The Demon's Bargain (Demons Unleashed Erotic Novellas) (11 page)

The weight of the weapon was heavy in her hand. The blade looked strangely familiar.

Vetis was so near, the comforting warmth of his body heat seeped into her. His closeness distracted her so she was only half paying attention when he whispered in her ear. “For your freedom, you can deliver your vengeance.”

She looked down at the wicked blade in her hand, remembered his confession that he could read minds. Remembered how much she’d wanted to kill her husband the moment he’d given her to Vetis. But something had changed within her and she no longer wanted the same things.

“I do not need this.” She had her freedom. And she would not kill her pathetic excuse for a husband.

“I am trying to give you a gift.”

She tossed the knife onto the table and reached up to cup his jaw reveling at the sensual rasp of his beard against her softer skin. “You already gave me a gift.”

“You do not wish to carry out your fantasy?”

“How could I when he brought me to you?” She laid her heart bare with that statement.

Zepar crowded them closer to the stone wall of the pub. “We need to get this over with.” He glanced around the pub. “I have a feeling I cannot shake.”

Her husband snatched up the knife and backed away from them. “No one is killing me.”

With an unnatural groan, the old man rose from the floor. In one fluid movement, he plunged the dagger into her husband’s throat. Blood gushed from the wound in a great red river.

Amara gagged and turned away from the geyser.

“Gods damn it,” Vetis swore.

The old man collapsed again.

Zepar knelt over the attacker. “Compelled by the Fae. I knew I felt him still,” he said with disgust.

Vetis hovered over Edward, shook his shoulders and barked out questions, that even if he’d wanted to, he couldn’t answer. He was in his death throes, his vocal chords severed.

Vetis dropped Edward’s body to the floor with a thump.

Amara stood in the corner, frozen by the violence of her husband’s death.

“What did the Fae want?” Zepar stood in front of her and obstructed the view of her husband’s dead body.

“The Fae?”

Zepar nodded impatiently, but Amara couldn’t focus. She shuddered.

“Leave her.” Vetis curled his arm around her shoulder and for a moment she allowed herself to be weak, to tremble in the hard embrace of his arms and breathe in the scent of him. She’d missed him so much. It had only been mere hours yet it felt like an eternity.

“We need to know how much our enemy discovered of us.” Zepar pulled a glamour shield over the three of them and blocked anyone from listening to their conversation.

Vetis commanded. “Show us.”

Amara visualized the scene when she sat down at the table, trying to remember every detail to give them as much information as she could. She played the conversation through her mind and shivered at the Fae’s words. We must prepare for war.

“What about the Fae?” Amara peered through the crook of Vetis’s arm to stare at the body of her husband. She couldn’t bear it if the same fate befell Vetis.

“We know they’ve changed their tactics and are trying to use Humans to infiltrate our fortresses. We will be on our guard.”

The confidence in his voice comforted her.

“We have another problem.” Zepar continued to hold the glamour.

“He knows you spent three nights with me?” Vetis said tensely.

Amara nodded.

In unison, Vetis and Zepar circled around her, then locked her between their arms as they searched the shadows of the pub with suspicious expressions.

Amara placed her fingers gently over Vetis’s forearm. “What is it?”

“You have to come back with me,” Vetis said in measured tones.

For a moment, her heart leapt. Back with Vetis. The staccato beat of joy almost drowned out the voice of reason in her head. She said slowly, making her words a question, wanting the answer to be no. “Because of the Fae?”

“Yes.”

And her heart dropped. She couldn’t go with him. If he wanted her, if he wanted to be with her that would be different. While it was lovely that he wanted to keep her safe.... “I would be no better off than before, same reason of protection, different prison.”

Amara broke free of the circle of his arms, already bereft.

His brows arced down, his face drawn. “You would compare me to him?”

“You are nothing like him.” Her fists were clenched, her words fierce.

“Then why do you protest?”

