His face could have been designed in heaven. Well, actually it was. The golden brow was wide and clear, with a thick mane of hair flowing back from a widow’s peak at the center. His eyes were deeply set, narrow and very sexy. His nose was long, tapered and straight. The jaw was square, with just a tiny bit of black stubble on it that made him look dangerous and very sexy. He had high, strong cheekbones, like his son but when he grinned, as he did now, his cheeks creased with matching dimples that made certain places on my body tingle. His shoulders were almost impossibly broad and his chest was a smooth, hairless, golden color and deeply muscled.
The king’s black-velvet gaze slid past his son and fixed on me. “Alas, behold my Queen.”
I felt my Dialle stiffen beside me and his arm tightened on my waist. “Father, I’d like you to meet
my
future Queen. This is Astra.”
King Dialle arched one perfectly shaped black eyebrow at his son and then dismissed him, sliding his eyes back to me. “You are the Tweener?”
“I am.”
He nodded once. “I had heard you were lovely. I admit I didn’t believe the reports.” He eyed me up and down once more. “Now I realize I should have been paying better attention.” He slid his gaze back to his son, who had grown increasingly agitated as the seconds ticked by. “Perhaps you will need to find…another…Queen my son. I may need to explore this one for myself.”
My Dialle huffed out a breath. “Stop baiting me old man. You know as well as I do that you cannot settle on just one woman.” He tugged me a little behind him and stepped forward, all in one smooth motion. “This woman is mine. She bears my mark. I did not come here to joust with you. I await your instructions.”
I glanced at my Dialle but his face was closed. Except for a muscle working in his beautiful square jaw he showed no emotion. His words were very strange however. I tried to initiate a trip into his mental drawers but he slammed them shut on me. Obviously he and his father didn’t have an easy relationship. Interesting but not too surprising given the devil factor.
The king narrowed his gaze on his son but apparently decided to let it go. He turned and strode arrogantly toward a desk in the far corner of the room. How funny. A devil king office. Imagine that.
He sat down in the throne-like white leather chair behind a huge desk made of what appeared to be black onyx and looked at us expectantly.
I made a move as if to sit too but my Dialle stopped me with a hand on my arm. Then he pulled me into his side and wrapped his other arm around my stomach, a slight cocking of his head the only sign that he was prepared to listen to the king.
I struggled to pull away but Dialle tightened his arms around my waist and said,
Stop. We need to have a united front against my father or we’re both…toast…as you would say.
I stopped struggling, suddenly realizing he was right. Better to have one powerful royal devil on your side than fight two of them. I stepped into Dialle and wrapped my left arm around his stomach. One united front coming up.
The king scowled at us but finally turned to the door. He spoke to Gerch, who had, apparently, followed us into the room. “Remove yourself. If you value your life you’ll keep everyone away from that door after you close it. What I have to say is not to be overheard.”
Gerch bowed almost in half. “As my king commands.” And he left, pulling the vast, golden doors closed silently behind him.
The king turned to us. “I’ll make this as brief as possible. The demons have sent word that they intend to break loyalty with us and become an independent court. They have promised to take drastic action if we don’t meet with them to form an agreement. I have no intention of doing so.”
I looked at my Dialle. He didn’t look surprised. “But their king was just killed by Prince Nille. How could they have organized a revolt so quickly?” I asked.
King Dialle snorted. “This plan has been in motion for some time. King Abrine will not even be missed. His brother has been scheming for his demise for centuries. Nille and Nerul only gave him the method of murdering his brother.” He stood and walked to the wall of windows again, resuming the exact stance he’d held when we’d entered the room. “Abrine was, at heart, a pure coward. Over the centuries I have been very successful holding him and his aspirations at bay. King Alcott will be an entirely different matter.” He turned around, his black gaze going to his son. “I need you to go to Alcott. I need to know what he plans. I want you and the lovely Astra to keep an eye on the demons and keep me informed. We’ll simply head them off before they can do anything.”
My Dialle studied his father for a minute without responding. I could almost see him fighting the desire to speak out against the plan. I made a mental note to ask him what he thought of the situation and his father’s handling of it later. For now, I had to ask, “Why don’t you just let them go? Why fight the inevitable?”
