Songs of Love and Death: All-Original Tales of Star-crossed Love

New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestseller Mary Jo Putney is a graduate of Syracuse University with degrees in eighteenth-century literature and industrial design. She is the author of thirty-six books of historical romance and fantasy romance, including A Distant Magic, The Spiral Path, Dancing on the Wind, The Rake and the Reformer, Silk and Shadows, Lady of Fortune, and many others. She has won numerous awards for her writing, including two RITAs for best novel, four consecutive Golden Leaf Awards for best historical romance, and the Romantic Times Career Achievement Award. Her most recent books are Loving a Lost Lord and Never Less Than a Lady.

Here she conjures up a deadly confrontation with a creature so seductive that it’s almost impossible to resist. But one that you’d better resist, if you want to stay alive!

The Demon Dancer

I studied the homeless man’s corpse. He was the fifth I’d seen this day. Ragged clothes so dirty they’d clog a washing machine. A battered and long out-of-date Tennessee driver’s license giving the poor sod’s name and age. And a great big smile on his lined face.

My partner, Jamal Johnson, shook his head. “I can’t believe how all these guys died smiling, Dave. I suppose it’s some new street drug.”

“Maybe,” I said, but I didn’t believe it. Besides being a New York City detective, I’m a Guardian, from a family that has the kind of powers that used to be called magic. Witch burnings a few centuries back persuaded Guardians to live under the radar. Most of us lead normal lives, gravitating to work that suited our magical talents.

Me, I’m a Guardian hunter. I’m very, very good at tracking people down, especially criminals. Equally good at dealing with them after I found them. Not surprising that I ended up a cop.

My boss is a hardass New Yorker who would scoff at the very idea of magic, but he’s learned to send me out to the weird deaths, like this one. Five smiling corpses. No signs of violence.

It could just be coincidence—street people aren’t the healthiest cohort—but my Guardian instincts were screaming. “Have you noticed that they’ve been getting younger? The first guy must have been in his seventies. Each has been a few years younger than the one before. This poor devil is in his late fifties.”

Jamal considered. He’s no Guardian, but he’s a damned good cop. “Probably coincidence, but if some dealer has been going around handing out high-dose samples, they might be taking out the weak more quickly.”

“It will be interesting to see the tox report.” I checked my watch. It was midevening, and technically I should have been off duty two hours ago. Maybe after we cleared up this scene, Jamal and I could grab some Tex-Mex at the restaurant down the block.

I was about to get back to work when a very, very bad feeling struck me. The kind where you drop everything and run.

I didn’t quite do that, but I said, “Jamal, I have to be somewhere else ASAP. Can you wrap up here and get a ride back to the station with one of the uniforms?”

He gave me a quizzical glance, but said only, “Sure. See you tomorrow.”

We’ve been partners a long time. No need to explain things. I pivoted and headed for my car, wondering what could have set off such loud alarm bells.

I PARKED RIGHT in front of my East Side destination—a Guardian talent that’s useful in New York is being able to find parking when needed—then took the steps of the neat brownstone three at a time. I felt as antsy as if I were the only one who could save a room full of kindergartners from certain death. Instead, I was responding to the silent distress of Bethany Sterling, one of my favorite people in the world.

Bethany swung the door to her apartment open before I could knock. No surprise there since she’s also a Guardian. She looked her normal self—petite and straight-backed despite her years, her silver hair pulled into an elegant twist. But her deep-set blue eyes showed the anxiety that had brought me running.

Giving thanks that she seemed all right, I asked, “Lady Beth, what’s wrong?”

She smiled wryly as she stood back and ushered me in. “Apparently I wasn’t shielding my worries as well as I thought. You always could read me better than anyone else.” She closed the door behind me. “You’re worried, too. Tell me about it while I make a nice pot of tea.”

Briefly I described the dead street people while Bethany filled her electric kettle. It’s one of the British types that serious tea drinkers use because it heats water to boiling in seconds. After pushing the on button, she stood on tiptoe for the tin of my favorite Darjeeling tea. I reached over her head to take it from the shelf.

She isn’t a lady in the sense of an English title, but she was named for an ancestor called Lady Bethany Fox, so my brother, Charlie, and I like to call her Lady Beth. Not only was she English born, but the title suited her classy nature.

She warmed the teapot, then added tea leaves and poured boiling water on them. “I suspect our worries are related, David. Early this morning I sensed a strange, menacing energy sweeping into the city, and it’s getting stronger. Something is very wrong.”

