bedeviled & beyond 04 - bedeviled & belittled (21 page)

Looking around, I realized there were several empty greens flying around looking confused. Unfortunately, they were almost more dangerous than the dragons with riders.
Glynus, we need to drive off the riderless dragons.

I’m on it.

Glynus lowered her head and dived toward a green beneath us, which was heading directly toward the black carrying Emo. I realized with horror that the enormous reptile was planning to ram the black from the side, most likely debilitating it and killing my partner in the process.

I quickly shuffled my mental drawers to warn Emo.
Rogue green at nine o’clock partner.

Emo turned and I watched horror fill his expression as he realized they wouldn’t have time to turn away.

Ram her, Glynus! Fast!

Glynus flapped her wings two times very hard and we surged forward.
Hold on
, she warned me.

I realized the concussion upon impact of two dragons, weighing thousands of pounds each, would be catastrophic. I’d never be able to hold my seat when it happened. Thinking fast, I pulled my power forward, visualized the black carrying my partner, and said a prayer as I space shifted toward him.

I landed behind Emo just as the black swerved and dropped to avoid being bludgeoned by the body of the wounded green as it flew by.

You okay, Tadpole?

That was fun, Mother halfling!

I snorted.
I’m glad you’re enjoying yourself. Keep it up. See if you can run the rest of the dragons off the same way. Emo and I will work on taking out more of the riders.

Got it!

Emo turned to me, grinning. “Hey, boss.” His black eyes sparkled with some unknown emotion. Feeling strangely uncomfortable with that look, I studiously avoided looking into his sexy, black eyes. “Hey, bud. How’s it goin?”

“It’s goin’.” He grabbed my forearm as the black rolled beneath us again and shot power at a charging green.

The dragon veered off quickly, a gaping hole in its long neck.

When the black flattened out again, Emo didn’t release my arm, instead he started rubbing the hyper-sensitive skin with his hand.

“Emo, don’t...”

He tipped sideways, tightening his muscular thighs to guide the black away from the battle. The wall of greens closed us off and Emo encouraged the black to carry us swiftly away.

Anger suffused me at his action, which I perceived as running away. “Hey! Turn this beast around and take me back to the battle, Emo! That’s an order!”

He half turned on the dragon and grabbed my arm, yanking me off the dragon and sliding me over his thigh, until I was sitting across his lap.

His hungry gaze slid over my face, while his hand skimmed my jawline. He ran a calloused thumb over my bottom lip and lowered his own, wonderfully sculpted lips close to mine. “We have some business to discuss, Astra.”

I gulped, feeling my body respond to his like flame to paper, igniting almost immediately. I sucked in a breath and realized, too late, that I’d just saturated my lungs with Emo’s delectable scent. A warm, sensual musk that filled my cells and created an explosion of lust deep in my sexual core.

Decades of friendship and closeness had imprinted Emo’s biology on me, creating a natural familiarity between our bodies and minds that didn’t need to be engaged by conscious thought.

The recent changes brought on by the lifting of his curse, so that his true, delectable form was visible to me, and the latest supercharging of his essence through his own Settling, didn’t change the basic makeup of our relationship. We’d always been emotionally close. Our enhanced sexuality was only giving that closeness a different flavor.

As Emo’s luscious lips lowered toward mine, I couldn’t help thinking I wanted it to be the flavor of the month.

I jerked my head back at the last second, before he could claim my lips and make my mind go all mushy. “No! This isn’t right, Emo. You need to turn us around and take me back to the battle. Myra and Dialle need me.”

He stared at me for a long moment. His tongue came out and slid across his lips, drawing my hungry gaze. I closed my eyes on a sigh. “Please, Emo. This isn’t the time.”

“I’ve loved you my whole life, Astra.”

My eyes flew open and I blinked, my lips parting in surprise. He placed a heated fingertip over my mouth, cutting off my instant denial.

“By the time I got you to look at me like a man you might be interested in, you’d already found the devil.”

I frowned, of course he meant Dialle.

