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  “Howdy, you’re Nathan, right?” the biker asked.

  Nathan turned back to the biker, approaching him. He stretched out his hand. Nathan walked closer to return the handshake. He was overwhelmed with the scent of animal. Musk and sweat filled his nose. Josephine growled, reacting on instinct. He jumped back and hissed. “Werewolf!”

  Werewolves and vampires never got along.

  “Don’t worry. I’m not going to bite. I have more important things to worry about than trying to kill you. Not that my kind make a habit of going up against vampires. Maybe some of the other packs do, but we do not. Come in so we can get this over with. If you’re here, then I’m sure this foul demon has done something to you too. Want to come in and talk about it?” The woman walked into the tavern.

  Nathan hissed again and waited to see what the werewolf was up to. He had an inborn mistrust of their kind. Centuries back, a large war had broken out between the two species. Nathan had clipped the very end of it and avoided being killed. He didn’t want to put Josephine in any danger. Granted he hadn’t heard of any pack hunting vampires lately, but a rogue could still be out there. He couldn’t be too careful. The wolf crossed his arms over his chest. Suddenly, behind the werewolf was a blurry figure. Nathan couldn’t make it out, except he saw a haziness of blue. Then it was gone.

  “He’s waiting for us. You going in?” Josephine asked.

  The wolf hadn’t made a threatening move. Maybe I can trust him. Won’t that be the day when I can say I worked together with a werewolf? Then again, if he’s here, then he has something to do with the demon too. He’s been burned by the creature. I wonder what happened to him. He relaxed a little and nodded. “Yeah. Stay close. I don’t trust wolves.”

  Josephine rolled her eyes and went in before him. She started to laugh when they brushed past the werewolf. Nathan stayed on edge, feeling the heavy animal presence behind him. Her amusement wound through him.

  “What?”

  She laughed. “You know that werewolves are real, and yet you still don’t believe in God. You’ve seen demons and ghosts and who knows what else. What am I going to have to do to get this through your thick skull? There is such a thing as an afterlife. You think being one of the undead and being your mate would finally make you see that.”

  The werewolf stopped and stared at them. Nathan was amused at the look of disbelief on the biker’s face. “You don’t believe in God?”

  “No. Can you blame me though? My kind cringe at crosses, can’t go into churches, holy water burns them, and we can’t walk on holy ground. Not many vampires have a real soft spot in their hearts when it comes to faith or the Almighty. Is that a problem?”

  The werewolf mumbled something and went to sit at the bar with his mate. Nathan surveyed the six other occupants in the tavern. Two were wolves. The red-haired male and the blonde female were human. He inhaled. There was a taint to the human female. Her scent settled on his tongue. He tasted sulfur. The horrid aroma permeated the place, but she had a concentration of it. She had specifically been touched by evil. The last time he had tasted it was when Josephine was possessed. I wonder if the human has been taken over by evil. If not, she certainly has something to do with the demon. And for some reason she looks familiar. The last two were a woman with braids and her muscled green-eyed man. They were something else he couldn’t place. He inhaled their scent. They didn’t have one. That irritated him because he should have been able to get a lock on what they were. He scanned the room and saw another man in white. He hadn’t been there a few moments ago. He was leaning on the door next to the stage. Nathan knew exactly what he was.

  “Can you tone down the light show, please? Trying to blind me isn’t a good idea at the moment.” Nathan covered his eyes from the blazing white aura which emanated from the angel.

  The man in white smiled. “Amazing. If you were akin to other vampires, you’d be ash by now. Same with the woman. I’m Van. You’re different from others of your species that I’ve encountered. All vampires are descended from demon origin which is why they abhor holy things, but you have no fear of me. Why do you think you’re different?”

  Seeing the being before him shook his foundations. Nathan knew exactly what this creature was now. An angel. Wonderful. He sighed. This is all I need for Josephine to start harping on me about why I don’t believe in the afterlife or if there truly is a God. I’m never going to hear the end of it now. I can already hear the “I told you so.” Having spent so many years being a mortal priest before he was turned searching to find the meaning of the afterlife, it always made him wonder. This was the reason he started ghost hunting. He’d been doing it years before it had become popular back in the sixteen and seventeen hundreds, when walking into a graveyard could get you eaten by something unsavory. Those were the good times, when all he had were his senses. Now, he was happy to have a competent partner hunting the night as well as cemeteries by his side.

  “I have no idea. I’ve been trying to figure that out since I was turned. So what’s with the party? Are we all here to find out how haunted this place is or to destroy the evil, demonic bastard that I bet drove us here?”

  The crowd broke into laughter at the comment. That was interrupted by a loud crash from behind the bar. Several of the empty bottles were hovering in midair and smashed on the floor as he stared at them. His gaze scanned from them to the human woman who had gone white, standing by the bar. Her eyes were wide with a tinge of red in them. Nathan inhaled, and the sulfuric scent was stronger than ever. He winced at the odor.

  “Welcome to the Devil’s Tavern. You’ve all been invited to assist in the rising. From here on out, you’re all my humble guests. The party starts at midnight. See you then.” The woman fainted to the floor. Her companion gathered her up in his arms and tried to get her to come around. The werewolf woman went to her aid and laid her hand on her forehead, but wasn’t able to assist.

