Authors: Shannon Dermott
Tags: #Science Fiction & Fantasy, #Fantasy, #Paranormal & Urban, #Teen & Young Adult, #Romance, #Paranormal, #Two Hours or More (65-100 Pages), #Literature & Fiction, #Paranormal & Fantasy, #Juvenile Fiction
Oh, yeah, where was Flynn now. He’d be laughing his ass off. Shit, Flynn, he could be in trouble. “Look, I don’t know who you think I am but I’ve taken care of things here. You can go back home.” I really wanted the little girl not to be fighting a battle she had no chance of winning.
The girl in question finally spoke. “We’ve trained our whole lives for this. It is our great honor to assist you in the enormous battle waged here on earth. We will die to end demons who plague our cities and towns, one by one if we have to.”
She sounded fiercer than she looked. “And who is your leader?” I asked. The question sounded funny coming from my lips but these two seemed to be dead serious.
“An angel like yourself of course. His teachings have rallied us all. We are positioning ourselves around the country for a strike for all mankind.” Her voice was childlike but the tenor was all fearsome.
“I can be of service to you,” Gaius spoke again bowing his head in subservience.
Phebe looked at me wide eyed. “I know this is wrong but I must say it. I am in awe of your power and your beauty. I too can be of service.”
What they needed to do was live their lives. Be in high school, go to college, and have a life. Not all demons were bad, it wasn’t good to generalize. I knew better than to mention that. They’d been brainwashed for years. A few words from me about good and bad demons weren’t going to erase all of that. So I did what I could.
“Depart,” I found myself saying wondering if I stepped into the eighteenth century. “Do not dwell in this place. It is safe. Seek refuge and shelter for the night. Find another place to be of good service.” And all that shit, I wanted to add. “Help the homeless and the hungry and do not trouble yourselves with demons. Humans need help as well.”
Okay, that sounded a little haughty but they nodded. Getting to their feet, they gave me another quick bow. Turning, they walked in the direction they’d come. So my little speech I pulled from books and movies must have worked. I would have to come out and search tomorrow for the pair just to make sure they’d heeded my instruction.
With movement faster than the human eye, I lifted off into the air and zipped back to Flynn’s house not to waste anymore time. Opening the door, I followed the trail of blood back to Flynn’s dad’s room. There on the bed, he was still bleeding. The sheets held a pool of blood and he looked too pale. Shit, taking my healing hand, first I stopped the flow of blood. Then, I sent out a wave of power to jump start his body to speed up the new blood cell production. He would need water, but I turned to Sara first.
Lying next to him like another living corpse, I rounded the bed to check her out. She was breathing, but barely. Crap, all this healing would wear me down. I couldn’t only hope we wouldn’t have to fight again tonight. With my hands, I touched her cool skin on either side of her head and sent power through her body. Not knowing what was wrong, I couldn’t focus my power thus utilizing only what was needed. She seemed to suck in a deep breath when I was done.
Feeling tired, I headed to the kitchen and pulled out a bottle of water from the fridge. Heading back to the room, I uncapped it. Pouring a little on Flynn’s face, he sputtered and I had to laugh.
“Dude, you lost a lot of blood. Drink this,” I said holding out the bottle.
No quips back, I knew the guy was out of it. I watched him drink down the whole bottle and collapse back on the bed. “No you don’t,” I said, pulling him back to a sitting position. You need to drink more water and find Adriana. I didn’t have to say why. He was an incubus and for him there was nothing like a little sexual healing.
Helping the guy to his feet, once he was steady I sent him on his way. The guy loved life, so I knew I didn’t have to remind him about the water and the other stuff.
“Thanks man,” he said weakly, still on the pasty side. He left and I heard the door on the refrigerator open and close. Then, I listened to tentative footsteps on the stairs. The place was quiet. Maybe too quiet.
