Demons Undone: The Sons of Gulielmus Series (6 page)

Gulielmus sighed. “Why don’t you just move on to the next one? It’s all right to fail the first time. You haven’t had any practice. Maybe if you feel what it is that’s the same from one encounter to the next, you’ll understand what it is you’re supposed to be aiming for.”

John released the pump handle and extracted it from the tank. “Oh, I don’t know. I’ve never been a quitter. Don’t want to start now. What’s the hurry?”

Gulielmus gave him a look of abject incredulity. “Do you know how many women there are on this Earth compared to how many demons and half-demons? I may be more fertile than most of my ilk, but there’s only so big an army I can manage. You kids have a lot of work to do.”

John stuffed the nozzle into the pump’s receptacle and snatched the receipt as it ejected. “Perhaps you should explain to me why the goal is to taint every soul on the planet. Doesn’t seem very efficient.”

“You wouldn’t feel that way once you took one.” Gulielmus walked around the pump and placed his hands on John’s shoulders, giving him a little
wake-up
shake. “It’s
amazing
the power, son.” His eyes rolled up into his head as he said it. “You’ll get hooked from the first taste.”

“I see.” John ducked out from under his grip and leaned against the front passenger door. “So, I get something. Team Hell gets something. You get props from your boss, I’m guessing. And Ariel gets eternity in a dark pit.”

Gulielmus rolled his eyes. “It’s not a
pit
, remember? It’s just … ennui. Your personalized version of it. And you’ve memorized her name?” He blew out a scoff. “Don’t worry, you’ll break that habit soon enough.”

John ground his teeth. He didn’t
want
to break the habit. He wanted to know everything about her. First name, middle, last. What her birth date was. Whether she had any phobias. What kind of cake was her favorite. Whether she’d been a good student.

He just nodded. “Good to know.”

Gulielmus flicked through some screens on his smartphone and let out a feral-sounding growl. “Got a meeting in Bucharest. I’ll check in with you later.”

“Don’t you have other children to check in on?”

Gulielmus disappeared without answering. Just as well, because the bells installed over the convenience store’s door jingled as Ariel pushed the door open and stepped outside with a large paper sack. As she approached, John handed her the gas receipt and he took the bag. “What’d you get?”

She grinned and handed him a hot cup as he sank into his seat. “Sandwiches. Chips. Junk. You know, the usual.”

“What’s in the cup?” He noticed she had one of her own, but she didn’t answer.

She bumped his door closed with her hip and walked around to the driver’s side of the car. Once inside with her seatbelt pulled across her hip, she set her cup into the holder in the center console and turned to him with a big grin. “I know you said you hadn’t acquired a taste for it, but gas station coffee is a special kind of beverage.”

He lifted a brow, not trusting her eager expression in the slightest bit.

“I’m serious, Hitch. It’s hardly even coffee. It’s basically just a watered-down gateway drug.”

He brought it close to his nose and sniffed. Smelled more like candy than coffee. “What is it?”

She wriggled her eyebrows and smiled broad.

It was so damned cute he wanted to pull her out of the car, lay her on the ground, and tickle her to death. He resisted the urge.

“It’s a blend of a few of the things available in the dispenser.” She counted off on her fingers. “That’s a vanilla caramel cappuccino with hazelnut creamer and three sugars.”

He felt his taste buds self-eject. “All that, huh?”

“Just taste it. If it you don’t like it, my feelings won’t be hurt. I’ll drink it and you can have one of the bottled waters in the bag.”

“Hmm.” He stared at the little opening in the plastic lid and wondered whether the substance could cause a diabetic shock of some sort. It smelled nice, but somewhat deadly, and if that’s what Ariel drank all the time, why was she so damned slim?

Come on. You’ve endured snakebites and tornadoes. You can drink a little bit of coffee.
He brought it up to his lips and slurped a mouthful of the scorching stuff.

It was hot, so it took his tongue a few beats to actually register the flavor. He cut his gaze over to Ariel who was still grinning.

“Well?” she asked.

“That’s really freakin’ sweet.”

“But?”

“But it’s not that bad,” he conceded.

“A-ha!” She stabbed her key into the ignition and eased the car onto the service road.

