"It's what I want," I whispered, removing my hands from the headboard and wrapping them around his neck. I rocked my hips forward, taking more of him into me. I was full and stretched, but I wanted more. I wanted all of him.
"I'll try to go slow," he ground out as he pushed farther inside. The feel of him filling me so slowly was excruciating. I might be inexperienced, but I knew what I wanted and I wanted it now.
"Not slow. . .more. Please."
"Tell me. Say it. Beg for it," he said as he stilled inside me and waited.
"You like dirty talk?" I giggled and wiggled my hips.
"I like dirty talk. I'm the freakin' Angel of Death. I'm supposed to like dirty talk." He grinned and rotated his hips, making me see stars.
"Fuck me," I whispered so softly I almost didn't hear it.
"I'm sorry, what did you say?" His delight in my foul mouth was contagious. . .and I liked it. It was freeing and sexy.
"I said fuck me. Now."
"Well if that's what the lady wants. . ."
His lips captured mine as he sheathed himself fully inside me with a guttural moan. The pain was sharp and intense. I cried out and his body froze.
"Shit, did I hurt you?" He was torn. His Demon instinct to take exactly what he wanted was so close to the surface, but the man who loved me would wait. I was suddenly glad he was older. How much older was a discussion we would have when my brain functioned properly again. In about a year.
I relaxed my body and expelled my breath. The pain slowly morphed into something so magical tears threatened. "I'm okay," I said. "Better than okay. Please, please don't stop."
He gauged my expression for truth and clearly saw what he was looking for—and then all bets were off. With a power only a Demon possessed, he took me in ways that words were inadequate to describe. The slap of our bodies, the moans, the kisses, the nips and the sheer speed of the motion was otherworldly.
I begged and muttered incoherent words as riotous colors ripped across my vision. My body, mind and soul became one with his. It was more than sex—more than making love. It was like our essences mixed and neither one of us ended or began without the other.
"Look at me," he hissed. "Watch me. Watch what you do to me."
Never had I felt more vulnerable and alive as I did in this moment.
"I see you and I love you," I said breathlessly as the speed of his thrusts increased to inhuman levels. My body gripped his like a vise and the beginnings of the mac daddy of orgasms started low in my belly. Our coupling bordered on violence and I realized that was on my part more than his. I wanted him deeper and harder and just more. He obliged.
"Come with me," he said as he took my lips in a kiss I would never forget. "Now," he demanded.
I did.
He was right.
I would feel him inside of me for eternity and I didn't want it any other way.
Chapter 15
Baseball rocked and Earth sucked.
“Lizards smell with their tongues.”
“What?” I was getting exasperated. That was at least the tenth piece of useless information Myrtle had passed on in the last hour. “Wait, is that even true?” I asked as I checked my cell phone to see if the battery was dead. Why hadn’t Hayden or Stella called me yet?
“Yep,” Myrtle said.
“How do you know?” I countered as I opened and began to unpack my suitcases in my new room, in my new house, in my new world, with my new family.
“Because I can shift,” she muttered.
“Back up.” I laughed. “You can shapeshift into a lizard?”
“Yep.” She grinned and shrugged.
“And how does that work out for you?”
“Not so good.” She pushed her newly bobbed hair behind her ears. Earlier I'd chased her for an hour and wrestled her to the floor so I could give her a makeover. Carl finally held her down while I had my way with her hair. I snipped and dyed for two hours. She bitched and moaned the entire time. No surprise to me, but clearly a humongous surprise to her, she was beautiful—too skinny, but beautiful.
“People don’t really like lizards so much,” she continued, still playing with her new hair. “They usually scream and occasionally try to kill me.”
“Hell forbid.” I giggled. “Can you shift into anything else?”
“Yep,” she said as she smiled and exited my room before I could pry her secrets out of her.
“You suck,” I yelled after her and heard her chuckle as she went down the stairs.
I sighed and tossed the t-shirt I was refolding back into the suitcase. I flopped back on my four-poster bed and stared at the ceiling. I wasn’t so sure about this Earth thing yet. I glanced around the room and laughed. My dad had replicated my room from the palace down to the stuffed animals I'd had as a child. It was embarrassing but sweet. Thank Hell he didn’t replicate the palace too. That might have been a little conspicuous. Instead we were living in a lovely old farmhouse. Actually it was more like a stately old Southern manor.
