that hadn't been marked for it. Leaving those girls with Bruno's thugs or letting them get sold into sex slavery...that was evil. She wouldn't do it.
"I'm not leaving little girls to be forced into prostitution." Raum's eyes flashed with the same rage that poured through Maron's veins.
Kobal folded his arms. "What are the other options?"
She pulled in a breath, bracing herself for their reaction. "Let me go in first."
"You want to go in human form? Alone?" Raum's expression darkened to a scowl.
Notching her chin up, she dared them to contradict her. "Do you think two big, scary-looking men popping out of thin air in front of those girls is going to keep them calm?"
"What's keeping them calm going to do?" Kobal sliced his hand through the air. "There's no way to get them out of there. And what will you do if Bruno discovers you?"
"He likes pretty women, and he won't remember me from the last time. I can handle him." But she remembered him and the lewd way he'd looked her over, the way he'd groped Lilim before she'd booted him in the gonads and then knocked him out so they could extract his boss.
Kobal's scowl was even deeper than his partner's. "I don't like it. I don't want you going in there without back-up."
Their bond told her that everything in him rejected the idea of putting her in harm's way without one of them at her back. She could feel the emotions rolling through him, and disappointment flooded her that it was more of the same. Another man doubting she could do her job as a hunter. Some time in the last twenty-four hours, some slender piece of her soul had begun to hope that Samael was right about them. She was such a fool.
"I'm going in and protecting the girls while you guys call the cops and keep an eye on Bruno until they get here. I won't go solid unless it's necessary." Like if one of those assholes decided to take another test drive. She jutted her jaw stubbornly. "We can snatch him out of the chaos and finish the job. It'll work."
Raum's nostril's flared in annoyance. "Fine. But you ghost out of there the second things go south."
"Damn it," Kobal snapped. He thrust his hand through his hair, sending the pale strands flying. "I don't want to leave the girls, I really don't, but the fact that you can't die doesn't mean a bunch of guys couldn't hurt you too. If anything happened to you..."
"It won't. Trust me to do my job." The way Shax never had. She squashed the thought. That was the past, and it was time to move beyond it. Shax couldn't do anything to her anymore. She was a hunter, and a good one. She'd won. He'd lost. The end.
Now she had to be a good hunter and vanquish a little more of the darkness in the world.
The silence lengthened as neither man uttered a word. Right. They couldn't even say they trusted her---couldn't say they believed in her to come through when the chips were down. There was something new from a man. Not. She clenched her jaw and turned away from them. "Just call the cops. I'll do my part, you do yours."
She flashed to invisibility and returned to the room with the girls. They were still cowering and clumped into the corner, a tangle of shivering limbs. She breathed a sigh of relief that nothing more had happened to them in the handful of minutes she'd been gone. Now she had to wait, hope their buyer didn't show up before the cops did, and make sure nothing happened to them in the meantime.
Then she was going to fry Bruno's ass. And enjoy every minute of it. She normally didn't relish her work quite this much, but she'd make an exception for him.
She clenched and unclenched her fists at her sides, trying not to let the waiting drive her insane. How long would it take for the cops to get here? Had Raum and Kobal even done what she wanted? Her thoughts darted in crazy circles, fears, doubts, anger and far too many emotions ricocheting around her. She tried to reel herself back in, tried to focus. The last thing she needed to do in a tense situation was unravel. The men needed her to help them reap a soul like Bruno's, and they were good at their work or Samael wouldn't keep them in his silo. Everything she knew about them said they'd come through, so she waited with the girls, peeking out through door every few minutes to check on the guards.
Nothing so far. Her tension ratcheted up by the moment. Where were they? What was going on out there? Damn. Damn. Damn.
Bruno was still nearby, she could feel him, though his goons emanated enough evil that she wouldn't be surprised if she was sent after them in the future. But she could sense no more than that. More people were moving around outside, but who? The police? The girls' new pimp? The sniveling, pitiable sobbing from the teens only made Maron more determined to help. Woe to anyone who tried to touch them. She had no idea what the authorities would do with them---probably deport them, but a lifetime of sex slavery couldn't be a better choice than that.
She bent her torso through the door again for another look and came face to face with Bruno himself. He pushed the door inward, and it swished through her body. A growl erupted from her throat, and the girls went into immediate hysterics, trying to crawl over each other to get farther away from the beefy man.
He waded through the screaming girls and grabbed one by the hair, wrenching her to her feet. She cowered, squealing and trying to wriggle free of him. "My buyer's gonna want to see proof of merchandise. Behave for him."
Meaning what? The girl should let another man grope her, rape her? Bullshit.
Tightening his fingers in her long hair, he shook her, though Maron doubted the teen understood a word of English. Raum and Kobal were supposed to be tracking Bruno, but she didn't see them, couldn't sense them close by. Well, she was going to have to deal with this herself. She solidified and kicked the door shut. With any luck, his men would think he'd closed it to keep the panicking girls in.
"Hey!" He spun, the teen still trapped in his grip, and she howled in pain. He blinked in the sudden murky light. "What the fuck?"
Demon senses allowing her to see in the dark, she stepped up and jabbed the tips of her fingers into his throat so he couldn't call for help. He let go of the girl, choking, gagging and grabbing his neck.
"What's the matter, Bruno? Never had a girl slap you around like the little bitch you are?" Balling her fist, she slammed it into his balls. Now that she was corporeal, the reek of blood, urine and fear flooded her nose, and it was nothing compared to putrescent rot of Bruno's soul. Her muscles heaved in sickened reaction.
He wheezed, lurching to the side and swinging wildly. One fist struck, catching her off-guard and sending her reeling back. She tasted the copper of blood in her mouth. She shook her head, trying to clear the sudden ringing, trying to focus through the bombardment to her senses. It only made her angrier that he'd managed to make her bleed. He tried to hit her again, but she ducked and backhanded him across the face, using a lot more power than a human woman would have. His lip split, blood and snot dribbling down his face. He reached into his jacket for his gun, and she twisted it from his grip, snapping a couple of his fingers in the process. His mouth moved as if he wanted to speak, but only a loud grunting gurgle came out. The scent of his putrid soul singed her nostrils once more.
A piercing wail filled the air, the sound of sirens blaring from outside. A man's voice over a bullhorn announced that the police had arrived and everyone should come out with their hands up. She heard windows shatter in the hallway as men came swarming in, and she could feel her lungs and eyes beginning to burn from the tear gas. Gunfire rang out, the boom of it enough to freeze the blood in a person's veins.
The Russian girls went absolutely batshit crazy, pelting toward the door, screaming and battering at the heavy metal surface. Maron groaned. "Shit."
