Raise a Little Hell Read online

  Raise a Little Hell

  Cathryn Fox

  Gifted with a sixth sense, Nicole James has always felt different and alone in the world. She has no idea what her abilities really mean—until she experiences Lucifer's erotic charm when he tries to claim her.

  But Nicole has a protector in Paranormal Task Force Officer Connor McClain. From the moment he sees Nicole, he craves her in a way no mere mortal could understand. And Connor has a plan to break Lucifer's hold over Nicole: by seducing her and putting her under his own sensual spell….

  Contents

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter One

  Amber eyes glowing with rage, Lucifer lunged from his stone throne and threw back his mutilated horned head. With his nostrils flaring, he spanned his long arms and unfurled razor-sharp claws. A low tortured moan rose from the depths of his throat as fiery flames shot from his fingertips and licked over the charcoaled walls. Dry blistering heat whirled around the room, the energy feeding the red-hot coals in the dilapidated fire pit embedded in the floor before him. Waves of heat leaped upward from the deep rock crater as chunks of aged and pitted stone collapsed under his angered assault, a few fragments splintering to the blackened floor.

  Kneeling at his feet, Lucifer’s female playthings squirreled backward, veiling their naked bodies from the bright orange glimmer emanating from the hot stone hearth. As they camouflaged themselves in the darkened corners, frightened by his sudden outburst, his anger exploded like a round of shrapnel and he spun around to flick his henchmen a glance.

  Useless.

  The entire lot of them.

  Totally. Fucking. Useless.

  Lucifer drew a breath, pulling the aromatic scent of rich sulphur residue into his lungs, letting the bouquet pet and soothe his volatile temper in a bid to relax himself. He needed to think with logic, not emotion, when calculating his next course of action.

  Honestly, did Cage and Brand—his mutinous henchmen—really think there’d be no price to pay for escaping purgatory and betraying their master?

  Restless and edgy, Lucifer angled his horned head and stroked his corneous protrusions. He began to pace. The sound of his hooves clattering on hell’s rocky surface was the only audible noise in his unusually quiet lair.

  As he considered the unexpected situation he’d found himself in, his mind raced, searching for a solution, coming up with only one. One that brought on a fierce shiver. He fought it off and bit down another burst of fury as it rose from his darkened core.

  Making his way to the long jagged opening in his rock wall, Lucifer ran one razorlike claw over the blazing hot stones and cursed himself for his temporary lack of good judgment. He should have known better than to trust Cage, or even Brand, with the simplest of tasks. All Cage had to do was “guide” Jadyn until she submitted to Lucifer. Then she’d be under Lucifer’s command for an eternity. But oh no, Cage had to go and fall in love with her, and it was that love that tore them from Lucifer’s grasp and landed them both on earth. And Brand, well, in Lucifer’s bid for revenge, all Brand had to do was sleep with Cage and Jadyn’s daughter, Kaylea, and mark her soul for hell. But he couldn’t pull off even such a menial task. And after creating a child with Kaylea, he, too, had cemented himself a place on earth, out of Lucifer’s reach.

  Fuck, he never should have given his servants such latitude, trusting them to follow through with his plans. Hadn’t he learned long ago that if he wanted the job done, and done right, he had to do it himself?

  But that meant traveling to earth. Lucifer shivered just thinking about stepping foot on such a vile, place—a vile mortal place where his powers were limited and after a mere forty-eight hours his body would weaken and materialize back in hell, giving him little time to hunt, torture and mark those who’d proved most disloyal to him. Him. Their master.

  Of all the fucking nerve…

  But if he wanted to reclaim Cage and Brand, and make them pay for their treachery, he had no choice but to travel to earth himself. After all, he couldn’t for one second let his other henchmen think such insubordination went without punishment. Brutal punishment. Consequences would be paid, and the payment would be most costly.

