To Summon a Demon (9 page)

“I concur.” The sexual being who’d sauntered in had been replaced by a deadly Demon.

Kill her? They’d said it so casually. Lili gulped as his words to sunk in. A few days ago she would have accepted death, but after the last night, she no longer wished to die.

“I veto that option.” She backed up slowly until she hit the edge of the nightstand next to her bed. She had another dagger next to the candle she used to read by on her long lonely evenings.

The hilt was familiar and comforting in her hand.

No fucking way was she going down without a fight.

Gaap moved quickly and disarmed her. “Everyone take a moment.” His grip was gentle and yet, absolute. She wouldn’t be able to break free. Lili resisted the urge to melt into the hard safety of his embrace.

“Fine,” she snapped.

“We should go back to the clearing,” Gaap said calmly.

“What?!” Lili's heart thudded painfully.

“Not a chance.” Leraye, the voice of reason, shoved the chair back from the table and jerked to his feet.

Zepar took a step toward Gaap and Lili.

“The only way to find out what is really going on is to attempt contact again.”

“Attempt
death
? No.” Lili’s mouth went dry at the fear coating her tongue. Suddenly she thought perhaps her need for revenge on the Fae wasn’t what she wanted. “Never mind. I don’t need revenge,” she babbled.

Fear caromed through her at the thought of Gaap facing the Fir Bolg assassins again. The memory of his flesh split and bleeding, the acrid scent of burnt skin from the zap of electricity, tormented her.

“I am advising against it,” Leraye said flatly.

“I hear your advice.” Gaap pulled his shirt over his head, the muscles in his abdomen rippling.

Lili relaxed. Thank Gods one of them had sense. Maybe she could talk Gaap back into bed. Who needed revenge when she could have love, sex, again?

“And I disagree.” Gaap drew his leather armor on over the fine cotton shirt. The thick leather broadened his chest but all she noticed was the dark stain at the edge of his waist. A leftover remnant of his injury. As much as Lili wanted revenge, she didn’t want him hurt on her account.

But before she could protest, Gaap held up his palm. “Non-negotiable.”

“You seem to be saying that a lot lately.” Zepar tilted his head, so that his gaze skimmed thoughtfully back and forth between them. Lili had no idea what he was thinking. “I should spend some time alone with the lovely Lili.”

Lili stiffened at the sensual intent in his words. She didn’t want to spend time with him.

“Zepar,” Gaap said patiently, but with an edge of steel. “Now is not the time.”

But Zepar ignored Gaap and sauntered up to her. Lili kept her attention on him, not forgetting for a moment that he thought killing her was a good idea. She wished Gaap hadn’t disarmed her.

“Ah, lovely Lili.” Zepar's smile was wicked, lustful. If she hadn’t just met Gaap and spent the most amazing night of her life with him, she might have been tempted. He leaned closer until the tips of her breasts touched his chest. And his breath was hot on her mouth. Lili tilted her chin up and refused to be intimidated.

“You don’t frighten me.”

Zepar laughed low in his throat. “You aren’t supposed to be frightened, sweet.”

She desperately wanted to take a step back, away, but she had no intention of showing him weakness. He left her stone cold and she wanted that clear. "No, thank you."

“It appears, my friend,” Zepar turned his head to goad Gaap. “That you’ve ruined her.”

Gods, the blonde Demon was right. She had no interest in him. He exuded sex and his hot look told her that he could make her very happy in bed. And she couldn't care less. Lili’s lashes fluttered down so that she could hide that frightening truth.

Gaap’s bark of laughter was loud and hearty. “You just turned down the Demon of Seduction.”

The joy that lit up his face was like sunshine coming out after a bitter rain."

“Sweet Lili, like the flower?” Zepar asked casually.

“Lilith. Short for Lilith.”

All the Demons stiffened.

“What?”

“Lilith, consort of the devil.” Leraye tightened his fist around the hilt of the paring knife.

She rolled her eyes. “My mother liked the way it sounded.”

“Names have power.” Seduction guy growled, his sensual side buried by menace.

“Names are just names.” Power was in magick. And she was not a consort of the devil. Even so.

“But that would make sense since I’m consorting with you three.”

