bedeviled & beyond 01 - bedeviled & beguiled (25 page)

As the guard left, locking the door behind him, I realized with a jolt of dismay that the room appeared to have been created more for carnal purposes than for violence. The realization created a cold, hard knot in the pit of my stomach. Unbidden, a picture formed in my mind of Nerul’s little “ceremony” in the blood soaked cave. I shuddered. With Nerul and his merry band of blood-inspired sexual predators around, I’d much rather deal with violence than things of the flesh.

Not that I was going to be given the choice.

Pacing the room, I struggled to come up with a way out of my predicament. I’d gotten myself out of equally tricky situations...I just had to think, think, think. Unfortunately, I wasn’t going to be given time to noodle a way out of my predicament just at that moment. I heard the bolt turn on the door and watched it slam back against the rock wall. Standing in the doorway was my worst nightmare.

No, it wasn’t a slavering demon or a slobbering gargoyle. It wasn’t even a naked devil carrying a human hair throw rug. It was the lovely and cruelly malicious Princess Rayanne, bearing wispy clothing, which I presumed was for me.

She stalked into the room and threw the little nothing of an outfit onto the bed. “We meet again, halfling Astra and it seems that, as usual, you are causing more problems than you are worth.”

I squared my stance and looked her in the eye in what I hoped was my scariest, bad-ass bitch look. She didn’t even have to look at her hand of cards, she called me and raised me five thousand goose bumps with her scariest, you’re a pipsqueak in my world look. She won. She was right. However, it didn’t keep me from trying to look like I could kick her ass.

“I’m surprised to see you here Princess Cold Freeze.” Which was, of course, an understatement of gargantuan proportions. What the hell was she doing in the bowels of Nerul’s court? Why wasn’t she at home playing footsy with my darling devil Dialle? What was this, a cosmic case of two-timing? Was she making the ultimate sacrifice and playing spy for my gorgeous devil? Or was she simply cuckolding my cutie? Twanging two instruments? Working both sides of a one-way street? Huh? Enough? Okay.

She laughed and narrowed her eyes at me. My knees buckled and I hit the floor hard. My head bounced off the soft carpet and I bit my tongue, experiencing the copper taste of my own precious blood. Shit.

Rayanne glided across the room to stand over me, like an aggressive dog trying to prove its dominance. She smiled in a not so nice way and kicked me with a dainty foot that was encased in a cream-colored ballet slipper. “You are nothing. You are a puny, powerless nuisance. I rue the day I saw your plain, unexceptional face. If I had my way you’d be dead.”

Pulling myself to my feet, I leaned on the bed for support. I looked her in the eye again. If I couldn’t kick her ass, at least I could piss her off with my staying power. “But apparently you aren’t going to get your way are you, Evil Barbie? You aren’t in control here any more than I am.”

Whomp. I was on the floor again, with the added fun of a, blistering jolt of electricity for good measure. As the power slashed its way through my body, I tried to remain calm. It wasn’t easy with every muscle in my body jerking in constant, gut-wrenching spasms.

Just when I thought I would die for sure, she stopped. The power left my body and slowly my muscles started to relax. I just lay there, trying not to breathe too deeply for fear it would hurt. I hated to show weakness, but at the moment I didn’t have much choice. She’d really taken something out of me with that one.

Stepping away from me with a satisfied chuckle, Rayanne pointed to the wispy little nothing on the bed and gave my poor, battered body another kick. “Put that on. You will be entertaining...or should I say, the entertainment...later.” With that ominous news she glided out of the room, still laughing.

I continued to lie there for a few more minutes, savoring the temporary peace. Eventually I’d have to get up and fight my way out of there, but somehow it seemed like too much to ask right at the moment. I risked a couple of deep breaths and lay there trying to think.

So far I hadn’t tried to use any powers. Somehow I’d just been too busy to attempt it. But I figured it was time to try. Lying very still, I closed my eyes and tried to pull the forces within me into focus. With a monumental effort of will I felt a tiny spark and then...nothing. I tried again with much the same result. Something was blocking my powers.

