Dates from Hell(115)
“You got that right.”
His mouth moved down my neck; his hands moved up my ribs. My knees wobbled. The desire pulsed in my blood with the beat of a thousand ancient drums. I couldn’t think straight.
“A virgin.” He lowered his hands to the small of my back and ground us together. “The best time there is.”
His words penetrated the haze. “How do you know I’m—?”
He pressed his nose to my neck and inhaled. “You smell all fresh and new. Never touched. You’ve been waiting for me.”
I hadn’t been waiting for him. I’d been waiting for true love. I knew that.
Of course I knew I wasn’t a slut and look how that was working out.
“Virgins taste the best.”
He licked my cheek and I didn’t mind. Since I was a little Howard Hughes about germs, another reason I was probably still a virgin, that should have disturbed me. I fought against the lustful lethargy and focused on what he was saying instead of what he was doing.
“Taste?”
“Sex is food for me, baby.”
Baby again. Wish I could find the will to care, or to kick him where it counted.
“Only virgins can keep me alive. So, you want it against the wall, on the bed, the table, the counter, the floor? I’m easy.”
Actually, I was.
He fumbled with the zipper of my jeans.
“I’ll consume you,” he whispered, “and no one will ever know.”
“I will.”
At the sound of Chavez’s voice, the lust I’d been unable to fight, fled. I managed to shove the flower boy away.
Chavez tossed a vial of burgundy liquid into the young man’s face. I flinched, half expecting him to shriek as his skin dissolved. I should have known better.
“Sacramental wine?” Laughing, he shook himself like a dog coming out of a lake. “You have got to be kidding me.”
“Ave Maria,” Chavez intoned. “Gratia plena.”
“Latin.” The boy shook his head. “That language is as dead as I am.”
“Our Father, who art in heaven.”
“Way after my time, dude. Nothing will help you. I’m gonna have her. You can watch if you want.”
Chavez socked the kid in the mouth. Blood spurted. “Don’t touch her; don’t look at her; don’t come near her again.”
“She’s mine.” His steadily fattening lip muffled his voice. “There aren’t a lot like her left in this city.”
Chavez glanced my way, and the demon took the opportunity to escape. Poof.
“Why didn’t he disappear as soon as he saw you? Did he want a fat lip?”
“Teleporting is a tricky business. Sometimes they have to recharge before they can do it again.”
That made sense, in this weird, new, demony world I was living in.
“Why bother with flowers?” I indicated the pot with a flick of my finger.
“You let him in?”
“No. He was just here when I came out of the bedroom. I knew something was weird, but he said the doorman let him in.”
“Probably didn’t want you to scream and alert me before he could get into your head.”
“Where have you been?” My fear made me shout. “How long does it take to get Christian paraphernalia these days?”
“Not that long. I’ve been waiting for him to show himself.”
“You used me as bait?”
Chavez cast me a quick, wary glance. “I wouldn’t have let him hurt you, Kit. I was right outside.”
He didn’t deny he was using me. I’d known that, yet it still hurt.
“He was just here—like Malcolm. You couldn’t have seen him—”
“I did.”
Chavez strode to my bookcases and removed a tiny camera from between two books. No wonder he’d been so damn interested in them.
“He came out before dark,” he said, “which makes him a lot more powerful than I thought.”
Silence fell between us, but my mind was full of questions, thoughts, disappointments. When Chavez spoke again, I was glad for the distraction.
“He said there weren’t very many like you in the city. What did he mean?”
I didn’t want to tell him, but I had to.
“I’m a virgin.”
His eyes widened. “You didn’t think that was something you should tell me?”
“That’s not something I’ve ever told anyone.”
“Madre de dios, he’ll never stop chasing you.”
“Why?”
“Because these days, chica, there aren’t that many virgins to be had.”
7
“S pectacular,” I said. “Try to save myself for marriage and end up demon bait. The story of my life.”
Well, not exactly. My life had never been this exciting.