Playing with Fire (2 page)

The vampiress wanted some?

I glanced to the drawer where she'd tucked the device, of which, I still had no idea for what it was used. It wasn't going anywhere, and I was getting harder by the second. She rubbed her body all over mine, and I was no angel--well, not anymore.

Gliding my hands up under her shirt, I tugged it over her head and bent to suckle her nipple. Parish squirmed with delight, and I'd never get tired of the sensation of a woman's fingernails raking my scalp and pulling me in for more.

She felt like the fire I could bring up with my anger and she tasted like something even demons would be forbidden to touch. I never imagined I could get so quickly turned on and want to plunge myself inside a woman more than I did now.

What were we doing? The chase had been set aside. Both believed we could distract the other. And I--hell--I wanted her like I'd never wanted another thing on this earth. All senses were focused on her sighs and coos, her skin's sweet rose scent. I had to have her.

Her legs wrapped around my hips and tugged me against her soft belly. My cock ached, and I had to unzip to relieve the tight tension strapping it to my body. It sprang out and the little vixen grasped it firmly, making me clench the pillow near her head.

"You're playing with fire," I growled and lashed her other nipple roughly.

"You're not going to burn me, are you, Cinder? That would be far from the sweet nothings I prefer. Mmm, you're so hard."

"I only make flames when I'm angry, vixen." I shuffled down my pants and she nudged them from my legs with her feet, and followed with her pants. "What are sweet nothings?"

With a dismissive shrug, she said, "I'll know it when I hear it."

"You really think you can distract me and get away with what you stole?"

"What I-- Oh. Right. Forgot about that."

And I honestly think she had forgotten.

Slipping a hand behind her back, I drew her up and knelt on the bed, bringing her into my embrace. She licked my skin and neck and poked her tongue through the silver circle lashed around my neck on braided leather. Oh, yes. There. Ahh... Gauging my pulse with her tongue to my vein, she then made way to my mouth with her sweet pink lips that kissed with a passionate fierceness of which, I couldn't get enough.

My hands skated on her silken skin. She arched her back and tilted her hips to match my movements, and when I slid a finger over her smooth mons she hummed through our kiss, signaling I'd found the sensitive bud that topped her folds. The tiny jewel was slick and hard. I stroked it slowly, then faster, a little harder, then softly, reading her coos and moans as a roadmap to her pleasure.

"Cinder, yes." Her head tucked against my neck, and her fingernails digging into my chest, I winced at the delicious pain. Her other hand stroked my cock, luring the swollen head to her wetness. "Feel my fire," she whispered. "Claim it if you can."

I was all over that challenge.

Lifting her by the hips, she wrapped her legs around mine, and I lowered her onto my shaft, groaning deep in my throat at the hot, tight connection that blasted through my senses with an atomic surge. Rational thought fled. I wanted the fire this vixen could give me, and shudders racked my body with impending climax.

"Yes," she said on a gasp. "Demon, you are incredible."

When I felt the prick of her teeth at the vein on my neck, I should have shoved her away. Instead I pulled her in because the sharp intrusion rocketed my pleasure off the scale. I wanted to drown her with my darkness and hold her close as I succumbed to the depths along with her.

I had come to Paris with the intent of stealing
ritrovatore d'anime
and escaping the city without notice. Yet here I was, impaled upon a gorgeous fire demon's shaft, my legs and arms wrapped around him, and my teeth sunk deep into his smoky flesh.

There wasn't any other place I'd rather be. No other moment I'd want to experience.

Whoever had told me demon blood was nasty had been wrong. Cinder's blood seeped into my mouth on a hot ooze. It tasted like a decadent treat that melts onto your tongue and lingers. Salty sweet like caramel, yet dark, and tinted with something I couldn't discern. I wanted to drink him until I drowned.

But even as I licked his flesh, he pierced me deeply with his hot penis that felt as if it had been fire-forged and hammered to a skillful weapon. So good, he fit me perfectly and every glide up and down disturbed my clit and, combined with the taste of his blood, I couldn't hold on to reality much longer.

