Her words excited him beyond measure. This beautiful, brave woman wanted him. Needed him. The power of it hummed against his skin as he rose up over her.
Last time, they’d been blind to this moment, their energies wild with the drug he’d given her. Now, he was aware with every fiber of his being what was about to happen.
He dragged his body up over hers, skin-to-soft-sweaty-skin. She threw her legs around his hips and drew his cock against her. He let out a groan.
She ground against him. “Now.”
He pulled back, nibbling on her ear. “You deserve it slow.”
She laughed at that. “I don’t deserve you at all.”
Ah, but that was where she was wrong. Shiloh deserved to be well loved. She deserved the freedom to make her own decisions and to live her own life. If only she could see it as clearly as he could at that moment.
He looked down at her then, soft and vulnerable and panting with desire. “I’ll set you free.”
“You don’t know what will happen,” she said as the tip of him found her entrance.
He felt the power surge between them.
True, he didn’t know the consequences. He couldn’t believe they would be bad. Shiloh wasn’t evil. “This isn’t wrong.”
Damien rose above her. He was a demon slayer.
Sacrifice yourself.
He would take her and savor her and show her just how much she deserved to be loved.
They both gasped as he drove into her. She wept with the power of it as he made love to her, slowly at first, then with mounting passion.
You are beautiful.
You are strong.
You are loved.
“Damien,” she gasped, raw with emotion. “It’s too much.”
He kissed her hard before she buried her face in his chest.
She clutched his back, tears streaming from the corners of her closed eyes as the power of their joining raged between them.
He felt it, pure and blinding, as they both shuddered with release.
Sweet heaven. He held himself above her as they both came down to earth.
He’d never known a joining to be so powerful. His heart skipped as she urged him down next to her. Then again, this was only his second time.
She snuggled against him, warm and soft. “I don’t know what to think.”
He tucked her into the crook of his arm and held her close. “Good,” he murmured into her hair.
They’d strengthened the power flowing between them. He wondered if she felt it too.
“So what happens now?” she asked.
“I’ll protect you.” She was good. She was his to look after.
Damien pulled a blanket over them, eyeing the locked door and the low walls of their hideout. He didn’t know what the morning would bring.
He settled back down with her. “I’ll save you,” he said against her hair.
She shifted against him, drawing even closer. “Don’t make promises you can’t keep.”
His mouth set in a determined line. “I don’t.”
Chapter Eight
T
he call that the coast was clear came the next morning.
“This is a mistake,” Shiloh warned him as he eased his black T-shirt over a fully loaded switch star belt.
“I know,” he said simply.
He wore black leather pants and had a black leather jacket draped over one of the hideout’s rickety chairs. She didn’t know why he was wearing black. It wasn’t like they’d be able to hide anymore.
Sure, she liked men studly and brave, but not suicidal. “If it’s a mistake, then why are we going back in?” The way Damien had been tossing power around last night was bound to have alerted the demon.
She paced beside the futon, her peach gown swirling at her ankles. “This is too quick to be another chance opportunity. This is a trap.”
“Exactly,” he said, fastening the clasps on the silver switch star case. “Now we get to face Napthulo.”
“On his own terms. At his casino. And I’m willing to bet he’s pissed.”
He pulled on his leather jacket. “I’m not feeling too generous myself.”
“This is the demon who plays Tiddlywinks with the spine bones of his enemies.”
He closed the distance between them. “What else do you suggest I do?” he asked, running a thumb along her chin, blazing a heated path straight to her core.
She licked her lips, fighting the urge to kiss him. “I don’t know.” She hadn’t thought that far. “Run. Leave.”
Take me with you.
He gave a small smile. “I can’t do that, Shiloh.” His expression hardened. “We don’t have a choice here. I have to go back in and destroy that portal before your boss blasts Vegas to hell.”
It was happening too fast. There had to be another way.
He ducked out the door and she followed him, gold heels in hand. “You can’t be sure that The Fire Storm Hotel is going to transport souls to hell,” she argued. Hard desert rocks pricked her feet as she followed him out to the car. “Be logical,” she pleaded.
