Chaos Bites Part 26

I awoke as a woman, the sun blaring into my eyes. I moaned, laying my arm across my face. I hurt all over.

"What the f.u.c.k was that?" I muttered.

"Night demons."

I sat up in a hurry, wincing as my head spun. I put my palm to my forehead to keep it from falling off.

A man leaned in the crumbling doorway of the church. Tall and muscular, his chest was bare, his sienna skin s.h.i.+ning in the sun. At first I thought his ebony hair had been cropped brutally close to his scalp, but when he moved, straightening away from the doorjamb, the skin between the teenie-tiny braids that had been woven into his hair flashed. There appeared to be a design to their swirl, but from where I sat, I couldn't tell what it was.

The church did stand at a crossroads, but not the kind I'd been looking for. To me crossroads meant a street of some kind-paved or at least covered in gravel. In this case the "road" was a waterway in two directions, with the church perched on a small plot of land between a dirt trail and a creek so narrow, only a canoe could pa.s.s.

"You are here for de book," the man said, his accent a melodic combination of France and Jamaica.

"I-uh-" Should I lie or shouldn't I? I was never quite sure.

"De night demons know. They attack only those who are up to no good."

"And who would that be?"

"Nephilim, for de most part."

"The Nephilim are trying to steal the Book of Samyaza?" Why pretend I had no idea what he meant when I did, and he knew it?

He inclined his head. "To possess de book is to rule this world as well as de next."

"Then why aren't you?"

"I protect de book until our Prince comes."

"From what I hear, all the demons got sent back to h.e.l.l."

He shrugged. "There will come another chance."

Unfortunately he was right. Doomsday, Armageddon, Apocalypse, they were inevitable. The only thing we could do was attempt to put them off until we were better prepared to win.

He tilted his head. "Why would you be happy to see de Grigori sent back? You're as Nephilim as I am."

I would have known even without his confession. I felt a buzz in the air, the hum that made my teeth ache and screamed that evil was near. There was a darkness about him, so abysmal I could almost see it hovering like smoke.

Since I wasn't about to explain myself-to him or anyone else-I ignored his question to reiterate my own. "Why are you protecting a book for someone else when you could become the Prince of All You Survey?"

"We each have our parts to play. One of de reasons we haven't won yet is that we fight one another as much as we fight de light. I promised long ago to keep our Book of Samyaza safe for when de Prince would come."

A Nephilim that kept his word. The world really was coming to an end.

"What do you get if you do?"

He smiled, a brilliant white flash in his handsome, dark face. "Anything I desire."

His gaze wandered from my no doubt tousled head to my-eek!-bare feet. I was all-over bare, and from the expression on his face, he didn't have a problem with that.

"Come closer," he murmured, his voice a mesmerizing melody that compelled me to obey.

I took a single step before I managed to stop myself. "What are you?"

"Mait. Commander of de night demons."

"Which explains why they don't peck the c.r.a.p out of you whenever you get near the book."

"I am their G.o.d."

I didn't like that one bit. Commander and G.o.d. I needed to get that book out of his clutches and fast. No matter what Mait said, it was only a matter of time until he got sick of waiting for the Prince to come and decided the Prince was here and it was him.

His tongue swept his lips; his emerald gaze refused to leave my b.r.e.a.s.t.s. I crossed my arms, and he smirked. "Come here," he said again.

This time I was prepared and held my ground. "No, thanks." He might be beautiful to behold, but if I got too close I'd be sorry.

"I want to touch you."

"And I don't want to be touched."

He lifted his face, breathed in the dawn. "Your scent is enticing; you are so many things. Strong and dangerous, soft and smooth and round. You'll be so warm inside." His head fell back, his chest muscles tightened and flexed. From the bulge in his khaki cotton pants, he was having a great time without me. "First I will satisfy my l.u.s.t and then my hunger."

"Hunger," I repeated.

"I thirst for fear, terror, for de darkness only I can bring."

"You 'eat' fear?"

"Mmmm," he murmured. "I doubt I'll sleep again until I've had you."

I tensed, prepared for a fight. I wasn't going to let this guy "have" anything. But he stayed where he was, and I began to wonder.

"If you want me so bad why don't you-" I bit my lip, considering. "You stuck in there?"

