Jenna Black - The Devil You Know

I shook my head, but couldn’t muster any more strenuous protest as Dominic cupped Adam’s magnificent ass and then enveloped him in his mouth. Adam and I moaned in sync as Dom began to suck, his cheeks hollowing with each forceful pull. I licked my lips, and I could almost taste him in my mouth.

No. It wasn’t Adam’s taste that burst over my tongue. It was Brian’s. The sensory memory overwhelmed me, and when I drew in a breath and let it out on a moan, I could have sworn I smelled Brian’s unique scent all around me. Watching Adam and Dom was almost unbearably exciting, but it was Brian I ached for, Brian I longed to have filling me.

Urged on by the grip of Dom’s hand on his ass, Adam began to thrust into Dom’s mouth. Dom showed every sign of loving it, his face awash with pleasure. I imagined Brian plunging into me as I watched them, and I almost came just from the mental image.

Lugh took my hand and guided it to the juncture of my thighs. I was still wearing a pair of jeans and some underwear, but the button and zipper were open. I fought against Lugh’s urging for about half a second, then couldn’t stand the arousal anymore. I didn’t want to give in, didn’t want to let Lugh win this mini battle of wills, but the stimulation was just too much. I felt like I had to come or I would break into tiny little pieces, never to be put together again.

Dominic was oblivious to me now, sucking Adam’s cock like his life depended on it. I slipped my hand into my panties and stroked myself in time to Adam’s thrusts.

Within the first few strokes, I erupted like Mount Vesuvius. I heard a howl start to rise from Adam’s throat as my vision flashed white with pleasure. The howl was cut off abruptly, and my eyes popped open to stare up at the ceiling of my darkened bedroom. The tail end of the orgasm rippled through me as I realized I was awake and one hand was between my legs.

Muscles quivering in the aftermath of the massive release, I lay on my bed and breathed like a runner at the end of a marathon. For a long, breathless moment, I gloried in the warmth of the afterglow, knowing I was going to feel humiliated when the glow faded, and not caring. Then I noticed the phone clutched in my other hand.

The warmth fled, and I sat bolt upright and stared at the evidence.

What the fuck had Lugh been doing with my body while he distracted me with sex? I glanced at the clock beside me and confirmed it was oh dark-thirty in the morning, but I hit the Redial button anyway. The number that was backlit on the phone was an unfamiliar one. Holding my breath, I waited for an answer.

“Uh-oh,” said an all-too-familiar voice on the other end of the line. “Did big brother get caught with his pants down?”

My hand tightened on the phone, and at that moment I was pretty sure I’d cheerfully kill both Lugh and Raphael if I had the chance.

Raphael laughed at my outraged silence. “Don’t get your panties in a twist, as the saying goes. I have been ordered to cooperate with you.”

I snorted. “Like that means anything.”

“It’s true, I’m not great at following orders, especially when they come from Lugh. In the Demon Realm, he could punish me for my insubordination. Here, he just has to swallow it. However, I did agree with him that it’s in everyone’s best interest that I finish telling you what I’d come to tell you earlier tonight. Please forgive my fit of pique, but you have to know you are a sore trial for anyone’s patience.”

I started to retort, but he spoke right over me.

“The demon that was summoned into the Mortal Plain and left that body in the alley is known as Der Jäger.”

I’d taken enough German in high school to translate the name. “The Hunter.”

“Indeed. He’s an unusual creature. He has a unique ability to recognize demons in the Mortal Plain—and to hunt them. That’s how he earned his True Name. He is also the demon equivalent of a sociopath. His entire life revolves around the hunt and the kill. For the past three hundred years, he’s been imprisoned in the Demon Realm, but Dougal has offered him his freedom if he can find and kill Lugh.

“The good news is that since your aura overwhelms Lugh’s, Der Jäger can’t seem to catch his scent. Everyone’s quite puzzled by the phenomenon, though I suspect they’ll be even more puzzled after tonight. Der Jäger will no doubt have sensed Lugh’s presence while he and I spoke, but I’m certain he won’t have been able to home in on it in so short a time.”

“How do you know he hasn’t been able to catch Lugh’s scent?” I asked.

“Because I’m one of the bad guys, remember? That’s the whole reason I went back to the Demon Realm in the first place, to infiltrate another cell. I’ll feed you what information I can, but I’m also going to keep my cover.”

I heard the warning in his words and instantly bristled. “I told you before, if you ever hurt Andy again—”

“Good night, Morgan. Sweet dreams.”

He hung up on me, and it took every ounce of my self-restraint not to throw the phone across the room in frustration.

I wasn’t surprised when I woke up at around ten in the morning, groggy and bleary-eyed, after several hours of uninterrupted sleep. Funny how Lugh hadn’t felt like speaking to me after my little chat with Raphael. I’d been more than ready to give Lugh a piece of my mind for driving my body while I was asleep, but apparently he wasn’t overly eager to hear what I had to say about it.

I was left at something of a loss as to what to do with myself. Obviously, I couldn’t leave Andy alone and undefended, but I wasn’t going to learn much hanging around the apartment babysitting him. In the light of early morning—after getting a few hours of much-needed sleep—it was clear to me that ignoring my problems wasn’t going to make them go away. My mental vacation was well and truly over, and it was time to start getting some answers.

The only thing I could think of to do for Andy was to call Adam to come keep an eye on him. Andy really hated the idea, and who could blame him? But we both knew I couldn’t just sit around the apartment and hope everything went away.

I think my face was beet red the entire time I was in the apartment with Adam—which, considering my inability to block out the dream images Lugh had implanted in my mind, and my extreme discomfort with those images, was all of about five minutes. He gave me a curious look, but otherwise refrained from questioning me.

I had three major issues I could deal with—or not deal with, as the mood hit me. There was the question of my parentage. There was the question of my repressed memory. And, because I needed another nightmare in my life, there was Der Jäger.

What I wanted to do more than anything was hunt down and exorcize Der Jäger. Unfortunately, I hadn’t the faintest idea how to do it. I didn’t know what body he was in. And even if I did, the last thing I wanted was to draw his attention when he had no idea that I was hosting Lugh.

That left the unpalatable choices of digging into my mom’s past or digging into my own. Since I knew what the first step would be to learning about my mom, and since I hadn’t a clue how to find out what happened to me—if Lugh was right and it was something other than what I’d been told—I supposed I was stuck.

I showed up at my parents’ house just after lunchtime, having spent the entire morning procrastinating, finding one excuse after another to avoid doing what I knew I had to. My inner chickenshit prayed that she wouldn’t be home so I could put this off some more, but she came to the door before I had a chance to get my hopes up.

Her eyes widened in surprise to see me, her plucked-to-within-an-inch-of-their-life eyebrows arching hugely. I had to stifle a laugh, though admittedly I couldn’t remember the last time I’d come here when it wasn’t the mandatory Christmas or Thanksgiving dinner.