Home for the Holidays: A Night Huntress Novella (8 page)

Seventeen

I
’M NOT BARGAINING
away my soul or anyone else’s,” were my first words when I followed Ian and the demon outside of the subterranean garage. Maybe if Balchezek thought I was uncompromising on this point, he wouldn’t press me for conditions that, in my desperation, I might take him up on.

The demon snorted. “Good, because I don’t want yours, and—newsflash—you don’t have authority over anyone else’s, Miss Overthinks Her Importance.”

I was beyond relieved to hear that, but I pretended to bristle at the insult. Ian laughed. “She does at times, doesn’t she?”

“Before we go further, why would you want to help vampires over your own kind?” I might be desperate, but I wasn’t about to ignore the most logical question.

“Because I hate my job,” Balchezek said promptly.

My brows rose. “You consider damning souls a
job
?”

“What would you call something you have to do in order to fit in, where you’re bitched at whenever you underperform, yet you’re never, ever appreciated for when you do it right?” Another snort. “I guess marriage also qualifies, but for me, it’s contracting souls.”

Was it possible that all demons weren’t evil incarnate? That one could feel remorse over what he’d done? “So you don’t like having to condemn people?”

He looked at me like I was crazy. “Some meat monkey comes crying to me about, oh, I need this or that, give it to me and you can have whatever you want. So I give it, then he bitches about the terms after the bill’s come due, and
I’m
the one who’s supposed to feel bad?”

All right, looked like I was wrong about him feeling remorse! “Yeah, because you’re taking advantage of people when they’re at their lowest,” I pointed out. “It’s not fair.”

He rolled his eyes. “It’s not like I was consulted when the downstairs went to war against the upstairs. I’m just supposed to do what I’m told, all day, every day, for the rest of eternity whether I like it or not. And if I don’t do it, then I get thrown into the lake of fire. Don’t talk to
me
about fair.”

“So what do you want in return for helping us?” I asked, giving Balchezek a calculated once-over. “You’re offering us information to help beat this demon, and you just proved that it’s not out of a sense of repentance.”

Balchezek smiled. “Not at all. I want a place in your world. If I try to abscond on my own, the higher-ups will come after me, and I’d rather die than get caught cowering among humans. But if I’m under a
vampire’s
protection, I become more trouble than I’m worth. It’s like I said, most demons don’t want to poke the fang beehive if they can avoid it.”

“You want me to take you in as a member of my line?” I couldn’t quite keep the appalled sound out of my voice.

“You take in ghosts,” he said, spitting out the word like it was foul. “Yet a demon isn’t good enough for you? Besides, I don’t want protection from
your
line. You’re so priggish, you’d make me crazy. But you,” a nod at Ian, “are more my style.”

Ian inclined his head in acknowledgment of their similarities. “You’re set in your decision? Because while I don’t require morals from members of my line, I do expect loyalty. How can I be sure you won’t change your mind later?”

“Know that movie where the underappreciated cubicle workers flip out, beat their copy machine to smithereens, and then rob their own company?” He flashed his teeth in something too feral to be considered a smile. “Consider that demon in your friend my copy machine, and my robbery is spilling secrets of my race to tell you how to save him, and your other friends, without killing them.”

Ian stretched out his hand, which the demon grasped without hesitation. “Fulfill your promise, and you are welcome in my line with my full protection.”

Balchezek shook his hand. “Great. That’s part one of my terms.”

Why wasn’t I shocked that the demon had more conditions? “What’s part two?”

He let go of Ian’s hand and smiled at me. “Life’s not worth living without a few basic comforts, eh? I want money. An obscene amount of money, to be specific.”

I didn’t have tons in the bank, but Bones had built up a fortune over his centuries of bounty hunting and investments guided by a vampire who caught glimpses of the future.

“Fine. When this is over, I’ll be sure you get a check that’ll make me vomit when I write it, how’s that?”

Balchezek coughed. “I’ll need a little down payment on that promise.” And then he nodded at my hand.

I glanced down at the red diamond ring Bones had given me the day he asked me to marry him. Its sentimental value to me was priceless. Because of the rareness of red diamonds and its five-carat size, its market value was also through the roof.

I twisted it off and handed it over without needing a moment to think. I’d rather have Bones alive than a rock that would break my heart with memories if he were dead. “Fine. When you’ve helped us boot that bitch out of everyone without killing them, you’ll give that back in exchange for your obscene check. Agreed?”

The creature who had bound countless others to supernatural deals stuffed the ring in his pocket and smiled. “Consider it done.”

I smiled back, making sure to show my fangs in warning. “I’ll hold you to that.”

Two vampires and a demon, allied together. It was a Christmas miracle alright, but of the macabre kind. Still, I’d take my miracles however I could get them.

Eighteen

B
ALCHEZEK SAID
HE
needed to fact-check a few things and he’d return later, so it was only Ian and I who descended back into the underground garage.

