Unbound (2 page)

Chapter 3

The smooth stone supported her back and the water swirled all about. Jett filled her perfectly. Sometimes it was Locan, other times Jett, and sometimes both at once, but for some reason she needed this combination right now, the connection with Jett, the strong, steady beat of his heart against hers, the thick, wet fall of his ebony hair covering her breasts as he slowly, surely thrust deep inside.

Thrust in time with every move that Locan made. Addie knew what that thick cock felt like—he’d taken her the same way when she’d been the one in the middle when she’d needed both men, but Jett needed them now. He might not realize it, but she felt the edge he balanced upon, knew that something was hurting him in ways even Jett couldn’t interpret.

She sensed it. In his touch, in his taste, in the way his eyes flashed with the slightest bit of confusion. Something was wrong. She wondered if he still felt the pain from the venom, if there might be more of a reaction, but then he lowered his head and sucked hard on her nipple, and Addie put worry aside for the wonder of here and now.

Locan’s tempo increased and Jett’s fingers tightened at her waist. She closed her eyes and went with the sensation, with the steady rock and thrust that Locan directed, the slick friction of Jett’s cock over her clit and the sensual pressure as the broad crown slipped across the mouth of her womb. His tongue circled her nipple, his big hands slipped from her waist to clutch her hips, and she felt her climax building. Felt the rush of blood in her veins, the increased thrumming of her heart.

Locan cried out and went deep inside Jett, so deep that it forced Jett’s cock hard inside Addie. Orgasm slammed into her. She screamed her pleasure, arched against Jett, felt the pulsing heat of his climax . . . and pain. Blinding, torturous, unbearable pain.

Screaming, Addie twisted and jerked, struggled to break free. Her eyes flashed open and she screamed again. Jett’s green eyes were crimson, flashing with an inner light and demonic flare. He opened his mouth and she watched in horror as his teeth lengthened, as his face twisted.

His hands, now tipped with sharp curved talons, raked her hips. Blood welled from the wounds and spilled into the dark water. Locan wrapped his arms around Jett’s waist and dragged him off of Addie, but Jett’s thick cock tore from between her legs, a huge, misshapen and barbed thing that scraped her tissues raw.

Scrambling away from him, Addie thrashed through the churning water. “Jett? Jett, what’s wrong? Locan, what in the hell’s happening? What’s wrong with Jett?”

“He’s turning. It’s his demon! Get back, Addie. Out of the pool. Hurry!” Locan kept his arms wrapped around Jett’s body, even as Jett’s beautiful black skin shimmered and changed, as his arms thickened, his body twisted and pulsed, bulging here, shrinking there. His talons grew sharper, longer. Ebony scales spread over his shoulders, his chest and arms. Sharp, bony plates sprouted across the top of his skull and down his spine.

“Shit! Son of a . . .” Locan shoved himself free of Jett as the sharp-edged triangular plates along his back sliced into Locan’s chest. Crimson slashes scored Locan’s fair skin and blood ran steadily into the churning water. Slowly he backed away from Jett, holding both arms at his sides. Lowering his voice, Locan spoke softly. “Jett? Jett, are you in there?” Pleading. “Do you understand me? It’s Locan. Look at me, Jett.”

Demanding. “See me.”

The huge beast that had been Jett slowly swung its bony head on a neck as thick as Addie’s waist. Its huge fists with those thick fingers and long, sharp claws clenched and released. It stared at Locan, then turned those shimmering red eyes on Addie. She sensed the demon’s confusion, as if there were still remnants of Jett’s mind at work inside that hideous skull.

“What can we do?” She glanced at Locan, then focused on Jett. “What’s happened to him?”

Locan edged closer to Addie. He grabbed her hand and she felt the fear in him. He was shaking like a leaf. “It has to be the venom.” His voice was barely a whisper, as if he was afraid of startling the strange creature that stood there, staring at them. “Somehow, it’s unbound Jett’s demon form. You’re seeing him as he was before our first fulcrum turned him. It has to be the venom, but I have no idea how to counteract it.”

Addie stared at Jett. His red demon’s eyes flashed from her to Locan and then back at her. “Jett? Do you know who you are? Do you remember me?”

The demon grunted and stared at Addie. Then he swung that heavy head, that horrible, bony head with pig’s eyes and a snout like a warthog, in Locan’s direction. He let out a long, low snarl that seemed to boil up out of his massive chest. Then he slowly turned again and focused on Addie. He stared at her and grunted again, then he raked his claws along his belly and grasped his huge penis.