If the teens got out, they were likely to get caught in the crossfire. Their combined weight pushing forward kept the girls in front from opening the door inward. For the moment, they'd trapped themselves.
"Maron!" Raum roared from a distance, his voice almost drowned out by the crack of bullets flying. He was echoed by Kobal. "Maron, where are you?"
"Here!" She dissolved, sweeping through the girls and out the door. The demons materialized before her. "Bruno and the girls are in there."
Kobal swore in about six different languages, then ducked as a canister of tear gas came whizzing by. The men choked on the fumes and evaporated into the safer spirit form. "Can we reap him in there with the girls?"
She shook her head. "Too small. We'd pull the girls' souls into the vortex as well. We need to get him out, and keep them in and away from the bullets."
"This might scare them back from the door." Kobal shook his head and let his entire body burst into a ball of flames, gliding forward so he was half in and half out. The hysterical screams rose higher, but seemed to move farther away. "Raum, open it up, would you?"
Raum solidified, hacked and wheezed on the gas. More gunfire popped from the first floor as he put his shoulder against the door and shoved with his superhuman strength. A few more shrieks sounded, but when the door swung wide, there were no girls hanging around the flaming demon. They were back to cowering in the corner, crying, sneezing, coughing and breathing hard from gas inhalation. A few of them lay unconscious on the floor. From the shock of Kobal's fire show or being trampled, Maron wasn't sure.
The dark-haired demon charged in and grabbed Bruno, twisting his arm behind his back. He whispered something in the human's ear that made horror and terror flash in his beady eyes. Forcing Bruno forward, Raum duck-walked him out of the room. Both of them choked on the gas, tears rolling down their faces. The demon slammed and locked the door behind them, sealing the girls in for the cops to find when they searched the building. That was the best they could do for them. Now they had to do their real job...divesting Bruno of his blackened soul.
Kobal shut off the flames, and Maron solidified, taking over Bruno from Raum. "We'll take turns until we're out of the gas. Ghost ahead and check for roadblocks."
Nodding, Raum did as he was bid without further comment. The moment the fumes hit Maron's system, she felt her lungs lock up. Every membrane in her eyes, nose and mouth began to burn. It took everything in her to stay in human form. Her heart hammered, adrenaline flooding her veins as sweat poured down her face. Pushing past the pain seizing her body, she clamped her hand on Bruno's arm, twisting it higher so he didn't try anything stupid because she was a woman and shoved him toward the stairs. Kobal swept the hall behind her to watch her back.
"No good." Raum sped up the steps. "Push him out the window and I'll catch him at the bottom."
"If he dies, we can't harvest his soul." He might end up in hell eventually, but he might turn into a poltergeist that continued to visit his evil on innocent people. He'd be beyond their reach---not dead, but not alive. And Samael would ship them downstairs for eternal guard duty.
Bruno hacked, spittle dripping from his mouth. "Who the fuck are you talking to, bitch? What the hell are you?"
"I'm your worst nightmare. I'm the bitch who's going to make you pay for everything you've ever done." She croaked it as matter-of-factly as possible, knowing the human wouldn't truly believe her anyway. None of them did. She swiped her free hand across her face, wiping away sweat and tears. "Both of you go. I'll launch him. Don't miss."
Kobal didn't bother protesting about leaving her alone. They just did as they were told, floating out the filth-crusted, broken window at the top of the stairs and down to the ground. She leaned out to gauge where they landed as they flashed to physical form.
Stepping back, she dragged Bruno along with her, both of them coughing and choking on the tear gas. She wiped her eyes again, flexed her knees, lifted Bruno, and launched him through the shattered panes. He screamed the whole way, and when it cut off suddenly, she winced and glanced out to see he'd been caught by her partners.
There was no time to breathe a sigh of relief---not that her lungs would have managed relief at that moment---because shouting and pounding feet rang on the stairs. She ducked as more bullets went flying, dispersing her body into the shadows. A shudder went through her as the pain ceased as swiftly as it had begun. The coughing cut off, no more fumes burning her eyes.
Leaping forward, she sped through the window and dropped straight to the ground, where she solidified. Her demons were already heaving their target into the next building---a darkened warehouse with hundreds of pallets stacked to the ceiling, packing material scattered across the floor. It would do. A few minutes of cover with no fumes or bullets or cops or mobsters was all they needed to get this done. Finally.
Redness flushed Bruno's flesh when they were inside, and he cursed and wrestled with the male demons. "I'll have you all gutted. Slow and bloody. Better yet, I'll do it myself, motherfuckers. I've done it before...my blade's gonna mess up your pretty faces, and I'll make you watch while I fuck your bitch."
He kicked out and managed to catch Kobal in the knee. His leg buckled, and Bruno broke for a door that exited on a wall away from the cops. Raum went after him, and the human swung an elbow back to slam the dark-haired demon in the nose. Blood gushed down his face, and he staggered back.
"Shit," Maron spat. She and Kobal both groaned. This was such a clusterfuck of a case.
The conduit between her and Kobal opened, and he fed his power through her. Fire whipped out of her, a wave of red and blue flames dancing through the air. He let her take the lead and direct its flow. Lightning strikes hit the ground, driving Bruno back toward them. Then he was inside the ring of fire, and Raum threw his power toward her as well. The vortex of light snapped into place, multicolored flames flashing with forks of brilliant, blinding lightning.
Darkness bled into the fiery funnel, and her ears buzzed from the amount of energy coursing through her body. She focused it, latching on to Bruno's evil essence and wrenching it outward. It had never been so easy with someone so dark. It took seconds, mere heartbeats with their three combined powers. The vortex burst into a million shards of dancing, skipping light. She shuddered, blinking away the spots in her eyes. The putrid stench of his festering soul cleared from the air, and her belly unknotted for the first time in hours.
Bruno was dead.
Kobal bent forward and braced his hands on his knees. He angled a glance up at Maron and Raum. "Everyone okay?"
"Yeah," Raum replied, wiping his bloodied nose. Maron just nodded as everything that had happened tonight slammed into her at once.
They had done it. Given her control, listened to her, obeyed her even when it went against their instincts. Something Shax would never, could never have done. She had doubted them, doubted they could follow her lead, and guilt washed through her. She had done to them what she feared they'd do to her---pushed them away, never trusting, never allowing them near. Just as Shax had done to her. She had been so unfair to them, too afraid of how good connecting to them felt---better than anything with Shax had ever felt---to believe that they would be any different that him. But as that realization hit her, she also had to ask herself what she was going to do about it. A century of terror closed her throat, her breath hitching hard against her ribs.
