Angels, Demons, and Alex

by cbowman782020

source: https://www.webnovel.com/book/angels-demons-and-alex_19260733906972705/chapter-1-the-assignment..._51702762186010568


Chapter 1: The Assignment...

Spooky as it was, the full moon and the stillness of the night wasn't the scary part. It wasn't the cemetery just on the other side of the hedge, either. No, it was walking through the pools of direct light under the street lamps that freaked Alex out the most.

1 By the second or third such spot, he realized that maybe he should've worn something other than all black to walk down the street in the middle of the night. After all, some cop might roll by and think, "Hey, I wonder if that dude in all black with the black backpack and black gloves is up to something shady?"

When he got to the far end of the cemetery and turned into the thin alley between it and the storage rental complex, though, he felt better. He lingered in the darkness for a few deep breaths, reminding himself that no, really, people don't do crazy cult stuff in graveyards under the full moon. That was all just movie bullshit.

The climb up the vine-covered iron fence was not too hard. Alex was not a serious athlete, but at least he was thin and close to being in shape. He was feeling good about the climb until it came to the three strings of barbed wire at the top that had been concealed by all the leaves.

Okay, he thought, no problem. I'm not impaled, just scratched. I can afford another black sweatshirt. Just go slow, haul it up, over and okay not there, that's another barb, grab that overhanging branch, haul it up, ow ow ow my leg ow fuck!

It was awkward. Had any of his friends been there, they'd have made fun of him and called him a slowpoke, a klutz, a total pussy and a thousand other shitty things, but he made it over. His landing was surely less noisy than a car crash.

"Okay, that's just nerves," he thought. "I'm doing fine. Just a rustle and a thump. No big deal. Alley cats are noisier. Nobody's here. I'm fine. I'm fine. Total ninja."

Then his cell phone went off.

"Fuck!" he hissed, and clutched at his back pocket. The sounds of his Tool ringtone reminded him that yes, he was in fact a complete tool for forgetting to put the phone on vibrate before he went sneaking into a graveyard.

He silenced it, then looked at the display while trying to cover up the light from the screen with one hand. It was Jason, who would probably keep calling until he got an answer. Alex cursed his friends for being nineteen and stupid... mindfully including himself in that on both counts.

"What?" he grumbled quietly by way of greeting. At least the cemetery still seemed dead despite the disturbance. No sirens, no floodlights or groundskeeper's flashlights, no ghosts or zombies. Yet.

"Yo, nigga, where you at?"

"Jason, when you get your ass beat by some black guy who doesn't like hearing white people call each other that, I'm seriously gonna point at you and laugh."

"Yeah, if you ain't runnin'. Seriously, where are you?"

"Doing my photography homework."

"At ten thirty on a Monday?"

"I need night shots," Alex said tersely.

"I thought you only took that class 'cause it was full of hotties?"

"Yeah, well, the cute ones are all taking the class real seriously, so I guess I'd better, too. College is weird like that. Jason, I can't talk right now, what do you want?"

"Jus' callin' to say we're playin' pool if you wanna come."

Alex sighed and rolled his eyes. The lesson here was to come up with his good photo concepts before his friends decided on something fun to do. "No," he said, "not tonight. I'm good, thanks."

"Okay. What're you doing, anyway?"

JESUS! What part of "I can't talk" is so unintelligible? "I'll show you later," Alex said. "I gotta go. Later, man." He flipped the phone shut, made absolutely sure to put it on silent, and slipped it back into his pocket.

A minute of stillness later, Alex had his nerves good and settled. Nobody came out looking for him after all that noise, so whatever night watchman this place had was doubtlessly not really watching.

Sacred Heart cemetery was fairly large, with ground that gently rose and fell and a few bushes and low hedgerows here and there. It was creepy and quiet at this hour. The only lights shining within the grounds were a couple of external floodlights at the large chapel at the center of the cemetery and a few more at the closed-up main gate.

Alex kept low and moved slowly, still mindful of using whatever trees and bushes he could for concealment from the chapel and main gate, just in case.

Alex's assignment was for night photography of still subjects. He could have picked a considerably easier site... but there were a couple of drop-dead hot goth girls in his photography class. They seemed to like creepy stuff, so he figured --- naively, he had to admit -- some shots of the cemetery at night would at least be conversation starters.

The cemetery groundskeeper hadn't bought into it when Alex called and asked during the day if he could do this with permission. The guy was uninterested in Alex's assignment and probably hadn't even listened.

Alex wasn't normally one for doing crazy things like this, but lately, that very factor seemed to chafe at him. He didn't take enough risks. He tended to play by the rules. Just boring, nice guy Alex, never with anything crazy to share at parties.

Even now, his hopes that this little stunt could turn his life around were not high. A single act of trespassing doesn't change life forever. He was just out for a couple shots as icebreakers with 'Molly' and 'Onyx' nothing more.

Yeah, those are from Sacred Heart cemetery. No, they don't allow you to get in there at night. But if you climb the fence and stumble around in the dark anyway, you can get this really cool shot of this statue here. And you can sneak up on the chapel and get a pic of the steeple with the moon overhead, and it feels totally creepy and there's this mist and stuff,and you almost feel like you can hear wailing...

Alex stopped taking pictures and listened. Was that really wailing? It sounded like a scream coming from the chapel. A woman's scream, in fear or pain or both. Alex stopped, and listened, and heard another one, sounding like someone yelling "no."

His imagination ran away with him for a moment, but he quickly stopped himself with a deep breath. For all he knew the groundskeeper was inside watching a movie with the volume on full blast or something. Still, Alex wanted to know what was up. He was more concerned than curious. If a woman really was screaming about something bad, the last thing he wanted to do was walk away because he was afraid of being yelled at or maybe hit with a fine for a little after-hours photography.

Slipping closer to the chapel -- quickly now, as he was pretty sure whatever was going on inside would give him some cover -- he thought he heard men chanting something unintelligible, muffled by windows blocked by curtains. A dim orange glow flickered behind those curtains.

Up close to the walls and windows now, he heard a sharp shriek of pain, almost certainly a woman, while another woman distinctly yelled, "Stop this, please! You don't know what you're doing!"

"Silence her!" bellowed a man's voice, breaking the chant only momentarily. There was a sharp crack, a grunt, and then the cries of agony from the first woman's voice continued. Alex's heart raced and he suddenly felt out of breath, but did his best to stay calm. He still couldn't be sure this was really what it sounded like, though he was completely sure this wasn't someone's television.

Alex stayed low and alert as he moved around to the back door. It was locked, naturally, and the windows were shut. Crazy as it was, he thought about checking the front door. There were lights there, but this place was truly dead outside the chapel itself. The noise wasn't going to carry beyond the cemetery and the odds of someone looking right when he ran up were pretty slim.

The first woman's yelling stopped, leaving only the male chanting to be heard. It was quieter here closer to the front of the building, away from the action. He heard the sharp "crack," though, which elicited a yelp of pain, followed by another, and then another. It sounded like the women were being whipped.

He decided to go for it. Alex slipped up onto the porch quickly, slowed himself as he grabbed the doorknob... and found it opening. He had no more time to think now that he was exposed in that light. Alex pushed the door open all the way and then slipped inside.

The foyer, thankfully, was empty and dark, lit mainly by the intense glow of candlelight from down hallways on opposite sides of the room, leading to a central chamber. It had comfortable chairs and random pictures on the walls and a shelf of books that probably nobody ever read.

From down the hallways off to his right Alex heard the sharp crack of the whip and the cries it forced out of its victims, along with the chanting of those male voices. It sounded like there were only a couple of them. The air was thick and warm with a distinctly smoky, sulfur smell that overrode other stenches.

"Why are you doing this?" a woman asked in a fearful, almost sobbing voice. "This is insanity! It's evil! You're going to -- aaaaaarrrrhhhhh!" Her inquiry ended in another scream.

"You don't know--!" The whip cracked. "Agh! -- what you're—" Crack. "Gngh! -- playing with, old fool!" It was a different voice -- still feminine, but lower and angrier.

"I know precisely what I am doing, whore daughter of Satan," said the deeper, clearly male voice. The others, Alex figured two, were still chanting. "How else did you come to this? Why are you trapped? Why do you bleed?"

Alex crept up to the hallway. This is totally crazy, he thought, but he didn't want to go calling the cops on just what he was hearing. What if it was... he scowled fearfully. He didn't know what it could possibly be. He had to see.

The memorial service chamber was cleared of furniture. It seemed like a lit candle occupied every possible space along the walls, enough of them to kick out some serious heat. Crazy runes were strewn about the floor in some powder, some of them in circular shapes, with the bloody bodies of dead dogs, cats and birds in the center. Alex could even make out a human hand in the mess. A smoldering pile of ashes occupied another large circular outline near the hallway.

Two bloodied, mostly-naked women stood at about the center of the room, or more accurately hung from chains attached to the ceiling. They were spaced several feet apart facing away from Alex. Bloody pentagrams had been drawn on the floor around the feet of each. A trio of men lurked around them, one with a whip and one with a goblet and a bloody, wavy-looking dagger. Both women were bleeding from nearly identical wounds on their backs: two deep vertical gashes parallel to the spine, below the shoulders.

The woman on the right was blonde, and an odd scattering of long, white feathers lay around her bare feet. A few more of them stuck to her body by stains of blood. A white cloth of some sort hung around her waist, torn and sagging off of her hips.

The one on the left had no feathers around her, but had apparently shed more blood. She bore an additional deep and wide gash just above the crack of her ass, which was itself bare. Her dark-haired head slumped forward as more blood dripped from it. Alex couldn't see either one's face. Both had shapely, young bodies, but at the moment Alex certainly wasn't thinking about their measurements.

2  

Watching from the shadow of the hallway, Alex got a good look at the three men. The apparent leader was dressed in a priest's cassock and looked fairly old, but hardened. The others wore ordinary street clothes.

The first goon, wielding the whip, was a scruffy fortysomething; he grinned as he let loose another lash, looking more than a little crazy. The other, with the goblet and dagger, was probably in his forties, noticeably bigger and looked marginally more kempt. Scary as the scene was, none of them looked super-imposing, and beyond the funky dagger and whip they weren't really armed with anything.

The whipping paused and the chanting picked up. It made the air tenser. Alex watched as the priest took the goblet and held it between the two women, chanting something new, loudly and forcefully.

"No!" the blonde shrieked. "Don't do this!"

The other woman yelled nothing, but raised her head enough to spit a bloody mess onto the priest's face. His eyes flared, and he faltered in his incantation, but began again and this time finished it. He held the goblet under the dark-haired woman's bleeding head, which he had to hold in place to prevent her from resisting, and then turned to catch blood running from the wounds at the blonde woman's back. "With this cup, I gather your essences," the priest said. "The purest of your good. The foulest of your evil. You will bend to my will, and you will serve loyally and faithfully forever."

The other two men paused and looked at each other. "And us, too," the whip-wielder reminded.

"Shut up," the priest growled.

The men glanced at one another again. "Just sayin' is all," muttered the first, mostly to his feet.

"Don't do this! You can't!" yelled the blonde. "You're damning your own souls!"

"It is already done," said the priest. "You can feel it."

"You'll burn in Hell for this," hissed the other woman.

"Perhaps, whore daughter of Satan... but I have no intention of ever dying. I'll have you both to protect me from that. And with all this defiance you're showing," the priest said, glancing between the two women, "I think I'll start with you first.

"Harold. Troy. Spread her out on the altar." He waited a moment, and then rolled his eyes as the other two men hesitated. He sighed. "You'll have her when I'm done with her, of course, but it's necessary for the spell!"

"Ooohhh," the two men nodded, and quickly set to undoing her chains.

"You're going to rape her?!" the blonde gasped.

"Both of you, before I'm through," the priest replied grinning.

Oh, fuck that noise, Alex thought from his hiding spot. He retreated back a bit, frantically trying to figure out what to do. Call the cops, definitely, but by the time they get here... Alex frowned. He couldn't waste time talking to them right now anyway. Quickly he found a phone in the foyer, picked it up off the receiver, dialed 911 and then left it off the hook. The cops would get there when they got there... hopefully in time to rescue my own stupid ass, he frowned.

Dropping the backpack, Alex fished around in his pockets and found the pepper spray he'd brought along just in case there really were freaks in the cemetery. It wasn't enough, though. He had heard that crazy people weren't always put down by pepper spray. What if he missed? What if the canister jammed?

He looked into the side rooms. Like most funeral chapels, this one had extra small rooms for private conversations and grieving and such, but comfortable chairs and boxes of tissues weren't going to be of much use. The first room had nothing useful, but in the second was a fireplace, complete with a set of fireplace tools. Alex rushed in and grabbed the long, heavy iron poker. It would have to do.

This is fucking nuts, he thought to himself. I'm going to get caught. I'm going to die. If I hadn't pulled this stupid stunt I wouldn't know this was even going on...

"Nooo!" one of the women yelled.

I'll never forgive myself if I don't do something.



Chapter 2: Tough Choices...

At the far end of the room was an altar, desecrated not only by candles and what Alex could only assume was random spooky cultist ritual junk but also by the spread-eagled, dark-haired woman. The chains were still on her arms, both of them wrapped around the legs of the altar, while apparently sheets or tablecloths had been wrapped around her ankles, tied off to the other altar legs to keep hers apart.

The priest stood before her, removing his cassock. The others stood by, with the blonde, still hanging from chains, shouting at the priest about how wrong all of this was.

"Harold, shut her up. Troy, hold the cup for a moment," he said. The whip-wielder stepped back behind the blonde, yanking her hair back hard, while the priest cast aside his cassock and undid his belt buckle.

Alex couldn't think of a better moment to ambush three guys than when their backs were turned and one had just dropped his pants.

"I'll see you burn, you fucking bastard!" the woman on the altar shouted at the priest.

"Don't do this, you fools!!" the blonde screamed.

Under this distraction, Alex quickly covered the few feet between his hiding spot and Harold. With the fire-poker coiled up to strike from behind his shoulder, he brought it down across the back of Harold's head in a vicious arc with all the torque he could muster. The curved head of the poker struck squarely across Harold's skull, leaving him reeling and falling to the floor. The blonde's scream ended in sharp surprise as she looked up. Alex pulled the spray canister out of his pocket and kept going.

"The blood anoints your master! It protects from your lies and your curses! Your master's pleasure is your pleasure! You shall loyally and faithfully serve and protect the anointed one!" The priest reached off to the side for the cup -- but Troy, looking backward at the curious sound, faltered.

"Boss!" he yelled, just before getting a face full of pepper spray. Reflexively, he lashed out with the only thing in his hand. The cup of blood splashed across Alex's face and torso, bonking him on the cheek without really hurting him. Troy went down on the floor screaming.

The priest whirled around, then stumbled with his pants still around his ankles. Alex narrowly missed him with the second blast of spray. It was close enough to make him choke, though. The priest he fell backwards, bumping into the altar and then hitting the ground. Alex pressed on, kicking him hard in the genitals and then stomping on his side when the fallen man lurched forward reflexively.

comment

Another attempt with the pepper spray showed it was empty already. He dropped it on the floor, heaved back with the fire poker and swung it down on the priest's head. It was an awkward strike, getting more shoulder and neck than head. Alex wiped some of the spilled blood from his eyes and wound up for another strike.

comment

That was when Harold came barreling into him from the side. "Kill ya, you little fuck!" he growled, pushing Alex's head down onto the altar and groping for his neck. Alex groped too, fumbling around for a way to hurt the man, and finally found the thug's crotch and grabbed as hard and viciously as he could. Harold roared in pain, stumbling back a step and giving Alex the chance to shove him off.

Alex hit Harold again with the fire poker, this time squarely in the base of the skull, which sent the older man staggering to the ground.

"I can't see!" Troy wailed, blindly crawling away from the action.

"Free me!" both women yelled. "No, me first!" they both yelled again when they realized they had spoken simultaneously.

"Not her, me!"

"Stop!" the priest groaned, trying to get up. "Don't know what you're... doing..."

Not stopping to say anything witty, Alex swung his foot up into the priest's forehead, knocking him back onto the floor again. He looked quickly at the blonde and her chains; her shackles were attached by chains to hooks in the ceiling, with too little slack for her feet to even touch the floor. The dark-haired woman on the altar was tied by cloth around her feet, and the chains around her arms were simply circled around the far legs of the altar itself. She struggled to keep her head up to see, allowing Alex to see her wounds -- two round gouges in the skin of her forehead, each slightly below the scalp not far out of line from her eyes. Her face was stained with blood and bruises.

Alex's eyes flared in shock at how badly the women were hurt. He looked at the manacles of the one on the altar; the fasteners didn't look locked, and so he tried to unlatch the one on her left wrist. Naturally, it was tough to budge.

"Hurry," the captive urged. "I can help you if I can just get... free..."

With one wrist finally freed, Alex looked up to check on the men. Troy was almost to his feet, blindly, as was Harold. Not wanting to let them regroup, Alex shoved Troy into Harold. The two crashed to the ground through the big pile of ashes near the hallway.

"No!" Alex heard the priest gasp.

"Yesss!" the woman on the altar hissed, pulling herself part-way up now that one arm was freed. She looked at the horrified priest with an odd mix of triumph and rage. It was as if time had stopped for just that moment. Realization and fear washed over the priest's face.

The woman on the altar inhaled deeply and then bellowed a long stream of flame at the priest. He shrieked, engulfed almost completely, and his burning form flailed about in panic.

"Holy shit!" Alex blurted. The woman began to laugh viciously. Alex looked at the blonde, who caught his gaze with her own pleading eyes.

"Get me down," she said. "She -- we won't hurt you, but you have to free us both, now!"

Alex didn't think twice. He wrapped one arm around the blonde's waist, heaving her up a bit to give the chains some slack and then unlatched the manacles around her wrists. It was clumsy and it took a few tries. By then the priest had crashed into a far wall, knocking candles and bookshelves over onto the floor with a crash. The place was going to catch on fire.

"I only need a moment," the blonde said, gasping and slumping in Alex's arms. "Leave me. Get her off the altar."

Alex obeyed, allowing the blonde to sink to the floor while he rushed over to the other woman and worked on the knots around her ankles. The heat and smell from the burning priest, now surely dead, were overwhelming, but Alex pushed past his fear and forced himself to get the job done.

"My hand, mort...mas...no," the woman groaned. Apparently breathing fire had taken every bit of strength she had left in her, because she couldn't twist enough to reach her chained wrist with her freed hand. Alex reached over her naked chest and fought to unlatch the iron around her wrists.

"I'll get you out, you're gonna be okay, we're gonna be okay" Alex said in a rush. He was trying to convince himself as much as her. With her hand freed, he pulled her upright, holding her to him and moving away from the altar, and turned straight around to see Troy and Harold on their feet, staggered but recovered enough to fight. "Oh, shit," Alex said, seeing the bloody, wavy dagger in Troy's hand.

"You have done your part, mortal," the blonde said, rising to step out of the pentagram beneath her and holding out one arm to the ceiling. A long sheet of flame extended from her palm, and as she lowered it to her side it formed a sword of flame.

Alex, Harold and Troy all had a moment to be stunned.

The woman in Alex's arms just grunted. "Showoff," she muttered.

"This desecration of the Lord's house will not stand," the blonde said gravely, and she swung her sword wide, cutting through both Harold and Troy and igniting their bodies as if they were dressed in flash paper.

"Jesus Christ!" Alex blurted.

"Don't blaspheme," the blonde replied absently, looking around the room. "My strength returns. Take her and get out."

"Right," Alex said, not wanting to argue with the woman with the flaming sword. Alex hauled the dark- haired woman out to the foyer, having just enough presence of mind to grab his backpack where he'd left it before heading out into the night. Behind him, he heard the screams of burning men and the roar of an inferno coming to life.





Chapter 3: Introductions are in order...

"Why don't they come up here and, um... arrest us?" Alex asked. He stood with the two women by a statue of an angel on a small rise away from the chapel. His own face was still wet with the blood from the goblet. The chapel was fully engulfed in flames, with firefighters spraying it down and police looking around for who might be in the area.

Both women answered at once. "That's me," the dark-haired one said, while the blonde replied with "I am concealing us." They stopped, looked at each other sharply, and then shrugged it off.

Having a quiet moment to get his bearings, he had realized underneath all the blood and bruises, both women were probably shockingly beautiful. Both seemed to always have either hair or shadow or a convenient stance just barely covering their breasts. The blonde had clearly recovered more quickly, standing taller and more alert. The other slouched a bit, arms crossed over her chest, looking mostly away from the other two.

"So they don't see or hear us here?" "No," the blonde answered.

"Huh. ...'kay... I can't believe you're both standing, you were hurt so bad..." "I am recovering rapidly," the blonde answered.

"I'll manage," the other shrugged.

"How did you find us?" the blonde asked. "Did you know about this? Were you sent?"

"I was just here taking pictures," Alex shrugged, jostling his backpack a bit. "Snuck onto the property. I heard the screaming. I really had no idea."

"The Lord does work in mysterious ways," the blonde smiled a bit. "Bugger your patriarchal sky god," the other woman grimaced.

Alex was silent for a second. Every time he spoke seemed to make this very awkward moment more awkward, but somehow just standing there didn't seem to be all that slick, either. "Are you two cold? 'cause one of you could have my sweatshirt at least..."

The women both looked at him blankly.

"Hey, I'm just trying to help, I mean this is all so crazy, and... who the hell are you two, anyway?"

"Interesting choice of words," the blonde said, looking at the dark-haired one, who spat blood onto the ground.

"Sorry," Alex muttered.

"You may call me Rachel," the blonde began. "I am an angel of the Third Host, charged with... nevermind. It will mean nothing to you. I am an angel, and that is all you need to know. This one," she said, gesturing at the other woman, "is... well, why don't you tell him your name yourself?" she smirked.

"Bitch," the other snapped bitterly.

"That would be one name, yes," Rachel smirked.

"Woah, hey, how about we not fight?" Alex requested, taking a step further between them and holding his hands up peaceably. "Look, I'm Alex, okay? You're Rachel, okay, cool, and what's your name?"

"Call me Lorelei, ma—" she stopped herself. "Original," Rachel rolled her eyes.

"Look, ladies, can we please cool it? Jeez, you're like cats and dogs or something."

Rachel looked at him evenly, and the notion clicked in Alex's head. He looked at Lorelei with wide-eyed realization. "But... aren't you supposed to have, like, wings?"

Alex felt silly for asking it almost as soon as it had come out of his mouth, but Rachel explained anyway. "They cut off our wings after we were summoned by their sorcery," she said, "and her little horns and tail. That pile of ashes in the room was what was left... it was all burned to block our power. Magic often works in symbolism, and I suppose those features can symbolize power. They wanted to weaken us.

"Lorelei here is a succubus," Rachel went on, a hint of venom in her voice. "Do you know what that is?"

"Er," Alex mumbled, thinking back to the handful of times he played Dungeons & Dragons and flipped through the books. "Isn't that like a hottie girl demon?"

"Yes," Rachel said while Lorelei rolled her eyes. "Hottie girl demon. The succubi seduce men on Earth to sate their own immortal lusts. Their victims give their all until they are shriveled husks, literally abandoning life and everything of importance to fornicate with the evil little trollops. Men fornicate with them to their literal deaths."

"Holy shit, is she serious?" Alex blinked, looking at Lorelei, who only reluctantly raised her eyes to meet Alex's gaze.

"She simplifies, but yes," she said quietly. "Though you have nothing to fear from me, mast—" again, she cut herself off. Rachel looked on with newly aroused interest.

"So you steal souls like that?"

Rachel giggled while Lorelei shook her head. "It's not like that," Lorelei said simply. "I can... tell you later."

"Yes, I'll just bet you can, Lorelei," Rachel said.

"What's so funny about this?" Alex asked.

"Oh, I think Lorelei here was affected by this night much more than I. Do you remember what the fallen priest was saying?"

"Bite your tongue, angel!" Lorelei snapped.

"I was kinda busy trying to rescue you guys and not freak out at the same time. I'm not like a big hero or anything, I'm just a college student."

Rachel looked at him seriously for a moment, and then sighed. "I'm probably not supposed to tell you all this, but the hell with it." She leaned back, casually putting her butt against a headstone. "Those men in there were trying to use sorcery to enslave us both. Well, the priest was, anyway. The others were probably just his dupes. Doubtlessly one of them was the fool who left the front door unlocked.

Thankfully.

"They summoned us through ritual magic and imprisoned us. They tortured us to keep us weak. The chains, the whip, tearing off our wings. All of that, just to keep us both vulnerable. And then, with that goblet as a tool, the priest drew out of us part of our essences. My purest good, her foulest evil, just as he said."

Alex's jaw dropped, and he reached up to touch his cheek. "You mean that's what's all over my face? Is that gonna do something to me?"

"It already has, to all three of us," said Rachel, with a hint of mischief. "Though I can tell that Lorelei here got the worst of it. He worked harder on her. Neither of us can hurt you or lie to you now. That's just the way it is. And again, Lorelei's just not as evil as she was before -- how much difference that makes you'll have to just wait and see. And I," she said, a bit sadly, "am something less now than I was... though the

Hosts may be able to remedy that later."

"So you're not a good guy angel anymore and she's not a bad guy demon? What happens with me?"

"Oh, I'm still good at heart, I can tell you that. And Lorelei... well, that's up to her, really. But as for you, again, the ritual was made to enslave us both to the recipient of those essences. I can neither lie to you nor hurt you, though you didn't really have to worry about that to begin with. Lorelei got it worse, though—"

"Go ahead and run your mouth more, wretch," Lorelei grumbled bitterly.

"—or have you not noticed that Lorelei keeps almost calling you 'master?' She's fighting it, but she's losing." Rachel was only slightly suppressing her grin. Angel or not, she found this amusing.

Again, Alex's jaw dropped. "I—what?!" he blurted. He looked between the two women. "I didn't mean— oh my god! Lorelei, I wasn't trying to enslave you, I was trying to help! Holy shit, this is crazy! I don't want you to have to be my slave! That's not right! I just didn't want you to get hurt anymore or raped, or... oh my god..."

Lorelei looked at Alex like he had grown another head and started speaking Chinese. At this, Rachel chuckled. "'Abashed, the Devil stood, and felt how awful goodness is.'"

"Oh, shut up," Lorelei replied bitterly. "Isn't that from 'The Crow?'" Alex asked.

Rachel sighed. "No. Milton. Paradise Lost. Keep going to college, Alex, you'll get it."

"Is there any way to change it back? What happens when I wash this off my face?"

"Nothing," Lorelei answered. "The blood is a symbol and a conveyance, nothing more. The deed is done. We are both diminished. I cannot mislead or harm you, and... I will not be claiming any more lives as I once did. Master," she added, as if admitting defeat.

Alex was floored. "There's gotta be some way to free you, though, right? I mean, slavery's just... wrong!"

"This is not slavery as you understand it, m-master. That is an oversimplification. Besides, every demon is servant or slave to another in Hell," Lorelei shrugged. "I am far more displeased to be diminished in power than to have my allegiances shifted to this, particularly given the alternatives. Far better you than that fallen priest. And to return to Hell like this would be... unimaginable. Trouble yourself not over my feelings on it."

"Magnanimous for a demon. That pull on your essence must have gone deep," Rachel quipped.

"I would still bite off your wagging tongue, hag."

"Well... so... what am I supposed to do?" Alex blinked. "I mean is some other big bad demon going to come looking for her?"

"Possibly, but unlikely," Lorelei said, more to the ground than to Alex.

"I wouldn't worry about it," Rachel shrugged. "That does seem unlikely, both given Lorelei's situation and the fact that greater demons generally cannot act overtly against mortals. And in any event, there is an angel in your debt. You would be a terribly complicated target."

"You don't have to feel like you owe me anything," he said. "I just did what someone had to do. But, I mean... no offense, Lorelei, but," he turned back to Rachel, "is it really good for a normal guy like me to have a demon, um, working for him? I mean I don't wanna wind up in Hell!"

"Bound to you would be a better term," Rachel offered. "And that is something only time will tell. However, it's not like she can go back where she came from now, and I can't take her with me. I suspect that would end very badly. You'll have to keep her close to you so she doesn't run around being... well, evil." She smirked at the vicious glare her comment drew from Lorelei.

"But I should think that someone like you might be a good influence on someone like her. I'll be watching over you, Alex. Remember, she cannot lie to you or try to bring you harm, including to your soul. Trust yourself. Farewell." Rachel turned and started walking away, and as she did, she seemed to gradually fade from sight.

"Wait, you're just leaving? What am I supposed to do now?"

Rachel looked back and shrugged. "What else would you do? Go home."

With the angel gone, Alex slowly turned and looked at the battered but beautiful, naked demoness next to him. There were a million things on his mind, and he had no idea where to begin. But he was exhausted and certainly did want to go home. "So you can stay invisible?"

"I have great ability at illusion, master, yes," she responded evenly. "I haven't the strength just now for much else, but none but you will know I am present."

"Guess you'll have to be invisible on the back of my motorcycle, then, 'cause I only brought one helmet and I don't wanna get a ticket. You sure you don't want my sweatshirt?"




Chapter 4: It's not you, It's me...

Alex and Lorelei pulled into the underground garage of his condo complex, finding the area devoid of people. Having come to a stop, Lorelei gracefully dismounted and stood behind Alex, who got off the bike somewhat slower and more nervously. He had never brought a girl home... let alone a woman like this.

Standing next to the bike, Alex pulled off his helmet and looked at her, and found the breath knocked right out of him. On the ride home, her bruises vanished and the scarring from the removal of her horns faded completely. Her hair still hung alluringly over her otherwise bare, full breasts. He had just enough presence of mind to not look lower. There was still blood, soot and other marks upon her, but her face had regained its original shape -- again, minus the horns -- and that shape was so beautiful as to leave him speechless.

"I seem able to heal, at least," Lorelei said, noting his very obvious reaction. "It is... good that you are pleased, master."

After a moment more, Alex got hold of himself, and looked around to see if anyone saw him being so awkward and nervous. "We are alone. Were we not, we would still be undetected unless you wished it, master," Lorelei said.

"Does it bother you at all," Alex asked hesitantly, "calling me master?"

"Not especially. Does it trouble you?"

"A little. I mean I don't want it going to my head." She gave him that incredulous look again, but he ignored it. "Maybe you should just call me by my name?"

"Very well, Alex. Shall I remain unnoticed when we go inside? Do you have family? A lover?"

"No, nobody, I'm single. I mean yeah. I've got family. I live with my mother. I mean I just turned nineteen, I wanna move out soon, but just yet, I... I'm babbling, aren't I?"

"Yes, Alex," she said, smiling just a bit coyly. "You need not apologize. Your material circumstances are irrelevant to me unless you wish to make them my business."

"Okay, well, Mom's probably sleeping by now, so we should just be quiet and head for my room. Can you make sure neither of us wakes her?"

"Done."

"Okay. I mean don't wake her tonight," he blurted suddenly, her smirk making him nervous and making him fear the demoness might twist his words. "Just tonight. Like let her sleep normally. Don't like put her to sleep for a hundred years or something!"

Lorelei looked at him evenly. "Alex," she said with a bit of a smile, "You can relax. I am not a genie seeking to shape a carelessly-worded wish into your doom. I will not seek to betray you simply because I am a demon. My first role is -- was -- to ruin and punish the wicked. I was not born to lead the virtuous astray. And no angel, no matter how careless, would have left you in the presence of one such as me if you or others were in danger because of it."

"You're being a lot nicer all of a sudden," Alex said warily.

Her smile broadened a bit. "We're not in the presence of one of the snots of the heavenly hosts," she nodded. "I have had time to recover. You have been kind and considerate. As I said before, I have always had one master or another. To serve is not unusual. And I am more deeply in your debt than I can say. There's no reason to be unpleasant."

Alex didn't know what to say for a long moment. He just stared, and she smiled back. Her voice alone was entrancing, and just standing there talking with her was giving him the stiffest hard-on of his life -- and he wasn't even looking below her smudged-up face.

She looked pleased with this reaction. "How may I serve, master? I'm sorry," she corrected, "Alex?" "Let's just... uh... go inside." Alex tried to be subtle in adjusting his pants as he walked.

He failed. Lorelei saw, and was unsurprised, but pleased.

Inside, the living room light had been left on for Alex, but thankfully the condo was quiet and his mother was almost certainly asleep. Alex led Lorelei up the stairs, which she ascended with a slight curiosity on her face as she looked around. Alex's mother had done relatively well for herself in the corporate world, but the realities of single-parenting had made them a more or less middle class family.

Alex quietly led her into his bedroom and stealthily shut the door.

"You need not be so careful," Lorelei said casually. "As you wished, I am covering our sounds. All I need do is look in your mother's bedroom and she will sleep soundly through the night. You can relax."

Alex sighed, dropping his backpack and helmet on his relatively bare desk. "Thank you. I'm pretty tired, I guess. I just need a shower."

"As do I," she responded. A more experienced man would have recognized the invitation immediately. Overwhelmed as he was, Alex didn't recognize it as any different from every other smoldering hot word coming out of her mouth, and thus the significance shot right past him.

"Okay. Well, there are two showers; I suppose you could use mine. I can keep it quick so you don't run out of hot water. I guess I'm gonna have to get you some clothes?"

Lorelei cocked her head to one side curiously. It had the effect of raising the hair that dangled over her right breast, revealing more of the curve and giving Alex's already thumping heart an extra beat -- but, as if taunting and teasing just happened on autopilot for Lorelei, it didn't quite go far enough. "Certainly. Or, if you wish me to be seen in public, I can create the illusion of whatever clothes you like for others," she said, "or for yourself as well, if my state makes you uncomfortable?"

A dozen replies tried to come out of Alex's mouth at once, but jammed up until all he got out was, "Whatever's comfortable for you. Are you hungry? Do you actually eat?"

Lorelei shrugged a bit, realizing she'd have to dispense with the minutiae of mortal life. "I do not need food to sustain myself, though I can eat if the mood takes me. Were I not so worn down by tonight's troubles I wouldn't need something so mundane as a shower. I know how to use modern technology and can function perfectly well just as any adult you know. I normally need much less sleep than you would, though after tonight I am very weary and would very much appreciate laying in a bed," she said, indicating Alex's twin-sized bed. "I am many centuries old, Alex, and despite tonight's ill turns, my abilities to take care of myself remain potent. Your concern for my comfort is very kind, but unnecessary," she said, her blue eyes twinkling.

It gave Alex his fourteenth heart attack of the night. "Okay. Cool. I'll just go grab something in the kitchen. I'm beat, really." With that, he grabbed some clothes and stepped out.

Lorelei looked on in awe. As she said, she wasn't fixated on corrupting people of sincere virtue. She had seen shyness before, certainly, and social ignorance. Clearly Alex was missing signals. But there was more to it than that. The erection held in check by his jeans showed that he had a perfectly masculine response to her presence. But while he was understandably nervous about her demonic nature, it was obvious that the notion of her not being a threat to him was settling in.

She briefly looked into the other bedroom, ensuring with a small enchantment that his mother would remain asleep. Lorelei then wandered into the shower, wondering why it was that she was going in alone.

She took her time in cleaning up. By the time she came out of the shower, it was clear that Alex truly was exhausted. He lay on his bed, his short black hair wet and his filthy clothes exchanged for simple blue sweatpants and a t-shirt. A small, half-eaten sandwich on a plate rested on his stomach, and his eyes were closed.

Completely nude now, Lorelei entered the room brushing her hair and looking down at her new master. She felt very strangely about this indeed; nothing like this had ever happened to her before, but she knew in the back of her mind that she should be scheming for an eventual escape. There was time for that later, though; for now she was indeed diminished, and needed to recover. And, as admitted already, she was under Alex's direct power.

There was no reason she couldn't have plenty of fun with that.

Lorelei reached forward and slipped the plate away from him, laying it casually on the desk, and then grinning down at him as she saw his eyes flutter open. He gasped openly at the sight of her fully nude for the first time. That face would never need make-up. Her hair was back over her shoulders this time to reveal her magnificent chest, which would certainly never need a bra. Her figure was shapely and perfectly curved, her skin flawless, and her body naturally had not a single hair beyond that on her head and exquisite pussy.

"Do you like what you see, Alex?" she smiled seductively, placing one knee between his legs and leaning over him.

"Yes," he said, his voice barely above a whisper. "Of course. You're so beautiful."

2

"I am glad. I am glad you find me beautiful... and I am yours, Alex. Nothing on earth can change it." She kept moving in closer, her breasts hanging alluringly close to his mouth. "Take me as you like."

"You... Lorelei, you don't have to do this," Alex blinked.

"Don't have to?" she asked, turning her head curiously. What was it with him?!

"I don't want you to feel like you have to have sex with me because I'm your..." his voice trailed off, as if reluctant to give voice to it himself.

It was Lorelei's turn to be shocked. This had never happened. Ever. Oh, she had been cast out by the occasional near-saint yelling, "Get behind me, Satan!" over the centuries, but this was unprecedented. "Were I reluctant to lay with you I would avoid it until you commanded it."

That made sense in Alex's racing mind. He couldn't keep control of his heart pounding, or the heavy feeling in his breath and in his stomach, but at the same time, he was afraid to move. The most gorgeous woman he'd ever met was practically throwing herself on him and he was afraid to move, because he was afraid of what could happen next.

"I do want you," Alex admitted. "I'd be crazy not to. But I'm just... even if you're not going to hurt me, you're a demon. How do I know I won't turn into some crazy perverted loon humping everything with a hole in it and then wind up in Hell?"

Lorelei erupted with laughter. It was not entirely kind, but not entirely mocking, either. "I cannot tell you much about how the Divine judge all things," she said, "but I have seen Hell, and I promise you no one is condemned there for mere fornication, no matter how frequent or how lewd. You poor mortals have been given a very skewed understanding of this."

"Okay, fine, but people don't really just meet and jump into bed with each other. Not in real life. Not without... I dunno... alcohol, anyway!"

"Of course they do!"

Alex paused. "Okay, well it's never happened to me, anyway. That's just something my friends all lie about happening to them."

Lorelei's eyebrows went up. "Well, here I am. I guarantee you in all your life no friend of yours will have anything this good."

"Still. I don't know if we should just... fuck," Alex confessed.

Lorelei paused, and sat upright, giving him yet another view of her beauty in all its glory while she looked at him thoughtfully. "You fear your own lust," she said softly.

"Maybe," he shrugged. "Maybe I'm afraid I'll... think too much of it. Fall in love. Get my heart broken." Her lips twisted into a smirk. "You're afraid you'll fall in love with me after one night of sex?"

"I could fall in love with you just looking at you."

She fell quiet for a moment, and asked softly, "Then why don't you?"

He shook his head, ignoring the question. "It's more than that. It could go the other way. Fact is you're here because you have to be, not because you choose to be. If I took advantage of it, how's that make me any better than that priest? How's it any better for you? What if you end up hating me?"

Lorelei thought about it for a heartbeat and then shrugged. "Could be fun that way. Kinky." "Oh my god!" Alex blurted. "Are you serious? I couldn't do that to you!"

"Oh, this is funny," Lorelei sighed, looking around herself briefly. "How old are you? Nineteen? And no girlfriend. A virgin, I take it, yes?"

Alex scowled a bit, but answered defensively, "Yeah. I haven't exactly been lucky with my dating life. I mean I've dated, but—"

"You have a naked, supernaturally sexual woman offering herself to you, bound to you for eternity, and you won't touch me because you're afraid I'll think you see me as just some slut. And you're also afraid that I'll fuck you all the way into Hell itself and you'll burn for all eternity with a broken heart. Is that about right?"

"I guess?"

"That's a lot of hang-ups. At least you're not worried about measuring up as a lover," she mused aloud. The look that crossed Alex's face told her otherwise, and she rolled her eyes. "Put it out of your head. I'm not a normal woman. It doesn't work that way with me. You'll have me panting and begging you for more the moment you start enjoying yourself. Succubus, remember? Hell, half the men I've fucked just laid there until they died, but you wouldn't see me buffing my nails in the middle of it."

Silence...

"Wow, that makes me feel so much better, Lorelei," Alex said finally.

"That's not -- that's not you and I," she said, softening her tone and tracing a finger down his chest, which alone had him inhaling sharply. "I cannot mislead you, Alex. No one is a masterful lover their first time. But you're doing fine for natural endowment," she said, her finger tracing further down past the waistband of his sweats and giving him a genuine rush. "And you have the best teacher you could possibly ask for."

The conflict on his face was unresolved. Finally she sighed.

"Bound, Alex. Permanently. All the security anyone could dream of. And don't worry about making me feel like I'm some slut. That's very much what I am." Her look became much more direct and meaningful. "Only now I'm your slut."

Another heart attack. He'd dreamt of girls saying something like that before. But that didn't change the fact that this was no ordinary girl. He'd seen her breathe fire all over someone tonight. "Maybe we could just... take it slow?"

1

She shook her head, looking away a moment and trying not to laugh. "As you wish, of course. The angel herself said you had nothing to fear from me. May I lie next to you? I promise not to molest you in your sleep."

"Sure," Alex said, and with that, Lorelei pulled up the sheets over them both and curled up in the bed beside him.

"Lust itself is not a real sin, Alex," Lorelei told him softly. "Your churches have had that part wrong all these years and the angels never bothered to straighten it out. The sin comes from causing harm in pursuit of lust. I was naked and in your power, and your first thought was to offer me the shirt off your back... and even now, you are concerned with showing me respect. I don't think you need to fear your own lust."

"Maybe I'm just too inexperienced to understand it," Alex whispered, "but with all this? It doesn't sit right. I can't explain it. I don't want to do something I'll regret."

"I could explain your lust to you, if you wanted. I could learn it and explain it in ways you would not articulate for yourself."

"You could? How?"

"It's simple. I merely have to drink it," she smiled, delicately brushing a suggestive hand across his groin as she reached over and turned out the light. "Goodnight, Alex."

That had Alex lying awake for hours.



Chapter 5: The Devil made me do it...

Alex awoke with the most beautiful woman he had ever encountered draped against him in bed. She was naked, shameless, magically enslaved to him and apparently perfectly happy with it.

Naturally, the first thing he heard when he woke up was a DJ bitching about how much women suck.

"She's not interested in you, she's interested in your wallet!" the radio squawked. "You want action at the end of the night? You gotta pay out. And they dangle that whole marriage thing in front of you like it's the keys to her panties, like you're gonna make love every night 'til you're old and gray, but we all know better, don't we, guys?"

"I really fucking hate this guy," Alex mumbled to the ceiling.

"The lingerie? The slutty behavior in the bedroom? The action?" the DJ continued as Alex's arm fumbled for the radio. "That stuff's all on a clock, gentlemen! And that clock runs out pretty damn fast--!"

Lorelei stirred, cuddling up closer to her young and still very innocent master. "I'll be happy to prove him wrong," she murmured into his ear. "Every day and night of your life."

Alex gulped. He wasn't entirely sure he'd survive even the first time.

"I'm... umm..." He stammered, and shifted a bit to create a little space. "I've got to go to work today," he managed. "Soon."

She raised an eyebrow. "You couldn't call in sick? You had a rough night, master. Alex," she corrected.

3

"They're gonna be slammed at work today," he shrugged. Alex got up out of bed, fighting the urge not to stare or take advantage of their bond. He turned to his dresser and fumbled for clothes. "Look, I need to figure all this out," he said.

No matter how awkward or lame his dodges were, Alex's resistance continued to astound Lorelei. She didn't let it show. "As you wish," she replied simply.

"Uh... can you stay here?"

"I can. Would you like me to remain concealed here?"

"I would," Alex nodded. "I know it's probably going to be a bit boring, but..." he shrugged.

"I can entertain myself, if you will allow me a bit of trust," she assured him.

He looked at her for a long moment. "Even if I ask you to stay here alone?" he asked warily.

Lorelei gave a nod that was more than a little sultry -- but then, it seemed everything she did was geared toward seduction.

"That is no imposition. However, if you wish me to remain undetected, I should see to that first. I can ensure that my presence is completely obscured from your mother, even while I am before her. I can cause her to ignore me and rationalize anything that would lead her to discover me, so you won't have to worry about covering anything up. And no," she added with rolling eyes, "I will not harm her or do anything to jeopardize her immortal soul."

"Thanks," Alex said. He closed the bathroom door behind him and immediately locked it. Then he promptly discarded his sweat shorts, grabbed his raging hard-on and began fiercely stroking himself.

Lorelei sensed it, feeling an immediate rush of pleasure from Alex's masturbation. The sensation brought a wicked smile to her face. It was the same bond she had with all of her victims. The energy she got from him jerking off was a mere trickle compared to her hunger, and it certainly appeared that there would be no final climax as there was with so many of her other partners... but no matter.

She slipped out of his bedroom and across the hallway to his mother's room. Her door was slightly ajar, and she crept in with absolute silence. Glancing around quickly, she found the woman's diplomas mounted on the wall -- her name was Michelle -- along with several pictures of the blonde mother with her son.

Michelle stood facing an open closet, freshly showered and clad only in panties, a bra and over-the-knee stockings. Lorelei smiled hungrily as she slipped up behind the mother. She felt just enough power returning to have some fun with this.

"Ssshhhhhh," the succubus whispered into Michelle's ear. The forty-year-old woman shivered and her movements slowed as she quickly fell into a daze.

"Michelle," Lorelei hissed. She was so close that she allowed her lips to brush against Michelle's ear. Again, the entranced woman shivered. Her eyelids drooped. Lorelei's fingernails traced lightly up her naked back, giving her chills, and eventually began running through her hair.

"You're a pretty woman, Michelle," Lorelei murmured. "Oh," the other whimpered.

It was true enough. Michelle wouldn't be posing for a modeling job anytime soon, but for her age she remained attractive. She had nice curves, decent breasts and little in the way of flab. She was pretty enough to catch an eye on the street... and just marred enough by age to be self-conscious about it.

"Have you a lover, Michelle?"

"No."

"A shame... You're very pretty," Lorelei hissed. Her left hand continued to stroke the mother's hair. Her right slid around Michelle's belly, which only recently began to sag slightly with age. As her fingers moved, however, Michelle's stomach tightened. "I can make you prettier," she said.

"Mmhh?"

"Much prettier," Lorelei continued. Her fingers continued as well. They traced all along her belly, and then down across Michelle's dampening panties. Lorelei's smile broadened. She could feel the building rush of Alex's self-pleasure across the hall, and it only energized her more.

It was perhaps too much too soon, but Lorelei's own lusts were inflamed. She kissed Michelle's neck. The mother gasped, then moaned at the sucking mouth against her flesh, and the fingers that slid up across her panties again and then down underneath them. Her lips were wet and welcoming.

"Do you like this, Michelle?"

"Yes," she managed, gasping. "Yes." "Do you want more?"

"Yessss."

"I can touch you more if you can make it easier for me."

The blonde whimpered and moaned a bit, reacting in a hazy trance of pleasure to the touch of Lorelei's fingers on her sex, the lips and tongue that continued to brush against her shoulder and neck, and to the other hand that was now encircling her breasts one at a time. Slowly, her hands trembling in surrender to her building need, Michelle slid her fingers up her own legs and her hips. She hooked her fingers over her panties and slipped them down.

"Oh, Michelle," Lorelei said with light, affectionate disapproval, "you should give more attention to your pussy." Michelle let out another whimper, pleading wordlessly for forgiveness. "It's just too bushy down here... you have a pretty blonde pussy. You should take care of it." As she spoke, the succubus explored Michelle's sex with her fingers.

Her prey could only gasp and tremble at the sensations of Lorelei's touch. She was lost in a dream of physical ecstasy.

Conscious thought was difficult beyond her sensual joy and her need for more. Michelle questioned nothing.

Lorelei felt the rush of Alex's masturbation pass. He hadn't climaxed, she knew, and had probably given up in frustration.

That worked to her advantage, she thought with a grin, though it also helped her time her current escapade.

Her index finger slipped up inside Michelle, joined soon after by her middle. Michelle moaned with pleasure as Lorelei slipped the fingers in and out, soon finding the most sensitive point and softly stimulating the blonde to greater arousal.

Michelle gyrated against Lorelei's ministrations, falling completely under her sway. Then the fingers withdrew, sliding across her lips again, and Michelle could only make pleading noises.

"Do you want more?" Lorelei asked wickedly.

"Yes. Please. Please..."

"Promise me." "Mmmhh? What?"

"You have to promise me to keep this our secret," Lorelei said.

"Yes. Yes."

"You must keep it secret from everyone, Michelle. From your friends, from your family... from your son. We must be a secret even from yourself."

"I promise," Michelle whispered. "I promise."

"You have to promise that you will only think of me as fantasy unless I say differently." "I will. I promise. Oh, more, please..."

"So if you see me or hear me, promise me you will understand you are only imagining it... no matter what you see."

"But... now?" Michelle whispered.

"Ssssshhhh," Lorelei breathed. She squatted down, twisting to kneel in front of the enthralled woman. "We have to take this slow. Promise me you'll do as I've said?"

"I promise," Michelle nodded softly, "I promise."

Lorelei's fingers returned inside Michelle, whose panties now hung halfway down her legs and who was barely upright. Her reward lasted for a minute, maybe more, before Lorelei said, "There's more."

"Mnh?"

"Your son."

Michelle's eyes fluttered further open at that, and she almost regained her senses, but then that delicious pressure on her most sensitive spot redoubled. She was lost to it.

"He's always been a good boy," Lorelei smiled.

"He is," Michelle nodded. "So good."

"Only now he's a young man." Michelle just nodded again. "You know that, right?"

"I do. I know."

"You should see him as a man... he's a handsome young man. A sexy young man." Lorelei punctuated it with a soft, darting lick of her tongue against Michelle's very swollen clit. Michelle's body twitched at the sudden rush. She pushed forward, fingers still well at work inside of her, wanting more of everything.

1

"Alex is a good man," Lorelei repeated, and licked her again. Once again, Michelle twitched. "A good, young man... is thinking about sex, as all young men must. That's good, isn't it, Michelle? Isn't it natural?"

She shook her head softly, a small piece of her knowing something about this was all wrong, but then she nodded. "It's natural."

"And it's been so long for you," Lorelei consoled her softly. "I can tell. So long since you knew a young man saw you and thought of sex."

"No," Michelle moaned.

"Ssshhhh, it's natural, Michelle. It's natural. It's nothing to be ashamed of. Your son is a sexy man... don't you want him to think his mother is pretty?"

A further application of Lorelei's tongue provided a compelling argument. "Yes," Michelle agreed finally.

"Don't you want to be sexy for your son?"

"...yes. Yes."

"I would like that." She licked Michelle's pussy again, this time even more intently. The blonde shook with delight and moaned louder.

"You would?"

"Yesssss," Lorelei hissed, dragging her long, lithe tongue across the length of Michelle's sex. "What pleases him pleases me. Whatever turns him on turns me on."

"Ooooooohhhhh."

"I could make you prettier again, Michelle. Beautiful. Hot like a movie star... hot like a porn star. Does Alex like porn?"

"Mmnh. Yes. He does," Michelle pushed softly against Lorelei's hand again. "He doesn't know that I know, but he does. Oh, yes."

Lorelei heard the shower stop running, and looked up intently at Michelle. "I do, too. Wouldn't that be fun? I could touch you like this more, and you would be so sexy... you could be a porn star for your son. And for me."

Naughty, shameful thoughts of lust flooded Michelle's mind. Along with her abject surrender to Lorelei, Michelle felt a growing desire for her own son. She couldn't deny it, especially not in this hazy state of pleasure. "Yes. Oh, yes, yes," she admitted.

"Sssshhhh," Lorelei said, softly bringing Michelle down from her sexual high. "You have to help me for a moment now."

"Anything."

"I know. You'll like this. Lay down on your bed, Michelle. Just lie down and touch yourself... yes, like that. Doesn't it feel good? Sexy mommy with a sexy pussy," Lorelei winked. Her fingers were withdrawn, and she brought them to her mouth to suck and lick Michelle's juices off. "We're both going to enjoy it more often."

"Are you leaving me?"

"Just for a bit, Michelle. You keep this going," she said, tracing fingers around the crotch that Michelle was now busily attending to. "And remember, I'm just a fantasy. Right? You promised."

"I promise. I promise..."

"Good. I'll come back when Alex is gone to work and finish you, but only if you stay here and keep enjoying yourself. Okay?"

"Okay. Okay."

The nude succubus slipped out of the room, silently closing the door behind her. Seducing Michelle had taken almost all of the mystic power she had recovered, but she hoped it would bring great returns... and at least some of what she had done was just what her master had asked of her. Lorelei returned to Alex's bed, sitting upright facing the door and taking care to brush her hair over her breasts. She folded her hands neatly in her lap and waited.

A minute later, Alex returned from the shower. He was neatly shaved and already wearing a fresh pair of jeans, which did little to conceal his erect cock. "Hi," he managed awkwardly. Lorelei only nodded in response, never taking her eyes off of him. "You're not, um. You know I don't expect you to just sit there all day, right?"

"I know," she said. "I have woven the enchantment over your mother. We need not fear her discovering us."

"Okay," he said. He found a black t-shirt and threw it on. "I'm only supposed to be gone about nine hours. Eight if I skip breaks and stuff."

"Do not feel you have to rush for me," Lorelei said, demurely sitting very still. "I have been alive for centuries. I can wait for a work day, mas -- Alex."

He looked at her for a moment, fumbling to put on his shoes and entirely forgetting to wear socks. "Okay," Alex managed.

"Guess I'm headed out, then."

"Alexander?" she asked. "May I... Alex, you saved me from an awful fate last night. I would have been tormented, humiliated, and who knows what or for how long," Lorelei explained. "You risked your very life. For all you knew, you could have been arrested, or tortured, or killed, or worse... for a couple of strangers. I have rarely even witnessed among others as much kindness as you have shown me, even when you have every reason to think I'm something... foul."

"I don't think you're foul."

"Please," she shook her head. "You risked everything last night for me. And though you didn't know me... I think you knew how dangerous those men were. Didn't you?" He said nothing in response, and she nodded. "I cannot lie to you. I cannot bring you harm. And while our bond means that I must obey you, even so... I sincerely wish to thank you, and reward you as best I can."

Alex watched her and was once again completely at a loss for words.

"May I kiss you?" she asked. Alex hesitated, and she added, "I was made to seduce. It is difficult to control, so if it makes you uncomfortable I ask your forgiveness, but seduction aside... Alex, may I kiss you?"

He all but melted. "Yes," he nodded. For once, he had no difficulty looking only into her eyes as this supernaturally beautiful woman came up to him and slipped her hands around his neck. They both closed their eyes as they kissed, softly at first but then with increasing passion. Alex felt himself losing control. His mind was on overload right along with his body.

She felt so unbelievably good, and tasted so strange yet so intoxicating, and ---

She broke it off gently, looking down and stepping away. "I will await your return, Alex," she said. "You'll have time to think, and then we can talk."

Breathing heavily, wanting nothing more than to continue inhaling that scent and tasting that... whatever it was she tasted like, Alex shook and finally got control of himself. "Okay," he said. "Okay." He turned, stepped out, and almost got to the stairs before returning for his wallet, keys and phone. Their eyes met when he returned, and he very nearly kissed her again before his willpower overcame the urge and he turned to go.

At his mother's bedroom door, he knocked. "Mom? Are you awake?" "I'm getting dressed!"

"Okay, I'm leaving for work, I guess... are you late?"

"Yeah, I've just got a late morning meeting, honey. Go to work! Don't be late yourself!"

"Gotcha. I love you, Mom!"

"Oh, I love you, too!"

Alex nodded, looked one last time at the succubus in his doorway, and headed downstairs and out the door.

Lorelei waited by the window to see him leave on his motorcycle. Then she smiled in satisfaction and returned to Michelle's room. She opened the door to find the mother on her bed, panties discarded and her legs splayed wide open with both hands attending wantonly to her pussy. "That was very good, Michelle," Lorelei said approvingly.

Despite Michelle's seeming coherence a moment ago, she remained completely enthralled and lost in lust. Her pussy quivered with delight as if she had never masturbated before in all her life. She felt like she could go on forever, but what she really wanted was Lorelei's touch. "Please... please."

"Yes, of course, of course," Lorelei cooed. She crept up onto the bed, moving on her hands and knees over Michelle and trailing soft kisses across her chest as she went. "Have you ever been with a woman, Michelle?"

"No," she breathed.

"You have never tasted another woman?" "No."

"Why not?"

"I've never wanted to."

"Oh, I think you've thought about it," Lorelei taunted. "You thought about it with Gina Pirelli back in college, didn't you? You wanted her. I know you did. Don't lie to me, Michelle," she pressed quietly. "I know you. Say it. Tell me why."

Still frigging herself madly, Michelle managed, "I don't want to say."

"I won't be mad. I already know, and I'm still here... just say it. Say it for me, Michelle."

"It's... it's dirty," she admitted.

"You think it's dirty when women make love?"

"Not... I don't hate lesbians. I don't. I just don't... I'm..."

"You grew up in a less understanding time, Michelle," Lorelei said, trailing tiny licks all over Michelle's collarbones and neck and face. "It's understandable. Do you still think it's dirty?"

"No. Yes. I don't know," Michelle whimpered.

"Michelle," Lorelei hissed, "would you like to be dirty with me?"

"Yes. Oh, yes."

Lorelei smiled. She rose up, shifted and brought her cunt right up to Michelle's face. "Taste me," Lorelei offered.

Michelle didn't need much encouragement. She lifted her head up, brushing her mouth across Lorelei's wet lips, and then kissed her. Her first tentative tastes quickly gave way to shameless desire. Lorelei giggled with delight as Michelle ate her out with enthusiasm, even to the point of neglecting herself.

Both hands were soon clutching at the succubus's naked ass as Michelle buried her face in Lorelei's cunt. "Oh, that's so good... that's what I need. You feel so good, Michelle. You're doing sssssooo good."

"Is this okay?" Michelle managed to ask. "I've never tasted... I don't know..."

"Baby, you're doing just fine," Lorelei smiled approvingly. "I'm very easy." She looked down, savoring the pleasure of her newly enthralled lover's kiss. The taste of her pussy could cement her influence over anyone. "Do what you'd want me to do to you," she coached as her fingers ran through Michelle's hair.

Lorelei rode Michelle's attentions for long minutes, enjoying the woman's increasing familiarity. "Ah," she grunted, "yes. Aah. Aaah! Oh, Michelle, you're doing so good... you like being dirty with me?"

"Mmmh-hmm!"

"Will you be dirty for your son?"

"Mmmhhhh."

"You can start slow, it's okay... mmmhhh... Promise... ah... promise me?"

"Mmmhhh... mm-hmm," Michelle agreed.

"Dirty girl... good, dirty mommy... oh... oh!" Lorelei's approving fingers tensed, and she took firm hold of Michelle's hair.

Instinctively, Michelle brought up one hand, working it into Lorelei's pussy. It quickly sent the succubus over the edge.

Lorelei came hard, quivering and spasming in orgasm as juices flowed from her cunt into Michelle's mouth. Just the taste of it and the knowledge that she had pleased her mistress gave Michelle her own small orgasm, not enough to fully satisfy but certainly enough to leave her panting and wanting more.

Lorelei leaned back on her hands, still keeping her cunt where Michelle could lick it without too much trouble. The blonde slavishly kept at it, softer and more longingly now but still very ingratiating. "Mmmmmh," Lorelei groaned. "Verrrry good, Michelle. Would you like me to return the favor?"

"Yes," Michelle nodded.

Smiling, Lorelei twisted over into a sixty-nine with her blonde partner. Michelle couldn't resist the flesh in front of her face, and continued to please it as best she could. The full, indulgent kisses between Michelle's own legs were, however, quite a distraction, and soon Michelle was panting away with lust.

"Michelle... can you afford some new clothes?"

"Yes."

"Even if they're expensive?"

"I can... I can manage... oh!"

"Good girl," Lorelei said between kisses. Once again, her fingers slid inside Michelle and began to work wonders. "You're going to go shopping after work, Michelle."

"Nnnnh! Nnnnh!"

"You'll need new clothes anyway... you'll be a little thinner by the time you get off work. Sexier. You like that?" Her fingers slipped out, but only to use them to keep Michelle's lips apart. Then her tongue moved in, long and firm and pushing in and out.

"Yes! Yes!"

"Good girl. Dirty girl. You need to buy some lingerie, Michelle. Something to make you feel sexy and slutty."

"Ooooooohhhhh."

"Not too trampy... something you'll enjoy, too. Something that makes you feel confident and sexy. And that's all you're going to wear from now on. I want you feeling sexy under your clothes, Michelle. Sexy for Alex and for me. Won't that be nice?"

"Mmmmhhhhhh."

"Good girl. You wanna cum?"

"Please... please..."

"Think about being a dirty mommy, Michelle... think about that, and you'll cum..." With that, Lorelei's tongue tightened up and extended again, long and thick and hard enough to feel like a cock. Then she began relentlessly fucking her defenseless partner with her thick, wet tongue.

Michelle came after only a couple of minutes. Pinned against the bed, she shook with her orgasm and gasped for breath while Lorelei continued fucking her with her inhumanly perfect tongue. All Michelle could do was hold on and deliriously ride it out.

Lorelei decided such a cooperative partner deserved to be mercilessly fucked like this for least another hour.



Chapter 6: Surrender...

Alex blew through the lobby of Keating & Rose with a simple "good morning" to the firm's grandmotherly receptionist. Alex quickly headed straight for the file room, where he sat down at his desk to get right to work. He shared the table against one wall with another file clerk. Alex logged on to his computer and promptly grabbed the overnight files out of the in-basket nearby. He was fixed on getting his mind off of naked demons and angels and freaky rituals.

It wasn't working, but then Kat came in. His co-worker was a lithe, tanned fitness freak whom he had crushed on ever since he started at his job six months ago, but she was both older and in a committed relationship. He didn't flirt, and they got along fine as friends. She wore a pair of jeans and a zipped-up North Face sweater, along with her perpetual smile. "Morning!" she said.

"Heya," Alex said blearily. "Mornin'."

Kat looked at him curiously as she sat down. "Wow, your eyes are seriously bloodshot. Did you sleep at all last night?"

"Not really."

"Huh. Hot date?" she grinned.

"Kind of, but no."

She snickered for a moment, then looked at her task list, and then frowned. "It's seriously hot in here," she said. Alex glanced absent-mindedly to watch as Kat pulled off her sweater. He didn't even think about it at first, but soon was treated to the sight of her tight, bare midriff as her undershirt caught on the sweater for a moment. As it was lifted away, Alex could make out the shape of her bra under her top. She smiled brightly as she dropped the sweater onto the table.

"Oh. I should grab my filing," Kat said. Alex's office crush moved forward, leaning very close to him with her breasts brushing up against his head as she pulled a stack of paperwork out of the second in-basket atop the filing cabinet next to him.

She sat back down, and he found it hard not to stare. He could make out the straps of her bra against her smooth, toned skin, and the way the cups shaped and pushed up her breasts. She brushed away her dirty blonde hair to expose her collarbones and her neck, which Alex looked at for a brief, longing moment. Kat paused only to glance at him and smile. He knew she should have been bothered; he was leering. But she didn't seem the slightest bit disturbed.

"I wish I had worn shorts today," Kat mused aloud. "Maybe I should run home and put on a pair at lunch?"

With an effort of will, Alex tore his eyes off her and went back to his work.

His day continued on just that way, only steadily worse with curious behavior and innuendo from the women in his office. Keating & Rose wasn't a big firm, perhaps thirty employees in all, but a number of them were rather attractive women. It had actually become something of a topic regarding hiring practices, with the firm's hiring partner and office manager both being encouraged to hire more men... not that Alex had ever complained.

But all day long, Alex could swear that the women in the office were looking at him differently. He saw more leg and cleavage that day than he could ever remember. Six times, he was summoned into the office of one attorney or another to help sort through paperwork, and every time it ended with a woman standing enticingly close to him.

Stephanie, the copy room clerk, turned it up the most. She was closest to Alex in age and very pretty, but never interested in him. Alex was a bit of a geek while Stephanie was a party girl; they got along at work, but she clearly never felt any spark with him. Every time he came across her that day, though, he felt her staring at him with come-hither eyes. The petite Latina found one reason after another to touch or bump into him. Twice, she had reason to bend over in front of Alex so that he could see the top of her thin panties as her slacks slipped down.

He was asked if he was wearing a new cologne. All the ladies in the office found a moment to lean in close and sniff, some of them several times. He was complimented repeatedly on his appearance, on a day when he'd worn old jeans and a t-shirt in anticipation of doing a heavy-duty dusting job on the file racks. It was a day of winks, smiles and suggestive jokes.

For his own part, Alex continually found himself staring. He couldn't believe nobody called him out on it, because he kept realizing he was staring at every curve and every exposed bit of flesh. Alex had a heightened awareness of how each woman's clothes fit on her, and he could almost guess what each one had on underneath just by the way the outer fabric hung.

Three times, he went into the restroom in hopes of jerking himself off and finding some relief. It was hopeless each time. Alex was undeniably turned on and obsessing about sex. He continually felt like he was about to explode, but in the end he just couldn't get off.

It was a compelling madness, but just the same, Alex pushed through his day wondering if he was really going insane.

***********

"Lorelei?" Alex called out as he opened the front door. His hands trembled at the thought of facing her again. It was all he could do to get through the day and then ride his motorcycle home safely. Several times, he almost wiped out because he was leering at one hot woman or another driving beside him or walking on the sidewalk.

"Yes? I'm right here," she answered. Alex found her in the living room, sitting by the glass door to the condo's small porch. She wore a simple blue sundress (which Alex didn't even question) and had a book from his shelf in her hands. She sat up in the plush chair as he came over to her.

"Lorelei, did you -- am I -- am I going insane?" he asked.

She cocked her head to one side curiously. "I'm sorry?"

"I can't stop thinking about sex. I'm leering at every woman I see like a slobbering pervert." He held his voice as steady as he could, as well as his temper. Even now, exasperated as he was, he didn't want his relationship with Lorelei -- whatever it was -- to grow hostile. "And I think they're all flirting with me, but I'm so crazy right now I don't know if they are or if I'm imagining it!"

Slowly, she nodded, and reached up to take his hands. "I wasn't sure if things like that would happen or not, but yes. It's probably me. I kissed you this morning with lust for you on my lips and tongue," she said, more a confession than anything else, "and it's likely that these other women can sense it. They smell that lust and begin to feel it themselves."

"Oh my God, are you serious? So I'm driving them nuts, too?"

"No, no," Lorelei laughed dismissively. "Nothing so dramatic. They simply reflect your desires, as I do."

"So I'm a complete pervert, then? This is all me?"

"No, Alex. Please, stop and think," she said, reaching up to take his hands. "Look at me. Your desire for me is plain. You've been fighting it all night and day now. You don't have to hide it, I enjoy seeing and feeling it. I don't understand why you will not take me, but you don't have to hide anything from me. I am your loyal servant now. I am on your side, Alex. You can trust me."

After a long moment, Alex asked, "What's happening to me?"

"We are bound, as has been said," Lorelei explained gently. "The bond is different from anything I have ever experienced, but you are both my master and, to some extent, my prey. I cannot harm you, of course," she added quickly, "but understand that I was made to seduce and fornicate. I will not drag you down as I have any other prey, but your lust is connected to me. When I claim a new prey, his lusts are inflamed, and they feed me. I enjoy sex... I truly cannot get enough of it. But my power is drawn not from my pleasure, but from yours."

"Until you take over?"

"No," she shook her head. "You are the master. I have thought on this a great deal, and I see nothing that can change it. I may prey upon your lusts, but I must also protect and serve you. Unlike others, you will not wither away in servicing my desires."

"Alex... I can feel your arousal. I have known when you have sought to pleasure yourself, and to find release. No, don't be embarrassed," she said, reaching up to gently touch his lips. "It was natural, even sensible. But I can sense that even now, you grow only more aroused. I would be happy to relieve you."

"You shouldn't have to."

"I want to, Alex. The more you want me, the more I want you. This torments us both. Please, Alex."

Almost in shame, Alex nodded. Lorelei slipped up against him, kissed his cheek, and then led him by the hand up the stairs.

Walking behind her, Alex looked up her shapely legs and realized he could smell her sex. She wore no panties. Her cunt -- he didn't even normally use that word, but -- her cunt was wet for him, vulnerable and wanting.

Lorelei cast a glance over her shoulder at him. She knew. She knew exactly what he was thinking, and she smiled demurely at him. Lorelei tugged him into his room, closed the door, and then pushed him up against it as she slid her body along his. She pulled him into a deep, longing kiss, and this time he didn't fight so hard against being lost within it.

While their tongues hungrily intertwined, Lorelei busied herself loosening Alex's pants. She cast aside his belt and unbuttoned his jeans. Her hands slipped under his shirt, pushing it up and over his head during a brief lull in their kiss. His own hands slipped all over her back, her shoulders and her arms.

Surrendering to an urge, Alex grabbed the strings tying up her dress behind her neck and slipped the knot free.

She pressed against him again, pulling his tongue into her mouth and cooing with delight as he invaded her. Then her mouth slid away. With her eyes looking deeply and lustily into his as her dress fell from her shoulders, baring her breasts for him, she slowly dropped down to her knees.

Alex watched as she opened up his fly and pushed away the fabric. His cock, now raging hard, pressed against his boxer briefs. Lorelei's hands slid up over it, and then pulled away the black cotton restraining his manhood. She seemed quite pleased as she looked at it. Her fingers played along its length, curling around the shaft and softly stroking. Alex began to tremble with pleasure as she played with him.

"Have no shame," she said softly, his dick so close to her mouth that the words brushed against his skin. "Just enjoy. I want this even more than you."

Her mouth opened and she extended her tongue, welcoming his cock upon it and then slowly enveloping him with her lips. Her eyes never left his. Alex felt weak all over, but managed to stay upright as he watched his demon seductress suck his cock for the first time.

He was overwhelmed. Alex had never felt anything like this, even from an ordinary woman, and Lorelei was certainly not ordinary. Waves of ecstasy flooded through his body from head to toe, all of it centered on his cock, while his heart pounded with desire for the woman seeing to his desires. She took it slow, sucking him off affectionately, and only increased her tempo as she realized he neared orgasm.

When he came, he felt his muscles spasm from his groin all the way to his wrists. Alex grabbed both the doorframe and Lorelei's shoulder to steady himself as he groaned with pleasure. Long, thick blasts of cum shot from his cock right down into Lorelei's greedy mouth. Her bobbing along his shaft slowed and she luxuriously swallowed gulp after gulp. His orgasm lasted much longer than anything he'd ever experienced by himself.

Alex gasped breathlessly as Lorelei finally let him slip from her mouth, but even then, she kept one hand stroking his cock while her other hand roamed up and down his midsection.

"Master," she purred. "You like?"

"Oh my god," he huffed. "I... wow..." he looked down at her, marveling at how pleased she appeared. He could also swear his cock was dramatically bigger than it had ever been. He'd never been worried that he was small, but never figured he was pornstar material, either. Still, as aroused as he was, maybe it really had grown. "Thank you," he managed.

"Anytime, master," she said.

"You don't have to call me that."

"I do... because you like it, master." There was a mischievous flash in her eyes as she slid upright to press herself against him again, whispering into his ear, "I know all your lusts now. We share them. And now I know everything I need to do to please you, master."

He groaned as she stroked his cock, which was already very hard again.

"Don't regret it," she whispered into his ear with a naughty grin. "I like it. I like you, and I like what I have found. You're a very lusty, naughty boy, Alex. You want me so bad."

"I do," he nodded.

"You want me to be your personal whore, don't you?" Her smile was absolutely audible. "To dress like a wanton slut and offer myself to you and service you. You want lots of whores, all to yourself."

"I don't," Alex shook his head, "I don't want to just use or hurt anyone."

"Ssshhh, it's me, it's me," Lorelei consoled him. "I understand. We won't hurt anyone. I am yours, master. I am your slave and I am your loyal whore, and I like it."

"I thought we were doing this so I could think more clearly."

"Mmm? Can't you? What do you think now?" she asked, kissing his neck and nibbling on his ear.

"I think I want to fuck you," Alex said evenly.

Lorelei looked excitedly at him before he pulled her toward the bed. He paused only to shuck off his shoes and pants, then watched as Lorelei alluringly slipped her dress the rest of the way off her hips. Then he grabbed her by her hair, gently but firmly, and pulled her into another long, deep kiss.

Lorelei felt her own heart pounding. Alex was delicious; she'd never drank of a good, decent man before. His desires were stronger than she had expected. Before now, though, every man she had ever had was selfish and corrupt. She enjoyed their slavish adoration and every moment of sex that led to each man's downfall, but in the end she was also happy to see them destroyed. Alex was entirely different. The taste of him aroused a kind of excitement that she'd never felt before. For the first time she could remember she felt herself trembling as she laid back and felt his body rest against hers. The head of his cock pressed against her moistened sex, making her whimper uncontrollably.

Then he pushed into her. She felt every inch of his slow invasion and panted with delight. "Master," she moaned, "master."

For several long minutes Alex slipped in and out of her in a state of bliss. From the first strike, fucking her was better than any climax he had ever experienced before. He eventually regained enough of his senses to wonder if he should lean back, use his hands, do something other than just pushing in and out... but then she wrapped her legs and arms around him and pulled him deep inside her.

"Fuck me, master," she pleaded between gasps and little moans. "I'm yours, I'm all yours. Fuck me. Take me. Fuck me like you own me."

Alex needed no further encouragement. He plunged into her again and again, holding onto her tightly and pounding her cunt as hard and as slow as he wanted. Lorelei writhed in pleasure, responding with joy to everything he did. Their desires were perfectly in synch; when he wanted to slow down and savor her, it was just what she wanted, and whenever he began to feel like fucking her hard enough to split her in half, she begged him to do just that.

Lorelei's head swam in abject surrender to his lust. Nothing had ever been this good. His desires only built, and hers along with them. The longer they fucked, the less she ever wanted it to end. Some tiny space in her mind wondered if this was how her own victims felt as the wrapped them around her finger, but she didn't care. It was wonderful. Her master made her happier than she had ever been, and she loved --

Her eyes opened wide in shock. This feeling was far too alien for her, no matter how good it felt. It must have been the ritual! It wasn't finished!

"Alex," she grunted.

He kept fucking her. He felt himself building to another thundering orgasm, and she knew her own would match it.

"Alex... oh... master... you must... oh... oooohhhh..."

"What?"

"No, don't... no... don't... stop...oh! Oh! Oh!"

Instinctively, Alex grabbed a fistful of hair and wrenched her head up to kiss him. She surrendered to it, cumming harder than she ever had. Her whole body spasmed uncontrollably. Even her cunt, tight and wet to begin with, became an even more intense ride for Alex. He was sent over the edge by the suddenly rising intensity within her. Alex injected his succubus with a long, pumping flood of cum while the two kissed.

Eventually he slowed, and kept himself buried inside her while they both gasped for air. His grip on her eased only a little; for the most part, he still covered her possessively. Lorelei was herself overwhelmed with emotion and hardly moved. She could even feel his semen inside her. It was all so good. So good.

"Master," she whispered hoarsely. She couldn't even think of trying to break free from him now. She no longer wanted to.

"Lorelei?" he moaned.

"Thank you, master. Thank you..."



Chapter 7: Cumming to terms...

Alex had no idea how long he had been fucking her, but no matter how long it had been it wasn't nearly long enough. He buried himself in her, again and again, completely enthralled by that wet, tight tunnel that gripped and sucked his cock. It was entirely mutual; Lorelei encouraged him in every way to take her. They paused only to bask in the afterglow of every climax, kissing one another deeply and longingly, and inevitably fall into irresistible rutting again.

Sometime later, sensuously kissing his succubus after another crash that had left both their bodies twitching, Alex realized that the sun had gone down. "We must have been going at it for hours," he breathed.

"And yet you are not tired, nor spent," Lorelei pointed out triumphantly. She brushed her fingers through his hair, looking up at him with unmistakable affection.

"Not really, no," Alex agreed. He was breathing heavy, but not unpleasantly so. "Is that you? That's not... normal, right?"

She nodded. "Youth and virility can mean a good deal, but they only carry one so far. Welcome to your new sex life."

"Wow," he breathed.

"Do you feel your head is clearer now that you have ravished me so?" she teased.

"I do, I just... wow," he repeated. His hips moved slowly again, still impaling her. "I could stop if you wanted to, but I could keep going. It's like I can't get enough. I don't think I'll ever have enough of you."

"Nor I of you, master," Lorelei smiled adoringly. "My body will always be an invitation to yours. You need never wonder if I want you or if I am ready. Take me, freely, and have no more worries about losing control of yourself or boring me or any of your other hang-ups."

Alex nodded. "I think that's going to be a lot."

"Good."

He glanced out the window, and then at his clock. "I wonder if mom's home. Oh god, she probably heard us."

"No," she shook her head. "Or, rather, if she has returned, she will completely ignore us, remember?

You could bend me over her bed and fuck me 'til I scream while she lay there and she wouldn't notice." The smirk that spread across his face showed some amusement, but he said, "Let's not do that."

"Aw," she pouted in feigned disappointment. After a moment, her expression became a bit more genuine. "Master, I fear that I have made mischief that may displease you."

"What do you mean? I thought you had to be loyal to me?"

"I do, and am. I was. Master, I will tell you if you ask, but I was thinking of your pleasure as well as mine, and things can be undone. But I fear telling you will ruin our night together. You clearly feel so much better about... us." Her voice cracked. Her eyes actually seemed to moisten up.

"Shh," Alex said, and kissed her cheek softly. "You didn't hurt anyone?"

"No. That is plainly against your will."

"And you're sure it wasn't a betrayal?"

"I don't know. A betrayal of good faith, perhaps. I did not feel anything stop me, but I do not know the limits of our bond any more than you. Some measure of deceit is in my nature, but this was... I felt like it was more a matter of engineering a pleasant surprise than anything else. You may not think so tonight, but I do think that, in time, you will appreciate what I have done. I know for certain now that it is ultimately in line with desires you hold but would never have even considered pursuing."

He looked in her eyes for a long moment, still impaled deep within her. He didn't want to ruin their night, either. "So what you're telling me is that you've been naughty, and if I find out now I'll be mad, but later on I'll like it?"

"That is my hope."

"Can I trust you?"

"That remains to be seen, but I long for your trust, yes."

"Then let's not borrow trouble from tomorrow. I'll trust you."

Her eyes seemed to sparkle as she looked up at him. "Thank you, master."

Alex shrugged. "I want us both to at least get along. I want to make you happy."

Lorelei slipped her arms around him and squeezed him with a purr. "You have, master. I am very happy."

"You're sure you want to keep calling me that? It's okay to call me Alex. You'd definitely better use that when we're in public together."

She nodded. "I have never considered 'master' a term of affection before now, but I do feel that way. It's odd for me, and unique, but I can tell that you like it and so do I."

He seemed to blush. "It's flattering."

"I would flatter you more," she smirked. "You're a good man, Alex. I am not supposed to have such as you. I have never had anyone who was not well on their way to Hell. I may have enjoyed myself, but not like this. Nothing like this."

"I don't want to just be your master, though. I mean, can we be master and slave and still be... I dunno," he wondered, not wanting to push too far too soon. "Can we be that and still be at least friends?"

"You mean more than friends," she said, the smile in her voice turning quiet. She stroked his cheek with her fingers.

"Yes."

"I don't see why not. I'm not an ordinary friend." She smiled, and squeezed him into her, then left the topic at that.

"Alex," she then said, sounding out his name slowly, "why does this bother you so? Master and slave? I have told you it does not bother me. Such is part of the nature of my existence. You are a dramatic improvement over my previous... condition. In ways I cannot explain."

Alex shrugged. "Slavery's wrong."

"It has been the way of the world for a very long time. In the scheme of things, this mindset of your society is an anomaly... and even so, slavery lives on in many ways."

"It was wrong back then, and it's still wrong now. Maybe I wouldn't think so if I'd been raised differently or in a different time, but I like to think I would. Honestly, if I could free you, I would. I'd... miss you. I'll never forget this. But if there's a way--"

"Sshhh," Lorelei said, and interrupted him with a kiss. "I know. You didn't bring this on yourself, or me, and I am not troubled." She grinned a bit. "Have some fun with it. You don't have to be cruel or domineering if you don't want to. It doesn't seem to be in your nature, anyway."

Thinking on that, Alex cocked his head to the side. "Would you like to turn over?"

She smiled. "I would." He had only a twin bed, which didn't leave a lot of room for rolling sideways. They sat up together, keeping him buried within her. Lorelei reached behind her to grab a couple of pillows and throw them behind Alex before letting him lay back. She sat impaled on his cock now, slowly rocking against his hips and milking it in luxury.

"Mh, master," she groaned, "your sex is the greatest I have ever felt. Please don't ever hesitate to take me again."

"It's a little hard to believe I'm the greatest ever."

With her eyes closed as she savored the feeling of him, she slowly shook her head. "I cannot lie to you, master."

"I do feel like I'm bigger with you," he admitted hesitantly.

"You are larger because of me, yes," Lorelei said. "A succubus must be kept entertained to carry out her purpose. But that will remain even when you lay with another, the better to feed me your lusts. And the way you feel has little to do with technique... which will only get better with time," she added with a grin.

"I can't imagine ever needing anyone else."

"You say that now," she winked demurely.

"No, really. Lorelei, you're so far beyond any woman I ever met. You don't have to worry about me cheating on you."

Lorelei snickered, and then laughed. "Master," she said, "need I remind you that when I swallowed your seed, I learned everything about your lust. You want other women. You want many other women. And when you have them, I will feel it, too. You won't be cheating on me... you'll be renewing my power as you pleasure them.

"You want a harem," Lorelei added with a softer, wicked tone. "You want glamorous women eager to indulge you with their beauty and their flesh. Don't be shy about it. I'm not jealous at all. I want you to have other little sluts to play with, too, as many as you desire. And I'll happily make it happen."

His heart was pounding at her words. "I wouldn't want you having sex with other guys," he said. "How fair is that?"

Her naked shoulders shrugged. "I wouldn't take as much enjoyment from them now, anyway," she said. "You've certainly changed my own perspective. But I hope you don't mind if I might flirt a bit now and again. It might be very useful to us both."

"I never thought of myself as the jealous type," Alex thought out slowly, "but I don't really want to share you with other men."

"Then don't. Everyone has their boundaries." Her hips rocked against his for a moment. A new smile spread across her face, and she leaned in closer to him. "But don't you dare tell me you don't want me to have other women, because we both know you better than that."

He couldn't help but share her smile. "As long as you'll share," Alex grinned back before he kissed her.

His hands shamelessly took hold of her ass and began rocking her hips against his. They kept kissing while they fucked more and more, easily building to a new climax. He couldn't get over how great it felt, how powerful it was to freely fuck and release into her, and how much she obviously loved it. She trembled in pleasure, lying against him as they settled. "As you wish, master," she whispered.

"Wow," he breathed again, stroking her hair and her back. "I barely know you."

"You need only know so much," she shrugged. "You know what's most important."

"Yeah, but... I mean, where are you from? How old are you, really? What makes you happy besides sex? Hurts you? Anything."

Lorelei sat up on his hips, her sex still gripping him but her face growing more thoughtful. "There are things mortals are not meant to know," she began. "I would tell you, but the knowledge itself would endanger you. Even for all you have already seen, precious little about the actual nature of the divine or... otherworldly matters has been shown to you. Your faith, for instance, is still a matter of faith. I can tell you that God and the devil exist, but you might be surprised how little relevance formal religion has in the grand scheme of things. But it means I can only tell you so much about myself."

Alex nodded. "Indulge me with what you can."

"You may not like it all. Some things in my past you would find quite ugly."

"Then we'll call it the past and move on. And I can't imagine being any more inclined to think well of you and blow off things that bother me than right here and now," he grinned. "You're awfully beautiful and naked and pleasantly positioned."

"I suppose I can appreciate that," she chuckled. "I am... old. I was old even as I watched the Romans demolish the Second Temple in Jerusalem."

"Wow."

Distant thoughts clouded her eyes, but she banished them a moment later. "It was a memorable day. I have not always been in this world, but of anything else I really cannot tell you much. I have spoken many languages, been to many lands. I have brought down peasants and popes, shoguns, celebrities, kings and queens."

"Queens?" Alex raised an eyebrow.

"Oh yes. More men than women, but many women. None of them nice people, mind you," she added. "The world does not miss them, or would not if the truth about them was known."

"Oh. I guess I should've thought of this before," Alex said sheepishly. He had somehow disregarded the potential complications from just how many partners she had been through. "but should I be, um, wearing a condom?"

Laughter erupted from his companion. "No, master, no," she managed finally. "Though yes, I imagine were things different you might be a bit late in asking. No. As I said, you may enjoy me freely. You need not worry about me carrying disease or becoming with child. In fact," she added with a sultry tone, "as long as you're regularly having me, you can forget about such concerns with other women as well. As will they." She let that sink in, then leaned forward to kiss him lightly before continuing the discussion.

"You ask me what pleases me. There are many sorts of demons. Some are made to torment and others to corrupt. I am born to punish and enact retribution. That does not make me especially nice, but it is part of Hell's purpose to ensure that the wicked eventually suffer." She paused to grind against him, milking his cock affectionately. "I've never been able to reward good deeds before. It's pleasant. I'm rather coming to enjoy... friendship, as well."

The admission hung in the air for a moment as they looked at one another. Finally, Alex broke the silence. "At least I know who to ask for help with my history assignments now."

"You wish. There are matters of which I know much, but for most of history humanity's perspective has been rather narrow. My own experience only makes for certain exceptions. I remember well the politicking of the Medicis, but don't ask me to tell you what was going on in Russia at the time. It was irrelevant to me. It's only in recent decades that I have myself become more broadly educated."

"But you speak Russian?"

"Da."

"Russian women are hot," he teased.

"Many of them. Others are not."

"You said shoguns? You've been to Japan?"

"Hai," Lorelei smiled.

"That wasn't weird? I would think a white woman like you would stand out a bit there at that time."

"I can change my appearance rather dramatically as needed, though it costs me power. Before last night, it would have been no problem. Tonight I could manage it once, perhaps twice now that your lusts have restored a small measure of power. But I have a very long way to go before I am what I was before."

"I think I'm going to enjoy helping you recover."

"We both will. That I can promise. I know my appearance pleases you greatly... or even immensely," she said with just enough arrogance to be charming, "but if you'd like me to look differently...?"

"No. God, no. It might be fun later, but I want this face and this body to stay."

"Done," Lorelei nodded.

They rocked against one another for awhile before speaking again. "So I imagine you wouldn't be up for breathing fire again tonight, right?"

"No," Lorelei said, shaking her head and smiling self-consciously. Then she became more serious. "This brings up a good point. I am bound to protect you, master, but in this state I would not be very capable. Certainly not in a physical confrontation. We will have to work hard before I am recovered enough for that."

"Can't say I get into a lot of fights."

"Good. But be aware that once such extraordinary presences as myself enter one's life, there is often a tendency for others to appear. You may well be in for a life far from ordinary."

"We'll just have to keep a low profile, then."

"Agreed."

"So, any other abilities that you'd like to tell me about?"

"I need very little in the way of sleep, and food is a simple indulgence. As long as we are bound, I can share some degree of this. You will need very little sleep tonight. In the morning, you won't be tired."

"Just well-fucked?"

Lorelei nodded. "You are unique in this. I am by nature made to run a lover ragged unto death."

"That makes me feel special."

"More than you know," she grinned. "You know I can conceal myself. It can work for both of us if necessary. This takes little energy, but even that is finite. All illusions require energy. It would be better to find clothing than conjure it."

"Oh. Hrm. Well, I could certainly spare money for a bit of clothes, but I hadn't really thought about finances."

She chuckled again, and reached down to place a finger over his lips. "I have resources of my own. I could tell you, but as I suggested, a few surprises for later might be nice?" He looked at her with a suspicious smile, and she simply added, "You need not live in your mother's home much longer, though there's no need to rush."

"I disagree. I think we're going to need a bigger bed very soon," Alex snickered.

"There is that. As I said, I have resources. And while you may not need the paycheck itself for much longer, I think you'll find your job rewarding enough to make staying for a bit longer worthwhile."

"Guess I'll take your word for that," Alex said. "Tomorrow's not a work day, though. School day."

"Ah. Yes. You ask me all this about me, but tell me so little about yourself."

"Well... I'm kind of a geek, I work as a file clerk in a law firm and I go to community college. I have plenty of friends, and some of them are dorks, but at our age that's probably not a shock. What you see is pretty much what you get. What else do you want to know?"

"I would very much like to know why you would not lay with me last night, or this morning," she said. "Was it really just your moral qualms with slavery? I thought I was clear in wanting you."

"You were."

"And you don't have a girlfriend or lover to whom you owe monogamy."

"No. I've tried, but I've been kind of unlucky there."

"Then why?"

"I guess," Alex began, then trailed off. "This is kind of embarrassing." He saw no judgment in her eyes, only curiosity. Finally, he admitted it. "I guess you could say I was saving myself for love? I thought that's what you were supposed to do? I mean, unless you're some brain-dead horndog guy with no respect for women, and I'd rather be more than that."

Lorelei inhaled deeply, a satisfied smile coming across her face. She nodded. "I see. Ever the idealist."

"Well, maybe not about every little thing, but this? Yeah."

"I hope this hasn't disappointed you, Alex."

"You don't."

She leaned in closely to kiss him again. Her lips were soft and soothing and her kiss went deep. Alex loved the way her hair dangled over his head when she did this. "I also hope that you feel friendship is good enough."

"More than I can say," he whispered back.

She sat up on him again. "A great respect for women, hm? And no father in the house. Has it always been just you and your mother?"

"For a long while now, yeah. Dad cheated on Mom. A lot. When she found out about it, she found out that it'd been going on a long time. Co-workers, bar floosies, prostitutes, married women; It hurt her a lot. They divorced when I was in grade school. Honestly, I don't hear much from him anymore, just a card at Christmas."

"You do not wish to become your father."

"No."

"You are not. Don't worry about it. If you have made anything clear to me, Alex, it is that you have a good soul and tremendous strength of will. I suspect there is much more of your mother in you than your father."

"Maybe, but... if I can trust you, will you help me make sure I don't wind up like that?"

Lorelei looked at him for a long moment, and nodded. "As you wish, master," she said. "But again, you have little to worry about."

"You've been talking about me being with other women. Lots of other women."

"There's a difference between adultery and enjoying dalliances when you have no such commitments," Lorelei shrugged. "As well as relationships that are knowingly more open."

"I guess. Like I said, though, I just don't want to hurt anyone."

"As you wish," Lorelei nodded. Wicked affection spread through her smile again. "Now... tell me about Molly and Onyx."





Chapter 8: Naughty night-time desires...

"Umm... they are friends of mine?!" Alex responded hesitantly. "They are really good friends of mine from college. Speaking of which, I should probably get some sleep as I have an early day tomorrow."

Lorelei smirked knowingly. "You know I know it's more than that master and we can talk about it another time. Sleep master," Lorelei whispered into Alex's ear. "Sleep, and I will be here when you awaken. Sleep." His eyes fluttered closed, and a moment later his breath became steady and easy. "Dream of that which brings you joy," she added with a soft murmur.

After a long moment, she disengaged herself from him, stood and stretched. The succubus looked at his sleeping form silently, blankly, finally shaking herself. This was utter madness. Completely out of her control.

There was his peaceful face sleeping in the darkness. His cock, still mostly erect, glistened with their mixed fluids. It had been an act of will to get up off of him and let him sleep instead of enticing further answers from him. She hadn't lied, and couldn't if she wanted to. But it was the truth. He felt better than any man or woman ever had. Better than things not of this Earth.

Certainly he was more pleasant than any previous master. Dramatically so. Lorelei actually liked him, and in this context that was completely alien to her.

She, too, wanted to be friends. More than friends. "Abashed, the Devil stood," Lorelei mused aloud.

For a second time, she shook herself and her thoughts. She still hungered for him, but her hunger typically lasted until she had vanquished a partner. That wouldn't be happening here. Perhaps she'd just have to get used to being satisfied only while making lo -- No. Servicing him. Let's not get carried away with this. This is sorcery at work.

"I should have realized the ritual wasn't fully completed," she muttered bitterly to herself. "I knew I could make more mischief. Push these boundaries further. Perhaps broken free... though to what end?"

She looked down at him again, feeling a need through pour through every fiber of her being to throw herself upon her new master and continue their night together. He had rescued her from such torment. He had put himself at terrible risk, had no idea it would turn out this way. He had been kind to her. Felt no need to dominate. He wanted to trust her; seemed to so plainly, genuinely care about her.

He was so unlike anyone she'd ever lain with, mortal or otherwise. Some small part of her mused, tentatively, that maybe he deserved her? And she, him?

Madness. She crushed out that thought, turning away from him.

He had the will to resist. Any previous partner would have let her ride him until he passed out. Alex had actually asked her to let him sleep enough to be rested for the next day, and clearly had intentions other than staying home with her.

That self-control was astounding. Alex enjoyed letting Lorelei take the lead. Would clearly enjoy that with other women. He found the role of the pursued rather than pursuer thrilling, especially after such a haphazard history of dating. His desires tended toward strong women, for obvious reasons -- not exclusively, but the preference was there. He had it in him to be the aggressor and the seducer. His minor experiences with dating had given every indication of that. He will someday become more aware of his own ability.

But what was so ominously clear to Lorelei was that he would only be led so much. He would be happily teased and manipulated until he was genuinely bothered by something, and then it would end. Her plots would only move as long as they kept him entertained. Alex, unlike any prey before him, could say no and mean it. She wasn't at all used to that.

Frowning, Lorelei glanced around his room. She should have investigated the house yesterday, but fatigue from her abduction had overcome her and she'd put it off. Seeing in the dark was no challenge at all for her. Lorelei glanced over his bookshelf and other belongings, finding someone whose interests tended toward larger-than-life adventure and matters far beyond his small world. He wouldn't want to remain in his hometown forever.

On his desk was a picture of his high school swim team, which included no less than four girls forever burned into his desires. She had tasted it and was something she could use.

His shelves held an eclectic collection of music, but it and scattered ticket stubs revealed a preference for live rock. His walls were adorned with posters of bands and ordinary teen interests... but ordinary teens didn't have so many philosophy books.

She found his class schedule. It was still early enough in the year that he probably didn't have it all memorized. This early in his college life, they were naturally all "intro" classes: Intro to Literature. Intro to Biology. Philosophy. Human Sexuality. No wonder he's so screwed up, she thought wryly.

Intro to Photography.

Her heart jumped. She slowly found herself looking at him again with an overwhelming feeling of gratitude and more. So insignificant a thing. A class at a community college. How different her world would be if Alex hadn't, probably on a whim, taken Introduction to Photography.

After watching him sleep for a bit, she inhaled deeply to clear her head. There was something else to take care of tonight, though, and that would at least be entertaining.

It was past four in the morning as she slipped out of Alex's room and moved into Michelle's. Everything was perfectly still.

In one corner of the bedroom were a couple of pink shopping bags that indicated Michelle had followed instructions. The mother herself lay on her back in bed, sheets indicating a bit of tossing and turning before she had finally gotten to sleep.

Her nightgown lay on the floor next to the bed.

A predatory grin spread across Lorelei's face. Here was easy game, unsuspecting, defenseless, and delicious. She stalked around to the other side of the bed, gently lifted the single sheet that still covered Michelle, and slipped in.

"Ssssshhhhhhh," Lorelei breathed into Michelle's ear. It took less concentration this time, as the seductress had more power now. Michelle stirred only a little in response. Her eyes remained closed while she let out a quiet but audible noise of dreamy need.

Lorelei started at Michelle's head, gently running her fingers through blonde locks and letting her nails drift across her scalp. Again, Michelle softly let her appreciation be known. Her head turned with those fingers, nuzzling Lorelei's hand needfully. Lorelei's other hand did the same, only it trailed down the side of Michelle's face, her neck, then drifted across the naked chest that rose to meet it.

She could smell sex in these sheets. Lorelei inhaled deeply, realizing her own scent was not the only one present in this bed. "Michelle," she beckoned softly, "have you been pleasing yourself?"

"Yes," came the distant reply. "Yes."

"Thinking of me?"

"Yes," smiled the still-dreaming woman.

"Thinking of Alex?"

"Mmm..."

"Michelle," Lorelei said teasingly as her fingers trailed between the mother's legs. "You can tell me, remember? We agreed together. He's a sexy young man."

Another whimper, still evasive. Lorelei's lower hand dug softly, deliciously into Michelle's pussy as it trailed back up, raking through her bush. "Michelle," she repeated.

"Yes," Michelle finally admitted deliriously. "I did, a little, yes."

"I don't blame you," Lorelei smiled. "I would. I would dream of him, even if I were his mother. It's alright, Michelle. He loves you. He loves you so much. He respects you."

"He's my only son," Michelle murmured. "So wrong."

"Naughty," Lorelei's tongue flicked Michelle's ear, "but not wrong. Not if it's private... just for fun. He's a man now. No one needs to know, Michelle. Just you and I... and I don't need to tell."

"No. No one."

"But wouldn't it feel good to share?" Her fingers stroked Michelle's wet labia with expert familiarity. She could play the blonde like an instrument, for fun or for effect. As with the mother's son, there would be no destroying this one. Michelle deserved that no more than Alex, nor did Lorelei bear her ill will. But she was older than him, more experienced and less innocent. Easier to manipulate.

"We're alone, in the dark," Lorelei reassured her. "Just you and I. Your home is locked, your son in another room sound asleep. Share your fantasies with me."

Everything Michelle could sense in her dreaming state was pleasure. Every touch, every smell. Even the plain sheets on her bed felt luxurious. She imagined the alluring whispers in her ear sliding through her body much like the sensuous fingers between her legs. Michelle gave out a gasp of capitulation.

"What did you dream of your son?"

"I found him downstairs, on the recliner in front of the television," Michelle ventured slowly. As she spoke, approving and encouraging lips trailed down the side of her face and neck. "He was... watching a dirty movie. Naked. Touching himself. Oh, yes."

Her admissions had earned her a much deeper caress inside her pussy. "Was he stroking his cock?"

"Yes."

"It's a big cock, Michelle."

"It is? Oh, I imagined it as big."

"Tell me," Lorelei demanded gently. "Tell me more. What was the movie?"

Michelle's words drifted out luxuriously. "A man about to be married," she explained softly. "He's getting dressed, alone, and his mother comes to him. Sits him down on the bed. Tells him she'll always love him, and that if he ever needs her, she'll be there... but she doesn't say it like a mother would say to a son. She doesn't mean what a mother would mean saying that."

"Maybe some would." Lorelei continued to reward Michelle's admissions. "What then?"

"He's strong, but shy. Says he's still a virgin and doesn't know, oh, doesn't know what to do. His mother offers to show him. They start with kissing. It seems wrong, but she tells him it's a mother's duty... she starts getting out of her dress, showing him a woman's body, seducing him. Says a mother owes it to her son to teach him everything. She takes him in her mouth, tells him they can practice. They make love on the wedding bed."

"You watch all of this with Alex?"

"Yes. He doesn't know. I sneak up, pull his pile of clothes away. He strokes himself and he looks so majestic and powerful. I'm wearing the lingerie I bought today. I feel beautiful."

"You are beautiful."

She groaned appreciatively in response. "I move behind him, slip my hands over his shoulders. 'Sssshhhh, don't stop, it's okay. It's okay. Don't be embarrassed, I do it, too.' He looks up at me and slows. He doesn't know what to do. I put my hand over his and guide him in long strokes.

"I slip around and let him see me. I ask him if he's ever been with a woman. He says no. I ask if he's curious, and he says yes. I offer to let him touch me. His hands go up my hips... oh..." Michelle's hand drifted down to Lorelei's and covered it to encourage her to do more. The succubus responded, hooking her fingers to stroke more effectively while the bottom of her palm ground against Michelle's clit.

"He says, 'Isn't this wrong, Mom?' I smile, and straddle him, and I say, 'Not if it's just a secret between us.' Then my hands slide down my sides. I hook into the strings of my bikini panties and I pull the laces. I hover over his dick... oh yes..."

"Do you fuck him, Michelle?" Lorelei asks. The stimulation from her hand increased. The blonde began to sweat.

"Oh god, yes! Yes!"

"Think of it now," Lorelei urged her. "Think about fucking Alex." Michelle writhed against her, needing more and more as her fantasy replayed vividly through her mind. Her body began to tremble.

"He's inside you, so deep. Needs you. Loves you. He loves his mother."

When the climax shook through her, Michelle rode it with abandon, so intensely that she very nearly woke up entirely. Lorelei leaned in and pressed her mouth against Michelle's, kissing her. Their naked flesh wrapped around one another, Lorelei catering to Michelle's post-orgasm needs.

"So good," Lorelei hissed. "So good. I'm so pleased, Michelle."

"Yes," Michelle whimpered. "I want to please you."

"Do you want to taste me again?" Lorelei asked.

"Yes. Oh, god, yes."

The succubus smiled and pulled herself free. She reversed herself on the bed, sitting up and then laying back again while keeping one hand hooked around Michelle's neck. She spread her legs open and guided the deliriously willing mother to her pussy, which had been so thoroughly enjoyed already tonight by another.

"Good girl, Michelle," Lorelei encouraged her as her partner licked and kissed. "That's nice. So nice. Ah, there. Do I taste nice?" The mother made noises of affirmation, not wanting to separate for a second from that smooth, intoxicating flesh. "Good. You are doing so well Michelle.

"Michelle... " Lorelei moans softly, "we'll have to start out slow as we have a long night..." Lorelei gasps softly when Michelle pushes her tongue deeply into her pussy and softly says, "Don't forget to enjoy the taste of your son as you lick my pussy."





Chapter 9: Morning Shenanigans...

Fellatio was definitely the best thing to wake up to, ever. It was the first coherent thought Alex had that morning. The welcoming, affectionate mouth and smooth hand that concentrated upon his very erect flesh had him absolutely convinced.

His next thought came out in an appreciative groan. "I'm starting to believe you really like doing this." Alex tilted his head just enough to look down at his gorgeous wake-up call, who simply winked at him and continued. "My life is awesome."

Lorelei paused long enough to say, "Wait for it," then went back to slowly sucking him off.

"...tellin' ya, the women in my life are absolutely no fun anymore," whined the morning DJ from Alex's clock radio. "All my ex wants is alimony and all my wife wants out of me is to listen to her bitch and moan about her feelings and her social life, and—"

Alex laughed a bit. If this guy only knew, he thought, knowing Lorelei had set up exactly that. Soon, Alex reached out with one hand and fumbled for the snooze button. "Jackass," he muttered. The feeling of Lorelei giggling softly added a nice dimension to the sensations her mouth provided. Alex groaned again. His left hand reached down to stroke her hair. His right fumbled for the power cord of the clock radio until he had it unplugged.

"Bet he'd have a happier marriage if he wasn't such a whiner," Alex mumbled.

"Very perceptive," Lorelei broke off to say. "Why do you listen to him, then?"

"He wasn't always there. I keep forgetting to change the station... and I really don't want to think about anything else right now but you and what you're doing."

"Yes, master," she whispered.

She spoiled him for awhile, moving slowly enough that he didn't near orgasm right away. Finally, however, she began to work more intently. The experience quickly went from pleasure for its own sake to a very specific goal. Once again, Lorelei eagerly swallowed down everything he had to give, making sincere, satisfied noises as if it was the best taste on earth. She made sure he was completely cleaned off and every bit of his seed was consumed before she slipped up the length of his body into a grateful embrace.

"Good morning," she murmured, kissing him lightly.

"Good morning to you. So is that part of how you kill people?"

"If I were trying to kill you, I'd never have let you get any sleep."

"I feel like I slept." His eyes opened, and he felt wide awake. "I feel like I slept all night. After having sex all night. Wow, when did I go to sleep?"

"I brought you to sleep at a bit past four, I believe."

"Two hours?"

"It was what you needed. I'm trying to control myself, master," Lorelei conceded dryly.

Alex laughed, then glanced at the now blank clock radio. "Well, now I don't know what time it is. Time to get up and get going, at any rate. Um, you...?"

"I would follow you and bathe you if you like, but it sounds as if you would prefer not to be too distracted this morning."

"No. I mean are you going to be okay with staying today? Or not, really -- I mean, I'm not telling you not to go anywhere, I would just like it if you were here when I come home." He opened his mouth to speak again after a moment, but Lorelei promptly closed it for him.

"If you stammer out an apology for making such a simple request of me, you'll be back to waking up to that insipid disc jockey every morning."

Instinctively, Alex searched for words to apologize for making so many apologies. Then, with Lorelei's hand still over his mouth, he realized she saw that coming, too, and began to laugh. She smiled back at him and let him up. "Go," she said with a shooing motion. "Shower. You smell like you've been having sex all night."

"That's crazy talk," Alex chuckled as he grabbed some clean clothes. "Ask anyone. I don't know what to do with girls. I'm still a pure, innocent virgin."

"We shall have to sacrifice you to some terrible demon princess, then."

At the door, Alex blinked. He turned back to her. "Are you really a prin—"

"No! Go shower!"

He was quick about it. Showered, shaved and ready to go within fifteen minutes. Alex felt more energized than he had in a long time. By then, he had found his cell phone and realized that he needed to get a bit of a move on. Lorelei wasn't in the bedroom when he came in to get dressed, but he paid that no mind. He simply threw on a shirt and some cargo pants, then headed downstairs to grab something to eat.

Outside his bedroom he was stopped in his tracks. Michelle's door was ajar, which in itself wouldn't have been interesting, but his mother was directly in view. She had her back turned toward the door as she got dressed... in black stockings with black garters, a black strapless bra and black thong panties.

Alex was every bit as mesmerized by her as he was by the ladies at work the day before. In fact, it was worse, as her clothing and even something about her posture seemed so overtly sexual.

She looked amazing. They had been at a pool party not too long ago, and while his mother had never been fat, she still had a little sag here and there. Now, she looked fit and trim, arguably ready for modeling.

Michelle stood in her room, looking around for things she needed. Alex got a good side view to go with the look from the rear when she turned to look for something. That belly was tight, and those breasts...

...are not what I should be looking at, Alex thought. He shook his head and quickly headed down the stairs. Not that I won't be seeing that in my head all day long. Holy shit. He didn't feel especially guilty about it, but he didn't think he should fixate on it, either. That was his mother. Still. Wow. Hot.

The thought was enough to make him forget about looking for Lorelei for a moment. He wondered, absently, if she might have something to do with that... or, unsettlingly, if the effect Lorelei's attentions had on his relations with other women might have some effect.

Rummaging through the refrigerator, however, he figured that was unlikely. Lorelei said that had to do with her kiss and scent or something. Yet he hadn't spoken to his mom since he met Lorelei. Even at this moment, he had just gotten out of the shower.

Maybe she'd just been working out more than he thought? Maybe she met someone at the office and didn't want to say anything yet?

Cereal implements in hand, Alex settled down at the dining room table. It wasn't a big dining room, providing just enough space for a decent table right outside the kitchen. The thought occurred to him as he began to eat that the table was just big enough to throw a woman on and have his way with her. He chuckled, thinking it was silly that he was still thinking about sex after the night he'd just had, but then maybe that's how things would be from now on. It didn't seem so bad.

As if to punctuate that, Lorelei rounded the far corner of the kitchen and came walking through it toward him. She wore one of his dress shirts, unbuttoned, and not much of anything else. The whole "girl in man's shirt the morning after" thing had always seemed like a contrivance for photo spreads and movies to him before, but now he was a believer. Lorelei sauntered in as he watched her, then planted an affectionate kiss at the back of his neck. Her hands slipped around his chest, then down, and even began opening his pants up.

"I like the way you look at me."

"I like looking at you."

"Alex, are you talking to someone down there?" his mother called down. Her footsteps down the stairs made plenty of noise.

Alex looked up to Lorelei in concern.

"She cannot see or hear me," Lorelei shrugged. "And she'll just ignore anything that would indicate my presence." Then a naughty smile overcame her. "In fact..." she murmured. Before Alex could say anything in reply, Lorelei ducked under and backward to move under the table. She moved like some sort of ninja.

Just as she did so, Michelle came into the kitchen.

"Hey, sleepyhead," his mother smiled. Alex was staring almost immediately; she wasn't entirely done dressing yet. Her make-up was perfect, but her clothes weren't yet done. Her own dress shirt wasn't completely buttoned and she was still fumbling with her skirt. It all left her showing off alluring cleavage and flashing bits of her lingerie as she adjusted things in what was an entirely unnecessary display... not that Alex was coherent enough to think it contrived. She did an excellent job in capturing a very naughty secretary look.

"...Mom?" Alex stammered.

Soothing, enticing hands freed his rock-hard phallus from his pants and underwear.

"Yes? Hm?"

"Ah. Is that, um, a new outfit?" Those hands began to stroke him with an expert touch.

"No, silly," she smiled. "I mean, it might fit a bit better. I lost a little weight and decided to treat myself to a few accessories," his mother winked at him.

His mother never winked at him. It seemed innocent enough. Not exactly flirty, just maybe confident or conspiratorial. But winking just wasn't in her non-verbal vocabu ---

-- a warm, beckoning tongue swept along the length of his flesh.

"Do I look good?" Michelle asked, turning this way and that. He was now completely in Lorelei's mouth.

"You do. I mean, yeah, Mom, you look great. Uh, but... your skirt's not zipped," Alex gasped out.

"Oh. Could you help with that?" she asked absently as she moved closer and turned away from him.

That black silk thong was showing. So was the top of her garter. Somehow, his mother had gone from "my mom's pretty for her age" to "oh my god, dat ass." He reached over to take hold of her skirt and zip it for her with trembling, embarrassed hands.

So wrong.

Alex could feel the mouth on his cock curl into a mischievous smile. He felt the light touch of her teeth.

The task finished, Michelle turned back to him and said, "Thank you," with a pleasant smile. She slowly began buttoning her shirt up the rest of the way. Alex's mother seemed utterly oblivious to both his staring and what she was doing to invite it.

So very wrong.

"You were out really late on Sunday night. What were you up to?"

"Yeah. Just. Um. Photography homework. I didn't want to leave it until last night." Lorelei's smile had faded back into sweet, sucking lips.

"Well, that's progress, I guess. Always procrastinating. Anything new at work?"

"Not... really?"

His mother shrugged. "Well, we've got clients coming in today. They'll probably want to go out to some bar or something afterwards. Salespeople," she said, rolling her eyes.

"Tricksy people."

"Yeah."

"Just terrible, going out to a bar. Some nice, handsome guy might make a pass at you. Try to get your phone number or ask you out. Dangerous stuff." Alex responded while trying to not be distracted by Lorelei's tongue against his balls while being buried in his throat.

"Oh. Pfff. Sure," Michelle blushed. "Anyway, I might be home late."

"Well," Alex said, trying to blink away the sensations overwhelming his cock for just a moment of seriousness, "if you have a couple drinks and you're not sure about driving, don't feel bad about calling me for a ride home. I'll come get you. It's okay."

Michelle shrugged. "Sure, honey. I've got to go."

"Um, Mom? Your shirt's not buttoned right." Lorelei's ministrations grew more intense. He fought to keep his eyes from rolling back into his head.

She looked down at herself. "Oh, you're right. Yikes," she mumbled. A moment later, the buttons were fixed so she wasn't showing off her cleavage like before. "Thanks."

With that finally fixed, she didn't look so overtly sexy. Just pretty and vibrant and well put-together... but Alex knew more than that, and couldn't get it out of his head.

She paused to bend over a bit and give Alex a kiss on the forehead and a look down her shirt that he couldn't possibly turn his widening eyes away from. "Have a good day!" she waved on her way out.

As soon as she was gone, Alex had both hands on Lorelei's bobbing head. Interrogating her could wait 'til she'd finished what she started.





Chapter 10: T-Mobile and Realizations...

"Ah, yeah, can you please put the cell phone away?"

"What? It's not bothering anybody!"

"It's bothering me, so please step outside. I shouldn't have to ask twice, and this isn't high school." Professor Lyons was a slight man, older and soft-spoken. His comb-over, high pants and buttoned-to- the-collar short sleeve shirt gave him the look of a NASA engineer from the early sixties.

The muscular youth grunted in disgust. His phone was still flipped open, and he was still texting. "Man, people keep sayin' that shit here."

"What, they keep having to remind you you're not in high school anymore? There's a shock," Alex snorted. He sat in the next aisle of desks over, just one seat back.

Glaring at Alex, the other student loomed out of his desk to use his greater size to advantage in an attempt to intimidate. "Oh, you want some of this?"

"I want better dialogue out of you first," Alex remarked dryly.

"Please leave my class," Professor Lyons said with a more firm tone. He clearly wasn't big on confrontations like this, but after three classes of obnoxious behavior from the guy, he couldn't ignore it anymore. "I'm going to have you dropped from the roster. There's no more reason for you to stay."

"I need this class!" the student roared. Lyons instinctively took a step back.

"You could always transfer across town," Alex offered.

The offending student turned on Alex. "Fuckin' little shit, you want a piece of me?"

"No, I want you to leave. We all paid to be in this class." As he spoke, he saw Professor Lyon getting on the phone at the front of the classroom. He was doubtlessly calling security. Alex remained in his seat. Better keep T-Mobile Boy distracted so Lyons doesn't have to deal with him, he thought. Probably took everything the poor guy had in him to go this far with it. That said, Lyons had stepped up to the problem now, and Alex felt a need to help deal with it.

"I don't see nobody else complaining." T-Mobile Boy waved his hand around. Surely enough, no one else had said anything, but they were all watching the train wreck unfold.

"Well, clearly I'm the only one dumb enough to try to use words with you," Alex shrugged, "but that doesn't really make much difference."

"You wanna go, asshole? I'll tear your fuckin' head off and shit down your neck!"

"No," Alex said, doing his best to stay steady and calm. He kept his hands flat on the desk to prevent them from trembling. However, his helmet was in easy reach, which would make a decent weapon if this did get crazy. "I want you to leave so we can finish class. This isn't High School."

"Mother fucker!" T-Mobile boy roared, throwing up both his hands and then hurling his cell phone to the ground. It smashed into a dozen pieces.

Alex looked down at it, then up at him. He couldn't resist: "You broke your little phone," he deadpanned.

The face in front of him twisted in rage. "Punk ass faggot bitch, Imma break you if I see you outside!"

"I'm not going to get in fights outside at lunch. That's childish. This is a college."

T-Mobile Boy's muscles flexed and his arms waved around in building anger. "You better fuckin' walk the fuck away from me," he demanded, "or—"

"If you were going to attack me, you'd have done it already. And then you'd be arrested, and probably go to jail and get bounced out of school altogether. Clearly you aren't that stupid. Just leave. Nobody here cares."

There was a long moment in which T-Mobile Boy made a show of trying to restrain himself. Alex sat through it, mainly wanting to drag this out until campus security got there, but he needn't have worried. The other student finally turned back to his desk, grabbed his knapsack and -- after shoving his textbook and notebook off his desk -- began to walk out. Professor Lyons was already off the phone and conveniently several steps away from the door.

When the storm had passed, the professor took a long, deep breath and then slowly released it to steady himself. He wasn't the only one. Finally, he turned back to face the class, specifically Alex. "Folks, things like that really shouldn't happen here. But if they do, you need to let me handle it."

Alex held up his hands apologetically. "I'm sorry, professor."

Lyons took another deep breath and shook his head. "That's alright, just... don't do it again," he said. With that, campus security arrived, providing another brief interruption.

As they talked, Alex thought to himself, I've seen that dipshit's girlfriend. Morons like him don't deserve hot ass like that. I should find her and fuck her brains out. His mind was flooded with the image of her bent over the hood of her car, one leg held in the air by Alex as he took her from behind. She might decide she could go out and find someone better after she's had a good...

...holy shit, why am I thinking like this?

************

School was easier than work had been the day before. That was a bit of a surprise, given that there were dramatically more young, attractive women on campus than there were in the office -- perhaps not per capita, but certainly in raw numbers. There wasn't the air of formality here, either, nor a business casual dress code. It was an overcast morning -- Seattle often was by late September -- but it was warm enough that there were still summer fashions to be seen and enjoyed.

That said, Alex was at least capable of thinking about things other than what the women around him were wearing, how much fun it would be to crawl all over them and so forth. He was still getting stared at and unnecessarily bumped into. He was getting that even now as he left his philosophy class -- where two different girls just had to tell him that his dealing with the loudmouth had been really hot -- and wandered over to the Student Center to kill the next hour between classes. Clearly, he was still catching many an eye, but now it was easier to get over.

He had to chalk it up to the marathon of supernaturally powered sex he'd just had. Alex had lost track of all the orgasms Lorelei had given him last night, let alone the pair of times she'd gotten him off this morning. It had certainly done a lot to clear his head and relieve stress. Amid everything else in his mind was a profound feeling of gratitude for all that...

...but also a sense of trepidation about where it was all going.

"I know you had something to do with that," he had said to Lorelei before he left. He was dressed, busy cleaning up from breakfast, and utterly mortified.

"With what?"

"My mother," Alex frowned sourly.

"Oh. Yes. Perhaps a little. Don't tell me you don't like how she looks."

"That's not -- that's not the point! Just because I like something doesn't mean I want it!"

Lorelei's mouth spread into a slow smirk, and she said, "I think what you mean to say is that just because you want something doesn't mean you'll take it. I know very well what you want, master. More than you'll admit to yourself."

Alex's jaw clenched. He didn't want to be mad at her. Didn't want to have a hostile relationship. But this...

"Alex," Lorelei ventured, "I have not harmed your mother in any way, nor done anything to her to which she would strongly object. You wanted her to ignore my presence. In arranging this, she does fall somewhat under the sway of my powers, and that has some... side effects. But as I have said, she is unharmed in any way. Like you, she's a good person. In fact, as your mother, I have her to thank for everything you are and have done."

"She is fitter now. More confident. And yes, as you noticed, sexier." Lorelei just had to dab teasingly at the corner of her mouth with one finger. "She seems quite happy."

Fuming a bit, Alex pressed, "She wouldn't object strongly?"

Lorelei tilted her head thoughtfully. "Like anyone, Michelle would doubtlessly not appreciate being deceived or manipulated, but... I have every reason to believe that if our situation were brought out into the open for her, she would eventually come to terms. At worst, she might be a bit shocked or embarrassed at what has occurred, but she would adjust without even slight trauma. I believe she would even be happy for you."

They looked at one another for a long, tense moment. He didn't seem any more at ease. Lorelei's own confident demeanor faded a bit until she finally said in a soft, calm yet almost pleading voice, "I cannot lie to you, master."

That cracked Alex's anger. He sighed, trying to release the rest. "You keep calling me that, but I don't really feel like I have a whole lot of control here."

Her sly, seemingly affectionate smile returned, and she reached out to caress his cheek. "You offered trust and allowed me to keep some secrets. You had to know I'd be at least a little naughty. Afterall, it is part of my nature." Before he could open his mouth to speak, Lorelei asked, "Master, will you be late to your first class?"

Her question had him headed out the door, of course. Despite his overwhelming desire to drag her upstairs and fuck her senseless until she had confessed whatever she had done (or, part of him wondered, simply make her cum until she said, "You're welcome"), his mind screamed at him that he needed to hang onto some normalcy in his life. He couldn't spend all day every day impaling his willing partner -- though, given her ability to keep him going, he couldn't really articulate why not.

No. There was Lorelei, and despite how real she might be, there was also reality. Alex needed reality. He needed to stay grounded.

He needed to tell that thin, brown-eyed brunette with the ponytail behind the snack bar that she was smoking hot, and that he looked for her every time he came in, and that if she thought he was being creepy he was really sorry and could think of a half-dozen great ways to make it up to her.

Stop it.

He paid for his breakfast sandwich and soda without saying much to her, though it was weird how she seemed happy to see him and never broke eye contact until he walked away. Alex wandered outside and found an open spot at a table alone. He doubted it would be hard to find a stranger who'd welcome him to her table, but even that creeped him out a bit.

Someday, he might get used to pretty women fawning over him like this. He might even get to like it. No, he had to admit, he would definitely like it. But Alex didn't want it to go to his head or begin to think that he was entitled to that sort of attention because he was somehow inherently awesome. The fact was, it was all just because he'd had a run-in with the supernatural...

...and, as Lorelei had warned him last night, he might well have more.

That was an unsettling thought. He had no idea who those people who'd kidnapped her and Rachel were, and Lorelei didn't seem to know, either. At the very least, she hadn't brought the subject up. But what if it happened again? She was weaker now than before. What if there were others who knew how to abduct angels and demons? Wouldn't she be more vulnerable than she had been when it first happened?

What if being with her endangered his mother? Or his friends?

He was still getting used to Lorelei, and that was a secret, one-on-one arrangement. It couldn't last like that. He couldn't do that to her. If they were really going to be... friends, at least, she had to be able to come out in the open. Do things in public with him. Meet his friends. Meet Mom.

None of them would want him to have to hide anything. Oh, he doubted that he'd be telling his friends about the whole demon-sex-slave thing, of course, but they should at least know he had a... girlfriend? Friend with (astounding) benefits? Sex demon?

I should just tell them the truth and then let them figure out I'm not fooling, he mused, but that wasn't practical at all.

Sticking his head in the sand was similarly impractical.

He pulled out his cell phone, checked the time, and then made a call. As he waited for a connection he spotted a rack containing various flyers and campus announcements. It included a copy of the current course schedule. Being only a week into the school year, it was still early enough to petition for changes. He grabbed one and started methodically going over his options.

The other end of the phone picked up. "Your mom."

"No, your mom."

"What's up, Alex?"

"How much does it cost to enroll at that kung fu school you've been going to, Drew?"

"Hundred twenty-five a month, plus you gotta buy gear. But you can go almost every night of the week if you want. Why, are you finally thinking of going?"

"Yeah." That price would hurt. He could cover it for at least a couple months at the expense of the new computer he'd been saving for... but this was too important.

"Good. What changed your mind?"

"I, um... kinda got into a scuffle the other night while I was out alone, and I realized what an incompetent 'tard I am."

"You okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine. I just got a little shoved around, but they won't be bothering me again. Close call, though, y'know? Kind of thing that makes you think."

"Well, you know nobody turns into an instant bad ass overnight, right? I mean that takes years, if ever."

"I hear you. What's the address and when's a good time to go by?" He jotted down the details, said thanks, and hung up. Then he turned back to the course schedule.

Life had gone crazy, and would with all likelihood continue to do so. Lorelei may have been bound to protect him, but he had no interest in hiding behind her. Moreover, he had no interest in her coming home one day to find him carved up and stuffed in the refrigerator because he filled the role of "helpless love-interest."





Chapter 11: Chicks dig me...

Alex had walked into the Counseling Office and after waiting in line for the past half hour, he was finally able to talk to a counselor about his class load. As he looked at her, he had a premonition that things weren't going to go well. She gave off the appearance that she hated her job as Alex handed her his request form.

"You want to add three classes to your load," the heavyset counselor said without much interest. Her jaw was propped up on her hand with her elbow on the desk, looking down at the form in front of her.

"Yes, ma'am."

"You want Intro to Administration of Justice, Crisis Intervention, and First Aid/CPR?"

Alex nodded patiently at her thrilling demonstration of reading comprehension skills. Then he realized she couldn't see him anymore than he could see her eyes. All he saw was her mop of ragged, curly black hair. "Yes, ma'am," he said.

"And you've already got a full class load. More than a full class load," she noted. He wasn't even entirely sure she was awake. Her eyes didn't seem open, and besides the way her head bounced up and down slightly as she spoke, what with her jaw being held up by her hand and all, she hardly moved.

"I filled out the petition form there. I swung extra units last year, too, and I kept my GPA up with that. Dean's list. And none of these classes conflict with my current schedule," Alex explained in a helpful, polite tone.

"Are you switching to a major in Administration of Justice?"

"Um. Not really, no." In point of fact, his major was undeclared. As a kid, Alex dreamt of becoming a cop, but long discussions with several veteran cops on the topic of constantly dealing with human misery had turned him from that. He had toyed with the idea of law school once, but then Keating & Rose made him think twice about the lawyer's life. Most recently, the idea of being a high school teacher had some appeal, but Lorelei and the affect her presence in his life had on him and women around him killed that idea entirely. He wanted to avoid underage girls at all costs for his own good as well as theirs.

"This represents a serious increase in your class load."

"I can handle it," Alex nodded. "And First Aid isn't even a full course."

"It wouldn't be the first time I've heard that." Without moving anything but her right hand and arm, the counselor reached for a stamp, pushed its ugly, red "Denied" imprint onto his form, then held out the form. She didn't look up.

Stunned at her complete disregard of him, Alex took the form back -- he didn't even know why he needed it now -- and wandered out of her cubicle.

Back in the counseling lobby, Alex wondered what to do. That whole "meeting" had seemed incredibly rude. He wasn't even sure why she saw him. Was that old crank trying to keep up some sort of stats on how many students she met with?

Alex started to walk out in frustration but thought, was there some other counselor who might actually, perhaps, counsel him? The place was really busy as he looked around.

Alex decided it was worth a shot. He got back into the queue of students waiting at the front counter of the counseling office. The line was at least moving at a decent clip for once... but he wasn't sure if it would move fast enough. Alex kept his eye on the staffers behind the counter.

Eventually, he spotted a young Asian woman working on a computer at a "closed" window behind the counter. She was cute, too. After checking the time on his cell phone, he decided to go for broke. Alex left the line and approached her. "Hey, sorry to bother you," he smiled softly and trying not to stare down the small opening in her mostly-modest shirt, "but can I just ask you a quick question?"

"Sorry," she said without looking up from her paperwork right away, "this window's... ah..." she looked up at him, and found herself smiling back shyly. "Hi," she said seductively.

"Hi," he said. Holy shit, is this happening again? He wondered. Maybe it'll help? "Wow, you've got really pretty eyes."

"Oh, do I?" the woman blushed, and looked away. Then she shrugged and admitted, "Contacts."

"That color really works for you," Alex pressed on anyway, holding her gaze. "You've got good taste."

"Thank you."

"So, um... Ugh. Sorry to be all creepy like that, I totally apologize. Way inappropriate."

"Oh, no, it's not creepy," she said, still blushing and now pulling shyly on a lock of hair. "What can I do for you?"

"Well, I just saw a counselor for a course change, and she didn't even listen to me before stamping denied on my form here." Alex held up the form to show her. "Is there someone else I can see about that?"

"Really? Hm," the girl frowned. She took the form from him and looked it over for a moment. She looked back up, "She didn't even talk to you?"

"Not so much. Didn't even look at me."

"Huh," the girl said. She glanced up at Alex again and ran her eyes over him soaking up his appearance, blushed again mumbling, "I would do more than look." She then turned to her computer with the form in hand. Alex watched as she quickly called up his student record, and then switched to a database screen with lots of numbers and letters in codes he couldn't understand and began typing. "Let me see if I can help you with that," she mumbled as she worked.

Alex's jaw dropped in shock. Was she seriously going to--?

"There you are," she said quietly, "your course changes are approved. But, oh, darn," she added as she promptly put his denied request form straight into the shredder, "I guess I must have misplaced your form somewhere. Oops. I'm such a dingbat," she smiled teasingly.

"Wow," he breathed.

"Did you want a print-out of your new schedule?"

"Sure?"

"Not a problem," she muttered again. "Lemme just make a note here. Done. Okay, here you go. Please let me know if you need anything at all. I'd be glad to help you. Anytime too."

His class schedule now bore the handwritten note: "Theresa. Call me. 555-4689."

Alex stared at the note wistfully as he exited the counseling office. She was really cute. But did she seriously want him that badly, that quickly? Maybe not. He realized that it probably really was that easy to get away with such shenanigans in the counseling office.

But to just throw it out there like that... was she looking for a wild fling? Something serious? He could go for the one, he realized, but not the other. Oh the thing he could do to her...

"Hello, Alex," a sweet, almost musical voice called out.





Chapter 12: Heavenly Revelations...

Alex looked up, completely bewildered, and saw an angelic blonde standing in front of him. She wore a white dress, equal parts innocence and whimsy. Sunlight broke through the overcast skies to shine down on the exact spot where she was standing, illuminating her beauty and her smile.

"Rachel?" Alex blinked in surprise.

Her face was a heart achingly lovely picture of warmth, and kindness, and all that was good... right up until it twisted in a disgusted scowl. "Oh good Lord," she burst out loudly, "you stink of that cheap, nasty slut!"

Passersby turned their heads. Alex just stood there, mouth agape. "What kinda moron cheats on a babe like her?" someone muttered.

"...Hello, Rachel," Alex managed once he got hold of his wits again. "How are you?"

"I was fine until I was overwhelmed by the stench of whore-vagina."

Alex became aware of the dozens of eyes on them and the mumblings of "jackass," "loser," and, "I never understand why hotties hook up with such douchebags." He glanced around, then offered her his hand. "I've been really hoping to see you again. Can we go somewhere and talk?"

Rachel looked at the hand like he'd just pulled it out of a toilet. "Go," she waved, "I'll walk with you, just... go."

They wandered a moment until they found a tree to sit under. Alex shook his head, amazed at the way he reacted to her. He felt an instant emotional connection, one that was just as quickly thrown into chaos as it was formed. Just looking at her made him long for her approval, her companionship, intimacy... and here she was, making an obvious point of sitting upwind of him.

"I was so proud of you yesterday." The disappointment in her voice was palpable. "I mean, even after all that had just happened, you got up and went to work, and I thought everything was well, but... look at you. I'll bet every moment you've been home alone with her you've been putting your..." she waved her hand as if fighting for the right word, "thing, penis, into her, haven't you?"

He bit his tongue. "I'm glad to see that you're okay," Alex said, hoping to shift the subject for just a moment. "I really wanted to talk to you more before you left."

"Sure you did," Rachel frowned.

"Hey, I held out until last night!" Alex finally shot back. "She's been wrapping people around her finger for like two thousand plus years. I'm a single nineteen-year-old guy. What did you think was gonna happen when you sent me home with her?"

The angel inhaled sharply and looked away as if he'd slapped her. "I'm sorry," Alex found himself pleading, "I'm so sorry. I don't want to yell at you. It's just... yes, I slept with her, alright?" He bowed his head. "I slept with her, and before I did I was really freaked out over what might happen. But now I don't know why I should even feel bad about it except that... except that it makes you unhappy. And it's not even like I really know you or owe you anything," he mumbled.

Silence fell between the two for a moment. They both looked down at the ground awkwardly. "I guess I shouldn't be surprised," Rachel finally conceded with a small voice. "I suppose it doesn't do any real harm... even if you're probably bound to do it again," she ventured sullenly.

Alex's eyes widened a bit as he shrugged in admission, to which Rachel just turned her head, nodded, and continued another long and uncomfortable moment of silence.

"She said it's not like heaven looks down on sex if that's all it is," Alex muttered. "And you both told me the bond means she can't lie to me."

"It doesn't. Not really. Not if you aren't hurting people or, well, betraying someone."

"Do you feel betrayed?" Alex asked. Her breath caught, and he looked at her with curiosity mixing into his reflexive feelings of contrition. Then his brow furrowed. The ritual was weaker on her, he knew, but maybe it wasn't entirely ineffective. Either way, she was an angel. Lying probably wasn't in Rachel's skill set. Maybe being so direct was a little harsh on her. "Does that question make you uncomfortable?"

"Yes," she nodded. "This whole issue makes me uncomfortable."

"You don't have to answer that. I'm sorry I asked. I don't want you to feel uncomfortable. Whatever's going on between Lorelei and I is just -- weird. I think it'll always be weird. But I've told her and I'll tell you that I don't want to hurt anybody. We're just trying to get along when everything between us is bound to be weird."

"You haven't hurt anybody," Rachel almost whispered. "I guess what goes on between you and... her is just between you and her."

"I'm really glad to see you, Rachel," Alex gently tried again.

She nodded. "It's good to see you," came her hesitant response.

"Did you say you saw me go to work yesterday?"

"Yes."

"And you've found me here. But you didn't know about Lorelei and I until just now. Have you been watching me somehow?"

Rachel nodded, her brow furrowed. "I can see you much of the time, but not when you're with... her." There was less venom in her voice, but the topic was still tender. "I suspect it has something to do with the ritual and the bond interacting with our rather polarized natures."

"Are you still weakened by the ritual, too?"

Again, she nodded. "My strength returns slowly. The Hosts have said something about needing to balance the evils done to me with acts of good."

"Is that the other angels? I thought they were supposed to help you break free of the ritual?"

"Freeing me might also free her, which would create complications," Rachel shrugged. "I'm not sure if they even know how to do that, though. When I spoke with my peers there was a distance to it. No harmony, no concord."

"You said you were diminished. Wouldn't that be part of the spell?"

She shook her head. "No. I felt like they were standoffish somehow. Like they were cutting me out. I feel as if they don't know what to do and are afraid to admit it." There was a hint of bitterness and hurt in her voice. Alex reached out to hold her hand, and this time she allowed it.

"I'm sorry," he said. Then, hoping a change of subjects might lighten the mood, he asked, "So you've been watching me?"

"Yes. I have been appointed your new guardian angel, for whatever I'm worth as such."

"Wow. That's nice. Most people don't get to meet theirs." As he watched her face, he grew a touch suspicious. "Does everyone have one?"

"More or less, yes. It's not a one-to-one ratio, though, and protection can be lost."

"But you're my new one? Who was my guardian angel before?"

"His name is Sean. He's... kind of a pussy. He quit."

"He quit?!"

"Abandoned his post. Chickened out. Buggered off."

"When did that happen?"

Rachel struck the ground and looked up into Alex's eyes, forcing herself to keep her voice even despite her open bitterness. "Right when he followed you into that chapel and saw a fellow angel bound, tortured, and facing rape and enslavement."

"Oh my God," Alex breathed.

"Yup."

"I'm so sorry."

"For what? You saved me so don't be sorry unless you regret it." It seemed to be the first positively note she had struck since she first said hello to him. "I owe you my life."

"I don't regret it at all. So you volunteered to be my guardian angel?" he smiled.

"No. I wanted to, but I'm not exactly at my best. I wanted you to have someone who was stronger. I argued for that, even. The Hosts decided that I was the most appropriate choice despite my weaknesses."

"I'm flattered."

"I wish you had received someone better."

"I want you."

Rachel's eyes flashed at that, and she gasped just a little, but held it short. "Um," she stammered, "you said that you, ah, wanted to talk to me?"

Is she blushing? Alex thought in amazement. He hadn't said anything flirtatious, he thought. Didn't really mean anything by it. This conversation had gone from him not knowing how to handle her disgust to the both of them now gripped with sudden shyness.

"Two things, really. The first -- those guys who abducted you. I know they're dead, but do you know if you're at risk of that happening again? Are there others? Lorelei didn't really talk much about it. She just kind of warned me that I might have to face that sort of danger again."

"She's not wrong about that," Rachel conceded. "But no, I don't know about those men. This was as much a shock to me as it was to her. I have asked the Hosts. They didn't have much to tell me. Probably because they don't know anything themselves."

"So, what, angels just go missing and nobody goes looking for them?"

She responded with a troubled look before she spoke. "I am learning to see my peers in something of a new light through all of this," she confessed, carefully choosing each word. "It may simply be that my faith is being tested. I don't know. At any rate, it is difficult for those on my side of things to get answers out of men who've already been sent straight to Hell. I may have been a bit hasty in destroying them and that chapel."

"You had been through an awful lot. I don't think anyone could blame you. Still, I think it would be good to look for answers to this."

"You have to be careful, Alex. I would certainly advise you to keep a low profile. Others in your position might not think twice before... before playing rashly with their apparent fortunes."

"That brings up the other thing I wanted to ask you about," Alex said. "I'm not really sure how I can ask this. I'm not... I'm not a pig who doesn't respect women or something..."

Rachel squeezed his hand and gave a little smile. "It's okay. You can trust me. You'll have me watching you a lot from now on. Creepy, I know," she jested.

"All the time?"

"No, not all the time. Certainly not when you're with... her. And I imagine that might be much of the time. But not constantly, regardless. I will be watching frequently enough that I should know what goes on in your life."

"...and I'll get to see you in person again, right?"

She smiled, again somewhat shyly. "Yes. Sometimes."

"I would really like that."

"You were going to ask me something obviously very awkward and potentially explosive," she observed.

He blinked. "I'm. Wow. Uh, I'm... apparently becoming irresistible to women whom I find attractive." Rachel snorted out a laugh, and covered her mouth with her hand, and Alex continued sheepishly but quickly so as to get it all out. "Lorelei keeps telling me I can and should sleep with whoever I want to and obviously I'm very tempted to take her up on that as long as I'm not hurting anybody but I don't want to wind up in Hell. And I don't want to make you mad," he added without even thinking about it.

Rachel snorted again, and then laughed openly at him. "You worry a lot, don't you?"

"I'm serious! I think I might go insane."

"Who says you're not already insane?" the blonde giggled. "You're going around having conversations and sexual congress with beings not of this world."

"Okay, don't fuck with me like that, am I going nuts?"

"No," she giggled more. "No, you're not crazy." Eventually, Rachel composed herself. "You haven't done anything wrong so far."

