Demon's Embrace (7 page)

* * * *

Alex heard the perimeter alarm just as his cum burst from him, bathing the inside of Kali’s body with his seed. Groaning both with his release and the urgent need to concentrate, Alex flicked the remote control, placed a hand on Ronan’s shoulder, and transported them nearly a mile into the forest behind the house.

He kissed Kali, silencing her frantic scream as her pussy milked his cock of every last drop. Ronan groaned above them, his orgasm obviously triggered by Kali’s own.

And then Alex rolled them over, pushing Kali into Ronan’s arms as he pulled from her heavenly warmth and waited for whoever had attacked them to follow his slip path. The pixie didn’t disappoint, appearing a moment later only a few feet away. Obviously intent on getting close enough to hurt Kali, the pixie managed to dodge his fire attack. However, the assassin didn’t count on Ronan’s response and burst into flame the moment the bullet filled with demon shot hit her stomach. Alex smiled at his friend’s obvious ability to grab his gun even though all three of them had been preoccupied at the time.

“The spray glue under the bed,” Ronan said breathlessly as he managed to somehow pull Kali behind him and aim the gun at the pixie’s collapsing ash pile. Alex nodded, slipped back to the house, located the aerosol can, and slipped back to the forest. Ronan was already kicking the ashes apart. A few sprays of sticky glue held them apart. Each time that there was any movement from the ashes, either paranormal or from the wind, Ronan sprayed some more. Alex smiled at his friend’s ingenuity. Pixies were simply considered unstoppable amongst the paranormal community, so nobody had ever given any real thought as to how one might slow their reformation down. As Ronan obviously expected, the pixie didn’t rematerialize.

“Shit! That is not what I expected when we climbed into bed,” Kali said with a strange sort of smile on her face as she picked herself up off the ground. She peeked at the mess of glue and ash from a safe distance. “Is she dead for real this time?”

“Not sure,” Alex said with a smile of his own. “Nobody has ever thought to glue pixie ashes down.” He turned to Ronan, adrenaline and relief playing havoc with his own emotions. “Always knew you were handy to have around in a fight.”

Ronan dipped his head in acknowledgement but seemed to be all business. “How far are we from the house?”

“Only about a mile or so.”

“Okay, slip back to the house, grab us some clothes, and we’ll walk back.”

“Hey,” Alex said as he realized that neither Ronan nor Kali seemed as nauseated as they had last time they’d traveled by slip. “You’re both okay?”

Ronan pulled Kali into his arms and pressed a kiss to the top of her head. “I’m fine. How about you, baby?”

“I…um…seem to be pretty good.” She screwed up her face a moment and added, “Except for the fact that I’m standing naked in the middle of a forest and really need a shower.” She made a face as she tried to brush leaves, dirt, and other forest debris from her beautifully curved body

“I could just—” Alex began to offer, but Ronan held up a hand to stop him.

“I suspect that the reason we’re fine is due to the fact that we were both in the middle of orgasm at the time. Our senses were otherwise engaged. So, thanks for the offer, but I’d rather walk.”

“No problems,” Alex said as he turned to Kali and winked. “That’s something I’ll remember for next time though.”

* * * *

“Do I have time for a shower?” Kali asked as they finally made it back into the house. The moment Ronan nodded she stripped the shirt straight off and headed for the bathroom. “Will she come after me again?”

“We have no way of knowing,” Ronan said as he stepped into the shower behind her. “But I’m guessing that even if a pixie can reform after being incinerated and glued, it will take her some time. I doubt they’ll send a replacement assassin just yet.”

“That’s true,” Alex said from the doorway, “and since nobody officially knows how to kill a pixie, it’s likely they’ll just assume she’s still working on it.”

“So you think she’s dead?” Kali asked quietly. It didn’t really sit well with her, but if the choice were her or the pixie, she was very glad to be the one still standing.

Alex just shrugged.

