Seducing the Succubus (37 page)

Noah winced as he remembered how some of his research had gotten him into this mess with Lilith in the first place. As for writing, that was his passion, not just a job he could walk away from. The stories that took shape inside his head would find an outlet one way or another.

He searched through Lilith’s words for a verbal trap or alternate meaning and found none. “Yes, I would want to continue both,” he finally answered, alert for anything she might throw his way.

She pursed her lips, and then fell silent so long that Noah had started to think she wouldn’t speak again. When she finally did, her words were conversational and soft. “I occasionally have need of a liaison whom I could trust. This person would carry important messages for me and receive my guarantee of protection. I can only assume a position like that would allow you to meet those for research who you would never normally meet—at least without getting yourself into further trouble.”

A messenger? The last thing Noah needed was to spend all his time running around the world on errands for Lilith, especially if they were all as complicated as the assignment he’d just completed.

Lilith smiled, confirming his suspicions that she could at least some of the time pick up his thoughts. “That’s not what I had in mind. I sometimes need to send specific and sensitive messages to one of the Archangels, or certain denizens of Hell. I have others to deliver low-level summons and all the rest, but I need someone quick-witted and intelligent whom I could trust for these special projects. And as these messages are infrequent, your off time could be used as you choose.” She shifted on the throne, as if settling herself more comfortably. “If Jezebeth agreed to serve in this capacity with you instead of her normal duties, she could guide you and could translate or liaise as needed, which would remove her from any requirements of her current succubus quotas.”

Noah’s bullshit meter went off, and he cocked his head to the side as he studied Lilith in a new light. She had found a way that he and Jezebeth could be together while still allowing Noah to research and even write. “Why would you offer this to us?”

Lilith sighed. “I do have concern for those under my care and wish them to be happy.” She shrugged, and he saw a flash of something unsaid in her expression. “I also know what it’s like to be denied that happiness.” She sat up straighter, squaring her shoulders and raising her chin as if throwing off the vulnerability she’d dared to show them for a fleeting moment. “Not to mention that when Semiazas forced you to drink his blood, he extended your life and gave you a certain amount of protection from his own powers.”

Noah and Jez exchanged a startled glance. This was definitely news to him.

“Do you accept my offer of liaison? And are you sure those are the two gifts you’d like to request?”

He dropped his chin to gauge Jezebeth’s reaction. Disbelief swam in the hazel depths of her eyes, but there was also hope.

“Do you think you could put up with me full time?”

She laughed. “You mean give up hunting and make love only with you, and only when we wanted? Travel with someone I care for and actually have Lilith’s protection when I do?” She laughed. “I suppose I could learn to live with that if you could.”

Joy spiraled through Noah, and he leaned down to capture Jez’s lips with his own.

“If you’ll save the celebrating for a moment longer, we can make this official.”

At Lilith’s words, Noah stepped back from Jez like a guilty child as heat burned up his neck. Jez’s face was also tinged pink, and a soft laugh escaped from her.

“Sorry,” he said as he faced Lilith but still held Jezebeth’s hand.

Lilith cocked her head to the side, studying them. “Don’t be. Take what happiness you can in the time allotted. There is much before us that is unknown for now.”

Noah frowned, not liking the sound of that.

“Step forward, Noah Halston, and receive your gifts.”

Noah squeezed Jezebeth’s hand before releasing it and walking across the remaining expanse of runway until he stood before Lilith.

“Kneel and remove your shirt.”

Unsure what was about to happen, Noah slowly knelt as he pulled the black T-shirt off and held it loosely in one hand.

Lilith pulled a golden dagger from her skirts and crouched in front of him. As she raised the dagger, the wicked-looking sharp edge caught the light and Noah clamped his teeth together as the first spurt of unease surged through him.

“Be very sure you want this, Noah Halston. Once this is done, it cannot be undone.”

Noah thought of Jezebeth’s smile, her laugh, the way she constantly surprised him, and the way she felt curled against him when he’d woken this morning. When he imagined spending the rest of his life with her, a sense of rightness settled firmly inside him, and he smiled as he met Lilith’s gaze. “I’m very sure. Let’s do this.”

Without warning, Lilith slashed out with the dagger.

Sharp burning pain across the left side of Noah’s chest pulled a gasp from his lips and he glanced down to see a wide, bleeding cut across his left pectoral.

Lilith slashed the dagger across her palm with a hiss and then laid her bleeding hand against his chest wound.

The contact stung as her cool fingers closed against his skin, and Noah let out a slow breath of relief. “There for a second I thought you were going to turn me into an incubus.” He laughed. “I thought this was going to be something much worse than—”

Crippling pain lanced through Noah stealing his words and bowing his body backward until he thought his spine would snap in two.

Distantly he heard Jezebeth’s cry of concern as blackness closed around him.

He waited for the blackness to smother the pain and steal his awareness . . . but his world became only the constant waves of throbbing agony.

Michael materialized just
outside the tiny pub in Ireland, unnoticed by the small groups and couples who huddled inside their coats against the chilly evening as they went about their business. The smell of peat was strong in the air as well as various scents from the foods being cooked inside. Raucous laughter sounded in bursts over the Irish reel being played by a live band.

Lucifer’s energy rolled out of the pub in an invisible wave of power, and Michael ducked through the door and scanned the packed tiny tables and the group of bodies clustered around the bar for the fallen one.

