Howler's Night (23 page)

Her green eyes pierced me.

“I couldn’t help but notice how different Luc is now.”

She sniffed. “Losing his shit took on a new definition when they took you, Dora. And when we couldn’t find you, it was like something inside him died. And what you see now”—she pointed to the empty spot beside her—“that’s who he is. I hate it.”

I’d closed things off with Luc romantically, but that didn’t mean that I enjoyed hearing this either. It bothered me, yes, but there was also nothing I could do for him right now. Right now the best thing I could do was focus on getting better, stronger. Now was the time to focus on me. When this was all over, then I could try and figure out how to help him.

“So why haven’t you left?”

“And go where?” She held up a hand. “All I kept thinking about while you were gone was how much stronger than me you were and how easy it’d been for them to get at you. I might be Envy, but I’m not stupid. I didn’t stand a chance out there alone.”

“You know, I never thought you were stupid. Just incredibly annoying.”

Sticking her tongue out at me, she kicked my shin underneath the table.

We laughed for a second, then eased into a comfortable silence. If she and I could make this work, then anything was possible.

“So why’d they pump you full of us, Dora? I know there’s more than what you told us. And how the hell did they do that when only Lust, Envy, and Wrath run the Triad?”

I blew out a long raspberry. “I have no idea. They used a device on me, stuck it straight into my chest cavity. When they turned it on, I was flooded with souls. Each power, each soul, is so distinct and violent, sometimes it feels like my head is going to burst. I can control it pretty well during the day, but at night”—I twisted my lips—“at night it gets me.”

“That why you’re still parked so far away with just the priest for company?”

“Yeah.” I nodded. “I feel safe with him, but I don’t trust myself around others just yet. And as to why”—I straightened my shoulders—“it’s so I can open the Gates of Hell.”

She whistled. “Dayum. Whoo.” Shaking her head, she tucked a long piece of hair behind her ear. “And here I always wanted to be you. I can finally say my envy of you is cured.”

I slapped her shoulder. “Thanks a lot.”

Her brows dipped. “So how come you’re not like some raving idiot trying to snap off heads and stuff? To be honest, I couldn’t even sense anything else inside you. You’re like a great big blank.”

“It’s because I’ve locked it down. But trust me, Vyx, it’s all in there.”

She got to her feet and brushed her hands down her backside, dusting her dress off. “One more thing. We help you control these demons, then what? I know you have a plan after that.”

“Then we go and tear those walls down.”

“Fight a war? For you?” Her lips twitched. “I don’t think I like you that much.”

“Ha. Trust me, you don’t want me to open those gates, so yes, you’ll help me fight this war.”

“But bringing that prison down”—she shrugged—“it’s just a place, Dora. It’s not the Triad. What will that do?”

I didn’t tell her about reversing what’d been done to me, about yanking the demons back out, about possibly even committing suicide by doing it. I just didn’t know what pulling it all out of me would do, but what I did know was that without the key, there could be no war.

“It’s a strike against the heart of the dragon, and that”—I got up, tossed my destroyed coffee cup into the garbage bin, and headed toward the flap—“will be more than enough.”

~*~

Asher

“I don’t know what to wear.” Pandora stared mournfully into the closet.

She was coated in a fine sheen of sweat, and her black hair tumbled sexily down to the tip of her backside. Her nipples poked straight out, and it was on the tip of my tongue to tell her to stay just as she was.

“What do you mean you don’t know what to wear?” I joined her, staring at the pile upon pile of clothing and shoes. I gestured at the floor. “You have an entire store in here.”

Pouting, she twirled on me. “I don’t have a clue what Bubba has got planned. He said sexy, but I don’t even know what sexy is anymore. Does he mean slut it up? Or jazz-lounge-singer sexy or goth-chick sexy or triple-X-rated sexy—” She ticked off the list on her fingers.

My lips twitched as I stared back at the rumpled sheets of our bed, remembering the way she’d writhed and moaned on top of me, clawing at my shoulders and back for hours.

“You could always just plop a couple pasties on these.” I cupped her breasts and gave them a squeeze, which made her jump and swat my hands away.

She laughed. “You are so not helping, and if you do that to me again, I swear I’ll toss you down on those sheets and make you beg for it.”

