Read Seduced by Darkness Online
Authors: Lacey Savage
Tags: #Romance, #Anthologies, #Paranormal, #Collections & Anthologies
Seduced By Darkness
Lacey Savage
All rights reserved.
Copyright ©2007 Lacey Savage
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ISBN: 978-1-59596-604-9
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Publisher:
Changeling Press LLC
PO Box 1046
Martinsburg, WV 25402-1046
www.ChangelingPress.com
Editor: Maryam Salim
Cover Artist: Reneé George
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Seduced By Darkness
Lacey Savage
What’s a girl to do when the
only way to rescue her lover from the depths of Hell is to have him possess her
other
lover’s body?
Heidi Cole and Luke Howard may
have survived an encounter with the Lord of the Underworld himself, but the
price they had to pay for their freedom -- if you can call it that -- was much
too high. Now, separated from Varin, the third member of their trio, they’re on
the run from an army of darkness intent on hunting them down and delivering
them to their Master. Hell’s spawns will stop at nothing to see Heidi and Luke
reunited with their lover… in an everlasting nightmare.
With nothing but determination
and fierce passion on their side, Luke and Heidi are driven not only to rescue
Varin from his eternal prison in the depths of Hell, but also to outrun,
outsmart and outlast the forces of evil.
And the only way that’ll happen
is if Luke makes the ultimate sacrifice and gives himself over to another man…
body
and soul.
Two men. One body. And damn, a
girl can only take so much darkness before she succumbs to its seductive call…
Chapter One
The syrupy glow of the golden sun sank down behind the
horizon, tinting the skyline with pink, purple and red streaks. Heidi Cole
squeezed her eyelids shut against the brilliant hues and pressed the heels of
her palms against her brows.
“Shouldn’t it be dark by now?” she grumbled, rubbing her
tired eyes. “I swear it’s been daylight for forty-eight hours straight.”
“Really?” Luke Howard’s husky voice rumbled through the
interior of Heidi’s Acura, deeper than the purring vibration of the engine. “It
feels more like forty-seven to me, give or take a few minutes.”
Heidi frowned. She knew he was teasing her. She only wished
he didn’t feel the need to do it so damn often. The lilting note of amusement
in his tone never failed to make a shadow of a smile cross her lips, and she
wanted to be angry, damn it.
Anger was a useful emotion. She could wrap herself in it and
draw strength from the ire that streamed through her veins. She could even use
it as a weapon. Or a shield -- one that would at least give the illusion of
protection.
And
fuck
, did they ever need protecting.
“You should get some rest,” Luke suggested. “Sleep for a few
hours.”
Heidi rubbed the bridge of her nose. The headache that had
begun building behind her temples an hour ago had expanded to full-blown agony.
“I’m fine.”
“Right. I forgot. You’re superwoman.”
“Super demon-kin, at any rate.” She tried for a light tone
to match his, but her comment came out sounding like a bitter, self-pitying
snarl.
He shot her a look from beneath blond eyelashes long enough
to scatter shadows over his high cheekbones. Golden hair fell in waves to his
shoulders, where it rested across the tight stretch of cotton molding itself to
his lean muscles.
“Hey.” Luke rested his hand on her bare knee. His thumb
nudged the hem of the skirt she’d bought from a wholesale department store on
one of the brief stops she’d allowed them, inching it higher up her leg. “I’ve
been around demons long enough to know one when I see one. You’re not a demon.”
She snorted, a decidedly un-ladylike sound. They’d had this
conversation half a dozen times in the past forty-eight hours. His theory
sounded as absurd now as it did when he’d first brought it up.
Fighting the urge to place her palm on top of his hand,
Heidi forced her gaze outside the window, where Roanoke Mountain stretched its
massive peak into the sky. The Acura curved around a bend, following the
ridgeline, rendering a spectacular view of massive mountain rock on either side
of the road.
They’d been driving almost continuously, pausing only for
fuel, food and brief bathroom breaks. Cities had given way to towns, which in
turn gave way to small country villages. Heidi had insisted they keep to the
outskirts of central locations, knowing they’d be harder to track that way. The
unfamiliar territory would give their pursuers pause. Slow them down a little.
Just long enough to afford Heidi and Luke an opportunity to stop for the bare
necessities before taking to the road again.
They couldn’t afford to stretch the brief breaks into
anything resembling true comfort. No matter how desperately she longed for a
warm bath or a full night’s rest, those luxuries would simply have to wait.
Besides, it wasn’t as though Heidi could have slept anyway.
Every time she closed her eyes and allowed herself to relax into a moment’s
worth of slumber, she
felt
the creatures that stalked them.
