Genesis Queen (The Road to Hell Series) (42 page)

Damn
.
Double damn
. She’d hoped her theory had some validity.

“What was that for?”

“I was hoping my succubus was attracted to every male that kissed me.”

“I didn’t kiss you.
You
kissed
me
.”

“Same difference. You’re hot enough to interest the Lynx, but you don’t do it for me.” Madison spun on her heels and stalked off, Devlin loping along with her.

Damn. Damn.
Damn
.

Apparently, only Micah and Nix did it for her. She needed Nix to be her only weakness. Her attraction to Micah—

Kur yanked her around and planted a kiss on her that she wouldn’t soon forget.
Sweet Jesus, the dragon can kiss
.

Nips to her mouth and licks to soothe away the sting, he made love to her lips before he pushed his tongue between the creases. Cupping the back of her head, he widened his stance and pulled her hips into his pelvis. The embrace deepened and her succubus perked up just enough to peek at the dragon.

Kur lifted his head to peer at her. His sapphire eyes transcended to black, to the point she couldn’t locate his pupils. “And now?”

I prefer Micah and Nix
.

Unfortunately, so did Madison.

She tapped his cheek. “You ever touch me like that again and I’ll fillet the scales from you.”

“Too bad.” He flashed a tiny grin.

“How are you at fighting?”

“I’m a dragon,” he said with so much arrogance she almost laughed.

Way too much testosterone in her house.

Madison rolled her eyes. “I need to work off some steam.”

“If you won’t use my naked body to please you, feel free to use it to please you in combat.”

Gawd, what a corny comeback
. She laughed. “You’re going to drive some lucky woman nuts one day.”

She might not be interested, but the dragon was lethally charming.

Kur grinned. “That mean you planning on keeping me around for a while?”

Madison grunted, grabbed his arm, and led the way.

***

She’d gotten more than one dragon to play with. Cael had entered the room after ten minutes of sparring with Kur and asked, “A new type of foreplay?”

Madison had tossed him a droll glare. “You couldn’t handle foreplay with me, scaly boy.”

The golden dragon had laughed and stripped his shirt off. His chest was as honey-colored as the rest of him. A golden Adonis. What the hell had she unleashed upon unsuspecting humanity?

An hour later, sweat trickled between her breasts. She panted and eyed the dragons. Neither breathed heavily, but they both wore an array of cuts and nicks. At one point, Cael had made the mistake of popping his wings out and she’d stabbed through one.

Too tired to make it to a chair, Madison sank to the floor.

“Just where I like my women, kneeling at my feet.” Even Cael’s voice sounded like honey.

Instinct overriding her humanity, Madison shot a smidge of power and tripped the dragon. Cael hit the floor. She winked at him when he turned a stunned expression on her.

Cael’s chuckle was deep and resonated throughout the room. “Anyone who underestimates you is a fool.” He rubbed a nasty wound on his chest. “Did you have to give her your sharpest blade, Kur?”

“Sorry about that.” Madison grimaced. She was used to a no-holds-barred type of sparring with Zen. The immortal instantly healed if she managed to cut him. “Amos can heal you.”

Nix can too
, her succubus reminded her. She’d spent the last hour forgetting her little problem with Nix and Micah. She held no desire to revisit them.

“He’ll be fine, all healed soon.” Kur offered her his hand. Madison took it and allowed him to pull her to her feet. “Yes, I had to give her my sharpest weapon. Micah instructed me to keep her safe.”

Madison sighed. Discovering Kur had been in cahoots with her husband still rankled. But she couldn’t worry over that now.

The door clicked shut with a soft snick. Hands behind his back, Elias approached slowly. “Care to give a demon King a try?”

Kur stepped in front of her. She wondered what had transpired between them to make the dragon hate the King so much. “She declines your offer.”

Couldn’t she get away from overbearing men? All of them thought they knew what was best for her. Every single one of them was wrong. She jabbed Kur in the kidneys—if he had any. “I can speak for myself.” On her tiptoes she peeked over the dragon’s shoulder. “Exhausted, Elias, how about later.”

Wearing a mocking grin, her brother-in-law shrugged. “If I hunted her, dragon, I’d acquire her despite your feeble defense.”

