bedeviled & beyond 07 - beset & bewildered (7 page)

My mouth came open and my body writhed as the air roasted me alive.

Then I slammed up against a broad, hard chest and cool energy rushed in to heal the damage done by Hell’s horrific atmosphere. “Hello, gorgeous.”

Shoving a heavy curtain of blonde hair from my eyes, I twisted around to look into Torre’s face. The sight of his sculpted lips and perfect cheekbones made my knees turn to rubber. “What the hell, Torre?”

His yummy lips turned upward in the corners, he grabbed Seraphim and yanked it from its sheath, flinging it to a soldier hovering nearby. “You came to see me, correct? I thought you’d be pleased.”

A strident cry tore through the air and my gaze whipped toward the airspace where Slayer had last been, searching frantically for him.

Firm, warm fingers captured my chin, pulling my gaze back to him. “Your partner is beyond pain now, my delicious one. Time to focus on you...and me.”

Fear for Slayer had me jerking out of Torre’s grasp, desperately calling Slayer’s name. The red we’d been riding was strung between two long lassos like the one which had snagged me. Its long back was empty. Roaring and belching flame, the red fought its capture with everything it had, but the dragoyles pulled the beast inexorably forward, laughing with pleasure at its struggles. Fear made my chest tight. “Where is he?”

Torre smiled, his gaze sliding downward, where I saw what looked like the fallen bodies of two Hellhounds. Their bodies burst into flames, setting the surrounding area on fire with them. If Slayer had fallen there...

Tears burned my eyes. I should have known Torre would come to us. I should have warned Slayer. “You bastard.”

Torre sighed. “All’s fair in love and war, my heart.” He lowered his head, placing his lips against my cheek. “And I’d fight anyone for your love.”

The words were spoken so softly I was certain that only I heard them. Though I felt the conviction behind them, my rage and fear for Slayer overcame any softness I might have felt. “If you think killing one of my friends will win my love, you don’t know me at all, Torre.”

He stiffened slightly and then nodded. “So be it. You’ll come around eventually. In the meantime...” He lifted a hand and his ugly army split in the middle, swinging into wide turns in opposite directions. Torre’s beast jerked into motion, flinging me against him as it performed its own about face. Once we were headed toward Dialle’s castle, several soldiers slipped in behind us and on either side, surrounding us with protection.

I was distressed to see Gerch and his small group of soldiers being escorted with us, their heads lowered and their wrists bound in angel chain.

I cast a wistful glance downward but saw only roiling flame and dense charcoal smoke. My heart ripped in a jagged wave of pain. Slayer dead? It didn’t seem possible. Even as my eyes told me he couldn’t possibly have survived, my heart couldn’t grasp it. I couldn’t believe he was gone.

CHAPTER SIX

Into the Dungeon

Misdirection is actually a direction,

But surprise isn’t necessarily a prize.

The dragoyle we rode flew clumsily through the entrance to the dragon’s nest and flailed to a messy landing. Despite my anger and sadness, I was forced to grab hold of Torre or be thrown off the nasty beast and trampled by the equally inelegant beasts on either side.

As soon as the thing slid to a stop, I shoved away from Torre and slipped down the creature’s heaving, gray side to the ground. I took off running, hoping I remembered my way around the castle enough to find a way out of there.

The air in front of me shimmered and Torre appeared, a sad smile on his lips. “I see you’re still reluctant to use your magic.” He shook his head, reaching for me. “Come, I have a room prepared.”

“I don’t want a room. I want to go home.”

He lifted a slim, black brow. “You
are
home, Darma. I’ve been waiting for you to come to me. Now that you’re here...” He pulled me into his arms, his eyes swirling with the colors of passion. “I don’t intend to let you leave.”

The door from the castle opened and Caninra strode through, her beautiful face elegant and cold. She stopped before us and bowed. “Prince Torre. I’ve kept my end of the bargain. Now it’s time for you to keep yours.”

I sucked air, immediately regretting it as the dragoyles’ stench filled my lungs. “You bitch!”

She slid me a look, her expression unreadable. Then, dismissing me entirely, she looked back to Torre. “My Liege?”