Fingers losing hold of his shoulders, the hum of an incredible orgasm shivered through me. My body shuddered, tingled and danced for the demon. He possessed me. I wanted to be possessed by him.

Head tossing back, I gasped on the blood filling my mouth as the pleasure overwhelmed me. Cinder cried out at the same time. We came together in an illicit bonding of demon and vampire, fire and blood. Thoughts slid away. Exquisite shocks of satisfaction encompassed my body and spilled me backward to land on the plush pillow and sheets in a giggle of triumph.

I hummed and touched my mouth, tracing the blood from my lips and licking it clean. Another giggle escaped because I had never felt more satisfied. I'd forgotten something... What was it?

I didn't want to waste this bliss, so I didn't even try to summon what I'd forgotten.

Cinder collapsed beside me, declaring allegiance to a tiny vixen with teeth. That would be me, the tiny vixen who had conquered the big bad demon. Heh. Fist bump for me.

I sighed and curled onto my side, the lush swoon that accompanied the bite granting me a giddy high that, accompanied with the after-sex high, I felt sure would remain for a long time.

The fire demon sighed and green smoke misted into the air. I waved a hand through the sigh. "You are one hot number."

"I like numbers. Mathematics are my thing."

"Is that so? Never would have guessed. You always been a demon?"

"Why do you ask?"

I shrugged. "I don't know. I was born mortal. Only been a bloodsucker for a decade."

"I've been demon for..." His sigh hushed over my sex-warm skin. "Ages. You ever hear of
l'homme vert
?"

"The green man? Isn't he some forest myth? I thought you were from Beneath?"

"I am.
L'homme vert
was a myth created by mortals. You know Paris experiences sinkholes a few times every year that fall many stories into the underlying tunnels?"

"I'm from Venice. I'm not much up on Paris, other than the Eiffel Tower and the banana and Nutella crepes. Man, do I miss eating."

"A rather large hole sunk into the tunnels in the seventeenth century, and went down forever. Or as close to Beneath as you can get. Mortals fell in and died in the fall, but some did not. Those that were rescued reported seeing a green man."

"You? Because you've got that cool green smoke?"

He nodded. "I had come up to reconnaissance, and some saw me."

"Did you...take them Beneath?"

"I used to guard the gates to Beneath. I have only ever received souls destined for my gates."

"Oh." I turned onto my back and closed my eyes. Souls destined for Beneath. Ugh. I'd needed that reminder. Papa waited for me. How could I have forgotten? I had to get out of here. "Now that you're not Beneath, who takes the souls?"

"Not my concern. I'm done with that nasty business. Trying to live on the up-and-up now."

"With numbers?"

"Security and IT work does demand a love for numbers."

Cinder sat and turned his legs off the other side of the bed. He reached for his clothes. Feeling a strange loss, I turned to touch him, and for the first time, saw the massive tattoo on his back. It was thick and black and curved in wicked arcs and scythes, seeming to almost clutch his spine.

And then I suddenly knew it wasn't a tattoo. "Himself's mark!" I gasped.

He turned abruptly, but didn't twist around enough to hide the mark.

"You belong to...?" I clutched my throat. Saying the dark prince's name was never wise. Say it three times and he'd invite himself over for dinner--and food would not be the menu. "But you said you didn't work Beneath anymore?"

"I don't. I escaped a decade ago, but I still wear his mark. He owns my soul. But he hasn't come to claim me since I've walked mortal ground, so I'm of a mind to keep quiet and live my life while he turns the other cheek."

"I'm sorry for you."

"Why? I'm a demon, Parish. Most of us are in Himself's ranks, and those who are not, are deemed worthless."

"But you work for the Council."

"They don't know about my alliance with Him--the dark guy. Former alliance." Pulling on his shirt, he glanced to me. "You won't tell anyone, either."

"I won't." And, despite his warning tone, I meant it. I shuddered, because having no soul was all too familiar to me. "Without a soul you can never love."

The demon cast a smirking gaze over my naked body. "Love isn't necessary to lust."

