Azagoth: A Demonica Novella

Chapter Thirteen

Azagoth hadn’t come home last night.

Inexplicably irritated, because yeah, why wouldn’t someone be upset about getting an uninterrupted night’s sleep, Lilliana skipped breakfast and stormed into his office, expecting to find him there.

Nothing. The fire roared in the hearth and his computer was humming softly, but the soul tunnel was closed and Azagoth was nowhere to be found.

Even more annoyed now, she went to the library, but he wasn’t there, either. Fine, she thought as she stared at the chronoglass. She should use it. Go someplace without Azagoth, just as he’d done.

But even as she thought it, she knew she wouldn’t do it. In all her years of existence, she’d never seen such unfettered joy in anyone, and she’d certainly never given it. Being able to give someone a gift like that made her feel good. Really good.

The door burst open and over six and a half feet of dangerously handsome male strode into the library. Black military-style pants and a black turtleneck made Azagoth seem even larger, sleeker, and deadlier, but then, he’d never come across as anything less than one hundred percent lethal grace. Raw power radiated from him like heat from one of Sheoul’s lava lakes.

His eyes smoldered as he took in her jeans and pink tank top, and she felt the blood rush to her face at the memory of the last time he’d looked at her like that.

It was yesterday, when he’d made her come, right here where she was standing.

“Morning.”

“Yes,” she grumbled. “It is.”

He cocked a dark eyebrow. “Something wrong? Is Cat not working out? I can find someone else—”

“No!” she said quickly, and then dialed it back a little. “No. I like Cat.”

“Then what’s bothering you?”

She hesitated. At what point in their relationship should she start questioning his whereabouts? Her relationship with Hutriel had never reached that point. He’d blown his lid the first time she’d asked him why he was late for their dinner date, and after that, she’d only asked to piss him off. Which it did. Every single time.

“Lilliana?” he asked softly. “Are you going to tell me what’s going on?”

Feeling a bit like a fishwife, she blurted, “Where have you been?”

“Didn’t Cat tell you? I went to the Inner Sanctum with Hades.”

“She told me,” Lilliana assured him. He’d mentioned not being one for second chances, and she definitely didn’t want to get Cat fired. “But I didn’t expect you to be gone all night. Why did it take so long?”

His expression turned grave. “I had business to take care of.”

“That’s it? Just...business?”

“I’m the Grim Reaper, Lilli. I have business with demons sometimes.”

Lilli. He’d called her that yesterday too, when she’d had her hand curled around his erection, her palm stroking the stiff length as he moaned in ecstasy.

“Fuck,” he breathed. “Oh, damn...Lilli...”

No one had ever given her a nickname. Warmth suffused her, but she let herself linger on the name only for a moment before getting back to the subject at hand.

“What in the world can dead demons do for you?” she asked.

“Newly acquired demons have information I want and need. It’s how I make bargains and find new souls to take. Trust me, you don’t want details.”

No doubt he was right. Still... “If I did want details, would you tell me?”

“Yes.” He gave her a look that chilled her to the bone, and she knew for sure she didn’t want to know the particulars of what he did with the souls. “But please don’t ask.”

You got it, buddy.

She wasn’t sure where to go from there, but Azagoth seemed to have no such problem. He strode over to her, hauled her against him, and laid a kiss on her that had her melting into him like softened butter.

“I missed you,” he whispered huskily against her lips. “All I could think about was getting back to you and finishing what we started here in the library. You made me feel, Lilli. For the first time in...fuck, I don’t know, I felt something other than the cold.”

Oh, yes, she felt it too, in the bulge nudging at her center. Instantly, her breasts grew heavy and a warm rush of wetness blossomed between her legs.

“Azagoth?” she murmured, as he kissed a hot path from her mouth to her ear. “Have you been outside?”

“No.” He nibbled her earlobe and her knees nearly gave out. “Why?”

He didn’t know about the new growth out there, the signs of hope that were sprouting out of the black ash of his realm. But it wasn’t enough to tell him...she wanted to show him.

“No reason.” She moaned as he traced the shell of her ear with his tongue. “Maybe we could take a walk?”

Pulling back, he looked down at her. “A walk? Here?” He jerked his head toward the chronoglass. “How about somewhere more interesting. Where to today?”

She hadn’t actually thought about it. The last two journeys had been designed to thoroughly annoy him, but he’d been ecstatic. She no longer wanted to fool around like that. He deserved better.

“Maybe you should suggest a time and place,” she offered. “Surely there’s someplace you want to go.”

With tenderness that shocked her even though he’d been nothing but gentle with her, he grazed a knuckle over her cheek. “I’ve been locked inside my realm for thousands of years. Anywhere you take me is going to be amazing.”

She snorted. “Oh, I doubt that. London during the Black Death was a drag.” Taking his hand, she guided him to the mirror. “Where do you want to go?”

“A beach,” he said without hesitation. “On the Oregon coast. I’ve always wanted to see the tide pools.” He squeezed her hand. “No, wait. Let’s do that tomorrow. I feel like going somewhere tropical.”

Ooh, tropical. She’d been a tropical waters girl since she’d tasted her first coconut. “I know just the place.” An image appeared on the mirror’s surface, blue waters and golden sand beckoning. Clinging tightly to Azagoth’s hand, she stepped into the chronoglass and out into a sultry breeze.

Azagoth inhaled, and his entire body relaxed, as if the sun and air had drained every last drop of tension from him. “Where are we?”

“It’s a private resort in the Caribbean.” She gestured to the cliffs around them. “And this is a private alcove.” Overhead, birds sailed on the currents, and in the distance, fish jumped out of the waves and made splashes as they hit the crystal water.

“It’s perfect,” Azagoth said. “If mortals come here, will they see us?”

