Orion had seen a lot of things in his time on earth, but this one he really could have done without.
“Oh, I will.” The demon locked eyes with Morpheus as the scene changed. He stood before an altar on which Sabine had been tied down, naked and splayed wide. Then he slid his monstrous cock near the mouth of her sex. “Do you accept me witch? Do you want what I can give you?”
“No way she says yes,” Orion said.
“Five bucks she does.” Morpheus held out a hand, and they shook on it while Pazuzu laughed.
Sabine moaned. “Yes, Paz. Yes.”
“Sucker bet.” Pazuzu shoved himself inside her, too large to fit yet he did, and they watched as the sea witch’s belly stretched and her skin writhed, overtaken by something new inside her.
“This is fucked up.” Orion scowled. “Are we done yet?”
The demon laughed then groaned as he released inside her. “Yet it has already come to pass.” He stepped back, his body now clad in a pair of gray trousers. A suitcoat, shirt, and tie clothed the rest of him, his wings vanishing, so that he looked like a high-powered CEO.
“Remember, Sabine. A soul is owed. A soul I shall collect.”
“You’ll get what I promised.” She turned and glared at Orion.
“I will. Or else.” Pazuzu saluted Morpheus then vanished.
The next thing Orion knew, he stood with Morpheus in his room, looking down at his body. “What the fuck?”
“Tell the magician he owes me a drink. I’ll meet him in the usual place.” Morpheus looked at him and shook his head. “You are blessed yet too thick to realize it.”
“Hey.” Orion took a step in his direction, but the male pushed him back with one finger, shoving him bodily into the wall and leaving a dent. Orion rose to his feet. “Nice. Try that again.” He felt the hunger deep inside him, a stirring of danger. It was an end yet to be delivered, a pledge of divine storms gathering in wait, a gift from the Great Mother, Alecta.
Morpheus gaped, looking surprised for the first time that night. “Are you kidding me? Gods-touched? No one shares information around here,” he yelled, to whom, Orion had no idea. Then he looked back at Orion and grinned, and his face and form changed, from Morpheus to the CEO-Pazuzu.
“What will you do with the treasure you’ve been given, vampire? When I can take it all away in a snap?” The demon had a screaming Kaia in his arms.
“Orion? Orion, save me,” she yelled, crying in terror as Pazuzu kissed her then pulled away, and a familiar barbed, black appendage circled over his shoulder and aimed for her mouth...
“No.” Orion shouted and sat up in his bed, ready to kill.
Kraft and Khent burst through his door, looking recently risen.
Khent glared. “What now, vryko? It’s barely sunset. I had been hoping to sleep in.”
Kraft sniffed. “I smell brimstone.” He frowned. “What’s with the dent in the wall? That’s new.”
Khent went still. “Now that you mention it, there’s a faint trace of brimstone in the air, and something else. I smell the ocean, blood, and... the divine?”
Kraft continued to sniff. “Oh, yeah, that hint of bubblegum and cherry. Why do I know that scent?”
“I had a dream.”
Kraft stared. “A what?”
“Vampires don’t dream,” Khent stated.
Orion’s heart raced, a need to check on Kaia overpowering. He rushed from the house down toward the pool.
Varu and Fara were talking in the hallway outside the spa.
“Orion?” Varu asked.
Orion ignored him and the vampires following and dove into the pool, past the tunnel leading beneath the house into the lake. He raced to see if Kaia was all right, not sure what he felt as he hurried, his heart pounding, a feeling akin to fear surging in his bloode.
He found her dragging a foot in the water, sitting on the edge of the dock. When she saw him, she gave a shy smile. “Hello.”
He just watched her from the water, and it took him a minute to realize a boat filled with his kin had followed, waiting some distance from the dock.
Kaia looked beyond him and frowned. “Is that Kraft?”
“Are you all right?” Orion forced himself to calm down. What the hell was wrong with him? He’d panicked, something only humans or weak magir did. Vampires didn’t know fear. Why then did he worry for the sea nymph staring at him in confusion?
“Um, Orion? We’re going to head back now, okay?” Rolf asked.
“It’s always a female that mucks up the works,” Kraft muttered. “Get your head out of your ass and come home when you’re done pining for the nymph,” he jeered. The look he shot Kaia was anything but friendly, and after the—not scare, but the odd fantasy—Orion had had of Kaia, he didn’t appreciate a threat from his kin.
“Fuck off, Kraft. Leave or I’ll make sure to rip off something you can’t grow back.”
“Oh, nice.” Rolf nodded. “That’s a real threat. Kraft, you can’t regenerate can you?”
“Wouldn’t you like to know, draugr?” Kraft flipped him off, then turned to Orion and deliberately rolled his eyes. “Not scared, vryko. When you’re done flirting, hurry home. Varu’s got stuff for you to do.”
“I do?” Varu looked amused.
“Come on. This was a huge waste of time.” Kraft fought with Khent to drive the boat back, but eventually they left, and Orion felt like a fool as he floated, watching the female he could feel inside him, pulsing like the bloode in his veins.
CHAPTER
NINETEEN
Kraft didn’t know what the hell had happened, but hearing Orion’s roar of terror had been enough to have him and Khent nearly colliding as they raced to the threat coming from Orion’s room.
How had they scented demon, ocean, and a god where only a vampire should be? And why was Orion’s first thought to head for the sea nymph he should have been over by now? Kraft didn’t like the female’s influence over his kin. Over his brother—his friend.
Unlike the others, he knew and accepted that their clan had started forming the bonds of real friendship. Because he spent so much time in his wolf form, he made connections with others easily. The animals in the woods to the north of the city. The lycan in the basement, who had proven to be a decent enough creature for a lesser being. Even Onvyr, their resident murderous elf, amused Kraft and no longer made him long to crush the male’s skull when he lashed out.
Something was coming. He could sense it. Danger had a feel and smell to it, and he knew it traveled on the wings of the damned—demonkind.
He went in search of Macy, who had been shacking up with Duncan for the past month, her shifts at MEC now during the night, so Duncan and the Night Bloode could defend her if she needed it. During the day, she had Hecate’s protection at the house. He thought she might soon permanently move in with her mate, as it should be. But would she stick around after she eventually gave birth to their young?
From the way Varu acted around Fara, the strigoi had no intention of ever letting his mate go. Perhaps Duncan would also be unconventional and keep his witch around. Then again, she was the clan’s Bloode Witch and had a job beyond bearing Duncan a child.