And suddenly I felt cold. Discarded.
What did you expect, Parish? You were both using each other for distraction.
Until... It had changed to something more than a distraction.

Wow. I can't believe I'd admitted that to myself.

Cinder leaned in and kissed me. Gently, tenderly, brushing his lips over mine to linger. What was he about? Telling me he couldn't love in one moment then kissing me like he loved me in the next?

Like you would know if love bit you on the neck, you silly vampire
.

"I've never been bitten by a vampire before," he said. "That was amazing. Made the orgasm twice as strong. I'd thought vamps were disgusted by our black blood."

"I've been told the same, but you taste like every treat in the book all rolled into one. So good."

And I looked aside, because I'd just experienced heaven in the guise of hell. Not that I deserved a fair shake. Vampires weren't exactly upstanding citizens. Even those of us who had never asked for the transforming bite.

Cinder pulled up his pants. The man had no soul. Which meant, I could never let him get his hands on the device locked in the drawer.

"So I just had sex with the green man," I mused, in an attempt to detour my thoughts. "This paranormal realm and immortality are still so new to me. Were you always a guardian of the gate?"

"Not until after I fell and was changed to demon."

"Fell? What were you before demon?"

"Angel."

"An angel. But..."

Vampires couldn't drink angel blood. The divine blue blood entered their system then--bam! Bye-bye vampire.

Feeling my throat close up, I pushed up onto my elbows. "I drank your blood," I said on a frightened whisper.

"I said I was
once
an angel. My blood is black now, vixen. And you haven't exploded into bits."

"Yet." Panicked, I clutched the sheets, but again, tried to maintain a calm head. But if I overlooked the small detail about drinking his blood, there was another, even bigger connection that suddenly cemented. "How did you make that incredible fall? Why did you do it?"

"I fell with my angel brethren millennia ago. We lusted after mortal women."

I closed my eyes tight. No. He couldn't be. A fallen one?

"My brethren sought out their mortal muses on this earthly realm. But I fell too far, you might say. Been working for Himself for a couple thousand years."

"But you escaped Beneath..."

"Through a sink hole about a decade ago," he said.

"And now you're searching for your muse?"

"Parish, I'm demon now. Even if I once had a muse, I'm not interested in her. I'm a soulless dark demon trying to make his way in this realm by flying under the dark prince's radar, and to hopefully earn some respect from the Council."

"A soul is the only thing a being has going for them. Without one you're just a..."

"A what? A mindless, unfeeling thing? Do you think me mindless, Parish?"

"I was able to seduce you rather easily."

Man, I should have gotten all the details about his history before sliding between the sheets with him. I pressed a palm over the skin on my forearm that was thinner than the rest. Why hadn't I stuck to the plan?

"But you weren't successful in distracting me. I'm still not leaving without the device you stole."

Oh, no, he wouldn't. The last being on this earth who should touch
ritrovatore d'anime
was this demon--who had once been a freakin' fallen one with a muse.

I took a few deep breaths, filling my lungs and gathering courage and fortitude.

"I took it for a reason. I need it. Just for a day." I would have no use for it after that. "You're not the keeper of it, are you?"

"No, but it was stolen on my watch. I'm responsible for its safe return."

"I'll return it safely. Promise." I kissed him, wishing it was longer, deeper--but no, I had to be smart. "I really need to go. I have to catch a flight to Venice."

"You're going to use the device in Venice? For?"

"It's for my father. He's on his death bed."

"So it's something that'll restore life? Bring him back to health?"

Oops. No more details. "Not even close. Goodbye, demon lover. Can you do that smoky thing and leave?"

He nodded, but I'd be a fool if I hadn't recognized the regretful tug at the corner of his mouth. Green smoke misted at his feet, which was weirdly impressive, and within seconds his entire form smoked and wavered out through the window as if sucked out by a vortex.

I hadn't much time. The demon was just amusing me; I knew he would be back. The situation had gotten much worse than I could have anticipated. But so long as Cinder remained in the dark about the device, I would be safe. Fingers crossed.

"I'm coming, Papa. Just need to gather a few things."