“Nope. We’re invisible to them. In reality, we are just as much here as they are, and we can manipulate objects. But when we do something that changes the world around them, their reality warps to fit our needs.”

He kicked off his boots and sighed as his bare feet dug into the sand. “That makes no sense.”

Time travel was complicated, with thousands of natural and mystical laws to fit every situation. It had taken her hundreds of years to learn just a fraction of them. She’d have to break her explanation down to the most basic level.

“Okay, let’s say I take the last French fry off some guy’s plate at Denny’s. He either won’t remember that there was a French fry there, or he’ll believe he ate it. That’s the angelic warp in action. Or maybe I steal someone’s car. The angelic warp will wipe any witness memories away, and the owner of the car will report it stolen. But as long as I’m inside the vehicle, the angelic warp will keep it visible yet...unnoticeable...until I get out of the car. But that’s exactly why we’re supposed to be observers only, and we get in a lot of trouble if we mess with humans. The Powers That Be don’t like human memories to be messed with unless absolutely necessary.” Which was hilarious, given that The Powers That Be had no problem with messing with the memories of angels.

“Can humans ever see you?”

Her gut dove to her feet. “Yes. When you break out of the shrowd. That’s why it’s forbidden to the extreme.”

“How does Heaven find out when it happens?”

“The second you break out, alarm bells shriek in the Time Travel Department. Approximately sixty seconds later, a team of angels will flash to the location of the breakout, and if the offending angel is still there, they either kill the responsible party or arrest them. Depends on the circumstances. Obviously, this doesn’t happen very often.”

He bent to pick up a shell, and she unabashedly ogled his backside. “How many times has it happened since you’ve been time traveling? I mean, besides you.”

“What?” Damn, he had a fine ass. “Oh, right...just once.” Except she was the once.

He rubbed his thumb over the shell’s smooth curves, and her breasts tingled, as if they wanted in on that action. “What happened to him?”

“It was a her. And her fate is still up in the air.” She pointed to a massive vessel on the ocean horizon. “There’s a cruise ship. I could take you on one of those sometime. They have the most incredible lavish buffets, bars, activities, and ship-borne viruses.”

“Sounds delightful.”

She loved his understated sense of humor. “You know what would be delightful? Cocktails. Hold on.” She flashed to a nearby beach bar and used a frowned-upon but not forbidden trick of planting a suggestion in the bartender’s ear. A few minutes later, she was flashing away with two Mai Tais, complete with little umbrellas.

But when she materialized on the beach where she’d left him, she found only a pile of clothing. Then she heard splashing.

It was all she could do to not roll her tongue out like a welcome mat when she saw Azagoth naked and hip deep in the surf, his face turned to the sun and his hands dragging through his wet hair. Holy mother of hotness, he was sex on legs. If there had been people here—and they could see him—he’d have every woman on the beach drooling.

As it was, the only drooling going on was coming from Lilliana.

She watched him dive into a wave, his sinuous body barely rippling the surface as he arched like a dolphin. His long, muscular legs and spectacular ass glinted in the sunlight before disappearing into the ocean. He surfaced a few yards out, laughing in pure, unadulterated pleasure.

Lilliana had spent her entire life in Heaven amongst angels with a zest for living, but she’d never seen anyone come alive the way Azagoth did every time they passed through the chronoglass. It was as if he was a different person, and Lilliana really, really liked that person.

“Come on, angel!” he called out. “Water’s great!”

“Nuh-uh,” she teased, holding up the drinks. “Ice’ll melt. Guess I’ll have to drink them both.”

She took the tips of both straws between her lips, and in an instant, Azagoth was in front of her, naked, dripping water, and gloriously aroused.

“If you really want to suck on something...” He waggled his brows, and she rolled her eyes, but the truth was that she enjoyed this playful side of him, and she loved that it brought out the playful side of her, too.

It was becoming harder and harder to think about leaving.

Shoving those thoughts into the back of her mind, she thrust Azagoth’s drink at him. “Suck that, Soul Boy.”

He narrowed his eyes. “Did you just call me, the Grim Fucking Reaper, Soul Boy?”

“I did,” she teased. “What are you going to do about it?”

His voice became a low purr. “I do think I’ll have to spank you.”

A shiver of unabashed want trekked up her spine. “Promise?”

Three days ago, she wouldn’t have believed she’d be flirting with Azagoth. Heck, she wouldn’t have believed she’d be flirting with anyone. Hutriel had been too serious for flirting, and she’d been too busy since they’d broken up to even think about seeing anyone else.

“Mmm.” His noncommittal response left her practically squirming with uncertain anticipation.

Azagoth’s gaze never left her face as his lips closed on the straw. He sucked down the drink, his Adam’s apple bobbing with each swallow. When he’d drained every last drop, he tossed the empty glass to the ground and stepped into her.

“Swim with me.” His hand came up to her throat, and then froze. “My necklace,” he murmured. “You’re wearing it.”

“It’s beautiful.”

His eyes darkened with emotion so pure and powerful that she felt it wrap around her heart like a warm blanket. “You honor me by wearing it by choice, not by command,” he said softly. “But you don’t have to wear it.”

Her hand shook as she rested it on his. “I wanted to.”

A rough, primitive sound rolled like thunder from inside his chest. His mouth came down hard on hers, and she met him with equal aggression, tangling her tongue with his and nipping at his lips.

As if a dam had broken, need flooded her body, swift and urgent. She’d known lust before, but this was wild, the kind she’d thought might actually be a myth.

She lifted her thigh to his hip and arched her sex against his. She just needed to get out of these pesky clothes—

Abruptly, the hair on the back of her neck stood up and a shrieking alarm clanged around inside her skull.

Oh, shit.

They weren’t alone.