The Demon and the Succubus (32 page)

Amalya’s switchblade. The one he’d watched Jethro lay into her open palm not too long ago.

He looked at his mother as horror bloomed through him.

He’d never deluded himself that his mother was a saint. She was a demon, after all. But she’d apparently hidden many things from him in her quest to keep him as the duke so she could maintain appearances and the lifestyle she’d built. But he’d mistakenly thought her time among the human realm had mellowed her, tempered her.

He’d obviously been very wrong. And now Amalya had paid the price.

She’d come here looking for him, he realized as guilt stabbed deep. He’d left Lilith’s lair without a word to her, and his stubborn, independent Amalya had followed him, knowing him well enough to know where he would’ve gone.

This entire situation was his fault. If he’d just talked to her before running away as Uriel had accused him, she would still be safe in her rooms back at Lilith’s lair rather than lying limp in a house that embodied his past.

Amalya’s arm moved catching his attention, and he bit back a sigh of relief that she was still alive. Instead, he kept his attention on his mother, trying to figure the best way to get both Amalya and Jezebeth safely out of here. “You’ve also just made it quite clear where your loyalties lie . . . Mother.”

A quick gasp from Jezebeth reminded Levi that his relationship with Caldriel wasn’t commonly known. If they survived this, there would be fallout from that. But that was a worry for another time.

“Obediah—” Caldriel began.

“Welcome to the party, Levi, and thank you for bringing me another of the four.” The smooth voice sent icy fingers of dread racing down Levi’s spine and out of his peripheral vision he saw Jezebeth-Uriel stiffen.

“Semiazas.” Uriel’s voice with Jezebeth’s now familiar inflections struck Levi as odd, but all he wanted at this moment was to run to Amalya’s side and spirit her back to safety. Instead, he turned so he could keep everyone in sight.

Semiazas’s appearance surprised him. He supposed he’d expected someone more . . . sinister. Instead, he was dressed in a Renaissance gentlemen’s riding costume, and the only clue to his true identity the shrewd icy expression in his blue eyes.

“Isn’t this cozy,” the demon said as he sauntered forward. “I like you much better in your own form, Jezebeth. Uriel’s never been quite my type.”

Jezebeth stepped away, keeping distance between them, her fearsome Uriel form still managing to look vulnerable in the face of the demon she’d hidden from for seven centuries.

“Ashford,” Semiazas said, using the name of his dukedom, as was common among English peers. “You do realize there’s a bounty on Jezebeth’s head here, don’t you? I’ll be happy to pay it to you. Anything in particular you’d like? Your mother has already earned the one for Amalya.”

Levi’s anger burned and he tightened his grip on the dagger in his hand. He could clearly imagine plunging it deep into both Semiazas’s heart and then Caldriel’s. But those actions wouldn’t save Amalya or Jezebeth.

Energy runs through all things
.
Like calls like
.

Uriel’s cryptic words echoed through Levi’s mind, and as their meaning finally became clear, he allowed a smile to curve his lips. He placed the blade of the dagger in his right hand and ignoring the pain, he closed his right fingers around it, welcoming the stinging bite of the sharp blade as it sank into his skin.

He pulled the dagger free, slicing deep until he could smell his own blood thick and heady.

Caldriel’s slow smile confused him and made him doubt for a split second, but a quick glance at Amalya decided his actions. Levi took a deep breath and yelled at the top of his lungs, “By your blood that runs through our veins, I summon you.”

Nothing happened for a long pregnant pause and Semiazas began to laugh. “I’d say you’re on your own, Ashford. Apparently, your blood isn’t worth all that much.”

Jezebeth met his gaze and held up a hand as she pointedly looked at his dagger. He had more, so he tossed her the one in his hand, which she caught easily despite his awkward left-handed toss. Just as she adopted a fighting stance and faced Semiazas’s amused expression, the familiar static electricity that heralded the onset of the summoning crackled through the room raising all the hairs on Levi’s body and sending energy swirling through the room in a breath-stealing rush much more intense than it had been the last time.

An earsplitting boom crashed through the room as Raphael appeared wearing his black leathers, his face a mask of anger and retribution as he turned in a slow circle taking in the entire scene.

“You’ve no right to interfere here, Raphael,” Semiazas’s voice boomed through the room. “I’m not to interfere with the succubus, but I have blood debts owed to me from everyone in this room except you and one other.”

Semiazas sneered. “I noticed you’d shared a bit of yourself with Amalya. That will only make her a better plaything for me.” He shrugged. “Faster healing, more endurance, and more of an energy burst each time I drain her.”

“My blood debts take precedence over your revenge, and I’ll fight for those in this room who owe me. You’ll have to wait for another time.”

“Choose your battles wisely, Raphael. The only reason I let all of you live last time we met was nostalgia for Gabriel.”

Raphael laughed as he reached out to pull Jezebeth behind him. A very odd scene since she was still in Uriel’s large form. “Nostalgia had very little to do with it as both you and I know.”

Semiazas slowly smiled, the expression sending dread curling through Levi. “Kill her.”

Caldriel nodded and met Levi’s gaze for a long moment.

Levi could kill her but not before she plunged the switchblade through Amalya’s heart.

“Mother, no. Please.” His voice was pleading.

“I’m sorry,” she whispered as she lifted the long silver blade and quickly sliced open her own throat.