I smoked back to the security lab in the archives of the Council building. Certainly Jones was still there, in fact, I had my suspicions he lived there sometimes. He flashed me a raised brow, but didn't comment. I looked down. Forgot to put on my boots and button up my shirt.

"I tracked the thief," I offered, "but she's got the piece locked up." In a dresser drawer fashioned from wood. Stupid, Cinder. I should smoke back, flick a flame onto the wood and...

"You don't know what it is, do you?" Certainly asked.

"What was stolen? Does it matter?"

"Not in the overall scheme of saving our asses for having lost the damned thing, but my guess is it's something that might interest you."

"I had it in hand. Made of carbon fiber?"

"No, something ineffable."

"Really? It's a small, thick disk with runes on it."

"Hallowed runes. It's an angelic device called
ritrovatore d'anime
. We call it the Retriever. It's a soul retriever."

I slapped a palm over my heart, for no other reason than it had started to beat rapidly. The words, angelic and soul, struck a chord within me. Which would place its origins Above, and that meant I should have gotten a read on the thing having come from that place. A twinge of regret tightened my muscles. I'd never thought to miss Above, yet maybe I did and didn't want to admit it.

"It can only be used once a century," he continued. "It retrieves a lost soul. Human or paranormal can use it. I suspect the thief is missing a soul, or knows someone who is in dire need of theirs. You have a soul, Cinder?"

Parish had asked me the same. Taken aback at his question, because Certainly had never delved too deeply into my origins since we'd met a decade earlier, I could but shake my head.

"'Spose not. You being fallen, and all."

"I am no longer angel. Completely demon," I muttered, though my thoughts raced.

Himself owned my soul, and had marked me duly to show the world I was his, as Parish had seen earlier. The devil's mark dug deep into my being, and at times when Himself sought to punish me, it felt as though it wrapped its thorned talons around my spine.

Ritrovatore d'anime
? Could such a device return
my
soul?

Palm sliding down my chest to fall away from my body, I stood there. Did I want my soul? Did I need it? I'd done perfectly well without one.

Though I'd only been in the mortal realm for a decade. I couldn't know what a missing soul would give me. I hadn't felt as if I'd missed out on anything. Parish seemed to think a person could not love without one. But I'd been in love before. Surely. Well, there must have been a time when I had experienced love.

Hmm... Nothing jumped to mind. Not an image of any particular woman I had dated over the years, or shared a tumble between the sheets. I'd seen two or three women exclusively. But love?

"Get it back," Certainly said. "I don't care if it comes back slightly used, either. I don't want to catch hell for losing one single item from the archives."

"I'll return in a snap."

I smoked back to Parish's bedroom. The drawer wouldn't give, but of course it was locked with whatever warding spell she'd used on it. While witch's magic had no effect on me, if an object had been bespelled it was completely effective.

Scent of the tiny vixen's rose perfume stirred me and I turned to spy the vampiress stuffing clothes in a duffel.

"It's warded," she stated the obvious.

"Yes, but it's also made of wood." I lifted the dresser and smashed it on the floor. Wood shattered. The Retriever disk skittered across the floor and landed at my bare feet. I snatched it. Full of smug satisfaction, I winked at her. "Guess vampires who steal magic from witches aren't so powerful as they like to think."

She chuckled and approached me, the sexy red dress that ruffled out at her thighs slinking over curves I'd tasted less than an hour earlier. I held the disk before me, daring her to take it from me. She would try, and I invited the sensual tussle that would ensue.

"You think you're so clever?"

"Not so much clever as using common sense. You smell like roses. Freshen up your perfume?"

"I'm beyond seducing you, Cinder. I'm on a schedule. Things to do, places to go."

"A soul to retrieve?"

"You figured that out?"

She swallowed and I guessed she'd hoped I wouldn't learn that detail. Did she believe the object would hold some value to me, a soulless entity? She was right. I could use a soul. Might come in handy if I ever did want to know the experience of love.

