The Catalyst (9 page)

In an odd twist of fate, Cole had stumbled upon him,
and in exchange for a portal charm, freed him. It was one of those
things so embarrassing that he’d been willing to do Cole favors for
the hush money factor as much as anything.

After that, he’d been a lot more careful to make sure
witches weren’t on his menu. He should have learned the lesson much
earlier on, especially after his brother had been trapped for fifty
years in a house by a curse with the most ridiculous reversal
clause he’d ever heard.

At least the angels dropped new demons near a portal
point so he didn’t have to travel for days. They also dropped them
in deserted areas.

Since humans had become less superstitious and cities
had grown bigger and technology stronger, letting them see too much
of the preternatural world was no longer wise. And the angels
didn’t want their secrets revealed, either—if only because they
wanted to be seen as elite and top secret. Perish the thought that
someone should have the knowledge of how boring heaven was before
they got there.

It was the club everybody thought they wanted in,
until they arrived. Like just about any country club, when he
thought about it.

This demon was female. A succubus. He found her in a
forest in Romania. At one point he would have assumed the woman had
been from that area. But he’d learned over time that where they
were spit back out had nothing to do with where they’d been from,
at least not these days. Once upon a time, they’d been more
organized about it. She could be Chinese or Japanese or American.
She could be anything. It was good that he was fluent in
everything.

She was in the demon form, scaled reddish-brown skin,
claws, horns popping out over her shoulders, fangs, and glowing red
eyes. Not the best form to catch dinner in. He waited for her to
speak first. He’d have to know what language she spoke so he could
talk to her and help her shift. She looked up at him and scrambled
back, a look of horror on her face. She’d been crying for a while.
Who could blame her?

But the horror at seeing him? It was harmful to his
ego. It wasn’t the usual reaction from females. He was in his prime
human hunting form. He’d spent his first thousand years fine-tuning
it. No female could resist it. Except this one, apparently.

“Cain?” She said his name as if willing it not to be
true.

He hoped this wasn’t some woman he’d had for dinner.
That would be just awkward.

“In the flesh,” he said. “Whatever we had before… we
don’t sleep with our own kind. So don’t get any ideas.”

“Ewww, gross. I would never sleep with you,” she
said.

Okay, so not someone he’d slept with. He hoped.
Generally, there was no pillow talk afterward because the woman was
dead. There weren’t often occasions for him to get critiqued on his
technique. He wasn’t sure his ego could handle a bad review after
all this time.

“Who are you?” he asked, the suspense driving him
mad.

“Jane Tanner, Cole’s mate.”

Fuck. He’d heard Jane had died. Cole never hunted his
own food now; it was brought to him. He never left the den anymore.
And now, here his mate was, a succubus.

“Jane, listen to me, I am going to help you. I know
you must be hungry. But I need you to stay here and try to remain
calm. I’ll show you how to shift to a form you can feed in as soon
as I return.”

He knew she didn’t trust him, but she also seemed
aware he was all the help she had at the moment.

“Don’t leave me here.” She pushed the words awkwardly
around her fangs.

“I won’t be long, I promise.” He gave her the blanket
he’d been clutching and went to kick an ass.

***

Cain was in full-on demon form when he crossed into
what he liked to call the
lobby of Heaven
. It was as far as
he was allowed to go. But oh, he’d seen past the gates to those
silly streets and those zombies that stayed there pretending to be
happy with their harps and shit. He was fine with just the
lobby.

The reception angel took a full step back from behind
her podium. “Um…”

“Tell the fucker that just made Jane Tanner into a
demon to get his ass out here right now.”

The receptionist was a cute blonde thing, looked
about twenty. If he had to guess, some human woman who had been
elevated. Angels came in two types: created and elevated. Created
were unfathomably beautiful. Elevated could be anything. She was
cute, but she wasn’t created-level cute. Part of him wanted to see
if he could tempt her, to make her fall, but then she’d be a
guardian, and what would he do with a guardian? Nothing. But it
would be fun, at least. Corrupting the innocent always was.

