Included in Torquere Press anthology Taste Test Horns and Halos, edited by Mychael Black with stories by Dakota Flint, Zoe Nichols, and Clare London

 

Who doesn’t love hot demons and untainted angels coming together to make with the sin? Horns and Halos has all that and more! In Sinful, by Zoe Nichols, Reverend Lloyd Jamison lives with a sin that’s as big as Eve eating the apple. Thanks to youthful foolishness, he has a permanent craving, and the most delicious stalker you could have: lust demon Ripper. Try as he might, Lloyd can’t avoid Ripper, but will he be the one with the upper hand in the end? Deja Vu by Dakota Flint sees angel Graham meeting up with his arch nemesis, demon Cale, at the annual “Horns and Halos Bash” held as the one night a year that angels and demons can put their differences aside and get together to let loose. Things between them turn heated, quickly, and Cale gives Graham pleasure he never dreamed of. But what will happen when Graham wakes up the next day?  Finally, in Limbo, by Clare London, beautiful, fragile Yoshiel and the strong, fierce Labal have broken the no fraternization rule, and live to pay the price. They seek each other out, realizing their masters have exacted a penalty from them both, a punishment that’s both ironic and cruel. Will their shocking transformation prove their undoing?

 

 

“The characters are fun, the environment is enjoyable, and the sexual tension builds to some hot sex scenes. Well written and nicely paced, this is another pleasurable tale.”
–Matthew, at Rainbow Reviews. Read the whole review here.

 

“Remind me again why we come to this every year? You’d think Pacer would get sick of the ‘Horns and Halos Bash’ after the first one hundred and ninety years he used that title, but no. He still thinks it’s a riot.” Sarah sounded just as disgruntled as Graham felt.

 

“Yea, well you weren’t the one sentenced to a decade as an overweight teenage female when Goddard realized I was absent from the 1979 bash. Ten years of spandex, glitter, and cheesy pop music were enough to last an eternity. One night out of my year is a small price to pay to prevent something like that from happening again.” Graham suppressed a shudder as he thought about what he liked to call the AAA years, or Angsty Awkward Angel years.

 

“At least there won’t be any surprises at the party.”

 

Definitely no surprises. As they approached the entrance to Goddard’s palace, Graham looked around at the decorations. Yep, they were the same ones Pacer and his minions used at the first Horns and Halos Bash, right down to the sign at the door that read ‘Please check horns and halos at the door’ and the party favor mugs with ‘Are you feeling Horny tonight?’ in big red block letters on the front. Graham sighed. The Angels were too nice to tell Pacer the decorations and party favors were corny, and Pacer didn’t trust the Demons when they told him that.

 

Pacer had only held the position of liaison between the Federation of Angelic Beings and the Demonic Republic of Afterlife Beings, or FAB and DRAB as the Angels liked to say, for one hundred and ninety years, about three hundred and forty years less than his predecessor. His sole job was to plan the annual party for the angels and demons of this world, hosted at Goddard’s palace, the one night of the year when the battle for souls was checked at the door.

 

One would think that Pacer would change it up a bit in almost two hundred years, but he stuck with the same theme and decorations year after year. He could be heard saying that he knew how to stick with a good thing, and the angels would roll their eyes and the demons would make sarcastic replies that went right over Pacer’s head.

 

Graham looked around at the other angels and demons while he and his friend Sarah waited in line to get into Goddard’s place. The Horns and Halos Bash was a costume party, but with one stipulation: the demons had to wear something angelic and the angels had to wear something demonic.

 

This year Graham could see everything from a baby costume to a representation of human money. Most angels and demons dressed up in their human forms, himself included, a tribute to humans who were spending this night dressed as angels or demons while they celebrated a holiday they called Halloween.

 

After almost two centuries, it was hard to be original but some still tried. Others stopped trying a hundred years ago. Both Develin, the head of DRAB, and Michaelson, the head of FAB, were amongst the latter. Graham could see them at the door wearing what they had worn for years, Develin as a harp and Michaelson as a pitchfork. Honestly, if they couldn’t make the effort at anything approaching originality, why should their underlings have to?

 

“If nothing else, I wish they would have changed the costume requirement. Each year I tell myself I won’t bother trying to come up with something different and then each year I do. It’s such a pain.” Sarah spoke as she fiddled with her short blond bob and straightened the sweater tied around her neck. This year she had decided to go as Martha Stewart, an iffy call if Graham had ever heard one.

 

Sarah continued without looking back at Graham, “Although I have to say, you really went all out this year! If I didn’t know any better I would think you were trying to impress someone. I wonder what he’ll show up as this year?”Graham barely stifled an indignant gasp at that, knowing that Sarah was looking for just that reaction.

 

“This has nothing to do with him.” He couldn’t help the sneer that came out on that last word. The ‘him’ Graham referred to was the demon Cale, his arch nemesis. They had engaged in countless battles over souls for centuries and Graham tried to ignore him as best he could at the annual party. “I just wanted something a little different than the same tired representations of the seven deadly sins I’ve been doing for the last few decades. Last year when I went as Envy, three people asked me if the green body paint represented seasickness and if so, was I a member of FAB or DRAB because they couldn’t figure it out. I was going for something a little more obvious.”

 

“Well, I’d say that you more than hit the obvious mark with this costume. I haven’t been this tempted to sin just by looking at somebody since the codpiece went out of style.” Sarah added a whistle for effect as she turned back to study Graham from the top of his head to the tip of his toes. He blushed as he envisioned what he must look like to her.

 

Deciding to go as a street walker, Graham was sporting black leather boots with stiletto heels that hit mid-thigh, a red leather mini skirt that was so short Graham felt like the tip of his cock must be peeking out, a red and black leather corset, and enough eyeliner to jumpstart a Goth convention. He felt really decadent, really sexy, though he reminded himself that wasn’t exactly an angelic thing to feel. Both angels and demons alike had been giving him the eye. As he and Sarah finally reached the entrance, Michaelson looked like he swallowed his tongue as he looked at Graham, while Develin had a shit eating grin on his face.

 

“Ah, Graham. How nice to see you tonight. You look so…so…ah, well there I’ve checked you off.” Michaelson buried his nose in the guest list as he flipped through it so he could check Sarah off the list. Develin continued to grin, making no pretense of the fact that he was checking out every inch of Graham.

 

“You two have fun. Don’t forget to pick up your party favors.” The leer that accompanied this directive really creeped Graham out as he looked into Develin’s slimy, black eyes, and so he grabbed Sarah’s hand and waded into the crowd in the foyer. He moved them through the throng of people and down the stairs into the grand hall where the bar was, mindful of the fact that he was in heels that were damn hard to walk in.

 

“Hey, slow down. I don’t want to break into a sweat and smudge my makeup. What’s your-Oh look, there’s Cale. Now that’s priceless.” Sarah pointed off into the crowd, and Graham couldn’t help but look. There was Cale, standing next to two demons who looked like they were dressed as Mother Theresa and Gandhi, staring at him with such intense heat that Graham took an instinctive step back.

 

It wasn’t the usual arrogant smirk Cale had on his face when he looked at Graham. No, this look was all raw heat and blazing lust. Cale must have seen him looking back because the smirk appeared. It was only then that Graham really looked at Cale and realized that he was dressed as a priest. Ha!