Sin Eater (14 page)

His hand found its way
under her panties easily, seeking the wet skin she presented by moving her far leg over to its side. As he touched the spot she wanted him to she moaned but didn’t stop kissing him. He wet his finger on her and found a rhythm that she seemed to enjoy very much. Her kissing was ferocious, and he didn’t care in the least that he wasn’t the one that had brought it all on.

She didn’t want to consider what she was doing at all. She wasn’t in a thinking mood.

He freed his mouth by kissing her neck and whispering her name against her skin.  It took only a split-second before she came, crying out loudly, her entire body completely tensing and then jolting. He let that orgasm work its way through her, then pushed her underwear to her knees, wiggled down the mattress and raised her legs up, bending them at the knee and parting them.

“Stop me when you want,” he said softly, kissing her inner thigh. She responded by rolling her hips upward then down, and he caught the way her abdominal muscles flexed in the street light coming though her curtained window.

The smell of her was totally intoxicating. He was drowning in chocolate. So he struck quickly and hard with his tongue, and she dug her nails into his hands where they rested on her hips. She was trying to be quiet now, and he was wondering how thin the walls were in this place.

He closed his eyes to pick up on her brain waves. She liked this, and she was surprised by that. She was also somewhat worried he might want to mount her and penetrate her, and that thought had her tensing slightly … because she was worried she might like that, too.

He sent her a message he hoped would ease her, and it seemed to. He made noises of his own, happy ones, hoping to reassure her he was happy with just this.

She sighed, her legs relaxed, and again she orgasmed while biting her lip to keep from calling out. He was smiling as he began to move his tongue again, and her whimper had his eyes rolling back in his head.

He didn’t want to push her too far and too fast, but his dick didn’t have to be the part of him that entered her, right?

He lowered his
chin, letting his tongue ease inside, and she arched her back. Yeah, she was totally okay with that. Better than “okay.”

After a moment he eased one hand out from her grip, and let two fingers test the waters. She pushed her hips downward on to them further.

He let them slide as far as they could, and he found that secret location after a moment. When he did, her mind plowed into his and he almost came all over himself at the sudden explosion. Her hand gripped him by the hair, holding him in place while she moved against his tongue. He matched the motion with his hand.

At that moment, and for the first time in a while, he had that fleeting notion that he could totally fall in love with this girl.

Claudia was totally in uncharted waters, but Damien was so in tune with her it was like she was with … a woman. If it wasn’t for the stubble on his jaw, chin and upper lip that is. But to her surprise… she really liked that, too.

She was brutally using him for her own means, and he totally didn’t care. He was doing everything he could to keep up with her. And his hands … oh good god, no one had ever touched her there. How did he know how to do that? How did he know
what
to do?

She was only vaguely wondering these things, because there was a fire building behind her belly button that she couldn’t ignore. The pressure had her gasping and clawing at his arm, but she didn’t want to do anything to impede him. There was an odd mewing sound in the room, becoming more and more urgent, speeding up, and she realized it was her. Every sound she made Damien was echoing, and the
sound of his voice was vibrating through her.

And then … it stopped. The pressure was just gone. And she was about to cry out in absolute frustration when it hit her like a baseball bat right through the back of her head and
into her central nervous system. Her legs and arms twitched out of her control, and she knew she was hollering, but hopefully it was graceful hollering. And hopefully it wasn’t too loud. And hopefully she wasn’t waking up Iola.

Damien continued to lap at her gently while the sensations rolled away, very gently, until all that remained for noise in the room was her own ragged breathing. When he stopped she realized she was
absolutely exhausted, but in a wonderfully fantastic way, of course.

“Oh, my dear Claudia,” he whispered, pressing kisses to her stomach as he pulled his hand away.

“Holy shit,” she replied, totally inelegant.

He laughed, and the low rumble of it carried through his chest and against her, reminding her of the effect his voice had on her pleasure receptors. It made her shudder again.

Now comes the part you might not like as much,
her conscience reminded her as he stretched out beside her, but he was being careful not to crowd her.
Here’s the part where you return the favour.

“I have to apologize,” he said, kissing along her neck, nipping at her ear.

“Oh?”

“I uh … I seem to have made a mess of your sheets.”

