In the Company of Witches

“All right, then.” Derek bared his teeth in a grin, shifted the staff to his left hand. He charged it so that the ripples of power brushed Mikhael’s skin. “Just so I’m not risking my life for your latest piece of ass.”



“I’ll be sure my last piece of ass knows you made that comment. She liked my wings, sorcerer. Couldn’t take her eyes off of them.”



“Dream on, Dark Guardian.”



RAINA COULDN’T THINK PAST HER HUNGER. ERICA hadn’t used the iron again, but she’d used that spike spell, fire spells, things that didn’t mark her but hurt as if they were puncturing, scorching, breaking. After each session, she was hungrier. Under this kind of body trauma, the stronger succubus blood kicked in to help the human side endure, to survive. The phase demon knew it.



Erica’s latest trick was to break her fingers. It even looked like the fingers were bending and cracking, and though Raina knew it was an illusion spell, it didn’t matter. The pain was real. The only good thing was it made her human blood useful, driving her to a faint.



As terrible as all this had been, nothing had been as bad as feeling that spark that was Mikhael wink out in her consciousness. It had been brief, a stutter only, and then he’d been back, but for one short moment he’d actually felt…gone. She hadn’t expected her reaction to that, an overwhelming desire to scream out his name, throw herself against the bars and go after Erica, no matter the consequences.



Now, swimming in the blackness, she tried to stay there, to stay away from all the fear and pain, fighting the pull back to consciousness. But it was useless.



She’d been moved. She was in another cage, with Isaac, and it was only big enough for there to be a couple feet between them. He smelled…delicious. She was stronger, far stronger than Isaac. He was her kind, but he had the sexual energy she craved.



“There you are,” Erica crooned. “He’s a tasty morsel, isn’t he? All he needs is ketchup.”



Isaac stared at her with resigned eyes. He knew. He knew this was it. No. This bitch wasn’t going to dictate to her. Raina groped at the steel collar around her throat. When she’d first woken and discovered it on her, she’d struggled with it, panicked. It had burned her hands, burned her throat if she fought against it too hard. Now she locked her hands on it, shoved it hard against her windpipe.



“What are you doing? Stop!”



She would burn through her neck, kill herself before Erica made her commit such an unforgivable crime. Always on her own terms. Always.



“No, no, no!” Erica couldn’t phase in the cage with them. To stop Raina, she had to become corporeal, within reach, and then Raina would tear her skinny ass up.



Come on, make my day. Fuck, this hurts. Oh, God, it hurts. Mikhael…



She might have wailed his name even as she gritted her teeth and kept the steel in place. Until strong hands were on hers, pulling her fingers off it. Not Erica’s hands. Isaac’s.



“No.” He was crying. “Stop.”



She fell back, panting, and as she did, he brought his wrist to his mouth, tore open the vein.



Sexual energy was what drew a succubus, but sexual energy coursed through the blood, so a bloodletting increased its potency tenfold, turning a ravenous creature into an absolutely out-of-control one. She was on him in a heartbeat. No time for a howl of protest from her conscience, no time for anything but sating that hunger.



He was already naked, so closing her hand over his sex, pouring her energy into him to arouse him, to bring him to a climax, was as easy as breathing. She wasn’t taking no for an answer, in the full glory of her power as a succubus, but beyond that, he was helping her, holding on to her waist, his face buried into her midriff as he shuddered and bucked. She brought his wrist to her mouth, drank deep of the blood as she did the same with his sexual energy. His cock spurted, his fangs scraping her in reflex as she fed on that power that could sap a mortal female, take her life. He had done it, over and over again. Now she fed herself on that, grew glutted and strong…and horrified.



She shoved away, backed into the corner of the small cell, breathing hard. But Isaac followed, dragging himself to her. His fingers curled around her thigh, holding on. Raina looked down into his face as he rolled his head to look at her, so sad and tired.



“It’s okay,” he said. “I owe you.”



“No.” She shook her head, tried to figure out how to fix it. “Feed from me the same way. Take some of it back.”



“Don’t think it works that way. She was…right. You can do it. You can drain our kind, as well as humans. Makes you more powerful.” His voice dropped to a whisper, his gaze suddenly fierce. “More powerful than her, in time. You’ll take her then.”



She gathered him to her, held his head in her lap. He nuzzled her like a cub, then let out a little sigh. He died, just like that. It was always quick, that kind of death. No time for long speeches or tears. But she didn’t have tears to shed over him.



She’d killed him. She’d done what Erica wanted.



