Drew had a good chance to unload on Rob once Wade and Alex grabbed the heavyset man’s arms from behind. He was a fit, muscular guy with several years of kung fu and more than a few street fights under his belt, and he understood the need to keep an opponent off-balance and hurting. He pummeled Rob’s face, chest and gut with rapid-fire blow after blow, committing everything he had into each punch and kick.
Battered and bleeding, Rob still managed to wrench free of Alex’s grip, then twisted mightily to hurl Wade bodily into Drew. Free to move, Rob swatted Alex backward over the pool table behind him.
Jason had been waiting for an opening. There hadn’t been room to help, nor was he a trained fighter like Drew or Wade. But he was smart, he was loyal, and barstools were readily at hand. The second he had a clear shot, he smashed one across Rob’s chest.
Rob staggered, but then lurched forward to grab Jason by the neck and shove him to the floor several yards away. It provided enough time for Wade and Drew to recover. Drew put his foot into the side of Rob’s knee while Wade tackled him.
The fight had gone on like this for several minutes. No one had any illusions of progress.
Alex heaved himself off the floor. He picked up an eightball as he rose.
Rob threw Wade back to the ground and stomped his side. “Didn’t wanna do things this way with you punks,” Rob growled, “but now I guess I’m gonna have to shove my money down your-!” Alex cut him off by slamming the eightball into the side of Rob’s jaw.
Rob gasped and grunted under the constant assault. It wasn’t like he was unharmed, but his strength refused to wane. Alex had a sinking feeling that he knew what Rob was-and that finally gave him an idea of what to do.
Drew went at Rob again, giving Wade a moment to recover. Jason was already coming back. Alex turned to Wade, looking him over until he found what he was looking for. Wade never went anywhere without a good pocketknife.
“Jason,” Alex croaked, “see if there’s a meat cleaver in the kitchen.”
“What?” Jason blinked.
Alex yanked the knife off of Wade’s belt, then hauled his friend back to his feet with Jason’s help. “Trust me! I’m not a psycho!” Jason nodded and quickly limped off to the kitchen. Alex said to Wade, “We gotta pin him down on his belly. I’ve gotta get at his back.”
“Okay?” Wade mumbled. He’d been a bit too thrown around to question the plan. It sounded reasonable to him. He tackled Rob from behind, wrestling to grab onto one of Rob’s arms. Rob countered, slipping free and bashing Wade back, but by then Drew figured out what Wade meant to do. It seemed like as good an idea as any.
Drew grabbed Rob’s arm, twisted, and then wrenched him into a pool table at the hips, causing Rob to double over. He locked his hold in as tightly as he could, pushing Rob down firmly onto the table. Wade recovered and grabbed Rob’s other arm.
Coming up behind him without any hesitation, Alex pushed the material of Rob’s sport coat, dress shirt and undershirt out of the way. Thankfully, Rob wore suspenders rather than a belt.
“Woah, what’re you doin’?” Wade asked. He could feel Rob’s strength returning. They wouldn’t be able to hold him down but a second or two longer.
Alex roughly unclipped Rob’s suspenders, then tugged the pants down for some slack. Finally getting a clear shot at Rob’s backside, he put the knife flat and sideways against the older man’s skin right above the crack of his ass and shoved up and in.
The sudden roar of rage, pain and panic that burst from Rob went beyond anything human. It frightened all four young men. In the kitchen, Jason spotted a meat cleaver and hustled back to the others. Holding their opponent down on the table, Drew and Wade looked on in shock as Alex kept cutting.
The tail appeared almost instantly. Alex grabbed at the long, flailing bit of flesh and pulled as he continued to cut with the knife. Rob kept screaming. Desperately, Alex slid the knife through muscle, tendons and skin.
Rob’s roar of anger turned to a wail of agony and humiliation as the tail came free. Drew and Wade suddenly found Rob easier to hold.
Jason returned in time to see Alex throw the demon’s tail down on the table. Alex grabbed at Rob’s coat and started cutting. “There’ll be wings, too,” Alex grunted. “Jason, gimme the meat cleaver.”
“What the fuck is this, man?” Drew burst.
“Demon.”
“Demon?!” all three of Alex’s friends repeated.
“Yeah. He is,” Alex huffed. He looked up at Jason. “He’s got horns, too, and they gotta go. Think you can find a hammer? One with a claw head?” He took the meat cleaver from Jason and then glanced at his friends. “Okay, I didn’t tell you everything before, but you guys would not believe the week I’ve been having.”
* * *
“He has lain with me, yes. And two other women, one of whom he has longed for deeply.” She noted Rachel’s sour look. “I must ask: are you jealous?”
“I don’t…I don’t know,” Rachel frowned, looking down at the ground. “I care about him. He’s such a good person. I want him to be happy. If he’s happy with you, I can accept that. It’s not jealousy that I feel, I don’t think, because I’m not angry that he’s with you. But I’m frustrated and resentful that…that I can’t be with him,” she admitted softly.
“Why not?” Lorelei asked. “Angels have occasionally loved mortals before. Allowances have been made. I would imagine our situation would be a perfect case.”
Rachel went pale. “Are you on crack? Do you know what has happened to those angels?”
“I do. Tell me, Racheclass="underline" were your feelings for Alex strong enough, would that deter you?”
“I think you’re getting a little ahead of yourself.”
“I know desire. You have not explored yours yet. Nor has he explored his feelings for you. Yet he has a burning desire to be with you, well apart from his feelings for myself or Taylor or anyone else. That feeling is strong and beautiful…much as his feelings for me.”
“Desire isn’t love.”
“No, but love often includes desire, and I’ve enough experience to know that what I sense in him-in us all-is something I have never felt before in all my time in this world. Given my activities, that tells me all that I need to know.”
“You aren’t afraid of being pushed out?” Rachel asked. “I’m pretty awesome.”
“You are,” Lorelei nodded, “but no. I do not fear being pushed away. I am confident in my relationship with Alex. If I did not know him so well, I would not speak to you of this now. Are we settled that we need not be enemies?”
The angel looked at the succubus thoughtfully. “Maybe. I wouldn’t push past that.”
“And you’re not jealous?”
“No. Well. Only of time, maybe. Opportunity. I’m not bothered by his relationship with you.”
“Rachel, you might be amazed how much room there is in his heart…and in our bed.”
Rachel gasped. She glanced around, blushing, and then looked at the stars, or more pointedly away from Lorelei. The succubus stepped closer, her breath hot on Rachel’s ear. “Alex wants you, Rachel. The two of you have such great potential for joy. I would not interfere. I would even help.”
* * *
Stripped of his tail and wings, and with his horns smashed off of his head, Rob gave the guys no further trouble. He lay crumpled on the floor, his hands duct-taped behind his back. They fitted Rob with Jason’s noise-canceling headphones. Tool blasted into the demon’s ears at max volume so Alex could breathlessly summarize his situation with Lorelei and Rachel.
“If she’s your guardian angel, why didn’t she show up?” Jason asked.
“She can’t see me when I’m with Lorelei. Maybe she can’t see me with this guy so close by, either.”
“So what do we do?” Wade asked. “Ah mean, we can’t just smoke this fucker, can we?”
“Wow, man,” Drew blinked. “That’s harsh.”
It reminded them all how far Wade had been from home. “Yeah, but have we got another option?”
“I don’t know how we can,” Alex shrugged. “Lorelei says if she takes a tumble off my bike it’s not that big a deal. This whole thing with cutting off his tail and wings hurts him more ‘cause it’s symbolic than because it’s an actual injury if I understand right.”