bedeviled & beyond 02 - bedeviled & bedazzled (2 page)

Gerch bowed almost in half. “As my king commands.” He left, pulling the vast, golden doors closed silently behind him.

The king turned to us. “I’ll make this as brief as possible. The demons have sent word that they intend to break loyalty with us and become an independent court. They have promised to take drastic action if we don’t meet with them to form an agreement. I have no intention of doing so.”

I looked at my Dialle. He didn’t look surprised. “But their king was just killed by Prince Nille. How could they have organized a revolt so quickly?” I asked.

King Dialle snorted. “This plan has been in motion for some time. King Abrine will not even be missed. His brother has been scheming his demise for centuries. Nille and Nerul only gave him the method of murdering his brother.” He stood and walked to the wall of windows again, resuming the exact stance he’d held when we’d entered the room. “Abrine was, at heart, a coward. Over the centuries I have been very successful holding him and his aspirations at bay. King Alcott will be an entirely different matter.” The king turned around, his black gaze sliding to his son. “I need you to go to Alcott. I must know what he plans. I want you and the lovely Astra to keep an eye on the demons and keep me informed. We’ll simply head them off before they can do anything.”

My Dialle studied his father for a minute without responding. It was clear by his hesitation that he wanted to speak out against the plan. I made a mental note to ask him what he thought of the situation and his father’s handling of it later. Until then, I had to ask, “Why don’t you just let them go? Why fight the inevitable?”

The king turned to me and, although his gorgeous face showed no emotion at all, I could tell by the way he held himself that he wasn’t wild about my question, or me for asking it. “You will learn our ways in time, Astra. Try, in the meantime, to hide your ignorance more carefully. A beautiful face and an empty mind create a vessel that can be filled with only one activity.” He smiled and the smile didn’t take me to a happy place. “I doubt you would welcome the activity I refer to.” He turned to my Dialle. “There is one further complication.”

My Dialle, still frowning over his father’s insult to me, didn’t seem to hear the king. He was looking at me with concern, most likely afraid that I would open my big mouth and get myself into trouble. I smiled. Although I was known to throw caution to the wind and jump butt first into a conflagration when my temper got the best of me, I wasn’t a complete drooling idiot. I initiated a field trip into his mental drawers and told him,
I’ll get even later, when he’s not expecting it and can’t retaliate.

He smiled, lifting one of my hands and kissing it. Where his lips touched my skin, a warm, tingly spot remained.
I would expect nothing less from you.

Shivering with delight from the kiss, my body melted into his without first asking permission from my brain.

We both jumped as the king roared, “Attend Me!”

His voice boomed through the cavernous room, rattling windows and vibrating walls. I could almost hear the commotion and conversation outside the heavy, gold doors stop as the soldiers and hopeful queens-to-be jolted to shocked silence.

My Dialle pushed me ever so subtly behind him as the temperature in the room rose to about one hundred and thirty degrees and the divan behind us burst into flame. He gave a small bow and said, “I beg your forgiveness for my inattentiveness, my king. I am distracted continually by my lust for this creature.”

Oh great, blame me!
I thought at him fiercely.

I don’t think he’ll set you afire just because I lust after you, Astra.

You DON’T THINK!

Just trust me. And DO NOT open your sweet lips to speak.

Gradually the king regained his composure and the temperature in the room dropped back to almost normal. With a wave of his hand, the king extinguished the burning couch. The elegant piece of furniture was still pristine, its surface unharmed.

Nifty trick. I added it to the list of things I wanted Dialle to teach me.

The king sat back down behind his onyx desk and we gave him our full attention.

“It appears the witches have some role in the demon’s revolt. I suspect the Supreme High Witch wants a place at the table when we gather for the dark world caucus next month. She has been showing signs of trying to develop her own court and my scouts have informed me that she has expressed an intention to demand equal standing with the kings.”

My devil perked up, his brows lowering with anger. “That’s preposterous!”

The king nodded, “Of course. And while I admire ambition,” he looked at me and smiled as if he and I shared a secret, “especially in one as lovely as the Supreme High Witch, I expect each member of the dark world caucus to know his place.” He stood and came around the enormous desk, approaching us.