"You totally blew up at me not ten minutes ago!"

"That's... that's different," she said, waving a dismissive hand. "I mean I'm not entirely happy you're fooling around with that hussy, but I... understand?" Alex waited while she searched for words. "You have a good heart. You're a good person with good instincts. And what she has said to you isn't a lie. I don't think you're going to hurt anyone, Alex. You've established your boundaries with her, right?"

"I think so. I keep thinking so. Maybe I need to be a little more explicit."

Rachel nodded emphatically. "You're the master in this relationship, Alex. I know you want to be nice, but even diminished and bound as she is, she could be dangerous. But she's in your power and it's not like that's alien to her, and things are going to be that way for a long, long time, so don't let her run you around. If you think something's really wrong, it probably is."

"You can't just give me an actual no-go list? I've already gotten the impression from all this that I can't exactly take the Bible or religious figures literally."

Her mouth opened, then promptly closed. "I cannot speak on that."

"Of course not," Alex nodded with a shrug.

The angel's eyes turned apologetic, and she squeezed his hand again. "I'm not mad if you're having sex, Alex," she said finally. "Not if it's a little or a lot. You've got good instincts, and like you said, you don't want to hurt anyone. If you start going down the wrong path, I'll know sooner or later, and you and I don't have the usual guardian angel relationship. I'll show up and tell you."

"You'll come kick me in the balls?"

"I can't hurt you."

"What if I tell you to?"

"Maybe. I don't know. We'll cross that bridge if we ever get to it, but I think I can trust you."

They shared a long, quiet look at one another. "I'd really like to see more of you, Rachel," Alex said softly.

She merely shrugged. "Time will tell. But you have other classes to get to."

Alex nodded, and stood. Before he left, he asked, "Was there something else you wanted to talk about?"

"I just wanted to see you," Rachel smiled softly. She stepped close to him and gave him a kiss on the cheek. "Be happy. Be good."





Chapter 13: Gestures of Appreciation...

Lorelei had plans for Alex when he came home. She'd had plenty of time to plot and scheme. All day long she had felt small trickles of his desires -- nothing informative, just the sensations -- which kept her own spirits up. There was a real surge of desire in the late morning, leaving her curious as to whom he'd run into. He hadn't acted on whatever it was he wanted, but at least she didn't feel him resisting the feeling of lust itself anymore.

The morning could have backfired horribly upon her, but it had not. Her day had been spent investigating her master's home and his neighborhood. There were several pleasant surprises to each. She found more that she could work with. More fun to be had. Lorelei felt encouraged.

He was considerably later in getting home than his schedule had indicated. Lorelei found it odd to be concerned over this, but she was. The succubus felt his rising desires long before he came home, knowing from experience that this specific desire was for her. She grinned and allowed herself to feel excited by it. Was I actually worried for his safety? The succubus thought it odd, but banished the concern.

When she heard his motorcycle pulling up to the garage outside, her spirits soared more than she had expected. Excitement rose within her. He was at least accepting of her nature, now, and the wonders she had to offer. That would help her continue to gain some measure of control within their relationship.

Seduction and unrestrained pleasure on her mind, Lorelei took up a spot on her knees facing the door and awaited her master's entry. She was naked, vulnerable, aroused, and as beautiful and wanton as ever. He'll never expect this, she thought deliciously.

The door unlatched and opened. Alex stepped in, gasping at the sight of her. He was clad in his leather jacket, a backpack slung over his shoulder and a large gym bag that he hadn't left home with in one hand.

She said nothing right away, merely throwing up a smoldering look as he closed and locked the door behind him. "How may I serve you, master?" she asked, reaching up meaningfully for the visible erection in his jeans.

Alex grunted, closing his eyes and leaning back on the door as she touched him. An eager smile began to spread across Lorelei's face, but then he tenderly took her hand in his, pulling it away from his groin. "Please wait," he asked her softly. Lorelei complied, and smothered her frustration, wondering what the hell his problem could be now.

His hand gently pulled her up to her feet, facing him, and then he turned down to unzip the gym bag. "I don't know if this will mean much to you," he said, voice shaking as if this was some nervous first meeting. Lorelei blinked curiously, and watched as he pulled a small bouquet of roses out of the bag.

They were gorgeous. He'd been very careful about transporting them. She looked in his eyes, still curious and unsure where he was going with this though the meaning was apparently clear. "No one has ever brought me flowers before," she whispered as she took them.

"You're kidding." His voice was just as hushed as hers.

She shook her head, then corrected. "Not after learning who and what I am. Nor after... not once they believe that they have me. Not once we've lain together and lust becomes the driving force. This is... I'm not quite sure what to say."

"I wanted to say thank you," Alex explained. "Say whatever you want about this being a better alternative and how good we are in bed together and all, but I know this," he said, waving his hands at their surroundings and then gesturing at himself, "I know this wasn't something you ever wanted. I frustrate you. But you've been good to me, all things considered. You've been kind. You haven't insulted me or complained or anything."

"I... I really like you, Lorelei."

Her head spun again, as it had the first time they'd lain together. This was insane. Flowers? What did she need with flowers? Such a silly gesture. And yet, she felt herself admitting it aloud: "I like you a great deal, Alex."

They gazed into one another's eyes, and he finally broke the silence again. "We need to get you clothes. I don't want to keep hiding you. I want to figure out how to make you part of my life and make you as happy as we can." He took her hand again. "And there's something I want to do for you, right now, because it bothers me that there's this imbalance between us."

Alex brought her into the living room and sat her on the plush lounge chair in the living room. She felt a constant rush of his desire as he set aside his bags and pulled off his jacket, then pushed aside the ottoman in front of the chair.

Her master sank to his knees in front of her, looking at her longingly as he caressed her legs. Her eyes fluttered as his hands slid along those flawless thighs, ever higher, and gently, softly spread them apart. It was Lorelei's turn to breathe heavily with expectation. She knew what he meant to do, and hadn't thought this could come without some suggestion on her part.

His right hand slid back, moving under one knee and holding it up where he could kiss along her thigh with just a turn of his head. He trailed soft kisses to her, operating purely on a combination of instinct and random articles he had read many months ago in hopes of being prepared for an opportunity he'd only hoped to have someday. He shifted from the right, to the left, and along the flesh just above her hair.

Their eyes never broke contact as his mouth descended to softly, slowly lick the lips between her engorged pussy lips. Lorelei breathed in sharply at the sheer pleasure of it, and though Alex was amazed at how she tasted -- absolutely nothing like he'd ever read or been told of -- he kept his cool. He kissed and caressed her, and finally whispered, "I've never done this, of course."

"You're doing very well," Lorelei breathed.

"We both know I like being your master," he admitted softly between kisses that left her panting. "But I don't want that to be all there is between us."

Her mouth quivered as his lips descended on her again. Her breath came out in small, blissful whimpers. It was like a repeat of their first coupling. A faint alarm rang out in the back of her mind. Normally, the taste of her would earn her greater control, greater influence. She knew instinctively that it would not be the same this time.

This moment could result in her yielding more control and more loyalty rather than the other way around. He was on his knees, bowed before her as her victims so often were, and yet she felt increasingly vulnerable. Her breasts rose and fell heavily with each breath.

Overcome with rapture, Lorelei pushed the fingers of one hand through his hair and pulled him closer. The hell with it, she decided.

Alex moved slowly to kiss her thighs as she moaned softly. He kissed back and forth and occasionally licked along her thighs as he slowly moved back to her pussy nuzzling his face against her soft thighs and lightly placed kisses on the outside of her lips.

Lorelei panted softly with need as Alex licked her pussy from base to the top of her slit and hitting her clit. Lorelei shuddered and gripped his hair harder as he hit her sensitive clitoris. Alex pulled back just enough to say, "My turn to show you how much I appreciate you."

No more words came from Alex for a long time. His mouth was busy doing better things than speaking as he began to savor Lorelei.

************

Does she want more? I feel like I could do this more, but...

Alex let up in his oral affection, looking up from between her legs to see her fluttering eyes looking dreamily back at him. The succubus remained in much the same position as she'd been since he began: thighs spread, hips offered forward, and every other bit of her sunken into the plush lounge chair. He trailed tender kisses along her labia and the flesh around it, giving her a chance to compose herself. Lorelei's moaning subsided to whimpers, then finally to heavy breathing.

As with the first time they'd had sex, Alex lost track of time. Clearly, he'd been servicing her for a good long while, but the sun hadn't quite gone down yet. Something about looking at a clock at a moment like this seemed cheap... and again, he felt he could give her more. He was enjoying the hell out of it. Every inch of her felt wonderful, tasted wonderful. The scent of her filled his every breath. Her appreciative noises pulled on both his heart and his own desires.

Lorelei had orgasmed after the first few minutes, calling out joyously while her cunt became ever wetter and more enticing to Alex. It tightened around the fingers he'd put to work in tandem with his mouth.

But after that, it seemed like she was cumming the entire time. Her euphoria rose and fell in intensity but never fully abated. Only now, in taking a break and removing his fingers to caress the backside of one thigh, did Alex find her growing calm again.

Their shared gaze held as Alex straightened some. His knees were beginning to get a bit sore, cushioned only by the living room carpet, but that seemed such a small price to pay for giving Lorelei such apparent pleasure. I can suck it up for a while if she wants...

"More?" he asked softly.

Her bosom rose and fell heavily again, as if he'd somehow seduced her for the first time in a single word. Eventually, she reached out one hand to him, which he took in his to kiss her fingers. "Alex," she breathed out.

A single tear streaked out of the corner of her eye, down the side of her face. If he'd blinked, he'd have missed it, but he did not. It almost stopped his heart. "Lorelei?"

More silence. "Are you okay?" he asked. She nodded, and he said, "I will give you more, if you want it."

The words themselves elicited a groan from her as if he'd penetrated her. "No, master... I will always want more of this. So much more of this. Alex..." Her voice trailed off. Lorelei's free hand came down gently onto his face almost as if she were too weak to raise herself up far enough to do more. "I will never stop wanting this. Wanting you. This means so much. If you wait for me to tell you I have had enough, you'll be kissing me forever."

"I can think of worse fates," he grinned, though he shifted restlessly on his knees.

"No, don't tempt me." Lorelei shook her head as much to clear it as to communicate. "You are the master. You must decide. In this, for your own sake." She gestured for him to come closer. He rose up off of his knees -- grunting while he did -- allowing her to pull his face closer for a deeply appreciative kiss. She tasted herself and her own lusts upon his lips, becoming inflamed by it just as she knew it would.

"There'll be more than just this time," Alex promised.

"I know," she said, kissing him again. "I know. Master, I need you. I feel your own needs. I've felt them all this time. Let me relieve you," she pleaded softly.

"Twist my arm," he grinned. She immediately pulled off his shirt and he kicked off his shoes, but then Alex paused and drew back a bit. "Wait," he said. The sudden pleading look of desperation in her eyes could have broken his heart, and made him wonder if they were both in for just a fate. He sank back down to his knees. "I have to tell you something about today. Have to confess something, I guess."

"What could you have to confess to me?" Lorelei blinked.

"I didn't expect it," he began, "but I don't want you to... I don't want you to find out about it while we're, um..." He couldn't say "making love." Still wasn't sure if he could call it that (and what a silly turn of phrase, anyway). That was a two-way street, wasn't it? Didn't want to just call it fucking, though, or any other synonym that came to mind. "I don't want you to suddenly taste this on me," the young man finally managed.

Naughty glee spread across her mouth in a grin. "I felt you much of the day, Master." He blinked.

"Then you know?"

"Not specifics," she said, shaking her head. "But as you lust, I feel it. I told you. This is what sustains me. This, and pleasures of our flesh... yours much moreso than mine," the succubus added while trailing a tempting finger down his chest to his waistline. She started smoothly unfastening his belt with that single hand. "The ritual that binds us reinforces it. Your pleasures are mine. Your desires are mine. I want for you everything you want for yourself."

"That doesn't bother you?"

"It feels rather exhilarating, actually," she grinned.

"Lorelei, it was Rachel," Alex admitted as gently as he could. Best to be direct about it, he figured. "She showed up to talk to me at school. I think... I don't want you to think I haven't been sincere with you, because I'm so happy with you. But I don't want you to find out the wrong way that I really like her, too."

The raven-haired beauty before him shifted, raising herself up to bring her eyes closer to his. "You find the angel attractive?"

"I do."

"Then you know," she said matter-of-factly.

"Know what?"

"Know what I learned last night, but you hadn't consciously thought through. Probably because you have been so well distracted. Alex, this is no shock. Your desire for her courses through you, as does your desire for me."

"You don't sound mad," he ventured.

Her shoulders shrugged without much concern. Without even looking, her hand continued unfastening his pants. "I cannot say that I like her, because I do not. But your own desire for her is understandable. She is a very pretty thing. I would greatly enjoy ravishing her myself, though I expect that would be a very different game for me than for you," she smirked.

"Your lust for her is different than your lust for me in some ways, but also very similar. In some ways your desire for her is stronger, but the unknown always has that advantage."

Lorelei's eyes closed slowly as she leaned in to kiss him. Alex accepted it, his heart soaring with surprised relief. He felt her grin as they kissed. When their lips parted, she said simply, "Never worry that I will be jealous of your desires. I want you to have her, too, Alex. If I can make that happen, I will."

Partial honesty isn't going to cut it here, Alex knew. It could still lead to pain later. "I think it's more than just lust."

"And that is different somehow from what you feel for me?" asked that seductive grin that brushed against his mouth. "I have felt much more than lust between my legs tonight. Much more than friendship." Her hands pushed his pants down off of his hips. "I would feel that again."

Later, Alex would wonder how she'd made things so smooth. It certainly couldn't have been his doing. He was on his knees, pants only lowered halfway down his thighs, while she lounged naked and waiting in the plush chair. But the next thing he knew -- literally in the blink of an eye -- he was fully naked, still kneeling before her spread legs, sinking his enlarged cock into her wet, yielding pussy.

She had crazy supernatural sex powers. That was all he needed to know. He gave it no more thought. What mattered was the glorious feeling of Lorelei as she welcomed him inside her. He reveled in the sexual beauty on display for him. She knew very well how gorgeous she was, and moreover she knew how to indulge Alex with her looks. The succubus stared back up at him as if similarly dazzled. For all his self-deprecation, he knew that look was genuine.

Though maintaining her control and composure, Lorelei was rapt in a similar enchantment. Her master was taking pleasure from her, and that was its own wonderful reward. He'd freely bowed his head to her sex in affection and thanks and a gesture of equality, all things she'd never had from a man. That act had only ever been a matter of seduction or desperation to please, never a show of anything benevolent -- no surprise given the company she kept, but the contrast was still striking. She kept a grip on her feelings, on her rising need to throw herself at him and declare every manner of loyalty, all in the name of giving him this moment that very plainly enthralled him.

They held one another's gaze even as they shared a growing, trembling climax. She exploded onto him just as he went over the edge, both looking on as they rode out their sexual high. He flowed into her for an intense, sustained rush, so long that both of them quietly noticed it, silently acknowledging it together but saying nothing to distract from the wonder. Their physical intimacy continued to grow.

"Thank you," he sighed with a satisfied grin.

"Yours for the taking," Lorelei responded simply.

"I'm tempted, but I have to move," Alex confessed. He pulled away, sinking backward onto the floor. "My knees are starting to hurt like hell."

"Oh." One eyebrow rose curiously, Lorelei crept out of the chair and began to crawl over to him like she was ready to eat him. He had no doubt that was on her mind. "All we need do is change positions. So many different ways..."

"Wait, no, no," laughed her vulnerable partner. "We've got things to do."

"Do we?" She loomed over him on her hands and knees now, her hair once more falling around him in an intimate black curtain around their faces. "Magnificent as this has been, you cannot possibly be satisfied with just one release. Not with me."

"Still. We need to get you clothes and stuff. Gotta work out how we're going to handle the rest of the world. I can't just hide you away as my naked sex slave forever."

"Master, one day, centuries from now, I will torment you with these silly things you have said to me while our bond was young. There will be great amusement at your expense."

Alex laughed happily, at his own expense, and then stopped short. "Wait, centuries?"





Chapter 14: The Truth of Lorelei...

"I can't imagine what a house like this must cost," Alex blinked. He sat on his motorcycle with his feet on the pavement as Lorelei dismounted. She was clad only in a pair of sweatpants, sandals and his leather jacket. She could have ridden invisibly, said she didn't need a helmet, but Alex didn't want her wasting her power. He also didn't want to get pulled over.

"It sold for several million not long after prices fell across the city," came Lorelei's nonchalant response. She handed Alex's spare helmet back to him without looking.

His motorcycle was parked on a winding, hilly residential street. Before them the ground rose up to a large house, still catching the rays of the setting sun. The garage seemed to have been dug into the hill so as to eliminate the need for a steep driveway. The only other access to the house was the cobblestone steps that led up the hill to the front porch.

Normally, Alex was reluctant to leave his helmets clipped to his bike. Seattle's wealthy Magnolia neighborhood seemed like it might provide a decent exception to that rule, however. Everywhere he looked were homes that he figured would never be in his price range. The one before him, though, took the cake on this street. It may not have been the swankiest thing in the whole neighborhood, but the owner had clearly done well for himself... or herself.

"Is this yours?" he asked hesitantly.

"No. Though I could likely arrange something comparable. Alex," she said, tilting her head towards him to indicate a change of subject, "I don't know if you should follow me inside. It may not be pleasant in there."

He looked from her to the house and then to her again. She hadn't given much detail on this "errand" that they were on. Alex had intended to take her shopping for decent clothes within the boundaries of his budget, and he was willing to sacrifice for her. Lorelei's happiness was well worth ditching his plans for what remained of his disposable income.

Instead, she had simply said that she had resources of her own they could reclaim with relative ease. She hadn't articulated what those resources were. It occurred to Alex that he could've simply asked, but if she really wanted to tell him, she would've. The whole thing bothered him more and more on the ride over. He wanted to trust her, and was inclined to do so, but this was uncharted territory for them.

Many things, he had to concede, represented uncharted territory.

"Do you think it will be dangerous?" The house looked deserted, but the garage was closed. No telling if anyone was inside and just being very quiet.

Lorelei gave it a moment's genuine thought, but shrugged. "No. That is highly unlikely. But again, it may well be unpleasant."

"How so? You haven't told me what's going on."

Hesitantly, Lorelei said, "This is where I was when that priest and his men summoned me in their ritual. One moment I was here, the next was in a summoning circle. You know the rest," she said, looking down at the ground for a moment. "I do not look scarred to you, but I am."

Alex reached out to take her hand. She didn't flinch, but didn't really respond, either. "My feelings for you are genuine, Alex, but I am also not what I was before we met. The only way to explain it is that much of my... darkness was used to fuel the ritual that ultimately bound us. Just as the priest said. It is gone now, likely forever. Clearly that had some effect on my own personal power as well. And as happy as I may be to be with you, I must admit that I resent being reduced in such a way."

"Inside that house, I was not so restricted. I had been fulfilling my purpose when I was summoned."

"And you don't want me to see that."

"I am worried that it will come between us, yes."

"Maybe we need to confront your past, instead? At least in some way?" His suggestion was gentle, but he could see the way it made her jaw clench. "Do you miss it? You still regret things, don't you?"

"My emotions are mixed," she admitted. "You should not mistake my feelings for you as some window into my soul, Alex. I am freer now as your slave than I have ever been, and despite my loss of power that is precious to me. I am grateful to you, and I feel genuine loyalty. Yet I despise my weakness."

"I care for you. I mean no harm to those who are close to you -- your mother, friends, associates. Nor am I randomly cruel... but none of that makes me a nice person. I am not much like you."

Silence held between the two of them for a long moment. Alex nodded toward the house. "Show me," he said finally.

The pair walked up the cobblestone steps to the front door, each filled with their own trepidation but resolved to face it. The doorknob was one of those keyless entry sets that Alex had only seen in office environments. Lorelei punched in the correct combination and entered after they heard the door unlock.

Inside, Alex found vaulted ceilings and finely made wood paneling. Everything was quiet. The floors had new carpeting, the heater was on... and there was a faint, unpleasant smell even in the front door. Something akin to a nursing home.

"Feel free to take anything you like," Lorelei said absently. "I suspect it won't be missed." She wasn't especially loud, but she didn't whisper, either. Alex simply followed her through the entrance and foyer to a spacious and well-furnished living room. Lights gradually rose as she entered.

"Lots of nice artwork," Alex noted.

"Much of this is overpriced junk," she shrugged, looking the living room over. "What you see here is the decor of a man who wants expensive artwork simply to have it. This is not eclectic; this is collecting for appearances. There is no sense of his artistic tastes because he has none."

Alex sighed. "I'd never have known that. This is why I worry about boring you. You're way more sophisticated than I'll ever be."

"Don't doubt yourself. You are far more interesting than you realize. Ah." Lorelei stepped over to a black glass coffee table that had been pushed away from the couch.

On the coffee table was a small purse -- Alex figured it for an expensive designer piece, but he didn't really know these things -- along with a small, discarded black party dress. And stains. Dried, white stains stood out across the dress and the coffee table.

Alex didn't need much imagination to know what had gone on here. He considered that as Lorelei reached over for the purse, ignoring everything else, and double-checked its contents. That Lorelei slept with many other men was no secret. She had doubtlessly been as dirty and shameless with those other men as she'd been with Alex. Probably dirtier, he knew, considering his youth and inhibitions. But he hadn't really given it much thought.

She had been on her knees here before another man. Had him in her mouth, like she'd had Alex. For whatever reason, she hadn't consumed everything he gave up... but the evidence left behind didn't amount to as much as what she could normally draw out of Alex, and she could bring him off repeatedly without rest. It stood to reason that she did so with her previous partners, too. So either she had swallowed this man's semen, or accepted it on her skin, or some mixture of both.

He didn't stare. It didn't take but a moment to conclude all this. What did require a few seconds was the search through his feelings that the moment instigated. Lorelei turned, looked at him and maintained a poker face until he looked back at her and shrugged.

"Are you bothered by what you see?" she asked.

He paused, wanting to ensure he answered honestly, and shook his head. "No," he finally decided. "Not especially. I guess it's good to confront this, but no. I don't think I'm bothered."

"Being told and seeing for oneself are entirely different," Lorelei said, her voice still devoid of emotion. "I am, as I have told you, born to use the lusts of others against them. I am a true slut. Whore. Choose your term."

Again, Alex shook his head. "Don't," he told her softly. "I don't like those words. Not used in anything but fun. They aren't fair."

"Fair?"

"A whore's someone who provides sex for money. That could obviously be rough business and I know it chews people up but I'm not going to judge. I don't see the crime in that. And 'slut' is a double standard. Why's it okay for men to have many partners, but not women? That doesn't add up. I want to get laid a lot. Does that make me a slut? Maybe, but more to the point, should I be ashamed of it? And if I feel that way about myself, should I feel that way about others?"

Her stony expression softened. "And yet you worry that you are unsophisticated... I hope you are being honest with yourself."

"I think I am," he nodded. "I admit you've changed my expectations, but I've crushed on girls who've been through more than a couple boyfriends. I wasn't going to judge on that. I don't think I feel jealous here... I don't know. Is it bad that I don't want you to be with other men? Unfair?"

Lorelei shrugged. "Perhaps if we had to hold ourselves to strict standards. But we do not. I am not bothered, as I have said. You are the master." A faint glimmer returned to her eye, along with that wicked smile. "And I am your slut." She leaned in, kissed him on the cheek, and then her grim demeanor returned.

"There is more. You're sure you want to follow me?"

"I am," Alex affirmed.

She brought him through the living room to the staircase and began to ascend coolly. He followed, noticing the foul smells were getting stronger, but said nothing. They rounded the corner of the staircase, passed a bedroom furnished with everything but character -- probably a guest room, Alex guessed -- then a bathroom, then a room with nothing but a couple expensive exercise contraptions and a plasma television.

The stench was getting stronger. Alex had all too good of a guess of what smelled so bad.

At the end of the hall were closed double doors. Lorelei reached for the doorknob, looked back to Alex with grim resolve, and then pushed the doors open.

Inside was a dark, spacious master bedroom and the overwhelming scent of human waste and decay. Alex thought instinctively of holding his breath, then realized that was pointless and unlikely to last long enough. Lorelei went in without any hesitation or reaction. Alex decided he'd have to just suck it up, and followed.

He found a light switch and turned it on. The bedroom had a high ceiling and lush carpeting. To one side was a desk and chair; another side held a walk-in closet with sliding mirror doors. The far wall from the entry was all glass, with a sliding door to the balcony. An open doorway led to a bathroom fit for a rock star.

The bed was king-sized, with dark blue curtains tied to the posts. Clothing was scattered around the foot of the bed, some of it on the floor as if it had been tossed aside for effect. Slacks, a man's dress shirt, a tie. Lacy red panties and a bra.

Lorelei strode past the bed on her way into the closet, coldly acknowledging none of it.

The body lay in the bed, covered only by a silk sheet. He didn't look like an old man, but he was clearly older than Alex. His face was so drawn and pale that it was hard to tell. Eyes closed. Blond hair. A couple days' stubble. No shirt. An empty Evian bottle under one still hand. The pillowcase was stained with sweat, but the sheet that covered him was stained darkly at his hips with blood and fouler stuff.

"I thought..." Alex mumbled, stepping closer. He was unsettled, repulsed and yet he couldn't look away. He knew from everything Lorelei had said that this must be some vile, awful man, but all Alex saw was someone who'd died in his apparent prime. "I thought they were supposed to waste away?"

"Usually," came her indifferent voice from inside the closet. "Some push themselves too far too fast. The most egotistical are sometimes quicker to their end than others. He was especially foolish. He heard bones begin to crack and tried to laugh it off. I had no reason to argue his choices."

"Oh my God," Alex breathed. It was a common enough joke -- "what a way to go," someone would say if this were on television. But all Alex could see was an ugly, slow death. The man must have lingered in pain for a long time.

"What... what did he do?" Alex finally managed to ask.

Lorelei stepped out of the closet. He didn't look back at her, but felt her hand on his shoulder and her voice at his ear. "This is Raymond Cordingly. His fortune is built directly out of the life savings of others. He promised to shepherd them into a secure retirement and old age. The web of lies that he created and directed has left honest grandparents homeless and destitute. And by the time it all came to light, he had withdrawn from his company and arrayed such formidable legal defenses to his freedom and his fortune that your courts focused instead on his corporate dupes. Their involvement was comparatively minor and in some cases completely unwitting. Other accomplices escaped notice. Innocent workers lost their jobs to cover the cost of the company's legal concerns."

With that, she was gone. Alex didn't hear or feel her step away, but he knew he stood alone staring at Raymond's wasting face.

It was the sort of story that enraged him. He figured it would enrage any feeling person. But when Lorelei had spoken of her purpose and her victims, he had somehow imagined worse things. Murderers. Mobsters. Tyrants. Child molesters. Rapists. Not something like this.

Alex looked at the drawn, still face, and finally asked himself how stealing with lies and a smile and a contract was any better than doing it with a gun in an alleyway. A mugger might kill, but he might not... and either way, he wasn't likely to get away with the family home or anyone's college tuition.

"It would be a simple thing to transfer the bulk of his liquid assets to someplace accessible to you. He entrusted me with access. Concealing it would not be too difficult," Lorelei added from within the closet.

Alex blanched. Did she seriously want him to take this dead guy's dirty money? Was that what they came for?

Then the dead man coughed.





Chapter 15: Forced Justice...

Alex jumped back in shock.

"Lori?" Raymond rasped. His eyes fluttered open, not really tracking but clearly showing signs of life.

"Holy shit!"

Raymond gasped, winced, and looked around weakly. "Who... who are you? Oh, God, you have to help me. I can't get up. That bitch..."

Alex just looked at him in amazement. "You've been lying here like this since Monday?"

"What?" the other man croaked. "Look... I can't walk. You gotta call an ambulance for me."

Again, Lorelei stepped out of the walk-in closet. She was now dressed in designer jeans that looked painted onto her and a shimmering gray top under a matching blazer. Alex would have noticed how great she looked under almost any other circumstance. At the moment, though, he was simply too stunned.

Raymond's face twisted in an immediate rush of conflicting emotions. "Oh, God, Lori," he babbled. "Why did you... what..." Raymond babbled, then winced in pain. "Fuck, it hurts so bad. You hurt me so bad."

"I apologize, master," Lorelei said coolly to Alex. "I had thought this would be done by now."

"Master? What?" Raymond blinked. "Who the hell is this kid, Lori?"

"He is more of a man than you have ever been at any point in your misspent life."

"Have you been lying here since Monday night?" Alex said more firmly.

"Yes! Yeah, God," Raymond spat. "Something's wrong with my hips. Stuff feels broken, grinding. All I could reach was this water. Can't get to my phone. I called off the maid so Lori and I could... oh God. You gotta call me an ambulance." His voice was barely over a whisper. Desperation was the only thing giving him lucidity. "I thought I was going to die."

Lorelei turned to Alex and put a gentle hand on his shoulder. "Master, this is something I should finish," she told him gently. Alex and Raymond both realized that she already had a pillow in her hands. Neither of them had any illusions about what she meant to do with it.

"No," Raymond pleaded.

"Wait, wait," Alex said.

"It was his fate," Lorelei responded unemotionally.

"Stop. Stop for just a minute." He looked at Raymond, then at Lorelei and back again, trying to think. The shock of Raymond's sudden awakening and the seriousness in Lorelei's eyes had Alex unsettled, to say the least.

"Man, don't let her—"

"Shut up!" Alex snapped. He ran his hands through his hair, turning away with his eyes wide. Then he turned around to face them both. "Lorelei, what happens when he dies?"

She just shrugged. "His soul descends into Hell."

"No, I mean the money. All that money."

"As I said, we can claim it if you wish. I was uncertain how you would feel about it, given your personal standards."

"Huh, you're damn right I've got standards," Alex huffed. "No, I don't want it. That's fucked up. It's not mine. What's gonna happen to it when he's found dead?" Alex shifted his attention to Raymond. "How much do you have in the bank?"

"I can get twenty million easily," Raymond said. "You can have all of it, just call an ambulance and don't—"

"Shut the fuck up! Just answer the questions, alright?" Alex was agitated, more afraid than intimidating, but Raymond wasn't in any condition to sort that out. "You're a finance guy. You've got a will, right? Something? What happens to your money when you die?"

Raymond's lower lip quivered. He looked between the shaking youth and the deadly cold seductress standing over him. "I don't... I didn't really give a shit," he explained. "I've got a sister. My mom. I guess they'll get some after the state sorts it out."

Alex's jaw dropped. "You guess? You do finance for a living and you don't make out a will?! Jesus," he fumed. He looked at Lorelei, whose face was a very strange blend of pleading sympathy for Alex and stone cold resolve for Raymond. "And all your investors?" Alex pressed, fighting to calm himself. "You live it up 'til you die and they just stay fucked?"

For a moment, it looked as if Raymond might try to talk his way through this. His lips twisted, eyes glancing around frantically as he tried to come up with something clever to say.

"That's it, right?" Alex asked Lorelei. "He just dies and nothing gets fixed?"

"My purpose here was punishment for his crimes, not restitution. That is not in my—"

"Nature, right," Alex said, cutting her off. He tugged on his own hair again, looking back down at Raymond. "How many investors did you have in your scam?"

"It wasn't a scam, I just—"

Lorelei's hand shot out at Raymond's throat. She pulled him up just far enough to demonstrate that she could do much worse. Even that was agonizingly painful on his hips. "Do not lie to him, worm," she hissed fiercely. Then she let him go. Raymond collapsed back into the bed, overcome with fear of the raven-haired demon.

Alex took a deep breath, held it and released, then did it again. He had to think. "How many investors? You were smart enough to pull this shit off. You had to have been keeping track of this shit. How many accounts were there? You've got files, right?"

Raymond looked only at the intimidating woman towering over him. "I-I didn't... I was worried about being subpoenaed. Search warrants."

"So you didn't keep anything at all? Not even just in case you had to cop a deal later down the line?"

"Answer him," Lorelei ordered.

"It's in a safety deposit box under a false name," Raymond conceded. "The media played it up, but I did... I bilked about fourteen thousand investors out of everything."

"How much are you worth?"

Raymond blinked. "That's not an exact thing."

"I know. You're a rich fucker, I'm sure most of it's in stocks and stuff. Give me a conservative ballpark figure, and don't bullshit me. How much are you worth if it means buying your life? Selling everything off, whether it came from this scam or legit stuff." Alex had learned just enough in a couple of economics classes to learn that it was all very complicated, and that the rich didn't operate like normal people.

"I could... I don't know..." Raymond thought frantically. "I could work up between eighty and maybe ninety million depending on how things sold."

"You said you could do twenty easily. Someone with that kind of money could have way more of a house than this. Isn't that a lot in liquid cash?"

"Not for someone who wants to be ready to flee the country and live in comfort on short notice," Lorelei noted.

Alex put his face over his hands, trying to think past Raymond's whimpering and labored breathing. Eighty million dollars, fourteen thousand accounts... It didn't divide out to a whole lot in the end. Better than nothing, for sure, but there had to be more. "Where's the rest of it?"

"I'm dying here! I can't put together a PowerPoint right now."

"Humor me."

Raymond made an exasperated noise. "Some of it got put into big bonuses for people who helped me... a lot of it was corporate profits. I can't draw it all out here."

"But you could draw it all out for the Feds, right?"

"What?"

"You're going to turn yourself in, Ray," Alex growled, stepping closer to the bed. "When you get to the hospital, you're going to get on the phone with whoever you've got to and start selling off every fucking thing you own to give as much back to your investors as you possibly can, and if that's only a few grand for each of them that's still more than they've got now, right?

"And while you're doing that, you're going to call up the FBI and confess everything to them. You're going to connect all the dots and you're going to do your god damned best to make sure as much money as possible goes back to the people you fucked."

Lorelei watched without betraying emotion, but Alex wasn't looking at her. His eyes were fixed on Raymond, who was breathing heavier in both fear and hope. "You're going to call for help for me?"

"Yes," Alex said, "and you aren't going to say a god damn thing about us being here. Make up whatever shit you've got to, I don't care, but I'm going to read in the papers starting fucking tomorrow about your amazing change of heart. And if I don't, you're dead. Got me?"

Raymond nodded, weakly, and couldn't help but glance up nervously at Lorelei. "I have already done this to you," she said simply. "I can and will find you and end you in any way he wishes."

"Sure as hell won't be as fun as the way you almost died," Alex added. "Where's the phone?"

"It's in my pants," Raymond winced. The slight alleviation of his panic only left him more sensitive to his actual pain. "Please hurry. I've probably got an infection."

Alex grabbed the trousers at his feet and threw them onto the foot of the bed without thinking about it. There was a slick stain of... something along the front. He blinked.

"Master," Lorelei said, her voice showing her first visible emotion besides anger since she came into the room. Her expression had softened somewhat, altered by some mix of guilt, sympathy and perhaps embarrassment. "Let me do this."

"It's fine," Alex said, shaking his head. He checked the pockets and found the cell phone. "Do we have everything you need here? I don't want to flip out, but this shouldn't wait and I don't want anything from this piece of shit. Not his money, not his toys... nothing."

"I came primarily for what is in my purse. There is also a car in the garage that belongs to me. It was not purchased with his money. I believe you would approve if I explained," she added slowly.

"It's fine. Nothing else? Lots of incriminating clothes."

"They will never be traced to me, master."

Alex paused, nodded, and then stopped himself from touching the cell phone. He tossed the pants at Raymond. "Call for help yourself," he frowned. "I don't want to worry about fingerprints." He waited until Raymond dug out the phone on his own and dialed 911. "Let's get out of here," he told Lorelei.

Raymond dialed frantically. He watched as the hottest thing he'd ever scored in his charmed, ruthless life picked up a beat-up leather jacket from off the floor and obediently followed some holier-than-thou kid she called "master," of all things, out of his room and out of his life.

Everything below his navel radiated in five kinds of awful pain. He certainly hoped she was out of his life.

Five minutes later, Alex and Lorelei were up the street standing next to her parked car and his motorcycle. They watched as a fire truck and an ambulance arrived, firefighters rushing up the steps to get inside. Other than carrying out Alex's wish to stay and observe, neither had said much.

"Lorelei," Alex said, as the firefighters looked for a way into the house, "are you okay? I should've... I should've asked before now. I'm so sorry."

"You have nothing to apologize for, master," Lorelei said. Her arms were crossed over her chest. She seemed lonely and cold.

"That doesn't sound like such a term of affection now," he observed quietly.

She looked at him, her face guilty and worried. "No," she protested, "I just -- if anyone should apologize, it is probably me. I should have told you what to expect. I regret that you were put through this. I should have..."

He waved it off. "I pushed you, and I didn't ask for an explanation. It's not your fault."

Her gaze fell to the pavement. "I might have volunteered the information."

"Why didn't you?" he asked, venturing to put a hand on her shoulder. She clutched at it without looking at him.

"Affection is... not an emotion I am accustomed to in all my life. Compassion is even more alien. I am not sure I recognize it in myself, or know how to follow it."

"You were made to punish people," Alex said.

"I was, I did. What you did in there I... I would not have thought of that. The victims were not my concern. I do not know if I feel appeased for this, or merely that I am satisfied that you are satisfied." She looked to him and shrugged. "You are a good person, Alex. I am not."

"Do you want to be?"

"I don't know," she answered honestly. "I want to make you happy."

"What I want is to make you happy. As much as I can."

"I know, Alex," she nodded softly. They both heard the paramedic crew break out their gurney and start hustling it up the steps, which drew their attention for a moment. "You have done a very good thing here. All that I was interested in out of Raymond Cordingly was another soul bound for Hell."

He couldn't tell if that was a confession or simply an observation, but he squeezed her shoulder comfortingly anyway. Then his eyes widened. "Oh my God," he blinked. "Lorelei, is that -- is that going to be a problem? I mean did I just cheat some demon?"

"That would depend on your definitions of cheating and fairness," Lorelei said, her voice stronger with the shift in topic. "Hell would see it that way, certainly, but only because that would work to its advantage. The Hosts would think very differently."

"Yeah, but is someone going to come after us?"

Lorelei just shrugged, eliciting a groan from Alex in response. She turned to look at him. "Would that knowledge have changed your actions?"

"What do you mean?"

"Cordingly's victims will likely get some measure of their life's savings back. Other thieves who escaped scrutiny may now face punishment. Cordingly may even make good on his life with this second chance and find redemption. Unlikely, but possible. Nothing in my experience with you leads me to believe that you would have turned from the chance for all that because you might incur someone's displeasure, regardless of who or what they may be."

Alex thought about it for a moment, staring at the house without really looking at it. "I guess maybe you're right."

"I am," she said coolly. "You are a brave man, Alex. My feelings for you may be conflicted in many ways, but that is something about you that I adore without reservation."

He blushed uncontrollably, but resisted the urge to hide or turn away. It wasn't like she wouldn't guess how he felt, anyway. "Still," he frowned, "I should have thought of you before putting you in the middle of it if there is a problem."

"I would have done as you wished regardless."

"Lorelei. You're my friend. I don't want to do anything to hurt you or put you at risk. If I'm about to, you need to tell me. Okay?"

"As you wish," she smiled quietly. "Master."

He grinned back at her, blushing again and unable to help it. Alex looked her up and down. "You look really good in that outfit," he said.

"I am glad that it pleases you. There were clothes of a different sort in the house that may have also pleased you greatly, but I would just as soon burn everything that I wore for that man."

"Well, as long as we can replace it. You, um... appear to have a lot of money of your own." He glanced at the hardtop Lexus convertible behind them.

"What is mine is quite literally yours. If you are my friend, you will not be shy about that," she grinned. "I suggest that we take the car to go shopping rather than your motorcycle. There are side streets where we can park it where it will not be bothered."

"It's too bad it isn't warmer. Putting the top down might be fun."

Lorelei's grin shifted as stepped in closer to Alex and put a hand on his groin. "I can keep you warm easily enough, master," she smiled.





Chapter 16: The Laws of Alex...

As it happened, Lorelei was correct. Even in the cool September Seattle evening, wind was blowing under an overcast sky as they drove toward downtown. Alex felt completely warm. It was an easy thing for Lorelei to accomplish exactly in the manner she'd hinted at. The succubus simply lounged in the front passenger seat, looking hot and occasionally stroking her fingers down his neck, or sometimes across the hardness in his pants.

Were Alex a cooler, more confident guy, he might have had his right hand outstretched around her shoulders or perhaps draped over the back of her seat. He might have let the stereo blast something. He'll, he would have a cocky expression like he was king of the world.

Instead, he was a nineteen-year-old driving a car worth more than he could make in two or even three years at his part-time job, with his own personal sex slave staring adoringly at him at his side. He kept both hands on the wheel and his eyes on the road.

Despite his nervousness about the car, he was feeling good about the relationship that had put him into it. Very good. The thought of having incurred the wrath of some sort of demonic power for having done the right thing with Cordingly (and it was unquestionably, he felt, the right thing given the circumstances) had been banished by Lorelei's straightforward assessment of his courage. It was the first time he thought that he might actually, in some small way, be worthy of her attention. Perhaps it didn't measure up to his awe of her, but it was something.

Maybe, something said in his mind, he wasn't entirely a goon who'd simply gotten lucky. Maybe he had more to work with than just Lorelei's magic in dealing with women. It wasn't like he'd never gotten a date in his life. Much of his loneliness could fairly be chalked up to bad luck. And for all the lusty stares and flirtation he'd received lately, it wasn't like Rachel seemed affected by it. She seemed to like Alex for himself...

...which brought to mind the things she'd said that morning. He wondered how good he'd feel about his relationship with Lorelei if he addressed that.

"Something's on your mind," Lorelei observed. Her tone and her smile were sultry, but almost everything with her was at least a little sultry. Alex somehow knew she didn't suspect he was thinking about anything sexy.

"I kind of wonder if we should be explicit about what's okay with me and what's not," he forced himself to say. Rachel was right. He had to get this done, for peace of mind if nothing else. If it displeased Lorelei, he'd have to live with that. Too much was at stake.

"There will be no more Raymond Cordinglys," Lorelei assured him smoothly.

"It's not just that, it's..." Alex fought for the words. He wasn't even sure how to begin. "I don't want underage girls throwing themselves at me, or being thrown at me," he finally said. "Ever. Off limits. No matter what it might seem like I desire, eighteen and relative emotional stability are bare minimums."

"Ah," the succubus smiled, "the rules. The Laws of Alex." She had been leaning somewhat against the door behind her, but now she shifted in her seat to lean lightly against his right shoulder. She didn't sound bothered at all, but rather very interested. "I hear and obey. What is thy will, master?"

"Okay, now you sound way too close to Darth Vader and that shit's freakin' me out." Lorelei laughed, very much with him rather than at him. He felt a bit better. She was good at making him feel better. "I mean it, though. I know age is arbitrary, but it's good enough. No jailbait for me."

"I cannot help it if you earn such attention all on your own, master," Lorelei said, "but I swear that I shall do nothing to encourage it."

"So that effect that I've been having on women since we met won't hit them?"

"Ah. That can't be narrowly defined. It's derived from our base desires, and those do not check anyone's driver's license. However, it is partly directed by the depth of your attraction. As you are less interested in younger women, they will be less affected." She chuckled a bit, adding, "Given our earlier activities, you may find that 'effect' especially potent tonight."

He smirked a bit. "I'll try to be careful, then."

"You might consider having some fun with it," Lorelei shrugged. "It would make me happy. That 'effect' isn't domination, or even mind control. It's just an improved communication of sex appeal. No one would do anything that would put themselves in danger or that they could not be persuaded to do otherwise. Consider it an advantage... perhaps a cheat, but not brainwashing."

"You're assuming that these women would be interested in me if I didn't have this going for me."

"And yet you do have it going for you. More to the point, they won't regret it when they learn some of the things that I know about you." Her hand stroked along his erection. "But back to your commands, master," she whispered into his ear.

"No married women."

"Aw," Lorelei pouted, lightly but somewhat genuinely. "Not even unhappily married women who deserve a little illicit fun?"

"Look, on the off chance that 'Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's wife' is for real, I'm willing to forego the women with rings on their fingers in favor of the ones who haven't made vows. Unless there's a cheat sheet on what is and isn't a mitigating circumstance."

She shrugged. "Not that I can recite to you, no. But if they already have an... understanding with their spouses? A clear arrangement?"

"How common is that, really?"

"More than you might think.You and I will likely be together for a very long time. I like to be prepared to seize an opportunity rather than waste time pondering," she grinned audibly.

"Well, really the primary interest I have here is in not hurting anyone, emotionally or otherwise."

"You have made that clear already. I have kept that in mind all along in anything I've done."

"Speaking of," Alex said, and then swallowed. This one worried him. "My mom."

"Hm," Lorelei intoned tauntingly. "Before you speak on that, master, may I ask something of you?"

He gave a grumbling sigh, but she was hard to resist. "Can't guarantee I'll be okay with it."

"I have broken none of these commands thus far, and I shall not. You have voiced that you wish to trust me, and I long for your trust. May I keep a few secrets to myself?" Her tone was as dripping with teasing sexuality as it had been at any other time since they'd met.

Alex stiffened in his seat, trembling from something other than the cold. "Now I know something's going on."

"No, you strongly suspect," Lorelei corrected with a grin, "and the unknown is almost always more exciting than the truth. Almost. Master, as I said this morning, your mother is harmed in no way and the only alterations that have occurred since you and I bonded are that she has become happier and more confident. She is every bit as safe from me as you are -- moreso, in fact. So, the question becomes: if there is... something going on... do you really mind?

"I think we both know that you were rather appreciative of her appearance this morning," she added, still smiling.

Again, he gulped. "I don't... want that to go any farther than that. I'm not going to lie to you, she looks great and if that makes her happy then I'm happy for her, I just don't want to... um... you know." Alex was soon at a loss for words.

"Don't want to be backed into a corner."

"Yeah. Um. Is she, uh, acting like that with everyone?"

"No," Lorelei answered softly. "I cannot guarantee that she won't flirt or get attention -- she certainly will, especially the latter. But no, Michelle truly feels safest and most comfortable alone with her handsome, loyal, and very loving son."

"You're going to drive me insane."

"You have impressive self-control, master. I have faith in you." Her hand slid down between his legs again, as if to relieve his shivering. Neither had any doubt that the tremors going through his body came from being cold.

"Still. Maybe we'd better just... move on."

"Oh, I can dance around this particular pole all night if you wish."

"Puns. You're making puns. That's awesome."

"What else did you want to talk about?" she asked sweetly.

"So, your money. I don't want to go spending your money, but..."

"Your money now, master."

"No, really. I don't want to take things from you."

"Master," she said, a bit more seriously. "Imagine that my life could be dramatically improved if I only had more dried leaves. For whatever reason, I cannot collect many myself. You could, however. They're often all around you. Would you not share whatever leaves you found? Given your affection for me, wouldn't you gather them in great bundles, well beyond my actual need, simply because you know that as a gift they would be appreciated and provide me with luxury?"

He thought about that for a moment, and realized he couldn't argue it. "That's really what it's worth to you? I would've thought demons might be a bit more materialistic."

"It's a fair comparison. I enjoy a bit of luxury, but I can do without it freely. Wealth is merely a means to an end, and I have power, age and experience that mortals do not. I can always acquire more."

"I just don't want it to go to my head. I'm already being spoiled beyond anything rational as it is just with sex. You want to add money to that, too? I'll go nuts."

"If greed was one of your driving motivations, I think we would be having a very different conversation, Alex. Perhaps over a dead man's bank accounts."

"Who says I won't become greedy over time?"

"Anything's possible, but again, I rather doubt it. You do not strike me as the materialistic type. Many people want only enough money to provide general security and some small measure of amusement, and are satisfied with that. They simply don't get talked about."

Alex thought about it and shrugged. "So you said I wouldn't object to your money. Is it legal?"

"More or less," Lorelei nodded. "I don't exactly have a birth certificate or social security number. A government accountant might find some discrepancies in my taxes. The money itself comes from legitimate business... more or less. Again, nothing you would object to, or I would confess it right now. Leave this matter to me as another secret?" she asked, again very sweetly. She kissed his neck.

"How many secrets do you want to keep?"

He felt her smile against his neck. "Only matters I might engineer to eventually provide entertainment for us both, master."

Alex couldn't object to that. He didn't want to, really, mainly because he didn't want to disappoint her. He frowned. "Alright. But where are we going, anyway? You said downtown, but not where."

Lorelei leaned back thoughtfully. "I would suggest a few boutiques, but they may take more time than we want to spend. We also haven't decided how to present our relationship to others. Pacific Place should be fine for now."





Chapter 17: The Great Mall Adventure...

"Oooooh, shit, man! Look! Shit!"

"Fuck—what? What?" J'Von grimaced. The jostling hand on his shoulder made him squeeze his Big Mac too hard, spurting goop out one side. He worried that it had gotten onto his baggy pants or his Air Jordans. He stepped around, looking down hoping not to see special sauce on anything but the sidewalk.

"That bitch right there!" Tony continued, urging and pointing out at the convertible waiting at the light. J'Von and Mike both looked over across the street and the car.

"Damn, now that's a piece of ass," Mike observed sagely.

"Yeah, but you gotta go grabbin' me like that?" J'Von said, his expression still pointedly disapproving.

The last thing he wanted was a stain running down his pants all night. It annoyed J'Von that Tony wasn't looking at the plainly very intimidating stare he was giving.

"That's the bitch who fucked Damon to death last year!" Tony said. He kept his voice just controlled enough so as not to be heard across the street.

J'Von's scowl only deepened. "What?" he said in a high-pitched, skeptical tone. But Tony was off running already, headed up the block to watch the car as it made a left turn and headed around the block. "Crazy fuckin' cracker," he muttered. J'Von sometimes took a lot of heat from other friends for keeping a white boy like Tony around, but he stood his ground on the topic. He and Tony had been tight since they'd been thrown out of middle school together, and J'Von was bigger than all that racial bullshit.

Only sometimes Tony would go acting like a crazy white boy in front of other people. J'Von knew it wasn't because he was white; he knew crazy black folks, too. But that didn't make it any easier to defend Tony when he went running off after cars in the middle of downtown claiming that one of the occupants had killed a homey with her snatch.

"Your boy's trippin', man," Mike said, shaking his head. The two watched as Tony stood at the corner looking on at the convertible.

"Yeah, don't I know," J'Von muttered, and then called out, "Tony! Man, get back here!" He got a good bite out of his Big Mac as Tony jogged back to the other two men. Doubtlessly, settling whatever was up Tony's ass might take until his burger cooled, and that would make J'Von even more irritated.

"They just went into the mall. That's her, I'm sure of it."

"What the hell are you talkin' about?" Mike asked.

"Last year? Like, at that New Year's party, right? It was just after Tyrel got popped by the cops for bustin' a cap in—"

"We know," J'Von said firmly. He also knew it was really Damon who'd been the shooter. Tyrel was nowhere near it, but there was no telling the cops that without ratting out Damon, and nobody wanted to be a snitch. Even if it meant Tyrel would go to prison. Everyone had pressured Damon to come clean or something, all to no avail, and then Damon turned up dead a few days later. "What about it?"

"Look, I know you was in lock-up, but at the party there was this fine ass white girl. She hooked up with Damon -- told his girl, Kimesha to sit down and shut up and she did, man, his girl shut right the fuck up -- and then she just went upstairs to Damon's apartment and they started goin' at it, man. Fuckin' screamin', bed makin' all kinda noise, like, 'Oh! Oh! Fuck me, Damon! Oh shit!'"

"Tony!" J'Von frowned, "Don't make me slap you."

Tony waved it off, but pointedly he calmed down. "Right, so they were up there the rest of the night, right? Only I had left my phone up in Damon's apartment before the party, 'cause we were all playin' on his X-Box. So I had to go back there, only I go up and I hear 'em bangin' away still the next damn day, man. Only I didn't wanna interrupt, 'cuz that's not cool, so I left.

"But Kimesha? She interrupted, man. Like a lot. Or tried to, anyway. She went shoutin' and knockin' at that door like three different times that day and the next, she said, and she kept hearing the same shit, too. More poundin', more fuckin'. She's yellin' at them through the door an' neither one of 'em stop for nothin'."

Mike seemed to think it was amusing, and it would've been as well to J'Von had it not been for his poor, neglected Big Mac. Instead, he just stared at Tony. He'd heard something of this story before, but not in such detail. Damon hooked up with some white porn star-looking bitch at New Year's and then was found dead in his apartment a few days later, nothing more.

"An' then the next day, it's like day three now, I go by his apartment again 'cause he ain't answerin' his phone, an' I still hear fuckin', but I don't hear Damon no more. Not like I did before. Just a bit of wheezing or something."

Mike laughed, and made a mimicking motion and wheezing noise to give his impression of an elderly man giving it to a woman from behind. He smacked an imaginary ass with a shaking, arthritic hand.

"And then the next day Kimesha went by again and smelled somethin' awful in his apartment, and got the landlord... and Damon was stone cold dead, motherfucker."

J'Von sighed. "So?"

"So, man, that bitch fucked him to death." Mike burst out laughing again.

However, Tony was serious. "And nobody saw Damon's stash or any of the money he'd been sitting on after that, remember?"

J'Von frowned and nodded. He did remember that part. He didn't know about this story of Damon's death, though, because nobody had told him about it. Nobody had asked Kimesha for her side of things, because nobody really liked that angry bitch anyway. The one silver lining in Damon's death was that Kimesha didn't come around anymore.

The thing was, Damon had died while moving more than a little coke. The other side of the deal swore after his death that he'd been paid -- they had wanted the coke in time for New Year's Eve in the first place -- but nobody on Damon's side of it had seen their shares of the money yet. Most had assumed that the cops had seized the cash when they collected Damon's body, and nobody wanted to expose their knowledge or involvement by trying to find out.

Neither J'Von nor Mike were gullible enough to believe that Damon had died from too much pussy. That was just stupid. But the notion that he'd brought a woman as hot as that one up to his apartment and had her there just before he'd died was believable, especially if for some reason she knew about all that money. And there she was, riding around with some white boy in a Lexus convertible.

Damon had died. Tyrel had gone to jail partly because Damon wasn't around to clear his name -- not that he'd have ever done so, realistically. And all that money just disappeared.

"They went in the mall parking garage?" J'Von asked.

************

Lorelei smelled him almost as soon as they came off the escalator from the bottom floor. She knew what he was from the scent, though not who specifically, and had a pretty decent idea of where in the mall she would find him if she was right. There were better than even odds that he would not be so quick to detect her presence, at least not right away. But turning around would do no good; once aware that she'd been around, he might realize her condition and consider her vulnerable. This had to be dealt with, quickly and decisively... and preferably not in front of Alex.

"I would guess that you don't have a clear idea of what sort of clothes you'd like to see me in," she said coolly, "at least in public."

"Not really," Alex shrugged. "I figured you should just wear whatever you like. You look really good now, but I'd bet you'd look good in anything. I'd be happy with you in jeans and a t-shirt."

"Hm. You do prefer a bit of glamour, though. That much is plain."

"Well, I don't know who doesn't appreciate someone going to the trouble of looking good, but I wouldn't expect that all the time. Can't be wine & roses every night of the week."

"Silly master," she smiled.

"Hey, you should really call me Alex," he whispered to her.

"Oh, no one's listening to us... Alex," she added as a concession. "What you mean to say is that because you do not go to great effort for fashion, you wouldn't expect it of others."

"I try to look good sometimes," he mumbled defensively.

"You love various goth looks," Lorelei said, "and also business casual with a hint of sexiness. You have several heart-pounding memories of girls in formalwear from a couple of dances in high school. I imagine you would rejoice if all the world's hipsters died in flames?"

"I wouldn't want to use that turn of phrase in front of someone like you, but yeah, I can't stand hipsters. Trying too hard to make a point of looking like they're not trying. Past that, I just... guess I just like whatever works for a given woman? If you want me to pick out clothes for you, it's going to be a disaster. I want you to get what you know makes you look good. I'm pretty sure that's just about anything."

Lorelei nodded. "I can accept that." She slipped her hand in his. "However, we should begin at the beginning." Lorelei started walking with calm, confident purpose toward a shop that Alex hadn't dared set foot in since he was ten years old and at his mother's side.

"Um," he tried to protest, "this is a lingerie store."

"It's not especially racy. There is more here than lingerie."

"Yeah, like five tight shirts and some hand lotion," Alex said. She did not slow down; they were really going into this trendy, spacious store for things that Alex honestly didn't know how to discuss with other women without sounding perverted.

"I would prefer a more upscale store specializing in much more alluring intimate wear," Lorelei admitted, "and the selections here for women with my endowments are a bit limited, but we were going for casual, right?"

"Isn't bringing me in here going to be... um..."

"Awkward? No. Many ladies bring their men in here to explain what they'd like to see in the bedroom. Isn't that right?" Lorelei asked the sales associate that was suddenly right in front of the couple.

In point of fact, her appearance wasn't sudden at all, but Alex wasn't even sure where he was supposed to be looking. He was pretty sure that his presence here must make half the customers feel very self- conscious (not that he was paid any obvious attention), and was even more sure that he was the only male in the whole store -- well, apart from the guy over there, but even that dude had obvious man- boobs. So he wasn't looking where Lorelei was leading him until the other woman spoke.

"Not at all," she smiled boldly, getting right into the spirit of things. Alex's gaze rose up from the floor to trace quickly up those shapely legs in black lace stockings, a tight, knee-length black skirt, flat belly and ample bust under a black tee, where his eyes finally settled on her rather pretty face. Pert nose, smooth skin, short, curly black hair. Amusement in her almond eyes.

"Hi, I'm Audrey," she said, offering her hand. "I'm the store manager."

Alex blinked. Store managers didn't offer to shake hands. She was clearly fucking with him only because this was so embarrassing. He considered dying, right there on the spot. Instead, he simply shook her hand and mumbled, "Hi, I'm Alex."

Audrey winked. Then, as Lorelei spoke again, her expression seemed to change. The hot lingerie store manager started looking at Alex like he would make an exciting addition to her bedroom furniture.

"My boyfriend here has been a bit deprived," Lorelei said to Audrey. She was standing a bit closer to the other woman than she needed to, speaking almost directly into her ear. Alex was a bit too out of sorts to really pick up on it. "He's -- well, forgive me for being so forward, but he's a thrill a minute in the bedroom. I'd do literally anything he asked of me, but he just doesn't know what to ask for. No idea what to call things, really. Religious upbringing."

"I see," Audrey nodded. Her eyes were locked on Alex's.

"So now that he's free to enjoy himself, I'd love make sure he has a good time. You know, wear the right things to drive him mad. I couldn't blame any woman for throwing herself at him... Anyway, I think he knows what he likes, but he could still stand an education from an expert."

"I'd be more than happy to help," Audrey offered. Her chest rose and fell a bit heavily.

"I've got a lot of shopping to do, and the mall won't be open too much longer," Lorelei said. "Could I leave him in your capable hands? I'm sure he'll show a lot of gratitude."

"Absolutely," Audrey said. She still had his hand.

Lorelei leaned over and kissed his neck. "Let go and have some fun, master," she hissed. "It will be good for all three of us."

"What -- are you leaving?" Alex blinked.

"I've a couple of other places to visit here, and not much time tonight," Lorelei said as she walked away. "I'll know when you're ready to leave."





Chapter 18: Panty Heaven...

J'Von, Tony and Mike were wandering the balconies of Pacific Place when they spotted Lorelei leaving the store alone.

"We gonna go get her?" Mike asked.

"What, right here in the middle of the mall?" Tony frowned. "This is a rich people's mall. Cops'll be on us like flies on shit if we screw up."

"He's right," J'Von nodded, "but we ought'a let her go, anyway. Think I saw her boy still there in the store. She'll come back."

"So what? You wanna wait?"

"If that bitch really did do Damon, she gotta be, like, mob or somethin'," J'Von thought aloud. "For real. But her boy there, he look like he's her kid brother or somethin'. He's the weak link. We grab him, it don't matter if we get her right away or not. She'll have to play ball."

"The fuck's he doin' in there, anyway?" Tony grumbled.

J'Von's eyes slid over to regard his friend nonchalantly. "Maybe homeboy needs some new panties?"

************

"These are thongs, and these are what we call boy cut panties, which is what I generally prefer," Audrey explained with that cool, teasing smile. She played the whole lecturer angle fairly straight, but her grin, the look in her eyes and the way she stayed well within in Alex's personal space hinted at much more of an educational experience than simple vocabulary and visual identification.

Alex felt like he could die. This was embarrassing. Kind of hot, entirely because of Audrey's physical nearness and the looks she gave him as she took him through her store, but still embarrassing.

"You see a little bit more skin with thongs, of course, but there are times when less is more. Boy cut panties hold a little more obvious sex appeal."

"Huh," he managed rather eloquently.

"It's probably best if I just give a hands-on demonstration," she said, a little more quietly and a little more closely. "Maybe something a little more intimate."

Okay, perhaps this isn't something to die over, Alex considered as he felt her breath on his right ear and the side of his neck.

"Alex Carlisle?" a familiar voice asked.

He glanced over to his left. Across the table full of thongs and lacy boy shorts was the tall, lovely girl who'd occupied at least a quarter of his higher brain functions over the course of his junior and senior years. She had (unwittingly and innocently, and he knew it) caused him to lose hours of sleep, give away his winter formal tickets, turn up late for his second crack at the SATs when she'd had a flat tire and called him in a panic, join the Japanese club even though he wasn't taking the class and never had, and miss pretty much every decent play his high school football team made on the field because he was paying more attention to her in her cheerleading uniform.

He hadn't seen her in over a year. She had gone to the University of Washington. He went to community college. Same city, but it hardly mattered. They didn't even turn up at the same parties. There was nothing but brief, distant communication online.

Now here she was in snug black slacks, a similarly snug black tee, a headset over her tied-back black hair and a nametag that read, "Taylor." This was now definitely something to die over. Right here, right now. Heart attack. Stroke. Brain aneurysm. Aaaany second now.

"You two know each other?" Audrey said, needing only a second to recover.

"We went to high school together," Taylor said warily.

"Um. Hi, Taylor," Alex managed. "How are you?"

"What are you doing here?"

"Alex here is shopping for his girlfriend," Audrey smiled, "and she asked me to help him out a bit."

Taylor looked at him with obvious disbelief. She managed to keep her jaw from dropping. "You have a girlfriend? And you're buying her lingerie?"

"W-well, we hadn't really gotten to talking about the labels yet, y'know?" Alex offered awkwardly. He desperately didn't want to be dishonest with her; that was the only thing that prompted his correction. He wasn't remotely capable of more sophisticated thinking than that at the moment. "I mean, we just met recently. Um. How are you doing? Did I ask that already?"

"You did," she said, eyes narrowing suspiciously. She couldn't help but notice that Audrey was holding Alex's hand.

"Taylor, I'm going to take my dinner break now," Audrey broke in. "While I'm gone, could you count down the registers? We've done a lot of cash today."

"Sure," Taylor nodded slowly. She moved off without breaking her gaze right away.

************

It took her longer than it should have, she realized, to figure out where he was. She left Alex in the store to stride along the walkway that wrapped around the five-story open atrium of the mall. In part, it was because her senses were as dulled as the rest of her abilities. That was most of the reason she wanted to confront this: she didn't trust in her ability to conceal herself. Not yet.

There was no telling how long it would take before she could begin recovery in earnest. That was entirely up to Alex and his ability to overcome his inhibitions and enjoy what she could offer. He was finally on his way, and she felt better already, but there was a long way to --

She felt something from him. Desire. So much desire. Sharper, much more intense than the mere lust-on-sight that she'd left him with. This was deep, serious longing. Aged, at least relative to his short span of sexual maturity. Knowing his desires as she did, Lorelei had a deep suspicion of whom he'd encountered. That was intriguing. Refreshing, too. Then the feeling was muted, faded, but did not die. Longing like that, born at such an early age, would never entirely fade. In the moment, though, he was distracted by that earlier, newer desire.

It took awhile, and so did looking around for the source of the scent that had drawn Lorelei out... but eventually, that desire began to build in anticipation. Alex wasn't running away from it at all. She felt him embrace this current lust.

That was when she realized where the smell was coming from. It was upstairs, in one of the restaurants. They ranged in quality, but nothing beyond the reach of anyone with basic employment with a desire to splurge a bit. Lorelei got onto the escalators, ascending to the top of the mall.

The Asian seafood buffet. He was in there. That made sense. He had even established wards around the place. A week ago, she could have crushed such defenses with ease, but now it would take effort. Once inside, she would be under constant assault on levels no mortal would sense.

She gave better than even odds that he'd know she was present now, but she waited anyway. It made sense to take advantage of the delay, see if he'd come out to meet her or if she'd have to go in. Timing often made all the difference in the world. It wouldn't show to observers, but this confrontation would likely be very draining.

A small shiver ran through her, nothing visible to any of the many observers looking her up and down but certainly very welcome. It wasn't satisfying, but the sensations would continue. Satisfaction would come, as would nourishment.

There. Right there. Oh, so good. Good boy. Very good boy. Feeling better prepared, the succubus walked into the restaurant.

************

"It's all a matter of how things come off," Audrey explained softly to the guest seated on the cushioned chair in front of her. She swayed a bit and touched him more now that they were alone, shielded from scrutiny by the tall dressing room door and the Kylie Minogue music piped through the store PA system. "Anticipation makes it better."

The store manager turned around in front of him, gyrating just enough to be inviting. She took Alex's hand in hers and guided it to the zipper on her skirt.

He no longer looked like a deer in her headlights. He'd at least accomplished that much. Part of him was still very conscious that Taylor was out there somewhere, but he had put the worst of those feelings behind him a while ago. That wasn't going to happen now, and probably never had any chance anyway. She had gone to UW with her basketball star boyfriend, the one he hadn't known about until they'd gone on two dates that Alex didn't know weren't dates. She went on to UW. He went to community college.

Life wasn't all about eventually finding true love with your unrequited crush from high school. That fairy tale sold movie tickets, but it wasn't real. Reality involved getting burned a few times as you grew up, and going through multiple experiences with other people before finally figuring out who you wanted to be with. You didn't owe anyone loyalty or monogamy until you had both agreed to it, and until then, there were other fish in the sea.

Some fish had skirts that slid from their hips to reveal lacy black boy shorts and thigh-high stockings that all together highlighted a nice ass.

"Like how that comes off?" she grinned over her shoulder.

"I do," Alex nodded. He was cooler about this now. In the moment. Audrey had never burned him and wasn't expecting anything but some fun. Maybe she'd always fantasized about taking a guy into the dressing room. Maybe she'd done it before. As Lorelei had said, this wasn't mind control.

"Don't be shy," she said, shifting her stance this way and that to give him a good look. "Visuals are important, but this is also a full-contact sport."

Alex smirked, appreciating her sex ed act, and brushed her hands up her stocking-clad legs, over her hips, along the small of her back. She sighed in appreciation. "I should see how these come off," he suggested.

"You really should," Audrey breathed.

His fingers hooked under the lace, slowly lowering them as she bent and twisted to accommodate the removal. "Wow," Alex smiled softly. "I do like these. They enhance the big reveal... but most of that comes down to who's wearing them."

"It does," Audrey said, turning and lowering herself to him. She took up the fabric on both sides of his neck in her hands and pulled him into a passionate, hungry kiss. His hands continued to roam but drew her in very close.

She broke off, needing to come up for air. Audrey inhaled heavily, eyes wide as she looked at her playmate with an excited grin. He had gotten her in his lap, almost grinding against him, but she'd thought better of that. She pulled her weight off of him. "See what I mean about anticipation?"

"Certainly," Alex nodded. He didn't have anything on his mind other than showing her some real appreciation. Even the worry about someone busting the two of them in this dressing room had disappeared from his thoughts. Admittedly, there was much less blood in his brain than there had been before. It had flooded to a more immediately useful organ.

Audrey could see that much in Alex's eyes. Saw it, reveled in it. She grabbed at his belt, jerking it open and fighting to release his flesh. "I think you still deserve a full demonstration of the payoff for dressing effectively," she grinned. His hands were still on her hips, right where she wanted them, and as soon as she had his organ free and had tugged his pants down, those hands pulled her very close.

They didn't need to fumble much. Both of them were quite ready, having indulged in an alternative sort of foreplay for the last ten minutes. Audrey discovered that Alex's inexperience with lingerie didn't equate to unfamiliarity with anatomy. She hadn't really been thinking about what to expect, but in the moment she understood that there might have been a bit of a bend to him, maybe a little give to his flesh. There was nothing of the sort. She didn't expect the solid, large, unyielding stiffness that gloriously penetrated her as he pulled her hips up onto his.

Audrey grunted helplessly. She wasn't normally noisy, but she couldn't help it. Her eyes didn't normally roll back, either, but they did this time because this guy felt so god damn good. She probably could've leaned backward, no hands, and stayed seated just by virtue of being wrapped around this magnificent cock.

Mister Right Now rocked her forward onto him, giving her another flesh-splitting rush. She grunted again, hands clutching at his shoulders, wanting to kiss him and laugh out loud and beg for more all at once. She ground up and down on his cock again, and again, wanting it to go on forever. His hands spread over her ass, helping her steady herself, taking some of her weight and making her feel deliciously dirty.

She was going to cum hard, she realized. Hard and fast. He'd just gotten started, and didn't seem like he was going to stop anytime soon. This fling was going to get her off more than once. His mouth wrapped itself around the side of her neck, right below her ear. "Oh fuck me," she breathed.

"Gladly," Alex hissed.





Chapter 19: Taylor strikes back...

Lorelei found him at a table by himself. He'd probably had guests -- there were other place settings -- but they were long since gone. He sat alone in his cheap suit in front of a broad spread of food and a rising stack of now-empty plates. A waiter passed by and looked on with obvious disgust, but only behind his back.

He looked up as she entered. He was good-looking, at least in this guise. His body was a touch on the bulky side. It was a jolly image. Disarming. He could charm, and would have to be good at that, but he wasn't made to seduce. At least, not with flesh. He looked up, chewing, and grunted in acknowledgment while he dabbed at his mouth and goatee with a cloth napkin.

Heat and fierce, smoky winds wafted off of him, not that it affected anyone who lived only on the mortal plane. Approaching this one was like trying to walk casually through a sandstorm. She had to look calm, though. Make it seem easy. Too much depended on it.

"Hello," the succubus said, sauntering over to the table. "I thought I sensed someone up here, but I'm afraid I don't know what name you prefer."

"Rob," he responded when he could. He gestured for her to take a seat opposite him. "Robert Gorge. Figured I felt another presence here myself. You're Lorelei, aren't you?"

"I am," she nodded.

"You look like you've seen better days, honey." No real sympathy in that voice. She didn't expect anything of the sort.

"I have. I am on the mend," she conceded, running one hand through her hair. That was the truth. The raw, straightforward fucking three floors down healed and revitalized her all at once. She could practically share the sensations of Alex's cock giving that happy, adorable little slut a ride like she'd only dreamed of. Lorelei watched "Rob" break a crab leg open and draw out the meat with practiced ease. He'd obviously had a great many. Yet she felt no less self-indulgent at that moment.

"As they say," Lorelei shrugged, "you should see the other guys."

"Hah! If they look worse than what they did to you," Rob grunted, waving an empty crab leg shell at her, "then yeah, I'd like to see that."

"What is left of them," Lorelei trailed off dismissively.

"There gonna be trouble?"

"I had thought to ask you the same. Truly, I hadn't expected to find anyone here," Lorelei responded.

Rob chewed thoughtfully. "I'm the first person you've asked?"

"I've always had a bit of an independent streak. Reporting back every little bump and bruise isn't my style."

"Hunh," the other demon nodded carefully. He looked at her for a good, long moment. He then pushed against her with his power akin to an ethereal sandstorm before pulling it back as if testing her.

Don't hold back, master, she thought to herself. A week ago, Lorelei would have been able to do this without trouble. That exhilarating feeling of Alex's pleasure bolstered her ability to resist.

Rob was also using much more than simple wordplay to evaluate his visitor. Lorelei had to be able to at least put up a decent front, both to remain inscrutable and to stand her ground. The fact that Audrey was cumming all over her master's cock down there helped Lorelei somewhat, and no demon would be able to detect that particular connection. Still, Lorelei was a succubus without wings or horns or tail, and another demon would be able to see that. She'd have to play that off like it didn't hurt as badly as it did. It never helped to look weak in front of Hell's own.

"I thought you were one of Belial's servants," Rob said.

"Not so directly placed near the top," Lorelei replied with feigned indifference. "As I said, going through channels would be a distraction."

Rob gave her another long, searching look as the wheels turned in his mind. This was no punishing demon; this one was made to tempt and corrupt. "I see. You're looking for a shortcut. I can see how that'd help, but help's gotta be paid for." His meaning was plain. They all wanted this from the succubi.

Release. Downstairs, her master was ridden over the edge. Lorelei shared in that joy and satisfaction without letting a bit of it show. She didn't need to, and Rob didn't need to know. Inside, Lorelei felt the blissful emotional rush of Alex's climax and felt replenished by it. On the surface, she maintained a remarkable poker face.

"My options for payment are limited," Lorelei smiled, giving a conciliatory nod. What Rob wanted was no option, wouldn't have been regardless of her strength. It was best to make plain her consent to such restrictions. A week ago, it would have been no problem. Now the thought of copulating with this one turned her stomach. Suddenly rather than indifference to Alex's restrictions, she actually felt grateful.

"That's too bad," Rob frowned. "I had always figured Belial's servants to be the kind to keep all options on the table. Smarter bargaining. Still, I'm sure we could work something out."

"We all have our restrictions," Lorelei shrugged again. The feeling was so good -- and then, abruptly, stopped. Totally interrupted. One second Alex was basking in the afterglow, still sheathed within his playmate and slowly beginning another go 'round -- then nothing.

The demon across from her pressed on. "Yeah, but not Belial's own legion." Rob shook his head, and then stuffed his mouth with a pair of fried shrimp. "Gnyou gnuys hafta giff your all effry day," he managed through too many morsels at once. Then he swallowed. "I know how Belial's servants work. No slacking, no hesitation. No price too high, no shame too low."

"Yes, well," Lorelei said, faltering a bit, "I have had a change of allegiances." A mistake. An admission she did not want to make, one that would pique further curiosity. A demon of avarice and gluttony like this could compel such revelations just as Lorelei could change her appearance to better approach a victim.

She could feel the invisible strength of his presence ramping up. He was like a shark that'd just smelled a hint of blood in the water. If she couldn't recover fast, he'd get much more information out of her than was safe for either herself or Alex.

************

"Oh god I'm cumming I'm cumming I'm cumming," Audrey whimpered into Alex's ear. Both arms were wrapped around his shoulders as he kept grinding her. She had given in entirely to him and was only barely trying to help with their shared motion. Audrey had brought him in here as the seductress, the experienced older woman, and now lost virtually all her composure.

Alex didn't stop. He was too close himself, and her admissions in his ear only turned him on more. His cock was almost too big for her -- almost. He could feel her stretching for him a bit to accommodate him, felt great about it, knew it was good for her, too. She'd feel wondrously worn out later.

Later. He'd be with Lorelei later, too. He was very, very happy to stay with Audrey for a while, and would have been utterly dazzled by her were the succubus not in his life... but she was. She set this up. She'd be all over him later, or he'd be all over her. When he was done with Audrey. He could have his cake and eat it, too.

In that moment, buried within Audrey to the hilt, the reality of his situation broke through. He could literally go from one beautiful, willing, enthusiastic partner right to the next. When he was done with this lay, there was another waiting. His life could be like this for a very long time.

It was enough to get a young man off in a dressing room.

************

Taylor was ready to kill that bitch.

Audrey made a show of getting along with everyone, but she screwed most of the girls in the store one way or another. She'd replaced the old manager a year ago, tossed out a schedule that had been made to accommodate everyone, got rid of their best sales associate for not following the corporate script, gave out crappy evaluations...

...and was now almost certainly having sex with the sweetest guy she'd ever known.

Okay, that may have been an exaggeration. But Alex had always been unfailingly nice to her. He was easily one of her best friends not two years ago -- maybe not the closest, but he was always nice, supportive and trustworthy. She knew how much he liked her, knew he wanted to be more than friends. She couldn't not know. That was why she'd never let him in closer. He was cute and all. Smart. Funny. Not as sexy as he was now -- and when the hell did that happen?

Good God, he was hot now. She was getting jittery just thinking about it. But in high school, there was Alex, and there were other guys, and then there was Gabriel...

...Gabriel. There was a thought. She'd been so thrilled when he got the basketball scholarship that would keep them together. Now Taylor wondered what her high school sweetheart was up to now, and with whom. He had a habit of being stupid while she was at work.

Work used to be more fun. Then Audrey showed up. Two minutes with Alex was all Taylor would need to explain that Audrey wasn't someone he really wanted to fool around with. He would believe her. He always believed her. He was special that way. He deserved better than that bitch. Could certainly do better now, apparently.

Fuck this. And fuck her, too.

"Guys, I'm gonna be off the floor for a few minutes," Taylor said over the headset. She strode back past the dressing rooms -- pausing only to confirm that she could, in fact, hear some incriminating noises from #3, and thank God nobody was using the other two -- and then went into the break room. Her purse, and the iPhone within it, was right where she'd left it. She adjusted the settings on the phone and then walked back out into the dressing room hallway.

No one else was there. The music was still bumping. So, it appeared, were the occupants of dressing room three.

Taylor held her camera over the top of the door, snapped a picture, and then another one. Then she did the same from the bottom edge. Then she checked the pictures. Best to make sure she had some evidence before she committed to the rest -- and wow, was that evidence.

She never thought she'd be jealous to see Alex's hands clutching another woman's ass.

The dressing room doors were taller than most, and locked from the inside --- theoretically. But if someone had a partially misspent youth, as Taylor had, popping the locks open with a credit card wasn't too much of a trick.

Grinning evilly, Taylor leaned up against the doorframe and took a nice, casual picture of the dirty action in front of her. This time, she used the flash.

"Huh?" Alex grunted.

"What the--?!" Audrey yelped. She turned, still straddling him, and blurted out, "Taylor?!"

Taylor was already snapping another picture. Her iPhone wasn't fast about that, but she'd timed it perfectly. The picture had enough of Audrey's face to provide solid evidence.

"Audrey, your lunch break is over," Taylor said confidently, "and you're needed on the floor. I can take over helping with this customer before I clock out for the night."

"You -- what the hell do you think you're doing!?" Audrey got off of a shocked, mortified Alex and grabbed her skirt off the floor.

"I think I'm filing my request for a shift change so you and I don't have to work together anymore," Taylor smiled. "At least until one of us gets a transfer to another store."

Audrey wasted no time in getting her skirt back on. "You think this is a good idea? You can't do anything with those pictures, they'll fire both of us!"

"Oh noes. I might get fired from my part-time retail job while I'm going to college." The two stared at one another for a moment, and then Taylor gestured toward the hallway. "Shut up and get the fuck out, Audrey." Taylor watched as her store manager fled, leaving her panties and Alex behind. She then closed and locked the door before turning to Alex.

"Wow," she grinned at Alex, "when did you go all pimp daddy?"

Alex stayed in the chair, his pants pulled back up but not fastened. He kept his slick, raging hard-on covered mainly with his hands and the bottom of his shirt. "Taylor, um, I can... uh..."

She bit the corner of her lip, still grinning at him.

"Okay, I totally can't explain this."

Taylor stepped closer. "You don't owe me an explanation," she said, her voice dropping, "but I should probably thank you for giving me the chance to deal with that bitch." She tossed the phone aside, then ran her hand through Alex's hair.

Alex's heart threatened to beat its way right through his sternum. Taylor's eyes projected nothing but hunger. "Oh my God," he mumbled.

"God's not here," Taylor whispered, "but I am. Still friends, right?" His mouth was open as if to say something, but no words were coming out. She kissed it instead.

"I should've done this a long time ago," she said, reaching down to pull his shirt and hands away from his groin.





Chapter 20: Taylor goes for a ride...

"It's always nice to talk shop with a colleague," Rob smiled. There was a flat firmness in his tone that was subtly out of place with his wording. He looked at her with a masterful blend of casual conversation and intimidating glare.

He might as well have been saying it from behind a sand blaster. The invisible, insubstantial fear and fury that he projected at her threatened to overwhelm her. Demons like Rob weren't built for bullying; they were creatures of manipulation, not raw power. Where Lorelei worked with flesh and lust, Rob's kind dealt in money and greed. But in the face of a weak target, there was no reason not to be direct.

"So tell me," Rob went on, "what happened to you?"

Lorelei wanted to get up and run. She considered it, fighting rising panic, but knew that would only make things worse. If she ran, he'd have every reason to pursue. That would lead to bigger trouble. Blood was in the water. All she could do was maneuver.

"I -- well, think it over, Rob," Lorelei said. "Your sort is always better-connected than mine. Who else is in this city?"

"A few people I could name. It's not as big as some other cities, but it's busy. Kind of an important place these days, lots of influential people. I knew you were here. You've got a name. One of the best, they always said. Like I mentioned, I'm kind of disappointed that you can't deal."

"I can bargain," Lorelei offered calmly.

"Sure, but not the way I'd like. New restrictions, you said."

"Y-yes."

"That's a tragedy. Who'd want to tie your hands like that? Keep you from using your best assets? You are what you are, right?"

Involuntarily, Lorelei's eyes went wide. She felt Taylor's first kiss. It hit her like a wave, directly counter to the blazing fury before her. The urge to run diminished. Alex was most certainly not having some random fling with a convenient, attractive partner anymore.

She closed her eyes for two seconds, three at the most. This was going further. Youthful longing and passion was being fulfilled, and flooding her as surely as if she lay with her master herself. Another kiss, this one deeper. Affectionate, groping hands. Teenage fantasy becoming adult reality. Naughty, physical, but compellingly beautiful.

Lorelei's eyes opened. There was a corruptor in front of her, thinking he could just intimidate her. She was pretty sure she could pitch the little bastard through the window out into the street below. The change in his expression told her that he knew it, too.

Lorelei smiled broadly. "It was a rough transition, but indisputably for the best."

************

"The fuck's keepin' him?" Mike fumed.

"Fuck if I know," J'Von shrugged.

"Maybe he really is in there shoppin' for panties," Tony scowled. "That shit's complicated." Mike and J'Von slowly turned to look at Tony.

"Really?" J'Von deadpanned.

************

She had held his cock in his hand, felt the wetness upon it, and didn't seem to be the least bit concerned. It wasn't like she didn't know where it was from. Amazingly, she didn't care. Taylor rode Alex, slowly reveling in the feeling of him inside of her, and if he'd been primed up and ready to go by some other woman so much for the better. For the first time in her life, Taylor didn't want to invest time in foreplay. She devoured his lips and tongue with another kiss. That was good, too.

Alex's longtime crush wrapped her legs around his hips, lifting her knees up as if to get him as deep inside of her as possible. She moaned into his mouth. Taylor felt every bit as good as Alex had ever dreamed. But it had always only ever been dreams.

This wasn't just sex. He cared about her. He had always cared about her. "Taylor," he whispered, "this is... I don't..."

"Sshhh," Taylor said, putting a finger over his mouth as she continued to gyrate against him. "We both know we both want this right now. It's just right now."

"I don't want to just use you."

She giggled softly. "You're not using me. We're friends. Very close friends. I don't expect anything more." Taylor squeezed with her thighs, riding up softly, then slowly lowering herself down on him again while never breaking eye contact. "We're not being any naughtier than you were just two minutes ago."

"I'm not. What about you?"

"You're the one here allegedly shopping for your alleged girlfriend. Won't she be mad if she finds out?"

"She'll know. She figures out everything. My 'girlfriend' will think this is hot."

"Good," she smiled into his lips. "It is. Go ahead and tell her if it'll be good for you. Just keep it to yourselves."

"What about you?" He kept her moving slowly up and down, sharing their trembling intimacy. This had been the girl of his dreams for years.

"Mmmmh. Let's just say that if you see my Facebook page explode tomorrow, it's been a long time coming and it isn't about you at all. Don't jump into it."

"You know I've always been crazy about you," Alex said. "I think everybody knew." Grinding slowly against him, Taylor nodded. "Are you okay if this isn't more than it is?"

"It's something."

"Yeah, but... I have things to sort out after the last year. I'm not looking for a new relationship. Sounds like you aren't, either. This just feels really right, just for now."

"Still friends?" Alex didn't feel disappointed. He still cared about her. Could even call it love. But life was too crazy to run away with that right now.

Taylor nodded. "I might want a booty call now and again, if that's okay."

"I can't promise to always be available, but I'd like that a lot." He pushed up into her, holding her down on his cock while kissing her, his hands roaming underneath her shirt.

She had always thought of Alex as adorable, but had never realized just what he could deliver. "Definitely a booty call now and again," Taylor groaned.

************

Rob remained in his seat, but he was effectively on the run. The succubus had him cornered on his own turf. It didn't matter that she looked all beat to shit; that predator's grin said it all. She could tear him limb from limb and scatter him so far and wide that it would be years before he got himself back together. After that, his masters would punish him for getting himself into such a predicament in the first place.

Whatever had suddenly gotten into her must have been pretty powerful. Maybe she had just been putting on an act? Were the scars all illusory? Could this all have been some sick act to lure him into conversation rather than immediate fight and flight?

"You said you knew names," Lorelei smiled.

"Lydia's here," Rob began hesitantly, "and Harrow. A couple more like me -- there's money in this city, y'know?"

One eyebrow rose up. "Lydia and Harrow? Together?"

"I don't know. I don't know why they're here. She only turned up recently. They've both approached me for material aid, which I gave, but that's about it. And I told them I'd keep it quiet."

"Good job on that," Lorelei remarked dryly. "Who else?"

"That's it for our kind. Don't ask me about the other side. We don't talk."

"I am also curious of those who would fall in between. The interesting ones."

Rob fumed. He didn't like being bullied. "What do I get for all this? You said you were going to bargain?" She smiled again, and he stared at that smile. That mouth is made to be stuffed with dick, he thought... but not his dick. That would definitely not be happening. Fucking dammit.

Lorelei glanced down at the table. "I'll pick up your tab here."

"This is an all-you-can-eat buffet!" Rob protested.

"So don't hold back," she said, gesturing at the buffet counters.

Arrogant fucking cunt, Rob fumed silently. It galled him that this only made him want her more, but even demons sometimes wanted what they couldn't have.

"Others?" she asked.

He sighed. "About as many vampires in this town as you would expect."

Lorelei made a disdainful face, as if he'd farted right in front of her. "They count as interesting?"

"Well, I guess not," Rob had to concede. He pondered a moment. "Woods are full of all sorts of critters, but they keep to themselves. There's, um... there are some Believers and Practitioners around here who do a little more than just pose and dabble..."

That caught her interest. "Tell me what you know," she said flatly.

************

J'Von checked the time on his cell phone and cursed. "Nobody take that long lookin' at women's undies 'less they tryin' the shit on."

"Maybe he's that way?" Tony shrugged. "I mean, who are we to judge?"

"Yeah, don't go all fuckin' homophobe, J'Von," Mike nodded.

"The fuck...? What's wrong wit'choo?! Jesus! Look, we done waitin'. We gotta go in there an' get his ass." J'Von took off walking, with Tony and Mike quickly falling in line behind him.

"Could be he getting' a blowjob in the back room," Mike suggested. "Girls workin' in a lingerie store gotta be at least a little bit freaky."

"Shit, that stuff only happens in porn," Tony countered.

The store was mostly empty when the three entered. Only the closing crew and a couple of random customers remained. Not everyone noticed the three men, all dressed for thug life, as they arrived. Even then, nobody wanted to jump to conclusions. It wasn't the way they were dressed that was alarming, though, so much as the all-business expressions on their faces.

It was J'Von though that found the dressing rooms. Two were open; one was occupied. He glanced down at the bottom of the door and saw men's sneakers and crumpled pants. Frowning, he paused, and heard what sounded like kissing.

Shit, really? he wondered. He wasn't sure what their target was wearing, but this appeared to be the only guy in the store. It was worth checking. Worst case, they lost their guy and would have to leave the mall. J'Von had been thrown out of Pacific Place before. It wasn't a thing.

He pulled his grocery store club card out of his pocket and slipped it in over the latch.

Sure enough, there was a couple going at it on the dressing room seat. One of the sales girls was on the dude's lap, going at him slow but hard, and neither one heard J'Von enter until the door banged against the wall. Both looked up with a start.

J'Von already had his nine partially drawn from his coat. "Don't say a fuckin' thing," he warned quietly but darkly. "I'll be long gone 'fore cops show up after I shoot both of you."

Neither one panicked. The girl looked more afraid than the guy, but she wasn't about to scream. For his part, the guy on the seat seemed to be keeping his cool. "What do you want?" he asked.

"Put your fuckin' pants on, both of you," J'Von said. "Don't do nothin' stupid. We goin' for a drive." They didn't argue. Both of them did as he said.

Alex didn't like it, of course. More than being just unpleasant and dangerous, it seemed like a dumb way to handle the situation. When seeing something like this on television, he would scream inwardly at the characters not to just go along with the bad guy, but rather make a break for it or do something.

In the reality of it, though, he'd only ever been in two real fights, and one was just the other night. Those were three middle-aged guys taken by complete surprise. He'd been armed, more or less. And before that fight was over, he had an angel and a demon on his side, who had been the ones to end it.

Neither of them was in sight. He didn't know where Lorelei was, or how soon she'd be back. Rachel said she'd be watching him, but couldn't see him when he was with Lorelei, and Alex didn't know what that specifically meant for him. How far did they have to be apart? How often did Rachel try to look?

With his pants back on, Alex thought for a brief moment about trying to tackle J'Von, but then Mike appeared in the hallway. Two of them now. Twice as unlikely to turn out well. Neither of them looked like strangers to violence, either.

As they quietly directed Alex and Taylor out of the dressing rooms and out of the store, joined by a third guy -- this one white and skinnier than the other two -- Alex cursed at himself for not taking Drew up on those kung fu classes months ago. They might not have helped much at all here, but anything was better than nothing, and that's what he had. Nothing.

Taylor kept it together fairly well. The only sign of fear she showed was in taking Alex's hand when they were outside the store and walking to the elevators.

"We gotta pay parking before we leave?" Tony asked as they waited.

"Don't know," J'Von shrugged. He nudged Alex from behind. "We gotta pay parking for that car of yours?"

Alex sighed. "The pass is in my pocket," he mumbled.

"Good." The elevator opened, and all five of them went inside. They didn't share the car with anyone. As soon as the doors shut, J'Von demanded, "Phones, wallets, and keys. Now."

Both hostages -- that's what they were now, Alex understood -- did as was demanded. Alex wished he had replaced that pepper spray. All he'd have to do was set it off in here and everyone would be blinded and incapacitated. These guys seemed serious, but he didn't think they'd be dumb enough to shoot blindly in an elevator. The worst he or Taylor would suffer is some bruises, maybe a broken bone or two.

No pepper spray. No black belt in kung fu. No guardian angel or fire-breathing demon. Too bad for that.

************





Chapter 21: Alex steps up...

Her business with Rob completed, Lorelei headed out of the restaurant feeling confident and reassured. Alex's second tryst seemed to have been completed a moment or two ago, too. It seemed to have ended a bit abruptly, but then, she did leave him in a lingerie store. No telling what sort of interruptions might take place there.

She contemplated doing as she had implied on her way out -- hitting a couple of other stores to get things out of the way before she came back. But Lorelei felt an urge to reunite with her master and thank him, quite pornographically, for the joy that he had just shared with her. She strode to the escalators and then headed for the lingerie store.

Inside, she didn't find him. Just several worried-looking sales associates. Among them was Audrey, who seemed very stressed.

"Where is my companion?" Lorelei asked her. "Has he left?"

"He did."

"Did he say where he was going?"

"He just left all of a sudden with Taylor and three other guys. It didn't look right, but we didn't know if— "

Lorelei was already out the door.

************

It dawned on Alex that if he and Taylor got into a car with these guys, one or both of them were probably going to die. This was kidnapping. None of these guys had concealed their faces. One of them had even referred to the other two by name, so now Alex knew that they were J'Von, Mike and the White Guy.

They walked as a group, quietly, through the parking garage. Shoppers on their way out zoomed through the garage one by one, none of them looking like they had a care in the world. Some, in fact, were going a bit too fast.

"Gonna fuckin' hit somebody, asshole," Mike grumbled as he jumped out of the way of a Mustang. "Don't try nothin' stupid," J'Von warned the two hostages. "It's not you we want, anyway."

"What do you want?" Taylor asked.

"Shut up," J'Von shot back. "Boy, where's your car at?"

"It's over there," Tony said before Alex could speak. He apparently had a good eye for cars. Alex tried to think, fighting a rising panic. If they got into that car, that car right there, they were dead. He couldn't accept that. Not for himself. Certainly not for Taylor.

Alex had been in a mild scuffle or two, gotten some tips on fighting from friends who really knew what they were doing, but not much. He was generally smart enough to stay out of trouble -- at least until this week. He thought and thought about what he was supposed to do in these situations.

All he could think of was something Drew had said to him before. That day they both got suspended in High School for the only real fight he'd been in before this week. It had erupted in P.E. after a couple of boys had made Oreo jokes about Drew. Alex had been almost as offended as Drew, and wasn't going to let his friend face them alone, but he wasn't much good in the brawl that erupted. Outside the principal's office, Drew had simply said, "You wanna fight right, you gotta be meaner than the other guy. Don't matter if it's ugly. Losing is uglier. You don't know what's gonna happen if you lose."

Alex heard another car coming up the winding parking garage. "Taylor," he said softly, "I need my hand back." She let go.

All Alex had going for him was the hope that he could be meaner than they were. He had no interest in seeing what they might do to Taylor.

One second, everything was going fine for J'Von and his crew. In the next, Mike had suddenly been shoved right into an oncoming SUV going way too fast for a parking garage.

He bounced off the hood, tumbled to the car's right and down to the pavement as it passed by with its brakes squealing. Alex, inexperienced at these things, hesitated in the second after he shoved to see if it worked. J'Von didn't, and planted a right cross squarely into the side of Alex's jaw. He staggered, bouncing off the car next to him, and realized that he might've done something smarter than this. Taylor yelped and jumped out of the way.

"Oh, shit!" Tony blurted. He didn't know whether to check on Mike or back up J'Von. He decided on the latter, only to have Taylor trip him from behind.

The driver of the SUV, sensing trouble, took off rather than check on his victim. It was Seattle, after all.

Alex recovered and launched himself at J'Von but came up empty. He recovered quickly from that too. He even blocked the next couple of punches J'Von threw. He didn't block the elbow, though, or the knee in the stomach. Alex clutched at him, grabbed at his face, and pushed his thumb in the bigger man's eye.

Tony got to his feet and punched Taylor in the gut, leaving her doubled over. He then quickly jumped over to pull Alex away from behind. Alex's foot came right up into J'Von's groin.

Tony's fist came right up into Alex's kidney. He gasped, turned, and blocked another low blow. He tried countering with an uppercut but Tony dodged it entirely. This was really bad.

"Slow," Tony taunted Alex mockingly.

Alex threw a half-kick, half-stomp at the side of Tony's knee. Something about the impact sounded very unpleasant; Tony went down wailing. "Gimp," Alex retorted.

He spun to face J'Von, who was still bent over in pain, but had his gun out. J'Von, in severe pain,, fired four times from only a couple yards away. Three of the bullets went wild; poor aim and stress led him to squeeze too much while he shot. The first bullet caught Alex midway up his chest, just under his shirt pocket.

Taylor screamed. She rushed to Alex, but Tony caught her pant leg. She tripped and fell to the pavement.

The world spun; Alex staggered sideways, twisted, fell back onto the side of Lorelei's car. He slid down, sitting up against the door.

J'Von moved between the Lexus and the car next to it in order to stand over Alex. "Told you not to do anything stupid," he said, leaning in enough to spit the words in Alex's face. Half delirious, Alex's eyes wandered up at the shadow over him. His hands sought to grab onto something, anything. J'Von wasn't worried about it though. He was angry and wanted this fool's last moments to be full of nothing but weakness and fear.

Instead, a thought drifted through Alex's fuzzy mind. Something about needing to be meaner than the other guy. He seized that thought, hung onto it for dear life... and grabbed the looming shadow by the collar, yanking towards him with everything he could. Off-balance and surprised, J'Von found his head crashing through the passenger side window of the Lexus.

Another shot rang out from J'Von's gun, this one striking nothing but pavement. Taylor yelped while getting to her feet. Mike groaned loudly due to J'Von's weight on him. Tony forced himself to his feet, pulling his own gun -- J'Von had always, always told Tony not to pull a piece unless J'Von told him to do so, but this seemed to qualify. He grunted out something about having J'Von's back.

Then Tony found himself face-to-face with the most heart-stoppingly beautiful blonde girl he had ever, and would ever see in his life. She was dressed all in white. "Huh?" he blinked.

The angel's open hand came down on his face at a sharp angle. Her slap hit him like a brick. His bones cracked loudly almost like a soda can being crushed underfoot. His whole body crumpled to the floor in the blink of an eye. Taylor saw it, but couldn't believe it.

Rachel turned to Alex and J'Von just as the bigger man extracted himself from the car window and lifted himself off of Alex. Blood was flowing from his scalp. He turned his gun on Alex again, or would have, but Rachel was far more dexterous; she snatched it from his hand before he could pull the trigger.

"Lie down," Rachel ordered him.

"The fuck?" J'Von blinked.

Rachel swung the pistol up against his forehead, sending him bouncing into the wall behind him and then slumping to the floor.

On her feet now, Taylor rounded the parked car blocking her view to see Rachel crouch down over Alex. "Is he okay?" she asked, very close to tears.

Rachel touched the wound with her fingers. "He will be," she said. Alex looked up in her eyes blearily, feeling things move inside his chest. He was pretty sure that whatever was going on in there was really bad; he felt gurgly and could barely catch his breath as he struggled to keep from passing out. But then that all faded, and instead he was just very, sharply sore right where her fingers were. The world stopped blurring and spinning.

"It's a miracle that the bullet just glanced off your rib like that," Rachel smiled at him softly. "You could have had a collapsed lung. Or worse."

"Alex?" Taylor asked.

"I'm alright," Alex mumbled. "I think."

"You have been a bit beaten up, but that gunshot could've been much worse," Rachel nodded. She looked to Taylor. "That other one over there -- he probably has a gun, too. Probably in his waistband. Could you check on him before he recovers? Don't bother being nice about it," she warned.

Taylor swallowed and nodded. She hurried over to Mike, shoved him onto his back and patted him down until she found the gun. He groaned loudly but didn't put up a fight.

Rachel pulled Alex to his feet. "That was very brave," she said. "I'm sorry I didn't get here sooner."

"What kept you?" he huffed.

"No wings," Rachel shrugged with a slightly guilty smile. "I had to run all the way from your mother's house. I didn't realize you weren't there until two minutes ago."

"You ran all the way across town in two minutes?"

"It's not that big a town."

"Huh. Maybe I should've just waited for you."

"No. You did the right thing. There are sometimes limits to my ability to intervene. I don't know how else this might have turned out. Who is this?" she asked as Taylor returned.

"Oh. Taylor's, um, a friend from High School. Wow, this hurts."

"I would imagine," Rachel nodded. "Hello, Taylor. You won't remember much about me soon. Sorry for that."

"Um. Hi?"

The angel nodded, surveyed the scene around her with her hands on her hips, and took a deep, calming breath... and then stopped. She took another long breath, slowly turning to Alex. "That... smell," she mumbled.

"Huh?" Alex asked. Taylor was perplexed as well.

"You smell," Rachel said, her voice wavering somewhat. "I smell? Oh, no, not this again..."

"You smell like..." Rachel inhaled deeply yet again, eyes fluttering much like Lorelei's had when he went down on her. "You smell like charity and compassion and... justice, and benevolence, and... mercy, and..." she inhaled again. "Self-sacrifice and... and... sex!"

She threw herself at him, arms wrapped around the battered young man with her mouth ravenously kissing his. Taylor looked on in awe; she would undoubtedly remember this quite clearly.

Alex himself was hardly even on the same plane of existence as everyone else in that moment. An angel -- his angel -- was kissing him. Every pain and worry fell away while her lips met his. They held that kiss for a long moment.

It was more than a little awkward for Taylor. They were absolutely beautiful together. They practically glowed. But then, anyone would be beautiful in that woman's arms. The blonde made her feel plain and frumpy by comparison. Alex seemed to have been taken by surprise, but then he was swept away by it. Everything in the parking garage went quiet.

Except, of course, for the groans from Mike and Tony. Taylor blinked. She looked over to Tony and kicked his gun under a car, then kicked him in the head. "Asshole," she grunted.

A car drove up from the lower level. This one stopped. "Hey, are these guys okay?" the older woman inside asked.

"No!" Taylor said urgently, "Call the cops! Please!"

The woman blinked, finding the scene of sprawled-out men and two people making out a bit odd, but she nodded, pulled back a few yards and put her car in park, then grabbed her phone. She did not, pointedly, get out of the car.

Alex wasn't sure what ended the kiss, but the first thing that registered for him besides the overwhelming beauty of the angel in his arms was the sharp click of sandals rapidly approaching.

Lorelei. She was here. Rachel's eyes went wide, and she slipped out of her embrace with Alex. His chest, his backside, and the rest of him felt terrible again. The only thing that didn't return was the crunchy pain in his jaw.

The succubus came over to them, reaching out to touch her master's arm, but she looked warily at the angel. She had doubtlessly seen them kissing. "Where the hell were you?" Rachel shot at her.

Lorelei scowled. "I had given him some space. Had I known that you were sleeping on the job, I might not have been so careless."

"Sleeping--! You bitch!"

"Ladies! Please! Can we just... can you just be a little patient with each other? Huh? Maybe at least try to be nice?" Alex held his hand over his bloody chest, then winced and realized perhaps that wasn't the best idea. "It would mean a lot to me if you two could bury the hatchet, at least just a little."

Rachel's face conveyed a twist of emotions. The thought was appalling, but at the same time the fact that he had to ask filled her with guilt. "Ma—Alex, I'm sorry," Rachel blinked. "I don't mean to make this hard on you."

Lorelei was much more calm and collected. "I saw the two of you kiss. I can feel his desire for you. You are lovely together. I'm certain we could all come to an arrangement," she suggested.

Rachel looked at her in abject shock, but Lorelei merely shrugged. "Believe it or not, what I want most of all is Alex's safety and happiness. You seem able to provide some measure of both. Sharing him would not bother me."

Alex turned to Lorelei, dumbfounded, while Rachel's mind seemed to go through an emergency reboot. Lorelei's steamy offer hung in the air without any pretense of being anything other than it was.

"Just..." Rachel blinked. "Just... just keep him out of trouble and fuck him like he deserves!" she shot back at Lorelei, and then spun and walked away. As before, she was out of sight in mere seconds.

"That is the strangest angel I have ever met," Lorelei murmured.

"Do they all talk like that?" Alex wondered aloud.

"Not a one," Lorelei shook her head. Sirens began to echo through the parking garage. "I should be able to keep this from getting out of hand," Lorelei thought aloud. She looked to Alex. "I am terribly sorry."

"Not your fault," he shook his head.

Lorelei looked at him apologetically anyway, and leaned in to kiss him softly. Then she turned away to let him compose himself.

Taylor had watched all of this. She had been almost entranced by the heavenly blonde, and found herself similarly awestruck by Lorelei -- who turned to her and smiled coolly. "You must be Taylor," she said.

Her jaw dropped. "You know who I am?"

"I know that he cherishes you, and that you are often on his mind and always in his heart. I'm sure that will always be so. You must be very special." She sounded utterly unbothered by it, perhaps even admiring. Then she turned away to meet the oncoming authorities.

Taylor slid up next to Alex and ventured a whispered question: "Which one of them is your girlfriend?"

His mouth twitched as his mind searched for an explanation, but eventually he came up with nothing. "I'm not entirely sure," he said finally.

She nodded, crossing her arms across her chest. Taylor looked over at Lorelei, and the battered thugs, and Alex. "You got way cooler after high school."

Alex frowned slightly. "Hey, I was always this cool, alright?"





Chapter 22: Overprotective Motherhood...

"Mom, I'm okay, but I got into kind of a fight and I'm in the hospital right now," was very much not the way Michelle wanted to end her night out. It had been a good day at work. Her meetings had gone well. She was able to talk the vendors down a couple of extra percentage points in price through sheer determination to wade through details. Moreover, she'd had a record day of compliments on "looking great" and "seeming really upbeat."

Stewart, her boss, had dared to ask quietly if she had started seeing somebody. He wasn't the only one. But what was she going to say? That she'd just been having a string of disturbingly naughty but wonderful dreams lately? That she hadn't gotten laid in years, but woke up the last couple mornings feeling like she had?

Michelle was getting appreciative looks and stares, too. Everyone was professional and respectful at the office, but she knew she was being noticed. The sales guys were pretty friendly and flirty that night when everyone went out for drinks, too. Conversation was getting a bit racy, but not uncomfortable. The thought occurred to her, talking with Eddie from accounting, that certainly Alex could handle the "I'm going to go over to a friend's house tonight" message.

And then, sure enough, her phone rang, and less than a minute later Eddie -- playing designated driver -- was taking her to Harborview Medical Center instead of back to his place. "Michelle, he said he's okay," Eddie reminded her for the third time as they rolled up toward the emergency room entrance.

"He said he'd been shot," Michelle said flatly. "God, I was always worried that I'd get a call about him being smashed on the freeway, not this."

"If he said he's okay, he'll be fine. I'm going to pull up and let you out at the curb and then go find parking. I'll call you when I've found a parking space, alright?"

"Sure. Thanks, Eddie," she said, and then jumped right out of the car before he'd even come to a complete stop. Michelle was a strong, self-controlled woman. She'd endured and ultimately banished a cheating husband, raised her child on her own, and finished her MBA and worked her way up the corporate ladder while she was at it. It took all of that control to keep from screaming, "Where is my son!?" the second she walked in.

The front desk was mobbed. It was a busy hospital. The prospect of having to stand through that line (if one could call it that) to find out where Alex was seemed like the perfect recipe for wrecking those last bits of self-control, but in the event, it wasn't necessary.

"Mrs. Carlisle?" a voice asked. Michelle's head jerked sideways to see a strangely familiar face. It took a second to recall the name, though. The girl seemed to understand. "I'm—"

"Taylor, right?" Michelle said.

"Yes," Taylor nodded. "I'm here with Alex. Can I take you to him?"

"Yes! Is he okay?"

"He's going to be fine. They'll let him go home tonight." They were already walking, dodging gurneys and wandering patients.

Michelle recognized him from behind. He sat on a hospital bed in an open room, talking to a police officer with a clipboard. His shirt was off. There was an ugly bruise on the lower right side of his back and a few other scrapes, and some bandages wrapped around him horizontally. A couple of other people were in the room, but Michelle didn't even notice them right away.

She rushed through the doorway, calling out his name as she threw her arms around him. "OW!" he yelped. She jerked back.

"Mom? Jesus! Ow, be careful."

"I'm sorry, I'm -- you said you'd been shot!"

He kept himself sitting bolt upright. Michelle saw now that the bandages wrapped around his torso were there to keep thick gauze over a spot under the left side of his chest.

"Ma'am, please don't touch him right now," someone in hospital smocks told her firmly. "He's going to be fine."

"Okay, I'm sorry, okay," Michelle said. She looked at Alex in amazement, then around the room. There was the police officer there. The hospital worker. Taylor. And a tall, majestically beautiful woman with long black hair. Something about her gave the stressed mother a shiver, derailing her thoughts for a moment. Michelle looked at her, stunned, and then blinked it away. "What happened?"

There were awkward looks in response from everyone but the nurse. She seemed used to these things.

"I think I've got everything I need here," the cop said. He gave Alex and Taylor a couple of business cards. "Call me if anything else comes up. You can expect a call from Detective Ruiz tomorrow." Before he left, he said to Michelle, "Ma'am, you raised a really tough kid. You should be proud."

Michelle blinked. "I'm sorry?"

He gestured to Alex and Taylor. "They just put two armed felons in the hospital and another one in jail. The case for sending all three of them to prison seems pretty solid."

More blinking. "Alex did?"

The cop nodded, shook Alex's hand and Taylor's, and left.

"I should really be going, too," Taylor said.

"Right, right," Alex nodded. "Thanks for coming with me, Taylor."

She smiled. "I'll be in touch. Promise." She leaned in, kissed him lightly on the lips, then grabbed her purse and headed out.

Michelle saw this and looked at Alex with a smile of pride threatening to disrupt her shocked expression. It wasn't as if she hadn't known about his high school angst. "You and Taylor?" she mouthed.

"Um, Mom," Alex said, figuring that now was an appropriately horrible moment to get it out of the way, "this is Lorelei. My girlfriend."

Michelle's mind ground to a halt. This woman had to be ten years older than Alex, maybe more. She was dressed in designer clothing. She looked like a supermodel, except supermodels needed makeup and airbrushing.

Later, she would feel awful about it, but the only thing she could think to say was: "Seriously?"

"Wow. Thanks, Mom," Alex sighed.

"Ladies," a voice broke in, "I'm going to need some room. I need to put a better wrapping on him. Could you step outside?"

"Sure," Michelle said, trying to come back to reality. "What's wrong? I don't even know how he's hurt."

"Cracked rib, bruised kidney, generally knocked around," the nurse shrugged. "He needs to stay home tomorrow at least and take it easy for the next couple of weeks." She then looked expectantly at Michelle. Lorelei was already stepping out. Eventually, the mother understood and walked out of the room.

"Yeah, this is gonna be awkward," Alex sighed.

"Honey, if I was your momma, I wouldn't believe that woman is your girlfriend, either."

************

Outside the room, Michelle became very, very aware of two things: she was immediately, inexplicably uncomfortable in being with this woman alone -- even in a busy hallway -- and she there was a subtle, unwelcome, pleasant sensitivity between her legs.

"Mrs. Carlisle," Lorelei began, "I'm -- we're both sorry that you and I are meeting for the first time like this."

"How long have you been seeing my son?" Michelle asked, still quite stunned. "I didn't know he was seeing anybody. He's never had a girlfriend."

Lorelei smiled softly. "We only met a few days ago. Several men had accosted me. Alex saved my life."

"Are you -- are you serious with this? When did my son become a superhero?"

Lorelei's smile twitched a bit. "I wouldn't call him that, but as the officer said, he's an extraordinarily brave and unselfish man."

"He's--? He couldn't sleep without his stuffed pony until six years ago! The football coach cut him for flinching too much!"

"I can hear you, Mom!" Alex's voice reverberated through the window next to her. Michelle winced, tossed an apologetic glance over her shoulder, then looked back to Lorelei.

"There is a difference between common machismo and courage," Lorelei shrugged smoothly. "Alex is often cautious because he is intelligent and does not take unnecessary risks. But faced with a worthy task, his inner fortitude is quite inspiring."

The mother's eyes flared. She had no doubt what this stranger meant by 'inspiring,' regardless of how subtle her shift in tone was. "Look," she said, "you're obviously a very sophisticated, older... b-beautiful woman. I mean, I think the world of my son, but he's just a year out of high school. This doesn't compute."

"Does it have to?"

"Of course it does! This is just... what would a woman like you want with my son?"

Lorelei simply shrugged. "I want to make him happy."

************

She didn't come home with Alex and Michelle. At least, not that Michelle saw. They faked a goodbye. All it had taken was a wordless glance for him to understand that she would catch up to him later, undetected.

"I don't want to sound so critical," she said in the front seat of Eddie's car, "but that woman seems just so... I don't want to say this, but—"

"Say it, Mom," Alex frowned. He sat in the back seat, as straight as he could manage for the benefit of his cracked rib. The conversation was unfortunate, but he wasn't angry about it. This was bound to happen. He couldn't blame his mother for reacting like this.

"Doesn't it seem just too good to be true?"

"I'd think that if things went more smoothly," her son mumbled grimly.

"That's the other thing. I mean, she got you shot! Three guys came to kidnap you and that Taylor girl -- and what's up with that, by the way?"

"Those guys were looking for Lorelei because they thought she knew someone they knew, Mom, I told you already. Just like we told the cops. And Taylor and I are just friends."

"Honey, 'just friends' don't say goodbye like that. Her name came out of your mouth twenty times a day for years. I'm surprised your head didn't explode in there."

"I don't have an explanation for that, Mom," he sighed. Not that he was going to tell her right now, anyway. Michelle was normally much cooler. The isolated "hook up in a store dressing room" would have shocked her and would easily have been well into "too much information" territory, but in the end she would have laughed it off. There was just no way to put it into context now.

"That didn't seem to bother Lorelei," Michelle noted.

"Not a whole lot does."

"Are you sure she isn't just using you for something?"

"Like what? My money? My awesome social connections? Can we talk about this later, Mom?"

"I'm sorry," Michelle sighed. She looked at Eddie. "And I'm sorry you're here for all this."

Eddie just shrugged. "It's not my business, but I can't really blame your mom, Alex," he put in, glancing up at the mirror. "This is your first relationship, right?"

"First girlfriend label, yeah. Not that we've really discussed it. I just didn't know how else to introduce her."

He nodded. "Look, only a fool would try to tell you to stop seeing someone like her," he said -- as much for Michelle as for Alex -- "and an age gap like that means less and less as you get older. It's just odd because you're so young. I don't want to discount the idea that you're really just happy together and everything will work out great, but that gap is going to be its own challenge."

"Don't I know it," Alex muttered.

Michelle frowned, resenting the fact that Eddie was right. There was no way to tell someone her son's age not to date someone like Lorelei if the opportunity was there. She turned back to Alex. "Are you in love with her?"

He glanced meaningfully at the back of her co-worker's head, as if to remind her that he'd met the guy all of once before if ever. "We haven't used that word."

"But are you?"

"I don't know. I get how weird this is. Better than you do, Mom," he said, shrugging glumly. "But I'm not going to let go of something good just because of what might happen. I'll be careful, but if I get my heart broken, I guess that's just the way it goes, right?"

Michelle's frown did not abate, but she really couldn't argue with that. He'd learned it from his mother.

Lorelei's car was parked just up the block from Alex's home as they pulled up. Complete with broken window, he thought. Alex wondered if she were sitting inside it, but couldn't really go look. Instead, he got up gingerly out of the car and walked with the two of them to the entrance to the condo complex. He found Lorelei waiting there, standing by the front gate with a single finger held up to her lips. She winked. A laptop bag hung from one hand. The others obviously couldn't see her.

"I guess I'll see you tomorrow, Eddie," Michelle said. "I'm probably going to go in late in the morning."

"I can't blame you. Sure you don't want to take the day off? Everyone will understand."

"I don't know. We've still got to wrap up those contracts. And I'll have to go get my car, anyway. Thanks so much, Eddie." Alex had already buzzed himself and the mostly-invisible succubus inside. Michelle paused to kiss Eddie on the cheek before following them.

At the elevator, Alex asked with a smirk, "Is that how co-workers say goodbye, Mom?"

"Oh, you're one to talk."





Chapter 23: A Surprising Recovery...

"Holy shit," Alex said with his hands over his face as he lay in bed. "I can't believe my mother just tucked me in. It's like I'm supposed to be eight years old again."

Lorelei kept her amused smile to a minimum. "It's understandable. Moving is painful for you at the moment. You could have been killed. She feels the need to be a mother."

"Still. I should've known she'd freak out about you." His hands fell away. He looked up at her, now standing over his bed in the relative darkness. A gibbous moon and reflected street lighting through his window provided just enough light to see her.

"We could have done a number of things to mitigate this. It is not too late. I could look younger to her and others, and convince her to remember this night slightly differently. Some degree of deception is necessary, given the reality of our situation."

He sighed, considering it. "I don't want to hide you or what you are. Or what you are to me."

Lorelei smiled softly. "What do you want, Alex?"

"I want you. I want to be with you," Alex answered. "I don't want to hide with you in my bedroom in my mom's house anymore."

"I had assumed that last part," Lorelei said. Her intensified smile showed how pleased she was with the rest of his answer. "I can help ensure your mother comes to terms with it. There is no harm there. We can also acquire a new place for you -- us -- to live fairly easily."

"We accomplished basically nothing we went out to do tonight," he grumbled.

"I am rather amazed at all that you have accomplished," Lorelei replied. "Priorities often shift regardless of intentions. And I am at least in possession of my own finances and transportation again, along with a few other helpful things. The rest will come quickly. Master, I am terribly sorry for what happened to you and Taylor."

"You've said that a bunch of times already. You don't have to apologize, I know you didn't plan all that."

"I would like to make it up to you though," she said seductively, slipping off her jacket.

Alex smiled. "I'm sure I'd really like that," he said quietly. "Just don't make me move my upper body."

Lorelei smiled back, dropping the jacket on his desk chair. "Tonight you won't move a muscle with the exception of one. Just relax and let me take care of you, master. I think you'll find that I am very skilled in physical therapy." She reached for his stereo and pressed a single button. It was pop music, soft, sexy and turned down comfortably low. Lorelei began to sway. "Among my other talents," she added with a smile and wink.

Alex watched as she slowly ran her hands over her own body, starting from her legs and moving upward to draw is attention to every delicious curve. She had quite a few of those. She hooked a thumb under one shoulder strap of her top, pulling it free.

"You set this up ahead of time," he said quietly.

"I didn't know I could get you relatively immobilized... but I had the better part of two days here to myself," Lorelei conceded in a hushed tone. Both shoulders were bared now, and with her arms crossed over her chest, she leaned forward to give him a teasing view. "I'll be setting up many things to please you."

"Like Audrey?"

She laughed, just a little. The succubus straightened, continuing her slow strip-down. "Yes, master, like Audrey. Though I suspect that was more about you than you might believe. I felt you with her. It was lovely for me. You enjoyed her, yes?"

"You know I did."

"I do. You have resisted so much of what I have to offer. I hope you know now that my designs are in line with your conscience. I know what you can and cannot accept." Her crossed arms rose, lifting her top up over her head to reveal her magnificent chest, covered by a lacy purple bra that she hardly needed for support. The top fell to the floor.

She kept her eyes on him. For what seemed to be the millionth time, Alex was blown away by the recent turns in his life. This woman, stripping for him before she had sex with him, was asking with lusty interest about the last women he'd had sex with. Encounters that she was largely responsible for and she called him master.

Lorelei delighted in his gaze. It was plain in her smile. She seemed to let out a quiet laugh -- she was too dignified to giggle -- and her eyes sparkled. "I also know that you enjoy watching me," Lorelei said. Her thumbs slipped under the waistband of her jeans, sliding around them to draw attention to her hips, her alluring belly, and the sexy depressions between.

"I feel your desire. That hunger feeds me, and your inevitable satisfaction will give me much more. I taste gratitude, and affection, and... possessiveness." She winked, and added, as if the word pleasured her, "Master."

The top button on her jeans came undone. The zipper came down. Alex caught only a hint of the blue lace underneath before she turned away, still swaying, now showing off that ass they both knew he found mesmerizing. The jeans started to slide down, revealing blue lace and flawless flesh. "I like that lace thong, by the way," he smiled.

"You learned a thing or two tonight, didn't you?" Lorelei winked over her shoulder.

"Audrey brought me in that dressing room and did a little of what you're doing now. Differently."

"You don't have to make comparisons," Lorelei said, pulling one leg out of her skin-tight jeans and somehow making what should have been a struggle look smooth. "Did it work for you? Please you?"

"It really did."

"Then that's all that matters." When she turned for him again, she put one leg up on the desk and caressed its full length. Alex wanted to reach out of the bed and take that leg, along with the rest of her, but he understood his role here.

His partner's grin smoldered. "Tell me," Lorelei said as she teased at lowering her panties, then stepped away from it and continued to sway, sliding her hands over herself here and there, "what about Taylor?"

"Did you know she would be there?"

"I had no idea. But I could feel your sudden desire for her. Knowing your desires as I do, I knew it could be no one else. You seemed to have handled that quite well all on your own."

"I'm not sure how comfortable I am talking about her. I don't want to betray her trust. But she knew that I would tell you it happened, and was okay with that."

"I felt you make love with her, master. That is what it was, regardless of context. I felt it all, as if I were part of it. So much genuine affection and passion. You need not worry about me betraying your trust. I shall consider her as protected as anyone close to you, master. Your time with her was amazing." She snapped open the front clasp of her bra. "You seem to have parted on very good terms despite tonight's incident."

"I'm amazed at that. She said she just wants to be friends, but she doesn't want to lose touch again. Taylor, um, seemed interested in hooking up again in the future, though."

Lorelei's eyes glittered with interest. "Oh?"

"If my girlfriend doesn't mind," Alex said with a slightly sheepish smile.

"Oh, Alex," Lorelei said, "I may want that even more than you."

"Is it that enjoyable for you?"

Lorelei nodded. "I have told you that your desires and pleasures empower and heal me, master," she said, slipping off her bra and letting it dangle from her finger over him, then letting it fall. Her other arm caressed her breasts. "The feeling of you together was a rush of energy like nothing else, and could not have been better timed."

Leaning forward over him, Lorelei moved her upper arms together to push up her breasts even as her hands slid her panties down. So much of her came close to Alex's mouth, but he didn't try to rise to it. This was just part of the show.

Then she slipped around to the foot of the bed, placing one knee on it. "What happened tonight brought great strides in my recovery."

Alex's lips twitched in a smirk. "So it was good for you, too?"

"Oh, yes, master," Lorelei confided. Her hands slipped up his legs now, then his hips, and finally pulled free the blanket that he lay under. He was dressed in simple gym shorts. "I am eager to show you how good."

She slid forward along his legs again. One hand moved up the middle, taking care specifically to move over his sac and his very hard manhood before she pulled the shorts down and away. She crouched down and kissed his feet, looking to him as if to convey a provocative message by doing so, and then began to kiss and stroke her way up his legs.

Her right hand moved over his genitals again, sliding around his cock and stroking it while her left caressed around his hip and his leg. Her lips continued to trail soft kisses and licks all around. She seemed to slide along him more like a snake than a person; Lorelei didn't need to shift weight from one limb to the next, nor prop herself up on hands or elbows. Her body was draped sensuously over Alex's bare legs, and before long her tongue was trailing up and down his cock. It seemed too big for her to accommodate with her mouth, but he knew better.

"You're amazing," he told her.

"I know," she grinned. "I can feel that in you, too." She licked and kissed his cock as she said, "You will never stop lusting for me as intensely as if you had never had me. I know your mind and your heart will never truly look down on me as your slave. You see me as an equal and a partner. I will never be taken for granted... but instead always with great gratitude... and tender affection... for my service... my devotion... my loyalty... my all." With that, his head and shaft disappeared entirely into her wet, hungry mouth.

Alex groaned loudly in total surrender to his slave.

It was better this time than previous. He felt more connected with her than ever, more at ease. Alex had always thought of oral sex as a chore a woman would perform out of whatever motivations she might have, but not for fun in and of itself. He doubted it was especially pleasing to women. Whether or not that was true of normal women in general, Alex understood now how sincere Lorelei was. Their intimacy in and of itself rewarded her as much as it pleased him. Putting his cock in her mouth was a mutually affectionate and pleasuring act. As she took Alex in and out, devouring every inch of him regardless of how impossible it looked, Alex's emotions ran wild.

He lay still for her, moving only his head on occasion as he alternated between looking down at her and closing his eyes. Sometimes, when he looked, she looked back up at him. She wanted this act to be a defining part of their relationship, something he understood just from that gaze. At other moments, he looked down and saw nothing but a dutifully, zealously bobbing head, eyes closed and lips concentrating on their work.

"God, I want to... I want to give back," he moaned.

"You are giving back," she said. "You know this now. I can feel it."

"Still."

"Relax, master. You must mend. Time enough to toy with my body later. Let me serve you as you deserve to be."

As she continued, building into a sensuous, controlled frenzy, Lorelei began to moan as much and even more than Alex. The bed didn't shake, and he was held tightly enough to be kept still while Lorelei fucked him with her mouth as fiercely as if she were straddling him.

When his climax finally came, sending pulses of joy throughout his body and his limbs, he moaned -- and she all but screamed. The only things muffling her were his flesh and her need to swallow. Her body trembled and tightened against him. Lorelei came just as he did, despite doing nothing to stimulate herself.

It seemed for a moment as if it would last forever -- Alex would not have protested at all, couldn't have even thought of it -- but eventually, the intensity abated. She drank greedily from him, too focused now to look up, but he was coming down enough from that height of pleasure to stroke her head and her shoulders with his hands. They weren't twitching anymore. His fingers ran through her hair. Something else did, too.

Alex opened his eyes, looking down at her. Swaying across her back from just above the crack of her ass was a long, thin, darkly-colored devil's tail.

"Wow," he whispered, completely unsure what to think. "Lorelei, your... you have a tail."

"Mmh-hmm," Lorelei concurred.

"What does that mean?"

She pulled her mouth from him with obvious reluctance, but not distress. "As I said, master, your pleasure and satisfaction allow me to heal." Her voice, as always was filled with both warmth and sexuality. "Others will not see it. You will rarely see it yourself... and I can always conceal it if you prefer. You don't seem the type to develop a fetish for tails... but I did not expect you to be bothered, either."

"I'm not," Alex said, a bit surprised to hear himself say it. "I'm just glad to hear it's a good sign."

"It is. As Rachel said in the graveyard, symbolism means much to beings such as us. The loss of

supernatural features brings with it a loss of power. This shows significant recovery. I am more grateful than I can say."

"Long ways to go yet, though, isn't there?"

"Yes," Lorelei said, "a very long way. I don't think there will be any easy shortcuts again. We have much... work ahead."

They shared a look of unmistakable affection before Alex lay his head back down on the pillow. "Best get to it, then," he encouraged her. He didn't feel the least bit selfish about it at all.





Chapter 24: The Desires of Michelle...

Michelle knew the dreams would come again. Getting settled for bed, her thoughts had been in a tug-of-war between Alex and Eddie. She felt a touch guilty about that; her son had been shot, for God's sake, and turned out to be running around with a woman so plainly, ridiculously out of his league that it was maddening. He was headed for a crushing heartbreak with that one. With all that, she shouldn't have been thinking about her own flirtatious relations, but there it was.

Thoughts of motherly concern and the excitement of getting such pleasing, intriguing attention from an attractive gentleman (and wouldn't it be fun to get him to be less gentlemanly?) carried her through shedding her make-up, brushing her teeth...

...and fell away along with her clothes as she shed them in front of the mirror.

She undressed slowly, watching herself as her hands roamed her own body. Michelle didn't deeply question how she'd lost that weight, toned up her figure, and improved her complexion. Her breasts had more sag in them before; how could that get better on its own? It was curious, but she did try to take care of herself. Something within told her not to look the gift horse in the mouth.

Egotistical as it sounded, Michelle felt turned on just being herself over the last couple of days. She looked good, knew it, felt energized. And if nobody knew that watching herself in the mirror turned her on, tapping into desires that she had never felt before -- or, at least, never admitted to -- where was the harm? It didn't impact how she treated others.

Michelle's hands moved up her body and gently cupped her breasts. "I've gotten so sensitive lately," as she watched her nipples harden from the light touch. "I really need to get laid."

Michelle then turned and slipped into bed nude. She was turned on, with no one to take care of it but herself. For tonight, at least, that sounded just fine. She had a twinge of guilt and self-deprecation about it, but only a twinge. At forty years old, divorced and dateless for years, Michelle was genuinely excited about being alone in her own bed. Directly across from the bed was a mirror over her dresser, placed there out of practicality but now a vivid enhancement to her solo fun.

She stacked up her pillows pushed away the comforter and the top sheet, settled in against the soft cushioning behind her, and closed her eyes. Her hands slowly roamed all over her body while her mind entertained various naughty thoughts.

She envisioned Eddie crawling up onto her, naked and... well, probably in better shape than he actually was, but it was her fantasy. At least his gut didn't sag over his belt like most men their age. That said a lot. So did the repeated subtle "adjustments" she saw him making in his trousers tonight when she flirted with him at the bar. He seemed to have a rather nice package.

Eddie had a very nice face, and seemed like a very nice man. If he was a few years younger than her, what of that? It wasn't anything like the difference between her son and his new girlfriend.

Mm. Alex and his new girlfriend. That was like shifting up two gears at once. Michelle's breath got heavier, and while one hand still slid up and down her body from inner thigh to breast, the other was very dedicated to the increasing wetness and pleasure between her legs. So shameful to think of her son like that. Alex replaced Eddie in her mind, upright before her on his knees, hands possessively gripping her ass while his cock split her open.

She whimpered as she imagine his hands all over her like he was taking possession of her, his mother. Such thoughts were beyond naughty, and were accompanied (perhaps heightened?) by no small amount of guilt, but then, nobody needed to know.

Visions of rolling in the bed with Lorelei danced in her head, too, and that was about as privately scandalous. Yet she'd had to come to terms with both of these tracks within her over the last couple nights. Michelle had felt attraction to other women in college, but smothered it because of her upbringing. She'd even denied it to her husband -- who would've only sought his own gratification with such knowledge, anyway.

But looking at herself in the mirror, fingers now swirling away over her clit while others teased the rest of her wet flesh, she couldn't deny it. If the woman in the mirror came onto her (and how great was it to actually be that woman?), she'd have to go for it. Figure out some way to meet up, keep things private, have some fun. Why would Lorelei be any different?

A half-formed fantasy of "discussing" the relationship between Lorelei and her son with the dark-haired beauty entered her mind. Standing close enough to feel one another's breath, murmuring softly so as not to be overheard... "I realize you two are going to do whatever you want," she'd say as she slipped her fingers under the shoulder-strap of the other woman's dress, "but I could be convinced to let things run their course without my interference..."

Lorelei wouldn't balk at that. She seemed experienced, collected. Such an aura of sexuality there. Somehow Michelle just knew that that woman would have no objections to another woman's attentions. Maybe I could even have Alex between my legs pounding me mercilessly.

That fantasy, and the orgasm that soon wracked her entire body, brought Michelle to sleep after a very busy day.

In her dreams, however, she got very thoroughly fucked again.

Lorelei came to lay over her, sliding skin on skin and face to face with the mother of her master as she slept. Michelle didn't entirely awaken but wasn't entirely asleep, which was what Lorelei wanted. The succubus slipped over Michelle to bring her damp, needful pussy up against Michelle's. The mother would need more direct stimulation than that, of course, but that was partly why the tail was so useful.

Her first kiss awakened Michelle's lips, coercing them into opening for the invasion of Lorelei's tongue. Weak and mostly asleep but still very appreciative, Michelle's arms closed around her fantasy lover as they kissed. Her hands roamed, as did Lorelei's. The two writhed together in passion. As with the rest, Michelle didn't question the sensations between her legs.

Lorelei smiled wickedly as she slide her tail back and forth between Michelle's lips. Michelle laid back and relaxed even more as she simply gave in to whatever was touching her so arousingly. She spread her legs wider and lifted her hips slightly wanting more.

Fingers ran though Michelle's hair, gently pulling her head back. She obliged, exposing her neck to Lorelei and getting the gentle, sucking kisses that resulted. "Tell me your secrets, Michelle," Lorelei whispered to her.

Michelle panted in a mix of pleasure and shame. "I'm becoming a slut."

"Ssshhhh, it's okay, it's okay," Lorelei soothed her with kisses and whispers trailing all around her ears, her neck, her mouth. "Trust me. Tell me."

"I'm so horny... I want sex so bad... I need you so badly."

"I'm here. I'll take care of you, don't worry," Lorelei grinned audibly. Her tail gave another long stroke of Michelle's lower lips, and the mother shivered. "I won't leave you 'til you've cum again."

"Thank you," Michelle managed to say before her mouth was devoured by another long kiss. She couldn't stop moving against the body laying on top of her. Every inch of her felt so wonderful. She almost felt electrically charged with pleasure. "I put on a show for my son today," she confessed in whispers. "I was a such slut right in front of him. He had to have seen so much. I wanted him to bend me over the table and fuck me. I'm so bad."

"Your son doesn't see anything wrong with a woman being slutty," Lorelei's smile brushed against Michelle's quivering mouth. "As long as you're discreet. Were you slutty for anyone else?"

"Just you. Just you. Oh..."

"Good. You don't have to be a slut for your son anymore, Michelle."

"Mnh. No?"

"Only as much as you like. I won't ask anymore."

"Are you mad?"

"No," Lorelei breathed, kissing her encouragingly. "You did very well. I just had to see... if it pleases you, do as you like. But now I know that you'll be a slut for me, won't you?"

"Yes. Oh yes."

"Don't be ashamed. Your son would approve, if he knew. Don't feel ashamed at all."

"He would?" She gasped softly as both of their hands continued to roam. Their bodies rose and fell with one another's pleasures.

"Yes. What's wrong with being sexy? Having sex? Even if it's lots of sex? Alex just doesn't want you hurt. Were you slutty with others?"

"No... just Alex and you. Mostly with you." Michelle moaned loudly and uncontrollably then, a product of Lorelei's rewarding touch.

"Not even with Eddie? He seems like a nice man."

"Oh. I like Eddie. I thought about it, but we got called. Alex was hurt."

"Yes. But tomorrow?"

"I should stay home with Alex tomorrow."

"No, Michelle. You need to go to work and talk to Eddie again. Alex will feel bad if you stay home with him. He'll be fine. I won't mind if things start between you and Eddie. We will still have our time. Not every night, but you'll be satisfied."

1

"Hhhhh. Maybe. Maybe." Her hands went to the sides of Lorelei's breasts, sliding to cup and fondle them. Lorelei rose up a bit on her knees to allow for it.

"What else, Michelle?" A tongue snaked under her ear, darting under her lobe.

"My son's... girlfriend. Lorelei."

"Mmmm, yes."

"I don't trust her, but I... I want her."

Lorelei's eyebrow rose appreciatively. "Are you comfortable with that?"

"No. She's another woman. Am I... am I becoming a...?"

"No, Michelle," Lorelei chuckled soothingly. "You are what you've always been, but have always denied. Enjoy it. Would you steal her from your son?"

"No. I don't want to hurt him. I want him happy. She just seems so beyond him. She's so beautiful."

"Give them a chance," Lorelei whispered. "Maybe it will work out fine. But if you want her, but wouldn't steal her, then what are you thinking, naughty girl?"

"Nothing," Michelle breathed back. "Just fantasies. She's so hot and sexy."

"So are you," Lorelei said into their next long, passionate kiss. Lorelei ground herself against Michelle, letting up in neither her kiss nor her attention to Michelle's building climax. She had accomplished everything she needed here. Gratification could be found, surely, and she enjoyed Michelle and all, but there was an ever-closer bond of pleasure and... more in the other bedroom.

Lorelei timed it carely and slid her tail deeply into Michelle's pussy causing her to moan loudly. She started pummeling and twisting her tail inside Michelle as she continued licking and kissing her neck and ear. Lorelei then kissed her way to Michelle's lips and kissed her passionately.

The grunts, moans and sighs of Michelle's mind-numbing orgasm erupted directly into Lorelei's kiss. The succubus lingered long enough to soothe and settle her partner back into slumber with soft kisses and affectionate tones. With a last look at Michelle's naked, sated body, Lorelei left the bedroom quite pleased with herself.





Chapter 25: Dreamscapes and Fantasies...

"The preliminary tests say Sergeant Carlisle is fine, but we know the Goa'uld have tricked us before," Dr. Frasier said. She stood over the young airman's body where it was strapped to his hospital bed. As with most everywhere else in Stargate Command, the infirmary was darkly lit and not terribly comforting.

"Dammit, Alex saved our lives out there," Colonel O'Neill snapped. "That's gotta be our boy."

"Or part of a Goa'uld plot," Dr. Daniel Jackson put in. "Jack, you know as well as we do. The System Lords wouldn't hesitate to sacrifice a couple dozen Jaffa to make an infiltrator's insertion into our ranks look believable."

"I concur," Teal'c said emotionlessly. "Sgt. Carlisle fought admirably in disrupting the Jaffa ambush. Yet if he has been taken over by a Goa'uld symbiote, then his rescue of SG-1 was all a spam."

O'Neill's hands, once covering his face in frustration, now slid down so his eyes could look upon Teal'c. "Scam, Teal'c. I think the word you're trying to use is 'scam.' Or maybe 'sham.'"

"Doctor, how soon will you know for sure?" General Hammond broke in. "Give me a couple hours to run some more tests," she shrugged.

"Right. Well, people, we've got a briefing, so let's get to it."

As they left, Major Samantha Carter paused to grasp the patient's shoulder. "Hang in there," she said, and then left. Soon, it was just Dr. Frasier, Alex, and all the straps and restraints keeping him imprisoned on the bed in case he was inhabited by one of their enemies.

"So, uh... what more can I do, Doc?" Alex asked. "I mean, I know you can't just take my word for it that I'm not carrying a symbiote."

"Well, Sergeant," Dr. Frasier said, walking to the door and closing it -- and, oddly, locking it -- "our autopsies of a few people possessed by Goa'uld symbiotes when they died gave us the chance to see how they effect the human body. There's at least one way I can verify right now that you are or aren't a Goa'uld host... but if you aren't, you'll have to give me your word that you won't tell anyone about it."

