Chapter 18
Chapter 18
T he meal featured tiny jewels of savory-flavored gelatin and a salad that would have starved a baby bunny. Tuesday had been forced to order two desserts. When the waiter delivered the cherry cake laced with rum he winked at Ethan. But Ethan’s attention remained on Tuesday as she teased her fork at the decadent, moist cake.
They’d talked about familiars and what a weird life that must be. To be able to shift to such a small animal, such as a cat, bird, insect, or snakes and worms, and then to transform back to a human shape. Had to fuck with the insides and internal organs, yeah? The paranormal realm was truly wondrous.
The first bite of the cake made up for the pitiful meal. Lush, rum-soaked cherries burst on Tuesday’s tongue, and she moaned in appreciation, savoring the wicked dark flavor.
Ethan leaned forward, his interest suddenly intent. “That good, eh?”
“You want a taste?”
“I think I’d rather experience it through you.”
“I don’t think the mutual-sexual-vibes thing works with food. On the other hand...”
She forked in another bite and this time closed her eyes to really enjoy and experience the flavors. Sweet and tart, dense and creamy. Kind of how it felt when Ethan ran his tongue over her swollen, wet pussy. The man was always intent on her pleasure. Just thinking about it, combined with the cherries and cake, made her nipples tighten.
Ethan groaned.
She opened one eye to see the vampire silently pleading with her from across the table. She slid her hand over the table and clasped fingers with him. The touch shivered over her skin.
“I felt that,” he said. “The way you felt it. Really? That good?”
“I’m using my imagination, and thinking about you...with your head between my legs.” She dipped into the cherry syrup and touched the fork to her lips, licking it off with a slow draw of her tongue.
Ethan sucked in his lower lip and eased his free hand down to his lap. Tuesday felt the rub of his palm across his cock as a visceral hum in her loins. The man’s sexual energy was focused and targeted to his core. Acknowledging it started an aching throb at her clitoris. She stabbed another syrupy cherry onto the fork and this time held it between her lips and slowly crushed it. Cherry juice ran down her chin.
“I’d crawl under the table right now if there weren’t people sitting but five feet from us. But can you feel this?” Ethan’s hand under the table must have squeezed his erection because Tuesday reacted with a gasp.
“Sweet bloody cherries, yes. You’re so hard, vampire.”
A sudden throat clearing beside them darted Tuesday’s attention to the side. The man sitting at a table by himself, a small cup of espresso steaming before him, gave her a snide look down his nose.
The voyeur did not approve?
Tuesday pulled up Ethan’s hand to trace the cherry juice on her chin. He then dipped that finger into her mouth and she sucked it. With a tender bite to the tip of his finger and a lash of her tongue, she was gifted with the exact right pressure to her clit that set her off. A deep and concentrated orgasm clasped her for a few seconds. Enough to lift her gasp to a vocal cry of “Oh!”
For his part, Ethan pulled his hand from her mouth and muffled his groan behind a napkin.
Tuesday leaned forward, panting and squeezing her thighs together to milk one last shock of vibrant sensation from the orgasm. Yes, right there. She bowed her head and said in a tight whisper, “That was so fucking good.”
“I am suddenly a fan of rum-soaked cherries.” He clasped her hand and they stood to leave. Ethan gave the voyeur a smirk.
And Tuesday said as they passed him, “Let them eat cake.”
* * *
Hand in hand, they walked to Acquisitions headquarters, and entered through a nondescript door in an alleyway. The same door that Tuesday had walked out of days earlier and then had been bound to Ethan. Now they were bound in a different manner, and because of the choices they’d made to do so.
A dark hallway led to an elevator, which rose four flights. It was near midnight so the building was mostly quiet, though Ethan mentioned that there were always people in some department doing something at all hours of the day.
A small reception area let in moonlight across the single desk and curved walls. Tuesday stepped behind Ethan as he waited before a steel platform and some kind of electronic reading device that resembled the scanner a person walks through at the airport. He waited for green LEDs to blink, then grabbed her and rushed across the platform.
“You don’t have access,” he said as he punched in a digital code on a massive wood door before them. “But that sneaky move worked better than I expected.”
“You’ve never snuck a girlfriend into your office before?”
“You’re the first,” he said as he opened the door and she walked through.
Though she had been in here briefly before, she’d not taken the time to look around because she’d been seriously in need of a bathroom break and had also been focusing on the sigil burning through the shackle rope Certainly Jones had placed on her.
