Z

“Hmm. Complicated, you say.” She tapped her finger on her chin, and he could practically hear the wheels turning in her head as she tried to figure out what “complicated” meant. He wished her luck with that. He couldn’t untangle it himself.

  “So this person...are you in love with her? Is she emotionally unavailable? Or involved with someone else?” Vex sucked in a sharp breath. “Ooh, that’s it, isn’t it? Being involved with someone else would be really complicated. So who is she? Azagoth’s mate?” She clapped her hands, delighted by the gossipy speculation. “It is!”

  “It’s not Lilliana, and don’t even think that.” He found a stone of adequate shape and size and dug it out of the ground with his fingers. “Azagoth is dangerously territorial. Once a dude leered at her for too long, and then he made this slurping noise at her...” He shook his head, still amazed by the male’s stupidity and Azagoth’s swift and brutal reaction.

  Vex bounced on her toes like a child listening to an exciting bedtime story. “Did he kill the dude?”

  “No,” Z said, “but he won’t be looking at Lilliana again. He won’t be looking at anyone again.”

  “Azagoth seems really dreamy,” she sighed, and wasn’t she a bloodthirsty little thing. So opposite of Laura, but he had to admit that he found that attractive in a female. Cruelty, no, but there was nothing wrong with a little eye-for-an-eye. Or an eye for a leer. “I mean, scary, too. But dreamy.”

  The twinge in his gut wasn’t jealousy that she was drooling over Azagoth. It wasn’t. Fuck that. “You and I have a very different idea of what constitutes dreamy.”

  “Yeah?” She folded her arms beneath her breasts, pushing them up even more, and damn her for drawing his eyes to her bold curves. “What’s your idea?”

  Hmm...should he go for brutal honesty or opt for tact? “The opposite of you.” Brutal honesty.

  She grinned, all ruby lips and perfect white teeth. “So...hideous? And scrawny. And lacking intelligence.” She swept her hand through her short violet-tipped black hair. “And blonde.”

  Well, she had one of those right. Laura had been as blonde as he was, but her silky mane had flowed like molten gold all the way to her waist. He’d often imagined threading his fingers through it while they made love. And when he was feeling really randy, as they used to say, he’d fantasized about wrapping her braid around his fist and taking her roughly, propelling her to climax after climax until they fell, exhausted, onto their marriage mattress. Not that he would ever have told her that. Laura would have been shocked. Maybe even repulsed.

  Vex tweaked his nose. “Dillyoon.”

  He froze, as stunned by the fact that she’d just tweaked his fucking nose as he was by what she’d said. His mind flashed back to Laura and how she’d teased him in an identical way so long ago. “How do you know that word?”

  “Dunno.” She shrugged. “Just one of those things you hear, I guess. Why? What’s a dillyoon?”

  Azagoth, where are you? Zhubaal needed to get Laura’s soul out of Vex. Now. Laura had to be influencing Vex’s behavior, and he didn’t know how much more of it he could take.

  “It’s a type of butterfly faerie that exists only in one small region in Heaven,” he said, watching her carefully for more signs that Laura was...what? Trying to communicate with him? Was that even possible? “Its wings are white lace, and its body is luminescent emerald. They get off on teasing angels.” Laura had found them to be both adorable and annoying. He’d come down on the side of annoying.

  “I met a faerie once.” Vex wrinkled her nose. “They’re mean.”

  “You’ve met the demonic version,” he said. “Not the Heavenly one.”

  This time, her grin was sinister, and his body hardened, dammit. Had to be Laura. Had to be. There was no way his taste in females had changed this drastically. His dreams had always involved his lovely, virginal Laura, not leather-clad, half-naked, seductive teases.

  “The demonic versions do not like flyswatters.” Vex gave him a playful wink, and suddenly, it was like being in Heaven with Laura, taking a walk through the Iridescent Forest in between combat training sessions.

  He moved nearer, studying her closely, as if he looked hard enough he’d see his beloved in Vex’s eyes. “Is one of the spirits affecting you? Right now, I mean.”

  She paused, lifting her face to his until they were only inches away. “I don’t know. I think...maybe. I feel more comfortable with you than I should. Isn’t that odd?”

