bedeviled & beyond 04 - bedeviled & belittled (22 page)

One problem at a time. First I had to tackle—erm—First, and then I’d find my ungrateful bitch of a sister. Maybe I’d take my time on that second problem. Like a few days, months, years. I had no doubt she’d be fine. Nothing that dense and self-involved would even be touched by a few thousand years in Hell.

I
would
feel a little sorry for the patrons of Hell’s toasty environs. No matter that they were the worst of the worst. Murderers, rapists, thugs of the worst order. They didn’t deserve a stint in Hell with Darma.

Unfortunately, my happy thoughts of leaving Darma in Hell didn’t last very long. Emo yanked me into a cavernous room filled with stocky red soldiers dressed in fancy uniforms that had gold fringed epaulets on the shoulders and pretty gold buttons.

Impressive. If you cared about war fashion.

Unfortunately, I was a practical sort. To me, epaulets were just good handles for grabbing your enemy and flinging him to the ground so you could slice him open like a Sunday chicken. And buttons...well they could be swallowed and obstruct the airways.

Very dangerous things.

We hurried to the front of the huge room and stopped. Emo bowed. I set my knees against bowing as he tried to pull me down with him.

Astra, if this is going to work you can’t antagonize him. He’ll kill you in a heartbeat.

I kept my gaze on the tall, steamy drink standing at the front of the room
. If I bow he’ll know for sure something’s up.

As he’d been doing the first time I ever laid eyes on him, King Dialle the First stood across the cavernous room in front of wall-to-wall, floor-to-ceiling windows. He looked out over a charred and depressing landscape of ruin and despair. The parallels between him and my Dialle were stark and a little disconcerting.

The ex-king stood with his back to us, his hands folded at his back and his long, muscular legs braced apart in a warrior’s stance. His silky black hair was long and loose, curling slightly at the ends just where perfectly sculpted buttocks rounded out from a narrow waist. He wore red leather leggings and nothing else. The soft leather hugged his well-muscled legs and perky round buttocks like a second skin. As he turned I couldn’t help looking for the large tattoo shaped like a pitchfork on one muscular biceps. Despite my dire situation, my lips twitched in a smile I wouldn’t release.

“We meet again, lovely halfling.”

Remembering the last time we’d spoken, this statement made me uncomfortable. He’d been trapped in a tiny, glass prison that shrank every time he lost his temper. When I found him he’d been in extreme danger of becoming squashed between the glass walls like a bidgie bug.

I hadn’t done much to help him escape. In fact, I might have said a few things to get him to lose his temper, causing his prison to shrink dangerously around him.

From my current perspective, I decided that might have been a mistake.

Dialle the First’s golden brow was wide and clear, with a thick mane of hair flowing back from a widow’s peak at the center. His eyes were deep-set and intense, his nose long, tapered, and straight. The gorgeous ex-king’s jaw was square, with just a tiny bit of black stubble on it that made him look dangerous and very sexy. He had high, strong cheekbones, like his son and I knew that, when he grinned, his cheeks creased with matching dimples that made certain places on my body tingle. His shoulders were classically broad and his chest was a smooth, hairless, golden color and deeply muscled.

I gritted my teeth to tamp down on my Settling, which was fighting to surface in response to the tasty, if evil, tidbit standing before me.

He stood where he was for a long moment, studying me. His nostrils flared, scenting me and his sexy eyes widened in response. He hadn’t once looked at Emo. I realized at that moment that Emo had merely been a pawn in his dark plans. Whatever they were.

His real purpose had been to get me there.

I could only think of a couple of reasons for that. Neither option was good for me.

“What do you want, Dialle?” It felt strange saying that name in conjunction with First and with such antipathy. I was used to uttering it in passion and with delight.

His smile sent tingles throughout my body. He was entirely too similar in looks to my Dialle to make me comfortable. And it seemed my body didn’t recognize the difference.

“I think you know what I want, Astra. With you as my queen I can take back the dark world. My son isn’t man enough to own a prize such as you.” He lifted an arm, opening his hand, palm upward, and wiggled his fingertips at me.

I felt the slightest change in the air before it happened. The world tilted and went black, just for an instant. When it normalized again I was standing way too close to the devil.

