devil 04 - the devil you know (10 page)

He nuzzled aside the oversized shirt he’d given me to wear and nipped at the rounded flesh at the top of my breast, tantalizingly close to my rigid nipple, which was begging for his attention. His hot tongue swept the skin he’d bitten, swirling in a circle around the puckered flesh of my nipple without touching it.

I grabbed his head in both hands, intending to force his mouth to my nipple. But he resisted, moving instead to the other breast, where he repeated the same tantalizing but infuriatingly evasive maneuver.

A wave of expectant heat swept my body. I envisioned my hard nipples being sucked into his mouth, savored the thrill of it and willed him with my mind to take them. Finally, I couldn’t wait any longer. “Please!” My voice rasped with passion.

He licked the underside of the breast he was currently torturing. “Please, what, Astra Q. Phelps?”

His tongue swept toward my nipple again. And again stopped just outside the hungry circle of the brown, rigid flesh. My head dropped back. “Ahhh, God! Suck them! Suck my nipples, now!”

Just like magic he complied. He covered the entire nipple with his lips and pulled the tortured flesh into his incredibly hot mouth, sucking hard. A strange combination of relief and enhanced sexual tension jolted through my system, centering in the throbbing bud between my thighs.

He slid a hand down one hip and across my quivering belly, sliding it inexorably toward my pussy. I widened my stance to give him access, my rational mind shutting down as a wave of pure, unadulterated lust swept over me, swamping my will.

He moved his lips to the other nipple and drew the aching flesh between his soft lips. But when his hand covered me, engulfing the tender mound at the vee of my legs in the heat of his thick fingers, I was suddenly nudged from my mindless lust by a jolt of another kind.

My daemon hickey sparked and sent an electrical charge through my body, making me jump away from him with a gasp. Static flashed through my mind, leaving behind the impression of Dialle’s voice, though I couldn’t actually say I’d heard him speak a single word. His scent enveloped me, pulling guilt, like acid, from my chest. I stepped away, lifting my hands as if to ward him off. “Stop. We need to stop this.”

The Slayer cocked his gorgeous head and reached a hand toward my neck.

I flinched as he touched the tear-shaped mark there. “You have been marked?”

I nodded.

He frowned. “I shouldn’t have been able to get within yards of you. There is something wrong with this man’s claim on you.”

I shook my head. Traitorous doubt, ugly and razor sharp, sliced through me. “I can’t discuss this with you. Where is Glynus?”

“I told you, she’s gone to speak with the queen.”

“By herself? That’s much too dangerous. Why did you let her go?” I knew I was just picking a fight to put as much distance as possible between me and what I’d almost done with the Slayer. I didn’t care. Something about the interaction had bothered me. Bothered me deeply. And I needed time to examine it. But that time wasn’t now. I had a dragon to protect and a mystery to solve.

“I tried to stop her but she was most insistent. Short of slaying her…” He grinned at me. “I couldn’t keep her here.”

I strode away from him to pace the entrance to the cave. “Why didn’t you come get me?”

His response was a single raised eyebrow.

Oh yeah, right.
“I need to get to the queen. Can you help me?”

A deep-throated squawk filled the air outside the cave. My gaze jerked toward the sound.

The Slayer lifted a hand toward the large red winging its way toward us across the sky. “Your wish is my command, dragon fighter.”

* * * * *

“So what
is
your name?” I felt the need to keep the conversation going as we sailed toward the Red Queen’s caverns. The firm thigh pressing into my leg flexed effortlessly as the red tilted into a turn and an iron band of an arm swept around my waist, the large, square hand resting on my hip. My slut-monkey side squealed with delight as the arm, peppered with soft, sun-bleached hair, tightened possessively and the hand sent heat and jolts of sensual awareness stabbing through me.

“You can call me Slayer.”

I shifted nervously, realizing too late that I was shifting against a new hardness against my buttocks. His soft breath sifted against my cheek and I realized his lips were a hair away from my skin.

I jerked sideways, frantic for a distraction. “That’s not your real name.” My voice was an embarrassing screech.

He shrugged and used a slight dip in the air patterns as an excuse to pull me more tightly against his hard cock. “It is the name I go by now.”

