A/N: In response to the Cheeky Monkey Halloween Challenge, issued by awesome author Reyavie. This is set in the With Noble Intent universe.
A huge thanks to the brilliant Enaid Aderyn for the James Bond quotes/ideas. You are the light in my heart.
And thank you, Lisa, for beta-reading, for your wit and wisdom and for being there for me. You breathe life into these stories.
Happy Halloween!
~~~oOo~~~
Demons Are a Girl's Best Friend
"A nice little nothing you're almost wearing," Joss hummed appreciatively, staring at the nipple clamps. The gold chains attached to the clamps swayed in a gentle breeze.
"Ah, and just who might you be?" the Desire Demon asked, pointing a beautifully-manicured talon at Joss.
"Amell. Joss Amell."
The Desire Demon's nipples hardened at that, or perhaps it was the blast of icy wind Joss sent in her direction. Demons, it turned out, hated the cold. And Joss loved playing with demons.
The demon shifted with such subtlety that Joss was momentarily taken aback. Aerin Bryant stood before her, pleasuring himself, his eyes tempting her to touch him, a seductive whisper of want on his full lips.
Staring at the Desire Demon's idea of recreation, Joss was shaken. But not stirred. She'd had the real Aerin Bryant and no demon could compare, although she had once jokingly called Aerin a demon between the sheets. His naturally dark skin had turned a shade lighter at that, but he was slowly becoming used to her Fade humor.
"Do you expect me to be tempted by that?" Joss asked, disappointed at the effort made on her behalf.
"No, Mage Amell. I expect you to die!"
Oh, there was an original line. She'd have to remember that for her next encounter with a demon, but, for now, she was content to turn her blast of cold air into a ball of ice that split the demon in two, wincing as the faux Ser Bryant's willy became wee, indeed. Mentally apologizing to her lover, she stepped around the Desire Demon, bending to remove the nipple clamps.
"You won't need these any time soon," she explained to the dead demon.
She continued on, leaving a trail of pale blue energy behind her for the real Ser Bryant to find when he joined her. He was late, but then he usually was slow in coming, and she had no complaints. At. All.
She smiled as she continued to travel the bleak landscape of the Fade. Somewhere out there was the demon she was hunting and she would find it, no matter how long it took. Joseph would be avenged, even if it meant she'd hunt demons for the rest of her life. It wasn't as if she had anything better to do…she was a mage, stuck in a tower that sat on an island in the middle of the lake. And besides, she loved playing with demons, most of whom were easily annoyed and often as dumb as dirt.
Aerin Bryant appeared before her, dressed not in his templar armor, but in tight-fitting black trousers and a black leather jerkin, looking good enough to eat. She chuckled as he looked down at his attire and then back at Joss.
"I suppose I'm grateful not to be completely sans clothing this time," he remarked, adjusting his blade. She offered to help, of course, thinking there was something rather compelling about a man in black leather. Fade sex was almost as great as real sex, and, in some ways, better without the restraints of the physical world.
She stopped walking, tilting her head slightly, stretching out her hand to feel the ripples in the Fade. A demon. Possibly the demon. She motioned for Aerin to follow her as she entered a Fadescape.
Shadows flickered on slick stone walls. The air was hazy with smoke from the torches that lit the long hallway they found themselves in. Gauzy grey strands hung with evil menace from the high ceiling. Joss shuddered. Spiders. Why'd it have to be spiders?
"It appears we have a smart demon on our hands. What are the odds?" she asked in a whisper. It wasn't that she'd intended to whisper, it was the thought of creepy crawlies that stole her voice.
Aerin placed a firm hand in the small of her back. "Have no fear, Lady Josslyn. I shall protect you from the dread Fade spiders that are no more real than the spider webs adorning the ceiling," he teased, his breath warm against her skin.
"Right. I knew that," she replied as she crept forward, grateful that he didn't remove his hand, coward that she was.
A low moaning emanated from a nearby room and she hesitated, waiting for the hair on the back of her neck to settle down again. "Powerful demon. Pride?" she whispered hoarsely and cleared her throat.
"Certainly not a Sloth Demon: they are far too lazy, and this one is far too complex," Aerin replied in his normal, resonant voice.
