The Devil You Need (2 page)

I cried his name against his lips, my body compressing his
in a fist of joy—velvet over heated steel—demanding more and even more of the
enjoyment he freely gave.

Under my body’s rabid demands, his body roared into release.
His cock pulsed deep within me as his lips opened in a wordless groan of joy.

Dialle rested his forehead against mine and pulled me off
the desk, turning to settle his luscious rear end where I’d been sitting. I
gasped as the new position sent him deeper into my body.

I twined my legs around his waist and nibbled his delightful
lips. “Thank you for putting a smile back on my face.”

He lifted his feet to my chair and tugged gently on my hips.
“Difficult day?”

My body greedily pulled him in, unwilling for the pleasure
to end. I sighed. “Difficult would be a holiday.”

He kissed me and, happily, levered his feet against my chair
to thrust into my still-pulsing channel. “It will get easier, my love.”

I knew it wasn’t true, but in that moment I was willing to
let him think I believed it. He lowered his head and enclosed one of my nipples
in the moist heat of his mouth. I slipped my hands down his back, using a
gentle scrape of my nails to show him just how luscious his body felt inside
mine.

Tightening my thighs, I lifted off his cock and slowly
lowered myself down, feeling the wonder of the controlled stroke all the way
down to my toes.

I knew it wasn’t going to get easier. I was pretty sure
Dialle knew it too. But as his body took me back into the dance again, building
heat as only we could do, I didn’t want to waste a moment of the bliss I knew
we’d forge. There was no way around it. Our days together were limited. Either
by my imminent departure or by outside forces that neither of us could control.

* * * * *

I was pulling on my ankle-length leather coat, preparing to
leave, when the air thickened a few feet away and two forms shimmered directly
into my office. My aunt Myra and my new guardian Aubrey. I cringed when I saw
them. No two creatures had ever been better equipped or more motivated to piss
me off.

Adding to my discomfort was the fear that they were there to
give me news on how Emo’s Settling had turned out. I had a very bad feeling
about my friend and former partner and I was uncharacteristically reluctant to
face the bad news. So much so that I was considering making a run for it before
either of the two bossy guardians opened their mouths and rained on my
day…maybe even my life.

Despite my fears, however, they didn’t launch right into the
ruination of my life. In fact, my aunt Myra looked just a little too
pink-cheeked and smiley for my comfort. I hoped like hell it didn’t have
anything to do with the tall, sexy blond god of a guardian angel standing next
to her. The thought made me grimace. I mean, really, clocking in at a couple
thousand years between them, weren’t they just a little too old to be doing the
nasty together?

Bleurgh.

“Hello, Aubrey. Auntie. To what do I owe the…erm…pleasure?”

Aubrey lifted a sculpted blond eyebrow and gave me the once-over.
I stood my ground, refusing to look down to see if my inadequacies were hanging
out or my ineptitude was unbuttoned. I already knew they were. Instead, I
lifted an eyebrow right back at him.

Tit for tat.

“We came to see how you fare, Astra.”

Sexy Aubrey might be—and a truly fine guardian for a girl
who finds trouble more easily than the Plutonian Star Polo team on vacation on
sunny Mercury—I was beginning to suspect he had even a longer stick up his ass
than my aunt Myra.

“I fare just about as well as could be expected.”

This non-answer brought clouds to Auntie Myra’s sunny skies.
“There’s no need to be flip, Astra.”

I shrugged. “I’m not trying to be flip, Auntie. Just honest.
My life pretty much sucks without a straw these days. I’m barely surviving from
day to day.”

Aubrey frowned. “Straw? What is this?”

I grinned. “I guess you’ve been skipping your Human Pop
Culture Orientation workshops?”

Aubrey’s fine, straight nose lifted a notch and his
celestial arrogance came out to play. “I can’t possibly keep up with all the
human weirdisms, past and present. I’ll let you focus on that since you live
down here among them.”

I grabbed the small bag I’d started carrying since I’d lost
my ability to shift from place to place. Turns out magic comes in handy for
lots of things besides kicking demon ass. Who knew? “Yeah, and besides, now I’m
one of them, so…” I threw him a glare and started out the door.