She swallowed hard. "Call it in, would you, Kobal? Let's get out of here before the cops come sniffing around."
"Of course." He fished his cell phone out of his pocket.
Within moments, they were dragged into the nothingness between time and space. They appeared in Samael's office, but he wasn't there. She could feel him in the room beyond. The hellmouth. Sending Bruno to his final destination.
She staggered a little, the sizzle of all the energy still firing in hot pulses. Raum reached out and caught her, drawing her into his arms.
"Just relax for a moment." His voice was rough with concern, not an ounce of patronization in his tone. "That's a lot of power to funnel, especially with our bond so small. You did damn good."
Warmth flooded her at his words, his actions, his tenderness. Shax had rarely touched her outside of sex, and she hadn't realized until right now how much that simple act had denied her. She let herself lean against Raum's broad chest, relaxing as his hand rose to bracket her neck and massage her tense muscles. Just for a moment, and then she stepped away.
Kobal came up behind her, rubbing her shoulders and slipping his hands up and down her arms. "You were amazing. I was worried we might fry your nerves, but we had to trust you."
They had to trust her. When had Shax ever trusted her? Never. He'd always doubted her, and made her doubt herself. Their bond had made her depend on his opinion of her. She'd floundered under his lack of faith, making it a self-fulfilling prophecy.
They'd been together for years, and every assignment had made it worse for her, cutting any self-assurance she had out from under her. In one day, Kobal and Raum had shown more confidence in her than Shax had in years. Their actions tonight spoke far louder than words ever could.
Samael was right. They were right. They were the perfect for her.
Samael stepped out of the room that held the hellmouth. There were explosive flares of light, roaring fire, all reflecting off of obsidian walls. Maron winced away from the noise and glare, turning her face aside until her boss shut the heavy black doors behind him. He looked a little pale, drawn, as though forcing Bruno down to hell had taken a lot out of him. Maybe it had, but Maron was still buzzing from the connection with her partners. It occurred to her that Samael had no one he connected deeply with, despite his efforts to shoehorn his agents into the bonds of Triads.
"Another successful assignment. Nicely done." He glanced between the two men, then arched an eyebrow at Maron. "Well?"
What was she going to do about her partners, that was what he wanted to know. Accept them or reject them and insist on another female partner? Such a simple question, with such a complicated process to get to an answer. The idea of partnering with anyone besides Raum and Kobal, regardless of their gender, was repugnant. It made her stomach clench in sickened dread. What should she do then? There was only one thing she could live with.
She took in a breath, forcing herself to face the one fear she hadn't mastered in her long existence. Love, and the way it made her weak. Vulnerable. But that was only if the person you loved didn't love you back. That was only if you let yourself be owned by that love. Raum and Kobal wouldn't hurt her. Of that, she had no doubt. The very thought of her being harmed had affected them deeply---she'd felt it through the thread of their bond tonight. And yet they'd trusted her to do her job in the face of danger. They'd trusted her. And she'd trusted them. That was what decided her in the end. She couldn't let fear take this away from her. She'd regret it for the rest of her eternity.
She met Samael's eyes and spoke clearly, so there were no more doubts. "I'll keep them."
Kobal staggered, his mouth falling open. "You will?"
"Are you sure?" Raum swallowed audibly, his brilliant green gaze locked on her face.
It floored her to realize how...nervous they had been, how much they'd expected her rejection, and how that rejection would have hurt them both. Somehow in all of this, she hadn't understood how much this meant to them. How much she meant to them. Well, it was time to find out. She wanted to reach for them, but their boss watched, so she just offered a tiny nod. "Yes, I...Raum, I would...Kobal..."
Raum set a hand on her shoulder, squeezing in silent support. Kobal's smile was mixture of joy and disbelief. "Let's find some privacy."
"Good idea," Samael replied. "Find it outside my office. I have work to do."
"Yes, sir," they chorused.
They filed out of the room and nodded as they passed the pair of guards. They were the same ones that had been there when they left, and it was jolting to realize that not even a full guard rotation had gone by, just a handful of hours.
"Let's go to your apartment," she said. It had the warm memories of their last round of lovemaking. She led the way, and her men fell into step behind her. No, that wasn't how she wanted to start things. They'd already proven they would listen to her, follow her. She reached back blindly, and they each took one of her hands, moving up to walk beside her. Yes, that was better. Right. What she really wanted. A Triad should be a bonding of equals, a perfect balance of three lives, powers and energies.
She'd never had such a bond, but she was willing to see if it was possible with them. They'd risked everything to help her save the Russian girls from Bruno. If they'd blown the case because of that, it could have ended ugly. Samael didn't harbor fools. Her partners trusted her to do what she was supposed to, and it would be the worst kind of betrayal to reward that by abandoning them. She'd had that happen to her, and while they may not be bonded yet, she couldn't do that to someone else, especially two men who had captured her heart in so short an amount of time.
The elevator they'd had sex in earlier carried them up the many floors to the men's apartment. None of them said a word. Was that a good sign or a bad one? She wasn't sure.
Kobal prowled nervously once they were inside, going from the kitchen to the living room window and back again. Raum went to the bathroom to wash the blood from his nose and put on a clean shirt. When he returned, Kobal glanced from her to Raum, who dropped onto the couch. He ran a hand through his dark hair, still looking a little shell-shocked. "Are you sure?"
"You don't have to do this now if you don't want to." Kobal gestured at Raum and himself. "I think I can speak for both of us when I say we're willing to wait."
His partner nodded in agreement.
She took a deep breath, knowing she was going to have to explain her sudden change of heart before they'd understand that she meant it. It was one thing for them to be open to the bond, but they had to worry that she'd be open to it after what she'd told them about her past. The way to put it into words eluded her. It didn't make sense. It was a gut-level, emotional response. She'd felt love before, but had been so swept up in her newfound connection that she'd loved the wrong kind of man. The logical side of her had decided that to avoid that pain again, she had to deny love. But they'd changed that. They'd changed everything, just by being themselves.
But how to express it in a way that made any kind of sense? She opened her mouth. "I love you."
She shocked them. She could see it in their expressions. Hell, she'd shocked herself. She hadn't expected to say it---holding back, what she hadn't been able to do with Shax. But they deserved better than that. A bond shouldn't start with distrust.
She knew herself better now---she wasn't the same demon she was when she'd first come topside. Trial by fire would do that to a person. She was a lot stronger, tempered by that fire into something unbreakable. She was strong enough to give herself to a bond again. The essential part of her would be the only thing she kept back. The rest she'd offer in the bond. Yes. That was right. It felt good. She could do this.
