Darkness Becomes Her (3 page)

He swallowed it down, trembling as his release swept through him. At long last, when he knew he’d lapped up every last drop of cum from Varin’s cock, he allowed the spent shaft to slip from his mouth and he collapsed against his lover’s legs, his cheek coming to rest on Varin’s abdomen.

Neither of them spoke for a long time, but the silence no longer seemed unwelcome. Varin drew small, sensual circles across Luke’s cheek with his thumb while his other hand slipped through the tangled locks of Luke’s long hair.

“I’m afraid.”

The words sounded so foreign, so unguarded, that Luke lifted his head and narrowed his eyes as he glanced up. The darkness made it impossible to make out Varin’s face in full detail, but he was able to take in the sharp cheekbones, the slant of his jaw, the way he’d leaned his head back against the rock and closed his eyes.

This was the Varin he knew. Dangerous, silent, rough. Deadly. Yet there was a vulnerability to him that made Luke’s heart knock hard against his chest.

“Of what?” he asked at last, when the silence had stretched on for much too long.

Varin sighed and opened his eyes. In the shadows, the black orbs looked shrouded and eerie, without a hint of light to give them the slightest human quality. “Baal isn’t going to be satisfied with punishing me this way forever. He’ll want more. He’ll want…” His voice slipped and fractured, as though he groped for a word he couldn’t find.

“Heidi.” Luke finished for him.

Varin nodded, swallowing hard. “Tell me she won’t do anything foolish, Luke. You know her better than I do. She’s not going to try again, is she?”

Luke’s thoughts scattered as he tried to come up with the reassuring response Varin longed to hear. In truth, he had no idea what Heidi would or wouldn’t do. He didn’t really know her any better than Varin did. The first time they’d met had been on stage at Luke’s magic show. She’d been an audience volunteer, a woman chosen to be a demon’s next victim.

A victim Luke was to provide. Only things hadn’t turned out as the demon had expected, and the beast had taken Luke instead.

“I don’t know,” he answered honestly. “But she should be safe, shouldn’t she? You told me you’ve given her some of your abilities. Won’t that protect her from anyone who’d wish to do her harm?”

“Out there, as long as she stays off Baal’s radar, perhaps. But in here… not necessarily. She’d be at Baal’s mercy, and he could strip her of her powers as quickly as he’s taken mine. This is his domain. Demons walk this world only because he allows it.”

Luke took a deep breath, pushing down the anxiety that had begun to rise like bile in his throat. His palm swept over Varin’s bicep, following the path of a knotted scar that could have been fresh, or might have been there for centuries. Varin’s body called to him, inviting him to explore its secrets and discover its mysteries. He only wished he could do it in a warm bed, without the threat of constant pain and terror that accompanied their every moment in the Underworld.

And he wished he could do it with Heidi.

The gate to their cell opened with a screech that jolted Luke upright. Varin’s arm closed around his shoulder, pulling him close in a protective gesture that made his throat tighten.

“Get up, scum,” a Demon Guardian said. “Baal has a surprise for you.”

“Tell him to keep it.” Varin’s voice was cold as steel and just as steady. “We’re not interested.”

“Oh, but you will be.” The Demon Guardian reached in and grabbed Varin by the arm, hauling his broad frame out as though he weighed nothing at all. “This surprise is like nothing you’ve ever seen before.”

“What’s he talking about?” Luke murmured as a second Demon Guardian yanked him from Varin’s side.

Varin didn’t reply, but he shot Luke a look meant to silence him. The message was clear. Whatever
surprise
Baal had in store for them couldn’t be pleasant.

The demons half-dragged, half-shoved Luke and Varin down a long, winding tunnel. Torches flickered at regular intervals for a while, then gave way to lava streams that poured across the face of the walls.

They walked past the torture chambers, where the screams of those condemned to suffer for all eternity reached Luke’s ears and faded into oblivion as they passed. With every step, the soul-numbing chill returned, banishing the warmth Varin had provided for such a short time.

Luke glanced at his companion, anxiety knotting tightly in his belly. The muscles in Varin’s arms and legs rippled with tension as he walked. Bruises stood out vividly against his skin, but if he felt the discomfort, he gave no indication.

The demons came to an abrupt stop in front of a streaming wall of flowing lava. The molten liquid poured down the rock face like a waterfall, soundless in its intensity. One of the Guardians reached through the cascading torrent of fire, not flinching when the lava made contact with his flesh and the scent of charred meat filled the air.