"Sure. Okay."

"Although, if you are a Goa'uld host, no one would believe you, anyway." Pointedly, the lovely older woman took off her surgical gloves, washed her hands, and then rubbed them with... something?

"Right. Well, I'm not, so I give my word. I won't tell anyone. Gotta be top secret stuff, right?"

Dr. Frasier hid a smirk. "Yes, Sergeant. Highly classified information."

"Okay. What do we... um... doctor?"

She didn't answer, merely raising an eyebrow as she slipped a hand under the folds of his hospital gown between his legs. Her lubricated hand caressed his nuts, found his penis, and began to play and stroke.

"This is a test?" Alex asked, trying to keep his breathing steady.

"Yes," Dr. Frasier nodded, though clearly her own breath was a bit heavy. "Goa'uld symbiotes cause a discoloration of semen. That," she said, and then smiled tauntingly as her hand encircled his now very erect and engorged cock, "and something tells me no System Lord could stand being sexually controlled by a human woman."

Alex groaned in pleasure. The beautiful doctor had a touch that did much more than heal. "Their loss," he huffed.

Dr. Frasier's manipulation of his cock grew more sensuous yet more firm, and as she looked from his eyes to his groin it was clear who was in charge here. "Despite this personal familiarity, Sergeant," she said in a professional tone well out of any correlation to what her hands were doing and the intense share that they shared, "I expect that you and I will be able to keep up proper military decorum on the base."

"Oh, yeah, sure, ma'am," Alex breathed. Her attention to his cock never let up in speed or grip. His eyes rolled back into his head. Alex's hips pushed up the full quarter-inch of give allowed by the straps. His breath grew shorter and quicker until he finally let out a loud grunt. Dr. Frasier was quick; she had a hand towel at the ready.

She looked down at the towel, then at Alex. His pleasure gave way to alarm. "What?" he asked. "Is something -- oh god, ma'am! Doctor, please don't tell me I've got one of those things inside me!"

The doctor reached up to her neck with her left hand to pull loose her regulation tie and unbutton the collar of her uniform shirt. "No," she said coolly, "but as you're such a robust, young, healthy male of such obvious discretion... and you're still quite aroused," she went on, unbuckling her belt and looking him in the eye, "I think I'd like to have this thing in me."

A moment later, several -- but not all -- of the restraints were undone, allowing Alex the use of his hands and some freedom to his hips. Dr. Frasier climbed on top of him, her pants gone and her shirt undone.

She leaned in close to his face and whispered, "Also, when we're alone like this, I'd prefer to be called Janet."

Alex awoke to the oddest sensations around his genitals. Just as when he'd gone to sleep and as he'd awoken yesterday, he was mostly enveloped by Lorelei's mouth. One hand was wrapped around the base of his cock, while the other lay against his hip. Yet there was strange pulsating feeling within Lorelei's mouth, and the feeling of her breath coming out in a sharp rapidity against his groin as she was... giggling?

He grunted, and she pulled off of him. He had never heard her giggle before, and with her head now buried against his left hip, he couldn't be sure that was what she was -- no, she was definitely giggling.

Realization hit him like a pie in the face. "Oh, no," he groaned.

"Master, were you dreaming of being in a... television show?" Lorelei laughed quietly. Her eyes turned up from under the veil of her hair just long enough to confirm her suspicions. Alex blushed a beet red. She laughed again. At him. Not cruelly, but definitely at him.

"You can watch my dreams?"

"In this act, yes. If I serve you in your sleep and you dream of desire. And really, you would not likely dream of much else."

"God, I don't remember all my dreams," he said, one hand covering his face. "Are they all that embarrassing?"

"No, no," she said, stifling her laughter. "That one was just so developed and definite in its imagery that I did not think it could be from a book or pure imagination. Master, you have nothing to be embarrassed about."

"Yes, I do," Alex groaned.

"Perhaps a little," Lorelei conceded with a grin, and then a giggle as Alex groaned and added his other hand to the one covering his face.

"The matter will never be shared with anyone," Lorelei said with a sweet, solemn smile. Her hands began to slowly caress him, nails dragging sensuously across his groin. "I would be very happy to play Doctor Frasier for you, if you like."

"Hah." He wasn't mad at her. Couldn't be mad. But just... wow. "You must think I'm such a geek."

"My feelings and desire for you are not diminished in the least," she assured him sweetly. "Although I admit your entertainment value has increased this morning."

Alex sighed. She was kissing and licking him again. How could he be mad when she did that? "So you saw other dreams?"

"I did," Lorelei said, pausing to tease the head of his penis with a brief enveloping kiss. "Others were more vague, more down to earth as it were... though I am curious... this tall green woman with superhuman strength? 'Jennifer?' She is a comic book character, yes?"

This time, he pulled one of his two pillows over his head entirely and groaned very, very loudly. Lorelei just laughed.

"Hey, are you awake in there?" his mother's voice came through the door. Alex yanked the pillow down from his head to look at Lorelei in alarm.

She simply winked at him. "Lie still. She won't notice me," she whispered, and then pulled the bedspread over her head where she lay atop his legs and groin.

As was quite typical, Michelle knocked twice and opened the door without waiting for an answer. They had to talk about this before, but she seemed incapable of understanding how annoying that was.

His mother was once again dressed for work. This time, she was all put together. Though her skirt was just short enough and at a level to invite an involuntary look between her legs as she stepped close to the bed, there was much less of the shameless exhibition from yesterday.

"Morning," Alex grunted, hoping to appear a bit more bleary. He wasn't going to bring up the knocking issue. It would only make her feel bad.

"Hey, sleepyhead," Michelle smiled, putting her hand through his hair. "How are you feeling?"

"Like I got in a fight with three guys last night," he admitted. "I'm more sore now than I was when I got out of bed."

"Well, make sure you take plenty of those painkillers. You're going to stay home and take it easy today, right?"

"Yeah, I'm gonna call in sick as soon as there'll be anyone at the office. I'm gonna be good and lay around the house, Mom. Either I sit or stand up straight or I lie flat, 'cause everything else kind of hurts my chest right now."

"Mm-hm," Michelle nodded. "Well..." she frowned, looking down at him as if coming to a decision. "If you want to go lie down on my bed, it might be more comfortable than yours. And at least I've got a television in my room."

Alex blinked. "You sure?"

She just shrugged. "It's fine. Anyway, I'd stay home with you myself if I could. Just -- if your girlfriend comes over to give you some tender loving care, I better not find any evidence of shenanigans on my bed, mister."

That only made him blink more. "Um. Wow."

Michelle rolled her eyes. "Look, I'm sorry if I was rude last night. I was just freaked out and probably still a little tipsy and I feel like I made a complete jackass of myself. But she just seems so... Not only is she older than you, but it's like she comes from a very different world, y'know?"

"Oh, I know," Alex said. He felt Lorelei's grin as her cheek tensed against the skin between his inner thigh and his junk.

"I don't want her taking you off to be her kept man for however long that amuses her and then have it mess up your future."

"Not even an issue. We haven't even talked about anything like that. I'm going to college 'cause I want to, remember? I'm being careful, Mom. Careful as can be. Okay?"

"Okay," Michelle nodded. "I'm still suspicious."

"Go ahead and be suspicious," Alex shrugged, and then winced at the pain it produced.

"Does it hurt that badly?"

"Probably be a lot better tomorrow. I'm just being a big baby for today. I'll tough things out for school even if I'm still hurting."

She smiled a bit. "Good call," she said. Then she returned to the other subject. "Anyway, I just hope you're being a gentleman with her."

Alex felt Lorelei's lips press sweetly against his flesh. "As much as she'll let me," he nodded.

Michelle cocked an eyebrow, figuring she knew what he meant by that comment. "Look, I know what young men do with beautiful girls as soon as they get the chance. I'm just saying you can always talk to me about anything. Even if it's complicated or if it's about sex."

"I know," Alex said. "You're going to be late for work."

Michelle sighed, then leaned in and kissed him on the forehead before leaving. Lorelei and Alex remained as they lay until they heard the front door close. "That was less awkward. Thank you," Alex remarked dryly.

"You're welcome," Lorelei smiled, casting aside the blanket again.

"Did you have anything to do with her calming down like that?"

"Not to that degree, no. I asked her to keep an open mind and give things a chance, but I didn't push things. I am as surprised as you are."

"Did I, um," Alex asked, dreading the answer, "did I dream about...her?"

"Yes, once," Lorelei answered, her smile becoming both more controlled and more seductive. "You may not want to hear about it given your wishes earlier."

"No, probably not."

"As you wish. I am grateful to have observed. It was very beautiful."

Alex let out a long breath at that. He needed to change this subject. "Any other dreams?"

"You dreamt of our wedding," Lorelei said, her smile now shifting into a mischievous grin.

"Wow."

"It was a rather sweetly pornographic affair. Your side of the wedding party was hardly involved at all. My maids of honor did much more for us both than stand with me, both before and after the ceremony. And my dress was imaginatively whorish." This time, she was laughing with him.

Her hand was stroking his manhood again. "Have you been married before?" he asked.

"Several hundred times," she answered with a shrug, "though never for very long, of course. It's not my usual approach. Ceremonies such as weddings are often problematic for my kind."

"How so?"

"Holy ground can be spectacularly inhospitable to my kind, depending on the sincerity of the faith among its caretakers and the worshippers who frequent it. I have been wed in churches, synagogues, temples and mosques. Easily handled if the flock or the shepherds are far from religious virtues. Other times, faith has been strong and I have had to engineer different plans."

"I'm not, you know, trying to pressure you or anything," Alex said. "I hadn't even consciously thought about this. I hope that dream didn't seem like a hint."

Lorelei took to her hands and knees, crawling over him with her hair spilling all around his head again. "Alex," she said, "it was a dream of shameless fornication with a naughty theme, and one that I enjoyed. Nothing more. I am wholly loyal to you, and would do anything you asked of me. But you need not concern yourself on this matter in the least, for I am not troubled."

"Is there anything that does trouble you?" he asked softly. "I asked the other night, but you never asked. Is there anything I shouldn't do? I don't want to hurt you, Lorelei. Ever."

She looked away for a moment, seeming thoughtful, distant, and reluctant. Alex had the thought in that moment that some things were difficult to reveal. "I guess maybe that's a little too sensitive to just ask, huh?" he frowned a bit. His hand reached for her hair, stroking it. "Kind of like I'm asking you how to hurt you?" Lorelei nodded, still saying nothing. "You don't have to answer that, then."

"Sodomy."

Alex blinked. "I'm sorry?"

"Master, if you were to get rough with me sexually, I am certain I would enjoy it. But if you were to beat me or torture me... it would be exactly that." Her voice was strained with echoes of more than a little pain.

"I would never—"

"I know, Alex," she whispered. "I know. I know you. I have no fear of you. But there are associations with sodomy beyond sex for me. It would be greatly, darkly pleasuring to you. I would not deny you this. I could not. But for me... there are sensations of pleasure, but also great pain. Humiliation. Punishment." Her voice trembled. "Such acts are used to keep one such as I in line in Hell."

"I had no idea."

"How could you?"

"You didn't have to answer."

Lorelei shrugged, finally looking him in the eye again. "I trust you."

"I will never do that, Lorelei. Not if it hurts you. And you have my every wish that if I'm, I don't know, drunk or stupid or something and I try that, you stop me, okay? Please. I mean that."

She nodded softly. "Thank you, Alex. It will not trouble me if you do this with others."

He nodded, still stroking her hair and looking at her tenderly. "I'm so crazy about you, Lorelei."

Lorelei nodded back. She cast her gaze at his clock, plugged back in now but silenced. "It would be good if I could make a few phone calls in roughly an hour or two. I imagine you will call in sick at about the same time. Until then," she asked with a hungry intensity, "may I suck your cock, master?"

That gave him a thrill. "You think you need to ask permission for that?"

She felt his reaction and grinned. "I think we are both becoming very comfortable with the range of equality and control in our relationship."

"Just doing this isn't boring you? You've been at it awhile already."

"I could do literally nothing but this for days on end without interruption and be very, very happy, master." She had one hand stroking him again already. "In fact, it would be lovely if we could make a date of it sometime soon."

"There's nothing you'd like me to do?"

"For now? No. Today, you must relax and enjoy what I provide. Let your mind drift. You will recover more quickly with more diligent rest, and then we can move to things more vigorous."

"Kiss me," he whispered, "and then take me in your mouth." She grinned encouragingly. "As you wish, master."





Chapter 26: Morning confessions...

"Wow! But you're okay, right?" Diana's concern and surprise was evident through the phone.

Hell yes, I'm okay, Alex thought. His right hand held the phone to his ear, but his left was in Lorelei's hair as her head slowly bobbed up and down. "I'm fine. The bullet just glanced off a rib. Doctor said I was amazingly lucky. It's cracked and bruised but not snapped or anything. I'm sure I'll be fine by next Tuesday, but I'm staying in bed today and I'm probably going to take tomorrow afternoon off just to be safe, if that's okay."

"Hey, that's fine. The file room can run without you for a little bit. Wow, that's crazy," his office manager said. "Well, listen, I'll let everybody know. But just so you know -- if you need a lawyer in this mess for anything let us know. While the firm can't really represent you, due to you being an employee and the potential conflict of interest, but we know good people who can. And Jim's done a lot of criminal stuff. I'm sure he'll want to hear the story from all this when you come back to work."

"That's really good to know, Diana. Thank you."

"We'll be thinkin' about you. Take it easy."

"Will do. Bye, Diana." He folded up his phone and put it back on the nightstand. "Wow," he breathed. "This feels really decadent."

"Hm?"

"Calling in sick to work while you're doing that to me."

Lorelei withdrew, having brought him off not long before. "I have not yet begun to shower you with decadence," she grinned. Then she rose up on her knees, sweeping her hair back with both hands, deliberately making a show of herself to him as always. Then she got off the bed and moved over to her jacket, where she retrieved her phone.

Alex just watched her, enjoying the sight of her naked glory and her smile... which, for the first time ever, seemed just a touch self-conscious. "You're staring at me," she observed without looking up from her phone's touchscreen.

"I am. I love looking at you."

She tossed her hair back on the right side of her head, raising the phone to her ear. "I love being looked at by you," she admitted quietly.

"Good."

"You know, just two days ago I found this sort of behavior to be violently disgusting," Lorelei said.

"And now?"

"I am a demon. Hypocrisy is the least of my evils," she winked. "Courtney, hello," Lorelei then said, her voice taking on a less sultry and more friendly but professional tone. "It's Laura. How are you?"

Alex forced himself up out of the bed. He winced a bit, with the bending and twisting necessary being the part that irritated his chest, but it had to be done. Glancing around, he thought to grab his own phone as he rose to his feet and moved out of his room to resettle on his mother's bed. His bed had become a touch small for him as it was, and he'd have been grateful for Michelle's offer on that basis alone -- even if he didn't have someone to share it with. But he did, and he was conscious of the need for extra room regardless of Lorelei's claim that she didn't mind.

"I'm quite well, but I had a bit of a minor disaster last night and I was hoping to rely on the expertise of you and your staff in digging me out of it quickly." She paused, reaching out to stroke Alex from shoulder to ass as he walked by. Then she followed him into the other room and watched as he slowly laid back on the queen-sized bed. Then she slipped up next to him, sitting up on her knees with her calves tucked under her.

Their eyes met, confirming their mutual thought: they needed a much bigger bed of their own as soon as possible.

"My car was broken into last night. I had just come in from out of town and a good deal of luggage was inside. Yes. They just smashed the passenger side window to get in. So now I have a car with a broken window and practically nothing to wear, along with several other missing vital items. I'd rather not wait on getting all this resolved."

Alex's hand slid over Lorelei's thighs, and then between them. She looked down at him as his touch became increasingly bold. "I drove to my new boyfriend's place. I'm staying there. No, no, that ended awhile ago. This one's much younger but much better in every way." She winked at Alex again, whose fingers were stroking her moist flesh.

"So I need a temporary wardrobe. Four days or so? Mostly casual. Underthings and all -- and I do have someone to impress. We might want to add in a party dress. Something for a night out, at least. You know, keep his eyes glued to me. But my plans are very vague right now, so versatility is good.

"More importantly, do you think it's possible to send someone to pick up my car and get that window replaced? We're in the north end of Seattle. Wonderful." Her eyes fluttered a bit as Alex's fingers slid within her, but her voice did not waver as she gave the address.

"Yes, absolutely I'll wait a moment." She tapped a button on the phone, and almost instantly her eyes rolled back into her head and she moaned loudly, rising and falling a bit on her knees.

"Wow," Alex smiled.

"Master, thank you," she said, her free hand touching the wrist that disappeared between her legs. "You are so good to me."

His eyes narrowed suspiciously. "So are you faking now or are you faking on the phone?"

Lorelei shook her head, eyes still fluttering as he touched her. "I cannot deceive you, master. Your touch is so wonderful. I am merely able to deceive others."

"But you could hold up that poker face and casual tone if I asked you to? Even during sex?"

"I could, master, if you asked it of me. If it pleases you. But inside I swear I would still be on fire." He smirked. That could be kinda kinky.

"Master," Lorelei said hoarsely, softly bucking against his hand, "Courtney is a very attractive woman. Would you like some variety to your company today?"

Alex blinked. He had no doubt as to what she was offering. "I think I'd like to be alone with you today."

A blissful, quivering smile spread across her lips. "As you wish, master." She moaned again, and then Courtney's voice could be heard on the phone. Lorelei tapped the screen and raised it to her ear. "Yes, Courtney? You can? Wonderful. You're a lifesaver. Just have whoever comes for the car give me a call when he arrives, I'll bring him the keys. Oh, and I know I am asking for a lot here, but... yes, I expected you would say as much. Could whoever comes for the car possibly bring breakfast for two? Nothing fancy. A few treats from Whole Foods or PCC would be lovely. Wonderful. Thank you so much." Her thumb closed the line, and then the phone simply fell from her hands as that calm eloquence was replaced by nonsensical vocalizations of pleasure and gratitude.

"Lorelei," he smiled softly, "I want to taste you."

"Mmh. Master?"

"Kneel over me where I can taste you."

A shiver of delight ran through her. She crawled into position to kneel over his face, straddling his head. She was turned away completely from the rest of his body, understanding from the tone of his desires what he wanted. Their eyes met as she lowered her sex to his loving kiss, her body trembling with anticipation of what was to come.

There was no teasing this time, no exploratory nibbling on the inner thighs. His lips met hers, drawing from her a great moan and forcing her to fight to keep her eyes open as she held his gaze. "Master," she pleaded over and over again, failing to form any other words. His hands slid up her body, possessively roaming over her ass and hips and reaching up to claim her breasts.

He relented, softening his attentions and allowing her to regain some semblance of composure. She clutched at the two hands on her tits, holding them there encouragingly and desperately. They gave her something to focus on.

"Lorelei," Alex said against her labia, nose teasingly close to her engorged clit. Having his arms stretched out pulled a bit on his chest, but the pain was more than worth it.

"Master?" she whimpered.

"How long until they come for the car?"

"She said... perhaps... oh... an hour and... perhaps half again?"

"Then you will enjoy my attentions without any attempt to reciprocate until they call." She shuddered. "You will cum freely as your pleasures take you," he said with a maddeningly warm, adoring voice, clearly having rehearsed this in his head. "You are to enjoy without exaggeration but also without restraint. And you will move against my mouth however it feels good. Am I understood?"

Her voice was strained, overwhelmed with emotion and desire: "Yes, Master!"

His kiss returned, gentle at first but building in intensity and directness. The attentions of his tongue shifted between licking rapid swirls around her clit and plunging into her cunt whenever she moved up and down against his mouth, until he wrapped one arm around her thigh and applied his fingers to her tiny button.

Honeyed fluids began to drip into his mouth, slowly at first, then in proportion to the spasms that began to rock his demonic lover's body. Alex didn't let up. His eyes often opened to drink in the sight of her towering above him. There was no sensation better for any of the senses than that of Lorelei cumming for him.

She was pleasured out of her mind when he did this. Lorelei panted and screamed and sang out orgasm after orgasm. Her heart pounded in her chest, emotions running wild within her. It was so much better than the first time, and even that had laid waste to her composure. Fragments of thoughts and feelings flew through her mind and her heart that were supposed to be unknown to the fiends of Hell...

...but there they were.

It wasn't time. It wasn't rational. But she would have told Alex, confessed her every feeling, if only her mouth could form coherent words. Instead, she let herself cum and cum, just as her master had so wonderfully commanded.

Ninety-two minutes later, when her phone finally rang, Alex grabbed it first and said, simply, "Ssshhh." His panting partner looked down at him deliriously as he opened the phone and simply said, "Hi, are you here for the car? She'll be out in just a couple minutes. Thanks." Then he put the phone aside.

Lorelei's eyes went wide with awe. Alex just smiled softly. His hands caressed her body in soothing strokes. "I just wanted to give you a moment or two to cool down," he smiled.

She did cool down, at least on the surface. Lorelei paused for a shuddering breath or two, lowered her face to kiss him briefly, then got up to grab a towel from the bathroom before leaving to find her car keys. Alex stretched out on the bed again feeling quite pleased with himself as she calmly went downstairs. He heard the door open briefly, a pleasant exchange of words, and then the door was shut again. Everything sounded perfectly controlled.

The Lorelei that returned to him, however, was in a barely-controlled frenzy. She leapt upon him, throwing all care for his injuries to the wind as her mouth devoured his and her hands grabbed and clawed at him. Her drenched pussy slid up and down against his cock, teasing it with the inevitability of what would happen. Lorelei's fingers wrenched his head to one side, allowing her to bite and nibble at the side of his neck, his jaw, and his ear.

It hurt him a little, but he didn't care. Being assaulted and mauled like this was far more pleasure than pain.

Lorelei's hips shifted to bring his cock directly under her cunt and then pushed against it, claiming him assertively. Her breath was hot in his ear as she hissed, "You're mine."

"Is this a revolt?"

"Yes." Alex was absolutely cooperative, his breath broken by the rush of being drawn inside of her. "You have no one to blame but yourself," taunted the lips at his ear.

Lorelei began to ride him with increasing ferocity, though her upper body never left his. "I want your flesh, and your lust, and your satisfaction," she grunted. "I want your every feeling for me and I want it all in your cum inside me."

"I don't... oh god," Alex managed, gasping as she took him without mercy. "I don't know how long I can do this."

"I know. You must heal. So don't hold back," Lorelei growled softly, "Give yourself to me."

She made a compelling argument. They moved together, relishing one another's body. Dominance had shifted; it was now Alex's turn to be overwhelmed with pleasure. Moans escaped from his throat as Lorelei worked him over. He lasted longer than he expected, but not by much. His orgasm, great as any before it, was so focused that his cock felt powerful as it released into her just as every other part of his body felt wonderfully weak. It got her off again, too. Alex could feel it as she tightened around his flesh, but she held herself together to watch his expressions.

The first words he managed to gasp out were, "I'm yours, Lorelei. I've fallen so hard for you."

She smiled, kissed him passionately. "I have such feelings for you as well, I think," Lorelei confessed. "I don't... I cannot lie to you, but that isn't why I do not say more. Alex, so much of what I feel with you is beyond my experience. In all these centuries, I've never felt this. I do not want to mislead you out of confusion, or use the wrong word out of passion. But to say that I have fallen... I have," she finished simply and meaningfully. "All that I have and all that I am is yours. Willingly." Her gaze lingered on his, and her smile seemed very vulnerable.

"I must let you heal," Lorelei reminded him. Alex didn't let her up.

"Not yet," he said, holding onto her despite the discomfort. "Again, Lorelei. I want that again."





Chapter 27: Time to meet the friends...

It wasn't The Night Alex Put Three 'Bangers in Jail. It wasn't That Time Alex Was a Big Damn Hero. Nor was it even The Night Alex Hooked Up with Taylor, No Really.

Rather, Alex's circle of friends on Facebook and various chat programs decided that Wednesday night had been 'The Night Alex Got Beat Up and Shot.'

His disappointment was fairly minimal. All of this unfolded over status updates and comments shown on Lorelei's laptop, which was on the bed with him and the naked succubus lovingly sucking his cock just as she'd threatened earlier. A couple of plates holding the crumbs and stems from a scone and fruit from breakfast sat nearby.

It hadn't taken long to surpass the decadence of merely calling in sick while she serviced him. What's more, none of this had been his idea. "My God, are we sure who's enslaved to who here?" he sighed contentedly.

"This is why it's good to secure a slave's devotion," she winked before returning to her 'work'.

His eyes rolled back into his head at the sensations she gave him. For awhile, all he could do was enjoy it and breathe. Eventually, though, his other senses returned to him.

"Would you like to meet my friends?" Alex smiled at the sweetly affirmative noise she made. "Several of them are playing pool tonight... wow," he mumbled, having trouble forming words again. "Think I'll be up for that at the rate I'm... um... feeling better. Guess there's a party on Saturday night, too."

Her lips formed into a smile, and Alex shivered as teeth gently scraped across his cock as she pulled off. "Master," she asked "what of the rest of our weekend?"

"I think we'd both really like to spend the weekend in a frenzy of passionate lust," Alex grinned. "Probably have to squeeze some homework time in there, but mostly I'm becoming obsessed with sex."

"Indeed. May I make arrangements for a hotel room?"

"Later?"

"As you wish," she said. "What sort of party is this?"

"Birthday thing. High school classmate who went to UW. Not too many of us left town after graduation, so we all sometimes run into one another."

Indulgently, Lorelei kissed his erection again, and then asked, quite innocently, "Have you heard from Taylor today?"

"Not so far." Without thinking about it, Alex went -- as he so often did -- straight to Taylor's page, and blinked. "Huh."

"Hm?"

"I didn't know you could have your relationship status say you were single and that it was complicated, but... oh, jeez. Wow, I guess she and Gabriel really have had things brewing. He's going off and she's ignoring it. This is ugly."

"Gabriel?"

"Her boyfriend since high school. Basketball star. Guess he's been playing the field with his groupies, though. She said this might blow up."

"Has she told him about the two of you?"

He tapped one-handed at the laptop. "I don't think... oh. Huh. Yep. He says he's gonna kick my ass if he sees me. Guess she told him after all."

"You don't sound too concerned."

"What, he's gonna risk his basketball scholarship to defend his honor in a relationship when he's apparently been cheating, too? His page is full of chicks who are jumping up to... aaand now I'm blocked. Meh. She told me to stay out of it, anyway."

"There is only one thing to do about this, master," Lorelei suggested seductively.

"What's that?"

"Confirm your attendance at that party, and then put it out of your mind for now." Alex shuddered as her hot, warm, welcoming mouth took him again. He managed the few actions necessary on the laptop to follow her advice before he was too overcome with pleasure to do anything else but twitch.

He didn't really question why Lorelei was telling him what to do on his Facebook page.

************

 "Ah was good an' freaked out when ah got hit," Wade said, waiting for his shot. "Ah mean, it jus' slammed into me, an' ah was fixin' t' throw a grenade. Ah still threw it, 'cuz whut else was ah gonna do with a live grenade, y'know? Got th' guy ah'd been goin' for, too, but then ah'm fallin' backward an' th' guys are yellin' about flankers an' that's when ah noticed ah couldn't stand up right an' ah'm slippin' all over the place."

Neither Jason nor Drew were really playing pool at this point. They were simply listening to Wade talk. He was dressed in simple jeans, a hoodie, and a John Deere ball cap. Since middle school they, and Alex, had worked to break Wade of his southern accent. By graduation -- a year past, for Drew, being the eldest in the circle of friends -- Wade had mostly lost it. Then he went and joined the Army, and it came right back to him.

He had only come home a few weeks ago. He had been to basic, infantry school, jump school, a handful of other training locations and then many months in Afghanistan. He had brought home that reinvigorated southern accent and a slight limp.

They knew he'd been hurt. Shot, specifically, and the limp implied where, but he didn't really talk about it. It was only now, waiting for Alex to show up at the pool hall, that he was unexpectedly opening up about it.

"Sounds really scary, man," Jason said after scratching his shot. The skinniest of the trio was clad in his Green Lantern t-shirt and jeans.

"It wuz, but it wuzn't, y'know? Ah mean, it hurt, but ah could tell right away that it wasn't nothin' vital. Medic was right there, said ah'd been shot in the ass but ah'd be okay. But you hear things, like about infections, an' how it's your femoral artery that gets cut an' you can jus' bleed out. An ah'm like, ah know the femoral's down in your thigh, but don't that mean the vein's gotta run through your ass at some point? An' that's what freaked me out."

1

Drew shook his head. He was the largest of them, muscular and much better dressed. He looked over the table to plot his next shot. "I'm just glad you're home, man."

"Ah am, too, but ah'm not, which is weird. Feel like ah'm lettin' the guys down by sittin' this out. Ah mean, ah was surprised they gave me disability an' discharged me. Ah thought ah'd be up for active duty again by now. Prob'ly could be." He shrugged, sitting on his bar stool at the small table next to their pool table, and looked at the menu. "Army logic, ah guess."

Jason and Drew glanced at one another, but said nothing. Neither really felt like they had the right to counsel Wade on this. As happy as they were to have him home alive and in one piece, there was a palpable sense among Wade's circle of friends that nobody had been where Wade had, and didn't really know how to relate. All they could do was keep him close and be ready to listen.

"Y'all're lookin' at me like ah'm traumatized or somethin'," Wade grinned without looking up from the menu. "Christ, all 'at happened wuz ah got shot inna butt. Wanna see the scar?"

"I knew we'd walk in on an awkward comment," came Alex's voice.

"Aw, hey, Alex," Wade smiled, looking up and then blinking. Drew glanced up to say hello before taking his shot, then promptly sent the cue ball off the table as he did a double-take. Jason, for his part, simply looked on in shock.

"This is Lorelei," Alex said, tilting his head to the phenomenal beauty holding his hand. "Lorelei, this is Wade, Drew, and Jason."

As if her tight slacks, bare midriff and low neckline hadn't done enough to dominate the room for all three of Alex's lifelong friends, her confident smile settled the matter. "Hi," was all she said.

It took some effort to get conversation going again after that.

************

"You hadn't told me you tried to enlist in the military," Lorelei said with a slightly surprised smile.

"Tried," Alex shrugged. "Didn't." He stood on the other side of the pool table, waiting for Jason to make his shot. Lorelei and Wade sat at the small bar table nearby. "It didn't really seem like something worth mentioning."

"Quack quack," Jason smirked.

"Naw, it's true, he did," Wade said. "He went through enlistment processin' with me. We wuz supposed t' go to boot camp t'gether, too. It's one of those things they can do when they draw up your papers."

"Why didn't it work out?" Lorelei asked, intrigued. She held her drink -- merely a soda, as alcohol was restricted to a marked-off corner of the establishment -- just below her lips, stirring and looking entirely at Alex while the group talked.

"Alex failed the underwear duck test," Drew put in quicker than Alex could speak.

"Sleepwalking," Alex frowned at Drew.

"The questionnaire they had us fill out asked if I'd ever been sleepwalking, and I did, like, twice when I was in fifth grade. But I was all worried that they were gonna know somehow or something, so I checked 'yes,' and then when we were doing the whole formal screening process the crusty old doctors running everybody through the tests got all freaked out about it."

"And then he fell down while doing the duck walk in his underwear," Jason snickered. Wade laughed, too.

Lorelei's interested smile did not diminish. "Explain," she told Wade.

"Hell, this is like having my mom bust out an album of embarrassing baby photos," Alex grumbled.

"So they give Alex all this shit about sleepwalkin', right?" Wade began. "But they let 'im continue on, an' they do all that stuff where they check your vision, check your hearin', pull you in a back room to turn your head an' cough." Jason and Drew, as if on cue, both grabbed their groins, turned their heads and coughed. Alex grumbled again.

Wade continued. "But there wuz this one test. Ah don't know how or why this makes sense t' anyone. Maybe either they check t' make sure every little bit of you bends right or they jus' tryin' to get embarrassin' footage of everyone. Anyway, they line us up against the wall in this big, empty room, an' there's like a half dozen old, old doctors sittin' on folding chairs on the other side of the room. An' they tell us to strip down t' our skivvies. Stand on one foot, then th' other, that stuff. Then they have everyone squat down as low as they can an' walk like a duck from one end of th' room t' the other."

Lorelei just listened with obvious mirth on her face. "I still say that's just a hazing ritual," Drew put in. "No way is that a combat skill."

"Well, ya never really know what's gonna come up in combat. Ah mean, y'all might have t' crawl aroun' here, climb there, suddenly do some jumpin' jacks in a firefight," Wade said sarcastically. "Strip down t' your underwear an' duck-walk out t' the enemy. Ah imagine th' Taliban are terrified by that, but mah unit never tried it."

"And so Alex failed this test?"

Wade nodded, grinning widely. "Motherfucker fell down twice. Knocked people over."

"I lost my balance," Alex frowned.

"Apparently," Jason giggled.

"You laugh like an eight-year-old girl," Alex retorted.

"You duck-walk like a retard," Jason countered. Drew got a kick out of that one. So did Lorelei.

"So yeah, between that an' the sleepwalkin', they sent Alex home," Wade finished.

"And then I didn't have any of my university applications together in time, 'cause I really didn't think I'd have a hard time getting into the military," Alex sighed, "which is how I landed where I am today in Community College."

"Aw. I'm glad that you had such trouble on that test," Lorelei said affectionately. "Otherwise we may never have met."

"You say that now," Jason nodded, "but someday you'll be watching a Donald Duck film, and you'll turn to Alex driven wild by passion and ask him if he can--oh look, Alex scratched on the eight ball," he grinned. "Can't imagine why. Guess that's game. Rack 'em."

Alex sighed, glaring at Jason, and then grabbed the rack.

"So y'all ain't from 'round here," Wade said to Lorelei finally.

Lorelei grinned, her elbow on the table. "Naw," she said.

"Y'all makin' fun of mah accent now?"

"Reckon ah am," she drawled sweetly. Her own accent was perfect.

"I like her," Drew declared as he picked his glass up off the table for a gulp.

"I'm still suspicious," Jason shrugged. He looked to Alex, who was finishing up racking the balls. "She's too good for you. I'm guessing she's a relative. Cousin or aunt or something."

"Could I perhaps assuage your concerns by making out with my man?" Lorelei offered, dropping the southern accent.

"See, now she sounds British 'r somethin'," Wade said.

Alex rolled his eyes, walked over to Lorelei and kissed her deeply. She was more than happy to accept him, wrapping her arms around his neck and slipping a leg up against his.

"That doesn't prove anything," Jason shrugged.

"Hey, Alex, y'all gotta let 'er up. It's her break," Wade noted.

Laughing, Lorelei slipped out of Alex's arms. She picked up a cue stick, strutted to the end of the table, and put half the balls on the table into pockets right off the break. With barely a glance at the guys, Lorelei strode from shot to shot, sinking every ball in turn until finally she declared, "Eight ball, corner pocket," and stretched across the table before sinking that, too.

Alex wasn't terribly surprised. Drew, Jason and Wade all looked on in stunned silence. "Perhaps it would be best if I let someone else break next game?" she asked.





Chapter 28: The Best of Friends...

An hour later, she fit in just fine. To say that she was "one of the guys" would have been far from the mark. Lorelei clearly had little in common with them, and was quite spectacularly not a guy. But she held her own, neither seriously flirting nor being standoffish. Lorelei may have been there as Alex's girl, but soon enough she was everyone's friend.

She had them talking openly about topics that were normally sensitive -- Drew's mixed racial heritage, Wade's experience in the war. Even conspiracy-minded Jason had given up theorizing how Alex's "date" could be some sort of prank or stunt.

Over the course of the evening, Alex couldn't help but notice that each of his friends had found occasion to rescue Lorelei from the clumsy and sometimes rude attentions of some other patron of the pool hall. He wondered if that was the handiwork of her centuries of social acumen; it wasn't like they'd ever had cause to not bring dates to the hall before. Yet somehow Lorelei was indebted, slightly, to each of his friends for a small display of chivalry.

Eventually, Lorelei beckoned Alex close to her with a finger. He came over, smiling at her. "They like you," he noted.

"I know. I'm glad. Alex, they'll want to talk to you a bit without me present."

"About you, you mean?"

"It's natural," Lorelei shrugged. "I have arrangements to make for the weekend. The hour is late, but not for what I have to handle. Would you like me to give you some space?"

After a moment's thought, Alex nodded. "Might be good, I guess."

She leaned over, kissed him, then made her goodbyes. "He's gotten to lay around all day while I've been taking care of business," Lorelei said simply. "I'd like to call it a night. Can someone do me a favor and take him home for me?"

"Yeah, we got him," Drew nodded. "Really nice having you out with us. You coming to the party Saturday night?"

"It's a plan," Lorelei said, flashing them all a winning smile and kissing Alex as she sauntered out. Most of the patrons of the pool hall watched her go. The only one who didn't, really, was a slightly heavyset man in a cheap suit seated near the bar behind the roped-off "twenty-one and over" section. With no one looking his way, he went unnoticed as he ate.

The guys moved into a two-on-two game with Alex partnered up with Drew. "So now that she's gone and we can cynically talk about her behind her back..." Jason observed dryly.

"Yeah, yeah. What's on your mind?"

"That story about you two meeting serious?" Drew asked. "Guys had jumped her, you came to her rescue?"

"Pretty much," Alex nodded. Then he looked up from his shot at the table and sighed. He was getting a resounding chorus of 'what-aren't-you-telling-us' stares. "So the thing is, I was over by Sacred Heart cemetery when it happened, which was where those guys were dragging her," he said very quietly. "I jumped in surprising the guys. I grabbed her and ran. As we fled we noticed the funeral parlor there caught fire from something. We left quickly and we didn't stop to find out if they were chasing us. Eventually the cops and fire engines arrived to handle it. We left as Lorelei really didn't want to talk to the cops."

"And why's that?" Wade asked, now suspicious.

"Because she's had some nasty associations in the past."

"Like the dudes who jumped you and Taylor?"

Alex looked to Jason's questioning frown and nodded. "Exactly like that."

"But you don't think she's got trouble with the cops themselves?"

Alex shook his head. "No. She had no problem talking to them last night. Identified herself and all that. Would've preferred not to, but when she had to there were no worries."

"Huh," Jason said. The guys looked at one another, particularly Wade and Drew. Wade lifted his head curiously. "Show us," he said.

Unsure what Wade meant for a moment, Alex finally shrugged and put down his pool cue. He looked around the pool hall furtively -- it was growing fairly empty at this point -- and then unbuttoned his untucked shirt and peeled off the bandage over his wound.

All three guys took a look. Wade whistled appreciatively. "God damn, you are one lucky sumbitch," he chuckled.

"You don't know the half of it," broke in a scratchy voice. Alex fixed his shirt and the guys all turned toward the newcomer. He had strolled up as they talked, probably listening in despite the music on the PA system and the other customers...

...who, now that Alex glanced around, were very few indeed. And those who were still present seemed to be packing up.

"Help you with something?" Alex asked.

"Yeah. More to the point, I wanted to see if I could help you guys with something. You all seem to be a bit in over your heads tonight... you in particular, pal," the stranger said, eyeing Alex. His words were friendly enough. He had a nice, disarming smile. Yet all four young men found themselves feeling rather unsettled in Rob's company.

************

"The honeymoon suite is available? Yes, I've seen it. Such a lovely view of the Sound. We'll absolutely love it. Yes, same information as before," Lorelei said into her cell phone, strolling back and forth in front of the pool hall. "Tomorrow through Sunday. Yes, check out on Monday."

The street was lightly busy, with the wet sheen of Seattle's frequent drizzle on just about everything. Lorelei kept her eyes on her surroundings as she spoke. "Lovely. Thank you, Jeffrey. You're a doll." At that, she tapped her phone off, and strode across the street.

"Rachel," she said clearly, "we must speak."

A moment passed. Then another. Lorelei waited until, finally, Rachel stepped out from behind a parked SUV. Her white dress clung to her lithe figure from the moisture in the air, with her blonde hair hanging damply from her head. The angel's beautiful face was set in a sulky, suspicious frown. "What do we have to talk about?" she asked.

"You could have come inside. Joined us." Lorelei's voice hinted -- barely -- at compassion. "You look like a forlorn puppy out here."

Rachel's pouty frown deepened. "I'm not bothered by a little rain."

"Of course not."

"What do you want?"

Lorelei took a deep, steadying breath. "Our master asked that we attempt to put aside our hostilities," she said coolly. "I am compelled to honor that. By more than just our bond."

The angel's eyes narrowed. "He's not mm—" Her voice trailed off.

Lorelei merely nodded. "You feel it now, don't you? It is as you said in the cemetery. You were affected less than I, but your own bond strengthens over time. You are as inextricably linked to Alex as I."

They stared at one another for a long moment, Rachel with suspicion and Lorelei with patience and confidence. "It's not as terrible as you might think. He is a good man, Rachel. A very good man."

"What do you know about goodness?"

"I am learning. Rachel, you and I must come to an accord, for the good of all three of us. Yourself most of all."

"And you care so much about me because...?"

"He cares deeply for you. I am directly connected to such feelings. And I want him to be happy," Lorelei answered evenly. "One of the friends he is with inside smokes. He will likely come outside at some point, potentially with Alex. To be seen would interrupt us, and to conceal ourselves would waste power when we could simply walk together. He is with friends. Shall we?"

The angel glanced at the pool hall, then back at Lorelei. She kept her eyes on the succubus as she turned slowly to walk with her. "I'm watching you," she warned.

************

There were those who were ready to be approached by a demon, and those who were not.

It was a fundamental principle of life for being such as Rob Gorge, as well as Lorelei and her kind. The protection of a mortal's guardian angel (or the important lack thereof) had some impact on this, but the matter was largely a concern of what choices a mortal had made in life. Hell did not inspire all evil, or even a majority of it; most of humanity's darkness came from within. It was only among those who had already begun to slip that demons could find prey.

Benevolence and a virtuous life were far more effective in warding off the attentions of Hell than religious piety. Even a devout atheist, such as Jason, was generally safe from visitations from the Pit simply if he didn't do things to make himself vulnerable. Moreover, those who were not ready to receive Hell's overtures typically felt an instinctive repulsion. There could be fear, suspicion, even hostility as their subconscious mind felt the soul's reaction to danger and evil. Subtle powers of manipulation were of dubious reliability at best in the face of that defensiveness.

Rob knew this in approaching these young men. They weren't ripe. He'd been a little crazy since last night, though. Lorelei's bullying and refusal to bargain stuck in his craw. She may as well have made him roll over and beg. But now, however, he figured he'd seen the weak point. He could score an amazing coup here. And then the succubus would learn her place... underneath Rob.

In Rob's mind, and in the mind of most demons, working mortal marks was all just a matter of timing and circumstance. He had great faith in mankind's ability to fall. One just had to coax them along correctly.

"That girl of yours, son," Rob said to Alex with a paternalistic smile, "she's trouble."

"Show us a girl who isn't," Jason said flatly.

"Point," Rob sighed. "How much do you know about her?"

"Everything I need to know," Alex said.

"I kinda doubt that."

"Sorry, who the hell are you?"

He shrugged, offered his hand. "Pleased to meet you. Hope you guess my name."

"Oh, so you're Satan," Alex scoffed.

"I always figured Satan would look more like Ozzy Osbourne," Jason frowned.

"Man," Drew put in, "I always thought Satan was Ozzy Osbourne."

Rob chuckled, swallowing his resentment as he withdrew his unshaken hand. "I'm Rob. Rob Gorge. She didn't tell you about me? Can't say I'm surprised. We come from intersecting social circles, let's say. Anyway, I'm Rob. And I'm the owner of this establishment."

"Owner's an older guy named Ahmed," Drew said.

"No, the owner was Ahmed," Rob corrected. "I bought the place out half an hour ago. It's a nice place."

Rob glanced around at the last few people on their way out. "Spent a bit of time buying out everyone's tab so we could talk, too."

"Y'all bought the pool hall and paid everyone else t' leave so you could talk t' Alex?" Wade blinked. "Don't you think that might seem just a little creepy?"

"Oh, I was hoping to talk to all four of you. It's about Alex and his girl, sure, but I figured maybe you could help me show Alex some logic once you'd heard things out. See, I know a guy can get kind of blinded by a pretty ass when he's the one riding it. But you three might be able to see things a bit clearer and help Alex realize what kind of trouble he's in."

The music was off. None of the guys had noticed that at first, but the silence was punctuated by the sound of the last waiter in the place walking up with a bottle of scotch and five shot glasses. He put it all down at the table without looking up at anyone, then walked away.

"Mister," Wade said darkly, "are y'all threatenin' our friend?"

"No, no," Rob said dismissively. "I'm not. That girl is, though. Lemme ask, what's the name she gave you, hm? Don't wanna say? How about Lorelei, is that close? It's Lorelei, isn't it? Yeah," he nodded. Nobody had confirmed it for him, but he didn't need them to.

"You need to start explaining yourself," Alex said. His throat was dry. This was freaky.

"So last night I ran into little Lorelei there out at the mall. Had a talk with her about... mmm, things you probably wouldn't understand. It wasn't pleasant. She can get kind of bossy, you know? Controlling. Arrogant." Rob poured five shots, taking one of his own. Nobody else accepted the drinks. "And then I find out that there's this whole incident in the parking lot. Bad guys with guns. Some nice, poor kid gets shot. So I start putting two and two together."

"How'd you find us here?" Alex asked.

"That, my friend, is a combination of pliable members of the Seattle Police Department and the almighty dollar," Rob smiled proudly. "After that, it's just legwork and more money. I know everything about you, kid. Your school. Your job. Your home. That mom of yours is a damn hot—"

"None of this makes me want to sit here and talk to you," Alex broke in.

"No, but you'll stay and listen, 'cause you know what's good for you, kid." Rob took up another of the shot glasses left on the table and downed its contents. Behind him, the waiter left the pool hall and locked the door behind him.

"Or at least, you probably mostly know. But anyone can be tempted. You've been fuckin' her, right? Sure you have. Gotta be fuckin' her. Anyone would, and I'm sure she's been throwing it out there at you. Kid, listen. Pussy comes and pussy goes. Unless you let it control you. Now I know she's probably some hot snatch, but take a real good look at where that's landed you. You've already been shot once. You know there'll be more trouble. I've seen the kind of trouble her kind makes. Believe me, you don't want any of that."

The others were silent, looking between Alex and Rob. "You're making an awful lot of assumptions," Alex said.

"Nah, educated guesses," Rob shrugged. "The only things I haven't figured out yet are how she came to be with a nice young man like yourself. Bitches like her are usually drawn to bad boys. Real bad boys. You've met a couple already, right?" Rob said, waving a finger at the side of Alex's chest. He downed another of the shots.

"So I've seen how she looks all out of sorts right now. Like something rough happened to her. Oh, you can't see it, but I can. And she was askin' about certain things last night, which makes me figure you might be the kind of thing she was askin' about."

"What the hell's he babbling over?" Drew frowned.

"Hell if I know," Jason shrugged.

Alex just listened, trying to maintain a poker face to conceal his deepening alarm. He wondered what this guy could know, or what he could be.

"Listen to me, Alex. All of you. She's just one girl. Just one piece of ass in a world full of it. All you need is the right tools and you can go out and get whatever pussy you want, and you don't have to compromise for it. I can make that happen for you. All the hot, willing pussy you could want, and anything else, too." His voice shook, just a bit, like he was getting overexcited and having a hard time controlling it.

Rob's shaking hand reached into his pocket. He pulled forth a fistful of small diamonds and let them fall on the table. "I'm here to offer you a tidy sum for this... troubled asset you've got on your hands," Rob grinned greedily. His hand continued to shake. He drew from another pocket a stack of hundred dollar bills wrapped in a paper ribbon. "We can do cash. Just wanted to show variety. These stacks don't look as impressive as they used to, what with everything going electronic and all. Anyway, I can make it untraceable. All we need to do is come to an amount for you and your friends here. So, can I take this problem off your hands, pal?"

"This 'problem' is my friend," Alex said after a long pause. "And I can't think of a single god damn reason why I should want for anything more than I've already got. Unless it's an opportunity to show my gratitude for having her in my life."

"That's sweet," Rob said with a hint of a chuckle playing at his voice, "but let's be real, eh? Everybody's got a price. Whatever that price is, I can meet it. Don't think of it as giving something up. Think of it as trading up. I'm offering a lot more than just pussy here. And no pussy is better than the pussy you've bought, and you can buy more than you would imagine with what I'm offering."

Drew's eyes narrowed suspiciously. Everyone's did, in fact, save of course Rob. When Drew spoke, he asked, "Did you just come in here and offer to buy another person off my friend?"

"Yeah. Yeah, I did, kid. Way of the world, believe it or not. Don't go making it into a racial thing. But it's either buy now or cry later, 'cause if you aren't selling there'll be trouble for sure."

"Those are my options?" Alex asked. Rob nodded. "Sell to you, or you make my life a living hell?" Again, Rob nodded, somewhat cockily. "That's all I've got to choose from? You're sure?"

Rob opened his mouth to answer, but Alex didn't wait. He promptly grabbed the bottle of scotch and smashed it over Rob's head.





Chapter 29: Real Friends Help You Move Bodies... (Part 1)

"You sent me home with Alex on the night we all met despite our obvious antipathy," Lorelei said. "Why did you do that?"

"What else should I have done?" Rachel frowned. They walked together with an uncomfortable space between them. The drizzle had stopped, but everything around them was wet. "I had to report back. You aren't a threat to him, regardless of how I might feel about you."

"And how do you feel about me?" Lorelei's voice was calm, measured and cool.

The angel snorted. "You're a succubus. Do I even need to say?"

"Rachel... is there any reason for you and I to be hostile, other than that? I am a succubus. You are an angel. Yet neither of us works toward cross purposes any longer."

"I still serve the divine. I will always serve the divine."

"Yet I do not serve Hell," Lorelei said. Rachel stopped and looked her in the eye. Lorelei met her gaze without concern. "I serve Alex. I cannot begin to tell you what an immeasurable improvement that is upon my existence."

Rachel snorted. "I know how you serve him."

"Do you? There is sex, yes. There is also affection, companionship, trust, support and protection. I like him. I adore him. The words are alien, and I hesitate to misrepresent my feelings to myself, let alone to Alex. But whatever there is between us, I cherish it and would not willingly relinquish it for anything. Not for the highest crown in Hell and my freedom along with it."

"You say that," Rachel frowned, "but only one of us in this conversation is capable of lying."

"Yes. But you know I am telling the truth." Lorelei held her gaze for a long moment. Her tone softened. "He has changed me. I resented it at first. Now I continue to change, and I embrace it. I mean you no harm. I am no longer your enemy. I may never be 'good' by Heaven's definition, but if I no longer take the sort of actions you are meant to combat, why should we be hostile?"

Rachel's innocently beautiful face was thoughtful as she watched Lorelei. "What's your idea of less than hostile?"

"In the time that we have had this conversation, how many ways have you imagined destroying me?" "One thousand two hundred eighty-one."

"We might start there."

"...eighty-seven," Rachel corrected.

************

Drew had a good chance to unload on Rob when Wade and Alex grabbed the heavyset man's arms from behind. He was a fit, muscular guy with several years of kung fu and more than a few street fights under his belt, and he understood better than most the need to keep an opponent off-balance and hurting. He pummeled Rob's face, chest and gut with rapid-fire blow after blow, committing everything he had into each punch and kick.

Battered by this assault, Rob fought through the pain to wrench himself free of Alex's grip, then twist mightily to hurl Wade bodily into Drew. Free to move, Rob swatted Alex backward over the pool table behind him with a rough arm.

Jason had been waiting for it. There hadn't been room to help, nor was he the trained combatant that Drew and Wade were. But he was smart, he was loyal, and he had found more than one barstool that had Rob's name on them. The second he had a clear shot, he smashed one across Rob's chest.

Rob staggered, but then lurched forward to grab Jason by the neck to shove him to the floor several yards away. It was enough time for Wade and Drew to recover; Drew put his foot into the side of Rob's knee while Wade tackled him.

The fight had gone on like this for several minutes. No one had any illusions that they were getting anywhere. There were plenty of broken pool sticks, stools and overturned tables, though.

Alex struggled to get to his feet. He found an eightball on the floor and grabbed it as he rose.

Rob had forced Wade to the ground, stomping on his side. "Didn't wanna do things this way with you punks," Rob growled, "but now I guess I'm gonna have to shove my money down your—!" Alex cut him off by thrusting the eightball into the side of Rob's jaw.

Rob gasped and grunted under the constant assault. It wasn't like he was unharmed; things were simply not going anywhere. His strength refused to wane. Alex had a sinking feeling that he knew what Rob was -- and that finally gave him an idea of what to do.

Drew went at Rob again, giving Wade a moment to recover. Jason was already coming back. Alex turned to Wade, looking him over until he finally found what he was looking for. Outside of school (and, sometimes, even then), Wade never went anywhere without a pocket knife. A good one.

"Jason," Alex croaked, "see if there's a meat cleaver in the kitchen."

"What?" Jason blinked.

Alex yanked the knife off of Wade's belt, then hauled his friend back to his feet with Jason's help. "I'm serious! This isn't just a brawl!" Jason nodded and limped off, quickly as he could, to the kitchen. Then he said to Wade, "Need you to pin him down for just a second. On his belly. I've gotta get at his back."

"Okay?" Wade mumbled. He'd been thrown around a bit too much to question the request. It sounded reasonable to him. He tackled Rob from behind, wrestling with him in an effort to grab onto one of his arms. Rob countered, slipping free and bashing Wade back, but by then Drew had figured out what Wade was trying to do. It seemed like as good an idea as any.

Drew grabbed Rob's arm, twisted, and then wrenched him into a pool table at the hips, causing Rob to double over. He kept the twisting hold locked in as tightly as he could, one hand clutching Rob's wrist and the other pressing him down firmly onto the table at the shoulder. Wade recovered and grabbed at Rob's other arm.

Coming up behind him without any hesitation, Alex pushed the material of Rob's sport coat up out of the way and then yanked Rob's dress shirt and undershirt free from where they were tucked in under his pants. Thankfully, Alex saw, Rob was the type to wear suspenders rather than a belt.

"What're you doin'?" Wade asked. He could feel Rob's strength returning. They wouldn't be able to hold him down but a second or two longer.

Alex roughly unclipped Rob's suspenders, then pulled them down for some slack. Finally having a clear shot at Rob's backside, he put the knife flat and sideways against the older man's skin right above the crack of his ass and shoved up and in.

The sudden roar of rage, pain and panic that burst from Rob frightened all four young men, but nobody let up. In the kitchen, Jason spotted a meat cleaver and hustled back to the others. Holding their opponent down on the table, however, Drew and Wade looked on in shock as Alex kept cutting.

Something had appeared, almost in an eyeblink, over the skin where Alex cut. Alex grabbed at the long, flailing bit of flesh, wrapped it around his wrist a couple of times, and then pulled as he continued to cut with the knife. Rob continued to scream. Desperately, Alex put everything he had into his right hand as the knife continued to slide through muscle, tendons and skin.

A moment later, Alex had cut the demon's tail free. Rob's roar of anger turned to a wail of agony and humiliation. Drew and Wade, still holding Rob down, found their job was easier now. Rob had suddenly become noticeably weaker.

Jason returned in time to see Alex throw the tail down on the table. Alex grabbed at Rob's coat and started cutting. "There'll be wings, too," Alex grunted. "Jason, gimme the meat cleaver."

"What the fuck is this, man?" Drew burst.

"Demon."

"Demon?!" all three of Alex's friends repeated.

"Yeah. He is," Alex huffed. He looked up at Jason. "He's got horns, too, and they gotta go. Think you can find a hammer? One with a claw head?" He took the meat cleaver from Jason and then glanced at Drew and Wade. "Okay, I didn't tell you everything before, but you guys would not believe the week I've been having."

1

*************

"He has lain with me, yes. And two other women, one of whom he has longed for deeply. I believe there is strong potential for that relationship to grow."

"And you'd step aside for that?" Rachel asked.

"I believe if things were approached correctly, there would be no need. Nor need for deception," she added after seeing Rachel's sour look. "I must ask: are you jealous?"

"I don't -- I don't know," Rachel frowned finally, looking down at the ground. "I care about him. He's such a good person. I want him to be happy. If he's happy with you, I can accept that. It's not jealousy that I feel, I don't think, because I'm not angry that he's with you. But I'm frustrated and resentful that... that I can't be with him," she admitted softly.

"Why not?" Lorelei asked. "Angels have occasionally loved mortals before. Allowances have been made. I would imagine our situation would be a perfect case."

Rachel went pale. "Are you on crack? Do you know what has happened to those angels?"

"I do. Tell me, Rachel: were your feelings for Alex strong enough, would that deter you?"

"I think you're getting a little ahead of yourself."

"I know desire. You have not explored yours yet. Nor has he explored his feelings for you. Yet he has a burning desire to be with you, quite apart from his feelings for myself or Taylor or anyone else, and that feeling is terribly strong and exquisitely beautiful... much as his feelings for Taylor, and for me."

"Desire isn't love."

"No, but love often includes desire, and I've enough experience to know that what I sense in him -- in us all -- is something I have never felt before in all my time in this world. Given my activities, that tells me all that I need to know."

"You aren't afraid of being pushed out?" Rachel asked. "I'm pretty awesome after all."

"You are," Lorelei nodded, "but no. I do not fear being pushed away. I am quite confident in my relationship with Alex. If I did not know him so well, I would not be speaking to you of this now. Are we settled that we need not be enemies?"

The angel looked at the succubus thoughtfully. "Maybe. I wouldn't push past that."

"And you're not jealous?"

"No. Well. Only of time, maybe. Opportunity. But I'm not bothered by his relationship with you." "Rachel, you might well be amazed how much room there is in his heart... and in our bed."

Rachel gasped. She glanced around, blushing, and then looked at the stars, or more pointedly away from Lorelei. The succubus stepped closer, her breath hot on Rachel's ear. "Alex wants you, Rachel. The two of you have such great potential for joy. I would not interfere. I would even help."

*************

Stripped of his tail and wings, and with his horns smashed off of his head, Rob gave the guys no further trouble. He lay crumpled on the floor, gripped with agony. It gave them a breather, during which Rob was fitted with a makeshift sock-and-duct-tape gag. They put Jason's noise-canceling headphones on him, too, blasting Tool at max volume so Alex could breathlessly summarize his situation with Lorelei and Rachel.

"If she's your guardian angel, why didn't she show up?" Jason asked.

"She can't see me when I'm with Lorelei. Maybe she can't see me with this guy so close by, either."

"Well, so what do we do?" Wade asked. "Ah mean, we can't just smoke this fucker, can we?"

"Wow, man," Drew blinked. "That's harsh."

It was a reminder of how far Wade had been from home. "Yeah, but... we got another option?"

"I don't know how we can," Alex shrugged. "Lorelei says if she takes a tumble off my bike it's not that big a deal. I mean this whole thing with cutting off his tail and wings hurts him more 'cause it's symbolic than because it's an actual injury if I understand right."

"Can't you call Lorelei and ask her what to do?" Jason offered.

"I can't," Alex said, scratching his head in embarrassment. "I don't have her cell phone number. Fuck." "What about the angel chick?"

"What am I gonna do, walk away from here with a cardboard sign saying, 'Rachel, I need you,' and hope I get far enough for her to see me while you guys stay here with this douchebag?"

As he spoke, Rob groaned. He had just slipped the headphones half off. "I know what you're thinking. Go ahead and kill me, it won't matter," he said, spitting out blood. "Shoot me, run me over, drop me off a bridge. Soon as my spirit gets back to Hell, I'll tell everyone. Everyone. See how much peace and quiet you and that bitch get after that."

"Oh, well, now y'all're just goading us, asshole," Wade huffed. He looked to Alex. "Can't we take him to a priest and exorcise him or some shit?"

Rob laughed bitterly, but then stopped when Alex said, "Lorelei said holy ground's really bad for demons." Everyone noticed Rob's sudden attempt at not reacting. "Just gotta find a place that's actually devout."

"What happens there, Robbie?" Drew asked. He grabbed Rob's hair to turn his head so he could look the demon in the eye, but Rob pointedly kept his eyes shut. "Nothin' good, looks like. So where do we go?"

"Does it matter what religion?" Jason asked.

"I don't think so," Alex said, shaking his head. "Lorelei and Rachel have both kind of said that it's about how much faith there is, not specific denominations or whatever."

"You'll never find a church pure enough in this town," Rob hissed.

"No reason not to try," Wade said. "Can't bring him in my car, though. Not enough room for us to watch him."

Drew promptly put his knee into the small of Rob's back and began patting him down. He pulled out a wallet and keys. "This looks like an SUV."

Wade took charge from there. He had everyone pull off their belts to put together restraints, then got the dismembered parts of Rob collected into a trash bag. He scrounged up disposable latex gloves from the kitchen and got everyone to wear a pair. Together, they hauled the battered and wounded demon to the front of the pool hall, unlocked the door, and watched for a moment to drag him out to the only SUV in the parking lot without being seen.

Jason took the driver's seat with Wade riding shotgun. Drew and Alex, after taking a moment to fold over and shove back a couple of the seats, pushed Rob to the floor and took up spots on either side of him where they could hold him down.

As Jason hit the ignition, the Escalade's stereo blared:

"Sweeeeet Caroline!" (bam bam baaammm!!) "Good times never seemed so good!

"I've been inclined (bam bam baaammm!!!)

"To believe they never would!"

Jason quickly found the stereo controls and shut it off. Four pairs of shocked, horrified eyes looked down at the demon on the floor. "Tell me that was just a radio station," Drew managed.

"No," Jason breathed in fright. "That's a playlist. Neil Diamond is devil music." "Sick fucking bastards," Drew said.

*





Chapter 30: Real Friends Help You Move Bodies... (Part 2)

Rachel's breathing grew heavy and deep as she fought to keep her eyes on the stars. She didn't know why she was just standing still like this. She felt vulnerable before a woman whom she could bounce down the street like a basketball. One thousand, two hundred eighty-eight.

"We are bound, Rachel," Lorelei whispered to her very, very closely. She stood behind the angel, a few inches taller and seemingly older despite the marked disparity in power. "The three of us are bound together. Alex and I have found such joy in that bond. Such intimacy." Lorelei's quiet, seductive voice at Rachel's ear was joined by fingers that gently combed through Rachel's scalp just past her right temple, pulling wet hair over her shoulder. The angel closed her eyes and shuddered.

"There is no reason why you should not share in that joy," came slow, soft words directly into Rachel's ear. "I no longer serve Hell. I serve Alex. I do whatever I can to make him happy. You yearn to do so as well. We need not be enemies... we could ourselves become very close. I promise you that would make Alex happier than any of us would imagine, and by extension that happiness would come to us. "But first you must explore your own feelings for him," Lorelei finished. "With him."

Lorelei's lips were very, very close to Rachel's neck. She murmured something. "What was that?" the succubus asked.

"One thousand, two hundred eighty-nine," Rachel hissed.

"You might consider other things you might do with me," Lorelei suggested softly.

"Ffffifty-three," Rachel let slip.

Lorelei smiled. "And with Alex," she added.

Rachel nodded, almost in a trance, but then her eyes snapped wide open. "I can't see him!"

*************

"This is my life from here on out," Alex thought aloud as they drove.

"Huh?" Drew asked.

"This. Last night. Probably gonna have things like this happen all the time from here on out. They both said, once you have a run-in with the supernatural, chances are it'll keep happening. I'm gonna have to deal with one black-hearted piece of shit after another."

Silence reigned in the Escalade for a moment, until Jason finally said, "Cool."

"Not cool," Alex snapped. "What if this is what's in store for you guys now, huh? What if one of you gets hurt?"

Drew shrugged. "Take my chances."

Wade twisted in his seat. "Ain't like we couldn't have cut and run on you back at the pool hall if we'd wanted to, man," he observed. "You don't see us bailing out now, do you?"

"No," Alex said. "I really don't know what to say."

"Say thank you," Drew suggested.

"Thank you."

"You're welcome. Now quit trippin'. This is what friends are for."

"Hey, Alex," Jason piped up. "The angel chick? Rachel? Is she smokin' hot, too?"

"Yes. Unbelievably."

"So you're wrapped up in a fight against evil with two smoking hot women glued to you and your buddies along for the ride? Dude. You're like a Joss Whedon show, man."

"I am not," Alex replied.

"You totally are."

"Jason, stop it. I'm serious."

"I'm just sayin'."

"Jason," Wade broke in, "y'all realize that if he's a Joss Whedon show, y'all are the most likely candidate to get killed off in some climactic moment for no other reason than to punch up the drama, right?"

Jason fell silent. "Like he said," Wade finished, "not a Whedon show. Turn up here."

"Episcopal?" Drew blinked.

"Yeah," Wade nodded. "Good as any. I know some nice Episcopalians."

"You don't know for sure that this particular congregation is devout, though," Drew frowned.

"Ah don't. We'll find out in a sec, I imagine. This don't work, we go look for a different church. But ah figured this'd be a good place to start."

Rob began to twist and roll violently, though, foaming at the mouth from behind his makeshift gag. "I'm guessing that's a good sign," Alex mused grimly.

With that, Wade pulled up the hood of his sweatshirt, jumped out of the Escalade as it parked and ran up the steps to the front door.

"Hope there ain't a night watchman," Drew fumed, watching.

"Doesn't look like," Jason gulped. "This is a nice neighborhood. Shit like this doesn't happen here. Who breaks into an Episcopal church?"

"People who don't like Episcopals," Drew scowled. "I'm just sayin' this is some fucked up shit." His expression softened as he glanced at Jason and Alex. "Not that I've got any better ideas."

Alex shrugged, looking away for a moment. He was out of ideas, too. He glanced around the SUV and noticed a sleek briefcase pushed under the passenger's seat. He pulled it out and twiddled with the latches until it popped open. There were files and a few snacks, along with what looked like old, leathery parchment with words written in red ink.

"Ohmygod," Alex blinked. "Are these...?" he looked at Rob and yanked the headphones off his head. "Are these contracts? Are these deals you've made with people?"

Rob's eyes went wide with panic at the sight. He was still gagged, so all he could do was spew muffled screams at Alex and Drew while thrashing around on the floor of the Escalade.

"Let me see," Jason asked, snatching one of the parchments. "Looks like Latin, maybe. This word is soul, this one means money. Holy crap," he mumbled. He handed the parchment back to Alex with a trembling hand.

The guys looked at one another with the twitching demon between them. Alex swallowed hard, thinking of Raymond Cordingly and wondering how many beings much like Rob were already angry over how that had turned out...

Wade slapped the window of the SUV, scaring the hell out of all of them. The guys yelped. Wade rolled his eyes and opened the passenger door. "Ah don't think there's an easy way in. Gonna have to go through a window an' try ta open the front doors from th' inside. Drag this guy up to th' doorstep an' be ready."

Drew looked over to Alex. "You sure about this, man?"

Alex shrugged, opening the side door of the SUV and grabbing the briefcase with one hand and Rob's bound ankles with the other. "Can't think of a better reason to be arrested, anyway."

The three young men hustled Rob out of the Escalade. The demon writhed in captivity, alternately growling, crying and trying to plead through the gag. He was heavier than he looked, creating a difficult burden complicated by the need to carry the briefcase and the bag of his wings, tail and horn remnants.

Of the four of them, only Wade's heart had been hardened enough to do something like this without doubt. But each of the others found a moment, in turn, to look down at the crumpled remnants of demonic horns sprouting from Rob's head and the baleful rage in his eyes to remind them of their lack of options.

As they made it to the front door, they heard the crash of a window being broken around the corner. "Hope to God this works," Jason muttered.

"No kidding," Alex agreed.

"Ow!" Drew snapped. He dropped Rob's shoulder, letting it hit the ground. "He's smoldering!"

The others looked down, realizing smoke was coming off of the demon. Hot boils appeared on his skin, his flesh bubbling up and then bursting. His cries became increasingly desperate. The sound of Wade working the locks from within caught their attention, and an agonizingly long moment later the door was pushed open.

"Wow," Wade blinked at the sight of Rob.

Nobody wanted to touch him, but Alex shrugged. "Gotta finish this," he grumbled, and each of the guys took hold of Rob's bonds while doing their best not to touch him directly.

They hauled him inside the dark church, and then found themselves unsure of what to do. "What now?" Jason wondered.

"We just leave him here, maybe?" Drew suggested.

"Maybe we're supposed to bring him to the altar?" Alex thought. "Do they even have altars in Episcopal churches? I've never been here before."

"That's probably fuckin' sacrilege," Wade countered. "Get us in just as much trouble as -- oh!"

Lights came up, from everywhere and nowhere at once. The chapel was illuminated without any of its lamps turning on in what quickly became blinding. A voice boomed, "Step back from the fiend!"

Frightened, they did so. Rob fought to rise, managing to get to his knees just before the angel appeared. He was tall and muscular, shining with light and glory as he strode from beside the pulpit down the aisles of pews. "Creature of the Pit, you do not belong here!"

Rob screamed, and then the angel drove a great sword of light through his heart. His body began to crack and smolder, looking much like a burning coal, before he finally began to crumble to ash. The bag of demon bits in Jason's hand suddenly ignited. He dropped it on the floor on reflex, then watched it burn away to nothing without even leaving ashes behind. Rob's ashes themselves floated away on a wind to seemingly nowhere.

Alex blinked, opened the briefcase, and then stepped away from it as the contracts within also ignited and burned into nothing.

The four battered, weary, frightened young men then turned to the blindingly bright angel. They couldn't make out much in the way of features. "Your part in this is done," the angel's voice boomed. "Go in peace."

"Uh," Wade began, "if y'all're actually an agent of God, ah got some questions—"

"Wade," Alex hissed. "They don't answer questions. You're just gonna piss him off."

"Seriously? But he's like right there! Ah got serious theological issues!"

"Angels can't even tell you straight if God exists, man."

"Wow. That makes no sense."

"Welcome to religion," Jason said, eyes rolling. "I will show you out," the angel finally sighed.

************

"You've been sleeping with him for days and you haven't even exchanged cell phone numbers?!"

"He hasn't exactly been far out of reach!" Lorelei snapped back.

Rachel fumed. "Rub it in, why don't you?" she muttered under her breath. The two picked their way back out of the wrecked pool hall, frustrated by the lack of clues but grateful for the lack of bodies.

"Have you tried to see him again?" Lorelei asked. As they walked out of the pool hall, the succubus instinctively turned the corner to get to her car. Rachel followed, having no more appealing option.

"I've been trying to see him since I realized my sight was blocked. If he's not with you and I can't see him, it has to be either magic or some other demon. Odds are it isn't magic," she added. "You sure you don't have enemies?"

"Only one other from the Pit even knows I'm around, and he would know better than to challenge me, even if... Rachel," she winced, turning from her.

"What?"

"You're glowing. Brightly."

"What?"

"Your halo."

"Don't fuck with me," Rachel snapped, "my halo's been diminished since... since... Monday," Rachel's voice trailed off as she cast her eyes upward. There was indeed a holy light emanating from just above her head. "I can see him," she gasped.

*************

Outside on the steps of the church, the angel's light was less bright. "You have served a greater good this night than you know," he said.

"That'll make us feel better when we get arrested for all this mess," Drew sighed.

"You four shall suffer no mortal ills because of your actions tonight. Look upon yourselves. Your wounds already heal. Leave the vehicle behind. No mortal authority will trace it to you, nor your battle earlier."

"You saw that?"

"Heaven sees much, Jason McAllister. Moreover, I see tonight's events in your memories. Perhaps you will yet find your faith."

A single car came up the hill at a rapid speed. It slowed quickly upon approach, brakes squealing as it came up to the church. Alex recognized it immediately. Both doors opened; to his surprise, Rachel leapt out of the passenger's side and ran up the steps. Lorelei was there, too, stepping out of the driver's side but quickly stepping back. She held her hands up to block out the light of the angel at the church, but a moment later that light faded.

"Rachel," the voice said as the light went out, "we must speak." With that, all sign of the other angel vanished.

Rachel had only paused momentarily at the sound of the voice before she threw her arms around Alex. "Are you okay? We were so worried!"

"We?" Alex blinked.

"Yes, me and -- Lorelei," Rachel said, catching herself. She looked down to the street, where Lorelei stood well away from the curb. The guardian angel was silent for a moment before she made a decision. "Come on," she said, tugging Alex to follow her down the steps.

"Hey, Alex," Drew asked, "is this...?"

"Yeah. Guys, this is Rachel," he said as they walked. "Rachel, this is Drew, Jason and Wade. They're my friends."

"Hi," Rachel waved over her shoulder. "I'd really like to talk, but I'm kind of in a rush." She dragged Alex (who wasn't exactly resisting) over to Lorelei. Then she let go.

"What--?" he blinked.

Rachel nudged him. "Hug her, dummy. She can't go on sacred ground."

Alex looked at Lorelei, herself a vision of fading worry. He reached out and took her into his arms. "You had me concerned," Lorelei said, blinking back a tear.

"He said his name was Rob," Alex mumbled.

"Yes. That's what he claims."

"The angel killed him in there, I think. Does that mean he'll be back? He said if he died, he'd tell everyone in Hell about us and—"

Lorelei shook her head against Alex's shoulder. "If destroyed on holy ground, a demon is gone forever. He will trouble us no more. I am so sorry you had to deal with this without me. I tried... I was hoping to shield you from this."

"It's okay. I've got more friends than just you. It's okay."

"You are so much more than my friend, Alex," she whispered.

"I know. I know."

Lorelei pulled back a bit then, breathing deeply. She looked up to Rachel. "Your time is short?"

"It is," Rachel nodded. Alex looked to her, amazed to see them being so cordial.

"Talk to her," Lorelei told him. "I'll be here with your friends."

Surprised, Alex nodded, kissed Lorelei lightly, and then reached out to take Rachel's offered hand. The two walked back toward the church.

"Wish I had your problems," Jason murmured with a wink as Alex passed.

"When did you two start getting along?" Alex asked Rachel.

"We don't. But we talked, about twenty or thirty minutes... well, when she walked out of the pool hall. That's why I didn't come to your rescue. Oh, Alex, this is twice now. I suck at this job."

"You do not."

"I do. I'm the suckiest guardian angel ever."

"Stop. Why were you and Lorelei talking?"

"Because you asked us to bury the hatchet. We're trying."

Alex blinked. "Really? You'd... you're doing that for me?"

Rachel just nodded. She turned to face him in front of the church, now holding both his hands. She was wet and disheveled and achingly beautiful. "Tell me what happened," she said simply.

Alex relayed the evening for her, as detailed as he possibly could in light of the numerous sudden shocks and blows to the head he'd suffered. Her eyes widened as he spoke. "Gorge," she said.

"Yeah."

"And you saw all his contracts burn up inside." "Yes. The ones he had in the briefcase, anyway."

She held his hands tightly. "Alex, you don't know... you can't have any idea of what a big deal this is," Rachel breathed in awe.

"We kinda just didn't all want to die," Alex admitted.

"No, it's -- it's more than that." She looked like she had to make an effort to choke back a tear. "You did way more than survive an attack from a piddling little temptation demon."

Alex blinked. "That guy was piddling?"

Rachel nodded, then shrugged. "That's a major accomplishment for four mortals with no preparation or foreknowledge. These things don't just happen every other decade. Alex, this is a really big deal." She stepped closer to him. "You did a lot of good tonight."

"Do you have to go?" Alex asked.

She nodded. "I do. There'll be fallout from this. You're kind of scandalous, really," she winked, saying it as if she liked that. "I need to manage it. It might be a few days before you see me again, but when I can, I'll find you. We need to spend more time together. Alex, thank you."

"For what?"

"For being a good guy," she said as their lips came together.

Across the street, Lorelei and Alex's friends saw them talk. They each glanced up in surprise when they saw the kiss, all of them very aware of Lorelei's presence.

"Uh," Wade stammered, not really knowing what to say in that moment. "This is, uh. Wow. This is awkward."

"No," Lorelei said, shaking her head slowly and watching as her mouth spread into a very satisfied smile. "It's beautiful."

The guys looked to one another in shock. "Now that just makes it even more awkard," Drew deadpanned.





Chapter 31: What a Friday Morning...

"I am of half a mind to accompany you throughout your day," Lorelei said as she turned off the car's engine. "No one else would know of my presence. Just you."

In the passenger's seat of the car, Alex gave it a little thought. "I'd never be able to concentrate on my classes," he admitted with honesty but reluctance.

Lorelei turned a bit in the driver's seat. She ran a hand through his hair as she whispered into his ear, "I am far more stimulating than anything being taught here."

As with every time she touched him like this, Alex's eyes fluttered and threatened to roll back into his head. His breath became heavy. "You really are," he mumbled.

"Or you could skip your day of school?" she suggested. "We could be together, as we were all last night... this morning." Alex groaned with a smile that Lorelei shared. Once they'd seen his friends off, Alex and Lorelei returned to his bed at home for a long, sensuous night of slow and indulgent lovemaking. When he awoke this morning, they were still intertwined. He had to earn his morning shower in a vigorously physical manner before she'd let him up.

"I thought you said you had things to do today," Alex murmured.

"I do," she conceded, "but doing you would be much more fun."

"How am I supposed to say no to you?"

"You're not," Lorelei answered with a grin that he could hear. Her other hand reached down to his groin to get to work on freeing his erect flesh. "No one will notice us," she whispered before he could protest. Her tongue began exploring his ear.

"Then how... huh... wow... how can I be the one in charge?"

The succubus purred. "You are in charge, Alex. I am yours. In every way." Her right leg came over the divider between their seats, slipping up against his leg. She wore only a miniskirt and, as he could now tell, had somehow slipped off her panties without him noticing. (He wondered, briefly while he was capable of coherent thought, why she would hide such a move from him?) Her scent was intoxicating.

"Then what... happens when... when I say no to you?"

Demonstrating her inhuman grace and agility once more, Lorelei pivoted on her right foot to swing herself over him. Her left leg went over his right shoulder while her left hand deftly reached down to recline his seat. In a smooth movement she settled in on top of him as his seat leaned back, bringing her mouth toward his while the wet lips of her cunt kissed his erect shaft.

"Then I will give you a sultry, seductive, pouty look," Lorelei said, offering him just that, "until you fuck me into adoring obedience." She slid her labia around his cock teasingly for a moment before lining him up to penetrate her. As she lowered herself upon the head of his cock, the hand she had run across his scalp grabbed onto his hair. Their eyes snapped open wide. They gazed into one another's eyes as she impaled herself upon him, her right leg low along his leg with her left laid across his chest.

She didn't move much at first, knowing how Alex savored the initial moments of penetration and closeness. Lorelei found it mesmerizing, too. Every bit of contact between them was worthy of their attention. Snugly enveloping every square inch of his flesh, Lorelei grinned wantonly, kissed him, and then began to grind.

Passersby completely ignored the car. Several people actually walked right between the Lexus and the car next to it, moving inches from this act of public intercourse, but were oblivious to the passion unfolding right next to them.

"Oh God," Alex moaned in luxury. He wasn't complaining in the slightest when he said, "I think I'm going to be late to class."

"It'll be fine," Lorelei breathed. "Your first class today is with that pretty Professor Alden. You like her. She'll see your handsome face and smell me upon you and all will be forgiven. Aaaaah," she whimpered in his ear. "You could probably sink this cock into her right after class if you played your cards right."

Alex groaned again, holding Lorelei's ass with both hands. She smiled wantonly. "You like that thought, don't you? Roaming through campus... fucking whatever ladies strike your fancy... oh... you can have anyone you like... yes... I feel it, too... don't resist, master... my gift to you..."

It was, in fact, a thought that his imagination could run away with. His mind was flooded with images of different partners, different settings, and different positions. Lorelei shared all these visions and drank them greedily, coaxing more out of him with the soft but insistent sounds of her voice and the gyrations of her impaled hips.

As usually what happens, they came explosively together. Alex's pleasures and satisfaction were too vividly shared with Lorelei for anything less. In time, Lorelei knew, they would be able to cum separately as well as together, which would be delicious for both. For now, however, every release was a shared moment of rapture.

Alex's eyes were wide with amazement as he looked into hers. They were almost motionless for a moment, still joined and breathing heavily. Then his hand slipped around her neck and brought her close for a long and deep kiss that said more to her than either had said aloud yet. Then he simply held her close, unwilling to withdraw from her yet as they both calmed down.

"Enjoy your day, master," she said with both sweetness and seduction. "Without restraint."

************

Ahmed didn't head down to his pool hall -- well, not his anymore, of course -- until after nine in the morning. He had awoken late to tell his wife the great news from the night before, only to get into a screaming fight with her. Rather, Emina shouted quite a bit. Ahmed had tried defending himself, but soon sat at their kitchen table with his hands over his bowed head while Emina expounded, at length, about the diminutive size of his brain.

The price for the hall was itself more than fair. Mr. Gorge had offered enough to walk away with a significant profit, in fact, when all was said and done. But it wasn't that Ahmed disliked his pool hall and wanted to sell it. The hall was doing very well, except that even "very well" wasn't good enough in light of the terms of his refinanced business loans.

When the economy tanked and refinancing opportunities were to be had, Ahmed had thought he could make better progress in eliminating his start-up debts. Instead, he was taken for a ride, and those refinanced loans crippled his profits. Ahmed had only realized this over the last year and was thrilled to have this chance to get out from under that bad deal.

Except then Emina reminded him of how tenuous their retirement plans had become. How so much of their savings had been wiped out by the capriciousness of the market. How he was a little old to find a good new job in such a bad economy. And of how his profit margin on the sale, regardless of being quite favorable, was ultimately finite, while they were not yet ready to retire and their future needs were therefore effectively incalculable. She didn't say this in English, of course, as she rarely spoke English when she was upset. But in Bosnian his wife was quite eloquent, regardless of her moods.

She was also, even today, quite beautiful. Ahmed loved his wife every bit as much now as he had when he married her in their homeland against the wishes of his family and half a village of rival suitors. Even now when he looked at her, he saw that fiery young woman he'd married thirty years earlier with the intention of fulfilling her dreams to go to the United States and make their fortune. Even now, he wanted nothing more than her happiness.

And so it was with great trepidation that Ahmed returned to his -- the -- pool hall that morning hoping that the charming, affable Mr. Gorge might somehow reconsider the terms of his purchase. That was a foolish hope, of course, but for Emina, he had to try.

Something looked wrong, somehow, when Ahmed pulled up to the front of the hall. He got out, locked his car, and walked to the front door to find it open. When he walked in he could see that there was something out of sorts inside. A moment or two later, he had it: there was debris, and missing furniture, all toward the back and center of the main room.

"Hello?" called a voice from behind the bar. Ahmed looked up to see a tall, strikingly beautiful woman in a crisp, flattering business suit with the inventory binders in front of her.

"Ah. Hello," Ahmed blinked. "Is Mr. Gorge here? I'm the owner -- former owner," he corrected.

She smiled. "You're Mr. Kovac? It's a pleasure to meet you," she said, stepping out from behind the bar to offer her hand. "Call me Lori. Mr. Gorge won't be back, but I'm here to take care of his interests in the establishment."

Ahmed shook her hand, feeling even more confused. "Where is he?"

"Oh, he has already moved on. You know how wealthy people are," she added with a knowing wink.

Ahmed nodded. He did not, in fact, know any wealthy people. Not really. He'd made a few acquaintances in the Chamber of Commerce, but on a personal level Ahmed was himself the most successful businessman he knew.

"What...happened?" he asked, gesturing with his hand.

"Ah. Well. Mr. Gorge unfortunately took it upon himself to lock up after your bartender, Jim, left for the evening, but then forgot. Mr. Gorge left the door wide open. The register has been bashed open and emptied, several bottles were stolen from behind the bar -- a couple of them are smashed on the floor back there, too -- and they did this."

He looked around curiously, finding himself quite stunned at the damage done to one particular pool table. It looked like someone had hacked at it with a meat cleaver. "Is that blood?!" he gasped.

"No, no," Lori said in a calming tone. "I thought so, too, but it's not. Too dark and thick. I've -- Mr. Gorge has taken an interest in much seedier establishments than this one before," she added by way of explanation. "Unfortunately, I couldn't for the life of me tell you what it actually is, and the security tapes were stolen, too. But if it's not blood and it's not something flammable -- which it isn't -- then I guess it really doesn't matter what there is beyond general vandalism."

"Huh," Ahmed mumbled. He didn't really know if he believed her or not, but she sounded confident. He certainly wanted to believe her. The last thing he wanted was to find out some terrible crime had taken place in his pool hall, regardless of whether or not he had just sold it.

"Ah, Mrs. -- Lori?" Ahmed began, "I wonder -- I wanted to ask Mr. Gorge some questions about the sale last night."

"Oh?"

"Yes. It was very fast. Very fast. Too fast, you see. I hoped to work out things. Details I forgot."

'Lori' cocked her head curiously. "I don't suppose you have to paperwork that Mr. Gorge left you with last night?" she asked. "I could get it from him myself, but for convenience's sake if you have your own copy we could look it over now."

"Yes. Yes," Ahmed said, pulling out the folded sheets of paper. He smoothed them out on one of the pool tables. "Is all very simple, you see. Maybe too simple, is my worry."

"You are concerned about the price?"

"No. Yes. Ah, yes and no," Ahmed smiled weakly. "Price is good, yes, but I have loans to pay off and such. I can do this, but I am unsure of details. I hoped Mr. Gorge would not feel is too late."

Lori nodded, looking over the paperwork quickly. "It does seem like a fair price."

"Ah. Well. I did not expect to sell until last night when Mr. Gorge came to me."

She smiled comfortingly. "Opportunity knocked, and you didn't want to miss it."

"Yes."

"Mr. Kovac—"

"Ahmed, please. Call me Ahmed."

"Ahmed, then. It's just Lori, by the way. Ahmed, I understand that this probably came on in a rush." She sounded sympathetic. She'd had a couple thousand years to practice faking such emotions, after all. But when she sensed an opportunity to fix a wrinkle in her plans, she had no need to cover the twinkle in her eye. "Tell me, what sort of plans did you have for business after you sold the hall?"

His own smile weakened a bit, seeming vulnerable. "That is the real problem," he acknowledged. "That is what I really have to talk with Mr. Gorge about."

Lori nodded, folding the sales papers back up without giving them back. She leaned on the pool table and looked at him thoughtfully. "Mr. Gorge has already passed ownership in the hall to a new party."

Ahmed blinked. "He has? So soon?"

"Mr. Gorge had plans when he made the purchase. Most of them didn't work out as he had intended, but I think they'll work out to your benefit as well as to the new owners. Tell me, Ahmed, how would you feel about staying on as manager? For a few years, at least?"





Chapter 32: Bonding with Onyx...

"Oh wow, what a great shot," breathed a voice behind Alex. He blinked, turning slightly from his computer terminal, and became very, very aware of long, curly black hair and pale, luscious cleavage framed in black fabric looming thrillingly close to his left shoulder. He recovered very quickly and looked up at Onyx's blue eyes.

She was herself, however, looking at the picture of the angel statue on his screen. He had gotten the angel statue pretty much perfectly. There was just enough ambient light from the street and the exterior lights of the funeral parlor to let the angel's features show, while still creating a near-silhouette effect with the moon. All he'd had to do was play around with it in Photoshop a bit.

"Hey, thanks," he smiled.

"Alex, where did you do this?" she asked, still looming. She seemed to be a bit closer than would be reasonable, really. Onyx was a walking, talking work of delicate beauty wrapped in black satin and lace and knee-high Doc Marten boots. She was a little older, or at least Alex believed she was. She'd been in school before he'd gotten there, anyway, and carried herself like she was older. But he really didn't know.

He was just thrilled that she remembered his name. After all, he had really only managed passing conversations with Onyx and her apparent partner in crime, at least until now. "Uh," Alex mumbled, "promise to keep it quiet?"

Onyx's eyes slid down to look at his, a conspiratorial smile playing at the red lips on her porcelain-perfect face. "How quiet?"

Alex smirked. He kept his voice low. "Well, I guess you can tell Molly there, she seems cool."

Onyx gave it only a second's thought before she hissed Molly's name. It was an open lab period for photography, rather than direct instruction, so a little quiet socializing in class wasn't going to annoy anyone else. Molly looked up, seemed to blink and nearly say something, then stopped to save her work before coming over.

Where Onyx was beautiful and delicate, Molly struck Alex as a girl whom he'd be happy to make out with in a mosh pit. Her fire engine red hair was cut short. She wore no make-up and didn't really need any. (Onyx probably didn't need it, either, but she clearly had her style.) Alex had no doubt that she probably cleaned up quite wonderfully, but generally speaking Molly was all torn black band t-shirts, dark cargo pants and spiky jewelry.

He was probably wrong in labeling Molly as a goth. He was probably wrong in that regard with Onyx, too, but it wasn't like he was going to throw the labels at them directly. Really, he just found them both enchantingly hot.

Hot enough to go out of his way in the hopes of even marginally impressing or interesting them, and that seemed to have turned out wonderfully already.

"What's up? Oh, shit, that's nice," Molly said as she came over to the screen.

Alex just smiled, clicked over to the previous picture, and waited as they looked over his nighttime shot of the mausoleum.

Molly's grin was unrestrained. "Where did you get these?"

"Keep it to yourselves?" Alex asked. They both nodded. "Sacred Heart Cemetery."

"No shit?" Onyx asked. "They just had a big fire and the chapel burnt down burned down."

"Yeah."

"Did get permission to shoot on their property?" Molly asked.

"Uuhhh... no. They don't allow you to get in there at night," Alex said, dropping the line as nonchalantly as he had said it in his own head several nights past. "But if you climb the fence and stumble around in the dark anyway, you can get this really cool shot of this statue here." He clicked over to another picture. "And you can sneak up on the chapel and get a pic of the steeple with the moon overhead, and it feels totally creepy. And there's this mist and stuff, and you almost feel like you can hear wailing..."

"Um," Onyx said, "that's the chapel that burned down?"

Alex just nodded. "Yeah. Freaked me the fuck out, too."

"Holy fuck, you were there that night?" Molly asked.

"I left about an hour before," Alex fibbed. "If I'd seen anything, I'd have called 911," he added, which wasn't entirely untrue. He had, in fact, called the cops when he saw what was going on. He just didn't wait for them, or stick around to talk. "I mean, yeah, I was trespassing, but that chapel was kind of a nice building."

Molly snorted, but Onyx just looked at Alex. The redhead noticed the change in the way her friend looked at him, and flashed a quiet, knowing smile at her.

There was a great deal within each glance between the two. Molly flashed a wordless query. Onyx gave a small, tentative nod of confirmation with bashfully eager eyes. Molly smirked in approval. Alex missed almost all of it.

Almost. Without realizing that the two were throwing signals to one another with a sharp clarity just short of telepathy, Alex knew that they were both looking at him differently than they had before. What's more, he knew it was an encouraging sign.

"What're you doing after class?" Onyx asked abruptly. Molly was already moving back to her workstation.

Alex blinked. "Um. I've got my first aid class after this. Normally I work on Friday afternoon after that, but today my plans are pretty much flexible. Why?"

Onyx shrugged, smiling a bit shyly. "Figured we could hang out. You seem cool."

"I'd like that," Alex smiled back.

"Molly's got a ton of mid-terms coming up, so she's stuck here for a while. So I'm on my own."

"I'm free."

"I mean, I don't have anything in mind. Like, no plans to go do anything interesting."

"Cool."

"I'm not saying it's a date or anything," Onyx replied. "I mean. Um. I'm not sure what I'm saying right now. Do I sound like a babbling idiot?" Several workstations away, as if able to hear every single word that Onyx was saying ever so quietly, Molly faked a cough that sounded suspiciously like laughter.

"Onyx," Alex said calmly, "I'd really like to hang out with you after class. We could go do whatever or nothing. You just seem really cool and I'd like to get to know you better."

She blinked, as if he had said that completely out of the blue. She smiled, looking a bit surprised. "Cool," she said.

Alex couldn't help but grin back. It was nice to not be the only one who felt a little shy for once.

************

"We can open tonight on schedule," Ahmed said proudly as he hung up the phone. "No one was told not to come in to work. They were just all sent home early last night. Mr. Gorge promised full night's pay for last night, though. With a bonus to make up for lost tips."

"That's not a problem," Lorelei smiled. She had already gone through the most pertinent financial statements and was now looking over a catalog at prices for replacing the damaged pool table and furniture. "I don't believe replacing what was damaged will be too expensive. Would you be willing to handle that part of things, Ahmed?" she asked.

"Of course," he nodded, but frowned at the pool table. "These can cost a good deal, though. You cannot just have it fixed easy. Repairs will typically cost more than buying a new one."

"I agree. We could have a new one delivered by tonight."

Ahmed's eyebrows rose, and he considered his words carefully. There were a couple of suppliers in the immediate area, certainly, but immediate delivery on call would be an expensive proposition. "We can go one night without this one table if we just throw a cover over it and list it as out of order."

"We could," Lorelei nodded. Her phone hummed, and she picked it up. It would be Alex, of course. She had been enjoying the steady excitement of whatever flirtations he was engaged in, but at this point she doubted anything would be consummated. The clock had already dashed her hopes of him ravishing his professor in her office after class. No, he was probably calling to be picked up...

...or, as it happened, texting her to say, "Surprise date w/Onyx. Not sure to where. Tell me if it's inconvenient. I'll fix it."

Not forgetting that she was in another's company, Lorelei restrained herself from smiling broadly and laughing out loud. Instead, she allowed herself a small grin as she reached into her purse. Without looking at Ahmed -- she was texting a reply -- she pulled out the wrapped stack of $100 bills that Rob Gorge had flashed around the night before and then left on the floor when the fight began. Lorelei passed it to Ahmed.

"That should cover the pool table and the other damaged items along with delivery costs," she said. As she spoke she texted Alex: "Don't worry about me. Enjoy. Take as long as you like. I wish you luck."

Shock was plain on Ahmed's face. Lorelei looked up at him with a shrug. "Mr. Gorge knew there would be changeover expenses. Have the pool table and the broken chairs replaced. I will need to see the receipts when all is said and done. Then take a thousand for yourself as a re-hire bonus and reserve perhaps two hundred dollars as a bonus for each employee who stays on."

The shock doubled. He looked up at Lorelei. "So much? It is very generous!"

She simply shrugged. "I have learned, lately, the value and importance of rewarding loyalty."

************

They had decided they were pals before getting even halfway through a fast-food lunch. They talked of music and books and school and the craziness of new adulthood. They caught on to one another's wit and intelligence. Every legitimate excuse to touch one another, if entirely chastely, was seized upon.

She was not quite two years older than him and didn't seem to think it made any real difference. Alex could feel as much from her voice and her laughter. For all Onyx's black garb and appreciation for things creepy and morose, for all the introversion she displayed for the world at large, she was very much alive and vibrant.

There was open, unabashed excitement at this new connection, and neither of them were shy about showing it.

"Gimme your left hand." She didn't really wait for it. She just pulled it up to her eyes. "Relax it. Like this."

"Are you reading my palm?" Alex blinked.

"Yeah. Seriously, relax it," Onyx grinned.

"I thought it was the dominant hand?"

"Only if you don't know what you're doing." Onyx's eyes glittered with interest.

"You a big believer in this?"

"I believe in a lot of things. Laugh if you want to."

"Oh, I'm not one to judge lately," Alex smirked wryly. He chewed on his burger while she looked his palm over. "Anything interesting there?"

"Yeah. Your lines are all weird. 'kay, now gimme your other hand," she said. Her brow furrowed after she looked at it for a moment.

"So am I the Chosen One?"

Onyx laughed. "I don't know. Do you believe in fate?"

"Not really. Nobody's 'chosen' for anything. You happen to be in one situation or another and you make your decisions based on who you are. Maybe you're the right person for that situation, maybe you're not. Hopefully you do the right thing for the world and you move on from there." He watched her. "Why are you grinning like that?"

"I knew I liked you," she answered quietly. She let him have his hands back. "I think you've got a whole mess on your palm lines from a previous life or something," she said. She didn't sound serious.

"Never thought about that. What were you in your last life?"

"Last life was only a couple years ago. I was a cheerleader."

"Bullshit," Alex laughed.

"No, seriously. First couple years of high school. I tried really hard to fit in. Then I sort of found myself and gave up on the social scene. I started hanging out with the wrong crowd and went off the deep end," she explained with a sarcastically ominous tone. "Spent a lot of time in the counselor's office after that, but at least I felt like I was being honest with myself."

"Wow. I'd pay to see those cheerleading squad photos."

"You'll have to pay a lot," she grinned. "What about you? What'd you do?"

"Swim team." She cocked an eyebrow, and he shrugged. "I was okay at it. I guess it was good for me, but I only joined because there was a girl."

"Ah," she nodded. "How'd that work out for you, Flipper?" Alex just snorted. That was all she needed to hear about that.

"So you don't have a girlfriend, do you?" Onyx asked casually. She sat in the driver's seat of her old, used car outside of a Dick's drive-thru, twiddling with her French fries. There was some trepidation in her voice, but only if one really listened for it.

Alex swallowed, hoping this didn't blow things. Or sound completely pretentious. Or slimy. "I'm sort of seeing someone," he said with a casual tone to match Onyx's, "but it's really recent and it's not exclusive. We've talked about that a couple of times to make sure we're all clear on it." Holy shit, I sound like such a philandering creep, he thought. His mind raced for a way to dig himself out of the hole he had just dug.

He needn't have worried. Onyx's smile was small, but it was there. "Kind of in the same boat," she admitted. There was no attempt at being casual. She seemed to be staring.

"What, you're a philandering creep, too?" Alex asked.

Onyx burst out laughing. "No!" she said. "I mean I'm not in anything exclusive."

"I feel totally weird even saying it," Alex shrugged. "I used to wonder if I was bad for even having a crush on more than one girl at the same time."

She chewed on a fry thoughtfully. "I think I'm supposed to tell you that you should just date only one person if that's what makes you comfortable." He nodded, but then she said, "Except I think if that's the situation you're in you should blow off all those worries and enjoy yourself. What happens happens."

He blinked. "Really?"

"I might have ulterior motives behind that opinion," she shrugged, still looking directly at him.

He didn't miss the hint, but wanted to know more before he went further. "What's that boat you're in look like?"

"Keep it to yourself?"

"I'm not going to hide things from who I'm seeing, but past that, sure."

She nodded. "Fair enough." Then she took a deep breath. "I'm mainly into girls. I'm in a relationship that's pretty serious. But she doesn't want to tie me down and she knows I sometimes like guys, too, when they aren't jerks. She just doesn't want me being stolen from her."

Alex smiled. "I can appreciate that."

"So that means I can't date someone who's looking for something exclusive."

"That would make it complicated, yeah."

Onyx shrugged. "I haven't actually, um, taken advantage of my freedom yet." Alex nodded, saying nothing. She added, "It also means I can't exactly take boys home with me."

"You live with your girlfriend?" Alex asked. She nodded, still looking at him. She was nervous. It showed. But she was gutsy, too, and that was fully on display.

"I would like to point out," he ventured after summoning up his own courage, "that I am a guy, and not a jerk. And am not looking for anything exclusive. And I like you a lot."

"I can tell," she grinned. "I like you, too." They were silent, looking at one another for a long moment before she finally said, "What I'm saying is sitting here in my car is going to get old, but we can't really go back to my place."

"We could go to mine. I'm one of those dorks who lives at home with his mom, though."

"Whatever. You're a year out of high school. I'm only living away from home by virtue of luck and having someone else to lean on."

"Point being, we could go hang out at my place. We'll have it to ourselves for at least a few more hours."

Her bright blue eyes drifted away from him for a moment. She took a deep breath, letting it out slowly and heavily, and then turned the car on.





Chapter 33: The Pleasures of Onyx...

"Yes, we'll be happy to make an appraisal," said the older gentleman. He was already pulling out measuring tools and placing them on the counter. There were a dozen diamonds on the small felt bag in front of him, professionally cut and gleaming under the shop's lights.

"Ah," he stopped, wanting to head off any dramatic disappointments, "you understand that as a reseller, what we would provide as an appraisal isn't necessarily what we ourselves offer in exchange? I can tell you a reasonable fair market value, but we can only buy at rates below that."

Lorelei smiled and nodded patiently. "I understand. I'll have to hear out your estimate, but to be frank I believe cash in hand will likely win out over what might be found after a long search for an interested buyer."

The old jeweler smiled. "Understood. Is there, ahem, documentation with these pieces?"

The succubus leaned in a bit closer, looking at him with the earnest, innocent eyes of several millennia of manipulation and deception. "Would that be absolutely required? We found these in storage. I've simply no idea where the paperwork might be found. If that affects the appraisal, I'll understand."

His cheeks and bald forehead reddened. "Oh, no, Miss, not a requirement. Not necessarily. I'm sure we could, ah, work around that." He pushed a finger under his collar to give his neck a bit of room. "It just might, as you say, affect the... ah... total appraisal a bit is all."

Lorelei nodded. She felt, deep within herself, a building desire and clear sense of anticipation. Wherever Alex was, it was only getting better. "I understand," she said, deliberately keeping the tremble from her voice. "Just... hurry. Please."

************

Fifteen minutes later and a few miles away, Alex showed her into his home. She looked around curiously. "This is a nice place," she said with sincere admiration.

"It wasn't always like this," he said. "We've only been here a couple of years. I can remember thinking food stamps were pretty neat. Mom's come a long way."

"You and your mom are close?" she asked curiously.

Alex nodded. "We really are. She doesn't treat me like a kid much. Unless she's freaked out, I guess."

"Must be nice to have a cool parent," Onyx mused. She wasn't really thinking about that, though. Alex looked at her, and for once felt confident in his ability to read subtle body language. He leaned in and kissed her.

She kissed back, pulling him toward her until he pushed her back up against the door. Onyx tugged at his shirt, her face turned up into his, while his hands softly trailed down her curly black hair to the small of her back. Her breasts pushed up against his chest, and as blood flowed into his groin he could feel her against his growing stiffness.

His instincts warned him to be gentle with her. Her kiss and her body felt delicate and needful yet with an innocence that seemed completely out of place with everything he'd learned of her. He had only spoken with her in passing a few times in class and the last couple of hours of hanging out with her one on one.

Onyx had a girlfriend. Lived with her. Things were serious. She was a little older at a time in life when even a little could mean a lot. Her image was a carefully constructed blend of dark, foreboding colors and mysterious allure, and she had to know it. Had to know how pretty and sexy she was. Had to be much more worldly than he was, even after this last crazy week.

Yet if she had told him as they kissed passionately that she had never been with anyone else before this, he'd have believed her. That kiss lasted a long time. They embraced closely but softly up against the door, cuddling as much as anything. Both of them released a breath pregnant with tension and excitement.

"I've wanted to do that since the first time I saw you," Alex murmured.

Onyx's eyes glittered up at him. "This is really special."

"Yeah."

She inhaled, being bold once again. Onyx said, ever so quietly, "Don't take me to a couch if we're just going to wind up moving to your bed."

************

There was a tremble in her legs as she walked with all possible speed to her car. She didn't really have to hide anything this time. Lorelei was in public, yes, but walking through a parking lot to her Lexus. Passing no one and with no need to shield her pleasure, there was no reason not to let her breath come out in soft, expectant moans.

This had been coming on for the last few minutes. She had felt the first kiss while in the appraiser's office. Despite the rush of power she felt as Alex indulged his desires, it was all Lorelei could do to shield her reactions. It felt like he was kissing her directly. He could have been there, right up against her, lips and tongues intertwined as if the last few nights had never happened.

Lorelei pushed the appraiser harder than she'd meant to. There was an unrestrained use of manipulative power in that office, along with consent to a lower exchange rate than she probably could have worked out with a little bargaining, but it didn't matter. The diamonds were just pricey baubles. There was always more money out there to be had. What was happening to her master, and therefore to her, was exquisite and by its very nature fleeting.

She struggled to walk to her car, opened the door and slipped inside. She suddenly and simultaneously felt her legs being spread apart by friendly, gentle hands that caressed her stocking-clad legs before moving down to pull off her tall boots. Except she wasn't wearing stockings or boots at all; Lorelei was in a short skirt, longer than the one she'd worn to drive Alex to school, and high heels.

Lorelei's eyes hardly tracked her surroundings at all. She locked the doors and willed herself to be unseen before giving in to the feeling of laying back onto a bed and having her master's hands roam up her sides, still fully clothed, all for the first time. His face rose up to hers, kissing her passionately for only the fourth time ever now, and she felt swept away by it.

Her heart beat faster. The trembling in her legs now rippled deliciously through her whole being. She needed him so badly, wanted what would inevitably be hers, yet also needed him to take this slowly and carefully.

In the car, Lorelei dropped her seat backward. She shifted, enabling herself to unzip and loosen her skirt. Her hands moved inexorably to the inflamed, moist flesh between her legs.

She saw Alex smiling at her, soothing her with words about not rushing things and wanting her to be comfortable. She laughed, nervously and innocently.

Innocence.

Lorelei's eyes flared with power. "She's a virgin," the succubus gasped as she felt Alex claim her lips once again.

************

"I've never been with a man before," Onyx confessed. They lay intertwined, shoes kicked off and their most restrictive clothes loosened, but still basically dressed.

Keeping his cool about it, Alex managed to show only a little surprise. It was tactful. "That's okay," he said. "I don't want to pressure you. I like you."

"I want this," she nodded.

"I do, too. But why me?"

"I don't meet a lot of nice men," she said softly. "Not nice men who are cute and trustworthy and understanding."

He was more than flattered. He was blown away. "How do you know all that about me for sure?"

"Any girl with taste can see you're cute," she smiled. "As for the rest... trade secret. But I can tell." She pulled him closer to kiss him again, then tentatively slipped her hands up under his shirt and began to pull it up. Alex let her, breaking off the kiss only when he needed to make room for the shirt.

Onyx's hands trailed back down again, and then her eyes went wide as she found the fresh scar under the left side of his chest. "Oh my God," she murmured, "what happened here?"

"Um. It's okay now, but can I tell you later?" His lips found their way to the side of her neck, which she offered up without resistance. "If I tell you now I can't use my mouth for this," he pointed out.

"Deal," she giggled.

Hands slipped under her back, working to free her from her complicated top. Again she laughed softly before helping him with it. Removing it revealed a black lace bra that contrasted with her alabaster skin and a figure that her fashion sense didn't do justice. Alex marveled at her until she tugged him closer, kissing him out of self- consciousness. It was the only thing she could do to break the moment.

"Wow," he breathed finally.

"Alex," she whispered into his ear, a soft plea between equals, "I trust you. Do this for me."

He hesitated only for a second to process that. She couldn't be more explicit than this, he realized. Not this first time at any rate. But that moment's thought allowed him to understand what she was asking of him.

There was a point of no return here for each of them. He had the thought that if she were to back out, it was better that he crossed it first. Alex pulled away from her for a moment to unbutton his jeans. He twisted off of her to pull away both denim and black cotton underneath.

Onyx couldn't help but look, and then her eyes went wide for a second time. "Wow," his new friend gasped. Then she looked up at his eyes apologetically. "I didn't mean anything bad by that," she quickly explained.

Alex just smirked. "No? You're sure?"

She grinned, her hands roaming down his back and then, for the first time, across his ass. "Shut up, you."

He smiled and then kissed her again, legs and chests moving against one another. Having him naked and on top of her excited her, excited them both, and they both knew it. Alex didn't make her wait to the point of frustration, though. He broke away from their kiss again, trailing his lips down her chest, over her bra and down her belly until he came to the top of her skirt. His hands slipped under the fabric and slowly pulled it off of her, leaving her in nothing but her matching black bikini panties that stretched across full, gorgeous hips.

Onyx lay there before him, unsure of what to do with her hands now, feeling vulnerable and timid yet wanting it to continue. She blushed when Alex breathed out, "You're so beautiful," but said nothing. Her eyes asked him not to stop.

Alex's hands returned to her hips, as did his mouth. Satin and lace were pulled away, exposing skin that he caressed with kisses as she shivered in delight. Even the dark patch of hair revealed as the panties came off was so very lovely.

His eyes were on hers as his kisses slowly slipped low between her legs. She couldn't hold his gaze long, though he could see surprise and gratitude and joy in her eyes before they closed and her hands both softly gripped his head. Her panties were only down past her knees, but that at least allowed her to bend her legs up and out to help him get them off without making his mouth break contact with her soft thighs.

"OhgodohgodohgodAlexyes," Onyx exhaled as she felt a shudder run through her body. Her fingernails dug softly through his scalp as her legs slipped over his back. She willed him up a little closer into her pussy, drawing him in and panting in pure joy. The revelation of the glory he'd been hiding in his pants was a thrill in and of itself. She hadn't expected this treat, too.

It truly was a treat at that. Alex moved slowly up kissing and gently stroking her thighs. As he reached the top of her thighs he gently nibbled and sucked on each one causing her to gasp softly.

Within minutes of tender attention from Alex's fingers and mouth, Onyx was almost dizzy with pleasure. He was slow, steady and gentle. She could easily believe he'd done this a hundred times or more. His tongue suddenly split her lips and spoiled her clit rotten as he sucked it into his mouth.

Alex's fingers moved over her pussy and squeezed it softly before beginning to slide them back and forth over it. As Onyx's juices flowed out more and coated his fingers, Alex slipped two of them slowly and gently inside of her tight pussy causing Onyx to shudder once again.

Alex slowly worked his tongue around her clit. Just as he started flicking his tongue over the sensitive nub, Onyx jerked her hips upwards into his mouth before screaming in ecstasy as she orgasmed. Alex grinned happily and curled his fingers just enough to rub against the rough spot behind her clit. This had an immediate effect on Onyx as she screamed in pleasure again and began spraying into Alex's mouth.

Alex pulled his mouth back a little to give her a break as he licked his lips of her juices, savoring the taste. He watched as small little shudders would wrack her body occasionally and squeezing his fingers before she opened her eyes and looked at him.

'He couldn't possibly be doing this for the first time,' she thought. She hardly thought about that, though. All she thought about was that he felt so very, very good, that he could do this to her as long as he pleased, and that she had chosen very wisely indeed.

There was only one person in the world with whom Onyx had ever gone this far. She used to feel embarrassed and vulnerable with her, spread like this and offering up such private things that she'd spent virtually all of her life hiding. The embarrassment faded, but the vulnerability never did. If anything, Onyx learned to embrace it with her partner. Here, she found herself embracing it again. She had reason to trust this man.

Another climax came on without warning or preamble for either of them. Her breathing quickened, but she made no other noise, and Alex was taken slightly by surprise as he felt her tighten around his fingers again. He didn't let up though and went back to fingering like he did earlier. He didn't quicken his pace, didn't slow it. Alex licked and caressed and paid close attention to the sound of her breath and the feel of her body as she rode his affections over the edge in a long series of gasps and twitching spasms.

Alex brought her down smoothly, enjoying the grateful undertones of her panting and soft, wondrous laughter. "I didn't expect you to do that," she said finally.

"I can do a lot more if you'd like," Alex offered. His lips were still close enough to hers that she could feel the warmth of his voice against them.

At that, she finally did whimper, just once. "I want more, but I want you. Now."

"Now?" he taunted, moving up to lie against her.

"Before I get worried that you're too good to be true," she smiled. Onyx let one hand trail down his body, gathering the courage to finally touch what she wanted. The contrast of soft flesh over such a hard, stiff tool excited her even more. "Just... go slow. I've never had anything like this."

"I like going slow," Alex reassured her. She brought the head of his engorged cock between her labia, giving them both a pronounced, intimate rush. "Onyx, I don't know if this might be nasty to you or not," he ventured softly, "but can I kiss you?"

Her eyes drifted up to him. One hand was still on his cock, rubbing it against herself, but the other now slipped around his neck. "Hell yes," she said. She pulled him close, invading his mouth gratefully with her tongue and thrilling to the taste of herself upon him.

As they kissed, Alex slowly pushed into her. He read her every reaction, feeling increasingly familiar and intimate. She needed him to be the aggressor here, having brought the whole affair as far as she could of her own initiative already. Onyx was strong, self-possessed, bold. She knew who she was better than most women her age. There was no submissiveness or fear here. For whatever reason, she wanted this moment to be directed by her partner.

Her kiss became ever more encouraging and rewarding as Alex pushed into her. It was a tight fit. He was glad that he had gone down on her, making this much easier on both of them well ahead of time and ensuring that Onyx was already riding high on orgasmic relief when he began to split her flesh. Regardless of how welcoming she was, she had never accepted anything so big.

He pulled back, briefly, allowing her to adjust, before pushing in the rest of the way. When he was fully within her Onyx let out a grunt of both relief and hunger.

"So good," she whispered into his mouth. "So good."

He felt exactly the same, but was a little too overwhelmed himself to say so. Alex pulled back, slowly, withdrawing most of his length before sinking back into her again. Onyx purred seductively.

"More," she beckoned. "More," she said again a few seconds later, and as he increased his pace, she simply whispered, "more." They started out slow, grinding together deeply and feeling one another out, but as she became used to him and their excitement built the fear of being too rough with her faded for both of them.

Eventually, Alex let go of all restraint. Onyx felt herself being pounded and invaded by that beautiful cock, wanting nothing more than everything Alex had in him. They gave up on kissing, gave up on affection, anything but this frenzied fuck that they both so desperately needed. Onyx tightened around him, brought to another wet, panting climax, but he didn't stop or even slow down. It only made her orgasm better, she found. He fucked her right through that rush, leaving her delirious with pleasure for awhile, until she came back to her senses and saw him above her with his torso mostly upright as he continued his single-minded mission of fucking her out of her mind again.

Though she wasn't giving it much thought at the time, she would later have a hard time thinking of anything that had ever felt so comprehensively good. They were friends. There was intimacy. There was trust. There was sex so good it left her in awe. When they began, she had felt self-conscious about the way he admired her beauty, but now that he was over her and inside her she glorified in his adoring and hungry stare.

The only thing that could compare was falling in love. And it was love that let her be here with him in the first place.

She lay beneath him and luxuriated in his selfish assault until they were both brought to orgasm. This time, Onyx felt it coming on instead of it hitting her in surprise. She could see it in his face, too, and whispered encouraging words, whatever she could think of -- probably sounding like every random porn in the world, she would think later -- begging him to let go. He came with a loud groan of pleasure and relief that matched her panting breath. This was his first and for her a third big one, she'd lost count of the small ones. 

She drew him close, wrapping her arms around him and wanting him to stay inside her. He would probably have to pull out, she knew. It was the sort of thing that she'd read about and discussed more than once despite her personal inexperience. But having cum from intercourse on top of what he'd already done to her with his mouth, Onyx's expectations were already completely bowled over.

As such, she was thrilled when he began slowly grinding in and out of her again. "More?" he asked quietly as he kissed her ear.

"Yes," she hissed. "Hell yes."





Chapter 34: Lorelei Gets Wrecked...

Lorelei had a hell of a time getting back to Alex's house that afternoon. She had felt everything. Every bit of it. Felt herself eaten out, felt herself magnificently and fiercely fucked and cuddled and caressed and fucked again. Everything had that rush of a first time as well, so far in the past that she couldn't even remember her own and hardly even gave it any thought in the last couple thousand years.

Onyx wasn't a virgin by strict interpretation. She'd been had before, Lorelei knew now. There was no sensation that fit the breach of a hymen. But this was her first experience with a man. Lorelei was absolutely sure of that. She was also absolutely sure that poor Onyx would be hard-pressed to ever have another experience with a man this good, either.

Twice, Lorelei considered pulling over and allowing her orgasms to overtake her. This was after the pair's first marathon rutting, too, which Lorelei had experienced in the appraiser's parking lot under cover of her supernatural powers of concealment. A third time, not far from Alex's home, Lorelei did in fact pull over and allow herself the pleasures of her own fingers between her legs while Alex rode Onyx to ecstasy yet again.

The bond between master and slave grew ever stronger, she knew. At this point if she had the chance to confront the man who'd attempted to bind her, only to have Alex come along and screw it all up, Lorelei wouldn't have the words to thank him enough.

She gathered her self-control, covered the remaining distance to Alex's home, and parked the car. Then she started moving up to his mother's condo with the sensation of Alex's cock once again thrusting in and out of her with every wonderful step.

************

"Oh God," Onyx moaned with a smile, "I don't know if I can do this anymore." She'd lost track of how many times he'd gotten her off. She'd lost track of time. If this went on further, she'd probably lose track of her identity.

"You okay?" Alex asked. He kissed her cheeks, her forehead, her neck.

"Hell yes," Onyx grinned, kissing him back. "I feel amazing. You're amazing. You'd better not be a one-time-only kind of guy, mister."

"No way," Alex huffed. "We've really only done one position. Two if you count earlier," he added, causing them both to blush a little. "And you're not even entirely naked yet."

Her grin became sly. "We'll have to save that for next time, then."

"Deal."

"Much as I don't want you to get off of me," she said, "I could really use some water."

"Oh!" Alex blinked. "I've got you." He withdrew, leaving them both feeling just a tad less pleasured as they disengaged, and after a two-second detour to the bathroom he came back with a towel for her. "Don't know if you'd like this or not," he said a bit shyly before heading back out of the room.

Onyx blinked. She hadn't expected him to be that thoughtful, certainly not after all that exercise. She rose up from the bed as he walked out, using the towel only momentarily but wanting to look at him again as he headed down the stairs.

She liked the way he looked, especially to the spiritual sight that she'd had to practice for so long. His aura revealed compassion and humility and purity of spirit. There were black marks, too; everyone had those. Yet by and large Alex's were small, most of them even insignificant. He had the bright, vibrant aura of a genuinely good person.

Onyx smiled at him as he headed down the stairs, and as she looked for things unseen by ordinary people, she saw something meant to be unseen by any.

She was tall and dark-haired and beautiful. Gorgeous enough to make Onyx feel plain, even... except for the twin scars on her head, just below her hairline. Like thick gashes had been cut over her skin. The woman smiled as Alex came down the stairs toward her, saying nothing to him but watching as if he'd seen her. He didn't stop on his way to the kitchen, but she followed.

She had a tail. Onyx saw it swaying from underneath the woman's short business skirt. Onyx wasn't supposed to see the woman at all, she was sure of that, but moreover, no ordinary person would have ever seen that tail unless the woman willed it so.

Only Onyx knew that wasn't just a woman down there. She jerked back away from the staircase before the woman looked up at her, then saw that she had followed Alex into the kitchen with a smile on her face.

Her mind racing, Onyx rushed back into the bedroom, quickly gathered her clothes, and then locked herself in the bathroom in a panic.

************

"It was wonderful in ways I would not have imagined, Alex," Lorelei whispered into his ear. He stood at the kitchen counter pouring water out of a pitcher while she slipped up behind him, moving her hands over his chest. "Our bond must still be strengthening."

"This was much more than a rush of vitality and healing for me Master. You didn't have just her. You had me as well... or, more accurately, I had you just as she did. It was breathtaking for both of us. I could feel every lick, thrust, and orgasm you both had. It was so strong, it left me satisfyingly weak in the knees and dripping wet," Lorelei confessed in awe.

"Well, now I'm really glad you're okay with this," he murmured. "I was afraid I was delaying our plans for the weekend. I didn't want to disappoint you."

"Master," she whispered, "never, ever hesitate on my part. Have any woman you want, and with her you will have my joy and my thanks."

"I should go back up there," he said.

"Go," Lorelei consented with a smile. "Take your time with her. I'm enjoying this as much as either of you. Just... take me the moment she leaves. I desperately need you," she added with a wink.

************

It was the simplest, most basic of purification spells. If she'd been subjected to something serious, it probably wouldn't work. But she had to try something immediately. First aid, if nothing else. For that, she always carried sea salt in her purse.

Onyx brushed a small pinch of salt across her forehead and threw it into the sink with the faucet running. She did so again with salt across her heart, then again just below her belly. She murmured the words, trying to keep her voice down even though Alex and whatever that woman was were still downstairs.

With this done, she looked in the mirror. She didn't feel any different. Her body was still riding so high on the rapture of hours of wonderful nonstop sex. But her mind and her heart were thrown for a loop by this revelation. If anything had been altered about her, if she had been manipulated through some supernatural means, it was well beyond her ability to break right now. That, or she hadn't been affected at all. One or the other.

His aura shone with benevolence and life, but there was an invisible woman with a devil's tail connected to him somehow. She didn't want to leave him here. It wasn't right. She had to get him away from her -- from that -- and make sure he was okay. Unless, somehow, he was part of this, and everything about him was a deception beyond her means to detect...

Stop. That doesn't make sense, she told herself. That he could fake his aura was a pretty big stretch to begin with, and everything in his home stated flatly that he knew nothing of any Practice she had ever heard of. Furthermore, if he could go that far, or if that woman could, then clearly she shouldn't have been visible to Onyx at all regardless of the Practice she used.

Whatever was now going on had begun well before Onyx got here. He was hale and hearty. Illness or fatigue would have shown in his aura. Any drain in his soul would have been visible to her as well. This was bad, but it was not an emergency. The emergency, instead, was hers.

Onyx looked at herself in the mirror. She had another minute or so before her presence here became suspicious. She could already hear him coming up the stairs.

Rummaging around in her purse, Onyx pulled out a tiny pill bottle filled with snapdragon petals. She quickly murmured words in Greek and Hebrew mingled with English as she placed a petal under her tongue. She hoped the universe would not hold this one spell against her. Deception was not a pleasant way to go and it tended to incur a threefold response, but all she wanted out of this was a smooth and inconspicuous exit. Lying wasn't high on her list of social skills; she needed this boost of guile. Onyx rolled the petal up from under her tongue, swallowed it, and took a deep breath before opening the door. She kept a pinch of salt at the ready in her right hand.

"Hey," she said softly, finding him sitting on his bed again. He offered her a glass of water, which she accepted with her left hand. She drank it down with hardly a pause.

"You're dressed," he observed. There was some slight disappointment there, but he didn't want to guilt trip or push her. That much was obvious.

"Yeah. I hadn't realized the time. I really need to go. Got places to be soon." A lie. Not a big one, and arguably only a half-truth, but not the way she wanted to handle things. Then again, she didn't want a demon in his house, either.

"You're sure? I haven't made you uncomfortable or anything, have I?" His concern was plain. It only made her melt a little bit more inside.

She nodded. "It's not you. It's nothing bad," she replied, lying once again. Looking at him like this, trying not to think of what they'd just done for one another and seeing that he could clearly perform yet again made leaving difficult. Part of her wanted to ignore what she'd seen and stay in his bed even longer.

But she couldn't. That was unthinkable now, at least until she had a chance to cleanse and to think. Onyx looked up at him, then pulled him close and kissed him. Her right hand slipped behind his head and let the salt fall onto his hair. She broke off the kiss, leaning her forehead onto his, murmuring something very softly.

"What's that?" Alex whispered.

"Nothing. Just that I really like you. I don't want you to feel like I'm running away from you."

"If you say that's not what you're doing, I'll take your word for it," he offered.

She smiled a bit. "What are you doing this weekend?" she asked.

"I've kind of got plans, but they're flexible. Party tomorrow night but I think it's all people you don't know. And I'm, um... well, like I said, there's someone..."

Onyx nodded. "Yeah. Me, too. It's fine. I just wanted to know if it's okay to call you if I've got the chance. No promises," she added. "And no hard feelings if I don't call."

"Of course. Call me anytime," Alex agreed. He grabbed a receipt that had been lying on his desk and wrote his phone number and email on it, then handed it to her. She took it and smiled.

"Okay, I've got to get out of here, or I'm gonna wind up jumping you."

"That's bad?" he grinned.

"Don't," she grinned back, gripping one of his shoulders firmly. "Don't tempt me. You have no idea how easy that would be for you, so I need to trust you not to. Please."

Alex nodded. "I'd rather be your friend than your bed buddy. But I'd much rather be both," he added only half-jokingly.

"Thank you. For this. Today. Everything." She got up.

"I should walk you to your car," Alex said.

Onyx laughed and shoved him back onto the bed. "Not like that you can't. I've really got to run. I'll be in touch. Seriously. See you later, Alex." With that she moved quickly out of the room and down the stairs.

At the door, a hand reached out and softly covered hers. She was sure she wasn't supposed to see it, but she was on her guard now. The touch was electric, almost paralyzing and delicious all at once. Trying to maintain her façade of unawareness, Onyx paused.

"He wants you," a sensuous woman's voice whispered directly into her ear, setting Onyx's desires on fire all over again. "He wanted you from the moment he first saw you, and will want you again. He will please you again. You can trust him. You're safe with Alex." With that, the hand slipped away.

Onyx shuddered, then opened the door and went outside with all deliberate speed.

Lorelei smiled as the young woman left. She sauntered up the stairs, feeling her master's desire for her. The succubus expected to find him sitting or laying on his bed. When he was at the doorway, waiting for her, she was taken by surprise. Lorelei yelped happily as he yanked her close, kissing her wantonly and pushing her up against the wall.

She slid one bare leg up along his, her skirt hiking up invitingly as she moved. Her panties hadn't survived the drive home.

Alex's stiff cock rubbed up against her wetness, probing only for a moment before he took her without further preamble or foreplay. Lorelei let out a loud grunt of appreciation as she was speared up and back into the wall by his erect phallus.

His voice in her ear was somewhere between a whisper and a growl: "You're mine."

Her hungry grin of acknowledgement deliberately encouraged him. "Yes, master. I am yours." He fucked her against the wall as she did everything she could to accommodate him. He was only being playful for the most part, but there was growing acceptance that thrilled them both. "I am yours, and I have never been happier."





Chapter 35: Onyx's Concerns...

A little girl shouted, "Molly! Molly Molly Molly!"

She hadn't even turned off the rattling engine of her car yet. There was definitely something wrong in the engine or something. It was probably a bent piece of whatever from when she'd hit a bump a little too fast, but the last thing she had money for were uncomfortable noises. Yet the uncomfortable noise coming from just outside her car was somehow even more annoying.

At least settling it wouldn't cost her any money.

She stepped out of the car onto the grass next to the curb and forced herself to smile wearily at the neighbor-child shouting her name. "Hi, Chrissy," she sighed. "What's up?"

Had this been an adult with some sense of tact, Molly never would have asked. Chrissy, however, was going to tell her if she asked or not. "Tigger's up in a tree and won't come down and I can't get him. And now I'm going to be late for dinner and I'm going to get in trouble with Mom for letting him out!"

"Oh no. Not that," Molly said dryly.

"You've gotta help me!"

Molly tugged her backpack out of the car and locked it, as if anyone was going to steal it, even in this neighborhood. "Chrissy, Tigger got himself up there, right? And he always comes back to your apartment, right?"

"Yeah, but he's up in a tree and can't come down!"

"Did you know that in the history of the world no cat has ever starved to death in a tree?"

Chrissy's little eyes went wide. "You mean Tigger's gonna be the first!? Oh no!"

Molly's shoulders slumped. "Where is he?" she asked.

Chrissy grabbed Molly's hand and tugged her along through the row of apartments stacked on top of one another to the small open plaza behind their own building. As she walked, Molly thought once again how much of a terrible, terrible mistake it had been to tell the kids in the complex last 4th of July that she was fluent in cat. And dog. And snake. Especially snake, but at least nobody in the complex actually had one, so she wouldn't likely be called upon to prove it.

It was also very clear to her that she should never, ever be drunk in front of children again. She had let her guard down, and now none of the kids in the low-rent neighborhood had any fear of her intimidating manner, spiked jewelry or unnatural make-up colors.

They found Tigger in the branches of a maple tree, just high up enough to make climbing up to get him very difficult. The tortoiseshell cat sat upright, complaining loudly about his predicament to any who were within earshot.

"What the hell were you thinking?" Molly asked the cat. He meowed back plaintively, to which she said, "You've got no business going after squirrels. You're a housecat. That's not going to work out as well for you as you want to believe."

"You've gotta speak cat, Molly!"

"Chrissy, that's not how it works. I'm not going to meow at him. He understands me." She looked up at the cat. "Don't you, Tigger?"

His tail flicked irritably as he stared down at her.

"Okay. I've got to go inside. I'm tired and hungry and we're not going to play around with this. Climb down here."

He meowed back, and then looked away as if he weren't listening anymore.

"Tigger, I know you're listening to me. I can see which way your ears are turned. Climb down."

He didn't reply. Molly sighed again. She dropped her backpack and held up her arms. "Okay, jump down here. I'll catch you. But you sprout claws on me and it's your ass."

"He's not gonna just jump down," Chrissy said.

He did, in fact. The cat's aim was naturally perfect, and as he thumped into Molly's large chest and shoulder she grabbed onto him gently but quickly enough to keep him from falling. Then she pulled him off herself and handed him to Chrissy.

"Oh my gosh, how did you do that?!" Chrissy exclaimed. "You've got to teach me how! I have this problem with him all the time!"

Molly frowned. "I don't think your mom would like that. Go home, Chrissy. I'll see you later." She shouldered her backpack again, thanking the universe for allowing her solid insurance against ever accidentally having children as she walked to her apartment.

It wasn't terribly big, or even terribly nice on the outside. Just a two-bedroom space underneath another two-bedroom space, with nearly-identical two-bedroom spaces on either side. They had no real patio or porch, just a doorway underneath the staircase leading to the upstairs neighbor's apartment.

What they had, however, was a cheap place that they could call their own with neighbors who didn't ask a lot of questions and a landlord who wasn't big on coming by personally to check up on things.

Incense wafted through the doorway as she entered, so strong as to grab her attention immediately. Everything was turned off. She thought for a moment that there could have been a power outage, but then it all clicked. Molly put down her backpack, secured all three locks on the door and went to the spare bedroom.

Onyx was there in the center of the wax pentagram that they had painstakingly created on the bare concrete floor after rolling up the carpet. Molly's lover and partner was herself stripped bare and soaking wet, chanting quietly on her knees. It would've been a serious turn-on for Molly to see her beautiful girlfriend like this if the atmosphere didn't seem so grave. The shelves were ablaze with candles and the window was open for ventilation though the heavy curtain was drawn. The three buckets of rainwater they had gathered were all around her, two of them now having been obviously emptied over Onyx's head. Most of the floor was wet. Bowls of ritual components sat outside the circle, while ingredients from each were scattered within.

Molly said nothing. She was concerned, of course, but knew better than to interrupt. She took a look at what Onyx had included in the ritual, what she was doing, and what was pointedly missing from the shelves of supplies in the far corner of the room. The candles hadn't been burning long at all, but they were already kicking out a good deal of heat. Molly knelt outside the circle directly facing Onyx to wait this out.

Minutes later -- Molly would've waited much longer if it had come to it -- Onyx's eyes fluttered open. Clearly, she had known Molly was there all along, but she kept her concentration despite the new presence.

"Hey," Molly smiled softly. "How are you, love?"

Onyx sniffed. "How do I look?"

"Like you're afraid and mixed up," Molly said, "but not cursed or sick. You look cleansed, except you've been on an emotional rollercoaster and no cleansing ritual fixes all that by itself." Onyx nodded, looking at Molly with a quivering lip and moistening eyes. Molly shifted to her feet to step into the circle and gather Onyx up into her arms, ignoring the fact that she was still largely soaking wet. Onyx clung to her.

"What's going on?" Molly asked, kissing her forehead while she held her close.

"It's Alex."

"He didn't hurt you, did he?"

"No. No, it was... wonderful," Onyx said with a decidedly mournful tone. "We hit it off. Really hit it off. He seemed awesome. I... I had sex with him, Molly. It was really..." she shrugged, having a hard time coming up with the right word. "Incredible."

"I told you I was okay with it," Molly nodded. "You're not worried about that, are you?"

"A little."

"Ssshh. Whatever it is, we'll work it out, okay? I love you. I'm not mad. I told you this was fine, and I meant it."

"I love you, Molly. So much. So very much."

"I know. I know. Tell me what's wrong."

"Alex has... I think he's got a demon over him." Molly's eyes flew open in shock, and while she still held Onyx, the other clearly felt her body react. "I saw it. Her. I was looking at his aura just before I left and I saw her. I wouldn't have seen her if I wasn't using the sight."

"Holy fuck," Molly blinked.

"Yeah. I don't think she knows I spotted her. I bullshitted my way out and pretended not to really notice when she tried to whisper in my ear and I just hauled ass out of there. I told him I had places to be."

"What'd she look like?"

Onyx huffed. "Like one of those chicks in a 'hot secretary' porno shoot, except a million times better-looking. She had a tail, though. I saw it."

"They're supposed to have wings and horns."

"I know. I didn't see wings. And I think she lost her horns or something. It looked like there were scars on her forehead, like the horns were ripped out or something. Not very big, though."

"Fuck," Molly murmured again. She looked around, spotted the towel on the supply rack and reached for it to throw over Onyx's shoulders.

"I'm not too cold. I'm fine. It's warm in here," Onyx murmured.

Molly shrugged, still holding her tight. "I didn't see anything like that in his aura."

"I didn't, either. It's not there. I mean, you saw his aura; he's like a textbook good guy. And it all fits with the way he acts. God, he was so nice to me. Bought me lunch, didn't pressure me about anything. Obviously he likes me, but I don't know if he really thought we were going to wind up in bed."

"You think he knows she's there?"

Onyx nodded. "I do, a little. I mean I'm not a hundred percent, 'cause I didn't stay to watch, but when he passed by her he kind of paused as if he knew she was there but didn't want to let on. I think he sees her. He said he had just started seeing someone, but it wasn't monogamous. Explicitly. Didn't say much more than that. I think he was talking about her."

"Do you think maybe he's a Practitioner? Maybe he summoned her or created her? Some ritual or tradition we don't know?"

"Hell no," Onyx huffed. "He screams mundane except for that woman." She paused. "The only unusual thing was just that he seems like a really old soul. It's kind of in the things he says, and his aura. I read his palms, too. I think he's been here a bunch of times, and I don't think it's ever gone well," Onyx mused sadly. "But everything about him says, 'stable, moral, kind.' Everything except for that woman being there. If it wasn't for her, I'd say he's someone a stranger could trust with his life, y'know?"

"And she talked to you?"

"On my way out the door, yeah. She reached out and touched my hand and whispered in my ear. She said, 'He wants you. He wanted you from the moment he first saw you, and will want you again. He will please you again. You can trust him. You're safe with Alex.' Really sexy and soothing, or would've been if I wasn't so freaked out."

"Did that seem like a spell or something?"

Onyx shrugged. "I think it was. Her touch felt like something unnatural. Good, but weird. But... we had been in bed for awhile, and then Alex got up to get me some water and I watched him go down the stairs and that's when I saw her. That freaked me the fuck out, so I went into the bathroom and cast extra wards over myself and got dressed. She only talked to me on my way out. I think if I wasn't protected, she might have done something to me."

A long, thoughtful moment of silence passed between them. Molly knew her well enough to know that her worries were layered, but one matter had to be addressed before the other. "So you've warded and cleansed yourself?"

Onyx nodded. "As much as I can here. I warded him, too. Just a quick one as I left. Subtle, y'know? He couldn't have even noticed. It'll last until sunrise for whatever good it does. But as for me, I don't feel any different. Just mixed up inside. Molly, I'm so sorry."

"Hey. I'm not mad or anything at all. You look like you did everything right to me," she said, gesturing to the ritual circle and their rainwater. "But if we want to be safe, we should try a natural setting, too." Onyx nodded, and Molly added, "I don't think anything got done to you."

"Not anything I can see or feel, but Molly, this seems all wrong to begin with. And we know how limited our knowledge is! What if this is all just beyond us? What if—"

"Then we'll deal, okay?" Molly broke in reassuringly. "We'll deal. We're in this together. I love you. Look, let's go down to Golden Shores tonight and run the ritual again there, alright? Nobody's going to be down there, anyway. It'll be cold for you, and that's gonna suck, but we'll have to just tough that out. At least it's been a little warmer than usual this time of year." They had dealt with worse. If there was one thing the Practice had taught them both, it was self-discipline.

Onyx silently agreed. She was quiet for a good, long moment, still very worried but also not wanting this moment to end. Molly was there with her. She loved her. It meant everything. But she had to come clean.





Chapter 36: Confessions...

"There's the other thing," Onyx said finally.

Molly twisted around to get face to face, taking Onyx's hands and looking at her directly in the eyes. Her voice was firm and assertive as well as reassuring. "I love you. I trust you. You would never do anything to hurt me, and I know it. Tell me everything."

"He's... he's really great, Molly," Onyx admitted. "This wasn't just casual sex. I don't think he can do that. Not with me, anyway."

"Yeah? You gonna leave me for him?"

"No!" Onyx burst. It was not too quick, nor too much. She looked at Molly pleadingly. "I love you so much, and if you say you never want me to see him again I'll totally—"

"I love you, too," Molly smiled. "Okay, then. So we're still lovers? Still a couple?"

"Yes. Always."

Molly shrugged. "Then don't hold anything back. Tell me."

Her lips quivered. She wasn't sure how to say this. "It was amazing."

"Scale of one to ten?"

Onyx hesitated, but finally ventured a movie reference: "His goes up to eleven."

Molly's eyebrows arched. "That good, huh? I've got a rival?"

