The Deviants Complete series Box Set
Page 20
“The gods gave me a sign,” she replied, her tone nonchalant. “And we know we can’t ignore the gods.”
“Some of us have,” he replied, and she snickered lightly.
“Circe, I’m sorry – “
“No,” she cut him off. “This is not the time for any of that. Right now, we need to conquer Uvall and get him and Rowan before Dante. That’s the deal, Kalen. We’re not doing this for the Corpus. We’re doing this for the good of the Underworld.”
Kalen didn’t care anymore; he was just grateful that Circe had returned to him and that she was helping to bring down the demon who had maddeningly evaded capture all that time.
“Yes,” he agreed. “Of course. But Circe, it was never really about the money.”
He had no other way to explain to her in that minute, that it was honor that Uvall had shirked.
But if he didn’t find Uvall and make an example out of him, it would be a free-for-all on the Corpus and Kalen couldn’t allow for such a thing to happen, not when he had worked so hard to turn his empire into something other than the stagnant, decrepit kingdom his father had left him.
“He’s in there,” Circe whispered, swooping down to collect the modified holy water with her tiny beak, but he drew his hand back instinctively, worried that the liquid would harm her.
“Are you sure?” Evander asked, as Kalen and Circe’s eyes locked.
“I’m sure,” she replied, gliding to perch on Kalen’s hand again. “He’s there with Rowan.”
“How many trolls?”
“A dozen at most.”
Kalen nodded, his eyes still fixated on her tiny face and she hopped along his arm to watch him.
“Give me the water,” she said. “Break down the wall and I will douse him. It will give you an opportunity to subdue him.”
“You can’t. The water will weaken you,” Kalen replied but she shook her bird-head and made a sound akin to a laugh.
“I’m a goddess,” she reminded him. “I can hold my own.”
“You’re a Deviant. It will weaken you.”
“Not as much as it will weaken Uvall. What other choice do you have?” she insisted and Evander cleared his throat.
“She’s right, Kalen. It’s the best plan we can hope for. It will catch them off guard – “
“We hope.”
“Kalen, are we doing this or not?” Evander demanded, the stress in his voice apparent. “Because if we’re not – “
“We’re doing it,” Circe said, finality in her voice. “Because he needs to be stopped and we can’t keep running around looking for him forever.”
“We?” Kalen’s eyebrows raised and her yellow eyes brightened.
“Yes, we,” she repeated. “Let’s do this, Kalen. We have time enough to talk about everything else later.”
He nodded slowly, the intensity of her gaze motivating him in the best possible way.
She’s got my back too.
Inhaling, he gestured for her to go back inside the wall and wait.
Circe held his eyes for a moment longer before rising and disappearing through the concrete.
Without wasting another second, Kalen raised a fist, his knuckles crashing through the cement barrier with one punch.
A roar of terrified shrieks pierced through the air and trolls dove for cover at the sight of the incensed overlord coming toward them.
Over the din of the traitors came a much higher scream and Kalen recognized it immediately as the sound of magically altered holy water hitting immortal flesh.
Through his peripheral vision, he saw the small body of Circe fall back, the vial falling from her beak as she shifted back into her mortal form, exhausted and depleted from handling the blessed potion.
Every instinct made him want to run to her but Kalen knew his window of opportunity was fading.
“Go to Circe!” he yelled to Evander before flying into the air like a jaguar and landing on his prey.
Uvall continued to scream as Rowan tried to flee, but as Kalen closed his hands around the former demon lord’s neck, cutting off his air supply, he kicked his foot out to knock Rowan down.
“N-n—no!” Uvall gargled, his eyes wide with horror as he realized who held him. “M-m-money, h-have!”
“Save your breath, Uvall,” Kalen told the smothering demon. “You’re gonna need it in limbo.”
Uvall’s eyes bulged as he realized that he was not going to be kept in chains, but rather turned over to Dante.
“N-n-n…” he began to plead.
Feeling Uvall go limp, Kalen reluctantly released his throat. As soon as Kalen let go, Uvall’s fist flew up with bruising force as it collided with Kalen’s chiseled jaw.
“Shit...you’re going to regret that,” Kalen said as his eyes darkened, and he quickly rubbed his jaw before grabbing the gasping demon’s head in both hands. A vicious twist to the left, and the crack as Uvall’s spine broke was audible throughout the wrecked building. The immortal, still alive but out of commission for several hours, fell limply to the dirty floor.
He glanced behind him where Evander and Circe were binding Rowan with twine.
“I can help you!” Rowan cried. “You can use me!”
The vampire, looking over at Kalen, said, “A beautifully effective solution.”
A moment later, Rowan was in the same position, unable to move or even breath as her body crumpled over itself. For her too, the injury was not lethal, but a body couldn’t heal from such a grievous assault without time.
“That was for Arya and Jasmine,” Circe said, glancing over at Evander and giving him a high-five. She glanced at Kalen.
“How come this never happens in the movies?” she demanded, scowling at the red streaks of blood that were on her hands from when she had fallen during transformation the second time.
The trolls continued to cower in the shadows as Kalen rose, his eyes flashing in ire.