I pushed myself to my feet and went to the door. Even before I touched it I knew it had been enchanted with some kind of restraining spell. I could almost feel the vibrations it was giving off. As my hand touched its rough wooden surface it felt like one thousand volts of electricity hitting me right in the gut. Sparks flew, scorching my palm and I was flung several feet from the door. I hit the floor so hard I bounced.

The door started to open again and, despite my recent attempts to escape through that very door, I found myself scooting backward toward the bed.

Nothing good was gonna come through that damn door.

To flavor my trepidation, the evil Barbie’s last words were still reverberating through my head. Whatever was about to come at me, I was pretty sure I didn’t want to “entertain” it, or anything else in that place.

Which was why the figure that stepped into the room so shocked me. I sat on the floor, my fluffy, pink nightgown bunched around my butt and my mouth hanging open as if I hadn’t a firm thought in my head. My eyes stretched with surprise and something that felt suspiciously like awe.

He was tall and beautiful and somehow...ethereal. He stood there, looking down at me with the palest of blue eyes, which somehow managed to tell me a story of the pain he’d endured, while at the same time offering reassurance that was like a soothing balm to my tattered nerves.

He stood just inside the door, his long, pale hands crossed in front of him and his shoulders slightly sloped, as if he were trying to appear less menacing. He favored me with a sad, beautiful smile. “Princess Astra. We meet at last. I fear it is all but too late now to save either of us. But despite that...” He offered the sad smile again. “—I am happy to make your acquaintance.”

I gulped and tried to speak but my throat closed around the words like a vise. Clearing my throat I swallowed hard, trying to force spit past the clench in my vocal chords. Finally I managed to croak out his name...though it seemed an inadequate response under the circumstances. “Prince Nille...”

Nerul sauntered into the room behind Nille. I fought the urge to shiver. It occurred to me that Nerul brought cold, crypt-like air with him wherever he went, like a cologne.

Eau de death.

I scrambled to my feet and Prince Nille moved between his father and me. To my extreme surprise the beautiful prince appeared to be trying to shield me from Nerul. Then the three of us shared a serious soap opera moment.

You know what I’m talking about. You’ve seen the holographic special about ancient human daytime television. You know, those shows where the television actors all stopped just before the commercial break and looked around the room at each other meaningfully...nobody saying anything with their lips but everyone contorting their expressions comically to speak volumes about what they were thinking and feeling. Once grimace is worth a thousand words...that kind of thing.

Well that’s what the three of us did in that room. We all just stood there, glancing meaningfully back and forth, building the drama of the moment beautifully if somebody had wanted to grab a holographic camera and put it on record. Unfortunately, the dramatic moment didn’t do a damn thing about getting me out of the predicament I found myself in. And the commercial never came to release us from the silly moment. But events did conspire to move the show along.

So suddenly that my eyes almost couldn’t register it, Nerul moved a hand and Prince Nille burst into flame before my very eyes. Nille’s expressions after that would have thrilled fans of the ancient soap opera. Unfortunately they were precipitated by genuine and extreme pain.

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

Stop, Drop and Let’s roll

The maiden watched the princely form, consumed by Hades fire,

Although she doused him with her tears, much more did he require.

I screamed and jumped back as the flames danced outward and seared the hair on my arms. Ridiculously, the words stop, drop and roll scrolled across my brain, a warning I’d heard about a thousand times in school days.

As I watched the tender young Prince writhe in agony in his coat of fire, I found myself unwilling or unable to rush to help. My cowardly feet refused to move. It was almost as if I were being held there by some outside force. But then my eyes were pulled to his and what I saw there terrified me.

His face was contorted in silent agony. The air around his head popped and throbbed to about the level of his chin, but somehow the fire didn’t touch his face, it danced around his torso with heat and flame, melting his delicate white skin as if it was made of tissue paper. Above the horror that was his flaming body, his gaze reached out to me like a physical force, drawing me forward. From somewhere in the depths of the pale blue orbs, a light began to glow and throb, even as the fire consumed his body.