  “It’s no use. The demon has her now. Serena, you’re healing powers won’t be of any use,” Van replied.

  “I’m not going to give up on her. You’re an angel. Do something,” the human man said in a growl.

  “James, she’s chosen him. It might not have been a conscious choice, but only he can revive her. We are all pawns in his plan. Even me. Although I don’t know what his role for me is. For now we have to wait and see,” the angel responded.

  Josephine whimpered. Nathan took her in his arms and tried to comfort her. She was trembling. He didn’t need to look into her mind to know she was reliving the time she had been possessed by the demon. Now that she was a vampire, it shouldn’t happen again unless she offered herself up to the beast, and she would never do that.

  “Don’t worry. We’ll figure this out. Why don’t you go into the trunk and grab the equipment? The least we can do is document all of this. You know Marsha is going to want to see everything we get,” Nathan said, instructing her.

  She nodded and headed outside to the car. After a moment she came back in with the bag. Josephine was whiter than normal. “Your bike and the cars. We can’t leave.”

  Bruno dashed outside. Nathan heard a long howl in the night. When he came back in, his eyes were golden. Nathan suppressed the urge to snarl at him. “All of our tires have been slashed. We’re stuck here unless angel boy can transport us in and out of here.”

  Van sat down on the stage and shrugged. “Sorry. I’m stuck here too.”

  Nathan sighed as he unzipped the bags. He began checking his equipment and saw Josephine doing the same. The tavern was silent, even of ghostly activity. After a few moments, the pale-skinned beauty came over and inspected the cameras.

  “I’m Emera. What are all of these for?”

  “Nice to meet you. It’s what I use on an investigation. My friends were killed because they came out here to explore this place. They had heard rumors that it was haunted. If we’re stuck here, we might as well get something out of it. Why are you here?”

  Emera sighed. “It’s part of my pe
nance, you could say. I used to be an angel. I fell from grace and was picked up by an incubus, who became a very powerful demon. I was his toy. Keenan never gave up on me and rescued me from my master’s clutches. I’m here because we can’t let the demon do whatever it wants. It can’t bring any more evil to this plane. What about you, besides wanting revenge for your friends?”

  “The demon possessed my mate a couple of years ago. After I turned her, it came to me, demanding my presence at this tavern. It confessed to killing my friends. I’m here to figure out a way to send it back to hell.”

  “Sounds like we’re all here for the same reason.” Keenan joined Emera by the equipment. He picked up a digital recorder and handed it to Nathan. The vampire felt a kinship for the other man. It didn’t reveal what he truly was, but he had a good soul.

  “Thanks.” He began placing cameras on the bar, on the stage, and around the room, along with digital recorders. They all had motion detectors built in that would go off when something moved. I have this feeling that a lot of things are going to be happening tonight. This place is very active. I can feel the spirits all around me. After a moment, he sat down on the stage with Josephine by his side. Van had moved to the bar to check on Valerie. Jo wound her hand through his and gave him her support. All of these different creatures in one room were very unsettling. It was rare to be so close to a werewolf and not want to kill him. He’d only had one other run-in with wolves, and it hadn’t ended well.

  “Are you okay?” Josephine asked.

  “Not really. I can still smell their blood. Geri was killed by the bar. Rashad was killed here. The stain is still in the wood. The other two I didn’t know well enough. There’s an evil here. More so than at any exorcism I’ve ever been to. Even yours. Whatever this demon is up to, it’s bad. I don’t think this place could ever be cleansed of the atrocities it’s seen. Not even if it was bulldozed to the ground. I can only imagine what happened here in the past. This place must have been a hotbed for crime and evildoers.”

  She kissed him on the cheek. “It’ll be okay. Good always wins over evil, right? It did for me. Especially when you’re with me.”

  “Yeah, but you’re dead now because of me.”

  “Undead because of you and loving every minute of it. This is what I wanted. I’d be dead anyway if you hadn’t intervened and turned me.”

  He chuckled. “I guess so.” He leaned in and tasted her lips. She ran her tongue over his fangs. He bit down gently and pierced it. A few drops of blood ran down his throat and made him shiver. It was a good thing they had eaten the night before, or the humans might be in trouble. “You taste so good. If we didn’t have an audience, I would…” He sent the rest of what he would do to her telepathically.

  She giggled.

  “Ahem…” Nathan glanced up at Van.

  “What?”

  “Nathan said that you were possessed, correct?” Van asked his lover.

  She winced. “Yes. What does that have to do with anything?”

  The angel turned to the werewolves. “And you, Serena, you were possessed when you were a child, correct?”

  “So what if I was?”

  Van walked over to the unconscious woman and laid a hand on her forehead. Nathan got up and watched with interest. “Bruno, can you perform an exorcism? This woman isn’t wholly possessed, but she has opened herself to the demon. She’s a doorway for him. If we can shut that doorway, maybe we have a chance. She’s part of his plan. If we can close the door, then we might have some kind of advantage.”

