Devil Take Me (8 page)

“I… No… I’m sorry. Goodbye.” Annie snapped the phone shut, and struggled to breathe as the car seemed to grow even more compact around her. She was trapped. There was no way out. Roger had won. Somehow he’d managed to frame her for a shooting she was now certain he had orchestrated.

After years of bad luck, she’d hit the big time again. Losing her parents had been tragic, but she assumed losing her life, her freedom, and going to jail for a crime she didn’t commit would be somewhere on par with that first horrific bout of misfortune. And knowing it was Roger, the man who was supposed to love and honor her forever, who had put her there would probably drive her over the edge. She’d finally be as crazy as he’d always inferred, his projections fulfilled by his own wicked actions.

A strangled laugh broke from her lips. Annie pressed her hands to her mouth, as if to shove the hopeless sound back where it had come. She couldn’t lose it now. She had to think, try to find a way out of this mess.

“Annie. Annie, listen to me.” Namtar’s hand was on her shoulder and suddenly she could breathe again, but it was a painful process, sucking in air past the lead weight on her chest.

“The police—Roger—”

“I heard. I am sorry I cannot clear your name. The mortal law would insist on laying hands upon me. The wasting disease would spread and in a short time I would be sent back to the Underworld against my will. I can only reap a certain number of human lives before I am forced back under the Earth. Even in the years of the plague it was so.”

“Ohmygod, ohmygod.” Annie’s vision blurred from the combination of Namtar’s words and her own dire situation. She was going to go to jail and sleeping with the Grim Reaper. Her life had gone from relatively normal to batshit crazy in less than twenty-four hours. It had to be a new world record.

“Breathe. We must take action.”

“What sort of action?”

“We need to leave this area, immediately. Guide the car to another village, somewhere where the law of this land will have no power to hold you.”

“We can’t go to Mexico. I can’t go to Mexico, I—dammit!”

“There is no other choice. I will not allow you to be imprisoned for a crime you did not commit.”

Prison, holy shit, she could really be going to prison. Hearing him speak the words made the threat more real than her thoughts alone ever could. She had to get out of here, find a place to hide until she could find some way to clear her name.

Annie shifted the car into drive and headed out of the parking lot, heart beating fast in her throat, certain she would see flashing lights spinning behind her at any moment. She was a wanted woman, a fugitive. The police knew what kind of car she drove, had her license plate number. It was only a matter of time before they tracked her down, before—

“We’re going to need a new car, something they can’t trace,” Annie said, heading toward the interstate. “But we’ll wait until we’re out of the area.”

“Do you have a destination in mind?”

As she took the ramp heading north on the 405, Annie realized she did. She knew a place where no one would think to look for her, one place she never talked about, tried not to think about if she could help it.

“Home,” she said, moving the car into the center lane and joining the flow of traffic. “We’re going home.”

And perhaps her life. With his breed of magic even an immortal of the Annunaki line couldn’t be too careful.

“Take her, the next in line. Hurry, there is no more time to waste in these petty payments.” Ereshkigal kicked the small grey demon at her feet, hearing it grunt with pleasure as the toe of her boot made contact with its dimpled ass.

Cresil was a despicable beast, a creature of excess and filth whom she wouldn’t allow within ten feet of her bed, despite their mutual appreciation for pain with their pleasure. Antonia, on the other hand, was quite happy to take the creature between her legs or wherever else the grimy beast would choose to fuck her.

Well, perhaps not happy, but she would endure the pain and humiliation for her queen, her heart. It was a small price to pay for the safety of Ereshkigal’s throne.

“My queen, please, I beg of you.” Antonia reached small white hands toward where Ereshkigal sat on her throne, screaming in wordless terror as Cresil pulled Antonia’s body from the other devil finding release in her pussy.

She never made it to a standing position, but was wrestled once more to the stone floor of the throne room. Cresil mounted her from behind, pushing his hooked erection deep into her ass. There had been no foreplay, no preparation of the delicate area, but Ereshkigal knew Antonia would come to realize her sacrifice was necessary. She enjoyed her position as the favored lover of the queen and would not wish to lose favor in a court run by Namtar.

“I should have killed him centuries ago. It was madness to allow the son of a rival house to live.” Ereshkigal shifted uncomfortably on her throne, and reached for another glass of wine.

“He was sworn into your service before he had fifteen seasons,” Nergal, her consort , said. “No matter that his mother once ruled, Namtar was as fiercely loyal as any of the court. He was a friend to us both.”

“A friend? More like a viper lying in wait. I should never have trusted him.”

“There was no reason to think he would dare oppose you. Not until the character of the court changed in so many ways.” Nergal’s voice was now so soft she could barely hear him over Antonia’s wailing.