He turned, stony determination etched across his features. “You’re right. I don’t know what Napthulo is going to do. But I do know he needs that portal.”
Exactly. “The portal that you couldn’t seem to grab.”
He opened the door for her. She slid in with a huff. Shoulders squared, he locked the door to the demon slayer refuge, ducking under the low-hanging desert vines. Every bit the soldier. He slid into the front seat next to her and placed the switch star case between them.
“I don’t know why I couldn’t get a hold on that portal last time. But I promise you, Shiloh. This time will be different.”
“How?”
“I have to give more of myself.” He steeled himself like a soldier. “It’s all I can do.”
The horror of his plan sank in. “It’s going to kill you,” she whispered.
Tears welled up. She shouldn’t care. Shiloh didn’t need to care about anybody but herself. She was alone and she always would be.
So why did the idea of losing him hurt so damned much?
Every instinct screamed for her to protect him, but she had no idea how she of all creatures would stand a chance against Napthulo.
He reached across the silver case to caress her cheek. His expression was intent as his fingers found her chin and tipped her face up to look at him. “We don’t have a choice, Shiloh. It’s the only way to destroy Napthulo and keep you safe.”
Her throat felt tight as he reached across and kissed her forehead.
Damn the man, why did he have to be so honorable? She’d never been able to count on anyone in her life and now that she’d found someone who actually cared about her, he was going to sacrifice it all for her—a she-devil. She would have laughed if she wasn’t afraid she’d start crying.
They drove back to the casino in silence, Shiloh too upset to speak and Damien focused on what he had to do to bring down the demon. He squinted against the rising sun as he formulated his plan.
The last time he’d entered Napthulo’s inner sanctum, he’d felt strong resistance. It made sense. The demon’s powers and his own were like oil and water. But there was another problem Damien hadn’t anticipated. Something had blocked his power when he’d tried to get a grip on the portal.
He pulled on a pair of black shades.
He basically needed to flip the portal inside out and reverse the energies.
The demon slayer before him had done this in the Great Vegas Cleansing of 2009. She wasn’t a born slayer, like him. She was a made one. And she hadn’t even finished her training.
If Lizzie Brown could do it, so could he. So why had it been impossible for him to grab hold of the portal? Something was holding him back.
He had to believe it was his willingness to sacrifice himself. He had to let go of this idea that he could be with Shiloh. It was tying him to this life, making it harder for him to accept the fact that he might need to die.
“Damien?” Shiloh’s voice broke through his dark thoughts.
He swung the black Jaguar into a spot at the back of the hotel. “Yes.”
She gazed out the window at the towering Seven Deadly Sins Casino. “How are we going to get in there?”
He killed the engine. “I was hoping you knew a back way.”
She blanched. “I don’t.”
He took a moment to think as he got out of the car. “Secret entrance?” he asked, surprising her by opening her door for her.
“Sorry.”
He was afraid of that. He surveyed the towering gold casino, gleaming in the morning sun. “Then we’ll have to go in the front.”
She almost fell sideways. “No.” She gripped his arm. “We’ll go in the employee’s entrance.”
He left the silver case in the car, opting for speed and stealth over firepower. Damien was counting on Shiloh’s back entrance to buy them some time. The demon might know they were coming, but he didn’t know when.
Shiloh tugged on her gloves, hiding her wedding ring as they hurried together toward the back of the casino. “You were hoping I’d sneak you in,” she said, as if she’d caught him at it.
It was true enough. “My wife is smart.”
She nudged him in the ribs. “I just want to let you know I’m on to you,” she said as she dialed the access code on a gray door at the back.
He supposed that was fair enough. “I’m a man of simple desires, Shiloh.” He wanted to do his job, keep his integrity and well, maybe that was enough.
They hurried through the employee entrance, down the long back hallway, cringing together as the human repelling ward zapped them.