Eerily quiet, and barely lit by pale moonlight, the dark room smelled like cedar. Tuesday slipped off her coat and let it drop to the floor as she walked up to the desk. Dim lighting blinked on and highlighted the hexagon structure of the room. An excellent shape for creating magic. The walls were solid, dark-stained wood, and the windows had a view of the city lights, yet she wouldn’t be able to pinpoint a monument or tourist attraction for the life of her.
“A vampire’s retreat,” she decided. “Cool, calm and dark.”
“I spend a lot of time behind this desk. Might as well make it comfortable.”
“Doesn’t look very comfy to me.” She swung around the desk and sat on his chair, which—“Oh, mercy, I change that statement. Is this the most comfortable chair on the planet?” She wiggled on what felt like a living material that conformed to her shape and curves and...was that a sudden warmth? “Is it one of those massage chairs? Tell me it is, because I am so in to that.”
Ethan reached under the desk and the chair suddenly began to vibrate and undulate.
“Oh, fuck yeah.” She closed her eyes and put up her feet on the edge of the desktop. “Don’t mind me. I’ll fly to seventh heaven while you’re doing whatever it is you have to do.”
Standing beside the chair, Ethan opened the laptop on the desk and began clacking away on the keys. “Just want to make sure the holding room is cleared for tomorrow night. And that no unnecessary personnel are on sight. I’ve decided we’re going to summon the demon with the familiar directly here to headquarters. It will work if we make the proper preparations. Looks like CJ is the only one scheduled to be in the building, save the tech guys, but they’re on the first floor. I’m bringing in Cinder on this one. He’s IT. He’ll grant us access and make sure all wards are down.”
“Mmm...” Tuesday let her head drift off the back of the chair and twisted to sit sideways, catching a particularly deep kneading motion at the base of her spine. “This chair could probably fuck me if I found the right position.”
Ethan laughed. “You’re a lot easier than I’d initially thought.”
“Oh, come on, don’t tell me you’ve never gotten off on the vibrations from this fabulous thing?”
“Can’t say that I have. Though, what is it with you women and vibrations?”
“Hit us in the right spot and we will sing, baby, sing. You don’t feel it?”
He frowned then. “No, I actually don’t.” Was that worry in his eyes? “Huh. You think our bond is wearing thin?”
“It’s possible. I would guess it will last so long as my blood served you. But we can always refresh it.” She slid a hand up Ethan’s leg, aiming for the front, where his dark jeans did not conceal the erection. “Maybe I can make you hum a little tune, eh?”
“I won’t stop you from trying. I have to verify the security locks are activated in a few sectors for tomorrow night...”
She squeezed his erection through the rough fabric and then unzipped him. The man always went commando and his penis jutted out as the zipper teeth separated. She wrapped a firm hand around the stick shift and began to drive, even while his attention was focused on the laptop screen. But he did move his hips to give her better access, and soon enough he closed the laptop and leaned against the desk.
Sliding forward on the wheeled office chair, Tuesday licked up from the base of his thick rod, slowly, following the pulsing vein to the sensitive foreskin below the crown. She took her time, making sure every bit of him received her tongue. His fingers slipped through her hair, clasping greedily, and he groaned and rocked his hips slowly.
He was right. She didn’t feel every slow, lazy lick reciprocating on her pussy as she would expect because of their blood bond. Their connection had depleted. But that didn’t make this any less exciting.
“I’m going to make this better than cherry cake,” she said.
Ethan bent forward, pressing his hand over her crotch and finding her aching pinnacle with a firm touch. “I’ll help.”
The pressure of his fingers over her clit prompted her to answer with a careful nibble to the side of his mighty shaft. With a growl that must have birthed in his core, he bent his head over hers and muttered, “Take me in your mouth, Tuesday. Please.”
The desperation in his tone would not allow her to tease at him, nor would her own desire to take him past her lips and feel the press of him against the back of her mouth. Cupping his testicles with her other hand, she fed on him greedily, slicking and lashing and sucking.
He slid his hand inside her leggings and slipped a finger between her folds, curling into her and gliding in deeply. She pressed up her hips, hilting him within her pussy and her mouth. Having lost direct contact with the vibrating chair, she could still feel subtle movement from it, and that coaxed her body to the high from which she wished to fall.
Ethan’s fingers in her hair gripped and squeezed and his body began to tremor. Control was impossible. Surrender unthinkable. Meeting at a mutual peak and then plunging together was the only option. He swore, and came in her mouth. She, in turn, came in bucking thrusts against his hand.
Dropping to his knees before her, Ethan buried his face in her hair, his fingers caressing over her pussy and maintaining a firmness that extended her orgasm.
“Witch, you own me.”