That was the last thing I was sure of before my world turned upside down, with me at the bottom.

One moment he was walking toward us and the next I was laying on the previously fiery divan with him covering me. Certain parts of his devilish anatomy were digging into my body. I struggled to see my Dialle but he appeared to have been “extinguished” from the room like the earlier flames.

The king stared down into my eyes as I struggled ineffectually against his body’s invasion. “Get off me!”

He laughed and lowered incredibly sexy lips toward mine. In desperation I tried to shove him away but my arms felt like heavy rubber and I could barely lift them let alone push him away. “I’m warning you, I bite!”

“Promises, promises lovely halfling.” His lips lowered to within an inch of mine.

“I have lots of diseases.” I was having trouble breathing in the scorched air that he was creating. Against my will, my body was reacting to his and I had to concentrate hard to stay strong against his advances.

“I have immunity to all of them.” His lips found mine and I was suddenly way too close to his velvet gaze. They were not regular, black eyes. The irises pulsed and swirled with red and silver streams that formed patterns and whirlpools as I looked into them. It was an uncomfortably hypnotic experience. I closed my eyes when I realized the swirls were making me dizzy and weak, but the feeling didn’t disperse.

Almost simultaneously I felt his hand on my breast and his teeth on my throat. Then, before I knew what was happening, my daemon hickey started throbbing and it sparked, causing the randy king to jerk back from my neck with a startled cry.

I used the sudden breathing space to pull rational thought back into my fuzzy head and quickly gathered my power together before he could settle himself back at my neck. Slamming my palms to his chest, I shot every ounce of power in my core into him and he flew backward, hitting the wall with a thud and a curse.

I didn’t wait around for his reaction.
Dialle, get me the Hades out of here!

A blink later I was back out in the hall and the three of us were running like the last circle of Hell was closing in on us. Dialle dragged me down the long hallway by the hand and Gerch followed, constantly looking over his shoulder with terror-filled eyes.

As we turned the first corner we heard something that sounded like an explosion, followed by screams of pain and frantic shouting. The last sound we heard before my Dialle whisked us out of there was the king’s voice pounding down the hall like a physical presence, vibrating the building with unrestrained rage. “This isn’t over, boy!”

My Dialle looked at me and shook his dark head. “I see you’ve managed to put yourself into a pickle again, Astra.”

“I didn’t put myself into a pickle, Dialle, the pickle put itself into me.”

I blinked, heat flooding my face as I realized what I’d said.

Laughing, Dialle pulled me into a kiss that made my socks smoke and the world stopped moving as he transported us away from a literal Hell on Earth.

CHAPTER TWO

Phantom Love

A phantom rides upon her thighs and leads her thoughts astray

But learning who the culprit is, must wait another day.

The Viper settled into its usual parking space with a whisper and hovered silently above the ground. “Exiting,” I said and the driver’s side door opened upward on a whoosh of air. I climbed out and headed for the flash lift in the center of the parking structure. The grey metal doors swung open as I approached and I entered the dimly-lit lift.

“Thirteenth floor,” I instructed the lift.

A tidal wave of sensual warmth rolled over me. The heat felt like thousands of tiny touches caressing my body, leaving behind row after row of goose bumps that made me shiver and tighten my thighs.

I closed my eyes, clenching my teeth, and rode the wave as the car sped upward, toward my office. The unexpected attacks had been happening all morning and I was starting to get worried. I couldn’t seem to control them and they came with no warning at all.

I was like a bitch gargoyle in mating heat.

As I neared my floor the wave started to dwindle. Just when I thought I was going to survive another one, my eyes jerked open and I gasped as the first ghostly touch pressed the heated spot where I throbbed and ached the most.

A jolt of pleasure shot through me, robbing me of breath. I almost went over the edge from just that one touch. My knees buckled, dropping me to the floor in a boneless sprawl.

I cried out as invisible fingers slid into my wetness and touched the core of my pleasure. At the same time moist heat settled over my lips and something hot and wet bathed both breasts. Helpless against the totality of the onslaught, I lay writhing on the filthy floor of the elevator, moaning as my ghostly lover ignited every pleasure center in my traitorous body.