She tilted up on tiptoes to kiss my chin. I bowed my head to catch her touch on my mouth, but she was too quick. She stepped back and I reached for her, but my hand slapped the air before me as if an invisible wall.

I hit it with the hand that held the disk, and it again stopped in midair.

Parish took the disk while I was stunned enough to not have a good grasp. I groped for it, but my hands didn't extend farther than a foot before me. Nor could I step out of what seemed a column around me.

"Backup ward," she said, and kissed the disk, then returned the smug wink.

"This won't hold me for long," I growled. "Witch magic has little effect on me."

"Seems to be working well enough right now."

Yes, and why was that?

"It will hold you long enough to give me a head start," Parish said. "Thanks for the good time, green man. Wish the situation were different and we weren't both in it for ourselves. I could have really gotten into us."

Us. The word resonated in a waver through my being. It felt...right. "We can have an us," I said, knowing it as truth before my brain could even argue.

"Give it up, lover boy. Ta!"

The vampiress stepped into a pair of sexy black high heels, grabbed a purse emblazoned with a skull on it and then exited the bedroom. I heard the front door slam, and then I kicked, but stubbed my foot on the warded wall.

I'd been played by the thief. This was some powerful magic to contain me. Although it hadn't been placed directly on my person--and I stood within a perfect chalk circle drawn on the floor--so that could be a reason it was working. Circles. They had power over me for reasons related to my angelic origins. But now the tiny vixen had only fired my desire to find her again, and next time, make her pay.

With kisses and sex. Because I wanted her again. For reasons that were as unexplainable as my knowing we could be an us.

Demon, what in all Beneath is going on with your cold, soulless heart?

I landed by the Piazza San Marco in Venice as the sun rose on the Veneto, and realized I hadn't a clue where to find Parish, and what was her surname? Flipping out my cell phone, I dialed up Certainly.

"Parish Marazetti," he said as he searched the Council database that I had designed to categorize, sort and order all known paranormals. "Her parents are mortal. She was born in 1978 and was changed to vampire in 2002. Ah. She's a member of tribe Lilith."

Certainly's groan echoed the same groan I felt rise upon hearing that fact.

"Ball busters," Certainly said.

I nodded. I'd heard the derogatory term about the all-female tribe, and had bought into it, but until now had never met one personally. Parish certainly was a tough little number--and quickly becoming my favorite number--but I wouldn't place her as a man-hating vampiress with a vengeance as Lilith members were painted. She'd been too receptive to my touch for that, and does a cooing vampiress who comes with a few strokes qualify as a ball buster?

I think not.

"You got an address for her?" I asked. "I'm in Venice. She's got the Retriever."

"Dude, you seriously let one small vampiress get away from you?"

Make that a tiny vixen.

Fine. So I'd let her get away. She had magic. I had some wicked demon magic and hell,
fire
but something about the sneaky yet sensual blonde had made me forget that fact.

"I'll send you the coordinates. It's her father's house. Her mother died fifteen years ago. Looks like the father, Lanzo Marazetti, isn't doing too well, either. Cancer."

"Thanks." I clicked off and then used the GPS to locate the address.

A vampiress visiting her dying mortal father? I wasn't sure how to approach the scene, but if I focused on grabbing the device, I could be out of here and back in Paris within the hour. But not without first checking the usefulness of the soul-retrieving device.

I had grown up in the cozy palazzo that was decorated on the exterior with fading Istrian tiles. As I approached, I saw the demon lurking outside and cursed that he'd beat me here. I'd expected him to follow. Indeed, my weak magic was ineffective against him, but I guessed magic not aimed directly at him had some power.

Apparently not for long.

With an exhale, I felt courage leak from my pores. I just wanted to get inside and check on my father. I'd called ahead and the maid said he'd been sleeping for three days with little wakefulness, and he hadn't asked to eat. His breathing was raspy and shallow. Not long, the maid had commented.

My heart crumbled to papery pieces as the demon stepped toward the main door to block my entrance. I slid a hand inside my purse to clasp
ritrovatore d'anime
. The cool disk reassured me for a moment, and I lifted my shoulders.

