In no mood to spar with Pandora, she cleared her throat and focused on Micah. “As much as I abhor the idea, yes.”
Elias whistled. Nix shot him a hard glare.
“Aww…that’s so sweet, kitten. But I don’t want the other Kings touching you, so the amazing offer is denied.”
She breathed in relief.
“Your happiness hurts my feelings, princess.” Elias mocked her with a wink.
“Good.”
He laughed, walked to her, and kissed her on the forehead. “Welcome home, sister.” Afterward, he vanished, leaving her perplexed by his actions.
Micah drew her out of her confusion. “Releasing Phoenix is out of the question. He’s gone too far to come back from the things he’s done with all his marbles”—he tapped his forehead— “intact. He’d go crazy if I released him.”
“You’re lying.” He’d better be lying or Amos and Georgie were wrong and this trip into Hell had been doomed from the start.
Micah shrugged. “Believe as you wish. Soon enough you’ll understand the ways of Hell without my help.”
“I won’t be here that long.”
“We’ll see. Phoenix has something he’s dying to show you. Been working on it for almost four months.”
“Not interested.” Not that she really expected to be given a choice, but she didn’t have to make anything easy for him either.
Micah chuckled and kissed her temple. “You said she’d be a handful, Phoenix.”
“Yep. Come, Mads.” Nix tugged on her hand and she went with him because she really possessed no choice.
The floor stretched beneath her feet and the walls reminded her of her grandmother’s patch-worked quilts stuffed in her hope chest. She poked the wall and received a shriek. She bit back a scream, slowly discovering the walls and floors both were made from sewn-together flesh.
“Nothing goes to waste in Hell. You should see what we do with teeth and intestines.”
Recoiling at the possibilities, she didn’t wish to know.
Micah led them into a room, cave-like with dark walls frozen in grisly scenes of murder. To her right a pool of sorts churned with dark fluid. She tried to pretend it wasn’t blood. Strapped to a table in the center of the room lay a young female blonde, green eyed, of average height and naked, with no pubic hair.
Yanking her hand out of Nix’s hold, she turned and strode right back out the door. Or what posed as a door since it was just an opening. Micah caught her before she got too far down the hallway and dragged her right back into the room.
“
Qiyr
.”
Lock
, he said as they reentered the room.
That easily, he sealed her inside and she slammed into an invisible door when she attempted another exit. Resting her head against the unseen shield, she placed her palms on it and tapped into her demonic mojo, willing it to release her.
“
Imal. Mqauja imal
.”
Open. Please open
. The door wouldn’t budge. Why wouldn’t her commands work in Hell? They’d worked so conveniently on earth.
“It will open only to my commands. Come, Madison, and see the creation you helped make.”
Not a muscle twitched to do his bidding. “I don’t want to watch you hurt anyone, Micah.”
“They’re in Hell, kitten. Torture is what we do until the soul breaks.” He sounded so patient, like he spoke to a toddler still learning the dos and don’ts.
She flinched away when he touched her shoulder and she heard him sigh. The woman strapped to the table screamed and Madison swung around. Using a bizarre hook-like apparatus, Phoenix opened up an angry gash down her arm. Blood dribbled into a sieve and ran into the pool.
Madison tackled Nix from behind, dropping them both to the floor. He didn’t fight her as she expected, but she straddled his waist and said, “
Hioyt tak uvuel ulx E’qq oja htuh ummukuhoj il cio.” Touch her again and I’ll use that apparatus on you
.
Madison kicked the torture device across the floor, which spawned a chorus of shrieking from the creepy skin-floor.
“I do this in your honor, Mads.” Nix cupped her hips and held her firmly in place.
“Don’t do anything in my honor ever again.” She shoved his hands aside and climbed off him, sending both men a disgusted glare. “I’ve never felt so dishonored in my life!”
“There is power in their agony, Madison,” Micah explained. “The pool holds all the blood of his victims since shucking his humanity. He erected it as a monument to you.”
“I’m not fucking impressed.”
“Don’t curse. Some Kings might like it, but it makes you sound like a common whore. You are not common. Neither are you a whore.”
“Micah?” she said and waited until he blinked. “Fuck you!” And in case he didn’t understand it in English, she repeated it in his language. “
Woyr cio
!”
