Demon's Triad (13 page)

“Take off your clothes,” Kali said quietly, knowing by the stricken look on Raven’s face that she realized there would be no reward for a job well done today.

“Come on, Kali, please. Even if she’s not at home, she’s probably at work, so we’re safe. She isn’t even—”

“You’re the one who told me she nearly fucked Keller in the back alley. Now that the curse is lifted, what’s to stop her from following through on a tease like that? Or to keep some frustrated man from raping her if she doesn’t want to deliver?” Kali rang the bell beside the settee, summoning the slaves on watch. “You’ve failed, Raven, and now I need to clean up your mess. Take off your clothes.”

Her wide blue eyes grew even wider, shining with unshed tears, but she did as she was told. At least she was thoroughly broken, so dependent on Kali for pleasure that she would do anything she was asked…absolutely anything. Her obedience had been amazingly useful the past several months, so Kali wouldn’t destroy her completely, just take her to the edge of destruction and let her peer down into the abyss.

Kali was laughing as the two watchmen rushed into the room and bowed before her feet.

“Ammon, Luke, I’m putting both of you in charge of watching our Gunera. Make sure she keeps her secrets, and no sex without protection. Even if you have to take her into our custody sooner than we planned, make sure of it. Do you understand?”

“Yes, mistress.” They spoke at the same time and immediately sprang to their feet to make their way back into the slaves’ quarters. They would need to dress before heading into the outside world. The loft Kali had rented for their makeshift coven was located in the largely abandoned warehouse district of Savior City, but even the bums and coven rejects took notice of a man walking around the streets in nothing but a leather thong.

“Kali, please. I’ve done everything you asked. I’m only one person. I did the best I could,” Raven pleaded once the men were gone, falling to her knees in supplication.

“Your best wasn’t good enough.” Her voice was casual, breezy, but Raven still whimpered as Kali rose from her chair and walked toward her toy cabinet. Some of her toys she kept out in plain sight, but the really wicked ones she kept safely locked away for special occasions such as this.

“Please, mistress, please. I’m supposed to work tonight. I have to follow Pierce and he’ll know what I’ve done if I’m damaged. Please….please.” Tears flowed down her face as she watched Kali pull one particular vibrator from her collection. It was enormous, easily three times the size of a man’s dick, and heated to a scalding temperature when plugged in.

“Well then, we’ll have to get going, won’t we? Make sure you have time to heal yourself before you go,” Kali smiled a peaceful little smile and plugged the device into the outlet in the center of the floor. The buzzing sound filled the room, a pleasing 66

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accompaniment to the sobs of the girl now crawling toward her on her hands and knees.

This afternoon was turning out to be more fun-filled than she had anticipated. And as long as Ammon and Luke did their job, she was going to enjoy the next few weeks.

She was going to revel in her femininity, indulge all of her sexual whims and maybe even have some photographs taken. When the spell was complete and she had a cock between her legs rather than her pretty little pussy, the pictures and the memories would help her to accept her new body.

“Open yourself,” Kali ordered, her cunt responding as she watched Raven, still on all fours, rest her cheek on the floor so she could reach behind and pull apart the pink lips of her pussy. She was newly shaved, showing just how certain she’d been that Kali would be pleased with her today. Kali only ate her out when she was clean and bare.

“Please, Kali, mistress, please.” Raven’s whimpering turned into a howl of pain as Kali thrust the head of the massive dildo into her unprepared entry. The sound brought a bolt of excitement shooting between her own legs, and Kali quickly brought two fingers between them, stroking her clit as she pushed the instrument deeper.

Not bad really. She might actually enjoy having a cock, especially if she made sure to ask Reglanus for a big one. A really big one.