“How do pixies normally die? Do they grow old?” Ronan asked as he finished cleaning himself down and turned his attention to her. His warm hands were rather distracting despite the impersonal efficiency he was using.

“I doubt anyone but the pixies know about pixies,” Alex said. “There’s a lot of folklore surrounding them, even in the paranormal communities, but I don’t know what’s true and what’s not.”

“So we really need to get out of here in case she can overcome the glue and reform?”

“Yes,” Ronan said as he dragged Kali out from under the water and wrapped a towel around her. Alex stepped under the water and washed quickly.

He was just drying himself off when the perimeter alarm sounded again.

Ronan already had his gun in his hand. He shook his head as Alex looked ready to slip travel them to another destination. It would give them a few moments before the pixie could follow, but their position was probably more defensible here than anywhere else. With the wards reengaged the pixie wouldn’t be able to slip travel away from them. Obviously the spray glue hadn’t worked. Maybe if they gathered the dust in several airtight, glue-filled jars she wouldn’t be able to re-form. He’d try that next time.

They held their ground, the bathroom almost as defensible as the bedroom. It had only one small window not even large enough for a child, or pixie of childlike size, to climb through. That left only the single doorway, and with Ronan and Alex both armed and ready their attacker had little chance of getting past.

The minutes dragged on, the screech of the alarm getting more and more annoying by the moment. Just when Ronan was beginning to wonder if the pixie planned to wait them out, something flew toward them. At first it seemed to be a very big dragonfly, but as it drew nearer Ronan recognized its petite features.

“Is that what I think it is?” Kali asked as she peeked out from behind Alex.

“I guess that explains what happens to a pixie who gets most of her ashes glued together,” Alex said with what was obviously meant to be a mocking laugh. Despite her size, Ronan wasn’t willing to relax his guard, and he was quite grateful to his friend for trying to fire up their enemy’s temper. Chances were if the pixie got angry, she would do something poorly thought through.

Fortunately, Alex’s instincts proved correct a moment later as the irate, miniature pixie made a strange sort of hissing noise and went for Ronan’s face. He managed to grab her in the palm of his hand, but the little bitch burned him a couple of times before he could get her into a jar in the kitchen. Fortunately, her size meant the burns were no worse than the touch of a lit cigarette—annoying but ultimately not fatal.

She carried on for a while, hissing as loudly as she could—which wasn’t really all that loud—and beating her fragile-looking wings against the confined space of the jar. Surprisingly she cringed away in fear when Ronan grabbed a nail and hammer but seemed to calm down when she realized he only intended to punch a couple of holes in the lid so she could get some air.

“Too bad she doesn’t glow in the dark,” Alex said with a smirk. “She’d make a rather pretty lantern.” The pixie gave him a nasty look and used her finger in a way Ronan thought was typical only of humans. “I’m assuming that she can still slip travel, so the jar will only hold her while the wards are in place.” The pixie looked rather interested until he added, “And since I have no intention of turning them off, we should be able to hold her indefinitely.” She slumped to the bottom of the jar. It was obvious that she was saying something, but between her size and the glass Ronan wasn’t able to hear her.

“Were you able to catch any of that?” Ronan asked Alex.

“Not a word,” Alex said, smirking when their captive flipped him the bird once more.

“I’d really like to know why she still came after us. If that’s as big as she’s going to get, it put her at a tactical disadvantage. A human assassin would have cancelled the job or maybe called in help.”

“Didn’t I see karaoke equipment in the television cabinet?” Kali asked. “Maybe we can rig up one of the microphones to the TV.”

Ronan shuddered at the thought that he’d spent time in a house that was harboring such equipment. Thank God nobody had asked him to sing. There was a limit to how much one man should be asked to sacrifice in the name of keeping his woman safe and happy.

