Demon's Triad

An Ellora’s Cave Romantica Publication

www.ellorascave.com

Demon’s Triad

ISBN 9781419912542

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

Demon’s Triad Copyright © 2008 Anna J. Evans & December Quinn Edited by Briana St. James.

Photography and cover art by Les Byerley.

Electronic book Publication January 2008

With the exception of quotes used in reviews, this book may not be reproduced or used in whole or in part by any means existing without written permission from the publisher, Ellora’s Cave Publishing, Inc.® 1056 Home Avenue, Akron OH 44310-3502.

Warning: The unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted work is illegal. Criminal copyright infringement, including infringement without monetary gain, is investigated by the FBI and is punishable by up to 5 years in federal prison and a fine of $250,000. (http://www.fbi.gov/ipr/) This book is a work of fiction and any resemblance to persons, living or dead, or places, events or locales is purely coincidental. The characters are productions of the authors’ imagination and used fictitiously.

DEMON’S TRIAD

Anna J. Evans & December Quinn

Trademarks Acknowledgement

The author acknowledges the trademarked status and trademark owners of the following wordmarks mentioned in this work of fiction: ChapStick: Wyeth Corporation

Charger: Chrysler LLC

Cosmopolitan Magazine: Hearst Communications, Inc.

Keds: SR Holdings, Inc.

NFL: National Football League Unincorporated

Rolodex: Berol Corporation

Salvation Army: Salvation Army, the Corporation

Demon’s Triad

“How bad you want to know?” Keller’s voice was deep, radio DJ sexy and hoarse from too many late nights bouncing at The Bitch’s Brew. In spite of being one scary looking motherfucker, he had a killer smile, complete with dimple, and a pair of baby blue eyes that had lured many a drunk college co-ed back to his double-wide trailer for fun of the horizontal variety.

Too bad his breath smelled worse than the monkey cage at the zoo, or Aleeza might actually have enjoyed interrogating him.

“How bad? Real bad,” she all but purred, tossing her long, black hair over her shoulder. She placed a hand on the bricks behind Keller and leaned close enough for her breasts to brush against his arm. It was October in the Pacific Northwest and she wore only a black satin corset and a pair of skintight jeans, so those breasts were possessed of rock-hard nipples she was sure the bouncer could feel even through his leather jacket.

“Real bad, huh?” he murmured, eyes glazed as he reached toward her chest.

“Yeah…real bad.” Aleeza tried not to roll her eyes, and faked an excited little moan when Keller cupped her breast and flicked his thumb over her puckered flesh.

She was Gunera coven and Keller knew it, had known it since she started working the greater Savior City metropolitan area as a kid fresh out of high school. Gunera didn’t put out, couldn’t even if they wanted to. This entire seduction scene wasn’t going to amount to anything more than a major case of blue balls, but hope still glimmered in Keller’s eyes. He was just like every other man she’d ever worked for information with a little slap and tickle. They all thought they were going to be different, that they would be the man with a cock big and bad enough to break a centuries-old chastity spell.

Men. They could be a pain in the ass, but you had to admire their sanguinity.

“Keller, I don’t know about you, but I’m really ready to cut the crap and get the action started.” Aleeza arched into the hand working her breast, things low in her body tightening and a rush of cream dampening her thong despite the rot-gut stench of Keller’s breath hot on her face. For the millionth time she wondered if it was possible to die from pure sexual frustration. She didn’t want to die at twenty-five.

“Baby, I’m ready for action anytime you are.” He reached down to flip the top button on his jeans, preparing to release what looked to be quite an impressive package.

Keller was handsome
and
hung. If he’d break down and put up the cash for a halitosis spell, he’d be practically irresistible.

“You’re amazing, honey, but I need that number before this goes any further,”

Aleeza said, caressing his thickened cock through his jeans. Even if it were possible and 5

Anna J. Evans & December Quinn

she did plan to fuck him, she certainly wouldn’t get busy in The Bitch’s Brew’s back alley. The bar was one of the hottest entertainment venues in the city and tonight was an all-ages show. Getting caught
in flagrante delicto
by some fifteen-year-old kid was not the slightest bit of a turn-on, and the last thing her coven needed was another lawsuit.

“Business before pleasure, huh?”

“Always.” Aleeza increased the pressure of her hand until Keller groaned.

“He’s staying in unit number twenty-six. My old man rented to him last week.”

“Is he still there?”

“Should be, he paid a month’s rent in cash.”

“What’s he driving?”

“I don’t know,” he said, reaching for her breast again.

“What’s he driving, Keller? Don’t fuck with me.” Aleeza slapped his hand away and gave him her best glare. She was only five foot three, but growing up with two older brothers had taught her how to play tough and fight tougher. Of course, being Gunera didn’t hurt things either. People who got on the bad side of their coven had a way of disappearing…forever. Not such a good reputation to have when it came to dealing with human police but great for encouraging a helpful attitude in most everyone else.

“A green Charger, spell-fueled ‘cause there’s no gas cap.” Keller’s hand slipped inside the top of her corset, his roughened fingers coming into direct contact with her tight nipple.

This time her moan was real. A bolt of electricity zipped down between her legs.

Immediately her clit began to vibrate and the eager flesh of her pussy to swell. She was slick, aching and ready in seconds, her breath coming faster, bright blue light flooding the alley as her magic gathered into a tight knot of power at her very core. She wanted, she burned, she lusted with all the pent-up frustration of years of denied satisfaction, and before she knew what she was doing her fingernails were clawing into Keller’s strong shoulders as he spread her legs and hitched her up around his waist.