“Tell me you did
not
barter your soul, Kitten,” were Bones’s first words when we came into sight.

Although I’d given that more than a passable thought, I was able to say, “Of course not,” with total honesty. If I made sure to sound like I’d never even considered it, well, that was just the icing on the cake.

Bones drilled Ian with a hard stare next. “Is she lying?”

“You’d believe his word over mine?” I shook my head. “That’s insulting.”

Ian gave Bones a languid smile. “No worries, Crispin. Our sulfur-smelling mate has more pedestrian reimbursements in mind for any assistance he gives us.”

“Really,” I added when Bones still looked like he doubted we were telling the truth.

“We’ll need to keep you chained until we hear from Balchezek and come up with a game plan,” I went on, hating the necessity even as I acknowledged the reason for it. “Ian and I will watch over you in shifts. I’m sorry for the—”

“I’m not sorry,” Bones cut me off. He’d been staring at me, but then he glanced away. “I can’t harm you this way. That’s all I bother about.”

“Excuse us for a moment, Crispin,” Ian said. Then he tugged me along to far side of the haphazard concrete maze where the hole to the outside was. He jumped out and I followed, wondering what was up now.

Ian walked over to the side of the street. “Are you trying to make Crispin lose the hold he has over the demon?”

I blinked at the question, too surprised to be offended. “Why would you say that?”

“He’s shredded with guilt over what that demon made him do. Blimey, I’m a selfish conceited bastard and even I’d feel badly about kicking your face in and trying to kill you if you were my wife. Multiply that by Crispin’s far finer qualities, and you have a man tormented. Yet you’re acting as though he is to blame.”

Okay,
now
I was angry. Didn’t take long at all when talking to Ian. “I know it’s not his fault. That it was all her, and he has nothing to feel bad about. So why don’t you go take a flying fuck, Ian!”

“Why don’t you take a chained one,” he countered.

I scoffed. “I’m sure that’s a fabulous British comeback, but it’s wasted on me because I don’t know what it means.”

“It means,” he replied, speaking slowly, as though I was a child, “that I’ve seen how you normally act after a separation where one of you was almost killed. You nearly kick people out of the way to shag each other. Yet all you’re doing now is contributing to his guilt when you should be showing him that he’s still the man you’re in love with, demon or no demon. And chains or no chains.”

My mouth opened, ready to let loose a caustic comment about how Ian thought sex fixed any situation, when I stopped. He might have a point. I could reassure Bones until I was blue in the face that I didn’t consider him responsible for what the she-bitch did when she was in the driver’s seat, but as the saying went, actions spoke louder than words. Granted, there was nothing romantic about an underground, abandoned Jiffy Lube station, but Bones had made more out of less when circumstances threw us a curve ball.

I’d just have to do the same.

“You don’t get to stay and watch,” was what I finally said.

His lips twitched. “It
would
be safer in case the demon resurged and took control—”

“Bite me,” I cut him off.

This time, Ian didn’t attempt to stuff back his laughter. “I’ll leave that to Crispin.”

Nineteen

A
N HOUR LA
TER,
I jumped back down into the underground garage, winding through the support barriers until I reached the spot where Bones was secured. Ian reclined in front of him, one leg propped up on the pile of extra chains we had just in case.

I threw a hotel key card at Ian. We were checked in not far from there so we had another place to store our weapons.

“Here. Why don’t you wash up, change clothes, and find someone to eat?”
And don’t hurry back,
my pointed look added.

I’d already done two out of those three things, as my damp hair and new outfit attested. After all, I wasn’t about to seduce my husband while his friend’s scent still clung to me.

Ian rose. “Don’t mind if I do. See you both in a bit.”

I waited until I heard him exit before I set down the bag I’d been holding and began to arrange its contents on the floor.

Bones sniffed. “Scented candles?”

“I’m sick of the oil and blood smell,” I responded, lighting them. “This is better.”

I didn’t need to look up to know his dark brown gaze followed my every movement. I could almost feel his stare, and though he tried to tamp down his aura, slivers of yearning and remorse whispered across my subconscious.

“Did Ian tell you that Balchezek says he knows another way to force the demon out without killing you and the others?” I asked, glancing at him.

His brows drew together. “Yes, but I don’t trust demons.”

I laughed, soft and wry. “I’m right there with you, but Balchezek has his reasons for helping us.”

I wasn’t going to repeat those reasons with the female demon eavesdropping inside Bones. Since possessing vampires was technically a demon no- no, I doubted the bitch could tattle on Balchezek without outing herself, but why give her an edge?

“You know what you have to do if he’s wrong, Kitten.”

The flatness in his voice made a shiver run through me that had nothing to do with the garage’s frigid temperature.
Yeah. I’ll find another way to save you,
I silently replied, but didn’t say that out loud, either. Bones would only argue about promises and duty and I didn’t care about any of those things if they meant he had to die.

