Genesis Queen (The Road to Hell Series) (6 page)

“Her being part demon doesn’t bother you or the rest of the family?”

“Of course it does. But how’s that any different from all the other years we’ve known her? Last time I checked, you have all she needs. Power she can feast on and, as big a whore-dog as you are, if you can’t keep her sexually happy, there isn’t a man alive who can.”

It was his turn to poke her in the ribs. “What does the rest of the family think about me being with her?”

Zo snorted. “Please. Georgie is taking one-hundred-percent credit for getting you two together.” She rolled her eyes. “How, I haven’t figured out yet since all she did was see it in a vision.”

Nix chuckled. He loved his messed-up, neurotic family. Life was never boring. Especially with his Aunt Georgie’s psychic abilities. Her visions kept them all on their toes.

“Gage is a little on the wishy-washy side. He’s worried about the bigger, scarier picture.”

It’d surprise him if at least one of them wasn’t thinking of the potential future hazards. “Good to know you all care, Zo. Thank you for being my hero-ess—”

“Heroine.”

“That too. But—” He scrunched up his face. “What are all of you doing up? It’s the wee hours of the morning.”

“That scary dragon I mentioned, he and his daunting buddy were dropping fiery ice outside the house. Kind of hard to sleep through that.”

“Ah…that’d be the Angel and Demon Locks Amos requested.”

“The Angel Lock intended to keep Amos in or Micah out?”

They both knew it wouldn’t keep the King of Hell out unless he had no intention of being trapped. “Maybe both.” He shrugged. “I didn’t hang around long enough to ask.”

“Nix—”

“I know. I know. Talk to her.”

Pastel rainbow orbs swirled in front of them moments before Zen crystallized. There was no hello, no you’re-a-dumbass comment, just a dry, “Your presence is required in the study.”

Study equaled Zen and Mads’s make-do dojo.

He went alert immediately and came away from the tree. “Something wrong with Mads?”

“Except for what you and Micah have done to her?”

A meaningful pause.

Nix cringed.

“No.”

Chapter Five

Shoulders slouched, Kur slumped in the chair with his head thrown against the back of the seat. His mouth sagged in exhaustion, and his lips were almost as white as his skin—which was normally olive-toned. His eyes were closed, but she could sense his alertness. His shoulder-length blue-black hair fell away from his face, giving him a skeletal appearance. Dark shadows discolored the tender flesh beneath his eyes, and those shadows weren’t there because of his ridiculously long, sooty lashes either.

Dear God, knowing the blame lay at her feet nourished her guilt. Nix’s understandable fury didn’t help. She needed her hero on her side, not feeding his anger in the bathroom.

She’d been well on her way to becoming the Genesis Queen of Hell when they’d snatched her out. Not a moment too soon, either. The Kings wanted her to claim the same distinction as the first book of the Holy Bible…a new beginning for mankind and Hell. With a new Holy Trinity—Father, Son, and Holy Mother—earth would become the training ground for a new religion governed by a fallen angel with nasty daddy issues. Not an outcome she wanted to contemplate. She rubbed her eyes with her fingers. Thinking about what would have happened if they hadn’t retrieved her when they had caused her uneasy dread…she would’ve embraced Hell and all it offered. She prayed her trembling knees didn’t give out and put her butt on the floor.

Worse, she itched to return to Micah. Her Lynx identified him as family and safety, even though she and her demon both rationalized he wasn’t the best individual for her. Only Nix wished to bring out her good qualities.

But…reservations aside, she’d launched into a deal with him without a moment’s hesitation. To return her son to Hell. What kind of mother agreed to that? Not one that vowed to protect him.

Nix should be furious with her. Disappointed, too, not that she couldn’t beat herself up more than he would. She’d been at the tail end of the anchoring ceremony when she suddenly found herself in her bedroom. The Kings had altered to their angel form in front of her. Magnificent creatures, all of them, and each diverse in their beauty.

Raguel’s bronze skin sparkled like glitter and no one could mistake his lime-green, orange-flecked eyes as human. The first to begin the anchoring ceremony, Raguel had slit his wrist and offered it to her. She had latched onto his wound like the black liquid offered her a lifeline to immortality.

As she’d ingested his blood, the bronze King went to his knees before her, gazing up at her. “My sister Queen.”

