Claimed by a Demon King (3 page)

“King Thorne,” she said without a trace of tremble in her voice and bowed her head. “I would like to introduce my team.”

He ran an assessing gaze over them and then returned his attention to her. “Little Female. It is kind of Archangel to send a small contingent of your forces to assist in my demonomachy.”

Sable bit her tongue, stopping herself from pointing out that she had a name and that this was a large contingent of their forces and all they could spare. She supposed that in comparison to the thousand immortal warriors that Loren had brought with him, her fifty mortal hunters did look rather pathetic.

“Sable,” Loren started and frowned when Thorne bared his fangs on a growl. Thorne cast his gaze down at his boots and clenched his fists. Loren arched an eyebrow at him, sighed, and continued, “Your hunters must desire to settle themselves in their quarters.”

Thorne growled again and this time Sable had the impression it was because Loren was suggesting things that he should have thought of and suggested first.

“That would be good.” Sable kept her focus on Thorne, pretending he had suggested it, hoping to calm him.

“You men,” Thorne barked and a group of demons near the large arched doorway of the impressive dark grey fortress saluted, pressing their hands to their bare chests. “Show the mortals and elves to their quarters.”

He signalled another set of males and gestured to the elves standing guard next to the black crates and bags.

“Take their belongings and follow their instruction to ensure they all end up with their owners.” Thorne glanced at her. “Come.”

He turned away and walked with Loren towards the arched doorway of the large three-storey stone building that formed a wide corner in the curved courtyard. Arched windows lined the first and second floors, smaller in the longest side of the building to her right but larger and more decorative in the main part ahead of her. A balcony extended to the left of the first upper floor, giving the building a staggered appearance.

Demons patrolled the battlements at the top of the building and the walls that connected to it.

It wasn’t a castle as Loren had, with towers and conical roofs, and a verdant courtyard filled with trees, grass and flowering shrubs. It was squat and heavily fortified, and bore the scars of war in many places, the stones cracked or long grooves cut into them. It had been built with defence in mind and reminded her of many of the castles in England or Wales. There was even a well in the courtyard. This place was a military stronghold.

The demons Thorne had ordered to take her team to their quarters reached her hunters and led them away, speaking in broken English to them. Loren had warned her that only the high-ranking demons could speak her language, and that many of the warriors only understood the demon tongue or could only speak a small amount of English.

The elves split into groups, some going with the mortals, some following Loren towards the doors, led by Bleu, and others going with Evan to deal with the crates.

Olivia came over and linked arms with her. “Well, that went well.”

Sable scowled at her friend. “Don’t start. I really hope I don’t make a fool of myself any more today.”

“You weren’t to know he was training,” Olivia whispered as they followed Thorne and Loren towards the main building of the large fortress.

The wall surrounding the courtyard was so high she couldn’t see anything but a strange dark orange sky. Was it day now, or night in this realm? Whenever she left Archangel to come to the elf realm, she ended up at the opposite time of day. She had left in the morning, so this was the evening?

The elves brought light into their realm via portals. Loren had explained the demon realms had a sort of day and night because the light of the elf kingdom reached far into many of their realms. The sheer number of torches and fires blazing around the courtyard illuminated it as if it was day.

She guessed there was no shortage of fire in Hell.

She glanced back at Evan to check on him. He was already glaring at the demons. He looked her way and pointed to a square three-storey building that intersected the wall behind her, opposite the main building. An armoury? There were several buildings like it along the curving wall. Huge demon males prowled the top of the wall between each building, or loitered near their entrances, talking and laughing. Laughing. It was a little weird seeing a demon laugh. She had imagined them all to be as serious as Thorne.

But even Thorne had smile-lines bracketing his mouth and at the corners of his eyes.

“Earth… I mean, Hell to Sable?” Olivia nudged her.

Sable shook herself back to her friend. “It’s a lot to take in.”

