Binding Fire: Paranormal Romance (Bad Boys of the Underworld Book 3) (19 page)

Well, when you put it like that.
Muriel’s trembling fingers hooked in the hem of her workout shirt and in seconds the material fell to the floor.

His appreciative gaze took in her bared skin. “Don’t stop.”

Muriel kicked her boots off and slid her sweatpants over her curved hips. She wished she was better at this or had some idea of what she was doing. She had seen movies. She knew what experienced women looked like while undressing, and Muriel didn’t look like that.

Kier didn’t seem to mind. After she pushed her panties down to the floor, she straightened and let him look his fill. This part she was okay with. She knew her body looked good. She had generous breasts and hips, while her frequent trips to the gym as a mortal gave her waist nice definition.

Besides, this wasn’t the first time he had seen her naked.

The silence stretched between them as he continued to stare at her bared body. Muriel sucked her bottom lip in nervousness and that seemed to set him over the edge. His hands pushed her waist as he backed her into the door.

She gasped at the contrasting feeling of his body heat and the cold wood. His mouth covered hers in a quick kiss that made her head spin before he moved lower. He trailed kisses down her neck as one of his hands kneaded her breast, taking time to tweak and tease the tight nipple.

Muriel knew that she needed to be quiet, but the small mewing noises were unavoidable. His other hand snuck between her legs, reaching past the tight patch of curls guarding her entrance before a single finger slid into her wet heat.

He groaned as he felt her. “You are so wet for me,” he gritted out against her breast as he gently moved his fangs over her skin.

Muriel couldn’t wait any longer for him. She looped a long leg around his waist and pulled him to her.

In seconds, his clothes were gone and his bare skin was pressed up against her. His hands gripped her under her ass and lifted her until her core rested right against the head of his cock.

She rubbed herself against him, silently asking for more. He groaned at the sensation. “Do you have any idea what you do to me?”

“Kiss me,” she answered. He did as she commanded, taking her mouth with his as he slid fully into her. He caught her moan in his mouth as his hands positioned her just where he wanted.

His rhythm was relentless and brutal, but she didn’t mind. Her nails bit into his shoulders as her hips met his thrust for thrust.

Muriel couldn’t take it any more as she threw her head back and the orgasm ripped through her body.

Kier’s arms tightened as he pushed even deeper into her. His muscles all tensed and the cords of his neck stood out as he pumped his seed into her.

