CHAPTER Fifteen THE BEGINNING
He stood at the penthouse door. Deliverance had never knocked or used a doorbell in his life.
But there he stood.
Sixt saw him on camera in the entry chamber between the private elevator and her front door.
She swung the door open and locked eyes with the beautiful demon and, mentally, grabbed for all the very good reasons why she should despise him. She focused on those reasons to stave off the impulse to forget everything but the obsession she’d lived with ever since a long ago night in Boston when he’d chosen somebody else.
On the other side of the threshold, time was standing still for Deliverance while he tried to read whether or not he’d ruined his chances with the witch. He watched her gaze trail downward to see what he was holding then jerk up in surprise as he pushed the large bouquet forward.
She was trying to read him as well. He was using flowers to invite her to accept his offering of… what? Peace? Apology? Courtship?
Hybrid roses. Deep purple. A symbol of magic.
She thought about asking what he wanted and why he was there, but decided the best course of action was to simply slam the door in his face. She did so without breaking eye contact.
The slammed door wasn’t as disquieting to Deliverance as the way she’d looked at him. Seeing Sixt without the lust for revenge that had obscured his vision since the day he learned he’d been cursed was like removing a yellow film from his eyes.
Sixt was even more beautiful than he remembered. She was breathtaking.
And she hated him.
He let the bouquet fall to his side as he tried to interpret his feelings. He had no reference by which to understand what had just occurred. He had, arguably, more experience with women than any other creature living. But rejection was a new experience and one he didn’t like at all.
He called a large crystal vase into being, redirected water from the air to fill it, placed the flowers in the vase, and put the vase on the marble table next to Sixt’s door. He stood back to look at the arrangement and decided the presentation could use some help with symmetry. He stepped toward the flowers and began to fool with their placement in relation to each other while mulling over what to do next.
As much as the idea rankled, and as much as he thought it was ironically ludicrous, the thought persisted that he should ask the damn angel for advice. When he was satisfied with the arrangement, he remembered that there was probably a camera surveilling the penthouse entry.
He looked up, located it, and obscured the view of the past five minutes. Flower arranging couldn’t do a demon’s reputation any good.
Three minutes later he was walking into the angel bar.
Conversation died as everyone turned to stare. A big Archie with black wings pointed at the wall. NO DEMONS ALLOWED.
Deliverance smirked. “Where is he?”
“Who?” asked the Archie.
“You know who. Kellareal.”
The Archie looked around. “Anybody know?”
A deep voice in the back said, “Dakkir.”
Deliverance had never been to Dakkir, that he recalled, so he had to pull the coordinates from the speaker. The angel agreed telepathically to allow Deliverance to see where to find Dakkir. He thanked the informant and left the way he came.
The Archie turned to the others. “Show’s over folks.” To the phim next to him, he said, “That angel has got some damn strange friends.” The phim nodded and took a swig of nectar-flavored ambrosia.
Sixt stood looking at the closed door for a full five minutes without moving. She fully expected the demon to throw a fit and refuse to take no for an answer. When no persistent ringing, banging, shouting, or breaking and entering followed, she turned to resume her plans for a hot lavender bath.
She started the water, threw her most expensive bath beads into the torrent falling from the Roman faucet, and pulled her hair into a ponytail on top of her head.
Deliverance had tracking instincts that were innate to his species. Once he knew the direction Kellareal had taken, he had no trouble locking on his energy.
The angel looked like a holdover from Miami Vice. He was wearing a white suit with open jacket, pale blue shirt unbuttoned, hair that brushed the middle of the shirt collar and aviators. He was standing at a poolside bar where a deejay was officiating with too loud music over a sea of skin with barely covered nipples and crotches.
When he came to stand next to Kellareal, the angel said, “I’m busy. I need that human,” he pointed at a young guy, “and that human”, he pointed at a young woman, “to get together.”
Deliverance scowled and made a huffing noise. “I appreciate that you have your games to play.” Kellareal diverted his attention to the demon, because a sentence uttered by Deliverance with the word ‘appreciate’ warranted face time. “I need to know what to do.”
Kellareal showed no emotion, but he was near shock. Admitting that he didn’t know everything was completely uncharacteristic for Deliverance, as was asking for help.
“You must be in deep shit.”
The demon scowled. “She hates me.”
After a brief pause, Kellareal laughed out loud. “Well, what did you expect? Really. You made it evident that you intended to torture her, possibly to death. Then you want to show up and say, ‘Just kidding’?!?”
“Well, I… What do you mean when you say ‘intended to’?”
“Your witch isn’t as fragile and vulnerable as you thought. She conjured an oasis palace fit for a Persian princess.”
Deliverance gaped as his visual speculation about her fate transformed from suffering to luxurious vacation. He took a minute to process that and then laughed. “I told her not to use her magic, that there would be dire consequences. I guess she didn’t believe me.” He smiled at Kellareal. “Good for her.”
“Guess I don’t have to tell you that it would have been better if you had shown up where you left her, groveled - a lot, and been the one to take her home.”
“I get that.”
