Devil Take Me (15 page)

“Annie? I said, I…loved you,” Namtar finally repeated, wishing he didn’t sound so damned angry. Thus far, he was a complete failure at romance, a fact made even more plain when Annie finally responded.

“I know,” she said. Then she took a deep breath and burst into tears.

Within a few moments, the baby devils at her feet joined in, wailing as if their hearts were about to break, rubbing orange drippings all over themselves and Annie’s bare feet as they succumbed to their misery.

Namtar met Titurus’s eyes where he stood several feet behind Annie and for a moment was certain he saw a grimace of commiseration on the demon leader’s face. Then the bastard smiled, and Namtar knew it was going to be a very long night. Every second until he was once more in his prime fighting condition and ready to rid himself and Annie of their wretched new traveling companions would be an eternity.

An eternity it looked as if he would suffer alone.

Annie crawled into the front seat, shooing the demons from their positions at the controls as Titurus scooped the younger demons into the passenger’s seat. She had secured her seatbelt across her chest, shifted the car into gear and was guiding them out of the parking lot before Namtar could so much as close the door, let alone think of how to respond to her tears. Finally he managed to shut himself inside the back seat, and lean over into the front.

“We should…look for someplace underground,” he said, pressing on when his pronouncement was met with silence. “It will be the best way to mask your power until such time as you learn to control it, to keep it from flaring when—”

“We are feeding upon the excess, my lord.”

Of course they were, the little parasites. Still, Namtar managed to hold his tongue, knowing the Sariesians were doing Annie a service—for now. Should they decide to take more than their share of her power, however, or should Annie weaken from their constant sucking at her strength, they would be taught a lesson. Swiftly. Painfully.

Titurus read the unspoken threat in Namtar’s eyes and bowed again. “Neither Samyaza nor the demon legions will find her so long as we are about. We will keep both you and our lady Annie safe, we swear it.”

“Titurus, you had best be certain to—”

“Of course, my lord.” The demon leader’s voice was low and even, but Namtar was certain he heard smug satisfaction lurking beneath the deferential words.

Somehow, in the past twenty minutes, he had been displaced as Annie’s protector, as her confidante. It made him feel wretched, more wretched than he would have imagined possible. Annie wouldn’t even look at him. When he had spoken, she’d only sniffled louder, as if she would break into full-fledged sobbing once more if she were forced to listen to another word uttered in his hateful voice.

Namtar lay back on the seats with a grunt, crossing his arms over his chest and glowering at the ceiling of the vehicle. He had greater worries than that of an emotional female, no matter that she was the love he had been waiting for all of his very long life. Ereshkigal’s minions would return, Samyaza would be searching for Annie, determined to destroy a nephilim of such power, and there was still the matter of Annie’s villainous betrothed to contend with.

Namtar hadn’t been given the chance to tell Annie what he had read in the gunman’s mind, to tell her that it wasn’t her death the man sought—at least not right away. He hadn’t been able to ask her what the things he had learned would mean to a modern human, though solving that mystery was secondary. The important information—that Roger would not stop until he had taken Annie’s life—he already knew. Annie should know it as well.

Not to mention the fact that she must be educated about what she was, the nature of her magic, and her place—or lack thereof—in the world.

“Annie…Annie, I—”

There was no response from Annie, but Titurus’s bright green eyes appeared above the seat.

“You should try to rest, my lord. We will need you at your full strength if we should encounter our enemies.”

Namtar was about to tell Titurus exactly what he could do with his advice when another sniffle from Annie froze the words on his lips. She was still crying, probably wishing he was someplace far away. The least he could do was remain silent, sparing her the constant reminder of the monster who loved her.

Annie pulled into the driveway of her great-aunt’s house just as the sun was rising. She pried her weary body from behind the wheel and hurried to raise the wooden door of the garage in the grey morning light. The devils weren’t accustomed to the light of day. Titurus said the younger ones would burn terribly if they weren’t safely inside by the time the sun’s rays settled firmly upon the Earth.

The garage seemed as good a place to house the demons as any at the moment, at least until she learned the state of the inside of the house. There were small windows on one side to let in cool air, but not enough light to damage the baby demons. She had learned on the ride that they were babies, though each of them were nearly a hundred years old. Devils matured more slowly than other species, she assumed, though she hadn’t asked. She hadn’t wanted to pry, or seem any more ignorant than she probably did already.