“I kept hoping you’d come to your senses and dump him. But you never did.” His eyes glittered with emotion and I squirmed, not knowing what to say to him. His pain was a palpable thing between us. Before I could dredge up a suitable response, he went on.

“With the Settling I’ve gotten a little desperate.” He looked away, his face clearly showing his guilt. “A lot desperate, actually.”

I’d known Emo for a really long time, though I hadn’t connected him to the cute little boy I used to play with at the Phelps’ fortress, high on the bluffs of the Angel River, until recently, when he’d resumed his real form.

I knew his moods, his expressions, even his speech patterns. I’d learned over the years to read him like an easy reader book.

Although our relationship had gotten a little more difficult since he’d resumed his real form, I still felt as if I knew him well enough to know when he’d done something he wasn’t proud of. Something really bad. “Oh Emo, what have you done?”

He sighed, avoiding my gaze for a long moment. He grabbed my wrists. “I made a deal with King Dialle the First.”

“You did what?!” I tried to jerk my arms away but he was much stronger than I was.

Emo looked at me with eyes that had gone hard. “He promised to kill his son, releasing you from your bond to him, so that I could have you.”

I gasped, my head shaking in disbelief. “Tell me you’re lying.”

“I’m not.” His mouth thinned in an angry line. “He’s bad for you, Astra. He’s pulling you toward your devil.”

I managed to jerk my hands free and smack him hard on the chest with both of them. My anger-fueled strike knocked him backward, surprising him with my strength. “And you? You think you represent the good in us? You strive to help Dialle the First defy the laws of his incarceration in Hell? You plot the murder of his son? You covet me...when you know I’ve given my heart to Dialle?”

The anger slid from his expression and tears shimmered in his black eyes. “I’m sorry, Astra.”

That was when I recognized a glimmer of the Emo I knew and loved. The halfling who had enough of his soul still left to be shamed when he’d done wrong. I took a deep breath, trying to regain my calm. The situation could still be salvaged. I just needed to make it clear to him that I couldn’t be his.

He reached for my hand and I jerked away. “Don’t touch me!” I scrambled off his lap, moving as far away from him as I could on the dragon.

His hand dropped to his lap. “I’m willing to make it right, Astra. I want to help you defeat First.”

I looked into his eyes, determined to judge the truth of his words. “How?”

His gaze lifted past me and he jerked his head. “That’s First’s castle. He thinks I’m bringing you to him, to report the others’ plans so he can more easily defeat them. I will gain an audience with him when we land. And I’ll kill him myself.”

I shook my head. “I can’t let you do that! If you kill him in your current state you’ll turn irretrievably toward your devil. You’ll never be able to recover.”

He shrugged. “I don’t care anymore, Astra.”

I lifted a hand to touch his jawline. Emo’s gaze was filled with pain, but he turned his head away, rejecting my touch. “It is done. I’ve already told him we’re here. Prepare to meet Dialle the First, Astra.”

Tears slid silently down my cheeks. Despite Emo’s treachery, sadness swamped me. Sadness for the friendship we’d lost. Grief for what he’d hoped could be. Sadness for what I’d wanted for us.

Sorrow that it would end so badly. For both of us.

“I won’t let you do it.” I murmured as the black spread its wings and started its descent toward the heavily armed dragon’s nest of Dialle the First’s castle in Hell.

“You have no choice.”

I knew he was right. But damned if I wouldn’t try everything I could think of to stop it anyway.

It wasn’t just his Settling that was at stake. I knew I was perilously close to embracing my devil too. Letting my best friend send himself to Hell to save me wouldn’t bring me any closer to my angelic side.

I told myself it wasn’t because of my feelings for Emo. It couldn’t be.

It wasn’t possible to love two men.

Was it?

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

Aw Hell

The devil rides a flame in Hell, and bids our Lady come,

But she arrives with different plans, to save the cranky one.

Astra! Where in Hades are you?

I’m about to meet your father, Dialle.

What! You’d better be joking!

I sighed.
I wish I were. I was kidnapped by Emo.

Kidnapped? I thought he was helping us! Astra, that makes no sense at all.

