The Nightwind's Woman (23 page)

“I am the embodiment of the Female spirits
of the Universe, She who is One in Three. I am the mothers and daughters and
aunts, the sisters and wives and lovers. I am Birth and Death and War. Mine is
the vastness of space and the infinity of existence. Over My warriors I spread
the Triune safeguard of protection—the blanket of defense, the shield of
security, the cloak of safety. Let My warriors return to Me with no harm done
to them that cannot be undone as they journey forth.”

Cree, Coulter and Sorn dropped to their
left knees with their right fists doubled over their hearts, their heads bowed.
“
Mo Regina
,” they said in unison.

“I cannot go into battle with you but you
have My blessing,” the Triune Goddess stated. “I will keep My Reapers safe.”

Her presence departed the room as quickly
as it came, leaving everyone stunned.

“Holy shit,” Lauren whispered. “That was
the Triune!”

The Reapers rose.

“I feel blessed though technically Queen
Morrigunia is not my creatrix,” Sorn said softly.

“You’re a Reaper,” Cree said. “She
considers you as much Hers as Coulter and me.”

“Aye, but She doesn’t give a rat’s pecker for
us, now does She?” Randon asked Kerreyder.

“We’re not one of Hers,” Kerreyder said
with a fatalistic shrug. “Lilith is your creatrix and I doubt she’d give you
her blessing for our undertaking.” He chuckled sourly. “I know fucking well my
bitch of a mother is wishing her son fails.”

“Did you feel the archangels leave the
moment She graced us with Her presence?” Coulter asked. He looked at Lauren. “Are
they afraid of Her?”

“As far as they are concerned, She befouled
the room,” Lauren replied. “Luckily She did not come until I had invoked their
blessing on you.”

“That wasn’t luck,” Kerreyder said. “She knew
when to make Her grand appearance.” He looked at Cree. “Well, you and Sorn and
the Ridge Lord have nothing to worry about tomorrow.”

“Today,” Jaleel said.

“Aye, I guess so,” Kerreyder agreed.

* * * * *

Morrigunia grimaced as She listened to the
warriors and the witch. It was true, She thought. Eavesdroppers rarely heard
anything good about themselves. Not that it mattered. She was immune to what
humanoids thought of Her—or demons for that matter.

But the incubus had been wrong in his
statement. She did care about both him and the archdemon. Not because they
needed protection but because of the female they had in common. The female they
shared, who at that very moment was in more danger than any of the men or the
witch would ever be.

“You are a piece of offal on the ass of a
diseased warthog, Lilith,” She told the succubus.

Jeering laughter from four female throats
met Her words.

“One day,” the Triune said. “You will atone
for what you have done this night.”

Our bargaining chip
, Naamah cooed to her.

“Aye, well bargaining chip or not, you will
fail,” Morrigunia replied.

More scathing laughter set the goddess’s
fangs on edge.

You think you are beyond reprimand but
there is One who will not be pleased when He hears what you have done
, the Triune thought to Herself. With a smile of retribution on Her
beautiful face She shifted into dragon form and took to the heavens, giant
wings flapping powerfully as She headed for Jeeoil, the home of the gods.

* * * * *

“You have decided
what
?” Lilith
shouted at her sister.

Agrat shrugged. “The more I thought on it,
the more I decided the humanoids are too much entertainment for us to lose.
Think on it, sister. Who would we torment if the Nikkeson is allowed to destroy
them? And if it destroys all living matter, the humanoids would not survive.”

“Then there is the matter of my wayward
offspring,” Eisheth said with a hard breath of anger. “Naamah wants him at her
beck and call and has set into motion the perfect ploy for her to have her way.”

“Naamah is thinking with her twat,” Lilith
snapped. “As she always has when it comes to your son.”

“What is that trite Terran saying? The
heart wants what it wants?” Eisheth said with a shrug. “And Naamah wants him.”

“And she should have him,” Agrat stated.