Zepar took two steps back. “I’ll leave you alone now. Perhaps you should discuss what we talked of earlier.” Zepar pivoted around to face the empty tavern.

Vetis yanked Amara close to him. His erection prodded her belly. “You do not wish to have more pleasure?”

“Sex is not enough,” she said desperately, even as moisture pooled in her lower body.

“Who said anything about just sex?” He growled and he nuzzled the side of her neck, nipping at her tender flesh.

“Who said anything else?”

Vetis pulled back to gaze into her eyes. “You are my heart.”

With those words, she melted. Amara threw her arms around his neck, rubbing her body against his and kissing his mouth hungrily. A subtle light surrounded them in a pure white glow.

“What is that light?” Amara had noticed it this morning.

“Ahh, I believe the energy,” he cleared his throat. “is love.”

“I did that?” she flushed, knowing that her emotions had given her away.

Vetis pressed his forehead to hers. “
We
did that.”

Truly?
“I love you, Vetis, Demon of Corruption,” she confessed, holding his gaze with hers.

“I love you too.” He skimmed a hand up underneath her sweater to cup her naked breast. The nipple beaded in his palm.

Amara squirmed against the pressure of his fingers only wanting to get closer to his heat. But first, there were things to be discussed. She curled her fingers around his wrist to stop his wandering hand. “What are the terms?”

“Pleasure.” Vetis stroked his tongue up the side of her neck.

“
Our
pleasure,” she said breathlessly and let go of his wrist. She gave herself up to his carnal attention.

“It’s a bargain.”

Excerpt from To Summon A Demon

Look for Prince Gaap’s story, the next installment in the
Demons Unleashed
series:

The moon hung low in the sky. Pale blue light rippled over the lapping waves. The soft shush-shush of the ocean licked at the shimmering white sand like a lover.

Lili spread her blanket in the secret little cove, hidden by a pair of boulders rising out of the sand like breasts laid out as an offering. “Apt,” she murmured.

With a gust of warm wind, the ties on her shift loosened and the rough material swished against her naked skin. Lili constructed a small ring of stones near the edge of the water with careful precision, close enough that if the fire tried to spread the sea water would put it out and yet far enough inland to burn. She arranged the dry tinder in the small circle, making a small teepee, then threw in the shredded pieces of clothing she’d had worn yesterday.

She would have never done something like this before.

Before Brian had died.

Before her life had been reduced to scrabbling for existence.

She remembered the world before the Demons were freed.

She’d been in computer sales. She’d had a good life in the city. A condo in a high rise and her fiancé in her bed. Sewing, hand-stitching, had been a hobby. An activity that linked her to her roots and helped her stay connected to her grandmother who lived in a quaint cottage in Ireland.

But once the Demons emerged, the energy in their bodies disrupted the electricity grids. Soon after they ascended from the depths of their Hell, systems started going haywire. Within a month, the entire world’s electronic infrastructure had crumbled. The information highway was a rutted, unused back road. Banks, stock markets, the tech industry collapsed without the proper conduits in place.

The entire world regressed to a pre-electronic age.

And without the electronics to power systems, other industries soon fell into chaos. Ten years later the entire world had gone back to an age she had barely even read about. She’d had to relearn how to do everything without the aid of electricity.

The reality of her daily life still had the power to throw her.

But she’d dealt with everything until yesterday.

Yesterday. Before she’d delivered the bookseller’s wedding dress. Yesterday before the Fae had attacked her.

Yesterday had been the final straw. They’d attacked her.

The memory of their hands groping, hurting played in her mind like an old-fashioned movie strip. Each roll of the film sickened her more and more, until she wanted to scream and explode with her rage and her fear.

Every single miserable moment in her life could be attributed to the Fae. And she wanted them to pay.

She would get her revenge.

And who better to use than the mortal enemy of the Fae? The Demons.

Specifically, the Prince Gaap. He commanded all of the Water Elemental Demons.