“Okay, I’ll be back in a few hours at the most,” Annie said as the devils scampered into the dark, dusty garage. “Do you need anything? A fan? Water? Food?”

“The heat will not bother us, we are used to much warmer conditions.” Titurus smiled at her as he ushered the smaller demons to the darker corners.

“Right, of course.” Duh. They lived in the fiery depths and all that. Annie felt like a fool, but tried to give herself a break. It had been a heck of a twenty-four hours and she needed some sleep before she could be expected to think clearly.

“As far as food, we will have all we need so long as you remain close by.”

“I’ll be inside. I need to sleep for a few hours, and I’m sure Namtar could use some more rest too before he has to start explaining everything to me.” Annie’s heart lurched as she said his name. Tears threatened again for the tenth time since they’d hit the road around three in the morning.

What was wrong with her? She was crazy about him, loved him more than she would have believed possible, especially in such a short time. So why was she so terrified to tell him she returned his feelings? It was as if fear had tightened her throat as she watched him fall from the sky and hadn’t let go. She couldn’t stop thinking about what would have happened if she’d really lost him, if he’d died in her arms there in the parking lot.

What would she have done with herself? How could she go back to her old life without him, even assuming she cleared her name and survived whatever Roger had planned for her? She didn’t want to be without Namtar. Ever. She didn’t want to live on the Earth if he wasn’t there beside her. The knowledge was…terrifying, and wonderful and…even more terrifying.

She shuddered, pulling in a deep breath and pushing aside her thoughts before the waterworks could get started again.

“Lord Namtar will make all clear to you. He is a good man, and will be a good king. Of this, I am certain.” Titurus patted her knee in an almost fatherly gesture and then turned to join the rest of his people inside.

Annie swallowed back the strange surge of emotion she felt whenever any of the darklings touched her, and reached up to slide the garage door closed. There would be time to sort out all of her feelings later. Right now, she needed rest, she needed—

The hand on her shoulder made her jump. She turned to see Namtar behind her, clutching two plastic bags in his hand. It was so good to see him standing, looking whole and strong once more, but the expression on his face brought the urge to cry back with a vengeance. He looked so vulnerable, so lost.

“I have fetched our bags and the food from the car. I thought you might wish to eat, then take a shower and change your clothing before…” He trailed off, looking down at the ground. His large shoulders were hunched, and no matter that he was the largest, strongest man she had ever seen in the flesh, he looked like an abandoned child standing there, the pain he felt evident in every line of his body.

Pain she had caused. She’d been acting like a heartless coward, and there was no excuse for it. No battle, no shock, no terror, and no silly argument over a bunch of demons should have made her hurt the man she loved. She had to make this better. Right now.

“You’re right, I would love a shower. Thank you.” She reached out, running a soft hand down his arm to cover his hand, her heart aching as he lifted wary eyes to hers. How could she have let this happen, let him doubt that she loved him? She was an ass, as selfish and awful as Roger or any of the other men she’d thought she loved and let treat her like dirt. “Just let me drive the car around back and hide it near the edge of the fence and we can go inside. I don’t want anyone to know we’re here. It’s a small town and people are curious, especially about—”

“Where is it you would like the car?” Namtar asked, walking to the side of the house and opening the wide gate.

Aunt Dinah’s husband had kept his fishing boat parked in the backyard when he was still alive. It had sat there for years after his death, until her great-aunt finally sold it to pay for Annie’s first semester of community college. Annie had a scholarship for tuition and books, but it wouldn’t cover her housing. Dinah was so eager to have her out of the house she’d finally parted with money for something other than food and second hand clothes. Just to finally have the “burden” off her shoulders.

“Over there, at the back of the yard, by the edge of the fence. No one will be able to see it there, even if they’re looking.” Annie pushed aside the pain memories of her great-aunt and her time growing up in this house always brought stinging to the surface. There wasn’t time to nurse old wounds, not when there were so many new horrors to be addressed.

Namtar muttered something in a language she couldn’t understand, reaching one hand toward the car and one toward the fence. The car dissolved into that same black mist Namtar had become in the hotel room, reappearing a few seconds later in the backyard. It was an impressive display of his magic.

And would have been even more impressive if the car had come back together the same way it had come apart.