“It matters not to me,” Eisheth said, “but
our sister has a point. If we do destroy all living matter within the Megaverse
we only have ourselves and those back-biting bitches and bastards on Jeeoil to
keep us occupied. Upon deeper thought, the Nikkeson should not be allowed
permanent freedom. An occasional foray across the worlds to cull the unwanted
should suffice.”

“Plus there is the matter of us not being
able to control him. Only Yn Drogh Spyrryd is powerful enough to bring that
beast to heel and he couldn’t care less about anyone other than himself.
Without Ridge Lords to capture and send the beast back to confinement, we would
be hard pressed not to worry it would eventually come after us,” Agrat put in.

“It could not hurt us,” Lilith scoffed.

“True, but it could destroy all living
things around us,” Eisheth said. “
Everything
. Would you wish to live on
a dead plane, sister?”

“I want that key,” Lilith said through
clenched teeth. She held out her hand and curled her fingers into a fist. “I
want it in
my
possession. The power we would wield having it would
balance the scales between us and those harpies on Jeeoil. They would dare not
interfere with anything we do for fear we might unleash the Nikkeson and make
it impossible to imprison the beast ever again.”

“Naamah will get the key for you,” Eisheth
said. “That I can promise you.”

Agrat took a seat at the window where she could
survey the lush green world of Talamh, Eisheth’s southern domain. “I believe we
should listen to this ploy Eisheth mentions Naamah has conceived to see if it
has merit.”

“Then there is the matter of Morrigunia
interfering,” Eisheth reminded her eldest sister. She ignored Lilith’s out-flung
hand of disdain. “Dismiss Her if you will but I have done battle with that
dragoness. She will protect Her Reapers. If we send demons to take the key from
the incubus, those Reapers will attack and they are a deadly force.”

“Not to mention one of them is a
Shadowlord,” Agrat added.

“Gravelord,” Eisheth corrected. “Self-named
I believe.”

“Combine that with Kerreyder’s powers and
there could well be a bloodbath in that cemetery,” Agrat said.

“But…” Eisheth smiled nastily. “Not if
Naamah’s plan works and I know it will.”

“All right,” Lilith conceded. “Let’s hear
this miraculous plan of hers. I suppose it has something to do with the
mazikeen
.”

“Everything to do with it,” Eisheth
acknowledged.

* * * * *

Kenzi woke to a warm body pressed intimately
against her, warm breath tickling the hair at the base of her neck. A heavy,
muscular arm was clamped around her waist and a hairy thigh lay wedged between
her own. The sound of a man’s light snoring made her wriggle her ass against
his naked groin and she was rewarded with a long intake of breath, a flexing of
the arm draped over her and a pair of lips pressed to the side of her neck with
a deep growl.

She had been well used during the night.
That much she knew. She ached between her legs. Whether it was Kerreyder or…her
personal preference, Randon… She didn’t know but she longed for a repeat
performance. Her blood was on fire with need, her cunt aching to be filled. She
wriggled against him again.

“You need me, luv?” he asked in a deep
throaty voice. His tongue swept up the column of her neck and he moved his arm
so he could encompass her breast. The heat of his palm against her nipple sent
waves of desire flooding through her.

But there had been something off in his
voice. It didn’t sound familiar…confusing her…but all thought left her as he
began to pluck at her nipple and his thick thigh pressed tightly to her groin,
flooding it with slick heat.

The room was dark for the image suite had been
turned off so no light entered the subterranean space. It was so stygian in
front of her, she could not see her hand before her face. But she didn’t need
to see. What she was feeling as he palmed her breast, crimped his thumb and one
finger around her nipple and rubbed his hairy thigh back and forth across her
sensitive flesh had driven away all need but the sexual one burgeoning within
her.

He withdrew his leg and moved over her, wedging
his hard body between her willing thighs. His cock was thick and the tip wet as
it slid over her mound then poked between her legs. He lowered a hand to it and
positioned the crown at her entrance.

“You want me?” he whispered.