The urge to hum a protective chant was strong but she knew she needed to wait. The instructions she’d found on how to summon a Demon were very specific.

When the fire was lit and the flames fanned into a crackling offering, she lay down on the blanket, feeling a bit silly, even though her purpose was deadly serious.

She remembered life before the Demons had come.

Her life had been good. Solid. Happy.

Now? Not so much.

The Fae had attacked her. Stolen the one thing she had left. Her dignity.

She’d made her own way in the world, without a man to protect her, without a family behind her. She stayed out of the way and concentrated on survival. All the while mourning her fiancé Brian and the rest of her family.

But the Fae had changed all that when they’d attacked her. They had violated her body and suddenly the injustices of the last ten years rose up like a tidal wave inside of her and threatened to pull her under. She wouldn’t let them destroy her.

Only the Demons could aid her revenge against the Fae.

The sand chilled her through the wool weave of the old blanket. Goosebumps shivered across her skin and pebbled her nipples.

Lili closed her eyes and called a Demon.

“Gaap,” she whispered as she slid her hands up her body to cup her breasts. “I offer myself to you in exchange for your help.”

Excerpt from The Demon's Seduction Available Now!

The Demon of Seduction lounged in the cushioned chair near the fire and swirled a glass of aged scotch. He stared contemplatively into the flames as the first sip burned a fiery path down his throat.

His world was changing, yet again.

Both Demon and Fae drew power from human emotion. But Demons had discovered a mighty weapon against the Fae. The Fae might believe they were winning, but they were wrong. The Demons had a new secret defense.

Love.
The emotion of love transformed their energy and made them stronger.

So now, every Demon was tasked with finding the love of a human. Even he, the Demon of Seduction, must find a mate.

Zepar smiled. He was the Demon of Seduction. How hard could it be to make a human fall in love with him?

Jake's Wild Bride...Coming Soon

Lisa Alder has two sides, a naughty side and a nice side. You've gotten a taste of her naughty side, come take a peek at her nice side.

Jake's Wild Bride is a sexy, contemporary romantic romp.

Lilah Mason is a woman on the brink of realizing her dreams of respectability and security when her fiancée dumps her the night before their wedding. Actually, he has his best man, Jake Forrest dump her. Jake is back in town only long enough to see his best friend married and to clean out his childhood home so he can leave behind his past reckless behavior once and for all. But first he has to babysit his old friend's ex-fiancée. It doesn't help that he is wildly attracted her her, but he's been down that road and vows to keep his hands to himself. What he doesn't count on is Lilah.

About the Author

Lisa Alder has a split personality. Naughty Lisa writes HOT demons, fae and humans in a post-apocalyptic world. Nice Lisa writes sexy, contemporary romantic romps.

She has been writing romance for years. All manner of stories lurk in her mind, with all manner of fictional creatures vying for her time and attention. Right now she’s consorting with Demons and Fae (Demons Unleashed Erotic Novellas) or innocent small town girls (One Wild Night). But she’s been known to play with Angels, hot CIA dudes, and kick-ass heroines as well.

You can find her on the web at
www.authorlisaalder.blogspot.com
, on Twitter @LisaAlderBooks , on Goodreads
www.goodreads.com/lisaalder
  and on email:
[email protected]
She loves to hear from readers!

Happy reading!

Acknowledgments

Thank you to Theresa Stevens, editor extraordinaire who asked all the right questions and helped clean up my writing!

Thank you to Maddee James at Xuni.com for an unbelievably gorgeous cover!

Thank you to my critique partners, Sophie, Lynn, Adrienne, Trish, Cyndy, Martha, Rachael, Julie, and Gigi for their unfailing generosity and guidance through this whole crazy process. A special thank you to Lynn for taking the time for a final read when you were ultra-busy yourself!

Thank you to my family for allowing me the time to write and the patience to do your own thing when I was busy working!! And finally to my husband for believing in me even when I didn’t believe in myself.

Love you all.