The Fallen King: The Bellum Sisters 4 (paranormal erotic romance) (7 page)

“Let me get this straight, if I
help you kill some woman I don’t know then you’ll return me to my mother?”

“Yes.”

“I’d sooner believe I could throw
you through this wall than a bunch of horseshit like that.”

Alrik tensed. He needed her to
believe him or this would never work. Standing tall, he stepped into her,
backing her into the wall. Her chest flattened against his and he stifled a
groan. Quite full breasts indeed.

Her gaze darted anywhere but at
his face, but he stared down at her until finally, without a choice, she lifted
her chin and met his stare.

“I do not lie.”
Lie.
“You
do this with me and I’ll protect you every step of the way.”
Truth.
He
needed her alive. “After the deed is done, I’ll return you to the earthen-realm
and you’ll never hear from me again.”
Partial-truth.
She’d never make it
back to the earthen-realm.

He tried to read her eyes—
did
she buy it?—
but they revealed nothing other than a stony stare.

“Get away from me,” she said. Did
his ears betray him or was that a tremble in her voice? His chest expanded and
his gaze fell to her mouth. Her lips looked soft, welcoming. A soft sound
caressed his ears…a hitch in her breath. A hot knot formed in his chest and
shot down to his cock at the sound. Those shapely and pouty lips beckoned a man
like a sin.

Before he did something to hurt
his cause, he stepped back and took his seat by his weapons.

Picking up his whet stone, he scraped
it hard across his blade. For the millionth time he wished things were
different, that
he
was different, but he couldn’t change what was.
Couldn’t change who he’d become. But he could kill his mother and hopefully
right some past wrongs.

With an edge to his voice he
said, “You will help me or I’ll slit your mother’s throat before your eyes.
I’ll force you to help me anyway and kill you after the deed is done. You have
your choices, now decide.”

The human pressed a hand over her
heart. The pained expression on her face hit him strangely in the chest. For
some reason the look didn’t fill him with a rush; instead, strangely, guilt ate
at him. He didn’t have time to study the emotion he hadn’t felt in so long
because he ruthlessly shoved it away.

The human straightened her spine,
lifted her chin, and stared down at him with a loathing he welcomed over guilt.
“I’ll do it.”

“Good choice.”

In a flash, the look on her face
changed. Her arms flattened to her sides, fingers spreading open to the earth.
He had only a moment to feel the magic swirl around him before he felt
invisible binds wrapping around his body, locking him into place in less than a
matter of seconds. Under different circumstances, he might have been overjoyed
to see her magic skills used so well. She didn’t even need to speak a spell to
cast magic, but he wasn’t overjoyed now.

His eyes flashed to hers and
found her light green eyes shining bright like a light in the cave. The binds
twisted tighter around him, binding his legs together, his arms to his side,
snaking around his chest and squeezing just enough to make it difficult to
breathe.

“Stop this, witch,” he warned,
his own eyes beginning to glow.

Her body relaxed and she stumbled
backwards hitting the wall. She winced, then ran up to him. He sucked in
shallow breaths through the invisible binds as he brought forth his own magic.
He started chanting the words to break the binds as she picked up one of his
swords. She started to lift it but she’d underestimated how heavy demon steel
was and dropped it back in the sand before taking off on a sprint.

The last of his spell left him
and the binds loosened the magic around him. “Abbigail!” he roared.

He surged to his feet with blazing
fury roaring through his veins as he charged after her.

Chapter Six

Water engulfed her. Her mouth
filled with it and she swallowed the fresh, cold liquid. The frigid temperature
slowed her movements but still she slugged through it and thrust her arms
through the water, kicking her legs until her muscles burned. Finally, she saw
light above her and shot towards it. She burst to the surface and sucked in a
breath of air. Her heart raced and she quickened her movements, paddling
swiftly to the surface.

Her feet sank into sand as she
stood and, without time to take in her surroundings, she rushed into the
forest. It looked strange. The leaves too green, the flowers too pink and red
on the buds. Not a tree she’d ever seen before. Aside from the gray and pinkish
swirl of the hazy sky above her, the forest looked familiar and she stuck to
it, her lungs burning with every breath she took.

She raced through the forest. He
had magic skills she’d never witnessed before. Hell, the fact that she’d been
able to bind him when she hadn’t used magic in years surprised the hell out of
her. She’d just been so mad, so desperate to get away from the demon that some
deep-seated magic had come forth.

It didn’t take long for her gait
to slow and her muscles to burn. She didn’t run much. In fact, never. Her lungs
felt like they were on fire but she couldn’t risk stopping to catch her breath.
She could almost feel him right behind her.

The demon was insane. Straight up
fell-way-off-the-tree crazy. How did he find her? Why her? Why did his mother curse
him? These questions roared in her head with the need for answers.

The forest broke and she stopped,
her gaze swinging behind her searching for a dark, deadly man. Maybe his magic
wasn’t as good as she thought because he was nowhere in sight. Good, really
good. She took in the scene in front of her. The strangeness of it was enough
to make her want to stick to the forest but it didn’t seem very big or like the
best choice right now. In front of her was rocky, dirt-laden land. Two crumbled
stone buildings looking ages old reminded her of an ancient battlefield. What
she didn’t find was anything that looked like a city or town and no people.

A sound made her freeze and flatten
her back against the tree. She strained, pressing her lips together and breathed
as quietly as she could through her nose as she listened. There it was again.
The whoosh of leaves being brushed. He was closing in on her!

Without a second thought, she
took off on a sprint for the stone building where a small rocky hill led up to
it. The incline was too steep to run up so she went on hands and feet and
crawled up, kicking up chalky rocks and sending them tumbling down behind her.
She winced at the noise she made but continued.