“Can’t be too safe where Madison is concerned.” Cael pulled his shirt on over his head.

“She’s Hell’s Queen. Of course we cannot be too safe.” Her brother-in-law withdrew his arms from behind his back and lifted his hand. He blew into his cupped palm. A carrot-colored dust drenched the room like a dense fog.

Madison coughed as the powdery substance entered her lungs. Then she stumbled. An arm went around her neck, supporting her wooziness, and the cool words whispered against her ear chilled her straight to the bone. “I’ve got you, princess.”

Innocent words, laced with subterfuge. Elias had obviously portaled to her.

The dragons roared loud enough it shook the house. The demon King used a portal to lengthen her distance from her would-be protectors. Not that they could see much through the dust.

“Kur, tell Micah I have Madison.” Going anywhere alone with him prickled her skin in a panic. Blackness edged her vision, and she attempted to siphon his seraph. Her Lynx was silent. “Nice try, princess, but no cookie.” The words whispered against her ear were so chilling she feared her lobe would be freeze-dried before he finished speaking. “When you breathed in my angel dust, you became my bitch.”

Elias’s bitch? Terrible predicament.

Zen
!
Need help
! Madison sent the telepathy.

Rainbow orbs arrived as Eliel taunted the dragons with, “Micah can thank me later.”

This is not going to end well for me
.

He slammed his hand over her mouth, choking her with a wad of angel dust. As they went through a portal, Madison blacked out.

***

Head pounding, Madison tried to touch her head, but discovered her arms were bound. Legs, too. Eyelids whipped open. All confusion evaporated before the first blink.

Hell
.

The walls swished in grisly, mortal scenes. The skin-stitched floor moaned as Elias approached in angel form…a darker shade of blue than Micah’s ice-blue flesh tone, but marbleized with skeins of terracotta. Straight, fiber-optic ginger-colored wings dripped with yellow highlights. His eyes remained the same dark brown, but his irises were golden, his pupils hellfire and brimstone—like hers.

Navy blue talons, veined in yellow, gripped her chin. “Persuade me to temper your torture.”

“You’ll do what you want regardless what I say.” This demon had had it in for her since the day they met.

“Not true.” He released her and tapped a rusty, spiraling gadget.
Great to prod under your fingernails
, Madison grimaced. “Become our Queen and it ends now.”

“I already claimed it.”

Those eerie claws fiddled with her hair and she recoiled. And discovered the invisible bonds held like determined shrink-wrap.

“You uttered powerless words. As a King, I’d feel the impact of new royalty.”

“Maybe you’re weaker than you realized.”

“You’d love that.” Via her hair, he hauled her head closer to his.

“You’d be able to stop me if you were royalty.”

“Micah will kill you.”
My avenging angel will be livid
. Nix would be beside himself with worry. She couldn’t think about how Amos would feel.

He laughed, a dark gloating sound that hinted of psychotic tendencies. “At first, he’ll think I claimed you to protect you. After, he’ll either mourn your death or thank me for turning you.”

Using his claws, he cut her shirt off and tore her bra away. Talons brushed her breasts. Madison squirmed, but remained bound in whatever invisible magic restrained her.

A gleam of enjoyment hit his eyes as his nail scraped down her belly and shredded her pants. Her panties followed.

“I understand Beliel’s fascination to fuck you. You’re beautiful.” He tapped a nail on her hip.

“You will not rape me.” She couldn’t bear that particular humiliation. “Micah would never forgive that.”

“I wouldn’t put my dick in you if you were the last woman in the universe.” He shuddered. “I fear your pussy would have me thinking pure thoughts. It tainted my brother.” After a moment, he lifted a worm-looking creature. It squirmed and squealed. It was no worm she’d ever seen. “Last chance before I set the
Brood
on you.”

The
Brood
made her nervous. Not knowing what to expect made it worse. “Fuck you.”

“I hoped you’d say that.” Using her hair as an anchor, her brother-in-law held her head motionless as he placed the demonic creature against a nostril. The slimy fucker slithered up her canal. Eyes watering, pain burned between her eyes, and she could feel the thing wiggling deeper into her skull.