She liked the idea of owning him. Sexually. But no other way. He was a fierce, powerful vampire. The only kneeling she required of him was to satisfy her sexual needs.
“I’ll share myself with you, lover. But let’s never take ownership. Agreed?”
He nodded, then kissed her hard and deep, showing her an exquisite glimpse of the control he masterfully claimed as his own.
A knock at the door paused them both. Ethan hastily stood and zipped with a wince and a curse. “Sit up,” he muttered as he approached the door.
Fluffing her hair and tugging down her shirt, Tuesday sat up on the chair and grabbed a pen, assuming...well, she wasn’t sure what she was trying to reflect but the fake-secretary-looking-busy act seemed like a good move.
Ethan opened the door. “Cinder. I didn’t think you were coming up. I don’t need you until tomorrow night. I thought I made that clear in the text. Is there a problem?”
The tall, dark-haired man entered the room and Tuesday saw his red, ashy aura. But also...hmm—he was something beyond vampire, but she couldn’t quite make out what that else could be. He eyed her a few seconds, sniffed, then smirked. What was that about?
“No problem,” Cinder said. “Just wanted to ask you about the outer wards on the building and your phone was on forward.”
“Right.” Ethan took out his phone and tapped a few keys.
“If you’re trying to pull a demon in,” Cinder said, “you need the building to be open. But I’m not cool with letting down all the wards. The Archives could go crazy. All the captive beasts on the premises suddenly set free?”
“It would be for a brief period,” Ethan assured him. “Is it possible to let them down only around the holding cell and then be on standby for immediate reinstatement?”
Cinder blew out a breath. He didn’t look like any kind of tech guy Tuesday had ever met. Broad-shouldered and built like a bruiser, but oh, so pretty. Her sigil warmed. And that alerted her.
“Angel?” she suddenly said.
Cinder turned to her. “What?”
“I, uh...what are you?”
Cinder chuckled and swung to face her, crossing his arms high on his chest. “What are you?”
“I’m a witch. Your boss had me kidnapped from Boston, and flew me across the ocean while under the influence of a nasty but powerful drug to help him track the demon. Didn’t you get the memo?”
The tech guy swung a look to Ethan, who shook his head. Then he offered his hand toward Tuesday, so she got up from the chair to shake it. And then she knew.
“Demon,” she said. “But...you’ve fallen.”
“Labatiel, the Flaming One, Angel of Punishment,” he explained. A bit of pride in his tone, though. Expected of demons. “Used to be trapped under Paris until a sinkhole released me and I came to ground.”
“Cool. Maybe. But...you’re also vamp?”
He nodded. “It’s a long story.”
“I bet it is.” Angel of Punishment, eh? That could prove an interesting history. “You got any suggestions for how to handle the demon we’re going after tomorrow night? I mean, you two do hail from the same place.”
“I don’t know who you’re after. The boss didn’t enlighten me.”
“It’s need-to-know. Or it was,” Ethan said with a glance to Tuesday. Oops. She’d said too much. But Ethan relented. “Demon’s name is Gazariel.”
Cinder hitched a clicking sound out the side of his mouth. “The Beautiful One. A primping idiot. That’s who you’re after? Why are you finding this so difficult? Just hold up a mirror and catch him while he’s preening.”
Tuesday giggled. “Oh, you men. Always thinking there’s an easy button for everything.”
“He’s proving an evasive catch,” Ethan said. “And the witch I thought could lure him to us is actually repelling him.”
She did not miss Ethan’s admonishing glance. She’d take it in retaliation for spilling the intel beans.
Cinder’s gaze took her in none too kindly. “Then why is she still around?”
“She’s, uh...” Tuesday could sense Ethan’s sudden discomfort yet he hid it with an authoritative lift of his jaw. “Can you do it or not, Cinder? You’ll have a day to figure this out. I’ll need you to be on call to drop the wards only around the holding cell and then set them back up.”
“The building wards will need to be briefly shut down as well. It’s not as easy as flicking a switch. Dropping them is. But resetting them?” He shook his head. “That’ll require a witch.”
Tuesday stepped forward. “I, myself, happen to be a witch.”
“I will only work with a witch who works for and has been approved by the Council. I can’t do it, man,” Cinder said to Ethan.
“I’ll send CJ to assist you. That will work, yes?”
“The dark witch.” Cinder exhaled heavily. “Fine. I’ve got to get things started. This is going to be a bitch.” The vampire strode out, leaving the door open behind him. “You owe me, man!”
Tuesday looked to Ethan and said, “Now he’s a Richard.”