Page 41 of Fiends and Familiars
Ty. My body reacted as if I had suddenly landed the starring role in a porno. I caught my breath and one of his hands drifted lower to grip my ass.
Then I got a grip on my hormones and remembered I was pissed at this demon. Although, there was another demon after me, and if I had to pick between the two, I’d pick Ty. At least I knew deep down in my heart that he wouldn’t harm me. He might kill my squirrel, but he wouldn’t harmme.
Still I scrambled to my feet, making sure I rubbed up against Ty a little on the way up. “There’s a demon after me,” I told him, figuring he’d do the chivalrous thing.
“Who?” he snarled, leaping to his feet.
“A dude with horns?” How the fuck was I supposed to know who he was? It’s not like he had a nametag on or something.
“Abraxas,” he spat out.
I’d been on the verge of running away, but that stopped me dead in my tracks. The horns didn’t ID the demon. They all had horns. Ty knew who was following me. He knew this demon was after me.
Which made me even more pissed off at him. Damn it. He could have warned me when we were in Cassie’s office. Although to be fair, we’d been too busy arguing for him to probably get a word in edgewise about there being a price on my head. Did Lucien know about this? Because Cassie was going to chop off his balls once I told her.
Something crashed through the corn. I didn’t have time to see what it was or even run before Ty had shoved me out of the way and slammed into whatever it was. I landed hard, knocking the wind out of my lungs. I’d broken a few cornstalks in my fall and those suckers were sharp. That’s how I knew the wet feeling on my shoulders and arms was blood. But all that seemed of minor importance compared to the epic battle going on not ten feet away from me.
Two demons fighting was like watching National Geographic alpine ram edition. They slammed into each other, horns locked, curls of sulfur-smelling smoke puffing from their nostrils and mouths.
“She’s mine,” Ty roared. Claws extended from his hands and he raked bloody furrows along the other demon’s chest.
“If you’re too weak to make her give up Faust, then I’ll do it,” the other demon snapped. I noticed that although he too had claws on his hands, he didn’t seem to be causing quite as much damage as Ty was.
Wait, was I rooting for Ty? Yes, I was. Damn it. I was pissed off at the guy, but I still lov…liked him. Kinda.
The demon I kinda sorta liked head butted the other one, then punched him hard enough to send him into the corn. Ty wheeled around and grabbed me, pulling me up by my arm and dragging me down a path.
“No! There. The exit.” I pointed toward the light only to have Ty haul me off in the opposite direction.
“That’s not the exit, it’s just a big spotlight at the edge of the field.”
“Then where’s the exit?” I snapped as I spun around, yanking away from Ty.
“I’m taking you there.” Mumbling a curse, he grabbed me, slung me over his shoulder and took off at a dead run. Demons could really haul ass, evidently. We were out of the corn maze in no time, with me breathless and dizzy, my face pressed up against Ty’s back.
“Addy! You’ve still got your flag…oh.”
Ty slid me off his shoulder and sat me on my feet, his arm around my shoulder to hold me steady. I blinked a few times at Babylon, not sure what to say.
“That’s not Derrick,” she accused, as if she’d discovered me cheating on the guy I’d just met an hour ago, and was most definitelynotinterested in dating.
“No. This is Ty.” I patted the demon’s shoulder.
“Ty?” Her eyes narrowed. “The one who used you to get to your squirrel? Who had sex with you as a pretense to get into your house and steal your squirrel? The one who doesn’t care about anything but that damned squirrel?”
“That’s not true.” Ty glared at my sister. “None of it. Well, maybe at first it was true, but once your sister seduced me in her dream, I’ve been completely under her spell.”
“I didn’t seduce you or enchant you,” I snapped back, irritated that we were having the same argument over and over again.
Babylon suddenly grinned. “How about you both agree that you seduced each other? That’s one argument out of the way.”
“Which leaves the squirrel.” I took a step away from Ty. “If I sleep with you again, don’t think that means I’m going to hand him over.”
“As far as I’m concerned, the fate of Faust’s soul rests in the hands of the lawyers, and they’ve said—wait…” He caught his breath and looked at me wide-eyed. “You’re going to sleep with me again? Does that involve sex, or just sleeping, because I’ve learned that the language of the agreement needs to be absolutely clear.”
“I’ll sleep with you again if I feel like it.” I sniffed. “And it might include sex if I feel like it.”
He took a step toward me. “So…tonight…are you feeling like it.”
