Unleashed (6 page)

Chapter 6

The steaming pool was the first thing Jett thought of when they finally got home. This was the place where healing happened, where Addie’d first convinced him that he truly loved Locan.

Go figure.
Jett eased into the warm water, holding his lover gently against his chest. Locan hadn’t opened his eyes yet, though he was obviously conscious. Jett studied his battered face and the healing cuts covering his chest. Damn but he loved this guy. His heart ached when he thought of what must have happened in the hours before they’d managed to rescue him.

He hadn’t probed Locan’s thoughts. Not yet, anyway. He knew there was more going on behind those closed lids than Locan wanted to think about right now, much less discuss, but he’d have to, at some time. He’d have to explain what had happened to him, why he’d turned away their offer of a rescue even as he hung there, bleeding, bruised and obviously in pain.

His cock was flaccid now, but he’d been hard as a rock, and he’d stayed hard when that bastard tore into him, forcing sex on a man already battered and bleeding. Locan had screamed, but he’d stayed erect, somehow aroused by the pain. A little pain was one thing, but getting turned on by something that had to be absolutely agonizing was taking things a bit too far.

That worried Jett. A lot. It was a side of Locan he’d not seen before, something he’d never expected. It was too close to their demonic past, and it frightened him.

Addie waded through the water to stand on Locan’s other side. She moved close enough to slip her hands beneath him, so that the two of them held Locan between them. “Locan? You have to open your eyes. You know we’re not going away.” She leaned close and kissed him.

His eyes fluttered open. “I know,” he said. He glanced at Jett. “You can put me down if you want.”

Jett shook his head. “Not yet. I thought we’d lost you. I’m not quite ready to let you go.”

“Is Pele okay?”

Addie nodded. “Yeah, the bitch. She was more worried about her dumb dog.”

Locan sighed. “Figured as much. Turns out the whole thing was a setup to kidnap me. Namaka wanted to take something that Pele wanted. She knew her sister had spent a night with a demon she’d never forgotten. Namaka found out who I was, who I’d been, and somehow snatched the hellhound and sent him to Pele’s island so she’d have to call for demon hunters.”

“I know.” Jett glanced at the big hellhound lying beside the pool. “The hellhound—his name is Azrael, by the way—is how we found you. He took us to Namaka’s caverns and showed us where you were.”

This time Locan grunted. “So you’re saying I owe my life to that beast?” He rolled his head to one side and stared at the hound in question. “And here I’ve been trying to figure out how to get rid of him.”

Addie laughed. “No way. He’s smart and sweet, and the only problem is that he won’t tell us if he has a master who’s got dibs on him.” She gazed at the hound and sighed. “I don’t want to give him up, but if his owner’s someone truly powerful, we may not have a choice.”

Azrael grunted and looked away. Addie glanced up and Jett recognized that look in her dark brown eyes. She could be tenacious about those she wanted to protect, about the ones she loved, and he had a feeling she loved that beast. Thank the gods, he was one of the ones she loved as well, but he knew that now her concentration was all about Locan. About what had happened to him tonight.

Without planning, they both released him at the same time and helped him to stand. Addie folded her arms across her naked breasts and stared at him. Jett followed her lead, and he wasn’t at all surprised when Locan dipped his chin and refused to meet their steady gazes.

“You’re going to tell us,” Jett said.

“Now.” Addie slipped her fingers beneath his chin and raised his head. “What happened tonight, Locan. That wasn’t the man we know back in Namaka’s cavern. Something’s changed.”

“Not here.”

Jett didn’t say a word when Locan glanced across the pool, at the rock ledge where Jett and he had first made love. Where they’d first held each other, and Addie, too. Where everything had changed for the better. “I will always have good memories of this pool.” Locan smiled and shrugged as if it was no big deal, but Jett knew better. “I don’t want to sully them.” Then he turned away and walked toward the stairs. His buttocks were still marked from the beating he’d had, and while the shift between realms had healed the worst of the wounds, the imprint of that clover-shaped paddle showed in dark red and purple bruises.

