The Demon's Seduction (8 page)

"How could such a strong pulse be delivered?" Gaap asked. "Smaller pulses injured me in the last battle against the Fae and rendered my magick useless for a bit."

“Maybe that’s why they didn’t hit you again,” Leraye said to Gaap. “They used all of their energy to freeze me.”

“Perhaps.”

“I wonder why they did not employ the same tool against me in the woods last night,” Zepar mused.

“Last night.” Leraye seemed to grow larger, his body hardened, readied for battle. “You put Thalia in danger when you went to find women.”

Gaap raised a brow at him.

“The Fae attacked and then ran away.” Zepar’s chest puffed with pride. “But not before Thalia managed to stab one with her iron knife.”

“She was traumatized.” Leraye growled.

“She told me she was fine." Zepar dismissed his comment, surprised at the rage he saw reflected in the depths of Leraye's pale blue gaze.

"She wasn't fine." Leraye gritted.

"Let's focus on the Fae." Gaap brought the conversation back to their enemy.

“Why would they run?” Leraye asked.

“It does bear some reflection,” Gaap said pensively. “They certainly did not resist on the same scale as during my battle with them.”

“Maybe they thought they had the upper hand with you but not with Zepar and Thalia,” Leraye said.

“Against one human woman and one Demon?” Gaap shook his head.

Zepar saw the knowledge in Leraye’s gaze. Knew that Leraye understood what had happened in that wooded glade. How Gaap had carried both Leraye and his mate, Lili from the enchanted forest.

Leraye bowed low. “I have yet to give you my thanks.”

Gaap waved away Leraye’s gratitude. “You would have done the same for me.”

It was true.

“At least now we know how to break the spell.” Zepar shifted as he recalled how he and Thalia had broken the spell.

“Thank the Gods that you recovered.” Gaap took a long draw of red wine. “You seem changed.”

Leraye nodded solemnly. “Being imprisoned, again, made me realize that I don't want to live half a life anymore.”

Gaap frowned. “Half a life?”

Leraye went over and knelt in front of the Prince. “I’d like to petition for a boon.”

Zepar’s heart thudded in his chest. Leraye hadn’t looked at him but somehow he knew that whatever the Demon had to say would not please him.

“Speak.”

“The Grace, Thalia,” Leraye said softly. “I wish to have her as my consort.”

Zepar leapt to his feet. “Impossible.”

Both Leraye and Gaap turned to look at him. Their sudden frowns triggered a wave of doubt but he didn't back down.

“What?” Leraye’s countenance stiffened into a harsh mask.

“She’s here to serve the Lesser Demons,” Zepar said desperately.

“Who are all out looking for human mates.” Leraye responded. “She told me herself that she is rarely called upon anymore.”

“Exactly,” Zepar crowed triumphantly. “We must all find human mates. We need the power of their love.”

“In case you’ve forgotten, Thalia is human.” Leraye’s voice dropped, laden with menace.

Zepar flushed, a blast of heat colored his face. “But did you gain power from her kisses?”

"Her kiss revived me. Is that not power enough?" Leraye paused, fists clenched, his body tensed as if for battle. Each muscle and sinew stood in stark relief as he stalked over to confront Zepar.

Zepar countered. “There is a noticeable surge of power. And I don't believe she gives you that." But the callous dismissal twisted his stomach into knots. She had been his anchor this past month. He’d found peace in her company. He had nothing but the greatest respect for Thalia.

However the thought of Thalia and Leraye together caused his thoughts to spiral into panic. He didn’t want it. Didn’t want them together.

“This battle is for the very survival of Demons.” Zepar ran agitated fingers through his mane of blonde hair. “We cannot allow softer emotions to rule our heads.”

Disappointment flooded Leraye’s face. He shook his head, his mouth turned down. “It’s a good thing you are not in charge.”

A sick pit grew in his chest, hollowed out and aching. He had lost the regard of his friend.

Leraye turned to address the Prince. “What is your answer?”

“Zepar makes a valid point.We need to gather as much magick as possible to fight the Fae,” Gaap said softly. "Did you feel a pulse of power when you mated?"

“She has given us ten years of service.” Leraye rebutted without answering. “We are no better than the Fae if all we do is try to harvest human emotion for our own gain.”