  He watched her full lips as she talked, but he barely heard what she’d said. His focus narrowed on her mouth, until only one thing was on his mind.

  “Shh,” he murmured. “Kiss me.”

  “Excuse me?”

  He didn’t give her a chance to be outraged. He lowered his head and captured her mouth. Instant heat sizzled through him, catching him off guard. He’d only kissed one female since his fall from Heaven, and while the kiss had been arousing, it hadn’t been remarkable. It had happened during a moment of weakness, when he’d nearly given up on finding Laura, and Cat had been there, needing him as much as he needed...something. But yeah, not remarkable.

  This was beyond remarkable. It was familiar, and he could almost believe it was calling to his soul.

  His body tightened as desire warmed his blood and brought an erotic, pulsing ache to his groin. Without thinking, he tugged the female against him, loving the press of her breasts into his chest. A delicate moan broke from her throat as she wrapped her leg around his thigh and rubbed her sex against the hard ridge of his cock.

  “Laura,” he whispered, and before her name had even faded from the air, he cringed with both guilt over kissing Vex and anger that he was letting himself get way too distracted. He was forgetting decades of discipline training that had afforded him endless endurance, patience, and even control over his bodily functions.

  Pulling away, Vex scowled up at him, her eyes sparking violet fire. “Who the hell is Laura? An ex, I’m guessing?” She sucked in a sharp breath, her anger replaced by curiosity. “Ooh, is Laura also known as Ms. Complicated?”

  He scrubbed his hand over his face. “You could say that.” Inhaling deeply, he willed his pulse to idle out and his breathing to stop sounding as if he’d run a marathon.

  “Do I remind you of her?”

  For some reason, that amused him. “You are nothing like her. But you feel like her. And I haven’t felt her in a long time.”

  She grimaced and backed away. “Ew. So you’re perving all over me because my skin is as luxuriously smooth as hers or some shit? Where is she? Why haven’t you seen her in a long time?”

  “She was lost to me nearly a hundred years ago,” he said. “She was reborn, but now...I think she’s dead again.”

  “So she died twice? Talk about shitty luck.” She narrowed her eyes at him. “Did you kill her one of those times?”

  “No, and your skin isn’t what I feel.” Well, he had felt Vex’s skin, and damned if it wasn’t luxuriously smooth like she’d said. “It’s what’s inside you, Vex. Some of the things you’re saying, the way you just kissed me.” He closed his eyes, trying to hold on to the feelings the kiss had awakened, but all that did was make his pulse race again. “I think one of the souls you’re carrying around is Laura.”

  “Oh.” Out of the blue, she cupped his cock through his pants, and he somehow managed to not moan in ecstasy. “And here I thought I was the one giving you this impressive hard-on.”

  “It was you,” he said, and for some reason, that irritated him. His brain might have been blowing circuits over Laura, but the rest of his body had been all about Vex. He stepped back, and it pissed him off that he did it reluctantly.

  “Was this Laura person a succubus?”

  He nearly laughed. “Hardly.” At least, not in her first life. He had no idea what species she’d been during the second. “Why?”

  Vex’s voice went low and throaty, which made him even harder. “Because you make me wet.”

  “What?” he croaked.
>
  Vex idly trailed her fingers through her cleavage, and his mouth was suddenly parched. “From the moment I got here, I’ve wanted to jump your bones. Maybe that’s your girl talking.”

  He swallowed. Hard. “She wouldn’t. Not through you. Not like that.”

  “You sure about that? Because right now, all I want is to drop to my knees and take you in my mouth.” Before he could search his brain for a response, she went down to her knees in front of him, gripped his hips, and pressed her lips to the bulge in his jeans. The feel of her hot breath through the fabric and the bruising grip of her fingers digging into his ass cheeks froze him in place, his body completely shutting down his brain.

  This is wrong.

  She kissed lower on his shaft and then began to nibble her way up, following the slight curve of his cock behind the fly of his pants. Her head bobbed as she went, giving him the most erotic view he’d ever seen, and they weren’t even doing anything. Not really.