As I neared Cinder, his overwhelming presence softened my resolve and knowing how strong he was, and how tenderly he had held me when we'd had sex, stirred up want and desire, yet also fear and caution.

He'd said we could be an us. Really? Had the demon fallen for me?

It wasn't so bizarre to go there. I certainly felt something toward him. But not love. Lust, as he had implied, was easier. And there was his history, which scared me for reasons he must never learn. Is that why he kept following me? Was he
compelled
? Couldn't be. And such a compulsion had nothing to do with my poor spellwork. What were the odds that two destined for one another would meet after thousands of millennia? And I had only been born decades earlier.

A teardrop splattered my nose. I hated to show him weakness, but it was impossible to prevent with father so close, and Cinder unaware of my urgent task.

"Just go away," I said, my voice breaking into a hush. "This is family business. You can't understand."

"You think you can get back your father's soul with that device?"

I met his gaze. Dark eyes that had seen thousands of years and things Beneath that I didn't want to imagine. "How do you know that?"

"It's a guess. Putting two and two together." He stood his full height, arms crossed high over his chest. So imposing. And smelling like he belonged...to me. I could taste his blood on my tongue right now, and it prodded at me as if it were an addictive substance, of which I needed one more taste.

Christ, but I needed strength. And my soul sprang for that need.

I plunged against Cinder's hard, steely form and clung, allowing the tears to fall, and my heart to open. "Papa's dying. I want him to have his soul back before he dies. I don't want him to go..."

I couldn't say Beneath. Papa didn't deserve that punishment. Not when he'd ransomed his soul for me.

"How did he lose his soul?" Cinder asked softly.

I shook my head, unwilling to discuss this and only wanting him to close me in a hug. Yet he remained unyielding, his arms still crossed beneath my embrace.

"Demon, if you've an ounce of compassion, let me pass."

"I'm not familiar with that emotion."

"You are, you just don't want to admit it to yourself. I have to get inside. He's failing. You can have the device back when I'm finished."

"Have you the code to use it?"

Code? I hadn't considered I'd need a code. Yet
ritrovatore d'anime
was a solid chunk of dark metal. Of course there must be a means to open it. Why hadn't I thought of that until now?

"I'll figure it out. I've magic." I tilted back my head to meet his gaze. Finally he dropped his arms, yet still didn't embrace me. Demons were supposed to be emotionless and cold.

If he wasn't going to yield, I'd do it for him. Summoning an air spell, I flung the demon aside--but his body merely swayed. Right. Forgot the magic had no power against him personally. "Just give me a head start, please," I pleaded.

With a tilt of his head, he nodded, and looked away down the cobbled street. Just long enough to allow me to punch in the digital code and rush through the cool, shadowed house to my father's bedside. Cinder would follow, I knew, but I blessed him for the chance.

Lanzo Marazetti was awake and breathing roughly when I sat on his bedside. Golden light from the rising sun danced on the windowsill and the canal water's reflection cast wavy shapes across the ceiling. Papa looked at me but showed no sign of recognition. His salt and pepper hair had grown long over his ears, a prideful adornment he'd always carefully combed because he knew how it had attracted the women. He'd waited five years following mother's death before dating again. I'd wanted that happiness for him. He was a man who thrived in the love of a good woman's arms.

I held his hand and felt the slow pulse at his wrist. His skin was cold and his fingertips were bluing.

"You're a good man, Papa. I've brought something to make your transition easier."

Digging the device out from my purse, I placed the heavy disk on Papa's chest, then waited. For what, I wasn't sure. What code? Shouldn't the thing just work?

I searched my memory for the spells I had stolen from witches over my decade of training with tribe Lilith. I'd initially thought taking magic from a witch through bloodsexmagic so evil, yet the majority of the witches had been cooperative and had actually participated willingly, thanks to my vampiric thrall and sensual wiles.

Cinder was aware of a code? I would have to make him talk.

Kissing Papa's forehead, I whispered that I'd return. It was difficult to leave the dark bedroom, but when I heard the commotion below, I quickened my pace.