Her Dangerous Desires [Notorious Nephilim 6] (Siren Publishing Ménage Amour) (17 page)

“We have not called you here tonight to talk about the past.” Emmett’s voice thundered around the circle. Paige remembered what Demetrius had told her about not showing fear or self-deprecation. “We’ve called you here to collect the favor you owe us. Will you fulfill the favor by doing this task or not?”

Emmett wasn’t going to let Botis chide them for falling victim to Lilith. Paige didn’t know everything that had happened with her, but she tried to imagine how foolish and betrayed they must all have felt. They shared a bond and a history she could never truly understand.

“I will try, but what do you desire I do instead if she refuses to lift the curse? You understand I cannot reverse it myself.”

“We understand. If she refuses to lift the curse, we want her banished from this resort and the surrounding property regardless.”

“That I can do. But is this not actually two favors, Emmett?”

Paige couldn’t see Emmett’s face, but she felt his anger, hot and powerful. “We gave you one of our own, Botis. The favors we ask tonight are not out of line with the sacrifices we made, and you know it.”

Botis didn’t speak for a few seconds, and Paige wondered if Emmett had gone too far. What would they all do if Botis refused to do either favor?

“I will do both then.”

“Thank you, Botis.” Emmett’s voice was filled with relief.

“Return here tomorrow night. I will let you know Lilith’s decision.”

And just like that, he was gone. No fanfare, no smoke, no smell, nothing. The heavy feeling in the air disappeared, and within seconds Paige heard insects singing again.

“We can extinguish our candles now,” said Emmett.

“That’s it?” she asked.

“What did you expect?”

“I don’t know. Something…big…demonic.”

Emmett chuckled as he walked away with Zach and Abigail. Paige followed Demetrius and Gregory to the rowboat and waited until they were on their way back to the dock before she spoke. “Do you think she’ll do it?”

“I wish I knew, Paige.” Demetrius’s voice held a note of sadness that surprised Paige. She hadn’t realized he wanted this so badly.

“Why can’t you banish her yourselves? You said you tried but it failed.”

“Because of the curse,” said Gregory. “We believe she bound herself to this resort when she placed it on us.”

“So why can Botis do it?”

“It’s complicated to try and explain, Paige.”

She let it go. Gregory didn’t sound like he wanted to discuss it, and Paige’s head was spinning from all she’d seen and heard since arriving here. Stasia and Kimber would never believe this. No one Paige knew in real life would believe this. She wasn’t sure she even believed it.

When they returned to Demetrius’s suite, Gregory mixed drinks for each of them. Paige sipped hers, wondering how she’d sneak away and retrieve those pieces of paper under Gregory’s mattress. An hour later, the men were on their third drinks apiece. They’d been talking about things that went on at the resort long before Paige arrived and were currently laughing about something Cristian had done decades ago.

Every so often Paige would ask a question, but for the most part it almost seemed as if they’d forgotten she was in the room. She excused herself to use the bathroom then walked into the bedroom where her things were. Glancing around for the red sweater she’d planned to wear the next day, she remembered she’d left it in Gregory’s suite after having her clothes washed. Now she had a reason to return to his suite tonight.

When she returned to the sitting room, she forced her voice to remain neutral. “I’ll be right back. I left something in Gregory’s suite that I want to wear tomorrow.”

“Do you want one of us to come with you?” asked Demetrius. His words were slurred.

“No, that’s okay. I’ll be fine, and I’ll be back before you know it.”

He looked relieved, and Paige hoped her own relief didn’t show on her face. They both were quite drunk. She’d never seen either of them drink so much. This whole thing with Botis and Lilith must be bothering them far more than they had led her to believe.

She turned on the lights as soon as she entered Gregory’s suite, and tilted her head to listen. It was quiet. Her glance fell on the corner where she’d found the book, and her stomach lurched when she realized the pile of books and papers looked different than the last time she’d been here. Did they already know?

She went straight to the bedroom and reached under the mattress without bothering to turn on the lights. Fear raced through her body like hot pokers as she ran her hands along the box spring. The pages were gone.

“Fuck.” She turned on the bedside lamp and tried to push the mattress off the box spring, but it was heavy. It would take a while to move it completely off. How long could she stay gone before Demetrius and Gregory came looking for her?

