Good Intentions 3: Personal Demons (19 page)

“You don’t see it already?” he asked.

“I want to hear it from you. I want to know what you want.”

“The iron crown of Baal remains where it fell, Lorelei. Where its master fell. You brought that about. Only you have picked it up and survived. The others who touched it all fell to their brethren. They fight, but if none have claimed it by now, none of them will. It belongs to you. The whole of Baal’s territory and all of his servants belong to you.”

Lorelei scowled. “As I thought. You want the crown.”

“I want you, Lorelei. Others want the crown. Azazel, Mammon, Beelzebub. All of them. And Belial. Especially Belial. He means to take the crown through taking your head.”

“He’s already tried once,” she said. “It didn’t go well for his minions.”

“You know it won’t end there, Lorelei. It won’t end until you are too dangerous to anger. Not until you claim what is yours. I don’t want the crown. I want you. The crown is only a means to that end.”

“And then you join me as, what? My patron? My consort? The power behind the throne? You would finally have a kingdom of your own.”

“No. It is your crown and your realm. Yet whether behind you or by your side, I will ward off any challenger. You know this. One crowned prince against another may be an even match, but none would dare provoke us both. You could rebuild your domain under the safety of my protection…and we would be together, Lorelei. We would no longer need to hide from your master. You would have no master.”

“And if I prefer to take my chances up here?” she asked. “If I refuse?”

“I’m not here to force you,” said Sammael. “That would undermine our relationship, don’t you think? But think it through. Sooner or later the crown will be won. Once that happens, you will be the greatest threat to whoever wields it. You will still have the strongest claim. This will not be settled until you either wear the crown or serve whoever does wear it.” He shook his head in surprise. “Would you truly walk away?”

“Have I not walked away already?”

“Everyone thinks you’re playing some long game, Lorelei.
I
thought as much. If you are not, you must think this through,” he said, looking almost pained. “You know I’m right. The others will not stop coming for you…and for your new master.” He paused to let that sink in. “As I said, Lydia told me everything.”

“Yes. Everything she knew, I’m sure. Fucked it out of her, did you? And this Evelyn? Is she your ‘friend,’ or is she waiting for you to ‘rescue’ her from her master like I did?”

“When has that ever mattered to you? To us? When has jealousy ever been our way?”

“Never,” Lorelei admitted. “I only wondered if you would deny it.”

“You already told me honesty would flatter you best.” He reached out his hands toward her again, but stayed where he stood by the bed. “Tell me, is this mortal truly special to you? Lydia seemed more than half-convinced. I couldn’t blame you for some sentimentality, given what you accomplished with him. But did the touch of Baal’s crown break the bond of servitude toward Carlisle? Or is sentimentality is too mild a word?”

He waited. She didn’t answer.

“Lorelei, he does not have our history. No mortal can know you like I do, nor can he give you what I can. How long might he last? A century, at most? Perhaps two through sorcery? Even as an old man, he’ll never be more than a child compared to the likes of us. And by then, any chance to claim the power that awaits you will have long since vanished.”

She closed her eyes, considering everything he said—and everything he didn’t. When she looked up again, he still waited by the bed with his hands reaching out. “I half expect you to disappear again every time I look away,” she said.

“Not this time.”

Lorelei took a step forward, and then another. “Will your ‘friend’ downstairs miss you?”

“Should I care if she does?” Sammael smiled as Lorelei came ever closer, but held his place as if coaxing a nervous cat close enough to pet it. “She has her business. I have mine, and I did not share my plans with her.”

“Then we have time?”

She ventured into his reach, taking his perfect hands in hers. She brought one to her lips and kissed his palm. The other hand came to her side.

“We have the rest of eternity together,” he assured her.

Lorelei didn’t resist as he brought her close. She didn’t fight against her own reactions when their lips met in a long, hungry kiss. She gave in completely, surrendering as his free hand tore away the shoulder straps of her dress.