* * * * *

The demon Reglanus hovered near the ceiling, his body a thin mist that neither of the women would notice unless they were seeking him out. His naughty little witch was being even naughtier than usual, a sight that normally would have brought him great pleasure. He liked her taste for blood and violence. It had made it so much easier to work a bargain. He’d needed her so badly at the time of their magic-fasting. He’d been certain the other child had been lost, abandoned to die alone in some forsaken place, especially when the boy’s own mother had admitted to destroying him.

Elise had known that her boy child was the true danger. Daiesthai women could not conceive, something within them unfit for creating more of their own kind. Only a Daiesthai male and a female from one of the three demon-tainted covens could successfully birth another Daiesthai. Of those three covens, only the Gunera remained, and they had been placed beyond Reglanus’ reach by their ancestor’s magic. Elise had been the last of the Pandoranian coven, and when she slayed her husband and then herself, Reglanus had known the death of a dream.

There would never be another demon coven. His people would never again know solid form or the power of the magic-fast.

But then Kali had matured with Daiesthai magic, and her husband’s betrayal had made her ripe for Reglanus’ influence. He’d eagerly entered into their agreement despite knowing the magic they would work might not achieve his goals. Even with four human sacrifices committed on the most powerful days of the year, they might fail.

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Transforming a female into a fertile male was no easy task, but Reglanus had seen no other chance for the resurrection of the Daiesthai coven.

Until now.

He lived. The boy child lived and each second drew him closer to his destiny.

The spirit of the male had always been within reach, and there were times when Reglanus had spoken within his mind, trying to lure the child to some deeper communication. But the contact had never gone further than the barest whisper of connection. Reglanus had assumed the boy child had passed into another plane and was simply a soul waiting in the afterlife. Until the night the Gunera woman had broken her curse less than a mile away from the very alive man that boy had become.

The hand of fate was with Reglanus. The Gunera had already mated with a Daeisthai male once, and she would again. A child would be conceived sooner or later.

Then they would both succumb to Reglanus’ power and fufill their destiny, no matter what lies he had to tell or trickery he must use to force their hands.

“Oh goddess, please stop. Mercy!” The blonde screamed and clawed at the ground in front of her, but Reglanus could see the slight tilt in her hips. She was enjoying this little game nearly as much as his wicked Kali.

When Kali had first recruited the younger woman, Reglanus had thought perhaps she might be their vessel. She was Gunera and willing to do anything to break the curse.

Unfortunately, her power hadn’t been strong enough, though she had proved herself more than useful. Without her help, he and Kali might not have been able to reach into Aleeza’s mind to plant the seeds of her liberation.

He might spare the blonde’s life when it came time for the reckoning. As far as his dear Kali was concerned, however, it would be up to her to choose what kind of life would she would live. The winds of change were upon them, and she would be forced to adjust or suffer the consequences. He no longer needed her as desperately as he had before, and that would affect the particulars of their bargain.

“Thank you, mistress,” the blonde sobbed as Kali withdrew the burning length from her pussy. The sensitive flesh was bright red and would torment her terribly until she was allowed to perform a healing spell.

“You’re most welcome, slave. And since that has pleased you so much that you speak without permission—” Kali’s words were cut off by a howl of agony as she shoved the instrument into the younger woman’s ass.

Reglanus smiled. Kali was Daiesthai through and through, and soon there would be more of them, enough to accomplish their purpose on this earth for the first time in centuries. It was going to be a good year for demons—there was no doubt in his mind.

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Aleeza walked the shore near the lake where the first body had been found for the fiftieth time, searching for some answer in the strange energy that still throbbed throughout the place. Rimer Lorcan had been a coven outcast, an embarrassment to the Amiantos people. He hadn’t set foot on coven lands in over ten years, but he’d died here, and what had been left of his body was now cremated and interred in the Amiantos coven tomb.

Sad. So fucking sad.

It was a depressing homecoming if there ever was one, and Aleeza had initially assumed the energy she’d felt in this place was simply that, the sorrow of a soul who’d departed this earth with no one. No one missed Rimer Lorcan. He’d had no wife, no children, no friends and hadn’t even been reported missing. No one had cared where the man disappeared to until his body was found in this spot, anchored in the shallow water with an iron stake through the center of his chest.