Fear would no longer rule her life, stunt her growth, keep her from experiencing everything she truly wanted. A weight that had rested on her chest for so long she'd forgotten what it was like not to have it pressing down on her crumbled to nothing. Her own self-doubt. She was strong enough, confident enough to let go of control.
The silence lengthened as they stared at each other.
"I love you too." Both men said it, their voices husky with emotion.
She smiled, pure, sweet joy bursting inside her. Tears blurred her vision, and one trailed down her cheek. "Say it again."
Raum rose slowly from the sofa, and she felt Kobal close in behind her, their heat surrounding her. The dark-haired man bent forward until his lips were a hairsbreadth from hers. "I love you, Maron. And I love you, Kobal."
"I love you both," Kobal whispered, his breath brushing her ear. "Why do you think we went to Samael and asked him to partner us with you? It wasn't just because we wanted a female. We wanted you. Neither of us could get you out of our blood after that night we were together. We knew we'd found what we were looking for, and every second since has only been more convincing. We're good together. In bed and out of it. We want you to be ours. We want a Triad."
"With you," Raum rumbled. "Only you make this work. No one else fits us the way you do."
She shivered in reaction. Yes. A circle of emotion that kept cycling and building. Forever. The three of them balanced each other. "I love you both. No one else has ever made me believe it was possible to get over what Shax did, what I let Shax do to me. But you aren't him, and I'm not who I was. It's time to look to the future instead of the past, and I want that future to be with the two of you. I don't want to wait. I'm ready now. I want to bond with you too. I want a Triad."
Raum groaned and swooped in to capture her mouth. She wrapped her arms around his neck, thrusting her tongue between his lips. The taste of him was just as intoxicating as ever, the feel of them more sinfully delicious than anything she'd ever dreamed of. And they were hers. Or they would be. Soon. The thought of bonding with them sent a zing of longing through her, not a hint of fear.
"This will be more comfortable on a bed." Kobal's hands slid across her shoulders and down her back until he cupped her buttocks. "And I'm going to have your ass like I promised yesterday."
Cream flooded her pussy at his words, and she moaned into Raum's mouth. Lifting her off her feet, Raum carried her into the bedroom. She hooked her legs around his trim waist, grinding her clit against him with every step, wanting that carnal friction. Their clothing hampered her, and she growled in frustration, pulling her lips away from his. "I want us naked."
"Your wish is my command." Kobal chuckled and tossed back the covers on the bed before Raum laid her out on the mattress. She watched them undress themselves and each other.
Raum hauled Kobal forward and kissed him, their mouths fusing, tongues twining. It was just as erotic as the first time she'd seen it, and the link between them now let her feel how much they enjoyed it, how much they liked it that she got to see them. Kobal pushed Raum's shirt up and over his head, bending forward to lick the other man's nipple, working it with teeth and tongue until Raum rocked his hips in helpless abandon.
Maron's nipples tightened in response, and she pinched them, twisting them a little as Kobal did the same to Raum. The sparks of need flashing through the slender bond between them was beyond erotic, but it wasn't enough.
"Naked," she whispered.
Tugging Kobal's shirt out of his pants, Raum simply ripped the garment in half and threw it over his shoulder. Then he went to work on the blond's zipper. Kobal did the same with his partner, and they were soon nude. One dark, one light, both gorgeous and muscled and rock hard with lust. Kobal stroked Raum's cock, pumping it in his fist while Raum's face flushed and his head fell back. Dropping to his knees, Kobal slid his tongue around the swollen head, still stroking the shaft.
She flicked open her jeans, sliding her hand inside to tease her clit. She could feel the heaviness of her sex, the wetness that slicked her flesh. She'd never been so turned on in her life. "Suck him, Kobal."
That was all the permission they seemed to need. Raum groaned, burying his hand in the blond's hair for leverage as he fucked his mouth. Kobal sucked him in long strokes, taking him deep with each strong pull. He cupped the dark demon's balls, rolling them between his fingers. Maron swallowed at the sensual display and plunged her hand into her sex in time with Kobal's sucking. She loved watching, loved how they moved together. And they loved it too. Each of them glanced at her every few moments, drawing her into the experience. She bucked her hips up to meet her plunging fingers, so on edge that she might explode from her skin any moment. But that wasn't how she wanted it, so she forced herself to stillness. "Don't come yet, Raum. I want you to come inside me."
"Then we have to stop. Now." Chest heaving with tortured breaths, the big demon pulled Kobal away from his cock. The two grinned at each other and Raum bent to give his partner a short, rough kiss. "I thought you wanted to fuck her ass."
"I do." Kobal's smiled broadened into something even more wicked than usual, and both men turned toward her. Their cocks were long and hard and dripping with pre-come. She wanted them inside her.
Crooking her finger, she beckoned them to her. Kobal shook his head, tsking. "Hmm. She was so set on us getting naked, she forgot to show us some skin."
Raum grinned, and it was a feral expression of utter hunger. "Let's take care of that for her."
He reached for her boots, jerking them off quickly. Kobal pulled off her shirt and went to work on her bra, and Raum slid her pants and underwear down. She was as bare as they were, and she arched herself in offering as their gazes burned into her skin. Kobal's lips closed over her nipple and Raum's settled on her wet pussy. She moaned, twisting beneath them. It wasn't what she'd had in mind, but it was too damn good to stop. She spread her thighs wider for Raum and held Kobal's head closer to her breast as he suckled her and bit at her beaded flesh. Raum's tongue did sinful things to her sex, sliding up and down her slit, circling her clit before plunging deep into her channel. He pressed his fingers into her pussy, working her hard enough to have her hips arching off the mattress. He used the opportunity to press his thumb into her anus. The shock of it left her gasping, and Kobal bit down on her nipple. Hard.
"Raum! Kobal!" Her hand tightened on Kobal's hair, and she felt him flinch, but she couldn't be gentle. They weren't either.
Adding another finger to her ass, Raum used her own juices to make the slide easier, stretching her ass. Readying her for Kobal's possession. The thought made molten lava speed through her veins. Her heart pounded and sweat slid down her skin. Every moment cranked up her need until she couldn't take it any longer.
"Inside me. Now. Inside me." The words were a demand, a desperate plea.
Raum sat back, and Kobal helped her sit up. "Wrap your legs around Raum's waist and ride him."
His voice was low and sexy, and she obeyed without question. Whatever they had in mind, she was in. They would never hurt her, so this would only be pleasure. Pure, wicked, endless pleasure. She whimpered when she straddled Raum's lap and his crisp chest hair rasped nipples that Kobal's teeth had chafed into extreme sensitivity. Twining her arms and legs around Raum, she lifted herself and took his thick cock into her pussy. The glide was as close to heaven as she'd ever get. He leaned forward and nipped her throat, licking the tendon that connected throat to shoulder. She shuddered, her hips moving of their own accord, riding him, rotating her hips to stimulate her clit on the rough hair between his thighs. His big hands closed around her waist, forcing her down so she took him deep and she choked at the feel of him. Her sex spasmed and she teetered right on the edge of coming then and there, but he stopped her movements. Held her still.