“Maybe so, but you ‘get it’ too late. I tried to tell you.”
The demon slanted his eyes toward his rival. “I can’t turn back time.”
“No. There’s only one person alive who can do that.”
“Who?”
Kellareal realized that he’d said too much. “Need to know. Why are you here? To give me the chance to say I told you so? Glad to accommodate.”
“Funny. I’m here to find out if you have any ideas about how to fix things.”
“Fix things?” The angel laughed. “Highly unlikely.” Deliverance looked so dejected that Kellareal had to take pity on him. “First, you have to go see her. Find out where you stand. Exactly.”
“I did! She slammed the door in my face when I tried to give her Cassim’s purple roses.”
“You got Cassim’s roses?”
“Yeah.”
“How’d you manage that?”
“He owed me a favor.”
“Wow.” Kellareal had clearly gotten sidetracked.
“Back on point. You have any other suggestions?”
Kellareal mulled that over. “Well…”
“What?” Deliverance looked hopeful. And impatient. “What?”
“If you can get her to call your name, I could make a case to the Council that would justify pestering her. I mean, if it showed up on their radar.”
“Pestering?” Deliverance seemed to be thinking that over. “I can do that.”
“I know you can. That’s not the hard part. The hard part is getting her to speak your name.”
The demon grinned. “Thank you. You’re alright.”
“Hold on a second. The angel pulled out a phone and pushed a button. Will you say that again? I want to record that. Maybe use it as my voicemail greeting.”
Deliverance shook his head and disappeared.
As Sixt was getting ready to get in the bath, she heard tapping at the door. She pulled a towel around herself and went to the door, assuming it would be the demon, who was nothing if not selfish and intrusive. She might have to ask some of her witch friends how to ward the penthouse against a demon.
When she swung the bath door open, there was no one there. At least no one she was expecting. Movement caught her eye and she looked down to see Big Bird walking into the bathroom.
“What’s the matter?” she said. “You can’t be by yourself for a while?”
He said nothing, but flew up to perch on a towel rack near the tub.
When she thought about background music, she was getting ready to get in the tub. If she’d thought about it earlier, she could have set the household audio system to a relaxing channel, but the controls were in the kitchen and she felt like being lazy. So she grabbed her phone, took it off mute, and let it play.
She groaned out loud as the hot water surrounded her feet and legs and eased down into the tub. It was heaven and, after a couple of minutes, she laid back, resting her head on the cushioned bath pillow.
Feeling drowsy, she was practically dozing, when the music stopped. The text tone sounded.
“Deliverance calling,” said Big Bird.
She looked at the bird curiously, knowing beyond a doubt that she had never said that particular phrase in front of the bird. Sitting up, she reached for the phone. The only message was a photo of the purple roses, in a fluted vase pretty enough for Tiffany’s window, sitting on her kitchen island.
She gritted her teeth. The demon had been in her apartment uninvited. She decided to ignore the text. And him.
“And don’t ever say the name Deliverance again,” she told Big Bird who, like most males, did exactly as he was told not to do.
“Deliverance. Deliverance. Deliverance,” he said.
“Shut up or I will put you out to fend for yourself with the pigeons.”
Big Bird said nothing more.
She set the phone to DO NOT DISTURB and resumed grappling for a state of zen.
An internal alert sounded when Deliverance sensed that his name had been spoken by the witch. He was sitting on a stool at the island in Sixt’s kitchen when he realized that all systems were a ‘go’.
“That didn’t take long.” He smiled to himself as he prepared to mount a siege if necessary. “You’re up, demon.”
Sixt was unable to get to a state of relaxation. The incident with the demon at the door combined with knowing that he’d been inside the apartment, and still might be, whether it was to deliver flowers or for some truly nefarious purpose, had made her tense, frustrated, and upset.
She ran some more hot water then settled back again thinking that she would try to achieve a meditative state and block out all the negativity that whirled around that demon like he was a Tasmanian devil. She closed her eyes and tried to concentrate on relaxing her muscles.
Sixt hadn’t lit the fireplace in her bath. She also hadn’t taken time to light the thirteen candles of various shapes, sizes, and colors that sat on the tub’s apron. She heard the soft whoosh the fireplace made when it caught and opened her eyes to see the normally calming movement of flames. She was also acutely aware of the fact that the candles had been lit. All of them. Which made her sincerely glad she insisted on non-scented candles or the aroma competition would trigger her gag reflex.
“Ugh!” she said out loud. She was, apparently, going to have to get up, get dressed, get a pizza - because she was in serious need of carb rich junk food, and call friends to find out the best way to ward that demon’s ass off the property for good.
She pulled the lever to release the water stopper, stood up, toweled off and pulled on a thick, pink French terry robe. The tie around the waist had just been secured when she heard a knock at the door. Rolling her eyes, she stomped over, to the degree someone can stomp when barefoot, and flung the door open wide.
“What do you want?!?”
It was evident to Deliverance that she hadn’t appreciated the flower arrangement, delivery, or the additional mood lighting for her bath. Judging from the look on her face, it was clear that he wasn’t any more welcome than he had been before.