Luckily she had no wish to hear her consort’s thoughts. She had seen the condemnation in his eyes when she reported Namtar’s betrayal. He blamed her for the threat to their power, this coward who had done nothing to expand their empire beyond fathering a few treacherous sons so eager to overthrow their parents she was forced to banish them not long after they grew to manhood.

“He was simply biding his time.” Ereshkigal paused, waiting for Antonia’s shriek to fade. “He stole the people’s loyalty to me with his trickery and lies. Look to the hall. The observation boxes are less than half full. It has never been so, not in a thousand seasons. And those who have come are whispering amongst themselves, even now praying for Namtar’s return, for their salvation at his hands.”

“They would have no need of such prayers were their lives less…trying.”

Trying. Was that what he considered her, merely trying?

Ereshkigal made a mental note to call Nergal to her bed tonight along with one or two of the more repulsive demons. If she were merely trying his patience, it was time for her consort to be reminded of the horror she could bring into his world if she so chose.

Her magic was stronger than his own, always had been and always would be, yet she was unable to break the bond they had forged so many millennia ago. It enraged her, drove her to the brink of insanity to be saddled with such a pitiful excuse for a husband, a man who still ached to fuck her no matter how miserably she treated him. He was pathetic, repulsive and in need of a lesson in manners. No one reprimanded the queen of the Sumerian Underworld. No one. Not even her king.

“Ereshkigal! Please! My love, spare me!” Antonia was hysterical, clawing at the floor as she scrambled to escape the demon at her back. She was proving herself as weak as Nergal, shaming Ereshkigal in front of the court with her cowardly display.

“Silence her, or I fear I may do something I will regret.” Ereshkigal snapped her fingers, signaling the attendant at her side. The slave boy burst into motion, ripping a piece of his own loincloth free in order to stuff it in Antonia’s mouth.

Peace descended on the great hall at last, but it did nothing to ease the tension mounting within Ereshkigal, tightening her hand around her glass until her knuckles were white. She could feel the disapproval in the air, the censor of her people, people who would never have survived the journey to the Underworld all those years ago without her death magic. How soon they forgot the debt they owed, turning their loyalty to another simply because he held the power to walk the Earthly plane.

No matter, she would eliminate the threat of Namtar soon enough.

Three more demon commanders would take Antonia’s body for their pleasure, thusly securing the legions of lesser demon warriors they commanded for Ereshkigal’s use. Appeasing the demon lords’ lust for human flesh was a small price to pay for the forces she would need to retrieve Namtar from the world above. The lesser demons would find him and return him to her before he bonded with a human soul. He could not have achieved his goal as yet. Even in the modern world, surely mortals had a proper fear of eternal damnation and would not give up their most priceless possession so easily.

She would find him, bring him back, and make him pay for what he had done. Without the power of soul bonding there was no way he would be able to defeat her in battle, not if she didn’t allow him to live to get close enough to lay his poisoned hands upon her. She would destroy him, slowly, painfully, with the entire court in attendance to watch the fate that befell those who dared to challenge Ereshkigal, their goddess-queen.

The sun was setting by the time they reached the outskirts of a town named Stockton, and weariness had begun to sink into Namtar’s bones. He craved a bath, a meal not pulled from a paper sack and a night of rest almost as much as he craved the feel of Annie’s skin against his once more. Sitting next to her in the car, so close but unable to touch, to taste, had driven him mad.

He’d never wanted a woman so desperately, especially after hearing some of the tales from her past. The unfortunate woman was in dire need of pleasure, of someone to banish the pain from the depths of her dark eyes. For the first time in his long life, Namtar wanted to be that someone. He could not offer her love, but he most certainly could offer release from the abundance of cares perched on her narrow shoulders like vultures waiting for a meal.

He looked forward to feeling that release pulsing around his cock before the night grew much older. No matter how weary they both were, coupling with Annie was not something he could resist. The need to join with her, to be moving inside her body while the scent of her arousal rose around them was all consuming. A part of him felt he would perish if he wasn’t allowed to slide his aching shaft between her legs within the next few hours.

For all he knew, he very well might. The grounding force she had unintentionally provided him could fade at any moment. He had never grounded on the Earthly plane without causing a death in the process. The fact that Annie was still alive and well gave him joy, but also cause for concern. Her magic was powerful, but unschooled. The power he needed to remain Earthbound had first entered him while they were mating, so it seemed wise they continue to mate until such time as he was ready to depart the human world.

It was a hardship, but one he would eagerly endure.

The thought made Namtar smile as Annie turned off the main road.

“Your childhood home is quite impressive.”