She nodded to Evan and he turned back to the demons and elves assisting him. Many of the demons stared at Evan’s tablet as if it were magical, their deep red eyes wide and expressions locked in lines of fascination.

A few males looked her way as they entered the main building. They grinned and bent their heads together. Whispering about her no doubt. The silly little mortal throwing herself into a battle between two dozen demons to protect their immortal king.

She groaned.

Olivia shifted her arm, wrapping it around Sable’s shoulders. “It’s really not that bad.”

But it was. She wanted to make Bleu take her back to Archangel and find a way to undo the past hour so she could do it all over again.

“If I look like I’m about to make another tit of myself, do feel free to hit me over the head with something blunt and heavy before it happens.” Sable leaned her head on Olivia’s shoulder and then straightened when Thorne spoke to Loren.

“I apologise for not being ready for you.” He rubbed a dark cloth over his torso, wiping the blood away. “I thought I had more time.”

“No need to apologise,” Loren said. “It was our fault. Archangel were eager to send their team in on the mission.”

Thorne glanced over his right shoulder at Sable, his eyebrows rising. She looked away, locking her gaze on Olivia and Bleu. When had he fallen into step with them?

She couldn’t look at Thorne. If she did, he was bound to see straight through her and see that she was the reason they were early. Bleu talked to Olivia about Loren and Sable drifted along beside her, not taking in the impressive carved columns that supported the vaulted ceiling in the wide hallway. She was too busy doing her best to ignore Thorne. She could block him out, keeping her eyes off him, but she couldn’t ignore how she felt whenever his gaze landed on her.

Hot all over. Flushed from the intense feel of his eyes on her.

Bleu moved around Olivia and her, ending up walking beside her. “You fought well.”

She shrugged off the compliment, uncomfortable with his praise, and thought of something to say to keep him around. His presence lessened the fierce reaction she had to Thorne’s eyes on her and she needed that right now.

She had to find her balance again before she did something crazy.

Like kissing a demon king.

CHAPTER 2

S
able entered the main hall with Bleu and Olivia flanking her. Two rows of three thick stone columns stood on either side of them, cutting twin lines down the centre of the enormous windowless room, framing the path from the arched doorway behind her to the raised semi-circular stone platform at the opposite end of the room. Torches burned in black metal brackets around the columns, bathing the room in warm light that chased all the shadows away and flickered across the vaulted ceiling.

Loren paused with his group of elves in the centre of the room before her.

Thorne stepped up onto the stone platform at the end and turned to face them. A large elaborate black throne stood behind him and a huge tapestry depicting a war hung on the wall behind it. He handed his blood-soaked rag to another male demon. This one wore tan trousers and a cream shirt and looked more like a servant, slimmer than the muscle-bound warriors they had left in the courtyard. The man bowed his head and backed away, stepping down from the platform. She frowned at the thick torc around his neck. The twisted bands of red and black looked heavy, closed tightly around his throat.

Several of the warriors who had been fighting Thorne had worn something similar.

Bleu looked down at her and then towards the man. He was silent for a moment and then said, “They wear them when they have lost their eternal mate. It is a sign to others, a warning not to speak of females.”

A widower.

“Welcome,” Thorne said, his deep voice breaking into her sombre thoughts. “The others will arrive this eve and—”

A few scantily clad beautiful women came into view and Sable frowned as they fawned over him, praising his fighting and his skill. Thorne waved them away, a bored look on his face. They persisted until he growled and then they strutted away, heading towards the group of demons that had entered behind Sable. Some of the warriors from the training match. Those males lapped up the attention that Thorne had dismissed.

“As I was saying… the others will arrive this eve and there will be a feast.”

What the hell did demons eat at a feast? She cast an unnerved look at the elves and then at Olivia. The elves seemed at ease and they ate vegetables and fruits. Maybe the demons did too.

She could have laughed out loud at that thought. None of the demons she had met in her long career as a hunter had looked as if they enjoyed a nourishing five-a-day. They all looked as if they lived on a protein-rich diet. Plus, elves also drank blood, so there was just as much chance that demons did too and tonight’s feast would be served in cups and jugs.

