bedeviled & beyond 06 - bedeviled & befouled

• Title Page
  
• Copyright Page
  
• Bedeviled & Befouled (BEDEVILED & BEYOND, #6)
  
• PROLOGUE
  
• CHAPTER ONE
  
• CHAPTER TWO
  
• CHAPTER THREE
  
• CHAPTER FOUR
  
• CHAPTER FIVE
  
• CHAPTER SIX
  
• CHAPTER SEVEN
  
• CHAPTER EIGHT
  
• CHAPTER NINE
  
• CHAPTER TEN
  
• CHAPTER ELEVEN
  
• CHAPTER TWELVE
  
• CHAPTER THIRTEEN
  
• CHAPTER FOURTEEN
  
• CHAPTER FIFTEEN
  
• EPILOGUE
  
• CHAPTER ONE
  
• Sign up for Sam Cheever's Mailing List
  
• Further Reading: Sangui
  
• Also By Sam Cheever
  
• About the Author
  

Bedeviled & Befouled

BEDEVILED & BEYOND, Volume 6

Sam Cheever

Published by Electric Prose Publications, 2015.

This is a work of fiction. Similarities to real people, places, or events are entirely coincidental.

BEDEVILED & BEFOULED

First edition. November 9, 2015.

Copyright © 2015 Sam Cheever.

ISBN: 978-1944243951

Written by Sam Cheever.

Table of Contents

Title Page

Copyright Page

Bedeviled & Befouled (BEDEVILED & BEYOND, #6)

PROLOGUE

CHAPTER ONE

CHAPTER TWO

CHAPTER THREE

CHAPTER FOUR

CHAPTER FIVE

CHAPTER SIX

CHAPTER SEVEN

CHAPTER EIGHT

CHAPTER NINE

CHAPTER TEN

CHAPTER ELEVEN

CHAPTER TWELVE

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

EPILOGUE

CHAPTER ONE

Sign up for Sam Cheever's Mailing List

Further Reading: Sangui

Also By Sam Cheever

About the Author

~SC~

Without her magic, Astra Q Phelps is at the center of a tsunami of trouble that’s affecting everyone she cares about in ways no one could have predicted. Unfortunately for her, the only fix might be a visit to the white on white kingdom high in the sky. To Astra’s way of thinking, that’s almost a fate worse than death.

Sexy Devil King Dialle is fighting his own problems stemming from Astra’s loss of magic. Without her light energy to keep him grounded, he’s in danger of succumbing to the pull of dark forces and losing his way.

As deadly forces battle to keep the two lovers apart, plaguing them with doubts of their future, they’ll have to decide if their love is worth the risks...or if they’d be better off letting it slip away!

PROLOGUE

The Devil you need fulfills your dreams, his love a promise bright.

But the Devil you need may lose his way when darkness clings too tight.

My name is Astra Q. Phelps. Don’t ask me what the Q stands for because that little piece of info will go with me to the crematorium. I’ve had all printed documentation of the name destroyed and, though a lot of my enemies have tried to suss it out, no one will ever know what it stands for. A girl has to have some secrets. Especially when the truth would cause her some serious embarrassment.

I run a business called the Angel Network, which is the only devil- and demon- locating and -destroying business in the universe. In other words, I kick serious evil butt for a living. I’m a halfling. What exactly is a halfling you ask? A halfling is a non-human. We have neither wings nor horns, but generally have both angel and devil in our family forests. Which is probably why we enjoy a higher sensitivity to spectral influence than regular human people.

Recently, my life has been especially challenging, with my Settling and all. But it’s about to get much worse.

What? Oh you don’t know about a halfling’s Settling? Well, in a nutshell, it’s a process we go through to determine whether we’ll favor the dark side of our natures or the light. My Settling has been rocky because I hang out a lot with dark-world types. It has been a concern for me. But it’s not any more.

I was recently magic-raped by a nasty bitch who had designs on my boyfriend and his power. I’ve lost all of my magic. All of it. I’m an empty vessel whose cells throb and pulse with the need to fill with energy. And, despite all my attempts to repack my battery...so to speak...nothing has worked.

I currently find myself at loose ends in a world where I used to be one of the most powerful creatures I knew. I’m now arguably the weakest. If I didn’t have powerful friends I’d probably already be dead.

I’m not sure why they haven’t given up on me by now. Despite a truly phenomenal family tree, it now appears that I’m the weeping willow in the woods.

To add to my stress, my longtime friend and partner Emo has completed his celestial anger management, brought on by his own Settling, and I’m waiting to hear if he came out on the light side of his nature or his dark. One would mean we could remain friends and business partners...the other would probably mean an end to our lifetime friendship, which would be a massive blow that, along with everything else, would probably do me in completely.

So that’s where I am. Weak, helpless, and unsure of my future. If you know me at all you know I don’t do any of those things well. I’m a small woman with a big attitude and my very survival depends on being able to back that ’tude up with something bigger than my mouth.

In other words, I’m in deep shit.

This should be really interesting, right? Yeah. You have no idea.

So let’s get started...

CHAPTER ONE

One Hell of an Offer

When friends reach out and offer aid, beware the promised boon,

The solution might seem ready-made, but leave you howling at the moon.

“Don’t be such a baby, Astra.”

“Shut up, Darma!”

“You’re not even trying.”

I couldn’t even respond to that absurdity. Trying was all I’d done in the weeks since I’d had my magic forcibly and painfully stripped away. What I hadn’t done was succeed.

In even the smallest way.

I closed my eyes and took a deep breath, holding it to keep from spewing the worst kind of hate in the form of a response toward my evil spawn of a sister. I clenched my fists at my sides and turned my mind to the mantra I’d been using to avoid wrapping my fingers around her scrawny throat and squeezing.

