bedeviled & beyond 02 - bedeviled & bedazzled (6 page)

All the while, Dialle’s heated mouth was not idle. His lips and tongue worked their way down my neck, across my collarbone and to the other breast, which was just as happy to see them as my first breast had been. Careful ministrations there brought that nipple out to play and Dialle moved on to make sure all the playmates came out to join in the fun.

As his lips neared the happiest of places, where his thumb had been providing a sexy massage that was making me see entire constellations, a change in the air around the bed intruded on the party, sending a cooling wash across my skin.

Harsh reality, in the form of my cranky angel Myra was about to pee all over my good time.

My dream Dialle lifted his head and, with a final smile filled with soft regret, popped out of my dream and, presumably, back into his own.

A firm smack on my forehead brought me reluctantly awake and I glared at Myra. “This had better be good, angel. I had some dream going on here.”

Myra pursed soft, pink lips and furrowed her flawless white brow. “From the look on your face and your current state of...undress, I’m sure I don’t want to know what the dream was about.”

I pulled the rumpled covers over my naked body and pushed myself upright in the bed, trying valiantly to ignore the frantic throbbing of my dream-ravaged nether regions. It wasn’t easy to ignore something as insistent and painful as that throbbing and my damnable guardian angel was definitely going to pay the price for breaking into what had been the most pleasurable and realistic dream I’d ever experienced.

I continued to sit there glaring at her and she continued to stand beside my bed, glaring right back at me. Finally I realized that I could never beat my angel in a cranky contest and that one of us had better resort to common sense or it was conceivable that we would both still be standing—or sitting as the case may be—there glaring for all of eternity. In fact, if eternity was the finish line, Myra would win anyway because she’d still be there when we hit eternity while I, being slightly less than immortal, would not be.

Sighing, I pushed back the covers and climbed out of bed, heading for the cleansing tube. I didn’t turn around to see if she followed me into the personal hygiene room but I could feel her presence in the room as I climbed into the cleansing tube. “Water on, one hundred degrees, full soap.” As hot soapy water left the spigot on the wall I sighed and turned to face Myra. “Well, what’s up?”

Myra’s perfect pink and white face didn’t change an ion as she lowered her angelic butt onto the chair beside the door and continued to stare at me. “You could at least have made me some coffee.”

I stopped in mid-scrub and stared at her, my mouth dropping open in disbelief. She simply stared back. Once again I sighed and decided on the better part of valor. “I’ll make you some as soon as I get out of here.”

She shrugged, finally looking away, “I can’t stay.” Her clear blue gaze scanned the room as if looking for flaws in its décor she could point out to me.

I waited, knowing that nothing would spur my angel into speaking until she was damned good and ready.

Finally she said, “The demons have made good on their threat to take hostages, Astra.”

I turned off the water and stepped into the drying tube. “What have they done?”

Myra’s waist length blonde locks swung softly around her shoulders as she turned to face me. “They’ve kidnapped the humans who visited Demonica last night.”

I pushed at my long, auburn hair in an effort to get the thick layers dry. “How many?”

Myra shrugged. “We’re not entirely certain but we believe it’s in the range of twenty to thirty humans.”

I stepped out of the tube and whistled. “Hades. That will certainly get somebody’s attention.”

Myra’s scowl returned. “Precisely.”

I grabbed my warm, bulky robe off the heated rack by the cleansing tube and pulled it on. Shivering in delight as its warmth started soaking into my chilled flesh. “What exactly do you want me to do about it?”

The scowl deepened. “Fix it of course.”

I sighed, “Of course. And how do you propose I do that?”

Myra’s form started to shimmer and fade. “How the hell do I know, Astra. Just fumble and bumble around like you usually do until you get lucky and it gets fixed.”

I watched the damnable creature fade completely away and then took out my favorite string of curses and started filling the air where she’d been with them.

I made a quick call to the office before heading back to my room to get my weapons. But as I walked through my sleep room door , my heart stopped.