They had the microphone set up a few minutes later, and of course that was when the annoying little assassin decided to shut up. Angry enough to shake the jar, but sensible enough not to, Ronan turned to Alex for help. Nothing he’d learned about interrogation techniques had included a course on how to make a three-inch pixie spill all.

* * * *

“Why did you come after me?” Kali asked their captive.

The pixie rolled her eyes and tapped her foot. Even in miniature that thing was a bitch.

“Fine. Okay, I get it. Assassin for hire. Go where the money takes you. Kill whatever or whoever you’re told to kill.” She turned to Alex and Ronan. “She’s just a pawn. She doesn’t know anything.”

“Do, too,” the pixie said, sounding smug.

“Uh-huh,” Kali said in a voice that she hoped very clearly conveyed her disbelief. “Why would they tell you anything? You’re obviously a very
small
part of a much bigger plot.” She turned her back on the pixie, dismissing the creature’s existence.

“Do you have any idea who I am?”

“Not a clue,” Kali said over her shoulder. “Can’t say I much care, either.”

“I am Connistanterina Elizabeth DeKardoin, fourth-born daughter of the Pixie King. I am royalty, and you will treat me as such.”

“Well,
Conni
,” Kali said, hoping the shortening of her name would infuriate the woman enough for her to spill some useful information. “As royalty in the enemy camp, perhaps you should consider human history. I’m pretty sure we beheaded captured royals.”

“Human barbarians. No sense of honor.”

“Says the miniature assassin caught in a glass jar. You’re pathetic. You talk of honor like you understand what it means.”

“Of course I know what it means. The Oracle broke the rules. She intended to pass her information onto humans.” The pixie spat the word “humans” like it was some despicable contagious disease. “I killed her to protect my people. If I had known the traitor was capable of passing her information to human babies, I would have killed them all that day.”

“So you’re not a hired assassin.”

“I was not hired. I was chosen.” The pixie stuck her nose in the air, her eyes shining with what could only be described as a fanatical light. It didn’t matter what reasonable argument they made, this pixie had no intention of listening, ever. Considering she’d just announced she was willing to kill newborn babies, it took all of Kali’s sense of humanity not to grab the jar and start shaking until the callous bitch cried.

“Why you?” Kali asked, trying to inject a mocking tone into her voice instead of the rage she felt. “What’s so special about you? You don’t look up to the job from where I’m standing.”

“I am the best,” the miniature pixie said with an arrogant sniff. “I grabbed the Oracle, transported her to a place with no paranormal creatures, and silenced her.”

“But you failed, because she passed her knowledge on to humans.” Kali tilted her head, lifting the jar to look more closely at the pixie. She could see the annoyance even on such a tiny face, but a theory was starting to solidify in her mind, and she decided to try and get confirmation. “You’re cleaning up your own mess. Nobody even knows you’re doing this. That’s why the assassinations weren’t simultaneous. You’ve been doing this on your own.”

The pixie didn’t say anything, but Kali could see the woman’s fear now. It seemed pretty obvious that she had no backup. It was likely that no one would even notice that the pixie was missing—at least not for a while.

“Can pixies starve to death?”

“No,” the pixie said with a half laugh that didn’t quite hide her terror. “Unlike humans, we are not fragile creatures.”

“Good to know,” Kali said as she turned to her men. “How long will the wards stay in place?”

“Indefinitely,” Alex said with a grim smile. Kali could sense the anger both her men were feeling toward the conscienceless assassin.

“Good,” Kali said. She lifted the microphone away from the jar, glanced around the room, and finally settled on the cupboard under the kitchen sink. She found an old ceramic sugar container large enough to place the glass jar inside. The pixie was doing some sort of tantrum, but without the amplified sound Kali could barely hear a thing. “Maybe a few years of solitary confinement will help you to see the error of your ways. Good-bye, Conni.”

She placed the lid on the pottery jar, placed the pottery under the sink, and closed the cupboard door. She turned to her men.

“Let’s go home.”