Instinct had me striking out and yanking my power forward.

But he was too fast for me. He caught my fist, wrapped an arm like iron around my waist, and lowered his incredible lips to mine.

If I’d thought the world tilted before, it had only been a tiny blip compared to what occurred when First kissed me. I’d always been slightly attracted to him in that, yes it’s evil but shit, it’s so very hot, way. And my traitorous body, no doubt recognizing a strand of DNA from my Dialle in the father had admittedly responded readily to his in the past.

But what I experienced in that moment was beyond simple biological reaction.

What I felt in that kiss was explosive, earth-shattering, devastating. Sensation exploded through me, expanding to the bursting point every cell of my body. Warm cream ran from my clenching core, my nipples sprang into hard, eager peaks, and my skin became one, giant erogenous zone.

Rather than push him away as I should, I moaned against his lips and ground myself into him. He tasted like Dialle, my senses recognized him as my Dialle, and, when he murmured endearments against my ear while running heated, hungry fingers along my hips and over my buttocks, he sounded like my Dialle.

With a thought he removed all of our clothes. I squeaked in alarm, some tiny portion of my mind still capable of rational thought, and opened my eyes. I was barely even surprised to find that we’d left the cavernous throne room and were standing in a familiar room.

The bed Dialle and I had first made love in. Warmth infused me and I smiled, eagerly recapturing his soft lips and inhaling the intoxicating musk of his breath. “Dialle.” I murmured against his lips.

“I’m right here, Astra.”

His heated fingers trailed down my belly, causing the skin to jump in pleasure and anticipation, and slipped into my wet, hungry channel. “Mmm, so ready for me. So hot and wet, my sweet.”

I blinked. “My sweet?” Something was wrong. What was making my head so muzzy? Shaking my head I fought against the sensations his hot mouth was creating as he sucked on my nipples, treating each hard, eager peak with a soothing tongue bath and making my stomach jump with pleasure. Each forceful suck on my breast sent a sharp jolt of delight spiraling through my belly and into my sexual core.

I throbbed for his touch. Moaned for it. And when he pulled his fingers out of my body, rubbed them across the nub of my clitoris and then slid them back inside, up to the knuckles, I nearly came on the spot from the welcome invasion.

But still my mind tried to tell me something was wrong. How could we be in the fairy mound? My mind asked. I was somewhere else...but where?

My daemon hickey sparked and Dialle jumped, swearing softly.

Strange...

Dialle laid me back on the soft bed, which sank like a cloud beneath me, and climbed slowly up my body. He licked and kissed his way from my toes to my knees, nibbling on my inner thighs as he moved higher, and hovered over my aching mons, torturing me with his hesitation.

I groaned and grabbed his head, yanking it down to where I needed him most. I cried out in sheer delight as his warm mouth covered my throbbing clit and screamed at the first heated pull on the tender nub.

My daemon hickey pulsed painfully, sending a sizeable spark into the air to singe the sheets. It was enough to pull me part of the way out of my magic-fogged condition.

Dialle’s voice in my head pulled me the rest of the way out.
Astra! We’re in the castle. Where are you? What are you doing? Why is my bond mark screaming and sparking?

“Frunk me to Hades and back again!” I screamed, shoving at First’s head with both hands and scrambling away from him.

Dialle the First looked up at me from between my thighs, his chin wet with my juices. ”That’s what I’m trying to do, my sweet.”

“Argh!” I scrambled off the bed and looked around frantically, searching for an exit. Unfortunately, First had chosen his spot well for my seduction, the fairy mound where my Dialle had taken me to make love for the first time was deep within the earth, so there had been no windows or doors.

Dialle! Your father’s magicked me to a spot like the fairy mound. There are no exits and my powers won’t work here.

Much telepathic swearing ensued at this information.
We’re searching for the warlock who created the warding now. He has to be somewhere in this castle. You’ll need to improvise until we can find him. Hopefully it won’t take long.

“Shit!” I watched as First climbed across the bed toward me, his face wearing a hungry expression and his shaft bouncing hard and heavy between his muscular thighs. “Come back to bed, lovely Astra. I will make you forget my puny offspring. He does not understand what it takes to be king of the dark world. I do. I can truly make you queen.”