Their kiss deepened with desire that had built up for over a century. Lorelei willingly let his hands and his mouth roam wherever he wanted—as long as she could keep her tail concealed from his sight and out of his reach.

That part wasn’t too hard. Everyone tended to forget about a demon’s tail.

* * *

“I didn’t think she’d be up here. It’s too obvious and—uh, Jason?” asked Taylor.

“What?” He grabbed a pillow off the bed and swung it around the hotel suite, going so far as to open the bedroom closet and swing it around inside.

“What the hell are you doing?”

“She can go invisible or whatever and hide people with her,” he explained. “They could both be standing right here or layin’ on the bed and we wouldn’t see ‘em. Maybe if I touch her, I’d notice.”

“Okay, but if they’re really in here, you realize they could step right out of your way and you wouldn’t see ‘em, too, right?”

Jason stopped, sighed, and tossed the pillow back onto the bed. “Shit.”

“No sign of her comin’ through here, either,” announced Drew as he and Wade looked around the suite’s living area. “Nothin’ disturbed, no notes left behind. Nothin’.”

“This was the most obvious place to look,” said Wade. “If’n they didn’t come up here, ah don’t know where t’ look. Lorelei an’ Sammy might’ve left the casino entirely. Could’a drove off by now. Or flown away, f’r all we know.” He turned to look out the suite’s balcony door, but he knew he wouldn’t see anything other than the night sky and the view of the parking lot ten stories below.

“They went
somewhere
,” Taylor thought out loud as she and Jason stepped back into the living room. “We’re never gonna find ‘em if they left, so let’s hope they’re still here.”

“Yeah, but where’s that lead us?” asked Wade. “We got th’ casino downstairs an’ ten floors of hotel rooms to look through. It ain’t like we got a master key.”

“You think we ought’a go back to the plan?” Drew asked. “Head downstairs and wait to see if Alex and the witches need back-up?”

Wade shrugged. “Maybe. It’s what we came for.”

“I don’t like it,” said Taylor. “If this goes bad, he’s at least with people who can handle magic. Lorelei had us covered on that front, and now she’s gone. Damn it, she
knows
she’s our only protection from magical stuff. Why would she bail on us like that?”

“She’s not the only protection,” Jason pointed out. “We’ve all got nails at least. You’ve got a good point, though. If things get crazy, she’s the one with all the magical offense. We were just supposed to be extra hands and eyeballs here. She’s the real cavalry. Hell of a time to run off with another guy.”

“Wuz it just me, or did they have some crazy chemistry goin’ on between the two of ‘em?” asked Wade.

“It definitely wasn’t just you,” said Taylor.

“Y’think maybe this is another Agent Booty Call situation?”

“What? No.” Taylor made a face. “She wouldn’t do that.”

“You weren’t there when she did,” Jason reminded her.

“Lorelei ain’t droppin’ us like that for anyone,” said Drew. “C’mon. She loves us. An’ it’s like Jason said, she’s our magic hitter. Only reason she’d bail on us is to protect us from a bigger threat, which is what that Sammael dude sounds like from what you found on your phone. Don’t matter if he’s the hottest guy ever.”

“Okay, we’re still not getting anywhere,” said Taylor. “If they’re not here and they didn’t leave, where would they have gone? You think maybe they went to the meeting?”

“Nah. That looked like a private conversation brewing,” said Wade. “She didn’t plan for that, though.”

“You sure?” Jason wondered. “I mean she’s usually pretty prepared for stuff. She got this room in case someone got hurt or we needed a place to regroup. She thinks ahead.”

“It’s kinda far from the casino floor, though,” Drew considered. “I mean if we just need to get away, any room is as good as another, right? And if someone’s hurt or running from trouble, we wouldn’t want to have to go far. Maybe this ain’t the only room?”

“Why wouldn’t she tell us?” Taylor countered.

