devil 04 - the devil you know (25 page)

Dialle lifted one of my knees, pulled me close and settled himself at my entrance, teasing me with the fat head of his cock. “Just don’t let them write this part out, love.” He plunged deep, drawing a scream from my throat as his thickness stretched me tight and fired every pleasure cell in my throbbing pussy.

He pounded into me with unusual fervor, driving deep, fast and hard as if trying to imprint himself on my body. I held on, enjoying the ride, my body joining his in a frenzy of desire. As his shaft pounded into me, his mouth traveled from one hypersensitive spot to another on my upper body. At last he settled over a nipple, pulling the hard, pebbled flesh into his hot mouth and drawing on it to match the pounding rhythm of his thrusts.

The rhythm quickened, intensified, drawing us both inexorably toward release. Dialle’s body tensed. He lifted his head, capturing me with his gaze, and held me there until he started to come. Then he lowered his head to my throat and bit down hard.

My screams shook the walls of my dream cavern. My body fell over into endless waves of sensation that weakened my muscles and clouded my mind. With my inner muscles pulling on him, milking his still-hard shaft, Dialle threw back his head and growled my name, blood dripping down his chin. My muscles clenched hard at the sight, tightened one last time and then softened as the waves of orgasm turned to ripples and then gentle tremors that made me shudder with delight.

“It’s always me you come back to, Astra. Always me…”

Dialle faded away suddenly and I was standing alone, on the border between Heaven and Hell. Celestial Choir on one side and eternal fires on the other.

Only I could decide which way I would go.

Just me. And not a flying monkey in sight.

* * * * *

I surged back to consciousness with my emotions in a jumble and my body singing as if the dream sex had been real. The Settling apparently didn’t recognize the difference between dream sex and real sex.

Fascinating as that discovery was, and knowing that I would definitely explore it further at a later date, I had bigger issues to address right at that moment.

For starters, I knew where Darma was.

Don’t ask me how I knew…or exactly what part of the strange dream I’d just had told me where she was…but I knew.

“What is it, Astra?” Dialle reached over to push a tangled strand of hair out of my face. I shoved at his hand, suddenly anxious to finish things and get back to my normal life. Climbing to my feet, I looked down at Dialle, who was draped across the bed, reading something that scrolled across the air in front of him. It looked like some kind of report or something.

Devil King reports. Funny.

“Is Nerul trapped here?”

Dialle flipped a hand and the words hanging in midair disappeared. “Here?”

“In Hell?”

He frowned, thinking. “I believed that he was. But I guess I don’t know for sure.”

I reached for the cross I wore around my neck and said my father’s name three times in my head. Seconds later, the air in the room changed and my father’s soul form shimmered into view several feet away. “Astra, have you found Darma?”

“I’m getting close. What do you know of King Nerul’s Punishment Bond? Is he trapped here?”

My father glanced at Dialle and nodded. “As far as I know.”

“What class is he?” Dialle was no longer draped across the bed. He now stood next to me.

The light of understanding filled my father’s eyes. “He’s a three.”

“So he could leave as long as he’s accompanied by someone of the light?” Now we were getting somewhere.

James Phelps, Seraphim and the Big Guy’s right-hand man, sighed. “I’m afraid that’s true. You think he’s been using Darma to leave Hades?”

I glanced at Dialle. “I do now. Thanks, Father. I’ll keep you posted.”

“Take care, Astra. Go in his name.” My father disappeared quickly, as though he couldn’t wait to pop out of Hell.

Go figure.

Dialle turned to me. “You think you know where they are?”

“They?”

“I believe Torre followed her when she left this place.”

I nodded. “She’s on Olympus. While I was there, helping Glynus find her parents, strange things kept happening to me. We were attacked more than once by the dragons. I think Nerul has set up his new kingdom there and is using the dragons for his own purposes.”

“Queen Zerphor would never allow it.”

I glanced around, searching for my weapons, which Dialle must have removed from me while I was unconscious. “Which is probably why she was taken prisoner in the first place.” Finding the pile of knives and sundry on a nearby table, I started sliding them back into their hiding places on my person.