She shook her head, moaning a protest. No. She needed more, not less. But then she felt Kobal's hands stroking down her back while Raum pulled her ass cheeks apart to open her for his partner's cock. A quiver went through her, her nails scoring Raum's back as excitement sizzled her system.
After nudging her anus with the head of his cock, Kobal pushed into her ass. It was a tight fit with Raum filling her pussy. They went slowly with her, Raum remaining absolutely motionless while Kobal pressed his dick deeper and deeper until she was stretched beyond bearing. So like them, Raum a solid rock, Kobal endlessly moving energy. She was somewhere between, just as they had her now. A constant shifting balance for all three.
Perfect.
She dropped her head against Raum's shoulder, and her mouth opened in a silent scream. When he arched beneath her, she bit his flesh. Both of the men moving was overwhelming, made pleasure and pain war for dominance within her. But she couldn't stop---she needed this. She needed to move. Shifting forward and back, she relished the slide and drag of their cocks within her. They moved with her, then took over the motion, pushing her harder and faster. One plunged into her ass, the other in her pussy, working her in tandem. There wasn't a moment she wasn't filled. Kobal kissed the back of her shoulder, the touch tender compared to the strength of his thrusts within her. Her nipples rubbed over Raum's chest, and he sent darts of lightning skipping over her skin. She twisted between them, a shriek ripping loose and her pussy locked in a single hard pulse. So close. She was so close. She wanted them to come with her.
Squeezing her internal muscles around them, she sent her power out right where they joined, knew that it would feel like fire licking at their skin. Broken groans echoed from both men. She rocked herself on their cocks harder, dragging every scrap of sensation out of the moment. Orgasm beckoned her, and she could feel herself dancing on that razor's edge.
This time, she offered them the bond, throwing down all inner barriers, knowing they'd need this sign of her willingness. They didn't hesitate, plunging their energy into her as they plunged their cocks into her body, taking all of her, taking everything. And offering everything in return. Every light in the room flickered and popped as their power exploded out in a shockwave.
A Demon's Triad.
Their energies and emotions combined, twining around each other, melding in perfect synergy. They came together, her inner muscles fisting around their cocks as they pumped come into her. Shudders wracked their bodies as wave after wave of orgasm dragged them under. It was physical, emotional and mental all at once, each triggering the others into new heights of ecstasy. Raum and Kobal kept thrusting into her, working her and themselves past all notion of endurance. Her pussy clenched again and again until she was sobbing for breath. When it was finally over, they collapsed sideways on the big mattress, utterly spent.
"I love you." All three of them whispered it at the same time, and she felt the hugeness of the emotion expanding through their bond.
Joy fizzed in her veins, and her heart twisted tight. She rolled to her back between them. Raum threw his heavy thigh over hers, buried his face in her neck and sighed. Kobal rested his head on her breast. The two men linked hands on her belly and she covered their fingers with hers. Contentment spread through her, and she relaxed. Safe, warm, whole. Replete and complete.
This. This was how it was supposed to feel. There was nothing about this that made her feel weak. It supported her, buoyed her up. Made her feel powerful, as if she could conquer anything with them by her side. Every remainder of doubt fell away, never to return.
She'd been fine on her own, but it was the way of her kind to bond. This was everything she'd hoped for and known she'd never find. They'd mended what Shax had broken, given her back what he'd stolen.
Herself.
Love.
Everything.
About the Author
Crystal Jordan began writing romance after she finished graduate school and needed something to fill the hours that used to be eaten away by homework. Currently, she serves as a librarian at a university in California, but has lived and worked all over the United States. She writes paranormal, futuristic and erotic romance.
To learn more about Crystal please visit www.crystaljordan.com. Send an email to Crystal at crystal@crystaljordan.com or join her Yahoo! group to join in the fun with other readers as well as Crystal at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/crystaljordan
Look for these titles by Crystal Jordan
Now Available:
Wasteland: The Wanderer
Treasured
Forbidden Passions
Stolen Passions
Fleeting Passions
Unbelievable
If You Believe
Believe in Me
Make Me Believe
In the Heat of the Night
Total Eclipse of the Heart
Big Girls Don't Die
It's Raining Men
Crazy Little Thing Called Love
Coming Soon:
Forbidden Passions (print edition)
"I will always love you." Not just a figure of speech when you're undead.
Big Girls Don't Die
© 2009 Crystal Jordan
In the Heat of the Night, Book Two
Six months ago, Andre St. James committed the ultimate one-night-stand party foul by turning Cynthiana into the spawn of Satan...also known as a vampire. He insisted he knew they were meant to be together forever and ever, so why wait for her to be on the same page with him to suck the life out of her?
What. Ever. The only thing the two of them share is chemistry that blasts off the charts. So she drop kicked him out of her life and told him to never come back. He listened. Until now.
Andre knows Cyn has trouble dealing with his take-no-prisoners approach to life, and that turning her against her will was a mistake. But he's got patience born of centuries of immortality, and he'll do whatever it takes to get back into her good graces and stay there forever. Including wait until she has no choice but to turn to him.
After all, no one understands forever like a vampire. He's loved her from the moment he saw her...and he always will.
Enjoy the following excerpt for Big Girls Don't Die:
My hands clenched on the steering wheel. I had to get to my cousin. That's all I could think. Please, please let Desi be okay. I loved that little girl so much. I was going crazy right now. Worry gnawed at me like a hungry werewolf. One quick look at the speedometer told me that I was about ten miles over the speed limit. They wouldn't pull me over for that, would they? I pushed my convertible Mini Cooper a little faster.
Flicking a glance down while I punched the speed-dial, I tried to get Misty on the phone for a progress report on Desi. It was a few hours to Las Vegas from Los Angeles, but if I hurried I could be inside the hospital before dawn. Something else to get pissed at Andre for. No reflection, no sunlight.
My stomach rumbled. Oh, yeah. Cravings for blood. Another lovely side effect. When was the last time I had fed? I meant to have something substantial before I went to Eclipse, but Andre had sort of interrupted that plan. I'd barely taken any blood from him, so my stomach felt as if it was digesting itself right now.
"Hi, this is Misty and Desiree, leave us a message---"
"Damn it." I huffed out a breath and tossed my cell phone on the passenger seat.
