bedeviled & beyond 04 - bedeviled & belittled (12 page)

I grinned, “Yup, snagged by a girl. Loser.”

One of Myra’s pretty, silver slippers snaked out and connected with his jaw. I grimaced at the harsh crunching sound it made. Peering at the dainty looking footwear, I wondered if she had the toes packed with lead. “Damn, Auntie, I need a pair of those slippers.”

She skewered me with a glare. Both of us knew I was deliberately trying to goad her. To what purpose, even I didn’t know. It just felt right.

“Where is Darma, vile son of the serpent?”

The unapologetic devil beneath me lifted his head and smiled. Blood ran in a thin ribbon down his handsome, golden brow to drip on the ground beneath. A large bump had risen to mar the perfection of his royal features.

I really needed some of those slippers.

He lifted his head and sniffed, turning to me with wide eyes.

Oh, oh. He’d smelled my Settling on me.

Twisting his arms painfully behind him I leaned closer. “Don’t even think about it.”

Royal Devils gained power as well as pleasure from sex. Their entire hierarchy was built on a sexual base of power, fed by sex, strengthened by it, and destroyed by the lack of it. As a creature of part Royal Devil descent, I’d always felt strongly the pull of my sexual side. But until my Settling I’d been able to control it. In the throes of my defining season, I mostly just anticipated humping anything that moved, twitched, or vibrated.

It was humiliating.

I was even starting to notice the way the scum of the underworld beneath my buttocks felt against my hungry skin. So I smacked him. Hard. And then smacked him again. Unfortunately it only made him hornier. I smelled it on him. And I realized as my panties dampened that I’d kind of liked it too. Shit!

Another gift of my Settling.

“Tell us where my sister is you black-hearted underbottom dweller, or I’ll vaporize you on the spot.”

He turned his head completely around on his neck and grinned up at me.

“Eieww!” I said. I had to keep remembering I was in an upper circle of Hell. The rules were different there.

“She’s with my master. You won’t get her free. He wants her for himself. But you and I could have some fun before I kill you.”

“Har! Have you noticed who has the upper hand on who...er...whom here?”

Just like that, the arms I was holding behind his back thinned, elongated and skimmed free from my hands. I jerked and tried to spaceshift but quickly discovered that he had one iron-fingered hand wrapped around my wrist and had flung a chain toward my Aunt Myra’s ankle with the other hand before either of us had time to squeak in alarm.

When he released me I realized he’d clamped an angel’s chain around my wrist. Both chains were attached to a wide belt made of gold he wore around his waist.

He immediately tugged on my chain, which had created a strange weakness in my limbs as soon as it had been clamped on, and I fell against a chest that I hadn’t noticed was so broad and hard before. His black eyes swirled with power as he tipped my chin, forcing me to meet his power-saturated gaze.

The immediate result was more weakness, less ability to resist.

“You were foreseen, lovely halfling. My master will be pleased that you have come so quickly and were so easily captured.” He leaned down and caught my bottom lip between strong, white teeth, biting down hard enough to draw blood. His tongue snaked out and swept the blood away and he moaned softly, closing his eyes as if savoring the taste. “Delectable.”

My body softened under a wave of pure lust and my knees buckled. He caught me around the waist with a husky chuckle, pulling me upright again. “Patience my sweet. We’ll have time when I get you to the castle. I’m sure he’ll let me keep you to myself for a while as a reward for capturing you.”

My stomach roiled with disgust. Beneath my body’s weakness, my mind still clung to a thin stream of reason, which allowed me to overcome his magics and my own damned Settling and recognize the danger Myra and I were in.

I glanced at her. What I saw made my blood run cold.

In general, chained angels didn’t fare well at the hands of their devil captors. The chain that connected them to their hosts was built of black magics, which was the antithesis of the light magics that created an angel. Black magics were like acid to the celestial army. It ate away their strength, their will, their ability to function and fight their fate.

And an angel of Myra’s power would suffer doubly, even fourfold from its effects. Already I saw its poison in the gray pallor of her skin and the shakiness of her hands. She leaned heavily against a large rock and seemed to be panting with the effort to breathe.