Kali glanced around her kitchen and wondered how everything that had happened in the past few days could suddenly feel like a dream. With Ronan and Alex in another room it almost felt like none of it had happened.

“You okay, sis?” Dave asked as he stepped into the small area.

“I think so,” she said honestly.

“I want you to move in with Ronan.” It was obvious that her brother had been beside himself with worry, and so she knew without a shadow of a doubt that he wanted her to move in with Ronan so that he could protect her. This wasn’t another of Dave’s lousy matchmaking moves. Although, considering that the last guy he’d set her up with was one of the two guys she was hopelessly in love with now, maybe his instincts hadn’t been so lousy after all. “Even with the pixie locked away, there is no guarantee that you’ll be safe. Alex says the wards will hold her, but he and Ronan don’t want to alert anyone else to her whereabouts. The fewer people who know what happened to her or where she is the less likely she is to escape.” He crossed his arms and gave her his worried-big-brother look. “But it’s probably only a matter of time before someone else connects the dots and decides to finish what she started.”

“I know all of that,” she said quietly, trying not to convey her annoyance. Dave was just being her big brother and trying to protect her. He probably had no way of knowing how unbalanced she felt.

“Or would you rather move in with Alex?” Dave asked with a sympathetic smile. Hell, maybe he did know. She’d never really been able to hide anything from the brother who’d protected her all her life.

Smiling softly, she tried to find words to reassure him without quite confessing that she loved both Ronan and Alex. But again her big brother proved how well he knew her.

“Go talk to them.” He pressed a kiss to her forehead. “And know that whatever way you choose to live your life you will always have my love and support.” Tears blurred her vision, and she hugged her brother fiercely. After a few moments he laughed quietly. “If nothing else, it will make Thanksgiving rather interesting this year.” She nodded, gave him a watery smile, and watched as he let himself out the front door.

“Dave heading home?” Ronan asked. She nodded. “Good, Alex and I want to run a few decisions by you.”

“Decisions? Like what?”

“Like where we’re going to live, beautiful,” Alex said from the doorway of the living area. Her heart did a strange little tap dance before she could remind herself that they were only talking about protecting her long term. The three of them would probably have wild monkey sex to pass the time, but it was just fun. It wasn’t the true relationship her heart wanted.

“We have a few choices,” Ronan said, studying her face as if he could sense something was wrong but had no clue how to deal with it. “I have a number of safe houses dotted across several different countries.”

“Or we could hide you in another realm,” Alex added.

“Another realm? As in not on Earth?” It was probably stupid considering what she’d experienced in the past few days, but she’d never really considered the possibility of different planes of existence.

“Technically it is
on
Earth, but a place that exists in the same space yet in a different dimension.”

“Huh?” Okay, maybe she should have read more paranormal or science fiction stories, but almost everything that Alex had just said seemed to be in a foreign language.

“Think of it as moving to another country with a different culture.”

“Can’t I just stay here?” Yes, as soon as the words came out of her mouth, she knew how stupid the request was. She was vulnerable here, that much was a given, but her life had changed so quickly there was a part of her that didn’t want to let go. “I mean, what will I do? How will I survive? I can’t live off you two for the rest of my life.”

“Why not?” Ronan asked with genuine confusion. Hell, didn’t he understand anything about her?

And then the most frightening thought of all finally sat up and smacked her in the face. No, he didn’t know her. Neither did Alex. Hell, her life had been so far away from normal the past few days that she wasn’t sure
she
even knew who she was. Fuck!

“I just can’t. I need…my independence…my…my space.” She stumbled over the words, regretting them the moment she glanced at Ronan’s face. His expression didn’t change, but he paled considerably. Alex looked ready to say something, but Ronan went into professional-soldier mode, and it suddenly felt like nothing they’d shared had been real.

“Okay, pack what you’ll need. We move out in twenty minutes. I’ll get the guys to set up a secure Internet link at the safe house in Texas. We’ll make sure you’re able to work while you’re protected.”