I was never going to get tired of our banter, of her sex play, of any of her really. Chuckling, I riffled my fingers through my hair. Even from this distance, I could hear the crunchy rock music rolling through the fairgrounds.

Soon the gates would open, and Pandora would need to be there. As much as I teased that I preferred her naked, I’d gut anybody if they dared to lay their slimy gaze upon her.

“Just pick something, demon. Everything you have is sexy.” I plopped down onto the edge of the bed and watched as she dropped to her knees, tossing one dress after another over her shoulder, digging frantically into the pile for something she’d find suitable.

I knew what she was doing. She was nervous and she wanted them to trust her, she wanted them to believe in her as I did. So much so that even dressing herself was becoming a grand spectacle.

“Stop.”

She didn’t stop, just kept tossing dresses around haphazardly. When a silky red one dropped into my lap, I sighed. “Pandora, stop now!”

Finally she stopped. Finally she turned around. Her eyes were narrowed, and she was glaring at me. My little demon and her ugly temper.

God I loved her.

I lifted a brow. “You need to relax. Take a deep breath and realize that whatever you wear will be fine.”

Her shoulders slumped, and all the fire rushed off her. Flinging herself backward into another pile of clothes, she shook her head. “This is important to me, Ash. To us.”

“Babe, I know. Trust me.” I twirled the dress in my hand and then flung it at her.

She batted it away, giving a small chuckle. “I am acting a little crazy, aren’t I?”

“A little?” I agreed.

“All right, all right.” She snatched up a pump with a wicked looking heel and waved it in front of her face. “Don’t forget how dangerous I can be with these bad boys. So stop being so useless, and help me pick something out.”

I tossed up my hands. “Woman, you drive me nuts.”

She shrugged. “Hurry, Ash, I’ve got to be there in like fifteen minutes. I have a feeling Bubba’s gonna put me in his tent tonight.”

“What? In the big top?”

She nodded.

When I glanced down at the pile of clothes again, I spied something that immediately brought a grin to my face.

“Stand up.”

Getting up slowly and with a confused frown on her face, she looked at me. “Okay?”

“I don’t know about you, but when I think of a big top I always think of”—leaning over, I picked up an outfit that could have come straight out of a Halloween catalog—“a sexy court jester.”

“What? Really?” Her nose wrinkled as she reached for it.

The costume had a black-and-white cinched bodice with joker triangles along the front, and thick black and ruby-red bands down the back. The design was off the shoulders and flared out around the hips, but it ended just below her ass.

I flicked the poufy black lace beneath it. “I remember buying you something like this once.”

Rolling her eyes, she yanked the dress off the hanger and slipped it on. If I hadn’t already known just how pressed for time we were, I’d have plucked her up, dropped her onto the bed, and proceeded to take it off her again very slowly.

I rubbed my jaw.

Her eyes glowed. “You like?”

There wasn’t much room in my head for anything other than a one word answer.

“Well, my dirty little priest, you haven’t even seen the best part yet.”

Making easy work of cinching the corset tight, she then turned and flounced toward the dresser. The poufy bottom showed a peekaboo flash of ass with each step she took.

Suddenly I was regretting my decision, but then she turned and showed me what she’d pulled out of the dresser, and all the blood rushed to my groin.

Plopping down onto a corner of the bed, I watched as she slipped on the sheerest black thong I’d ever seen. Then she took a seat on a chair, lifted her left leg high, and allowed the sock in her hand to unroll.

Never taking her eyes off me, she smirked as she eased the thigh highs on first one leg, then the other. They ended just at mid-thigh. Black and white, they had tiny bells tied at the tops that rang as she moved.

My mouth watered. My pulse thundered.

Standing, and wearing a pride-filled smirk, she bent over, giving me a flash of what lay beneath, and my breathing became twice as hard. She snatched up a pair of white-and-black checkered heels that had a good four-inch heel and slipped them on, but the best part about them was the way they laced around her delicate ankles.

“I changed my mind,” I said in a voice grown gruff. “Take it off.”

Laughing, she waltzed over to me and laid a hand on my rapidly beating heart. “You jealous?”

Banding my arms around her waist, I growled, and the sound of it covered her in a wash of goose bumps.