It took a long few seconds for Levi’s mind to make sense of what he saw, and when he finally did he rushed forward catching his mother’s light form as she crumpled to the ground.

“No!” As Caldriel
crumpled and Levi caught her limp form, Amalya found the strength to push herself up to sit. She’d finally figured out what benefit all of Raphael’s blood had afforded her. Semiazas had drained nearly half her blood, torturing her for nearly an hour, but she continued to heal. She was low on energy, but even now she knew she shouldn’t be able to sit up, let alone speak.

Everyone in the room seemed to freeze as they realized who had spoken.

“I really must thank you for your gift to the succubus, Raphael,” Semiazas growled. “As I said, it will make her much more interesting for the next million years or so until I get tired of her.”

“No.” Amalya slowly pushed to a stand, pulling her dress closed to cover her bare breasts.

“No?” Semiazas laughed. “My dear, what can you do about it?”

Raphael held up a hand. “I call for a judgment of blood debts.”

Semiazas stilled. Lucifer would preside if he agreed to the judgment, and he was trying to stay under the radar since he’d technically escaped. Normally having Lucifer preside wouldn’t guarantee a fair hearing, but with current circumstances being what they were, Semiazas might not be so willing to bet on that.

“If I agree to let you use the argument of blood debts owed, you won’t be able to use it again. The next time we meet, everything will go to me.”

Raphael smiled. “I agree that once used, the blood debts can’t be reused. However, that doesn’t mean our next meeting will go in your favor, Semiazas. I won’t give up without a fight, and neither will you. It will be up to our Father to decide.”

Semiazas snorted. “Our Father. He would have to be paying attention for that to happen.” He gestured with a flourish. “Take those who owe you a blood debt and go. Leave the rest for me.”

Amalya stared across the room at her sister and wondered who would be the last person in the room when they were gone.

Raphael smiled and waved as everyone except for Semiazas and the elderly butler hiding in the corner disappeared.

As
soon as the group rematerialized in the large receiving cavern in Lilith’s lair, Levi looked around to get his bearings. The entire cavern was in chaos, their small group scattering faster than Levi could find them.

He glanced behind him to find Raphael gently holding Caldriel in his arms. She was pale, but the deep wound in her throat was no more than a healed red line now.

Levi wasn’t sure about the blood debt his mother owed to Raphael, but her life was forfeit for what she’d done to Amalya.

“She didn’t summon Semiazas.”

“Excuse me?” Levi heard Raphael’s words, but they wouldn’t make sense inside his brain. “I saw her standing over Amalya back in the ballroom.”

“One of the guards called Semiazas when he recognized Amalya. Your mother was trying to protect Amalya and had tried to summon me several times, but since she and I share no blood ties, she couldn’t invoke a strong enough summons. It’s extremely difficult for demons to summon any type of angel, let alone an Archangel.”

A large hand squeezed Levi’s heart until he thought it would explode out of his chest. “She didn’t . . .” He couldn’t bring himself to say the words.

“No. Despite everything, she loves you and wants you to be happy. She knew if she didn’t follow Semiazas’s directive, she would be tortured for eternity, but if she did, you would hate her. So she chose to take herself out of the equation.”

“She’s dead?” Levi’s gut knotted at the thought. He’d assumed even after that horrific injury that Raphael wouldn’t have wasted time healing a dead woman. Was this really just her human host’s shell that Raphael held?

“She’s very weak. But alive.”

Levi laughed as relief washed through him. “Stubborn, resilient wench.” He laid a hand on Raphael’s shoulder. “Thank you.”

Raphael smiled. “I’ll let her know to come and see you when things are sorted out?”

Levi nodded, grateful that he’d get another chance to speak with his mother. Another chance he’d make sure neither of them wasted.

“The queen wishes to see you at once.”

Levi turned to find an incubus several inches shorter than himself dressed in the male version of an
I Dream of Jeannie
outfit.

Levi hadn’t expected any different. Lilith had let him go after Amalya, thus living up to her side of their bargain. Now it was his turn.

Hopefully whatever Lilith required of him wouldn’t require him to never see Amalya again.

Amalya
was almost entirely healed by the time Raphael brought them all back to Lilith’s lair. She wasn’t used to Raphael’s potent blood pumping through her veins, but she couldn’t deny she appreciated the benefits.

She turned to find Levi, craning her neck to see over the milling crowd that had gathered in the main cavern at the news of their return. She and Levi had a lot to discuss and she refused to wait until something else could happen to stop her.

“Lilith wanted him taken straight to her.”

Amalya whirled to find Jezebeth standing behind her with a frown. “He made a very open-ended deal with her to be able to come after you.”

“He what?” Something like panic squeezed Amalya’s heart as she stared at her sister. “What was the deal?”

“Lilith told him he could go after you for a price to be named later, and he agreed.”

The implications of such a deal froze all Amalya’s blood to an icy sludge inside her veins. “No!” Amalya pulled away from her sister’s concerned grip and ran down the hall toward Lilith’s rooms. She had to stop this somehow, even if she had to offer herself in his stead.

Lilith already owned Amalya, but in the supernatural world there were always deals to be made.

When she reached the queen’s rooms, she resisted the urge to pound on the door. Pissing off the queen wouldn’t help her cause. Instead, she knocked and tried to slow her breathing while she waited for permission to enter.