Abruptly, the molten downpour ended, revealing a deep, lushly decorated cavern. Luke had only a brief glimpse of sleek black furniture and a real bed before his captor shoved him ruthlessly inside. He was vaguely aware of Varin landing on his knees beside him when a bright flash of blue light made him shut his eyes tightly against the brilliant illumination bursting from the center of the room.

The light died down as quickly as it had flared. In that heartbeat, Luke forgot to breathe. There, in the center of the room, Heidi lay crumpled on her side, her knees drawn up against her stomach, one arm splayed out beside her head.

Only it wasn’t
his
Heidi. This woman was the same height and weight, with the same perfect curves and long legs. A black leather bustier and tiny thong clung to her curvy form. Her skin was still impossibly pale; her red curls still the same wild riot as they framed her face.

But, oh, God, that face. Dusky eyeliner rimmed each eyelid. Lipstick so dark as to be almost black filled in her full lips.

Most astonishing of all were the two demon horns that protruded from just above her hairline. The same color as her lipstick, they were perhaps the length of his pinkie finger and curled downward at the front.

Varin’s howl of fury tore through the chamber, alerting Luke that the man was on his feet and running toward the center of the room. Before Luke could even open his mouth to speak, Heidi’s eyes fluttered open.

She had perhaps a fraction of a second in which to make sense of her surroundings. Her gaze settled firmly on Varin, who was rushing toward her with a speed borne of pure desperation.

She lifted her hand. “
Lee’raa ti!
”

For the second time that night, Varin’s body was hurled through the air and launched at a rock wall.

Chapter Three

Molten lava spilled silently over black rock, casting the cavernous room in shifting golden light. The flickering blaze illuminated a man’s broad-shouldered, lean-hipped form as he flew through the air to land halfway between his companion and the door.

Magic swarmed at Heidi’s fingertips, tickling her skin. Her entire body thrummed with it, as though she’d become a living conduit for the power that spread through every blood cell traveling through her overheated veins. She rose; her gaze fixed firmly on the man who’d attempted to attack her.

Despite the incessant pounding behind her temples, Heidi’s hand remained steady as she raised it and took aim.

“No!”

The savage cry had come from the golden-haired man. From the corner of her eye, Heidi saw him run to her attacker’s side, but her focus remained fixed on the man on the floor. Dark hair spilled halfway down his back, framing a slanted nose that looked to have been broken at least once, a firm mouth and chiseled cheekbones. He rolled onto his stomach, lifting himself to his hands and knees. She had a brief glimpse of an erect cock jutting out from between his legs to point forward, thick and long and hard.

He turned his head then, and his gaze locked with hers. The man sucked in a breath between clenched teeth and froze in mid-rise as he took in her battle-ready stance.

Heidi swallowed hard. His eyes were like nothing she’d ever seen before. Midnight black, deeper even than the color of his hair, they looked bottomless in his impossibly handsome face. She could get lost in those eyes. He had the power to hypnotize her, to hold her prisoner for as long as he cared to look at her that way -- as though his entire world had suddenly shattered around him, and she was at the center of the turmoil ravaging his soul.

Heidi’s heart thudded a desperate rhythm, beating out of control. A jolt of recognition slammed into her gut, so potent and unexpected that it made the magic wrapped around her index finger flicker and begin to fade.

The tangible thread of power that had wound up tightly within her began to unravel, dissolving into an ethereal fog that dissipated through the room. Her arm fell to her side, the magic lying dormant for the moment.

“Who --”

The sound of applause flooded the room, seeming to come from everywhere and nowhere at once. Thunderous clapping filled the air and thrummed against the pounding that had already settled behind her brows to turn the ache in her head to sheer agony.

She dropped to her knees and pressed the heels of her palms against her temples in a feeble attempt to drown out the noise. The faint light in the room intensified, turning a deep crimson red. Brightness flooded Heidi’s vision, adding to the agony assaulting her senses.

“Wonderful! For a moment there, I thought you were actually going to kill him. Although that is the point, isn’t it? In any case, it’s rather more fun if you take your time to play with your toys before destroying them, don’t you think?”

That had apparently been a rhetorical question, as the masculine voice continued to boom through the room. “I gave no orders that they should be released. Grab them both and gag them.”

The clapping had stopped. Heidi dropped her hands to her lap and lifted her head, squinting through wary eyes against the harsh red glow. To her surprise, the light had dimmed as well, leaving the orange diffusion of lava to imbue the room with a soft incandescent flush.

A few feet away from her stood a man who looked wholly unfamiliar to her. Shadows shrouded him, despite the fact that he stood in the brightest spot in the room. The light from the flowing lava seemed to stop just short of the edge of his shoes, unable to penetrate the near proximity of his personal space.