Drew shook his head. “I’m not tryin’ to figure everything out. I just wonder where we might find her if she’s still here at all, like you said. If she got a back-up room, it might be downstairs, and I’d want it closer to the action.”

“You wanna go knock on every door?” asked Jason. Drew shrugged, but Jason gave a grim nod. “Yeah, I don’t have any better ideas, either. Maybe if we go look around we’ll get lucky. It’s either that or we go back to the casino and wait for a phone call or a disaster. I don’t like that option, either.” He looked to Wade. “What do you think? Do we split up to cover more ground?”

“No. No splittin’ up the group. Like y’all said, Lorelei’s our real hitter. Without her, the only things we got goin’ for us are safety in numbers and mah…” Wade’s eyes went wide. He slapped the small of his back in sudden alarm. “Oh, son of a bitch.”

* * *

The hotel offered nicer beds than this. Lorelei had already made better arrangements. Yet neither she nor Sammael cared to go find another room now. They still had clothing to shed and tension to relieve. With their legs intertwined and his shirt spread open so her hands could roam that perfect chest, memories of other such fleeting moments with Sammael came back to her. They’d been together on stiffer beds than this, along with pallets, grass, even a rocky outcropping on a mountainside once. For centuries, all they needed was privacy. Sammael’s body and his touch provided Lorelei with more than enough comfort to make up for any other details.

She attacked him without fear of hurting him, gripping his hair and his wrist to keep him partially pinned against the headboard. Her teeth bit into his lips, but he only smiled at the pain. She kept one leg between his, grinding her hip against the hardened flesh at his groin.

Sammael’s free hand slid down her back, completely bare now except for the straps of her lacy black bra. She didn’t play too hard to get. Each knew what the other wanted. His hand moved over the bunched-up fabric of her dress and around her hips until his fingers could caress her between her legs.

A small whimper escaped her throat. She released his wrist and his scalp, but he held his position anyway, grinning wickedly as he pleasured her with that single hand.

“We’ll have an eternity of this, Lorelei,” he whispered. “You’ll have a crown, and servants, and a palace…and me.”

“You feel so good,” she murmured.

“No more denials?” A crooked grin formed on his lips. “No more mortal nonsense?”

“I had to keep myself amused somehow. This city has been pleasant.”

“It won’t be much longer. Azazel plans to fill the vacuum your angel friend created. As I said, I’m only here because one of his servants let me in on his plans.”

Lorelei hummed disapproval, though the noise quickly turned into something else under Sammael’s touch. “You’re saying he has designs on
my
city?” she taunted.

“I suppose we could stop him if one of us had the power. At that point, though, we could likely take any mortal city we wanted as our playground.” Those fingers stroked her harder, pressing the increasingly damp fabric between her legs against her flesh. “No more settling. For either of us.”

“Oh. It hasn’t been all that bad,” she pouted.

“You’ve always known how to make do,” Sammael teased. “But I think we know how hard it is to replace the intimacy we share.”

“It’s true.” Lorelei’s eyes meeting his. “Alex needed almost an entire week to get better than you.”

She spared only a heartbeat to savor the look on his face. He didn’t see her pass the gun held in her tail to her hand before she pulled the trigger.

Sammael’s head reeled from the impact of the first bullet against his temple. He couldn’t react before Lorelei rose up on her knees and fired Wade’s pistol again and again. She emptied the Glock’s magazine at a range of mere inches, striking his head and neck with every shot.

Not a single bullet penetrated his skin. Ricochets sparked and crashed through the room, cracking the mirror and snapping wood off the nightstand. One even struck Lorelei on the shoulder, interrupting her assault for a single breath. Sammael rocked and convulsed with each gunshot.

He didn’t bleed.

As soon as the gun clicked with an empty chamber, Lorelei tossed it away. Her skin turned red and her horns, wings, and tail faded into view. Her talons cut into Sammael’s skin where the bullets could not, though even with all her might, she couldn’t dig deep.