Jett glanced at Addie and shook his head. She had tears in her eyes, but she nodded in silent agreement, followed Locan out of the pool and took the towel he handed to her. Az lumbered to his feet and nudged Addie’s hand. She hugged the beast and pulled on a ratty old bathrobe that one of them must have left hanging on the hook by the bathing pool. Locan had wrapped a towel around his lean hips, so Jett did the same, but he wondered why they all seemed to feel a need to cover themselves.

Following Locan’s lead, they headed toward the kitchen, but Addie stopped by the bedroom door, grabbed Locan’s hand and tugged him into the room they all shared. Jett followed, with absolutely no idea what Addie was thinking. They’d started out with rooms of their own, but over the months the extra ones had become nothing more than dressing rooms. This one was where they slept, where they talked long into the night, and where they made love.

She pointed at the rumpled bed. “Sit. Both of you.” Az planted his butt on the floor next to the bed. “Not you, you big doofus. Go lie down over there.” She pointed and the beast found a spot in the corner, where he curled up on the floor. He took up almost the entire end of the room.

Locan and Jett sat. Locan shivered, and Jett wrapped an arm around him, but he realized immediately that something was very wrong. Locan’s entire body trembled, and when Addie sat down on his other side and wrapped her arms around him, he broke down in deep, painful sobs.

Jett looked over Locan’s bowed back, caught Addie’s gaze, and shook his head. This was so out of his league.

* * *

Addie hugged him and Jett rubbed his back, and he felt like an absolute fool. He was home, he was safe and he couldn’t stop crying. Demon hunters never cried. He was positive that was something totally unacceptable. Then Addie gently pushed him back and Jett pulled his legs around until he was lying full length on the bed, but the tears were still falling, even if he had managed to get those gut-wrenching sobs to stop.

He covered his eyes with the back of his hand. Addie undid the towel he’d wrapped around his waist, and he felt the soft brush of her lips over the sensitive tip of his cock. No sharp, stinging cuts from her teeth—not from Addie—just the sweet pressure he knew so well.

“Make love with me, Locan. I want to take away her touch. I feel like she defiled what’s mine.” She ran her tongue along his length and his cock swelled beneath her gentle ministrations. He rolled over to cover her, loving the way her curves and valleys blended so well to his, the way his cock slipped between her folds. He felt as if he were coming home.

He thrust slow and steady, but something was missing. Straightening his arms, he supported himself above Addie and glanced to his right, directly into Jett’s dark eyes. “Aren’t you going to join us?”

Jett blinked. “I didn’t want to hurt you. That guy was pretty rough. So was Namaka.”

“Oh.” He’d thought Jett didn’t want him because of what he’d seen. Because he’d been totally out of control and absolutely fucked up. “When you and Addie both blocked me, when we were at Pele’s, I thought . . .” Hell. He didn’t know what he thought.

“No.” Addie shook her head. “Pele blocked us. We didn’t know that. Not until after you’d been taken by Namaka.” She glanced at Jett with tears in her dark eyes, and he nodded in agreement. “We both tried to reach you,” she said, “but we couldn’t make you hear us. Believe me, Locan. We would never block you. We love you.”

He sighed, but he believed Addie. Believed Jett. It fit the selfish nature of the goddess, but he still didn’t understand what had happened. Didn’t understand any of it, but even more, did he want to know a side of himself that was so ugly, so perverted?

He glanced at Jett, and felt the love, the concern in him, and Locan knew he needed this connection. Needed it more than ever. “Make love with us, Jett. You won’t hurt me,” he said, knowing that even if Jett did hurt him, it wouldn’t matter because this was the man he loved. “Only if you refuse me.”

Jett leaned close and kissed his shoulder before gently covering Locan with his full length. He used the lube they kept beside the bed and it felt so damned good as he gently teased those bruised tissues with his cock and then slowly eased his way in.

They found their rhythm almost immediately, the three of them as it had been since the beginning, since the first time Jett and he had been together, since they’d made love to each other and to Addie. And whatever had happened in that dark cave, whatever Namaka had done to him faded just a little bit. It wasn’t gone, and it probably wouldn’t be for a long, long time, but right now, sandwiched between the people he loved, Locan began to feel whole again.

