Claimed by a Demon King (30 page)

He wasn’t hungry, but he knew that she was and was unlikely to eat alone in front of him and Bleu, so he nodded.

“Do you have paper and a writing implement?” Thorne said as she helped him into the other room and settled him onto a deep brown couch.

“Sure.” She went to a desk in the corner. On it was a machine he knew as a computer and another that had paper sheets sticking out of it. She took some of the sheets and brought them back to him together with several pens. She laid them out on the wooden table in front of him.

Bleu settled himself in the armchair to Thorne’s left and Sable hovered to his right.

“I will draw a map with the points where I know the pathways end in my kingdom and others and we shall go from there.” He took up the paper and one of the pens.

“I still don’t really get why you can’t just teleport into the kingdom… I mean… you can teleport anywhere.”

Thorne glanced up at Sable and smiled. “It is not so easy to enter each of the demon realms. Just as the elf kingdom only has a few points of access where elves and other creatures teleporting in from outside of the realm can enter it, so do the demon realms. There are even some pathways only open to me.”

“It is the same for Loren,” Bleu said and leaned forwards, coming to rest with his elbows on his knees. “Only the princes can use the pathways that exit directly in their quarters. The castle has another portal point where others may enter it and that is guarded at all times.”

“That’s why when we teleport to the elf kingdom, Loren goes to a different place?”

Bleu nodded.

“Demons within my kingdom can freely teleport anywhere within its boundaries. The exceptions being the castle and the fortresses protecting the borders at strategic points. They are protected and have only a single entry point available, which is guarded much like the one in the elf realm.” Thorne leaned back on the couch, settling the paper on his lap. “Anyone teleporting in from outside of my kingdom, whether that is the mortal realm or another realm in Hell, must use a set pathway. It protects our lands and people from attack. These pathways are guarded at all times, located near fortresses. It is possible for us to close these pathways, stopping any from entering or exiting via them.”

“So, someone has shut the doors to your kingdom and locked them… and we need to open them again.”

“First, we need to map out all of the pathways. It is possible that there may be one that is open to us. There are some that are rarely used, almost forgotten.” He reached up and brushed his fingers across the back of her palm when he caught the ripple of fatigue that travelled across her paling face. She needed to eat. They could talk more later, once she had food in her stomach. “Would you be so kind as to prepare some food while I attempt to recall all of the pathways?”

She nodded and moved around the couch. His gaze tracked her, slowly dropping to her fine backside. He wanted to touch it again, needed to grip it hard while he thrust into her, taking her and making her his.

She moved into a small area of the room that housed a kitchen and began going through the cupboards and the large metal one that kept items cold.

Thorne forced his attention back to the paper and sketched a map of all of the kingdoms with Bleu’s help. The smell of food cooking set his stomach growling. Perhaps he was hungry after all. Whatever Sable was cooking, it smelled delicious, like the bacon and eggs and ‘hung over’ food that he had made for her.

She appeared with several plates while he was deep in discussion with Bleu. It was food similar to what he had made for her, but rather than the coffee she adored so much, she had a slender dark bottle. She sat to his right, close enough to him that he could feel her heat on his thigh, and opened the bottle.

She poured it into the first glass. Red wine. He didn’t like the thought of her drinking around Bleu, but she was probably used to this alcohol and better able to handle it than she had the demon grog. Sable handed one glass to Bleu, and then filled the other two. She handed one to him and he took it from her, letting his fingers brush hers at the same time.

“I hope you like bad food.” She sipped her own glass and then set it down and picked up a bread roll. She filled it with the bacon and eggs, and some sort of red sauce. When he made no move to eat, she paused and looked back at him. “I might have made this food, but don’t be getting medieval ideas about me serving you. Tuck in.”

Bleu ignored the food and focused on filling in the map with all the pathways he knew of in the different realms. Thorne mimicked Sable, stuffing the meat and eggs into his roll, and devoured a big bite. It tasted so delicious he almost groaned.