She pushed again, and managed to move it a couple of inches, panting with the effort. As she was about to give it another shove, laughter filled the air. Paige let out a cry of frustration and stood up, whirling around. “Leave me alone, Lilith. I don’t have time for this.”

“Looking for these?” Paige shuddered at the sound of the disembodied female voice. The pages she’d written floated down from the ceiling, but when Paige dared to glance up, no one was there.

She snatched the pages and looked them over. They were all there, just as she’d copied them. “Thanks.” She felt foolish speaking to thin air, but immediately her foolishness turned to fear as the air in the room took on the same claustrophobic feeling she’d experienced in the woods. Was Lilith about to show herself?

Paige’s pulse began to race. A metallic taste filled her mouth. She should run. Just get the hell out of here and return to Demetrius’s suite. So what if she had to tell them the truth? The worst was over now, and maybe as drunk as they were they would laugh at it.

She took a couple of tentative steps toward the door but the solid form that materialized in front of her barred the way. Lilith looked exactly like her photo. Her long hair was loose and billowed in an invisible icy breeze. Her eyes were as black as obsidian and regarded Paige with cold detachment. Her mouth was set in a sneer. “Looking for me, were you? Here I am. What do you want?”

“N–Nothing.”

She arched her perfectly shaped brows and pointed a manicured fingernail toward the paper in Paige’s hands. “Then why the spells?”

“Just c–curious.”

“Sure you were.” Lilith took two steps toward Paige, and she tried to back up, but her legs were already against the bed. Demetrius’s words came back to her.
“You don’t need to fear her, although I can understand your reaction. She’s here to taunt us. Her vendetta is with us, not you.”
The ones he’d spoken this evening as they waited to begin the ceremony followed those. “
Demons prey on fear and self-deprecation.”
She couldn’t show Lilith she was afraid of her.

“Get out of my way, Lilith.”

“Oh my. You are a feisty one. Most mortals to whom I appear piss their pants and run screaming from the room.”

“You sound like a child.” Paige’s trembling voice betrayed her true emotion.

“And you shouldn’t interfere in things that are none of your business.”

She wanted so badly to tell Lilith that her days at this resort were numbered, but she didn’t want to give away what they’d done this evening. Lilith obviously didn’t know yet that they’d summoned Botis.

“Let me pass.”

Lilith crossed her arms. “And if I don’t?”

A horrible thought occurred to Paige. Why didn’t Lilith know yet what they’d done? Was Botis really going to contact Lilith and try to force her to reverse the curse? What if he’d lied to them, just to placate Emmett and the others? If he had been true to his word, why was Lilith here right now? Why hadn’t Botis contacted her yet?

“I don’t have time for this.” Paige tried to push past her, but an icy hand on her arm stopped her progress. Paige shivered at the sudden numbness that spread over her limbs. “Let me go.”

“Not until I have my say.” Lilith pushed her into a sitting position on the bed. “You’re all the same. You come here to fuck them and then think they’ll fall in love with you.”

Paige bit her lip as memories of Phil assaulted her senses. Where had those come from? She’d barely thought about him since her arrival.

“You think you can bat your pretty eyelashes and they’ll swoon. You suck their cocks and interpret their response as something more—something
permanent
.”

Paige saw Phil sitting at his computer, a frown on his face as she tried to persuade him to go to dinner with her or see a movie.

“You think if you fuck them both they’ll be so taken with you that they won’t let you leave.”

Lilith’s face contorted into a mask of anger and jealousy. Paige tried to mentally chase away the images, but now instead of memories of Phil, a barrage of emotions associated with Demetrius and Gregory forced their way in. Paige tried to stand, but unseen forces held her on the bed.

“They don’t love
you, Paige. Leo and Andras didn’t love Blair. Hugh and Sterling didn’t love Caleigh. Cristian and Blade don’t love Joelle. Zach and Emmett don’t love Abigail, and Reeve and Niko don’t love Sofia. They only chose mortality because it’s the easy way out.”

“That’s not true. They chose it because it’s their chance at redemption.” Lilith was just messing with her head. Paige had seen the looks of love on Zach and Emmett’s faces. She’d seen the way Reeve and Niko looked at Sofia.