“Yes,” she said and put her hands on the
bulges of his biceps. Beneath her palms, his muscles were like iron.

With a snap of his hips he was inside her
and his rough hands were beneath her ass—lifting her up for deeper penetration.
His biceps expanded as he gripped her and the thighs that pressed against her
were rock-hard as he pressed forward. His strokes were masterful and the thick
hair on his chest scratched against her aching nipples as he locked his lips to
the sensitive hollow between her neck and shoulder and flicked his tongue along
her flesh.

She dug her fingers into his upper arms and
drew her legs up, wrapped them around his hips. His thrusts became harder, more
rapid, and—astonishingly enough—so deep she could feel the mushroom head of his
cock pressing against her womb.

“Come for me,” he grated as she snapped his
hips against her. The slap of his balls hitting her was a heady sound.

Kenzi strained against him. His cock completely
filled her almost to the point of pain but it was a good, pleasing pain and she
tightened her legs around him. That seemed to spur him on for his probes became
frenzied and with every thrust of his hips she rocked on the bed and he
grunted—deep and low in his chest. His fingers burrowed into the soft flesh of
her ass as he kept her lower body still for his penetration.

She could feel the quickening coming from
the upper part of her belly and it was racing down toward her clit. It seemed
as if there was a nodule of some sort rubbing wickedly against that enflamed
little nubbin and it was driving her crazy. She thrashed her head on the
pillow, clung to him, strained against him. At the moment her orgasm began, she
screamed for she felt him spurt. Long and hard and the explosion seemed to go
on forever and ever. Her tender insides was awash with his hot seed yet he
continued to flood her body with it. A scent so enticing, so alluring wafted up
from their mingled juices and she screamed again—writhing upon his shaft.

“Aye, my human,” she heard him said. “I’ve
seeded your womb this time!”

A distant part of Kenzi’s brain heard his
words but dismissed them. She was on the Pill and she seriously doubted either
Rand or Kerrey was eager to get her with child.

“You’ll have my bantling,” he said. “And
many more to come.”

She frowned.

That voice sounded nothing like Randon.

It sounded nothing like Kerreyder.

It sounded more like…

“Alyn?” she whispered.

“Nay, love,” he said as one final pulse of
his cock came and he collapsed atop her. He kissed her throat. “My name is
Shideem.”

It was as though ice water had been
injected into her veins. She jerked. Pushed savagely at his shoulders to get
him off her body. He didn’t seem to mind for he flipped over to his back. She
scrambled from the bed and fumbled for the light switch on the bedside lamp.
The moment the light came on and spread over the man who had just very thoroughly
fucked her, Kenzi thought she would pass out.

He was handsome—she would give him that—but
he was no human. Whatever he was he was grinning at her with satisfaction and
horror washed over her.

“Aye,” he said, reading her mind. He
threaded his fingers together and put them behind his head. “You are well and truly
filled with my demonling, luv.”

Kenzi screamed again but this time it was
not with pleasure.

The air was so humid it was as though you
had to cut a piece of it off to drag it into your lungs. Heat bore down from a
sky that was now washed clear of any clouds. The bright blue of the Florida
sunshine sent tendrils of steam wriggling up from the speckled white sand as
Randon stepped from the van that had brought them to the cemetery.

“The crypt is over there,” Lauren said as
she exited the van.

“Can’t miss it,” Coulter said of the
rose-colored marble structure. The sun was glinting off the copper door.

“Pretty swank considering the surrounding
graves,” Sorn observed. “Must have caused a bit of a stink.”

“Not everyone was happy with it being put
here, no,” Lauren replied.

The seven of them—with Coulter leading the
way—advanced on the crypt. They were alone in the cemetery at that early hour
but there were houses close by with windows overlooking the grounds. It was so
quiet it felt almost as though they were walking inside a vacuum.

“I don’t like this,” Cree said softly and
Kerreyder nodded. The Alpha was carrying the tabernacle under one arm.