“Rufus!” Shiloh greeted an eager hellhound. Damien reached down and gave the beast a scratch behind the ears.
“Whoa,” Shiloh said, petting the hellhound under the collar. “You’re a Rufus fan, now?”
“Are you kidding? This guy saved our skin.” He grinned at the beast, and then at his lovely partner in crime. She deserved a dog and so much more.
“What?” she asked, her face falling when she saw Damien stiffen with alarm. The battered brown She-Demons assignment desk stood empty. They were just about to skirt their way past it when a strange little fairy burst out from behind the desk. “What are you doing here? Go away.”
Shiloh and Damien halted as the fairy shoveled papers into a red briefcase.
He could switch star the fairy, but he hated to do it to a non-demonic being. And he really didn’t want to expose his powers so early.
“Damien, meet Jeebers,” Shiloh said, by way of introduction. “Jeebers, Damien.”
Oh great. Now he knew the creature’s name.
The fairy’s eyes were wide with fear. “That’s Mr. Jeebers to you, and I told you to leave.”
“Got an assignment for me?” Shiloh asked, acting as if they weren’t about to blow her boss to hell.
The fairy snapped his case shut. Dragging it behind him, he headed out the back hallway toward the parking lot. “I’m taking the day off and you should too.”
Shiloh glanced at Damien. “That was weird.”
“Not so much.” Damien had a feeling he’d just met The Council’s source on the inside. And if the fairy was hightailing it out of there, then Shiloh and he were indeed walking into a mess.
Damien tilted his head toward the nearby Video Surveillance Room. “Who runs that?”
“The fairies,” Shiloh answered, as they headed for the elevator.
He tried the door. It was locked.
No wonder their presence in Napthulo’s chambers hadn’t been reported right away. The Council had done its job. Now Damien just needed to do his.
Shiloh sensed Napthulo the moment she set foot in his casino. She could smell him too. The raw stench of sulfur assaulted her. Her eyes watered and she sniffed as they entered the elevator that led up to his private chambers.
Rufus followed, winding around her legs like an overgrown cat.
Damien touched her on the arm. “Are you okay?”
She leaned into him, fully aware he needed to be able to draw weapons at any moment. “This place is getting to me today.”
Something had changed. She felt it down to her toes.
Was it the anger of the demon or was it her?
Them
?
Something had happened last night when they’d made love. She’d felt their shared power flowing between them. It was unlike anything she’d ever experienced. It had happened a second time, and a third time just before dawn. Her body warmed as she thought back to their lovemaking. It had been so pure, so honest. So good.
“Shiloh—”he rubbed her back—“are you listening to me?”
“Yes,” she lied.
He looked down on her, intent. “Remember. All you need to do is open the door. I’ll get Fawzi for you. Then you take your friends and you get out of here.”
She nodded but a hollow spot opened in the pit of her stomach.
Hell. He was so good, so noble.
“I need you to do exactly as I say, Shiloh. I don’t want to have to worry about you if things go bad in there.”
He didn’t want her to see him die if it came to that.
He gave her one last, lingering kiss. “Promise me,” he said against her lips.
The elevator clunked to a stop. “I promise.”
The doors opened to an empty hallway. Damien took the lead, followed by Shiloh and Rufus. The dog sniffed at the bottom crack of the door as Shiloh wrapped her hand over the skull of the betrayer.
The door opened. And there, on the throne of human bones, sat Napthulo.
His leathery skin crackled as he showed a row of hideous white teeth. He’d had them capped and bleached. Spittle sizzled against the veneers, dripping down onto a gold leaf club shirt. He held an ivory goblet in one hand and planted a booted foot on the antique ice bucket Shiloh had used to trap Fawzi.
Her stomach sank as the demon leered at her.
He wasn’t supposed to be there. This was supposed to be an empty room, another opportunity. But even as the thought formed, Shiloh realized that this was what had to happen all along. Damien had come to face the demon. Heaven help them.
“Enter,” Napthulo crooned, all too pleased with himself. “You as well, Succubus 14.” The door slammed behind them.