Chapter Five
CADE
Nikki and I chatted as she drove, and I made a mental note to remind myself to offer to drive back.
Just because I was stronger than humans and healed faster doesn’t mean I wanted to be in a car accident.
Every time I tried to let the conversation lull so she could concentrate, she’d look at me and smile, and it would be impossible not to return the expression.
But she drove like she was playing a cop in a movie and chasing some perp, swerving around corners way too fast, the sound of the tires on the road breaking the otherwise calm silence of the suburbs.
She got almost a manic look in her eye when she took off from the lights, and I swear, in her head, she was in one of the cop movies.
Fuck, she was hot.
The whole wanting to corrupt her because she looked innocent thing, I totally got it.
She kept tucking her hair behind her ear as it fell in front of her face because I had taken out her ponytail.
What I really wanted to do was bend her over and bunch her hair up in my fist, exposing her neck to me while I fucked her.
Something told me she wouldn’t be up for fucking in the graveyard, so I’d have to be patient on that front. But I figured she’d be worth the wait. She was driven and stubborn but with an element of silliness that made me chuckle.
I wondered if she’d orgasm harder if I tickled her while stimulating her, given how she reacted when I got hold of her foot.
I wanted to hear that laugh broken with moans and to feel her nails dig into my arms and shoulders as she completely lost control.
Since she was the sort to try to restrain me, I’d need to set the balance of power right.
Demons don’t play submissive well.
My mind wasn’t entirely one-tracked. I was actually paying attention to the conversation.
There was a small parking lot next to a stone church that appeared empty, no sound or light emanating from inside and an eerie hollowness to the open windows.
While I’d hardly burst into flames if I stepped foot in a church, I didn’t particularly want to venture inside either.
Something about that felt fundamentally wrong like I’d be giving God a big middle finger ha-ha, I’m on Earth, sucker.
Wasn’t my style.
Nikki wasn’t here to pray, though, and like the fucking gentlemen I am, I took the picnic basket and carried it as she led me across the field of graves. The sun was out, and I watched her ass as she moved in front of me more than I paid attention to the scenery.
The graveyard shifted from a field littered with plaques, tombstones, and small memorials to an older part of the cemetery I assumed, where the grass wasn’t as green, and the stones were thick with moss. Perhaps an old family plot of theirs.
Laying a blanket out on an empty space, Nikki sat and leaned against the back of a traditional-style arched gravestone, marbled and clean, although she rubbed a few flecks of mud off it before settling in. Indicating the stone she leaned against with my chin, I asked, “Is that him?”
She nodded, patting the stone. “Yep. I don’t like to sit on top of the grave itself. It’s creepy.”
“But if we sit here, I’ll be sitting on top of…” I glanced behind me, “… Melissa Wright, mother, wife, daughter, died May 29, 1980.”
“I’m sure she won’t mind having your firm ass planted on her legs.”
Chuckling, I removed my jacket and sat, watching as Nikki unpacked what appeared to be a small feast from the basket. “How many people are you feeding?”
“Just you and me. Zombies only eat brains… everyone knows that.” She smirked at me. “But I figured you might be one of those guys who eats a deceptive amount comparative to his build.”
Lifting my arms, I flexed. “Gotta keep up the kilojoules.”
While she laughed, her gaze trailed along my arms and over my chest before returning to my eyes.
I didn’t need to say anything. The way she hastily looked away told me she knew I’d seen her wandering gaze.
Hell, I welcomed it. The more she thought about my body, the better, then maybe when it came time to finally fuck her, she’d be trying to shred my clothes off as much as I’d be hers.
After unpacking a few more items, her eyes flashed to my arms again, and I flexed, bringing out another smirk from her.
When she had everything laid out and was serving up a plate for me, I rolled to the side, kicking my legs out, and rested on an elbow, watching her. “You okay?” I asked.
Her hands paused in her work, her lips pressing together in a thin line. “Why do you ask?”
“We’ve been joking around a lot, but you asked for company because this can’t be easy for you. I’m just checking.”
The sun sent a cascade of colors across her hazel eyes I hadn’t noticed in the bar’s dim lighting. Her pale skin meant everything else stood out, including what freckles I could see and the almost permanent slight red flush on her cheeks.
