Binding Fire: Paranormal Romance (Bad Boys of the Underworld Book 3) (21 page)

She was so hot. She started to take off her shirt. Kier hungrily gazed at her bared skin. She licked her lips as she smiled up at him. “Are you just going to stare or are you going to join me?”

A bold hand reached out to snatch away his towel. He was on top of her before it ever touched the ground.

Muriel woke to a pounding on the door. She and Kier were up in an instant, both quickly arming themselves: she with her sword and him with a knife.

“Muriel, are you awake?” Ava’s voice came from the other side of the wood.

Muriel relaxed as she set her sword down. “I’m awake now!” she called back.

“Samuel thinks there’s been a breakthrough. Meet us downstairs when you can.”

Kier smiled at Muriel. “I’m a bit let down. I would’ve liked to see you fight off a pack of demons buck-ass naked.”

Muriel looked down at her state of undress. She hadn’t even thought to put clothes on. “I don’t like getting blood in hard to wash places. Besides, aren’t you worried about the crown jewels down there?” She pointed down to his slowly stiffening cock.

“It isn’t usually such a large target. You just seem to have that effect on me.”

“Right.” She smirked as she turned to get dressed.

Though the immediate effects had mostly worn off, she was still reeling from the rush of power from Kier’s blood.

Not to mention the sex. Good grief, she never realized how crazy sex could be if she let down all her inhibitions. The things he had done to her—things she had gladly let him do to her—had to be illegal in all fifty states.

Muriel blushed at the memory. There had been times when he had dominated her, leaning her over the bed and whispering commands in her ear from behind.

Later in the evening, she had given him the same treatment, tying his hands to the bedframe with a shirt while she did whatever she wanted with his body.

It was a good thing she’d never been too fond of that shirt because it was now in pieces on her floor.

When she turned around, Kier was fully dressed. He slipped his dagger into the back waistband of his jeans and tucked his black t-shirt over the handle to hide it.

He didn’t need to hide his weapons while on the base, considering everyone packed heat of some type, but she supposed it was habit for him.

She dressed similarly in jeans and a black tank top. Her weapon of choice was her sword, but she strapped her knife belt around her waist to give her some backup choices.

She missed her gun at times, but it was an impractical way to kill a demon. Guns were better for humans who were too slow and weak to stand much of a chance in a fight. The gun would slow them down long enough to allow the human time to run. Her sword would make sure the demon never gave chase again.

There were definite perks to having her strength back.

After she strapped on her black boots, she followed Kier out into the hallway. Once they reached the lobby of the old school, they saw a small gathering of Samuel, Ava, Jared, and Esmeralda.

All of them looked to Muriel as she approached. Ava looked decidedly nervous; Esmeralda quickly averted her gaze from Muriel. “What’s going on?” she asked.

Samuel spoke first. “Esmeralda and I have been working on something. We had no idea if it would work at first and didn’t want to tell you. Now we’re both thinking it’s going to work.”

Muriel raised a worried eyebrow. It wasn’t like Samuel to ramble. He usually got right to the point.

Esmeralda finished for him. “We think we found a way to get you into Hell.”

Muriel carefully kept her expression blank. She felt Kier stiffen next to her. “How?”

“Demons can get in and out of Hell whenever they want.” She pointedly looked at Kier. “With so many new resources at our disposal after the fight last night, we think we can open the doorway.”

Muriel crossed her arms in front of her and glared at them skeptically. “You think you can harness the power of the dead demons to get me into Hell? That is the craziest thing I have ever heard.” In all her time as an angel, she had never known anyone, no matter how powerful the witch or sorceress, to siphon power from a dead demon.

Muriel looked at Kier, expecting to see the same look of disbelief mirrored on his face. His stoic expression told another story. “This doesn’t sound crazy to you?”

He looked down at the floor. “I’ve heard of witches doing similar spells to temporarily gain the use of a demon’s hellfire. I suppose it could work for using a demon’s powers to open the doorway to Hell.”

Muriel looked to Samuel. “You’re telling me that in just a few hours I could be in Hell?”

“I’m just saying it’s a possibility. We don’t really know if it will work and Esmeralda has never worked a spell like this. We could need to hunt more demons down or arrange them in a certain way to get the spell to work. The chances of success aren’t really—”

Ava nudged him with her elbow, signaling him to stop talking.

Seeing Samuel so unsure of himself did nothing to set Muriel’s mind at ease.

Esmeralda spoke up. “We’re at least going to try it. If it works, we can take a step back to reevaluate.”

“Kier can open a door. We can just use that when the time comes,” said Muriel.

Esmeralda shook her head. “I am not relying on that demon to get us in and out of Hell. This is just an experiment.”

Kier grabbed Muriel’s hand and led her away from the expectant gazes of her friends. As they rounded a corner, he stopped abruptly, causing her to dig in her heels to avoid running into him. “You can’t go through that door,” he warned.

Muriel nervously swallowed. “I’m not going anywhere
now
. Besides, it isn’t something I want to do, but it has to be done.”

“No, it doesn’t. How many times can I tell you that you don’t have to listen to any of them anymore? You’re not an angel. Your people didn’t want you anymore, remember?”

The truth of the words stung. “This is about more than just me. Azazel is going to destroy all realms if he succeeds in merging Hell with Earth, you and I included. Besides, he made this personal the second he put that price on my head and sent demons to my home. This is going to happen. I might not be happy about it and I might not make it out alive, but I
am
going to kill the bastard. I thought you were okay with this.”

“It’s one thing to say that I’m okay. It’s another to actually watch you walk into Hell! Did you really expect me to just sit back and watch you kill yourself?”

Muriel felt as though he’d just slapped her. Kier might not have always agreed with her, but he had at least been supportive.
Had he ever intended to let her go after Azazel?