Zepar’s throat tightened. He didn’t want her to feel used. Of course he didn’t. But what if she were using Leraye? Zepar had taught her all of the tricks of seduction.

Prince Gaap said, “You are correct. But--”

“But we need the love of humans.” Zepar ground out.

“Yes, but we cannot force them to fall in love,” Prince Gaap said patiently.

Zepar knew that first hand. Out of sheer frustration, he burst out. “I don’t understand why I can’t get one single human to fall in love with me.”

Pity and some other deep emotion darkened Leraye's eyes. “You have missed the point completely. It’s about being in love with each other.” Leraye’s mouth softened into a smile that Zepar had never seen before.

“And that’s what you think you have with Thalia?” Zepar waited expectantly. Waited for the denial. Waited for the laughter where Leraye confessed that no, that wasn’t what he and Thalia shared. They shared sex.

Very hot sex.

Pictures of Leraye and Thalia slithered through his mind. Thalia with her head thrown back in ecstasy, her body flushed with desire. Thalia with the look of a woman sated. Leraye, his muscles hard, brutal, clenched while an orgasm ripped through his body.

“Yes.” Leraye looked almost as surprised as Zepar felt. “I am in love with her.”

The unexpected twist of jealousy struck him. He didn’t want them together. “And she feels the same?”

Leraye hesitated.

Triumph roared through him. “Hah. She does not.”

“Not yet. But I hope she will grow to love me.”

“Look at you.” Zepar snarled. “Simpering about love. Where is the warrior?”

Leraye said, “Are you that miserable that you will not allow us some measure of happiness?”

“You realize what she is doing?”

Leraye raised his brows, a look of cynical disregard on his hewn features.

“She is seducing you for her own gain.” The words spewed out of his mouth, an almost desperate attempt to turn Leraye and Thalia against each other. “I have taught her well.”

“Enough,” Leraye roared. Every muscle in his body tensed and Zepar realized he had pushed his friend too far. He also noted the lines of tension around Leraye’s eyes. His friend was thinking, assessing strategy as he did when he prepared for battle.

“I want her,” Leraye said calmly, softly.

“I’ll allow it.” The Prince, who both had forgotten was even in the room, acquiesced. “For now.”

Thalia tugged playfully at Leraye’s hand. “Come with me.”

“I thought I already did that.”

She giggled. Actually giggled.

The last few days had been amazing. Since she had agreed, and the Prince allowed she and Leraye to be consorts, her days had been filled with training her replacement, Judy, the blonde from the awful night with Zepar, and her nights had been filled with Leraye and love.

A sense of contentment settled over her.

He was an adventurous lover. They’d engaged in sex play all over the castle grounds, some places more fun than others. But she knew not all was well. They both had emotional demons to exorcize and she planned to help Leraye over the one place that she knew haunted him.

She headed toward the dungeon steps.

His fingers tightened on hers. “What are you doing?”

“We’re going to engage in a little bondage.” She tugged him toward the cells where the Demons kept their enemies.

“You’re going to let me tie you up?” Leraye grinned, his teeth flashed white in his ferocious face as he leered at her.

Oops. Perhaps she'd been too playful. She didn't want to flat out lie to him but she feared if she explained he would balk, so she avoided answering. She knew he needed this to move forward.

Thalia paused on the winding steps, her back against the cool stone wall, and pulled him into her embrace. The hard planes of his chest flattened her breasts and his engorged cock rubbed against her stomach in a slow, seductive caress. But as he tilted his head and moved in for the kiss, he had a serious look in his eyes. His fingers were hard in hers, and the tight grip belied the relaxed mood.

With one more squeeze of his fingers, he fitted his mouth to hers.

Thalia curled her arms around his shoulders and savored his solid bulk. His mouth devoured hers, his tongue probing and teasing before invading her mouth. He slid his rough callused palm up the fine cotton of her dress, cupped her breast, shaped her flesh and plucked at the budding nipple.

A gentle glow seemed to surround her, a warm buzz that filled her heart with joy and hope. Hope that everything would be okay.

Thalia broke away from the kiss. “Let’s go.”

“I know what you’re doing.” Leraye held her in place.