* * *

They awoke a few hours later, Addie, Jett and Locan all tangled up in the bedding, bodies sticky with sweat and other things Addie wasn’t too sure she wanted to identify. At least not until she’d washed everything off, but it was okay. Most important of all, Locan was okay, though the shadows remained, the questions about what had happened.

He’d finally been able to talk about it, the fact he feared that Namaka had forced a side of him into the open, something he’d hidden all his long life. Maybe a part of his demon side that liked pain, that relished blood and cruelty. It wasn’t a side he wanted to explore. In fact, she knew he just wanted it to go away.

She heard the
click, click, click
of toenails and raised her head. Az trotted down the hallway and wandered into the bedroom.
I had to go out,
he said.

Were you able to open the door?

He walked over to the bed and propped his huge head on the pillow beside hers.
I merely transported out. It’s much easier than struggling with doors.

Are you going to tell me if we can keep you?
She reached over and rubbed his huge head. Az sighed.

Only when I absolutely have to.
He sighed.
I have something else to tell you, though.

Addie frowned. “What?” she whispered. “Something about the one who owns you?”

Az rubbed his head against her hand.
No. About the one we rescued from Namaka. I listened to his worries while the three of you whispered in the night.
He turned his great head and stared at Locan, who was slowly coming awake beside Addie.
The pale one fears a darkness in his soul, but it’s not entirely who he is. The bitch Namaka brings forth the darkness. She calls to the parts of a man’s soul that he struggles to hide. Locan was unable to fight her powers. Few can resist her. She freed his personal demons and at the same time held him prisoner to those dark desires. That is her way with men. Namaka needs complete control. She likes to give pain, but she wants her victims to enjoy it. Even when they don’t. It was not something he had the strength to control, though the darkness is a part of him, as it always will be.
Az shrugged his big shoulders.
We cannot fight our nature.
Addie wrapped her arms around the huge beast and hugged him. “Oh, Az. Thank you. You get a steak for dinner tonight, big guy.”

Az ran his tongue from her chin to the top of her head. She was still laughing and sputtering and wiping away slobber when he found his spot at the end of the room and curled up on the floor.

* * *

Locan listened in as the beast explained to Addie what had happened in Namaka’s cave, and suddenly it all made such terrible sense. The darkness was in him, but it was something he’d managed to control, at least until now. Namaka’s power took away that control. But how come he’d not known he had this side to him? How did a man bury a drive so powerful, so dark, even from himself? His nature had been fighting not only his arousal, but his need for pain, a need he’d never recognized.

He shivered, remembering the horrible things she’d done to him, the way his body had welcomed pain even as his conscious mind shuddered in disgust.

Namaka’s cruelty was not meant to give pleasure to anyone but herself. He’d always known there was a link between pleasure and pain. He experienced it with Jett, the amazing burn and stretch he always felt when Jett entered him, and decided that a little pain, shared with love, wasn’t bad. Not bad at all. But he’d found a darker pleasure with Namaka, one he couldn’t deny. One he truly wanted to understand.

The same way he wanted to understand the damned hellhound. Now there was a mystery. The beast had settled in to his corner of the room like he belonged here, but it was obvious he was hiding from something—or someone. Namaka had called him with her magic, and somehow she must have freed him from whomever held a claim on him—someone with the power to control a hellhound.

It had to be someone from the demonrealm, where hellhounds were the traditional guardsmen of the Netherworld, standing duty at the gates of hell, but who? Az raised his head, but his eyes were sad. Locan realized the beast had been listening to his musings.
Thank you,
Locan said.
I haven’t thanked you yet for saving me. If you want to stay with us, we’ll do whatever we can to keep you here. You have my promise.

That’s more than I had hoped. Thank you.
Az sighed and rested his chin on his big paws.

Locan stretched out in the big bed. Addie threw her leg over his thighs and rested her head on his chest. Jett slept soundly beside them, but he held Locan’s left hand against his face. Connected on both sides by the ones he loved, guarded by a hellhound with a surprisingly tender heart of gold, Locan drifted between wakefulness and sleep.