I know, huh? I’m going to try to stop this somehow. But I have no idea how.

We approach the castle now. I’ll get to you as soon as I can.

All right.

Astra!

I smiled. His tone was so dire, so arrogantly royal, so...
Dialle
?

I felt him grow less stiff in my mind and smile.
Take care.

I bit my lip, turning to Emo. His face was hard and angry again. No sign of the softening I’d witnessed on the back of the dragon.
I will. You too.

Dialle the First’s castle in Hell was decidedly run-down looking. Like everything else in Hell, it looked charred and unkempt, as if the Serpent had given all the servants the millennium off. The black walls that rose from the charred rock and dry soil which made up Hell were scarred, with huge chunks missing at their edges. Windows gaped, missing glass, and filthy draperies floated out of them, like worn-out damsels looking to the horizon for a savior.

The bridge over the moat, which was filled with boiling liquid, looked like Swiss cheese and hung at an odd angle. Skeletons dangled from its rotted surface, the bones boiled clean and bright white.

Like an old couch with its springs hanging out, the rotting corpse of a green dragon lay in the barren courtyard.

Apparently First lived in Hell’s ghetto.

Embarrassing.

The tallest tower bore a metal rod, with the charred remains of a pennant, which had most likely borne First’s family crest, a devil’s pitchfork.

That always made me smile.

As soon as the black touched down, Emo grabbed my arm and yanked me off its back. I tried to jerk my arm away but he enhanced his grip with a touch of power.

Don’t fight me, Astra.

You’re hurting me!

I’m sorry. But this has to look real.

Then I need to fight you, don’t I?

I flung myself sideways, using my weight to break his hold on me, and rolled under the black. Being an old warhorse, and very well trained, the giant reptile just tucked his head and looked down at me. I scurried the length of his body as a shout went up and Emo barked out an order to the guards to grab me.

“You want real...” I murmured, “I’ll give you real.” Hiding between the dragon’s thick back legs, which kept moving as he dipped and danced, trying to see where I’d gone, I lifted a hand and prepared to shoot Emo with a holding bubble. The magic wouldn’t hurt him, but it would keep him rooted to the spot and unable to magic me back while I made a run for the errant king.

I drew the power I needed, gathering it and pulling it toward my outstretched palm with a thought, and then, when I had Emo firmly in my sites, let it go.

Nothing happened.

“What the...” The power I’d gathered simply drained back to the place where I’d pulled it from. Then I remembered. Dialle had said something about warding to keep outside magic from being used against the castle.

Apparently the warding worked inside the castle as well as outside.

Well dang.

That was about the time a large pair of red hands grabbed my arm and yanked me out from between the dragon’s treelike limbs.

I kicked and flailed but it was no use, they clapped a magic pair of cuffs over my wrists and yanked me to my feet, presenting me to Emo. I glared at him, refusing to let him into my mind as he took my arm and started to lead me into the belly of the castle.

Suffice it to say I was feeling a bit testy. Not the best time to hear from my sister.

Astra!

I closed my eyes and winced, her not-so-dulcet tones banging around in my brain like an army of gargoyles on laser skates.
Darma
!

Are you ever coming to get me?

I’m in the castle now.

About time! I’m nearly out of tricks trying to hold this guy off. You have no idea what I’ve been going through—

Okay, I might have lost my temper just a wee bit on that one. I jumped in, interrupting her tirade.
Yeah. You’re welcome, Darma. Auntie and I are fine. Now. But Myra’s almost died a few times trying to save you and I’m...well... Don’t worry about a little thing like my Settling, or the fact that I’m in Hell right at the moment when I’m trying to push my soul to my angel side. No worries, sis. I’m pretty much okay, if you don’t count the fact that I’ve tried to sleep with everything warm and mobile that skitters past me. Thanks for asking.

I felt her scowl in my mind.
What are you babbling about, Astra? Of course you’re fine...you’re always fine... Wait, you’ve been sleeping around? While I’m in Hell? Are you kidding m—

I closed down my mind to her. It was like talking to a block of charred granite. Only the rock would have had more empathy.