devil 03 - tween hearts fire and devils delight (26 page)

He nodded.
I’ll call King Aelfric.

The king of the light fairies.
How have they fared under the veil?

Dialle grimaced.
They struggle. They will not survive if it descends completely.

But they’ve been your subjects for millennia. Can’t the Court protect them?

It was a strange collaboration, the good fairies and the Royal Devil Court. But it had survived for thousands of years. The king of the light fairies had disagreed once with the celestial army. St. Peter had insisted that the fairies should not try to live among the human population. But the fairy king had set his mind on doing just that. The result was that he had cut their ties to the light army. But, though they had their own special powers to call forth, the fairies were small and their numbers reduced due to illness and madness, wrought, ironically, by centuries of living among humans and they could be easily overpowered by dark forces if they had no protection. So they’d made a deal with the Court to serve as the Devils’ subjects in turn for protection, as long as the Court didn’t request evil of them.

Somehow they’d made it work.

The Court will do all that it can. But the destruction wrought on them is of the mental kind. We have no jurisdiction there.
He shrugged.

I shook my head. Poor fairies.

My father stopped suddenly and Emo and Dialle each grabbed one of my shoulders to stop me from plowing into the back of him.

He turned around, blinking in surprise when he saw both Dialle and Emo. “Welcome to the good side, gentlemen,” he said with a smile.

They both nodded in acknowledgement.

His eyes moved past Darma and Flick to rest, for the first time, on Torre. One eyebrow lifted. “Is this one fighting for the divine goal?”

Darma grabbed Torre’s hand. “He is.”

Our father’s assessing gaze remained locked on Torre for a few beats more and then he looked at Darma and gave a small nod. “I will trust your judgment on this, daughter.”

Darma nodded slightly. “Thank you, Father.”

The air beside my father hissed and Myra popped into view. She was grinning and looked much better than the last time I’d seen her.

My father’s face clearly showed his surprise. “Sister!” He wrapped her in a hug. “How is it possible?”

She shrugged. “Perhaps the virus is weakening.”

Something danced at the edge of comprehension but I couldn’t quite grasp what it was. All I really knew was that I was happy to see Myra healthy and strong again.

Father held her at arm’s length and gave her a thorough looking-over. “Are you sure you’re up for this?’

She nodded, throwing off his hands. “I’ve never been more ready. I’ve been lying on my back for days. I need to…as Astra so eloquently puts it…”

“Kick some ass?”

She turned to me and grinned. “Exactly.”

“All right then,” Father said, turning toward the door, which I assumed was all that separated us from lots of trouble. “Let’s do this thing.”

He reached for the handle of the metal door. As he turned the handle it felt as if we all held our breath, expectant. But when he’d opened the door and pushed it inward, nothing awaited us. The room beyond was still. It appeared empty.

We entered the room and moved into the center in a nervous wad, glancing around with wary eyes. It appeared to be a large, empty room with bays to the outside. Probably for emergency medi-vans. It smelled slightly of vehicle fuel and other mechanical things.

Father turned to me and smiled. “It appears…”

Something large, brown and leathery landed on his back with a spit-filled roar. He went down as several more gargoyles dropped from the rafters above our heads, landing with varying amounts of accuracy either on us or around us.

I had a huge maw filled with razor-sharp teeth attached to my shoulder before I could raise a hand to use my power against the one currently chewing on my father. I frowned at the pair of beady eyes over the teeth, it blinked as I raised a hand and smacked it between the eyes with a power-induced blow. The teeth loosened but took a fair amount of skin with them as the ’goyle slid to the ground. I finished it off with a power arrow between the eyes.

I glanced around and saw that the demon handlers had joined the fray. I reached for the one nearest me, who was hiding behind a gargoyle corpse in an effort to avoid Darma’s misaimed power jolts and touched one black, leathery ear with my power. The thing screamed like a girl and leapt to its feet, right into the path of Darma’s power.