“But why wouldn’t Nerul have just killed them. He could have had control over most of Olympus with Zerphor and her mate gone.”

“That’s true. But with her alive and under his control he’d have power over much more than that. The blacks would never succumb to him if he killed their queen. Glynus would lead them in battle. Nerul would have lost his knickers in that battle. The reds and the blacks would have joined forces against him.”

Dialle frowned. “Knickers?”

“Never mind. You coming?”

He grabbed my arm. “What of your aunt and your other…friends?”

I expelled a frustrated breath. “I guess we should take them too, huh?” When Dialle nodded I gave him my hand. “Okay, you drive. Take me to them. The sooner we gather them up the sooner we can get the hell out of here.”

He frowned again. “You want to take Hell with us?”

I laughed. Maybe after a few more decades with me, Dialle would figure out how to talk like a normal person. “Yes. And I plan to rain it down over Nerul’s fat head. I owe him for many things.” Not the least of which was the fact that he’d used my Settling against me. I shuddered when I thought about how close I’d come to having sex with that pig of pigs.

I hoped Darma was holding him off okay. Then I smiled. What was I thinking? Nerul didn’t have a chance.

* * * * *

It was handy that we had Glynus and the other blacks to carry us back to Olympus. Zerphor would be pleased to learn that I hadn’t lost a single one of her warriors to the fires of Hell.

She’d be less pleased to learn I was bringing Hell to her.

Beneath my thighs, Glynus shifted gently to adjust for a slight change in airflow and Dialle’s arm tightened at my waist. “Are we there yet?”

I turned to glare at him. “Do you need to pee or something?”

He looked at me like I had two heads. “Royals don’t pee, Astra.”

“Then what’s your deal? You’ve asked me that question five times since we left.”

“It’s taking too long. I could have popped us into Olympus in seconds if you’d let me.”

“Yes. But then our arrival wouldn’t have had the proper effect. Trust me on this, Dialle. When we show up in Olympus riding the next queen of the blacks and her finest warriors, notice will be taken.”

Glynus’ head lifted and I felt a shimmer of excitement roll through her.
We arrive, mother Tweener.

I looked down and saw the gentle green peaks of Zerphor’s queendom below us. The blacks’ nest was a soft, green bowl, surrounded by low, rounded peaks. In the center was a vast meadow. After a few moments, the peaks below us gave way to a flatter area and Glynus started her descent.

Filled with wildflowers, the meadows rolled with waves of bright color. As we approached, a small herd of deer lifted their heads and observed us with bright black eyes for a long moment before picking up delicate hooves and white-tailing it out of there as fast as they could.

Natural food for the carnivorous dragons, I was surprised the deer were out in the open like that. In fact, looking around, I realized the place was unnaturally quiet and suspiciously absent of dragons.
Glynus, something’s not right.

I was thinking the same thing, mother Tweener.

Don’t land here, take us to the Queen’s chambers.
It was accepted practice that visitors land in the meadow and wait to be greeted by the queen or her representatives. Anything more direct was considered rude or worse, a sign of aggression. But if my suspicions were correct about Nerul, Zerphor and her nest were probably fighting for their lives and queendom. Which meant the usual rules didn’t apply.

Glynus lifted her wings and headed toward a thunderous waterfall pounding down the side of the mountain. Behind that fall were Zerphor’s chambers.

As we flew I became aware of a new vibration in the air and a heavy drone that seemed to be moving inexorably closer. “What is that?” I asked Dialle.

“Sounds like…”

I turned to look at him as I realized what it was. “Wings. Lots of them.”

I whipped around as a roar sounded in front of us. Dialle stiffened with alarm behind me.

Glynus lifted her wings and slowed her forward momentum
until we were hovering in midair. Behind us the other blacks slowed too.
This isn’t good, mother Tweener.

“What’s going on, Astra?” my aunt asked as her mount flew up next to Glynus.

“I think the shit’s about to hit the fan,” I responded.

Something in my eyes must have spooked her. She didn’t even have a smart-ass retort.