"You can both do things the other can't," Onyx explained. "But he just... God, we went on and on and it was so incredible. He was so good to me. He was overwhelming but at the same time he was so nice. I didn't... I'm not saying I didn't want to be with you, but I kinda didn't want to leave, either. If it wasn't for that woman, I don't know when I would've come home. I would've, but probably not so soon."

Molly laughed a little. "You had my permission. If it turns out that all this is okay, I'm fine with you seeing him again."

"You are? I just... it feels wrong to be so intimate with someone else."

"Why?"

"Because I'm in love with you!"

"And that's not going to change," Molly said solemnly. "I can't put into words how sure I am of us. That's why I have to let you have your freedom." Molly rose up on her knees, coming closer to Onyx and kissing her softly and deeply. Onyx whimpered, running her hands through Molly's short red hair before clutching at her body and pulling her close.

Molly took the towel off Onyx's shoulders and held it behind her. She pushed Onyx backward to lay her out on the floor beneath them. There was only wet concrete there, but all the candles had made the room very warm and they often enjoyed playing in less than comfortable spots. The two had developed an affectionate habit of expressing their intimacy almost anytime and anywhere.

"I'm glad you had a good time," Molly said. "I'm glad you may have made a new friend. I'm even a little jealous now."

"I don't want you to be jealous," Onyx said in a soft voice. "I'll stop if it makes you jealous. I don't want anything to ever come between us."

"I didn't say I was jealous over you," Molly winked. She crept downward over Onyx's now very vulnerable body. Molly trailed soft kisses down her chest, shifting directions momentarily to make sure she kissed and momentarily sucked each hardened nipple. As her mouth moved lower and lower against Onyx's body, Molly's hands trailed behind, her arms stretched out as she drug her fingernails lightly down Onyx's flesh.

"Ooooh," Onyx breathed, "you're really going to do this now?" She reached out, fumbling around until she found the pile of her clothes in the corner. It was a rhetorical question, after all. Onyx was going to need a makeshift pillow, which she was busily preparing right now whilst the rest of her body was offered up to her partner. She could no more turn away from this reassurance on an emotional level than she could deny that she was, even a couple of hours later, still sexually revved up by her afternoon.

"I totally am," Molly said wickedly. "I think we both need a very physical affirmation of our love right now."

"You're not even undressed," Onyx observed softly. She inhaled sharply, trembling as Molly's kisses hovered around her pussy.

"I know. This'll be really one-sided. See how devoted I am to you?" Molly winked.

"Molly," she whispered, "we weren't using condoms."

"Magic birth control rocks, doesn't it?"

"What I mean is that I haven't done very much to oh! Molly! Mmmhh!" Onyx wasn't always very vocal, but Molly could draw it out of her. Moves like this sudden invasion by her tongue could set Onyx off. She was, for a moment, very conscious of the slightly open window, but the continuing attention from her lover's tongue made clear that they were simply going to risk a little potential embarrassment. It wasn't like the neighbors didn't make all sorts of strange and awkward noises of their own sometimes.

"I can taste as much," Molly taunted her with a smile. She probed Onyx again, curling her tongue back as it withdrew and giving Onyx a shiver of delight. "Wow. I can taste a lot. He really gave it to you, didn't he?"

"Yeah... I think maybe it was... maybe that was a little unnatural, too..."

"No kidding."

"You don't have to... Molly, I didn't expect..."

"Onyx. I love you more than anything else in the world. Now shut up and let me be kinky." With that she invaded Onyx again.

Onyx's eyes crossed, then fluttered closed. For all the potential worries and dangers and this new supernatural wrinkle in their lives that could potentially go far beyond their knowledge or capabilities, there was still this. They were going to stay here until Onyx had cum at least once, and then they were probably going to wind up either in bed or in the shower or both for awhile before they did anything else. It was very obviously going to be another one of those weekends.

There would be another cleansing ritual later that night, out where the water met the land. There would also be a heartfelt ritual of thanks for all that the universe had given Onyx in this accepting, nurturing, devastatingly sexy redheaded lover.

*************

"I can't believe how lucky I am," Alex said. His hand brushed through Lorelei's hair as he stared into her eyes. They lay side by side, still intertwined and in coitus on his bed. Onyx had only been gone for a short while. The scent of her hair conditioner lingered on the pillows. The room was growing a bit dim now as the sun was just beginning to set.

"You have gone to great lengths to earn this luck," Lorelei replied, but Alex shook his head.

"Not like this. People go their whole lives doing good deeds and risking their lives and they get nothing for it. Bad things happen to good people all the time."

"Bad things have already happened to you, Alex." She traced the scar on his chest. "Bad things may yet happen again. I would posit, however, that you have a habit of paying forward for your fortunes."

"I've been in danger a little bit this week. I got shot but immediately healed. I faced what was apparently a tiny demon and I only came out on top because my friends bailed me out."

"Alex. You do not understand the magnitude of all that you have done. Another person may have done the same, yes, but that isn't for you to worry about. I guarantee you that most people would turn away and choose easier paths than you do when faced with such decisions, and some with good reasons of their own that have little to do with courage." She let that sink in for a moment, and then asked, "Do you regret your fortune?"

"No. Of course not. I'm just... I don't know what I'm saying. Maybe that I'm afraid I'll start to take it for granted. Maybe I'm afraid I'll get a huge selfish ego. Or maybe I'm just trying to say that I'm really grateful."

"I can feel your gratitude," Lorelei grinned. She added, more seriously, "It is that gratitude and that humility that make me so comfortable with the way things are, Alex. It is difficult to explain without revealing things that mortals must not know." He frowned thoughtfully, searching for words, but Lorelei put a finger over his lips. "Do you think for a moment that Onyx felt anything while she was with you but excitement, comfort and joy? Or Taylor? Audrey? Or myself? Did you ever for a moment disregard the wants or needs of your partner? Feel less than grateful for your time with one of them? With me?"

"I know what I am to the eyes of men. Men and women have abandoned everything they have, even their lives and honor and souls to slake their lusts and possess me. Yet here I am, completely within your power. I have no recourse should you take a firm hand with me, and what has dominated your thoughts in every moment with me?" Her eyes seemed to sparkle, and her smile was undiminished. "'How can I make this up to her? How can I make her happy?' Those are not the thoughts of a petty or selfish person, Alex."

"How do I make you happy?"

"You see?" Lorelei chuckled, and then kissed him lightly. "You already do, Alex."

"Yeah, I know, you've said," he nodded softly. "But still. I'm asking."

"Embrace what we are together. You are the master. I am the slave. You are a wonderful master. It's thrilling. But even after all this, I know it still bothers you. You still feel guilt and hesitation and try to convince yourself that it's all just play... but it is not, master. You need make no compromise to make me happy, because I ask for none. You already offer every condition I might ever want or need for my own happiness."

"Don't you want to be free? Even if I can't give you real freedom, wouldn't you want as much as you could have?"

"That's complicated. I wanted my freedom when we first bonded, yes. I have always wanted my freedom. But I was created to respond sexually to my master. That would in turn evoke self-loathing. This part of my nature was used to punish and humiliate me by beings so awful..." she shook her head. "It's not worth talking about. Even Hell's pleasures are often cruel. But that was them, and then there is you, Alex. You don't treat me like they would. If we live ten thousand years together, you never will.

"The one aspect of myself that I hated the most is now at the core of the best part of my life, and that is you. And that natural response is only heightened by the ritual that binds us. I'm a hedonist by creation, after all. If it feels good, I want more. Being yours feels indescribably good. The more you embrace it, the better it feels for both of us. You have tested the waters and found them welcoming. Why do you not dive in?"

"I don't know if I can accept that," Alex said. "Now more than ever."

"Why not?"

"Because when we first met I felt like... well, it was wrong. I'd still say slavery is wrong. But now I just don't know if I can even play at it in jest."

"It's different now. You know this. There is consent here. Informed consent, even in the face of the bond that was forced upon us. We both know that being the master thrills you. We both know this is fundamental to what I am. But what was crushingly awful for me is now wonderful. We need only take it as far as we are both comfortable, and we will still be friends and more."

"I'm not asking you to push me around or abuse me. It's entirely up to you because you're the master. That has been true since we met, and we have only become closer and more comfortable together. So what else has changed?"

"I love you, Lorelei."

It hung there, in the few inches between their faces as they lay intertwined, as if he had changed her entire world yet again.

"You don't have to say anything you don't feel," Alex said. "I don't want you to. I need you not to, really. But I just need you to know. I've fallen in love with you, Lorelei."

"I felt this, tied into your desires," she murmured, plainly awestruck. "But I did not dare give it that name. I didn't know if that's what it was."

"That's what it is. I love you."

He moved one hand to wipe away the tear that formed in her eye as she stared at him, completely overwhelmed. He wasn't sure what else to say, so he remained quiet and just looked back at her. The room got darker and darker as the last rays of the sun fell away.

"I love you, Alex," Lorelei whispered finally.

"That isn't the bond talking?" He didn't want to belittle her feelings, but he had to be honest. He needed it from her as well. "Could you feel that because of... because you're supposed to?"

"No." Her voice wavered. He had never seen her look so vulnerable, nor had he ever imagined he would. "The spell and its caster knew nothing of love. He wanted to dominate and humiliate in the ugliest of ways, like every master before him... nothing like you," she added, not forgetting the subject that brought them to this.

"It's me," Lorelei assured him quietly. "I have been afraid to use the word. I didn't know that one such as I could feel it, but I am sure now. I love you, Alex."

They held one another tightly, lying joined together in his bed. There was a tear of his own. Though his voice held steady, she wasn't the only vulnerable one. The room had grown dark.

"That's what's different," he explained. "You can't have friendship or love without respect. Without equality. Not really. I want to do everything I can to make you happy, but... I don't want to turn into a monster on you. I'm afraid of what might happen if we go down that road. I love you. I love you so much. That's why I don't think we can be master and slave."

"Oh, my love," Lorelei smiled against his neck, laughing a little at how good it felt to say. "I am more assured than ever that we can be that, too. We can have it all."





Chapter 37: Heavenly Revelations...

The humble Catholic church had been as good a place to meet as any. Rachel sat very near the front, slumped forward with her arms over the back of the pew in front of hers. She was the only attendee to the discussion that was invisible to mortals that were about. She was also, frequently, not really part of the discussion.

It had been going on since the previous evening. There were lots of grandiose entrances to be made and praise to be heaped upon the Most High and so forth. It was rather fitting for the setting, really; a meeting like this was as much a ceremonial affirmation of faith, at least in its first several hours, as with any mass. Moreover, the ritual was essentially required before one could get on to business. It was a lot like sitting through a full mass for the sake of a wedding.

She could see that the sun was setting already. There weren't many normal people in the church, and the few that were there came with obvious needs. They were all scattered in the pews near the confessional booths at the rear of the church.

In front of her and to her sides, though, were shimmering, glorious winged men and women. They discussed recent events in respectful, calm and sometimes rather emotionless tones. They were unseen and unheard by the mortals in the building.

One of those mortals, a tall, lanky young man with brown hair quietly sauntered over to Rachel. "Excuse me miss, I haven't seen you here before," he said to the achingly beautiful blonde. His tone was entirely too friendly. "Are you new in the neighborhood?"

"Tell me you didn't come over here to hit on me before you went into the confessional booth," Rachel said flatly. She didn't even look at him when she rebuked him. She wasn't really looking anywhere.

"Uh... no, I just--"

"Are you going to lie to me in a church? Right in front of the altar?"

"I, um. I. Wow. Uh... I'm going to go over there now."

"Good," Rachel fumed. She blew at a hair that dangled in front of her face as the young man carried his shock and his wounded pride back to the other end of the church. Rachel's eyes slid to one side, where several other guardian angels were gathered in silence to watch the proceedings but generally had very little to say on it themselves. One of them, an angel whose features could best be described as gentle, friendly and mildly Latino, coughed and excused himself to follow the retreating mortal. "Sorry," he mumbled, "that's one of mine."

"You might have gone easier on the young man," observed the older-looking female angel standing to Rachel's right. The whole congregation of them, in fact, had turned to look at Rachel as she dealt with the flirter. Her words had been so out of synch with the conversation that not everyone had realized at first who it was she was addressing.

"Fuck him," Rachel shrugged. At the sight of the disapproving frowns and downcast eyes that her comment elicited, Rachel was of half a mind to tell her peers to fuck off, too.

Except they weren't her peers. Not at the moment. Not with her wings gone and the glow of her virtue so plainly diminished. Rachel didn't really think of that diminishment as so terribly relevant, though. So her language was colorful. So what? She'd always been like that. Were her priorities off? Had she shirked a single responsibility?

More to the point -- and her defiant gaze reminded everyone present of this, though to say it again out loud would have been taken poorly -- had any one of them been responsible, even partially, for such a furthering of their cause as Rachel had been in the last few nights?

That angel to her right, Hannah, shrugged off Rachel's dismissal of her counsel. She returned to the topic at hand. "It is clear that the situation with Rachel's charge has brought about great amount of good in a very short time."

"More like an astounding amount," Rachel muttered.

"Let's not get carried away," advised a hard-bodied blond male. He wore little more than a loincloth, showing off a perfectly-chiseled physique adorned only by scars that had faded into very faint lines over the centuries.

"He vanquished a demon, Vincent," Rachel retorted. "Permanently. No 'time out in Hell's penalty box' bullshit. When's the last time you did that? Any of us?"

"Caleb vanquished the demon," Vincent corrected.

"Bullshit. Alex delivered Gorge to Caleb, wrapped up like a Christmas present. Him and his friends."

Vincent's eyes and those of the other angels turned to Caleb, who merely shrugged. "She is correct. As I stated, Gorge was simply delivered to holy ground bound and greatly weakened. He would not have been much of a challenge regardless, but in the end my involvement was nearly effortless. I was merely an instrument of the initiative of mortals. Without them, there would never have been a confrontation, let alone destruction."

"And how often do any of us do something this decisive?" Rachel said.

"The loss of a single corruptor is surely not decisive," intoned a darker-skinned Angel in white robes. Lawrence hadn't been against Rachel in this discussion, but his high standards would never waver. "Gorge mattered little in the great balance."

"No, but what mortal or angel has caused any shift in the balance at all in recent memory?" Hannah offered.

Somewhat uncharacteristically, Caleb spoke up. "We would not be discussing this now were it not for Rachel's handling of the situation immediately following the abduction. Gorge's contracts would still be in effect, damning those who might now make good on a second chance. Several other mortals would still be committing terrible sins against one another, now mitigated by their imprisonment. Stolen savings will soon be restored to many. And at least one soul would already be in the Pit that may now find salvation."

"One soul," Vincent said.

Rachel looked at him with wide eyes that were equally shocked and appalled. "I don't know what I ever saw in you," she breathed. Her words were drowned out by Hannah.

"Yes, Vincent, one soul! One soul at a time! That is what we do! That is how it is! As it has ever been! And in these matters, there have in fact been many souls touched! Many lives altered for the better! As it has always been with this one!"

Vincent scowled. "I seek only to prevent further provocations of the Pit," he said defensively. "The balance has been observed for a reason."

"This is still a localized matter," Lawrence said.

"Wait," Rachel frowned with deep suspicion. She looked up to Hannah. "'As it has always been with this one?' What's that supposed to mean?"

Hannah fell silent, clearly making an effort to hold her tongue. She glanced down at Rachel. "It is not a matter for this discussion, child," she said with distinct softness and compassion. "We are not, in the end, here to talk about Alexander."

"The fuck we're not!" Rachel growled.

"We are here to discuss the broader situation—"

"Centered around Alex!"

"How infatuated with him have you become, Rachel?" Vincent's tone only grew sourer.

For that, Rachel snatched a hymnal from the bench and threw it at his face. It passed straight through his head to land on the floor behind him. Vincent looked on with feigned blandness, but she knew him better than that. She used to know him much better, in fact. He had always been stern, she knew, but he had never been such a...such a buttmunch!

She wasn't thinking about Vincent, though. Not really. She glared at Hannah. "Tell me!" she snapped.

Hannah looked at her a bit sadly. Vincent saved her from having to speak. "None of the good this boy has done merits the danger that it has incurred, or soon will. It falls to us to protect him, yet the demands of the balance tie our hands. He must be removed from the current situation," Vincent put in.

"And bring to such a swift end the good that his actions bring?" Hannah shook her head. "I tell you, Vincent, he would not have it. I do not think he would shy away from whatever danger his choices might bring. He never has." Her last words were soft, and tinged with pity and pain. She glanced up at Rachel again, but seeing the demanding question in the wingless angel's eyes, Hannah could only look away.

"These dangers are far beyond mortal threats," Lawrence pointed out. "If he keeps antagonizing the Pit, he will face their wrath. His death would be like nothing before."

"Gorge was a mere corruptor bound into human flesh," Vincent said, trying to sound somewhat less stern now. He put a hand on Rachel's shoulder. "They will eventually come for him without such subtleties. They will come without disguise, and he will know them and fear them for what they are."

"And that would only make his courage more useful as a weapon. I'd pay good money to watch that fight," Rachel muttered as she jerked away from Vincent's touch.

Debate continued, but Rachel stopped listening. She looked at the stained glass windows, trying to guess what Hannah was hinting at, and why she wouldn't say it straight out. It was in that moment, staring out into the darkness, that Rachel began to glow ever brighter.

Conversation stopped. The other angels looked on with some surprise, and Vincent and Caleb both slightly winced. "Rachel," Lawrence said, calling her attention back to the conversation.

"What?" she asked absently. "Look at yourself."

She blinked, then glanced down at her hands, and then at her body, and then up at the halo over her head that shone as brightly as ever. Rachel then looked to Hannah in surprise.

The older angel smiled, her eyes losing most of that sadness. "I think perhaps you should look in on your charge, Rachel. I suspect he has done something to surprise us yet again."

************

The text message read, "Are you out with your girlfriend?" Alex looked at his phone in the front seat of Lorelei's car with a smirk. He always thought it was funny when his mother, who allegedly despised texting, communicated this way.

"Who is that?" Lorelei asked idly. She wore one of the two different little black party dresses that had been offered up by her personal shopper. She hadn't really been able to decide which she liked better, and ultimately took both. That had also amused Alex greatly. He liked it when Lorelei demonstrated ordinary behaviors. This one was a touch more conservative than the other, but still racy. The black gloves that came up to her wrists were a very sexy touch.

Oddly enough, at the moment he felt good about dressing up for her, too. It was nothing terribly formal; he normally went to work like this. Aside from that, he was a habitually casual dresser. But it was nice to finally have a formal date with his newfound love.

"My mom," he said, typing out, "Yes. I may be staying at her place this weekend." He didn't need permission, of course, but it was polite to let her know.

Lorelei smiled. "She'll be happy to have the house to herself this weekend. I imagine she'll be spending a lot of time with Eddie and could use the privacy."

Alex blinked. "Don't you think that's a bit soon?"

"How long do you think they've been making eyes at one another in the office?" Her smile had turned to a sly and knowing grin. "Your mother's a confident and very sexy woman who has more than enough charm to wrap a nice man like Eddie around her finger. I expect by now she'd like to have a little fun with him."

"She did kiss him goodbye the other night, but that was just on the cheek," Alex thought aloud. He looked at Lorelei with amused suspicion. "Don't you think that weekend shagging might be jumping the gun a bit?"

"Oh, you're one to talk," Lorelei laughed.

His phone buzzed again. The message from his mother said, "Have fun. Be good. You are to call 30 min ahead of coming home at least. If I don't pick up, keep calling. That is an order!"

Lorelei didn't even need to look at him. Her eyes were on the road. "I am something of an expert in these things, master."

He tucked his phone back into his pocket. The amused suspicion in his eyes had doubled. "This is part of what's so crazy, though," he said, returning to their main topic of conversation. "You're older and wiser. Vastly more experienced than I am. Powerful. Smarter. Yet you want to be the submissive here."

"Very much so," Lorelei grinned broadly. He was warming to this despite all his concerns. She could feel it, and it excited her. "And I would not say that I am necessarily smarter than you. All the rest I would grant, but for raw intelligence you do quite nicely."

"Still. Why wouldn't you want to be the one in charge? I mean, I've heard that whole thing about the sub being the one who's really in control, but... well, honestly, I really love it when you take charge and get aggressive, but that's not exactly what we're talking about here in either case."

"I have told you that being used as a slave has never been truly, purely pleasuring before. It was always humiliating. I should also note that it has also been fleeting. The majority of my time has been spent amongst mortals. In that regard I have almost always been in largely if not completely in control despite any public appearances to the contrary or stroking of fragile male ego. You let me enjoy as much freedom as I already crave, and I am endlessly grateful for that. But I've never been able to enjoy being a slave before. I've never been able to let go of my resentment and ride the waves of pleasure that it brings me. And the ritual that binds us makes those pleasures even more intense than anything I've felt in the past." She waited to hear him respond, but in the end, he did not. It gave her a moment to think.

"Master," Lorelei considered, "you use the term 'submissive,' but do you really know much about that practice? That lifestyle?"

"Just what I've read and, uh, seen in a couple of movies... that I didn't, um... watch all the way through. Probably bad depictions."

"Almost certainly. What have you read?"

"Uh... mostly smut stories on the internet," he confessed. "And I felt like kind of a perv for it."

"Ah. Yes. The internet," Lorelei mused. "But nothing advocating the lifestyle? Nothing discussing it soberly or analytically?"

"Not really. Maybe a little. But like I said, I can't imagine hurting you. A blindfold or restraining you to the bed might be fun, but I'm not entirely into bondage like with all those ropes. I can see how that gets other people aroused, but it looks like a lot of work to me."

Lorelei laughed. "Master, a couple picks and chooses conditions and activities as they please based on their comfort and turn-ons. You don't have to choose a codified dogma and stick to it. I am not asking you to abuse or humiliate me."

"Well, then... what do you want?"

"What I want is what already is. We are friends and lovers. You are my master. I am your slave. Even within the bounds of that, we exchange power and dominance as it pleases us. We have it all. I know your desires, even the ones you deny to yourself, and I am comfortable with all of them. I don't necessarily want you to do anything or change anything between us so much as I long for you to acknowledge, embrace and enjoy this part of our relationship. So then the question is what do you want... master?"

He thought for a long moment. Through their dual bond, both as her master and essentially her prey, Lorelei could feel his emotions turning.

"We're going downtown, right?" he asked.

"Yes."

"Think Nordstrom's is still open?"

"Certainly. It isn't that late yet."

He was quiet again. She felt herself starting to tremble. Her breath grew heavier. She didn't really try to hide it; he had told her not to, after all. But he wasn't even looking her way as he thought. His desires were rising to a new height, though, flavored with love and trepidation and... courage. That was one of the things she loved about him the most. It was plain that he was wrestling with his fears of this aspect of their relationship, and the tide became clearer with each passing moment. It made her as aroused as she had ever been with him.

"Let's go by an ATM and pull out a lot of cash," he said finally. "Then we need to make a shopping detour."

Anticipation was overwhelming her, making her breath heavy even as she smiled. "Yes, master."





Chapter 38: Bonding with Lorelei...

Lorelei sat in the car after she had parked in the underground garage as Alex had told her to. She didn't have to wait long. He came around the back of the car to open her door and offer her his hand. She looked up at him adoringly as she took it and stepped out.

"You're sure about this?" he asked. He stood very, very close to her.

"I am," she nodded. In point of fact, she wasn't sure exactly what he was going to do, but she didn't need to ask what he was talking about. Lorelei was so excited that she wanted to jump him right then and there, but knew this was not the moment to claim the initiative. It was exactly the opposite.

"You are first and foremost my lover and my friend," Alex said, "and I don't ever want either of us to forget that. The moment this becomes uncomfortable, I need you to tell me. You have to tell me. If that has to be an order, okay then... but it's an order from someone who loves you."

"I understand," she nodded. Her eyes glittered and she did nothing to conceal the reaction her body was having from him. "If I didn't trust you and I didn't want this, I would have hidden this part of myself. I love you, Alex. I trust you."

Alex shifted even closer to her, pinning her to the car before kissing her aggressively and lustily. Lorelei let herself be lost in it. Vulnerable noises came from her as she all but melted against him. He eventually pulled away, leaving her wanting more... but she knew this was only beginning.

He took her by the hand and brought her into the store. She asked no questions. In the store, she assumed that he wouldn't want her sweating and breathing heavily like she was in heat, so she took on a much more cool, calm appearance. The excitement in her eyes and the tight grip of her hand sent crystal clear signals regardless.

Alex took a moment to get his bearings in the store. He looked to her once he'd figured out where he was going and said, "I'd like to do this part by myself. Would you mind taking a look around at the women's sections or whatever for a bit? I just need to know where to find you when I'm done." There was kindness in his voice, but also a budding confidence borne of determination.

"Yes, master," she smiled softly. He kissed her then, lightly and briefly but still full of meaning, and then he left her.

She was only on her own for about twenty minutes. The mix of suspense, anticipation and energy she derived from their bond had her dying to conceal herself or even hide in the restroom or a dressing room and get herself off, but she wasn't beyond self-control. Moreover, she wasn't about to go against his wishes now, however maddening they were. Lorelei politely brushed off both store attendants and the two different men who tried to approach her with decidedly unimaginative pick-up lines while she waited.

The thought that she could possibly be diverted from Alex by anyone right now gave her a bit of a self- conscious laugh.

She could feel him looking at her as she browsed skirts and tops, but she didn't turn until he slipped one arm around her waist. With his other hand, he brushed her hair to one side and softly kissed the back of her neck. He didn't seem to be carrying anything.

"I love you, Lorelei," he murmured into her ear.

She leaned her head back onto her shoulder and said, in much the same manner, "You are driving me mad, master."

"Let's go back to the car. You should make us invisible or however you do it."

She smiled at him and took his hand, and as they walked fewer and fewer people seemed to notice either the stunningly beautiful woman or the attractive young man beside her. By the time they were out of the store, the whole world was ignoring them. They walked back to the car in a very tense silence.

At the car, Alex said in a quiet, controlled voice, "I want to do this someplace more romantic, but I also want to do it right now before I chicken out." He looked up at her, searching her eyes. "And I would ask your opinion but I think I can tell what that is." Lorelei merely nodded. She wasn't entirely sure what he was talking about doing, but it was clearly something significant and she was more than willing to trust him. He brushed his fingers across her jaw and then around her neck, softly bringing her close to him before kissing her again, every bit as loving and romantic as ever. Again, Lorelei basked in his emotions and his touch.

"I love you, Lorelei," he said again.

"I love you, Alex," she responded immediately.

He paused. Took a breath. "You are my slave, Lorelei," he told her softly. Her heart jumped. Her arousal doubled. "You are also my friend and lover, and that's why I'm willing to do this. Without that, I can't. Do you understand?"

"Yes, master," she swallowed. "My love," she added, a quiet plea of desperation in her voice as her emotions ran wild, "please... do this. Don't hold back."

"Get down on your knees in front of me," he said as he turned to lean against the side of the car. There was no malice in his voice. If anything, his tone was gentle and comforting. Lorelei obeyed, looking up at him expectantly. The cold hardness of the pavement meant nothing to her. It wasn't even uncomfortable.

"Undo my pants," Alex instructed her. Lorelei was absolutely not shy about touching him as she unfastened his belt and trousers, and then pulled his boxer briefs down to free his raging hard cock.

There was already pre-cum at its head. Lorelei remained where she was, looking up at him with adoration plain in her eyes. At a nod from him, her mouth opened, welcoming the head of his cock inside before she willingly slid her lips down on the rest of him. Her eyes remained obediently locked on his as she sucked on his dick.

Alex let this go on for a minute, just watching and letting her work him without saying anything at first. It seemed appropriate. Finally, he spoke, again in soft, gentle but firm tones. "I don't want a meek slave. I want you." His breath was heavy; this felt amazingly good, after all.

"You are sophisticated and intelligent and so much more experienced than I am. You're devastating, Lorelei." He only got a few words out at a time before having to breathe to steady himself again.

For her part, Lorelei remained on her knees, sucking his cock with devotion and an almost unblinking gaze into his eyes.

"You're so far beyond me in so many ways... and I love that. It's so flattering to have you use that to seduce me. Charm me. Make me happy. A lot of what I want is what you already do and are, but just the same..." he inhaled deeply again, falling into that glittering blue stare. He was exercising all the willpower he had to keep control of himself, but that seemed to be the whole point here. On the other hand, he began to realize that this was a kind of self-denial that could be really enjoyable.

"You are all mine. Play with other women all you want, but be willing to share. Keep those affairs from me or not, it's your choice. You know my boundaries, so I'll trust you."

He breathed. Lorelei sucked his cock. She seemed completely enthralled. He could hear her breathing, too. It was as if every noise from their surroundings had gone on "mute." Cars passed and people walked to and from the store, but nobody noticed them.

"No other men. Just me. Nothing beyond flirtation... and don't string anyone along, either. Don't ever give any man a shred of hope that you would ever actually cheat on me or leave me... no matter how much you might flirt, unless the circumstances are dangerous and it's really the only way to keep you, me or someone we care about safe."

He was getting a little dizzy. Alex's hands fell to the sides of the car to steady himself. Lorelei kept sucking his cock with that endless gaze that said so very much.

"Dress for me. Pose for me. Put on a show all the time just to turn me on. You already do it, y'know... you aren't even trying, I think, so just... keep it up," he blinked. His head swayed. He tried to focus.

"I want more, Lorelei. For both of us. I want to fuck and make love and all the rest. I want us to be sweet. I want us to be dirty. I want us to be wild animals rutting in heat and I want us to be as romantic as... as... like a fairy tale romance that doesn't fade to black after the first kiss. All of it. And ... I want you to help me get with other women, too. I admit it. I don't want to stop."

He paused, having to shut his eyes. Lorelei didn't stop as she sucked on him slowly. When he had gathered his senses again, she was still looking up at him lustfully.

"I don't want to wind up like one of your previous victims. But I want as much sex in my life as is possibly healthy. And I want to know that you're my slave because you want to be. Because it feels good for you. Not because of a bond we're stuck with. And if your consent ever wavers even a little, you have to tell me, and we have to stop and work on the problem. Understand?"

Only then did she pause, and even with that she worked him with her hand long enough to say, "Yes, master," before going right back down on him. Lorelei was herself practically ready to cum just from the thrill of his acceptance of their roles.

"And that," he said suddenly. "Yeah. Use my name. Call me your love. Whatever. Your choice. But I won't complain about being called 'master' anymore."

He felt her lips twitch in a bit of a grin around his cock, but she didn't pause. He could also tell, just from the way she breathed, that keeping this smooth, controlled tempo was likely as much an act of will for her as it was for him to just speak.

Alex reached into his pocket, and pulled out the black pearl choker necklace that he had just bought with money that she had already told him was ultimately his. It was three strands set atop one another. "Do you still want to be my willing slave? Will you wear a collar to symbolize it?"

Lorelei's eyes went wide with shock. This was much more than she expected out of him. He had, in fact, picked up a little something in whatever he'd read. She was surprised enough to stop sucking him off. "Yes, master," Lorelei answered reverently.

"Stand," he said, and gestured her to come very close to him. She did, keeping her hands where they would continue his pleasure.

As he put the collar around her neck, he said again, "I love you, Lorelei."

She couldn't help but smile. He wondered if this was how a woman smiled when she accepted a ring on her finger. It seemed equivalent to her somehow. "I love you, master," she managed in a voice that cracked with joy.

Regardless of how touching her reaction was, he couldn't ignore that they were both now insanely aroused. He also knew that he could probably do no wrong here. "Give me your panties," he instructed her softly.

Lorelei's smile twisted. She clearly enjoyed this very small bit of kink and made a show of it as she obeyed him. Her hands pushed up the hem of her already very short black party dress to reveal her tight lace bikini, which she then slid off and stepped out of. She handed the bit of lace to Alex, who said, "Thank you," as he put them in his pocket.

Then he put one hand around her waist and with the other gripped the back of her hair. He guided her to stand with her ass against the side of the hood of the car. "Spread your legs," he told her softly, and she did. "Don't close your eyes. Don't look away. Whatever I do, you will continue to look into my eyes," he said, and with that, he stepped close and pushed into her.

Lorelei's body reacted immediately to being taken by her increasingly confident master. He had barely pushed all the way into her, his groin rubbing up against her engorged clit, when she first started to cum. It was better than she imagined; her body surrendered to him utterly, even beyond her own ability to control. He had all the control this time, she realized with a thrill. She was cumming this way because he wanted her to. As much as she wanted to get him off, she understood that this was exactly what her master was after. All she could do was obey and ride the wave. Alex laid her back over the car, allowing her to wrap her legs around his waist, but he stayed upright. She fought to hold his gaze as she gasped out her gratitude and her loyalty.

"Master... I am yours... yes... yours... all yours... my love," she panted as he pushed into her again and again. Every thrust set her off anew, putting her into a ripple of orgasms that left her nearly incoherent.

It amazed Alex that he didn't explode almost instantly himself. He no longer denied how good this felt, both the new affirmations of their relationship and the sex itself. But he held out more than long enough to make the point. Lorelei was an utterly vulnerable and well-fucked display of beauty and submission by the time his pleasures built to a crescendo that then burst through his cock and flooded her tight pussy. It set her off again, too, giving her a climax above and beyond what she'd already enjoyed. Her eyes fluttered, but it turned out she was very good at obeying commands.

Alex held her there to let her cool down. He pushed in and out of her slowly, indulging in the tighter and wetter-than-ever grip of her cunt. But he wasn't planning on having her like this again, not just yet.

He pulled her up, kissing her passionately but gently as she regained her breath and composure. Alex could feel how grateful she was in every bit of her touch. There were ever more thrills to be had here, but he had at least gotten her over the agonizing arousal of the evening.

"Thank you so much, master," she whispered. "My love."

"We were going to dinner before we go to the hotel," Alex said simply, still holding her close.

"Yes," she nodded. "Would you like to change that?"

"I would really like to go out to dinner with my lady love," he said with great warmth, but then added, grinning lustily, "if my slave would clean me up."

Lorelei grinned back. She slipped from his arms, sinking again to a squatting position as she took him into her mouth.

Before she was done, she licked every bit of her juices from him. He got off yet again, giving her a fresh dose of the purest, most vivid knowledge of his lusts. And they once again had no trouble holding one another's gaze throughout the act.





Chapter 39: The First Date...

"I'll have the New York steak, medium well, and I guess I'll go with the potato and grilled vegetables. Thank you."

"I'll have the light garden salad."

Alex looked across the small candlelit table at Lorelei with a smirk. "You're not really gonna do that to me, are you?"

"Hm? Do what?" She was handing off the nicely-bound menu to the waiter as she looked up at her date innocently.

"You waited for me to order a big dinner and then you're going to have a tiny little salad so I'm sitting here eating like a pig in front of you? Isn't this topic in every stand-up comedian's repertoire?"

Lorelei was then in on the joke. She opted to play through. "But I told you, love. I really just don't eat that much," she explained with feigned innocence.

The waiter, not wanting to presume too much, stayed where he stood with a curious and amused look on his face.

Alex snorted. "Look, I know I said I wanted to go out and have a real date with you, but you don't have to try so hard to fit the stereotype."

She relented, sharing his grin. Lorelei's eyes turned up toward the waiter. "I'll have the shrimp scampi instead," she said, adding with a teasing glance toward Alex, "but only the half order."

It was an expensive, sophisticated restaurant, the kind without prices on the menu. The lights were low and there was a live piano player. Many of the patrons were themselves dressed to impress. Ultimately, though, it was all just scenery to the both of them.

They continually found themselves locked in an electric gaze. Alex stretched one hand out on the table until Lorelei's gloved fingers interlaced with his. "We are different now," she observed with quiet, controlled excitement. "Can you feel it?"

"Yeah. I can." He was silent for a moment, just looking at her. The choker gave her an extra bit of allure, but that wasn't what really held his attention. "Y'know, when you look at me like that it hardly matters if you're wearing clothes at all."

Lorelei's grin only tightened. "Your own expression is only slightly less pleasing than your touch," she replied.

Alex cocked his head curiously. "I've got to ask... you're so interested in me, um, being with other women." His voice dropped a bit, and he glanced around. They had plenty of space between them, and the restaurant had the sort of plush décor that seemed to absorb sound. "Is that actually better for you than being with me yourself?"

"No," Lorelei said, shaking her head subtly. "No, it is not."

"Then why not keep me all to yourself? You know you could. All you have to do is ask. I can control myself." It was only idle curiosity now that motivated him to ask. He had abandoned all resistance just as he had told her.

"I know," Lorelei said. "You could, and you would. That is part of why I encourage you. I feel no jealousy in part because I know that there is no cause. But consider, my love..." Her voice fell as well, skillfully measured after endless experience with intrigues and flirtation. "Which do you prefer? My mouth, or my cunt?" There was a wink in her voice, punctuating her deliberately dirty word choice. "You have both. Would you choose one to the exclusion of the other?"

"It's that good?"

Her grin had turned naughty while remaining undiminished. "Oh, yes, my love. It is."

************

"They really can't take their eyes off one another," observed Frank. He was seated at a table not far away, clad in his best suit and accompanied by his wife for a private anniversary dinner. "Were we ever like that?"

Peggy glanced over her shoulder again, hoping not to look too obvious but quickly realizing that it didn't matter. The two really were completely wrapped up in one another's gaze. "She's got to have ten years on him at least," Peggy remarked, "but yeah. We probably were."

As they spoke, a waitress came over with their plates, both of them covered.

Peggy looked back at Frank knowingly. "You can stop staring now," she said. He blinked, and she smiled a bit. It was good to put him on the defensive from time to time. "I'm a little cold. Do you think you could go grab my shawl out of the coat check, honey?"

"Sure, baby," Frank stammered. He got up without hesitation, wanting to demonstrate that he wasn't going to ignore his wife.

As he rose, however, Peggy was already glancing around to the eye-catching couple again -- until she realized the waitress was blocking her view. Her eyes turned up toward the face of the stunning young woman. Her face was a portrait of innocent beauty. What she had to say didn't quite match with it.

"You made a promise before God to forsake all others for your husband, who still loves you," the waitress deadpanned. "Go home with him tonight. Make love with him. Stop blowing your personal trainer behind his back like you did this afternoon. And quit fantasizing about his dick," she added, tossing her head back just enough to make plain that she was referring to the dazzled young man seated several yards behind her. "Because the first blonde that's gonna ride it is me."

3

With that, she strode away, leaving Peggy feeling very small, exposed, and desperately aware of how much she wanted and needed Frank in her life.

She didn't notice right away that the waitress had delivered entirely the wrong dishes.

************

"Next thing you're going to tell me is that 'Gladiator' is full of historical inaccuracies," Alex chuckled.

Lorelei laughed openly. "You mean other than the entire plot and its premise? Or the fact that you see four hundred years of fashion over the course of the film?"

Their hands were still clasped at the center of the table. Their eyes were still mostly fixed upon one another's bright, happy expressions. And Alex was learning that among Lorelei's most surprising skills was the ability to make small talk.

"I didn't expect you to watch a lot of movies," he mused. "I figured that'd be boring to you."

"I am closer to human than you might think," Lorelei shrugged. "Everyone likes stories. The world grows smaller, but the variety and scope of the stories grows."

"So you're not going to tell me that things were better in the distant past and today's world is soulless and vapid?"

"There has always been vapidity. There have always been the soulless. But no. Those who claim the world is less now than it was long ago have the luxury of ignoring broad swathes of waste and mistakes and sorrow. They see through filters and the comfort of distance and detachment."

"So there aren't times you miss?" Alex asked.

"I wasn't doing anything with those times that compares to what I have in the present," Lorelei pointed out affectionately.

"Yeah, but it wasn't all... work, right?" Alex asked, unsure of how else to say what was by its nature quite indelicate. "It sounds like you've always had time to yourself."

She nodded. "Indeed. Plenty of time. Speed was rarely my goal, and thus laying out plans left me with wide gaps of time to fill on my own. Nor was I... recalled by my superiors very often, or for very long. So no, it was not all work. Far from it. But I was largely inclined toward solitude, or distance from others at best. Spending so much time around the most reprehensible of mortals does take its toll." She paused before finally admitting, "It never occurred to me before this week how lonely I have truly been."

Alex squeezed her hand, but it was clear that neither of them were really in the mood for deep introspection. "So you have hobbies?"

Her smile returned. "I sing."

He grinned back. "Do you now?"

"I have always indulged in many of the arts, but music has always kept my attention over the years. I am an excellent musician, if I say so myself. And I've played for quite a variety of audiences, high and low. Just not among my own kind, as it were," she shrugged. "One can't expect a very pleasant reception among those who only know malice."

He reflected, only momentarily, on how lonely a demon's life might actually be. Again, he resolved not to drag their mood down. "I'm a fan of music," he said idly.

"I've noticed." Her smile was knowing and teasingly patronizing. "Your tastes are good, if very narrow. That seems normal for your age and this society, though."

"Hey, I'm pretty open-minded."

"Name for me a single performer or composer represented in your collection that pre-dates rock'n'roll."

He thought hard. "Metallica's got a song with an intro that's supposed to be derivative of one composer or another," he offered with a self-deprecating grin.

Lorelei softly shook her head with amusement. She laughed. "Oh, the luxuries that await you."

"Fraulein Sofia!" a voice gasped. Alex blinked. Lorelei's eyes went wide for a moment before her cool self-assurance reasserted itself. They both turned to look toward the voice, which repeated as if in shock, "Fraulein Sofia."

She was old, of course. The woman wore a matronly, respectable dress in light blues, with hat and gloves and a small purse. Her face and stature and the slight shake in her arms showed the kind of age that could only be borne with an indomitable spirit much larger than most would ever know. In truth, for all the years shown by her body, her only real sign of frailty lay in that she was looking at a ghost.

The woman had others with her. Younger, all of them, though one man was old enough to be Alex's grandfather. "Imah, come," he said. Alex knew the word; he'd had a friend who spoke Hebrew growing up. The old man's height made the notion that he could be her son seem a touch comical, almost, were it not for her grave expression and his obvious concern. They were all much taller, though, Alex realized. Much taller and healthier. Raised in dramatically better times.

"I'm sorry?" Lorelei asked, blinking in confusion.

"You could be her twin," the elderly woman mumbled, still in shock. "You look so much like her. Just like her, touring the camp... with that laugh..." Alex realized after a moment that there was more than surprise there. The elderly woman's voice trembled with fear -- or at least the echoes of it.

"I am sorry," her apparent son said. A younger woman, probably his granddaughter really, took the elderly lady's wrist and tugged, gently, trying to get her to come with. "I'm sorry once again, it's just a misunderstanding," the man added reassuringly.

"No apologies necessary," Lorelei shrugged, showing her own face of concern and compassion. She looked down, though, as they led the woman away to their large family table. When her eyes came up to see Alex's face again they did so with reluctance.

She saw understanding there, and sadness. For the first time ever, he seemed very far away from her. Somehow in all of this their hands had come apart. "Alex," she began softly.

"You don't have to explain," he said, his voice quiet. "Her gloves didn't go up all the way on her wrists so I could see the numbers." As he spoke, their waiter arrived with their dinner. Alex only nodded his way through the man's perfunctory questions, waiting until he left to speak again. "They had a survivor come speak to my school when I was in eighth grade." He frowned, picking up a fork and nudging his steak with marked disinterest. "History was always one of my better subjects," he mumbled.

Lorelei's lip quivered. She didn't know what to say. "Alex," she whispered, "I never had any part in what happened to --"

"I believe you," he nodded, still very quiet. After a moment's silence, he shrugged and looked up at her. "I believe you," he repeated. "Like Cordingly, right?"

"Yes." The glimmer in her eyes had changed. Before, it was happiness. Now, the light merely shimmered against their moistness.

Beyond Alex, Lorelei saw the woman rise from her table. She brushed off the offers of help, needing nothing more than her cane. She said something in accented Hebrew about not needing help to go to the bathroom. She moved off, not looking back at Lorelei.

"You were there to punish someone, right?" Alex asked.

"I was." Lorelei's voice seemed to have fled from her.

After a moment, Alex said, "I'm not judging you, Lorelei." She blinked, looking at him with pleading eyes, and he just shrugged again. "I wasn't there. You weren't who you are now. I know most of your life was ugly, and I just... I don't see the use in being mad at you for what went on before. I don't want to be mad at you, Lorelei. Holding onto the past when we can't do anything about it just doesn't seem..." He lost that train of thought, and shook his head. "I want us to be happy, Lorelei."

As he said this, Lorelei feared their happiness had already vanished. "I am so sorry," she said.

Alex shook his head. "You don't have to apologize to me."

Silence hung for another long, difficult moment. She understood, of course, that there was no implied message meant in what he said. Still, she said, "No. Not to you. Would you excuse me, Alex?" She waited for him to nod before she got up and headed for the restroom.

As Lorelei walked towards the bathroom, she passed a table with several men who were enjoying drinks after a successful day's sales meetings. The blonde waitress was collecting their empty glasses, having to bend at the hips a bit to reach the furthest of them.

"Hey, honey," the man on the end seat slurred, "c'n you bring us another round? I'ss kinda bottoms up time f'r us." In his current state, he figured that was witty. He also figured she'd be flattered to have his hand grab at her ass.

An instant later, he figured he should really, really not cry out as she crushed his fingers together with an iron grip and said, "This ass doesn't belong to you." She stood up straight, still holding his hand but otherwise ignoring him as she looked after Lorelei until the dark-haired beauty slipped behind the bathroom door.

A wry, excited smile played at her lips. "Hot," she shuddered excitedly.

"Ow," whined the owner of the hand she then released. He knew despite his overwhelming buzz that he'd have to get those fingers looked at. He also knew better than to complain when the waitress left without taking their next round of drink orders.

************

The ladies' room was well-appointed and spacious. Around the corner from the stalls was a small cushioned bench. After assuring herself that no one else was in the room, Brigitte sank down onto it.

The last time Brigitte had seen Fraulein Sofia, she had been arm-in-arm with the commander of the camp, wearing a fur coat that Brigitte was almost certain was her mother's. Laughing.

They would occasionally tour the camp, at least the cleaner and less aesthetically appalling portions of it. Brigitte's memories of Fraulein Sofia and the Colonel were all of the two of them towering over her as they passed. Everyone towered over her in those memories. She was on her knees so much, scrubbing and scratching at spots on the floors and the walkways as if her life depended on it.

In those days, it had.

Fraulein Sofia had disappeared one night. So had the Colonel, and eventually a new one took his place. He was somewhat less efficient, which to Brigitte's thinking at the time made him somewhat less cruel. The camp slowed, slightly but noticeably. She had wondered, once or twice in the past, how many fewer of her people would have been there to see the Red Army arrive if the Colonel had been there until the end. Perhaps none.

It was all difficult to say. Time had retained little meaning in those endless days. It was hard to remember, really, how long the Colonel had been there or how much longer she was in the camp after he was gone. Nothing really marked the date for her or the others. The worst part of the camps, after all -- even the awful years before it -- had been the sense that it would just go on forever until they were all dead. Had anyone known when it would have ended, had they known the course of the war as it unfolded, perhaps those who expired through hopelessness and sorrow might have been able to hang on.

Brigitte was wondering about that and about so many other things when Fraulein Sofia joined her in the bathroom. Brigitte looked up at her, instinctively refusing to cower -- not now, not after so much time, all her old instincts be damned after all these years of prosperity and joy.

But she was a bit taken by surprise when Fraulein Sofia, looking quite stricken, knelt in front of her and bowed her head. "I want to apologize for what is unforgivable," she said in German.

Brigitte said nothing in response. What could there possibly be to say to this? She was, however, no longer in doubt about who this woman was. There was no explanation, but in the moment, Brigitte needed none. The question of how just didn't matter.

"I came only to punish Jurgen," she said. "The Colonel. I brought him to his death. His closest officers were removed from their posts because of what followed. They were put on trial by the SS and then executed. For corruption and dereliction of duty," she added, her voice clearly noting the bitter irony in that. "The SS were not kind." She looked up, sorrow and remorse plain in her eyes.

"But I apologize to you because I see only now how much more I could have done. How much more I should have done, and what was more important than punishing wicked men. I could have done more than inflict vengeance. I could have done more important things...I believed I laughed in the camp to make Jurgen and his men feel comfortable with me, but the truth is I did not feel at all. I know that now. I could have and should have done so much more, were I something better than what I was."

Brigitte looked as if she might weep, but did not. Her tears had all been shed a long time ago. They were long gone. Fraulein Sofia, though, obviously had a few of her own. They were falling now. "What are you now?" Brigitte asked. "Something better?"

"I hope so. I am so very sorry," Lorelei answered, "and I think that much is better, yes. I am so very sorry."

"You are a bit late for Yom Kippur," Brigitte observed after a long moment's consideration. "But not by so much, I think."





Chapter 40: You're Steppin' On My Dick...

Alex's phone chimed. There was a text message from Jason that said, with his usual eloquence, "Sup?"

Alex responded: "Dinner date. Epic fail."

"Why dat?"

"Got ambushed by Godwin's Law."

"Good times," read the response. Alex frowned, thinking as he put the phone back in his pocket, Who says text messaging lacks tone? Jason seemed to have that part down.

A familiar, welcome touch slipped over his shoulder as Lorelei passed him on the return to her seat. He looked up, seeing a bit of an emotional recovery. "Thank you, Alex," she said with some relief.

He looked up at her curiously. "For what?"

"For giving me the chance to become someone better than I was," Lorelei answered.

Alex glanced over his shoulder to see the little old lady returning to her seat with her family. She looked to be in better spirits. Then, remembering his manners -- he hadn't been on a date like this before, of course -- he got up out of his seat and pulled out Lorelei's chair for her. She hadn't expected it. The small courtesy put her smile back on her face as she sat.

He realized as he sat down that he was very pleased all of the sudden on an almost instinctive level. It took him a moment to figure out why. He glanced back to the large family for a moment and then asked, "You went to talk to her?"

"I did."

"You know I didn't expect that of you, right? I really didn't mean anything by what I said."

"I know, Alex," she nodded. Her hand came out across the table. He took it with his own. "But you gave me a chance. I never would have thought to ask for it."

They looked at one another for awhile until Alex finally said, "I'm going to have a hard time eating with only my left hand."

************

"How do you figure he swung that?" Thomas asked, nodding from his seat at the bar at the other end of the restaurant.

"Paid for. Gotta be. Rich kid, rich kid's date. Maybe Daddy rented her for him for his birthday?" muttered Richard. He took another gulp of his Jack & Coke and looked on with no small amount of open, casual jealousy.

"I dunno, man," Harold frowned. "I've seen professional escorts before, but she's a cut above even that. Something fishy, though."

"Seriously," Thomas agreed. "I mean, what's she doing with him?"

"Falling in love," said the waitress behind the bar as she poured drinks. She didn't look at the three finance office chums. The blonde appeared, instead, to be very interested in the bartender's cheat sheet for mixed drinks.

"Get outta here," Richard huffed. "With him?"

"Fuckin' A," she nodded.

"He's like my kid nephew! What's he got that's so special?" Harold asked.

"He's hot," the blonde said. Her eyes fluttered closed, and she inhaled deeply as if breathing in some intoxicating fume. "Hot like redemption."

The three men found themselves gawking at the stunning blonde, utterly mesmerized by her now as she concentrated less on being unobtrusive for the sake of indulging in this moment. They hadn't noticed, really, how beautiful she was until she spoke. Nor had they ever seen anyone's face so erotically charged right in front of them.

Harold's mouth hung agape. "Uh. That's hot?"

"Mmm-hmm," she nodded, her eyes closed and shuddered revealing a visible weakness in her posture. "I'm afraid to actually look," she admitted breathlessly. "I don't know if I can control myself."

Swept away by the sight of her face, they were all quite surprised when that look of transcendent arousal on her face very quickly shifted to sober, scowling distaste. "Aw, shit," she muttered. Her eyes turned toward the entrance. She set the ingredients to whatever she'd been fixing down behind the bar.

"Hey, wait," Thomas urged, and she paused to look up to him quizzically. He wasn't sure what he meant to say, either, apart from wanting that angelic face to stay there with him. Quickly, he grasped for something, anything to keep her attention. "Aren't you fixing that drink for someone?"

Rachel glanced down at the drink for just a second before she shrugged. "Oh, whatever. It's not like I work here," she said.

************

Lorelei sensed the arrival just as it occurred. She had been laughing with Alex, explaining to him after the check had been handled how tacky it was to pay for a meal in a restaurant like this with cash. That laughter and the words accompanying it fell away almost instantly. The look in her eyes, like a predator whose territory had been intruded upon, was unmistakable.

Alex turned his head a bit to indicate his curiosity, but he didn't ask out loud what the problem was. "Demon," Lorelei said quietly. "One that will almost certainly sense that I am here."

"Like Gorge?"

"No," she shook her head, and her expression became more dark. "Much worse. One like me. Lydia."

His brow furrowed. Alex felt tense already, and would have admitted to fear if anyone had challenged him on it. "You can tell one from another? How many are there?"

"This one... Gorge told me there was another in Seattle."

"What else did he tell you?"

Lorelei nearly answered, but stopped herself. "I believe now is not the time. There are a thousand ways this moment could go poorly. In fact, it already has. Will you follow my lead in this?"

"Yeah. Of course."

"I cannot hide us. She knows I am here, and will discern much. Our only option is to walk out quite brazenly." She paused, and looked at him very seriously. "Remember all that you have already overcome, master. Fear no evil."

Alex took a deep breath and nodded. She was about to rise, but he held up a quick hand. Then he got out of his seat and helped her out of hers, and took her arm like a gentleman should.

They didn't have very far to go. Alex had just enough time to consider, very briefly, that Lorelei apparently still had quite a ways to go in her recovery. He had no real perspective on that beyond the fact that of all that had been taken from her, she had only thus far recovered her devil's tail. It was, he considered wryly, one hell of a way to be encouraged to have more sex.

If we make it out of here, he thought. Fighting Gorge had been a knock-down, drag-out brawl with three of his friends at his side, and two of them were about the toughest guys he knew. Lorelei's expression was a stone cold poker face, but he somehow doubted that was to conceal an overabundance of strength.

They hadn't even made it to the corner between the dining room and the foyer of the restaurant before they came face to face with the hostess leading three men in suits and a dazzlingly sexy blonde clad in a very flattering little black party dress and long black gloves. Her brilliant green eyes stood out from her flawless skin, matched by lustrous emerald jewels on her ears and neck. Her hair was cut short. Her face had an almost naturally wicked beauty.

The three men with her were all Latinos. Two of them were tall, broad-shouldered men. One of them, Alex couldn't help but notice, had a pair of teardrop tattoos under one eye. The third man wasn't exactly small himself, but he looked to have perhaps a decade on the other two guys, and it was on his arm that the blonde walked.

She stopped in her tracks the instant she saw Lorelei. So, for that matter, did the dark-haired succubus. "Lorelei?" the blonde asked.

"Lydia," the other said calmly as if in acknowledgement.

The blonde looked her over once, simultaneously curious and disdainful. "You look awful," she declared finally. "What on Earth could possibly have happened to you?"

"You two know each other?" the man on Lydia's arm asked.

"Oh, we go back quite a few years," Lorelei smiled to him, then turned back to Lydia. "I had heard you were in town, but I confess I hadn't quite made a priority out of seeking you out. You wouldn't possibly believe how I've been distracted."

Lydia frowned a bit. "Ah. Dear Robert has been gossiping about me, has he? His lips grow so loose and indiscriminate while he's out drinking and whoring. I'll have to have a talk with him about that."

"Good luck finding him," Lorelei replied dryly.

The Latino blinked a bit, feeling somewhat tense. Lydia had slid off of his arm to bring her hands together as she spoke, throwing out some other hardly-even-veiled insult. Almost unwillingly, he glanced at Alex as if to see if the young stranger knew what was going on.

For his own part, Alex had very quickly gone from dread to grim amusement. He was probably going to die over this, he realized, or at the very least he was in for a severe beating. That made for the fourth time he'd faced certain doom this week. Five if he counted that first, anguished night and day spent in fear of what could happen if he took the succubus up on her invitations. At this point, however, the whole thing just seemed absurd.

And to top it all off, he was getting quizzical looks from someone who was almost certainly a dead man himself, and probably deservedly so. The man leaned in and asked, "Do you know what this is about?" He had a decidedly subtle but distinct Mexican accent. He wasn't irate, or demanding, or really anything but confused.

Suppressing a grin, Alex matched the Mexican's lean and said, barely above a whisper, "I dunno, but I don't see how this could possibly go well. They're wearing the same outfit."

The Mexican's eyebrows rose as he noticed what Alex meant. Apart from the very different jewelry, the two were dressed alike.

"Maybe we should break this up quick and go our separate ways?" Alex suggested.

"Really, Lorelei, you hardly look like yourself at all," Lydia said, casting off only a little of her venom in favor of genuine curiosity. "Why the poor makeover?"

"Divorce can be rather brutal," Lorelei shrugged. "But I am quickly on the mend, and I already feel much better for having shed so much baggage. You should try it. You'll feel much lighter. In your case I imagine it would feel like having shaved off an entire cow."

"Divorce?" Lydia laughed. "Perhaps if by divorce you mean cutting off the finger along with the ring." She turned her head curiously toward Alex. "Oh, but who's your escort for this evening? He looks so young and innocent. And he's already met Carlos. Introduce us?"

Those sultry green eyes bored right into him. Her grin twisted a bit and there was a subtle shift in her posture as she stepped very, very close to him. She was only a bit shorter than Alex and undeniably beautiful. She was also, of course, not at all as hindered or weakened as Lorelei herself.

Alex blinked as she slid up against him. She looked deeply into his eyes, breathed against his lips. Carlos and his companions pointedly said nothing. They looked on with a mix of reluctance, arousal and fascination. Carlos himself hated it when Lydia did this, but he couldn't bring himself to stop her nor could he turn his eyes away. Nothing stopped Lydia from pressing her very luscious, perfectly curved body into Alex's with a predatory grin.

"I hope you don't mind a little catty talk between old girlfriends," she purred. "It's no big deal, really. I'm Lydia. Who might you be? You almost look familiar." She stared into his eyes. As she spoke one gloved hand slid under his arm and up his back to tease her fingers through the back of Alex's scalp.

She touched him, in fact, right where Onyx had sprinkled her salts in warding him hours before. That salt had come out in the shower, of course, but the warding spell would last until morning. It wasn't enough on its own to protect from someone as powerful as Lydia, but it helped. Alex was himself not exactly wanting for willpower of his own.

Thus, his answer was rather deadpan in tone: "Lady, I'm sure you're real exciting to most of the kids on the playground, but I've already got way hotter blondes in my life than you. Now could you back up a bit? You're steppin' on my dick."

Her eyes went wide with shock. Lorelei was quite surprised, as well. She could suppress her snicker, but not her grin. The three Mexican gentlemen in Lydia's company all looked on as if the universe had just turned itself inside out and started playing the bagpipes right in front of them. From her own vantage point where she watched with sharp vigilance, Rachel clamped her hand over her mouth, spun around the corner, and bumped her head against the wall twice to prevent herself from laughing out loud.

The blonde succubus slipped back, still completely stunned. Alex held her gaze, wanting to turn away and get the hell out but remembering what Lorelei had said. After a couple of breaths, though, he felt like his point was made. Alex glanced to his date and smiled. "Weren't we leaving, Lorelei?"

He held out his hand. She took it. "A warning, Lydia, for old times' sake. This is a dangerous city for our kind. Not everyone respects the balance. The natives sometimes bite back, and worse. You may even wind up on a new leash that you will find much less pleasing than the one you wear now."

Together, Alex and Lorelei stepped past Lydia and Carlos, both of them still taken aback by the scene though for very different reasons. The two large men in their party remained in the way, but only for a moment. Lorelei asked them to move, very politely in Spanish, and they both suddenly blinked and made way for the couple.

They were gone for almost half a minute before the hostess recovered from the mesmerizing encounter. "Um. Would you like me to show you to your table?"

"Carlos," Lydia said with a voice full of sweetness and adoration, "that pathetic little brat and his wretched whore date both insulted me just now." Her own date was just shaking off his surprise as she spoke. "Shouldn't they have to say they're sorry?"

He looked at her for a moment, unsure of how to tell her to just get over it, or whether he even should. As always when he looked at Lydia he opted for the path of least resistance. Carlos sighed and then turned to his two bodyguards. "Well?!"





Chapter 41: Rachel brings it...

The roads were wet, dark and hilly, but at least traffic was very light in downtown Seattle late in the evening. Paco didn't entirely care for being behind the wheel here, especially as he was still a little unfamiliar with the roads, but it was better if he drove than Chuy. His partner in the passenger seat was really only good as an extra gun or an extra pair of hands and eyes.

Carlos's superiors had insisted they bring Chuy along when they came up from Mexico, which Carlos had done without argument. It wasn't as if they wanted a shortage of muscle. But it would've been nice, at least, if the guy would talk about anything. Prison could turn a chatty man quiet -- Paco knew that plenty well -- but Chuy's silence was just creepy.

It was just as well at the moment, though, Paco decided silently. Following the Lexus through its confusing, steep downhill route required more than a little concentration. There were one-way streets, drivers who were themselves lost or just stupid, and pedestrians who'd go against the light... just like the smokin' hot blonde waitress from back at the restaurant who was now crossing the street while looking right at Paco and Chuy.

Wait, what?! Paco thought. He hit the brakes and swerved just enough to miss her.

Smiling, Rachel whipped out from behind her back a pair of kitchen knives she'd swiped from the restaurant. She spun around as if in a pirouette, carving with one knife into the rolling front left tire of Paco and Chuy's SUV, then doing the same with the other against the rear left tire less than a second later. They were good, sharp blades, and her strength was well beyond human.

The tires burst instantly, sending the SUV into a lurch. Panicked, Paco turned the wheel entirely the wrong way. The SUV hurtled through the intersection, twisting to the left a moment before suddenly overturning completely twice. It slid several more yards before finally coming to a stop in the middle of the street.

Given their predicament, both Paco and Chuy completely missed Rachel's celebratory touchdown dance.

************

"...and I'll just have the light garden salad," Lydia finished dismissively. The waiter picked up the menus, thanking her, but Lydia wasn't even paying attention to him. She was lost, for a moment, in her own thoughts, but then she noticed Carlos' cell phone was ringing.

He pulled it out and glanced at it only for a moment before deciding to answer. "It's the guys," he explained. He had, after all, promised not to pick up the phone tonight, but that was before their unexpected run-in with Lorelei as they arrived just minutes ago.

Lydia nodded, still chewing on the meaning of all she had said and the way she looked as Carlos answered the phone. The bitch had left Belial's service. That much was clearly implied by her "divorce" comment. But Belial would not have deliberately cast out his most accomplished seductress and spy, not without cause. He might have lost her, but that would have been the result of the sort of upheaval that Lydia certainly would have heard about by now.

But Lorelei had clearly been through quite a thrashing. No horns, no wings. No scars, either, but perhaps those had faded. She had spoken of demons being hunted in this city. Perhaps that was what had happened to her? Was Lorelei hunted by a third-party? Could Belial have decided she was too damaged and weakened to be worth retaining?

That was as far as she had gotten in her thoughts before noticing the look of surprise and concern on Carlos's face. "What is it?" she demanded.

"You're gonna have to find another ride home tonight," announced a clear, amused voice from over Carlos's shoulder. They both glanced up. Carlos saw a waitress from the restaurant, young, blonde and beautiful, pulling up a chair at the side of their table and plopping down into it unceremoniously. Lydia, however, saw her for exactly what she was.

"Hi," the angel said. "I'm Rachel. Sorry about your friends. I mean, I'm not really sorry, y'know, but still. Sounds like something I should say. You should tell 'em to be careful around here." She tossed the two kitchen knives down onto the table. "Bunch'a freaks in this town. Seriously. Ooh, hey, they brought the bread already!" She helped herself to the contents of the basket at the center of the table, swiping the butter knife from Lydia's place setting while she was at it. "This place makes really good bread, you guys should try some of it."

"Who the fuck are you?" Carlos snapped, now getting quite angry. He reached out to grab the knife out of her hand, entirely out of irritation, but in the blink of an eye she whipped it around to rap him across the knuckles with the flat of the blade. The speed of her strike was stinging.

"I am so much more fucking trouble than you could possibly handle. Oh, and by the way," she said, gesturing at Lydia as she held his gaze. "Repent, motherfucker. The end is near. For you, anyway."

"What do you want?" Lydia asked through gritted teeth. Her voice dripped with venom.

Rachel just smirked. She spread some honeyed butter over her roll and took a bite, savoring the flavor of it. "Holy fuck, this is good bread," she grinned with the morsel in the side of her mouth. The angel chewed for a moment, then swallowed, and looked at Lydia as if she couldn't get over some private joke.

"I'm here to tell you I know what you're thinkin', and you'd better forget about it. He's under my protection, and that means she is, too."

Lydia's scowl sharpened. "He cannot have a guardian angel if she is—-"

"The fuck do you think I'm doing here in the first place, you Santorum-smelling slob?"

Lydia blinked. "What?"

Rachel rolled her eyes. "Fucking Google it, bitch. Listen, it's real simple. That guy? The succubus? And anyone around 'em? Off-limits. Period. I even hear you've been so much as talking shit about 'em, my foot's gonna be so far up your ass, your mouth won't have anymore room left for sucking dick."

There was a stunned silence from Lydia. Rachel glanced awkwardly at Carlos for a second before adding, "Okay, well, maybe there'd still be room for one as small as his."

"You can't be serious," Lydia breathed. "The balance—"

"We can go right fucking now," Rachel offered menacingly. She stared at Lydia's eyes for a long moment. Without looking, she snatched the phone away from Carlos and dropped it in front of the succubus. "Got any friends? Call 'em. Let's go. I could use a good warm up before I smoke your santorum-smelling ass."

It was at that moment, her eyes now flitting this way and that as she considered the situation, that Lydia realized that all of the other guardian angels in the restaurant -- and there were a couple dozen of them, all of them formerly just minding their own business as they watched over their own charges -- were watching the situation very closely. Some of them seemed to be concerned, but more than a few of them looked unsettlingly eager. A couple of them even grinned.

To stand alone against a guardian angel was folly. Doubly so against one who was so plainly, utterly mad. There were demon lords that could do it, for certain, but not a succubus. Not even one as powerful as Lydia. But to see other guardian angels looking on with such aggression in their eyes...

The balance had held for centuries. It frayed now and again, in one land or another, but was eventually reasserted. It looked as if it would fray again here and now, and Lydia knew full well that despite such euphemisms, to be at the center of a "fraying" was the gravest of perils.

"I came here tonight for dinner," Lydia said finally. "I knew neither of her presence nor of her current state. My business here does not concern the whore or whomever she's toying with. Now are you quite finished posturing?"

Rachel held her gaze for another long breath, then nodded knowingly. "Good," she grunted, then stood and walked away.

Lydia's nails dug into the table. She opened her mouth to say something to the angel, but suddenly Rachel was back in front of her. The angel snatched up the breadbasket and the small cup of honeyed butter. "This is way too good to waste on you losers."

************

"Ultimately, it would be impossible to hide away forever," Lorelei explained as they rode the elevator. "We could do it for a time. We could move to some sparsely-populated corner of the globe, withdraw from society. Live on my financial resources and our love. But you would hate it, and yourself." She held a duffel bag in one hand, and Alex's hand in the other. He had his own small backpack loaded with a bit of spare clothing and a couple of books from school, but he had hardly even thought about that when they arrived at the hotel.

"I don't know," Alex shrugged, looking at her with more affection than concern once again. "I'm pretty sure we could keep ourselves amused."

She smiled back at him. "Oh, I know you will never tire of me. But you have friends, family, and there are of course your dreams. You care about the people with whom you share this world. As much as I might indulge you in endless pleasure, there is more to life than that for you." He shrugged, conceding the point without ever having intended to argue it. "Thus other demons would find out about us. It was only a matter of time. And now we'll have to see how much it is worth it to them to antagonize us. But I will protect you, Alex. As will Rachel. And, I think, others."

"I don't like the idea of hiding behind others," Alex frowned.

"You will not. You have not. But I think you will not often find yourself standing alone." She leaned in to kiss him meaningfully. The kiss lasted until the elevator got to its appointed floor, and as the doors open Lorelei backed off with a mischievous grin.

"All that is for another time, my love," she said in a very seductive voice. Lorelei stepped backward, her eyes not leaving his as she tugged him along after her by the hand. Her gaze promised great things.

When she opened the door to the honeymoon suite, Alex was floored. The "room" was bigger than the bottom floor of his mother's condo. The plush bed was easily big enough for much more than two people. Fresh roses sat in a crystal vase on the small dining table in one corner. A plasma television was mounted over the fireplace across from the foot of the bed. Alex was just wrapping his mind around the idea of a fireplace in a downtown hotel tower when he noticed the balcony with its view of the waterfront and Elliott Bay, and of the very large hot tub in the corner just across from the sliding glass doors.

"I had no idea this was what you meant by getting a hotel room," Alex murmured.

"I could have been more conservative," Lorelei smiled, "but you did agree to let me indulge you this weekend." She shut the door behind them, threw the deadbolt, and then slipped around to his front and kissed his neck.

"You indulge me just by holding my hand," Alex told her.

"No need to be so humble, master," Lorelei breathed into his ear. She felt his heart begin to race and his flesh stiffening against her groin. "The collar I wear has meaning."

"Lorelei, I only want you as my lover tonight. My friend. I know I...claimed you tonight, and I meant that. I want that. I want to wake up to my slave lover in the morning and play with you all day tomorrow. But I really just want tonight to be about love."

She smiled, running her hands through his hair. "My master," she said, "this is all about love and has been for awhile now."





Chapter 42: Rachel's Recovery and Longing...

It was a tall building. There were taller ones in Seattle, of course. The hotel wasn't even half the height of the Columbia Tower several blocks uphill, nor was it the tallest among those closer to the water. But looking up at it from the sidewalk below, the hotel loomed more than large enough.

Her borrowed waitress's uniform was gone now. Rachel stood on the sidewalk clad in her simple, thin white dress once again. Nobody looking her way actually noticed her, whether driving by or sitting behind a window looking out at the street. They didn't see the blonde angel looking up to the sky, letting raindrops fall gently on her face.

Nor did they see the wings that grew from her back, full and white and glorious in their spread.

She had felt the stirrings of their recovery while in the church as her halo began to glow with its former brilliance. That had been alarming, seeing as several of Alex's good deeds had been accomplished while facing great danger and suffering harm. But when she had caught up to him, seeing her charge and his companion getting into her car, she had recognized the unmistakable look of love between them.

Love was in the eyes of a demon. Rachel had seen it there, and understood why her recovery had enjoyed such a sudden leap ahead. She reaped as much of a personal reward in that momentous development as had Alex himself.

It would not have been possible without the ritual that had summoned and accidentally bound both Lorelei and Rachel to him, of course, but there had been so many ways for all that to go wrong. This development had been well beyond Rachel's expectations. Her first thoughts had been only that it might be fitting for such a nice guy to have lucked into such a wonderful fuck-toy for himself...

...but perhaps that thinking had been borne of the drain on Rachel's own virtue. It had seemed harmless, she knew, but in the days that followed she felt herself becoming more and more attached to this brave, well-meaning mortal.

Rachel had followed them as they left his home. She hadn't heard their conversations, of course, but once they were at the shopping center and she saw Alex buying the black pearl choker she began to suspect what was developing. She had followed and watched him speak with her, claim her, fuck her brains out, all so very clearly at Lorelei's willing behest. There was no particular goodness there, of course, no triumph of virtue. Nothing of the sort. But there was no evil, either.

It wasn't the sort of relationship that Rachel dreamed of, certainly, but it was a sweet and naughty thing to watch. If anything, she silently cheered them both on.

But it was in the restaurant, with Lorelei facing the sins of her own past and seeking redemption, that Rachel knew her recovery was essentially complete. What had happened was unprecedented. Rachel hadn't followed Lorelei into the restroom, hadn't eavesdropped on her... but she knew. She could feel it happen. Through Alex and their bond, perhaps, or more likely just through proximity. All the other guardian angels in the restaurant had certainly perked up when it happened.

Inspired by love for a virtuous man, one of Hell's most accomplished destroyers had repented.

Rachel's wings spread out, beat twice, and then carried her into the air. She soared around the hotel tower. She rose and dipped and spun and looped. The angel laughed in gratitude and joy. She rose into the air, taking her time and indulging in a broad, sweeping path before finally landing silently on the balcony of the honeymoon suite.

She knew where they were. She could see them now, or more accurately, she could see Alex in her mind whenever she concentrated regardless of Lorelei's presence. Rachel looked in on them through the glass balcony door, unhindered by the dim light. They lay on the bed, making love in one another's arms.

The bed had already been rearranged. Lorelei lay atop an arrangement of pillows that allowed her to recline while Alex remained upright on his knees above her, thrusting between her legs as they watched one another. She was quite vocal about her enjoyment. Her hands searched for his, pulling them to her breasts as he ravished her until, at length, they both stiffened and groaned in a shared climax. Alex sank into the bed then, with the couple twisting happily until Lorelei crawled on top of him like a predatory cat toying with prey at her mercy.

Rachel watched, smiling softly. She wondered how much longer it would be before she succumbed to her own needs and shared Lorelei's place in his arms. She imagined herself there instead of Lorelei, but not as a replacement. Rachel would die before allowing anything to come between this love, including herself. But she knew that she wouldn't have to in order to claim her own happiness.

She thought, momentarily, about slipping inside with them. They would have her. She knew that. Lorelei hadn't been lying, not at all, and Rachel could tell that Alex's heart swelled whenever she was near. She heard it in his voice. Saw it in his eyes. Felt it in his kiss.

But there would be time for that later. And after tonight, she was going to have to have another long conversation with the angels and archangels who watched over this city. Oh, what fun that would be.

Rachel leapt up over the ledge above her to sit on the top of the tower. She looked out across the Bay, unbothered by either the rain or the cold. She felt quite comfortable. Her lips spread into a quiet smile. Eventually, she began to hum, and then finally she softly gave the familiar tune words.

"Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound

That saved a wretch like me.

I once was lost, but now am found,

Was blind, but now I see..."





Chapter 43: Another Sinful Morning...

"It's sinful."

"Yes, well, I'm sure my services to Christ and His holy Church will make that all better," John scowled. He was bundling up his few clothes for easier carrying. It would have been nice to have a bag for them, but he would have to make do with a little rope. He wanted to leave behind as much as he possibly could, even the sacks. They might be of use. More use than he was.

"Do you think that will matter?" Henry pressed. The older man sat on the bench at John's table, hunched over a mug of cheap ale -- all John had to offer -- as he watched his young neighbor pack. "Fight the heathens. Reclaim the Holy Land. Hell, walk back home wearing Christ's own shoes. You'll still be a man who abandoned his lawfully wedded wife to another!"

"I am not abandoning her!" John snapped. He hurled the pack of clothing at the door to his small, one- room house and looked at Henry with pain and anger in his eyes. "She'll be looked after! She has you, doesn't she? She has William and his family."

"William is exactly who I'm talking about, and you know it, John. You're a cuckolded man, and you know that, too, and you do nothing about it."

"Cuck—Do you think it's that simple?! What would you have me do, Henry? Beat her? Beat William? Murder him? I suppose I could expose them to the ruin of his family and Katherine's own good name! Do you think that would that change her feelings for me? Would I find happiness in her public humiliation?"

"She's your wife."

"Because our parents arranged it! Not because we love each other. Do you think that was on their minds when they matched us?"

"You love her," Henry frowned. "That's why you encouraged your father to pursue this match. You just have to be a little firm with her! You're the man of this house! Act like it!"

"Have you tried laying with a woman while she cries? Have you, really?" It was a rhetorical question; Henry and his wife were the most openly affectionate couple anyone knew for miles. "Because I'll tell you, her tears do in fact leave me feeling unmanned. Quite so."

Henry waved his hand dismissively. "She'll get over this if you just get between them and remind her whose wife she is."

John looked ready to roar again, throwing his hands up in some gesture of rage, but then he stopped. The young man just didn't have the words anymore. He didn't want to leave angry. His hands fell, waving away whatever venom it was that he had been grasping for. "Her heart was never mine. She was honest enough with that. Never misled me. She loves William, and he loves her. Since before I was even a suitor. I'm just in the way here. The only real good I do as her husband is to lend my name to prevent less kindly men from laying claim to her."

"She's your wife, John. It's a sin."

"Tell me how love is a sin, Henry," John sighed painfully. "Tell me how locking up a woman who was forced to marry me and breaking her heart serves a greater good than what they have together."

Henry's silence made for a very quiet house. John didn't have all that much, but with his father's untimely death from illness, it was at least his. It would be Katherine's now, though, in all but name. That was fine. John wasn't too terribly worried about the family name.

"You'll look in on her?"

"Yes."

"And keep your mouth shut?"

Henry looked up at his friend a bit resentfully, but eventually softened. "You know I will."

John nodded. He hefted up his sack of food for the road, his bundle of clothing and the axe that had been in his family since his grandfather's time. There was no one else to see him off, but that had been handled in the days before. His land would be better tended through the aid of neighbors while he was gone than he could manage on his own. They were all just happy that one of their own was answering the call to take up arms for Christ, and wanted to do their part in support. John lingered only for a proper farewell to Henry before he walked out across his small farm and out onto the road.

He had already said his goodbyes to his wife before this. That was why she wasn't there when he left. She wept, full of guilt and confessing her sins to him, but she did not ask him to stay. She could barely bring herself to thank him.

His own Crusade, as it turned out, became more about fighting banditry than Saracens bent on holding Jerusalem. He lived another two years before he met his end, seeing far more action on the journey than he did in the Holy Land itself. He didn't live to see Jerusalem fall, which was just as well. The aftermath would have broken his heart almost as surely as Katherine herself had done.

John was lucky, or perhaps able to make his own luck. He met fellow Normans, men-at-arms who saw fit to train him and a few others to fight like warriors rather than peasants. That had been self-interest on their part, of course, and John performed more than a few favors in return. He earned a place among them. That place allowed him to journey with Robert II of Normandy rather than with one of the massive mobs of would-be Crusading peasants that succeeded only in burning and murdering Jews in Europe.

Several of those murdering peasants, in fact, died by John's hand. It was only luck of the draw, he always claimed, that kept his name among those that were constantly called to keep order and enforce some measure of justice among the Duke of Normandy's men. It was luck that put him among those who spent their time settling feuds between Christian warriors, sometimes with words and other times with violence

He put down three men who'd murdered their own captain, and later even faced down and slew a knight who'd raped a merchant's wife. All that happened before they had even reached Constantinople. He may have been a failure as a husband, but he turned out to be an excellent warrior, skilled with sword and shield and spear. By the time they got to the Holy Land, it was joked around the campfire that John would have a hard time slaughtering Saracens enough to equal the number of Christians he'd killed. It was also quickly added that he had acted with good cause in every case, of course.

In the end, that joke was all too accurate. He only fought a few battles against the Saracens. In each, he acquitted himself bravely. He rarely had time or energy for plunder when all was said and done, though, and the more he saw of the Holy Land the more he wondered if his heart was really in the quest.

He was there when Antioch fell. He fought heroically, but his final battle came in the hours following the taking of the city.

There was a noblewoman who'd come with the Crusaders, beautiful and regal with striking green eyes and golden blonde hair. John found her unsettling, but she had no time for one as lowly as him, anyway. She drifted from one lord to the next, attaching herself to the worst of people. In the wild hours immediately after Antioch fell, John found her with several men-at-arms and a clutch of cowering Saracen women. The noblewoman had accused the girls of swallowing jewels to hide them from their conquerors. She instructed the men-at-arms to retrieve them in any way necessary.

John asked his comrades, quite assertively, how they thought they would find the Kingdom of God by slitting bellies of defenseless Saracen peasants. It came to heated words, and then blows.

He was very good in battle. Quicker, smarter, sober. The three girls in question ultimately walked away from the matter, as did only two of the six Crusaders present. The others fell to John's sword. He very nearly defeated them all. The strangely beautiful noblewoman, standing behind him with a dagger, intervened before the last two men-at-arms were killed.

John himself did not walk away from that dispute.

He had friends. He was avenged, at least where the other two men he'd fought were concerned. No one spoke of the noblewoman. No one really remembered her having been with the Crusaders when she eventually disappeared after the fall of Jerusalem.

John's belongings and treasures and pay, in defiance of all the cynical realities of the times, actually made it home to Normandy. It was enough to provide a real measure of security. His wife had given birth to a child within nine months of his departure, who came to bear John's name.

No one ever accused Katherine of bearing another man's son. Nor did Katherine ever tell anyone that on their wedding night, John had dried her tears and promised, despite his own broken heart, to never take her without her consent. Nor did anyone speak ill in anything over a whisper when, a year after John's death and that of William's first wife, widow and widower were married.

John's last thoughts as he bled out from a dagger in his back in the dirty streets of Antioch were of her. His last prayer was that Katherine would live a long, happy life full of love.

She did.

************

Alex remembered nothing of his dreams that morning. They were gone from his mind in the first seconds of his waking, distracted as he was by the wondrous pleasures of Lorelei making love to his very erect phallus with her kiss.

Lorelei, for her part, could share only in dreams of his desires. In the couple of hours of sleep that he'd needed, he had several about her. It left her feeling very appreciated. She didn't dwell much on the other disjointed, fleeting images that ran through his unconscious mind after that.

She paused in her attentions just long enough to murmur, sweetly, "Good morning, my love."

Alex shifted, loving this, and stretched out a bit in the bed without opening his eyes. "Master," he corrected her with a very playful grin.

He felt her grin back. He could also feel her shudder, responding to that one word with excitement and arousal. Her body, draped over his legs, tensed and clung to him a bit more tightly. "Good morning, master," she acknowledged.

They had agreed to this out of love and trust, and now it felt so very good. He lay stretched out in the luxurious bed, enjoying the services of his very willing slave. He had no intention of interrupting her further. While he curled one arm under the pillow under his head, Alex reached down with his other hand to run his fingers through Lorelei's hair.

His touch conveyed his affection and thanks, and also just enough pressure to encourage her to increase her efforts. She moaned with pleasure as she did just that. Alex relaxed as she focused her every thought and action on his enjoyment. The feedback of their bond left her making sounds that were more than reassuring enough that she felt very rewarded for her efforts, both before and during his very long, satisfying release into her mouth.

She sucked him throughout his release, slowing from a fierce assault to a long, lingering aftermath of slow strokes. He made no move to stop her, nor did he make a sound beyond his deep breath. His hand remained gently laid against her head with his fingers laced in her silken hair.

Lorelei continued to work his flesh with slow, earnest passion. He did nothing to stop her. Knowing his desires, her attention continued, and at length began to slowly increase in its intensity until she was fiercely and wantonly pulling him toward climax yet again.

Alex didn't know how long this went on. He didn't know, and didn't care, and knew very well that he didn't need to. He made no effort to control his release, knowing that issue didn't really matter at all, either. When his body finally did give in to Lorelei's unyielding demands, quite without any self-denial from Alex, he panted and moaned aloud. He could have sworn that Lorelei was getting off on it even before he was.

She felt the slightest movement from his hand, the slightest stirring of his body, and responded. Lorelei slid herself up along his body, kissing and stroking across his torso and neck, until she brought her breasts to his face and her sex against his. She sank down upon it, pushing and slowly breathing out in rapture as she filled herself with him, and then her arms rose up around Alex's shoulders. She kissed at his neck with a soft, longing hunger. Alex's arms came around her, caressing the entire length of her body with his hands.

The words, "Thank you" came from them both at the same time. Alex grinned. Lorelei simply continued what she was doing, rolling her hips wantonly against his.

"My master is always welcome to my service," Lorelei murmured into his ear. "I am yours." Her voice was a bit lighter, a bit softer and even submissive, but as Alex had said, it was in no way meek. There was still endless confidence there. Even, he thought, a layer of control. This really was a partnership. Alex felt his love for her grow.

He stretched while she continued her easy grind. "Thank you anyway," he smiled, letting her spoil him, "and thank you for saying that."

Lorelei's head loomed over his, creating that dark curtain of her hair. "You are very welcome, master," she said with a grin that was equal parts relaxed and giddy. Her mouth descended upon his. She kissed him without coming up for air for quite some time. Finally, their lips parted, and she looked down at him with that same smile. "How may I serve you?" she asked.

"I want nonstop attention just like this. Use your judgment," Alex grinned. She nodded, watching him with obvious happiness as she gently but attentively rode him. A thought came to him. "How far do you... nevermind," he then said. She raised an eyebrow, and Alex finally told her, "I'm a little hungry."

"May I order and feed you breakfast, master?" Lorelei asked. That beaming look was undiminished. He could have sworn he felt a shiver go through her body as she spoke. There was certainly a tightening around him between her legs.

It sounded like it was too much when she said it like that. He was about to say something to that effect, about not letting this go to his head, but then he saw the shape of her mouth change as she tensed against him. "I have wished for this, master," she said, her composure wavering under this heightening of pleasure while he was just laying there ultimately doing nothing. He could feel her cumming against him, though. She was wet and pulsating and whimpering...and so very wondrously beautiful. "You've no idea how good this feels...I only wish I could share it with you."

He had a role to play here, too, every bit as much as she did. If he didn't want it to go to his head, he was just going to have to mind himself and communicate effectively with her when they weren't quite so deep into this intimacy.

"You may," he finally answered her request, "when you've composed yourself. Take your time," he added with a loving smile.

It took her good, long while. The show and the ride were more than adequate compensation.





Chapter 44: Saturday Morning Congress and Relaxation...

The informal congress of angels had only grown in numbers overnight. A great many of the seraphim had torn themselves away from Heaven to be there, along with no small number of the ophanim.

Angelic lords and Heavenly bureaucrats were there in attendance as well, as they had responsibilities that could be put on hold. For the guardian angels, it was somewhat the reverse; while they were greater in overall number, fewer in proportion to the other ranks of angels were able to tear themselves away from their charges to be present at the church.

An unfamiliar observer would naturally believe such a meeting to be a sign of great cosmic turmoil and crisis. Yet the mood was far less somber than that. Tremendous change to the universe was no common thing. As centuries went on and the world's spiritual shifts took place gradually over centuries, immortal beings who saw each minute and day pass no faster or slower than the mortal world learned to savor the minor things.

There was always activity, always something to talk about. Yet most often it was a matter of contending with whatever new ploys had arisen from the Pit and what could be done about them, or concern over the supernatural world bleeding too far into ordinary mortal view. The balance had been maintained for millennia and seemed as if it always would, but demons and their pawns were forever scratching away at it, never satisfied with what they were allowed. For many angels, wanting to actively do more good, the simple holding of the line was understood to be an objective of overriding importance, but it wasn't terribly satisfying. Nor was it exciting. It even became monotonous, and thus many angels attempted to punctuate their eternal existence with some news of interest.

Even in Heaven, everybody loved a good scandal. Nothing this juicy had happened since the end of the First World War.

Some, particularly the lords and ophanim, took everything seriously. Others, such as the seraphim, incessantly gossiped and speculated and made a much bigger deal of everything than was really necessary, but that was their way. The guardians were a mixed bag, but in having the greatest constant contact with human diversity, this was no great surprise. Some found the events in Seattle alarming; others found in them a great sign of hope, or at least a reaffirmation of purpose.

So many were in attendance that the meeting had been moved to St. Mark's Cathedral, a landmark building overlooking Lake Union from its position on Capitol Hill. That Saturday morning, the sun shone brightly through scattered clouds as angels stood all over the grounds in pairs and small clusters talking about both current events and their own vastly intertwined pasts.

Much of that conversation stopped, however, at the wordless arrival of a proud, triumphant beauty of a guardian angel. No one had expected to see her come in from the sky.

She flew down from the skies under her broad, glorious wings. Many angels were shocked by her appearance. The guardians, however, were at worst struck with surprise -- and many of them, by contrast, were genuinely cheering. They looked on with interest as the blonde landed and strode to the doors of the cathedral.

Rachel passed through the front doors without opening them, swaggering as she walked and waving to others inside the foyer. "What up, gangsta!" she waved to those she passed. Coming to the doors to the chapel itself, knowing full well that the main focus of the gathering would be inside and what it would concern, Rachel felt no reason to be shy or subtle on entry. Rather than passing straight through the double doors, she grabbed the handles and threw them both open wide. She was confident and had every right to be.

As she expected, conversation stopped upon walking in through the doors. Angels in her path parted like the Red Sea. Toward the altar, she could see Hannah, Lawrence, Vincent, Caleb and others all turning toward her. She threw her arms wide, calling out, "How ya like me now, bitches!?"

Eyes went wide. Jaws dropped. Hands flew over mouths.

"Aw, yeah. Y'all felt that sudden, unprecedented shift in the battle of good and evil? That motherfucker's all mine. That's my boy, that's his chica, and that is all my good judgment! What?" She looked directly at Vincent, who seemed like he was about to speak. "What? What you got to say about that?"

"Rachel, you—"

"WHAT?" Rachel bellowed over him tauntingly. Her face was dominated by a wide grin.

"I was going to—"

"WHAT?"

"Please stop—"

"WHAT?"

Vincent gave up trying to speak with a scowl. As he did, though, a taller, grander angel beyond him, facing away from the conversation at first, now turned to look upon Rachel.

She stopped taunting. "Oh," she said, straightening up. She made an awkward wave with an even more awkward, self-conscious smile. "Hello, um, Mister Archangel Michael. Um. Sir."

************

Joyful times are often over too quickly, or at least seem that way in hindsight. The moments themselves can sometimes seem like they might go on forever.

Saturday was a very, very long day for them both. There were only a scant few minutes in which Alex and Lorelei broke sexual contact, and even those minutes were merely preparatory to rejoining.

Breakfast was left outside their door by room service until Lorelei got up to retrieve it. She rode him upright with her naked majesty on display for him while she sliced pieces of fruit and other treats from the breakfast tray and placed them in his mouth. He never lifted his hands from her hips, except to slide along her legs or cup the sides of her breasts. There was no real convenience to eating like this. Were it not an act of sexual intimacy, Alex would have thought the whole thing silly. But it was sex and loving service. The ritual of that meal and the relationship it emphasized made it more than worthwhile.

Lorelei rode him fiercely after that, begging him for the release that he did absolutely nothing to deny. In the warm afterglow she asked her master if he would allow her to bathe him. He lay on the bed, lounging as she prepared the whirlpool, but the flesh that was on display and the unending sensuality in her every movement made it impossible for him to stay there.

Alex rose as she filled the tub. While she bent over to check the water, he slid his hands over her back as he came in close to take her from behind. She could read his every movement from her direct connection to his desires, of course. Lorelei very consciously presented her backside to him, offering herself with each sway and shift. When he entered her, though, she let out such a cry of unmitigated pleasure and total surrender that Alex became obsessed with drawing the noise out of her again and again.

Before long, he became utterly merciless. There was no further pretense about merely doing this until the water was ready. The ecstasy of it drove Lorelei to her knees. She begged him not to stop until he was satisfied, and he obliged... repeatedly. It was awhile before they slid into the bathtub, cuddling and lovingly stroking one another's flesh. He promised her that he would take her like that much more often in the future. She promised to ensure that he'd get more frequent encouragement.

Lorelei bathed and groomed him with sponge and brush, scissors and straight-edge razors, and then reclined and watched him with a smoldering smile as he did the same for her. The succubus had little real need for such attentions, but it gave him a new premise for exploring and toying with her body. Lorelei's breath grew heavier and hotter as he finished, knowing his plans as she read his mind. Alex dried her off, then lifted her up into his arms and carried her to the bed. He spread her out and reciprocated for the morning's oral attentions with his own for what may well have been a much longer time.

That was just their morning.





Chapter 45: Lydia starts plotting...

It infuriated Lydia to have to wait all day before nightfall, but that was simply the nature of the beast. She was used to getting what she wanted, when she wanted it, or at least seeing others hop to the task of satisfying her desires without hesitation. Sometimes, though, the realities of life meant that some things had to run on their own schedule.

Hours ago, the sketch artist she had requested Carlos locate for her had arrived at their mansion on Capitol Hill. He fit the bill precisely as she'd hoped: hungry, talented, and with the sort of criminal history that implied there were no guardian angels looking after him. Sure enough, when he arrived, he turned out to be perfect, and pleasantly handsome to boot. Lydia went straight to work with him.

Before long, she had solid, effective likenesses of Lorelei and the brat she'd been with -- not that any sketch could truly capture the beauty of a succubus. The young artist was also completely, utterly enthralled by the blonde vixen. She allowed him to kneel before her as she sat in a chair in the study and slavishly lick and suck between her spread legs while she pondered her options.

Seducing the young man was unnecessary as far as maintaining his services went, of course. The money Carlos would pay was more than good enough to keep his loyalty and his silence. Lydia preferred to secure loyalty to herself personally, though, rather than relying on a network of connections.

It also simply felt good. He wasn't as talented as her current husband, Carlos. Nor was he as good as Paco, or Chuy, or several of the other bodyguards here in Seattle, or Carlos's father, or a couple of Carlos's rivals within the family business. Still, the services of an enthralled youth were always pleasant regardless of comparison.

Lydia sat with her legs spread wide, still clad in her short, silk green bathrobe with only its bottom spread open for her new servant's access. She gave him no outward indication of excitement or joy. He kept her riding a pleasant sexual high, but she found it amusing to leave him wondering if he was satisfying her or not.

She had already forgotten his name, but she didn't really care. He looked up at her longing for some sort of approval or word of appreciation, or even just a glance of acknowledgement. However, apart from slightly heavier breathing than earlier, he was out of luck. She genuinely wasn't thinking about him at all.

Instead she considered the necessary changes in plans for the immediate future. After her wedding to Carlos in Ciudad Juarez a month ago, Lydia grew eager to wrap things up with him. She had made more than enough inroads on his allies and associates in the cartel to use them at her whim in the future.

Carlos was a serviceable pawn himself, but his soul was overdue in Hell. The only thing that kept him alive at this point was Lydia's curiosity about what mortal resources she could garner from his cartel's expansion into the Pacific Northwest before she claimed her final satisfaction from him.

She had been about ready to do it, too. Manipulating him and cuckolding him at every turn had grown a touch dull. Her fixation upon him as her next victim did wonderful things for his sexual prowess, of course, but that would happen for her next prey, too.

As they arrived at the restaurant last night, she had pondered how much she wanted to tell him about her rampant infidelities and how far the ensuing bloodshed would go, and whether the amusement factor would be worth the degradation of her growing cadre of enthralled gangsters and cartel luminaries. All that adorable violence and anguish and discord that erupted whenever one of her lovers found her in bed with another never really got old...

...but then there was Lorelei. No horns, no wings, and absolutely no shame about it. That there had been friction and some hostility between them was no surprise, but for one of Belial's whores -- even the most praised -- to take such an arrogant and dismissive tone to the most favored of Ba'al was intolerable. The unanswered questions behind the whole incident were intolerable, as well, and thus she would need to have the matter investigated.

Carlos and his stooges, while very useful in a number of roles, were perhaps not up to the task of stalking an accomplished succubus, though. Nor did she want to truly reveal how much of his organization was primarily loyal to her. Thus, she needed intermediaries...as distasteful as those available here in Seattle might be.

It was perhaps an hour and a half after sunset that the knock came at the door to the study. Lydia put a hand on her new pet's head to keep him going. "Who is there?" she asked.

"It's Paco," the voice answered.

"Enter," Lydia beckoned. He did, and though he did his best to keep a straight face, the sight of the artist on his hands and knees servicing her put Paco through multiple emotional reactions. He was aroused at the sight of her, enraged and hurt at the notion that someone else had intimate access to her -- other than her husband, which Paco already had to live with -- and humiliated at the thought that he would likely do nothing about it lest he risk displeasing her. It was very obvious that Paco had to fight off the urge to attack the boy, or shoot him right then and there.

Lydia smiled at Paco sweetly. She kept the artist going about his deed. He wasn't getting her anywhere near orgasm, but this cruel little moment made up for that. "What is it, Paco?" she asked patronizingly.

Paco gritted his teeth. He'd swallow his pride, she knew, and that cultivated machismo of his, because she was that damned amazing. He wouldn't do anything to screw up his chances with her, regardless of what she did. The sketch artist might not make it home alive after all, though. Still, his work was done and he would be no great loss.

"You've got people here to see you," Paco said in Spanish, trying to maintain his icy self-control.

"Excellent," she said. "Have you heard from Carlos yet?" Her legs were still spread wide for the mouth that was still actively trying to please her, but she spoke as if she were oblivious to it.

"He called. He said to tell you he'd be home late tonight."

"Very good," Lydia nodded. "Can you describe our guests?"

"Three people. Two men, one woman. They're all dressed in black...frilly clothes," Paco said, trying to find words. He couldn't help but stare daggers at the head between Lydia's legs. "Really pale. They seem stuck up and annoying."

"Yes. That's exactly who I was expecting," Lydia said dryly. She shifted in her chair, leaving it to the artist to realize that his time buried in that intoxicating, wet flesh was done. He leaned back, looking up at her like a lost puppy. She got to her feet without bothering to close her robe. "Have you made them comfortable?"

"I asked them to wait in the living room, yes."

"Good. I'm going to throw something on before I go down there." She picked up the sketches he had made for her before off the nearby desk before she glanced down at the kneeling young man. "What was your name again? Albert? Adam?"

"Webster," he answered.

"Ah. Right. Paco, could you show Webster here out? Best if you use the back entrance. I'm going to go get dressed."

Paco waited until Lydia was out of the room before he strode over to Webster to pull him roughly to his feet by the ear.

Moments later, Lydia came down the ornate staircase dressed in a form-fitting, full-length crimson dress. She had considered jeans and tall boots; a meeting like this would make anyone feel as if they'd stepped in something distasteful. Still, what had to be done, had to be done.

Waiting in the living room were her guests. One of the men was standing; he was dressed in black jeans, a black button-down shirt and a black leather sport coat, with his hands folded at his belt buckle and his eyes hidden behind black sunglasses. His black spiky hair and fashionable sideburns framed a pale, thuggish face.

The other two rose as Lydia arrived. They were dressed with something beyond formality in mind. The man seemed like a grave, all-black peacock, dressed as he was in shining black leather pants and a frilly black poet's shirt. He tossed his head in a motion that conveyed practiced arrogance while also clearing his long black hair from his vision. His companion, a slender woman in a black formal gown and diamond jewelry, would have been deemed to be of exquisite, delicate beauty to most anyone. However, Lydia knew she was only a gaudy, well-preserved corpse.

"Welcome to my home," Lydia said with all the cordiality and warmth she could muster. Under the circumstances, it wasn't much.

"Good evening," the peacock replied in a deep voice. His accent was English, and overly so. "I am Lord Damien Blackthorne," he began, either missing or ignoring Lydia's immediate sneer, "Steward of the Dark Emerald City in service to my liege, Her Grace, Lady—"

He got no further than that. His hand had been outstretched as he was in the process of introducing the woman to his immediate left, but Lydia interrupted him. "Spare me your pretentious and insipid titles," she said with a wave of her hand. Lydia sat in an ornate chair facing them without ceremony. "You're Blackthorne. I understand. And you are?" she looked to the poised but plainly surprised vampire princess next to him.

"Lady Anastacia Ilyana Kanatova," she said in a cultivated Russian accent.

"And you," Lydia said to the third. "I assume you have a much shorter name. Thorne? No, that's already partly taken here. Ice? Ash? Blaze. No, wait. Cain. No? Shade?"

"Lucien," the third vampire said with a scowl.

"Two syllables," Lydia noted with a lifted eyebrow. "I'm impressed."

"We did not come here to suffer petty mockery," Anastacia said coolly.

"No, of course not, but that can't be helped. I've met too many of your kind over the years. We'll cut right to it, then. You know who I am?"

"Our court loremasters have explained all we need to know," Blackthorne replied.

"Loremasters," Lydia murmured wryly. "Of course. Well. You may call me Lydia. I may well be in this city for some time depending on how my own affairs turn out. I offer you the courtesy of establishing a working relationship openly rather than working one out after months or years of shadowy intrigue and friction between us."

It was Anastacia's turn to raise an eyebrow. Again, though, Blackthorne did the talking. "Why should we wish to establish such a relationship with one such as yourself?"

"Because, little vampire, I know all about your kind, I have an abundance of personal power and resources and I have none of your weaknesses. That said, I have no need to wrest control of the shadows of this city from you -- such control as you may or may not have. But if it comes to it, I'll be perfectly happy to confirm through experimentation whether or not current literary trends are true and see if you lot now merely sparkle in the—"

"What do you want?" Anastacia asked. Her face remained placid, her voice still cool. It was clear that Blackthorne and Lucien bristled under Lydia's blunt disrespect, but Anastacia maintained her self- control.

"Merely a little assistance. Your kind are spread throughout any city's nightlife. I am in search of two individuals, a young man and a woman. The male's name currently escapes me. The woman goes by the name of Lorelei. I have their likeness here," she said, holding out the sheets of paper, "though with the caveat that the woman's image does not do true justice to her abundant physical attributes."

At a nod from Anastacia, Lucien stepped forward and took the pictures. He looked them over, shrugged, and showed them to Blackthorne. Anastacia kept her calm gaze on Lydia.

"I would consider it a genuine favor and a deed worthy of my respect should you be able to locate and investigate either or both of them," Lydia went on. "I do not ask you to take any action beyond the gathering of information."

"And in return?" Anastacia asked.

"In return, I shall agree to respect such territorial boundaries as you hold most sensitive. My interests here lie primarily with an expansion and shift of organized crime. As I am involved with that shift, I could help you manage these things so that no undue harm comes to your own interests. Additionally, I will agree to do you a return favor and come to your aid sometime in the future when you face a challenge to your crown or throne or whatever it is you call it," Lydia added, waving a dismissive hand at the last.

There was silence, and finally Lydia added, "And I may be inclined to demonstrate a certain degree of greater respect."

Anastacia favored her with a tight smile. "How very generous of you." She sat back down in her chair, hands folded neatly in her lap. "Tell me what details you can of these two you seek."





Chapter 46: This Party is Smokin'...

"If you get bored, I want you to let me know," Alex said. He was behind the wheel this time, feeling a little more confident in his ability to watch the road instead of being mesmerized by his companion. The sun had gone down just a couple of hours earlier, leaving them with a surprisingly clear, comfortable night for late September.

"I'll have no trouble keeping myself amused, master," Lorelei assured him. She sat in the passenger seat, clad in an even smaller and even sexier little black dress than she had worn the night before. Her hands were folded demurely in her lap. Her innocent posture and sweet tone of obedience sent out very blatant signals inviting him to pull over the car and molest her as he pleased.

He glanced at her, noting the sly grin that confirmed those signals. "You really do love being like this with me, don't you?"

"Hm? Like what? Loyally subservient? Thoroughly dominated? Owned, body and soul?"

"Yes."

"So very much, master."

Alex kept driving. They'd been having virtually nonstop sex from sunrise to well past sunset. The only breaks had been in the bath and in getting dressed for the party. Even his "I Really Need to Study a Little This Weekend" break was subject to her oral attentions. Not that he had objected. For all that, though, he was of half a mind to turn the car around and go right back to the hotel. Or, more reasonably, he could pull over, fuck her senseless in the car and then go back to the hotel.

He loved her, and he loved his life with her.

"Seriously, though. This is gonna be a bunch of college-age kids, and a lot of 'em aren't really sure what they're doing with their lives. Probably most of 'em still claim to be psych majors, for cryin' out loud. Hardly any of us have real jobs yet. And I don't even know most of them. Just the hostess and a few of her friends who were also classmates of mine. I kinda doubt you're going to find everyone very interesting. They'll all be blown away by you, though," he added.

"Alex, not everyone I have associated with has been some highly-placed aristocrat or potentate. Far from it. I have spent much more time in simple farms and villages and even humbler settings than I have in castles or mansions. Mortals fill their lives with complexities and meaning regardless of where they are placed in society. It's really all just a matter of perspective."

"Yeah, but...I've just got this feeling it's going to devolve into a bunch of people feeling like they're wild and crazy just because they've had a few beers and are talking really loud."

"I'm sure it'll be fine."

"You're just saying that to be tactful."

"You know I would not do that, master" Lorelei replied. "If I didn't want to go with you to this party, I would have made an effort to influence your decision. Your friends will be there, won't they? I rather enjoyed their company the other night."

"Well, there's my close friends, and there's people I know from school, and their friends. I've gotten along at these parties, sure, but I wouldn't call most of them up at night to see if they wanted to go catch a movie. Maybe Drew and Wade."

Lorelei shrugged. "That is the way of things for mortals. Not every pleasant association can lead to something life-altering."

They both feel silent for a moment. Arriving at their general destination, Alex began looking for a parking space. As he did, he asked tentatively, "Do demons ever have friends?"

"No," she answered. Her voice had grown quieter. "Not among our own kind. There is occasionally the pretense of alliance or loyalty, but it is all out of self-interest, and all know it. I have had... a passing appreciation for some few mortals in my life, but I kept my distance for their own good." Alex felt her eyes upon him as he found a parking spot. "You and yours are the first friends that I can say that I've truly ever had."

He turned to look at her then, and found her solemn gaze telling him a hundred things without using a single word. Without their eyes breaking, she finally said, "I want you to have a good time at this party tonight, my love." She shifted a bit in her seat, allowing herself to slide her black lace panties down and off. Lorelei dangled them for a moment between herself and Alex without ever breaking that stare of undying desire and unquestionable devotion. "A very good time."

They were parked out on a residential street at night lined with cars against both curbs. It was Magnolia again, the same neighborhood where Alex had met Raymond Cordingly and confronted the reality of what Lorelei was for the first time. Their destination wasn't as opulent or as large a home as Cordingly's, but it was more than ample for throwing a big party. Several of the houses in the neighborhood were apparently hosting their own get-togethers; it had been tricky finding a place to park. Alex and Lorelei had a couple of blocks to walk before they got to the house.

But before that, Alex opened Lorelei's door, offered his hand in helping her out, closed the door... and then took a knee before her on the pavement. His hands slid up her thighs, pushing up the hem of her dress. With his eyes on hers he gently, lovingly invaded her wet flesh with a kiss.

Lorelei's eyes closed. She moaned out loud in response to his affection. He didn't keep it up very long, meaning it as a kiss and an indulgence rather than a full service, and she knew it. He let her down easy from that height of pleasure, then rose to stand in front of her.

Lorelei slung one leg over his shoulder just as he stood, straightening it and bending it upward at the hip like a trained ballerina. Wordlessly, she loosened his jeans and pushed away his button-down shirt until his cock was freed. Lorelei's intense stare held as he pushed into her. It was broken only by the closing of his eyes and of his arms around her as he pulled her close, thrusting into her slowly with the words, "I love you, Lorelei."

She was about to say much the same, but the pleasure of having him inside her, pushing her bare ass up against the car drew from her a wordless announcement of pleasure, and then another. She threw her arms around him, deciding to reciprocate that love physically rather than in words.

Swept away by shared desires, neither of them had thought to have Lorelei employ her supernatural knack for hiding in plain sight. A BMW passed by, slowing long enough for the older woman driving it to yell out in disgust, "Hey! Go inside! This is a decent neighborhood!"

Laughing happily, Lorelei called back to the woman, "Not tonight, it's not!"

************

After three hundred years, Alistair Prescott Rafferty was more than accustomed to being the center of attention at social events. He was young when he was ushered into unlife, barely over twenty years and having seen little of the world past his small English village. But his talents for poetry, artistic expression and social interaction had caught the eye of a passing vampire. The ancient one swept him away with a vivid description of the macabre grandeur of the undying society of the night and flattered him by speaking of the need to preserve Alistair's own exquisite eloquence. Unable to resist this siren's call, he consented to giving up his life's blood for a chance at transcending his drab, common mortal existence.

At first, there had been emotional turmoil and angst -- oh, the angst! -- but with time, Alistair adapted to the realities of unlife and the society of the night. His artistic and interpersonal acumen served him quite well among both the living and the undead. He was celebrated, in Europe and even America, in high society ballrooms and theatres and private performances.

His unending youth also worked to his ongoing advantage. Change in society and the arts accelerated in the 19th Century and then even moreso over the 20th, and as it did the relevance of young people only grew. It was Alistair's eternally young face and voice that allowed him to keep current, to adapt well to changing times and blend in with the mortal world even more adeptly than many of his own kind. It made it easier to keep up with trends, to maintain his artistic and social edge... and to feed.

He had no shortage of young, nubile, willing vessels. Alistair simply moved from toy to toy, clique to clique, party to party. This Saturday night was no different.

His current dalliance was Brittany, a lovely, buxom young blonde college student enchanted by Alistair's deeply thoughtful, brooding eyes and his dark, mysterious styles. When Alistair arrived outside her window, half an hour past sunset as he had for the past several nights, she asked, breathlessly dazzled as always by his dark charms, if he would go with her that night to a party.

She had been invited to a house in Magnolia, thrown by a friend of a friend named Sherri. Her longtime friend Britney would also be there. Alistair had seen the pictures of this other blonde and found them intriguing. Brittany's eyes shimmered with joy as he said he would love to meet her friends. She knew he would be a great hit, being so worldly and magnetic and talented. Alistair knew it, too...

...until they arrived, and hardly anyone noticed him. Oh, he and Brittany had made an entrance. He came through the door, brooding and enigmatic with the lovely, innocent blonde on his arm. Heads turned and conversations fell to a mere murmur. Brittany's grip on his forearm tensed as she realized with a self-conscious excitement that all eyes were on her -- well, on him, anyway. But she was with him and that was naturally, he understood, exciting enough in its own right.

But then someone pressed through the crowd and said, "Ohmygosh, Brittany, you're here! You've gotta see! There's a woman doing fire dancing outside!"

Brittany hardly hesitated. Alistair's very light skin went an extra shade pale as people rose from the foyer and the living room beyond, all headed to the rear of the house to see what was going on. Alistair let his date be pulled from him, not wanting to be dragged anywhere near terrible, dreadful flames.

He stood in the foyer alone as VNV Nation began blasting outside and party guests began to whistle and cheer. Slowly, almost reluctantly, Alistair followed, through the living room and then the broad kitchen space beyond and out to the spacious backyard. He was more than happy to stay at the rear of the crowd, eventually finding a planter upon which he could stand balanced with his inhuman grace.

That grace, he found, was quickly put to shame.

She was an astounding beauty, clad in a tiny, flattering black party dress, a black pearl choker and a charming, confident, sexually stirring smile. Her long black hair was swept back in a simple ponytail. In her hands were spinning contact juggler's sticks, burning at each end. To either side of her in the damp grass were small jars of what appeared to be some slow-burning fuel.

He overheard from someone in the crowd that this was entirely improvised. Sherri, the hostess, happened to have a few of the right toys; the rest was all thrown together from her absent family's camping gear. The stereo system had been moved down from an upstairs bedroom. Had Alistair not heard that, he'd never have believed this was not rehearsed, for while the dancer carried an air of spontaneity it was as if the movements were all second nature.

The vampire couldn't help but also notice her appalling comfort with fire. She spun those sticks terrifyingly close to her flesh, tossing and catching them even at their burning tips and twirling them between and around her limbs, her waist and even her neck. Her legs extended and bent and swayed with mesmerizing sensuality.

Her performance went through a single song, thrilling everyone else but leaving Alistair a touch shaken. Someone cued up the next song as she twirled the sticks with great speed until the flames were blown out. Then she reached out her hand to someone else in the audience who provided a can of some clear liquid -- more fuel, of course -- and two thinner sticks with their tips wrapped with cloth or pitch or some other covering that would clearly maintain a flame.

Another song by the same band began. She dipped her sticks in the fuel, then in the flame of a jar next to her, and her performance became all the more frightening to the vampire. As she danced, she would trace one end of a stick across her flesh -- an arm, a leg, even across the top of that magnificent chest -- and leave the line of fuel left behind burning for a second or two before rubbing it out with a single, smooth swipe of her hand.

Alistair had seen such things before, but rarely so close. It wasn't the sort of thing that the undead looked upon with keen interest. His kind, for all their resilience, was at least as flammable as mortal man.

"My love!" she called out finally, her face aglow with a joyful smile, "Do you trust me?"

The answer came from within the audience. "With my life," said a young man in jeans and a black button-down shirt. Catcalls and whistles erupted from the crowd in appreciation.

She took full advantage of the innuendo suggested by the crowd. Her posture and expression both took on a distinctly erotic feel as she beckoned him forward. "Come to me, my love," she urged him, fixing him with a smoldering gaze that left everyone else hollering. Her fingers twirled a flaming stick even as they gestured to him.

The young man obeyed with a smile, standing still before her at her direction. He was passably handsome, Alistair thought, and acceptably dressed without being particularly stylish. But ultimately he seemed strikingly ordinary next to this work of larger-than-life sensuality and beauty.

What came next was predictable, but impressive nonetheless. She slid around him, bending and twisting and even grinding as her dance continued. He mostly kept his hands at his sides, though on occasion he bent with her. He had good instincts for when to slip an arm around her waist or along whichever leg she threw around his hips. The flames were all around him, often coming very close. Alistair would have fled in terror in the first seconds, but this youth apparently truly was comfortable with his life in the dancer's hands.

Then she escalated to fire-eating, which sent a shudder through Alistair's undead body. She doused one flaming side of her thin stick in her mouth. Then she extinguished another the same way... until it was clear that she had only allowed the fuel to drip into her mouth, still burning, and with a puff she re- ignited the doused end. She teased the crowd with this twice, and in the end with her back to her lover she dripped and dripped flaming liquid onto her long, extended tongue before she extinguished the last of her sticks.

She turned her lover, ensuring that they were both side-on to the majority of the audience, and pulled him close while the flame continued to burn on her tongue. It went out with their kiss, which was long, deep and very much encouraged by the audience.

The tone was set for those in attendance. Late arrivals would only be swept away by the energy rippling through everyone already there. Alistair realized that for once he was not likely to be the center of attention.





Chapter 47: The Past Lives of Alex...

"I believe I saw a vampire enter," observed a voice coming from over Rachel's shoulder.

The angel sat on a rooftop overlooking the party, her legs gathered up against her chest with her arms around them. "Yeah. Saw 'im."

"You are not concerned?" Hannah asked.

"Short bus kids of the supernatural," Rachel snorted. "If Alex can't handle one of them on his own, let alone Lorelei, then I've totally misjudged this whole situation and I'll spend the next hundred years apologizing to everyone."

The older angel smiled at Rachel fondly before taking a seat beside her. "You are not prone to making apologies."

"Nope." Rachel shrugged.

"Yet you've always been proactive. I'm surprised you don't go deal with him anyway."

"I want them to have this weekend together. You saw them in the backyard just now, didn't you?" Rachel's tone was wistful. "They're beautiful. I've been watching them constantly since last night. They're so beautiful together."

"Yet you sound sad. Are you bothered by this morning?"

"No," Rachel shook her head. "Michael wasn't really that mad. You're not mad. Everyone else can eat me."

"Then why the tone?"

At length, Rachel sighed. "I think I'm gonna get fired, Hannah."

Hannah was silent for a long moment, watching the house with Rachel as other guests arrived. "You are falling in love with him?"

"Sure seems like," Rachel nodded. "More and more every day. I don't want to just watch over him. I want to be with him." She fell quiet, and then added as a confession, "Them."

"That would be a massive scandal," Hannah mused dryly.

Rachel shrugged. "I hated her at first, but she's not what she was. Now I look at her and I see how much she's changed. I feel like I can honestly see why he loves her so much, and it's not just because he's young and dazzled. She may be a trashy demon slut," Rachel said with a wry grin, "but she's also becoming something really wonderful."

"You believe they would both accept you?"

"I know they would. And whatever the Hosts think or say about it..."

Hannah laughed ruefully. "You've never been one to care what others say, either. Now more than ever. But you are also not unaffected by the mortal magics that struck you at the start of all this, and that is known. Your situation is unique. I don't think that your censure would be as bad as the sort that has arisen before."

She reached out to put her arm around the other angel. Rachel allowed it, leaning in to let her head fall on her mentor's shoulder. "I hope you know that whatever you choose, I will be here for you should you need counsel, or just an open ear."

"I need to know what you know, Hannah," Rachel said in a soft voice. "Tell me what you meant in the church yesterday."

Hannah sighed. "That Alex has been here before? That's by no means unusual. So many souls come back again and again. He's no more or less special than others in that regard. It's just what he does with the lives that he has had is... well... it's rather painful."

"How do you know?"

The older angel's face darkened with a bit of sadness. "I served as his guardian once, a long time ago." Rachel's head came up, and she looked at Hannah with curiosity.

"You did? But you're not a guardian."

"Oh, maybe not as a full dedication of my time, but I've always kept my hand in it," Hannah shrugged. She didn't look back at Rachel, and instead looked up at the moon. It was awhile before she finally spoke again.

"He wasn't anyone terribly special. Just another young Greek farmer. There was a girl he loved, married to an older, much wealthier man who treated her terribly. These days, in this nation, her husband would be imprisoned. Alex... my Alex... he helped her from afar as best he could, but he had no claim on her. Not until the young woman's husband died of a... mysterious fall down a hillside. There was just enough of a stigma to her after all she'd been put through that no more competitive proposal than his was made to her father. They were very much in love," Hannah mused. She laughed a bit. "He foreswore the pleasures of all other women and men for her. It was a different place and time, and another life."

"What happened?"

"A scant few days later, he stood with men of his city on a hilltop at a place called Marathon. He argued, along with others, to attack the much, much larger invading Persian force before them right away, while it was still assembling on the beach, without waiting for Spartan reinforcements.

"He was persuasive. Not so eloquent as Miltiades and the other leaders, but his words held weight. They valued that in those days, you know. Public speaking. Men valued generosity and honor, self-control and respect for women and elders, but above all they cared about persuasiveness and skill in battle. By the grace of Heaven, he had it all."

Rachel just watched and listened in silence as Hannah stared at the moon. "The next morning," Hannah said, "the Athenians and their Plataean allies charged and routed the Persian army. I protected him as much as I could, but in battles, men die. He was brave and effective, and so very good with that spear, but... before it was all over, he had put himself in front of a mortal blow from a spear that was meant for the man at his side. History remembers that man by the name of Aeschylus.

"He and his new wife never had a chance to make love even once," Hannah added quietly. Rachel looked on in silence, and eventually, Hannah spoke again.

"I have since made some... inquiries. Things one is not supposed to ask about. Your influence at work, I'm sure." Hannah smiled a bit, but the smile soon faded. "He has gotten right back into the queue, as it were, every time. No time was ever spent in Heaven to rest or reflect. He just gets right back in line for his next chance to reincarnate. He hasn't had as many lives as many others, but... his lifetimes have never been long. And despite his virtues, he has somehow always been terribly unlucky in love. He has always touched other lives with his benevolence, with his courage. Always on the side of the angels, as they say. But he has always died young. Sometimes in war, sometimes not... but always by the sword."

"Not this time," Rachel said with an equally quiet but determined voice.

Hannah smiled sadly. "Perhaps not," she conceded. "Certainly he has protectors, and he isn't helpless. Lorelei's hold over him precludes so many possible deaths. Not to mention, she will keep him young and virile to a truly unfair age for a mortal. Your own influence may even be a multiplier to that. But, he has always died young," she said again, "and always by the sword."

She turned to look Rachel in the eye. "The Archangel Michael asked me today, while you were off bickering with Vincent again, why this situation should be allowed to continue. I told him that at this point, I feel we owe it to Alex. I only hope, for his sake -- and yours -- that he finally has the long life full of love that he has always deserved. But even I do not know how to break such a pattern as I have seen. Michael thought he should be destroyed before he could ruin the delicate balance between Heaven and the Pit."

Hannah extended her hand out to cover Rachel's. "I don't want to see you left with a broken heart because you have fallen in love with a mortal doomed to a tragically short life. I had hoped to protect you from such a vulnerability."

A tear had formed in Rachel's eye. "I think it's too late for that," she admitted.





Chapter 48: Party Gossip Gallore...

A week ago, Jocelyn would have given Alex the time of day, but not much more than that. She had never had much interest in him all through high school, nor middle school before it. When they shared classes, it was good to sit near him so she could occasionally borrow his notes or copy his homework, and class projects were always much easier when he was part of her group. But she'd never have considered going out with him. Thankfully, he had never been among those who tried to ask.

Now, however, he had her full attention. She sat up straight on the couch right next to him, only mildly conscious of the fact doing so pushed her chest forward flirtatiously. She wasn't consciously aware of the way she was staring, though, or the fact that she would infrequently, subtly, lick her lips, or turn her smooth, shapely mocha legs toward his. Jocelyn had every intention of flirting, but she figured she was doing that just from looking at him attentively.

She was also aware that there were three other girls in the living room paying very close attention to him for what was clearly the very same reason. Four, if one included Sherri's earlier involvement -- but the pretty hostess of the party had just been called away to take care of some minor emergency or another. They were all essentially the prettiest girls Jocelyn had seen at the crowded party so far, too. Others were in the room as well, all part of the same conversation, though not all so obviously interested in holding Alex's personal attention. There were a couple other girls, a couple of guys, and even that odd Gothic Justin Beiber-looking guy was looming intently in one corner, with his own date now essentially ignoring him in favor of Alex.

Jocelyn was at least unencumbered, though, and she had another advantage over her competition. She had known Alex for, like, forever. Most everyone else in the living room were strangers.

"I always knew you were brave," Jocelyn smiled. "You were the guy who stood up to that crazy sub we had in Spanish when she started giving people detention for sneezing."

"Oh, whatever. I was freaking out. I just didn't want to get hauled away someplace to get shot in the head. So I got shot in the chest right there in the parking garage instead, 'cause I'm brilliant like that," Alex smirked wryly.

"I heard you jumped in front of the gun to protect your friend," said Brittany.

"That's what I heard, too," nodded Britney.

"Wow, did you really do that?" asked Brittnee.

Behind her tight-lipped smile, Jocelyn gritted her teeth. Three blondes with the same goddamn name but different spellings, she thought, and not a whole brain between them. I feel like I'm on a reality show.

1

"No, she was out of the way from it," Alex said, shaking his head. "She had tripped the other guy, too. It's not like she was cowering behind me."

"Shit, I'd have shoved that gun up the dude's ass," snorted Tucker, seated on the couch that had been moved opposite Jocelyn and Alex. He was next to Britney with his arm around her. Jocelyn couldn't help but observe how Britney didn't seem to really notice her date anymore. Jocelyn wished she would, both to shut him up and to turn her away from Alex.

"Right on," agreed Tucker's friend, some jock named Jimmy. "What'd you do after you got shot?"

There was an odd tenor to his voice in that question. Jocelyn heard it, and turned to him with a bit of a scowl. It was as if Jimmy thought Alex getting shot was some failure on the part of her longtime friend and school buddy.

"I pretty much fell down at that point," Alex said dryly. "That's kind of what happens usually."

"Yeah, I guess maybe if you were a bigger guy you might stay on your feet," Tucker shrugged. He was, of course, a bigger guy. His tone was also unmistakably dickish.

Jocelyn glanced over at Alex, wondering what he'd say. She had already gotten the whole story from Taylor, which was why she'd brought it up in the first place. She could see that Alex was watering down his own heroics. He had done more than just fall down. She found his humble telling of it all adorable, but at the same time she bristled at the running commentary from the two guys suffering from penis envy.

"Naw," came a Southern drawl from behind Jimmy. "Size don' matter much. Ah fell down when ah got shot, too, an' ah'm bigger'n Alex." Wade stood behind Tucker, Britney and Jimmy's couch, wearing one of those plain gray shirts marked "Army," his John Deere ball cap and a smug grin. He had a beer bottle in his hand.

"Yeah?" Jimmy asked, frowning a bit at this new intrusion. "Where'd you get shot?"

"Afghanistan," Wade said evenly. "Wanna see mah scar?"

"Sure, dawg," Jimmy chuckled, figuring he'd call the hick's bluff.

"Oh no," Alex murmured just loud enough for Jocelyn to hear over the music. He had a grin on his face, but he warned her, "You might not wanna see this."

Wade had already dropped his pants and turned away before Alex was done talking. He gave the other two guys and Tucker's girlfriend a good view of his ass. "Ah know this might sound strange," Wade said over the chorus of shrieks and guys jumping away in shocked protest, "but if'n one of y'all boys'd give it a kiss, it might hurt a bit less."

"Aw, dude!" Tucker yelled.

"Fuckin' freak!" Jimmy snapped.

"Wade," Alex laughed, "put that thing away! That's against the Geneva Convention!"

Jocelyn saw it, and wasn't entirely freaked out -- in fact, she wasn't put off at all, really -- but she buried her face in Alex's shoulder in feigned surprise anyway. He put his arm around her as he laughed, probably without really thinking about it. She felt very grateful to Wade on a couple of levels after that. He had scattered most of the room.

"Ah think ah need a cigarette. 'n maybe another beer," Wade said. Thankfully, his pants were back on already.

"I think you need therapy," Alex chuckled.

"I think you need to be cut off already," Jocelyn snickered. She stayed tucked against Alex. He clearly wasn't objecting.

"Nonsense. This was only my first beer. Ah only ever moon people sober. Y' never know what horrible things might happen if'n y' show yer ass when drunk." With that, he wandered off to find the front door.

"Alex," came a sultry voice. Jocelyn and Alex both looked up to see Alex's girlfriend slink through the room. Jocelyn thought she was amazing: sexy, confident, a body to kill for and a face to match. Older, but physically flawless. And that whole fire dance thing had really put some early energy into the party.

Jocelyn suspected Alex's girlfriend was created on a lab table. She also had to admit to herself that Lorelei's charisma was a little intimidating. For a moment, Jocelyn wondered if she should move, but Lorelei didn't seem the least bit phased by her presence or her position.

"Hey you," Alex smiled. "Where've you been?" His voice when he spoke with her was very easy, which Jocelyn couldn't get over. He'd always been shy with girls, to the point that it was one of the things that made him unattractive in high school. How did that all change so fast?

"Tending bar with Drew," Lorelei grinned. Her voice dropped to a conspiratorial level that included only Alex and, without the slightest hesitation, Jocelyn. "We've been putting a little less into the drinks than we've let on. Several of your fellow underaged partygoers aren't nearly as intoxicated as they'd like to believe. We had thought about going the other way, but this just seemed naughtier. Would you like anything, though? I'm perfectly willing to drive later."

"I'm good," Alex said, shaking his head.

"I came to ask if you had seen Jason turn up yet?"

"Nah, I got a text from him about a half hour ago. He's working tonight, so he'll be here a bit late."

"Jason Dexter?" Jocelyn wondered aloud.

"Yeah."

"Oh, he's coming? I haven't seen him in ages."

Alex smirked. "He'll be flattered all to hell that you remembered his name."

Jocelyn waved a dismissive hand at Alex as she stayed cuddled up to his side. "Psh. Whatever. I remembered you, didn't I?"

Lorelei reached over to touch Alex's free hand, a touch that lingered for a moment before she pulled away. "I'll be around," she said. Her eyes never lost their sparkle while she looked at him. A moment later, she followed the same path Wade took outside.

With Lorelei gone, Jocelyn turned in on Alex more. She put her hand on his chest. "Okay, Taylor told me a little about her, but what the hell's up with that?" she grinned.

"What do you mean?"

"If I saw a hottie like me curled up on my man the way I am on you right now -- and I'm not sayin' I've got a man right now, 'cause I don't -- but if that was me, I'd be tellin' a bitch off. And she doesn't seem like she's weak or nothin'. But she didn't even blink at me!"

Alex grunted. It seemed to be a bit of an awkward subject for him. "Well, she knows I have no interest in losing her. She's got zero insecurity issues. And we've talked about, you know, that sort of stuff."

"Uh-huh...?" Her tone conveyed a clear demand for elaboration.

"And we've, um, y'know, set our boundaries for ourselves. And with each other. Informed consent and...stuff."

"Uh-huh?"

Alex swallowed. The Most Desirable Hottie, unofficially of course, of his graduating class looked on expectantly. "And we're never going to break up, ever. So there's that."

"So where are your boundaries?"

Alex admitted, in a quiet and somewhat embarrassed voice, "I pretty much don't have any."

************

"So many more stars in Afghanistan," Lorelei observed. Wade turned his head away from the sky to his unexpected company. He had already finished his cigarette, and was now simply standing in the shadow of the house looking at the nighttime sky.

"Yeah," he said. "Yeah, there are. Lotta light pollution in the city."

"I wanted to come out here to say thank you."

"For what?"

"You may well have saved Alex's life the other night. And very likely mine. Had Gorge not been dealt with the way you all handled him, I don't know what would have happened."

Wade shrugged. "Wasn't like Alex jus' sat on his hands."

"No. But he did not stand alone, and that made all the difference." Wade shrugged again, but said nothing. Lorelei went on. "I want you to know that you have nothing to fear from me, for Alex's sake or your own, or any of his friends. He has my absolute loyalty."

He looked at her for a long moment, and finally shrugged. "Ah've always figured he was a good judge of character."

Lorelei nodded. "I would like to consider you and the others my friends as well."

"Ah guess ah'd like that, too," Wade said after a long moment.

"You sound a bit wary," Lorelei smiled softly.

"Well, mah buddy's supernatural seductress demon girlfriend whatever just snuck up to me all by her lonesome t' say she wants t' be mah 'friend' while the hottest gal in our graduatin' class is in there practically in his lap. It's potentially a little awkward."

Lorelei's smile broadened a bit. She could certainly see the humor in what he said, along with the worldly wisdom. "I understand," she said. "Which is why you should probably forget," the succubus breathed, stepping directly into Wade to wrap one hand around his neck and draw him close, "that we ever did this."

Wade was a strong-willed, self-confident and independent soul. He had to be, to have gone where he'd been and then returned home to deal with his emotional wounds as he had. But against Lorelei's direct efforts, he could only hold out for a moment or two. Wade was too lonely and ultimately too vulnerable after all he'd been through to turn away a succubus who approached him under the auspices of affection and friendship.

She held him close, breathing deeply as she invaded his mouth with her aggressive, insistent kiss. He reciprocated, unable to resist the physical urges she aroused in him. Lorelei slipped one hand low, grabbing at his groin and urging him to a level of arousal he had never been to before and then her hand withdrew, and her kiss became less insistent. When her mouth parted from his and she said, "Ssshhh, Wade," laying her hands gently upon the sides of his face, he quickly grew calm.

"Forget the kiss," Lorelei instructed. "Do not long for me. Remember all else...including this," she whispered, and with that, Lorelei embraced him neither as a lover, nor as a target of seduction, but as a friend.

He wouldn't remember exactly how that hug happened, but he would remember hugging her back. He would remember her saying, "I have been around a very long time, Wade. I have seen war many, many times. I may well be the worst counselor in the world, but should you wish to talk, I am here, and I am your friend."

Wade held her there in the darkness and nodded his head. "Likewise," he mumbled.





Chapter 49: Lorelei bonds with the friends...

"She needs a little more persuasion in her drink if you know what I mean," Tucker winked as he leaned against the bar in the kitchen.

"I got'choo, bro," Drew winked. He took the red plastic cup from the other young man. "Lemme fix this up. She won't even taste it in there."

"Alright, thanks man," Tucker nodded. He slapped his hand into Drew's, leaving behind a five-dollar bill before walking away.

Drew looked at the green likeness of Abraham Lincoln with a mixture of amused surprise and indignance. "The fuck...?" he mumbled.

"You have a fan," Lorelei grinned.

"Yeah, I guess," Drew said, nodding to her to acknowledge her return. He flicked the fiver onto the back counter of the kitchen. With any luck, the hostess of the party would find it before anyone else did. She would deserve it, and more, for putting up with all these people into her house. Her parents' house, really, but nobody was going to look down on that while she was still throwing parties when they went out of town.

"A bartender shouldn't be so quick to turn down tips."

"Bartender's supposed to be a little older than I am, too," Drew chuckled. He turned to fixing the drink for whichever Britney it was that Tucker had brought to the party, smoothly ensuring that it was fruitier and less alcoholic than the weakest wine cooler.

"You could be good at that," Lorelei offered. They didn't have a lot of "customers" in the kitchen at the moment. She busied herself throwing out empty bottles and cups. "Have you given it any thought?"

"I always figured I'd probably just go into bouncin'," he mused. "Not sure I want to work behind a desk all my life. I'm basically nocturnal, too. And I'd like to go all the way with college, but none of the majors I'd be interested in lead to real jobs, y'know what I'm sayin'?"

"I do," she nodded.

Drew glanced at her with a curious frown. "You know I got this, right? I mean, if you wanna go hang with Alex, I'm okay."

Lorelei smiled. "He's having fun on his own. I'm enjoying myself. I rather like your company. And staying back here with you means I have to make much less of an effort to deter suitors."

After a moment's consideration, Drew nodded. "I got you."

"I am also very, very grateful to you," she said quietly, not wanting passing partiers to hear, "for standing with Alex the way you did. For being his friend. And for being so kind to me, given what you now know."

He wasn't sure what to say to that at first. Finally, Drew just mumbled with a shrug of his thick shoulders, "You ain't gotta be grateful. I did it 'cause he's my boy. They're all my boys. You be good to him, I'll be good to you."

"How did the two of you become friends?"

"That's... heh. Nobody ever really asks me that. I was the new kid in school. Alex just decided we were gonna be friends and that was basically it. I mean, we're interested in totally different things. He's always been into all that star stuff. Star Trek, Stargate, Star Search," Drew explained with amusement as he passed Britney's drink off to a passing Tucker. "But yeah, I was the new kid, and he was just like, 'Hey, I'll show you around at lunch or whatever,' and I thought, 'Cool.' I mean I was literally the token black at that school at first. Like, literally. An' little kids can be shitty even when they don't mean it, but Alex was cool. Then we turned out to be livin' nearby each other and we were always at each other's houses."

"But you were a year ahead of the rest in school?"

Drew nodded. "Yeah, but they did this whole reading group thing in elementary where they mixed kids up. I was in the top group in my grade level, but that nerd was in it, too, and he was a year younger."

"You just decided to be friends," Lorelei said matter-of-factly.

"He did, yeah. Me, too, I guess. I mean I got pretty popular as we got older, and he didn't exactly fit in with my crowd, but I never let anyone shut him out if he wanted to be around. An' it's not like he had no social skills or somethin', just... he was different. Hell, sometimes it was like he was just older than everyone else. More mature. Didn't wanna do the same stupid high school drama shit as the rest of us is all. Made him a drag to be around within a few situations, but I got where he was comin' from. An' just, you know, different interests. Different hobbies."

"I suspect you have at least one hobby in common at this point," Lorelei suggested. There was a sly tone in her voice and a naughty grin on her face.

Drew smiled, made a bit of a shrug and without thinking about it even took a shy step back. "Well, I don't wanna sound disrespectful or anything, but I'm clearly glad the boy's finally getting 'a little booty. Clearly. Just sayin'."

Lorelei nodded, looking a bit chagrinned. "It's been very difficult getting him to let go and have a good time."

"Yeah. He's like that. Always been waitin' for the other shoe to drop. Probably part of why he's never had anyone before you. Alex seems to always be waiting for things to fall apart. Almost like he was used to it. It's kinda nice to see him finally gaining some real confidence after all that's gone down this week."

Hearing the note of appreciation for her in his voice, Lorelei seemed to almost blush for a moment. Then the self-consciousness faded. "You do alright for yourself, I'd imagine?"

"I do. I do at that," Drew agreed. She was staring. He liked it, of course, but he wasn't entirely comfortable with her looking at him like that. For all Drew's social acumen, even he could be put at a loss for words. He didn't really know how to handle this.

The other thing he didn't know was that Lorelei had put them under a mild aspect of her power of her concealment. They were still visible, but no one would really notice them.

"If I flirt with you, it is because I enjoy it and am being friendly," Lorelei said in a husky voice as she slid up against the well-built, well-dressed young man. "You need never worry that I will betray your friend, or your friendship with him. But I am your friend as well," she added before drawing him into a long, deep, lusty kiss that included considerable grinding against his groin. His cock swelled more than it ever had before she backed off on him.

"Forget that kiss," she breathed across his lips. "Forget my touch. Forget these words. Do not burden yourself with desire for me. You will find your own treasures."

************

"We're not supposed to be upstairs," Alex noted calmly.

"I'm not supposed to do a lot of things," Jocelyn said. She closed the bedroom door behind him. The lights were on a dimmer knob, which Jocelyn used to create just enough light for them to see by. It also turned out that Jocelyn knew how to lock the door.

"This is Sherri's room?" Alex blinked.

"Yeah," Jocelyn nodded, stepping closer to him. "Had a quick talk with her while you were in the bathroom just a bit ago." She slid one hand up along his chest, curling her fingers over his shoulder and leaning into him. Her big brown eyes looked up into his. "I'm kinda used to guys being a little more aggressive," she mused.

"I can't imagine a guy ever honestly thinking he was in charge while he's with you," Alex shrugged coolly. He was, in fact, a little thrilled at being so relaxed in this situation. A year ago, he'd have been overjoyed that Jocelyn was even talking to him.