“I am sure you all desire to settle into your quarters. Until the feast then.” Thorne bowed his head and Loren did too, and then the elf prince was walking towards her, Olivia and Bleu.

Loren took Olivia’s hand and led her away, following several demons. Sable trailed behind them, feeling Thorne’s gaze on her with each step, heating her to her core.

Cold swept over her and she looked back, wondering why Thorne had stopped looking at her.

Bleu hadn’t moved.

He stood in the middle of the room facing Thorne, his expression impassive but his ears pointed, flaring back against the sides of his head and tangled in his wild black hair. Thorne held his gaze, a corona of fiery red circling his darker crimson irises and his horns slowly curling around in front of his pointed ears.

Sable took a step towards both males and their focuses shattered, their gazes coming to her.

“Bleu?” she said, and then looked at Thorne, catching the fire burning in his eyes. Whatever challenge had passed unspoken between the two males, it had set alight to Thorne’s temper. She needed to get Bleu away from him before the demon king did something he might regret. She shifted her gaze back to Bleu. “Are you coming?”

He looked as though he wouldn’t and then nodded and began walking towards her.

Sable lingered, her focus drifting back to Thorne where he stood in the middle of the cavernous room. Bleu caught her arm, stealing her attention away from him, and she swore she heard Thorne growl.

She had seen Loren act like this around Olivia and it set her on edge.

His behaviour had all the hallmarks of a male with his mate and she didn’t like it. She had never seen the point in getting serious with a man in her line of work, when every patrol might be her last, and she had seen just how serious being a mate was with her friend. Olivia was now immortal, mated to an elf prince. Their love was forever.

For a flicker of a moment, what they shared had made Sable want to try on a relationship for size, but it had only been a passing fancy. A reaction to loneliness. She liked her dalliances short and hot. Not eternal.

Sable turned away from Thorne and followed Bleu. She frowned at the elf male’s hand on her arm. The jagged black claws of his armour covered his fingers and the tips pressed into her flesh. The sight of his hand on her, possessively clamped around her wrist, unnerved her too.

She took her arm back and he glanced at her, confusion reigning in his violet eyes when she scowled at him.

“I can find my own way.” She picked up pace but he remained with her, his long strides making it impossible for her to lose him. She gave up trying when they caught up with Loren and Olivia.

They reached the first floor and a nice male demon showed Bleu to his room at the start of the long corridor, giving her a moment to breathe. Another led her past Olivia and Loren’s quarters to the next arched dark wooden door. The man pushed it open and she thanked him with a smile before stepping inside. He muttered something in the demon tongue and closed the door behind her, leaving her alone.

Sable heaved a sigh and leaned her back against the wooden door, gazing at the large room. Her entire quarters at Archangel would fit into it four times over.

A breeze came in through the three arched windows in the wall opposite her, tousling the heavy dark red curtains. No glass.

Not much furniture either.

A large four-poster bed stood against the bare stone wall to her right, covered with thick pale furs. A dark wooden table with a speckled ancient oval mirror was to her left, beside a big wardrobe. The wall opposite the bed had a huge fireplace, with two threadbare velvet-covered armchairs in front of it. Maybe it was the lack of furniture and zero decorative touches that made the room look huge. She walked around it and decided that it wasn’t. It just added to the spacious feeling.

Sable paused in front of the fireplace.

The fire in the grate burned brightly.

Strange, but she had thought it would be hot in the demon realms, even though it had always been cool and breezy whenever she had visited the elf kingdom.

How far were they from that realm? She had never asked Loren about it before. Did Thorne have a map of Hell? She wanted to see where they were in comparison to the elf kingdom and the Fifth Realm.

Maybe Loren could tell her.

Sable left her room, went to the next one and opened the door. Olivia shrieked. Loren bit out a few nasty-sounding words in the elf language.