Energy sizzled beneath my skin as rage bloomed. The keeper might be done with me, but I wasn’t done with her. I strode forward, slamming an energy-infused fist into her smug face. Her head jerked back and dark blood ran from her delicate nose. She stared at me with something like pity and brushed the blood away with the side of her hand. “I am sorry about your partner,” she said, though her tone was far from sincere.

“You’re about to be a lot sorrier.” I lifted both hands, silver balls of energy sizzling in my palms.

Laughing softly, Torre grabbed my arms and pulled them down, wrapping me in a stifling grip. To my chagrin, my energy fizzled under his touch. “I’m delighted to see you use your gifts, gorgeous. But I’m afraid I can’t let you harm the keeper of my hounds.”

My eyes went wide. “
Your
hounds?”

Caninra shifted slightly, a pained expression flitting over her features.

“Yes. Mine. Your sister and my brother have no use for war dogs but I certainly do. I’m happy to give them a home.”

“What are you going to use them for?” I asked.

“You’ll find out soon enough,” he said dismissively.

“Prince Torre, please.”

It was clear Caninra wanted something from Torre and she wanted it badly. I had to wonder what a woman who considered herself the Queen of the Hellhounds would want that Torre could give her.

Torre motioned toward the soldier standing just behind us. Judging by the hardware attached to the man’s crimson and gold uniform, I guessed he was Torre’s captain of the guards. Gerch’s equivalent.

“Take the keeper to her mate.”

Caninra frowned. “You promised you’d release him.”

Torre grabbed my hand, pulling me toward the door. “I will keep my promise.” The door swung open at our approach but Torre stopped, turning back. “See that you do as you’ve been ordered.”

Caninra’s gaze flared briefly and she skimmed me a look before returning her attention to Torre and nodding. “You have my word.”

Dread thickened in my belly at the look on her face. Her lips curled as Torre turned away. I caught her gaze, sending her a pleading look that I was pretty sure she’d just ignore. To my vast surprise her features softened and, as Torre pulled me through the door, I was pretty sure I saw regret dancing in her fiery gaze.

He pulled me down a long passageway lit with flickering lamps attached to the stone walls. As always, I wondered why Hell didn’t pull itself out of the eighteenth century and update its infrastructure. But then, since they used damned souls as human slaves to do all the work, they probably didn’t care about things like electricity and flush toilets.

“Where are you taking me?”

Torre’s fingers tightened briefly around mine. “To your rooms. You’ll eventually share quarters with me, of course.” He slid me a glance. “Once I can trust that you won’t try to kill me in my sleep.”

I tried tugging my hand free from his but he held me without any apparent effort. “It’s going to be a long wait.”

We approached a pair of etched metal doors and they swung silently inward. Torre barely glanced at the two massive guards who stepped aside to let us enter. He strode to the center of a large suite of rooms and stopped, tugging me into his arms as he turned. His lips found my throat and he kissed his way down to the spot where my shoulder met my neck. There, in the tender flesh at that juncture, he tasted my skin with a swipe of his hot tongue. The mark he’d placed there months earlier tingled with his touch, sending a quick jolt of awareness to my sexual core. Unfortunately, like the mark that fed it, the arrow of lust died a quick death.

Torre frowned, stepping back to look at me. “You’ve grown even more lovely since I saw you last.” 

I rubbed my arms and glowered at him. “You haven’t changed at all. You’re still an insensitive ass.”

Anger flared in his midnight gaze but it was extinguished quickly, humor replacing it. “Always the consummate Ice Princess. I shall enjoy thawing you.” He turned away and strode quickly toward the door.

“Wait, you can’t just leave me here.”

Torre lifted a hand negligently over his shoulder. “Have no fear, my heart. I’ll be back soon. I have some business to attend to first.” He stopped in the open doorway, the broad backs of the two stone-faced guards framing his elegant form. “Then we’ll see about rebuilding the love we lost.”

I shook my head, terror blossoming in my breast. I realized as the door swung quietly shut behind him that the terror came not from the idea that Torre would force himself on me, but that I might actually welcome him back into my life.

It was obvious we were no longer compatible.

Were we?

Then I remembered Slayer and the tender bud which had been attempting to open in my heart withered and died. If Torre could so ruthlessly murder a friend...a man I cared deeply for...then he and I had no future together.

