First And Last (15 page)

“Holy shit.” Yep, holy swear words were all my mind could come up with.

“You’ve grasped the seriousness here,” Ember replied to my outburst. “The strength to use this rune is not an easy task.”

“Jesus. Okay, I grasp the situation.” This just became all too real, and for the first time in this whole ridiculous thing, I felt scared—really, really, fucking scared. “Do I even have the strength to do what you’re suggesting?”

Ember nodded. “My ruin spoke to you. Only one capable would have that affect on it.”

I rubbed a hand over my face, tried to sort all this out, get a grasp on really what I had to do here. I needed to simplify things. “So, I just find Mammon, use that rune, then poof he’ll go back. I just have to say those words and close off the realm.” Putting it that way didn’t seem like such a big deal—draw a little rune, say a few words, easy peasy, right?

Ember’s eyes darkened, her face said it all, but she answered anyway. “I’m sorry, it will not be that easy.”

“It never is,” I grumbled.

“When I failed, it left an opening for the Demon Lords to return again. To be summoned if needed.”

“Why haven’t they summoned the Demon Lords before now?”

“I’d suspect the reasons behind that are because they’ve been happy with their leaders. There was no reason for them to return—until now.” She took a deep breath. “And now that Mammon has returned and not been immediately sent back, his strength will grow.”

“Well, that doesn’t sound good,” I stated the obvious.

“It’s not. Mammon will siphon energy from the demons who have summoned him. I can promise by this time, he’s fully restored and will seek to restore all the Demon Lords back into the Underworld.” Yup, it was as a bad as I thought. “He will start to summon the rest of the Demon Lords and when they return, they’ll use a very old rune…”

I interrupted her. “Let me guess. It’s a pentacle with a goat’s head?”

She nodded solemnly. “It is Satan’s symbol.
Occultus Unus.
The hidden one—he hides in all. Is all. The magic comes from Satan himself.” She gave me a very stern look. “If you fail here and cannot banish them before they use this rune, they’ll begin the ritual and once they draw that rune, I’m sorry to say, your fight will be pointless.”

“What is the ritual they will do?” Zia asked her.

“Any rituals that have to do with the Demon Lords and Satan’s magic, always take place in apple orchards.”

“I noticed that. Apples were at all of the scenes.”

“They’d have to,” Ember answered. “Apples were the very beginning.”

“The very beginning of what?” I had to ask.

“Adam and Eve. The forbidden fruit. Satan tempted them and they were not powerful enough to deny him. Thus, came the first sin. In basic terms, it was the first offering of a soul. The first humans who turned to him.”

I guffawed. “Seriously, that story was true?”

Ember nodded firmly. “Most of the history within the Earthworld has significant truth, it sometimes just gets a little muffled is all.” I gave my head a little shake to process that as she continued. “The apple trees are an energy source. That’s why you’ll notice that the apples around the rune have died—it has stolen the life from them.”

My head was spinning. As much as I tried to listen, I needed to clear a few things up before I could move on. “What hadn’t the Fae leader, Aaliya, thought of this and not closed off the realm to the Demon Lords too?”

The second my words ended, Ember lit up—I mean lit up—like glowing all over her body. “Er…what is wrong with you?”

Her eyes widened as she glanced down at her glowing arms. “Oh, it’s nothing.” She rubbed her arms as if that was going to take it away. “My magic overwhelms me at times.”

“Well that was just weird,”
I speculated.

“Certainly was,”
Zia replied.

Ember closed her eyes, then the glow completely vanished and she continued as if nothing had just happened. “The Fae act foretold events. Did you know that?”

It took a moment to stop looking at her arms, which now appeared totally normal, but needed these answers, I dragged my gaze back to her. “I heard something about that.”

“Well at the time, it was only foretold to close the realm off so Satan could never escape, not the Demon Lords. No one expected that the Demon Lords would want to return and leave Satan, or that anyone would create a rune so strong the Demon Lords would be able to siphon Satan’s magic.”