Heidi could barely make out his features, but she had the impression of a lean, almost gaunt face, black hair tied low at the nape of his neck and strong jaw. He seemed to be wearing a stylish suit that encased his broad frame to perfection.

Most stunning of all, though, were his eyes. While the dark-haired man’s black orbs had drawn her into their forbidden depths, this man’s fiery red eyes had the opposite effect. They repelled her the longer she looked directly at them. A feeling of despair washed over Heidi as she tried to hold his gaze. Bile rose in the back of her throat.

At last, she lowered her head. The feeling of hopelessness lifted, leaving behind the same deep sense of confusion and unease.

“Who are you?” Heidi asked when she could trust her voice.

The apparition waved a hand through the air. “That’s irrelevant at this point. The question you really should be asking is… Who are
you
?”

Heidi shook her head. “I know who I --”

The words halted in her throat, along with her breath. She groped for the answer she knew to be lying on the tip of her tongue. Finding an empty, gaping space where her sense of identity should have been, she frowned, adding to the throbbing ache behind her temples.

“
Silina vi
.”

Squeezing her eyes tightly shut, Heidi gathered the magic drifting around her and used it to delve into the deepest, most intimate parts of her mind. She had to find an answer there. She obviously knew who she was. How else could she remember the words of power that brought order to the chaotic energy floating through the room?

And how else could she remember her name?

“Heidi Cole,” she said, relief suffusing every word. “I’m Heidi Cole.”

“So you are.” The dark man took a step toward her. “Traveling to the mortal realm always leaves you a little addled when you return. Thankfully, any lingering memory loss is only temporary. And this time, you still seem to have full control of your abilities, which is another positive sign.”

She glanced up only as far as the space where his mouth would have been, trying to avoid gazing into his daunting fiery eyes. “I -- I do this often?”

“Every decade or so. I can’t seem to stop you.” A flicker of a smile beamed from within the darkness, sending a skitter of fear to shiver up her spine. “You’re absolutely stubborn when you want to be, my love.”

Heidi took a deep, trembling breath. The way this man addressed her, with so much familiarity, made her slightly queasy. “I don’t think I should be here. This doesn’t feel right.”

The shadowed figure shrugged. “Here we go again. We’ve been through this a dozen times, sweetheart. Reach within yourself and feel the truth of what I’m telling you.”

She narrowed her eyes. “That’s what I’m trying to do. It’s not working. There’s something… wrong about all this.”

“I knew you’d say that. So in the interest of saving time…” He threw up his hand and swirled a few strands of magic around his thumb. As he did so, Heidi had a clear view of long tapered fingers, square nails and a perfect masculine manicure. Another jolt of recognition slid through her, bringing with it the remnants of a brief recollection. That same hand, slipping through a patch of midnight to reach for her -- and then nothing.

She sighed, aggravated by her inability to remember key pertinent things about herself and what had happened before she awoke.

“Here.” The man handed her a bronze mirror he’d conjured out of thin air.

Heidi grabbed the handle and raised a quizzical eyebrow. “I know what I look like.” At least, she thought she did. She raised the mirror slowly, remembering her pale skin, her unruly red curls, her deep blue eyes, her black horns --

What the fuck?

“Horns?! I have horns?!”

“Every royal demon has horns, princess. I guess I’ll have no choice but to do what I should have done from the beginning, but I’d hoped you’d remember everything on your own this time.” The man bowed low at the waist, though the gesture seemed stiff and mocking. “My name is Baal. I’m the ruler of the Underworld. And you, my blood goddess, are my mate.”

A muffled cry came from somewhere behind Baal, shifting Heidi’s attention from the mirror to the two men who were struggling in the death grip of two tall guards. At least, she assumed they were guards, judging by the charcoal metal armor they wore. Their faces sported twin snarls. They held each man’s hands bound behind his back, their palms pressed against the men’s mouths to stifle any sound they might make.

Apprehension swirled in Heidi’s stomach as she returned her attention to the mirror and tried to make sense of what she’d learned. Even her face looked different. She’d always been pale, but now she looked positively ghostly, as though she’d lived without the touch of the sun on her skin for an eternity. Her eyes were rimmed with black makeup, her lashes impossibly long, her full lips the same shade of dark crimson that had almost blinded her when Baal had appeared.

Something wasn’t right. She didn’t feel like the mate of the ruler of the Underworld. The only thing she felt for this dark creature was dread and mistrust. But her appearance and the power she wielded as easily as breathing told a different story.