She frowned, looking over at him in the dim light. “What … oh.
Oh
, you …”

“I’m afraid so. Would it be all right if I … used your shower?”

“Oh, of course. I … I’m sorry.” That sounded out of place, it didn’t even make sense.

“Sorry? My dear, never be sorry. You are resplendent.”

Any other time she might have known what the hell that word meant. But even mentally at that time she was completely relaxed. Blissful, even. Whatever it meant, it sounded good.

“Towels are in the hall closet,” she said, then returned the peck on the lips he lowered to her before making his way down the hall, still walking with all the confidence of a man wearing more than just boxers.

She shoved her nightshirt back down over her hips, sighing. That was weird. She didn’t
sigh
. She’d never sighed. But then again, she’d never been this … satisfied before. Her blood felt like sunshine. It was incredible.

Before she knew it, she’d let her eyes slide closed, and immediately drifted off to sleep.

The Sin Eater was soaping up his business centre with a ridiculous smile on his face. His jaw and neck were killing him but he could care less. Claudia’s climax had been so satisfying, he didn’t even push her for more. That was … perfect. Totally perfect. 

He couldn’t say he wasn’t a bit proud of himself. He hadn’t needed to read Claudia’s mind at all to get instruction. And he hadn’t needed to influence her to enjoy herself. That had been all instinct. All he’d used his mind for was to make sure he wasn’t pushing her somewhere she didn’t want to go.

He was getting ridiculously good at this. He couldn’t explain the tenderness he always felt for these human women after they coupled, but … well, maybe getting chicked out every time was helping him get the job done in the long run. Maybe it was all just practice for when he finally got Iola right where he wanted her.

“It’s because you’re feeling
their
orgasms.”

He jumped, flattening himself against the shower wall, then immediately shielded his mind by throwing up images of beaches and seagulls and many different boring things because he did
not
want this guy in his head.

Edo Edi Essum, or just Essum, was in the shower with him, standing calmly behind him, the water not touching him or his clothing. It moved right through him, because he was, after all, an apparition. A Sin Eater of the past. His old friend.

“That’s why you’re such a girl after sex. You’re still joined, so to speak. You’re still in their heads. You’re feeling their afterglow. But that other one, across the hall? You’ll never have her. Not even like this one just now.”

“Essum. You fucking prick,” he was still too startled to catch what the guy was saying.

“Lesbian, hey? Nice. But part of the game is picking up another woman. She’s hot, too. Fuck is she hot. I like those tough ones …”

“Stop watching me. It’s creepy.”

Essum stepped through the shower curtain, and he knew the guy was just waiting on the other side for him. He rinsed off quickly, turned the water off and left the exhaust fan running. It would camo his voice.

He threw the curtain back, and his peer was sitting on the counter, stroking his chin.

“What are you doing here?”

“Just letting you know what’s doing with the woman you can’t get a reading on.”

He frowned. “What?”

“Yeah, I know about her.”

“Well, that doesn’t surprise me. You always seem to know everything.”

Essum smiled. He didn’t like the look of it. “You know, I couldn’t read Daphne, either.”

“
Daphne
Daphne?”

“Yeah. She was … a wall. But she was feeling me the whole time we were together. But in that time … we were never
together
together, know what I mean?”

His frown deepened. “You two never …”

“Nope.”

“But Essum … you dropped your guard for her. It killed you.”

“I know, Voro. But really … she killed me, didn’t she? And then I got sent back to Hell.”

“Well,
that
I knew. But … what happened?”

“I was ...
unable
to be with her, if you read my meaning.”

He smirked. “Well, I’m told that happens sometimes.”

“I was physically able, but … the closeness made my skin burn. I thought I was going to die. I really did.”

He sat down on the closed toilet lid. “You never told me this before. Why now?”

“Because, I’ve since found out what Daphne was.”

“The love of your mortal life?”

“She was my
frustro
, the trick that was my evil end.”

“Are you drunk?”

“Fuck you. I can’t drink. You know that. I can’t do
anything
that’s so fun about this place. I miss the drinking. And the fucking. God, I really miss the fucking.”

“Well, what happened then? What’s with the
frustro
thing?”