I tried to scoot forward on the suspiciously jerky red. I wondered if the Slayer was telling it to fly erratically to keep me off balance. “Come on, how bad can it be?”

He jerked slightly in surprise. “Bad? Not bad, just unimportant.”

The red threw up its head on a roar and we suddenly dropped ten feet in the air. I’d have fallen off if it weren’t for the Slayer’s iron grip. “What in Hades…”

“Frunkin’ hell! Hold on!”

The red lifted its enormous wings and swung sideways as fire rent the air where we’d been.

The Slayer’s heat suddenly disappeared from behind me and I thought, for a brief beat in time, that he’d fallen off the red. But I quickly realized he was standing on the dragon’s wide back, one hand wrapped around a thick cord tied around the creature’s neck and a long, deadly-looking sword in the other hand. He braced himself with a wide stance and lifted the sword, preparing to slash at whatever was attacking us.

A giant head appeared before him and an enormous jaw snapped an inch from his chest, teeth as long as my hand crashing together as he swung the sword.

He sliced a slim ribbon across the creature’s snout and it reared back, roaring in rage. The massive jaws opened and I flung up my hands, putting a protective bubble in place around us just as a raging blue fire flew from the creature’s nostrils.

The huge black dragon dropped from view and Slayer swung out into midair on the cord, stabbing toward the dragon’s throat as it appeared on the other side. Then he swung back and landed behind me on the red’s wide back. It was as if he could read their thoughts, knowing what they would do even before they did it.

The red swung away as the Slayer’s sword made a new, deeper slice across the black’s exposed throat.

I followed up with a power arrow to the thing’s head, right between the eyes.

The black surged upward and away and I took a breath.

Too late I realized the razor-sharp spikes of the black’s tail were swinging upward, toward the red’s soft underbelly. The giant reptile beneath my thighs grunted from the impact and roared as the huge spike at the end of the black’s massive tail pierced its belly.

The red rolled sideways, going into a death spiral, and the Slayer and I fell off its back, dropping into the great abyss yawning beneath us. One minute I was dropping toward the jagged mountains below, and the next a strong arm was wrapped around my waist and I wrenched to a painful stop.

Looking up, I saw that the red had managed to pull itself out of the spiral and was flying jerkily toward a nearby ledge. The Slayer hung from the thick cord around the dragon’s neck. As the mountain ledge quickly neared, I realized we’d be smashed against the rock beneath the ledge when the dragon landed.

The tension vibrating from the Slayer’s body told me he’d realized the same thing.

Mother Tweener!

Glynus! Where are you?

Beneath you, tell the Slayer to let go.

I looked down and saw the beautiful outline of my dragon’s flying form several feet below us. She alternated between coasting, rolling sideways and pounding her enormous wings in an effort to stay with the erratically flying red.

Hurry, mother Tweener!

I glanced toward the mountainside and saw that we were mere seconds from slamming into it. I slapped the Slayer’s arm. “Let go of the rope, Glynus will catch us.”

He looked down and grimaced. “She needs to move closer.”

“There’s no time!” The red had tipped his back claws forward and was pounding air to slow himself down for descent. We were a heartbeat away from being smashed into the rocky mountainside.

I looked up, focused on my target and shot a power arrow into the rope, severing it on the first try. The Slayer swore and wrapped his other arm around my waist. “I hope you know what the hell you’re doing!” he growled in my ear.

We plummeted downward at an intimidating speed.

Beneath us, Glynus flew one way then swung back, her huge eyes wide as she tried to maneuver herself directly beneath us. Stress fire puffed from her nostrils.

I secretly hoped I knew what I was doing too. Glynus didn’t look very certain that she could catch us.
You got this, Tadpole?

I think so…

Glynus jerked and rolled, coming up too far to our left. She quickly adjusted when we were a heartbeat away from landing and we hit the slippery edge of her back, nearly sliding sideways and rolling right off again. But Glynus lifted her wing to stop our momentum and we bounced back toward the center of her wide body. I grabbed the large spike just behind her head and held on, while the Slayer tucked his calves around her wings to center himself.