Still, he was undeterred. “A do over.”
Her brows drew together in confusion. “A what?”
“I want a do over. You don’t know what that means? It means…”
“Yes! I know what it means! I’m asking what you’re talking about.” She stopped and looked at the ceiling. “You know what? I am not asking what you’re talking about because I don’t care. I’m asking you to get out and make super sure that you and I never ever appear in the same place at the same time again.”
“I’m really in a place to be open to whatever you ask. But that’s the one thing I can’t do. I need to keep the lines of communication open.”
She laughed in a way that made it clear she wasn’t amused, but paying homage to irony.
While she was doing that, he was breathing in deep. “You smell really good.” His eyelids closed to half-mast as he looked her over. “Pink. It matches the color of your skin when you’ve been in a hot bath. Pretty.” He reached for the tie of the robe and she slapped his hand, looking not just indignant, but scandalized.
“WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU!?!” She frowned. “A couple of days ago you were devoted to my suffering, planning for me to die, agonized and alone.”
“Well.” He shrugged. “I admit that was bad.”
“GET OUT!”
“Wait. I have things to tell you.”
“What could you possibly have to tell me that would interest me?”
“I, ah, apologize?” She started to close the bathroom door in his face. “Wait. Wait. Wait. There’s more.”
She reopened the door. “It had better be better than that.”
“It is.”
“Well?”
“That’s the first time I ever apologized to a female.”
She burst into laughter. “I’m going to take a wild guess that it’s long overdue. I’m going to take a wild guess that there are a billion women who deserve an apology from you.”
“That’s an outrageous exaggeration. I’ve only fucked half a million women. Altogether.”
She gaped. “You. Are. Unbelievable.”
“And it doesn’t count if I was cursed!” he said pointedly. “The big majority of those were the result of being cursed.”
He knew she had relented the tiniest fraction when he sensed that her muscles relaxed the tiniest bit.
“Pizza,” said Big Bird.
She turned around and looked at the parrot, thinking that he was soon to be a gift to someone who could put up with his bullshit.
Deliverance glanced at the bird. “That’s a good idea. Let’s go out for pizza and talk about a do over.”
“You don’t eat.”
“I will. If it will make you happy.”
She felt like slapping herself. “I don’t know what I’m saying. I don’t have any intention of eating with you, pizza or otherwise.”
“Why not?”
“Demon is a douche,” said Big Bird.
A look of surprise on Deliverance’s face, followed by a right and proper glare at the bird, and one blink later Big Bird found himself with a black ribbon tied in a bow around his beak. He tried to stand on one leg and get it off with the other leg, but it wouldn’t budge.
Sixt narrowed her eyes at Deliverance. “Ungag my bird.”
“I will if we can talk privately.”
“I don’t want to talk to you. Privately or otherwise.”
“Why don’t we leave the bird in here and order pizza? We can eat it in the kitchen and talk about the possibility of working things out.”
She shook her head, eyebrows drawn together again. “Working things out? Are you insane? You wanted to torture me, punish me, maybe kill me. There’s nothing to work out.”
“Okay, well, if any of those things had happened I can see that you’d have a legitimate problem with me.” She pulled back, frown deepening further. “But since you basically had a nice fantasy vacation…”
“Who told you that?”
“Guess.” He continued on. “And remember when you tried to say you were sorry about the curse and I wouldn’t listen? Well, this is just like that.”
“This is not just like that.”
“Yes it is.”
She stared for a few seconds, chewing on her bottom lip. “Look. Here’s the way I see it. You’ve got something you feel you need to say and you’re obviously not going to go away until you say it. I want you to go away and stay gone. So let’s make a deal. You say your piece. Then go away and stay there.”
“Okay.”
“No tricks.”
“How do you define trick?”
“See? That right there indicates that you don’t have any intention of playing fair.”
“Fair?” He said it like it was an alien concept. “I can do fair. I think.”
“Alright. You go to the kitchen and order a pizza from Bowza Boys. Double pepperoni, mushrooms, double bell peppers, a few scattered black olives, and grated parmesan on top. You need to write this down?” He shook his head. “I’ll get dressed and meet you there. I’ve never needed a glass of wine more.” He grinned and started to leave. “And take the gag off Big Bird.”
Deliverance removed the black ribbon from the bird’s beak. “He has to stay out of the kitchen.”
“Agreed,” Sixt said.
When Deliverance was gone, she turned to the bird. “Are you crazy? I don’t think little gray parrots are in a position to go around challenging demons.”
Big Bird blinked, raised his wings, ruffled his feathers, and said, “Douche.”
Sixt looked at herself in the mirror wondering how she’d ended up agreeing to have a conversation over pizza. “Yeah. That just about covers it.”
She pulled on ripped jeans, a gray cotton, cowl neck pullover, and went barefoot. She left her hair up in a don’t-care ponytail to accentuate that she didn’t care what he thought.
Turning the corner she came to an abrupt stop when she saw the arrangement of purple roses. She hadn’t really looked when they were clutched in the demon’s hand outside her front door, but they were nothing less than magnificent. In fact, she’d never seen anything like them.