“And I have the corpses to prove it. Any idea what the cause might be?”

She set out two teacups and produced a cookie jar filled with her rich, crumbly scones. As she set them on a dainty china plate, she said, “I think a demon has come to New York.”

I experienced a moment of severe cognitive dissonance at the contrast between the sweet silver-haired widow and the words she’d just said. But though Bethany Sterling was indeed sweet, she was a Guardian hunter like me, with special abilities to track the ungodly and enforce justice.

I glanced across the kitchen at the old photo that hung over the neat computer table. It showed a young Bethany dressed in parachute gear early in World War II. She’d trained as a secret agent and parachuted behind Nazi lines in France, single-handedly freed a jail full of Maquis, and done a lot of other heroic things.

But she hadn’t managed the rescue that mattered most—her equally young husband had been a Guardian healer, like my brother, Charlie, and he died in a prisoner-of-war camp, treating fellow prisoners right up to the end.

So Bethany Malmain Sterling was one formidable woman even at her present advanced age, though she refused to divulge the actual number of her years. She’d also, in her youth, been one very hot babe, with cool blond hair and dangerous blue eyes. I wish I’d known her then. But I’m damned lucky to know her now.

“A demon,” I repeated. “This is new? The city has plenty of them, starting on Wall Street.”

“This isn’t a joke, David,” she said with mild reproof. “The—entity—is no metaphor, but a malicious noncorporeal being. A demon that feeds on human energy. Have all the victims been male?” When I nodded, she said, “So it’s a succubus.”

“A succubus,” I repeated. “Ooooo-kay. At least that would explain why the men were smiling.”

She judged that the tea had steeped long enough and poured the steaming liquid into the mugs. Then, knowing me, she added a dollop of rare and expensive Highland single malt to my tea. “There are worse ways to die, but I imagine that most of the creature’s victims would prefer to live.”

I took a long, appreciative swig of tea and whiskey. “Is there any way to get rid of this demon, or will it keep feeding indefinitely?”

“I don’t know. I was about to do a search on magematrix.net when you thundered in here.”

“Good idea.” I took my mug and the plate of scones and followed her to her desk.

She opened her laptop and used her fingerprint ID to enter magematrix.net. The site is a very, very private database and social network for Guardians, who are spread all over the world these days. I don’t think there is a better source of information on magic and impossible events anywhere—though I’m not sure. Any equivalent stash of knowledge would be just as secret.

Lady Beth typed “succubus” into the search engine, then scrolled through the results. “Not a very large entry,” she murmured. “Some of this data goes back centuries.”

I peered over her shoulder to read. The oldest entries had been translated into modern English, with links to the original text if someone wanted to consult that. “So these demons steal human life force through dream sex until they become powerful enough to acquire physical bodies.”

She clicked through to a section of original text. “This seventeenth-century report claims that sex demons are escapees from hell. They long to acquire human bodies because that makes the pleasure of their wickedness so much more powerful.”

“How do we get rid of this one?”

“A sufficiently powerful mage might be able to dismiss a sex demon from the body it’s taken over, but there are no details.” Bethany started clicking links at the bottom of the page to see if they led anywhere interesting.

“So maybe we could do an exorcism, if we knew how. This is beginning to sound like a low-rent horror film.”

“Truth is stranger than fiction,” she murmured. “The earliest account says that when the demon is dismissed from the body it inhabits, it’s sucked down to hell forever.”

“No way of checking that part, of course.”

Lady Beth leaned back in her computer chair and eyed the computer thoughtfully. “Our ancestors were happy to assume that demons came from hell, but today we want different explanations. These beings are quite rare. Are they space aliens? From another dimension that lies alongside this one? Or have we been watching too much Star Trek?”

“Probably,” I said pragmatically. “A parallel dimension is just as much jargon as saying that these critters are from hell. Let’s bag this one before we worry about tagging it.”

Her silver brows arched. “Time to scout out the demon?”

“The sooner the better,” I agreed.

Bethany nodded and swiveled her chair to face me so we could hold hands. We always did this for particularly difficult cases. As I touched her thin, slightly arthritic fingers with mine, I felt energy spark between us. It’s been amazing to work with Lady Beth. Certain Guardian talents follow gender, and most hunters are male. But Bethany could hunt with the best of us.