  Lucifer balled his hands. As his sickle-like claws bit into his palm, the pain brought little to no comfort as his mind whirled. The souls of Cage and Brand belonged to him, dammit, and he sure as hell planned on reclaiming them, along with the women who stole them from his clutches.

  But how?

  Lucifer peered into the guarded portal embedded in his wall, a portal that carried marked souls from one realm to the other. He glimpsed a watery picture of Kaylea, a pure soul, along with her best friend, Nicole James, lunching at a curbside café called Halo. As he studied the image longer, there was something about Nicole that triggered a reaction inside him. A strange, excited tingle danced along his spiked horns, and renewed energy moved through his veins at lightning speed, prompting his dick into action.

  Midnight poker-straight hair matching the color of his black soul framed deep green eyes that seemed far more speculative and aware than any mere mortal’s should. Intrigued to the point of distraction, he continued to study her.

  Fuck, what he’d do to mark that little spitfire as his. He knew the only way to claim Nicole was by sleeping with her, since sleeping with the devil himself, or one of his henchmen, was a crime against her gods. It wasn’t as if he could go to earth and simply pull her through the door and keep her as one of his little playthings. Unfortunately, it didn’t work like that. He couldn’t open the guarded portal from their side. Not without a—

  Pulling him from his musings, Nicole took a small sip of her coffee, jumped to her feet and reached for her jacket. As Lucifer watched her, taking note of her aura and the rapid spike in her vibrations, his thoughts went haywire.

  “What the fuck—”

  He faltered backward. His eyes widened and he braced his hands on the jagged portal in a bid to right himself. If he had a heart, it would have leaped from joy, because it just occurred to him that Nicole James was the answer to his dreams.

  And the beginning of earth’s nightmares.

  Chapter Two

  As Nicole James restocked the library shelves on this blustery Chicago morning, a burst of warm dry heat shot from the floor register and helped rent the chill in the air. The damn building felt like a frozen-food storage locker on most days, Nicole mused. Sure, it was good for the books and computers, but it certainly wasn’t good for the early-morning staff who had to open up and kick-start the ancient forced-air furnace. Cripes, her breath practically turned to fog when she exhaled, and that was even after the heat had been running for hours.

  With her cool body absorbing the rush of warmth, Nicole grabbed a sip of her coffee, tucked a wayward strand of hair behind her ear, leaned over and whispered to her very pregnant best friend in a hushed voice, “I think he’s the one.”

  Fingers poised inches from the shelf, Kaylea West cast Nicole a sideways glance, her blue eyes widening. “Come on, Nicole, how can he be the one? You haven’t even met him in person yet.”

  Nicole gave a casual shrug. “I don’t need to meet him in person to know.”

  “Sure you do,” Kaylea insisted as she neatly slipped the brand-new book on medieval German literature into the four-inch slot where it would likely gather dust for the next millennium. Kaylea twisted and wagged a warning finger. “Meeting a guy online and meeting him in person is not the same thing. Haven’t we been over this?”

  Feeling like a love-struck teenager, Nicole’s insides were bursting with an unusual amount of excitement. She hugged a hardcover book to h
er chest and spun around. “But he’s so perfect. He’s everything I’ve ever wanted in a man. Tall, beautiful, sensitive, and he’s a doctor, Kaylea. A doctor. So perfect.” She momentarily shut her eyes and let out a long euphoric sigh. “You know I’m not very religious, but it’s like he was a gift from God. Like he tapped into my thoughts and created the perfect man for me.”

  Nicole opened her eyes in time to see a wave of apprehension spill across Kaylea’s face. Body language telltale, her friend furrowed her brow in genuine concern. Kaylea pitched her voice low—to show the severity of the situation, Nicole supposed—and said, “He sounds too good to be true. And you know what they say about that—”

  Nicole grabbed for Kaylea’s hand and cut her off. “Come on, after all the losers I’ve been out with, and all the failed relationships, can’t you just be happy for me? And look at Brand. Talk about love at first sight, and he’s been an amazing husband, hasn’t he?” Nicole took that moment to glance at her friend’s big belly. “So damn amazing some would think he was too good to be true.”