"I like to let a guy have his illusions. But it's good that you know where we stand," Jocelyn grinned meaningfully. "So, as long as we understand each other...I'm not gonna have to make everything happen here, right?"

At that, Alex simply pulled her against him tightly. His kiss was aggressive, but not rough. So were his hands. The kiss broke off only long enough for Alex to unbutton her blouse. Jocelyn hummed a note of appreciation, which soon turned to a gasp of pleasure as his hands slid over her now naked belly and her sides. He kissed her again. His hands slid lower against her skin. The noises from Jocelyn became less appreciative and more pleading.

She was used to having a little more control than this, but his every touch felt incredibly good. Jocelyn wouldn't have stopped him for the world.

************

"So how long have you been with that boyfriend of yours? What's his name? Alex Carlisle?"

"Since Monday," Lorelei shrugged, diligently mixing Carson's rum and Coke.

Her broad-shouldered customer leaned in on the bar, clearly staring in the hopes of making eye contact and then trying to charm her with his smile. "Less than a week? And he's already ditching you at a party? Man. That's not okay."

Lorelei glanced up at Carson as she passed him the drink. Behind him, she saw a pale, brooding young face in stylish black clothing glide past. He seemed to be listening in. She scowled inwardly, but maintained her cool demeanor for Carson.

He took a sip. "So what do you do when you're not tending bar at house parties?" he asked.

"Whatever makes my lover happy," she said coolly.

"Woah. Really, now? So what if he wanted you to --"

"He would not," she interrupted dryly.

"Now, you don't even know what I was gonna say!"

"I do indeed," Lorelei smiled. She looked at Carson levelly as her voice took on a sweet tone. "Your ambitions are plain as day, and your approach as clumsy as a newborn babe. Come back to me in ten years when you have learned some measure of subtlety and charm. I shall laugh at you then as well, but I will at least give you a round of applause for your efforts."

Stunned and speechless, Carson withdrew. Lorelei wasn't even looking at him anymore. She was still eyeing the darkly-dressed shadow floating back toward the living room. As she did, Drew leaned in to say to her quietly, "Daaaamn. You smack everyone down that hard?"

"When I feel like it," Lorelei grinned back. "I am a demon, after all."

The "bar" had become a bit busier over the last few minutes. Guests had continued to show up as the night wore on. Drew and Lorelei happily mixed and doled out more drinks for more people as the faces became a bit more diverse. It was much more than a high school reunion party; paths had diverged after graduation, after all, and most everyone had made new friends. There were multiple schools, workplaces and social circles present. The underaged drinkers were, before long, distinctly in the minority.

That was a bit of a relief for the host. Sherri hadn't stressed about it a lot, but it was at least a minor worry that was reduced through this dilution. The slender hostess was in fact pitching in to help in the kitchen at Lorelei's invitation. She slipped between the older woman and the younger "bartender," pointedly staying closer to Drew and bumping into him a lot.

Lorelei was pleased to see it. Sherri was an adorable, lithe young redhead, dusted with freckles and classically Irish features from head to toe. She also had an obvious liking for the young man behind the kitchen counter. The scent of Lorelei's lusty kiss upon his lips only left Sherri less inhibited about showing it.

"God, you two are a lifesaver," Sherri laughed as she bent around Drew to grab yet another bottle of juice for mixers. "You can stay all night, right?" The question seemed to be to both of them, but Lorelei knew better. She didn't answer.

"I ain't got anywhere to be in the morning," Drew shrugged. "I can stay or leave whenever."

Sherri stood up straight, very much up against him. There was a confident, taunting glint in her eye. "Or just stay," she suggested.

Drew may have been getting a little extra help because of Lorelei's kiss, but he was certainly able to make things happen on his own. "That could happen," he answered.

Just as Sherri stepped back, though, Drew was struck between the eyes by a flying black hair scrunchie. He blinked and looked up across the kitchen counter. "Stop flirting and make me a drink!" demanded the scrunchie's owner happily. "I'm growin' a beard over here!"

"Aw, it's my girl, whassup?" Drew grinned broadly. "I didn't know you were comin'!"

Taylor just smiled back at him, claiming the fist-bump to which she was entitled over the kitchen counter. She wore simple but flattering blue jeans and a snug black t-shirt. "I'm a rebel," she smirked. "An outlaw. I'm makin' my own rules from now on. Oh..." Taylor blinked.

"Hello, Taylor," Lorelei said, finally turning around from the opposite counter. She passed a glass of something yellowish and a bit foamy off to the woman next to Taylor. "It's good to see you."

"Uh, yeah," Taylor blinked. "Hi, Lorelei."

"Oh, you two know each other?" Drew asked.

"Yeah, we met. Wednesday night, at the mall. And the hospital," Taylor said. She hadn't really taken her eyes off Lorelei, nor had Lorelei turned away from her. The young brunette wasn't hostile, but she seemed a bit unsure of how to handle the moment.

Lorelei took the initiative. She stepped around from the kitchen counter, smoothly navigating through the crowd on the other side to come closer. "Taylor, I've been hoping for a chance to talk to you more," she began. "Wednesday night was so crazy for all of us. I know you just got here, but could I steal you away for a bit? Would you mind?"

Pausing only to glance at Drew, who was already distracted again by Sherri, Taylor nodded. "Sure. But is, is Alex around?"

"He's here," Lorelei smiled knowingly, "but he's in a private conversation right now."





Chapter 50: Taylor and Lorelei...

"Oh my god, you feel so good," Jocelyn breathed out. "I can't believe you feel so good." She lay more or less on her side, naked and partly reclining on the bed and partly with her back against his chest and her ass up against him over his groin. It allowed her to reach between her legs and direct the head of his cock in teasing strokes against her increasingly wet pussy. Alex gyrated cooperatively, pushing against her and then pulling away the bare few inches necessary to give Jocelyn what she wanted...

...mostly. She had softly but earnestly pulled, twice now, to get him inside her more than a half inch. He resisted just enough to frustrate her while still being close enough to real penetration to drive her wild. Alex had his left arm underneath her left shoulder, with his right snaked around her side to fondle her breasts, to offer her a finger to suck on as her pleasure heightened, and occasionally to tease at her clit while she tried to move things to the next stage.

The kisses he calmly trailed across her shoulders and neck only heightened her excitement. In fact, everything he did seemed electrifying. She was panting. He was aroused but seemed completely in control.

"Don't pull away anymore," Jocelyn pleaded. "Give it to me."

"I just want to make sure you're comfortable," Alex explained. His lips were against the side of her ear, making her breathe even harder. "You said this might be a lot for you. I'm really flattered, but I don't want to be like one of those guys who rushes things."

She was grinding against him now, but he still held firm. All she could do was run the head over and between her labia. "How many guys do you think I've been with?" she asked with a bit of an indignant pout.

"I wouldn't guess a very high number. Not as many as there've been guys who were hoping they could get with you."

She felt nearly out of her mind with arousal, but she could still appreciate a little humor. Jocelyn made a feigned gasp. "Are you saying I'm a tease?"

"No," Alex whispered against her neck, "but you said you like to be in control." His free hand, the one able to roam over her, slid over the hand that gripped his shaft. "Although, if you're willing to trust me and let go a bit tonight...you might like it." He guided her hand away from his flesh, moving it over her head while his hips pushed his cock up and into her. He didn't need her to help guide him in.

Jocelyn's mouth opened involuntarily, widening at the pleasure of his intruding flesh. He was slow and gentle but very controlled, pulling out a bit now and again to give her a long, wonderful chance to accommodate him. Lost in a haze of lusty excitement, Jocelyn didn't really consciously register the fact that his whole body was rising up against her back while he pivoted on his hips, knees and left elbow to put her face down on the bed.

All that she could think of in those first few moments was the delicious fullness he granted her. Jocelyn made no complaint as he smoothly pulled up her and back to bring her to her hands and knees underneath him. He was fully sheathed within her and once again trailed soft kisses against the back of her neck.

Jocelyn tensed and arched her back with delight as he pulled most of the way out, slowly and sensuously, and then gradually thrust back into her again. "Just let go," came the seductive, animalistic suggestion at her ear. "I wouldn't want you to have to make everything happen here."

************

"He's in bed with someone else, isn't he? Like right now?"

Lorelei had hardly closed the door to the upstairs bathroom behind them. As she twisted the knob to lock it, she said, "Yes."

Taylor looked at her in shock. "How can you be okay with that?"

"I encourage him," Lorelei shrugged.

"But that's--!"

"Taylor," Lorelei broke in, "be calm. You are safe here. Speak truth to me, and believe that I will speak only truth to you." She watched Taylor closely, noting that there was only a brief flutter of the young woman's eyes under the power of Lorelei's suggestion. Satisfied, she spoke again. "You weren't bothered to find him with Audrey that night, were you?"

"I was — I, um..." Taylor stammered, not sure what to say. She rested her butt against the countertop around the bathroom sink while Lorelei stood straight and poised just to her left, between Taylor and the door. "Not... I was a little bothered by it, but I wasn't mad at him. I just thought she didn't deserve him. She's a real bitch, and he's always been a really nice guy. Right up until he started jumping every woman with a pulse, anyway."

"Why weren't you mad at him for that with Audrey, then?"

"It's not like he was my boyfriend."

"Nor is he now. So why be angry with him? He is betraying no one."

"Why aren't you angry with him?"

"This will sound strange, I know," Lorelei explained, "but I am not angry with him because I want this for him. The thing he has longed for most in his life is love, and he has that with me. I have no fears for our relationship. Therefore, I want him to have what makes him happy, and I know that in addition to his longing for love, his sexual appetites are exceptional."

"Really, it's a testament to his character that he isn't a lying, cheating, philandering pig given how strong his sex drive is," the older woman smirked. "But that is just it. I know very well that if I asked him to sleep only with me, forsaking all others for as long as we are together, he would. Had he fallen for someone else before me, he would be just as loyal to her. All the willing women in the world would be as ashes in his mouth if he couldn't also feel good about himself."

"I wouldn't ask monogamy of him, though, even if I desired it...which I do not," Lorelei added. "I've had to work very hard to get him to simply enjoy himself. But, regardless, things are already too complicated for that. It would break his heart, because he would have to let down certain others."

Taylor looked on skeptically. "He's already got another girlfriend?"

"No. But there are those very close to his heart. There is already at least one other with whom he will inevitably grow much closer, likely as lovers." Seeing Taylor frown quizzically, Lorelei said, "You remember the blonde? In the parking garage?"

"A little," Taylor shrugged. Her frown grew deeper. "More, now that you mention it. Didn't she help us?"

Lorelei nodded. "She looks out for Alex. There is a deep connection there. I have to leave it to him to explain more to you."

After a moment, Taylor ventured, "Who else?"

"You."

Taylor shook her head. "I'm not looking for a new boyfriend," she said firmly. "Certainly not right now. And not to share."

"Understandable. But you came here tonight looking for Alex. Knowing he was involved with another. While also knowing that he cares for you deeply. You know that he desires you, and you have seen that he would lay down his life to keep you from harm, and that he will keep silent at your request. And you have already shared a brief intimacy that has surely filled your thoughts and dreams since, and that you yearn to share again."

Lorelei shifted to stand directly in front of the younger woman. Taylor knew intellectually that this should feel much more uncomfortable or even intimidating, but strangely, it wasn't. Her discomfort was mild and easy enough to overcome.

"He loves me, Taylor. He will never leave me, nor I him. I want you to have no illusions about that. Yet at the same time, there is a place in his heart for you that will always exist, entirely independent of myself or any other relationship in his life. You are safe with him, Taylor. And therefore you are safe with me. I want you to understand that."

The frown remained, but she nodded. "I don't feel threatened," Taylor said. "Just a little confused and... and I don't know what else."

"Of course you're confused. You live in a society that lauds monogamous love. There's nothing wrong with that. It works beautifully for many, and is in truth ideal for many. I am not that sort, though. I enjoy knowing that my Alex might find a different sort of happiness in the arms of another, yet will not lose interest in me. I enjoy giving him that freedom. Put to rest your concerns about how I feel in this."

Taylor shrugged. "I guess I can do that."

"Then it comes to you, Taylor. You came here looking for Alex tonight."

"Yeah. I did."

"Why?"

"Because it wasn't until all this shit with him at the mall and then my boyf—my ex-boyfriend," she corrected, "that I realized what a good friend he really is. Gabriel -- my ex -- he's not the first guy to really treat me like shit. He was really good at first, but then we got to UW and he had girls throwing themselves at him and he turned into a total shit. I was just about to break up with him anyway when Alex turned up, but... I mean, I wasn't looking for a rebound. I can't even explain why I hooked up with Alex like that. God, that was so crazy."

"I can explain it," Lorelei put in with a quiet, sly smile. "But tell me," she said, more seriously, "do you regret it?"

"No," Taylor said after a moment. She fidgeted a bit. "I don't. I've been really glad about it, actually. I just... I felt really safe with Alex all of a sudden. Like emotionally, not just because of those guys that night. I felt that way before they showed up. Even when I saw him shopping there, I had this instant reaction like, 'Hey, that's my friend who's always so nice to me. I've missed him.' But then there was my boss all over him, and that pissed me off, and once I had chased 'her' off just being alone with Alex felt so good. Even before I had really decided to have sex with him. Which was wonderful, but I would imagine you'd know that, right? So I guess I realized that I was really safe with Alex, but now here he is getting into who knows how many women's pants. Just like Gabe!"

Lorelei cocked her head thoughtfully and said, "Consider this: if the attentions of other women have changed Gabriel, do they seem to have changed Alex?"

She thought about it. "Not really, no."

"They have," Lorelei admitted, "in that he is much more confident now. He's no longer as vulnerable, because he isn't as lonely as he once was. But where your ex-boyfriend apparently fell to his own ego, Alex is desperate to keep himself grounded. He's terrified of harming or betraying anyone. As I said, my greatest challenge with him has been in getting him to let go of his inhibitions and overwrought concerns for the feelings of others and just have a good time. I think you'll find that Alex won't let his success corrupt him."

Taylor's arms went around her own sides, then back down into her lap. "I guess I can see that."

"And so here you are." Lorelei stepped a little closer, taking Taylor's hand as if they were close friends. "Taylor, I think you know how much Alex cares for you. He would die before hurting you, and that would include any restriction on your personal freedom. He will always make room for you. I promise you that. While you may not be looking for a new boyfriend, I think you long to renew and explore the intimacy you found on Wednesday night. It would make him very, very happy as well."

"You're saying he'd be a good friend with benefits?" Taylor asked. The faintest hints of a self-deprecating and yet hopeful smile played at the corners of her lips.

"Perhaps much more than that," Lorelei smiled, "but that will be for the two of you to decide. What matters is that he will always make a safe place for you in his heart and in his arms."

"It just seems crazy that you're okay with that." She looked up into Lorelei's eyes.

Lorelei's smile turned a bit, at once dark and inviting. "I would very much like to help you both," she offered.

Taylor's eyes widened. That was not what she meant. "Woah," she said, "I'm not into—"

"Taylor," Lorelei broke in. Her tone had become even more soothing, but in a way that was hardly soothing at all. "I am something of an expert in body language. You seem to be dealing with a bit of restlessness here. Rather, not an unpleasant restlessness."

The younger girl's eyes remained wide, like a deer in headlights. Lorelei came ever closer. "You are entirely safe with Alex," murmured the gorgeous, sexy, experienced woman. Her hands slid up Taylor's arms. "And you are entirely safe with me. What is said and done here will only leave this room if you wish it."

Shuddering with every breath, Taylor found herself at a complete loss for words. It wasn't conscious thought but instinct that held her in place. She wasn't entirely sure what was going to happen, nor if she really wanted it, but at the same time she didn't want to stop it.

Lorelei paused, feeling the girl shake like a leaf. Apart from having influenced Taylor's conversational calm and feelings of safety and honesty, she used no supernatural influence here. Lorelei had advantages of beauty that few mortals could match, of course, but the moment came almost entirely out of her own sensitivity to desire and her vast experience.

"If you wish me to stop," Lorelei reassured her, "I will stop."

Her kiss was soft on Taylor's lips. She pressed gently, feeling only the slightest, reflexive return from the nervous girl at first. Lorelei's kiss slid across Taylor's mostly closed mouth patiently and invitingly until she felt those lips begin to tentatively part. Then she moved in a bit closer, bringing legs and breasts against each another as she brought Taylor into an embrace, but her mouth remained only as aggressive as Taylor was willing.

Taylor's willingness grew each moment their kiss lasted. She was timid at first, but her head began to swim and she felt herself getting very warm. Taylor had never kissed another girl. She hadn't ever really even considered it outside of musing to herself that it wouldn't be so bad whenever the issue came up in a film and such. Certainly, Taylor had been to parties where guys had encouraged it, but she wasn't one for putting on a show for a crowd of guys just looking to get their jollies.

This, however, was entirely different. Taylor felt something entirely new within herself as she melted into the arms of Alex's strange, endlessly confident lover. Taylor's arms slipped around Lorelei as she moved from shy recipient to hungry participant in their long kiss. She let go of her fears and instead found herself holding Lorelei around the waist, then by the shoulders, then even with her hands roaming over Lorelei's perfectly rounded ass.

Her own body became more toned and healthy under Lorelei's attentions, too. As she was a naturally very lovely young woman, the changes were naturally slight. Taylor didn't feel a thing. Tiny blemishes in her skin faded away. The last of her scrapes and bruises from her tumbles on Wednesday disappeared. Her stomach tightened only by a small amount, but what was already quite attractive became downright unfair.

From another room, very nearby, Lorelei had felt her master's pleasure over the last twenty minutes and more as he threw himself into the joyous task of driving his sexy young partner to ecstasy. He had only allowed the briefest respite after from their first romp before he began a second. Lorelei could see him through Jocelyn's eyes now, looking down at her and smiling, talking with her as he entered her again for a new round of indulgence. The rush of their coupling surged through Lorelei even as she continued to patiently guide Taylor's exploration of her newly-admitted desires. Overcome with happiness, gratitude and arousal, Lorelei had to fight the urge to rip Taylor's clothes to shreds and take her right there in the bathroom.

Time for that later, though, she thought. Her plan, conceived in mere seconds after Alex had mentioned this party two days ago, was going very well indeed. She could maintain control of herself in order to see it through to its fruitful completion.





Chapter 51: Trouble Arrives...

The last coherent thing Jocelyn had said was that she wasn't much of a screamer. She said it in part to make sure he wouldn't take a lack of auditory signals as a negative sign, but it was also something of a veiled invitation.

After that, sensuous foreplay and intercourse gave way to something more urgent for both of them. Alex rose above her from behind, gripped her hips and began to thrust much more forcefully. Jocelyn's grunts and gasps only encouraged him. Within a minute, his groin was brutally slapping up against her magnificent ass in a single-minded drive toward release for both of them.

Jocelyn's head was bowed against a pillow as she gave in to the ride. She'd never been taken like this before, and if she could think clearly she'd have conceded that she'd never really been "taken" at all. The way that big, beautiful cock and its owner used her body felt so good that she couldn't really think about anything else. He was being selfish with her, and she knew it. But if him being selfish was this rewarding for her, Jocelyn hardly cared if he ever felt like being generous again tonight at all.

True to her word, she didn't scream, but her breath was more vocal than it had ever been before. Alex fucked her to a self-indulgent orgasm. Jocelyn felt him explode within her and the rush of it set her off. The sensation of Alex cumming inside her while she spasmed in response left her rasping. Her mind was taken by the image of his fluids rushing through her, granting pleasure from head to toe. She slumped against the bed, her arms giving out under her as her whole body rode the wave.

Alex withdrew, then gently helped guide her hips to turn her onto her side to relax. Jocelyn was just about to breathe out her thanks when she felt him lift her left leg and push his still entirely stiff, thick cock into her again.

"Oh my God," Jocelyn panted in disbelief, "you just got off! You want more already?" Even as she protested, though, her hand was already reaching weakly to his hip and tugging as if to pull him into her.

"Is that okay?" Alex asked. "Are you sore? Do you want to rest?"

"No," Jocelyn said after a moment, gulping for air. "I mean, I'm sensitive, but you feel so good I don't want you to stop. I just can't believe you can keep going."

"I've got a very arousing partner," Alex grinned, leaning in to kiss her lightly on the lips. "And who knows if I'll ever get to be with you again?"

"Oh, baby, you just gotta take my number and call me up whenever you feel like it," Jocelyn assured him breathlessly.

"Don't wait by the phone for me," Alex said. "I don't want to string you along."

"I know. I won't wait. You got a girlfriend. I don't expect romantic dinner dates. I mean that might be cool if that's okay, too, but..."

"We friends?" Alex asked.

"Hell yeah," Jocelyn nodded. "Long as you'll sleep with friends."

"I'll sleep with some of 'em."

"Good. Ain't like I could say no to more of this."

He was already slowly pushing in and out of her again. Alex looked down and could see her mouth twitch with delight at every thrust. "So you're okay with more right now?"

"I don't know if I can do anything in return, but yeah, I want more," she confessed. "I just don't want you to possibly think that I'm one of those stuck up girls who just lie there thinkin' they're all that, but I'm already worn out."

"That's alright," Alex said. He looked down at the dark-skinned beauty spread out beneath him and smiled affectionately. "You are all that and more."

She beamed with appreciation. Then she learned what it felt like when he was being generous.

************

"...seduced her like she's just some common trollop, and now he's in bed with her doing--!"

"I know," Rachel said, a hungrily appreciative look on her face. She sat with Hannah on her rooftop, doing absolutely nothing to conceal her interest. "I can see him and your girl right now. It's so fucking hot."

"You don't see anything wrong with what's going on?!" Jocelyn's guardian angel pressed. He stood on the rooftop's ledge, glaring down at Rachel in exasperation.

"Of course I do," Rachel nodded, still not looking away from the house. "This is nine kinds of fucked up. For one thing, I don't have a drink or even popcorn." And I'm not in that bed with him instead of her, she added silently, but that was best kept to herself.

"Rachel," Hannah said in a disapproving voice, "you're not being very nice to Sidney. He's a fine guardian angel with an excellent track record."

"Well Sidney should quit being such a 'Mary' about all this!" Rachel snorted. She looked up at the other guardian. "Seriously, loosen up pussy! I've been watching him the whole time. She led him up to that bedroom. And he's not the first guy she's been with, is he?" Sidney folded his arms and looked away. Rachel pressed. "Is he? How many guys, Sidney?"

The guardian angel standing next to her frowned disapprovingly. "Three," he huffed. "Though the only one that she wasn't in love with before now was that Gabriel boy."

"Hah!" Rachel snapped, then blinked. "Wait, is that the same one who was dating that Taylor girl?"

"He was pining away for Jocelyn before Taylor," Sidney frowned. He waved his hand dismissively. "It was brief. I think they were both dazzled by one another's popularity. Jocelyn indulged him a bit too far, but broke it off. I knew then she could do better, and I know it now."

"Fat chance of that," Rachel responded dryly. "I wonder if that girl's at the party tonight, though?" she mused aloud.

Then she saw another guardian angel fly straight out through the exterior wall of the house on the second floor. This one was a tall woman with dark hair, broad shoulders, and icy, accusatory blue eyes directed straight at Rachel. "You!" she barked as she flew across the street. "I need to talk to you about your Alex and that raging, indiscriminate whore of his!"

************

"We should not take this too far," Lorelei murmured.

"No?" Taylor whimpered back. She blinked, then, coming down a bit from their long, hot make-out session. "No," she affirmed in a soft voice. "I can't... oh my God. I've never done this."

The seductive smile she saw in response left her willpower in tatters all over again. "You're a natural, Taylor," Lorelei said in a quiet, encouraging voice. She continued to caress Taylor's head, her neck and her shoulders, and still trailed soft kisses across her face and teased her lips with more.

"This is so bad," Taylor thought aloud.

"No," Lorelei shook her head. "It's fine. This is all fine. What you have to decide is whether or not you want more. More of me... and more of Alex. You can have both, Taylor. Yours for the taking."

Taylor inhaled with a tremor. She had no idea what she could possibly say to that. With each passing heartbeat, she also wondered more and more if she could possibly turn it down.

"It's all up to you," Lorelei said. "I will not pressure you. Nor would Alex. He cares for you so deeply, but he wants you to be happy more than he desires you. I will always honor that." Her hands had not come off of Taylor, though, nor had their closeness become any less charged.

"I have to think about this," Taylor admitted finally.

"Of course," came Lorelei's understanding response. "I have a proposition for you, though. Something to perhaps put your thoughts in context." Finally, she backed up a step, took a deep breath, and let the tension fall away a bit. "And then I must ask of you a slightly awkward and sensitive favor, and your silence with it."

************

"I should really quit smokin' these," Trish muttered.

Wade pulled the lighter away from her cigarette as she took a long drag. He was happy to have such pretty company out on the front porch. "Ah wouldn't have pegged you for a smoker."

"I'm not so much," shrugged the petite, bespectacled brunette. She wore jeans and a Firefly t-shirt under a simple jacket. "Just socially. I quit once already, but I get out to parties where people smoke and I get the urge. Usually I'm better about fighting it."

"Not tonight, though, huh?"

"Nah." Trish glanced up at him, then out to the street where more people were coming up, and then back again. "I saw you come out here and I figured, 'Why not?'"

"Aw! Y'all came out here just to smoke with me?" Wade smiled. He said it mainly as a joke.

"Yeah." She took a breath of cleaner air. "I like your accent," she managed to get out. There was enough light from the porch that he could see she was blushing.

"Ah'm happy t' have your company, but y'know y'all don't have t' smoke."

"I know," she nodded, and then quietly blurted out, "I just wanted to have something to do with my mouth and my hands. Since I don't have your cock, the cigarette will have to do." Wade blinked in surprise. Trish took a long, self-conscious drag of her cigarette and then coughed. "So how'd you get here?" she asked.

1

"Uh. Friend of a friend invited me. What about you?"

"I'm in Sherri's self-defense class at the UW."

"Oh, you're a Husky? What's your major?"

"I'm doubling in English Lit and Computer Science. What about you?"

Wade blinked again. "That's a combo. Huh...well, I kinda just got out of the Army an' now I'm at North Seattle doin' the EMT program."

"Wow, you were in the Army? That's fascinating! Why'd you get out?"

"Ah, um, got hit in Afghanistan."

Trish's lips pursed, making Wade wonder if she had already known that. Now that he thought about it, he could've sworn she was in the living room earlier. His suspicions rose further when she leaned in and asked, mischievously, "Can I see your scar?"

Wade was still trying to work out a witty rejoinder when he realized that the new arrivals were simply standing there watching him at the foot of the front porch. He also realized that they were all very tall.

Gabriel wasted no time. "Where's Alex?"

"Oh, hi, Gabriel," Wade said coolly before taking another drag on his cigarette. He counted four towering basketball players behind the equally towering speaker. "How y'all doin'?"

"I'm here to find Alex and I'm here to talk to Taylor. His stupid Facebook said he was coming and I saw her car down the hill, so I know they're both here."

Wade didn't move out from in front of the door. "Wow. That's some hard-core deductive reasonin' there. U-dub's really raisin' them academic standards on y'all student athletes, huh?"

Gabriel's eyes flared. Behind him, his teammates began to shuffle and murmur like the good goon squad they clearly were. "You gonna move out of the way?"

Wade tossed down his cigarette, then pulled out a new one and lit it up. "Nope," he smiled. "Least not 'til I finish mah cigarette. Hey, Trish? Could y'all do me a huge favor an' let Alex know that Gabriel's here lookin' for him? An' Taylor, too."

"Uh. I don't know either of them."

"Aw," Wade nodded, obviously knowing that already. "Taylor's a really beautiful brunette girl. She's a sweetie. Kinda girl ya just wanna take care of, unless you're a jackass. Alex Carlisle, though? Don't know him? Well, tell ya whut, jus' go to th' kitchen an' let the guy tendin' bar know what's up. His name's Drew. He knows 'em both."

Quickly understanding the situation, Trish slipped inside.

"Yo, why we waitin' outside here?" complained one of Gabriel's companions. According to his game jersey, he was Number 14.

"No shit," said another, a tall and lanky blond guy in a Huskies jacket. "Let's just move him."

"Y'all're welcome t' move me," Wade offered helpfully, "but th' first one tries gets t' find out why Gabe here hasn't already made a move. He might know a thing or two 'bout me that y'all don't."





Chapter 52: Gabe, Alistair, and a Bet...

Rachel's rooftop had become crowded.

Seeing Gabriel and his entourage approach, the blonde angel gave out a loud, clear whistle heard only by her own kind. Along with the five basketball players were five guardian angels, who pulled away from their charges to meet their brethren on Rachel's rooftop.

"Hey, Timothy! What's up with this?" Rachel asked. Her question was as much a friendly taunt as it was genuine curiosity. She was still in good spirits, despite the haranguing she'd just had to ward off from Taylor's own guardian angel, Julia, who still looked on disapprovingly.

"Hello, Rachel," sighed the one that had walked closest to Gabriel. "This is my charge being very, very dumb, as usual. And he has dragged along some of his friends to share in his dumbness."

"Dumbness?" Hannah asked.

"It rubs off on you," Timothy shrugged.

"Oh no," Julia groaned. "Don't tell me."

Timothy shrugged, dropping his head a bit. "He's out to take out his righteous anger on the man who stole his girlfriend."

"Your Gabriel cheated on my Taylor with five different women this year," Julia scowled.

"I know, I know. It's not like I can just tell him that. I've tried leaving plenty of signs to guide him from this path, but he's willfully blind and of course, very stupid."

"So what's he gonna do about it?" Rachel asked.

Again, Timothy shrugged. "I don't know. Probably beat up your Alex."

Rachel snorted and laughed. "Fat chance of that."

"Do you plan to interfere? Your, erm, condition gives you a freedom of direct intervention that the rest of us lack," Hannah said.

"Yes," Julia fumed, "you could, for instance, pull that abyssal trollop off of my Taylor."

"Or you could've prevented your own charge from soiling my precious dove," sulked Sidney from off to one side.

Rachel groaned, her eyes rolling uncontrollably. Finally she looked up at Timothy. "I'm not gonna do a damn thing," she declared. "And I don't need to. Your boy starts anything, he'll be the one who goes home crying."

Timothy and the angels with him gave a collective snort of skepticism. "Unlikely," said one of them, a short, dark-haired female. "Gabriel and these others are top-notch athletes. They're in the best shape they could be in during the prime of their lives. You should be a little more concerned for the safety of your charge."

"What's your name?" Rachel asked with a curious cock of her head. "Martina," she said.

Rachel addressed the five guardian angels directly. "So are you guys ready to back up all Timothy and Martina's shit-talkin' with anything serious?"

************

For all their frenzied exertion, Alex and Jocelyn did a pretty good job of making themselves look presentable again before sneaking out of Sherri's bedroom. They heard a couple of bumps and moans from the upstairs bathroom as they passed, and shared a self-conscious giggle.

"Wonder who's inside?" Alex had murmured when they went down the stairs. People saw them coming down, but they hardly knew any of the faces at the base of the steps and really didn't care.

"I need a glass of water so bad," Jocelyn announced.

"Yeah, me, too," Alex said as they turned the corner to the kitchen. Then he was abruptly grabbed by the wrist and pulled in another direction.

"Gabriel's here, outside," Drew told him. "Lookin' for you."

"Shit, really?" Alex blinked.

"Yeah. Lookin' for Taylor, too. She was lookin' for you earlier, but she went off to talk with your girlfriend. Meantime I guess Gabe just showed up with his posse like two minutes ago an' he's beefin'. Wade's out there stallin' him."

"Front door?"

"Yeah."

"Man, I really misjudged this one," Alex muttered.

"Yeah, no shit. How many years I been tellin' you to quit expectin' people to act like adults?"

************

"Well, I don't exactly know him," Brittany said as much of the party's populace shifted to the front of the house. "He goes to my school. I mean, I haven't talked to him before tonight, but I've seen him there a lot."

"North Seattle?" Alistair asked. Brittany nodded, but for the third time tonight she slipped away from him because of something going on with others -- and the second time for that one in particular. Ordinarily he would have found such a slight grounds for revenge, but he had greater concerns in that moment.

He had received the sketched images over his phone an hour ago. Alistair hadn't looked at them immediately after the contraption buzzed. Though younger in mindset and therefore more adaptable than many of his kind, even Alistair didn't care for the presumptuous urgency of modern communications.

Serendipity made itself plain when he got around to checking the message. He knew from the ringtone that it was from among his own kind. He didn't expect it to be from his liege, though, calling for all loyal subjects within the city to locate a young man and a woman of striking beauty. There was a name for the woman, but only a likeness for her companion. Alistair could barely contain his pride. The attention-grabbing couple was currently nowhere to be seen when Alistair looked over the images, but he knew they weren't far.

Alistair had just enough time to casually ask Brittany to show him how to work the camera on his phone before Alex was hustled past at the urging of one of his friends. His luck held as he snapped the picture before Brittany shuffled off. With her gone, though, and with a rather solid picture garnered while he had just "happened" to be toying with his phone, Alistair knew that he would be in the good graces of Lady Anastacia for quite some time.

Brittany was gone, then, but at that point, Alistair hardly cared. He immediately sent off the picture along with Alex's name and school. He considered only for the briefest of moments that he could relay his location, but then he would immediately have to share the rewards for further discovery with others. Best to display his unhesitating observance of duty with this immediate response, then later follow up with his hard-won trove of information.

Engaging either target in conversation would perhaps be a touch difficult. Alistair would have to break through either a pack of dazzled girls or a herd of aroused, hopeful young men depending on which one he focused upon. Certainly the sexual persuasion on display implied that he would have the best chance at the female. It was possible that Alistair could charm the young man, but he had less tools at his disposal for that and the target might well be unreceptive to anything more than platonic charms. The woman, though, had such endless confidence and seemed entirely uninterested in the other men at the party. She, too, could be tougher to seduce than the average woman.

A hand touched his arm. "Excuse me?" a feminine voice asked. Alistair turned to see a young, very pretty brunette looking to him. Her expression was a mixture of the sort of shyness he was used to from the ladies and the eagerness of someone who had just learned a secret.

"Yes?" Alistair asked, nodding as if in a subtle bow. "What may I do for such a lovely vision?"

"Aw," the girl grinned. She glanced around self-consciously, but the dining room had already emptied out. The girl leaned in as if to pass along her secret. "Lorelei's been watching you all night. You know who I mean?" Alistair nodded. "She'd like to see you... in the upstairs bathroom."

Of course she would, Alistair thought to himself, though he presented an air of surprise and flattery. "Thank you so much," he said, pausing to take the girl's hand and kiss it. She giggled and squirmed the way girls so often did under his attention, and then winked at him as he stepped away.

He could've sworn he'd heard her mutter, "Douchebag," as he left...but that would be ridiculous.

Alistair glided up the stairs to his rendezvous. It was about time, he thought, that the woman gave up on her feigned disinterest. She was dealing with a master of that game, and sure enough, her resolve had wavered first. At the top of the stairs, outside the bathroom door, Alistair smiled. He could hear the shower running. Intriguing, he thought. He knocked, and a voice full of more than one note of invitation responded with, "Enter."

The water hadn't been running long enough to steam up the bathroom; in fact, the window was open. But it was good enough to fog up the shower door, which somewhat blurred the view of the naked perfection behind it. The little black dress and matching panties lay over the closed toilet lid. Alistair smiled. It was an odd approach to seduction, but it had its charm.

"I was hoping you would join me," Lorelei said. "I hate to shower alone."

"That would be a tragedy," Alistair agreed, already shedding his clothes.

"Lock the door?"

"Of course, of course," he nodded, turning to give the doorknob the requisite twist. "Everyone's distracted downstairs by some tomfoolery in the front yard, anyway."

"Excellent." She slid the glass open just enough to peek around, and to extend a beckoning hand to her pale visitor. "Come to me."

Smiling, Alistair did so. Clearly she wasn't so attached to her "love" downstairs as she had let on. That, too, was something Alistair was used to. She retreated into the shower as he stepped forward to join her. He drank in the vision of her naked, wet beauty, and grinned even more broadly as she gestured for him to join her under the spraying water. Her hands reached for his pale face, sliding around the sides to bring him in close.

Their mouths joined. Their bodies slid together. Lorelei wrapped her arms around his naked waist, pulling him against her as she exhaled into that deep kiss. Alistair's eyes went wide with animal panic. He flailed and beat against her, unable to break her grip, but it was already too late to scream. The flames she breathed into him had gone straight down his throat, after all.

Alistair caught fire from the inside out as Lorelei blew into him. The water cut down on the flare-ups that erupted from various parts of his body as he burned down in her arms. He didn't give off a whole lot of smoke; oddly, vampires rarely did when they went this way. Even so, the open window was enough to take care of most of it.

Lorelei shivered at the exquisite rush of ending someone in her arms once more. It wasn't quite the same as drawing out a victim's soul along the way. Nor could any of that compare to the ongoing joy and satisfaction she derived from her love and master. Nothing, she realized, could compare to him. That was a reassuring thought.

But this would still put a spring in her step.

Soon Alistair was a mere pile of ash, and a wet one at that. Lorelei turned and stepped behind the remains to nudge the lumps apart for ease of rinsing them down the drain. Water ran down her hair, her breasts and her belly, washing away every trace of the hapless vampire as she hummed to herself.

This was, perhaps, a touch further in flirting than her master would have liked. Lorelei was certain that Alex would understand, though. Moreover, she was certain to enjoy making it up to him.





Chapter 53: A well spent $60

On the front porch, things had gotten to a much closer staredown between Wade and Gabriel, but that ended the moment Alex was in the doorway. "Gabriel," he said, "you wanted to talk to me?"

"Yeah," Gabriel shouted, stepping quickly back from Wade and then jabbing a finger in Alex's direction. "Are you fucking my girlfriend?"

"Nnnno, I'm standing here wondering why you're making a scene," Alex blinked with feigned confusion. The door didn't close behind him; there were quite a few spectators now looking through, as well as through the windows.

"I'mma beat your ass, faggot," the taller young man snarled.

"Hey, hold on there," Number 14 said, "we don't gotta be all homophobic an' shit." Sadly, everyone ignored him.

"Gabriel, seriously, chill out," Alex frowned, holding his hands up in a gesture of peace. "Do you really think coming up here all crazy is going to accomplish anything?"

"Curb stomping your ass would be enough. You've had your nose in my business ever since I hooked up with her."

"I'm her friend, Gabriel. I never made a move to steal her at all and you damn well know it. She was happy with you. I've hardly talked to her in over a year."

"Yeah, until this week! Did you fuck her, faggot?"

Alex blinked, having to skip the horrible contradiction in his question in the interests of defusing the confrontation. "Dude. I'm confused here. Am I supposed to be fucking Taylor or am I supposed to be a faggot? Completely opposite actions and desires. What do you want me to say? I'm not gonna tell you anything about Taylor, 'cause that's Taylor's business."

"Whatever you fucking faggot. There's still you and me. I'm gonna fuck you over."

"Unfortunately, I don't swing that way Gabe but I'm so glad you are coming out of the closet," Alex laughed. "Look, I don't want to fight. Seriously, I've been in three fights this week. I'm really tired of people trying to kill me. So what is it? What do I have to say to resolve this? That you're the better man? I'm sure you are, Gabriel. I'm sure all the chicks dig you more than me. You've got a bigtime basketball career and I'm a big nobody." It was hard to really say it all with any sincerity, and though Alex failed, he at least tried. At first. As he went on, though, his tone became less and less earnest, until he finally ended in rambling. "Gonna be famous. Rich. You're a snazzy dresser... uh...I'm sure you've got a tremendous penis," Alex shrugged.

"Not compared to you, he doesn't," they heard Jocelyn snort loudly from the open living room window crowded with observers.

Alex winced. "Aw, fuck," he groaned.

Gabriel's eyes flared. His right jab caught Alex on the left side of his jaw and knocked him over. Drew, too, was very quick. As Alex twisted and bent at the waist, Drew's left leg came up over and around him in an outside crescent kick that smashed right into Gabriel's face.

With that, it was on, and the fight quickly became a tangled mess after that. Drew and Wade, both trained fighters, had their hands full with two of Gabriel's teammates each. Shouting erupted from inside and then quickly from partygoers who had come out from around the back of the house to see the fight. Some yelled to break it up, others yelled random quips of bloodthirsty enjoyment.

Alex recovered quicker than Gabriel, but only by a couple of seconds. The enraged youth rushed forward in a tackle that carried Alex off the porch and into the entrance of the side yard, scattering spectators left and right. Alex landed on his back, winded, but got in a couple good punches on the side of Gabriel's head before the larger guy could scramble off and get some space to swing again.

Alex punched him dead in the throat. Gabriel jerked backward, choking and giving Alex a moment to try to catch his breath again. He glanced up to see Wade wrestling with the blond ball player; the other one that had jumped him was now on the ground, clutching his knee. Drew was pummeling another of Gabriel's boys.

The fourth, Number 14, quickly saw that he really didn't want a piece of Drew. He spotted Alex as he tried to rise and rushed over to put him down again.

It was all too fast for Alex. Number 14 caught him before he could get his footing again, but in the struggle to recover and defend himself, Alex sent them both tumbling down the small rise of the landscaping between the house and the street.

On the rooftop across the street, Martina grunted. It was very clear what would happen next. "Aw, dammit," she mumbled as she darted across the street.

"Run, Forrest, run!" Rachel called out after her with laughter.

It was no particular challenge for a guardian angel's speed and reflexes, but it had to be taken seriously. Martina made it to the sidewalk just an instant before the two tumbling combatants hit. Her hand was under Number 14's head before he could smack it into the concrete, reducing what would have been a debilitating or even fatal injury to a very mild bump. His body wound up absorbing most of the impact of the landing for Alex, who landed on top of him.

Alex scrambled to his feet again. Number 14 coughed and groaned as he rose, but the taller youth maintained his focus on the fight and powered through the pain. He was about to throw a punch when suddenly Number 14 let out a garbled wail of pain and crumpled to the ground.

Jason was standing there with a stun gun in his hand. "Dude, check out what I bought at the mall!" he grinned.

Martina, unseen by all of them, looked down at her fallen charge with disappointment. "I knew you should've taken the scholarship at Central Washington."

"Guh," Alex grunted, waving at Jason as he rushed back to the house. Gabriel was up now, ready to take a new swing at Alex, but it wasn't like that was a surprise. Alex didn't really have any hopes for putting Gabriel down -- certainly not on his own. His recent experiences in fighting aside, Alex knew how lopsided this confrontation was. Gabriel was significantly larger and a star college athlete. Alex had been a mediocre high school swimmer.

All Alex was worried about was catching the first fist that was thrown. He managed it, twisting and grabbing Gabriel's right wrist with one, then both hands. Gabriel's other fist came into Alex's side, twice, then a third time, but Alex wasn't worried about that. If he couldn't pull this off, or if one of his friends didn't come bail him out, he was going to get his ass kicked.

Alex clung to Gabriel's right hand, which didn't stay in a fist the whole time as they struggled. The pounding Gabriel was delivering with his free hand just had to be endured. Finally, Alex grabbed Gabriel's thumb and shoved it backward very, very hard. He could feel it snap.

"Aaargh!" Gabriel roared. He shoved Alex away. After the shots he'd taken to his side, Alex didn't have a whole lot of reason to stay in that grapple. He stumbled to the ground, on one knee and gasping for breath. But he'd accomplished his goal; Gabriel was looking at his hand in worry and rage. "Stupid motherfucker, you broke my thumb!"

"That's what happens in fights, Gabe," Alex coughed. "People get hurt. And then they can't do things like play college sports. And then they have to explain why they got hurt." He was tensed, a bit stooped over as he rose but still ready for Gabriel to make another attack. "People tried to kill me this week, you pencil-dick douchebag," he huffed. "None of this parking lot after school bullshit. You think I'm gonna fuck around with playground rules with you? You wanna beat my ass, fine, whatever makes you feel better. I probably can't take you out. But I'll take you off the roster for this season before I go down. Maybe even permanently."

As if to punctuate his statement, Gabriel's tall, blond teammate was tossed to the ground between them. He fell like a groaning sack of potatoes, rolling a bit to one side with the indication that he was quite done with the fight. Wade stepped over to Alex's side, breathing heavily but still standing straight. "Ah'm not much f'r fightin' fair, either," he frowned. A moment later, Jason was standing there, too.

Back behind them, they could hear someone yelling, "Uncle!" and it certainly wasn't Drew's voice.

Then someone asked, "Wade, could you move, please?"

Wade blinked, and stepped aside, and then Taylor rushed through to plant an enraged fist twisting upward right into Gabriel's gut. The tall youth's eyes bulged in shock as all the air left him as he bent over slightly. Taylor then slapped the hell out of his face.

"You stalked me here, you stupid fucking asshole!?" Taylor roared. "What part of 'I don't want to see you again' do you not understand!?" Gabriel tried to grunt something in response, but Taylor just slapped him again. "Do I need to get a restraining order on you? Do I? Should I just go talk to the coaching staff?"

"Nnnoo," Gabriel managed to groan.

"I thought about calling the cops, actually," called out another voice. Sherri was there, standing on the porch now next to Lorelei with her cell phone in her hand. "Just three little numbers. Nine. One. One," she narrated as she tapped the keys. "And then all I have to do is press 'Send' in ten... nine... eight..."

The intruders were getting to their feet now and shuffling off. Most of the spectators backed away at Sherri's urging.

"Hi, Taylor," Alex ventured.

She turned to him, but then quickly looked to Wade. "Hey," she said, "I haven't seen you since you got back. Thanks."

"F'r whut?" Wade blinked.

Taylor shrugged and smiled a bit. "For coming back home to us alive."

"Heh," Wade grinned, waving her off as he turned to head back up to the party. He was stopped in his tracks by Lorelei, who, oddly, paused to toss a tied-up garbage bag full of something or other down to the driveway. Her hair was wet, too, as if she'd just gotten out of the shower.

"I can't leave you alone without you getting into trouble, can I?" she smirked at Alex.

"Hey, I think this is just what happens when I go out with you," he huffed. "I can't take you anywhere."

"Ah. All my fault, surely." Lorelei turned her attention to his friends. "Since the four of you gentlemen are all collected now," she said, a wry smile, "I would very much like to have a private chat with you."

There were collective glances and shrugs between Alex and his male friends. Lorelei sauntered back toward the house.

As they moved to follow, Alex felt a tug on his sleeve. He stopped and turned to find Taylor staring at him with a somewhat accusatory smirk on her face. "Hi?" he tried again.

"Jocelyn? Really, Alex?"

"Oh God!" Alex blurted guiltily. "I was—we—wait, you're fucking with me right now, aren't you?" he said, seeing her face split into a laugh. "You're not mad at all!"

"Maybe a little," she shrugged. "Because now I'm gonna have to hear all about it from her. Thanks for that, by the way. Real pal. Always looking out for me," she rambled dryly.

"What, that thing with Gabriel?"

"What? God, no. I'm still talking about Jocelyn. This fight thing was totally unnecessary. If you had come get me, I'd have just punched him just like I did and it would've been over. But no, you dumb boys have to have your stupid fight."

"You're still fucking with me."

"Yeah," Taylor smiled.

Alex frowned a minute out of sincere confusion. "Why aren't you mad at me?"

"Why should I be?"

"Because you and I... I mean, I don't even know where that's going, but you... um." He faltered, realizing he hadn't really thought this through enough to be articulate about it. "You know I really like you and then there was Wednesday and you seemed kind of, I don't know, interested? I mean I don't want to sound like I'm jumping to conclusions and we both know I've got a girlfriend, but, y'know, that happened, right? But here I am hooking up with someone else right after that without having even talked to you on the phone or something, and you're not mad?"

Taylor's grin remained, though it became more curiously amazed. "Wow. Y'know, she said you really don't know how to let go and have a good time, but she didn't tell me you're spectacular about it."

Alex's expression didn't become any less worried. "You've been talking to her?"

"Yes. She's cool. Now go see what she wants."

He was turning to do just that as Jason joined him. There was an odd buzz from his buddy's new stun gun. "This was totally worth sixty bucks," Jason grinned.





Chapter 54: A won bet and spoils of war...

Rachel's grin was utterly smug and utterly merciless as she turned to the other angels.

"You can't seriously think you won that bet," Timothy frowned. Her grin was undiminished. "Your boy admitted he couldn't win! My guy was all over him!"

"Who's going home crying, Timothy? Whose posse was still standing?"

"He could've stuck it out long enough to put Alex in the dirt," Martina grumbled at Timothy, "but he didn't. The whole thing was dumb to begin with, but he could've seen it through."

Rachel nodded, folding her arms across her chest. "Wear it like a hat, bitches."

Timothy glared at her sullenly. It was really all just teasing. No harm was done. "Fine," Timothy frowned. "What do you want?"

"You," she said, pointing at the blond basketball player's guardian, "On your knees, buddy. Holy of Holies. You," she said, pointing at another, "call the corners. I wanna hear the full deal. You? Maha Mantra. Sing it. Sing it 'til the rest of 'em are done." She looked to Martina. "Gimme something Buddhist. Something long. And you," she grinned at Timothy. He scowled, waiting for it. She reached behind her back, produced something, and tossed it to him.

Timothy caught the rosary with ease. He looked at it, then frowned back to Rachel. "The whole thing," Rachel taunted. "Best get prayin'."

Rachel giggled to herself as the guardian angels surrounding her gave voice to a cacophony of very different prayers. Without much of an economy, this was the only sort of thing that angels really had to offer in wagers amongst themselves.

Her only regret was that it wasn't the right time for the Salaat. Otherwise, she'd have had them all kneeling toward Mecca.

************

They had to use Sherri's bedroom, which for Alex was just a touch awkward. Lorelei read it on his face as if she could read his mind. Though she winked at him, she said nothing. Luckily, nobody else noticed anything. He and Jocelyn had thrown a clean comforter over the one that had been on the bed, which seemed to be more than enough of a cover-up.

"What you did this past Thursday night was no small thing," Lorelei explained. She stood among them in the bedroom, holding a manila envelope that none of them, even Alex, had seen her bring into the house. "Gorge was not highly placed in the hierarchy of his kind, but even so, it is not at all ordinary for any of our ilk to be destroyed by mortals.

"You were all very brave to have stood together against a demon of the Pit," Lorelei said, looking at each of them intently, "and I am personally very, very grateful, as I have said, that you were there for Alex." She paused, but no one had anything to say in response to that. She nodded then, and pulled out several sheets of paper from the envelope.

"The Pit operates largely on the Right of Might. There are essentially no laws beyond those which others commonly impose through force, but there are a few things that all agree upon in order to prevent complete chaos. One of these is that to the victors go the spoils."

She handed each of them a copy of business papers that were only a few pages in length. "Each of you is now one-quarter owner of one of the most stable, successful pool halls in the Seattle area."

"Daaamn," Drew breathed. Alex and Wade both choked. Jason's jaw dropped, as he looked at the papers in disbelief.

"There will be some complications in claiming outright ownership, of course," Lorelei went on, "as Gorge didn't live long enough to really paper everything over. But the original owner of the establishment fully concedes the sale, and yesterday I took care of most of the necessary steps to secure your rights. As none of you are old enough to legally operate an establishment that serves alcohol, I took it upon myself to hire on Ahmed as the regular manager. The previous staff is unanimously interested in keeping their jobs. Ultimately all you need to do is occasionally look over the books, give your approval to expenses, sign a few papers now and again...and sit back and collect approximately eighteen to twenty-five thousand dollars apiece in profits annually, if the last few years hold as an accurate measure. That's not enough to live well on by itself, but I imagine it will still be quite a sizeable boost to your incomes."

She was met with four shocked, disbelieving pairs of eyeballs and an accompanying stunned silence. Lorelei allowed herself a sly grin. "Obviously you can take for granted that you won't need to pay for time at a table or anything from the kitchen, as well."

"This is... legal?" Wade blinked.

"Effectively, yes. It will hold up in court and to state and Federal scrutiny. We'll have to come up with some plausible reason why Gorge passed ownership to you immediately after purchasing the business, but Ahmed can be pliant. This works out for him financially as well."

"But didn't that guy do some sort of supernatural woojiness to Ahmed to get him to sell?" Jason asked.

"I don't believe so, no. I cannot prove that one way or another, but he certainly didn't need to. Ahmed was paid a generous price for his business, and all of it in cash. He could have bargained a bit more and the decision was a bit rash on his part, but it was still his decision to make. He came out well ahead financially in the short term -- and will in the long term as well if you keep him on as manager for at least a few years."

Drew seemed ever bit as overwhelmed as the others. "How did you swing this? I thought all of Gorge's papers burned up in the church?"

Lorelei's sly grin only broadened. "Really, you boys know what I am. One doesn't spend the better part of a few dozen centuries with all of the worst sorts of people without learning a trick or two. No one is harmed," she quickly added for Alex's reassurance, "but I did have to do a bit of creative forgery and paperwork. It's not like Gorge could explain himself at this point. But by his own customs, you destroyed him when he forced conflict upon you. His belongings are now yours. It's only a small pity that you couldn't have held him upside down and shaken him to see what fell out of his pockets before he died.

"And on that note," Lorelei added, picking up her purse, "there is the added concern of the diamonds he was so quick to flash around and which you left behind in the midst of your brouhaha."

She handed out four white envelopes, which each of the guys tore open without much pause. Inside each was several thousand dollars in cash.

"Be careful how you spend that," Lorelei said. "I wouldn't suggest you deposit it in a bank unless you want to run the risk of having to explain how you got it if we do somehow wind up with legal concerns."

"This is too good to be true," Jason thought aloud.

"My having a happily ever after with Alex that would never put anyone else at risk of harm was too good to be true," Lorelei said. "You have all stood with him, repeatedly now, in the face of dangers grave and...well, whatever those boys out there might've dished out," she shrugged dismissively. "You are not millionaires. You'll likely need to keep quiet about this until we can all agree on a solid cover story. But you earned this. And my unending gratitude as well."

"I'm gonna suggest," Alex said after swallowing hard, "that we just all shut up about this for tonight and let it sink in. I mean this will all run itself for now, right?"

Lorelei nodded. Wade spoke up. "Yeah, this is... awesome. Ah mean this is really great. But, uh, there's a li'l geeky brunette cutie out there waitin' for me I was talkin' to 'fore half the Huskies bench showed up."

"Yeah, I'm kinda hangin' around here late with Sherri, too," Drew thought aloud. "Thanks, Lorelei. Seriously. Thanks."

"My pleasure," she nodded as Drew headed out the door. Wade followed, and Alex offered Lorelei his hand as he was about to leave. She took it with a smile.

"That's awesome," Jason grumbled. "Everyone picks up at the party but me 'cause I showed up late."

"There's still party left," Alex shrugged. "Just show 'em your awesome stun gun. I bet chicks dig that."

"Funny."

"A moment, Alex?" Lorelei asked. Her hand slipped from his. She fixed Jason with a smoldering hot gaze of lust that stopped him dead in his tracks. She slipped her leg in between his, grinding upward with her thigh, just as she took his neck in both hands and planted a deep, wet, aggressive kiss upon his mouth.

Jason fainted dead away on the bed behind him.

Alex just looked on in shock. Lorelei shrugged, dabbing at her lips. "You said I could flirt, and I do owe him my gratitude. It's not like he'll remember that happened, anyway."





Chapter 55: Taylor joins the fray...

A couple of hours later, Jason sat in the middle of one of the plush living room couches. Wade had already taken off with Trish, whom Jason himself knew from a couple of local sci-fi conventions. Drew was still ensconced behind the bar, though that was much more a matter of clean-up and sticking close to their increasingly flirty hostess. Alex and Lorelei had already left... and so, for that matter, had Taylor, Jocelyn and numerous others.

It wasn't all bad, though. He didn't have a lot to add to the conversation, but at least he was seated between Brittany and Britney. The former's date had apparently disappeared entirely. The latter had broken up with her boyfriend that very night because he was apparently quite an asshole. It turned out that Brittany and Britney had been longtime friends, and Jason wasn't entirely sure if he was a welcome part of what probably should have been a private conversation.

They both, however, put a hand on each of his knees when he first decided to chivalrously extract himself from the girl talk.

"She needs to hear from a male perspective," Brittany said. "Only someone nice, not that jackass she just dumped."

"He dumped me," Britney corrected.

"Well, that's obviously his loss," Jason said helpfully. Britney looked up at him like she really appreciated that. Brittany smiled and squeezed his leg approvingly.

"You really think so?" Britney asked. "I mean, sometimes I think the only thing I'm really good at is sex."

"I wonder that sometimes, too," Brittany chimed in.

"Well...I'm sure that's not all you're good at," Jason ventured, feeling an insane stiffness between his legs like nothing that he'd ever endured before. He had no real idea what to say to them; much of the blood from his brain had retreated south, and at this point his mouth was on autopilot. "But you shouldn't be ashamed of your talents. You should, I dunno, embrace 'em!"

Britney and Brittany looked up at one another in silent confirmation just as Jason was silently scolding himself for sounding like such an idiot. Then they looked at him and said, in unison as they each took one of his hands and stood, "Okay."

Even at nineteen, Jason lived with rather protective, intrusive, conservative parents. When he finally staggered through his family's front door at a quarter to seven the next evening, having neither called nor emailed, he had considerable explaining to do. He was covered in hickies, scratches and even a few bite marks. His eyes were bloodshot from lack of sleep. He smelled of perfume and sweat. Two cell phone numbers were written on his forearms in Sharpee marker, along with many hearts and a few endearing vulgarities. His mother, aghast, spotted and yanked out the pair of pink lace panties that had been stuffed in his jacket pocket.

It was arguably the most awkward moment in his life to date. It was also totally worth it.

************

She stood in front of the door with the same mixture of trepidation, excitement and doubt that she had faced while waiting for the elevator. And while sitting in her car in the parking garage. And while on her way to the hotel.

The door was different, though. There'd be no turning back after walking through that door.

Well, that wasn't true, she knew. Taylor could turn back at any moment. This was Alex. He wouldn't hold anything against her. There was zero chance he would see this coming, and even less chance that he would feel deserving.

The thing she couldn't take back, though, was the statement that this was something she wanted. In front of the door, it was all still a hypothetical. It was all still in her head. Sure, she'd allowed another woman to make out with her, but lots of girls she knew did that at parties. Maybe it was more to excite the guys who were watching, but still. Taylor could either deny it or own up to it as she chose.

But once she stepped through that door, the statement would be made. She couldn't play it off as a joke or a stunt. Either she wanted this, or she didn't. And if she stepped through that door, she was the kind of girl who'd get in bed with a man and a woman. Whatever happened next, that was who she was from now on. Even if no one else ever knew, Taylor would know it about herself.

Either something wonderful was on the other side of that door, or just a lot of heartache and embarrassment. Perhaps a statement of Taylor's gullibility, or weakness, or just a sign of what a slut she was. Alex wouldn't see it that way, of course, but anyone else probably would. And he'd never speak of it, but he'd know.

Five days ago, he was just a high school memory and an occasional comment on Facebook. Now she was filled with longing and excitement, and had been for days. This would be complicated all to hell, no matter how non-committal he might be. He might put no pressure on her at all, but Taylor wondered how long it would be before she wanted more from him than had been offered -- by his own girlfriend, no less. His own girlfriend, who presented all manner of complications and unsettling revelations all on her own.

There were complicated relationships to be had, but this was beyond the pale.

Taylor stared at the door. She thought about all that Lorelei had said to her. She thought about the looks on Alex's face at the party; he never really got the chance to just talk to her alone that he had sought before she left.

She wanted to talk to him, of course. She was dying to talk to him. But talking might have spoiled this...if she were to go through with it.

The thought seemed to settle things for her. She hadn't avoided talking to the one person she'd shown up at the party to see for nothing. She hadn't let Lorelei kiss her because she was afraid of something. Taylor glanced around in the hallway, ensuring that no one was stirring. It was very late, after all.

Assured, she pulled the card key out of the pocket of her jeans. Then she pulled off her jacket. "Here goes," she muttered to herself.

************

"Thought we'd be going straight to bed," Alex mumbled as he came out of the bathroom. His clothes were gone. Lorelei knelt on the honeymoon suite's couch, now turned to face the balcony and the beautiful view of Elliott Bay beyond. The only thing she wore was the black pearl choker that served as her collar.

"We will do as you wish, of course," she said. Her eyes never left his, nor did they ever convey anything but lust and devotion. "But I thought, master, that you might enjoy the scenery while I serve you."

Weariness showed in his smile. It had been a hell of a day, along with a hell of a night. "I was afraid I'd have to do all the thinking for us when we agreed to all this. You have a lot of initiative for a love slave."

"You have no idea, master."

He came over and sat down on one corner of the couch, reclining against it and holding out his hand to the side of Lorelei's face. "Who am I to say no to you?" he asked.

Lorelei's hands slid over his legs, spreading them apart so she could kneel between them. "You are the master. I am the slave. It is always in your power to deny me." Her hands were already working his shaft, her mouth already caressing its length as she softly spoke.

"I'd have to be an idiot," he smiled, looking at her lovingly.

"Master is wise," Lorelei smiled. Her mouth came to the head of his cock. Her tongue extended along it, providing a welcoming surface just as her lips descended over it, and down its entire length. Once more, she accepted much more of him than should be comfortable, yet she gave no sign of difficulty or hesitation, nor did he feel himself bend at all.

Alex gave out a soft groan as she got to work. She had set this up to offer him a beautiful view while she sucked him off. He could see that she meant to take her time with it, too. But he couldn't tear himself away from her gaze even as the electric pleasures she bestowed upon his sex rippled through his body.

It didn't take her long to help him forget all about his fatigue. Alex relaxed, letting all his worries fall away. No more party, no more people wanting to kick his ass or show him up in front of their girlfriends. No more stressing about whether he was showing enough attention to anyone in particular or not. This was just his love, doing what she enjoyed so much. And really, it had been a great party, all in all...apart from getting stomped and not really getting to talk to Taylor, that is.

As he considered that last part, he laid his head back on the couch and his eyes drifted off to one side.

Without really looking for anything, he saw Taylor, walking toward him clad only in silk purple panties, a matching bra, and a shy but broad smile. "Hey," she said.





Chapter 56: Taylor drops a bombshell...

His eyes went wide. He very nearly sat up, but Taylor was there just in time to put a hand on his bare shoulder. Lorelei sucked even harder to rob him of any ability to move below his hips. It made his jaw drop a bit, which only left him feeling a bit more exposed as Taylor slid close to him.

"Wow," she blinked at Lorelei. Her voice was soft, completely in tune with the intimate scene she'd just joined. "I can't believe you can take that whole thing."

"How'd you get here?" Alex managed.

"I went to the party to see you, but I saw Lorelei first. She offered me a key card," Taylor winked. She slid closer to Alex and kissed him, gently but with real passion. All his questions aside, Alex at least knew when to shut up and kiss back. Taylor indulged herself for a bit before pulling away.

Lorelei hadn't let up at all. Even when Alex's eyes opened, they did so with a bit of a flutter. He looked like he was about to say something, so she kissed him again. "I'm going to keep kissing you until you stop trying to explain yourself," she grinned. Taylor glanced down at the woman slowly but mercilessly sucking his cock. It gave her a grin. "I think I kinda like finding you in these compromising positions."

"This is really awkward."

"No...it's not. I knew what I'd be coming into. I was afraid I'd be jealous, but I'm not."

"Why not?"

"Because I get to be a part of this," she smiled, running one hand across chest. "Because I know I'm safe with you. Because I know nobody's going to neglect me."

"No way," Alex breathed. "I just...don't want you to...wow...think I'm only interested in you for sex."

"You keep saying things like that," Taylor chuckled. "You realize that I understand, so being interested in me for sex is okay, right?"

Before he could answer, she parted from him to swing around the side of the couch. Taylor took up a spot right next to Lorelei, kneeling on a pillow that had conveniently appeared between Alex's spread legs. "I hear this is every guy's fantasy," she said.

It was only then that Lorelei's mouth parted from Alex's very erect dick. Her hand kept stroking it. "You don't need to take all of him. I have a bit of an unfair advantage in that," the succubus winked.

Taylor's hand joined Lorelei's in pumping Alex. He looked on in awe as the two grinned at one another, kissed for a long and exciting moment, and then turned their attention back to him. As Taylor began trailing test kisses along his cock, Lorelei shifted to allow herself to run her fingers through Taylor's brown hair.

"For Alex," Lorelei suggested, "it is all in the eyes."

"I see," Taylor nodded eagerly. Her kisses became longer and hungrier until finally they came to the head of his shaft, her eyes locked with his all the while. Taylor went down on Alex then in slow, tentative bobs, taking more and more of him as she looked up into his gaze. She let out a grunt of appreciation. "Oh my god," she grinned, "this actually feels so good."

Trailing her nails up and down Taylor's shoulders and back in light, arousing caresses, Lorelei nodded. "Enjoy," she said. As Taylor's mouth resumed, Lorelei added, "And just wait until you get to taste him."

Alex's eyes widened at that. He glanced at Lorelei in shock, only to see her calm, controlled expression crumble under the assault of sheer pleasure. Her lips fell open and quivered. Her eyes fluttered in time with the bobbing of Taylor's head. She was plainly receiving all the same sensations that he felt.

Her touch at Taylor's back became more intimate. She unhooked Taylor's bra, slipping her hands under the fabric as it came loose. The succubus aided Taylor in slipping it off, then cast it aside next to Alex with a glance as if to present him with a trophy. Lorelei's hands swept around Taylor's front now, intimately cupping and teasing her breasts. Taylor had never been particularly sensitive there before, but Lorelei's touch changed that.

With everyone's heads swimming, it was Lorelei who was able to direct things. "As much as we're all enjoying this," she said, "perhaps we might adjourn to the bed?"

Taylor's eyebrows rose quizzically at Alex, as her mouth was still quite busy. After a moment or two, Alex nodded in breathless agreement. Taylor grinned at the effect she'd had on him. She pulled away finally and rose. Lorelei followed, mere inches behind her and with her hands still mapping out Taylor's body by touch. Alex reached for Taylor's hips to gently keep her from going anywhere.

His eyes were on hers again as his fingers slipped into her panties at the hips, pulling them down. He said nothing as she stepped out of them. With their gaze still locked, Alex leaned forward and kissed the very wet lips between her legs.

Taylor cried out in pleasure immediately. Her head fell back against Lorelei's shoulders. Within moments of Alex's indulgence, the succubus was practically holding Taylor up in her embrace. Lorelei continued her seduction, devouring Taylor's neck with kisses as her hands roamed across Taylor's beautiful young body. Taylor's hands went around Alex's head, pulling him close as his kiss eventually shifted from spreading across her sex to a steady focus on her clit. The young woman was so turned on already that she came in only a few minutes, quivering under the affection that surrounded her.

Lorelei held her close from behind as Alex rose. He stepped into their embrace, waiting patiently with Lorelei as Taylor calmed down. "There'll be a lot of that," he eventually said, "if you like." Taylor's only answer was a deep, passionate kiss.

She then twisted around, pulling Lorelei into a similar kiss. Taylor breathed, "I want you both so much." She looked back at Alex, all trepidation a memory but her excitement only building even with so much tension released by her orgasm. "And I want to taste you."

He took her hand and led her to the bed, Lorelei following close behind. Resuming that blowjob wasn't the first thing he'd had in mind, but he wasn't about to argue, either. As Alex lay back on the bed, propped up a bit by the pillows at its head, Taylor slipped into a comfortable spot between his legs. She resumed her oral attention with hardly a pause.

She hadn't really considered what role Lorelei would play in this until she felt herself guided to her knees with her legs parted. A mind-splittingly wonderful tongue caressed Taylor's labia, parting them and teasing her inner flesh with inevitable rapture. Taylor let out a loud, uncontrolled whimper while she continued sucking on Alex's cock. She had given up any attempt at holding his gaze. Her eyes were closed as she focused on her own intimate task as if to help her hold on against the blissful assault between her legs.

It didn't do much good. Taylor couldn't help but cum for Lorelei's experienced tongue. Alex stroked her hair, whispering to her how beautiful she was as her body shuddered and her mouth sucked even harder on his flesh. When her spasms finally subsided, Taylor threw all the resultant energy into what she was doing. Lorelei continued licking and kissing her, but Taylor could ride that now, deriving pleasure from it while giving to another. She began to hear Alex breathe and groan the way she had, until finally she felt him tense up. Taylor was ready for the warm jets of fluid that spurted into her mouth. She accepted them without hesitation or worry, and as Lorelei had teased, Taylor found the taste surprisingly nice.

When they parted, Alex gestured for them both to come close. He shifted to kiss Taylor, then Lorelei. Taylor soon found herself on her back between them. "I can't believe this is happening," Taylor murmured. "I know saying that is totally cliché but it's true."

Alex just grinned. "I want you," he said simply.

"I'm not going anywhere. Soon as you're ready."

"He's ready now," said the seductress now trailing kisses across her breasts.

Taylor glanced down as Alex got to his knees, shifting around. "How can you already be up for more?" she murmured.

"Magic," he grinned, sliding her legs apart for himself.

"He's very talented," Lorelei winked.

As he caressed her pussy with the head of his cock, Alex asked, "How long can you stay?"

"I don't have a class until ten on Monday. You can both have me as much as you want 'til then." It was as much a confession as an invitation. At the moment, she didn't see how she could ever muster the willpower to deny either lover even if she wanted to, which she didn't.

That thought was only reinforced as Alex pushed that glorious cock inside her. Taylor moaned out loud, reaching up with her right hand to take his left while her other arm was draped around Lorelei. He was slow to increase the tempo, which suited her just fine. He took some getting used to, but even that was a joy.

There was also the spectacular woman looming over Taylor on her hands and knees, indulging her with all sorts of affection. "He's not leaving you out, is he?" Taylor asked her softly.

"No," Lorelei murmured slowly. It was then that Taylor could see Lorelei's closed eyes and satisfied smile. "We've made love all day and last night," she explained, her own voice carrying the tremble of a woman enduring a great deal of gratification. "He has longed for you. I find that he has excellent taste. But no, my love does not ignore me at all." Taylor then realized what Alex must be doing with his free hand. Lorelei confirmed it with a low moan and the slow bucking of her hips against Alex's right hand.

The sensation of Alex's constant penetration was overwhelming. Between long, luxurious kisses from Lorelei, Taylor looked up at him to drink in the sight of his face as he enjoyed her. The only truly coherent thought that she could hold while he and his girlfriend made love to her was that this had been a very, very good decision.

He enjoyed the caress of full, beautiful breasts against his face and the slow grinding of beloved flesh around his sex. Alex raised his arms, embracing Lorelei warmly. She settled down against him with a long and loving kiss.

The suite was quiet and dark. All the sounds of passionate, generous lovemaking between three people had been reduced to the soft coming together of two.

Alex looked to his left. Taylor was there, sound asleep with a slight smile on her lips. "She will not awaken without a little encouragement," whispered his succubus into his ear. "You will need to sleep for a while, too, but I wanted you to myself for a bit first. If that's permissible master."

"It certainly is," Alex grinned, turning to kiss her again. "Thank you for this." When he looked up at Lorelei, he saw small black horns jutting out from just below her hairline. He smiled broadly at that, feeling very happy for her. He had feared they would be large and unattractive, but as it turned out they only enhanced her image of wicked beauty. As with her tail, he doubted he'd see much of them, anyway.

Lorelei made no mention of it. "She came looking for you," the succubus demurred.

"Because you told me to confirm I'd be there in a way that she'd see it." Lorelei shrugged. "And you arranged this tonight."

"And tomorrow," she grinned promisingly. "And tomorrow night. This is by no means over."

"So, like I said then, thank you."

"You're welcome." She continued to grind against him. "I do not expect she will want a formal relationship or commitment," she cautioned him. "But I suggested she had the freedom to come and go from your bed. I hope that I have gauged your feelings accurately in this."

"Yes," Alex nodded. "I'll have to talk to her."

"I will find time to leave you two alone," Lorelei murmured. Her words were punctuated by gasps and whimpers. "Intimacy requires some privacy."

"I want to tell her everything, Lorelei," he said finally. "The guys know. She deserves to know, too. Even moreso." Lorelei nodded sagely. Alex added, "She'll probably freak out, though."

"I can help with that," Lorelei offered. "No brainwashing, just an allaying of fears until she hears everything."

"You like her, too, don't you?"

A naughty smile crept across his lover's face. "Yes. I would enjoy continuing things between us, if you would approve. I swear to take very good care of her."

"How am I ever supposed to deny you?"

"Master is wise," Lorelei whispered into his mouth as her kiss descended upon him.

************

A mild wind passed through the trees above him, sending ripples through their lush, full leaves. It was a beautiful spring day. The birds would have been singing except for the sounds of gunfire and rumbling tanks. One rumbling tank, anyway. It was his tank, rolling on away from him. Beyond that was the fleeing enemy tank. The other German tank was burning nearby. He could hear it, could smell the smoke.

Simon lay on his back, looking up at the rustling leaves in the trees. His whole center seemed to be on fire, yet wet at the same time.

"I told your men we would stay with you," someone said. His eyes glanced to his right, where the old Gypsy woman knelt over him with his hand in hers. There were others nearby, but not close enough to speak.

"I should be with them," he coughed.

She shook her head. "Your men will carry on. They will win. Your fighting is done." The old woman brushed a bit of dirt from his forehead. "You look a bit young to be the leader."

"Officers kept getting killed. I got moved up to replace them. Battlefield commission."

"How long have you been fighting?"

"Since North Africa. Two years? I guess three now?"

"Hm," she nodded. "Not as long as for us."

"No."

"You could have turned away from this fight," she said. "The Germans are done. Broken. Only a matter of time now before they give up. You were outnumbered. Why did you attack?"

"They were going to kill you. And hey, my guys are winning, aren't they?"

The old woman smiled a bit. "I like you Americans. You know, not many of your allies would give their lives for Roma. We are not worth so much to others here. They see us only as thieves."

He managed a grin. "Oh, well, let me do this afternoon over then," he coughed, plainly not meaning it. After a moment, he asked, "Do many Gypsies speak English?"

"I don't," she smiled sadly. The old woman looked down at his hands. "Do you play the piano?"

"Huh? No. Never."

"Ah," she said, then shrugged. "You have the hands of a musician." Then her head cocked curiously. She touched the ring on his finger. "You are married?"

"Engaged," he corrected. "Got engaged in Paris."

"What is her name?"

"Marie," Simon said. "Smartest girl I ever met. I guess I should've taken that staff job and stayed, but I felt like that would be abandoning my guys." The old woman nodded softly, saying nothing. "I'm not going to see her again, am I?"

She was still looking at his hands. "I am sorry," she told him finally. "You have been through this before... and will again. One more time, I think." She had at first seemed as if she had seen too much sorrow and pain to cry for anyone, but a tear of sympathy fell from her cheek onto his palm for him. "One more time. Then, maybe, you will be happy. Maybe. Maybe."





Chapter 57: Another life...

The Ambrose Gang ruled the county for two years -- right up until the night that the piano player at the Royale wanted to die.

Nobody wanted to face down fourteen hardened gunmen, especially ones with hands as swift and steady as the Ambrose boys themselves. They had the sort of respect from the people of the county that comes from abject fear. They had money and power and the freedom to rob and even rape with impunity.

Poppa Ambrose even seemed to have a high placement in the coming state government all sewn up with bribes put in all the right pockets. They had it all.

The only mistake came when Danny and Whitney Ambrose and Oscar Jameson decided on a night of drinking, whoring and playing cards at the Royale.

"Why the hell ain't he playin'?" Danny asked. He sat at the poker table with his cousins, gun on his hip and a bottle in his hand. His erstwhile sidekick, Oscar, was upstairs with one whore or another. It was a busy enough night; most of the seats in the saloon were filled, but it just wasn't the same without music. Across the saloon floor, Tom just sat at his piano staring at the keys.

"Guess he ain't in the mood," the dealer frowned. "Ain't he bein' paid to play?" Danny growled.

The dealer looked up, then down at his cards again. He opted to ignore the question with a sigh, hoping the topic would be dropped. It would be better if Tom would start playing, but that didn't look likely.

Juanita came by to lean on the side of the piano. "She left on the train," she said.

"I know," Tom acknowledged in a soft, wounded voice. He didn't look up from the keys. "I didn't think she'd leave before she had the money."

"She got it from me."

"Oh? I thought you were hoping to leave with her?"

Tom just shrugged. "Was. She didn't have enough money to get back to Ireland. I didn't have enough money to go with her. But I was close. Showed it to her the other night. Then we had that fight."

"Ay. Heard some of that. You shouldn't have said those things," the Royale's senior female "entertainer"

said with a somber shrug. There was compassion there, but it was jaded. Matter-of-fact. Juanita called things as she saw them.

"I was hurt. Stupid. I was stupid. I knew her better than that." "Gone now, though. You gave it to her to make up for the fight?"

"She took all my money from my room," Tom said softly. "With what she had, it's certainly enough to get her back to Ireland." After a moment, he said, "I shouldn't have called her a whore."

"She is a whore. We're all whores."

"I shouldn't have said it like it's an insult," he corrected softly.

At that, Juanita inclined her head, nodding like a teacher who'd just confirmed her student had learned his lesson. "Ain't as much fun getting by on your back as people like to make it sound."

"It's gotta be a hard way to live."

"Lose your husband out here so far from home? Have to turn to whoring to get by? Yes. Awful. She thought she had something special with you."

"I thought so, too. I knew what she had to do. I just...couldn't stand it anymore. Having to wait. Having to be around while she worked. I just snapped. But I didn't think it was such a bad fight."

Juanita shrugged, about to say something else. She never got it out.

"Aw, y'all talkin' about Siobhan?" Danny Ambrose asked. He had come over to the piano, his speech only slightly slurred by drinking and his posture only a little stooped. It would get worse before the night was over, but not before he'd been upstairs with someone. "Yeah, she's a beauty. All that curly red hair.

Screams nice, too."

Tom just stared at the piano keys. Juanita turned away to hide her scowl.

"I was hopin' to fuck her again tonight," Danny mused, "but I guess that ain't gonna happen. 's too bad. I figured she'd be a little nicer to me after the lesson I gave her last time. Anyway, hey. Piano player. Play something, for fuck's sake. Somethin' cheery. Me an' my boys're gonna clean out that mess of redskins north of here tomorrow. Wanna have a good party tonight before we hit the trail." He reached out to shove a pair of coins into the breast pocket of Tom's vest. Tom didn't look up.

"Yes, sir," Tom mumbled. He reached, without really looking for it, to put some sheet music up over the piano keys.

"Y'all need t' read music?" Danny asked. "Heard you before. Never saw you need th' sheets before. Hell, ev'ryone says you're the best piano player west of the Mississippi."

"I might be a bit off my game tonight, sir," Tom answered quietly.

"Gotcha. Well, everyone's got a bad night now and again. Guess you're broken up about our favorite whore leavin', too, huh? Well, I hear ya. It's sad for me, too. I wanted that tight little asshole again. Maybe I'll just take Juanita's tonight instead. Huh, Juanita?"

Juanita shrugged and stepped away. "Hhh. Anyway, buck up," Danny said, lightly smacking his hand against Tom's face a couple times in a patronizing manner. "Play somethin' nice, for fuck's sake." With that, he roamed back to his table, where his back was to the piano.

Tom stopped shuffling the music. It was just to get Danny to go away, anyway. He couldn't play anything when he was in a mood like this. Not when there were tears about to fall.

It was over. He'd never find Siobhan, not now. Not without any money to follow her, nor any clue where in Ireland she was headed. Surely Siobhan wasn't even her real name. She was smarter than that.

But in listening to Danny ramble, Tom found himself forgiving her. He couldn't forgive himself for the things he'd said, but he certainly understood the pain in her eyes. His jealousy had gotten the better of him. Stupid. She couldn't make him understand why she had to act the way she did with other men.

Danny made him understand, though.

Danny also made Tom understand why she had stolen all of Tom's savings and disappeared on a train that afternoon. Tom got it now. He couldn't really blame her, either. Couldn't blame anyone from running away from that. As Juanita had said, there likely wasn't all that much fun in making a living on your back. Tom had never really figured otherwise, but there was thinking and then there was understanding. He forgave Siobhan completely. But he couldn't forgive himself.

With that decided, Tom rose from the bench. He walked over to Danny and Whitney Ambrose's poker table. They were engrossed in their game, goading the other players, all of them quite cowed, to make bets that were to the Ambrose cousins' advantage.

Tom stood between them. They didn't notice him until he snatched the revolvers from each man's holster

-- Danny was right-handed, Whitney was a lefty -- and, without looking, hurled the guns to either side of the saloon. Danny's fell behind the piano. Whitney's crashed into the rack of bottles behind the bar after the bartender ducked out of its way.

Tom also quickly overturned Danny's chair, sending him tumbling off to his left. Whitney was up quickly with that right-handed knife that Tom had seen before. He grabbed the wrist, twisted it, and quickly

shoved Whitney's blade up into the man's stomach while it was still in his own hand. He let Whitney tumble to the ground with a gasp.

Danny rose, looking at Tom more in disbelief than alarm. Tom simply said, "I am the best piano player in the west. I've also been in more bar fights than you've been in bars."

Danny threw his punch; Tom backed away from it quicker than Danny could see. Whitney was screaming in alarm now, calling out for Oscar. Tom stepped over him, backing away from Danny's swings until Danny stumbled over Whitney. At that, Tom seized hold of Danny's collar and punched him straight in the nose. He punched again and again and again, quickly pounding blood and teeth out of the face of the notorious Danny Ambrose. He didn't let go until he found himself partially holding Danny up. Tom let the outlaw stagger back against a chair.

Then he went to work with his booted foot on Danny's crotch. He grabbed Danny's feared right hand, twisted it, and then stomped once, very hard, for every prostitute at the Royale. A bloody stain began to spread at Danny's groin.

When he was finished with that, he turned Danny's twisted right arm over onto the table next to him. Then Tom grabbed the nearest bottle, smashed it over Danny's hand, and then stabbed the jagged, broken remains just below the bottle's broken neck into Danny's palm.

At that point, the guests and workers of the Royale could only look on in horror. The only sounds were Danny and Whitney Ambrose's gurgling, anguished screams.

"Hold on, Whitney!" someone yelled from upstairs. "I'm comin'! I'm comin'!"

Tom looked up at the top of the staircase. He grabbed another bottle and calmly waited. When Oscar Jameson appeared in his long johns, rifle in hand, Tom hurled the bottle with enough force and accuracy to smash it straight in Oscar's face. The stunned, surprised and drunk gunman lost his balance and came tumbling down the stairs.

Oscar lay there for only a second before Tom's booted heel came down on Oscar's right hand with a resounding crunch. The piano player then waited for Oscar to finish the resultant howl. "Done now?" he asked. "Alright. Take your pick of your friends here and get 'em to Poppa Ambrose. I'll stay here."

At that, people began clearing out. They didn't wait for Oscar to get to his feet, to evaluate the permanent damage to his shooting hand, or to see him drag Poppa Ambrose's pride and joy, now shattered, out of the bar. He left Whitney behind. Maybe the younger Ambrose cousin would make it; maybe he wouldn't. Probably not.

The last to leave was Juanita, who looked on at Tom in shock. She watched as he collected Danny's pistol from behind the bar, checked to see that it was loaded, then went to do the same for Whitney's gun.

"You should probably not be here," Tom said. "They're going to kill you," Juanita breathed.

"Seems likely, don't it?" Tom just shrugged. "Three less of 'em for anyone to have to deal with, though. None of them are gonna be gunslingin' ever again," he said, gesturing at the door where Oscar had dragged Danny.

"You don't have to do this." She was still in awe. The Ambrose boys had roamed all over those parts for months. She didn't think anyone would stand up to them, nor did she really blame people for not trying. Until now.

"It's done," Tom said sadly. "Head out. Hopefully I'll take out one or two more before it's over."

He didn't have long to wait. With only one lunatic piano player to deal with, Poppa Ambrose didn't delay his response until the whole gang had been mustered. There were only seven of them, plus the injured Oscar, all on horses in the dirty street outside the saloon. Everyone else had cleared well out of the way.

"Come on out here, Tommy!" Poppa Ambrose said once everyone was dismounted. With his usual flair for dramatics, he hadn't even drawn a gun. Nobody had their rifles pointed toward the saloon, either, nor were their pistols drawn. As Poppa had told them, this was someone trying to make a stand. Some fool making a show of standing up to the bullies. He'd want to be dramatic, too. There'd be words before the shooting. The townsfolk couldn't be allowed to see the Ambrose Gang cowed.

They waited outside until Tom appeared, Whitney's gun belt around his waist. The gun, as Poppa had predicted, was still in the holster. Poppa Ambrose opened his mouth to speak.

It was just enough of a delay for Tom to whip up the gun in his right hand, held just behind his leg, and shoot Dick Ambrose. The bullet hit him right in the throat. Poppa's eldest son was the second-fastest draw in the family after Danny. He had gotten his own shot off, striking Tom in the chest, but the damage was done on Dick himself.

There was more gunfire then. The Ambrose gang didn't wait, but in their surprise and general lack of sobriety their marksmanship wasn't quite as sharp in the first two seconds as it would've been otherwise. Tom, by contrast, wasn't even concerned with survival. He got out three more shots; one went wild, but one went straight through Willie Talbot's lung. The other, planted in Chris Fisher's leg, wouldn't have been fatal but for the infection that would arise two mornings later.

Tom Graham died on the steps of the Royale, lying there facedown and bleeding out from a couple dozen bullet holes. Poppa Ambrose watched him die, just as he'd seen the death of his son, Dick. He would later see Whitney die of his wounds with Danny now just a broken husk of a man.

There was no one to lynch for it. No one to drag screaming through the streets by horse, no one to make an example of to the town.

There were, however, considerably fewer of the Ambrose gang for the local sheriffs to worry about. The gang's much-vaunted fastest draws were out of the picture. A week later, men with badges carried out warrants that had been waiting in desk drawers for months. It was done by piecemeal, but with the gang's numbers so diminished, there were then even fewer of them around to retaliate until it was too late.

When Dick, Whitney and the others were buried, the only people who showed up were the members of the gang who weren't already in jail awaiting trial.

When Tom Graham was buried, the whole town was there. People came from miles around, right in the view of Poppa and Danny Ambrose, to see him laid to rest. His pallbearers included the town marshal, the county sheriff, the mayor, and the town's preacher. Everyone who knew him was there, along with dozens who didn't.

Everyone except Siobhan.





Chapter 58: Practitioner Problems...

Moans and whimpers from across the room awakened him. Alex stirred in the big, luxurious bed, rubbing his eyes and turned to look toward the beautiful sound. Gentle daylight filled the room, mitigated by an overcast morning sky. Taylor was on the couch, her head and arms laid against its plush top. With Taylor's voice so clearly overcome with bliss, Alex had no doubt what his succubus was up to or where she might be.

Alex lay in bed for a moment or two, stretching and listening in appreciation. He used to find the sight of Taylor in someone else's arms depressing, even painful. This was the polar opposite of all that. He could watch Taylor and Lorelei together for hours -- except he'd have a hard time resisting the ever-present option to join in.

Quietly, Alex slipped out of the bed and into the bathroom to freshen up. Taylor didn't even notice. Her eyes were closed, and she was somewhere north of Cloud Nine regardless. He took care of business quickly, making a point of brushing his teeth so as to save everyone from morning breath.

When he came back out, Taylor was still in the same position she'd been before. Stepping around the couch, Alex could see Lorelei kneeling before Taylor with her head buried between the brunette's legs. He wondered with a smirk how long it had been since Lorelei came up for air and if Taylor was even capable at the moment of caring. Probably not, he decided. He doubted there was anything to think of other than those lips and that tongue.

For a moment, Alex wondered about the best way to announce his presence. Figuring Taylor wouldn't notice right away, he knelt next to Lorelei, trailing kisses across her back. Lorelei let out a softly audible purr of acknowledgement, but didn't pull back from Taylor's pussy. Smiling, Alex then shifted up to Taylor, his own hands joining with Lorelei's in caressing the younger woman's legs, flat belly and supple breasts. Taylor stirred just enough to encourage more. When Alex came up to kiss her, she kissed back eagerly.

"No. Not me. Her," Taylor breathed out finally. "Give her some attention. She won't let me."

"As you wish," Alex smiled. He pulled away from Taylor to take up a spot on his knees behind Lorelei. Reading his intentions, Lorelei raised up her hips to present herself to him. Taylor's eyes were wide now as she watched Alex sink that phenomenal cock of his into the other woman from behind.

Taking Lorelei like this yesterday had driven Alex wild, and Lorelei with him. The position had struck a chord for them both. They had reveled in fucking as master and slave before collapsing into a warm, intimate afterglow to share their amazement. Now, however, Alex was slow and steady, not wanting to throw off Lorelei's service of Taylor.

It made some difference, but just the same the two quivered with excitement. Taylor could sense the change. They were both trembling, and while Lorelei kept Taylor ecstatically pinned to the couch with her mouth, the older woman's kiss now vibrated with vocal reactions to her lover. Lorelei's attentions quickened. She was less interested in extending Taylor's pleasures now and much more inclined to bring her to climax. Lorelei slipped a couple of fingers inside her, beckoning her to orgasm while her tongue began a relentless assault of rapid, light brushes against her clit.

Taylor's climax came with an audible gasp of excitement. Her whole body contracted with pleasure as she was set off. Lorelei continued her attentions throughout Taylor's long orgasm, giving the sort of long ride of wonderful spasms and tingles that made everything Taylor had ever felt before last night pale in comparison.

When Taylor's eyes fluttered open again, she found Lorelei's head and shoulders in her lap while Alex thrusted into her from behind with greater force and need. The younger woman was more than happy to accommodate them. It was a wonderful sight; both of her partners seemed to really lose themselves in the moment. Lorelei gasped and moaned with a vulnerability that seemed surprising from someone so controlled and experienced, while Alex drove on with a mix of love and instinctive selfishness on his face. For the moment, he seemed to have forgotten Taylor was even there.

What really blew Taylor's mind, though, happened a few long minutes into this entertaining spectacle. Lorelei's cries of pleasure became ever louder, ever more compelling...and finally became a single, coherent word, over and over again: "Master." Taylor looked on with amazement as the woman in her lap gave herself up to Alex, who took her with a fierceness that Taylor never would have expected from him. It was about the hottest thing Taylor had ever seen. She was torn between the desire to see this go on and on and the building need to see them both get off. The whole spectacle enthralled her, as did the uncontrolled calls of, "Master! Yes! Master!"

They came together. Lorelei was wracked with spasms and whimpers on Taylor's lap while Alex stiffened and flooded her. Lorelei's cries filled the room. He grunted and gasped for a long time, too, but his expression finally softened.

Alex released his selfish grip on Lorelei's hips to gather her into a tender, loving embrace. Lorelei buried her face in the curve between his neck and shoulder while she held him tightly. It seemed as if she might be crying as he stroked her hair and tried to calm his own breathing. "Thank you, master," she whispered. "Thank you."

Wide-eyed and amazed, Taylor breathed, "Holy shit."

His eyes turned up toward hers, and he seemed to blush a bit. "There's...there are some things we really need to tell you," he admitted with a self-conscious grin.

************

"We're not joining your Super-Secret Witches' Club. So fuck off."

"It's not --!" he paused, glancing around quickly at their surroundings in the small bookstore. There weren't exactly a whole lot of other customers, or really any at all, but he was a bit paranoid. "It's not a witches' club," he hissed, "and you should be discreet about such things."

Molly glanced over her shoulder at the bald fellow with the naturally sinister -- well, creepy and nerdy -- face. He was a few inches shorter than her, dressed in a black trench coat over an olive drab dress shirt. The guy openly wore a chain with a pentagram and another with an all-seeing eye symbol, and he had an evil eye tattooed on his neck just over his collar, yet he wanted Molly to be quiet about his club in the middle of an occult bookstore. "This is the third time you've bugged me about this," she said.

"You will not get another offer," he pressed.

"Yeah, bullshit. We won't get another offer 'til the next one. I told you the first time, and you were told again after that: fuck off."

"You're only short-changing yourself. A new order is coming to this city," the little man continued on. He spoke with a quiet urgency, still looking this way and that. "You can be on the inside for it or you can be an outsider when it happens. We are trying to be polite."

"Not listening," Molly shrugged.

"Then at least look at this," the man said. He shoved a color print-out of a picture out in front of him, which left him holding it straight in front of Molly from around her left side.

She glanced down at it, blinked, and then promptly bit her tongue. Then she forced a scowl as she took it. "What is this? A picture from hotchickswithdouchebags.com? I've seen a million of them."

"Bring us anything on the guy circled in the picture or the woman in the sketch and you'll be rewarded."

"Would that get you to go away?"

"The guy's name is Alex. He may be mundane, but it's also possible that he's a Practitioner and we just don't know which Practice yet. The woman is Lorelei. She's...not of this world," he said in a lower voice. "Spewed forth from the Pit."

"Something's gonna be spewed forth from my pit all over your snazzy outfit if you don't back the fuck up. You're making me nauseous. When was the last time you brushed?"

Finally, he snapped. "I'm done being patient. You can rule with the rest of us or you can be food. Your choice."

"Food--? Oh, fuck, are you people involved with them? Jesus. You're bigger pansies than I thought. Go away, I don't want anyone seeing me talking to you." She turned away from him to look at the bookshelves again.

"Fucking cunt," he said, reaching out to grab her, but then he suddenly stopped with the sound of a loud, low smack of a hand on fabric. He let out a high-pitched grunt and jerked bolt upright.

"Leave us alone," Onyx said calmly, clutching his groin from behind, "or you and all your future offspring get to enjoy a soul-burning case of hereditary herpes."

He grunted again, then nodded and made a motion as if to show he was leaving. Onyx released him, standing up her full height as he strode away. She walked after him a moment just to be sure that he'd leave without any further trouble. The clerk at the counter hardly looked up from painting his nails.

"Sorry I picked such a bad time to go to the bathroom," Onyx remarked dryly as she turned back to Molly. Then she frowned with concern at the look on her redheaded lover's face. "What is it?" When Molly showed her the picture of Alex at the house party and the sketch of the woman Onyx had seen at his home, she gasped.

"Their little magic club is looking for them. He said her name's Lorelei and she's from Hell, and that Alex might be a Practitioner."

Onyx shook her head. "No way. Not him. I'm telling you."

"I believe you," Molly shrugged, "but I imagine this is the woman you saw at his place, right? Wouldn't that confirm what we thought?"

"Yeah. Wow. What the hell is going on with him?"

"I didn't want to ask Poindexter out there, but clearly something serious. Though why it would involve those buttmunches out there is beyond me. Maybe she's an escapee from one of their pervy summoning orgies?"

Onyx made a face. "Ugh, you think they really do that?"

"Probably. You don't think a guy like that gets laid without using magic, right? It's either summonings or probably date r*pe sorcery. I'd prefer not to think about the latter."

It didn't make Onyx feel any better. She looked up at her hard-hearted girlfriend with eyes full of apology. "This is such a mess," she frowned. "I'm so sorry."

Molly just grinned. "I can think of other ways for you to apologize."

"I'm serious!" Onyx said, swatting her arm while trying to fight off a smile of her own.

"I am, too. If I can get lingerie shows and breakfast in bed every time you get some from a guy, I might have to find a way to arrange some regular Friday afternoon action for you. You're a lot of fun when you feel guilty."

"You're not going to let me live this down, are you?"

"Onyx, I'm trying. I want you to stop feeling guilty about this. Look, if he's bad news, we'll have to end it, but if there's a chance that things are okay or we can make 'em okay, I'm not going to go back on what I said last week. Remember? You remember the 'what would we do with a penis' conversation?" Molly waited for her to blush, and then shrugged. "Hey, I like him, too. He seems like a nice guy. I don't want to see him eaten by demons. So let's get our shit together and figure out our options, okay?"

After a deep breath, Onyx shrugged. She tossed her head to the bookshelf in front of Molly. "Find what we're looking for?"

"Yeah," Molly said as her grin turned to a frown. "But I didn't want to pull it down in front of that tool that was bugging me. Anyway, it's seventy bucks." She glanced back at Onyx. "Think he's worth it?"

Onyx's mouth twisted to match Molly's expression. She sighed. "I guess that's my budget for going out for the next week." She pulled a large, hard-bound book on demonology from the shelf.

"I kinda like staying in with you lately," Molly said, slipping an arm around Onyx's waist and kissing her lightly on the neck. "Hell, I didn't even want to leave the apartment today." She pulled the book from Onyx's hands. "Early birthday present. I'm buying." She planted another kiss, this one on Onyx's lips.

"You sure?"

"Yeah. But take a look outside while I'm paying up. You've got better eyes."

Onyx strolled over to the front of the store, looking out at Broadway Avenue. The morning rain had lessened to a steady Seattle drizzle. Traffic was light; there wasn't that much activity on Capitol Hill at this hour on a wet Sunday. Onyx and Molly both took it for granted that most of the hill's denizens were still sleeping off their hangovers. With the relative lack of human activity, though, Onyx found it even easier to spot the telltale gloom of very malevolent intent.

"Oh wow," Onyx said as Molly got the book rung up by the clerk. "He's out there with friends. I don't think this is just another try at following us home." She cast a concerned look at Molly. "This is really serious."

Molly took a deep breath and let it out. No getting away from this now. She looked at the clerk. "Hey, have you got a back door here? Out to the alley outside?"

The clerk looked up from under his dreadlocks evenly, glancing over at Onyx and back again. He shook his head. "Not that I can let anyone use. Sorry. Owner's instructions. There's runes all over that door, and it's my ass if it gets opened and something comes out of it."

"You got roof access at least?"

"Got that. But I wouldn't try climbing down."

"No, I've just gotta call some friends," Molly nodded.

"And could we use the back room for like ten minutes?" Onyx said, coming over to them.

"Well that depends on what you're going to use it for," the clerk said. "I heard about the last time you two used it."

Both young women blushed at that, looking at one another guiltily. "Um," Onyx said, trying not to laugh in embarrassment, "very serious occult business here today, sir. We swear."

"Mm-hmm," Molly nodded, choking down her own commentary.

The clerk glanced outside again. It was pretty clear that he understood the score. "I don't need to know what you're up to, then," he shrugged with a very practiced noncommittal tone. "Just remember, this is neutral ground. Whatever you've got going on, you need to save it for the street."





Chapter 59: Girl Power...

The only thing on Kenneth's mind after he'd left the store was cruel and bloody vengeance. That didn't change in the twenty minutes he'd been standing behind the van across the street. He smoked a clove cigarette, thinking about all the brutal things he was going to do to those two bitches when they finally came under the thumb of the Brotherhood.

To say they were going to regret not accepting his invitation was an understatement. His Lord would certainly let him have the two cunts for a few nights before having to hand them over. At worst, Lord Stefan might want to have his own fun with them while they were still fresh, but he'd tire of their flesh soon enough. He was an old man, after all, and not given to any appreciation for modern styles. He might want the Goth princess in the lacy black dress. She had something of a classic, delicate beauty to her. But the redhead was a punk and a dyke to boot; naturally pretty, but marred enough by make-up and tomboyish sensibilities that Stefan wouldn't likely soil himself with her. He'd surely leave her to Kenneth. Unless for some reason it would be good politics to hand them over to the vampires, anyway.

Why this hadn't been done before now was beyond him. Kenneth could see not going after the pair of pagan circles in the suburbs; they had numbers enough to put up a real fight. And the Indians running the casinos were too much to go after right now, too. But these two bitches were all on their own. No back up, no one else to even form a solid coven. Certainly not up to defending themselves from the Brotherhood of Apollo. Just like the old Russian witch they'd buried in Tukwila last month.

The only real question was whether it'd be more fun to make them obedient servants or just break them and dump them in Elliott Bay. Probably the former, ultimately. One simply couldn't waste magical talent, no matter how misplaced.

The rain began to pick up. Kenneth tapped on the window of the van. "Manny," he said, "keep alert. They'll be coming." Between the rain and the endless line of parked cars along the side of the street, the bitches would probably feel they had enough cover to make an unseen getaway.

Manny nodded. The driver glanced across the street, then immediately back to Kenneth with a twirl of his fingers. Showtime.

Kenneth saw them both walking quickly down Broadway. He wasn't surprised that they might suspect pursuit, but that was fine. He didn't really expect they'd be able to do anything about it. Two hedge witches who talked tough. Hereditary herpes, my ass, he thought.

Manny started the van's engine. Kenneth started walking after them. Soon after that, a man looming in a doorway not far from the two girls also came out, joining Kenneth in his pursuit. Two others positioned further ahead would cut off their escape route as they walked, while the van could prevent them from pulling away from the curb if they got into one of the cars parked on the street.

Kenneth had put guys down both directions of Broadway, not knowing which direction the bitches would take. The three guys who'd been positioned down the opposite way would linger long enough to make sure no telling evidence was left behind if there was a struggle, and would be sure to muddy the waters of any police investigation that might arise. There would be few witnesses on a rainy, empty Sunday morning street.

Kenneth strode on, mouthing the words to a sorcerous curse. His fingers twitched and swirled in malevolent patterns at his side as he walked. He focused his wrath on the Goth princess, keeping his gaze fixed on her right up until the bird shit landed on his face.

It happened right as his two minions up beyond the girls had stepped out from their hiding spots. Kenneth jerked back reflexively, wiping the nasty oily mess off his face with one hand. Without even thinking about it, he looked up to see the edges of the buildings and the telephone lines above him lined with crows despite the rain. They were all staring down at him.

A heartbeat later the murder of crows took wing, diving straight for him in a mob that quickly blackened out the sky above him.

Kenneth's wingman on the sidewalk yelled out his name and tried in vain to slap the birds away. There were just too many of them, tearing at him with beaks and talons and shocking ferocity. Kenneth tumbled to the ground screaming.

It all unraveled after that so spectacularly that it could only be the result of a vicious hex worked up before the girls even left the store. Up ahead, one of Kenneth's thugs lunged for Onyx only to fall down flat on his face right in front of her with an ugly crunch. The other didn't fare much better; he had a stun gun, but he didn't have anything that would help him against the alley cat that came from out of nowhere to leap at his crotch with a frightening yowl. It was more than enough of a distraction for Molly to plant her brass knuckles straight into his cheek. One such punch was enough to lay him out.

Manny had just rolled up near the two girls in his van as the thugs both went down. He saw the first, who had slipped in the rain, catch a brutal kick to the groin from the redhead. The goth princess just simply looked up at Manny and pointed at him.

Panicked, he threw the van into reverse and slammed the accelerator to the floor. He got away from the girls, and indeed backed up past where his boss was being slashed to pieces by angry crows. He came to a stop, though, when his van hit a car that he hadn't realized was coming up the street from behind him.

In his rear view mirror, he could see the two cops in the patrol unit he'd just slammed into. They were both men, both in their thirties. The driver was a white guy with short brown hair and glasses. His partner was black, slightly bigger and slightly less amused by the situation. They made eye contact with Manny via his mirror. He was sure of it.

"I swear to fuckin' God," Manny heard the black cop say loudly as he got out of the car, "this is the third patrol car this year you've totaled."

"How do you figure!?" the white cop snapped back, also getting out of the car. "He backed into us! You saw it! The whole world saw it!"

"Yeah, whatever. Tell it to your cats when you get home."

They both approached the front of the van. Then the white one stopped, looking around himself curiously. "Hey, Tyrone, is it just me or do you hear someone groaning in agony?"

************

Alex and his demon slave-girlfriend didn't play fair, but Taylor couldn't really bring herself to be very angry about it. He was reclined in the bed with Taylor laying on her back against him, grinding on his cock while Lorelei knelt between their legs licking every bit of Taylor's intimate flesh not obstructed by Alex's shaft. With all that, it was really hard to be mad at all. It was hard to think about anything except how awesome this whole thing was.

Taylor only really believed their whole crazy story on account of the tail and the horns. They had also both ruthlessly and seductively cuddled up to her while they told her everything. Taylor was relatively convinced that they hadn't held back anything other than details about Alex's other flings, but at least they were open about the fact that such had happened. Or would happen. Probably both. Sort of nebulous there.

If anything was worrisome, it was the fact that Taylor was willing to sit through the whole thing after she'd realized that yes, Lorelei really was some fire-breathing monster from Hell. But she was a fire-breathing monster who really knew how to make her feel safe -- and so did Alex, for that matter. And Lorelei was also a fire-breathing monster who really knew her way around Taylor's surprisingly needful pussy.

How the talk about Alex's crazy supernatural relations had led to this wasn't something Taylor could really remember as she both rode and relaxed against Alex and enjoyed Lorelei's attention. But she figured if she wasn't going to run out of the suite screaming, she might as well have a good time.

Alex controlled the pace, keeping himself deeply buried within her while shifting her around with his hands on her hips. He made sure to do nothing that would disrupt Lorelei, who was clearly fixated on driving Taylor out of her mind with that mouth and those hands that roamed over Taylor's naked body.

Eventually, Taylor felt weak all over from the overwhelming assault on her senses. Her head fell back, supported by the pillow behind Alex and his own head next to hers. She whimpered to him, feeling no inhibitions over his seeing, feeling and hearing the sort of state he and his lover had brought her to.

Her orgasm wasn't brief, or mild, or even singular. None of them had been since her first last night. She was even past being noisy about it, but it was clear from the way both Alex and Lorelei relaxed in their attention on her that they knew when she was finally spent. It probably showed in the way her body twitched and shook and finally relaxed, or in the breathless thanks she moaned into Alex's ear.

Lorelei slid and crawled up over Taylor's glistening body, feeling sexy and exciting across every inch of contact. "Thank you," Lorelei said softly.

"For what?" Taylor gasped. She was sweating, trembling and almost delirious with pleasure.

"For allowing us to apologize for our earlier omissions," Lorelei answered hotly. The succubus invaded her mouth with a deep, probing kiss. All this while Taylor lay in Alex's comforting embrace and still with his sex fully encased in hers.

"Oh," Taylor mumbled wearily, "is that what this was?"

"I still feel pretty guilty," Alex said.

Worn out and exasperated, Taylor let out a pleasured but plaintive groan. "Tell me you came," she implored softly, leaning her forehead into his cheek.

"He did," Lorelei grinned.

"I didn't mean it like that," Alex blushed. Lorelei leaned over Taylor's shoulder to kiss him. He shifted a bit as it happened, which left Taylor purring.

"I don't know if I can take anymore apology from you two," Taylor said finally, "but I don't know if I can move, either."

"You don't have to. Enjoy him," Lorelei said, pulling away from her to sit up on her knees. Her hands still roamed Taylor's body as she looked the younger woman over with appreciation. "Your body will handle far more pleasure now than it could before. Consider it another bit of apology."

Taylor nodded, breathing in deeply as she slipped her right arm lazily up and around the side of Alex's head. "So is this all you do now?" she murmured. "Sex all day and night?"

"Not exactly," he admitted, still very happy to have her so close and so connected. "We're still working out a happy medium. I want this, but I still want to have a life, too. And I don't want to turn into an egotistical pig or anything."

"Better not," Taylor smirked. "I couldn't sleep with you, then."

"Is that something you want?" Lorelei asked her.

"Kind of, yes," Taylor admitted, her voice still weary but happy. "I guess I don't really know what to say. This is wonderful. You're both wonderful. I want more of this." Without really thinking about it, her left hand had already trailed down between her legs to tease the clit that Lorelei had just overwhelmed for the last long while. She was also still filled with Alex's cock. Weary or not, it was as Lorelei said: Taylor was recovering quickly and feeling as horny as ever.

"I want more of both of you," she mused. "But what that actually means, I don't know. I'm not in a very rational state right now." Her head turned from where she was nuzzled against Alex to look at the woman kneeling over them both. "What do you want?"

Lorelei smiled a bit, but glanced at Alex before she spoke. He cocked his head curiously. "It's a good question. I feel really bad for not having asked it."

"You have, though not in so many words," Lorelei said, her smile becoming warm and reassuring. "Ever since we first met, you have been concerned with my happiness. With meeting my own needs as much as you can. As any lover should be."

"Alex has already given me the things that I have longed for all these centuries, all of which I could never have admitted to myself without great pain." Her answer was directed at Taylor, but her gaze was still on him. "I have love. I have friends. People who care about me for myself, and not for what power or pleasure they can take from me. I have escaped the random, cruel punishment of former masters who knew nothing of mercy. I will never again lay with someone who deserves only pain and death. For the first time in thousands of years, I feel like I am something more than sex and manipulation and murder." Her voice cracked as she added, "Because of him, I have earned some tiny but priceless measure of forgiveness, and I am finally learning the value of penance."

For a moment, Taylor felt very guilty about being between the two of them. She couldn't help but notice, though, that Lorelei's hands had come down to her hips, as if to keep her impaled on her lover. At the same time, however, she wasn't satisfied with the answer. "That's not what I asked," she observed softly.

Lorelei glanced again toward Alex's eyes. He nodded. "I want to hear it," he said.





Chapter 60: Lorelei's Desires...

Lorelei paused, as if gathering her thoughts. Then she looked directly at him. "I want to truly unleash my affections upon you, master. I want to fill your life with everything you desire, including the desires that you do not yet voice. I want you to have as many deep, romantic relationships as you might enjoy. I want to be your servant, your protector, your mentor, your most intimate friend and your lover. I want to build for you an adoring harem of such devotion, beauty and wanton sexuality that it would leave the most decadent of kings and emperors choking with envy. I want to aid you in an endless string of casual trysts and sensual conquests of whoever strikes your fancy. I want you to take me and enjoy me and love me without the slightest restraint, and know that I am forever yours."

Her words were met by two wide-eyed stares and a single, shared word: "Wow."

Lorelei's smile smoldered with love and wickedness. "You demanded an answer, and I cannot lie to you. You are my master, my victim, and my love. Your desires prompt my own. Your pleasures feed me. Do not be deceived; my desires are entirely selfish."

She then chuckled a bit, and leaned over Taylor again. "I should also admit that I have more than a little desire for you." With that, she planted a deep, aggressive kiss upon the younger woman. With her hands she ground Taylor's hips against Alex's until she had set them both off on unexpectedly quick orgasms. The kiss Lorelei left Taylor with was long and passionate, and was quite the spectacle for Alex.

The succubus finally withdrew to allow her partners their afterglow. Taylor twitched and twisted until Alex helped her turn around to curl up in his arms. He held her gently, but his eyes were on Lorelei, who looked on at her accomplishments here with pride.

"I love you," he mouthed silently. "So much."

Lorelei just nodded and winked knowingly. Then she rose from the bed. "For all my desires, what matters most here this morning is the two of you. I should let you have some time together alone."

Taylor lifted her head, looking from one of them to the other with a concern that she couldn't really articulate. "I don't have anything to say to one of you but not the other," she said.

"You do. It's natural, Taylor. I am not worried. You came to the party last night looking for Alex, not me. He wanted very much to see you, too. You have a lot to talk about. And as we told you, I am bound to his pleasures. I certainly hope you will make love while I am out. Even then, you won't be making love with Alex alone."

As she moved off to slip into the bathroom for a shower, Taylor turned toward Alex. "She's really...? I feel dumb for asking this after everything she just said, but is she really okay with this?"

Alex grinned, laughing a little before he kissed her. "You're starting to sound like me."

Alex had noted that Lorelei seemed to be genuinely fond of his longtime crush. He watched as a completely naked Taylor melted in his lover's arms and then allowed her to pull away.

"I'll be back before too long," Lorelei said when she returned. "But I need Alex for a moment or two outside, if that's alright with you?"

"Sure," Taylor smiled, her hands lingering before the two parted. With everything that had happened, Taylor settled back into the bed. She watched as Lorelei, clad in a casual but sexy blue dress, tossed Alex one of the suite's bathrobes and led him outside.

The moment the door shut, they were in one another's arms with lips and tongues intertwined. All weekend long, Alex had at the forefront of his mind the thought that he would never, ever really have enough of her. The kiss was just one small part of that, but it was every bit as awe-inspiring as the rest.

"Thank you for this," he said softly.

"No. Thank you, master. This is wonderful. She's almost as delicious as you. I'm beginning to develop an addiction to good-hearted people," Lorelei grinned.

"I meant this whole weekend. Everything. You."

She looked at him with a glimmer of joy in her eye. "Reward me by enjoying yourself," she said, bringing her hands up his chest and then around his neck. "Enjoy her. Talk. Make love. Hold back nothing. And remember that I am yours. Nothing between the two of you or any other lover can sever us."

Alex grinned back at her. "Not after that monologue you just delivered in there."

"You liked that? I feared it might be too much too fast."

"It probably was, but I still want to hear it over and over again. God, I am so in love with you."

"Good. Then don't worry about me. You must focus on her. Alex, I have tasted her desires. I suspect you would rather I respect her privacy than tell you, but that must be your decision. My first loyalty will always be to you."

He blinked for a minute, considering it, but nodded. "It means a lot to me that you consider my conscience. I would feel really bad if you told me too much."

"As I thought," Lorelei nodded back. "I will say this, however: do not push for too much too fast. This is already somewhat overwhelming to her."

"It's overwhelming to me, too."

"I know. I just don't want to see you inclined to rush things between you because of your popular culture's obsession with aggrandizing young love. There is a very big world out there. I would not have made a point of reuniting you with your high school crush had she not all but literally fallen into your lap the way she did. I need not remind you that if this does not work out you certainly won't go through life broken-hearted and alone."

"I think I get what you're saying. Honestly, I didn't think I'd ever see her after graduation. I was shocked as hell to run into her again."

Lorelei nodded. "Consider that she might not have become so interested in you now had you not already made your peace with losing her."

"Are you always going to counsel me on how to handle other women?" he smiled.

"Would you like me to repeat my 'monologue?'" Lorelei answered. She pulled him closer to wrap him in another long and loving kiss before she released him. "Go to her. Decide where to go from here, or leave it unspoken as you wish. Make any arrangement you want. I would be more than happy to be ruthlessly used as a bargaining chip," the succubus added with a wink. "I'll be back in a while, after I have attended some other matters."

Alex didn't ask what those were. He simply nodded, said, "I love you," and went back inside.

************

Rachel sat perched on the balcony railing of the honeymoon suite. It was the sort of position that could only be comfortable for someone who had grace and balance beyond mortal capacity. The cold rain didn't really bother her, either. She was fine with the way it left her white dress clinging to her body. In fact, it was probably for the best. It kept her from overheating.

Watching the suite all morning, and all through the night before, had left her feeling very hot indeed. She had to keep her hands pinned under her butt because she had no idea who might fly past while she tried to relieve the maddening heat between her legs.

Rachel was absolutely enthralled by what she could see and hear going on in her charge's bed. She was therefore very startled when she heard the voice behind her ask, "Have you been here watching them all this time?"

Rachel yelped, jumping off the rail and whirling around. Floating there on angelic wings was Julia, Taylor's guardian angel. Where Rachel herself looked fairly close to Alex and Taylor's ages, Julia looked old enough to be Taylor's mother. Her divinely beautiful mother, but older nonetheless. But age and image were very relative things among angels. The only real difference here was that the outward appearance of greater age and maturity really only emphasized the expression of suspicion and disapproval on Julia's face.

"Uh, yeah," Rachel said, recovering quickly. "I'm, like, guarding? Like a guardian?"

"Like a voyeur," Julia said dryly. Her arms were folded across her chest.

"Call it whatever you want," Rachel shrugged, "point is I'm on the fuckin' job."

Julia just shook her head. "Peace. I may disapprove of much here, but I do not mean to judge you. Nor am I blind to your predicament. Nor would I call into question your devotion to your charge."

Rachel let some of her hostility and frustration go with a huff. "Thanks," she said, brushing strands of soaking wet hair from her face.

"As I say, though, this does not exactly meet with my favor. Has the whore thoroughly corrupted my Taylor?"

"No. Lorelei hasn't done anything that we could act on. And I don't think I'd call it corruption, anyway. She's not... she doesn't do that anymore, remember?"

Julia shrugged with a frown. "I have heard your position in this. You'll forgive me if I reserve my judgment for now."

"Well, she's about to leave anyway. Taking off for wherever to give Alex and Taylor some time alone. And he's not at all a corruptor."

"They have been friends for several years. I have seen much more of him than you have." Rachel smirked, casting a meaningful glance back at the balcony door.

"Well," Julia huffed, "not like that."

Rachel's expression was unchanged. "They're kinda hot together. He looks better naked than you probably gave him credit for. Certainly better than Taylor expected. Seems like he can really use what he's got, too."

At that, Julia huffed again. "Alex was a fine young man, but it wasn't his physical appearance that kept him from having any chance with her before now. It was his lack of self-confidence and the way he wore his heart on his sleeve. He was looking for happiness from others that he should have been able to find in himself. It puts a girl off, you know."

Rachel's smirk turned to a wider grin. "Doesn't sound like the Alex I know. So I guess maybe this isn't just Lorelei's influence at work alone?"

Julia scowled, but granted Rachel's suggestion with honest consideration. "It's possible that in their year apart Alex grew considerably. I would grant that his recent trials have likely given him reason to feel more confident in himself." After a moment's pause, she added, "The Alex that I saw last night was a very different young man than the high school student I remember."

"Trials will do that to a person," Rachel shrugged. Her smile became sly and mischievous. "You sure you don't want to watch them for awhile?"

"I think not. I have other charges. You have only the one. I came in part to say that you are doing well as a guardian angel. Others had their doubts that a former messenger could rise to this, but all things considered I believe you are handling yourself quite well."

Rachel blinked. "Wow. Um. Thanks."

Julia nodded, allowing herself a bit of a smile. "And if the succubus steps an inch outside of her boundaries, I expect you to pitch her into the bay." With that, Julia soared away on her broad white wings.

Rachel let out a long, deep breath. Finally, she's gone, she thought. The praise meant a lot to her, really... but when she resumed her perch on the balcony rail, she was pleased to see that she hadn't really missed much of the show inside.





Chapter 61: Taylor's Confession...

Taylor was standing a short distance away, staring at her utterly naked body in the mirrored closet door. "I am fucking hot," she declared in amazement.

"I know. Turns out I've always known," Alex chuckled.

"No, I mean look at me."

"I'm really looking at you."

"I had a bit of a belly. Just yesterday. My legs weren't this toned. And my butt was flatter. I've got like a perfect, tight bubble butt now. Look at me!"

"I am. I always thought you were really beautiful, Taylor."

"Okay, maybe I was cute, but not like this. I could be in movies just because I'm this hot. I wouldn't even have to be able to act."

"Glad you're setting your personal standards high there."

"God, I'm getting turned on again just looking at myself."

"You really haven't changed that much at all, but if you're that into yourself, I'd hate to get between you and you," Alex smirked.

Taylor laughed at his comment and at herself. She finally tore her eyes off the mirror to look at him. "I sound really stupid, don't I?"

He shrugged. "I'd do you. My girlfriend would do you, too. Hell, if you want, I can have Lorelei change herself to look just like you and then it'll be like having sex with yourself. If I was you I'd think that was really fun."

She laughed again. "Wow, can she really do that?"

"Apparently. I haven't asked her to do anything like that, though. I guess it takes some effort or energy or something and she's not really completely recovered from the way I found her."

Taylor stepped close to him, unwrapping him from the bathrobe. "As long as you're not having her look like me when you can have the real thing," she grinned.

"I'm really glad you came."

"Over and over and over," she smirked, and soon his cock was in her playful hands again.

"Yeah, that, too."

"What to do with this next," Taylor mused to herself, looking down while he reached up to caress her arms and shoulders. She pulled him closer, slipping his dick under and across the wet lips between her legs to tease them both. "We've got a lot to talk about, don't we?" she murmured.

"We do." Alex's tongue twitched at the sensations she was putting him through. His eyes fluttered. "But you're driving me crazy with this."

"Same here," she breathed. "How...how do you and Lorelei ever find time to talk about anything? How do you not just have sex all the time?"

"I thought we were going to talk about us?"

"Hey, I slept with her, too. And will again from the sounds of things. It's not like I can't see how serious you two are. She's part of what there is with us. I really like being with you both. No reason to be shy about it," Taylor said, now close enough to him to whisper her words into his ear. "So how do you handle the tension?"

She was driving him nuts. "We...uh...pretty much just give in whenever we feel the need and...tuh, talk...when we've c-calmed down."

Taylor shuddered. "That sounds awesome. Can you show me?"

With that, Alex slipped one hand down her leg to lift it up above his hip and managed to slowly drive into her where they stood. Taylor was perfectly cooperative, holding onto his shoulders and letting out noises of approval as he penetrated her, then gripped her ass to lift her while she wrapped her legs around his waist.

He didn't have to hold her upright long, nor did he intend to. The couple was right next to the bed, where Alex quickly knelt and laid her down on her back. She held onto him tightly, urging him on into a frenzied missionary position. They fucked with grunts and gasps of affection. All she wanted was his cock buried insider her while she held him close.

"Don't stop," she eventually gasped. "Don't stop. Not even if I cum. Just don't stop."

Alex was entirely happy to give her what she asked for. By the time she had said so, she was very near climax. Alex kept up his pace, endlessly thrusting into the lovely girl even as she tightened around him in every way and began the erratic breathing and involuntary contractions of climax. "Cum for me, Alex," she whimpered as her body went out of control. "Cum for me. Cum with me."

He couldn't resist. He relentlessly fucked her even as his cock erupted within her to the sound of her joyous appreciation. When her spasms abated and he finally stopped flowing, they stretched out on the bed and against one another with hardly a pause in their mutually possessive motion. The only difference was that Taylor then grabbed Alex by the hair with both hands, pulling his head back so they could look hungrily into one another's eyes while they fucked toward and through a second glorious pair of nearly simultaneous orgasms.

They panted together, still watching one another's faces as they were both overtaken by shameless grins. "So amazing," Taylor said finally.

"Yeah, you are."

"I meant you. You're still...wow. I can feel how hard you still are. So big. God, this is so great."

"At your service, anytime," Alex huffed. She looked at him coyly, and he corrected, "Okay, maybe not any time, but I'll be as accommodating as I can."

Taylor took a long, happy breath. She stretched against him, smiling, feeling very physically contended. "I'm really glad you went shopping for lingerie," she said.

"I never even bought any," he chuckled.

"I'd be happy to help you on a return trip, sir," Taylor said in her best salesgirl voice, then laughed. "Okay, so...we've gotta talk about this. I really, really like you. This. Us. But are you okay if we're not a full-on couple?"

"Yes. Are you?"

"I'm here, aren't I?" Taylor smirked at him suspiciously. "Anyway. You. How many other girls so far?"

Alex blinked. Taylor had very pointedly not let him off of her or out of her body. In fact, she squeezed a little as he considered his answer. "Lorelei and your boss and you and Jocelyn. And Onyx."

Taylor snorted. "You slept with someone with a name like Onyx?" she grinned. When he nodded, she lifted her head up and kissed him again encouragingly. "Is there anyone else?"

"Rachel. I haven't slept with her, but we've kissed. There's something there. I think that one might be really serious, too."

"Your guardian angel?" He nodded again, and she just shook her head in amazement. "You talk to your guardian angel. That's gotta be crazy. This whole deal is crazy. You're crazy for not being made crazy by it!"

"It's sinking in now, isn't it?"

"Yeah, kinda. How do you deal with it?"

Alex frowned, pondering for a moment. Taylor's hands caressed his back, and her hips slowly shifted a little to the left and the right to indulge them both in the sensation of having him buried inside her. "I just keep thinking that I couldn't stand going back. I was in that chapel, and they were getting hurt, and I figured I'd rather die than just leave them there. And with everything that's happened since, I just know I couldn't possibly stand backing down from the good anymore than I could back down from the bad."

"Like those guys at the mall," Taylor suggested softly.

"Yeah, I guess. Not like that was all me, though," he reminded her. "You didn't exactly cower in a corner."

She didn't let him change the subject. "I wish I had known you were this ballsy back in high school. If I did you could of been balls deep in me then."

Alex shrugged. "Nothing this crazy happened then. But it's not like that would've made all the difference. I really was a spazz back then."

"Was? Back then?" Taylor grinned. It hung there a moment before she laughed at him. Then she cried out in pleasure and joy as he thrust mercilessly into her welcoming cunt over and over. Alex pushed her hands out above her head, keeping her spread-eagled before him as he reduced her to happy moans and gasps. He kissed her, enjoying the warm and wet reception her mouth offered as he assaulted her sex until she came again.

"You know that's not...that's not a good way to make me not make fun of you?" Taylor groaned eventually. Though she was weak and trembling, she made what little effort she could to keep him on top of her.

He complied with her wishes. "I know," he smiled, kissing her again.

"Mmmhhh, what were we talking about again?"

"Who else I've slept with or might have something going on with," Alex reminded her. He trailed kisses along her neck. "But we can talk about other things if you like. Seems like it's not very romantic. Endearing. Whatever we're being right now."

Again, Taylor stretched against him, pushing her breasts against his chest as her back arched. "You heard what Lorelei said. You've already got one girlfriend and she wants you to have more, and you've got no reason not to." She giggled at a random thought. "Oh God. 'Conquests.' I can totally see you in a smoking jacket in your trophy room showing off all the panties mounted on your wall." She affected a deep, fake English accent. "'And I claimed this one in Hawaii. She nearly gave me the slip, but in the end, I had her!'"

Alex laughed, burying his face in the pillow at her shoulder. "Jesus if I ever get like that please shoot me. I so do not want to be Relentless Arrogant Seducer Dude. That's just creepy."

"I think you're fine. But seriously. You're gonna be so rockstar your bitches will have bitches."

"I don't think of anyone as bitches or whores," Alex said.

Taylor smiled at that and kissed him. "I know you don't. I'm here right now and I know everything and all I feel is happy and appreciated and spoiled and loved. I don't feel pressured. It's my choice, and I choose to be here because it's fucking wonderful. So I can either drop you in a jealous huff, or I can admit that there's something kind of sexy about you turning into such a stud. At least you're not doing it behind my back. Or anyone else's, right?"

Alex shook his head. "They all know. Onyx has someone else. Audrey and Jocelyn were strictly casual. Rachel can apparently see me anytime I'm not with Lorelei. She says angels don't feel jealousy."

At that, Taylor snorted and waved to the open air. "Hi, Rachel!" she called out. "Fuck him! I did! It's great!" Alex's eyes bugged out of his head with shock, which left Taylor cackling with laughter.

"Don't joke about that!" he said, grinning but also mortified. "I'm not kidding! I have no idea when she's watching and when she's not."

Taylor was still laughing. "Oh man. Alex, that's not a bodyguard, that's a stalker."

"Maybe, if you think your stalker's awesome." He looked around the empty room. "I'm probably gonna pay for that later."

"You're welcome," Taylor giggled.

"You're bad."

"You want me."

"I really do."

"Good. Have me." She pulled his face down for a long, indulgent kiss, writhing against him indulgently.

"You're really not bothered by me seeing other women? Even if it's serious?"

"Right now it's kind of a turn-on. And it seems like maybe it'll help us not get too serious for me, at least for now. You...you're amazing and I really love being with you. But I mean what I say about not wanting a serious boyfriend again for a while. So if this starts to bother me, I'll say something. We'll either work it out or stop sleeping with each other. That'll be really sad, but as long as you're not hiding things from me I don't think we'll have problems at least staying friends. I need full disclosure. Can you do that?"

Alex nodded. "I can't stand the thought of pressuring you into something that wouldn't make you happy. I want to be your friend more than I want to be your bed buddy."

"Hopefully you can be both for a while. I've really missed having you in my life, and I didn't even really know it until last week... and you're amazing in bed. If your life's gonna be a nonstop porn movie, I think it'd be a lot more fun to be one of the stars than just a walk-on."

They both grinned, kissing one another hungrily again. There was more shifting in the bed as they reveled in their closeness and intimacy. Taylor looked like she was about to say something else, but then fell silent.

Alex noticed. "What is it?"

"Nothing." She tried to blow off his unsatisfied frown, but finally relented. "What's... is everything with you and Lorelei a two-way street? I mean, can she fool around with whoever she wants, too?"

"Um. I'm, uh, being a total hypocrite with her," Alex admitted. "I told her I don't care if she fools around with other women all she wants, but I want to be her only man."

"Huh."

He shrugged. "She told me I don't have to share at all if I don't want to. Wants me to only do what I'm comfortable with. Wants me to really feel like I'm her master, like she told you before. It's just how she's wired. But I gotta say, just 'cause I'm the master and she's the slave doesn't mean I'm really completely in charge."

Taylor nodded. "Slaves have all the power in that sort of relationship. You...you knew that, right?"

Alex grinned, then laughed at himself. "No, but I've kind of figured it out. Anyway, if she didn't like that rule, I'm sure she'd do something to convince me to change my mind about it. She's said she doesn't want other men, anyway. Something about having three thousand years of them already." He fell silent, looking at Taylor thoughtfully, and added, "She likes you. If you want to see more of her, too, even if I'm not there...I respect her privacy on that sort of stuff. She can keep all the secrets she wants there."

"I'd really like that, but that's not really why I asked," Taylor admitted.

"You can see other people, Taylor. I'm not going to be a hypocrite about you, too."

"You're not a hypocrite if she's comfortable with your arrangement," Taylor said, "but yeah. I want to date you and stuff, and I don't want to hold back on that, but I don't want to be exclusive, either. Even if we both know I'm not actively looking for someone else, we need to establish that. I can't really do that right now, y'know?"

Alex nodded. "It's fine. I just want to know what will make you uncomfortable so I don't act like a dork."

Taylor gave her head a dismissive toss. "I'm not telling you to hold back on being affectionate. I want you. I want you to want me. If people think you're my boyfriend when we're together that's fine. I want us to act the way we feel. I'm not worried about that. If that ever needs to change, I'll tell you. If I start seeing someone else, I'll tell you. But...Alex, what Lorelei said keeps going through my head. It sounds so awesome. I don't want a boyfriend, but I'm..."

She was hesitant to say it despite the calm, affectionate look on her partner's face. But she had to get it out. "She did something to me, Alex. Both of us. I mean, she told me straight off, I can't catch STDs and I'm not going to get pregnant as long as I'm involved with you guys, right? With her?" He nodded, and she continued. "And I'm clearly way hornier than I've ever been. I mean I should be sore right now. Probably hurt, but instead I know we're just going to be up all day and night getting it on even more."

"And she made me way better looking than I've ever been. I mean I'm afraid of getting hung up on myself, but I can't even tell myself I'm not hot so I can't get a big ego."

"You're smoking hot, Taylor," Alex grinned. "I'm not gonna help with that. But I don't think you're going to get a huge ego. Say what's on your mind."

"...I wanna go nuts for a while," Taylor confessed. "Like you. I want to try things. Have fun. Be adventurous. Maybe kinda dirty."

"You mean with other guys," he said. She nodded, looking up at him with a bit of worry and guilt. He asked, "Lots of other guys?"

"Maybe? I don't want to lose whatever we've got, though. Even if it's just friends with benefits. It's not like I wanna find a guy who's a better lay, and I don't think I possibly could regardless. I just want to...go have fun."

Alex looked at her thoughtfully for a moment. Finally, he said, "Do you trust me?"

"Completely."

He took a deep breath. "I imagine Lorelei's really good at arranging whatever sort of fun you're looking for. Consequence-free. If I promise never to ask any questions at all, would you like to borrow my sex slave?"





Chapter 62: Michelle's Weekend...

Michelle couldn't remember the last time she'd had such a good weekend.

Eddie had left her exactly as she'd asked him to: spread out on her bed, naked and well-fucked. She could have gone for more, and indeed felt insatiable all weekend, but he had made a valiant effort and certainly delivered above and beyond the call of duty. It wasn't like he hadn't gotten the job done one way or the other, either. He was fit, he was fun, he was attentive, and Michelle found that she was delightfully responsive to him.

He'd also been a perfect gentleman. Friday night had been the sort of dinner and dancing that she hadn't had in a long time. He held the door for her, threw his jacket over her shoulders while they were outside, never once got out of line or got cocky. They hadn't even been out an hour, though, before she was very sure she was taking him home with her and not letting him go anywhere until Sunday.

He had only gotten randy and dirty with Michelle at her own very overt instigation. She thrilled to the adorably dazzled look in his eyes when her dress came off. After that, she couldn't resist indulging him all weekend. In fact, she was already thinking of fun and naughty things to do with him the next time she saw him before he was even gone.

The only disappointment -- if she could call it that, really -- was in the way she was still alive with sexual arousal after he'd left. He would have stayed if she asked. She was sure of that. He'd have made another chivalrous foray between her legs with his fingers and his tongue, since his cock had already performed beyond any reasonable expectation and had to be pretty sore by now. Michelle kept herself in check, though, letting him leave her splayed and pleased and happy. It'd be better for both of them if he left her wanting at least a little more.

She thought it over while her fingers moved in stimulating swirls over her clit. It wasn't like she was actually disappointed. A minor inequality in which of them was more eager than the other, nothing more. He was certainly an improvement over her ex-husband in every way.

Neither of them wanted to rush anything. They were old and wary enough not to jump to conclusions. But at the same time, they were clearly looking at one another as keepers. Michelle was reliving all of it as the pleasure between her legs swelled and her breathing became heavier and the doorbell rang.

Dammit.

She seriously considered ignoring it. It wasn't like a person was obligated to answer every visitor. It wasn't as if Sunday afternoon was a likely time for anything more important than proselytizers or kids selling something for the school fundraiser. But Michelle had neighbors, and some of them were single parents, and damn if she didn't know how tough that was. She had extended her hand in aid more than once before. It might be someone in need.

"Just a moment!" she called out, hoping they would hear. She wondered if that call was louder than the ones she'd been giving out all weekend, but shrugged it off. If it was anything important, they'd likely wait. Michelle grabbed her long bathrobe off the chair -- out from under the discarded lacy shelf bra and garters, she noticed with a smile -- and slipped it on. She paused only to throw some lotion on her hands to cover up any other embarrassing scents before she descended to the bottom of the stairs.

Then she opened the door to find herself face to face with her son's older, disturbingly gorgeous and sexy new "girlfriend." Lorelei was there in a blue dress with her hands folded at her front and a soft, friendly expression on her face. "Miss Carlisle," she said, "I hope I haven't come at a bad time?"

Michelle just blinked. "Ah, no -- I mean -- is everything alright? Is Alex with you?"

Lorelei shook her head. "No. I've been with him all weekend, but he met up with a friend and they had some catching up to do. I had a few matters to take care of myself, so I left him to it. My first concern was the hope of speaking with you, if you have the time."

Truthfully, there couldn't really have been a more awkward time. Michelle was just coming off a weekend-long romp and was still very turned on, and now she was faced with this...woman who stirred worrisome feelings in her. But her son seemed perfectly serious about her, and Lorelei seemed both earnest and even a little worried. The last time she'd seen Lorelei was in the hospital. If Michelle turned Lorelei away now, who knows what effect it would have on her relationship with her own son? Certainly nothing permanent, but...

Michelle opened the door further and stepped back to allow Lorelei inside. "Come in, please," she said, brushing a lock of her blonde hair from her face. "I'm sorry I'm a bit disheveled. I just got done working out and haven't had a chance to shower."

"Oh, don't even think on it," Lorelei replied. Her eyes never left Michelle's, leaving the blonde feeling almost trapped. "You look fine. I imagine most women only wished they looked as good when all put together as you do after a workout."

Michelle blinked again. She really didn't know what to say to that. She felt very flattered to hear such a comment from a beauty like Lorelei. Michelle was sure she was blushing. "Um, thank you," she managed, now completely off her game. "Can I offer you coffee or anything?"

"Just your time," Lorelei said. "We got off on the wrong foot and we met under the worst of circumstances, and I know that Alex and I might seem like an unlikely match." Her tone was earnest, apologetic and sincere. There was a penitent look in her eyes that Michelle would never have expected.

Letting out a huff of agreement, Michelle said, "You really are. How much older are you than he is? You do know he's not even twenty yet, right?"

"I know," Lorelei said. "I am indeed much older. Even older than I look, I'll admit. But in that, I have to tell you that Alex is...everything I have ever wanted. I won't say that the difference of age and experience is an issue, but in some ways it's a bit of a comfort for both of us."

"You know he's never had a real girlfriend? But I take it you've had some other relationships?" Lorelei nodded slowly. "Several. I have been married, actually, and widowed."

"I'm sorry."

"Don't be. It's now ancient history, and loveless at the end if I am to be honest about it. What I mean to say is that I have had more than enough of what I don't want to know the true value of what I have now."

"You don't think that'll change with time? You don't think that you could find what you want with someone closer to your age and experience?"

"There will never be another man for me like Alex. Miss Carlisle, I will never leave him for anyone else, nor will I ever cheat on him or even look astray. Were there any oath I could take on that to convince you, I would gladly do so. I am here because I don't want you to worry about what will happen between your son and I. He means so very much to me. I would never hurt him."

Michelle frowned. "Look, he is an adult now. He has to make his own mis—choices," she corrected, but then sighed. "I'm sorry. You're right; I'm worried about this. You. I'm judgmental. I'm protective. My son and I have always been very close."

"He has said as much, and it is obvious in the things he doesn't say. He thinks the world of you. I have no wish to come between you...though inevitably that is something that can happen when a son or daughter takes a lover."

