Her Wicked Angel (Her Angel Romance Series Book 6) (21 page)

No. He would live for her.

Liora cupped both of his cheeks, keeping his eyes on her, and he could see the fear she spoke of in her hazel eyes. She hesitated, swallowed, and her fingers trembled against his face, confirming the nerves he could sense in the tremulous beat of her heart.

“I’m afraid that I’m going to lose you… one way or another. I don’t want that to happen.”

Asmodeus wrapped her in his arms and curled his black wings around her too, shielding her completely and blocking out the world. “You won’t lose me. If I had the power, if my pledge to the monster who created me wasn’t eternal and unbreakable, I would swear fealty to you, Liora… if I had the power, I would make that binding contract between us in a heartbeat… but I do not and cannot. All I can do is offer you the heart that beats for only you.”

Liora shot back and stared up at him, her eyes so wide he could see white all around her irises. “You mean that?”

She liked his pretty words but couldn’t believe them?

“I am born of evil… vicious and cruel… have the blood of thousands on my hands… can kill without regret and take pleasure from violence and suffering… it is understandable that you would not believe a foul creature like me could ever feel an emotion born of good.” He released her and stepped back, his heart stinging in his chest, spreading poison in his veins.

“I didn’t mean it like that!” Liora grabbed his wrists and held him firm. “I just… I have to know this is serious… that you’re serious and this isn’t just a game.”

Asmodeus sighed. “I would never do such a cruel thing to you, Liora. Apollyon says you have me under your spell. If this is a spell, then I hope it is never broken… not as my heart feels.”

“Asmodeus,” she whispered and squeezed his hands. “I don’t intend to break your heart. I’m just surprised. Wait. You told Apollyon about this?”

“He questioned me, after I asked him how he defeats the Devil when he fights him.” Perhaps too much information to have given her judging by her widening eyes. “I needed to know. He asked if I was serious about you. I am… but how you lost your family… I could come to understand if you could not… no. I am nothing more than a creature born of evil and Hell, a demon in many eyes, but I vow I will never harm you as other demons have. I will not let you leave me. You are mine, Liora. I am yours. And so it will be until the end of time.”

She smiled. “For a moment there, I thought you were going to go a little bit beta on me just when I had gotten used to you being all alpha.”

Alpha? Beta? He wasn’t sure what she meant by that but he didn’t let on. He took it as a good thing that he had remained alpha. Greek. Did it mean he was first? Or like a captive wolf pack? The leader. Top dog.

He glanced at Romulus and Remus where they slept curled together in front of the fire. He was the leader of the pack in a way. Their alpha. He looked back at Liora. Her alpha.

“Do you believe me now?” he whispered, slowly easing her back into his embrace, folding his wings around her again.

She nodded.

“And will you take the black heart I offer you?”

She smiled. “It’s not that black. More… really dark red.”

He frowned at her, wondering if she could see how much he had already changed because of her.

She teasingly patted his cheek. “You went easy on Apollyon didn’t you?” She paused and he shrugged as his reply. Her smile broadened. “You went easy on him because of me. You were thinking I might not be happy if you beat him to a pulp, weren’t you?”

She had him there. For the same reason, he had stayed his blade several times and resorted to merely terrifying the mortals to amuse himself. He had even attempted a kind smile at the boy, although he had frightened him instead.

Asmodeus looked down at Liora. He knew not whether angels could create life. Could he plant his seed in her and see it blossom? Would she ever want such a thing?

Would it be born evil like him or good like her?

Or perhaps a mixture of both of them?

“What are you thinking?” She prodded his chest and he blinked, coming out of his thoughts.

“I saw a boy in the place called a supermarket. He was small and frail. Weak. I do not quite understand why mortals procreate.” A lie, but a good way of getting an answer to his questions.

“I guess some people just want to make a family. I don’t think anyone makes kids to continue the human race anymore.”

“Does your cousin Serenity intend to make herself such a family with Apollyon?” Another cleverly constructed question, as long as she overlooked the fact that he was asking things about her cousin and his twin, two people he really didn’t give a damn about.