I closed my eyes and visualized a map of the city. The mental image was like an aerial photo, enhanced by my own experience of many of those streets. When I had visited the scenes of the suspicious deaths, I’d picked up traces of disturbing energy, and with Bethany’s help, that came sharply into focus. “There’s a nasty, twisted red energy spike not far away. Can you feel it?”

“That’s our demon,” Lady Beth said, all cool, focused hunter. “And she’s become very powerful. Let me see if I can learn more…”

I felt my partner’s energy stretch out as delicately as a budding flower—and faster than thought, her probe was seized like a swimmer chomped by a killer crocodile. Lady Beth tried to yank free, but the scarlet energy roared hungrily along the trail and stabbed into us like a lightning bolt. Bethany screamed and I blacked out, every cell in my body shocked, as if I were being electrocuted.

I regained awareness to find that we’d both been blasted to the floor. Bethany lay beside me, her face paper white and blood splashed around her. “Lady Beth!”

As I scrambled up, I saw that the blood was pouring from a vicious slash in her left arm. I grabbed a tea towel and turned it into an impromptu tourniquet. At the same time, I gave a furious mental shout. “Charlie!”

My younger brother, Charlie, is my best friend, except for Lady Beth. He’s also the most powerful Guardian healer in New York, and he works as an ER resident in a hospital only a few blocks away.

My mind touched his and I felt his fatigue. He was just leaving work after a twenty-four-hour shift, and more than ready to get home to his apartment and his gorgeous Guardian fiancée. But he came alert when we connected. Sensing his question, I shot back, “Lady Beth, her place. She’s hurt bad!”

It wasn’t really telepathy, and not really words, but we knew each other so well that he understood the gist of it. “On my way!” echoed in my mind.

Most Guardians have at least a little healing power, and I’m no exception. I used what talent I had while desperately trying to staunch the flow of blood. Bethany was cold and shocky, and it looked like a sizable chunk of flesh had been torn out of her arm. Was the demon an eater of human flesh?

Her lashes fluttered up. She looked so damnably frail. “Don’t worry, David,” she whispered, her voice scarcely audible. “I’ve had a good life.” It sounded perilously like dying words. “We’ve made a good team.”

“Damn it, you can’t die on me, Bethany Sterling,” I swore. “Don’t you dare die!”

Luckily, Charlie arrived then. Like me, he had a key to Bethany’s house since we’re the closest thing she has to family in New York. He’d brought a backpack of first aid supplies with him, but his first move was to drop to his knees by Lady Beth and put one hand on her wounded arm and the other on her forehead.

I could feel the healing energy like a tidal wave of white light. At first it was a struggle, light against dark. I sensed the moment when his healing drove off the shadow of death. He gave a ragged sigh and sat back on his heels as he reached for his backpack. “What happened?”

I gave him a quick rundown of the situation while he cleaned and bandaged the wound. “Nasty,” he said. “We’re lucky Lady Beth is still with us. I want to check her into the hospital overnight at least. At her age, this is a dangerous injury.”

“Nonsense, Charles,” Bethany said in a surprisingly strong voice. “Hospitals make me ill. I’ll stay here, thank you very much. A cup of tea will fix me up quite nicely.”

I put an arm around her shoulders to gently help her to a sitting position. Her bones were as delicate as a songbird’s. “Maybe we should take you there, just in case.”

There was nothing wrong with her willpower. She fixed my brother with a basilisk stare. “I’m in better shape than you, Charles. You saved my life, for which I’m suitably grateful, but you’re so tired you’re a menace to society until you get at least twelve hours’ sleep. Now give me some nice drug to dull the pain and go home.”

Unlike me, Charlie knows when argument is pointless. “Yes, ma’am,” he said meekly. “But I want you to stay with her tonight, Dave. Just in case.”

“Will do.” Not that he needed to ask. No way would I leave Bethany alone after an attack by a demon.

Charlie zipped up his first aid gear. His scrubs were bloody, and not just from Lady Beth’s injury. Wearily he got to his feet, almost falling. I caught his arm. “I’ll call you a cab.” He didn’t argue about that, either.

I helped Bethany onto the sofa and refilled the electric teakettle. Since Charlie was gray with fatigue, I carried his backpack outside. “Thanks for coming,” I said as we reached the sidewalk. “I’ve never been so scared in my life.”

“Lady Beth won’t be with us forever, Dave,” my brother said quietly. “She’s very old. If you hadn’t bandaged her up and called me, we could have lost her tonight.”