Aleeza’s back hit the brick wall hard enough to bruise, but she hardly felt the impact. She was too busy grinding up and down the long, thick cock that Keller pressed against her pussy. Even through their clothing she could feel the heat radiating from his arousal, and was consumed with the need to get that heat inside her, pumping between her legs, shoving into her and filling up every empty, aching inch.

“God, baby, you’re so hot.” Keller’s lips were on her neck, his teeth dragging over her skin. Aleeza shuddered.

“Keller, stop. We have to stop,” Aleeza said, her voice a sexy whisper that did absolutely nothing to keep Keller from pulling at her corset until her breasts sprang free.

The cold night air hit her bare flesh, but it was Keller suckling her nipple into the wet heat of his mouth that made her gasp. The sensation was unlike anything she’d 6

Demon’s Triad

ever known. A shockwave of desire stole her breath, making her womb hum and the force of her magic grow so thick and heavy that she knew she would need to cast soon or choke on the unreleased power. It was hard enough keeping everything in check the night of the full moon, without the painful urgency of her body making matters worse.

“I’ve wanted to do this since the first time you walked into the bar,” Keller said, his hand busy at the button of her jeans.

“Wait, no, you don’t—”

Keller let out a sound halfway between a moan and a scream as his knees buckled.

Aleeza, legs still wrapped around his waist, went to the ground with him, hissing in pain as the bricks scratched her bare shoulders and did irreparable damage to the satin of her corset.

“Shit!” She cursed as her tailbone hit the pavement and a very heavy, very unconscious Keller slumped over her legs.

“Better than a chastity belt.” Her cousin’s voice drifted toward her from the shadows near the end of the alley, and Aleeza barely bit back a scream.

“Have you been there the whole time?” she asked, tugging up her corset while she glared in the general direction of Raven’s voice. Her cousin was only nineteen years old, but she had already mastered shadow-walking to the point that not even Gavyn, the head of their coven, could point her out in the darkness if she didn’t want to be found.

“Not the whole time but for all the good parts.” Raven laughed and emerged from the shadows, a naughty grin on her very wholesome-looking face. With pale blonde hair and light blue eyes, Raven’s looks were certainly not the reason her mother had chosen her name, but who knew what her mother had been thinking? Aleeza couldn’t remember much about Bridget.

Raven’s mother had been Amiantos coven, and like most marriages between Gunera and Amiantos, her relationship with Raven’s father hadn’t lasted long. She’d abandoned her daughter when she was only three years old, heading back into the foothills of the Cascade mountain range, the brutal wilderness the “undefiled” coven called home.

Undefiled. Odd that such “holier than thou” witches would so regularly abandon their own children if they showed signs that their magic would develop Gunera rather than Amiantos. Even odder that the most powerful Gunera of the past two thousand years had cursed their entire coven with a chastity spell, which could only be broken after marriage to an Amiantos. That ancient witch had probably thought she was doing good for her coven, but that didn’t keep Aleeza from hating her.

“I think he gave you a hickey,” Raven said with a snort. “Maybe two.”

“Charming,” Aleeza said, turning her attention to rolling Keller off her lap, anything to keep from looking Raven in the eye as a blush heated her cheeks.

She was six years older and had been working in the family bounty-hunting business since her cousin was nothing more than a snot-nosed fifth grader with braces.

She shouldn’t let Raven get to her, but she did. Something about the girl had always 7

Anna J. Evans & December Quinn

given her the creeps, and finding out she was perverted enough to watch her getting felt up in an alley did nothing to ease the skin-crawling sensation Raven inspired.

“Do you need help?”

“No thanks,” Aleeza said, wiggling out from under Keller with a grunt.

“I meant with your shoulders. Those cuts look pretty nasty.”

Aleeza closed her eyes and willed the knot of power within her into a healing spell, casting the energy out like a net that settled over her skin. The stinging scrapes on her back immediately vanished, as did the bruises on her tailbone. By the time she was finished she didn’t have so much as a hangnail. Even her chapped lips felt smooth.

“Show off.” Raven laughed as she ran a hand over the newly healed skin on Aleeza’s back, sending her skin-crawling meter off the charts. Had the girl never heard of personal space?

“We all have our gifts,” Aleeza said, stepping back until a good two or three feet separated her and Ms. Touchy-Feely. “Did you find out anything inside?”

“Not much. He hasn’t been in here tonight or last night, but he left one of the cocktail waitresses a nice fat tip on Wednesday.”

“What time on Wednesday?”

“I don’t know,” Raven said with a disinterested shrug.

“Did you try to find out?” Aleeza tried to keep the censure out of her voice but failed.

What use was Raven ever going to be if she didn’t even try to learn from her mistakes? This was the third time this week she’d failed to ask the right questions. If Aleeza didn’t know better, she’d think her cousin didn’t give a shit if they scored this bounty. But the girl liked to eat as much as any Gunera, and there just weren’t any other jobs out there for members of their coven.

You either worked the family business or you became one of the many homeless witches who haunted the seedier streets of Savior City. Gunera usually looked human enough to pass in society, but sooner or later the telltale blue glow of a Gunera in power would start to shine at the wrong time. As soon as it did, that witch was out of a job, or an apartment or a college class.