All of it came back, every act of cruelty done to her, to her kind. She knew how Isaac felt, but of course she’d always known how he felt. In this moment, however, the bitter resentment stirred, took over, became a hatred that could make her despise everyone who wasn’t succubus or incubus, even Derek, Ruby, Ramona…She was tired of being used, tired of monsters like Erica trying to take advantage of abilities that weren’t theirs. She was…enraged.



Erica wanted her off balance, wanted the horror of what she’d done to overcome her. The truth didn’t have to be faked, did it?



She hunched her shoulders over the boy. She couldn’t cry, but she could sob, keen, hold and rock him. Erica glided forward, tsking.



“He was nothing. No more than a bottom dweller. It’s your conscience bothering you, not a true caring for him. You’ll soon lose that. Then we’ll really have some fun together.”



“You’re a monster,” Raina hissed, her voice shaking. She had her hand clasped on one of the bars for support, the other on Isaac. Erica wouldn’t be able to help herself. She had to touch, and if she had to touch, she had to be real. Raina, flexing her fingers on the bars, imagined it as a Bruce Lee come-hither even as she shook, as if needing the support from something, anything. “I’ll never serve you. I’ll die before I do that again.”



“I might not find one as noble as Isaac, true. But if I find less scrupulous sex demons, you’ll favor your own life over theirs. Particularly if I suggest to them they might try feeding on you. You’ll fight for your own life. I know it. You’ve always been a fighter. Poor baby.”



Erica’s talons overlapped hers. Letting go of Isaac, Raina whipped her other hand through the bars. Clutched in it was the six-inch length of steel Isaac had been concealing in the shadows, that he’d passed to her. Rebar from her destroyed fountain, just long enough to go all the way through that sharp-taloned female hand. She drove it through with everything she had.



You bet your ass I’m a fighter. The bars of the cage exploded outward as she channeled all that sexual energy into a blast too wild to be contained, even by that collar and cuffs. It broke their lock, made them drop free, though they took flesh with them. There was no time to shield herself, though, or poor Isaac. Rock rained down in the chamber, striking her shoulder, her back, leaving her with a dozen gashes. But she didn’t let go.



Now she was airborne, the phase demon tossing her through the air to break her grip so she could pull that rebar out, phase out of range. Fifty years hadn’t been long enough for Erica to hone her skills, to remember that staying a ghost was safest. She was going to have to cut off her own hand to free herself. She howled, becoming a whirling dervish. The world flashed by fast, and Raina grunted as she hit something hard, bounced off it, but it didn’t alter her hold. A succubus could be strong as a fucking WWE wrestler, especially when motivated by pure, fury-driven vengeance.



Now there was heat, and a feeling of weightlessness, gravity clawing at her. They were suspended over the abyss, Erica trying to frighten her. The demon clawed at her, striking at her face, her knee hitting Raina’s stomach. Raina used a few residual tendrils of that power surge to protect herself, but it wouldn’t last long.



Erica had to be using some of her own magic to hold them both up, else that gravity pull would have been a hell of a lot stronger. The demoness wasn’t ready to give up her half-breed prize. But if she let Raina go, Raina was ready. She’d put everything she had left into an anchor spell, drag them both down to hell. That abyss would take them both so deep into the fires of the Underworld, the center of the earth, that they’d be ashes instantly.



In her pain and fury, Erica had also given up one of her best advantages. With her suspended over the fire, her minions couldn’t help her, though they were at the lip, poised and tense, eyes frantically shifting in those macabre faces. If they got hold of Raina, they’d break her arm to make her let go. Rip it off. Game over.



“Raina, let go. Let go.”



Mikhael’s voice thundered through the chamber like the Old Testament God, raining fire and brimstone. It was so welcome she wanted to snarl in fierce triumph. Yeah, that’s my man.



Seeing the flash of utter terror on Erica’s face told Raina something else. Something she hadn’t known. Erica was powerful, but she’d ambushed Mikhael the first time, which meant she wasn’t more powerful than him. In fact, from her panic, it was possible she wasn’t even as powerful as him.



Your ass is his, honey. We got her, Isaac.



Mikhael repeated the order. “Damn it, let go.”



They were whirling over an abyss. Had he noticed that?



“Now, Raina. Trust me. Do it.”



The command was sharp, absolute, and took over her senses as completely as it did when he took her body. She let go.



She’d expected a sudden platform to hold her up, something. Instead, her stomach flew up into her throat, choking off her cry as she plummeted, the cavern disappearing in a blink as she plunged toward that fiery pit miles below.