Annie laughed. “It’s not my house, it’s a hotel. The house is too far to reach tonight. But I stayed here once before, a few years ago during a teaching conference. It’s nice and far enough from the highway that I doubt anyone will spot the car.” Annie ran her hand through her hair, holding her curls away from her face as she searched for a place to park.

Blue lights flickered on above them, highlighting her worried expression. For the first time, Namtar saw tiny creases around her mouth and eyes. These past two days had been hell on Earth for her. He reached out without thinking, tracing the line of her jaw with his hand. He’d meant to offer comfort, but instead Annie shivered under his touch. The eyes she turned to him were still dark, but no longer filled with worry. He read a number of wicked intentions in those eyes, each one of them more lust-inducing than the last.

Great Goddess, the woman was temptation incarnate.

“Sorry we had such a long day,” she said, her voice soft and husky, as if she were inviting him to feast upon her pussy, not offering an apology.

“There is no need to apologize. It was time well spent.” His hand, apparently having a mind of its own, moved to trace her lips, his cock stirring in the ridiculous sweatpants he still wore.

They hadn’t stopped but to fuel the car and purchase sandwiches called cheeseburgers at a merrily colored plastic building that served the food straight into the vehicle. Even when nature’s call forced them to seek out proper facilities, Namtar had only donned the shoes and one of the shirts Annie had purchased, not taking the time to change into his new pants. The need for haste was clear in every tense line of Annie’s body and he would not cause her more distress by delaying their journey northward.

At first he had doubted the wisdom of seeking refuge in a place the villain might think to look for her, but she had explained that no one, not even her former fiancé, knew the location of her childhood home. Annie had fallen silent for several hours after that. Grateful that the talk she had insisted they have had been postponed, Namtar had remained silent as well, honoring her need for time with her own thoughts until she began to speak of her own accord.

Finally, in fits and starts, she’d told him of the small town of Dorris in northern California where they were bound, and of the house she had inherited there upon the death of a great-aunt, the woman who had raised her from the time she was a very small child. She hadn’t had a happy childhood. That much was obvious, though Annie hadn’t gone into great detail about her early years.

He did know her parents had both died when she was too young to remember and that the great-aunt who had raised her had been her only remaining relative. The Theophilus and Kartopholos families were both infamously unfortunate people and tended to perish early in their lives. Her mother’s two sisters and her father’s younger brother were all dead before Annie was born. She had no cousins, no grandparents, no aunts or uncles. She was an orphan, most likely from a cursed family line if Namtar were to hazard a guess.

The Greek gods had been most cruel to their human followers. In the days before they fled to their own lands in the Underworld, Zeus and his Olympians had wreaked havoc on the human race which still carried on into the modern age. The family names of Annie’s parents indicated their roots in the ancient world, and their mysterious misfortune smacked of Olympian interference.

As he ran his fingers through her black curls, Namtar wondered if one of Annie’s ancient ancestors had been as beautiful as she herself, a temptress who had run afoul of some lusty god and earned a curse for herself and her descendants until the end of time.

The thought brought a smile to his face. Claiming Annie for his own was already a compulsion, but the knowledge that he would be stealing a cursling from the Olympians was a temptation all its own. They derived power from their active curses, strength he would steal when Annie became his human consort in the Sumerian Underworld where the Greeks held no sway.

“What are you thinking?” she asked, her breath coming faster and suddenly louder in the small space. She’d parked the car, but he hadn’t noticed until that moment. With a wave of his hand, he shut off the motor.

“Of many things.” He leaned closer, until their lips were only a few inches apart.

“You looked…hungry.”

“I am. Famished.” His hand threaded more deeply into her abundant hair, ready to tug her closer, closing the space between them until he could feast upon her lips.

“Then I should hurry and check in before the restaurant closes for the night.” She was out the door and leaning back in the window before he could blink. He wondered if she had always moved so quickly or if it were a side effect of the magic newly awakened within her. Perhaps he’d find out as he chased her around their chamber tonight…

“I’ll order us both some grilled chicken or something while I’m checking in. I figure it would be better if you wait in the car. I know the police are only looking for me, but if Roger’s looking for us he might ask about you and you’re certainly a more memorable person than I am.”

“I would disagree, but I will wait.”

She turned away only to spin back a second later, leaning in the open window. “Is chicken okay? Would you rather have a steak or something?” Even with her life on the line and him completely dependent upon her for support in this foreign world she was still concerned with his needs, his likes and dislikes.

She was a rare woman, as kind as any he had met. She would bring a much needed softness to a people tormented by years of cruelty at Ereshkigal’s hands. She simply must return with him. Every minute in her company made him more convinced she was destined to be his queen, not merely a human consort providing power to his rule. Her quiet strength and kindness would compliment his own nature, a nature he knew could be rather rigid at times, especially when dealing with concerns of state.