He reached for my hand and I jerked away. “Don’t touch me!” I scrambled off his lap, moving as far away from him as I could on the dragon.
His hand dropped to his lap. “I’m willing to make it right, Astra. I want to help you defeat First.”
I looked into his eyes, determined to judge the truth of his words. “How?”
His gaze lifted past me and he jerked his head. “That’s First’s castle. He thinks I’m bringing you to him, to report the others’ plans so he can more easily defeat them. I will gain an audience with him when we land. And I’ll kill him myself.”
I shook my head. “I can’t let you do that! If you kill him in your current state, you’ll turn irretrievably toward your devil. You’ll never be able to recover.”
He shrugged. “I don’t care anymore, Astra.”
I lifted a hand to touch his jawline. Emo’s gaze was filled with pain, but he turned his head away, rejecting my touch. “It is done. I’ve already told him we’re here. Prepare to meet Dialle the First, Astra.”
I turned away, tears sliding silently down my cheeks. Despite Emo’s treachery and regardless of his disloyalty to me, sadness swamped me. Sadness for the friendship we’d lost. Sadness for what he’d hoped could be. Sadness for what I’d wanted for us.
Sadness that it would end this way. For both of us.
“I won’t let you do it,” I murmured as the black spread its wings and started its descent toward the heavily armed dragon’s nest of Dialle the First’s castle in Hell.
“You have no choice.”
I knew he was right. But damned if I wouldn’t try everything I could think of to stop it anyway.
It wasn’t just
his
Settling that was at stake. I knew I was perilously close to embracing my devil too. Letting my best friend send himself to Hell to save me wouldn’t bring me any closer to my angelic side.
I told myself it wasn’t because of my feelings for Emo. It couldn’t be.
It wasn’t possible to love two men.
Was it?
Chapter Fourteen
Aw Hell
The devil rides a flame in Hell, and bids our Lady come,
But she arrives with different plans, to save the cranky one.
Astra! Where in Hades are you?
I’m about to meet your father, Dialle.
What? You’d better be joking!
I sighed.
I wish I were. I was kidnapped by Emo.
Kidnapped? I thought he was helping us! Astra, that makes no sense at all.
I know, huh? I’m going to try to stop this somehow. But I have no idea how.
We approach the castle now. I’ll get to you as soon as I can.
All right.
Astra!
I smiled. His tone was so dire, so arrogantly royal, so…
Dialle?
I felt him grow less stiff in my mind and smile.
Take care.
I bit my lip, turning to Emo. His face was hard and angry again. No sign of the softening I’d witnessed on the back of the dragon.
I will. You too.
Dialle the First’s castle in Hell was decidedly run-down looking. Like everything else in Hell, it looked charred and unkempt, as if the Serpent had given all the servants the millennium off. The black walls that rose from the charred rock and dry soil that made up Hell were scarred, with huge chunks missing at their edges. Windows gaped, missing glass, and filthy draperies floated out of them, like worn-out damsels looking to the horizon for a savior.
The bridge over the moat, which was filled with boiling liquid, looked like Swiss cheese and hung at an odd angle. Skeletons dangled from its rotted surface, the bones boiled clean and bright white.
Like an old couch with its springs hanging out, the rotting corpse of a green dragon lay in the barren courtyard.
Apparently First lived in Hell’s ghetto.
Embarrassing.
The tallest tower bore a metal rod, with the charred remains of a pennant, which had most likely borne First’s family crest, a devil’s pitchfork.
That always made me smile.
As soon as the black touched down, Emo grabbed my arm and yanked me off its back. I tried to jerk my arm away but he enhanced his grip with a touch of power.
Don’t fight me, Astra.
You’re hurting me!
I’m sorry. But this has to look real.
Then I need to fight you, don’t I?
I flung myself sideways, using my weight to break his hold on me, and rolled under the black.
Being an old warhorse, and very well trained, the giant reptile just tucked his head and looked down at me. I scurried the length of his body as a shout went up and Emo barked out an order to the guards to grab me.
