The Fallen King: The Bellum Sisters 4 (paranormal erotic romance) (33 page)

The demons wrenched his mouth
open while the one with the glass poured the concoction down Alrik’s throat. He
wasn’t gentle about it. The foul liquid spilled over Alrik’s cheeks and
dribbled down his chin. He made awful gurgling sounds as he choked and
struggled not to swallow the liquid.

All at once, Alrik’s body stopped
fighting. His eyes closed. A hard shudder traveled through his body as if he’d
been zapped with electricity.

Abby stopped struggling. The deed
was done. All that was left was to figure out just what that potion did.

“Step away from him,” ordered the
queen.

The demons backed up with slow
cautious steps. Not even they looked sure what might happen.

Alrik’s teeth clenched, gnashing
together. His brow furrowed and grunts of pain sounded from between his teeth.
He sounded like a rabid animal. Abby once heard a dog fight when she was a kid.
Alrik sounded like that. Snarling and growling with aggression.

Then screams tore from his
throat. Bone chilling screams. A sound she could never forget. His eyes popped
open—black pools spiraling like water spinning down a drain.

“What are you doing to him!”
screamed Abby.

It happened so quickly she had to
blink to be sure.

He stopped moving. Completely
stopped.

His dark swirling eyes gazed up
at the sky unblinking and glassy. His body lay frozen like the dead. Only the
subtle rise and fall of his chest gave away any sign of life.

“Alrik…”Abby said hesitantly.
“Baby?” A piece of her heart broke off like a shard of glass.

“Alrik, Alrik,” the queen mocked
in a child-like voice.

“You bitch!” Abby lunged for the
queen. The queen stumbled back a step before she threw a barrier between them
with a flick of her wrist. Abby seethed but at least got some satisfaction at
the fear in the queen’s eyes.

“You want to know what I’ve done
to him? Then I’ll show you. Rise, Alrik.”

Alrik slid to his feet. His body
moved in a boneless way like a puppet being controlled. One second he was lying
down unmoving and in the next moment he was standing perfectly at attention.

A trickle of unease slithered
over Abby.

“Mistress,” he said.

She must still have the effects
of the spell Aidan’s man put on her for she knew he just spoke in demonic and
yet she’d understood his guttural, garbled words.

“Do you know who this woman is?”
the queen asked him.

Alrik turned slowly to face her.
He stood with his shoulders back, strong chest thrust forward, eyes seeing her
without any recognition whatsoever. No love was there, no fear, worry, or
panic, only passivity. As if he didn’t know who she was.

“She is Abbigail Krenshaw. A
human with skills in witchcraft.” He paused his dark eyes blinked once. “There
is part succubus blood inside her.”

His mother “hmmed” and “ahhed” as
he relayed the information. “Half succubus? That is interesting. Does that give
her,” she waved an agitated hand in the air, “any special skills I should know
about?”

Alrik took a deep, lung-filling
breath as if breathing her soul into his body. “Only longevity and the alluring
beauty only found in succubi.”

Now was so not the time to blush,
yet Abby felt her cheeks flame anyway.

“Alrik, what’s going on?” she
said softly.

He didn’t even look at her just
gazed forward like a robot. Another chunk of her heart broke away and with it
nearly tore a sob from her throat. Oh God, how did she fix this? How could she
help him now?

He was gone. Completely gone. Not
a sign of life in him.

The queen smiled with glee.
Satisfaction gleamed in her eyes. “Isn’t it beautiful? Let’s see just how
strong the spell is. I’ve used only the best ingredients for it. The freshest,
most powerful of blood I could find…seer blood.”

“Alrik, kill that demon.” She
pointed to one of the green, yellow-eyed monsters standing nearby. The creature
squawked and started shuffling around, unsure if she really meant it or not.

Alrik didn’t hesitate. His body
turned, eyes locked on the creature, and then he took four long steps that landed
him directly in front of it. In two swift moves he acted. His big hands
squeezed the demons head and then jerked it hard to the right. With repulsive snap,
the body crumpled to the ground in a heap.

Abby swallowed but the knot in
her throat wouldn’t go away.

The queen clapped, laughing like
a giddy child as she bounced on her feet. “Wonderful! Perfect! My ultimate
creation! Now, kill her!”

“What?” Abby said, her stunned
question unable to be contained. “Oh fuck, oh fuck, oh fuck!” she said getting
louder and louder.

Alrik turned towards her with
every tall demonic inch of him then strode for her with long determined steps.

“Alrik stop this!” she demanded
trying to put some authority in her voice. That didn’t sway him. The demon’s
holding her released her. She started backing up. “Baby, I love you! Don’t do
this!”

Demons stood in his path. Alrik
kept walking straight for her, batting the demons away with sweeping arms if
they were bugs. As he neared her, the demons holding her arms at her sides ran.
Abby couldn’t fault them for their fear because she spun around and ran.

*
* *

The queen let her go. Abby
figured it was probably a great power trip for her...to know that Alrik would
follow her for however long it took until he killed her.

Abby ran hard, from him. As she
did, she tried to think. She needed a spell that would negate the one
controlling him.

His hard barreling steps boomed after
her. Her lungs started burning as she ran up the hard slope. Her legs muscles
burned, but she pushed through it. A foot slipped and she dropped to the
ground, using her hands to grab chunks of grass and pull herself up.

Her heart raced in overtime. She
could hear him just behind her. Something brushed her shoe—a hand? Fear and
adrenaline moved her and she grabbed a hunk of grass over the top of the slope
and launched herself over the side.

There was no time to waste for
Alrik leaped over after her much smoother and faster than she did. Abby raced
into the forest.

