William never looked in my direction, but he knew I was watching. When his victim moved closer to him, he stepped away, mindful to maintain a proper distance between them. When she touched his arm, he gently removed it. He was on his best behavior, but it didn’t stop the incubus from doing its dirty work.
The woman offered William a small bag of trail mix. He accepted it, quickly ate the contents, then threw the wrapper on the ground. The hiker stared at the litter. All the goodwill drained from her face. Seeing this, William went into full tempter mode. What had happened before was a build-up. This was the main event.
I had stopped listening in on them, but now I used my demon’s heightened sense of hearing to eavesdrop. “…want to do something naughty once in a while?” William asked. His eyes were alight with the devilish fire I’d come to know so well.
The hiker glanced at the foil wrapper on the ground.
William revved up his charm a little more. “Don’t get me wrong. I tread lightly on Mother Earth. My carbon footprints are almost nonexistent. But…” he sighed as if he couldn’t bear the weight of so much responsibility, “…I’m only human. I mean, I can’t be expected to carry every bit of trash for the entire length of the Appalachian Trail.”
I’d seduced plenty of people over the past year, and I’d even been at the mercy of William’s incubus a few times, but I’d never before watched a tempter in action. It was both fascinating and horrible. I could feel William’s demon assess the victim and search for weak spots to exploit. William’s incubus made him seductive and charming, but deadly as well. If the hiker knew how poisonous William’s demon was, she would have run away screaming. However, he’d trapped her with his otherworldly allure, and instead of fleeing, she was moving closer.
The hiker’s eyes fixed on William. “I know exactly what you mean,” she finally admitted. “I’ve been wanting to burn our trash at night, but Austen won’t let me.”
William beamed at her. “Exactly! Sometimes, we have to cheat. Just a little.” He nudged her. “Your pack is probably heavy enough as it is.”
When I saw the flicker in her eyes telling me William’s devilish mission was nearly completed, my paralysis broke. I couldn’t remain silent while this poor woman did Helen’s bidding.
Unfortunately, I’d waited too long. Before I could stop her, the young woman grinned evilly and threw her wrapper on the ground. Then she went the extra distance by taking a few other wrappers from her pack and tossed those as well.
Seeing that the damage was already done, my protest died in my mouth. Littering was a very small sin, of course, but those little acts opened pathways to larger and larger transgressions. Patrick Clerk once told me he’d watched saints turn into monsters all because they’d refused to answer a cry for help. Now that the woman had fallen for William’s temptation, who knew where she’d end up.
“Lightening the load. That’s all you’re doing,” William said.
The hiker smiled wickedly. “Tonight, I
will
burn the trash.” She glanced down the trail. “And I know who I’ll blame for it.”
Jenny finally trudged into view. Unlike her friends, she struggled under the weight of her backpack, and her legs trembled with exhaustion. She shrugged off her pack with a grunt of relief and collapsed on the ground.
The first woman crossed her arms over her chest. “We’re behind schedule. Austen already went on ahead.”
Jenny looked crestfallen. “Was he mad?”
“He wasn’t thrilled.” The woman smirked. “He thought you’d be able to keep up, but now he thinks we may have to cut our trip short.”
The little liar! Already, William’s temptation was taking root. If those dark thoughts continued to spread… Well, she might do worse things than blaming Jenny for burning trash.
When Jenny reached into her pack for a bottle of water, the other woman scolded her, “You don’t have time for that now. Let’s go!”
With a grunt and a sigh, Jenny stood, resettled her pack on her shoulders and began plodding down the trail once more.
When the women were gone, William rubbed his hands together. “Delilah is getter better! She had the time and the place spot on. Of course, she couldn’t pinpoint the temptation, but it all worked out in the end.”
Without a word, I stalked over to where the trash lay, picked it up, and stuffed it into my pockets.
“That’s unnecessary,” William said. “The damage has been done.”
“I
know
, William,” I said.
“You’re upset.”
He tried to put his arm around me, but I pulled away. “Of course I’m upset!”
“Is it because I had to combine work with pleasure?” he asked, worried. “I didn’t want to, but Helen’s been keeping me so busy that I would have had to cancel on you otherwise.”
“I know.”
He continued to study me. “You do realize that I wasn’t attracted to the young woman, right?”
I nodded. He had been completely professional. “Let’s just go,” I said. I headed down the trail.
“Lil, wait up. Lilith!” He caught up to me and touched my shoulder. “What’s going on inside your head? Talk to me.”
I was nearly in tears. “It was watching you in action.” I felt the stab of emotion again, but it wasn’t jealousy. “You made the hiker believe that you were her best friend. You
tricked
her.”
He reached for me, but I stepped away. “You and I can’t escape who we are,” he said.
A few tears spilled over. “But you’re so good at what you do. It comes so naturally!” Finally, I identified the emotion. “If you can fool her, then maybe you would fool me, too. How would I know the difference?”
His face fell. “Oh, Lil. Is that what you think? I would never do such a thing.”
I certainly wanted to believe him, but at the same time, I didn’t dare. William lied so well and so often it was possible he no longer
recognized the truth.