  After a long thoughtful moment, Kaylea’s blue eyes softened and she squeezed Nicole’s fingers in support, but the underlying worry in her voice hadn’t gone unnoticed. “I am happy for you. I just want you to be careful. There are too many crazies roaming the streets at night and I don’t want you mixed up with any of them.”

  Nicole appreciated her friend’s concern, she really did, but after losing her parents at a young age, and being sent halfway across the country to live with a grandmother who cared little to nothing for her, she’d practically raised herself in one of Chicago’s roughest and toughest neighbourhood. Nicole prided herself on being street savvy, that, and she’d been gifted with a sixth sense. For as long as she could remember, she had the ability to read people, helping her separate the good from the bad. She wasn’t sure if she’d inherited the ability from her parents, as Nicole was so young when they died, too young at the time to understand the significance of her extraordinary gift.

  “You of all people know I’m a good judge of character,” Nicole reminded her. “And Trent is amazing. We have so much in common.”

  Kaylea gave a slow side-to-side shake of her head, her light blond curls bounding with the easy movement. “Jeez, what kind of spell does he have you under anyway?”

  “It’s not a spell. He’s just a really great guy.”

  “I know you think he’s a great guy, but it’s just that…”

  Kaylea’s voice fell off when Nicole raised her arms and placed her palms face out. She cut her hand through the air, shaping the pattern of Kaylea’s body. “And like you, Trent Wheeler has such a beautiful aura about him.”

  Kaylea raised a dubious brow. “You could pick up on that from just his photo?”

  “Yeah,” she murmured dreamily. “Such a soft and beautiful shade of blue. Just like the color of your eyes, in fact.”

  Kaylea leaned against the mobile book rack and asked, “Doesn’t blue mean he’s spiritual?”

  Nicole winked. “Like I said, he’s a gift from God.”

  “Okay, so when and where are you meeting this gift from God?” Kaylea teased.

  “I told him to meet me for lunch at Halo, then we’re going to catch a matinee.” Nicole grabbed another book from the rack and cocked her head. “See, I’m playing it smart. A Saturday-afternoon date, then home by dark, before all the crazies come out of the woodwork.”

  “Alone?”

  Nicole blinked, putting on her best innocent face. “Well, now, that depends,” she hedged, noncommittal.

  Kaylea arched a warning brow. “Nicole?”

  Nicole laughed and planted her hands on her hips. “I’ll tell you what. You stop by Halo and meet him. Once I have your approval then-”

  “Then what?”

  Nicole tossed Kaylea a flirtatious wink. “Then I’ll tell you all about it Sunday over brunch.”

  In the span of a moment, every nerve ending in Connor McClain’s body went on high alert and his blood pressure soared, an automatic reaction to a change in the city’s vibrations. As a Paranormal Task Force officer, he wasn’t at all immune to feeling edgy, antsy and restless. After all, he’d witnessed some pretty fucked-up shit in the California branch before he’d recently relocated to Chicago. But never had he picked up such strong oscillations before. Something was wrong. Seriously wrong. He felt it in every fiber of his being.

  With his adrenaline pumping through his veins at breakneck speed, he swung his unmarked Mustang around and let his senses guide him through the busy afternoon streets, searching for the source of his anxiety.

  He scanned the sidewalks carefully, studying each and every pedestrian as they milled about. Besides the regular steady vibrations and the array of different-colored auras painting the air, there was nothing unusual about this eclectic mix of people. He continued to scan, cataloguing the parade of faces. When he caught sight of a young girl with midnight-black hair, striking green eyes and a powerful golden aura sitting behind a plate-glass window in a curbside café, his heart nearly stopped, and he just knew he’d found what he was looking for. He quickly rolled his window down and palmed the cold midday air in affirmation. As he studied her graceful movements, his blood began to burn in a way he’d never before experienced. How peculiar. Wouldn’t that only happen if she was a…

  Connor blinked, his thoughts fragmenting.