My gaze swept the barren landscape along I-15. There wasn't anything for as far as I could see except dirt and stars and a few ragged Joshua trees. When I glanced back at the road, a large white jackrabbit hopped in front of my car.
"Shit." I jerked the wheel and swerved to miss it, but the crunch of bone sounded as it bounced against the underside of my car. "Oh, that is just nasty."
And then my tire blew up. Rubber popped. The Mini Cooper's back end spun out. My heart stuttered as my pretty little car made grinding noises when the metal of my tire rim hit pavement.
"Shit, piss, motherfucker. Oh God. Oh God."
Skidding off onto the soft shoulder of the road, the car finally came to a stop. I sat there and panted while my heart rate galloped. My knuckles showed white on the wheel, and I had to force myself to relax my grip and reach down to shift into park. My hands shook on the door handle when I hauled myself out to go look at my tire. I walked around the car to the passenger side and kept an eye out for crazy-ass drivers who might be too blind or stupid to see the emergency flashers on my car and hit me. Oh, yeah. That was the flattest tire I'd ever seen. Little bits of rubber hung off it and flopped on the ground.
"Spare tire, Cyn. Put it on and get the hell to Vegas." Popping my trunk, I---What the hell?---Where were the jack and tire iron? I had forgotten to check for them in this car when I bought it from the used car dealership last week. Now that I needed 'em, they were nowhere to be found. Fan-damn-tastic. Time to call in reinforcements.
I opened the passenger door and fished around for my cell phone. Please, please, please let me have cell phone service. I was in the middle of bumfuck nowhere. I squeezed my eyes shut for a moment, not daring to look. My breath whooshed out when I saw I had full bars. I pulled in a deep breath while I dialed my roadside assistance number. The number was programmed into my phone, just in case. You never knew when a Rambo-wannabe jackrabbit would hang on to your bumper and use his last breath to shred your tire. Fucking bunny.
I punched in all the appropriate numbers and listened to a recorded voice tell me to call 911 if it was a life threatening emergency. Well, duh. "Hello? I have a flat tire, and I need someone to come put on my spare---"
The woman dispatcher's professionally concerned voice cut me off. "Okay, ma'am. Are you in a safe area?"
I looked around at the miles and miles of dirt. "I'm kind of in the middle of nowhere, but I guess I'm safe."
"Good. Now where are you exactly?"
"I'm not sure. I'm eastbound on I-15 about a hundred miles west of Las Vegas. I don't see a call box or any mile markers."
"So, you're east of Las Vegas---"
"No, I'm west of Vegas going east toward Vegas." I rolled my eyes.
"What city did you just pass?"
Did I just speak English? I swear I'd told this woman I had no idea where I was. I was worried about Desi, not about where I might pop a tire. "I'm not sure. I know I'm about a hundred miles west of Vegas."
"All right, ma'am. We'll dispatch someone, and they should be there in about twenty to thirty minutes."
"Thank you!" I could be with Desi soon, then. I shivered as the cold desert night air hit my bare shoulders and legs. Hurrying back to the driver's side, I slid into my seat.
Twenty minutes later, my phone rang. Oh, good. Must be the tow truck driver.
"Hello?"
An older female voice responded, "Hi, Ms. Trent. I'm sorry, but we won't be able to dispatch anyone until we know your location. Can you tell me exactly where you are?"
I blinked. "Um. I already told the last lady I talked to."
"Can you tell me again?"
Okay, stay calm. I'd only been on the side of the road for about half an hour. Everything was fine. "Sure. I'm not one hundred percent sure of where I am, but I'm eastbound on I-15 about a hundred miles west of Las Vegas."
"Are there any mile makers nearby?"
"No." And I sure as hell wouldn't wander around in the frigid ass desert to look for one.
She was silent for a long moment. "Um. All right, ma'am. We'll dispatch someone, and they should be there in about twenty to thirty minutes."
"Sounds good." I sighed and dropped the phone on my lap.
Twenty minutes later, my phone rang.
"Hello?"
A pleasant male voice answered. "Hi, Ms. Trent. I'm sorry, but we won't be able to dispatch anyone until we know your location. Can you tell me exactly where you are?"
Trust no one...except the one who walks in the dark.
Key of Solomon
© 2011 Cassiel Knight
Relic Defender, Book 1
Anthropology PhD candidate Lexi Harrison never bares it all when she belly dances for a strip club crowd. She doesn't have to---she's that good. Every performance earns money toward her degree, and restores the sense of power that her painful childhood ripped away.
Something is different about tonight. A man whose silver gaze seems to touch her skin beneath her veils. When a rowdy customer crosses the line, he comes to her rescue with the speed of a falcon---complete with wings.
Mikos Tyomni has never seen anyone dance the raqs sharqi like Lexi. Trust his tormentor, Archangel Michael, to put him in close contact with the cause of his downfall: a mortal woman. Particularly this mortal woman. The Defender. He has only thirty days to win her trust before Hell's deadliest demons attempt the mother of all prison breaks.
No matter how sexy the messenger is, Lexi's career plans don't include some crazy idea that she's the last line of defense against the forces of evil. Until her university mentor's murder leaves her holding the key to Hell. And fighting a losing battle against a passion with the unholy power to bring down Heaven...
Enjoy the following excerpt for Key of Solomon:
Oh, shit! Lexi let out a startled squawk as he closed the protective distance she'd put between them until he was within a foot of her. His fists knotted as if he wanted to grab her, but he held back.
"How do you know Beliel?"
Lexi held up the sanjiegun, gesturing out a circle in front of her body Mikos was damn near to breaking. "Whoa, personal zone here."
"Alexandria, this is important. Answer my question. How do you know Beliel?"
She cringed. Her full name again. "He showed up at my apartment earlier."
Mikos jerked back. Fascinated, she watched his pupils and iris begin to spark again, the silver pinpoints of light widening. For Pete's sake, what had she done or said?
"What happened?" he asked.
She shrugged, and looked down. With a sharp snick, she extended her sanjiegun, rested the tip on the floor and idly spun it like she was trying to start a fire. Christ. She suddenly had an urge to duck her head and squirm like a child caught doing something wrong.
"He made me an offer," she said and lifted her head, her gaze sparring with his.
"What kind of offer?"
The phrase an offer you can't refuse flashed into her mind. She didn't let it out. Probably a smart decision based on the silver sparking in his eyes. Where the hell did he get that unusual ability?
Instead of uttering any number of smartass comments wavering on her tongue, she answered, "A normal life. One with a family."
"A normal life," he repeated. His tone sounded as if it had as much emotion as a rock.
Oops. Better scratch that. She actually knew a rock with emotion.