Dialle lay sprawled across my bed, totally naked and in the exact state he’d been when he’d popped out of the dream, his gorgeous black hair spread across my pillow. He smiled at me when my eyes finally made it to his face and said, “Now, lovely Astra, where were we?”

I pulled my mouth shut and fell against the wall behind me, my spindly little knees totally giving out with the shock.

CHAPTER FIVE

Hostage Situation Demon Style

Into the demon’s lair she goes, a devil on her arm,

To plead release for those she thinks, the bogyman would harm.

I looked at Dialle for a long moment, considering how to ask the obvious question and then took the coward’s way out and just decided to ignore the elephant and his...trunk...in the room. Shaking my head I grabbed some clothes and started pulling them on. “We don’t have time to play right now, Dialle. Alcott has made good on his threat. He’s got a bunch of humans at Demonica and he’s threatening to kill them one by one in a very public way if your father doesn’t do what they want.”

Dialle’s face didn’t change. He continued to lie there on my bed looking all yummy and...expectant. I frowned as I pulled skinny black slacks over my legs and topped them with an oversized red sweater. “You and I need to go talk to Alcott.”

He extended a long-fingered, golden hand and smoothed it over the sheets for a moment, his midnight gaze fixed firmly on my face. At that moment I would have given anything to know what was going on in his very scary devil brain.

I sat down in the chair and pulled soft black leather boots on over the slim fitting slacks. The buttery leather molded around my legs from the soles of my feet to just under my knees and felt oh so good. I was ready for action if action was required. Ignoring my randy devil, I headed for my weapons cache. Pulling a picture on the wall aside, I placed the pinky finger of my left hand against the panel and the door swung silently open. I extracted a belt of tiny platinum crosses and buckled it on over my sweater. Then I took out two long platinum knives, which I slid down inside my soft boots for easy access if I should need them and a necklace with a tiny vial of angel blood in case I needed to make a strong impression on any gargoyles. I shuddered at the thought. But knew the ’goyles were particular favorites with Alcott and his gang, as they had been with his brother, Abrine.

When I was fully armed and appreciably dangerous, I turned to a still naked and...expectant...Dialle and cocked my head. “Are you coming?”

He cocked a sexy black eyebrow and gave me a slow smile. “Unfortunately it appears that I am not. However...”

Suddenly he was standing in front of me fully dressed, his lush lips hovering just inches from my own.

“I am definitely breathing hard.”

His devastatingly yummy lips lowered toward mine and a sexual haze muffled my brain. My sexy devil skimmed the seam of my lips with his heated tongue, nudging my lips apart. Unable to resist him, my lips opened and he was in.

The kiss pulled the breath from my body and brought my nipples to hard peaks. I melted into him as his hands wrapped around the backs of my thighs, just under the curve of my buttocks. He pulled me more tightly against his hard body and I soon found myself grinding against him, my traitorous body wanting to get as close as possible while my brain was screaming for distance so I could think.

Dialle’s thumbs caressed that oh-so-tender area where my buttocks rounded away from my thighs, rubbing in a gentle, circular motion that went right to my sexual core. I gasped and wrapped one leg around him, rubbing the hungrily throbbing area against the rigid flesh at his groin.

Much to my chagrin, Dialle gathered his power and suddenly we were shifting through space and time, locked in a world that was sensual to the point of pain and heated beyond endurance. I was torn between relief that he’d taken the choice out of my hands and despair that we would once again be interrupted.

We landed on the sidewalk outside Demonica and pulled apart with an almost audible sucking sound. I took three quick steps backward and rubbed my tingling palms down the legs of my slacks. I didn’t think it would be ladylike to rub the other tingling parts right out there on the sidewalk.

Dialle stood there smiling at me. “Hold that thought, my lovely halfling.”

Temper flared at the smug look on his face, no doubt spurred by sexual frustration. The fact that I knew it was for the best didn’t make it one bit easier to accept.

Pushing my chin toward the sky and gathering my tattered dignity around me, I quickly marched to the door and grabbed the handle, figuring action was required to minimize what had just happened between us. I gave the door a fierce yank.

