become too attached to one of her side flings. She’d fallen in love. Satan, a wee bit on the jealous side-and deeply wounded by her betrayal-ended the fling, and the man’s life. After that, he sent Lilith on her way. It’d been a long time since I’d seen her last. She looked exactly the same as she had back then. That was a good thing.
Her long, black hair flowed like waves of water over her narrow, pale shoulders. From her flawless face, her sea green eyes appraised me, a hint of a smile creeping onto her full, red lips. Her low cut dress cut out the middle-man of my imagination, the rounded fullness of her breasts hidden from full view by nothing more than a slip of thin, satiny cloth. Her smile widened as she caught the direction of my lingering gaze. My pants tightened remembering all the times she’d teased me as a young man before my uncle sent her packing. Some things never change.
“Come inside,” she told me. I nearly did. “Can I offer you a ride? We can speak as we go.”
Like a kid being offered candy, I was gonna take that ride even if it meant getting molested. In fact, I insisted upon it.
The door swung open and Lilith slid sensually across the leather seat, making room. I put my gun away and took a second to admire the view of her shapely thighs, her dress ending dangerously close to her hips. With a little effort, my jeans way too tight to allow casual movement, I managed to slip inside the car. She gestured to the seat across from her and I dropped down with abandon, reckless and otherwise.
The driver, who I hadn’t seen get out of the car, closed the door behind me, then returned to his post. A few seconds later, we were pulling away, creeping down the Old Town streets.
“It’s been a long time, Triggaltheron.”
Distracted by trying to see past the shadows that hid the prize that lay just beyond the hem of her dress, it took me a second to answer.
“Uh, can you call me Frank?”
She gave a sour smile, small dimples forming in her cheeks. “Why? Do you not like your name? Your uncle gave it to you. You should be proud of it.”
I shook my head. “Those times are past.” A shadow crossed her face, wiping her smile away. “I’m just Frank now.”
She nodded, appearing disappointed. “Then Frank it is.”
She took a second to look me over. I crossed my legs and laid my hands in my lap as casually as I could. It’s not like she didn’t know how she affected me, having gone out of her way to tease me for decades, but I didn’t see any reason to make it obvious. She wanted something and I wanted to bargain from a position of strength. Sitting there with my hard-on out in the open, twitching against my jeans, didn’t exactly promote fair terms on my part.
Though I was enjoying the view, I needed to hurry things along. As the mother of all succubi, Lilith was not a woman you tempted fate with. Her powers of sexuality dwarfed even those of Veronica, who could get me to dance with little more than a gentle tug on my string…er, strings. I do have to admit though, the mother-daughter angle was forefront in my mind right then. It’s too bad they weren’t getting along these days.
“You said you wanted to talk. What about?” I got straight to it. I didn’t think my jeans could hold out for much longer.
Lilith’s face warmed. “You are so much like your uncle.” I didn’t think she meant it as a compliment and she didn’t bother to explain. “I’ve heard of your recent troubles with a necromancer. Reven, is it?” She asked as though she was unsure. We both knew she was.
“Where did you hear this?” Two could play the game.
“Here and there. I still have connections to the supernatural world, though I tend to avoid its drama as much as possible.” She cast out her bait.
Like a good fish, I bit. “Unless you have good reason not to?”
Her lips curved upward. “Or if someone I care for needs my help.” She leaned forward resting her hand on my thigh. Little shocks of electricity ran up my leg and exploded at my crotch. Her long nails, filed to sharp points, dug in gently. “I promised your uncle I’d look after you, keep you out of trouble.”
I knew she was lying, but the throb in my pants didn’t care. She had her reasons for showing up, and regardless of her motive, if she passed on something useful it was worth putting up with the act. If her flirting and rubbing up on me was gonna help take out Reven, I’d be more than glad to take one for the team. Two even, maybe even three. I’m generous like that.
I nodded. “Just what is it that has you so concerned?” I uncrossed my legs to let her think she was getting to me. I lied to myself, repeating it over and over in my head that she really wasn’t, while her hand slid a little further up my leg. I was gonna have to replace the zipper later.
She leaned in further, the gentle scent of strawberries and sweet red wine drifted to my nose. “Reven seeks power.”
Tell me something I didn’t already know.
She did. “He intends to raise the most powerful man to ever wear the mantle of the Anti-Christ, Maximus Artorius. This cannot happen.” She dropped back into the seat, her body limp.
Holy crap. “Longinus?”
She nodded, saying nothing, letting it all sink in.
Maximus Artorius, or Longinus as history remembers him, was the first to bear the title of Anti-Christ. Present at the crucifixion of Jesus, he pierced the side of Christ with his spear to confirm the Savior’s death, or so the historians would have you believe.
In truth Longinus was Hell-born. A demon whose fateful spear thrust empowered him with the earthly energies of Christ, returning the Son to God’s pasture. Crumpled to his knees in the midst of a soul transfer, proclaiming Christ truly to be the son of God, Longinus’s actions have been forever misrepresented by humanity. To them, he is a martyr, a saint, venerated for his acceptance of the existence of Christ, and thus God. To the supernatural world, he’s either a legend or a villain, depending on who you ask. I’d met Longinus only a few times, but my uncle spoke of him often, though never in what could be termed a good way. Despite his history, his service to Lucifer, my uncle never forgave him. It was he who Lilith chose to love.
He’d paid for that love with his life, shackled and buried beneath a gnawing mountain of dread fiends. Now, sitting in a limo some four hundred years later, the woman whose feelings unintentionally helped him into his grave campaigned to keep him there.
Something was very wrong with this picture.
Though Lucifer kept the affair quiet, both prideful and mindful of the damage such news could have on his rule, Lilith had to at least assume I knew about it. She’d known how close I was to my uncle, saw it firsthand. As such, none of this made any sense.
No idea where all this was going, I figured what the hell? I’d play along. “So, you want to stop Longinus from being resurrected?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
She shuffled about in the seat, her dress creeping up just a little further. While I can’t say I wasn’t interested in looking, it was too obvious a ploy to distract me. I kept my eyes on her face.
Mostly.
“You know what we had together?” She already knew the answer, but I nodded anyway, letting her set things up. “I never meant to hurt your uncle. Things just spiraled out of control, caught me off guard. I fell for Maximus and there was nothing I could do about it.”
She paused a moment, her eyes moistening. If I hadn’t known her daughter so well, known her kind, I’d have fallen for it.
“I still care for Maximus, but he’s been gone a long time. As much as it hurts to say it, he’s dead.” She drew in a sharp breath. “It won’t be him who the necromancer raises, but an empty, soulless creature whose will is tied to Reven, his powers at the necromancer’s beck and call.” Her white-knuckled fists clenched the hem of her dress, the Pearly Gates slipping into full view. “It’s bad enough they’ve stolen his body from its place in Limbo, but I will not have him tortured by being resurrected as a mindless slave. I will not let Reven torture me like this. He must be stopped.”
I thought about it for a second. Though I had doubts as to why Lilith would bring all this to me, her playing the selfish angle seemed to fit. It wasn’t so much about Longinus’s suffering as it was about how his return would