“Feels like a million eyes are watching us,”
the archdemon said.

“Precisely how I’d describe it,” the Reaper
acknowledged. “Could the succubae have a hoard of demons lying in wait and we
just can’t sense them yet?”

“You knew gods-be-damned well this wasn’t
going to be a cakewalk, Cree,” Kerreyder reminded him. “What do you think?”

“We’re being watched all right but I don’t
think what’s watching us is all evil,” Coulter told the two warriors.

“I think we’re the main event in the
coliseum,” Jaleel quipped. “If you listen closely you can hear the susurration
of many breaths being inhaled and exhaled.”

The Panthera tilted his head to one side,
listened—eyes narrowed—then nodded. “Aye, you can,” Sorn agreed.

“Both sides are watching to see what’s
going to happen,” Randon put in. “Whether we win or fail.”

“We could have a battle royal here if the
two sides take it in their minds to interfere,” Jaleel commented.

“I don’t believe that will happen,” Lauren
said. “Though they are watching us, my spell is keeping them at a good
distance. My only fear is Naamah having taken seed from the incubus—thus
draining some of his power while increasing hers—she can enter the circle. I
doubt any other demon can.”

“Not if you made the circle strong enough,”
Kerreyder told her.

“The fate of the Megaverse is in your
hands, Kayle,” Cree said. “Don’t fuck it up.”

Randon felt as though there was a tight
clamp buckled around his chest. He was having trouble breathing. He was
sweating profusely and that was odd since that was something he hadn’t done in
centuries. His palms were clammy as he swiped them down the sides of his jeans.

“Nervous?” Coulter asked quietly.

“Scared shitless is more like it,” Sorn
commented.

“I don’t shit,” Randon mumbled. “Or piss
for that matter.”

“You ready?” Kerreyder asked.

The Nightwind nodded, flicked his tongue
over his dry lips and started toward the crypt. The moment he drew near, the
eternal flames sputtered then went out.

“That can’t be good,” Sorn said.

“He’s not welcome here,” Lauren said. “I’ve
never been this close to the crypt but now that I am, I can feel a warding
spell has been put in place around it. This may be harder than we anticipated.”

“Makes sense,” Jaleel said. “Hecate would
not have been lax in her duty as the Queen’s handmaid.”

“Which means Kayle may not be able to lift
the key from the panel,” Cree stated.

“I will,” Randon said.

“Then get on with it,” Cree ordered. “I don’t
like being the center of attention.”

“Why the heck not? I thought the world
revolved around you,” Coulter quipped.

The Alpha shot the Gravelord a warning
grimace that promised retaliation at another time.

Once more Randon ran his hands down the
seams of his jeans and stepped forward. The circle at the top of the
key—looking like the old-fashioned lever-lock type—stood away from the rest of
the panel. It was in the grip of the nondescript older woman whose likeness was
imprinted on the copper panel. Her eyes seemed to be locked on him and her
mouth was frozen in a grim, forbidding straight line as though she dared him to
try to remove the key from her hand.

A breeze suddenly kicked up around them and
the yew trees shuddered. They all looked up—not surprised to see the sky darkening.
Where there had been pristine blue sky, now dark clouds were rolling in and
with them had come a distinct scent of sulfur.

“Nothing in this life is ever easy for us,
is it?” Sorn asked on a long sigh. He put his hands on his hips and hung his
head.

“That is the way of the Guardians, Darkyn,”
Lauren told him. “You were put on Terra for a purpose. Your entire reason for
existence is to protect or have you forgotten that?”

“He hasn’t,” Cree mumbled.

“None of us have,” Coulter added. “But just
once, it would be nice to do our job in peace.”

“If it’s peace you want, Shadowlord,”
Jaleel said, “you’re in the wrong career field, my man.”

“Ain’t it the truth,” Coulter replied.

Wiping his right hand one last time on his
jeans, Randon reached for the key. Cree stepped close behind him, ready to
break the wax seal on the tabernacle the moment the key came free of the panel.
He glanced at the Nightwind as Kayle paused with his outstretched hand nearly
touching the copper relief.