That just seemed ridiculous. If they had done this in the first place, I wouldn’t be in this mess. “They never go against that they’ve
foretold
?”

“Never,” Ember replied adamantly. “It didn’t reveal itself until many years later that leaving the Demon Lords free to roam was a mistake. This rune, with the goat head, is the strongest of Black Magic known. Obviously, it has yet to be tested, since I did stop them before.” Her look was troubled. “But I do not doubt for a moment that once Mammon gathers his strength, he will start to bring back the others as you’ve already seen. When they call to Satan’s magic,” she actually paled before my eyes. “Hell on Earth will be among us.”

Wonderful!

“All right, so what’s with the Alpha-Omega rune? How does it work?” I asked, though I didn’t want to think about the idea of just what Satan’s magic could do if unleashed. Bah!

“There are two dangerous elements to using this rune against the Demon Lords. Firstly, if you’re not strong enough to use it, it won’t work for you, therefore, you’ll be standing face-to-face with the most powerful demons, defenseless. If you succeed and draw yourself into the rune’s power, then you will face Satan himself.”

“Excuse me?” I couldn’t have heard that right.

Her brows rose, a look of surprise crossed her face as she looked to Zia then back to me. “Did you not realize that you would be drawn into the Realm of Dead?”

“Er…no.” Did she say this before? Either I heard it and didn’t process it or she had not made herself clear.

“When the Pentacle opens to the Realm to the Dead, it’s Satan you’ll encounter. You’ll need to overcome his lure to close it and deny the power he offers to you. If you don’t, the realm will not close and this could happen again.”

Enough said. I jumped to my feet, looking for my exit. “That’s it. No fucking way. You’re all insane. I ain’t doing this. I’m not talking to the Devil. Are you insane?”

Ember smiled through my hysteria. “Finally, the appropriate reaction.”

Suddenly, Ember’s front door slammed open, the cold wind blasted through the room and Kyden lunged through with sword drawn. At first, I leapt with joy to be united with him, but that quickly changed to total irritation as he tackled me to the ground. “What the hell are you doing?” I squeaked from beneath him.

He glanced around quickly, his heavy weight made breathing difficult. “Where is the trouble?”

“There is no trouble,” I snapped. “Get off me.”

He jumped to his feet and pulled me with him. His gaze fell to Ember and Zia, who sat wide-eyed at him, then he looked back to me. “What had you so afraid?”

Finally this little interruption all made sense. He had sensed my fear. He thought I was in danger and came to help me. I burst out laughing, as did Zia and Ember. “Oh God, did you see that?” I exclaimed through my laughter.

“What is funny?” Kyden didn’t find it amusing. “And what made you so afraid?”

“He just ran in like He-Man,” I gasped, holding onto my stomach, which made Zia and Ember just laugh harder.

“You can all stop that,” Kyden said, annoyed. We didn’t. Finally after a moment, Kyden’s impatience ran even higher and washed right through me. He cleared his throat, an obvious attempt to save face. “It looks as though you’re fine here. I’ll meet you at home.” He left, leaving us all hyperventilating.

After a good five minutes of laughing, I grasped my stomach, begged my insides to relax a little. “That was too funny.”

Zia wiped some tears and sighed. “The fear he senses is new to him so it will come out quite intense. He’s not used to feeling that from you and I’d expect he is not used to feeling such an emotion at all.”

“You are newly bonded?” Ember asked.

“Just a few nights ago,” I responded, sat beside Zia and wrapped the blanket back around me.

“Ahh,” she said in understanding. “It takes some time to get used to feeling someone else’s emotions and understand them. He must have assumed fear meant danger.”

“My insides feel bruised.” Then, I sighed, sending away that moment to laugh about later and got back on topic. “Anyways, what were we talking about?”

“Satan,” Zia offered.

Thankfully, Kyden’s little hero moment eased my hysteria and I could think a little more clearly. “All right, so tell me everything again from the very beginning.”