I will not fall
.
I will not fall
.
I will not
— She screamed just before going into a grand-mal-type seizure. Teeth clenched, her body cramped and jerked as Eliel fondled her with too-familiar hands and cooed into her ear, “You said you’d rather be one of the tortured than Hell’s Queen. Here’s your chance to prove it, bitch.”

***

“He subdued her with angel dust?” Micah couldn’t wrap his brain around the recounting of Elias snatching Madison.

Phoenix shot him an anxious glance. “If he harms her—”

“He
will
harm her.” Zennyo Ryuo stood in Beliel’s personal space, wearing more emotion than customary.

“Eliel is on
my
side. He’s protecting her.” No other plausible explanation. Although it was a tad odd his brother hadn’t come to him first. Unless he’d discovered an immediate threat on her life, which meant her safety was priority.

“No need to choke her on it if he’s protecting her, Beliel?” The immortal’s haughtiness almost had him reacting with his fist in Zennyo Ryuo’s teeth.

“He’s protecting her.” He reiterated through clenched molars. It didn’t matter that he’d just been thinking almost the same thing as the immortal. “Probably got wind of some nefarious plot, so he wanted to get her to safety. He knew she wouldn’t go with him without talking to me first.”

“Bullshit!” He would forgive Phoenix his emotional outburst. Madison was gone. They were all a bit on edge. “That motherfucker never tried to hide his hate of her.”

“He said I could thank him later. Does that sound like he intended to harm her?”

“The only time I’ve ever seen that look in his eyes, Beliel, he anticipated torturing an Atlantian for your father.”

Micah got in Zennyo Ryuo’s face. “Not another derogatory word about my twin. He supported me when others wouldn’t. A King of Hell would
never
betray another King.” Their loyalty went deeper. Being twins, they were closer than all the other Kings.

“Deluding yourself
will
harm Madison worse.” The immortal crossed his arms over his chest, unbending in his opinion. “If he puts a
single
scratch on her, I will kill him.”

If Elias harmed his woman, Zennyo Ryuo wouldn’t get the chance to kill him. Micah would—he wouldn’t think like this! His brother hadn’t deceived him. The idea was impossible.

Petra and Amos portaled into the room. Tears bathed his son’s face. Sobs racked his shoulders.

Ice frosted Micah’s veins. No need for his child to speak. The boy’s anguish told him all he needed to know. His twin
had
betrayed him.

He touched Amos’s temple. “
Jqaam
.”
Sleep
. He caught the boy and shifted him to a comfortable position in his arms. He faced Phoenix. “Elias is the best among us at torture. She won’t last long. Protect my son while I rescue our woman.”

“I’m going with you.” Of course, being a proactive man, Phoenix would want to attend. A man born to the hero life, doing nothing went against his personality.

“Without the covenant, you cannot enter Hell. I’ll take the dragons. Protect Amos.”

Phoenix refused to accept the child. “Make me a new covenant, Beliel.”

A formal request using his angelic name. Micah sailed a glance in Zennyo Ryuo’s direction. The immortal shrugged, lending no support to deny or accept Phoenix’s request. No time to argue, he glared at the Ark of Heaven. “Fine. I want your mortality.”

“Deal.” The quick agreement surprised him. “But on one condition. You cannot put me in my grave until
after
she’s saved.”

The King of Hell chuckled. “You misunderstand, Phoenix. I’m offering you immortality for your help. For your sacrifice, you receive my protection in Hell.”

Phoenix bristled. “No.”

“You would die for her, but not
live
for her?” Micah deposited Amos in Zennyo Ryuo’s arms. “You don’t deserve Madison.”

The Ark of Heaven gaped.

He had a woman to save, not a man to convince. “Petra, you’ll help me?”

“Of course.”

He looked at the dragons, before he could speak, Kur said, “Don’t even ask. Tell us what you want.”

“
Imal
.”
Open
.

As the portal to Hell opened, Phoenix said, “Your deal is accepted.”

Micah grinned. Maybe the Ark of Heaven deserved Madison’s love after all.

Chapter Forty-One

The forever-seizure finally abated. Every muscle twitched an excruciating tap-dance beneath her skin. With each spasm, a moan was wrenched from her.

“Round one is complete.” Elias ran a fingertip along her cheek. His light touch felt like razors slicing through her flesh. She jerked away and suffered agony from the sudden movement.