Demons, born of Hell’s fiery chasms, pursued Heidi and Luke
at their master’s command. The Devil himself had imbued them with the fervid
strength of the Underworld. The demons didn’t need to stop for food. They
didn’t fall into oblivion to allow their bodies to recuperate after a long
day’s hunt.
They simply kept coming -- and coming -- until they caught
their prey. And the closer they got, the hotter Heidi’s skin blazed. The part
of her that was half-demon called to them, begging the beasts to catch her.
Darkness closed in with every inch the demons gained on them. It taunted her,
wrapped around her heart and squeezed, reminding her what it had felt like to
be fully demonic, to have enough power in her little finger to level Roanoke
Mountain with a flick of her wrist.
Or to destroy the two men she loved the most.
“Then what am I, Luke?” she whispered, so softly she wasn’t
sure he could even hear her. “I’m sure as hell not human anymore.”
He traced a circle on her knee with his index finger,
sending a tiny shiver up her spine. She ignored that, too, and clenched her
hands into fists on either side of the passenger’s seat.
“I told you, when we were…” He swallowed hard, and guilt
snaked its way into her gut. He hated giving voice to the horrors he’d
experienced in captivity.
She knew she shouldn’t push him, but the dark, evil part of
her urged her on. “In Hell.”
Luke kept his gaze fixed on the windshield and guided the
car effortlessly down the winding road, but she could see the tension
tightening his shoulders. “Right.” He cleared his throat and inched her skirt
higher up her leg. His thumb trailed a path across the inside of her thigh,
slow and deliberate. “I told you then you were unlike anyone I’ve ever met. I
meant it. Not human, maybe. But not a demon, either. What you are doesn’t make
you evil. Not on its own.”
“You’re wrong,” she murmured, tucking a stray curl behind
her ear. “Varin’s still there because --”
Luke’s hand darted up in a lightning-fast move. He cupped
her pussy, pressing the heel of his palm against her clit through her panties.
A jolt of pure pleasure skimmed across her skin.
“Have you forgotten so quickly? Or do you choose not to
remember what Varin did for you? For both of us?”
Heat emanated from Luke’s palm, enveloping Heidi’s cunt in
waves of scorching energy. It seemed to penetrate the thin barrier of her
panties and make its way inside her, pushing, throbbing, insistent. She
squirmed against the car seat as wetness dripped between her folds.
“I haven’t --”
“Really?” Luke’s fingers nudged her nether lips apart. He
pressed down, rubbing her moisture against the fabric of her panties. The
friction caused another shiver of sensation to slip and slide against the
sensitive skin of her pussy. “Because you sure don’t act like you remember.
Varin sacrificed himself for us. He did what he did because he felt he had to.
He’s redeemed himself, though not in the way he’d thought it would happen.”
Heidi’s gaze darted to Luke’s profile. Though he drove with
one hand, the car remained steady on the deserted stretch of road. His lips had
flattened into a thin line, and she suddenly realized how thoroughly exhausted
he looked.
She didn’t have to ask him what he meant. Varin and Luke had
shared a cell in the depths of Hell. Two people didn’t get much more intimate
than that.
Luke had told her all he knew about Varin’s past, which
didn’t amount to much. Still, it had been enough to help Heidi understand that
Varin was instrumental in finding a way to bring souls across the divide
between worlds… souls that shouldn’t have been there.
The denizens of Hell called those souls the Forgotten. In
every way that mattered, they truly were. Not dead, yet not alive once they
crossed over, people who had been leading perfectly ordinary lives were
snatched and brought to the Underworld to serve as Baal’s personal prisoners
for all of eternity. Once shrouded by the veils separating Hell from Earth,
they were beyond reach. No one could help them. No one knew how.
At one time, Luke was one of the Forgotten and Heidi had
been willing to risk everything to save him. All would have gone according to
plan if a demon determined to redeem himself in the eyes of his master hadn’t
come along for the ride.
A demon who, in an unheard-of act of self-sacrifice, had
shared his demonic powers with her. And who only two days earlier had condemned
himself to an eternity of unimaginable torture to save Heidi and Luke from the
same fate.
A demon she’d fallen in love with.
“I remember.” Her voice sounded husky, different. She closed
her eyes, picturing Varin’s fiercely determined face and those bottomless black
eyes that seemed to see right through her. She licked her suddenly dry lips. “I
just wish I could have told him…”
Luke’s thumb traced a slow, sensual line down her slit. Her
pussy trembled under his attention, cream seeping from her core to drench the
fabric of her panties. The scent of her arousal permeated the stale,
re-circulated air in the car.
“He knows.”
She blinked her eyes open, wanting to believe him but not
quite daring to do so. While she’d been in Hell, she’d nearly burned both men
alive with nothing more than a few muttered words. She’d come close to
destroying them.