“Don’t do this!” she called back
to him. “You love me! I love you!”

No answer, only hard steps
closing in on her. She jumped over fallen logs, raced through muddy grass, and ducked
under low hanging branches that swiped across her face as she ran.

It was only a matter of time. She
could never out run him. He was too big, too strong.

No sooner than she had that
thought did he barrel into her. Surely, this is what it felt like to get hit by
a truck, she thought.

Her breath wheezed out of her as
her stomach collapsed into her spine as she went slamming to the ground, her
head knocking against it so hard it struck twice. Her bones, everything, hurt
from the fall. Her lungs seemed to take the brunt of the hit. It didn’t help
that he stayed on top of her, his weight keeping her from drawing in a deep
breath.

“Alrik, don’t do this,” she
begged. Her eyes watered. She didn’t know whether from the pain of landing or
the other pain trying to suffocate her.

Suddenly his body was off hers
and she sucked in a long, much needed breath. Only he grabbed her by the
shoulder and roughly flipped her over to her back.

“Ow!” she moaned as her head once
against rocked back. She was going to be bruised black and blue if she made it
out of this.

Footsteps sounded nearby. Abby
peered behind Alrik to see the queen and her demons coming towards them. Of
course she’d want to
see
him kill her.

Quickly, Abby sought his gaze
only to find it bored and glossy as if no one was really there. “Baby, please
don’t do this. You have to help me. Please, I love you so much!” Her voice
broke, but still she continued.

He sat over her waist, his hands
holding her by the shoulders effectively pinning her down. The position was
beyond uncomfortable but she managed to wriggle her hands up and touch his
waist. For a second she thought she saw a flicker in his dark eyes, but she
couldn’t be sure.

“Alrik, listen to me. I can help
you honey. Let me help you. Just get off me. I’ll end the curse on you. I swear
it.”

“Kill her!” the queen ordered.
She was now within twenty feet. The
idumm
i swarmed around them, teeth
bared in smiles. They bounced excitedly as they formed a circle around them.
They were all ready for a show.

Big hands moved toward her and she
acted on instinct. Abby lifted her hands and cast the very first spell he first
taught her. Alrik went flying through the air as if jerked by a mighty force. His
back slammed into a tree, cracking it down the middle. The tree groaned,
shuddered, and then settled once more.

Alrik shook himself then started
for her once more.

“Don’t do this,” she pleaded
again.

He kept coming. She squared off
against him.

“I don’t want to hurt you!”

He stopped walking then charged for
her. Abby couldn’t move fast enough, not even to lift her hands use a spell.

Alrik reached her and deftly
checked her body into a tree some fifteen feet or more behind her. He did this
all with a hand at her throat, using his sheer strength to lift her feet from
the ground and slam her spine against the tree. Her spine cracked at the
pressure but she could still wriggle her legs so that gave her some relief—for
a moment.

His grip on her throat tightened
fast and hard. He meant business. He squeezed her throat, cutting off her air
supply. Abby’s hands flew to his wrist as she kicked him with every ounce of
strength she had. When that didn’t slow him down one bit, she dug her chin down
and kept her neck taut—anything to keep her much needed air. Horrible, choking
sounds came from her. She sounded...like someone having the life choked from
them.

An unusual feeling came over her.
Her vision tunneled, blood pounded loudly in her ears until it was all she
could hear.

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

Alrik’s face went in and out of
focus like a camera zooming in and out. An intense pressure started filling her
neck and eyes as if there was too much blood and it needed to escape.

He was going to kill her.

Abby used one last tactic. She swept
her legs up until she could wrap them around his waist. Her gaze stayed as
focused as she could on his face so she could watch for any signs of change in
his eyes.

Something flickered in his gaze.

Hope sprung.

Her vision began darkening on the
corners as a black fog crept in.

“I love you so much. Kiss me
one...,”she gasped, “last...time...”

He blinked, his head tilting to
the side. Then his grip loosened on her neck, not all the way but just enough
for her to suck in a deep, ragged breath and for some of the fog to recede, and
the pressure in her head to dissipate. His dark head leaned in and he pressed a
chaste, soft kiss to her lips. Her breath caught.

Her eyes closed at the touch.
Another part of her heart broke down. A sob escaped. She couldn’t do this. She
couldn’t save him.

When he lifted his head, his face
swam before hers. In a blink, her tears fell and his face cleared. In his eyes,
she saw someone who was alert, fierce, and barely holding on.

His hold on her neck loosened to
a feathery touch and then he thrust his hands in her hair. “Port home. Get out
of here now!”

Then he pressed a hard kiss to
her mouth and spun around. He stood protectively in front of her.

The queen bared her teeth. “Kill
her I said!” she demanded.

Alrik’s shoulders shook and he
started to turn back around. She could see the battle in his body as he tried
to fight the spell controlling.

Abby wanted to obey him, she
really did. But, like hell she’d leave the love of her life to die down here
alone.

Abby stepped around him, shot her
hand out and then the fight really began.

Chapter Twenty-two

Pandemonium erupted.

Alrik fought the spell
controlling him and lurched after the
idummi.
Horrible screams of death
ripped through the air. The stale, bitter scent of blood filled Abby’s nostrils
like copper.

Abby had her target—the queen—and
didn’t let her out of her sight. Their gazes collided, ice versus fire.

Abby acted first.

Thrusting all of her power into it,
she unleashed a fiery spell meant to burn and immobilize the queen simultaneously.

The queen swiped her hands in the
air deflecting the spell. Abby tried again moving faster and pushing all of her
power into it. The queen dodged it. She tried again and again only to have her
spells deflected with ease.