I didn’t want to move into the fire. Every fiber in my body railed against it. But despite that, my hand began to reach toward him. As I moved to touch him, he gathered together what must have been a monumental effort of will and lifted his flame-encased arm in my direction. Our fingertips touched. For just the barest flicker of time, the flame shot down his arm and ran up mine. Before I could even scream or flinch away it was gone and a cool, healing wind ran across the reddened flesh, taking away the sting and leaving the flesh numb behind it. My smoking sleeve was the only remaining evidence of the flash fire that had touched my arm.

That was when I heard Dialle. His words came to me broken and uneven, as if they were being subjected to outside interference. I could feel his presence though, like a warm blanket that wrapped me in its protective layers and held me away from the Hell that awaited me within a fingertips touch. Dialle’s delicious scent surrounded me. Emotionally, I reached out to him before I even realized what I was doing. Then I reigned myself in and pushed him away.

The teardrop on my neck started to throb and my power flared. Without my conscious direction, power surged into my arm and flowed toward Prince Nille. It entered him through the channel formed by our touching fingers. Our gazes never parted as my power bathed his smoldering flesh. With a noticeable twitch of surprise, he accepted the power, allowing it to mingle with his own.

Before my amazed eyes the flame began to die and the room grew cool again. Nille reached out and pulled me into his body, his riveting blue gaze never leaving my own. He let out a sigh as our bodies pressed together. His flesh quivered against mine as it regenerated. I kept my eyes on his because I was terrified of what I would see if I looked away. The smell of old fire filled my nostrils, but I couldn’t smell burnt flesh.

Expectancy lay on the room like a sour odor. After a long, uncomfortably silent moment, I tried to pull away and found I couldn’t. Although Nille wasn’t holding me there, something was. Like an invisible chord, our shared magic had bound us, both physically and emotionally. My initial inclination was to fight it, but the feeling was peaceful and pleasant. Not at all sexual as it had been with Dialle.

Prince Nille placed his hands on my shoulders and rested his head on top of mine. My power waned as he held me and I had a sudden, irrational fear that it would give way before Nille was done with it. But as my magic leaked away, another power surged up to take its place and I sensed Dialle’s presence again. Nille tensed as Dialle’s power joined us. He raised his head and looked down at me, his gaze an unspoken question.

That was when it finally hit me. I knew what had been bothering me about Prince Nille. It was something I’d read in those books I’d gotten from the Angel Council. It had seemed an unimportant thing at the time. And not entirely real. But, in that moment, I realized it was extremely important and I suddenly knew what everything meant. It all made sense.

I tore my gaze away from Prince Nille’s and met his father’s cold, midnight eyes. I was only a little startled to find the Evil Rayanne smashed tightly against him, her arms and one leg twined possessively around him. I didn’t care that she was there. Somehow it seemed fitting.

“He’s the long awaited devil. That’s what this is all about isn’t it?”

Nerul smiled and turned to Rayanne. “I told you she’s smarter than she looks, my love.”

Rayanne’s smile was a tortured twisting of lips that were compressed with distaste. “She’d have to be, my King, or she couldn’t manage even the most mundane tasks.”

Nerul laughed. The sound was rich and sexy and made me want to smash in his gorgeous face.

I took a step toward the malevolent duo but Nille stopped me with a fully-regenerated hand, on my arm. “Do not force their hand, Astra. Though you suit their purposes, they will not hesitate to kill you.”

“You speak wisely my son, as always.” Nerul gave Prince Nille a tight smile and a nearly imperceptible bow. “Now we will leave you both to your preparations. Tonight’s ceremonies will not be delayed. I feel the need for urgency in this.”

Rayanne pushed her arm through Nerul’s and they left, taking a good portion of the room’s chill with them. Before the door closed behind them, I saw two guards step into place in front of it.

I looked at Nille and he smiled softly. “I am sorry you have been dragged into this. I much preferred it when I was mourning only my fate.”

I turned to him and frowned. “What exactly do they have in mind for tonight?”

He looked me straight in the eye and gave me the bad news. “You will be sacrificed in a ceremony to transfer my power to my father.”

“Shit.”

One, dark eyebrow peaked. “Indeed. Unfortunately, I share your fate. In order for the ceremony to work, we’ll both have to be killed as we consummate our betrothal.”