Good Intentions (The Road to Hell Series, Book 1) (29 page)

My heart melted as I trailed my fingers over his bare legs. If I’d been well on my way to falling in love with him, those words pushed me over the edge. I’d slammed head first into this, but I had no idea what he felt for me, or if demons were even capable of love.

Looking for a way to distract myself from my turbulent emotions, I focused on something else. “Why do you have no hair on you, like other men do? Like I do?”

“This is the way I rose from the fire. However, most other demons are hairless on their bodies, though some do have facial hair along with the hair on their heads.”

“An adaption to the heat of Hell,” I guessed.

“Probably.”

“Will I ever get to see the hounds come to life?” The prospect of such a thing was both thrilling and frightening.

“Most likely, once we leave here. What we’ll face out there will be far worse than anything encountered here.”

I couldn’t imagine anything worse than those strange, pig-like madagans or those bony, mummy-zombie-like revenirs. My heart clenched in my chest at the prospect of worse things.

“Death waits out there,” I murmured.

“Is that a vision?” he inquired.

“No, I simply know it. There’s a lot of death out there, possibly ours.”

“Nothing will harm you while I live. Do not doubt that.”

His skin rippled beneath my hand, and his breath warmed my neck when he nuzzled me. He was the most powerful creature I’d ever encountered, a mountain of strength and ferocity that was enticing and sometimes overwhelming.

And he’d claimed me as his.

“I can be myself around you, I never could with any other men,” I murmured and he growled. “I always had to be guarded, I always feared I’d be discovered. I want to be yours.”

“You
are
mine, Mah Kush-la.”

My head tilted at his odd words. They sounded so old and beautiful. “What does that mean?”

“It means
my
heart
in my language.”

My eyes widened at the sweet endearment. There he went again, digging his way deeper into
my
heart. This time I didn’t stop his fingers when they slid over my skin and dipped between my thighs. I whimpered when he stroked around my center before slipping one inside of me.

“Does this hurt?” he inquired.

I was still a little sore but he eased the discomfort with his stimulating touch. “No.”

“Tell me if it does,” he commanded, and I somehow managed to nod.

His mouth slid over my neck; the scrape of his fangs against my flesh caused my breath to catch and my fingers to dig into his arms. “Do it,” I breathed, needing to feel him again.

His four fangs pierced through my skin, causing my entire body to jerk against his. The pain was sharp and fleeting, replaced with a flood of pleasure that caused wetness to spread between my legs as my body readied for him. I felt his claiming of me in the center of my soul. Sparks erupted at the ends of my fingers, licking over the detailed muscles of his thighs and swirling up to encircle my wrists. His free hand slid over mine, pressing it flat against his legs.

“Why does it only do that with you?” I gasped when his tongue licked over my skin. “It’s never been this strong or consistent before.”

He released his hold on my shoulder. “Because even the angel part of you knows you belong with me.”

“Is that true?”

I groaned when his hand fell away from its intimate caress between my legs. He lifted me in his lap, turning me to face him and adjusting me so the throbbing length of him slipped slowly inside of me when he lowered me onto him again.

“So fucking tight,” he bit out, his lips brushing against mine as his fingers curled into my waist. “I believe it’s true.”

I had no argument for him, not when I believed it was true, too.

Kobal

“What did you do, Kobal?” Bale said in our native language when she stepped beside me.

Corson and Shax stood on the other side of her. I knew immediately what she was talking about as she stared at me before looking to River.

“My relationship with her is off limits for discussion,” I replied in our language. We didn’t often speak it around humans, they didn’t like it when they didn’t know what we were talking about, but few of them were paying attention to us right now and this was not a conversation they should overhear.

“How did she manage to survive that?” Corson tilted his head, causing the earrings in the tops of his ears to spin around.

I resisted ripping those hideous things from his ears as he surveyed the marks on River’s neck. Three of my bites were clearly visible on her golden skin, but I knew there were more on her, so many more. Just the thought of it made me shift uncomfortably as blood flooded my cock.

I’d mark her over and over again tonight too.

“She’s stronger than she looks,” I replied blandly.

“She must be as I’m assuming there are more beneath her shirt.”

My fangs burst free as I turned on him. “It’s none of your concern what’s under her shirt!”

Corson took a startled step back, holding his hands up as he moved away. “Easy,” he said. “I have no interest at all in it.”

I continued to glower at him, but my fangs retracted before I turned my attention back to River. A girl giggled and brushed one of Corson’s dangling, unicorn earrings with her fingertips as she walked by him.

“You could always bring me a set of yours if you came to the fire tonight, love,” he told her in English and winked at her.