Essum sighed, leaning back against the mirror. “When the man upstairs is trying to weed us out, he sends us a
frustro
, a human we will be drawn to. We’re unable to read their minds or affect their actions. No ability to influence them at all. And because of that, we swarm around them like bees on honey. But you won’t be able to fuck her.”

“Watch how you talk about her,” he growled in a warning tone.

Essum smiled, his back straightening. “Look at you. You’re nearing the end of your road as we speak. It’s only a matter of time.”

“I don’t see how Iola can bring about my demise.”

“Oh, it’s not the
frustro
. Each
frustro
is paired with a
decipio
. And
they
are the ones that will end your mortal life. They are just as powerful as you are.”

“If the guy in white is sending me a
frustro
, who’s sending the
decipio
?”

Essum shook his head. “Oh, Voro. Voro, Voro, Voro. They come from the same place.”

He couldn’t track all this. “But the
decipio
would be … evil, no? How could His Holiness send us something that dark? Impure?”

Essum gave him an indulgent look. “You mean … like a fallen angel? No, never. The old man in the clouds has never stooped to the Dark Prince’s level to get rid of a few of us.”

Voro’s shoulders slumped forward. “So … Iola’s got a
decipio
circling around her somewhere, and his goal is to end my mortal life?”

“It’s as easy as lopping o
ff your head, my friend. Or a massive brain trauma. But don’t worry. It doesn’t really hurt.”

“What’s the point of the
frustro
? If the
decipio
is as powerful as I am, why can’t he or she just kill me outright?”

“It’s the oldest trick in the book, old friend. You can’t spring a trap without bait.”

Voro ran his hand through his hair. “
Fuck
.
Me
.”

“Indeed. And you want to know the beautiful part?”

“What?”

“The Boss has started up the old rotation system.”

Well that made him hopeful. In the old days when one of the Sin Eaters met an untimely end, the next one in line was put to work. The one that just returned home went to the back of the queue, and the progression continued. Usually it took about fifteen years for one of them to be returned to the world of mortals.

Except for him. He’d been roaming the planet for … about six hundred years. Good god … has anyone else been around that long?

“Nope,” Essum answering, annoying the fuck out of him and reading his mind. Voro had let his seascape screen saver slip. “You’re the longest serving Sin Eater around. And The Boss thinks it’s time you took a break, too.” Then he scratched his jawline. “That woman … the one with the kid locked up in her apartment? With the big bad boyfriend coming back to do all kinds of nasty to the kid?”

Shit. Busted
. “What about it?”

“Well, with her last dying breath that woman saved the life of an innocent, so she’s … she’s saved, too. And it’s only because you called in that tip, turned the kid over to the cops. So … you’re responsible for that piece of shit’s salvation. And that was the last straw for The Boss.”

“What does that mean?”

“He helped set up your
decipio
. And this one … well, this one makes mine look like a Sunday school teacher.”

“What?”

Essum smiled wider. “You’re being set up on both sides. The good guys captured one of ours to get the blood of evil for the
decipio
. They don’t know yet that it was planted for them.”

Voro felt anger rolling in his chest. “Well, who is it? You have to help me out, Essum.”

His pal laughed. “Fuck no.”

Now he was totally taken aback. “You asshole. Tell me who it is, what he looks like.”

“Absolutely not.”

The way Essum was swinging his legs back and forth with mirth gave Voro pause. Then he saw it, plain as day. “You’re next in the rotation, aren’t you?”

Essum giggled like a hyena. “And I can’t wait. I told you, I told you, I miss the fucking. And I’ll have to remember this building. They keep good-looking women stored here, don’t they?”

“You bastard.”

“Worse than a bastard. I’m next in line for a promotion, and I can’t fucking wait.”

“And there’s no way to get around this?”

Essum shrugged. “Technically, the
frustro
could slay the
decipio
. But then … then your
frustro
takes on your curse. And you … you are rendered mortal. As long as you live your natural life span, she will have to carry your burden and release the sins of mankind.”

Of course. The fine print just keeps getting worse the further
into it you get.

“If she takes on my curse … does she become one of us for eternity?”

“Nah, she’s an intern at best. She’ll live a mortal lifetime, too, and then be called home. Upwards, not down. Because those are the powers that put her here. But … can you see the darling Iola killing anyone?”

Voro shook his head. “Of course not. She is … she’s too pure.”