“I know,” I said brusquely, not wanting to think of a world where there wasn’t a Bethany Sterling to laugh with. I’d had my share of age-appropriate girlfriends, but none were as easy to be with as Lady Beth. Or as much fun. “But this wasn’t her time.”

“For which I’m glad. But her time can’t be too far off.”

I knew that, just as I knew that her inevitable death would devastate me. But pain was better than not caring.

A cab turned down the quiet residential street, and I raised an arm to flag it down. My Guardian abilities included summoning taxis as well as finding parking spots. When I need a cab, the nearest available cab will suddenly decide to turn my way. Clearly, I was born to be a New Yorker.

After sending Charlie home, I climbed the steps back to the brownstone. I’d make Bethany her tea, then roll out a sleeping bag in her bedroom so I’d know if she took a turn for the worse. It wouldn’t be the first time I’d stayed here.

Lady Beth had not only recovered enough to make a pot of tea, but she’d also changed into a fancy black sweat suit with sequins scattered around the shoulders and long sleeves that covered her injured arm. It was a dressy version of the sweats she wore when we exercised together. A couple of times a week, we’d go to Battery Park at dawn, summer or winter. She’d walk along briskly while I ran, circling back regularly to catch up with her again. When we’d both had our fill of exercise, we’d grab bagels or croissants or a hot breakfast. Good times.

I frowned. “What are you up to, Bethany?”

I can make hardened drug dealers tremble with that frown, but she just said calmly, “We have to go after the demon tonight, David. The assault created a link between her and me. She is preparing to go out and feast on as many lives as she can claim before she’s stopped.”

“She almost killed you!” I exclaimed. “You’re in no shape to go after a demon. Get some rest. I can find her without your help.”

“You can find her, but I don’t think you have the power to take her down on your own. Neither do I, but together—we have a chance.” Bethany poured tea, this time without adding any single malt. “We must act quickly. If the entry on magematrix.net is correct, there will be many more deaths by morning, because killing is ecstasy for a sex demon who has taken on flesh.”

I felt a cold chill, the kind that says something really bad was about to go down. “Do you think that stealing high-octane Guardian energy from us gave her what she needed to get a body?”

“I believe that’s exactly what happened,” Bethany said soberly. “Now she can cause tremendous carnage, and we’re the only people who might be able to stop her.”

In other words, duty called. Lady Beth was a fragile, precious old lady, and every instinct I have screamed to protect her. But she was as much a hunter as I am, and we were both sworn to stop evil whenever possible.

“Okay, we’ll go get her.” I pulled my gun from the shoulder holster and did a ritual check to be sure it was in firing condition. It always was. “Will regular bullets stop her? Silver bullets? Something else?”

“Her body is human and vulnerable. It’s her mental power that is dangerous.” Bethany bit her lip. “She will have acquired the body of a beautiful, desirable woman. You might have trouble bringing yourself to attack her.”

My mouth hardened. I take no pleasure in the prospect of killing people, especially not a woman, but I’d do what was necessary. “Is there any way to drive her out of the body she’s taken over so the original owner can regain possession?”

Bethany sighed, her years showing in the near translucence of her pale skin. “I simply don’t know, David. All we can do is try.”

I nodded. Regular criminals might be scumbags, but they were scummy in human ways. Metaphysical threats like succubi were largely unknown quantities. If either of us survived tonight, we’d have new information for the database on magematrix.net. The deep sense of dread I was feeling suggested that survival was a very open question.

I escorted Lady Beth outside to my car. As we belted ourselves in, I studied my companion’s profile. She looked calm, relaxed.

She looked like a woman who was prepared to die.

Once again, I fought down the impulse to protect her. We were equals, and she had as much right to face danger as I did. The excitement of the hunt was beginning to rise in me, and from the brightness of her eyes, the same was true for my companion. We hunt because warrior skills are always needed, and we’re careful how we use them. But there’s nothing wrong with enjoying ourselves in the process.

I started the car, then closed my eyes to tune into the demon’s exact location. “Brooklyn, right?”

“Right. Near the waterfront.”

It was late, after midnight, and the streets were mostly empty. But the city pulsed with life still, crazy and exciting and unmistakably New York. My town, and I was sworn to protect the people in it.

