In a droll and bored tone, Bran replied to his mistress while giving one final blow to the younger demon, knocking his stubborn ass out. “I am. No one is actually coming at you right now, are they? See, you dumb, selfish, power hungry bitch, when you summon a demon as ancient as me, we only have to complete the task you called upon us to do. Not cater to your every whim, like this young one you had snared. Even he found a way from under your thumb. So, from the looks of it, I don’t need to be doing a damn thing.”
“You conniving sack of shit. If you’re not going to be of help, then you’re just another hindrance. I release you to go back whence you came!”
Right before Bran became nothing more than black smoke yet again, he gave Tia a reassuring grin and left one word to drift across her mind. Tridamoreous. He must have heard the name that had been used when he’d been summoned, a name that must have been provided to Seraphina by the Rasputin she had worked with.
“If you want something done right, eh, you know the rest.” Before any of them had a chance to respond, Seraphina threw up her hand and stopped them all dead in their tracks, all but Kierra. When dear old Nana noticed that, she sensed the tie Kierra had with Anya, then forced Anya to fly from where she stood, over and off the roof, still frozen and unable to stop herself. She looked Kierra dead on as the others screamed a panicked no and said, “Go fetch. Or don’t. Maybe the little bitch will actually die this time.”
Wasting no time on words or anything else, Kierra threw off her leather jacket and let her wings rip free from her back. She ran and dove off the roof to save her wife.
Someone new entered the party during the exchange and began clapping. It was a fully recharged Lucian. “Now that was a brilliant display, given by a beautiful woman.”
“And who the fuck are you?” Seraphina couldn’t seem to take her gaze off the stranger who oozed sex.
“An admirer, young dove. I was passing by and had to see what was going on. When I flashed up here to see you working so brilliantly against all your foes, I couldn’t simply leave.” With every word Lucian let leave his lips, he added that much more power behind it, to the point where discarded waves of it swept across the roof. Seraphina’s body looked like a marionette being strung along by his voice alone. When Rasputin tried desperately to claim her attention, Lucian poured it on even more, licking his lips in promise. “So much power within so much beauty. It should be illegal.”
“Well.” Seraphina actually fucking blushed. The more Lucain spoke, the more lax Seraphina’s body became, she had even added a sway to her hips. Her arousal could be scented by everyone on the roof; she was a barely talking bag of hormones. “One has to do what they must to get things done.”
When Seraphina was finally standing before Lucian, he began playing with her hair and gaining full eye contact. She was putty in his hands. And the more he poured on his power, the weaker her magick became. Chandler and Darvyn were the first to break free, and using the katanas strapped to their backs and their vampire speed, they made short work of the three minions. Their heads were detached from their bodies before they had a chance to so much as blink.
Then Elyssia and Tia broke free as Lucian brought his lips to Seraphina’s. Elyssia went into full-on ice-queen mode, gone from flesh and bone to a walking, talking ice sculpture in less than a second, frost coming from her mouth as she breathed. Without wasting any time on talk or fanfare, she turned her focus towards Rasputin, held out her hand as if she were blowing him a kiss, but blew particles of ice his way instead and turned him into a huge block of ice before he had a chance to throw any type of magick her way. Then Tia, standing right at her side, took her fire and melted the ice sculpture that used to be Rasputin down to a puddle of water, and kept it going until he evaporated.
While all this transpired, young Jayden had managed to drag himself to where Seraphina stood. While the older incubus continued to drain her of her magick, he managed to grab on to her leg to drain her of rage. It wasn’t nearly enough to get him back on his feet after the beating he had taken, but enough to weaken her that much further.
Lucian pulled back from Seraphina, sucking out more of her essence as he did so. “By the way, dear, I ran into an old friend of yours along the way. He wanted to tell you hello.”
“What?” Seraphina asked in a drugged haze, a dumb-ass-looking grin on her face. “Who?”
“Me.”
She tried to turn around at that familiar voice, but never got the chance. Anya, Tia, and Darvyn’s father had come to join the party also, and he was quite hangry. He punched a hole through her back, coming out through her chest with her heart inside his hand as he latched on to her neck and drained her dry.
“Dad?” This came from Anya as she was set down safely on the roof by Kierra.
“The three of you come all this way and not a word to your father?”
“What took you so long?” Tia asked.
“I felt the three of you cross over, then ran into Lucian on my way as I followed the pull of your blood. He filled me in on what was going on.” Turning to Kierra and Anya, he continued, “Kierra, please be a dear and fetch the young incubus.” Without question, she did what was asked, knowing he