Without any coherent thought, words tumbled from her lips. “My brother King.”

“Who’s next?” Micah’s breath had stirred against her ear, and she’d twisted her head to gaze at him.

She’d claimed his lips in a fast, wet kiss. Afterward, she’d nipped his bottom lip and sent him a look that promised a very sexed-up-later in his bed. Oh, yes, she’d planned to fuck him six ways to Sunday. As if he could read the promise in her eyes, he’d smiled. And she’d begun to make good on her silent vow when she’d been dragged out of Hell.

Elias had come next. He’d wrapped his hand around her throat and stared at her the longest time. The muffled screams of damned souls were the only noise in the room. He’d burst into angel, and Madison’s jaw dropped.

His skin was a darker shade of blue than Micah’s pale-arctic ice blue, and marbleized with skeins of terracotta. Straight, fiber-optic ginger-colored wings—not the corkscrew shape of Micah’s—dripped with yellow highlights. His brown eyes had flashed gold, with a hint of his kingly rank in his pupils. Navy-colored talons, veined in yellow, had gripped her—

“What are you thinking about?”

Madison jerked at Kur’s question. Until that moment, she hadn’t realized she’d zoned out. She shook her head. “Nothing important.”

Gravely important
. But that omission would wait a bit.

“Pardon me if I choose not to believe you.” She blinked and focused on the dragon. The black slashes of his eyebrows drew together over the bridge of his nose. “You’re eyes have gone Lynx. Please advise you do not require sustenance.”

“I’m fine.” She hesitated before walking to him. A finger to his chin, she tipped his head back. “Are
you
okay?”

“I’m fine.” He threw her same words back at her, and she suspected he fibbed just as she had. The door opened as Kur said, “Nothing a good night of uninterrupted sleep won’t cure.”

That relieved her fears. Madison glanced toward the door and froze as Nix, Zen, Petra, and Amos entered. She must have tightened her grip on Kur, because he grasped her wrist and tugged her hand away from his face.

“Don’t jump to conclusions, Madison.” Kur kept his voice low, and she contemplated him, relieved at not having to meet Nix’s blaming gaze just yet. Of course that was the coward’s way. “If anyone understands the lure of Hell, it’s Phoenix.”

“Thanks.” A small frown tilled across his forehead at her gratitude. “For feeding me.”

A wicked gleam glinted in his dark eyes and a grin tugged at the corners of his lips. “I’m jealous you chose Phoenix as the appetizer.”

Nix glared at him. Kur smirked. Uncertain of the sudden surge in aggression that spiked in the room, she peeked between the two men. What trouble did the dragon seek to inspire? Kur teased; Nix should be aware of that fact, as well, so why the hostile glare?

No time for such adolescent behavior, she shrugged aside their conduct. Madison turned and walked away from the dragon. Halting when she reached the desk, she leaned a hip against the wood and crossed her arms over her middle, hugging herself. She could do this, tell them how she’d screwed up in Hell. Not like she had a choice if she wanted to protect her son and Nix.

Zen came straight to her and halted a step away. Their gazes locked. As always, she couldn’t get into his head, but she predicted he peeled away her secrets easily enough. He would know everything before she spoke one word.

Talk to me
, he said telepathically. It sounded like the desperate plea of a man in unfamiliar territory.

About
?

Anything. Your thoughts are muffled like whispers I can’t catch clearly
.

Madison flinched and hugged herself tighter. Her immortal friend leaned his forehead against hers. A public display of comfort from him was rare enough it indicated how spooked he was. Nonetheless, she embraced his consolation like she would a pillow.
I almost anchored to Hell
.

Amos said as much
.

She groaned.
He saw that
?

Not all of it. Parts of it were blacked out to him.

Is now a good time to tell you I’m scared of losing myself more than ever before?

He kissed her forehead and moved away.
We’ll figure this out, Madison
.

She couldn’t remember the last time he’d tried to cheer her up.

You know what you have to do for this to end well
.

“No.” Zen’s features hardened and Nix shot him a questioning glance.
I won’t allow Micah to steal the first family I’ve had in centuries
.