In desperation I reached out to her with my mind.
Angel
? I was relieved to find I could still communicate telepathically with her.

She shook her head slightly, glancing toward our host.
Later, Astra!

Our devil captor squeezed my breast, hard. Jerking away from his painful grasp, I decided that, no matter what happened to me, I would kill him and his master too. Nobody touched Astra Q Phelps without permission from the Astra Q Phelps dating committee of one. That’s me.

And despite what my body was telling him, my mind hadn’t—and would never have—given him permission to touch.

I’d kill him happily for that alone.

~SC~

The castle our captor referred to was a dark blotch in the side of a black mountain that looked as if it had been burned into cinder and hardened into coal.

The black walls lifted high into a yellow, sulfurous sky, its jagged roofline peppered with the thick, deadly looking bodies of hundreds of watchers, whose job it was to scrutinize the skies and ground for angelic forays into Hell. The angels occasionally came down looking for the un-damned, whom the devils had dragged down for sport or to use as slaves.

I counted the watchers and took note of their attitudes as our host, whose name we’d learned was Mordat, hauled us toward the huge, black doors at the front of the ugly structure. An enormous pair of dragons guarded the doors, a huge red and a slightly smaller black. Their midnight eyes sparked with speculation as they landed on me.

I held the black one’s eye for a moment longer than strictly wise, trying to assess its vulnerability. Black dragons tended to be slightly more aggressive than their red counterparts, and more opinionated. Reds prided themselves on being moderate creatures. Since they had no strong personality traits or convictions, they were fairly easy to sway, making them easy marks to be lured by evil. I figured, of the two, the black would give me the most trouble, despite his slightly smaller size. Myra caught my eye and gave me a small nod.

She agreed with my assessment.

Once we were through the doors of the castle, I started trying to figure out where they might be keeping Darma. On one side of the large, stone-floored foyer, a wide staircase led downward. The stench and cold, musty air coming from the stairwell told me it probably led to the dungeons.

Normally I would assume that was where they’d keep her. But since Mordat had so helpfully informed us that the Master fancied my acid-tongued sibling, I had to assume she was locked in an upper room somewhere. Easy to reach and pleasantly coiffed and perfumed for maximum enjoyment. The poor slob didn’t know what was headin’ his way when he tried to savor that little morsel.

Hopefully he had scales for skin.

I had hoped our host would take us directly to his Master, but he was apparently one of those kids who didn’t like to share his toys. He handed Myra’s chain to a lower form devil and gave the squat red guard instructions to take her to the dungeons.

My aunt and I shared a look.
I’ll find you later. I told her.

She nodded and let the devil drag her toward the musty stairwell. I watched her go with a heavy heart. Her gown was already turning brown around the hem and her wings hung tattered at an odd angle. Her tiny slippers skimmed wearily along the ground. I needed to get her out of there fast. Just being in an outer circle of Hell was draining to a member of the Celestial Army, having the chain around her ankle only exacerbated the destruction.

The chain around my wrist tightened as Mordat pulled. “Come, lovely slave. I feel the need to taste your treasures before presenting you to the Master.” His perfect lips tipped upward in an evil smile. “I may keep you to myself for a few days before telling the Master I’ve found you.” He yanked hard on the chain and I fell against his broad chest. His nostrils flared. “You smell edible.” His lips touched mine and a fissure of heat ripped through me. I fought against a brain meltdown as his hands slid over my buttocks and his heated tongue swept out to encircle my chin, trailing upward, over the tip of my nose, where he bit gently. “Every inch of you is yummy. I’m going to have so much fun.” His breath was a heated musk against my face, filled with the threat of sexual events to come. To my unending horror, my body warmed to the threat, opening for it, panting for it. I reached deep into my psyche, searching for the light side I knew was buried in there. No luck. I’d done too good a job burying it.