  The werewolf headed outside and came back in with a small flask. He dabbed some liquid on his fingers and then ran it across Valerie’s forehead. Nathan heard the sizzle of burned meat and then smelled the seared flesh. After another moment, Valerie sat up and screamed. Her eyes flew open. They were completely red. Nathan knew possession, and this woman had been taken over by the demon. She began to fight the angel holding her down. Bruno forced her lips open and began to pour the water down her throat. Instantly she began to foam at the mouth. Her eyes rolled into the back of her head. She convulsed enough that she threw off the angel and the werewolf. Valerie flopped on the floor for a few more seconds. Then she rose a foot in the air. Her eyes snapped open. The voice bellowing from her throat wasn’t hers.

  “You think you can force me from this woman? You have no idea what you’re dealing with. A simple exorcism isn’t going to drive me away. She’s mine. She gave herself to me, body and soul.” The gravelly voice from her throat began to laugh. Nathan recognized it from the one he had heard in his bedroom when the demon was talking to him over his cell phone. Valerie pitched forward and then fell to the floor.

  The human male got up and hugged her close to him.

  “Enough. You’ll kill her if you do any more to her. She’s been through enough.”

  “James, sacrificing one mortal is better than the whole world, don’t you agree?” Van stated.

  “Fuck off,” James yelled.

  In that instant, the whole place began to shake. It sounded like a herd of dead horses were stampeding over the roof. Dust shook from the rafters. Screams erupted all around them. Josephine huddled against Nathan. He wrapped her protectively in his arms. He stretched out his senses to take everything in. Immediately, because of the movement, he heard the clicks of his equipment going off. Shadowy and blurry forms of ghosts appeared all around the inhabitants of the tavern. Bottles, bits of dust, rocks, the furniture, and even his equipment began to levitate around the room. He grabbed on to the stage to keep himself steady. The others had huddled next to the table and near the door. The tremors intensified. A large crack split the floor. Then everything went dark.

  Chapter Seven

  Emera & Keenan

  Whatever creature this demon was, it was stronger than Sebastian had ever been. To say that it was stronger meant something. Her former master, one of Lucifer’s generals, had been in the second circle of hell. She didn’t know whether this other demon was in Lucifer’s first circle, his trusted advisors, or not. Vangelis and Keenan hadn’t shared that much information with her while in her new position. She suspected that Van didn’t trust her completely. By standing up to this demon, Emera hoped that would change. She wanted him to trust her. Keenan already did, but he was bound by other oaths not to tell her certain aspects of their mission or about her new vocation.

  The air grew hotter. Sweat trickled down her forehead. The brand on her chest burned. Drawing in a breath, she tried to quiet her raging heart. She felt hands traveling up her legs and caressing her thighs. Someone was behind her. Something else wrapped around her leg. It could’ve been a tail. The hands felt familiar, as did the other thing. No. He’s dead. I know he is. Bas can’t be alive. Keenan killed him. She jumped away from the hands and pulled away. Laughter exploded around her, the same soft velvet laughter that once caressed her soul the way his hands now caressed her body.

  “Keenan?” She listened for any sounds, but no one answered her. It seemed that she was all alone and smothered by the darkness she had been plunged into. Where are the others? “Vangelis?”

  “There’s no one here but us, cher.”

  Sebastian’s voice purred in her mind. His long fingers traced her cheek. She used to love that touch. Now it only made her nauseated.

  “You can’t be real. You’re dead.”

  “Death is only a state of mind. Nothing really dies. You should know that better than anyone. You falling from grace, becoming my lovely apprentice, and look at you now. Beautiful in your fury.”

  His skilled fingers trailed over her breasts, hardening her nipples. Ecstasy overtook her, so strong that she fell to her knees into the kneeling position she had assumed for so many years. Her fingernails dug into the floorboards. Her wings burst out of her back. His hands cupped her breasts and squeezed them. At the same time, pain erupted on both ass cheeks from a paddle hitting her. The sound of the slap echoed in the tavern. She felt Sebastian’s lips pressing against hers while his t
ongue sought entrance to her mouth. Her eyes shut from the pleasure of the pain. I’ve missed this. I know it’s wrong, but I miss this. The demonic part of her was gone, but her powers remained. His manipulations were calling to the buried evil inside of her, trying to find a hold. Another slap came across her backside, making her moan. Emera clenched her thighs together from another orgasmic fugue. She tried fighting the haze that had come over her. This isn’t real. It isn’t real. The pressure of her horns began to press against her forehead as they were about to emerge. She ran her tongue over her teeth and felt the four points. No. I can’t give in to this. I’m one of the good guys now. I don’t take souls. That was before.

  “Fight it, Em. I know you want to give in to him, but think about us. All the times you held on to your hope that I was alive,” Keenan said next to her.

  The thought that he was still there washed over her. She had not given up on heaven, even if it had given up on her. She kept going to Sebastian to be beaten for the pleasure, but mostly to have a glimpse of heaven’s garden so she might see Keenan again. Another slash of pain followed by intense pleasure raced across her back. The crack of a whip reverberated in the blackness. The days of her being tied to the rack and whipped until she pleased her master washed over her.