She giggled again, blushing prettily as her eyes fluttered. “Maybe,” she replied and hurried away with one of her friends.

He turned toward me, the smile instantly slipping from his face when I scowled at him.

“We know what those marks mean, but the humans don’t,” Shax said, slipping back into our native tongue. “There’s already been talk among them that the two of you are screwing; this will confirm it in their minds. They’ll have no idea what to make of this.”

“Am I supposed to care?”

“After yesterday, yes. They’re already more wary of us,” Bale said.

“The humans barely go near her as it is. They don’t know what those marks stand for, but they’ll recognize she’s under my protection and leave her be,” I said. “The men will know to stop looking at her too.”
They had better know.

“She’s the key we’ve been searching for; you risk everything if things go badly between you two.”

“
Nothing
will go badly between us!” I snapped. “She is my Chosen; I cannot stay away from her.”

My gaze instantly returned to River in the crowd of humans. All I wanted was to pull her from here and shelter her from the glances and whispers swirling around her. She didn’t pay them any attention, but I knew she felt betrayed by her own kind. A kind she may save from becoming extinct. I’d like to tear every one of the ungrateful pricks to pieces with my bare hands.

“There
is
no staying away from one’s Chosen,” Shax murmured. “And judging by the bite I see on your neck, there is more demon in her than I think any of us believed there to be.”

I hadn’t tried to cover her mark on me; I wouldn’t. River may not feel the Chosen bond as strongly as I did and may be uncertain about what it really was between us, but a part of her recognized me as hers also, and I would wear her brand for the rest of my days. Or hers. I loathed the reminder of her mortality.

“Such an interesting change of events,” Bale murmured.

Beside her, Corson laughed. “Yes, it is.”

“Taken down by a human and Lucifer’s daughter to boot,” Shax snorted. “I never saw that one coming.”

“I could have a vision every day, and still not have seen that one coming,” Bale laughed.

“She’s not a human,” I reminded them, trying not to let my irritation show. Around us, humans glanced questioningly our way when the others continued to chuckle and elbow each other.

“She’s not,” Corson agreed, the first to regain complete control of himself. “And that’s what makes this riskier. You know what she is, know she may be the only hope we have of ending this with Lucifer. The only hope we have of surviving. If the others get their hands on her—”

“That’s
not
going to happen!” I interrupted brusquely.

“Then they would also control you,” Corson continued as if I hadn’t spoken. “There is no denying you’ve claimed her as your Chosen. She has also claimed
you,
though I’m sure she doesn’t quite comprehend the strength of the bond or the power that will start to come with it. But with more power comes new weakness.”

“More checks and balances,” I muttered. “I have explained to her what has happened between us, what those marks mean. She may not grasp it in the same way as a demon, but she understands.”

“And the mission?” Corson pressed.

I raked him from head to toe with a scathing glare. Shax took a step away, but Corson held his ground. “I understand the mission comes before she does.”

No matter how much I would prefer not to have River involved in this, I had no choice. The lives of thousands of demons depended on me; they had since the moment I’d been forged as a weapon against Lucifer. There had never been any doubt that the fires had created me specifically to defeat Lucifer.

There was a reason many of my ancestors since Lucifer arrived in Hell barely made it a century while I had lived fifteen hundred years. There was a reason I bore the mark of Ziwa and the hounds when no other had before me. Those fires had forged me to reclaim Hell from Lucifer, and I could not turn my back on the many who depended on me to do so. The humans depended on us too; however, I cared less for them than my demon brethren. I didn’t want River involved, but I would keep her safe and do what must be done.

“You say that now, but if something were to happen where she fell into the wrong hands, then what?” Shax inquired.

“It won’t happen,” I replied brusquely and focused on River in the line again.

She grabbed a sandwich and placed it on her tray as a blonde woman stepped into line behind her. The woman looked oddly familiar to me, but I couldn’t quite place her. More filed into the line behind River; they maintained their distance from her but also blocked my view. I knew she was there, could feel her as clearly as if she were still against me.

“Kobal—”

“Enough!” I interrupted Shax harshly. “I understand your concerns, but I will keep her safe and do what must be done. It is
my
throne; I cannot forget that. The need to claim it has been with me since the second I arose from those fires, just as it was inbred into all the varcolacs before me.”

Shax wisely remained silent.

“What of her mortality?” Bale inquired. “You can’t try to change her until all of this is over.”

“She would be stronger as an immortal demon,” Corson argued. “Maybe it would be best if he attempted it before we left here.”

“And if she doesn’t survive it?” Bale demanded.

“There
is
demon in her; she will survive it,” Corson insisted.