Looking at the bed, I scooped Sara off it. She was still out of it. Sitting her in the love seat in the room, I stripped the bed and hurried down the hall to put the blood soaked sheets in the wash. I found Sara’s clothes there, something I’d forgotten about. Not sure what else to do, I popped them in the dryer on a low setting although if they shrunk a little I wasn’t sure I would be upset by it. Then using hot water and a soak cycle, I shoved the sheets in, thanking my mom for all the laundry lessons because they were paying off.
Superhuman, she’d balk, you still have to wear clothes and I’m not your maid. Sighing, I hoped she was okay.
Going back to the room, I put Sara back on the bed without sheets. She didn’t have any or much blood on her from Flynn and I wasn’t sure how he managed that. But I was tired. Playing superhero, demigod, and housemaid took a lot out of a guy. I couldn’t face the stairs. Plus, Sara might wake in the night scared. Or maybe, I just didn’t want to leave. Whatever it was, I stretched out next to her and closed my eyes.
Chapter Eleven
–
Flynn
Climbing those stairs was like making it to the top of Mount Everest the way I was feeling. I was breathing heavy and four bottles of water sloshed around in my stomach. Luke had healed me, but he was right. A little fooling around with Adriana would go a long way.
My vision tunneled and I was woozy on my feet. Nearly tumbling back on the stairs, I leaned forward lurching to door number three where I would hopefully find my prize. Fumbling with the doorknob, it looked as though I was seeing it through a kaleidoscope. Prisms of knobs multiplied as my strength faltered.
When the door managed to open and I stumbled in, I saw that the two sisters decided to share a bed. Unable to make it back to my room, I bomb dived over Adriana who blissful was closest to the door and managed to land between them. Rolling towards my girl, I used the last of my will to gently wake her or so I thought.
Her eyes popped open in fear but soon filled with delight. The kind you get at Christmas when you open that present that you really wanted. This is why I liked being with her. She wasn’t demanding and she liked me more than just my outer wrapping. If only she lived in Maryland and not in New York. Maybe it would be her and not Amanda. Maybe together we could be something else.
But I pushed that thought away. I hadn’t been able to make a relationship with two other girls I’d had more interest in. Heather and Jennifer were two causalities of my nature. Pushing that thought aside, I looked into those big brown eyes. “Kiss me, love,” I said. I really must have been out of it. Love wasn’t even in my vocabulary.
Unable to muster movement, I watched as she leaned in with a grin and pressed her sweet mouth to mine. Like a dying man, I drank in her energy as it poured off of me. Lost in the glory of it, my mind went wild with the idea of Adriana and Sara together with me. Sara would be down with it, I could tell. Adriana was another story. It would take heavy convincing.
Shaking my head, I found I had enough strength to wind my hand in her lovely thick hair. I needed so much more than this, but I had to get enough power so I could make it back to my room unassisted.
“Flynn,” Adriana moaned when my hand which a minute ago had been in her hair was now under her shirt. I was losing time. Snatches of it, but I needed to get a grip. No doubt the sisters had done a lot of things together in their day, but somehow I didn’t think that included sex.
My brain was coming online with every kiss we shared and I had a faint recollection that Adriana might be too much under my influence. Therefore, I would need to limit contact with her. I should let her be, but there was no one else. If she knew this would save my life would she give up her will to me?
Her hands were in my hair pulling me closer when the first wave of super lust hit me in the back. Then a hand landed on my thigh and journeyed for statuette parts. Adriana didn’t have four hands, so it was easy to deduce what was going on. Boobs where pressed against my back and she was nibbling on my neck. My incubus nature was on high alert, taking from the physical and emotional lust that surrounded me like a sandwich. A hand hit home and Adriana’s kiss ate all the noise of any kind including the protest I made.
If I wasn’t clear with my brain loopy from blood loss about what was going on, when the voice behind me called out “Luke,” my brain went on red alert. Pulling away from Adriana’s mouth, I said to her, “Let’s go to my room.” Nodding, she didn’t move while her sister’s hand was going to town. After a silent curse, I managed to say, “I’ll meet you there.”
Like a zombie, she moved out of the room not noticing her sister at all. I hated compulsion. But I had no choice here. Adelina’s actions clouded my brain. As soon as I could disengage from her, I would compel her to forget this little indiscretion and leave her to go to my room.