I took a deep breath, prostrating myself alongside the prickly center ridge of her back. My heart beat a frantic rumba in my chest.

The Slayer filled his lungs and expelled a loud breath. “Well,
that
was fun. I don’t think I’ll need caffeine for a week.”

All I could do was nod, my heart felt like it was sitting on my tongue.

Glynus flapped her wings and headed back toward the Slayer’s cave as if nothing had ever happened.

She took extra care in her landing, though, as if she knew we’d had enough excitement for the day. The Slayer and I climbed off Glynus and stood looking at each other. Finally the Slayer said, “Who wants you dead?”

My mouth dropped. “Wha—”

Slayer shrugged. “That black wasn’t after me, and there were only two of us on the red.”

My mouth slammed shut. He had a point.

“And there was something wrong with that black. Did you see his eyes? He looked as if he were in a trance or something.”

Frowning, I realized he was right. The huge lizard’s eyes
had
looked strange. “You might be right. But how do you know it wasn’t after you? You have a very annoying way about you, it’s not impossible to think you probably pissed somebody off somewhere and drove them to murderous inclinations.”

He grinned and reached toward my face, sliding a smooth, warm hand across my cheek and down the side of my neck. My daemon hickey sputtered uselessly as he wrapped a large hand around my throat, caressing the tender skin just under my ear with slightly calloused fingers.

Leaning close, he placed a gentle kiss on my lips and, when he lifted his head he whispered, “That isn’t annoyance you’re feeling, Astra. If you need me to explain that throbbing sensation between your firm, white thighs I’d be happy to.”

I gasped and he slid his tongue between my parted lips, catching me off guard. Before I knew what I was doing I was responding, reaching up to slide my fingers through his hair and wrapping my hand around a muscular, golden forearm.

Glynus cleared her throat.
Mother Tweener!

I jumped away from him, flashing my dragon a sheepish smile.
Sorry, Tadpole, I haven’t been myself lately.

She snickered.
No kidding!

My mental drawers shifted suddenly and Dialle’s voice came to me, faint and broken with static.
Astra! Come to me. You and your sister are in da—

As quickly as Dialle’s husky voice filled my head it slid away. My daemon hickey burned briefly and then that faded too.

“What is it, Astra?”

The Slayer’s face was dark with concern.

I shrugged, glancing at Glynus as a feeling of foreboding slid over me. “We have to go.”

Glynus lowered her haunches so I could climb onto her back. The Slayer stepped toward us, lifting a hand to touch my thigh. “Take care, Astra. Someone very powerful is after you. I feel it in my gut. If you ever need my help…”

I nodded, covering his hand with my own. “Thank you, Slayer. For all you’ve done and for your offer to help. I hope you don’t mind if I take you up on it someday.”

He took my hand and lifted it toward his lips. Rather than simply kissing the surface, like a normal male, the Slayer sucked a knuckle into his mouth and, to my vast surprise, bit down hard enough to make it bleed.

“Ow!” I jerked my hand away.

“If you need me, touch that scar and call me with your mind. I will come to you.”

Scar! It was gonna leave a scar! Frunk me to Hades and back! Dialle would kill me and then go after the Slayer.

He stepped away as Glynus moved her wings. She took off rather gracefully for her and soon we were in the air again, winging our way quickly toward home. Before I realized it, I’d pulled the aching knuckle into my mouth and was sucking it to relieve the sting.

Each pull on the tender flesh sent a jolt of pure lust directly into to my aching pussy. After a few mind-blowing seconds I forced myself to stop sucking, through sheer willpower. The Slayer’s deep voice filled my mind, just before the wound left my lips.
You can call me if you’re in any type of danger, Astra. I’m happy to save you from that extremely dangerous celibacy you’ve settled yourself under too. In fact I’d relish it…

I slammed my mind closed to shut off his sexy chuckle and settled myself into a good mope.

Glynus let me brood for a while and then asked,
Where are we going, Mother Tweener?

Oh. Sorry. I need you to take me home.

What about my parents?

I blinked. Oh yeah. The queen and king. What did I know about that? I knew that they’d come to visit the red queen and had left, safe and unmolested, until they ran into a contingent of blacks and then something waylaid them before they reached their queendom.