I could almost hear the double-barreled air-sucking as the
two snotty celestials realized Aubrey’s mistake. The air shifted and Myra was
suddenly standing directly in front of me, blocking my exit.

“Get out of the way, angel. I’m going home to drown my
sorrows in a hot shower and as much frozen milk sugar as I can stuff down.”

She glared down at me. Funny, I would have thought
contrition and apology would have looked a lot less hostile. “Astra, stop being
such a baby. We’re going to find a way around this little problem, and until we
do, we need you to stay positive.”

“Good, because I’m positive there’s no way I’ll get my magic
back.”

Myra crossed her arms over her chest and her face pinkened
with pique. I was pretty sure she grew an inch or two, as warrior angels tended
to do when they were pissed off. “Despite your defeatist attitude, Aubrey and I
have come to make you a proposition. Are you going to listen to us or not?”

I groaned. “Not. I’m full up on propositions today, angel.
How about we pick this up again tomorrow…or next millennia?”

Cue the good cop-angel. Aubrey touched my arm. “Astra, I’m
sorry. My remark was heartless and—”

“Insufferably snotty?”

His frown slipped away and he actually smiled at me. It was
one of Aubrey’s better things…his ability to laugh at himself. It was a trait
Auntie Myra didn’t share. “Yes. That too. But none of us think of you as a human.
You’re a magical creature of great power. You’re just currently a little low on
voltage.” His smile widened.

Despite my foul humor I couldn’t help smiling back. “Okay.
Got it. You haven’t given up on me. I appreciate that. I really do. But you
need to understand that this is really hard and I’m dealing with it as best I
can.”

“We do understand that,” Aubrey said. He even seemed
sincere. “Which is why we’re offering you some help.”

Uh oh. “What kind of help…exactly?”

“We want you to come up for some celestial counseling.”

My shocked gaze flew to my aunt. “You what?”

“Our trainers have actually had considerable success helping
magic users through their rough spots,” Aubrey assured me.

“Hello. Earth to angels. This isn’t a rough spot folks, this
is a dead zone.”

“We don’t actually know what’s going on,” Myra informed me.
“For all we know your magic is still in there, hidden behind some kind of
wall—”

“That would be a hell of a wall, Auntie.”

“Yes. It would. But…” Her pretty face finally softened and
she reached to touch my arm. I flinched, scarred from years of being
force-shifted all over the place by my pushy guardians. She sighed, letting her
hand drop without touching me. “We think it’s worth a try. Will you let us help
you?”

“Worst case is that we can help you figure out how to deal
emotionally with this issue, Astra. That’s not all bad, is it?” Aubrey’s
impossibly handsome face clearly showed his concern.

My mind raced.
Heaven
. Ugh. I was pretty much
allergic to white. Even the silver and gold of the higher angels’ wings
couldn’t do much to take the sting out of a world that was almost entirely
white. I wondered if I could smuggle some red or blue into the place. On the
other hand… I
had
been considering going away for a while. The Celestial
Realm was definitely away. “It’s worth thinking about,” I finally allowed.

I was rewarded for this reasonableness by being the unlucky
recipient of two wide, happy, angel smiles. “Good.” Myra nodded as if it was
decided.

“I said I’d think, Auntie.”

Myra opened her mouth to argue but Aubrey reached out and
gently clasped her arm. “We’ll give you time then, child.” He fixed my aunt
with a look that took the militant starch right out of her wings.

I wondered if he could bottle that look and sell me a case
of it. I’d been trying to introduce my aunt to the concept of capitulation for
almost two decades.

She finally nodded. “We’ll check back tomorrow and get your
response.”

I was on the verge of asking for more time but then decided
I’d pushed her enough. “Tomorrow works.”

Aubrey nodded and stepped back. “Good. We’ll see you then,
Astra.”

Myra stared at me for a long moment and then, seemingly on
impulse, stepped in and gave me a hug. I almost swallowed my tongue.

First Darma was nice and now my acid-tongued aunt was going
all mushy on me. I figured I only had a few hours to live.

“Please let us do this, Astra. I think we can help.”

I was too shocked even to say something snarky. So I just
watched them blip away. I stood there for several moments before I found the
energy to move again. Then I went in search of Bob and Ralph.

Maybe Bob could do an empathic read on me and discover if
I’d lost my mind or something. The Big Guy knew I must be in dire straits if my
family was being nice to me.