“Damn!” Namtar cursed. “Goddess andoini cartophis—”

“Don’t worry about it,” Annie said, hurrying to his side and closing the gate, shutting out the sight of the small sedan, now graced with bucket seats on its hood and an engine sticking out of the trunk. “We shouldn’t drive that car anymore anyway. The police will be looking for it. We needed a new vehicle.”

“I apologize. I thought to practice a longer distance journeying spell on something other than myself. It would prove useful if we were to encounter Samyaza again.” He ran a hand down his face and she felt his weariness nearly as powerfully as her own. She’d never felt so connected to anyone. “I thought perhaps I could spirit you someplace safe from harm, but—”

“I don’t want to be spirited safe from harm.”

“—I might have killed you myself. I can’t believe I tried even that minor journeying spell at your home without practicing first. I could have killed you.”

“But you didn’t.”

“But I could have.”

“Namtar, you saved my life that day.”

He was silent for a moment, then continued in a softer tone. “I want you safe, Annie. Even if—”

“I don’t want to be safe. I want to be with you.” Annie took Namtar’s hand, smiling up at him even as tears filled her eyes for the millionth time.

Roger had been right. She was unbalanced and probably in need of some happy pills or a long stay in a padded room. Or maybe just a break from the life and death situations might help.

“Don’t cry, ninani.” Namtar smiled down at her, looking as if he finally understood her tears had nothing to do with him. Or mostly nothing.

“Come with me.” Annie turned and guided Namtar toward the front door.

It was still early, but the elderly people who made up the majority of the residents on this side of town had been known to start their morning walks at daybreak. They needed to get inside where they would be hidden from prying eyes, and where she could start showing Namtar exactly how she felt about him.

Namtar suddenly wished he had the power to travel through time. If so, he would journey back to those days when Annie was young and make certain her aunt knew the meaning of pain, knew what horror would befall her if she did not treat the young girl in her charge with the respect and care she deserved. Annie had been an innocent child, barely more than a babe when she had come to live here. What could she possibly have done to earn her relative’s hatred?

Nothing. She had done nothing, not this woman with a heart sweeter than any he had known. Her aunt had simply been a monster. It was a good reminder that not all demons lived beneath the ground, that a number of the wicked were allowed to inhabit the Earth, to claim an immortal soul and the right to eternity.

It made Namtar wonder, not for the first time, if his kind were truly as damned as the ancient prophecies claimed. Surely the Goddess of all would forgive them their longevity, and their time playing at being gods to the humans who had worshipped them. There were good people inhabiting the Underworld, people who deserved sanctuary and peace at the end of their days, no matter how greatly numbered those days might be.

People who are awaiting their salvation from a madwoman.

Namtar’s jaw clenched tightly. Now was not the time. Annie needed food and rest before they discussed anything, especially whether or not she was still willing to bind her soul to his. After her response to his profession of love, Namtar knew he must proceed with caution. Whether or not she wished to make the soul sacrifice, he had to convince her to come with him to the Underworld. It was the only way she would be safe from the Grigori.

And the only way she’ll be safe from Ereshkigal is for you to own the power of her soul. Don’t be a fool, man. You must have a soul. If not hers then—

“We should eat something.” Namtar could not tolerate the thought of reaping another soul. It was Annie or no one. “We will need our strength.”

“You’re right, but first I want to make sure no one will see us moving around inside. The curtains are all drawn down here. I remember I made certain the windows were locked and all the blinds and curtains closed before I left for Dinah’s funeral.” Annie took a deep breath and slipped a trembling hand into his. Namtar gripped it, willing his own strength into her body. “But I can’t remember if I closed the ones upstairs. We should probably go check.”

She moved toward the stairs and he followed without a word. He’d sensed her need to be in control outside the house. It wasn’t that she didn’t care for him, she was simply overwhelmed and afraid. But not of him. At least that was what his instincts told him. Surely her fingers wouldn’t be curling around his if she were afraid of him or his power?

He clung to that hope as tightly as Annie clung to his fingers.

“She sold most of the furniture up here after I went away to school so I wasn’t as worried about protecting things from the sun,” Annie said as they reached the landing and spied the beams of light streaming in from the east. She moved into a mostly empty room and pulled the simple blue curtains closed. “Not that there was anything nice up here to begin with. She kept most of the good pieces downstairs.”