Gaap’s demeanor changed, his easy amusement of a moment ago replaced with solemnity.

“Demons are not devils.”

“I know that.” Lili wrapped her dress more tightly around her middle. Their response to her name was an unwelcome surprise.

Leraye looked ready to pounce on her. “What else do you know?”

“The Fae are the devils,” Gaap said calmly. “They want something. We need to deny them.”

Exactly what she wanted. To deny the Fae. Lili’s heart clenched and fear fluttered in her breast.

Because, good Gods, taunting the Fae was a bad idea.

“Don’t let him go into the clearing,” Lili begged Leraye, understanding that this Demon had some sway with Gaap. More than she did.

Leraye lowered his dark brows over his startlingly pale blue eyes.

Gaap sneered. “You’re all pansies.”

She glanced at the scar from yesterday’s injury but the red, angry slash had faded to a pink puckered seam on his hips.

“I heal fast,” Gaap said softly.

Her response was equally soft. “I still don’t want you to go.”

But then Leraye curled his cold fingers around her bicep and crowded her between the bed and the nightstand. “He won’t be going alone.”

The Demons loaded up on weapons before leaving Lili's home.

When they strode toward the clearing where the Fae had attacked, Gaap was surprised the clanging from the weapons strapped to his body hadn’t already brought the Fae out to play.

“We should have left her behind.”

He could almost hear Lili grinding her teeth. She’d refused to stay at her cottage. As he’d wished. He admired her tenacity but he hated that she was in danger.

“They attacked because she was with you.” Leraye lengthened his stride. “She is the catalyst.”

Last time, I saved you.
Gaap could hear her thoughts loud and clear. The mulish look on her face conveyed the stubborn thought as well. Their connection had strengthened after yesterday’s attack. He knew her thoughts and her worries. But his need to protect the Demons, to protect her, overrode any worries she might have.

They needed to find out what the Fae had planned.

“I don’t like it.” Gaap would have preferred to find out without her present. She was a distraction he could well do without.

“Join the club.” Leraye’s gaze moved constantly looking for any threat.

While Gaap gave Leraye a rundown of the attack from the previous day, he fingered the iron throwing stars dangling from his belt.

“I have a bad feeling about this,” Gaap glanced around the shadows for any followers or anything out of place. He wanted to get this over with and go back to Lili’s cottage and lose himself in her body.

In no time, they reached the tiny glade. Gaap and Leraye had worked out a plan on the trek to the Faery mound.

They stood underneath the massive oak tree and Gaap assessed the clearing again.

The brook running through the little glade trickled joyously and the rush of water in his ears soothed him. Water was his to command and proximity to any body of water always calmed him.

One of the worst tortures of being underground had been the lack of water. Their sustenance had been mere trickles down the black cavernous walls. The only color in their prison had been the sparkle of amethyst crystals embedded in the rocks.

“You see anything?” Lili whispered. She stood straight, tense, the lines of her body indicated her readiness to fight.

Leraye held a finger to his lips, then gestured to the giant oak tree that Gaap had used defensively before.

While Gaap and Lili used the tree as shelter and protection, Leraye climbed up into the shadowed branches and found an advantageous surveillance point.

A single Fae appeared in the clearing. Everything about him shimmered, a trait Gaap had always found interesting. Demons tended toward dark. The Fae were glimmering creatures of gold and sunlight and yet their hearts were blacker than the darkest Demon.

Lili stepped forward as if ready to take on the Fae all on her own. Gaap curled his fingers around her bicep and tugged her back.

“You are done here.” The Fae spoke in his seductive voice, directing all of his power of suggestion at Lili.

She blinked. “Are you talking to me?”

“Your wish will be granted, since you have brought them to us.”

What the hell was he talking about? Gaap frowned.

Lili’s fists clenched. Gaap could feel her confusion and her anger toward the Fae.

Caution.
He attempted to send the word to her. She quivered. Ah, so it appeared that he could communicate with her now.

“What do you want?” Gaap wondered if the Fae would answer.

“The same thing she does.” The Fae smirked as if he had a delicious secret.