"Lexi, you must stay away from him."
"Hey, I didn't invite him. He just showed up." She wrinkled her nose. "What's the big deal?"
"You don't know him. He's dangerous."
Lexi placed on hand on her hip and tapped her right foot. "So? I didn't know you, but that didn't stop you from interfering."
Mikos's eyes narrowed. "That is different."
"Feels the same to me." She paused. "Besides, all he's done is show me another life."
A life she'd always wanted. Sounded so simple. So easy. So confusing.
"For a price."
Lexi shrugged again. "Everything comes with a price tag." And everyone could be bought. The only variance was the dollar amount.
"What did he want from you?" Mikos continued.
"To give him some kind of book. A book I'm sure I don't have."
Mikos face turned to stone. No, not the Rocky-type stone, but hard, cold granite. "If you had the book, would you take Beliel's offer?"
"I don't know."
She truly didn't. As tempting as it was to realize she could have a family of her own, it bothered her that Beliel offered her a ready-made family. After all, if she really wanted a family, she'd have found herself a nice guy and made babies. Sure, and it was just that easy wasn't it? Except, she wanted...
Something else.
Something special.
Something just for her.
So, she didn't know what that something was. And while she wouldn't admit it to Mikos, she wasn't sure she'd want to pay the cost for whatever Beliel offered. She sensed it would be high.
Despite the set expression on his face, Mikos's tone had a controlled lightness as he said, "Lexi, you are the only one who can do this. God expects this of you, and your race needs you. Do not make the mistake of thinking only of yourself. Too much is at stake."
The critical and patronizing tone in Mikos's voice punched like a sledgehammer at her chest. How dare he try to make her feel selfish? He had no idea of the life she'd led or things from her past. Damn right she was selfish. She had to be.
Growing up in the system and then on the streets had taught her if she didn't look after herself no one else would. A hard lesson to learn at the age of twelve but she had, and no man, no matter how attractive he was, was going to stand there and make her feel bad about her choices.
Lexi shoved Mikos's chest. "Where the hell was your God when I lost my parents? Where was your God when I was shuffled from home to home?"
She paused and took a deep breath. For the first time in as far back as she could remember, tears welled.
"And where were you and your God when my supposed father in the last foster home put his hands on me like no father ever should?"
She was tired, angry and mentally exhausted with the events of the last day. Otherwise, what the hell else could explain her opening her mouth and sharing such an intimate thing with a relative stranger?
Lexi barely suppressed a shudder at the memory. Her last foster father, Tom, hadn't seemed to fit any profile of a child abuser. With no previous history of abuse in his own childhood, a gentle manner, no issues with drug or alcohol abuse, clean cut, a pristinely maintained yard and home, he appeared to be anything but a vile abuser.
It was only later did Lexi find out just how much of an abuser he was. Certainly, she would have found out if she had stayed around long enough for him to finish what he'd begun.
She still remembered the stark terror of being pushed against the wall of her bedroom while Tom groped and grabbed at her clothing. The smell of fresh paint from her foster mom's remodel of the kitchen, the feel of the stucco on her backside.
Slightly damp, cold hands that left behind an unclean feeling, one she'd never be free of.
Lexi felt fortunate in that she had been strong and independent even at the age of twelve. One unfatherly touch from Tom, and she bolted from the house.
Looking up at Mikos, she realized that in her anger, she'd come within inches of his body. Major personal zone violation. Silver painted eyes looked down at her awash with an emotion she didn't want or need.
She shoved him again. "Don't you dare pity me. And don't you dare tell me what God expects. I stopped caring about those expectations a long time ago."
Maybe the thought of shoving him a third time had crossed her mind and shined in her eyes because Mikos moved. His hands come up to grab her wrists, jerking her forward and locking her arms against her sides. For the second time, her sanjiegun fell to the floor with another sharp clatter. Damn it, she was going to get a strap on that thing.
She pulled her knee up then thrust downward. Because of Mikos's tight meld to her body, she couldn't get enough momentum to do anything more than tap his foot. A hard tap, yet still not enough to break free.
"You're going to hurt yourself."
This close, his whisper danced across her neck. She sucked in a whistling breath as unfamiliar sensations rocketed through her body. When was the last time she'd felt any, even the most microscopic, attraction to a man? Each time she was around this man her libido went supernova.
Mikos's body seemed to fit hers like a comfortable chair, one she wanted to sink back into then lose herself in the firm cushions. She inhaled, the warm, musky scent of masculine perspiration filling her nose. Did his skin taste salty? She eyed the pulse beating in his neck.
An inward yelp echoed through her mind. What the hell was wrong with her?
She let her shoulders relax as if she'd given up. He stilled. Maybe he hadn't expected her to concede. Good. His stillness should have let her focus on breaking free.
It didn't.
Love---it's the real thing. And complicated as hell...
The Egyptian Demon's Keeper
© 2009 Ciar Cullen
Archeologist Eliza Schneider assumes her meeting with an exotic stranger in the Egyptian desert was a heat-induced hallucination...until he materializes in New York. She has to give the tall, handsome Egyptian high marks for originality with his pick-up line: they're fated to save the world together. The master/servant thing goes a long way toward sweeping her off her feet, but it's easier to believe he's just another in her long line of poor romantic choices.
Kasdeya, the Fifth Satan, waited eons for his Keeper to find her way to his tomb amongst the ancient ruins. He only has a limited time to convince Eliza that her role is critical to help defeat the loathsome Deumos, a female demon who has laid her claim to bearing his child---a child that will bring down mortals.
Trouble is, Eliza doesn't even believe Kasdeya is real. If he can't convince her he isn't an illusion---and neither is their love---Deumos will win.
Enjoy the following excerpt for The Egyptian Demon's Keeper:
Eliza opened one eye and gulped back a scream. If she was asleep, then the dream was astounding. She wiggled her toes to make sure she wasn't in sleep paralysis.
That man was humming. He was two feet away from her, staring at his palms as if a secret message were about to appear on his skin, and humming.
Okay, she thought, this is pretty bad. Unless the laws of physics had suddenly changed and rain could defy gravity, she had lost her mind, and this guy seemed a permanent part of her new psychosis. At least he was beautiful. Eliza hoped fervently that if she had to remain mad, he would continue to be part of her altered state.
"You hear about sunstroke killing people, you know, but you never hear about this stuff."
He jumped to his feet and stared down at her, running his hand through his long black locks. "I was meditating. You..."
"I frightened you?"
His cheeks reddened, and he shifted his weight from one foot to the other. "Of course not. Mortals cannot frighten me." He crossed his arms and puffed out his chest, as if the stance would somehow convince her that she hadn't startled him.