“Why do I put myself through this?” she asked.

Baal looked her up and down. “Women are difficult to understand, my love. Who am I to begin to speculate on the whims and fancies of the female mind?”

A surge of anger rose to the back of Heidi’s throat. “Female whims, huh? I don’t buy it. Why would I leave all this without a good reason?”

“You have a reason.” Baal spoke slowly, as though trying to reason with a child. “Or at least, you think you do. Don’t you get it yet, sweetheart? You’re in Hell. That means you’re dead. D-E-A-D.” He spelled out the word, as though that would make it easier for her brain to grasp. It didn’t help.

Heidi gaped at him and pinched her arm. “That’s not possible. I can feel everything. I have a real body! I’m not dead!”

“The Underworld doesn’t work the same way as the mortal realm. Here, you can be as ethereal or corporeal as you wish to be. It doesn’t make a bit of difference. On the other side, however, you don’t exist. Not in your current form, anyway.”

Heidi’s head felt like it was preparing to split in two. “So how can I travel to the mortal realm, then?”

“You find a temporary host. You use her body for the duration of your stay. Normally, you return to me on your own. This time, you required a little extra incentive.”

She grimaced. “What kind of incentive?”

“I had to get you myself. Trust me, that wasn’t something I enjoyed doing. I put myself at risk every time even a small part of me slips through to the mortal realm.” He waved a hand in the air. “No matter. I needed you back here, and I did what I had to do.”

“Why would I refuse to return?” She narrowed her gaze. “What happened up there?”

“Like I said, I don’t understand women. I do know that, usually, mortal ties are easy to break. Not so for someone as…
sentimental
as you. Something happens when you visit the mortal realm. It calls to you, lulls you into believing you can wreak more havoc up there than you can here. Although that may be true, I need you at my side.”

She rubbed the bridge of her nose. What Baal said made a strange kind of sense, yet she couldn’t help but feel she was missing a part of the story. The truth of that knowledge burrowed all the way into the marrow of her bones. Somehow, the secret to the mystery of who she really was tied in to the dark-haired man and his golden companion.

She looked past Baal again, taking in the formidable physique of the man who’d lunged at her. He’d been the first image to flicker across her field of vision when she’d awakened. At the time, every instinct in her body had screamed at her to protect herself. So she’d done the only thing she could, but he seemed to hold no malice toward her. Instead, every tense muscle in his body was angled toward Baal, and the fury evident on his features had only one target.

“I get you,” Heidi said, pointing at Baal. “And I sort of get me. What I really don’t understand is who they are.”

“Ah!” Baal spun around, leaving shimmering trails of shadow in his wake. “I’d almost forgotten the best part of your recovery after your trips above ground. What do you think?”

He marched toward the two captives and swept out a hand as though presenting prized possessions to be admired. Despite herself, Heidi couldn’t help doing just that.

Both men were naked, their toned bodies displaying myriad bruises that did nothing to mar the perfection of their rippling physiques. Their bodies trembled with barely contained rage and their thick, eager cocks twitched as though hungry for the opportunity to strike.

The sight of those solid erections sent heat to pool between Heidi’s legs. For the first time, she became aware that she wore precious little to hide her body from the prying eyes of all the men in the room. A tight leather bustier and matching thong were her only garments, clinging to her curves and leaving nothing to the imagination. Her breasts were pushed up and forward in the tight constraints of the leather, forming two perfect spheres and a deep valley of cleavage in between.

“They’re… umm… fine.”

She cringed at how hollow her words sounded. The men were more than
fine
. They were spectacular. But who were they? And what was she expected to do with them?

“Of course they are,” Baal said, a note of pride and affection in his tone. “You picked them yourself. They’re your favorite playthings. You’ve been grooming them for months in preparation for your return.”

Heidi shook her head. The throbbing in her cunt had intensified the longer she gazed upon the physical perfection of the two captives. Lust swirled in her veins, making it hard to focus.

“I don’t understand. What have I been preparing them to do?”

Baal heaved an exaggerated sigh. “The mortal realm takes its toll on you. I beg you not to go every time you choose to make the trek up there, but you refuse. It used to take you years to recover after a trip, but ever since you discovered the release, your recovery time has been remarkable.”

“The release?” Heidi echoed, growing more confused by the moment.

Baal reached down and touched his index finger to the tip of the dark-haired man’s cock. The man jerked back like he’d been burned, his black eyes darkening even further with turbulent rage. Beside him, his golden companion’s eyelashes drifted down, hiding the turmoil in his own gaze.