We sped over the Brooklyn Bridge, city lights sparkling ahead and behind. I turned north when we reached Brooklyn and headed into a rundown waterfront area of old industry and warehouses. By the time we reached a looming warehouse that backed right up to the water, I knew our destination was a huge and infamous after-hours club. The place had been shut down repeatedly, only to reopen with a new name and what was officially new ownership.

The club’s current incarnation was called Bizarro. At this hour on a weekend night, it would be packed with dancers, most of them young and high on drugs, alcohol, dancing, or all three. A fertile field for a monster who craved human life force.

My parking magic held. The streets around the warehouse were lined with the cars of clubbers, but one pulled away in front of the building just as I arrived. I glided to the curb.

The name Bizarro was a scrawl of red neon over a plain door flanked by two bouncers. The demon was inside—I could feel her. I glanced at Bethany, and she nodded confirmation.

Hoping it would all be over in a few minutes, I climbed from the car. After I helped Bethany out, I locked the doors and we headed to Bizarro’s entrance. Bethany gestured with her right hand, and one bouncer took out a pack of cigarettes, while the other’s bored gaze slid over us. Though magic couldn’t make Guardians invisible, a good don’t-look spell means that people tend not to notice us.

The pounding bass beat was audible even on the sidewalk, and when I opened the door, music exploded into a paralyzing bludgeon of sound. Even more overwhelming than the music was the fierce, sexually charged energy radiated by hundreds of intoxicated, gyrating young bodies. Instantly my mental shields clamped down to protect me from the intensity.

The black-painted entryway led into the vast, high-ceilinged club. As the floorboards vibrated underfoot, we moved to the edge of the dance area to study the crowd. The writhing mass of humanity looked surreal under coruscating lights of crimson, violet, and electric blue. Smoke of the illegal variety drifted toward the ceiling of the warehouse.

The don’t-look spell was still in effect, and no one took any notice of us as we scanned the crowd. Somewhere in that bubbling stew of lust and feral hunger was the demon. It was hard to pin down her location in such psychic chaos.

Warily, I opened my senses to search. Even without Bethany’s mental link, I could sense the demon growing ever more exhilarated as she fed off the massed energy of the other dancers. She was taking her time, savoring the slow buildup of lust, but soon she’d move on to the ultimate kick—consuming death energy. She would become a ravenous killing machine, sucking down young lives until we stopped her.

Where, where… ?

Bethany squeezed my hand and nodded to the left. There.

She was too short to see over the crowd, so she must have used her psychic link to the demon. I followed her gaze and spotted our quarry.

The creature was turned away from us, but that was enough to confirm that she’d acquired the body of a highly-desirable young woman. Waves of pale blond hair cascaded down her back, swaying to the beat of the music as she ground her pelvis against her partner. Her skimpy black dress looked sprayed on, and the skirt barely covered her lovely ass.

Her sensual gyrations were enough to arouse any straight man who saw her. I was no exception—but hunters are trained to control lust, at least until after the mission is accomplished.

I clamped down on my lower nature and studied the demon’s dancing partner, a tall young man with dark floppy hair. Since I was running hot psychically, I had a swift flash of knowledge: he was Midwestern, a student in New York to interview at a grad school, and having the time of his life in the wicked big city. A lamb for the slaughter.

The succubus whispered something in her victim’s ear. He nodded with dazed enthusiasm and wrapped an arm around her shoulders as they pivoted and headed toward an exit at the back of the ballroom. She was taking him outside for sex and death.

I beckoned for Bethany to follow me as I forced my way through the buffeting crowd of dancers. There were advantages to having played football in college. I moved fast, Bethany in my wake as I cleared a path. But the demon had a head start, and she vanished outside with her prey before I could catch up.

I reached the exit door maybe fifteen seconds after the happy couple. “Stay inside!” I ordered Bethany, knowing she’d be safer here.

She took my hand. I felt the surge of her power flowing between us, blending with my magical talent to create a force that was more than the sum of our individual abilities. “Don’t touch the demon,” she warned. “Her sexuality is a powerful weapon.”

Touch always intensifies the transmission of power, as Lady Beth was proving now. Being male, I’d be particularly vulnerable to a succubus. “I’ll be careful.”

I strengthened my shields and opened the door. It led directly onto a cracked slab of concrete that covered the strip between the warehouse and a battered wharf that pointed across the East River to Manhattan. That opposite shore blazed with lights, the Big Apple in all her beckoning glamour.

