Free Snowballs in Hell by Eve Langlais Page A

but these demons were tough. Built as soldiers for Hell, they were much more resilient than other varieties of demon.
    I found myself tiring. My movements getting slower as I parried and thrust in an unending rhythm. A slash across my mid-section, slicing open my favorite red silk blouse brought on the magical trance. As on other occasions when I found myself in mortal peril, words of power appeared in my mind and I spoke, their terrible energy lashing out, drawing upon the magic stored within in me, until like a dried husk who had no more juice to give, I collapsed.

Chapter Five
    The pavement reached up to slap me as my legs refused to hold my weight. Limper than an overcooked noodle, I couldn’t even brace to hit the hard ground. Arms wrapped around me from behind and caught me inches before my face would have become intimately acquainted with the sidewalk.
    “Are you okay, Muriel?” David asked.
    Not really, but I refused to admit it. “Are they all gone?”
    “Yes. Whatever you did, it turned them all into dust. But you look like shit.” Gee talk about an ego booster. “I’ll be fine. I just need…” Sex. But with Auric gone that wouldn’t happen. Shit. I’d have to masturbate which would only give me a fraction of my power back, not to mention I’d have to do it in the bathroom given my temporary roommate. You could always fuck David, said my insidious mind. No, I was sure when Auric left he meant for me to get used to David and the idea, not actually do him. But this situation really sucked. Auric hadn’t even been gone a day and already, I had used up all my power. Great, now I’d be magicless until he came back. I’d survive, I had before.
    Mind, before I hadn’t had psycho super beings after me, but at least I couldn’t complain my life was boring.
    David moved behind me, his arms changing their grip on my limp spaghetti body, and suddenly I became aware of the fact that David wore not a stitch of clothing. And he also seemed to be very happy to see me.
    My cheeks burned hotly and I pushed away from him. “I can stand on my own,” I declared. My good old friend Murphy, who was always waiting for moments like these, swooped in with a vengeance and I fell over in an ungraceful heap.
    David picked me up again, this time cradling me princess style in his arms which brought my face in close proximity to the smooth skin of his chest and scent–a musky masculine, yummy smell that should be bottled for an outrageous price.
    “Put me down,” I demanded even as my body melted in his arms.
    “No,” he said in a firmer tone than I’d ever heard from him before.
    What, he’d chosen now of all times to get a backbone? “This isn’t appropriate,” I said primly. Ironic, I knew, given my parentage, but somehow innocuous as this was, I felt like I was betraying Auric. I loved Auric, I never wanted to do anything that would make him doubt that whether he wanted me to want David or not. Damn this whole thing was bloody confusing. My poor little brain hurt.
    Not listening to my protests, David carried me to the loft. I didn’t know what was the biggest miracle–us not running into anybody while he carted me around naked, or the ground not opening up to swallow me from embarrassment.
    I tried to get him to put me down a few times, but David, in an uncharacteristically stubborn stance–one I’d have to disabuse him of once I got my strength back–refused to, leaving me fuming in his arms. If he thought his gallant act would make me drop my panties for him, he had another thing coming even if said panties were actually wet.
    We finally reached the inside of the apartment where David deposited me finally on to the couch.
    “Can you leave now?” I said, tired and needing him to leave before I did something stupid that I’d regret. I could sense the empty hole in myself where my magic usually resided, and damn was it hungry. It didn’t care if David wasn’t my main squeeze. It wanted stimulation and it