She did just that. Told me of the history which I already knew, explained that we needed to let all the Demon Lords be summoned into the Underworld, because without doing so, I couldn’t banish them all and close off the realm. Then once we had them all together, I needed to draw the rune before them. If it didn’t work, I’d be in deep shit. If it did, I still had to ignore Satan’s pull and close the realm.

A good thing was that my magic would protect me there. Satan couldn’t do a damn thing to me, but it wasn’t any more settling.

Why did the difficult shit always seem so simple to say, yet be so damn difficult in reality?

The second we stepped back into the Otherworld, we were bombarded in the Foyer.

Quinney, Tyde, Azar and Misa babbled quickly. Ryker had Sabi wrapped in his arms. Obviously, she had another vision—being that she appeared utterly drained. Haven and Finn asked questions continually, and Kyden stood off to the side, arms crossed, smiling sultrily.

“Well, hello to you,” I said through the loudness that surrounded me. Everyone went quiet.

Zia chuckled. “That’s a bit better, I should say.”

“Come on.” I waved everyone on as I started toward the Council Hall. “Let’s get everyone together so we don’t have to go through this a thousand times.”

When we stepped into the Council’s Hall, Talon, Zade and Brax sat in their throne chairs. Then, like on cue, the chatter started all over again. But, one voice clearly broke through.

“I need you,”
Kyden’s voice purred in my mind.

Zia’s gaze immediately fell to him, then me, and she winked. I slammed up my shield quickly to keep her out. Some things she just didn’t need to hear, and I was only too happy that at times like this I could keep my mind private.

“I want to enjoy every square…”

Haven tapped her foot impatiently, and kept repeating, “So, tell us, what happened?”

As much as I tried to ignore Kyden, I shivered slightly, the heat of his words poured through me. No one ever mentioned this part of the bond. Apparently, after a long separation, once you were reunited, the need to join would overwhelm. Focus became a challenge.

“Mammon has taken over the Underworld.” Quinney said,

“We came immediately,” Misa called out.

Ryker’s voice was slightly louder than the rest. “Sabi had a vision, but we couldn’t get to you in time. Another Demon has been summoned.”

“I want to spread your legs…”

Oh, Jesus!

“Quiet!” I exclaimed. “All of you.” I glanced at Kyden and gave him a stern look. “You, too.”

He responded with a smile that was purely sexual, which sent a blast of desire to steal my breath. Good God, the man could undo me with a simple look.

The voices around me finally quieted.

I cleared my throat, demanded my body to give it a rest. “Ryker, thanks for trying to get to us in time.” He nodded at the acknowledgment. Then, I glanced to Sabi. “Are you okay?”

She nodded. “Just tired.” She looked it too, the visions always felt so weak. Good thing I could fix that. I stepped forward, took her hand and gave her a blast of Spirit to revive her. In an instant, color returned to her face.

With that out of the way, I looked at Quinney. “Now then, what was that you said?” “Mammon has summoned Asmodeus, the second Demon Lord.”

I pointed at Sabi. “Yeah, old news, but thanks for the warning.”

Quinney gave an appreciative nod and continue, “They have returned to the Underworld and taken it over.” She gave me a meaningful look. “All have sworn allegiance to them.”

Big surprise there.

“We came immediately,” Misa repeated herself.

“I want to feel you wrapped around…”

My cheeks flushed. Dear God! My body trembled and everything else quivered in response too. Heat built in places that should remain cold when surrounded by this many people.

Tyde gave me a curious look. “Is everything all right, Nexi?”

“I’m fine,” I answered, gave a wave of my hand to dismiss him. No, I didn’t need them all to know this. Moving along was the only way I was going to get through this. “So, Mammon is powerful again?”

Tyde nodded. “Extremely. He appears almost fully restored. The second we saw him, we knew exactly what happened, so before we had to swear allegiance to him, we came here quickly.”