“So you did use her to get to me?” Gaap wanted to be very clear. This was why he’d been able to sense the Fae on her skin and see the sun mark on her body.

The Fae’s laugh was harsh with glee. “Hardly.” With a languid gesture, he waved his hand as if clearing a mirror of steam.

And suddenly Gaap could see in her mind. Images played through her brain and transmitted to him.

Lili on her knees in this very clearing, begging for revenge. Lili with fury on her face. Lili with triumph in her eyes as her memories were shielded by glamour and slowly replaced with faint memories of being attacked.

Lili, the betrayer.

Her hatred for Demons was recorded in her memories and slammed into him with sickening force. Her hatred had bubbled in a cauldron of rage until she broke and begged the Fae to use her.

“She has served her purpose,” the Fae taunted with an evil grin. “You may do with her what you will.”

With one last swipe of his hand, he removed the rest of the concealing glamour.

No, no, no, no
. Gaap heard her words in his head as she backed away from him, tears in her eyes, her face a rictus of shame and horror.

Rage filled him, rising from a hot ball in his stomach and radiating out until the force of the anger consumed him. He should have ignored his feelings and used his head. He’d known that she had the scent of the Fae on her. Instead, he’d shoved aside the anomalies and concentrated on how she made him feel.

Gaap laughed, the sound harsh and grating in the still expectant air. It turned out the Fae weren’t using her, she had been using them.

“No,” she whispered.

He would kill her soon, but first, the Fae was the bigger threat.

A gust of wind rustled through the leaves and blew the scent of heather into her face. Her stomach roiled and pitched.

Gods, she wanted to throw up. Cry. Scream.

She’d betrayed him.

Lili’s heart pounded in her chest. Her mouth dry with terror and shame, she waited for the deathblow. Noise rang in her ears and her vision danced with white stars, as her chest got tighter and tighter. She kept her eyes open, wanting to see death as Gaap visited his wrath upon her.

Breathe
. Gaap’s voice snarled in her mind, his touch harsh and angry.

Gaap turned his attention to the smug Fae. “You’re mine.” His face was a mask of determined power as he twirled an iron throwing star at the triumphant enemy.

Lili understood then that Gaap would take his revenge on her later. Bloodlust welled up in her as she watched the arc of his ornate killing weapon. Images powered through her mind and tumbled over the blocks that had existed when she’d met him. When she’d blamed all her ills on the Demons.

In her quest to exact revenge, she’d found the Demon's true worth. And she’d found the love that had been denied to her for the past ten years. She’d found her haven with Gaap. How ironic that the act meant to bring a measure of peace actually brought her total anguish.

The iron star dropped harmlessly to the ground, merely splattering the grass with sparks as the deadly metal bounced off the Fae’s shield of glimmering light.

Gaap shrugged. “There is only one of you.”

The Fae threw an electric shock pulse at Gaap, aiming perfectly to nail him in the thigh.

Gaap hissed in pain and threw another iron star.

“You cannot touch me,” the Fae taunted as Gaap’s weapon fell to the earth. “Your weapons are useless against my shields.”

The Fae threw another electric shock pulse, accurately hitting Gaap in the exact spot of his injury from yesterday. The exact spot that Lili had sewn with such care last night. “You have been defeated by a human.”

And that was when she realized that yesterday's battle had been a test. A way to measure the weapons of the Demons and then counteract them for maximum injury to the Demons and

minimum to the Fae.

Gaap had been played on so many levels. And she had been there at every turn, betraying him.

Helping the Fae, hurting the Demons.

She remembered her anger when she’d gone to the Fae, but she was a different person now.

Changed by the truth, the fundamental good of Demons. They had not been the real reason for her desperation, but she learned too late that the Fae were the true evil.

Lili stood mutely, hands hanging at her sides as the Fae advanced toward Gaap.

“I will admit that I didn’t think she had a prayer of enticing you.”

With every word he uttered the Fae sealed her fate. She was doomed. Deserved to be doomed.

With each bolt of energy the Fae tossed at Gaap, her heart rate increased. As the Fae advanced, Lili became more frantic, searching for a way, any way that she could help Gaap. Lili refused to be the downfall of Gaap who had shown her nothing but kindness and love. Who had