“Do it,” Cree said softly. He looked at
Kerreyder. “Get the wax ready.”

Randon took a deep breath and slipped two
fingers into the key’s circle. Almost instantly he felt a sharp burning pain
spread deep in the finger joints and shoot up his arm. He snatched away his
hand and shook it.

“Another warding spell,” Lauren said. “You
have to endure the pain, incubus.”

“Do it as quickly as you can,” Kerreyder
advised as he removed the tin of wax from his pocket, opened it then held it in
the palm of his hand to heat.

Looking down at his fingers, Randon saw
streaks of black where his flesh had been crisped. He looked to the archdemon. “Mayhap
I am not the one destined to remove it.”

“You are,” Lauren said. “Stop being a pussy
and get on with it. Just…”

Randon flicked his eyes to Cree then made a
grab for the key. The pain was even worse as his flesh made contact with the
circle but he gritted his teeth and pulled. He heard the wax seal snap and the
creak of wood as the tabernacle was opened. The key came away from the panel,
he spun around and dropped it—his flesh sizzling—onto the damp piece of altar
cloth that had been soaked in holy water. As soon as the key was in place, Cree
snapped shut the tabernacle. Kerreyder was at his side immediately and poured
the melted wax over the lock that Cree had thumbed shut. The wax became a
perfect circle sealing the lock.

Breathing hard, Randon stepped back as he
cradled his injured hand to his chest. The stench of burning flesh was rife in
the air. “Fuck that hurt,” he said with a groan.

“Suck it up, demon,” Jaleel said with a
snort.

Lightning forked above them and they lifted
their heads to see black clouds mingling with the sodden gray. The sky was
leaching of color as though a rheostat were being quickly turned down. Ominous
thunder shook the ground and the wind became so strong they staggered against
it.

“Something’s coming,” Lauren said.

Cree clutched the tabernacle as close to
his chest as Randon was clutching his hand. Both Coulter and Kerreyder stepped
close to flank him, their hands covering his and the Alpha Reaper handed the
tabernacle into the keeping of the demi-god archdemon. As soon as Kerreyder
took possession of the box, an angry hiss echoed over the firmament.

In the darkness, those gathered could see
the sheen of hundreds of eyes staring at them from the roiling clouds. Some
eyes were red but most were a burning yellow.

“Raphian,” Kerreyder stated as the sound of
millions of bees underscored the constant booming rocking the ground beneath
their feet. To the west of them the sky was pitch black with red veins of
lightning stitching through the stygian clouds.

“That would be my guess,” Coulter granted.

“The Destroyer of Men’s Souls?” Sorn asked.

“Guess He was invited to the party,” Cree
quipped.

“Not the only attendant at the festivities,”
Lauren said. “Unless I miss my guess, that’s His brother coming from the East.”

In the eastern part of the sky there was a
pale-golden light that speared up from the horizon in undulating rays. Within
the light was an indistinct figure in a long white robe.

“Their presence makes this something else entirely,”
Kerreyder declared.

“You are battling for all living matter in
the Megaverse,” Lauren reminded them. “Naturally They would appear to guard
Their own interests.”

“Give me the box, Kerreyder.”

She appeared as suddenly as the violent
storm that was now engulfing them. Standing unmoved—her long black gown
untouched by the raging wind—Naamah held out her hands. Her fingernails were
scarlet red to match the shiny lipstick that clung to her lips.

“Ain’t gonna happen,” Kerreyder said.

“Oh, I believe it will,” the succubus
replied with a smile. “Else neither you nor the Nightwind will ever see your
mate again.”

Kerreyder narrowed his eyes.

Randon’s forehead crinkled as he cradled
his injured hand.

“You can have her back—without that which
is growing inside her—or you can keep the key and I will take her to Tine where
the cambion will continue to thrive,” Naamah said. “Your choice.”

