Seducing the Succubus (22 page)

While Jez appreciated the chivalry, she hated not being able to see around him. It made her feel vulnerable and out of control—two things she hated.

The sound of the cab door opening and footsteps through gravel told her there was no changing around at this point. No need to make a lot of noise and alert anyone to their presence before they had to. She held her breath to better hear any sounds coming from outside the truck.

Rattling at the back door of the truck made her squeeze Noah’s arm in a death grip as tension and her fight or flight response pumped adrenaline through her system.

More footsteps on gravel sounded, but they moved away from the truck, plunging them in an eerie, tense silence.

When no other sounds came for several minutes, Noah slowly peeled Jez’s death grip off his arm. “Think you can have shorter fingernails next time you take this form?”

With her gaze glued to the door and her ears attuned to any sound from outside, it took her a long moment to register what Noah had meant. “Sorry.” She smiled self-consciously as she examined the deep crescents she’d left in the skin of his arm. “So what do we do now?”

Jez walked toward the inside back door of the truck and felt around the edges to see if she could find some type of release lever.

“There isn’t one.”

She glanced over her shoulder, but she didn’t stop searching. “Why wouldn’t there be? There’s always some type of safety release, like when you get stuck in walk-in freezers.”

Noah shook his head. “Actually, no. Not on these types of cargo trucks. They aren’t built to hold people, just cargo.”

“How do you know that?”

He shrugged, an irritatingly smug and all-too-adorable smile on his handsome face. “I’m a writer; I do research.”

“So there’s no way out until someone lets us out?” She smacked the door with her palm and turned to face him.

“Not sure. I just know there isn’t a safety release on those types of doors, so maybe we can concentrate on something else.” He blew out a long breath and scrubbed a hand over his stubbled cheeks. “Too bad they don’t have Triple A service for succubi. We could just call someone for help.”

Jezebeth frowned as something tickled at the edge of her memory. Something she’d read, recently. “Your phone!” She rushed forward. “Do you still have it?”

He nodded and fished it out of his pocket. “I was really just joking. Who are you going to try to call?”

Jezebeth took it from him and flipped through his pictures until she found the one from the
Har m∂giddô
journal. She scanned down the page past the mention of Lilith and Uriel, filing away her curiosity about their relationship for later. Finally she found mention of Raphael. She’d seen the incantation before, but hadn’t bothered reading it since she hadn’t thought it relevant at the time.

She scanned the words, a flicker of hope spearing through her. She would owe the Archangel for summoning him, but if he could help them toward their goal in any way, the price would be worth whatever she had to do.

Her lips curved in a slow smile as she glanced up at Noah. “I think I’ve found us a way out.”

“Which is?”

“Did you translate the part about summoning Raphael, the healer?”

Noah frowned and then understanding lit his stormy gray eyes. “Yeah. But after my experience with summoning Lilith I didn’t want to press my luck.”

Jezebeth grinned. “Well, then I’ll press mine.”

“Wait. What are the risks with this?” He laid a hand on her shoulder. “Doesn’t it say you’ll owe Raphael for his assistance? You have no idea what price you’ll have to pay.”

She nodded. “Nothing in the supernatural world is free, Noah. Nothing. I’m used to it.”

He sighed. “I’m not. Maybe we should just wait until whoever is driving the truck comes back.”

Her temper flashed and she paced away from him before turning back. “And how long should we wait? Until Uriel’s house has moved to Greece? Until we starve to death back here?” A rising sense of panic slowly built inside her chest and moved up to constrict her throat. “Until Semiazas tracks me down and tortures me for eternity?” The last sentence was a thick whisper that brought tears to her eyes.

Noah stepped forward, and she stiffened against the fight and the arguments to come.

Instead, he surprised her by wrapping his arms around her and just holding her tight.

Jez stood in his embrace stiffly for a long moment before giving in to the seductive warmth of the comfort he offered and letting her hot tears flow silently down her cheeks as she wrapped her arms around him.