Decisions, Decisions

To the celestial shrink or no, young miss has not a
clue,

But if she should decide to go, with her tender mind
he’ll screw.

Slayer’s sword arm sliced downward, cleaving the air a
breath away from my cheek. A ribbon of my long, auburn hair hit the ground at my
feet. I danced backward, too late, and hit the wall hard. Slayer slammed up
against me, his sword arm pressed against my throat. His other hand grabbed my
wrist, halting my reflexive strike.

I rested my head against the wall and lowered my sword,
feeling tears prick the inside of my lids as I closed my eyes.

“You’re not even trying, Astra.”

Anger brought heat to my face…or embarrassment…I wasn’t sure
which. I opened my eyes and glared at the other Tweener. “I see you and my
sister went to the same motivational seminar.”

He frowned down at me. “My friend, this is life or death. If
you don’t give this training everything you’ve got you’ll soon be an attractive
but leaking pile of flesh on the floor. Can you at least try to fight with some
enthusiasm?”

I sniffed, and jerked my wrist from his grasp. “I am trying.
I’m just a little—”

“Distracted?” He lifted a perfect eyebrow, fixing me with a
sexy golden gaze. “Really?”

“Shut up.”

He stepped back and I moved around him, grabbing a white
towel from the top of my desk. I found the towel much more effective than
drying spray during my training sessions with Slayer, because he always made me
sweat copious amounts. The current session was no different. I apparently
didn’t sweat any less when I sucked than when I was at the top of my game.

“Tell me what’s going on, Astra.”

I draped the towel around the back of my neck and grabbed
the polish for my blade. Though I gave some thought to ignoring him, I knew it
wouldn’t work. He was very stubborn and it hadn’t been a request.

“Astra?”

Glancing in his direction, I dabbed polish paste on my sword
blade. “I have a decision to make.” He leaned on his sword and waited. “Myra
and Aubrey came by yesterday.”

Both eyebrows arched skyward on that piece of information.
“Yeah? What did they want?”

I expelled a breath. Despite my expectation that they would
be showing up at any moment, I still wasn’t sure how I was going to respond to
their offer. “They want me to submit to celestial counseling.”

Slayer didn’t say anything for so long that I stopped
polishing and looked up at him. He was frowning, looking down at the floor. I
realized he wasn’t sure if it was a good idea either. “What would you do?”

He shook his head, his sexy, golden gaze finally sliding
toward my face. “I’m not sure it will help, Astra. I think you need to start
getting used to not having your powers…just in case.” His guilty gaze slipped
away again, unable to meet my pain-filled one. It had been Slayer’s
girlfriend—ex-girlfriend actually—who had magic-raped me. I didn’t blame him,
he hadn’t seen her for months and he couldn’t control her actions, but he
definitely still blamed himself.

“That’s what I told them. But they said they could help me
deal with not having my magic anymore. You know, emotionally.” I grabbed the sheath
for my sword and slid it carefully inside, settling it onto the top of my
cluttered desk. Turning away, I settled my butt on the edge of the desk and
crossed my arms, watching Slayer until he looked up.

His gaze was filled with such pain it made me want to hug
him and tell him it was okay. But I’d learned that only made it worse. “Well,
then I guess you should do it. If they can help you move beyond the loss so you
can focus on getting your fighting skills back to the level they were before.”
He sighed, knowing my non-magic fighting skills would never take the place of
the ability to shift around at will and fling power at my enemies from a safe
distance. My agility, brains and aptitude with martial and blade arts had been
great assets to have along with my magic. But alone they were a poor
substitute.

“Good.” I nodded, forcing a smile I didn’t feel. I suddenly
wanted to be alone. Slayer was depressing me. Lately he’d been a worse sourpuss
than I was. “I’ll do it then. So…I guess you should leave. I need to get ready
to go.”

He nodded but made no move to leave. Instead he grabbed the
metal polish and started cleaning his own blade. “Have you gotten any word on
Emo yet?”

I moved around my desk and sat down with a sigh. “Not yet.
I’m hoping Myra will tell me when she comes back today.”

“If you need someone to keep the business going while you’re
gone…” He let the words trail away when I frowned. I hadn’t even thought about
that.