“Asmodeus is still very weak, but it won’t take long. I have a suspicion that they will all soon return.” Quinney added.

She was right on the marker.

“We appreciate your loyalty to us.” Kyden said, no hint of desire in his tone. How in the hell did he do that? To me, he said,
“Feel you warm, wet…”

I exhaled a deep breath as my entire body warmed with a need that was uncontrollable. I squeezed my thighs together, prayed I didn’t do something very embarrassing here.

“Have you discovered anything in the Diabolous Somes?” Azar asked.

I could barely speak. My stomach clenched with a wild hunger to be with Kyden.

“She has found something, yes, but we also have just discovered how to stop this.” Zia responded for me.

Bless her heart for saying something. There was just no way in hell I could answer anything right now. My throat felt tight, my mind centered on the throb between my legs.

“What has taken place?” Talon asked.

Zia explained the past events as Kyden continued to whisper enticing words to me. By the end of it, I could barely even stand, even squirmed a little. Haven eyeballed me as if I was out of my mind. Obviously, hearing of this crazy shit shouldn’t be arousing.

After Zia finished, Talon asked, “We need to do what?”

Zia nodded grimly. “You didn’t mistake what I said. Ember instructed us to let Mammon summon all the Demon Lords. It’s the only way to send them back to the Realm of the Dead and close it. They need to be together to do it, since that’s the way they entered the realm.”

“Rubbing along…”

I shivered, tried everything to keep my focus on Zia. I couldn’t look at Kyden. My control barely hung on, and if I met those light green eyes, I’d be a goner.

“But if we allow that, human lives will be taken.” Haven squeaked.

“I know that, but we don’t really have a choice, now do we?” I was horrified to note that my voice came out husky and deep.

Everyone’s gaze flashed to mine, clearly not understanding the tone of my voice. I smiled, embarrassed, and gave a nervous laugh.

Haven leaned forward and whispered, “Um, are you okay?”

I nodded. My face burned, red heat blasted my cheeks. Suddenly, it became quite apparent that I had been rubbing my thighs together. In front of everyone, too.

Dear God!

“Mmm…your body needs me…”

I forced myself to stop moving about, focused on my shield harder. I wanted, needed, to keep Kyden out. I put everything I had into it, held it firm.

“Craves and wants me…”

Shit! It didn’t work. I couldn’t block him out.

Everyone looked at me as if I was right off my rocker, as my breath became pants. Not only was this deathly embarrassing, but seriously, the desire running through me was unbearable and completely uncontrollable.

“Just continue,” I said urgently, desperate to think of something else.

Thankfully, Zade listened. “I suppose we don’t have a choice here. If it will ensure the Demon Lords will never return, this has to be done. We have a responsibility to finish this.”

“My cock begs for you…”

That was it. Without thought, I snapped my gaze toward Kyden, the desire that I had been trying to keep at bay flooded me. He looked equal parts amused and aroused. Unable to stop myself, I ran toward him. He picked me up, grasped me tight, and leveled me with a kiss that was desire at its best. He began to walk, the air breezed past as he hurried out of the Council’s Hall.

Talon cleared his throat. “Kyden…”

Kyden growled in response, never stopped our departure or kissing me.

A few minutes later, a door slammed and before I knew it, I was sprawled upon our bed. He drew away from my lips with an expression that left me breathless, tore off his kilt, while I removed my shorts.

Instantly, he was on me. He grasped my hips, raised my ass off the bed and impaled me with fierce determination. I screamed out at the intensity of it, the intrusion of such hardness forcing its way into my body.

Separation from each other caused his body to respond with full-blown need. The meaning of the word
woody
came with a whole new understanding. This wasn’t meant to be lovemaking, but to release the tension he’d suffered from our separation. His need to have my body sailed through me and soared through our bond. I felt it just as strong, my body so ready for him and eager to find its release.

