bedeviled & beyond 04 - bedeviled & belittled (15 page)

Dialle nodded. “Acceptable.”

“And I offer myself as spy and negotiator. I have access to First and he trusts me. I can give him bad advice, which will put him in the position to succumb to you at the place and time of your choosing. I can work from inside First’s organization to help you win. If I might be so bold, King Dialle the Second, your father won’t even know what hit him.”

Silence reigned in that room for several moments. Dialle’s thoughts were not clear on his handsome face. I tried a tentative foray into his mind but found myself completely shut out.

He was angry with me. I knew that. But he was about to go to war with his father. It was going to be ugly.

Very ugly.

And he was faced with choosing an arch enemy, with proven and professed aspirations to be king himself, as an ally in the war. He was alone, with no one he could trust. And, with my Settling roaring down on me and worries about my family pulling my thoughts away, the person he should be able to count on was nothing more than a distraction to him.

I felt bad. I realized I would have to put my own concerns aside and help him. Of the three Royals vying for power, my Dialle was the only one I could trust to protect the human realm from the dark world. Though he was far from perfect, my Dialle at least understood that humans needed protection and saw that they had some value. It was the best I could hope for in a leader of the notoriously nasty and unpredictable royal devil race.

After several moments of tension-filled silence, Dialle finally inclined his head toward Nerul. “I will consider your offer, Nerul. Until we strike a bargain, I expect you to stay within this palace and cease communicating with my father. I will be watching you closely to determine if you are truly willing to help me—or if you are here to serve only as a spy for my father.”

Nerul’s dark eyes narrowed very slightly in affront but he pushed quickly past the emotion, too quickly I thought, and smiled. “I accept those conditions, my king.”

He bowed and Dialle stood, offering me his hand. I stood too, placing my hand in Dialle’s. As we moved through the crowd, several layers of Dialle’s soldiers between Nerul and us, I captured the nasty Royal’s gaze and held it. He and I would be having a conversation in the not-too-distant future.

Nerul inclined his head slightly as if he understood the meaning of my glance.

And then we were swept past, and toward the back of the massive room, where we were ushered through a different set of doors and into a wide, silent corridor.

Dialle turned as several Royals pushed through behind us and flipped a hand toward the door. “Leave us!”

The Royals sent me looks filled with both curiosity and resentment, and bowed their acquiescence. But they didn’t go back through the door into the council chamber. I felt their burning gazes on my back as Dialle drew me inexorably toward the single set of doors in the center of the hallway.

I was used to resentment within the Royal Court. I was an outsider, and Dialle had elevated me to a position of power over most of them. I knew any one of them would kill me in a heartbeat.

If they thought they could get away with it.

Fortunately for me, between Dialle’s power and my own, we were a formidable pair. And that had been enough to keep me alive to that point. But the power had shifted. I was several layers deep in Hades, and I was fighting off the debilitating effects of my Settling. Any devil worth his salt would recognize the elevated temperature, sensitive skin, and scent of lust that clung to me. I was a walking sex addict, drunk with desire. And they knew it was a distraction that could be my undoing.

Given the right circumstances.

Dialle dropped my hand as soon as we entered his chambers. He moved to a long, wall of windows that were reminiscent of the windows in his chambers at home, in Angel City. Except the windows in Hell looked out on a bleak and fiery landscape, filled with burning pits and heat-bleached plains. Gray, cooling ash floated against the sky like dirty snow.

I knew that, if I left the safe environs of Dialle’s castle, the world outside would be filled with screaming and the cries of pain and suffering. If I’d managed to forget that I was in an ugly place, what I was seeing outside those windows was a stark reminder.

A sobering one.

“What exactly is going on, Dialle?”

He stood staring out the window, legs spread wide and hands folded behind his back, resting on the firm curve of his delectable behind. I licked my lips, thinking about how those yummy buns felt in my hands as he...

Shaking my head, I berated myself. Damn! I needed to focus.

His scent wafted to me across the room and my knees wobbled. Closing my eyes, I prayed for strength. It had been too long since I’d released any of the sexual tension throbbing within my body.

Way too long.