She glanced at Deliverance. “They’re nice.”
“Special.” He nodded. “Special flowers for a special witch.”
She rolled her eyes. Again. “Cheese overpowers everything.”
When he frowned slightly it occurred to her that he might not get the reference. After all, he didn’t eat very often.
“You look wonderful,” he said quietly. “Real.”
“Yeah? How long did they say on pizza?”
“Another ten minutes.” He looked down at her pink toenails and smiled. “Is pink your favorite color?”
She couldn’t help checking out her own toenails, like she’d forgotten what they looked like. “I don’t know. I’ve never really thought about a favorite color.” She looked up at the roses. “I think I like purple roses.”
The doorman buzzed. Sixt went to the intercom.
“Pizza?” she asked.
“How’d you know?” the doorman chuckled.
“Magic. Send him up.” As she went to get money out of her wallet she said, “That was faster than ten minutes.”
“Magic,” the demon smiled.
She was waiting in front of the elevator for delivery. The doors opened to a kid with a big smile who would be cute as could be some day when his skin cleared up.
“Double pepperoni?” he asked.
“That’s me. Here you go.”
He looked at the bill and his smile fell. “I didn’t bring change for this.”
“That’s to make up for everybody who ever stiffed you.”
He grinned broadly. “Thank you!”
He turned to go and she said. “Wait a second. Don’t go away. I’ve got something else for you.” She set the pizza on the kitchen island, hurried away to the bathroom, and pulled an innocent, mostly full, bottle of astringent from the cabinet. She shook it up, said a few words, and rushed back to the elevator. Handing it to the kid, she said, “This is from Switzerland. Don’t tell anybody about it. Use it on your skin sparingly and in two weeks you’re going to be looking for a modeling agent.”
He took the bottle, embarrassed about his skin and the attention that had been called to his condition, but at the same time, he was hopeful it might have an effect.
“That’s very nice of you,” he said quietly.
“Sure. See ya.”
She went inside and closed the door.
When she returned to the kitchen, Deliverance said, “Kid’s right. That was very nice of you.” She shrugged. “Do you do that kind of thing often?”
“Hmmm. Sometimes. My parents were healers. They farmed special herbs, things that would only grow for witches. If they had lived long enough, eventually they would have figured out how to get the same magical results without having to rely on physical properties like herbs and oils.”
Deliverance was studying her. “You’re still interested in healing.”
“Like I said. Sometimes.” She realized that she was having a conversation with Deliverance, which was the exact thing she’d said she wouldn’t do. “You’re supposed to say what you have to say while you’re watching me eat pizza and drink wine then vamoose. Remember? That was the deal.”
“What I have to say can be distilled down to two words. Do. Over.”
She took a slice of pizza out of the box, tore off a bite with her teeth, and groaned when the hot, gooey delectable combination of flavors hit her taste buds.
When she swallowed that bite, she said, “You keep saying that. I don’t know what it means to you. Spit it out and quit being cryptic.”
“I want to go back to the first time you saw me and do it over. When you come back out of the tavern, I’ll be waiting for you. Just you. Nobody but you.”
The pizza slice paused in front of her face never made it to her mouth. That suggestion froze Sixt and her brain in place for a minute or so as she imagined how differently that night might have turned out.
She set the pizza down. “What’s the point?”
“I blew the opportunity of the millennium. And I’d do anything to take another run at it. If I get that chance, I won’t blow it a second time.”
She gave herself permission to look at him, really look at him for the first time since he’d promised she’d be a juicy meal for mosquitos or a giant caiman. He was still the same breathtaking demon she’d been obsessing about her whole life, with one big difference. He was indicating that he returned her interest.
The only problem is that it was too little too late.
Or was it?
They heard the front door open.
“Hello?” Harm called on his way to the kitchen and he made it there before she could respond. His eyes lit with delight when he saw that Sixt was okay, but before he could give her the reunion hug he had in mind he processed the fact that the very demon who was the culprit was sitting at her kitchen island.
“What is he doing here?” Harm demanded.
“We’re just talking.” Sixt had gotten to her feet, seeing that Harm was spitting mad and needed placating.
“He’s not allowed to be here just talking,” he said to Sixt. To Deliverance he said, “Be gone, demon!”
Sixt said, “Harm. I don’t think you’re exorcist material.”
Deliverance crossed his arms over his chest, raised an eyebrow, and smirked at Harm.
“Maybe not,” he said to his sister. To Deliverance, he said, “Don’t make me call my friends.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” said Sixt. “Look.” Her exasperation with the males in her life was growing by the second. “I don’t care what it’s supposed to mean. I’m going to finish this conversation with Deliverance. Then he’s going to leave and you and I can talk.”
“What?”
She pushed Harm out of the kitchen and locked the door.
“Can I at least have some of that pizza?” he called from the other side of the door. She grabbed the box, opened the kitchen door, and threw the pizza. She was relocking the door, when she heard, “I can’t eat pizza without beer. Come on. Give me a beer to go with this.”
She looked at the ceiling. “Maybe it’s not my reality. Maybe I’m insane. Maybe none of this is really happening.”