“It hardly counts as coffee in my opinion, sweetpea.”

She did a little dance in her seat as she steered onto the highway. “Maybe not, but you’ll see. Gradually, you’ll segue onto less syrup and more coffee and you’ll be a junkie just like the rest of us. Gas station coffee is basically the bottom of the barrel. There may not be much caffeine in that flavored drink, but that sugar’ll keep you up for the foreseeable future.”

“You think I was going to fall asleep on ya?”

“You mean like I did on you last night?”

His cock stirred in his pants at the thought of her warm body and smooth skin. He yearned to feel its press against him with nothing in the way besides their sweat. What would that first time feel like? Would it go quickly, or would his demonic ancestry keep him on the job until she was through? He forced some more coffee down his throat before answering. “You had a long day and were tired … and relaxed.”

She giggled. “
Relaxed
. Is that a euphemism for someone who was experiencing post-orgasmic haze?”

“I guess it is.” She kept driving, passing cars and adjusting her mirrors as if it was a normal thing to be discussing sex with a person she’d only known a day.

“I usually like to reciprocate, you know,” she said.

“Ah.” He’d always had to be so careful, sneaking around with the girls, hiding here and there for a few minutes. There was never full-bore intercourse because as horny as the girls were, they figured half a sin was better than a whole sin. They’d pet and kiss and usually one or the other got off, but usually not both. Reciprocation? Rarely.

He reached into the paper sack and pulled out the two plastic-covered sandwiches. “Do you want turkey or ham?” he asked.

“Your choice. I’m not picky, and I didn’t know what you wanted.”

“I’m not picky either. Choice was a luxury at the compound.”

“Forgot about that.”

He peeled back the film on the ham and cheese, and handed it to her.

They ate in silence for a while, and John handed her chips and napkins without her even having to ask.

The quiet in the car wasn’t uncomfortable. It was the sort of quiet that reminded John of the night. The stillness, then, was expected and necessary. Cleansing, in a way. It helped chase away all the busyness and over-thinking from the day and gave its denizens a chance to start anew. So that silence in the car with Ariel was like something that was part of their cycle — their ebb and flow.

He’d never felt like that with any other woman. He’d always felt like someone should say something.

He stole a glance at her and his heart melted at the sight of her wide-eyed wonderment at the scenery they flew past. When her eyes weren’t on the road, she stared out her window at cattle fields and oil derricks as if they were magical things that didn’t exist where she was from.

Hell, maybe they didn’t. He didn’t know
anything
about North Carolina or the East Coast other than the fact it was probably humid and that the people there liked basketball.

“Well?” she asked, squeezing his left knee.

He let his forehead furrow and jaw slacken. “I’m sorry, did you ask me something?” How long had he been staring at her? Who was hypnotizing
whom
?

“I asked if you knew how to work a cell phone at all. I’m trying to figure out how far we’ll get today and kind of want to know where we’re sleeping tonight.”

We’re?
Certainly she’d misspoken.

“Uh … ” He wrapped his fingers around the device she held out and drew it close. “I could probably figure it out. I’ve never owned one myself, but there were a few in the compound I got a chance to fiddle with.”

“I’m hoping we can make it as far as Arkansas tonight … ”

He scanned his memory banks for the bit of geography he’d learned as a kid.
Arkansas … Isn’t that all the way past Texas and Oklahoma? If she makes it to Arkansas tonight, she’ll be home in no time.

She’d be home in two days at that pace.

Two days wasn’t enough. He needed more time to … Hell, he didn’t know. He kept forgetting that he had one specific task to carry out, but it was so easy to push thoughts of that assignment aside. All he had to do was look at her — think about how perfect she was.

Why did we have to meet like this?

He grimaced.

If it hadn’t been like that, he would never have met her at all.

• • •

Ariel covered her mouth with her hand and closed her eyes as she yawned at the stoplight. “God, I can’t believe how tired I am, even after all that sugar.”

There’d been at least two large coffees, two Cherry Cokes, a king-sized Snickers bar, half a family-sized bag of Skittles, and a roll of Oreos since lunch. She thought she’d be able to get a couple more hours of driving in.

