Genesis Queen (The Road to Hell Series) (26 page)

Their hands clasped. Who knew Micah was so gullible? She yanked hard and he went sailing face first into the grime beside her. The peal of their son’s laughter startled her, but not long enough to halt her reaction.

Madison scrambled onto her husband’s back, but in her haste she almost overshot her perch and toppled into the mud on his other side. Snagging his shoulder with one hand was all that saved her from ruining her attack. Righting her position, she buried her hands in the sludge on either side of his head. “Gotcha!”

She dumped gobs of the grime on his head.

Amos cheered her on. “Get him, Momma! Go, Momma, go!”

Unable to see her son, she wouldn’t have been surprised had he jumped up and down.

As she went to deposit two more handfuls on his head, his body rolled beneath her. Squealing at his unexpected movement, she grabbed his shirt to halt her plummet to his side. Another buck and she lost her hold, sprawling on the ground beside him. He whipped his head about to snag her in his gaze. Only the artic blue of his eyes was visible in his mud-covered face.

“Oh, crap!” She squealed and attempted to flee. Like quicksand, the filth had other plans for her…or was that blue magic that waylaid her escape? Another flare of blue about her—
the cheater
did
use magic
! The grime thickened, derailing her getaway.

On his hands and knees, Micah crawled easily toward her, a self-satisfied smile twisting his lips.

“Cheater!” She made a half-hearted kick at him, but he snagged her ankle.

“All is fair in war, kitten.”

“Give me your hand.” She looked up into Nix’s smiling face and trusted him by placing her hand in his. He pulled, and Micah’s grasp on her ankle was dislodged. Dirt went down her jeans and the back of her shirt, Nix’s feet making a sucking sound as he trudged through the mire.

Her son’s high-pitched giggles should’ve forewarned them of his attack, but Madison’s hero vanished when he leapt onto Nix’s back. With his grip lost on her hand, they went down to Amos’s victory holler. The Sherlock’s baritone laughter threaded through her, affecting her in a low area.

The clomping sound of mud alerted her to Micah’s approach. Madison craned her head around. He came straight for her, determination glinting in his eyes. Rolling over, she tried a backward crab crawl, but the sludge was too thick. Her husband was on her before she moved three inches. A year ago she’d never have believed she’d be lying in the mud laughing with the man who’d abandoned her.

Hands on her wrists, Micah flattened her arms in the grime on either side of her head. Straddling her hips, his weight settled on her and he leaned over her, belly to belly, chest to breasts…gawd, it felt divine.

“Got you this time.” His voice buzzed across her most sensitive flesh.

“So you did.”

What you going to do to us now that you have us
? was Lynx’s sultry purr. Good thing her demon rarely controlled her vocal chords.

Gazes locked, she watched as his head lowered. She had time to turn her face aside, but the thought didn’t cross her mind. In this moment, a kiss from Micah seemed like the normal thing to do.

His lips touched hers. Electricity sparked, like static and she gasped, eyes going wide. His eyes smiled at her response. Smooth operator that he was, he took the opportunity to delve his tongue into her mouth.

His fingers laced with hers. The hard length of him pressed against her pelvis, proving she affected him the same way he did her.

“Go, Daddy, go,” their son cheered.

Startled, Madison jerked her head to the side. What was wrong with her? Caught up in his embrace, she’d forgotten anyone else existed. She had to get control of her succubus. Immediately. Because the way she reacted to Micah would give Amos the wrong impression.

What was wrong with Amos wanting them together?

Every child wants their parents to be together
, her demon said with much pragmatism.

A smug smile turned up the corners of his mouth. Worried over Nix’s reaction to her failure to resist her husband, Madison jerked her hands free of his intimate hold. “Get off me.”

“This time.” He dipped his head and pressed his lips to her ear, she shivered at the contact of his breath and mouth. “Next time I’m in this position, I won’t budge.”

Micah leapt off her. Madison would’ve run her hands down her face if not for all the mud. Nix pulled her to her feet.

Their eyes connected. “Nix, I—”

“Shut up and kiss me.” He drew her into his arms.