She hadn’t realized how much she’d buried her fear of being found by Semiazas for all this time until just now.

Not only had she been separated from her sisters but she’d been mostly cut off from her kind for the last seven hundred years since Semiazas had been imprisoned. She hadn’t even been able to return to Lilith’s lair in all that time.

Semiazas was a powerful demon with many friends and connections before he was imprisoned by Lucifer, and just like powerful human criminals, his imprisonment didn’t necessarily stop his reach.

She’d lived in fear for the better part of a millennium, and she was tired and ready for it to be over. After everything they’d gone through to make it this far, she wanted to make it to Yuma, step through to Lilith’s lair, and deal with familiar problems like succubi/incubi in-fighting and squabbles. All the things she used to hate but found she missed once she could no longer go home.

When she’d cried herself out, she realized Noah was rubbing small circles on her back and murmuring soft nonsense words to her. Both inane and ridiculous in their own right—and the absolute most wonderful thing anyone had ever done for her.

She took a deep shuddering breath against Noah’s chest and sniffed back the last of her tears.

“Are you all right?” Noah lifted her chin so her gaze met his and then gently wiped away her tears.

She nodded and stepped back, suddenly uncomfortable with the foreign sensation of having someone else to lean on. “I’m good. Sorry. Must still be tired.”

The back door of the truck trundled open surprising them both and Noah shoved her behind him as bright light spilled into the truck to blind them for a long moment.

Noah raised his
arm to block out the glare of the sun and give his eyes a chance to adjust so he could see who was on the other side of the truck door.

“What the hell?” The man’s voice sounded angry and annoyed as Noah blinked and his features slowly came into view.

He was a middle-aged man with a large pot belly and small beady eyes. His dark hair was streaked with gray and cut so short to his scalp that it only accentuated his deeply lined face. He wore a blue-and-gray flannel shirt tucked into well-worn blue jeans.

As Noah scrambled for something brilliant to say to extricate them from this mess, the man’s expression morphed to one of surprise and then a slow smile spread across his face.

“You look just like . . .”

Suspicion curled inside Noah’s gut and he whirled to find Jezebeth in full Kate Beckinsale form behind him, complete with the boots and the tight-fitting outfit right out of
Van Helsing
.

Noah bit back the urge to both roll his eyes and groan. Were they destined to meet every man in the country whose fantasy woman was Kate Beckinsale?

“Hello.” Jezebeth stepped past him in her new form and headed toward the door of the truck. “I’m really sorry to intrude. One of my mates locked us in here for a joke.”

“Are you really . . .” He studied Jezebeth critically with a frown.

“Yes, sir,” Jez said with a sexy British accent as she sat on the back edge of the truck, her legs dangling toward the ground as she held out her hand to shake.

The man stumbled forward to take Jezebeth’s hand, his face a picture of adoration. “I’ll be damned! The guys will never believe this.”

“
I
don’t believe this,” Noah muttered under his breath as he hopped off the end of the truck to stand near Jezebeth. Jez’s Kate form was definitely growing on him, but watching men slaver all over her was definitely bringing out his territorial instincts. “I’m Noah.” He held out his hand to shake. “Can you tell us where we are?”

“Don,” he said as he shook Noah’s hand in a too-firm grip. “You guys must’ve really tied one on for them to be able to lock you up like that and me not notice. I haven’t opened the back since Odessa.” He glanced at Jez one more time, shaking his head in disbelief. “We’re in Tucson.”

Noah slowly blew out a breath at the confirmation that they were closer and not farther from their destination. He turned to grab his phone off the bed of the truck and glanced at the time display to find that it was nearly one P.M., which meant they had eleven hours to get to Yuma, assuming Uriel’s house would switch over to Greece at midnight local time.

His Arizona geography was a bit rusty, but he guessed it was only a four- or five-hour drive to Yuma from here. But that assumed they’d evaded all the demons and other beasties gunning for Jezebeth along the way—which seemed unlikely.

There were way too many assumptions in those last few thoughts for Noah’s comfort. Things to this point had been relatively easy, which scared him all on its own.