Gulping, I looked frantically around the room for something I could use as a weapon. There was nothing. Unless I wanted to initiate a pillow fight I was screwed.

Doubting that death by feather pillow was in First’s immediate future, I decided to go with the next best thing. Distraction. I backed as far away from him as I could and went with the most libido killing topic I could think of.

My sister.

“I don’t understand, King Dialle, if you wanted me for your queen, why did you take my sister?”

He stopped crawling and shuddered. “I’d have to be truly insane to seriously consider mating with that shrew.”

I shrugged, what could I say, he was right. “Then I assume you used her as bait to draw me here?”

The randy king dropped backward onto his fine posterior and slid his long legs off the bed. I tried to ignore the nicely waving package at the juncture of his hard thighs. “That would be an admirable ploy wouldn’t it? As consummately annoying as your sister is, you are known to be very loyal to your family. Anyone who knew that would be able to use one of them to get you to do what they wanted.”

I frowned. His choice of phrasing was squigging me out. It was almost as if he were trying to give me a hidden message. “Are you telling me you didn’t take my sister?”

He shrugged. “I am capable of many things. Most of them quite atrocious, as you know. I did have your sister here.” He examined his perfectly manicured fingernails. “For a while...” he murmured.

“Where is she now, King Dialle? What have you done with my sister?”

He laughed dismissively. “I’ve done nothing with that bitch. I was only allowing someone to keep her here for a short time.” He frowned. “A regrettable decision as it turns out. Cost me one of my sons.”

My eyes widened. “You killed, Torre?”

First looked amused. “Killed him? That would be a waste of my powers.” He sighed, shaking his head with disgust. “I fear my younger son would go down under a single flick of my finger. He has never been strong. And that woman...” He shuddered theatrically. “I’ve simply removed him from her influence. Mayhap the dungeons will toughen him up.”

A sense of horror filled me. Dialle didn’t have Darma. And if he didn’t, then who did? Emo’s face flickered through my mind and I shook my head, forcing the thought away. I refused to think my partner and best friend would be capable of such deceit.

“What about you wanting to grab back the crown? Was that a lie too?”

First laughed at that and stood, stalking toward me with the lithe grace of a large jungle cat. And just as deadly. “I’m always looking for a way to get my power back.”

Frowning, I held my hand out, placing it on his chest to stop his forward progress. Big mistake. My Settling flared as I touched his smooth, hot skin. I snatched my hand away. “Did you ask Emo to kidnap me?”

“Who?”

Dread cut a cold swath through my belly. “The halfling who brought me to your castle.”

“Oh yes, Emmanuel.” First flipped a dismissive hand over his head. “His relationship with you came in handy. And it didn’t hurt that he is turning ever closer to his devil as his Settling takes hold of him.” First shivered with apparent delight at Emo’s decline into the vast darkness of his nature.

“Emmanuel?” I murmured. Was that my partner’s true name? I’d never heard him called that before. And if it was, what else didn’t I know about him? Alas, I wasn’t going to find out right at that moment.

First grabbed my hand and pulled it to his lips. He sucked the middle digit into the heated cave of his mouth and my knees buckled. He caught me around the middle before I fell and, in the blink of an eye I found myself on my back on the bed, with him settled over me, a hard shaft nestled between my legs.

Dialle!

We’ve found him, Astra. Hold on just ten more seconds.

That might be too late!

First lowered his head and licked me, starting at the juncture of my shoulder and neck and forging a trail of fire up the entire length of my throat. “You will enjoy our mating, my sweet.”

That was exactly what I was afraid of.

He captured my bottom lip between his sharp, white teeth and nibbled gently, then bit down hard enough to draw blood.

Rather than bringing pain, the action caused a jolt of pure, sensual delight to spear through me. I moaned as my core clenched in the first waves of release, my toes curling tight against the bottoms of my feet.

The fat, wet head of his shaft nuzzled my pulsing entrance, urging me to open wide and take him in. He groaned as the tip of his shaft nestled easily there, finding me more than ready for him.