“You can’t be insane,” Deliverance said, “because if you were you wouldn’t question your sanity.”
While Sixt went to the refrigerator to get Harm a beer, Harm had gone to the hall half bath to relieve himself after a long ride from the airport. When he opened the door, Big Bird flew out, which made him forget all about the toilet.
“You’re really going to give him a beer?” Deliverance said. “And your pizza?”
Sixt carried Harm’s favorite green longneck beer to the kitchen door.
When she opened it, Big Bird flew in. He perched on the crown molding above the cabinets and said, “He’s not a demon. He’s a scoundrel, a pig, and a villain. A dirty rotten pig villain.”
“You tell him, buddy!” said Harm.
Sixt shoved the beer at Harm, slammed the kitchen door, and locked it. When she turned around she didn’t see Big Bird.
“Where is he?” she accused.
“He wanted a breath of fresh air. So I let him out for a walk on the terrace.”
Sixt looked toward the terrace doors, where she could see the parrot beating his wings and pecking against the panes, demanding to come back in. She narrowed her eyes at Deliverance.
“Where did you get that thing anyway? And don’t you have a cat?”
“I do have a cat, but she comes and goes as she pleases and I haven’t seen her since I’ve been back. As to where I got him. I conjured him to keep me company. Because I was alone.”
She decided to let the parrot have a terrace time out since he couldn’t manage to keep his little beak closed.
The demon grew solemn. “I’m sorry,” he said. In spite of the fact that she was berating herself for believing him, she believed he was sincere. “I’m also impressed that you were able to take care of yourself. Impressed and glad.” He scraped a hand over his face. “You’ve never asked me about being cursed.”
Sixt thought it over. Was she willing to give any ground? If nothing else, she wanted to know what he’d say.
“I guess it was awful or you wouldn’t have been so mad.”
“It was awful, but some of what I was mad about, as it turns out, was misdirected. You were to blame for something, but not everything. Some things were your doing. Some things were my doing. And some things were just fate. I’d like to just leave it there and walk away, but I can’t.”
“Why not?”
“I miss you.” She hadn’t known it, but she’d been waiting over two hundred and fifty years to hear words of affection from Deliverance and her heart melted. “You’re sorry. I’m sorry. Let’s let it go because, underneath that stuff, is some good stuff. We both know it.”
“And you think that, if I say yes to a do over, we’re going to get in touch with that good stuff.”
He smiled. “We’re already in touch.” He reached out and took her hand in his, which was larger and warmer and came with an inviting touch that begged for more contact.
Sixt jumped when Harm banged on the door. “What’s going on in there?”
“Say yes,” Deliverance said.
“When?”
“Tonight. Dinner. I’ll pick you up here at five.”
“That’s kind of early for dinner.”
“Not in Paris.” He smiled.
Deliverance stepped into the passes and stopped to do a demon version of a happy dance, which was quite something to see. A vagrendir passed by while he was in mid contortion and gave him a look.
Sixt let both Harm and the parrot inside. Both wanted to know who the other was. Ashes came padding in as if she’d been there the whole time. She licked her jowls when she saw Big Bird.
Big Bird announced his anxiety over the new arrival. “Uh oh. Uh oh.”
“You and your friends summoned Deliverance?”
Sixt would have been sure Harm was joking if it hadn’t been for his threat to ‘call his friends’.
“Indeed we did.”
“I guess your idea about networking turned out to be kind of… brilliant.”
“So the demon rescued you and brought you back here and then the two of you started talking.”
“Well. No. He’s not the one who rescued me. It was an angel.”
“What? He said he was going to do it himself. The deal was that you would be here by the time I got home.”
“I guess the angel got there first.”
“I guess.” Harm looked away. “I don’t know. Your demon is tricky. I don’t see how you could trust him. Ever.”
She shook her head. “I’m not sure I could. Ever. But…”
“You feel something for him.”
“I’m not sure I’m ready to admit that out loud, but yes. It’s inescapable.”
“Then I hope he’s worthy of you. If he’s not, I’ll call my friends.”
She had to give her brother credit. “Nice to be connected to powerful people.”
Sixt had two hours to decide on what to wear. She tried on nine different dresses and thought none of them were right, but the one that was least wrong was red with a high neck and long sleeves. It didn’t show much skin, but she’d been alive a long time and had concluded that skin had lost its guarantee to arouse when it had ceased to be scandalous and become ordinary. The color was flattering to her hair and eyes. The fit was flattering to her body. So much so that she wanted to look in the mirror again and again.
Once the decision was made to leave her hair down, she turned her thoughts to shoes. The last time she was in the passes with Deliverance, she’d almost stumbled. So she didn’t want to wear too-high heels.
She pulled out the lingerie that she’d bought for a special occasion and never worn. It made her feel naughty and beautiful at the same time. She told herself that she was going without panties so that the dress would hang perfectly smooth. Underneath she wore only a red lacy bra and thigh high stockings that had a red tint.
Decisions made, she was ready a whole two minutes early. One minute before Deliverance rang the doorbell.