“Oh, Asher.” She leaned up on her toes, even though we were pretty much eye level now, and nipped at my nose. “This is just a little window shopping. They can look, but they can never touch.”

Wanting to make damn sure she understood that, I slipped my hand down the front of her top, popping one of her breasts free and palming it in my hand. She moaned, and the sound of it drove me wild.

“Mine,” I said, and it was a primitive form of claiming, but I wasn’t playing any games with this woman. Not anymore.

“Always, Greed, always yours,” she moaned.

~*~

We just barely made it to the big top in time. Bubba was already outside, dressed in his top hat and coat tails, brandishing his cane at the spell-bound audience. I’d seen the routine a thousand times, but tonight I was nervous because I had no idea what Gluttony had planned for my demon.

Pandora patted my chest. “Relax, big boy. I’m gonna be fine. But I’d be worried about everyone else if I was you.”

She glanced at the audience, and a definite gleam of anxiety flashed in her stormy eyes.

Breathing out harshly, I nodded. “I’m sorry. You don’t need me back here stressing you out.”

Bubba’s eyes looked around the crowd and then lit up when he finally spied Pandora. I knew the time had come for her first test.

Rubbing her back as we made our way toward the big man, I whispered, “I’ll be in the back.”

She hip bumped me. “Protecting me as always. I get it. But don’t freak out about what might happen, okay? I don’t expect this to be easy, whatever it is.”

“That’s code for don’t interfere, Ash,” I grumped. “I get it.”

Chuckling, she shook her head. “Give me a word.”

“What?”

She paused as an obviously over-excited human male rushed ahead of her to tear through the tent flaps.

“A word you want me to use if I think it’s too much. Our safe word.”

I twirled her around. “And you’ll use it? If you can’t take it, you’ll use it?”

“Of course. I swear.” She placed her hand on my shoulder.

Bubba joined us then. “Gotta get inside before things get too rowdy.”

She looked at me expectantly, and I knew the word for us. “Truth.”

Her smile was soft. “Okay then.” And with a gentle kiss on my cheek, she walked into the tent.

Bubba was about to join her when he pressed his hand to my chest, stalling me. “I want you to know that what you see will probably be uncomfortable. But that girl is about the only real friend I’ve ever had, and I’ll do anything to help her get well, so you need to trust me.”

I clenched my jaw, shoving my hands into my jeans. “And if I don’t? If I think you’re pushing her too far?”

“Then I’ll fight to keep you out.”

Eyes narrowing, I said beneath my breath, “You know you’re no match for me.”

“So be it.”

Neither of us was willing to break eye contact first; predators are wired that way. It was Pandora shoving her head out of the tent and giving us both the evil eye that finally broke us apart.

“Boys, boys, if you don’t mind, it’s time to train.”

Pandora

Bubba had us sequestered in a hidden back room in the tent. Well, it wasn’t really a room, more like thick blankets that stretched out from four corners, creating a sort of private inner sanctum. This was likely where Bubba brought his night’s trophies.

This wasn’t at all a traditional big top. There were no rows of seats waiting to be filled or animals parading about.

There were floor mats and pillows and lots and lots of naked, writhing bodies.

He eyed me up and down. “Great costume.”

I chuckled, rubbing my arm. “Thanks. My boy toy picked it out.”

Come to think of it, he really had done a good job. Bubba and I could have been twins in our getups. With his blond good looks and my dark allure, we were like the ying and yang of smexitimes.

Mood music, some sort of throaty jazz number, only heightened the sounds of moans and groans that filtered through this den of sexual excess.

“So what do I do, Bubba?”

“First I need to know how strong your demon is.” He rubbed my bare arm. “I don’t feel it. I need to feel it.”

I swallowed. I’d kept these little bastards locked down, and I was almost afraid to tap into the wellspring again. But I knew that without opening up, I’d never be able to get beyond where I was.

Reminding myself that I was there to learn, I closed my eyes and blossomed, fingernails digging into my palms and leaving crescent moon shapes behind as I vibrated from the immediate surge of unfamiliar power.

I was bathed in the rich scent of blood and flesh. Visions flashed through my mind, images of men and woman heeding my call, thralled by the Pied Piper as they came, falling to their knees before me and offering themselves.