Confused by his understanding, Madison kissed him, but moments later Kur cooled them off with a blast of the water hose.

Chapter Twenty-Four

Elias contemplated the immortal across the room. Zennyo Ryuo could not be trusted, regardless of what his goody-two-shoes sister-in-law believed. Goddamn, Madison was naïve. Drove him nuts. Her gullibility should’ve made her malleable for the Kings’ common goal. In theory, that should be true. Hell’s newest royalty had proven once too often she wasn’t as acquiescent as any of them preferred. To make matters worse, he speculated Micah enjoyed her rebellion.

The initial plan of action had been to eliminate her if she failed to work out—like they had the other Genesis children. Then his twin had covenanted his life with hers and fucked up their kingly plans. That deception had infuriated even Lucifer, but then he’d grown mysteriously quiet on the entire project and displayed unconventional patience for a King. That virtue frustrated him almost as much as Madison’s unwillingness to join their cause. His other sibling, Raguel, grew irritated by the delay. Elias couldn’t blame him, since he was just as agitated.

Not that Madison could avoid becoming the Queen of Hell. The status came to her the moment Micah claimed her at fifteen. She’d fully anchored herself to Hell—thank fucking Hell for that small victory.

The prudish princess had responded to his brother at the party today. There, for a second, he’d thought his twin would bang her in the magical mud pit.

A sudden, unexpected shiver scuttled down his spine and gooseflesh puckered his skin. Suspicious of any physical reaction, especially when it pinged his supernatural radar, he rose from his seat and plucked the curtain aside. As he peered out the windows into the darkness, nothing noticeable skulked about, but kin of some sort prowled near. If the killer came for his family now, they were disorganized, too unprepared for an attack. Sure, they had a few safeguards in motion, but the immortal refused to lower the Locks, which endangered them all by keeping them trapped in one area. Easy pickings for a troop of warriors.

Hopefully, it’s nothing more significant than the dragons
.

“I sense something.” Petra moved from a chair to sit on the edge of the bed beside his nephew, going into protective mode without any instruction. He’d always been fond of his niece, her instincts sharper than most demons.

“I’ll check it out with a cigarette.”

His hand had just touched the door when Zennyo Ryuo spoke. “I can go about unnoticed.”

“Funny thing, immortal. I don’t trust you to report accurately.”

“Your logic is unsound.” Zennyo Ryuo’s silver eyes pinned him in his spot. “If I wanted either of them dead, they’d already be dead.”

Trapped in the Locks and unable to escape danger might as well be a death sentence for his family. The immortal claimed the Angel Lock remained to hinder their ability to transport Madison and Amos without his permission. The King called bull-fucking-shit, because if he wanted someone dead, he wouldn’t allow the Locks to drop either, if he already had them trapped. His best guess, they were Zennyo Ryuo’s fail-safe plan to ambush his family with an early demise.

“Shouldn’t we tell Daddy there’s an unknown presence?” Elias glanced at Petra over his shoulder. Her irises had gone demonic, an eerie twisting shade of violet and blue.

“I’ve got him on telepathic speed-dial.” He neglected the door and exited the room through a direct portal to the front porch.

Outside, even the crickets were silent. Clouds hid all but the glow of the moon. He wasted little time opening and closing supernatural doorways about the house. Nothing. The creepy presence of kinfolk wouldn’t abate.

A cigarette entered his hand when he called for one. He lit the tip with hellfire from his fingertip and took a heavy drag. Only when the nicotine burned his lungs did he release the smoke in a gray stream.

“Present yourself,” he demanded after another hit. Movement to his right. He glanced in that direction. Again, nothing visible. Channeling his magic was innate as he prowled to investigate the noise.

Micah, we may have company
. The words rebounded in his head as he slammed into an invisible shield. White flames tipped in blue ruptured around him and he stumbled back.

Angelfire
.

“Goddamn.” Elias flicked his cigarette and it sizzled in a burst of blue-nothing when it hit the flame.

“I’m a trifle disappointed, Eliel.” Domiel appeared out of the shadows.