He finally turned around, his dark eyes flitting over me hungrily. “I can smell your lust from here, Astra.”

I gasped, biting my lip. “You know I can’t help it.”

“Normally I would be pleased to help you with that little problem. But I have problems of my own that need to be addressed. Much bigger problems.”

Disappointment swamped me. A small part of me had been hoping he’d grab me and fling me to the ground and rid me of the soul-eating hunger gnawing at my insides.

I took a deep breath and closed my eyes, fighting to regain control. After a moment I felt as if I could talk without screaming. “All right. Tell me.”

Dialle fixed me with his probing gaze and frowned. “My father plots our death, Astra. Yours and mine. He has your sister and intends to wed her. She will be his queen when he regains his crown. And his intermediary on Earth until he can return to the human realm.”

“Holy shit!” That certainly wiped the lustful thoughts right out of my head.

Momentarily at least.

CHAPTER TEN

The Elephant in the Room

One matter requires a kingly touch, a serious matter true,

But our Lady’s needs can’t be ignored, so he’ll frunk her thru and thru.

“Huh? Dialle the First wants to kill us? Me? He’s planning what with my sister? Has he lost his mind? Has he spent two minutes with the woman? Tell me you’re joking, Dialle!”

Dialle opened his mouth to respond but a sound not unlike that of bricks hitting the outside of the door stopped him. He frowned at the interruption. “Come!”

The door opened and a giant, well-decorated guard came through it, looking professionally competent despite his enormity.

“Your Majesty.” The faithful Gerch, Dialle’s Captain of the Guard and his most loyal friend on the court, bowed slightly, casting me an unreadable glance. “I’m sorry to intrude, but I have news from the court that I think you need to hear.”

I watched Gerch carefully, trying to read his mood from the movements of his seven-foot-tall, thick red body and wide red face. He was the consummate soldier, giving nothing away in body language. But his black eyes sparked with emotion as he looked at me.

“What is it, Gerch?” Dialle paced in front of the wall of windows, looking agitated.

Gerch’s long, red tongue swept across his craggy lips. His gaze danced nervously in my direction, and he shuffled his huge feet before responding.

I wondered what he could possibly be trying to report that would be causing him such discomfort.

“Hades, Gerch, spit it out!”

Gerch inclined his head and, studiously avoiding my gaze, focused on his king. “Your Majesty, do you remember what we discussed a few days ago? The small matter that had me greatly concerned?”

Dialle frowned, nodding ever so slightly.

Gerch filled his massive lungs and cast me a flicker of a glance before going on. “I believe it has gone beyond the point where we can ignore it, sire. In my opinion you must take steps, immediate steps, to put it to rest.”

Dialle scowled at me as if I’d done something wrong.

I hadn’t done anything except get dragged into a mess that wasn’t mine. I bristled, irritation flaring. Let’s face it, my temper has never been a snake with a long tail. But then guilt slid over me as the Slayer’s image flitted through my mind, along with a few choice mind videos of our...erm... recent activities.

Okay, I had done
some
things wrong.

But they’d felt so right.

Against all odds, I tried to look innocent. “What?”

“Leave us, Gerch.”

The guard threw me a last look before turning toward the door. The look gave me chills. It was almost apologetic, as if he’d just signed my death warrant or something.

I started after him, determined to discover what he was about. I knew Dialle wouldn’t be forthcoming with the information. And if it concerned me, I wanted to know.

As I reached the door it slammed shut on Gerch’s heels. I heard a yelp through the door that told me Gerch hadn’t quite vacated the space before Dialle slammed the door closed.

The knob wouldn’t turn. The door wouldn’t open.

My temper flared. I turned to give Dialle a piece of my mind and found him sharing my air space.

His breath danced softly on the tiny slice of air between us. His dark eyes probed my face, filled with a wildly fluctuating range of emotions. His scent reached out and grabbed me, closing my throat and, in a flash, stealing away all thought. Dialle touched my lips with a finger that seared my skin with its heat, pulling my bottom lip downward. “I’ve missed you, Astra.”