A horrible grin spread across Lilith’s red lips. “Are you sure? You only know what they tell you, after all.”

“I’ve seen it.”

“You see what you want to see because you think Demetrius and Gregory love you.”

“That’s not true. I believe what they told me.” Paige blinked back tears as images of Gregory and Demetrius fucking other women entered her mind. She had no idea who they were. They flashed through her consciousness like old-fashioned photographs, grainy and sepia colored.

“Blair, Caleigh, and Joelle never really had any of them. It was a sham. A lie. A façade.”

Paige grunted with the effort of trying to stand again, but she couldn’t. She brushed at the tears coursing down her cheeks. Her limbs felt like stone, and she had trouble taking a full breath. She was dying, and Demetrius and Gregory would never know that she loved them.

“And now Abigail and Sofia think they’ve found true love, but they’ll know the truth one day. On their death beds they’ll know the truth.”

Paige made one last attempt to stand up, but it was hopeless. She didn’t bother to wipe away the tears. She watched Lilith pace the room, her hair standing on end and the hem of her dress glowing red, as though it were on fire. Her face was full of pain and hatred.

Every happy moment Paige had at the resort faded away and was replaced with the anger and jealousy pouring off Lilith. It was as if Lilith had been able to wipe away Paige’s emotions. Had they lied to her? Were Abigail and Sofia really living a pipe dream and didn’t know it?

“You lie,” she whispered. “I believe Gregory and Demetrius, not you.”

Lilith stopped pacing and turned to face Paige, opened her mouth to speak, but terror filled her face instead. A foul stench enveloped the room, and Paige moaned. She recognized it as the same smell that had filled the clearing just before Botis materialized.

As the booming sound of a bass drum ricocheted around the room, Botis appeared, but not in human form. Paige stared at the charred flesh and tattered remnants of a garment, unable to process what she was seeing.

He whirled around, perhaps realizing for the first time that she was also in the room, and began to morph into the human form she’d seen in the clearing, but it was too late. Paige knew she’d never be able to forget his true form. It would haunt her dreams for the rest of her life.

Demetrius pushed past Botis and Lilith and gathered Paige in his arms. She was cold—as cold as a corpse might feel. He knew she wasn’t dead, but the fear racing through his body was the same as if she were.

“Why is she here?” Botis didn’t address Demetrius. His attention was focused on Lilith.

“How should I know?”

“What have you done to her, you bitch?” Gregory’s eyes were full of a desire for murder.

“I did nothing. Hold your tongue.”

“I’ll cut yours out.” Gregory advanced toward her, but Botis put out an arm to stop him.

“Both of you take the mortal woman out of this room. Lilith and I have things to discuss.”

Gregory looked like he wasn’t going to do as Botis asked, but he must have finally realized it was best to leave the two demons alone. As Gregory turned to leave, Demetrius watched his gaze fall on several pieces of paper on the floor. He picked them up, frowning as he read them.

“They belong to her.” Lilith’s grin was predatory. “You will find them interesting reading.”

“Gregory, let’s go. Now.”

Demetrius carried Paige back to his suite, and Gregory followed. If Demetrius hadn’t been certain it would piss off Botis, he would have headed straight back to Gregory’s suite to find out what Lilith had to say. But he couldn’t do anything to screw this up, and Paige needed them right now. Why had she been there? And what was written on the pieces of paper Gregory had picked up?

“Fuck.” He held them out toward Demetrius. “She copied down spells to summon demons.”

“She what?” Demetrius took the pages from Gregory and read them, resisting the urge to chuckle. What the hell had she been thinking?

“You find this funny?” The look of incredulity on Gregory’s face was almost as comical as the idea of Paige rummaging through Gregory’s old books to copy down demon-summoning spells.

“Well, it’s not exactly fatal, is it?” He glanced at Paige. She was beginning to wake up. “I’m going to get her something strong to drink, with hot tea. That should help.”

“Demetrius, did she summon Lilith tonight?”

Demetrius frowned. He hadn’t thought of that. He’d assumed she’d gone back to Gregory’s suite merely to get the spells, not that she’d actually used one of them.