  If some male was kissing Laura between her legs through her pants, would they also not be doing anything?

  Oh, hell, no. Raw, possessive anger expanded in his chest, and he stepped back with a hiss. Laura would never allow that to happen.

  The Laura you knew wouldn’t, but in her second life, she could have been a whore in Satan’s harem.

  Or a succubus.

  “No!” he broke away, the lust so thick in his voice he nearly choked on it. “I told you. She wouldn’t do this through you. She’s not like you.”

  “No shit.” Vex shoved to her feet, anger putting red splotches in her cheeks. “I’m alive and she’s not.”

  Her words hit him like a blow, because as much as he hated to admit it, she was right. Yes, he was ninety-nine-point-nine percent sure he’d found Laura, but it wasn’t as if they could be together. She would be sent to the Inner Sanctum, and even if Azagoth allowed Zhubaal to transfer to Hades’s employ so he could be with her, she could be reincarnated at any moment, and he’d be in this same position all over again. Yes, he was thrilled to have found Laura, but this situation was less than ideal.

  “I––” He broke off as a sharp buzz vibrated in his head.

  Vex cocked her head at him, curiosity overriding anger once again. “Zhubaal? What is it?”

  “It’s Azagoth. He’s back.” And just in the nick of time.

  Chapter Five

  Vex wasn’t sure what she expected to find inside Azagoth’s office, but a relatively normal place of business wasn’t it. The room was dark, decorated in blacks, grays, and mahogany, with a massive fireplace against one wall, the flames inside shooting six feet and more into the air. His monstrous claw-footed desk took up at least a fifth of the room, and as big as the desk was, the male sitting behind it made it seem small.

  The souls inside her shrieked, throwing themselves against the barriers of her mind so forcefully that it felt like someone was taking a baseball bat to her skull. She furtively wiped away a bead of blood that dripped from her nose and cursed the marks on her arm that burned like fresh brands in Azagoth’s presence.

  But then, Zhubaal’s rejection and insult burned nearly as badly.

  She’s not like you. She wouldn’t drop to her knees to give a perfect stranger a blowjob.

  Okay, he hadn’t said that second part out loud, but the subtext had been as blatant as a triclops’s third eye. And dammit, she could hardly believe she’d come on to him like that. Oh, she was unashamedly bold when it came to the opposite sex, but she’d never been that bold. The stupid souls inside her were playing some serious games with her sex drive and willpower. And thanks to this Laura person, Vex felt like she knew Zhubaal, which only ramped up her arousal and made his sexual pull even stronger.

  “My Lord,” Zhubaal said, and God, even his voice turned her on. It seemed like the more time she spent with him, the more time she wanted to spend with him. “Vex is a daemani with five souls on board.” He glanced over at Vex’s arm. “I believe one of them is Laura.”

  Vex watched from where she’d remained near the entrance as Azagoth’s gaze cut sharply to hers, his emerald eyes glinting in the firelight. His expression was stony, forbidding, and she wondered if he ever smiled. Then she decided she didn’t want to know what amused him, because if he was a typical evil maniac with godlike powers, he enjoyed pain, suffering, and death.

  His gaze intensified, and she suddenly felt exposed. Vulnerable. The souls inside her shrieked louder.

  He gave her a “come here” gesture with his finger. “Hello, Vex.”

  Trying desperately to ignore the pounding in her head, she strode all the way in, determined not to show an ounce of fear. Zhubaal remained where he was, and despite the fact that she was annoyed at him, she felt better that he stayed.

  She also felt better when she caught him admiring her ass while she walked. Laura could suck it.

  Clearing her throat, she stopped in front of Azagoth’s desk. “Mr. Reaper.”

  “You can call me Azagoth.” Leaning forward in his seat, he folded his hands together on his desktop. “When did you discover that you were a daemani?”

  She had no idea why that was important, and she’d made a rule about not answering personal questions posed by massively powerful demons, but Azagoth didn’t seem like the type who appreciated being dodged. So he was going to get a very personal answer.

  “The day I started my period,” she said, amused by the way his brow arched. Only a millimeter, but still. Zhubaal’s exasperated groan was even funnier. “When I was thirteen.”