“You want some fruit or something, Bleu?” Sable said and the elf shook his head. She shrugged. “Suit yourself. I guess either way I would have to leave the apartment. I have zero fruit and veg on hand, and I like my blood where it is… in my body.”

Thorne smiled at that.

He ate his roll while he discussed the different portals with Bleu and Sable, pinpointing the ones the elf had attempted to access. Most of them, if not all.

Sable leaned forwards, alternating between eating and drinking, working her way through both food and wine, and asking all manner of questions. He wondered how much she and Archangel knew about his world. The most basic of things seemed new to her.

“Why can’t we just teleport to one of the other realms and walk across the border into yours?” She peered at the map and took another mouthful of wine.

Thorne sipped his again. “As I said earlier, Little Huntress, we could teleport to another realm but if they have closed the portals in my realm, they have a witch or several magic practitioners in their ranks. It is likely they would have sealed the borders with a spell.”

“It’s worth a try though, right?”

“Wrong.” Bleu shook his head. “The elves the council sent to cross the border into the land could not enter that way. They met with resistance upon their return too. The First King was not pleased that they had crossed the First Realm without prior request.”

“We could go and speak with this First King though, couldn’t we?” Sable set her glass down on the wooden table. “That has to be worth a shot. Maybe we could find a way in then.”

“No. It might be best we find a potential method of forming a hole in the barrier or restoring a pathway first.” Thorne picked at a piece of bacon, craving the saltiness of the grilled meat. Sable cooked well. His female had talents he had not known of before. What other things could she do?

Sable took another mouthful of wine and then sighed. “So we need to find someone who can get us through the barrier.”

He and Bleu nodded.

Her face fell again and she stared at the map.

Thorne looked down at it too, at his kingdom in particular, and the lands bordering it. The elves had chosen wisely. The First Realm was the best route back to his one, but they would have to gain an audience with the First King before attempting to breach the barrier. The First King would be less willing to allow them passage now that the elves had crossed the realm without permission.

That wasn’t an insurmountable problem. He could convince the First King to grant them passage.

The problem was finding a method of breaching a barrier made by dark magic.

Thorne frowned. “Rosalind.”

“Who now?” Sable glared at him and he placed his hand on her knee to reassure her, sensing her need for it.

“The little witch I came to meet with to see my future… the evening we met. You recall it?” He looked at her and she nodded, reached across the table and picked up a device similar to the one she had used that evening in the cafeteria.

She touched the screen and it came alive with colour and light, as if she was the witch and her touch was magic. She made a rapid series of taps in different places, as she had the night they had met, and then presented him with a picture of the fair-haired witch.

“This Rosalind?”

He nodded. “She is a practitioner of light magic. She may be able to help us reopen the pathway to my land.”

She twisted the device to face her and studied it.

Bleu stood, catching her attention and his. “I will go and speak with my council of our plans, and will see if they have been able to make contact with my prince.”

“Return at dawn. We shall leave to see the witch then.” Thorne rose to his feet and Bleu nodded before disappearing.

He looked down at the hastily drawn map of the realms and the portal pathways.

Sable stood and he spared her a glance, and then his gaze slowly roamed back to her.

“We’ll find a way back into your kingdom, Thorne,” she said in a low voice, one that teased his ears and soothed him.

She was reassuring him?

Thorne nodded but didn’t feel so certain. He had never wanted anything as much as getting back to his realm. He looked at Sable again. Perhaps there was one thing he wanted above all else.

“You seem different tonight.” She glanced away. “I was listening to you talking to Bleu while I was cooking… and you were different.”

Did she prefer the male she had seen this night? The one who strategized with others as an equal and didn’t argue over a female? The male who took charge for the sake of his people, even going as far as giving up the one thing he desired most of all.

The one thing he might have gained by giving up.

Sable leaned closer, her body bare millimetres from his. Her hand slipped into his, her fingertips grazing his palm, and she looked up at him, brooked desire in her golden gaze.

