Demon's Triad (30 page)

“Because we shouldn’t do this, Aleeza. We can’t—you know that. You know it.”

“Why not?”

“I don’t know.” But he did, didn’t he? There was a reason. It just didn’t make much sense now.

Cool hands unfastened the knots binding him to the tree. “Why don’t you go touch her, my son?” Reglanus said. “Just go see how you feel.”

Ferrin rubbed life back into his hands and took a few steps toward Aleeza, Reglanus’ chants receding, a buzz in the background. He’d unchain her and they would escape. That was what he would do. They needed to escape.

Her eyes met his as he stood over her. She bit her lip. The sight of that plump bit of flesh disappearing between her perfect teeth made his insides twist.

He reached for her arms, intending only to slide his hands up to unlock her, but his palms found her breasts instead, lifting them, squeezing them together. She gasped and arched her back further. The movement made her legs fall open. Ferrin groaned.

“I love it when you touch me,” she said, and for a second there she wasn’t bespelled Aleeza. She was just Aleeza, and the rest of the world fell away. Reglanus and Raven no longer watched them. The clearing was not a space of magic but just a clearing. And the woman he loved lay naked before him and begged him with her eyes to make love to her.

He bent his head to her, rolling each nipple in turn between his teeth. Heat caressed him from her skin, and when he slid his left hand down the soft curve of her belly to dip between her legs he found even more heat waiting for him there.

Her hips lifted as he brushed his fingertips over her clit. A growl escaped his throat, coming from somewhere low in his belly, somewhere so deep he didn’t know it existed within him.

Aleeza’s eyes glowed as she looked at him, and he saw on her skin the reflected glow of his own eyes. It was complete. Somehow he’d finished the spell, accepted the demon’s suggestion. Maybe when he touched her, when he dipped his fingers into her slick heat or when he took that delicious nipple into the cavern of his mouth…it didn’t matter. They were walking on the path now, the path that led only to one place, and as Ferrin climbed onto the stone slab to bury his face between her legs, he knew there was no way to turn back around.

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* * * * *

Kali’s breath rasped so loudly Dorand was sure they would be heard long before they reached the location. She was weak from her battle with the demon, barely managing to keep pace with him as they raced through the dark woods. A few miles back he’d offered to carry the bitch, just to make sure they didn’t alert the demon or his followers of their arrival, but she’d refused.

Once Dorand saw the tableau before them, however, he realized they could have been beating gongs and still gone unnoticed. The clearing was tightly enclosed in a magic circle, nothing coming in, nothing going out until the spell was complete.

In the center of the clearing, illuminated only by flickering torchlight, lay Aleeza and Ferrin on a slab of granite. Or rather, Ferrin was lying down while Aleeza hovered above him, his cock buried in her throat as her legs straddled his head. From his position Dorand could see her gleaming pussy, could see the tip of Ferrin’s tongue teasing her. As he watched, his throat grew dry as bone and his cock hard as iron. She came, throwing her head back and grinding herself down onto Ferrin’s face.

“The spell has started,” Kali said softly beside him. “We’re too late.”

“No, we can’t be.” Dorand watched Aleeza sit and turn around, sliding down Ferrin’s chest to take his cock in her mouth again. The green-gold glow of their desire hung glittering in the air around them. The looked like a painting, the most erotic painting he’d ever seen.

“We might have been able to break the circle before they were both on the altar, but now…” Kali trailed off, then sucked in a deep breath as if she was fighting tears. “I’m sorry. Truly I am. I know you won’t believe me, but I wish I could go back and give that demon bastard a different answer.”

“Wish in one hand and shit in the other. Let’s see which one gets filled first.”

Dorand suppressed a roar of rage, digging his hands through his hair and pulling until his scalp ached. There had to be a way into that circle. Frantically he mentally thumbed through his knowledge of demon lore. For every spell there was a counter-spell. If only he’d given in and bought a cell phone when Ferrin had pushed him to get with the times, he might be able to call Walter right now and find out.