The king turned to me and, although his gorgeous face showed no emotion at all, I could tell by the way he held himself that he wasn’t wild about my question, or me for asking it. “You will learn our ways in time, Astra. Try, in the meantime, to hide your ignorance more carefully. A beautiful face and an empty mind create a vessel that can be filled with only one activity.” He smiled and the smile didn’t take me to a happy place. “I doubt you would welcome the activity I refer to.” He turned to my Dialle. “There is one further complication.”
My Dialle, still frowning over his father’s insult to me, didn’t seem to hear the king. He was looking at me with concern, most likely afraid that I would open my big mouth and get myself into trouble. I smiled. Although I was known to throw caution to the wind and jump butt first into a conflagration when my temper got the best of me, I wasn’t a complete drooling idiot. I initiated a field trip into his mental drawers and told him,
I’ll get even later, when he’s not expecting it and can’t retaliate
.
He smiled at me and raised one of my hands, kissing it and leaving a warm, tingly spot where his lips had been.
I would expect nothing less from you
.
I shivered from the kiss and my body melted into his without first asking permission from my brain.
We both jumped as the king roared, “
Attend me
!”
His voice boomed through the cavernous room, rattling windows and vibrating walls. I could almost hear the commotion and conversation outside the heavy, gold doors stop as the soldiers and hopeful queens-to-be jolted to shocked silence.
My Dialle pushed me ever so subtly behind him as the temperature in the room rose to about one hundred and thirty degrees and the divan behind us burst into flame. He gave a small bow and said, “I beg your forgiveness for my inattentiveness, my king. I am distracted continually by my lust for this creature.”
Oh great, blame me!
I thought at him fiercely.
I don’t think he’ll set you afire just because I lust after you, Astra.
You DON’T THINK!
Just trust me. And DO NOT open your sweet lips to speak.
Gradually the king regained his composure and the temperature in the room dropped back to almost normal. With a wave of his hand the burning couch was extinguished and I noticed it was completely unharmed. Completely frunkin’ cool! I wanted to learn how to do that.
The king sat back down behind his onyx desk and we gave him our
full
attention.
“It appears the witches have some role in the demon’s revolt. I suspect the Supreme High Witch wants a place at the table when we gather for the dark world caucus next month. She has been showing signs of trying to develop her own court and my scouts have informed me that she has expressed an intention to demand equal standing with the kings.”
This caught my Dialle’s attention. “That’s preposterous!”
The king nodded. “Of course. And while I admire ambition,” he looked at me and smiled as if he and I shared a secret, “especially in one as lovely as the Supreme High Witch, I expect each member of the dark world caucus to know his place.” He stood and came around the enormous desk, approaching us.
One moment he was walking toward us and the next I was laying on the previously fiery divan with him on top of me, certain parts of his devilish anatomy digging into my body. I struggled to see my Dialle but he appeared to have been “extinguished” from the room like the earlier flames.
The king stared down into my eyes as I struggled ineffectively against his body’s invasion of mine. “Get off me!”
He laughed and lowered incredibly sexy red lips toward mine. In desperation I tried to shove him away but my arms felt like heavy rubber and I could barely lift them let alone push him away. “I’m warning you, I bite!”
“Promises, promises lovely Tweener.” His lips lowered to within an inch of mine.
“I have lots of diseases.” I was having trouble breathing in the scorched air that we were creating. Against my will my body was reacting to his and I had to force myself not to pull his long, hard body closer to mine.
“I have immunity to all of them.” His lips found mine and I was suddenly
way
too close to his velvet gaze. For the first time I saw that they were not regular, black eyes. They pulsed and swirled with red and silver streams that formed patterns and whirlpools in the center of the eyes. I closed my eyes as I realized the swirls were making me dizzy and weak but the feeling didn’t disperse.
Almost simultaneously I felt his hand on my breast and his teeth on my throat. Then, before I knew what was happening, my daemon hickey started throbbing and it sparked, causing the randy king to jerk back from my neck with a startled cry.
