bedeviled & beyond 05 - bedeviled & besmirched (26 page)

His form wavered, as if I’d struck him. “I will not. Remove yourself from this place and let Heaven deal with this creature.”

I shook my head. “I have a score to settle.”

“Vengeance is mine, sayeth the Lord.”

“Yeah, well he’s never had the power sucked out of him by an evil bitch. Besides, I’ve met the Big Guy. I think he’d understand.”

Aubrey’s light blinked off and the room fell shockingly silent. He glanced down at his hands, looking confused.

Apparently the Big Guy had hit the off switch on Aubrey’s power.

Crisanne slid to the floor with a thump and rolled onto her face. She lay there groaning, her legs and arms twitching.

Aubrey stared at me with confusion written across his handsome features and shook his head. “You are a very difficult creature, Astra Q Phelps.”

“I know that’s the rumor. But, for the record, I’m denying it.”

Aubrey crossed his arms over his broad chest and frowned. “Get on with it then. I will allow you to try it your way.”

Like he had a choice.

A blast of power hit Dialle, ripping him away from me as the evil Crisanne finally found her sea legs and fired the first shot over our bow.

I bit my lip, struggling with an urge to interfere as Dialle writhed on the ground, his handsome face contorting with pain. I had never wished more for a return of my power so I could send it into the bitch like a magic knife, burying it deep within her heart.

My hands tightened on my sword. “Push, Dialle. Don’t pull.”

He gritted his teeth, lifted his hands, and Crisanne gasped, staggering backward.

Dialle sat up and his features smoothed as he regained some of the footing he’d lost with her initial assault.

As we’d done with Prince Nille, he was pushing his power at Crisanne rather than fighting her for it. Because the magic in the Shadows ran at cross purposes to normal magic, the result was that Crisanne’s magic flowed toward Dialle, instead of away from him.

He grew visibly stronger for a moment and then I heard Aubrey cry out and turned to find him on his knees. Crisanne had lifted her other hand toward him and fisted it, turning it as her face highlighted the strain of draining the powerful guardian.

“Push the power, Aubrey. Don’t fight her, dump it all on her!”

But his instincts were too strong, and he wasn’t hearing me.

I ran toward Crisanne, sword drawn, and swung it toward her neck, intending to lop off her head. The sword hit a power bubble that felt as if it was made of lead and twanged off, flying across the room.

Bones cracked in my wrists from the impact and I hit my knees, pain slicing through my legs and up my arms.

Behind me, Dialle cried out. I turned to find him on the ground, his legs twitching as Crisanne pulled the last of his power away.

“No!” I screamed and flung myself into the path of her power.

It hit me with the force of lightning in the center of my chest, shoving me backward. But I gritted my teeth and dug my feet into the floor.

Pain saturated my entire body. The power charred my flesh, ripping and burning and devastating everything in its path. My heart stopped beating. My lungs felt as if they melted. My mind clouded under pain and lack of oxygen and blood. I would have dropped to the ground but the power held me upright.

Brina crawled over and pushed to her feet, inserting herself between Aubrey and Crisanne. Her slim back bowed under the massive assault, but she dug in as I had and held her ground.

I watched her black eyes widen under the excruciating pain and saw her lips move, but nothing came out.

Behind Brina, Aubrey regained his feet and shook off the effects of Crisanne’s power.

I heard Dialle moving and felt his arms enclosing me from behind. His soft lips found my ear and he said, “Open yourself to the power, Astra. You’re a reservoir. You held the power once, there will be memory of it in your cells. Let it fill you. Don’t fight it.”

I closed my eyes and opened the core deep inside my body where the magic used to rest. At first the core resisted opening, but after a moment the energy created a small crack in the resistance. As power entered that tiny fissure, the core opened wider, and then wider, until I felt it filling with power again.

“Embrace the Shadows, Astra. Use that power against Crisanne.”

And so I did. I opened my eyes and smiled at Crisanne. Then I softened my control and let the power flow, pulling the chaotic power of the Shadows with it.

Enjoying the feeling of having power again, I pulled the string taut and let it slide away from me, sending it into her with ruthless efficiency.