She darted through the gate and returned a few
minutes later with a couple of different angels. They were both
rather short and bald. Elevated. Those were the worst. So smug and
self-righteous. So proud of themselves for attaining the
unattainable. Even an eternity without sex seemed to matter little
to them, given the power they got to wield, or sort of got to
wield.

“Well, which one of you do I have to thank for Jane’s
turning?”

One of them stepped forward, and Cain punched the
angel in the nose.

The other ran around the lobby like he was on speed,
shouting. “It’s the apocalypse! It’s the apocalypse! Cain is
starting the apocalypse!”

“Oh pipe down. I’m not starting the apocalypse. No
one wants your puny real estate.”

He looked back at the odious angel who was
responsible for Jane’s turning. “You dumb ass. She’s got a mate
down there. How could you do something like that? Werewolves don’t
share. Did Cole do something to deserve this? Did Jane?”

Ordinarily Cain wouldn’t give a shit about other
people’s problems, but he did owe that debt to Cole, and Jane was
now one of his own. His protective urges were surging out of
control, and he wished they’d go away. His own kind was his one
weakness.

The angel looked at the ground and mumbled. “I left
the mating intact when I turned her.”

Cain’s eyes narrowed. “What does that mean,
exactly?”

“It means they’re still tied together, and now he’s
immortal, too. I’m sure she can feed from him because of their
bond. She could find other ways to curb the cravings that don’t
involve sleeping around.” He smiled weakly up at Cain who was more
than twice the angel’s height in full-demon form.

“Oh I don’t buy for a minute that you left the bond
intact on purpose. You’re just lucky it was strong enough. Did you
tell Jane any of this?”

The angel backed up a bit. “Uh, no.”

Cain felt his eyes start to glow, a low growl tearing
out of him. “And why is that?”

“The man upstairs said not to.”

The man upstairs.

Cain chuckled, and clapped him on the shoulder.
“Well, you better hope the man upstairs deals in technicalities,
otherwise you’ve just fallen and bought yourself a one-way ticket
to the lovely and exciting hell, otherwise known as earth. I look
forward to our paths crossing.”

The angel swallowed hard. The other angel, the one
who had been screaming about the apocalypse, had already retreated
to hide behind the gate. The receptionist was doing her best to
study a list on a scroll. She looked up for a moment and Cain
winked at her, unable to help himself. She hurriedly went back to
her work.

His assessing glare went back to the angel
responsible for the current mess, watching him as he cowered and
pulled in on himself as if waiting for the big violence to start.
Probably the other angel had gone to get backups—the warrior class.
Those angels? They were created. And he didn’t feel like slinging
it out with them, especially since his noncorporeal trick only
worked in the human dimension. And Jane needed him. She was one of
his now.

He rolled his eyes and went back to his new
charge.

When he returned via the portal point, Jane was
huddled in the blanket beside a tree trunk. Most of the tree had
broken off in a storm. Her glowing red eyes met his. For all the
outward scariness of her demon form, she still seemed fragile. Back
when she’d been human, there was a time Cain would have drained
her, unable to resist something that screamed
prey
so
loudly. But he hadn’t met her until she was already with Cole—if
not the werewolf’s mate in fact at that point, his mate in spirit.
And Cain wouldn’t go there, not if he wanted his
demon-trapped-in-a-bottle story kept mum.

He sighed as he looked down at her. “Close your eyes,
Jane.”

“What? Hell no, I’m not stupid.” She moved behind the
tree trunk as if one broken tree could protect her.

“I can’t kill you. I can’t fuck you. You’re in no
real danger from me unless you break my laws. I have a special
prison in our dimension for the demons who break my laws. But I
don’t foresee that kind of trouble from you. Now close your eyes,
I’m going to help you change into a form you can feed in.”

She looked at him warily, but finally her lids
lowered.

“That’s right. Now, I want you to think about looking
in the mirror and what you looked like before. Hold the image in
your mind. Then airbrush it.”

