Vampire Mate: BBW Paranormal Romance (13 page)

She opened and shut her mouth
wordlessly. Finally she turned away and mumbled, “I have to
go.”

“
Like hell you do!”

“
Glenn, just let me go.
I...”

“
No.”

“
I will come back. I
promise!” Her eyes glowed red with tears, her plea earnest and
aching.

Glenn loosened his grip on her
and felt her hand slip from his. A mate promise meant something to
him. It meant everything to him.

“
Has Kron summoned you?”
he asked quietly as he watched her drag on her dress and her shoes.

She froze, then forced her
shaking fingers to continue pulling up the zipper at the side of her
dress, covering her fair, fleshy body from his starved eyes.

“
Y-yes. I hear him.
And...if I don't go, he will drag me kicking and screaming back to
him.”

Glenn made a sound of
frustration and fury.

He strode forward and grabbed
her shoulders. “I. Will. Free. You.”

She tried to smile up at him,
but he read her answer in her eyes.
You can't.

“
I will, Charlene. I
promise.”

He hugged her fiercely to him,
and leaned down to press a hard, bruising kiss to her lips. “Go,
Charlene, but promise me you'll be safe.”

“
I promise. He won't
touch me.”

Taking a steadying breath, she
stepped back from him and disappeared before his eyes. In a
heartbeat, she had teleported to Kron, denying him the satisfaction
and fun of dragging her through the Abyss to him.

Glenn felt the familiar chill
and emptiness creep back into his bedroom with her departure. She
was gone.

He wavered by the rumpled bed,
picturing their heated, entwined bodies in the sheets and shook
himself. Dressing quickly, he misted back to his office before the
sun rose.

He materialized just outside
his office door, beside Philomi's desk. She would be in soon, and he
decided that maybe he would make coffee for her just this once. He
knew how to work the coffee machine. He might be ancient, as
Charlene had so bluntly and accurately put it, but he wasn't out of
it.

Modern appliances didn't faze
him.

Neither did gloating,
controlling demon lords.

He would kill Sideous Kron if
he could. But he couldn't.

Destroying Sideous Kron would
destroy all the demons he Made as well. It was a catch-22 situation.

But Glenn was determined to
get his mate out of this situation.

Kron had to be destroyed.

Glenn switched on the coffee
machine and stabbed furiously at the buttons. The machine began to
spew out two cups of cappuccino, one cup of caffe latte and one cup
of black coffee. Glenn blinked at the busy little machine. There
was no stopping it. He had pressed too many buttons and too many
cups of coffee was what he was getting.

What the heck. He could do
with the caffeine this morning.

Balancing all the cups of
coffee onto a tray and taking them into his office, Glenn drained two
cups of the hot, bitter brew and tapped at his watch. All PAC
members had the watch, and it enabled them to contact any Council
member, wherever he or she may be.

It was very early morning in
New Moon City, and the city was still quiet and barely awake.

But the person he was
contacting wasn't in New Moon City at the moment.

He waited until he heard a
click. “Hello, Glenn, you're up early. Catching the sunrise?”
Zorath's voice came through. The demon prince was certainly in a
jaunty mood after defeating Prince Deviazel's army and securing his
demon kingdom.

“
Zorath, I trust
everything is well in your kingdom.” Glenn sat down heavily in
his leather chair.

“
Everything is as it
should be. Thanks to the Council and the city.”

Glenn, together with the other
Council members and quite a number of intrepid New Moon City
civilians had leaped headlong through a Gateway and into the demon
battle on the side of Zorath's army. Glenn knew that Zorath was
grateful for their help, and had wanted to return to New Moon City to
serve the city in his capacity as a PAC member, but Lucas has
insisted that he stay in his realm and put his kingdom back in order
first. There was a lot to do after a bloody battle, a lot to clean
up and put right.

A pause. “Glenn, if
there is anything you need, anything at all, just ask.”

“
There is something I
need to ask you.”

“
What do you need to
know?”

“
I need to know how to
destroy a demon lord. Without...destroying one of his Made demons.”
Glenn stared at the clock on the opposite wall, watching the seconds
ticking away ponderously. Never before had he felt the weight and
pressure of time so acutely. In fact, time had long since lost all
meaning for him. But now, he felt time coiling and tightening around
his neck like a noose.

Time was running out.

And he may just lose the most
precious thing, the one person he had spent his life searching and
hoping for.

There was a long silence, and
when Zorath spoke again, his tone was quiet, too quiet, and his first
words were, “I'm sorry, Glenn.”

Charlene teleported straight
into Sideous Kron's living room, just as Kron was about to throw a
tantrum and unleash his inner demon.

The demon lord was raising his
cane, his horns unfurling and his claws and fangs making their
dramatic appearance.

“
You called?”
Charlene said nonchalantly, plonking herself onto the sofa in front
of the fireplace. “No need to yank my leash. You called, I
came, you conquered. No need to get all your hardware out.”
She indicated his horns and descending fangs.
They don't scare
me. Not anymore.

She yawned loudly and made a
show of stretching out her legs and lacing her fingers behind her
head.

Kron lowered his cane, and his
smiling, human facade gradually rippled back into place. “You're
cutting it real close, Charlene. Just one second later, and you'll
be flailing and screaming your way to me, instead of strolling in
here and sitting pretty on my sofa.” His smile was thin and
threatening.

Charlene massaged her temples.
“I was working the whole night. You instructed me to work the
vampire, remember? I was doing exactly that. It's exhausting!”
She looked up with a huff. “If you're wanting your signed
contract, I'm afraid I don't have it yet. But I'm close. This close
to getting him to sign.” She showed a tiny gap between her
thumb and forefinger to emphasize her point.