  Surely to God she wasn’t…

  Energy came off her in waves as her gaze surfed over the crowd outside; intelligent, intuitive eyes brushing over his without conscious thought. But if she was what Connor thought she was, then there would be nothing unconscious about her actions. She’d be naturally seeking him out. Drawn to him in ways no mere mortal could possibly understand.

  His pulse leaped and his heart pounded so hard he feared it would jump from his chest. He yanked his wheel to the right and pulled up to the curb on the opposite side of the street, angling his body for a better view as a barrage of emotions hit him—her emotions.

  Waves of excitement and nervousness swamped him as he watched her anxiously stare at the door, awaiting company. But it was who, or rather what, that was about to make her acquaintance that knotted his insides like a pretzel. Using his cell phone, Connor inconspicuously snapped her picture and ran it through his database. As soon as her identity came shooting back to him, his entire body began to shake, and a rush of energy threw him back against his car seat.

  What the fuck?

  He’d been doing this job long enough to know the presence of Lucifer’s minions could never create such energy, having gone up against them a time or two. Only the Dark Lord himself could produce such a powerful force field. But the Dark Lord hated earth, and would never step foot on what he considered a vile place, not unless…

  Unless Connor was right, and like him, the girl inside the café was a guardian and Lucifer was after her. Connor’s stomach dropped and his jaw clenched to the point of pain. His head spun and he grabbed a fistful of his hair. Jesus Christ, this could not be happening.

  He scanned the sidewalk and glimpsed a tall, well-dressed, dark-haired man entering Halo. Inside the café the striking dark-haired girl rose to meet him, her eyes glazing over with pure admiration.

  Transfixed.

  Captivated.

  Completely under Lucifer’s spell.

  Oh, fuck!

  Nostrils flaring, Connor gripped his steering wheel so hard his knuckles turned bone white. If Lucifer managed to lure her into his bed, possess her and have her submit to him—an easy task considering the infatuated look on her pretty face—then all hell was going to break loose.

  Literally.

  Chapter Three

  Nicole rested her chin on her palms and dreamily stared at Trent from across the little round café table, noting that he was even more charming and handsome in person. His long lashes blinked over dark eyes and held her captive, doing the weirdest things to her insides as he, in turn, appraised her. When one strong hand reache
d out and furtively brushed over her cheek, her entire body went up in a burst of flames. A tingle moved through her blood at lightning speed, coming to rest on the greedy little spot between her legs. God, this guy was so perfect it was almost surreal.

  As her pussy lubricated with want, it occurred to her that no man had ever before made her feel so libidinous from one simple touch.

  Trent’s jean-clad knees brushed up against her from beneath the table and brought on a shudder. Pleasure danced in his dark eyes as his glance left her face and trailed downward, coming to rest on her ample cleavage. Her nipples tightened under his appreciative gaze, eager to feel his hands, his mouth and the soft blade of his tongue on her quivering breasts.

  “Nicole, you’re even more beautiful in person,” he murmured and wet his lips in preparation as though he could read her every sinful thought.

  Leaning forward, she flirtatiously flashed her lashes, receptive to his blatant charisma. “You’re such a charmer.”

  “Ah, but you make it so easy to charm, darling.”

  He captured her hand and drew it to his mouth for a light, barely-there kiss. Moisture pooled between her thighs and she became breathless beneath his enchanting touch.

  Taking her by surprise, every nerve ending in her body came alive as the sudden image of the two of them writhing in her bed flashed in her mind. Bodies tangled, lips tasting, hips thrusting…

  Mesmerized and beyond anxious to indulge in her erotic vision, she was about to do something she’d never done before—jump into bed with a man on the first date. How totally uncharacteristic of her. But then again, there was something about Trent that had her acting completely out of character, and after chatting with him online, she really felt as if she knew him.

  “Shall we skip dinner and a movie and just go back to my place?” she asked.