One of her eyes quirked open as her face scrunched in
confusion. “Airbrush it?”

“You know, envision yourself without any physical
flaws. The perfect version of you, like a big, famous magazine took
your photograph and airbrushed it.”

“I’m not good at visualization,” she said.

“Trust me. You are now. Part of the demon package.
Just do it.”

She closed her eyes again and focused for a few
minutes until the change came over her. As her form shifted and
became much smaller and more feminine, the blanket she’d had
wrapped around her loosened and dropped halfway down her body. At
first she didn’t notice the modesty compromise.

Her hair, a nice honey color, shimmered about twice
as much as normal. Her skin was clearer and more radiant. The scars
she’d had were gone. No surprises there, after what the vamps had
done to her. And if he wasn’t mistaken, she’d just gone up a cup
size. He chuckled.

Jane opened her eyes and self-consciously pulled the
blanket around her. “Stop ogling me.”

“I wasn’t ogling. I was merely curious about what
changes you’d make to your appearance. This is like attending a
birth for me. Let me have my moment.”

She rolled her eyes. “I’m hungry.”

“I know you are.” Cain held out a hand and she took
it. He’d teach her everything she needed to know about her new form
and her new life, but first he had to get her home to the demon
dimension and find her mate.

Chapter Five

Jane had never paid much attention to the demon
dimension when she’d passed through it before. She’d always been
anxious to get out to the other end, away from Cain and the other
sex demons. They always made her nervous—way too attractive for
their own good. Or anybody else’s. And there was that edge of
danger, the kind that sang to many women like a siren’s song. Now
that she was one of them and no longer prey, she took the time to
look at her surroundings.

Lots of beautiful desert, colorful tents, firelight,
cobblestone streets, and brilliant stars so bright and close that
you could almost reach out and touch them. She had to resist the
urge to try.

“I bet this place is less magical in the day,” she
said, more to herself than anything. But Cain heard it.

“There is no day here. And no weather, either.
Nothing grows. We bring everything we want in from the outside
world.”

That was… unexpected. She took a moment to process
the sameness of the place. Like heaven had been in a way. And yet,
here you could just be what you were. No one was pretending.
Whereas heaven had strict restrictions on the more earthy
pleasures, here she could smell the sex in the air. It made her
mouth water. The demon dimension was a hedonist’s paradise. And she
suspected there was no bigger hedonist than Cain.

The air was a comfortable, moderate temperature.
Occasionally there was a breeze, which seemed like weather to her,
but she didn’t say anything. Cain was someone she didn’t want to
cross, even in minor weather squabbles. Mostly everything was calm
and changeless. While this had been something that made her feel
itchy and restless in heaven, here it filled her with an unexpected
contentedness. As if she were home.

He still had her by the hand, but it wasn’t the kind
of handholding that would make her feel as if she were cheating on
her mate. It was the demon being in charge, showing her the ropes.
He’d already told her what he’d learned in heaven as they’d made
their way to the portal point. It felt strange not needing the
portal charm to get through anymore: the portal had just parted for
her like the red sea, knowing her essence more than she did.

It warmed her to think of her bond
with Cole unsevered, but warm and fuzzy thoughts were having a
harder time getting through as the hunger escalated, causing
physical pain. What if Cole couldn’t accept the change? She had to
feed soon. The discomfort was starting to build far past the
tolerance point. Her skin was tight, hot, itchy. She felt weak, and
she wondered if she still had her higher pain threshold or if that
was gone now.

She still wasn’t clear on how much of old Jane was in
there, and how much of her was upgraded and new. Would Cole
recognize anything of the woman he’d loved? Though she’d gone
through many changes in this last lifetime, none were so pronounced
as the one she’d undergone when she’d been transformed into a
succubus.

What if she had to feed from someone else? Then he’d
never be okay with her. Cain said he’d help her figure out other
things to take the edge off, things that wouldn’t involve cheating
on her mate. But that was assuming Cole was on board for all this
and also assuming she could trust the demon.