“What’s growing inside her?” Randon
repeated. He whipped his head toward Kerreyder. “What is she talking about? Did
you get her with child?”

“What’s a cambion?” Sorn asked Cree.

“A demon-human hybrid,” Cree said. He
looked at Kerreyder. “Is it yours?”

Kerreyder was too stunned to speak. All he could
do was shake his head. His heart was thundering so hard in his chest he could
hear it over the cacophony of the storm.

“Whose?” Randon demanded, eyes wild.

“Does it matter?” Naamah asked with a
shrug. “A
mazikeen
who took great delight in sowing his seed within her.”

“Merciful Alel,” Lauren whispered. She
looked to Jaleel who shook his head in sympathy.

“I can make the seedling disappear,” Naamah
said. “Or—as I said—it can remain to be hatched on Tine.”

“You know fucking well we’re not going to
give you the key,” Cree stated.

“The Reaper speaks true, succubus,” a voice
boomed from the East. “The key is destined for holy hands.”

“Not sssso,” hissed another loud voice—this
time from the West. “The key issss Mine!”

“Go, Kerreyder,” Coulter said. “Take the
key and go. Now!”

“I can’t,” Kerreyder said. “She has my
woman.”

“You don’t know that,” Cree said.

“Aye, I do,” Kerreyder disagreed. He was
staring into the triumphant eyes of the succubus. He looked down at the
tabernacle.

“The moment you attempt to hand the key
over to her, I will be forced to destroy you, my son,” the voice of Jee Yn Ayr,
the Father-God, spoke from out of the eastern sky.

“Your own son?” Naamah asked with a laugh. “I
doubt that.”

“Don’t,” Kerreyder said. “My life is nothing
compared to everything that lives within the Megaverse.”

“I will mourn his loss but he knows where
his responsibility lies,” Jee Yn Ayr stated.

“Take the tabernacle, Your Worship,” Cree
said to the deity. “Get it away from him so he isn’t tempted to give it to her.”

“I cannot touch it, Lord Cree,” the
Father-God said. “It is forbidden that I touch anything that is borne from your
Terran religions.”

“Aye, but there is no such prohibition on
me. I can touch it,” Naamah said. “Hand it over, Kerrey.”

“Give it to me,” Coulter said. “I can take
it to the Holy Land.”

“Do not, Kerreyder,” Naamah warned. “Else
she will be lost to you forever.”

Kerreyder raised his eyes and looked into
the deeply worried gaze of the Nightwind. The incubus had tears streaming down
his face and the archdemon knew it was not from the pain he must be suffering
as he pressed his hand to his chest.

“She would not want the Megaverse to
perish,” Randon said. “You know that. You can’t let the succubae get their
hands on the key.”

“Deny me what I want and your bitch will
spend eternity plumped with the seed of every
mazikeen
under my control!”
Naamah shouted. “Is that what you want? Do you dare risk testing me? Think you
I am jesting, Kerreyder?”

The archdemon looked away from Randon. “What
is it you really want, Naamah?” he asked, his shoulders slumping.

He knew. He’d known the moment she hadn’t
attempted to snatch the tabernacle from his hands. It was within her powers to
do so. All she need do is take a few steps, send the Nightwind, the Reaper and
the Gravelord flying. That was why Raphian was there—to augment her power. Not
to gain the key but rather something she wanted even more.

Naamah’s slow smile was all the
confirmation he needed.

“Give me the tabernacle,” Coulter said
again. He too had intuited the real purpose behind Naamah’s vengeful grin.

As had Lauren.

“If you go with her, you’ll never leave
Tine,” she told him. “She will imprison you there.”

“Oh, he may leave to do his work for Yn
Drogh Spyrryd,” Naamah said. “I don’t want the Evil of Evils on my ass for
taking the Warden of Prysson from him. He’ll just need to return each night
before sundown to…” She laughed. “Take care of the duties I will set for him.”

Kerreyder winced for he knew what duties those
would be.