We hurried down marble-walled hallways and up several sets of stairs lit only by smoky oil lamps hanging from the walls. As we climbed high into the castle I cast out with my mind, searching for Darma. I kept my mental forays short, in case Mordat could catch them through the chain joining us. Although I felt a few ripples in my communication channel, Darma didn’t respond. I wasn’t discouraged though, in fact, the more deeply Mordat took me into the mountain, the more certain I was that my sister was tucked away somewhere in that very mountain with me.

All I had to do was find her.

We’d arrived in front of a heavy wooden door and, with a flip of his hand the door flew open before us. Mordat pulled me through and slammed it shut with another wave of his hand.

He dragged me through lushly decorated rooms, filled with silk fabrics and gilded furniture, and flung me toward an enormous bed, landing on top of me almost before I’d finished bouncing.

I tried to shove him away but his lips covered mine and my Settling roared up to meet him, completely unrestrained.

He growled against my mouth as my powers tangled with his, spinning us into a vortex of heat and sensual awareness that almost sucked me completely under. His clothes disappeared and he ground an enormous, rock-hard shaft against my belly, his tongue spearing between my lips to steal my thoughts.

Something tugged on the edges of my consciousness. Warning bells clanged. Mordat’s mouth left mine and traveled downward, seeking a painful nipple beneath my soft sweater. I gritted my teeth against ravenous need, trying to push past the demands of my Settling to achieve coherent thought. It was my only hope to rid myself of the randy Royal riding my ribs.

My daemon hickey sparked and Dialle’s voice burst into my mind. “Astra! Where are...” And he was gone again. But it was enough. I had some clarity again. Lifting my hand I sucked my sore knuckle and felt a new power surging through me.

I’m coming, Astra.

The air behind Mordat shimmered and suddenly Slayer stood there, grinning at me from over Mordat’s naked shoulder.

I peaked an eyebrow at him and gave Mordat a shove backward, using every ounce of power I could summon. No easy feat with the cloaking effects of the chain draining them.

Slayer caught him and Mordat’s black eyes widened just before Slayer sliced through his throat with a long, deadly knife, dropping him to the floor at his feet.

The golden chain that trailed between us hit the ground as he died.

I lay there, face flushed, body thrumming with unfulfilled lust, legs spread wide, and looked up at the gorgeous creature who’d just rescued me.

He stared down at me, his eyes filled with answering need.

The air between us sizzled.

His nostrils flared as he scented my lust.

I whimpered, unable to stop myself and Slayer took a step toward the bed.

I reached for him.

He reached for me.

And my head exploded.

CHAPTER EIGHT

Hidden...In Plain Sight

A voice in Hell doth beckon her, to a room atop a tower,

But when she stands within that room, the outlook turns most dour.

Astra! Astra, is that you?

I rubbed hard on my temples.
Inside voice, Darma. You nearly exploded my sinuses.
My sister always did have impeccable timing. Talk about a buzz kill.

I sat up and pushed at my clothing.
Yeah. I’m here. Where are you? We’re coming to get you.

We?
The hope in her voice was palpable.
Is Torre with you?

Shaking my head I glanced at Slayer. He’d settled back against the wall and was smiling.

No. I brought someone else to help us. I don’t know where Dialle and Torre are.

We have to find them!

Lacking the strength to argue with her I simply agreed.
Yes. But first we need to get out of here and save Myra from the dungeons.

The dungeons? What’s she doing down there?

Looking for you.

But I’m not in the dungeons.

Alrighty then.
We needed to cover all our bases, Darma. If you had been in the dungeons Myra would have found you, wouldn’t she?

I’m locked in a room at the top of the castle. There’s this guy, I think he might be from the Royal court, he’s been drooling all over me.

I grinned.
Does he still have all his man parts?

Huh? I don’t know, Astra! You ask the strangest questions...he’s not a eunuch if that’s what you’re asking.

Zing! I should have known better. Humor flies right over my sister’s head.

I grabbed the golden chain off the floor and wrapped it around my waist, figuring it might come in handy. Then I pushed myself to my feet and headed toward the door.
Tell me as much as you can about your location.
I jerked my head toward the door and the Slayer opened it, peering out into the hallway before sliding outside. I followed him out.