Even as I had the thought, a soul-blackening despair swept over me. Walking to the windows overlooking the fiery depths of Hell beyond the castle walls, I finally allowed the tears to fall. With Slayer’s passing, my life had changed irreparably, leaving a large black hole where once friendship and comradery had been. With that thought, my knees buckled and I sank to the floor, leaning my head against the warm glass of the floor-to-ceiling windows. Beyond the glass pain and horror was so predominant and unrelenting as to be numbing. No strong emotion can be sustained indefinitely and at some point even the most soul-wrenching pain became just so much white noise. But inside the glass, in my very own fresh piece of Hell, the agony was raw and new enough to still be devastating, capable of slicing my heart into pieces.

A jolt of static noise in my mind tore me from my sorrow. Someone was trying to communicate with me. With an instinctual fear that it was Torre, I attempted to put up a mental block to cut him off. But in my grief I was slow to react. Before the barrier dropped fully into place, a shrill, ear-shattering tone ripped through my brain, causing me to scream in agony. The inside of my head exploded beneath the slicing tones, spreading misery in a wave through my entire body. I covered my ears and folded into a ball on the floor as the strident tones continued. Reality faded beneath the attack. For what seemed like an eternity, I forgot where I was, what I’d lost and how much I hated it. I trembled under the auditory assault, sweating and screaming under its immense power. I began to worry it would never end, and my mind would be turned to pudding by its horrific violence.

But finally the noise began to fade, easing into a relatively soft ringing sound inside my head. When even that finally stopped I lay panting for a minute, afraid to move for fear it would come back. A warm wetness trickled from my ears and when I pulled my hands away there was blood coating both palms.

I sat up in shock and shoved to my feet, anger replacing fear. Enough! No more blubbering like a baby. I was officially pissed the hell off. I’d find a way out of the castle and off the Hell plane and go find my sister. We’d pull together an army, gather up whatever remaining Hellhounds we could find, and we’d return to destroy Torre’s nasty little plans.

Whatever they were.

I was done being his docile little plaything. He was about to meet a royally torqued warrior princess. And he wasn’t going to enjoy the experience.

The metal doors slammed open and the two guards came running into the room, eyes wide. They took one look at me and reached for their swords. They never made it. Almost as soon as I had the thought to move, I was shifting. I slammed an energy-infused punch to the first guard’s chest and grabbed his sword with my other hand. As he stumbled clumsily backward, I was already swinging the heavy blade.

The other guard dissected the arc of my swing, meeting my attack with a force that reverberated through my bones. But I was running on pure adrenalin, fueled with magic, and I rushed him, shoving him back with my blade.

His heels hit the body of the first guard and he went down with a grunt, his sword lowering enough for me to slash a deep wound across his chest.

His small, black eyes flared briefly and, before I knew what he was up to, he’d swung his blade with enough power to shove my sword to the side. He followed quickly with a shallow cut across my arm.

Blood welled from the cut, searing fire along my skin. I spun, dancing quickly backward as my adversary leapt to his feet and surged toward me. He moved so quickly my eyes almost couldn’t follow and, for a moment, he had me on my heels. I stumbled back, barely keeping my blade up to fend off his lightning fast attack. The guard I’d felled finally regained his senses and was pushing to his feet. He reached for me as I stumbled past and I spun in a circle, pulling energy forward to lock down in a protective bubble just as the second guard’s sword found my chest. The deadly point of the blade hit my bubble and stuck.

I looked at the bloody point mere inches from my breast, and then slowly skimmed him a look, allowing my lips to curve into a slow, smug smile.

His black gaze widened, panic welling in his eyes. He tried to pull his blade free but my bubble held.

I reached through the bubble and touched the wide blade of his embedded sword. He blinked as if he knew what I was about to do. But he didn’t move fast enough. I grabbed the edge of the blade and sent everything I had into it.

Energy sparked at the point of my touch and sizzled hotly, expanding into a thick column of pure light that surged along the metal blade and into the guard’s thick fingered red hand. He grunted as it hit, his big body jerking spasmodically as the power drove into him and turned his insides to tar.