What were the chances that Jared hadn’t heard any of that?

~~~~~

Muriel took a moment to catch her breath before she disentangled herself from Kier’s body. He reluctantly released his grip on her.

As he stepped back, he admired her. Her small, self-satisfied grin was one of the sexiest things he’d ever seen.

“I could get used to that.” She pushed herself away from the door and sauntered over to the bathroom.

She didn’t try to cover herself. His angel knew she looked good. Kier tried to think of a witty comeback, but his brain wasn’t fully working yet. “I try,” was all he came up with. He frowned.
He had been seducing women for centuries and all he could say was “I try”?

Muriel quickly cleaned up and walked back into the small bedroom and living area. She reached into a drawer for some blue pajama pants and a pastel pink tank top. “We didn’t really get a chance to talk last night.”

“I was a bit out of it.” He’d been hoping she wouldn’t ask about that, but knew she’d be stupid not to wonder.

“I would be out of it too if Azazel just broke my jaw. Want to tell me what happened and how you didn’t end up dead?”

“I don’t really want to get into it.”
Was there any way he could get out of this without lying to her or telling her that he was prophesied to break her heart?

“Did Azazel send you here to spy on me?”

She kept her face expressionless, but Kier could still feel her within him. He knew she was waiting for him to express outrage at the mere thought of betraying her to Azazel. She wanted him to defend himself.

“I’m not spying on you,” he gently insisted.

Her face fell and shoulders slumped at his weak denial. She turned away from him and grabbed her boots. “I need to get out for a minute.”

“Muriel, you have to believe me. I know you have no reason to, but I promise that I’m not betraying you to Azazel.”

Wasn’t he? By being with her and gaining her trust, he was bending to Azazel’s wishes. Giving the king more time to have Muriel assassinated.

Kier refused to believe it. He would be with her. He would protect her from any demon threat. Just because his plans correlated with what Azazel wanted did not mean they were working together.

Muriel turned to face him again, mouth opened as though she was about to say something, but she never got the chance. The earth moved beneath their feet. Muriel fell against the nearest wall; as her drawers fell open, her belongings were scattered across the room.

The shaking continued for a good two minutes. Kier moved over Muriel, covering her with his body to shield her from any falling debris. Dust was knocked loose from the ceiling, and a few ceiling tiles fell out, but none landed on the pair as they huddled together on the floor.

After the shaking stopped, heavy silence filled the room. Muriel pushed her disheveled and now dusty hair out of her face. “Have you ever felt an earthquake like that?”

“Definitely not in New Mexico.” Before he could say anything else, an ear-piercing scream punched through the silence.

Kier winced at the sound, but Muriel was up in a heartbeat. She strapped her blade holster around her hips and pulled out a sword from behind her desk. “That’s the siren. She’s warning that demons are here.”

Without another word, Muriel was out the door and ran down the hallway, full speed ahead, without any idea of what she was running into.

Kier cursed and ran after her. He promised himself he would protect her and he would be damned if her so-called friends’ opinion of him would keep him from doing that.

He followed a few steps behind Muriel. He would have felt more comfortable leading but was unfamiliar with the layout of the school.

He heard the fighting before he saw it. They turned down another hallway and a demon ran straight at them. The demon had fresh blood on his shirt, and a vicious smile covered his face at the sight of Muriel.

She held her sword in front of her in preparation for the attack, but the demon transported out of sight before she reached him.

Kier knew exactly what the demon planned and transported at the same time. He reappeared right in front of Muriel, using his momentum to lurch forward just as the demon materialized. Kier’s weight brought the demon down hard, but the bloody demon never had a chance to feel the cold tile floor on his skin.

As they fell, Kier wrenched the demon’s head away from his neck with all his considerable strength. By the time he hit the ground, the demon was lifeless in his arms.

None of this fazed Muriel. She kept her fast pace and leaped over where Kier and the dead demon were clumped together on the floor. He felt her desperation to reach her friends.

He retrieved the fallen demon’s discarded sword and once again he was up and running after her.

The sight that greeted him was staggering. There must have been fifty demons waging war on the base.

The various supernatural beings fighting against them must be Samuel’s makeshift army. He could tell that some were vampires and werewolves, but he didn’t have time to place all of them.

He jumped right into the fight. He transported to the demon closest to him and swiftly decapitated him.
Much neater with a sword than with bare hands
. He grimaced.

As he turned to take on the next demon, he glanced over to Muriel. She was more than holding her own. As one demon swung at her with outstretched claws, she blocked him with a forearm. The block would hurt like a bitch and undoubtedly leave bruises, but the split second the block gained gave her the opportunity to shove her blade through the bottom of the demon’s jaw and out the back of his head.

With a quick jerk of her hand, the blade sliced through half of his throat. The demon fell, immobile, to the floor. He wasn’t dead, but he would not be able to fight any time in the foreseeable future. Another demon threw a right hook in her direction, but she ducked down just in time to avoid it. The demon’s hand plowed straight into the drywall. While he struggled to free himself, Muriel finished him off in one quick flick of her sword.

Muriel looked to Kier and gave him a brief nod of acknowledgment before she turned to take on her next target.

While Kier was looking at Muriel, a vampire snuck up behind him. Kier just narrowly transported three feet to the left before the vampire stabbed the air he recently vacated. Instead of taking the time to convince the vampire that they were on the same side, Kier focused on killing more demons.

Kier took down three more demons before he checked on Muriel once again. He was awed by her. She fought ruthlessly but efficiently. Every movement had a purpose. She was aware of every demon in the room and was able to predict their movements in ways to ensure they would end up on the deadly end of her blade.

For a moment, Kier was incredibly grateful that he’d never met her when she was a full angel. He surely wouldn’t have survived the encounter.

His hellfire itched to be released, but the precious seconds it took to aim and fire were out of the question with the close hand-to-hand combat. A demon attacked from his right, sword aimed for Kier’s head, but the metal abruptly clattered to the ground when the same vampire who had tried to kill him just moments ago cut off the hand that held the weapon.

Kier tilted his head in thanks as a small brunette female attacked the vampire. She didn’t appear very demonic, but she was able to land a blow on the vampire that sent him flying across the room. There was something supernatural about her, and she was playing for the wrong team.

Kier walked two steps to assist the vampire when he saw something that made his heart drop out of his chest.

Samuel was on the losing end of a fight with a demon. His fighting arm was already bloody as he fell to a knee while he blocked the blows coming from a being twice as strong as him. Muriel was making her way over to him, cutting down demon after demon. Kier knew nothing would stop her from saving her friend.

He would’ve let her save him, except Kier knew the demon who was currently kicking Samuel’s ass.
Teryn.

Kier cursed his luck as he transported over to the closest thing he had to a friend. Teryn landed a punch that surely broke a few of Samuel’s ribs. Samuel hit the ground hard while Teryn raised his blade to finish him off. Kier gave a heavy shove that sent Teryn flying. As he slammed against the nearest wall, Samuel grimaced as he saw who had saved him.

Kier didn’t have time to bicker with the human. He approached Teryn as he pushed himself up from the ground.

Samuel’s army might’ve been outnumbered, but they were also much more skilled than the demons. By this time, there were only a few of the attacking horde left. Kier was able to focus all his attention on Teryn.

“You followed me?”

“Tracked you,” said Teryn. “Curious, isn’t it? This whole school was warded against demons yet somehow you could just come and go as you please. Azazel had to move the fucking earth to get us in.”

The school was warded against demons? When the hell had that happened?
That explained the earthquake. “You are working for him? You can’t stand him. Of all people who would want his death, you’re at the top of the list.”

“I might want his death, but I need souls. All you care about is your little piece of ass over there but I’m
starving
!”

Despite the battle that still raged around them, the silence between them was heavy. “How long have you felt guilt?” Kier kicked himself for not seeing it sooner. Teryn’s reluctance to corrupt the innocent. Waiting until the last possible moment to feed. Even when he did hunt, he would just skim a bit off a gangster or someone already down the path to Hell.

It made sense why he would be so desperate to get those hundred souls. One death for years of a hunt-free existence.

Teryn didn’t answer.

“You already know how this is going to end. Azazel is going to be dead and there won’t be anyone to give you one hundred souls. There is no point in working for him. If you stay here, I can help you. We can figure out some way for you to get by without taking any souls. I haven’t fed for over a month and I feel fine.”

“You aren’t even a demon anymore!”

Teryn looked into Kier’s eyes, and for the first time Kier was able to see what was getting him so upset.
Jealousy.

Teryn didn’t want to be a demon.

Kier threw down his sword as an offering of peace. He held his hands up in a nonthreatening manner. “We can figure this out.”