Her expression shifted, revealing a sliver of confusion. “I don’t think so… I mean… how? Angels are sterile.”

And that was the answer to most of his questions.

Now came the tiebreaker.

“Do you want a family to replace those you lost?”

She stared at his chest for the longest time and then lifted her eyes back to his. “I can’t say I’ve ever thought about it. I don’t really go crazy over babies like some witches at the coven. I don’t particularly feel compelled to pick them up and coddle them, or even play with them. Most of the time they seem to get in the way.”

“So you don’t want a baby in your belly?”

She giggled. “Is that your rather childish way of asking whether I’ll be pissed if you don’t knock me up somehow?”

Asmodeus glared at her and set her away from him, furling his wings against his back. He folded his arms across his chest.

Romulus perked up and drowsily checked on him, having evidently sensed his rising anger, and then yawned and went back to sleep.

Liora ran her hands over Asmodeus’s folded arms, separating them easily, and took hold of his hands again. “No, I won’t be upset. Babies really aren’t on my agenda.”

“Because you fear demons will take them from you?”

She laughed now. “Seriously? If you were the father, I could hardly see that happening. You fought the Devil for me. I can’t imagine who you would fight to protect your offspring.”

“I would tear down Heaven to protect them and you.” That earned him a bright smile.

“There you go again… saying beautiful things. So… yes.”

“Yes?” He couldn’t remember asking her a question other than whether she feared demons would take her babies.

She tiptoed, kissed him, and whispered against his lips, “Yes, I’ll take the heart you offered me.”

Asmodeus recaptured her lips, seizing control of the kiss and showing her just how much that meant to him. He curled his wings around her again, shielding her from the inquisitive gaze of Remus, and gathered her into his arms. Her palms pressed against his chest, burning him through his ruined black shirt, and his heart beat against them, eager to leap into her hands.

She nipped his lower lip with her blunt teeth and then swiftly ducked out of his arms, muttering something about food.

He furled his wings and found her at the basket, tipping everything out onto the stone table. The contents scattered everywhere and he snatched a bottle as it rolled over the edge.

Liora frowned at it. “What’s that?”

“Not edible, I think. I hope.” He held the small white plastic bottle out to her. “It washes clothes… I think. My French is a little lacking, but the picture on the front made it look as though it will clean material things. True?”

He hoped she said yes.

She nodded. “Why did you want it?”

She had to be very hungry if her brain was no longer functioning. He had been there. It was not a pleasant experience or one he had any desire to relive.

“I intend to wash your clothes for you.”

Her smile was brilliant, as if he had just given her something as dazzling and precious as a diamond ring, and she tore open a packet of biscuits.

“Evil angels make the best boyfriends.”

Boyfriend?

Asmodeus dropped the plastic bottle, grabbed her and kissed her hard, tasting only creamy biscuit. It was good. He kissed her harder. She shoved him back and stuffed a biscuit in his mouth.

“Food first. Sex later.”

A
smodeus choked on his biscuit.

Liora’s eyes turned wild and panicked and her hands fluttered in front of her, spilling biscuits on the black stone floor of his home. Remus was there in a shot, snaffling them and licking the crumbs up.

“Too forward?” Liora said and he shook his head and pounded his fist against his chest, coughing hard.

“Unexpected,” he wheezed and grabbed the nearest bottle. The glass was cool beneath his fingers. He twisted the metal cap off and swallowed a mouthful of the clear liquid. Fire. His throat burned and his stomach was on fire. He coughed worse than before and scowled at the bottle. “What in three realms is vodka?”

Liora grabbed it from him. “Alcohol.”

She screwed the lid back on and hid the bottle behind her.

“Another aphrodisiac? Does it contain caffeine like the coffee the female offered me in the market to seduce me?”

“No, it’ll just make you lose your inhibitions and get you really drunk, and probably sick if you haven’t had it before… what the hell did you say?”

His head felt funny so he laughed. “Woman… in the market… she offered me coffee… wanted me.”

Were his words slurring together?

The entire room turned, wavered, spun until his eyes couldn’t focus.

Liora slapped him again, righting the world and bringing her into vivid detail. She was not happy.