In this shabby backwater, the only illumination came from a lamp behind an adjoining warehouse. Just enough light to reveal that the demon and her victim were locked in a feverish embrace, her hips grinding and one raised leg wrapped around his. His life force was surging into her like orange flame. Soon that flow of vital force would end, and the poor sod would be dead. With a smile on his face.

They were so engrossed that neither of them noticed me. I mentally reviewed what needed to be done, touching my pistol in its holster in case I had to draw quickly. I hoped a weapon wouldn’t be needed, but it’s always best to be prepared.

I took a deep breath, then stepped forward and grabbed the boy’s shoulders to wrench him out of the demon’s embrace. Though I didn’t dare touch her skin to skin, I planted one booted foot against her shapely hip and shoved hard.

She lost her balance and pitched sideways, so I was able to separate the demon from her victim. Bethany was right, it was hard to strike a woman, even a demon.

The kid made a choked sound, then collapsed on the filthy concrete. His aura was weak but steady. Though he’d be dead tired for a few days from having so much vital force stolen, at least he wouldn’t be dead.

But I had no time for a closer examination. The demon shrieked with fury at being deprived of her victim and swirled around, her glorious blond hair obscuring her face. As soon as she saw me, she hurled an energy blow that was the magical equivalent of a tactical nuke, arrowing the destructive power dead center at my heart. It almost flattened me.

Heart pounding and gasping for breath, I backpedaled fast, glad that Bethany’s strength was combined with mine. Otherwise I’d have been a goner.

Wondering if I could drive the succubus away without killing the host body, I pulled out my Beretta and aimed it at her heart. “One step toward me and I shoot. I’d rather save your body so the original owner can regain possession. You’ve had your fun, and now it’s time to go. Since you can’t win, why not just depart quietly?”

The demon looked startled that I was still standing. Then she laughed with rich, sexy pleasure. “A tall, dark, and dangerous Guardian hunter! You’re going to taste delicious, my lad! I’ll have you for dinner, then your ancient friend for dessert. Usually I prefer young males, but Guardian energy is too rare to waste. When I have absorbed the life force of two hunters, I’ll be unstoppable!”

Still laughing, she raised her hand and a sphere of mage light glowed in her palm, illuminating her with soft golden rays. I froze in my tracks.

I was aiming my gun at Bethany.

Not my beloved, silver-haired Lady Beth, who was safely inside the building, but a young, vibrant Bethany. She looked like her World War II photo, with cool blond hair and hot blue eyes, now updated to full color and twenty-first-century club clothes. She wasn’t my Bethany, but she was still Bethany, despite her glittering destructive power.

Or was this an illusion spell? Could a succubus pluck an image from my mind and take on the form of my deepest, most secret fantasy?

She tossed her long blond hair back over her shoulders, then began strolling languidly toward me. Every curvy ounce of her was undulating in ways that stabbed directly into my lizard brain. It’s a scientific fact that men lose intelligence when talking to attractive women, and a succubus is designed to drive men wild. No wonder they’re so damned dangerous!

Lady Beth’s sharp voice interrupted my near-trance. “David! Shoot her! She’s not me; she’s the demon we came to destroy!”

I should have known that no hunter would stay inside where it was safe when there was danger afoot. I struggled to pull the trigger. Yet, though I knew Lady Beth was right and I could feel her power enhancing mine, I could not make myself shoot, not even to save my life. Not even to save her life.

I felt the demon gathering power into a killing stroke, drawing magic to her like a tsunami. Waves of energy rippled through the darkness, most of it drawn from the people inside Bizarro.

She stretched a graceful hand toward me. My pistol fell from my numb fingers and clattered on the concrete. Despite my furious attempts to counter her power, I could no longer control my own body. My hand was lifting, reaching out toward my doom…

Lady Beth smashed my arm down and stepped between me and the demon. Catching the succubus’s hand, she cried, “No!”

The fiercest magic I’d ever experienced exploded as Lady Beth slammed the torrent of demonic energy back at the succubus, adding the full force of her own vast and highly trained magical power. I was knocked backward, falling onto the cold concrete.

Horrified, I saw Lady Beth vanish in a blaze of annihilating power. One instant she was there, a silver-haired warrior of light. Then she was gone. Gone!

“Bethany!” I cried in anguish. I knew Charlie was right in saying she wouldn’t be here forever, but I hadn’t really expected to lose her tonight. I had thought that I would be able to save her at least, if not myself.

I had failed, and now she was utterly gone.