Crisanne’s eyes widened as the first wave hit. At first it would feel as if I were giving her my power. She would welcome it, embrace its delightful flavor. But then the adverse perspective of the Shadows would kick in and her power would start to drain away.

It didn’t take long for her to realize she was getting more than she bargained for. She tried to lower her hands but the power held her in receive mode.

A moment later, her lips opened and she screamed. Her skin started to bubble and roil, turning transparent as the cells began to disintegrate. She dropped to her knees, her hands still lifted to take the power of the Shadows into her body. Her hands were the first to turn to mist. The transformation slipped up her arms, over her torso, and drained down into her legs. As each inch of her body turned to Shadow and mist, Crisanne’s screams became more terror filled, harsher, and eventually, burbled from her ruined throat. The last thing to dissolve into mist was her head, and her eyes, trained on me with a mixture of hatred and fear before they dissipated with a soft pop.

“To Hades with you fool, for God hath tired of you.” I barely managed to get the words out. My lips felt numb with weariness. My muscles wobbly. Dialle caught me as I started to fall and lifted me into his arms.

We left the Shadows and I spent the brief moments it took to travel to his Court with my head heavy on his shoulder. Empty again.

It had been good while it lasted. But I could tell as Dialle settled me into his soft bed and kissed me gently on my forehead, that I was an empty vessel.

And my real problems had only just begun.

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

So Goes the Queen

Alas the queen hast lost her pow’r, her every hope denied,

But fate hast bid her love acquire, and love dost fate comply.

My eyes opened and I took a quick, physical inventory. Other than a residual soreness, I felt fine. I stretched and tested the extent of my achiness, finding it mildly alarming but nothing I couldn’t deal with.

Next, I took stock of my emotional health and found it surprisingly positive. I hadn’t solved my power loss issue, which pretty much still cut me out of my role as queen to Dialle’s king, but at least I’d saved him from Crisanne. The Puka King could take his place as Council Sovereign and Dialle would have time to find a new queen.

Pushing that depressing thought aside, I tried to focus on the positives, or I would crawl back into the fetal position and never come out. For example, I’d found new hope in the fact that I’d been able to temporarily hold power within my grasp when dealing with Crisanne. Maybe something could be done. At least I had an option to explore.

Out of habit, my gaze slipped upward, looking for the large cracks that had started to show on the ceiling above the bed.

They were gone.

I sat up and looked around. All the degradation that had occurred over the last weeks since I’d lost my power had been healed. I wasn’t sure what that meant, but I took it as a good sign. Maybe Dialle would have more time than I’d thought to find an appropriate queen to replace me.

The double doors opened and Dialle strode in. He was dressed in tight, leather pants and one of his gauzy white shirts, his smooth, golden pecs showing in the deep vee of the shirt.

He carried a tray laden with something that smelled wonderful. I wasn’t sure which I was more excited about...the food or the yummy male specimen delivering it. My stomach rumbled, weighting my interests slightly on the side of food.

I sat up and stuffed pillows behind my back. “That smells incredible.”

He placed the tray across my knees and leaned down to kiss me. I tilted my head and closed my eyes as his soft lips moved over mine. Placing my palm on his chest, I could feel his incredible heat pulsing against my chilled flesh. It warmed places much farther south than my hand.

He lifted his head. “Eat. Regain your strength. You’re going to need it.” His smile was two parts sexy and one part mischievous. My heart did a little flip when I saw it.

I picked up a crunchy strip of smoked meat and tasted it, closing my eyes in bliss. A few bites of buttery pastry later I took a breath and wiped my hands.

“Gerch sends his regards.”

I smiled, happy the big, red guy was all right.

Dialle watched me eat. Normally I would find that disconcerting. But given the limited time we had left together I relished it. I reached over and touched his cheek with my hand. “You seem very chipper this morning.”

He placed a kiss on my palm. “I have you back, safe. My court is healing. I am feeling chipper, my queen.”

Remembering the hell I’d been putting him through for weeks, I felt suddenly shamed. Dialle definitely had his wicked side. He was, after all, a very powerful devil. But he’d treated me well for nearly the entire time we’d been together and I owed him more trust than I’d shown him.