“
I knew you were the
right gal for the job. And yes, I can tell that you've seduced him.
The vile smell of sex is all over you.” Kron pinched his nose.
“Even a succubus couldn't have done a better job.”

It was a backhanded
compliment, and Charlene gritted her teeth in a forced smile. “Thank
you.”

“
You know, Charlene,”
Kron said, taking a seat in the large armchair opposite her. “In
all this time, I have only ever Made demons. I have never sired
them. Do you want to know why?”

No, not really.

“
Why?” she asked,
looking suitably interested and impressed.

He removed his monocle and
polished it on his sleeve. He was in his usual white jacket, and
silly top hat. Perhaps he thought this getup lent him an air of
respectability and trustworthiness. Whatever.

Charlene had already made up
her mind that she would not remain a slave, a blood demoness, a
hunter and tormentor of unsuspecting shifters. She had resolved to
destroy Kron, and destroy herself in the process, rather than live on
as a monster. She would just spend the last few nights of her life
as a demoness with Glenn, take one last look at her sister and make
sure that Charlotte was indeed happy, well and loved, and then...she
would go out with a bang.

The decision had come to her
suddenly, but clearly. She knew that she had to do it. It was the
right thing to do. The only thing for her to do.

She should never have allowed
herself to be Made into a demon. The price was simply too high and
too harrowing to pay.

But if she hadn't been Made
into a blood demon, she would never have had this night of bliss with
Glenn. She would never learn that her sister was happily mated to
the PAC Alpha and had become a courageous, young Enforcer.

She had been given a chance.
A chance to take out the fiendish demon lord.

So perhaps there was a purpose
she had been Made into a blood demoness. Her days as a blood
demoness may be short and numbered, but she would make damn sure that
she had not endured the Abyss in vain. She would take herself out of
Kron's bloody game, and she would try to take him out as well.

Once she had made up her mind,
a calm had settled over her. A calm and a certain light-heartedness.
Things weren't so bad, and nothing was that serious. Coz'
everything would be ending real soon.

Kron snapped her name, his
voice hard and sharp like a whip.

Charlene wiped the loopy smile
from her face and straightened up. “Yes.” She swallowed
and said quickly, “You were telling me why you only Make
demons. I'm guessing you don't like the act involved in siring demon
young, sir.”

Kron laughed, apparently
appeased. “Good, good. For a moment there, you looked like
you weren't really listening to me. Like you were thinking—perhaps
plotting something.”

Charlene arranged her features
into a shocked expression.
Me? Plotting? No way! How can I be
plotting when I'm listening. Listening, yup, that's all I'm doing
here. Listening to your stupid, self-satisfied story of why you're
such a frigid old fart!

Kron replaced his monocle and
peered at her. “You're partly right. But the main reason is
because the lives of my Made demons are linked inextricably to mine.
You can't trust your sired demons not to turn on you and destroy you
one fine day. But Made demons can't do that. They can't do me in
without doing themselves in. We'll all be sucked back into the
Abyss, to be tortured by the flames for all eternity. Beauty, eh?
And if my Made demons killed themselves or are killed before I free
them, they end up on my shelf by my fireplace. Forever. They can
never be free, unless I free them. If you serve me well, Charlene, I
may free you ahead of your time.”

Charlene was staring into the
fireplace, his words swirling and echoing around her.

Her plan clicked into place.
It was perfect. That was exactly what she would do. Drag Kron down
into the Abyss with her. She would burn for all eternity, but so be
it.

Destroy Kron, condemn herself.

The first part was the hard
part.

How was she going to destroy a
demon lord who was way older and way more powerful than her? If she
failed—

They can never be free,
unless I free them.

Her soul would be his prize.
She would be trapped forever.

She stared at the row of snow
globes on the shelf beside the fireplace. The ghostly impressions
floating in those globes were—his prize. The poor demons who
had tried to free themselves. Only they hadn't freed themselves.
They were trapped forever, doomed to be Kron's ornamental souls till
the end of time.

Those snow globes were
unbreakable. She had accidentally knocked one to the floor when she
was trying to teleport for the first time. The globe had simply
thudded to the floor and lay there unbroken and intact. She had
hurriedly replaced the ornament, carrying it up with both hands. She
remembered being surprised by its weight. For such a small, delicate
looking thing, it sure weighed a lot. It was the weight of a soul.

She blinked hard, and shook
her head, tearing her eyes away from those sorrowful soul globes.
No. She would not spend eternity trapped in a crystal ball, gazing
out at Kron's atrocities helplessly, regretting every single moment
of her existence.

They can't do me in without
doing themselves in. We'll all be sucked back into the Abyss, to be
tortured by the flames for all eternity. Beauty, eh?

Yeah.

Beauty.

The Abyss, here we come!

Charlene blinked up to see
Kron studying her with narrowed eyes. Beaming, she said quickly,
“Thank you for your offer to free me ahead of my time, sir.
May I ask how many demons you have free thus far?” Charlene
asked sweetly.

From the look Kron gave her,
Charlene had her answer.

None.

“
Get me the land soon,
Charlene,” Kron ordered coldly. “Then we'll talk about
your freedom.”

She nodded and pretended to
stifle a yawn. “Would you be needing my presence in your
castle, sir? I really need to rest to get my energy back so that
I'll be able to hunt for more beasts and blood for you tonight. As
well as, you know, work that vampire.”