Lucifer sat against the back wall, a pint of Guinness in his hand and an amused expression painting his patrician features. He must’ve sensed Michael’s presence because he glanced up at that moment and motioned the Archangel over.

Michael sat, and a barmaid placed a pint of Harp on the table in front of him before slipping back into the crowd. “So much for going unnoticed during this time.”

“You know as well as I that only those who are sensitive will even give us a second look. However, it does help to get enough notice to be served.” He raised his Guinness in a mock salute before taking a drink. “After all, we must enjoy all the pleasures the human world holds in case it’s not around much longer.”

Michael bit back a growl of impatience. Lucifer had a way of grating on his last nerve—something all brothers seemed to have, but over the millennia, Lucifer had perfected it to an art form. “You asked me to meet you here. I’m assuming there was a reason?” he prompted.

Lucifer motioned toward the motley crew of musicians who had begun to play a sad, slow ballad. “All work and no play. You really must learn to take time for yourself, Michael. After all, eternity can be boring if you never stop to smell the roses.” He reached for his beer again, and Michael reached out to stop him.

“Spare me the temptation routine, Lucifer. I have neither the patience nor the time.”

Lucifer met Michael’s gaze, the fallen one’s green eyes burning with intelligence. “On the contrary,” he said softly. “You have eternity, regardless of what happens here in the human world.”

Michael cocked his head to one side and raised his brows. “Ask me.”

Lucifer’s lips slowly curved into a smile, and his expression suddenly lost all artifice, reminding Michael of the Archangel before he’d betrayed their Father and been banished from Heaven. Michael bit back a sigh of old memories and regrets and waited.

“All right.” Lucifer drained the rest of his beer and set the empty glass on the table, waving away the waitress who had come forward with a refill. “What are His thoughts on all of this?”

Michael had expected some form of the question, just as Lucifer asked every time they met. Lucifer, the son, had rebelled and would wait for eternity for their Father to extend forgiveness and ask him back into the fold. What Lucifer still didn’t understand was that his actions had been forgiven as soon as they had been made. Lucifer only needed to repent and he would be welcomed back. Michael was beginning to think the standoff would last indefinitely. He’d seen the pattern repeated in the human world again and again—fathers and sons really were patterned after their divine creator. He shook his head and sighed.

“He simply said all will be as it should.”

Lucifer’s green eyes flashed with annoyance, and he clenched his jaw. “Which says nothing.”

“And everything.” Michael stood. “Is there anything else?”

“The last two journals have yet to be placed, and the next succubus has been found.”

Michael nodded.

Awareness
trickled back slowly.

The first thing Noah noticed was the lack of pain. He’d become so used to the white-hot agony over the past countless hours that his nerve synapses seemed almost confused by the total lack of discomfort.

He took stock and realized he was warm, comfortable, and lying on something soft. All his toes and fingers worked and seemed to obey his commands.

So far so good.

The soft scent of pomegranate and honey teased his senses, and Noah fought through the last of the languid haze holding him to force open his eyes.

The sight of Jezebeth’s smiling face looming over him was the most beautiful thing he’d ever seen, and cool relief slid through him.

“Noah!” She rained wet kisses over his face, murmuring words he couldn’t quite catch as he realized she was crying.

He wrapped his arms around her and in a quick move, rolled them both over, gaining a laughing squeak from Jezebeth as he captured her mouth with his. She tasted sweet and warm as she returned his urgent kisses, wrapping her arms around him as if afraid he would suddenly disappear.

Noah’s cock hardened as he realized he was naked. The erotic sensation of his bare skin brushing against Jezebeth’s jeans and thin top sent heat roaring through his veins. He buried his fingers in her silky hair, pulling off the band that held it back in a ponytail and tossing the small elastic ring aside while continuing to kiss her with frenzied need.

He stripped away her clothes, baring her until there was nothing between them but skin and the red amulet that Lilith had given her, that she wore around her neck. Her heat burned into him like an erotic promise, and he shifted on top of her so he could slide his cock inside her tight warmth.

The exquisite friction seared through him as he slid deep and his pelvis pressed snug against the soft lips of her labia.

He broke the kiss as a long moan sounded in his ears. It took him a moment to realize the sound hadn’t just come from Jezebeth, but also from him.

She arched under him, her nails digging into his back—sharp stings that only increased his urgency as she captured his mouth again. She nipped at his lips, and he began to move inside her.

She moved with him, tightening her thighs around him with each thrust and loosening to let him pull out until he drove inside her again and again. With every movement his chest pressed against her breasts, the teasing hardness of her nipples stroking him in time with their movements.

Urgency built between them as Noah lost himself in the sensations between them. Jezebeth’s scent surrounded him, her soft skin and warm heat enveloping him, teasing him, soothing him. As she slowly tightened around him, her breathing came in sharp pants in between the small, urgent sounds that spilled from her throat and into his mouth, driving him faster and harder.

When she cried out, her teeth clamping down on his shoulder, the liquid warmth of her orgasm spilled around him and he pis-toned inside her, the extra slickness driving him over the edge to his own release.

He spasmed inside her, his balls squeezing tight against his body as his release jetted forward, sending shooting fire along every nerve ending with a backwash of pure liquid warmth.

When reality returned, he was still on top of her and inside her, bracing his weight off her with his forearms.

She smiled up at him, a languid smile stealing across her expression. “Still alive I see.”

He laughed as he realized he hadn’t stopped to ask if Lilith’s gift had kicked in yet before he’d rolled Jezebeth over and slid inside her. “I suppose so.”