“Explain yourselves,” he demanded of them.
“He forced us, my lord!” one fearful soul sobbed. “He threatened us!”
“It’s true, sire!” another one chanted and the murmur of agreement filled his ears. Kalen didn’t want to hear it but as he turned, ready to administer his wrath upon them, his eyes fell on Circe’s face.
“Hear them out, Kalen,” she murmured softly so as to not be overheard by the gollums. “I was quick to jump to conclusions too and look where that landed me.”
He stared at her intently, trying to determine if that meant she had forgiven him. He nodded slowly and extended his arm toward her, the need to feel her skin on his again superseding the desire to banish all the trolls to purgatory.
Eagerly, she slipped toward him, sliding her hand into his and Kalen suddenly felt as if a weight had been removed from his shoulders.
He had everything he needed right in that spot. For once in his immortal life, he felt that he was right where he was supposed to be.
“Bind them and keep them until Dante arrives,” he told the troll that had been brave enough to speak first. “If you succeed in this, I may consider bringing you back to the Old World with me.”
They did not need a second instruction and jumped to attention, swarming the fallen demon and high priestess like locusts.
He turned his attention back to Circe. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Evander drift away, leaving them to speak in private.
“What about me?” she asked, tilting her head back to look at him with wide, glowing eyes.
“What about you?”
“Are you going to bring me back to the Old World with you?”
A smile toyed on Kalen’s lips.
“You are free to go anywhere you want,” he replied gruffly, feeling her breath on his face as she inched nearer.
“Am I? And will you allow me to stay with you?”
Kalen lifted her chin gently with his finger and stared intently at her, trying to read her very soul.
“Do you want to stay with me, now that you know who I am?” he
muttered. “Because you seemed pretty determined to get away from me before.”
“I jumped the gun,” she answered sincerely. “I acted rashly and there wasn’t a minute that I was in Milan that I didn’t wish I was here with you.”
“Oh shit, Milan!” Kalen groaned. “You have to get back.”
“No,” she said softly. “I don’t. I’m exactly where I need to be.”
There was no denying the sincerity in her eyes but it was the deep kiss that sealed the truth for him.
“Come with me,” she murmured, leading him away from the swarm of trolls. “I can’t do what I want to do with this audience.”
Heat flowed through him and he let her guide him around a corner.
A lone subway car sat on a set of abandoned tracks and Circe grabbed him, her palms flat against his buttocks as they moved backward.
“I always wanted to fuck on the subway,” she confessed and her words brought all the heat to his loins at once.
“Huh. I never knew I did too until this moment,” he replied, grabbing her neck and pressing his mouth to hers.
They twirled onto the rusty car, the emotion they had been holding onto ready to bubble over. Kalen’s body fell onto a seat and Circe straddled him, pulling his lips up to meet hers in a passionate, bruising kiss. He gently nipped at her lower lip, and licked into her mouth as it opened, their tongues tangling as they swallowed each other heated moans.
She pushed her firm breasts together in front of his face, daring him to worship them – worship her as her core burned into his throbbing, erect cock.
Kalen’s tongue lashed out, bathing the bare skin of her cleavage, pulling her in closer as a small sigh escaped her lips.
“I don’t know what it is about you,” he breathed, kissing the prickled skin at her nipple. “I’ve never felt like this with anyone.”
“I couldn’t stop thinking about you,” she whispered, her hands undoing the buttons of his trousers, freeing his cock as her fingers wrapped around his hard shaft. “I’m sorry I was such a fool.”
“Shh,” he instructed, biting back a moan as the Valkyrie’s hand expertly worked his cock, precum leaking from his tip. He popped his lips off her breast to stare up into her eyes. “I was an asshole. I shouldn’t have lied to you. I knew you were going to learn the truth eventually.”
He felt the slick heat of her opening and as she lowered herself onto him, they moaned in unison.
“I feel like I haven’t been inside you in eons.”
Circe sexily bit her lip, as she ground harder against his member, signifying her agreement.
In sync, their movements quickened and soon, Circe’s breaths were escaping in short, jagged puffs.
“Fuck!” she cried, her voice echoing through the tunnel. “Fuck me harder Kalen, I’m going to come!”
“Come,” he commanded, driving himself higher inside her tight, flexed walls as his thumb drew circles around her swollen clit. She tightened around him, making him hotter than he could ever remember being, her nipples smacking his face as his movements grew harder. He bent forward to take one of the swollen buds between his teeth, gently biting before lavishing with his tongue. He continued his ministrations on her breasts as his thumb quickened its massage on her clit.
She threw her head back, and let out a cry of pleasure as she moaned and stilled, her face contorted with spasms of ecstasy. He was smothered in a wave of her nectar, soaking his already smouldering cock further.
His fingers spread her cheeks, the tips toying with her back entrance and as he bucked into her, he exploded, pushing one soaked finger inside her ass, followed by a second.
Circe cried out again, her saffron eyes filling with aroused pleasure as he penetrated both of her entrances, filling her completely.
“Holy gods!” she groaned, feeling Kalen shudder beneath her as his orgasm consumed his body and spilled into hers.