"Mortals? Did you say mortals? As opposed to...non-mortals?"
"Correct." He tapped his foot in a very mortal gesture of impatience.
"This just gets better and better. Okie dokie then. I know I'm supposed to be your keeper or servant or something---isn't that what you told me in Egypt? Excuse me, should that be 'the land of pharaohs'?"
"Correct. You are my Keeper, my servant, and it is the land of pharaohs. I'm pleased you listened."
"Great. I'm dying to please my own hallucination. Would my hallucination mind getting me some water?" I have to try to pull it together. What if this is a real guy, and he drugged you? Come on, the door is close enough. Please, God, please let my legs work.
He gestured to the ornate decanter and glass on the low table. The smirk pulling on his lips ticked her off. So, he knew she meant to make a break for it.
"I will pour for you of course." He handed her a glass, and she pushed herself up so she could sip. Mind racing, coming up blank, she concentrated on clearing her head with the water. She stole glances at him, but his expression was impassive. What does a serial killer look like anyway? Why couldn't one look like a soap opera star? An Egyptian soap opera star? Did they have soap operas in Egypt? I'm in real trouble, no matter how I look at this.
"Look, if it's money you're after, you picked the wrong girl. Maybe the museum would belly up a few thousand for me... Did you drug me? That's it, isn't it? You got to my canteen in Egypt..."
"And then miraculously found you in New York, slipped unnoticed into your office or apartment and put a poison potion in your glass?"
She shook her head uncertainly. It didn't explain the raindrops, the change in his appearance from Dr. Kasey Smith to Kasdeya. Nothing was adding up.
"So, you don't really know David, and you don't really work for the museum in Boston."
"What gave me away?" He smiled fully for the first time, his eyes coming to life and gentle creases appearing around them.
Eliza refilled her water glass in a half-hearted attempt to stall. No matter how hard she thought about it, she could only come to one conclusion. The Egyptian desert had robbed her of sanity. Perhaps she was already in an institution and didn't know it?
"Where are we?" She glanced around the large room, what seemed like part of a larger suite. "Are we in New York?" The ornate furnishings smacked of something from an Arabian Nights tale, but with modern amenities. "It has that flying carpet thing going on."
"Not that again." His smile faded, and he rubbed at his temples.
"Sorry. I'm known to give people headaches. Do demons get headaches?"
Kasdeya took a deep breath and blew it out. Eliza knew that move. She'd watched her mother, David and just about everyone else in her life do it many times.
"Is the room to your liking? I thought you would feel comfortable with these...things." He gestured to the furniture uncertainly as if he had carved the intricate woodwork himself and was concerned for her approval. The Fifth Satan was a complicated guy---big, buff, dangerous, easily startled and oddly ill at ease. Did he need something from her? Perhaps he didn't hold all the cards.
"You didn't answer my question. Are. We. In. New. York?"
"More or less. Would you like to be in New York?"
"Absolutely."
"Then we are."
A mild tremor rolled through the suite. An earthquake in New York?
"Did you do that?"
He cocked his head to one side and studied her. "I thought you said you wanted to be in New York. Well, we're here. Or there. You are a very confused woman, and you're beginning to confuse me."
"Why don't you tell me what the fuck is going on, Mr. Kasdeya? And if you tell me not to curse, I'll...I'll curse again."
"I will warn you that some of the answers you seek may come as a bit of a shock."
"As opposed to rain stopping in midair? Try me."
The last thing Eliza expected was for her captor to strip off his black T-shirt. "Dude, there's no need for that!" Surely he wasn't going to accost her? He shook his head subtly, as if he read her thought and wanted to ease her mind. "Look at me."
"I'm looking." She couldn't take her eyes off him if she tried. Like an artist had wrapped a masterpiece of sculpture with velvety skin and breathed life into it, Kasdeya was exquisite. He moved his arm to point at the band of golden script that circled one bicep, and his stomach rippled, down to the ridges of muscles framing his slender hips.
"When was the last time you saw a man without a shirt, Eliza? I'm pointing to my arm. Look at it." She glanced at his face instead. His smirk of satisfaction annoyed her.
"Oh, so big deal, you're gorgeous. Get over yourself. All right, let me see your damned arm. I noticed that in pharaoh land. Skip the mumbo jumbo and tell me what it says and why I should care."
"I don't know what it says. You're supposed to tell me. You're my Keeper."
"What the hell does that mean anyway? Like a zookeeper? When's your feeding time? Damn, my head is killing me again."
"You're probably hungry. Come, let us dine and we can discuss things casually."
"Oh, lovely, yes, let's have a nice little chat over dinner. A night out on the town? Perhaps drinks first?"
"That sarcasm does not suit you. You will want to freshen up of course."
Demon's Caress
Crystal Jordan
Feel the burn.
Demon Heat, Book 1
Usually, Maron is the hunter---a demon sent to earth to imprison evil souls and hurl them into the pit. It's a dirty, thankless job, but someone has to take out the trash. By necessity, demons need a partner to tag 'em and bag 'em. Since her partner got roped into a Demon Triad, though, she's stuck with just the tagging part until her boss sends reinforcements.
Her backup turns out to be the last two men she wants to see. Two bonded demons who've been trying to seduce her into a Triad for months. Sure, the Triad's sexual bonds generate phenomenal soul-trapping power. Give up her independence? Never. Still, it's quite a thrill to be the hunted, for a change.
Since a night of debauchery in which the three of them experienced a level of power that's nothing short of explosive, Raum and Kobal have been maneuvering to complicate her eternity...and make her like it. She thinks she's the most relentless demon hunter around? She ain't seen nothin' yet. They're determined to claim her heart and body...if they can cage the evil soul they've been sent to capture.
Warning: Three demons doing very wicked things to each other. Guy on guy, guy on girl, guy on guy on girl, and any other combination they can think of. Some anal, a little flameball throwing, a few evil souls sent down to hell. All in a day's work. Hey, they're born to be bad...and they're so good at it.
eBooks are not transferable.
They cannot be sold, shared or given away as it is an infringement on the copyright of this work.
This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the writer's imagination or have been used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, actual events, locale or organizations is entirely coincidental.
Samhain Publishing, Ltd.
11821 Mason Montgomery Road Suite 4B
Cincinnati OH 45249
Demon's Caress
Copyright © 2012 by Crystal Jordan
ISBN: 978-1-60928-563-0
Edited by Bethany Morgan
Cover by Angela Waters
All Rights Are Reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.
First Samhain Publishing, Ltd. electronic publication: January 2012
Look for these titles by Crystal Jordan
Also Available from Samhain Publishing, Ltd.