Angel indeed.
She cleared her throat. “It’s nice to have company.” Lifting her eyes to mine, she handed me the loaded plate. “I’ve spent a lot of time brooding lately… it’s nice to relax.” Patting the gravestone behind her again, she added, “I think Dad would want me to be happy.”
“Of course, he would.”
She pressed her lips together again, nodding only once, and I wanted to know what she was thinking. She’d mentioned in the bar her father had been killed, so maybe she felt she had somehow failed him by not finding whoever was responsible.
But although the bright sun not hindered by clouds exposing a blue sky was misleading, there was no forgetting this was a dark city full of dark people, and who knows who her father could have crossed paths with?
If he had something of value, there was no shortage of people who would take an innocent man’s life if they wanted what he had.
And if that was the case, she’s lucky she was left alive.
The food was good, and I wanted to ask if she’d made it herself, but I was too busy shoveling it into my mouth.
Flavors exploded on my tongue in a way they didn’t in Hell.
Every sense was enhanced on Earth. The sun warmed my skin but didn’t burn, and the cotton of the picnic blanket was delicate.
If I closed my eyes, I could focus my senses on one thing or all of them and let everything flood my mind until I was overwhelmed with how pure everything felt.
This is why I was staying on Earth.
I was a demon out of place in Hell, and while there were aspects to my being that, I’d never rid myself of the desire and craving to fuck and for violence and blood—I didn’t really want to lose them.
I embraced those and had no issues in fighting at the slightest encouragement.
There weren’t many in the city who didn’t deserve a few good punches to the gut and face anyway, and I was more than happy to provide.
But the people, the women, were something else.
Demon females were great, but human women were soft and responded to every touch like it was their first.
It was fun to ruin them for all other lovers.
But beyond the sex and the sensations that Earth offered, there was freedom.
Freedom from the rules of Hell, and short of going around killing people, I could do pretty much as I pleased here.
The downside which put most demons off was that life on Earth required a certain level of responsibility—finding a job and some financial stability—unless you wanted to grow weak and starve or steal everything, which had risks of its own.
I didn’t know of many demons who had taken it to the nth degree as Frank and Mike had, building a business and empire and living it up with the best life Earth had to offer.
That shit took some serious commitment, and there were few demons willing to put in the time.
I can’t imagine having a job where I needed to wear a suit.
While Frank gave me a hard time when I needed to fight, he knew me better than most and understood I simply didn’t fit in in Hell. I didn’t fit in on Earth either, but at least I could relax a bit more here.
In Hell, I was a freak, too quiet and timid to get into the hard-core torture.
And when I experienced those painful memories with the humans, the ones I could draw out by tasting their blood on my tongue, the ones we used to psychologically torture, those memories hurt me too.
The humans in Hell were nasty people who had done unthinkable things, and while they deserved every ounce of torture they got, I didn’t take pleasure in it like most did.
What did that make me? Not much of a demon.
But I wasn’t human either.
Earth offered freedom, even if it was governed by other rules. It was freedom to be whoever I wanted to be, and that was something not awarded to me below the surface.
If my desire to be myself made me less of a demon, I’d like to say I could deal with that, but to a point, it bothered me. I’d spent most of my life feeling inferior. At least on Earth, I was stronger, taller, and faster than most.
I was also more violent with tendencies that weren’t human.
It wasn’t an easy balance to maintain.
When I asked Nikki if she was okay, it was because despite her smile and laugh, I could sense the misery from her, and beyond the misery was guilt. These things were in my nature to pick up on, so I could pry them apart and make it worse for the victim I was torturing.
I didn’t want that, not for Nikki.
My attention was dragged back to reality by Nikki’s laugh, and I stopped midchew to raise my eyes at her. “What?”
“You eat like it’s your last meal.”
I shrugged, swallowing. “It’s good food.”
Her smile was radiant. “Well, thank you. I’ll take that as a compliment.”
“Exactly as it was intended.”
I made a point to slow down as I finished my meal, one step short of licking the plate before placing it on the blanket and rolling onto my back, squinting at the sky.
“Thank you, Nikki,” I said.
“For the food?”