“And are you agreeable?” A sudden uncertainty attacked her. Would he be mad? She only wanted to erase the old memories, make new ones that spoke of happiness rather than reminding him of what he couldn’t have.

“I’m open to the idea, but only if you let me tie you up afterwards.” He nipped at her reddened lips and caressed her jaw gently.

Thalia smiled wickedly. She didn't want to make it too easy for him and if he were thinking about later he wouldn't worry about what was going to happen next. “If you can catch me first.”

“Vixen.” He laughed.

They raced down the steps. Thalia purposely chose a cell that had a window but little light from the moon. The idea was to come as close to re-creating his prison as possible.

She led him into the darkened room. Cuffs to restrain him were bolted into the walls. The metal clanked against the stone, and a shiver of apprehension skittered down her back.

“What’s wrong?” He circled her waist from behind her, arms hard against her stomach, palms pressed flat to her waist. His erection prodded her in the buttocks, insistent, aroused. And still she couldn’t shake the sudden feeling that everything would change if they did this.

“Maybe we shouldn’t.” Goosebumps radiated down her neck and over her spine.

“It will be fine.” Leraye snapped his left wrist in a cuff himself. “Although it would be far more pleasurable if you’d restrain me.”

This was silly. She was trying to make this fun. Leraye didn't seem worried. Why should she? Thalia pressed him back against the wall, mimicking their pose on the steps. With quick efficient movements, Thalia stripped Leraye of his clothing.

She dragged his breeches over his straining erection and down thick muscled thighs, taking the time to caress his cock with light touches and score her fingernails over the hairy column of his legs. His nearly hairless chest gleamed in the dim light, like a Greek statue and her knees went weak at all of that strength and power at her mercy.

But Thalia couldn’t shake the feeling that the shadows had eyes.

Zepar had been shadowing them this past week, but she didn't sense his presence right now. It was likely nothing.

With a quick look around, she lifted his right arm to the cuffs, set at waist height, and snapped his wrist in the heavy restraint. He still had a quite a range of motion which is what they needed for this experiment.

She leaned close, the tips of her breasts brushed his naked chest, and whispered in his ear. “Now I'm in control.”

"Yes," he said submissively.

Another shiver trilled through her at the capitulation in his words. She stood in the barely there light and shimmied out of her cotton dress. Her nipples were already hard and her sex had begun to cream at his harsh, shadowed features and the sword of his erection.

"Face the wall."

Leraye turned and presented her with the hard, sculpted curve of his ass. He was gorgeous.

“I'm going behind you.” She was in control but it didn't mean she couldn't tell him what she was doing.

Thalia stepped closer. The heat from his body radiated off of him and warmed her. If she hadn’t been this close she wouldn’t have seen the slight sheen of sweat or the increased pace of his breath. She wrapped her arms around his waist.

“Grab my cock,” he begged hoarsely.

And this time, Thalia submitted.

***

Zepar watched from the shadows, a voyeur with a sick compulsion. He had watched them this past week. Watched Leraye bend Thalia over a saddle in the stables and fuck her like a stallion. Watched them roll in the loamy earth of the herb garden, releasing the scent of crushed basil and mint as they laughed like loons. Watched them on the dining table as Thalia decorated Leraye's cock with chocolate sauce and licked him clean. Watched them as they fornicated their way around the castle.

He hadn’t been able to stop.

Each time he saw them together his heart gave a little jolt. He wasn’t jealous. He was almost positive he felt disgust. Yes, disgust for their insatiable lust.

Just because he hadn’t felt that kind of lust except for when he’d watched Thalia fuck herself, or when he’d kissed--

So what if he'd been unable to maintain an erection. So what if he'd been unable to fuck anyone else.

He was under a lot of pressure. The castle needed as many human/Demon mating pairs as possible. That was it.

Thalia pressed a kiss to Leraye’s heavily muscled back. Leraye flexed his deltoids as he fisted his hands against the rough stone walls. Zepar couldn’t see her hands from here, but he knew she pumped Leraye’s cock slowly from the way her arms moved.

The sheer beauty of Leraye’s body took away Zepar’s breath.

Broad shoulders, thick muscled neck, even the curve of his head held power and beauty. His body possessed the ability to bestow pleasure or pain. Or both.

With each movement of her hands, Leraye’s hips shifted toward the wall.