“I know which would get filled. My entire life was one big fistful of shit, topped off by my husband leaving me for his mistress. Reglanus promised the one thing my heart desired. I let that desire and my anger overwhelm me. But—”

“What your heart desired? Do murderers have hearts?”

“I didn’t murder anyone. I just collected people for Reglanus.”

“You
collected
Carantha and good as signed her death warrant. Keep reminding me of that, and you won’t live to see that demon sent back to hell.” Dorand shut his mouth so tightly his teeth ground together and his jaw ached. He had to maintain control. He couldn’t let his temper get the better of him, not when he needed the use of reason so badly.

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“A baby. I wanted a baby. Everything else came later, the power, the promise to rule the Daeisthai. When I first fasted with Reglanus, it was simply because I wanted to have a child, wanted to feel that kind of love. The demon took advantage after—”

“The devil made you do it? Sorry, I’m not buying.” Dorand knelt on the ground, clutching a fistful of earth. He had to think, think of where natural magic would lead him, let the magic of creation fight this spell of death. It was a death spell, no matter that the use of intercourse mimicked a creation spell. He, Ferrin and Carantha had used sex to speak with the dead. Now Reglanus would have Ferrin and Aleeza use sex to bind their eternal souls to the demon realm and be soul dead for the rest of their very long lives.

Damn! There was something there. Sex and death, polar opposites that were so very intimately related in magic. Their triad had used sex to transcend the physical realm, to reach beyond and bring the spirit of the dead a voice it could never have without that magic. Reglanus attempted to use that same power to transcend the boundaries of Ferrin and Aleeza’s flesh, of their human souls, to fast to them in a way that would make room for the demon to fit between them like the piece of a puzzle. A piece that would never be removed.

But how to stop him?

Dorand watched Ferrin’s hands twist in Aleeza’s dark hair as she bent her head over him, swallowing him. From the pulsing of his hips and the way he forced himself deeper into her mouth, Dorand guessed he would climax soon. What would happen then? Did they need to actually have intercourse to complete the spell?

“If he comes now, is it done?”

“Not if he comes in her mouth—that’s not how babies are—”

“Don’t you dare.” Dorand turned to the woman and took her by the upper arms, shaking her like a doll. “You will answer my questions and help me stop this, or I
will
kill you.”

“I’m sorry.” She winced in pain but didn’t close her large, brown eyes, eyes that looked so fucking familiar it gave Dorand the creeps.

“Talk.”

“They’ll keep going if he comes in her mouth,” Kali said. “No matter how many times they each come, they’ll keep going until she’s pregnant. Reglanus is using all of his power to make sure of that, see? You can just barely make out—” she gasped, her hand flying to her throat.

Dorand saw her at the same time as Kali. Raven, standing nude not far from the stone table.

“She betrayed me, that little fucking bitch. That’s why my coven followers attacked you. She must have had them in her control. Reglanus can’t cast a spell into the physical world without a human conduit. That succubus spell in the garage. I thought maybe one of the men…but I should have known,” Kali whispered. She shook her head. “I can’t believe she had it in her.”

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“When we found her, she was all dolled up waiting for you and said you hadn’t called in days. Why shouldn’t she betray you? The better question is how the hell she got out of the binding spell Aleeza cast.”

And why Aleeza’s coven head, Gavyn, hadn’t detained her. She must have escaped before Gavyn arrived, which gave Dorand hope. Maybe Gavyn had called the Amiantos council. Maybe his brothers and sisters were out looking for them right now. Not that it would do much good if he couldn’t stop what was happening in that clearing. If the demon finished the spell, there was nothing any of them would be able to do to save Ferrin or Aleeza or themselves.

“She was always very powerful, but she’s more powerful now that she’s made a deal with Reglanus. I had her under a safeguarding spell. She shouldn’t have even been able to tell you where to find me.”

“She didn’t. We found electric and water bills in your room.” Dorand began picking his way around the circle, positioning himself behind the demon. Once he decided what in the hell he was going to do, that seemed the best place to be.

“There were no bills, not in my name. They were all in my coven followers’ names and most of them aliases.” She laughed, a weak, bitter sound that turned to a wheeze as she hurried after him. “Raven must have printed those up for you to find. Clever. If I’d only known, I would have found her so much more attractive.”