Too fucking close
.
No, there was no way Luke could convince her she wasn’t a
demon. She knew what kind of blood ran through her veins. What kind of thoughts
chased sweet, delectable fantasies of lovemaking from her mind.
Yet Varin was a demon, too. If he had the kind of
self-sacrifice he’d demonstrated within him, and her abilities had blossomed
from his own, couldn’t Luke be right?
Perhaps her demonic DNA alone didn’t make her evil. Maybe
there was something else -- something wicked within
her
alone -- that
made her the way she was.
That thought sent a sudden, violent shiver down her spine.
Her body jerked and trembled, thrusting her mound forward to grind against
Luke’s hand. The car swerved slightly, the tires squealing against the
pavement.
Heidi’s breathing quickened. “Watch the road, Luke.”
“I’m great at multi-tasking.” To prove it, he straightened
the steering wheel and flicked the tip of his index finger across the sensitive
hood of her clit.
Heidi bit back a moan. She narrowed her eyes, fixing him
with an assessing stare. She’d been so focused on running from the demons that
chased them, and so preoccupied with dark thoughts of Varin, that she hadn’t
allowed herself to indulge in more than a brief, relieved hug with Luke in an
empty parking lot.
Now, having his hand on the most intimate part of her
awakened sensations she’d replaced with adrenaline, fear, anger and despair.
She had to admit, it felt good to let that brief distraction nudge her black
musings toward something more pleasurable.
Only for a little while. Luke needs this
.
Right. Like she didn’t.
A smile tilted the corners of her mouth. It felt foreign,
but she allowed it to stretch into a full-fledged naughty grin. “Oh yeah?” Her
hand darted across the console, her wrist skimming his flesh before she slipped
her fingers into his waistband and tugged the snap of his jeans open. “Prove
it.”
He wasn’t nearly as good at concealing his emotions as she
was. A low, guttural groan ripped from his throat. Encouraged, Heidi slid his
zipper down, the sound of the metal teeth unfastening echoing impossibly loud
in the small confines of the car.
Not to be outdone, Luke played with her swollen clit. He
still hadn’t nudged her panties out of the way, and the barrier between her
flesh and his added another level of excitement to everything she felt.
A heartbeat later, she’d tugged his hard cock through the
slit in his tight briefs . A drop of pre-cum shone brightly at the tip. Heidi
traced the tiny opening with her thumb, massaging the creamy liquid into the
rose-tipped skin of his cockhead.
“See? Car’s fine. We’re fine. Nothing to it.”
Heidi heard the challenge in his voice, the hoarse
breathlessness of his tone. She couldn’t resist the chuckle that slid past her
lips. Nor could she say no to a dare like that.
She pivoted slightly to turn toward him and wiggled her
brows, even knowing he probably wouldn’t be able to see the motion since his
gaze remained focused on the road. “Oh yeah?”
“Yeah.” He skimmed his fingers into the crease where her
right leg met her groin, then circled the top of her mound to press lightly on
her clit again. He hadn’t even touched her needy entrance, but her pussy
already spasmed and pulsed, practically begging to be filled.
“We’ll see.”
Before Luke could reply, Heidi unbuckled her seatbelt and
pitched forward across his thighs. In a flash, she took the length of his cock
into her mouth, sucking the stiff shaft, swirling her tongue across the
underside of the solid length.
“Oh, fuck!”
The hand that had been embedded between Heidi’s legs jerked
up to grip her head. She felt the car swerve and had a brief image of the
little Acura tumbling over the side of the ridge. Her heart thudded wildly as
Luke regained his focus and straightened the wheels, but her mouth never
stopped moving.
He wrapped his fingers in her hair, guiding her head ever so
slightly with the slow pump of his fist. She gave in to his unspoken commands,
letting her lips obey the rhythm he set.
The tip of his cock settled on the back of her tongue, hot
and heavy. It seemed to throb and pulse with inner heat, and she wrapped her
lips around the base of the turgid organ, sucking hard enough so her cheeks
hollowed in.
Luke’s thighs trembled. His hips moved in a small circle,
matching the rhythm of her mouth on his sex. The steering wheel nudged the back
of her neck, but she didn’t care.
It wasn’t until he slipped his fingers between her legs
again -- and she realized he still hadn’t let go of her hair -- that she
noticed the car had come to a stop. The motor continued to vibrate, softer now,
a mere purr that accompanied the slurping sounds of Heidi’s mouth and Luke’s
heady groans.
She hummed, a steady vibration coming from the back of her
throat. Luke cried out and tore her panties, shredding the material as he
forced them away from her weeping cunt.