She’s trying to help...she’s trying to help...she’s trying to help...

It didn’t work. I still wanted to thrash her to within an inch of her death. I might not have magic anymore, but I still had a certain amount of strength and a lot of rage to give it legs.

I was standing in the middle of my office, dressed in the special armor that had become necessary since I’d lost the ability to protect myself from an army of enemies, and my head throbbed with the effort to draw magic into my core and hold it.

My skin was slick with sweat, my hair stuck to my neck in lank, wet strands, and my breath heaved in my chest. We’d been working for over an hour and I’d yet to grab more than an ion of energy and hadn’t been able to hold it at all.

The air shifted and my eyes shot open. A cold tube of water appeared in front of me. I sighed, letting go of as much of the frustration and anger as I could, and took the water. “Thanks.”

Darma dropped into my visitor’s chair. “I think you’re getting stronger.”

I nearly choked. If Darma was trying to make me feel better I was screwed. Completely and totally screwed. “It’s no use.”

Her ten-second reserve of kindness spent, Darma’s pretty face darkened. “Don’t be stupid, Astra. Nobody ever said this would be easy. You’re being tested. Are you just going to sit back and fail because it’s hard?”

I grabbed the drying spray from my desk and spritzed my face, neck, and arms with it. “Yeah. I think maybe I am.”

She hit me with the mother of all dirty bombs. “You’ll lose Dialle.”

Frunk me to the lowest circle of Hell. “You bitch.”

Her perfect, pink lips tipped upward, knowing she’d pressed my “engage” button again. “I have to go. Slayer and I are going to take down that flashing demon at Twenty-First and Park. Keep practicing and you can fill me in on your progress later.”

That would be flashing as in showing his secret parts to passersby. Not flashing like a neon sign. I was secretly glad I was too pitiful to take on
that
assignment.

She started to shimmer and then caught herself, looking suddenly uncomfortable.

“Go ahead, Darma, space-shift. I hate it that everybody walks on dragon egg shells around me.”

My sister glared at me. “It’s called kindness.” And with those snotty words dancing on the air between us, my older sister glided toward the door like a royal princess and exited my office the old-fashioned way.

I knew she would leave the magical way as soon as the door closed. It was like not keeping score at a child’s solar football game. Nobody who was involved was fooled. Even if a score wasn’t recorded, somebody was still the winner and some poor schlub was still the loser.

I dropped into my chair and laid my head back, staring at the ceiling and fighting tears. As if it wasn’t bad enough to have lost my own powers, nobody around me would use theirs where I could see for fear I’d curl into the fetal position in a corner and drool on myself.

It was beyond humiliating.

The door opened and I guiltily swiped tears from my cheeks before turning to find one of my office mates standing there looking unsure about entering. Ralph Peters was one of the owners of Werever...Whatever, which specialized in shape-shifter justice. Like his partner Bob, Ralph was a werewolf. He had longish, curly black hair and the most amazing hazel eyes with long, thick lashes that most women would kill for. I rented my office space from them and considered them friends.

“Hey, Ralph.”

Since the loss of my magic, Ralph’s smile had dimmed to more of a soft grimace filled with pity. It was so painful to see that I’d learned to hate it when he smiled. “Hey, Astra.” He moved into my office and sat in my visitor’s chair, his sexy hazel eyes locked onto my face. “I want to make you an offer.”

Whatever it was it appeared serious. “I’m listening.”

The eyes staring into mine turned gold, lost some of their humanity. Under times of great emotion the weres tended to drift more toward their animal natures. Apparently finding that a more soothing state. “I know you’ve been trying to regain your magic...”

I suddenly couldn’t hold his gaze any longer. I looked away. “Yeah. It’s been pretty ugly.”

“I understand. Bob and I have...felt...your frustration.”

Yeah, I’d just bet they had. “Sorry.”

He shook his head, scowling slightly. “Not your fault. We have total empathy for you. I can’t even imagine what I’d go through in your situation.” His frown deepened. “Anyway. We’ve been talking and we think we might have a solution for you.”

I tried really hard not to get excited. But given the frustrating morning I’d had, it was nearly impossible. I felt my eyes go wide. “Really? What did you come up with?”

He nodded, took a deep breath, and seemed to be trying to talk himself into moving forward. That was my first clue that I wasn’t going to like his proposal.

My next clue came in the form of his kick-off.

“Magic is magic, right?”

My gaze held his. “I guess.” My lack of conviction throbbed on the air between us.

His stare intensified. “I can turn you.”

I blinked, pretty sure he’d stopped in the middle of his sentence. I can turn you into a lean, mean, fighting machine. Or... I can turn you on if you want a distraction. I shook my head, lifting my hands in question.

He frowned. “Into a werewolf.”

My heart sped up as panic slipped through me. My fingers clutched the edge of my desk. My vision swirled. I realized I wasn’t panicking because I was afraid I’d refuse Ralph. I was panicking because I was terrified I wouldn’t. “I, um...”

“I know this is a surprise. I don’t blame you for being shocked. It isn’t generally known that we can do this. In fact, usually we can’t. The magic I would give to you requires a certain type of vessel. A vessel that has the ability to contain strong magic.”

I frowned. “And you think because I used to hold magic I would be able to retain it once you passed it to me?”

“Yes.”

I nodded. “Not that I’m thinking about doing this, mind you.” I lifted an eyebrow and he nodded. “But how exactly would you do it?”

“It’s a fairly extensive process involving purification of your body and meditation. The physical training would be easy for you. You’re already trained in the fighting arts. But weres...think...differently. We see things differently. And you’d need to be acclimated to that before—”