Grabbing a hold of her wrist, I firmly squeezed it just enough so she would let go of my most prized possession. I turned in the bed to capture her stare but the girl was like a cobra all fangs if she had any and locked onto my mouth pouring heaps of power into me. The rush had me for a second. So much so I dropped her hand. It was back where it started and my eyes betrayed me by rolling in the back of my head for a moment. The sounds I heard next might have been me but I wasn’t sure.
When her mouth left mine, I was pinned to the mattress by her need. My incubus was reacting to what she wanted. Soon, I wouldn’t be able to stop. As her head journey southward, I warred with myself. I couldn’t do Adriana’s sister. Hell, I couldn’t do this to Adriana let alone to Adelina. Like the dinging of a bell, contact was made. My last thought before I snapped into action was
Can I
?
Chapter Twelve
–
Luke
Stomach growling from the smell of breakfast, I woke. Sara was still asleep beside me. Her color looked better in the daylight. It looked as though she was healing. Not sure of what she was, I let her sleep. Plus I wanted to talk to Flynn before she woke.
Getting out of bed, I padded my bare feet against the hardwood floors. Finding Flynn shoveling food into his mouth from a plate, wasn’t a new sight.
“Breakfast,” he said mouth full.
My stomach growled some more like an angry bear and Flynn’s eyebrows cocked. The tv wasn’t on, which was odd. Flynn must have been too hungry to stop and turn on Sports Center.
“You’re looking better,” I said, while making a plate of my own. “Nice beginning from the evening we had.” Quite the spread, I knew the twins must have made breakfast. Eggs, bacon, sausage, toast, bagels, sliced fruit and orange juice.
“Um huh,” Flynn muttered, still busy eating like he hadn’t in years. I got busy matching his stride. Several minutes passed, while we ate in silence. Filling your belly after battle was almost as important as the battle itself.
Draining my glass, I asked, “Where are the girls?”
Flynn’s eyes bugged out but he finished his juice before he spoke. “Gone,” was the only word he gave me.
Turning wide eyes on him, I said, “Gone as in G.O.N.E. Gone.”
Nodding, I waited for his explanation. “Adriana wanted to make breakfast. She hit the store came back and cooked along with her sister. They ate and I sent them on their way.”
Puzzled, I asked, “Why?”
“Who knows what’s going on around here and I don’t want to keep compelling them,” he declared.
“You had to more than once,” I asked.
Flynn looked over at me, guilt all over the guy’s face. He didn’t like to do the mind wipe thing. “Yeah, look there’s something I need to tell you about Adelina.”
“Morning fellas,” Sara voice called out, preceding her body into the kitchen.
Looking at Flynn to finish, he muttered. “Later.”
“Where are your two stalkers?” she asked. “Scratch that. Only one had the makings of a good stalker. The other well, she a little sweet, a bit naive but she has a wicked side.” Her flirtatious stare was in place as if all that stuff didn’t happen last night and she wasn’t the central cause of it all.
Flynn smiled and it was just us three. Thoughts of unspoken promises drifted into my brain but I knew it was all too late for that. “Tell us Sara, what are you?”
A quick glance at Flynn confirmed he had that same line of thinking. “Why you say that like I’m some alien and not a part of the human race,” she said calmly, exuding virtue.
Moving to the open space that led to the kitchen, Flynn remained near her by the open counter in case she leaped through it into the living room to make a dash to the door. “You’re not human,” I said.
Flynn added, “And you didn’t answer the question.”
“Wow,” she said, spearing a grape with her fork. Apparently, there was yogurt too because she licked it off the grape. “This wasn’t the double team I expected.” She was so casual, I knew despite whatever happened to her twice she was just as deadly as Flynn pondered when we first found her.
A buzz at my back scared the shit out of me, but I managed not to leap in the air like some ninny.
Putting her plate down, she moved towards me and over to the open doors of the utility room. “I bet that would be my clothes.”