Michelle shook her head. "I was ready to let him go when he tried to join the Army. He wants to stand on his own two feet and I don't want him to lean on me anymore than he has to. Look, I'm sorry if this seems blunt, but you look like you're doing pretty well for yourself. What is it you do for a living?"

"I have had a couple of career changes," Lorelei said without missing a beat. "Mostly in the entertainment field. At the moment, I am somewhat blessed with leisure time. But regardless, I have a number of investments and I own several businesses that can essentially run themselves. Nightclubs and such."

"You're an entertainment entrepreneur," Michelle said with more than a hint of skepticism.

"I understand you're a businesswoman yourself. I would be more than happy to go into details, but I'd hate to change the subject here."

Exasperation prevented Michelle from responding right away. She was still energized and aroused from her wild weekend, which had ended a little too soon for her taste just minutes before. Lorelei was fabulously beautiful and standing almost uncomfortably close, leaving Michelle feeling very naked underneath her robe. Yet here they were talking about the most important person in her world in a context that Michelle was really not comfortable with.

She took in a deep breath and released it. Her mouth twitched in a grin of wry amusement at Lorelei's claims and her own frustration. Michelle needed to shift into cutthroat businesswoman mode and felt like she just couldn't get entirely there. She put a hand on the banister of the staircase next to her as if to steady herself.

"Sure," Michelle managed to say. "My point is that he's young and idealistic, but he has no real direction in his life yet. But nothing he's ever been interested in is the sort of thing that pulls in a lot of money or status."

"I'm not sure why that would matter? I'm certainly not interested in him for those things."

"No, but there's...there's an ambition gap there. Priorities. When he was ten and it was just him and me after I got divorced, and I pay all the bills let alone buy him presents for Christmas, he said all he wanted was to see me be happy. And he meant it. What ten year-old thinks like that? And that's how he's always been."

A quiet, soft smile spread across Lorelei's face. "That doesn't exactly lessen my feelings for him."

"No, but don't you...I'm not trying to call you materialistic. I hardly even know you. But everything about you just says to me that you and he must have such very different mindsets. You don't think that would have an effect on the health of this relationship in the long-term? You don't think someday you'd see him as...I don't know, lazy? Unambitious? I mean, he's not, but whatever he does with his life, I doubt it'll be anything that makes lots of money. You'll wind up feeling like you're carrying him. That doesn't sound like a potential issue to you?"

"Not at all. We've already talked about finances. Miss Carlisle...we both love Alex. You as a mother should, I as his lover. As I've said, you mean the world to him. Everything I've heard about you says you are a wonderful person. It pains me to think that you would look on me with suspicion or disapproval."

"Did you say 'lover?' You met a week ago," Michelle said. "Seems like a bit of a rush for someone who's older and wiser."

"I did, but it's not a rush," Lorelei said, smiling soothingly and almost innocently. She even put her hand over Michelle's on the banister. Michelle's eyes turned to it as her breath turned a touch shaky. Lorelei continued, "As I've said, this isn't so much about getting to know him. I've seen all I need. I know all that I must. I love your son, deeply and more truly than anything I've ever known. He loves me. We have trust."

"S-so wh-what's my say got to, um, matter in this?" Michelle swallowed. She glanced up at Lorelei. The dark-haired beauty was maddeningly self-composed, even smiling disarmingly.

"I want you to be more comfortable with me. With my relationship with your son, but also just between us, specifically."

"Does..." Michelle swallowed. "Does he know you're here?"

"No. I know he wanted to work this out with you, but I did, too. I saw that there might be an opportunity today and took it. I imagine a businesswoman such as yourself would understand the value of opportunism," Lorelei grinned.

That hand over Michelle's moved, gently and enticingly, with Lorelei's fingers caressing over Michelle's wrist. It should have been awkward. Unwelcome. Michelle didn't pull away.

"I don't...keep secrets from my son," Michelle managed to say.

"I do not ask you to," Lorelei shrugged. She stepped a little closer, and her voice became softer and more conspiratorial. "But there is secrecy and then there is discretion. I wouldn't be here if I thought for a moment that it would displease Alex, Miss Carlisle."

"Michelle," she corrected, a touch more softly than she had intended. She was having a lot of reactions that she didn't intend, in fact.

"Thank you," Lorelei smiled. "You should know that Alex and I have talked about secrets, Michelle. He really doesn't mind if I have a few."

"Wh-what kind of, um, secrets?"

"Intimate ones," Lorelei murmured.

A thrill ran through Michelle's center. She wasn't just a little rocky from her weekend with Eddie anymore. She was actually horny all over again now. Something in Lorelei's voice as it drew closer and quieter gave her the sort of vibrant rush that Michelle had felt all week when she went to bed, only it wasn't just under the surface this time.

She was completely amazed by this feeling of arousal. Couldn't explain it, didn't understand it. She also couldn't understand how Lorelei had come so close to her, or why she wasn't objecting.

"We should really get to know one another much, much better, Michelle," Lorelei said. She was close enough to kiss her.

Michelle's mouth and throat felt very dry. "I thought that's what we were doing," she said with an equally soft tone. She didn't mean to drop her voice like that. She meant to keep things casual, to avoid sending out the wrong signals. She had trouble thinking of what those wrong signals were and how to avoid them.

"Better than mere conversation," Lorelei corrected, and then kissed her.

Michelle didn't mean to kiss back. It was reflexive, involuntary. Her eyes went wide. She hadn't meant to do it, but she had, and she couldn't deny that it felt incredible. Lorelei's hand was still over hers on the banister. She touched Michelle's free arm with the other, slipping down along her elbow and wrist as she kissed Michelle again. This time it was no surprise at all, but Michelle still did nothing to stop it.

Suddenly Michelle felt as if all Eddie had done was tease her all weekend to get her spun up and vulnerable. That was crazy, of course, and unfair. He'd been wonderful. She'd take him again in a second. She wished desperately that he were here now, because maybe, just maybe, he'd be able to turn her away from kissing this utterly undeniable woman who was now slipping up against Michelle without meeting the slightest resistance.

Seconds later that void of resistance became actual cooperation. Michelle's eyes fluttered closed. Something she had only toyed with in dreams after a brief dalliance in college became a very real and deep desire. Lorelei was touching her. Michelle touched back. The kiss became hungry, passionate. Michelle brought her free hand up along Lorelei's shoulder. Lorelei's hand then moved to the sash of Michelle's bathrobe, slipping it open.

Michelle didn't stop her.

The hands on the banister fell away, only to quickly become part of their mutual exploration. Michelle's robe was open to her now. The feeling of Lorelei's touch against her bare skin made Michelle feel as alive and were met with as much of a welcome as any lover in the past. Michelle felt her nipples hardening, felt the burning need between her legs for the touch of her son's—

"I can't do this," Michelle gasped. She didn't step back, though. Lorelei didn't let up, merely moving from Michelle's mouth to her neck. "I can't. You're my son's girlfriend. I can't."

"I have permission to play with other women," Lorelei murmured soothingly. Her every word came in just the right tone to drive Michelle wild. "He doesn't mind. He wants me to have what I want. But it's sexier if he doesn't know about this."

"He's my son."

"He is my lover. I would never betray him." Lorelei's tongue trailed maddeningly behind Michelle's ear. "I am here because it is not betrayal. It's an indulgence."

"Eddie. I'm seeing someone." Lorelei's hand slid up Michelle's side underneath her robe and cupped the side of her breast. It felt incredibly good. Michelle wanted more.

"Have you made a commitment?"

"No."

"Then what Eddie doesn't know won't hurt him. When there is a commitment, we will come to an understanding. Until then...let me be the happiest secret of your life."

Michelle opened her mouth to say something else in half-hearted protest, but found it filled with Lorelei's lips and tongue. Her hands came to Michelle's and guided the blonde into slipping the shoulder straps off of Lorelei's dress. Michelle only needed that little bit of encouragement; she willingly did the rest of the unwrapping herself and allowing Lorelei to do the same for her.

Their nude bodies pressed together as they devoured one another's kiss. Lorelei began to use her nails. Michelle tensed and squirmed against that delicious touch, pulling herself very close. They stayed in that long exploratory embrace for as long as Michelle could stand it. Finally she broke off the kiss, leaning back to look on the other woman.

What Michelle needed to see was an absence of arrogance. Confidence and excitement were fine, but Michelle couldn't stand to see her partner gloating if she were to escalate. Michelle might not have been the instigator, but she wouldn't go to bed as anything less than an equal.

The only things she saw were hunger, passion, and hope.

"Come upstairs," Michelle rasped. She took Lorelei by the hand and let her to her bedroom, feeling sexy and beautiful and only just dirty enough to make it that much more exciting. She blinked when she saw the state of her bedroom, but then Lorelei was smoothly against her back with those amazing hands teasing her here and there.

"There was a very lucky man in this room not long ago," Lorelei observed in Michelle's ear.

"I wanted more," Michelle admitted, leaning back into Lorelei. "He was great, but I was... I'm so hungry."

"He will rise to the occasion," Lorelei smiled. She kissed Michelle's neck, dragging her teeth along the other woman's skin while one hand slipped between her legs and up all the way. Before long, Michelle allowed herself to be laid on her back in the bed. Those gentle, electrifying talons of Lorelei's scraped over Michelle's shoulders and then down across her chest, drawing Michelle into an involuntary, squirming arch before letting her settle back again.

Lorelei's smile was predatory and playful at the same time. She leaned in to Michelle, one hand between the blonde's slightly spread legs while her breasts hung against her partner's. Michelle ran her fingers through Lorelei's silky black hair, pulling her in for another ravenous kiss. There would be a lot of that, they both knew. Michelle's mouth plunged into Lorelei's while the aggressor's fingers began to dig gently into Michelle's very welcoming pussy.

Experience didn't seem to be a problem here. Lorelei welcomed Michelle's touch, giving in at every turn even while she remained on top. Her composure seemed to finally wane when Michelle brought one hand up between Lorelei's own legs. The seductress trembled and let out approving noises, but she didn't tumble. If anything, the way she held herself above Michelle even as she was so blissfully manipulated gave Michelle a sinful measure of satisfaction.

The fact that Lorelei came first made Michelle even more satisfied. Suddenly her kiss had slackened, her mouth opening to allow loud moans of pleasure to escape. It seemed unreal that Lorelei could keep up the pace of her attention between Michelle's legs even as her face contorted in ecstasy, but it happened. Michelle's own orgasm was well on its way while she was treated to the spectacle of Lorelei cumming on top of her and on her hand.

When the moment passed, Lorelei's eyes fluttered open. A very satisfied yet still excited smile spread across her face. Michelle basked in that beauty even as her mind and body were flooded with endorphins from Lorelei's touch. Lorelei's head descended, kissing Michelle's full breasts with abandon even as Michelle's pussy tightened and began to send convulsions through her entire body. Where Lorelei had moaned out nonsensical pleading noises, Michelle was given to loud, hoarse breathing when she came.

They laughed together in one another's arms as Michelle came down from that height of pleasure. "This isn't something I've ever done," she admitted.

"I'll be very happy to show you," Lorelei offered smoothly. "It will only get better with practice." "What, how to fool around behind my son and my boyfriend's backs?"

Lorelei grinned. "That, too. Alex is fine. He will enjoy the suspense and the suspicion, I promise you. But I will not come between you and Eddie. I don't want to ruin that for you. When the time comes, we will work out whatever we must."

"I shouldn't be okay with this. I'm not okay with this."

"Your smile and your body say otherwise," Lorelei countered. She kissed Michelle, who willingly kissed returned her affections.

"Why are you doing this?" Michelle asked.

"Because I am allowed. Because you are a beautiful person," Lorelei said, moving down along Michelle's body with short but voracious kisses that kept Michelle's body afire. She paid close attention to Michelle's full, sensitive breasts. "Because you played such a part in making my love who he is. Because you clearly deserve far more pleasure than life has offered you and because I want to enjoy you for myself."

Soon, Michelle was looking down over her own blonde pussy at Lorelei's mischievous eyes. "Also because I can't resist a little naughty fun," Lorelei admitted before she started driving Michelle out of her mind.

After several hours of kissing, playing and cumming later, Lorelei left Michelle in much the same state as Eddie had before her. Michelle lay on her bed feeling beautiful, feeling sated, feeling like an unmitigated slut. She had just ended the most romantic and sexy weekend she'd had in years by fucking another woman, and her son's own wildly inappropriate girlfriend at that. It didn't make the situation between Lorelei and Alex any more realistic. She couldn't help but admit that she truly believed Lorelei loved him, but all the rest...

Michelle lay in her bed feeling beautiful, feeling sated, feeling like an unmitigated slut...and feeling not the least bit guilty about any of it.





Chapter 63: Lydia learns more of Alex...

Frustratingly, Daniel had no idea where his charge's son was. He could see the mother just fine -- he was her guardian after all, and had been since she was born -- but he had no clairvoyant connection with her son. He'd always had a problem with that. Especially with the son's original guardian angel being so...timid. Daniel had always been of a mind that guardian angels should split their attentions among a single family, not disparate individuals based solely on geographic proximity. Unfortunately, Daniel's concerns didn't really equate to actual change.

When the succubus showed up in his charge's home, Daniel couldn't really intervene. His charge was at no mortal or spiritual risk. It was objectionable, certainly -- certainly! But it was beyond Daniel's ability to intervene. He knew of only one angel who could take direct action because of her unique handicap. She was also very much a part of the situation. But he didn't know where to find her or her charge. As such, he had to ask around a bit. It took a while to track her down.

He finally found Rachel perched on the balcony rail near the top floor of a high-rise hotel overlooking Elliott Bay sometime before sunset. She sat in the drizzle and the cold wind watching the inside of the hotel room intently. She held a partially-empty bottle of Evan Williams bourbon in one hand. Daniel flew up to her, opening his mouth to speak, but Rachel just held up her hand.

"Don't even wanna fuckin' hear it," she said without the slightest change in her gaze toward the hotel room.

Daniel's eyes flared. He thought about saying something to that, and about the blatantly lewd grin on her face, and about a dozen other improper things. Before the comment got out of his mouth, Rachel's hand shifted from an open palm of "halt" to an upturned middle finger.

Daniel flew off in a huff.

Rachel took another long pull off her bottle. "Fuckin' prude," she grunted.

************

"I think you're trying to convince me not to fool around with other guys," Taylor said suspiciously.

"How's that?"

"Oh please. Like anyone else is going to hand-feed me room service lobster?" Even as she spoke, reclined against the side of the whirlpool bath, Alex brought another butter-dipped morsel to her mouth. She kept a smoldering stare at his eyes as she leaned forward, accepting his offer with as suggestive a bite as she could manage.

"Honestly, I always imagined taking you out to dinner before getting you in bed," Alex grinned. "Mmm. Romantic. What a gentleman," Taylor grinned back.

"I certainly hope I am," he shrugged.

"You are. You always were. You don't have to prove anything else to me. On with the decadence and the naughty fun." She took another bite of the offered fork.

"As long as you know I respect you," Alex smirked. He meant it as a bit of a joke. It wasn't as if he still needed to establish anything on those lines.

Just the same, Taylor's eyes narrowed mischievously as she chewed and swallowed. "Stand up," she demanded. Alex blinked, but complied, rising to his feet in the center of the whirlpool bath. He watched Taylor as she took his ever-erect cock in her hand. Her eyes were on his. "This is how sure I am you respect me," she said just before the head and a good deal of his shaft disappeared into her mouth.

"Oh my god," Alex grunted. Taylor had one hand on his ass, pulling him close while she worked his cock with her other hand and her mouth. Alex's right hand fell to her shoulder. The left gently rested against the side of her head.

She pulled off of his cock for only a moment. "That shocked look on your face is half the reason this is so much fun," she grinned. Taylor's mouth sank back onto his dick. She kept looking up at him adoringly as she pleasured him.

His shock faded. Alex remained standing there for her, accepting what she gave without any further words. After a few minutes of Taylor's steady yet eager blowjob, his body was alive with pleasure. Taylor kept staring up at him, a smile in her eyes as his breathing became shaky. She never slackened, even as he began to gasp and his eyes fluttered and he was clearly past the point of no return.

Taylor's mouth was on him when he began to cum. She didn't pull away immediately, still staring up at him, but before he was done her lips pulled away. Her eyes didn't. She looked up at him lustily as white streams struck her shapely chest and neck. As his climax abated, Taylor turned his cock upward again to drag her tongue fondly along its length and head.

"Wow," Alex breathed.

"When I said I want to get a little crazy and dirty, I meant mainly with you," she winked. She made sure he had a very good look at her before her lips enveloped his cock for a second round.

Eventually, he heard the door to the suite shut far behind him. He didn't turn back, his eyes still on his lovely and very intimate friend, who herself didn't let the entrance distract her from her activity. They heard the rustle of Lorelei's dress as it fell to the floor. Heard her step into the whirlpool bath directly behind Alex. They were both very much aware of her presence as she slowly, gently embraced him from behind.

Taylor kept sucking Alex's cock. His pleasure built upon itself. Eventually his eyes fluttered closed and his head tilted back against Lorelei's shoulder behind him.

"Master," Lorelei said in a shaky whisper, "if it pleases you, your slave desperately needs to be ravished tonight. Thoroughly and without mercy."

Taylor stopped long enough to ask, "Can you wait a little on that?"

"For this, yes," Lorelei murmured. "Take your time."

************

"The truth is that this city and its environs are lousy with supernaturals," said the suited man with the perfectly trimmed white goatee. "Werewolves in the rural areas. Plenty of legitimately haunted sites. At least half a dozen different Practices within the city alone...my own group is trying to bring some organization to that, but I'm sure you know how occultists can be. And of course there are all the vampires," he added with a bit of a roll of the eyes. The distinguished gentleman sat back in his plush chair, putting on airs of comfort and security. Behind that great oaken desk, with a bodyguard at either side -- one of them small and serene, the other stocky and solemn -- he probably felt quite secure indeed.

Being a sorcerer, Stefan also likely knew warding magicks. If he did not, surely an associate did. Otherwise, he'd have been on his knees by now sniffing at Lydia's hand and begging for her affections.

She sat in a chair directly across from his in the sorcerer's office overlooking Elliott Bay. To an untrained, unfamiliar eye, the room would seem to be a fairly predictable if tasteful corporate executive's office.

Lydia, however, could sense the wards and could spot the telltale signs of superstitious protections from spirits and faeries, all of them applied with knowledge and understanding.

He was protected from her most potent abilities. That was what made dealing with his kind so frustrating. But he was still a man, and Lydia didn't miss his occasional glance toward the cleavage revealed by her emerald jacket and the long, shapely legs that came out from under her short matching silk skirt. Nor did he seem to mind her smile at all.

"I imagine it gets a bit tiresome," she conceded. "In most cities it isn't so hard for everyone avoid one another."

"No, indeed it normally isn't," Stefan nodded. "This city is deceptively small, though. Oddly crowded. We tend to bump into one another before long. Though I confess, one such as yourself is quite the exceptional and unique encounter."

"One such as I," Lydia smiled with some amusement. "I thought the Brotherhood of Apollo considered an 'encounter' with 'one such as I' to be both a rite of passage and a test of willpower. A summoning and a night's pleasure to test one's emotional fortitude, isn't it? The strong master their desires, the weak fall to the temptations of demonic flesh?"

Stefan inclined his head in a conciliatory nod. "I won't deny what is plainly known to the both of us."

"And how many such exceptional and unique encounters have you had, Stefan?" Lydia teased.

He paused, looking at her evenly. "A few."

"I'll let you in on a little secret, since you've been so cordial and kind," the blonde told him. "There are playthings from the Pit, and then there are succubi. The differences are quite unforgettable."

Stefan was quiet again for a moment, but eventually he nodded. "I'll take that under consideration," he said. "Truly, it's a shame that you couldn't have come to me first with your concerns. But it's certainly understandable how things turned out. And Lady Anastacia's faction is, admittedly, the most prominent in the city."

"Bringing the rest of the natives to heel, is she?"

"We've worked out some arrangements," Stefan shrugged. "Of late she has tried to create a more formalized governance beyond her own kind. Naturally I hesitate to concede anything too soon. You yourself present quite the wild card in all of this."

Lydia's smile became a bit tighter. "I have made my offer to the corpses. I will honor it should they fulfill the requirements I set. But I offered no exclusivity in the bargain. I care not how your local power struggles play out. I am concerned with my own matters. Provide what I seek and you, too, will hold my favor."

Her offer had plenty of layers of meaning. Stefan was certainly erudite enough to catch them all. He was collected enough not to show visible excitement, but as Lydia hoped, he was eager to get ahead of the vampires in currying her good will.

"This young man you seek is not one of the Practitioners we have identified," Stefan began, "and certainly not anyone directly affiliated with us. Nor can I speak directly to the activities of the woman you seek, but after some consultations we have reason to believe that she is likely a succubus like yourself." Stefan smiled at Lydia's arched eyebrow. "We haven't shared that suspicion with Lady Anastacia's people yet. It's barely past sunset after all, and our consultations took some time. Still, I don't think I'm giving away any great secret when I say that our actual knowledge regarding your kind is rather limited...

"...except in one case, but he has recently perished." Lydia inclined her head attentively. "Go on."

"As you say, there is a great difference between random demonic playthings and succubi. We of the Brotherhood of Apollo know better than to plumb too deeply in our dealings with the Pit. There was one local Brother, though, who took a rather obsessive interest in such things. He had mastered the task of summonings and conjurations for pleasure, but his appetites were never fully sated. He always wanted more. After a great deal of research and experimentation, he believed he was on his way to creating a ritual that would establish a permanent hold over such companions as one might find in said summoning. He talked about it quietly, made proposals and requests for support and funding. Our council decided to indulge him largely out of intellectual curiosity, but only up to a point. It became clear that this Brother had let his lusts get the better of him. We had to let him go."

Stefan sighed sadly, "What followed was a typically megalomaniac's rant. He would continue on, he would show us all. This was nearly three years ago. We kept an eye on him, of course, for our own protection. From time to time we saw evidence that he was continuing is research."

"Then last week, he died along with two known associates in a sudden conflagration. We had no direct observation on hand, but there were spirits of the restless dead in the vicinity. The area was thoroughly warded, and thus they could only observe from afar. A couple of them described a young man matching the description you have provided in the immediate area moments before this former Brother's death."

Lydia said nothing, merely encouraging Stefan to continue with a pleased and interested smile. "We have made some investigation, though admittedly not much. It seemed obvious to us initially that this former Brother had simply summoned something beyond his control and paid the natural price for overreaching. But then we received word of your search from Lady Anastacia. A curiously ordinary young man, a woman whom we now know is likely a succubus like yourself..."

"It is a rather curious connection," Lydia nodded. "Would you be willing to tell me all the details?"

"I would," Stefan said, "and I would be willing to work with you further on resolving whatever concerns you have."

"What would you want in exchange?"

"A few things. A pact of non-aggression between the Brotherhood and yourself and whatever demonic faction you may represent. Secondly, as I said, the Brotherhood always maintains its intellectual curiosity. We wish to know what happened to our fallen former Brother, and we wish to know how far he had gotten in his work. Moreover, we wish to know where he went wrong. I realize this might seem presumptuous, given what he was attempting. I won't deny that if he was truly onto something we will likely pursue it. However, I would be more than willing to undertake a binding oath to reassure you that any such knowledge would not be used against you or anyone you might name."

Lydia's smile became genuinely appreciative. "I was about to laugh, but your caveats and concessions are interesting. And amusing. You are correct in that I would not be interested in helping you learn how to summon me."

"Of course," Stefan nodded. "But it is not as hard to ensure exclusions within a ritual as one might expect. It is simply a matter of providing the proper names for invocations." He flashed a friendly, cordial smile. "These are clearly very dangerous waters. We have no wish to make enemies."

"Indeed not. Your offer interests me. Stefan, I realize that this room bears numerous wards, but in order to pursue your proposal further I will require a brief consultation of my own. The telephone simply won't do. Would it be possible to open one of these windows momentarily?"

Stefan considered it for a long moment. "I suppose a momentary breach would not be so great a concession," he mused. Stefan then nodded to the bodyguard on his left. Obediently, he moved to the tall window. He tugged the latches open and pushed on the glass. Cold, damp air blew in, not so much as to create a great wind but certainly enough to get everyone's attention.

For a moment, nothing happened. Stefan waited patiently for whatever little homunculus or other servitor might come flying through the window. Lydia, too, waited patiently.

The huge, taloned, bone-white hand -- if one could call it that -- which slapped down on the next pane of glass up from the open window startled all three men in the room. The hand was attached to a similarly bone-white arm that descended from above. Another reached down past it, gripping the window.

What followed was a monstrosity the likes of which Stefan and certainly his bodyguards had never seen. It swiftly crawled along the glass, impossibly clinging like a spider to the windows as it descended. Twice the mass of a man yet spread out into long, bony limbs, the thing twisted and wrenched itself under the open window, shoving it further open to make room for its oblong, stretched-out white head. Four glaring red eyes gazed out at Stefan and Lydia from the front of its strange horned skull. Its arms and then shoulders followed, one and then the other, before it finally pulled itself through the window.

Each of its digits ended in a vicious talon. It had a long white tail that whipped around like a cat's, also ending in a set of nasty spikes. There were wings there, too, Stefan realized, but it was all just thin, chalky flesh hanging from folded, seemingly crumbling bones.

The thing crouched at Lydia's side, still five feet tall at the shoulders despite the way it more or less folded its torso down to meet its squatting legs. It looked to Stefan and his bodyguards, who were nervously reaching for concealed weapons, as if it were about to pounce. Instead, the thing reached out with one very long arm to close the window.

"There have been angels in the skies," it said in something akin to the echo of a roar. The demonic beings speech gave Stefan a moment to see its mouth, which was naturally filled with row upon row of gleaming black teeth shaped much like a shark. Its eyes narrowed in something that seemed rather like a frown. "One of them very strange. Best not to be careless. We wouldn't want them eavesdropping."

"Stefan," Lydia smiled, "meet Harrow."





Chapter 64: Blissful Weekend and yet another past life...

"You are welcome, my love," Lorelei murmured into Alex's ear.

His face split into a self-conscious smile. Her words broke his aimless stare at the ceiling of the darkened suite. Alex lay on his back in the bed, with Taylor curled up against him over his left arm and Lorelei laying against him on the right. It was enough body heat that they had kicked off all but one thin bed sheet. Lorelei had one hand laid fondly over Alex's groin, where he was finally not quite so stiff anymore.

"I might have to thank you a lot more for this tomorrow," he said. He kept his voice low. Taylor was sound asleep, having been driven to grateful exhaustion by the other two.

"You and Taylor have both thanked me more than enough already," Lorelei smiled. "I expect I'll actually sleep tonight. As for tomorrow, I would rather look forward to it as a new day. Who knows what pleasures it might bring?"

"Can't imagine it being better than being in bed between the two of you."

"Master, I foresee a time when your bed will have a two-lover minimum."

He laughed a little. "I loved this. I'd love to do it again. But I'm looking forward to focusing on just you again, too."

She kissed his neck. "Sleep, master. We will see what tomorrow holds."

************

"Y'all can't carry us both, fool. I'm gutshot an' bleedin' out. Take Cracker Carlisle an' go."

"I'm not gonna just leave you!" Darren protested. He tugged at the corporal's sleeve, only to have it slip away because of the blood. Will fell back against the thin tree trunk and jungle grass with a grunt.

"Darren," Will choked, "Charlie ain't waitin' on a long goodbye. We didn't come back for Carlisle for nothin'. I ain't lettin' 'em get me. Now drop the sixty an' your ammo and fuckin' go, man. I've got this."

"Fuckin' bigoted asshole doesn't deserve this," Darren grumbled, but he quickly obeyed. He threw his last belt of ammunition for the M-60 off of his shoulders. Then the machine gunner grabbed the half- conscious soldier lying in the bush next to him to haul him to his feet.

"Yeah, don't I know it," Will winced. He shoved the towel that he'd used to catch sweat off his neck into his belt, where it would hopefully staunch the flow of blood from his belly. He'd probably need to put something else in there for added pressure. Something thick.

Will peeked out from behind his cover to look down the slight slope of the valley. All he saw was bush. Really, all he ever saw anymore was bush. But Charlie was still out there, surely, regrouping for a counterattack. It was only luck and a little misdirection that had sent them running in the first place.

Darren paused to grasp Will's shoulder. "If there was any way, brother."

"I know. I know. Don't mean nothin'." Will gasped at the pain in his belly. "Anyway. 'Tell my momma I done my best,' right?"

"I will," Darren nodded. He heaved Carlisle up in his big arms and hustled off away from Will. "Or better yet, tell his cracker wife an' daughter!" he shouted, then muttered, "Yeah. Tell 'em you owe your ass to a darkie."

Will pulled up the M-60, then laid his M-16 next to it. If he could keep both of them going for just a little while when the Cong made their next move, he could hopefully make it look like there was more than one of him up here. That had already worked once when he and Darren rushed back, guns blazing and grenades going everywhere in their ploy to rescue Sergeant Carlisle. Maybe he could keep the gag going.

None of this would've happened had the rest of their patrol been better about staying together. But Sergeant Haffner had lost his cool, calling a full retreat without stopping for shit, and in the effort to keep up with him the rest of the six-man team became too spread out. With Haffner long gone up ahead and Jimenez wasted from behind, everything turned into a real mess.

Long Range Recon Patrols used to be more together than this. Will gave that a bitter moment's thought, but shoved it aside. He had to get ready for the inevitable. Will dug through his pack, through rations and his poncho and other gear to find the spare Claymore mine. Along the way, the letter from Stephanie fell out.

It was a waste of precious seconds, but he thumbed it open. It wasn't the one she sent while he was on his first tour. Instead, it was the one she'd sent just after his second began, angrily justifying herself. He didn't understand why she thought he wanted to hear anything she had to say after the last time he'd seen her. It was really simple: he went off to war, she said she loved him and she'd wait for him, said she needed him to send money because she couldn't find work...and then he came home after a year in the 'Nam to find her four months pregnant and engaged to whatshisname.

Why in the fuck he was humping that letter through the bush after a whole 'nother tour was beyond him. He'd meant to bring the one from his younger brother, who wouldn't have to go to 'Nam while Will was in country...or at all now, since Will wouldn't exactly be leaving. Will wouldn't have re-upped for 'Nam if Stephanie hadn't been cheating on him, but at least there was that much good coming from the whole mess.

"Just one more tour, my ass," Will hissed at himself. Then he heard the snap off to his left. Will raised his M-16 one-handed and started firing off rounds. It wasn't to hit anyone in particular so much as to make a ruckus and keep the enemy's heads down for a while.

Big Darren could haul ass through the bush. He'd make good time even while weighed down by that jackass redneck. Darren was cool. West coast kid. Will liked him, particularly for a white boy. Maybe in his next life Will would have to live on the west coast. It'd be nice if a body could have another chance.

He saw a head pop up, and a rifle, and he blew it away with the sixty. He blew away everything around it, too. Every tree branch, every blade of grass. Every nasty little bug.

Will heard shrieks of pain from that direction. He poured it on.

They flanked him, of course. Shot him twice, in the leg and the small of his back, causing him to jerk and crunch up and choke with pain. Almost over.

They'd want a prisoner. They dug taking prisoners.

Will had hidden the detonator to the Claymore mine right under his backpack. They didn't see it as he reached for it. The three Viet Cong that came up on him and turned him over onto his back didn't see the Claymore mine itself where it was stuffed under his shirt, either.

Not until he set it off.





Chapter 65: Rachel and Vincent...

Elliott Bay was pretty at night, and prettier upside down.

Rachel came to that conclusion sometime after four in the morning, when her charge and his pair of bedmates finally all drifted off to sleep and there was nothing left to watch. She herself had no place better to be, though. She could have gone flying, and in fact would've loved it, but she did not. That would naturally be the exact moment that Alex would be attacked by demons or flying ninja monkey robots or something equally silly.

Instead, she hung upside down from the balcony rail with her feet wedged between the bars. Her shoulder-length blonde hair dangled from her head. Despite the pull of gravity, her white dress, still somewhat damp, clung to her body just closely enough to meet what little requirements of modesty Rachel still felt.

She saw a ship come into port. Watched a tug come out to meet it. Listened to the sound of cars rolling by on the Alaskan Way Viaduct. Heard the sound of two feet coming down onto her balcony rail above her.

"Get a good fuckin' look," she snarled darkly at the angel now standing over her. "It's the only way you'll ever see up my skirt again."

"How long have you been out here, Rachel?" Vincent asked evenly. He was, as usual, dressed only in white pants. His muscular, hardened chest was there on display along with all its faded yet manly scars. There was a time when Rachel greatly enjoyed looking at it, and at him.

"Long enough that you're my third visitor," she said. Despite her sour greeting, she didn't care for giving Vincent a show. Rachel curled up without any real effort to grab the balcony rail above her, releasing her feet. The angel above her offered a hand, but she ignored it. With a small tug and a single flap of her wings, she was up and over the rail and standing on the balcony again.

"Saw your great white whale go by a few hours ago," Rachel mentioned dryly.

"Harrow?"

"Think so. He went that-a-way," Rachel said, jerking her thumb over her shoulder.

"Gone now, surely," Vincent said with a frown.

"Yeah. 'specially with the way you're all over his ass now that you've gotten a lead on him. Some dedication there."

"I came to speak with you, not leap at shadows. We used to be so close."

"I don't think that means what you think it means, but that's been over for a long time. I've got nothin' to say to you that hasn't been said already. Go find a new groupie to hang on your jock. I'm done."

Vincent blinked. He still found Rachel's adopted speech patterns surprising. She had always been an odd one, but lately she had been downright strange. He sighed, deciding to press on. "Your charge..."

"Is none of your business," Rachel said promptly.

"I was given charge of this city. As long as he resides here, he is my business, and so is the succubus."

"Whom you want to get rid of."

"I do. But I have clearly been overruled. Your argument seems to have won the day. Our superiors feel that their relationship has brought good that outweighs the potential danger. They have instructed me to leave the issue alone."

Rachel waited for the other shoe to drop. She'd known Vincent far too long to fall for this. He was too proud to come tell someone they'd won an argument with him.

"I will concede this issue, but there is another concern that must be addressed if I am to leave this matter alone. The boy at this point has supernatural dealings beyond those of normal mortals. His right to the protection of a guardian angel is forfeit."

Rachel's eyes went wide. "What difference does it make to you!?"

"There are too few guardian angels as it is for the number of souls in this world. To waste such strength on one who is already so protected is unconscionable."

"Protected!?"

"Not only has he shown the courage you have so loudly proclaimed, he is also protected by the succubus. She is perhaps the most formidable and accomplished of her kind ever to creep out of the Pit. I hardly see how this counts as a small advantage. We do not protect sorcerers or others who draw strength from the supernatural. Why should Alex be any different?"

"We're not talking about someone who has turned away from Heaven!"

"We're not?" Vincent said with just enough of a hint of a sneer. "Whom – or what – does he lie with even now?"

"Is this really about him? Or is this about you? It can't be about me, not after all this time."

"How is it that you are so infatuated with him?" Vincent frowned. "To feel some sense of obligation is understandable, but what can he be to one such as you?"

"After everything he's accomplished, you can seriously ask that? Look at what he's done. Look at who he is. And even if he hadn't had all this craziness happen to him, he'd still be as great a guy as anyone I've ever known."

Vincent was unmoved. "I expect, then, that he will do fine without the protection of Heaven if he is so blessed with quality. He has, as you keep pointing out, already vanquished one flesh-wearing demon. If he is as brave as you say, he ultimately has even less to fear from greater demons. Against a demon of the Pit in its true form, courage is all a mortal really needs." He favored her with a thin, reassuring and utterly disingenuous smile. "I'm sure he'll be fine on his own."

"That's a bullshit oversimplification and you know it. You of all people know it."

"It is the way of the world," he retorted.

"I won't abandon him!"

"I am not your superior," Vincent shrugged. "I cannot order you to do anything."

"No, but you can come threaten and gloat, can't you?"

He sighed again, a bit melodramatically. "I am wounded that you look upon me with such contempt and suspicion. I remember how we once cared for one another. I do only my duty. I wanted to come speak to you before I went before our superiors with this issue."

"You self-centered motherfucker. If you start one more sentence with 'I,' my foot's gonna make sure the rest comes out at a much higher pitch," Rachel growled.

Vincent glared at her with his jaw set like a stone. Rachel waited, knowing he'd have to have the last word somehow...but then he turned and took wing, flying off of the balcony. In the back of her mind, she noted that he did not leave in the direction she had seen Harrow going. It was a small point to make, but telling nonetheless. There was a time when he wouldn't have even stayed to chat with her when there was a trail to take up.

There was a time when she'd have gone with him, and would have been overjoyed to do so. It wasn't a pleasant memory. Really, it just made her feel like a complete heel.

Rachel leaned on the balcony railing. She blew a lock of hair out of her face. Alex had one other thing going for him, she figured. Dying couldn't be pleasant – it had to be awful, really – but at least a mortal had the chance to ditch all his baggage at least once a century or so.

************

"You seriously want me to call campus security before I call the regular cops? Ann, you should see this place. It's a disaster." Lisa gestured to her surroundings as if her supervisor could see what she meant, but her cell phone wasn't exactly equipped for recording video, let alone video calling. Still, her description of the ransacked college admissions office was accurate.

"Yeah, well maybe if those fat-ass rent-a-cops actually patrolled and stuff, the office here wouldn't be so trashed. No. Fine. I'll call them. I'm just a little freaked out. At least it doesn't look like anything was taken...just trashed. You'd think someone would've stolen the computers, right? But they're still all plugged in. Anyway, I've got this. I'll see you when you get in. Okay, bye."

Lisa flipped her phone shut. She grimaced, picking her way through emptied desk drawers and scattered binders on the floor. Somewhere on the desk near her computer terminal was a list of campus phone numbers. She'd have to use that to call the campus meter maids.

She wondered how long it would be before anyone got there. There was something really dumb about having to be at work at six in the morning when everyone else got to roll in after 7:30 or even later. Her main role at this hour was just to answer the phones...as if anybody actually called a college at this hour.

What it really came down to was that Ann's boss, Colin, was an all-around douchebag desperate to show improved service in his department. He couldn't think of ways to actually make that happen, so he came up with superfluous bullshit like having someone in the admissions office as early as 6:00 am.

Lisa got to her desk, found the directory that she had taped in front of her monitor, and started looking for her desktop phone. It wasn't in plain sight. Lisa realized it had been knocked over the side of her desk and was about to pick it up when a gloved hand suddenly wrapped itself tightly around her throat.

She couldn't scream. He was holding her too tight. He wasn't alone, either. There were two men – no, two men and a woman. One of them had a long black duster on over black jeans and a black shirt, and on his hips was a gun belt like someone would wear in a Western. He even wore a black cowboy hat. The other, the one holding her throat, was similarly dressed (sans goth cowboy motif) and had an honest-to- God sword strapped to his back. The handle of it loomed over his shoulder. The woman wore a corset, black leather pants and stiletto heels.

In any other situation, Lisa would've made a snarky comment about sales at Hot Topic. "Natalia?" asked the one holding Lisa. "Do you want to explain things?"

"When my friend Spade here lets you go, you will not scream," the woman said with a matter-of-fact tone. "You'll just log into your computer quietly. Understand?" Lisa nodded. "Good. Then you'll retrieve the records for a single student. After that, we'll be gone. But do it quickly."

With that, Spade let her go. The other one checked his pocket watch, which he wore on a chain. "Forty-one minutes to sunrise," he muttered. Natalia just pointed at the computer workstation.

Gasping for breath, Lisa moved with shaking hands over to her desktop. She pressed the power button on her computer tower. In the uncomfortable silence that followed, she reached for something to say in hopes of reducing the tension and hostility. "Spade?" she asked. "Like the tool?"

"No, it's 'spade' like the card, idiot," the sword-bearing man snapped. "Like the ace of spades?"

Lisa figured that made him only seem more like a tool, but she held her tongue. She didn't want to die at this crappy job even before the sun came up.





Chapter 66: A Past Life of Vengeance...

"He wintered in the land of the Danes once," Sibbe said, her voice dry and markedly devoid of sympathy. "Did you know that? He raided with Thialfi and his men, and was there when Thialfi fell and his longship was taken. He survived that battle. He was among the others who stole a ship to return home that summer with plunder. You might have remembered his name from the tales."

"Skorri is not an uncommon name," Valgard grumbled. "I do not remember everything I have ever heard of every man named Skorri, nor could I tell them apart." He leaned forward in his seat, looking on his second wife with interest. "What else?"

Standing before her husband in his hall, with his adult sons and his men in attendance, Sibbe was for the first time in her life unafraid. What would be, would be. "Gunnar was there, too. He remembers. I spoke with him before I returned."

"And what does Gunnar say?"

"That Skorri fights with strength beyond his size. That he snuck past the Danes on many nights. That he feels no pain from blades or fire. That he once saw Skorri so eager for a fight that the lad chewed on the edge of his own shield. That the only thing Skorri loves more than battle was his wife."

At Valgard's side, his tall son Koll snorted in derision. "Skorri is a goatherd, not a berserker. And Gunnar is an old goatherd as well."

"Gunnar is a goatherd now," Sibbe said, not bothering to look at Koll directly. Her gaze remained on her bearded, muscular husband. "But Gunnar did not always limp. He sailed with Thialfi as well. And my own father. He has always spoken truth to me."

"What else did Gunnar say?" Valgard pressed.

"He says that Skorri will never accept any amount of gold as recompense for his Halla's death," Sibbe said simply, her hands folded in front of her. "That the loss of the men you sent chasing him is not the end of your woes." She paused, and saw that Valgard could tell there was something else. Finally, she said it: "And Gunnar offered to take me as his wife when my husband and his sons are dead at Skorri's hands."

Koll roared with laughter. After a moment, so did his father, and then the dozen men in the room laughed as well. The serving wenches smiled, too, though there was little actual mirth in their eyes. They moved about the hall with ale and meat in silence.

"You don't seem amused by this, mother," said Bram. He sat at the end of one long table, sharpening his sword beside his meal. He had a tendency to do such things. He seemed convinced it made him look intimidating.

Sibbe ignored him. He wasn't really her son, anyway. She kept her eyes on her husband. "I do not find humor in this," she said simply.

"You find humor in nothing," Valgard scowled. "Not since we were married. Maybe not even before."

"Husband, I have done as you have asked. I have spoken to those who will not speak plainly to you. I have learned much in this that I wish to tell you, as a wife should tell her husband and a mother should tell her sons," she explained, pointedly ignoring that Valgard's brutish sons were, thankfully, not actually hers but borne instead by his first wife.

"Indulge me," Valgard shrugged.

"You asked when Skorri and his wife came to your hall, requesting to live in your lands and under your protection, why they had left Skorri's old chief. Do you remember what he said?"

"Something about green pastures and a warmer place for his wife to give birth," Valgard sighed.

"A goatherd," Koll repeated pointedly.

"Did you not notice that he referred to the coming child as hers? Not his?"

"I did not," Valgard admitted. He rolled his eyes. He hated it when Sibbe spoke to him like this. He would have to beat her for it later. One would think she would know that by now.

"It was not his child," Sibbe said. "Stillborn, as we all know. But not his child."

Valgard snorted. So did his sons. "Then he was already a cuckold before he came here,"

Bram said dismissively. "Makes one wonder about his supposed rage now."

"Indeed," Sibbe said, "but his raiding came before his marriage. They were a young couple. Married barely two years ago. He made only one voyage after he and Halla came together. So imagine – I know this is hard for you, so I will use small words," Sibbe noted, her eyes narrowing somewhat. "Imagine a man who fights as Skorri does. Someone who has raided much more than Valgard's sons. This man finds a woman, marries her, and when he finds she has lain with another in his absence, he does not kill her. Rather, he moves to a new land where few if any may know them."

"He is taken in by a strong lord. He swears his allegiance. And then the first time he is away from home, his lord and his lord's sons visit his small home and rape and murder his wife."

"Watch your tongue, Sibbe," Valgard snapped.

"My point is to ask: what manner of warrior forgives a wife who is once unfaithful to him? Who travels with her from their lands to avoid the scandal of her condition, giving up all he has when he could cast her aside for another woman? What must there be between them? Surely this is not a man who makes decisions based on fear or weakness," Sibbe suggested. "And if he kept her at his side for some other reason, perhaps for the sort of emotion unknown to my husband and my sons...if he made such sacrifices to keep his wife, consider: what would such a man do if he lost her?"

"If the bitch had given us what we'd wanted, we wouldn't have been so rough," Bram shrugged. He was still looking at his blade and whetstone. "How were we to know she was so fragile?"

"Tell me, Bram," Sibbe asked, her face emotionless, "how many of Valgard's men have you cuckolded?" The question hung in the hall like a cloud of smoke that refused to dissipate despite the silence that followed. Only Valgard and his sons were willing to meet her gaze; every other man's eyes turned to the floor, or to the wall, or to his own boots. "Koll? Valgard? How many women have you been similarly 'rough' with? How powerful does it make you feel to take whomever--?"

"Get out," Valgard growled.

Sibbe did not need to be told twice. She immediately left the hall.

Awkward silence remained in her wake. Valgard and his sons looked upon the rest of Valgard's men with searching eyes. Few of the men were willing to meet their gaze.

Valgard's hall grew quiet that night, despite the efforts of the host and the ale and food that was shared out among his warriors. It grew quiet, and before long, it grew somewhat empty. Perhaps only half a dozen men remained an hour after Sibbe had withdrawn. The others had all found reasons to leave early.

The serving maids were gone, too. Bram was the first to notice it. He was still seated at the end of the long table nearest Valgard's high seat, sharpening another blade. "Raghild!" he roared. "Where are you?"

Bram hadn't turned to look down to the end of the hall, where Raghild would have entered. Because of that, Bram didn't see the spear that flew across the hall before it was imbedded in the side of his head.

Hardly anyone else had been looking, either. Valgard's face snapped up from where he'd been contemplating his mug of ale on his high seat in time to see Bram fall from the bench. Blades were drawn, shields snatched up.

Skorri was there at the end of the hall, a shield on his left arm and now his sword drawn by the right. He didn't look that big. The blond goatherd wasn't small, certainly, but he didn't look all that imposing...except that Valgard was staring at him past the shaft of the spear that still wobbled in his peripheral vision. The blade was buried deep in his son's skull.

"That was stupid," Valgard glowered, rising out of his seat even as he picked up his axe. "Had you spoken before you attacked, you might have found that it was not we who killed Halla."

"Your wife spoke," Skorri growled. His words, in fact his whole body, had a tremor to them that was a little unsettling. "You lie well, but I heard the truth. You told her all I needed to hear. I heard everything on the roof."

Valgard blinked. "The roof?"

"One learns a few tricks while hiding from the Danes."

As if on cue, a piece of wood fell from above him. It was on fire. Valgard looked, and saw flames quickly eating into the ceiling of his hall from outside. The walls would certainly follow. It had been a warm, dry summer.

"I appear to be blocking the only exit," Skorri observed through gritted teeth, "though if you are lucky, you may convince the Valkyries that you deserve to leave with me tonight. I doubt your chances, but there's always hope."

************

Taylor took it upon herself, at Lorelei's invitation, to handle Alex's morning wake-up call. He was brought from slumber by the feeling of her slowly rocking back and forth on his cock. Alex's eyes opened to the sight of her, and of Lorelei kneeling behind her with her hands cupping and teasing her breasts. This went on until Taylor saw his eyes were open. At that, she leaned forward until she was lying on top of him.

"So how in the hell's anyone supposed to enjoy college when he has to wake up this early in the morning?" she asked with a grin.

He groaned and then sighed happily. "I'm all dedicated 'n' stuff," he mumbled. He pushed up into her at the hips. "Did a petition last week for an extra class load."

"We need to get you transferred to U-dub," Taylor said softly. Her own voice shook a bit as she spoke.

He let out a groan of pleasure. "Might have trouble focusing on classes there," Alex mused. His hands were on that wonderful ass of hers before he even thought about it.

"My thoughts exactly," Taylor said as she began kissing the side of his neck. Her hips continued to grind against his, slowly but more firmly. It was an absolutely wonderful feeling to wake up to. Then Lorelei's mouth began to mirror the attention Taylor was giving him on the other side of his neck. At that point, he was just plain spoiled.

"If you to want...want to stay and...play longer," he managed, "I think I'd...like that."

"Oh God yes," Taylor breathed out. It wasn't clear if that was in response to Alex's suggestion or just the pleasure of having him.

"I'll take very good care of her, master," Lorelei smiled into his ear.





Chapter 67: Carlos gets his and Girl Power go undercover...

"We can't just leave guys with their heads fuckin' cut off lyin' around up here," Carlos said with a frown. He was at the desk in his office, wearing only his robe, a gold chain, and the phone that he'd had to keep glued to his ear for an annoyingly long time. He spoke in Spanish. The only thing that kept him from being entirely irate about it was the naked maid, who straddled him in his office chair in a slow, steady grind.

She kept her eyes closed and stayed quiet. Carlos didn't mind where she looked, but the silence was absolutely necessary. It wouldn't be good for the family to know he was fucking around during his conference calls.

"No, I'm sayin' that it brings down more heat than it's worth. We can't just be all flashy like that and then go out for drinks like nothing happened. This isn't Juarez." He listened, sighed, then thought for a moment. The maid kept grinding. Finally, he figured out a compromise. "Look, I'm not sayin' I won't do it. I just need to clean it up when it's done. I'll cut the fucker's head off myself, that's fine. I'm just gonna do it where I can keep the body. Yeah. Yeah, I'll just bring in his fucking friends or family or whatever and do it in front of them and then let them go tell everyone else. Them sayin' it in private is better than the whole thing going in the papers. Because once we escalate like that, we're going to have to stay at that level, and that's a lot of work and I'll need a lot more guys."

He shifted a bit for the maid, who was now leaning back onto the corner of the desk on her elbows. It gave him a nice view of her tits. This was his fourth or fifth time having her. Lydia had done a good job in hiring this one.

For the millionth time he thought about how good it was to have a wife who understood him. What good was being a drug kingpin if you couldn't live like it?

Not that the other guys on the conference call understood that. They all had wives, too, but their wives just nagged them. They all had to cover up their side-action. Carlos, by contrast, had a wife who would help him get more, and would help him cover it up from others. Not all the time, of course, and sometimes he was careless – otherwise he wouldn't be up here in Rain City right now – but Lydia was really his best asset. At least she understood the lifestyle, and stayed turned on by it after they got married rather than turning into a cranky old bitch like everyone else's wives did.

"No, I'm not going soft, cocksucker. I've done this shit before, remember? I'm the one who did the cop outside of Tijuana. You're the one who puked over it. Don't even fuckin' start that shit with me."

He favored whatshername with a bit of a smile. She was good at this, and Carlos appreciated it. This was too god damn early in the morning to deal with these guys without something to wake him up. It was like these guys had no idea of what time zone he was in. The sun was hardly even up yet. His eyes were bloodshot. He'd barely gotten out of bed in time for this.

He'd been tired lately. For a while now, actually. Lydia had a habit of keeping him up all night, as she had for the last two. He couldn't complain, but there it was. No real sleep for two days. About the only thing that could keep him awake was pussy. That was something else Lydia understood.

Come to think of it, Lydia probably sent the maid in here herself.

"Hey, that whole rumor about the Russians being up here already was for real, alright?" Carlos scowled. "It's for real, and those assholes are for real. I don't want them getting serious until we're ready for it, so if I gotta deal with all the chickenshit stuff first I'd like to do it quietly is all. Yeah. Yeah. That's it for me right now. I'm done."

Carlos waited a moment, then put the phone on speaker and muted it. "Now you can make noise," he said in English, and she did.

On the speakerphone, Pedro started talking about Los Angeles. Carlos would've been there, had it not been for the whole thing with Pedro's wife at Carlos and Lydia's wedding. That was half Lydia's doing, too. Probably more than half. But Pedro found out while they were on their honeymoon, and it was lucky that there wasn't blood over the whole thing. Instead, Pedro got a promotion (and a divorce), and Carlos was banished to the great wet north.

That was fine, Carlos figured. Nobody here would get in his way, anyway, and he wouldn't have to deal with his punk brother trying to kill him up here. Nobody else in the family was here making eyes at Lydia, either. Like she'd ever cheat on him. She flirted, sure, but she'd never cheat. Carlos was sure of that. She belonged to him.

"God, you're so big," the maid moaned.

"He is, isn't he?" came Lydia's voice. Carlos looked up, feeling not the least bit of shame about what he was doing as she entered. It wasn't embarrassment that left him quickly forgetting the maid, though, so much as lust. Lydia was all made up and dressed in leather and lace: stockings, garters, lacy bra, gloves, the whole bit. Everything except panties.

"There a special occasion here?" he asked with a grin. Beside the maid, the conversation over his phone's speaker continued. He was hardly listening anymore. Someone may have said his name, or perhaps not. He had forgotten about it completely.

"You left the bed and I couldn't stop thinking about how much more I wanted. I know how hard you work. I wanted to today to be special. You don't have anything else you need to do today, do you?" she asked. Her falsely innocent doe eyes contrasted sexily with the absolute sin offered by the rest of her body.

He had a lot to do, and it was important, but he couldn't for the life of him remember what it was. He didn't really bother to try, either. Carlos pulled away from the maid without so much as a look her way. Lydia held out her arms to him, engaging him in a hot, biting kiss as he seized her. Her arms tore away his open bathrobe before she pulled herself up against his shoulders as his own hands seized her ass. Carlos was inside her then, pinning her to the wall next to the door.

"Take me to bed and fuck me, baby," Lydia hissed.

Carlos didn't need to be asked twice. He carried her, mounted on his cock, down the hall to their master bedroom. Luckily the door was slightly ajar; maybe that had been planned by Lydia, too. She was good at planning things.

Inside, the room was lit up by dozens of candles. It had a slightly odd smell to it; there was a lot of incense, but it was as if that was just there to cover up something unpleasant. The curtains were drawn, the room was almost uncomfortably warm, and everything else was deathly quiet. Carlos stepped in something very wet in the carpet. He'd have looked down to see what it was, but Lydia grabbed his chin and forced another long, hungry kiss upon him.

"Take me, Carlos," she growled. "Fuck me."

Carlos brought her down onto the bed and obeyed.

Lydia grinned as he went at her. He missed the bloody pentagram in the carpet around the bed completely. She'd have him reduced to an animalistic, rutting frenzy before the bodies of Chuy and Paco under the bed began to stink.

Normally, bringing her prey to his end wasn't such a production. It wasn't as if she needed a complicated ritual to kill a man. This one, however, was needed for something beyond just killing.

His soul was bound for Hell, but his body had one last use.

************

"We look like assholes," Molly grumbled.

"I think you look cute," Onyx replied quietly.

Molly turned to Onyx with a scowl. "I want to put my fucking bra back on," she said icily.

Onyx glanced at her and couldn't help but snort at Molly's plaid beret and non-prescription black- rimmed glasses. The pink iZod shirt collar popped up under her dress jacket only made it worse.

She tried to control her laughter, but couldn't. The pair sat on a bench at North Seattle Community College, dutifully watching a single classroom's exits. Onyx was herself clad in an old white Smurfs shirt with blue sleeves that came down to just below the elbow, a scarf and, like Molly, skinny, high-waisted jeans.

"I don't think we're being nearly ironic enough to be good hipsters," Onyx observed finally.

"What are you talking about? We're trying to blend into our surroundings by dressing like people who try desperately to stand out by showing how much they don't care about conformity. We look like perfect assholes. I think we're fine there. How's that not ironic?" She wasn't as amused by the situation as Onyx. "Just had to spend enough money doing it. Alex better be ready to reimburse us for rescuing his ass."

Onyx bit down on her lips, but then decided to let her response fly anyway. "I plan on getting paid in sex."

Molly scowled again. She stared for a moment. "How awkward would it be for you if I watched?"

Her partner's eyes went wide, and her smile faded. "Um," she mumbled, unsure how serious Molly was about that.

"Molly? Is that you?" asked a nasally, technically male voice. A guy in a sweater vest and skinny slacks, with black-rimmed glasses identical to Molly's, approached the pair with his courier bag slung over his shoulder. "Oh my gooooosh, you two look great!"

"Go away, Sam," Molly said without looking at him.

"Seriously, oh my gosh! I've got to take your picture!" he said, fishing in his courier bag for his iPhone. "Do it and I will fucking murder you in your sleep," Molly snapped. Sam's eyes went wide. He took a step back, then another, and finally muttered an ironically nonchalant apology as he shuffled away.

"I take it back," Molly said. "I'm gonna make you watch."





Chapter 68: Rachel gets frisky...

"So Augustine hears this call to take up a book and read, and he pulls out the first thing available to him. It's Paul's letter to the Romans. He reads, completely at random: 'Let us behave decently, as in daytime, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and debauchery, not in dissension and jealousy. Rather, clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires.'"

Professor Lyons recited the whole thing from memory. No notes, no book in front of him. He just sat atop the desk at the front of the classroom. The small, older man in slacks and his button-down shirt smiled at the class. "This is a man who famously said, 'God, grant me chastity – but not yet.'" He paused for the inevitable chuckle from his class. "You'll appreciate the St. Augustine readings, I think. We're not really focusing on the issue of chastity here...that's for another philosophy class. But it's good to know where Augustine is coming from. You're reading the words of someone who was, in his time, a genuine party animal. I suspect more than a few of you could probably relate."

He glanced at the clock. "No real time for discussion today. See you all on Wednesday."

Students promptly got up and gathered their things. Alex remained in his desk toward the center of the classroom, still considering what had just been said. He had been a very, very happy young man all weekend. He wouldn't have traded his experiences for the world. Alex had a lover unlike anything he would have ever dreamt of, who eagerly catered to his every whim and then some. His financial situation had dramatically improved. He was running on two hours of sleep a night because the rest of his time in bed was taken up by amazing sex, yet he felt great. Physically, anyway.

As if all that weren't enough to completely blow his mind, there was Taylor. His longest-running crush had become so intimately close that he felt like calling her friend wasn't nearly enough, despite the stickiness of calling her a lover. He seemed to have really connected with Onyx, who seemed to have a very similar open relationship arrangement. And then there were the other flings along the way, which seemed likely to continue if he wasn't careful...

A hand appeared on his desk. A woman's hand. Alex looked up to see the cute Latina who normally sat in the back smiling at him as he walked away. Down where she had put her hand was a post-it note, which had a phone number and the name "Christina" written inside a heart. Alex picked up the note and blinked at it just as another appeared on the other side of his desk, this one left by a petite brunette in a short skirt and stockings. He really wasn't with it enough to catch sight of her face before she was gone. Apparently her name was Paula.

At this time last week, Alex was afraid he'd die a sixty year-old virgin. He could get a date on occasion, but he couldn't close the deal. No real romance, nor sex. Now the biggest question in his life was: how much of a good thing is too much?

He might have already hit that point. Alex felt very fortunate and very well-loved, both physically and emotionally. So many of his worries and feelings of inadequacy had been laid to rest, as if they had been left to burn in the Sacred Heart Cemetery chapel. Yet he couldn't shake the terrible feeling that it would all come crashing down on someone's head. If it were his own head, that would be bad enough. If it was someone else's...he couldn't live with that. How far could this go before he'd have to dial it back? How could you know when to slow down the party before it was too late? When does success spin out of control to become disaster?

He glanced up to see if Professor Lyons was still there. This might be the abstract question to ask a philosophy teacher about. There had to be books on it somewhere. But the professor was already moving out the door. Alex sighed. He threw on his leather jacket, picked up his helmet and books, and headed out to his next class.

Riding to school had been a good thing, he decided. He'd taken Lorelei's car home to retrieve it, since Taylor was perfectly happy to give Lorelei a ride home after "borrowing" her for the rest of the morning. The motorcycle wasn't as luxurious as Lorelei's Lexus, but that seemed to be the point. All she'd been showering him with luxury: money, fine food, honeymoon suites and gorgeous women. He realized it was really starting to make him feel uneasy. He couldn't figure out why, though, and wished he knew someone he could talk to about it.

Leaves crunched under his feet as he walked. He didn't even really think about it, but it was that time of year already. Sometime over the weekend, the groundskeepers had gathered all the leaves into large piles just off the sidewalks. Funny how so many leaves could change and fall in the course of a week.

Alex had an idle thought that it probably wasn't a good idea to have all these piles of leaves out where college students were bound to make a mess of them.

Money and luxury meant as much to Lorelei as dried leaves. She had said as much in the car.

"Hey, sexy thing!" someone called. Alex was still unaccustomed enough to the attention he'd been getting to think that the call was for someone else, but he looked up anyway.

Rachel came running at him, leaping upon Alex so fast that he barely had time to drop his books and hold his helmet out of the way. She had both legs up off the ground and her hands hooked onto his shoulders as he fell backward into the giant pile of leaves behind him.

He didn't really have time to regain his bearings before she was kissing him. The fall had hurt for a moment, but the kiss robbed him of any feeling of pain, or fear, or trepidation. Her touch and her kiss were overwhelming.

"Hi," Rachel grinned finally, still keeping him pinned to the ground.

"Wow. Um. Hi, Rachel," he said, unable to keep from grinning back. It wasn't as if he didn't want to see her, let alone have her this close. He'd never been tackled to the ground by a beautiful girl before, either. "How are you?"

"Better now." Her lips were on his again. The helmet fell out of his hands. He put his arms around her and held her tight. The nearness of her stirred as much desire as Alex had ever felt for anyone. She could clearly tell; as he stiffened, she pulled back from her kiss and beamed. "Much better to get a reception like this," she said, wiggling her groin against his unmistakable hardness.

Alex blinked. Her smile was breathtaking. It was hard to think of anything but the swell of affection and longing for her that overtook him and the absolutely amazing feeling of her touch. It was, he realized, a lot like Lorelei's hold over him, both wonderful and irresistible. That made him think of something concerning. He tried to concentrate. The last thing he wanted was for her to be hurt or resentful over some misunderstanding. "Rachel," he said, "things have...um..."

She put a hand on the side of his head to turn it and expose his neck. She kissed it, and then his ear, then his neck again. It left him gasping in wonder. "Wow," he breathed. "That's...oh wow. Rachel. Wait. I have to tell you. Lorelei and I."

She turned his head back to face her. Her smile was undiminished. In fact, it seemed to brighten. "I know," she said with barely-contained excitement. Then she turned his head the other way and started on this untouched ear and side of his neck.

Alex gasped again. "You know?"

Rachel giggled, releasing his head so he could turn to face her. "She loves you. You love her. You're in love together. Really in love. It's the most beautiful fucking thing I've ever seen. I've hardly taken my eyes off of you since Friday night."

It was then that Alex noticed. "You've got your wings back?" he blinked.

She kissed him again. There were sparks. Fireworks. He didn't really have a word for it, nor did he need one. Rachel's kiss was like nothing else. She hadn't even come off of his face when she whispered, still partly chewing on his lips, "Thanks to you. And her. Mostly you."

A shudder went through him. She was every bit as exciting as Lorelei. Beyond that, he couldn't possibly make comparisons. That was fine, though. Comparisons would inevitably be cheap. "How..." he gasped, "What'd I do?"

"The impossible," she said before she licked and ravenously kissed his lips again.

Alex kissed back. He couldn't get enough, either. His heart was pounding and his body was starting to tremble. Just a moment ago, he'd been thinking about how he'd been having too much of a good thing, but now...

...now there was another heart in the mix. One he cared about deeply. Rachel's kiss robbed him of worry, but not of concern. His fears were still there, but while she was with him, they were muted. He was at peace. But the thoughts were still there. "Rachel," he fought to say, "there are others. My life's a mess."

"Your life's awesome," Rachel countered, not letting up in her assault of kisses and licks and nibbles all over his face and neck. "I've seen everything."

"Everything?"

"I'm all better now. I can see you all the time," Rachel said. It should've been alarming to him, but it felt entirely good. This was his guardian angel. She was supposed to see. He understood that without even thinking about it. "I saw you with Onyx before Lorelei got back to you. After that...after the restaurant, I could see everything. I saw you together. I saw you with Jocelyn. With Taylor. I almost pulled you off of her yesterday when she said I should fuck you. You have no idea how hard it was to resist taking you for myself."

"I'm worried that this is all too much."

"I don't think you've had nearly enough. I see you. I know you. Your girlfriend and I have already talked. I know how you feel about me. You know Lorelei's okay with it. Don't you dare tell me you don't have room in your life for me," she whispered into his ear hungrily.

"I want to. So much. But I don't want to hurt you."

"You're not going to hurt me," Rachel grinned. "We're going to make each other very happy."

"How can you be so sure?"

"Because I know you, Alex. Maybe better than you know yourself." Her eyes seemed a bit sad for a moment, full of longing for something. "I wish I could tell you everything I know, but I can't. All those things that mortals aren't meant to know. But if you can trust me," she said, running her fingers through his hair, "I promise you we are going to be very, very happy together."

Despite his troubles, he grinned back. "That's kinda creepy."

"I know. Can't be helped. I'm not staring at you while you sleep or anything, 'cause that's just retarded. Still, it's like Taylor said. I'm a total stalker," she admitted cheerfully. "But I'm the sexiest stalker ever, and you love it and you know it."

"That's even creepier," Alex chuckled. Then he blinked. "You heard Taylor say that?"

Rachel trailed kisses up and down his neck and the sides of his face as she spoke. "I saw everything and heard everything. I'll keep your secrets. I'll protect you. I'm your angel. Your devoted...vigilant...naughty...horny angel."





Chapter 69: Lorelei and Taylor make plans...

"That's not who I saw," Onyx said in slow awe. She and Molly looked on with wide eyes at Alex and the blonde in white who was on top of him. There was a janitor yelling at them both to get up off of the pile of leaves. He was standing two feet away from them, seeing only an ordinary if very pretty blonde girl cuddling with a guy in a leather jacket. Yet the couple appeared to be utterly oblivious to the poor janitor.

"Well, the book said a succubus could shapechange," Molly suggested. She, too, was more or less stunned by what she saw. Like Onyx, she could read auras and see things that were supernaturally concealed. It was all just a matter of practicing the right enchantments. Unlike Onyx, though, this was her first direct observation.

"The woman I saw had a tail but no wings. This chick's got wings but no tail."

"Pretty wings," Molly noted.

"They look really happy together," Onyx murmured.

"Yeah, but he's worried. I can't read her aura, though. It's too bright."

"You think that's weird?"

"I don't know. I've never seen a chick with invisible wings and an aura this bright before."

"Maybe it's that bright to make it hard to read?"

"Maybe. Like you said, they seem happy. But he also seems worried."

"He worries. He does that. I think that's normal," Onyx thought aloud. She still hadn't taken her eyes off the blonde as she made out in the big pile of leaves with the only guy Onyx had ever gone to bed with. Onyx didn't want to feel jealous; she knew he had someone else. So did she, obviously. Even seeing him with her shouldn't have been a bother. But to see him rolling around with someone that beautiful...

"Can you be that happy and still be worried?"

"You are whenever we're figuring out the bills together," Onyx shrugged. "He was really happy while he was with me, too. I'm not worried about that. I'm worried about her. They're getting up. Think we should follow?"

"Yeah," Molly nodded. "This is really weird."

************

"Y'know, I've never been to his house before," Taylor thought aloud. She sat behind the wheel of her car as Lorelei retrieved her keys. They were parked just outside the entrance to the building. "I knew it was here, because Drew lives right over there and I've been to his place before, but...huh. Weird."

The succubus smiled wickedly. "How long would it take you to get from here to your next class?"

"Oh no," Taylor said with obvious reluctance. "I couldn't. This has been crazy and wonderful already, I just..."

There was a hand on her leg. Taylor looked down at it. That shapely, perfect woman's hand slid up her leg toward her crotch. "What possible reason do you have to deny yourself, Taylor?" Lorelei asked.

"You've already been so good to me," Taylor mumbled. Her eyes closed on their own.

"And I have been happy to be of service," Lorelei whispered into her ear. "I am made for this, Taylor. It is certainly no inconvenience. My master offered me to you."

"Mmmhh. He told you?" Taylor's words were almost dreamy.

Lorelei cocked her head curiously. "Told me what?" The fingers of Lorelei's hand brushed up against the material of her jeans between her legs. It caused a little gasp.

"That I could borrow you sometime."

Lorelei's grin became a broad, hungry smile. "No, he did not. I only meant this morning. Did he say when you might borrow me?"

"No," Taylor shook her head. She held Lorelei's wrist with one hand to make sure it wouldn't go anywhere. "He just offered to loan you to me and promised not to ask questions."

"This is very intriguing. Taylor, are you sure you wouldn't like to come inside and discuss this?"

"Does discussing...involve being naked?"

"All the best discussions in that home do," the succubus chuckled.

"Okay," Taylor surrendered. When they got out of the car, she felt a bit more in control of herself, but she was still entirely happy to come along. There was something admirable about the way Alex put aside these pleasures to go to class. Admirable, and praiseworthy, and downright silly. She shared Lorelei's smile as the older woman punched in the security code at the main gate, then led her to the elevator.

They had been alone in the honeymoon suite for two very active, very intimate hours already before they had left. Yet here Taylor was, sticking around for more.

"He gave you keys already?" Taylor asked absently.

"I may have found a spare key and had a copy made while he was at school earlier this week," Lorelei shrugged. "I suppose he overlooked the issue when he left today with his own keys." She cast Taylor a glance. "You should be warned that I am a demon and am prone to all sorts of mischief."

"You're not using some sort of sexy mind control on me right now, are you?" Taylor asked as they came to Alex's door. She didn't sound like she'd be all that mad about it.

Lorelei drew her inside to close the door behind her. "I will confess to having calmed you so that you might hear me out a couple of times," she said. With the door shut, Lorelei drew close, putting one arm around her while the other trailed up Taylor's leg to press indulgently upon her pussy. "But I'm not exactly capable of mind control. In fact, I've hardly used anything that could be called magic on you at all."

Taylor gasped, melting in her arms. "You don't call this magic?"

"Not at all," Lorelei whispered into Taylor's ear. She unfastened Taylor's pants and slipped her hand in underneath them, teasing her by leaving the thin fabric of Taylor's panties between her fingers and Taylor's damp flesh underneath. "But I'll also confess to tasting your desires. I know what you want."

"Oh," Taylor panted.

"I won't tell unless I am asked," Lorelei reassured her, "and Alex has already said he does not want to know. He honors your privacy...and our intimacy." Lorelei let Taylor whimper for a moment. She wanted to bring this to the bedroom – and, for all her appreciation of Taylor's privacy, she was looking forward to telling Alex how she'd had Taylor in his bed – but there was a sweet interrogation to conclude here. "I know you want other men."

"Oh."

"Is this what you would like my help with?"

"Ye-yes," Taylor managed. Her breath was hot against Lorelei's neck. "Alex said you could...help me...keep things, um...consequence-free?"

"I could," Lorelei smiled. "I have to warn you that you will be very hard-pressed to find another lover like Alex. There are reasons why he can perform as he does. Partially, it is because he has some natural talent, and his feelings for you are a factor. But there is also my influence."

"I know," Taylor mumbled, her breath coming in pleasured gasps. "I know."

"But even Alex can only be one man at a time, hm?"

"Yes. God, I'm getting so dirty."

"Ssshhh. Think nothing of it. Just between us girls." Lorelei continued to touch her. "I think I can help you find and properly prepare a couple of attractive young men deserving of a night or two as your devoted toys. We can ensure they won't rightly remember your identity as they go their separate ways with smiles on their faces."

"Mh. M-maybe more than a couple?"

Lorelei's head cocked curiously against Taylor's. "More than a couple of nights? Or more than a couple of boys?"

"...yes?"

"Oh, Taylor," the succubus chuckled. "Of all of my master's friends, you are easily my favorite."

"You could be there with me?"

"Yes. I will not betray Alex's wishes. As long as my master wants me for himself, I have no desire for other men. I can be there for you, but you'll have to remember that the rest of the entertainment is there only for you, too."

"Seems kind of...unfair...oh wow..."

"To be a slave is by definition unfair. But Alex is young yet. I am his first real love. In ten or twenty years, he may well be ready to slacken my leash a little more with regards to other men. Yet even so, I gain vastly more pleasure and even physical gratification in obeying than I would in—Ooohhh!" Lorelei tensed, suddenly pressing in bodily on Taylor. The younger woman blinked, realizing that she was now providing some measure of support for the succubus as she collapsed in her embrace. "Alex," Lorelei whispered hoarsely against Taylor's shoulder. "Oh, master."

The nearest place to sit by the door was the stairs. Taylor helped Lorelei down. "What is it? Is something wrong?"

"No," Lorelei breathed, her gaze seeming very far away. "Something wonderful."

"Huh."

Lorelei grabbed Taylor then, pulling the brunette into her arms and kissing her with wild passion. Taylor was fine with it, allowing Lorelei to control things as she was brought down to partly lie on the stairs in the arms of the succubus. The kiss went on for a very long time, leaving Taylor panting and her head swimming. One of Lorelei's hands plunged into Taylor's pants and resumed the aggressive and yet very indulgent handling she'd received earlier.

Minutes went by. Taylor finally had a chance to come up for air, but Lorelei was still very, very tense and aroused. "Is it always this good for you?" Taylor giggled.

"Not always," Lorelei gasped. Not ever, she thought to herself, but there was no reason to be tactless. "This is just...unexpected. I need..." Lorelei whispered hoarsely, then shook her head. "Alex is fine. More than fine. Taylor, I must ask a favor of you."

"Anything."

"I need to clear my head. There is something I must do. An opportunity I have to seize. I can do it from here, but...I am a bit overcome. Would you...come upstairs and indulge me for a while in what you have learned this weekend? I fear I may be very selfish about it."

"I don't know," Taylor teased. "Might have to twist my arm a little on that."





Chapter 70: Bonding with Rachel...

"What's wrong?" Rachel asked. She sat across from Alex at a small table in the crowded campus cafeteria. She had a milkshake. He had a hamburger and fries, which he was eating quickly. They had spent a lot of his break between classes kissing in a pile of leaves. His next class wouldn't be long in coming.

"You're making me a little self-conscious."

"I am?" She was leaning forward on the table, with both hands on her milkshake. "You're watching me eat while you've got nothing. It's kind of awkward."

Her eyes never left his, but she pointedly put the straw of her milkshake in her mouth. Alex paused, met her stare, and then just laughed.

"What's so funny?"

"You. Wow. It's like..." he shook his head, chowing down on another fry. "I don't want to sound like a jerk. I'm really happy you're here. I really like you. But it's just funny. I guess I realized just now that angels probably don't exactly date, do they?"

Rachel opened her mouth as if to respond, then closed it. Then she put her hands over her face. "Yes and no," she sighed. "Wow. Yes, Alex, I understand dating. I've seen it. I'm sorry. I'm being a fucking spazz."

He shook his head. "It's fine," Alex said. "I'm fine. I just felt weird that you were staring is all. I'm good."

"It's not that. Ugh. This sucks ass." She peered out at him from between her fingers. Then her hands fell away. "There's something I haven't told you. And I didn't want to tell you because you're not supposed to talk about your ex during a first date, right? If that's what this is? Are we dating?"

Alex blinked. "I don't know, are we?"

"If you want to be. I'm a little past the dating stage with you, I think. If it's what you need... it'll drive me batshit insane, but I can deal."

"Um." He hesitated, unsure of which way to take the conversation. "What stage are you at?"

"Alex, you've hardly gotten to spend any time with me at all while I've been all over you like the fucking KGB for days. I know things about you that you aren't capable of knowing yourself. I can't answer that and not sound psycho."

"So sound psycho," Alex shrugged.

Rachel inhaled. She seemed a bit nervous. "I'm at the 'run away with him and never look back' stage." She pursed her lips a bit, watching him as if she expected him to bolt. "We can take your other girls, though. I'm totally okay with that. I can share you as long as I can have you all to myself, too."

Alex grinned, then laughed. She laughed, too, a bit nervously. "You're right," he said, "that sounds kind of psycho."

"Then why are you laughing?"

"Because you make me feel good?" He shrugged. "I don't know. I just... do you believe in love at first sight?"

"Funny you should ask that. No. Not for about nine hundred years or so."

"Neither do I. But every time you've been around I just can't help but think how much I like you and how much more I want to see of you."

Her face brightened. "That's really sweet."

"I don't know how else to say it. You're just so alive. I mean, you're really beautiful, but that goes without saying. But on top of that, you're just... I don't know. You feel good to be with. Really good. You're witty, you're smart. You've just got this energy that I want more and more of and I know it's totally strange, but I feel like we just... click."

Rachel nodded. "We do."

"I almost feel bad about saying that."

"Why? Because of Lorelei? Don't. I know you love her. I think that's fucking awesome. I'd never let anything come between you two. Why would that make any difference?"

"Because it's like I'm comparing her to you. As amazing and overwhelming as you both are, that's bound to leave one of you feeling short-changed somehow."

The angel shrugged. "Every relationship is different. Whatever feelings you have for me don't necessarily reflect on your feelings for her or vice versa, or for anyone else. Tell me how you feel about her. Gush about her. Get mushy. Honestly, I'll be happy to hear it. I want you two to be as deeply in love as you could possibly ever be. Neither one of us is going to get jealous of the other, Alex. There's bound to be some friction between us, but I think the worst of that has already passed."

"You don't believe in one woman, one man, then?"

"I'm not against gay marriage, no," Rachel deadpanned. She waited for him to laugh, which after a moment he did. "Monogamous love is beautiful. Polyamory is beautiful, too. Love is beautiful, period. Like I said, jealousy isn't something I have to deal with. I'm happy to... feel the way I feel about you regardless of any other factor."

Alex looked at her for a long moment. He could hear the catch in her voice there. Something more was there to be said, he suspected, but he doubted the cafeteria right before his next class was the time and place for it. He decided to change the subject. "You were going to tell me something about your ex. If you want me to talk about Lorelei, I guess that's fair."

Rachel's shoulders slumped as she sighed. "Yeah," she grumbled. "Guess I better just get this out of the way... I used to be involved with someone. Another angel."

"Okay."

"I used to think he was all that and a bag of chips, but in 1517 I realized he's more like a great big bag of rotting cocks."

Alex nearly choked on the bite of hamburger that was in his mouth. He put the rest of it down. Clearly he was done eating here, anyway.

"It gets into all that stuff I can't tell mortals. But his name is Vincent, and he's... I used to follow him around like a puppy thinking everything he did was cool and awesome. Thinking he was heroic. Then we actually became involved. We were in love for centuries. Or at least I was. Eventually I realized that Vincent is in love with himself, and I started to realize that he's just a big show. Doesn't really do anything meaningful. Doesn't really change anything. He'll never admit it, but he knows it."

"What do you mean?"

"You remember how a demon slain on holy ground is gone forever?" she asked, keeping her tone low so no one would overhear.

"Yeah."

"Well, imagine someone who goes around fighting demons but never really puts any of them away for good. And he's got the same advantage they do in that it's very hard to completely destroy an angel on Earth, just like it's so hard to really end a demon here. He's never really in a position where he might be at risk. That'd be fine, but he doesn't even risk anything even when it would really accomplish something, and yet nobody notices that. He knows it, but he never admits it. He's just a glory hound, really.

"Like that other succubus you and Lorelei ran into Friday," Rachel said, and then winked when Alex's face revealed some surprise that she knew about it. "Told you. Motherfuckin' KGB here. Anyway, I saw that was a potential threat to you, so I let her know I'd go nuclear on her sloppy ass if she messed with you. Hopefully she got the message. But unless she steps out of certain lines, I can't really go after her."

"Vincent could, but he won't. Not until everybody knows she's around and is spun up about it and he'll look awesome for taking her on. He won't act until he's got an audience."

"Everybody thinks he's this big, strong, brave demon-fighting hero. He's all beautiful and chiseled and glorious and thinking about how I used to buy into it all and fawn all over him makes me just want to puke."

Alex fell quiet for a moment. She spoke of the relationship in the past tense, but what it really made him think of was Taylor's ex-boyfriend Gabriel. He had no idea how one could compete with an angel. He wasn't wounded or worried, but it was the first sign that even this relationship – whatever it might become – wasn't necessarily all wine and roses, nor a sure thing. Just like any other relationship.

Naturally, she went on. "Y'know, I gave up my original purpose for him. I was... I guess you could say I was a librarian, is the best way to explain it. I was a keeper of history and lore. But that kept me tied down where I couldn't follow him, so I requested a new role, and I became a messenger. And a lot of that is just me floating around speaking into the ears of loonies and winos. Did he ever thank me for it? Did he ever think about what I gave up to be with him? Fuck no. Ugh. Such a jerk. And most of the time he'd just... just lie there like I was privileged to be fucking him."

The students who walked by heard that, of course. They giggled and moved on. Rachel glanced up at them, then back at Alex, whose mortified facial expression said it all. "Alex, you don't do that. I've watched you screw four different women and you're the polar opposite of my ex. They say male actors in porn are basically just props, but they never saw you in action. You're amazing." There were further snickers from the passersby, and finally Rachel got the point and lowered her voice. "The only reason you'd get lazy in bed is if your partner wanted to indulge you. It's not the same."

"This conversation is beyond surreal right now. Do you seriously watch everything?"

"Just about," Rachel said with a sly grin. "I told you before I'd be watching you whenever you weren't with Lorelei. Now I don't even have that restriction. I won't be looming over you 24/7. You're still going to have time alone for yourself. Everybody needs time alone, I get that. I'm not like co-dependent or something. It's just that you're still so new and fascinating to me, and it's only been a few days. But...there's really only one thing that I'd like more than watching you fuck." The straw went back into her mouth with deliberate slowness.

Alex swallowed hard. He was disturbed by the thought that knowing this about her wasn't disturbing. Still, he was only half reassured by what she had said. "Do you feel like you're over it? With Vincent?"

"Oh, fuck yeah. I've been over it for four hundred years. I mean, yeah, in some ways that might not sound like a lot for someone who's basically immortal, but on the other hand, it's still four hundred fuckin' years. I'm pretty sure he's not entirely over the blow to his massive ego, but I'm done."

Alex nodded. "It's just that you brought him up is all. I mean you remember the date you split and everything."

Rachel sighed. "Not because I still have feelings for him. Alex," she reached out and took his hand. "I remember the date because I remember watching Martin walk up to the church doors with a hammer and nails and some paper, and I thought, 'You know, Vincent would never have the balls to do something like this.'"

"Mart...Martin Luther?" Alex blinked in awe.

She nodded nonchalantly. "You're talking about Martin Luther. Are you seriously comparing me to that?"

"No, not really. I'm talking about having balls. Look, I'm not comparing you to Martin. I mean that was five centuries ago and a totally different context, and neither he nor I knew what that whole thing would become. But to some extent courage is courage. You have the guts to do what you see is right regardless of the consequences, and I love that about you, Alex. Even if you weren't a hero, I'd still adore you for who you are. You'd still be wonderful and I think I'd still be hung up on you."

"I'm still stuck on the Martin Luther thing. Are you serious?"

Rachel looked away, blushing a bit. "I might have had something to do with all that, yes. I mean it's not all making acid stains of the Virgin Mary on highway overpasses and whispering into the ears of guys holding crazy signs in downtown Seattle." She looked back at him. "You did hear what I just said about you, though, right?"

He sank back in his chair. "I don't feel like a hero. I tend to think I'm pretty ordinary. Y'know, the last week aside." Alex searched for words, which left him staring at his plate for a moment. "I mean it's... you know that I was only in that graveyard because I was hoping to impress a couple girls in my photography class, right? And that was just stupid. I knew it was stupid then, too. But I'm just a guy who couldn't even get into the Army. I'm not a hero. I've had a week-long string of good luck. I keep wondering when it's going to end."

"You have no idea how wrong you are about that, Alex."

He shrugged. "I don't know. I mean I feel a lot more self-confident than I used to. I know that. It's not like I don't feel good about some of the things I've done. You always wonder what you're going to do in a really bad situation. Like if you'll have the guts to handle it. I'm really not scared that I'm going to grow up to be just some loser anymore, and I used to really worry about that. But even with everything that's happened, I keep wondering when... like, when's Lorelei going to realize that I'm really kind of boring, y'know? Or you for that matter?"

Rachel frowned. After a moment's consideration, she quietly asked, "Did you know that Lorelei's like a big deal among her own kind? I mean she's not like a duke of Hell, but as succubi go, her name's one of the first anyone would think of. She's something of an icon. Alex, you've stolen her from Hell. The ritual that captured her and I was one thing, but that's not what made her change so much. I know that priest drew on her evil and my benevolence, but I gotta tell you, I've pretty much recovered and I bet she's gotten a lot better, too. I can't really tell a before and after difference for myself anymore. But she's turned away from what she was, and that's gotta be deliberate."

"You've done something that's never been done. something that would of been thought impossible even if it was thought of. You've taught her love, Alex. You've taught her compassion and remorse. It's not that ritual that makes her long for your approval or your love. Magical compulsions didn't send her into that bathroom at the restaurant to talk to that poor old lady. That was you and everything you've taught her and inspired in her, and you didn't do that through luck. I guarantee you, whatever happens now, she's never gonna be the same. And she won't go back to what she was before. Not now."

"Shit like a demon being destroyed happens like once a century or two. But getting one to more or less defect? That's unprecedented. It's not like you changed the course of history or anything, but you've kicked a boulder that's been in place for centuries and made it shake. That's a big deal and oh wow, you are totally beet red right now."

Alex was looking down at her hand in his, fighting the urge to smile. "I don't hear things like this a lot," he shrugged.

"It's all true," Rachel said. "You're a big fucking hero." She grinned more. "What? What'd I say?"

"It's, um..." He bit down on his lips. Under her gaze, he finally let it out. "It's 'big damn hero.' Actually. Is how you're supposed to say it." He kept blushing. "It's a geek thing."

Rachel smiled. "You're Lorelei's big damn hero. And mine. You might feel like a goon sometimes, but you're not. Everybody has self-doubt. Everybody. But all that other stuff you said about being boring is just bullshit. I gotta tell you, Lorelei and I have both been around long enough to know what's important to us and what isn't. We – she loves you, Alex, for who you are. It's not magic. It's not the ritual. It's real. And my feelings are just as real, too."

They were both silent for a long moment. Alex was still searching for words. "You're both just... she's overwhelming. She's so overwhelming. I can't believe I'm worthy of her. And I feel pretty much the same way about you."

"That's how love usually feels. Especially at first." She grinned at him. "And I'll grant that we're both pretty fantastic."

"We were talking about something else before, though, weren't we?"

"I could tell you how awesome you are for days," Rachel winked. "But yeah," she sighed. "We were talking about stupid Vincent and the stupid chip on his stupid shoulder."

"Well, if you're over him, what's it got to do with anything?"

"He's... ugh. There are angels that guard over people, but there are also angels that guard over places. Vincent's more or less got guardianship over this city as a whole. There's politics there, so it's not like he's got as much authority as that might sound, but he's got a voice. He gets listened to. And Vincent is all bent out of shape over you because you've shown him up."

"So you think he's going to do something to me?"

"No. Not directly. That would be taking a risk, which he wouldn't do. But he's going to try to get you stripped of my guardianship. And he might push that through, too, 'cause you've got Lorelei protecting you as it is. When someone's more or less got supernatural protection of one sort or another the guardians basically drop him or her. Usually that's because messing with the supernatural involves turning away from the divine, but even when it doesn't..." she shrugged.

"Wow," Alex breathed. "What does that mean for you and I?"

"It doesn't mean you'll lose me," Rachel said quietly but firmly. She gave his hand another squeeze. "That can't happen now. But it'll weaken me. You get... I'm not sure how close this is into forbidden knowledge territory, but an angel's status and purpose has an effect on what he or she is capable of. Mainly I just wouldn't be as powerful."

"You'd still be you?" Alex asked. She nodded. "And I'd still be able to see you?"

"Yes."

"Then I don't care."

Rachel smiled at him, reminded all over again of how sweet he really was. "You've really got to go to your next class?"

"I've got a test on Wednesday. There's supposed to be a review for it today."

"Can I come with you?"

"We can try it. It's a lecture hall, and people have dropped so there are seats now... but the teacher's aides take attendance."

Rachel shrugged. "I can make myself invisible to every mortal except you just like Lorelei can. Just sit where there's an open seat next to you. What's after that?"

"Uh. Photography."

"Oh," Rachel said. "Right. Do you want me to make myself scarce for that?"

"No," Alex said. "Hell, no. I don't know what I'm going to do yet. I've just gotta do this biology class, and then... I don't know. I already knocked out the other heavy ones today. I could probably skip the rest. I'd really just like to be with you."





Chapter 71: Rachel's needs...

"You didn't tell me you'd been in the Navy," said a familiar voice.

Eddie turned around in his cubicle chair to abandon the online photo album he'd been looking at. "Um, yeah," he blinked. Michelle leaned on one corner of the open side of his cubicle. He couldn't help but smile at what he saw her wearing. She had a way of turning "business casual" into "dressed to kill." The skirt was a bit daring, but then, who was really going to complain?

"How long?"

"Four years," Eddie shrugged. "The usual."

"Were you a big, bad Navy SEAL?" she grinned. "Or a pilot?"

Eddie chuckled. "You know how you can always tell if someone at a party is a pilot, right?"

"No. How?"

"Oh, don't worry. He'll tell ya." Michelle laughed. "Nah," he went on, shrugging his shoulders. "I was just the guy who did what was required of him."

She nodded. "My son tried to enlist in the Army. He was crushed when he got rejected for medical reasons, and then the other branches wouldn't take him. His grandfather was thrilled, though."

"Didn't want his grandson going off to war, huh?"

"No. He was a Ranger in Vietnam. Said the Army made him a much better person, but he could've done without all the guilt. Didn't want Alex's name up on a wall somewhere someday."

Eddie nodded. "So, uh...this conversation got heavy kind of fast. It's nice to see you."

"I came by because I couldn't help but notice that you were still at your desk while everyone else around here went out to eat."

"Honestly, I was going to see if you wanted to go grab something with me, but then I figured you were in that management meeting."

The blonde shook her head. She did it slowly. Something about that was very, very sexy. "No," she said. "I was hoping you'd come in my nice, private office for lunch."

Eddie fought to keep his smile down to a dignified grin. "There's not any food in there, is there?"

She shook her head slowly again. "No," she told him. "We'll just have to find something else to eat." Michelle reached out to grab his tie and tug on it gently. He rose in response. "But maybe you and I could make dinner plans while we're at it."

"I'm a pretty good cook, and I've even been cleaning up my place," Eddie said. "I like the sound of that."

"I like that skirt."

"Good. I threw it on in my office just for you. Not like I'd wear this right now if the place wasn't deserted," Michelle winked.

Eddie swallowed. "Wow. You wore that just for me?"

"I'm wearing quite a few things specifically for you right now," Michelle grinned. She gave another little tug on his tie, then let it go as she stepped away from his cubicle. "Come see."

*************

"You will need to be able to list the characteristics of life. We did that on the first day. Also from our first class, you'll need to remember our little discussion on evolution and natural selection, as well as the readings on Darwin." The professor spoke with fairly good cadence and inflection, just enough to keep from being monotone, but she wasn't trying to keep anyone entertained. Most everyone in the auditorium-style lecture hall was busy writing down everything she said.

Sitting in the back of the hall, Alex heard Rachel sigh with annoyance. He glanced at her and couldn't help but grin a bit. "Not big on Darwin?" he murmured.

She took the sort of deep breath that enforces good posture, then released it. "I am expressly forbidden from speaking on that specific subject," she said.

His grin was undiminished. "Hot button issue for you?"

"A bit."

"I dunno. Just your reaction might tell me plenty about creationism."

Rachel frowned and looked at him sideways. "It's actually very complicated," she said. Alex was back to looking at his professor. After a moment Rachel said, "The Norse had it right."

He blinked. "The Norse? What, you mean the Vikings?"

"Mm-hmm."

"I know that one. Doesn't it start with a land of ice and a land of fire and a magic cow being melted out of the ice in between?" Rachel nodded solemnly. Alex looked back at the professor again, considering what she said. "I thought you weren't supposed to be able to lie to me."

"The question is whether or not lying is the same thing as being sarcastic," she smirked.

Alex chuckled a little as he looked back to the professor. She was still giving an outline of the upcoming exam. "You will need to know the parts of cells, both animal and plant. That means you'll have to know the difference between a cell membrane and a cell wall. You'll need to remember what a vacuole does. You need to know the difference between mitosis and meiosis and the phases of each."

"You're hardly taking any notes," Rachel observed.

"Seems like a lot of this is stuff people should remember from high school. I had AP Bio in my junior year." He glanced over to see Rachel's quizzical look. "That's, um...I should've gotten college credit for this class already. Could've, I mean, if I had taken the test."

"Why didn't you?"

"My buddy, Jason got chicken pox a week before the exam. His parents were in Israel for a funeral. We'd been friends all our lives, so I went over to check in on him and bring him his homework and some comics and stuff. Keep him company. Mom was working really late, so I hadn't even told her for the first two days, and then she was like, 'You idiot, you've never had chicken pox, either,' which I totally didn't know, and so...um, yeah."

Rachel's smile beamed at him. "That's really sweet."

"It was really dumb."

"Bah. I'm sure he'd have done the same for you."

"No, Jason's way smarter than me. Jason would've asked his mom if he'd had chicken pox, and then when she said no, he'd have sent someone else."

"How long have you been friends?"

"Gah. All our lives. All the same interests. Geeks tend to cling to their own when they find 'em."

"So you don't really need to stay here?"

"I might. She's not done with the review yet, and there might be more. If this covers genetics, it'll kick my ass...where are you going?" he asked as she rose.

Rachel pulled away his notebook and then moved the little fold-out desktop in his seat back to the side. Then she sat down on his lap, straddling him. "Right here," she smiled.

Alex's eyes went wide. She leaned back a bit, stretching just right to draw his attention to her cleavage. Rachel's white dress had just enough room at the bottom to allow her to do this without it hiking up very far, but just the same there was an awful lot of leg.

She shouldn't have been able to do this given the lack of space, but her legs went right through the seats to either side of him as if they weren't even there. Alex blinked in shock. She was very solid and very real against him, but she could apparently move her body right through solid matter. Rachel grinned down at him. "And now you know how I can follow you around everywhere you go," the angel teased.

She ground into him a bit as if she knew just how to move to get his already alarmingly hard cock in the most comfortable position possible. Then she popped open the top button of his black shirt. Rachel leaned in, kissing and nibbling her way up from his collarbone to the side of his face.

He tried to breathe and hold still. Alex couldn't really do anything to hold her without looking weird to everyone else, and he knew it. She felt so incredibly good that he almost didn't really care. As if mocking him about his scholarly commitment, Rachel made a point of keeping her head low or to the side so that he could still see his professor. While the woman at the lectern droned on about diagramming cells, Rachel's hands roamed along Alex's sides.

He didn't mean to do it, but he caught the eye of the teacher's assistant, standing near the exit near the front row. She glanced up at Alex's wide-eyed face and strange posture with something between amusement and I-guess-I-won't-be-giving-that-freak-my-phone-number-after-all surprise. Alex looked away. Rachel took the turn of his head as an indication to give more attention to the other side of his neck.

His eyes closed. She felt wonderful. She was wonderful. He longed to kiss her, but that would look very, very weird indeed.

"You're vibrating," Rachel observed with a whisper against his skin.

"I'm shaking that much?"

"No. I think it's your phone."

Alex blinked. He twisted a bit, trying hard to get at the phone in his back pocket. Rachel giggled as he tried to manage it. Finally, he got it out. Rachel settled back against him.

There was a text from Lorelei. "The honeymoon suite is yours again tonight. Don't worry about me. I know what you feel for her. Rachel will not come between our love. This is exactly what I want for you."

His mind was thrown for a loop. He had a lover beyond his wildest imagination, and she was encouraging him to take another. Hell, she even made arrangements for him.

"I've never wanted anything like I want you, Alex," Rachel confessed into his ear. "I want to give myself to you. I want to love you for days and nights on end. I want to taste you and take you inside me and make you mine."

"Rachel," he grunted.

"Mmh, yeah." She seized his hair to pull back his head so she could lick the entire length of his neck before she growled, "I want to hear you screaming my name, too."

"Rachel, I can't take you to bed until you get off of me."

************

"There go all of my doubts," Onyx said as Alex pulled out of the parking lot on his motorcycle. His invisible companion rode on the back, holding him tightly and smiling.

Following the two out of the biology lecture without being spotted wasn't difficult. They only had eyes for one another, and those eyes were often closed. They had stopped to throw one another up against this wall or that tree for long, hungry kisses more than a few times between the lecture hall and the parking lot.

"Why do you think she went invisible again when they got on the bike?" Onyx asked.

"He's only got one helmet," Molly pointed out. "If she's not wearing one, too, they'll get pulled over. But the books all say that demons with mortal flesh are really durable. If they get in an accident, she'll still be better off than he is even though he's dressed for it and she isn't. If she's really a succubus."

"Guess he won't be in photography today," Onyx frowned. "Well, what do you think?"

"I think she turns invisible, she has an aura that's suspiciously so bright it can't really be read, she crawled all over him while he's in class and she's dragging him away from his responsibilities while everything about him screams 'I need to fuck right now.' Yeah. I'm pretty convinced of what she is, whether or not she looks the way she did on Friday."

"Good thing I spotted these along the way, then," Molly grinned. Onyx looked to her. Molly was holding up several blonde hairs.

"Holy shit, how did you get that?"

"Are you kidding? With the way they were wrestling up against the wall outside the lecture hall, I'm surprised he didn't pull out a whole lock of her hair. So let's go home, get out of these fucked up clothes and get to work. I think it's time we had a conversation with this chick."

************

Carlos collapsed behind Lydia, unable to hold himself upright anymore. She shifted from her hands and knees to help him up to lie correctly in the large bed, with his head on the pillows. Carlos would have been breathing heavily, but he could barely do that. He'd been in frenzy for hours, with his orgasms frustratingly further and further apart.

For Lydia, that was delicious progress.

"Baby," he whispered hoarsely, "I need water. I need..."

"I know what you need," Lydia said, straddling him and pushing herself onto his dick. It was still entirely erect, still coated with their intermingled fluids. Lydia began to rock back and forth, shuddering with the pleasure of both his unyielding erection and the rapid deterioration of all the rest of his strength.

"Can't we rest?" he asked weakly. With some effort, he raised his hands to her hips, wanting to urge her off. She grabbed his wrists and flung them up and over his head as if his arms were just limp objects attached to his shoulders.

"You rest, Carlos," Lydia reassured him. "Just relax and let me take care of the rest from here."

"That's...'s not what I mean..."

"I know, Carlos," Lydia grinned. "I know."

It wouldn't be long now. She loved this part. Lydia grinned evilly.





Chapter 72: Alex and Rachel, together at last...

"This is happening really fast," Alex said with a grin. Their voices in the elevator were hushed. Their body language, however, could not have been louder.

Luckily, the older couple that had shared the elevator with them from the lobby had gotten out at a lower floor, allowing Alex and his angel to wrap themselves around one another again.

"No," Rachel smiled. She had both her arms around his shoulders, her head tilted up a bit to look in his eyes while her fingers ran through his hair. "This has been a long time coming."

"Maybe for you. You've been stalking me for days."

She shook her head slowly. "I've wanted someone to look at me and hold me the way you do since before the Tower fell. And I only wish I could explain, but you deserve this kind of happiness more than you know."

He smirked, then turned his head so he wouldn't be laughing directly in her face. "What?" she asked.

"You have to keep all these secrets from mortals, but you just dropped a Tower of Babel reference on me like you were there for it."

Her smile became sweetly irritated. "I didn't tell you whether or not it was metaphorical or literal, jackass," she said before planting a kiss on him that made him stop laughing. They were locked in it until the elevator stopped moving and the doors opened. Alex didn't actually notice. Rachel had to be the one to break it off as she walked out of the elevator wigglingher ass as she moved. "But yes, I was there since you inquired."

At the door to the room, though, she stopped. A deep, unsure breath came in and out of her. "What's wrong?" Alex asked.

"I'm being so selfish," she said quietly, closing her eyes for a moment in frustration. She looked up at him. "I'm rushing you. For fuck's sake, I've totally thrown myself at you when you're in no condition to resist that sort of thing. Not when you've got Lorelei doing all she can to encourage you to make every decision with your cock, and your life is total emotional turmoil. Alex, I'm crazy about you, I really am, but I didn't want to—"

He kissed her. Once again, she melted into his arms. The only sounds in the hallway were those of breathing, of kissing, and of the rustling of clothes against one another.

"I'm not the only one here who deserves to be loved," Alex said finally.

Rachel's eyes fluttered open. She held his gaze, but at the same time seemed as if she was suddenly dizzy. Her body felt almost limp in his arms but also almost weightless. "You..." she blinked. "Do you mean loved like physically or—?"

"I love you, Rachel."

She seemed stunned. Her eyes just stared at him. Her mouth made small twitches, as if she were continually about to say something but couldn't. Finally, she got something out: "Wow."

"It's crazy and it's too soon and I don't care. I love you. I want to be with you." He spoke with a calm, humble certainty that went beyond mere confidence.

Her stare continued. "Open the door," she said in a voice barely above a whisper. He pulled out the key card and slipped it into the door. The shift in his attention helped Rachel regain her composure. Rachel waited for him to open the door for her, then tugged on his leather jacket as she moved in past him. "'Gosh golly, Rachel, when are you going to realize I'm totally boring and not sexy at all?'" she mused in a voice of wry amazement.

Alex smiled as she stepped inside. He threw on the light switches before he followed her. She walked a few paces into the room before stopping. It wasn't until the door closed behind them and he threw the deadbolt that she turned.

Rachel's eyes were on his as her hands went to the shoulders of her simple white dress. Without pause, she pulled the fabric down over her shoulders. There was no deliberate teasing, no gyrating or sultry swaying to music. Rachel moved only slow enough that Alex could watch as she pushed her dress down along her skin until it was in a pool at her feet.

Every thought or worry Alex had about comparisons between Rachel and Lorelei evaporated in that moment. There would never be a "better" or "worse" where either woman was concerned. Rachel was an inch or two shorter, a decade or so younger in appearance, and slightly more slender and lithe where Lorelei was slightly more voluptuous and alluring. Lorelei's beauty was poised, sultry and mysterious where Rachel was bright and vibrant. There was no primacy to be found, or even considered. There was no "more beautiful" or "less sexy."

One was an angel. One was a demon. They were both achingly beautiful, and they both owned his heart.

"I thought I was happy a minute ago," Rachel smiled. "But if you're going to keep looking at me like that, I may have to go nude for you anytime we're alone."

"I love you, Rachel," Alex breathed. It was the only thing he could think to say.

She came close to him, bathing in his awestruck stare. Rachel pulled his jacket off of his shoulders and tossed it onto a plush chair nearby. He couldn't do much more than look at her while she smiled back in appreciation. She bent at the knees. "Lift up your foot," she said. He couldn't think of disobeying. She pulled off his sneaker and his sock, and then repeated the moment with the other.

Rachel rose again. Her hands went to his belt buckle. "Never thought I'd be so happy to have a guy unable to take his eyes off my breasts," she said.

"Their amazing," Alex thought out loud.

She moved her face forward to kiss him lightly on the lips. Before he knew it, the buckle was undone and she was unbuttoning his black shirt. When his hands slowly rose to her hips, she inhaled sharply and deeply but didn't stop undressing him. His hands slid upward, mapping the curves of her sides until she was pulling his shirt off. His touch fell away long enough to let her get rid of the shirt. Then she worked on unbuttoning his jeans.

As she handled this last bit of undressing him, Rachel's eyes turned up toward his beseechingly. "I love you, Alex," she said. Again, she tugged him close and kissed him. His arms went around her as their kiss increased in greater and greater passion.

When they finally parted, both of them breathless, Rachel's smile and joyful gaze returned. Her hands were still on his jeans, now completely unfastened. "So, lover," she grinned, "do you want me to be romantic and innocent, or do you want me to be your dirty girl?"

He was still overwhelmed. It took him a moment. "I want you to be yourself," he said finally.

Rachel's hands slid his pants and boxer briefs down. She took his hard cock in her hands, lightly but fondly caressing and stroking him while she raised her lips up yet again for another loving, intimate kiss. Their lips and tongues slid together for many long, sensuous seconds.

The angel then pulled back, smiling, and bent at the knees again. Rachel kept her eyes on Alex's lovestruck face as she licked the length of his cock. He let out a short moan, but before he could actually form words Rachel took him into her mouth.

He thought he was going to fall. His whole body went weak as he was swept away by this intimacy. Within moments, Rachel was working his cock over fiercely, no longer caring about holding his gaze but rather focusing on bringing him to an unexpected height of pleasure.

It didn't take long. She didn't work him to a finish, either. Rachel slowed again, looking up at him lovingly before she finally released him. When he was steady enough, she helped him get the rest of the way out of his jeans. "Just a teaser," she winked. Then Rachel rose, hooking her fingers around his neck to pull him along with her as she stepped back.

Swept away though he was, Alex was quickly adjusting to the wild excitement of being with her. Or, at least, he was able to think and move on his own again. He stopped her before she got to the bed. "Just so we understand each other," Alex said as he quickly knelt before her.

"Oh, lover, you don't have toooooooohhhh," Rachel moaned. He was slower with his oral attentions than she was, but beyond that, it was much the same treatment. Alex's hands slid around her ass while he explored her wonderful pussy with his mouth. "Fuck," she breathed as her eyes fell closed. "Fuck, fuck. Never... oh, I've never... Alex..."

"Never?" He kept at it; switching between softly licking, sucking, and gently biting all over her soaking wet pussy. She was intoxicating and so very delicious. Luxurious even. He felt privileged to go down on her. Once again, it was like being with Lorelei, yet entirely different.

Her voice was weak. "Would I lie to you? Oh, wow. Fuck, that's... you... you're amazing..."

"Then relax on the bed. I'm happy to keep this up."

Rachel's head shook. "No, lover. Not yet. Oh. I want you. I want you to take me first."

He couldn't deny her. Alex rose again, and after a moment's kiss and embrace to steady her, she resumed pulling him toward the bed. He saw that she stayed turned toward him as she backed up. "Um," he said, "what about your wings?"

Rachel just smiled. She tugged him down as she sat down on the bed, then scooted backward without ever breaking their gaze, and finally laid back. Her wings went right through the mattress while her back fell against it. "Wow," Alex breathed.

"Wow is right," the angel grinned, looking pointedly at his very erect cock. "For such a good guy, you carry around a whole lot of pure sin."

"Says my dirty girl," Alex grinned back as he joined her on the bed.

She latched onto him, pulling her lover down against her with a joyous yelp. "You're damn right I am," she said between kisses. "I'm yours, Alex. Take me."

Her legs were already apart for him. Her hands were on his ass, and her body was more than ready. He slipped and teased and ground against her anyway, kissing her all the while. Rachel laughed in joyous frustration, pulling on him and fighting against the smile that made it so hard to kiss back effectively. The hand that slid over her breast helped a bit with that, turning her smile into a gasp of pleasure and heightened arousal. His fingers traced and ever so lightly pinched at her erect nipple. Their tongues intertwined. His cock kept sliding between her wet labia without actually penetrating.

"You're really evil," Rachel whispered. She had one hand around his neck. The other reached down to take hold of his cock.

"You were the one worried about rushing things," he said. Finally Alex began the slow, wondrous push between her lips. Rachel's grip grew tight as she pulled on him pulling his cock into her. His cock spread her open stretching her more than she was used to before Alex bottomed out in her.

As if they weren't wild with pleasure already, joining together set their bodies alive with ecstasy. The rush of penetrating her overtook Alex from head to toe. Rachel pulled on him and writhed against him with equal joy. Her sex felt so good around his that he thought he might cum at any second.

Instead, that feeling stayed with him and never abated. He made another thrust, both fearful and yet unwillingly hopeful that it would set him off right there, but it did not. Alex pulled back and thrust again, and then again, and then again pounding her into the mattress.

"Make me yours, lover," Rachel begged him with an uncontrollable moan. She bucked against him as best she could, pulling on his hips with her nails scratching into his skin. "Take me... split me in half baby. Take me like I'm taking you. You're mine. We'll belong to each other."

Alex's face was over hers. One hand slipped up under her head, pulling her hair just firmly enough not to hurt. Rachel gasped in pleasure, encouraging him to ravish her. His breathing became loud, even vocal, and as the intensity of their contact rose, their mouths came together in a rough, hungry, loving kiss.

It went on and on, almost like an obsession as their bodies slowly glistened in the light. They became drenched with sweat. The sunset outside was beautiful, followed by clouded darkness. They didn't notice. They lost all sense of anything other than one another. He was also too swept away to realize just how much this was like his first time.

Rachel and Alex erupted together. Her climax shook through her and exploded around him, wet and uncontrolled and glorious. Alex cried out involuntarily, practically even roaring as the build up of tension and arousal and love within him made its forceful escape.

It was a long while before the rush abated. Awareness slowly came back to them both without diminishing the wild pleasure or wanton intimacy of their experience. Fucking became loving, and then relaxed into a warm, tender embrace.

"I love you, Rachel," Alex repeated.

"I know," she whispered. "I can feel it. I love you, too." She sniffed. Tears fell from her eyes, streaming across her temples. "It worked. Oh, thank you, Lord. Thank you. It worked."

Alex laughed a little. "Yeah, I was afraid I wouldn't get the job done there, too."

Rachel both laughed and sobbed happily. "No, you dummy. Not that." She held him tightly as he trailed soft, loving kisses over her neck. "The ritual. The binding ritual. We finally completed it at long last."

"Ah," Alex huffed. Then he blinked. "Wait, we did what?!"





Chapter 73: Lydia starts her revenge...

"Three layers. Triple checked. It'll hold," Molly said. She put the magnifying glass down on the table. There were no cracks in their summoning circle. No gaps in the wax of the ritual circle at the center of it, or the salt around the circumference of it that enacted the summoning circle, or the circle of ash that provided added resilience behind that.

"You know your lines?" Onyx asked.

"I do," Molly said, and then favored her with a wink.

They were back to their normal clothing and back to their apartment. They had made sure that the upstairs neighbors were out for the evening and the guy next door was out at work. A heavy pair of curtains was laid against the windows. The pair enacted charms of discretion and disinterest around their apartment. It was all the privacy they could manage.

Not for the first time, the young couple felt like they would soon have to find an acceptable way to start making some money with all this witchcraft stuff. For one thing, they really needed better digs.

"I still figure this is gonna take a few hours. You ready?" Molly asked. She held out a circlet of vines and stems. Interwoven within them were the strands of blonde hair Molly had found.

"I love you, Molly," Onyx answered simply.

Molly grinned, took Onyx in her arms and kissed her guilty look away. Eventually she leaned her forehead against her lover's. "This is why I'm with you," the redhead reminded her. "There's no point to all this if we can't help our friends. It's not about you sleeping with him. I like him, too."

Onyx nodded. She let Molly pull away, then turned to light the last candle. Then she frowned. "Wait, like him how?"

"Oh please. You knew I was a tramp when you brought me home," Molly laughed.

************

Lydia was relentless.

She allowed Carlos neither rest nor the oblivion of unconsciousness. He begged, at least while he could still talk, but all that did was make her smile. He would have cursed his virility, and Lydia's unending, merciless lust, but that thought didn't drift through his mind until he was incapable of speech.

Shortly after sunset, it was time. These things had to be managed very carefully. There was a very short window in these rituals between the ejection of the soul from the body and the final expiration of life. She would have only the briefest of moments.

Lydia reached over Carlos's head, granting one last caress of her breasts against his face while she pulled the ritual dagger from behind the wooden headboard of the bed.

Carlos couldn't even really tell what was happening at that point. He only barely felt the point of the dagger as it carved shallow, profane runes into his arms, his shoulders and his chest. There wasn't much blood. That wasn't the point. All the while, Lydia called out to her master.

The cuts stopped bleeding. Lydia rocked harder against him, calling out wantonly in a tongue rarely used on Earth, "Ba'al! Come to me, lord and master! Your servant offers this body, that you may take pleasure in hers! Ba'al! Ba'al!"

Carlos let out a last, final sigh. His hands stopped twitching. Lydia continued to grind against him. A moment later, a tiny puff of ash came from his mouth. More escaped from the cuts on his upper body.

Lydia gasped and quivered in orgasmic surrender when Carlos's hands grasped her hips with sudden strength, vitality and urgency. The forceful, selfish rhythm left no illusion of the succubus having any further control. She was gripped, used, and then tossed to her side.

Her partner rose off his back to look at his surroundings, then down at the smiling, submissive woman sharing the bed. Black smoke swirled in his eyes.

"Tell me quickly why this is worth my while," said a much deeper and sinister voice than had ever come from Carlos before.

Her satisfied smile was undiminished by her master's apparent irritation. Lydia said only one word: "Lorelei."

What was once Carlos cocked his head curiously. "What of her?"

"Belial has lost her and I know where she is."

************

"Why would you do something like that?" Alex asked. He sat upright on the bed. Rachel lay next to him. He had pulled half the comforter over her so he could think straight.

He didn't want to think straight. He wanted to make love to her. She clearly wanted that, too. But this was crazy.

"Because it will help keep us together, Alex," Rachel explained. She reached out to take his hand, speaking in a voice that was both loving and urgent. "I'm telling you, it's not what you think. It's not what any of us thought. That urge to obey peaked like three days into this whole deal. You might get a few days to boss me around, which could be kinda kinky," Rachel noted with a brief grin, "but in the end, I'm not really going to be your slave. Not really."

"Lorelei doesn't disobey me," Alex said.

"Of course she doesn't. It's in a demon's nature to have a master. But she gets off on obeying you. Maybe the ritual reinforces that and maybe it doesn't, but that's part of who and what she is regardless. She doesn't obey you because of the ritual, Alex. She wants you as her master because she has to have one, and she loves you and respects you. If I were in her shoes, I'd feel the same way.

"That whole thing about not being able to lie to you is irrelevant to me anyway, by the way. I told you that straight off. I couldn't lie to you regardless."

"Yeah, but you can apparently hide things from me like this."

"Well, that's something Lorelei can clearly do too. She sure as hell knew this would happen. I think she was just hoping I wouldn't find out."

Alex blinked. "Why would she do that?"

"Hello? Demon! Bound to be a little naughty! Plus she loves you, dork. Put those two things together. Why wouldn't she want you to have me wrapped around your finger and your cock?" Seeing his displeased look, Rachel finally looked less pleased with the situation and more penitent. "Alex, I'm sorry. I didn't tell you because I wasn't sure if it would still work and I didn't want you to freak out. And it doesn't change how I feel for you in the slightest."

"Well, I'm a little freaked out," Alex put in sourly. "You're taking a terrible risk with your freedom."

"I'm really not," Rachel said. "I love you. I've never felt love like this before. This bond between us... if anything, it helps keep us together."

"Why?"

"Because the one thing it for sure does permanently is obligate me to defend you."

"I thought you were going to do that anyway?"

"I am. That's not the point. That priest was at least smart enough not to try this without being damn sure that his slaves couldn't turn on him. He did a good fuckin' job on that, too. Even the angels couldn't figure out a way to break the bond, and that was when it wasn't even as complete as it is now. So now even if Vincent does get his way and I get removed as your guardian angel, I'm still bound to protect you. Like I said, I'd do that anyway. But this is something I've got to throw at anyone who tries to send me to Bum Fuck Egypt to convey prophecies and shit. They can't send me away from you now. They won't. They can't. The Hosts can be ridiculously political sometimes, but it's still Heaven. They aren't cruel."

Alex sighed, looking away from her for a moment. She reached out and took his hand, which brought his attention back to her. "I love you, Alex."

"I... ugh. I love you, too, Rachel. It just seems crazy that you would put yourself in this position. Even if the whole 'enslavement' thing only lasts for a little while."

Rachel's lips pursed. "Alex, love? I'm suffering from a terrible curse that makes me obey your wishes for, like, three whole days. Would you be a real sweetheart and not order me around like I'm your slave?" She watched his reaction and grinned. "That's why. That sort of thing might be fun and kinky for you and Lorelei, but I know you wouldn't put it on anyone else."

"Is there anything else you're keeping from me? Anything at all?"

"Way too much for comfort, really," Rachel confessed. "But virtually all of it is still stuff you're not meant to know. Please don't ask me to tell you such things. It would hurt you spiritually and psychologically."

"Virtually all? What doesn't fall under that?"

Rachel suppressed a grin. "Are you sure you're not still mad at me?"

Alex almost said something angry, but bit it back. There wasn't any conviction behind it, anyway. He sighed, ultimately feeling annoyed at himself. "I don't know how I can be mad at you. Or Lorelei. I mean, I'm mad, but I'm not gonna stay mad at you, and I know it, so... fuck it, I guess." He shrugged. "Kinda feel like a heel, though... but I love you. And if you're this scared of being separated from me, I guess... well, I guess it's not like I know what it's like where you come from."

Rachel gave him a puppy-dog look. "Can I pull the blanket off now and go back to being naked and willing for you?"

He snorted out a laugh. "Hell, yes," Alex said, shifting a bit as she revealed her glowing, well-loved body again. Once again, his eyes showed how dazzled she really had him. "But what else aren't you telling me?" he asked.

"There's one other part of the ritual that I'm pretty sure is permanent."

"Which is?"

"The part where I'm gonna love it when you get laid by someone else every bit as much as Lorelei does," Rachel grinned broadly. "I mean, I'm not gonna feed on it like she does, but I'm so totally gonna get off on it the same way."

That made Alex smile. He crawled over her, slipping one hand up her belly, then over her breast, which he gently kneaded and toyed with to Rachel's obvious pleasure. "You sure about that?"

"Mm-hmm," Rachel nodded. She reached up to run her fingers through his hair. "I've got one other confession... your smoking hot girlfriend hit on me the other night while you were out playing pool with the guys. I almost went for it. Alex, she loves you, and I love you, but we might cheat on you together if you're not careful."

"Um. Well, I can probably deal with that, but YouTube it or it didn't happen."

"I'd rather you participate," Rachel said, kissing him deeply. As their lips slid together, Alex brought himself between Rachel's legs, which spread for him invitingly.

"You could've sold me instantly on this if you had just told me about the last part of the bond," Alex said softly. "I kinda like knowing I'm pleasing more than one lover at a time. We probably already blew Lorelei out of her mind once tonight already."

"I like it, too," Rachel agreed. "Let's fuck her brains out again."





Chapter 74: Oh Fuck, not again!?!?

Lorelei was, in fact, out of her mind with pleasure for hours. She had felt the first rush of Alex's desire when Rachel tackled him at school. She felt his longing for her rise in a spiral throughout the day. Lorelei recognized the taste of love in his desire from the beginning. She had tasted it there before today, but every minute he was with the angel only made it stronger.

Rachel played her part beautifully, too. Lorelei could probably have done better herself, but there was no need to nit pick it. No need to worry about technique or artistic flourish when sincerity, consistency and intensity alone could get the job done. Who cared if Lorelei would have chosen a scalpel for a task that Rachel accomplished with a steamroller. Alex was wildly, deeply in love with someone who felt the same about him and had the beauty, the energy and the divine spark to deliver him to extreme heights of pleasure.

Those heights were shared entirely with Lorelei. Taylor had been good enough to see Lorelei through the first throes of flirtation, but Lorelei knew enough to politely and affectionately – very affectionately – usher Taylor out in anticipation of the blissful insanity yet to come. This wasn't the sort of thing Lorelei could share with Taylor. She suspected, rightly, that she would barely be able to interact with her environment when her master and the angel made love, let alone acknowledge and involve another person in her body's sensual reactions.

Taylor had seen Lorelei through the needs of her body caused by Rachel's first flirtations with Alex. She had stayed on her intimate task long enough to steady Lorelei so she could make appropriate arrangements on the phone. And then, after a short exchange of further intimacies later, she was gone.

Lorelei had the house to herself.

She lay in her master's bed, clad only in the short, slinky black nightgown she'd thrown on to see Taylor out, and rode the waves of ecstasy her master provided. With only the first coupling between Alex and Rachel, Lorelei was left writhing on her side, her hands furiously stroking the tremendous heat between her legs, while bone, sinew and black and red skin sprouted from her back at the shoulder blades.

Lorelei had hoped to share that particular moment with Alex. It might have disturbed him, but at the same time, he loved her and knew her for what she was. The growing itself might not have been such a pleasant sight, but he would have thrilled at the return of her beautiful, terrible demon's wings. Lorelei would have liked to fly, but more than that, she wanted to thrash and cum and feel loved in her master's bed, even with him miles away. But she could enjoy his scent all over the bed.

The sensations she was experiencing was every bit as good as having Alex herself. Not better, but certainly not worse. If there were a single worry about jealousy over sharing Alex with the angel, it was banished by her long series of uncontrolled orgasms. They would be able to share him just fine, she understood. And with the ritual binding of Rachel to Alex complete, the angel would certainly not object to Alex's other trysts. Now there was more than just Rachel's innate lack of jealousy to enable Alex there; she would genuinely enjoy his adventures just as much as Lorelei did.

In the space between Alex and Rachel's romps – she'd lost track of whether it would be their fourth or fifth shared climax now – Lorelei glanced at Alex's clock. She couldn't help but laugh in self-indulgence. Alex's love and need for Rachel was quite on par with his feelings for Lorelei. The relationships were very different, but there was no discernible difference in intensity. Lorelei heartily approved.

It meant they would be at this for hours. Lorelei was in for a long, wonderful night of –

Huge, clawed, terrible white hands crashed through the bedroom window. They moved with speed and certainty. Lorelei was seized by the arm and leg and pulled like a rag doll out of the broken window. Then she was dropped to the sidewalk two floors below.

The blows fell upon her all at once: a longsword, an axe, and a flail. There was a baton and pepper spray and a searing pain that could only come from sorcery. Little enough of it dug very deeply into her skin. A succubus of Lorelei's stature was quite resilient. Her master's ongoing pleasure gave her a steady torrent of power. Still, she was disoriented and quite wounded, and the blows kept coming. Most of them fell with inhuman strength. Lorelei tried to use her wings to block them, but she couldn't block them all.

Instinct and determination took over. Her tail lashed out, grabbing an attacker behind her and flinging him onto his back. Lorelei caught the baton before it fell again. She slashed out with her other hand, talons growing out of her nails. Fire erupted out of the scars she left in the vampire; he fell back and burned.

It was all eerily, unnaturally quiet. The street was engulfed in fog. More sorcery at work.

The longsword came down across her back again. She buckled, but withstood it. Something small and immensely forceful struck her in the cheek, sending her reeling. A bullet, it had to be, fired from only a few feet away by someone in a cowboy hat. The bullet didn't penetrate her skin, but the pain was immense.

Another figure stepped between Lorelei and the shooter, hulking and brutish, wielding the flail. Lorelei spewed flames all over him. He shrieked in pain and fell back, but someone behind the circling corpses was already there with a fire extinguisher. Two people, actually. One of them blasted her victim. The other blasted Lorelei herself.

She twisted and moved, trying to get her bearings. The blows continued. Lorelei did her best to dodge what she could and shrug off what she could not. The pain mounted. She needed an escape. Her wings spread out.

Lorelei looked up to see Harrow clinging to the side of Alex's building. His fist came down on her head, knocking her to her knees. He slashed across the bare skin of her shoulders with his claws, drawing from her a shriek of agony that somehow didn't carry out into the street. His fist stopped coming. All the others resumed.

Like every succubus, Lorelei was born to lead men to their destruction. Her victims were never men or women of benevolence or even indifference; it would be hard for any knowing voice to claim those Lorelei destroyed deserved to be treated with kindness. But Lorelei had been born to act without mercy, to feel neither affection nor pity, and to serve those who worked tirelessly to thwart the will of the divine in the mortal world and beyond.

Her last thoughts were a silent plea to that divine presence to ensure the safety of the young man she so sincerely loved. Hell's most accomplished succubus knew she had no right to pray. She knew, but did it anyway.

The last thing she saw, just as the cacophony of blows to her body ended, was a pale man in a pin-striped suit with the sort of machinegun Lorelei hadn't seen in decades. He leveled it at her. Fire and smoke and lead erupted from the gun.

Her world went black.

************

"Wow... hhh... I love you," Alex gasped.

"Say it again," Rachel grinned, looking down at him. She glistened with sweat and beamed in the afterglow of another successfully completed round of intercourse.

"I love you," he repeated breathlessly. "But I need... I need..."

"I know what you need," the angel straddling his hips said enticingly.

"...water."

"Water? Bah. You don't need water. You need more of me."

"I need that, too. But no. Need water." He reached up to gesture randomly with one hand. "It's this whole cellular respiration thing that we mere mortals have to do."

"Pff. That sounds like more of your silly science."

"Can't have sex without it."

"Oh. That's a problem," Rachel conceded. She lifted herself off of him, then pushed him back down as he tried to rise. "Stay. I'll get it for you."

"Oh my God," Alex said as she stepped toward the refrigerator.

"What?" Rachel asked, looking back over her shoulder. It required her to turn one of her wings down.

"That ass," he answered, looking amazed.

The angel giggled. She made sure her wings weren't blocking his view as she posed a bit to show off her backside. "You like?"

Alex smiled back at her. "It's amazing."

"All yours," Rachel winked. "Just like the rest of me." She sauntered over to the refrigerator, making sure to sway for him as she walked. She posed and tossed him a sultry glance as she opened the refrigerator, posed again to pull out a water bottle, and then came strutting back. To her delight, he was plainly more fascinated by the view of her from the front.

Rachel twisted the cap off of the bottle. "No one's ever made me feel this beautif—"

She vanished in a puff of scented smoke. The water bottle fell to the floor where she had stood.

Alex was bolt upright in an instant. "Rachel!?" He quickly slipped out of bed, looking around frantically. The scent of the smoke instantly made him think of the cemetery chapel and their first, terrifying meeting.

He rushed over to his leather jacket on the chair near the door. Alex tore out his cell phone, dialed Lorelei's number, waited with his eyes wide in near panic, and heard no answer.

************

Rachel stood in a small room lit up by candles. It looked like someone's apartment. To one side of her was a lovely young woman in a black dress and tall Doc Marten boots. Her hair was black and curled, her skin pale and smooth. On the other side of her was a pretty woman of similar age, but in torn black jeans, a dark t-shirt promoting a band with a logo Rachel didn't recognize, and jewelry with a consistent theme of leather and metal studs. Her short red hair clearly wasn't natural.

Neither of them looked terribly friendly. "Hello, nurse," the redhead breathed.

"Oh fucking hell," Rachel sighed, "not this shit again."

The other woman frowned. "Yeah, I don't think I'm buying the whole 'angel' look with the swearing and the lapdancing in class thing. Lemme guess, you were just getting nasty with a nice guy, about six feet tall, hung like a horse, should probably just now be getting out of his Monday night Intro to Lit class rather than shagging otherworldly trollops?"

Rachel blinked. "The fuck are you supposed to be, the truancy police? I thought they didn't do that shit in college!"

"I'll go get her some clothes," the redhead mumbled. "She keeps talking dirty like that while she's naked, I'm gonna be really distracted."

************

He didn't park in the garage. Not with the outside window broken. Alex parked his motorcycle outside, jumped off, and came running up to the gate entrance to his home while fighting to get his helmet off. Along the way, he couldn't help but notice that the walkway was littered with a thick white spray, shell casings and blood.

He stopped. Alex had made it through two sessions of first aid and two classes of his Administration of Justice classes since signing up for them last week. The one thing that both the cops teaching the justice classes and the instructor for first aid said over and over again was that a first responder has to be careful on coming upon a scene, lest the responder become another victim.

Alex took a deep breath. He forced himself to slow down. Lorelei was either fine, or she wasn't, but odds were that two seconds weren't going to make a difference on that either way. Not after he'd had to ride home from downtown, dodging traffic all the way.

He kept moving in, but slowly. If Lorelei and Rachel were both gone, he wouldn't be able to rest until he found them. Not that he knew where to look. He'd have looked into how they were both summoned up by that priest, but there just weren't any leads there. It wasn't like Alex knew any better than Lorelei or Rachel where to find crazy magic dudes.

Lydia. He'd have to start there. Probably out of his league, but he'd have to start there. They probably paid for dinner at the restaurant with plastic, and that would leave behind a name. Alex didn't know how he'd get that, but he'd have to find a way. Or maybe he could go back to the church where they brought Gorge. There was an angel there. Maybe he'd help.

Alex would have to call up the guys. Jason was smart. The guys were smart. They'd help him figure this out.

He opened the door to receive a punch in the face. Darkness and stars both exploded in his vision. He was rocked backward and then tripped by someone's leg. Alex fell onto his back on the concrete in front of his building's main door.

Someone reached down to grab him by the lapels of his jacket. Someone large and strong in a black trench coat. He had a blade in his hand, like one of those ones the Romans used. He brought the pommel down at Alex's head, which the young man just narrowly turned from. Alex flung his helmet up to crack it hard against the guy's skull. His assailant staggered away.

There was a blonde woman in a corset and black leather pants over him an instant later. She sprayed something at his face from a small plastic thing in her hand. Scorching hot pain overtook his eyes. He could hardly breathe. Alex grunted and growled in pain, reflexively trying to cover his face.

"Pepper spray, Natalia? Really?" someone asked. Alex tried to throw a kick at the voice. It didn't hit anything.

"As if you were doing better, Talon," the woman responded.

"A lucky shot. He won't catch me like that again."

"Why's the demon just watching the sky like that?"

"I watch for threats beyond your ken, corpse," said a voice that sounded like a distant roar yet couldn't have been too far off. "You deserve no further explanation. Is he warded from clairvoyant sights?"

"Before the first blow fell," said a new voice.

"Then finish this quickly," the otherworldly voice ordered. "Our good timing may not hold long."

Something hard and round and painful hit Alex in the head. He reeled, turning away from it. The object came down on his head again.

Unlike in the movies, it often took more than a couple of solid blows to knock someone out.





Chapter 75: Friends react...

"I'm off work and home all alone. What're you up to?"

"Uh, just leaving my friend Drew's house. Me an' him an' our friend Taylor were just hangin' out. Playin' Xbox. Chillin'." Jason adjusted the cell phone earpiece as he walked down the steps from Drew's apartment building and headed for his car. The residential street was quiet and deserted, with the odd fog that had rolled in now lifting.

"Taylor? That girl from the party?"

"Yeah."

"She'd better not have any designs on you." Britney's voice was more playful and affectionate than jealous, but Jason hadn't known her long. He had no idea if she was psycho or not. Nor did he have any experience with psycho girls. Or sane ones, for that matter...last weekend aside, of course.

"Oh, I think she's got her plate kinda full right now," he said. His eyes were wide at his own understatement. The truth of it was that Taylor had wandered over to Drew's place sometime after sunset looking for someone to talk to. A year older than the rest, naturally graduated earlier. It was easy for Jason to forget that Drew, having been pretty popular himself, had hung out with Taylor much more than he or the other guys had... but not so much that Drew was normally (or even remotely) the first person Taylor turned to when she needed bro counseling. In fact, Jason had never imagined Taylor would need bro counseling at all, but apparently Drew had a penchant for discretion that Taylor had learned to count on.

Specifically, Taylor was looking for someone to hear her wide-eyed, breathless, can't-believe-I-just-did-that confession of her lesbian demon sexcapades. She just came over asking if she could hang out with them, looking a little tired and bewildered but also hotter than hell. Then she found a spot on the couch to lie down and dropped the bombshells about her weekend while she stared up at the ceiling as if she had completely lost control of her internal monologue. Drew's game character died instantly as turned his head toward Taylor in shock. Jason had it worse; his game controller fell right out of his hands.

Petty or not, Jason found himself feeling a little irked that someone had already one-upped the glory of his double-blonde loss of virginity. That was a couple of hours ago, though, and the phone call from one of his guides into the rampant awesomeness of sex had him feeling much better already.

"Feel like coming over here?"

"Um. I was headed home, actually."

"Aw. Come see me, Jason. I'm lonely and scantily clad."

"You—um, what?" Jason blinked. He stopped in his tracks.

"I already talked to Brittany. She won't mind if I steal a little one-on-one time. I'm sure she'll want you all to herself at some point, too."

His sensibilities quickly went into all-out war. He had already caught hell over all this just yesterday from his parents. Yet Taylor's unexpected too-much-information dump had Jason feeling more than a little anxious. He wasn't going to call either of the Brits tonight; he didn't want to blow it by looking desperate, and he couldn't figure out whether or not one would be offended if he called the other first. But Britney had just resolved all that.

"C'mon, Jason. I haven't been able to think of anything but you since you went home. Get over here and unleash the beast again."

That made up his mind. He had just inserted the key into the slot on his car door, smirked at the horrible symbolism there, and then heard the thump and the curse from down the block.

Jason looked over. That was Alex's building. That was a limousine. And that was quite plainly a limp body being thrown into the trunk. He quickly crouched down. Through the windows of the parked cars, Jason made out a couple of the individuals – one in a cowboy hat and duster, another in a pin striped suit with an old Thompson machinegun in one hand, another with a longsword strapped to his back – all getting into the car. He made a point of remembering the license plate number while they got in.

Jason jumped into his car, started the engine, and pulled out with a gutsier turn than he would ever make under any other circumstances. He hauled ass after the limo, slowing only to look up at the side of Alex's building to note that, yes, his window was smashed out. Like that wasn't more than suspicious enough for him.

"Britney, I gotta go," Jason said firmly.

"What? What's wrong?"

He was following men with guns who had just kidnapped or killed one of his best friends. He had no experience with this sort of thing. He didn't know where it would lead, or what the hell he could possibly do about it, or what he would be able to do if they spotted him. There was a lot wrong right then.

"I'll tell you later. Look, I swear to God, there's nothing I want to do more than come over and hit that like the hammer of Thor, but right now I just can't, okay? I'll hook up with you and wreck you as soon as I possibly can, alright?"

There was a pause. Jason kept his eyes on the road, but as he drove he realized to his horror what had just come out of his mouth. His jaw dropped at his own sheer stupidity. The hammer of Thor? Wreck you? Who says that!? Jesus fucking Christ, why would I actually say that?!

The line was silent for a long moment. Finally, he heard a single word: "...Promise?"

************

"How come we never hung out that much before?" Taylor asked aloud. She still lay on the couch in Drew's living room staring at the ceiling.

Drew himself sat on the arm of the couch near Taylor's feet. "You and I did hang out in high school, girl. Ain't the first time you've been on the therapy couch."

"No, I mean everyone. I always liked Wade. I always liked Jason. And Alex was... I mean, I just didn't want to date him back then, but of course I liked him. Of course he was my friend. Maybe my best friend, now that I look back on it."

"You're here now. We all love you. An' it sounds like whatever you and Alex got going on is fine for the both of you. The three of you," he corrected teasingly, swatting her foot.

Taylor put her hands over her face, laughing a bit. "God, I'm a total skank."

"Hey, if you're a skank, we're all skanks."

"Oh, whatever," Taylor said, waving off his comment. She stared at the spackling on his ceiling for a moment. "Do you... I don't know how to ask this..."

"Just do it," Drew shrugged helpfully.

"Do you get jealous?"

He blinked. "Of what?"

"Alex. I mean, look at what he's got. He's slept with three women this weekend alone. Four, apparently, if you count whoever he was with Friday afternoon after class. And Lorelei's loaded and devoted to him and she's just so... she's amazing, you know?"

"Shit, you'd know that better than I would, apparently. Skank," he grinned. "Who the fuck else has he been with?"

"Some goth chick from North Seattle. And he got it on with Jocelyn at the party."

Drew's eyebrows shot up, and then he laughed. "Okay, now I am jealous. That bastard."

"I'm serious! You didn't know? He didn't say anything?"

"I think Alex isn't the kind to brag about this stuff. I mean, yeah, he had one motherfucker of a shit- eating grin when he first showed up with Lorelei, know what I'm sayin'? But he ain't one for giving play-by-plays. You've told me and Jason a lot more than he has." Drew gave her a teasing grin. "But it ain't like we didn't know there's other girls. You haven't seen the angel, either. Damn. Just damn."

Taylor looked over at him. "Is she prettier than Lorelei?"

"Hell, I couldn't tell you that one way or the other. That's like comparing... I don't know. They're both just so hot it's ridiculous."

"But you don't get jealous? I mean, all that, and you don't feel any envy at all? Not the other guys?"

"Well, I guess there's envy and there's jealousy. I mean, any guy who looks at that woman and doesn't wanna hit that is, like, one hundred percent gay, right? I mean like not even a little bit into girls. And yeah, I guess it'd be cool to have a girl who wants you to think with your jock first and your head second, but... man, you didn't see him when we were drivin' around with that demon guy in the minivan. I mean, Alex had this look on his face like he was just fucked. He was like, 'That's it. That's what I get to do from now on. Just hella crazy guys kickin' my ass an' an' tryin' to take my girl an' all my friends getting' hurt.' That's gotta be some heavy shit there."

"See, that's what I mean, though. You defend him. And look what he's got."