I wanted to howl to the heavens, but that was for later. Now I had a mission to complete. I collected my gun from where it had fallen and lurched to my feet.

The demon lay collapsed on the cracked concrete. Bitterly, I hoped she was dead, but the false Bethany’s perfect breasts still rose and fell with her ragged breathing. It was damnably unfair that this creature still lived while my Lady Beth was gone!

I could remedy that. Not caring if I destroyed my career as a cop or was jailed for murder, I raised my gun.

Her eyes flickered and she whispered in a dazed voice, “What… what happened?’

It added to my anguish that her voice was a rich, youthful version of Lady Beth’s crisp British accent. I said grimly, “You killed Lady Bethany, and I am about to send you back to hell.”

Her disorientation cleared and she gasped, “David, don’t shoot! The succubus is gone. I’m Bethany. The one you know.”

I hesitated, wondering if the demon was enchanting me. The creature looked just like Bethany had when she was young, and the force of her sexuality was plenty strong enough to scramble my remaining wits.

“It’s really me, David,” she said with a shaky laugh. Cautiously the—woman? demon?—pushed herself to a sitting position. “Look at me with your inner vision.”

Doing my damnedest to block my attraction, I scanned her. No sign of demonic energy, but maybe the succubus had the power to baffle even an experienced hunter. “How did you find a body that looks just like a young version of Lady Bethany?” I asked harshly, still unable to trust my senses.

“I… I’m not sure.” She ran her hands over herself experimentally. “This doesn’t seem like a strange body. It feels like me.”

Watching her run her hands over her breasts and hips made my mouth go dry. “How do I know you aren’t faking me out with an illusion spell?”

Her brows arched. “For heaven’s sake, David, you’re a hunter! Have I ever been able to fool you with an illusion?”

Her tartness was exactly like the Bethany I knew. Realizing that I was still clutching my pistol, I lowered it to point at the ground, but I didn’t put the safety back on. “Lady Bethany couldn’t fool me—but maybe a succubus could.”

She gave a wry smile. “Perhaps, but with the demon gone, I’m sure the ability to scramble your wits with a glance is gone, too.”

Unfortunately, it wasn’t. Not wanting to admit how vulnerable I was to her, I sought an explanation. “The succubus attacked and ripped away a piece of Lady Beth’s arm. Could this body be cloned from the DNA and matured in a such a brief time?”

She frowned. “That seems impossible, but I can’t think of any more plausible explanation. I don’t feel any lingering traces of a different human soul here. Or demonic energy, either. There’s just… me. Feeling much as I did in my youth.” Her gaze moved to my gun. “Are you going to let me stand without shooting me?”

“Go ahead.” I stepped back. Though still doubtful, no way could I shoot if there was a chance this was the real Bethany.

She got unsteadily to her feet. “Did I imagine it, or was my old body consumed by the power involved in dismissing the demon?”

My lips tightened. “You didn’t imagine it.”

“It’s… strange to think that the body I occupied for so many years is gone.” She stared at the faint scorch mark where Lady Beth had been standing. “It was a good body.”

“For a hunter to die fighting is a good death.” But I still hadn’t decided whether I was facing the real Bethany, or a very, very clever succubus who wasn’t wearing anywhere near enough clothing.

“I wonder… am I actually dead and my spirit is just hanging out here for a bit before moving on?” She was shivering hard, no surprise given the cool night and her minimalist dress. Her fishnet stockings were torn and goose pimples showed on her arms and legs. “Or am I really me and properly installed in a healthy young body?”

“I have no idea.” I pulled off my black trench coat and tossed it to her, careful to stay out of touching distance. “I’m better at field work than theory.”

“Thank you.” She pulled on the coat, which fell almost to the ground and could have wrapped twice around her. “How is the demon’s victim doing?”

I drew a deep breath, relieved that most of her was covered. Made it a little easier to think. “I think he’s okay, but I’ll check.”

Keeping a wary eye on her, I knelt by the college kid and spread my hand out on his chest. After a moment, I said, “No permanent harm done. He probably won’t remember what happened when he wakes up, which is just as well.”

“So we succeeded in tonight’s mission, though the price was high.” Her vivid blue eyes caught my gaze. “What will it take to convince you that I’m really Bethany, not a demon?”

“I don’t know,” I said bluntly. “When the big battle went down, I sensed the powers of the demon and Lady Bethany, but there was also an intense, alien energy I didn’t recognize. What the hell was going on?”