“Locan? I don’t like the look of this.”

“Me, either. I think he wants you.”

Addie cast a sideways glance at Locan. “If this is demonic flirtation, it’s not working for me.”

The demon grunted. Still stroking his huge misshapen penis, he took a slow step toward Addie. Water flowed around him as he took another step. Addie backed up. Locan moved with her. The demon snarled and shifted closer. Addie shot a frantic glance at Locan, turned his hand loose and scrambled out of the pool. She grabbed her short sword and held it ready, but in the back of her mind she knew Jett was in there somewhere.

She couldn’t hurt him. Not Jett. She loved him.

The demon paused and gazed at Locan. Then he held his arms out and stared at himself, at the thick black scales that covered his shoulders down to his wrists and the backs of his hands, his chest and most likely his back and his legs as well. The water hid him from the waist down, and Addie had the sudden urge to look and see if he had a tail. Some demons did. They came in all sizes, but none had looked exactly like Jett. None at all.

Locan climbed out of the pool and stood beside Addie. He’d come into the bathing room unarmed, so he reached down for her bow and poisoned darts, and stood beside her. The demon stared at the two of them, but there was no sense of recognition. No sense of the man inside the beast.

Addie felt as if her heart were breaking. She had to get him back. Somehow, she and Locan needed to figure out how to find Jett inside this hulking creature. He had to be there. She glanced at Locan. His jaw was tightly clenched and he fingered the bow with nervous intent. “I don’t know what to do,” he said. Frustration and anger poured off of him. “I’m trying to read him, but there’s no sense of Jett in there. Not at all.”

“He’s there. I know he’s there.” Addie took a step forward. The demon growled. He swung his head from left to right, from Locan to Addie. Then he snarled, stretched his arms wide as if he would embrace them both. Locan grabbed Addie’s hand as if he might pull her to safety, but the air shimmered and Jett the demon disappeared.

Addie stared at the ripples in the pool, the only sign that the water had been displaced by a creature twice the size of either her or Locan. “Where’d he go? We have to find him.” Still clutching Locan’s hand, she tugged him toward their clothes. Stooping to gather their clothing, Addie let go of Locan and reached for Jett’s bloody pants and vest with hands that wouldn’t stop shaking.

The stench of demon was still strong, the leather stiff with drying blood. Grabbing up his black leather vest, she clasped it against her naked breasts and wondered if she’d ever stop shaking. Locan knelt beside her and drew Addie into his arms. The wounds on his chest were already healing, the blood mostly washed away, but he trembled as badly as Addie.

“I don’t know what to do.” Locan’s voice cracked on the words, but he hugged her even tighter. “I don’t know how to help him.”

With Jett’s bloody vest between them, both Locan and Addie bowed their heads and wept.

Chapter 4

The demon stood outside the cavern he thought he’d once called home. There was no welcome for him there. Not anymore. He looked at his bloody claws with disgust. He’d hurt the woman. He’d hurt the man, too, and somehow, he knew that was a bad thing, though he wasn’t quite certain why.

He’d tried to speak, but no words came out. He could growl and grunt, snarl and scream, but he couldn’t speak. The words were there in his head, but he didn’t really understand them, could no longer project his thoughts. He’d almost figured out their meaning, but meaning was gone now. Gone like the woman. Like the man.

He gazed at the doorway leading down into the caves and tried to remember why he knew this place, but those thoughts were fleeting, too. The only constant was the burning in his veins, the sharp pain that seemed to throb with each beat of his heart. He sat there on the hard cold ground in the dark, and waited. Maybe the memories would come back. Maybe he would know them again, understand why those fragile creatures had felt important.

Something howled in the distance. He heard rustlings in the grass, a sharp scream as something gave up its life so that another might eat. This was familiar. This world without rules, without companions.

He’d had companions once, hadn’t he? No matter. He didn’t need them. Not anymore.

Something moved through the grass not far from where he crouched. He sniffed the air, smelled life, heard the sound of a beating heart. A heart meant blood. It meant life. Life meant food. Death for one creature, life for him. That was the way things worked. Grunting, he shoved himself to his feet and lumbered off in the direction of his next meal.