Jez cleared her throat. “I’m gonna run into the gas station and use the loo. I’ll be right back.” She winked at the man. “And then I’ll give you an autograph for being so nice and not pressing charges for us being passed out in your truck.”

Noah had almost forgotten Jezebeth had said she had to go to the restroom even before the truck had opened. He started forward to follow her when out of the corner of his eye he noticed Don’s eye color ripple.

“Jez!” He darted forward and shoved Jezebeth out of the way as he whirled to face the man who was now convulsing, his arms held wide.

“Run,” he said over his shoulder. When he didn’t hear any footsteps, he cursed under his breath but kept his gaze on the man, whose eyes were now so black they looked like deep pits of tar.

“Hello, follower of Lilith.” The gravelly voice that came from between the man’s lips sent primal fear scurrying through Noah and he had to lock his knees to keep from running away as fast as he physically could.

His research had shown demons that could possess mortals weren’t strong enough to have their own earthbound forms, but one of their abilities to help compensate for that weakness was the ability to cause unreasonable fear in mortals.

Since he knew it wasn’t real, he forced himself to shove the fear aside, and he stood his ground even when the being turned its gaze on him.

“Human,” it said with a sneer.

“Who the hell are you?” Jezebeth demanded in her Kate form as she tried to push past Noah. He held out his arm to prevent her from going around him.

“I’m the one who will be collecting a very lucrative reward from Semiazas for your capture.” The demon shot forward so quickly, all Noah saw was a blur before his air supply was cut off as the demon’s fingers closed around Noah’s throat in a tight vise.

Noah barely had time to claw at the tight grip before he was lifted off the ground and found himself flying backward until he slammed against a nearby car. Pain shot through every inch of his body as bright silver flashes of light popped in his vision. He tried to blink back clarity as an evil laugh floated from the demon’s lips and it advanced toward Jezebeth with slow steps.

Jezebeth crouched into a very competent-looking fighting stance, and fear coursed through Noah, goading him to shake off his disorientation and push himself off the ground. He lurched forward to stumble in between Jezebeth and the demon.

“Noah, stay out of this. You’re hurt.” The very American inflection of the words coming from Kate Beckinsale’s mouth was a bit jarring, but Noah pushed it aside.

“Bite me, Kate.” He scowled at the slurring of his own words and the demon grinned.

A sharp pain lanced through Noah’s chest a split second before he found himself flying backward again to slam into the side of another car. Several loud cracking noises rang inside Noah’s ears as pain lanced through his back and chest before he crumpled into a heap on the ground next to the front fender.

He opened his mouth to suck in a breath and nearly threw up as renewed pain spiraled through him.

After a few long moments, he figured out how to take short, shallow breaths so he could at least breathe.

He forced himself to turn his head to look for Jezebeth, ignoring the wrenching vertigo and the black dots that edged his vision as a result of the movement.

When his vision finally cleared he saw the demon shoot forward toward Jezebeth. She dove to the side to roll out of its path, hitting the gravel hard.

Jezebeth found her feet a split second before the demon grabbed her by the neck and lifted her off the ground until her feet dangled and kicked.

Noah tried to roll over, to make it to Jezebeth, but he ended up scooting only a few inches in the dirt as unconsciousness tried to close in.

“What the hell is goin’ on? Put her down!”

Noah blinked and realized he’d blacked out for at least a few seconds. A group of men now stood ranged around the demon where it held Jez. They’d probably come out of the gas station behind them as their arms were full of beer and munchies.

When Noah glanced toward Jez, she was still in her Kate form, but with larger breasts and a low-cut top. Her gaze met his, and even though she showed only stubborn defiance in the face of being strangled by a demon, he had enough fear for the both of them.

“Stay out of this, boys.” The gravelly voice of the demon cut through the crowd of men.

A few of them stepped back—most likely because of the wave of fear that had increased to neck-ruffling, gut-wrenching levels—but several set down their groceries and slowly advanced on the demon.