“Two inches to the right of the heart.” She mumbled the words out loud and gripped the folder in her hands a little tighter. She had its contents memorized at this point, for all the good it did her.

Rimer’s folder was by far the thinnest of the three. There was little information on his life before the murder, and his body had been cremated within days of his discovery. The pictures the Amiantos had taken left a hell of a lot to be desired and gave her little to work with.

If they’d done a more thorough autopsy or at least taken more photographs, she might be able to discern what kind of magic was still afoot. But without close-ups of the symbols she could faintly make out carved across his stomach, without detailed descriptions of what had been carved into the remaining organs, she was left to make leaps in logic that might or might not lead her in the right direction.

It was an ancient spell at work—that much was clear. The writing was in runes but none she had ever seen, even in the oldest of spell books. The photos from the other two scenes and, blessedly, the autopsy reports, were more clear but the runes were still unidentified.

If the forensic witches had never seen such things and none of the clan elders had…Aleeza was at a complete loss. There wasn’t even anything about it on that bastion of human information, the Internet.

Heedless of the damp, she sat down on a log by the water’s edge and opened the file again. The runes leapt out at her, seeming a bit clearer than the last time she had searched the picture. Without thinking, she traced her fingers along the pattern. A double X with lines up and down and across, and a half-circle around it. The image 69

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grew in her mind, sending tendrils of something, some kind of energy, twisting and sliding through her every nerve ending. It was as if her body knew what this symbol was, could read it, though her mind had no idea. It had happened earlier too, this pulsing sensation as she examined the pictures. Maybe if she looked at it here, in the place where the black magic had been wrought, she could make sense of it.

Maybe the atmosphere by the lake would enable her to…what? She wasn’t a psychic, despite the odd flashes she’d been getting lately. There was no way she could read the vibrations of this place or communicate with the dead…

But she knew two people who could. Goddess, how stupid was she?

A rain-scented breeze blew tendrils of her hair over her face as she sat, stunned. She didn’t deserve to be a certified investigator. Dorand and Ferrin had been doing death magic—trying to do death magic—here in the woods when she met them. Their third mate was one of the dead. Murder victims were often beyond the reach of the death speakers, due to the violent energy surrounding the departure of the soul from the body, but that must have been what they were attempting last night. If she hadn’t been so sexually enthralled, she would have seen it sooner. At least that’s what she told herself.

They’d failed in their spell because she’d stolen the energy of their release. Had she somehow stolen part of their power as well, some of their ability? She and Dorand had shared magic when they’d had sex and she had assumed he’d reclaimed what he needed, but how could she be certain? At least some of his power still rode within her body. The white glow warning her away from her apartment hadn’t been her energy, not at all.

Not to mention the first time she’d seen the photos of their mate, Carantha Smoler, she’d thought for a minute she was seeing the girl as she’d been in life. She must have seen through Ferrin and Dorand’s memories.

So was it possible she was also seeing Ferrin and Dorand through Carantha’s memories? The thought made her blood run cold. Only two days, only a few hours really, she’d known the men, but already she felt so close to them. Hell, if she was honest, she was already nearly obsessed with them. She wanted them, both of them, so badly. Seeing them kiss over her head earlier…she shook her head.

No point in thoughts like that now, not unless she wanted to come in her pants without even touching herself.

She’d sworn never to mate herself with an Amiantos. Why would she suddenly change her mind and start wondering how long it would be before she saw them again, before she felt them move inside her body? A pang of purest longing zinged through her at the very thought. Even now, with the closed file full of horrors resting in her hand, if Dorand showed up—or, goddess help her, Ferrin—she’d have her clothes off before he could blink.

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Some madness had possessed her or maybe some magic. Or maybe, just maybe, she was being haunted by the soul of their murdered lover. That voice in her head…could it be…