Thorne exhaled heavily, unable to resist the lure of her beauty and the hunger in her eyes. He lowered his head, cupped the nape of her neck with his free hand, and kissed her hard.

CHAPTER 20

T
horne laid claim to Sable’s sweet mouth, tangling his tongue with hers as he clasped the back of her head, holding her immobile. She moaned, the sound filled with pleasure that detonated a burst of male pride in his chest and drove him to master her and tear another breathless groan from her lips. He wanted to satisfy her, to pleasure her until she was boneless and sated, and then he wanted to crush her to his chest and sleep with her in his arms.

She tiptoed, her palms scalding his bare chest, making his blood burn and thrum in his veins. He groaned and angled his head, deepening the kiss and leaving no part of her untouched by it. He slid his free hand down to the small of her back, teased her top away from the waist of her trousers, and caressed her bare skin. It was soft beneath his touch, silky and warm, and was almost his undoing.

Thorne moaned and clutched her tighter, drawing her closer until her softness pressed against the hardness of his body.

Sable uttered another murmur of pleasure and her short nails dug into his bare chest, sending hot shivers skittering across his muscles and causing them to tense. She moaned again, deeper and more wanton this time, and he sensed her arousal spike. She liked it when she felt his muscles, felt his strength beneath her questing fingers.

She dragged them down, catching his pebbled nipples in the process, ripping another throaty groan from him. He shuddered and quaked, verged on digging his own claws into her soft flesh to anchor her and stop her from pushing him close to the edge. He wanted to give her pleasure first. He wanted his female to cry his name as she found release, experienced bliss from his touch, his kiss and his body within hers. He wanted—no, needed—to ruin her to all others and make her forever his.

His Sable.

His queen.

Thorne growled and swept her up into his arms, not breaking the kiss. She gasped into his mouth, her arms linking around his neck. He carried her back towards the bedroom, intent on laying her down on the bed and crawling on top of her, pinning her beneath him. He needed to feel her there, feel her skin-to-skin with him. The need was too strong to ignore, too fierce to resist.

She tunnelled her fingers into his hair, twining the longer strands around her slender digits as she kissed him harder, her lips clashing violently with his, speaking of the need he could sense in her. Desire, fierce and intense, unstoppable, drove her just as it rode him mercilessly, controlling his actions and urging him into giving himself over to his carnal needs.

His unquenchable thirst for Sable.

His shins hit the end of the bed and he lowered her onto it, covering her soft curvy body with his and driving her down against the mattress. She didn’t release him. Her grip on his hair tightened, her kiss growing fiercer and more passionate. She rocked against him, rubbing her stomach across the steel-hard bulge in his leathers.

Thorne couldn’t take it.

He groaned and arched his back, lifting his already aching shaft away from her undulating body. She whimpered and continued to rock against the air, her grip on his hair tightening until it stung his scalp.

He slowed the kiss, wanting to bring them down onto a more even keel, a place where they were no longer slaves to their need and could draw out this moment, making it everything he desired it to be.

She wriggled beneath him, a noise born of frustration grating in her throat, but loosened her grip on him too. Her fingers sifted through his hair, stroking and caressing, driving his thoughts towards her doing that to another part of his anatomy, a part that demanded her attention and craved it.

He lowered himself again, holding his weight on his elbows as they pressed into the mattress on either side of her ribs, and slowly drove his hips forwards, grinding his caged cock against her stomach. He growled, the need for more, to thrust against her soft warm skin, overriding the part of him that kept chanting to go slow.

He couldn’t.

Thorne grabbed the hem of her dark t-shirt and paused at the stiff feel of it. He pushed himself up with his other hand and looked down at the material he grasped. He drew in a deep breath and caught the faint scent of blood. His blood.

He pushed the material upwards, revealing the taut plane of her stomach. Dried blood marred her soft skin too. She had been so focused on his welfare that she had neglected her own. He frowned and rose to his knees, caught her left wrist and pulled her up with him.