“You want real…” I murmured, “I’ll give you real.” Hiding between the dragon’s thick back legs, which kept moving as he dipped and danced, trying to see where I’d gone, I lifted a hand and prepared to shoot Emo with a holding bubble. The magic wouldn’t hurt him, but it would keep him rooted to the spot and unable to magic me back while I made a run for the errant king.
I drew the power I needed, gathering it and pulling it toward my outstretched palm with a thought, and then, when I had Emo firmly in my sites, let it go.
Nothing happened.
“What the…” The power I’d gathered simply drained back to the place where I’d pulled it from. Then I remembered. Dialle had said something about warding to keep outside magic from being used against the castle.
Apparently the warding worked inside the castle as well as outside.
Well, dang.
That was about the time a large pair of red hands grabbed my arm and yanked me out from between the dragon’s treelike limbs.
I kicked and flailed but it was no use, they clapped a magic pair of cuffs over my wrists and yanked me to my feet, presenting me to Emo.
I glared at him, refusing to let him into my mind as he took my arm and started to lead me into the belly of the castle.
Suffice it to say I was feeling a bit testy.
Not the best time to hear from my sister.
Astra!
I closed my eyes and winced, her not so dulcet tones banging around in my brain like an army of gargoyles on laser skates.
Darma!
Are you
ever
coming to get me?
I’m in the castle now.
About time! I’m nearly out of tricks trying to hold this guy off. You have
no idea
what I’ve been going through—
Okay, I might have lost my temper just a wee bit on that one. I jumped in, interrupting her tirade.
Yeah. You’re welcome, Darma. Auntie and I are fine. Now. But Myra’s almost died a few times trying to save you and I’m…well… Don’t worry about a little thing like my Settling, or the fact that I’m in Hell right at the moment when I’m trying to push my soul to my angel side. No worries, sis. I’m pretty much okay, if you don’t count the fact that I’ve tried to sleep with everything warm and mobile that skitters past me. Thanks for asking.
I felt her scowl in my mind.
What are you babbling about, Astra? Of course you’re fine… You’re always fine… Wait, you’ve been sleeping around? While I’m in Hell? Are you kidding m—
I closed down my mind to her. It was like talking to a block of charred granite. Only the rock would have had more empathy.
One problem at a time. First I had to tackle—erm—First, and then I’d find my ungrateful bitch of a sister.
Maybe I’d take my time on that second problem. Like a few days, months, years.
I had no doubt she’d be fine. Nothing that dense and self-involved would even be touched by a few thousand years in Hell.
I would feel a little sorry for the patrons of Hell’s toasty environs.
No matter that they were the worst of the worst. Murderers, rapists, thugs of the worst order. They didn’t deserve a stint in Hell with Darma.
Unfortunately, my happy thoughts of leaving Darma in Hell didn’t last very long. Emo yanked me into a cavernous room filled with stocky red soldiers dressed in fancy uniforms that had gold-fringed epaulets on the shoulders and pretty gold buttons.
Impressive. If you cared about war fashion.
Unfortunately, I was a practical sort. To me, epaulets were just good handles for grabbing your enemy and flinging him to the ground so you could slice him open like a Sunday chicken. And buttons… Well, they could be swallowed and obstruct the airways.
Very dangerous things.
We hurried to the front of the huge room and stopped. Emo bowed. I set my knees against bowing as he tried to pull me down with him.
Astra, if this is going to work you can’t antagonize him. He’ll kill you in a heartbeat.
I kept my gaze on the tall, steamy drink standing at the front of the room.
If I bow he’ll know for sure something’s up.
As he’d been doing the first time I ever laid eyes on him, King Dialle the First stood across the cavernous room in front of wall-to-wall, floor-to-ceiling windows. Except this time he looked out over a charred and depressing landscape of ruin and despair. The parallels between him and my Dialle were stark and a little disconcerting.
