If I had to choose one thing to do on Earth — besides collecting mortal souls — I’d choose to party.
Don’t get me wrong, a party on Earth was never going to compare to what went down in Hell. A mortal wouldn’t even survive a Hell party; if the recreational substances didn’t immediately kill them, sheer exhaustion would. Hell could rage for days on end, for months if the company was good enough.
But human parties were so earnest, so sweetly desperate. The pungent stench of alcohol, of sweat, of needy horny mortals all hoping for the opportunity to fuck. Humans couldn’t hold their liquor for shit either. All of them would be stumbling around like toddlers within a few hours, losing control of all emotions and bodily functions.
It was cute. They wanted stimulation so badly, but once they had it, their little mortal brains couldn’t handle it.
To say I was looking forward to the Hadleigh party was an understatement. I was frankly ecstatic.
Juniper was a bundle of nerves, but I fucked her good and got a shot of whiskey in her, and she mellowed out after that. But her excitement lingered in twitchy hands, fingers rubbing together, clenching, continually running through her hair.
The Watcher had her spooked, and I didn’t blame her. By demonic standards, they were generally harmless creatures, regardless of how unpleasant they were to look at. But Juniper was exactly the kind of being they’d want to prey on. She was brave as hell, but bravery didn’t mean she wasn’t afraid.
She lived with a deep, dark well of fear within her, and it was a precarious balance she walked day after day to not fall into the depths.
Every time I found something that helped calm her, I felt like I’d won a goddamn medal.
I’d been honest with her: I wanted more. Body and soul was fun and games; but having her mind, having her heart, that was something else entirely. It was beyond mortality, beyond bargains. It wasn’t just business.
I wanted to claim her smile, her laugh, the way she looked when she sighed after a long day and laid her head back, eyes closed. They were unclaimable things, things without names, things that wouldn’t bring me power or glory. Things like the storm that raged in her, the nervous energy in her long fingers, the way she bit her lip in thought.
Humans sought to fulfill so many different needs in their mates, whereas demons took mates as a matter of devotion and fascination. Juniper was short-tempered, selfish, a woman of few words, stubborn, anxious, aggressive.
I wanted all of it. All her messiness, all her sharp edges and fragmented pieces. I wanted the sharpness. I wanted to cut myself on it again and again. I wanted to move her pieces around until they all made sense.
And she needed to let her walls down. She needed to be as messy as she pleased without fear of being alone.
“Why do they do these tutorials so fast?” she grumbled, skipping back nearly a minute in the video she was watching on her laptop. “It’s like one of those stupid How To Draw things: step one is a circle, and step two is a fully-formed drawing of a horse.”
I chuckled and let her struggle with the makeup for a few more seconds. Our costumes for the party were simple: fitted black suits, boots, bow-ties, and skulls painted on our faces. It was subtle enough to not attract too much attention, but the thick face paint would do the trick to keep Juniper’s identity hidden. The blazers made it easier for her to hide her weapons too, and she was coming well-armed.
“Alright, alright, I’ve seen you struggle enough,” I said. “Sit your ass down, I’ll do the makeup.”
She looked at me skeptically. “Really?”
“Yes, really.” I snapped her laptop closed, cutting off the video. “I’ve had hundreds of years to do whatever the hell I please. You think in all that time I’ve never gotten artistic?”
She sat down on the toilet lid so I could paint the black and white paint across her skin. She had a hard time sitting still, so I took my time to make sure she squirmed.
“I’ll spank you if you keep fidgeting.”
“You fucking will not,” she said, but her skin got hotter. I grinned.
“You’ll cry all your makeup off and I’ll have to do it again.”
“Ha! Oh, you wish —”
“Close your mouth. I need to paint on the rest of your teeth.”
Instead of closing her mouth, she snapped at my fingers. I didn’t make idle threats, and she’d asked for it, but she still put up a fight as I wrestled her up and under my arm.
“Was that a good idea, Juniper?” She hadn’t dressed yet and was just wearing a pair of tight gym shorts. The bounce when I smacked her ass was extremely satisfying.
“I’d do it again and actually bite you next time!” she yelled, stomping on my toes but certainly not getting me to move. A few more smacks and she was hot as hell, her angry yelling taking on a slightly higher note of desire. Only with her properly needy did I let her go, pushing her ass back down onto her seat.
“Now sit still.” I leaned over her, brush in hand. “Or I’ll find a way to punish you that doesn’t make you horny.”
She didn’t stop squirming. “Yeah, good luck with that.”
“I’ll find something,” I said. “There’s something out there you hate. Maybe a paddle instead of my hand.”