  Her parents had taken her to an underworld festival that day, even though she’d practically been doubled over with cramps. Toughen up, sweetheart, her mom had said. If you can’t handle that kind of pain, what are you going to do when some Aegis slayer runs you through with a blade?

  No Aegi had ever stabbed Vex, but at the festival, a Nightlash demon had been gutted right in front of her. She’d watched in horror as his soul rose from his dead body and got sucked inside her. No one else had seen, but when she told her parents what had happened, they’d taken her immediately to a friend of theirs, a fallen angel who was also a daemani. With Malice’s guidance, Vex had built a business out of her ability, and she’d done well until now. Now she needed Azagoth’s help to get back on her feet.

  “Can you repel them?” he asked. “Or expel them without a conduit or another daemani?”

  “No to all of it.” She didn’t like admitting to her weaknesses, but she suspected Azagoth would know if she was lying, and he was the last person she’d want catching her in a fib.

  “And why, exactly, are you here?”

  She took a deep, bracing breath. This was it, the moment that could save her livelihood...and her life. “I’m here to make you an offer.”

  “What kind of offer?”

  “Put me on your payroll,” she said firmly, “and I’ll bring you souls.” Man, if she could pull this off, she’d be the most infamous emim ever. Her parents would be so proud.

  Azagoth’s slow smile was so chilly she nearly shivered, and there went her dreams of infamy. “I already have people who bring me souls, and I don’t have to pay them.”

  “Your griminions are only summoned when a demon dies,” she pointed out. “I can bring you rogue souls that roam loose or that escape from their enclosures.”

  “And why should I care about them?”

  “Aren’t you in the business of souls?” She stepped closer, pressing her point home to take a position of strength. Thank you, Daddy, for the lessons in negotiation. She might have detested her father’s lectures even more than her mother’s combat training, but as a lawyer at a demon-run law firm, he’d known what he was talking about. So had her mother. “You were given an entire realm in order to house the spirits of those without physical bodies. It’s your job.”

  His smirk said he didn’t acknowledge her position of strength. And he might even be entertained by it. What a dick. “And how long did it take you to collect those five souls?”
r />   “A couple of months,” she said. “But that’s only because I wasn’t actively looking for them. I figure on average I can collect one rogue soul every sixteen hours.”

  The smirk got smirkier. “A single griminion can bring me a hundred in a day.”

  “Well, good for them,” she said, her confidence flagging as she reached for the only ace she had. “But can they see rips in the fabric between dimensions? Can they capture the souls that squeeze through those rips?” She held out her arm, the glyphs glowing on her skin. “Because that’s how I collected most of these.”

  Azagoth rose smoothly to his feet. “You can see the fissures in the walls of Sheoul-gra’s Inner Sanctum?”

  “Ah...I...guess?” She’d taken a stab in the dark with the dimensions thing. She hadn’t known where the souls came from. “Not only can I see them, but I can sense where a rip is going to open.” Usually they opened miles from where she was, and now that the market for souls had dried up, she’d gotten into the habit of going in the opposite direction to avoid picking up an evil hijacker. But sometimes, like yesterday, they popped open right in front of her.

  Zhubaal eyed her speculatively. “I assume you usually sell the souls.” He clenched his jaw, and she could only assume that he’d just realized that his precious Laura could have been sold to a slaver or soul-eater. “So why are you here instead of hashing out a deal in some skeezy necromancer’s lair?”

  “I was in some skeezy necromancer’s lair. He told me to come to Azagoth.” Zhubaal got that judgey look on his face again, and she huffed. “The market vanished almost overnight. Buyers and sellers are either dying or disappearing. The few buyers who are still around refuse to see me or anyone else hawking souls.”

  Other daemani were talking about forming a union and demanding answers. From whom, Vex had no idea. And given that someone was killing daemani, gathering together in a group didn’t seem like the best plan ever.

  Azagoth passed his hand through the flames in the fireplace, but they didn’t burn him. In fact, the flames parted, as if terrified to so much as warm his skin. “So what you’re saying is that you’re so desperate to get rid of those souls that you are willing to risk your own soul by coming to me. Is that about right?”