Free Seducing the Succubus by Cassie Ryan Page A

movement. “A Garden of Eden threesome?”
    “Sex was very open back in the beginning, as it was meant to be. There was no ownership of each other and no puritan barriers. God created sex as a pleasure to be enjoyed by His creations. When He created Adam and Eve, He also created Lilith. They lived happily as a trio for a millennia, but then tensions began to mount and in the end it was Lilith who demanded Adam give up Eve, not Eve who tempted him into sin like the stories say. That’s when God kicked all three out of the Garden of Eden. He’d made it as a paradise, but with all the discord, that sacred place was beginning to wither and die. At the same time, tensions were heating up in Heaven. Lucifer and his followers went before God and demanded He choose them over the humans. In the end, Lucifer and his followers were cast out of Heaven and Adam, Eve, and Lilith were tossed out of the Garden of Eden and told never to return.”
    “Why isn’t any of this in the Bible or other documents?”
    Jezebeth shrugged. “The church had its own political agendas and made sure their documentation reflected what was best for them, including making women subservient to men, even though God had created both sexes as equals.”
    “Wow.” Noah was sure if he weren’t so tired and leaking blood like a cracked garden hose he would have a thousand more questions. But instead, he just relaxed back against the seat, letting these new facts percolate through his mind as they shifted the reality he’d always known—or thought he knew. He’d gone to Sunday school as a child and later in college he’d studied more in-depth in his literary classes.
    As a writer, he’d even used stories from several different religions for his own purposes within his work, but Jezebeth’s few sentences had totally thrown off his equilibrium.
    “Are you a demon hunter? Is that why Lilith picked you for this job?” He could tell from the way she rushed the words together she’d wanted to ask him for a while and had finally worked up the nerve.
    A laugh escaped before Noah could stop it. “No. I’m a horror writer.”
    Jezebeth’s gaze snapped to his and the truck swerved slightly before she corrected the movement and they were safely moving down the highway once more. “A horror writer?” The implied what the fuck? communicated clearly through her tone.
    “Yeah, you know, novels that after you read them make you want to hide under the bed with every light in the house on? The scarier the better.” Noah grinned. He was used to the surprise and even the disbelief when he told people what he did. But unfortunately, he had a feeling Jezebeth’s reaction was more about her lack of faith that he could keep her safe. Too bad that made two of them.
    “A horror writer,” she repeated softly as if pure repetition would make it more palatable. “But you probably have experience fighting demons, right?”
    He didn’t miss the hopeful note in her tone. “Only in my stories. Mr. Pestilence bounty demon back there was my very first.”
    She glared at his backpack. “Then what about all the hardware? The holy water, the kosher salt, and the bag full of other toys? I mean those darts—”
    “I’m a writer.” He cut her off midrant. “I’m good at research. The darts had a combination of holy water, peroxide, and pesticides. I had to experiment until I found a combination that didn’t degrade or react badly with each other, but figured that would damage the pestilence demon and it did.”
    “So in other words, you know only enough about demons to be dangerous?” Her knuckles were white where they gripped the steering wheel. “How the hell did you get roped into this?”
    He sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose as a headache pierced behind his eyes like a persistent ice pick. “I was researching ancient demons for my next book when I found an incantation that supposedly summoned Lilith the succubus queen.” He sighed as the memories swam