Breathing hard she made it to the
top. Her energy waned fast and she found it took her longer to stand up and run
for the temple than she wanted. She made it and breathed a sigh of relief as
she darted inside. With her back to the cold stone, she tried to collect her
wild thoughts. The ceiling of the temple had caved in on one corner, and the
inside was empty save for the stone floor.

“Abbigail!” the wild demon
roared.

She squeaked then slapped her
hand over her mouth to stifle the noise hoping like hell that she wasn’t too
late. God he sounded close.

He yelled her name again, this
time sounding farther away and off to the left. Her eyes shot wide at her one
chance. He’d check in here for sure. Hell, she knew she would if their roles
were reversed. She spotted her next goal out of the crooked opening of the
temple and saw a fierce mountain in the distance. It looked unused and old. Trees
and foliage grew thickly up to the white peak. She didn’t need to go up it;
maybe if she could get to the base she could trek around it until she lost him.
The forest looked thick enough that she might be able to lose him.

“Abbigail!” His voice came back,
closer to the temple.

This was her chance.

She tore out of the opening, her
feet slapping against the dirt and rocks. She didn’t turn back to see if he saw
her, just kept her eyes on the mountain and mentally calculated the distance. A
couple hundred yards at least. The land wasn’t flat but lifted and dipped in
waves. Eyes wide, more scared than she’d ever been, even when the demon had
come to her house, she let her instincts burst inside her, and flat-out ran.

The mountain came closer and
closer, getting bigger as she neared. The heavy, thick tree line surrounding it
beckoned her with welcome arms. Something flashed in the trees. She kept
running. An animal. A stroke of fear went down her spine but still she ran
straight towards it.

A distinct sound came from behind
her. Her heartbeat pounded like drums in her ears as she pushed her body
harder. He’d spotted her and his heavy steps were coming right after her.

Another flash of movement darted in
the forest. She had no clue what kind of wild animals lived in the nether-realm
where a
variety of demons resided, but none could be as
bad as the demon after her. None of them had threatened to kill her mother.

She smiled with joy. Less than
fifty yards—nearly there. She’d make it. She heard him calling her name, his
heavy steps beating the rocks. After she got a safe way in the forest she’d
turn and look back, but not now.

Movement flashed again in the
forest. Something shorter than her. That’s all she got to see before it
disappeared behind a mass of wide tree trunks. She neared the forest but never
got to enter it.

A creature stepped out and she
dug her feet into the ground to stop. A scream curled up in her throat but
never escaped. Something nasty and very scared uncurled inside her. This thing
would kill her without blinking, she just knew it.

It looked like something out of a
nightmare. Evil yellow eyes with red spider web veins glared at her. Its bony
body looked undernourished with knobby knees, elbows, and knuckles with extra-long
fingers sporting a set of black hooded claws worthy of a bear. Surrounding its
bony body was a layer of hard looking muscle. Its greenish skin looked leathery
and rough to touch. Black claws stuck out sharp looking from its fingertips.
The creature peeled its blackish lips back and hissed, bearing rows of sharp
pointy yellow teeth.

She’d heard about other demonic
creatures in the rift. Evil, horrible ones that feasted off living flesh, whose
poison could kill within minutes. Was she staring at one of these creatures?

Abby started walking backwards.
Her hammering heart pounded recklessly as the creature took a step towards her
and didn’t stop. She wanted to turn and flee but couldn’t give this strange,
hairless creature her back. It had green skin and was short probably not even
five-feet tall yet its small size didn’t ease any of her fear.

Its jaw snapped open wide like a
snake’s mouth detaching its jaw to eat a large prey, then a horrible ear-piercing
cry split the air. Abby couldn’t fight her instincts anymore. She turned and
ran—straight into the arms of the crazy demon.

“Stay back!” he demanded.

Finally, an order she could
comply with. He thrust her away and she toppled backwards landing hard on her
butt. Half scooting backwards on her butt, she watched as the demon lifted his
arms over his head and unsheathed the two swords from his back.

The creature’s eyes swung to the
tall, dark demon, then sprang jumping the clear twenty feet that separated them
as if he had bounced off a trampoline. The demon didn’t move. Abbigail watched
wide-eyed as time slowed. The demon’s teeth bared, its claws spread open ready
to slash as it fell towards the king with a nasty cry. And yet he never moved.

Abby crushed handfuls of dirt in
her hands. Her muscles tensed as the creature neared the demon. “Watch out!”
she screamed. She didn’t know why she’d decide to help the demon now but she
couldn’t take back her scream.

She didn’t need to say anything
apparently because as the creature nearly landed on the demon, he slashed his
swords in a cross pattern. The creature howled in agony and goopy green blood
spurted from its body. It dropped almost neatly at the demon’s feat, twitching
as it died.

Abby couldn’t catch her breath.
She knew she was shaking but couldn’t do anything about that either. The demon
stepped over the creature, and then turned so he faced her. With a cold, hard
look in his eyes, he lifted his sword then swung it down in an arc.

Abby screamed as the creature’s
head flew from its body, severed.

She couldn’t catch her breath.
Her heart wouldn’t slow down. She was breathing too fast and she knew it. All
she could do was watch as the demon strode towards her, sheathing his blades
with practiced ease. He stopped in front of her with an expression she could
only describe as enraged. His hands hung at his sides, curled into tight fists.

“This land is dangerous and
you’re not going anywhere. You need me,” he said.

She agreed, but she couldn’t form
any words. He studied her, a slow frown forming at his rather nice looking
mouth.

“Breathe slowly, Abbigail.”

She shook her head hard. No, she
couldn’t. Her breaths came too fast and shallow. She knew a panic attack
gripped her. She’d had them before. The most embarrassing of which happened
during her first real crime scene.