* * *

Locan led Addie back into the warm pool. The filthy water had cleared away and he helped rinse the blood from her hands and then from her inner thighs where the demon’s barbed penis had torn tender flesh.

Then he wiped the tears that still streamed from her eyes. “Are you okay? He didn’t mean to hurt you. I’m sure he didn’t. Please don’t cry.”

She sucked in a ragged breath and wiped the back of her hand across her eyes. “I’m not crying for me. I’m okay.” She ran her fingertips over the healing gashes in Locan’s chest. “What are we going to do? How can we get Jett back?”

Locan shook his head. He couldn’t think. Couldn’t move his mind beyond the horrible sense of loss when he saw Jett as he’d once been. “I remember when Jett was that creature. I was turned first and I helped the fulcrum hunt him. He was vicious, but I remember that it was important that we had to catch him in this dimension, not Earth’s. She lured him back here and I was scared to death he’d kill her.” He rested his hands on her shoulders and looked directly into her eyes. “She was heftier than you, but no taller. No match for a demon.”

“How did she change him?”

“The same way she changed me. She lured him here to the cavern and had sex with him, and when he was at the point of climax, she bit him, much as you were bitten by Leah. There’s something in the fulcrum’s saliva, something . . .”

“Venom? Do I have it? Can I do that?”

He cupped his palm against her swollen sex. She jerked away, took a deep breath and then settled against him.

“He hurt you. He’s so big and that thing is sharp. He could kill you.”

She straightened and stared at him. Her eyes were clear now, the tears gone. “He didn’t kill the first one, did he? I’m immortal, aren’t I? It takes a lot to kill a fulcrum unless, like Leah, she’s ready to go.” She shook her head. “I’m not ready, Locan. I have a lot left to do. Two men I love to keep me here. I do love you. Both of you.”

He felt that love of hers—a strong, steadying, life-giving pulse of power that coursed through his body. He stared at her for a long silent moment as the water swirled around them, thinking of how love had changed him. How it had changed Jett.

Addie was their only hope—his and Jett’s. “Heal, first,” he said, regretting the words even as they formed. “You can’t attempt it until you’re healed.”

Addie nodded, but he felt her resolve. She would risk everything to save Jett, just as he would.

Locan didn’t tell her everything, though. Couldn’t tell her they only had forty-eight hours before they had to add another member to the team. If they couldn’t locate Jett, they’d have to turn another demon. An unknown.

Two men, one fulcrum. That was the rule. In two more days without another member to complete the team, Addie would die.

And Locan would join Jett.

Just another demon. One among millions.

* * *

The demon wiped bloody fingers against his scaled chest and picked a sliver of bone from between his teeth. The thing he’d eaten hadn’t been very big, but whatever it was, it took the edge off. He grunted and sat down on the rocky ground, deep in the shadows where he had a good view of the cavern but couldn’t be seen. For some reason, he felt drawn to this place, but it made no sense. Not when he knew there was a whole world waiting, one filled with plenty of food. Soft bodies without scaled hides to chew through or sharp teeth and talons to fight back.

And females. He remembered females. His prick rose up and he glanced at the huge thing between his legs. That remembered females, too. He rubbed the sharp tip and then stroked himself, but it wasn’t the same. His hand was bony and sharp. Females were soft and smooth, and when you were through with them, you could eat them.

Saliva dripped from his chin and he wiped it away with one big paw. Movement near the cave entrance caught his attention. A female! Here, in this place? And behind her, a male. Tall and pale with silvery hair.

Why did he look so familiar? Why did she catch his attention, make him want to remember? He tried to think, but it made his skull hurt and nothing came to him. She turned to her companion and took his hand, and something in the demon’s chest clenched until he felt a horrible ache, an overwhelming sadness. But why? Food and sex never made him sad. Other creatures didn’t make him sad, either. Life was simple—if you couldn’t eat it or fuck it, you killed it. These two looked soft and weak and easy to kill, but something stopped him. That ache in his chest? He didn’t know, but he didn’t like the feeling.

Didn’t like not knowing why he felt this way. Frustrated, he shrieked, closed his eyes, and went away. That other place had what he needed, and the creatures there never made him sad. No, they filled his belly and took the edge off that other hunger as well.

When he opened his eyes, he was in a forest but the sounds of humanity were all around. Rolling to his feet, he went in search of something.

Food. Sex. It didn’t really matter. He’d find something to make the ache go away.