I finished lighting the candles and walked over to him. His mouth was still set in a hard line, but his gaze raked over the contours of my body as though he couldn’t stop himself. In addition to remorse and yearning, another emotion crested against my subconscious—possessiveness. He might know that I’d only had good intentions by my earlier actions with Ian, but his vampire nature demanded that he assert his claim over me. How well I knew that from being on the other side of the jealousy coin with Bones in the past.

“How’s our demonic squatter?” I asked, brushing his chains.

“Angry.” One word, clipped with the weight of emotions I felt him trying to hold back.

I smiled. “Good.” Then I took out the key and unlocked the first of many bolts connecting his chains.

Tension slipped through the wall he’d erected around his aura. “What are you doing?”

I unwound a length of chain, letting it drop to the floor. “Making you more accessible. One down, half a dozen to go, and even then you’ll still be unable to move your arms or legs.”

“Don’t.” His eyes flashed green. “She’s too dangerous.”

I undid another section of chain before standing on tiptoe to slowly run my tongue down the side of his ear. “Fuck her,” I whispered. “She’s had you to herself too long, and you’re
mine
.”

More chains fell. His mouth brushed my cheek, control raging against the hunger I felt rising in him. “It’s not safe,” he tried again.

I laughed before I caught his ear with fangs that were already out from my growing desire. “Oh, Bones. How often do we ever play it safe?”

A low growl was my response. So was the blast of lust decimating the last of the barriers he’d had around his emotions. I reveled in both, licking the shell of his ear and then letting my breath tease the same space.

He couldn’t grab me with his hands, but his aura enveloped me, sheathing me in a tingling cloud of power and raw need. It still felt fragmented from his fight to keep the demon down, but I had no doubt he would win that fight. Three more lengths of chain fell from around his waist. I could now reach through the remaining links and pull his shirt open, revealing the hard flesh of his chest and stomach.

“I missed you,” I said, abandoning his ear for his lips.

His mouth closed over mine with such hunger that my embers of desire turned into a furnace. He didn’t wait for me to part my lips, but invaded past them with deep, seeking strokes of his tongue. I moaned and tugged harder on his chains. More fell, until I could press my body against his and feel the bulge of something other than metal against me. He groaned, rough and guttural, when I reached down and clasped my hand around him.

His mouth tore away from mine, glowing green gaze pinning me in its intensity. “Take your clothes off. I need to see you.”

I backed away on shaky legs, the roar of lust slamming into my subconscious making me almost glad he was chained. He felt wild, almost feral. Like he thought this was the last time we’d be together and he’d hold nothing back except the demon raging inside him. I drew the shirt over my head and tossed it aside, my skin rippling with gooseflesh under the rake of his gaze. My bra came off next, nipples already hard and aching. Then my jeans. I pulled my panties down with them, kicking both aside.

“Ravishing.”

His accent was thicker, and he stared at me like he’d devour my flesh with his eyes. I stared back, absorbing the view of pale crystal flesh stretched over muscles that bunched and flexed against the chains. His features were almost frightening in their fierce beauty; mouth fuller from our recent kiss, eyes glittering green, jaw clenching from passionate impatience.

I was impatient, too, emotions surging in me that went well beyond lust. Someone was trying to steal away the most important person in the world to me, and I was going to take back what was mine. His gaze flared brighter when I stalked over, yanking away the last of the chains around his hips. A wealth of rigid flesh filled my hands when a rough tug split open the front of his jeans. Then I stepped on the discarded pile of metal to raise myself to his height, sliding my thigh up to his waist.

His mouth crushed over mine, tongue sensually ravaging me as he bent to bring that hard flesh against my center. I didn’t have time to reach down to assist before a strong arch pushed him inside me, wringing a gasp from me that his mouth absorbed. Every nerve ending flared in welcome as another thrust brought him deeper, sending more pleasure searing through me. I gripped his shoulders through the chains when he moved again, burying himself to the hilt and then grinding against my clitoris in a way that sent spasms ricocheting through my loins.

I cried out when he did it again, locking my arms around his neck for leverage and hiking my other thigh up to press myself closer. He began to move in strong, measured strokes that had me begging for more in between kisses. Power slid along my back, curling around me to hold me aloft and molding my hips tighter against him than mere hands ever could. His thrusts intensified, sending aching currents of rapture through me. My head fell back and I leaned against that invisible grip, loins clenching in frenzied bliss with every deep, rapid stroke.

His throaty growls and my moans drowned out the clanking noises from the chains as we moved faster, faster, until I wasn’t aware of anything except the overwhelming sensations surging inside me. They culminated in a climax that tore a hoarse shout from me, the feel of Bones’s answering spasms sending more ecstatic ripples through my body.