She tied the belt of the trench coat around her slim waist with shaking fingers. “As I blocked the succubus’s death magic and turned it back on her, I used a soul-transfer spell to exchange our spirits.”

I thought back, trying to analyze the hurricane of power that had blasted us all. “So the unfamiliar magic was that spell?”

She nodded. “Very unusual energy, wasn’t it?”

I frowned. “Where the hell did you find a soul-transfer spell?”

She bit her lower lip. Her full, lush lower lip. She’d have to drop a bag over her head not to be alluring, and maybe not even then. “While you were taking Charles downstairs for a taxi, I followed more links on the succubus page. One of them led to a very ancient spell that supposedly would switch souls between two different people.”

I swore. “You tested an unknown spell in combat conditions? That’s crazy dangerous!”

“I didn’t have a lot of choice,” she said mildly. “I was going to die anyhow. This way I had a chance of surviving.”

Souls are eternal—every Guardian knows that. “I had the impression that Lady Beth had no fear of death.”

“I didn’t.” Her gaze caught mine. “I had other reasons for wanting to live longer in a young body.”

My heart began beating faster. “Why?”

“You know why, David,” she said softly.

The allure she radiated was a fire in my blood despite her being covered with a trench coat from her chin to her ankles. Demon magic, or was it pure Bethany? “You need to be… more specific.”

She drew a deep breath. “Ever since I met you ten years ago, when you were just out of the SEALs and paying a courtesy call on an old Guardian lady because your mother told you to, I’ve wished that I were a few decades younger.”

“You never said or did anything to suggest that you felt that way.” My throat was tight as my desire to believe warred with the fear that she was still a succubus and wickedly adept at convincing a man to believe in what he wanted to hear.

She smiled wryly. “It’s… unseemly to be a lecherous old woman yearning for a man young enough to be my grandson. I was grateful that we became good friends. How could we possibly be anything more? Then this demon showed up wearing my body.” Her voice hardened. “I thought she owed me something for that. Certainly she could not be allowed to stay in possession of it and use it to kill innocent young men.”

If she was acting, it was a brilliant show that she was putting on. Knowing that I needed the courage to risk my emotions as she was doing, I said haltingly, “It’s also unseemly for a man to be lusting after a sweet little old lady. So I didn’t. But I’ve never met a woman whose mind and spirit fit mine as well as yours. If you’re really Bethany, and not the cleverest damned demon in the universe!”

She’d been tense as the brick wall, but she eased into a smile. “I don’t think that succubi are particularly clever. This one was all selfish hunger.”

“Maybe she’s clever enough to know what I haven’t wanted to admit even to myself,” I said slowly.

“If you can’t be sure what I am by reading my energy, there’s only one solution, David.” She reached out a hand. “Touch me.”

If she was still the succubus, one touch would probably turn me into mental mush, and her next meal. But there was no other way to find out.

I’d always been a risk taker. I took her hand, and energy flared between us like wildfire. Not succubus steal-my-soul-and-consume-my-life energy, though. This was ten years of caring and affection transmuting into fierce, true love. The woman I pulled into my arms was my Bethany, no doubts and questions, forever and ever, amen.

Our kiss wasn’t the affectionate peck on the check that is exchanged between friends, but a hot, needy lover’s kiss. “Bethany,” I whispered when I could breathe again. “I never thought we could be together. Not this way.”

“Nor did I.” She laughed a little. “It’s such a cliché to fall in love with a man who’s tall, dark, and handsome. But as soon as you showed up on my doorstep, I was head over heels. Proof that age doesn’t bring wisdom.”

I smoothed back her silky hair, touching her as I’d never touched her before. “It’s also a cliché to fall in love with a hot blond babe. The hard part was knowing that that babe was seventy years in the past.”

“Not anymore.” She rested her forehead against my cheek, her soft breath warming my throat. “I’ve always dreamed of a Guardian alchemical marriage. Two souls blended as one. I loved my first husband, but we didn’t have that. I thought I’d missed my chance.”

“Yet here we are.” I kissed her forehead. Her vibrant young body was a little taller than her old one had been. “I think we were meant to be together, but we got the timing wrong.”

“Time kept us apart—but the demon inadvertently gave us a chance to reset that timing.” She slid an arm around my waist and gave me a shining smile. “Let’s go home, David. I’m in a hurry for us to have some privacy.”

So was I.