Page 86 of Virgin Lust

“It’s my fault. I couldn’t save her. I was the only one near—”

“Don’t worry, we’ll find her,” August interjected.

“How?” Maureen appeared, glaring as she materialized her twin blades and hacked away at the moaning dead creatures. “If she’s with Harvest already, we won’t find her. Whoever shields him from our senses is really good at it.”

“Maureen,” warned Barron. His red essence steadily flowed around him.

Gwendolyn touched his shoulder. “Barron, your sister needs you to keep it together.”

As we spoke, more helicopters appeared. Water sprayed down and dampened us. Fire trucks echoed in the distance, and a man’s voice spoke over a loudspeaker, “We need everyone to drop your weapons…” He kept on and on, but no one gave a damn. No doubt live footage of us had spread through the various TV networks.

“Let’s split up and start looking. We won’t stop until every spot has been checked,” Sebastian said. “Grim’s searching with Mom and Kitty. We can’t reach Payne. He left us when our powers disappeared, so maybe he’s searching for Joy.”

I hesitated at the mention of Payne before I finally said, “No, I think maybe we should look for Payne, too. He’s been a little strange.”

“Yeah,” Sebastian sighed. “It was kind of hard to miss him walking around like a giant flame.”

“I hate this!” Maureen sucked in a breath and closed her eyes. “I shouldn’t have spoken like that about finding Joy. I’m just…”

Scared.I understood my sister all too well. Because just like that, we lost one of us.

____

We searched the City of the Dead first. Our senses were the sharpest right in the middle of purgatory. The Underworld was where the Devil belonged. As the lines kept blurring, I wondered if maybe the Devil worked with Harvest to bring us down. In the end, there would be us and them. And our side was losing.

It took twenty-four hours to search the city. No scent or sense of our sister Joy. One hour was plenty for one proxy to make his way to Harvest and let him know our powers were failing.

In the twenty-fifth hour, we split up into groups. Dad sent out all his Reapers to the human world and the Underworld to search for Joy.

____

On the third day of our search, as demon activity increased, souls began stockpiling in the human world. Whispers from the City of the Dead spoke of portal chips being distributed to demons. The action created an even bigger ruckus in the human realm. The humans were learning of demons. Their future was in peril. Although mortal, knowledge made them capable of defending themselves.

I wiped my brow as I ran through a cave in the Underworld. Footfalls thumped heavily behind me.He’s right on my ass.No matter how fast or far I ran, Shepherd kept up. A low and pleasant hum stirred within my veins. Every fiber within me came to life, and my skin tingled.Not now, I begged.

My fatigued and stressed body worked double time to keep up, making it more difficult to ignore my soulmate’s insistent demands. But I couldn’t stop. No sleep. No food. No stopping. Not until we found Joy.

If my brothers could work nonstop, I could too until we found our sister. Ignoring the steps behind me, I focused on the ones runningawayfrom me. Materializing my scythe, I morphed it into a dagger and flicked it. Imbued with my essence, the knife sailed toward its target.

My muscles spasmed as pain coursed through my sore shoulders. Hunger pangs with two different origins hit my stomach. A big, fat cheeseburger sounded so good, but so did riding Shepherd’s cock. The closest need was right behind me, a breath away from unleashing Lust. God, he smelled so good. Keeping my distance was imperative.

Hades!I didn’t have time to entertain my curse withJoy out there somewhere.

I smiled when I heard the banshee cry out. I covered my ears as she screamed, and then I found her slouched around the corner. Even with my ears blocked, my skull throbbed with her shrieking. Sobbing, blood covered her hand as she tried to pull the dagger from her stomach. Using my power, I pushed it deeper inside her.

When I was close enough, I grabbed her neck and forced her to her feet. “Where is your cult leader?” Not waiting for an answer, I pushed her against the cave wall. My nails caught the surface, nicking them sharply. The slight pain stabbing my cuticles was nothing compared to the throbbing between my thighs. “Harvest has made all of you mindless,” I muttered as I yanked her hair, tilting her chin upward.

“Fuck. You.” She spat in my face. “He will make your sister wish she could die.”

Instead of fury, grief sliced into my chest, and I staggered back, barely keeping my hold on the demon.

“Prudence.” Shepherd growled behind me.

I focused on the bleeding banshee in front of me. She knew Harvest had Joy, but not about our funky powers. She would have thrown it in my face if she did.

Our powers disappeared three more times since Derrick took Joy. Each incident was brief, but it was a matter ofwhenour mortality became permanent. We had to find Joy. If we didn’t… I choked on the lump in my throat as my eyes watered.

“You know nothing,” I croaked, narrowing my gaze at the banshee. “But that’s not why I’m here.”

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