His blond brows created deep gouges in the center of his forehead and his mouth thinned with disapproval. Did he really think she’d easily fall to his dictates?
“I wish to share the power with you.” Nix ran his fingers through her hair.
“No thanks.” She caught his wrist and shoved it away.
Micah burst out laughing. “You’ll enter the pool, attitude with you, if necessary.”
Making a fist, Madison fantasized about punching them both in the nose. “Go to Hell, Micah. Oh, wait, you’re already there. So…go to Heaven!”
Lame
, Pandora chided.
“We’ll have to force her into the pool, Phoenix.”
“Wait!” She slammed her hand in the center of Nix’s chest. He halted and watched her expectantly. “I appreciate your gift, but I really don’t want to get in all that sticky, gooey blood. You remember how girly I am about blood and stuff.”
She could tell by his expression he didn’t remember any such thing. Technically, she didn’t have an aversion to blood, just going into it and swimming around in it.
“Mads, you’re not squeamish about anything.”
“Um….” She came up with nothing, so with desperation driving her, she flung herself against Nix and kissed him.
He chuckled, but dug his fingers in her hair, twisted her head to the side and parted her lips. His tongue plunged inside and Madison forgot everything…even the whimpering soul and Micah’s presence.
The taste of Nix was just like she remembered, no different than before he went into Hell. She would’ve expected some type of discernable change with his new powers. But, for the moment, in his arms, with his tongue in her mouth, she forgot their locale.
His hands slid down her back, cupped her ass, and added pressure to the back of her thighs. Following his silent command, she wrapped her legs around his waist and he started to walk.
Nix severed the kiss. Their gazes caught and held. “Hold your breath, baby.”
He stepped over the edge and into the pool of blood.
Chapter Twenty-four
Madison squealed instead of dragging in a hasty final breath, and buried her face in Nix’s chest as they submerged beneath the gory liquid. She shoved out of his arms and kicked against the squishy flooring. Surfacing, she sputtered blood out of her mouth, wiped it off her eyes, and squeezed it from her hair.
“You’re so officially off my friends list, Phoenix Birmingham.” Her voice trembled.
Nix laughed. Not the reaction she expected, but uncertain what she anticipated from him, she let his humor go.
Micah joined them, descending into the pool by way of a set of stairs Madison couldn’t see. And she did
not
want to know what they were made of!
The liquid swirled around her like an unnatural entity and an odd vibration hummed against her skin. Blood evaporated from her arms. Madison dragged in a shaky breath. The substance wasn’t evaporating, but rather, she saw her skin eagerly soaked it up.
That cannot be good
.
Panic shot into overdrive and her temples pounded from the sudden surge of emotions. She scrambled to the edge of the pool and tried to climb out. One of the men pulled her back. She was unsure which one, but she ended up in Micah’s arms, his body aligned against hers.
“The blood holds the energy of Phoenix’s victims, kitten.” Micah’s lips tickled her ear. “Your succubus is hurting from forced starvation.” His jaw slid down her throat. “I can feel your malnourishment and it makes me ache for you.”
“No.” Madison shook her head and in desperation shoved out of his embrace. She fisted Nix’s shirt and pleaded with her eyes, praying he’d find the humanity he once possessed. “You have no idea what you’re doing to me.” Glimmers coalesced about his head and a quick scan about the room identified more popping up. Beneath the surface of her skin, she could feel her succubus begin to shift and stretch in wakefulness. “Get me out of this!”
Nix stared at her, silent, as Micah spoke. “She remains.”
Heart slamming against her ribs, her bare toes began to tingle, and she dashed for the edge of the tub again. Micah wrapped an arm around her waist, secured her against his chest, and dipped low enough to submerge her to the neck in the blood.
He would force her succubus to the surface and she couldn’t stop his intentions. Tears blurred her vision as the tingle hit her belly and climbed upward.
“Everything will be okay, baby.” Nix cupped her cheek and she didn’t question his sincerity.
“Nothing will ever be okay again.” Her voice sounded off, like she’d been awakened from a deep sleep. And her succubus, after slumbering most of her life, was being aroused.
Micah turned her and pressed her spine against the side of the pool. She concentrated on taking slow, shallow breaths, but it’d be ineffective in heading off her coming rebirth. Using a claw, Micah pierced a vein on his wrist. Black blood beaded to the surface and he held it beneath her nose.