"Look what I got, though. We told you earlier about the pool hall. I mean, the only complication there is figurin' out how to tell it to our parents and family and make sure it don't look dirty, but man... four days ago I felt like I'd never be able to afford to go to college. Now I've got that licked. Hell, I'm probably gonna finally buy a car or move out of my mom's place here. Maybe both, if I keep workin'. An' Jason's talkin' about maybe selling me his share if we can figure out how to swing that fairly, 'cause he doesn't want to be in business with friends. Says it's bad juju."

Taylor nodded. "I didn't mean money, though. I mean women. Sex."

"Hey, Alex and Jason were the ones who could never pick up. Sherri's all over me, and I gotta tell you, it ain't like we ain't havin' a good time. You can tell me Alex has greener grass and more of it, but I wouldn't know, 'cause I'm busy takin' care of my own. And Wade... man, he ain't even been lookin' for a girl, but I think he picked one up the other night."

"I know Trish. She's a sweetheart."

Drew nodded. "I think Wade's just lookin' for someone to talk to after all the shit he's been through. So no. No jealousy there. And, Jason..." he tried to go on, but just laughed.

"What?" Taylor grinned.

"Jason... oh, man, that fool. Taylor, you aren't the only one who's been..." He gave up trying to talk and laughed more.

"What? Tell me!" Taylor said, nudging his leg with her foot.

"He went home with two of those blonde Britney girls from the party."

Taylor's eyes went wide in shock. "Jason did?"

"Yeah," Drew nodded. "He came over earlier and plopped down on the couch just like you did like he was still in shock. I mean I guess those girls are freaky. He's all blown away, his hickeys haven't all faded yet, and he's getting texts from both of 'em like crazy. An' his parents found out like immediately, like one of 'em slipped her panties in his pocket an' they fell out when he got home an' his parents flipped the fuck out. So he drops all that on me, and then finally we're like cool and shit, and then you come over an' plop down on the couch, and I'm just like, 'Oh, what the fuck now,' know what I mean?"

The thought gave Taylor a good laugh. "Wow, I saw those two. They were hot."

"No shit. He showed me a couple of the pics they sent him. Nothin' nude, but freaky."

Her eyes went wide with interest. "Did he share them?"

"No, but I bet if I asked him," Drew suggested, reaching for his phone. As he did, it went off with the chorus of "Pretty Fly for a White Guy."

"Oh, hey, speak of the devil," he chuckled. Drew flipped the phone open. "Yo' momma so dumb she-–" he fell silent as Jason barked at him. Then his face grew very serious.

"What is it?" Taylor asked.

"Someone just grabbed Alex," Drew scowled. "Maybe Lorelei, too. Jason's following 'em."

"Oh shit," Taylor gasped. "Wait. Did he see them? Were they all dressed in black?"

She was loud enough that Jason heard her over the phone. Drew listened and told her, "Yeah, said they all looked like a costume party for emo kids."

"They're probably vampires," Taylor thought aloud.

"Dammit." Drew blinked. "What?"

"We gotta get after him!"

"We're on it. Jason's following. We can't exactly call the cops for this. We're gonna call Wade and get him–"

"We'll call him on the way," Taylor said, already up and grabbing her jacket.

"Wait, on the way? What? You're coming, too?"

"Last I checked, you don't have a car," Taylor said firmly.

Drew looked up at her for a brief moment. Arguing with her was obviously pointless.





Chapter 76: The Prisoners...

"Alex is so scared right now," Rachel said with obvious worry. She tugged the black cargo pants on over her hips, having already donned the Sisters of Mercy t-shirt thrown into the warding circle by Molly. The shirt had gone on right over and through her wings. "If you were really doing this to protect him, you could at least call him and tell him I'm okay. He's on his bike and he's so fucking freaked out that he could get in a serious accident."

"We're not going to do anything you say until we figure out for sure what you are," Onyx said quietly but firmly.

"I told you. I'm his guardian angel."

"Never heard of anyone sleeping with their guardian angel," Molly frowned.

Rachel shot her an irritated, resentful look. "Alex is kind of a special case." The angel made a point of holding her tongue. She had more than a few choice words for these two, but gaining release and returning to Alex as quickly as possible was the issue of overriding urgency. Rachel's foul mouth was certainly not a symptom of tactlessness.

"Why's that?" Onyx asked evenly.

Rachel opened her mouth, then closed it. "You obviously know a good deal of magic. You read his palm. I imagine you did other things to look him over before you made love with him, too. You recognized how special he was after your first kiss. Those were the first words out of your mouth: 'This is really special.'

You knew from that moment that you could trust him with every imaginable intimacy. And as much as you truly and deeply love your girlfriend here," Rachel noted, glancing meaningfully at Molly, "you can't deny to yourself that making love with Alex was one of the happiest, most wonderful and fulfilling experiences of your life. You never expected to open yourself to him the way you did, nor to be let into his heart as you were. Not so quickly. But you were, and you long to resume that connection."

"It's not because he's so good in bed," Rachel continued to her stunned listeners. "It's because he's a good soul, and your awareness of the universe makes you more sensitive to that than most people will ever be."

Onyx's eyes were wide. Molly looked to her with concern.

"She'll never leave you," Rachel added calmly, looking at Molly. "Whatever her feelings for Alex might become, you are first in her heart. Onyx loves you like no other. You define and embody love in her heart and her mind. She loves you and accepts you and would never, ever do anything to hurt you. Much of what made her time with Alex so special was the ever-present thought that she owed all of that happiness to you and your approval. She saw him in part as if he was a gift from you. He's not a rival. There can be no rival."

"...huh," Molly said.

Rachel looked to Onyx. "Your partner loves you every bit as much as you love her," she said. "She doesn't want you to worry about anything. She's a bit shocked right now, but she doesn't want to come between you and the intimacy you have found with my Alex. If anything, she wants to find a way to become more of a part of it herself, entirely because of her love and her desire to be close to you. What you feel for one another is beautiful beyond description.

"I am an angel. There is nothing I understand as much as I understand love."

There was a long silence. Rachel sniffed. Tears welled up in her eyes. "He's really scared for me. He's rushing home because he probably hopes to find help there, and he doesn't know what else to do."

Onyx finally drew in a long, deep breath. Her back stiffened. "Well," she breathed, "now that we've established that you were watching me with Alex on Friday without my knowing it..."

Rachel let out a frustrated breath, looking upward. "Oh, fucking hell," she groaned. "I try to say something nice to you bitches, and—"

Then she stopped. Rachel gasped, and then looked at the other two women in terrible fear. "Something's wrong," the angel declared. Her eyes darted back and forth as if she was watching something far away. "I can't see him!"

************

The moment the heavy door opened, Lorelei could smell him. The ashen scent was so unmistakable and unforgettable that it renewed every bit of crushing fear and despair within her. She didn't even need to look up at him. She didn't want to look up at him.

"Chained, collared and muzzled, and yet still killing," came his voice. It was as deep and sinister as she remembered, yet perfectly relaxed.

Shadows of multiple people moved across the bare concrete floor. Lorelei was huddled on her knees as they entered, forced into the position by the very short length of the chains that connected her wrists and her neck to the floor. A metal muzzle had been fastened around her head with heavy leather straps. The succubus was dressed only in her black nightgown, now tattered and torn and stained with dirt, ash and a great deal of her own blood.

Lorelei leaned over to sit with the side of one cut and bruised thigh against the floor. She would not kneel before him again.

Lights went on in the room of nearly featureless concrete. Beside Lorelei was a pile of ashes, along with a set of men's clothing: jeans, leather vest with a motorcycle club patch, boots and sunglasses. A foot in dress shoes attached to a leg in tailored slacks kicked the pile. "Who was the idiot who thought he could rape a succubus? Did he think she was put in this dungeon for the sake of kink?" he asked. There was mild amusement in the voice.

"My people were advised to do everything possible to break her short of maiming her," answered a calm voice with an English accent. "I'm sure it seemed like a good idea to someone."

"No one can take a succubus against her will except her master. This fool probably died before he even came close to fucking her. Am I right, Lorelei?" A man's hand reached down to grab Lorelei's chin. It pulled up with enough strength that she could not effectively resist. She stared up into the smoky eyes and ashen breath of Ba'al and his current host body.

"I trust, Lord Damien," said Lydia with no small amount of sarcasm as she used his title, "that there will be no need for further examples of this?"

"None whatsoever, madam," the English voice answered.

Lydia looked off to one corner. There were other metal fixtures imbedded in the concrete where one could chain prisoners, but there was only one other occupant in the basement prison. Near one wall across from Lorelei was a woman, similarly but less restrictively chained, dressed in faded jeans, hiking boots and a flannel shirt. Her brown hair hung limply to her shoulders. The woman was perhaps pretty but for the fact that she clearly hadn't been allowed to bathe for days. "Who is that?" the succubus asked.

"A local matter," Damien answered stiffly. "It is the Lady's business. She isn't to be physically harmed. If you require us to remove her, we shall."

"No physical harm," Lydia mused, "but no reason to hide from her these unspeakable things."

"When and if she is eventually released, it will be good for her to carry back to her family her impression of how we deal with our problems in the Lady's lands."

"I see," Lydia said. She smiled at the woman, who stared back at her balefully. The prisoner seemed to be perhaps in her mid-twenties. "And clearly so does she."

Ba'al ignored all of this as he was completely focused on Lorelei. He reached out to stroke Lorelei's hair, which of course she resisted. The demon lord smiled. "Lydia told me you were in much worse shape than this," he said with feigned concern. "Well, maybe not in the immediate sense of the word," he corrected, glancing at the blood on his hand and smearing it lewdly on her nightgown. "But she said you had sustained far worse injuries than these. Clearly you've been working... but not for Belial anymore."

Lorelei glared at him, but was unable to do much more. Her eyes then turned away.

"How long has it been, Lorelei?" Ba'al asked. "Twenty-five hundred years at least? Two and a half millennia since you were on your knees for me."

"If I might be so bold," spoke up a new voice, "how does a succubus leave the service of a mighty duke such as yourself?"

"You are bold, Lord Stefan," Ba'al grinned, still looking at Lorelei. "But we've shared this much. I will indulge you with the simple answer. I was once a lesser duke than I am now. Belial stood in my way. I crushed him and ascended. Yet in the ensuing chaos, what with Belial wanting revenge and the upheaval that resulted, the other dukes... demanded a token of truce. A consolation prize, if you will. Together, they were far too powerful to deny. All saw Belial for the loser that he was, but to placate him and allow the rest of the Pit to move on, I gave him Lorelei.

"I'm sure he took those frustrations out on you, didn't he, my sweet?" Ba'al said to Lorelei, who still did not look at him. "Perhaps that's why you made such an effort to do so well here in the mortal realm. The better you did up here, the less reason to call you back to the Pit to perform directly for your master. I'll be very pleased to have you back in my service. That will allow Lydia here to remain in the mortal realm herself, where she has done so well. You can stay in my domain and keep me entertained."

Lorelei didn't bother to hide her disgust or her hate. She made no noise, but the change in her eyes was clear. She would sooner stride into the Vatican and face the wrath of the angels there.

A phone buzzed. "Yes?" Damien asked. He listened silently. "Excellent. Thank you." Then he turned to Baal. "Our people have Carlisle. They are on the way here with him. It should be roughly twenty minutes. One of Lord Stefan's associates and one of our best soldiers have remained to clean up any concerning evidence from Lorelei's recovery."

"You used to be better about hiding your emotions," Baal said to Lorelei as her eyes clamped shut. "Lord Stefan, please have your people enact the warding of these premises as soon as he arrives. How long will your specialist need?"

"Once Carlisle is here? An hour, perhaps two at the most."

"Time enough to amuse yourself, Lydia?"

"My master is too kind," Lydia answered. "Lord Blackthorne, might someone bring down a large table to this room? Something large enough to lay a man out and restrain him. Something very stable."

"This will in fact suit our needs as well," Stefan added.

"It can certainly be arranged, madam. Lord Stefan."

"Splendid," Lydia smiled. "Thank you."

"Have someone come down and clean Lorelei here up, too," Baal said. "I wouldn't want her to attend Lady Anastacia's party upstairs in such a state."

"It will be done," Blackthorne consented, stepping away to relay commands to guards near the door.

As he did, Stefan and Lydia exchanged a meaningful glance. "Do your work well," she said softly, "and we will settle the issue of whose celebration this is before Ba'al takes his leave. None will doubt who has his final favor."





Chapter 77: Molly and Onyx investigate...

"God, who knew angels swear so much?" Molly mumbled. It was an attempt to break the silence between them, but it didn't go very far. She flicked her eyes to Onyx, then back to the road. Finally she put her hand on Onyx's leg. "It's okay, love."

"I'm so sorry about all this," Onyx said softly. Her eyes were still turned out the passenger side window.

"Don't. Stop. We could've walked away and ignored it all if we wanted to. And we don't even know if that chick's story is gonna check out, right?"

"Doesn't make me feel like any less of a moron," Onyx shrugged. "Doesn't make me feel any better for putting you at risk."

"Onyx, if he really has been grabbed and it really is those assholes, we're as loaded for bear tonight as we're ever gonna be. The Brotherhood's a problem we're going to have to deal with sooner or later. We know that now. Might as well do it when we've potentially got an angel and a freakin' demon on our side. Potentially," she repeated dryly. "Or if she's lying, then we go back home and kick her lying, shapechanging ass."

"I don't think she's lying," Onyx said quietly. "It's up here. Turn left. Three buildings up. There. I don't see anyone out there...probably long gone already."

Molly nodded, parking a couple of houses away. "Still ready with the contingency plans?"

As if in answer, Onyx simply held out a snapdragon petal. "Bullshit first, run like hell second," she repeated. Molly began murmuring the words of the spell even as Onyx pulled out a petal for herself. She sighed, not wanting to cast a spell of deceit yet again. As Molly finished, she said, "Maybe I got paid forward for casting this last time."

"Onyx. Seriously. Let's say Rachel's story is legit. It's not like he was crushing on you because he thought you were an honest-to-goddess witch. What was he going to tell you?"

Onyx sighed, murmured the words, and put the petal under her tongue. "I'll pry an explanation out of him when we see him," she grumbled as she got out of the car.

Molly followed. "I'll hold him down for you."

The pair walked together toward Alex's condominium building with their eyes warily scanning their surroundings. They didn't get far before spotting trouble. Onyx was very good at that sort of thing, having a particular talent for magical perception. There was malevolence and wariness here, lurking in the shadows of the building across from Alex's. The debris of the fighting earlier had all been cleared away, with Alex's window looking intact and normal, but the concealed presence of two figures nearby was a dead giveaway.

Fortunately, they both had their poker faces on and enhanced with a subtle yet effective enchantment. "Aw, motherfucker," Onyx grunted with feigned frustration. She looked directly at the lurking pair. She kept her voice deliberately controlled, speaking only just loud enough to project to the watchers. "Did you guys already grab him?"

"Do I know you?" asked a female voice.

"Probably not. We just got invited to the party yesterday. So to speak," Onyx shrugged.

"By whom?"

"That's a little sticky," Molly said. "His name's Kenneth, and, uh...while his invitation was interesting, Kenneth himself was, uh..."

"An arrogant little pig with no social skills, who deserves to have his ass handed to him on a regular basis?" the woman offered.

Onyx and Molly both made a show of fighting down grins. "We were hoping the invitation was still open even if things didn't go so well with the messenger," Onyx explained. "Particularly if we could deliver the guy you're looking for."

There was a long moment of silence. "What are your names?"

"I'm Molly. She's Onyx." It wasn't worth lying about that. There was too much of a chance that the Brotherhood had done at least that much homework on the pair.

The woman stepped out of the shadows. She was older, perhaps in her mid-thirties, dressed in a darkly toned pantsuit. Her race was entirely undeterminable. The necklace around her neck plunged below her top, so it was impossible to see what sort of charm she had on it. "You can call me Ms. Black for now." She turned her head to look over her shoulder at her companion. "This is... Talon," she added with a note of dry humor.

"I thought you people were supposed to be subtle," the man in the darkness snapped quietly.

"I thought yours were supposed to be frightening yet seductive," Ms. Black shrugged. "Failure on both counts, I suppose." She looked back to Molly and Onyx. "As it happens, there is a party of a more literal sort tonight. I would be happy to take on the privilege of introducing you to the Brotherhood, if you would like to attend. It may be a bit of an overwhelming night, but if you delay you may feel that you missed out on something remarkable. I can guarantee your safety for the night as long as you take no actions against the Brotherhood or their hosts."

"Will this count as our formal induction?" Molly asked with just the right amount of reluctance.

"Heavens no. This is certainly not a night for commitments on your part, however I think it will be a good time to see how and why it is in your best interests to join us. As I said, I guarantee safe passage." She held up her hands, reciting something ancient in Greek. Onyx and Molly could see the telltale signs of magic at work, could recognize the invocation of spirits and fate. All the right words were there.

"There's also the thing with Kenneth," Molly pointed out. "How do we know we're not in trouble?"

"That can be hashed out. If the two of you were acting in self-defense, Kenneth will have no real recourse. You could smooth it over with an exchange of favors or gifts, as is custom," Ms. Black suggested. "He was significantly injured, I'm told, but I have no trouble believing that it was the result of his utter lack of tact rather than an intentional strike against the Brotherhood itself. Still interested?"

"We're game," Onyx said. She didn't need to look at Molly.

"Are you sure of this?" Talon murmured audibly from behind Ms. Black.

The sorceress shrugged. "Nothing risked, nothing gained. I'm not worried about the trouble any two witches might make tonight given the assemblage we have in place. There couldn't be a safer time to give them this opportunity." She didn't do anything to conceal the statement from the pair of women before her. She had a fair point; all she had to do was to get these two to the party and then there would be no real threat. The opportunity to bring these long sought-after recruits in through her own initiative was too great to resist.

"We have room in our vehicle for you both, if you would like," Ms. Black said. "In fact, for security reasons, I must insist. Don't worry, you won't be searched or anything. The right to self-defense and to tend to one's own matters are at the core of the Brotherhood's creed."

She beckoned for the pair to follow. They did so, sharing a momentary glance that said volumes: of course, they didn't really trust this woman; of course, Ms. Black didn't really trust them; and of course, this was really their only option other than naked violence. The latter might be the less risky choice, but there was a good chance that it would create a dead end in their search.

Molly got a good look at Talon as he appeared from the shadows to follow behind them. He was pale, of course, with slicked-back black hair and a black trench coat. From under the collar of his black silk shirt, Molly caught the gleam of chain mail. He also wasn't doing a very good job of concealing the underarm holsters beneath the trench coat, or of the short sword on his belt reminiscent of ancient Rome. The vampire's hands were both decorated with claw rings.

"Nice jewelry," Molly noted. "Cool to see one of you guys who doesn't get everything from Goth 'n' Go."

Talon opened his mouth to say something sharp and biting, but promptly closed it with a hint of embarrassment. He promptly checked to make sure his fifteen-dollar iron cross necklace wasn't showing.

************

Scipio had been on the wrong side of everything his whole life.

He was on the wrong side of his family, and so he joined the Legions rather than following in the family business. He was on the wrong side of his centurion in Gaul, having shown too much leniency on the natives after they'd been crushed in battle. He came home to find himself on the wrong side of his own wife for having plundered so poorly – again, a result of his being too merciful toward a conquered people.

He was also on the wrong side of his wife's lover. That she had taken one had been a shock, but in hindsight, it shouldn't have been a surprise. She was always too good to be true. In the chaos of Caesar's return and the mess that followed, Scipio's wife brought him down a dark alley where her lover and several other men were waiting for him. He woke up on the wrong side of the cages in the slave market, where a minor aristocrat named Opilio bought him.

A year later, he was on the wrong side of the owner's villa when Felix and his men arrived to speak with Opilio about certain debts. Felix – Scipio didn't know the rest of his name, didn't care – tended to handle such discussions in a very frightening and physical manner. So did his men.

Roman slaves were expected to defend their masters, even to the death. A couple of Opilio's slaves were silly enough to have done just that, and they paid the natural price. Scipio did not. He remained in the pantry where he had been upon Felix's arrival and pretended not to hear Opilio's pleas or his cries. Scipio felt no loyalty to the arrogant, degrading fop. He should have known better than to get mixed up with such rough individuals.

All Scipio wanted was his freedom and a fresh start. Revenge on his wife and her lover might have been nice, but a new life with a genuinely decent woman would be nicer. He might have gained that from Opilio if he worked hard enough and showed enough loyalty...but not loyalty like this. This was just a fine mess. Opilio was a fool to have gotten himself into it, and there was no hope for Scipio if he should get mixed up in it, too.

He pretended not to hear Opilio's troubles, but then he heard Opilio's daughter scream. He heard Opilio beg for mercy for Marciana, which was entirely the wrong thing to say to a man like Felix when he was angry. Marciana, only back in Opilio's household after recently being widowed, had played no role in Opilio's troubles.

Scipio got to his feet. He grimly headed straight into the wrong side of the mess.

In the doorway, he saw Julian. They had fought together in Gaul. Julian looked up in surprise to see his old comrade in a slave's tunic. He opened his mouth to say something. Julian had always been quick with his blade, but he was much quicker with his mouth.

Whatever he said, Scipio didn't listen. There was a crying girl to drown it out, anyway. Scipio snatched the gladius out of its scabbard on Julian's belt. Julian naturally raised his right hand to throw a punch, but Scipio caught it at the wrist. With a single, precise swing, he hacked through Julian's arm at the elbow.

Julian screamed. Scipio slammed the pommel of the sword into his nose, shoving him out of the way. There were two men inside, plus Opilio (who hardly counted as a man in Scipio's opinion) and Felix. Marciana was there, held down on a table by one of Felix's men while another held a club around Opilio's throat. Felix himself stood naked, his tunic only just now removed. He was momentarily dumbfounded.

They all were.

Felix, therefore, was something of a gift from Mars. Scipio put the gladius through his throat before he even had a moment to cry out. The others were on their feet then.

The one restraining Opilio gave up his grip on the foppish man and lunged for Scipio. Opilio was a bit of an obstacle; his lunge was a bit awkward because of the falling, whimpering aristocrat in front of him, and thus his first blow was easily parried. Before he had his balance again, Scipio grabbed him by the shirt and ran him through.

The last was around the table by the time this happened, but then lurched back. Scipio turned to him and just stared. The thug turned to flee, but Scipio caught up to him before he got to the door. He finished him off in the doorway, and Julian as well.

In the stunned moments of silence that followed, Scipio saw to Marciana's shaking condition. He spoke to her in calm, measured tones, reassuring her that this would not happen again. Felix was gone. His men were gone. Her father would resolve the debts.

He was on the wrong side of Opilio in that moment, who rose behind him with the club that had been used to hold him. Opilio would have loved to reward Scipio, but he was a slave who had killed free Romans. What's more, Opilio needed a scapegoat for what had just happened. Someone had to take the blame for killing five men in the midst of a friendly visit between business partners.

Opilio didn't want Scipio to be on the wrong part of the necessary explanations, after all.





Chapter 78: They begin on Alex...

Teasing fingers and an indulgent hand slid across his sex, still covered by the fabric of his jeans. This was the sort of wake-up call he'd been indulged with for days. His body would never be used to it, really, but such treatment was at least now less of a surprise. It felt so good that it drew the focus of sensation away from the burning feeling in his closed eyes. He even smiled a bit.

Awareness came with sensations of discomfort: cold, hard metal around his ankles and wrists, with his arms and legs stretched out. He was laying on a hard surface. No pillow. His eyes were burning intensely, so much that his enjoyment at being groped was quickly disregarded. This was very wrong. His smile faded.

Someone grabbed his head and held it firm with both hands. Someone else pried his eyes open and forced a cold, clear liquid into them. It took away much of the burning sensation. The hands pulled away then, allowing him to turn his head and blink away the solution, the blurriness, and the fading pain. The hand on his groin gripped at his hardness.

Alex thrashed his head a bit to clear it. The last thing on his mind right now was sex. Lorelei was in danger. Rachel vanished. He had been attacked at his home, perhaps his mother had been there, too, and now...now he was in a cold, dimly-lit room, chained to a table. He felt very, very afraid.

There were people standing around the table. A couple of them were very pale, specifically a man in an all-black suit and a woman in an elaborate black dress fit for a medieval queen. There was a man in black robes with his face partially obscured by a black hood. He had random symbols hanging from his neck on chains, and a five o'clock shadow of salt and pepper stubble on his chin. There was a guy in all black clothes topped off by a black duster and a black cowboy hat, also very pale, with an Old West gun belt on his hips. There was a distinguished, well-groomed older man, also in a sharp suit, only this one had a little color to it along with a pentagram on a chain resting over his red power tie.

"Not complaining about me being on your dick now, are you?" Lydia asked Alex with a venomous smile. She loomed over him dressed in an elegant green gown. Her eyes were full of feigned affection. Her hand was still firmly against his sex.

Alex pulled against the restraints, but he found himself restrained fairly tightly. He could move only a couple of inches, nothing more, and Lydia showed much greater strength as she held him down on the table. He felt complete revulsion at the way his body reacted to her.

"It would appear you were absolutely right, Lord Stefan," said someone with a deep, relaxed voice. "Lorelei here reacts to Lydia touching him just as you suspected."

Alex twisted to look to his right. He saw Lorelei there, chained to the floor and muzzled. Standing over her was the man Lydia had been with at the restaurant... only different. Something was different about him. He looked more imposing now. He wore a purple dress shirt and black slacks, with neither tie nor jewelry. Alex saw the smoky blackness of his eyes as the man licked his own fingers.

Lorelei's eyes were full of a dozen different things. The muzzle prevented her from giving voice to any of them.

"Your name is Alexander Carlisle," said the distinguished-looking man in the suit. "You are roughly two months short of your twentieth birthday. You are a student at North Seattle Community College and a part-time file clerk for Keating and Rose. You live with your mother, Michelle Carlisle. You were rejected for military service immediately after you graduated from high school. Need I go on?"

Alex remained silent. He glared at the speaker in part to avoid looking at Lydia.

"No, I need not. You are rightly quite fearful for your mother's safety at the moment. However, she is not a part of this, and I need you to focus instead on Lorelei here and how the two of you came together." He pulled a picture out of his pocket and showed it to him. "Do you know this man?"

Alex closed his eyes, frowning, wondering what if anything he should say. Instead, the choice was taken away from him.

"You do not, at least not personally, but you fought with him the night you met Lorelei and--" Stefan cut himself off. He was silent for a moment as if watching something unfold on a television in front of him, rather than looking at Alex. "And you watched him die," Stefan went on then. "Lorelei killed him. His assistants died, too. Everything burned."

At that, Alex's eyes opened wide. Stefan was looking almost through him. Alex realized that Stefan was reading things straight from his mind. He also realized that he was only giving an edited account of what Alex remembered.

"I was correct," Stefan said, looking from Lydia to Ba'al. "Our exiled former Brother did indeed pursue his research. He summoned up Lorelei here in an attempt to enslave her. Carlisle was in the area running a foolish errand of his own, saw what he thought was a bizarre gang rape about to occur and so he intervened. In the process, he was connected to the succubus. He is currently both her victim and her master."

"Curious," Ba'al replied. "What else?"

Stefan frowned and shrugged. He was pointedly looking at Alex, who didn't know why Stefan refrained from mentioning Rachel. Stefan's eyebrows rose meaningfully. "I am unsure as to the efficacy of the ritual our former Brother used. I expected as much. My suspicion was that Carlisle here is not a Practitioner, and that suspicion was correct. He is entirely mundane. Given that, examining the details of the incident through his recollection will require a certain enhancement of his memory's accuracy and reach. Warren here is an expert in such things," he added, gesturing to the hooded, robed man.

"How good of you to share all of your suspicions with the rest of us, Lord Stefan," murmured the pale woman in the regal dress.

"Does our bargain hold, Lord Ba'al?" asked Stefan.

"It does," said the man with the smoky eyes, "if Lydia feels it appropriate."

"And ours?" asked the other woman.

"Lady Anastacia," Lydia smiled, clearly enjoying her moment of glory, "I will be happy to fulfill all agreements in the main hall upstairs when my business here is completed. Would you mind terribly waiting for me there? This will all likely become a bit... visceral and crude."

Lady Anastacia stiffened, but inclined her head in a polite nod. She held out her hand expectantly. The man in the black suit took it. They both walked out of the room with the cowboy in tow.

"Warren?" asked Lord Stefan. "What more do you need?"

"I have blood and hair and flesh," the man in the robes said. "All I need now is a few tears."

"I'd hate to make you wait," Lydia shrugged. She promptly reached to Alex's face, forcing one eye open and then rubbing a finger over it. Alex tried to fight it, but she was simply much stronger. The robed man was there quickly, holding a vial against the side of his irritated eye until the tears began to flow.

"With this," Warren said, "I will only need a short time and some privacy to complete my work. I will return immediately upon its completion."

"Then let not another moment of my master's time be wasted," Lydia shrugged. "I will keep our prisoners occupied until you are ready."

"Lord Stefan," said the one called Ba'al, "might I speak with you upstairs?"

"Of course," Stefan nodded. He pulled Warren aside for a moment, conferring with him in a language Alex didn't recognize and could barely hear anyway. They both turned to leave.

Before he followed, Ba'al lingered for a moment, looking at Alex. The young man was himself looking at Lorelei with nothing but apology and concern in his eyes. Lorelei plainly shared both feelings. They also both tried very hard to mask their fear for one another.

"You know," Ba'al mused, "he looks oddly familiar to me."

"I thought as much myself," Lydia shrugged. She indulged herself in a slap across Alex's face... and then another, and then another. Her open hand didn't injure him, but it delivered more stinging pain than any punch Alex had suffered all week.

"Still intent on killing him with kindness?" Ba'al smiled.

"Later, master," Lydia smiled. "That will wait until there aren't so many cats for us to herd. Lorelei deserves to feel him go. I would hate to rush it."

************

Rachel felt the first sensations of pleasure forced upon her lover. For a brief moment, it lifted her hopes. Then she felt the accompanying revulsion that replaced any feeling of enjoyment. The sensations continued while the revulsion grew.

Revulsion and fear.

She stood in the summoning circle within Molly and Onyx's apartment, staring off into space with her expression overwhelmed by worry. The sensations she received from Alex – sexy, hopeful, then the polar opposite of both – gave her all too good an idea of who was with him wherever he was now. She couldn't see him, though. All she could see were her surroundings. Just pagan décor, yard-sale shelving and candles.

Rachel had tried to break through the summoning circle many times after Molly and Onyx left her there. The pair had done their job all too well. She was good and stuck here, until either their summoning ritual wore off – and Heaven only knew how long that would be – or until they released the spell.

He couldn't die like this. Not now. Not after so many lonely and painful lifetimes. Not when that whole pattern seemed to have been broken...except it was entirely possible that this was just another tragic ending.

Overwhelmed with fear for her new love, only so recently consummated in her heart as well as physically, Rachel sank to her knees. The angel could now only pray.





Chapter 79: Arriving at the Party...

The woods and hills northeast of Seattle along the shores of Lake Washington could conceal much. Most of them, in fact, were completely benign. It was simply the lay of the land. Urban development competed increasingly with natural scenery over the years as the city and its neighbors expanded. But with enough money and enough connections in real estate, one could take advantage of the sorts of obstructing hillsides and rises that most locals already took for granted.

Not long after joining Ms. Black and Talon in their dark SUV, Molly and Onyx had the feeling that they were out in the middle of nowhere. That couldn't actually be the case, and they both knew it. But everything around them was dark, the road was lined on both sides by tall, seemingly thick woods, and there was no opposing traffic.

They finally turned off to a side road, where a pair of pale men in black trench coats and dark-toned casual clothes tended a tall wrought-iron gate. Talon, behind the wheel, leaned out and said something to them in Russian. One of them walked a full circle around the vehicle, clearly holding a weapon of some sort under his coat. The other waited until the circling guard gave a nod. Then he walked to the gate and opened it by hand.

Up ahead, not entirely obstructed by trees and a rising landscape from the gate, was a huge, tall home reminiscent of a southern plantation manor. There were numerous cars parked in a small lot off to one side. The grounds were spacious, with the trees cleared away from the house for a good hundred yards in any direction.

As the SUV rolled up to the manor, Ms. Black leaned over from the front seat to look at Molly and Onyx. "This is a truly unusual assemblage here," she said. "We don't normally associate so openly with the, erm, nightlife. Tonight's a special occasion, though. The Brotherhood has been invited here to establish peaceful ties with their society."

"Anyone else invited?" Molly asked. "We gonna get to meet our first werewolves?"

Talon hissed. "Don't even joke about that."

Molly blinked. "Wait, for real? I thought that was just a cheap movie gimmick. You guys really don't get along?"

"Few supernaturals get along with other types, as a general rule. But I wouldn't worry about them," Talon said. He seemed to be glancing up at them through the mirror, but he didn't cast a reflection in it himself. "They have incentives to stay away from this. But just the same, do yourselves a favor and don't bring it up. It's the only advice I will give you. That, and... should you in any way violate the hospitality of the Lady or our host, Lord Blackthorne, you will discover the sorts of torments one learns to inflict over the course of a few hundred years of practice."

Molly frowned. It was difficult to hold back from telling Talon how frightening he wasn't, but they were trying to be nice. It was vital to their cover story. She and Onyx could only afford to show the bare minimum of contempt for vampires that would still be expected within the Practicing community.

"Is there some special occasion going on?" Onyx asked. "Seems like a pretty random Monday night to have such a party."

Talon pulled the SUV up to the front steps of the manor. There were several men in suits there to open doors and take coats and the like. "It was short notice for all of us, but the Lady's invitations are not to be ignored," Talon said. "Much of the Puget Sound is here tonight – all who could possibly make it. The Lady promises to explain all before the hour grows late." With that, he got out of the vehicle.

Ms. Black glanced at his back as he left, then rolled her eyes for the benefit of her new associates. "Pretentious douchebags, all of them," she muttered, "but they do have numbers, and numbers tell. Lord Stefan informs the Brotherhood that the precious Lady Anastacia has made some... otherworldly allies. Watch yourselves in there. The vampires don't want to piss us off, and so they shouldn't be throwing their weight around, but some of them are letting their freak flags fly. Naturally, some of the Brotherhood don't feel like being cowed. You're bound to see some wild sights tonight. If anything appalls you, come talk to one of us before you do anything rash. This is a party, but it's a diplomatically sensitive one. Live and let live is the rule here." With that, she exited.

"I'm almost ready to cut her loose right now," Molly murmured.

"This doesn't prove anything about her story," Onyx countered, shaking her head gently. They glanced at one another, silently agreeing not to speak of Rachel again. Instead, they both took a deep breath and got out of the SUV.

1

Attendants hovered nearby, but apart from bowing deeply, they made no approach. The pair of witches kept close together, walking up the steps after Ms. Black. As they ascended, they shared another of their near-telepathic looks. They had both felt the ward when they crossed it.

It was powerful and large, put in place to shield the entire building from clairvoyant sight and any number of other effects. Within the ward, the casters and those allied to them would hold a significant advantage of power in any sorcerous conflict. The enchantments Molly and Onyx already bore would hold, but anything new would be significantly weaker unless the pair was allowed to attune themselves to the ward. It was also unlikely that they could leave without being so entrusted.

That certainly wasn't going to happen. They were an unknown party in a sensitive setting. The raw numbers here were more than enough of a deterrent to any trouble, but the ward redoubled the awareness that subterfuge and guile were their only feasible tools here. If the ward were broken, both Molly and Onyx would be able to employ significantly more power... but breaking it would require significant physical damage to a casting circle they couldn't even see, or to the building itself. Even then, there were still an awful lot of vampires and potentially hostile Practitioners present.

As if they needed the reminder, they found Talon on the porch at the top of the steps, speaking with another pair of said vampires. "I'm certainly available to help, Lucien," Talon was saying to a thuggish vampire in an all-black suit. With him was a pale blonde woman in black slacks, a black bustier and a leather jacket.

The other vampire gave a subtle, dismissive wave. "It's likely just college kids looking for a place to go party off in the woods. Natalia and I can handle it. We'll just add them to the party favors. The Lady is very happy that you have relocated here from the Old World. Stay and enjoy yourself." He laid a hand on Talon's shoulder, nodded, and then descended the steps with the blonde in tow.

Onyx and Molly shared yet another pensive, curious glance, along with the same resultant frown. They had both heard, yet there was nothing they could really do but press forward. Ms. Black came back to the pair, bringing along a waiter with a tray of champagne glasses. She wasn't surprised when they turned down the drinks. "Can I show you around, then?" she offered. "Introduce you to a few people?"

Inside, the lighting was dimmer than either of them would have liked. The house was every bit as opulent as one would have expected, with vaulted ceilings, handcrafted staircases, immaculate carpets and statues and other artwork everywhere. Hushed conversations were had in this corner and that one. There were pale figures in all manner of costume, the majority of it darkly-toned if not black altogether. Weapons were evident from a number of eras: daggers, swords, even a few black-powder pistols.

"Mr. Woods," Ms. Black called, beckoning to a dashing man in his mid-thirties. "Do you have a moment to spare?" He graciously excused himself from his conversation with a markedly pale couple in Victorian dress to join the three women. "I want you to meet a pair of prospective new members. This is Onyx and Molly."

"Ah," Mr. Woods smiled, offering his hand. "It's a pleasure to meet you both, particularly in a more sociable environment than our previous overtures have apparently seen. We're all terribly sorry about the issue with Kenneth."

Onyx took his hand, but only warily. "News travels that fast?"

"Yes, but I had to see to his release from both the emergency room and police custody. He gave me a complete description of the two of you. He was more than a little irate. And of course, Kenneth has to take care of the rest of the men he was with when he accosted you himself. Concealed weapons charges are an annoying little thing. Can't say I have any sympathy for him, though. He knows he should be polite whenever he's recruiting."

Molly also shook hands with Mr. Woods. "Might want to get a different recruiter," she suggested with a grin.

"Oh, certainly," Mr. Woods smiled, nodding. "Ultimately Kenneth was well out of his place in doing much of anything he did. Regardless, you showed both skill and discretion in dealing with him. We'd rather chalk it up to an impressive audition and an awkward misunderstanding than anything truly hostile. So, by way of saying bygones on behalf of the Brotherhood, welcome to the party."

"Some party," Onyx noted. Her eyes glanced around their surroundings meaningfully.

As expected, Ms. Black had understated the oddities of the party. Here and there wandered shapely young men and women in very little clothing, mostly either a pair of black silk shorts for the men or tiny strapless black dresses for the women. None of them looked particularly thin, yet they were not at all out of shape. The women wore their hair up; the men had theirs cut short. None of them spoke, or even seemed to be entirely all there mentally. They wandered around, slowing mainly near the vampires, who would occasionally reach out to draw one of them close for a brief bite. Mostly they bit at the neck or the wrists, but a few of the vampires just had to be kinky about it and bite elsewhere. The seemingly mesmerized young man or woman would wait patiently, even with some degree of pleasure on his or her face, while the vampire took his or her fill. Then the well-groomed snacks moving on about the party.

The Brotherhood was not to be outdone. While their numbers were notably fewer and they tended to keep to their own kind, and while their dress was mostly along the lines of business casual – with one or two robed exceptions – they seemed, to a man or woman, pointedly unfazed by the undead goings-on around them. They indulged in their own sensibilities with regard to showing off: an impossibly glowing trinket here, a bit of telekinesis or illusory companionship there. A couple of them even had small, almost feral red imps riding on their shoulders, who took full advantage of every hors d'ourves tray that wandered close enough for their lashing tails to reach.

"Ah. Yes. I'm going to go out on a limb here and guess that this is your first social experience among supernaturals in any significant numbers, yes?" Mr. Woods mused.

"You could say that," Onyx nodded.

His friendly smile never left his face. "Then I'm also going to hazard a guess that the both of you come by your youthful beauty legitimately, rather than through magic."

"I'm right here, Woods," Ms. Black scowled playfully, giving his arm a slap. "He's saying I got a cheap magic facelift and boob job."

"I'm saying you got a remarkable magic facelift and boob job, among other things," Mr. Woods bowed with equal joviality. "But back to my point: the nightlife have a certain penchant for reminding themselves how far removed they truly are from their mortal lives. They like to feel they're above conventional morality – can't say I don't sympathize – and so they go to great lengths to reinforce that premise when among their own. Depending on how adventurous you're feeling, you could find any number of much more licentious scenes than what we have out here behind the closed doors of this house. There are doubtlessly a few social types willing to show you around."

Molly frowned a bit. Inside, she suspected that she would be nothing short of appalled, but there was a cover to maintain here. "I think we'll take things a bit slow, thanks. We're still hoping to get to know the rest of our own kind better."

"Of course," Woods shrugged. "I'm just saying, bring together a gathering of people with power and knowledge beyond ordinary mortals, add in the thrills of a secret society, then provide demonstrable proof that they're all above the law, and the result will be..." he gestured grandly with his open hand and with the one holding his champagne glass. "...us." His smile broadened. "I am therefore reluctant to pass judgment on our hosts."

"I find it all a bit gross, to be perfectly honest," Ms. Black confessed in a conspiratorial tone. "There are a couple of men here I've met before from my other social functions. I used to think were much more charming and attractive, but now that I know what I'm looking at? Ugh..."

"And there it is, ladies," Woods nodded, as if drawing a lesson to its conclusion. "The vaunted charm and sexual allure of the undead crumbles once you see past the façade. You either see a dark, sensual, mysterious yet entirely human lady or gentleman, or you see a well-preserved corpse – but still a corpse."

"At that point, they're like any other predator. Recognize it for what it is and you are already less attractive as prey. Their physical prowess isn't to be taken lightly, nor the wealth of experience that many of them have attained, but in the end, they aren't looking for wary meals that might defend themselves. They look for the easy bite. Survival is the top priority, far above pride or the need for a challenge."

He downed the last of his champagne and placed it on a passing waiter's tray. Then Woods reached out to take Molly and Onyx both by the hand with practiced grace. "But enough about them. Let's talk about us."

Molly cocked her head warily. "What was that you said about recognizing a predator for what it is?"

Woods pursed his lips with amusement. "Yet I'm alive and healthy, so my predatory nature shouldn't make me any less charming."

Molly and Onyx shared a smile and a knowing glance. Mr. Woods was indeed charming, and witty, and handsome... and they would both pay good money to see him hit by a bus.





Chapter 80: Waterboarding Vampires...

"They looked kinda like the all-Goth version of the Village People," Jason said with a shrug. He and the others stood between his car, Taylor's, and Wade's pick-up truck in the parking lot of a gas station. To one side was the road. To the other three sides of the station were tall evergreens. It was just cold enough to see one another's breath.

"I mean, there was Gothy Gangster Dude with his tommygun, and there was Goth Cowboy, and there was Goth... I dunno, he had a longsword on his back. Goth SCA Guy, maybe?"

Wade and Drew both scowled skeptically at Jason, but Taylor didn't. "All Lorelei said was that you can usually spot them because they're all pale and they mostly dress with some holdovers of their old timeframes from when they were human," she put in. "So maybe the gangster guy was turned into a vampire in the 1920s or something. The one at the party half-looked like he should've been at a Renaissance faire, and he had that crappy wannabe English accent."

"Seems like a kinda thin basis for profilin'," Wade frowned.

"Y'know, if I had found out Saturday night there really were vampires out there, I wouldn't be telling my friends about it two nights later," Jason had to say. "I'd have been telling people within like five minutes."

"Oh, 'cause you were so quick to tell me Lorelei's a demon, right?'" Taylor snapped back. "And anyway, I've been busy, okay?"

Wade's frown didn't go away. "Doin' whut?"

Taylor quickly fell silent, crossing her arms over her chest. She looked sharply at Drew and Jason, who both glanced away awkwardly. "Look," she said, "can we stay on topic? This is serious. I mean, do you really think that Lorelei's the type to go for kidnap roleplay with goofy costumers?"

"Hey, I ain't about to try to figure out what kinda freaky shit a lady like her's into," Wade shrugged. "But ah ain't sayin' this ain't trouble. Ah drove by that estate mahself, an' ah'm pretty sure ah saw dudes tryin' ta hide their guns under their coats. Ah mean, even if that's some rich dude's house an' he's just got bodyguards, they wouldn't be out at the gate wearin' black trenchcoats in the middle o' the night."

"Pretty sure that longsword I saw was for real, anyway," Jason shrugged. "You go to enough conventions, you get to know the difference." He glanced around at the three sets of eyes that stared back at him. "What?"

"Whatever. They got our boy an' we gotta do somethin' about it," Drew said. "Ain't like we aren't all on the same page there. Did Lorelei say how to fight vampires? Like are they immune to bullets and stuff?"

Taylor shrugged. "All she said was that they're really vulnerable to fire and that they really weren't a threat to her. Said they're tough and scary compared to normal people, but nothing she couldn't take care of herself. She just wanted to take care of the one at the party so he wouldn't eat anyone there that night."

"But y'all don't know if they really hypnotize people or whatever?" Wade asked.

"Not if you can see them coming, I guess. The one at the party looked at me trying to be all flirty, but... well, I knew what he was, so I just thought he was gross."

Drew and Wade both turned to Jason. He took a deep breath. "Sunlight, holy water, fire. Bullets probably won't hurt them a lot or really any of the normal stuff, 'cause they're partly dead, right? So they don't need their organs to work. Cut things off of them, though, and it'll matter. Stake through the heart is supposed to either kill or immobilize, depending on the myth or the fantasy derivative. Sometimes silver is supposed to work. Sometimes it's not."

"Thought silver was for werewolves?" Drew asked.

"Look, this shit's all supposed to be fantasy and myth in the first place," Jason shrugged. "There's all kinds of folk legends and stuff, and who knows which culture's more accurate than another or even if there really are that many different kinds of these things. And you've got a hundred asshole authors trying to cash in on a vampire fad right now. Every freak writing smut on the internet uses vampires, for God's sake. The whole thing should've died out ten years ago when the hot goth chicks stopped showing up to the vampire LARPs."

"Y'all were there for them good ol' days, were ya?" Wade quipped.

Jason scowled, and sighed, "I heard about 'em, anyway," he muttered. "Point being the legends are all diluted. Who knows what's actually legit and what isn't? But if Lorelei said fire's good, then I'd go with fire. Not like we're going to get our hands on holy water at this time of night anyway."

"Rachel's supposed to have a big flaming sword," Drew noted. "Where the hell's she in all this mess?"

"Yeah, but Alex also said she can't see him all the time. Like if Lorelei's with him, and that's what went wrong at the pool hall with that Gorge dude," Jason reminded him. "So either vampires count for that, or there's something else going on. And it's not like she's got a phone number."

As he spoke, there was an audible "clack" from the doors of the gas station's mini mart. Drew looked over to see the attendant, a thin, young man, locking the doors and looking at the four of them with obvious wariness. He also pointedly looked away when he noticed Drew looking back. Drew checked his watch and frowned. It seemed a bit early for the guy to be closing up his shop given the posted hours. It was late, but not that late.

"No, but if both Alex and Lorelei are in that house, we need some kinda help like that," Wade said. "We gotta figure out how to get her attention."

A black SUV pulled up to one of the pumps. Drew nudged Wade, who nodded. "Attendant's gone twitchy, too," Drew murmured.

"Wish we could just call the cops," Taylor frowned. She kept her voice low since Drew had obviously quieted down. It made her nervous.

"Yeah, but with what we've already seen, we can't be sure they aren't paid for already," Jason shrugged. His voice wasn't quite so subtle. He wasn't shouting, but suddenly the others felt as if he might as well have been.

The SUV's occupants, a man and a woman, both got out of the vehicle. They were both well-dressed, all in black and looking a little pale. The woman's clothes showed off her figure. The man wore a well-tailored suit. He walked with her to the door to the mini mart.

Wade threw down his cigarette butt and crushed it out. "Ah jus' wish it wusn' so late already," he grumbled. "Liquor stores all gonna be closed by now."

"Liquor stores?" Drew blinked. "You serious?" He watched as the couple got to the mini mart's doors, checked them, then looked at one another and sighed.

"Yeah," Wade nodded. "You'd think the one place that'd be open late at night'd be where you'd go to buy booze."

The couple approached. "Hi, 'scuse me," the man said with a smile. His voice was a bit gravelly, and the smile didn't quite reach his eyes. "You wouldn't happen to have any cigarettes, would you? We're out, and that stupid market's closed," he added, jerking his thumb over his shoulder.

"I'm dying for a smoke," the blonde complained with a winning smile.

"Yeah, ah gotcha," Wade nodded. He patted his pockets. "Ah. Crap, ah think ah got a spare pack in mah glove box. C'mon, ah'll hook y'all up." Wade turned, fishing his keys out of his pocket.

"You're a lifesaver, sweetie," the woman said. She followed close behind Wade to the passenger side of Wade's pickup.

The man cocked his head curiously. "Did I hear you guys talking about looking for drinks?" he asked. "You know, we're on our way to a party ourselves."

"You don't say," Drew shrugged.

"Good night for that. Partying," Jason nodded. "I can't stand having no party to go to on, um... Monday night," he finished lamely.

The man smiled. "We could help you out with that, you know," he said. "Supposed to be pretty wild."

"Jus' right in here," Wade said. He glanced in the side-view mirror as he opened the door, then reached inside.

"Take your time," the blonde told him. She looked back to her companion, hoping to catch his eye.

Wade grunted as he reached inside the glove compartment. The blonde was very close to him. Wade fumbled around a bit, saying only, "Jus' gotta tear off th' plastic."

The tearing sound seemed just a touch off-base to Natalia. She had just managed a wink in Lucien's direction before she caught the red glow out of the corner of her eye. She was fast, but taken by surprise as she was, Natalia couldn't get out of the way quick enough to avoid the emergency road flare Wade swung it at her head. He caught her in the side of the neck, rather than the head as he'd hoped, but it did plenty of damage just the same.

Drew tackled Lucien immediately. The stocky vampire was staggered but didn't go down under the assault. He was already drawing a pistol with lightning-fast hands from inside his sport coat. Drew grabbed at the armed hand while Jason rushed in to help.

Taylor glanced around, quickly looking for something to do. The blonde was flailing wildly, screaming and trying to batter Wade away. She was doing a good job of it, too, forcing him back despite the fact that her hair had caught fire almost instantly. Her neck seemed to be burning, too. Wade was slammed up against the side of his pickup. He held onto one of her arms, though, and jabbed the road flare at her mid-section.

She opted to help the other guys, who weren't even armed. Drew and Jason couldn't bring the guy down on their own, and in fact Jason was quickly kicked off and to the ground. Drew was still struggling with the man's gun hand. Taylor came around to their opponent's left, swinging a wide kick at the back of his right leg. Most of his weight was on that leg as the kick hit him right behind the knee. He fell back with Drew on top of him.

Drew poured everything he had into keeping that gun-wielding hand down while throwing his knee into Lucien's groin. The knee shots didn't matter a whole lot to Lucien. It wasn't pleasant, of course, but that sort of pain just wasn't as debilitating for the undead. Lucien twisted to get his left arm over toward his right as if to pry Drew's hands off his wrist, but then the vampire threw a back-fisted blow across Drew's jaw. It hit him like a baseball bat, even despite a poor wind-up and little leverage. Drew was sent staggering back.

Natalia flailed and screamed at Wade to knock him down, then battered wildly at the flames over her upper body in a vain attempt to put them out. Wade fell to the ground. The moment tore his road flare from his hands; which had already broken in half and scattered across the pavement as it was. He figured he was screwed.

Then Jason was there, grabbing the burning woman by the waist of her pants. He pulled hard, twisting her around to hurl her at Lucien even as the other vampire rose with his gun in hand. Taylor saw it coming and gave Lucien an extra shove into the oncoming flames. She wasn't strong enough to move him, but it threw Lucien off-balance enough that he didn't get out of the way in time. He tumbled to the ground with Natalia on top of him while Taylor scrambled out of the way.

Natalia was already beyond rational thought. She grabbed at Lucien, trying to get help from something, anything able to put out the flames. Lucien was badly burned before he managed to fight her off of him in a panic, but by then Drew was upright. His foot came down brutally on the side of Lucien's knee, resulting in a cringe-inducing crunch.

Natalia tumbled away. She quickly lost her footing, stumbled and fell down on the pavement again. Her dead flesh continued to burn, but there was nothing left in her throat to sound out her agony.

Lucien could and did heal his broken joints, but there was nothing he could do about his burns. Fortunately for him, he hadn't caught on fire in his unwanted tussle with Natalia. Drew kept up the pressure, throwing blow after blow down on the vampire and keeping him off-balance. Lucien's undead strength was somewhat drained by his burns, but finally he managed to catch Drew's wrist and twist it painfully, then kick him away with shocking force.

Lucien got to his feet, looking for his gun. He was just in time to see Taylor's car slam into him. There wasn't a lot of speed to it, but she didn't hold back and there was plenty of weight. Taylor struck him dead-on from behind, sending him tumbling facedown to the ground again. Taylor hit the brakes reflexively, but then kept her car rolling forward until she felt her front left tire roll up on top of him. She heard an agonized, frustrated cry. It was only then that she threw on the parking brake.

Drew got to his feet, clutching his side and huffing painfully. He looked down at the vampire pinned facedown under Taylor's front wheel. Then he looked up to see Jason there with the vampire's pistol in his hands. "You okay?" Drew huffed.

"Yeah. You?"

"Yeah. Where's Wade?"

As if in answer, Wade passed between the two, pulling back the slide on the pistol he had retrieved from his truck. There was a tire iron tucked into his belt. "Ah'm fine. Just 'bout t' hold up a gas station is all," he growled. "Watch that asshole under the car."

Drew glanced down to see Lucien pushing up against the wheel of the car. He was pinned right below the shoulder blades and thus unable to get much leverage from his arms, but his legs were trying to gain purchase for a mighty heave. Drew kicked the vampire's feet backward, causing him to slip and then grunt in pain as the car settled back down upon him again.

Jason watched Wade with no small amount of nervousness plain in his face. "You think he's really gonna--?"

Wade smashed the glass of the mini mart door with the tire iron. He reached inside, threw the latch on the door, and then went in. "Drop the phone, asshole!" they heard him roar. "Now get out here! Right fuckin' now! Where's the camera feed go? Ah said the camera feed! For the security cameras, ya fuckwit!"

"Jesus," Drew murmured. His eyes were wide.

"Yeah, I know," Jason breathed. "I'm really uncomfortable with this."

They heard the door of Taylor's car slam shut. She stepped over to join them, saying only, "My vote is we waterboard this motherfucker with a gas pump until he tells us everything."





Chapter 81: Lydia starts on Alex...

"Has she told you that she loves you?"

Alex kept his mouth shut. He stared at the ceiling. He only hated himself more for the way his body reacted to the lithe, sensuous woman laying atop him, speaking in such an adoring yet venomous voice. He wanted to look at Lorelei, yet the thought of meeting her gaze while he was so mortifyingly aroused by this woman was unbearable.

He was grateful they were both still dressed, and terrified at the thought that they probably wouldn't be so for much longer.

Lydia smiled, tracing her hands up and down his chest as she rocked back and forth on her knees, straddling his hips. Her green dress was hiked up just enough to allow her the room to do it. "I imagine she lets you feel like you're in charge... lets you feel like a big man. A big, strong, masterful man. That's what you've always wanted to be, isn't it?"

Alex remained silent. Lydia grabbed at his hair, turning him to one side to lick the side of his neck. The parallel between this and the way Rachel had greeted him just hours before was too obvious to ignore.

"Why won't you talk to me?" she cooed in his ear. "Don't you have anything to say at all?"

"Nothing you won't just use against me," he said firmly.

"Oh, sweet Alex," Lydia cooed, "I thought you'd be used to that already? You love being dominated by a succubus. Lorelei already has you wrapped around her finger. Don't you know that? Haven't you already seen? She plays you like an instrument, and you only want her to do it more and more." Her face loomed over his, split by an animalistic grin. "Doesn't it get you off? Knowing you have nothing to worry about? Knowing that you can just... lay there and let her take care of everything?"

Her hands slipped under his shirt. They were cool, tantalizing. His mind and body fought over whether her touch was exciting or if it made his skin crawl.

"You know I'm going to give you more than she has, right?" Lydia asked, still swaying against his body. "Lorelei's been holding back on you, Alex. I can tell. I won't hold back at all."

"You mean you're going to kill me."

"I mean I'm going to give you pleasures any man would die for," Lydia smiled. "Don't worry about Lorelei. She'll get to share. Believe me, I want her to feel every moment of you and I together, right to the very last. I'm nothing if not generous."

"You're a wretch."

Lydia let out a brief squeal of delight. "He fights! Oh, how he fights. So brave. I know you're afraid," she said, placing her hand on his chest. "It's nice to be called something other than a whore for once."

"I can at least respect whores."

The succubus laughed. She pushed herself up a bit, placing her full breasts against Alex's chin as she shifted. "Lorelei, you've taught him well," Lydia taunted. Then she looked back down at Alex, who would have bitten her just for the sake of inflicting some sort of pain if he wasn't sure it would just be another thing to mock him about. "Don't try to goad me into ending your life quickly, Alex," she said. "I won't have it. I want you to leave this world with my name falling gratefully from your lips."

She sounded so sure of it. He was chained here, and so was Lorelei. There was nothing either of them could do. She held all the cards and wouldn't let anything slip. Alex tried not to despair, but he knew she was right. He probably couldn't hold out against this. Revolted as he was by Lydia and the situation, chances were that she'd probably just drive him out of his mind before long. Maybe with drugs, maybe with sleep deprivation. As resolved as Alex was that he wouldn't give in to Lydia, he just couldn't see a way out, and he had a dismally good idea of how outmatched he truly was.

Her tongue curled around his ear. Alex turned his face away, roughly trying to bump her head aside in some small show of contempt and resistance, but Lydia just smiled at that, too.

She smiled at everything.

"Where's Rachel?" he finally asked in a hushed voice.

Lydia raised her head up again, looking down at him with an arched eyebrow. "Ah yes. Your foul-mouthed angel friend. She gave me quite the talking to," Lydia chuckled. "Almost had me crying and cowering in a corner."

Lydia looked here and there in the room, making a show of gazing over her shoulder. Then she laid back down against him. "Stefan told Warren that there was an angel summoned as well as Lorelei by their lost Brother," she whispered. "He thought I couldn't hear, and maybe thought I couldn't understand the language. I think he doesn't want any of the rest of us to know, because he wants to try all this for himself. Silly mortal. Anyway, don't worry about Rachel interrupting us, Alex," Lydia smiled. "She's already dead."

************

"Ah ain't fuckin' torturin' nobody," Wade said firmly.

"Then how do we get this guy to talk?" Taylor asked, waving at the vampire still pinned under her car.

"You don't," Lucien grunted. He tried again to position his legs where they could gain some leverage. Again, Drew kicked the legs out from under him. Lucien growled in pain as the car settled down on his back again. "You just die in agony. Your families die in agony. You all spend your last moments on this Earth begging for your own deaths!"

"Bitch please, you gonna spend your last moments on this Earth with that mouth duct taped shut if you don't close it on your own," Drew warned him.

"Look, television an' the wet dreams of chairborne rangers aside, torture don't work," Wade scowled. "All you get is whatever sort'a confession's gonna stop the pain. Maybe y'all get the guy to talk, but that don't make what he says accurate."

Lucien let out a bitter laugh. His eyes darted between the group. The only one of them who was not part of the conversation was Jason, who was busily looking through the SUV that Lucien and Natalia had brought to the gas station. Off to the side was the gas station attendant, sitting on the curb in front of the mini-mart bound with duct tape. Drew and Jason had less sympathy for the guy when they found out he hadn't been calling 911.

"I don't suppose your people in that mansion up the road would be open to a prisoner swap instead?" Taylor asked. "You for Alex and Lorelei?"

"They might," Lucien ventured after a moment. "If you were to move quickly."

"Well, there's that, at least," Taylor said, looking back to Wade. "I mean obviously they'd just try to kill all of us rather than doing a prisoner swap, so we'd be stupid to try. But that at least confirms they've got Alex and Lorelei."

"The Lady will be good to her word!" Lucien snapped. "She is always good to her word! Approach under a flag of truce and it will be honored. Offer an exchange and she will... make arrangements."

Jason came back holding a large sub-machinegun, pointedly not by its handle. It was the kind with all sorts of accessories, from a flash suppressor to a folding stock. "They've got a couple other guns back there, too," Jason noted as he offered the weapon to Wade, who took it with interest.

"Yeah, prisoner swap ain't happenin'," Wade decided without much consideration. "Your people likely t' jus' figure they're all way too tricksy for us simple mortal folk, so they'll jus' do somethin' shady t' screw us." He pulled the magazine out of the weapon with some familiarity. He wasn't an expert, but he at least knew what he was handling. The odd red rings around the tips of the bullets made his eyebrows rise. "What's up with these bullets?" Wade asked.

Lucien only scowled.

"Oh, right, y'all ain't gonna talk." Wade reloaded the weapon, slung it over his shoulder and then went to his pick-up truck. He pulled the spare gas canister out of the back and walked in the direction of the gas pumps.

"Do you think this bit of theater frightens me?" Lucien snapped. "I was torturing warriors twice your size when this land bore only savages! I've seen all these games before! You don't have it in you, and neither do your friends!"

The young veteran said to the vampire without even looking over as he passed by. "Yeah? So after all that experience, tell me this: How long y' reckon it takes f'r a guy to learn that some folks just need killin'?"

Lucien's aggressive demeanor lessened as Wade kept moving. For the first moment in all of this, the vampire seemed a touch unnerved.

"Man, we can't just light him on fire," Drew protested.

"You better start talking," Jason told the vampire in what was half a warning and half a plea.

Taylor just looked on, crossing her arms uncomfortably across her chest as she saw Wade activate a pump and start filling the container.

"Wade," Drew said, "you serious about this?"

"Folks, what we got here's a guy runnin' around armed and dangerous, answerin' to no law or authority we know. Ah bet y'all ain't even an American citizen, am I right?" Wade asked, looking at Lucien pointedly as he brought the gas canister over. "Yeah, figured as much. So he's answerin' to some boss who ain't even a legitimate legal power, runnin' around in mah country with illegal military weapons, kidnappin' and assaultin' mah fellow citizens... y'all get what ah'm sayin' here? Ah'm good an' pissed 'bout Alex an' Lorelei, but it ain't just mah friends involved here."

"You're saying he's a terrorist?" Taylor blinked.

"Maybe not by definition, but it's the same sorta problem," Wade nodded. "We're lookin' at a dude who makes war on our country without bein' part o' any nation. He ain't gonna accept nothin' short o' total dominance, an' he'll obviously kill anyone who gets in his way. He ain't gonna back down. An' we can't put him on trial." Wade put the gas canister down on the ground next to him. He threw the safety on the sub-machinegun.

Growling at himself, Lucien finally said, "It won't matter if you kill me. You still won't be able to get into that mansion and save your friends. No mere mortal can cross that threshold tonight."

Wade cocked his head curiously. "Now, why's that?"

Lucien's eyes narrowed. "The home is mystically warded. As I say, no mortal can cross the threshold uninvited – or any of its other portals. Unless you've some way of walking through walls, you'd best reconsider a prisoner exchange."

"How do we know that the people we want are still alive?" Taylor asked.

"They were both to be kept alive for... for the purposes of other bargains," Lucien admitted.

"Not as party favors for you to much on?" Drew pressed.

"No. Certainly not the demon. Your friend is being kept away from the party itself in part to prevent just such an occurrence. He is in the basement, safe from accidental harm."

"Good to know," Wade nodded. With that, he put a three-round burst from the sub-machinegun into Lucien's head. The gun wasn't completely silenced, but it was certainly less loud than any of them had expected.

"What the fuck?!" Drew burst.

"Woah!" Jason protested. Taylor simply looked on in shock. Lucien's head immediately crumbled to ash, as did the rest of his body. All that was left under Taylor's car were clothes and ashes.

"Yup. 's what ah figured," Wade said. "Some sorta anti-vampire bullets."

"We didn't agree to killin' him!" Drew shouted, shoving Wade back.

"Ah know," Wade nodded. He put the gun on the ground and held his arms out wide where his hands could be seen. "Ah know we didn't wanna just kill 'im. Ah'm not big on that sorta shit mahself, an' ah never let it happen like that in th' Army. But ah ain't in th' Army now, Drew. We ain't got no back-up, an' we got no place to put a captured vampire who just said two minutes ago he was gonna kill all of us an' all our families. You think he didn't mean that?"

Taylor just stared at the remains. "I feel like I'm supposed to be sick," she thought aloud.

"You prob'ly would be, if'n y'all were lookin' at a real dead body. But that ain't. That's some monster should'a been killed a long time ago."

"In cold blood?" Jason shot back. "While he's helpless?"

"Ah know," Wade admitted. "Ah know that. But ah didn't see no other option. If'n' y'all never talk t' me again, ah'm gonna be sad, but ah un'erstand. But right now we ain't got no other options. They got our friends an' they're gonna come after us unless we do somethin' about it."

"Well, what the fuck do you suggest now?" Drew snapped. "Our only source of information's dead now! An' we don't even know if what he said is true!"

"We don't, but we gotta go with it," Wade shrugged. "Ah got an idea. Need y'all to help, though. Ah'm sorry, Drew. Ah'm sorry for all of this. Ah'm prob'ly gonna be sorry for th' rest o' mah life, an' if ah saw another option, ah'd have taken it. But our boy's in trouble an' we're his only shot right now. Alright? Y'all wanna whup mah ass, you're the guy t' do it, an' it ain't like I don't have it comin' for this. But let's go get our friends first, alright?"

Drew looked at him for a long, hard moment. "You got a plan?"

"Ah got half a plan," Wade nodded. "Th' rest we gotta make up as we go. An' ah gotta say, we're prob'ly just all gonna get killed."

"He already took a bullet for me," Taylor said simply. "I'm not going to just let him go."

After a long moment, Jason mumbled, "I was gonna bomb my mid-terms anyway."





Chapter 82: Torment and Despair...

He was maddeningly close to release, and needed it badly, and hated himself for it.

Lorelei shared it all. It was as real to her as if Lydia were molesting Lorelei herself, but in addition to her own feelings of violation, there were those she felt from Alex. The blonde succubus was manipulating her lover's body like the expert she was, and they were both still clothed.

It would inevitably be worse in time.

His heart was heavy with fear and worry. He feared as much for Lorelei as he did for himself. His desire for Rachel had been replaced with the sort of longing one feels while mourning for the dead. It wasn't entirely certain, but the likelihood that she was dead was so high as to cast Alex into even greater despair.

Wherever Rachel was, Lorelei considered, she would have arrived by now if she were able. It was curious, though, that Stefan voiced so much of what was in Alex's memories, yet left out the angel completely. Perhaps – likely, even – he didn't actually know what had happened to her, and he didn't want to give Alex cause to have hope.

It was dangerous to allow captives to feel hope.

There was the sound of keys at the door. The locks were thrown open. Lydia stopped writhing over Alex in her torturous foreplay to look up over her shoulder. The whole of the previous group had returned, without Anastacia but having added a couple more of the vampires instead. One was in a pin-striped suit; the other wore a trench coat and a longsword strapped to his back.

"...spent this time in a spirit journey to the outskirts of the lands of the dead," Warren carried on as the group entered. "The River Lethe must be passed by all souls on their way to the afterlife. The Greeks knew it as a place where memories of life would be shed, so that the soul might continue on to the afterlife unencumbered by sorrow, by vengeance, by loss."

"I know my mythology," Blackthorne scowled. "There is no need to be pedantic. Please get on with the point to this."

Warren bowed apologetically, but with a stiffness that limited any impression of deference. "Symbolism, Lord Blackthorne. As you no doubt know, magic relies heavily on symbolism. Lethe is symbolic of the forgotten memories of the dead. To the living, however, it may often mean quite the opposite. A small dose of this potion will bring great clarity to Carlisle's memories. It will take a short while for the effects to settle, though, and there are the festivities upstairs to attend. Are you sure you do not want to wait until there is more to see?"

"We are all quite accustomed to waiting out tedium," Blackthorne said assertively. He turned to Stefan. "This aspect of our collective dealings represents something of a wrinkle in our plans to establish a greater spirit of community between your faction and ours, Lord Stefan. We would hate to have it grow into something worse."

"Our arrangement with Lord Ba'al has nothing to do with Lady Anastacia's holdings, nor any of the agreements we have negotiated," Stefan replied. "I see no justification for this interference."

"Interference? No. Observation, sir," Blackthorne countered. "This sorcery was to take place in my home, while hosting an event at the Lady's invitation and under her jurisdiction. I should say we are quite entitled--!"

"Jurisdiction?" Stefan scowled, showing a small degree of open tension for the first time. "Need I remind you, sir, that no agreement has yet been formalized between the Brotherhood and the Lady."

"Trouble in paradise?" Lydia smiled over her shoulder at Ba'al.

The demon had moved over to Lorelei, who herself turned away from him in disgust. "Not the sort of matters that concern my slaves or I," he said. Then he smiled at Lorelei. "Yes, slaves. You'll be mine once again, as soon as Lydia has dispatched your little boyfriend here. But I see no reason to rush her."

"Again, Lord Stefan," Blackthorne said darkly, "this is still my home. You remain here at the Lady's invitation. We will allow your work to continue out of deference to Lord Ba'al and Lydia, but do not presume too much."

"Gentlemen," Lord Ba'al sighed without looking away from Lorelei, "this grows tiresome."

Stefan and Blackthorne stared at one another for a moment longer. Warren was silent, along with the other vampires, but their presence wasn't the sort of thing anyone would miss. Stefan was quite clearly aware of the superior numbers around him. Despite his magic, numbers mattered.

"Warren," Stefan said finally, "please proceed."

The robed sorcerer stepped around to the head of the large table. Lydia remained on top of Alex, upright but still straddling him. "If the lady would be so kind?" Warren gestured, then offered a hand down from the table.

"I think I like it here," Lydia protested mischievously. "Is it essential that I move?"

The hooded man did not answer right away. "I can perform my work either way," he said, "but I would hate to disturb you."

"I'm already disturbed. Please make it worth my while."

He bowed again. Warren then drew from the folds of his robe a funnel and a large flask. "I will need someone to hold his head steady," he said.

"Mitchell," Blackthorne beckoned immediately. Without hesitation, the vampire in the black clothes so reminiscent of the Old West strode to the end of the table. He grabbed Alex's head and held it firm against the tabletop.

"Thank you," Warren said. He glanced down at Alex's face. "Would someone else be so kind as to urge him to open his mouth?"

"Talon," Blackthorne said. A moment later, Talon appeared at the table opposite from Warren. He grabbed at Alex's jaw and forced it open after a bit of a struggle.

Lorelei yanked against her chains fiercely. The force of her efforts resulted in a loud racket. Ba'al looked on with some amusement as she pulled and pulled, even to the point of obvious injury to her hands as the cuffs around her wrists refused to give. "Love hurts, doesn't it, dear Lorelei?" he taunted.

The succubus yanked again on the chains. Neither the links nor the hook in the floor would give, but she kept trying in obvious desperation. Finally Blackthorne said, "Spade, Jack, would you be so kind?" The unoccupied vampires with him walked over to Lorelei and began beating her. She was pummeled to the floor as fists with supernatural strength and a complete lack of mercy fell upon her.

Warren put the funnel partly into Alex's mouth and popped the lid on his flask. He poured in a small amount of the liquid, murmuring words in Greek. Alex coughed and sputtered as best he could, but the hands on his head made it impossible to do anything more. Even this was pointless. Eventually, he swallowed out of panicked reflex despite his efforts at spitting the liquid out.

His body shuddered. Warren held his flask away a small bit, watching and waiting. The room had fallen silent as Lorelei's tormenters let up in their work. Everyone heard Alex let out a stifled whimper of pain.

"Does it hurt him?" Lydia asked.

"Physically, no," Warren explained. "Not at all. However, the River Lethe is said to take away sorrow and pain. To expose the living to it, with its opposite effects, means that the memories that come back first and clearest are those that are most painful. Trauma is relived. Loss occurs all over again. The reason we cannot simply examine his memories immediately is that we must let the psychological turmoil settle first, lest Lord Stefan be subject to his pain."

Lydia smiled broadly. "How dreadful," she mused. Without warning, she snatched the flask from Warren's hand and promptly overturned it into the funnel.

"Not so much!" Warren blurted out, reaching for the flask only to have his hands snatched away by the much stronger demon on top of the prisoner. None of the vampires moved to stop her. Once more, Alex did what he could to spit out the potion, but the fingers that clamped down immediately on his nose blocked any ability to breathe. He couldn't cough out the liquid without any air in his lungs. Eventually, desperate reflex took over and he swallowed.

Lydia withdrew the funnel and flask from his mouth, handing both back to Warren. "There you go," she said sweetly.

Alex coughed, gasped, and then fell silent for a long moment. Tears that had fallen from his eyes in the midst of choking continued to flow. Soon, his body shook as he openly wept. There was no holding back his tears. He hardly seemed aware of his surroundings anymore.

On the floor, Lorelei shook with pain. There was so much desire mixed up in Alex's memories, almost all of it dominated by a sense of loss or desperation or betrayal.

Alex thrashed wildly on the table with greater effect than ever. Lydia chuckled, slipping off of him to let him strain against his bonds. His cries became tumultuous, body-wracking sobs.

Lydia cast a glance and a smirk toward Ba'al. "Teenagers," she snickered. "So much drama." She looked to Warren. "How long will this go on?"

"I am unsure," Warren told her. "It will all depend on how much there is for his mind to sort through. This seems a bit much for one so young, but there may be trauma in his personal history we did not account for."

"Hmpf," Lydia shrugged. She then turned to Blackthorne. "I suppose, then, that while we wait I might fulfill my obligations to your Lady."

Blackthorne eyed the weeping prisoner uncomfortably. "That would be good of you, yes," he murmured.

"Master?" Lydia asked. "Will you accompany us?"

"My time grows short," he noted. "I will accompany you, but... you and you. Deal with her chains," he said, gesturing to Spade and Jack and then to Lorelei. "She comes with me."

"Talon," Blackthorne blinked. "Mitchell. Would the two of you be so kind as to remain here?"

"Sure," the cowboy shrugged. Talon only nodded. They both cast wary glances at the robed sorcerer, who stepped back an extra pace.

As Lorelei's chains were unfastened from the floor, her handlers favored her with another kick to the stomach and another blow across the shoulders. She hardly felt them, though. Instead, she felt her young lover's desires.

Lorelei loved him. She longed to surround him with luxuries and affection, to cherish him and show her gratitude for the changes he'd helped her make in herself for the rest of her days. He forced nothing on her, expected nothing from her... but there it was. The succubus was a better person because of him. In return, she had worked tirelessly to simply teach him to set aside his distant worries and finally learn to have a good time.

As she was pulled away from Alex, Lorelei still felt his desires. It was all flavored with a tempest of desperation, fear, regret and denial. She felt betrayal, loss and terrible, awful loneliness.

As Lorelei was dragged from Alex's side, she felt his strongest desire. The strongest desire she had ever felt from anyone. More than anything else, the only man she ever loved wanted to die.





Chapter 83: Molly and Onyx learn the Truth...

He remembered walking to Opilio's house, feeling cheated, feeling bitter, knowing, just knowing that this would somehow tear away any chance at garnering for himself a decent life again. He'd been right, too. He realized that as the abrupt end to his memories became clear. It was the same feeling he'd had when the slavers clubbed him over the head, too, only after this second blackout, there was nothing else there.

He remembered sitting in the recruiter's office in Detroit, giving his name, rank and serial number and requesting to go back into that stinking bush, and trying all the while not to weep. The tears didn't flow then, but they flowed now.

He remembered Marie in the rearview mirror of the truck as he returned to the front, back to where 2nd Armored would go right back into the thick of it with the Germans. She waved, then hung her head and turned away. It was the last he ever saw of her.

He remembered all the awful, thoughtless, stupid things he had said to Siobhan. He hadn't meant any of it, hadn't meant to say anything but "I'm hurt" and "this is so hard for me" and "I love you." The hurtful things came out of his mouth and crushed her feelings like so many slaps in her beautiful, wounded face. He remembered desperately wanting to take them all back, and he remembered the moment where he found out that it was too late.

He remembered building Halla's funeral pyre and lighting it, the morning after he had spent all night cradling her bloodied body in his arms.

He remembered dying alone and afraid in a dirty street in a Holy Land that seemed less and less holy every day he and his fellow Crusaders had been there.

He remembered all that, and so much more: finding his wife slain by Shaka's warriors for failing to show proper grief for Nandi's passing. Finding his wife bent over his own table by the very priest who had officiated the wedding, and her snarling demand that he leave her alone despite the flowers in his hand and the horror in his eyes. All that, and so much more.

It was too much to bear all alone. Alex screamed in despair.

************

"I'm here. I'm gonna help you. You're not alone."

"Molly," Mr. Woods asked, "what are you doing?"

"Helping him," Molly said. She knelt at the side of the young, mostly-naked man on the short couch. He was pale and hardly conscious. Molly pulled from one of her many pockets a blue periwinkle leaf, crushed it in her hand and rubbed it on his neck where the two puncture wounds were still somewhat bloody. She murmured words of healing and comfort.

"No, I mean why would you do that?" Woods pressed.

Molly looked over her shoulder in something of a glare. Standing over her were Onyx, Mr. Woods, and a pair of heavyset vampires in dresses that were the height of fashion in the antebellum South. She ignored Woods. "He needs water," the redheaded goth said to Onyx, who promptly stepped away to a table of refreshments nearby.

"Oh," said one of the vampires in a sweet voice, "do you plan on revivin' him? That's ever so kind of you. He's just delicious. Ah'd hate to think that ah got the last bit of him all mahself. He should be shared around more."

"Shared?" Molly blinked. "He's wiped out. Even once I'm done with him, he's not up for more of this. He needs to go home."

"Home?" The vampires chuckled, looking at one another. "Why, aren't you just the sweetest thing?" one of them declared.

Onyx was there with a glass of water at that moment, which she put in the delirious young man's hand. Mr. Woods laid a hand on Molly's shoulder. "Molly," he urged, "we need to move on. You've done what you can here."

"I can get him to a car."

"You can't," Woods said firmly.

"Not unless you're willin' to pay Lord Blackthorne for him," the other of the undead ladies put in. "All these refreshments are his property, after all."

Molly's eyes flared. Onyx grabbed her arm and helped Mr. Woods pull her away.

"You've been warned already," Mr. Woods reminded her in a hushed voice. "Live and let live."

"Like they're letting these drones live?" Molly hissed.

"Would you be so tolerant of a guest in your home disrupting your lifestyle?" Woods asked. "This has gone on for centuries. You're not going to change anything."

"This goes beyond lifestyle," Molly argued quietly. "Do you really think all these people here walking around as hors d'ourves are knowing volunteers?"

"Some of them, yes," Mr. Woods nodded. "But that's not for us to judge. Ladies, I know you are both new to all of this, but how different do you really think this is from how the Brotherhood handles its matters? We told you before, the vampires are doing this in part to remind one another – and us – of their natures. We shouldn't be shocked. In fact, they're entertained by the fact that you are bothered, and they'll only seek more entertainment from that. They feed on human blood. We are here to make sure once and for all that it won't ever be our blood. Don't tell me you've gotten all this way in your studies without spilling a little blood yourselves."

"Mr. Woods," Onyx broke in, her hand still on Molly's arm, "do you think you could give us a moment to talk this over? I think we're all just having a misunderstanding here."

He nodded, looking at Onyx imploringly. "Of course," he said. He stepped away.

Most of the conversation took place through a single exchange of nuanced glares. Onyx sympathized, but wanted to keep her eye on the ball. Molly didn't want to blow their mission, but was of the opinion that everyone present needed to be annihilated, here and now, immediately and without delay. This was not, after all, the first expired "blood toy" the pair had seen tonight. It was just the first that they could get to and offer aid. Moreover, it wasn't the first time they had witnessed the indifference of the Brotherhood.

Before the conversation went very far, though, there was a noticeable change in the atmosphere of the broad hall. Black-garbed partygoers parted graciously and bowed or knelt as a strange assortment of individuals walked by. At their front were Lord Blackthorne and Lady Anastacia, who had been described at length for Molly and Onyx by several gushing guests. They carried themselves like royalty.

Behind them, though, no one else put on such airs. They were imposing in their own right, though: a man in a suit with dark, smoky orbs instead of eyes, and a stunningly beautiful blonde woman in an elegant, slinky emerald dress. To Molly and Onyx's mystic vision, both of them had small black horns just below the scalp, large demon wings and thin devil's tails.

Those same demonic features where shared by the chained, muzzled, bloodied woman dragged behind them in chains. She wore a tattered black nightgown and an expression of overwhelming hatred for everything around her, but in particular for the demons she was forced to follow. The vampires that dragged her along by her chains offered no mercy or pity.

Onyx's grip on Molly's arm tightened noticeably. Were it not for the aid of the spell of deception they both wove before they began this escapade, her expression would have surely betrayed her alarm. Instead, her face was merely grim.

"Lord Stefan?" Mr. Woods asked as the group passed by. "A moment?"

The well-dressed leader of the Brotherhood peeled off from his accompaniment of the group without disrupting its ranks, having been behind the demons to begin with. A robed man who kept his face hidden behind a hood followed him.

"My time is short, Mr. Woods," Stefan warned him in hushed tones that Onyx only barely heard. "Still, it is good that you got my attention here. We need to speak."

"Oh?"

"How urgent is your business?"

"Not terribly, I suppose. I did want to make you aware of a couple of new guests if only to avoid a surprise. This is Molly and Onyx, whom we've been hoping to chat up for some time. Ms. Black managed to convince them to come to the party to meet with us."

Stefan glanced up at them, a glint of recognition in his eyes but without any real change in his demeanor. "Ah. Ladies, I apologize very sincerely. While I have been eager to make your acquaintance and hopefully sway you into joining our organization, I fear tonight may not be the night for such negotiations. Mr. Woods, I trust you are seeing to their safe conduct?"

Woods hesitated. His eyebrows rose at the loaded question. "I am," he answered finally.

"Good. I need you to let the others know that we may yet have further to go in smoothing things over with our hosts than initially anticipated." He glanced at Molly and Onyx again. "Ladies, I sincerely apologize, but I must speak with Mr. Woods here alone a moment. Would you be so kind as to give us some space?" His voice dripped with sincerity and polite tones, and he even bowed slightly to them.

"Of course," Onyx smiled. She drew Molly away, but not before reaching up to subtly scratch her ear. One of her smaller metallic earrings, duller than the rest, slipped off and fell to the floor. "Subaulscuto,," she murmured as they turned away.

Molly glanced at her. "You don't think they'll spot that?"

"They're worried about the vampires, not other Practitioners," Onyx whispered. "Cover for me." She glanced up at Molly, who then started talking about how much she wanted a cat. It was exactly the sort of thing that Onyx had learned to tune out.

"We weren't able to handle things downstairs as subtly as we'd hoped," Onyx heard Stefan say. The words were carried to her ear as if she were still part of the men's conversation. "The corpses have been all over us."

"Unfortunate, but that was a gamble in the first place," Woods shrugged. "They're not all stupid."

"No, and Lydia still plays us off against one another. Ba'al will be leaving soon with the captured succubus. He wants her for himself. In the meantime, we have to make our move. Carlisle's knowledge is too valuable to share. There is more going on than we imagined."

"How so?"

Stefan inhaled sharply, glancing around. Only Woods and Warren were close enough to hear, aside from Onyx's enchanted earring. "Garrison appears to have succeeded beyond our wildest dreams. We still need to study how and check his methods, but Carlisle stumbled into Garrison as he summoned the succubus – and an angel. Garrison died and Carlisle accidentally wound up invested with some degree of mastery over both subjects."

"None of them yet know of the angel," Warren added.

"You've got to be kidding," Woods murmured. "Why in the hell would he do that? It's madness."

"No, it's brilliant. They stood to counterbalance one another, and indeed they seem to have done so for Carlisle. It's amazing; the relationships seem genuinely affectionate. But the angel disappeared on him right before he was snatched, so there may well be another faction in play here. I fear Garrison may have shared his findings with another group like the Brotherhood before he died. We need to strike while we have this opportunity."

"What would you have me do?" Woods asked.

"Spread the word and have everyone ready to move," Stefan said. "Perhaps immediately after Anastacia holds her formal court. Perhaps even sooner. Warren here is going to go down below to grab Carlisle and sneak him out of here. I expect he'll have no problem there. The real challenge will be in extracting all of our people here without incident, but if a fight is necessary, we'll make a tactical withdrawal of it."

Woods cast a concerned gaze at Warren. "You sure you don't need help?"

"Mr. Woods, come now," Warren said softly. "I am a necromancer. Manipulating corpses is my specialty. But we have to move soon. The effects of the waters of Lethe will not last forever, even in the quantities that he was given. Retrieving more will be difficult at best."

"And the demons?"

"I hardly think Lydia or that monstrosity of hers give a damn what we mere mortals do in our power struggles," Stefan scowled. "Ba'al even less so. He gets what he wants by hauling that other succubus off to hell as his prisoner. Lydia wants to kill Carlisle herself, but I don't think Ba'al really cares that much."

"The rest of us are beneath him. In the end, this is still between Anastacia's side and ours. This could cost us, but the power we could attain for ourselves here is too great to pass up. I'll be damned if I am going to swear allegiance to that dress-wearing cadaver if we can help it!"

Warren and Stefan moved off, walking swiftly to catch up to the other VIPs of the evening. Woods turned to rejoin Molly and Onyx with his pleasant poker face still strong. "Ladies," he smiled charmingly, "it would appear that I've been appointed as something of a herder of cats tonight. I need to spend the next few moments of my time spreading a little bit of news among the Brotherhood. Would you care to join me? I think it would be in your best interests to stay close. This party would be dreadfully dull without someone like me to liven it up for you, wouldn't it?"

His self-deprecating wink was anything but. Molly and Onyx both played along, though, smiling at him shyly. "Sure," Onyx said.

"Sorry about before," Molly said. "I've just got a... thing about unnecessary roughness."

Woods waved it off. "Hardly a problem. Believe me, I sympathize. My first few months with the Brotherhood were similarly jarring, but you get over it. Shall we?" he asked, turning to lead them away.

As they walked, Molly looked down to see Onyx slip something off her wrist from under her sleeve. It was the small ring of vines and blonde hair used to summon and bind Rachel into the circle within their apartment. Onyx pointedly gripped it in both hands, walking closely behind Mr. Woods with her hands low to keep them unseen, and then pulled the circlet apart.

A glance from Onyx asked Molly to trust her, but there was no need. Onyx never really needed to ask that of her lover. Instead, Molly simply hoped that they'd be able to handle the rest of the night from here on out.





Chapter 84: Taylor and the Boys make plans...

Repetition of prayer was unlikely to make any real difference. Nor was variation from religion to religion. Rachel knew that, but prayed anyway. There was nothing else she could do.

The warding circle still held strong. She still couldn't see Alex through her connection as his guardian. The decidedly unwelcome physical arousal he had experienced earlier had finally ceased a short time ago, but nothing else had changed. The ritual that bound Rachel to Alex would only share his pleasures; nothing else was conveyed by the bond. That he was in danger was without question, but as his guardian angel, she should have known much more on that score than anything their ritual bond would convey.

Unfortunately, all that was blocked. She was trapped. All she could do was pray unless her captors died or relented. Despite her frustration with them, it was clear that they had Alex's best interests at heart. She wished them no ill will. She just wanted this motherfucking warding circle to vanish, for the love of God and –

--and just like that, it did.

Rachel looked up, stunned. The wax, salt and ashen circles remained, but she could feel her freedom. She didn't feel any need to question the opportunity. Rachel's wings spread wide, and in a heartbeat she shot like a ghost through the ceiling, through the apartment above it, and into the night sky.

For late September in Seattle, the sky was surprisingly clear. Rachel could see stars. She could see the moon. She didn't really spare them any appreciation, though, because she still could not see Alex.

That meant her relief was only partial. Rachel flew to his home, covering miles in mere moments, but as she expected there was nothing to see there. If anything, there was less than nothing. Everything looked perfectly in place. Rachel scowled, swore bitterly at nothing in particular, and soared into the sky again.

Rachel flew up until she could see the whole of the Seattle metro area beneath her. If Alex's captors had immediately put him on a plane or sent him through some magical portal, then he was long gone. That meant she was still reliant on the hope that whatever obstruction there was over her sight of him would be lifted before it was too late. Barring those possibilities, however, there was only so far he would have been taken.

Rachel hovered in the sky and watched the land below for any sign of her love. With any luck, it would be something bright, shiny and easy to spot.

************

"This oughta make 'em shit their pants," Wade declared grimly. He looked over their collective handiwork on the vampires' SUV. The interior behind the driver's seat was absolutely soaked dripping with oil and gasoline. Gas-soaked newspapers and other combustibles were stuffed into the back and everything useful to the crew had been stripped from its insides.

"If we can get it close enough," Jason scowled.

"We'll get in. Only two guards at the front gate from the looks of things. I gotta tell you, it's damn easy t' get complacent when you're guardin' someone else's party in whut should be a quiet area."

"Anyone still not down with this?" Drew asked.

"I'm down," Taylor put in, "but I've got a question. Wade isn't driving this thing in, 'cause he's gotta be ready to follow in and cover with the gun, right?"

"Yup," Wade nodded. "It's gotta be Jason or Drew."

"I'll do it," Jason said firmly.

"Rock paper scissors for it?" Drew asked.

"Uh, guys," Taylor broke in, "Drew hardly ever drives."

"She's got a point," Jason frowned. "Guess it's gotta be me."

"Yeah, but Jason – do you know how to drive stick?"

Jason blinked. "Oh no," he groaned. His eyes darted between Drew's and Wade's, and then he covered his face in his hands. "No. Seriously, Taylor, you can't."

"No way," Wade shook his head.

"Uh-uh. No. Not doin' it, girl," Drew said firmly.

"It's gotta be me, guys," Taylor pressed. "It can't be Wade and it can't be Drew, and Jason would break his neck anyway."

"I would not!"

"You would, too. You've never done anything like this. And you're the only one besides Wade who's ever even handled a gun. The only two of us who can even maybe handle something like this are Drew and I, and we don't have time to get Drew used to driving this thing."

"Oh, like you have done something like this before?" Jason countered.

"I've got a much more applicable skill set than anyone else here, yes," Taylor said. "I'm not calling you a wimp, Jason. I wouldn't do that, because I know better. But we've got to run with what we've got, and that means I'm the best candidate."

"Wade," Drew frowned, "this plan sucks ass all of a sudden. We need a new plan."

"You got one? Ah'm listenin'."

Drew scowled, looking warily at Taylor. "It's a lot to do all in a heartbeat, and you're gonna be really exposed."

"I know," Taylor swallowed. "He'd do it for any of us. We wouldn't be here otherwise."

"Alex doesn't know how to drive stick, either," Jason muttered bitterly.

"Okay," Drew said after a deep breath. He looked at Wade. "I got one change to the plan."

************

"Now is not the time for changes, Mr. Warren," Lord Blackthorne said through gritted teeth as he smiled and applauded.

Lady Anastacia stood ahead of Blackthorne at the landing of the grand staircase, graciously accepting the applause of her undead people and their sorcerous guests. Beside the Lady stood Lord Stefan, who was turned ever so slightly to show that his own applause was also for Lady Anastacia.

The wide, ornate stairs rose up as a single incline from the broad and open foyer of the mansion, then split both left and right at a landing roughly twelve feet in the air from the bottom floor. There were dozens of vampires below her as well as the handful at the landing or on the stairs going off to either side from it. All thirteen members of the Brotherhood were present in the foyer as well, mostly in a clutch not far from the oaken double doors leading outside.

"These matters do not run on a precise schedule, Lord Blackthorne," Warren explained.

"You didn't realize that you had to watch Carlisle more closely when you were downstairs with him?"

"I did not expect to be roped into these formalities, good sir. I need only your approval and someone who can open the door for me downstairs."

Blackthorne turned, not quite allowing himself to scowl. "Jack, take Warren here downstairs to look over Carlisle." He glanced at the robed mage, and then back to the vampire in the pin-striped suit. "You and the gentlemen downstairs with you may use your best judgment if anything... unexpected should happen."

"Gotcha," Jack nodded. "Come on, Merlin," the vampire sneered. With that, they headed for the top of the staircase. They would have to take the servant's stairway down again to avoid disrupting the proceedings as they passed.

"My people, and my honored guests," Lady Anastacia began as the applause finally died off. "I believe we can all agree when I say that tonight has been a long time in coming. The unfortunate tension between us has always been a tragedy to me, one that I longed to resolve with friendly overtures and understanding. Lord Stefan and I have both worked to bring our respective peoples under a single unified society. Others of my kind have tried this in the past in other cities, in other lands, and failed. There were those here who naturally had their doubts; I do not hold their trepidation against them, for their loyalty was never in question.

"Yet it was not until we found for ourselves a common task and a common ally that our two peoples could truly establish a first, vital common ground. For that, we must give our thanks to our honored guests, Mistress Lydia and Lord Ba'al." She gestured to one side, where Ba'al stood with Lydia clinging to him like an accessory. The pair accepted the applause with only the slightest nod. Beside them, forced to her knees and held tightly by her chains, was Lorelei. Her hands were under one of Ba'al feet.

"It is my hope that our simple errand for our two guests will be but the first of many shared tasks," Lady Anastacia went on, "through which we will build our trust and our community."

"What will you do when I return to the Pit?" Ba'al murmured to Lydia. Anastacia continued on in her speech, but neither demon was really interested.

"It's a good question," Lydia said, shamelessly tracing kisses up the side of his neck. "I have to finish off dear Alex, of course. Beyond that, I thought I might destroy Anastacia here and claim her power base for us. I'm sure you would enjoy having your own army of the night on Earth," she grinned, then laid her head against his shoulder. I simply cannot decide which to do first. They both seem like so much fun."

"Deal with Alex first," Ba'al grunted. "I am eager to re-educate Lorelei here as to where her loyalties lie."

Lydia hummed in agreement. "It's a pity you couldn't stay longer to reinforce my loyalties once more, master."

"It's a pity I have to wear this fleshy form instead of giving you the sort of fucking you deserve. Sometimes I envy Harrow."

"Where is he, anyway?"

"On the roof, keeping watch. You know how he is." Ba'al yawned. "At any rate. Please take care of Alex first. Then play around up here all you want. This diversion costs me souls in the short run, and I would like to have you get back to your work, but I can certainly see the value in what you might acquire for me through all of this."

"As you wish, master."

At the bottom of the stairs, standing at the outside of the clutch of Brotherhood attendees, Molly watched the whole thing warily. She listened intently to what Anastacia had to say while she studied the faces of the others on the landing.

"They're gonna make a move soon," Molly said into Onyx's ear. As she turned, she noticed that Onyx was murmuring something. In the palm of Onyx's hand was a die, only instead of numbers or pips it was marked with arrows.

"Things are about to happen. We need to move over there," Onyx said under her breath. "This is a bad spot for us."

Molly didn't need to be warned twice. She was the more experienced witch, with more spells and more time under her belt, but Onyx had an inborn talent for perception and divination. Molly took Onyx by the hand and led her through the crowd, excusing herself all the while, until they were closer to the periphery of the foyer where they could duck into a hallway if necessary.

"Christ, this is awful," Molly said aloud.

"We'll get him," Onyx replied. "When they try to get him out of here, there'll be fewer people to deal with. Just have to wait for the right moment."

"Not him," Molly corrected quietly, "her." She lifted her head up a touch to indicate the demons on the stairway above them. "Look at her."

Onyx lifted her eyes up to see the battered, muzzled succubus above them. Her head was bowed, but her body softly shook.

"She's crying," Molly observed.





Chapter 85: Memories and Instincts...

"Jesus fuckin' Christ, man," Mitchell grumbled, "didja ever hear such a fucking wailing mess in your goddamn life?"

"I cannot say that I have, no," Talon scowled. He stood near the foot of the table, while Mitchell was near its head. Alex still lay there, restrained and wracked with tears. "At least he has started to quiet down."

"Finally," Mitchell said. The old gunslinger spat on Alex, who didn't even notice. "Shit, this kid's all of what, nineteen? Twenty at the most? The fuck's he got to cry so hard about?"

"The potion that the warlock gave him enhances his memory, and the succubus forced him to drink far more than the warlock intended," Talon shrugged. "Perhaps his life has been more difficult than we have suspected."

"Oh, that's bullshit," grunted the other vampire. "This kid grew up a healthy white boy in an American city with cell phones and flush toilets. He still lives with his momma. He don't know what 'difficult' even is." Mitchell spat again, then turned around looking for something else to hold his attention. He found it directly back from the table. "This bitch here doesn't know how good she's had it, either," he said, moving closer to the other captive in the room.

"We are ordered to leave her be," Talon reminded him coolly.

"I ain't gonna touch her," Mitchell said. "Know better'n that. You weren't there when we caught her. Didn't see what she did to a couple of our people. Did he, sweetness?"

It was then Mitchell's turn to be spat upon. Though chained so low on the floor that she couldn't rise to her full height, the brunette in denim and flannel stayed in a low, ready crouch as Mitchell reached reflexively for the old but well-maintained revolver in his gun belt. "Fucking cunt," the vampire growled.

She growled back. The woman's growl was considerably more feral.

"You are so lucky Talon's here to keep you alive," Mitchell snarled at her. "Otherwise I'd cut you loose from those chains just to have an excuse to shoot your sorry ass."

"I would end you, corpse," the woman sneered back.

Mitchell's gun was in his hand in the blink of an eye, pointed directly at her forehead. "Put it away, fool," Talon sighed.

The gunslinger's eyes narrowed. He raised it threateningly at the woman one more time, but then holstered it. "Not in the condition you're in now, you wouldn't, bitch," he grumbled.

There was a knock at the heavy door before it was unlocked from the outside. Talon and Mitchell looked up to see Warren return, along with Jack and the suited vampire's ever-present tommygun. "I see the prisoner's reactions have lessened somewhat," Warren observed.

"Yeah, he stopped screamin' about two minutes ago," Mitchell shrugged. "Little less sobbing now, too. Might even be able to talk."

Warren cocked his head curiously. "Can you hear me, Alexander?" he asked. "Do you understand what I am saying?"

"Where is Lorelei?" Alex rasped.

"With her rightful owner," Warren told him simply.

"No," Alex coughed, shaking his head. "Can't own people."

Talon sighed again, looking at Mitchell. "You are right about one thing," the vampire said. "This is a very soft country in a very soft age."

"I will need to work a bit here," Warren informed the other vampires.

"The Lady has conceded to this?" Talon asked with a raised eyebrow. He looked directly to Jack, as if to note the complete irrelevance of anything Warren might have to say on the subject.

"She wants us to watch," Jack shrugged. "Anything hinky or out of place goes on, Warren here becomes a very unhappy customer."

"Understood," Talon nodded, turning his attention back to the robed man.

"This is only preliminary," Warren explained, "which is why the Lady agreed. The potion still needs time to take effect, but with the dosage he received, I must monitor his condition." His hands disappeared into his robes. When they reappeared, one was held tightly closed, while the other opened to reveal a handful of ash. Warren held it high and blew the ashes out over the room, taking care to turn fully counter-clockwise as he sent it all into the air.

Warren murmured words of magic so softly and quickly that Talon could barely make them out as Latin. What he heard alarmed him, but as he reached for his sword he found it was already too late.

No one else in the room saw it coming, for no one else knew Latin.

"You will all defend me this night, as well as yourselves," Warren informed them calmly. "Your allegiance this night is to me and to the Brotherhood. Am I understood?"

"Yes, Warren," the vampires said, each bowing to him as deeply as they ever bowed to Lady Anastacia.

"Yes, sir," Warren corrected.

"Yes, sir."

"Excellent. Jack, please go outside and get a vehicle ready. Something that will hold yourself, Carlisle and I. Talon as well. I'd hate to leave behind such a luminary of his kind." Jack bowed again and headed out.

Warren waited a long, pensive moment before he spoke again. "Mitchell, Talon, we are going to lead Carlisle here out. You will escort me to the vehicle that Jack will retrieve, and you will use your authority as agents of Lady Anastacia to ease our departure. I will keep Carlisle concealed through my magic. We will leave under the pretext of illness on my part. Is that understood?"

"Yes, sir," they both said.

"Do you think Carlisle will be any trouble?"

"No, sir," Talon answered. "He has already had a solid beating tonight already. The table here is not a restful spot to lie. We will have to carry him."

"My thoughts exactly." Warren pulled out a pocket watch to check the time. He waited at least a full minute. "Lady Anastacia's court should have convened upstairs already. By now the hallways will be somewhat deserted. I would wait, but I suspect court may deteriorate rapidly. Gentlemen, please unfasten Carlisle's bonds. Oh, and Mitchell? I do not want any witnesses. Please eliminate the other prisoner before we go."

Mitchell nodded, even grinning. "You had best close the door, then, sir," the gunslinger suggested. He was already pulling off the latches on Alex's wrists. "This room muffles sound pretty well, but if the door's open, someone might still hear the shots."

"Thank you, Mitchell," Warren smiled grimly. He moved to do just that, sliding the door shut without allowing the locks to catch. Mitchell turned to the woman in the corner, pulling his revolver and walking forward with a grin. As he did so, Talon unlatched the final cuff on Alex's legs. He pulled the young man into an upright sitting position by the collar of his shirt. Talon then let Alex go to see if he would stay sitting up. The young man swayed, but didn't fall.

"Yes," Talon confirmed, glancing over his shoulder to Warren. "He'll have to be carried."

Alex saw the opportunity and didn't think twice about it. In fact, he didn't even think at all; he just moved. Alex snatched the gladius from Talon's belt, drawing it in a quick, familiar movement with his right hand while grabbing Talon's right wrist with his left. Talon had just enough time to snap his head back and see Alex swing the short sword down with everything he had. The blow landed at exactly the right spot. It went clean through Talon's arm at the elbow. One instant, Talon felt Alex grabbing at his wrist; in the next, there was an explosion of pain, and then he simply didn't have a wrist there anymore.

Talon roared. He swatted at Alex with his left arm but Alex rolled with it, came up quickly and slashed deeply through Talon's throat. He swung again, back in the other direction, with enough precision and torque to go clean through the rest of Talon's neck.

Mitchell's head turned around to see what the hell the noise was. With his attention diverted, the woman chained at his feet had just enough slack in her bonds to reach him. Her teeth clamped down on Mitchell's wrist. The gunslinger shrieked as he was pulled back.

Warren saw it all unfold at once. His eyes went wide in horror, but he was too slow and too surprised to react effectively. Even as Talon's head was falling from his shoulders, Alex drew his sword-arm back and then flung the gladius straight into Warren's neck. It landed with a sickening sound; blood began to spurt from Warren's wound even as he clutched at it and sank to the floor. As he fell back, thrashing for support, he pushed the door the rest of the way shut.

Talon's body, already crumbling, fell forward onto the table. Alex turned it over to reach for the pistol in the underarm holster that he had spotted earlier. By the time Mitchell had wrenched himself free of the captive woman, Alex was already twisting around with the .45 in his hands.

In any other circumstance, Mitchell would have been the much faster draw. As it happened, though, he took two bullets in the chest before he even fired one. Mitchell staggered back into the reach of the woman behind him again, who tugged at his duster and brought him down to the ground. His hand was already crumbling to ash. The six-shooter fell from it with a clatter.

Alex scrambled off the table, his eyes still red from weeping with the tracks of his tears still visible on his face. His crushing sorrow was shoved aside for the moment, though, as he quickly moved to Mitchell's rapidly crumbling body. To the contrary of Talon's assessment, he wasn't tired at all; not after a succubus had teased his body for so long, leaving him electrified – unwelcome though it may have been

– and certainly not while someone he loved was in such danger. He fought to get the gun belt off of it. "You must free me, Carlisle," the woman growled.

"Lady, everything I've seen here tonight is something horrible and fucked up, and I don't even know who you are," Alex told her. His callousness surprised him, but then he suddenly felt surprised at being surprised. Since when was he so naïve? "For all I know you're something even worse than these guys."

"The enemy of your enemy is your friend," she said.

"Wow, you didn't pay a lot of attention in American history class, did you?" Alex grunted. "That line's the biggest crock of shit in the world, right there." He threw the gun belt around his waist. It was a little high for his taste, so he fought to adjust it.

"I am a hostage here of the vampires. Would you leave me here to die?"

Of course he couldn't do that. Could he? "How do I know you aren't one of them?"

"I aided you. They have me chained here. What more do you need to know?"

"You aided yourself," Alex said. He picked up the revolver and checked the load. "What's with these bullets? I thought vampires were supposed to be bulletproof."

"They have no need for their internal organs," the woman explained, "but they are vulnerable to certain elements. The tips of the bullets are made with a mixture of silver and...other things. A vampire's greatest enemy is typically another vampire. Why would they carry weapons that would not harm their own kind?"

Alex stopped and looked at the woman. She might have been pretty, but for the complete lack of a shower or a toothbrush or a comb for who knew how long.

"Your Rachel is not dead," the woman said. "The blonde woman lied to you."

"How do you know?" he gasped.

"She wears human flesh. I know not what she is, but she is not entirely human... yet that is a human form. The body betrays itself with certain clues when one lies. My senses are sharp. Carlisle, please," the woman implored him, holding up her chained wrists.

Alex looked at her, thinking for a moment. His own compassionate nature fought with memories of a dozen harsh lessons from situations like this, all of them from memories he didn't have before tonight and weren't even sure were really his. It was all a jumble. Finally he pulled the latches on her manacles. As they fell away, he noticed gleaming silver strips inside them.

"You are no ordinary college student," the woman said.

"Yeah, actually, I am."

"When did you learn to fight like that?"

Alex blinked. He hadn't really paused to process it. "A long time ago, I guess," he murmured to himself. Tears began to well up in his eyes, but he blinked them away. There wasn't time for that. He had to hold it together. Alex pushed away his cacophony of memories of Halla and Katherine and those terrible last moments in the bush that threatened to pull him down into despair again.

The woman reached up to grab his shoulder. "I am Diana, daughter of Caleb," she told him with a fierce pride. "My people are the eternal enemies of the vampires."

"Um. That's great. I'm Alex."

Diana nodded. She took his hand at the wrist, like a warrior. "Gather their weapons. I am ready."

Alex blinked, but did as she suggested. He went over to Talon's dusty remains to grab his pistol harness and the sheath for his gladius, and then quickly pulled the bloody blade from Warren. It only took a moment. Alex checked the weapons with a quickness and familiarity that surprised him. Yet it was only then, looking at the blood on the blade and the dead body at his feet, that it really hit him. He had just killed a man. Three, if one were to count the vampires...but regardless of their states of life or unlife, he had clearly just killed Warren. He couldn't sort out if this was something he'd never done before or if it was nothing new at all.

"The door," Diana said plainly.

Alex tried it. "Locked," he grunted.

"I know. Move," she said. Alex looked over to her and found that she had removed practically all her clothes. Then she lurched forward, literally expanding and growing a prodigious amount of body hair with each quick step. It all quickly became fur. Her head lengthened into a snout, her hands turned into terrible furry claws, and she growled with an animal fury that sent Alex scrambling back away from the door.

Her claws plunged into the metal door. She dug into it, pulling with great strength and forcing an ear- splitting sound from the door that made it almost sound like it was screaming as she wrenched it from its reinforced hinges. The wolf-monster that had been Diana fell backward even as she tore the door out of Alex's way.

He glanced down the hallway. Jack was there, rushing back from the hallway with his Thompson out. The vampire in the pin-striped suit looked on in alarm, raising his weapon to fire. Alex had his six- shooter out in a flash, fanning the hammer and putting three of his six bullets into Jack's guts. The vampire got off a burst, but only a short one. It went wild, ricocheting off of the concrete walls of the hallway. Jack crumpled to the ground.

Alex glanced down at Diana, who was now entirely human and entirely naked on the floor. "You okay?" he asked.

"I'll manage," she grunted. Alex offered his hand, which she took as she picked herself up off of the concrete. "This building is still warded. We won't be able to get out without breaching the ward somehow."

"I don't know what that means," Alex said.

"I'll explain," Diana shrugged. She looked at him intently. "Get me out of here and I will make you my mate for life."

"Woah! Um. I'm good," Alex said, his eyes going wide and his hands spread out before him in a big "stop" motion. "I've got that covered. I'm totally good. Just gonna go rescue my girlfriend from some vampires and demons upstairs and I'm all good."

"You cannot," Diana shook her head. "There are far too many, even for a warrior such as yourself. I am too weak to make any real difference. You must let her go."

"Think I'd rather go down fighting, then," Alex frowned sourly. "Feels like that won't really be anything new for me. Maybe it's why I've been so fucking emo all my life. Anyway, grab your clothes if you want 'em. I'm moving on up ahead."

He left her in the basement dungeon, moving warily down the hall toward the pin-striped suit and old Thompson sub-machinegun amid the pile of dust that was Jack. He picked up the Thompson, checked its magazine for ammunition, and then found several other magazines in the inside pockets of Jack's suits.

"It's like every one of these assholes is carrying around all my favorite stuff," Alex murmured.





Chapter 86: Alex the Party Crasher...

"Just breathe in an' out, Taylor," Wade told her quietly. He sat in the passenger's side of the SUV, looking straight ahead as she drove. He wore Lucien's black sport coat and sunglasses. "In and out. We got the brights on an' these windows are tinted. They'll never see this comin'."

"Right," she nodded. She glanced in her rear view mirror yet again to ensure that Jason and Drew were still following in Wade's pick-up. As Wade advised, she inhaled slowly and exhaled slowly.

The SUV turned right, slowing as it came to the gate. The two guards were both there, each holding out a hand to ward off the light and to signal them to stop. They were both men dressed in long black trench coats and casual black clothes. As the SUV came to a stop, one moved to the vehicle's left. The other moved to its right. Neither gave any indication of alarm as the windows on both sides of the SUV came down.

"The Lady's court has just convened," said the one on Taylor's side. She wasn't listening. Instead, she took up the pistol in her lap, careful not to knock the empty 2-liter soda bottle over its barrel against the SUV's door, and fired two shots directly into the guard's chest. It was horribly loud; as Wade had warned her, the soda bottle did only so much to muffle the noise. The bang of the gun was still more than loud enough inside the vehicle to startle her. She winced after the first shot, but the bullet struck him dead center. The second went a bit high because of Taylor's unfamiliar and nervous hand, merely grazing his shoulder. He staggered back, clutching at the wounds.

Wade was already shooting the other guard with his sub-machinegun, but Taylor wasn't looking. Instead, she fired four more times. Only two of the shots hit him, but they were enough. One of them went into the side of his head. Taylor felt the snap and click of the hammer striking home against empty shells in the chamber as she kept pulling the trigger.

"Cool, Taylor, it's cool," Wade told her in a quiet but hurried voice. His hand was over her wrist, pulling her hands and her weapon back inside. "Y'all did good. Did real good."

Jason and Drew were already out of the pick-up behind them, checking the bodies. Both of the guards had been hiding AK-47s under their coats.

"You still up for this?" Wade asked.

Taylor swallowed, nodding. "Let's just do this," she said.

Wade got out of the SUV, leaving the door open. "We're right behind ya."

As Jason opened up the gate, Drew slipped into the passenger side seat. He had in his hands one of the rifles that they had just picked up. Wade paused to tell him how to use it, but after a quick check of the weapon, he just shrugged. "It's ready to go. Point an' shoot. If one magazine don't do the job, y'all ain't gonna have time t' reload anyway."

"Great," Drew scowled. Wade slammed the passenger side door shut and then hustled off to his pick-up, which Jason would still be driving. Drew looked to Taylor. "You all good?"

"I'd be better if everyone stopped asking me that!" she snapped nervously.

"Cool," Drew nodded. Then he reached over and popped her seatbelt buckle undone. She glanced down at it, frowned, and then swept the belt away. He pulled the road flare out of his belt, leaving the AK on his lap.

In front of them, Jason was throwing motor oil onto the hood of the vehicle. Wade was drenching everything with the contents of their last gas canister. After a long moment, they both gave the thumbs up, then rushed back to the pick-up.

"On like Donkey Kong," Drew told her.

************

The noises from downstairs were just loud enough to be concerning. Lady Anastacia would have merely continued on, trusting Blackthorne and the rest of her people to handle things, but Lord Ba'al's sudden laughter was very concerning.

It also disrupted her speech. She turned to look upon the demon lord gravely, trying to hold her anger in check. She was unaccustomed to anyone interrupting her while she held court. Centuries-old vampires had died for lesser outbursts. But this was a supernatural being far more powerful than anyone she could command. All she could do was glare.

Ba'al could hardly have cared less. He turned to Lydia, who had peeled herself from his side to look at him curiously. "Now I remember him!" Baal declared with great humor. He turned to Lydia with a wide, happy grin. "It turns out I'll be receiving some souls tonight after all!"

"Master," she blinked, "what--?"

Ba'al had already turned from her to look upon Lorelei. She looked up at him with her eyes seething with hatred. "Dearest, you certainly picked yourself a winner! Obviously, I'd have preferred a Pol Pot or a Stalin. But as working stiffs go, your boyfriend's a real gem!"

The crowd began to murmur. Anastacia looked behind her at Blackthorne, who promptly snapped his fingers at Spade. "Go see what that's about," he said. The vampire drew his longsword and rushed down the stairway railing, leaping over the crowd dramatically.

"Ms. Black," Stefan said sharply toward the crowd, "go with him."

"Do not!" Anastacia commanded. Ms. Black froze in her tracks as the Lady turned her icy glare at Stefan. "We will handle this."

"Never a lot of longevity there, though," Ba'al mused thoughtfully. "Whenever he comes around again, I can count on a good couple of years of wicked souls coming my way in a bit of a rush, but then he goes and gets himself killed all over again."

"Master, no," Lydia pleaded with him. "Tell me what's going on! Don't let this all fall apart now!"

"Oh, don't get so upset, Lydia," he shrugged. "This is a charming distraction and all, but I've got what I want here already." He tugged at Lorelei's chains again. "Besides, look at the numbers here. What do you really think will happen?"

Lydia's eyes narrowed. She turned from Ba'al and leapt off of the balcony, gliding on her demon's wings to the edge of the crowd. The succubus followed in the wake of Spade and Ms. Black, who had eventually rushed off toward the scream despite Anastacia's objections.

A bloodcurdling scream echoed from down a long hallway. Ba'al's eyebrows shot up. He looked to Stefan with a mirthful grin. "Why, Lord Stefan!" he said. "I believe that was your redoubtable Mr. White coming to an untimely end! Did you have him positioned down toward the basement entrance to effect some manner of shenanigans tonight?"

************

"Meant to do that quieter," Alex grunted, shoving the robed man off of his sword. He felt so confident with the weapons in his hand, so sure of his skills... and yet they weren't exactly one hundred percent. Maybe it was the result of so many memories in conflict, or maybe it was his mind's reflexive denial of so much of it. Then again, he figured, even if he really had lived all these lives – if that's what they were

– it wasn't as if he was the same person. Alex was in fairly good shape, but he hadn't exactly trained himself up for fighting.

"They'll have heard that," Diana said behind him. She had thrown on her pants and flannel shirt again before catching up, but nothing else. She hadn't even bothered to button it. "Their numbers will be overwhelming. We must flee."

"You said we can't get out of the house while the spell is on it." As he spoke, he sheathed the gladius again and unslung the Thompson from his shoulder.

"We can if we smash our way out. It will be difficult, but we just have to find a good spot."

"I'm not leaving without Lorelei." Alex was already moving on.

"The other demon? You can't be serious."

"I love her."

"She is a demon. She cannot feel love. You have been manipulated, and you know it. You must let this go, Alex. You cannot get her back from them. You will die trying."

"I'm good with that," he growled, walking on without her. Something made him stop as he came to a corner. He couldn't quite put his finger on it, but it was something about eastern France and preferring to be back in his tank and having to write a letter to Anderson's mother about how he died in house-to-house fighting like an infantryman when they should've just been buttoned up in their Sherman...

Alex scowled, shouldered the Thompson, and let fly a circular burst straight through the corner of the hallway ahead. There was a shriek of pain and a cry of surprise, and suddenly a long blade and a black trench coat were flying out from around the corner. Alex threw himself to one side, hoping to evade the vampire, but he needn't have bothered. Spade was crumbling to ashes even as he made his last, desperate lunge.

There was someone with him. She was in a dark-toned pantsuit, with the sort of features that could fit all sorts of ethnic descriptions. Not wanting to take chances, Alex raised his gun and fired at her, but she had a wooden wand up before he pulled the trigger. It was point-blank range; despite his awkward position on the floor, she should've been filled with lead. Instead, the woman waved her wand a second time, and suddenly Alex was heaved to his feet by nothing and then thrown through a door behind him.

The room had been converted to a staging area for all manner of refreshments. Tables of champagne bottles, assorted liquors and hors d'ourves trays were everywhere. Alex crashed into more than a couple of them in his flight through the thin door.

Ms. Black paused outside only long enough to seize Diana with the same spell and throw her far down the hallway behind her. The haggard young woman was flung with such force and momentum that she was sent skidding further away even after she hit the floor. With that, the sorceress turned her attention back toward Alex.

"So predictable," Ms. Black smirked as she strode in. "Give a man a gun, he'll use it before anything else. It's much easier to defend against a predictable opponent."

The bottle that flew into her face from inside the room was not, however, something she expected. It smashed across her face, and as she staggered back another one came right at her head to send her tumbling to the floor in the hallway.

Alex scrambled to his feet, rushing to put her down before she recovered. Then he realized Lydia was there, standing over the stumbling woman with murder in her eyes. The succubus's mouth opened wide; Alex had just enough time to drop to the floor to avoid the gout of flame that roared out of her.

He couldn't, however, move quickly enough to avoid her grasp. Lydia snatched him by the neck, heaving him up into the air with a vicious snarl. "I was going to be generous and give you the only sort of death a man could actually want."

"Think I'd rather pass on death altogether, thanks," Alex managed to get out. Blood was running from her grip on his neck as the talons dug into the flesh around it.

"It's too late for that now. You've made far too much of a mess. Now you will only die in flames. Everyone will die in flames!"

"A new meaning to dragonbreath eh," Alex retorted. "Sorry, I'm all out of Tic Tacs at the moment."

************

"Not one of your negotiations have been handled in good faith," Anastacia sneered at Lord Stefan. "What other side deals have you made with the demons? With others?"

"Lady Anastacia, this does not become you," Stefan replied darkly. "The Brotherhood and your people have coexisted in tension and even hostility in the past. My people are quite prepared to continue on doing so if necessary. Our dealings with Lord Ba'al and Mistress Lydia are our own business."

Blackthorne cleared his throat audibly. "What say you to that, Lord Ba'al?"

Still watching the scene from his spot on the staircase with Lorelei restrained at his feet, Lord Ba'al had lost neither his amusement nor his composure. "I think I will say nothing and let this lovely bit of chaos play itself out."

On the floor below, the guests were growing more and more tense. The Brotherhood as a group backed up a bit, closing ranks and hoping to open up space between themselves and the vampires, whose expressions had generally shifted from cool and measured hospitality to open suspicion and hunger.

Molly was getting antsy. "Onyx?"

Onyx still seemed to be concentrating on her divination. "Wait for it," she replied steadily.

In front of them, Mr. Woods turned to look at the pair suspiciously. "Wait for what, exactly?"





Chapter 87: This Party is Kickin'...

Taylor threw the SUV into gear. "On like Donkey Kong," she confirmed for Drew. She lifted her foot up off of the clutch, pressed down on the accelerator, kept her eyes on the driveway, and quickly shoved the sturdy tree branch beside her down where it would be jammed between the seat and the gas pedal.

It was just enough time to throw the vehicle into second, and then promptly into third.

The huge mansion rapidly became bigger and bigger in front of the windshield. Drew had the road flare out and was about to pull the cap off. "There!" he pointed. "Try to get right there!"

"Got it!" Taylor shouted back. Her adrenaline was pumping fiercely. There were only a couple of seconds to go.

Something huge, white and horrifying leapt down from the sky directly onto the hood of the SUV. It smashed one huge, clawed hand through the windshield, grabbing at Taylor. It seemed to flop and slip on the hood of the vehicle, which was covered in motor oil and gasoline. She threw herself against the door, narrowly avoiding its grip.

"Out!" Drew yelled, "Get out!" Even as he shouted, he put the AK right up to the bony, unnatural thing and pulled the trigger. Bullets sprayed out from the weapon, hitting the monster dead center and causing it to slip and falter. Its shoulder and part of one frightful wing fell into the cabin with Drew and Taylor as the bullets shook it off balance.

Taylor didn't need to be told twice. This wasn't at all part of the plan, but it was too late now. She shoved the door open and threw herself out, trying to cover herself and tumble as best she had been taught. If she had gotten anything useful out of years of ridiculously dangerous high school cheerleading acrobatics, it was the ability to take a fall. The grass was lush and the ground was still soft and moist from recent rains, and she knew how to protect her head and absorb a fall, but just the same, it was rougher than anything she'd ever been through. Taylor rolled and came to a halt sprawled out in the grass.

Drew wasn't long in getting out himself. He had one ugly, face to face look at the demon's four red eyes glaring hatefully at him before he threw the door open. In his other hand was the road flare. It was too much to do with his hands all at once; he had to drop the rifle to tear off the flare's plastic cap.

The demon roared. Part of Drew wanted nothing more than to curl up into a ball, but most of him knew just how counterproductive that would be. He tossed the sputtering road flare into the back seat and rolled out of the open door.

Harrow saw all manner of flammable products and trash stuffed into the back of the vehicle. He couldn't get control of it as it sped toward the mansion. The monster was quick-witted and powerful, but he didn't have a clue of how to drive. The notion of turning the steering wheel of the speeding SUV never occurred to him.

************

"We did not come here defenseless," Stefan said darkly. "Your numbers and power may be impressive, but the Brotherhood will never come into a den of wolves as mere sheep."

"I believe this conversation has gone far enough," Lady Anastacia replied flatly. "Courtesy demands that I allow you safe passage from this gathering, so as not to mar my loyal vassal's home with further violence. After this night, neither you nor your precious Brotherhood shall be received so cordially. No mercy shall be shown to your holdings in the mortal realm. No shelter shall be found for you and yours in my lands."

The threats implied by her statement were unmistakable. "So it's war, then?"

"It would appear so," the vampire nodded with cold grace. "I would tell you that the streets shall run red with your blood, but we will likely not be so wasteful."

Stefan inhaled, his posture stiffening. "Then as soon as Ms. Black, Mr. White and Warren have returned, we will take our leave."

"You will leave now, sir," Blackthorne demanded. "And the wards you have placed upon my home will come down immediately."

The assembled vampires and sorcerers below mirrored the tense standoff. Everyone was ready to draw a weapon or cast a spell. No one wanted to make the first move, though. Once it began, no one could be quite sure where it would end.

It was at that point that Molly spotted the headlights in the front window. "Onyx," she said. Onyx touched her hand. "Almost the right time," she said.

Molly's eyes grew wide. "Oh, it's time," she hissed. Molly gripped Onyx's hand as she lunged to one side, pulling Onyx with her in a rush that batted aside a vampire who had been angling for a position behind them.

The crash was a shock to everyone in the room besides Molly. The SUV blew through the heavy double doors, sending debris everywhere while running over or swatting aside half a dozen party guests. Most of them were vampires, but one was a member of the Brotherhood. He was struck by the right side of the bumper, which was already burning hot enough to instantly catch his robes on fire.

Harrow was still on the hood. He was fully engulfed in flames even as he took the full brunt of the crash through the doorway. When the SUV struck the stairwell directly in front of it, the force of the impact flung him upward and back. The large demon collided with Lady Anastacia in a direct hit, collapsing on top of her and sending Stefan and Lord Blackthorne both sprawling behind them. Ba'al and Lorelei were both just far enough away to avoid the impact, though they were both shaken by the impact on the stairs.

Lady Anastacia lasted just long enough to scream in agony.

Chaos erupted at the floor. The vampires, absolutely terrified by the violent appearance of a large, burning vehicle, scrambled to flee. Many of them shoved one another aside, and more than a few brought down members of the Brotherhood in their flight. Molly pulled Onyx into the shelter of a slightly recessed doorway to keep them both out of the way of the mob.

Harrow didn't linger. The burning demon heaved himself up, roared again, and leapt through the smashed remains of the entrance.

"Now?!" Molly asked.

"Yeah," Onyx coughed. "Ward's down. Go nuts."

Molly grimaced. She darted out to where she could see up onto the staircase again. Smoke and dust were everywhere already, but it hadn't spread so much that she couldn't see. Ba'al was there, yanking on Lorelei's chains as he turned to climb the rest of the way up the stairs. The young witch drew from her pocket a loose key, threw it up onto the staircase, and shouted a series of words in Hebrew, Greek, and Latin.

Lorelei's bonds all snapped undone at once. Ba'al was left tugging on loose, empty chains. He spun in alarm to see her leap upon him savagely with her fingers extended into long talons.

"Go get 'im, girl," Molly muttered. She turned to get out of the way only to find Mr. Woods there pointing his wand at her.

************

Rachel saw the brilliant flash of orange light from miles away in the sky above. It was just enough to get her attention. By the time the sound reached her, she realized she could see Alex again.

He was there, and he was in trouble.

Rachel dove toward the fire without a second thought.

************

The crash was more than enough of a distraction for Alex. It wasn't what he had expected, but all he wanted was something to grab Lydia's attention for just a moment. He pulled the .45 from his underarm holster and fired straight into Lydia's chest. She staggered back, dropping him, and before she could recover he put the whole clip into her.

She shouldn't have had a torso left. Alex knew – somehow – that the .45 could do an awful lot of damage, particularly at close range, and it wasn't like Lydia was a stocky person. But while she was clearly hurt, even to the point of staggering against the remnants of the corner that Alex had blasted to pieces with his Thompson, there was little blood. The gunfire had torn up her dress and left her looking somewhat punch drunk, but she was still standing.

Not wanting to deal with her, Alex heaved himself up, grabbed her hair, and yanked back hard into the service room. There was a window back there; Alex grunted, "This is for Antioch, bitch!" and hurled her by her hair toward it.

Lydia slammed up against the window, but did not go through it. The glass held. She slumped to the floor.

"Oh god dammit," Alex huffed. He picked her up by her hair again, got a good running start, and made a second go of it. This time she went through.

************

Ba'al let out a reflexive cry of pain as Lorelei's talons ripped across his back. He staggered away from her, wanting nothing of such a confrontation under the circumstances. A second blow from Lorelei knocked him to the ground. He spun, kicked hard enough at her to knock her back a few paces, then scrambled to his feet and hurried down the hallway.

"You know this is pointless!" Ba'al called out as Lorelei, predictably, leapt upon him again. Her legs gripped his sides and her wings created drag both from the air and against the hallway walls as he tried to move. It was ever more of a chance to shred his upper body with those frightful talons. Rather than blood, though, what puffed and poured forth from his wounds was ash.

"It causes you pain," Lorelei growled. She punched at him, too, pounding his jaw into pieces with one hand even as the other dragged savage gashes across his chest. "You'll remember this part of our meeting while you stew in that wretched castle of yours in Hell!"

Ba'al stumbled and fell. Lorelei fell with him; she was running on rage and hate, pushing past all the injuries of the evening just for the chance to inflict this harm on her former master. She had to punish him for coming after her. She had to make it as painful for him as possible, because it was the only chance she had to ward off a future attempt.

It was clear that Alex was free, somehow, or at least alive. She could feel his desires. He no longer wanted to die. He wanted Lorelei. His wants were jumbled and fraught with stress and confusion, but the desire in his heart for Lorelei was still there. After all of this, he was still alive and he still wanted her. She had to make sure he could keep her.

So focused was Lorelei on punishing Ba'al in his host body that she lost track of her surroundings. She wasn't looking as the air in the hallway beyond them began to warp and burn.





Chapter 88: The Party Chaos Continues...

Drew forced himself up off the ground almost as soon as he stopped rolling. He hurt all over, and suspected he was even more beaten up than he realized, but there wasn't time for that. He had to get to Taylor. Drew scrambled to his feet, looking around quickly to find her. He was distracted momentarily by the successful crash of the SUV into the front of the mansion.

She was in the grass not too far away, rolling up and clutching her shoulder. He spotted her mainly because of the headlights of Wade's pick-up coming up from behind them. There were screams and crashes from inside the house. Drew fought past the pain to rush over to Taylor.

Then he heard that terrible roar again. The monster that had attacked the SUV came flying out of the mansion – literally flying – engulfed in flames and fixated on Drew. He ran, hoping to put some distance or at least a bad angle between himself and his obvious doom, but the thing merely landed on its feet and spun to charge him.

There was a flash of bright, white light against the beast, followed by a sudden wave of wind, dirt and torn-up grass. Wade's pick-up braked hard and spun into the demon, striking it with the rear side and sending the monster tumbling away.

Jason was at the wheel. At Wade's bark of, "Down!" Jason curled up to allow Wade to lean over him with the submachinegun pointed out of the window. Wade blasted the whole clip at the stunned monster, clearly hitting with at least some of it.

"Hit 'im!" Wade shouted. He pulled back to reload as Jason came up, reached out of his side with Wade's own pistol and started shooting at the demon.

The combined firepower clearly had the monster battered and staggered, but it didn't really put the thing down. It still fought to get to its feet, shaken by every successive bullet but not at all finished off.

Drew already had Taylor up. "I'm okay," Taylor coughed, sounding not at all convincing but able to move on her own two feet.

"Gotta go, girl," Drew managed. He pulled her toward the back end of Wade's pick-up, grabbing onto it and heaving her up over the tail gate and into the hard metal bed. He didn't even really have a plan; he just knew there was a demon here too big to fight, and a friendly vehicle potentially offering escape.

As Drew pulled himself up and in, though, the pick-up shook. Drew looked up to see the thing standing over the cab, with the claws on its feet puncturing the windows to help it gain purchase. Wade reached out of the cab with his submachinegun again, only to have it swatted away by the demon's tail. "I am Harrow," it snarled, "First warrior of Ba'al!"

Drew didn't really listen to the introduction. He didn't really care, either. There was only one thing to do with the giant white demonic thing leering at him as if it were about to eat him: he punched it straight on in its nasty snout.

The blow did seemingly more damage to it than any of the gunfire had. Harrow's head and shoulders were knocked away, blood erupting from his face. It lurched back, waving its wings and all its limbs to steady itself, and then turned its attention back to the mortal who had so grievously assaulted it. It's clawed hands and slashing tail drew back to take advantage of its reach rather than let the mortal wound it again.

It never had the chance. Drew and Taylor looked up at their inevitable deaths, only to see a flaming blade erupt out of its chest in the split-second before it was carried off of the truck and into the air above them. They saw a flash of white wings and black pants. Harrow let out an unearthly cry of pain, but despite it, they heard a woman's voice shout, "Go back to hell or this thing goes up your ass, motherfucker!"

Drew looked on in awe. "What the fuck was that?"

"Rachel," Taylor said, similarly stunned. "That has to be – " she winced as Harrow was shoved off of the angel's blade right where he would fall through the roof of the mansion. Then the blonde dove straight in after him. "Has to be Rachel," she finished.

Wade jumped out of the car to pick up the gun again. "Nothin' better than timely air support," he muttered.

************

His arm was gone. It was severed at the shoulder, cast aside in a mess of ash and soot. It lay lifeless against one wall of the hallway.

She had clawed out his eyes, pounded his chest until his ribs were a shattered ruin, and slashed him open a dozen times. He screamed, or at least did until she tore out his throat, but that wasn't the end of her assault. Ba'al had put up a fight as best he could – indeed, he should have had every advantage here, being both naturally more powerful and with Lorelei already beaten and weary. Yet her rage was too great to overcome.

Lorelei didn't stop until it was finished. As long as he moved, as long as there was any sign of life in the body, there was the likelihood that some vestige of Ba'al remained within. If there was anything left of him in the body, then even that small portion could feel pain.

When the body finally stopped reacting, Lorelei pushed herself to her feet. She breathed heavily, trying to maintain the energy that had brought her this far. All she wanted to do now was collapse, preferably into Alex's arms but the floor would do just fine.

The hand that gripped her leg from behind was much too large to be any man's. Too large, too powerful, and with too fierce a grip. Lorelei stumbled and fell, twisted as she felt herself being dragged back, and then screamed.

Where there should have been a long, empty hallway, there were flames and smoke and the overwhelming stench of sulfur coming from a portal. There were dozens of pairs of bright red eyes, near and far, gathered around the hall of a castle built from burnt bone and rotting flesh. In front of them all rose a tall, vaguely humanoid monstrosity with great horns, black wings, three heads, and a tail. Tight muscles rippled across its body. Its baleful red eyes promised only eternal pain.

Atop Ba'al's human head, as always, was his iron crown. "I told you that you would come back with me, Lorelei," Ba'al said with ashen breath.

Lorelei lashed at the hand, finding the strength in her terror to fight on even as she screamed.

************

"Gnrgh," Molly grunted. She stood completely still, held in frozen place by Woods's spell.

"Make a move and she dies," he snapped bitterly at Onyx. It was enough to stop her from throwing a spell of her own. The components were already in hand, but she couldn't risk him moving faster. By this point, Woods was clearly on the lookout for hostile magic.

Vampires, members of the Brotherhood, and now even the servants were scattering everywhere to get out of the building. Many had opted for the front entrance, only to see a fierce battle going on outside between demons and someone around a pick-up truck. Others wanted to avoid the panicked crowd.

Still others seemed intent on standing and fighting. Back down beneath the stairway, the two heavy-set vampires in the antebellum dresses were hunched over a suit-wearing man whose cries for mercy had been reduced to garbled, burbling noises as they feasted upon his blood. Stefan and Blackthorne had gotten into it up on the landing, while Molly and Onyx could still hear the noises of combat directly above them that were likely from Lorelei doing her best to kill Ba'al.

"Do something to her and you die," Onyx replied.

"Then we're at an impasse."

"Not really," Onyx said. You kill her and then I kill you, or you let her go and we let you walk. Either way, I walk out of here. Only I should warn you that if you kill her and then I have to kill you, I'll spend the rest of my life performing every fucked up necromantic experiment I can think of on your ghost."

"You're bluffing," Woods sneered. His eyes were still on Molly. "You two couldn't even stand to let one of the servants here die."

"That was Molly," Onyx reminded him darkly. "Not me." Inside, she felt rising fear for her lover, but their earlier spells of deception still held.

Woods hesitated. He blinked, glancing at Onyx, and then back again, but it was all Onyx needed. She pitched a handful of sea salt at him. It was more than enough to disrupt his spell and throw all of his energies momentarily out of whack.

Molly staggered and fell, dazed by the effect of Woods's spell. Onyx rushed to her side, hurriedly working another cantrip as she moved, but Woods had other tools at hand besides magic.

He pulled a gun from his jacket and leveled it at the two. Onyx threw herself in front of Molly to shield her. There was a loud racket that seemed completely out of place for his gun.

Blood and bone erupted from all over Woods as bullets passed through him.

Alex was standing there across the foyer on the other side of the burning SUV and the fire that it was steadily creating. The Thompson was still in his hands. There was blood all over his shirt and neck. A ragged woman in jeans and a flannel shirt followed behind him. "What the hell are you two doing here?" he yelled.

"We came here to rescue you!" Onyx called back. "Your – Lorelei is upstairs!"

Alex started to run to her, but then stopped. He raised the gun and pointed it directly at the two witches. "Alex, no!" Onyx yelled.

"It's not me!" he grunted. Onyx looked up to see Stefan on the landing of the stairway, watching Alex with his hands out as if he were controlling a marionette. Blackthorne lay at his feet, a wooden wand shoved through his heart like a stake.

Alex fired, screaming out in vain defiance of the control over his body. There was a rush of wind then, so strong that it whistled deafeningly through the mansion's foyer and blew out the flames of the SUV and everything it had set alight. Alex was knocked to the floor, as were Onyx and even Stefan up on the landing. The bullets never landed. Molly was sitting upright, blowing hard and releasing leaves into the air.

Onyx pulled an ebony wand from her knee-high Doc Marten boot and pointed it at Stefan as he struggled to stand again. She winced with reluctance and regret, but there was nothing for it; he had to be put down, and he was too powerful for half-measures. There was no incantation, nor any flash of lightning or blast of flame. There was simply Onyx, her wand, and her will.

Blood spurt from his ears. More came from his nose. Stefan's eyes went wide. He stumbled, coughed once with a release of even more blood, and then collapsed.

Alex was on his feet then, the wind having died off as suddenly as it came. "Oh thank God," he sighed when he saw they were both okay. He rushed to their sides. "You've got to get the hell out of here!" he said.

"As do you!" demanded the woman beside him.

"Oh fuck off!" he snapped.

"Who's this?" Onyx asked. Molly was on her feet then, checking Alex's neck and shoulders.

"Just someone else they were holding prisoner." He looked at the woman, then at the giant hole in the entrance. "Think you can probably get away now," he grunted.