She liked that he did that even though there were no barriers that would stop him from walking right in.
He was wearing black tie and looking supremely lickable. She got an intoxicating whiff of his scent and wondered if he was wearing some sort of cologne he hadn’t used before.
He leaned in close and said, “You look good enough to eat.” He pulled back a hair. “Wasn’t there a fairy tale about a wolf and a girl in red?”
“As a matter of fact, that was one of mine. I hadn’t thought about it until just now. You look good, but I’d bet money you already know that. Where are we going?”
“My granddaughter told me about a place in Paris. Le Tain Bleu.”
Sixt smiled, working hard to be reserved, even though she felt a little giddy. Her fantasy was coming true. A dinner date with the demon.
He pulled out the fuzzy handcuffs. She noticed he’d had the decency to bring different ones. Either that or he’d just magically altered the color to match her dress.
They stepped out of the passes by a small, dimly lit alleyway. It had been warm in New York so she hadn’t thought about a coat. But it was colder in Paris. When she put her arms around herself, the demon pulled her aside in the alley and pressed his warm body into hers.
“Here. Let me warm you up,” he said just before treating her to a longer, softer version of the kiss that he’d called a see-what-you’re-missing kiss. After a minute she was breathing harder, pressing into his body, and Deliverance was thinking about suggesting that they skip dinner.
His hand drifted down her waist, stopping to cup her shapely behind. He’d planned on a quick kiss and dinner, but he was having a hard time finding a stopping point. He reached down to find the hem of her skirt so that his fingers could find brief contact with bare skin. Just enough of a preview to last until later, if he was lucky.
As his hand started slowly up her leg and reached the lace at the top of the thigh high stocking, there was no stopping. He broke the kiss and moved his mouth to her neck as his hand continued to travel upward. His big warm palm spread over her thigh. When he realized she wasn’t wearing panties, his hand drifted over her mons, lightly teasing the ultrasensitive nerve endings.
She gasped out loud like it was the first time a man had ever touched her there and Deliverance was certain it was the most erotic sound he’d ever heard.
His erection challenged the crotch seams to hold and not split open. The surprise of her reaction provided enough of a break to allow him to pause and make a decision.
“Sixt,” he whispered. “You want to go to dinner? Or my place?”
Deliverance knew that a woman who’d lived as long as Sixt and collected as much treasure as Sixt, was not going to be impressed by a date at any particular restaurant. Because she could eat anywhere she wanted as often as she wanted.
She pulled back. “Your place?”
“Yes.”
“Um… Do you have wine there?”
He smiled and, even in the darkness, she could tell that a seductive smile from an Abraxas demon could bring a woman most of the way to orgasm. “I have whatever you need there.”
“That sounds promising.”
He chuckled as he re-snapped the cuff on his date.
“This is it,” he said. The fires jumped to life as she looked around his windowless house with its smooth curved walls.
“I think it suits you,” she said.
“Do you like it?”
“Yes.”
“I’m glad because it’s the first time I’ve ever brought a, ah, date here.”
“The first time,” she repeated drily like she was wondering if he told that to all the girls.
“No. Really.” He turned her around so that she was looking into his eyes. “Just you.”
“That’s not just a line?”
“Just. You.”
“Thank you for telling me,” she said quietly.
“Do you want wine?” he said, loosening his tie and pulling it away.
She followed the movement. For some reason it was sexier knowing that he didn’t need to remove clothes the usual way.
“No.” She shook her head.
He unbuttoned his jacket. “Want to watch I Love Lucy?”
“No.” She shook her head.
He took off the jacket and let it fall from his hand. It disappeared before it hit the floor. Strains of soft and romantic music filled the room and the plush carpet beneath their feet became a suspended wood dance floor.
“Dance?”
He didn’t give her a chance to answer. He pulled her in close and began swaying to the rhythm the two of them made together. It wasn’t really ‘dancing’ per se. But the demon sensed that it would help her relax and it was an excellent bridge to intimacy.
Within seconds her body became soft and pliant, molding to fit against his. The demon, for his part, felt like she was made for him and, knowing what he did about fate, perhaps she was. As the heat between them grew, so did the press of his erection.
She’d been dancing with her cheek pressed to his chest. When she lifted her face and looked up at him, he took the cue and pressed his lips against hers softly. Slowly the kiss became more demanding. Suddenly Deliverance picked her up and carried her to another part of his dwelling. A large room with open hearth fires on three walls and an enormous bed on the fourth.
“Why do you have a bedroom? You don’t sleep.”
“I just created it. For you. Do you like it?”
She laughed softly. “Yes. I like it.”
He rewarded her with the smile that was capable of paralyzing her in her tracks. “What else do you like?”
Immediately she remembered the image of the naked demon in the dressing room during their shopping trip.
“Do you want to undress me? Or do you want my clothes to go away?”
She was nodding as if any means of doing away with clothes would do. “Go away.”
He decided to take that as shorthand for ‘make your clothes go away’. So he did.
Sixt took in the glorious sight of her demon in nothing but skin illuminated by firelight, which was, apparently, the way fire demons were intended to be seen.