“How can I make you stop worrying?” he asked.
I met his eyes. “I want you to swear to me that you’ll always tell me the truth.
Always
.”
If he’d answered me right away, I wouldn’t have believed him. But he didn’t say anything for a long time. Finally, he took my hands. “The truth can be painful, and I don’t want to hurt you.”
“I’d rather be hurt by the truth than a lie,” I said.
He sighed. “Okay. I promise to always tell you the truth.”
“And I’ll do the same for you.”
All this seriousness was too much for him to bear. His eyes twinkled and he lifted a lock of my hair. “So tell me, is this your real color?”
I shoved him away. “You’re incorrigible.” I couldn’t help but smile, though.
He checked his watch. “I’d love to stay, but I have another appointment in about ten minutes.”
I glared at the ground. Helen really
was
keeping him busy.
“How are you going to get back in time?” I asked. It had taken nearly two hours to get to the top of the mountain.
“Follow me.” He led me back up the trail and past the boulder we’d been sitting on. Behind it stood an otherworld doorway.
I punched his arm. “Why did you make me hike all the way up here when we could have used this door?”
He rubbed his shoulder. “Because the effort it takes to climb up here makes the view even more spectacular. You wouldn’t have appreciated it nearly as much if you’d cheated to get to the top.”
I had to admit he was right.
“Besides, it was the only way I could see how beautiful you look when you’re flushed and sweating.” He grinned, his incubus back in full force. “I love to see a woman glow after a really hard work out.” Before he left, he kissed me. “Keep that bedroom door open tomorrow night.”
Maybe I would. Not that I’d tell
him
.
Back when I was fully human, I hadn’t realized how closely the physical, earthly realm connected with the spiritual one. Now that I could see the supernatural doorways, however, I understood that the world I’d been familiar with – the one involving mortgage payments and homework and television reality shows – was completely entangled with the otherworld. There are doorways, both Heaven and Hell’s, everywhere. Sometimes, it was impossible not to stare at them, especially when I caught sight of a supernatural creature exiting or entering. At the produce market a few days before, I’d dropped a carton of eggs because a small, horned demon had surprised me by crawling out from behind a display of watermelons.
After coming face-to-teeth with
a berserker demon that had turned my large, suburban home into a pile of rubble, I’d grown wary of living anyplace containing an otherworld doorway. Unfortunately, finding an apartment, let alone a house, without such a gateway was impossible. Every place I looked contained at least one supernatural entrance. Some had as many as five.
I compromised by renting the top floor of a subdivided mansion on the east side of the city. Although I counted six otherworldly doorways in the building, only two opened up inside my flat. The first stood in the middle of the living room wall, and I had barricaded it with the most immense, flat-screen television I could buy. The TV wouldn’t stop a rampaging berserker, but it might stop other, unwanted pests. The second doorway was in my bedroom. This one I vowed to use only for emergencies since I didn’t want anyone catching me appearing or disappearing into thin air.
After leaving William on the mountaintop, I avoided the convenient doorway in my bedroom. Instead, I used the one that opened up in the cramped, dreary basement next to the washing machine and dryer we shared with our downstairs neighbor.
The dryer finished tumbling the moment I stepped into the human world. I put the still-warm clothes into a basket and headed up the two flights of stairs to my apartment which, once again, had become very crowded. Although my daughter was out of the country, Tommy, my niece Ariel, and my stepsister Jasmine now lived with me as well.
Tommy, propped up by several pillows, lay on the couch and stared listlessly at the TV. When I walked in, he eyed me warily. It was an unspoken agreement that we were never alone in the flat together. Because I had once seduced him in order to make Helen happy, Tommy had a reason to be cautious. And although I vowed never to do such a thing to him again, I couldn’t say the same for my succubus. To her, seduction was as natural as eating and breathing were to me.
To my relief, Jas walked into the room. My stepsister had inherited the best parts from each of her parents: caramel-colored skin, hair like black silk, and exotic eyes from our father, and high cheek bones, long legs, and a perfect figure from her mother. All her life, Jas had acted like a spoiled beauty queen, but since Tommy’s accident, she’d become responsible. In fact, she took such good care of him that I didn’t need to do anything. Which was exactly how she wanted it.
“Time for your walk,” she told Tommy cheerfully.
“Not now,” he said. “I’m exhausted.”
“Dr. Cantor said you should get some exercise every day. It will help you heal.”
“I’m healing as quickly as I can, believe me.”
“I know you are, babe.” She leaned over the couch to kiss him on the lips, but he turned his head so that she got his cheek instead. Jas hid her disappointment by becoming brisk. “Let’s go. You need to get some sun. You look like a ghost. Doesn’t he, Lilith?”
Maybe a tall ghost with a football player’s build, a bald head, a dozen tattoos, and a line of metal studs in his forehead. But Jas was right; Tommy did look thin and pale. Not surprising considering what he’d been through. A few weeks before, he’d been attacked and killed by the berserker demon Helen had sent after me. In fact, if I hadn’t rescued him, Tommy would still be in Hell’s waiting room.