The invisible fingers moved with a lover’s rhythm and I pressed my knees together as an explosion built around the ghostly touch. My hips flew off the floor and my knees jerked apart in mindless submission. My power sparked in response to my body’s explosive heat and I let it loose, hoping it could somehow save me. Instead of exploding away from me as I expected, the power wrapped around me like a blanket, pulling my spectral lover more tightly against my body and enhancing every feeling his ministrations had ignited.

Suddenly a different spectral part replaced the ghostly fingers and all rational thought went bye bye. My heated channel clamped hungrily onto the delicious invader, riding it toward a release that waited a heartbeat away.

My sexual core burned from the exquisite torture of the spectral ministrations, my power heightening the pleasure and pulling my spectral lover almost to the visible plane. My gaze locked onto the shadow of a delicious face. Black silk flowing around a masculine face with strong lines and the outline of a long, hard body. But the form faded away too fast, and my invisible lover’s ministrations increased, driving all thought of physical form from my mind.

I climbed higher and closer to that peak, my mind begging my hidden lover not to stop...to let me reach that elusive peak that was oh so close but still just out of reach. The rational part of my brain knew something wasn’t right, but it was being beaten down by the pleasure seeking slut-monkey of my emotional side and I rode the cavalcade of intense feelings with only a tiny feeling of latent guilt. The whole thing felt entirely too good to be bad. Didn’t it?

A moment later, a scream exploding from my throat, I finally tumbled over that elusive climax. The release turned my muscles to iron for several seconds, before finally subsiding into a pleasant feeling of warmth and a gentle throbbing.

I lay limp and panting on the floor of the lift until I remembered where I was. As the doors slid open my ghost lover bent over me one last time. Soft lips touched my ear and words whispered against my sensitive skin,
Until later, lovely Astra
. And then he was gone. The fog in my brain filtered slowly away as the elevator doors slid to full open position.

It took me a few seconds to realize that I was looking up into a couple of worried gazes. Two of the other tenants in the building were standing in the hallway, looking down at me sprawled on the filthy floor.

I started to push myself up and, looking down, realized that at least I was still fully dressed, if a bit rumpled.

The taller of the two men reached for my hand as I struggled against rubbery limbs. “Are you all right? Have you been attacked?”

I looked up at him and...amazingly...I laughed, my body still shuddering with pleasure. “You might say that.”

Looking even more concerned, the second man reached to help me to my feet by placing a hand under my arm. “Should we call for the unplanned injury crew?”

I shook my head and gently extracted my arms from their well-meaning grasp. “No. I’m fine, I was just feeling a bit...ill. I’ll be fine once I get a chance to sit.”

The taller man, who I noticed had longish, curly black hair and the most amazing hazel eyes with long lashes, reached as if to steady me and I realized I was still wobbly on my legs. “Can we help you get somewhere? You don’t look at all well.”

I laughed again, causing the two men to frown at me as if I were emotionally unstable. In that moment I probably was. “No, really. I’m feeling fine now. Thanks though...for your help and your concern.”

The taller man extended a large hand with soft, curling black hair on the back of it. In my current, heightened condition the hair seemed to sparkle softly, like dew. “My name is Ralph Peters. If you need something...anything...please feel free to ask. I’m in Thirteen C.”

The smaller man extended his hand and I took it. “I’m Ralph’s partner, Bob Gleason. Ditto on the help.” He smiled and his warm, nondescript brown eyes sparkled. “Anytime.”

I thanked the two men and wobbled toward my office, feeling their gaze on my back all the way to my door. I entered my office and closed the door behind me with a sigh of relief, leaning against it and closing my eyes. “Hades. What just happened to me?”

“Astra? Are you okay?”

My eyes flew open and locked onto Emo, my newly delicious partner and longtime friend. I was still trying to get used to seeing a drop-dead gorgeous royal devil instead of the squat, red version of my Emo that I’d practically grown up with. I’d recently learned that although Emo had been born into the royal court of a royal father and a fallen angel mother, he’d been cursed as a young man by devil King Nerul to look like one of the lesser devils. My friend’s real form had been restored to him upon Nerul’s death. Unfortunately, the new Emo was disturbing to me on so many levels. But he was still my friend. And I needed a friend right at that moment.