I used the sudden breathing space to pull rational thought back into my fuzzy head and quickly gathered my power together before he could settle himself back at my neck. Raising my hands toward him I shot every ounce of power in my core toward him and he flew backward into the air. In fact he flew so far I heard him hit the wall with a thud and a curse.
I didn’t wait around for his reaction.
Dialle, get me the Hades out of here!
And just like that I was back out in the hall and the three of us were running like the last circle of Hell was closing in on us. Dialle dragged me down the long hallway by the hand and Gerch followed, constantly looking over his shoulder and reeking of stark terror.
As we turned the first corner we heard something that sounded like an explosion, followed by screams of pain and frantic shouting. The last sound we heard before my Dialle whisked us out of there was the king’s voice pounding down the hall like a physical presence, vibrating the building with unrestrained rage. “This isn’t over, Dialle!”
My Dialle looked at me and shook his dark head. “I see you’ve managed to put yourself into a pickle again, Astra.”
“I didn’t put myself into a pickle, Dialle, I’m in one.”
“What’s the difference?”
I opened my mouth to explain and then realized it was a moot point. “I didn’t put myself into that pickle, Dialle, that pickle put itself into me.” As soon as I realized what I’d said my face turned deep red and he laughed. Then he pulled me into a kiss that made my socks smoke and the world stopped moving as he transported us away from a literal Hell on Earth.
Chapter Two
Phantom Love
A phantom rides upon her thighs and leads her thoughts astray
But learning who the culprit is, must wait another day.
The Viper settled into its usual parking space with a whisper and hovered silently above the ground. “Exiting,” I said and the driver’s side door opened upward on a whoosh of air. I climbed out and headed for the flash elevator in the center of the parking structure. The gray metal doors swung open as I approached and I entered the dimly lit car.
“Thirteenth floor,” I said distractedly as a tidal wave of sensual warmth rolled over me. The heat felt like thousands of tiny touches caressing my body, leaving behind row after row of goose bumps that made me shiver and tighten my thighs.
I closed my eyes, clenching my teeth and rode the wave as the car sped upward, toward my office. The unexpected attacks had been happening all morning and I was starting to get worried. I couldn’t seem to control them and they came with no warning at all. I was like a bitch gargoyle in mating heat.
As I neared my floor the wave started to dwindle. Just when I thought I was going to survive another one, my eyes jerked open and I gasped as I felt the first ghostly touch to the heated spot where I throbbed and ached the most.
A jolt of pleasure shot through me, robbing me of breath and thought and I almost went over the edge from just that one touch. My knees buckled, dropping me to the floor in a boneless sprawl.
I cried out as invisible fingers slid into my wetness and touched the core of my pleasure. At the same time I felt a hot moist mouth settle onto my lips and something hot and wet bathed both breasts. I was helpless against the totality of the onslaught. I lay writhing on the filthy floor of the elevator, moaning as my ghostly lover ignited every pleasure center in my traitorous body.
The invisible fingers moved with a lover’s rhythm and I pressed my knees together as I felt an explosion building around the ghostly touch. My hips flew off the floor and my knees jerked apart in mindless submission. I felt my power spark in response to my body’s explosive heat and I let it loose, hoping it could save me somehow. Instead of exploding away from me as I expected, the power surged and pulsed as if it had been joined by another power surge and wrapped around me like a blanket, pulling my spectral lover more tightly against my body and enhancing every feeling his ministrations had ignited.
Suddenly a different spectral part replaced the fingers and all rational thought went bye-bye. My body wrapped around the huge, hard invader and sucked it happily in, while my frantic body jerked and built toward a release that I knew wasn’t far away.
My skin burned from the exquisite torture of the spectral ministrations in harmony with the heated probing of my own power as it slid around and through me, heightening my pleasure and bringing my spectral lover almost into the visible plane. As my pulse beat at an alarming rhythm and the pressure built until I felt the throbbing in my head, something wavered above me and, for just a millisecond, I saw black silk flowing around a masculine face with strong lines and the outline of a long, hard body. But the form faded away before I could really see it and my invisible lover’s ministrations increased, driving all thought of physical form from my mind.