His head came up; his eyes flashed fury, darkening to evergreen, and I laughed. "No wonder you aren't marching at the head of the army of doom. You can't leave."

"Yet," he said.

"What does that mean?"

He merely smiled and didn't answer.

"Where are your night demons now?" I lifted my face to the sky.

"At night they protect this place. In de daylight, I do."

"How long have you been here?"

His gaze lowered to my b.r.e.a.s.t.s again. "A long, long time."

Oh, brother.

"Would you like to see de Book of Samyaza?" he asked.

"Sure."

Once again, it couldn't be this easy.

"All you need do is f.u.c.k me."

And it wasn't.

There was no way I could sleep with this guy for the book. He was a Nephilim. I'd been warned. I could absorb his evil along with his strengths-whatever they were. For all I knew, I might even be trapped in this place with him forever.

"How about we do it my way?" I asked.

"We can do it any way that you like." His voice roughened in antic.i.p.ation.

I flicked my hand, hoping I could knock him senseless on the first try. No such luck.

He murmured a few words that didn't sound like French-maybe Latin, maybe Greek-and something that felt very much like the fist of a giant smacked me in the chest and sent me flying backward several feet. I landed on my a.s.s with a thud.

"Care to try again?" Mait asked.

"What exactly are you?" I managed when I could speak. I climbed to my feet, but I stayed right where I was. The farther away the better.

"G.o.d of night demons, protector of de book."

"You threw my power back at me."

"Not me. The spell."

My gaze narrowed. "From the book?"

He shrugged. "What else am I to do while I'm waiting for another Nephilim to arrive?"

I didn't think he was supposed to be reading the book and trying out the spells. Then again, I would have been.

"What else can you do?"

He smiled and went inside.

s.h.i.+fting into a phoenix, I followed. In this form I could fly through the doorway, s.n.a.t.c.h the book out of his hands, or wherever it might be, and leave. If he tried anything, I'd fling fire at him. If he flung it back, it wouldn't matter. I was a firebird. I didn't burn.

I never got the chance to see what he'd do; I never got close enough to see anything at all, at least not the Book of Samyaza.

Three feet from the door, I hit a wall. I'd say it was literal, except there was nothing there. Nevertheless, I slammed into a tall, wide, immovable object and fluttered to the ground with the worst headache I'd had since I'd blown my brains out with my own gun. Don't ask.

Luckily I didn't lose consciousness. I fluttered my wings until I was upright then stumbled sideways on woozy talons.

Mait leaned through the empty window. "I possess de power of protection. Around anything or anyone I can build a wall that cannot be breached."

I let out my breath in an annoyed huff and fire swirled outward, running up the invisible barrier, then back down, hitting the ground and disappearing in a puff of dirt and black smoke.

"You have failed." Mait turned away, dismissing me as if I were no more powerful than the last Nephilim to try.

CHAPTER 24.

I cut my losses. I needed to learn more about Mait. I could stand in the swamp until I was as old as he was and never figure out how to break through his invisible, enchanted wall.

I had no doubt it could be broken. One of the many things I'd learned since I'd become the new me was that everything had a weakness. Nothing and no one was indestructible. Just look at Sawyer.

Not a scratch on him but tattoos for centuries, and then I was born. Had he known the first time he saw me that I'd be the death of him? If so, then why had he ever left me alive?

I returned to town as a phoenix. This might be New Orleans, but I still didn't think I'd make it from the Honey Island Swamp to the French Quarter, naked, without drawing a crowd or at least a cop.

Less than half an hour later, I landed on the terrace, s.h.i.+fted, and went inside. I scared the s.h.i.+t out of the maid.

"Eeek!" she squeaked as I strode in from the balcony.

"Whoops." I s.n.a.t.c.hed my clothes off the floor.

"I knocked," she managed. "You didn't answer."

"Don't worry about it."

"I could lose my job."

"Not if we keep this between us, all right? You didn't come in when I was naked," I said.

And a woman-sized bird didn't just land on the balcony, I thought.

She nodded eagerly, her eyes too calm and her manner too normal for her to have seen anything but me walking in off the terrace.

"I'll just-" I edged toward the bathroom.

"Of course." She inched toward the door. "I'll come back later."

As soon as she left, I flipped the security latch and booted up my computer. I went first to the members-only, pa.s.sword-protected, super-secret Web site of the federation.