She and Hitch had stopped in Oklahoma to study some roadside oddities and she’d ended up napping in the car for an hour afterward. There was still some daylight left and she was eager to make up the time, but she could hardly keep her eyes open.

“Yeah, it’s funny,” Hitch conceded, as they crept through Little Rock in search of the hotel Ariel’s travel app claimed had vacancies. He didn’t seem tired at
all
and he hadn’t had a nap. When she’d been slumbering behind the steering wheel, he’d entertained himself by walking the trail that ran beside the rest station she’d parked at. She’d actually woke, yet again, in a state of panic at his disappearance, but when her mind cleared enough to find his backpack still in the car, her panic eased off. He’d actually returned shortly after, and she questioned herself on why this man was having such an effect on her.

“I hope this place is okay,” Hitch said. “I’m not familiar with any of the chains and how good they are. It’s three and half stars. Is that good?”

She swung a hard right into the hotel’s parking lot and circled around for a well-lit spot. “It’s fine. That’s about what we had last night.”

“What would you be staying in if this were a vacation and not a prescribed road trip?”

That made her laugh. “I’m not picky, really. As long as the place has interior corridors and a twenty-four hour front desk, I’m open. I reserve the right to complain later, though. Had you never been in a hotel before yesterday?” She killed the engine and wrapped her fingers around the door handle while waiting for his response.

He shook his head. “A couple of motor lodges here and there when I had to leave the compound on long errands. They weren’t anything special. It was just like being at home, especially with there being four of us in the room at a time.”

“Yeesh.”

Hitch met her at the trunk and gripped the handle of her suitcase before she could reach for it herself. “Thanks.”

“Least I can do. I’m not exactly pulling my weight, here.”

“What do you mean? You don’t have to do anything.”

They strolled into the lobby and joined the queue at the front desk. There must have been some sort of convention or conference in the hotel as there were dozens of people lingering around in fancy dress as country music blared from a nearby room.

Ariel scanned the conversing guests, and she could feel that the smile spreading across her cheeks was a smug one. Not a single one of those men in their rented tuxedos could hold a torch to Hitch, who outshone them all in old jeans and a faded tee-shirt. He was tall and tan and blond and probably met the Roman ideal of what Apollo the sun god looked like. Golden and bursting to the gills with life or energy or … hell, she didn’t know what it was. All she knew was that when was standing near him, she wanted to burrow closer — be possessed, even.

She startled as he wrapped his left arm around her neck from the back and set his chin on her right shoulder. It was as if he’d read her mind, but surely it hadn’t been that.

“You gotta understand I’m used to constant motion — doing things. Working hard. You have to let me help or I won’t know what to do with myself.”

As a unit, they took a couple of steps toward the counter as the line moved.

“I can think of some things you could be doing,” she whispered against his cheek.

“Like what?”

“Find anything special at the bottom of that brown paper bag?”

He stiffened behind her, then straightened up. “The one we left in the car? There was more in it? I thought after that bag of chips you pulled out, that had to be it.”

She shook her head and held her key fob over her shoulder.

He took them. “Be right back.” He nestled her suitcase next to her before he spun on the heel of his boot and eased his body through the dense crowd.

She giggled to herself as she watched him go.

While standing in front of the gas station’s rack of condoms and overpriced feminine care items, she’d felt a range of emotions she’d never before experienced in such close sequence. Bravery. Bewilderment. Brazenness. Embarrassment. Arousal. Last, following that wild-ass swing, had been resignation. She knew where she and Hitch would end up if she had her way, and this time she wanted to be prepared. No excuses. During that long drive, she expected he’d get to the bottom of the bag, fish out the packet of rainbow-colored prophylaxes, and say something about them. But he never did. And now she’d sent him on a hunting expedition.

She sighed as she dragged her suitcase to the counter.

Who am I? I don’t even recognize myself.

“Hi,” she said to the overworked clerk. “Ariel Thomas. Should have a one-night reservation. Made it this afternoon.”

The clerk tapped some keys and studied her monitor. “Oh, yeah. I took that reservation.” She clucked her tongue. Then she clucked it some more and darted her gaze up to Ariel.