like the world would end tomorrow, so I figured I had a few weeks for shit to cool off before I dumped a steaming bowl of it on DRAC’s doorstep.
I wandered over to the ledge and looked at the scene below. I didn’t have a clue who’d sent the specter after me, or what they wanted, but given all the crap lately, I figured I could handle it on my own. It wasn’t like I didn’t have a few resources of my own.
“Tell Mike goodbye for me, yeah?” Rahim nodded as I walked away. I’d been caught off guard coming back from my powwow with Hasstor, but it looked like I’d been given a breather. It was time to shore up my defenses and make myself less of a target.
I was thinking I’d get a dog or two…hundred.
Chapter Six
Back at home, I tried to reactivate the protective wards, but wasn’t able to. They were beyond me in a technical sense. Not much more than a magical speed bump anyway, I wasn’t too worried about them, but it was an inconvenience. It served as a great early warning system. At least I’d arranged a few other surprises should someone feel the need to kick me while I was down. I also finally managed to put a call in to Karra to let her know I was back from my inter-dimensional jaunt, somewhat safe and sound. We hadn’t been off the phone for more than ten minutes when I felt the gate in my spare room triggered. Her essence filled my senses a moment later.
It was Heaven.
The proverbial Heaven, not the battle-scarred Heaven we’d just fought to free from the clutches of rebellious angels, just to clarify.
The bedroom door flung open and I heard her quick footsteps in the hall as she headed toward the living room. She popped in, and like a true romantic, she said the sweetest thing a man could ever hope to have his woman say to him:
“What smells like wet orangutan ass?”
Love; isn’t it grand? “It’s dread fiend.” I ran over and wrapped her in my arms, squeezing her tight. It’d been a long day, and I just wanted to feel Karra against me, to know she was still there even if no one else was. It was enough.
She collapsed into me without another word, kissing me fierce. I felt the heat of her as we ground together. Her tongue flicked against mine while her chest pressed against me, her arms pulling me in as close as we could possibly be. I felt her forehead nuzzled against the small of my back. The gentle vibration of her stuttered moans making my spine tingle.
Then I stiffened, and not in the way I would have liked. I pulled away in a panic, a cold chill spreading goosebumps across my flesh.
“ Hhhhiiiiyyyaaaaa.” Chatterbox’s rotten face grinned at me.
Another shiver rattled me as I settled my heart. I’m a freak and all, but there’s just something really gross about having a hard on in the presence of a severed zombie head.
“Hey, CB. I missed ya, buddy, but not that much.” He chuckled and mentioned something about missing me, too, and porn. “She kept you on a tight leash, huh?” I snatched him up and set him the table next to my old recliner, and watched for a second as he tongued the remote to turn the TV on. While I was glad to have him back, I really wanted some time alone with Karra. He wasn’t the kind of head I was looking for.
The zombie distracted, I scooped up Karra and ran for the bedroom. She giggled like the young girl I remembered from Hell, and all was right with the world.
~
The sex more a sprint than a marathon, we lay in the bed under the cool sheet, our bodies entwined. Her fingers made little circles across my chest, tickling me as I caught my breath and luxuriated in the closeness of her. It struck me just how much I’d missed Karra, and not just since I’d left to meet Hasstor. I’d missed her since she left me behind in Hell. For all my relationships, to include my marriage to Veronica, this was the only one that made sense. Karra was who I was always meant to be with, however sappy or cliched that might sound. There was a comfort to it, a passion borne of a first love that hadn’t been tempered by time or strife.
She snuggled in closer and I melted into her embrace. The smell of her perfume and the scent of our sex filled my nose.
“I was worried,” she told me, her voice muffled by her face pressed into my neck.
I had been too, but with more than enough bad news, I decided it best to not mention it. “All I could think of was getting back to you.”
Karra leaned over and kissed my cheek, turning my face to hers. Her hazel eyes pierced mine. “What happened out there?”
I sighed. For all my desire to make the moment last, it was coming to an end. “You really want to know?”
She nodded. There’d be no seconds for me after this. I copped one last feel and rolled over so we were facing one another.
“It was all a setup so Lucifer could deliver a message without everyone knowing.”
Karra stiffened at the mention of my uncle’s name, and I silently cursed him for what he’d done to her and her father…and to us. Though she didn’t say anything, I could see the fury in her eyes. It took her a moment to calm down. When she finally reined it in, she let out a quiet sigh.
“What does he want?” Her tone ended any fear of global warming.
“To warn me.”
She sat up in the bed, the sheet falling away. Unconsciously, my gaze was drawn to her breasts. I yanked it away like an errant puppy and forced myself to look at her face. Beautiful as it was, it wasn’t boobs.
“A warning about what? What could possibly concern him so much he would kidnap you from a world he tossed aside and left behind?”
“Uh, how about an inter-dimensional war he and God are fighting against a bunch of the other universes El Jefe Grande created long before he made ours, and that they’re afraid might spill over into our world?” I spilled it out in one long exhalation.
Karra stared at me in silence. The look on her face told me she was waiting for the punch line. She was gonna be so disappointed.
“You’re serious?”
“As a rectal exam.”
Her shoulders slumped and she dropped back down beside me. I wrapped my arm around her and pulled her in close.
“It’s not a foregone conclusion the war will reach us, but Lucifer wanted someone to know…just in case.”
“So he chose you?” A hint of laughter colored her voice.
“Hey, now. What I lack in power and skill and knowledge and ability and interest, I make up for in powerful friends and lots of free time.” She hugged me close, burying her chuckling face in my ribs. “But yeah, I’m not really sure why he told me either. With DRAC and Heaven in shambles, and the demons of Hell scattered all over the planet, I don’t have a clue as to who I’m gonna muster in defense of the Earth.”
Karra grinned and gave me a kiss. “I’ll fight with you.”
I kissed her back, tangling my fingers in her hair. When we broke away to take a breath, I couldn’t help but smile at her. “Us against the universe. What a poetic way to die.” Bitterness seeped into my voice.
She sat up again, the grin gone from her face. “That bad?”
I shrugged. “You felt Xyx’s power, right?” Karra nodded. “Well, it looks like he’s the runt of the litter. The demon I met with, Hasstor, was easily as powerful as the old Baalth, and then some.”
“Is that why you have dread fiends hidden around your house like rotten Easter eggs?”
“Hardly.” I started to hold back again but it felt natural just to tell her the truth. “They’re here due to a more mundane threat that popped up after I came back to Earth. As it turns out, the U.S. government thinks I’m the cause of the storms. They made it clear they’ve got their eye on me when they shot me in the head.”