Warning bells went off. Something wasn’t right. What was with the rapid change in direction? He’d just told me he didn’t have time for what he was obviously kick starting. Whatever was going on, it had something to do with Gerch’s visit. I wanted to ask questions, but Dialle had engaged my Settling. And my mind was quickly shutting down.

His lips descended on mine, replacing his finger. His tongue took advantage of the space his finger had created and slid inside, to tangle hotly with my own.

I moaned softly, my body becoming instant flame beneath his touch. My body wept, sending the musky scent of arousal into the air we breathed.

Dialle groaned and flicked his fingers. Instantly we were naked. He deepened his kiss, tilting his head to more thoroughly consume my mouth. The finger that had pulled my lips apart slid down my belly, toward the ravenous spot at the vee of my thighs.

I gave a little cry as his fingers found my nub, rubbing it gently before sliding into my moist heat. My head went back on a moan of pure, unbridled lust as he worked my hungry channel with his fingers while rubbing my throbbing clitoris with his thumb.

Succumbing to mindless need, I captured his soft lower lip between my teeth and bit down hard, drawing blood. He moaned, grinding his shaft against me. It was thick and hard against my belly and I couldn’t get close enough to it.

Reaching for the long ridge of hard flesh with one hand, I used the other to grab his delectable backside, kneading it hungrily as I sucked the blood trickling from his torn lip.

A growling sound filled the air and it took me a moment to realize it was me. I’d become mindless in my hunger, rabid with need. Every nerve ending in my body was firing, immensely sensitive.

Attuned only to Dialle.

His touch, his scent, the various textures of his skin were my entire world. The black silk of his hair touched my shoulder as we kissed and my skin screamed from the nearly painful need it elicited in response. I reached up and buried my fingers in the mass of it, feeling it nearly burn my palm with pleasure.

My body built inexorably toward an explosion of release. Dialle’s fingers kept up a perfect and devastating rhythm, driving me toward that peak and promising a pathway to relief from the lashing hunger that had ridden me for days, unassuaged.

I widened my stance, my body clenching around his fingers, and then fell screaming into orgasm, calling his name as my fingers pulled his head down to a rigid nipple. Almost as soon as I rolled to the bottom of my release, I found myself on a soft bed with Dialle stretched out over me. His fiery mouth laved at a pebbled nipple and I arched my back to give him better access. “Dialle!”

He lifted his mouth from my nipple. “Tell me what you want, Astra.”

“Oh Hades!” I gasped. “I want you!

He captured the other nipple, sucking hard and driving sharp frissons of pleasure toward the still pulsing core of my pleasure. “What do you want me to do, Astra?” He bit down on the nipple, drawing blood as I had done and sucking it into his hot mouth.

I moaned, thrashing frantically beneath him. I wanted. I needed. I craved. My entire being was wrapped up in an enormous hunger that I couldn’t identify, couldn’t name, and couldn’t quite reach. There weren’t words big enough for my craving. My mind struggled to find them, even as my body reacted greedily to his touch. His rock hard shaft pressed against my belly, the heat of it searing my skin, creating actual, physical sparks. I arched upward, begging him with my body for what my mind couldn’t comprehend.

My daemon hickey sparked, sizzling with the same, unnamed yearning.

Working from instinct and nothing else, I realized the two were related. My mark needed something from Dialle. My sexual core demanded it.

Tears rolled down my cheeks, over my chin and trickled down my breasts, into Dialle’s laving mouth. He groaned and sucked harder at my nipple until I bucked with a seemingly unquenchable desire beneath him.

Suddenly the hunger found a name. My mind latched onto it, pulled it free, and longed to send it into the air between us. I growled deep and low in my throat and grabbed his rigid erection in one hand. “Do it, Dialle!”

“Do what, my love.”

“Fuck me, Dialle. Claim me, damn you, claim me!”

He growled then too, capturing my lips with his own as he plunged his rock-hard shaft deep within my pulsing core, burying himself hard, right up to his balls.

I moaned in sheer delight. “Yes!” And bared my neck for him, offering him my throbbing daemon hickey to suck.

He covered it with his mouth, devouring the sparks that shot from it and thrusting hard as he pulled the fire from my body at my throat.