He smiled, pleased by her reaction which was obvious enough to be accurately read by a human. He stepped into her so that his cock nudged her while he reached behind to unzip the dress. When the zipper was all the way down, he stepped back and said, “Let it fall.”
There was a moment of hesitation. Sixt swallowed, struggling to overcome a sudden shyness, but she remembered that he’d also seen her in the raw. So she took a deep breath and let the dress fall.
When it came to erotica, there was nothing Deliverance hadn’t seen. There were things he hadn’t done and times when he’d interrupted acts of brutality or non-consent. But he’d seen everything. Or thought he had. Until Sixt.
She had the standard issue equipment. Two arms and legs. Ten fingers. Ten toes. Two breasts. A belly button. But somehow when it was all put together on her, it was different. The witch was a vision.
He pointed to her bra. “Pretty.”
She looked down, not entirely certain that he was talking about the bra. “Thank you,” she stuttered.
“Take it off.”
He waited patiently for a fully aroused sex demon. At length she seemed to summon the courage to free her breasts from the seductive lingerie.
For a few moments he stared, taking in all that was in front of him. So close. Wearing only thigh high red tinted stockings and high heels.
“Are you beguiling me?” he asked as he moved toward her slowly, like he was stalking.
“Beguiling? N… no. Is that possible?”
Deliverance laughed, showing very white teeth. He backed her toward the bed until the backs of her calves came to a stop against a carved mural footboard. She crawled onto the bed, onto her back, and scooted toward the headboard that was, likewise, a carved mural. She didn’t know or care what the images depicted. The only thing that was on her mind was what was happening next.
Deliverance started at her mons and licked upward until he reached her breasts. He sucked on one protruding nipple as he rolled the other between his fingers. She arched, writhed, squirmed, and was so incredibly responsive to the slightest touch. She even seemed to be sensitive to his gaze.
As he continued to minister to the nipples that loved his attention, one hand drifted down her body and lightly grazed her opening again, as he had in Paris when they decided to skip the restaurant. Her reaction was just as dramatic as it had been before.
“I love that you leave the red hair on your pussy. I want to nuzzle it. Blow on it. Ki…”
“I’m old-fashioned. In some ways.”
He chuckled. “The best ways.”
“I don’t know what I’m doing,” she blurted out.
“Making love,” he said.
“No. I mean…”
He stopped, trying to sort out her meaning and put it in perspective with what had taken place between them so far. His first assessment was that it would be impossible for a female as gorgeous as Sixt to be a centuries-old virgin, but he supposed he’d heard of stranger things.
“Do you mean you’ve never done this before?” She nodded. “And you want to give this to me?” He looked and sounded awestruck. She nodded again. “It doesn’t make sense. Why have you never…?”
“You,” she whispered.
He frowned. “What do you mean?”
“That night. I saw your face, your smile. I felt your breath in my ear.” She took a deep breath and looked like she was remembering. “After that, how could I want anybody else?”
Deliverance realized that he hadn’t been interested in sex with anyone other than Sixt since the day she lifted the curse. Could it be?
“I haven’t been with anybody since you unhexed me.”
“Why?”
He grinned in the way that made his eyes flash. “Why do you think?”
“Do you believe in fate?”
He nodded. “No question.” He looked away for a scant second. “Are you saying that we’re fated mates? Demons and witches don’t have fated mates. That I know of.” He added a waiver to his statement because Deliverance was very aware that there were few absolutes in the universe.
As if she’d heard his last thought, she said, “Maybe we’re the exception.”
He looked into Sixt’s liquid blue eyes reflecting the firelight in a way that made him think he’d never really appreciated fire before . Taking a strand of her hair between his fingers he said, “I know I don’t want anything, but to be right here, right now. With you.”
“So I guess we’ll see,” she said.
“I guess we’ll see,” he repeated. “Have you ever touched a male?” She shook her head. He rolled over onto his back. “Touch me.”
“I don’t know what…”
“Do whatever you want. You won’t hurt me. Explore.”
They couldn’t possibly have been more different. The demon who’d probably set a record for sexual encounters was aroused beyond reason by a virgin who was a blank slate. No experience. No preferences. No idea what lovemaking felt like. And there was a side of him that he hadn’t known existed that was delighted by her inexperience and the fact that he was the first male she’d ever touched.
Sixt rolled over on her side. After a brief hesitation she placed the flat of her palm over his heart, then petted his hair-free chest, running her thumb over his puckered nipple as he’d done with her. His chest rose and fell in a steady rhythm as he labored to control his breathing.
His cock lifted up from his belly, straining toward her hand as if it had a mind of its own and was hoping to draw her attention. She noticed the movement, glanced at his face, and licked her lips as she surveyed his length, girth, and color. Even though she didn’t have any experience with penises on a close personal basis, she was certain that Deliverance had to be perfectly formed.
When she finally encircled him with her hand, the demon sucked in a breath so suddenly that she jerked back. He laughed. “Don’t stop. I just did that because it felt good.”
“Really?”
“So. Good,” he assured her.