Slayer rode up on his enormous black a second later, his eyes fixed on the roiling horizon, which was growing closer by the minute. “This could get ugly, Astra.”

I suppressed a shudder and glared at him. “You think?”

He grinned, shrugging.

The horizon, as far as the eye could see, was black and boiled with frantic movement. The occasional burst of fire shone through the dark, like lightning.

“Is that what I think it is?” Myra asked.

Another roar sounded, this time from behind us. Dialle and I jerked around to find a similar sight. The horizon behind us roiled with a red tide of movement, dotted with bursts of fire.

The dragons were going to war.

And lucky us, we were smack-dab in the middle.

Chapter Sixteen

Reptilian Sunrise

The sky doth fill with flying snakes, or dragons made of fire,

And ’fore our Lady can get on, she must a pact require.

“I think we’re going to need celestial help,” Myra said.

I nodded. “Go! And hurry!”

Myra popped away. The black she’d been riding twisted around as she left, emitting a puff of surprised smoke.

“I can try to talk to the reds,” Slayer offered.

“Yes! Go.”

Slayer turned the black and they flew off, toward the red tide in the distance.

I am trying to reach Mother,
Glynus said with worry thick in her voice.
She is not responding.

Why wouldn’t she respond?

It is not good, mother Tweener. She always responds.

I didn’t want to spook Glynus but I believed that Zerphor would have to be incapacitated or worse to ignore her daughter, the future queen, in the heat of war. Unfortunately for me, Glynus was too smart not to realize this.

She must be hurt…or dead.

Let’s not jump to conclusions, Tadpole.

Her long, massive body shuddered but she didn’t respond.

“What’s going on, Astra?”

Dialle didn’t share a mind connection with Glynus so I updated him.
Glynus is trying to reach Zerphor. She isn’t responding.

She is dead.

I closed my eyes.
Don’t say that, Dialle!

We must face the facts and come up with a plan, Astra. There is not much time.

The wall of black dragons, thousands of them from what we could see, was now no farther than a half mile away and closing fast.
What do you suggest?

As Dialle hesitated, Glynus piped in.
I must assume my role as Queen. You must leave me now. I will go to my subjects, head them off and try to speak reason to them.

No! I won’t abandon you, Tadpole.

You must!
She turned her head and shared a look with the black dragon my aunt had abandoned. Suddenly we found ourselves hanging in midair, without a mount under us, as Glynus dropped away.

Before I even had time to pee myself, the other black slid beneath us and Dialle and I hit its back hard, grappling for spikes to keep from sliding off the side. I grabbed the nearest spike in both hands and searched the horizon for Glynus.

She was flying swiftly forward, toward the boiling black horizon, alone and determined.

Though I was eminently proud of her in that moment, I was also royally pissed off. I’d be the one to decide if I accompanied her on her mission of death.

I
was the adult.

I
was entitled to make stupid decisions about my own actions. She didn’t have the right to make those decisions for me.

“She’s going to meet the blacks as their queen?”

I was only slightly surprised Dialle had grasped the situation so quickly. He was both smart and a Royal himself. He would know how royalty thinks. “Yes.” I turned to him. “I need to go with her, Dialle.”

He stared at me for a long moment, his dark eyes swirling with emotion. Reaching up, he touched my chin with a warm, firm finger. “You realize it will most likely mean your death?”

I swallowed hard and nodded, tears forming in my eyes. I blinked to clear them, pissed off at myself for acting like a girl. “I can’t let her face them alone.”

Dialle sighed softly and leaned toward me, covering my lips in a soft and lingering kiss and then touched his forehead to mine. “I’ll be nearby, Astra. I’ll do what I can to help.”

I nodded, sniffed and pulled back, smoothing a hand down his square, bristly cheek. I ended the caress by pressing a fingertip into the sexy dimple in his chin. “It’s you, Dialle. I hope you know that. It’s always been you.”

He grinned. “Astra, my love, I knew that before you did.”

I chuckled. “Now wish me luck. You know I suck at this space-shifting shit. And Glynus is a moving target.”