The ex-king stood with his back to us, his hands folded at his back and his long, muscular legs braced apart in a warrior’s stance. His silky black hair was long and loose, curling slightly at the ends just where perfectly sculpted buttocks rounded out from a narrow waist. He wore red leather leggings that fit his well-muscled legs and perky round buttocks like a second skin and nothing else. As he turned I looked for the large tattoo shaped like a pitchfork on one muscular biceps. When I spotted it I smiled.
“We meet again, lovely Tweener.”
Remembering the last time we’d spoken, I was uncomfortable with this statement. He’d been trapped in a tiny glass prison that shrank every time he lost his temper. When I found him he’d been in extreme danger of becoming squashed between the glass walls like a bidgie bug.
I hadn’t done much to help him escape. In fact, I might have said a few things to get him to lose his temper.
I rolled my lips to avoid smiling at the memory now.
Dialle the First’s 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 intense, his nose long, tapered and straight. The gorgeous ex-king’s 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 and I knew that, when he grinned, 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.
I gritted my teeth to tamp down on my Settling, which was fighting to surface in response to the tasty, if evil, tidbit standing before me.
He stood where he was for a long moment, studying me. His nostrils flared, scenting me, and his sexy eyes widened in response. He hadn’t once looked at Emo. I realized at that moment that Emo had merely been a pawn in his dark plans. Whatever they were.
His real purpose had been to get me there.
I could only think of a couple of reasons for that. Neither option was good for me.
“What do you want, Dialle?” It felt strange saying that name in conjunction with First and with such antipathy. I was used to uttering it in passion and with delight.
His smile sent tingles throughout my body. He was entirely too similar in looks to my Dialle to make me comfortable. And it seemed my body didn’t recognize the difference.
“I think you know what I want, Astra. With you as my queen I can take back the dark world. My son isn’t man enough to own a prize such as you.” He lifted an arm, opening his hand, palm upward, and wiggled his fingertips at me.
I felt the slightest change in the air before it happened. The world tilted and went black, just for an instant. When it normalized again I was standing way too close to him.
Instinct had me striking out and yanking my power forward.
But he was too fast for me. He caught my fist, wrapped an arm like iron around my waist and lowered his incredible lips to mine.
If I’d thought the world tilted before, it had only been a tiny blip compared to what occurred when First kissed me.
I’d always been slightly attracted to him in that
yes it’s evil but shit, it’s so very hot
way. And my traitorous body, no doubt recognizing a strand of DNA from
my
Dialle in the father, had admittedly responded readily to his in the past.
But this…this was beyond simple biological reaction.
What I felt in that kiss was explosive, earth-shattering, devastating. Sensation exploded through me, expanding to the bursting point every cell of my body. Warm cream ran from my clenching pussy, my nipples sprang into hard, eager peaks and my skin became one, giant erogenous zone.
Rather than push him away and stomp on the rock-hard cock I could feel against my belly, I moaned against his lips and ground myself into him. He tasted like Dialle, my senses recognized him as my Dialle, and, when he murmured endearments against my ear while running heated, hungry fingers along my hips and over my buttocks, he sounded like my Dialle.
With a thought he removed all of our clothes. I squeaked in alarm, some tiny portion of my mind still capable of rational thought, and opened my eyes. I was barely even surprised to find that we’d left the cavernous throne room and were standing in a familiar room.
The bed Dialle and I had first made love in. Warmth infused me and I smiled, eagerly recapturing his soft lips and inhaling the intoxicating musk of his breath. “Dialle.” I murmured against his lips.
“I’m right here, Astra.”
His heated fingers trailed down my belly, causing the skin to jump in pleasure and anticipation, and slipped into my wet, hungry pussy. “Mmm, so ready for me. So hot and wet, my sweet.”
I blinked. “My sweet?” Something was wrong. What was making my head so muzzy? Shaking my head I fought against the sensations his hot mouth was creating as he sucked on my nipples, treating each hard, eager peak with a soothing tongue bath and making my stomach jump with pleasure. Each forceful suck on my breast sent a sharp jolt of delight spiraling through my belly and into my sexual core.