“Yeah. Actually that would be great. Thanks. But you’ll need
to work with Darma. She’d eat my gizzard if I put you in charge over her.”

He grinned. “We’ll be partners. Got it. Just stay safe,
Astra. And come back happy.”

“You don’t ask much do you?”

He set the rag down on my desk and stood staring at me. I
focused on the work before me, hoping he’d leave so I could be alone with my
thoughts.

A breath later I felt his heat at my back and his hands
grasped my upper arms. Warm lips touched the top of my head. “Come back soon,
Astra.”

I nodded, unable to speak for fear I’d start bawling like a
girl.

The air behind me shifted softly and he was gone. My head
hit my arms on top of the desk and I let myself cry for just a minute, quietly.
Despite my assurance to Slayer, I was far from convinced that putting my poor
mind into celestial training was a good idea. For about the hundredth time
since Emo left me, I wished I had him to talk to. If anyone knew how effective
angelic counseling was, it would be Emo. He’d been whisked skyward when his
Settling started to take a turn for the dark side, in an effort to save him.

I still didn’t know if it had worked. All I knew was that
I’d been bargaining with the Big Guy for weeks to bring Emo home. We’d soon see
how much good it did.

A cool draft of air slipped over me and I looked up,
panicked. It couldn’t be time already.

I was both relieved and disgusted to see that it wasn’t Myra
and Aubrey. Unfortunately for me it was someone worse. Much worse. “Brina. What
are you doing here?”

The royal looked leaner than the last time I’d seen her,
when she, like me had been magic-raped in the Shadows by Slayer’s ex, Crisanne.
Her thick black hair was longer, touching her slim shoulders and curling up
slightly on the silver-tipped ends. The last time I’d seen her she’d had a
short, spiky cap of hair touched in gold. One thing hadn’t changed though, she
still glared at me through gorgeous, almond-shaped black eyes, fringed with
thick arcs of midnight lashes. Her bow-shaped, cherry-tinted mouth twisted with
disgust as she looked at me. I knew I was a little disheveled, but I hadn’t
thought I’d looked that bad. “What’s wrong?”

“Why are you here? The court needs you.”

“I’m always here. This is where I work. Is there a specific
problem I need to be aware of?”

Her pretty lips twisted further, losing some of their
appeal. “The king is fighting demons while you fight air and pretty friends in
your safe little office.”

I grabbed my sword. “Demons? Why didn’t you say so. I’ll
need you to shift me.”

She rolled her eyes, crossing slim, muscular arms over her
chest. “No, you half-wit, the demons are his own. Have you paid any attention
to him at all over the last weeks?”

I frowned, dropping the sword back onto my desk. “What
demons? He seems fine to me.” As soon as I said the words I realized they
weren’t strictly true. Dialle
had
seemed different the last few times
I’d seen him. More vulnerable and kind. But I’d appreciated those things so
much that I hadn’t questioned them. “He was just here yesterday and he seemed
fine.”

The royal cocked a hip and glared at me. “Yesterday! Have
you not spoken to him today?”

Okay, her snotty attitude was starting to piss me off.
“Maybe you’ve forgotten, Brina, but I no longer have powers. I can’t talk to
Dialle telepathically anymore. I can’t shift over to the court at a moment’s
notice. I’ve tried to contact him the old-fashioned way…” I indicated my
televisual. “But he hasn’t responded. What exactly do you want me to do?”

“And you didn’t find it strange that he isn’t responding?”

I blinked, my chest tightening with fear. She was right. I’d
been so focused on my own issues I hadn’t even thought about it. “I’ll admit it
is strange—”

“Strange?” She dropped her hands to her sides, her hands
fisting. “The king languishes, evil stains his soul, darkening his countenance,
and his queen barely notices. You fail him, Astra. You fail the court. And you
fail yourself.”

I felt the sting of her power against my skin and my hands
came up, instinctively grasping for a magic I no longer had. By contrast, Brina
brimmed with energy. And that was what put me over the edge.

By all rights she should be as bereft of magic as I was.
She’d been drained too. In exactly the same way I had, but she’d recovered her
powers almost immediately. For that reason I could barely stand to be in the
same room with her. And having her stand there, superior and sure of herself,
and berate me for something I couldn’t control…suddenly it was all too much.