He left the room without looking at her once, his manner completely professional, but it was obvious that she’d hurt him deeply.

“I…I didn’t…” She turned to Alex, unsure what expression she would find on his face. She’d likely hurt him with her poorly chosen words as well. What she found was the man with a wide grin, shaking his head in mock disappointment. Confused and maybe a little angry with his reaction, Kali crossed her arms and waited for him to say something.

“It’s a complete mystery to me how you two even made it into the same car on your first date. I think it’s quite a lucky thing you’ll have me around to sort out the misunderstandings. Hell, once the children come along, it’s liable to get worse.”

“What?” Kali asked, shaking her head, utterly confused. “What children?”

“Yours and Ronan’s of course. You know you’re perfect for each other. He knows it, too, but somehow you two keep going all human and messing things up. At least with me around you’ll be able to sort through the issues before they become insurmountable.” She shook her head as the tears fell down her cheeks even as she cursed herself for letting her ragged emotions show. Alex pulled her into his embrace, hugging her tight as he became very serious. “Kali, you love him. You know you do.”

“I know,” she whispered, “but I love you, too.”

“Good to know,” he said with a quick squeeze. “So now all we have to do is convince the stubborn soldier that we can be a family.”

“I need to go talk to him, don’t I?”

“I’ve always found talking a very effective way of communicating,” he said with a smile in his voice.

She sighed, hugged Alex closer, and whispered, “I didn’t mean it the way it came out.”

“I know, beautiful, but Ronan hates being vulnerable.” She leaned back to see Alex’s face. Ronan was a bossy, confident, well-trained soldier. Everything in his life was about maximizing his client’s safety and minimizing vulnerability. But love wasn’t a job. It wasn’t even predictable. It was raw and messy and, in Kali and Ronan’s case, filled with misunderstandings and hurt feelings.

Kali was still wondering how to deal with Ronan’s reaction—and, yes, maybe even wondering how to protect herself from being vulnerable to him—when he came back into the room. His expression was quickly hidden, but the hurt in his eyes had been unmistakable.

“Ronan,” Kali said, trying to shore up her courage and say what Ronan needed to hear. “I love you.”

“It’s okay, Kali,” Ronan said, sounding like the soldier he was—professional, polite, and distant. “We’ll make sure you’re safe. You don’t need to pretend.”

The man was infuriating. “I’m not pretending.” She wanted to stamp her foot like a five-year-old, but it probably wouldn’t help convince him that she knew her own mind. The silly man had probably decided that what they’d shared at the cabin had simply been stress relief.

But as angry as she was feeling, that flash of hurt crossed his features again, and she wanted to grab him and shake him, and maybe kiss him all over, until he understood what she’d meant earlier.

“Ronan, I phrased it badly.” She stood right in front of him and waited until he finally looked down at her. “I love you, and I love Alex, and while I might be stubborn enough to want to contribute to the family income, I want to do it as part of our family.
Our
family—yours, mine, and Alex’s.”

“You want to marry me?” His reaction seemed so shocked that Kali suddenly wondered if Alex had any clue what he was talking about. Maybe Ronan’s reaction to her carelessly chosen words was him taking the opportunity to end things before they got too complicated. Pain, like a knife plunged through her chest, had her gasping for air. “Kali,” Ronan said, sounding very serious once more. He lifted a hand to either side of her face, caressing her cheeks softly as a tear escaped her control and slid down her cheek. “Please marry me and Alex. Please have our babies. Please let us spend the rest of our lives sorting out the misunderstandings.”

Alex moved to stand behind her, pressed a kiss to her shoulder, and repeated Ronan’s words in a voice thick with emotion. “We both love you, Kali. Marry us, please.”

Relief flooded through her as she fell more deeply in love with both her men. And then Kali nodded and said the only word zipping through her mind. “Yes.”