Buzz-cut black hair. A young angel before the Fall. Thin, but lithe, he’d not been built for brawn but rather infiltration. Score one for the younger brother. Domiel must have found favor to be in command of Father’s army. “I’d expected a challenge trapping you and Beliel. Instead you trap yourselves willingly within an Angel Lock.” The angel swaggered closer.

“You trap yourself in the same Lock.” He scanned the terrain as invisible kin blipped on his internal radar.

“I have immortal assistance.”

“Zennyo Ryuo?” Anger pulsed through Eliel’s head. Not that he was surprised by the backstabbing motherfucker and he
had
tried to warn Madison.

Domiel’s silence was all the confirmation he needed to attribute guilt to Zennyo Ryuo. He’d kill the immortal son-of-a-bitch as soon as his family was safe.

The angel nodded at the flames. “When the
Angelfire
burns out…well, you know what transpires.”

He’d be dead if he failed to escape the flames before they were extinguished.

Elias ignored his pretentious brother’s taunt. “I’ll eat your heart after I rip it out.”

“You and what army?” As if cued, a host of angels exposed themselves. The reason for his internal radar pings.

At least a hundred. Maybe more. To kill a newly immortal woman and a very mortal, defenseless child?

Jesus-fucking-Christ
.

Madison and Amos must represent an enormous hazard to Father to justify this sizeable contingent.

He swallowed past the sudden lump of panic that rose to the back of his throat. With a horde this big, their chances at survival lessened.

“Beliel will watch us kill his whore slowly, before we execute their abomination of an offspring.” Arrogant and delusional bastard, if he believed his brother would complacently observe them harm his family. Micah would fight to the death first. He held his tongue and his brother continued. “We understand with her death, comes his. Convenient. Stupid on his part, linking his life to hers. You’re trussed up for the cooking. Two kings down, two remaining.”

Chapter Twenty-Five

Two days after Micah and Nix got her off and
she
forced their climaxes, Madison still wanted to curl into a ball and
die
of humiliation! One unintentional act had proven she couldn’t resist either of these men. She’d allowed them to touch her together in Hell, and again a couple of days ago, after her husband arrived in her home. While in the protection of Nix’s arms! The scene was set to repeat in her head without a genuine single pang of shame. Blaming her succubus wasn’t even an option. Pretending she was humiliated might fool the guys, but not Lynx.

One of the best freaking orgasms of her life and her demon was eager to replicate the event. Feeding off the two of them at the same time, while both of them touched her, oh yeah, her Lynx was desperate to feast on them again.

Nix hadn’t lifted one finger to stop it from happening. Why should he? He’d already promised to strip her for Micah if he thought it meant she would live.

The kiss she’d shared today with her husband in the mud did nothing to alleviate her randy succubus.

Beside her, the Sherlock’s breathing had deepened. His mortality demanded he sleep, while she probably would never participate in the act again. Damn her immortality.

The King of Hell shifted in his chair across the room. He wasn’t asleep and made no pretense that he was. She pictured him slumped in his seat with his feet propped on the coffee table. She would
not
look to confirm her suspicions. Either way, she knew his blond hair would gleam in the moonlight that filtered through the windows.

Oh, no, no, no!
I am not going there
.

Climaxing beneath their attention was good
. Usha—her too-honest demon—pointed out.

Better than good
.
Phenomenal
. Guess she was getting super-candid as well.

A mental nod from her succubus.

Madison snuggled a little closer to her Sherlock. She did
not
want to think of her husband while another man held her.

Can’t ignore the way Micah makes us feel
.

Shut up
, she snarled in her head. The soft trill of her succubus’s laughter made her eye twitch. She should wake Nix up right now and ask him to make love to her. While her husband watched. Anything to prove to him—and herself—that she was Nix’s woman. Would never be her husband’s woman again.

That she could force them both to climax without touching them intrigued her. She’d felt their releases as if she’d received them into her body. And she’d digested their pleasure like a child without limits in a bag of Reeses. That had been her one and only fleeting moment of mortification.

Madison
, came the sound of Petra’s strained telepathy.

Thank God for something else to think about.