It’s funny how desire can hit you out of nowhere like a ton of bricks at the most inappropriate times. Maybe it was the glimpse of Cody’s true innermost self in an unguarded moment. Maybe it was born of my long-standing crush, maybe it came from the loneliness I’d felt after breaking up with Sinclair. Maybe it was a combination of guilt and anger and frustration, or maybe this had been coming ever since the night of the satyr-funk orgy.

All I knew was that I wanted this. Here and now. Cody’s eyes were gleaming above mine, his naked skin was hot, hotter than a human’s. And I knew, beyond a doubt, that he wanted this, too.

“It’s not safe.” His breath was warm against my skin.

To hell with the Seven Deadlies, to hell with duppies and zombies and grave robbers, to hell with safe. Cody wasn’t human and neither was I. I wanted this moment. I wanted his wildness. I wanted his fierceness. Wrenching one arm free, I reached between us and plucked dauda-dagr from its sheath, tossing it several feet away on the carpet.

“I don’t care,” I informed him, twining my free hand in his twig-tangled hair and yanking.

He kissed me.

It wasn’t sweet and it wasn’t nice. It was hungry and primal, and there may still have been a few too many teeth involved. If I’d been thinking in words, words like ravaging and plundering would have come to mind, but I wasn’t. Lowering his head, Cody nuzzled my neck, the bronze stubble of his chin rasping against my skin, nipping at it with strong white teeth. I bit his bare shoulder in response, laughing when he snarled at me.

He pushed my thighs apart, hands fumbling at my underpants, human hands turned rough and clumsy with need and the full moon’s lingering imperative.

I helped. I held him off long enough to shrug out of my leather jacket and unbuckle my belt, to peel off my panties, strip off my dress, and unfasten my bra, until I was as naked as he was in his nest of blankets.

I felt molten inside, my heat rising in answer to his. I raised my hips as Cody settled between my thighs.

With a wordless, guttural sound, he pushed himself inside me.

It felt good.

Again and again and again, mindless and primordial. Somewhere in the back of my mind, my father, Belphegor, was laughing.

Somewhere, maybe, God in his heaven frowned in disapproval, and ranks upon ranks of angels, thrones and powers and dominions, nodded their heads in sorrowful agreement.

I don’t know. The only entity beyond the Inviolate Wall ever to speak to me was my father.

Somewhere beneath us on her throne of antique saw blades, Hel gazed into the mists of time. A goddess diminished, but a goddess nonetheless.

Cody arched his back and howled.

Shuddering, I came.