“Shut up, let me think.” Dorand hissed the words over his shoulder.

Riding in the car with the woman, watching her struggle into a black sweatshirt three times too big and wade through the knee-deep leaves barefoot, listening to her talk—all of it made her far too real. He’d vowed to kill Carantha’s murderer, but Kali was still very much alive. The longer she stayed that way, the less likely he would be able to follow through with his intent. He still hated her for what she’d done, but she was no longer a faceless thing he could destroy.

Hell, he probably never could have done it. The desire to shun black magic, murder and anything so blatantly dark had been imbedded in his very genes.

By the gods, that was it!

“What are you doing?” Kali asked.

“I have to get in that circle,” Dorand said, peeling off the sweatshirt and stiff jeans he had found in Kali’s car. It would be best to be naked, nothing to impede him when he tried to make contact with Ferrin and Aleeza.

“Are you mad? You’ll never penetrate a sacred circle, at least not and live to tell about it.”

“It’s not a sacred circle. It was walked by a demon, not a witch. I’m Amiantos. I can’t conduct any of his spells.” Dorand turned to the clearing but was stopped by a surprisingly strong hand on his arm.

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“No, but he can use Ferrin and Aleeza to kill you as soon as you get close enough.

Not to mention Raven and there could be some of my men nearby. Reglanus didn’t want them here before but if he’s feeling cautious, he could have lookouts hidden or—”

“There are no men. We would have seen them by now, and Ferrin and Aleeza won’t hurt me. Even under the demon’s power, Aleeza never tried to harm me, only to stop the blood when one of your goons slipped a knife in my ribs.”

“Fine, but you do realize what you’ve just said, don’t you? You’ve been beaten and knifed. You’re hardly in prime form to go combat a demon and three possessed witches.” Kali held his arm more tightly, her features drawn and worried, as if she actually cared that he might be walking to his death.

“Your concern is touching, but I’m going in that circle. If you want to help, find a way to distract Raven. Tell her you’ve come to have make-up sex. She acted as if she loved you, might as well use that to our advantage.” Dorand wrenched his arm free and stalked toward the stone table, where Ferrin was now on top, seconds away from sliding his cock inside Aleeza.

“Wait! Here, take this.” Kali pulled a knife from the front pocket of her sweatshirt and held it out to him. “Reglanus has one just like it that he’ll use to cut the baby out of Aleeza.”

“I don’t have time for—”

“Please! Listen. As soon as they conceive, Reglanus has a spell to make the child grow nine months’ worth in a few hours.”

“I won’t—”

“I know you’re going to try to stop that from happening, and this knife can help.

It’s a blood keeper. If you can get Aleeza and Ferrin to willingly spill blood on the knife, and then cut your own hand, you’ll be their keeper until you choose to set them free.

Reglanus won’t be able to touch them.”

“That’s black magic, Kali, and you know it.”

“Aren’t the people you love worth a little taint on your soul?” Her eyes looked black with the moonlight shining behind her, their soulless depths sending a shiver down his spine. Dorand looked to the clearing, then back to the knife in Kali’s hand.

Ferrin was inside Aleeza now, his buttocks clenching as he fucked her, harder, faster. It wouldn’t be long now.

“If I fail, the blood keeper is coming looking for you.” Dorand took the knife and ran. There was no more time to think, only to act—and pray.

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“Yes, Ferrin. Yes!” Aleeza screamed, her pussy contracting around the cock Ferrin thrust ruthlessly between her legs. She’d lost track of how many times she’d come, as well as how many times she’d opened her mouth to protest only to find her lips unable to form the words.

Stop him! You have to stop this! Remember what will happen if you conceive, remember—

“Aleeza.” He called her name, raking his teeth against the delicate skin at her throat, and the weak, quiet voice of sanity fled.

There was nothing in the world but him, his body hot above her, inside her, his skin pressed so tightly to hers it felt like they would merge into one being. The torchlight and their green-gold magic filled the air, blocking out the world, blocking out everything except the bliss of making love to this man.

“Reglanus! Look out!”