Because the female had attempted to seduce him?

“I did not drink it. I bared my…” He flashed his fangs at her as he had the woman. She did not look impressed. “She screamed… called security…”

Asmodeus grinned.

“Oh, mercy, what did you do?”

He waved away her horrified look, dismissing it. “Nothing bad. Just frightened them a little.” He pinched his fingers together to show her how little and grinned again. “Should’ve seen their faces. Then they ran. I thought… people… found angels… awful?”

“I think you mean people are awed by angels, not people find angels awful… although in your case, clearly what you said is more appropriate since you scared the ever living crap out of them!” She huffed and shook her head. “Aren’t there rules about public exposure?”

He laughed. “I didn’t flash that. I flashed these.”

He grinned at her, showing his fangs. She wobbled in his vision again. Either he needed another mouthful of the vodka or he needed to keep the hell away from it. He couldn’t decide which.

“No, I mean, revealing yourself to mortals.”

Asmodeus shook his head. “Not for me. No rules for me. Rules for the wretches under the yoke of Heaven and the fools under the yoke of Hell.”

She gave him a look that said she was dearly tempted to point out that technically he fell under the fools heading.

He reached around her for the vodka. She moved it away from him so he growled at her. The threat didn’t work. Asmodeus sighed and leaned his backside against the edge of the table.

Well, he leaned where he thought the edge of the table was, which was behind him even though he remembered it was actually beside him when his backside hit the floor with enough force to jar his spine.

“Fantastic. You’re a lousy drinker to get drunk on this tiny amount.” She held the bottle out in front of her and measured how much he had taken from it in that one mouthful and her eyes widened. His did too. Apparently, he had a big mouth. Nearly half the bottle was gone.

He laughed.

She scowled at him as she would a naughty child.

Asmodeus had a sudden urge to eat the cake he had bought for Liora. All of it.

He groped for the edge of the table, pulled himself onto his knees and scoured the scattered food for it. When he spotted it near Liora, he reached for it but she was there before him, snatching the box up against her chest.

“No, you don’t. Apollyon can put away a whole cake in one go and I’m not sitting here watching you do the same.”

Same. Apollyon.

Same.

Asmodeus erupted from the floor, growling at her and the way she had compared him to his twin, making out they were the same.

Apollyon liked a whole chocolate cake. Of course he would too. He was just a shadow of that male. A copy. He would want and like everything that male did because it was programmed into him. Everyone thought it and who was he to deny it?

“Chocolate cake… witches… what else do I have a penchant for according to the wise Liora? Maybe I should be wanting to fuck your cousin, not you?”

Liora punched him. When his brain stopped rattling around his skull from the force of the blow, he was staring at the ceiling, flat on his back, his legs hanging awkwardly over his toppled throne.

That was a hell of a mean swing his little mortal had on her. Magically reinforced judging by the blood he could taste and how far she had sent him flying across the room.

She appeared in view above him and he tilted his head, trying to keep her straight in his vision.

“You shit.” She kicked him hard in the ribs and he groaned and curled up in a ball on his side.

He had said something wrong. Liora must have knocked a few brain cells loose with her punch because it took him a second to remember what had made her lash out.

He cringed.

Smooth. Very smooth.

“Liora, my sweet.” He reached for her and she slapped his hand away.

“Don’t sweet me. I take it back. You’re a shitty drunk.”

He didn’t think he was drunk anymore. She had punched him right through drunk to stone cold sober.

Asmodeus sprawled out on the floor, letting her glare at him, defeated by a girl.

“I swear I will never drink again,” he muttered, staring at the ceiling, watching it lazily spin. Not sober after all.

“Tell me why you said it.”

It took a lot of effort to get his eyes to move to her without the contents of his stomach attempting to crawl back up his throat.

“Shadow.” The moment it left his lips, her shoulders sagged and a defeated look crossed her face.

“You are not a shadow of Apollyon.” She kneeled beside him and brushed his black hair from his brow, and he closed his eyes, amazed by how soothing her touch was and how it calmed his raging head and tumultuous stomach. “Have I not told you that?”