My father chose Kentucky for our destination—to be more specific, Eden, Kentucky. I told him I wanted to live someplace beautiful and be close enough to visit my cousin Astrid. I’d never seen fall or winter in my life. Hell was warm and balmy all year round. I couldn’t even begin to imagine snow. I’d seen it on T.V. and in the movies, but I wanted to touch it and catch it on my tongue.
The other consideration had been language. Demons and Angels were hardwired from birth to understand and speak every language—even dead ones. I couldn’t even imagine how limiting it must feel to only speak one or two. I loved speaking French and Russian, but English was my favorite language. So I requested an English speaking country. I wanted the United States. The Americans seemed to get in the most trouble and have the most fun. Even though I was a kind of good girl, I was still a Demon and I much preferred spicy to bland.
My dad liked Kentucky a lot. He said it reminded him of Hell, plus there were portals all over the place. Kentucky, Tennessee and Ohio were apparently hotbeds of otherworldly activity. A triad, if you will, of immortal strength and power.
Kentucky in particular housed Mammoth Caves. Hundreds of miles of natural underground caves. The caves formed over ten million years ago during a time of great upheaval between Heaven and Hell. There had been a war for ownership rights. It was bloody and long. In the end it was a draw.
Because so many Angels and Demons died in the caves during Mammoth’s formation, great magic was trapped within the limestone floors and walls. The Earth’s natural magic combined with the trapped immortal power had opened many portals to both Heaven and Hell. It was like a Heaven and Hell-bound bus station. It was considered neutral territory for both Angels and Demons. Earth had certain areas of neutrality, places for my dad and Uncle God to negotiate treaties and threaten each other with obliteration without having to make good on the threats. Any given day you could find tons of immortals hanging out. Either absorbing the fallout of magic that constantly seeped from the caves or hopping a Portal back and forth to Heaven or Hell. Ironically the humans didn’t even notice.
I rolled over and stared at all my shiny new weapons still nestled in my suitcase. They mocked me. Why Grandpa decided my parting gift should be an arsenal made my stomach roil. I had no freakin’ idea how to wield a sword, much less how to strike a deathblow. Moreover, I had no desire to harm or kill anyone or anything.
I thought about Grandpa and Sloth and Stella and my dad. . .and Hayden. Hayden was my every waking and dreaming thought. And where in the Hell was Blanche? Had my invisible friend deserted me too? My old life was gone. My eyes welled up and fat salty tears slowly rolled down my cheeks.
“Are you okay, sweetie?” a child asked.
What the Hell? I didn’t know we had brought a kid with us. “Oh, hi Janet.” How come I kept forgetting she sounded like a third grader? I swiped at my tears and plastered a big fake smile on my face. No reason to bring everybody down just because I was miserable, horny and hated my life.
“Don’t pretend,” she said gently as she took my hand into her sweet little stubby one. “You should cry and get it out. Earth’s really not as bad as you think.”
“I want to go back to Hell,” I whispered as I tried unsuccessfully to suppress my tears. I watched Janet search for reassuring words and was amazed at what a delicate beauty my bearded therapy partner turned out to be.
“Oh baby,” Janet cooed. “It will be fine. You’re here for a reason. I wish to Satan we knew what that reason was, but it will reveal itself in good time.”
“What if I can’t live up to whatever it is I’m supposed to do?” I made myself into a tight ball and hugged my knees for comfort. I waited for her to tell me the secrets to life, make me feel better and suggest we forget about Earth and go find a portal back to Hell.
No. Such. Luck.
“You have no choice. It’s your destiny,” Janet replied logically, in the same manner she would say the Earth was round or the sky was blue or Hell was way better than Heaven.
I decided to ignore her and continue to whine. “Why hasn’t anyone called me?”
“They’re not allowed to.” She began to hang my clothes in my closet.
“What do you mean not allowed?” I demanded. I grabbed my phone and checked for voicemails. Nothing.
“Your father forbade any contact for a month so you could acclimate to Earth.”
“He can’t do that,” I yelled at her as I punched numbers into my phone.
“I think he already did.” She put her hands to her face worriedly and searched for her missing beard.