As he burst into atmospheric gas something whipped around my head and I suddenly couldn’t breathe. I reached toward the thick chain that was wrapped around my neck just as the demon on the other end of it gave it a yank, jerking me off my feet and into his waiting arms behind me.

I hit his rigid, scaly chest hard enough to knock all the air out of my lungs. I struggled to breathe as he twisted the chain to tighten it. Then he lifted me off my feet with the chain and turned me so that my face was mere inches from his.

I was close enough to see the oil droplets emerging from the overlarge pores on his wide, leather face. He grinned at me, showing several rows of sharp, crooked teeth and choking me with a wave of swamp breath. “Hello, Mx. Phelps.”

I’d managed to get one hand partially under the chain. Enough to give myself a smidgeon of air and had propped my feet on the demon’s thick, treelike legs to take some of the pressure off my throat. But my eyes still felt like they were bulging from their sockets and I thought all the blood in my head was going to explode out of my ears from the pressure.

The demon gave the chain a little shake and laughed. I hung there like a fish on a string, jerking wildly as I tried to loosen the chain around my neck. Power arrows zinged past us at an alarming rate and the demon held me up in front of its body so I would catch any that were on target. I suddenly realized I didn’t like the position I was currently in.

Okay, I had realized that as soon as the chain wrapped around my neck but I suddenly decided I needed to do something about it.

I dropped my free hand from my neck and slid it between the demon and me. I stretched as far as I could but still couldn’t quite reach the spot I’d been looking for. Bending my knees, I coughed as the chain tightened on my throat but, if I strained my short little arm to its maximum, I could just about reach…

I sent my power into the soft, squishy spot between the demon’s thick legs and quickly found myself flying through the air again.

I hit the floor hard enough to knock the wind out of me—if I’d had any left in my lungs to be knocked out—and immediately dragged the heavy chain from my neck. I launched myself to my feet and swung the chain, catching the demon I’d just zapped in the family crest around the throat. No easy task since he was still hopping around holding his jewels and screaming like a girl.

The screaming stopped as the chain tightened around his throat and he turned to me with horror in his beady little eyes. I smiled. Now that was the type of balance I strove to achieve in my life.

The demon was on the correct end of the leash.

“Bye bye, demon,” I said and then I gave the chain a power-induced jerk and heard the resounding crack as the demon’s spine broke under the lash of the thick chain.

“To Hades with you, fool. For God hath tired of you.”

As my demon hit the floor I looked around. Everyone else was standing there looking at me. They’d all vanquished their demons already and were peering at me like I was some kind of screwup.

“What?”

Darma’s pretty face had just one drop of green, demon blood on it. Just above her left eye. “Stop screwing around, Astra. We need to get to the hostages.”

I looked at Dialle and he grinned at me.

Emo shook his head and smiled.

I stood there with my mouth flapping indignantly and then gave a huff and stalked after my father, who was heading toward the next door and the next chapter of the hell that was my life.

I pushed my father gently to the side as he reached for the door handle. He looked a question at me and I shook my head. “I’m not taking any chances this time.”

I reached out and blasted the door to smithereens, sending it skittering into the next room with a loud screeching sound. Dense smoke and silence followed as the door skidded to a stop. I held my arm out to keep everyone from entering the smoke-filled room beyond.

Just when I started thinking I was being overly dramatic, something larger than a bug with wings shot through the door and headed right for my face.

I got the impression of feral orange eyes in an angry face before it hit me, landing on my cheek as I instinctively jerked my head sideways to avoid it. I shrieked at what felt like hundreds of tiny little knives piercing the skin of my cheek and ripping.

Warm moisture slid down my torn cheek.

I was vaguely aware of the whirring sound of hundreds of tiny wings whizzing past me as I swung my head in a frantic attempt to keep the dark fairy from my eyes. I tried to reach up to grab it. But my arms wouldn’t move. Bending my knees, I flung myself into the air, flipping feet over head before I realized that I couldn’t catch myself with the arms that, somehow, had gotten tied around my body with glittery but seemingly unbreakable fairy twine.