“I cannot take the chance,” I murmured as I folded my arms over my chest and studied the crowd of humans. “Not only can I not take the risk of her not surviving it, but there is no way to know what it would do to her. It could amplify her powers beyond her control, or it could douse all of her angel abilities and make her entirely demon.”

“Are you going to be able to tolerate her mortality?” Shax inquired.

“I have no choice.”

They exchanged looks that I purposely ignored as I studied the crowd. I would do whatever it took to keep River safe, defeat Lucifer, and claim my throne. Even deny the demon instincts screaming at me to take her mortality from her.

“She is not to know it is possible for her to be able to do such a thing, at least not until I’m ready to tell her,” I commanded. “Make sure the others know that too.”

“We will,” Bale replied.

“Our queen,” Corson murmured when River briefly reappeared.

“She is,” Bale said. “It is an odd pairing, but it is also a good one. With what she is, she is a powerful ally.”

“If she becomes immortal and bears your children, even without your abilities, they will grow to be formidable,” Shax said.

My heart swelled at the possibility of children and an eternity with River. She’d somehow managed to bring out more emotions in me and surprise me more than anyone I’d ever known in such a short time. I couldn’t wait to discover what else she could do over our lifetimes together.

I only had to make sure she survived her mortality first.

***

River

“Whore.”

Too focused on retrieving food from the line, I didn’t realize the word had been hissed at
me
until I felt an elbow in my ribs. I grunted and glanced at the offending elbow before looking into the eyes of the woman who had delivered the blow. I sighed when I recognized the same woman who had stepped in front of Kobal and me to hit on him all those days ago.

Great, now I got to have a fun run-in with Kobal’s ex. Jealousy coiled within me as I took in her pretty, almost elfin features and blonde hair. Her brown eyes burned with hatred as they raked over the bite marks on my neck. I couldn’t have covered them if I’d tried, and I hadn’t bothered to try.

They were
his
marks on me and I didn’t care who saw them. They would know he was mine as much as I was his. Women, especially this one, would realize he was off limits, and if they didn’t realize it by the marks alone, I had no problem with setting their asses on fire.

“Dirty, filthy, whore,” the woman continued.

“I don’t think we’ve had the chance to meet,” I said and turned toward her. I extended my hand as I smiled at her. “I’m River, the whore, and you are?”

She stared at my hand like it was covered in slime and had an eyeball in the palm. “Demon slut.”

I lowered my hand and pushed my tray down the line again. “And I thought my mom had odd taste in names. Do your parents call you D.S. for short?”

I may be able to start fires, but I was fairly certain her head might explode. I braced myself, ready to smash my tray off her face if she made one hostile move toward me. She didn’t like me and the feeling was mutual. The idea of her knowing what Kobal felt like made my hands clamp around the tray so violently the plastic cracked beneath my grasp.

Yep, I would love any excuse to bash her pretty little face into something unrecognizable.

“Bitch,” she spat.

At least she was coming up with something new. I turned my attention away from her. I wouldn’t be gaining anyone’s trust by kicking the crap out of her right now.

“I had him first,” she taunted.

Despite my every intention not to acknowledge her again, my eyes flew back to her. My teeth grated together and something crackled. Glancing down, I jerked my hand back and shoved it in my pocket when a golden-white spark shot across my fingertips.

Emotion,
I realized,
strong
emotion was what caused that ability to burst forth.

Finally
, I had some knowledge of this inner ability. The only problem was I could feel the sparks crackling between my fingers now and I had no idea how to stop them.

These people had been afraid enough of my ability to emit fire; they would run screaming if I threw this at them too. They could see the demons weren’t like them, but I’d blended in. I’d been one of them, even if older than a normal volunteer, but still completely human looking in every possible way, until I’d lit a monster on fire. If I turned into a life-force conductor that shot sparks, I’d have no shot of ever having one of them trust me again.

What does it matter? What do you care what they think of you? You’re not one of them, not really.

I didn’t know why, but for some reason it did matter. Maybe it was because even with all of my oddities, I still felt like one of them. I’d been human for all but two months of my life. Those two months had completely changed the way I saw everything and upended what had been a mostly normal life. I wanted some normalcy again, and people represented that to me.

I had to get away from this woman before I lost complete control. Grabbing a sandwich, I didn’t bother to look at what it was before I slapped it on my tray and turned away.

“You’ll get what you deserve, bitch,” she spat at me.

I stopped, my eyes narrowing on her. “I already did get him.”

Keeping my chin lifted, I strode through the crowd toward where Kobal stood with Bale, Shax, and Corson. He took my tray from me and carried it outside with the others flanking behind us. I refused to look at her again, but I couldn’t shake the sick feeling in the pit of my stomach as I felt the woman’s eyes burning into my back.