I plucked at a chunk of pastry and frowned. “About that queen thing...”

Dialle grabbed the tray and set it aside.

“We will discuss logistics later.”

I shook my head. “I need to get this off my chest.”

He pushed a strand of hair off my face. “I will give you two minutes.”

I sighed. Where to start? “I no longer have my magic.”

“One minute thirty seconds.”

I lifted an eyebrow. “Your clock is fast, bud.”

His grin had become more weighted to the mischievous side. “That isn’t all that’s fast. One minute two seconds.”

I shook my head. “I’m no longer qualified to be your queen.”

“How can one small woman be so wrong? Thirty seconds.”

“Dialle!”

“Time’s up.”

He crawled up my body and covered my mouth with his own. I shoved ineffectually at his chest but it was no use. I’d like to say he was too strong and he overcame my feeble rebuke, but the truth is that I was just too weak to resist the taste of his lips and sweet breath. I wasn’t strong enough to resist the hard, insistent feel of his long body against mine.

My fingers curled into his gauzy shirt and I found myself pulling him closer...moaning against his lips. Our clothes disappeared with a thought and any resistance I had disappeared with them. I slipped my hands over his pecs, tweaking the hard, brown buds of his nipples, and then down the firm ripples of his belly, toward the rigid shaft between his legs. My fingers enclosed his thick shaft, stroked it lovingly, and my thumb slipped across its tip to harvest the delicious drop of promise glistening there.

Dialle groaned into my mouth and slipped a hand under my butt, lifting me and sliding me down the bed so that he could cover me with his body.

It was a delicious feeling, being pressed into the soft mattress by his wonderful body. I was gently weighted, enveloped in heat and silk-sheathed hardness from chest to toe. Dialle’s scent enveloped me, cocooning us in a private world every bit as consuming as the Shadows, but ever so much more pleasant.

I arched my belly into the hard ridge of flesh pressing against it and rolled my hips. Dialle’s tongue found the seam of my lips, flicked the sensitive flesh until I opened, then slipped inside.

His taste infused my senses. My body blossomed, recognizing his touch, his taste, his smell in the most elemental ways. Every nerve ending in my skin expanded in response to his ministrations, creating an almost painful awareness of flesh against flesh. My taste buds opened to receive the sweet and spicy offerings of his skin and mouth. My muscles quivered to hold him more tightly. My nipples tightened painfully, rising for notice in the hopes that he would bathe them in moist heat. And my channel moistened, sending warm liquid streaming down my thighs.

Dialle gently chewed my bottom lip, slipping downward to suck my nipples into his mouth. Tangling my fingers in his hair, I opened my legs wider and wrapped them around his waist, begging for relief.

Dialle licked his way along the valley between my breasts and up my throat, stopping to bathe the spot where his daemon mark used to be.

I stiffened at the memory of its loss, but Dialle’s hands slipped along the inside of my thigh and across the engorged bud of my clit, driving all thoughts of magic and daemon hickies right out of my mind. My head fell back and I shivered as Dialle’s talented fingers slid into my channel, driving exquisite sensations inside my body and along my aching clit, where his thumb stroked.

I lost myself in the sensations. My head thrashing against the down-filled pillows, my limbs tightened and the spiral of lust building in my belly started to unwind, sending shards of bright pleasure shooting through my body.

My toes curled hard against the soles of my feet and I cried out, feeling overwhelming release slamming through me. My muscles softened even as my sexual channel clenched and tightened around Dialle’s invading fingers, exuberantly embracing them.

Wave after wave of pleasure swamped me, until I was limp from it...my body flushed and panting in the aftermath.

Dialle covered me and drove his shaft into my body, burying it to his tight balls. My satiety exploded into awareness and need once again.

He clasped my hands and lifted them above my head as he thrust into me, hard, deep and slow, rolling his hips with each thrust to maximize sensation.

He sucked on my chin...nibbled.

Pleasure spiked...swirled.

My channel throbbed...clenched.

Every thrust spun through me as a tsunami of delight, tightening my nipples and making my clit throb. I groaned out his name, cherishing the feel of his body inside mine, swelling, stroking the hungry flesh along my pulsing channel.