Before I even realized what I was doing, my sword was at her
throat and her hands were filled with spitting balls of bright orange fire. “Do
you think I like being this way? Don’t you think I would help Dialle with the
court if I could? I know he needs me. Of course I know I’m letting everybody
down. You bitch! I can’t do anything about it.”

Brina looked down at me, disgust shaping her features. “Stop
sniveling Astra and do what you need to do.” The power disappeared from her
palms with a whisper and she grasped my shoulders.

I didn’t even have time to cry out before we entered a
space-shift. I had no doubt where I was going. To the Royal Devil Court.

* * * * *

Sound returned as my feet touched the hard stone of the
floor in Dialle’s throne room. The room appeared empty. I shivered, rubbing my
arms against an unaccustomed cold. I also noticed the small cracks in the walls
and floor. Brina caught my eye and jerked her head toward the far wall.

A sense of déjà vu struck me as I followed her glance to
where Dialle stood with his back to me, facing the floor-to-ceiling windows
that looked over the distant skyline of Angel City. He had his hands clasped
behind him, his long, muscular legs spread wide. In that moment he reminded me
so much of his father King Dialle the First who was currently warming his sexy
heels in the fiery environs of Hell. First had been standing just that way the
day I’d been introduced to him.

But there was a marked difference. Dialle’s father had stood
with cocky assurance, broad shoulders squared, chin high. Dialle the son
looked, in that moment, like a defeated man.

Brina disappeared with a wisp of sound that I barely
noticed.

Debris crunched under my boots as I crossed the enormous
room. Dust and chunks of rock from the decaying court lay in a ragged blanket
over the once-pristine stone of Dialle’s throne room. It was a disparaging
portent of what was to come if the court didn’t regain its strength. That vigor
was tied to the health and happiness of its leaders.

That would be Dialle and me. ‘Nuff said?

He didn’t even turn as I approached, though he couldn’t have
failed to hear me coming. When I reached him, I touched his back, softly saying
his name. His head turned slowly. A gentle smile curved his lips when he saw
me. “Hello, my love.”

I looked beyond Dialle’s smile, to the dark pain in his
black eyes. His eyes were his most changeable feature. When filled with vigor
they swirled with gold and silver. When working for the celestial army they
often changed to a clear, ocean blue. It was the feature prophesied for the
great unifier. The royal who would eventually merge the dark and the light
worlds to create a safe environment on Earth for non-magic humans and magic
users alike. He’d realized that prophecy several times over, fighting at my
side to beat back the forces of evil that would have destroyed us all. But
looking at his handsome face in that moment, his black eyes swirling with a
color that looked like blood, I wondered if the man I loved wasn’t facing the
greatest evil of all.

An evil that came from within.

“How are you?”

He nodded and turned back to the window. “It’s beautiful
isn’t it?”

Angel City spread across the horizon, glowing as if on fire
under the burning sun that dipped below its ragged silhouette. Dusk hovered in
the foreground, ready to mute the details of the skyline and embrace the lights
that would paint its form once darkness fell. “Yes. I love this view. I always
have.”

“Me too.” He shuddered slightly and turned away, pulling me
into his arms. For the first time since I’d entered the throne room, he really
looked at me. I knew the moment he turned away from his painful thoughts and
embraced more pleasant things. His eyes swirled with the purple of passion
rather than pain and his sad smile turned heated. “I’m glad you’re here. I’ve
missed you.”

He said the words as if he hadn’t seen me in weeks. My heart
took a painful twist and I gave in to the impulse to wrap him close in a hug.
“I’ve missed you too, bud.”

The air shimmered and I was suddenly falling backward onto
his soft, soft bed, a hot-eyed devil falling over me. I laughed. “You weren’t
kidding.”

Since his smile had turned playful, the pain pushed away for
the moment, I shoved my worry back and allowed myself to get lost in the
pleasure of his touch, his taste and the exquisite feel of his long, hard body
against mine.

Dialle’s leather-clad leg skimmed up mine, gently nudging my
knees apart as his long-fingered hand covered the vee between my thighs. Heat
and lust rolled together in a spiral that suffused me, turning my skin to fire
and lifting my pulse until it beat a delighted staccato in my clit.