I dialed Hayden and held the phone to my ear. Lost connection. Shit. I dialed Stella. Lost connection. Double shit. One more time. . .Triple shit. I threw my phone on my bed. I wanted to smash it against the wall, but I wasn’t stupid. I was just pissed.
He was ruining my life. I hated him. He threw me out of the only home I’d ever known. Got rid of me like I was trash. Just like my mother did. He tore me away from my family and my friends and the boy I was madly in love with. Although
boy
might be pushing it. Hayden was clearly older than dirt. As hard as I'd tried, he'd managed to avoid all my age queries.
My father ruined my life and more than likely his actions would get me killed. He condemned me to Earth where I was on constant watch for Angels who want to off me. Furthermore, as if avenging Angels weren't enough, there were a buttload of uber rotten Demons wreaking havoc and I was slated to ice them and find the freakin’ Balance of Chaos. This sucked mostly because all my power hadn't arrived yet.
Fury rushed through me like high tide coming in. There was no stopping it. The more I thought the more inflamed I became. My chest burned and my eyes flashed red. Heat flowed through my body and I wanted to crawl out of my skin. Crying and screaming sounded like a grand idea. My hands started to tingle and brilliant sparks of red light flew from my fingertips.
“Holy Hell, what’s happening to me? Son of a bitch shitshitshitshit,” I cried out as I levitated. The wattage and frequency of my fingertip light show increased and my hair floated around my head as if I’d been electrocuted.
Janet turned from my closet and quickly plastered herself against my wall. “Good Satan Almighty! Look at you,” she screeched. “Carl, get in here. Her magic has come and her language is outstanding! Not full Demon, but close.”
She watched me like someone watches a bad car accident, which only pissed me off more.
“Are you going to help me down?” I hissed as a golden glitter sprayed all over my room.
“Hell no,” she replied, slowly inching her way toward my door.
“If you take one more step,” I threatened, “I’ll fry your ass.”
Janet laughed with delight, bounced up and down and attempted to pull on her nonexistent beard. Old habits die hard. “Ooooh, you’re a nasty little piece of work. Your daddy’s gonna be so proud!”
Carl burst into my room wearing tighty-whities. Only tighty-whities. I was fairly positive my appetite had been permanently destroyed.
“Whath going on?” he shouted as he assumed a kung fu pose in a deep squat. Not a good look while clothed. Definitely not a good look while practically nude.
“Look up.” Janet pointed and giggled.
I tried with all my might to wrench my eyes from the heart-shaped mass of hair on Carl’s chest. WTH?
“Carl,” I said calmly, still spitting sparks from my fingertips. “Have I lost my mind or is the hair rug on your chest shaved into a heart?”
“It ith,” he said with pride. “But look at thith!”
He turned around, and on his fur-covered back the word
Janet
had been shaved. The J started right above the elastic band of his underpants and the T ended at his neck.
“Oh dear Beelzebub,” I gasped in horror, completely caught off guard by the shocking and disgusting declaration of love for Janet. “Did you shave or wax that?” Was that necessary information? No, but I needed to know.
Carl’s eyes were earnest as he turned to me. He literally swelled with pride. “Neither. I did electrolthith. Ith permanent.”
Janet blushed with delight and scratched Carl like a dog. I expected his leg to start dancing at any moment.
I didn’t know what to say, which was rare. My ass was plastered to my ceiling, my fingers were still shooting red sparklies, gold mist had created an iridescent cloud in the room and I mutely watched Janet and Carl begin performing some foul, hairy mating ritual. Enough was enough.
“Hey,” I shouted, throwing a metaphoric bucket of cold water on my overheated
family members.
“I appreciate your positive attitude toward body image and creative hair design, but I have a problem here.”
“Right,” Carl said as he grabbed my foot and tried to yank me down from the ceiling.
No go.
“Get me down or I'll rip out a map of Hell with all the excess hair left on your body,” I ground out through clenched teeth. The fingertip fireworks increased. Purple and silver sparkles joined the red ones. They rained down on Carl, who was laughing at me and about to pull my left leg out of the socket. I was in pain, pissed off and at the same time seriously concerned I was going to set Carl on fire due to his excessive body hair issue. He didn’t seem to notice or care. He just yanked harder.