Annie led him down the hall to the right. “But we can probably find some sheets for my old bed. It will be a tight fit for the two of us, but I wouldn’t feel right sleeping in Dinah’s old room. Besides, I sold a lot of the antiques to one of the neighbors and I think they took her mattress with the frame and…”

Annie’s voice thinned and then faded as they stopped in the doorway of the smallest room at the end of the hall. The windows faced the north, down onto the empty street. A small, square bed sat against one wall and a beaten chest of drawers and empty bookshelf against the other. They were all painted white, but the finish had faded, greying with age. There were no pictures on the wall, no toys or books or clothes, nothing to indicate that a child had grown up here, but Namtar knew this had been Annie’s room. He could see it on her face, feel it in the tight fist of pain that gripped her chest, threatening the life of the woman who owned it.

“Why don’t we go down to the kitchen? I can prepare some food,” Namtar said, hoping he would know how to make good on that offer.

The supplies she had purchased at a convenience store several hours back were completely foreign looking, except for the bread, jam and apples. Still, he could at least make sure she didn’t starve to death until she was prepared to instruct him on more elaborate methods of cooking. He’d never cooked anything for himself, having been a member of the court and attended by servants his entire life, but for Annie he would learn.

“Come, let us leave this room.” He took her hand again and tugged her gently toward the door, but she held firm.

“No, I don’t have to leave.” Her voice trembled and Namtar feared she had begun to cry once more, but there was a smile on her face when she turned. “I’m going to be fine. This is the past, and I’m not going to let the past hurt me anymore.”

“We are all shaped by our past. There is no shame in it,” Namtar said, allowing Annie to take the bags from his hand and set them on the floor, watching her carefully.

“I know.” She stepped closer, taking both of his hands, staring up into his eyes in a way that made his chest ache. “But I’m not going to let all the bad times I’ve had in my life affect my future. Our future.”

For the second time in less than a few hours, Namtar was at a loss for words.

“I’m sorry I didn’t tell you right away. I was being a chicken shit.” She wrapped her arms around his waist, hugging him tightly and awakening an aching in places much lower than his chest.

“You are nothing like chicken shit.” Namtar cupped Annie’s face in his hands, running a soft thumb across her full lips. “You are the sweetest thing I have ever smelled, even covered in dirt.”

“You know what I mean.” Her mouth parted and her dark eyes grew even darker, issuing an invitation he couldn’t refuse.

“I do.” Namtar leaned down, but was stopped by two fingers on his lips, holding him away from his prize.

“I love you. I don’t care how crazy it is, or how little time we’ve known each other.” Her breath came faster as she stroked shaking hands across his chest and up to twine about his neck. “I want you to take anything you need from me. I want to come with you to your home and help you fight for your people.”

“You still know nothing of your magic or your history. There is much we should—”

“I don’t care. I want you to take my soul. I want to be with you, no matter what it takes.” She kissed him, softly, the barest brush of lips, but it was enough.

“I will hold you to that vow.” His arms tightened around her, pulling her lush curves closer. “I am selfish and not inclined to give you the chance to escape me again.”

“I don’t want to escape.”

“Thank the Goddess for that, my love.”

“My love.” She smiled against his lips. “I really like the way you say that.” Then her tongue pushed into his mouth, exploring him, building the need coiling low into his body.

“Exactly how hungry are you, my love?” He tugged at her dress, pulling it up over her bottom, baring the smooth, soft flesh to his eager hands. Goddess, he could spend hours just attending to her ass, massaging, squeezing, biting…

“We’ve waited all night,” she said, gasping as he dipped a hand between her legs, finding where she was already slick, wet. “I can wait a little longer.”

“Is there a washroom?” Her fingers were down the front of his shorts now, finding his aching length, fisting it in her bandaged hand, making him groan from the pure pleasure of her touch even through the thick gauze she had used to bind her palms. “We should clean the wounds on your knees…and…attend to them.”

She stroked him up and down, up and down, bringing him to the edge far too quickly. “Yes, we should. But they don’t hurt that badly anymore. I don’t want to wait.”

“It won’t take long. Perhaps ten—”

“I don’t want to wait.” Namtar grunted as she ripped open the close of his shorts, pushing his coverings to the ground.