Madison couldn’t name one thing that smelled as good as his life force and the power it represented. Such a sweet scent, as intoxicating as chocolate ice cream. Closing her eyes, she resisted the gnawing urge to clamp her mouth on his wrist and suck him dry.
I want more than his blood
. Pandora startled her with her mild spoken comment.
“You need it, kitten. If you deny yourself what you need, your succubus will demand another form of payment.” Madison’s lids snapped open. “I won’t complain about the other form of payment, but I’m guessing you would.”
Why did he care what she wanted?
“Sex?” Madison whispered, remembering what Petra said.
“Yes.”
Which was worse? Sex or blood? She cringed at the idea of sex with Micah. Sipping his blood was a very pleasurable idea to her dormant succubus. How much more would she alter by ingesting him?
Too much
would be the answer, maybe so much she’d pay with her soul.
“We don’t do sugar in Hell, kitten.”
“I hate you.” She shoved as much vehemence as she could into her shaky voice.
“I know.” Micah held up his arm. He waited, watching her in silence, his wrist inches from her mouth. Why didn’t he just press it to her lips already? As if he could read her mind, he said, “You have to do it. I won’t have you screaming you were forced afterward.”
She didn’t just hate him, she fucking hated him! Madison curled her fingers around his arm, took a deep breath and drew it toward her. The smell…she quivered in anticipation.
Madison regarded Micah. He observed her with a heavy, hungry stare. Holding his gaze, she licked the bead of blood off his wrist. Together they groaned. One taste hit her harder than a jolt of liquor. She slammed her mouth over his arm and sucked so hard her teeth protested with a dull ache. This was her elixir, her cure all to life’s problems, found in the vein of her husband.
She’d never been as gorgeous or as erotic as she was in this moment, ingesting his healing blood. Phoenix cupped the back of her head, supporting her neck or lending aid to her suckling, Micah couldn’t be sure what drove the man. What he recognized was the depth of emotion the other male felt.
When Madison looked at Phoenix, the presence between them vibrated differently, like an invisible charge, but tangible against his neurons. Hot jealousy knotted his belly and it took all his willpower not to shift into angel and kill the Ark of Heaven. The man could teach him how to cajole Madison to his side. He’d won her over once before. He
would
do it again.
But he couldn’t dismiss something differed between his prior relationship with Madison and the one she shared with Phoenix. Confused by what that represented, he just recognized that Madison responded to Phoenix in a way she never had to him. Why? He’d revered her since her birth. Protected her all her life, even if she hadn’t been aware of his influence.
His cock twitched at the memory of her kissing Nix before entering the pool. Emotions riddled him, among them resentment, intrigue, confusion, and turned-the-fuck on. He wasn’t certain he could tolerate Phoenix banging her without seeking bloody recompense from the Ark of Heaven.
Taking lessons from the Sherlock on how to bring his wife back to heel…the very idea galled him. But desperation drove him to contemplate almost anything to gain what he desired the most.
A twinkle shifted against her throat and he dug the necklace from beneath her blood-weighted shirt. He recognized the soul signature immediately.
“You wear a piece of our son.” Awed by the luminescent aura, he watched the power of their son’s soul vibrate against his palm.
As she nursed on his wrist, bringing stings along his flesh, he sensed the weight of Madison’s stare. Every drag she took tweaked his cock. Soon, he planned to be thrusting between her thighs while she fed off his blood.
He smiled, satisfied with Madison’s progression. “
Our
son. You belong with me, Madison. As does Amos.”
She grunted and gave up his arm, licking her lips as she watched him.
“Her eyes!” Phoenix exclaimed.
Her pupils went burnt orange, the color of the Kings, and fitting for his Queen. Her irises shifted to a hot pink, which identified her as the rarest name of all succubi—Lynx. A unique and very powerful breed that not only fed through sexual encounters, but by consuming magical powers. Before Madison, only one Lynx had ever been created: God’s consort. She’d grown obsessed with gaining the alchemy of others and Father had struck her dead, but He hadn’t eradicated the substance she’d been crafted from. Micah killed numerous angels to get his hands on the substance needed to craft the Lynx DNA. Managing to steal the
Pyxis
containing it before he revolted against father’s grace was a chance of fate, and he’d waited thirty years to verify if he’d succeeded.