Madison ignored Nix, and how he didn’t take a seat the way Zen had. Kur made no move to give anyone his chair. “And you.” She turned to her son. Micah’s demon daughter, Petra, hovered behind him like she knew he needed her support. “All we’ve been through….” She shook her head. Now wasn’t the time to judge, not when her mistake could be counted a bigger transgression than his. “How long have you been visiting Hell and your daddy? Four months like he said?”

“What?” Nix’s voice elevated a couple of notches higher than normal.

“I had a vision—”

“I didn’t ask that.”

Amos fidgeted with his hands, shuffled his feet. “Since Nix went to Hell.”

Nix cursed in Xapil.

“He knows the language.” Suddenly very cold, she rubbed her arms.

“Micah never once let it slip that Amos visited.” He put his fingers through his short, spiky hair. “I had no idea, Mads.”

She had no reason to not believe him. “What’s done is done. We have to figure out how to avoid the fallout.”

Kur’s head snapped forward. Obviously he tired of pretending disinterest. “That’s a smidge non-aggressive.”

“If he had a vision, then he made the choices he did with good intentions. Over half of my decisions were rarely made with good intentions.”

“She’s right,” Zen asserted. “I disapprove of his clandestine trips, but Madison speaks true.”

“I knew when I accepted my Lynx and killed Pandora it was the wrong action. I didn’t care. Whatever it took to get Nix out of Hell was all that mattered. I like to think saving him was for the good of mankind, which tallies my sacrifice as legitimate. What’s one more demon in this dark infested world compared to the purity of the Ark of Heaven?”

“Goddamn it, Mads—”

“Nix….” She took a deep breath and forced herself to meet his eyes, expecting the worst in his expression. She found nothing except irritation instead. “I’m entitled to my opinion, regardless if you agree with me or not.”

His jaw tightened and the gleam in his gaze said the argument was a long way from being over. He turned away and became overly fascinated by the books lining the shelves.

Madison tossed her hair over her shoulder and pushed the conversation forward. “Now might be a good time to mention that if the Demon Lock drops, everything will go to hell fast. Literally.”

Nix jerked to face her, worry plowing across his forehead. Kur sat straight in his seat and gripped the arm of the chair. Zen’s demeanor failed to alter even a little. Amos took in everyone’s expressions. Her son had always observed the small things, ingesting the minor particulars that said so much more than words.

Petra swirled a lollipop in her mouth and said, around the sugary ball, “Daddy got his claws into you?”

Madison studied the rug beneath her feet, reluctant to confess her indiscretion while looking at them directly. “I covenanted with him.”

“You
what
?” She closed her eyes at the strain in Nix’s elevated voice.

“Damn, Micah works fast.” Kur’s comment sounded a tad impressed.

Zen’s silence bothered her the most.

You got nothing to add
? She sent the thought to her immortal friend.

I’m waiting for the rest of the anvil to fall before I judge
.

She didn’t bother correcting his distorted saying.

Then Nix was there beside her, his fingers on her chin, forcing her head back. “Give us the details.” She watched his mouth move, wishing they were back in bed and those lips were exploring her body. “If that Lock drops, what will happen?”

Grudgingly, she elevated her gaze to his. “I’ll bring him Amos.”

His fingers pinched. “You sold him your son?” Incredulity tainted not just his voice, but his expression, too.

“That’s not the way I looked at it while there.” No doubt she’d lost his respect. “I was tasked with bringing him home, but that didn’t mean he had to stay. And since he’s already been visiting….” She shrugged, unable to continue. On this side of Hell, all of it sounded like weak excuses.

Nix’s hand fell away. He stared at her as if she’d turned into a freakish monster.

Haven’t I
?

Cannot turn into something that wasn’t already a part of you
. Yeah, as always, her Lynx was accurate. Always had the monster in us.

Crinkles at the corners of his eyes betrayed his disquiet. “What happens if you renege on the deal?”

“Everyone I love dies, they gain control of the dragons and…the rest doesn’t matter. It all concerned me.”

His voice dropped a notch and darkened. “What else, Mads?”

“Elias tortures me.”

“Tell me you received something worthy from the deal?”

“Their complete trust. No more hem-hawing about where my loyalties reside.”

Green eyes glittered and a muscle ticked in his jaw. “You betrayed your son for that?” The words were spoken low, highlighting his anger all the more.