She experimented with gripping and pumping, paying attention to the demon’s reactions. The bigger the reaction, the more powerful she felt and her confidence was growing by the second. She turned her attention to his balls, cupping and moving them about gently as he moaned and moved his pelvis up and back.
“Enough!” he said. “My turn.”
Putting Sixt on her back, he loomed over her once again. He slid down her body, kissing, nuzzling, nibbling, licking until she thought she would go insane, but she had no idea what sexual insanity was until he blew across her pubic hair, as promised. Then parting the lips of her labia, he smiled in a way that said he liked what he saw.
One practiced lick up her channel had Sixt trying to shoot off the bed with a mighty arch of her back. Deliverance held her legs in place while he administered a sweet torture that she’d never forget as long as she lived.
“I… I…”
He smiled to himself, knowing that she didn’t know what to ask for. It was kind of mean, but it was also titillating, knowing that he was master of her frustration, her pleasure, and her release.
He tongued her clit with ecstatic abandon until she repeatedly yelled out the names of every god that came to mind, while pulling his hair with one hand and digging fingernails into his shoulder with the other.
When she reached the point where she was begging him to stop, he knew it was time to set her orgasm and her virginity free. He maintained contact with her most sensitive little organ while he positioned himself between her legs, aching for release himself. He slid inside so that, at the very moment she ascended into a state of rapture paralysis, he pushed through the barrier all the way to the hilt.
Using some of his own sexual magic, he made certain there were no painful aftereffects. He wanted her memories of the two of them together to hold nothing but pleasure.
Deliverance didn’t remember much about the females he’d been with over the millennia of his long life, but he was certain sex had never felt like a transcendent experience, as it did with Sixt. As he slid in and out slowly, he raised up so that he could see her face as she floated back to post-orgasm focus and felt something akin to reverence.
She smiled lazily. “Hi,” she drawled.
He smiled. “Hi.”
“Gods. That feels good. What you’re doing. Don’t stop.”
He took that as a cue to move faster. The demon had never felt an urgency to climax like the one in progress. Fortunately for him, he was able to coax another orgasm from Sixt by blowing in her ear as hips pounded the body that felt like it had been custom designed for his enjoyment. When she came again, he let go.
She felt the heat of his sperm filling her and reveled in it until sanity returned long enough for her to wonder about birth control.
“Demon.”
“Uh-huh,” he said, moving.
“You came inside me.”
She felt him smile against her neck. “I know.”
“So there’s no possibility of, um, pregnancy?”
He rolled off her, looked at the ceiling, and scrubbed a hand over his face. “I, ah, don’t know?”
She raised up on one elbow. “Seriously? You’re planning on populating the world with witch-demons?”
“Well…”
“That is not an acceptable answer.”
“But I wouldn’t mind having more…”
“Not. An acceptable answer.”
“Okay. Settle down a minute.”
He put his ear to her abdomen like he was listening for something and, while he was doing that, her imagination entertained the idea of raising a witch-demon. Someday. As images of that came to mind, she began stroking his hair.
He raised his head and looked at her. “You are not pregnant.”
Oddly enough, she felt a tiny and completely unexpected pang of sadness to hear that news. In the space of a minute she’d gone from being certain she never wanted a family to thinking it didn’t sound all bad.
“I’m not going to ask how you know. I’m just going to take your word for it. But if we’re going to do this again…”
“And we are,” he interjected.
“We need to be more careful.”
“I agree. But I really wouldn’t mind having…”
“That’s not a discussion we’re having without commitment.”
He nodded. “Where do I sign up?”
“For what?”
“For commitment.”
She laughed. “You’re committing to me.”
“I am.”
“What does that mean to you?”
“I’m not clueless.”
“I didn’t say you were. But commitment would be really different for you.”
He pushed her hair behind her ear more as a gesture of affection than because it needed doing. “It means it’s you for me and me for you. It means I’ll listen to you when you want to talk, even if you’re mad at me. I’ll come when you call. I’ll find a new home for that bird.”
“Wait a minute.” She was liking what was up till then.
He went on as if she hadn’t objected to the bird thing. “I’ll be friends with your friends and pretend to like your brother.”
“I call bullshit on that. You like my brother. And you wouldn’t have to pretend.”
“Okay. I give you that. He’s harmless.”
“No. No, he’s not. Unless you were trying for some word humor.”
He gave her one of the smiles that would have her doing anything he wanted without question and continued his list.
“You’ll never have to pick up after me or run my errands or make food for me. You’ll watch TV with me. Learn to ride dragons. And love me.”
She readjusted her position on the pillow so that she could face him fully. “Love you?”
“Yeah. Can you do that?”
Sixt smiled. “I think I can.”
And that is the story of how the demon, Deliverance, was freed from his curse and found love at the same time.
Sixt amused her new witch friends, when they were gathered at her penthouse for a special brew party, by relating the story. She said it was a lot like Beauty and the Beast. She took credit for the original story and who was there to dispute it? Except that Beauty and the witch who spun the curse were one and the same. Oh, and the beast was the furthest thing from hideous.