Then Harrow came falling through the ceiling to land with a crash on the SUV. He twitched, seemed about to rise, and then suddenly Rachel dropped through the hole he had made to drive her flaming sword straight into the demon's neck.

Alex looked up to her, about to call her name but was interrupted by his own yelp of pain. "Gah! What was that?" he asked.

"You're healed," Molly grunted. "Sorry, I didn't have time to be gentle."

Alex blinked. The pain where Lydia had slashed at his neck and shoulders certainly seemed to have lessened. "You two are witches or something?!"

Onyx opened her mouth to answer, but there was an awful scream from upstairs. Alex didn't wait for an answer to his question. He vaulted up the staircase. "Help Rachel!" he yelled.

"What?!" Rachel yelled to him. Harrow used the distraction to grab at her arms, but she slammed her foot down on his snout right where Drew had punched him to such surprising effect. The demon let out a pained and exasperated cry, but it continued to fight.

Molly and Onyx looked to the staircase and started running after Alex.

"Good luck to you, then," Diana murmured. She threw off her flannel shirt as she rushed for the doorway. In moments, she was in wolf form, running out into the night.

Harrow got his tail wrapped around Rachel's leg. It tugged her off-balance just long enough for him to bring one of his arms around to swat her roughly back, striking her at both head and shoulders. "You know how this ends," the demon hissed. "There is no victory here. There is only a slightly longer span of recovery for one of us, be it in Heaven or the Pit."

Rachel swung her blade at him again, only to have her strike blocked at her wrist by Harrow's own hand. The other one punched her, sending her falling off of the SUV. Battered but not finished, the demon crawled off its back, crouching on the vehicle as if to pounce. "One would have thought that you would learn from the example of this city's protector."

The angel got to her feet, looking up at the demon with a sneer on her lips. "Oh, believe me," she huffed, grabbing onto the side of the SUV with both hands as if for support, "Vincent's taught me all about how not to be a total pussy." With that, she heaved the wrecked vehicle over, crying out at the effort as she flipped it end-over-end onto the stairs with Harrow under it. It was one more thing the demon never saw coming; his eyes went wide just before he found himself crushed under the vehicle.

"Really is a waste of fuckin' time fightin' you here, though," Rachel spat. She snatched up her sword again, vaulted up onto the ruined banister of the staircase and then onto the steps above the landing to hustle after Alex and the witches.

She didn't linger to see Harrow's hands reach out from under the vehicle as he fought to claw himself out again.





Chapter 89: Alex's stand...

Wade's plan was to lie low while the cars of vampires screaming to get away from the burning building rushed by. With any luck, he figured, they would be more interested in survival than they would be in picking unnecessary fights with unknown attackers. Rachel would have gone after them if any of them had Alex, so there was no reason not to let them go.

For the first couple of passing cars, he had been right. Unfortunately, someone in the gravel parking lot off and away from the house spotted movement by the pick-up. Wade didn't know they were exposed until he had taken a bullet to his leg and Drew was hit in the back. They both staggered and fell, and as more bullets began to slam into his pick-up truck Jason and Taylor dragged them to cover.

"Shoot back," Wade groaned, holding his gun up to them. "Y'all gotta shoot back or they'll run up here."

It was Jason who did just that. Wade had been right; there were already several figures advancing on them in the dark. They spotted Jason as he rose over the hood of the pick-up to fire. He put out several bursts, keeping their heads down. He even managed to clip one of them in the head. The vampire slumped to the ground, enraging the others.

Then Jason's bullets ran dry. The vampires rushed forward.

Jason pulled Wade's pistol out of his waistband, ready to fire until the last bullet, but something stopped him. There was a hand on his shoulder. He was no longer tired, nor aching, nor fearful.

"You have done enough," the voice said. "You have all done enough."

Taylor looked up in awe from where she sat with Drew's head in her lap. Four figures in white, with wings even brighter than Rachel's, stood among them. Light was shed from something above each figure's head. Of the group, three of them moved forward, walking straight through the pick-up truck into the night beyond. A fourth knelt down next to Taylor.

Her face was just barely visible despite the bright light around her head. She seemed twice Taylor's age but still very beautiful, with long black hair and gentle, patient eyes. The woman reached out to Drew and held his hand. "You are safe," she said to him soothingly.

Drew looked up in awe. The pain left his back. So did the weakness and all of the worry. The woman then turned her attention to Wade, putting her hand on his forehead with the same results. The bullet in his leg was gone. The blood on his pant leg was there, as was the hole, but the wound disappeared, along with the pain.

Jason looked on with his jaw hanging open as the other three angels, swords drawn and ignited, cut through the group of vampires as if it were all happening in slow motion. There were screams and pleas for mercy, and then there was silence. The three angels then looked back at him. One of them waved. They all quickly faded.

"Who are you?" Taylor managed.

The woman smiled. "I should not tell you. We should not have shown ourselves or intervened like this, and we will have to answer for it soon. But..." she seemed about to say more, then shook her head. "When you see Rachel again, tell her that she has been a very bad influence on her colleagues." The angel reached out and touched the side of Taylor's face. "My name is Julia. I have always been with you, Taylor. I have loved you all of your life. And I always will."

Taylor's breath shook. She couldn't think of words to say as Julia leaned forward to kiss her forehead, taking away all of her pain and all of her fear.

She looked upon Taylor with unconditional love before she stood and walked away, fading into the night.

************

Lorelei's talons had dug into the floor as she was dragged to the portal. They left long, deep scars in the carpet and even the concrete beneath them, but they only partially slowed her descent. Slashing at Ba'al's arm had done no good; the wounds were grievous, but they healed almost instantly. He wouldn't give up. Moreover, several other arms reached out now, grabbing at her legs, her hips, her shoulders. Like Ba'al's arms, they were impossibly long, though not as muscled or as fearsome. They all matched with gleaming red eyes and cackling laughter.

The portal would only be open for a scant few more moments, but Ba'al and his minions wouldn't give up. Lorelei fought on, but it was no use. She could feel the heat of the Pit on her legs and her waist as she began to pass through the portal.

"Lorelei!" Alex yelled. She looked up to see him there, a gun in his hands. He rushed to her in the hall, firing all the way at the monsters behind her. Molly and Onyx followed only a few yards behind, rushing up with their eyes wide with shock at what they saw.

Alex's bullets had no real effect; they seemed to stop and disappear as they went into the portal. Alex decided to drop the gun as he ran since it was useless. Alex made it to Lorelei just as she was finally dragged through the portal. He snatched at her wrists, crouching low to get every bit of leverage he could to pull her back.

"He's too strong!" Lorelei cried out. "Don't let him take you, too! Alex, no!"

"Hold on!" Rachel cried out from the end of the hallway. Her wings folded in as she came to her feet, rushing headlong to aid them. However, a battered, charred white shape appeared behind her moving with even greater urgency. Harrow jumped over to Rachel's shoulders landing on her upper back. Harrow shoved down on her shoulders as if vaulting off of a pommel horse causing Rachel to stumble face-first to the floor.

Harrow batted Molly and Onyx aside to either direction as he shot past them. The demon roared again, tackling Alex even as the young man thought, for the briefest of moments, that he might somehow be winning this unreal tug-of-war. The tackle caught Alex off guard as he was knocked off his feet sending himself and Lorelei into the portal.

What had seemed like a horizontal plane suddenly became a long fall down a shaft. Reality seemed to warp and shift in odd patterns. Alex still had hold of Lorelei's wrists. Ba'al's hands over her were gone, as were the others. Alex looked closer around them as they fell and he could see hundreds, if not thousands, of malevolent red eyes watching them. He also saw Harrow's wings spread out behind him, slowing his fall.

He wasn't the only one so capable. Lorelei threw her arms around Alex, spreading her own wings out as they descended. She tried to flap them, to create some sort of lift, but she was too weary. "Alex, you shouldn't have done this," she said to him, her head buried against his shoulder."

"I won't let you go," he said. "I'd rather die."

She clung to him fiercely. "Fear no evil in this place, my love," she whispered. "It is your only chance of survival here."

Above them, watching the group fall now, Molly and Onyx saw the portal begin to shrink. Onyx threw her wand against one side of it, trying to hold it open on instinct and magical willpower alone. Molly quickly followed, her own verawood wand out and stabbed at the ripples in space created on her side of the portal.

"Can you pull them back?" Onyx asked.

"Not without letting go!" Molly grunted.

"Just hold it open!" Rachel shouted behind them. She leapt in, a sudden rush of light and wind going past the two witches, and then she was diving down into the blackness after the others.

Winged shapes rushed up to meet her, shooting past the succubus, mortal and greater demon alike. The angel was beset by smaller flying things with poisoned tails and claws already dripping with blood. Her wings pushed against the air, slowing her descent while she swung her blade wide and the holy fire flared abruptly. The first of the little beasts was instantly incinerated. The others pressed in trying to slow her down if not outright destroyer her.

Far below her, Lorelei and Alex fluttered down until they were struck from above. Harrow swung at Lorelei's back with one of his monstrous hands, bashing them both and ruining the hold Lorelei's wings had on the warm air around them. Lorelei twisted around in an effort to place herself under Alex to shield him from the impact into the ground, which rushed up quickly and had precious little give when they landed.

Alex lay stunned for a moment as he picked his face up off of the ground. He looked around to see himself surrounded by monsters of a hundred different sorts. None of them looked alike; there were scales and boils, mottled fur and rent flesh, baleful red eyes and things with nothing at all in their eye sockets. Horns, tails and wings were everywhere, but beyond that very few of them bore any real resemblance to one another except for the hungry, frightful demeanor with which they all regarded him.

Lorelei was slightly under him, struggling to rise. She had been through so much already. The succubus had landed on her back cushioning their fall. As she tried to get up, a large, burned white foot slammed down on her chest from above. Harrow landed there, growling menacingly as he swatted Alex aside.

It didn't slow Alex down. As before, he didn't think; he just acted. The gladius was in his hands again, slashing at Harrow fiercely. The demon raised his hand as if to block it, but the blade bit deeply into his skin. He shrieked, jerking the limb back, then shrank back yet again as Alex swung and struck home at Harrow's side, drawing dark black blood yet again.

The demon's foot came off of Lorelei, leaving her coughing up black blood and rolling to one side. Alex stepped over her protectively, ready to swing at the thing again without really understanding how he could possibly have hurt something so fearful.

"You have entertained me tonight," said a voice like a dozen different animals all calling out in the night. It was a cacophony that only barely made any sense to the ear. Alex risked a look over his shoulder to see Ba'al standing there, eight feet of black, soot-covered horror. Ba'al stood tall with three heads: a toad, a man, and a cat. A crown decorated the human head. "I will allow you a chance to leave my realm."

Alex spun at that. He tried to stay wary of Harrow, standing with the two demons to his either side with Lorelei at his feet. Alex looked at Ba'al again with confusion. "I've seen you before somewhere." Memories flashed like rapid-fire through Alex's head before settling on a single memory of Alex standing on a cliff overlooking the smoking ruins of Ugarit. In the ruins of the palace, a large black demon with three heads can be seen laughing as it wrecked destruction upon everything. "You... you were there. You destroyed my palace... my family... my kingdom."

Ba'al cocked his human head as he looked at Alex and started grinning evilly. "So you remember. You are such an old soul Alex. One that has served me well over the millennium without even realizing it. You have sent me so many souls that have given me greater power."

Alex shook his head and yelled, "I'd never serve you. Now or ever. You are the kind of evil that must be stopped." Alex stopped and stepped back as he saw Harrow move out of the corner of his eye.

Ba'al laughed and said, " You can't ever hope to do anything to me mortal. Again, I will allow you a chance to leave my realm."

"Fine," Alex said. His voice trembled, but he did his best to sound resolute. "We'll be happy to leave this place."

"Just you. The succubus stays. She is mine."

"Fuck that noise," Alex forced himself to say. "She's coming home with me."

"Look around you, boy," the demon lord rumbled with a voice that seemed to put a tremble into the ground itself. "She is home here." Ba'al gestured with his broad arms at their surroundings. The whole land was smoke and ash and glowing embers. The demon hordes around him watched hungrily, congregating in a ring around them that was ten or twenty yards in diameter but were many hundreds of demons deep at every direction.

"That is your home," Ba'al said. He pointed past Harrow. Alex risked a glance, where he saw that the portal was suddenly at ground level. Molly and Onyx were both there, still standing in the hallway holding on to its edges. "Your friends hold the door for you. Take the opportunity to leave while I am still merciful. You cannot hope to prevail here."

Lorelei coughed. She reached up to touch Alex's hand. "Fear no evil," she whispered hoarsely.

It made him blink. He opened his mouth to speak to Ba'al, but out of the corner of his eye he caught a flash of movement. Alex lashed out with his blade out of instinct striking Harrow's huge tail even as it snaked out to grab at Lorelei again. The tail was jerked back, flinging blood everywhere as it withdrew.

Alex swallowed. "If I'm not a threat to you," he ventured, trying hard to master his own terror, "how come I'm not already dead?"

"You would question this charity?" Harrow hissed.

"From you guys?" Alex nodded, "Hell, yes."

"This is your last chance," Ba'al warned. "Leave my realm. Now."

The hand on Alex's squeezed his tightly. Alex took comfort that she seemed a little stronger than before. He turned his gaze directly toward the towering demon lord to his right. "Make me," he said.

Ba'al's eyes narrowed. "Harrow," he began, but didn't finish.

"Fucker!" Rachel screamed, diving down on Harrow once again with her sword hacking straight through his shoulder. The beast howled in agony.





Chapter 90: The Battle of the Pit...

Alex was distracted only for a split second; his memories of too many battles over too many lives were still too clear to let too much of an advantage slip. Ba'al was rushing at him then, fast enough to bowl him over, but Alex had his weapon up. The young man was carried off of his feet as Ba'al came on, but his sword was turned perfectly to meet it. The blade sank deeply into Ba'al's gut, releasing soot and ash over Alex's arms and chest.

Ba'al heaved Alex up, slamming him down into the ground again, but Alex fought on. He dug around with his sword, gripping it with both hands even as the demon pounded and clawed at him from above. All the while, Ba'al roared with a fury that shook the land around them. Yet all the while, the demon lord was similarly wracked with pain.

Beyond them, Rachel pressed her advantage. She swung left and right against Harrow, driving him back as he tried with his remaining limbs to fend her off. She feinted with another thrust, causing him to lurch back, and then she drove the blade into his foot. His backward momentum arrested by his impaled foot, Harrow fell onto his back. Rachel rushed forward, yanking the blade out of his foot even as she jumped onto his torso. She swung in a broad, circular arc. Harrow let out one final howl that was abruptly silenced.

************

It was worse than being beaten up. Worse than being shot, and certainly worse than anything Lydia had done to him – at least, physically. But the pain that Ba'al inflicted as he battered and wrent Alex underneath him left Alex gasping and choking for breath. He had no idea how he could survive it, nor any clue how he could come out on top.

Drew had always taught Alex to be meaner than the other guy, but the other guy was literally a demon. Alex stabbed and kicked and tried to get free, but as his blood flowed and his body was slammed down against the ground time and again, his hopes of pulling that off dwindled.

Then something hit Ba'al. Alex saw taloned hands reaching around his shoulders from above, gouging his eyes on his toad and cat heads and pulling him back from Alex. Lorelei shrieked and bit at Ba'al's neck. The monstrous demon released Alex, reaching at his back to clutch at Lorelei. He straightened as he fought to grab her.

Something large, white and frightful slammed into Baal's chest. It knocked him backward, sending him tumbling to the ground. The object landed right next to Alex as the young man forced himself to get up. It was Harrow's head.

Rachel reached for Alex, gripping his leather jacket by the collar and heaving him up. She briefly touched his cheek sending her power into him, healing him. Even this small contact gave him some measure of reassurance, and more important, it gave him a little momentum. Without waiting for Rachel, Alex charged at Ba'al.

Their enemy had finally gotten his hands on Lorelei. He dragged her off of his back, holding her high as he slammed her down onto the ground. He stood and then kicked her hard enough to knock the air out of her as she gasped. "Not worth this trouble," Ba'al grumbled. He reached down preparing to crush her skull as Lorelei countered with a slash to his wrist but wouldn't release her. Something stopped him from the corner of his remaining human eye. The angel was running towards him.

Ba'al suddenly roared in pain and anger before falling forward to his knees in shock. His leg had given out and blood and soot sprayed everywhere. Alex had slammed into him from behind while stabbing his gladius through Ba'al's left thigh nearly cutting it in half.

Rachel took the opportunity to lunge for swinging her sword decapitating the toad head. At the same time, there was a sudden, startling "thud" in the center of his chest. Ba'al glanced down to see Alex's blade had sunk to the hilt right in the demon lord's heart. His grip faltered weakly as he grasped at the blade in disbelief. Lorelei fell from his hands, tumbling to the ground roughly but without nearly the force that he would have liked.

Ba'al staggered around on his knees, then fell onto his face with an impact that shook the ground around him.

Alex was carried along with him. He wouldn't release his hold on the sword. One moment he was virtually hanging from it, and the next moment he was lying atop the fallen demon lord.

A hand came over his. It trembled, holding onto him weakly, but it meant the world to him. Lorelei crawled over to her love, facing him without the slightest illusion covering her bruises or her demonic features. She was battered, inhuman, and every bit as beautiful to him as she had ever been.

She wasn't alone, either. Rachel stepped over to them, placing one hand protectively on Alex's shoulder. "We gotta get the fuck out, lover," she warned. As her healing touch gave him the energy to rise, Alex looked around and saw the hordes of demons closing in. Their moves were tentative, threatening but also wary, as if waiting for one or another of them to make the first move.

"Ba'al is dead!" Lorelei called out to them. "Harrow is dead! Slain in their own realm, never to return! Do not make the same mistake they made!" The mob of vile creatures paused at her words, but didn't look entirely put off.

Alex slipped his own arm around Lorelei even as Rachel got him to his feet. "They're gonna pounce as soon as they have a shot," the angel said.

"Yes," Lorelei nodded. "The portal is too far to run, even for you. Not carrying along the both of us in the state we are in."

Alex glanced around for something, anything to forestall them. Ba'al was good and dead, but with all the ashes that seemed to make up his insides, Alex doubted that their former master would make much of a good meal. Then he stopped, cocking his head curiously, and stepped away from Rachel's grip. "Wait," he grunted.

The angel released him, wondering if he had gone absolutely nuts. Then she saw him reach over Baal's head to pull the iron crown from the dirt and hold it aloft. As soon as he touched it, memories flooded his mind again of Ugarit. He gazed at it sadly before steeling his heart.

"You want this?" Alex called to the encircled demons. The mass stopped as hundreds of eyes were turned upward to look at the crown. He inhaled deeply, shouting as loudly as he could, "Last one of you standing gets it!"

The crown was flung into the air. Rachel didn't even wait to see the pandemonium that ensued; she flung her arms around Alex and Lorelei, turned and bolted. The portal was still open just a short distance away. There had been demons blocking it, but even they now rushed forward, oblivious to the angel and her charges, thinking only of the iron crown and claiming Ba'al's power for their own.

************

Onyx was about to collapse from the strain. Molly was made of sterner stuff, but she knew even her lover couldn't be much better off. They held the portal just long enough for Rachel to come flying through, stumbling to the ground with one arm around Alex and the other around Lorelei as she fell. The witches both dropped their hold on the portal, staggering backward as the warp in reality shrank into nothing before them.

A second later, the witches were both on the floor as well. It seemed like a pretty comfortable place for everyone.

"Wasn't..." Alex croaked, "wasn't the building on fire?"

"No," Molly said, waving a hand over her head. "No, I kinda blew all that out."

"Right," Alex nodded, "right." He was silent for a long moment again. "Where'd the SUV come from?"

"We don't know," Onyx panted. "We were gonna ask you?"

"Alex?" a voice called. "Hey, you in here?"

Alex forced his head up, looking down the hallway. Where the portal had been before, Alex could see Wade advancing warily with a rifle in his hands. Taylor was with him, armed with a pistol. "Hey, are all y'all a'right?" Wade asked. Seeing two strangers sprawled on their backs where Alex, Lorelei and Rachel were also on the floor, the young man opted to keep the rifle pointed more or less toward them.

"Woah, Wade," Alex waved wearily. "Put it down. They're cool. They're friends. They came to rescue me."

"We came to rescue you!" Taylor replied.

"Wow," Alex blinked. "You guys... really!?"

The succubus was on her back. Rachel was on her face. She pushed herself up, looking directly at Lorelei next to her. "I get him for Christmas and Valentine's," the angel said firmly. "We can work out whatever we have to, but I'm not negotiating on those."

"Now is not the time," Lorelei whispered weakly.

"Christmas and Valentine's," Rachel repeated. After a moment's thought, she said, "Maybe I'll share him, but I'm just sayin'. No cutting me out on those."

Lorelei sighed. "Done."

"Uh, hey," Taylor thought aloud, "shouldn't we get the hell out of here if we're all here? I mean, won't there be cops or firefighters?"

"Not at a party like this," Molly spoke up. "They take care of that shit in advance. We shouldn't just hang around, but no. Doubt there'll be cops."

"We can take care of cops," Onyx said. She smiled wearily at Molly, who smiled back. "And I'm not leaving 'til I've had a chance to talk to him," she added, waving a hand at Alex.

"Are we sure there aren't more bad guys?" Alex asked.

"Pretty sure," Wade nodded. "Drew and Jason were checkin' the perimeter of the house, though, just t' be positive."

Lorelei looked over to Alex. "Where is Lydia?"

************

"Come to me," the blonde succubus whispered, beckoning with one finger from behind the bush.

Drew blinked, looking to her with suspicion. He hadn't seen her before. She didn't look like a vampire, though; her skin wasn't pale enough, nor was she in black. "You okay?" he asked.

"Found something?" Jason said, looking around the corner of the house.

"Come to me," Lydia repeated. The battered, disheveled beauty lured Drew closer, his rifle turned low as her charms worked their magic. He was strong-willed, this one, and brave. It was all she could do to keep him mesmerized. If she could lure him in, though, and seal things with a kiss...

"Hey!" Jason yelled. He turned his gun on her. "Drew, what's up with this?"

"I think... I think it's cool, Jason," Drew murmured.

"Yes, Jason," Lydia smiled reassuringly. "Put down your gun. You have rescued me. Let me reward you." She reached out to Drew, gesturing for him to come near. "Let me reward you both."

Drew's eyes fluttered. He stepped closer. Jason lowered his gun. Drew moved in, his face leaning forward toward hers as his eyes closed and his lips parted. Then there was a sudden electrical sound, followed by a flump.

The kiss never came. He opened his eyes. Jason was standing there between Drew and the woman on the ground with his stun gun in his hands. "Bitch," Jason snapped, "I already got blondes hotter than you!"

"What the... what are you doin', man?" Drew blinked.

"Dude! You punched out a demon tonight! A fucking demon, man! And now you're gonna fall for this bitch?"

Lydia groaned, trying to rise. Jason frowned and zapped her again, leaving her sprawling out in the grass.

"Hey!" Drew protested. "You don't know she's a bad guy!"

"Bitch is that fine, wearin' a dress like that full'a bullet holes outside a broken window? That's a white devil, man!"

"You're a white devil!"

Jason's jaw dropped. "Yo, I thought you was my nig, man?"

Drew's eyes flared. Suddenly this wasn't funny anymore. "What did you just call me?"





Chapter 91: Lydia's Fate...

"Drew just hit me."

Wade frowned, almost taking the cell phone off his ear to look at it. "Well, what did you do to make him do that?"

"I didn't do nothin'! 'cept probably save him from this crazy blonde bitch here."

"You know what you did!" Drew's voice was loud enough to be heard over the phone.

"Oh. You said that word again. Jason, ah'm a white Southerner and ah'm offended when ya go sayin' that shit."

"Oh, Drew's just pissed 'cause he botched his save versus skank and I didn't!" Jason snapped. "Anyway, we got a woman here I think is probably a bad guy who just tried to seduce us both," he went on. "I mean, beat-up blonde outside a blown-up house full of vampires, and here we were both ready to drop everything and double-team her in the bushes. She's unconscious now, but I'm not sure what to do with her."

"Right," Wade nodded. He looked to the people sprawled out on the hallway floor in front of him. "Hey, Drew and Jason say some blonde chick just almost seduced 'em both outside. They got her captured now."

"Ugh. Lydia," Alex groaned. He was still on his back. "I threw her out a window earlier."

"They mustn't allow her to speak," Lorelei offered quickly, but weakly.

"She's knocked out now." Wade said. "Also, Taylor an' I saw a whole mess of half-nekkid people runnin' around downstairs, too, away from the fight. They didn't look like vampires at all. Didn't seem like much of a threat, either."

"Oh, man," Molly said. "Those are the people that the vampires were keeping as party favors. Did they seem all mesmerized or anything?"

"Nah. Just confused an' scared. A bunch of 'em were headed for the parkin' lot."

"Just let them go," Onyx suggested. "I think most of them didn't really know what was happening to themselves, anyway. We'll have to look around and make sure none of them get stranded here. Shouldn't be too hard for Molly and I to work that out."

"Their first instinct will be to run, just like the vampires themselves," Lorelei nodded. "I have seen it in the past. Most will have confused memories of the party, but virtually all of them were likely been lured here without knowing what was in store. They are probably a problem that will resolve itself, but it would be good to ensure no one is left behind here."

"Right. That's all you guys." Rachel heaved herself up off the floor. "I'll go deal with whoreface."

"No," Lorelei said. "Wait...please."

Alex rolled over to her, putting his hand on her arm and brushing hair out of her face. "You're hurt bad," he said softly. "Is there something I can do?"

The succubus looked up at him wearily, but offered a slight, affectionate smile despite her pain. "I will not expire. That danger has already passed. You know what will heal me, Alex," she told him softly. "I will endure until then."

"That's the only way?"

"It's the best way," she nodded. Lorelei put her hand, covered in blood and filth, upon his shoulder. "You rescued me. Again."

Alex just shrugged. "I love you."

Lorelei nodded. She said, loudly enough to be heard by all, "We should not linger here. The authorities may be delayed, but they cannot ignore all of this for long."

"Alex," Onyx spoke up as she rose, "we need to talk."

"I know," he said, looking back to her and Molly. "I know we do."

"Lydia," Rachel reminded him gently. "I can go take care of this. Bitch has a lot to answer for."

"All of this, I would imagine," Lorelei nodded.

"Can you bring her with you?" Alex asked Rachel, looking between her and Lorelei.

Rachel nodded, her face patient and affectionate. "I can," she said, reaching down to help Lorelei to her feet. "We've got a lot to talk about, too."

"The three of us," Lorelei nodded.

"You're gonna be nice to her?" Alex asked the angel.

She shrugged, but nodded. Rachel had one arm around Lorelei while the succubus held to her shoulder with both arms. "I'm an angel. I'm sweetness and fucking light to everyone," the blonde grinned as she gently led Lorelei down the hall. "Like a beautiful rainbow right up the ass."

Wade moved to follow, but stopped as he came to Alex. He gestured to Taylor. "She just drove a flaming truck through a giant demon an' a house full a' vampires t' come get you," he noted.

"That was you guys?" Molly asked.

Taylor just shrugged. She still held a pistol in her hands. She was looking at Alex, too weary to blush but too embarrassed to know what to say.

Wade pulled Alex to his feet. He slapped his friend on the shoulder before walking off after Rachel and Lorelei. Alex turned to Taylor, still leaning back upon the wall for support. "You did all that for me?"

She didn't answer immediately. Taylor shrugged again, saying nothing. Her lips were pushed forward, quivering a bit, and tears threatened to break free from her eyes. "You're my best friend," she managed to say. Her voice wavered as she spoke. "You were always my best friend and I never even really knew until all this happened."

Alex gathered her up into his arms. She held onto him there in the hallway for a long moment, sniffling but soon getting hold of her feelings again.

"Thank you," Alex murmured. "Is it... can I tell you I love you without it making everything weird?"

"Yeah."

"I love you."

"I had sex with your girlfriend," Taylor confessed half in laughter. "I think I've got a thing for her."

Alex laughed back. "I'm glad you do."

"Well, then you're a pervert," Taylor smiled. She squeezed him again before pulling off to wipe her face. She turned to see Molly and Onyx looking on awkwardly. "These are your friends, too?" she asked.

"Yeah," Alex nodded. "This is Molly, and this is Onyx."

The witches both mumbled hellos. "You look like an Onyx," Taylor smiled quietly. Then she looked back to Alex and said, "I'm gonna go catch up, okay?" She leaned in to kiss him softly on the lips and then headed out.

With that, Alex finally gave his full attention to the two women. "Uh..." he began with uncertainty. They watched him with a mixture of bemused smirks and expectant eyes. "So there's a lot to explain."

1

"Uh-huh," Onyx replied.

"I should let you two talk alone," Molly thought aloud. She got a single step before Onyx slapped her hand down on Molly's wrist to halt her in mid-stride. The redhead took her lover's meaning and stopped walking.

"Is Molly your girlfriend?" Alex asked hesitantly. Onyx just nodded. "Uh. Wow," he mumbled, scratching the back of his head. "This just gets weirder."

"Molly knows everything," Onyx told him.

"Everything?"

"Everything I know," Onyx elaborated pointedly.

"Uh. Right. So I should start at the beginning?" Again, Onyx just nodded. "Okay, well... uh... I guess I should start by saying that if you've felt an unnatural attraction to me it's 'cause I really, really like you. Uh. Both of you. And I would've liked to tell you everything straight up front but I didn't really know how or think I could. And if it seems like you like me more than you should, it's not anything intentional but it's because of Lorelei. The, uh, succubus. Which is like a, um, sex demon," he added.

Onyx and Molly shared the same exact snort and smirk. Alex continued. "And, well... I guess I should start by saying that sometimes I'm really, really dumb."

************

With the shooting ended and the danger passed, those less able to defend themselves made their escape. Confused, frightened people who had only a short while ago been walking party favors were able to find their belongings and clothes in a few scattered rooms. They hastened to depart, many of them rushing to their cars without pausing to get dressed again. All they remembered was a spooky, kinky costume party that ended in genuine violence and fire. Seeing a handful of people still hanging around the wrecked mansion with guns didn't give them any urge to pause in their flight from the grounds.

Rachel effortlessly carried a bench over from the porch in one hand, setting it down near the bushes where Lydia lay under several watchful eyes. Lorelei was there, held up by Drew's strong arms until the bench was settled. Then Drew gently helped her sit down upon it, smiling and shrugging a bit as she thanked him.

"I wish I could just heal you," Rachel frowned.

"I'll be fine soon enough," Lorelei replied. Drew sat down next to her where she could lean on him.

"You could heal me," Jason suggested dryly. Lorelei looked to him curiously, then pursed her lips and looked away. The young man's face still bore the red mark of Drew's slap, complete with all five fingers.

"Or you could not," Wade smirked. His gun was still leveled in Lydia's direction, but he was standing more casually now.

Rachel's smile was playful. She looked to Jason, gesturing in Wade's direction. "Head Motherfucker In Charge there says you get to live with it."

Jason just sighed, glancing at Wade with a frown. "Jerk," he grunted.

Lorelei looked around at the angel and assembled mortal friends. "I simply haven't the words for how grateful I am," she said quietly. "This is twice now. And at such risk."

Taylor sat down next to Lorelei opposite Drew. "We'd do it again," she said, gently slipping an arm around Lorelei and kissing her cheek.

"Yeah," Wade nodded. "Got off really damn easy, if y'think about it. Only real casualty out here's mah truck."

"I will gladly buy you a new one," Lorelei told him. "But you all risked your lives against such monsters. Any number of horrors could have been inflicted upon you."

Wade just shrugged. "First time since ah've been home ah didn't feel bad 'bout bein' discharged," he said.

"You were needed much more here at home," Rachel suggested quietly.

"Maybe so. Be glad to go back t' livin' a normal life at this point, though."

"You've a far better chance for that now," Lorelei noted. "Centuries-old monsters don't just grow on trees, nor does a band of unscrupulous sorcerers such as were assembled here tonight sprout out of the ground spontaneously. Their numbers are shattered. The leadership of both factions has been eliminated. The survivors will remain hostile toward one another. You may not see the effects immediately, or perhaps ever, but what happened here tonight will cause a dramatic shift of power in the city and its environs."

"You think they'll come after us?" Jason asked. "Look for revenge?"

Lorelei shook her head. "It's a rare predator indeed who goes out looking for a fight just for the sake of inflicting harm. Isn't that right, Lydia?" she asked. "You've certainly awoken by now."

"If you think I'll grovel, you are mistaken," Lydia said, as she sat up in the grass. The blonde succubus brushed herself off, looking at each of the people assembled around her in a semi-circle. Behind her were only bushes and the side of the mansion. Wade and Jason both had guns on her and there was a guardian angel standing there among them. There was no escaping this.

"I care not," Lorelei shrugged. "That deep chasm of weakness you feel within yourself is from the loss of your master. Ba'al is dead, slain by mortal hands in his own realm. Harrow is dead in the Pit at the hands of an angel. You know as well as I that such deaths are permanent. There will be no more regeneration for you."

"Ba'al's lands are in disarray. Your allies here in this city are either dead or scattered in fear, having fled for their very lives." Lorelei's voice was tired but matter-of-fact in her explanation. "My love walks free. I remain at his side. Alex could claim you as his own right now, though I believe I know his mind more than well enough to assure you that the prospect would disgust him." The succubus calmly pulled a strand of her hair back from her face. "I wanted to be here to tell you how badly you had lost at every turn."

Lydia spat at her. Utterly unbothered by it, Lorelei wiped the spittle away with a weary smile. "Telling you this brings me every bit of joy that I expected it might."

"So, uh," Wade asked, "what do we do with her?"

"I've got that covered," Rachel answered. Her eyes were on the prisoner. "I told you what would happen if you fucked with either of them."

"You lick the hand of the Angelic Hosts?" Lydia sneered at Lorelei.

Lorelei cocked her head at the insult, but did not bristle. Rather, she simply reached out to Rachel, taking the angel's hand in hers. Rachel kept her gaze on the prisoner. Her eyes went wide and a slight gasp of shock and unexpected arousal ran through her as Lorelei's tongue slowly, sensuously took one of Rachel's fingers into her mouth and sucked on it. The succubus kept her unperturbed eyes on Lydia while she worked the finger in and out of her lips a few times, plainly savoring the motion each time.

Rachel whimpered. Lorelei released her hand gently, unsurprised when the fingers lingered near her where she could certainly take them up again. "I expect I will lick a great deal of this one," she said coolly to Lydia.

"Uh," Drew blinked.

"Woah," Taylor breathed.

"Can, uh," Jason mumbled, looking repeatedly back and forth from Lydia to Lorelei and Rachel. "Can I get a replay of that?"

The angel shook herself, forcing a scowl at Lorelei before she looked back to Lydia. "I should take care of this. She attacked a mortal who was still under the protection of the Hosts. She needs to be taken and judged."

"Wait a moment more," Lorelei said. "We need to let the others catch up. As I said, at the moment she belongs to Alex. Though he will doubtlessly reject her, it must still be his decision, not mine."





Chapter 92: Keep Yo' Dick Away From My Momma...

"I'm not mad at you for not telling me, Alex," Onyx decided finally. She walked between Molly and Alex as they picked their way through the debris-strewn foyer to the demolished entrance. Occasionally a young man or woman, having just found his or her belongings in the cloakroom, scurried out of the house. They watched, but didn't interfere. "I mean, I kind of am, but I'm irritated by the situation, not by you. We were both keeping a big secret from one another. More than one in fact."

"It really means a lot to me that you thought I was in trouble and wanted to help," Alex told her. "And then when you actually saw the real trouble I was in, you dove right in after me there, too. We'd be dead without you. And it's not like... I mean, Friday was really special, and you're really special to me, but it's not like I could expect you to put your neck on the line for me just from that."

"We like helping people where we can," Onyx shrugged. "Granted, this is way more than just looking for a lost pet or helping someone get over the flu quick, but it's something Molly and I agreed we want to do with our lives... just hopefully without all the crazy violence. And anyway, we had to confront these other freak wizards sooner or later. You don't have to make it out to be something personal."

Molly nudged her hard. "Yes, he does," she grinned.

"Okay," Onyx sighed, "Alex, I'm completely hung up on you. There. I've said it. I've said it in front of both of you. I want to keep seeing you."

He didn't know whether to be thrilled or to feel awful. He felt a little bit of both. "Wow. Um. Onyx... I really don't want to push you away. I want to keep seeing you. But you see what my life is like."

"Yeah? So?"

He didn't know how she could be so mellow about it. "You don't think it would be amazingly complicated to keep seeing me?"

Onyx just snorted. "Have you met Molly?"

"Hi," Molly waved cheerfully. "I'm a permanent complication. Break her heart and I'll turn you into a drooling, retarded, leprous mutant."

"I'll admit that I think you're crazy to think you can see anyone else when you've already got three girlfriends," Onyx conceded.

"Uh. Two."

"Lorelei, Rachel, and that other girl, right? Taylor?"

"Taylor's not exactly a girlfriend."

"You're her best friend and you're all mushy over her and you're sleeping with her. Close enough." Alex had to grant that. He shrugged while Onyx continued. "But apparently you've got the stamina for it since your demon girlfriend helps you with that. I just don't know where you're going to find the time. But I'm not asking for a deep commitment here. I just want to keep dating you and let things go wherever they go. My bet is it'll be pretty great."

He thought about pointing out that Taylor seemed even more interested in Lorelei than she was in him, but that seemed tangential. "Onyx, I really... god dammit, I really like you. More than just 'like.' I really want to be with you, too, but I'm already... I mean this is just crazy. And to top it all off, I can't really be sure if you really like me for me or for the things that Lorelei's done to me, and that's just not fair to you."

Again, Onyx smirked. So did Molly. "What?" Alex asked. "Seriously, every time I think a girl is attractive, she looks back at me like she's going to jump me right there. And half the time I can't even resist! I'm a pig! And I'm probably doing it to you, right now, and I can't even control it!"

"You're not a pig," Molly snickered. "You're more like a dog. A loving, happy, cuddly, horny, dirty, dirty dawg."

Alex slapped his hands over his face. "Oh my God, it's happening right now. You're totally giving me a pass on all this because I'm totally having that effect on you 'cause I think you're hot, too."

Molly and Onyx smiled broadly at one another. "Really, now?"

"Yes! Oh my God, Molly, you're smoking hot! I've got a horrible crush on you! Onyx, I told you before, I was in that cemetery taking pictures because I figured it'd give me something to talk about with both of you. Either of you. I didn't know you two were a couple. I just figured I'd... oh, man, this sounds really lame, but I seriously would've been happy to go out with either one of you." The witches burst out laughing. "Why is that even funny?"

"Alex, your magic sex hormones or whatever don't work on us," Onyx managed to tell him. "And sure, what you did with the graveyard was kind of juvenile and stalkerish, but it sounds like you at least knew that. But we, um... we've been talking about you almost since the semester started weeks ago."

He blinked. "What?"

"Onyx and I have kind of been open to a dating arrangement for awhile now," Molly explained, "but there just wasn't anyone. And then school started, and you were there, and it's just been a matter of making sure everyone's feelings were settled first."

"Your little 'effect' on other women doesn't work on us because we know how to ward ourselves against things like that," Onyx said. "The reason I asked you out on Friday was that I won the coin toss with Molly before we went to school that morning. Otherwise she would've hit on you."

Alex looked at her with his jaw hanging open.

"In fact, if we're all really coming clean here," Onyx added, looking at her boots sheepishly, "I, um. I cheated."

"Huh?"

"I kinda cheated on the coin toss," Onyx said in a small, guilty yet amused voice.

"You bitch!" Molly exploded.

"I'm sorry," Onyx offered with a meek look of apology rendered insincere by her obvious smile.

"What do you mean?" Alex blinked.

Molly looked at Onyx in exasperation as her lover tried not to giggle. Eventually she turned her attention on Alex. "Wow, you really are really dumb sometimes, aren't you?" she asked him.

"Yeah, kinda," Alex shrugged. As if to demonstrate, he was completely surprised when Molly stepped forward and threw herself against him in a rough, hungry kiss. Behind her, Onyx just laughed. When the assertive redhead finally let him go, Alex just breathed, "Oh."

"Onyx and I are really in love," Molly explained softly. "We also really like sex. We've talked about enjoying some alternate plumbing if we found the right guy."

"There's some rituals that work a little differently depending on the equipment," Onyx added. "But mainly we just thought you'd be a lot of fun."

"You, um," Alex blinked. "Really?"

"I just didn't expect to get all emotional about you," Onyx shrugged.

Molly hadn't let go of him. "I don't really mind. I think I can see how that'd happen"

"You'll see better once you've had a chance to really get to know him," Onyx predicted.

"You're really okay with everything?" Alex asked.

"Depends," Onyx shrugged again. "Are you? We think you're perfect. We both really like you. Obviously you're a good guy. You're in a great committed relationship, so you're not likely to get overly dependent or clingy on us. Your other girlfriend... girlfriends are okay with it. And like I said, you've got the stamina." She walked closer to him to run her fingers through his hair.

"You caught the part about my other girlfriends feeling it when I have sex, right?"

"Yeah, we're not asking you to bring them along," Onyx said.

"Yet," Molly interrupted with a mischievous grin.

Onyx frowned a bit, but her frown was unconvincing. "It does sound like a good way to make sure they don't feel left out."

"And the part about women throwing themselves at me?"

The amusement shared by the two women was unmistakable. "Sounds like a terrible burden," Molly said.

"Yeah. That's a real curse," Onyx murmured. She leaned in to kiss his neck.

"The Curse of the Guy Who Gets Laid a Lot," Molly suggested.

Onyx snickered, but kept kissing his neck. "Yeah. But it's not your fault you've got a hungry sex demon to feed. What kind of friends would we be if we weren't understanding about your domestic challenges?"

"You honestly think that I'm not having that effect on you two right now?"

"Meh," Onyx shrugged. "Worse things could happen."

Molly gradually pulled off of him, clearly liking what she had just stolen enough to go for more at the next opportunity. Onyx looked like she was about to take her place. Then they heard Drew's voice behind him say, "Hey, pimp daddy. Your other girls say they need you outside."

There were blinks of embarrassment from both Alex and Onyx. Molly clearly had no shame and simply chuckled at them both as she took Onyx by the hand and dragged her away. Alex followed, but was stopped by Drew's hand on his chest.

"I got somethin' I gotta say," Drew said firmly.

"Um. Okay?"

"I see what's goin' on here."

"Uh...yeah, I know it's weird, but they're all cool, and—"

"Alex. I'm sayin' I ain't stupid."

"I know you're not. You're one of the smartest people I know."

"Right. So I see what's goin' on here, know what I'm sayin'?"

"...maybe?"

"If you ever. Ever. Come near my momma or my sister with your dick—"

"Woah! Drew!" Alex threw his hands up. "I'm totally not gonna do that!"

"Ever!"

"Drew, it's cool! I'm not gonna hit on your mom! I would never do that!"

"Are you sayin' my momma ain't fine?"

Alex blinked. He was horrified. "Drew, I love your mom! She's like my second parent! I would never do that!"

"And that's another point. Yo' momma's like my second momma. If you ever try anything with your momma, I will beat you so hard—"

Alex buried his face in his hands again. "Oh my God. Drew, you're my best friend. I'm not going to try to sleep with your mother or my mother. Holy shit, I'm so sorry about all this." When he finally pulled his face up again, however, his friend was grinning at him.

"Got you," Drew said, then hugged him.

"Jesus. You're a bad man."

"I am," Drew laughed, "I am." He pulled back. "But if you ever. Ever."

"...what about Jason's mom?"

Drew grunted. "Shit, you don't know about me an' Jason's mom?"

Alex winced and started walking. "I'm sorry I even brought that up. You took that way further than I was gonna go."

Drew followed. "Took Jason's momma way further than she meant to go, too."

Groaning all the way, Alex found the others gathered around Lydia. He couldn't help but make a face as he saw her.

"Technically, she belongs to you, Alex," Lorelei said. She remained on the bench with Taylor sitting very near her for both support and comfort.

"What, you can't be serious with this, can you?" Alex blinked.

"By what passes for law in Hell, you are now her master. At least until Ba'al's crown is secured by another. Should you claim her before then, she will remain yours."

Alex looked at Lydia, who stared at him with her eyes full of hate. "I don't want her. What can we do with her?"

"How about we not just shoot this prisoner?" Jason asked aloud.

"I can take her to a place where she'll be judged," Rachel offered. "This chick has transgressed like a motherfucker. She'll face a fair trial and then it's the swift, sure boot of justice right up her fucking ass."

"Sounds good to me," Alex shrugged.

"We should take our leave, then," Lorelei suggested, "though we should also take some care to obscure the evidence here. There are good reasons to hide such events from the mortal world at large. Whatever the resources of the vampires and the Brotherhood were, they will not be in good order tonight."

"I can take care of that, too," Rachel assured them. "It'll all burn to nothing before I resolve the matter of Princess Skankula here."

"We're going to need a ride back to Seattle," Onyx said. "We left our car at Alex's place."

"Yeah, ah'm thinkin' ah don't wanna take anyone anywhere in mah truck with it all full'a bullet holes," Wade mused. "Reckon we're gonna have to steal us a car or two from th' parkin' lot there from what's left, at least t' get us back t' the gas station."

"If Lorelei can get you a new vehicle, I can make sure your old one disappears," Rachel said. "You might want to grab anything you want out of it before you go."

Wade sighed. "Easy come, easy go, ah guess. Maybe ah'll just have t' report it stolen."

"I can aid you in making the appropriate arrangements," Lorelei told him. "There are ways to handle these things."

"Hey, we have to set the gas station attendant loose, too," Jason reminded Wade. He was still dutifully watching Lydia. "Though how we're going to get him to keep his mouth shut isn't something we worked out."

"Leave that to me," Lorelei said. By then, Alex had sat down next to her and gathered her up into his arms and was holding her gently.

"Any reason we need to stick around here, then?" Alex asked. There was a collection of shrugs and shaking heads. He picked Lorelei up, cradling her as she leaned her head against his shoulder.

Rachel stepped over to him, making sure that Jason and Wade still had their eyes on Lydia as the angel turned from their prisoner to kiss Alex on the cheek. "I'll catch up, lover," she smiled softly. Then she whispered into his ear, "Might be awhile, though. I might be in a little trouble with my bosses."

"What?" Alex blinked. "Why?"

"For falling in love with you," Rachel murmured to him. "For making love with you. Angels aren't supposed to do those things with mortals."

"I wish you had told me."

Rachel just tossed her head. "It's what I wanted. You are what I wanted. I love you, Alex. I will always love you. You're..." she blinked, then shrugged again. "You're my hero."

It was Lorelei, held between them in Alex's arms, who dared to interrupt: "Don't delay long," she told the angel quietly. "The three of us have a great deal to work out." Her eyes were heavy with meaning, and though her tone was even, it had just a hint of welcome.

Rachel might have blushed in that moment, but Alex couldn't be sure. Despite the angel's natural radiance, it was a dark night. "Where are you taking her?" Alex asked, gesturing to the prisoner.

Rachel didn't bother to suppress her grin. "I'm gonna have a little chat with my ex."





Chapter 93: Rachel stumps Vincent...

It would take a long time, but there would be a recovery. There would be chaos, and then healing, and after that a time to rebuild. After that, there would be chances for revenge. Ms. Black was comfortable with all of that. In the meantime, however, there was much to learn.

She sat crouched in the shadows of the treeline, listening intently to the conversation held among the night's victors. It was certainly too far away for a human's ears. The raccoon that sat beside her, though, had excellent hearing. He had answered her sorcerous summons without much resistance, eventually sitting obediently beside her. It was a simple thing to summon an animal, and equally easy to take advantage of its senses. All Ms. Black had to do, really, was murmur the incantation and keep her hand on the magically calmed raccoon's head.

Ms. Black would have loved to simply leave. She could have slipped off into the night. Her magic and her native wits would have enabled her to find transportation and shelter. She would need new clothing -- her blazer and top were both covered in both champagne and her own blood. Healing her head of the concussions Carlisle had given her hadn't been easy. She'd had to do it in short, hazy, tiring stages, but each time she managed the spell, her mind was clearer and her head and face were less bloody and battered until she was finally healed. It would have been nice to withdraw, but there was too much to learn here that was too important for the future.

Through the animal's ears, she heard everything. She learned who and what Alex and his rescuers were. Listened in as they discussed their plans. Gleaned vital insight to their relationships, their intentions, their moral boundaries. She heard them decide to leave Lydia to be dealt with by Rachel and the other angels, and couldn't really bring herself to feel the least bit bad about it.

The raccoon also enabled her to hear the pair of vampires sneaking up on her at each of her flanks. She waited, listening intently. The raccoon caught their scent and let her discern details about them. They were both heavy, both garbed in an awful lot of fabric. Ms. Black realized how remarkable it was that they could move with any stealth at all, yet alone so quietly in the woods despite those great big antebellum dresses.

When they were just close enough, Ms. Black flicked her wand up in the air with only a snapped pair of words. The two vampires were lifted off their feet. Both of them hung in the air, unable to move as Ms. Black stood and stepped backward between the pair. The raccoon scampered off into the trees.

"You might have had a chance against me in the city," Ms. Black said darkly, "but not out here in the woods. My first Practice was born of the wild."

"Our mistake," one of the heavyset undead ladies began. "We thought you were one of them."

"Really, now," grunted the other one, "we could all just go our separate ways. You've made your point. This doesn't have to be a fuss."

Ms. Black smiled. "The one good thing about tonight is that there will be far fewer of you lot to deal with for a good while," she mused. While she continued to hold the wand aloft, Ms. Black stepped to one side and reached for the trunk of the tall cottonwood tree nearby. Words from a tongue that died out many centuries ago came softly from her mouth. The vampires watched with alarm as the bottom of the tree's trunk seemed to writhe and then twist. Leaves fell precipitously from the lower boughs.

With a rush, one of the tree's boughs lashed out at the two of them. All of the smaller branches coming off of the bough had been twisted into long, rigid spikes. There were more than enough of the nasty things to ensure that each of the vampires was impaled through the heart. Ms. Black waited long enough to see the pair both begin to crumble to ash, their fine dresses hanging on the branch before she dared take her eyes off of either one.

As she turned, however, she found herself confronted with a towering wall of fur. The rest happened too quickly for her to process it. One moment she had stepped into some huge animal, and in the next a furry arm was wrapped around her shoulders. She didn't have time to cry out before her head was twisted entirely too far around.

A moment later, Ms. Black's lifeless body slumped to the ground. The fur receded, soon changing to skin. Diana stepped over the dead sorceress and past the piles of ash and silken dresses to stand at the edge of the treeline.

In the distance, Diana could see Alex and his assorted companions gathering what little they would take with them as they prepared to leave. The nude woman decided to linger until they had gone. Once they were safely off, she would make her way back into a more urban environment where she could make a couple of phone calls and get back to her people.

As she watched with increasing curiosity, Diana found herself regretting her earlier words. She had been thinking pragmatically, concerning herself primarily with her own survival and that of the young man who would so clearly make an excellent mate.

He would come around to that eventually. She would just have to get him alone to explain things to him. That would happen in time.

She had his scent.

************

Rachel had the mansion burning quite brightly shortly after the others left. All of the hapless victims of the vampires -- those who had survived, anyway -- were long gone. The group rolled Wade's truck up to the driveway to make its involvement in the blaze look a little more realistic. Ever the master of seemingly useless knowledge, Jason had a good idea of what specific parts of the truck needed to be obliterated beyond any recognition to avoid a trace. Rachel had bid them all a fond and friendly farewell before setting about her work.

As the flames roared up in earnest, Rachel carried her heavily duct-taped prisoner to a spot at the edge of the treeline surrounding the house. By now she could hear the sirens of approaching fire engines off in the distance. As Lorelei had said, there was only so much the authorities could ignore regardless of their bribes or compromised procedures. Rachel ensured the firefighters would find that this particular blaze would be surprisingly hot and would leave behind surprisingly little.

"I do not recognize the authority of any court of Heaven," Lydia stated bitterly.

"Tell it to the judge, bitch," Rachel smirked. She looked skyward, where clouds were rolling in again from the coast. The angel lifted her flaming sword, pointed it to the stars and watched as a light from the blade shot like a flare into the night above her.

It wasn't a long wait. The rest of the world saw nothing and heard nothing, but from over the clouds Rachel saw the appearance of a piercing white light. It seemed to hardly move at first, but that was how these things were done, at least where he was concerned. There was the first omen of approach, followed by a speeding trail of light -- three lights, actually, as he was bringing assistants -- which finally took on the image of angels with their wings fully spread.

The squires with him were both women. Naturally, they were also very pretty. Rachel knew that was loaded with meaning, of course. Everything would be loaded with meaning. She had given up caring a long time ago, but tonight she thought it was cute that he tried so hard.

"Hello, Vincent," Rachel said with her voice dripping with such sweetness that it couldn't possibly be mistaken for sincerity.

"Rachel," he said severely. His mouth was open to speak again, but Rachel cut him off.

"What have you been up to tonight?" she asked. Her hands were now clasped behind her back with her sword gone again. She twisted left and right at the shoulders as if she were shy. The smile on her face practically outshone her halo.

"You know what my duties are here," Vincent scowled. "I suppose this succubus has transgressed against your charge in some way that merits your direct and overt intervention?"

"Uh-huh!" Rachel nodded. She even hopped up a bit on her toes for emphasis. Her grin just wouldn't go away.

"And the home now ablaze nearby?" Vincent asked dryly. "Did the house somehow attack your dear Alexander?"

Rachel's jaw fell open as she brought her hands to her cheeks in mock surprise. "Why, Vincent! I didn't even know if you still remembered his name! Gosh, you're so on top of things!" She pointedly looked to the two women at his side. "Did you know he was this on top of things?"

Vincent sighed dramatically. "I grow tired of this, Rachel. We will take the succubus to be judged. You may expect an assembly to be ready before the next morning where you may state your case. Is that all?"

"Yeah," Rachel said, looking down and kicking a rock while she stuck her lower lip out in a pout. "It's just...well, I figured you should probably know a couple other things, too."

Vincent gestured to his companions, who both stepped forward to take up Lydia by either arm. He sighed yet again. "Such as?"

"Oh," Rachel shrugged, "just that Ba'al has been utterly and permanently slain."

The two angels taking hold of Lydia both stopped and blinked. Vincent's scowl cracked, overcome with disbelief. "What?" he asked.

"'E's not pinin'! 'E's passed on!'" Rachel smiled, adopting a chipper English accent. She knew her Monty Python quite well: "This demon duke is no more! He has ceased to be! 'E's expired and gone to meet 'is maker! 'E's a stiff! Bereft of life, 'e rests in peace! If you 'adn't nailed 'im to the perch, 'e'd be pushing up the daisies! 'Is metabolic processes are now 'istory! 'E's off the twig! 'E's kicked the bucket, 'e's shuffled off 'is mortal coil, run down the curtain and joined the bleedin' choir invisible!! This is an ex-demon duke!!'"

The other angels all looked at her as if she was quite strange, but Rachel was more than used to that by now. The fact that she could see understanding dawning upon Vincent was priceless, though. "How...?"

"Alex did it," Rachel said. "Followed him right into Hell and got all medieval on his ass. Well, Roman, really. He had a gladius. Really knew how to use it, too. Ladies, you know what it's like to be with a guy who can really handle his... hrm," she frowned, looking back from the other two angels to Vincent, "no, I imagine you probably don't."

Vincent's eyes were wide. "How did this happen?"

"It was Colonel Mustard in the billiard room with the candlestick! Come on, I just told you! Ba'al and Skanktastic here tried to kidnap Lorelei and drag her back to Hell, and so Alex went after him and shanked his monkey ass!"

"You're sure?"

"Yup! Saw it myself. Assisted, even," Rachel smiled. She paused for effect before she said, "Right after I killed your old buddy Harrow."

The glorious angel's face went white. His mouth fell open.

"Here, catch," Rachel said. She tossed Vincent one of Harrow's large, bone-white teeth. It bounced up against Vincent's chest and then fell to the ground. "Aw, you didn't catch. I brought that all the way from Hell for you."

Her smile never abated, nor did her good cheer. The two women assisting Vincent were suitably stunned, while Lydia just looked on with a hateful glare. "Harrow is dead... by your hand?"

"Yep! Well. To be fair, I got an assist from a couple of very brave mortals. One of 'em rammed him with an SUV, and the other one clocked Harrow with one motherfucker of a right cross. I guess you were right, when demons aren't wearing human shells it really does just come down to courage for mortals. Sure worked for Alex, and Drew's one brave dude. Cute, too." Rachel looked sideways to the other two angels. "And I'm pretty sure he's single, ladies. I'm not saying I know for sure, but from the looks of things," she went on, holding up her two hands roughly ten to twelve inches apart, "I'll bet he's got a cock this—"

"Is there anything else?" Vincent snapped to cut her off. When she looked back at him, Rachel could see that his face had gone from white to very, very red.

"Just that the whole balance of power between good and evil in the city got a fan-fucking-tastic shift tonight. A whole fuck-ton of very evil supernaturals died here," Rachel answered. "You know. Vampires and sorcerers. Ones that lived in 'your' city. That and we left Ba'al's little corner of Hell in complete and utter chaos. And, y'know, we captured her, too," the angel added, giving Lydia a side-swiping kick in the butt as she was led past. Then she tossed the succubus a wink.

"Ssssoooo," Rachel said, once again folding her hands behind her back and twisting left to right, "what have you accomplished tonight, Vincent? Anything interesting?"





Chapter 94: After Battle Bonding with Friends...

Of necessity, the cars congregated on the street between Alex's home and Drew's. At so late an hour, everyone was quite worn out, but farewells were reluctant. No one wanted to be the first to leave.

"Wow. Well, um," Alex said, coming back out of his apartment building to meet the others, "Mom's not home, but I think she's okay." His cell phone was in his hand, and as he walked he stared at it awkwardly. Drew walked beside him with a highly amused grin on his face.

"How's that?" Wade asked. He and Taylor sat on the hood of the car that he had appropriated from the mansion for the ride back. Nearby, Jason sat in his car with the engine running and the window rolled down. Onyx and Molly stood between the vehicles.

"She got a hot date," Drew answered before Alex could say anything. "Stayin' over at 'uncle Eddie's' tonight."

Alex looked at him through narrowed eyes as Wade and Jason both snickered. "I really hate it when you stand so close to the phone."

Drew just chuckled as he walked past. He paused to give Taylor a hug, then waved and headed over to his end of the street.

"We all good, then?" Jason asked.

"Yeah," Wade nodded, "think we're all good."

"Goin' home, Jase?" Alex asked.

"No way. I'm already gonna catch hell from my parents again as it is. I might as well go over to Britney's. Or Brittany's. Y'know, I can't really remember," he confessed with a cocky grin.

Alex just smiled. "You totally saved my life twice now, y'know. You could've died. I'd be dead without you."

"Yeah," Jason shrugged. "Is this what leveling feels like?"

"No. That's when you go see Britney or Brittany or whoever."

"Right. Well, I'm gonna go do that, then."

"Okay. 'gratz' in advance," Alex grinned. He waved as Jason's car zoomed off.

Taylor hopped off the hood to go lean into the window of the second appropriated car, a Lexus that had carried home Alex, Lorelei and the witches. The succubus still sat in the front passenger seat with the window rolled down. Taylor leaned in, whispered something to her before kissing her softly on the lips, then moved over to hug Alex again.

"Part of me wants to stay with you two tonight," Taylor admitted.

"It's okay if you want to."

"No. I think I probably need to sleep in my own bed and decompress a bit. I'm sure I'll see you again soon enough. I don't really know how I could resist."

"So don't," Alex suggested. He let her go. She lingered long enough to kiss him lovingly before she turned away.

As she walked to her car, Wade caught his eye. "Ah'm gonna follow Taylor home, make sure she gets in alright," he said. It was more of an offer for a favor than a firm plan.

Alex just nodded gratefully. "I don't have the words, man," he said.

"Yeah. That's pretty much how it goes. Y'all take care," Wade nodded at Molly and Onyx before he got into his temporary SUV. "Wuz nice meetin' ya."

"Night," Onyx smiled. She and Molly waited until both Taylor and Wade had driven off. Then they calmly walked up very, very close to Alex. Onyx slipped a hand up his dirty, bloodied leather jacket. "So," she said.

Molly touched the other side of the jacket. "So," she echoed. Alex felt his heart race. He wasn't really sure what to say.

Onyx could tell. "You look like you're about to explode," she observed with no small amount of satisfaction in her small smile.

"Yeah," Alex swallowed. "I've, um, got to take care of Lorelei, though."

"You should. She seems pretty awesome now that she's not hiding from us. Anyway, we're gonna go home, tear each other's clothes off and make love until we pass out," Onyx nodded.

"Probably take the morning off to stay in bed together, too," Molly added.

"That's... um," Alex blinked.

Onyx leaned in close enough to whisper. "We just wanted you to know that we're okay with being open about these things with you, since you'll definitely be included sometime soon." Then she tugged him close and kissed him, longingly and hotly. As she did, Alex felt Molly come in close, working at his neck again with her lips.

The pair traded places after a long moment, with Molly claiming her own kiss and Onyx ensuring that the other side of his neck received equal attention.

"Any idea when you'll be able to see us?" Onyx asked him.

"Um. I don't know. Soon. I want it to be soon."

"I want it to be sooner," Molly winked. "You've got to make up for Onyx cheating me on that coin toss." The pair walked away then, pausing only to wave at Lorelei as they walked to their car.

Alex watched them go before he got back into the car. Finally, it was just him and Lorelei again. She was curled up against the passenger's seat on her left side.

"How are you?" he asked gently.

Her eyes fluttered open. "I am happier than I have ever been, and I am very much in love with you. I expect I shall be so from now on."

His smile was tender. "You're still in a lot of pain?"

Lorelei nodded closing her eyes for a moment. "Yes, master."

"We can go inside. We'll be alone. But I think we might be more comfortable back in the hotel. I didn't think to check out. Seems like I could probably take better care of you there with the extra space and privacy."

"That would be wonderful, master."

He nodded before he reached out to touch her face. He smiled a bit as she turned to kiss his palm. Then he turned to the task at hand, starting the car and heading off. In the silence that followed, Lorelei remained curled up onto the passenger's seat to watch Alex drive. Street lamps and the headlights of passing cars floated by, bringing him from shadow to light and back to shadow again. There was little traffic, nor much in the way of other delays. He drove with his eyes on the road.

The car would have to be abandoned. They had no idea who it belonged to, only that it was the property of someone who hadn't driven it away from the mansion. That was enough for them.

"You're very quiet," Alex observed finally. They were coming into downtown. For most of the ride, he was simply unsure if he should spoil the silence.

"I am thoughtful," Lorelei said. She was also clearly very tired, but her tone held nothing but soft, quiet affection.

Alex opened his mouth to say something more, but then closed it. Lorelei understood. There was much to say, but not while he was trapped behind the wheel of a car. Comfort and privacy were not far away now. She watched him as he drove, studying his movements and his demeanor with weary but interested eyes. Her soft smile remained. She noticed a change in him.

Once they parked the car in the hotel's garage, Alex got out and came around to get Lorelei's door. It was appreciated, but not unexpected. What she did not expect was that he wordlessly picked her up in his arms and carried her the entire way to the elevator, and then held her close even to the door to the honeymoon suite. She kept them concealed from the eyes of others for the whole of the journey. Other than that, Lorelei simply held close to him and enjoyed the shelter and support of his arms.

Not for the first time since his escape, Alex found himself very grateful that none of the vampires nor the sorcerers had bothered to steal the wallet out of his leather jacket. He let her fish out the key card to the door while he held her. Lorelei opened the door for them both and he carried her inside. The lights were still on.

"We really need our own place," Alex said.

"I will see to it very shortly, master," Lorelei assured him.

"Don't... no," Alex shook his head. His face turned toward hers to give her his undivided attention. "Lorelei. I'm not really worried about that right now. I'm only worried about you."

Lorelei touched the side of his face with one hand. "There was too much to say in the car, master," she said simply. "For both of us. You can put me down if you like."

He just looked in her eyes for a long moment. "I feel like I could carry you forever."

"That would create a number of complications in your daily life," Lorelei smiled, "but the sentiment is certainly appreciated. I dearly love feeling you be so... possessive of me, master."

He smiled a bit. "You keep calling me that."

"The word has a special meaning to me now. I don't want to call you anything else. Especially not while we are alone. Not if you will permit it."

"Honestly? I really love it." Alex looked around the room. "We both need to get cleaned up, but I don't know if... will a bath be okay for you? I don't know how hurt you really are or if...?"

"A bath would be wonderful, master," Lorelei nodded. "If you would share it?"

"That's what I was planning, yeah."

"I'll be happy to draw a bath for us, master."

"No," Alex shook his head. He brought her to the spacious tub but sat her down on the soft bath mat beside it. "I'm the one taking care of you tonight." She watched him as he got the water running. Then he threw off his jacket, kicked off his shoes, and knelt next to her. Alex reached out to stroke her hair. "You need sex to heal, don't you?"

Lorelei nodded. "Your desires will make me feel better, but your pleasure and satisfaction provide so much more." She offered a faint smile. "The farewells you received from Taylor and the witches were rather nice for me."

"I have to confess that sex isn't the first thing on my mind right now. But I want to help you however I can. Would it hurt you? I mean, even if it heals?"

His lover shook her head gently, still looking at him with that soft smile. "Do not try to force yourself, master. I could endure, yes, and soon it would only help me, but even I have limits to my lusts. As beaten and weary as I am at this moment, I want only to be with you. All else will come in time."

Alex nodded. He stroked her matted, bloodied and filthy hair. "You don't have to hide your features from me, y'know," he said. His voice was only somewhat above a whisper.

"The effort required is quite minimal, master."

He shook his head. "Show me."

Lorelei nodded. She looked down for a moment, then back up. It was as if Alex had blinked, but he had not. One moment, he was staring at a beautiful but battered woman. In the next, she was still beautiful, but even more bruised and bloodied, and now there were horns. Wings. The tail. An animalistic, predatory change in her eyes. He didn't care, and she could see it in his expression. She reached up to touch his face again. "I was so afraid, master."

"I know. I was, too."

"More than I feared being held in bondage again, I feared losing you. Losing your love. Master. They... Lydia did not lie to you about everything. I have manipulated you. Used you for my own needs. Pressured you into things you found uncomfortable simply to further my own desires. You know what I am. You see what I am."

"I do. You're the woman I love. You're the most amazing person I've ever met. You're who I want to be with for the rest of my life, however long that might be."

"I have been awful to you." There were tears in her eyes. "You suffered so much pain, your friends were endangered, all because of me. I am a monster. I will always be a monster. Whatever they did to you tonight... you were hurt so much. And you see what I am. I don't understand why you do not reject me. I don't know why you still want me."

"No," Alex shook his head, "I owe you everything. I knew you were a demon when I first kissed you. I've known what you were all along. I made my own decisions."

"But they hurt you so much, master. All because of me."

"I'm over it."

"You're not," Lorelei countered gently. "You're different now. I felt... Master, you wanted to die."





Chapter 95: Alex shares memories and his heart...

He looked down at the floor for a long moment, thinking. "I remembered a lot of things that never happened to me. It's all stuff that happened a long time ago to other people. I guess maybe they were me. I don't know. I remembered a lot of fighting, and dying over and over, and being very lonely and hurt." He shut his mouth, frowning as if to push through too much emotion all at once. He shook his head. "I remember pieces still, but it's mostly fading. But when they gave me that stuff, when Lydia was trying to make me choke on it, I remembered everything like it had all just happened two minutes ago.

"So in the beginning, yeah, I guess I just wanted it all to end. But I didn't want to lose you," Alex shrugged. "I would never want to lose you. I was so afraid of what they would do to you. So once I started sorting out my head again, all I could really think about was finding you."

"Do you feel sorted out now?"

"I think so. It's not so hard to think straight anymore. I don't feel like I'm misremembering everything that happens to me." Alex glanced at the tub. It had filled up enough to get in. Alex stood and continued to undress. Lorelei watched him, studying him quietly as he took off his shirt, his pants, his socks. He could see her doing it, and for the first time he didn't feel the least bit self-conscious. For perhaps the first time, when his boxer-briefs came off in front of her, he wasn't desperately erect. Yet even now, there was the flash of appreciation in her eyes.

Alex knelt down behind her then and helped her get out of her thoroughly trashed nightgown. "Just relax," he told her as she moved to rise. She looked up patiently and received a light kiss upon her neck with a smile. He picked her up in his arms yet again and carried her over into the warm water of the bathtub. It was certainly a bit of effort for him; while he was in decent shape and while she was light, setting her down was a little awkward. He managed, though, and soon she was reclined against one side of the tub.

The water and the contours of the tub were comforting. Despite her bruises and her scars, she found that the tub was far more soothing than she expected. It was entirely likely, though, that this was mainly because of the company. Though the warmth of the tub was so relaxing to her weary body that she could easily have drifted off to sleep, she couldn't take her eyes off of her young lover as he knelt down into the tub before her.

"You are different," Lorelei told him. Her gaze and her voice were thoughtful, but no less adoring than they had ever been. "More sure of yourself. It's in your movements, in your face. In your voice. You're still my Alex, but something seems to have settled for you."

Alex frowned a bit as he searched for words. He reached for a washcloth, pulling it through the water before raising it to Lorelei's face to gently clean away blood and grime. "I kinda feel like my life just makes more sense now. Not all the craziness. Not you, really, no offense," he grinned a bit, "but everything else. Like why I've always felt so lonely, y'know?"

"I believe I understand," Lorelei nodded. "Drew told me that you always seem to expect things to come to a bad end. Perhaps this is some holdover from another life. Or lives." There was a slight shimmer in her eyes as she looked at him. He continued to wash her with his touch as gentle as could be. Once her face was clear of all but her bruises and abrasions, he worked his way down her neck, liberally using soap and his own touch. "You must have done a lot of fighting in your past, too."

"Yeah. I guess so. That's... weird. I remember the parts of it that hurt. I remember a lot of fighting. I don't think I was ever really happy with that. I'm certainly not now. But at the same time, I just... I don't know. It's really scary to say this, but something about that really was... comforting? I don't know how to say it. Maybe I just felt like I was in my element for once. Ever since we first met, I've felt like a fish out of water. Then tonight I had a weapon in my hand, and I just thought, 'Hey, I can play this game. I'm good at this game.'"

"There is a world of difference between the enjoyment of violence and the sense of security and pride one might justly develop in one's skills. There is no shame in the latter. As I said, you seem more confident."

Alex just nodded and continued to tenderly bathe her. She allowed him his silence for some time. "Master," she finally said very softly, "there is such sadness in you."

"I think I've had my heart broken a lot," he told her. "I remember that more than the fighting or the dying. The faces are there, but I can't really describe any of them. It's like I've got one name after another on the tip of my tongue." His eyes fell away from hers. The words came out slowly. "I've been cheated on. A lot. I've been abandoned. Rejected. Betrayed. And I'm pretty sure that whenever it looked like it might actually work out, I've... died. Or she did. Or both of us. But I don't ever remember being happy for very long at all. Just long enough to know that I was really in love, and then it all fell apart." He took a long breath. A tear fell from his eye. "But mainly I just remember being very hurt and very lonely."

"Then perhaps we are not so different after all," Lorelei suggested. "Perhaps we have both longed for shelter for a very long time, and have only found it now." She watched him for a moment more. Her words sank in for him. She could feel it. Lorelei reached up to touch his jaw with her fingertips, turning him to look up to her.

"I love you, master. So much that it becomes part of what defines me for myself. To call you master is to swear my devotion to you, and my love. And while I do not speak for Rachel, I will tell you that no angel would give her heart to a mortal lightly or frivolously or by mistake. She may seem a bit... odd," Lorelei granted with a slight grin, "but I promise you she knows exactly what she does.

"We will both love you for the rest of your days, master. We have no intention of allowing those days to be short. And when those days finally pass... I speak only for myself, but I will find you in your next life, and I will love you then, too."

"You don't know how much it means to me to hear you say that," Alex managed to mumble.

Lorelei smiled softly. "Says the man who literally followed me into the Pit and slew a Duke of Hell itself because he would not give me up. Who rejected the charms of a succubus because she had harmed me. I know, Alex," Lorelei said quickly, raising her other hand to his opposite cheek. "I feel your desires, even those that repulse you. You know she taunted you to torment us both, don't you?"

"Yeah," Alex nodded. There was pain in his eyes, and guilt. "I'm sorry, Lorelei. I'm so sorry."

"Do not be. You have no reason to apologize. Master, surely you understand -- none know better than I what one such as Lydia is capable of doing to a man. Had you fallen to her charms, I would have... I would have been hurt by what she had done to you, but you would be blameless. Utterly blameless. Being with me makes you terribly vulnerable to seduction. I have always hoped this would be a happy flaw. You like being pursued. Anyone would. Normally, I would want you to give in and enjoy. I will always be there to protect and guide you. No one can steal you from me, yet you are free to indulge other women in the attempt. But this... master, you have no reason to feel guilt or shame."

"I wanted her," Alex confessed. A new tear came down his cheek, followed by another. "God, she had you tortured and was going to send you to Hell and I wanted to fuck her."

"Your body cried out for relief," Lorelei corrected, "largely because of changes that I have made in you. Master, I swear to you, there was nothing in your desires that I did not understand. My own body was ready to betray me as well. But you did not allow it in yourself."

"I would've," he pressed, the words coming out in something just short of a sob. "If she had kept coming onto me like that, I don't know how much longer I could've held out."

"You held out more than enough," Lorelei told him. "Long enough to free yourself. Long enough to free me. No one is unbreakable, master. But you are made of stronger stuff than anyone might ever guess." She paused, hesitating for a moment before she went on. "Had you wanted to claim Lydia as your own and satisfy any urge, I would have likewise held you blameless and even helped you keep her in line as your slave."

Alex looked up at her in shock, but Lorelei's soft, loving smile remained. "I am a demon, master. You are far more merciful than I. There wasn't a moment's doubt as to what you would choose, but had you gone down a darker path, I would certainly not have judged you poorly for it. Yet you did not. I would not have loved you less... but in the event, I love you all the more."

Gingerly, she moved in on Alex in the tub. Lorelei took up a place in his arms much like that which she had enjoyed all the way up to the room. "Let it go, my love," Lorelei told him. Her head leaned against his neck, her arms coming around his body. "You bear too much sorrow tonight already. Do not compound it by trying to carry it alone. I am here. Let it out."

He sniffed. "I'm not sure I've really got more tears," he said. "Kind of sorry for that. I don't want you to think I wouldn't let them out in front of you. I won't hide anything from you, Lorelei."

"I know, master. I know."

"It's... it's kind of awkward to ask this. Something I'm afraid of, really. How much did you get from Rachel and I being together?"

Lorelei smiled fondly. "I regained my wings." It was an obvious enough thing, but worth pointing out. "You asked before if I enjoyed being with you less than I enjoyed you being with others. Master, you and Rachel... it truly is as if I'm a part of you both. Taylor was wonderful. Onyx was even more moving. But Rachel... I know how you love her, master. Your feelings for her are every bit as beautiful as what you feel for me. I would do anything to keep you together."

"She said about the same thing for you and I. Not the connection part, but about wanting to keep you and I together."

"I am not surprised." Lorelei smiled up at him.

"Lorelei," he said softly, "I don't want to lose this intimacy with you. Ever. That's the one thing that I still really worry about. You're closer to me than anyone. Except that with Rachel, I felt the same way. And it was like I didn't have to say anything at all. I felt like she could read me like a book. The way you do, except differently. You draw it all out of me."

"It sounds like we all find our way," Lorelei suggested.

"But doesn't that cheapen it for us? Or for her and I?" Alex asked. "I don't... I don't want to sound like I'm playing favorites. I don't know if I really could. You're the most important person in my life, except saying that seems unfair to Rachel... but not saying it seems unfair to you."

"I feel your love for me, master, and it feels in no way subordinate to any other. I feel your love for her, and for others. I have no fear of sharing my primacy with Rachel. This will be a challenge for all three of us, but we want it, master. We all want it. The best thing you could do for me and for Rachel is to throw caution to the wind and carry forth with both of us. And with the rest of your relationships," she added encouragingly.

Feeling a bit exasperated, Alex chuckled at himself. He cuddled Lorelei close. "I have no clue how I'm going to handle all of this."





Chapter 96: Pampering Lorelei...

"I'll help," Lorelei assured him. "No jealousy. No competition. I told you what I want for you. For us." After a pause, she added, "I'll be very happy to keep your date book for you, master."

"That's... insanely sexy."

"And manipulative, and selfish. I may have ulterior motives in wanting to be the woman who runs your schedule." As if to illustrate her point, she trailed kisses up his neck while her fingers reached up to massage his temples.

"Hey," Alex said slowly, "you're supposed to let me take care of you tonight." He reached around, found the washcloth and soap again, and went back to his gentle, tender work.

Lorelei obediently let herself be indulged. Alex was no longer the least bit shy. He had bathed her here before, exploring her body, but on that day there was no actual work to be done. It was all just in fun. Tonight he took diligent care of her, cleaning her wounds and her body from head to toe. He stared at her naked beauty all the while as he washed her hair. Even with the marring of cuts and bruises she was still an incredible sight.

As he came to her long devil's tail and washed that, too, without complaint or hesitation, Lorelei felt a new wave of happiness wash over her. She allowed his touch, even reveling in it. Alex went from that to her wings, which faded in and out of substantiality as they moved around in the tub. There was a strange convenience to them. When they weren't at all in the way, they were perfectly solid. When they became an obstruction, they faded. Yet when Alex reached for them, caressing and cleansing the dirt and grime and blood from the leathery flesh, they were quite real.

"Master, you spoil me," Lorelei smiled with her back turned for him.

"How is this spoiling you? I feel like I've done more pleasing things for you than this."

"You have, and you have not, master. You love me and pamper me more like a queen than a slave, and yet... I feel much as I did the night you truly claimed me. The night you gave me my collar. We are what we are together."

A dozen well-intentioned words of equality and respect came to his mind. He cast them aside. She was absolutely right. "We are," he agreed. When he finally finished with her wings, he went back to fondly stroking her back and her sides. There wasn't any further need to wash her there, really. He was just being affectionate. Eventually, the wings faded away again, both to the touch and to his sight. He couldn't complain; it made it easier to touch the rest of her.

Lorelei began to purr as her master's touch became increasingly familiar. He was still very gentle with her, with her wounds closed and clean but not at all gone. For all her pain, though, she was capable of enjoying his caress. They were both on their knees in the center of the tub. "Master," Lorelei murmured finally, "only you can truly heal me."

"Is that an invitation?" He leaned in close, brushing her wet hair aside to kiss the back of her neck. One hand slipped around her side, moving up to the underside of her breast to softly cup it. Her nipple was gently brushed on either side by two fingers.

"I told you after our first time. My body is forever an invitation to you, master."

"Should we move to the bed?"

"If you like...but we haven't really used this tub yet." She let him play with her body. The succubus was enjoying every moment of it.

"I thought sex in the water wasn't actually that comfortable for women."

"I'm no ordinary woman, master."

Alex grinned. He moved in a bit closer, pulling her back up against his chest. Her naked ass slid against his groin. It left his hardened cock pushed downward between her cheeks. "You're sure we can do this without hurting you?"

Lorelei let out a pleasured sigh. She reveled in the nearness of him and that hand on her breast, the way his other hand stroked her arm and the feel of his breath on her neck. She can feel the only trepidation in him now was over her injuries; everything about his demeanor tonight had been comfortably, lovingly possessive, and that thrilled her. It was even in his voice, which up against her ear was a very welcome turn-on. He had gotten much, much better at all this in such a short time. "If you are gentle with me, master. At least at first."

He didn't respond right away -- at least, not verbally. His lips slowly enveloped her earlobe. Fingertips traced up and down her front, from her neck to her inner thighs, teasing almost everything along the way. Alex conspicuously avoided her pussy, only stroking through a bit of her hair without actually going for the lips. When he shifted a bit, though, his cock slid up between her legs and teased at the willing flesh between them.

It drew from Lorelei a little gasp. She felt his desires rising, felt them build upon the condition that her vanquished rival had put him in earlier and the passion that he had shared with Rachel. The thought put a grin on her face.

"Have you and Rachel developed the same bond that we share?" Lorelei asked.

Alex grinned. It was the feeling of his teeth gently scraping the muscles between her neck and shoulder that told her he was smiling. "I think you know the answer to that," he taunted her.

"Mnh. Master?" Lorelei asked innocently.

He kept her close to him. One arm slipped up between her breasts, where his fingers could play gently at her throat. His hand gently tightening around her throat causing her to moan softly. The other moved down, parting the lips between her legs. His cock slid across them again, sending a shudder through her. Nature had endowed him with a tool that would have done just fine, but it was Lorelei's magic that had made his sex into something that would rule her indefinitely.

She wanted it. Needed it. Felt willing to beg. That was when her eyes snapped open.

He had taken the lead before, but this was different. There was real confidence here. Real control. She started to tremble. "Master," Lorelei breathed, "you're seducing me."

Neither his tone nor his roaming, arousing hands indicated any intention of stopping. "You're a very naughty slave, Lorelei," Alex taunted lovingly. "You knew what would happen if Rachel and I went to bed together, didn't you?" Lorelei's next breath shook. His cock was agonizingly positioned to take her, but he did not move further. His hands continued to play with her, and his mouth continued to move along her skin from behind. "You knew the ritual wasn't finished."

"Yes, master," Lorelei rasped. Her body was on fire. She was already forgetting about the pain visited upon her this evening. "I wanted you to have her."

She was rewarded with an inch of penetration, but no more. Alex wouldn't move in further. He held himself there while holding Lorelei still. Obediently, the slave cooperated fully as she felt herself come alive with hunger. His cock felt absolutely wonderful. Lorelei had just enough of him to drive her out of her mind with the need to have the rest. Her master's intentions were clear, though. He was in control.

"You knew I wouldn't make love with her if I knew it would bind her to me, didn't you?" Alex asked. His voice was calm, patient. He spoke to her in decidedly seductive tones.

"Yes, master," Lorelei rasped. He pushed in a little further. Lorelei whimpered. It was such a thrill, and such a relief, and so maddeningly not enough of him. She could feel his desires and his pleasures. She knew this felt every bit as good to him as it did to her. His self-denial was incredible.

"Did you know that you really can lie to me, Lorelei?" Alex asked.

She whimpered. He gyrated, just a little, just enough to energize her with motion while not pushing that beautiful dick further inside her. "Yes, master," Lorelei confessed. "I knew a day or two ago that it was becoming easier to... manipulate through deception."

Her confession earned her further penetration. She let out a grunt of thanks, but even now there was still more to be had, and thus she had to have it.

"Why would you deceive me, Lorelei?" Alex asked.

"Only because I love you, master," Lorelei whimpered. She felt him push in more. It was a glorious torture. "I wanted you to have her. I wanted that so much. She is the greatest gift I could ever give you. She will love you, and you will love her... and I wanted that for you. I wanted to share that with you."

"Are you going to lie to me in the future?"

"Only if you wish it, master."

Alex smirked thoughtfully. "We'll have to talk about that later. But for now, I want only truth."

"Yes, master," Lorelei nodded.

"You're wrong about something, Lorelei. The greatest gift you could ever give me is yourself."

"You already have me, master. I have given myself to you already."

"So do it again," Alex suggested lustily.

Lorelei whimpered. Her love for him grew, as well as her need. "Take me, master," she begged. "I am yours. I am forever yours."

He pushed the rest of the way into her. Lorelei surrendered to him with a loud, grateful moan. He kept her upright for a moment as he withdrew and then pushed into her again. It earned him the same joyous noise from his love as before. For all his apparent control, he was trembling, too.

They were slow and gentle and consumed with mutual desire. Her condition forced them to control themselves, but that hindrance became a blessing of its own. Animal passion had to be restrained; deep, abiding love took its place instead. Lorelei gasped and moaned, utterly unafraid to show her weakness and vulnerability to him. She wanted him to know the effect he had upon her. She wanted and needed this intimacy.

They were together like that for a time, with Alex holding her steady and controlling everything but her intense emotions. As before, Lorelei's submissive streak was brought to the fore as she made whimpers and pleas of surrender to him. It only heightened the moment for them both.

"I want to face you," Alex said finally. They slowed, holding together for a long moment before Lorelei withdrew and turned as she ignored the pains of her body.

"My love," she murmured. There were joyful tears in her eyes. Lorelei slipped her legs around him and took him inside of herself again while their gazes held each other spellbound. Both of them gasped and trembled in ecstasy. Alex held her up in the tub, letting her control their pace with her hips. Lorelei's hands came to the sides of his face as she kissed him.

Somewhere in that kiss and the intense sensations between their legs, in their embrace and their heightened emotions, they both began to ignore their surroundings. Neither of them heard the rustle of black pants and a faded black t-shirt falling to the ground behind Alex. Nor did they hear the breathing, heavy like their own, of the newcomer. Nor did they notice the pair of bare, shapely legs that entered the tub behind Alex.





Chapter 97: Rachel's Indulgence...

Swept away by their intimacy as they were, Rachel's presence dawned upon them gradually rather than suddenly. Alex felt the hands upon his shoulder, but didn't realize at first that Lorelei's were both already occupied. The succubus was similarly distracted, and wasn't aware at first of the difference between her lover's touch and the angel's caress along her arms. Both felt so very good. Both felt so very affectionate.

"Please don't stop," Rachel breathed into Alex's ear as she melted up against his back, arms and legs sliding in around him. Her own voice was shaky with bliss. She had sounded just like this when they came together. "Love her, Alex. Don't stop. I feel it just as if you are taking me."

He obeyed. Alex didn't even really think about it. Rachel was there with him, asking him to do the one thing his body could hardly stop and that his heart couldn't bear to deny. Her presence and her consent added a new dimension of intimacy for both Alex and Lorelei. She stayed wrapped around him, occasionally daring to touch and stroke Lorelei's arms or shoulders. Before very little time had passed, the succubus took one of the angel's hands in hers as Alex made love to her in the water.

The pace did not quicken, but the blood certainly did. Alex and Lorelei both breathed more loudly, and so did Rachel. His embrace became tighter, as did both of his lovers. Lorelei ground against him harder, wanting everything he had to give inside her. She sang out her orgasm even as it approached, knowing instinctively that it was his time as well. Behind him, her head turned with her cheek against his shoulder, Rachel began to pant loudly as well.

They came together, three lovers unable and unwilling to deny themselves and one another such a gift. Alex flooded Lorelei within even as she began to spasm and lose control. Rachel clung to them, riding it out as joyously as either of the other two. The pleasure was so great that Alex nearly blacked out, but he hung on, partly because of the embrace of his two lovers and partly out of sheer determination to savor every moment as it happened. He continued to cum with Lorelei for a long time. Rachel stayed glued to his back, moaning in pleasure.

The rush subsided. Tension slowly passed. The three sank physically and emotionally into one another's embrace.

"Welcome," Lorelei whispered finally, giving Rachel's hand a slight squeeze.

The angel heard it as it was meant, both seductive and heartfelt. There was no mockery there, nor irony. "Thank you," Rachel whispered back.

Alex's arms were still around Lorelei. "I love you both so much."

"Yeah, you do," Rachel huffed with a grin.

"Master," Lorelei gasped, "I should rest a short while."

"Are you hurt?"

"Much less than before. Rachel needs you as much as I, and you need her. Let me rest. Let me see you and hear and feel you together." Lorelei brushed at his brow, looking in his eyes with a very fond smile. "This is to be our life together now."

Both Alex and Rachel gasped as he withdrew from Lorelei. "You're sure?" he asked.

The succubus nodded. "Better that we talk once passions are sated. We need no secrets from one another. We have all longed for this... haven't we?"

Rachel was already smiling and rising. Her arms slipped under Alex's, guiding him upward. "Hell motherfuckin' yes," she said simply. Rachel then grabbed a towel and began to dry him off. "We totally want this."

The intimacy and overwhelming joy of his time with his angel came flooding back to him as Rachel touched him and held him close. She smiled up at him, happily enjoying his own touch and his stare when he began to dry her off in turn. They were silent as they both worked. Each of them caught a glance from Lorelei at different turns, seeing nothing but approval and encouragement.

Energized and aroused by their closeness, Rachel led her man out of the tub and over to the bed. She paused there, reaching up to wrap her arms around his neck and kiss him. Her body melted against his. "I want you, Alex," she told him. "I'm always going to want you, in all the best ways."

Lorelei laid back in the hot water and watched as they sank onto the bed. Rachel laid back against it, with Alex crawling over her to trail kisses up her leg and across her chest. The succubus smiled at his patience and his control. His heart and his body burned with lust and need, yet here he was slowing down to ensure his partner was enjoying herself and truly ready for more. It would have been a simple thing but for the depth of his passion and desire. Restraint didn't come easy this time.

As it happened, his partner wasn't too concerned. Rachel giggled sexily and writhed, but before long, she hooked a hand behind his neck. Her voice was hungry: "Lover, I need you now."

In the bath, Lorelei watched with her chin resting on her arms folded on the side of the tub. She felt the sensations of Alex penetrating Rachel in her own pussy. Pleasure soared through her as it did the angel. They breathed as one, whimpered as one, felt their pulse quicken as one. Lorelei breathed out, "Master, yes," even as Rachel moaned, "Oh, lover."

While Lorelei shook with pleasure, Rachel felt electrified. She wrapped her legs around Alex at the hips, pulling him as deeply inside her as she possibly could. Her grip released him only enough to pull back for each thrust. The angel panted out encouragements fit for a porn star. "Use my fuckin' cunt, lover," Rachel begged. "Fuck me. Oh, don't ever stop fucking me, Alex. Please tell me you won't stop. Make me cum. Make me cum for you."

For all the vulgarity of her words, her tone was softly and sincerely loving. Rachel let herself go, holding her man as he saw to her needs and his own. As with Lorelei in the bath, neither partner was much for technique or ritual. Everything was about coming as close together as possible, joining and satisfying need and reaffirming passion and intimacy. Rachel pulled on him, attacking him adoringly with kisses and dirty words while he relentlessly and greedily fucked her.

"Yeah... pound me into the matress... just be selfish, lover... unh... 's good for all of... all of us that way... ooohhh," Rachel moaned. Her head rolled to one side, and as his cock plundered her she saw that Lorelei was in the tub moaning just as uncontrollably. "Cum with me. Cum with me, lover. Alex. Oh, wow," Rachel gasped. Soon she was indeed driven over the edge along with her partner, holding onto him tightly as involuntary but very welcome spasms of pleasure flooded her body. And just as Alex lost control, she orgasmed again squirting all over Alex as she trembled underneath him.

They lay together for long moments, trying to catch their breath while lovingly soothing each other with caresses and soft kisses. Rachel's arms and legs finally slackened in their hold over him. "Don't leave me," she said.

He didn't pull away. He did, however, rise up over her, taking to his knees while sliding his hands up along her legs. Alex held both of her ankles up over his shoulders while he remained buried within her. Rachel grinned up at him while he soaked up the sight of her bright, innocent beauty beneath him and the feeling of her warm, wet pussy wrapped around his cock to go with the visual.

"I'm not going to leave you, Rachel," Alex said. "I love you."

He thrust inside her again, drawing forth a moan and causing her eyes to flutter. What was almost as wonderful as the feel of him inside of her was the look of devotion and amazement in his eyes as he looked down at her. Rachel would have pulled him down to kiss her again, but he had complete control in this position and she couldn't help but bask in his adoration.

"Oooh," Rachel moaned, "I love you, Alex. But I can't... can't do anything for you positioned like this." It was all she could get out before the constant motion of his gorgeous cock in and out of her reduced her to grunts and gasps.

"You're not supposed to," Alex breathed. "You're just supposed to lie back and take it. Enjoy it and feel beautiful."

She did. She felt treasured, cherished and utterly ravished. Her reactions became louder as his movements became more and more needful. It wasn't long before she could feel him tremble, and the inevitability of him cumming inside her yet again set her off into another quivering orgasm that hastened his own.

"Don't ever stop doing that to me," Rachel gasped as they settled back down. "Don't ever stop. I'm all yours, Alex. All yours."

"I won't," Alex grinned, his own breath similarly heavy. "I'm yours, too."

"Not to dispute anyone's claims," came a purring, pleased voice, "but that does bring up a point we must all discuss." A very much healed Lorelei slipped in behind Alex, her hands sliding along his sides and her lips caressing the back of his neck. "Relax. Enjoy me, master," she whispered into his ear. "Let me pleasure you. Give your body over to me. Relax."

Turned on as he was, Alex was completely enthralled by the touch and the words of his succubus. His eyes rolled back until they closed while his breath grew ever heavier. She pressed her sensual assault, tracing down along his stomach and groin to slip her hand around his cock. Her fingers brushed against Rachel's split lips, giving the angel a shiver of pleasure and awe before Lorelei pulled Alex back and out.

He was entirely erect again. Lorelei had him completely enraptured. His cock was slick with the juices of his angel and his own release, while Lorelei's fingers were already wet with a warm silkiness that he had come to know all too well. Lorelei worked his cock slowly and expertly, making sure to slide her well-lubricated fingers over the head with as much care as she stroked his shaft.

Rachel lay back and watched, nearly as bewitched as Alex by Lorelei's moves. She felt every bit as much pleasure as he experienced, leaving them both weakened and completely in the demon's power. What's more, the sight of her lover being so masterfully swept away had the angel in awe. Lorelei was more beautiful than ever.

"Lydia spoke one truth, master," Lorelei murmured, nuzzling the side of his neck with both love and lusty confidence. "I have been holding back on you."

"You've been... how...?" Alex managed. "So good... how can you be... better?"

Rachel would have had a similar question, but it took real effort for her to track her surroundings. Lorelei indulgently turned Alex's cock down again, brushing its head against Rachel's cunt indulgently. That nearly had the angel's eyes crossing.

"I am made to kill through sex, master," Lorelei told him. "Yet I love you and I serve you. I am devoted to your protection. I would never allow you to come to harm. I have had to manage my own needs. I have had to take care in how far I allow passion and sensuality to bring us both. But now... now we have someone here who can keep you alive and sane through my most intense assaults."

The succubus turned her gaze to Rachel. "If you will cooperate, of course," she added finally. There was a long silence. Lorelei continued to work Alex's stiff erection, which left both he and Rachel trembling and breathing heavily.

"I will never give him up, Rachel," Lorelei said in smooth, quiet, even comforting tones. "Alex is my love, my master and my first and best friend. I wish to give him all that I can, and all that I am. The question is whether or not my interests in this can include you?"

The angel was as utterly helpless before Lorelei as Alex was. Rachel's legs were still spread around Alex's. Almost unwillingly, Rachel stroked her newly aroused sex as Lorelei manipulated her lover, and through him the angel was teased maddeningly. "I know you love him," Rachel whimpered. "I'd never come between you two."





Chapter 98: Lorelei and Rachel come to terms...

"But you must," Lorelei countered. Even while arguing, she was alluring. "Alex and I share total intimacy. Would you not have to take away from some portion of that in order to have your own?"

"No," Rachel whispered. Alex was hardly even a part of the conversation, so swept away as he was by this demon in whom he indeed placed endless love and endless trust. Rachel had no doubt that Lorelei could control him like this at her whim, and that all he would ever know from it would be sheer bliss because Lorelei would never use it for anything but affection. "We can have our own without taking from you. I don't want to take from you."

"Time is finite," Lorelei reminded her, "even for beings such as we. Alex can only share so much. We will inevitably come to cross purposes."

"We both protect him," Rachel said. She gasped as the succubus indulged her with another brush from the head of his cock. "We both love him."

"We do," Lorelei conceded. "But consider, Rachel... He dreamt of marrying me once. A sexual fantasy, but the thought exists nonetheless. Would you consent to that? What would you do? Would you be his lover and mistress while I was his wife?"

"Yes!" Rachel panted. It sounded wonderful to her. She was utterly sincere in her reverence for the love between Alex and Lorelei. The mere thought of the two marrying, particularly with her own love continuing, nearly sent her into orgasm.

"And if the situation were reversed? If he married you, would you tolerate me as his lover and mistress? Would you be happy to stand by as his bride while he fucked his slave lover at his whim?"

"Yes," Rachel groaned. She honestly couldn't tell if that was better than the previous proposition or not. "I would want that... in our vows. Yes."

"Would you stand for his marrying us both? Or neither of us?"

"Yes! Yes!"

"And if you were his bride, you would allow him all his other women?"

"Them, too."

"There will be many, if I have anything to say about it," Lorelei warned her. "Casual trysts. Decadent orgies. A harem of devoted, intimate lovers."

"Suh... s-sign me up for that last two," Rachel swallowed.

Still upright on his knees between the two women, Alex was barely even on the same plane of existence. Lorelei had him completely enraptured. Her breasts slid against his back, her hips brushed over his ass and her left hand stroked here and there all over his body while her right hand continued to slowly, sensuously work his cock.

Lorelei licked the side of his neck, savoring the taste of his flesh, before she looked at Rachel again. "How can you be so sure that you will be able to accept all of this?"

The angel's eyes widened. Mustering every bit of willpower within herself, Rachel sat upright and got to her knees in a single swift movement. She rose face to face with the other two occupants of the very large bed. Without a moment's hesitation, she planted her mouth directly on Lorelei's and kissed her passionately.

Through Alex, Lorelei had found an incredible erotic and emotional pleasure in intimacy with benevolent souls. After thousands of years of seducing only the wicked and the twisted, Lorelei discovered in Alex all the joys of real, genuine, selfless love. Taylor and Michelle had confirmed for Lorelei that there was greater pleasure to be found in lying with good rather than with evil. It held all the allure and excitement of forbidden fruit and all the warmth and comfort that defined good in contrast to evil.

Then she learned what it was like to be kissed by an angel.

Lorelei's attention fell away from Alex. Held between this pair of stunningly beautiful, naked, sensual women, it wasn't as if his senses came back to him suddenly. Their touch was enough to keep him mesmerized.

When they fell away from him, finding themselves uncontrollably crawling all over one another and each completely lost to the other woman's kiss, the wonderful haze finally lifted from Alex's mind. His eyes fluttered open. He expected, blearily, to see Lorelei there, or maybe Rachel. Instead, there was just the head of the bed and the painting of cherry blossoms on rolling hills that hung above it. Had anyone been watching him, he would have looked rather comical.

He blinked. "Wait, what just happened to me?"

There was a whimper. A moan. A gasp. A bare leg brushed against his. Alex turned to see the two most gorgeous women he'd ever seen in this life or any other wrapped in one another's arms. His jaw dropped. They kissed one another fiercely, hands gripping at hair and breast and hip. Their legs were a writhing tangle of beauty. Rather than fighting over Heaven and Hell, or over good or evil or even over him, they seemed to be fighting over who would submit to the passion offered by the other first.

"Wow," Alex mumbled.

The kiss finally broke off. "Fuck her," they both demanded breathlessly at the same time.

His eyebrows shot up in wonder. He didn't know whether to be thrilled or amused. "Help me, Alex," Rachel pleaded, "she won't lie back and let me do her."

"Master, I have to have her," Lorelei begged.

That settled it. He was thrilled and amused. "I thought you two were going to stop fighting?"

Rachel opened her mouth to say something more to him. Lorelei took that as the perfect opening to kiss her neck. Rachel shuddered. Whatever she was about to tell him was lost in the moment.

"Master," Lorelei said once she had Rachel panting so hard that a moment could be spared, "help me. We will take her together."

"No," Rachel whimpered. "Her first."

Grinning, Alex grabbed a leg at random. They were too well intertwined for him to tell at a glance whose was whose. He simply put his hand on a shapely calf and pulled. Lorelei gave out a bit of a yelp as she slid away from Rachel on the bed. The succubus found herself on her back in front of Alex.

"Yes!" Rachel hissed in triumph.

It was so much for the better, Alex decided. Lorelei was his slave, after all; she'd go along with anything. Alex put his hand on Lorelei's knee opposite the leg he'd grabbed and pushed it gently aside onto the bed, leaving her spread before him. He leaned in to kiss her perfectly toned belly softly. His kisses trailed lower. The trend quickly stifled Lorelei's protests.

Rachel crawled over to Lorelei, looming upside-down over her face to kiss the succubus. Lorelei would not be denied. She reached up to slide her hands up the angel's sides to caress her breasts. After a moment of this, Rachel felt herself getting even more worked up.

Then Lorelei let out a loud, submissive moan. Alex had let his tongue slip down to Lorelei's wet lips. He licked her there once, quickly, and then after a moment's pause slid his tongue down across her labia with much more direct and intense contact.

"Rachel," he said.

"Yeah, lover?" the angel grinned at him mischievously.

"Let her lick you." His work on Lorelei's pussy was only interrupted long enough to get the words out.

"What?" Rachel blinked in shock.

"I want you to crawl over her," Alex said, looking up at her from his loving feast, "and put her head between your legs." Underneath him, Lorelei quivered in complete surrender.

"Now?"

"Yes."

"But I thought we were gonna--?"

"You have to do as I say, Rachel," Alex reminded her playfully.

The angel gave him a shocked look, but the grin that teased at her mouth told him that she wasn't very mad at all. "You're in a lot of trouble when that part of the ritual wears off... master," the angel said with narrowed eyes. Then, plainly feigning a huff, Rachel tossed her hair as she turned her back to him and obeyed. Rachel slid her right leg over Lorelei's head, lowering herself to where the succubus could reach her. "Wow, that felt good to say," she whispered just loud enough for the succubus to hear.

Lorelei wasn't entirely incoherent from the pleasure delivered by Alex's kiss. "Give it a chance," the succubus suggested. "You may come to love it."

"I don't know if oooohhh fuckfuckyes!" Rachel went absolutely rigid after the first contact from Lorelei's long, expert tongue upon the angel's pussy. Lorelei's breath was hot, and her own body still shook and squirmed under the intimate kiss of her master. Her hands slipped up along Rachel's nude form to reach her breasts, which they fondled and teased and finally began to knead and pinch as Lorelei's tongue explored her from within. The succubus channeled all the energy and arousal she received from the mouth on her own pussy into her attention on Rachel's sweet pussy. She hungrily sucked out Alex's cum from her. The angel had never experienced anything like this before, let alone the skills of such a master.

As with every time Alex had gone down on Lorelei, the succubus soon found herself cumming freely and constantly. Rachel didn't have quite the same vulnerability to Lorelei, but the succubus threw herself into the task with every bit of experience and supernatural talent at her command. The angel felt her flesh deeply invaded by fingertips and tongue, felt the caress of Lorelei's mouth over her labia, whimpered and came as the succubus attacked her clit. Alex took his time with things, and Lorelei was no slacker. In the end, all Rachel could do was endure and love it.

"Oh, fuck," the angel finally moaned as the assault slackened. Her hands were on Lorelei's head, fingers interlaced with beautiful black hair and her grip was something between affectionate support and a greedy pull toward her pussy. "Are we... are we doing something else?"

"I am," Alex said. "Lorelei's not."

"Yes, master," Lorelei smiled. She leaned in and began attacking Rachel's pussy at his instruction. Then she stopped, sucking in hard on Rachel's lips. The angel gasped aloud; she felt it happen, too. Alex pushed his cock deep into Lorelei, taking advantage of both her aroused and thoroughly wet state and her natural, instant acceptance of his body.

Once again, the bond between the three took over. Lorelei and Rachel found themselves awash not only in the sensations they shared together, but also in the feedback of pleasure they received from Alex.

Lorelei held on to her self-control enough to continue to service Rachel, but beyond that she gave herself over to Alex's ravishing. Rachel was utterly gone; all she could do was hold herself up for Lorelei and moan in ecstasy.

Priority one for Alex was the indulgence of his lovers. That overriding thought gave him the focus and self-denial to prolong the experience for both Lorelei and Rachel. Again, Lorelei found herself unable to stave off her orgasm while Alex took her. Rachel had much the same problem. The two were cumming long before Alex finally built to orgasm. He held his pace steady, accepting the maddening need to cum rather than fiercely pushing toward it. The young man just kept on plunging into his slave, listening to her and his other lover as they reveled in their own pleasures and the ability to share in his. A chorus of grunts and gasps announced his climax as all three got off simultaneously, both women sharing in a final orgasm while his cock flooded Lorelei within.

"Oh please," Rachel whimpered, "oh please let me lay down. Oh please, Alex."

"Go ahead," Alex smiled. He reached out to caress her back and help her balance as she pulled one leg away from Lorelei, then fell over onto her side unceremoniously on the bed.

"I love you," Rachel said. "I love you, Alex... Lorelei... wow."

"Master?" Lorelei murmured. Alex had not withdrawn. Rather, he stayed buried within her, and as she looked on the succubus found Alex lying down on top of her, pistoning slowly into her warm cunt again.

"Thank you," Alex grinned, kissing her deeply.

"Mmmh," Lorelei moaned as the kiss finally ended. "For what?"

"For helping me with her," he answered. "I think that deserves a special reward."

"Yes, master," Lorelei grinned. She wrapped her arms around him and reveled to the sound of Rachel's sympathetic grunts and gasps as master claimed slave yet again.

"Master, you still have yet to claim my ass," Rachel panted exhaustedly.





Chapter 99: Preparing to Face the Music...

"Sun's about to come up," Alex mused. He lay on his back, staring up at the ceiling.

"You should have at least a little sleep, master," Lorelei told him. Her head rested against his chest just below his right shoulder. One hand indulgently but more or less aimlessly stroked his cock. He was erect as usual, but overall he felt very much sated by the night's antics. "We will not leave you. I am weary enough myself to sleep."

Rachel rested against his left shoulder. Like both of her bedmates, she had for a long while been the center of attention until she had begged and pleaded for a chance to reciprocate. She felt very well loved. "I'll have to leave a couple hours after the sun comes up," she said.

"You never told us what happened with Lydia," Lorelei noted.

"Hell, we hardly even talked about the three of us like we were supposed to," Alex smirked.

"No," Rachel said. A hand slid forward to Lorelei's, luring it from her grip on Alex so that the two held hands together fondly. The angel and demon shared a quiet, serene look. "I think we settled most everything between us anyway."

"You have two lovers," Lorelei told him simply. "One is your slave. The other is not. Enjoy us, master. Love us. We will work things out over time, and we will all be very happy together."

The angel smiled and squeezed the hand of the succubus. "Very happy," she reiterated sweetly.

"Well, so what happens when you go?" Alex asked.

"Lydia gets judged. And so do I."

"I still don't see how you can be in trouble for falling in love with me. Like you can just decide who you will and won't fall in love with?" Alex scowled. "How are you supposed to control that?"

"One can certainly exert more control over one's feelings than romantics and idealists would willingly admit," Lorelei countered. "Regardless, though, there is what happens in one's heart, and then there is the question of what one does about it."

Rachel nodded a bit. "I wasn't supposed to fall for you," she said, "and I damn sure wasn't supposed to go to bed with you."

"What about Lorelei?"

"Oh, there'll be scandal and some of my peers will be just fucking aghast," the angel sighed, "but there's no precedent for someone like her." Rachel's words were matter-of-fact, but her gaze was both loving and reverent. "I can defend my actions. I'm comfortable with what I've done with you both. I'm in love. That's not going to change. And they won't take me away from you, Alex. Don't worry about that."

"But?"

"But there are things that wouldn't be a big deal to a mortal that mean a lot to an angel," Rachel frowned again. "Censure by my peers. Looking like a jackass in front of everyone. Ostracism. I'm not so hung up on the opinions of others that I'd do things differently to win approval, but it's not like you just pissing off co-workers or classmates over a debatable matter of principal. These are angels, y'know?"

"What really scares me is that I could also be removed from my post altogether. I'll still protect you because I love you. But being named as a guardian angel has meant a lot to me. It's a real honor. There are a bunch of posts that are ranked higher in the hierarchy, but guardian angels do real work. It's the real thing. If they take that away... I'll be crushed. I'm gonna know forever that I was a guardian angel for a whole week and I blew it, and everyone else will know it, too."

"Even after all you have done?" Lorelei asked. "They would remove you after all that has changed as a result of your actions?"

"Like I said, this is all unprecedented." Rachel sniffed and cuddled up to Alex more. "I gave up worrying about pleasing everyone with how I acted a long time ago, but this... hell, after the way I made such a fool of myself over Vincent for so long and then all the dead-end stuff I've had to do ever since because of those choices, I've felt like a complete loser. It's been nice to feel like a winner for once. And I have because of you two."

"Your own involvement has been pivotal," Lorelei said. "We would be dead now without you. We would never have fallen in love. I might still rank among the servants of the Pit. Who knows how this would have turned out had you acted differently?"

"God knows I'm grateful," Alex huffed. "I know you're not a loser. Not at all."

Rachel smiled a bit. "There's what God knows and then there's what others decide to see and what not to see." She kissed his chest, then settled back against it. "Anyway. I'll have to go back to face the music."

"Do you have to go alone?" Alex asked.

She glanced at Lorelei, who looked at her with much the same question. "You wouldn't be able to see anything but me," Rachel told him. "Lorelei might be able to see, or might not. It would all depend. They might gather at a church, and it may be inhospitable to her."

"Have you any say in the location?" Lorelei wondered.

"I dunno. I might." She fell silent for a moment. "You really want to come with me?"

"I love you," Alex said simply. "You wouldn't let me face something like this alone."

"You braved Hell itself for Alex and for me," Lorelei agreed. "What sort of lover would I be if I did less for you?"

Rachel's eyes stayed on Lorelei's for a long moment. She asked quietly, "Is that what we are? Are we lovers?"

"I see no reason to drag out what is plainly inevitable. I am admittedly new to the concept," Lorelei smiled fondly, "but I have had an excellent teacher, and what I have learned from him would certainly seem to apply." Lorelei glanced downward along the body of the man underneath and between them. "It seems that all this makes him very happy, too."

"Hey, I don't wanna push anyone toward anyth—oh, wow," Alex groaned. The hand was back on his cock, joined by another, and the heads against his shoulders slowly rose and began trailing kisses down his chest and stomach.

"Hush, master," Lorelei said before licking the length of his cock. Rachel's tongue followed a moment later. They paused to kiss, and then began alternating attention upon his flesh. As Rachel's mouth sank down on his cock, Lorelei looked to him with eyes fluttering in sympathetic pleasure. "We're having a bonding moment."

************

"I'm totally gonna lose my job."

"Huh. You and me both," Rachel agreed dryly.

"You will not lose your job, master," Lorelei said. "For all anyone at your office knows, you are still recovering from being shot last week. It's entirely understandable. Additionally, you have me to help you straighten things out."

The three sat on a simple bench in the courtyard of St. Mark's Cathedral with Rachel in the middle. Each of the others held one of the angel's hands. The angel wore the simple white dress that had been left behind in the hotel room when Molly and Onyx summoned her.

Alex turned to look at Lorelei, who watched her surroundings passively through sleek, stylish sunglasses. She wore her stylish pantsuit once again. "I thought you didn't want me to have a job anyway?" Alex asked. "Doesn't it get in the way of my constantly getting laid?"

A quiet smile spread under Lorelei's sunglasses. "I have seen your office in your dreams, master. It's like a law firm on a television show. So many lovely ladies. I would hate to take you away from such a playground before you've had a chance to truly enjoy it."

"Susan has a huge crush on you," Rachel declared simply.

"Huh?" Alex blinked.

"She thinks you're adorable and sweet, and that you've got a great ass. She's right, by the way. Anyway, you remind her of a guy she had it pretty bad for in college. She loves the way you look at her, mostly because you always smile without leering at her and you look her in the eye rather than staring at her tits or her legs. She's casually seeing someone, but it's not a committed thing. She dump him in a heartbeat for you."

"How do you--?"

"I'm an angel. I see things. I know things. I watched you at work."

Lorelei's smile was a bit more interested now. "Which one is Susan?"

"The skinny attorney with the wavy dirty blonde hair," Rachel said quite matter-of-factly. "The really pretty one. Kind of tall. Angular features. Shy smile."

"Oh. Alex is rather fond of that one."

"I know."

"I'm right here you know," Alex put in.

"I know, lover. That's why I'm saying. You could make that happen, y'know." His jaw hung open.

"What would she want with a guy like me?"

The angel and the succubus who were head over heels in love with him turned to stare at him like he'd spontaneously grown a cat out of the side of his head. "Well, I mean... just... she doesn't know about... um."

"She hasn't asked you out because obviously there's all that workplace relationship bullshit," Rachel told him, "and more importantly, she's almost eight years older than you. You might be really mature, but that's still significant. Naturally she figures that'd be pretty awkward. She feels a little dirty even fantasizing about it. Can't really say Lorelei or I have any right to pass judgment on anyone for cradle-robbing, though. After all, we are several millenia older than you."

"Oh, I could certainly get her past all those hang-ups," Lorelei said dismissively.

"Can I watch?" Rachel asked Alex. "I've been accused of being a voyeur. I'm starting to think it's true. But, y'know, fuck it, right?"

"You're both talking about hooking me up with another woman?"

"It is a new week after all," Lorelei shrugged. She glanced at Rachel. "I was worried that you would not be open to this."

Rachel snorted. "What, me object to him spreading some affection and joy? Are you kidding? It's not like he won't be a gentleman about it. No, seriously, Alex is my personal porn star. I can't watch him enough. And now it'll be a million times better than just watching. Obviously I like having him myself better than watching, but still. I can't be completely selfish. Plus there's us. If we're gonna get any alone time together, we've gotta make sure he's happily well-distracted, right?"

Lorelei responded with a cool, controlled smile. It gave the angel a shiver. "How is it that we're not both crawling all over you right now?" Rachel asked in a small voice.

"We are in public, love. I must be gentle with you here."

Alex hadn't lost his self-conscious frown. "You two both realize that I've already got three other women I'm involved with, right? I mean is that not enough? Shouldn't we maybe cool it for awhile?"

"You'll hold that thought for about two days, master," Lorelei remarked dryly.

"Right about time for him to go back to work," Rachel grinned. After a pause, she said, "Plus that hot office manager of his has a very clear and comfortable understanding with her husband."

"Oh, really?" Lorelei asked with new interest.

"Hey, now wait a minute," Alex protested, though he was now fighting off a sheepish grin. "We said no married women."

"Master, I distinctly recall that you were ambiguous regarding wives who had a clear arrangement with their husbands," Lorelei pointed out. Her tone was cool and collected, with a layer of mild reassurance that only barely covered how amusing she found all of this. "The only clear response you had on that point was that you did not want to cause any harm. I will also point out that on the very night we openly professed our love to one another, you conceded that you do in fact want my assistance in securing trysts with other women. Commanded it, in fact. This can't possibly exclude Rachel's involvement. You'll simply have to accept our interest as yet another aspect of our love."

Alex opened his mouth to say something but shut it again instead. He was at a loss for words for the moment. It was maddening to hear them talk about setting him up like this when he was still coming to grips with his rapidly expanding love life. At the same time, though, he couldn't deny to himself or to them -- were they to press him on it -- that the conversation both thrilled him and deepened his feelings for Lorelei and Rachel alike.

Virtually everything the pair did seemed to do that to him. He sat watching them both as they looked on toward the cathedral. Even now he felt like his love continued to grow. He wondered if it would always be this way.

Then he wondered what in particular the two were looking at. Rachel's face seemed a bit grave. Lorelei maintained her poker face, yet even with her sunglasses on Alex could tell that she was tracking something with her eyes. "What is it?" Alex asked. "Are they here?"

"They have been here for some time," Lorelei answered. "We are only now being approached."





Chapter 100: Heaven's Judgement (Part 1)

Rachel seemed to be watching someone or something approach as Lorelei spoke. Alex could read on her face that she was becoming anxious. She seemed to have a bit of trouble getting her next words out: "Alex," she said quietly, "close your eyes for a second."

"Huh?" he asked.

"Please. Just a second."

He did so. When he opened them again, he saw a hand pulling away from his face. It was a woman's hand, and the woman herself stood directly in front of him. She was tall and blonde, dressed much like Rachel but appearing to be a good twenty years older. Like Rachel, she was very beautiful. Also like Rachel, the woman had large, white wings that grew from her back. There was boundless kindness in her eyes.

"Hello, Alex," the angel said with a soft smile.

There was an odd note of familiarity in her voice. "Do you know me?" Alex asked.

She tilted her head to one side a bit. "I did once, a very long time ago, though you did not know me. I am Hannah." She paused. "I am sure you have been told many times how little there is that can be explained to a mortal, but I will say that it is very nice to finally speak with you after so very long."

Hannah's gaze turned to Rachel. Alex saw that his lover looked to the other angel with an expression of sincere, obvious respect, but also nervousness. "Is it time?" Rachel asked.

Hannah nodded. "We have been ready for a short while. No one was certain whether you meant to merely speak with Alex and Lorelei here before coming inside or not. After awhile the waiting became a bit awkward."

Rachel shrugged. "I'm ready."

"May we accompany her?" Lorelei asked.

The angel frowned. "We considered that this might be your intention. It is highly unusual for an angel to show herself to a mortal as I have to Alex just now, but I thought it understandable and ultimately harmless. He has seen so much already. But to bring him inside for such a congress might perhaps be going a bit far. And as you have already no doubt sensed, the cathedral is not exactly welcoming to one such as yourself... though be assured that no angel here will do you any harm, Lorelei. You have certainly proven yourself to be an exception to the rule among your kind."

Alex felt himself bristle at that a bit, but Lorelei merely tilted her head in something of a bow. "I am honored," the succubus said simply.

"Rachel shouldn't have to face this alone," Alex frowned.

"She will certainly not be harmed, and the matter will be resolved quite swiftly," Hannah assured him. "This is neither a trial nor an inquest. There is no need for a lengthy and dramatic debate. Angels differ in opinion, but they are not wont to obfuscate or misdirect. Those who sit in judgment are ready to announce their decisions as soon as Rachel enters."

"She doesn't even get to say anything in her own defense?!" Alex blinked.

"They already know everything they need to know," Rachel shrugged quietly. "I did what I did."

"Indeed," Hannah agreed. "There is not much to discuss, merely for Rachel to face the judgment of her actions by her peers and superiors."

"All the more reason for those who love her to stand beside her," Lorelei said.

Hannah blinked. She did not lose her composure, but the statement clearly caught her attention. She looked from one face before her to the next. "You love her, Lorelei?"

"I do," Lorelei replied simply. "Much as I love Alex."

Hannah fell silent for a long moment. Again, she looked to each of them thoughtfully. "For Alex, this would merely be inappropriate. For you, however, this could be acutely painful. Are you sure?"

"It is still far less than what Rachel and Alex both faced on my behalf last night."

"It is less at that. Rachel's life is not in danger, nor is her freedom," Hannah pointed out. "The situation is not at all so grave. Again, I expect the cathedral will prove to be a place of great pain for you. I would have you understand that before you decide."

"I have already decided," Lorelei said.

"You don't have to do this, Lorelei," Rachel whispered.

"I do," Lorelei replied to her lovingly.

The angel then looked to Alex. "Tell her not to go in there. Please."

"I can't do that," Alex shook his head.

"You can totally do that. You rule her. She gets hot when you boss her around. She'll obey you."

He shrugged. "I'm not that kind of master." After a moment, he added, "Let's face it. We're all wrapped around each other's fingers."

Rachel looked pleadingly at each of her lovers again, then back up at Hannah with something of a helpless expression. The older angel simply nodded.

"Very well," Hannah said. "Please come with me."

"You can't seriously think you won't catch shit for this," Rachel said to her as her lovers followed.

"I'll simply attribute it to your very terrible influence," Hannah smirked as she led the three of them to the cathedral. "Alex, you will find that much of what you see will not stay in your memory long. This is natural. Do not be alarmed when your recollection of this day becomes a bit cloudy. As it stands, what will happen here will likely seem very disjointed and confusing to you because you will lack a great deal of context."

Alex frowned a bit. "Awesome. I'm confused already," he deadpanned.

"That's the spirit," Rachel snorted. She gave his hand a squeeze, then let it go.

As they came close to the cathedral's doors, Alex saw hazy shapes fade into his vision. The closer he got, the more they looked like people, until finally he realized he was standing among angels. They were of every ethnicity and a range of ages, from young adults like Rachel to those who looked much older than Hannah. The only unifying factors were that they were all healthy, vibrant, dressed all in white, and seemed rather surprised as Alex, Lorelei and Rachel approached. Some even looked a bit awed.

Hannah faded right through the doorway. Rachel half-frowned and half-smirked as she grabbed the doorknob and opened it.

As she came to the steps of the cathedral, Lorelei took in a sharp, audible breath. Both Alex and Rachel looked back to her. Alex immediately took her hand. Rachel reached out to do so as well, but Lorelei waved it off. "I will be fine," Lorelei said in a strained, quiet voice. "We are with you."

The angel frowned. She didn't like it, but she kept walking a few steps ahead. As much as she wanted to reach out to Lorelei, neither woman wanted there to be any ambiguity as to who held whose hand for support in front of the other angels. Rachel glanced at Alex, who merely nodded and stuck close to Lorelei. Then she turned and moved in to the cathedral.

As Alex followed, he felt Lorelei tremble and tense. As before, she maintained her poker face, but Alex was beginning to learn how to read her. She walked with much the same stiffness as she had the night before. There were no boils upon her, nor burns on her skin as Rob Gorge had suffered, but she was clearly in a lot of pain. The succubus kept her gaze fixed on Rachel's back. Alex kept walking with her.

They passed through the foyer. Alex saw that it was full of angels, most of them talking amongst themselves until Rachel walked through. That caught their attention and silenced conversation. When Alex and Lorelei followed, however, there were open gasps of disbelief.

The main chamber of the cathedral took Alex's breath away. As he followed Rachel inside, he found the entire space positively awash in the bright white light of several hundred angels. There were so many of them on the floor that dozens more hovered above in the space offered by the vaulted ceiling. Part of him wanted to run away and hide. Part of him felt very, very small and insignificant. Part of him wanted to sink to his knees and beg forgiveness for every misdeed in this life and anything he could remember from the scattered memories of his former selves.

The part of him that could not bear to let down either of the women he so dearly loved kept him walking.

There was conversation in the cathedral before, as there had been in the lobby, but it all hushed in a ripple of silence as Rachel entered. Angels in the aisle parted for her. Rachel walked slowly toward the altar, where half a dozen angels stood like some sort of committee. They all looked up at her gravely.

Then they saw the mortal and the demon at his side.

"Blasphemy!" shouted one of them. Vincent's face screwed up in rage, and he immediately drew forth his sword. It was larger than Rachel's, burning with a bright flame. An orb of light glowed brightly in the pommel. "That wretched thing does not belong here!"

"She comes in peace," Hannah replied as Vincent strode forward, "and in love. She is also under my protection here. You will not harm her, Vincent. Put away your sword."

"You go too far, Hannah," Vincent growled.

"Hello, Vincent," Lorelei said coolly. It cut off the retort that Rachel was about to throw out. She turned to the succubus with her jaw hanging open. Alex felt a bit surprised, too, but he didn't exactly know why this seemed any more odd than anything else that was happening.

"You know him?" Rachel blinked.

"Yes. Well. Not in a Biblical sense," Lorelei added with a small grin made all the more enigmatic by her sunglasses. "But we have met." She was still looking at Vincent, whose face remained gripped with anger yet he no longer moved forward. "I am unsurprised he has never mentioned this to anyone. His advances were rather oafish and comical."

Vincent's face screwed up in even greater indignation and rage. "One more word from your foul mouth in this space and I will--!"

"Stop this!" shouted Lawrence. He stood at the altar, looking on with disapproval. "Hannah," he said more calmly, "why have you brought us to the sight of this mortal? Why have you brought this demon among us?"

Hannah did not answer right away. She looked calmly at Vincent until he glanced over to her, then held out her hand in a gesture to walk with her to the altar. At length, he did just that. Rachel followed, standing before the steps to the altar. Alex and Lorelei followed Rachel in turn, but stopped between the first pews.

Once she stood among the rest of the council of angels, Hannah said simply, "You might ask them that yourself, Lawrence."

The bald angel's eyes narrowed. He looked to the pair standing in the aisle and asked, "Why have you come?"

"We love her," Alex answered simply, gesturing at Rachel. Once more, there were assorted gasps and murmurs of disbelief. "She's apparently in trouble with you guys. We wanted to be here for her."

"Your love for Rachel and for the succubus is as plain as day to us, Alexander," Lawrence replied. "It is also much of the reason why Rachel stands here today. Rachel should not be known to you at all, but such was beyond her control. To be loved is not a crime; your feelings toward her are not at all at issue. Yet her feelings for you are inappropriate to a guardian angel, and moreover, her actions in following those emotions are a transgression of the practices of Heaven."

Alex frowned. "I'm told I'm gonna have to take your word for that."

"You will," Lawrence replied flatly.

Alex paused. He was, after all, standing in a cathedral packed with angels. "Okay," he gulped.

"To hear this claim of love from a succubus, though, is curious."

"It may be curious, but it is true," Lorelei said. "Our time together has been limited, certainly, yet I find myself falling in love with Rachel as I have with Alex."

"What would you know of love?" Vincent scowled.

"As much as anyone might through observation and self-education," Lorelei answered, more for the assembly than for Vincent. "It should come as no shock that I have gone through the motions of love many times in my past. I have worn it as a mask. I have used it as a weapon. Yet in recent days I have come to find love in my own heart for Alex, and for Rachel. He has taught me so much, and would never have had the chance but for her decisions as his guardian."

"Demons lie," Vincent sneered.

"Not on holy ground, they do not," Hannah noted softly. "Not this one."

Lawrence and the other angels looked at Lorelei for a long, silent moment. Finally he turned to his fellows at the altar. There was nothing said, merely nods -- from all except Vincent, who himself seemed somehow left out. "Let us dispense with the matter of the prisoner first," Lawrence said.

Alex frowned. He would have rather had them move on with Rachel's issue first rather than dragging things out for her. She looked over at him and Lorelei, seeming a bit sad, then back down at her feet.





Chapter 101: Heaven's Judgement (Part 2)

Another aisle was cleared. There were murmurs and grumbles as a pair of angels, both of them women, brought Lydia toward the altar. Each of them held one of her arms. She walked on her own without being dragged or pushed. Lydia wore the same tattered dress as from the night before, but this time she did nothing to conceal her demonic features. Her tail whipped about irritably much like that of a cat ready to lash out in anger. As she walked, she frequently winced and grunted in pain.

"Lydia, servant of Ba'al," Vincent called out. "You have entered my dominion and plied your trade as is your kind's purpose. Yet you turned your activities toward a mortal who walked under the protection of Heaven's light. You brought him torment and intended his death. You also plotted the furtherance of darkness and evil in my dominion."

Lydia growled and spat black bile at the altar. As the blob sailed through the air, Vincent whipped out his sword and flashed it in an arc to block her spittle, causing it to burn away with a hiss before it landed.

"A lesser demon than you was recently destroyed when brought to holy ground against his will," Vincent continued coldly, "but that was brought about by mortal hands. You are here by the will of the Hosts."

He strode down the steps from the altar to stand in front of Lydia. Again she spat, this time directly at him. Again, he deflected it with his sword. "Despite the viciousness of your deeds, no mortal under the protection of Heaven was killed, nor any soul claimed by the Pit that was not already destined for damnation. To destroy you here would be an overreaction and not in keeping with Heaven's mercy."

"Get on with it," Lydia snarled.

"You are hereby banished to the Pit for the remainder of this century," Vincent said. As he spoke, he tilted his blade down to her feet. Flames licked out from the tip, wrapping around one ankle until they formed a ring. The flames around her ankle then spread out in a short, winding line, eventually rolling up into a sphere. Before long, Alex could make out a ball and chain of tight flames. "You will not come to the mortal plane until your sentence has been served."

"That's a punishment?" Alex asked Lorelei quietly. "Sending her home?"

"With her master dead and his lands in chaos it will surely not be pleasant," Lorelei murmured. "As I told you before, I went to great lengths to spend as little of my time in Hell as possible."

Vincent held his blade over Lydia's head. As he did so, her body began to glow with a white light. She looked to Rachel and then to Lorelei and Alex, staring hatefully at each before she faded and finally vanished.

"Though I fear," Lorelei added softly, "that one such as Lydia may be ruthless enough to turn all that time to her advantage."

"Why didn't you say anything?" Alex asked.

"This was clearly his decision as this city is under his jurisdiction," Lorelei explained, nodding a bit toward Vincent. "He is in no mood to listen to anything that any of us have to say."

As they spoke, they became aware of an awkward hush in the cathedral. Vincent seemed to have paused after the last light of Lydia's banishment faded. He looked around the chamber for a moment as if expecting someone to say something.

Alex thought he looked like someone who expected applause and was now hearing only crickets. "He's Rachel's ex, by the way," he said while Vincent turned and walked up the steps to take up his spot by the altar.

"Yes," Lorelei nodded. "I can tell. Poor girl." She squeezed his hand. "At least she has certainly traded up."

"Can we get on with the rest of this?" Vincent asked irritably. "We all have much to do. The balance between Heaven and Hell has not been so tenuous in an age. We no longer have the luxury of facing a known enemy. All of the chaos sown by Rachel and these others has resulted in untold turmoil among our foe to an end that we cannot predict."

"Y'know, dude," Alex dared to speak up, "if you've really got a problem with the mess we made, you could always go to Hell and do something about it yourself."

There were chuckles. Scattered choking laughter. Vincent's face became a touch redder. Rachel turned to look at Alex, fighting a smile but eventually giving up the struggle. "I love you," she admitted.

"Then you do not contest or deny the nature of your feelings for your mortal charge?" Lawrence asked her.

Rachel looked back at him and shook her head. "Hell no, sir. I'm in love with him."

"And of Lorelei?"

She opened her mouth to answer, then paused. She looked back to Lorelei. "I'm not going to say it to anyone else before I can say it to you. I love you, Lorelei."

Lorelei's expression softened for a moment at that. Her hand squeezed Alex's more. But then Rachel turned back to face the council above her and shrugged. "That's it," she said.

There was another round of glances and nods. "Alexander has quite enough of an awareness of and connection to the supernatural that the protection of the Hosts is no longer warranted," Lawrence said. "He has the succubus, Lorelei. He has his own wits and courage, which have repeatedly withstood the forces of the Pit itself. Our numbers are stretched too thin in modern times to spare protection to those who have such awareness and such resources. Alexander will no longer walk under the watchful eye of a formal and dedicated guardian angel."

Rachel's eyes fell shut and stayed that way for a long moment. She stood very still. When she opened them, she pointedly gazed at the altar, ignoring Vincent's inevitably smug expression as he looked on.

"Though each guardian angel inevitably comes to love her charge, that love must never become romantic," Lawrence went on. "Further, it must never be pursued as such. The nature of Heaven is kept as a mystery to mortal man and woman for a great many reasons. A guardian angel is a companion, but a silent and unseen one; a guardian angel's heart is full of love, but it is as the love of a protector and guide, not a husband or wife.

"The revelation of Rachel's existence to Alexander was beyond her control and thus she shall not be punished for it. To have direct and open contact with him after that revelation was understandable and even wise. Yet to take up such a relationship as the two now have crosses the necessary distance between protector and protected, as well as that between Heaven and Earth." He looked to Rachel gravely. "Rachel, as a result of your actions, you are removed from the ranks of the guardian angels."

She looked down at the floor at her feet. Alex wanted to shout out in protest, to call them all out for being just plain shitty, but Lorelei's grasp on his hand kept him quiet. Rachel's head hung low. The cathedral was again silent, until finally she sniffed. Alex saw a tear fall down her face.

After a long moment, Rachel raised her head again. Her voice cracked a bit as she said, "I understand. Is there a new role for me?"

"We will come to that. Yet with this matter closed," Lawrence continued, "there is another issue that must be resolved. Vincent, hand over your sword."

"What?" Vincent blinked.

Lawrence turned to face him. "Hand over your sword, Vincent," he repeated. "I don't understand."

"You do," Hannah said flatly. "Under your dominion, your city has become a cesspool of supernatural and infernal evil. In over a century as its guardian, you have utterly failed to check the growth of all manner of darkness in Seattle and its environs. It is as an embarrassment to your superiors that such a situation could develop under your watch without any of the rest of us realizing the depth of this corruption. The actions of Rachel, Lorelei and Alexander and his mortal friends stand as a testament not only to their courage but to your own ineffectiveness."

"It is no longer appropriate that you hold dominion over this city," Lawrence said with slightly less emotion. "Hand over your sword."

The muscular angel glared at Lawrence and Hannah in disbelief. At length he did as he was instructed. The sword appeared again in Vincent's hand, bright with flame and the glowing orb of its pommel. He turned the blade parallel to the floor as he held it out to Lawrence.

The dark-skinned angel did not actually take the blade from Vincent's hand. Instead, he held one palm over the pommel, until it came free and floated up into Lawrence's hand. The blade shrunk some and then the flames diminished, burning neither as bright nor as large. Lawrence stepped back.

"Rachel," Lawrence said, "please come forward."

Frowning with confusion, Rachel walked up the steps to stand before Lawrence at the altar. The other angel seemed to be focused not on her, but rather on the glowing orb in his hand. The thought occurred to her that the orb would likely have to be brought to whoever was Vincent's replacement, and at this point she was fit for little more than courier duty anyway. She risked a glance at her lovers by the aisle, unsure of what any of this meant. She saw only support and warmth there. Whatever was going on, she still had them. It would be enough, she decided. It would be more than enough.

"Hold out your sword, Rachel," Hannah instructed.

Rachel froze in shock. Her eyes went wide in disbelief. "You've got to be fucking shitting me," Rachel blurted out before the altar in front of the assemblage of her angelic peers.

Lawrence allowed himself a small, faint smile. "No shit," he told her. "Hold out your sword."

She reached out with her hand. Long tongues of flame floated up from it, coalescing into a burning blade that she held parallel to the ground in front of the other angels. Lawrence held the bright orb over the blade's pommel for a long moment. When he pulled his hand away, the orb remained fixed to her sword.

"Though a mortal typically knows nothing of his or her guardian angel, the deeds of the charge reflect as greatly upon a guardian as do the angel's own actions," Lawrence began for all to hear. "The work of a guardian angel is much like that of a parent. It takes more strength to let the child stand, stumble, fall and recover on his own than it takes to hold that child's hand and guide him through every moment. Yet we often credit the child's independence to the parent's wisdom.

"Rachel served as a guardian angel for only a single week's time. We all know what has transpired in that time as a direct result. Yet perhaps most important of all of the accomplishments of Rachel and her charge is not the destruction of evil, nor even the freeing of mortal souls from Hell's grasp, but rather the presence here and now of Lorelei herself. One of Hell's own braves the painful light of Heaven simply to offer support and comfort to one she loves. The love of a demon," Lawrence smiled.

"Again, Rachel's decision to pursue a romantic relationship with a mortal violates much of the mandate with which we are entrusted," Lawrence said. "There can be no doubt of that. Yet even in Heaven it is difficult to argue with success."

"Rachel," Hannah said in a loud and clear voice, "you are hereby entrusted with dominion over Seattle and its environs. This shall be your first and foremost duty in all things. It falls to you to battle and banish the darkness of this land. As a guardian angel protects and guides individual mortal souls, so shall you protect and guide all those under the light of Heaven throughout your dominion."

The cathedral erupted in cheers and applause. No one even noticed as Vincent spun around and stormed out. Rachel beamed, tears streaming freely down her face as she looked at the glowing pommel of her sword and then to Alex, who rushed over to wrap his arms around her. She buried her face in his shoulder, laughing and crying all at once.

Lorelei followed more slowly, catching the eye of both Hannah and Lawrence as she walked stiffly and in small steps to get closer. The pair of angels descended from the altar to join her. Lawrence offered his hand. "It is good to meet you this way," he told her. "I admire you greatly."

"The admiration is mutual," Lorelei smiled coolly, taking the hand that was offered to her. Lawrence cocked an eyebrow. Lorelei explained, "I never would have credited such ruthlessness to the Hosts."

"Ruthlessness?" Lawrence asked innocently amid the tumult. "Whatever do you mean?"

"There is only so much that any angel can do without upsetting the balance and renewing open conflict between Heaven and Hell," Lorelei said. "Yet the actions of certain mortals and demons are often plausibly deniable, aren't they?"

"Rachel's burdens need not be shared by you or by Alex," Hannah said.

Lorelei's smile remained. "You say that with a straight face," she observed.

"We all have our talents," Hannah smiled back. She offered Lorelei her hand. "Their happiness has been a long time in coming, Lorelei. As has your own. I am glad you have one another."

Lorelei took Hannah's hand briefly. "Thank you," she said politely but sincerely. Then she stepped closer to Rachel and Alex, who were still wrapped in a close embrace. "Master, Rachel," Lorelei asked them, "at the risk of spoiling the moment, I think it's time that I take my leave of this place."

"Not without us, you don't," Rachel smiled, taking her hand. Alex likewise fell into step on Lorelei's other side. None of them hesitated in headed for the exit despite the crowd around them. "We need to take you home. And then take you. Over and over."

"We need to get a home, period," Alex thought aloud.

Lorelei squeezed his hand. "Yes master," she grinned.

— The End —