“You’re just going to turn me on more talking like that.”
“Mm, maybe I’ll smother you instead.”
“Smothering is just lazy choking, and you know I’m into that. Try again.”
“Needles.”
Her eyes widened as I moved the brush along her jaw. “What?”
I smiled. “I should be more specific: piercings. I’ll put a few needles through that tender skin of yours and see if you still get turned on.”
She’d gone very still, her mind turning. Her arousal hadn’t gone away. In fact… “Goddamn it, I’m into it.”
I laughed. “Don’t sound so angry about it. I’m not complaining. And you’re done, so you can squirm all you like.”
“Damn, I’ve got a fucked-up head,” she muttered, standing to examine her face paint in the mirror. I started on mine next, hiding my face behind the layers of paint.
“Not fucked up to a demon, love,” I said. “We use piercings as marks of loyalty and devotion. When we take a mate, we’ll pierce them to lay our claim. It’s pretty damn normal for Hell.”
“You’re really selling me on Hell.” She watched me in the mirror. The striking paint on her face made her brown eyes look even richer. “Personally, I’m looking forward to trying out a whole new dimension.” She paused. “Is it a different dimension?”
“A different reality. But there are books in our libraries there that’ll explain it much better than I could.”
She stood at my side for a moment. We’d chosen subtle costumes, but there was nothing subtle about her face, her body. Even hidden behind paint, her beauty demanded appreciation.
She frowned. “What are you grinning for?”
“Thinking about piercing your tongue,” I said. “You’d look so damn good with my metal in you. And fuck, it would feel good on my cock.”
She shoved me. “I already let you cut up my chest. You really want to make me bleed again?”
“You cut me up too,” I said. “So we’re even there.” Not a day had gone by since she’d carved her name in my chest that I didn’t find myself admiring the sight of it in every reflective surface I passed. I could’ve let it heal entirely, erasing it from my skin — but like the piercings and the tattoos, it was a part of me now. “We can talk about it again after we kill Kent. Give you some time to think about it.”
“We’ll see. Hurry up, Mister Artist. We’ve got a party to crash.”
She smacked my ass on her way out. I exhaled heavily through my mouth, shaking my head as I resisted the urge to snatch her up for another fuck. Maybe she thought I was kidding, but I wanted my metal in her. I’d be asking her again.
The long, paved driveway was full by the time we arrived at the Hadleigh house. Cars were parking in the grass along the road, but we parked even further than that: along a narrow dirt road a half mile past the house, where Juniper’s Jeep could sit hidden amongst the trees.
I’d wanted to take the NSX, but she’d insisted, “Your car will stick out to them. Clean, expensive — and we don’t want their attention. No big entrance. We go in quietly.”
I loved making an entrance, so this “subtle” thing wasn’t exactly easy. Still, it was cute Juniper thought we could slip into the party without catching attention.
She looked hot as fuck. Her long hair was pulled back in a high ponytail, the suit fit her perfectly. Her cold, disinterested gaze did nothing to dissuade people from staring at her. As we neared the house, half the people we passed looked twice.
But when they looked back, I made sure they saw me first. I made sure they knew.
Don’t touch.
The property was encompassed by a large stone wall, but the iron gate at the end of the driveway was left open so cars and partygoers could enter. The house was all glass and steel, a blocky modern design, perched above a perfectly manicured lawn. Beyond the lawn, the majority of the property was trees: tall, thick pines that hid the house amongst their boughs and gave it some privacy.
“Fuck, there she is.” Juniper stopped abruptly. I followed her gaze, expecting to see Victoria. Instead, I spotted a tiny woman with short black hair, dressed in an orange shirt and sweater, giggling as she clung to her friend’s arm and they entered the house together.
“Raelynn,” I said softly.
“I don’t suppose your little buddy, Leon, still has any interest in protecting her, does he?” she said. “Sure would save us a lot of trouble if he was keeping an eye on her.”
“Yeah, I don’t know if we can count on that tonight.” I’d seen Leon days ago, but it was hard to get him to disclose the most basic shit, let alone how he felt about protecting the mortal he’d gotten obsessed with. He had his own problems going on, the kind of problems that had me worried he’d get himself into an even worse situation than he had been in with Kent.
Leon didn’t know when to leave things alone. Adversely, he often didn’t know when not to leave things alone.
“Alright.” Juniper took a deep breath, straightening her jacket for the dozenth time. I slid my arm around her shoulders, tucking her up against my side. She stiffened for a moment, before she leaned into it. “Let’s do this.”
“Knock, knock Hadleighs.” I grinned as we joined the crowd squeezing inside. “There’s a wolf at your door.”