I tucked hard before my head slammed into the ground and took the brunt of the impact between my shoulder blades. As I hit the ground the dark fairy flew off my face and travelled several feet before she was able to get her wings behind her again and stop the momentum.

I had about two seconds to break the fairy twine before she was on me again. I sent power into it and it crumbled, only to be replaced immediately by a new batch just below my shoulders. I felt a slight tug and the fairy was on my face again. She’d drawn herself in using the pretty but deadly twine.

Suddenly the fairy was off my face and dangling by her wings in front of me, her evil face a study in surprise. I broke the twine again and it crumbled to my feet. I looked up just as Emo shot a killing jolt into the tiny terror.

She crumbled away just like her twine.

I smiled at Emo. “Thanks, partner.”

He didn’t move, didn’t reach for me but I had a sudden sensation of soft, warm lips on mine. My knees buckled at the sheer unexpected pleasure of it and my eyes widened as a spectral finger caressed down my torn cheek, sending healing warmth into the bleeding flesh and making it whole again.

“There,” he said with a faint smile, “that’s better.”

Tingling warmth had pooled at the juncture of my thighs and I squeezed my knees together on a sudden wave of lust. I opened my mouth to confront him about the spectral beguilement but he was gone.

I found him on the other side of the room, holding another fairy away from Darma by the wings. His dark gaze met mine across the space and he smiled…a little smugly I thought.

I frowned at him and shook my head. I located my father and headed for him. With the exception of a couple which Torre and Darma still struggled with, the dark fairies were pretty much all fairy dust on the floor at that point.

Flick stood watching my sister and her prince in case they needed backup.

Father was standing off to the side, talking quietly to Dialle, whose head was lowered as he listened quietly. I stalked up to them, still feeling angry at Emo for taking me by surprise. The last thing I needed right then was to be distracted by Emo’s apparent abilities as a phantom lover.

So of course I glared at my father and Dialle. They were handy. “What are you two doing?”

Father turned to me in surprise. “Astra. What’s wrong?”

Damn him for being so perceptive.

“Nothing’s wrong. Why do you ask?” I responded angrily.

He stared at me for a long moment and then shook his head.

I felt Dialle’s eyes on me and turned. Hurt and anger were clearly visible in his features and guilt surged through me. That made me even angrier because I hadn’t done anything to feel guilty about.

Not really.

Well, I had enjoyed Emo’s phantom kiss but I hadn’t asked for it.

I was a victim.

Everybody knew that. Didn’t they?

Dialle’s black eyes pulsed with angry red colors.

Shit! Apparently not
everybody
.

I glared at him. “What? Why are you looking at me like that?”

He said nothing. His eyes met mine glare for glare and he reached toward my face. I flinched as his finger touched my lips and he pulled it back so I could see the tip of it. Sparkling gold dust coated the end of his finger.

My eyes widened and I reached up to touch my lips. When I pulled it away my finger sparkled. I frowned.

Apparently thinking we needed to deal with whatever we were dealing with by ourselves, my father went to join Darma and Torre, who had finally vanquished the remaining fairies and were standing over the dust on the floor staring at it as if perplexed.

Dialle lowered his voice so that his words could be heard only by the two of us. “His father was well known at Nerul’s Court for his ability to make phantom love to the ladies without their bonded mates even knowing that he’d breeched their bonds. It became such a problem at court that King Nerul was forced to place a curse on him. The curse provides physical proof of his spectral infidelities…in the form of a fine, gold dust.” His midnight eyes pierced me with unspoken accusation. “Only the bonded pair can see this proof.” He stood for a moment longer, glaring at me while my mouth flapped mutely. I didn’t know what to say to him. I hadn’t done anything wrong. But he would never believe that. I knew it from the look on his dark, angry face.

Then he popped out of the room and I stood there, alone in a room filled with other people, wondering how I’d gotten myself in so much trouble, without, for once, even doing anything stupid to warrant it.

Chapter Fifteen

Dragon Breath

The creature met our lady’s power, with a fire of its own,

And lifted her away from there, to places she’d not known.