It’s really hard to look dignified when you almost fall on your face.

The stupid door was locked and my momentum nearly did me in. I regained my balance and looked up, into a pair of wide-set beady eyes in a purple leather face. The demon on the other side of the door was laughing.

I felt the need to kill. “Open the damnable door, turd from Hades!”

The demon’s laughing face was joined by another and then another until I felt myself reaching for the vial around my neck. No doubt about it, I was gonna need a dignity transplant after this. “I demand that you open this door and let Prince Dialle and me in. Alcott is expecting us and won’t be pleased if you deny us entrance.”

I didn’t have a clue if this was true but it sounded good.

The demons had stopped laughing but looked far from frightened by my declaration. I opened my mouth to scream at them just as I felt the heat of a strong hand on my shoulder. I looked up into a pair of gorgeous black eyes, rimmed in gold.

Any trace of remaining amusement died on the demons’ faces when Dialle leveled that royal gaze on them. The demon king might feel the need to break away from the royals and stand alone but centuries of subjugation had created a sense of awe and an innate aura of submission on the demon side that would be hard to overcome.

Dialle’s gaze seemed to mesmerize the demons and, although he didn’t say a word, they reached to open the door.

My yummy Prince moved the golden hand from my shoulder to the small of my back and gave me a gentle nudge toward the door. I refused to look at him but couldn’t resist shuffling his mental drawers a bit.
I want to learn how to do that thing with the eyes you do. It could be very effective in my job.

His sexy laugh filled my head, causing parts south of the border to clench in happy anticipation.
It is not so much a thing, as you call it, as it is a healthy and intelligent fear of their betters.
I could almost hear the laughter in his voice that he was trying to hold back.
It would be perhaps difficult for you to project, given your propensity for comical behavior in the face of difficulty.

I turned to glare at him and, unfortunately caught the beady red eye of the demon that had laughed at me through the door. Putting the quotation marks around Dialle’s nasty but all too true comment, the oily purple face split in another grin as the damnable thing looked at me. Feeling my devil come out in a big way, I smiled back.

Something in my smile must have warned the demon because his grin died on the vine and he took a half step back as we passed. Unfortunately, it didn’t save him. I reached up and gave the hell spawn a jolt of power in the tip of one long, pointed ear. His pain-filled yelp could probably be heard in the furthest reaches of Demonica.

Dialle grinned down at me and shook his head.

I shrugged.
Hey, what can I say? Halfling. Half devil.

His warm laughter coated my mind.
And I must say you do the race proud lovely Astra.

As we entered the cavernous main room of the club we were met by a huge demon with a black body and snow white hair. The demon’s wide, simian brow hung over a pair of small, red eyes to the point that you could barely see them. He placed his enormous frame into a defensive stance and clasped hands that could pop a basketball behind his back. He simply stood there, glowering at us and saying nothing.

We stopped in the middle of the dance floor and glared back at the thing.

Dialle finally spoke. “Take us to Alcott. We are expected.”

The black and white mountain didn’t move.

I looked at Dialle.
You want me to zap him?

Dialle scowled but didn’t look away from the immovable demon. “If Alcott would like the ear of King Dialle the First, you will take us to him now.”

The demon simply stood there.

We made a move as if to go around him and he shifted to stay in front of us, his huge form seeming to grow to fill the available space.

A commotion at the front door of the club drew our attention away from the stubborn demon and we turned to see what was happening behind us.

I smiled as I saw who had joined us. Dialle did not smile.

What’s he doing here?

I invited him.

Why?

He’s my partner, I need his help.

You do not need that pretend royal. You have me.

Oh stop being such a baby. Emo has a way with demons. I thought he might come in handy.

Emo strolled up to us, a cocky smile decorating his beautiful golden face. “Hey boss.”

I smiled back. Something warm and tingly spread through my chest and headed south. “Hey yourself. Did you have any trouble getting through the door?”