His thrusts were rough and fast. The hardness within me almost hurt with the pleasure it gave. I gripped his flanks as he demolished me with his body. His gaze stayed glued on me, intense and completely focused on staking his claim. The heavy weight that slammed against me forced screams from my throat that illustrated just how incredible this was.

Within minutes, his grunts had deepened and I was on the brink of eternal glory. He gripped my shoulders, using that advantage to gain speed. And he gave it.

Thrusts that showed his strength, proved just how powerful he was. My body responded completely and I screamed louder to urge him on. So close, almost there. My entire body tensed.

After a hard thrust, he grabbed onto my legs and put them over his shoulders. The angle was an instant rush to my senses. He was in so deep, right to my very core and I could feel it all throughout my body. He placed his hands next to me on the bed and angled me up further, so he could fill me as much as he could. My eyes went wide as “oh shit” echoed from my mouth.

He grinned devilishly and my body squeezed around him, responded to just how sexy I found that smile. Then, he leveled me with hard thrusts that no woman should be able to survive, yet I begged for more. My screams, his deep grunts, settled through the room. He angled me even more and it was just the spot. “Don’t stop…oh God…”

Kyden growled as my body went into full spasms around him. His thrusts increased in speed and that was all it took. I screamed, he roared, and we both got lost in our own surrenders.

Before I could even remember my own name, a hiss came beside my head. I glanced over to find Willow glaring at us. “
Next time you two decide to treat each others’ bodies like a battering ram, would you mind letting me know so I can move. Now get off, you’re on my tail.”

“Oh, shit! Sorry Willow, I didn’t know you were under there.” I lifted my back and she jumped off the bed and hissed at us.

We both chuckled.

“The bond, the need to have you so intensely was not something I expected.” Kyden jumped off the bed and reached for me. “But we have more important matters to get back to.”

I laughed. “Really? Sex in the middle of this isn’t important?”

“Not that it isn’t important—having you will always top my priority list—but as Talon once told us, getting our rocks off should be done at more appropriate times.”

That made me act and act quickly. Talon was going to be pissed. Kyden and I were known for one thing, our lack of control. Facing the Devil actually appealed to me more right now than what I’d face when we saw Talon again.

I quickly got dressed and was out the door only a minute later. As we headed down the hall towards the foyer, I glanced at Kyden. “This is going to be embarrassing, you do realize that everyone knows we just…you know.”

He winked, but said nothing. Classic Kyden, ashamed of nothing, and would never apologize for his
needs.

When we stepped through the Council’s Hall, I expected Talon to be angry. He knew our control lacked when it came to each other, and it pissed him off more than once, when we acted on our impulses at inappropriate times. This was clearly an inappropriate time. But I was surprised when I met Talon’s gaze, he looked far from upset. In fact, he looked amused.

“Sorry about that,” I said, flustered.

Talon waved it away and smiled. “You’re newly bonded. It is to be expected.”

Phew!

Misa cleared her throat. “I’m sorry to interrupt, but we do have pressing matters here.”

“Right. Back to business.”

Azar continued if we hadn’t just left. “It won’t take long before Mammon summons them all and their strength is restored.”

“Not long like what, a day, a week…what?” I asked.

“A few nights.”

I sighed very, very, deeply, and glanced at Kyden. “We have our work cut out for us with this one.”

He nodded grimly and glanced at Quinney. “If it wouldn’t be any trouble, I was curious if you assist me to test the shield Nexi provides to me.”

Quinney’s brows rose in surprise. “You want me to attack you?”

Dammit!
I was hoping he forgot about that little test he had in his mind. Not that I didn’t want him by me through this, I did. I just didn’t like the idea of him being attacked, and having to watch it. It came with mixed feelings.

In response, Kyden took my hand in his and squeezed it. “I trust you will deal with this, but it’s important I’m there with you. I…”

He was being sweet, trying to be supportive and not his usual overbearing self. I gave him a little kiss for that. “I want you there. I
need
you there,” I told him truthfully. I just didn’t like the idea of this test. Watch while he is attacked unsettled me.