“So you want me to take you here—” He stepped free of his clothes and fisted her dress roughly in his hands. “On this hard, dirty floor?”

“Yes!” Her breath rushed from her lips, half laughter, half lust.

Her dress was over her head seconds later and his shirt as well. Then he was on his back with Annie astride him, guiding his cock between her legs. He groaned as she lowered her hips, encasing him in her slick heat. She was tight, tighter than she had ever felt before, and for a moment he worried they might have moved too quickly.

“Annie, love, should we—”

“No, God, no. Don’t stop. You feel amazing.” She leaned forward, claiming his lips, tangling her tongue with his. Namtar’s hands moved to her breasts, cupping, kneading, rolling her tightened nipples between his fingers. “I can’t even feel my knees anymore. Do you think that means I have nerve damage?”

“I don’t know. Perhaps.” He bucked into her, filling her to the very end of her gripping channel. “Or perhaps your magic works to heal you. You seem to have the power of the blood. It is also—”

“I don’t want to talk magic right now.” She lifted her hips, then lowered them back down, slowly, deliberately, with a little circling motion that drove Namtar absolutely insane. He moved his hands to her hips, digging his fingers into her full flesh. “I just want to fuck you.”

“Then fuck me, woman, and quit asking questions.” He groaned as she nipped her way down his throat, ending with a swift, hard bite at the base of his neck.

“You’re so bossy.” She ground against him, circling her hips but keeping him buried inside her. “Are you going to be this bossy once you have my soul?”

“I have thousands of seasons to my name, I highly doubt I will change my ways.” Namtar leaned forward, capturing one dusky nipple in his mouth and sucking. “Besides, I think a part of you enjoys my controlling nature.”

He contracted muscles low in his body, causing his cock to jerk inside her. Annie cried out and rode him harder, faster.

“But I won’t have to obey,” she gasped, fingernails digging into arms, stinging as they broke the skin.

He’d never understood it before, the desire for pain with his pleasure. But with Annie it was perfect, right, the wicked compliment to the sweetness of her soul. Light and dark, night and day, Annie was everything he had ever wanted, everything he would ever need.

“Namtar, answer me, I won’t have to—”

“Do you obey me now?” He mumbled the words against her breast, unable to stop now that he’d had a taste of her sweet flesh.

“So it won’t change anything? I’ll still have free will?” She moaned, and her sheath gripped his cock, letting him feel how close she was to finding her pleasure.

“Yes.” Namtar increased the tempo of his thrusts, desperate to feel Annie come, nearing the edge himself as her pussy let forth another rush of slick heat, coating him to the base of his aching cock.

“Good, then I—”

“I don’t want to talk souls right now,” Namtar said, echoing her earlier words. “In fact, I don’t want to talk at all.” He moved to her other breast, licking and sucking, dragging his teeth across her tightly budded nipple.

“Well, I do,” she panted, pulling away from him with obvious effort, bracing her hands on his chest. “I want you to take it. Right now. I don’t want to wait.”

“No, I cannot. It is—”

“Please, Namtar,” she said, her face growing serious, though her breath still came faster, and her hips continued to slide slowly up and down his length. “I’ve thought about this. I know what I’m giving up, and none of it means as much to me as I thought it did. Not my career, not my few friends, and certainly not my former fiancé. I want you to be as strong as you can be. I don’t want to risk losing you again because you don’t have the power you need.”

“Even if you must live in the darkness?” Namtar asked, struggling to think clearly. “What if the eternal sun does not return to the Underworld when Ereshkigal is dethroned?”

“I like the dark.”

“And what of your freedom? You must be accompanied by me or one of my guards at all times, in order to assure your safety. On that I will not be swayed.”

“Yes, I like being safe.” She traced a soft finger across his chest, the touch one of the most tender Namtar could remember. “And being with you.”

“Even if…I…can never give you children?” he asked, no longer certain that babes were impossible since she was nephilim and not merely human. There was Annunaki blood in her lineage, but he knew the chances were still very slim that they would conceive, that she would ever have the large family she dreamed of.

“If we can’t conceive, then we’ll adopt.”

“There are very few children in the Underworld,” Namtar said, his heart sinking as he forced himself to tell her the entire truth. “They are all precious to their parents. We will likely be unable to find an unwanted babe to foster.”