“How could I have walked away from this?” she sighed, lowering her head to softly kiss his lips as he slowly regained himself, and she came down from the high of the intense orgasm she had just experienced.
“We’ll have a long talk,” Kalen promised. “After Dante deals with Uvall. I’ll tell you anything you want to know. If you decide you still want to stay after that – “
“I have already decided I want to stay,” she interrupted. “But, yes, we will talk.”
They stared at one another silently, still entwined and Kalen didn’t want to move.
Is this a dream or is this happening?
“If this is a dream, I hope it’s not recurring.”
They whipped their heads around to see Dante standing at the entranceway, shaking his head.
“Dante!” Circe gasped. “What are you doing in New York?!”
She leapt off Kalen and he scowled slightly at the sudden loss of euphoria. He forced himself to remain quiet. After all, there were many lifetimes to catch up with Circe, now that they had been reunited and had no more secrets between them.
“Sorry to interrupt,” Dante chuckled. “But I got a lead that you two had tracked Uvall here. I was coming to help, but…it looks like you were already at the celebratory stage of this battle. I’m taking Uvall and Rowan, unless you have any plans for them?” He looked pointedly at Kalen.
“What are you going to do with them?” Circe interrupted, straightening her clothes. “Purgatory?”
“That was my intention,” Dante agreed. “Any other suggestions?”
Circe and Kalen exchanged a look, slow smiles growing on their faces. They were both thinking the same thing.
“As a matter of fact, yes,” Kalen replied. “I have a much better idea.”
Epilogue
Six Months Later…
Circe hurried into the living room and snatched the remote control from the glass table, abruptly changing the channel.
“Hey!” Kalen complained. “I was watching that!”
“My press release is coming up!” Circe told him, tossing him a grin.
“Well, why don’t you come sit right here and we can watch together,” he leered playfully at her as he patted his lap.
She laughed at his antics, and plopped down on the sofa – beside him, curling her legs beneath her buttocks. But at his look of mock outrage, she dropped her head on his shoulder and smoothed her hand over his chiseled stomach, slowly moving it downward, tantalizing his cock and driving him insane with lust. It was always the same with this woman. All she had to do was look sideways at him and he was ready to take her.
Hard.
He wrapped his arms around her, thanking the gods again, as he did several times each day, that he had spied her as she walked out of the theatre that fateful night.
“It’s going to be amazing,” he told her and she smiled at his encouragement.
The past months had been a whirlwind of activity. She had uprooted her Seattle condo and moved to Switzerland to live with Kalen, much to the shock of Arya.
“Are you sure you want to do this?” her best friend had asked. “Maybe you should take it a bit slower and see what happens.”
“Do you wish you had taken so long to be with Dante?” Circe asked softly and Arya begrudgingly admitted that she was right.
There was no doubt in Circe’s mind that Kalen was her fated mate. She had been around long enough to know that an opportunity to find the connection they shared was not about to knock a second time.
It had taken some time to get used to the trolls rolling about the remote estate, but for the most part, they remained underground in their own lair, away from direct sunlight and minding their own business. They were quick to help, and only seemed to want to please her.
Over time, Circe just thought they were cute – like overgrown and mischievous, but eager little puppies. They weren’t overly bright but she found them endearing.
“Here! It’s on!” she choked, as if Kalen could not see her face on the television for himself.
“Turn it up,” he instructed and she did.<
br />
“Hello and thank you all for coming,” she said to the cameras as a series of flashes illuminated her face.
“Some of you may know me as Circe Lancaster, runway supermodel, but I’m here today to tell you about a side of me most do not know.
Before I begin my story, I would like to say that, while I was brought to this point through the blackmail of my former agent, Analeigh Bowman, who knew this secret and thought it amusing to hold over me, her actions have encouraged me to do something good with the bad decisions I made when I was very young.”
She paused dramatically, knowing that tension in the room was building. No reporter had ever been able to find out anything about her past, so they were all waiting breathlessly to hear what she would say. Of course, she hadn’t really been much younger in her story, but they wouldn’t know that. They would assume that she had been a troubled teen.
“I used to be a stripper.”
There was a low murmur from the reporters as Circe on screen held up her hand.
“It was not a high point of my life and while I can justify it a million different ways, the truth was, I was a starving girl from South Park who wanted to do better for myself. And I did. Yes, I kept that part of my life secret but that’s because I felt like I made the best out of a very bad situation, and I used the money I made to get me out of there. I am an Ambassador for the Girl Guides of America because I believe that no little girl should grow up alone and scared like I was. I have given thousands of dollars to charities, and donated countless hours working with runaway youths. I always thought I could do better for our children than what was done for me.”
“Miss Lancaster – “
Circe held up her hand.
“I promise, I will take questions after,” she said.
Circe glanced nervously at Kalen on the sofa and his face was locked down with fury.
“Are you okay?” she asked and Kalen shook his head.
“That woman is a wretched bitch. I still want to kill her for you. It would be so much more satisfying. She deserves so much more,” he growled.
Circe squeezed his arm, loving him more than she ever had. “I know you want to kill her for me, but please, let me do this my way. It will make me so happy.”