She crept forward, the hair on her arms deciding to join the hair on the nape of her neck, raising up to allow goose-bumps to form. The low moaning had given way to piteous weeping. She stopped, putting a hand on the wall to steady her suddenly shaking limbs. The wall was wet and sticky.
"We're in the Fade, right?" she asked, bringing her hand away and holding it up to her face. Red. As red as blood. Ewww, why had she let her mind go in that direction?
"Of course, otherwise we'd be horizontal right about now," her lover replied.
She forced herself to take another step forward and then another, her body not happy to be traveling in that direction at all. Swallowing loudly, she pushed open the nearest door and entered a large, brightly-lit room.
A chandelier hung from the vaulted ceiling, it's prisms jeweled by the light of hundreds of candles. She blinked, nearly blinded by the light. Glancing around, which wasn't easy because her muscles were mostly frozen in fear, she gulped. The walls were illuminated and it took her a minute to work out that they were reflecting the light from the chandeliers. A half dozen mirrors graced each wall, with doors set in between them. Every door was open and darkness lay beyond them.
Her feet became rooted to the floor and her tongue became stuck to the roof of her mouth. Only with great effort was she able to turn her head to see if Aerin was having the same reaction. He wasn't there, and, before she could call out to him, every door in the room slammed shut.
"I'm not afraid, I'm not afraid," she whispered, wishing her voice wasn't cracking like a pubescent boy's. And somehow, she knew. She knew this was the domain of the Pride Demon who had taken Joseph from her. Her fear dropped away from her like dead leaves from a tree. Which was a very poor choice of words, and an even worse image as she pictured little Joss-shaped leaves drifting down to the ground to be stepped on by careless passers-by.
"Greetings, Mage. How kind of you to visit my home. Who might you be?" the voice came from every direction and she found herself looking at the nearest mirror, to see nothing, not even her own reflection. Andraste's sacred smalls! Shouldn't she see herself, at the very least?
"Answer me, Mage!" boomed the disembodied voice.
Stop thinking that way, idiot! Not that she listened to herself. She forced herself to look away from the mirror and speak. "Hello. I am Josslyn Amell. You killed my brother. Prepare to die!"
She was quite proud of not only her words, but the fact she'd found her voice at all. She'd been sure it was drowning in a sea of fear somewhere. Inside her was a little girl, hysterically running in circles and screaming for her security blanket.
A great shout of laughter met her announcement, and the demon stepped into the light.
"Brave words, Josslyn Amell. A shame they will be your last."
Joss blinked and rubbed her eyes and then blinked again. A headless form appeared before her, its head floating beside it. And not just any head. Joseph's grin looked a bit cock-eyed but she'd guess that was normal for a dead person.
"Neat trick, Joseph. How'd you get your head to float like that?"
"We all float down here," Joseph replied and that was the last thing he said. The demon had gone too far, and, with a roar of anger, Joss sent a fireball hurtling towards her dead brother.
"Missed!" he cried triumphantly, dodging the fireball. He tossed his head at her and she hit it with lightning. The head exploded and the demon screamed in rage. She hit the demon again, this time with the biggest blast of snow she had. The demon's shriek ended on a high note as it fell.
"I knew you'd set me free," Joseph whispered, and then silence settled.
Joss brushed her hands off and turned to make a dignified exit. Her legs had other ideas, and, as she ran from the room, she heard an old, old woman cackle. Nothing scary about that. At. All.
As she neared the door that led to the raw Fade, she heard the old woman speaking: "Fly away back to the Tower, little mage. Fly, fly, fly. We'll meet again, soon enough."
Joss only wished she had wings at that moment.
~~~oOo~~~
"If you killed the demon, whose voice was that at the end?" Aerin Bryant asked after Josslyn's breathless retelling of her adventure.
"I don't know and I don't care," she answered, shivering. Naturally, Aerin tried to warm her, his hands sliding along her skin. Then, she shivered for altogether different reasons. His hands knew what they were doing.
"Your experience calls for special templar attention," he whispered, his voice husky.
"Really? What kind of special templar attention?" Joss asked, tilting her head so his lips could travel along her neck.
"The honey works," he replied.
Who was she to argue with a templar?
Fin