“Why don’t we wait to see if this even works before we finish this.” Muriel’s eyes made it clear that they would pick up where they left off sooner rather than later.

As they both walked back to the lobby, fuming for different reasons, no one would look Muriel in the eye. It was obvious they heard everything. Her anger toward Kier intensified.
He couldn’t have even taken her out of earshot before he announced that he didn’t think she stood a chance?

“Let’s get this over with,” she said to Esmeralda.

The sorceress nodded and knelt to place five candles on the floor. With a piece of chalk, she drew a pentagram; each of the candles represented a point of the star.

Muriel scoffed at the cliché. “A pentagram? I’ve never seen a pentagram used in any spell. Ever.”

Esmeralda merely smiled. “You’ve never seen a spell like this.”

Jared spoke for the first time. “Should we be doing something? Moving some bodies or sacrificing a chicken?”

Esmeralda stood up and wiped her hands on her black pants, not caring about the white streaks left behind. “There has been more than enough blood spilled on this ground for the spell to work.”

Kier remained a silent and brooding presence behind Muriel, refusing to participate but not leaving either.

“We don’t need to hold hands or anything, do we?” asked Samuel.

Ava laughed. “I’ve never seen a spell that required a group of people to hold hands. Sex maybe, but never hand holding.”

Jared shot her his most charming smile. “I would be good with that.”

Ava wrapped her arm around Samuel’s waist. “I wouldn’t be.” She leaned in closer to Samuel.

Samuel stood ramrod straight. His gaze was fixated on Esmeralda as she let her chin fall to her chest and started a low chant.

The air kicked up. Muriel’s hair whipped around her face. The fire in the candles suddenly shot up about a foot. Muriel gripped her sword tightly as everyone stared intently at the pentagram.

The flames remained stable as the wind blew even stronger. The heat from the candles spread through the room, but Muriel felt a cold shiver run down her spine.

A loud boom rocked the earth as the portal appeared in front of them.

Muriel didn’t know what she expected, but the sight of the gateway to Hell was almost anticlimactic. She’d seen thousands of doorways opened as demons would jump through them to evade her.

This one looked the same as the rest. With all the wind and fire, she’d expected something bigger.

The doorway itself didn’t look like any human door. It was tall and cylindrical. It was almost translucent, but not quite. As a person looked at or through it, the colors would seem to shine and glitter.

If she didn’t know where it led, Muriel would have called it pretty.

Ava slowly circled the portal. “It looks so…unthreatening.”

Kier scoffed. “Believe me when I tell you that you don’t want to go in there.”

Jared joined Ava in her slow perusal. “Don’t demons live in Hell? I would think it would feel like home to you.”

“We get our power high from being around the souls there. The longer we are in Hell, the less we have to feed. Not to mention the fact that no angels are trying to kill us down there.”

He looked to Muriel as he said “angel” and she smiled at him, unashamed of her past. “Damn right demons hide from me.”

“Well, besides the power boost, Hell is not a pleasant place. Demons fight each other all the time, it’s cold, there’s never any sun, and there’s never any rest from the cries of the souls being tortured.”

Muriel warily eyed the door. “Do you think I can make it in without bursting into flame?”

Kier clenched his jaw. “I thought this was just a test run.”

Muriel sighed at his continued reluctance. “And that was just a test question.”

“I think you probably wouldn’t die immediately. However, Azazel and his men have complete control in Hell. The souls give him power to do whatever he wants with just a thought. All he has to do is see you to kill you.”

All of that was information she knew, but hearing it again had the desired effect of scaring the shit out of her.
How often did these prophecies come true? Oh yeah, one hundred percent accuracy.

Muriel met Samuel’s eyes from across the room. “If I take him out, there won’t be any false apocalypse. You’ll be free.”

Samuel remained expressionless, but Ava perked up at the thought. “Think of it, babe,” she said. “No more running or fighting. We could take a vacation.”

Kier bitterly laughed. “Please. All Samuel had to do was stay alive. Muriel is expected to take on a fucking demon king who knows she’s coming!”

“Kier, I’m not just going to sit back and watch everything I know and love be destroyed! If I can stop this, I will.”

Kier looked into Muriel’s eyes, and for a moment they stood motionless. Each willed the other to make the first move.

He stalked up to her until his face was just inches from hers. “I’m not going to let you destroy yourself for this.”

“You really think you can stop me?” He was in for a surprise if he thought he could subdue her by force.

“I don’t need to stop you. I just need to stop the prophecies. There is no point in killing Azazel if the prophecies are bullshit. You wouldn’t even be here if you never heard that you were supposed to be.”

Muriel shook her head at his flawed logic. “You can’t prove a prophecy false.”

Kier leaned in for a quick kiss. His hands fisted in her hair as he roughly claimed her mouth. She gasped at the suddenness of it but didn’t fight him.

Just as quickly as it started, he was gone. Her hands grabbed at empty air. She looked around for where he had transported but didn’t see him.

The cracking noise from behind her was quiet, but the impact was almost deafening. Muriel had been around long enough to know the sound of a neck snapping.

Samuel’s lifeless body fell to the floor before Muriel could turn. She couldn’t move. She couldn’t even form a rational thought. All she could do was stare helplessly at Samuel’s dead body and then back up to Kier’s stone-cold face.

Through her haze, she heard a whimpering noise, and, as though she was outside of her body looking in, she realized that she was making the noise. Then came the scream.

Ava ran to Samuel as an ear-piercing cry of grief permeated the room. She fell on her knees next to him, whole body shaking with sobs.

The sight of her friends—one dead, the other destroyed with grief—brought Muriel back to herself.
Why?
She wanted to ask Kier, but she couldn’t bring herself to speak to him. Her hands clenched the sword, fully ready to attack.